Note from Rain: My cousin Sunny wrote this fanfic, I'm just posting it for her because she cannot.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon is the god of the Buffiverse. I just borrowed his children for some fun. All the characters in this story belong to him, except the evil ones who belong to Rain. Thanks Rain for letting me play with them.



I Do
by Sunny
CHAPTER FOUR

Riley awoke the next morning with a crick in his neck. He was briefly confused about where he was. He was supposed to be on his honeymoon in the Bahamas. As he twisted his head from side to side he finally remembered what had happened. He wasn't on his honeymoon, and he was not married to Buffy.
He looked over at her sleeping form and realized that she was cuddled up close against Angel. He felt a strong surge of anger pulse through his body. He wasn't sure that he had ever been so angry in his life. His eyes moved over Buffy and found that his rival was awake as well.
"She had another nightmare," Angel explained as he brushed a golden strand of hair off of Buffy's forehead. Actually, he didn't feel like he should have to explain anything to Rambo, but he did so for Buffy's sake. It might have been something she would regret if she decided to stay with Riley.
"Oh," Riley said. What else could he say? He wanted to shout Get your hands off of her, but that was a tad on the dramatic side. Besides it might wake Buffy. She looked like she was sleeping peacefully now. Which brought up another question. "How come I didn't hear her?"
"I was able to wake her before it got too bad," Angel said. "One of us should call Giles."
"Yes, one of us should," Riley returned pointedly. He wasn't about to leave Buffy with Angel. She looked too vulnerable.
Angel sighed and cautiously made his way off of the bed. Rambo, was an idiot. Did he honestly think he was going to ravish Buffy after her hard night? "Fine, I'll go call Giles." Angel put on his shoes and carried his duster out of the room with him. "Just don't wake her up," he admonished before he closed the door behind him.
Outside in the hall, Angel ran into Joyce as she was heading downstairs for a cup of coffee. She looked surprised to see him there. "Angel," she said coolly. She did not approve of her daughter's relationship with him.
"Joyce, how are you?" Angel asked ever polite.
"Fine. What is going on?"
"I am going to let Buffy fill you in," Angel replied. He was not about to tell Buffy's mother that her life was in danger. "However, I was going to call Giles and ask him to get the gang together over here. Is that okay?"
"Yes. I'll make some breakfast and extra coffee," Joyce said.
By this time they had descended the stairs. Joyce headed to the kitchen and Angel went to the phone in the dining room. He called Giles at his apartment and asked him to come over to Buffy's. He explained that she had had a nightmare and that it had left her really weak. "I am concerned about her," Angel admitted. "Giles, she fainted last night. Normally, killing two relatively inexperienced vampires wouldn't tire her out that much. Something else is going on."
Giles agreed to collect the rest of the gang and bring them to Buffy's house. He told Angel that he would be there in about an hour and hung up the phone. Angel went back upstairs to check on Buffy. He was worried that she would have another dream. Buffy was still sleeping soundly and Riley was still in the chair by her bed, watching over her. Angel just hoped he wouldn't fall asleep this time. He returned to the kitchen and told Joyce that the others would be arriving within the hour. Then he went outside to sit and wait. Sunshine was still a novelty for him and he liked to enjoy it whenever he could.
Forty-five minutes later Giles pulled up in his car with Willow and Xander in the back seat. Wesley and Cordelia, driving Angel's car showed up about five minutes later. They were all seated in the living room drinking coffee (only Xander had taken Joyce up on her offer of food) when Buffy came down stairs. She was pale with deep shadows under her eyes and she was leaning heavily on Riley. Angel stepped forward, swung her up into his arms and carried her over to the hastily vacated couch. He put her down and spread an afghan over her legs.
"Angel tells me that you had a nightmare last night," Giles said. He was shocked by the appearance of the Slayer. He had never seen her looking so frail and weak before, and that included the day of her eighteenth birthday.
"I hope it wasn't one of your prophetic dreams, cause those usually end up badly for the rest of us as well," Cordelia said.
Buffy ignored Cordelia's comment and focused on her watcher. "Yeah. I dreamt about those things that are after me."
"Well at least you didn't get a headache," Cordelia complained. "Every time I have a vision I feel like someone knocked me on the head with a sledge hammer."
"Except for your dream visions," Wesley reminded her.
"What did you say?" Angel asked. He had been frowning in concentration but at Wesley's words he perked up.
