Disclaimers in Chapter 1
Send feedback please to slayerbelle@go.com
Destinies
by Slayerbelle
Chapter 5
"Only the Beginning"
"Angel! Aurora!" Cordelia pounded her fist on the door. "Open up!" She swung her ax and chipped part of the door. "Wesley, help me out here."
"Cordelia, no!"
She stopped swinging. "What? Get up from the floor, Wes, and help me out here!"
"Cordelia, wait! Angel might still be soulless. If we open the door now, he attacks us and we're both dead."
"If we don't get him away from Aurora she'll be bled dry -- if that hasn't happened already!"
"All I'm saying is we need a better plan here, or we're all dead."
"Well you better think of something before I break down this door." Cordelia lifted her arm and swung, splintering the wood a little more. "Which is taking forever. Why don't you think while swinging *your* ax too?"
"It fell over the balcony." He said, pointing. "Stop swinging, Cordelia."
Figured. And he didn't really *have* to attack the gypsy man, the guy was just waiting the spell out. But Wesley believed the guy lunged at him, so they went into attack mode. Cordelia thought it was stupid, Wesley could have been turned into a toad. Good thing the guy turned out to be as normal as the rest, going down quickly with a blunt blow to the back of the head.
Her arm hurt. She stopped swinging the ax and Wesley took that time to kick at the door. It broke, but didn't give.
"Do you hear anything?" he asked her.
"Voices. But now nothing. Angel! Don't suck her blood!"
He sneered sarcastically as he kicked at the door again. "Yes, that will help, Cordelia."
"Well it's not like your being helpful with the not getting ourselves killed when we break through this door plan -- wait."
"What?"
"Aurora's spell! It borrows witch power from like a Mother Witch, right?"
"The borrowing spell."
"I can do that again, right?" Cordelia fumbled her pockets for the slip of paper. "I can borrow the power again, right? Erm...
"Alana, genesis of the path,
I seek your blessing.
Look into my heart, take my cause,
know my intentions.
Lend me your essence."
It hit her again, the cool breeze inside her chest. Radiating from inside her, traveling to her fingertips.
Wow, she could get used to this.
"Daughter of Alana, genesis yours,
blessing is mine.
Find my heart, find my soul,
complete my, my... hands!"
The breeze hit her again, knocking her back a few steps. The cold rushed to her hands, circulating around inside it like blood, rejuvenated blood.
"Oh this is it!" she cried to Wesley. "Get out of the way!" She lifted an arm and struck, hitting the door with her fist. It broke open, falling away from its hinges.
*Oh that was so cool.* Cordelia barely stretched a muscle in doing that, and suddenly she was getting why Buffy seemed all righteous and uppity sometimes. This superhero strength demanded respect, it really did. Cordy was getting exhilarated just by being in the presence of it.
And then her heart fell as she stepped into the room. Was she too late?
"Get away from her!" She cried, throwing herself at Angelus. She was fast as well -- one moment he was on top of Aurora on the hotel bed, his wrist to her mouth, the next he and Cordelia were a heap on the other side of the room. From the corner of her eye she saw Wesley rush into the room. She didn't think he'd be attacking Angelus, Scourge of Europe, unarmed like that, so he was probably going for Aurora.
Cordelia pushed herself back on her feet, and waited for Angelus.
He tossed a look at her, and laughed.
A chill ran up her spine. She hated that laugh.
"Did you give her enough?" She demanded.
"Cordy, Cordy, Cordy." Angelus rose to his feet. "What's this? You playing superhero now?"
Her fist flew, hitting him in the jaw and sending him flying against the wall. She wasn't even breaking a sweat. "Did you give her enough?"
"Whoa, what, you want to hurt me, Cordelia?"
"Just slowing you down. You're going to get your soul back soon. You come near me and it's going to hurt you more, believe me." She took a step closer, eyes burning. "Now tell me. Did. You. Give. Her. Enough."
He touched his mouth, and for the first time she noticed that she wounded him. He licked his own blood off his hand. "She'll never get enough of me."
"Wesley!" Cordelia yelled, not taking her eyes off the monster. "How is she?"
"I think she's alive," she heard him say. "But we need to get her to a hospital--"
Cordelia saw Angelus' body jerk forward and she gasped, readying her fist. She thought he was going for her throat but he fell on his knees instead, convulsing softly. His hand reached out to her for support but she jumped out of the way, so he fell to the floor. He sounded like he was choking, choking with his undead non-breathing.
"The spell." Cordelia said.
Angelus lifted himself up on one arm and she braced herself for more hitting. And then she saw it. His eyes lit up, like something went back into him. He gasped.
There were tears in his eyes.
"Cordelia?" he whispered.
