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BY HEAVEN
SENT
After rending that vamp couple from limb to limb Buffy
had finally went home and crawled into her bed. She couldn't hold back the
angry tears when she remembered the events of two days ago.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Buffy was sitting on the front steps of her mother's
house. She hadn't even begun to get over the events of the past few months and
she still had Glory to contend with and Dawn to protect. She was just barely
keeping her head above water here and although she maintained a calm façade
outside, inside she was screaming at the top of her lungs.
She was trying to take a moment for herself and stop to
enjoy what was left of the sun that afternoon. Giles had Dawn insisting that
Buffy take this time to just sort things out in her head. So imagine her
surprise to see Cordelia Chase coming up her walkway.
"Cordelia."
"Hey Buffy. Um can we uh talk?"
"Sure, pull up a piece of step."
"Actually I think we should go inside."
"Okay."
When Buffy and Cordelia were seated in the living room
Cordelia took a deep breath and then looked Buffy right in the eye.
"Okay before I tell you why I'm here just remember I am
just a messenger of sorts. Please don't hurt me."
"Okay whatever Cordy just tell me."
"Okay well first I guess I should tell you that we've
just about lost Angel."
"What do you mean? He almost died?"
"Sort of in a
lost-my-soul-turned-into-Angelus-demon-of-hell kind of lost"
Buffy had to take a moment to rein the slew of emotions
that shot through her at the mere mention of Angel losing his soul before she
could speak again.
"How?"
"Well there is the law firm that kind of specializes in
the super nasty and it resurrected Darla."
"Darla as in Angel's sire Darla? The same Darla I saw
Angel stake how many years ago?"
"Yea the one and the same. They brought her back as
human."
"I hear a but in there."
"But she's not human anymore."
"Who vamped her?"
"Dru."
Buffy went into the kitchen and poured herself a drink.
She then walked back to where Cordelia was sitting and tucked herself into the
corner of the couch.
"What did she do to him?" She asked quietly.
"Well first she invaded his dreams. In fact he slept a
lot when she was in his head. Then once he knew what she was doing he became
obsessed with her. He was willing to give his life for hers."
Cordelia saw the painful question in Buffy's eyes.
"Darla was dying and Angel wanted to save her. Except
there was no saving her just being there until she died…again. However someone
at the law firm had other ideas and recruited Dru to turn her. That's when
things started to get bad. Angel tried to get to Darla before she rose again
but…"
"Let me guess…Drucilla?"
"Yea and then Angel went off on this tangent. He locked
them in a room filled with the lawyers that did this and he let them kill them.
He fired us and I thought for sure the next time I saw him I would have to sink
a stake into his chest."
"So what happened?"
"Well this is kinda the part where you come in and save
the day because we haven't seen him again."
Cordelia looked at her hands and fiddled with her
fingers. There was a long silence between the two girls and when Cordy thought
she couldn't take it anymore Buffy made a sound.
Buffy cracked up laughing. Well it started out as
laughter and then kind of turned into hysterical tears.
"What the hell is this huh? I mean what else can you do
to me? Shit! Like I don't have enough that I have to deal with without this."
Cordelia didn't know who or what Buffy was ranting to or
about and she really didn't care she just wanted help finding Angel before they
had to worry about Angelus.
Buffy took a deep breath and then picked up the phone and
called Giles.
"Hello?"
"Giles look something really urgent has come up and I have
to go to LA for a few days. I want you to keep Dawn with you at all times. Do
not let her out of your sight and have Spike do patrol until I get back."
"What is this about Buffy?"
"Giles just do as I ask."
"This is about Angel. We have a hell god running loose
trying to destroy the world and you're going to run down for a visit with
Angel. Where are your priorities Buffy."
"Yeah Giles that's right but hey I can just sit around
here and wait till Angel comes to me of course by then Glory might be able to
get her hands on the key what with ANGELUS interfering and killing us off but
hey you're right priorities."
"Angelus has been released?"
"Not if I can stop it by getting down to LA."
"Right then Spike patrols and we guard Dawn."
"Page me if anything and I mean anything happens."
"Be careful Buffy."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Buffy walked into the makeshift office that now housed
the remaining three members of Angel Investigations.
"Buffy? What are you doing here?"
"Thought I would come pay you all a visit. After all it
has been a long time."
"Well if you're looking for Angel I'm afraid he isn't
here, he hasn't been here in a long time."
Buffy pulled up a chair and looked her former Watcher in
the eye.
"So then Wesley why don't you tell me what's been going
on."
So Wesley, and Gunn filled in the pieces that Cordelia
had left out. It was a long story and by the time Buffy had heard it all she
was exhausted and her eyes were red and swollen from the tears she had shed.
"Is he still staying at the hotel then?"
"As far as we know but truth be told no one has gone over
there."
