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Chapter 6: Encounter
Angel and Fait arrived New York in one piece. Angel had never been so happy to be on solid land than when he stepped out of the plain. The sunrise was few hours away so they desided to confront Buffy after sundown, even though Angel didn’t want to wait, he knew it was better to hold till later. He was sure she wouldn’t appreciate being waken before dawn since he knew she wouldn’t have gone to bed more than few hours ago. Still he didn’t know what to do with himself during the daylight hours. He certainly didn’t want to face a cranky slayer. Buffy and Nikki had finished their shopping trip and on their way home. Buffy was so in thought that she didn’t hear half what Nikki was saying. Nikki stopped walking and looked at Buffy. “Anne, where are you?” she asked with her hands on her hips which didn’t quite give the same tough look with the shopping bags clinging to her wrists. “What you mean?” she asked trying to sound innocent. “You haven’t heard a single word I said. I tried to tell you about the cute guy I met this morning but you’ve been so in your own thoughts, it’s like talking to a wall”, Nikki said but she didn’t sound accusing. “I’m sorry, Nikki. I’m just distracted.” “You’ve been thinking about hunky again?” Buffy smiled and rolled her eyes. “Could you please stop calling him hunky”, she laughed. “Well, I could do an impression of what you call him in your dream but I would propably get arrested”, Nikki smirked back and Buffy had a hard time to not blush. “Be good girl now”, she chastised Nikki and unlocked her apartment door. “But being naughty is so much more fun. Especially when I can make you blush”, Nikki laughed and strolled inside. She threw the bags by the couch and dropped on it herself. “So, how ‘bout we spend a girls night before work? Eat some junk food, maybe watch a movie, talk about hot guys... What you say?” Nikki asked and wigled her eyebrow at Buffy. She giggled. “How can I resist that”, she laughed and sat beside Nikki. “You can’t.” It had been propably the longest day of his life. He didn’t know what to do to past the time, reading wasn’t an option, he couldn’t consentrate, he couldn’t sleep and first of all he couldn’t go out, the hotel didn’t have tunnel exit. But finally the day was over, he could feel the sun going down and the minute it did, he left the hotel, Faith running after him. He needed to see Buffy. Angel and Faith arrived to the address and now stood in front of the door that said A. O’Rourke. Angel couldn’t help but feel some sort of male pride for the fact that it was his last name that was on her door. But at the same time he couldn’t have been more nervous. If he was human, he propably would have had a heart attack by now. Faith looked at the usually so broody Angel who’s face was now constantly changing expression. “Come on, Angie. You look like a school boy on his first date. Just do it”, she said and rolled her eyes. Angel took a deep breathe that he didn’t need and knocked on the door. It took a while for someone to answer and the seconds went slowly by. Finally Nikki opened the door and with an expectant ‘yes’ looked at the two strangers. Angels heart sank and Faith couldn’t hide her disapointment. “I’m sorry...” Angel started but didn’t finish when he noticed the familiar feeling that Buffy was near. “We’re looking for... Anne”, Faith said noticing that Angel was preoccupied with something. She was going to say Buffy, but she remembered the last minute that Angel had said she used name Anne O’Rourke now. The redheaded woman smiled and turned. “Hey Anne! You’ve got visitors!” she yelled and stepped away from the door. “Come on in”, she said and went further into the room. Faith and Angel stepped inside. “Yeah, Nikki. Is it Liam?” came Faith’s voice from what seemed to be the kitchen. Faith just felt weird but Angel’s heart sank, who was Liam and had she found someone, a man. Buffy came out of the kitchen expecting Liam and Kirsten but when she saw who it was, she froze. She looked at Angel with wide eyes and her breathe caught in her throath. “Buffy”, he whispered. “Angel”, was the automatic breathy answer. Nikki just looked at them in wonder, she had no clue what was happening. And did he just call her Buffy. “Presume you two know each other”, she said and Buffy just nodded, not taking her eyes off Angel. Finally Buffy found her voice. ”How did you find me?” Angel glanced at Nikki telling Buffy that he couldn’t tell that in front of a stranger and Buffy just nodded understanding. “I need... I need coffee”, she suddenly said and practically ran to the kitchen. Angel was about to go after her when the redheaded woman stepped in front of him and extended her hand. “I’m Nikki, Anne’s friend”, she said. Angel felt anxious to go after Buffy but took her hand anyway. “Angel”, he simply said. Nikki smirked, she looked him up and down appreciating the view. “So you’re Angel”, she said smirking. Angel shifted on his feet, feeling very uncomfortable under her gaze and he nodded. “Yeah.” Nikki just gave him a mhmm sound and went after Buffy to the kitchen. Angel had no idea what that was all about. “He’s the dream guy!” Nikki said accusingly to Buffy who was taken by surprise. She shook her head and tried to deny it but she was stopped by Nikki. “Don’t bother denying it. His name is Angel, and how many hunky guys named Angel is there? You forget that I’ve heard one of your dreams and you were anything but vocal”, she said with a pointed look and Buffy couldn’t help but blush. “You were having a better time in your dream than I ever had with my