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Brother Dearest (Part 5)
By jgirl519 and JulietMon2

Disclaimer: All the characters belong to the WB, mutant enemy, whatever. Except the ones I made up. Don't sue unless you want to get a bottle of hairgel and a magazine subscription.

. . .

Angel sat down nervously. It had been three long years. What would he say to her? He didn't have to worry about that.

Buffy was eyeing him carefully, trying to look into his soul. She knew

that he still had feelings for her. Angelus would probably be very possessive now that Angel was around. What she wouldn't give to see the two of them on Celebrity Death Match.

Angel cleared his throat gruffly, still trying to come to terms with the fact that the love of his life was married to his alter ego. "It's nice to see you again."

"Yeah, I'm really glad you guys were up in the area. I've missed everyone from Sunnyhell, err, Sunnydale," said Buffy. She would have to stop listening to Spike so much.

"Look, Angel, this is *very* awkward, that's a given. So let's just cut to the chase and stop with the small talk," said Buffy. She had a lot to say to Angel, quite a bit of work to do, two children to take care of, and a husband who hated to cook.

"Okay, that seems fair enough. I know it not really my place to ask this, but right now I'm so pissed off that--"

"Excuse me? *You're* pissed off? What right do you have to be 'pissed off'?!" shouted Buffy.

"Hmmm, lets think. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you're fucking my evil twin, who, need I remind you, tormented you, killed your friends, hell, who killed half of the damn neighborhood! And here you are, *married* to the bastard, having his children, and acting like he's some kind of saint! Why do you think I'm so pissed off?"

"Look Angel, I know this is going to sound like déjà vu but could you contemplate getting over yourself for just a minute?! There is no 'us'. I'm sorry if I was supposed to wait for you. God knows I didn't know you were ever coming back, but guess what? I moved on! And, believe it or not, Angelus is like you, but with more sides and diversity. We can have kids, make love, fight like hell, and Angelus is everything you weren't and more. And he sure as hell won't admit it, but he has all of your traits too, so I get the best of both>worlds. You don't even exist to me anymore, Mister 'the-world-revolves-around-me', and what the fuck did you expect me to do? Wait around for you to come back from the depths of hell? Sorry, I have a life.""

Angel felt like he'd been slapped in the face and had his heart torn out and stomped on. Angel thought for a minute and tried not to show Buffy how much that had hurt him.

"Whoa, whoa! Hold on a minute! You didn't have to just take off! What about your friends? Your mother? Your watcher? Didn't you think about them? And what kind of person jumps town because their boyfriend dies?!" sputtered Angel. Buffy smiled up at him. Something she had learned from Angelus, to smile when going in for the kill.

"I sure as hell wasn't gonna pass up an opportunity like that."

"What're you talking about, slayer?"

"Oh please! Look, if you were a little kid and your mother said to you one morning 'Oh, sweetie, you look sick. Do you want to stay home from school today?', and you felt perfectly healthy, would you say 'No, Mom, I feel great!'."

Angel shook his head, even though he knew a response was not necessary, they both knew the answer. "Of course not, I'd have jumped at the opportunity to miss school. But what the hell's your point?"

"My point is, that this was my chance to get out of the hellmouth and I took it."

Angel frowned. She had used his death to her advantage? The thought upset him, but he had to give the woman credit. She was smarter than he had thought. *And Angelus is the one who gets to experience her intelligence*, he thought bitterly.

"Ang, you okay?" asked Buffy. Although she no longer had feelings for him, she did consider him a friend, and she was concerned.

Angel noticed the look on Buffy's face. She cared for him. Not as a boyfriend, but as a friend. He hated that thought, she was *his*. But he decided to work with it, to act like a friend in order to learn more about her, so that he could work his way back into her heart.>

"Yeah, I'm fine. Look, do you wanna just start over, as *friends*?" he asked.

Buffy smiled. Things were starting to look up. She stood up and hugged Angel. "Nice to have you back," she said. "Yeah, you to," he said.

They walked out of the office. Angelus looked up, searching each of their faces for any sign of what had went on in Buffy's office. On Buffy's face, he saw that she looked to Angel as a trusted friend, and that she loved him the way one loves a friend. On Angel's face, he saw love and lust. The same things that he, Angelus, felt for his wife.

Angelus walked over and kissed Buffy passionately, to stake his claim. Buffy responded to the kiss, knowing full well what her husband was doing, and loving every minute of it.

Buffy looked at the now wide awake Shawn and frowned at Angelus. He looked away, not wanting to be the victim of her angry look.

Buffy Kinney walked over and picked up Shawn, hoping to make him drowsy.

Angel felt jealousy swelter up inside of him. That should have been his baby Buffy was trying to get to go to sleep! She should have glared at *him* for allowing the infant to get so hyper. Damn that Angelus. Now he knew how Xander had felt.

. . .

Page 5 of 8
Read the next part >>

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~Okay, what'd y'all think! We need feedback! Its imperative! Is there anything you might like to see? Thanx to Dana, Krystal, Pamela, and Jenny for their insight, and to my co-author, Jules. Give feedback!
jgirl519(at)hotmail.com
JulietMon2(at)aol.com

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