Distribution: If you had permission to take any of my other stories, you can use this one as well. Just let me know where it's going. Others, just ask and I will most likely give permission.
Feedback: It's kinda like my blood -- a necessity if you want me to stay alive and write more. Plus it's just the polite thing to do.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss, the WB, Mutant Enemy, (the evil)FOX, and whoever else came up with them. If they belonged to me the show would be drastically different. Please don't sue, I'm only a high-schooler without a job anyways.
Rating: Same as the TV show
Spoilers: Set near the end of the third season episode "Enemies." Small spoilers for that episode, nothing else after that has happened.
Concept: Rewind from the end of the episode through the final B&A scene. Pretend episode happened up to the moment where Buffy walks in to the mansion. From there on, the last scene of the episode did not happen. Instead, there's the following...
Author's Notes: My seventh fic in my little I'm-changeing-a-third-season-episode's-ending-so-that-BuffyandAngel-are-together. Are you guys sick of these yet?

Buffy walked slowly into the mansion, emotions simmering rapidly. There was so much she needed to say, she just wasn't sure how to do it.

"Buffy." Angel said the moment she walked in.

"Hi." Was all she could manage to say.

"Are you okay?" Angel saw immediately that she was upset.

"I've been better." Buffy answered truthfully.

"Buffy, I know what happened must have been hard for you, but...."

"But it was my idea Angel." Buffy replied. "I thought that I could handle it. I didn't realize it would hurt so much, even though I knew it was pretend."

A few tears fell down her face, and Angel moved to take her softly into his arms. He held her while she cried, and a few tears even made it down his face to fall into her silky hair.

"Buffy....all I thought about that whole time was you. I tried to imagine what it must be like for you, and I couldn't. Just your voice and the look on your face were...."

"It was just acting." Buffy replied half-heartedly.

"To a point maybe. But when you act, the emotions have to come from somewhere."

Buffy gave an almost-smile. "The only acting I had to do was to pretend that I didn't know everything happening was staged. I just had to pretend you were really Angelus and that you wanted Faith. The emotions came on their own."

Angel looked at her, pain in his eyes. "I know this probably won't help, but even if I had been Angelus for real, that wouldn't have happened. Cause the one thing both Angel and Angelus have in common is that they want you and only you."

Buffy looked in his eyes for a moment, as if testing the truth of his words. Finally, she said, "Can I ask you one thing? I shouldn't, but...."

"Anything."

"How far did you have to go? With Faith I mean." Buffy asked, knowing the answer might cost her dearly.

"No further than anything you saw. Kissing, touching, nothing more. If I had to go farther, I don't think I could have kept up the ruse. I couldn't have sle..."

He was stopped by Buffy putting her fingers up to his lips. "Shh. Okay, that's all I had to know."

Then she went up on tiptoe and kissed him softly on the lips. The kiss deepened and soon they were fused together, bodies as close as they could get. It was Angel who broke away a moment later. "We can't." He managed to say, trying to pull away from her even though it was the last thing he wanted to do.

Buffy didn't reply, but she let him pull away. When her breathing was finally under control, she said softly. "This just went beyond being annoying. It officially sucks."

"What does?" He asked, confused at the tone of her voice.

"Not being able to be together." She replied. Then something occurred to her. "Come on." She reached for his hand and pulled him out of the mansion.

"Where are we going?" He asked her they she rapidly marched down the street.

"To use the Willow-phone." She replied without breaking stride.

"What!?!?!"

***

After Willow had reinvited Angel into her room, Buffy spent some time explaining to the red head exactly what she wanted to do. When she had finished, Willow looked at her without comment, eyes wide with shock.

"Why didn't I ever think of that?" She asked outloud.

"Probably because you haven't spent nearly as much time thinking about it as I have." Buffy answered, glancing lovingly over at Angel who was still in shock.

Willow then turned to the vampire. "Do you want to do this?" She asked, aware that he had, like her, just heard the plan for the first time.

"I want to know." He answered. "It never occurred to me that Jenny might not have..."

He trailed off and Willow replied, "Okay then. Let's do this. Just let me get out some stuff..."

She went over to a far wall and opened a chest very similar to one Buffy had. But instead of a secret compartment filled with stakes and Holy Water, Willow had the entire chest filled with herbs, chalices, incense, candles, jewelry, books, and other witchy stuff.She pulled out a notebook as well as several other things.

"I've done it before without this kind of stuff, but it makes it easier." She explained as she began setting things up.

She gave Buffy five white candles, telling her to use them to form the five points of a pentagram.

She gave Angel a censer, telling him to get the incense smoking and then put it in the center of the pentagram Buffy had made.

Willow herself spent a few moments going over an incantation in one of her notebooks, then put it to the side. She knelt by the candle at the head of the pentagram, gesturing Buffy and Angel to kneel on either side of her around it.

They all joined hands, closed their eyes, and Willow began to speak in Latin.

At her first words the five candles flared to life, a moment later some of the wax melted of it's own accord and reached out to the other candles, fully forming a pentagram, circle around it and all. The wax then seemed to solidify, leaving five half-melted candles still burning at the points of the star.

Buffy was slightly wigged, but continued to concentrate on the presence they were trying to call. She could feel Angel's thoughts meld with hers, the link between them increasing with the magick Willow was calling into play. Suddenly Willow stopped chanting and jerked ramrod straight, her hands breaking contact with Buffy and Angel.

