"The Marriage Deal "
Author: Michelle
Email: michellabella52478@yahoo.com
Notes: Based on a challenge.
With a tired yawn, Buffy walked down the stairs to the first floor. She had just woken up a few minutes earlier with a serious craving for a glass of chocolate milk. The sight she found in the living room surprised her – Angel sat on the couch, papers strewn across the coffee table and a cup of steaming hot coffee in the middle of all the mess.
"Angel, what are you doing down here?" she asked. "It's two in the morning."
He glanced down at his watch. "Oh, I guess you're right. Looks like I lost track of the time. I've been trying to focus on this new case I've got."
"Yeah, right. It's not even a good lie. Just admit it, you're down here waiting for Dawn to get home from her date."
Angel shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, so what if I am? Can't I at least stay up until she gets home to make sure she's all right?" he questioned.
Shaking her head, Buffy sighed heavily. "She has a two-thirty curfew on weekends, and not once has she broken it. Don't you think she's earned our trust?"
"I trust Dawn. It's her boyfriend I don't," stated Angel.
"I swear to god, Angel, if I didn't know any better I would think you were her father, or her older brother. Dawn is almost eighteen years old and she'll be going off to college in less than a year. And do I need to mention the fact that she and Brian have been dating for over six months? My father never acted like you are when I was her age."
"Buffy, I'm the closest thing Dawn has to a brother or a father. I happen to take my role as her brother-in-law very seriously. This may sound strange to you, but I like having someone to worry about."
She smiled. "Well, I agree with that, you *are* strange. But I love you anyway. And Dawn's lucky to have you looking out for her. Too bad it's only for another year. Less than that. Eleven months."
"Too bad. Although you make it sound like I'm going to completely sever all ties to her when we get divorced next November," Angel commented. "I've grown rather fond of her. And of her older sister."
"Faith?" Buffy teased. "I'm sure she'll be glad to hear it."
"Her, too." He flashed her a wicked half-smile.
Just then, the front door opened and Dawn entered the house. She stopped when she saw her sister and brother-in-law sitting on the couch. It was evident to the seventeen-year-old that they were waiting up for her. "Were you guys spying on me?" she demanded.
"No, not at all," Buffy answered honestly. "Angel was working on his new case and I was thirsty."
But Dawn was unconvinced by her sister's words. "Sure, at five after two in the morning. Just admit it, you waited up for me. Gee, I feel trusted."
"Dawn, I was the one waiting up for you, not Buffy," Angel explained. "She came down here a couple minutes ago for something to drink and laid into me for waiting up. So, if you're going to yell at anyone, yell at me."
"You know, if I wasn't so tired right now, I would. But I do want to say how much I don't like being treated like an eight-year-old constantly. You won't be able to babysit me when I go away to college. I hope you know that." Without bothering to wait for a reply, she headed upstairs, slamming her bedroom door shut.
Buffy turned to smirk at her husband. "That went well. Don't you think?"
"Funny."
"I can just see you with your own kids. You'll bolt the windows shut and lock all the doors when they're teenagers. Have fun."
"Hey, Faith," Dawn started the next day at lunch. The two of them were at one of Sunnydale's few restaurants enjoying a private meal. "Can I ask you a personal question?"
Faith swallowed the french fries she was chewing on before answering. "I've got nothing to hide. What do you want to know?"
"Exactly how soon is 'too soon' to start sleeping with someone?" she wanted to know.
"Don't you think this is a conversation you should be having with Buffy? She is your legal guardian and all that crap."
Dawn shook her head. "She'd never understand, not like you do. I don't know if you've noticed, but Buffy is really prissy and uptight. A lot like Mom was. I can't talk to her about sex. I don't even think she and Angel do it anymore."
"What makes you think that?"
"I don't know. Have you looked at Angel? The man gets better-looking with each passing day and Buffy barely touches him. If he were my husband, he'd be chained naked to the bed as my personal love slave."
The oldest Summers sister nearly choked on her sandwich. "Dawn! My god, you don't have a crush on Angel, do you?"
"No. A long time ago I did, but I'm over it. It's pretty clear to anyone who looks at him that he thinks the sun rises and sets on Buffy. But can we get back to my original question?"
"Sure." 'It's obvious to everyone except Buffy.' "How soon is 'too soon'? That depends on you and when you feel like you're ready. For me, it was sixteen; for someone else, it might be twenty-four or twenty-five. Why? Are you and Brian…?"
Looking down, Dawn blushed. "We already did. Last night. In the backseat of his car. Needless to say, it wasn't what I expected."
"Your first time never is. But it gets better, and *much* more enjoyable as time goes by. Trust me," Faith said.
"I hope so. I had to talk to someone about it and you were the first person I thought of. Buffy would probably have lectured me until I left for college and Angel would have killed Brian with his bare hands."
"Now there's a fight I'd like to see. Angel versus Brian. Who'd win?" They both looked at each other and giggled. "Angel," they replied in unison.
As they were leaving the restaurant an hour later, Dawn turned to Faith. "Can you do me a favor? Promise you won't tell Buffy about me and Brian. I don't want to be grounded for the rest of my natural life."
