Title: Fallen
Author: LanaraofEarth
Rating: PG-13 ish...maybe R later on
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series are not mine and never will be, no matter how much I might wish otherwise. The characters of both shows belong to Joss Wedon, Fox and other people and companies that I can't remember right at this moment.
Summary: After being shunned by the gang in LA, Wesley leaves and ends up in Sunnydale. Possibly Wes and Buffy shippiness
Note: Words etc. in * are a character's inner thoughts/dialogue.
* Part 2 *
Buffy found little demonic activity of any kind that night, save for a Toroth demon who was trying to sacrifice a cat, so she found herself home earlier than usual.
Which allowed her to wake up earlier.
Buffy was up with the rising sun, preparing a, fairly edible, hot breakfast for her growing sibling.
Dawn needed her to be strong, to be the one in charge and that was exactly what she was going to be. If that meant that she had shut a part of herself off from the world, then that was just what she was going to have to do.
Scrambled eggs crackled in the frying pan as the rays of the sun filtered in through the kitchen.
The smell of coffee and bacon permeated the room, a not altogether unpleasant sent.
That was the first thing that Dawn Summers noticed when she opened her bedroom door at 7:40 am.
Her brow creased in confusion at the enticing smells. * I wonder if Tara stayed over last night? Maybe she and Willow have gotten back together * the younger Summers wondered, the thought that her sister might be awake AND cooking never crossed her mind.
Dawn moved towards the bathroom to get ready for school, but her curiosity got the better of her and she turned the other way towards the stairs.
The smells intensified as she descended the stairs and approached the kitchen; Dawn sighed in pleasure. It wasn't often these days that she was able to enjoy a warm, cooked breakfast, not since…
Dawn cut that thought off quickly and instead continued walking until she was standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
The young girl stood in shock at the sight that met her eyes. * Demon possession…that is a definite possibility…or some sort of shape shifting demon, maybe? * she mused.
*Right Dawn, cause lots of demons cook their prospective meals or sacrifices breakfast…* although, that last thought might not be too far off, Dawn thought as she witnessed her sister flip a pancake effortlessly into the air before it landed back in the pan and NOT on the tiled floor.
Buffy chose that moment to speak up, "Well, are you going to stand there gawking at me all day, Dawnie, or are you actually going to come in and eat something. Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day, you know."
Dawn slowly approached her sister, wary of the new "Suzy homemaker" Buffy.
Buffy rolled her eyes at her sister's behaviour as she flipped the now finished pancake into a plate by the stove. "I'm not a demon, Dawn."
Dawn raised an eyebrow sceptically, "Right…and the whole Martha Buffy Stewart thing going on here is…what? The result of a profound revelation that you could put your slaying skills to practical use in the kitchen?"
Buffy turned to glare at her younger sibling and waved the spatula in her hand menacingly at Dawn, "I CAN cook, Dawn, contrary to popular belief…besides a double meat special from the double meat palace. Jeese, 'tude much…do you smell anything burning oh sceptical one?"
Dawn unconsciously lifted her nose higher into the air and took in a deep breath.
Buffy gave her a look that screamed * SEE! *
Dawn, still doubtful, cautiously lowered herself onto one of the stools by the island in the middle of the kitchen.
Buffy gave her sister one more glare for good measure before going to the refrigerator, retrieving a carton of orange juice and plonking it down in front of Dawn.
A second later a tumbler sat beside the carton.
Dawn raise another eyebrow at her sisters behaviour but kept her mouth shut.
The light of the sun suddenly caught the metal on one of the pans on the stove and shone directly into Dawns face. The young girl squinted at the sudden glare and rubbed her eyes tiredly as she shifted her chair out of the sun.
"So…why are you up so early? You don't usually stumble out of bed for like another thirty minutes or so?"
Buffy winced at the reminder of how badly she had been acting lately.
It wasn't Dawns fault that she had been ripped out of heaven and thrust back into this hell. She was just an innocent. One that Buffy loved with all of her heart, who needed her big sisters care and protection.
Buffy plastered a smile on her face, one that almost managed to reach her eyes as she turned to face her sister.
