Chapter 5

Sunnydale 2009

Buffy stared in shock at the man in front of her. "Angel?"

Angel nodded his head, "Yes, Buffy, it’s me. What are ….," The rest of Angel’s sentence is cut off and Buffy jumps into him, giving him a huge bear hug. She begins to shower his face with kisses, not noticing how uncomfortable it makes him and the other people in the room. Finally Angel is able to pull away from the blonde slayer. She looked at him, confusion clearly evident on her face.

 "How Angel? God, I thought you were dead," Buffy placed her hand tenderly on his cheek and he allowed it to stay there a moment, remembering her touch. "I’ve missed you so much."

 Angel looked into her eyes and saw the love that she still felt for him reflected back but, for him, there was only memories of the past "It’s a long story, Buffy, and I don’t really have the time to tell you about it right now." Buffy looked around at her former friends and finally noticed that they were all dressed up.

 "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude," Buffy started for the door. As she reached it, she was stopped by Willow.

 "No, Buffy, don’t go. It’s only a little party. No big deal," Willow said after seeing the look of defeat on her face. "We can just move it here instead." Willow looked at the people she had considered her family and saw that they all nodded.

 "Are you sure?" Buffy asked. " I don’t want to put you out or anything."

 "Hey, it’s not a problem. We haven’t seen you in over ten years and I’m sure there are a lot of things to catch up on."

 "Yeah, Buffster. Like where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing and stuff," helped Xander. Buffy looked over at everyone and then shook her head, agreeing to stay. The group silently moved into the living room and grabbed their usual seats, except for Willow, who found her seat on the coach next to Angel taken by Buffy. Instead, she moved over to one of the dining room chairs and sat by Giles and Cordelia. Faith was the only one left standing.

 "Well guys. As much as I would love to stay and hear all of your lovely tales, I have to get to the Bronze. Oz will be extremely upset if I don’t show up."

 "Will you tell him what happened?" Willow asked.

 "You got it, Red. How about seeing me to the door."

 Willow looked at Faith oddly but got up anyway. As the pair reached the doors Faith grabbed Willow’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Don’t worry about anything Willow," she whispered. "Angel loves you and there is nothing that Buffy can do or say that will make him choose her. She’s his past, but you are most definitely his future." Willow smiled at the slayer and gave her hand a squeeze back before Faith left. Willow then shut the door and went back to join the others.

 "Okay, so did I miss anything?"

 "Nope. I was waiting for you to get back," Buffy replied, giving Willow a smile. "So that’s the slayer now? Is she any good?"

 Everyone looked to Giles to answer this question, "Actually, yes. She’s very good. She is Kendra’s replacement." This surprised Buffy.

 "Kendra’s replacement? That means that she’s been slaying for over ten years. Isn’t that unheard of?"

 "Buffy, you’ve been a slayer just as long," Giles pointed out to her.

 "Yeah, well, I haven’t actually slayed anything since I left Sunnydale. Tried to avoid the whole slayage thing as much as possible." She saw everyone’s shock at her revelation. (What? Did they think I really wanted to be slayer after I left. Hell, it’s one of the reasons I took off. I couldn’t handle it anymore. They should all understand. I did it to survive.)

"So what have you been doing since you’ve been gone," Cordelia asked, "since it obviously wasn’t your duty."

 "Man G-man, thought you were going to work on Cordelia’s tact issues," Xander joked. Giles just smiled at the boy as he took his wife’s hand.

 "It’s just one of the many things that I have come to love about her," Giles replied as he took Cordelia’s hand and placed a light kiss on it. Buffy looked on in shock.

 "Well, when I first left, I was just kinda numb for awhile," Buffy began, "not really knowing where I was going or what I was going to do. I ended up in LA for a couple of months, but it was just to close to what I was trying to escape. Then I just hitched my way to the east coast and have been spending the past several years in Cape May New Jersey. It’s a nice little town and the ocean’s right there. I found peace there and found out what it was like to be normal."

 "So what do you do there," Xander asked. "Are you dating anyone? Married?"

 "I’ve dated off and on, but nothing really major. The most serious relationship I had was with a lifeguard one summer. I just haven’t been able to find the right man," Buffy stated simply as she looked over at Angel. She had taken one of his hands in hers, holding him. (You’ve always been the only man for me Angel. I could never forget you, even when I thought that you were dead. Seeing you alive and here again just makes me realize how much I’ve lost and I will do anything to get it back. Especially you.) She didn’t seem to notice that he wasn’t returning the affection. Buffy decided that, before she answered anymore of their questions, she had a few of her own.

 "Umm, okay. Apparently things have changed big time since I’ve been join. When did the two of you," pointing to Giles and Cordelia, "hook up?"

 Giles answered for the two of them, "About two years after you left. Cordelia had been going through a very rough patch with her family and needed someone to turn two. I just happened to be that person," he looked over at Cordelia affectionately. "Things just kind of progressed from there." Buffy just shook her head.

