Chapter 6

August 17, 2003

Buffy woke up to a beautiful summer day. She was wrapped in a still- sleeping Angel's arms and she was burrowed under the soft, warm comforter. Outside, birds were singing and downstairs, so was Lorne. In exactly nine hours, the ceremony would begin and Buffy and Angel would be getting married again. This time in front of their friends minus Cordelia, Spike, and Anya.

Angel started to stir and Buffy looked up at him lovingly. She kissed his chest and neck and jaw line until he opened his eyes. "I love waking up to that." He said, looking down at her.

"I love doing it to you." Buffy replied with a kiss to his lips.

He looked out the window. "Oh, looks like we're going to have a beautiful day today."

"Yay." She moved so she was laying on top of him, arms wrapped around underneath his shoulders. "I don't want anything to spoil our perfect day. But knowing our track record of late, something's going to happen."

"Well, let's hope that nothing goes wrong then."

There was a knock on the door and Fred and Gunn walked in carrying a tray of fresh fruit and French Toast that was drowning in syrup. There were two glasses of orange juice. Fred smiled. "We thought you guys might like breakfast in bed together."

"Aw, thank you guys." Buffy said, hugging Fred and then Gunn.

"Lorne's downstairs warming up for the reception." Gunn said with a smirk.

"This early? The ceremony isn't until five." Angel said.

"Well, that's what we told him."

"But he insisted that a great performer pays no attention to time until it's time for the show." Fred finished. Buffy and Angel chuckled. "Well, we'll leave you two alone to eat your breakfast."

"Bye guys. Thank you." Buffy called. They shut the door behind them and Buffy looked down at the tray. "I'm not going to fit into my dress if I eat all of that."

"There's only one plate and two of us. I think they mean for us to share." Angel said, kissing the side of Buffy's head.

"Oh. I just figured with you not being able to really savor the taste that they didn't make you any. I'm happier now that we've got all of that cleared up."

After they ate, Buffy and Angel got dressed and walked down to see how everything was coming. The lobby was decorated with white and red roses and a beautiful white, chiffon garland decorated the banisters. Outside in the garden where the archway was set up, roses were in full bloom and the garland was out here as well. That's where the actual ceremony was going to take place. Then in the ballroom, everything was set up for a party. The stage was polished and the tables were cleared. The tables had a white tablecloth over each of them and a bouquet of white and red roses in the center. Each table had four disposable cameras sitting around the bouquet. Taking Riley and Sam's advice, Buffy had decided to use the cameras instead of a real photographer.

"Speaking of." Buffy said aloud.

"Speaking of what?" Angel asked.

"Oh, I was thinking out loud."

"What were you thinking about?"

"Riley and Sam. I hope they got the message."

"I think they did." Angel pointed at the counter where Riley and Sam stood, looking around for anyone.

"Riley!" Buffy yelled.

He turned and smiled. "Hey there." The two hugged tightly and then Buffy and Sam.

"I'm so glad you guys could make it."

"We almost didn't."

"A nest of Arnukwa demons was a lot bigger than we thought." Sam said, shaking Angel's hand. "So, you must be the infamous Angel."

"That would be me." Angel said, shaking hands with Riley.

"Riley and Buffy have told me all about you. Well, mainly Buffy."

"This is our friend Andy from the Secret Ops." Riley said, indicating the man still standing at the reception desk. "You asked for a special, not normal priest to officiate this special, not normal ceremony."

"Nice to meet you Andy." Buffy said.

"We really appreciate this." Angel said.

"It's no problem. I did Riley and Sam's wedding. It's an honor to re- marry the infamous Buffy and Angel." Andy said.

Angel nodded and took Buffy's hand. Buffy smiled as Riley looked around the place. "This place looks festive."

"I know. It's so perfect." Buffy said.

"Is the ceremony going to be in here?" Sam asked.

"No. In the garden. Why?"

"Because there's one hell of a storm brewing outside."

"No!" Buffy raced to the doors and looked out. Sure enough there was an extremely dark cloud cover settling in over LA. Thunder boomed and lightning flashed everywhere.

"It looks like it's going to rain any second now."

Wesley came in from the garden carrying some chairs. "Ah, there you two are. I think we could use some supernatural strength to get that arch in here." As Buffy and Angel stared at him from the opposite door, Wesley put down the chairs and stood there, staring back. "It's going to rain any second now."

"We know." Angel said.

"We're just a little bummed that we can't have the wedding outside." Buffy said.

"Well, don't just stand there, come out here and help us." Wesley looked at Andy, Riley, and Sam and then at their bags. "Um, this isn't a running hotel."

"Oh, Wes. This is Riley and Sam. They're friends of mine. And this is the priest who's going to be marrying Angel and I. His name is Andy."

"Oh! Sorry about that. So you're Riley."

