Title: Hooker2 the chrysalis
Author: the mean kitten
Disclaimer: we own nothing, it's all Joss Whedon, UPN and mutant enemy; we just give the fans a dose of fan-fiction.
Notes: this is part three of four parts… (I know I said 3 parts, but somewhere along the line, this became too long so, there'll be a 4th part for reasons of length.)
ZZZ
"It's
not like you didn't know that, This time I'm mistaken,
I said I love you and I swear I
still do,
It must have been so bad,
Cause living with me must
have damn near killed you …
For
handing you a heart worth breaking',
I've been wrong, I've been
down,
To the bottom of every bottle…"
ZZZ
August 18th, 2008
Cleveland, Ohio
Through looking glasses, darkly…
Angel came barging into Tani's place. He was infuriated beyond reason. He thought the psychic should have told him that Sarah-woman was actually her long lost Buffy. But was she really?
"I can't believe you didn't warn me that this would happen. Is she really my Buffy, because I refuse to believe that the woman I love would do that to me!" Angel screamed as he smashed his fists against the wall. He had been drinking and walking aimlessly around the city for hours.
"First, you've got to calm down. You're judging something by the cover; you can't understand the reasons behind her actions."
"Well, you are a goddamned psychic, tell me!" Angel continued screaming as he grabbed Tani by the shoulders, and shook her.
"She's too scared of you, of the world, of everybody. Hell, I'm scared of you! You've got these awful vibes that I don't like one tiny bit." Tani mentioned as she dislodged her arms from Angelus violent grip.
"I'm not a nice man, she knows that well." Angel mentioned softly as he sat down on the floor, took out his whisky flask and drank a big gulp. "Why would she lie like that? Do you think she hates me that much? What have I done to her to make her behave like that?"
"Are you kidding me? They way you have tortured and killed before makes me cringe, but at least you love her. I think you should talk to her, only she can truly explain to you what has happened."
"I don't want to talk. I just want to…"
"What to kill her? Hurt her? Lock her in your trailer for the rest of her life? It doesn't take a medium to know that you are a perverted bastard. I can see your thoughts crystal-clear. I wouldn't like to be in her shoes right now, I'll tell you that much." Tani mentioned as he sat next to Angel on the floor. "But it's not just you. She's this … traumatized soul, there's so much pain in her past… I have to tell you that you don't know a fraction of the things she's been through."
"So you are basically saying that I should cut her some slack."
"Not just that; you need to see things from her side, and you also need to lower her from that pedestal that you've placed her in, she's just human, bone, flesh and lots of mistakes."
"I don't…" he had idealized Buffy since her death; she had become a perfect character, a martyr; too far from the reality surrounding her. "You are right; I should just talk to her. I should shallow my pride, bite my tongue and let her do the talking. She wanted to talk, but I ran for the hills. I just couldn't understand how she could do that to me."
"Why are you still here then? Go! You have miles to go before sundown, and little Miss Buffy won't last that long."
"What does that mean? Is she in danger? If something is wrong with her, I need to know!"
"I don't know, I just say what I hear."
"I swear to God! Sometimes you are just fucking cryptic!"
"And you are just fucking dense! Go away now; you are wasting life-or-death time here."
Angel turned around before he was almost running out the door. "I forgot to say thank you. You always know how to get me back on track."
"Your welcome; you are a conceited asshole, but you are too damned good-looking to hold it against you." Tani said smugly as she sent him away for good.
"Thank you for the compliment. I'll call you, let you know what happened."
"You better! I'm hooked with this soap-opera of yours." Psychic or not, Tani was deeply concerned about the difficult times she could see ahead of Buffy and Angel.
ZZZ
August 15th, 2008
Salem, Ohio
Salem Memorial Clinic,
Through looking glasses, dangerously…
"She's still unconscious, we did everything we could. She needs dialysis." The registered nurse said to resident in charge, as they both discussed Buffy's prognosis. "She's about 30 weeks pregnant; it's extremely risky, nothing to say of painful since we can't do it with anesthesia."
"Well, mommy won't survive a kidney transplant, and baby its barely viable. Our first—and I dare say only choice—is dialysis, and antibiotics. We'll see how she does with the treatment." The doctor answered as he studied Buffy's charts.
"I guess, doc. I'll go page an urologist then."
"Sure, we'll need a specialist to assist us; she's a very complicated patient." The doctor said as he pondered the things written on Buffy's charts. "I have a doubt though; her chart doesn't mention why she's got so many scars, we are going to have to wait until she wakes up to find out who she really is."
"Why do you say that?"
"Those are gun shot scars," The doctor mentioned as he uncovered Buffy's belly. "And surgery scars to remove the bullets I presume, and if you've noticed her old medical charts, it says blue eyes; when they are actually hazel-green, and let's just say she's gone shorter too, she's what? 5'4'' and the chart says 5'10'' I'd say something smells fishy here."
"You think her social security number is fake?"
"No, I think she's on some kind of witness protection program."
"Oh! My god, yes that could be true; we'll wait until she wakes up."
"Keep a close eye on her; I'll get the room ready for dialysis."
ZZZ
"I'm sorry, but this will hurt." The doctor warned Buffy as he applied iodized solution to her neck, due to Buffy's peculiar condition the doctor had chosen the femoral jugular vein, IE the neck vein to start with the process of dialysis.
"It's ok, I've had dialysis before, but I remember them using a fistula the last time, on my arm I mean. Is this neck catheter thing safe?"
"It's quicker, and less prone to dermatological infections, and it's less painful." The doctor continued speaking as he inserted the catheter on the vein. This was usually called a central line. "Have you had this many times then? I mean, is this kidney disease of yours recurrent, or has it gone chronic by now?"
"It's chronic, but it's gone worse with this stupid infection."
"I dare say that, you came in here at the brink of epileptic seizures, very low sugar and very high fever, not a good combination kidney-wise, or baby-wise for that matter." The doctor continued speaking as he removed the guide and started plugging the catheter to the dialysis machine. "I'm waiting on the labs but I'm fairly certain that you have diabetic ketoacidosis, DKA, if you hadn't come here when you did, you'd be in a diabetic coma right now."
"I've been feeling sick for several days, but you know us diabetics can get critical over a night."
"More to the point, you should've come here as soon as you felt the first symptom, now you are officially on UNOS list." That meant that Buffy had been put on waiting list for a kidney. "Breath deeply, this will make you feel sick." The doctor said as he turned on the machine.
