June 10, 2007
Angel grinned as he helped his daughter place the cookie dough on the cookie sheet. However, the two year old was more interested in using the unbaked dessert as play-dough than potential food.
"No sweetheart, it's not play-dough...they're cookies." He gently pried the mushed batter from her fingers.
"Cookies? Mushy cookies." She frowned.
"We need to cook them first, then they'll look and taste right." He explained.
"How long?" She wanted to know when she could eat the cookies, she liked those.
"Twenty minutes, 15 to bake, another 5 to cool." He reasoned.
She wrinkled her nose, just like her mom, "That's forever." She pouted, wanting cookies now.
He laughed, kissing her cheek. "It's not forever, but it will be if we don't get these in the oven."
Angel had just slid the tray into the oven when a loud whirling sound erupted from the living room.
"What the..." Angel muttered as he told Katie to stay put and quickly ran to investigate.
The little girl, scared of the noise, wrapped her arms around the table leg and hid where her father had told her to.
...
Angel was taken aback as his eyes registered the swirling blue lighted vortex that was an open portal suddenly materialized in the middle of his living room.
His heart clenched when he saw his wife dangerously close to it's center, and being sucked in.
"BUFFY!" Angel yelled, fear tearing through him like fire to dry wood. 'Not again, not again!' his mind screamed, seeing a portal about to swallow not only his wife, but his son held in her arms. He couldn't lose another son to a portal, he couldn't…not again, not after Connor.
Angel ran full tilt to Buffy, reaching out for her to either pull her back, or join her if he couldn't stop the mystical gateway from stealing them from him.
As he reached out, Buffy turned towards him, fear for her son blazing in her eyes as her hand stretched out to Angel's. Even if she was drawn in, she couldn't allow Liam to be as well. The screaming one year old was terrified of the noise and the panic he sensed from his parents.
Just before Angel's hand could grab hers, a jolt of energy shot from the dimensional opening and struck the living vampire.
Buffy screamed her husband's name as his body jerked violently from the blast. Terror filling her as she literally saw his skeleton flashing beneath his skin as the energy electrocuted him. The last thing she saw before the doorway swallowed her was her husband's limp form dropping lifelessly to their living room floor.
"ANGEL!" She screamed again, but he couldn't hear her anymore.
…
"Dad? Mom?" Connor called from the kitchen having entered from the back door. "Anyone home?" He asked again, knowing from past experience to let his presence in the house be known before just walking in and seeing things no person should see their parents doing together when they don't know they aren't alone.
Almost immediately, black smoke caught his attention. Alarmed, he quickly rushed to the oven and shut it off, having smelled burning food. "Dad! Mom!" He yelled louder, knowing something wasn't right. Buffy and Angel never left the stove unattended.
Neither replied, but he heard crying coming from the living room. Quickly he passed through the kitchen and into the living room where shock stopped him in his tracks.
Scattered magazines, pictures and other light weight items were scattered around floor, some furniture was either knocked over or out of position as if a strong wind had rushed the room. The eye catching detail was his father's body lay motionless in the center of the room, his baby sister bawling over his still form.
"Oh my god." Connor whispered as his paralysis wore off and his protectiveness over his sibling took over. "Katie." He addressed, scooping the distressed two year old into his arms and kneeling beside his father. He knew Angel wasn't asleep, there was no way he'd sleep through Katie crying…none.
"Dad? Dad wake up." He tried shaking his father with a free hand despite knowing it wouldn't work. After a moment of denial, he slowly lifted his fingers to Angel's neck and felt for a pulse.
Connor nearly dropped Katie in relief when he felt it…and it was racing.
"Oh thank god." He whispered, holding his sister tightly.
"Daddy wake up!" She cried out for the hundredth time since seeing her daddy collapse. "Connor…make daddy wake up." She pleaded to her big brother, her big brown eyes the mirror of their father's.
A tear slipped down his cheek at his little sister's innocence.
"Dad needs to sleep a little longer, but he's going to wake up soon…I promise." He told the small female version of his dad in his arms. He prayed it wasn't a lie.
"Let's get you cleaned up, ok Kit-Kat?" He suggested, realizing she must have been 'alone' for hours by the way she was shaking and covered in tears.
"No! Daddy wake up!" She demanded, trying to crawl out of his arms and back onto Angel where she had stood guard for over an hour trying in vein to wake him.
Connor stood, taking a fussing Katie with him, and grabbing the phone he proceeded to call the gang in as he took care of his sister.
When the calls were made and Katie was calm...er…he went back into the living room and examined his father. Katie brooded as she sat on the couch where Connor placed her as he checked Angel for injuries.
Finding no physical trauma save for a healing burn on his chest, Connor spread a blanket over him and propped a pillow from the couch under his head to keep it off the hard wooden floor. He was worried about Angel's highly elevated heart rate but could find no source. Connor decided not to move his father in case there were any hidden injuries.
Sitting on the couch beside Katie and pulling her small form into his arms he began to gently ask her what happened, hoping the two year old could shed some light onto the mystery.
...
Giles arrived first, shortly followed by Xander then Willow and Oz. Dawn was out of town visiting a friend.
