It was his favorite time of night, or morning rather.

The streets were empty. The humans were sleeping.

And the town…his.

It wouldn't be long before this town would be his completely. He longed for the day he and his fellow vampires and demons could walk the streets freely, without the slayer or humans in their way.

Soon enough, it would be their turn to hide.

In the shadows, he watched as the slayer and her group of friends headed inside, retreating to the safety of home.

He smiled. It amused him to think of the slayer out there fighting every night, trying to rid the world of his kind. A nice effort on her part, but fruitless in the long haul.

She couldn't kill every vampire, and she'd certainly failed at killing him.

He'd wait to make his move, draw her into a sense of lull, then surprise her when she least expected.

Maleficus laughed to himself. She would be his favorite kill yet.

She was running.

She couldn't see him, and yet, she knew he was following her.

Buffy rounded the corner onto Revello Drive. She was out of breath, and a cramp in her side was starting to bother her, but a surge of adrenaline kept her going. Her house, a welcome sight, came into view.

Finally, she reached the porch. Buffy dug through her pocket and grabbed her key. After a few seconds of struggling with the lock, Buffy was safe inside.

Buffy went straight upstairs to her bedroom and collapsed on the bed, needing a moment of rest after her sprint across town.

But curiosity got the best of her, and Buffy stood up and walked to the window. She wondered if he was still out there, still lurking.

Looking out her window, she finally caught a glimpse of him. Maleficus stood in the middle of the lawn, staring at her with a smirk on his face.

"Soon, Slayer. I'll be seeing you soon."

Buffy awoke with a start, gasping for breath as if she had actually been running. A chill ran up her spine as the dream, still fresh in her mind, renewed her fears.

Buffy got out of bed and headed to the window, unable to shake the feeling that she was being watched. But when she looked out the window, there was no one there.

It always happened when she least expected.

She'd be content, doing nothing in particular. And then she'd hear her mother's voice; some random snippets of conversation from times past.

"I'm doing laundry, Buffy. Do have you have anything you need washed?"

Buffy paused for a moment, taking a deep breath, then resumed taking the dirty clothes out of the bathroom hamper. She didn't want to cry. She didn't want to think about how much she missed her mother.

Occupying herself with housework sometimes helped.

She realized she couldn't remember the last time she did a load of laundry. It wasn't that she didn't know how, but her mother had always done it before. Willow more recently. She was way overdue at washing her own clothes.

Buffy finished putting the clothes in the basket and headed downstairs to the basement. She was on the last two steps when Miss Kitty Fantastico, excited to see the basement door open, ran down the steps and in front of her. Buffy stepped on the kitten's tail, eliciting a loud mewl from her.

"Oh! Sorry, kitty!"

Miss Kitty scampered off, running between Buffy's legs and thus, causing Buffy to misjudge the last step. She screamed as she took a tumble to the floor, laundry basket and all.

Xander, having heard Buffy's scream, ran to the basement to see what was the matter. "Buffy?" When he saw Buffy at the foot of the staircase, he panicked.

"Buffy! Are you okay?"

"What's all the commotion?" Willow asked, peering into the basement.

"Is everything okay?" Tara asked.

"I'm fine," Buffy said, although unconvincingly. "I tripped on Miss Kitty coming down the stairs."

Xander raced down the stairs with Willow and Tara trailing behind.

"Are you hurt?" Xander asked.

"My ankle." Buffy moved the leg of her pants up and rubbed her right ankle.

"I'll go get some ice," Tara said, racing back up the stairs.

Willow looked at Buffy's injured ankle. "It might be sprained, Buffy."

"We should take you to the hospital. It might not be just a sprain. It could be a fracture."

Buffy stared at Xander, wide-eyed. "No! No hospital! I spent enough time there! I'm fine, really. It doesn't hurt that bad."

"Why don't you try standing on it? Will, help me lift her."

Leaning on Xander and Willow for support, Buffy slowly came to a stand. She held her right foot above the floor. "You guys are overreacting. I can stand on it just…fine!" Buffy instantly retracted her foot. "Okay, standing not an option."

