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Buffy groaned as she came to and after realizing what had happened she jumped up and looked around for anyone. The spot where they were was deathly quiet and she quickly started looking around for Angel. When she reached the edge near the trees her eyes widened at the sight of Abaddon. He was stuck in a tree blood dripping from his neck, his wings stuck at odd angels next to his body and his head lying near the bottom of the tree. It looked like it had been ripped off.

She allowed a feeling of relief to flow over her but the question still remained, where was Angel? Her feet moved silently along the edge of the trees and she gasped at the sight she was met with a small distance away. Angel was slumped against a large tree, a sword through his chest pinning him to the bark and keeping him upright. Blood dripped from his slack lips and flowed from his chest. The worst were his wings, which were splayed to the side limp and covered in blood. Feathers were missing and one wing was obviously broken, bone protruding from the top of the limp appendage.

Large tears began running down her face as she approached him slowly. "Oh Angel."

This wasn't how it was supposed to end, not like this. He was an angel of the lord and good always conquered evil. Right? But this wasn't a movie where everything wrapped up neatly, this was real life. She dropped to her knees in front of him and started to sob.

Angel suddenly sucked in a breath and his eyes snapped open before he began coughing wetly. A groan escaped him as his hands wrapped around the sword handle sticking out of him. With gritted teeth he pulled it out before collapsing onto the unforgiving earth on his wing causing him to scream in pain.

Buffy could only stare in shock before crawling over to him and grabbing his face, "I thought you were dead. How can I help? What can I do?"

His face was tight with pain and his entire body was drenched in blood, "My wing," he panted. "Move my wing please."

She stared at the broken and battered wing and gently tried to move it but stopped when Angel gritted his teeth and groaned again. "Just do it!" he yelled.

Without hesitation she jerked the wing out from under him and withheld a sob when he screamed in pure agony. "We need to get out of here. We're too vulnerable."

"How?" she asked. "You can't even move."

He tried to sit up but fell back, his eyes drifting to his wings which were so damaged he couldn't get them to respond. "I'll have to improvise. I need something from you."

Buffy nodded, "Anything. What do you need?"

"Your soul."

She stiffened and backed away slightly. "Is this a joke? Or a trick?"

He shook his head, "I know how it sounds but I need it. Souls are the only thing similar to what's in angels. I just need to borrow it. You'll be fine and as soon as we're at Giles' I'll give it back."

She looked worried, "Will it hurt?"

"No, not at all. You'll feel empty, depressed but that's all. I hate to even ask for it but it's all I can think of. It'll heal me almost completely since you're the slayer but as soon as I give it back I'll return to this." His wing twitched and he arched off the ground in pain.

She nodded, "Ok, take it."

Not waiting for her to reconsider he thrust his hand inside of her chest and after a second the two were engulfed in light. When the light faded Angel stood up, healed except for a small cut on his cheek. He flapped his wings a few times experimentally before grabbing a lost looking Buffy and disappearing.

They appeared a second later in Giles' living room causing the watcher to jump and spill his tea. He took in Buffy's lost look and the cut on Angel's cheek. "Abaddon?"

"Dead," he answered. "Things went downhill though and I got pretty messed up. Long story short I borrowed Buffy's soul but when I return it I'll revert back."

"You what!" Giles shouted.

Angel turned towards him as he guided Buffy to the couch. "No time for that, I need to get it back to her before my body tries to absorb it. Ready?"

Giles looked at Angel and Buffy and nodded slowly, unsure of what exactly was about to happen. Angel kneeled on the floor in front of Buffy and thrust his hand into her chest causing Giles to gasp at the sight. A bright light engulfed the pair again before Buffy fell back onto the couch and Angel groaned as he collapsed onto the floor.

"Dear Lord in heaven," whispered Giles.

Angel fell face first onto the floor with his large wings splayed over the couch and the other laying on the floor all the way to the wall. Blood dripped from them and Giles swallowed the bile in his throat at the large hole in the angel's torso. To see such a powerful being reduced to a mess of blood and broken wings was more upsetting than he could have imagined.

"Giles."

He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Buffy who was crouched by Angel's head gently rubbing it. "We need to get him cleaned up."

He nodded and walked out of the room mindful of the large wings across the floor. Suddenly the door burst open revealing Xander and Willow who looked shocked at the sight they were met with.

Willow met Buffy's eyes and saw the obvious fear in her best friends eyes. "Oh Buffy, what happened?"

Xander shook his head in awe at the carnage in front of him, "Something very, very bad." Finding he couldn't help himself he lifted his hand and gently touched Angel's wing that was draped over the couch and was shocked at how soft it was. His hands lightly moved through the feathers but he jerked back when the wing twitched and Angel hissed in pain, his eyes flashing red as be bared his fangs. "Sorry," he mumbled with a blush when everyone glared at him.

Giles appeared a moment later with buckets of water and towels, "Good, we need all the help we can get. Willow take the left wing, I'll take the broken one. Buffy get him cleaned up, Xander go and get all the medical supplies you can find." Everyone nodded and began doing as told.

Giles gently began separating blood and dirt from the feathers with warm water being mindful of the damaged areas. Every once in a while Angel would groan and show his fangs but for the most part he simply laid there whimpering softly. The hours ticked by until Angel was mostly clean, now the hard part came. "Angel?"