Buffy opened her eyes then, seeing that the pentacle they had made glowed brightly and that some of that glow had centered itself on Willow. Her posture relaxed a little, but it was clear when Willow opened her eyes that she was no longer in control of her body.

Buffy just hoped it was the correct ghost who was in control. "Jenny?" She heard Angel ask, seconding her concern that a different ghost might have been contacted.

"Angel?" Willow's body asked. "Buffy? Is that you?"

"It's us Ms. Calendar." Buffy responded.

"Why have you called me?" Jenny asked them, her voice sounding more like her own and less like Willow's as she continued to talk.

"Because we need to know something that only you can answer."

Jenny waited patiently but didn't answer.

Finally, Buffy said, "Is the spell Willow did the same as the original curse?" She didn't have to clarify what spell of course, Jenny knew exactly what was on the lover's minds. "You mean, did it have the same clause in it."

"Yeah." Buffy sounded relieved that Jenny understood.

"It did not."

Angel sucked in an unnecessary breath. "You mean...."

"I wasn't trying to curse you Angel, I was trying to give you back your soul. Willow followed the spell I had rewritten, which was not a curse with a clause. I had hoped she would figure that out on her own, but obviously she never thought to translate what she was saying. She just assumed I had used the original curse. I did not. I couldn't have done that to you." She finished in a whisper.

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked.

Jenny turned to face the Slayer once more. "I knew how much you loved each other, what good would it have done for Angelus to have his soul back and become Angel if Angel and you could never be together again? That would eventually tear you apart for good because you wouldn't be able to bear being together and not being able to make love. You love each other so much that the temptation would eventually become too strong to ignore."

"But why didn't you tell us?"

"As I said, I had thought Willow would think to translate the spell she had done. Either she didn't think to or didn't know how to. Rupert is blinded by his love for me, he'd never think to do something that might help Angel. And no one else in your group has the ability to translate it, even if they thought to. And I couldn't come to you, my help was forbidden by the Powers unless you asked for it."

"The Powers?" Angel asked.

"The governing forces in the universe." Jenny refused to explain further, saying mortal minds couldn't understand any more than that. "I'm just so glad you finally thought to ask."

"So, no curse. No nothing? Angel has his soul for good?" Buffy repeated, making sure.

"Angel has his soul for good. Until he becomes dust." Was Jenny's reply

"Thank you." That was all Buffy could manage to say.

Angel echoed her, adding a heartfelt "I'm so sorry for...."

"That wasn't you." Jenny cut him off. "And the creature that killed me will never be loosed again. You are the most valuable ally that Buffy could ever have -- someone with the strength to help her fight, the knowledge to assist her in hard times, the loyalty that she need never question, and the love that will see you both through all things. Together, you have saved the Earth several times and are destined to do so many more. Without you, she might not succeed the next time. That you are with her again is more than worth my death in the balance of things."

"Not to everyone." Angel whispered.

"Rupert, Xander, they will all understand in time." Jenny said, her voice beginning to sound like Willow's once again.

"Jenny?" Buffy questioned suddenly.

"Do not fear, it is just time for me to go. I cannot stay within Willow any longer without risk of harming her. Goodbye, young lovers. Good luck."

And with that, she was gone.

The candles extinguished themselves in that second, which was good because Willow slumped forward into the center one.

Buffy caught her quickly, but Willow regained consciousness only an instant later.

"Wow." Was all the young witch could manage to say.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just can't believe I didn't think to translate the spell. You guys could have been together all these months if I had...."

"It's okay Willow. It doesn't matter. Without you, Angel wouldn't have his soul back and we wouldn't have been able to talk with Jenny. I think that more than balances things out."

They talked a moment longer, but then Buffy replied that her and Angel had to leave. She said that mostly because she could see how exhausted Willow was. Willow nodded, grateful that she could go to sleep. Angel left, and as Buffy turned to follow him, Willow whispered, "I want details tomorrow, lots of them."

Buffy grinned and said nothing, just nodded her head.

Angel and Buffy walked back to the mansion hand-in-hand. When they arrived, the looked at each other awkwardly. They both knew exactly what they wanted to do, but....maybe they should wait. Or they could talk it over. Or just see what they....

Finally, Buffy decided to heck with it. "Race you to the bedroom!" She said as she took off. Angel could only laugh as he followed her, wondering how it was that this girl over 200 years younger than him had found the courage to break the awkwardness of the moment.

He grinned again upon reaching the bedroom. Buffy had taken the chains he had pretended to lock her up with earlier and had chained herself to his bed.

"This could be fun..." He said, half-to himself, as he started towards her.

"I thought so." She replied, looking at him seductively.

He lay down on the bed, slowly settling himself on top of her. "I love you." He whispered as he brought his lips down upon hers.

"I love you." Buffy whispered when she pulled away a few minutes later for a much-needed breath. Her hands were still chained above her.

"Let the games begin." Angel replied as the lovers settled down to enjoy each other.

***

Neither of them felt the brief presence in the room before it quickly vanished.

"It's about time." Jenny whispered as she vanished back into the other world, happy that Slayer and vampire were back on the right path, thanks to her.

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