Chapter 2
"Don't you think it's a little early to get this?" Angel asked as he and Buffy walked down the street to the baker's shop hand in hand.
"No. We need to get samples and we need to pick out the design of the cake. Which I already have in mind." Buffy said.
"Oh you do? Was I going to get a say in this?"
"It's not like you can really savor it."
"Good point. So, what were you thinking?"
"I was thinking vanilla on vanilla."
"I figured that. What about the decoration?"
"Um.... Three teirs on those little column things and I want real rose petals on it."
"Those'll be a little hard to eat for the humans and vampires, but some of the demons might be able to."
"Ha ha. I'm so amused."
"I'm joking. It sounds pretty. What about the bride and groom on top of the cake?"
"I don't want them. They're corny."
"Phew. I was going to say no to that."
"See, that's why we're perfect for each other. We usually agree on.... some things."
"Oh, I've been meaning to look into why we're perfect for each other."
Buffy laughed and wrapped her arm around his waist. He wrapped his around hers and they walked on like that. Suddenly, Angel stopped and stared a blonde woman walking towards them. "Angel, what is it?"
The woman walked closer. "Kate?" She stopped and looked at Angel.
"Angel." Kate said. "What are you doing here? In the sun?"
"Going to look at cakes."
"Cakes?"
"Wedding cakes."
"Wedding? Yours?"
"Yeah. Well, technically we're not getting married.... It's sort of a ceremony for our friends. They didn't get to see us get married."
"Oh. And is she...."
"Oh! Yeah! Kate this is Buffy, my wife. Buffy, this is Kate."
"We've met." Buffy said.
"You have?"
"Not formally, but we've seen each other. Remember when she arrested you four years ago and I was here?"
"Faith, right."
"Well, we saw each other then."
"I remember." Kate said. "Hi."
"Hi."
"So, you and Angel? Who would've guessed? What with the arguing you two were doing and all."
"That was a long time ago."
"So, how did you two meet?"
"I kicked his ass in an alley in the former Sunnydale."
"I heard about that. I heard the shifting plates version, but what really happened?"
"The Hellmouth caved in bringing all of Sunnydale with it."
"It was you two?"
"It was Spike." Angel said. "He sacrificed himself."
"The good you can bring out of people." Kate said with a look of gratitude on her face.
"He does that to everyone he meets." Buffy said lovingly, giving Angel's waist a slight squeeze. He kissed the top of her head.
"So, you guys are living in Los Angeles now?"
"At the Hyperion." Angel said.
"You still have your little agency?"
"We've expanded."
"Expanded?"
"We own the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart." Buffy said. Kate blinked. "Yeah, we had that reaction too."
Angel looked at his watch. "Well, we need to get going. The baker's expecting us at two and it's already two ten."
"Yeah. Ok." Buffy held out her free hand. "It was nice to formally meet you."
"You two." Kate said, shaking Buffy's hand. "You guys have a great wedding, ok?"
"We'll try."
"Bye Angel."
"Bye." Angel said as Kate walked away.
"Well, now that we've been a little creeped out for the day.... What do you say we go check out our cake?" Buffy said.
"I'm with you there."
They strolled down to the baker's shop and walked in. The baker walked out from behind a curtain and saw them. "Hello! You must be Buffy and Angel."
"Hi." Buffy said.
"Follow me please." Buffy and Angel looked a little wary, but they followed the baker over to a table in the corner piled with binders. They sat down and the baker opened up one of the binders and slid it over to Buffy and Angel. "Find whatever design of cake you would like. I'll be right back." With that, the baker walked off with a nervous glance over his shoulder.
Buffy turned to Angel. "Do you get the feeling he's a little off?"
"I get the feeling that you're still on edge from two weeks ago. Sweetheart, nobody is after us. It's just a strange coincidence that we were attacked at the same time." Angel said, stroking Buffy's hand.
"Angel, it's really not coincidence! We were attacked two nights ago. What was that?"
"Patrolling. It happens when you patrol."
"I called Giles and he said keep a look out. He doesn't think it's coincidence that we were attacked at the same time doing the same thing."
"Giles is in Cleveland."
"So? He's still the expert."
"What does Wesley say?"
"He said the same thing that Giles did. We should keep an eye out. There may be demons out to get us because we destroyed their vacation spot."
