Title: The Trial of a Vampire
Disclaimer: All the characters don't belong to me. They belong to Joss Whedon and the grr arg guys. Don't sue me.
Summ: Just a little fic taken totally out of context except that it has to be when Buffy and Angel are apart. Ummm.... yeah so it's about the Salem witch trials with an interesting twist.
Author: 4ever (that's me)
Distribution: i would actually be really grateful
Author's Note: This is mostly in dream so don't be worried if it's a little confusing it's supposed to be that way.

She hated her history teacher. He was completely bland and colorless and the most annoying thing was that he was wrong. Well, he wasn't always wrong, Buffy told herself, only when he was talking about demons or other supernatural stuff was he totally off base. That was because he didn't believe in the supernatural stuff. In that irksome way he reminded her of the Initiative. They all thought they had a clue. Demons were her business and no one else's.
"The Salem witch trials...." her history teacher droned on.
"I don't understand why they couldn't just leave," Buffy said, suddenly.
"Ms. Summers," the history teacher said," it was not that easy. Do you think that you could have done better?"
Buffy silenced herself. That night, after an especially grueling patrol, Buffy sank down into her bed grateful for the coolness of her sheets and the night air from the open window. In a minute she was asleep.
In her dreams she found herself in a restaurant, as a waiter. She was dressed in all black and her hair was long and straight. She moved around the tables quietly, avoiding one specific table, where she knew a certain man was sitting. Angel, her soul tingled to think of being in the same room with him, but she couldn't look at him. Why couldn't she looked at him? She wanted to turn around and run to him, so badly. What was going on? Finally, she succumbed and turned to see. He was the same as ever and Buffy felt her heart melt with an achy feeling. Suddenly a crowd had gathered and they were pushing her towards an open door. The crowd was dressed as old time puritans and suddenly Buffy's black pants became a long flowing skirt. The crowd was yelling accusations and curses as the hurled Buffy towards the door. In a second, Angel was up and running towards the door. He had to save Buffy, but as he neared the door the people moved away as they gave one last thrust to push Buffy out the door. Angel was exposed in the sunlight. In a flash he was fire and he quickly scrambled towards the shade, with the realization that something bad had happened. Almost as quickly Buffy turned around. She quickly knelt, where Angel was hiding his vampire features from the people, and put her arms around him. Somehow she also knew that something bad had happened. As she held him a slow warm feeling spread into her heart and his. He couldn't recognize it, but it was comforting and good and at the same time painful.
Angel awoke abruptly. He lay still for a couple minutes, not wanting the feeling to leave his body, but eventually the night called. As he went about his stuff he wondered what the dream was about. He knew what it reminded him of, the puritans and the accusations, it was just like the witch trials. But who were they trying? They wouldn't be so foolish as to try and just propel a vampire towards the door and sunlight and Buffy wasn't a vampire. Who were they testing? Suddenly it hit him. They were testing him and Buffy was just the trap. He had been found out too.

It was almost dawn and Angel lay his head down on the pillows in the hopes that in those few hours he could once again share a dream with Buffy. He was absolutely certain that Buffy had shared the dream on the night before, just as he was absolutely certain that the feeling of being in her arms had been the best he had, had in awhile.
Angel "awoke" to find himself in a courtroom. Quickly, he assessed his situation. He tried to move his arms, but they were tied tightly behind him, just as his feet were tied. Someone had gone through the trouble of taking off his shirt and Angel could only guess why. He looked up and saw curious pairs of puritan eyes gazing at him, the vampire. Finally he found her eyes and lost himself in their gaze. She was dressed in the full puritan clothes now. Angel had to wonder if that was symbolic. The people in the courtroom rose as the judge entered and took his seat. Angel couldn't tear his eyes away from Buffy.
A man, Angel assumed he was the prosecuting lawyer, stood up. "Your honor," he began," allow me to prove to the court first that this gentlemen is a vampire and secondly let us try to convince him for his own good to amend his evil ways and join the order of G-d." Buffy looked apprehensive. Her heart ached for Angel. Seeing him tied up, without her being able to do anything was almost more than she could bear. The lawyer produced a cross and slowly pressed in to Angel's chest. Buffy could hear the sound of the contact with his skin. Angel's muscles tensed, but he didn't let out a sound.
"Always my strong Angel," Buffy thought and had to grip the edge of her chair to keep from attacking. "My strong Angelus." Even in the dream her mind was confused about that tacking on, but she figured that Angel was only short for Angelus.
"So you see," the lawyer said. "This man is obviously abhorred by G-d."
Angel didn't believe. Even with the cross, even with the sunlight, Angel refused to believe that he was abhorred by G-d. After all he had a soul and G-d protected all souls.
