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Chapter 6: The confrontations

“Hey Buff, what’s going on?” Angel held on to Buffy with all his might. She’s a beautiful creature. Her hair was slightly darker and much shorter compared to the last time he saw her all those years ago when she came to L.A. to tell him she was leaving California. Her body matured, no longer were there only hard lines and muscles, but now also a softness to her strength. Her eyes still held love and life and sparkled with mischief. Angel breathed in her familiar scent, but it was different. Long ago, she abandoned the cheap sickly sweet lotions, and in turn replaced them with high-end natural oils and perfumes to adorn her body. But behind the new scents, she still had the essence of Buffy.

Dawn left the living room to give the former lovers and friends alone for a while. Buffy finally came back to her senses and regained control over her raging emotions. “Sorry, I’m usually not so emotional. Haven’t cried this much since I was 15.” She commented as she left his strong embrace. Angel shrugged at the loss of warmth and came to sit down on the leather couch.

“I didn’t know you were in town. I was just walking by…” he trailed off, embarrassed that he just stopped by in hopes of new news about Buffy.

“Me neither… I mean I didn’t know you were here… Giles said something cryptic, but didn’t say… umm… well… so how have you been?” Buffy rambled as she sat in a chair next to the couch.

“Good.” Angel never was much for talking.

“That’s good.” Buffy looked down at her hands fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

“How’s Hawaii?”

“Good.” Why was everything so uncomfortable? Just tell him.

“That’s good.” Something is up. “How’s that bar you work at?”

“Oh, yeah, I… um… own it now… it’s good.”

“Huh? Own it?”

“Yeah, inherited it when the owner passed away, long story. It’s doing good.”

“Good”

“So…”

“So…” Both spoke at the same time.

“I bet you are wondering why I am here?” Buffy spoke first.

“Yeah…”

“Did you hear about Traci?” At his nod, she went on. “I’m here to train the next.”

“I see. Yeah, sorry to hear about that kid.” Angel looked strangely at Buffy. Something else was up, but Angel wasn’t sure what. He stole a glance at her hand to make sure she wasn’t hiding an engagement or marriage, but he did smell another scent on her. It just wasn’t different types of fragrances that she was using; she had a male scent added to her. It really shouldn’t make him jealous. He left her when she was 18, encouraging her to go find a normal life, a normal relationship. When she went to L.A. to let him know she was moving to New York, she asked him if he ever thought it would ever work between them. Angel shook his head sadly. He loved her more than himself and could not ask her to wait for him. She deserved happiness that he could not give her. Suddenly a thought occurred to him, her scent was different, but yet so familiar. Not understanding the mix of smells, Angel just stared at the petite girl sitting in the chair. “Actually, that’s why I am here. Heard the demons were getting a little anxious without a slayer. Came down to help put the law down.” He puffed out his chest.

“Thanks, we’ve been here a couple days, trying to patrol but not much seems to be happening. Dawn told me before we came the demons were getting gutsy. I guess they heard we were back in town.” She chuckled.

“We?”

“Umm, I mean me.”

“Who’s we?” Angel moved forward and rested his arms on his knees, looking at Buffy.

“Just me! Ohh and the new slayer Katerina!” Bad Buffy, Angel can read through that!

“Buff, I know you are seeing someone. You don’t have to hide that.”

Buffy broke eye contact, back to looking at her hands. “Yeah, umm, OK. Yeah, I am seeing someone.”

“Anyone I know?” Angel’s brain started to fog over as he watched Buffy fidget. This was not of the good.

“Spike,” she whispered, barely audible even to the vampire. She looked up into a shocked face. “I’m sorry.”

“How long?” Spike. Spike! SPIKE!

“A few weeks. He came back into town and Dawn dragged him down to Hawaii.” Buffy couldn’t believe that Angel was taking the news so calmly.

“I see.” Angel’s anger grew. “What brought this on?”

“Actually, umm, before. I mean after I came back from the… dead. We were involved. Not of the good, either. He left and… well I hadn’t seen him until they showed up down there.”

“I see, so where is he now?”

“I don’t know. We kinda had a fight and I came here.”

“He was who you were crying about?” Angel made a move to grab Buffy’s hands, but she stood up first and started to pace.

“Yeah, I don’t know what happened, we were talking about Giles and… and you and then boom he went off the deep end. I don’t understand.” Buffy’s tears reappeared.

“I see do you love him?”

“Yeah,” she whispered. Before he had a chance to react she continued. “Before you tell me about him being an evil, soulless demon and not to trust him. I get it. OK? After… after I came back, I felt at peace when I was with him. Alive and loved. When he wasn’t around, it was horrible, I was horrible. And then we… we were in a bad relationship… real bad, Angel. I never knew I could sink so low, but he took it and didn’t throw it back in my face… ever! He just came back again and again. And then he left. No forwarding address, no time limit. Just left. I had to face up to my own demons. Had to learn to live again, not just survive. That’s why I left in the beginning. Learning to live on my own. Be OK with who I am. I am OK with who I am, now. But then? I was a mess, no one saw, but I was ugly inside.” Angel started to interrupt her speech, but she waved him off. “And then Dawn brought him down to Hawaii and it hit me. Everything I was working through, working for. It all clicked into place. One look from him, and everything was all right again. It made sense.”

“But Buffy that doesn’t change what he is or what he had done.”

“Yeah, and it doesn’t change who I am or what I have done. I treated him worse than he ever has treated me. Yet, he still stayed in there.”

“You just said he left!”

