Title: Then and Now
Author: Kat, a.k.a. KallieRose
E-mail: [email protected]
Rating: NC-17 eventually, PG for now
Pairing: Willow/Angelus
Disclaimer: I acknowledge Joss Whedon as god of gods. All the characters in this story are his creation, along with Fox, the rest of the Mutant Enemy Crew, and whomever else wants to lay claim to them. I'm merely killing time by putting them in totally unrealistic situations :-)
Summary: Angelus takes an interest in Willow, in order to tick off Buffy.  But it doesn't quite turn out the way he expects it to.
Spoilers: Spoilers for season 2 Buffy
A/N:  A huge thanks to Gabrielle and Lisa for all their help and support.  Without the help and encouragement of these two wonderful ladies this story would probably just be stuck inside my demented little head./

Then and Now

Part 7

"Haven't you guessed yet, little flame? I'm fixated on you."

Willow snorted derisively, taking the vampire by surprise. "Yeah right, Angelus. Try again," she said, her voice bitter.

"Why do you doubt me?" he asked, his curiosity displayed on his face.

"I know you all think of me as naive little Willow, and maybe I am a bit naive, but I'm not stupid," she said the words angrily, her eyes sparkling with passion. "You're bugging me because you think it will upset Buffy. Guess you'd better rethink that plan, huh? I assume you must have overheard the conversation in the library tonight, just like I did. So you know that Buffy doesn't give a flying fig about me."

Ah, the pity party was in full force now, he thought gleefully, careful to keep his face a blank canvas. No, it definitely wouldn't do for her to catch him gloating over her friends' betrayal.

"Had it ever occurred to you that I might be interested in you because you're you?" he suggested, doing his best to look sincere. 

"Nope, not for one minute," she replied matter-of-factly. "Being me is not something that ever gets me noticed." Willow frowned slightly, wondering if her sentence really made sense. She suspected that it probably hadn't, but decided to let it be.

The gentle smile on Angelus' face told her that he understood her words, even if they were a little confusing. "Maybe Angel and the moron were too stupid to notice you, but I'm just a bit smarter than they are," he informed her arrogantly. The soft smile had curved into his trademark smirk, and Willow found herself wondering for a moment what it would feel like if those lips touched her own.

The thought, and the thought that she had even had such a thought, sobered her immediately. This was Angelus, not Angel, she reminded herself. Kissing him would be a prelude to death, nothing more. And as angry and hurt as she was right now, she still wasn't about to commit suicide. 

"Well so am I," she told him angrily. "I'm smart enough to know that all you're trying to do is cause trouble for Buffy; I'm simply a convenient pawn."

"And is it working?" he asked teasingly, still smirking at her.

Of course it was, Willow thought sadly, but she was not going to admit it to him. "Not one bit," she said bravely, the sorrow on her face proving her a liar. Angelus wisely chose not to call her on it, but they were both aware that he knew the truth.

"Why do you care what Buffy thinks? Or any of them, for that matter?" 

"Why? Because they're my friends."

"Friends wouldn't keep secrets from you. Friends wouldn't talk behind your back like they do. Friends wouldn't hurt you like they do."

Each word was a knife in her heart, and they both knew it. Tears began to pool in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She would not cry in front of him. 

"Go away Angelus," she sighed, sitting up and facing him. "I'm tired, and I'm hurting, and you're not helping me feel better."

Angelus knew that staying any longer would just rekindle her anger, most likely directing it towards him. That would be counter-productive, to say the least, so he decided to do as she requested. There was always tomorrow.

He stood gracefully, his body fluid in its motion. "I really do want to be your friend, Willow. Perhaps even more," he let the phrase trail off suggestively, watching her face intently to see if his words were getting through to her at all. "I know you don't believe me, and I guess I can't blame you. Just remember that if you ever need me, I'll be here for you."

Judging from the look on her face, she didn't believe one word out of his mouth. Instead of replying, she came to her feet, closed the door firmly in his face, and jerked the curtains closed. 

He continued to watch her through the thin curtains, her body merely a silhouette to his eyes. Yes, tomorrow was another day, he reminded himself. Maybe she could resist him right now, but between her friends' mistreatment of her and his charm, he would soon wear down her stubbornness until she gave in. And then revenge would be his.

