Breaking down the
Walls
TITLE:
"Breaking down the walls" Chapter 3 - 3/12 - Rated PG - B/A Angst,
series 6 predictions
AUTHOR: Charlie/Selwyn29
EMAIL: selwyn29@ntlworld.com
DISCLAIMER: They're not mine, they're Joss's. But if they were mine I give them to Duck's for safekeeping J
PAIRING: B/A, and loads more
TIMELINE: After end of series 5 Buffy, series 2 Angel
SPOILERS: Anything is possible... say all, up to B5/A2
SYNOPSIS: My take on series 6 and what should happen, please read Chapter One
or none of this will make sense.
FEEDBACK: Definitely wanted, its my first attempt.
RATING: PG CONTENT
DEDICATION: To Trammie, AlwaysLuv and Mark my Beta readers and Duck's who without her epics I would never had started this one. Also to the Babble Board posters, who have been an inspiration for some storylines
Now on with the storytelling………..
Giles walked quickly past Xander
and knelt on the floor next Buffy. He
rested his head gently on her chest.
"Well, she's breathing, but I
can't find a heartbeat, could you find one?"
"Gee, let me think. Well, I found this body and thought, that
looks quite familiar, like the body of my best friend who I buried nearly four
months ago, and the first thing I asked myself was does she have a heartbeat
and not 'This is a bit weird, better take her to Giles!'"
Giles listened to her chest once
more.
"I think we can assume there is no
heartbeat and that she's in no present danger, life signs-wise."
"Is it the fact she's dead that
gives that one away?" Xander quipped
back.
"Sorry, emotional distress, bit of
a shock." he said in way of apology.
"Understandable in the
situation. Xander, I think you'd better
go and ring Willow, but whatever you do, don't let anyone else know and tell
Willow the same. Until we know exactly
what has happened we have to keep this between ourselves."
Xander walked out of the room into
the main body of the shop. As he walked
he let out the breath he had been metaphorically holding inside since he had
first found her. He still couldn't get
his head around all of this and was glad Giles had given him something to do,
but now the question was, how would he tell Willow? 'By the way, I just found our recently deceased friend, guess
what, Buffy's back?' He picked up the
receiver and dialled the familiar number, he guessed he'd just play it by ear,
much like he always did.
"Hi Tara, is Will there?"
He heard the bustle in the
background as Willow came to the phone.
"Hi Xan, what's up?"
"Secret meeting at the Batcave, Will,
just you, and don't tell anyone where you are going, not even Tara"
"What's it about?"
"OK, see you soon, bye-bye." Xander hung up. Less time on the phone, less time for him to make a mess of it
all and scream out, 'She's alive!' or some other contrived phrase. He'd let Giles handle the explaining part.
Xander walked back towards the
training room, but at the open doorway he stopped. Giles sat on the floor next to Buffy, gently stroking her hair
and whispering to her.
"I'm so proud of what you did, of
how you did your duty and, most of all, protected Dawn. She quite reminds me of you these days. Thank you, for allowing me to look after her
for you. You always knew how proud I
was of you as a slayer, and as a person, but you never knew how much I loved
you, and how much I thought of you as my own. If I could have chosen a daughter in this world, Buffy, I would have
chosen you. I promise I will do
whatever it takes to understand what has happened here. I promise."
Xander coughed quietly in the doorway.
"Giles, Willow is coming up the
street. What are we going to do?"
Giles stood up, discreetly wiping
the tears from his cheek.
"We'd better talk to her in the
Magic Shop, explain things, lessen the shock a little. Buffy will be safe in here."
"OK, you're the grown-up." Xander answered, thankfully.
Two minutes later Willow came
running through the door of the shop, it had begun raining outside and she was
dripping wet.
"Wet look suits you Will." Xander observed, from where he was perched
on the end of the table.
"No time for a coat." Willow gasped, hyperventilating. "Secret meeting?"
"Ah yes." Giles said, wandering across the room. "I think you'd better sit down Willow, we
have something to tell you."
Willow found herself a chair and
sat at the table, watching them with her big dark eyes.