“Yeah, but because I drove him away. And I mean I did. He really had no choice but to put distance between us.”

“He’s evil!”

“Yeah and so are you when you lose your soul. Soulless Spike doesn’t even compare to Evil Angelus. Does he?”

“I guess not.”

“Yet, you ask for forgiveness.”

“I have a soul.”

“And? That makes you what? Better?” Buffy left off one important detail Spike has a soul now, too.

“Better than no soul!”

“And how many times have you lost it? How many ways?” Buffy screamed at him.

“Never mind, Buffy. Just watch your back.” Angel got up and stormed out of the house.
~*~*~*~
Buffy left the house shortly after Angel stomped out. She headed to the Magic Box training room. Tonight was not supposed to go this way. First Giles and his cryptic and their disturbing conversation. Then Spike and his jump to the deep end. And now Angel. Walking into the back room, Buffy stopped. Giles, Xander, Willow, and Anya were in there training Katerina. With out her. She stopped and watched as her inept friends were trying to show Katerina fighting positions and not succeeding very well. Giles was watching, giving pointers with his back turned to Buffy, so he did not notice her walk in. She watched as Xander and Anya demonstrate a poor fighting position and Katerina following it. Giles just stood back as the well-meaning friends tried to help. Buffy sat down in the shadows so no one was alerted to her presence. This hurt. More than anything else. They were training Katerina, poorly training, with out her. After Xander and Anya were done demonstrating, Willow started to show Katerina how to use some incantations.

“So where is Buffy tonight?” Katerina asked.

“She had some place else to be.” Willow calmly lied.

“Oh, she said she was going to go over some kicks tonight.”

“She’s too busy with her pet vampire.” Xander this time.

“I bet his gives her lots of orgasms. You know super vampire endurance.” Anya piped in with a dreamy expression on her face. Buffy bet she was dreaming of Spike. Their one nightstand destroyed many years of possible happiness.

“An! Please no talk about those two… ewwwe.” Xander’s ever so eloquent opinion. “I mean how could she again with the Evil Soulless Beast. Or as I like to refer to him as the ESB! I thought she learned enough from the first time.”

“Xander,” Willow used a warning voice. “What Buffy does is none of our business.”

“Yes it is! She brought ESB here and tainted Katerina’s view on vampires!”

“She did not!” Katerina voice carried. “She warned me about your views, but nothing could of made me ready to hear this. I thought you were all friends.”

“We are, precisely why we need to get her away from him.” Xander again.

“If she is your friend, how can you talk about someone she obviously cares about deeply?” Buffy was impressed with Katerina speaking up. “And he cares for her, you should see them together for any length of time.”

“Katerina, that’s enough.” Giles rubbed the bridge of his nose. “There is a history that you don’t know about. Spike is very dangerous…”

“They told me! Buffy was very adamant about telling me how evil most vampires and demons are, but there are exceptions.”

“Spike is not an exception.” Xander.

“I know you don’t see him as one, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t. He cares for Buffy, I saw it!”

“He cares for one thing and one thing only!” Katerina walked up to face off with Xander.

“I know you don’t think I see him as a vampire, but I do. I also see him as someone that cares so much about someone; he turned his back on his nature. His society.”

“Yeah, that is what he wants us to think. Where has he been all these years? The only reason he came back is because he heard there was a new slayer.”

“He came back to mourn her.” Giles spoke up quietly.

“What?” Xander, Willow, and Anya all spoke.

“He came to mourn her. The night he came to see me… he was… well… for a lack of better term broken. More broken than he was when Buffy… died… he was distraught over leaving her in the first place… I almost told him that she was alive, just so he would be fixed.” Buffy’s heart went out to Giles. He told Spike that she died, instead of Faith. “His chip is out, yet somehow Buffy is still alive. We are still alive.” Silence for a couple of minutes as the Scoobies and new slayer digested this piece of information. “I think we should try to be supportive of her life and decisions. We lost her once.”

“I will not be supportive of that thing!” Xander.

“I suggest you don’t tell her that.” Giles spoke again. “This is the reason why she didn’t tell you lot about it in the first place. At her emotional condition then wasn’t too stable and she probably couldn’t have taken this reaction. Even now, I wouldn’t try to engage her in any duel of words… she may be stronger emotionally than she was, but she may still be unstable.”

Buffy sat back listening to her friends berate her choices and emotional state. They have no idea who she is anymore, yet they think they know what is best for her. Buffy was furious in her hiding place. She expected some static from Xander, but the rest was a mystery. Xander married an ex-vengeance demon. How can he speak of her poor choices? He left Anya at the alter when he got cold feet, causing her to revert back to her vengeance days. Now, they are happy, but it was a real rocky road they had to traverse. She eventually gave up her vengeance demon powers so they could get married; yet it was difficult for her to do so. Spike gave up his evil ways without Buffy even asking. He did it on his own to earn the right to even try to be with her. Willow, poor little Wicca, how can she question Buffy’s choices. Between her secret gay life and her dark magic tendencies, Willow should understand some things you can’t fight, some things you don’t fight. Anya of all people should be able to forgive the past. She never showed remorse about her past deeds. Giles was the one that asked her to come back; he asked her knowing that she would bring Spike. The only person that was stead fast in defending their relationship was Katerina, a virtual stranger. Buffy digested this turn of events as the Scooby gang and new slayer walked into the Magic Box store. The betrayal of her friends fresh in her mind plagued Buffy as she crept out of the training room into the alley way. It was time to get some things straight.





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