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Title - "Me and You....."
Author - LightLes
Disclaimers - If you recognize the characters, they belong to Joss Whedon,
Mutant Enemy, Warner Bros., etc. If you don't recognize them, they're mine.
The plot is derived completely from my sleep-deprived brain. Please don't
sue me. I'm broke.
Author's Notes - Everything up to "Passions." After that, I've gone off on
my own. I have chosen to use some of the events and characters from Season
3, but they have been mixed, matched and altered to fit my story. Oz doesn't
exist in this universe. Some of the actions and dialogue may seem out of
character to some readers. All I will say is that I've tried to stay true to
the characters as I see them. Finally, I'm assuming that Lord & Taylor's is
a national chain, but if you're not familiar with it, it's an upscale
department store.
Credits - The song "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" was originally performed
by Lobo (as far as I know)
Content - This is a Willow/Angel romance. The story alternates between the
"present" (May, 2005) and the "past."
Rating - R/NC-17 (haven't decided yet) for violence, language, and sexual
content.
******
PART 1
******
(March, 1998)
Willow stood by her bedroom window and waited for the sun to set. Her mind
drifted back over the events that had led her to this point in her life and
she examined each memory carefully, knowing that she would need a clear head
for the task she was about to perform. Images of her childhood were the
first to surface, bringing a sad smile to her face. In her hand, she held
the infamous Barbie that Xander had once stolen from her. She idly stroked
the doll's hair and thought of all the experiences she and Xander had shared
and of all the times they had laughed, cried, and gotten angry together.
Xander's mother had, on more than one occasion, wondered out loud if they
shared a brain. As they grew older, she had amended that (given the
difference in their academic abilities) by insisting that they shared one
spirit.
Willow's next thoughts were of Buffy. She still considered the day she met
the Slayer to be one of the best of her life. Despite everything that had
happened over the past few months, she didn't regret getting involved with
Buffy's struggles against the forces of darkness. For most of her life,
Willow had been afraid–of rejection, of failure, and of the things that
lurked just outside the range of her sight. When Willow had joined the
Slayerettes (as she still thought of the small group) she had found a way to
combat those fears, not to mention an atmosphere where her gifts were
respected and even needed. She had learned more about herself in the past
year and a half, then she had in all the years before. Plus, she smiled to
herself, there was the added benefit of belonging to a group for the first
time in her life. The library was more of a home than the room in which she
now stood and the people there were more family than the people who had
raised her.
Reluctantly, Willow turned away from the window and put the doll back into
the box under her bed. Angelus would arrive soon, she was sure, and she
needed to be ready. She offered up yet another prayer to the Goddess that
the "un-invite" spell was the real deal. If not–well, she would be forced to
face a very pissed off vampire by herself. Buffy wouldn't be there to
protect her and neither would Xander or Giles.
Willow's thoughts were interrupted by the ringing phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Will. You ready?" Willow sighed in relief when she heard Cordelia's
voice.
"Ready as I'll ever be." Willow surveyed the spell components on the desk
and ran her fingers lightly over the crystal ball. "As soon as the sun sets,
I'll get started."
"How long will it take?"
"I don't know. Giles doesn't suspect anything does he?" Willow's voice held
a note of worry.
"Nah. For a Watcher, he sure can be dense." Both girls giggled. "You
know," Cordelia's voice turned serious. "If this works, he's gonna be
ticked."
"I know." Willow swallowed around the lump in her throat. "But what else are
we supposed to do? The Watcher's Council won't send Kendra to help us and we
can't fight Angelus on our own."
"You're right." Cordelia interrupted, having heard the speech before. "I'm
just saying that if.... *when* this works, you're going to have to be the one
to face the wrath of Rupert Giles." Willow snorted with laughter. Her mirth
died quickly, however, when a glance at the window showed her that the sun
was just starting to set.
"Listen, Cordy. It's almost show-time. I should go."
"Good luck, Willow. Be careful."
"Thanks. I will." Willow was suddenly reluctant to hang up the phone.
"Call me when it's over, okay?"
"I will. Bye." Willow slowly placed the receiver back into its cradle, took
a deep breath, squared her shoulders and turned to the task at hand.
*******
Angelus grinned evilly as he approached the Rosenberg house and pondered his
strategy for the evening ahead. It had been a month since his last visit to
Willow's bedroom and he mentally chided himself for waiting so long. Of
course, he had been busy–that idiot Watcher had burned down the factory,
which meant that he had to go find someplace suitable for his "family." He
had also been forced to replace the fledges who had died in the fire and that
had taken a while.... after all, Angelus was rather picky about the people
with whom he chose to spend eternity. But now that those little problems
were taken care of, he could get back to torturing the Slayer and her little
friends. The vampire's expression became puzzled when he realized that he
hadn't actually *seen* the Slayer since the night he had killed that Gypsy
witch. He made a mental note to ask Willow about this mystery..... she would
be more than happy to give him the information he needed, once he turned her.
The vampire easily climbed to the balcony and smirked when he realized that
the stupid little girl had left the French doors slightly open.
"Willow, Willow....." he chuckled as he walked up to the doors "I thought you
were the smart one....." Angelus' voice trailed off as he got a good look at
what was happening inside. Willow was seated on the floor and seemed to be
completely oblivious to his presence. There were small bowls and bunches of
herbs scattered around her and he smelled incense. Willow's legs were
crossed and she was leaning forward, with her elbows placed on her knees.
She was concentrating intently on something that was nestled in her lap, but
Angelus couldn't see it through the curtain of her hair. Suddenly, Willow's
body jerked and her voice became louder and stronger, almost as if some force
had taken control. Angelus stared at her in shock for a moment, then
realized that the object sitting in her lap was, in fact, an Orb of
Thessaluh. Realization hit him and he unconsciously shifted into his demonic
features.
"You little bitch." he shouted. "I'm going to tear you limb from limb....."
Willow continued to chant, obviously completely unaware of what was happening
around her. Angelus pulled the doors wide open and strode into the room.....
or attempted to, anyway. He found his way blocked by the invisible barrier
that prevented him from entering most homes. In a flash, he realized that
Willow must have somehow gotten a hold of the spell that prevented him from
re-entering her house, even though he had already been invited. Not only
that, she had somehow found the spell to restore his soul and there wasn't a
damn thing he could do to stop her from casting it..... "Willow!" he shouted
in frustration, then turned to run. Just as he reached the balcony railing,
the world spun and Angelus fell to his knees fighting tooth and nail to
remain in control.....
******
Angel blinked rapidly and tried to get his bearings. He slowly lifted his
head and looked around. For some reason, he was on Willow Rosenberg's
balcony. Her French doors were open and he could see her sitting on the
floor, staring at him.
"Willow?" Angel's voice conveyed his obvious confusion.
"Angel?" Angel noted that, for some reason, Willow's face wore an expression
that he could only describe as being hopefully fearful.
"Yeah, it's me. What happened? Where's Buffy? How did I get here?"
"What's the last thing you remember?" Willow stood up and walked to a spot
just inside the doors.
"I was with Buffy..... we were..... uh...." Angel really didn't want to share
the details of his intimate encounter with the Slayer, but Willow's face made
it evident that she didn't need him to elaborate.
"Okay, a lot has happened." she sighed. "Are you okay? I mean, are you hurt
or anything?"
"Uh, I don't think so." Angel did a quick survey of his body parts and
informed her that everything was as it should be. He slowly stood up and
walked towards Willow. He became even more confused when she involuntarily
took a step back. He reached out to touch her, but his hand bumped the
invisible barrier. A hurt look crossed his face. "Willow, what's going on?"
"What? Oh. Come in." As he slowly entered her bedroom, he noticed that
Willow was holding her breath.
"Willow, why are you acting like I'm going to hurt you?" Willow opened her
mouth to answer, but was saved the trouble when a low moan escaped Angel's
lips.
"Oh God, no....." As he was bombarded with memories, Angel's knees buckled.
Willow caught him and eased him down onto the floor. Her fear was completely
gone. It had been replaced with compassion for the man sobbing in her arms
and sorrow that he had to go through this. As she stroked his hair and made
soothing sounds, she vowed that he would never have to go through it alone,
no matter how angry Giles was sure to be at them both. Finally, Angel calmed
down enough to stop crying. He slowly extricated himself from Willow's
embrace and leaned against her bed, suddenly exhausted.
"Will you..... will you tell me what happened?" he asked, timidly. "I
remember things, but they make no sense...." Willow wiped a few stray tears
from her cheek and nodded.
"I just need to call Cordelia and tell her that I'm okay." she said, shakily.
"Cordelia? What about Buffy or Giles?" Angel's confusion returned, full
force.
"Don't worry, I'll explain everything." Willow assured him. She grabbed the
phone and pulled it onto her lap. She quickly dialed and tapped her fingers
impatiently as she waited for Cordelia to pick up.
"Willow?" Willow's eyebrows rose when she heard the concern in the
cheerleader's voice.
"Yeah, it's me."
"Did it work?"
"Oh yeah." Willow said, as she stared at the miserable vampire who was
currently using her dust ruffle as a hanky. "I can't talk now, though.
Angel's really confused and I need to explain things to him..... I'll see you
tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay. And Will?"
"Yeah?"
"I'll come with you when you tell Giles..... that is, if you want....."
"Oh yeah." Willow chuckled weakly. "You can be my human shield." Cordelia
laughed and hung up the phone. Willow returned her attention to Angel.
"Where do you want me to start?" she asked, quietly.
"I remember the surprise party......" Angel started, slowly ".... and I
remember going to the factory to destroy the Judge...... Buffy and I escaped
and went back to my place..... we.... uh....."
"I know about that part." Willow said, hastily.
"Uh.... okay. Well.... that's where things get kind of hazy...... did I
really try to kill you?" Willow winced at the memory, which was all the
answer Angel needed. He hung his head and the tears began to fall again as
Willow started to talk.
"It turns out that there was a loophole in the gypsy curse. If you
experienced a moment of true happiness, you would lose your soul again.
Don't ask me why the gypsies felt it necessary to add that little booby trap,
but...... anyway, when you Buffy..... uh.... well, you know, you.... uh....
how do I put this..... you got a happy. Those are Xander's words, not mine,
by the way. Anyway, that broke the curse and you lost your soul. We didn't
realize it at first..... you came to the school and.... uh..... well, you
grabbed me...." Willow started to speak faster as she got to this
particularly painful memory.
"Willow, I'm so sorry....."
"..... well, anyway..... " Willow continued on, apparently not having heard
him. "We found out that Ms. Calendar was actually a member of the gypsy clan
that put the curse on you in the first place. She was supposed to watch you
and make sure that you never experienced happiness We didn't know about
that.... and I'm assuming you didn't know either...." Angel shook his head.
"You.... I mean, Angelus..... became obsessed with Buffy and started doing
things that were meant to scare her.... and the rest of us..... Ms. Calendar
decided to do the curse again only you..... he.... found out somehow and.....
uh....."
"Killed her." Angel said, flatly. "I killed her."
"*Angelus* killed her." Willow stated firmly. Before he could protest, she
continued. "Anyway, he destroyed all her computer equipment. Luckily, she
had already saved the information about the spell onto a disk and it fell
behind the desk. I found it last week....."
".... and did it again." Angel stared at the young woman in awe. Willow
nodded.
"Obviously, it worked." she smiled sadly. "This is the first good thing
that's happened in ages."
"Okay." Angel took a deep breath and attempted to get his thoughts in order.
"I need to get to Buffy..... I need to tell her that I'm back." He
attempted to stand, but stopped when Willow put her hand on his arm. He
looked at her face and became afraid. "What? What's wrong? Is Buffy okay?
Please tell me I didn't....."
"No, no, no." Willow hastened to assure him. "She's fine.... as far as I
know. She's gone."
"Gone? Gone where?"
"We don't know." Willow admitted. "She left right after Ms. Calendar was
kill..... died. Xander left two weeks later."
"What? Xander's gone too? Willow, what are you talking about?"
"I'm sorry. I'm not making much sense am I? Okay, I'll start again. Buffy
ran away from home a month ago."
"Why?" Angel interrupted.
"We're not entirely sure. She left a note but it was pretty sketchy. Best
we can figure, she probably just couldn't take it anymore."
"It?"
"You know...." Willow waved her hands in a vague gesture. "You being
Angelus, Ms. Calendar dying..... I think she realized that if she stayed in
town she would have to kill you."
"Poor Buffy....." Angel moaned. Willow nodded, then continued.
"We looked for her, but every time we got a lead, she'd disappear before
Giles could get there. Two weeks ago, Xander decided to follow her trail. I
guess he figured that he'd have more luck... I don't know..... We haven't
heard from either of them."
"Why on Earth would Xander just run off after Buffy like that?" Angel
wondered out loud. "I mean, I know he liked her, but...."
"Loved her would be closer to the truth." Willow had to swallow around the
lump in her throat. "He's always been in love with her. Even though he was
dating Cordy....."
"Hold it." Angel shook his head in an effort to make sense of what Willow
was telling him. "Xander was dating *Cordelia*?"
"Yeah." Willow smirked. "See what happens when you go away for a little
while?" Her eyes grew sad and her voice took on a corresponding tone.
"Cordy was really upset when Xander broke up with her. I feel really badly
for her."
"Since when?" It popped out of Angel's mouth before he could stop himself.
He added hastily "Cordelia Chase has never exactly been on the top of
your..... hell, *anybody's* list."
"She's changed." Willow replied, simply. "We all have." Angel thought about
this, then braced himself for the question he dreaded most of all.
"And Giles?" Willow lowered her eyes and took a moment to choose her words.
"He..... he's okay, all things considered. Ms. Calendar's death hit him
pretty hard. They broke up after he found out that she knew about your
curse..... but I guess they were on the verge of getting back together
when....."
"I know." Angel murmured. "Why isn't he here?" he suddenly asked, looking
around. "Or why aren't you at the library?"
"Uh.... well," Willow blushed. "I didn't exactly tell Giles I was doing
this......"
"Are you *insane*?" he nearly yelled. "You could have been hurt or
killed...." Suddenly, it hit him..... she had put herself in danger to help
*him*. "Willow....." his jaw worked for a moment as he attempted to come up
with words to express his current state of mind. "Let me see if I have this
right." he finally started, slowly. "I slept with Buffy. I experienced a
moment of true happiness and lost my soul. I spent the next several months
making your lives miserable. I killed Jenny and destroyed her notes on the
curse, only I missed something and you found it." Willow nodded. "Okay.
While all this was happening, Xander was dating Cordelia, but was harboring
feelings for Buffy. She took off a month ago and he went after her."
"That pretty much covers it." Willow nodded. "You skipped a few little
details, but they're not important right now." Angel leaned back against the
bed and stared at the ceiling for a few minutes.
"Okay, so te big question is why? Why would you put yourself at risk just to
restore my soul?" Angel didn't wait for Willow to answer. "I think I can
figure it out, actually. With Buffy gone, there was nobody to fight Angelus.
I mean, Giles could try, but he doesn't have a Slayer's strength. Add to
that the fact that his emotions make him vulnerable..... "
"That was part of it," Willow allowed "but not everything. In fact, I didn't
even think of it until I had to justify this to Cordelia."
"Then why?"
"Because I wanted my friend back." The simplicity of her answer stunned him.