"Buffy," Angel kissed her gently. "Look at cakes and stop worrying."
"But...."
"Buffy, cakes, now."
She sighed and looked down at the pictures of different wedding cake styles. She didn't have to look far before she found the type she wanted. "There I found it, now let's talk about this."
Angel sighed. "You really think this is the place to talk about this?"
"Keep our voices low and there won't be any problem. But I'm getting one of my feelings. This place isn't right."
"How?"
"If I knew how, I would be taking care of it right now. I felt it when when we walked in and it got stronger when the baker guy came out. He's suspicious. He comes out, sits us down, and then goes back without saying much. What's with that?"
"We're not the only people getting married Buffy. And he also has a business to run."
"There's no one else in here. And I don't smell anything baking." Angel sniffed the air and then stiffened. "What?"
"You may be right."
"See!"
"Shh...." Angel cocked his head and listened closely to the sounds surrounding him. Then he heard it. There was a shuffle in the back that seemed out of place. It sounded like wet skin on a concrete floor. Before he could tell Buffy, the baker came back out.
"Have you found what you're looking for?" He asked.
Buffy smiled, pretneding that there was nothing wrong. "Right here." She slid the book over to show him.
"That's a beautiful cake. Not many people ask for it though because it's so simple."
"Our wedding is simple and small."
"Oh. Well, then this cake is perfect." The man pulled out a pad and pen. "What kind of flavors would you like?"
"Vanilla on vanilla."
"Very good."
"Can you put real roses on it? Red and white rose buds facing outwards all around the cake?"
"Certainly. That sounds elegant. I don't get many requests for real roses on cakes."
"Do you get many requests to kill your customers?" Angel growled.
"What?"
"The demons in the back, what do they want?"
"Angel...."
"No, this creep is hiding them in the back. I can smell it on him." Angel vamped and hauled the baker close to his face. "What do they want?"
Suddenly, Angel was thrown back by a blast. Buffy looked at the baker's hands and found a taser turned up to the highest level. The baker's gaze was turned on her now. Buffy glanced at Angel who was out cold. She looked back at the advancing baker. Wanting to play keep-away-from-the- high-voltage-taser, Buffy backflipped away and ran up over the counter, landing behind a glass partition that slid back to reveal yummy goodies. Just as she was about to look over the counter to see where the baker was, two fairly large hands grabbed her shoulders and lifted her painfully off the ground. Buffy squirmed, but was unable to get away. The arms pulled back and Buffy knew the wall was the next thing she was going to meet.
Just as she suspected, the demon threw her with all its force, which was quite a lot, and the Slayer slammed painfully into the opposite wall. She hit her head on something sticking out of the wall and felt blood trickle down her forehead. Shaking it off, Buffy turned and looked around to asses where everything was. The baker was staring wide-eyed at her and three demons had appeared from the door to the back of the shop. Angel was just coming around and he sat up slowly, still in vamp face. Buffy stood and put her back to the wall, getting a good view of everything where she stood. The demons advanced on her. Thinking quickly and acting even faster, Buffy shot across the room and decked the baker, catching the taser by the non-leathal end. The demons stopped short.
"Ok, I don't know who the hell you guys are, but this thing where you guys try to stop this wedding from happening is going to end." Buffy growled.
"There Nimchicks." Angel said, standing and moving to Buffy's side.
"What the hell is that?"
"A vengeful bunch of demons apparently. These must be the realtives of the Nimchicks I wiped out a few years back because they were trying to ritually kill and then eat an aspiring actress." Angel looked at the demons. "Ain't that right boys?"
They attacked. Buffy and Angel went on the offensive, fighting the powerful demons back. Buffy recieved a few bruises that were definitely going to show by that night. It only spurred her anger. It was her wedding day in less than a month and these demons were trying to make her look bad. Suddenly, another Nimchick appeared from the back. He was wearing a vest with seven sticks of dynamite attatched to it.
"Angel, how badly did you wipe out their relatives?" Buffy asked.
"Almost the entire clan. Why?" Angel asked, punching a demon. Buffy pointed and Angel looked. "Damn it! Buffy run!"