'Dawn lost it before Buffy did,' Faith thought. 'There's a big shocker. One of these days, B is going to lose her inhibitions and just give in to temptation. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when that happens.' "Your secret is safe with me."
Spike cradled the telephone in his left hand, holding it against his ear. "I need your help. If there's any one person who can do this, it's you."
"I don't know, Spike," the woman on the other end of the phone remarked. "Angel made his feelings quite clear to me when he dumped me. Remember what happened?"
He sighed, recalling her torment. "That was four years ago. He's a changed man…well, sort of. Angel may be married, but he's still the same old Angel deep down. He loves a good screw. You want him back and he never could say no to a beautiful woman."
"I've always wanted him. Ever since we were children at boarding school. But I don't understand. He's your best friend, why do you want to break up his marriage?" she asked.
"This is a no-lose situation. You get Angel and I get his wife."
"What's so special about Angel's wife?"
Spike grinned, picturing Buffy in his mind. "I want her, simple as that. I want to steal from Angel the way he always stole from me. The woman he loves will choose me over him, that's all I want; to have the one thing he doesn't have with her. Now, are you in or are you out?"
After a brief pause, she made up her mind. "I'm in. I can be in Sunnydale the week after next."
Inside his hotel room, Spike paced back and forth anxiously. Things hadn't been going his way recently, including a huge fight with Faith. Not that he really minded fighting with her; their relationship wasn't all that important to him anyway. He wanted sex and she was more than willing to give it to him, but he was not about to commit himself to Faith when the person he really wanted was her sister. Once he got Buffy, Faith would be history.
He rushed to the door when he heard the knock he'd been waiting for. "It's about bloody time you got here!" Spike complained when he opened the door for his visitor. "You were supposed to be in Sunnydale two weeks ago. What the hell took you so long?"
"I needed to tie up some loose ends in London before I left. I can't exactly jump on a plane for the States at the drop of a hat the way you can," she stated.
"Sorry, Dru," he apologized. "I've been waiting for you to get here. I had to wait for you before I could put my plan in motion."
Drusilla Randolph sat down on the reclining chair on the other side of Spike's room. "Tell me, Spike, what is your plan? And why am I so important to it?"
"*Our* plan," he clarified with a smirk playing upon his lips, "is to obtain what we both have wanted for a long time. You get Angel, the man you've been crazy about since you were seven years old. Pardon the pun, of course. And I want his wife. Well, to say I want to bed his wife is more appropriate."
"What makes you so certain it will work? Angel made his feelings for me quite clear, and I did not spend a year in the hospital getting healthy again to have him trample all over my heart once again," she told him.
"The last place I want to see you go is back in the sanitarium. This plan isn't about love, Ducks. It's about sex, control and domination. Don't you want to get back at Angel for the way he so carelessly treated you? It'll be the ultimate revenge. And when you have hurt him as much as he hurt you, he'll go running to his precious Buffy, only to find her in my arms. Or more to the point, in my bed." He'd plotted it all perfectly.
But Drusilla wasn't completely convinced it would work. Granted, she wanted to give Angel McKenzie a taste of his own medicine, but she found flaws in Spike's plan. "I don't know, Spike. What makes you think Angel will want anything to do with me? He didn't care about me before, why should he care about me six years after the fact?"
"I know he felt bad about what happened to you; he hated seeing you in that dreary institution. Not to mention, Dru, but you're a very beautiful woman, and Angel has got to be horny as hell. As a matter of fact, I *know* he is. The man hasn't had sex in nearly three years, he told me so. He won't be able to resist you."
"Okay, you lost me. Angel is married, but he hasn't had sex in three years. That makes no sense whatsoever."
"It's a marriage of convenience," Spike told her. "Angel's uncle died in November of 2001, leaving him everything, under the stipulation that the eternal philanderer get married for no less than three years. So, Buffy needed a lawyer for Faith and Angel agreed to take her case if Buffy agreed to marry him for the three years. It was supposed to be in name-only, but it seems Angel isn't pretending to love her anymore. He really does love her, even if he won't admit it to himself."
Drusilla nodded her head in understanding. "I see. He loves her but she doesn't love him back."
"No. According to her sister, Buffy's secretly in love with him as well."
"I'm confused now. They love one another but the other doesn't know it. Why won't they just admit it and carry on with their happy marriage?" she wanted to know.
"Because they are as stubborn as two mules. Frankly, I don't know nor do I care. All I care about is getting Buffy for myself."
"But why? That is what I find so perplexing about this whole plan of yours. Angel is your best friend, why do you want to steal from him the woman he loves?"
Spike stared at her with his mouth agape. "You attended school with us and you still have to ask why? From the time we were sixteen, every girl I wanted, Angel took for himself. They all looked at him as if he were some sort of god, while I was nothing in comparison. He'd charm them, bed them and discard them like yesterday's trash. Every single girl I fell for, he always managed to get there first. I'm sick of getting stuck with his sloppy seconds. So now I'm going to take what he wants. I'll bed his wife before he does."
