Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own any of the characters, no matter how much I WISH I did. They belong to the idiot Joss and the WB.. Any other characters, I created.
Dealing With Death
By Jules
Chapter 2
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
b** Ten minutes later **/b
Giles and Willow were apprehensively awaiting their associates returns, having a gnawing feeling in the pit of their stomach, that something big had happened tonight.
Spike burst through the door with Buffy and Xander close behind, looking fine, and Giles let out a sigh of relief, which was, quickly nullified, as a certain souled vampire came in carrying an unconscious young lady.
"A-Angel!" He exclaimed in surprise, "Um, take the girl to my room."
Angel carefully navigated the stairs, and Giles pointed him in the right direction. He laid her down on the bed gently.
Giles did a double take when he saw the face, "Oh dear, Cordelia. I'll go get the first aid kit."
Spike, had unpredictably gone to the kitchen and come upstairs with a large bowel of hot water, and a dishcloth. The vampire wasn't all bad, though he'd like everyone to think so.
"Get me a pair of scissors." Angel ordered, to anyone who was there to listen, as he carefully lifted Cordelia up and took off her leather jacket, throwing it on a chair, then shrugged of his own.
Xander hastily found a pair and handed him the shears.
"Good thing this shirt is already ripped, or Cordelia would kill me for this." Angel muttered as he made a snip at the neckline, the ripped the cloth down the front, so he could get to the gash on her stomach.
The wound wasn't deep, but it was long. It went from just above her ribcage, practically to her stomach. He was pretty sure, thank God, that it wouldn't leave a scar. Cordelia would have killed him for another scar on her body. She was self-conscious enough of the first one.
Giles soon returned with a giant container, which and separated into compartments, much like ones paramedics carry around.
Angel gently cleaned around the wound, thankful that she was unconscious; otherwise his co-worker would be in a lot of pain, this time literally.
Xander routed through the first aid kit till he found what he was looking for. Giles had by some means gotten his hands on the innovative medical glue, which was being used in place of stitches in hospitals. The doctor just applied it, and when the wound was healed, the epoxy just came off. [IAnd yes, I know that for NOW you aren't supposed to use the glue for such large wounds, but let's just say Giles got some stuff that was so far only approved of in Europe, and did fit the criteria./I]
Angel looked at him strangely when Xander held out the bottle.
Xander sighed, "Move over a little bit. Now, hold the gash together, this is a new type of gluey stuff, which is being used in place of those awful stitches in hospitals. Don't worry; it won't hurt her, I promise. In fact it'll be much less painful, no needles required, and no going through the pain of getting them taken out."
Angel was still a little wary, but gave in when Buffy told him, "They've used on me too, it's much nicer then stitches, and just goes away once the wound is healed."
After applying the glue, Angel waited for it to dry, then put some gauze and tape over the injury as well as a safety precaution.
Angel sat on the bed beside Cordelia and held her hand, blaming himself for not protecting her well enough.
The Sunnydale group really had no idea what on earth was going on, but closed the blinds tightly, just in case the sun rose before Angel left, then withdrew the room silently.
Angel sat with her for 30 minutes, when he realized that she was probably not going to be waking up soon, he knew he had some explaining to do. So he went back downstairs, to find everyone still there, waiting for him.
"How is she?" Xander asked.
"She's just sleeping, I think the only reason she hasn't woken up is because the exhaustion is catching up with her." Angel admitted, sitting down leaning back, placing his hands over his face for a moment, before sitting back up and looking at the group.
"What happened Angel?" Buffy inquired, "It's something big, really big. Start from the beginning."
Angel sighed, "Well, as you know, I work with a guy named Doyle . . ."
"Medium build, dark hair, Irish brogue, crush on Cordelia?" Buffy questioned.
