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Tara grins broadly at the students as they enter, her good mood almost super-human.

"Hey. Only three weeks until the end of term, huh? I don't know about you, but that kind of snuck up on me! So today we've got a pretty heavy discussion topic, and I want you to remember that this is just a class. Emo Closet is there if you need it, although I hope we call all be gentle enough with one another that it won't be necessary, okay?

"Because today, folks, we're going to be talking about rape - and all I'm going to ask you folks to do is define it."

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"What?" Tara replies, positively stunned.

For a long moment she can't find anything to say.

"We don't tell people we appreciate the good things they do because they're evil? ...Angel... What hope do they have of being anything else if we don't let them try?"

"Pure evil can't be anything but pure evil," Angel said. "If it does good it's because it's trying to trick you. And before you come at me with accusations of stereotyping, allow me to remind you that I used to be the one person Crowley couldn't screw with because there was nothing inside me to corrupt. Gee, I wonder why he wanted to slap the soul in?"

"So you were the original Teflon Don," Shane murmurs evenly. "Good for you. You were lucky. Now you get to deal like the rest of us do."

"Tara didn't want to do that to you - it was the last thing she wanted and I'm sure she's told you that. Don't try to make it sound like she's his fucking lackey. Okay? Please?"

"The very fact that Tara didn't want to soul me says far more about where her morals actually are than anything else I've heard," Angel replied. "No offense, Shane. I know you and Angelus got along just fine. But he would've snapped your neck in a second and not had a moment's pause. Might want to ask your girlfriend why she thinks that's so nifty."

"None taken," she says. Raking a hand through her hair, she sits back in her seat. "I knew he -- you -- whatever... I knew you were dangerous. You told me that yourself... you think I'm not gonna take it from someone who knows?"

"You talk to people like they're fucking children, Angel. Like they don't know about dark. I know dark. I've seen evil and it is in the hearts of men - every. last. fucking. one. You were a man, once, so it had to come from somewhere. Right?"

Taking a deep breath, she purses her lips as she exhales. "Would you grab a snake and yank out its fangs and then try to put it back out in the wild? Would you... cut a bird's wings off ... and then try to make it fly?" She looks up at Angel, inclining her head inquiringly. "That demon in you may not be human but it did a seriously good impression of one. Locking anyone up in a box and sinking them is hard to do... imagine doing it to someone wearing your friend's face."

"And that's why the correct answer to Angelus is killing him," Angel said. "Not coddling him, not befriending him, not - " he gave a pointed look at Tara " - giving him little gifts to help cheer up his day."

He turned back to Shane. "I know it's hard. I've got every sympathy for that. But Tara's got a choice now with Crowley and she's making the wrong one. Or at least it's the wrong one if she wants to be a good guy. Frankly I'm not too sure about that one."

"If we'd done that, you wouldn't be here," Shane says quietly as she rests her hands on the desktop, lacing her fingers together.

"Frankly I don't think you're in any position to judge," she says, the chagrined expression on her face taking any edge off of the words themselves.

"Right now? I'm a fucking vigilante. People wanna string Tara up and me up for what was done to you. Maybe they're right. I don't know. I'm not crazy about what we did to you, either, even though I know it was the right thing. We're not the bad guys. It's people like us who're all you've got left."

"Crowley is not pure evil," Tara replies. Her voice is soft, but brooks no quarter on this issue.

"You're making this about Angelus. It isn't."

"No, I'm making this about you," Angel said. "Because right now you're the most dangerous person in this room. And coming from the guy who's tried ending the world? That's saying something."

"I'm what?" Tara shakes her head, stunned. "Back up there, Angel. Explain this to me. How is anything I'm doing endangering anyone?"

"You're morally all over the compass, you either don't know evil when you see it or don't care, and you've got power both with a little and a capital P," Angel replied. "I may be a formerlly soulless psychopathic sadistic killer but at least I know it. And even when I didn't have the soul I still knew what I was. The only thing I can't tell about you is if you're in denial or deliberately snowing everybody. If it's the latter, kudos. You even had Angelus fooled."

"I... I need to sit down."

Tara gropes for her chair as she slowly turns white.

Shane is up out of her seat and across the room, kneeling at Tara's side, her face a mask of pained concern. She takes Tara's hand and gives it a squeeze.

After a moment, she turns and looks at Angel, an angry spark in her eye. Giving Tara's hand one last squeeze, she stands and heads straight for him. He towers over her and she's not going into this looking for a fight - because she doesn't. Fight. But now he's pissed her off. She doesn't invade his space, but the look she's giving him is more than enough.

"Coming from you, I find that really hysterical," she murmurs, eyes narrowed. "It's not all black and white, good and evil, right and wrong. That's what this whole class is about. Gray areas, man!"

She lifts her hand and points the end of her index finger at him, aiming it right between his eyes. "You're in one." She places that same hand over her heart. "And so am I. And so is she," she says, gesturing at Tara. "This whole fucking island is one. You? Have no place to fucking judge anyone. She was your friend before and she could be one, now, if you didn't keep pushing her away. 'Cause the same person that's giving Crowley gifts to brighten up his day would fucking fight for you and be in your corner in a heartbeat, if you'd let her."

Shane backs away, shaking her head. "How dare you," she says softly, the look in her eyes wounded. "How dare you."

Enough was enough. "Shane, sit down." He stood up. This was getting out of control and Professor Maclay didn't seem to be in the best frame of mind to handle this right now. "Need I remind you that you're a *guest* in this class. You have absolutely no right to speak to a student like that. If you're uncomfortable with the way this is going, you're welcome to leave." He turned to Angel. "Angel, stop baiting her."

"You're right," Angel said. He backed off a few steps. "This was clearly a bad idea."

Kawalsky gave a nod of thanks.

Angel gave him one in return. He took a seat and tried to calm down enough for the class discussion.

"I know I don't," Shane says quietly, settling both of her hands on her hips, eyes fixed on the toes of her sneakers. "But he has no right to speak to a teacher that way, either."

Taking a deep breath, she lets it out in a short, sharp huff of an exhale, forcing out all the tension with it, squared shoulders sagging a little.

She turns to go back to her desk, but before she does, she looks up and meets Angel's eyes again. "See what I mean about gray areas?" She says softly, the faintest wry grin shaping her lips. The grin weakens and fades and she looks down at her sneakers. "I'm not even a real student."

Stuffing her hands into her pockets, she starts back over to her desk, but hesitates, turning back to look at Tara. "Make sure she's all right? Please?" She implores Charlie quietly.

Kawalsky maintained a neutral expression and didn't say anything.

"I... I'll be in my office," Tara says quietly. "I'll be back in five minutes to start class."

She gets up, eyes fixed on the door as if it were a lifeline, and leaves.

When Kawalsky doesn't respond, Shane's brows crease and pain flares up in her eyes.

Gray areas... A little voice whispers in her head, a reminder.

Pursing her lips, she gives him an apologetic look.

She watches as Tara stands and leaves the room and, student or not, Tara needs her.

"Fuck it," she mutters under her breath, walking out after her.

After Professor Maclay and Shane left, Kawalsky took a seat next to Angel. "Well that was fun," he muttered.

"Thanks for the save," Angel said. He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I... I don't get her. But you probably figured that out by now."

"Three more weeks, give or take." That was Kawalsky's only reply.

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