A/N: I'm still working on this story, so don't worry. I know it's been almost two months, but I've got five stories open and all of them are suffering as far as post-frequency goes. Also, I've revised the previous chapter since most of you read it. Please go back and reread Chapter 9. Thanks.

The Prizefighter

Chapter 10 – Disease

"No, Dawn! Wait!" Buffy cried with a chuckle as her sister hurried ahead of her and Xander in the excitement to get a table at the diner where Xander promised them milkshakes and French fries. Most of the other movie goers must have had a similar idea, as a big portion of the crowd exiting the theater headed across the plaza courtyard to the restaurant. Dawn pushed her way past and through all of them, smiling back at them every so often. Buffy wanted to smile and shake her head like Xander was doing, but a little stab of fear ruined the moment. There were so many ways Dawn could just disappear and Buffy couldn't do anything about it.

Dawn was still safe, wasn't she? Even though Buffy had really messed up during the fight the night before, as long as Buffy kept playing along with Spike, her sister was still safe, right?

"She's turning into quite the spitfire, isn't she?" Xander asked Buffy with a broad, toothy smile. She was glad for his steady company. Right now, that seemed like his best quality. No matter what happened, Xander had always been there with a joke or a kind word or a smile. Buffy had so few real friends, it made all of them all that more important. If only she didn't have to hide so much from him. Including the new probably-a-boyfriend.

"Turning into?" Buffy chuckled at Xander's question, watching Dawn claim a table through the diner's windows, waving safely from behind the glass. "Where have you been the past two years?"

"Blind, I guess," Xander replied, holding open the diner door and ushering Buffy through the crowd of people. Buffy hated when he did things like this, treating her like a girl, like a date. She hated even more the fact that he would pay for their food, but he had offered and Dawn had accepted for the both of them. Though she was younger, Dawn knew full well how strapped for cash her family was. If Xander wanted to treat Dawn to a milkshake, who was Buffy to ruin the fun? Who was Buffy to refuse help from a friend when she so desperately needed it?

When Dawn saw them making their way to the booth she'd picked out, she called out, "What took you guys so long? Were you making out or something?"

"Shut it, pipsqueak," Buffy threatened with a smiling huff. When would her sister realize that Buffy and Xander were never going to be a thing? Especially not now that Buffy had Angel. Could she say that? Did she have him? Unwilling in any case to be held hostage by her own flesh and blood, Buffy shoved Dawn further down on her bench so the blonde could sit next to her sister, safely across from Xander.

Oh, it wasn't like Xander was at all aggressive about what he obviously still felt about Buffy. He hadn't brought it up since asking Buffy out and getting shot down. But he still did things like hold open doors and pay for milkshakes and watch Buffy with this hopeful little expression, like he was waiting for her to change her mind anytime now. If he wasn't such a good friend otherwise, Buffy would have stopped spending time with him because of it.

As it was, Buffy had a lot of fun in that diner booth, joking around with Xander and Dawn, laughing when Dawn blew her straw wrapper into the boy's face, forgetting for just an hour how messed up her life was under the surface. When those secret hours bubbled to the surface with a phone call and Buffy saw it was Angel, her mood brightened even further.

"Hey!" she answered the phone, leaving the booth and waving for Dawn and Xander to stay put. Leaving the diner to stand and talk out in the late afternoon California sun, Buffy said, "I'm so glad you called."

"Good," Angel said with what Buffy thought was a relieved chuckle. "I was afraid you'd be mad about this morning … or last night."

"No," Buffy told him right away. "No mad-feelings here. You?"

"Definitely not," he insisted, and Buffy shivered at the force of his whispering voice, remembering moments from the night before fondly. But then, breaking into her thoughts, Angel said, "I'd like to take you to dinner tonight. Can we make that happen?"

"Yeah!" Buffy breathed in excitement, before the implications of dinner out together really hit her. Going out meant being seen together. "Where would we go?"

"There's this restaurant in Oxnard I like. Can I take you there?" Angel asked, his voice sounding tight with anxiety.

"Oxnard?" Buffy asked, a smile creeping onto her lips. The town was maybe twenty minutes away, and no one would know them there. "That's perfect!"