"Good, that's awful. My head it's spinning." Buffy whispered as she felt the machine working. The process was called hemodialysis, and it involved removing all the blood in the body to cleanse it from toxic substances such as urea, and excesses of potassium, calcium, iron, etc to simultaneously return the blood to the body cleaned as the kidney should usually do by sweat and urine.
It was usually performed with catheters that suctioned and reentered blood at large arteries and veins of the body, such as cava, femoral and jugular when used more than once for a period of time like the doctor had prescribed Buffy to.
The process usually took about four hours, since it has to be done slowly or the patient could collapse from the sudden disrupt of balance of the components in the blood, medically called homeostasis, causing a great deal of fatal side effects, such as heart failure, a diabetic coma, epileptic seizures and in Buffy's case preterm labor, or even a placenta rupture.
In a nutshell, it was dangerous to do the process, but the alternative was worse, Buffy needed to drain fluid or the infection would spread to every organ on her body, affecting more than just kidneys, maybe even affecting the baby if it went trough the placenta and into the baby's bloodstream. The doctor had identified it as extremely resistant type of staph, which treated with heavy antibiotics, was something easy to solve, but Buffy would take longer to recover because she didn't have functional kidneys.
"I paged an OB/GYN to come and take a look at you. This will only take a few hours, just keep your focus on the TV, if you start going crazy, page me with the nurses, I'll be at the end of the hall."
"Ok, I'll be watching Jerry Springer." Buffy said as she flipped through the channels looking for a movie, or anything else to engage for several hours.
ZZZ
August 17th, 2008
Salem, Ohio
Buffy is still on Salem Memorial Clinic…
"What made you wake up from the coma? How was it?" One of the nurses asked Buffy as she found out about all the things—medically speaking—that Buffy had been through.
"There's like a limbo, a place where things don't make much sense, but even in that place I knew I had to come back, I knew there was a big reason why I should wake up, believe it or not, I heard my best friend's voice in that place, she was visiting me the day I woke up. It overlapped with my mother's voice, telling me that I had to go back, that I wasn't meant to be there. And I just followed it."
"Whoa," The nurse and the urologist said in unison. "Can you tell us how it felt to die? This is one of the biggest questions of our time. Because, you were clinically dead for about 10 minutes before you arrived at the hospital."
"I felt… like I was floating on the surface of oily water, my body was there, I felt it, the pain of my wounds, and the throb of blood, this sensations hadn't gone away completely. But I couldn't focus my eyes, or my hearing on anything; it was like I was dreaming. But I remembered people; I knew names, faces, places. I don't know if that fits any criteria, but that's how I felt."
"I swore patient-doctor confidentiality, and based on that I can only say that I'm amazed with you. I know who you are. I really thought you were dead. You are such a heroine."
"You must swear not to mention, divulge, write or even say my name out loud, for your own safety. This isn't something to be joking about, not even with your wife."
"I promise you that, Miss Miles. Could you tell us some more about the other life, that famous next world still puzzles me. Did you see a tunnel? Was there a real light at the end of it?"
"I don't remember the exact moment I lost my grip on reality but I do remember blinding lights, and a hum, like a bee was inside my head; and of course cold, like I was beginning to freeze over, like I was drowning in frozen water. That's how I felt when I … died."
"Of course, that makes perfect medical sense. You'll need two more sessions of dialysis, today and tomorrow, and then you can go home. We've kept you here long enough."
"Thank God! You should know I have doctor-phobia."
"I would have it too if I were you!" The doctor joked as he signed Buffy's release form and medical orders for the next few days.
"Do I have to keep doing the machine?" Buffy asked with concern written all over her eyes.
"Once every three days until the baby is born." That was horrible news for Buffy, been dialyzed twice a week was not a pretty prognosis. "We'll star preparing for the transplant after that."
ZZZ
"I
will never know myself until I do this on my own,
'cause I will never feel anything else until my wounds are healed,
I will
never be anything 'til I break away from me,
I will break
away.
I'll find myself today… "
ZZZ
August 19th, 2008
Old Tulsa, Ohio
Through looking glasses, I've found me…
9:30 pm
Angel came back home feeling like he was being pulled to Buffy's side by unforeseen forces, Tani had confirmed must of his thoughts, but to know that she was alive and would deliberately deceive him was too much. He had to talk to Buffy.
He parked the car in front of the bookstore, it was closed, Cordy wasn't there; but he tried the back door and it was open.
He went upstairs, thinking that Buffy ought to be watching TV or something, but he couldn't find her, so he went inside her private room.
Above her desk were a series of medical exams, Angel saw them and curiosity got the best of him, they were all too familiar to be somebody else's.
He started looking through them and he found out her old prescriptions and her glucose meter, he started reading them and by the last page he was almost positive that only one person could have all those records, even if the name had been crossed with a permanent marker. She had to be Buffy.
He was now prepared to find her in some sort of dire situation, he went into the bathroom; he thought she'd be there because the light was on. He found her inside the tub; she had fallen asleep on it.
Angel couldn't help to look through the soap-clouded water and see the scars, the chest, and the belly, it all sort of clicked together, only she could have the gunshot scars, the records and the memories. Only Buffy could know his name, only Buffy would call him Angel, and most importantly, only Buffy would be having his baby.
"Buffy…" He leaned closer and wrapped a towel around her. "Wake up, baby; you fell asleep on the tub. Are you ok? You look so sick." He touched her wet skin and it was like sparks ignited. There she was all along, what he lived and breathed in for months was right there under his nose, and he had been so blind all that time.
"I'm so tired, it's like I just couldn't get out of it." She whispered back, the fact that she acknowledge the name was a given. She had a burning fever again, she had spent four days in the hospital, but as soon as she got home she stopped the treatment, and now her body was reacting to the kidney infection again.
"Come on, I'll get you back to bed." Angel said as he pulled her out of her tub and carried her back to bed.
"You are not here… I'm dead, and you are not here… and I'm sick. And my head is about to explode." Buffy said nonsensically, she was too sick to make sense of her words.
"We'll … you are right about the last one, you are burning up. Shouldn't you be at the hospital?"
"They sent me home, gave me some pills, but I said I wouldn't take them, because they would hurt our baby. I refuse to hurt her. She just so innocent, I can't hurt her anymore."
"You have to take them. Where are they?" Angel mentioned as he sought the pills on the table. "Here, have some juice, and take the pills."
"No, Angel… they'd hurt the baby. You'd kill me if I'd hurt our baby. You hate me. I'm a lying bitch. You said that, remember?"
