"Angel?" Buffy repeated.
How could he be here after all they had said? After all that had happened? Buffy's shock at seeing her former lover gave way to a cold, burning anger. How could he be here today of all days?
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
"Would you mind letting go of my throat?" Angel asked. "Makes it kind of hard to have a meaningful conversation when I'm being throttled."
Buffy paused for a moment, and then released him, standing back and crossing her arms over her chest. The look she gave him would have frozen oxygen.
"What are you doing here?" she repeated.
Angel looked around him and then asked, "Could we talk inside? This is Sunnydale after all."
Buffy managed to restrain her growl of frustration and led the vampire into the house. As soon as Willow saw Buffy and Angel her eyes went wide and she began babbling.
"Hi Angel. You're here. Why are you here? Actually I don't need to know. You guys need to talk. I'll go and . . . do something somewhere that isn't here. Would you like some tea? No, you're a vampire. Sorry. We don't have any blood. Apart from . . . I'm not going there. Coffee? Ok, I'm rambling. Would you like me to go away now? Bye."
Willow got up and wobbled to the kitchen to make herself some herbal tea to calm her nerves.
Buffy stood in the middle of the room with her arms crossed and glared at the vampire, who began to look uncomfortable. "Talk," she demanded.
Angel took a few steps towards her. "I wanted to make sure you're alright. That you're happy."
"You were spying on me?"
"In a way," Angel admitted. "I still worry about you. This thing with Giles, it seems so sudden."
Buffy's face softened. "I know I was as surprised as anyone, but he makes me feel happier than I have in a long time."
Angel put on his best 'pensive, worried' expression. "How?"
"I love him and he loves me," Buffy replied simply. Before she could be distracted more from her anger she said, "What right do you have to spy on me? When you left you said we needed to be apart. Does that only hold for me? Are you exempt from that just because I've moved on?"
"Have you really moved on?" Angel asked. "Or are you just using him? When I left-"
"When you left I turned into a gibbering wreck." Buffy stated. "But now I have moved on."
"Are you sure? It just seems strange. One minute you're lodging with him, the next you're marrying him. I know all about the spell, but that doesn't explain-"
"It does!"
***
Giles herded Xander up the path to the front door. Picking the younger man up from the hotel where he worked had taken longer than Giles had anticipated and he wanted to make sure that Buffy did not worry too much. Once he was inside he put his briefcase and packages down and shrugged out of his coat. Usually by the time had done that Buffy would have rushed through the house to greet him, but there was nothing. Growing slightly concerned he followed Xander down the hall towards the kitchen. Perhaps she didn't hear me, he thought doubtfully.
He paused at the lounge door when he heard voices. The door was only slightly ajar so he could not see who was in there but he could make out voices and heard Buffy shout, "It does!"
As she began to go on in a more controlled voice he found he could not make himself enter the room. I'll just wait a moment before I burst in like the jealous husband I seem to be turning into, he told himself.
"It does," he heard her repeat. "Don't you think it's weird that instead of running to LA to find you I went to him? When I was forced to do what I really wanted to do I seduced Giles. That's right, I seduced him. I would have worked it out eventually even if Whistler hadn't stuck his nose in, but-"
"Whistler?" Giles started when he recognized Angels' voice, but he decided to ignore his instinct to kill the vampire in favor of finding out what was going on.
"Yeah, Whistler. We had a note from him a few days after we got back from Vegas."
"He didn't tell me," Giles heard Angel mutter.
"Who?"
Angel ignored her question. "Are you sure you love him? That you're not mistaking friendship for something else?"
"Angel I'll always love you." Giles felt his heart sink at her words. He had been right all along - she did not really want him. "What we had was special and I can't forget that. And I think he feels the same way about Jenny. But we can't be together and I'm not going to spend the rest of my life moping around and brooding in the dark because of that. I love Rupert more that I thought possible." Giles' heart soared again. "I thought love had to be; it was with you. We hurt each other all the time and even at the best of times there always pain. I know I've hurt Rupert more times than I want to count, and he even hurt me once, but now it would . . . I don't know how to explain. I just know that I would die before I hurt him again. He makes me happy."
For a while there was silence. Then Angel said, "I see."
"I hope you do," Buffy responded. "The way I hurt him most was with you."
"I know."
"I moved on from you because I had somewhere to move to. I don't know what I would do if I lost him, but you can't both be in my life."
"I know."
"You can't come and spy on me," Giles detected a note of humor in her voice. "Just ask Cordelia if you need to know anything."
"Cordelia?"
"Don't you know? She and Willow are becoming quite the phone buds. Life here just gets weirder and weirder. Sweetie, are you coming in here or are going to spy all night?"
Giles chuckled to himself and opened the door fully. "I wasn't entirely certain you had heard me come in."
Buffy crossed the room and gave him a quick kiss. "When have I ever not known you were nearby?"
"Never, love." He put an around her waist and turned to face Angel. "Did you want anything else," he asked coolly.
"I think I got everything," the vampire replied.
Buffy gestured and he walked out. As he passed her he whispered, "You look well."
"I am well," Buffy said aloud.
As soon as the door closed behind him Buffy let out a sigh of relief.
*finis*