Buffy started to take off, but one of the three original demons grabbed her leg and she fell to the floor. Her chin hit hard and it clacked her teeth together. She felt a sharp pain in her tongue and then felt blood rush into her mouth, filling it. With a slight gag, Buffy spit it out and rolled to kick the demon. It flew backwards and Buffy started to crawl and stand at the same time. Before she could get out from behind the counter and to the door, she heard a click behind her and then everything went black.
Angel was thrown forward across the street from the blast. Paying no attention to the pain it caused, he flew to his feet and ran back towards the burning building. "BUFFY!" Observers were already starting to crowd on the street and from far off, sirens could be heard. Angel didn't care. Buffy hadn't made it out of the building before the explosion and was probably still inside. The whole shop was in flames. Angel had to move carefully around the flames, not wanting to get burned even though it would just heal instantly.
The first thing he found was a body. It wasn't Buffy's. It was the baker's. He hadn't made it out of the door. Angel smelled Buffy's blood in the air. Then, from behind the counter, he heard a barely audible groan. Throwing things out of his way, Angel ran to the counter and jumped over, landing next to a badly bleeding and burned Buffy. Outside, the fire trucks and ambulances and police vehicles arrived. Angel picked his barely concious wife up and started to head out of the building. A firefighter ran up to him. Angel's face was smeared with soot and tears made lines through the blackness.
"Get her over here." The man said, leading Angel over to one of the ambulances. The paramedics pulled out a stretcher and told Angel to set her down on it. They said some extremely technical things that Angel didn't understand. All he understood was that the love of his life was badly hurt and the paramedics wouldn't let him near her. Finally, they loaded her onto the ambluance. Angel climbed in the back with them and sat next to Buffy's stretcher. As the paramedics got her hooked up to multiple machines that monitored her vitals, Angel took her hand and stroked it, kissing her knuckles gently.
Eight hours later, Angel sat by Buffy's hospital bed. It was a room for two beds like the one she had been in after Angel had first drank her blood and then rushed her to the hospital. The curtain was drawn and the only light came from the lights behind the bed. He held Buffy's hand between his and laid his forehead on their hands. Gunn, Wesley, and the rest of the gang waited in the waiting room. Only one person was allowed and Angel had insisted that it be him. When Buffy woke up, he would be there. His promise still stood. He would never leave her.
About two hours ago, Angel had been questioned by the a police woman about what had happened at the bakery that afternoon. He had given her the best he could, but aside from being worried about Buffy, he couldn't exactly tell her eveything that had happened in there. The story he gave the woman was that four weird looking guys had come in and one was strapped to a bomb. They said that they would blow the place if anyone moved. Nobody had moved. As they moved to the register, something went wrong and Buffy and Angel had tried to run out, but the blast had happened and Buffy hadn't made it out. Angel told the woman that he had gone back in to look for his wife. She asked the standard questions about why he had been there and why he wasn't hurt, then she left him alone with Buffy.
Buffy was now bangaged up and on a morphine drip. Her burns had only looked bad. She was more cut up than burnt. From the time Angel had gotton her out of the building to now, Buffy was looking a lot better. Her Slayer healing was coming in extremely handy right now. The only reason she wasn't awake was because of the morphine. It kept her sedated and painless. Angel stroked her hand and kissed her knuckles for the hundredth time in the past ten minutes. Behind him, the curtain rustled. He looked up and found Willow tiptoeing in.
"Hey." She said gently.
"Hi. What are you doing in here?" Angel asked quietly.
"I'm going a little stir crazy in there. I needed to be with Buffy. She's my best friend and I want to do something for her."
"I know the feeling. All any of us can do is wait and be there for her right now."
"Actually, I was going to suggest a spell I learned especially for Buffy. It would step up her healing abilities."
"Thanks for the offer Willow, but let's wait to see what Buffy says when she wakes up. I don't think she'd like you to mess with magick just to help her."
Willow nodded. "Ok, so the waiting and the being there idea is in effect for me still." Angel smiled slightly at Willow as she sat down on the opposite side of Buffy's bed and picked up her friend's other hand. "She hates hospitals."
"I know."
"I remember the last time she was in the hospital. After she was shot and I was black eyed, black magick Willow."
"You saved her."
"Yeah." Willow reached across the bed and laid a hand on Angel's hands clamped onto Buffy's hand. "She's gonna come through this. Buffy's the strongest person I know."