"If you die, there would be no baby!" Angel said harshly as he handed Buffy two pills. And then he continued a little softer, noticing that he was scolding her. "And I don't hate you. I fucking worshiped you; you are the one who hates me. You have to hate me very deeply to play with my feelings like that."
"I do! Ok maybe I love and hate you … I'll take the stupid pills, bread; it has to go down with bread." Buffy accepted as Angel went to fridge and got her a slice of bread.
"Our baby, you said her, it's a she?" Angel asked to fill the uncomfortable silence; she was looking at him with those huge hazel orbs that still mesmerized him like she wanted to cry, and he couldn't bear that.
"Abby, Abigail Amanda, I like that name, I thought you'd liked that name too." Buffy replied softly. She loved that name; it was something very close to her own, and it was also beautiful and meaningful, it meant "Father in rejoice".
"You would name her like my grandmother?" Angel's grandmother was Abigail Amanda O'Quinn; he had the dearest childhood memories about her.
"She sounded like someone kind, you admired her and I though I deserved you some credit." Buffy admitted, knowing that he would have been happy, and he would have loved the baby.
"Where have you been all this time, Buffy?"
"Dead, in a coma for three moths and hiding; I had to hide, they all wanted to kill me, they still do… Quentin, Lindsay, Spike, Holtz, and Drusilla too I think. I've been a very bad girl."
"You'll tell me all about it in the morning. Right now you should get some sleep. You are shaking."
"You won't be here in the morning."
"Yes, I will." Angel said as he touched her cheek. She felt terribly hot and clammy.
"Would you hug me … even if you want to kill me too?" Buffy replied as she welcomed his caress and laced her fingers with him above her cheek. "Just for the night, I don't want to be alone now." She tried to sleep, but every time she did, the nightmares came back harder than before.
"I don't know who or what got that stupid idea inside you head, but I would never even hit you, much less kill you. Just go to sleep, you are delirious, and you may regret saying this much in the morning."
"I love you. I'm sorry I didn't say it, I should've told you right away, but you know we can't be together, this can happen anymore, I have to go away, but I can't…" Buffy began crying and she couldn't stop the tears from falling endlessly. "I can't bear this…"
"Sush, baby; it's ok, I know it can't be… but it is."
"I hurt you so badly; I shouldn't have taken that deal. I sold my soul to the devil because of it. I shouldn't have gone undercover, why didn't I listen to Willow, she told me! She warned me that this revenge would get me killed."
"You are alive, and very sick, please try to get some sleep, we'll talk about this tomorrow." Angel said as he unlaced his fingers from Buffy's desperate grip, he began to pull away from her just to get her under the covers.
"Don't you dare leave me talking alone now!" Buffy shrieked as she pulled the covers aside in a fist. "What about me? I need you so much, and I love you so much... And I tried to make you go away... I even died and it didn't help. I still think of you all the time. It's like you cursed me!"
She shoved him off of the bed, and tried to get up. Angel stopped her, she was bluntly naked under the towel and she was very weak with the fever, she stumbled and fell backwards.
Buffy started bawling then, feeling lost "And I hate it! I hate that it's so hard... and that you can hurt me so much. What your father did to my family and what you made me do to myself, you've broken me and I can get it fixed any more. Oh, God! I wish you had died in that shooting, I wished I had died too. This place, you and me here, it's killing me! You are killing me!"
"Buffy, please. Just this once... let me be strong for the both if us. We'll talk about it in the morning. I love you; we are going to have a baby. We will make it work."
"Would you? You are so naïve. You can't fix this! Could you ever love me again? Knowing what I've done, knowing that all I wanted was revenge."
"I've never stopped loving you… come here; you are going to hurt yourself." She went to him and tried to hit him, but she collapsed on his arms again. "If it kills you to know I'm right there, imagine how I felt thinking you were dead, imagining that I would never see you again. I was dead; I'm nothing without you, Buffy."
"I don't want to talk to you; I can't make sense right now." Buffy said and then she started feeling dizzy. "I can hardly keep my eyes open..." she started feeling boneless under Angel's arms, like she was about to pass out.
"You are not the only one with that problem. Buffy? Can you hear me?" Angel asked her filled with dread. She felt clammy to him, like that time she got really sick and he had to rush her to a hospital.
"It's all whirling and I'm… going to be sick." Buffy muttered before she felt violently sick and threw up on Angel's shoes.
ZZZ
"As
he goes left and you stay right
between the lines of fear and
blame
you begin to wonder why you came…"ZZZ
"Shouldn't you be at a hospital?" Angel asked cautiously as he sat next to Buffy on the bed. He touched her forehead to check her temperature; she was still very hot but not so clammy anymore.
"I was; they sent me home yesterday." Buffy answered a little more calmly, and a lot more composed. She had bathed again and put on some footy pyjamas.
"Maybe they made a mistake? You don't look healthy to me."
"Well, my social security isn't exactly great, and I said I'd take the pills… God, these pills make me…" she couldn't finish it; she rushed to the bathroom and barely made it to the toilet.
Angel followed her with deep concern. "Isn't there something else you could take? The pills don't work. In fact, I can see the remains of it on the floor." Angel saw that her hair was getting on her eyes so he pulled it back, noticing a scar on her neck that he hadn't seen before, were the central line had been plugged. "Have you been like this all the time?"
"That would be the fourth pill I throw up, they gave me the same for an injection… but it's too painful to my thighs."
"I don't understand what you are saying?"
"Shots, they gave me shots, say I should find someone to give them to me here, because Salem is too far to drive back and forth every day, I said I'd do them on my thigh but it's too painful, even I have some scruples." And she would not lay her arse bare for anybody; she didn't trust anybody like that in Old Tulsa.
"Get your ass on the bed."
"You'll not… whatever makes you think that I will…" Buffy said as she watched in panic how Angel filled the syringe with 10 cc of painful oily medication, Amikacin, to be correct. "It could make the baby deft, malformed and hurt her kidneys!"
"Quit been a baby, you are dying over there, you must be at lest 104 with fever, and you are hurting the baby with the infection as it is. Get over this, I promise that I'll be quick."
Angel found and ear thermometer and placed it on hers, just to be on the safe side. "Buffy for Christ's sake! You have 106 fevers. You must be delirious, this can be healthy, let me give you the shot."
"But you've never done shots intramuscular."
"Yes, I have. I gave you insulin several times."
"It's not the same, this is oily, and it won't sink in so easily…" Buffy continued backing away from Angel but eventually he caught her by the ankle and settled her in the middle of the bed. "I'm going to scream, I'll may even cry. I'm in no place to be tough right now. I hurt everywhere you touch me."
