Chapter 5
Angel held Buffy's hand as they followed the smell of her father. Willow and Kennedy, Robin and Faith, Fred and Wesely, and Gunn and Dawn followed right behind them. Angel squeezed his wife's hand hopefully. It meant that they were close. Buffy looked around and spotted her father's car in front of a three story building. The demons had stolen the car when they had kidnapped her father.
"He's in that building." Buffy said.
"My guess exactly." Angel said. "We should surround the place. Dawn and Kennedy, you find an entrance around back and make sure no one leaves. Fred and Wesley, guard the front. Faith and Willow, your coming in with us. We'll split up and cover the floors. Willow, you can alert us telepathically if anything's wrong."
"What about us?" Gunn asked, motioning to him and Robin.
"You and Robin see if there are any other exits. If there are, block em. We're not coming back out without Mr. Summers."
They all nodded and headed for their assigned positions. Buffy and Angel entered first then Fatih and Willow. Buffy motioned that Faith and Willow should take the first floor and she and Angel would take the next one. "We'll meet in the stairwell over there." She finished.
The four went their sperate ways. Buffy and Angel crept up the stairs and onto the second floor. The place was an old office building that had just been simply abandoned. *Or everyone here was killed.* Buffy thought grimly. Computers sat on desks that were collecting dust. A thick layer or two already covered the whole place. There were footprints in the dust and Buffy pointed. Angel had already seen them and they followed. It led to a large conferance room. Nothing in there except the remains of a person. Bones were piled in a corner and a half eaten corpse laid on the table. It smelled a little fresh.
Buffy rushed up and searched the corpse, but didn't touch it. She breathed a sigh of relief. "It's not my dad."
Angel nodded and took her arm, leading her out of the room. They headed back to the stairwell. The third floor was all that was left. Willow and Faith waited for them in front of the door. Faith shrugged and whispered, "We got nothing on the first floor. What about you guys?"
"Half eaten corpse and a pile of bones." Buffy said. Willow's eyes widned. "It wasn't my dad." The red head nodded.
"The creeps are probably in here then."
"That's what we figured." Angel said.
"So, what's the plan?" Willow asked.
"Well, it's pretty dark in there. How about...."
"Hey guys." Gunn said, walking up the stairs.
"Gunn! Where's Robin?" Faith asked.
"Um, we didn't find anything so I thought I'd come help you guys out. Robin's around here somewhere looking for you all."
"Oh."
"Fine, ok." Angel said. "We'll take the place by storm and find Hank, get him out to Fred and Wesley, have them take him and Dawn home, and then the rest of us will attack full force. Willow, get yourself ready to do an illumination spell." He raised his sword. "Ready." They all nodded.
On the count of three, Buffy and Angel kicked the door down. They moved in and Willow cast her spell. The place lit up to reveal Dawn and Kennedy standing there with Hank Summers. "Hey guys." Dawn said. "We found dad!"
"What? You guys are supposed to be gaurding the back enterance." Buffy said.
"We know." Kennedy said.
"We just wanted to join the fun. There's no back enterance." Dawn finished.
"Hey Buffy." Hank said. "Wow. What a rescue! All this for me?"
"Dad?" Buffy asked. "What's wrong with you?"
"I'm fine. I can't believe that my daughter is really this powerful. To think I thought you were crazy."
"So, you believe me now?"
"Of course I do! Those demons really scared the crap out of me, but turns out that they're real and I believe you now."
Buffy rushed up and hugged her father. "I knew you'd come around!"
"Buffy! Look out!" Angel yelled.
Suddenly, Dawn and Kennedy changed into two heinous demons. They charged her and her now changing father. Buffy tried to break out of the demon's hold on her, but it had her firmly in place. She felt a sharp stab in the back of her shoulder and realized that one of the demons had clawed her there.
"They're shapeshifters!" Faith yelled as Gunn turned into one of the demons. She attacked the Gunn demon and Willow started an incantation.
More demons swarmed out of some of the offices and attacked. Angel was trying desperately to get to his wife, but the demons kept coming. Buffy had managed to use her own blood as a lubricant and slide out of the demon's grip. Now she faced down the three that had pretended to be Kennedy, Dawn, and her father. Reaching down, Buffy yanked out the dagger from its holder and slashed the air in front of her, warding off the demons. The demon's weren't as powerful as they looked.
As Buffy took down the demon that had pretended to be her father, she said, "Mystique was better. At least she got the mutant's powers when she shifted."