 "Man, and I though I had seen everything," Buffy joked. "So what else have I missed?"

 "Well, you missed Anya coming into our lives," Xander broke in. Buffy turned to get a good look at the dark haired woman sitting next to Xander. She had never seen this girl before, but something about her didn’t feel quite right, although she did look normal. (Wait, didn’t Xander say that she had come to cause him trouble?)

 "So, how did you two meet?" she asked cautiously.

 Xander looked at Anya, who nodded her head giving him permission to tell Buffy the whole truth. "She came right after Cordelia and I had broken up."

 "Try, you cheated on me," Cordelia interrupted. Xander just gave her a look.

 "Okay, right after I cheated on Cordelia. She called the demon forth that grants wishes for woman who want to get back at a man that wronged them. That demon was Anya."

 Buffy was now extremely confused. "But if she is a demon, why is she here?"

 "I was getting to that. Somehow, although we’re not sure how, her power was taken away from her and she became human. We didn’t get along at first, especially since I was one of the reasons she came here in the first place, but one thing lead to another and now here we are."

 Buffy stared at Xander and Anya, shock clearly evident on her face. (And I thought Xander was strange when he started dating Cordy. This is way stranger than that.) Finally Buffy turned to Willow, who had been sitting quietly while the others talked. Willow had been staring at the closeness that Buffy was seeking with Angel. (This is the moment I’ve always dreaded. Buffy’s return. I know Angel loves me and all, but is it enough?) Angel could see what was going on in his wife’s head and wished for nothing more than to go and take her in his arms and tell her how much he loved her. He had tried a few times to separate himself from Buffy, but each time she just held in place.

 "So, Willow, I know about everyone else’s relationships. What about you? Still involved with Oz?" Buffy asked innocently. She was surprised when Angel answered her. There was something in his voice that she didn’t like.

 "No, Oz and Faith have been married for a little over eight years. They’ve been together since senior year," he said, his eyes never leaving Willow’s face. Before Buffy could ask again about Willow, Angel finally decided to find out what everyone else want to know. "Why are you back Buffy?"

 Buffy looked over at Angel and noticed that his attention was focused on Willow. (Okay, something is so going on here. What is up with Willow and Angel staring at each other?) She took a deep breath, "Well, I can’t really say why I came back. It was like I was being drawn back to where my life had taken a turn for the bizarre or something. No matter where I was, I would see people and places from the past. I would be in the local bar and suddenly feel like I was at the Bronze. I could picture everyone at our usual table, just sitting and laughing and having a good time, and then I would be back at the Mug with a beer in my hand and the feelings would be gone."

 "The Mug?"

Buffy shook her head and laughed. "Yeah the Ugly Mug. It’s a local bar in Cape May. Always go there after work on Fridays. It’s kind of like an old Irish tavern," she said as she looked over at Angel, who pointedly this time did not look at her. She was then that she realized that he had purposely asked her about her return to take her attention from a still silent Willow. She decided to find out why.

 "So you never did tell me, Wills, whose the lucky man that finally grabbed you?"

 Willow finally looked at Angel first and saw his love for her in them. (Goddess, I love you so much Angel. You make my insides melt when you look at me like that.) Willow turned to Buffy and started to answer, "Well, Buffy, it’s a long story…" Willow was interrupted by two pairs of running feet descending the stairs. Buffy saw two little girls come running into the living room, the smallest running to Willow while the other jumped up into Angel’s lap, finally separating him from Buffy.

 "Okay, what are you two doing down here?" Willow asked Kathryn. "Your father and I had asked you to play upstairs for awhile." Buffy tried to take in what Willow had said. (Father? But if their father was here, where is he and why would the other girl jump in Angel’s lap?) A feeling of dread started creeping over Buffy as she started processing everything that she had noticed between Angel and Willow. (The two of them are together? But how? Why? She knew he was the love of my life, so why is she with him?) Before she could find out what was going on, the girl in Angel’s lap answered Willow’s question.

 "Uncle Spike told us that you and daddy’s friend Buffy had come back and we wanted to meet her," Jenny asked as she turned to look at the stranger sitting next to Angel. "Hi, I’m Jenny and that’s my sister Kathryn. Are you Buffy?"

 Buffy could only nod her head as she looked up and caught Angel’s gaze. Finally she found the words that were stuck in her throat. "Yes I am. It’s nice to meet you." Buffy then remembered who had told the little girl that she was here. "Jenny, who exactly is your Uncle Spike?"

 "Pleasure to see you again, Slayer?"

 Buffy turned and saw Spike and Drusilla standing in the doorway and, at that moment, had never felt so alone in her life. She looked over at everyone gathered and saw that they had all accepted the two vampires into their lives. She also saw the looks that passed between Willow and Angel for what they really were. (They love each other.) And this was the last thought that the missing blonde had before she fainted.
 
 

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