She felt the vampire's teeth on her neck, but never felt him piercing the skin. Her eyes flew open in curiosity, to see that the vampire was fighting desperately with someone . . . Angel. The smile stayed on her lips, for an entirely different reason. She only wished she could manage to move, to watch him in action. For the first time in two months she was seeing Angel, and her head hurt to much to really look at him. Life could be so unfair sometimes. That was when she heard it, the sound of someone smashing into a wall, unfortunately easy for her to recognize. She managed to sit up, expecting to see the huge vampire taken care of. To her shock, however, she realized it was Angel who was slumped against the wall . . . and he wasn't conscious. Somehow the strength returned to her body, and she was on her feet in an instant, stake in hand as the vampire descended towards Angel, apparently contend to feed off another vampire. He never got the chance as she plunged the stake into his heart. Her cold face was the last thing he saw before he turned to dust at her feet.
Immediately she turned towards Angel, forgetting her own wounds in her haste to make sure he was all right. "Angel?" she said softly, kneeling down beside him. "Angel!" she called again. His leg was lying at an unnatural angle, she knew it was probably broken. But he should have regained consciousness by now, she'd had Angel by her side in enough fights to know how long it took him to recover from a good bump on the head. That was when she noticed it. His chest, rising and falling in a somewhat slow but still steady rhythm. Her eyes widened in shock, and she put her now shaking hand to his throat. Sure enough there was a pulse. Slower than a normal human, but a pulse none the less. Her mouth dropped open in surprise. "Angel?" she repeated, her voice low and uncertain. There was still no reply. Gently she leaned forward and saw the blood matting the back of his head, that must have been one hell of a good throw for the now dead vampire. Buffy tried to calm down, the pain in her own body reminding her of her own injuries. She just didn't know what to do, he needed help, obviously, his leg was broken, he'd sustained one hell of a head injury . . . but these were normally things he'd just wince at, shrug off, and be recovered from in a few minutes. She didn't know what she was supposed to do, how she was supposed to help him. Buffy looked around, trying to get a feel for her location. She was a block or so from the library, she'd just have to find some way to get Angel there. She offered him a silent apology as she grabbed both his arms and began to drag.
"Giles!" Buffy called out desperately as she forced the library doors open, still dragging the unconscious vampire behind her. "Giles!" she called again when she heard no reply.
"What is it, Buffy?" Giles asked, sounding tired as he walked down the stairs from the bookstacks to the main floor, briefcase in hand. He was obviously prepared to go home for the evening, and hadn't been expecting the Slayer.
"We have a problem," she said as soon as she saw him. He blinked in puzzlement, then saw Angel lying on the floor in an unconscious heap. He looked at her for an explanation. "I don't know how, or why, or whatever, but . . . Giles . . . he has a pulse," she told her Watcher softly. "I was fighting this really big vamp guy, and let me tell you this was one of those nights of luck, cause he nearly killed me a thousand times before Angel showed up. Anyway, he pulled this guy off of me, the vamp threw him against the wall, he broke his leg and hit his head against the side of the building. Giles, it wasn't major, I mean, it was major, but not . . . not vampire major. He should have been wide awake and ready to go like five seconds afterwards. I don't know . . . Giles, I don't understand!"
Giles had already moved to Angel's side and leaned down, checking his throat and then his wrist for a pulse. It was most definitely there. He frowned and looked up at Buffy, letting her see his own confusion about this situation. "This is . . . entirely unheard of," Giles said slowly.
"Well, no, really!" The Slayer was pacing back and forth in the library, her eyes wide and concerned. "Giles, this is . . . I don't under . . . I mean, I don't . . . I just don't get it! Why would this . . . how could it . . . I mean, I'm happy about it . . . I think . . . but it's just . . . I don't! . . . How is this . . . " She seemed incapable of completing a sentence, her hands gesturing wildly around the room.
Giles stood, abandoning Angel for the moment, and walked towards her. "Buffy, relax," he told her in no uncertain terms. "If I had to wager a guess I'd say J . . . Ms. Calendar had something to do with this. I'll call her right now from my office. Why don't you call Willow or Xander, have one of them come down here. I think you could use the company right now." Buffy looked at him, grateful for his calmness, and not even minding the intense curiosity she saw in his eyes, the excitement about having something new to research. Instead she just nodded and headed towards the phone.
"Hello?" Ms. Calendar's voice rang through the line, sounding soft and subdued.
"Jenny? It's Giles," Giles said, his voice clipped and short. He simply couldn't help it, he hadn't been able to forgive her for deceiving them for so long.
"Rupert? What's wrong?" she asked.
"Some very . . . unusual . . . things are going on," he told her. "I was wondering if you might have something to do with them."
"Unusual regarding . . . Angel?" she guessed, and could almost see him nod.
"Yes."
She smiled. "I found a ritual," she told him. "I . . . I needed to make amends, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't. I found a ritual to change a vampire back. It shouldn't be done yet though."