"Thank you."
Willow stood. "I'll be back. I'm going to go tell everyone she's still asleep and I'm going to also get some coffee. You want some?"
"No thanks."
"You sure?"
"I'm fine."
"Ok." Willow patted Angel's back and gave him a gentle hug before she left.
Buffy didn't wake up until early the next morning. She found Angel's head laying on a bed next to her, his hands clamped onto her left one. Letting her senses come back to her slowly, she assesed her surroundings. Hospital most definitely. The smell gave it away. Plus the whole lala land thing she had going because of the medicine being dripped into her right arm through an IV. The pain felt like a dull roar as she pushed up on one arm and made herself sit up.
Angel stirred and looked up. "Buffy?"
"Hi." Buffy said hoarsely.
"You're awake."
Buffy touched her forehead gingerly and found a bandage there. "How long have I been out?"
"Um...." Angel looked at his watch. "A little over fourteen hours."
Buffy sighed and leaned back on the elevated bed. "I feel like crap even though this stuff in my arm in dulling the pain."
"Morphine."
"Ah, the good stuff. They always keep it locked away until there's something to celebrate."
"What's there to celebrate?"
"You don't get blown up everyday, do you?" Buffy smiled. "Where's everybody?"
"Waiting room."
"They've been here the whole time?"
"Ever since I called them."
"Which was...."
"When I got here."
"So, almost the full fourteen hours?"
"They all love you."
"Who woulda thought? When can I get out of here?"
"As soon as the doctors say you can."
"Let's have Willow play with their brain and make them think I'm ready to leave."
"Do you feel ready?"
"I feel like running a marathon." Buffy said sarcastically.
Angel smiled and leaned up to kiss her. Buffy grabbed his arm and pulled him up onto the bed with her. She scooted over and he sat next to her, crossing his legs at the ankle. Buffy lifted his arm and slid under it, laying her head on Angel's chest. It was her spot where she felt the safest because Angel was there to protect her. As long as his arms were holding her, nothing could harm her. He laid his head on top of hers and they both fell asleep in each other's arms.
"Don't you think it's a little early to get this?" Angel asked as he and Buffy walked down the street to the baker's shop hand in hand.
"No. We need to get samples and we need to pick out the design of the cake. Which I already have in mind." Buffy said.
"Oh you do? Was I going to get a say in this?"
"It's not like you can really savor it."
"Good point. So, what were you thinking?"
"I was thinking vanilla on vanilla."
"I figured that. What about the decoration?"
"Um.... Three teirs on those little column things and I want real rose petals on it."
"Those'll be a little hard to eat for the humans and vampires, but some of the demons might be able to."
"Ha ha. I'm so amused."
"I'm joking. It sounds pretty. What about the bride and groom on top of the cake?"
"I don't want them. They're corny."
"Phew. I was going to say no to that."
"See, that's why we're perfect for each other. We usually agree on.... some things."
"Oh, I've been meaning to look into why we're perfect for each other."
Buffy laughed and wrapped her arm around his waist. He wrapped his around hers and they walked on like that. Suddenly, Angel stopped and stared a blonde woman walking towards them. "Angel, what is it?"
The woman walked closer. "Kate?" She stopped and looked at Angel.
"Angel." Kate said. "What are you doing here? In the sun?"
"Going to look at cakes."
"Cakes?"
"Wedding cakes."
"Wedding? Yours?"
"Yeah. Well, technically we're not getting married.... It's sort of a ceremony for our friends. They didn't get to see us get married."
"Oh. And is she...."
"Oh! Yeah! Kate this is Buffy, my wife. Buffy, this is Kate."
"We've met." Buffy said.
"You have?"
"Not formally, but we've seen each other. Remember when she arrested you four years ago and I was here?"
"Faith, right."
"Well, we saw each other then."
"I remember." Kate said. "Hi."
"Hi."
"So, you and Angel? Who would've guessed? What with the arguing you two were doing and all."
"That was a long time ago."
"So, how did you two meet?"
"I kicked his ass in an alley in the former Sunnydale."
"I heard about that. I heard the shifting plates version, but what really happened?"
"The Hellmouth caved in bringing all of Sunnydale with it."