"Angel!" She knew it was him, and not just because she knew him that well. The power that was in her, it was like it knew this was a friend. The cold feeling spilled away from her fingertips like water, she could feel it draining away from her.
She stumbled a bit, like the floor underneath her became less solid. Her body was still tingling all over.
Which was probably nothing compared to the spell hangover Angel was experiencing right now.
*Oh God. He'll remember what he did.* Cordelia quickly was at his side, helping him up. "Angel, you OK?"
"Cordelia!" Wesley hissed. She looked up and saw that he was half out the door, Aurora in his arms. "Hospital, now!"
Angel's mouth was still cut and bleeding. He touched it, and tasted two different kinds of blood. If he didn't remember what happened, he certainly did now. He gasped softly, and knees buckling he fell to the floor again, dragging Cordelia with him.
"Hey, take it easy, fella, not Superwoman anymore." she said.
"Cordelia!" Wesley yelled now. "I can't drive. Broken glasses and all."
"Oh right. Oh God." She let go of Angel and he didn't get up. "Angel, we just have to... you'll be ok, right?"
Their eyes met. "Take care of her," he said. "Go now."
"Of course," Cordelia didn't want to leave him, he seemed like he was in shock. She didn't want to ask either, but she had to. "Angel, wait. You have to tell me how much she drank."
The memory was coming back to him and he flinched visibly. "A -- lot. She drank a lot. I don't know if it's enough, but it was more than... I don't..."
"Cordelia!" Wesley yelled from the hallway.
"Go," Angel said firmly.
She hated to see him suffer. He didn't deserve any more, 250 years of pain was already bearing down on him. So Cordelia ran out of the room and didn't look back.
====
He was at the hospital by nightfall.
The spell had some kind of burnout effect on him. Cordelia ran out of the hotel room and the next thing he knew he was unconscious for the better part of the day. At least it had been the dreamless kind of blacking out, and it delayed his disgust at himself at least a few more hours.
He bought flowers.
Wesley had called him from the hospital to let him know Aurora was all right, but didn't say any more. He found the room, saw that the door was open. He stood at the doorway, watching them. Cordelia was at Aurora's bedside and they were talking quietly. Aurora turned to him as soon as he got there. He had a feeling that she still had a sense of his presence, if not out of power then out of habit.
"Angel," she said softly.
Cordelia looked up. "You just missed Wesley. He went back to the hotel, something about the Scroll."
"Yeah, he said he'd be working on that." Angel tentatively took a step forward, placed the vase of flowers on the small table at the foot of the bed.
Aurora was looking at him, but wasn't saying anything. He didn't know what to say. All he could do was look at the bandage on her neck. And remember how soft it was, and how her blood was...
"Eherm," Cordelia cleared her throat. "I have to, um, go and help Wes with the Scroll thingy." She squeezed Aurora's arm. "Remember what I said, OK? And call me. As often as you can." She kissed Aurora on the forehead before standing up.
He hadn't seen Cordelia with a friend like this in so long. Or possibly never.
She gave him a look as she passed him. "Can I speak to you a minute? Outside?"
They were barely out of the open doorway when she engulfed him in a big hug. "We thought... we thought the worst," she admitted into his chest once they were safely out of Aurora's sight and earshot. "She wasn't moving, her eyes were just open... it was scary."
He held her close for a second, not able to respond. He could remember it, all of it, how he had not just violated her physically but... Self-loathing was beginning to well up in his throat again.
Cordelia sniffled and broke away from him. "Stop it," she demanded. She swatted him on the chest. "Stop it! It wasn't you. It was that Kalderash guy and their horrible sense of justice. You were played, Angel. This is not your fault."
"Cordelia, let's not talk about this now," he said deliberately. "Tell me what happened when you got her here."
She paused, not liking how he shut her out. But she cleared her throat and replied anyway. "She had a faint pulse, and Wesley demanded that they do a blood transfusion."
"Did she need it?" The actual act was a blur to him, but he could remember how long he drank from her. It was long. And he didn't hold back.
Cordelia shrugged. "We didn't know how the whole thing worked, I mean, if we could, like, stop her from turning if we just gave her enough human blood."
"Did she die at any time during the night?"
A weird question, but a valid one for people in their line of work.
"I think her heart stopped for a second, but they brought her back. Don't worry, we checked this morning. She didn't burst into flame after we opened the windows on her." Cordelia let out a jagged breath. "It was scary. I didn't understand half of what the doctor was saying but Wesley did and he looked really worried. He tells me it's a wonder she survived, the doctors didn't know she would, or something."
"What did you tell the doctors? They must have asked about... her neck..."
"Um, I think Wesley said wild dog," Cordelia checked her watch. "I know you two have to talk. I'll just exit quietly, and actually go help Wesley with his excuse for leaving you two alone." She hugged him again, and kissed his cheek as she left. "Oh, and if anyone asks, Wesley's her husband and I'm her sister."