Connor explain a few of the details he'd managed to piece together from Katie's traumatic recount of events.
"Hmm." Giles removed his glasses and proceeded to clean the spotless lenses. "I'm not sure, a rumbling noise and light could mean a large number of possibilities. I'll need more information before I can began to research what occurred here."
"Do we know where Buffy is?" Xander asked, instantly on worry when Angel was down and Buffy wasn't hovering nearby.
Connor shook his head, "When I talked to my dad this morning he told me to come by, they'd be here."
Willow stepped forward, "Guys, I'm picking up on some major mystical leftovers, something big happened here, and not too long ago."
"You think something magical took Buff?" Xander asked.
"Yeah." Willow chimed in, "It's not very likely Buffy would have just waltzed out on her own with Angel hurt."
"Worse." Connor added, "I can't find Liam either."
Xander shook his head, "Not of the good."
Giles felt a pang of fear for his daughter and grandson, "If it took Buffy and Liam, why not Angel and Katie? Was she targeted directly I wonder, or perhaps by chance?"
"It was a portal." Angel muttered from the floor, sitting up and feeling the full weight of what was taken from him.
The group turned to see that he'd regained consciousness and was staring off at the wall, a lost look on his face.
"Dad?" Connor quickly went to his father's side, all of them eager to learn what happened and how to get Buffy and Liam returned.
As the young man knelt by his father, Angel laughed, a mad kind of sound.
"Again...god I can't believe it happened again." He shook his head, rising. "I thought it couldn't happen twice, never in a million years, but it did." He ranted to himself, beginning to rapidly pace. His body still racing from the shock, both of seeing his wife and child sucked into another dimension, and of being electrocuted.
"Dad?" Connor took a step back at the spark of rage and madness in his father's eyes. Angel's every muscle seemed to twitch with anger.
"No, no I'm not letting this happen again!" He raged to himself, fists curling tightly, itching to pulverize whomever did this to him again.
"Dad!" The young man grabbed his father's shoulder, snapping Angel out of his person internal battle.
Angel starred at his son a moment, memories rolling over his mind, stealing his strength. "I lost you to a portal." He said quietly, his voice hoarse. "I can't lose another son...not Liam...and not Buffy too...I can't Connor...I can't." Angel's shoulders slumped, the rage dispersing into a cold and empty feeling in his chest.
He couldn't feel Buffy.
Connor finally realized what made his father snap, he should have known his dad would have problems with portals with his history.
"We'll get them back." He urged to his father, pulling the man to the couch.
Angel was shaking, so many emotions assaulting his senses at once he couldn't decide which to focus on.
"I tried to get you back...failed...almost got the world destroyed." Angel muttered, the emptiness spreading.
Connor winced, his father never sounded so listless. It was like he already gave up hope. As if they were already dead.
Giles noticed the empty glaze in Angel's eyes and went outside where Oz was trying to keep Katie entertained and distracted from the obvious trauma she went through. So far, if wasn't really working. She ignored the sandbox, the ball, the bubbles and the other toys he'd tried.
All she did was cry silent tears.
"May I?" Giles asked, taking his granddaughter's hand.
Oz nodded, knowing he wasn't getting anywhere.
The older man led her back into the house.
When her sad eyes spotted her father awake, they brightened and she ran towards him. "Daddy!" she yelled, literally jumping into his arms.
Angel had sensed her a moment before, easily catching her and holding her as tight as he could. Until that moment, he'd honestly thought he'd lost her. She hadn't been in the room when he'd awoken and he thought the portal had stolen his little girl too.
"Shh, baby, shh." He soothed the balling two year old, running his hands down her shoulder length brown hair and down her back. "It's ok, Katie, we'll get them back...we'll get them back." He repeated, knowing he couldn't lie to her, he vowed he'd make every effort to keep his promise. His strength renewed as her little form crushed against him, pushing back against the emptiness and giving him a reason again to keep fighting.
"If Buffy was swallowed by a portal, she could literally be anywhere" Xander expressed, feeling at a loss of where to begin.
Angel stood, holding Katie and drawing strength from her. With the confidence returning he spoke, "Well then we better start looking."
...
Slowly Buffy woke, feeling sore and discombobulated.
"Uhh, what the hell? Angel?" she asked, finding her feet.
She opened her eyes and gasped, seeing a very unfamiliar red sky. "Oh...kay. Something tells me I'm not in Cleveland anymore..."
She heard a frightened scream off in the distance, a very well known scream. The kind of sound a mother knows from her child at birth.
"Liam!" She yelled back, remembering what happened and realizing her son was no longer safely tucked into her arms.
Before she even made the decision to do so, she was running in the direction of the cry.
Something large and demonic was trying to steal her son from her, and she wasn't going to just stand by and watch.
It took the baby-deprived-and-enraged-about-it slayer little time in catching up with the creature, and upon getting closer she realized it wasn't one large demon, but many smaller ones.
"I want my baby back." She threatened as she stood in front of the horde. 'Ok yeah, not my best line...but these freaks took my kid! Not really in the mood for witty commentary.'
The demon holding a still screaming Liam melted into the crowd, the other demons hiding them.
