AN: Muirnín is Gaelic for Sweetheart, Beloved and Darling. I have it in my mind that Angel is using it to mean Sweetheart, but use endearment you like best. Mo Grá is My Love Translations are from http://www.englishirishdictionary.com/home If I missed a translation, you can go to the URL and find it. If you have to do that, then please let me know that what translation I missed so that I can add it.
“Hey guys! We found the perfect place for the wedding last night,” Buffy said as she walked into the library.
“Where?” Willow asked.
“The old mansion on Crawford Street. It’s also where we will be living. Angel bought it last night. It’s my wedding present. After the wedding, we’re going to turn the ballroom into a training room.”
“What about your training here?” Giles sharply said as he looked up from a memo from Snyder.
“Well, we thought you would come over for training sessions. That way we won’t be worried about someone walking in and asking questions.”
“Yes. That does seem reasonable,” Giles said relieved.
“There is even a room that Angel wants to turn into a Demonology and Occult library for our research. He even suggested that we move all of our research books over to the mansion where you could use one of the spare rooms for your all night research parties. But I told him that you wouldn’t go for it.”
“Yes, you’re right. I need the books here so I can do research while I’m here,” Giles agreed.
“See, that’s what I thought,” Buffy said with a cocky smile.
“Wow, Buffy. This is a cool car!” Xander exclaimed.
“I know,” Buffy said as she drove Xander and Willow home from school.
“Angel bought it for you?” Willow asked.
“Yep, but I picked it out. The mansion is too far to walk and Angel thought I should have a car of my own to drive to school,” Buffy explained.
“Wow. He talked your mom into letting you get your driver’s license just last week,” Xander said.
“I know.”
“Do you think that he had planned on getting you a car all along?” Willow asked.
“I don’t know. But I do know that he is spoiling me,” Buffy grinned.
“The wedding guest list is getting bigger by the minute. Mom and Dad keep adding family that I haven’t even seen since I was like eight. They both are inviting clients who I don’t even know. I just wanted us, my parents, Giles, Miss Calendar, Willow, Oz, Xander and Cordelia. Mom also invited all of my grandparents. I’m not sure if they will even show or not, but they’ve been invited.” It had been a few weeks since Buffy had asked Miss Calendar to talk to Giles. Giles had been much happier with Miss Calendar around; Buffy couldn’t stand to see him so depressed any longer.
“It’ll be all right, Muirnín,” Angel reassured Buffy as they patrolled the cemetery.
“Angel, I only wanted those who know that I’m The Slayer and you’re a vampire to be there. But now there will be all these people who don’t know anything about us there. Mom even put an announcement in the paper.”
“Mo Grá,” Angel stopped and turned Buffy to face him. He looked deeply in her green eyes and asked, “Do you want me to talk to your mother and tell her that’s a private wedding and only the people in the wedding are invited?”
“I’ve already done that.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me that I needed to ask my cousins to be the flower girl and ring bearer since we don’t have them yet. When I told her that I didn’t want a big wedding, I only wanted those people who know that I was The Slayer there…Angel she looked so hurt. I gave in and told her to invite whoever she wanted.”
Angel smiled, “Muirnín, it doesn’t matter that there will be a lot people there that don’t know us. It’s not going to matter who sees the wedding; we’re still going be married.”
“I know. I just wanted to write our own vows, but if there are going to be all these people there who don’t know us and know what we are, then we can’t do that.”
Angel took an unneeded breath and sighed. He really didn’t know what to say, so he just held her in an embrace.
A few days later, when Buffy walked into the library, Willow said, “Hey, Buffy, I was reading in some of the Watcher Journals, and I found something interesting.”
“What, Will?”
“It seems that when a vampire finds a ‘Mate’ they mark them. And they only mark one ‘Mate’ in their life—or unlife. It’s rare for it to happen and even rarer for the ‘Mate’ to be a human. Sometimes they mark their ‘Mate’ in private and sometimes in a Bonding Ceremony.”
“Does it have the Bonding Ceremony?” Buffy asked as Angel walked into the library.
“The bonding ceremony is too dangerous for you, Muirnín,” Angel said when he heard Buffy asking about it.
“Well, what is it?” Buffy asked annoyed that he hadn’t mentioned this before.
