Two Very Different Mornings
Max’s eyes came open slowly as she listened to the low murmur of activity around her. She could hear the familiar voice of her father, Rupert Giles, and then the clear voice of her roommate, Cordelia Chase. She glanced about the room she was in, taking in the hotel room, the bed she lay in. The events that had led her here crept in, causing a sweet smile to wash over her face. She turned her head carefully, noting thankfully that the headache that accompanied her concussion was gone. Her ribs were still extremely sore, but she knew they’d heal up in a few days. She arched her neck, feeling the stretch of her new scar from Angel’s bite mark. Her eyes roamed over the expanse of bed beside her, noting immediately that he wasn’t there. Feeling the warm glow of sunlight on her body, she believed she understood why. She listened still, but couldn’t hear his voice with the others. With a sigh, Max carefully swung her legs over to the edge of the bed and prepared to stand.
"What do you think you’re doing?" Cordy screeched. She had been pushing a cart into the bedroom, presumably with breakfast on it.
"I’m getting up," Max replied easily as she pushed up off the bed.
"No, you need to stay there," Cordy ordered in her most imperious tone. But Max paid no heed to her, just like usual. The battered and bruised brunette simply grinned at her friend and shakily stood. Cordy muttered under her breath before moving to steady her friend but found it was unnecessary. Max was already regaining her strength, if the smile on her face was any indication. Cordy just wasn’t sure why Max had such a glowing look about her.
"What?" Max demanded impishly, noticing the puzzlement on the other woman’s face.
"I’m sorry," she spoke, her tone low. She glanced back at the bedroom door, then moved to shut it fully. "You seem to be in an awfully chipper mood for someone who was sexually assaulted last night."
"What?" it was Max’s turn for incredulity. She gaped at Cordelia as her friend stared back.
"Well, I mean, that’s what happened, wasn’t it?" the taller woman demanded. Max stared at her, trying to decide just how much to tell her friend. After all, it wasn’t as if she could just deny knowing what Cordy was talking about. She was the one that had walked in afterwards. And despite Max’s feeble protests, had been the one to call for an ambulance.
"No, that’s not what happened," Max scowled at Cordy. "It was mutual, thank you very much."
Cordy stared uncomprehendingly at her roommate. She finally gestured to her friend’s body. "This was mutual? Mutual?" She sighed. "I didn’t know I had such a nympho roommate who liked getting beat up to get her jollies."
"Cordelia!" Max squealed, her cheeks flaming at the girl’s assessment of her love life. "What the hell business is it of yours how I like it?"
"Oh right," Cordy sneered. "Next time I come home to find my friend beaten and raped, I’ll just leave her there, cause it’s none of my business."
"Damn straight," Max jerked her head to emphasize her feelings on the matter. The two women stood, four feet apart, arms crossed, bodies tense, waiting for the other to make the first move. There was a knock on the bedroom door, but neither moved to answer. Finally Giles opened the door and peeked around, to check on them.
"I-is everything a-alright?" he managed. Neither woman moved. He came into the room fully. "Really, Max, you shouldn’t be up," he lectured gently. "Lay back down and have some breakfast." He pushed the cart in further, checking underneath the domed lids, trying to decide which to offer her first.
"I’m not hungry," Max growled, still locked in a death glare with her roommate. Giles glanced up, his head bobbing back and forth between the two women.
"You should eat something," he cajoled finally. "After that fight last night, you need to build up your strength." Cordelia’s head whipped around to the older man.
"That’s what you told Giles?" she screeched. "You were in a fight?"
"You weren’t?" Giles queried. Max rolled her eyes before uncrossing her arms.
"She had sex with Angel," Cordy pointed out with feigned ease. Giles gasped and sank down to the bed on suddenly numb legs. His hand went to his head, the rush of emotions making him feel physically ill. First it had been Buffy, now Max. It seemed the roller coaster of torture and mayhem that was Angelus was about to start again.
"He could have killed you Max," Giles finally spoke, his voice thick with terror. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"Actually, I wasn’t," Max ground out. "There are circumstances you don’t know-!"
"I’ll kill the bloody bastard," Giles growled. He spun around, muttering as he moved to his small collection of weapons. "God damned bastard. Can’t keep it in his pants. Fool! Knows what happens. Damn it! Can’t believe I invited him in. No wonder the pillock ran away." Cordy and Max glanced at each other. Cordy experienced the longest moment of déjà vu she’d ever had in her life, seeing Giles like that. Max was simply confused. But she knew she had to do something before Giles went off the deep end. She hurried forward into the other room and yanked the crossbow from him.
"There will be no killing," she ordered. Giles gaped at her.
"Max, you don’t know what Angelus is capable of," he groaned, the mental image of Jenny, dead in his home, on his bed, flashed through his mind. He turned to Cordelia. "Didn’t anyone tell her?"
"Yeah," Cordy scoffed. "Buffy and Spike gave her the whole ‘moment of happiness’ speech. Not that she seems to have paid attention."
"What are you talking about?" Max demanded. Then it suddenly dawned on her. "Oh crap! You mean that doing…that, is responsible for…?"
"Yup," Cordy nodded. "Angel getting groiny is a bad thing." Max stared at her helplessly for a moment.
"But he didn’t," she muttered.
"Didn’t get groiny?" Cordy scoffed. Max rolled her eyes.
"No, go bad."
Giles once again stared back and forth between the two women. "I think you’d better tell me the whole story."