The angel didn't reply just laid there brokenly on the floor so Giles continued.

"We can patch your body but we aren't sure what to do with your…um… wings. There's broken bones, missing feathers and a few holes."

Angel looked like he wanted to cry or attack someone, his feral nature at the surface because of his injuries. "The feathers will grow back but you'll have to set the bones and stitch the holes. God I wish Spike was here."

Giles frowned but Buffy shook her head and began rubbing his head, "Can we give you something before Giles tries to do that?"

He shook his head, "My metabolism is too high, nothing will work. I'm fine though."

Giles nodded and took a deep breath, "Prepare yourself Liam, I'll try to be quick." He grabbed the exposed bone and pushed it back into its natural position and taped it ignoring Angel's harsh breathing and gasps. Buffy simply cradled his head in her lap and rubbed her hand through his hair comfortingly, even wiping the blood away from his mouth when his fangs pierced his lips.

At the intense pain from the stitches and his bones being set his other now clean wing began flapping wildly, knocking Xander down who had just appeared with clean towels. "What the hell man!"

Knowing he was in too much pain to answer Giles did, "He can't control it, step back and give it room."

When the task was finally done Angel was panting heavily and trembling on the living room floor of Giles' house, his eyes and teeth finally back to normal now that the worst had passed. Xander and Willow were seated at the dining room table with Giles while Buffy stayed by him.

"Angel are you able to retract your wings so you can move to the bedroom?"

Everyone watched as his left wing slowly retracted until it was tucked against his back but the other only twitched slightly, "No, it won't move."

Xander watched Angel on the floor and couldn't help but feel bad for him. No he wasn't his favorite person, or angel or whatever the hell he was but he didn't deserve this. He stood and walked over to the couch and grabbed a pillow before kneeling down and placing it next to Angel's head. "Here dude, need anything else?"

Angel lifted his head slightly and met his eyes knowing that the gesture was more than just an offering of a pillow, "Thanks Xander."

Xander nodded once before looking at Willow, "Come on Will, I'll walk you home." Once they disappeared through the door Giles showed Buffy to the guestroom and clicked off the living room light leaving Angel alone with his pain and his thoughts.

Many hours later Buffy woke with a feeling that something wasn't right. She threw off the comforter and creeped around the corner of the hallway towards the living room to check on Angel but paused when she heard a choked voice.

"Why have you forsaken me?"

He sounded so broken, so lost. She could tell he was crying, the strain obvious in his broken tone. Waiting a few minutes for him to get it together she finally entered the living room and walked over to where he was lying on the floor, still unable to move because of his wing. "Hey," she whispered.

He didn't move or acknowledge her so she simply sat down next to him. Finally he spoke softly, "I deserve to die."

Startled at his words she shook her head instantly, "Angel's never deserve to die."

"I've done so much wrong Buffy. So many things I can never tell you. Father doesn't want me and Lucifer's never going to give up. I need to just die."

"You can't give up Angel," she said softly. "I know what's it like when you're broken and down but you have to keep going. Heaven needs you, people need you. I need you."

He turned his head to look at her and tapped the floor next to him with his palm. She slid next to him on the floor slightly under his left wing, which was relaxed against his back. "I was so scared Angel, I thought you were dead."

He smiled and softly kissed her head as a comforting gesture and as a thank you for her words, "I did too. I still don't know how I managed to kill him."

"He hurt you so badly."

"Tell me about it," he whispered. The pair descended into silence until his wing began to twitch.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, my wing won't relax. Some of my feathers must not be sitting right."

She sat up and glanced at the wing, "Can I help?"

He looked uncomfortable for a second until he nodded, "I'll let it out a little and look for feathers that are bent." His wing slowly began to expand and he stopped when Buffy exclaimed she found the affected area.

He felt her small hands touch his wings and began fiddling with his feathers until it felt correct again. Her hands didn't move away though, just began touching the other feathers and massaging her hands underneath them reaching the soft down layer. His eyes drifted close as she continued scratching his wings all the way down to where they met his back.

When she heard his breath become shallow she stopped, "Are you ok? Does this hurt?"

He swallowed thickly. "Definitely doesn't hurt," he answered huskily. She frowned before her eyes widened and a grin covered her face. Her hands applied more pressure to the undamaged wing and she blushed when he released a soft groan.

"Buffy you should stop."

"Why?" she asked innocently before gently tugging on his feathers, which caused him to gasp.

"Because you have no idea what you're doing to me right now and I'm way to messed up to take it further."

Reality crashed down on her like a bucket of ice water and she jerked her hands away. "I'm sorry, does your other wing hurt?"

"Don't be sorry and yes it does. I've had much worse but not in a very long time." He yawned as his eyelids drooped shut.

Buffy could tell he was trying to stay awake and laid back down next to him. She combed her fingers through his hair and leaned forward to softly kiss his cheek, "Go to sleep."

He yawned again and burrowed his face deeper into the pillow from Giles' couch, "Promise you'll be here when I wake up."

She rolled onto her back next to him and smiled when Angle's wing automatically covered her slightly, "I promise."