"Okay, it's definitely swollen now," Willow said, looking up at her with worried eyes.

"We can take my car to the hospital." Xander suddenly lifted Buffy into his arms and carried her back up the stairs.

"Guess I don't have a choice in this matter," Buffy muttered.

At the hospital, the doctor on call whisked Buffy away for an x-ray, leaving Willow and Xander behind in the waiting room.

Xander strolled up to the front desk and waited patiently as the nurse finished her phone call.

"Yes, can I help you?"

"I'm looking for a patient. Could you tell me what room Faith Lehane is in, please?"

The nurse turned her attention to the computer and did a quick search. "That would be second floor, room 226."

"Thank you."

Willow crept up behind Xander. "You're going to see Faith?"

"Might as well pay her a visit while I'm here. Make sure she's cooperating with the police."

"Good idea. I'll come with you."

Willow and Xander rode the elevator up to the second floor. They were familiar with the neurology unit since Buffy's stint here, and found room 226 just down the hall.

A guard posted outside the door gave them a tired look.

"Can she have visitors?" Xander asked.

The guard didn't answer, but nodded toward the room, and Xander and Willow walked in.

It took Faith a moment to notice them with the TV blaring in the background. When she did, she muted the set.

"Well, well, look at this," Xander said, smiling. "I had to see it for myself. The image of you in handcuffs? Priceless."

Faith rolled her eyes. "Look, I don't know who are you, and I don't really care. Your friend already came here and yelled at me the other day. Why don't you people just leave me alone?" Faith turned her attention back to the television and took it off mute.

Willow reached for the power button on the set and turned it off. "No, Faith, not until we've had a little chat."

Xander walked closer to the bed, leaning forward to Faith's level. "We know you're faking this whole amnesia thing."

"Guess there's really no point in me arguing that, is there?" Faith asked. "It's not like you'd believe me anyway."

Willow moved a little closer to the bed and gave Faith a cold, accusatory stare. "Why'd you do it?"

"Maybe I felt like it if you people were this annoying back then."

"We were your friends, Faith," Willow said softly. "We all liked you. Maybe at times I was a little jealous of you and Buffy because you had the slayer thing in common, but I liked you. You said before you wished you had friends like us in high school. So I don't understand. What went wrong? Why'd you turn on us?"

Faith didn't know how to respond to that. "I'm sorry, but I don't remember anything I did, or why I did it."

Xander laughed. "Oh right, back to this again. Amnesia sure does come in handy when you don't want to take responsibility, huh?" Xander leaned in closer to whisper. "Oh, and just so you know. We creamed the mayor. So consider yourself lucky you fell into a coma, otherwise you'd have a seat right next to him in Hell."

"Let's go, Xander," Willow said. "She's not even worth it."

"You're right," he said, backing away. "She's not worth it. I can't believe I used to like you." Xander turned on his heel and followed Willow out the door.

Faith stared at the wall for a few moments, replaying their words in her mind. She wasn't worth it.

She threw the television remote aside, the program she was watching long forgotten, and fought the tears beginning to well in her eyes.

Buffy, with a bandaged ankle, sat in a wheelchair in the hospital corridor, wondering where her friends had taken off to. Although if she had to guess, she'd bet they were paying a certain rogue slayer a visit.

"Miss Summers?"

Buffy looked towards the nurses' station, seeing a familiar face. "Oh, Dr. Drake. Hi."

The doctor walked over to her, getting a look at her situation. "It's a relief you're not here for another head injury. Did you fall while doing one of those axel jumps or something?"

"Actually, I tripped on the basement stairs."

"Oh. Well that's not nearly as exciting," the doctor said with a laugh. "Has anyone discharged you yet?" He looked around, seeing no other doctors in sight.

"Yeah. I'm just waiting on my friends."

"Well, be careful on those stairs next time."

"I will."

The doctor gave her a smile before walking away. It was about this time that Willow and Xander finally came back.