"It was you two?"
"It was Spike." Angel said. "He sacrificed himself."
"The good you can bring out of people." Kate said with a look of gratitude on her face.
"He does that to everyone he meets." Buffy said lovingly, giving Angel's waist a slight squeeze. He kissed the top of her head.
"So, you guys are living in Los Angeles now?"
"At the Hyperion." Angel said.
"You still have your little agency?"
"We've expanded."
"Expanded?"
"We own the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart." Buffy said. Kate blinked. "Yeah, we had that reaction too."
Angel looked at his watch. "Well, we need to get going. The baker's expecting us at two and it's already two ten."
"Yeah. Ok." Buffy held out her free hand. "It was nice to formally meet you."
"You two." Kate said, shaking Buffy's hand. "You guys have a great wedding, ok?"
"We'll try."
"Bye Angel."
"Bye." Angel said as Kate walked away.
"Well, now that we've been a little creeped out for the day.... What do you say we go check out our cake?" Buffy said.
"I'm with you there."
They strolled down to the baker's shop and walked in. The baker walked out from behind a curtain and saw them. "Hello! You must be Buffy and Angel."
"Hi." Buffy said.
"Follow me please." Buffy and Angel looked a little wary, but they followed the baker over to a table in the corner piled with binders. They sat down and the baker opened up one of the binders and slid it over to Buffy and Angel. "Find whatever design of cake you would like. I'll be right back." With that, the baker walked off with a nervous glance over his shoulder.
Buffy turned to Angel. "Do you get the feeling he's a little off?"
"I get the feeling that you're still on edge from two weeks ago. Sweetheart, nobody is after us. It's just a strange coincidence that we were attacked at the same time." Angel said, stroking Buffy's hand.
"Angel, it's really not coincidence! We were attacked two nights ago. What was that?"
"Patrolling. It happens when you patrol."
"I called Giles and he said keep a look out. He doesn't think it's coincidence that we were attacked at the same time doing the same thing."
"Giles is in Cleveland."
"So? He's still the expert."
"What does Wesley say?"
"He said the same thing that Giles did. We should keep an eye out. There may be demons out to get us because we destroyed their vacation spot."
"Buffy," Angel kissed her gently. "Look at cakes and stop worrying."
"But...."
"Buffy, cakes, now."
She sighed and looked down at the pictures of different wedding cake styles. She didn't have to look far before she found the type she wanted. "There I found it, now let's talk about this."
Angel sighed. "You really think this is the place to talk about this?"
"Keep our voices low and there won't be any problem. But I'm getting one of my feelings. This place isn't right."
"How?"
"If I knew how, I would be taking care of it right now. I felt it when when we walked in and it got stronger when the baker guy came out. He's suspicious. He comes out, sits us down, and then goes back without saying much. What's with that?"
"We're not the only people getting married Buffy. And he also has a business to run."
"There's no one else in here. And I don't smell anything baking." Angel sniffed the air and then stiffened. "What?"
"You may be right."
"See!"
"Shh...." Angel cocked his head and listened closely to the sounds surrounding him. Then he heard it. There was a shuffle in the back that seemed out of place. It sounded like wet skin on a concrete floor. Before he could tell Buffy, the baker came back out.
"Have you found what you're looking for?" He asked.
Buffy smiled, pretneding that there was nothing wrong. "Right here." She slid the book over to show him.
"That's a beautiful cake. Not many people ask for it though because it's so simple."
"Our wedding is simple and small."
"Oh. Well, then this cake is perfect." The man pulled out a pad and pen. "What kind of flavors would you like?"
"Vanilla on vanilla."
"Very good."
"Can you put real roses on it? Red and white rose buds facing outwards all around the cake?"
"Certainly. That sounds elegant. I don't get many requests for real roses on cakes."
"Do you get many requests to kill your customers?" Angel growled.
"What?"
"The demons in the back, what do they want?"
"Angel...."
"No, this creep is hiding them in the back. I can smell it on him." Angel vamped and hauled the baker close to his face. "What do they want?"