Then, the fight was over. Everyone was at a standstill as a door burst down and a larger demon different from the shapeshifters stepped out holding Buffy's father's throat in its hands. "I'll snap his neck Slayer." It said.
"What do you want?" Buffy asked.
"You're death."
"Well, you've missed that twice now."
"Don't play games with me. Do you know who I am?"
"No." The demon seemed taken aback by this. "Of course, I kill a lot of demons, so you all kind of mix together and look the same to me."
"I am Largath, son of Balthazar."
"Ew! Balthazar had a son!? That demon was huge! How did any kind of demon get with that lard tub?"
The demon roared. "How dare you defile my father's name!"
"Oh please. He was so easily killed. All he did was sit in a vat of water and have his miniions hose him down every once and a while. Where were you when I killed him?" The demon was silent. "You know, he deserved it."
Largath roared. "Shut up!"
"He tried to kill Giles and Wesley and then he tried to kill me and Faith and then he tried to kill Angel. Now in my book, that qualifies as bad."
Largath roared again and threw Hank out of the way. "You will pay!"
Buffy smiled to herself. She had gotten her father out of harm's way and put herself in his place. She could fend a little better there than her dad could. Charging Largath at the same time he charged her, Buffy knocked into the demon and threw him against a wall. The wall caved in and Angel joined her. Together, they attacked. Largath was no match for the both of them. When the job was done, Angel looked at Buffy and assesed her damages.
"I'm ok." She glanced at Largath. "They're all talk nowadays." Hank was standing with Faith and Willow staring at Buffy. His eyes were wide with fright. "You ok dad?"
"You.... You're insane. All of this is insane!" Hank said.
"Yeah. We got that part. I asked if you were ok."
"Of course I'm not ok! i just found out my daughter is a Vampire Slayer. I always thought that this was all a figment of your diluted imagination, but now.... Now you've dragged me into your world."
"Dad...."
"No! Don't talk to me. I have no daughter named Buffy. And if Dawn is a part of all of this, then she's not my daughter either. I refuse to have anything to do with this insanity!"
"Dad, please!"
Hank ran out of the building as fast as he could.
Buffy stared after him, tears falling down her cheeks. Angel tried to comfort her, but she pushed him away and ran. She ran back to the Hyperion, past Hugh, Debbie, and Lorne and up to the top floor into one of the abandoned rooms. She locked the door and then sat in a corner and cried. Twenty minutes later, Angel was pounding on the door.
"Buffy! Come out, please?"
"LEAVE.... ME.... ALONE!"
"I can't do that."
"The wedding's off. I can't take all of this. The demon world's gotten what they wanted. There won't be a wedding."
"Buffy, please don't...."
"Go away!"
"I'm not leaving." Angel sat down on the floor and put his back against the opposite wall.
Buffy banged her head against the wall and cried even harder. The demon's had succeded. They had destroyed her wedding and what was left of Buffy's family. She was truely an orphan now. No father and no mother. Nothing in her Slayer training had ever prepared her for a reaction like that. Her mother had been shocked and outraged when she had found out that Buffy was a Slayer, but she hadn't disowned Buffy. Hank had delivered a blow to the heart when he had disowned first Buffy and then Dawn. Poor Dawn. She didn't even know she was an orphan just like Buffy.
Buffy had never thought her father was so self consumed that he couldn't handle something like this. Deep down, everyone in the world knew something wasn't right with the world. Some couldn't handle it and denied it all. Buffy wondered how many other Slayers had been disowned by their parents. She remembered that Kendra's family had given her over to her Watcher when she was a little girl. But that was a completely different story. Kendra's family had accepted who Kendra was. They hadn't disowned her.
The petite blonde Slayer started to cry harder. Even with all of her friends and her husband and her sister, Buffy felt alone. She felt like dying in that moment. Suddenly, a light shined from nowhere and Buffy looked up. There was a slender figure dressed in a white flowing gown standing in the middle of the room. A bright and beautiful light emanated from her and then began to dim. It was Joyce.
"Mommy? Is it really you?" Buffy asked, staring through her tears.
"It's really me Buffy." Joyce said, moving to her daughter.
"Oh God, Mommy!" Buffy fell into her mother's arms.
"I heard you're cries. What's wrong baby?"
"Everything!"