"Who are you, and where did you left the hard-ass cop who destroyed the O'Quinn Cartel?" Angel said as he began turning her body to the side, he was dumbfounded to feel just how hot she was, her skin burned to the touch and her eyes had a red ream around them, her mouth look a little cracked too.
Buffy reluctantly agreed that she was that woman and she turned to her side and bared her cheek, since she could hardly lie flat on her stomach.
Angel took some alcohol from the bed stand and applied it. He noticed the size of the needle and the yellowish colour of the antibiotic and he agreed that it would hurt.
He didn't give her a warning, he pinched the flesh and drove the needle in a 45º angle and started to slowly inject the liquid.
He pulled it out and blood dripped out of it, and the area rouse like a huge mosquito bite. To her credit she didn't scream with it, although she was strummed tight, rather pale and blue with holding the breath.
"Fuck! There is goes." Buffy jumped out of the bed like a cork as soon as the stinging began, it went up and down like the pain of a bee sting. Buffy walked across the bedroom, trying to release the stinging sensation.
"Do me the same. You'll feel better if you poke me too."
"Have you lost your mind? In fact, I'm going to vomit some more over here, I'll see you tomorrow." Buffy just wanted him gone so she could collapse in solitude.
"I'm not going anywhere." Angel said as he held Buffy's hair again, as she did actually loose some more bile.
ZZZ
Buffy sighed deeply later as Angel caressed her belly; he was spooning her on the bed, making sure she fell asleep. She was spent after so much barfing and such high fever. But some vestige of conscience remained and she refused to let her guard down and just sleep, even if she had no energy to complain or to pull him away.
"I missed you." Angel whispered back and continued to caress her mindlessly, just feeling her lay there taut and motionless, he would stay there until tiredness got the best her.
She didn't respond to it, but she had heard him.
When Angel noticed that Buffy was thoroughly asleep he went to her computer googled Amikacin it said that 'intramuscular injection may cause moderate to severe pain'. Angel couldn't live with not knowing what he had done to Buffy so he injected his thigh with it…
He swore to God that he would never complain about his life again, the thing numbed his leg for hours, and the sting was worse than anything, and it didn't go away, it travelled, pumping up and down with blood.
"Poor you, Jesus Christ, this thing hurts like hell. But God you are alive." Angel whispered as she felt Buffy's forehead about four hours after the shot, it was still a little warm, but thankfully not burning anymore.
"Ouch," Angel complained as he laid spooning Buffy again, with her ass pressed to his thighs, she didn't even flinch. She was gone for the night. He realized that they where probably having the same pain now and it sort of comforted him.
Red eyed, tired and angry but emotionally elated, Angel stayed the night over, unsure of what to do. He didn't sleep, he just watched, he felt the raised tissue of the scars, remembering the shots, he felt the baby moving inside and he remembered the last few times he had made love to her, he couldn't sleep, caught up with so much restrained emotions, he just stayed there, spooning her, afraid of her lucidness coming back to her, she had good reasons to avoid contact with him, if someone found out they were both there, they would kill them.
He was sure that when she woke up the morning after and noticed her secrets exposed, she would run away and he would never see her or Abby ever again.
Abby, that baby had to be protected, hidden; someone could use her to manipulate them. They weren't on WPP just because they had seen too much; they were there because practically everybody out there would love to kill them.
That was if Buffy didn't die first, he remembered the doctors warning her of a need for a kidney transplant if she had more infections, and now only she knew how damaged she was after the shots, maybe she was so sick she hadn't had the energy to escape when she first noticed his presence in Old Tulsa, maybe she didn't want to leave.
It was all a big whirlwind of thoughts on Angel's head until he could speak to her.
ZZZ
"We
all had our reasons to be there
We all had a thing or two to
learn
We all needed something to cling to
So we did…
We
all had delusions in our head
We all had our minds made up for
us
We had to believe in something
So we did…"
ZZZ
The day after tomorrow…
"Good morning," Buffy whispered as she entered the kitchen. She had slept the amazing amount of eight full hours, without nightmares, fever or colic.
"Well, look who's finally up. I thought you were going to sleep through the day." Angel mentioned as he flipped pancakes. "I made you blueberry pancakes." Blueberry pancakes were Buffy's favorite kind.
"We should talk." Buffy said as she rubbed her eyes tiredly, she was still a little groggy.
"Right now, you'll sit down and eat breakfast. And then we are going to go to the doctor. Talk can wait until we've established what's wrong with you." Angel said as he placed two dishes laden with pancakes on the table, he then added strawberry marmalade, maple syrup and peanut butter to the mix.
"I guess you went shopping." Buffy mentioned as she grabbed a tiny bite of a blueberry laden piece of pancake.
"It's not poisoned, you know?" Angel mentioned and he placed a large piece on a fork and offered it to her. "And I did shop; you had very little things to work with. Do you actually eat?"
"I do. This is delicious, I just don't know if I can hold it down." In truth, she was starving, but she had been having terrible nausea the last few weeks.
Buffy reluctantly opened her mouth and accepted the offer.
"Try, I'm sure it's not healthy to go on barfing every day." Angel offered another piece and she took it greedily. "Besides, you need to eat… for the baby." He mentioned as he stared at the bump, it was so tiny.
"How far along are you?" Angel asked filled with curiosity as to when they had made it happen.
"About 30 weeks, seven months, give or take a week." Buffy admitted with a mouthful of peanut butter.
"What! I can't believe you are so advanced, that's… when?" Angel was dumbfounded. He hadn't imagined she's be so far along, he belly was deceiving.
"I'm due in mid October; I think it happened right away, you know I got the IUD removed in January, they said between late January and first week of February. So that was probably during our honeymoon."
"That's right around the corner! We should get ready." Angel began and his mind turned into a whirlwind thinking about the upcoming event. "I mean we need baby stuff, a cradle, a car seat, a stroller I don't know what else… what do we need?"
Buffy woke up from the table and her heart started pumping madly with anxiety for the things she was about to say, she had to tell him. "I'm not keeping her."
Silence became deafening, Angel stared at her with huge eyes, incapable of speech; his face had turned into a mask of pain, anger and confusion. Buffy turned around and placed the half eaten pancakes on the sink carefully; she could almost feel the rage began to take over him. She was fully prepared for an outburst of fury.
"Who gave you the right to decide that?" Angel asked calmly but just as angry as he appeared to be.
"I have the right because I am the one who's pregnant." Buffy answered calmly but firmly.