"Also, when Buffy gets back, she'll be thrilled."
"Do you really think they'll come back?"
"Absolutely." Willow's confidence in her friend was touching. "Buffy just
needed to get away for a little while. She'll come back. Then you two can
be together."
"I highly doubt that. Even if she forgives me for all the things I've
done.... and that's a big if.... there's always going to be the danger that
I'll lose my soul again."
"Um.... I've actually figured out a way to fix that, I think." Willow said.
"What? What is it–wait! Don't tell me."
"Why not?"
"Look, Willow. I don't want you putting yourself in any more danger for me."
"But...."
"No buts." he said, firmly. They lapsed into silence again and it was a few
minutes before Willow spoke again.
"What are you going to do now?"
"I don't know." he answered, after thinking about this for a while. "To be
honest, the idea of going back out there scares me."
"Really? Why?" Willow had never pictured Angel being afraid of anything.
"Well, I feel..... I don't know.... I feel *safe* here. I mean, I've done
some absolutely horrible things for the past few months and you have every
right to hate me....."
"I don't hate you...."
"I know." Angel smiled at her. "I know that, Willow. But other people do.
When I leave, I'm going to have to deal with everything that's happened. It
hasn't really sunk in yet. I'm just not sure if I'm ready to deal with it."
"Then don't."
"What?"
"Stay here until you're ready to face the world again." Angel started to
protest, but Willow held up her hand. "My folks are out of town, so that's
not an issue. Nobody knows you're here except Cordelia..... unless you told
someone?"
"No." Angel sighed in relief. "I didn't tell Spike or Dru where I was going.
It was supposed to be a ‘surprise.'"
"Okay then." Willow nodded vigorously. "You can stay in my parents' room.
They've got thick curtains on the windows which will block the sun......" She
stood up and almost fell over when a wave of dizziness hit her. "Oooh!"
"Willow?" Angel jumped up. "Are you okay?"
"I.... I think so." She slowly sat down on the edge of the bed. "Casting
that spell took a lot of energy and I'm getting a headache....."
"I'm sorry."
"Angel, you're not going to start apologizing every five seconds, now are
you?" Willow looked at him reproachfully. "‘Cause that could get really
annoying, really quickly."
"Sorry." Angel chuckled as Willow hit him with a pillow.
********
PART 2
********
(May, 2005)
The mall's food court was crowded and Buffy had to search for an empty table.
She wearily dropped her bags and only barely managed not to spill her tray
of Chinese take-out. It had been a productive morning, but she still had
several stores to hit before she went back to the apartment. As she tucked
into her egg roll, Buffy idly surveyed the mall, noticing how little it had
changed since her last visit.
In fact, Sunnydale hadn't changed much in the six years since she had left.
In some ways this pleased Buffy, in others, it made her slightly sad. She
wondered if her friends and her mother were still the same. With a shiver,
she briefly wondered if they were still alive, then pushed the thought to the
back of her mind. She refused to consider the possibility that anything bad
could have happened to her loved ones. She felt the old guilt welling up
again and searched for something to take her mind off of it. A familiar
voice provided just the distraction she needed.
"Okay, after we eat, we just have to stop at Lord & Taylor's, then we're
done." Buffy looked around frantically for the source of the voice, then
breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that Cordelia Chase was sitting
directly behind her and, therefore, wouldn't see her.
"We need to pick up the dress.... and what else?" The other voice was
definitely female, but unfamiliar to Buffy.
"We need to get something for the bride to wear on her wedding night."
Cordelia snickered. Buffy idly wondered who the bride under discussion was.
"Oh, hey! We can stop at Victoria's Secret on our way."
Cordelia's dining partner snorted loudly. "Can you really see Willow in any
of the stuff they sell there?" Buffy nearly choked on her soda. Willow was
getting married? *Her* Willow?
"Come on." Cordelia was saying. "Victoria's Secret has some really classy
stuff. Where do you think I got that little green teddy?"
"Really? That was nice. Okay, we'll stop there, but I'm not going to let
you get her something trashy."
"Define trashy."
"Nothing with feathers, sequins, or edible material." the stranger declared.
"Oh, all right." Cordelia pouted. "I'm almost done here, how about you?"
"Yeah, just let me finish my soda." Buffy's mind was awhirl and she decided
to follow Cordelia and her friend around to see if she could learn more about
Willow's upcoming wedding. She wanted to know all the details including the
most important–the identity of the groom.
*******
PART 3
*******
(April, 1999)
"Willow, down!" Willow immediately dropped to the ground, never even bending
her knees. She instinctively rolled left, which allowed Angel to close with
the demon. Willow bounded to her feet and plunged her stake into the nearest
vampire. She turned just in time to see the demon throw Angel clear across
the clearing. Her heart skipped a beat when she heard the loud *thud* his
body made when it hit the tree. He was momentarily dazed and the demon
grinned maliciously as it walked towards its prey.
"Oh no you don't." Willow muttered as she gathered her energy. The demon
yelped as a blue flame arced from her fingers and burned the skin on its
back. It turned towards her, growling, and Willow gulped, realizing that she
had probably just made the worst–and last–mistake of her life. She gasped as
an unseen foe grabbed her from behind and pinned her arms to her sides.
Angel came to just in time to see a vampire grab Willow from behind. He was
about to bite her when the demon spoke.
"No! She is mine." Angel struggled to stand, but the collision with the
tree had left him with a nasty concussion which was making basic coordination
difficult. He knew he was in no condition to save Willow, but that didn't
stop him from trying.
Willow struggled helplessly as the demon slowly approached her. She searched
her mind desperately for some spell that might help her get out of this
situation, but she could think of nothing that would be even remotely
effective. She was in the process of commending her soul to the Goddess,
when the demon suddenly roared and fell backwards. Not wasting any time,
Willow stomped on her captor's foot and pushed away when his arms reflexively
loosened. The demon seemed to be otherwise occupied, so she turned her full
attention to the last vampire. After a brief, but furious fight, she staked
it and turned just in time to see the demon topple over, a sword embedded in
its chest. A stranger was standing over the dead creature, grinning.
"You Buffy?" The girl's voice startled Willow.
"Uh.... no. I'm Willow." The girl looked confused for a minute.
"You know about the vampires?"
"Yeah." Willow took a look around and spotted Angel, who was trying to stand
up. "Angel!" she cried, completely forgetting about the stranger. "Are you
okay?" As she approached him, he managed to get to his feet.
"I think so." he replied, right before falling to his knees. "Maybe not."
Willow reached out to help him, but nearly shrieked when the stranger grabbed
her arm.
"Don't go near him." she hissed. "He's one of them."
"One of who?" Willow asked, confused.
"He's a vampire!" The stranger pulled out a stake and lunged, so Willow did
the only thing she could think of. She reached out with mental fingers and
*pulled*. The girl yelped as her arm suddenly flew wide of its target and
she was powerless to prevent herself from embedding the stake in a tree.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" she yelled. By this time, Angel had
recovered his senses (somewhat) and attempted to place himself between Willow
and this new threat.
"Who are you?" he snarled, making sure his "game face" was in place.
"I'm Faith.... the Vampire Slayer." the girl sneered, as she pulled another
stake from her belt and lunged again. Angel easily dodged and tackled her.
"Hold still." he ordered, pinning Faith's arms to the ground. "I'm not going
to hurt you."
"Yeah, right." Faith's laugh was humorless. Willow quickly grabbed the stake
from her hand and looked at Angel.
"Okay, I think maybe you should go home now." she told him.
"Willow...."
"Angel, will you please trust me?"
"Oh all right." he sighed. Patting Faith down, he found two more stakes and
handed them to Willow. Only then did he release her. "Will you be all
right?" he asked as he stood up.
"Yeah. I think we're going to head for the library." Angel nodded and
walked off. Willow turned back to Faith who was scowling furiously. "Okay,
I can explain....."
"Good. ‘Cause from what I can see, you're consorting with the enemy."
"Angel's not the enemy." Willow assured her. Once she was sure that Angel
was gone, she handed the stakes back to the Slayer. "Come on. We can talk
on the way." Faith paused for a second, then reluctantly followed her.
"Yes, Angel is a vampire, but he has a soul."
"And I'm Mother fucking Theresa." Faith snorted. Willow's eyebrows rose at
the language, but she continued.
"It's the truth. Angel helps us....."
"If you believe that, you're stupider than you look. Who's us, anyway?
Where's this Buffy person I've heard so much about? How come you're out here
by yourself?"
"I think I'll let Giles explain that." Willow sighed, knowing that things
were about to get a lot more *interesting* in Sunnydale.
"And Giles is....." It was obvious that she was becoming impatient.
"Giles is Buffy's Watcher."
******
(Later that evening)
Willow didn't get home until well after midnight. Angel arrived on her
balcony just in time to see her kick off her shoes and wearily sit down on
her bed. She looked up when he tapped on the doors and smiled.
"It's open." she called, then stood up to open it herself when she saw the
large box in his arms. "Hi. Come on in. What's that?"
"It's a surprise." he grinned.
"Really? For me?" Willow jumped up and down in delight.
"No, I thought I'd buy a present for the *other* girl who lives here." In
the past year, Angel had found himself cracking jokes more and more often and
was surprised at how good it felt. As a human, his sense of humor had been
rather unsophisticated and as Angelus, he had specialized in cruel barbs
aimed at his friends, enemies, and subordinates. His new "lighter side"
pleased him to no end, as did the fact that he had found an appreciative
audience in Willow. A slight movement from the box in his arms brought him
back to the present matter. "Sit down and close your eyes." he ordered.
Willow giggled and did as she was told, seating herself Indian-style on her
bed with her back against the pillows. "Now hold out your arms and don't
open your eyes until I tell you to, okay?"
"Okay." Willow bit her lip to keep from asking questions, then yelped as
something was put in her arms. The mysterious gift was warm, soft, and very
much alive. "What.....?"
"You can open your eyes now." When she did, Willow's first sight was Angel's
smile. Looking down, she found herself staring at a small, wriggling puppy.
"Oh, Angel..... he's beautiful!" Willow held the dog up to her face and
squirmed when it began to enthusiastically wash her face. "And friendly!" she
laughed. "Where'd you get him?"
"After you went back to the library with that..... person, I was patrolling
and I came across this kid whose mom was making him sell his dog's litter. I
saw this little guy and something told me I *had* to get him." In fact, the
compulsion to get the dog had been almost frightening. However, Angel knew
that his instincts had been correct–Willow and the little puppy were a
perfect match.
"What's his name?" she asked, gently stroking his ears.
"That's up to you." He watched her think about it for a moment, then saw her
eyes light up with an idea.
"I'll call him Boo." she declared.
"Boo?"
"Yeah, from the song."
"What song?" Angel, as usual, found it confusing when Willow's trains of
thought jumped tracks.
"You know...." Willow began to sing softly. "Me and you and a dog named
Boo..... traveling and living on the land....." Angel's blank expression told
her that he had no idea what she was talking about. "Never mind, I'll play
it for you later. Trust me, it works."
"Okay, whatever." he chuckled, shaking his head. "Boo it is."
"He's so little." she murmured.
"I think he was the runt of the litter. He was the only one left when I got
there."
"Well, he's perfect to me." she stated.
"I also got some dog stuff from the pet store." Angel proceeded to pull the
items out of the back and Willow inspected each, nodding in approval.
"This is great! Thank you so much, Angel."
"You're welcome."
"But why?" she managed to tear her gaze from the puppy long enough to look at
him inquiringly.
"He can protect you when I'm not around." Angel quipped.
"Oh yeah, what's he gonna do? Slobber on all evildoers?" Just then, the
dog's demeanor changed. Up until now, he had been happily washing Willow's
face and tasting her fingers. Suddenly, its body stiffened and he began to
growl. Both Angel and Willow's eyebrows rose, but Boo's behavior was soon
explained.
"Willow?"
"Yeah mom, I'm in my room...." Willow motioned frantically with the hand
that wasn't holding the puppy and Angel nodded. After whispered "good
nights," he quickly left the room and took up his favorite position–a shadowy
spot on the balcony that wasn't easily visible from inside. He had never
actually met either of Willow's parents and wasn't about to miss this
opportunity to observe them. Willow stood up and, cuddling the puppy
protectively to her chest, opened the door to her room.
"Willow, I just came up to tell you that....." The dog yelped and tried to
jump out of Willow's grasp. "What is that?"
"It's a dog."
"I can see that. What is it doing here?"
"His name's Boo. A friend of mine gave him to me. Isn't he cute?" Willow
held the dog out, but her mother ignored it.
"That's nice, dear. Listen, your father and I have just been invited to
present papers at the Warwick Convention in London. We'll be leaving May
5th."
"That's great, Mom." Willow tried to muster up the appropriate enthusiasm.
"How long will you be gone?"
"Three weeks. We'll be back on the 28th."
"But that means you'll miss Graduation–that's on the 15th."
"I know, sweetie, but that can't be helped......" Angel could see that
Willow was doing her best not to cry.
"Mom, this is my *graduation*. You go to the Warwick every year, why can't
you skip it.... or come home early. Maybe you could just miss a couple of
days....."
"Don't be so melodramatic, Willow. You know how long we've wanted to speak
at the Warwick..... besides, it's not like you won't have other graduation."
"I guess you're right." Willow sighed. Her mother smiled, patted her cheek,
and left. Willow stood at the door for a moment and buried her face in the
puppy's fur. When she lifted her head again, Angel saw that the tears she
had held in during her conversation with her mother were now sliding down her
face. She sat on the bed and cried for a few minutes, all the while cradling
Boo. Finally, she reluctantly put him on the floor and went into the
bathroom. When Angel heard the shower start, he slipped back into the room
and picked up Boo.
"Take care of her, huh pup?" he whispered. Angel was increasingly worried
about Willow–she was becoming too isolated from the world, in his opinion.
When she wasn't in school or doing schoolwork, she was busy researching or
training with Giles or on patrol with him. Her social circle was limited to
those few people who worked to protect Sunnydale. He tried to be her friend
to the best of his ability, but he could only see her at night and much of
their time was taken up with "Hellmouth business." More and more, Giles
treated Willow as a Watcher training a Slayer. He was still kind and
courteous, but he put more and more demands on her–physically, mentally, and
emotionally. As for Cordelia..... Angel smirked...... well, she tried. So,
he had bought the dog in an effort to give Willow something which would love
her unconditionally and someone on whom she could lavish her affections
freely. For some strange reason, as he left the Rosenberg residence, Angel
felt a slight twinge of envy towards Boo.
******
PART 4
******
(May, 2005)
Buffy adjusted the cap she had bought earlier in the day, took a deep breath,
and entered Victoria's Secret. She moved to the center of the store and was
studiously examining some robes when Cordelia and her nameless friend entered
the store. They were engaged in an animated conversation and Buffy
oh-so-casually followed them as they headed straight for the racks that held
nightgowns and teddies.
".... so he's got Willow thinking that they're just going to find the nearest
judge to marry them. The wedding is actually going to be a surprise."
Cordelia was saying as Buffy got closer.
"But why?" the stranger inquired.
"Because it's romantic!" Cordelia declared. "You know you could take a
lesson from...."
"Can I help you?" the salesgirl interrupted the conversation.
"Yeah, we're looking for something to give a friend who's getting married."