"Fine, them I'll just go ahead and take him then." She said as she charged forward, starting to beat back the dog sized demons.
They were strange looking, almost a cross between a horned chameleon and a mangled flightless bird. The winged arms had feathers but didn't seem to work for flight. Their faces had varying numbers of horns, some had one others five or six. They had a bony-like frill on the backs of their skulls that ran down their entire length, ending in a long pointed tail. Each of the two hands had five clawed fingers and an opposable clawed thumb. They had the ability to walk almost human upright, or dog-like on all fours.
Buffy found out pretty quickly that inside those sharp beak-like mouths, were equally sharp teeth.
"Ow!" Buffy huffed out, kicking the demon that bit her leg in its face and crushing it's beak. The creature made a pathetic gurgle and fell back, red slitted eyes bulging in pain.
"Those were new pants!" She outraged, seeing the blood welling from the hole in her new jeans.
Many of the demons chose to move on all fours, making fighting with her arms difficult on account of how low to the ground her opponents were. 'Could really use a weapon right now.' She thought in annoyance, kicking more of the demons and back-flipping away from another attack.
Her eyes scanned the area for anything to use to beat the demons away, but her surrounding were wide flatland desert. Nothing, not a cactus, or road, not even a rock. Red sky shinned down over hard packed sandy ground was the only thing she saw besides the creatures she fought.
That gave her an idea.
She quickly grabbed one of the dead bodies and swung it like a club, knocking back several of the ridiculous looking things away from her.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed movement. When it was safe to do so, she turned and saw a small group of the demons trying to flee with her son.
"I don't think so." She spat, using the body like a bat to make a path to the retreating forms.
Yelps and grunts were the only sounds as she rained death upon the creatures.
When the ones surrounding her were dead, upwards of twenty, she hurried after the remaining five that had her child. The small bleeding wounds in her legs hardly noticed as she ran.
...
Angel was pacing again.
Katie was dozing against his chest, having fallen asleep on him. He'd tried to put her down, but she'd woke and screamed for him. Figuring it was easier for all of them he just held her as she slept.
"Anything?" Angel asked, pausing his wearing a hole in the floor to look over at Willow as she worked to trace the portal energy.
"Not in the two minutes since you last asked, no." she replied, a little annoyed but understanding why Angel was so tense.
He looked down dishearten, realizing he wasn't helping but only slowing her down by asking so often.
He resumed pacing again.
"Angel man, you're making me dizzy." Xander commented from the chair he sat in, an old book open in his lap. Researching for any info on portals for lack of anything better to do.
Giles nodded, looking up from his book. "Yes, please so sit down. I fear the floor wont survive your pacing much longer."
"Can't." Angel muttered, his body too tense to sit idle.
Connor walked up and grabbed Angel's shoulder, feeling the tense muscles still twitching underneath. "Gees dad, you're wound tighter than a piano string."
"My wife and son were sucked to hell knows where and we have no leads! Yes I'm tense!" Angel snapped, breaking contact as he resumed pacing.
Katie woke at the outburst, looking up at her father with her eyes big and wide. "Daddy?"
His anger receded a little, "I'm sorry sweetheart, I didn't mean to startle you." He apologized, kissing her forehead.
She looked to Connor and Angel followed her gaze. Her saw the worry in his son's eyes too.
The living vampire let out a deep breath, "I'm sorry." He told the others in the room. "I..I'm...I don't know. I feel...overcharged...but I have no way to release that energy...it's driving me crazy...just standing here while Buffy's going through who knows what." He admitted, trying not to resume pacing.
"Energy?" Willow asked, looking interested.
"You had a burn on your chest, how did it happen?" Connor asked, sensing this could get them somewhere.
"When I reached for Buffy, a lightning bolt struck me...electrocuted me...knocked me out." Angel explained.
Willow hurried over, "May I?" she asked, holding her hands out.
Katie fussed when Angel handed her over to Connor, but she settled as she watched her aunt's hands move over her fathers chest. Her palm glowed slightly, working almost like a Geiger Counter when sensing radiation, except she was picking up on the energy the portal infused into Angel.
"I might be able to use this energy to reopen the portal." Willow smiled, excited to have a lead. "The energy will act like a fingerprint, identifying where it was opened to, like tracing back a phone call. I need to check the ingredients for the spell, but I should be able to do this within an hour or so."
Angel felt a small crack of relief in his tense anger. He nodded, "As soon as you can Willow, bring them home."
She nodded and grabbed Oz, rushing off to get the book she needed from home and stop at the magic store for the ingredients.
...
It was taking longer than Buffy expected to catch up the the demons, with so few left they moved much quicker than before.
Liam cried out again in the near distance, fueling Buffy's furiously pumping legs to move faster.
...
The demon holding the struggling nearly one and a half year old halted as Liam socked it in its eye with one clenched chubby fist.
It squawked out a howl and dropped the tot.
Liam's diapered bottom hit the ground and he quickly began crawling away towards where he could feel his mother.
He didn't get the chance to stand and run as the demons hissed in frustration and grabbed for him. As one picked him back up, he protested loudly and sank his 12 teeth into the demon's arm.
