I would like to Thank Willowfan for helping me with this chapter by pointing out what would be better and what sucks! Thankee :)
Chapter 8: Silent Cries
By: Hope
Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
"Trust me." A voice came from the front of the Hyperion. Everyone turned to see Buffy standing at the door, Connor next to her, holding a bag of weapons. "She knows." Buffy finished.
Connor saw, standing near the stairs of the hotel, Angel. Angel had somehow escaped from out under the ocean and was standing not more than 30 feet in front of him. Next to him was a tall, blond vampire, who's hair was gelled back. Connor noticed that he was a vampire, he wasn't breathing. He stared at Buffy as though she was a goddes, with a look of shock and pleasure on his face. Buffy returned his look with a cold stare, causing him to look at the ground and shove his hands in his pockets, a sign of lack of confidence when it came to her. "Someone has Dawn." Buffy said, her tone reminding Spike of what she had sounded like when Glory had taken Dawn.
Dawn was the only family that Buffy had left, and Buffy would rather die than see her suffer. "The lil'bit?" Spike asked, not really believing that something could happen to her, Dawn had been through too much in her young life and she didn't deserve anymore pain.
Buffy ignored Spike's comment and looked up at Angel. "I need you to get to all of your sources in this town. I want to know who has her and where they would keep her." Buffy ordered. "Take Spike with you." She said, not questioning Spike's prescense in the room.
Angel nodded and Connor realized how much power or influence Buffy had over everyone there, Angel and the other vampire the most. Buffy then turned to face Fred and Gunn who were standing by the counter, also shocked at the power Buffy had over Angel. "I need you two to get all the weapons you can find and bring them here." The couple nodded and everyone began to get to work, not asking Buffy any questions of what was going on, but just following her orders.
"What do we do?" Connor asked, once they were the only people in the lobby.
Buffy looked up at him. "We wait." She said as she grabbed the bag from Connor and set it on the floor, slowly taking out all of the weapons and lining them up by size and power. "Go help Fred and Gunn get the weapons, they went down to the basement." Buffy added, wanted some alone time.
Connor nodded his head and followed the path that Fred and Gunn had taken to get down to the basement, not wanting to disagree with the slayer.
Buffy sat down on a bench in the lobby and put her hands on her head, with her elbows resting on her knees. Even though so many things had happened over the last year, even though Buffy had promised Dawn that things would get better, she still managed to get kidnapped. "Now through the smoke, she calls to me. To make my way across the flame, to save the day, or maybe melt away, I guess its all the..." Buffy stopped. The words of the song had been imprinted into her head, maybe as some form of punishment from the demon that had made them all sing.
Buffy had been so hopeless then. She had wished that the demon would kill her, burn her to death, but Spike had stopped her...
"You don't have to keep doing this alone you know." Buffy stood up and got into battle position, shocked by the voice that had seemed to come from nowhere. In front of Buffy stood a tall green demon with two horns on his forehead. "Mean no harm! Friend of Angel's." Lorne said, holding his hands up in a sign of peace.
Buffy sighed and sat back down, looking at the weapons that were laid out in front of her. "Like I said, sweetie." Lorne continued, sitting down next to the girl. "You don't have to do this alone." Buffy turned and looked at him, with a curious look on her face. "Oh, I'm Lorne." Lorne reached his hand out and smiled, trying to at least get a small smile out of the girl.
"You're the demon that reads minds?" Buffy asked quietly.
Lorne couldn't believe that it was the slayer sitting down beside him. He had heard stories upon stories, from people she had saved and from demons that hated and were eventually killed by her. She was a living legend in the demon world. Vampires feared her more than they feared the sun and demons, who usually would boast about how tough and mighty they were, would cower at the very name of Buffy Summers. But here she was, a small, lost girl who's only thoughts were of how to get her sister back.
When Lorne had walked into the hotel she had been singing quietly to herself, but even when she stopped singing he could still read her aura. Inside she was crying out, so many things had happened to her and Lorne had been hit with waves of emotion and the closer he got to her, the more it hurt him.
Twenty one years old and she had died twice, sacrificed the one she had loved, lost her mother and more loved ones than she could even count. Her friends had taken her out of heaven, where she had finally found peace, and the only way that she had been able to feel alive was to sleep with someone, who even though she had hated at first, loved her with all of his being.
"That would be me." Lorne answered, looking at Buffy. "Don't worry." Lorne said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "He didn't mean to hurt you. And your sister, you'll find her." Although he didn't know if the last part was true, the first part was completely true.
Buffy looked at him, hoping that she could believe what he was saying was true. The last time she had lost Dawn was to Glory and she had ended up having a total breakdown. She didn't want that to happen again. She wanted things to get better. Buffy was done being addicted to the misery, to the darkness. She was ready to help her sister live a nice, as normal as possible life. Even if she had to kill every other person in the world to pull it off.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door creeking. Buffy's head shot up and standing at the door was Spike. He looked surprised that Buffy was still there and on his face was another emotion that Buffy didn't recognize on him. It looked like fear.
"I..uh...Angel..."Was all Spike managed to get out before he gave up and looked down at the ground in shame as he walked into the office, closing the door behind him.
Buffy's eyes remained on the door, using up all of her will power not to follow him into the office and yell at him, stake him, something...
"Thats just a bit odd." Lorne said to himself in confusion. He thought he had sensed a soul on the vampire. But Angel was the only vampire with a soul...