"And you got pregnant all by yourself, didn't you? I had nothing to do with it." Angel said sardonically as he stood up and went around the table to stare at the window; he could not contain the rage building inside.
"She's not yours."
"You know damn well she is." He turned around with eyes like a devil and launched to grab Buffy's arm. "Don't make up a lie as monstrous as that just because you don't want this baby!"
"I do want her! She's my baby too. But we can't keep her. I can't do it alone and neither can you. Let go of me, you are hurting me. We have a tag in our toes!" Buffy screamed back as she unlaced his fingers from her arm.
"I have spent all of my life knowing I have enemies. It didn't stop me from loving you, and it sure as hell will not stop me from keeping this baby!" He grabbed both her shoulders and shook her for good measure. "She's mine! I have a right to keep her."
"What would you do with a baby? You can barely keep yourself in one piece. Don't think I don't know you are using again, you are also drinking, smoking and heaven helps me, I also think you have lost your mind. We have no money, and I'm not sure I'll make it trough the pregnancy to begin with!"
"What that does mean?" Angel asked as he loosened his grip on Buffy's arms realizing he was leaving hand prints on them. "Are you ill?"
"Ill doesn't quite cover it. I need a kidney transplant or I'll die." Buffy bared her neck so he could see the holes.
"Do you see this scar? It's from dialysis; they said I had to do it once every three days because I'm basically poisoned with toxins; my kidneys don't filter the blood anymore." Buffy swallowed hard, the small bit of pancake tried to come up as she remembered been dialyzed that often. "When I was shot, I lost so much blood that my kidneys, my lungs, my liver and my brain shut down," Buffy paused to sit down because her legs were starting to feel like jelly, she was still so weak that the room had started whirling around her.
"So I went into a coma, I was like that for near three months. They still can't explain how is it that I'm alive when there was so much internal damage. And they are even more perplexed that one fine day; I just suddenly decided to wake up, and leave the hospital."
"With no particular reason, you just decided to come back?" Angel asked staring at her face.
"It was like I was being summoned back to earth." Buffy admitted as she rubbed her temples, she started getting that bleeding headache again. She needed her insulin.
"Did you know about the baby when you went into that warehouse?" Angel asked as he sat down next to her and caressed her cheek. "Were you that crazy?"
"I suspected, but I wasn't sure." Buffy continued, paying no attention to his soft and insistent caress on her cheek and her neck. "The doctors strongly recommended me to terminate the pregnancy when I woke up from the coma, but I didn't, I couldn't. I've been taking a bunch of drugs that keep me working temporarily until they baby is born, after that, they need to remove the sick kidneys and find me healthy ones."
"That's all great but could you just answer me one question?" Angel asked as he feathered her temple with his thumb. He felt the blood ebbing at the small hollow spot where her veins tended to stuck out when she was angry, which she was at the moment.
"Sure," Buffy answered ironically. What harm could there be in a simple question?
"Would you let me be with you, at least until the baby is born? We can decide what we'll do later; right now I just want to be with you, look after you, I need to make sure that you are alright."
"I suppose it's your right. I'm still carrying your baby."
"Exactly, and that last time I checked, you were still my wife."
"It was a fake marriage. The priest was an actor, FBI hired him. They knew you were up to something." Angel had been caressing her face, and his hand just stopped when she said that.
"It doesn't matter, I swore a vow. And it's real to me. Is it real to you? Look me in the eyes and tell me, if it was real for you." Angel said as she raised her chin so he could see into her hazel eyes.
"I don't know if …"
"You don't know if it was real for you or not? For Christ's sakes Buffy for once in your life be honest with me!" Angel demanded as he wrapped his hand around her nape.
"It was fucking real!" Buffy shouted as she moved away from the table and shoved his hand away from her face, she couldn't bear his condemning eyes.
Buffy moved to the window and stared outside as she tried to swallow the tears that threatened to fall any second. "But I don't know if I can pick this marriage right where we left it. What do you want? A wife, a child, your white picket fence, a most precious moment of perfect happiness like the ones we had the day we got married? I assure I can't be like that again, I'm unhappy, unsatisfied, angry, depressed, desperate and quite frankly I could care less if you are mad at me or not. I just want this fucking pain to be over!" Buffy screamed as she massaged the small of her back, that annoying pain seemed to come back in the worst times.
Angel moved to the window and placed his arms hesitantly on her shoulders, she didn't move; she was rooted in that spot, in fact she sighed heavily as she felt his breath on her nape. "What pain?" He whispered astonished with her revelation but still wary of the underlined issue, she was going through something terrible.
"When I said I hurt all over, I meant it. Breathing, talking, walking everything is uncomfortable, have you been dialyzed? Have you had multiple gunshots healing with no pain killers, do you have a baby kicking your organs all the time. Do you have a urinary infection with up the roof potassium levels and developed chronic diabetic ketoacidosis?" Buffy admitted as she remembered the doctor warning her before she left the hospital. 'If you don't control this disease, it will kill you both'.
"My head and almost every bone in my body hurts all the time, and then I can keep anything down. Honestly, I don't know if I can be your perky, sex driven little slayer anymore. I'm all out of faith these days, Angel. To be honest with you, I don't know why I came back from that coma in the first place."
"Is that thing you have that serious?" He could not address how she felt about coming back. He thought she intended to do a kamikaze when she entered that warehouse and he couldn't bear it. But he at least could do something about that disease.
"It's life threatening."
"We need to see a doctor, a good one. Come with me to New York."
"Angel, I know what's wrong. After the baby is born, I need a kidney transplant. That's all." Aware of her blatant admissions of misery she changed her argument. She was a strong woman; she would not whine and complain about her fate, she was not seeking his compassion, not his, never his.
"Listen to yourself! Its two months away, something must be done to help you now. I can't just stay here and watch you suffer because you are too stubborn to get a second, third, tenth opinion, I don't care. We'll talk to an expert. Go get dressed." Angel was always the action guy; he would never sit and dwell in misery; he would find a solution to the problem or die trying.
"You are just throwing your scarce money into an endless pot. And I can't leave the store alone."
"Here's a thought, close it, It's not like it's Barnes and Nobles!" Angel said ironically as he stared at Buffy, she remained stubbornly rooted in the same place. "Do you want me to carry you to the car in your pajamas? Because I will, you know I'll do anything to help you, even if you don't want my help."
"It's a choice, Angel. Deliver the baby now when she's barely viable, or wait. I've chosen. It's the baby. I can bear, and I will bear until she's come to term."