"This is a vengeance gig for you," Drusilla deduced.
"You got it, Ducks. Now tell me, are you in or are you out?"
She didn't need to think about it. "I'm in. It's about time Angel pays for what he did to me."
Buffy walked down the hall to her sister's bedroom, carrying a basket full of laundry for Dawn to put away. As she was about to knock on the door, the sound of her sister's voice from inside the room stopped her.
"Last night was totally amazing, Katie," Dawn said into the telephone. "Brian picked me up at seven and we told Buffy we were going to a movie and then to the Bronze…Yeah, she believed me. It surprised me because I'm sure she told Mom and Dad the same thing when she was my age…Hey, whatever works. Anyway, we ended up at his house and he had a romantic dinner waiting for us. We ate, we danced and then we went up to his bedroom and did it…No his parents weren't home! Do you think we're stupid enough to have sex if his parents were in the house? No way!"
Hearing every word, Buffy almost dropped the laundry basket on the floor. As if in a trance, she went to her room. Her knees buckled under her and she fell to the floor next to the bed, her face burning from the hot tears welling in her eyes. 'It's not fair,' she thought, dropping her forehead to her knees. 'My little sister is having sex and I'm not. What's wrong with me?'
From across the hall in his bedroom, Angel heard low cries coming from his wife's room. Wondering what was the matter, he quickly made his way over, finding her on the ground with sobs wracking her body. "Buffy? What's wrong? Did something happen?"
She lifted her head, barely making out his face through her tears. "Angel," she said before another plethora of tears took over.
"Tell me what happened. Are you okay?" He feared she might be sick or hurt but didn't want to tell him. "I'm worried about you. Why are you crying?"
"What's wrong with me?" she asked him.
Angel didn't understand her question. "What's wrong with you? What do you mean?"
"Am I so hideous that looking at me disgusts people? Why don't men want to be with me? Am I unlovable?" Buffy wanted to know.
He sat down on the floor next to her. "You're not hideous, Buffy. You are beautiful. And believe me, you are very lovable. A man would have to be blind and stupid not to want you. Not tell me what brought all this on."
Buffy sucked in a deep breath. "I-I overheard Dawn telling Katie on the phone that she and Brian…that they had sex. And I want to know why nobody wants to with me." 'I can't let Angel know I've never had sex. I'll be completely humiliated.'
'She feels jealous,' he said to himself, remembering the slumber party she'd had a few years back, where he found out Buffy had been a virgin when they married. From her reaction, he gathered she still was. 'It might hurt her even more if she finds out I know.' "Because every man who lays eyes on you knows you're my wife. They're too afraid I'll beat the crap out of them if they touch you."
"What about before you? They didn't want me then, either."
"Then that's their loss, not yours. Wanna know something? Over the last few years, I have really begun thinking of you as my wife, even if we've never actually consummated our marriage. And the thought of some guy touching you drives me crazy sometimes. But when I really think about it, I can't blame him for wanting to be with you. You're everything any sane man would want."
Buffy smiled sadly, sniffling. "You're only saying that to make me feel better."
He shook his head. "No, I'm not. You're a wonderful person, Buffy. And someday, you're going to make some man very happy. Then I'll be able to say he's as lucky as I've been for the past two years."
"Do you think there's somebody out there for everyone?" she questioned, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Yeah, now I do. If you'd asked me that same question a few years ago, I would have given you a different answer. Maybe I'm less jaded these days. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, Buffy. Does that make you feel a little better?"
"A little. Thank you."
"No, thank *you* for making me less jaded. And don't worry about Dawn. Or yourself. I'll be watching out for both of you for a very long time."
"You mean that?"
Angel nodded his head sincerely. "Yes, I do. You're not getting rid of me that easily. You can think of me as your big brother, if you like. Any man who wants to be with you will have to go through me first." Only he hoped she didn't think of him as a big brother. Because he didn't think of her as a sister. He never could.
When Dawn came downstairs for breakfast the next morning, she found her older sister sitting at the table waiting for her. "You're up early for a Sunday," she commented. "What, are you going shopping with Willow and Cordelia?"
"No. I got up early so I could talk to you about something important." Buffy motioned to the chair across the table from her. "Sit down, Dawn."
With raised eyebrows, the seventeen year old took a seat. "Okay, what's with the dire? You've got the same look on your face Mom and Dad used to have whenever they were about to lecture one of us." She paused, realizing what was going on. "I get it, I'm about to get lectured. What did I do?"
"I thought we agreed in the beginning that we wouldn't keep secrets from each other. That we'd be open and honest," Buffy said.
"We did. What's all this about? I'm not keeping any secrets from you, Buffy. If you want to know something, just ask."
She took a sip of her orange juice. "Fine. Why didn't you tell me you've been having sex with Brian?"
Dawn didn't say anything for a long time. So many emotions were coursing through her body: hurt, fear, betrayal and finally anger. "How did you find out?" she demanded.
"That's not important, what is–"
"I think it is important! Did Faith tell you? She swore on her life she wouldn't."