Cordelia replied. During the ensuing conversation, Buffy took a minute to
examine the two girls she was shadowing. Cordelia had changed very little in
the past six years. She was dressed in skin-tight jeans and a revealing
t-shirt and her hair was perfectly styled. Her companion, on the other hand,
was dressed in baggy fatigue pants and a black tank top that left almost
nothing to the imagination. Buffy could see a tatoo encircling the girl's
right bicep and noticed that she was wearing scuffed-up combat boots. Buffy
wondered who she was and why she was hanging out with Cordelia Chase of all
people. The salesgirl finally left, after asking Buffy if she needed help,
and the two girls started to talk again.
"How about some of these silk pajamas?" Cordelia suggested.
"Somehow I see Willow in one of these long, flowy white numbers." Buffy
agreed with the girl. The Willow she knew would prefer to go to her wedding
night looking as pure as she probably was.....
"It's not like she's a virgin or anything." Cordelia giggled. Buffy's eyes
nearly popped out of her head. What had Willow been up to while she and
Xander were away? "Besides, from what she tells me, Angel has a thing for
unbuttoning her shirts......" Whatever else Cordelia said was lost to Buffy
as her mind reeled from this latest revelation. Willow was marrying *Angel*?
That couldn't be right, but Buffy knew what she had heard. She suddenly
felt suffocated and spun around to leave. Unfortunately, she spun the wrong
way and ran smack into Cordelia.
"*Buffy?*"
*******
PART 5
*******
(March, 2003)
It started out as a typical day for Angel. He woke up late in the afternoon,
showered and dressed, then grabbed a bag of blood from his well-stocked
fridge. It wasn't until he saw the boxes on his kitchen table that he
realized that this day was going to be anything but ordinary. Angel was a
heavy sleeper, but he knew he would have heard anyone trying to enter his
apartment, unless..... He grinned when he realized that Willow must have come
in earlier and left the things for him. She knew the codes to his security
system and, over the years, had learned to move without making much, if any,
noise. A glance at his calendar confirmed his suspicions–today was the
anniversary of the day she had restored his soul.
Every year since his return, Willow had made a point of commemorating the
event in some way or another. Angel eagerly examined the boxes and
recognized the logo of his favorite bakery on one of them. Opening it, he
found that Willow had purchased a small cake with chocolate icing (his
favorite) and the words "Happy Birthday, Angel" written in blue icing. She
did this every time and when he protested that it wasn't really his birthday,
she had pointed out that there wasn't really room to write "Happy Soul
Restoration Day, Angel", nor would it be at all convenient to have to explain
the meaning of the message to the baker. She had also reminded him that none
of them knew when his birthday actually was.
Angel carefully removed the cake from the box and put it on one of his few
plates. He then pulled out four candles. Placing them on the cake, he lit
them and blew them out, making a wish the way Willow had instructed him. He
cut himself a generous slice and then settled down to open his presents. As
usual, Cordelia bought him clothing–this year, it was a green silk shirt.
Faith gave him a set of drawing pencils and a pad of paper, while Giles' gift
was a record containing some of the hard rock the Watcher loved so well. He
was on an ongoing crusade to "broaden Angel's horizons." Angel opened
Willow's gift last, savoring the suspense, and laughed out loud when he tore
the wrapping off of a finely bound volume of the collected works of Edgar
Allen Poe. Recently, they had been holding an on-going argument about horror
stories. Angel was a devout fan of Steven King and stated that no other
author, past, present, or future could describe the evil of a man's soul like
King. Willow had obviously decided to prove him wrong. She was slowly, but
surely, introducing him to her favorites. Angel sat still with a grin
plastered across his face, then glanced at his watch. With a start, he
realized that it was already time for him to head to the library for the
evening's activities.
*******
Willow and Boo were the only ones in the library when Angel arrived. Willow
had her head in a book, as usual, and Boo lay at her feet, chewing on a
doggie toy.
"Hi Angel." she said, without looking up. "Happy Birthday." He didn't
bother to ask how she knew it was him. Instead, he turned his attention to
the dog.
"You gave me away again, didn't you?" His voice held a reproachful tone, but
Angel's actions belied his words as he crouched down next to Boo and gave him
a good head-rub. He was always amazed at the dog's almost supernatural
ability to discern whether a newcomer was a friend or foe to his mistress and
they all had come to depend on Boo's instincts. It was one of the reasons
Giles had finally allowed Willow to start bringing him to the library.
"He did that bouncing on his toes thing again." Willow giggled, as she put
down the book.
"Can't get anything past you, can we, boy?" With a final pat, Angel stood up
again and took a seat across the table from Willow. "Where is everyone?"
"Giles and Faith are out on patrol and Cordelia is having dinner with her
folks. They'll be here soon. Did you like your presents?"
"Very much." he grinned at her. "Thanks for the book and the cake."
"You're welcome." Willow got a blissful expression on her face, which Angel
had come to think of her "I've done something to make someone happy" face.
In the past four years, he had learned many of Willow's expressions and he
had titles for each one. This was one of his favorites.
"What are you reading?" he asked, gesturing at the book.
"Giles is letting me look at the Watcher's Diaries..... finally." Willow
grinned widely.
"Really? How'd you talk him into it?"
"I pointed out that I probably know more about the undead than most people in
the Council."
"You probably do, too." Giles commented, as he and Faith entered the
library. Both stopped to pet Boo before heading to their accustomed seats.
"Happy Birthday, Angel."
"Thank you." Angel nodded. "And thank you for the album."
"What he means is," Faith interjected "thanks for giving me a relic that I
can't use because I don't have the right equipment, and who wants to listen
to a bunch of psychos who only know three chords, anyway?"
"Angel has a record player." Willow protested.
"And I'll have you know that the artists I favor are quite technically
skilled and have very few, if any, psychological issues–unlike many of
today's so-called ‘musicians.'" As the friendly debate continued, Giles began
flipping through a stack of mail. He picked up one letter, looked at it for
a moment in surprise, then handed it to Willow, saying "This one's for you."
With a puzzled look on her face, Willow took the envelope and opened it
quickly. Faith and Giles continued to argue the relative merits of their
favorite bands, but Angel tuned them out to watch Willow. As she read the
letter, all color left her cheeks and she looked like she was going to be ill.
"Willow, is everything all right?" he asked, interrupting Faith in
mid-sentence.
"It..... this is from Xander." she murmured. This shut the others up in a
hurry.
"What?" Giles reached over and plucked the letter from Willow's trembling
hand. He scanned it quickly, then handed it back to her. "I can't read a
word of it. Xander always did have horrid handwriting."
"He says.... he..... "
"Why don't you read it to us." Angel suggested, gently.
"Uh.... okay." Willow swallowed in an attempt to dislodge the lump that had
formed in her throat, then began to read slowly. "‘Dear Willow, I'm sending
this to Giles at the library because I assume that you're long gone from
Sunnydale. You're probably off at college somewhere, having a great time and
I'm sure you've tried to forget about all that craziness we experienced in
high school, just as Buffy and I have. That's right–I said Buffy and I. I
found her about three weeks after I left Sunnydale and we've been together
ever since. I guess that's a pretty good intro for the biggest piece of news
I have for you–Buffy and I were married six months ago. We're both
incredibly happy and I hope you'll be happy for us.'" Willow stopped as
Cordelia breezed into the room.
"Hey guys." She dropped her purse on the circulation desk and walked to the
space between Giles and Faith. She planted a quick kiss on the Slayer's
lips, then looked around at the others. Noticing their somber faces, she
sighed. "What's wrong now?"
"Willow got a letter from Xander." Faith said.
"What? When?"
"Just now." Giles replied. Cordelia slowly sat down in the seat that he
pulled out for her and Willow re-read the first part of the letter for her
benefit. "‘.....I hope you'll be happy for us. Willow, I know that I
promised you that I would come back to Sunnydale, but when I found Buffy, she
couldn't handle the idea and I couldn't handle leaving her. Now that we've
had a chance to live in the real world, neither of us wants to go back to the
way things were. I'm sure you know what I mean–I bet you still remember the
exact moment when you realized that there was a world where you didn't have
to worry about dying at least once a week.... a world where you didn't have
to carry a stake and cross every time you went outside at night and where the
scariest monsters you had to deal with were on movie screens. Wasn't it a
great feeling? Anyway, I hope life is treating you well and I hope you don't
feel any kind of guilt about everything that happened. I know you and Giles
tried to find us–heck, for all I know you're still trying–and that you've
probably told yourselves that if you'd said or did just the right thing,
events might have turned out differently or we might not have left. Please
don't. All that stuff happened for a reason and, even if I could, I wouldn't
change a minute of it. We did what we had to do, as I'm sure you've done,
and things have turned out for the best. If you're still in touch with
Giles, would you please tell him that I wrote you and tell him that Buffy and
I won't come back to Sunnydale, so there's no real point in him looking for
us anymore. If anyone can convince him to back off, I know you can. I guess
that's all I really have to say. Buffy wants me to add that she says hello.
We both miss you and love you and, God willing, we hope to be able to see you
again some day. Until then, we hope you have a happy life. Take care of
yourself. Love Xander.'"
"I don't believe this." Faith muttered, when Willow was finished.
"Neither do I." the redhead responded. The flat tone in her voice sent
chills down Angel's spine.
"Are you okay?" she asked, looking at him.
"I'm fine. Buffy married Xander..... that's....."
"Weird." Cordelia declared. "That's just plain weird."
"What about you?" Angel asked, looking closely at Willow. "Are you all
right?"
"I'll be fine." Willow sighed. "This is just..... a shock."
"Yeah, who'd have thought that Buffy would end up with *Xander*?" Cordelia
rolled her eyes. "I mean, I always thought she had more taste than that."
"Didn't you used to date him?" Faith asked, sweetly.
"I plead temporary insanity." Cordelia shot back. "Seriously, Willow, are
you okay? I know you used to have a thing for Xander...."
"Oh, I got over that around about the time I caught you two making out in the
utility closet." Willow waved her hand, indifferently. "I guess I'm just
surprised at their.... attitude."
"They do seem to be rather casual about things, don't they?" Giles grimaced.
Willow stood up and began pacing. Boo also rose and followed his mistress
around.
"That's a nice way of putting it. They don't seem to give a damn about what
happened to us after they left. I mean, Angelus, Dru, and Spike were running
around killing people, but, they got away, so ‘things have worked out for the
best' right? Oh! Sorry, Angel, that didn't quite come out the way I meant
it to...."
"It's okay." he assured her. "Maybe they found out that you restored my
soul.......?"
"How? They certainly didn't call and ask me or Giles..... or anyone else for
that matter.... I mean, Willie promised he'd contact us if he heard from
them, right? So did Mrs. Summers. How would they know that you're back? Or
that you staked Spike and Dru? They just assume that we're alive and okay."
"That's probably the only way they can live with themselves." Giles said, his
voice gentle. "It's too hard for them to face the reality that they left us,
even though they knew what kind of danger we were in. They have to tell
themselves we're all right, in order to sleep at night."
"Obviously they don't feel *too* guilty. Otherwise, they would have come
back a long time ago." Willow pointed out.
"I personally like the fact that they just assume that Giles would still be
working as the high school librarian." Faith snickered.
"I *am* still the high school librarian." he reminded her.
"But would you still be here, if it wasn't for me?"
"Yes, I would. I'm needed here."
"How come Xander didn't ask about me?" Cordelia's voice held the tiniest
hint of a whine.
"They probably think that you got the hell out of Dodge as soon as possible."
Faith replied.
"Yeah, I bet they can't conceive of the notion that some of us might not run
at the first available opportunity." Willow practically spit her words out.
"Xander went on and on about how great it is not to have to be in
Sunnydale.... I guess he just thought I'd share his feelings...."
"Do you regret staying here?" The words were out of his mouth before Angel
could stop himself. He had often wondered this, but had never asked because
he was afraid to hear her answer.
"No." Willow shook her head vehemently. "I'm glad I stayed. I'm angry....
I'm angry because Xander seems to feel that everything that
happened–including the stuff that happened before you.... uh....."
"Became Angelus." he prompted
"Yeah, well, it's like none of that matters. He and Buffy just want to
forget that Slayers and vampires and Sunnydale ever existed. They've gone
off and made their own lives and the rest of us don't matter." She paused
for a moment, and hung her head. "I guess what really bothers me about this
is that I always had this hope.... deep in my heart..... that they'd come
back....." When she looked up again, Angel saw tears standing in her eyes.
"Why won't they come back?" she whispered, then collapsed into a heap on the
floor. Angel rushed to her side and held her as she cried.
The library was silent except for Willow's sobs and Angel silently cursed
Buffy and Xander–not for leaving, but for writing the letter and dashing
Willow's hopes. It broke his heart to see Willow hurting this way and to
know that there was nothing he could do to make it better. On the other
hand, he was glad that Willow had finally gotten these things off her chest.
He could see that they had been building for some time and had been slowly
eating her from the inside out. He believed her when she said that she
didn't regret staying in Sunnydale, but he also understood that she resented
that she hadn't really been given a choice. While others might have argued
that she could leave at any time, those who knew Willow knew that she would
never leave someone to get through danger on their own.
Willow's sobs finally subsided and she slowly lifted her head off of Angel's
shoulder, only to discover that Boo had put his head in her lap, effectively
pinning her legs. "I... I'm sorry." she sniffed. "I shouldn't have gone off
like that....."
"It's quite all right." Giles interrupted her, tossing a box of tissues to
Angel. "In fact, I'm surprised that you haven't done something like this
already. It's not healthy to keep this kind of thing bottled up, you know?"
"Yeah, I know." Willow blew her nose and swiped at her eyes.
"Feel better?" Angel asked as he stroked her hair.
"Yeah. Sorry about your shirt....."
"Willow, it's water.... it's not like there's going to be a stain...."
Willow chuckled weakly and Angel gave her a hug. "Now, come on. I'm going
to take you home so you can get some rest. You look exhausted."
Cordelia and Faith shared an apartment with Willow, so they ended up taking
her home–after they spent several minutes trying to pry Boo off of her lap.
When the girls were gone, Angel turned to Giles and noted, with concern, how
tired the Watcher looked.
"You know, Willow's not the only one who needs some sleep." he said.
"I know, I know." Giles rubbed his face. "I'm not sure I'm going to get any,
though."
"Are you all right?" Angel asked, carefully. He and Giles had slowly, but
surely, managed to repair their relationship over the past four years and
Angel hated having to remind the man of a time when they hadn't been friends.
"I will be." Giles sighed. "Willow's not the only one who harbored hopes
that Xander and Buffy would return someday....."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really. I do, however, think I'm going to go home and get
staggeringingly drunk."
"Whatever works." Angel smirked.
"Exactly. At least tomorrow's Saturday, so I'll have time to sleep it off
before patrol." The Watcher stood and began to collect his things. "Good
night.... and Happy Birthday, Angel."
*******
Later that evening, Angel sat in his apartment and thought about everything
that had happened. Xander's letter bothered him and he was trying to put his
finger on the exact reason why. It wasn't the revelation that Buffy and
Xander were married–he had accepted the fact that Buffy would move on with
someone else, eventually, and he was actually rather glad she had chosen to
make a life with Xander. Xander already knew her deepest, darkest secret and
accepted her for the person she was, which was something Buffy desperately
needed. He also didn't share Willow's feelings of abandonment–after all,
when they had last seen one another, he had tried to kill Buffy–but he could
sympathize with them. He decided that his real problem was with the
insensitivity of the letter itself. It was obvious that Xander and Buffy had
given very little thought to the people they had left behind. If they had,
they probably wouldn't have chosen the words they did–in fact, they probably
wouldn't have written to Willow at all.