Suddenly, Angel was thrown back by a blast. Buffy looked at the baker's hands and found a taser turned up to the highest level. The baker's gaze was turned on her now. Buffy glanced at Angel who was out cold. She looked back at the advancing baker. Wanting to play keep-away-from-the- high-voltage-taser, Buffy backflipped away and ran up over the counter, landing behind a glass partition that slid back to reveal yummy goodies. Just as she was about to look over the counter to see where the baker was, two fairly large hands grabbed her shoulders and lifted her painfully off the ground. Buffy squirmed, but was unable to get away. The arms pulled back and Buffy knew the wall was the next thing she was going to meet.
Just as she suspected, the demon threw her with all its force, which was quite a lot, and the Slayer slammed painfully into the opposite wall. She hit her head on something sticking out of the wall and felt blood trickle down her forehead. Shaking it off, Buffy turned and looked around to asses where everything was. The baker was staring wide-eyed at her and three demons had appeared from the door to the back of the shop. Angel was just coming around and he sat up slowly, still in vamp face. Buffy stood and put her back to the wall, getting a good view of everything where she stood. The demons advanced on her. Thinking quickly and acting even faster, Buffy shot across the room and decked the baker, catching the taser by the non-leathal end. The demons stopped short.
"Ok, I don't know who the hell you guys are, but this thing where you guys try to stop this wedding from happening is going to end." Buffy growled.
"There Nimchicks." Angel said, standing and moving to Buffy's side.
"What the hell is that?"
"A vengeful bunch of demons apparently. These must be the realtives of the Nimchicks I wiped out a few years back because they were trying to ritually kill and then eat an aspiring actress." Angel looked at the demons. "Ain't that right boys?"
They attacked. Buffy and Angel went on the offensive, fighting the powerful demons back. Buffy recieved a few bruises that were definitely going to show by that night. It only spurred her anger. It was her wedding day in less than a month and these demons were trying to make her look bad. Suddenly, another Nimchick appeared from the back. He was wearing a vest with seven sticks of dynamite attatched to it.
"Angel, how badly did you wipe out their relatives?" Buffy asked.
"Almost the entire clan. Why?" Angel asked, punching a demon. Buffy pointed and Angel looked. "Damn it! Buffy run!"
Buffy started to take off, but one of the three original demons grabbed her leg and she fell to the floor. Her chin hit hard and it clacked her teeth together. She felt a sharp pain in her tongue and then felt blood rush into her mouth, filling it. With a slight gag, Buffy spit it out and rolled to kick the demon. It flew backwards and Buffy started to crawl and stand at the same time. Before she could get out from behind the counter and to the door, she heard a click behind her and then everything went black.
Angel was thrown forward across the street from the blast. Paying no attention to the pain it caused, he flew to his feet and ran back towards the burning building. "BUFFY!" Observers were already starting to crowd on the street and from far off, sirens could be heard. Angel didn't care. Buffy hadn't made it out of the building before the explosion and was probably still inside. The whole shop was in flames. Angel had to move carefully around the flames, not wanting to get burned even though it would just heal instantly.
The first thing he found was a body. It wasn't Buffy's. It was the baker's. He hadn't made it out of the door. Angel smelled Buffy's blood in the air. Then, from behind the counter, he heard a barely audible groan. Throwing things out of his way, Angel ran to the counter and jumped over, landing next to a badly bleeding and burned Buffy. Outside, the fire trucks and ambulances and police vehicles arrived. Angel picked his barely concious wife up and started to head out of the building. A firefighter ran up to him. Angel's face was smeared with soot and tears made lines through the blackness.
"Get her over here." The man said, leading Angel over to one of the ambulances. The paramedics pulled out a stretcher and told Angel to set her down on it. They said some extremely technical things that Angel didn't understand. All he understood was that the love of his life was badly hurt and the paramedics wouldn't let him near her. Finally, they loaded her onto the ambluance. Angel climbed in the back with them and sat next to Buffy's stretcher. As the paramedics got her hooked up to multiple machines that monitored her vitals, Angel took her hand and stroked it, kissing her knuckles gently.
Eight hours later, Angel sat by Buffy's hospital bed. It was a room for two beds like the one she had been in after Angel had first drank her blood and then rushed her to the hospital. The curtain was drawn and the only light came from the lights behind the bed. He held Buffy's hand between his and laid his forehead on their hands. Gunn, Wesley, and the rest of the gang waited in the waiting room. Only one person was allowed and Angel had insisted that it be him. When Buffy woke up, he would be there. His promise still stood. He would never leave her.