“It’s basically a wedding ceremony for vampires where they mark each other publicly by drinking from one another. I’ve never heard of a human going through the Bonding Ceremony. When a human is marked it’s always been in private—usually during sex,” Angel explained uncomfortably.
“Oh,” Buffy said. “So you would have to drink from me?”
“Yes.”
“But it wouldn’t kill or turn me?”
“The vampire isn’t supposed to take that much. Just enough to scar permanently.”
“But I wouldn’t scar. I heal too quickly for that,” Buffy said disappointedly.
Willow spoke up, “But if you were to go through the Bonding Ceremony, it would scar even a Slayer.”
“Willow’s right. I can’t explain it. It just does.”
“Who could perform the Bonding Ceremony?” Buffy asked.
“It would have to be someone who has practiced majick before,” Angel said.
“Like Giles?”
“Yes, Giles could perform the ceremony and since Jenny comes from a long a line of powerful gypsies, she could as well. We would need both of them since there is no vampire I know of that would want to perform it. But it doesn’t matter, it’s too dangerous. We’re not doing it,” Angel protested.
“But you said yourself, that you wouldn’t take enough to really hurt me.”
“Buffy, Slayer blood is very powerful. I’m afraid that I would get carried away and take too much,” Angel explained.
“Not with Giles, Miss Calendar, and everybody else there. We could do the Bonding Ceremony after the reception. Only those who know that you are a vampire will be there. And then we’ll be married in all ways possible,” Buffy said with pleading eyes.
Angel looked into Buffy’s pleading eyes; he had a hard time denying her anything she wanted. This was the ultimate show of trust on her part. Yes, he wanted to Mark her as his eternal Mate. There wasn’t anything he wanted more. But would he be able to stop drinking from her in time? She did have a point though. Giles and Jenny would do everything in their power to stop him if it looked as though he was taking too much. Surely just one or two mouthfuls wouldn’t hurt her and it would Mark her as his Mate forever. Angel gave in, “Let me talk with Giles and Jenny first. If they say ‘Okay’, then we’ll do it.”
“Buffy, Honey, I need to talk to you,” Joyce said as Buffy and Angel walked into the house after patrol.
“Sure, Mom, what is it?” Buffy asked. When her mom didn’t answer right away, Buffy knew that something was wrong. “Mom?”
Angel thought that Joyce wanted to talk to Buffy alone and said, “I’ll just go and get you something to eat. I’ll be back in a little while.”
Joyce knew that Buffy would need Angel to comfort her and said, “Uh, no, Angel. I’d like for you to stay if you could.”
Angel nodded and Joyce led everybody into the living room.
Buffy and Angel sat down on the couch and Buffy asked, “Mom, what’s wrong?”
Joyce wasn’t sure how to begin, “Um, well, uh, I need to go out of town for a few days.”
Buffy and Angel were confused. Joyce had gone out of town plenty of times without having to sit them down and talk to them like this. Buffy asked, “Mom, what’s wrong?”
“Your nana is sick, Buffy. Darlene called me and asked me to go help them out. She’s been sick for a while. I didn’t want to worry you needlessly, so I didn’t say anything,” Joyce paused. All of the blood had drained from Buffy’s face and Angel could smell the fear that she felt. Joyce continued, “I don’t know how long I will be gone.”
“I’m going with you.”
“No, you have school and as much as I hate it, you also have slaying. You need to stay here. I can handle this on my own.” Joyce took a deep breath and said, “I need to do this alone.”
“Mom…”
“Buffy, you are staying here and that is final,” Joyce firmly said. She knew that her older sister’s husband was going to be there and didn’t want Buffy to come to blows with him. While Buffy and Darlene’s husband, Richard, got along great, Terri’s husband, Mike, was whole other story. Buffy and Mike never got along and after his daughter’s death it had gotten worse. It was as if he blamed Buffy for their daughter’s death. Joyce didn’t need a confrontation between the two on top of dealing with having to say goodbye to her mother. Joyce turned to Angel and asked, “Angel, will you stay with her?”
Angel nodded and said, “She can stay with me. If you need to get in touch with us, you can call the apartment.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
Buffy spoke in a low voice when she asked, “What’s wrong with Nana?”
“She has bone cancer. She didn’t want the chemo or anything. Right now they have her on pain medicine to help keep her comfortable,” Joyce sighed.