The creature growled and pulled back, but Liam refused to let go, biting harder.
"Get that dirty thing out of your mouth!" Buffy yelled as she stomped the demon her son was biting.
Liam's distraction had allowed Buffy time to catch-up and she was very pissed by now.
The four remaining demons died very quick deaths as the raging mother defended her baby.
Once the creatures were disposed of, Liam stood at his mother's leg and lifted his arms. "Mama!"
She quickly swept him up, kissing him all over and checking him for injuries. "Oh baby are you ok? Did those nasty things hurt you?"
Liam shook his head and wrapped his arms tightly around Buffy's neck. She held him tight and rubbed his back, satisfied there wasn't a scratch on him.
"That's my brave little man." she praised, "But don't you dare put a demon in your moth again, do you understand me?" She chastised, afraid he'd get sick or a demon disease.
"Yucky." he repeated his sister's favorite word for over a month.
Buffy nodded and kiss his cheek. "Yes honey, very, very yucky."
Now that the danger was passed and she was once again alone with her son, Buffy looked around at the barren landscape. There was nothing to distinguish one direction from the next. There was no discernible sun in the sky, no clouds, no nothing, not even mountains along the horizon line.
"Ok, now we just need to figure out how to get home." Buffy sighed, randomly picking a direction and started walking.
"Mama. Food?" Liam asked, feeling thirsty and hungry.
Buffy cringed, seeing nothing even remotely edible and having nothing on her to offer her son. She had weened him months ago and was certain she had no milk left in her breasts by now.
'Damn Angel in passing on his bottomless appetite to Liam.' She thought briefly. "I don't have anything to give you honey, try to sleep for mommy ok?"
With so much excitement so far that day and missing his afternoon nap, Liam lowered his tired head to Buffy's shoulder and shut his eyes.
She gentry rocked her son to sleep as she walked, looking desperately for anything in the vast nothingness.
...
Willow and Oz returned to the house thirty minutes later. Oz walked through the front door carrying a bag of spell items and Willow followed nose buried in a book behind him.
"Ok...not of the good." Willow cringed, looking up from the book and at Angel who was walking hopefully towards her.
"What?" Angel's feeling of hope withered at Willow's downcast green eyes.
"This spell...there's a chance it...could..." she finished very quickly, "...kill you in the process."
Angel sighed, "What else is new?"
He looked down the the little girl clinging to his neck. "Katie baby, I need you to go with uncle Xander for a little while." He suggested, trying to pry her loose so they could start the spell.
"No!" She denied, holding tighter. "Stay with daddy!"
"I know you want to stay princess, but daddy needs to help aunty Willow bring mommy and Liam home. If you stay, you could get an ouch. I don't want you to get and ouch, ok baby. I need to be brave for me, can you be brave for me?" He coaxed his daughter.
"Daddy get ouch?" She asked, too wise for her so few years.
He sighed, "Not if I can help it." He mostly told the truth. If opening the portal killed him it wasn't because he tired to get hurt. He couldn't not try though, he'd rather fail than never know if he could have saved them. Of course the idea he could be killed and fail returning Buffy crossed his mind, leaving Katie an orphan. "I love you baby girl, but I have to help mom and Liam. Be brave for me." He repeated, kissing her cheek.
She pouted as he handed her to Xander.
"If something happened to me..." Angel began but Xander cut him off. "She'll know nothing but love and happiness." He promised, understanding Angel was asking for the gang to take care of her if he died and Buffy didn't make it back.
She reached for her dad as he reluctantly moved away, then buried her face into her uncle's neck, having a tantrum as he brought her to the relative safely outside the house. Xander gasped but held his ground as Katie kicked him in the ribs as she squirmed. "Oh you just had to get your mother's kicking abilities didn't you?" He grumbled, moving away from the house and well into the backyard.
...
Buffy felt like she'd walked for hours, it was hard to tell the passage of time since the sky hadn't changed nor had the scenery. Every step felt like the same step, over and over. She felt she'd gone nowhere.
Liam was fussing in her arms, cranky from hunger and a uncomfortably wet diaper.
"I'm sorry honey, I wish I had something for you." She soothed while rubbing his back.
She felt like crap for being so helpless for him right now. Fighting baby-snatching demons she could handle, making food and diapers appear out of nothing...that she couldn't do.
"Home." Liam whined, wanting to be back in his room, or in the kitchen eating mac and cheese with his daddy and sister.
"Me too baby. I want to go home too." Buffy replied, feeling lightheaded from the constant red glare of the sky.
'Angel, I really hope you guys are working on getting us home.' she thought to herself. Equally praying the last image she had on her husband being electrocuted didn't mean he was dead.
...
Giles and Oz worked quickly to move the remaining furniture against the walls to open a wider space for the spell.
Willow was drawing a large circle and adding symbols to the floor in chalk while Angel memorized the incantation he needed to say for which the part of the spell.
When the candles were lit and the incense was burning, Willow took the book from Angel and had him stand in his spot just beside the circle.
"Ok, can you guys wait outside?" Willow asked the three men remaining in the room.
Oz looked his fiance up and down, "Remember we're getting married here next week. I'll need my fiance and best man for that to happen."