"Shh. Calm down and talk to me. You can't talk rationally when you're blubbering. Take some deep breaths." Buffy did as her mother told her too and then looked at Joyce's face. "There. Now, tell me what's wrong."
"I was serious when I said everything."
"Start from the beginning."
"How long do you have?"
"However long you need me."
Buffy stared at Joyce and then started. "Well, do you know who Connor is?"
"Of course I do. He's my grandson."
"Not anymore. Not technically. We gave him up to a normal life. He hated Angel and I. He resented us because he thought we let Holtz take him to Hell. He's happy now. He graduated with honors and can go to any college he wants to. Like Willow could." Buffy smiled at the memory of her baby boy. "I miss when he was a baby. If I could go back, I would take Connor away from LA and Sunnydale and raise him somewhere safe."
"We can't alter the past Buffy. We can only change the future."
"I know. Anyways, I went evil with Angelus. Turns out I'm a lot more evil than Angelus. HE was MY bitch to put it in subtle terms. I helped him kill people. I didn't actually kill anyone myself, but I helped. It was mainly me and him and a lot of extremely rough.... bible readings." Joyce smiled, remembering when Buffy had covered up sex with Riley by calling it bible readings. "Then when we came back, we had Jasmine to deal with."
Buffy told her mother about the Jasmine ordeal and then taking over Wolfram and Hart. She went on to Sunnydale and explained everything that had happened there. Being too hard on the girls because she knew some of them were going to die and them kicking her out of the house. Then they all banded together and opened the Hellmouth. She told Joyce about all the potentials in the world becoming Slayers and how they made Sunnydale cave in on itself. Buffy apologized for destroying their house. Then she told her mother about all the attacks and atempts at stopping the wedding and then she came to the part where Hank had disowned his daughters.
Joyce looked infuriated. "That scummy bastard! I can't believe he's so self involved that he would completely deny.... well, everything!"
"Mom! Can angels talk like that?"
"This angel can and will. He's your father. Who the hell does he think he is." Then, Joyce's demeanor softened as she looked at her daughter. "You know what? It doesn't matter. None of it matters Buffy. What matters is that you have a man that loves you out there. He'd do anything for you. He would jump off a bridge into a pile of wooden stakes if you asked him to."
"I know."
"Then why did you call the wedding off?"
"Because everytime something to do with the wedding happens, something bad happens right along with it. It's just too much to deal with after losing two of my friends and my home and now dad."
"You have Rupert." Buffy looked at Joyce, understanding. "Yeah. He's your real father. Not biologically, but he's your father where it counts. He loves you Buffy. If you asked, he would adopt you as his daughter in a heartbeat. You don't need Hank to make everything perfect. You're father is downstairs." Joyce reached out and touched her daughter's cheek. "I love you Buffy. I believe in you and I know you can make it through this."
"But what if all of this is an omen? What if Angel and I really aren't meant to be together?"
"The two of you have gotten this far. You're love for each other caused it to snow in Sunnydale. Buffy, you're my daughter and I know you better than you know yourself and I know that you love Angel. That love is enough to make it through whatever comes your way. Nothing can stop you from loving Angel unless you let it. All I ever wanted was for my girls to be happy. Please baby, go be happy and stop sulking. Just think of your cookie metaphor." Joyce smiled playfully.
Buffy gave her mother a faint smile. "I love you mom."
"I love you Buffy."
"I miss you so much."
"I'm always here. Most of the time you can't see me, but you know I'm there."
"Thank you for everything. Especially for being my mom. I know I put you through a lot."
"I'll always love you Buffy. Tell Dawn I love her too."
Buffy embraced her mother one last time and as Joyce kissed her daughter's forehead, she faded out. Wiping the tears from her face, Buffy walked to the door and opened it. Angel was sitting in the hallway out cold. He was leaning against the wall and snoring slightly. Buffy leaned down and gently stroked his cheek and eyebrow until he woke up.
"Buffy...."
"Hey." She smiled.
"Are you all right?"
With a glance back into the room and then up at the sky, Buffy smirked and moved in between Angel's legs, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Everything's perfect. I love you Angel."
"I love you."
"Well, we have a wedding to attend tomorrow. I don't know about you, but I need my beauty sleep."
"Why the sudden change of mind?"
"Let's just say I had a visit from part of my heart that's always there with me." Angel looked at her strangely. "It's a long story." She stood up and pulled Angel to his feet, wrapping one of his arms around her waist as they walked. "Let's go to bed. I'm tired."