"I merely pointed out that she has recently had two visions that didn't make her run for the aspirin bottle," Wesley replied. He looked at his boss and could see the wheels beginning to turn. "Why do you ask?"
Angel turned to Cordelia and looked at her intently. "You had the first dream vision Thursday night, right?"
"Yes, you know I did. Remember I told you that Buffy was getting married."
Buffy looked up at this. Was this the vision he had been talking about at the church? Buffy wondered.
"And then you had another one Friday night?" Angel asked. He was working on a theory and he hoped that he was correct.
"Yes, I dreamt that Buffy was unhappy," Cordy said. Riley, who had been sitting quietly jerked his head around and glared at Cordelia. He didn't understand why all of these strangers from LA would think that Buffy was unhappy with him.
"Then at the church you had a normal, extremely painful vision, right?" Angel persisted. If he were right it would explain a lot. "And you saw the demons that attacked Buffy the other night in the cemetery?"
"Yes." Cordelia frowned. Angel was not making any sense to her.
Wesley, who had been watching Angel's face intently spoke up, "Are you suggesting that the first two visions didn't come from The Powers?"
"Who else would have sent them?" Cordelia asked. She was really very confused. As far as she knew the PTB were the only ones who could get inside her head. If someone else was in there it could get very crowded.
Giles wasn't sure where this was leading, but he thought that it was very interesting. "Why don't you tell us about your dream, Buffy," he prodded.
Buffy looked over at Angel, as if to draw courage from his presence and then began to tell the others about her bad dream. "At first I was in a cemetery fighting off an invisible attacker. They managed to knock me down and when I stood up I was standing in the alley meeting Angel for the first time."
Angel, who was sitting on the coffee table facing Buffy, took her hands in his and gave them a reassuring squeeze. Riley just glared at them.
"Then I saw everything that had happened between myself and Angel, as it happened. It was in living color, so real and life like. I even forgot I was dreaming."
"Even when he was Angelus?" Cordelia asked. She couldn't imagine why anyone would want to have dreams about that time, although maybe that's why it was a nightmare.
"Yes, I saw everything," Buffy replied. She looked at Angel and gave him a soft smile as if she was reminding him that not every memory was a bad one.
Giles took his glasses off and began pacing around the room, while rubbing the bridge of his nose. "So this dream replayed all your memories of your time with Angel? All of it was something that had happened in the past? That doesn't sound like a prophetic dream." Giles had thought he had understood what Angel was trying get at, but now he wasn't so sure.
"She also dreamt about something that she wasn't supposed to remember," Angel said softly.
Giles, Wesley, Willow and Xander frowned at him in confusion. His words hadn't made any sense. "Something she wasn't supposed to remember," Cordelia repeated almost to herself. "Oh!" she exclaimed pointing at Buffy, "she remembered about that time that she came to LA! At Thanksgiving, when you became human." Cordelia had a wide smile on her face. She was proud of herself. She managed to figure something out before the Brainy Trio could.
"I thought that your humanity had only recently been returned to you?" Giles asked looking over at Wesley for confirmation.
"It was," Angel answered. "But its not the first time that I have been given that gift."
"Buffy, maybe you had better tell us about the rest of your dream," Giles said. This sounded like it was going to be extremely interesting.
Buffy turned and looked at Angel. She wasn't sure she could talk about this right now. It was still too fresh and painful. He gave her a loving smile and squeezed her hands again. "Well, you remember the Thanksgiving that we had at your place, Giles. When I was a freshman at SU. Angel, had come to Sunnydale to protect me from that evil spirit that rose when Xander fell into that church from the Early Settlement here in Sunnydale."
Giles nodded to show her that he remembered that particular Thanksgiving. How could he ever forget it? He had shared his table with a vampire.
"You mean when I got the funny syphilis?' Xander asked. "Yeah I remember it."
"I still think we could have handled those Native Americans without killing them," Willow said a little defiantly. She had been all for trying to reason with the evil spirits.
"But, Will, they gave me syphilis, and smallpox," Xander reminded her.
"Somehow, I think we have strayed very far away from the original topic," Giles said giving both Xander and Willow his Watcher stare. It had always worked marvelously on both of them. Buffy always ignored it.
Xander and Willow both looked sheepishly at Buffy. "Sorry," they mumbled.
Buffy gave them a nervous glance and continued. "I didn't know Angel was here, although the rest of you did," she glared pointedly at Giles. "And when I eventually found out I was furious. So when I went to LA to see my dad, I decided to drop by Angel's."