'Faith knows about it?' "She didn't tell me. I overheard you talking on the phone last night. Your door was opened a crack and I was walking down the hallway," Buffy explained.
"So you were eavesdropping on my private conversation. Does that make it all right?"
She sighed. Talking to her younger sister was going to be harder than she originally anticipated. "Look, all I want to do is talk to you, not give you the same lecture Mom and Dad gave me and Faith."
"No. You wanna tell me I made a huge mistake and that I should have waited until I got married like you did. Sorry if I'm not perfect like you are, Buffy. I guess I just don't have your willpower. But I love Brian and he loves me, but I suppose that doesn't matter to you. I told Faith you wouldn't understand and I was right. I wasn't keeping a secret from you, you just would never understand what I'm going through. And don't try to tell me you haven't been keeping secrets from me, I know you are." She got up from the table and stalked out of the room.
Five minutes later when Angel entered the kitchen, Buffy sat in the same spot, staring at the chair Dawn had vacated. "I'm assuming your talk with Dawn didn't go too well," he assumed.
"That's the understatement of the century. She thought I heard it from Faith, which means Faith knows about it. Which is to say Dawn feels more comfortable talking to Faith than me. Do you know how much that hurts me?" Buffy asked.
"I'm guessing it hurts you a lot," he surmised. "How about I talk to Dawn? Give her a guy's perspective on sex rather than a lecture from her older sister. She might respond better to that."
Buffy shook her head. "You don't have to. Dawn is my responsibility, not yours."
"Can I at least try?"
"Go ahead, give it a whirl. But if she didn't listen to me, I doubt she'll listen to you, Angel."
Angel tentatively knocked on his sister-in-law's bedroom door. "Dawn, it's Angel! Can I come in for a minute?" he asked over the loud rock music coming from inside.
The music muted and the door opened slowly. "Depends," she started. "Am I going to get a lecture?"
"No. I didn't come up here to say how wrong it was or whatever you might be expecting me to say. I just want to talk to you."
She opened the door all the way, allowing him to step inside. "Buffy didn't send you, did she?"
He shook his head in response. "No. She actually thought it would be a bad idea, but I chose to ignore her. I thought you might want somebody to talk to, or would like to hear a man's point of view about sex."
"What do you know about it?"
"About sex? A lot. Look, I just want to be here for you. If you have any questions, I could answer them for you. Or I could offer my experience."
"Experience?" Dawn asked incredulously.
Angel couldn't help but smile. "Yes, experience. I was once a seventeen-year-old boy, you know. I know what goes through their minds when they're around a pretty girl. Self-control stops being an issue after a while."
"I love Brian. He loves me. What's the big deal?"
"Buffy and I don't want to see you get hurt. Come on, Dawn, you're like my little sister; I have to look out for you," Angel told her. "Why don't you want to talk to Buffy about it? It hurt her knowing that you didn't come to her first."
She shrugged her shoulders. "I didn't think she'd understand the way Faith would. She's got all kinds of experience with that kind of stuff and Buffy doesn't. I can't talk to her about love and lust and sex because she never went through what I'm going through. Buffy has always known what she wanted and then went after it. She believes in waiting for Mr. Right, and that's exactly what she did; she waited for you. Buffy may have saved herself for her true love but I can't."
"You don't think Brian is your true love?"
"I don't know. I love him and I've wanted to be with him since I was fourteen, but I don't think I can see myself growing old with him. That's who I imagined my true love to be – a man I could grow old with." She slumped down on her bed. "Now I feel like I made a huge mistake."
Angel sat next to her. 'Good Lord, when did I become Dr. Ruth? I'm giving love and sex advice to a teenager. What's happened to me?' "You may not like what I'm about to say, but just listen to me. You can't change what you've done; you slept with Brian and now you're thinking it might be a mistake because you're afraid he might not be your true love. I say, so what? Do you have any idea how many women I slept with before I met your sister? Far more than I can count."
Dawn looked down, a small smile on her lips. "Yeah, I gathered that. You didn't strike me as the type of guy who waited until marriage."
"You want to know something? Most guys are the exact same way. Buffy isn't expecting you to wait for Mr. Right, or for marriage like she did. But she knows that you're not her. And she doesn't want you to make the same choices she did. You're allowed to live your own life. Maybe she wishes she were a part of it. But neither of us want to see you get hurt by some guy who's only out for a good time. There are plenty of guys out there like that and it could lead to a lifetime of consequences for you to deal with."
"I guess I understand that. Do you regret the way you were before you and Buffy got married?" Dawn wanted to know.
"No. I think I had to be a total louse to see how wonderful Buffy is. It took me close to thirty-one years to fall in love, it's not going to happen to you overnight."
"Are you going to kill Brian now?" she asked, worried.
Angel snorted. "When Buffy told me last night, I gave it serious consideration. But I think I'll wait and see how things turn out first. He's safe. For now."
"Mr. McKenzie, there's a young woman out here to see you. And she doesn't have an appointment," Jenny announced over Angel's intercom Monday morning. It never ceased to annoy her when somebody showed up expecting to see her boss without an appointment.
