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Chapter 11

Giles stared at Buffy, his expression blank. Slowly a smile started to appear, “Jenny is part of the clan that cursed Angel, you say?”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy answered him, still cautious, but pleased that he seemed to be taking it better than the last time he’d found out.

“Well that’s marvellous,” he beamed. But, when he noted the caution on his slayer’s face, his smile faded slightly. Realising he obviously didn’t have the full story, Giles did a quick mental calculation of all known facts, in an effort to ready himself for the rest of the information relating to the woman to whom he was slowly becoming enamoured.

“In our time,” Buffy paused momentarily, struggling to keep her anger at the gypsy out of her voice, it wasn’t fair on Giles to prejudice him for something the woman he cared for had yet to do. “Jenny didn’t tell us the details of the curse or her mission, until after Angel had lost his soul. I honestly believe that, had she told us, our lives would have been very different…and Jenny would have lived. I think by not telling us, she started a chain reaction that, well, that’s had devastating effects on all of us.”

Moved, by the soft sadness of her voice, Giles gently encouraged his soft hearted slayer to continue, “Go on, dear.”

Buffy really didn’t want to think of those times; the memories were too painful. The bitterness that she’d bottled up for years waited like a predator of the night. She was terrified that once she started, she wouldn’t be able to stop. She’d been the slayer for almost six years and even though she’d complained about wanting to be a normal teenager, if she was honest with herself, she would have to admit that given time, she would have found a way to make it work for her. Given time, she would have found herself.

It wasn’t being the slayer that had damaged her so completely; it was the people she’d trusted, loved, that had caused her the most pain. If she started this, if she told Giles everything, would it achieve anything? Would it help? Or would it just cause him pain? Would it just cause her pain? Ripping away the scab of a wound that had festered into a poisonous lesion would be a painful experience, but by attempting to cleanse the injury, would it finally be allowed to heal? Or would she be doing more damage? Taking a deep breath, Buffy made her decision; it was time to clean the wound.

“You have to remember, none of this has happened in this timeline yet. But, I can’t go through most of it again, Giles, I just can’t. I want to actively alter the events I lived through. I want your input on this, I know that changing my past doesn’t guarantee that my life, all our lives, will be better, but I don’t believe it’s possible to make it worse.” Buffy implored her watcher to recognize just how serious she was.

“I understand, Buffy,” he assured her.

“Okay,” Buffy took a deep breath and began her tale. “Jenny didn’t tell us anything, so the only actual knowledge we had at the time was that Angelus had been cursed by a clan of gypsies as retribution for killing one of them. We found out after Angelus returned that Jenny had been sent here by her clan to keep an eye on him. Apparently, up until the time he started working with me, they didn’t feel that the curse was under any threat of being broken. But, when he started to work with me, that all changed.

“There is only one way to break the curse. If Angel experiences a moment of perfect happiness, the curse will be broken. In my time, I gave him that moment.” Only the slight shaking of her hands betrayed the depths of her pain. Talking about this memory from her past brought with it all the emotions she’d long buried away. The wound had been opened.

“After Angelus reappeared, everything came out. I think we all felt betrayed that she hadn’t told us who she really was or that there was a possibility of the curse being broken; I know I was furious at her. If we’d known beforehand that the curse wasn’t stable, we might have been able to prevent hundreds of deaths and the not so little amount of psychological pain that that bastard put us through.”

Buffy stood and started pacing, her memories assailed her; the pain of them was almost palpable. “Jenny found a copy of the curse and started working on deciphering it, so that she could re-curse him. Most of us had agreed that if we could re-soul him, we would be saving a warrior for the Powers. Xander, of course just wanted him dusted.

“You had managed to get over your feelings of betrayal and had started a tentative relationship with Jenny, you were falling in love.” Buffy smiled sadly at Giles, “But then Angelus found out that she was planning to re-ensoul him and killed her, leaving her body for you to find.

“Jenny had managed to decipher the curse before she was killed and Willow found it. Willow was the one to curse him, but I really believe it was too much magic for her to be trying and it started her on a bad road. Most of the really bad things that happened after that can be traced back to Angel losing his soul; if we stop that happening…everything will change.” Buffy sat back down, she looked exhausted.

Contemplating all that he had been told, Giles started formulating a plan. He agreed with Buffy, that her past should be changed, but when he took into account all that Spike had told him, he realised something that she clearly hadn’t - the appearance of Angelus had been the beginning of the end of Buffy’s relationship with Angel. While he had no intention of allowing Angelus to be released, he also had no intention of allowing Buffy’s relationship with Angel to develop any further. It would appear that he and Spike needed to have another little conversation. However, for the moment, there were more pressing details to address. “Do you think we should invite Jenny to join us?”

“I think that sounds like a plan,” Buffy smiled tiredly, “But, for now, I’m going to bed…it’s been a long day.” She offered them both a ‘goodnight’ before leaving the room.

~*~*~

"Mom," Dawn hissed, "I just saw Angel hovering around outside like a giant bat." Dawn pulled her mother over to the window, and the two of them carefully peeked out the curtain. Sure enough, there he was sitting in the tree, outside Buffy’s window.

Joyce gave a growl that would have made Spike proud. "That idiot is really starting to get on my nerves." Joyce thought for a second. "I have a plan. You go talk him out of the tree, but give me enough time to get out there."

As Dawn made her way up to her sister’s room, Joyce made a beeline for the broom closet. Dramatically throwing the curtains open, Dawn glared at the brooding vampire in the tree, “You know,” she started casually, “Using the gel like that just makes your forehead look larger.”

Ignoring her remark and giving her a look as aloof as was possible from a vampire sitting in a tree, Angel announced, “I’m just waiting for Buffy.”

“Yeah, well, Buffy’s in the shower and stalker that you are, I think you’re just here to sneak a peek. Not tonight Brood Boy, Buffy’s going to be busy, so you can just make like a bat and fly away.” Dawn smirked, a look which reminded Angel eerily of Spike. Throwing a glare at the belligerent teenager, he made his way out of the tree. As he reached the ground he was momentarily dazed by a resounding whack to the head.

“Stay the hell away from my daughter.” Joyce ground out. With her axe held loosely but firmly by her side, she looked decidedly like a Valkyrie warrior.

Angel slowly backed away from the crazy woman in front of him. Seeing her like this, completely unbalanced had him coming to the hurried decision that he should be talking to Giles soon, Buffy needed to be removed from this unhealthy environment.

As he hurried down the street holding his throbbing head, he was distressed to hear the sound of the laughing teen in the window as she called out "Go mom! At least this time you whacked the right vamp.”

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