Rating: PG
Spoilers: Season 5 'Damage'
Summary: Following Damage, Angel gives Buffy a call in Rome...
Notes: I've just finished watching 'Damage' about an hour ago and quickly produced this to rid myself of the betrayed feeling I felt on Angel's behalf at the end of the episode. I was writing a chapter of Loving Forever, but couldn't get past the episode, so I had to write this. I haven't been reading fic lately, so I don't know if anyone else has written anything like this, so, oh well. If someone already has, well there's nothing I can do about it...lol For those of you who don't receive HTML, the stuff in italics is also wrapped in *. Also, it's short, so deal with it.
Disclaimer: Fox owns it all. I just wrote the story.

Angel sat in his office and stared at a framed photograph he had pulled from beneath a mountain of papers in the bottom drawer of his desk. *Buffy...*

It was always about Buffy.

*She's psychotic. I'm not turning her over to you.

I've got 12 vampyr slayers behind me and not one of them has ever dated you. She's coming with us one way or another.

You're way out of your league. I'll just clear this with Buffy.

Where do you think my orders came from? Newsflash! Nobody in our camp trusts you anymore. Nobody. You work for Wolfram & Hart. Don't fool yourself. We're not on the same side.*

Angel heard the words, remembered them even now as if he and Andrew were still speaking them. But he couldn't help the dagger that he felt had been thrust into his heart. *Buffy no longer trusted him...*

The vampire determinedly picked up his phone and connected to Harmony. "Get me Buffy's number," he barked out. "She's living in Rome at the moment."

He replaced the receiver and waited impatiently. He remembered the words, he knew what they meant. But that didn't mean that he understood them. It couldn't be true. He told himself that she knew he had just begun working for Wolfram and Hart when she had gratefully accepted his help when dealing with the first and its minions. Buffy knew that no matter what, he would help when and where he could. The only difference was that now he had the resources to do so more effectively.

Things had been a strain between them for the last few years, but they hadn't stopped loving or trusting one another. Their most recent parting five months ago had proven that. It had been only two weeks since the destruction of Sunnydale and his new position as CEO of Wolfram and Hart when Buffy had managed to sneak into the building and into his private apartments. Buffy had revealed that she wanted to spend the night in his arms before she left for Europe to start rounding up more Slayers over there.

There hadn't been much talk of work, just a brief accounting of the more recent events, so no, Andrew's revelation regarding the activation of all potential Slayers had come as no surprise. Angel had known, however, that the young man would have wanted to know how he knew and that was something that he and Buffy always kept private.

They had seen more of each other since Joyce's death than they had before then following his leaving for Los Angeles. She had known all about Connor and Cordelia, and he had known all about her feelings for Spike, Faith and Giles. Lately, though, he received a phone call every six weeks or so, depending on when and where she relocated...

Angel's thoughts were disturbed by the insistent ring of the telephone on his desk. He immediately picked it up. "Angel," he growled into the receiver.

"Hey, Boss," greeted Harmony's perky tones. "I managed to get a hold of Giles at Buffy's number, so pick up line two."

Angel scowled. "Harmony, I asked for Buffy's *number*. I'm perfectly able to dial it myself."

He glanced out the glass window and over to Harmony's desk where she waved to him. "Okay, Boss. Call me when you're done and I'll bring it in."

"Don't lose it," he threatened.

Angel watched Harmony's smile turn sheepish as she hung up the phone. He, in turn, hit the button for line two. "Giles?"

"Angel," came the warm greeting. "Did Andrew work out all right? How is the girl?"

The vampire's brow furrowed slightly. "Andrew and the other Slayers took her."

"I trust there was no problem, then?" the Watcher asked.

"I was willing to get her help, Giles," Angel answered.

There was a pause and Angel swore he heard Giles clean his glasses with a handkerchief. "We thought that she would be more comfortable with her own kind, Angel."

"Safer, you mean."

There was another pause.

"Well, yes, but safer all round. This wasn't just for her, Angel, it was also for your people. You are a vampire, Angel. She will not trouble herself with the distinction of soul or no soul," Giles explained.