"Right, yes, well. Something, well, something quite unforeseen
has happened and we don't quite understand it as yet. You see, sometimes, well, things, unexpected things, can happen
for various reasons and well…"
Xander looked at Willow's confused
face.
"Will, some mojo has happened and
Buffy's back. She's in the back room."
Willow jumped up out of her seat
and rushed into the training room.
"I think that could have been done
a little more subtly, Xander."
"I'm sure it could, Summary Guy,
but hey, I got to find out when I tripped over Buffy at the construction site,
no nice explanations there for me."
Both Xander and Giles followed
Willow's erratic path to the training room and stepped through the doorway, to
hear the words:
"Bloody hell Red, you did it!"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Willow stood in the middle of the
room, facing Spike, who sat on the floor next to the body of the Slayer. Xander and Giles stood silently in the
doorway.
"Look, she's breathing an
all! Bloody perfect!"
Willow just stood there taking
everything in.
Giles walked up behind her, he
took hold of one arm and led her to a chair at the side of the room.
"I think you'd better tell me what
you did." he requested.
The redhead sat there in stunned
silence, occasionally glancing over at the seemingly sleeping body of her best
friend.
"Willow?" Giles asked again. "We need help, we need to help Buffy."
"Is she, is she OK?" Willow asked quietly.
"We don't know, she seems okay,
she has no heartbeat, though she breathes. But she hasn't awoken since we found
her."
"Where?" Willow whispered. "Where
did you find her?"
"I found her at the construction
site, Will. Under some crates and things. I don't know how long she'd been
there." Xander answered.
"Ten days, she's been there for
ten days."
"Willow," Giles said, more
forcefully, "what happened?"
Willow took a deep breath and
began to tell the story,
"I took the resurrection spell, the
one that Dawn had been messing with. I
got some help off some Wiccans I'd met over the 'Net and they helped me piece a
stronger spell together."
"Willow, what did you use in this
spell?"
"We used a lock of her hair, an
orb of Thesulah, to recapture her soul, umm, some blood from a Mohra demon
egg…" Willow paused, trying to think.
"And this." Spike said, producing the silver cross from
his pocket, where he had been keeping it. It had been slowly burning a hole in his jacket for the past few days,
but he had found it comforting somehow. Now, however, held in the palm of his hand, the burn was a less
comforting and more agonising pain. He
quickly realised what he held and threw it across the room, yelping.
Xander walked over, retrieved it,
and held it up.
"Now, how do you know all about
this Spike?" He asked, quite
threateningly.
"Spike, was with me the night we
did the spell."
Xander stared across at Willow, a
myriad of emotions playing behind his eyes. Spike, the annoying thorn in his side, had helped his best friend with
the spell that had brought back the third of their trio. It was too much to think about at the
moment.
"Willow, why have we not come
across her before now? What happened on
that night?" Giles asked, interrogating
gently again.
"Something disturbed us, something
happened with the spell, everything got blown about and the orb was
smashed. The others ran off, I didn't
think the spell had been finished properly. So I shouted out the final chants and then laid a binding spell across
the site, in case something had gone wrong." She trailed off and went quiet again, glancing across at Buffy.
"Giles, will she be OK?" She looked up at the Watcher, tears
glistening in her eyes.
"I think we need to proceed with
much caution now. For one thing, we do
not know what is going to wake up within that body. We have to try and distance ourselves from this a little. A resurrection spell is a very difficult
spell to succeed with, we have no idea of knowing whether that is Buffy or not,
until she wakes."
Xander looked down at the necklace
in his hand and walked across to where she was lying, he crouched down and
gently placed the necklace around her neck. He held his breath and waited for a moment then he stepped back to Giles
and Willow.
"Well, I guess that rules out
vampire." He paused for a moment, "So
what next, Chief?"
"We need to keep a watch over her
from now on, until she wakes. I need to
do more research into this spell, Willow, I will need any information you have
about it."
Willow just nodded.
"What do we tell the others?" Xander asked.
"We tell as few people as little
as possible, at the moment and, especially, not Dawn." Giles was very firm about this.