*****
"And that’s the whole story," Angel sighed, leaning back in his seat. His gaze was locked onto some miniscule point on his desk, so he wouldn’t have to see the glares and contempt of the people he considered friends. Had he looked, he would have been surprised at the almost contemplative looks on their faces. Wesley was in near ecstasy from these new revelations and couldn’t wait to begin researching it. While he’d certainly come a long way from his Watcher days, there was nothing that could replace the thrill of discovery of knowledge in trying circumstances. Fred and Gunn, on the other hand, were more concerned with reassuring their friend that they understood, although they didn’t really.
"Fascinating," Wes breathed. "So, you mated with Max in every sense of the word, yet, the ‘moment of true happiness’ occurred and passed by with no ill effects?"
"That pretty much sums it up," Angel remarked dryly.
"Maybe it was countered by your fear that Max was dead," Fred offered quietly. "I mean, that would be pretty effective in ruining that moment."
"Uh, that was later," Angel mumbled.
"So we can probably rule that out," We surmised. "I must ask Angel, when you uh, consummated your relationship with Buffy…did you bite her?"
"No."
"Hmm," he nodded. "Well, perhaps that factors in." He turned to Fred, who was staring sadly at her friend. He was in so much pain. His guilt was already enough. She was sure he shouldn’t have to contend with this as well. "Why don’t we go research what we can?" Wes suggested. Fred glanced at him, then over to Gunn. The black man lifted his chin and the other two nodded. They rose from their chairs and exited Angel’s office, leaving the two men to have a private talk. Gunn waited until they were gone before he leaned forward.
"Are you okay man?"
Angel glanced up. He’d heard Fred and Wes leave. He wasn’t surprised that Gunn had stayed behind. He didn’t really want to relive the details, but knew that Gunn wouldn’t press for details again. "No, I’m not." He ran a distracted hand through his hair. "I almost killed her Gunn."
"But you didn’t."
"It was close enough to scare the crap out of me."
"I’m sure it was."
"Do you have to be so agreeable?" Angel demanded, suddenly irritated. Gunn’s amused chuckle told him that the other man was aware of it.
"There’s not much else I can do," Gunn smiled. "I have no idea what the hell is going on. I have nothing to fight, don’t know what to research and am feeling pretty useless. So I’ll try my best to cheer you up. Got to have something to do." Angel smirked, just a little, but his frown returned quickly.
"I promised that I’d be with her forever," he sighed.
"That’s an easy promise for you," Gunn shrugged. "So what’s the problem?"
"I can’t," Angel choked out. "I can’t take the chance that I might hurt her. She’s already been through so much."
"Isn’t it partly Max’s choice to make?"
"No," Angel shook his head. "I just can’t do it Gunn. I can’t take the chance." Gunn sighed and rose to move around the desk. He laid a gentle hand on his friend’s shoulder, but Angel didn’t respond. With a shake of his head, Gunn left his friend to wallow in his misery. Something he was definitely good at.
*****
Before she told Giles all the intimate details of her freaky life, Max had insisted on taking care of a few details. She’d called her boss, Roy, to inform him of her ‘accident’. He’d assured her that the new kid, Connor, could pick up the sack. Then, she’d gone to take a shower. But when Cordy had come into the bathroom to help Max wrap her ribs again, they’d discovered that the prophecy had finally faded from the girl’s skin. It was this amazing moment that led them to the suppositions they were making now.
"So, if there was an addendum to the original curse," Giles was muttering, "it may have been the key to preventing the return of Angelus."
"We can only assume," Cordy drawled. Giles nodded. His mind was still whirling over the story Max had told him. And now, he could certainly understand her earlier comment about not thinking of what she was doing. Being in heat, as she put it, was beyond anything he could understand as a simple human. It disconcerted him mightily at the thought of his daughter experiencing it. It was one thing to observe and catalogue it in animals. It was a natural instinct to procreate and choose mates based on requirements stemming from protecting the herd, or whatever have you. But for a human to be reduced to that level…he shuddered. He silently thanked the powers that be that all the females of his acquaintance weren’t like that.
But really, weren’t they all like that to a certain extent? There was documented proof that pheromones played an important part in inter-personal relationships. Giles shook his head and then whipped his glasses off for a quick cleaning. He certainly didn’t need to be going down that road. He glanced back at the women. "So, Max," he cleared his throat and shoved the glasses back on his nose. "What are you going to do then?"
"I have no idea," she smiled. "Why? What do you think I should do?"
"Well, I think our best course would be to continue working on translating the markings on your back. Willow is making some headway, I’m sure," he rambled. "But for now, I believe that it would be best if you stay away from Angel, until we ascertain that there is no danger of him losing his soul."
"Like hell I will, Max smirked. She wasn’t really angry with him. She’d heard that males had a tendency to get overprotective of their daughters. She’d never experienced herself to any degree. And at this point, it was still such a novelty that she allowed it. Reveled in it. It felt good having people that cared about her. Especially when she knew that in this timeline, it wouldn’t get them killed.
"Max really," Giles frowned at her. "I assure you, we’ve known Angel far longer than you have. I think we’re in a better position to judge the danger than you are."
"Giles," Max sighed, standing and moving before him. "I get that. I understand that there are certain risks involved here. I’m not some naïve kid who’s going to rebel just to prove something."
"Where have I heard that before?" he muttered darkly.
"Besides, before all of this, Angel was my friend," she continued. "And friends don’t abandon each other." With a brilliant smile, she walked around him to find her jacket that Cordelia had brought with her change of clothes and essentials from home. "Anyway, I’m going to blaze. I’ll hook up with you later. I got some business to take care of." And with that, she was gone. Giles glanced down at Cordelia, still seated on the hotel sofa, a look of concern on her face that mirrored his.
"I just hope she knows what she’s doing," he sighed. Cordy couldn’t help but nod
Gone
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