====
It was like they were just there, looking at each other for hours.
She had rehearsed so many speeches in her head, so many different ways to tell him... and then last night happened, and they were all out the window.
"You hurt me." She said softly. It wasn't an accusation.
He had been playing with the flowers with his idle hands. "I... I didn't mean to."
"I know that." Aurora sighed. "Of all people, you know I'd know that."
"I'm very sorry, I can't apologize enough."
"I don't want you to." Aurora absently touched the bandage on her neck. It stung a little, she could feel the wound was only beginning to heal. "Look, this is going to be the last conversation we're going to have for a long time. Can we just junk the awkward apologies now?"
There was that pain again on his face, that deep pain that never went away. It hurt that she was another statistic. She didn't want to be.
"Angel," she tried again, gentler now. "I just... Look. It's a cop-out, trying to convince you that Angelus is not you. Because you don't believe that anyway."
There was a flicker of a protest in his eyes, but she raised a palm to shut him up.
"You don't believe that. You suffer for all that Angelus did because you did it. And no one can convince you otherwise, so I won't bother anymore."
Her voice was coming out a little hoarse, and because of that what was coming out of her mouth was an abridged version of what she was thinking... but she had to say these things.
She cleared her throat with difficulty, and started again. "That said, you hurt me last night. I know you killed me. I won't ever forget it. But I don't want to be another one of your regrets. So I don't want you to ever mention last night to me again, unless you know that mentioning it will make you feel better, permanently. OK?"
Angel let go of the flowers. "OK." And then he was silent.
She looked at him, and knew he understood her. Aurora sighed. "OK then. Is there something else you want to say on this last conversation of ours?"
"Are you going to work for Wolfram and Hart?"
Now that caught her off guard, again. "What? The Host, did he see that?"
"He did, but I guessed as much too. What did they offer you, Aurora?"
She laughed softly, and then stopped because she felt like she was tearing her stitches. "Everything."
"You don't have to do this. I can -- I'm sure Wesley and I can find some spell to counteract... I mean, we can try to protect you, I know we can." He noticed the difficulty she was having talking, so he slowly made his way to her side, occupying the stool Cordelia had used.
"And while you do that we'll be forced to re-enact last night's drama in much a Groundhog Day manner, until we get it right." She said, smiling thinly. "I don't think I'm up to that, Angel."
There was again that pain, and she saw him searching his head for something, anything to offer her. He gently grabbed her hand and tried to make a final plea. "You know you can't trust them, Aurora. They're going to protect you for as long as you're useful to them--"
"Relax, Angel." She squeezed his hand back. "Not working for Wolfram and Hart. I'm leaving, but I'm going to Sunnydale."
"Sunnydale?" Now that was out of left field for him.
"I know. One hell for another, right?"
"Did you... did you get a vision?"
She nodded. "Yes. In much the same way I did when I started with you. Looks like I haven't ruined my destiny after all."
"You didn't ruin anything, Aurora."
"Oh, let's not. Please." Aurora shook her head vehemently. "I know I'm much to blame for all this drama. I was afraid that when I met you, I lost track... I forgot why I was doing this."
"I don't understand."
"I loved knowing you." Aurora said. "I loved being in your life, and not anonymously. For the longest time I wondered what it would be like, because when you touch people, their lives change. And now I know, and I have to pay the price."
"And your life has changed." he said, sadly.
"I know I'll eventually come to a point where I won't regret it." She lifted a hand tentatively, softly touching his forehead with the tips of her fingers. She waited for a moment, and then sighed.
It was the same way she touched him when they first met, but without the power he saw and felt nothing, just her.
"Nothing," she said.
"It's just magic." he said. "You'll get it back."
"Yeah, and the Slayer now. She must be up for much darkness if I'm being recruited to help her."
He squeezed her hand again. "It's good you'll be around to protect her."
"If I help her make it to your Shanshu, I'll die fulfilled."
"But nothing changes for you. The Kalderash will still be after you."
"Yes, but in Sunnydale I'll have my powers back. They can't back me into a corner that easily."
"Why are you doing this?" He asked, obviously a little overwhelmed. "Wolfram and Hart is giving you a choice where you don't have to run."
She smiled at him. "I know. I'm sure there's even a decent car plan there," she said wryly. "But I was given a choice. And I choose to do this. Now I know that I do this not because of you, but because it's the right thing to do. And that makes me feel good about myself again."
"I admire that in you," Angel confessed. "I think you're being irrational, but I admire that in you." He gently tucked his hand behind her head and drew her to him. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "Thank you, Aurora."
She let her head rest on his chest and he could hear her softly sobbing.
====
"Were you able to say goodbye to her?" Angel said, getting back to the hotel and catching Wesley working on the Scroll of Aberjian again.