Riley wanted to leave. He was sure he wasn't going to like what Buffy had to say next. But Angel had been right about one thing. Buffy's life was in danger. And he would do everything he could to keep her safe, even if that meant listening to the intimate details of her past with Angel.
"I told him that I didn't want him coming to my rescue anymore," Buffy continued. "I told him that I was a big girl and that I could handle things on my own. I told him that I was trying to move on with my life." Buffy looked over at Riley and smiled briefly. "I was only supposed to be there for five minutes, just long enough to tell him that he had to abide by the decision he made when he left me." A single tear rolled down Buffy's cheek. Angel caught the tear with a caressing fingertip and wiped it away.
"Do you want me to finish?" Angel asked her. He could tell that recounting this part of her dream was very painful for her. Well, it was painful for him to, but he had had five years to live with it. She had only had one night.
Buffy shook her head and smiled at him gratefully. She wanted to tell this story, she needed to. Maybe if she told the others it would seem more real to her. "Just as I was about to leave a Mohra demon crashed through the window and attacked Angel. We fought him, but he escaped. I offered to help him track it and kill it, as repayment. We tracked it to the sewer, where we had another heartbreaking discussion about why we couldn't be together and then we decided to separate. I went above ground just in case it was trying to hide from Angel in the sunlight and Angel continued to track it in the sewers."
Angel decided to take over the story at that point. "I eventually found him and I killed him, but in doing so some of his blood mixed with mine. It made me human."
"The blood of a Mohra demon has regenerative powers," Giles said for the benefit of Willow and Xander who were looking a bit confused.
"I visited the Oracles to make sure this wasn't a trick, that it couldn't be reversed if I had a moment of true happiness. They assured me that it was the real deal and I went to look for Buffy."
"I didn't know anything had happened until he came striding towards me in the sunlight. I had never seen him in the sun before," Buffy said. She looked at Angel and her gaze softened. "He…" Buffy had been about to say that Angel had kissed her but she suddenly remembered Riley's presence.
Angel looked at Buffy sharply. Then he noticed that Riley was sitting very quietly in his chair. He face was white and his hands were clenched into fists. He decided to take pity on him and took over the story again. "We went back to my apartment. We had a lot to talk about. I was suddenly human. We had to figure out what it would mean for us. We spent several hours together when my friend Doyle came and woke me up," Angel explained. He sat silently for a minute thinking of his fallen friend. He gave Cordelia an understanding smile and continued with the story. "Apparently the demon could also regenerate itself. I didn't actually kill him. So I decided to find him and kill him again."
"Why didn't you take Buffy?" Xander asked. If it had been him, he would definitely have asked the Sunnydale wonder woman to come with him.
"I didn't want to wake her," Angel said. "Besides, if we were going to be together than I had to prove that I could take care of myself. Unfortunately, it turned out to be more than I could handle by myself."
"I woke up and found Angel gone. I was really worried so I went to look for him. Cordelia finally told me where he was and I followed him. When I got there Mohra was about to kill him," Buffy said picking up the thread of the story. "I fought him as best I could, but this thing was really strong. It wasn't until Angel figured out that I had to break the jewel on his forehead that I was able to defeat him. Angel was badly hurt and I wasn't feeling so hot myself."
Angel got up off of the coffee table and took a seat next to Buffy on the couch. He placed an arm around her and drew her close to him. The next part was going to be really hard on both of them. "I decided that I couldn't stay human. It would put Buffy's life in danger. She would always be trying to protect me. I went to the Oracles and asked them to change me back."
"You gave up your humanity for Buffy?" Willow asked a note of envy in her voice. She wanted to be loved like that. She had thought she had found it a few times, but then the object of her affections betrayed her trust.
"Yes," Angel replied. It was as simple as that.
"But I don't understand," Giles said. "Why wasn't she supposed to remember that?"
"The Oracles couldn't just change me back into a vampire. They didn't have the power for that. However, they were able to create a temporal fold which gave us the day back."
"But wouldn't you just keep doing the same thing over and over again? Like the wacky crew of the Starship Enterprise," Xander asked.
"No, because I was supposed to make sure that that didn't happen. I alone kept the memory of that day so that I would know how to kill the Mohra demon before its blood mixed with mine."
"I always wondered how you knew how to kill it," Buffy said softly. She had tears in her eyes as she recalled what happened next. "When he came back, I knew there was something wrong. He told me what he had done. I…." Buffy's voice trailed off as the tears began to flow. It was too hard to talk about.
