Dan pushed himself up out of his prostrate position, dusting off his pants as he took a prudent step backwards. Cautiously he lifted his eyes to his Master. He couldn't see the face hidden behind the heavy black robes, but he knew his Master was angry.

Dan shivered, ducking his head meekly. This turn of events did not bode well for Dan's continued existence. He didn't know how the Drons found out about the reunion of The Chosen One and her Champion, but they had. Those who failed his Master did not survive long. Dan knew he had no room for further mistakes. "The girl – " Dan began, only to be cut off.

"-Is more of a liability than an asset," snarled Lothar, the least patient of the trio.

Nodding, Dan kept his eyes firmly on the ground. The Drons were notorious for their mercurial tempers and violence. He had no desire to give Lothar a reason to punish him. He had failed and it was testament to the Drons' precarious situation that he had not already been executed. His mission had been a calculated risk. Lothar warned him about involving an outsider in the plans. But Dan was so certain of the plan's infallibility, that he accepted the gamble. It was a mistake. Clarice proved highly unpredictable. He did not anticipated either her vanity or her impatience. Creatures such as she were usually kept under a much tighter rein by their masters.

"The situation has changed, adjustments will be made," Dan told the Drons.

"Get rid of her," the Master, Sethak, commanded.

Dan nodded his compliance. The Master dismissed him with a wave of his sickly, gnarled hand. Dan knew failure was out of the question. The mission must be completed regardless of impediments. Perhaps Clarice could yet prove useful.

Buffy woke to the sound of the morning news on the clock radio. The sun had barely crested the horizon and the bedroom was flooded with a warm pink light. Turning her head, she studied Angel's sleeping profile on the pillow. His face was turned towards her and his body was still wrapped tightly around hers, as if he was afraid she might try to leave him during the night.

Buffy took the opportunity to study his features carefully. His skin was tanned and firm from years of outdoor activity, but the pronounced frown lines around his eyes and on his forehead spoke to his years of unhappiness and substance abuse. His mass of dark hair was flecked with bits of gray. She sighed. He was still sinfully handsome. Smiling wryly, she thought of his young college students throwing themselves at him. That was going to stop. Well, maybe not them throwing, but definitely him taking them up on their offers.

Almost as if he were aware of her thoughts, the eye that wasn't buried in the pillow slowly opened and focused on her. He didn't speak, smiling wolfishly. She pulled back, looking at him seriously. "How are you feeling this morning?" she asked.

"Like hell," he said frankly, "but I wouldn't change it for anything." He pulled her close, kissing along her bare shoulder to nuzzle against her neck.

"If you're not feeling well, maybe we shouldn't," she said, trying to gently extricate herself from his grip.

"We should," he said with finality, finding her lips and kissing her with a savage tenderness.

"It's already seven," she said, breaking the kiss, "you're going to make us both late for work."

"Don't care," came the muffled reply as his mouth made its way down her neck to her cleavage.

"Angel!" Buffy squeaked, smacking him on the shoulder. "I need to go to work. And you're not up for this."

"Trust me," he said, pushing his groin into her thigh, "I'm up for this." He ignored her protests and firmly clamped his lips around one of her pebbled nipples, nursing roughly. Buffy lost the will to fight as he continued his gentle assault. She didn't really want him to stop. With a whine of need, she relaxed underneath him and spread her thighs in wanton invitation. He was between her legs, his hard flesh pressing into her thigh as he continued his ministrations on her breasts. He stopped suddenly and looked at her with a frown.

"What?" she asked, thoroughly irritated that he had stopped. He was the one that started it after all.

"Last night we used all of the condoms I brought," he said grumpily.

Buffy's brow furrowed. "I think I might have some," she said, very unsure if she actually did or not. She could very well have thrown them out the last time she cleaned. It had been a long time since she was in a position to need any.

"Where?" he asked insistently, halfway out of bed to retrieve them wherever they may have been.

Buffy stifled a laugh. "In the bathroom cabinet under the sink," she said to his retreating form. He was already out the door. "Behind the tampons," she yelled. "Check the expiration date. I don't know if they're any good."

Angel came back into the bedroom carrying the small blue box. He blew on it and a puff of dust appeared. "I take it you entertain at home a lot," he said with a devious smile.

She scowled. "I'm very dedicated to my job," she grumped.

He continued to smile and tore open the box. He looked at the expiration date stamped on the package. Buffy assumed it was still good when he pounced on her, pinning her to the bed.

It was after ten by the time Buffy arrived at work. She spent a fruitless half hour trying to use makeup to hide the enormous hickeys on her neck. It was June and far too hot for a turtleneck, so she opted to wear her hair down and braced herself for the reaction from the peanut gallery. They were bound to have plenty to say. She was friends with her three employees and they were continually giving her a hard time about her nonexistent romantic life. No doubt they would notice she had suddenly acquired one.