Wesley looked up from an armful of notes. "Oh to Aurora? Yes, yes I was. So, Sunnydale, eh? We should probably give her a going-away present. Like an ax."
Angel set his coat down on a chair and shook his head. "I'm always the last to know around here, aren't I?"
"Yes, well, you do get testy and high-and-mighty about her life choices."
"Wesley," Angel said, taking a chair on the kitchen table. "Tell me about when you brought her to the hospital. Cordy said you demanded a blood transfusion."
"Oh." Wesley took off his glasses -- his spare pair -- and started cleaning them on the sleeve of his shirt. "I did. She looked like she had lost a lot of blood, and her pulse was so weak... but by the time we got there, the doctors said she was stabilizing. They said she didn't need a transfusion."
"What are you talking about?" Angel demanded. "I know she couldn't have survived that..."
"They said she was stabilizing, I was as puzzled as you were." Wesley shrugged. "I just told them she had a blood disease and it was imperative that they try a transfusion, and they did, but eventually they told me they stopped because she didn't need it. I don't know what happened but she literally came back to life some time during the night, and on her own."
"Because she's meant for bigger things," Angel said softly, more to himself.
"I agree. So this morning I went back here and decided to work on the scroll again, and I found this." Wesley took the top notebook and turned it over for Angel to see. "I didn't notice this before, but the word 'Liware' in written in the same manner, meaning this kind of cursive inclination, as 'vampire with a soul' and 'woman who is chosen'. It means 'liware' is not an inanimate or abstract object, but a proper noun, a--"
"It's a person. Aurora."
Wesley let the realization settle for a moment. "Well in no specific terms, and I maintain that these people in this prophecy could mean any other two people in your life who are not Buffy and Aurora, but let's admit that the coincidence is uncanny."
"I don't get many coincidences in my life, Wesley."
"And another thing. The liware leaves the vampire with a soul to go to the woman who is chosen, to give her a gift. This gift is apparently necessary for the harginda -- the reunion -- of the vampire and the woman to take place. I've figured out what it is."
Angel waited as Wesley paused to take a breath.
Wesley pointed to a scribble on the notebook. "The gift is life."
He saw what Wesley was pointing to. A rough translation of the word, and the synonyms Wesley had jotted down.
Years. Time. Energy. Life.
Aurora was going to have her work cut out for her.
====
The house was bigger than he thought it would be.
OK, so the only other experience he had with a slayer was Faith, and she wasn't the split-level house and picket fence type. He was actually glad to know they came in many packages.
He walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. He made sure to come by late in the afternoon. He didn't have time to do the legwork on her schedule, didn't know her routine yet, but at least found out whether or not she'd be home that day. He didn't have the luxury of time, not right now.
He caught his reflection on the window and straightened up his tie, just as the door opened.
"Yeah?" The blond said.
She was smaller than he'd expected, looked a little frailer than Faith. That was probably the most intriguing about her -- all that strength for that small a physical entity. No wonder she gave Angel grief.
"Good afternoon," he said congenially. "I have a package for Ms. Buffy Summers?"
"That's me," she said, palm open now, waiting for the pen, a little disarmed at the sight of the attractive messenger. "Where do I sign?"
"Oh, this doesn't really require signing." He handed her a thin brown envelope.
"OK." She accepted it slowly, frowning with the tiniest hint of suspicion. Noticing that the envelope was too thin to fit a bomb or any kind of exploding contraption, she shrugged and read the insignia on the return address. "Wolfram and Hart, Attorneys at Law. Yeesh. Are you a lawyer?"
"Yes." She also had more people skills than Faith, which he appreciated. He held out his palm and they shook hands. "Lindsey McDonald."
"Buffy Summers, but that you already know. This envelope doesn't look like much, Lindsey. Why are Wolfram and Hart's lawyers bringing it over to my home personally?"
She was flirting. A little. He was amused, slightly delighted. He didn't expect it. "Personal project," he said.
He heard a noise from inside the house and a girl younger than Buffy peeked into the foyer. "Who's that?" the teenager asked.
"Excuse me," Buffy said. To the girl, in a very big sisterly voice, "Inside, Dawn. I'm talking to a stranger."
"Monster?"
"Lawyer."
"Oh."
Lindsey chuckled silently as the girl did as Buffy said.
She turned to him, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. Little sisters, you know...but they know their monsters, God bless them."
He smiled. "You're absolutely right."
"Anyway. Thanks for bringing this over. Whatever it is."
"My pleasure, Buffy Summers."
He walked back to car feeling pleased with himself. Under the circumstances. He was hoping he wouldn't have to give his personal copy of the photograph away, but Aurora had given him no choice.
He couldn't blame her, though. They all did what they had to do. He knew she wasn't going to blame him for that either.