"Oh, good," Angel sighed in relief. "It's not too far to go on a school night?"

"Screw it being a school night," Buffy said. "It's not like my mom's home to check up on me."

Angel sighed again, "Are you sure?"

"Sure I'm sure," Buffy insisted, noticing through the window that Dawn and Xander were leaving the booth and headed her way. "I have to get going. When and where should I meet you?"

"I can't pick you up?"

"And leave my sister a perfect opportunity to molest you with questions? I don't think so, Angel."

He laughed and told her which restaurant to meet him at, a pizza place called Tino's, and when.

Curling in on herself to shield her voice and crushed-out expression as her sister and friend approached, Buffy ended the call by saying, "I can't wait. Bye."

"Goodbye, Buffy," Angel replied, and the girl would have called him back on the line, just to hear him say something else, if she hadn't had an audience.

"Who was that?" Dawn asked, sticking her nose where it didn't belong, like always.

"No one," Buffy lied, stowing her phone securely in her jeans pocket.

Raising one eyebrow, Dawn called her bluff, "Bullcrap! You've got a boyfriend, don't you?"

"Boyfriend?" Xander asked, acting completely surprised.

"Well, why not?" Buffy asked, a little miffed at her friend's reaction. "I'm allowed to have a personal life, aren't I?"

"Who is it?" Xander asked, getting with the program all of a sudden. "Do I know him? Does he go to our school?"

"His name is Angel," Buffy replied, carefully picking out her lies and trying to remember them, so she could tell the same lies to everyone. "You don't know him. He goes to UC Sunnydale."

"A college boy!" Dawn cried, grabbing Buffy's hand to lead her back toward their house a few blocks over. "What's he like?"

Frowning, Xander asked, "How old is he?"

"Nineteen," Buffy let the lie roll off her tongue easily. Nineteen was reasonable, right? He could be just a little over a year older than her. Instead of the eight years he actually was. "And he's … nice," Buffy said. She couldn't tell them about how he'd saved her from those men, she couldn't tell them about how concerned he was for her safety, and she couldn't tell them how safe he made her feel. He was, "Just … nice."

"When do I get to meet him?" Dawn prodded, her list of questions never ending. Geez, you'd think nobody in the history of the world had ever dated anyone else with how fascinated Dawn seemed to be with the whole prospect. "Is he cute?"

Sighing under the pressure of the questions, Buffy answered, "Yes, he's cute. And you don't get to meet him. Not yet. I don't want him knowing I've got a mutant for a sister."

"Hey!" Dawn protested, while Buffy turned to Xander, expecting him to laugh.

Instead, he looked a little lost and said, "I'll head home, I guess. See you tomorrow, Buff."

"Yeah, tomorrow," Buffy agreed softly, letting Dawn tug her away and pepper her with more questions. She answered them as truthfully as she could, because Buffy already knew how difficult it was to remember to tell the same lie twice. And, most of her brain was pondering how hurt Xander had seemed. Buffy thought they were past this, but Xander must have been waiting for her to come around. Hadn't she made it clear that it was never going to happen?

Now, not only did she have to worry about being indebted to a psycho and dating a twenty-five year old who would probably want to sleep with her again soon, which she wasn't sure was a good idea, but also about losing one of her best friends. Fan-freaking-tastic.

In the few hours Angel had left to kill before he met Buffy for dinner, there was one other name stuck on his brain. Jeff Gages. What was his link to the company competing with Baguley's firm? What was the name again? Heartstone Industries. It was Sunday, so he couldn't go in and ask around, ask if anyone knew Gages, and all the civil records rooms in City Hall were closed. That left one resource, and it was the one Angel was the most clueless about.

Sitting in an internet café, drinking an overpriced and over-sugared coffee, Angel wrestled with the internet. He hated it, hated everything about the computer sitting in front of him. The bright screen, the tiny little keys, the grungy mouse-thing, all of them mocked him and his fumbling efforts to use them. But, he had to figure out who Jeff Gages was, and who the man was connected to. As he sat there, doing search after search, Angel realized that if he wanted to be a private eye in the twenty-first century, he would probably have to invest in one of these things for his office. Fuck.