"Hi." Riley said, shaking his hand. "You must be Wesley."

"Yes."

"Do you need some help bringing the stuff in? I can help. I think the bride and groom have other things they need to attend to." Riley winked at Buffy, getting that it was her big day and she shouldn't have any interruptions.

As soon as Riley and Wesley were out in the garden, Sam turned to Buffy. "So, where's Willow?"

"She's.... I have no idea where Willow is." Buffy said. "Angel and I just got up and hour or so ago."

"You have a lot to do if you're getting married at five today. Aren't you going to go do all the girly stuff?"

"No. Not this Slayer. I'm doing my own hair and stuff. Besides, I can't even keep a manicure in good condition when I do it myself, why waste money on ruining an expensive manicure?"

"Good point." Sam looked at her nails. "Mine are shot." They laughed. "Well, I can't wait to see your dress."

"Neither can I." Angel said.

"Sweetie," Buffy said. "You're not supposed to. But Sam, you can now if you want."

"Sure. Ok." Sam said, following Buffy upstairs. She led her to the third floor and into one of the rooms.

"I cleaned up two rooms up here for the bride and groom. One's my dressing room, the other's Angel's."

"Smart. At least you found a temporary use for a couple of these rooms."

"Well, there are a lot more people here now, so more of the rooms are being used."

"Who all lives here?"

"Well, there's me and Angel obviously. Then there's Dawn, Willow, Lorne, and Xander. We don't see much of him though because he's traveling a lot."

"Why's that?"

"Anya. They had just gotten back together and then she was killed fighting Bringers on the last day of Sunnydale."

"Oh. That's so sad." Buffy nodded solemnly. "Will he be here for the wedding?"

"Yeah. Of course he will." Buffy walked to the closet and pulled out her wedding dress, laying it on the bed.

"Wow, that's gorgeous."

"Thank you."

"It must have cost a fortune."

"Not when you have a fortune times a billion." Sam stared at Buffy. "Angel's pretty well off. Angelus was smart. He kept money in banks in Switzerland. We're technically wealthier than Bill Gates and Donald Trump. And that's all their money added up for the next 100 years."

"Wow."

"It's only an estimate. I feel like a princess with him."

"Well, at least you're happy."

"With Angel, there can't be unhappy for me. He's the one that gets me through all the hard times. I don't know what I would have been like if Angel and I hadn't gotten back together."

"Do you want to find out?"

"Not really."

Sam smiled as they headed back downstairs. "How are you doing your hair?"

"Well, I figured a French twist and have the veil coming out of the twist so it looks like it's cascading out of my hair."

'That sounds gorgeous."

"It is. Lorne helped me try it out."

"Lorne?"

"Demon. Empathic. Good friend."

"Ah."

Buffy wrapped herself in Angel's arms as she looked around the lobby. Her husband was listening to the radio. "What's wrong?"

"Shh. Listen." Angel said, turning up the radio.

"...freak hurricane has descended over the Los Angeles area out of nowhere. This could be one bad storm from what the NSSL is saying. Experts are baffled as to where this storm came from. Early this morning the skies were clear and there were no bad weather conditions being reported."

Angel clicked the radio off and looked at Buffy's crestfallen face. "I'm sure it won't start until later on. Hurricanes take a while to build and this one just came out of nowhere."

"Angel, this is a bad sign." Buffy said. "All summer long, bad things have happened every time we do something involving the wedding. Now a freak hurricane? That's just not normal on my short list of normalcies."

Angel was about to respond when a loud bang sounded against the side of the hotel. Everyone jumped and Buffy and Angel ran to the doors to see what had happened. Outside, Xander was sitting on the ground, wind pushing against him as he tried to stand. The thing that had hit the hotel wall was his suitcases.

"XANDER!" Buffy yelled over the wind. "XANDER!" He looked up. "ARE YOU OK?" He yelled something back, but it was lost in the wind. With a glance at Angel, Buffy ran to Xander. She was almost picked up by the wind it was so strong. Angel scooted against the wall and retrieved the bags, almost getting hit by a trashcan lid. Xander grabbed Buffy's hand and she hauled him to the wall with Angel. They all yelped as one of the potted plants came flying towards their heads. Ducking, they walked back towards the doors holding onto the wall. Just as they got in the doorway, large pellets of rain started to come down with tremendous force, causing a bruise on Xander's forearm.

"Ow." He said as Buffy and Angel slammed the doors shut. "That hurt."

"Are you ok?" Buffy asked.

"I'll live. It's only a bruise."

"I think I should put my handy carpenter skills to work and start boarding up some of these doors and ridiculously large windows."

"You don't have to..."

"No, but I need to. If the glass goes, we're going to put a Jewish, plate smashing wedding to shame." Willow walked in and spotted Xander. "Speaking of..."

"Xander!" Willow said, running to him and hugging him tightly.