Angel closed his eyes and sighed. "Giles, is Buffy there?"

"I think she is just now getting out of the shower," he told the vampire.

Angel stifled a groan. Buffy in the shower. He remembered that very well from the many she took at the mansion, then again with him in his apartment when he had been human. Those were the memories that he treasured the most because he was in there with her, touching her, holding her...cherishing her.

He heard low murmurs over the line, then suddenly, her voice suffused his being. "Angel?"

"Buffy," her name was a pleasured sigh.

"Giles said that you were having misgivings about Dayna going with Andrew and the other girls," she told him. "Is there something we should know?"

"It's not that, Buffy," he began. "I was just thinking about what Andrew said before he took her. He said that everyone there no longer trusts me because I work at Wolfram and Hart. He said that *you* no longer trust me. That it was your order that he remove her from my care, to take her out of enemy territory. He made a big show of the Slayers showing up right then and there, then disappeared with Dayna."

"Dammit!" he heard her curse. "Angel, it wasn't like that. I told Andrew to bring her home to us, but he was supposed to work only with you, and was not to let anyone else at Wolfram and Hart to get in his way."

"Buffy, he said-"

Angel was interrupted. "Angel, I don't trust Wes because of what he did to us. I don't trust Gunn because of what Wolfram and Hart did to him. I don't trust Fred or Lorne because I don't know them and I don't trust Harmony because I *do* know her. But Angel, I *trust you*. You can't control those around you all the time, though, Angel. *That's* why I sent Andrew, and why the girls only revealed their presence when they needed to."

"Buffy, I'm sorry, I just-" Angel felt the tension leave his body.

"Angel, nothing between us had changed in that respect. The only time I haven't trusted you - when you weren't evil, of course - was when I was out of my mind with jealousy. You, yourself, have told me about how you feel regarding that place, and I can't stop you from trying to turn it around, but I don't want one of my girls exposed to them, and especially not one as unstable as Dayna."

In Rome, Buffy Summers sat in a single-seater lounge chair in a towel, trying to explain the actions of a former 'evil' human to her ex-lover. "Angel, I never thought that Andrew would believe that I didn't trust you, either. I *do* trust you, with my *life*, and with the lives of my girls. But I don't trust *them*."

She heard Angel's instinctive in-drawn breath over the line. "Thank you, Buffy. I was dreading what you could have said when I called, but I just couldn't believe that things had changed so much in the last few months, especially considering that we've kept in touch and nothing even remotely like this ever came up."

The truth be told, Buffy could believe that Andrew's words to him had cut more deeply than Angel would admit, but there wasn't much she could do about that while she was in Rome. "I'm not the only one, Angel. Giles, Dawn and Faith and Willow...we all believe that you're doing the best you can. Even Xander has said that he's heard good things about what you're doing there."

"We try, Buffy, but we've had a few problems with employees," Angel then explained about the debacle with Eve.

Buffy was nodding to herself as she listened to him. "That's what I thought. Angel, if it had just been you, I wouldn't have even hesitated leaving her with you, but it's not. Wolfram and Hart is filled to the penthouse with beings that not even *you* trust. I won't risk the Slayer line, Angel."

She was glad to hear the relief in his voice. "I understand, Buffy. And thank you, for telling me this. Thank you for letting me know that you trustt me and reminding me of the damage that could be done if I don't keep a tight hold over Wolfram and Hart."

The Slayer tensed slightly, her heart heavy for the burden that he carried in his basket, along with so many others. "You forgot for a moment, didn't you?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "I did."

"I always be here to remind you, Angel," Buffy teased.

Back in Los Angeles, Angel smiled despite himself. "I hope so, baby. Drop me a line sometime?"

"Of course," he heard her chuckle. "Oh, and Angel?"

"Yeah, Buffy?" he asked curiously, wondering if there was something else.

"I may not be done baking yet, but I'll always be your girl..." she murmured.

Angel touched the smiling face of the framed photograph he still held in his hand. "I love you, Buffy."

In Rome, Buffy caressed a photograph in a silver frame sitting beside the phone on the coffee table. "I love you, too, Angel."

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