After several hours of pigeon-pecking the keyboard and printing out pages at fifteen cents each (Damn, it! How could he get this fucking thing to stop printing?), Angel found out that Gages had a relative in Sunnydale. A cousin named Rose Johnson. And where searches of "Jeffery Gages and Heartstone Industries" came up with nothing, "Rose Johnson and Heartstone Industries" came up with several hits. Most of them were yearly updates to the company's directory (Rose had been working there since at least 1998), but a few were promotion and award announcements. Rose had been moving up the food chain, it seemed.

Angel thought he might know how she was pulling it off. Especially since, according to a horrific 'social networking' site, for three years in the early 1990s, Rose Johnson and Jeffery Gages had attended the same high school, after Jeff transferred from Denver. Angel was willing to bet Jeff had lived with his aunt and uncle, and his cousin Rose, for those three years.

Vowing to look into it more deeply the next day, Angel collected his papers and closed all his browsers – as the placards posted every foot or so around the room instructed – and left. He had a date to get ready for.

Because he was nervous, Angel ended up getting to the restaurant early. Eighteen minutes early, damn it. He must have driven down the 101 faster than was really wise. Oh well. This way, he could be calm and collected when Buffy showed up. God, please let her show up. She'd sounded game over the phone, so that was a good sign. But what if she really thought it over again? What if she realized he was a mistake? He had to talk to her again, so he could get her safe. He had to ... kiss her again! He had to.

There! Was that her Jeep pulling up? It was!

Jumping out of his car, Angel met Buffy at hers, hesitating for just a moment before dipping to press his lips to hers with a shy, "Hi, Buffy," as he retreated.

She just had to turn that dazzling smile on him, didn't she? "Hi, Angel," and then she was pressed into his arms and Angel wasn't sure if he'd pulled or if she had pushed. When their lips met for the second time that night, he decided it didn't matter. She looked a lot better than she had the night before, her bruises and cuts cleverly hidden with makeup and a jaunty scarf that matched her sweater. He was used to seeing her at fights, after fights, and he'd thought her stunning then. But now, dressed up just for him? Angel couldn't blink. He knew he was staring, a stupid smile on his face, but he just couldn't stop.

"Should we eat?" Buffy said with a breathless chuckle when she pulled back from him, stealing Angel's breath as she went. Yep, he was definitely far gone. It was so dangerous, falling for her. And Angel realized maybe that was part of the appeal.

"Yeah," Angel breathed, taking her hand with a smile and leading her into the restaurant.

As they were seated and the hostess left, Angel said, "Sorry I had to leave this morning."

"It's alright," Buffy blushed. "I'm glad you left the note."

"I'm glad you found the note." After a few moments, Angel realized he was staring at the girl across from him, everything else fading away again. If only he could just ... stay there forever. Not having to worry about money and cases and laws and British bastards and parents and sons. Just there, with Buffy.

"Angel?" Buffy asked, startling him out of his thoughts. Looking up, he realized that the waiter was waiting for something from him. An order? That must be it. He ordered something, he didn't really notice what, and waited for the man to leave before taking a sip of water to clear his parched throat. How to start?

Just as Angel nodded to himself and started, "About Spike," Buffy said, "About last night..."

"Huh?" he asked, thrown off of his train of thoughts. "Last night? Are you okay?" Damn it. He knew he'd fucked up, he knew it. Now she was going to break things off. This was a pity date, wasn't it?

"Yeah," Buffy assured him, patting his hand in a way that did little to dispel the fear that she was doing this out of pity. "I'm better than okay, Angel." The girl looked down at her plate, blushing.

Still concerned, Angel asked, "You're sure?"

"I'm not saying," she sighed, "that it should happen again anytime soon. But I'm not sorry it happened."

"Oh," Angel blinked. 'Not anytime soon' wasn't 'never', not even close. There was some hope. "Yeah, good. Me, too."

Quirking one eyebrow and leaning closer across the table, Buffy asked, "Did you say something about Spike?"

Answering slowly because he didn't understand Buffy's expression, Angel nodded, "Yeah. I talked to him today."