As they always did these days, Angel's thoughts turned to Willow. He had
long since admitted to himself that he was hopelessly in love with her, but
he had not revealed this to anyone else–especially not to Willow herself.
Memories of his doomed relationship with Buffy combined with guilt over his
actions as Angelus, kept him silent. Plus, there was the little matter of
the fact that she only saw him as a friend. As he thought about her
breakdown that evening, Angel renewed his vow to be the best friend to her
that he could possibly be. After all, he thought as he glanced at the
half-eaten cake sitting on the table, wasn't she the best friend anyone could
have?
********
PART 6
********
(May, 2005)
"*Buffy*?" Cordelia's eyes were wide with shock. "Oh my God.... I don't
believe this is happening......"
"You're not the only one." Buffy muttered. "Hey, Cordy."
"*You're* Buffy???" The stranger looked at her, disbelief all over her face.
She turned to Cordelia and added "I can't believe you all made such a big
deal about *her*."
"Who are you?" Buffy asked, irritated.
"I'm Faith." the girl smirked. "The Vampire Slayer."
"The what?" Buffy's blood ran cold. "What happened to Kendra?"
"Okay, I think that maybe we should have this conversation elsewhere..."
Cordelia interjected. "Buffy, we just need to get something at Lord &
Taylor's, then we'll take you to the library, okay?"
"I have my car." Buffy said. "And you can pick up the dress some other time.
Let's go."
"Wait a second....." Faith's face darkened with anger. "How did you know....
have you been following us?"
"I heard you talking at lunch." Buffy admitted without a trace of remorse.
"And here, too. But I know I didn't hear right, though. Willow can't be
marrying *Angel*, can she?"
"Oh, we really should not be having this conversation here." Cordelia groaned.
"You're right." Buffy sighed. "I'm going to go call Xander and I'll meet you
in the parking lot. I'm not quite clear on directions....."
"Oh." Cordelia said. "Okay. Come on, Faith." Without another word, the
two girls hurried out of the store.
"We should call Giles and give him a heads up." Faith whispered to Cordelia,
once Buffy was out of earshot.
"I've got my cell phone in the car." Cordelia replied. "I hope he has some
ideas on how to deal with this, ‘cause I sure as hell don't....."
"Me neither." Faith shook her head. "Why couldn't she have stayed away for
one more day....?"
*******
PART 7
*******
(January, 2004)
When Angel arrived at the library, it was empty. This wasn't a surprise–it
was, after all, four o'clock on a Friday afternoon. Giles was most likely at
the weekly staff meeting and Willow didn't get off work until five. He
decided to start searching for a particular book of prophecy and, thus, was
far back in the stacks when Faith and Cordelia entered the room. Before
Angel realized what was happening, the two girls were on the steps, making
out furiously. Angel decided to allow them a few moments of privacy and
slipped back into the shadows, unseen by either girl.
He grinned when he thought of the two–who would have ever thought that
Cordelia would end up madly in love with *Faith*? When the Slayer first
arrived in town, she had carried a chip on her shoulder that was roughly the
size of the island of Manhattan and enough emotional baggage to fill a
good-size bus. Giles had once confided that he was worried that she might be
tempted to abuse her powers. She and Cordelia had disliked each other on
sight and had taken to bickering at every opportunity. Later on, Willow had
told him that Cordelia's relationship with Xander had started in much the
same way. As time went on, Faith had finally come to trust, then care about
the small group of people who defended Sunnydale against the forces of
darkness. She and Cordelia had tentatively embarked on a romance about a
year after her arrival. They had been together ever since and Angel credited
the former cheerleader with providing the Slayer with the sense of stability
and the unconditional love she so desperately needed.
Angel was brought back to the present by the sound of voices. He made his
way towards them again, only to stop again when he heard the personal nature
of the conversation.
"..... feel so good." Faith was murmuring.
"So do you." Cordelia cooed. "But, we are in a public place and Giles will
be back soon."
"So what?" the Slayer pouted. "It's not like he hasn't seen us before....."
"He's seen us kissing. He's never seen us in various stages of undress. Now
get up, so I can fix my makeup." Angel breathed a sigh of relief. He
decided to give them a few minutes to get decent, before he made his presence
known.
"What time is Willow getting here?" Faith asked.
"I don't know. She said something about stopping off at Angel's first."
"Really? Why?"
"She said that she had to talk to him about something." Angel checked his
watch and debated whether or not he had time to make it back to his place
before Willow got off work.
"What is *wrong* with that girl?" Faith was incredulous. "I mean, he's
smart, single, and oh-so-fine.... and all she wants to do is go over there to
*talk*?"
"I said that's what she's going to do..... I didn't say that's what she
*wants* to do."
"Oh really?" Both Faith and Angel's interests were piqued. "Do tell."
"What's to tell?" Cordelia looked askance at Faith. "You know how Willow
feels about him..."
"No, *you* know how Willow feels about him. Every time I bring up the
subject, she changes it. So dish the dirt, girlfriend."
"Oh man, I really shouldn't have said anything...." Cordelia squirmed,
uncomfortably.
"Well you did, now c'mon..... spill!"
"Okay, but you have to promise me that you're not going to mention this to
either Willow or Angel. She'll kill me if she finds out I told you and God
knows what she'd do if he found out....."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't have to worry about me. So, Willow has a thing
for Angel, huh?"
"It's more serious than that. She's been in love with him for God knows how
long." Angel reeled from this revelation.
"Does he know?" The girls continued to talk, completely oblivious to the
vampire's presence.
"God, no. Listen, you have to promise me that you're not going to say a word
to him, okay?"
"I promise." Faith's voice became serious. "I don't get it, though. They'd
be *perfect* for each other..... why doesn't she tell him?"
"Lots of reasons." Cordelia shrugged. "She's afraid of being rejected......
she thinks he's still in love with Buffy...... she doesn't want to ruin their
friendship...... you know Willow. She's got about as much self-esteem as
this table."
"She certainly is Little Miss Inferiority Complex, isn't she?" Faith agreed.
"I wish we could help...."
"Whatever it is you're thinking, don't."
"At least tell me this.... is Angel still hung up on Buffy?"
"I have no idea. Angel doesn't exactly confide in me, you know."
"Well, what do you think?"
"It's hard to say...." Cordelia said, thoughtfully. "Angel and Buffy's
relationship was incredibly..... intense, I guess is the right word. They
couldn't keep their hands off of each other, no matter how hard..... uh....
certain people tried to break them up. But it seemed like they were fighting
every other day...... Buffy would go spastic if Angel talked to another girl
and he'd go off in a corner and brood if she went to a party without him. On
top of that, you had that whole ‘I'm the Slayer and you're a vampire' thing
happening. On the one hand, there was the lure of the forbidden and on the
other, it has to have been difficult for them to deal with their
instincts...."
"I can see that." Faith nodded. "So, where was Willow during all this?"
"She was doing the best friend routine. She was also pining after Xander who
was completely oblivious. He was either chasing after Buffy or doing his
best to get past first base with me."
"Okay, that makes sense. But it's been six years.... surely Angel's over
Buffy by now...."
"Not necessarily." Cordelia shook her head. "You'd have to have met Buffy
to understand this, but she's one of those people who.... I don't know.....
makes sure that you'll never forget her, you know what I mean? She makes
herself the center of your life and then, when she leaves, it's impossible to
just go on like before."
"I got you." Faith sighed. "Poor Willow."
"Yeah, she's never gonna get the nerve to say anything to Angel because she's
afraid of being compared to Buffy."
"How is it he doesn't know about this?"
"You know guys..... they should all have the word ‘dense' tattooed on their
foreheads." Both girls giggled, then the conversation ended abruptly as
Giles returned from his meeting. Angel slipped out through the back door and
stood in the sewer for a minute, trying to absorb everything he had just
heard. Willow was in love with *him*? When had that happened? How had he
not seen the signs? What on Earth was he going to do now? Looking down at
the book that was still in his hands, Angel realized that this was neither
the time or place to figure this out. Putting his "Cryptic Guy" face firmly
in place, he re-entered the building. Willow arrived a few minutes later and
the group embarked on that night's research.
******
"Hey, kid." Angel nearly jumped when Whistler sat down next to him. He had
been in the park for several hours, simply staring at the stars and thinking
about Willow.
"Whistler." the vampire nodded at the demon, then asked "What are you doing
here?"
"Nice to see you too." Whistler pulled a genuine New York pretzel out of a
paper bag, handed it to Angel, then pulled out another one for himself.
Angel noted that the pretzel was still warm, but didn't bother to ask how
Whistler had managed to accomplish the feat.
"Thanks." He took a bite, then turned to look at his old friend. "What are
you doing here?"
"As usual," Whistler said as he chewed thoughtfully "I am here to help you
pull your life together." Again, Angel didn't bother to question how the
demon knew about this latest upheaval in his life.
"What do I do?"
"What do you want to do?"
"I want.... I want to go find her right now, take her someplace where there
is no Hellmouth and I want to spend the rest of her life making sure that
she's never hurt or lonely or sad......." Whistler nodded, but said nothing.
"I want to tell her that I love her.... I want to hear her say she loves
me..... I want to tell her that she's the most beautiful creature I've ever
seen and I want to feel her hands exploring my body...... I want to meet her
parents and stand beside her when we're pronounced man and wife...... God, I
want to pick out china patterns and baby furniture with her."
"Okay. What's stopping you?" Angel sat up straight and turned to look at
Whistler.
"You're kidding me, right?" His voice was full of anger. "There's no way I
can do any of that stuff."
"Why not?" Whistler's voice was maddeningly reasonable.
"I'm a vampire, remember?"
"I'm well aware of your membership in Club Undead, kid. You're a vampire,
she's a mortal. It's been done before. *You've* done it before."
"Yeah, and look how well that turned out."
"Your problems with the Slayer had nothing to do with the fact that she was a
mortal."
"Oh, please enlighten me." Angel used his most sarcastic tone of voice.
"Your problems stemmed from her career, your super-size pity party, and the
fact that neither of you knew how to act like reasonably mature adults."
Angel opened his mouth to protest, then remembered Cordelia's
all-too-accurate description of his relationship with Buffy. "What else?"
"Well there is the fact that I tried to kill her...."
"I thought she forgave you for that."
"She did, but....."
"But nothing. What else?" Whistler's steady gaze was unnerving.
"Dammit, Whistler!"Angel nearly shouted. "Willow deserves some nice guy who
can give her a house with a white picket fence..... someone who can take her
on long walks in the middle of the day..... someone who can give her children
and can grow old with her....."
"All that may be true," the demon's voice remained calm "but she's in love
with you. You can give her the fence and long walks–although I grant you,
without sunlight–and as for kiddies, you're not the first guy whose needed
some outside help in that department."
"But.... but, she's *Willow*." Angel sputtered.
"And you're Angel." Whistler chuckled. "Listen, kid. If there's one thing
I've learned, it's that life is short–even if you're undead. We both know
that you can be happy without posing a threat to yourself or others, so why
not take the opportunity that's been handed to you on a silver platter?
Forget all this ‘I deserve, she deserves' crap. In the end, it's pointless.
Your soul will be judged based on what you did during your life, not what you
gave up because you felt to guilty to grab a little bit of joy. I can pretty
much guarantee that being in love is not going to mess you up with the powers
that be." Angel's jaw moved as he tried to come up with another objection.
Whistler grinned and, without another glance, stood up and began to walk
away. Angel stared at the ground for a moment, then looked up to thank the
demon. As usual, Whistler had vanished into thin air, leaving no trace that
he had ever been there, except for the half-eaten pretzel in the vampire's
hand.
Slowly, Angel began to walk back to his apartment. By the time he crawled
into bed, he had decided to take Whistler's advice. As he drifted off to
sleep, he began to make plans.
*******
(February, 2004 - Valentine's Day)
Angel slipped in through the back entrance and quickly glanced around the
library. Luckily for him, Giles was the only one in the room. The Watcher
was seated at the table, absently stirring a cup of tea and turning pages in
a book at the same time. Angel slipped out from behind the stacks and
nervously cleared his throat.
"Oh! Hello, Angel." Giles barely raised his head to acknowledge the
vampire's presence. "I'll be right with you....." Angel sat down and waited
in silence until Giles finished the passage he had been reading. The Watcher
finally closed the book and put it aside. "Now, what brings you here so
early?"
"I need to talk to you..... about Willow."
"Really? Is something wrong?" Giles instantly became more alert.
"Oh no." Angel hastened to assure him. "I just have some questions, that's
all."
"All right."
"Does she still keep in touch with her parents? I know that they drifted
apart after she graduated high school....."
"Yes, her decision to pursue her academic career here in Sunnydale, rather
than in an Ivy League institution, caused a great deal of friction in their
relationship." Angel nodded.
"So.... would you say that we're her..... family? Or the closest thing to
her family?"
"I'd say that, yes." Giles nodded. "Angel, why are you asking this?"
"That would make you the closest thing she has to a father, right?" Angel
peered intently at the Watcher.
"I suppose so.... Angel, what's going on?"
"I'd like your permission to court Willow."
"You want my what to do *what*?"
********
PART 8
********
(May, 2005)
"Hello?"
"Hey Xand, it's me."
"Buffy! How's my favorite girl?"
"Not good. You need to get to the library as soon as possible."
"Why? I thought we weren't going to make our presence known until after the
end of the semester."
"Plans have changed. I ran into Cordelia at the mall..... and she wasn't
alone. She was hanging with this chick who looks like she just walked out of
‘Mercenary Life.' She claims she's a Slayer..... but that's not the problem."
"What is?"
"Apparently Willow..... our Willow..... is getting married..... to Angel."
"I'll be there as soon as I can."
******
"Hello?"
"Giles, it's me."
"Faith! I'm glad you called. I need you and Cordelia to...."
"Save it, G. We've got a serious situation."
"What's wrong?"
"Cordelia and I ran into someone at the mall..... are you sitting down?"
"Who was it?"
"Are you sitting down?"
"Yes, yes. I'm sitting down. Now who did you see?"
"Buffy. Giles? You there?"
"Yes, just let me.... I need to sit down."
"You okay?"
"Are you sure it was Buffy?"
"Cordelia is. Anyway, she's coming with us to the library and she called
Xander. Giles... she knows about the wedding."
"Oh, good Lord....."
"We'll be there in about fifteen minutes."
"All right. I'm going to call Angel..... Do we know when Willow is getting
back?"
"Uh.... hold on, let me check. Cordy says that her plane lands at six."
"Good. I don't want to involve her unless it's necessary. I'll see you when
you get here."
******
"‘Lo?"
"Angel? It's Rupert Giles. I need you to get to the library as soon as
possible."
"Giles, if this is for some sort of bachelor party thing, can it wait until
I've had eight hours of sleep?"
"No, it's not..... Faith just called. Buffy and Xander have apparently
returned. Angel? Angel? Are you there?"
"Yes, I'm here. Did you just say that Buffy and Xander....."