She smiled at him, "And you know I can't get married without my maid of honor and ring-barer."
"Kiss for luck?" He suggested with a slight almost recognizable grin.
"Yes please." She leaned in for it, kissing him deeply.
When the couple parted, they held hands a moment, squeezing for strength and love. Oz slowly moved back, mouthing 'Love you.'
She mouthed it back as he turned to go outside. It didn't show on his face, but worry was there in his heart, both for his wife-to-be and best friend.
Giles nodded reassuringly to Angel and Willow and headed out the door, having faith in their abilities.
Connor didn't move.
"Connor." Angel stated, giving him son a stern look.
"I'm staying." He replied with a sterner look.
"No, your not." The living vampire urged. "I lost you to a portal once, you're not being in the same room as I open another. Get out." Angel urged from stress and fear.
Connor was about to argue, but he saw the sheen of determination and the underling fear for his safety in his father's eyes.
"Ok, but I'm coming back the second the portal closes." He stated.
He hugged his dad quickly, knowing time was running out to start the spell before the energy Angel absorbed dissipated.
Once Connor was out, Angel turned to Willow. "Let's do this."
The redhead nodded and picked up her book. "Ok, the spell should draw the energy from you and into the center of the circle. The symbols will keep the portal from escaping or letting anything non-human though. It might hurt a little as the energy is drawn out, you might even feel weak..."
Angel nodded, "Bring them back Willow, that's your goal. Make sure they make it. " Her eyes widened at his bluntness, but she nodded, knowing he meant to bring them back or die trying.
She took a deep calming breath, letting the magic flow into her. "Relax your body, the spell needed to access your energy."
Angel did as best as he could under the circumstances and Willow's voice began to echo in the room, the power in her words flowing from the candle light and slowly spinning, mixing with the smoke from the incense.
His words joined hers, only for a few stanzas but the effect was immediate with the power increase in the room.
Her voice deepened as the spell took form, a snake of smoke hissed to life in the air. It's black lifeless eyes glanced around and focused on Angel, on the portal's energy flowing within him. In an instant the snake streaked across the air and swirled above the living vampire, it's smoky tongue flicked as it smelt for the power. Finding the source, it opened it fanged mouth and but deeply into Angel's shoulder.
Angel's eyes popped open as pain washed through his left shoulder. He groaned but clamped his mouth shut, determined not to ruin the spell and let what needed to happen run its course. Pain meant nothing as long as it got his wife and son back to him.
Willow's eyes were shut as she chanted, the power being channeled by the smoke snake funneling into the the circle, a spark of blue forming as the portal energy swirled together, fighting to open.
The witch's green eyes opened as she focused on the portal, her gut clenching when she realized enough energy wasn't making it in, it wouldn't work unless she upped the power.
Angel was gritting his teeth, the pain flaming in his shoulder as if it were on fire.
The Wicca felt a pang of guilt as she repeated the spell, louder, strengthening it, doubling it. She winced as Angel cried out, a second snake formed in the air had bitten his other shoulder, pulling more energy from him.
The portal grew larger as if fed from the energy, but it needed more.
The snakes bit deeper, drawing more power from Angel.
The living vampire felt his strength wavering as the pain rushed over him, it felt like his body was being engulfed in flames.
"In the name of the Goddess, I command you to open!" Willow's voice shouted in Latin, the roar of the growing portal blocking out Angel's growls of pain.
"Open!" She repeated, yelling into the vortex.
"Open!" she commanded one final time. The power surged from her voice, the snakes hissed as they collapsed and a beam shot from the center of the swirling doorway directly into Angel.
He screamed as the portal erupted to life, the energy being ripped from his body.
...
Buffy felt like falling to her knees, her head was spinning and her mouth tasted like sand.
Liam was silent and still in her arms, had been for over an hour now. At least she thought it was an hour, she couldn't tell anymore. She felt like she'd been walking for a week.
she wanted to tell her son everything would be alright, but her mouth was too dry to open, her voice too cracked for words.
Suddenly a swirling blue doorway thundered into existing in front of her.
She stepped back quickly, almost falling.
The dust from the sandy ground swirled, stinging her eyes and skin.
She wrapped her arms protectively over her son to shield him the best she could.
Her mind was confused, dizzy and tired. She didn't know the bites from the demons left a type of poison in her blood, not enough to kill, but to disorientate.
Something drew her forwards, a pull, a connection.
'Angel'
She fought for consciousness as the portal sucked her in, then vanished like it had never been there.
...
Buffy hit the ground hard, except it wasn't ground, but hardwood. She looked up quickly, rolling to avoid squishing her son in her arms and looked around. The adrenalin rush fueling her slayer instincts focused on the swirling doorway, then suddenly it was gone.
Her eyes next focused on Angel, his face drawn and pale, his body shaking and sweaty from pain. Blood was running down his shoulders.
"Buffy!" Willow's tired voice cheered from beside her.
She turned to see Willow dropped exhausted to her knees.
Her eyes turned again to her husband, just in time to watch him drop face first to the floor.
Willow caught her gaze and gasped when Angel collapsed. 'oh god, I killed him!' she panicked, crawling over as fast as she could.