"Hey Willow," Xander greeted her cheerfully, as he stuffed half a Twinkie into his mouth, his lips grinning around the white sugary frosting. 

She had tracked him down to the library, deciding that they needed to have a talk. Maybe they could clear the air and actually clear away the lies that had clouded their relationship. Maybe she could get rid of the angry bitterness she was drowning in every time she thought of him.

Sitting down beside him at the large table in the middle of the library, she put on her happy face, the one that she wore when she wanted to fool them all. But in her mind, she replayed the overheard conversation from last night on a continuous loop in her head. Buffy and Cordelia had humiliated her, and Xander hadn't even had the decency to stand up for her. 'Liar!' her mind screamed, wanting to say the words aloud and hurt him the way that he had hurt her. But instead she merely smiled and responded to his greeting. "Hi Xan."

Was Angelus right? Did she deserve better treatment from those she thought were her friends? Would she ever get it if she didn't stand up and demand it?

Thoughts of Angelus assailed her again, pulling her consciousness this way and that. She contrasted her image of him with the one she had of Xander: Xander, the sweet goofy adolescent, all hormones and gangly limbs as he joked his way through life. The joking was his way of hiding deeper scars; he used humor as a way to hide his feelings and his pain. But after what she had seen last night, she realized that there was another part to her friend that she never knew existed. The part that had been lying to her, apparently for some time, about his relationship with Cordelia. And my god didn't that sentence just make her stomach want to heave?

And then there was Angelus: He took lying to an art form; decades of practice had made them dance off his tongue effortlessly, sounding just as real as the truth ever could. Dark clothes and dark hair hid an even darker heart. He was dangerous and handsome and sexy and all those things that she had always associated with men, as opposed to boys. If only....

If only he wasn't a psychopath who couldn't be trusted? A serial killer who lived off of the blood and the fear and pain of innocents? Well, yeah, she acknowledged, there were a few negatives when it came to Angelus. Angel hadn't been like that. But then Angel had belonged to Buffy.

'Oh god, is it true? Are Buffy's accusations right?' she asked herself in horror. Was she lusting after Angelus because she knew she couldn't have Angel? But that would make her...well, just a really awful person.

Willow shoved her thoughts of Angelus away, locking them up tight in a lonely corner of her mind. She needed to concentrate on Xander. 

"So what's new, Xan?" she asked, infusing her voice with her customary curiosity and happiness. In her mind, she had the entire conversation planned. What she would say, what he would say back, all of that. She would be mature and gracious; pleased that he had finally found someone that made him happy, even if it wasn't her.

Xander gave her an uneasy look at the question, obviously wondering if she had heard anything. Perhaps he was toying with the idea of telling her the truth. It *was* the perfect opportunity, after all.

But instead of sharing his news with her, he turned his head towards the table and mumbled a quiet, "Nothing much," as he attempted to swallow yet another Twinkie without the benefit of chewing it first. The result, in typical Xander style, was somewhere between a cough and a gulp, and it took the boy a moment to return his breathing to normal after his close brush with death by Twinkie-inhalation.

Willow watched idly as he calmed down, waiting for him to signal that he was back to 'normal', whatever that happened to mean to him. 

"Is there..is there anything that you, um, you want to tell me?" she asked quietly, trying to catch his eye. 

He avoided her gaze, ducking his head down once again and staring at the table. "No--no! Uh, why do you ask? Have you heard something?" He tried to make the words sound light and teasing, but the tense look on his face said something else entirely.

She wanted to scream with frustration at his stubbornness. She was trying to do the right thing, damn it. How much more of an opening did she have to give him, for heaven's sake? 'Just TELL ME,' she wanted to scream at him.

Willow gathered her courage to try again, but Giles rescued her from another sure-to-be-unsuccessful attempt as he entered the library, his arms full of books. Jenny followed behind him, arms laden with yet more books. 

The tension drained from Xander's body as he saw his rescuers enter the room. Willow's questions had made him wonder if perhaps she knew about him and Cordelia, but he just couldn't be sure. Telling her the truth now, if she didn't already know it, was just something he didn't want to deal with at the moment, not with everything that was going on.