He knit his eyebrows together, curious as to who it might be. "It isn't Faith or Dawn, is it?" he asked his secretary.
"Unfortunately not. I've never seen this one before."
"Let her in."
The door opened a moment later, and Angel was face-to-face with a blast from his past. "Drusilla," he gasped, totally surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?"
Drusilla removed her long coat, placing it on the leather couch in the office. Her long, dark hair swept across her almost-bare shoulders in waves, a tight red sundress accentuated her curves. 'Still as devilishly handsome as ever,' she thought. "Hello, my Angel. Aren't you pleased to see an old friend?"
"Of course." Angel blinked in astonishment. Drusilla Randolph was the last person he'd expected to find in his office. "I thought you were in London."
"I was. I'm working as a clothing designer and I'm in Sunnydale searching for inspiration. Having spent so much time away, I'd forgotten how beautiful it is here. In fact, I ran into Spike Saturday evening."
"Oh."
"I wanted to come see you. Don't worry, I'm not going into Fatal Attraction mode this time around; a year in the hospital cured me of that. I hear you are married," she stated.
Angel nodded his head. "Yes. Happily married for a little over two years. Her name is Buffy."
She walked around to his desk, picking up a picture of Angel and a pretty blonde she didn't recognize. 'This must be the infamous Buffy,' Drusilla said to herself. 'I can see why Spike is so smitten with her.' "Is this her?" she questioned, pointing to her.
"That's my Buffy."
The look of adoration on Angel's face didn't escape her attention. She could see how in love with Buffy he was. "She is very pretty."
"That she is." He took a deep breath, searching for the right words. "Dru, I owe you an apology for what happened before. I didn't mean to hurt you the way I did. It was heartless and cruel."
"You don't owe me anything. All I want to do is put the past in the past and bury it. We can start with a clean slate, as friends. Maybe we can even have dinner together sometime before I leave."
"I can do that. Friends."
'This is going to be easier than I thought. One night with me and Angel will be asking "Buffy who?"'
Two months later in late March, Buffy, Willow, Cordelia and Faith sat around Buffy's kitchen table plying catch-up. They'd been there for an hour and Faith had not said much of anything since she had arrived. Her silence was beginning to unnerve Buffy, who feared something was wrong with her adopted sister.
"Faith? Are you okay?" she asked. "You've been really quiet ever since you got here."
With a frown, Faith shook her head. "Not really, but I'll be fine. I don't mean to bring you guys down."
"What happened?" Willow wanted to know. She and Faith hadn't been the best of friends when they were growing up, but she didn't like seeing anyone upset.
"Spike and I broke up yesterday. Well actually, I broke up with him."
"How come?"
Faith sighed heavily. "I got sick of it. All he ever wanted to do was have sex, have sex and have more sex. I'm twenty-five years old, I think I'm past that stage in my life. So I gave him an ultimatum: either give me a commitment or I'm gone. He didn't answer, so I kicked him out of the house and told him never to come back."
"Oh, Faith, I'm so sorry," her younger sister apologized.
"Don't be, it's not your fault Spike is scum. I've had more than my fair share of crummy relationships, beginning long before Parker. I want a real relationship, like the one you have with Angel, Buffy. I want a man who loves me, a happy marriage and lots of kids. Okay, maybe one or two, not a truckload."
Cordelia was impressed. "Gotta hand it to you, Faith. Finally giving the bleached-blonde prick the old heave-ho. It's about damn time."
"I agree," Willow told her. "He always scared me a little bit. Sorry, Buffy. I know he's your husband's best friend."
"Don't be. He scares me, too, sometimes."
"You know," Faith began, "I'm sick of getting screwed around by guys. You three are lucky, you've got great guys who love you. Now I want that."
"You will. You just have to meet the right guy."
The front door slammed shut, and the four young women looked up when Dawn came running into the kitchen, clutching a large square envelope. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" she shouted. "I can't believe it!"
"Can't believe what?" Buffy questioned the teenager.
"I got in!" She handed Buffy the envelope.
She read over the contents. "Oh my…congratulations, Dawnie! You got accepted to NYU, that's great news! You've wanted to go there since you were a little girl."
"I'm so happy. I finally get out of Sunnydale. Do you have any idea how excited I am about this?"
Buffy smiled, genuinely happy for her sister. "I think I have an inkling."
"Congrats, Dawn," Willow told her. "That's no easy feat."
"Way to go," added Cordelia.
"Just remember us little people when you're a big star on Broadway," teased Faith.
Dawn turned to Buffy. "Can I call Angel at the office and tell him the good news?" she asked.
"I think he's busy with meetings all day and he's having dinner with a friend later. How about we just surprise him with a chocolate cake later on when he gets back?" she suggested.
"Works for me. I'm going to call Katie and tell her the good news. She's going to be so jealous when she finds out." Dawn left the room to call her best friend.
Drusilla kept her smile hidden from view as she unlocked her hotel room door. She didn't want Angel to get suspicious; after all, they were only friends. 'But after tonight we won't be,' she thought. "Dinner was magnificent, Angel," she complimented. "You always did have exquisite taste in restaurants."