Buffy had tears in her eyes as she said, “So this is it? You get to say goodbye to her and I don’t?”
“Buffy, that’s not it at all. I just think that you’re needed here more. There’s nothing you can do for her.” Then she looked down and said, “And besides, your Uncle Mike will be there.”
“Oh. Well, if he’s there, it might be best that I stay here,” Buffy sorrowfully agreed.
Joyce nodded, “Why don’t you go pack a bag for yourself and I’ll call you when I land in Lansing and then again when I get to Nana and Papa’s in Charlotte.”
“Okay,” Buffy nodded still feeling numb. She really hated her uncle Mike. If it weren’t for him she just knew that she would be able to go tell her nana goodbye. “Give Nana my love will you? Tell her that I wish I could be there.”
“I will. She’ll understand. She loves you, you know. She was looking forward to coming to your wedding. You know how stubborn she is; she’ll probably be there anyway. This isn’t good bye. This is just something to keep us on our toes. She will be at the wedding,” Joyce said trying to convince both herself and her daughter.
Buffy nodded, smiled sadly, and said, “You’re right. She’ll be there.”
Joyce took her daughter into a loving, comforting embrace, although she wasn’t sure who was comforting who. Maybe they both were comforting each other.
Angel watched the interaction between mother and daughter. He didn’t know what to do. Here was one woman who was losing her mother and the other was losing her grandmother and he felt helpless because he didn’t know how to help them.
The trio headed upstairs, Joyce to get her bags that she had already packed and Buffy and Angel to pack a bag for Buffy.
On the way to the apartment, Angel said, “It may not seem like it, but everything will be fine.”
“I know. It’s just that my grandmother is dying and I can’t go say goodbye to her because my asshole of an uncle will be there. I mean it’s not his mother that is dying why does he have to be there?”
“Maybe your aunt needs him?”
“What does she need him for? To beat on her if she cries? Oh, I know, to blame everyone but himself for Cilia’s death. It’s everyone else’s fault but his. It’s my aunt and my mother’s fault for letting me in the room by myself. It’s my fault because I did something that killed her,” Buffy held in the tears that were threatening to fall. “She was in the hospital. She had been sick, but she was getting better. I went in to see her and then she just died. I couldn’t do anything. She was terrified. She was screaming, but I didn’t know what to do. I called for help and when they got in there, Uncle Mike blamed me. He said that I smothered her and he hit me. He even tried to have me arrested. Even though the doctors said that I didn’t do it, that it was the flu, he thought it was me. He thought I killed her. He never forgave me. At Cilia’s funeral he yelled out that I had no right to be there. That I had killed her. He slapped me right there in front of everyone. Mom and Dad took me home and I haven’t seen him since. I overheard my Aunt Darlene tell Mom that if he saw me again he said he would kill me. She also told Mom that he started beating Aunt Terri after Cilia died. Now that I can defend myself, I still can’t go because if he hits me again, or even blames me to my face, then I’m afraid that I’ll kill him. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to control my temper and I’ll kill him.”
Angel felt like killing the man himself but, instead said, “Maybe he doesn’t blame you anymore. Maybe it was just the grief of losing his daughter.”
“Yeah, well, I would believe that if Aunt Terri hadn’t come to stay with us a year before my parents got divorced. She was going to leave him. He hadn’t stopped beating her. But he called her and talked her into going back to him. I came home from school one day and she was gone. She left me a note saying that she loves me and she doesn’t blame me, but it would be best if I stayed away from Uncle Mike.
“So because he is there, I can’t go tell my grandmother how much I love her and how much I will miss her.”
“Maybe you can’t be there in person, but maybe when your mom calls you can talk to her on the phone and tell her how you feel?” Angel tried to comfort the love of his life.
Buffy looked up at her fiancé stunned. She was amazed at how just being in his presence could make her feel better and then he had to go and make a wonderful suggestion like that. “You know, it won’t be the same, but it will be better than not talking to her at all.”
Angel and Buffy walked in silence the rest of the way to the apartment. Joyce wasn’t scheduled to land in Michigan until the next morning, so when Angel and Buffy got back to the apartment they went to bed.
At 5:30 AM the phone rang and Angel reached over and picked it up before it woke Buffy up, “Hello.”
