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Title: Over And Done With
Author: Pattyanne
snapkik@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Only the story is mine
Summary: Buffy and Spike together.
Alternate season 6. Angel finds out.
Spike tells him where to go. Buffy
speaks privately with Angel.




Part Five....


Buffy sat down on the curb, patting the space beside her. When
Angel joined her, she looked at him and tried to gather her thoughts.

"Before we get started," she began, "I want to say that if you lead off
with the "Spike doesn't have a soul so how can he love you?"
lecture...I'm gonna let you have it."

"Buffy..."

"I mean it, Angel," she insisted. "That whole concept is so old
it has mildew growing on it...and it isn't true."

He stared at the ground between his feet.

When he didn't speak, Buffy broke the silence herself. "Why
are you here? I don't mean why are you here at my house...but
why are you in Sunnydale?"

Angel shrugged. "I was nearby, so I thought I'd stop in and
see how you're doing." The excuse sounded lame, even to
his own ears.

"Then why didn't you knock on the door?" she asked. "That's
the preferred method for stopping by to see how someone's
doing."

He turned and looked at her. "Yeah, well...I was still debating
it, but...then I saw you and Spike, and I decided not to."

"Saw us?" Buffy asked sharply. "Where did you see us? You
didn't climb that tree...did you?" She gestured towards the
tree outside her bedroom window.

"Of course not," Angel said, shaking his head. "I saw you at
the cemetery...earlier."

"You saw us fighting?"

"Yeah, and..."

"Kissing?"

He didn't reply, but the look on his face said everything.

Buffy was briefly glad that she and Spike hadn't given
in to the temptation of making love in the cemetery. Just
the IDEA of someone witnessing anything so personal
felt like a violation.

"I'm sorry that you had to find out that way."

"So am I," he said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She leveled a direct gaze on him. "Because it's none
of your business."

The comment obviously pained him, but Buffy refused
to coddle him. Angel had facts to face, and the sooner
he faced them, the better off he'd be.

"This is MY place in the world. Los Angeles is yours. You
told me that once...remember?"

"I know," he said. "I...I thought it was true."

Buffy sighed. "It IS true. It's just as true now as it was
the day you said it. Maybe even more so."

Angel was silent for a long moment, then looked
away. "You said once...that you'd always be my
girl."

"I know I did."

"But...you're not, are you? You're his now." His
voice was low and had a touch of bitterness in it's tone.

Buffy nodded. "I AM his now. But, I'm not a girl anymore,
Angel. I'm a woman, and I've been through things that
changed me more than just getting older did. Spike stood
right beside me for every second of it. He held me up when
I couldn't do it myself."

He seemed about to cut and run...his standard form of
emotional defense...so she placed a hand on his shoulder
to keep him where he was. This was GOING to be said,
and she would make him listen.

"Angel...we weren't meant to be. If we had been, everything
wouldn't have been so impossible for us."

"So, you're telling me that you and Spike are 'meant to be' ?"
he asked, with a disbelieving laugh.

"Yeah," Buffy said firmly. "That's what I'm telling you. And
you have to accept it."

"I don't know if I can."

"I'm not giving you a choice, Angel." She took a deep breath. "You
need to go back to Los Angeles...and stay there. Don't come back."

He turned stunned eyes on her. "Don't come back?" he
echoed. "Buffy...even if we're nothing else...we're still friends,
aren't we?"

"In a way."

"Then don't tell me not to come back...or not to call you some-
time. You don't let HIM decide who you can and can't be friends
with...do you?"

"No," she said slowly. "He'd never even try and decide something
like that for me. He loves me, and he trusts me."

"Then why..."

"Because," she cut him off. "It hurts him. Somewhere deep down
inside of him, in a place he'd never admit...it hurts him. And I won't
do that to him. I've hurt him enough in the past, I will NOT do it
anymore. Certainly not for you."

He sat and stared at her, internalizing her words and the feelings
behind them. "God, Buffy," he finally said. "How did we get here?"

She shrugged. "Life brought us here. Fate, design...whatever you
want to call it. But, I like where I am...and I'm not changing it. This
town...that house," she pointed to it, "and that man...are my life."

Buffy stood up and brushed off the seat of her pants. "And now...I
have to get back to it. To my life. And so do you."

Angel rose to his feet, and moved close to her. He was shocked
when she immediately moved back. "This is goodbye?"

She nodded. "This is goodbye," she said. "If...if you really need
my help for something...you can call. But...make sure you need
it...I'm talking 'world in peril' stuff...and WE will be there. Other-
wise," she added. "Deal with it yourself."

Buffy could tell, just by looking at him, that he'd be brooding
over this for days, possibly weeks, and she was fiercely glad
that it was no longer her problem to figure out what was bothering
him and try to fix it.

She allowed him a brief hug, but when he tried to kiss her good-
bye, she stepped away. "Don't," she said quietly. She didn't
refuse the kiss because she was afraid that Spike might see and
react badly, but because she simply didn't want Angel to kiss
her. Ever again.

Watching as he walked a few hundred yards down the street,
and climbed into his car, she felt a sense of relief and urgency to get
home. Turning on one heel, she ran across the street and up the
path to her front door...and to her future, who was waiting for her
in their bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"All done, then, luv?"

"Very much all done."

"Good."

"Spike?"

"Hmmm?"

"I love you."

"I know."


The End

(Let me know if you enjoyed the
story, okay?)





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