"That's Doyle. He's also a half demon, which is why he was so reluctant to ask Cordelia out to dinner. Well, finally, a couple weeks ago, the same day Cordelia found out he was a half-demon, and told Doyle to ask her out to dinner. We were battling against the Scourge, a race of demons that hated everyone and everything, except pure demons. They had built this weapon, which would kill every thing within a quarter mile radius with human blood in them. They also hunted down tribes of half-demons, who couldn't conceal their identities. We had rented a barge, to save a group who'd asked for our help. But they found us . . ."
Angel was cut off by screams from the bedroom upstairs, "DOYLE!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
He jumped up and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time at vampire speed. By the time everyone else reached the bedroom, Angel was sitting on the bed, holding a sobbing Cordelia.
"Oh God, I saw it again. He kissed me, then he punched you knocking you off the platform. He got all green and spiky, and then he jumped. The light . . . his skin like melted away, then, his muscle, his bones . . . just melted away . . . the light, it was so bright . . . and then he was gone. Doyle was just gone."
"I know, I know Cordelia."
Everyone stood in shock of what they just heard, aghast, and sick to their stomachs. They could just imagine what happened, and the imagery in their heads would probably torment them for years to come, they'd never seen anything like what she'd described, but they all prayed they never did.
Cordelia slowly stopped crying on Angel's shoulder and looked around seeing the group in the doorway, she wiped away her tears, "Oh, hello Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander . . ." She says Xander's name harder then the rest, then her eyes land on the platinum blond vampire, "Spike?"
"Hey Cordy." Xander greeted, "You know, that look really works for you. Is it the latest fashion?"
Cordelia looked down, noticing that she was wearing a large man's shirt, then retorted, "I see your sense of style hasn't improved much either."
Angel restrained from rolling his eyes, "Are you alright Cordelia?"
"I think so." Cordelia told him, and then admitted, "Except my cheekbone where that jerk backhanded me, and where that other one clawed me. I've had worse, I'm fine Angel."
"We took care of that cut, just don't move too much." Giles warned.
"Thanks Giles. I'm just taking a guess here, but this shirt belongs to you."
"Um, can we please go into a big area? This is way too cramped for comfort." Xander requested uncomfortable after having someone accidentally bump him in the ribs, which Willow had taped for him.
Angel was about to protest that Cordelia should stay in bed, when she agreed, "Yeah, it's a little cozy."
Angel knew there was no use in arguing with her, so he silently followed behind her, holding on to her elbow. He had helped her sit down on the couch, in the middle, then sat down next to her protectively. Xander gingerly sat down next to her on the other side.
Once everyone was seated comfortably, and in proper light, they saw for the first time, how worn out Cordelia looked.
Willow, who hated the uncomfortable silence started the conversation, "So, what's up? Um, why are you guys back in Sunnydale?"
Cordelia bit her lip, then released it, "I moved back here. Actually I'm starting a few classes next semester. Angel on the other hand is just staying, until I get settled."
Buffy was a little disappointed, she'd really been hoping Angel was back. She had tried to start dating again, after he'd left, but Riley had just up and disappeared one day, not that they had really gotten anywhere . . . . It had been a rough 16 years for Buffy, but she and Angel had found each other, only to have to part, because of some very stupid things, such as not knowing whether or not Angel's soul would stick around. And because of all those bad things that had happened in addition. At that moment, Buffy vowed to re-double her efforts on making sure that she and Angel could be happy, together, his soul locked in place.
At the same time, Xander was jumping for joy in his heart. Cordelia was back! His Cordy, and she was staying . . . ooh, that could be bad too, Anya might do something bad to her, even though they'd broken up over a week ago. But there could be a bigger problem he realized, Doyle. Xander was pretty sure the guy had died recently, and his Cordy appeared to be a mess over it . . .
"What the hell is Spike doing here?" Cordelia voiced the question on her and Angel's minds.
"It's a long story, but the summary would go, Spike got captured by some ultra-top-secret-military-type-group-Initiative-thingy. They put a chip-thingy-do in his head, and now he can't go all vampy or hurt any good guys, which makes him cranky I might add, if he does he like gets like this intense pain. But he does help out around here, by trashing all the really-evil-bad-icky-demons." Willow explained.