"Research, huh?" he asked eagerly. Sure, he wasn't a big fan of the research thing, but research also meant that a need for more donuts and/or pizza was right around the corner, and he was just the guy to go and get them. The fact that it would also get him out of having to have 'the talk' with Willow was just an additional bonus.

Willow watched in disappointment as Xander grabbed his coat and headed off to parts unknown. 'So much for being the adult and getting the truth out of him,' she thought sadly.

It took two tries for Jenny to pull the redhead away from her troubled thoughts. "Willow?" she asked softly, putting a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder.

Willow's head jerked up, surprise written on her face, as she stared at the woman before her. "Hi Jenny," she said dispiritedly, turning to look back at the table. Time to shake it off, she scolded herself. There's nothing I can do about it now, so I might as well help out.

Since Jenny was in the library, Willow assumed that the newly arrived books were somehow related to the re-souling spell. "So where do I start?" she asked, pasting an eager smile on her face. 'There, I can do this,' she thought.

"So you're not afraid to be seen talking to me?" Jenny asked in a prison whisper, trying to infuse a tiny bit of humor into the situation.

Almost against her will, Willow let a soft, sincere smile drift across her face. The small gesture reassured her teacher that even if the rest of them weren't terribly thrilled to have her help, Willow at least was willing to welcome her back into their circle.

The tension had broken, and when Giles came to join them at the table, the three talked eagerly. The discussion started casually, but soon the talk centered on the restoration spell: where they could find it, how they could translate it, and how soon they might be able to use it to restore Angel's soul.



End of Part 7

Part 8


Long late nights spent researching always made Willow sleepy, and this night was no exception. Although her brain enjoyed the stimulation that could be gleaned from talking with Jenny and Giles, the books they had pored over were rather musty and dull. Once she got home that evening the redhead barely had time to throw on an old, oversized T-shirt and crawl into bed before sleep claimed her. 

A refreshing, full eight hours of rest would have been wonderful, but it was something she rarely experienced. And it certainly wasn't going to happen tonight, either. Especially not if a certain dark-haired vampire had anything to say about it.

It was the feel of his hand that finally roused her to consciousness. Her dreams had been full of pleasant things: carnivals; the beach; a sunny day. Somehow the feel of a soft hand, gently stroking her cheek, had incorporated itself into her dreams. Something in her mind rebelled. The dolphin was stroking her cheek gently? Wait, dolphins didn't have hands, did they? Something was wrong.

She struggled to break the bonds of sleep, her tired green eyes finally opening to look directly into amused brown ones. "Angelus?" she yawned, drowsiness making her slow to realize the perilous nature of her situation.

"Angelus," the brown-eyed apparition agreed, his voice serious, his hand still lightly stroking her cheek. 

The stroking of his hand was disorienting, to say the least. She wanted to move, to scream, to push him away from her, but she was mesmerized by the gentleness he displayed. Either that or insensible with terror. It was a toss-up, really.

"H-how did you get in?" she asked, attempting to quell the tremor of fear in her voice. She knew that nobody else was in the house; her parents had just left a couple of hours ago for a conference in Madrid, leaving her all alone for a week. It was not at all unusual, but in this case it was rather disturbing. On one hand, it was nice that they weren't going to die at the hands of the homicidal vampire before her, but on the other hand, it would have been nice to know that there was a chance that *someone* might call in the cavalry.

Her mind did a quick inventory of her situation. The first thing it came up with was the vampire leaning over her, stroking her cheek tenderly. Wasn't he supposed to be draining her dry right about now? Best not to remind him of that fact, though. Might lead to unfortunate consequences.

"And, um, what are you doing here?" Stupid question Willow, she berated herself silently. He's here to kill you, of course. Sure, he's being all nice now, with the gentle hand and the soft voice, and all that, but once he's lulled you into a false sense of security, it's nighty-night Willow, for good. "I-I mean, not that it isn't nice to see you and all," she added politely. 'Mustn't piss off the master vampire,' she thought irreverently. 