"You are so sick. How can you be sure she's ok in there? Maybe she'll be better outside?" Angel suggested thinking that science was fairly advanced with premature babies.
"She's 60 of her estimated weigh, undeveloped in every organ. How could you suggest me she'll be better outside, she'll die!" Buffy shouted with indignation. How dare he suggest Buffy was putting the baby's life in risk?
Angel stared silently at her thinking about a million things. "What can I do then?" Angel asked with despair deeply etched in his voice. "I just want to help you."
"Let's just stop arguing. There's no point on stirring the past now. And we can't exactly guess the future. Let's just manage the present. I'd love to sleep some more, don't ask me any more questions, just let me be. I can't handle your recriminations right now."
"Sure… let me get you back to bed then." Angel mentioned as he placed one hand under her knees and lifted her on his arms.
"It's a whole flight of stairs." The kitchen was on the base level.
"You are like a feather."
"Nonsense, I'm 25 pounds heavier, it's like you said; I'm fat."
"You are not fat. You are pregnant." Angel mentioned as he dropped her on the bed. "You just stay there, try no to jostle the food up, maybe it will stay down. I'll mind the store."
"I don't vomit on purpose, you know?"
"But you do stir stuff when don't stay still. I'm going to make sure you rest. Would you cooperate?"
"I'll try." Buffy replied cheekily.
Angel laughed to her sassiness and that made Buffy draw a small smile. He was content just with that. "If you need anything just yell; I'll be downstairs, minding your stupid store."
ZZZ
"You're
the closest to heaven that I'll ever be And I don't want the world to see me
And I don't want to go
home right now…
Cause
I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be
broken
I just want you to know who I am …"
ZZZ
While Buffy rested, Angel started a meticulous investigation on diabetes and pregnancy; he started pulling book after book, reading on the internet for hours, until he had spent most of the day engulfed in finding out a solution for Buffy's medical and emotional crisis.
"I'm a little hungry." Buffy whispered as she placed her hand on Angel' shoulder, he was neck deep on the floor with books; he had them displayed on every inch of the carpet.
"Darling! I was just about to make you something." Angel mentioned as he checked his wrist watch. "I guess this something would be dinner. Would you like pasta? By the way, did you keep the pancakes down?"
"I did. Amazingly so, I did; I'd love to have a Cesar Salad, I woke up with a bit of a craving. I dreamt we were in Italy, Venice to be correct, you keep saying, Madonna mia, cuanto ti amo. I though it was very funny. You spoke terrible Italian."
"Sounds like you finally rested. And you don't have a fever anymore, thank God." Angel mentioned as she touched her all over.
"I hadn't had a full night sleep in like a month; I kept having these horrible nightmares."
"Don't think about them, since you are all dressed up, would you like to go out? I know this great salad place in Salem."
"Sure, we could go out, get some fresh air. By the way, you look like you took the diagnosis seriously." Buffy noticed as she saw the books he was reading. "And the pregnancy thing too…"
"I'm enjoying pregnancy for dummies, they make jokes about everything, and the testimonials are pretty realistic." Angel stood up and realized his clothes were terribly wrinkled but at least he was the happiest man on earth just to be there, looking at her. "We should do Lamaze, every couple does it; it should help you with the birth."
"That would be like publicly accepting I'm pregnant."
"Which you are!"
"Not openly, and not with you as the father, anyway,"
"We'll tell them I fell in love with you, and I didn't care about the baby. That I was willing to make you a respectable woman."
"That's the most chauvinist thing you've ever said to me. I don't need a man to have a baby."
"You don't? Well I didn't realize you could produce sperm out of thin air."
"Fine, I need a masculine sub product—that you emit every day with no procreation purposes just to discharge your gonads of the weigh anyway—to make a baby, Ok? And I forgot that you need to give me the shot, it's about the same time as it was yesterday."
Angel laughed a full guttural chuckle when he actually understood what she went. "It almost killed you to accept that, didn't it? And let me just say I don't masturbate every day, though it's been almost daily since you showed up in this god forsaken town with those never-ending cleavages." Angel noticed Buffy smiling like a Cheshire cat, satisfied with her sexual torture.
"I have to do that damn shot again?" Angel asked as she handed him the syringe and the vial.
"I'm afraid so,"
"For how many days?"
"Seven,"
"That many? Are you sure it's ok, those are pretty painful."
"I'm sure."
"We'll it's always a pleasure to bug your ass." Angel mentioned in the raunchiest comment he could think of.
Buffy's eyes went huge with astonishment. "Don't you think I'm going to let that comment slide? You'll pay for it …with blood." Buffy said with malice.
"Is that a promise?" Angel responded, enjoying the return of their classical sexual banter.
"No, I was just kidding. Please don't make that sort of comment again. We are just friends, let's not jump into that wagon, I told you I can't… not here and not now." Buffy commented as she tried to calm the surge of lust and memories bulging inside.
"Ok, just friends. I understand that, let's go give you that shot, mate."
Even though he had agreed to that; he knew it wasn't just a friendship, he would not spend a second away from her in the next two months, God forbid it; she would use that second to escape forever with his daughter. And now that he knew she was considering an adoption; he was even warier of leaving her alone.
Buffy was far too devious and determined to let a minor obstacle like him keep her away from her goal. Which he would have to find out as well, he refused to believe that all she wanted was to disappear of the face of the earth, once a grand heroine, always a grand heroine. There had to be a plan behind her actions. And Angel would thwart it.
ZZZ
August 23rd, 2008
Tic tac…
9:30 pm
"How do you feel about those too?" Cordelia asked Doyle as they danced to a ballad by Lifehouse.
"I told you that they'd throw sparks." Doyle answered Cordy as he kissed her temple.
"You did, I just never thought they'd hook up so quickly." Cordy mentioned as she watched Buffy and Angel dancing several steps away from them. They were moony eyes over each other, and Angel's hand seemed to travel south to Buffy's derriere too confidently, as if he had done that before.
"Maybe it's been going-on for a while, and they didn't say it." Doyle suggested as he also noticed Buffy resting her head on Angel's shoulder and closing her eyes, rather intimately.
"Maybe… I just can't help to wonder about that scene I told you about. He called her Buffy and he gave me reason to think she was his dead wife. More to the point, she looks exactly like his dead wife who was also pregnant. Don't you think that's all too coincidental?"
"It is, love; but we shouldn't dig into that. They make it look like they have their stuff together now. And they do make a nice couple."
"It's a little too late for that. I already went looking for Buffy and Angel, or should say Buffy Summers-O'Quinn and Angelus O'Quinn?" Cordelia whispered to Doyle, and he immediately stared at her eyes with fear etched in his features.
