“Angel Investigations, we help the hopeless!” Chirped Cordelia’s clear voice. It fell as quickly as it had perked up when she heard who was on the line. “Oh. It’s just you, Willow.”

“Gee, thanks, Cordy.”

Cordelia waved her hand in the air, even though Willow couldn’t see her. “Oh, you know what I mean. You’re not a paying customer, that’s all. Want to talk to Angel?”

“No, actually is Wesley there? I need some help researching a demon that just showed up in Sunnydale, and we’ve never seen before.”

“Sure. Just a sec.” Covering the mouthpiece of the phone, Cordelia shouted across the room. “Wesley! Willow’s on the phone for you!”

“Thank you! Would you tell her I’ll be just a moment, Cordelia?!”

Cordelia returned to the phone. “Wes says-”

“He’ll be just a moment. Yeah. I heard.”

Silence followed for a few moments, then Cordy spoke again. “So, how are people taking it?”

Willow’s brow furrowed on her end of the line. “Taking what?”

“You know. Buffy and Angel.”

“What about Buffy and Angel?”

Silence followed that question for long moments, then Cordelia burst out laughing. When she finally got herself together, she managed to blurt out her words between snorts. “Oh! That’s rich. She didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

For some reason, Cordelia’s conscience kicked in right about then, and she sobered up. “Uh... I think you better ask Buffy about that, Will.” She put her hand over the microphone briefly and said something to Wesley. Then she spoke quickly into the phone once more. “Here’s Wes, Willow.”

“Thanks, but-”

Cordelia was already gone though, and Wesley answered the phone with the brisk watcher-like tone his voice still carried. “Hello.”

Willow, her head spinning, barely managed a coherent response. “Uh... hey, Wesley. What... what was that about?”
Wesley seemed to dismiss it out of hand. “It’s nothing. Probably you should forget about it. Now, what did you call about?”
Willow managed to push it out of her head and focus on the demon, at least for the moment, but she knew she wouldn’t forget this phone call anytime soon.

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

“Buffy?”
Buffy looked up from where she was washing dishes in the sink to see Willow, looking hesitant, standing in the door. “Hey, Will.”

“Um... can I talk to you?”
Buffy frowned a little in confusion. “Yeah. Sure.” She gestured towards the chairs at the kitchen table. “Have a seat.”

Willow sat down as Buffy had suggested, and started twiddling her thumbs, not sure what to say or how to start this conversation.

Buffy turned her head a little and looked at her friend. “Will? What is it?”
“Um...”

Buffy rinsed her hands quickly and grabbed the towel by the sink. Drying her prune-patterned fingers briskly, she sat down in the seat next to Willow and leaned on the table a little. “Willow?”

Willow wouldn’t meet her eyes as she spoke. “Buffy... I called Wesley a few days ago.”

Buffy didn’t make the connection. “Oh. How is he?”

“Fine. But while I was waiting for him to be available, Cordelia and I were talking.”

Buffy nodded, the idea of the witch and the ex-cheerleader speaking on friendly terms not nearly as strange as it had once been. “Okay...”

Willow took a deep breath and almost used the air to propel the words out of her mouth extremely quickly. “ShesaidsomethingaboutyouandAngel.”

“What?”

“She said something... about you and Angel.”

Buffy nodded slowly, looking at the tabletop. So, it was out. Sooner or later, she’d known it would get around. She’d just been hoping to have some time to think about it before their secret was out. “So, I guess you know then,” She said.

Willow shook her head. “No. Actually... I don’t. Cordelia said I should ask you... I think she’s growing a conscience.” The witch smiled, trying to lighten things up a little.

Buffy returned her best friend’s smile weakly. “Yeah.” She paused, trying to think about what she was going to say. “Well, I guess I’d better tell you, then, huh?”

Willow put her hand over her friend’s, seeming to gain confidence from Buffy’s uncertainty. “You know you don’t have to. But I’d like to know. I know from personal experience that sometimes it’s useful to have help.”

Buffy sighed, and nodded. “Okay.”

There was silence in the room for a little while. Willow didn’t say anything, just waited for her friend to speak.

Finally, Buffy raised her head and started to speak. “Remember when I went to LA a few weeks ago?”

Willow nodded.

“Well, I ran into Angel at a bar. Not really ran into, more like spied upon from behind a pillar, actually, but same thing.”

She paused again. “He was brushing off a woman. Nothing unusual considering Angel, but it was what he said to do it that was surprising.

“He told her he was married.”

Willow’s eyes widened, but she didn’t speak, sensing that Buffy needed to get this out without being interrupted.

“So, I went to the hotel to talk to Cordelia, see if she had any idea what was going on. I knew it was going to hurt like hell if he was... but I wanted to know if he was seriously involved with anyone.

“She said she didn’t have a clue what he’d been talking about. So I waited for Angel, and he came back a few minutes later, smelling like a brewery.”

At that, Willow couldn’t help but interrupt. “Angel was drinking?”
Buffy nodded. “Cordelia said she’d come unfortunately close to dying, and Angel had been a little touchy.” She smiled a little sadly. “I don’t think there’s anything romantic between those two, but I think they’re really becoming best friends.” She shook her head, and tried to shoo away the melancholy feelings that were taking hold in her head. “I don’t begrudge him that,” She said firmly, trying to convince herself as much as Willow.