Buffy looked at Lorne with an equally confused face. "Huh?"
"And I present to you." Gunn and Fred showed up, holding as many weapons as they could, interrupting Buffy and Lorne's conversation. They dropped them on the ground and looked at Buffy. "The most amount of bad-ass weapons you'll find." Gunn finished, proud of himself for being able to carry so many weapons After Fred and Gunn began sorting through the weapons, Connor appeared, also carrying about as much or more than it was possible for him to. Buffy got up to help him, blocking his view of Lorne.
When Lorne saw who it was Buffy was helping, he tensed and stood up. "I, have somewhere to go." He said, not making eye contact with Connor. Lorne then walked back out the door to see if he could find anyone that knew anything about where Dawn was being held.
"Good." Buffy said, ignoring Lorne's departure. "This is good." She said, happy with the selection of weapons they had provided her with. She looked up at everyone in the room. "I have to go back to the hotel room...get some more things that I had in my other suitcase."
Buffy began to walk out the door when she realized that Connor was following her. She stopped and turned to face him. "Stay with them." She said kindly.
Fred was amazed at how attached Connor seemed to be to Buffy at the moment. He hadn't been like that with Angel or with anyone, even before he thought they were all evil. "But..." Connor said, beginning to make an argument.
"They'll need you here to start setting things up." Buffy added. Connor hesitated but then nodded, submitting to the slayer's will. Buffy looked back at Fred and Gunn, giving them a look that said 'take care of him.' "I'll be back soon."
- - - - -
Once Buffy had made it back to her hotel room, she didn't
even bother to lock or even close the door, but got straight to her purpose. She
pulled her suitcase out from under her bed and placed it on top of the bed,
quickly unclamping the locks and opening it.
"You don't need an invitation to come in here." Buffy said to Angel, who was standing inside of the doorway to the hotel room.
"I know." He answered quietly, now not sure that he wanted to talk to her. It had been so long since he had seen her and the last time, they had promised that they would only come to eachother when they really needed help.
Buffy was the first woman that Angel had ever loved. When he was a demon he had loved Darla, or what he thought was love at the time. What they had had was a brutal and violent relationship, there wasn't any trust between them but with Buffy, they had built their relationship on trust.
Once, in a time that seemed to take place hundreds of years ago, Angel had been the happiest he ever was. He and Buffy had had the perfect relationship. They would go out patrolling together, they were able to take care of eachother and they loved each other to no end. But then Angel had given into temptation and he and Buffy had slept together, causing him to lose his soul and hurt her almost more than anyone else could.
Angel clenched his teeth at the memories. What he had thought was the day after Buffy's birthday, he had woken up to find her holding a sword, shaken. She looked older than he had remembered, pain and sorrow weighed down on her face. She even looked like she hadn't recognized Angel, as though she had expected a monster.
He should have put things together faster. If he had thought quicker, then maybe Buffy wouldn't of had to suffer so much. Maybe then he wouldn't of had to be sent to hell. Or maybe he was just thinking too much.
He and Buffy's lives were totally different now. He had no idea how she had been since he had last seen her and the only reason why she knew was because Fred and Gunn and told her the story over and over so that they could convince her.
Buffy continued to rummage through her bag as she heard the soft sounds of footsteps on the carpet, slowly coming closer and closer to her until they stopped next to her. She looked up at Angel, who was looking at her, the same way that he always had. He looked upon her with loving eyes.
She searched his face for any change, something that would prove to her that he wasn't the same Angel that she had loved, that in some way she still did love. But a trait of being a vampire is that you never age and Angel hadn't. He was the same as he had been the day she had met him.
"Buffy..." Angel began, not knowing how to explain any of his actions to the slayer.
"I don't..." Buffy said interrupting. She closed her eyes for a second, trying to keep it all together. She did not need this. She did not need to lose it here. In front of him. Not again. "Just, Dawn comes first." She said, looking up at her former lover once again. "Then you can tell your side of the story. And I....I can tell you mine." She finished.
Angel looked at her. He knew that she was hiding something from him. He was always able to tell when she was hurting, when she was vulnerable. Just one of the many traits he got from being a vampire.
Buffy turned her head back to her bag and continued looking through it. The last year, he had been so swept up in his own redemption, that even when he and Buffy had met, he hadn't been thinking of her. He could have stopped whatever had happened between her and Spike, what had happened with Willow, Anya, Xander, Dawn, he could have stopped it all if he had just paid more attention to what he had seen.
He considered reaching his hand out to touch her shoulder, give her a hug, try to comfort her the way a friend could. But he was never able to do that before and he knew that he still wouldn't be able to do just that. No matter how much he tried to lie to himself. He still loved Buffy.
He turned around and walked to the door. Buffy stopped what she was doing the second that she had realized he was walking away.
She turned around and saw that he was standing at the door, facing out into the hallway but not taking the final step to leaving the room.
"Angel..." She whispered. He turned around and looked at her. Tears were now flowing freely down her face. Then, as though it was in slow motion, she began to collapse and Angel ran to her side, catching her before she reached the ground. Hugging her, cooing her as she cried her soul out to him.
He had messed up by leaving Sunnydale. He knew that they could never have what they once did, that she had moved on. But he was still going to protect her. He owed her that much.
"Its alright..." He said as he kissed her forehead and held onto her tightly. "It'll all be fine."