"Thank you. Although it was eclipsed by the company I kept."
Drusilla flashed him a sly smile. "You always were charming. It's good to know that some things will never change."
"No, they do. You just have to look underneath the surface."
'Which is precisely what I am planning to do tonight. Find out what's new and improved under *your* surface.' "Would you like something to drink? My boss sent over a bottle of scotch to celebrate my new designs. She loved them."
Angel thought it over for a moment or two. "I'd love to. But only for one drink."
They entered the room and Drusilla poured them each a glass of scotch while Angel sat down on the edge of the bed. She handed it to him and sat down to his left, leaving less than an inch of room between them. "How about a toast? To new old friends."
Angel lifted his glass, clinking it against hers. "To new old friends."
Each of them took a sip, Drusilla placed her glass on the bedside table and turned to her guest. 'It's now or never, Dru,' she told herself. 'Time to do it.' "Are you happy, Angel?" she asked him. "With your life the way it is now?"
"I guess so."
She raised her eyebrows. "You guess?"
"Yeah."
"Something's missing, I assume. A happily married man wouldn't look as sad as you do if everything was perfect in his life." She touched his face gently. "You are missing something. I can tell."
Angel never even had a chance to reply; Drusilla turned his face in her direction and pressed her lips to his. The move shocked him, but he didn't pull away. It had been so long since he'd been kissed by a woman and he just couldn't stop himself from responding to her. Even though it wasn't the woman he wanted to kiss.
Drusilla, however, couldn't have been more pleased. Things were working out the way she and Spike had planned. It had taken her two months, but she finally had Angel where she wanted him. She felt his hands unzipping her dress and knew she had won. After six years, she would finally have her revenge against him – bed him and dump him the way he had her. And when he tried to turn to his young wife, Angel would find her in the arms of his best friend. It was perfect. So she began unbuttoning his white dress shirt.
Angel couldn't seem to stop himself from undressing her. It had been far too long since he'd had sex and he wanted nothing more than to ease the unbearable ache between his legs. For the duration of his marriage to Buffy, he remained faithful to her. He could never betray her like that, but he just couldn't stop the need. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Drusilla again, or Buffy for that matter, but the temptation proved too great. He needed physical contact.
"Angel…" a soft voice called.
He ignored it, thinking it was in his imagination, because it wasn't Drusilla's voice. It couldn't possibly be, she was too busy kissing him. Then he heard it again. "Angel…"
Opening his eyes, he saw Buffy standing behind Drusilla. She was dressed in a flowing white dress with baby's breath in her long blonde hair, a sad look upon her face. "Please don't do this, Angel. If you sleep with Drusilla, I'll never be able to forgive you for it. I love you. And if you love me back, you won't betray me like this."
He blinked his eyes but when he focused them on where she had been standing, Buffy was gone. Angel regained his composure and jumped up from the bed, leaving a stunned Drusilla looking up at him. "Angel? What's wrong?"
Quickly, he buttoned his shirt and stared at the beautiful brunette clad only in a black lace bra and matching underwear. Her dress had been discarded on the floor near her feet. "I-I can't do this, Dru. I'm sorry."
"I don't get it. You still want me, I can feel it." She lowered her gaze to his groin. "I can even see it. Just take what you want."
He vehemently shook his head. "No. I love…I love my wife." 'Oh my god, I said it. I told someone that I love Buffy. Out loud.' The admission took him by surprise. And he ran out of the room.
Drusilla stared angrily at the door after he exited. "I'll get you back, Angel McKenzie. Spike will have his revenge and through him, I'll get mine. And I hope you'll be as miserable as I am."
Twenty minutes after he had left Drusilla's hotel room, he returned to his house, coming in through the back door from the garage. Buffy heard him enter and then noticed how upset he looked. Something had happened to him, leaving her concerned as to his emotional state of mind. He had been out with Drusilla and she assumed something went down between them. "Angel?" she called as he walked past her through the kitchen. "Is something wrong?"
He stopped when he heard her voice and turned to look at her. The sight of her made his heart pound. All he could think about when he saw her was the apparition in Drusilla's hotel room, begging him not to make love to the other woman. And his admission of love. "H-Hi," he stuttered.
"You look frazzled. Did something happen?"
"No! I'm fine." He saw the bowl sitting on the counter. "What are you making?" Angel asked, changing the subject.
She smiled. "Chocolate cake. We were going to have it tonight when you got home from dinner with your friend Drusilla, but you're home awfully early. Dawn got her acceptance letter from NYU today."
"That's terrific news." He reached over to stick his finger in the batter for a taste. Buffy slapped his hand after he'd scooped a good amount on his pointer finger. "Hey!"
"Don't do that!" she chastised. "There are raw eggs in there."
He tasted the batter. "Very good." He stuck his finger in the chocolate mixture again and spread it over her lips. "Here, try some."
"Yuck. No thanks. I don't eat raw cake batter."
