by Nytedreamer

Summary: What happens when Buffy has a dream about Angel becoming human? I suck at summaries just read it you'll like it :)

I don't own any of these character except Joyce Anya Harris. No money is made by writing these stories I just do it for fun

MY ONLY LOVE

Buffy Summers sat in her apartment thinking about the past. She had just celebrated her 30th birthday and had retired from being a full-time slayer. The final battle with the First had been the deciding factor in her retiring. The whole Scooby Gang had been through many battles and lost many people and it was time that they all had the chance to live a "normal" life whatever that was. Buffy had dated several men since she had retired but none of them seemed to measure up to the one man she measured everyone against. That person was Angel. He had been the love of her life and the one she never forgot about. Yes, it had been many years since they had be a couple but somewhere in the deepest part of her heart she still yearned to be with Angel. Buffy and the gang had heard about the battle with The Senior Partners and that the AI team had suffer great losses as well. Gunn had fought as hard as he could but having a gaping hole in your stomach doesn't leave you with a lot of energy and he had died shortly after meeting Angel, Spike and Illyria in the alley. Wesley had died in his duty and in the arms of Illyria which didn't make the latter very happy. Wesley's demise only seemed to fuel Illyria's rage and that made her an honest to goodness warrior for the good guys. Lorne had done as he was asked and had not been heard from again but there were rumors that his hand in the demise of The Circle of The Black Thorn had sent him into exile to deal with his own inner demons alone. Spike fought as hard as anyone had but in the end had met his own death at the end of a wooden stake driven straight into his un-beating heart. Angel had taken out the dragon as he had planned but little else was known about what happened to him afterward.

As Buffy sat thinking about her past her mind wandered back to the last time she had seen Angel. He had told her that he would wait for her to become "cookies" and that he still loved her. So many times she thought about that final conversation that she had with him and wished that things had been different. She wandered how things would be today if he had stayed to fight the First with her. But, at that time she had been with Spike and although everyone including herself knew that she didn't truly love him she stayed with him anyway out of loyalty and friendship if nothing else. When Sunnydale had imploded and Spike had given his own un-life Buffy had felt responsible but it was soon understood that the PTB's had given him back his un-life as reward for being selfless in the events that happened in Sunnydale.

The Scooby Gang had taken refuge in England after the events that brought the end to Sunnydale and started working on the new Watchers Council. Giles had of course kept in contact with many of his connections in England while he lived in Sunnydale so starting the new Council wasn't hard to do. Everyone had their own jobs to do and did them very well. Willow and Kennedy had split up shortly after the events of Sunnydale and Kennedy had gone back to living with her parents and being a slayer on the Chicago Hellmouth. However hard the break was for Willow she had taken it in stride and had overcome many obstacles that had come her way. She was currently the owner of a Wiccan shop in England and was doing research for the Council when needed. Xander had gone to Africa to track down more newly activated Slayers and had spent some time dealing with the death of Anya. Upon his return to England something extraordinary happened in his life. He found a love that he had thought had died in Sunnydale. Who was the love of his life you ask? It's simple really, Xander finally realized that Dawn Summers was no longer the bratty little sister that everyone had known. Instead she was a beautiful and intelligent woman that had taken his heart without him ever knowing it. Dawn had blossomed right before everyone's eyes but no one ever noticed what with having to defend their lives at every turn from things that no one else would ever dare to dream of. So it happened that shortly after Xander's return from Africa the two had wed and were now expecting their first child.

After a brief reprieve in England Faith and Wood decided to head back to the states and take over running the Cordelia Chase School for Talented Girls known to the gang as the new Slayer school. So with everyone having something to do and someone to do it with Buffy had a lot of time to reflect on her life. Many nights she dreamed about Angel and sometimes she felt that those dreams were so real she could almost feel his body against hers and his breath on her skin. It was after one of these dreams that she received a phone call that changed her entire life.

It was just after midnight when Buffy awoke from another one of her dreams about Angel. This dream had been different though. In this dream he was human. She had only had one other dream of Angel's being human and that had been when she was just a teenager and still pined for the vampire with a soul everyday. As Buffy sat in her bed wondering what the dream could mean her cell phone started to ring. Buffy grabbed the phone and answered with a curious "hello". "Buffy" was all that was said. "Angel?" Buffy asked in disbelief. "Oh my god Buffy it's so good to hear your voice...how have you been?" Angel asked in a rush. He hadn't been sure that she would believe it was him after all the time that had passed since anyone had heard anything about him. Hearing Angel's voice brought a flood of tears to Buffy's eyes. She had missed him so much and now hearing his voice on the phone she couldn't hide the emotions that she was feeling. Angel stood just outside Buffy's apartment door on his cell phone. He had been leery about coming to England but he knew that she had to be told in person about his secret that he had been hiding since the battle with The Senior Partners. You see it seemed that Angel had been staked about the same time as Spike in the fight with the Senior Partners but something amazing had happened seconds after his un-life had ended. He had become a new person...he had become human. Buffy sat up in her bed when she heard Angel's voice on the phone. She felt his presence envelop her. She knew that he was close but she didn't know exactly how close he was. "Angel, where have you been? Are you ok? Why did it take you this long to contact me? Where are you?" Buffy fired her questions at Angel. Angel smiled his sweet smile at her line of questioning. She had always been a cute girl but to Angel everything she did and said was cute. He remembered the first time he had slept in her bedroom and how he had told her that she looked beautiful even when she got ready to go to sleep. That night he had spent a long time looking at her as she slept like he would do many nights after that night. Movement on the other end of the phone brought Angel back to the present quickly. Buffy could feel the pull of him and she knew that he was just outside her apartment but she kept that knowledge to herself for the moment. She didn't want to do or say anything that would make her Angel go away. Buffy got out of her bed and slowly walked toward her front door. She still wore one of Angel's shirts as her night clothes. She just felt somehow closer to him when she wore it so she had slept in it almost every night since he had left Sunnydale after Graduation all those years before. "Buffy I have something important to tell you but I don't want to do it over the phone" Angel said just above a whisper. His voice kinda of reminded her of the first time she saw him and how cryptic he had been then. Although deep inside her she knew that there was nothing evil in his voice she was still a bit worried. She wondered for a moment if he had turned into Angelus again and was stalking her as some sort of revenge for her past with Angel. Buffy slowly opened her front door and stood before him. Her face was set in an emotionless tone and she had mentally steeled herself for the worst should it come. Angel heard the lock on the door click and knew that she was going to open the door and find him there on the other side. Part of him wanted to flee as fast as his human legs would carry him. But another part of him couldn't move because he had dreamed of seeing her for years and just wanted to see her once more if she decided after he told her what had been happening with him she shut him out of her life forever. Angel gasped as he took in the sight of her. Her hair was a bit longer than it had been the last time he had seen her and her skin looked a bit darker than before. She looked like she was ready for a fight and he knew that he had a lot of explaining to do in order to get through to her.