last boyfriend. And I can see why”, she said with a smirk and looked at Angel with hungry eyes. Angel could feel the eyes on his back and they were making him feel very uncomfortable, he knew it wasn’t Buffy. Faith smirked and said to him: “How does it feel like being treated like a piece of meat?” Angel just gave her a half hearted glare and went to the kitchen. “Buf... Anne, we need to talk”, he said when Buffy turned to look at him. Buffy nodded solemnly and turned to Nikki. “I guess we have to reschedule our girls night”, she said and Nikki hesitated, she didn’t want to leave Anne alone. Buffy saw it and she smiled slightly. ”It’s okay. I’ll see you at work”, she said and Nikki nodded leaving reluctantly. After the door closed, Buffy turned to Angel and Faith, who she hadn’t acknowlidge till know. “Faith”, she said with a neutral voice. “Hey B.” “What are you doing here and how did you find me?” Buffy asked from them both. After seeing that Angel wasn’t going to answer since he was just oogling her with suffering look on his face, she rolled her eyes and answered for him: “Angie here had a prophetic dream...” more she didn’t have time to say when there was a knock on the door. Buffy sighed frustrated and went to open the door. She couldn’t have been more surprised when she saw them standing there. The whole gang was there, Giles, Willow, Xander, Tara, Anya and even Riley. She just stared at them with wide eyes. “Good to see you are alive”, Xander sniped with venom in his voice and that brought her to reality. “Good to see you too, Xander”, she sniped back at him instantly feeling guilty. She stepped aside and the gang walked in. “I see dead boy and the ho are already here”, Xander said and earned a small slap from Anya. “Do you want them to kill us?” she said to him angrily and not so discreetly. “What are all you doing here?” Buffy asked after closing the door. “We are here to bring you back home”, Willow said like it was the only possible answer. “And I’m here to get my body back. I miss those babies”, Faith said and pointed at her breast that Buffy was wearing now. Riley took a step closer to Buffy and touched her arm. She flinched but didn’t pull away. “Buffy”, he whispered and that made Angel growl with jealousy. “I don’t know what the reason was for you to do this. But I forgive you”, Riley said to her in a loving tone. Buffy snapped, she pulled away from him and said with a surprised yet angry voice: “You forgive me!? You forgive me for doing this to you!?” she pointed at Faith’s body. “I can’t believe you!” she continued shaking her head and then she turned sharply to Riley. “You may forgive me but I don’t forgive you. You didn’t recognize me, you were fucking my body but you didn’t even notice that I wasn’t in it.” Riley looked confused and tried to explain: “No. I was making love to you.” That earned a sarcastic laugh from Faith. “Is that what you were trying to do?” she laughed at him making Riley clench his fists in fury. “Shut your mouth, whore”, he said to her and Faith was ready jump on him but was stopped by Buffy saying: “No, you shut up! You come her to me to say you forgive me for not being in the body that you are fucking, that you didn’t notice. This is my home, you don’t insult her in front of me because you should have known!” “But Buffy, I love you. She tricked us. We are meant to be together, don’t let HER tear us apart”, Riley said with a sweet but begging voice. Buffy looked at him sadly and shook her head. “No, it wasn’t her. It was you who did it. It’s over Riley”, she said. Riley looked at her with his mouth open, looking like a fish on dry land, she thought. “I can’t believe you’re doing this to me again!” he screamed, his voice rising into a high pitch squeal. “I dumped him”, explained Faith with a shrug of her shoulders. “Why are you even here then?” Buffy asked Riley. “Willow told me it wasn’t you, that you had ran away before”, Riley answered trying to get back on track. Buffy turned to Willow. “It wasn’t you who left Riley, it was Faith. I know you love Riley...” Willow started but was cut off by Buffy: “Who said I ever was in love with Riley? I can see that he doesn’t really love me, if he did, he would have noticed it wasn’t me. I think you are more into him than I am.” Faith chuckled but Willow looked upset. “Buffy”, she tried but again was interrupted, this time by Xander: “Hey! That’s not fair! You can’t treat your friends like this! You were the one that ran away again!” “You didn’t even know it wasn’t me in my body”, accused Buffy. “And how do you know we haven’t known this hole time, been looking for you?” asked Xander venomly. “Because I was back in Sunnydale little over a month ago and everything was just peachy with all of you.” “And you didn’t visit us?” Willow said with a hurt voice. Buffy turned to look at her friend, how could someone so smart be so stupid. “I am in Faith’s body. You didn’t recognize me and you wouldn’t have believed me. All it would have done, was to land me in jail or worse, in the hands of council.” “Sure the council would have taken a look into your... situation”, defended Giles. “You of all people should know they don’t negociate. They were going to kill Faith, or in this case me. No matter what she has done, she doesn’t deserve being killed in cold blood.” She glanced at her watch and grabbed her coat. “As fun as this reunion has been, I have to go to work. Lock the door on your way out”, she said and left the stunned Scooby gang in her apartment. “I can’t believe this! How could she do that!?” Xander screamed. To be continued…
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