“Angel, it’s Joyce. My plane just landed. If traffic isn’t too bad, I should be at my parents’ house within the hour. My sister Darlene is here to pick me up. I’ll call Buffy when we get to my parents’ house.”
“Okay. Could Buffy talk to your mother when you call her to let her know that you made it okay?”
“Oh, yeah sure. That’s a great idea. It might give Mom the will to fight until the wedding at least. Oh, and here is my luggage. Gotta go. Bye.”
“Bye,” Angel said as he hung up the phone. He looked over at the woman that he held in his arms. Angel drifted back to sleep as he thought, I hope that her grandmother will be able to make it to the wedding—for Buffy.
When the alarm went off at 6:30 AM, Angel turned it off and then lightly kissed Buffy to wake her up. As they lay kissing and caressing, the phone rang again. Angel reluctantly picked up the phone, “Hello?”
“Angel, it’s Joyce again.”
“Here’s Buffy,” Angel said as he passed the phone to woman lying beside him.
“Hello,” Buffy said as she took the phone from Angel. Since she was expecting her mother to call her and no one else knew that was staying at Angel’s last night, she knew that it was her mother on the phone.
“Buffy. I wanted to let you know that your nana is fine right now. Darlene over reacted. Mom just wanted all of us here to help plan out the funeral now, so that when the time came it would be easier on us. I’m sorry to worry you needlessly.”
“It’s alright, Mom,” Buffy said. With his vampiric hearing, Angel heard what Joyce told Buffy and lightly kissed his fiancée’s neck.
“Buffy?” Joyce asked after a moment of silence.
“Humm?” Buffy asked as Angel continued kissing her neck and started to caress her bare stomach under the covers.
“Don’t forget you have school today.”
“I’m getting ready right now, Mom.”
Joyce didn’t believe the lie one bit, “Uh huh. Just don’t be late.”
“I won’t, Mom,” Buffy replied. Angel’s hand was slowly moving up toward her chest and she was getting too distracted to talk so she told her mother, “I have to go get ready for school now, Mom. I’ll talk to you later okay?”
Joyce wasn’t sure what was going on but she said, “Just be careful.” Before she could say, “Bye” she heard the dial tone. Oh, I have a pretty good idea of why Buffy was so distracted and I wish I didn’t. Okay, Joyce, just don’t think about your daughter having sex right now.
Mrs. Wilson passed out the graded history reports that the class had done. Buffy was disappointed when she didn’t get her paper. Then the teacher said something that surprised her, “The best paper that I read was Buffy Summers’ paper. With your permission, Buffy, I would like to hang your paper up outside the classroom for everyone to read.” Buffy blushed and nodded her head. “It was a well-researched paper and I would like to encourage everyone to read it. It has some little known facts about everyday life in 1700’s. As a re-enactor, I already knew about these facts, but I have never had any student find out these facts. I’m proud of all of you. Everyone did wonderfully!”
As the gang walked into the library, Willow said, “Hey, Giles! Buffy aced her History report!”
Giles looked up from the book he was reading, “Uh, the report that Angel helped her with?”
“Yep,” Buffy said proudly.
“Well that’s wonderful!” Giles smiled.
“Well, I’m sure that if you hadn’t proof read it, and caught some of my grammar mistakes, I wouldn’t have got an A.”
“Buffy, I only caught a couple of misspelled words here and there. You did wonderfully on that paper.”
“Miss Summers, I’d like to see you in my office,” Snyder said as he entered the library where he had seen the young girl go. Buffy sighed and followed the principal to his office. When they got inside his office, he told her, “Have a seat.” He then went around his desk, sat in his chair, and handed her a report. “Do you recognize this?”
Buffy took the report from Principal Snyder and said, “It’s my history report.”
“You mean the history report that you tried to pass off as yours. But I know better. There is no way that you could get an A on anything. You cheated, Young Lady, and you will be suspended for it,” the snobbish, pompous, arrogant man informed her. “I’m going to call your mother to come pick you up. You are suspended for a week for plagiarizing.”
“Principal Snyder, I wrote that report. I didn’t cheat,” Buffy said.
“Well, I don’t believe you,” Snyder said as he dialed the cell phone number that he had for Joyce. “Mrs. Summers? This is Principal Snyder. We have a problem here at school with your daughter.”