"Well," he drawled, amusement tingeing his voice, "I was in the neighborhood, and thought it would be rude not to stop by and say hello. As for how I got in, you'll have to blame your mother, I'm afraid. I have to say that Sheila is *quite* a charming woman," he added playfully, his eyes warm and smiling as they remembered his earlier conversation. "She was very impressed when I informed her that I was your history teacher, and that I wished to drop by an early admissions application from UCLA for you. For some reason she doesn't want you to go to UC-Sunnydale. Although I can't imagine why," he added with a smirk.

The surreal conversation was taking its toll on Willow's nerves, and she struggled to sit upright in the bed, hoping to gain a small advantage by facing him head-on instead of having to look up at him. Anxious eyes latched themselves onto Angelus' face, as she nervously waited for his next move. 

"Why so quiet, little flame? Cat got your tongue?" he asked lazily, his hand leaving her cheek to move lower, ghosting gently over her throat and stopping momentarily at her pulse-point. He felt the racing thump of her pulse beneath his fingers, and imagined how sweet that blood would taste. "Your pulse is running a mile a minute, Willow. Is it fear or desire that makes your heart beat so quickly?"

Willow cringed, blushing furiously at what he was implying. If she was to be honest, she would have to admit to being drawn to him, in the same way that a moth was drawn to a flame. But desire? Was that really what she felt?

"What do you mean?" she asked, trying nervously to deny his accusation. "Desire? You mean, like a death wish?"

Angelus threw back his head and laughed loudly, the sound sending icy shivers down her spine. How did he manage to make such a simple sound seem both sexy and dangerous? Or was it simply sexy because it *was* dangerous? Willow's young mind didn't have an answer to that question, so she forced herself to think of something else. Like Buffy. But it was awfully difficult to think about Buffy when even now his hands were drifting further down her body, touching here, teasing there, making her skin tingle with sensations that she'd never felt before.

"Why are you doing this? Shouldn't you be killing me right now?" she asked, her question filled with equal parts curiosity and dread. She did want to know why he wasn't killing her at the moment, but part of her was afraid of what his answer might be.

Angelus looked back at her, his hand cupping her chin and raising her eyes to meet his. "You sound almost disappointed Willow," he said mockingly. "Would you prefer it if I drained you here and left your pretty body for your friends to find on the morrow?"

His words fed her fears and she began to struggle, her movements puny and futile against the strength of the vampire next to her. His hands rested on her shoulders, pressing her easily down onto the bed. "Relax," he breathed, his voice a soft, seductive whisper as he tried to calm her. "Don't fight me."

"I'm thinking that fighting you would be in my best interest right about now," she panted, undeterred by the promise in his voice. Her struggles continued, but to no avail, and finally she gave up. Unless something happened to distract his attention, she was just wasting her time and energy.

When she looked at him again, she nearly cringed at the amusement sparkling in his knowing eyes. "So now that I have you, whatever will I do with you?" he asked mockingly. He watched her like a cat evaluating the evening's treat, and then in a blink of an eye, his hand grabbed her comforter. With a flick of his wrist, he pulled it away from her body, displaying her bare flesh to his appraising eyes. The thigh-length t-shirt she wore was barely enough to cover her chest and abdomen, and it bunched up around her hips, leaving most of her body vulnerable to his bold gaze.

Willow shrank back into the bed, as if trying to lose herself within the mattress. Such an attempt was futile, of course, but she could still try.

"Why do you shy away from me, my little flame?" Angelus asked, his voice husky. He reached out again to touch her face, his hand cool and somewhat comforting against her hot flesh. "I could make you feel so good, and all you would have to do is lie back and enjoy it."

Showing her a taste of what he could give her, he moved his hand lower, his fingers teasing the hollow of her throat, then moving down to her breasts. She gasped as he cupped her breast, his thumb massaging the nipple through the soft fabric of her nightgown. 

'Bad, this is so very bad,' she thought, her words a direct contrast of the feelings assailing her at the moment. It was wrong, wrong, wrong, and yet her body was responding as if she had no control over it. Her nipples hardened, the tips aching for attention; her face flushed, the skin hot to the touch of the cool night air surrounding it; and when he leaned in to kiss her, instead of trying to fight him, her arms curled around his neck and settled comfortably on his shoulders. 'Oh, god, oh, god, I'm *so* going to hell. And--and not the nice hell that everybody pretends is going to be like this big naughty party. I'm going to that special hell that is reserved only for people who sleep with their friends' ex-boyfriends. Okay, so, technically it's more like my friend's ex-boyfriend's soul-less split personality, but still, there's got to be a special place in hell reserved for that, right?'