"It was pretty slow last night, so I was able to get back early…so I'm up early."
Dawn still wasn't convinced, "And you're venturing into the land of cooking real food because...?"
Buffy sighed dramatically as she turned off one of the burners. "Because…I figured that since I was up I would be useful and do some cooking. We haven't had a cooked breakfast in awhile and since it's a Friday I though that it might be nice. Happy now, Demon Hunter Dawn? Have a proved my species yet?"
Dawn shrugged her shoulders as she poured herself a glass of juice.
Buffy rolled her eyes and grit her teeth. No matter what she had promised herself, there were some times when she really wanted to kill her sister; in a nice way, of course.
Buffy had just set a plate of steaming food in front of Dawn when Willow entered the sun filled kitchen, scratching her head sleepily and yawning.
When the young Wicca fully took in the scene before her the "Good morning" that had begun died on her lips.
She stood speechless for several moments as her brain tried to process the information that it was receiving from her eyes.
Buffy was cooking.
Cooking.
Actual food.
Buffy snorted in disgust and turned back to the coffee machine before her.
Dawn went to Willows side and when she didn't respond the young girl snapped her fingers in front of the Wicca's face.
Willow jumped back in surprise and looked down at Dawn, confusion written plainly across her face.
Dawn grinned and patted Will on the shoulder, "I know…and, no, she's not a demon. That's our Buffy. Maybe a little less sane than before, but our Buffy nonetheless."
"I heard that. And just for that little crack I'm giving you the piece of toast that's slightly burnt."
Willow nodded absently at the commentary as she continued to watch her best friend hurry about the kitchen setting two more plates of food on the island before going back over to the coffee machine.
Willow needed caffeine…it was too in early in the morning for this kind of revelation
As Willow dazedly sat herself down on the stool beside Dawn Buffy placed a cup of coffee in front of her.
Willow smiled gratefully up at her best friend and mumbled a sleepy "Thanks." Before continuing, "It smells wonderful, if that's any consolation for my non talking ness just now."
Buffy smiled at her red headed friend, "Maybe, if you can forgive me for trying to kill you the other day."
Willow's smile faltered slightly at the guilt she heard in her best friends voice and reached across the island to pull Buffy into a hug.
Buffy hugged Willow back somewhat uncomfortably, but plastered the "happy Buffy" smile back on her face.
Willow noticed her friend stiffen and when she pulled back to question her Buffy quickly cut her off, "Sorry, I'm just a little stiff from last night…big patrolling and nasties and all that."
Willow nodded somewhat unconvinced by the statement when Dawn piped up, "I thought you said that there wasn't much action of the demon variety last night?"
Buffy's jaw clenched but the smile remained as she replied, "I did and there wasn't, but that Toroth demon was really intent on sacrificing that poor kitty…its amazing the value of a cat in the demon world, I'm telling you. It's really quite disgusting."
The two women seemed satisfied with that answer and Buffy mentally sighed. Acting as if everything was perfectly all right wasn't as easy as it looked.
Buffy retrieved a cup of coffee and a plate of food for herself and joined her family at the table and the three sat in relative silence until Dawn spoke up, "Wow, Buffy, this is…. good…like actually edible."
Buffy flicked a piece of her pancake at her sister for that comment.
"Dawnie's right, Buffy." When the Wicca saw the slayer load another piece of pancake onto her fork Willow hurried to appease Buffy before she ended up with pancake in her hair too, "Not about the actually edible part, but about how good this is. It's really great, Buffy. Hardly any burnt bits…"
A genuine smile lit the slayers face at her friends compliment.
A few minutes later they were done and Willow helped Buffy clean up the kitchen as Dawn went to get ready for school.
As the two friends were washing and drying the pans something suddenly occurred to Willow, "Buffy, don't you have to be at work in like, twenty- minutes?"
Buffy shook her head, "Nope, today is my day off and I plan to rejoice in not smelling like greasy hamburgers for one day."