"You talked to him?" the girl cried, her hand hitting the table a little too hard and rattling the silverware. When people at the neighboring tables looked over, Buffy dropped her eyes sheepishly. After a few seconds, when the other diners had resumed their conversations, Buffy looked up again, her eyes blazing. "Do you know how dangerous that was?" she asked in a bare whisper. "Do you know how much trouble you could have gotten me in? Pulling crap like that could make him go after my sister! Or my mom!"

"I know," Angel replied, keeping his voice low and as steady as possible. "I know it was dangerous and stupid. But I know how to talk to guys like Spike."

The girl leaned back in her chair and frowned. Oh, great. "Look, Buffy," Angel continued sternly, "I found out what it's going to take to get you out. It's a long shot and it's dangerous, but just one more fight and you could be done with that prick forever."

Eyes softening with hope, but still steeled against him, Buffy asked. "One fight? What's the catch?"

Angel explained about the four-on-one fight, carefully watching Buffy's face as her frown deepened and her eyes grew wider. When he was done, the girl sighed, "That's quite the catch. It's impossible, Angel. I'm going to be fighting in Spike's arena forever."

"I'll help you train for it, alright?" Angel insisted. "I know this kind of fight, and since Spike won't let me take your place, I'll work with you until you can win, no problem."

"You did that?" Buffy asked him, her voice high and surprised. "Offered to fight in my place?"

Angel couldn't tell how Buffy felt about his offer to Spike. Watching her face, he came to the conclusion that she was either touched, or pissed. Playing the odds, Angel nodded slowly. "He wouldn't go for it, though. Said he wouldn't make as much money."

Buffy nodded and they sat in silence for a minute, Angel trying to think of something to say that would convince her to take his help, to take this fight. When he'd gotten to something half-decent, Buffy interrupted his thoughts and dissolved all his well-thought out words by saying, "I hate this," as she threw her torn-up breadstick down onto her plate.

"We could go somewhere else," Angel suggested. "It's no problem, really."

"What?" Buffy asked, meeting his eyes for a moment before a slight smile crept onto her lips. Angel would never get used to seeing all the different ways Buffy could smile. "No, I mean I hate being in this situation. I hate needing your help and dragging you into this."

"I don't mind," he whispered, meeting the girl's eyes and taking her hand on the table.

"And how exactly do you 'know' this kind of fight?" Buffy demanded. "Who are you?"

That was the question, wasn't it? Who could Angel tell Buffy he was without scaring her off completely? What could he say? What would she understand? "I, uh ..." Angel tried to respond, cringing at her unforgiving, but still somehow beautiful, frown. "You know how I said I ran with the wrong crowd before I moved here?"

Buffy nodded silently, waiting for him to continue.

"Well, I ended up working for a guy ... shit," he breathed, knowing he had to tell the truth now that it was half out, despite how difficult it was to find the words. "For a bad guy. There were ... scuffles with people who worked for other bad guys."

Looking sick to her stomach and nodding grimly, the girl asked, "Did you ever hurt a good guy?"

"No," Angel shook his head vehemently. "No, I always refused to do it. After what happened with my ..." Fuck, he'd almost said it out loud.

"Your what?" Buffy prodded, staring at him like she needed to know. "Your car? Your dog? Your-"

"My family!" Angel blurted out, just to stop her from guessing before she came to that awful truth. "They were killed. A long time ago. I don't like talking about it."

"Ah," Buffy nodded, a look of understanding flashing through her eyes before they dropped down to the table again.

"Anyway," Angel sighed, shoving down the memories of that horrible night, "I left all of that behind when I moved here. I'm trying to be a good man, Buffy. You have to believe that."

"I do!" she insisted, suddenly very intense. "I know all about trying to be better. Before my mom got sick, I really was trying to do everything right."

Angel's heart softened at the pleading frustration in her voice. She understood, at least somewhat. Buffy was probably one of very few people who could understand why he had done the things he had done. "So, will you let me help you, Buffy? Let me use what I got out of that part of my life for something good?"

The food arrived at that point and as soon as the waiter left again, Buffy asked, "Can I think about it for awhile? I'm thinking right now I really could just use some good food and some good company. D'you feel up to that, Angel?"

"Yeah," he nodded with a smile, letting out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. Buffy still wanted to be here, she wanted his company. She hadn't run screaming, so that had to be a good thing.