"We have no idea what the outcome
of this is going to be, so the less people to know about it the better."
"Now all we need is for somewhere
to look after her which is out of the way."
Spike immediately piped up, "Well,
we can put her in the crypt, I can look after her."
Xander looked over at the pale
man.
"Spike, on previous occasions you
have created a robot in Buffy's likeness and used it as some sick sex object, I
don't think we'll be trusting you with her unconscious body. I have a spare room at the apartment we can
use, and Dawn doesn't come over there all that much. Could we look after Buffy
there?"
"Yes, obviously we are all going
to have to be available to watch her round the clock. She can never be left alone for any time at all. It also goes without saying that Dawn cannot
be suspicious of what is going on."
At that point Anya walked into the
room, on her way back from the bank.
"Hi everyone, I got the
money. Oh, hello, Buffy."
With that, she walked back out
into the main body of the shop, towards the till. Giles signalled to Xander to follow her and explain the situation
a bit better to her.
"Anya, something quite strange has
happened."
"Yes I can see, Buffy is back from
the dead." Anya carried on counting the
money.
"Right, well she is going to have
to come and stay in the apartment for a while until she gets better. In the spare room."
"Very well, as long as we don't
use the best sheets, dead people don't need good sheets." Anya said and put her
head down again.
Xander walked back into the
training room.
"Well that's all sorted out then."
"Good," Giles said, "we'd better move
her before Dawn comes back from school."
Spike went to pick up the body of
the prone slayer.
"Not so fast Spike, its daylight,
I think the flames would get in the way of carrying her anywhere safely."
Xander picked her up, once more,
in his arms and led the way out of the back of the shop to Giles' car. Giles and Willow followed, carrying books
concerning healing and resurrection.
Spike ran out of the shop and
lifted up the nearest sewage lid and dropped underground. They might have stopped him having her in
the crypt, but he'd be damned if they were going to stop him looking after her.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
Their lives followed very much the
same pattern for the next few weeks. Spike generally stayed with Buffy during
the day, they had put blackout curtains over the windows for him. He sat next to the bed, reading British
papers to her, telling her about Manchester United's latest win, or what Posh
Spice was wearing this week. Xander
looked after her in the evenings when he got in from work. Willow and Giles tended to come at night,
leaving Spike free to go out patrolling.
It wasn't looking good though,
Spike complained every night when he came in, that there were more and more demons
out there. Newspaper reports, every
day, noted strange occurrences, people turning against neighbours and
friends. And still the Slayer slept.
It was a Saturday night, Giles and
Willow had elected to stay up with Buffy. Dawn had gone to a friend's for a sleepover. Giles was just reliving the trauma of taking Dawn to the mall for
new clothes for school.
"I had no idea that young girls
required so many outfits, and some of them so…well, revealing."
"You'd be happy if she wore a
tweed suit, wouldn't you?" Willow said,
smiling at the Watcher.
"No, not exactly, but some of the
clothes were hardly functional."
"Functional!" Willow laughed. "Remember some of the things Buffy used to wear to patrol
in? You could hardly call them
functional."
Giles laughed for a split second,
and then his expression returned to the same pensive norm it had been for the
past few weeks. He looked to the bed,
at the body of the Slayer. She was still
wearing the pink prom dress that they had chosen for her to be buried in. He couldn't help, but notice how beautiful
she looked, just as she had that night. Xander had found the umbrella she had been awarded at school that night
and had opened it up above the bed, shining glitter marks glinted on her face,
giving her some other worldly beauty.
"Giles," Willow whispered, "is she
ever going to come around?"
"I hope so, Willow, I hope so."
He took hold of Buffy's hand and
looked at her again. It had been three
weeks now, since Xander had found the body, and at least one month since Willow
had cast the original resurrection spell. He had read text, after text, after text on resurrections and healing,
and they had cast spell after spell, to try and heal her, but all the books
just gave the same advice, they had to wait until the soul was ready to return
and then she would awake.
"I'm sorry." Willow whispered to her friend.
Giles looked up at the young girl.
