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Part three.....


Angel stared down at the small blond whirlwind that
had a death grip on the front of his shirt, his mouth
gaping in surprise.

Her fury mounting, Buffy pulled him forward and slammed
him back again, hard enough to make his head crack
against the wall.

"You knew!" she said angrily. "You knew how I felt
about him...and you didn't tell me he was back! I
had to find out from your hired help!"

Security guards were beginning to arrive on the
scene, but Angel raised one hand and held them
off.

Everyone in the office had stopped in the middle
of whatever they were doing to watch the drama
unfold.

The ones with no idea who Buffy was were
obviously wondering how long their boss was
going to tolerate being pushed around by a girl
half his size.

"Buffy," Angel said quietly. "Calm down and listen to
me. I..."

"Why?" she demanded, tightening her fists in his
shirt front. "What can you possibly say that's gonna
put you in a good light? What, are you gonna tell me
it was all for my own good? That you were only
thinking of ME the whole time?"

He stared down into green eyes that were burning with
the heat of her accumulated rage. "I WAS thinking of
you," he insisted. "I..."

"Well, STOP thinking of me!" she yelled. "Damn you,
Angel! When are you gonna stop interfering in my life?
Just who in the HELL do you think you are?"

Angel was beginning to get angry as well. "I think I'm
someone who cares about you," he said through
slightly clenched teeth. "Someone who...who wants
what's best for you."

"Oh, spare me," Buffy said, using the sarcastic tone
she'd learned from another vampire. "You don't know me
anymore...and you have no idea what's best for me. You
don't get to make those judgment calls. I am NOT the
sixteen year old child who fell in love with you once upon
a time."

He looked at her with wounded eyes. "I realize that."

Hardening her heart against his "kicked puppy" ex-
pression, she said, "Then realize this...I don't love you
anymore. Not...not the way I love him."

Unexpected tears welled in her eyes when she
remembered her last moments with her champion.

"He died...thinking that I didn't love him," she choked,
trying to swallow around the knot of pain that had been
firmly lodged in her throat for months. "I never got
a chance to prove it to him, to make him believe."

Somewhere off in the distance beyond her heartache,
she heard the soft 'ding' of the elevator. Although the
sound registered in her brain, her back was turned, and
she didn't see a woman with long brown hair step out
of the car. She took in the scene being played out
between Angel and Buffy, then turned and got back
into the elevator.

"You," Buffy went on, "you had no right to keep him
from me. Not when you knew...."

"You didn't tell me you loved him," Angel replied
defensively. "How could I know..."

This lame excuse brought all of Buffy's anger
screaming back to the surface. "I told you that he
was in my heart...and that was ALL you needed to
know!"

The eyes of their captive audience bounced back
and forth from Buffy to Angel, then back to Buffy,
like spectators at a ping-pong tournament.

Slightly unnerved by their scrutiny, Angel lowered
his voice. "Can we take this into my office?"

Buffy ignored the question, relaxing her hold on
his shirt and taking a step back. "Don't imagine for
a second that I don't know why you didn't tell me
he was back," she said hotly. "You knew...it was
BECAUSE you knew...that you kept it from me."

"What? That's not...no, you're wrong."

"I'm NOT wrong!" she shouted him down. "If you'd
told me that he was back...you knew that I would
come for him. And you didn't want that to happen."

The elevator 'dinged' softly, and the doors swooshed
open.

"You do know," Angel said, "that until a few days ago
he was a ghost? He couldn't even...."

"I...DON'T...CARE!" Her voice rose in volume as
she tightened her hold on his shirt again. "Now, you
tell me...you tell me where he is, or I swear to GOD
I will tear this place down around your ears until
I find him!"

Angel's eyes looked past her to the other side of
the office, but he said nothing.

This only angered her more. "TELL ME!!"

"Buffy....?"



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TBC....

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