Buffy was checked out of the hospital the next day, as the doctors had found her to be fully healthy again. The spell had worked, ridding her of all traces of the demon, and they'd explained about all that had happened over the last little while. Her mother was thrilled at the news, and had scheduled some mother/daughter bonding time for them(they were going shopping, the mom-sponsered way). Giles wanted her to start training and patrolling again right away, and she'd reluctantly agreed to it. Xander had managed to get over his anger about Buffy and Angel doing what they did, mostly because Angel was making himself scarce. Even though she was fine now, he knew staying away would be the best for them both..but mostly for her. He just couldn't shake the guilty feeling that was constantly plaguing him. Buffy's patrolling was pretty much useless, for she rarely saw any vamps, even now. They needed to find out what was up.
"Hey." she address the vampire as he approached. She was out on patrol, to no avail. No vamps - well, dangerous ones anyway - had showed up. "Hey," was Angel's reply, and an awkward silence fell over them "How's it going?" She knew he felt guilty just by being around her, but she needed him to know that what happened *wasn't* his fault, and that she didn't blame him for it. "Good," she said "I'm good. Still haven't found any vamps though." "Oh," he replied "Did Giles find anything out about that?" Giles had been researching ever since she'd gotten out of the hospital, succeeding in finding nothing. "No, he's still looking," she told him, continuing after a pause "But..you could help us look for something. I'll be helping them later-" "I..don't think that's such a good idea." he said, cutting her off. She walked over to him, and he backed away a bit. She was getting sick of this. "Look, Angel," she began, collecting her thoughts "I don't blame you for what happened to me." A look of confusion came to his face. "Why not?" he asked. "Well, let's see," she pretended to think "I love you, and there's no way you could've known that would happen." "You almost died," he shot back "And it would've been my fault." "How?!" she asked, bewildered. She could see the guilt heavy in his eyes, and wished he could see that she wasn't blaming him. "I should have just..we shouldn't have.." "Made love?" she filled in for him. He nodded. "Didn't you want to?" she asked him, knowing he couldn't deny that he had. "That doesn't matter," he said "I should've been more responsible..I should've-" "Angel!" she cut him off before he could go into a verbal brooding trip "I wanted to, you wanted to, and I *didn't* die!" She took his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her. "Do you hear me?" she asked him, near tears "I DIDN'T DIE!" They were both silent a moment, before he spoke. "But you could have," he said quietly "I *don't* want that to happen." She let her arms drop, and wrapped them around his waist. "I know," she told him, tears falling gently from her eyes as she leaned her head on his chest "But I don't want to lose you." He looked down at her, about ready to break down into tears himself at seeing her in this pain. "You won't." he said. She looked up to meet his gaze. She din't know why she'd broke down like that, but she'd felt like he was pulling away from her and there was nothing she could do about it. "Promise?" she asked him, needing to be sure. He nodded "I promise." She smiled at him and pulled away a bit, gathering herself. "Sorry about that," she told him "I just needed to know..." He nodded, understanding. "Come on," he told her "Let's go see Giles. Maybe he's found something." She nodded in agreement, and they left.