"You are telling me that he's Angelus O'Quinn the famous gangster, and that woman is Buffy Summers, the FBI agent who died bringing the O'Quinn cartel down?"
"Exactly," Cordelia accepted as she stole another look at Buffy and Angel. She had seen them on pictures, on blogs and on the news. She had bothered to change her looks. But he was exactly the same. "She went undercover for years, she even married the guy, and that baby she's expecting; he's the father."
"Oh my god, Cordy! Tell me you haven't said that to anybody." Doyle pleaded as he continued dancing as if he hadn't suddenly swallowed lead.
"I made have commented on a blog about conspiracy theories…" Cordelia had commented that she thought Buffy and Angel weren't dead, or living in Paris as the blog suggested, she wrote that were on Witness Protection Program, on some shitty town like Old Tulsa Ohio.
"Cordy, for God sakes, you can't even imagine what you can cause. These two people are going to start a drug war here. Don't say anything ever again. Don't ever look up the blog again. Prey tell me that you were anonymous about it." Doyle asked with fear that escaladed in crescendo as Cordelia said nothing.
"I used my pseudo name… spunky chase." Cordelia whispered with a snip of a voice. She knew Doyle was going to lecture her later.
"Sometimes, I swear to God you must have been born blonde. We'll see if you made as big a mistake as I think you did."
"Sorry," Cordy whispered. She wasn't sorry. She had gotten over 50 comments on that blog; it seemed people out there were crazy to know what actually happened with these two famous characters.
Meanwhile, Buffy and Angel were playing at been a couple again, but just for the sake of appearances, because Buffy had been adamant that they would not be together in any sort of way ever again. She insisted on giving Abby for adoption, but Angel wouldn't let her, he would rather raise the baby alone than let her go. He slept on Buffy's couch just to keep an eye on her; he knew she was considering bailing on him, if she wasn't so sick he was sure she'll be long gone. For Cordelia and Doyle, and everybody else on Old Tulsa they were madly in love, and had decided to move in together… but once inside the house she was like a stranger, miles away from him, angry and distant.
ZZZ
"A
cloud hangs over,
And mutes my happiness,
A thousand ships
couldn't send me back from distress,
Wish you were here,
I'm
a wounded satellite,
I need you now put me back together,
To
make me right…"
ZZZ
"The next time we go out in public, try not to grab my ass, or any other part of my body that I would consider private." Buffy censured as she slammed the door closed. "I said 'pretend to be a couple' but you are taking it too far."
"Oh come on, Buffy; you can't be serious about that. I know every single inch of your body, and there's not a part of it private to me." Angel said filled with innuendo as she cornered Buffy between the door and the wall. "I can't play pretend about something I am, something that I feel with every inch of my body." Angel whispered huskily as he kissed Buffy's collarbone.
"Speaking of which, I can feel ten inches of those you just mentioned poking at my belly… and we don't like it." Buffy mentioned rudely as she pushed Angel away.
"Please! Give a starving man some food for Christ sakes!" Angel pleaded with irony. "I could've cut the sexual tension with a paper knife. You know you want me. You know I want you. Why don't we just let nature take its course?"
"You know I want you!" Buffy screamed as she went almost running upstairs. "You are totally and completely full of shit. And just so you know. I don't want you. I hate you, remember?"
"You hated me before, but you still wanted me." Angel suggested as he followed her and started undressing. "Stop acting like a brat, it doesn't become you. You know this is meant to be. We are married for Christ sakes."
"Oh you want to go there?" Buffy asked with wickedness written all over the eyes. "I'm not your paid whore anymore! You can't force me to have sex with you, and you sure as hell can't order me around like I'm your slave either! I'll say, think and do whatever the hell I want, and to the devil with you!"
Angel didn't say anything he just watched in awe as she removed all the clothes, toss them violently to the floor and stayed in her underwear. He still couldn't believe how pregnant she was.
"And get out of my room now!" Buffy screamed as she noticed his wondering eyes, roaming all over her body.
"Why? We are still talking here." Angel asked as he also took off his clothes. Buffy noticed his gesture and it made her heart pound.
"I don't want you to see me naked." Buffy said as she put on pajamas. "I have a right to privacy."
"Like I said earlier, I've seen it all before, darling."
"Not like it is now," Buffy said as she started undoing the bed covers.
"So are you big, big deal. You are pregnant; I'd say you've never been more beautiful than you are now." Angel said as he stood behind Buffy and grabbed her hips. "Stop this nonsense about us, I can't bear this double standard, I'd rather we were nothing, but not this contradiction."
"Fine, we've officially broken up. Now get out of my room. I'd like to be alone." Buffy said in a hostile manner as she went around Angel and stood by the door. "I don't understand why you don't listen when I say it's over … again and again. I was just undercover, Angel. It's not how I feel anymore. I never felt anything but blatant hatred when you fucked me."
"Did you ever…" Angel mentioned sadly as he stood next to the door as well. He meant to ask if she ever loved him, but he knew the answer she would give him right then and there. "Let's not get sidetrack here, Buffy. You don't want me to see you naked, or touch you, why is that?"
Buffy was caught out of guard with that question; she thought about a plausible lie, like he disgusted her, like she hated him so much that she couldn't bear it, but the truth was obvious. "I'm covered with disgusting scars, I'm big as a house and I'm too bloody sensitive for mind games. Every time you touch me, I feel earthquakes shaking me inside out, and it's like I would scream my throat hoarse because I can't control it. You make me feel vulnerable and I hate it."
Angel felt some of that sensation she was speaking about, like a small gravity that pulled him closer to her. "How sensitive?" Angel said as he drew closer to her, towering her petite frame.
"Like my skin was on fire, everywhere you touch me, it leaves a mark… you say you know my every inch. Well, I know that, it's like a mindless calling and sometimes I can't get a grip on this… this desperate craving that you create on my guts."
Angel paid no attention to what she had just said and slid his hand under the pajama top, touching the bellybutton that stood out like a beacon. "Let me feel that crave too, take me and everything that I am, use me…"
Buffy's skin rose in Goosebumps all over, his hand was cold, and to her heated skin it felt like the touch of melting ice. "Please don't…" Buffy whispered as she grabbed his hand by the wrist, stopping it as he grabbed hold of her round, firm breast.
Angel felt the small nipple rise instantly and he trembled as well, feeling how Buffy sighed as he kissed her lips, and walked her backwards toward to the bed.