A huge smile lit Willows face, "That's great, I only have one class later this afternoon, and I don't think they'll miss me. We could hang out and do girly stuff, it's been so long since we've just been able to hang out and go shopping. What do you say, Buffy?"
Buffy thought about it for a moment, she wasn't sure that she was ready for that kind of "bonding" with Willow yet. However, shopping did use to chase the demons away while she acted like any other normal young person, which was one of the reasons why she used to love it so much.
Buffy turned to her friend, "Sure, why not. It's been awhile. We deserve some healthy spending of money on frivolous items that we will only wear once."
Willow beamed at her friend, grateful that she had agreed. It had been a long time since they had spent any great length of time in each other's company. Their friendship had been so strained ever since the musical day and had only become worse after Willows addiction to Magick.
As soon as the dishes were done the Wicca bounded up the stairs to go and get ready for her day out.
Buffy watched her friend go with a mix of emotions. A part of her was still angry with the witch, and another part was sad at what had happened to the once vibrant friendship that had existed between them.
Buffy pushed her feelings aside, they made her weak and she couldn't afford to be weak.
She was going to go out with her friend and act as if she was back to her old self, for Willows sake.
Buffy was just putting the last of the dishes in the drying rack when the telephone began to ring.
* Who's calling at this time of day? * Buffy wondered to herself.
For a brief moment she hoped that it was Giles calling, he hadn't called in over a month and Buffy missed him terribly.
That thought was cut off angrily and pushed away as Buffy strode over to the ringing device and picked it up.
"Hello"
The voice that greeted her startled the usually unflappable slayer as she practically whispered their name, "Cordelia?"
"Yeah and don't say it like that, I'm not the one that was dead and brought back to life."
* Tactful, as always. * Buffy thought ruefully.
"I see you haven't lost your old charm, Cordy."
Buffy heard a derisive snort come from the other end. "That's about as likely as Xander getting a life."
Buffy smiled, it was nice to hear from Cordelia, her straightforwardness was refreshing to the tired slayer. But, as nice as the verbal sparring was, Cordelia rarely called without an ulterior motive, and they usually weren't pleasant.
"Look, Cordy, you obviously didn't call to engage in a round of verbal banter, so what's the what?"
Buffy could hear Cordelia shuffling papers nervously in the background, but when the ex-cheerleader didn't continue Buffy felt a knot of unease form in her stomach.
"Cordy? Cordelia, what is it? What happened, what's going on?"
"I…god I don't know how to say this, I mean, it's so…and he…"
Buffy interrupted impatiently, "CORDY! Tell me…"
With a reluctant sadness, Cordelia relied the whole unfortunate set of events, which had occurred in LA. Connor, Darla, Holtz, Wesley's betrayal, the tainted blood, Connor being stolen away to an alternate dimension and the fact that there was no known way for them to rescue him.
Buffy sank heavily onto one of the kitchen stools in shock.
* Oh my god…. Angel… *
For several moments Buffy sat in complete silence as she tried to digest everything that Cordelia had just revealed to her.
Not only had Angel had a son…with Darla, something that was absolutely impossible, but Angel's son had been kidnapped, taken away from his father with almost no chance of his ever being found.
A lone tear slowly made its way down Buffy's face before she mercilessly clamped down on her sadness; now was not the time.
"Cordy, how is he?"
"Not good…not good at all. He's consumed by grief and rage. He tried to kill Wesley a few nights ago."
Disbelief ran through the young woman's body, followed closely by horror and fear. * He couldn't be back…it wasn't…no… *
"He's not…I mean…"
Catching on to the slayers meaning, Cordy hurried to reassure her, "NO, no, god no. No, he's still our Angel. Mostly."
Buffy was still unconvinced, "Then…how could he…its Wesley…"
Cordelia's voice became hard at the mention of the former watchers name, "Because Wesley stole his son from him and gave him to his enemy. That's how."
When Cordelia said Wesley's name she almost spat it out in disgust.
Buffy was thrown by the hate in Cordelia's voice, never before had she heard such strong emotion in the other woman's voice. But, she wasn't sure that she liked it.
"How is he, Cordelia?"