Angel held Buffy's hand as they followed the smell of her father. Willow and Kennedy, Robin and Faith, Fred and Wesely, and Gunn and Dawn followed right behind them. Angel squeezed his wife's hand hopefully. It meant that they were close. Buffy looked around and spotted her father's car in front of a three story building. The demons had stolen the car when they had kidnapped her father.
"He's in that building." Buffy said.
"My guess exactly." Angel said. "We should surround the place. Dawn and Kennedy, you find an entrance around back and make sure no one leaves. Fred and Wesley, guard the front. Faith and Willow, your coming in with us. We'll split up and cover the floors. Willow, you can alert us telepathically if anything's wrong."
"What about us?" Gunn asked, motioning to him and Robin.
"You and Robin see if there are any other exits. If there are, block em. We're not coming back out without Mr. Summers."
They all nodded and headed for their assigned positions. Buffy and Angel entered first then Fatih and Willow. Buffy motioned that Faith and Willow should take the first floor and she and Angel would take the next one. "We'll meet in the stairwell over there." She finished.
The four went their sperate ways. Buffy and Angel crept up the stairs and onto the second floor. The place was an old office building that had just been simply abandoned. *Or everyone here was killed.* Buffy thought grimly. Computers sat on desks that were collecting dust. A thick layer or two already covered the whole place. There were footprints in the dust and Buffy pointed. Angel had already seen them and they followed. It led to a large conferance room. Nothing in there except the remains of a person. Bones were piled in a corner and a half eaten corpse laid on the table. It smelled a little fresh.
Buffy rushed up and searched the corpse, but didn't touch it. She breathed a sigh of relief. "It's not my dad."
Angel nodded and took her arm, leading her out of the room. They headed back to the stairwell. The third floor was all that was left. Willow and Faith waited for them in front of the door. Faith shrugged and whispered, "We got nothing on the first floor. What about you guys?"
"Half eaten corpse and a pile of bones." Buffy said. Willow's eyes widned. "It wasn't my dad." The red head nodded.
"The creeps are probably in here then."
"That's what we figured." Angel said.
"So, what's the plan?" Willow asked.
"Well, it's pretty dark in there. How about...."
"Hey guys." Gunn said, walking up the stairs.
"Gunn! Where's Robin?" Faith asked.
"Um, we didn't find anything so I thought I'd come help you guys out. Robin's around here somewhere looking for you all."
"Oh."
"Fine, ok." Angel said. "We'll take the place by storm and find Hank, get him out to Fred and Wesley, have them take him and Dawn home, and then the rest of us will attack full force. Willow, get yourself ready to do an illumination spell." He raised his sword. "Ready." They all nodded.
On the count of three, Buffy and Angel kicked the door down. They moved in and Willow cast her spell. The place lit up to reveal Dawn and Kennedy standing there with Hank Summers. "Hey guys." Dawn said. "We found dad!"
"What? You guys are supposed to be gaurding the back enterance." Buffy said.
"We know." Kennedy said.
"We just wanted to join the fun. There's no back enterance." Dawn finished.
"Hey Buffy." Hank said. "Wow. What a rescue! All this for me?"
"Dad?" Buffy asked. "What's wrong with you?"
"I'm fine. I can't believe that my daughter is really this powerful. To think I thought you were crazy."
"So, you believe me now?"
"Of course I do! Those demons really scared the crap out of me, but turns out that they're real and I believe you now."
Buffy rushed up and hugged her father. "I knew you'd come around!"
"Buffy! Look out!" Angel yelled.
Suddenly, Dawn and Kennedy changed into two heinous demons. They charged her and her now changing father. Buffy tried to break out of the demon's hold on her, but it had her firmly in place. She felt a sharp stab in the back of her shoulder and realized that one of the demons had clawed her there.
"They're shapeshifters!" Faith yelled as Gunn turned into one of the demons. She attacked the Gunn demon and Willow started an incantation.
More demons swarmed out of some of the offices and attacked. Angel was trying desperately to get to his wife, but the demons kept coming. Buffy had managed to use her own blood as a lubricant and slide out of the demon's grip. Now she faced down the three that had pretended to be Kennedy, Dawn, and her father. Reaching down, Buffy yanked out the dagger from its holder and slashed the air in front of her, warding off the demons. The demon's weren't as powerful as they looked.
As Buffy took down the demon that had pretended to be her father, she said, "Mystique was better. At least she got the mutant's powers when she shifted."