Buffy felt the bed behind her, and she fell on it carefully, she responded to Angel's kiss ardently, her body was humming with that curious lust, she wanted to stop but the need to continue was stronger.
"If we do this… just don't ask me questions later, don't hold it against me…" Buffy whispered as Angel removed her clothes, he was kissing her all over, her belly, her breasts, everywhere that he could reach. "We shouldn't."
"If? There's no if, Buffy. There's you and me… and the rest of the world. And I will not let you walk away from this now, my beautiful, tainted love. Ask me anything, I'll do anything for you, I'll never speak a word again if that's what you want… but I'll—" Angel whispered huskily as his hand caressed Buffy's thighs.
"Don't speak..." Buffy whispered as she pulled Angel above her. He got the message very clearly.
Angel didn't say a word after that, he couldn't. He was too busy kissing, sucking, and nipping on every inch of her body.
Buffy's skin was so sensitive that every time his roughed beard scrapped her breasts, or the inside of her thighs she whimpered, it was like walking a familiar path all over again, easy and heartfelt, and straight to her sweet release. Angel relished each second of it knowing she'll grant him very little respite after that.
He came with unrestrained emotion, but he couldn't stop wanting more, he feared she would push him away so soon as she noticed that she had bend to him after all. If Buffy had anything on her was her persistence, she wouldn't bulge or retreat, but she would grant him small truces.
Something wet surprised him as he tried to stay as still as a statue next to her, every second was slower than the next and before he could think about it, she dug her nails on his biceps hard enough to leave marks on them.
"I can't—I'm sorry." Buffy whispered as she trembled with violent spasm, hot tears rolling down her temples.
"About?" Angel asked timidly, his heart was pounding crazily.
"Everything," Buffy managed to say between gasps.
"Don't cry, you make me feel like a bastard. Was it something I did? Did I do it too hard?" Angel said as he tried to comfort her. "Did I hurt you?"
Buffy kept trembling as she tried to form words but she was too upset to talk.
"Let just go get you a towel, I'll be right back."
Buffy breathed hard and deep several times, she had never felt something so strong. She had been emotional last few weeks but not like that night, she wouldn't stop crying no matter how hard she breathed.
"Tell me about it, what's gotten you so wrapped up?" Angel asked as he hugged her. "Is it about the baby? Is it about your family… about me?"
"All—I am," Buffy started between hiccups.
"You are upset obviously, you don't have to explain, I've read that pregnant woman get emotional. Can I get you some tea? Would you like me to draw you a bath?"
"I'm fine," Buffy said as she put her pajama top back on.
"You don't have to lie to me, baby. I know there's something wrong. I wish you'd trust me with it. Maybe I can do something."
"You can't," Buffy began as she dried the tears. "I am tainted, Angel. You said it yourself. I can't believe how far we went today. You have to go now, please just leave me alone. Don't make me do this again."
"Why do you keep pushing me away from you? Give me one good reason to leave and I'll go … but you can't, can you?" Noticing that Buffy couldn't produce one good reason he continued. "The reason why you reject me so much, is because you hate losing control, isn't it? You can't even break down to tears without pushing me away. You are human, vulnerable, nothing but flesh, bones and lots of mistakes. And you think letting me win this battle you wage with yourself makes you weak, you think making love with me makes you a whore. Guess what my beloved Buffy?"
She remained silent but the hot tears keep coming back.
"The only one suffering with this war is you. I've long accepted that you had questionable motives when you approached me, and I don't care about them anymore. You are the love of my life, and no matter what happens I'll stay with you. And just to be clear, I don't fuck you, I make love to you." Angel mentioned as she stayed watching him silently.
"I can't control anything anymore, Buffy; and sometimes it makes me go crazy; I don't have money to buy you a coffee much less seduce you with jewelry, and that doesn't mean I think of you—or treat you—as a whore. I know you liked expensive things, and I like seeing you smile when you received them, if you can't accept my way of loving of you, that's your problem."
Buffy casted her eyes down, thinking he was very wrong, she didn't love expensive things at all, she smiled when she got them but inside the cringed at the thought of him trying to buy her with bloody money. "I have very little to offer to you now, and you have many motivations to push me away, but I have one thing that I value greatly, and I think you'd value too."
"What?" Buffy asked genuinely curious about it.
"A family… you and me and Abby, we are meant to be together. If somebody offered me all the money in the world or you; I wouldn't even think about it." Angel took Buffy's hands between his own. "Don't be afraid of losing control, love. So you made a thousand mistakes, who cares? I'm sure we'll make a thousand more. Forgive yourself and go on, your life it's the most precious gift I could ask for. Let the past behind and live the future… with me."
"You make it sound so easy!" Buffy screamed as she released his grip.
"It is, just make the first step and the rest will come on its own." Angel said as he offered Buffy his hand again.
"You'll regret doing this." Buffy warned him, but she took his hand anyway.
"Why don't you let me handle my own regretting, you just worry about keeping that daughter of us safe, and I'll mind the rest? Can we make that deal?"
"I guess." Buffy accepted with doubts. "I'm not sure about this. I still think we are making a huge mistake."
"Let go, Buffy. Just imagine all those fears, anger and regrets you have placed in a potato sac, and drop them. You can't control the future, and you can't change the past and neither can I. If there's a mistake here we'll deal with it later."
Buffy would never put the past to rest, she had this nagging feeling that something horrible was about to happen and she hated it.
"I can't just bury my head on the sand like that!" Buffy mentioned, but Angel was stubborn, he wouldn't let her worry over nothing.
"Good night, Love; I'm spent." Angel said as he kissed Buffy on the lips and went under the covers, since he obviously intended to share the bed with Buffy.
Buffy sighed, and been as tired as him, she went to bed and dropped the proverbial potato sac on the floor, even if just for one night.
ZZZ
Meanwhile, the FBI and section 52 watchers had picked up Cordelia's comment, and then they had crossed-referenced it with the last hot lead on the O'Quinn Cartel case, it turned out it all pointed to the same place… Old Tulsa Ohio.
Quentin Travers gave Daniel Holtz a call as soon as he got the report, and Daniel in turn gave the mission to two of his best snipers; they had to find Angelus O'Quinn and kill him, their orders were to make it quick and clean.
ZZZ
This is the end of part 3, you must review me now! And make it long reviews!
The mean Kitten.
ZZZ
"This is how you remind me" by nickelback
"Somewhere I belong" by linkin park
"How to safe a life" by the frey
"Forgiven" By Alanis Morissette
"Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls
"Anna Molly" by Incubus
