Chapter Text
Buffy sat on a headstone and idly kicked her feet back and forth. For once she wasn't sorry that the vampires didn't seem to want to come out and play. She couldn't shake the exhaustion that had plagued her since she wokaye from the spell Willow and the others had used to save her. It was a good thing she wasn't facing a fang gang on her own right now, she thought.
A twig snapped behind her. She flipped backward off the headstone and whirled, stake in hand ready to dust the unlucky vampire trying to sneak up on her.
"Whoa, Buff! It's just me!" Xander held up his hands and backed up a few steps.
"Xander! Say something when you're sneaking up on me. I could have hurt you." Buffy slipped the stake up her sleeve. "What are you doing here anyway? Is Giles okay? Did you guys find something?"
"Giles is fine. He thinks he may have a lead on your demon, but he's not positive. Nothing yet on the Emerald or that Hammer thing."
She frowned at him. "So, why are you out here?"
He looked uncomfortable. "We were all kind of worried about you. I got elected to find you and see how you're doing."
"Uh-huh, elected," she said dryly and raised her eyebrows. "And getting out of researching didn't have anything to do with it?"
"Yeah, well, I volunteered, okay?" Xander shrugged sheepishly. "But, we were all worried about you."
"Well, stop it. This is officially a worry free zone." She glanced around the cemetery. "There's absolutely nothing happening here. C'mon. Let's go back to Giles'."
They walked along in companionable silence though she could feel Xander's gaze on her. Finally she stopped and waited for him to turn around.
"What's with you?" she asked.
"Um."
"Good, Xander. You've mastered the single syllable nonsense sentence. Let's try for actual words now." She said softly.
Xander grimaced. "Okay. I need to tell you something and I don't know how to do it without either hurting you or making you mad. Either of which could mean major bodily harm for me."
She looked at him seriously. "Whatever it is, just say it. I promise not to hurt you."
"Thanks," he said dryly. "I'll hold you to that." He took a deep breath. "It's about Angel."
She gripped his arm. "What about Angel?"
"Willow's been in contact with him over email."
"Oh." Buffy dropped her hand. "Is that all?"
He frowned. "Is that all? You're not upset?"
A smile played across her lips. "Do you want me to be? I'm sure I can work up a nice snit if you'd like. Is there more?"
"No and yes." He blinked rapidly and said, "Angel's in L.A."
"I know."
"You know? What d'you mean, you know? How long have you known?" He sounded outraged.
"Since last July. He sent me a postcard to let me know where he was in case I ever needed to contact him. I haven't." She shrugged.
"Oh great. And here we've been jumping through Cheerios to keep from letting you know, thinking we were doing the great and noble." He let his disgust show on his face. "Willow's been exchanging email with Angel since around last October. We coulda just told you about it and been done with it."
She looked up at him curiously. "Why did you guys think you had to hide this?"
Xander fidgeted and looked away. "Well, it's just that we thought it might be painful for you to know. What with everything."
"Xander," Buffy said seriously, "I do care about Angel. I probably always will. But I'm not in love with him. I haven't been for a long time. As confusing as it was for me last year, Angel's leaving was the right thing for him to do. For both of us. It doesn't have the power to hurt me anymore. I've moved on and I hope he has too."
"So, you're okay with this? Not mad?" He looked perplexed.
She couldn't help it. She doubled over with laughter. She grasped his arm to keep her balance and once she could gasp out the words she said, "Your face! I'm sorry, Xander, but the look on your face was too much!" She shook her head. "No, I'm not mad. God, did you really think I'd go Psycho on you?"
Xander looked pained. "I don't know. I guess we sort of did, in a we're your friends and just looking out for you kind of way."
She nodded and then looked at him curiously. "So, if you guys have been keeping this a secret all this time, why are you telling me now?"
"Oh. Well, you know that contact Giles has been talking about?"
"It's Angel?" She raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah. Willow told Giles about the email thing with Dead Boy after you were unconscious and we couldn't find anything to help. Giles didn't like it, but he told her to send him a picture of the dagger. See Angel's kind of got this Magnum, PI thing going. He works with some guy named Doyle, and, uh, Cordelia."
"Cordelia?" Buffy shook her head. "Do I want to know how that happened?"
"Probably not," Xander said dryly. "Anyway, I guess they specialize in helping people in trouble. Not just any kind of trouble, but trouble of the pointy-toothed kind."
"Cordelia knows this? And she's helping?" Buffy couldn't keep the skepticism out of her voice.
"Yeah. Let's just not go there, okay?" Xander shook his head.