She began to wipe it off but Angel stopped her. Rather than rub the batter off, he pressed his lips against hers in a sweet kiss, kissing a licking it off of her. Buffy didn't try to stop him, although she wondered what brought it on, although asking him the reason was the last thing on her mind as his tongue probed the inside of her mouth. She held him tightly, fearing she'd lose her balance as the kiss deepened. The kiss had to end sometime and she feared it would end too soon. His kisses were addictive.
Angel wanted to carry her up to his room and show her his true feelings. But he knew doing that might cost him everything he wanted. There was no way he'd be able to stand her rejection, so he needed to woo her; show her the man he could be rather than the man he used to be. He knew it would take time to prove to her that she changed him for the better.
When they ended their kiss, Buffy needed time to catch her breath. "Wow. What was that for?"
"I don't know. I just felt like doing it. I hope I didn't upset you by kissing you like that," Angel told her. "But I don't regret doing it."
Buffy shook her head. "I don't regret it either. And it's okay, I didn't mind at all. It actually…it was nice. All your kisses have been nice."
"They have?"
"Yeah."
Angel bit his lip, fearing he'd kiss her again and not be able to stop. "I'm, uh, going to congratulate Dawn on her acceptance," he said. "And take a shower." 'A long, cold one.'
As he walked through the living room, Angel sighed. Admitting to himself that he loved Buffy was one thing, admitting it to her was something completely different. And he needed more time to win her love in return.
"Where are you going?" Buffy wanted to know when she saw Angel putting on his coat. "I thought we were going out for our anniversary dinner."
"We are. But I have to go to the office for a few hours and go over a few things. I'll be home in plenty of time for dinner. Trust me, I have no intention of missing it."
"Okay. You had better be home in time. I bought a new dress and I'm dying to wear it out. Not to mention, we have some serious talking to do. Today's the deadline," she reminded him.
Angel nodded his head in agreement. "I know very well what today is; our three-year wedding anniversary. And I totally agree, you and I need to talk about it tonight."
Tonight was the night for Angel; after spending close to eight months keeping his love for Buffy a secret, he would tell her over dinner. He became a changed man the night he'd almost slept with Drusilla, instead of trying to fight his feelings for his wife, Angel accepted them. He did his best to show her in subtle ways, such as romantic dinners, long walks and the occasional kiss. But if Buffy suspected his motives, she kept it to herself.
"Big decisions to make tonight," Buffy commented.
"Exactly." 'More than you know, Buffy. More than you could possibly know.' "I promise I won't be long. Have fun without me all by your lonesome in this big house."
Buffy laughed. "Gee, I think I can manage without you somehow. Dawn's been away at school for three months now. I'm getting used to the quiet."
Once he left for the office, she went up to her room to watch television. She was excited about dinner; she couldn't wait to have her talk with Angel. Whatever the evening held for them, Buffy counted on it being a night neither of them would ever forget.
At three in the afternoon, while she was watching General Hospital, Buffy heard the front door close. 'Wow, Angel's home early. I thought he'd be out until at least five,' she thought. "Angel?" she called. "You're back early."
A figure stood in the doorway. "Sorry, pet. It's not Angel."
Sitting at his desk, Angel was unable to concentrate on his work. All he could think about was Buffy and the romantic dinner he had planned for them. Seven o'clock seemed like years away rather than four hours from that moment. The reservations he made at La Rouge had been secured back in July. The events of their dinner would change his life forever – either for the better or for the worse.
Opening his top desk drawer, Angel pulled out a black velvet box and slowly removed the top. Inside sat a one-and-a-half carat diamond ring in an oval shape set in gold. He sighed at it, imagining his wife's face when he gave it to her.
// "Buffy, I have to tell you something."
She gazed curiously at him. She assumed he wanted to talk about the dissolution of their three year marriage. "Okay. I'm listening."
Angel took a deep breath. "These past three years…they have been the happiest of my life. After Darla cheated on me and broke my heart, I thought I'd never find a woman I could love the way I loved her. But I was wrong, dead wrong. Because you walked through my office door and I was gone. Buffy, I loved you the moment I saw you. I'm *in* love with you. And I can't imagine living the rest of my life without you in it."
He pulled the box containing the diamond engagement ring out of his coat pocket. "I'm sick of living this sham of a marriage. I want you to be my wife, Buffy. Will you marry me for real this time?"
Seeing the ring glinting in the candlelight, Buffy couldn't seem to catch her breath. "Y-You want to marry me?"
He nodded. "Yes. A real wedding; in a church in front of our friends and family. No one will have to be any the wiser. We can tell them we want to renew our vows in a church wedding. Well?"
"Yes," she replied, thrusting her left hand toward him so he could place the ring on her finger. "Yes, I want to marry you." \\
The fantasy brought a smile to his face. He stacked his papers into a neat pile and locked them inside his desk before leaving to go home. All he wanted to do was see Buffy.
Buffy looked up, seeing Spike standing just inside her bedroom. He wore a vicious smile on his face that frightened her. It was then that she wished Angel was home. "Hi, Spike. Angel's at the office, he should be home at five. I'll let him know you stopped by to see him, though," she said, hoping he'd leave when he found out his friend wasn't home.