"..... are back. Yes, that's what I said. Buffy knows about the wedding."
"Oh God."
"My thoughts exactly. Will you come?"
"As soon as I can."
********
PART 9
********
(February, 2004 - Valentine's Day)
"Quiet night." Willow murmured as she scanned the street ahead of them.
Boo's leash was looped around her right hand and even the dog didn't seem to
want to disturb the peaceful moment.
"That it is." Angel agreed. "It's a nice change."
"True, but I can't help but feel that we're in the calm before the storm."
"So we should enjoy the calm while it last. Want to take another swing
through the park?"
"I suppose." Willow shrugged. "I can't go home until midnight, anyway."
"Why not?"
"It's Valentine's Day." she grinned. "Faith and Cordy want to be alone."
"I see." he chuckled. "What are their plans.... or should I not ask?"
"From what I understand, Cordelia is going to cook a meal for Faith and
Faith.... well, I'm too much of a lady to repeat what she told me."
"Cordelia in the kitchen..... " Angel shuddered. "Now *that's* scary."
Willow giggled.
"Actually," she said, in defense of her friend "she's a really good cook, she
just doesn't like to do it." Willow thought for a moment. "You know, I
never thought I'd see the day when Cordelia Chase would love someone more
than herself....."
"Stranger things have happened." They entered the park and, after a sweep,
decided to sit down for a while. They chose a bench that was on the edge of
a moonlit clearing and Boo curled up on the ground, falling asleep almost
immediately. Angel draped his arm across the back of the bench and, almost
instinctually, Willow settled himself against him and they sat in contented
silence for a few moments.
Willow looked up at Angel and noticed the slightly dreamy expression on his
face. "Penny for your thoughts."
"I was just remembering my first love. Sweet Meggie Maguire....."
"I don't think I've heard about her." In fact, Willow had heard very little
about Angel's past and was thrilled that he seemed willing to share at least
some of it now.
"Ah, Meggie...." Angel chuckled. "I was convinced that she and I were going
to marry and live in a castle.... with lots of soldiers and horses.... and a
big oak tree in the yard, that I could climb whenever I wanted to....."
"I see. And how old were you?"
"Thirteen. She was six months younger than me and we got along famously.....
until I broke her heart."
"What did you do?"
"I made a.... less than gentlemanly comment, shall we say.... about Deirdre
Coughlan's expanding bust-line."
"You heartless fiend." Willow teased.
"I was rather fickle, back in those days." Angel admitted. "So, who was your
first love?"
"Xander." Willow said, simply. ".... and you know how that ended up."
Angel nodded. "I know." After a moment, he chuckled. "Listen to us. It's
Valentine's Day and we're sitting in the park talking about our childhood
sweethearts."
"What else are we supposed to do?" Willow asked. "I mean, between work and
fighting the forces of evil, I haven't exactly had time for an active social
life. And you....."
"I don't exactly have a wide range of options." he pointed out. "Vampires
tend to want someone who will hunt and feed with them.... and most mortal
women have this strange obsession with dating guys who can breathe."
"True, true." Willow nodded. "And there's always the Buffy factor."
"The Buffy factor?" Angel arched an eyebrow.
"Yeah, you know...." she gestured vaguely. "The Buffy factor."
"What does Buffy have to do with my love life.... or lack thereof?" Angel
shifted so that he could look at her. He almost laughed at the expression on
her face–her nose was wrinkled in confusion.
"But... I thought..... aren't you.....?" she stammered.
"Aren't I what?"
"Aren't you..... well, don't you still love her?"
Angel sighed. "I still care about Buffy.... but I'm not in love with her
anymore, if that's what you're asking."
"Why not?" The words were out of Willow's mouth before she realized what she
was saying. "Oh, sorry. Uh.... you don't have to answer that if you don't
want....." she babbled as a flush crept up her cheeks.
"It's okay, Willow." Angel reassured her. "I want to tell you.... actually,
I need to talk to you about this." She opened her mouth to say something,
but he hushed her. "See, you have to understand that before I met Buffy, I
didn't have much experience with relationships..... I was too self-involved
to fall in love when I was human and.... well, I don't think you could call
what I had with Darla, Drusilla, or any of the other vampires of my
acquaintance, a relationship. When I met Buffy there I was–240 years old
with a vampire's needs, a human soul, an infinite amount of guilt, the body
of a 21 year old man, and the emotional maturity of a 16 year old boy." He
smirked. "Then there was Buffy–a Slayer with the body, mind, and heart of a
16 year old girl and a Destiny that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I
don't think either of us had any idea of what it was like to be in love. We
wanted each other, we wanted to be together and nothing and nobody was going
to get in our way."
"I remember." Willow murmured. "No matter what Giles and Xander said, Buffy
wouldn't listen. No matter how short Cordelia's skirts were, you wouldn't
look."
Angel laughed outright. "Exactly. Don't get me wrong, Willow, I loved Buffy
and I know she loved me..... but not in that lasting, forever kind of way.
Then we made a mistake that ended up nearly costing both of us everything we
ever held dear." Willow patted his hand in sympathy. "Even if Buffy had
stayed in town, we probably wouldn't have gotten back together. There was
just too much between us..... and I don't just mean the memory of Angelus."
"Oh." Willow's voice was quiet and Angel could hear the note of sadness in
it. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." He paused, thinking that there was no better time to bring up the
subject he had wanted to discuss all evening. "So," he began, in a much more
cheerful tone. "You had it half right."
"What?"
"Well, you implied that one of the reasons for my continued bachelorhood was
my lingering feelings for Buffy. In fact, you called it ‘The Buffy factor.'
That's half right."
"Okaaaaaay......" Willow thought for a minute, trying to sort out the riddle
he'd just handed her. "You're saying that there's a factor, but that it's
not Buffy?"
"I always said you were the smart one."
"So what is it?"
"Not what, who."
Willow's eyebrows shot up. "Who? You don't have a Buffy factor, but you
have a someone-else factor?"
"Yes." Angel nodded with pride. "I've got a Willow factor."
"A what?" Willow shook her head, trying to understand. "What Willow factor?
Why me? You're not in love with me....." her voice trailed off as Angel's
gaze met hers. She had never seen such an.... intense expression in his eyes
before..... at least not directed at her anyway...... As the clamor in her
brain attempted to make some sort of sense out of what was happening, her jaw
worked, soundlessly.
"Oh." was all she was able to whisper.
"Yeah." he replied, then brought his mouth down to hers for a kiss.
*********
PART 10
*********
Buffy took a deep breath and pushed open the doors to the library. Faith and
Cordelia were behind her, but neither said a word as they entered the room
where Buffy had spent the majority of her life at Sunnydale. She was
momentarily stunned at how..... normal everything looked. She could almost
convince herself that she had only been gone for a day, a week, or a
summer–not six years. As usual, the library was empty and Buffy looked
around for Giles.
"Hello, hello." Faith called out, stepping further into the room. "You here,
G?"
"I'm right here." Giles stepped out of his office. "And I have asked you
repeatedly not to call me that."
"Chill, man." Faith leaned against the table. "I'm just trying to cut
through some of the tension."
"I know." he smiled at her. "Hello Cordelia..... Buffy."
"Hey Giles." Buffy waved weakly. "I'm back."
"So I can see." Giles turned back to Faith. "Did you finish your errands?"
"No, we ran into Miss Thing here before....." Giles held up his hand.
"Perhaps it would be a good idea if you took Cordelia's car and finished
them, then."
"You trying to get rid of me?"
"Yes." Giles smirked. "I thought I'd try being polite first."
"Say no more." Faith chuckled and headed back towards the door. "I'm gone."
"Would you mind stopping at the magic shop and picking up a few things....
that is, after you've finished your other business?" Giles handed her a
piece of paper and she studied it quickly.
"No prob. Cordy, I need keys." Cordelia handed them to her and Buffy noted
the look that passed between the two girls and filed it away for future
study. Once the brunette Slayer was gone, both Giles and Cordelia took
chairs at the table. Buffy went to stand before them, feeling like a little
kid who has been sent to the principal's office for the first time.
"Where's Xander?" Cordelia asked, suddenly. "I thought you called him."
"I did. He's on his way." Buffy turned to Giles who sat there, stirring a
cup of tea and avoiding her eyes. "Aren't you going to say anything, Giles?"
"Like what?" He raised his gaze to meet hers and Buffy flinched at what she
saw there. "What are you doing here, Buffy?"
"I..... I was worried about you guys...... I've been having these
dreams......" Buffy stammered.
"Dreams? What sort of dreams?" Giles was immediately in what Faith called
his ‘Watcher zone.'
"I'm not really sure." Buffy finally pulled out a chair and sat down,
perching on the edge of the chair. "They're kind of like those prophecy
dreams I used to have.... only different, somehow. Xander and I figured that
if trouble was coming your way, we ought to be here to help."
"Can you describe these dreams? What happened in them?"
"Well, they didn't exactly have a plot summary, but I do remember certain
images..... I saw Spike fighting someone..... Dru was digging her nails into
your face and Willow was sitting inside a big circle with candles all
around..... and there was this big statue-thing that kind of looked like a
gargoyle off of one of those French churches..... and then there was someone
standing in front of the statue..... it was the same guy who was fighting
Spike, but I couldn't see who it was....." she stopped when she saw Giles
turn to look at Cordelia. The two of them wore matching expressions of
shock. "What? What did I say?"
"Exactly how long have you been having these visions?"
"About two months."
"And you hurried back as fast as you could, didn't you?" Cordelia said,
sarcasm dripping from every word.
"I think I can explain what's happening." Giles interjected. "Buffy, you
weren't seeing the future.... you were seeing the past. Spike and Drusilla
managed to unearth the demon Akathla–he would be the gargoyle you saw–and
were attempting to wake him. If they had succeeded, the entire world would
have been swallowed into Hell and every non-demonic creature on this earth
would have suffered an eternity of torment. Fortunately, they didn't know
quite how to wake him up, so they captured me and tried to make me talk. I
was rescued and Willow cast a spell which permanently bound Akathla to the
demonic realm."
"Oh." Buffy breathed, not knowing quite how to take this. :"So who was the
guy fighting Spike and standing in front of the demon-statue."
"Me."
********
PART 11
********
(September, 2004)
"Giles!" The Watcher lifted his head out of his hands when Angel entered the
room. A small part of his brain marveled at the speed at which the vampire
must have traveled–after all, sunset had only occurred a few minutes ago. "I
got here as soon as I could. How is she?"
"It's not good." Giles sighed. "The doctors took her straight to surgery and
they've been at it for several hours. Nobody's been out to speak to me yet,
so....." he shrugged helplessly. Angel growled softly and kicked a chair in
frustration.
"What happened?"
"All I know is that she was severely beaten and that she probably would have
died if it wasn't for Faith's timely arrival."
"Who did it?"
"I have absolutely no idea. Hopefully Willow can tell us more if..... when
she recovers." Angel sat in a chair and began to rhythmically pound his fist
on the metal arm of the chair.
"Was Faith hurt?"
"Some bruises and a sprained wrist. She'll be fine by tomorrow night, but
the doctors gave her some medication. I told Cordelia to take her home. I
didn't see any reason for all of us to just sit here. It's not like we can
do anything....." Giles' voice trailed off into silence.
"Why would anyone..... I mean, who would want to hurt Willow?" Angel asked,
not really expecting an answer. Giles didn't give him one. Instead, the two
men waited in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, the doctor
emerged and walked over to them.
"Mr. Giles?" Giles and Angel immediately jumped to their feet.
"Yes." Giles nodded. "Is Willow..... will she be all right?"
"Let's sit down." After the men reluctantly did as they were told, the
doctor continued. "Miss Rosenberg sustained some very serious injuries.
Several of her ribs were broken and one punctured her right lung. There was
also some internal bleeding. We've done all we can for now and we will be
monitoring her very closely, but we may have to go in again." Angel opened
his mouth to interrupt, but the doctor raised her hand. "Please, sir, let me
finish. Miss Rosenberg also has a rather serious concussion and is currently
in a coma." She grimaced. "Which, given the wide range of her injuries, is
probably a blessing in disguise. Her collarbone is broken, as are all her
fingers, her nose, and her left knee. Whoever did this was a real psycho."
She shot a pointed look in Angel's direction when she said this. He chose to
ignore her implication.
"Was she......" Giles tried to swallow around the lump in his throat. "Did
whoever did this.... did he rape her?"
"No." The doctor shook her head. Both Giles and Angel breathed sighs of
relief at that.
"Can we see her?" Angel asked.
"She's in recovery now, but we will be moving her to a private room later
this evening" the doctor replied. "You can see her there. In the meantime,
the police are here. They're going to want to talk to you." Angel was about
to protest, but Giles laid his hand on the vampire's arm.
"It's probably best that we get this over with now." he said. "It will
probably be a while before they let us in to see her, anyway."
"All right." Angel grumbled. The doctor motioned to an officer who was
standing out in the hall. She then took her leave, promising to come back
when Willow was moved. The police officer moved a chair so that he was
facing Angel and Giles.
"Okay, first I'm gonna need your names." He pulled a notebook and pen out of
his pocket.
"Rupert Giles."
"Angel Boyle." The police officer's eyebrows rose in surprise at the unusual
name, but chose not to comment. "And how do you know the victim.... ah....
Miss Rosenberg?"
"I'm her uncle." The lie came easily to Giles. After Willow had defied her
parents by going to college in Sunnydale, she had changed her records to list
him as her uncle and next-of-kin–Giles made a mental note to praise her on
her forethought just as soon as possible.
"I'm her boyfriend." Angel said, meeting the officer's less than pleased gaze.
"I see. And where were you this afternoon."
"At home." Angel's voice was flat. "And before you ask, no I don't have
anyone who can verify my whereabouts. I have never hit Willow and I would
never even consider doing so."
"Uh huh." The officer was obviously not impressed. "Can I see your hands,
please?" Perplexed, Angel held them out, palm up, for inspection. The
police-man examined them, then turned them over to investigate his knuckles.
"What, exactly, are you looking for?" Giles finally asked.
"Bruising." the officer said.
"For God's sake...." Angel made no attempt to hide his exasperation. "I
didn't do *anything* to Willow."
"Uh huh. So who did?"
"We don't know." Giles answered.
"Well, what about this Faith Reynolds person? Who is she?"
"She is one of Willow's roommates."
"She found the girl?"
"Yes."
"I'm going to need to talk to her. You got a phone number?" Giles gave it
to him.
"The doctors gave her a sedative." he warned. "So, she may not be up to
questioning tonight."
"‘s okay." the officer muttered. "I'll talk to her tomorrow. Besides, I
think I have a pretty good idea of what happened here." Before either of the
others could react to this, he stood up and put the chair back in its place.
"Don't go out of town." he warned Angel, before abruptly leaving the room.
"The nerve of that.... that...... " Giles sputtered.
"He's just doing his job." Angel sighed. "What sounds more likely–that this
was done by an abusive boyfriend or that some random crazy broke in off the
street and did it?"
"I suppose you're right." Giles scowled. "Do you really think it was some
person off the street?"
"Absolutely not. But we can't exactly tell the nice man the truth, now can
we?"
"No, we can't. All we can do is wait."
