A/N: Muirnín means beloved m4; n darling m4; n sweetheart m4
Irish Gaelic Translations www dot englishirishdictionary dot com
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Angel was pacing in Buffy's room. Because of his vampiric hearing, he could hear everything that was being said. He cursed himself for not hearing Joyce come into the house. He should have heard her and then to top it off, she had opened up Buffy's door and he still hadn't heard her. Well, I was wrapped up in Buffy and what we were doing. I wasn't paying attention to anything but us. And it could have been some demon coming in to harm her or us. Not, Devlin or Dru, but they could have gotten some demon that didn't need an invitation. I have to be more aware at all times.
When Buffy walked into her room,
she went right into Angel's arms.
"It wasn't as bad as I thought."
"I know I heard," Angel
said as he embraced the love of his life.
He wasn't sure if dinner with her parents was such a good idea, but he
didn't have a choice. He just hoped that
her mother didn't cook with garlic. But
before he could ask Buffy about it, she said something else.
"I thought that she was
going to tell me that we couldn't see each other anymore," Buffy said
close to tears of relief.
"She didn't."
"No, she didn't," Buffy
stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Angel.
Angel picked her up and carried her to bed and
laid her on it. Then he slid under the
covers and just held her close to him as they both fell asleep. He would talk to her in the morning about
dinner with her parents. He would endure
anything to be with her.
"How was patrol last
night?" Giles asked Buffy the next
day at school.
"I couldn't go because my
mom never called. But Angel went and he
said that he didn't see Spike, Dru, or Devlin."
Giles nodded and said,
"She's coming home today right? So
will you patrol or will you have to spend some time with her?"
"She actually came home last
night and found Angel in my room. Both
of us have to have supper with her. She
even called my dad to come. I'm just
wondering if he'll show up or not."
Giles looked uneasy for a moment
and said, "Well I'm sure that he will come, Buffy."
Giles went into his office for a
book and Willow turned to her and whispered, "She saw Angel in your room?!"
"Will, she saw
us. We were kind of
preoccupied and we didn't hear her come in.
Angel didn't even hear her with his vampiric hearing. She even opened my door and if we hadn't had
the covers on, she would have saw Angel's bare ass," Buffy said trying not
to blush but failing.
"Oh my God! How much trouble are you in?"
"I'm not sure. She talked to me a little last night. She said no more sex in her house. But she let Angel stay the rest of the night."
"Wow. My mom would have
freaked."
"I think that's coming
tonight. I think she was just in shock
at what she saw. And Dad. He's going to flip."
"Oh man. Is there something I can do?"
"Nope. We got into this
ourselves. We'll get through it
together."
"So he's really going to
have supper with your family?"
"Yep. He said it's been over 200 years since he had
dinner with a girl's parents in an effort to woo her," Buffy giggled at the old fashioned word that
Angel had used that morning when they were talking.
"Well, let me know how it
goes," Willow said looking at her best friend sympathetically.
"I will. As of right now, I have permission to spend
the night with Angel as long as I'm not lying to her about where I am. She knows that I was at Angel's on my
birthday and not at your house. She
thinks that I corrupted you into lying for me."
"Well anytime I can
help."
"Well, like I said, I think
it was the shock talking. I'm sure that
once my dad gets here; there will be no staying at Angel's without lying about
it. Most probably there will be no
seeing Angel without lying about it - like on patrol."
"Maybe not."
"Maybe not what?" Angel asked as he walked into the library.
"Maybe my dad won't kill us
tonight," Buffy said as the bell rang.
"Oh right," Angel
mumbled.
"I've gotta
get to class. Giles is in his
office. He wants a patrol report,"
Buffy said as she got out of her seat and met Angel before he made it to Giles'
office. Angel pulled her into a hug and
gave her a chaste kiss on the lips.
"Hey how did you get out of my house?"
Angel smiled, "I waited
until your mother left for the gallery and went through your basement to the
sewer tunnels."
"There's a sewer entrance
through my basement?"
"There are some old tunnels
that I found this past summer that lead to your basement."
"Oh."
"Come on, Buffy. We're going to be late for class. Remember, we'll be coming back in here after
roll call. We have to work on our history
papers." Willow urged.
"Right. You'll still be here, right?" Buffy asked Angel.
"I'll be in Giles'
office."
"Ok. See ya in a
few."
"Bye."