"Try listening, I just told you. He's…"
Buffy cut her off, slightly irritated, "No…not Angel. Wesley."
Buffy could almost feel the heat of Cordelia's anger through the telephone line, "Alive."
Buffy knew that she wasn't going to get much more information on the subject out of her so she let it drop.
"How are you, Cordelia?"
She heard a long sigh, "About as good as can be expected…I mean, he was just a child, Buffy…a beautiful, innocent little boy. How could anyone…" at that point the ex-cheerleader anger dissolved as anguish overtook her and she broke down crying.
Buffy felt for her friend. She knew that Cordelia and Angel had become closer during their time in LA. There were no words to describe the pain that they all must be in.
She knew that they were doing everything they could, although, according to what Cordy had told her, it wasn't possible to reach the demon dimension.
Of course, that didn't mean that Buffy was just going to sit back and do nothing. She would keep her eyes and ears open, do some investigating of her own and have Willow search the net for any possibilities.
Suddenly, Buffy was able to make out a male voice on the other end of the line, saying something about a princess.
"I'm so sorry Cordelia, you know that if there is anything we can do here, we will do it. We'll do some research here on the hellmouth; see if there is anything that you might have missed, ok. I know that it's not much..."
"It's a lot…thanks." Cordelia replied in a soft voice.
"No problem. Take care of everyone up there. Give Angel my love and, again, if there is anything that you can think of that you need us to do, either up there or here, you just call us alright?"
"Alright."
"Take care of him, Cordelia."
She could almost hear Cordelia nod on the other end of the phone as she answered, "Always."
With that the conversation came to a close and Buffy softly placed the phone back onto its cradle.
She couldn't bring herself to break the silence in the wake of the horrible revelations that had just been made.
So the slayer sat, with the sun warming her back, but she didn't feel it. Didn't want to feel it. There was so much pain in this world that it was amazing that anyone survived.
Buffy lowered her head as another tear trailed a path down the planes of her cheek, and then another and another.
Harsh sobs wracked the slayers body and she covered her mouth to silence her cries.
* End Part 2 *
Author: LanaraofEarth
Rating: PG-13 ish...maybe R later on
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series are not mine and never will be, no matter how much I might wish otherwise. The characters of both shows belong to Joss Wedon, Fox and other people and companies that I can't remember right at this moment.
Summary: After being shunned by the gang in LA, Wesley leaves and ends up in Sunnydale. Possibly Wes and Buffy shippiness
Note: Words etc. in * are a character's inner thoughts/dialogue.
* Part 2 *
Buffy found little demonic activity of any kind that night, save for a Toroth demon who was trying to sacrifice a cat, so she found herself home earlier than usual.
Which allowed her to wake up earlier.
Buffy was up with the rising sun, preparing a, fairly edible, hot breakfast for her growing sibling.
Dawn needed her to be strong, to be the one in charge and that was exactly what she was going to be. If that meant that she had shut a part of herself off from the world, then that was just what she was going to have to do.
Scrambled eggs crackled in the frying pan as the rays of the sun filtered in through the kitchen.
The smell of coffee and bacon permeated the room, a not altogether unpleasant sent.
That was the first thing that Dawn Summers noticed when she opened her bedroom door at 7:40 am.
Her brow creased in confusion at the enticing smells. * I wonder if Tara stayed over last night? Maybe she and Willow have gotten back together * the younger Summers wondered, the thought that her sister might be awake AND cooking never crossed her mind.
Dawn moved towards the bathroom to get ready for school, but her curiosity got the better of her and she turned the other way towards the stairs.
The smells intensified as she descended the stairs and approached the kitchen; Dawn sighed in pleasure. It wasn't often these days that she was able to enjoy a warm, cooked breakfast, not since…
Dawn cut that thought off quickly and instead continued walking until she was standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
The young girl stood in shock at the sight that met her eyes. * Demon possession…that is a definite possibility…or some sort of shape shifting demon, maybe? * she mused.
*Right Dawn, cause lots of demons cook their prospective meals or sacrifices breakfast…* although, that last thought might not be too far off, Dawn thought as she witnessed her sister flip a pancake effortlessly into the air before it landed back in the pan and NOT on the tiled floor.