"Oh My God!" Gina screeched when Buffy walked in the back room. Buffy cringed. She hadn't even been at work for a minute. Dan, who was digging through yet another of the Houseman crates, looked up. Buffy noted he did not seem to be pleased. Gina, however, was bouncing around the room. At twenty-seven, she acted more like twelve. Buffy had anticipated her response and was thankful that Kathy was in L.A. on a contract job and not around to join in the revelry. "Spill it now!" Gina exclaimed.

"Can I get a cup of coffee first?" Buffy asked in an exasperated tone.

"No. Spill!" Gina said with a smile. "It's the guy that was in here Saturday, right?"

Buffy rolled her eyes but returned the smile. "Not that it's any of your business, but yes."

"Oh, he was hot," Gina said appreciatively. "So are you two an item now or was this just sweaty monkey love over coffee?"

Buffy tried not to laugh. It had definitely been hot and amazingly acrobatic for two people of her and Angel's physical years, but she wasn't sure ‘monkey' was the right term. "We're moving his things in after work tonight," she said, unable to contain her grin.

Gina screamed and hugged her tightly. Buffy didn't see the dark look that crossed Dan's face.

Angel managed to make it to the university before his first class of the day, but he was far from prepared for it. The lecture was made much easier by the fact that Clarice didn't show up for class. Angel wasn't surprised. Clarice had probably never been dumped in her life. He doubted she would take it gracefully.

After class he attempted to work in his office, but found himself unable to sit still. He still wasn't feeling well, though he was better than the day before. And his mind couldn't stay fixed on anything besides Buffy. He knew he had to make a strange picture, one second grimacing from nausea and the next grinning like an idiot. The abrupt change in moods did not go unnoticed by his co-workers.

"How is everything going with you today, Professor Jacobson?" Grace pointedly asked him the hundredth time he walked by her desk.

Angel smiled at the older woman, he was truly fond of her and he knew she only meant well with her prying. "Good," he said seriously, "everything is going very well."

"Did you win the lottery?" she asked, not satisfied with his vague answer.

"In a way, yes," he said with a huge grin. "Grace, I have a new woman in my life."

Grace arched an eyebrow at him. "Oh really? And would I by any chance know her?"

"Maybe," he admitted, unable to keep his information to himself. "Her name is Buffy Summers, she owns the medieval weaponry gallery downtown."

Grace's face lit up. "Oh yes," she said happily. "I know who Ms. Summers is, she's a wonderful woman." Grace paused a minute, and then added in her direct manner, "And rather close to your age, isn't she?"

Angel narrowed his eyes good-naturedly at the secretary. "I'm older than her," he conceded, "but she is ... more mature than most of the women I have dated."

Smiling with an air of deep satisfaction, Grace said, "I guess that means we won't be seeing Miss Jenkins around anymore?"

Giving the secretary a stern look, Angel replied, "I have no idea what you're insinuating, Grace."

She gave him a wry smile. "I'm sure you don't," she said dryly.

Angel smiled. There wasn't getting much past Grace. She undoubtedly knew all about his unethical affair with his student and she wasn't pulling her punches. Grace much preferred Buffy. It was just a very happy coincidence that Angel couldn't agree with her more.

After several hours of digging through crates, Buffy decided to take a break and went to her office. The dagger was still on her desk where she left it Saturday afternoon. She picked it up, fingering the weapon lightly. The weird sensation was still there. Sighing loudly, she opened a drawer and threw the dagger in. She wasn't in the mood to give Angel any reason to talk to Clarice in the near future. Sitting down in the chair, she picked up the phone and dialed Nick's phone number.

After three rings it was answered. "Data Integrity Inc," he said in a distracted tone.

"It's me, " Buffy said. "Are you busy?"

Nick ran his own computer network security company. Business was good. He didn't have enough of a workload to necessitate hiring any employees, but he kept himself very busy. Buffy liked the fact that though his customers were located all over the world, he was based in Sunnydale. She hated the thought of him moving far away.

"Yeah, but it's nothing that won't hold. What's up?"

"Nothing ... really. I want you to stop by the gallery before closing tonight."

"Is anything wrong?" he asked.

"No, I just need to talk to you."

"All right," he replied slowly. "I'll be by in a few."

Angel jumped up to answer the door to his apartment as soon as he heard the knock. He stopped in his tracks when he saw that it was not only Buffy, but Nick and a dark haired young woman he didn't know. Opening the door, he stepped aside so the others could enter. Nick nodded to him in greeting, Angel returned the gesture. Surely Nick knew that Buffy was there to help him pack his things up and move them into her house.

Buffy looked at the few boxes sitting on the floor of the tiny living room. "Are these ready to go?" she asked Angel.

It took a minute for her question to register, and shaking his head he answered, "Yeah, they're all ready."