"Oh, do that again!" the girl cried with a brilliant grin. Angel raised his eyebrows at her in confusion and felt his face grow hot with a blush. Those words out of context boiled his blood and brought to mind so many things he could do to coax them from Buffy's lips again. "You really should smile more. You know?"

Smiling at her again, Angel silently thanked God that she had broken the tense atmosphere between them. "I know," he said, wanting things with her to always be more like this, more about smiling and less about violence. "I'm finding it happens a lot more often since I met you."

The next morning, Buffy met Willow in the library for a last-minute homework-getting-done cram session before class started. Her redheaded friend was all about her getting the work done until Buffy, needing to hear a second opinion, told her about the conversation she'd had with Angel. Well, conversations.

"How is that even possible?" Willow asked about the fight Spike had proposed. "Isn't that just asking to get killed?"

"Angel said he'll help me figure it out," Buffy insisted, "but I don't know either, Will. Then again, if I don't do this … I'll never be free."

"Are you sure it will help?" Willow asked, finally setting down her pen to give Buffy her full attention. "Spike could be threatening you and your family forever."

"Hey, bright side," Buffy cried with mock enthusiasm. "If I die during the fight, I won't have to worry about it anymore!"

"Don't talk like that, Buffy!" Willow whispered harshly, and Buffy laughed to herself at Willow's stubborn adherence to the rules of the library. It was like her favorite place ever. "And I don't like how much this plan relies on this guy. I know you like him, Buffy," Willow cut in when the blonde tried to protest. "I just think you need to be more careful."

"And I'm not?" Buffy hissed. "That's all I am these days. Careful-girl. No time for Carefree-girl. Not unless I do this. And even then, with mom still in the hospital…"

"It's just –" Willow sighed. "He's twenty-five, Buffy. He might as well be forty!"

"Ew!" Buffy cried, smacking her friend's arm and smiling when Willow grinned, showing she'd only been teasing. Then, when someone cleared his throat, both girls looked up and let their smiles fade. Oh, crap. "Xander?" Buffy asked her friend carefully. "Hey, Xand. Ready for a week full of learnin'?"

Brows pursed up in concern and frown firmly in place, Xander asked, "Your boyfriend's not nineteen, is he Buffy?"

Knowing she'd been caught, the blonde shook her head slowly, hating to see what Xander's reaction would be. As if he had any right to be angry about one little lie…

"And you don't work for a telemarketing firm, do you?"

Shit! How much had he heard? The furious and worried look on his face argued otherwise, so Buffy came clean and shook her head again. This was the bigger issue, wasn't it? Keeping this huge part of her life away from one of her best friends. They wouldn't survive it, would they? Yet another thing Buffy couldn't help but screw up.

Turning to Willow, his voice trembling with betrayal, Xander asked, "And you knew about all this?"

The wide, brimming-with-tears eyes told the truth more vividly than any words could have. God, there was another thing Buffy had ruined. That's it. She was a disease, infecting anyone she came in contact with, spreading lies and betrayal. At least Angel already had all those secrets of his own. Shit, he was probably immune to the life-destroying effect being with Buffy could have. Hopefully.

Now Xander would surely hate her. He knew everything – well, all the important pieces, anyway. And, he could do anything with that information. He probably was that pissed off, wasn't he? Quickly, Buffy jumped up from her seat and grabbed Xander's arm. "Please, Xand! Don't tell anyone about the fights. If I don't follow through with this, they'll kill Dawn. Please?"

Jerking his arm out of Buffy's grasp, Xander frowned for a few more anxious breaths before nodding. "Alright. For Dawn's sake, I'll keep my gob shut. But, I don't think I can be friends with you anymore, Buff. Not while you're involved in something this … heinous. Okay?"

"No!" Buffy cried, getting around in front of the boy as he tried to leave the library. "Not okay! Very not okay, Xand! I'm still the same Buffy as I've always been!"

"Maybe that's the problem," Xander sighed, pushing his way past her and out the room.

Gaze whipping back to Willow's in silent apology, Buffy wondered how the hell her life could get any worse. Everyone was abandoning her. Her dad left, her mom was sick, and now Xander was leaving. It had to be some sort of disease. It had to be.

As always, reviews are appreciated.