Backfire - Spander Files

under his skin. The room was quiet as Willow silently sobbed.
Though it was barely noon, both Giles and Ms Calendar were each sipping scotch.
Oddly, it was Oz who finally broke the silence.
“I don’t understand.” His soft voice sounded loud in the room. “How did this
happen? I mean, what would cause Angel’s soul to disappear?”
“It was me.” The new voice in the room came from the doorway. All eyes fixed on
Buffy. She was in the same party clothes she had worn the evening before, only she
was much more rumpled and way less party-y.
“Buffy, I tried to call you…,“ Giles’ eyes narrowed. “What do you mean it was
you?”
The Slayer stepped in the room. In lieu of an answer she asked, “How do you all
know the soul’s gone? What the fuck’s he doing here?” She was pointing at Spike
with a stake.
*`*`*`*`*`*`*`*`*
If Xander really took the time to think about it, he’d realize that, strangely, honesty
was not this group’s strong point. So the fact that Xander’s rape, his affection
toward Spike, and Buffy’s loss of virginity were all the topics of discussion,
probably constituted the strangest hour this little Scooby Gang ever spent.
Buffy looked devastated as she was reiterating a conversation she and this new
creature Angelus had shared earlier that morning. Apparently he had reappeared
hours after abandoning their bed and belittled their little roll-in-the-hay as pointless
and bumbling. The gang was giving her sympathetic faces, but when Buffy’s eyes
met Xander’s, he heard his own mouth saying,
“Gee, Buff, that man sure can hurt with the words. I remember that the worst part of
my rape was how unkindly he spoke to me afterwards.”
Everyone stared at him with an odd mix of cruelty and sympathy, but he couldn’t