*******
"Willow? Sweetheart? It's Angel..... can you hear me? What am I saying....
of course you can hear me. I'm right here and I'll stay right here until you
wake up. There are no windows in this room and I can hide in the bathroom
whenever the doctors and nurses come to check on you. I won't leave you
alone for a minute, I promise. I'm so sorry that I wasn't there for you
today. I'm so sorry that this happened and I swear that I am going to find
whoever did this and make them pay. I want you to wake up, but only when
you're ready to, okay? For now, rest and know that I love you very, very
much."
*******
(A week later)
Angel slipped into the hospital room, by now quite skilled at avoiding the
hospital staff who would have frowned on his presence there after-hours.
Willow slowly turned her head as he entered, doing her best to smile. Her
efforts were hampered by her broken nose and her swollen cheek. After the
first crisis was over, the doctors had done a complete inventory of her
injuries and had discovered that several teeth had been knocked out.
"Hi." Her voice was still unnaturally quiet, but Angel noted that she no
longer seemed to be constantly out of breath.
"Hello." He smiled and presented her with her daily bouquet of flowers. He
brought a fresh bunch each night and took away the day old posies. "How do
you feel?"
"Better." she lied. He let the small deception pass and sat down in the
chair's only room. "So, did you find the book?"
"We did." he nodded, then went on. "It was right where you said it was and
Giles spent all afternoon reading."
"Did he find anything useful?"
"Yes, actually. Kehdar is one of the oldest demons living on this plane or
any other. He has a lot of power, but his age has sapped his strength and
made movement difficult."
"Hence, the hired thugs." Willow interjected. "Okay, so why did he come
after me?"
"From what we've been able to piece together, he's attempting to regain his
youth and vitality. With the magic he has at his command, this would make
him practically invincible. We think that either he might have thought you
were one of the Slayers, or....."
"Or what?" she prompted after a moment of awkward silence.
Angel hesitated, then decided to tell her the truth. "Giles found a
prophecy....."
"Not another one." Willow groaned, but her displeasure was belied by the
smile on her face.
"Yes, another one. This one refers to a girl with the power to destroy
Kehdar's plans. Giles thinks that the prophecy refers to you."
"*What?*"
"I'm not really sure on all the details, but from what I've heard, all the
signs do point in your direction. So, what we figure is this–either Kehdar
was going after you to try to prevent the prophecy from coming to pass, or he
was trying to take out the Slayer before she could interfere in his
plans....."
".... and for some reason, he thought I was Buffy or Faith." Willow's eyes
were wide with shock, but Angel could practically see the wheels in her head
spinning. "I would hazard a guess that Option B is more likely."
"Why?"
"If Kehdar knew that I could possibly bring him down, he would have ordered
his thugs to kill me–no fuss, no muss, no chance that I might escape. If he
thought I was a Slayer, he might not be so cautious, right?"
"It's something worth considering." Angel agreed. "Still, we don't want to
take any chances with your life, right?"
"Right. Why do I think you have a plan?"
"We do. First of all, we're moving our base of operations out of the
library. Too many people know about it. Giles, Faith, and Cordelia are
packing up the books now."
"Good idea. Where are we going?"
"There's a mansion out on Cropper street that's perfect for our purposes. It
looks run-down, but the inside is in reasonably good condition. There are
shelves for our library and a great open space for training."
"It sounds perfect. How did you find it?"
"After Giles burned down the warehouse, Spike, Dru, and I needed a new
home..... this place fit the bill." Angel took a deep, if unnecessary
breath. "Anyway, I'm going to move to the mansion. There's lots of bedrooms
and Giles and I both think it would be a good idea to have someone there
full-time. I.... Willow, will you come with me?"
Willow was speechless for a moment. "You want me to *live* with you?"
"Yes." Angel gently placed her hand, which was encased in a mitten-like
cast. "We want to get you out of here as soon as possible.... it's just not
safe enough. I've got plenty of guest rooms. After you recover.... well,
I'd love it if you'd stay with me."
"In my bedroom or yours?" Willow arched an eyebrow. Angel chuckled.
"You can keep your room as long as you like..... although I do hope that,
someday, you'll come to mine. I won't pressure you, though. We'll wait
until you're ready."
"Thank you. You don't know how much that means to me, Angel."
"I'd wait forever for you." The statement was simple, but it was the essence
of everything Angel ever wanted to say to her.
"It won't be that long, I promise." Willow laughed, then winced as pain
flared through her chest. "And yes, I would love to live with you."
"Oh, thank you." Angel sighed, then bent his head down and tenderly kissed a
spot on one of the few spots on the inside of Willow's arm that wasn't
covered with cast, bandage, bruise, or hospital gown.
"I was just about to say the same thing." Willow murmured. "But you said
something about getting me out of here. How, exactly, do you plan to do
that?" Angel was all-business again instantly and quickly explained the
details of the great escape to her. Willow made a few suggestions and the
details were ironed out. "So when is this going to happen?" she asked.
"The end of the week." Angel replied. "Assuming that your doctor doesn't
find any problems."
"Okay."
"Willow, if this is going to be too hard for you, tell me. We can always
come up with something else...."
"I'll be fine, Angel." she reassured him. "I'll probably need to sleep for a
week once I get there, but..... oh! What about my stuff?"
"Don't worry about that." Angel chuckled. "Faith and Cordelia said that they
would be *more* than happy to pack up your things and bring them over. I
think that they're quite taken with having the apartment to themselves."
********
PART 12
********
Buffy felt as if her world had suddenly gone into slow-motion. She turned
her head and there he was. Angel hadn't changed at all in six years, but
this, at least, was understandable. He was even wearing the same outfit of
black pants, white dress shirt, and black leather jacket that Buffy
remembered. They simply stared at one another for a moment, until the
silence was shattered by two noises. One was the deep growl coming from the
Irish setter at Angel's side and the other was Xander's characteristically
boisterous entrance.
"All right, all right. I'm here, so the party can..... oh shit!" Xander's
forced gaiety disappeared the minute he caught sight of Angel. He quickly
made his way to Buffy's side. "Well, if it isn't everybody's favorite
psycho? What are *you* doing here?"
"I invited him." Giles snapped.
"Are you insane?" Xander shot back.
"It's a trick." Buffy said, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. "It has
to be."
"Yeah, Giles. How could you let him dupe you like this? How could you let
Angelus back in here, let alone invite him?" Xander's accusatory glare swept
between the Watcher and the vampire.
"It's no trick, I assure you. Angel's soul has been restored."
"Are you sure?" Buffy asked, a note of desperation creeping into her voice.
"I mean, he could just be a really good actor....."
"Buffy, Xander.... I want you to listen to me carefully because I am only
going to say this once." Giles let a bit of his anger and frustration come
forth. "Jenny was trying to recreate the original Rom curse when Angelus
killed her. He destroyed her equipment, but there was a disk which fell
behind a desk. Willow found it soon after you two left town. She restored
Angel's soul and cast a spell to permanently anchor it to his body about six
months later. I was there that time and I can say, without a doubt, that
Angelus is gone for good. I would stake my life on it..... in fact, I have
on many occasions."
"Oh." The wind had obviously left Xander's sails.
"I never thought I'd see you again." Buffy whispered, staring intently at her
former love. At that moment, the dog growled again and took a few menacing
steps in her direction.
"Hush, Boo." Angel ordered, softly.
"Nice dog." Buffy smiled. "He's really beautiful."
"Boo?" Xander scoffed. "You named your dog Boo? Is that as in ‘Boo! I'm
Scare-guy' or is it ‘Boo hoo, I'm Angst-man'?"
"He's not my dog." Angel replied, his voice calm. "He belongs to Willow.
She named him after a dog in a song she likes."
"Since when did Willow get a dog?" Xander looked around, confused. "Where is
she, anyway?"
"Willow went to Los Angeles for a few days." Giles answered him. "She will
be back later this afternoon. Hopefully, we will have settled things by
then."
"What is there to settle?" Buffy asked, finally tearing her eyes away from
Angel. "We're back to stay."
"We are?" Xander stared at his wife.
"Yeah, right." Cordelia laughed at the same time.
"There is no reason for you to stay." Giles said, using his firmest tones.
"Xander, I've already told Buffy that her dreams were of past events, not the
future. Therefore, there is nothing for you to do here."
"Oh." Xander said, even more flustered than before. "Wow."
"You can't expect me to leave." Buffy protested. "Not now."
"Why not?" Xander asked, staring at her. Her gaze had returned to Angel who
was now seated at the foot of the table. Only then did he notice that the
windows had been covered by heavy draperies. Those were certainly new.
"That's exactly what I expect you to do." Giles said, before she could
answer. "Things have changed, Buffy. You can't just waltz in here and
pretend that nothing's happened."
"I know that." Buffy said, finally turning to face her Watcher. "I am very
well aware that a lot has happened in the past six years. Believe me, I am
aware-girl."
"Really?" Cordelia used her most sarcastic tone of voice. "Then why are you
back?"
"I told you already." Buffy nearly shouted. "We thought you were in trouble
and we wanted to help...."
"Why now?" Angel asked, surprising Buffy. "We've been in trouble before.....
why did you wait until now?"
"I.... uh..... I couldn't sleep. Because of the dreams." Buffy stammered.
"That is so typical." Cordelia rolled her eyes. "You haven't changed a bit,
you know?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Buffy was getting defensive.
"You still think you're the center of the universe." Cordelia spat out.
"You haven't given a damn about us for the past six years, but the minute you
start to have problems, you expect all of us to drop everything to help you."
"That's not what I said." Buffy protested.
"Isn't it?" Giles asked. "Xander, when you originally decided to come back
here, what was your plan?"
Xander squirmed, uncomfortably. "We were going to come back and offer our
help with.... well, the things that were in Buffy's dreams that we thought
were prophecy."
"And were you planning on staying on after this hypothetical threat was
neutralized?"
"Uh.... well, ...... that would be a no." Xander's face grew beet-red.
"Well, now you know that there is no hypothetical threat." Giles went on,
inexorably. "Why has this plan changed?"
"I don't know." the young man looked helplessly at his wife. "You want to
field this one, Buff?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Buffy barked, glancing pointedly at Angel.
"No. I'm aware that Angel's return is a shock, but I don't see why it makes
any significant difference in your plans."
"You.... I..... he...... that's none of your business." Buffy finally
answered.
"Well, it is mine." Xander said, staring at the girl for whom he had given up
his life. "You're over him, remember? And in case it's slipped your mind,
Angel is marrying Willow. By the way," he said, abruptly turning towards
Angel. "Congratulations, man."
"Thank you." Angel nodded, graciously. "Congratulations to you too–even
though I know it's a little late for that sort of thing."
"You mean that wasn't a figment of my imagination?" Buffy asked, incredulous.
"You really are marrying Willow?"
"Yes, I am."
"I can see it." Xander said, nodding judiciously. Now that he knew that
Angel couldn't hurt anyone anymore and was apparently no longer interested in
Buffy, he realized that he no longer harbored any ill will towards the
vampire.
"That's impossible." Buffy's statement stunned everyone at the table. "You
can't do it. You just *can't*." Before anyone could respond, Boo started to
bark. Unlike his previous hostility, he now sounded quite excited. He
jumped up and ran to the door, where he stood and bounced excitedly.
"Anybody here?" The voice was familiar to everyone in the room.
"Oh no." Giles and Cordelia moaned at the same time. Angel said nothing, but
bolted out of his chair and joined the dog. The door opened and Buffy and
Xander's views were blocked for a moment, but they could clearly hear what
was happening.
"Willow, we thought..... What happened?" Angel was clearly snarling. Giles'
face had gone pale and Cordelia gasped.
"I'm okay, I'm okay." Willow's voice was soothing. "It's just a bruise,
really. I ran into some.... trouble.... in L.A. Kehdar sent one of his
thugs after me. Amy and Daniel chased him off, then they helped me get out
of the city without being followed."
Giles swore softly. "Cordelia, is your cell phone in the car?"
"Yes, why?"
"Call Faith and tell her to get back here as soon as possible."
"Aye aye." Cordelia headed for the phone behind the circulation desk. Buffy
paid no attention to her. She watched in amazement as Angel folded the
as-yet-unseen Willow into his arms and held her close.
"So." Willow said, finally extricating herself from Angel's embrace.
"Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"
********
PART 13
********
(April, 2005)
The sun was rising. Even though there were no windows in his bedroom, Angel
could sense the arrival of day and, for the first time in over 220 years, he
looked forward to the coming of the morning. He knew that this new sense of
anticipation was directly connected to the woman lying in his arms and the
miracles that she had worked in his life during the past few hours. To be
fair, Angel knew that Willow had been performing miracles for him since the
first time they met, but none could quite compare to the wonders of last
night.
Angel closed his eyes and tried to re-live every moment–starting with his
discovery of a "For Rent" sign on Willow's bedroom door. In her charming,
confused way, she had made it clear to him that she wanted to move into his
room and bed... and he still felt a hint of the almost overwhelming euphoria
that had threatened to overcome him at that moment. He had only barely
managed to stop himself from taking her then and there. Fortunately, he'd
been able to restrain himself long enough to get her upstairs and undressed.
After that point, Angel's memories were pretty much a whirlwind of sensation,
but specific things did stand out in his mind–the gasping noise Willow made
every time his hands, lips, or tongue found a patch of flesh that had
previously gone unexplored, the electric shock that had gone through his body
when Willow's lips touched his bare chest for the first time, the feeling of
her vaginal muscles clamping down on first his finger, then his shaft while
she was in the throes of orgasm, the sublime taste of the juices that flowed
from her body, and the intoxicating sweetness of the tiny bit of blood she
had shed when he tore her maidenhead. That last had been made all the
sweeter, since she had given him her permission to taste it, understanding
how strong the temptation was and how hard he had to fight not to give into
it automatically. That she had given of herself so freely and completely
was, indeed, a miracle to Angel. She hadn't so much as flinched when he
nuzzled her neck and when, at a particularly intense moment, his face had
morphed into that of the demon, she had shown no fear or disgust.
Afterwards, with Willow's head resting on her shoulder and his fingers gently
stroking her hair, Angel looked at the woman he loved and thought about the
life they had made for themselves, and for the first time since his soul had
been re-restored, he was happy. His joy had turned to horror the next
minute, when he felt the demon press against the walls of the prison that the
Rom curse had created–and felt those walls begin to crumble.
"Willow...." he managed to gasp out. She was awake instantly.
"What is it? What's wrong?" She turned to look at him and something in his
face must have given her some sort of indication what was happening, for she
cursed softly. Taking his head between her hands, she turned him so that he
was staring into her eyes. "Angel, look at me. Do not take your eyes off of
me, okay?" He was unable to respond. By this time, the walls were down and
Angel uttered a last prayer as he felt the demon stretch out its talons to
snatch away his soul.....
"Angel?" The demon howled as it suddenly encountered a new barrier–one which
it had never encountered before. Unlike the prison that the Rom had created
to house it–the foundation of which had been anger and hatred–this new
obstruction was created with unconditional love. No matter how hard the
demon struggled against it, there was no way to break this wall and no
possible means of escape. As Angel stared into Willow's eyes, he realized
that, while the demon would always be a part of him, he would never have to
worry about it escaping again. With a whoop of joy, he grabbed her around
the waist and hugged her tightly. She squealed in surprise, then laughing,
pulled back. "What is it? What's....." she was cut off as he kissed her
passionately.