"Those pilocks bloody ruined me." Spike moped from his chair in a dark corner.
"But why is he here?" Angel asked.
"Because." Willow simply said.
"So, peroxide head had to become a member of the good guy's side and fight evil, if he wants to fight at all? Awesome!" Cordelia exclaimed, actually perking up.
Angel actually smiled, happy to see her spirits were lifting, which stunned everyone (the fact that he smiled of course) but Cordelia, and just ticked Spike off and he slumped down in the chair in the corner, pouting. Then everyone started to laugh at the new 'brooding' resident vampire.
Cordelia laughed too, but everyone's voices seemed to start to jumble and fade, and an intense sharp pain shot through her head.
"Oh God!" She screamed, grabbing her head, trying to make the pain go away. Then images started flashing in her mind.
Everyone watches her scared; Angel sat there, feeling helpless once more, he had no idea what was going on, or how to help her.
After 30 seconds it was over.
"Paper . . . pencil." Cordelia gasped.
They were all still stunned.
"NOW!" She demanded
The utensils were handed to her and she soon had drawn and written down everything that had been revealed to her, in a matter of seconds.
"What's going on?" Buffy asked.
"Man, Doyle wasn't just whining when he said those visions were painful." Cordelia sighed, handing Angel the notebook.
"What are you talking about?" Xander questioned.
Angel took the pad and looked at it, what was going on hit him, "One door closes, another opens . . . You had a vision."
"Boy howdy! You know how they look painful, well they feel ten times worse."
Angel continued his rambling, figuring out what must have happened, "Doyle gave you the power of his visions. When he kissed you, somehow they must have transferred to you." He stood up, then he, Giles, and Willow go to work.
"That bastard! He kisses me for the first time and gives me his visions? Did I mention they really, really hurt! And the things you see are totally gross!"
"What did you see?" Buffy asked fascinated.
"I'm not sure, it was really big though, dark-red, horns . . . Angel's got the picture. It was in some sort of warehouse, surrounded by crates of I think ammo . . ." She rubbed her temples, "God my head is killing me." Cordelia mumbled tired, unconsciously leaning back against Xander, who was surprised, but happy. He hesitantly put his arm around her.
The familiar sounds of the Scooby Gang lulled Cordelia to sleep, where for the first time since Doyle died, she didn't have the nightmare.
Xander wasn't able to move without waking Cordelia up, not that he wanted to move either. So he just sat there, rubbing her back.
b** Hours later **/b
Buffy looked up for the ancient text she was looking through and saw that Cordelia and Xander were both asleep, peacefully. She figured Xander had probably fallen asleep a little while ago, due to the pills Giles had giving him, because his bruised, but not broken, ribs had been bothering him.
When no one was looking, Spike had actually covered up the two with a blanket. After making SURE no one had seen, then he'd gone back to basically being pissed off in a corner.
Buffy looked across the table, and noted with a hint of jealously in her brain, that Angel was watching Cordelia sleep. She noticed the look on his face was one of disbelief.
"What's up?" She whispered, "What's got you so surprised?"
Angel kept watching Cordelia, but answered Buffy's question quietly, "That's the longest she's slept at one time in two weeks. She hasn't slept more then two hours, at the most, at one time since it happened."
"No wonder she looked so tired, and she looks thinner to boot . . . she hasn't been eating much either has she." Buffy observed.
"No, since she does sleep, all she did was workout, train, and do research for hours. Then she spends a couple of hours watching the tape of Doyle she made for a commercial for 'Angel Investigations'." Angel told her.
"That's horrible." She studied his face for a moment, "You blame yourself for him dying, don't you."
"It should have been me. Damn it, I shouldn't have let him catch me off guard like that. He only threw one punch, then I fell off the catwalk."
"Angel, it must have been what he wanted then. Somehow he must have know, that he was meant to die so that others can live. And that the world still needs you because there's so much good you can do." Buffy told him, putting her hand on his forearm.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Please reply!
