PART 5

The next afternoon Buffy and Angel were still asleep when Giles and the other Scoobies let themselves into the apartment, with the key Angel had given them for emergencies. When they saw no movement they realised that Angel was still asleep, so they sat in Angel's living room to wait. Ten minutes later they all got a shock, when they saw Buffy walk sleepily from Angel's bedroom to the bathroom wearing one of Angel's shirts.

"Was that Buffy?" Willow whispered in shock.

"Yes, but Cordelia didn't mention the slumber parties" Giles said surprised that Buffy, who even though he hadn't seen her for a while would be sleeping with a vampire.

Xander, Oz and Faith were speechless, but for different reasons. Xander because he was still in shock over seeing Buffy (wearing little), Oz because well... because he's Oz and Faith because she was suddenly face to face with the girl she'd been constantly competing with (slaying, friends and for Angel's affection).

When Buffy finally came out of the bathroom, she noticed the Scoobies. "Oh My God" Buffy said in shock, it had been so long since she'd seen or heard from them.

"Not God, just Xander" Xander quipped trying to break the tension.

Willow got up and walked towards Buffy, she shocked Buffy even more by hugging her. "Hey Buffy, I missed you" Willow told her.

After a second Buffy returned the hug and replied, "I missed you too, Wils".

This started a flood of hugs and talking from the remaining Scooby members, except Oz who just said "Hey" and Faith who was uncomfortable in Buffy's presence.

Angel came out of the bedroom when he heard the commotion. "What are you guys doing here?" Angel asked when he saw that he and Buffy had visitors.

"Didn't Cordelia tell you? I called yesterday and she promised to tell you we were coming" Giles answered Angel's question.

"Well that would explain it. We haven't seen Cordy or Doyle since yesterday afternoon" Buffy said. "They had some good news and went to celebrate and I guess it slipped her mind". Willow couldn't believe it she had just witnessed Buffy-defending Cordy, she wondered if Buffy had sustained some sort of head injury that might explain this behaviour. Buffy noticed Willow giving her a funny look but was sidetracked when she noticed Faith for the first time. She went over to her and said, "Hi I'm Buffy".

"Hey B, I'm Faith. The other slayer" Faith replied.

Buffy turned to Giles and asked softly, "Did Kendra..."

"Yeah" Xander told Buffy gently.

"Whoa. That's too bad, I liked her," Buffy said sadly.

Faith watched as Angel put his arms around Buffy in comfort and tried unsuccessfully to squelch the jealousy she suddenly felt. She'd had a crush on Angel since she'd first met him, even though she knew he was a vampire, and when he'd stayed in Sunnydale for a while to help she'd assumed he'd felt the same. But he hadn't as soon as graduation was over, he'd left on his quest to find Buffy. She'd thought Buffy was just a phase, but seeing them together she realised he'd never seen her as anything but the slayer and it totally cheesed her off.

Buffy saw that Faith was staring at them and she whispered to Angel, "What's her deal?"

"She has a little crush on me. Totally unreciprocated" Angel whispered back.

Buffy eyed Faith and made a mental note to keep an eye on her; there was something about her that wigged Buffy out. Buffy turned her attention back to Giles and asked, "So... What are you guys doing here?"

"I found a prophecy..." Giles began.

Xander rudely cut him off by saying, "Some things never change, huh?"

Giles ignored the interruption and continued, "I need Angel's help to decipher it".

"Sure" Angel replied, "Just let me get dressed and I'll help". Angel headed off to the bedroom, leaving everyone just standing there.

Ten minutes later Angel came back out, which left Buffy to go and get ready. After a few seconds Angel noticed everyone staring at him, "What?"

"So...Buffy lives here?" Willow asked voicing everyone's thoughts. She was nervous because she knew of Faith's obsession with Angel and wondered what she might do to Buffy over this.

"Yeah" Angel replied looking around at everyone's faces and noting the shock on them.

Giles tried not to look horrified and quickly changed the subject back to the prophecy. He showed it to Angel and asked, "What do you think?"

Angel looked at it and said, "It's a little vague. Let's photocopy it so we can each work on it?"

"Agreed" Giles, said as they followed Angel's suggestion.

By the time they got back from upstairs Buffy was back out in the living room. "So...what's the big evil?" she asked.