Buffy chose that moment to speak up, "Well, are you going to stand there gawking at me all day, Dawnie, or are you actually going to come in and eat something. Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day, you know."
Dawn slowly approached her sister, wary of the new "Suzy homemaker" Buffy.
Buffy rolled her eyes at her sister's behaviour as she flipped the now finished pancake into a plate by the stove. "I'm not a demon, Dawn."
Dawn raised an eyebrow sceptically, "Right…and the whole Martha Buffy Stewart thing going on here is…what? The result of a profound revelation that you could put your slaying skills to practical use in the kitchen?"
Buffy turned to glare at her younger sibling and waved the spatula in her hand menacingly at Dawn, "I CAN cook, Dawn, contrary to popular belief…besides a double meat special from the double meat palace. Jeese, 'tude much…do you smell anything burning oh sceptical one?"
Dawn unconsciously lifted her nose higher into the air and took in a deep breath.
Buffy gave her a look that screamed * SEE! *
Dawn, still doubtful, cautiously lowered herself onto one of the stools by the island in the middle of the kitchen.
Buffy gave her sister one more glare for good measure before going to the refrigerator, retrieving a carton of orange juice and plonking it down in front of Dawn.
A second later a tumbler sat beside the carton.
Dawn raise another eyebrow at her sisters behaviour but kept her mouth shut.
The light of the sun suddenly caught the metal on one of the pans on the stove and shone directly into Dawns face. The young girl squinted at the sudden glare and rubbed her eyes tiredly as she shifted her chair out of the sun.
"So…why are you up so early? You don't usually stumble out of bed for like another thirty minutes or so?"
Buffy winced at the reminder of how badly she had been acting lately.
It wasn't Dawns fault that she had been ripped out of heaven and thrust back into this hell. She was just an innocent. One that Buffy loved with all of her heart, who needed her big sisters care and protection.
Buffy plastered a smile on her face, one that almost managed to reach her eyes as she turned to face her sister.
"It was pretty slow last night, so I was able to get back early…so I'm up early."
Dawn still wasn't convinced, "And you're venturing into the land of cooking real food because...?"
Buffy sighed dramatically as she turned off one of the burners. "Because…I figured that since I was up I would be useful and do some cooking. We haven't had a cooked breakfast in awhile and since it's a Friday I though that it might be nice. Happy now, Demon Hunter Dawn? Have a proved my species yet?"
Dawn shrugged her shoulders as she poured herself a glass of juice.
Buffy rolled her eyes and grit her teeth. No matter what she had promised herself, there were some times when she really wanted to kill her sister; in a nice way, of course.
Buffy had just set a plate of steaming food in front of Dawn when Willow entered the sun filled kitchen, scratching her head sleepily and yawning.
When the young Wicca fully took in the scene before her the "Good morning" that had begun died on her lips.
She stood speechless for several moments as her brain tried to process the information that it was receiving from her eyes.
Buffy was cooking.
Cooking.
Actual food.
Buffy snorted in disgust and turned back to the coffee machine before her.
Dawn went to Willows side and when she didn't respond the young girl snapped her fingers in front of the Wicca's face.
Willow jumped back in surprise and looked down at Dawn, confusion written plainly across her face.
Dawn grinned and patted Will on the shoulder, "I know…and, no, she's not a demon. That's our Buffy. Maybe a little less sane than before, but our Buffy nonetheless."
"I heard that. And just for that little crack I'm giving you the piece of toast that's slightly burnt."
Willow nodded absently at the commentary as she continued to watch her best friend hurry about the kitchen setting two more plates of food on the island before going back over to the coffee machine.
Willow needed caffeine…it was too in early in the morning for this kind of revelation
As Willow dazedly sat herself down on the stool beside Dawn Buffy placed a cup of coffee in front of her.
Willow smiled gratefully up at her best friend and mumbled a sleepy "Thanks." Before continuing, "It smells wonderful, if that's any consolation for my non talking ness just now."