"So Angel's the one who found the spell and the prophecy?"
"Uh-huh."
"All right. Still doesn't explain why you're telling me this." She tilted her head.
"It's just that we're depending on Angel to come up with something on this prophecy. I figured if you knew about him then we could stop worrying about what was going to happen when you found out."
She said, "Because of the whole Buffy-gets-wacky-where-Angel's-concerned thing?"
He nodded.
She smiled and threw her arms around his waist, hugging him impulsively. She felt his hesitant response, broke the hug after a few moments and looked at him with bright eyes. "Thanks. It wasn't really necessary, but the thought was sweet."
"You're welcome," he mumbled.
She threaded her arm through his and they continued walking. After a few moments of silence she glanced up and caught him staring at her again.
"Okay. What's the what here, Xand? You look like you ate a bad egg or something. I'm beginning to feel like an infomercial -- but wait, there's more!"
Xander grimaced. "Can I ask you something?"
She nodded. "What?"
"It's just, what's the deal with this Callahan guy?"
"Xander," she said, "what are you talking about?"
"Look, Buff," he said seriously, "I know it's probably none of my business, but the guy called a little while ago." Xander stopped and crossed his arms.
"Oh." She scuffed at the sidewalk with her shoe. "Wait a minute. How'd he get Giles' number? I didn't give it to him. In fact, how'd he even know to call there?" She frowned.
Xander shook his head. "I don't know how he knew, but Giles is listed in the phone book, right?"
Buffy nodded, still confused. "So, what did he say?"
"Giles answered the phone."
Buffy glanced up. "And?"
"It got ugly. So I gotta ask, what's the deal?"
"Ugly?" She frowned. "What do you mean ugly?"
"From the side of the conversation we could hear it sounded like he wouldn't believe that you weren't there. I don't know what he said exactly, but Giles got that 'Ripper' look on his face and, well, Buff, he kinda told Callahan to 'sod off' among other things." Xander looked uncomfortable. "Giles gave us his silent movie imitation after he hung up. 'Course Will might've got something out of him after I left."
Buffy threw her hands up and let them settle on her hips. She said, exasperated, "Oh great. My life's not complicated enough as it is? What was he thinking?"
"Giles?"
"No! Brian. I called him earlier to tell him that I wasn't going to go out with him anymore. With all the other stuff going on, I so don't have time to deal with dating just to be dating." She glanced at Xander and added, "I didn't say it that way. I tried to let him down nicely. I mean, I like the guy, just not enough and I didn't want to lead him on. It's not easy to break up with someone when they're nice, you know? Not that we'd gone out enough times for this to really be a break up. So what the hell was he thinking, calling and getting into an argument with Giles?"
Xander looked puzzled and said, "Okay. I'm confused. You just broke up with the guy? He still wants to see you, right? And you didn't give him Giles' number, but he called there looking for you? So you're upset at him because he's jealous of Giles?"
"Jealous?" Buffy asked, shocked. Jealous? How could Brian be jealous of...Giles? God, she thought, Giles was so going to kill her.
"That's the way the whole thing sounded to me. Look at it from a guy's perspective and you'll see that little green monster's hands all over the place." Xander shook his head.
"Oh," Buffy said in a small voice. "Do all guys lose the ability to reason when their hormones are engaged?"
Xander took her arm and started walking. "Hey, we learn it in Basic Male 101. It's a required course. Don't worry. I'm sure that after Giles got through with him you won't have to worry about this Callahan guy calling you. If you really don't want to see him anymore, that is." They turned up the walk to Giles' front door.
Buffy glanced up at Xander, her eyes wide. "That bad, huh?"
He nodded. "Not that I'm likely to forget anytime soon, but remind me not to get Giles really mad at me? He's got way too many words I've never heard before. I think he may even have been swearing at the guy in one of those dead languages he speaks." Xander chuckled. "If it hadn't been so scary it would've been kind of funny."
Buffy laughed. "Now I'm almost sorry I missed it. Almost."
They were still laughing as they walked through the door into Giles' foyer. They stopped at the sight of a strange, dark haired man standing in Giles' living room. Xander joined Willow and Oz on the couch. Buffy moved to Giles' side, standing just in front of him and between Giles and the stranger. Something about the guy bugged her.
She noted the serious looks on her friends' faces. She deliberately looked the stranger over and demanded, "Who the hell are you?" She felt Giles' warm hand on her shoulder and glanced up at him.
"So, you're the Slayer, eh? Name's Doyle, princess." He gave her an impudent look and grinned.