PART 4

Angel was almost at the house when he heard a scream and he rushed inside, breaking the front door in as he went. He spotted Hank lying on the floor unconscious but otherwise okay, but he didn't see anything that could've attacked Hank. Something dripped onto the sleeve of Angel's duster and Angel slowly looked up towards the ceiling where he saw a Zortax demon hanging there ready to pounce. As it let go of the ceiling, Angel rolled out of the way and stood up; he faced the demon and slowly tried to circle towards the kitchen and a weapon. The Zortax made another lunge this time knocking Angel down; he pushed the demon off and crawled towards the kitchen. He was only part the way there when it grabbed him and pulled its way up his body towards his throat. Angel swallowed the bitter taste that had suddenly come into his mouth and closed his eyes knowing that this was the end… he was going to die.

A minute later when nothing had happened, Angel opened his eyes to find Spike standing over him holding the Zortax like it was a misbehaving puppy. "Is the big poof bothering you?" he asked it, all the time laughing at Angel.

"Ha-ha Spike," Angel replied climbing to his feet. He looked at the tiny, but dangerous demon in Spike's hands and said, "You do know you have to kill it."

"Yeah… Fluffy doesn't allow pets, especially evil ones," Spike agreed breaking the Zortax's neck.

Angel couldn't help himself the words were out before he could stop, "So how come you're still around?"

"Stuff it…" Spike began, but he was cut off by Hank regaining consciousness.

Angel rushed over to help his client and Spike hung back thinking how bad it was that the Zortax hadn't finished Hank off before it attacked Peaches.

"Hank… you okay?" Angel asked helping him up.

"Angel?" Hank asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Saving you." At Spike's cough Angel added, "Getting saved by Spike."

"We have to call Buffy" Hank said moving to the phone. Angel watched him do that and realised that he didn't have a choice he was about to come face to face with Buffy… a lot sooner than he'd intended.

Buffy was having a hard time concentrating on her job, all she could think about was Angel and what Dawn had said to her earlier. It was ridiculous… she wasn't still in love with him, Dawn was imaging things again, and that was what she kept telling herself. She could almost believe it, if she blocked out the voice inside that kept reminding her that it could be true. None of her relationships had made it, she just could never bring herself to make a true commitment… to reveal the secrets she kept and the one time she did do that it was a disaster. Riley Finn, she couldn't believe how he'd reacted when she'd turned down his proposal at college graduation… had he really thought she'd abandon everyone to follow him to Iowa.

She looked up when the student she was supposed to be counselling said, "Can I go now?"

"Sure… same time next week" she told him distractedly.

"Whatever" came the mumbled reply.

Buffy was just about to leave her office for lunch when her phone rang. "Hello?" she said answering it.

"Buffy… something happened" Hank's voice came down the line.

Buffy suddenly had a sinking feeling in her stomach, accompanied by butterflies in her tummy the feeling she had whenever a certain someone was around… and something she'd lived without for a decade. "What?" she asked hoping she was panicking for nothing.

"Well this thing attacked me and…"

"Are you okay?" Buffy interrupted.

"Fine… so is my PI. That Spike weirdo saved us" Hank finished.

"Your PI? And Spike saved you? Why?"

"I'll explain all when you get home. When will that be?" Hank said.

"A while… there's a staff meeting after school. I'll call the gang and we'll be there as soon as possible," she told him.

"Okay. See you soon sweetie" Hank told her.

"Bye dad..." Buffy said softly and hung up the phone. She sat back down, stared out of her window and wondered why this had to happen to her. Why she had to face Angel? And how she was going to get through it? She damned Dawn for reminding her that she had a heart and that it belonged to someone who didn't want it.

Davidson crept towards Lilah Morgan's office slowly, he didn't want to be the one to tell her that the assassin had failed and that Hank Summers was not only alive but being aided by Angel, a vampire and a slayer who happened to be his daughter. He remembered vividly how he came to be her assistant in the first place, when the previous one was found hacked into little pieces in her apartment. He knocked softly on the door and entered when told too, he walked to the desk and waited for permission to speak.

"Well?" Lilah demanded when she saw him.

"The Zortax failed" he said and braced himself for the icy grip of death.

"How?" she asked in an icy voice.

"Angel," Davidson said knowing that one word would explain more than any other explanation he could give.

Lilah's face turned red and she looked like she was going to explode. "Angel?" she managed to hiss, "Send another assassin and this time kill that meddling PI too."

"Right away Ms Morgan," Davidson said rushing from the room grateful to be alive.

Angel was silently freaking out, he'd called Cordy and Doyle and they had promised to be there soon, but what if Buffy arrived before them? He didn't think he could handle her presence without their support. He stole a quick look at Spike and saw that he was glaring at him; he couldn't blame him… according the logic of Spike he was intruding on his territory and on his woman. The doorbell rang and Angel let out a sigh of relief, until he saw that it wasn't Cordy and Doyle but Giles who had arrived.

"Angel!" Giles said staring at him. "My God, you're…"

"Yeah," Angel said. He was growing more and more uncomfortable and wished that he was anywhere but there at that moment.

"Well…" Giles didn't know what to say, he didn't like that Angel was sitting there and was human after all he'd done, after Jenny…

The doorbell rang again and this time Angel answered it, he didn't actually care who was there as long as he didn't have to sit there and be stared at by Giles. This time it was actually Cordy and Doyle.

"Sorry man, 'Delia didn't wanna come," Doyle apologised for leaving his friend in the lurch.

"It's okay," Angel understood where Cordy was coming from and in fact he was mere moments away from telling Hank to handle it himself and heading back to LA.

They headed into the living room Angel introduced them to Hank and then introduced Doyle to Giles and Spike. Everyone started to talk and Angel pretty much hid in the corner wondering when the torturous wait would be over and if he'd lose his nerve and run when he saw her.

Buffy arrived home an hour later, having just endured the worst staff meeting of her life of course that paled in comparison to what she was about to have to go through. She pulled up in front and saw everyone just standing around outside, she got out and went over to them.

"What are you doing?" she asked them.

"I don't want to go in there..." Xander said. "Helping your dad was one thing. Dealing with Deadboy…"

"Grow up," Anya told her husband. "I wanna go inside and get a look at the eye-candy."

Willow looked at Buffy, grasped Tara's hand and said, "We just joined in."

"Look guys, we have to face him sometime and frankly I have more to worry about than you. I'm the one he dumped, he didn't do anything to you," Buffy told them. She knew she was being snippy to them and didn't want to be, but it was just too hard to ignore the feeling of him nearby and it made her mad that even after a decade she was aware of his presence.

"You're wrong" Willow told her, "He did do something to us."

"What?"

"He left us to pick up the pieces of what once was Buffy," Xander said marching off towards the house with the others following.

Buffy found herself standing there all alone and wondered why everything happened to her. After a few seconds she sighed and followed too.