Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Think I'd be shlupping around UBC if I did?
A/N: I am not a Bangel 'shipper. Quite the opposite. I am warning everyone now. Now, having said that, I am treating the relationship as fairly as possible.
This story is unbeta'd. All mistakes are mine.
He picks up the phone.
He puts it down.
He fiddles with something on his desk.
He is tense. He knows he has to but . . .
He picks up the receiver again and pushes a few buttons before placing it back in its cradle.
He takes a deep breath he knows he doesn’t need, picks up the receiver again and dials.
One ring.
Another.
Another.
He’s about to give up when, “Hello?”
He panics. He can’t do this. He’s never been that guy.
“Hello?” The voice sounds slightly annoyed.
He steels himself. “. . .”
“Hello?” Defiantly annoyed.
“Um . . .”
“Angel?’
“Um . . . yeah. He-hi Buffy.”
The voice is colder then he had hoped. And then he remembers Dana and why he’s calling. He’s not some lovesick puppy, lurking with back-story. He’s a CEO who doesn’t appreciate being screwed by those he trusts.
“Buffy, I need to talk to you. Can I meet with you somewhere?”
“Gee, Angel. You used to have such a hard time asking me for coffee,” she jokes. But there’s steel behind it. She’s not a lovesick puppy anymore either.
“Fine,” he says. “Andrew . . .”
“What about him?”
“What the hell was that?”
“I think you know.”
“I seem to recall something about being a second wave, and now you’re sending spies to undermine what I do?”
“And what exactly do you do, Angel? Wolfram and Hart? I didn’t know that when I put my faith in you.”
“You have no idea why I took this job. No idea what my reasons are.”
“Well, it’s not like you told me.”
“Since when do I have to inform you of all of my actions?”
She laughs humorlessly. “So I’m not allowed to know what you’re doing, but you can lurk and send spies all you want?”
“I—” So he had sent someone to tail her. Rome was dangerous and…he wanted to make sure she was all right.
“Nice try, Angel. He was really bad at it. I caught him tailing me into a lingerie store. With a news paper.”
He sighs. If you want something done right . . .
“You having someone following me is a bit on the suspicious side, what with the new job and all . . .”
He grits his teeth. She doesn’t trust him. He thinks back. He’s heard that before. “So, you don’t trust me, is that it?”
She’s a little hesitant. “Yes,” she says. “I don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Angel, you’re the CEO of an Evil Law firm. Isn’t it kind of obvious?”
“You can do better then that.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’ve told me that before, Buffy.”
There’s a pause. “I have.”
“Sort of funny to stick your tongue down the throat of the guy you don’t trust.”
“I-well-hey! I wasn’t the only one with the tongue! You seemed pretty tongue-happy yourself!”
He looks up and sees faces in the door he knows he closed. He leans away from the phone. Of course he’s eavesdropping. This is like music to him. “Spike!” The flash of blonde disappears.
“I knew you’d bring him up! Angel, he died saving the world. I think in the end I was able to trust him.”
Angel curses internally. He doesn’t want to change this into an argument about Spike. She’s also not supposed to know, and Angel doesn’t want to tell her.
She’s still talking. And getting more excited. “. . . with Riley! Always butting in with my boyfriends! You stalk and you lurk and you come back whenever you get jealous or lonely! But you can’t do that anymore! I’m not some turkey that’s baking and who’s temperature you can take whenever you feel like! You can’t keep skimming meat off of me, Angel! You have to wait until I say I’m done!”
Angel stares at the phone. Turkey? He’s never understood her analogies.
“I didn’t mean to make you a . . . turkey.” And he’s distracted again. “Buffy, Andrew—”
“I’m not apologizing for that. It’s what had to be done.”
Suddenly he’s furious. He’s put up with a lot form her, but this? No.
“I don’t want an apology! I want answers! Remember what I told you about my town? It still stands!”
“You apologized for that,” she cuts in.