Buffy then ran off to class. She and Willow made it right before the Tardy
Bell rang. Sure enough as soon as the
roll was called, the class went to the library work on their history papers.
Buffy saw Angel and Giles in the
office talking. She glanced back at her
teacher and saw that the teacher was watching her, so she sat down at the
computer and started to look up research on her chosen topic - Ireland in the
1700's. She glanced toward the office
and saw that Giles had closed the door.
She typed in "Claddagh Ring, History of" and clicked on one of
the links, http://www.claddaghrings.com/history.htm. When she got to the bottom
of the page she read,
"Today, the ring is worn extensively across Ireland, either on the right hand with the heart turned outwards
showing that the wearer is 'fancy free' or with the heart turned inwards to denote that he or she is 'spoken for'. The
pride of place is on the left hand, with the heart turned in, indicating that the wearer is happily married and the love and
friendship will
last forever, the two never separated."
She was stunned as she looked
from the computer screen to the Claddagh ring that Angel had placed on her left
hand last week. She got up not caring
that her teacher was watching her. She
went to Giles' office and opened the door without knocking.
"Well, someone needs to
patrol tonight," Giles was saying.
"Angel, we need to
talk," Buffy interrupted.
"Buffy," Angel
said. He couldn't imagine what could be
wrong, but Buffy looked upset.
"Now."
"What's wrong,
Muirnín?"
Buffy looked at Giles and asked,
"Can we talk alone please?"
"Uh…Sure," Giles said
not sure of what was going on at all.
After Giles left his own office,
Buffy calmly asked, "Why don't you tell me again what the claddagh ring
is?"
"The hands are for
friendship, the crown is loyalty, the heart is for
love."
"Exchanged as a sign of
devotion?"
"Yeah," Angel was
confused. He had no idea what she was
trying to say.
"Tell me, Angel, what does
it mean when worn on the left hand, the heart pointing in?"
"That your heart belongs to
someone."
"Belongs to
someone?" Buffy asked. "Is all of that cryptic for
married? Cause I'm doing a history paper
on Ireland in 1700 and my research says that they were wedding rings in your
day."
So that's what all this is about. She didn't understand me when I was telling
her about the ring,
Angel thought. "Buffy it's not
cryptic for anything," Angel sighed.
"Isn't a marriage friendship, loyalty, love, and devotion?"
"Well, yeah," then it
dawned on her that Angel did tell her it was a wedding ring. "Oh."
"I'm sorry if you
misunderstood and I'll understand if you want to wear it on your right
hand."
Buffy cut him off by kissing him,
"Now why would I move my wedding ring to the wrong hand?"
"You just seemed
upset."
"I was upset because I
thought that you were trying to marry me without telling me," Buffy
pouted.
"No. I thought you understood what I was
saying."
"So by your customs, we're
married?"
"Yeah."
"So we could tell Mom and
Dad…"
"Buffy, if this was 1750
Ireland - yes. But even in Ireland today
you need all the paperwork that goes with a wedding. You know a marriage license, and both bride
and groom have to be 18 years or older.
I checked. In order for us to get
married legally, we have to wait until your 18th birthday, unless your parents
sign their consent for you to marry. And
after last night, I don't think that will happen."
"Yeah," Buffy sadly
agreed as she looked down at her ring.
Then she looked up into Angel's eyes, "Angel, are you saying that
you want to marry me?"
Angel smiled. After this past week she has to
ask? I gave her a wedding ring and she
has to ask? Angel sat on Giles' desk, pulled Buffy to
him, and said, "Buffy, I love you with all that I am. I gave you a traditional wedding ring. It was my mother's wedding ring. And after this past week, I'm definitely
going to have a hard time sleeping without you in my arms. So, yes, I want to marry you legally."
"We're married by your
standards right?"
"In my heart, we are
married, yes," Angel answered.
"We're married in my heart
too."
Angel kissed her. "Anything else you need for your history
paper?"
"I'll let you know,"
Buffy smiled.
"Go, do your class
work. Giles and I have to figure out how
we're going to work patrolling tonight.
I really don't want him or your friends out there with Devlin still out
there somewhere. He's as ruthless as I
was and we're his targets. He's going to
after those we care about most first and if they are patrolling then it's
easier for him to get to them."
"And I'm sure that Mom and
Dad won't let me out of the house for a while."
"I'm sorry,
I didn't mean to get you in trouble."