THE END.
Send feedback please to slayerbelle@go.com
Destinies
by Slayerbelle
Chapter 5
"Only the Beginning"
"Angel! Aurora!" Cordelia pounded her fist on the door. "Open up!" She swung her ax and chipped part of the door. "Wesley, help me out here."
"Cordelia, no!"
She stopped swinging. "What? Get up from the floor, Wes, and help me out here!"
"Cordelia, wait! Angel might still be soulless. If we open the door now, he attacks us and we're both dead."
"If we don't get him away from Aurora she'll be bled dry -- if that hasn't happened already!"
"All I'm saying is we need a better plan here, or we're all dead."
"Well you better think of something before I break down this door." Cordelia lifted her arm and swung, splintering the wood a little more. "Which is taking forever. Why don't you think while swinging *your* ax too?"
"It fell over the balcony." He said, pointing. "Stop swinging, Cordelia."
Figured. And he didn't really *have* to attack the gypsy man, the guy was just waiting the spell out. But Wesley believed the guy lunged at him, so they went into attack mode. Cordelia thought it was stupid, Wesley could have been turned into a toad. Good thing the guy turned out to be as normal as the rest, going down quickly with a blunt blow to the back of the head.
Her arm hurt. She stopped swinging the ax and Wesley took that time to kick at the door. It broke, but didn't give.
"Do you hear anything?" he asked her.
"Voices. But now nothing. Angel! Don't suck her blood!"
He sneered sarcastically as he kicked at the door again. "Yes, that will help, Cordelia."
"Well it's not like your being helpful with the not getting ourselves killed when we break through this door plan -- wait."
"What?"
"Aurora's spell! It borrows witch power from like a Mother Witch, right?"
"The borrowing spell."
"I can do that again, right?" Cordelia fumbled her pockets for the slip of paper. "I can borrow the power again, right? Erm...
"Alana, genesis of the path,
I seek your blessing.
Look into my heart, take my cause,
know my intentions.
Lend me your essence."
It hit her again, the cool breeze inside her chest. Radiating from inside her, traveling to her fingertips.
Wow, she could get used to this.
"Daughter of Alana, genesis yours,
blessing is mine.
Find my heart, find my soul,
complete my, my... hands!"
The breeze hit her again, knocking her back a few steps. The cold rushed to her hands, circulating around inside it like blood, rejuvenated blood.
"Oh this is it!" she cried to Wesley. "Get out of the way!" She lifted an arm and struck, hitting the door with her fist. It broke open, falling away from its hinges.
*Oh that was so cool.* Cordelia barely stretched a muscle in doing that, and suddenly she was getting why Buffy seemed all righteous and uppity sometimes. This superhero strength demanded respect, it really did. Cordy was getting exhilarated just by being in the presence of it.
And then her heart fell as she stepped into the room. Was she too late?
"Get away from her!" She cried, throwing herself at Angelus. She was fast as well -- one moment he was on top of Aurora on the hotel bed, his wrist to her mouth, the next he and Cordelia were a heap on the other side of the room. From the corner of her eye she saw Wesley rush into the room. She didn't think he'd be attacking Angelus, Scourge of Europe, unarmed like that, so he was probably going for Aurora.
Cordelia pushed herself back on her feet, and waited for Angelus.
He tossed a look at her, and laughed.
A chill ran up her spine. She hated that laugh.
"Did you give her enough?" She demanded.
"Cordy, Cordy, Cordy." Angelus rose to his feet. "What's this? You playing superhero now?"
Her fist flew, hitting him in the jaw and sending him flying against the wall. She wasn't even breaking a sweat. "Did you give her enough?"
"Whoa, what, you want to hurt me, Cordelia?"
"Just slowing you down. You're going to get your soul back soon. You come near me and it's going to hurt you more, believe me." She took a step closer, eyes burning. "Now tell me. Did. You. Give. Her. Enough."
He touched his mouth, and for the first time she noticed that she wounded him. He licked his own blood off his hand. "She'll never get enough of me."
"Wesley!" Cordelia yelled, not taking her eyes off the monster. "How is she?"
"I think she's alive," she heard him say. "But we need to get her to a hospital--"
Cordelia saw Angelus' body jerk forward and she gasped, readying her fist. She thought he was going for her throat but he fell on his knees instead, convulsing softly. His hand reached out to her for support but she jumped out of the way, so he fell to the floor. He sounded like he was choking, choking with his undead non-breathing.
"The spell." Cordelia said.
Angelus lifted himself up on one arm and she braced herself for more hitting. And then she saw it. His eyes lit up, like something went back into him. He gasped.
There were tears in his eyes.
"Cordelia?" he whispered.
"Angel!" She knew it was him, and not just because she knew him that well. The power that was in her, it was like it knew this was a friend. The cold feeling spilled away from her fingertips like water, she could feel it draining away from her.