Then, the fight was over. Everyone was at a standstill as a door burst down and a larger demon different from the shapeshifters stepped out holding Buffy's father's throat in its hands. "I'll snap his neck Slayer." It said.
"What do you want?" Buffy asked.
"You're death."
"Well, you've missed that twice now."
"Don't play games with me. Do you know who I am?"
"No." The demon seemed taken aback by this. "Of course, I kill a lot of demons, so you all kind of mix together and look the same to me."
"I am Largath, son of Balthazar."
"Ew! Balthazar had a son!? That demon was huge! How did any kind of demon get with that lard tub?"
The demon roared. "How dare you defile my father's name!"
"Oh please. He was so easily killed. All he did was sit in a vat of water and have his miniions hose him down every once and a while. Where were you when I killed him?" The demon was silent. "You know, he deserved it."
Largath roared. "Shut up!"
"He tried to kill Giles and Wesley and then he tried to kill me and Faith and then he tried to kill Angel. Now in my book, that qualifies as bad."
Largath roared again and threw Hank out of the way. "You will pay!"
Buffy smiled to herself. She had gotten her father out of harm's way and put herself in his place. She could fend a little better there than her dad could. Charging Largath at the same time he charged her, Buffy knocked into the demon and threw him against a wall. The wall caved in and Angel joined her. Together, they attacked. Largath was no match for the both of them. When the job was done, Angel looked at Buffy and assesed her damages.
"I'm ok." She glanced at Largath. "They're all talk nowadays." Hank was standing with Faith and Willow staring at Buffy. His eyes were wide with fright. "You ok dad?"
"You.... You're insane. All of this is insane!" Hank said.
"Yeah. We got that part. I asked if you were ok."
"Of course I'm not ok! i just found out my daughter is a Vampire Slayer. I always thought that this was all a figment of your diluted imagination, but now.... Now you've dragged me into your world."
"Dad...."
"No! Don't talk to me. I have no daughter named Buffy. And if Dawn is a part of all of this, then she's not my daughter either. I refuse to have anything to do with this insanity!"
"Dad, please!"
Hank ran out of the building as fast as he could.
Buffy stared after him, tears falling down her cheeks. Angel tried to comfort her, but she pushed him away and ran. She ran back to the Hyperion, past Hugh, Debbie, and Lorne and up to the top floor into one of the abandoned rooms. She locked the door and then sat in a corner and cried. Twenty minutes later, Angel was pounding on the door.
"Buffy! Come out, please?"
"LEAVE.... ME.... ALONE!"
"I can't do that."
"The wedding's off. I can't take all of this. The demon world's gotten what they wanted. There won't be a wedding."
"Buffy, please don't...."
"Go away!"
"I'm not leaving." Angel sat down on the floor and put his back against the opposite wall.
Buffy banged her head against the wall and cried even harder. The demon's had succeded. They had destroyed her wedding and what was left of Buffy's family. She was truely an orphan now. No father and no mother. Nothing in her Slayer training had ever prepared her for a reaction like that. Her mother had been shocked and outraged when she had found out that Buffy was a Slayer, but she hadn't disowned Buffy. Hank had delivered a blow to the heart when he had disowned first Buffy and then Dawn. Poor Dawn. She didn't even know she was an orphan just like Buffy.
Buffy had never thought her father was so self consumed that he couldn't handle something like this. Deep down, everyone in the world knew something wasn't right with the world. Some couldn't handle it and denied it all. Buffy wondered how many other Slayers had been disowned by their parents. She remembered that Kendra's family had given her over to her Watcher when she was a little girl. But that was a completely different story. Kendra's family had accepted who Kendra was. They hadn't disowned her.
The petite blonde Slayer started to cry harder. Even with all of her friends and her husband and her sister, Buffy felt alone. She felt like dying in that moment. Suddenly, a light shined from nowhere and Buffy looked up. There was a slender figure dressed in a white flowing gown standing in the middle of the room. A bright and beautiful light emanated from her and then began to dim. It was Joyce.
"Mommy? Is it really you?" Buffy asked, staring through her tears.
"It's really me Buffy." Joyce said, moving to her daughter.
"Oh God, Mommy!" Buffy fell into her mother's arms.
"I heard you're cries. What's wrong baby?"
"Everything!"
