Continued...

Just when Buffy thought she was getting a grip on herself, those feelings came rushing back. She hated this, hated Cordelia for making her tell her these things, especially since it was because of her in the first place that this was happening.

"He said things had happened between us?" asked Cordelia, beginning to realize now what Angel had done. She pursed her lips. This was all becoming way too clear. God, men were SO stupid….what an idiot Angel was, she thought to herself. And she was also thrilled that he had decided to drag her into his mess.

"Yes, things." Buffy repeated, her lip twisted into a little sneer. The audacity of Cordelia never ceased to amaze her, despite all the experiences she’d had with her back in high school. Buffy mentally recited the "don’t kill humans" rule over and over in her head.

"Well," Cordelia began, "I guess being so deliberately evasive with you did the job." God, this was gonna be so intensely awkward….

"I don’t understand." said Buffy trying desperately to hold back the tears. What was she saying? Buffy felt as though things were somehow, impossible as it seemed, getting even worse. Cordelia seemed to sense this and tried to smooth things out a bit.

"Don’t you see, he said things for a reason. Nothing intimate has ever happened between us. Nothing. Ever. He just wanted you to think that something had, that way it would make it easy for you to get mad at him and not love him anymore. He wouldn’t have to worry about you all the time then. Pretty cowardly but that’s what I think happened." Buffy looked doubtful. Cordelia sighed, again, and continued in a voice she had to fight so not to sound too condescending. It was getting hard to remember to be angry with Angel, not with Buffy, no matter what else was in her heart. "The only thing we have shared is our mutual desire to help others, to help those in need. I have the visions, he goes and saves the day, simple as that." Cordelia said as she turned and looked away from Buffy, terrified the other girl would see through her at just that moment and know that she wasn’t being perfectly honest.

She really wanted Buffy to think that it was really that simple. ‘I did the right thing’ Cordelia thought to herself. She couldn’t let the real feelings that she was having for Angel show through. That would help no one. She knew what she had do.

As the long sleek black car went sliding around the corner of Revello Drive, Liz was beginning to worry. Still, she just didn’t feel right about asking, so she quietly kept her feelings to herself. Angel quickly stopped the car in front of Buffy’s house.

"What are we doing here?" asked Liz. She was feeling a little out of the loop and it was bothering her, though she would never have admitted it to any of them. Especially not to Angel.

"Cordelia……she’s, um, still here. We need her before we can do anything else." said Angel. He was still disgusted with himself for not even realizing she was missing. Fred had actually had to point it out to him.

"I don’t believe that she is necessary for us to accomplish what we came here to do. We must hurry, I traced Bangola to a large abandoned house at the edge of town." said Liz. "He must be stopped before he begins the ritual, we must get the cup!"

"I have an idea." said Wesley. Liz and Angel looked at him immediately. "I think our best course of action is for Liz, Gunn, and I to go check out the house, see what we can find out about Bangola and his men. You and Fred can stay here to protect Buffy." ‘And explain to Cordelia how we just left without her,’ he added silently. Angel just looked at Wesley, and gave a slight nod of agreement. He certainly wasn’t enjoying the thought of being around Buffy again, especially since the mess he had made had probably only gotten worse while he was gone. However, he knew it was for the best.

"Angel, you should probably tell Buffy what is going on. I mean, tell her why we are really here. I don’t think she would like it very much if she found out she was being left in the dark." said Wesley.

"Been there and done that, and lets just say it wasn’t pretty. I’ll let her know what is going on, if Cordelia hasn’t already!" said Angel. He and Fred got out of the car and wished the others well. They quietly walked up the stairs of the house, with Angel dreading greatly what he thought was about to happen. Each step closer to the house was worse than the one before, especially since he knew much of it was his own doing. ‘Problems you make for yourself always end up worse than ones just forced on you,’ he thought to himself.

* * * * * * * * * *
Continued in Part 2!