As her mind babbled on, her body took advantage of its distraction to simply revel in the sensation. His kisses were tender yet wild, passionate and yet gentle. His tongue teasingly traced the depression of her lips, asking her to open up to him. She resisted for a mere moment before giving into his request and allowing him to explore her mouth. 

His tongue was cool and bold, sweeping in and tangling with her own, massaging it and nipping it lightly with his teeth. She shivered, a motion rooted entirely in mindless passion, and tried to pull his head even closer as her fingers knotted desperately in his short, spikey hair.

The bed dipped, and some dim part of her mind realized that he was now lying next to her, his arms wrapped tightly around her body. He stroked her back through the material of her nightgown, before moving a hand down to caress her lower back and ass. 

The feel of his hand moving lower, to places never explored before, caught her attention and pulled her out of her passionate delirium. 

"No! Angelus, no," she yelped, pulling back from his kiss and looking into his passion-glazed eyes. Her panic began to rise as she realized he had no interest whatsoever in stopping his roving hands. 

"Yes, Willow. Yes," he growled back, his brown eyes flecked with bits of gold. One hand remained firmly on her ass, gripping the flesh there and rubbing it lightly. His other hand moved back to her face, his thumb caressing her cheekbone as he stared into her eyes. "You know you want this; crave this. Why are you fighting it?"

"Oh god, this is wrong in so many ways that I don't even know where to start!" she wailed desperately, trying to scoot to the other side of the bed in an attempt to put distance between their bodies. But his hands on her body were like steel, and they pulled her body even closer to his. 

"You were enjoying yourself," he reminded her, his eyes glittering with desire. "At least you were until your petty human moralities kicked in. And don't try to pretend otherwise; your scent would make lies of any protestations of innocence you might make." He drew in a deep breath, the scents of their bodies and her desire intoxicating him.

Willow's thoughts turned inward as she thought about his words. She *had* been enjoying it. The things he did to her, the feelings and sensations that she had never felt before, were new and exciting. She would be a liar if she claimed otherwise. But that didn't mean that it was right. In fact, it was so far away from being right that she couldn't even measure the distance. 

She had betrayed her friends, each and every one of them. Buffy of course, for obvious reasons, but Xander and Giles and Jenny as well. She had kissed the man that they were working desperately to destroy, and had even enjoyed it. And god, what about Angel? She had found comfort in the arms of the one person he hated and despised above all others. What would he think of her if he could see her now? What would any of them think of her?

Angelus watched the emotions flicker across her face, reveling in the ease with which he could read her. She was truly an innocent in every way; he would have so much fun destroying and corrupting every last inch of her. He knew that he could take her now, and that she would enjoy every minute of it, even while she hated herself for it. But if he did that, the game would be over too quickly, and then what would he do for fun? Talk over old times with Spike and Drusilla? Not bloody likely.

She could sense his eyes on her and became increasingly uneasy as the silence stretched between them. "Can you--will you please leave me?" she asked quietly, knowing that he would probably ignore her request, but not knowing what else to do.

His eyes were unreadable as he considered her request. After what seemed like an eternity, he nodded slowly, the gears in his mind still turning. "I will leave. But before you relax, there are conditions."

At her questioning look, he continued. "I'll leave, but only if you promise me something."

"What?" she asked breathlessly, her eyes large and curious.

"You have to promise that you won't revoke my invitation," he told her smugly, a grin twisting his lips at the startled look on her face. "If you do, I might just have to visit your mother again when she gets back into town next week. And believe me, after having to wait a week, I might be a bit less...polite than I was the last time we met."

Willow's stomach turned at the thought of what he could, and would, do to her mother. She didn't doubt for one moment that he would kill her instantly if it would help him achieve his goal. But on the other hand, if she didn't revoke the invitation, he could come in at any time of night and...and...well, he could do whatever he wanted. 