Joyce thinking that Buffy was hurt or sick asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Buffy was caught cheating. She turned in someone else’s report and claimed it to be hers. She is suspended for a week.”
“Principal Snyder, I am out of the state visiting my sick mother. I don’t have time for your ridiculous accusations. Talk to Mr. Giles or Angel about this. They both are taking care of Buffy while I am out of town and have my permission to handle this situation and any situation that comes up that may need a parental authorization. Don’t call me unless Buffy is sick or hurt,” Joyce said and hung up on the man.
Snyder refused to let Buffy see how shocked he was that her mother didn’t want to discuss this with him. He spoke into an intercom, “Linda, please get the number to Buffy Summers’ second guardian, please.”
Linda walked in with a number on a sheet of paper, “Mrs. Summers called this morning and left this number. She also said that Mr. Giles would be able to take care of any disciplinary problems. He is a lot closer if you need something quickly.”
“I can handle this. Thank you,” Snyder snapped. He dialed the number that Linda gave to him.
“Hello?” answered a male voice.
Snyder had assumed that Angel was a woman, since in his mind Angel could only be used for a girl’s name. “Hello, may I speak to Angel, please?”
“This is Angel,” said the confused voice.
“This is Principal Snyder at Sunnydale High School. I was given this number to get in touch with Buffy Summers’ temporary guardian.”
“What’s wrong with Buffy?” The voice changed from confused to worried.
“She has been suspended for a week for plagiarism. She turned in a report that she could not have possibly written herself and tried to pass it off as her work,” Snyder said smugly.
Since the history report was the only report that Buffy had turned in this semester, Angel knew that was the one that the principal was talking about and he asked, “Mrs. Wilson really believes this?”
“No. But Mrs. Wilson likes to believe the best in people. I know what kind of a troublemaker Buffy is and I know that she isn’t capable of making A’s so therefore she couldn’t have possibly written this report.”
“Can I speak to Buffy please?”
“Sure,” Snyder handed Buffy the phone.
“Angel?” Buffy said hopefully.
“Buffy, this is the report that I helped you on, right?” Angel asked reigning in his anger to make sure that she hadn’t turned in any other reports that he didn’t know about.
“Yes,” Buffy said quietly.
“Okay. Don’t worry about anything. If he suspends you, then I’ll get our lawyers on it. It won’t stand up. He says that your teacher is standing by you and so will I. And I know that Giles will stand by you as well. We will go to the school board and get it overturned. You’ll be back in school tomorrow.”
“He called Mom,” Buffy said sadly.
“Okay. I’ll call her and let her know that I’m taking care of it.”
“Okay.”
“Let me speak to him again.”
“Okay,” Buffy said quietly and then handed the phone back to the principal.
“This is Snyder.”
“Principal Snyder, if you suspend Buffy, then you will have to deal with my lawyers. She wrote that paper her self. I made sure of that. Buffy is very smart when she applies herself.”
“Buffy is nothing but a troublemaker and she is suspended for a week. You need to come pick her up.”
“Fine. You and the school board will be hearing from my lawyers!” Angel slammed the phone down and it crumbled into pieces. “Damn it! Now I have to buy a new phone,” he cursed as he slipped into some clothes.
After Angel entered the school through the sewer access, he walked down the hall toward the library so that he could talk with Giles about what was going on. However, before he got to the library, Mrs. Wilson saw him, and asked, “Angel, can I talk to you?”
“Yeah. I wanted to talk to you, too.”
“I tried to tell Principal Snyder that Buffy wrote the report on her own, but he doesn’t believe me.”
“Yeah. So I gathered. He’s suspended her for a week.”
“I don’t know what else to do.”
“I do. I’m going to talk to the school board about this. He is supposed to be an educator and he tells Buffy that she can’t do well? When she applies herself, she can make good grades.”
“And this report shows just that,” Mrs. Wilson sighed. “I’m really sorry, Angel. I thought that by showing Principal Snyder how good Buffy could do if she just applied herself, it would somehow make him see that she’s not as bad as he keeps trying to make her out to be.”
“It’s alright. It’s not your fault. You were only trying to help,” Angel told her gently. “Do you think you could talk to the school board tonight?”