Willow, upon seeing Buffy waiting, rushed over. "Hey! How's the ankle?"

"Sprained. The doctor says to use crutches for about a week. But I heal fast, so probably less than that."

"Sorry, Buff," Xander said.

"Looking on the bright side," Buffy said, "at least it's not broken. So, where did you two go, or do I even have to ask?"

"We went to see Faith," Willow admitted.

"And she's definitely faking it."

Buffy laughed. "She's still going with amnesia, huh?"

Willow nodded. "Looks that way."

"At least she's still cooperating with the police. Let's hope it stays that way. So, take me home now? Please? I can't stand to be in this hospital for one minute longer."

"You've got it, Buff," Xander said as he took the handles to the wheelchair and wheeled her out of there.

"Do you need anything else?" Willow asked. "Something to drink?"

"Or maybe something to eat?" Tara asked.

"I could bring you some comics to read," Xander offered.

"Or maybe you'd like money."

Everyone stared at Anya for a moment.

"Well money makes me feel better!" she said.

Buffy eyed the coffee table, seeing a stack of fashion magazines, her diary, the remote control, three of her favorite ice-skating movies, and a bottle of ibuprofen. She was even wearing her favorite pajamas. "I think I'm set for a while, you guys. But thanks."

There was a soft knock on the front door, and Tara was the closest. "I'll get it."

"How long do you have to be off your foot?" Anya asked.

"Probably just a couple days," Buffy said, gazing at her propped up and bandaged ankle. "But it's no big. I've had a sprained ankle before, and I heal fast." Buffy looked up and smiled. "Angel."

Everyone discreetly made their exits, giving her and Angel some privacy. Buffy appreciated that.

"I heard you hurt your ankle."

"Yeah. It was stupid really. I tripped over Miss Kitty Fantastico on the basement stairs."

Angel sat down beside her on the couch. "I'm glad it was only your ankle that was hurt."

"I can't patrol tonight." Buffy nodded towards her crutches propped up against the couch.

"Don't worry about patrol."

"I can't believe this is happening. I feel like I just got back to patrolling, and now I'm out of commission again."

"Can I get you anything?"

Buffy smiled. "You could hang out with me for a while." Buffy grabbed one of the movies from the coffee table and held it up. "Want to watch a movie with me?"

When Angel appeared to hesitate for a moment, Buffy resorted to begging. "Oh come on! It's The Cutting Edge. It's a classic!"

Angel wasn't much of a movie person, but who was he kidding? Saying no to those eyes? Five minutes later, they had a bowl of popcorn between them and the movie in the player.

He smoothed her hair as she rested her head on his lap. Angel hadn't intended to watch the whole movie. He hadn't intended to watch the credits either, but for some reason, he couldn't seem to pull himself away.

Buffy lifted her head, blinking her eyes in confusion. "Did I fall asleep?"

"Yeah." Angel reached for the remote and turned the television off.

"Sorry. I didn't realize how tired I was." Buffy sat up, looking at the time. "Wow, it's late. I guess I should get to bed."

"Do you need some help?"

Buffy thought about sleeping on the couch for the night, but changed her mind. Her bed was much more comfortable. "Can you help me upstairs?"

Moments later, he was carrying her up the stairs. He tucked her into bed, then went downstairs to retrieve her crutches and a glass of water she had requested. By the time he returned back, she was already asleep again.

Angel set the glass of water on the nightstand and propped her crutches against the bed. He briefly entertained the idea of crawling into bed with her, but he didn't want to wake her. Leaning forward, he placed a soft kiss on her forehead, then turned off the light and quietly closed the door behind him.

A/N: Aww! Buffy/Angel fluff! I love it! Anytime I can throw in stuff like that, I do, because quite honestly, fluff is my favorite thing to write. :) I love how Angel had a movie night with Buffy! I picked The Cutting Edge because it's the only ice-skating movie I could think of that came out before 2000. And it is a classic, so of course Buffy would have it in her collection, lol.

Until 39…