"I..." Conflicting emotions assailed her. She felt anger at being so helpless, mixed with futility, bitterness, and finally calm acceptance that she was going to have to do what he asked. She licked lips that were suddenly dry and cracked, and slowly nodded her head. "I promise," she said, bowing her head and fighting to hide the tears of frustration that threatened to pool in her eyes.

"That's my girl," Angelus said softly, almost tenderly, before getting up and walking to the door. He spared her one last look before he walked out her door to the balcony, savoring the picture of her misery, before closing the door quietly behind him and leaving her alone with her thoughts, and the knowledge that sooner or later, he would return for her.

End of Chapter 8

Part 9


The day at school had been fairly long and boring, so it was with some relief that Willow entered the library at the end of her day, hoping for something slightly more challenging. Buffy and Xander had soon joined her, and the three had talked happily. Sometimes Willow would cast a look at Xander, wishing she could convince him somehow to tell her about Cordelia, but the truth continued to elude the boy, and he prattled on happily about this or that superficial subject, never really getting close to telling her anything real. 

'Buffy probably made him uncomfortable when she told him that I had a crush on him,' Willow thought, knowing that like most young men, Xander seemed to have a problem expressing and accepting emotions. That added yet another reason for him to shut her out as much as possible. A small flicker of anger burned in her mind when she thought about Buffy's careless words, and the affect that they were having.

Before long it was early evening, and shadows had begun to flood the room, the tall bookshelves casting eerie shadows on the floor. Cordelia had decided to grace them with her presence, freshly showered and cheerful from another successful cheerleading victory. There had been no physical demonstrations of affections between the brunette and her boyfriend, but Willow caught several looks passing between the two when they thought she wasn't looking.

It made her sad that they continued to shut her out of their lives, and several times she almost spoke up, determined to put an end to their charade. As always, her insecurities managed to get the better of her and she stayed silent, a slight frown marring her face. Give them time, her insecurities demanded. They'll tell you when they think you're ready. She acquiesced, knowing that with every lie her friends were drifting further and further away from her.

But then again, they weren't the only ones telling lies. 

Giles had come out from his office momentarily to ask if anyone had been visited by Angelus the previous evening, and Willow had done her best to look honest and trustworthy as she said absolutely nothing. She still remembered Buffy's reaction the last time that Angelus had shown undue interest in her, and she was *not* about to go through all of that drama again. Fortunately, nobody else had been paid a visit from the dark vampire either, and the subject was swiftly dropped.

"So have we done enough of this crap yet?" Cordelia asked, boredom pouring from every inch of her well-manicured nails. "Because I'm missing prime action at the Bronze tonight. There's a really cool band playing, and I hear that *some* people might even show up and, like, dance and stuff." Her eyes strayed to Xander's then, her intentions quite evident to everyone in the room, even Willow.

The young man cleared his throat uneasily, shooting an anxious look at his redheaded friend, glad to see that she seemed to be deeply interested in the pages of the book before her. "I guess we could go hang out. Buffy, you up?"

"I'm *so* up!" the blonde answered, shooting a look at Willow before looking back at Xander. 

"Um, Willow, well, do you want to..." Xander trailed off, his invitation obviously brought about by guilt and not any true desire that Willow join them. 

"Yeah, Willow, I'd ask you to come with, but you seem to be really interested in that book, so see ya tomorrow!" Buffy called out, as she headed towards the door at something close to vampire-type speed. 

As the doors swung shut behind the three friends, Willow's eyes widened at her rather obvious desertion. 'It hurts,' she thought. 'I mean, I know that they're doing it because I don't know their little secret, and they don't want to tell me, so it's easier to just ignore me and go off without me. I do understand that. But it still hurts.' 

She was glad that Giles still seemed to be in deep thought inside his office; glad that he hadn't witnessed her snubbing at the hands of the others. And even more glad that he never saw the tears that fell slowly from her eyes, rolled down her cheeks, and came to rest within the pages of the book before her. 

'Enough of this,' she remonstrated, preparing to give herself a mental pep talk to chase away the blues, at the same time that she wiped her eyes, destroying the evidence of her unhappiness. Things were bad enough without having to deal with Giles and his awkward attempts at consolation. Not that she wasn't glad that *someone* cared about her. 