"That's okay. I'm not here to see Angel," he told her. "I came for you."
She raised her eyebrows. "Me? What for?"
He approached her slowly, like a stalking predator to its prey. "Don't play coy with me, Buffy. You know why I am here."
"No, I don't."
"Please. You know what I want. You and me, we've been dancing around each other for years now. And I'm here to get what you've been teasing me with since the day we met."
"I don't get it, Spike. Cut to the point. What are you really here?" she demanded. His demeanor was really beginning to scare her.
Spike moved even closer to her, causing Buffy to back away from him. When her back was pressed against the wall, she knew she was trapped. "You need me to spell it out for you? I want *you,* Buffy. And I'm here to collect."
"Get away from me."
"No."
"I'll call Angel."
"You won't make to the phone and he wouldn't be able to get here in time anyway," Spike drawled, chilling her heart.
Placing an arm on either side of her body, Spike caged her in, pushing his lips to hers. Buffy shook her head from side to side, trying to keep his lips off of her but it didn't work. He lifted his right hand and slapped it across her cheek, making her head snap to the right. Then he held her head in place before forcing his tongue inside her mouth. It probed and poked and prodded, not at all like Angel's kisses. Buffy knew that if she didn't do something soon, Spike would rape her.
Using all her strength, Buffy raised her knee, connecting it with her would-be attacker's groin. He roared in pain, letting go of her and falling to the ground. Buffy used the opportunity to try to run into the bathroom. There she could lock herself in until Angel got home. As she made her way around Spike's fallen body, he grabbed her legs, causing her to fall to the ground face-first.
He turned her over and straddled his best friend's wife. "You fucking bitch!" Spike swore. 'How dare she fight me!' With all of his anger, he fisted his hand and connected it with her eye. He smiled when Buffy cried out from the shear force of his punch.
"You'll pay for that," he warned.
Spike gripped her neck with his left hand and began unbuttoning her pants with his right one. She tried to kick him, but her legs were trapped under his. It was a futile attempt at escape which she knew wouldn't work; neither would her cries for him to stop. There was no way the neighbors would hear her, and Angel wouldn't return for hours. Buffy couldn't get away, and she began to prepare for the worst.
"Stop it!" she screamed as loud as she could, hoping against all hope that he might listen to her pleas.
Angel walked through the front door in time to hear his wife cry out. Not wasting a second, he bolted up the stairs to her bedroom. The sight before him shocked him beyond belief: his best friend forcing himself on his wife, his hand pushing down her black pants while she struggled beneath him. Buffy's face had turned a bright shade of red from the lack of oxygen. With both fear and anger gripping his heart, Angel ran to the two.
"Get off of her!" Angel shouted, grabbing Spike by the neck and wrenching him off his wife. Spike toppled backward from the force. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Just taking what I rightfully deserve," Spike growled.
Angel took his arm and dragged him out of the room, down the stairs and toward the front door. "You don't deserve anything from her."
"You don't think so, huh? Your bloody wife has been flaunting her goodies in front of me for years and I finally came to collect. She was just playing hard to get. What the hell are you getting so bent out of shape about? You sure as hell aren't fucking her, so why shouldn't I?"
"You have a warped sense of reality, Spike. You tried to rape my wife! There's no way you can justify that."
Spike whipped around, his anger finally boiling over after nearly twenty years. It was time to lay all the cards on the table. "How about you owe me!? I spent years screwing women you've already had. I'm sick of it. For once, I want to get there first. I'm bloody tired of being second behind you. Every woman I've cared about has already been with you. You know what? It's time for a little payback. I'll take the woman *you* want. It would have been perfect if you'd just had sex with Dru again like she and I planned. But noooo…you had to go all noble on us. Ruined my plans for getting Buffy in bed the old-fashioned way."
"And you feel that gives you the right to rape my wife?" Angel yelled.
"It'll be a first time she'll never forget," gloated Spike. "Too bad you interrupted it."
"Get out. And don't you ever even think about coming back. You're not welcome here anymore. Come near my family again and I'll kill you," he threatened before pushing Spike out of the door and slamming it shut behind him.
When he returned to Buffy's bedroom, he found her sitting on the floor, clutching her legs to her chest. "He's gone now, Buffy. And he won't hurt you again. Are you okay?"
"He tried to…" She couldn't finish the sentence. Thinking about it made her want to cry even harder.
"Yeah, I know he did." Angel lifted her head so he could look her in the eyes. He saw the black eye she now sported courtesy of Spike's punch. "Oh god, Buff. He really did hurt you. I'm so sorry he did this to you. Nobody deserves that, especially not you."
"I don't understand. I didn't do anything to make him attack me. I swear I didn't."
He nodded in understanding. "I know you didn't. How do you feel?" He didn't know how to deal with her. And Angel hated not knowing what to do.
Her lower lip trembled and tears streamed down her cheeks. "He tried to rape me, Angel. He really hurt me."
Angel took her in his arms, letting her cry on his shoulder. "I know he did. Just let it out, Buffy. Cry if you need to. I'll be right here."