"So exactly twenty-four hours later we found ourselves back in my office. Only this time I was able to kill the Mohra demon in time and Buffy left," Angel finished raw pain evident in his voice.
The room was quiet as everyone tried to absorb the story they had just heard. None of them could imagine having to go through that much happiness and sorrow in twenty-four hours.
"Up until last night all I could remember about that day was seeing Angel to tell him not to see me, Angel killing the demon and then leaving."
"And I have lived with that memory for five years." Angel turned his head towards Buffy and buried his face in her hair. He didn't want the others to see the tears in his eyes. Buffy turned and put her arms around Angel trying to comfort him. They were both crying. They remained that way until Giles finally found his voice.
"If no one other than Angel was supposed to remember that day why does Cordelia remember it?"
"I don't," Cordelia said. At Giles' confused look she hurried to explain. "Well after she left Angel went down into his Bat Cave and proceeded to have the longest brooding session he's ever had. I sent Doyle down to find out what the gloom and doom was about. I mean he only saw Buffy for five minutes. I didn't think even she would be able to do that much damage in only five minutes."
"Gee, thanks Cordelia," Buffy said glaring at the other girl.
Cordelia looked at her in surprise and then blushed when she realized what she had said. "Anyway, Angel told Doyle and then Doyle told me. So you see I don't actually remember it, I just know about it." Cordelia didn't even bother to apologize to Buffy for the implied insult. She made it a rule to never apologize for speaking the truth.
"So, up until last night Angel was the only one that retained the memories of that twenty-four hours?" Giles asked.
"Correct," Angel said, "Which makes me wonder why she suddenly remembered last night."
"Maybe its been buried deep in her sub-conscious," Wesley suggested.
"If that's true why didn't I remember it earlier?" Buffy asked. "I could have any time in the last five years, so why now?"
"Well your life is in danger," Xander chimed in. Joyce who had been sitting very quietly in the background gave a tiny gasp of surprise. Xander upon hearing it hung his head. He hadn't wanted to be the first one to let the cat out of the bag.
Buffy glared at Xander and then said, "That isn't anything unusual, though."
Wesley turned to Angel. "You think Buffy's dream and Cordelia's two vision dreams are connected, don't you?" He had thought Angel's questioning of Cordelia about her dreams had been rather pointed.
"Yes," Angel said. Giles looked at him waiting for the ex-demon to elucidate on his theory. "I believe that some thing or some one is manipulating these dreams."
"The question is who or what," Giles said nodding at Angel. He was inclined to agree with Angel's assessment of the situation.
"Don't forget the all important why question," Xander said.
Just then Willow's computer let out a shrill beep letting her know that a message had come in for her. Hoping that it was her friend she hurried into the dinning room and retrieved the message. "Giles, you might want to come and look at this," she shouted after she had read through the entire message. It seemed her friend had been able to come up with the information that they couldn't find.
Giles extremely interested by the excitement in his young friend's voice walked into the dinning room and began reading the message over her shoulder. "Wesley," he said motioning with his arm that the other Watcher should join him.
Wesley, also very curious about Willow's message hurriedly joined them. Xander decided to follow as it was on the way to the kitchen, where he would be able to find more food. Angel sensing it was important also invaded the space behind Willow and tried to understand the message he was reading. Cordelia figuring they would tell her sooner or later remained in the living room with Buffy and Riley. She pulled a nail file out of her purse and began filing her nails. Just because there was a crisis was no reason to let her appearance go.
"Of course," Giles muttered. "Buffy mentioned their ability to communicate without using their voices."
"They are telepathic?" Wesley asked. He hadn't gotten to that point in the message yet. He was still caught up by "the suckers of a human's life force" bit.
"They're what? Teletubbies?" Xander asked coming out of the kitchen with a full plate of food. "I mean sure they are scary, but…."
"No, Xander, not PBS's answer to appropriate children's television, but psychic vampires. They can read minds and communicate without speaking," Willow said. She shook her head at her friend but had a wide smile on her face.
"Do you think they could help me find my lost car keys?" Xander asked. "I haven't been able to drive for over a month."
No one responded to Xander's question. They were too busy reading. At Giles' prompting Willow opened an attached file that her friend had sent. It had more details about the psychic vampires that had come to Sunnydale. Xander sat down at the table and began eating while the others continued to stand behind Willow to read.