"Shh. Calm down and talk to me. You can't talk rationally when you're blubbering. Take some deep breaths." Buffy did as her mother told her too and then looked at Joyce's face. "There. Now, tell me what's wrong."
"I was serious when I said everything."
"Start from the beginning."
"How long do you have?"
"However long you need me."
Buffy stared at Joyce and then started. "Well, do you know who Connor is?"
"Of course I do. He's my grandson."
"Not anymore. Not technically. We gave him up to a normal life. He hated Angel and I. He resented us because he thought we let Holtz take him to Hell. He's happy now. He graduated with honors and can go to any college he wants to. Like Willow could." Buffy smiled at the memory of her baby boy. "I miss when he was a baby. If I could go back, I would take Connor away from LA and Sunnydale and raise him somewhere safe."
"We can't alter the past Buffy. We can only change the future."
"I know. Anyways, I went evil with Angelus. Turns out I'm a lot more evil than Angelus. HE was MY bitch to put it in subtle terms. I helped him kill people. I didn't actually kill anyone myself, but I helped. It was mainly me and him and a lot of extremely rough.... bible readings." Joyce smiled, remembering when Buffy had covered up sex with Riley by calling it bible readings. "Then when we came back, we had Jasmine to deal with."
Buffy told her mother about the Jasmine ordeal and then taking over Wolfram and Hart. She went on to Sunnydale and explained everything that had happened there. Being too hard on the girls because she knew some of them were going to die and them kicking her out of the house. Then they all banded together and opened the Hellmouth. She told Joyce about all the potentials in the world becoming Slayers and how they made Sunnydale cave in on itself. Buffy apologized for destroying their house. Then she told her mother about all the attacks and atempts at stopping the wedding and then she came to the part where Hank had disowned his daughters.
Joyce looked infuriated. "That scummy bastard! I can't believe he's so self involved that he would completely deny.... well, everything!"
"Mom! Can angels talk like that?"
"This angel can and will. He's your father. Who the hell does he think he is." Then, Joyce's demeanor softened as she looked at her daughter. "You know what? It doesn't matter. None of it matters Buffy. What matters is that you have a man that loves you out there. He'd do anything for you. He would jump off a bridge into a pile of wooden stakes if you asked him to."
"I know."
"Then why did you call the wedding off?"
"Because everytime something to do with the wedding happens, something bad happens right along with it. It's just too much to deal with after losing two of my friends and my home and now dad."
"You have Rupert." Buffy looked at Joyce, understanding. "Yeah. He's your real father. Not biologically, but he's your father where it counts. He loves you Buffy. If you asked, he would adopt you as his daughter in a heartbeat. You don't need Hank to make everything perfect. You're father is downstairs." Joyce reached out and touched her daughter's cheek. "I love you Buffy. I believe in you and I know you can make it through this."
"But what if all of this is an omen? What if Angel and I really aren't meant to be together?"
"The two of you have gotten this far. You're love for each other caused it to snow in Sunnydale. Buffy, you're my daughter and I know you better than you know yourself and I know that you love Angel. That love is enough to make it through whatever comes your way. Nothing can stop you from loving Angel unless you let it. All I ever wanted was for my girls to be happy. Please baby, go be happy and stop sulking. Just think of your cookie metaphor." Joyce smiled playfully.
Buffy gave her mother a faint smile. "I love you mom."
"I love you Buffy."
"I miss you so much."
"I'm always here. Most of the time you can't see me, but you know I'm there."
"Thank you for everything. Especially for being my mom. I know I put you through a lot."
"I'll always love you Buffy. Tell Dawn I love her too."
Buffy embraced her mother one last time and as Joyce kissed her daughter's forehead, she faded out. Wiping the tears from her face, Buffy walked to the door and opened it. Angel was sitting in the hallway out cold. He was leaning against the wall and snoring slightly. Buffy leaned down and gently stroked his cheek and eyebrow until he woke up.
"Buffy...."
"Hey." She smiled.
"Are you all right?"
With a glance back into the room and then up at the sky, Buffy smirked and moved in between Angel's legs, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Everything's perfect. I love you Angel."
"I love you."
"Well, we have a wedding to attend tomorrow. I don't know about you, but I need my beauty sleep."
"Why the sudden change of mind?"
"Let's just say I had a visit from part of my heart that's always there with me." Angel looked at her strangely. "It's a long story." She stood up and pulled Angel to his feet, wrapping one of his arms around her waist as they walked. "Let's go to bed. I'm tired."
