Another week had passed and Angelus noticed Buffy was more attached to him. The way she responded whenever he touched her and the way she touched him. It was like she needed him to touch her all the time like he did. They both knew each other so well that they didn't have to ask each other what felt good to each other. They know where to touch other, where to caress to drive each other crazy.
Buffy's friends found out that she had broken up with Riley. They wondered what could have gone wrong. But they had some idea that it probably had to do with Angel. Riley continued to help them out with the slaying, trying to be a good friend to Buffy, even though he wanted more from her.
He wanted things to be like before when they were together. He realized that things started to change when Evil Buffy and Angelus from the altered universe had come here. Then Angel suddenly lost his soul, which seemed so strange because they haven't been able to find anything or anyone who might have caused it.
Giles had contacted Cordelia and the demon named Doyle and confronted them about his lost soul. Since he didn't go back to LA, they had to take care of the agency. However, Doyle did mention that he had a vision of Angel loosing his soul but it was so quick that didn't give him a chance to know how that happened. Before he could contact Buffy or the gang, it was too late.
Riley had this feeling that Buffy was hiding something from him or rest of them. She was being so secretive. Willow told him that she didn't spend much time with her anymore, just like she didn't hang out with the gang anymore. Buffy would insist on patrolling herself. One day they were siting at Giles' house, doing some research about whole Angel and curse and Riley decided to confront Xander about Buffy's behavior.
"Xander, can I ask you some questions. It involves Buffy."
"Sure, Riley", Xander said.
"Well I don't know if it's just me, but Buffy seems to be acting strange don't you think?"
"Yeah, I noticed that too, but I didn't want to tell her."
"I keep feeling like she is hiding something from us and it's about Angel."
At the mention of Angel, Xander focused his attention on Riley. "What about him?" he asked.
"Well ever since he lost his soul, Buffy not only withdrew from me but also you guys. She is always making some sort of excuse that she has to do her homework or she wants to be alone."
"Ok, what you are saying make sense, but she seems happy. So it's not like she is breaking down, but you are right, I also feel we are missing something", Xander said.
"You think, we should you know keep on eye on her, of what she does", Riley whispered so nobody could hear.
"Isn't that spying? Let me tell you this, once I spied on Buffy when she was hiding Angel when he came from hell and she was so angry at me and gave me a long speech that I had no right to do that. She also said I was jealous of Angel because she would always love him and protect him no matter what. So I don't want the same thing to happen again", Xander said.
"But what if this answers lot of questions we want to know. I don't know about you but I don't care if she finds out and gets mad at me, but if she is in trouble then I want to help her. Do me a favor and don't tell anyone about this conversation."
"Ok, I won't tell but whatever you decide to do, be careful", Xander suggested.
Riley decided that he needed to see where Buffy goes starting tomorrow morning. All he had to do was make sure she didn't see him. He would follow her on the campus and all the places she goes to and finally know what was going on with her.
"Giles where is Buffy?", he asked him because he was sure she was here couple of minutes ago. "Oh, she left early, I told her to go home and rest". Damn Riley thought.
"Why do you ask?" Giles said.
"Oh, no particular reason. I just wanted to say good night to her" he answered.
Riley decided to go home and get some rest. Tomorrow I'll able to figure out what is going with her he thought as he slept. But little did he know that Buffy was already with Angelus tonight.