"Willow, I'm never going to
condone your actions, you acted irresponsibly and used forces beyond your own
powers, anything could have happened and things might still. However, what we have to concentrate on, is
that you brought Buffy back, and we have to use everything we have to bring her
back into the world again, in one piece."
Willow nodded her head.
"Shall we try another healing
spell?" She asked.
Giles leaned down next to him and
picked up a book he had open on the floor. He placed it across the body on the bed and they both began to chant.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
That night, Angel Investigations
had started off the same as most nights, a vision coming to Cordy with a brief,
cryptic message for them all. Wesley
and Fred hit the books, Angel and Gunn hit the weapons cabinet and took turns
to check on Cordelia. The vision had
shown a group of demons, which were trying to raise some great Power to
influence the world, by using human sacrifices, mainly homeless kids, taken
from the streets.
"So some big guys wanna take over
the world again?" Gunn asked.
"Yeah, Friday night, same old,
same old." Cordelia replied.
"Maybe we should try talking to
Anne at the shelter?" Wesley asked.
Gunn made a quick phone call and
then the gang ran out and got into Angel's car. With five of them now, it was getting to be a bit of a squash.
Wesley had proposed buying a van, but had the idea laughed at for being far too
'A-team'.
They drove through the streets of
LA and pulled up outside the homeless shelter, run by a girl called Anne, whom
they had been in contact with before.
They all strode through the front
doors and towards the office at the back of the building where she worked.
Anne was waiting for them behind
the desk. She had photographs, in front
of her, of three kids who had gone missing recently. Gunn picked them up and he and Cordelia began studying them.
"They left the shelter about two
weeks ago, said some big guys had been hanging about offering them work and a
place to live, they took their chances and haven't been seen since."
"Any idea who the men are?" Wesley
asked.
"No not really, just that some of
the guys say that they give them the creeps, that there is something not quite
right about them."
"Are you sure they really are
missing? Didn't just find some other
place to crash?" Gunn asked.
"No, one of these guys has a
little sister here, he said he'd come back and get her in a couple of days,
when he was settled. She hasn't heard
from him."
"Has anyone any idea where these
men run their business from?" Wesley
asked.
"Yeah, I think Jonal and his gang
went looking around down there one day. Alison!" she shouted, to a young girl outside the room. "Can you go and get Jonal down here for me?"
Alison went running off up the
stairs.
Fred was walking about the office,
she never really said much, just absorbing everything since she'd come back
from the demon dimension. She picked up
a stuffed toy that Anne had on the shelf.
"He looks well looked after." she
said, in her whispery voice.
"A good friend gave her to
me. She gave me a lot, actually. We met when I got into some trouble with a
'supposed' helper of the homeless, who was taking street kids and making them
work in this strange factory place. I
was a mess then. She came down and got
us all out, she was amazing, risked herself to save us all, not even knowing
who we were. She gave me her job and
her room, even let me have her alias 'Anne'. I was called Lily then. She was
the reason I set this place up, she showed me that there are people willing to
help others. She left that stuffed toy
with me, and I named it after her…" Anne paused for a second, she looked up and
saw Angel staring straight at the stuffed toy, recognition in his eyes.
"Buffy." He said, each syllable of the word its own agony.
"Yeah, that was her, I always
wondered what happened to her."
"She's dead." Angel finished.
Anne looked shocked for a second,
but before she could reply, Jonal appeared in the office.
"Anne, you wanted me? I'm just on my way out."
Anne snapped out of her surprise
for a moment.
"Jonal, yeah, where was that place
where the other guys went to find work? The one you went to the other week."
"It's an old disused factory on
East 33rd street, has a sign saying Party People over the door. Is that it?"
"Yeah sure, you can go."
Anne looked up to see if the group
had gotten the message, only to see the end of Angel's duster leave the
office. She looked around at the rest
of them.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know you knew her, I didn't mean to
upset anyone."
"Believe me, that's not even
'unhappy' with Angel." Cordelia said, trying
to reassure the young girl.
