Title: Some Wishes

Author: Moonbeam

Rated: PG13

Disclaimer: They all belong to Joss. Grr....Argh, and all that stuff.

Timeline: Buffy-S5. Shortly after Joyce's death.

Pairings: X/A. W/T. B/A with some B/S undertones.

Feedback: Was pretty crappy for the last chapter. Hence, the horrible wait for this chapter. PLEASE, review!!

A/N: I suck, I know. I'm sorry!! It doesn't really seem like anyone's reading this story anyway. I haven't gotten much feedback. BUT, I don't want to just give up. So-here's one more. Let's hope SOME people read it! If the response is good, I should definitely, definitely have the next chapter up sooner.

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Chapter Five:

+Los Angeles+

"What else do you remember?" Angel asked, looking at Cordelia closely. She sighed, pressing the ice pack against her temple.

"Not much. Everything was really vague." She closed her eyes, trying to remember, to go back, to piece it all back together. "There was a really bright light. Everything smelled like.." She waved her hand around, trying to give the heavenly scent a name. "..like vanilla. It was beautiful. It wasn't a bad place, y'know? There was this symbol..I couldn't get a good look at it, it was gone so fast." She paused. "And then I heard this..this scream. I don't know who it was or where it came from but it was so full of pain..and.." She sniffled, shivering slightly as she remembered the feeling. "..fear. God, Angel, it was so scared."

"It's okay. Just take it easy." Angel said, exchanging worried looks with Gunn and Wesley as Cordelia wiped at her eyes.

"That's not..that's not all." She said quietly, keeping her eyes down. "I saw someone. It was fast, like a flash, but I'd know that face anywhere."

"Well, who was it? We'll find them and help them. That's the gig." Gunn offered.

".I." Cordelia looked up at Angel helplessly. "Buffy." She whispered.

"Buffy?" Wesley repeated, shocked.

"Buffy." Angel mumbled to himself, his eyes wide. He sat down next to Cordelia.

"Who's Buffy?" Gunn asked. Wesley turned to look at him, and then looked back down at Angel.

"Buffy Summers..she's the..ah, vampire Slayer back in Sunnydale. I was her Watcher." He motioned to Cordelia and Angel. "We all..knew her. Worked with her for some time."

"Oh." Gunn nodded with a sudden understanding. "Right. Angel's Slayer." Upon Wesley's confused look, Gunn motioned towards Cordelia. "She mentioned her."

"She's not my Slayer." Angel said, distractedly, still staring off. "Not anymore."

"O-kay." Gunn said, giving him a puzzled look. "So what do we do? We go, right? We do the helping-thing."

"Look, Angel, I don't know if she was even the one in trouble. She *is* the Slayer. Maybe she was saving someone who was in danger." Cordelia said quickly, trying to reassure him.

"Did you see anything else?" Wesley asked.

Cordelia shook her head. "No. That was it."

"I'm calling Giles." Angel said, standing up abruptly.

"Angel, you should calm down. There's no reason to alarm them when we still don't even know what this is about." Wesley said.

"Who's Giles?" Gunn asked.

"Her Watcher." Cordelia snapped, her eyes still on Angel.

"But I thought Wesley was her Watcher."

"Gunn! Shut up!" Cordelia exclaimed, clearly annoyed.

"If something's after Buffy then we need to warn her. Case closed." Angel said, walking towards the desk.

"Case *not* closed!" Cordelia said, right on his heels. "I know you're freaked. And it's Buffy which equals double-freaked, but you can't lose your cool. We just have to figure out what it meant. So we really can help her." She said, her voice softening.

"You mentioned something about a symbol?" Wesley asked.

"Yeah. A bird, or something. It just popped in and out, I couldn't really get the best look at it. But it was big. And blue."

"A big, blue bird. This should be easy." Gunn said, following Wesley towards the bookshelves.

"Angel, whatever it is..we'll figure it out." Cordelia placed a hand on his arm. "She's going to be fine. Really."

"Yeah. We'll..we'll help her." Angel mumbled, turning away from her, an overwhelming sense of fear clouding his mind.

Because Angel knew that if Buffy was connected, in any way, to this blue symbol..something terrible was about to happen.

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"Buffy? Why did the Roman Empire fall?"

We were in the Magic Box a few days later, and I was trying to read more of my book without letting anyone else see it. This was turning out to be much more of a challenge than I had expected.

"Buffy?! Hello?! Do you even *remember* that you have a sister anymore?"

"What?" I looked up, seeing Dawn's annoyed expression, and sighed. I could only imagine how long I had been ignoring her. "I'm sorry, Dawnie. What did you say?"

"You know what? Never mind. Just forget it." She slammed her-history?-book shut and stormed off to the back of the store.

"Oh that's really great." I muttered, running a hand through my hair. I had totally been neglecting my sisterly duties to Dawn. She knew, I knew.I think my friends knew too. They were being particularly nice to her. I wondered if they were talking about me.

"Buffy? Is something the matter?" Giles came around the counter, looking at me curiously.

"Huh? No. I'm fine. Great, even. Just..really tired."

"You really shouldn't be. There's hardly been any supernatural activity going on. If anything, you should be well-rested." He cocked his head, regarding me carefully, "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

I smiled, nodding my head. "I'm sure."

"Well. You know I'm here if you need anything." He said, with a small smile.

He didn't believe me. Of course he didn't. Giles knew me better than anyone else. Stupid.

I smiled back, fake, bright, forced, and stood up to find Dawn. She was in the back room, sitting on the floor, her homework in her lap. I cleared my throat, shifting uncomfortably in the doorway. I was *so* unbelievably bad at this. Sibling rivalry-not so bad. But now..being Dawn's *guardian*..it was such a big thing. I was, like, her parent. It was weird. And so very scary.

"You know, they say that it's much easier to do homework at a table." I paused, seeing her snap her head up, "They sometimes have chairs there. For sitting."

"Leave me alone." She said, looking back down and scribbling things in her notebook. She had a nice pen. Blue, with little gold flecks on the outside. It looked expensive, too. Come to think of it, I had never seen that pen before.

"Dawnie? Where'd you get that pen?"

She paused, and I could have sworn I saw something resembling panic flash in her eyes. "Uh..my friend Christina gave it to me."

"Oh." I went over that in my head, and accepted it. Not like I'd have noticed a new pen anyway. "It's nice."

God. What kind of a sister am I? I'm trying to work things out with her and I get distracted by her *pen*? Smooth, Buffy. Very smooth.

"Whatever. I really need to finish." She said quickly, shutting me off.

"Okay." I put my hands up, signaling my surrender. "I just wanted you to know..I'm sorry I've been so gone lately. I'm just so scattered. My head is all messed..but I never meant to neglect you. So. I'm really sorry."

She gave me a small smile, shaking her head to herself. "It's okay, Buffy. Geez. You act like I'm going to kill you or something if I get upset with you."

I snorted, "You underestimate the power of an angry teenager."

"Funny." She said, raising her eyebrows.

I laughed, watching her gather up her stuff and walk out at my side.

"I thought so."

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