Buffy stumbled to her fallen husband, panic pushing her forwards.
"Dad!" Connor's voice shouted as he rushed into the room, seeing his father fall.
Buffy dropped beside Angel, but was too exhausted to roll him over.
She wanted to call his name, check for a pulse, but her hands were too heavy. She looked down and realized Liam wasn't in her arms. 'No! Did I drop him? Is he still trapped in that world? My baby, where is my baby?'
Her mind screamed, but her body lost consciousness.
...
Slowly Buffy awoke, eyes focusing on the familiar black ceiling fan that lived above her bed. "Buffy?" a voice called beside her.
She turned her head and saw Giles worried eyes watching her. "Buffy? Can you hear me? Are you alright?"
"Liam?" The first word from her dry lips, eyes begging for information.
"Was a little dehydrated and in desperate need of a diaper change, but is perfectly fine now. Connor fed him and is currently struggling to give the boy a bath without getting one himself." He reassured.
Relief washed over her, at least half of her worry eased. "Angel?" she forced out, remembering seeing him collapse.
Giles nodded for her to turn.
Looking on the bed beside her she found her husband stretched out, pale but breathing.
The rest of her worry dissipated as she reached her hand out and layed it over his heart, feeling the steady beat beneath.
It looked like he'd had bandages on his shoulders earlier, but the 'wounds' were mostly healed already, nothing but red mars on his skin.
Giles gave her a moment to assure herself Angel was ok, then handed her a glass of water with she greedily downed.
"What happened?" She asked sitting up and leaning against a pillow, voice sounding a little less raspy.
"We're not sure who or why yet, but someone opened a portal in your living room with what we assume was the intention to get rid of you." He explained briefly the events that transpired while they worked to find her and about the spell Willow and Angel performed to re-open the doorway.
"He did what?" Buffy turned and looked angrily at her husband, furious he could have killed himself to reopen the portal.
"I fear if he didn't, we'd still be looking for a way to re-open it...and you may very well not have survived until then." Giles pointed out.
"Huh? Why not?" she asked, confused.
"Buffy, the bites wounds you received to your legs were swollen and infected. We soon discovered a low grade toxin in your system. Without treatment to disinfect the wounds, they could have become fatal." Her watcher explained. "Not to mention it seemed time moved faster in the other dimension, by my calculations you were without food, or more importantly, water for almost an entire day."
"Oh." She replied, a little shocked as she glanced under the sheet to the bandages on her legs. "But I'm ok now? And Liam is too?" she asked.
"Only because I'm so great at my job." Cassidy boasted with a sly grin as she walked into the room.
Buffy rolled her eyes at the red haired MD, "Making house calls now Cass?"
"Only for my two favorite patients." She grinned, then proceeded to check the wounds.
"Will I live?" Buffy asked sarcastically.
"Depends." Cass replied, "As long as you don't get bitten by twenty or thirty more of those things...you should be golden." She turned to Giles, "I told you, the 'poison' causes disorientation and eventually unconsciousness, not fatality...especially not for a slayer. Death by dehydration...yeah that could have happened, but not by poison."
Buffy eyes suddenly widened, "Liam!"
"He'd fine, I told you that..." Giles tried to explain again.
"No, he bit one of those demons, could he have been poisoned?" Buffy panicked for her son.
"A demon bit him?" Cass asked not remembering seeing a bite on him anywhere.
"No, he bit the demon." Buffy reiterated.
"Liam bit a demon?" Cass grinned, "More like his dad every day." she joked.
Buffy scowled, "Cass!" She demanded, worried about Liam.
"Heard that." Angel grumbled, waking up.
"Relax Buffy, the toxin would be in the demon's teeth and mouth, it wouldn't transfer via skin or blood." Cassidy assured.
"Wait, Liam bit a demon?" Angel asked groggily, sitting up.
Buffy put her hand on his chest and pushed him back down, worried he shouldn't be moving after what he went though. "Stay put."
Cass looked over at Angel, "Headache any better?"
"I told you not to drug me." Angel grumbled, taking Buffy's hand off his chest so he could sit up without restraint.
The blond looked confused, "She drugged you?" She glanced at Cass.
"I woke up before you, had one hell of a migraine, but I wanted to make sure you and the kids were ok. Someone decided to add a little something to my water" Angel narrowed his eyes at the doctor.
Cassidy shrugged, "Health before happiness, besides it was just a relaxant, you fell asleep on your own."
Angel shook his head, "You keep drugging me, we're going to have a problem." He growled rather loudly.
Cass quickly left the room.
"Was that necessary?" Buffy questioned him, sending him a dry look.
"No." Angel replied, "But it's fun to see her flinch." he grinned.
Buffy shook her head at her husband and asked her father."Where's Katie?"
"Driving Xander to insanity I assume." Giles replied, happy to see his daughter and son-in-law were recovering nicely.
"Pretty sure he doesn't need to be driven there, he owns property." Angel muttered.
Buffy made to get up, but Angel wrapped and arm around her waist and held her in place. "Whoa, where do you think you're going."
"To see my kids." she stated, trying to pry Angel's hand from her waist.