About two hours ago, Angel had been questioned by the a police woman about what had happened at the bakery that afternoon. He had given her the best he could, but aside from being worried about Buffy, he couldn't exactly tell her eveything that had happened in there. The story he gave the woman was that four weird looking guys had come in and one was strapped to a bomb. They said that they would blow the place if anyone moved. Nobody had moved. As they moved to the register, something went wrong and Buffy and Angel had tried to run out, but the blast had happened and Buffy hadn't made it out. Angel told the woman that he had gone back in to look for his wife. She asked the standard questions about why he had been there and why he wasn't hurt, then she left him alone with Buffy.
Buffy was now bangaged up and on a morphine drip. Her burns had only looked bad. She was more cut up than burnt. From the time Angel had gotton her out of the building to now, Buffy was looking a lot better. Her Slayer healing was coming in extremely handy right now. The only reason she wasn't awake was because of the morphine. It kept her sedated and painless. Angel stroked her hand and kissed her knuckles for the hundredth time in the past ten minutes. Behind him, the curtain rustled. He looked up and found Willow tiptoeing in.
"Hey." She said gently.
"Hi. What are you doing in here?" Angel asked quietly.
"I'm going a little stir crazy in there. I needed to be with Buffy. She's my best friend and I want to do something for her."
"I know the feeling. All any of us can do is wait and be there for her right now."
"Actually, I was going to suggest a spell I learned especially for Buffy. It would step up her healing abilities."
"Thanks for the offer Willow, but let's wait to see what Buffy says when she wakes up. I don't think she'd like you to mess with magick just to help her."
Willow nodded. "Ok, so the waiting and the being there idea is in effect for me still." Angel smiled slightly at Willow as she sat down on the opposite side of Buffy's bed and picked up her friend's other hand. "She hates hospitals."
"I know."
"I remember the last time she was in the hospital. After she was shot and I was black eyed, black magick Willow."
"You saved her."
"Yeah." Willow reached across the bed and laid a hand on Angel's hands clamped onto Buffy's hand. "She's gonna come through this. Buffy's the strongest person I know."
"Thank you."
Willow stood. "I'll be back. I'm going to go tell everyone she's still asleep and I'm going to also get some coffee. You want some?"
"No thanks."
"You sure?"
"I'm fine."
"Ok." Willow patted Angel's back and gave him a gentle hug before she left.
Buffy didn't wake up until early the next morning. She found Angel's head laying on a bed next to her, his hands clamped onto her left one. Letting her senses come back to her slowly, she assesed her surroundings. Hospital most definitely. The smell gave it away. Plus the whole lala land thing she had going because of the medicine being dripped into her right arm through an IV. The pain felt like a dull roar as she pushed up on one arm and made herself sit up.
Angel stirred and looked up. "Buffy?"
"Hi." Buffy said hoarsely.
"You're awake."
Buffy touched her forehead gingerly and found a bandage there. "How long have I been out?"
"Um...." Angel looked at his watch. "A little over fourteen hours."
Buffy sighed and leaned back on the elevated bed. "I feel like crap even though this stuff in my arm in dulling the pain."
"Morphine."
"Ah, the good stuff. They always keep it locked away until there's something to celebrate."
"What's there to celebrate?"
"You don't get blown up everyday, do you?" Buffy smiled. "Where's everybody?"
"Waiting room."
"They've been here the whole time?"
"Ever since I called them."
"Which was...."
"When I got here."
"So, almost the full fourteen hours?"
"They all love you."
"Who woulda thought? When can I get out of here?"
"As soon as the doctors say you can."
"Let's have Willow play with their brain and make them think I'm ready to leave."
"Do you feel ready?"
"I feel like running a marathon." Buffy said sarcastically.
Angel smiled and leaned up to kiss her. Buffy grabbed his arm and pulled him up onto the bed with her. She scooted over and he sat next to her, crossing his legs at the ankle. Buffy lifted his arm and slid under it, laying her head on Angel's chest. It was her spot where she felt the safest because Angel was there to protect her. As long as his arms were holding her, nothing could harm her. He laid his head on top of hers and they both fell asleep in each other's arms.