Buffy smiled at her red headed friend, "Maybe, if you can forgive me for trying to kill you the other day."
Willow's smile faltered slightly at the guilt she heard in her best friends voice and reached across the island to pull Buffy into a hug.
Buffy hugged Willow back somewhat uncomfortably, but plastered the "happy Buffy" smile back on her face.
Willow noticed her friend stiffen and when she pulled back to question her Buffy quickly cut her off, "Sorry, I'm just a little stiff from last night…big patrolling and nasties and all that."
Willow nodded somewhat unconvinced by the statement when Dawn piped up, "I thought you said that there wasn't much action of the demon variety last night?"
Buffy's jaw clenched but the smile remained as she replied, "I did and there wasn't, but that Toroth demon was really intent on sacrificing that poor kitty…its amazing the value of a cat in the demon world, I'm telling you. It's really quite disgusting."
The two women seemed satisfied with that answer and Buffy mentally sighed. Acting as if everything was perfectly all right wasn't as easy as it looked.
Buffy retrieved a cup of coffee and a plate of food for herself and joined her family at the table and the three sat in relative silence until Dawn spoke up, "Wow, Buffy, this is…. good…like actually edible."
Buffy flicked a piece of her pancake at her sister for that comment.
"Dawnie's right, Buffy." When the Wicca saw the slayer load another piece of pancake onto her fork Willow hurried to appease Buffy before she ended up with pancake in her hair too, "Not about the actually edible part, but about how good this is. It's really great, Buffy. Hardly any burnt bits…"
A genuine smile lit the slayers face at her friends compliment.
A few minutes later they were done and Willow helped Buffy clean up the kitchen as Dawn went to get ready for school.
As the two friends were washing and drying the pans something suddenly occurred to Willow, "Buffy, don't you have to be at work in like, twenty- minutes?"
Buffy shook her head, "Nope, today is my day off and I plan to rejoice in not smelling like greasy hamburgers for one day."
A huge smile lit Willows face, "That's great, I only have one class later this afternoon, and I don't think they'll miss me. We could hang out and do girly stuff, it's been so long since we've just been able to hang out and go shopping. What do you say, Buffy?"
Buffy thought about it for a moment, she wasn't sure that she was ready for that kind of "bonding" with Willow yet. However, shopping did use to chase the demons away while she acted like any other normal young person, which was one of the reasons why she used to love it so much.
Buffy turned to her friend, "Sure, why not. It's been awhile. We deserve some healthy spending of money on frivolous items that we will only wear once."
Willow beamed at her friend, grateful that she had agreed. It had been a long time since they had spent any great length of time in each other's company. Their friendship had been so strained ever since the musical day and had only become worse after Willows addiction to Magick.
As soon as the dishes were done the Wicca bounded up the stairs to go and get ready for her day out.
Buffy watched her friend go with a mix of emotions. A part of her was still angry with the witch, and another part was sad at what had happened to the once vibrant friendship that had existed between them.
Buffy pushed her feelings aside, they made her weak and she couldn't afford to be weak.
She was going to go out with her friend and act as if she was back to her old self, for Willows sake.
Buffy was just putting the last of the dishes in the drying rack when the telephone began to ring.
* Who's calling at this time of day? * Buffy wondered to herself.
For a brief moment she hoped that it was Giles calling, he hadn't called in over a month and Buffy missed him terribly.
That thought was cut off angrily and pushed away as Buffy strode over to the ringing device and picked it up.
"Hello"
The voice that greeted her startled the usually unflappable slayer as she practically whispered their name, "Cordelia?"
"Yeah and don't say it like that, I'm not the one that was dead and brought back to life."
* Tactful, as always. * Buffy thought ruefully.
"I see you haven't lost your old charm, Cordy."
Buffy heard a derisive snort come from the other end. "That's about as likely as Xander getting a life."
Buffy smiled, it was nice to hear from Cordelia, her straightforwardness was refreshing to the tired slayer. But, as nice as the verbal sparring was, Cordelia rarely called without an ulterior motive, and they usually weren't pleasant.
