EPILOGUE
Je suis là et ailleurs. / I am there and elsewhere.


By unspoken agreement, they rarely mention their lives after her seventeenth birthday and before he found her in the LA bus terminal. They change locations every few weeks. Buffy refuses to stay in better accommodations. (She won't take Angel's money). Angel refuses to stay in the fleabag motels she can afford. (There is too much vermin – human, insect, and demon.) They compromise. Buffy waits tables during the better-paying night shifts to pay for her food, one third of the rent, and other necessities. Angels escorts her to and from the various jobs. She never asks him what he does while she works. She doesn't need to. She can feel him watching her, guarding her, every night.

Angel regularly contacts Giles. He asks the same questions and receives the same answers. Giles always inquires after Buffy's welfare. The ex-Watcher and ex-Slayer have not spoken to each other since she left him in the library with Willow, Kendra, Xander, and Cordelia.

In one of these conversations, Giles informs Angel that Willow's body was dumped on Xander's front porch. She was raped and tortured. Within the week, Xander hangs himself. Angel tells Buffy that Willow and Xander are dead. She screams until she is hoarse and then vomits for two days. Buffy doesn't ask how they died; Angel doesn't volunteer the information.

In another conversation, Giles reports that the new Slayer is not "working out well". When Angel asks for clarification, the ex-Watcher comments, "Faith is Buffy but with a lot more attitude, a libidinous lifestyle, and no moral direction." Buffy's opinion on this is "Way to go, Faith!"

Buffy phones her mother once a week and leaves the same message on the answering machine. "Hi. It's me. I'm fine. I love you, Mom. Maybe I can talk to you next time. Bye." Her mother never picks up the phone regardless of when Buffy calls.

*****

They are halfway to Canada when the last Council team finds them. In the ensuing fight, Buffy is captured. It takes Angel four days to find her. When he does, he discovers her sitting in a cage with three dismembered bodies and no weapon. He approaches her cautiously.

"Who are you?" she asks as she watches him unlock the door and carefully step around the broken corpses. His human features involuntarily slip into his vampiric face.

"I'm Angel. I'm going to take you home." Angel is disturbed as he watches her fingers draw pictures in the congealed and crusted body fluids. "Do you know who you are?" he asks. He is surprised by her answer.

"Yes," she says dreamily. "My name is Buffy the Vampire Whore." She looks at him and smiles. "You're a vampire."

"Yes." Angel guides her out of the cage.

"I loved a vampire once. His name was Angelus." Buffy giggles airily. "I'm his wife." She giggles again, and Angel thinks of Drusilla.

After a few days, Buffy seems to be herself. She says she remembers nothing of her captivity. When she asks Angel about it, he tells her that they kept her unconscious. She accepts this answer, and he believes all is well.

The night they cross into Canada, Buffy stops him and says, "They wanted to show me how much better it was to be with a human man instead of a vampire. That's why I killed them."

Angel doesn't know how to respond, so he says nothing. He wonders if she will ever tell him what happened in that cage. He worries that she will.

*****

During his next call to Giles, Angel discloses that the last team has been eliminated. Giles' audible sigh of relief travels 2500 miles. The ex-Watcher is returning to England. "Do you think Buffy would speak to me?"

Angel hands her the phone. She looks at it dispassionately. "Who is it?"

"Giles."

"Giles? Do I know a Giles? Let me think about this." Buffy taps a nail against the phone's receiver. "Is he the one who told the Council I had been kidnapped by the Scourge of Europe? Or is he the one who told the Council that Willow was willing to re-curse you again? Oh, I know. He's the one who told them all about us in the first place." She stops the tapping. "I don't think I know anyone called Giles." Buffy releases the phone. It clatters loudly to the floor.

Angel picks it up and listens as the ex-Watcher sputters apologies on the other end.

"Maybe next time, Giles." Angel hangs up the phone and reaches for Buffy.

He can't imagine life without her. He once asked Giles what happened to Slayers who were turned. There had been an uncomfortably long silence before Giles said, "I don't know. If the Council has any records, I've never heard of them. I imagine it's happened though. Has she been … Are you thinking about… Angel, why do you want to know?" he had finally blurted. Angel had assured him that he was just curious and let the matter drop.

Buffy trails a finger along his jaw and follows it with a kiss to his bare chest. "Where are you?"

"Right here with you." Angel pulls her body flush against his so she can feel his arousal.

"You were elsewhere," she accuses.

"You were there, too," Angel answers before he enters her welcoming body. "You're always there with me."

THE END