Post questions, comments, requests, or just tell me what ya think! You know, give me feedback!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Dealing With Death
By Jules
Chapter 2
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
b** Ten minutes later **/b
Giles and Willow were apprehensively awaiting their associates returns, having a gnawing feeling in the pit of their stomach, that something big had happened tonight.
Spike burst through the door with Buffy and Xander close behind, looking fine, and Giles let out a sigh of relief, which was, quickly nullified, as a certain souled vampire came in carrying an unconscious young lady.
"A-Angel!" He exclaimed in surprise, "Um, take the girl to my room."
Angel carefully navigated the stairs, and Giles pointed him in the right direction. He laid her down on the bed gently.
Giles did a double take when he saw the face, "Oh dear, Cordelia. I'll go get the first aid kit."
Spike, had unpredictably gone to the kitchen and come upstairs with a large bowel of hot water, and a dishcloth. The vampire wasn't all bad, though he'd like everyone to think so.
"Get me a pair of scissors." Angel ordered, to anyone who was there to listen, as he carefully lifted Cordelia up and took off her leather jacket, throwing it on a chair, then shrugged of his own.
Xander hastily found a pair and handed him the shears.
"Good thing this shirt is already ripped, or Cordelia would kill me for this." Angel muttered as he made a snip at the neckline, the ripped the cloth down the front, so he could get to the gash on her stomach.
The wound wasn't deep, but it was long. It went from just above her ribcage, practically to her stomach. He was pretty sure, thank God, that it wouldn't leave a scar. Cordelia would have killed him for another scar on her body. She was self-conscious enough of the first one.
Giles soon returned with a giant container, which and separated into compartments, much like ones paramedics carry around.
Angel gently cleaned around the wound, thankful that she was unconscious; otherwise his co-worker would be in a lot of pain, this time literally.
Xander routed through the first aid kit till he found what he was looking for. Giles had by some means gotten his hands on the innovative medical glue, which was being used in place of stitches in hospitals. The doctor just applied it, and when the wound was healed, the epoxy just came off. [IAnd yes, I know that for NOW you aren't supposed to use the glue for such large wounds, but let's just say Giles got some stuff that was so far only approved of in Europe, and did fit the criteria./I]
Angel looked at him strangely when Xander held out the bottle.
Xander sighed, "Move over a little bit. Now, hold the gash together, this is a new type of gluey stuff, which is being used in place of those awful stitches in hospitals. Don't worry; it won't hurt her, I promise. In fact it'll be much less painful, no needles required, and no going through the pain of getting them taken out."
Angel was still a little wary, but gave in when Buffy told him, "They've used on me too, it's much nicer then stitches, and just goes away once the wound is healed."
After applying the glue, Angel waited for it to dry, then put some gauze and tape over the injury as well as a safety precaution.
Angel sat on the bed beside Cordelia and held her hand, blaming himself for not protecting her well enough.
The Sunnydale group really had no idea what on earth was going on, but closed the blinds tightly, just in case the sun rose before Angel left, then withdrew the room silently.
Angel sat with her for 30 minutes, when he realized that she was probably not going to be waking up soon, he knew he had some explaining to do. So he went back downstairs, to find everyone still there, waiting for him.
"How is she?" Xander asked.
"She's just sleeping, I think the only reason she hasn't woken up is because the exhaustion is catching up with her." Angel admitted, sitting down leaning back, placing his hands over his face for a moment, before sitting back up and looking at the group.
"What happened Angel?" Buffy inquired, "It's something big, really big. Start from the beginning."
Angel sighed, "Well, as you know, I work with a guy named Doyle . . ."
"Medium build, dark hair, Irish brogue, crush on Cordelia?" Buffy questioned.
"That's Doyle. He's also a half demon, which is why he was so reluctant to ask Cordelia out to dinner. Well, finally, a couple weeks ago, the same day Cordelia found out he was a half-demon, and told Doyle to ask her out to dinner. We were battling against the Scourge, a race of demons that hated everyone and everything, except pure demons. They had built this weapon, which would kill every thing within a quarter mile radius with human blood in them. They also hunted down tribes of half-demons, who couldn't conceal their identities. We had rented a barge, to save a group who'd asked for our help. But they found us . . ."