"Look, Cordy, you obviously didn't call to engage in a round of verbal banter, so what's the what?"
Buffy could hear Cordelia shuffling papers nervously in the background, but when the ex-cheerleader didn't continue Buffy felt a knot of unease form in her stomach.
"Cordy? Cordelia, what is it? What happened, what's going on?"
"I…god I don't know how to say this, I mean, it's so…and he…"
Buffy interrupted impatiently, "CORDY! Tell me…"
With a reluctant sadness, Cordelia relied the whole unfortunate set of events, which had occurred in LA. Connor, Darla, Holtz, Wesley's betrayal, the tainted blood, Connor being stolen away to an alternate dimension and the fact that there was no known way for them to rescue him.
Buffy sank heavily onto one of the kitchen stools in shock.
* Oh my god…. Angel… *
For several moments Buffy sat in complete silence as she tried to digest everything that Cordelia had just revealed to her.
Not only had Angel had a son…with Darla, something that was absolutely impossible, but Angel's son had been kidnapped, taken away from his father with almost no chance of his ever being found.
A lone tear slowly made its way down Buffy's face before she mercilessly clamped down on her sadness; now was not the time.
"Cordy, how is he?"
"Not good…not good at all. He's consumed by grief and rage. He tried to kill Wesley a few nights ago."
Disbelief ran through the young woman's body, followed closely by horror and fear. * He couldn't be back…it wasn't…no… *
"He's not…I mean…"
Catching on to the slayers meaning, Cordy hurried to reassure her, "NO, no, god no. No, he's still our Angel. Mostly."
Buffy was still unconvinced, "Then…how could he…its Wesley…"
Cordelia's voice became hard at the mention of the former watchers name, "Because Wesley stole his son from him and gave him to his enemy. That's how."
When Cordelia said Wesley's name she almost spat it out in disgust.
Buffy was thrown by the hate in Cordelia's voice, never before had she heard such strong emotion in the other woman's voice. But, she wasn't sure that she liked it.
"How is he, Cordelia?"
"Try listening, I just told you. He's…"
Buffy cut her off, slightly irritated, "No…not Angel. Wesley."
Buffy could almost feel the heat of Cordelia's anger through the telephone line, "Alive."
Buffy knew that she wasn't going to get much more information on the subject out of her so she let it drop.
"How are you, Cordelia?"
She heard a long sigh, "About as good as can be expected…I mean, he was just a child, Buffy…a beautiful, innocent little boy. How could anyone…" at that point the ex-cheerleader anger dissolved as anguish overtook her and she broke down crying.
Buffy felt for her friend. She knew that Cordelia and Angel had become closer during their time in LA. There were no words to describe the pain that they all must be in.
She knew that they were doing everything they could, although, according to what Cordy had told her, it wasn't possible to reach the demon dimension.
Of course, that didn't mean that Buffy was just going to sit back and do nothing. She would keep her eyes and ears open, do some investigating of her own and have Willow search the net for any possibilities.
Suddenly, Buffy was able to make out a male voice on the other end of the line, saying something about a princess.
"I'm so sorry Cordelia, you know that if there is anything we can do here, we will do it. We'll do some research here on the hellmouth; see if there is anything that you might have missed, ok. I know that it's not much..."
"It's a lot…thanks." Cordelia replied in a soft voice.
"No problem. Take care of everyone up there. Give Angel my love and, again, if there is anything that you can think of that you need us to do, either up there or here, you just call us alright?"
"Alright."
"Take care of him, Cordelia."
She could almost hear Cordelia nod on the other end of the phone as she answered, "Always."
With that the conversation came to a close and Buffy softly placed the phone back onto its cradle.
She couldn't bring herself to break the silence in the wake of the horrible revelations that had just been made.
So the slayer sat, with the sun warming her back, but she didn't feel it. Didn't want to feel it. There was so much pain in this world that it was amazing that anyone survived.
Buffy lowered her head as another tear trailed a path down the planes of her cheek, and then another and another.
Harsh sobs wracked the slayers body and she covered her mouth to silence her cries.
* End Part 2 *