"Hey there Will."

"When did you get here?"

"Just now. Buffy and Angel saved me from the evil hurricane. Which by the way... what the hell?"

"I wish we knew." Buffy said.

"It came out of nowhere according to the radio." Angel said. "It's supposed to be bad."

"Maybe I should get to work now then." Xander said. "Who wants to help?"

"I will." Riley said.

"Riley. Good to see you." Xander and Riley shook hands.

"You too."

"A little help here!" Gunn said, holding open the doors. He and Wesley were trying to carry in the archway.

Buffy and Angel walked over and picked it up with ease. "Where's it go?" Angel asked.

"I guess right over here in front of the steps." Wesley said, standing next to the main door. Together, Buffy and Angel placed the archway at the bottom of the main steps. "I guess that the priest can perform the ceremony from the bottom step so you two can be directly under the arch."

"I think it'll work." Buffy said, taking Angel's hand that was attached to the arm slung over her shoulder.

"Besides, the priest isn't all THAT tall."

"He's a demon after all."

"But a good one." Riley and Sam blinked at Angel's comment. "We checked him out ourselves."

"Thank God he's not an evil priest." Buffy said, kissing Angel gently.

"Come on Ri, let's go start boarding up these windows." Xander said.

"I'll help." Gunn said, following.

Giles walked in from the kitchen. "The caterer wants to know if you want any refreshments out here in the lobby for your guests."

Buffy looked at Angel. "Um..."

"Yeah. Sure." Angel said. "We can put out some fruit and champagne and a couple of sparkling cider for out underage drinkers and those who don't want alcohol."

"Good idea sweetie." Buffy said adoringly to Angel.

"Thank you baby." The two shared an intimate moment that was broken when Faith and Robin walked in through the front doors.

"Hey guys!" Faith said. "Man, this weather is wicked crazy! Was it supposed to be a hurricane today?"

"No." Angel and Buffy said.

"It's a freak storm outta nowhere." Willow said.

"I'm sorry." Robin said. "I know you two wanted it in the garden."

"We're ok. In here is as good a place as any." Buffy said. She looked at her watch. "Oh! Crap! I gotta start getting ready. I didn't realize that time had passed so fast."

"We've got six hours." Angel said.

"I know. Willow and Dawn are treating me to a day of luxury in our at home spa. Will ordered a masseuse, a facial person, and a hair stylist."

"Wow. Where'd she get that kind of money?"

"From us. It was the money we gave her to help her out after we lost everything in Sunnydale. Since she decided to live here, she had more money left after buying new clothes and shoes."

"Buffy, let's go." Willow and Dawn called from upstairs.

"Coming." Buffy looked back at Angel as she headed up the stairs. "You're welcome to join us."

"No thanks. I might come up and join you in a hot bubble bath later."

"Oh, we won't have time." With that, Buffy was out of sight.

At about half an hour to the ceremony, Buffy's hair was done and she was putting on the finishing touches to her makeup. The only thing left to do was slip on her veil, dress, and shoes. Willow was avoiding getting into her dress until she really needed to. She said she didn't want to step on it and rip it. Angel walked in to see how things were going.

"Damn, thought you'd be in your dress." He said, shutting the door behind him. He wasn't in his tux.

"Why aren't you dressed?" Buffy asked.

"Same reason you're not."

"Oh."

Suddenly, the window shattered and a winged demon flew through the shattered glass. It wasn't overly big like a dragon, but it was a pretty good size. It looked more like a human that was sunburned beyond 3rd degree and it had horns. Kinda like what Satan had been pictured to look like in some cultures. It attacked.

"What happened to the sanctuary spell?" Willow asked.

"I don't know!" Angel said, attacking the demon from behind.

"I malfunctioned it." The demon rasped. "And I will destroy you two!" With that, the thing flew out the window, nursing a gash on its forearm.

Buffy stomped her foot and turned to look at Angel. "I told you! I told you that something else would go wrong!"

"Sweetie, we can prevent that." Angel said, turning to Willow. "I'll talk to Lorne and have him bring down the furies real quick. In the mean time, Willow, can you do a protection spell to prevent something like this from happening again."

"Yeah. Of course I can." Willow said. She started to chant.

Across LA, a demon lit the last candle and said the last words of his spell. A flash emanated from all of the candles at once and then they were out. His spell was done and hopefully it had worked. The flash was a good indication.

"Willow?" Buffy asked.

The Wicca looked at her best friend. "Yeah?"

"Where the hell are we?"

They all looked around to find themselves standing in the middle of a battle torn Los Angeles. They weren't at the Hyperion anymore, that was for sure. They weren't even near it. Demons and vampires ran amuck on the streets and attacked humans and other demons. Some even made hostages out of the people or demos they captured. Willow gaped. "I-I-I don't know."