Usual Disclaimer, I don't own any of the characters, you
know the drill.
The angry red welt that ran down
her arm was almost unbearable to him. It refused to stop bleeding, and he was
struggling to remove a tiny shard of glass that had embedded itself deep inside
the wound. He hated to see her face contorted in pain as he made his futile
jabs with the tweezers. Then there was the blood, the smell of the blood, the
blood that awakened an anciently evil memory inside of him. But he no longer
drank. He no longer needed too. Finally he located the shard and removed it,
and began to gingerly clean the wound itself and stem the bleeding. She made
tiny whimpers as he did so, not wishing to reveal the extent of her discomfort.
It had been his fault she had fallen on the glass, he had been caught off guard
and thrown into her. But the demon was dead now. He began to place a simple
dressing onto her arm and carefully taped it in place. She looked at him, her
face etched with relief. "Thank you," she whispered.
She leaned
back into him and allowed her face to rest on his chest. She listened happily
to the soft thuds that made up his heartbeat, his new heartbeat. He watched as
a smile played gently on her lips and a quiet, contented sigh rose in her. He
wrapped his arms firmly around her waist avoiding her arms as much as possible.
He longed to fall asleep like this, holding her protectively in his grasp.
There was nothing to take them away from the moment, nothing to take them away
from each other. She spoke slowly to him. "Angel?" "Hmmm?" "I love you." Angel
felt his heart skip a beat, a surprising and new sensation to him. He had
longed to hear her say those three little words ever since he had made the
pilgrimage back to Sunnydale to be with her. "I love you too." He said happily.
She turned to hold him around the waist and lay her head sideways on his chest.
She watched a sunbeam play across his face from the window. She could tell he
was not used to sun yet, he still squinted slightly every time. She didn't care.
He had come back to her, come back for her. There was so much to make up
for, so much they had denied themselves. And now he was here with his arms
wrapped around her, and he was warm. Just like she had always wanted him to be.
Just like she had always hoped. She nuzzled into him, and drifted off to sleep.
Angel noticed, and reached out for a blanket. He wrapped them both in it
without disturbing her, and fell asleep.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Simultaneously,
as though connected, Buffy and Angel woke up suddenly from a deep sleep, and a
disheartening dream. They both looked quickly around them; assured themselves
that they were in the rooms they should be in, and in their separate cities.
Both of them realised with a heavy sadness that the other was not near them,
that there was no one near to assuage their tears as they fell rapidly from
un-quellable emotion. It had been only a dream, no heartbeat sounded in the
recesses of Angel's chest and darkness permanently surrounded him, and Buffy
was still alone. She quieted her tears as she knew Dawn slumbered in the next
room. But neither could stop them, would never be able to stop them. Their love
for each other was something that came from the deep recesses of each other's
souls, and that love can never be taken away. But they knew they had to stay
apart, for the sake of each other. Both of them turned back over in their beds
and pulled the covers tight around them, trying to substitute for the warmth
they had once provided for each other. But nothing would ever replace it, no
one would ever replace it. The sun silently rose outside each window as they
whispered gently to each other, "I love you."