"Nick, why don't you and Liz go ahead and take those out to the truck," Buffy said, and then stopped abruptly. "Oh, Angel, you haven't met Liz, have you?" Angel shook his head and held out his hand to the young woman. "Elizabeth is Xander and Anya's oldest daughter," Buffy explained. "She's also Nick's girlfriend."

Angel blinked. Xander Harris managed to have a child that pretty? He thought about it for a minute and decided that Xander hadn't been unattractive. Xander was simply so damn annoying Angel found him repulsive. Of course, that was twenty some years ago. People changed, he was living proof of that. He exchanged pleasantries with Liz and then, pulling Buffy aside, he asked quietly, "Is everybody okay with this?"

"You mean Nick?" she asked with a smile, amused by his nervousness.

"Yes, Buffy, I mean Nick," he said, exasperated. "I was invited to dinner yesterday and now I'm moving in. Some children might not take that in stride," he said sarcastically.

Buffy sobered. "He was shocked, yes, but he wants me to be happy. He's fine with this, although I'm sure he'll be keeping an eye on you for a while."

Angel regarded her carefully and then nodded, leaving her side to grab a duffel bag and a box of books. He was nervous as hell. It was obvious that Buffy and her son were very close, if he messed up things with Nick it would, no doubt, have serious repercussions for their relationship. He had no desire to make an enemy of the young man.

Carrying the items outside, Angel passed Liz on the way, she smiled encouragingly at him. He returned the smile, but still felt like he was walking on eggshells. Looking ahead to the truck, Angel saw Nick was rearranging things in the back, making more room for boxes. Angel approached slowly, waiting for Nick to acknowledge him. "Guess you don't have a whole lot of stuff to move," Nick said evenly.

"Uh, no," Angel said, not sure how to proceed. He didn't want to beat around the bush. "Are you ... I mean ... is this ... thing between your mother and myself okay with you? I know we're moving really fast ... "

Nick looked at him for several long moments before answering. "My mom is great. She's kind and funny and smart and beautiful ... " he stopped, considering his words carefully. "She's had a fairly hard life. She's had a lot of crap thrown at her that she didn't need, but she's made it through everything. I can count, on one hand, the number of guys she's dated since I was born and most of them didn't last very long ... I'm concerned with how fast you guys are moving, but I've never seen her this happy before. If she's okay with this, then so am I."

Angel swallowed visibly. Nick was an amazing kid, that was for sure. "I won't hurt her," the former vampire assured him.

Nick smiled at him and answered, "Good, because if you do, I'll kill you."

Angel returned his smile. "Fair enough."

Buffy finished hanging Angel's last shirt in their closet and turned to face him. "You really didn't have much stuff, did you?"

Angel looked at her from his seat on the bed. He was poring through his lecture outlines for the week, but Buffy knew he was pretending to be more distracted than he was. She knew the physical labor of moving his things took a toll on him in his current state. She also assumed that several other things were bothering him. "No," he answered uncomfortably. "I moved around a lot."

Buffy smiled and nodded, giving him the pretense of buying his explanation. She knew the truth, she could read it in his face. Angel didn't have many possessions because he didn't have much of a life. All of his things fit in a relatively small number of boxes. He had the look of someone who had spent years living in motels, running from something. She comforted herself with the knowledge that regardless of his past, he had a home now.

Walking over to the bed, Buffy pulled the notebook out of Angel's grasp. He didn't meet her gaze. Instead, he leaned forward, burying his face in her chest. She brought her hands up to twine through his hair as he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to straddle his lap. His embrace was needy, but not flagrantly sexual. He reminded Buffy of a wounded animal in search of comfort. She kissed the top of his head gently. "I love you," she whispered in his ear.

Angel lay back on the bed, staring up at her silently as she sat astride him. Bringing his hand up, he brushed stray tendrils of hair out of her face, watching her intently. "You are so beautiful," he said reverently.

Buffy smiled and felt her cheeks burn with her blush. He had this way of looking at her that made her feel like she was sixteen again and the only girl in the world. He made her feel alive for the first time in as long as she could remember.

"You'll never be able to understand how much you mean to me, Buffy," he said in a near whisper.

"But I do know," she answered gently, "because that's how much you mean to me." With a smile, she bent forward over him, planting her palms in the pillow on either side of his head as she kissed him tenderly. He returned her gesture with equal care, pressing soft kisses into her lips until the gentler emotions gave way to a growing hunger.

His graceful hands reached up and quickly divested her of her blouse, her bra followed quickly. He carefully fingered the sensitive flesh of her nipples, arousing them until they pebbled under his touch. As their passions escalated, clothes were shed until she was straddling his naked and aroused form, her body nude as well.