Some time later, he told her what had happened. "It's the second ritual."
she declared. "The one I performed six months after you came back, remember?"
"How could I forget?" Angel still had nightmares about Willow lying on the
floor, pale as death.
"How do you feel?" Willow asked, a note of concern creeping into her voice.
"I mean, did the demon do any damage....?"
"No." he gently placed a finger on her lips. "It can't hurt me.... us.....
any more." The rest of the night had been spent in sleep and quiet
conversation. As Angel waited for the sun to rise, he contemplated the new
horizons that were now open to him–true, he was still a vampire and he still
carried a tremendous amount of guilt in his heart, but he was free from the
struggle to control the demon and the fear that one day, it might escape and
destroy everyone and everything he loved. That fear had been constantly
present in his life for the past six years, even though both Willow and Giles
had assured him that the second ritual–the one which permanently anchored his
soul to his body–had worked. Now that he was no longer bound by it, there
were things he wanted to do. As Willow sighed and snuggled closer to him in
her sleep, he decided that the first order of business was to make her his
wife. Angel briefly regretted the loss of the claddagh ring, but he realized
that she probably wouldn't have wanted it anyway as it was a symbol of the
love he and Buffy had shared. So, he turned his mind to other potential
gifts and as the sun rose, Angel looked towards the future.
*******
PART 14
*******
Giles bit his lip in frustration as he gazed at the tableau before him.
Willow was standing before the table, her hand resting on Boo's head, staring
at two people she had never thought to see again. Her expression was...
unreadable. Xander's gaze was focused solely on Willow–Giles guessed that he
was probably trying to reconcile the image of the shy, awkward teenager he'd
left behind with the confident, attractive woman standing before him.
Buffy's attention was divided between Willow and Angel, who was now standing
behind Willow, with his hand on her shoulder. Cordelia, meanwhile, had come
out of the office and was standing next to Giles. Finally, Giles said the
first thing that came to his mind, just to dispel the horrible silence.
"Are you sure it was one of Kehdar's men?" Willow visibly started and turned
to look at him. After a moment's confusion, she nodded in understanding.
"I'm sure. He had the tattoo."
"Are Amy and Daniel all right?" Angel asked.
"Oh yeah." Willow snickered. "Amy did a nice light show. One look at her
and the guy flipped out and ran. They're going to Daniel's dad's ranch until
this is all over, just to be safe. Amy wanted to come back with me and
help....."
".... but she had the baby to consider." Giles finished the sentence for her.
"We understand."
"Okay, for those of us just tuning into this program, what are you talking
about?" Willow almost laughed when she saw the confused expression on
Xander's face. It was exactly the same as the one he had worn so many times
as a kid.
"It's a rather long story." Giles replied, abruptly. "Cordelia, did you get
a hold of Faith?"
"Roger that. She's on her way."
"What's the plan?" Angel turned his attention to the Watcher.
"I have absolutely no idea." Giles admitted. "Any suggestions?"
"Here's one." Buffy said, brightly. "Why don't you fill us in on what's
going on?" Giles almost snapped at her again, but realized that it would be
a wasted effort.
"Kehdar is a demon." He sighed deeply. "He's very powerful, but very old
and weak–well, physically weak, anyway. He's been trying to collect the....
components.... for a ritual that, once performed, will give him back his
youth and vitality. If he succeeds......"
"Much badness." Buffy finished.
"Uh.... exactly." Giles sank back down into his seat. "We've been searching
for a way to get rid of him for good, but so far....."
"No problem." Buffy shrugged. "Just point me in the right direction."
"That's not really an option, Buffy." Willow's voice was quiet, but firm.
There was no trace of her former self-doubt.
"Why not?" Buffy struggled to control her growing irritation.
"For starters, we don't know where he is." Giles replied.
"Then there's the fact that Kehdar's got some major bad magic at his
disposal." Willow added. "He'd fry you to a crisp the second you got within
range."
"Plus, there *is* the fact that you haven't fought anything stronger than a
cold for the past six years." Cordelia stared critically at her nails.
"Well, what about commando-girl?" Buffy was getting exasperated.
"Who?" Giles looked confused.
"I think she means Faith." Willow told him, then answered Buffy's question.
"We run into the magic problem again. We haven't been able to get around
it..... until now." Willow withdrew a small volume from the inner pocket of
her jacket and held it out to Giles, smiling. "Looky what I got."
Giles took hold of the volume gingerly, as if he was afraid it would bite
him, but once he got a look at it, his face lit up. "Why...... where......
Willow, how did you get your hands on this?"
"Amy has an in with the woman who runs the L. A. coven." Willow slowly began
to shrug off her jacket and it was obvious to the others that she was
favoring her left shoulder. Angel helped her remove it and draped it over
the back of a chair. Willow gratefully collapsed into the seat and Boo
settled himself on her feet. Angel stayed near her, obviously concerned for
her well being. "Her name's Gwen and she has contacts all over the world.
She's got this huge library of occult volumes and she just happened to have
this on one of her top shelves."
"I take it you've had a chance to look this over?" Giles was having a hard
time suppressing his excitement.
"Page sixty-three." Giles immediately opened the volume and after a moment
of searching, began to read. While he did this, Angel squatted until his
mouth was at the level of Willow's ear and began to whisper intently. No
matter how hard Buffy strained to hear, she could not catch what he was
saying. All she could do was watch Willow's face as her expression went from
surprise to confusion, to..... something that Buffy couldn't quite recognize.
As Angel finished whatever he was saying, Willow smiled gently and rested
her hand on his cheek. He placed his hand over hers and they gazed into one
another's eyes for a moment. Buffy tensed, terrified that they were going to
kiss.
"Hey, hey! What's the sitch?" Everyone in the library started as Faith
burst through the doors.
"Ah, you're back." Giles placed the book, face-down on the table. Angel
stood up again, but remained beside Willow. Faith pulled a chair up and sat
beside Cordelia. "Faith, I don't believe you've met Xander Harris, Buffy's
husband."
"Hey." Faith waved nonchalantly.
"Uh..... hi." Xander waved back. "You're a Slayer?"
"Yep. You got a problem with that?"
"Who me?" Xander started to babble. "Problem? Me? Oh no, no problem here.
It's just.... well.... uh...."
"What happened to Kendra?" Buffy asked.
"Shortly after we thwarted their attempt to resurrect Akathla, Spike and
Drusilla launched an all-out attack on the citizens of Sunnydale. Kendra
came here to help us and....." Giles' voice trailed off and Buffy could see
the pain in his eyes.
"Died." she said for him.
"Yes." he nodded. "Faith came to us several months later." He abruptly
cleared his thought and picked up the book again. "Faith, Willow managed to
find a spell that we believe will work against Kehdar."
"Way to go, Will." Faith beamed. "Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!" She
made the gesture and Willow laughed.
"Thanks." her face and voice grew serious go. "We're gonna need to know
where Kehdar is in order for this to work, though."
"Willy?" Faith arched an eyebrow.
"If he knew anything, don't you think he would have told us by now?" Cordelia
pointed out. "I think we're gonna have to risk some sort of locater spell."
"I hate to say this," Giles' brow was furrowed "but I think you're right.
Faith, did you get to the magic shop?" Faith shook her head. "All right
then, give the list to Cordelia."
"But I can...." Faith started to protest.
"It's not smart." Angel interrupted. "Kehdar wants a Slayer for his ritual.
We know where both of them are right now and I, for one, would like to keep
it that way." After a moment, Faith nodded and handed the piece of paper and
the keys to Cordelia. As she started to walk away, Faith grabbed her arm.
"Be careful." she commanded. Cordelia nodded, leaned over, and kissed the
Slayer tenderly on the lips. Then, without another word, she left. "So
what's the plan?" Faith turned her attention back to her friends, all the
while ignoring the shocked expressions on Xander and Buffy's faces.
"The spell itself is pretty simple." Willow replied. "But it's going to take
a lot of power. So, I'm going to be out of commission for a while."
"Gotcha." Faith nodded.
"Wait just a minute." Buffy declared as she finally took a moment to look at
Willow. "Since when did you become magic-girl?"
"I learned the basics from Miss Calendar." Willow replied. "I started doing
some experiments and when she died, I got a hold of her notes."
"Which helped you bring back Dead-Boy over there." Xander supplied. Faith
snickered at the nickname, while Angel merely rolled his eyes.
"Right." Willow nodded.
"What will this spell do, exactly?" Angel was anxious to get back to the
subject of Kehdar.
Willow thought about this for a minute before answering. "Basically, it will
bind Kehdar to the earthly plane. This will cut him off from his power
supply and leave him mortal."
"So, if this works, he'll be nothing more than a really, really old guy.....
no magic powers or anything, right?" Faith grinned. "I like it."
"But he'll still be alive." Angel was getting worried. "And he'll still have
all the knowledge of a demon..... he could try to come after you to kill you
or make you reverse the spell..... I don't like it Will."
"I don't think we'll have to worry about Kehdar once he's mortal." Willow
grinned evilly. "If he manages to survive the shock of the transformation
and the sheer strain that it will put on his body, he'll still have to deal
with his minions.... excuse me, former minions. He used his magic to keep
them in line, remember? Once they're free of his hold, most will probably
try to get away as quickly as possible, but there are going to be some who
want revenge......"
"No fair." Faith whined. "I wanted to be the one to kick his ass."
"Either way," Willow continued. "I don't think that we'll need to worry
about Kehdar ever again."
"That's a relief." Angel sighed. "So, what do we need to do to make this
happen? And when and where are we going to do the spell?"
"I suggest we get started as soon as Cordy gets back." Willow's attitude was
completely serious again. "Kehdar has to know that I left L.A. by now and
he's probably got people heading this way even as we speak. I think he's
getting impatient, guys. He may try to do the ritual soon, even though he
doesn't have a Slayer."
"You're right." Giles looked up from the book. "I would like to recommend
that we do this here, rather than at the mansion."
"Sounds good to me." Willow agreed. "Faith, Angel, you guys and Boo are
going to have to stand guard."
"We expecting trouble?" Faith had also lost her flippant manner.
"Possibly." Giles replied. " The locater spell will allow us to find Kehdar,
but it will also allow him to find us." Turning to Willow he asked "May I
assume that Cordelia and I will be your lovely assistants?"
"The loveliest." Willow laughed.
"What do you want us to do?" Buffy asked. Willow turned to her, a surprised
expression on her face. Buffy wondered if Willow had actually forgotten her
presence.
"Um...." Willow thought for a moment. "I don't think there's anything you
*can* do, really. We've got everything under control, thanks." She turned
back towards Giles to say something else, but Buffy spoke before she got a
chance.
"You can't just pretend we're not here, Will." Her voice was harsh and
Xander could tell she was working herself up into one of her legendary rages.
"I'm not." Willow sighed, exasperated. "You guys can..... uh..... you can
help with defensive measures, how about that?"
"I'd better go home and get some weapons." Angel announced, suddenly.
Standing up quickly, he leaned over and kissed Willow. "Do you need anything
from the house?" he asked her.
"Yeah." Willow nodded. "Will you bring the bag of stones that's on my desk?
You know what I'm talking about, right?"
"I know." Angel smiled. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He started to walk
towards the door.
"I'll come with you." Buffy said, standing up.
"No!" Giles, Angel, Faith and Xander spoke at once.
"But...." Buffy's jaw hung open as she stared at the people she used to know.
"It's best if you stay here." Giles declared. Buffy turned to Angel to say
something, but he had taken the opportunity to sneak out.
"What is the matter with you people?" Buffy shouted. "I just wanted to talk
to him in private...."
Faith snorted. "Yeah, that's it. You just wanted to *talk*."
"Faith." Giles chided her.
"What do you have to talk to Angel about?" Xander asked. Buffy looked at him
blankly for a moment before the question sank in.
"I..... we...... Angel and I need to discuss what happened before I left
town." she stammered.
"What's there to discuss?" Xander really didn't like the expression in
Buffy's eyes when she looked at her former boyfriend.
"Xander," he could tell that she was losing her patience. "For the past six
years, I've assumed that Angel was dead. His body might still have been
wandering around, but everything I knew and loved–everything that made him
*Angel* was gone. Now that I know he's back, I need to talk to him
and......" she struggled to find the words.
"See if the old magic is still there?" Faith supplied, her voice dripping
with feigned innocence.
"No!" Buffy shot back, after hesitating just a second too long. "We just
need closure, that's all."
"He doesn't love you anymore." Faith insisted. "He loves Willow. He's going
to marry her."
"Congratulations, Willow." Xander grinned at his friend in an effort to
dispel some of the tension in the room. Willow smiled at him.
"Thanks." Her face shone with happiness. Her smile faded as she saw the
expression on Buffy's face. "Buffy, I know this isn't what you were
expecting and I'm sorry if it hurts you..... but, Angel's changed in the past
six years. We all have." she paused for a moment. "We had to."
"I realize that....." Buffy started, but Willow interrupted her.
"I don't think you do, Buffy. Things can't go back to the way they were when
we were in high school. Too much stuff has happened."
"I *know* that, Willow." Buffy snapped. "Lots of stuff has happened to us,
too, you know."
"How can you *possibly* compare our situations?" Willow was incredulous.
"We've been here fighting demons and vampires and other supernatural
creatures, while you've been doing..... what?" When neither Buffy or Xander
answered her, Giles spoke.
"The point Buffy, is that, to a large extent, the Angel, the Willow, and the
Cordelia you used to know don't exist anymore. If you're serious about
staying, you have to accept that and forge new relationships with them,
rather than attempting to resurrect old ones." he paused, then added. "If
you can't do that, I would suggest that you move on as soon as this situation
with Kehdar is over."
"What if we stay?" Xander asked, before Buffy could speak. "Is there a place
for us here?"
"Of course." Giles replied. "You will always be welcome here."
"Yeah, that's real obvious." Buffy muttered.
"What do you want from us, Buffy?" Willow exploded. "You *left*. No
goodbyes, no explanations, you just left. We've had to do all the fighting
and research and patrolling..... all of us have had to do your job and,
except for Faith, none of us is particularly qualified. It's been hard and
lonely and really scary and it never, *never* ends. We may get rid of Kehdar
tonight, but there will be something new tomorrow. We know and trust each
other and yes, in some cases, we've come to love one another. What we have
works and if you stay with us, it will still work, but not if you're not
willing to accept a few facts. Faith is a Slayer and damn good at her job,
Angel and I are getting married....." She stopped speaking abruptly when Boo
began to growl. She looked at Faith with an arched eyebrow and the Slayer
stood and quickly moved to the door. Cautiously opening it, she slipped out
and slipped back in again a minute later, cursing softly.
"We've got company." she said.
*******
PART 15
*******
(A few minutes later)
Buffy was furious. While the others put the library to rights, she stood in
the corner and fumed. She could hear Xander and Willow quietly discussing
the creatures that had just attacked them, but she didn't really pay
attention to what was being said. She simply stared at Willow, getting
angrier every moment, while she unsuccessfully attempted to hide the fact
that the fight had left her winded and sweaty. None of the others looked as
if the recent struggle had taken much out of them at all.
"Good job, everyone." Giles finally said, as he placed a pile of loose papers
on the table.
"Thanks." Faith suddenly got a concerned look on her face. "I'm gonna go
outside. I don't want one of those things jumping Cordy in the parking lot."