"We're not sure," Angel told her. "Giles and I will figure it out though".

"I know" she replied as they sat down to plan their research.

Ten minutes late Buffy was relieved, they left to head back to Sunnydale. She loved and missed them all but having them all there at once had been overwhelming. The truth was she was most relieved that Faith was gone; she still had a major wiggy feeling because of that girl.

The second that they'd gone, Buffy asked, "So really, what is her deal?"

Angel knew that Buffy was referring to Faith. "After I got back, I stayed in Sunnydale for a few months because Giles asked for my help, the Mayor was going to ascend into a demon and they didn't know much. Somehow Faith seemed to get the idea that I was hanging around for her, even though I never encouraged her in anyway. The second that the Mayor was defeated I said goodbye and headed out here to LA to find you" Angel said. Then he muttered, "And escape her".

"Oh, you poor baby" Buffy said climbing onto his lap. "How can I make you feel better?"

Angel didn't answer her; he just picked her up and ran with her to the bedroom.

A few hours later Buffy was sitting in the outer office with Cordy, they were bored out of their minds, when an attractive woman walked in. "Can I help you?" Cordy asked hoping this was a customer.

"Maybe. I'm looking for Doyle," the woman said.

"He's here. Who should I say is here?" Cordy said in her most professional voice, while all the time wondering what in the hell that woman wanted with her Doyle.

"Harrie Doyle, his wife" the woman replied.

Before Cordy could do or say something she may regret Buffy said, "I'll go get him".

A minute later Doyle appeared and asked Harrie, "What do *you* want?"

"I want to talk to you," she said. "You owe me that at least".

"Fine, but not here" Doyle said.

Cordy watched them leave the office and said, "Did you see how pretty she was?"

Buffy seeing Cordy's distress replied, "I'm only gonna say this once and if you tell anyone I said it, I'll deny it. You are much more beautiful than she is, compared to you Harrie is a dog".

"Thanks Buff" Cordy said.

"For what?" Buffy teased.

Cordy rolled her eyes and said, "You are really strange".

They resumed their boredom and waited for something exciting to happen.

Doyle and Harrie had barely gotten outside before Harrie asked, "So who is she? The blonde?"

"No way. Buffy is dating Angel and besides that she's not me type" Doyle replied insulted.

"You have a type?" Harrie asked sarcastically.

"What do you want Harrie?" Doyle asked not in the mood to fight.

"I really don't know...Maybe I wanted to see you one last time, or ask why you think this will work when we didn't?" Harrie said sitting down on the steps outside.

"I'm glad you came" Doyle lied totally unconvincingly.

"Liar. Well...I'll sign the papers and now I'll be the mature one and wish you and what's-her-name luck" Harrie told him. The truth was she'd thought if she'd come back into his life he'd have wanted her back, but he didn't.

"Thanks" Doyle said. "And 'er name's Cordelia".

"Does she know..."

"Yeah. She took that bit of news no problem, it was the my still being married part she didn't like" Doyle told her.

Harrie looked at Doyle one last time and didn't even say goodbye before she walked away.

Doyle didn't even notice he just ran inside and grabbed Cordy. "Harrie's gonna sign the papers" he told her.

Buffy watched how happy Doyle and Cordy were and she was glad things were working out for them. But seeing them together brought Buffy an unpleasant thought as she began to wonder what her mother had in store for Angel that night.

Angel was nervous about meeting Buffy's mom and step-dad, even though he'd kind of already met Joyce. He'd never done this before, he'd never met any of the girls he was with before parents (he'd never had too) and the more he thought about it the more nervous he got. Angel sat in the living room and tried to think about something...anything else, but he couldn't. By the time Buffy was ready to leave, Angel was pacing the room and muttering to himself.

She went up to him, put her arms around him and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I'm nervous. I've never been brought home by a girl before" Angel confessed.

"Never?" Buffy asked in surprise.

"Well, I never was exactly the type of boy that you'd bring home to meet the folks" Angel explained.

"Now you are" Buffy told him matter-of-factly, giving him a quick kiss.

They grabbed their coats and headed from the office to Buffy's parent's apartment.