Willow wondered sometimes what 'normal' teenagers did with their evenings. Maybe it wasn't so different than this. Studying, talking with parents, watching TV perhaps. Well, her parents were gone again, as they so often were, but at least she had Giles and Jenny, sitting with her as she researched, keeping her spirits up with gentle words of praise and encouragement. 

Although she *was* studying at the moment, she was willing to bet that most teenagers were studying math or science and not - she glanced at the title of the book - Ancient Curses of the Byzantine Empire. As for TV, well, she had to agree with her parents on that one: it rotted the mind and the imagination. So at least *that* wasn't something she felt bad about missing. But in spite of all her attempts to make herself feel that her life was close to normal, she still knew that she was missing something. Something important. Something that would make all the rest of this seem worthwhile.

"Oh, oh! Oh, I think I found it!" Ms. Calender cried excitedly, bouncing up and down in her seat like a young teenager, not at all the usual picture of mature intelligence that she usually projected.

Giles raised an eyebrow, unimpressed with her display of exuberance. "And what exactly did you find?" he wondered aloud. Months of researching with Xander had made the Watcher skeptical whenever he heard the words, 'I found it.' Usually what it meant was that the boy had found something useless, and everybody got their hopes up, only to be cruelly dashed when Xander explained that he had finally found the demon that looked exactly like the one in his comic book. Or that he had found the Twinkie he had misplaced the previous week, still in its stay-fresh wrapper. So it wasn't entirely cruel and heartless for Giles to be less than trusting when Jenny claimed to have found something.

Willow glanced up curiously. Unlike Giles, she trusted her mentor implicitly. If the woman said she thought she had found something, then she probably had. Getting up eagerly, the redhead walked to stand behind Jenny, peering over her shoulder to see the cause of her excitement.

The words on the paper were ancient, and written in a language of which she had no knowledge. Romani, possibly? That was good, right? Since the gypsies had been the ones to curse Angelus in the first place. "Is it the original curse?" she asked anxiously, crossing her fingers behind her back in a childish display of hope for good luck and a favorable answer.

"I really think so!" Jenny answered excitedly, her fingers flying over the page as she picked a word out here and there for the group. "This word is demon," she explained, her fingers trailing along until it came to another word she recognized, "And this is soul." She looked at the word next to it, "And this is restoration!" she said, her mounting excitement proving to be infectious. 

Willow smiled happily across the table at Giles, her eyes alight with hope for the first time in days. "I think she's right, Giles. Come look at this."

Giles came to stand next to her, his eyes also flickering over the text. He knew as little Romani as Jenny did, but as he looked at the words he had to admit that the order and format resembled a list of ingredients and then instructions for a spell. He placed a hand on each of the women's shoulders, and seemed to relax visibly, the stress of the last several days sliding off of his face like water off a duck's back. "It looks very promising," he agreed cautiously. "Can you find a way to translate the rest of it?"

"Yes! It will take a day or two, but I'm sure I can do it," she told him, excitement rising in her voice. "I'll start on the ingredients first, so that way you two can start gathering them while I'm working on the rest of it. Then, once I have the words of the curse translated, we can do it!"

They smiled at each other, each of them secretly relieved that there was an end in sight to this intolerable situation, and that they could take part in the resolution. The others had their reasons, but Willow's reasons were quite a bit more personal: never again did she want to wake up to see the disturbing eyes of Angelus boring down into her soul.

"How soon do you think you can have the first part of the translation finished?" she asked softly, praying that the answer would be 'tonight.' 

"It will probably take a day or two. And then another couple of days to gather the ingredients. So, if nothing else goes wrong, we should be ready to do this in about four or five days."

Willow's eyes filled briefly with unhappiness, before she had the good sense to hide it. That seemed such a long time to wait, especially since Angelus now had access to her house at any time he wanted. She knew that these things took time, but she was hoping that they would take a little *less* time than that. Still, since there was an end in sight, maybe she could find some way to keep Angelus away from her for just a little while longer.

'Fat chance,' her mind whispered spitefully.



End of Chapter 9


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