Although Buffy felt that the anger and disappointment
that Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia felt was warranted it still pissed her off to think
no one had gone over to the hotel to check up on him. So Buffy wiped the tears
from her face and stood from the chair she was sitting in. She regarded the
group a moment before heading towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Wesley asked.
"To do what none of you have the guts to do."
"And just what is that?" Gunn snapped.
"I'm going to check on Angel."
"Why the hell should we care about him, he certainly
doesn't care about us."
"Someone cared enough to come and tell me. Besides
friends don't turn their back on friends just because they've been hurt."
Without another word Buffy walked out of the little
office and headed to the Hyperion hotel. She was determined to find Angel and
get him back on his feet. She needed him. She didn't know how to face the big
bag when the big bad was him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Buffy opened the door of the Hyperion slowly. She stepped
into the lobby and looked around. All the lights were off and it looked
abandoned. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the darkness and then she
ventured further into the lobby. She stood in the middle of the room and took
in her surroundings. She knew he had been here recently she could feel him; she
could smell him. She walked over to the front desk and began looking for
anything that might help her when she heard a crash.
She ran up the stairs with fear in her heart for Angel's
safety. When she reached the floor that the noise had come to she wandered down
the hall trying to determine which room the noise had come from when she heard
another noise coming from the room immediately to her left.
Quietly she opened the door and ventured inside. She
could see signs of a struggle in the room. The glass door presumably leading to
the bedroom was shattered and the window covering was ripped and blowing from a
breeze coming from inside the bedroom.
Buffy could hear noises that she couldn't quite make out
coming from the room. Buffy edged closer to the door, preparing for the kill.
She picked up a broken piece of the doorframe and she took a deep breath before
stepping around the corner stake raised and battle ready.
Buffy hadn't been sure of what she would find when she
stepped around the door but she was certain that what she was witnessing was
nothing she had ever dreamed of seeing although it was something pulled
straight out of one of her nightmares.
Buffy stood there in the doorway to Angel's bedroom and
watched to her absolute horror as Angel's body writhed above some girl. Buffy
couldn't see her face just the blonde hair but a moment later when Angel pulled
back from her Buffy could see who she was.
It was killing Buffy to see that Angel was with another
girl. I mean just the thought that Angel could ever be with someone else was
unfathomable to Buffy and it crushed her heart but this…this…oh god this was
more than she could bear.
As she watched Angel arch back from his partner Buffy
could see that it was none other than Darla that Angel had chosen to bed down
with.
As realization sunk in Buffy suddenly found it hard to breathe.
In fact it was like somebody had somehow sucked all the oxygen out of her lungs
and they were now collapsing in on themselves in her chest and her heart…Well
Buffy could swear that her heart had stopped beating although her blood was now
rushing through her veins at a dizzying pace.
Buffy brought the hand that held the stake up in front of
her. She saw that she had clutched it so hard that it had ripped open her palm
and little rivers of blood were now running down her forearm and dripping off
her elbow.
She slowly opened her hand and let the piece of wood
clatter to the floor as a strangled cry escaped her lips. Buffy reached out to
the door, trying to find something to hold her upright as her legs buckled
beneath her. Tears poured out of her eyes as she sat on the floor in the
doorway. She didn't feel the glass cutting into her legs. She couldn't feel
anything. Seeing this killed anything she had left inside of her.
Angel's head snapped up when Buffy cried out. It took a
moment for Buffy's presence to cut through the stupor he was in. He shook his
head as if to clear it and he looked at Buffy sitting defeated on the floor and
then to Darla beneath him. Buffy, Darla, Buffy, Darla, Buffy on the floor,
Darla underneath him in the bed…oh my god.
Angel pulled away from Darla as though he had been
burned. He grabbed his sweats, which had been discarded on the floor, and he
ran his hands through his hair as he tried to figure out what the hell was
going on. He figured he was dreaming or rather having a nightmare because there
was no way that he could really have been in bed with Darla and there was no
way Buffy could really have been in the doorway watching it.
But it was real and he had screwed Darla and Buffy had
seen it and now the three remained still and silent until Darla's laughter cut
through the air like a knife.
Because the day you let me go
Caught up in a web of lies
But it was just too late to know
I thought it was you who would stand by my side
Now you're giving me, giving me
Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams
Feels like I could run away, run away from this empty
heart
You said you'd die for me
Woke up to reality
And found the future not so bright
I dreamt the impossible
That maybe things could work out right
I though it was you who would do me no harm
Now you're giving me, giving me
Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams
Feels like I could run away, run away from this empty
heart
Now you're giving me, giving me
Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams
Feels like I could run away, run away from this empty
heart
From this empty heart
I thought it was you who said they'd die for us
Now you're giving me, giving me
Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams
Feels like I could run away, run away from this empty
heart
Now you're giving me, giving me
Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams
Feels like I could run away, run away from this empty
heart
You said you'd die for me
So much for your promises
So much for your promises