“If you can manage to make them call an emergency meeting, I’ll be there. I hate the way that Snyder treats the students here. I don’t think he is fit to be in education.”
Angel walked into the library and asked, “Why does the principal not believe the teacher when she tells him that Buffy did not cheat?”
“Because he hates me,” Buffy said in a small voice as she stood to go meet her fiancé.
“Well, yes, for some reason known only to him, he seems to have it in for Buffy...the pillock!” Giles chimed in.
“Well, we’ll see what the school board has to say about this,” Angel said. “I’ve called my lawyers and they’re supposed to be talking with the school board members now.”
“I can’t believe that I’ve been suspended for something that I didn’t even do,” Buffy said in a state of shock.
“Don’t worry; you’ll be back in classes tomorrow,” Angel promised her. “Let’s just go home for right now.”
Snyder watched from the shadows as Angel led Buffy down the hallway with his arm around her waist. Now why is Mrs. Summers’ boyfriend acting so lovey dovey with her daughter? Snyder thought to himself.
Buffy and Angel decided that they would use the extra time that Buffy had to do more clean up work at the mansion. And since all the windows had been replaced with necro-tempered plated glass, they didn’t have to cover them up. They could let the sunshine through the windows. However, they were making out more than they were cleaning their future home up.
After Buffy and Angel had left through the sewer access in the basement of the school, Snyder’s supervisor arrived at the school. He interviewed Mrs. Wilson, Buffy’s classmates and Mr. Giles. At the end of the day, after the last interview, he informed Snyder that the suspension of Buffy Summers was ungrounded and that he had better reverse it or Angel MacKenzie, the owner of MacKenzie Enterprises, was going to sue. After all of the interviews, he had concluded that Buffy Summers had written the paper on her own and had been falsely accused by Snyder of cheating and therefore she was wrongfully suspended. The supervisor also let all of Buffy’s teachers know that the suspension was reversed and that she was to be counted as present in all of her classes that day and her work was to be made up. And to top it off, Snyder had to go to her and apologize to her and her family. If he didn’t, he would be fired.
Snyder had gone to the Summers’ residence only to find it empty. Then he went to Angel MacKenzie’s apartment, but it too was empty. He called Giles to ask him if he knew where Buffy and Angel might be and Giles had told him the old mansion on Crawford Street. So here he was about to knock on the big heavy door, when he saw through the unshaded window, Angel and Buffy making out in the main room. He would have to file that away and when Mrs. Summers got back in town, he would tell her that her daughter was making the moves on Mrs. Summers’ boyfriend. But for right now, he had a job to save. He knocked on the door and waited for one of them to open it.
Buffy was the one who answered the door and she just stood there staring at her principal. “Miss Summers, I’ve come to inform you that after careful evaluation of your report and interviewing your teacher and classmates who swear that they saw you write the paper yourself, your suspension has been reversed and you are to be at school in the morning. You will have to make up all of the class work you missed today and,” Snyder took a deep breath and then spoke so quickly that Buffy had a hard time understanding what he was saying, “I’msorry.”
“What was that last part? I didn’t quite catch it.”
Snyder then said it so low it was almost a whisper.
“I still didn’t catch it, could you speak up, please?”
“I said, ‘I’m sorry.’ Alright there. I said it! Are you happy now?!” Snyder yelled.
Coming to the door, Angel spoke up and angrily said, “The next time you falsely accuse my fiancée of anything and then act on your prejudices, I will sue you personally and I will make sure that you are fired and never work in another school again!”
As Angel slammed the door in his face, Snyder thought to himself, Fiancée? She must be pregnant! Why would her mother let her get married before she graduated high school if she wasn’t?
Yet another A/N: Just wanted to clear up some things that could cause confusion. Joyce has more than one sister. The sister that called her is not the sister in the abusive marriage. Snyder being the type of person he is just jumped to the conclusion that Angel was Joyce's boyfriend because he didn’t think that any parent would leave a teenage girl in the care of the teenager's boyfriend.
Please send feedback. I do need ideas on what to do with Season 3. There are just a few more chapters left in Book 1. Book 2 will cover Buffy's Senior Year of High School. If you have any ideas on what I could do differently than cannon and/or include in this universe with Season 3, please let me know. I want to show Buffy and Faith meeting, but I'm drawing a blank. If you have any ideas, please let me know.
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