"Do you consent to end your evil ways and embrace G-d?" the lawyer asked Angel. Angel didn't respond. He was imagining himself with Buffy, far away from here. In the way that dreams do, the scene quickly melted away and left Angel and Buffy in a room. Her puritan attire had melted away with the courtroom.
"I'm supposed to convince you," Buffy said. "Convince you to give up."
Angel came and put his arms around her. "You know I can't do that. If I could I would have done so a long time ago."
"I can't watch you die again," Buffy said, her voice muffled.
"Close your eyes," he said. "It won't hurt as much."
Buffy pulled away. "Don't even go there," she said, the heartache and pain breaking through her voice. Angel pulled her back to him and looked deeply into her eyes and she suddenly realized that Angel wasn't the only one who was going to die. Then, the lawyer came back in.
"Have you made your decision?"
Angel nodded, never taking his eyes or hands off Buffy. A guard came to take Angel away. Buffy stood and watched him go. "You still my girl?" he said, as they took him away.
"Always," she woke up with the word on her lips and an ache in her heart. She got out of bed and went to the window. Would she ever really see him again? Her heart was breaking inside of her and she tried to just breathe, but let the tears fall freely. It was dawn. Angel would just be going to sleep, she told herself. No, she thought. Angel had been asleep for awhile. The ache in her heart refused to go away and she couldn't bring back the warm feeling from the last dream. She went through the day in a haze, just wanting to get back to the dream. Half of it was wanting to see Angel and half was wanting the trial to be over.
Night found her again dreaming in the same courtroom. "Why do you not wish to repent?" the man asked Angel. Buffy looked down to find herself in puritan clothes. Angel didn't answer the man. "You are a fiend of the night a demon and a devil. We give you a chance to repent and you dare to refuse it?!"
Suddenly Angel opened his mouth to speak. Buffy knew what was coming and she wanted to stop it, but she couldn't.
"Demons?" Angel said, his voice hollow. "What do you know about them? You pompous people think that you own the world and that you are doing this for it's own good? Don't you know what you are doing? You stupid--"
"Angel!" Buffy cried out when she found her voice. Her clothes were suddenly modern again. He was angry, but that wasn't an excuse to turn on the people he had sworn to protect. It wasn't fair to have to defend these people. The entire courtroom was silenced. Buffy realized she had given away her secret, her love. "A vampire in love with a slayer, it's rather poetic in a maudlin sort of way." A slayer in love with a vampire it's rather poetic... but not to puritans.
"Get the girl!" the crowd roared.
They're coming for Buffy. Angel woke up with terror in his mind. Quickly he got up and splashed cold water on his face. Slowly he rubbed his hands over his forehead and realized that he had changed to a vampire as a result of the dream. He put his head against the wall and concentrated to change his features back to human. "Angel!" he heard her cry out again in his mind. "Buffy," he said out loud and hoped that wherever she was, she heard it.
Angel knew that the end was coming soon and so when he lay down that night he took special pains to do it before dawn. In his dream he felt the all too familiar sensation of his arms pinned behind his back. It was night. He was outside and Buffy was next to him. They were on stand on of those kinds that they used to burn people on. Angel looked up at the sky in awhile the sun would be up and he would burn and Buffy would burn with him in his fire. His heart choked and leaped up into his throat.
"Angel?" Buffy said. "Are you scared?"
"Do you think that I could stand it if anything ever happened to you?" Angel's own words echoed in his head. "Buffy," he said out loud. "I'm so sorry."
Buffy pressed her back against Angel's and took his hand. "It's my fault as much as yours. I started it by looking at you."
"But I'm going to end it," Angel said. Buffy understood and squeezed his hand tighter.
"I love you," she said.
"I love you too," Angel said, unable to come up with words that could mean more.
"Hey," Buffy said, trying to joke. "You still my boy?"
"Always," Angel said. Streaks of light came from the sun and Buffy felt Angel grow warm. Suddenly instead of being beside him, she was in his arms. The fire surrounded them, but it didn't hurt. Then, she felt it again. It was that warm, comforting, but painful feeling. This time she recognized it. It was love. Buffy woke up. Love, heartache, terror, love; It was a cycle. Without even thinking, she dialed Angel's number. He picked up.
"Angel?" her word hung in the darkness and space that separated them.
"Buffy," he said. There was a long silence. "You still my girl?" he tried the old line.
"Always," she said, her heart breaking. There was another silence and then a loud click as two receivers were simultaneously put down.
Angel leaned against the wall. Love, heartache, terror, love... heartache; It was a vicious cycle.