The group said their goodbyes and
made their way out of the office to find Angel. When they got outside, they found the car still there but no
Angel. Each of them knew instantly that
he'd gone ahead without them, so they followed him to the factory.
They walked in through the kicked
in doorway and took in the scene before them. Five demons lay dead or unconscious on the floor, robes and artefacts
scattered around them. The three
missing kids were cowering in a corner of the room. Wesley ran across to them.
"Can you tell us what happened?"
The oldest of the kids began to
speak.
"We came here for work and a place
to stay but there were these guys here and they're part of some cult kind of
thing. There wasn't any work, they were
going to sacrifice us to try and call some gods, some people who they said
could influence the way of the world. They already killed a couple of people." Wesley helped the kids to their feet and handed them over to Fred
and Cordelia. He could hear sounds of
fighting, coming from a further room and followed the noise.
The next room contained an altar,
with hundreds of statues and paintings of two very beautiful Greek people on
them, each one was priceless and had obviously been collected over a great
length of time. In the centre of this
altar stood Angel, a broken piece of wood in his hand.
"They must have been trying to
summon The Powers That Be." Wesley
explained.
"You don't say." Angel called back.
"We must gather all these things,
this collection must have taken eons to congregate."
Angel took one look at his friend,
turned his back and swept the statues off their altar onto the floor. He slashed the wood through paintings,
smashed pottery and kicked the altar until it was in pieces on the floor. Wesley stood back and watched Angel destroy
the room, all the time screaming out, into the heavens.
"Why? Why did you take her from me? Why let her die?" His cries were
pure animal and terrifying.
He screamed once more towards the
roof, "How can you expect me to carry on this work without her?" He then reached into his pocket, pulled out
his lighter and dropped it at the edge of the altar. The entire thing went up in flames around him. He just turned and walked away, past Wesley,
and out into the night.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
Willow sat by the side of the bed
when Xander came into the room.
"Ho-Ho?" He asked, eating one whole.
Willow just shook her head. Xander came across the room and sat by her
side, without a single thought, he took her into his arms and held her close.
"Its like a part of you is
missing, right?"
"Exactly." Willow answered.
"It's weird, having her here, but
not. It's like, worse, somehow, than
before. Then we could get on with our
lives, carry on without her, start to deal. But now, she's here, well, her body is, and we can't do anything."
Willow looked at him, guilt in her
eyes.
"Don't look like that, Will, I
would have done the same if I could have, she's a part of us, she couldn't stay
dead."
"When did you become so grown up?"
Willow asked.
"I guess the thought of marriage
does that to a guy."
"It just seems like everything is
so much harder now, so many more choices and decisions. I mean, It's just this past year, everything
seems to have become more like the big bad world, instead of our own insular
little place. I remember all the fun we
used to have in high school."
"You mean, apart from continually
having to avert the apocalypse?" Xander
joked.
"You know what I mean, everything
was lighter and fun, the only person we really lost was Ms. Calendar, but this
time, we lost one of us, we lost the main body and I don't know if she's going
to come back."
"We'll do everything we can, Will,
the Buffster isn't going this time without a fight."
"I just can't bear to let her go
again. Xander, I just can't."
"I never thought I'd be saying
this, but I can think of at least one other person who lives in LA who is
taking it just as hard as us. Has Angel
been told she's back?"
"No," Willow answered. "I called Cordelia, but she told me what a
terrible state he was in, and that they were just getting him to go out
again. I couldn't tell them she's back,
especially not if we are going to lose her again. Cordelia is worried enough that his soul isn't going to stand
it."
"Yeah well, Angel always liked a
good brood…"
At that point Willow jumped up and
ran from the room, "I've got to call Giles!" she called, "I think I know what's
wrong!"
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
Cordelia walked, once more, into
Angel's office. It had been a week
since the events at the shelter and Angel had once more sunk back into the
silent brooding depression.
"Right," she said, storming into
his apartment. She drew back the
curtains and began picking things up from around the place. "Get dressed, you
have to go out."
"I'm fine where I am."
"You're not, you're moping and
brooding and it's not good. There is a
world out there."
"I don't belong in it."