"Yeah, no." He told her, "That toxin takes at least two days to work out of the system. You're not leaving this bed until then."
She turned to glare at him, "Oh really?" She asked, in a very if-you-don't-let-go-you're-so-getting-your-ass-kicked tone.
"Really." he counter is his best, go-ahead-and-see-if-I'm-kidding voice.
The couple stared one another down for a moment before Buffy folded her arms across her chest. "I hate being hurt."
"Want me to wear a little nurse outfit like you do for me sometimes?" He asked into her ear.
He wasn't that quiet and instantly Giles went beat red, "Yes, well uhh...I'll be off now. So glad you two are well again. Bye." And he disappeared from the room as if there was a fire.
"You did that on purpose." she accused to her husband. She really tried hard to to laugh.
"Maybe." He smirked and kissed her temple. "But seriously Beloved, please stay in bed, rest, give your body time to purge the toxin."
She leaned against him, "Fine, but only because you said please." Honestly, she felt like she could lay down and sleep for a month.
He smiled and kissed her forehead. "Thank you." After a pause, "Want me to get the kids?"
"Yes please." She agreed, eager to be reunited with her children.
He nodded and slipped from the bed, "Back in a few."
...
While Willow was napping on the couch after such a demanding spell, Oz and Xander were trying to get Katie to stop crying for the hundredth time out in the backyard. The kid had a tear duct supply that could fill the ocean.
Angel walked barefoot out into the sunlight, always enjoying an excuse to feel the warm tingles on his skin and headed for the duo watching his daughter.
Xander looked past the bawling toddler that sat facing him and up to Angel has he walked up behind Katie. "Oh thank the gods! Any gods! Just make the tears stop, I can't handle it anymore!" The dark haired man begged, both he and Oz at their wits end, only Xander the more vocal about it.
The living vampire shook his head and rolled his eyes, scooping his daughter up from behind. "You trying to drown your uncles in tears sweetheart?"
"Daddy!" She squealed and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face into his tank top.
"Hey, no strangling." He grinned, prying her arms loose. He didn't need his two year old cutting off the flow of blood to his brain. "Want to see mommy?" He asked, giving her reassurance everything was ok.
She nodded eagerly.
"Ok, lets go." He grinned at her, kissing her cheeks.
He nodded his thanks to the two men and headed inside.
Heading back upstairs, Angel paused at the doorway to the bathroom as Connor exited with Liam wrapped in a towel.
Liam practically jumped out of his brother's arms to his father. "Hey buddy, you trying to drown you're brother?" Angel asked his youngest, seeing how soggy his oldest looked.
"Funny." Connor scowled.
'Between baths and tears, my kids sure do love to try and drown people...little monesters.' he though bemused.
"Thank you." Angel stated to his adult son for helping take care of his siblings.
Connor shrugged, "That's what family is for." He didn't mind, he liked taking care of his siblings, they were his only family.
Angel nodded, "Yeah, it is." He would have hugged Connor, but his arms were occupied with his two youngest. "Go put some dry clothes on before you catch a cold." he joked to his eldest boy, seeing the drenched shirt.
"I don't have any here." He countered, patting at his wet clothes with a equally wet towel.
"Borrow something of mine." Angel insisted, bringing Liam into his room to get him dressed before going back to Buffy.
A few minutes later Angel re-entered the bedroom with two happy toddlers running between his legs towards the bed with their mother.
"Mommy!" They chorused, Angel helping them both onto the rather high bed.
Buffy opened her arms and captured her children, kissing them and not letting go. "I missed you so much." She repeated to Katie, and "I'm so glad you're ok." to Liam.
Angel slid in next to them, taking a mental picture at the happy sight.
...
For the rest of the day Buffy lounged in bed to rest and recover, Angel and the kids needing to be close after what could have happened today.
Angel didn't leave her side except to bring back food and to tend to the needs of their children.
Later that night, after everyone said goodbye and the gang left, they settled down next to one another. Liam was passed out on Angel's left shoulder while Katie was out cold on Buffy's right. She pillowed her head on her husband's free shoulder, glad for the closeness of her family.
Angel's free arm wrapped around his wife, keeping her close, needing to feel her there with him, alive and well. Not lost to some alternate world, not lost to him.
It wasn't long before the soothing rhythm of heartbeats lulled Angel to sleep.
Buffy stayed awake a little longer, savoring the moment. It wasn't often the kids slept with them, at least not without Katie having a nightmare first or Liam being scared during a thunderstorm. She was enjoying it, loving the feel of life around her.
For the last few months she'd felt empty inside, the pain of her miscarriage still following her. But tonight, with her daughter, son and husband surrounding her, she felt the pain recede.
For the first night in a long time, she slept soundly.
...
The next few days brought them back to their usual routine, the kids were taken care of, the world was saved from a few more evil baddies, life was good.
Except when it wasn't.
Buffy looked over at Angel as he slept. He'd been working hard at planning Oz's bachelor party, getting the suits ordered and the arrangements made. She'd been doing the same for Willow's bachelorette party, arranging for the flowers and taking calls from the guests. Thus is the burden of the best man and maid of honor.