"I'll go with you." Willow volunteered. "Will you be okay?" she asked Giles.
"Of course." he nodded. The two girls left and Xander walked over to where
Buffy was standing.
"You look exactly how I feel." he joked.
"Ha ha." Buffy scowled at him. "You're so funny."
"I try." Xander shrugged. "All I know is that you and I are both *really*
lucky that Willow stayed in shape over the years." Buffy prepared to launch
into a tirade, but Giles beat her to the punch.
"Xander, why don't you go outside with the others." he suggested. "I need to
speak with Buffy." Looking at his wife, Xander nodded in agreement. Taking
one last look at his wife, he walked out.
Giles sat and stared silently at his former pupil for a few minutes. "Are
you all right?" he asked, finally.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Buffy grumbled. "Willow made sure that none of the.....
whatever they were, laid a claw on me."
"What's wrong with that? I thought she did quite well....."
Buffy laughed bitterly. "Of course you would, you're on her side."
"What do you mean?"
"It's pretty obvious, Giles. Willow wants us to leave and you agree with
her....."
"Willow doesn't want you to leave" Giles objected "and neither do I." He
took a moment to try to find the right words. "She may wish that you hadn't
come back, but that's not the same thing."
"Oh, please...." Buffy rolled her eyes.
"Dammit, Buffy!" Giles exploded. "Listen to me for once, will you? When you
ran away, you left a giant hole in our lives that couldn't be filled. We
tried, God knows we tried..... and I think we nearly drove Faith insane with
our efforts to turn her into you..... but we finally accepted the fact that
you weren't coming back and we created something new...... something that
works for us. Now, you've shown up, out of the blue, and demanded your old
place in our lives and hearts and you refuse to accept that we cannot give it
to you."
"Why not?" Buffy challenged him. "Everyone keeps saying that things can't go
back to the way they were, but nobody will tell me why...."
"Do you remember what things were like when you left?"
"Of course I do." Buffy shuddered. "Angel was Angelus...."
"Exactly. Angelus was roaming the streets and he had Spike, Drusilla, and
every other vampire in Sunnydale at his beck and call. We were outnumbered,
outgunned..... so to speak.... and, in my opinion, not long for this Earth.
Willow restored Angel's soul and we were able to avoid that disaster, but it
was just the first of many. For the past six years, we've been dealing with
the worst the Hellmouth has to offer and we've survived, but that survival
has come at a price."
"What price?" Some of the anger had gone from Buffy's voice.
"Willow and Cordelia both gave up education and career opportunities outside
of Sunnydale, we've all suffered serious injuries at one time or another, and
Willow has almost died at least twice......"
"Whoa, she's nearly died? *Twice*?"
"Yes. Once when she performed the spell that anchored Angel's soul to his
body, and once when Kehdar's minions beat her."
"But what was she doing taking on Kehdar's people by herself?" Buffy was
baffled. "She's not a Slayer....."
"No, she's not." Giles was no longer shouting, but he spoke with an
intensity that Buffy could never remember hearing from him before. "That's
sort of my point, Buffy. Willow isn't a Slayer and neither is Cordelia and
neither am I. Faith is, but she can't be creative in a crisis the way you
can. That's not to say she doesn't have her own unique abilities" he added,
hastily "just that she isn't you. Angel, despite his exceptional strength
and heightened senses, is a vampire which limits him significantly. We've
had to come up with ways to work around these obstacles and we've learned to
work as a team. We depend on each other, much in the way that you used to
depend on Willow and Xander when you were here. Do you see where I'm going
with this....?"
"I think so." Buffy said, thoughtfully. "It's like a circle now, rather than
a triangle."
"I'm not sure I follow you." Giles knit his brows in confusion.
"When I was here, I always envisioned us as a triangle..... or a pyramid,
actually. You, Willow, and Xander were the base of the pyramid and..... and
I was the pointy part, you know? You guys supported me, but when push came
to shove, I was the one who had to fight the good fight. Now, though.....
you each support each other and you each take on an equal share of the
danger."
"Exactly." Giles sighed in relief. "I'm glad you understand that."
"Well, you know I can be kind of dense sometimes....." Buffy smiled, sadly.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry for leaving all of you in the lurch like
that."
"I know." They sat in silence for a few minutes. "So, what are you going to
do now?"
Buffy wiped a few stray tears from her eyes and cleared her throat. "Well,
first I'm going to apologize to Willow and Faith when they come back in here.
Then, I'm going to go apologize to Xander. He's probably pretty upset with
me right now and, frankly, I don't blame him. I..... I wasn't expecting to
see Angel and I didn't exactly handle it well, did I? Don't answer that.
After that, well..... I don't think I should stay."
"I meant what I said, Buffy." Giles said, gently. "There will always be a
place for you here."
"I know. It's just that I'd be a pyramid girl in a circle world and I don't
think I can handle that. But..... I would like to help somehow..... if it's
possible."
Giles thought about this for a moment. "I'm sure the Council would be
willing to come up with some sort of arrangement where you, Xander, and a
Watcher can set up shop somewhere....."
"That sounds good." Both Buffy and Giles smiled slowly. So did Angel, as he
watched them from his hiding place in the stacks. "Well, I guess I better
get started." Buffy spoke resolutely as she stood. "Are you going to be
okay here by yourself?"
"I'll be fine." Giles reassured her.
*******
Xander saw Buffy first and immediately noticed that her entire demeanor had
changed. It was if some huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She
waved to him, then walked over to Willow. Touching the other girl's elbow,
she whispered into Willow's ear and the two moved off to the side to talk
privately. Xander occasionally stole glances at them and was amused to
notice that Faith was openly staring at them. Both breathed sighs of relief
when they saw Buffy and Willow exchange warm hugs.
"Glad that's over with." Faith murmured.
"I hear you." Xander responded. Buffy and Willow rejoined them and the
foursome spent the next few minutes in casual conversation. Cordelia finally
returned and Buffy drew her aside for a moment. Finally, they all retreated
to the library and discovered that Angel had returned. Willow immediately
went to him and he folded her into his arms for a fierce hug. Looking
around, Willow noticed that Xander and Buffy and Cordelia and Faith were in
similar positions. Boo was happily bouncing around between the couples
attempting to partake of some of the free-flowing affection. Willow's gaze
happened to fall on Giles at the same time as Buffy and she caught the
Slayer's eye. Buffy grinned and whispered something to Xander. He almost
laughed and leaned over to whisper something to Cordelia. Willow stood on
tiptoe and murmured into Angel's ear and he grinned broadly. Before he knew
what hit him, the Watcher found himself encircled by six pairs of arms.
"Yes, well...." he stammered, once he was finally released from the impromptu
group hug "we still have work to do." The mood in the room instantly became
serious as everyone set about getting ready to battle the demon Kehdar.
********
"Willow? Willow, love, can you hear me?" Angel knelt over her unconscious
form, holding her hand between his.
"Come on, Will...." Buffy chanted softly from Willow's other side. "You can
do this, I know you can." They had been sitting there for what seemed like
an eternity.
"Shouldn't we call an ambulance?" Xander asked.
"There's nothing doctors can do for her." Giles responded, dully. "She used
a great deal of her own energy at the end...." he stopped abruptly when
Willow moaned, weakly.
"Willow?" Angel placed one of his hands under her head. Her eyelashes
fluttered and finally opened. "Hi there." he smiled, gently. "How do you
feel?"
"Gah...." Willow grimaced. "My head feels like somebody just hit me in the
face with a bowling ball....."
"Hey, at least it wasn't my fault, this time." Xander joked.
"This time?" Cordelia arched an eyebrow. Xander quietly related the story to
Cordelia and Faith while Giles, Buffy, and Angel helped an extremely weak
Willow into a chair.
"Did we win?" she finally managed to ask.
"Don't we always?" Buffy quipped, relief making her somewhat giddy.
"You did great, Will." Angel assured her. "Everything went as planned."
"Oh good."
"What time is it?" Angel asked, suddenly. Giles checked his watch.
"Four o'clock."
"Good, we've got time." Angel murmured. "Willow, I'm going to take you home
so you can lie down, okay?"
"Time for what?" Willow looked at him, confused.
"You'll see." he grinned.
"Buffy.....?" Willow looked at her long-time friend, questioningly.
Buffy looked at Angel and Giles. "Can we have a minute, guys?" Both men
nodded and moved off to a corner to speak together quietly. Buffy knelt down
beside the question. She quickly unclasped a bracelet from her wrist and
handed it to Willow.
"What's this?"
"Well, all brides are expected to have something old, something new,
something borrowed, and something blue, right? This belonged to my
grandmother, so it counts for both the old and the borrowed parts. You can
give it back to me next time I'm in town, okay?"
"Okay." Willow nodded, then winced. "Ow. Be well, Buffy."
"You too, Willow." Buffy gently hugged her friend, then beckoned to Angel.
He swiftly scooped Willow into his arms and carried her out through the back
door. Boo followed behind, occasionally barking happily. Once they were
gone, Buffy and Xander said their goodbyes quickly. By the time the sun set,
they were several hours outside of Sunnydale. Giles had agreed to take care
of the apartment they had just leased and had volunteered to have their
possessions shipped to them.
"Do you think they'll be okay?" Xander asked.
"I think they'll be fine." Buffy smiled. "And so will we."
********
PART 16
********
(12 years later)
"Daddy, when will they be here?" The little girl looked up at her father and
he marveled, and not for the first time, at how much she resembled her mother.
"Soon, baby. Soon." Angel scooped his daughter up into his arms and kissed
her soundly. "You look very pretty."
"Thank you. Aunt Buffy sent me the dress."
"Well, Aunt Buffy always did have good taste." Angel raised his voice.
"Jessie, Kieran, Douglas, Ira..... front and center, now!" The four boys
came tumbling down the staircase and hastened to form a line in front of
their father. "Have you all finished your chores?"
"Yes, sir! Father, sir!" Jessie, the oldest, offered his father a mock
salute.
"Smart ass." Angel muttered. "Where is your mother?"
"She went to lie down for a few minutes before the hordes descend." Kieran
replied. Even though he knew it was impossible, Angel swore that Kieran
resembled his namesake, Angel's father.
"Is she all right?"
"She'll be fine, father." Of all the boys, Douglas was the most like Giles
in spirit. Surprisingly, none of them resembled him physically, even though
the Watcher was their biological father.
"All right, then." Angel put Anne on the floor and she quickly scooted to
her place in line. "Prepare for inspection, troops." They all stood a bit
straighter and Angel noted that little Ira was holding his hands behind his
back. He made a production of inspecting each child and when he came to Ira,
he knelt before his three year old son.
"Let's see the hands, son." Slowly, Ira brought them out from behind his
back and Angel had to stifle a laugh.
"Son, why are you holding a frog?"
"It's a pwesent." the little boy declared.
"Really? Who is it for?"
"Mommy." Angel did laugh at this, long and loud. Jessie and Kieran had
rueful expressions on their faces.
"Squirt, I hate to tell you this" Jessie gently took the frog "but Mom
doesn't like frogs."
"But she'll like mine." Ira protested.
"I'm sure she will." Angel comforted him "but what say we put him in the pond
until after the guests leave. Okay?"
"Okay." Ira pouted. Jessie took his hand and led his little brother towards
the back garden. The doorbell rang and Angel instinctively moved to a
position in the room that would be safe from the inevitable sunlight that
would pour inside once the door was opened. Kieran opened the door and Faith
entered, followed by Cordelia who was holding their infant daughter. Once
the door was safely closed, Angel stepped out from the shadows. "Annie, go
upstairs and tell your mama that Faith and Cordy are here."
"Okay, daddy." The little girl ran up the stairs on her pudgy legs and the
adults watched her fondly. They exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes and
were soon joined by a heavily pregnant Willow. Everyone moved into the
sitting room and settled down for a nice chat. Giles arrived about half an
hour later and Buffy, Xander, and their two children arrived soon after. The
party was in full swing when Giles gently tapped on his glass for attention.
"I have wonderful news." he grinned. "I have spoken to the Council and they
have agreed to let little Eve stay with her mothers." Faith and Cordelia
both breathed audible sighs of relief. "It took some convincing, but I
finally managed to persuade them that a future Slayer....."
"Not if I can help it!" Faith interjected.
"Faith, you're going have to die someday." Buffy pointed out.
"Not if it means that my daughter might be called." Faith insisted. "I
intend to live until I know she's out of danger. That goes for you too,
blondie."
"......that a future Slayer...." Giles interrupted "is, indeed, safest being
raised and trained by a group that includes two Slayers and a Watcher."
"And a witch." Willow called out.
"And a..... what am I, honey?" Xander looked at his wife.
"You..... you're a Xander." she declared, after giving the matter some
thought.
"Not to mention an en-souled vampire." Angel finished the litany. Looking
around the small group, he smiled. "That little girl has it all, I think."
"All our kids do." Buffy declared.
"Not like in your day, huh?" Jessie said, just loud enough for the others to
hear him.
"Xander, what have you been teaching my son?" Angel glared at the other man
in mock fury.
"Hey, he had to get a sense of humor from *somewhere*."
"Uh.... guys....?" Willow's eyes grew wide.
"Well, stop corrupting him." Angel ordered.
"Corrupt, shmorrupt! Every child needs to learn how to question his elders.
And face it dude, you're as elder as they get."
"Guys....?" Willow gasped sharply.
"What does Uncle Xander mean, Daddy? Why are you ‘elder'?" Anne looked at
her father closely, trying to figure out what her uncle was talking about.
This time, the glare Angel gave Xander was completely serious.
"Hey man, I'm sorry." All levity was gone from Xander's voice. "I didn't
mean....."
"*Guys!*" Willow nearly shouted.
"What? What's wrong?" Angel was immediately at his wife's side.
"I think..... no I know it's time for us to go take a trip to the hospital."
All of the kids immediately began to whoop with excitement, except for little
Ira.
"What? Why we go on a trip?" he asked.
"Well, your mother is about to have her baby." Buffy explained, drawing the
child on her lap.
"I'll get the bag." Faith bolted for the staircase.
"I'll get your car." Giles volunteered. "Xander, bring Willow outside and,
Angel, we'll pick you up at the basement door."
"How close are we to sunset?" Cordelia asked, worriedly.
"Fifteen minutes."
"Buffy, can you stay here with the kids?" Willow asked right before another
contraction hit.
"Of course. Now go and shoot out another addition to our family." The next
few minutes were spent getting Willow and Angel into the car. After
eliciting promises from the others to call from the hospital as soon as there
was any news, Buffy and Cordelia turned their attention to entertaining the
small crowd of children.
"So what do you guys want to do?" Buffy asked, somewhat bewildered.
"Tell us the Buffy story." Jessie demanded. "That's what Mom and Dad do
whenever a new baby is coming."
"Uh.... what exactly is the Buffy story?" the Slayer asked, looking askance
at Cordelia.
"It's the story of how we all got to be together." the other woman explained.
"I'll start it. Jump in whenever you want to add something okay?" She took
a few minutes to adjust the position of the baby in her arms, then began the
oft-rehearsed tale. "Once upon a time in the little town of Sunnydale, there
lived three kids named Willow, Xander, and Cordelia. They led pretty average
lives until one day a new girl came to school......."
*FIN*