The witch opened her mouth to try and interject something, but Buffy waved it away and continued with the story.

“Anyway, he came back, and we talked, and it turns out there was a little something he didn’t tell me.”

Buffy dipped her hand into the neck of her shirt and pulled out the thin chain she wore the claddagh ring on. “This?” She pointed towards it. “Just a bonding ring, like he said. That is, until we ‘consummated’ our vows. Which in essence, turned it into an Irish wedding band.”

Willow’s eyes went so wide it was almost comical. Buffy smiled wryly, and continued. “This-” She touched her neck, “is a vampire mark. In essence, a vampire claim, which translates into something like a marriage when it’s put on a mate.”

She threw her hands up in the air, frustration taking over. “And he never told me!”

Willow, even in her shock, put her hands on top of Buffy’s, trying to offer her some comfort. The Slayer smiled at her, then got up and went back to the dishes.

“I don’t know what to do. Nothing’s really changed, but at the same time, everything’s changed.”

“What do you want to do, Buffy?” Willow asked softly.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes. It does. I’ve seen you do some extraordinary things, I know for a fact that what you want matters.”

Buffy smiled a little, but it faded nearly as quickly as it had spread over her face. “I don’t know what I want, Will. But more importantly, I don’t know what I can do. It’s not like anything’s changed because of this. I mean, I may have just learned of it, but it happened three and four years ago!”

She turned to her friend, keeping her dripping hands over the sink. “I’d appreciate if you didn’t say anything to anyone?” She asked, a little pleadingly.

“Of course I won’t, Buffy. But promise you’ll come talk if you need to?”
Buffy smiled. “Yeah. I promise.”

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

Buffy never did take her friend up on the offer to talk, though. Willow was a little disappointed at not getting to know what was going on in the Slayer’s head, but at the same time she knew that things were very complicated for her best friend, and respected her decision to try and puzzle it through on her own.

She did, however, take matters a little into her own hands, calling the LA crew to check and see how the other half of this puzzle was. Cordelia talked to her freely as soon as she learned that Willow knew about the ‘little incident’, seemingly glad to have someone to girl-talk to.

“Willow, I’m not really sure I should tell you-”

The witch interrupted quickly. “It’s okay. Buffy told me.”

Willow could almost see Cordelia raising an eyebrow. “She told you?”
“Yep.”

Again, the redhead could almost see the grin spreading over the ex-cheerleader’s face, and there was no hesitation in her voice when she spoke. “Well, then I guess it’s okay!”

Willow grinned, catching some of Cordelia’s enthusiasm without trying. “How’s Angel?” She asked.

Cordelia’s happy tone faltered a little. “Well, he’s okay.”

“Cordy...”

“He is. He’s okay. But he doesn’t smile much, and he broods a lot.”

Willow shrugged to herself. “Sounds like Angel.”

“I know. But he hasn’t been doing that as much lately. Since Conner. Not until Buffy came to visit.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t tell Buffy, okay? It wasn’t her fault, I know she needs to work through this alone, and so does he.”

“Okay. So, what’s Conner been up to?”

With the subject change, Cordelia brightened instantly. “Oh, Willow, he’s so cute! He’s learning to smile, and he babbles at you like he thinks he’s really talking... and you should see Angel when he’s holding him-”

Willow laughed. “I get the picture, Cordy. He’s really cute.” She sighed. “I wish I could come see him.”

“You should! Bring Buffy and Dawn, and we’ll take him out!”

Willow’s tone fell a little. “I wish I could. But Buffy would never leave Sunnydale for long enough to come. And plus, I think things between her and Angel might be a little stressed.”

“Oh. Yeah, I forgot for a moment. They’ve gotten so good at pretending everything’s normal and they’re not pining for each other that it’s weird to have them openly pining again, you know?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

“Is Buffy taking things okay? You asked about Angel, but I haven’t heard about the other half of this dynamic duo, yet.”

Willow put the phone between her shoulder and her ear, and grabbed an apple to munch on. “She’s okay. She’s kind of subdued, and not really as bubbly as she was getting back to, and she gets distracted sometimes and I know she’s thinking about it, but she doesn’t seem depressed or anything. I think it’s all just really confusing, and she needs to think about it for a while.”

“Tell me about it! Angel’s going to think, translation, brood, about this forever.”

Willow laughed. “Well, good luck, Cordy.”

“About what?”

“Angel, of course. I know what he can be like when he’s in major brood-mode. Sorry you have to deal with it.”

Cordelia waved it off. “I’m used to it. Though I must admit, I was getting rather attached to the new, less-broody version of my boss.” There was a pause, then she returned her attention to the phone line. “Oops. Had to make sure Wesley didn’t hear that. Sometimes I forget. Angel was the boss for so long, and we still run out of his hotel, and we really still take orders from him. Just don’t tell Wes that.”

Willow laughed. “I won’t.”

Something rang in the background, and Cordelia spoke again. “I better go. I’m calling you on my cell phone, and that’s the office phone.”

“Okay. Talk to you later!”

“Promise. And come see Conner sometime, okay? Before he gets much older?”

“I’ll try.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

---

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