As she kissed the taut skin of his neck, Buffy's hand made its way down his body until she could wrap it around his rigid flesh. Angel hissed at the contact and his hips surged upward involuntarily begging her for more. With a smile, she obliged him, stroking him in long even motions. His hand closed around hers, encouraging her to use more pressure as his eyes screwed shut in pleasure. "Buffy," he hissed, digging his fingers into the flesh of her hips.

"Yes, love?" she answered, nibbling along the shell of his ear, loving the fact that he was nearly mindless with need. With a groan, he flipped her over onto her back and his hand fumbled for the box of condoms on the nightstand. Not paying attention, he proceeded to knock the box to the floor and it came to rest under the bed.

"Dammit," he grumbled, extricating himself from Buffy's embrace long enough to fish the box out from under the bed. Unfortunately, he grabbed it by the unopened end and the individual packages spilled out onto the floor. He let out a very respectable growl for a human.

"Impatient?" Buffy asked, unable to keep from smiling.

"Yes," he bit out and then snatched one of the packages off the floor. Using one arm to pin her giggling form to the bed, he held the condom in the other hand glaring at her triumphantly. Grabbing one end of the package in his teeth, he tore it open. He had the condom on and was inside of her before she had time to blink. He moaned as her sheath rippled around him, adjusting to his invasion. As she felt her flesh stretch to accommodate his size, Buffy dug her short nails into his back, wondering idly if her body would ever be completely used to him. She doubted it. Regardless of how many times they coupled there would always be something extraordinary about it, like eating forbidden fruit.

He hadn't moved since plunging into her welcoming body and the tension was about to overwhelm both of them. Buffy clenched her internal muscles around him, goading him, testing his patience until he had to thrust. He pulled back and slammed into her forcefully, driving her into the mattress as he captured her earlobe between his teeth.

Buffy held his upper body tightly to hers as their lower bodies churned together. She couldn't hear anything over the sound of his heavy breathing in her ear. It was delicious, the fact that Angel had to breathe. Buffy wrapped her legs around his waist, urging him to stop holding back. He did, driving into her with enough force to move both of their bodies up the bed until their heads were almost touching the headboard.

Buffy was the first to go, digging her fingernails into his flesh as she threw her head back with the force of her release. Tiny breathy moans fell from her lips, sounding like the sweetest music Angel ever heard. He watched her, not slowing his pace as the tiny shudders rippled through her body. She was so magnificent in her climax he couldn't put his off any longer. With a strangled shout, he surged against her jerkily as his orgasm overtook him.

Long moments later, he was still braced over her body, his weight resting on his forearms. He kissed her gently and then withdrew from her body, sitting up on the bed. After removing the condom, he used a few tissues from the nightstand to clean himself. "I really need to go to the doctor," he said in an irritated tone of voice.

Buffy looked at his muscled back and frowned. "I thought you were feeling better."

He snorted. "Not for that," he said. "To get tested so we can quit using these damn things," he said, motioning towards the empty condom box. The little packages were still strewn on the floor and he reached down and picked them up, replacing them.

"Oh," she replied.

He swiveled his upper body, fixing her with a questioning gaze. "Unless you don't want to quit using them," he added hastily. Lord knew it would probably be a prudent decision on her part given his checkered past.

"No," she reassured him, "that's not it. I just ... I guess I hadn't given much thought to the STD angle. I was thinking more along the lines of birth control."

It was his turn to be taken aback, "Oh," he said, stunned. "You're not on birth control?"

She smiled wryly and shook her head. "No," she answered. "There hasn't been any need for it."

"Okay, well ... I'm still going to get tested, you know, just in case, but we don't have to quit using them," he said, flustered.

Buffy looked at him for a long moment. He seemed sincere and she knew that if she wanted, they could continue using condoms as a means of birth control. "It's not the same for you, is it?" she asked him pointedly.

"What? Sex with condoms?" he asked. When she nodded, he replied, "Buffy, don't worry about me. As long as I can be with you –"

She cut him off. "Answer the question. Yes or no, sex feels better for you without condoms?"

He looked at her with an irritated expression, "Buffy, I said –"

"Yes or no?"

He sighed dramatically. "Yes. Sex without condoms feels much better, but that doesn't matter –"

"It doesn't matter?" she asked, incredulous. "Why wouldn't it matter? Don't you think I want you to enjoy making love?"

He narrowed his gaze at her. "Trust me, I do enjoy it. Being with you is a thousand times better than being with any other woman."

Buffy couldn't help it, she smiled at his comment. "Still," she added, "it's important to me. You go to the doctor, I'll go to the doctor ... "

"Why don't we wait," he said with a wry smile. "Who knows. I've been very careful, but we probably shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. This whole issue may be a moot point."

"Fine," Buffy relented, "but when you get your test results back, we're going to talk about this again."

He smiled and crawled back onto the bed, curling his body around hers. "I love you," he said, placing a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose.

"You better," she said, narrowing her eyes, "because you're stuck with me."

 

The End

 

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