Twenty minutes later they arrived there and were let inside the building by the doorman. They took the lift upstairs and walked down the plush hallway to Joyce's place, they took a second to calm down and then Buffy knocked on the door. When Joyce opened the door, she found Buffy standing there with a guy who looked somewhat familiar. The guy also looked older which panicked Joyce, when Buffy said she was seeing someone; Joyce had never thought that he might be older. In fact she'd just assumed that Buffy had been talking about Pike... the hooligan. The thought of Pike and Buffy actually made her decide to give this guy a small chance.

"Hi Buffy and guest, come in" she invited trying to be pleasant.

"Hi mom" Buffy said as she and Angel came inside. Then she introduced Angel and her mother, "Mom this is Angel".

"Nice to meet you" Joyce said trying to be civil but failing.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Angel replied, noting that Joyce was not overly pleased to have him there.

Joyce then showed them into the living room and they all sat there in an uncomfortable silence. Buffy broke it by asking, "So where's Rob?"

"He was called out of town on a last minute business trip" Joyce replied. "So it's just the three of us tonight."

{Oh joy} Buffy thought as she noticed the funny looks that her mother was giving Angel. They once again lapsed back into he silence.

Eventually Joyce asked Angel, "You look familiar, have we ever met?"

Angel looked over at Buffy who nodded. He then said, "Actually we did once. I was Buffy's history tutor when you lived in Sunnydale".

When Angel said that Joyce remembered that night she'd seen him. She looked at Angel closely and decided that he was way too old for Buffy. She decided to make Buffy think she was giving this Angel-guy a chance, by playing miss nice-mommy. "So, Angel...how old are you and what do you do?" Joyce asked pretending to be interested.

"I'm... umm... 24" Angel answered thinking that his age did have a 2 and a 4 in it. "I own a detective agency, Angel Investigations."

"Cordy works there" Buffy told her mom as if it might make a difference.

"Interesting" Joyce, said not actually meaning it. "What does a detective do?"

"I find things or protect people... occasionally I help out the LAPD" Angel replied suddenly feeling as though he were being patronised.

Buffy was about to tell her mom where to shove her questions when Joyce decide to serve dinner. The conversation during the meal was much the same as beforehand and Buffy really didn't know how much more of her mother's underhanded bitchiness she could take. It was after dinner that things hit the fan.

They were once again back in the living room and Buffy was visualising the many ways to kill her mom and make it look as though it was self-inflicted, when Joyce opened her mouth. She said, "It's a long drive and you should get going to drop Buffy off at her dorm."

Since Buffy was sick and tired of her mother's attitude, she decided to exact a little revenge. "Why would I want to go to the dorm?" Buffy asked innocently.

Angel wondered what Buffy was up to, did she want him dead again or something. He figured she must since she was obviously going to tell Joyce about their living arrangement.

"What do you mean? You live there" Joyce replied in confusion.

"I moved out. I live with Angel now" Buffy informed her mother.

"WHAT?" Joyce screamed. "How could you do this? You're only 19, you're not old enough to make those kinds of decisions."

Angel looked and felt totally uncomfortable about Joyce and Buffy's argument. Oblivious to this Buffy told her mom, "You have no right to tell me what to do, and I'm not a child. I love Angel and it's my choice what I do about it." Buffy grabbed Angel by the arm and dragged him towards the door.

Joyce's last words to Buffy were, "You're not welcome here as long as you're with him."

Buffy left the building with Angel and climbed into the car. Before Angel could even open his mouth, Buffy said "Don't you dare."

"What?" Angel asked.

"Apologise. That fight was her doing not yours" Buffy told him.

"If I hadn't of come back into your life..." Angel began.

"I'd still be miserable and that fight still would have happened. Why do you think I chose to move into the dorm in the first place?"

"You mean she's *always* like that?" Angel asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. I totally feel sorry for Rob, at least I got to escape" Buffy replied.

Angel started the car and they drove back to their apartment in silence. When they got there Angel tried to get Buffy to talk about it, but she wouldn't.

"I don't need to talk about it," she told him. "I know what she's like and I'm dealing. I'm going to bed now, I have to go shopping with Cordy tomorrow."

Angel watched her walk off towards the bedroom and then yelled after her, "I think I've discovered something scarier than your mom."

"What?" Buffy replied turning to face him.

"You and Cordy...shopping" Angel said laughing.

He was still laughing when Buffy grabbed him and pulled him off towards their bedroom.