That left little time for them to just talk to each other.
She still was having intimacy issues, the idea of conceiving again actually scared her.
She hated that. She loved her husband, she loved her children, she wasn't afraid of anything.
Except sex.
'What the hell is wrong with me?" She thought frustrated, wanting to be with her lover but at the same time, not. She had assumed the lack of sex drive would have gone away by now. She knew she'd never forget the life she lost, but she figured her feelings would have returned to normal by now. Time heals all wounds…so they say anyways.
'Sex doesn't mean a baby; we can still make love to one another without getting me pregnant.' She tried to reason to her stubborn mind. She could love her husband without fear of losing another child. The rationality in that sentence didn't seem to even dent her irrational fears. Her body remained closed off.
She knew Angel was getting antsy about the lack of loving, he'd tried to hide it, but she knew him too well. She'd spoiled him over the last few years, now his suddenly being abstinent was taking its toll, mentally and physically.
'This is unfair to him.' She thought depressed, 'He hasn't even taken a hot shower since April.' She knew he'd only taken cold showers recently from the extremely short water bill and the lack of steam on the mirrors in the bathroom when he was finished, which was also in record time.
It bothered her that not only was her body suffering from intimacy issues, but her problems were directly hurting her husband too. She didn't want to deny him love; they'd both spent far too much time in their lives doing that in the past.
'Maybe I can alleviate some of the pressure off him.' She wondered, eying the sheet covering his lower body. 'Just give him a little pick me up.'
Her hand slipped under the silky red sheet, finding its way into his dark blue boxers and quickly locating what she was searching for.
Angel moaned in his sleep as her fingers worked, knowing where and what drove him crazy.
"What are you doing?" He mumbled groggily as he suddenly awoke, while quickly pulling her exploring hand out of his boxers.
Her cheeks reddened at his rejection, she'd thought he be happy, not confused and a little mad. "What does it feel like I was doing?" She countered with a grin, trying to move her hand back to his groin.
His hand refused to let hers go.
He didn't understand the situation; he couldn't smell arousal on her anywhere. None. 'What the heck is she thinking? Why get me aroused if she's not interested in making love? Is this some sort of cruel joke? Or does she think I'm actually interested in getting a sympathy hand job?'
"To be honest, I don't have a clue what you're trying to do right now, but I can assure you, I'm not interested." He told her, sitting up.
She sat up and gaped at him, "Excuse me? You're not interested in me now? What am I suddenly not your type?" She snapped angrily, insulted at the accusation.
He shook his head, "What? No, that's not what I meant."
"Then what?" She demanded.
"I'm not interested in getting a sympathy f*ck from you." He almost yelled, but kept his tone level and even.
"A what? I wasn't…what the hell is that?" She asked, angry.
"When you have sex with someone just to cheer them up. It comes with no strings attached or emotional investment." he explained.
She look flustered, "That's not true!" she shot back, knowing he was right but not wanting to admit it. She did love him, she did feel for him…but she wasn't feeling the passion she knew she once had. She'd looked at him and seen a job, a responsibility to be a good wife and make her husband happy.
That wasn't what he wanted from her. It wasn't what she wanted for him.
He shook his head and pulled her against him, her back flush against his chest. He leaned down and kissed up her neck, trying to sense for her love.
The closeness and the tightness of his arms around her, the feel of his lips on her scar sent a bolt of action to her slayer instincts to escape. As a reflux, her arms pushed at him, trying to shove him away, an auto defense, her body's reaction from his touch, the threat of intimacy from his gestures.
His arms tightened, "You're fighting me...that's a pretty clear sign you're not ready for intimacy yet Buffy." He pulled back a little, looking into her eyes and she shifted from his grasp. "You know I'd never do anything to you without your permission, I'd never try to take anything you weren't willing to offer."
She paused in her retreat, taking a breath and reeling in her fight or flight reflex. She was furious with herself for acting that way towards her husband of all people. He had her trust completely and her body was currently acting like he was a…a rapist.
"I know." She whispered back, relaxing into his embrace. "It's just...I know how much this is bothering you too...I just wanted to make you happy again." She admitted.
He sighed and kissed her neck again, "I am happy, you make me happy. I love you Buffy, and I very much want to make love to you again, but not like this. I don't want meaningless sex acts from you. I have no desire to make love to you if you're heart isn't in it. I'm spoiled, I can't just have your body, or a piece of you...I'm greedy, I want all of you. Mind, body and soul. I need you to want to be with me; otherwise, what's the point?"
She looked down, wishing her body would react the way her mind was right now. "I love you so much right now." she told him, turning to look into his eyes, "I wish I could show you."
He grinned a little at that. "You do, you might not feel like you're showing me, but you are, I promise. When you're ready, we can show each other like we used to, but until then, I'm a patient man remember, I can wait."
She sighed, looking down. "You shouldn't have to wait."
"Let's just worry about what's best for you right now, ok?" He asked, kissing her forehead.
She nodded against him as he pulled her back down.
He ran his fingers through her hair, loving the feel of the silky soft threads. "Sleep Beloved, we have a long day tomorrow."
She snuggled in against his shoulder and did just that.