"Angel, it was me too and
I'm not sorry," Buffy grinned.
Angel chuckled and kissed the top
of her head. "I'll patrol after we
finish talking to your parents."
Buffy nodded.
Mrs. Wilson saw through the
office window, Angel kiss Buffy's forehead and while she wasn't sure what was
going on, she was sympathetic towards Buffy.
She never believed all of the rumors that Snyder tried to spread about
the young woman. She knew that Buffy had
great potential. She just had to find a
way to get Buffy to apply herself to her work.
She gently opened the office door after lightly knocking on it and said,
"Buffy, you need to come out here and do your research."
"Alright, Mrs. Wilson,"
Buffy said and left to go finish her research.
Giles went back into his office
and closed the door so he and Angel could talk some more without anyone
overhearing.
"Who is that?" Mrs. Wilson asked.
"Oh, that's Angel. He has a degree in History and I was asking
him a question about my paper," Buffy said.
Mrs. Wilson knocked on the door,
opened it, looked at Angel and said, "Buffy just
informed me that you have a degree in history." Angel nodded and the soft-spoken teacher
continued, "I was wondering if you could help out some of the students
with their papers. Some of them are
having a hard time finding what they need."
"Sure. I'll do what I can," Angel said. Mrs. Wilson walked back out of the office and
closed the door behind her.
When Buffy sat down back down
next to Willow at the computer, Willow asked, "What was all of that
about?"
Buffy grinned, "Well, it
seems that according to 1750 Ireland we're married."
"Married?!" A wide-eyed Willow asked.
"Yep. And to top it off, my claddagh ring, was his
mother's wedding ring," Buffy said still smiling.
It was a cool winter's night when
Hank parked his car in Joyce's driveway.
"So, Joyce, are you going to tell me what's going on?" Hank asked as he got out of his car. Joyce was walking down the driveway towards
her ex-husband, when she saw Buffy and Angel walking hand in hand down the
street towards them.
"Well, let's all get inside
and I'll explain everything," Joyce said as Buffy and Angel started up the
driveway.
"Buffy," Hank greeted
his daughter.
"Dad," Buffy said as
she hugged her father. While she was
shocked to see her father, she glad and nervous at the same time. She was glad that he was there, but nervous
about his reaction when he found out that her mother had walked in on her and
Angel making love. "This is
Angel. Angel, my dad, Hank
Summers."
"It's nice to meet you, Mr.
Summers," Angel said politely and offered his hand to shake. Since he was just holding Buffy's hand, it
wouldn't be cold to Hank when he shook it.
"Nice to meet you too,"
Hank said unsure of what was going on, but shook the young man's hand anyway.
"Angel is Buffy's
boyfriend," Joyce supplied.
"He'll be eating dinner with us tonight."
"So, I guess that's why I'm
here? To meet Buffy's
boyfriend?" Hank said
confused. Joyce had never called him to
come meet a boyfriend of Buffy's before.
"That's part of it,"
Joyce said. "Let's get
inside."
Just as the words left her mouth,
a gang of vampires attacked. Two
vampires grabbed Joyce, while two vampires grabbed Hank. Buffy and Angel were each attacked by four
more vampires. Buffy saw her parents
being held by vampires and yelled out, "Angel! My parents!"
Angel quickly disposed of the
vampires that he was fighting. Looked
over at Buffy, saw that she was deposing of the vampires that she was fighting
quickly, and went to save Joyce and Hank.
He was able to dispose of one of the vampires holding Joyce quickly, but
the other vampire was fighting better than the others had, so it was taking him
longer to dust him.
Buffy had dusted the vampires
that attacked her and then started to fight with the vampires that held onto
her father. Angel and Buffy soon dusted
all of the vampires. Angel looked at
Buffy and said, "Devlin's boys I'm sure."
"So now he's coming after my
family?" Buffy asked appalled.
"Yeah. Just like I thought he would," Angel's
said, his worst fears were confirmed.
Devlin had truly learned how to mentally torture
his intended victim. Of course Angel had been a master at all forms of torture, and
it seemed as though Devlin had learned from him after all.
"What just happened
here?" Joyce asked as Hank could
only stare at his daughter and her boyfriend.
"Let's get inside and we'll
explain," Angel said. "Buffy,
you go in with your parents. I'll call
Giles to come help us," he said as he pulled a cell phone out of his coat
pocket.
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