Angel was cut off by screams from the bedroom upstairs, "DOYLE!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
He jumped up and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time at vampire speed. By the time everyone else reached the bedroom, Angel was sitting on the bed, holding a sobbing Cordelia.
"Oh God, I saw it again. He kissed me, then he punched you knocking you off the platform. He got all green and spiky, and then he jumped. The light . . . his skin like melted away, then, his muscle, his bones . . . just melted away . . . the light, it was so bright . . . and then he was gone. Doyle was just gone."
"I know, I know Cordelia."
Everyone stood in shock of what they just heard, aghast, and sick to their stomachs. They could just imagine what happened, and the imagery in their heads would probably torment them for years to come, they'd never seen anything like what she'd described, but they all prayed they never did.
Cordelia slowly stopped crying on Angel's shoulder and looked around seeing the group in the doorway, she wiped away her tears, "Oh, hello Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander . . ." She says Xander's name harder then the rest, then her eyes land on the platinum blond vampire, "Spike?"
"Hey Cordy." Xander greeted, "You know, that look really works for you. Is it the latest fashion?"
Cordelia looked down, noticing that she was wearing a large man's shirt, then retorted, "I see your sense of style hasn't improved much either."
Angel restrained from rolling his eyes, "Are you alright Cordelia?"
"I think so." Cordelia told him, and then admitted, "Except my cheekbone where that jerk backhanded me, and where that other one clawed me. I've had worse, I'm fine Angel."
"We took care of that cut, just don't move too much." Giles warned.
"Thanks Giles. I'm just taking a guess here, but this shirt belongs to you."
"Um, can we please go into a big area? This is way too cramped for comfort." Xander requested uncomfortable after having someone accidentally bump him in the ribs, which Willow had taped for him.
Angel was about to protest that Cordelia should stay in bed, when she agreed, "Yeah, it's a little cozy."
Angel knew there was no use in arguing with her, so he silently followed behind her, holding on to her elbow. He had helped her sit down on the couch, in the middle, then sat down next to her protectively. Xander gingerly sat down next to her on the other side.
Once everyone was seated comfortably, and in proper light, they saw for the first time, how worn out Cordelia looked.
Willow, who hated the uncomfortable silence started the conversation, "So, what's up? Um, why are you guys back in Sunnydale?"
Cordelia bit her lip, then released it, "I moved back here. Actually I'm starting a few classes next semester. Angel on the other hand is just staying, until I get settled."
Buffy was a little disappointed, she'd really been hoping Angel was back. She had tried to start dating again, after he'd left, but Riley had just up and disappeared one day, not that they had really gotten anywhere . . . . It had been a rough 16 years for Buffy, but she and Angel had found each other, only to have to part, because of some very stupid things, such as not knowing whether or not Angel's soul would stick around. And because of all those bad things that had happened in addition. At that moment, Buffy vowed to re-double her efforts on making sure that she and Angel could be happy, together, his soul locked in place.
At the same time, Xander was jumping for joy in his heart. Cordelia was back! His Cordy, and she was staying . . . ooh, that could be bad too, Anya might do something bad to her, even though they'd broken up over a week ago. But there could be a bigger problem he realized, Doyle. Xander was pretty sure the guy had died recently, and his Cordy appeared to be a mess over it . . .
"What the hell is Spike doing here?" Cordelia voiced the question on her and Angel's minds.
"It's a long story, but the summary would go, Spike got captured by some ultra-top-secret-military-type-group-Initiative-thingy. They put a chip-thingy-do in his head, and now he can't go all vampy or hurt any good guys, which makes him cranky I might add, if he does he like gets like this intense pain. But he does help out around here, by trashing all the really-evil-bad-icky-demons." Willow explained.
"Those pilocks bloody ruined me." Spike moped from his chair in a dark corner.