"Oh yes, you do. You're here to help people, Buffy would have
wanted you to."
"There isn't anyone to help
tonight."
"Surprisingly, there is. You see, downstairs there is a quiet, mousy
librarian, who we dragged into this world from a demon dimension. You see, she formed quite a bond with you,
and recently hasn't seen all that much of you, so tonight, you're taking Fred
out to dinner. No arguments! You owe us!"
Angel took one look at her and
decided it really wasn't worth arguing with her. She was right, he hadn't spent any time at all with Fred since
they had come back and, maybe a night away from all of this would be good, help
clear his mind a little. Maybe he could
fool himself for a second, that this nightmare was just that.
"Alright, let me get changed." he
said, resignedly.
Cordelia let herself out of the
apartment, a small smile on her face. It was about time that he got on with his life, it'd been nearly half a
year now.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
That same Saturday night five
people sat in the back room of Xander's apartment, around the quiet still body
of a very close friend. Xander was
there, opposite were Spike, Giles, Willow and Tara. Anya had been sent to Giles' apartment to look after Dawn and to
let her win at Monopoly.
The five held hands across the
body and across a glass orb that sat on her chest.
"Is everyone ready?" Giles asked, looking at the young faces
about the room.
They all nodded. Willow had
proposed the idea, to Giles, that the reason Buffy was still 'sleeping', was
because her soul had not been tied into her body properly, that the orb had
smashed before the spell was finished. They had been preparing, now, to complete the spell.
"Let's give her a kiss and see if
Sleeping Beauty awakes." Xander said,
in confirmation.
They all closed their eyes and
started chanting.
"Soulcatcher return to us what is hers,
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
Cordelia had picked a very
authentic and peaceful Italian restaurant for Angel and Fred to eat in, just a
five-minute walk from the hotel. They
had talked amicably, at the start, about what Fred remembered of her previous
life, and of the demon world, and how she felt now she was back.
"I just feel lost, somehow," she
told Angel, "like, when I was on Pylea, it wasn't right, but I was a cow, I
knew what my purpose was. Here, I just
don't know anymore."
"I know how that feels." Angel stated.
Fred just looked at him, her eyes
just, somehow, gave him this comfortable feeling, like he could talk to her
about anything.
"I was sent to some other
dimension a few years ago and brought back, and for a long time I didn't know
the reason why I had returned. The
things I had done, I should never have been allowed to exist, but for some
reason, I was given a second chance. It
took someone very close to me to show me that I could make whatever I wanted of
myself, that I was needed. She gave me
the chance to explore my inner feelings more than anyone, she was the one who
brought me here."
The waiter placed their main
courses down on the table. Angel went
silent once more as he reached over to pick up a fork. Fred caught the glint of light, off a ring
on his finger.
"That's a very beautiful
ring. Is it from someone special?"
Angel looked down at the Claddagh
ring on his finger. He had placed it
there again, after hearing of her death, to signify he was with her forever. As he looked up towards Fred again, she
noticed he had an identical, but smaller version on a chain around his neck.
"Did Buffy give that to you?" she
asked quietly.
"No," Angel answered, "I gave the
one around my neck to her, to signify that we were together, I wore an
identical one to hers. I promised
myself that if we couldn't be together, then I would always keep her ring to
give back to her when we were together again."
Fred saw the sheer misery behind
his eyes, but she carried on. Cordelia had
told her that he was unwilling to talk about his pain, but now she had gotten
him started, she didn't want him to stop.
"Did you go to her funeral?" Fred
asked.
"The funeral?" Angel replied. Millions of thoughts ran through his head. He had been in Pylea when they had buried
her, all alone. Willow had tried to
contact him, but he was out of reach, his darling Buffy had been buried and had
never know how much she meant to him.
"No, I didn't go, I was detained
elsewhere." Angel's voice began to
break. He wanted to tell Fred how much
this girl had meant to him, how she was his salvation and his reward, but
before he could begin to get the words out, another searing pain went through
his body as it had done before, in the office.
Fred watched in shock as Angel
crumpled to the floor, plates smashing against the tarmac. He could only utter one word.