He grits his teeth. “Maybe I shouldn’t have. You look on from afar and make judgments and mess around in what you don’t understand. MY town, Buffy.”
Silence.
“Remember who helped Faith. I could have dealt with this.”
More silence.
“So, you called me to, what? Yell? Take out your fury? Not enough lackeys around the office to suffice? Had to call up the ole ex-slash-punching bag?
“YOU’RE the punching bag? Who had to take down a crazy slayer and was then out-witted by a Trekkie? Who was surrounded by slayers and told that his ex girlfriend ordered the whole thing because she thought he was evil? You played me Buffy, and you used me. How can you expect me to be okay with that?”
“Because you know it was right.”
Silence.
“Do I?”
Pause.
“Come on, Angel! You know we’re the one’s with the resources to help her. She’s a slayer!”
Another pause.
“Is that it, or were you worried that I’d turn her into another asset for the firm?”
He could hear her shifting on the other end.
“No . . . I . . .”
“You thought I would make her evil, so you acted as if there was still trust there and then you betrayed me.”
“Well, I—”
“You know, the more I think about it, the more I realize that leaving Sunnydale was the best thing I ever did.”
Shocked silence.
“Because it’s clear you never trusted me.”
“That was the most pig-headed, LOW blow . . . you leaving was incredibly selfish and . . . and arrogant! You thought you KNEW! Knew what I needed! Well, guess what, Angel, you didn’t!”
Angel sighs. This is why he is taciturn. When he speaks for too long he says stupid things.
“Buffy, I didn’t—”
“Yes you did.”
He thinks. “Alright, I did. But not for the reason you think.” There is a pause while he collects his thoughts. He knows she’s waiting for an answer with an “it better be good” look on her face. “It was good for me. I shouldn’t have decided what was best for you, but leaving was what I needed. I needed to fight for myself. I needed to start looking for redemption. It’s not something you can help me with.”
“Then that’s what you should have said. Not ‘Bye, Buffy! Trust me on this, you’re better off because I know so much!’” She uses a nasally voice.
“I . . . don’t sound like that.”
She sighs. “That’s not the point.”
He’s getting distracted again. “Look, Buffy, what I called about was Andrew. Don’t do that again. If you have a problem, call me, but don’t do that again.”
“That sounded like a threat.”
“And what if it is?”
“Then I would be right.”
“And what if I did the same thing? Sent Wes or Harmony over to screw around?”
“Harmony?” Laughter.
Angel frowns as the laughter continues. “So maybe not Harmony, but you know what I mean.”
She stifles her laughter. “We’re not evil.”
Angel grinds his teeth. “Neither am I!”
“Yet to be proven.”
“Did you ever think to call? To talk to me for five minutes? You KNOW what Angelus sounds like. This was about more than me being evil. This was about trust. I don’t think you ever trusted me.”
“That’s not true. Whenever we were in a fight I knew you’d be there to—”
“That’s not the kind of trust I’m talking about.”
He can hear her thinking. “You’re right,” she says, finally.
“And yet you trusted Spike.”
“Look, Angel . . .” she sounds a little sad.
He sighs. “I know, I know . . . he’s a . . . champion.” The world tastes bitter. But she wants to hear him say it. He thinks it’s mostly her being vindictive and knows it’s just him being immature.
She has to smile at how disgusted he sounds. “Look, Angel . . . what I said before . . .”
“All that stuff about cookies?”
“Yeah. I . . .”
“Look, Buffy, I’m flattered, but I . . .”
There is an awkward silence.
“Yeah . . .” they say in unison. It causes her to giggle nervously.
Angel steels himself again. “It just seems obvious that . . . I mean, I love you . . . loved you . . . I er . . . still do in a way but . . .”
She decides to save him. “I know what you mean, Angel. I think we’ve proven what we didn’t want to admit.”
He leans back into his chair. “The trust . . .”
She smiles ruefully. “What trust?”
The End
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