"Buffy...you look...amazing" Angel stammered. Buffy looked him over and something caught her attention. Although she was retired from slaying she still had her senses and knew the difference between a human and a vampire. Although her mind raged against the idea she knew that Angel was no longer a vampire. That in and of itself calmed her fears down and bit and softened the look on her face. " You aren't looking too bad yourself Angel " Buffy replied in a cool tone of voice. The two former lovers stood there staring at each other for what seemed like forever just drinking in the sight of one another. After what seemed like forever Buffy broke the silence that had developed between them. "Angel...you're not a vampire...are you?" she asked. " Could we possibly have this conversation inside...there are a lot of things that I have to tell you and I don't think that we should do it where people could hear us" Angel stated. Knowing that there was nothing evil inside Angel Buffy moved to the side to allow him to enter. For a second Angel wasn't sure if Buffy was going to let him in or not but he was very relieved when she did. Buffy knew that if Angel was still a vampire he would have told her that he needed an invitation to come into her apartment but none was offered and still he walked right in. That was the absolute proof that she needed that he wasn't a vampire after all. As Angel walked passed Buffy as he entered her apartment his arm brushed hers and what felt like a small spark of electricity shot through them both. His arm felt warm to Buffy with the brief contact that it made with hers. Buffy led Angel into the livingroom and he sat down on the couch. Buffy joined him on the couch after getting herself some ice water. Angel sat on the couch thinking for a minute on how he was going to start his conversation with his beloved. Buffy sat looking at him and wondering how long it was going to take for him to tell her what was going on.

"Buffy I have something to tell you and I guess I should start at the beginning and work up to how I got here" Angel said. "That would be a good place to start Angel" Buffy said quietly. "You see when we had the final battle with The Senior Partners I died...well what I mean is I was staked. I had just killed his huge dragon in the alley way and Spike had just been staked beside me when I felt this horrible pain in my chest and looked down just in time to be dusted. That should have been the end of it really but I woke up some time later and I was in a hospital bed. I have no idea how I got there or who took me there all I know is that is where I woke up at. I had just come out of surgery and was in a whole lot of pain. At first I thought that this was going to be my hell. To live forever in that hospital and in enormous amounts of pain. A little while after I woke up Whistler came into my room. He told me that I had been rewarded for all of the good I had done since getting my soul back. He told me that the PTB's had made me human as my reward. I spent about a week in the hospital and was released. I went back to the Hyperion to see if anyone else was alive. When I got there I found a note from Illyria saying that Wes, Gunn and Spike were dead and that Lorne hadn't been heard from since his last action as part of the AI team had been carried out. She said that she couldn't stay in LA anymore because it brought up too many memories of Wes and that she was going somewhere to try and find some sort of peace with all that had happened. I searched everywhere to try and find either her or Lorne but I didn't have any luck. I heard from the underground about what had happened to Sunnydale and that you were here in England and I knew I had to come and tell you all of this in person."

Buffy sat quietly and listened as Angel told his tale of what he had gone through in the years since she had last seen him. To say that she was awestruck would have been an understatement. Buffy couldn't believe what she was hearing. After having signed away his chance at being human the powers had seen fit to still grant him his humanity. By the time Angel had finished his story and his eyes had met hers tears were streaming down her face. "Angel, I don't know what to say. I never thought that the dream of you being human could come true. But why wait so long to come and tell me?" she asked. "Buffy I didn't know how to tell you. I was trying to deal with the whole thing myself. I mean I lost all of my friends and gained my humanity all in one night. It's still hard to think about Wes and Gunn and even after all this time Cordy. They were all such good friends to me and I couldn't save any of them." Angel said with a sad tone to his voice. Although he was so very happy to be human and to be here with Buffy it still hurt when he thought of all of the friends he had lost. Buffy moved over to Angel and wrapped her arms around him as the tears fell from his eyes. He had carried the burden of losing his friends all alone and now he had Buffy's shoulder to cry on and it felt wonderful. After a few minutes of crying Angel pulled out of Buffy's embrace and looked into her eyes. She too had been crying. She had cried for all the time that they had spent apart, for the loss of his friends and she cried tears of joy for him being there with her that night. When their eyes met it seemed as if the whole world and all of the pain that they had each experienced fell away. Their lips met for the first time just as they had the very first time they had ever kissed. However, this time there would be no leaving. They would spend the rest of their lives in complete and utter happiness. A few days after their reunion Dawn Harris gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Her name...Joyce Anya Harris.