"Buffy."
Inside his body, all the cells
that connected to his sense of her, that told him when she was near, screamed
out in agony. He looked up into the eyes
of the woman sitting across from him and felt like he had betrayed his own
soul.
"I have to go." he muttered,
throwing enough money, to cover the meal, on the table. "I'm sorry." And he ran off into the darkness.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
At that moment, the five casters
had reached the peak of the spell. Colours and lights were swirling around the room, all eyes had turned
dark and were staring at the ceiling. The orb, in the middle of Buffy's chest, began to glow a brilliant
white. The chanting continued until a
final word was spoken.
"Return!"
With that, all the light that was
in the bright orb, vanished into the body beneath it. The spell casters were thrown into their respective corners of
the room and all the lights in the apartment went out. An eerie silence fell across the area.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
Angel ran back to the hotel, glad
to see the lights were off, that no one was there. He burst through the doors and on into his office.
His mind was whirling, he didn't
know what he was going to do, he just wanted to grab his car keys and go for a
drive to clear the emotions running through his head. An envelope on his desk caught his eye. It was addressed to him. Wesley must have left it in his office earlier in the day. Something about the smell coming from it
made him pick it up.
He grabbed his letter opener and
sliced it open.
Angel,
I found this recently while clearing the last of her
belongings, I think that she would have wanted you to have it.
All my love,
Dawn
A note on scented paper fell out
of the envelope. Angel brought it up to
his face and inhaled deeply. It smelled
of vanilla and flowers, just like her. He blinked back the tears in his eyes and looked at the writing on the
paper. It was scribed in her familiar
loopy scrawl.
Words cannot express how grateful I am to you for coming to
me in my time of need. I don't know how
I could have coped with the days after the funeral without the memory of you
sitting with me through one of the hardest nights of my life. No matter what, you are always there for me
when I need you the most. For once in
my life I am stuck for words, amazing isn't it? There is so much I want to say to you, but no words seem
right. I've made a decision, Angel, and
I hope you find it in your heart to agree with me. I've found a song that expresses it exactly for me, so I'll leave
you with that, it's by Dina Carroll.
Feels like a lifetime away
When I heard you say
I love you
And it doesn't feel quite the same
Going through the day
Without your loving arms to ease the pain
I would surely go insane
But I know we're gonna be with love again
Though you may be far away
And I have is yesterday
I can't stop the world from turning
Only you can stop the hurting
Though you may be far away
Time and space will not erase
The look of pain upon your face
Said everything you could not say
I know as sure as I breathe
Love will always bring you back to me
If I had to fall in love again
I wouldn't hesitate
If it was with you
But love's story had to go and change
One thing remains
I will never be in love this way again
You know my heart's with you
Even when I can't be next to you
Though you may be far away
And I have is yesterday
I can't stop the world from turning
Only you can stop the hurting
Though you may be far away
Time and space will not erase
The look of pain upon your face
Said everything you could not say
I know as sure as I breathe
Love will always bring you back to me
I knew life would never be the same
Though my nights are long
I keep holding on
Sometimes I feel just like a child again
When I've lost control
Yet I know
That as sure as I breathe
Love will always bring you back to me
I think we've been apart for
long enough. You wanted me to have a
normal life, well I've been there, and I've done that and nothing compares to
spending my life with you.
I love you, until the end of time.
Buffy
A single tear
fell down the vampire's face. He
grabbed his car keys and scribbled a quick note to Cordy, which just stated,
'I'm fine, there's someone I have to go and see.'
He ran out of the hotel and got
into the car, parked outside. He turned
the engine on and headed for the freeway. He was going back to Buffy, he needed to go to the graveside, needed to
truly grieve for his soulmate.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
Inside Xander's apartment five
people began to move around in the darkness. Xander headed towards the door of the bedroom, to go and fix the
lighting problem, but as he got to the doorway and opened it enough to let the
moonlight in, something stopped him. Buffy sat up on the bed, where she had been for a month, and uttered a
single word.
"Angel?"
END OF CHAPTER 3
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