"What do you mean, done?" Giles asked, curiosity replacing the coolness that had been in his voice only a moment before.
"I mean it isn't an automatic thing," she explained, sounding exasperated. "This isn't Tale of the Body Thief, Rupert, these things aren't instantaneous. At least this particular spell isn't. It's been two months now, right? Since he regained his soul?"
"Yes."
"Yes . . . I guess it would be starting now," she told him.
"What would be starting?" Giles asked, exasperation replacing the curiosity that had once been impatience. Jenny smiled.
"The change. I don't have specifics, these spells are rather old and don't like giving details. But I'd say in about another month or so he'll be fully human."
Giles felt his temper flare slightly. "And you didn't feel this was important enough to tell any of us?"
She shrugged. "Not really. Why?"
"Why? Buffy almost got killed tonight! Angel intervened, and got hurt in the process."
Jenny bit her lip, wincing slightly. "I'm sorry, Rupert. I didn't think . . . I just assumed I'd let nature take its course."
Giles sighed, trying to release the anger. "That's all right . . . I have to go."
"Okay," she told him, her voice sounding soft and more than just a little bit hurt. "For what it's worth . . . I'm sorry."
For the first time in a long while Giles felt a flicker of hope. "We'll discuss this later," he told her.
"All right. Good-bye."
"Bye," he replied, and hung up the phone.
When Giles returned to the main room of the library Willow was there, talking calmly and softly to Buffy, who still had an almost amusing mixture of expressions on her face. Confusion, worry, fear . . . all played a part. A low moan echoed off the walls, and the next instant Buffy was by Angel's side.
"Angel? Can you hear me?" she asked, trying to force her voice to sound calm and not particularly succeeding. He blinked and looked at her with pain filled eyes.
"Mhmm," he muttered, closing his eyes against the library lights. She grasped his hand, trying to offer support, and instead her eyes widened in fear; his hands were clammy. Automatically she reached one hand up to feel his forehead, and her eyes widened further when she realized he was physically hot to the touch. There was still vampire within him, if he had changed overnight there was no doubt but that he would have noticed. It couldn't be good for him to be this hot and still a vampire. If only they could take him to the hospital, if only he had insurance, a last name, anything . . .
"Angel? Don't worry, okay? You're gonna be fine." He opened his eyes halfway to look at her and tried to fight back the low moan that threatened to escape his throat. He couldn't remember ever feeling so lousy in his life, even when he'd been human. Angel opened his mouth, hoping to say something reassuring, and found that speaking was simply to much of an effort. He offered her a half smile, which came off as more of a grimace, then faded back into unconsciousness gratefully.
"Did you find anything out?" Buffy asked Giles, not moving her eyes away from Angel's face. Giles nodded and explained to Buffy what Jenny had told him. Buffy's eyes had widened in surprise throughout his explanation, and she blinked. "You're kidding," she said flatly; it wasn't a question.
"No, I'm not," he replied, totally serious.
"Wow . . . " she trailed off, staring at Angel's face again. "I wish she had warned us though," she added softly. "I mean, this whole thing could have been prevented . . . he would have known better than to try and help me." She paused, then sighed and finally turned to Giles. "What are we going to do?" she asked her watcher. "He's running a fever, we can't take him to a hospital . . . and we don't know what's wrong. We don't know how long it's going to take for him to fully change, we don't know anything . . . "
Giles offered her a weak smile. "It'll be okay," he assured her. "We'll figure something out . . . there must be something written about this happening . . . I'll call the Watcher Council."
Buffy smiled. "You guys have a council?" she asked.
He nodded. "Yes," he replied. "Though usually they are not called unless there's a major emergency."
She couldn't help but laugh. "A major emergency? The way life has been around here since . . . well, always . . . I would have thought they'd be called together everyday."
"No, they're usually only called for research problems, and I don't think I have anything here regarding something like this. The others might be able to help."
Buffy nodded. "Go do that then," she said. "Do you know what time it is?"
"It's midnight," Willow replied, speaking for the first time since Giles had come into the room. Giles looked at her for a moment, then turned back into his office to make the phone calls. "How are you?" Willow asked after a moment of silence.
"Not so good," Buffy replied softly. "I would have thought something like this would have made me happy . . . but it's not. It's not that I don't want him to be, you know, just a normal guy, but . . . "
Willow understood. "The timing isn't great," she said, filling in the blank Buffy had left.
"Isn't great? There's an understatement," she sighed again. "This . . . it's the first time I've seen him since . . . this isn't exactly how I pictured our reunion." Buffy's eyes filled with tears in spite of herself, and Willow immediately headed over to her and put one arm around her shoulder.
"It's okay," Willow assured her. "Angel'll get better . . . and then there won't be anything keeping you apart."
Buffy blinked and looked up at her friend, then sniffed and wiped at her eyes. "You're right," she admitted after a moment. "You're absolutely right."
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