She stumbled a bit, like the floor underneath her became less solid. Her body was still tingling all over.
Which was probably nothing compared to the spell hangover Angel was experiencing right now.
*Oh God. He'll remember what he did.* Cordelia quickly was at his side, helping him up. "Angel, you OK?"
"Cordelia!" Wesley hissed. She looked up and saw that he was half out the door, Aurora in his arms. "Hospital, now!"
Angel's mouth was still cut and bleeding. He touched it, and tasted two different kinds of blood. If he didn't remember what happened, he certainly did now. He gasped softly, and knees buckling he fell to the floor again, dragging Cordelia with him.
"Hey, take it easy, fella, not Superwoman anymore." she said.
"Cordelia!" Wesley yelled now. "I can't drive. Broken glasses and all."
"Oh right. Oh God." She let go of Angel and he didn't get up. "Angel, we just have to... you'll be ok, right?"
Their eyes met. "Take care of her," he said. "Go now."
"Of course," Cordelia didn't want to leave him, he seemed like he was in shock. She didn't want to ask either, but she had to. "Angel, wait. You have to tell me how much she drank."
The memory was coming back to him and he flinched visibly. "A -- lot. She drank a lot. I don't know if it's enough, but it was more than... I don't..."
"Cordelia!" Wesley yelled from the hallway.
"Go," Angel said firmly.
She hated to see him suffer. He didn't deserve any more, 250 years of pain was already bearing down on him. So Cordelia ran out of the room and didn't look back.
====
He was at the hospital by nightfall.
The spell had some kind of burnout effect on him. Cordelia ran out of the hotel room and the next thing he knew he was unconscious for the better part of the day. At least it had been the dreamless kind of blacking out, and it delayed his disgust at himself at least a few more hours.
He bought flowers.
Wesley had called him from the hospital to let him know Aurora was all right, but didn't say any more. He found the room, saw that the door was open. He stood at the doorway, watching them. Cordelia was at Aurora's bedside and they were talking quietly. Aurora turned to him as soon as he got there. He had a feeling that she still had a sense of his presence, if not out of power then out of habit.
"Angel," she said softly.
Cordelia looked up. "You just missed Wesley. He went back to the hotel, something about the Scroll."
"Yeah, he said he'd be working on that." Angel tentatively took a step forward, placed the vase of flowers on the small table at the foot of the bed.
Aurora was looking at him, but wasn't saying anything. He didn't know what to say. All he could do was look at the bandage on her neck. And remember how soft it was, and how her blood was...
"Eherm," Cordelia cleared her throat. "I have to, um, go and help Wes with the Scroll thingy." She squeezed Aurora's arm. "Remember what I said, OK? And call me. As often as you can." She kissed Aurora on the forehead before standing up.
He hadn't seen Cordelia with a friend like this in so long. Or possibly never.
She gave him a look as she passed him. "Can I speak to you a minute? Outside?"
They were barely out of the open doorway when she engulfed him in a big hug. "We thought... we thought the worst," she admitted into his chest once they were safely out of Aurora's sight and earshot. "She wasn't moving, her eyes were just open... it was scary."
He held her close for a second, not able to respond. He could remember it, all of it, how he had not just violated her physically but... Self-loathing was beginning to well up in his throat again.
Cordelia sniffled and broke away from him. "Stop it," she demanded. She swatted him on the chest. "Stop it! It wasn't you. It was that Kalderash guy and their horrible sense of justice. You were played, Angel. This is not your fault."
"Cordelia, let's not talk about this now," he said deliberately. "Tell me what happened when you got her here."
She paused, not liking how he shut her out. But she cleared her throat and replied anyway. "She had a faint pulse, and Wesley demanded that they do a blood transfusion."
"Did she need it?" The actual act was a blur to him, but he could remember how long he drank from her. It was long. And he didn't hold back.
Cordelia shrugged. "We didn't know how the whole thing worked, I mean, if we could, like, stop her from turning if we just gave her enough human blood."
"Did she die at any time during the night?"
A weird question, but a valid one for people in their line of work.
"I think her heart stopped for a second, but they brought her back. Don't worry, we checked this morning. She didn't burst into flame after we opened the windows on her." Cordelia let out a jagged breath. "It was scary. I didn't understand half of what the doctor was saying but Wesley did and he looked really worried. He tells me it's a wonder she survived, the doctors didn't know she would, or something."
"What did you tell the doctors? They must have asked about... her neck..."
"Um, I think Wesley said wild dog," Cordelia checked her watch. "I know you two have to talk. I'll just exit quietly, and actually go help Wesley with his excuse for leaving you two alone." She hugged him again, and kissed his cheek as she left. "Oh, and if anyone asks, Wesley's her husband and I'm her sister."