"But why is he here?" Angel asked.
"Because." Willow simply said.
"So, peroxide head had to become a member of the good guy's side and fight evil, if he wants to fight at all? Awesome!" Cordelia exclaimed, actually perking up.
Angel actually smiled, happy to see her spirits were lifting, which stunned everyone (the fact that he smiled of course) but Cordelia, and just ticked Spike off and he slumped down in the chair in the corner, pouting. Then everyone started to laugh at the new 'brooding' resident vampire.
Cordelia laughed too, but everyone's voices seemed to start to jumble and fade, and an intense sharp pain shot through her head.
"Oh God!" She screamed, grabbing her head, trying to make the pain go away. Then images started flashing in her mind.
Everyone watches her scared; Angel sat there, feeling helpless once more, he had no idea what was going on, or how to help her.
After 30 seconds it was over.
"Paper . . . pencil." Cordelia gasped.
They were all still stunned.
"NOW!" She demanded
The utensils were handed to her and she soon had drawn and written down everything that had been revealed to her, in a matter of seconds.
"What's going on?" Buffy asked.
"Man, Doyle wasn't just whining when he said those visions were painful." Cordelia sighed, handing Angel the notebook.
"What are you talking about?" Xander questioned.
Angel took the pad and looked at it, what was going on hit him, "One door closes, another opens . . . You had a vision."
"Boy howdy! You know how they look painful, well they feel ten times worse."
Angel continued his rambling, figuring out what must have happened, "Doyle gave you the power of his visions. When he kissed you, somehow they must have transferred to you." He stood up, then he, Giles, and Willow go to work.
"That bastard! He kisses me for the first time and gives me his visions? Did I mention they really, really hurt! And the things you see are totally gross!"
"What did you see?" Buffy asked fascinated.
"I'm not sure, it was really big though, dark-red, horns . . . Angel's got the picture. It was in some sort of warehouse, surrounded by crates of I think ammo . . ." She rubbed her temples, "God my head is killing me." Cordelia mumbled tired, unconsciously leaning back against Xander, who was surprised, but happy. He hesitantly put his arm around her.
The familiar sounds of the Scooby Gang lulled Cordelia to sleep, where for the first time since Doyle died, she didn't have the nightmare.
Xander wasn't able to move without waking Cordelia up, not that he wanted to move either. So he just sat there, rubbing her back.
b** Hours later **/b
Buffy looked up for the ancient text she was looking through and saw that Cordelia and Xander were both asleep, peacefully. She figured Xander had probably fallen asleep a little while ago, due to the pills Giles had giving him, because his bruised, but not broken, ribs had been bothering him.
When no one was looking, Spike had actually covered up the two with a blanket. After making SURE no one had seen, then he'd gone back to basically being pissed off in a corner.
Buffy looked across the table, and noted with a hint of jealously in her brain, that Angel was watching Cordelia sleep. She noticed the look on his face was one of disbelief.
"What's up?" She whispered, "What's got you so surprised?"
Angel kept watching Cordelia, but answered Buffy's question quietly, "That's the longest she's slept at one time in two weeks. She hasn't slept more then two hours, at the most, at one time since it happened."
"No wonder she looked so tired, and she looks thinner to boot . . . she hasn't been eating much either has she." Buffy observed.
"No, since she does sleep, all she did was workout, train, and do research for hours. Then she spends a couple of hours watching the tape of Doyle she made for a commercial for 'Angel Investigations'." Angel told her.
"That's horrible." She studied his face for a moment, "You blame yourself for him dying, don't you."
"It should have been me. Damn it, I shouldn't have let him catch me off guard like that. He only threw one punch, then I fell off the catwalk."
"Angel, it must have been what he wanted then. Somehow he must have know, that he was meant to die so that others can live. And that the world still needs you because there's so much good you can do." Buffy told him, putting her hand on his forearm.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Please reply!
Post questions, comments, requests, or just tell me what ya think! You know, give me feedback!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~