====
It was like they were just there, looking at each other for hours.
She had rehearsed so many speeches in her head, so many different ways to tell him... and then last night happened, and they were all out the window.
"You hurt me." She said softly. It wasn't an accusation.
He had been playing with the flowers with his idle hands. "I... I didn't mean to."
"I know that." Aurora sighed. "Of all people, you know I'd know that."
"I'm very sorry, I can't apologize enough."
"I don't want you to." Aurora absently touched the bandage on her neck. It stung a little, she could feel the wound was only beginning to heal. "Look, this is going to be the last conversation we're going to have for a long time. Can we just junk the awkward apologies now?"
There was that pain again on his face, that deep pain that never went away. It hurt that she was another statistic. She didn't want to be.
"Angel," she tried again, gentler now. "I just... Look. It's a cop-out, trying to convince you that Angelus is not you. Because you don't believe that anyway."
There was a flicker of a protest in his eyes, but she raised a palm to shut him up.
"You don't believe that. You suffer for all that Angelus did because you did it. And no one can convince you otherwise, so I won't bother anymore."
Her voice was coming out a little hoarse, and because of that what was coming out of her mouth was an abridged version of what she was thinking... but she had to say these things.
She cleared her throat with difficulty, and started again. "That said, you hurt me last night. I know you killed me. I won't ever forget it. But I don't want to be another one of your regrets. So I don't want you to ever mention last night to me again, unless you know that mentioning it will make you feel better, permanently. OK?"
Angel let go of the flowers. "OK." And then he was silent.
She looked at him, and knew he understood her. Aurora sighed. "OK then. Is there something else you want to say on this last conversation of ours?"
"Are you going to work for Wolfram and Hart?"
Now that caught her off guard, again. "What? The Host, did he see that?"
"He did, but I guessed as much too. What did they offer you, Aurora?"
She laughed softly, and then stopped because she felt like she was tearing her stitches. "Everything."
"You don't have to do this. I can -- I'm sure Wesley and I can find some spell to counteract... I mean, we can try to protect you, I know we can." He noticed the difficulty she was having talking, so he slowly made his way to her side, occupying the stool Cordelia had used.
"And while you do that we'll be forced to re-enact last night's drama in much a Groundhog Day manner, until we get it right." She said, smiling thinly. "I don't think I'm up to that, Angel."
There was again that pain, and she saw him searching his head for something, anything to offer her. He gently grabbed her hand and tried to make a final plea. "You know you can't trust them, Aurora. They're going to protect you for as long as you're useful to them--"
"Relax, Angel." She squeezed his hand back. "Not working for Wolfram and Hart. I'm leaving, but I'm going to Sunnydale."
"Sunnydale?" Now that was out of left field for him.
"I know. One hell for another, right?"
"Did you... did you get a vision?"
She nodded. "Yes. In much the same way I did when I started with you. Looks like I haven't ruined my destiny after all."
"You didn't ruin anything, Aurora."
"Oh, let's not. Please." Aurora shook her head vehemently. "I know I'm much to blame for all this drama. I was afraid that when I met you, I lost track... I forgot why I was doing this."
"I don't understand."
"I loved knowing you." Aurora said. "I loved being in your life, and not anonymously. For the longest time I wondered what it would be like, because when you touch people, their lives change. And now I know, and I have to pay the price."
"And your life has changed." he said, sadly.
"I know I'll eventually come to a point where I won't regret it." She lifted a hand tentatively, softly touching his forehead with the tips of her fingers. She waited for a moment, and then sighed.
It was the same way she touched him when they first met, but without the power he saw and felt nothing, just her.
"Nothing," she said.
"It's just magic." he said. "You'll get it back."
"Yeah, and the Slayer now. She must be up for much darkness if I'm being recruited to help her."
He squeezed her hand again. "It's good you'll be around to protect her."
"If I help her make it to your Shanshu, I'll die fulfilled."
"But nothing changes for you. The Kalderash will still be after you."
"Yes, but in Sunnydale I'll have my powers back. They can't back me into a corner that easily."
"Why are you doing this?" He asked, obviously a little overwhelmed. "Wolfram and Hart is giving you a choice where you don't have to run."
She smiled at him. "I know. I'm sure there's even a decent car plan there," she said wryly. "But I was given a choice. And I choose to do this. Now I know that I do this not because of you, but because it's the right thing to do. And that makes me feel good about myself again."
"I admire that in you," Angel confessed. "I think you're being irrational, but I admire that in you." He gently tucked his hand behind her head and drew her to him. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "Thank you, Aurora."
She let her head rest on his chest and he could hear her softly sobbing.
====
"Were you able to say goodbye to her?" Angel said, getting back to the hotel and catching Wesley working on the Scroll of Aberjian again.
Wesley looked up from an armful of notes. "Oh to Aurora? Yes, yes I was. So, Sunnydale, eh? We should probably give her a going-away present. Like an ax."
Angel set his coat down on a chair and shook his head. "I'm always the last to know around here, aren't I?"
"Yes, well, you do get testy and high-and-mighty about her life choices."
"Wesley," Angel said, taking a chair on the kitchen table. "Tell me about when you brought her to the hospital. Cordy said you demanded a blood transfusion."
"Oh." Wesley took off his glasses -- his spare pair -- and started cleaning them on the sleeve of his shirt. "I did. She looked like she had lost a lot of blood, and her pulse was so weak... but by the time we got there, the doctors said she was stabilizing. They said she didn't need a transfusion."
"What are you talking about?" Angel demanded. "I know she couldn't have survived that..."
"They said she was stabilizing, I was as puzzled as you were." Wesley shrugged. "I just told them she had a blood disease and it was imperative that they try a transfusion, and they did, but eventually they told me they stopped because she didn't need it. I don't know what happened but she literally came back to life some time during the night, and on her own."
"Because she's meant for bigger things," Angel said softly, more to himself.
"I agree. So this morning I went back here and decided to work on the scroll again, and I found this." Wesley took the top notebook and turned it over for Angel to see. "I didn't notice this before, but the word 'Liware' in written in the same manner, meaning this kind of cursive inclination, as 'vampire with a soul' and 'woman who is chosen'. It means 'liware' is not an inanimate or abstract object, but a proper noun, a--"
"It's a person. Aurora."
Wesley let the realization settle for a moment. "Well in no specific terms, and I maintain that these people in this prophecy could mean any other two people in your life who are not Buffy and Aurora, but let's admit that the coincidence is uncanny."
"I don't get many coincidences in my life, Wesley."
"And another thing. The liware leaves the vampire with a soul to go to the woman who is chosen, to give her a gift. This gift is apparently necessary for the harginda -- the reunion -- of the vampire and the woman to take place. I've figured out what it is."
Angel waited as Wesley paused to take a breath.
Wesley pointed to a scribble on the notebook. "The gift is life."
He saw what Wesley was pointing to. A rough translation of the word, and the synonyms Wesley had jotted down.
Years. Time. Energy. Life.
Aurora was going to have her work cut out for her.
====
The house was bigger than he thought it would be.
OK, so the only other experience he had with a slayer was Faith, and she wasn't the split-level house and picket fence type. He was actually glad to know they came in many packages.
He walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. He made sure to come by late in the afternoon. He didn't have time to do the legwork on her schedule, didn't know her routine yet, but at least found out whether or not she'd be home that day. He didn't have the luxury of time, not right now.
He caught his reflection on the window and straightened up his tie, just as the door opened.
"Yeah?" The blond said.
She was smaller than he'd expected, looked a little frailer than Faith. That was probably the most intriguing about her -- all that strength for that small a physical entity. No wonder she gave Angel grief.
"Good afternoon," he said congenially. "I have a package for Ms. Buffy Summers?"
"That's me," she said, palm open now, waiting for the pen, a little disarmed at the sight of the attractive messenger. "Where do I sign?"
"Oh, this doesn't really require signing." He handed her a thin brown envelope.
"OK." She accepted it slowly, frowning with the tiniest hint of suspicion. Noticing that the envelope was too thin to fit a bomb or any kind of exploding contraption, she shrugged and read the insignia on the return address. "Wolfram and Hart, Attorneys at Law. Yeesh. Are you a lawyer?"
"Yes." She also had more people skills than Faith, which he appreciated. He held out his palm and they shook hands. "Lindsey McDonald."
"Buffy Summers, but that you already know. This envelope doesn't look like much, Lindsey. Why are Wolfram and Hart's lawyers bringing it over to my home personally?"
She was flirting. A little. He was amused, slightly delighted. He didn't expect it. "Personal project," he said.
He heard a noise from inside the house and a girl younger than Buffy peeked into the foyer. "Who's that?" the teenager asked.
"Excuse me," Buffy said. To the girl, in a very big sisterly voice, "Inside, Dawn. I'm talking to a stranger."
"Monster?"
"Lawyer."
"Oh."
Lindsey chuckled silently as the girl did as Buffy said.
She turned to him, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. Little sisters, you know...but they know their monsters, God bless them."
He smiled. "You're absolutely right."
"Anyway. Thanks for bringing this over. Whatever it is."
"My pleasure, Buffy Summers."
He walked back to car feeling pleased with himself. Under the circumstances. He was hoping he wouldn't have to give his personal copy of the photograph away, but Aurora had given him no choice.
He couldn't blame her, though. They all did what they had to do. He knew she wasn't going to blame him for that either.
THE END.
