Chapter Thirteen

Buffy ran up to the mansion. Cordy was behind her on her left while Xander was on her right. Neither one of them explained much of anything. Buffy wasn't sure what was happening or why everyone was meeting at the Angel's mansion. All that Cordy told Buffy was that she would be very happy. Buffy thought that she would be happiest at home in her nice, warm, comfortable bed. Her friends thought differently.

The three friends walked into the dark house. The fire was burning bright. Buffy could here murmurs coming from somewhere in the house. She followed them. Xander and Cordelia also followed in silence. They could not wait to see their friend's expression when she saw what Willow had done for her.

Buffy entered a room and saw Oz holding Willow. Willow seemed very upset. Buffy was confused.

"Hey guys, what's going on here? Where's Angel?"

Willow pulled herself away from Oz. She was no longer crying but her eyes were red and big. She walked towards Buffy in silence.

"Uh, guys? What is going on here? Where's Angel?" Buffy asked for a second time. Cordy's smile was slowly fading into a frown. She and Xander didn't know what was happening. At that particular moment in time they were as clueless as Buffy.

"Buf, we have to talk. Something has happened." Willow said calmly.

"Well, what is it?" Buffy paused and spoke before Willow had a chance to respond. "Is it Angel? Is he bad again? Was the spell just temporary?"

Willow just looked at her best friend. Tears began to fall down her checks. "Buffy, Angel isn't evil again."

A sigh of relief appeared on Buffy's face. "Well, that's good."

"Buffy, no. Angel's not evil because he is dead." Willow said calmly.

Buffy was lost for words. She didn't know if this was a joke or what it was. "I'm sorry he's what? What did you say? It sounded like you said he was dead. He can't be dead because, well, he wasn't really living any ways but, where is he?"

"He's no longer walking with the living. He is dead." Oz tried to explain very matter of faculty.

Tears began to form in Buffy's eyes. They hadn't made it beyond her eyes yet. "What? How?" She asked in shock.

Oz looked at Willow. Willow didn't say anything. She physically couldn't because she would break down and cry.

"Well, Willow was grading papers when she found this spell that was Jenny's."

Willow interrupted for a moment. "It was stuck to a project that I was grading."

Oz continued. "Willow researched the spell and brought it to that guy in the magic shop and he gave her the some more information and items she needed to perform the spell. We did it tonight and thought it was going to work."

Willow had completely stopped crying. She was now more upset with herself than sad. "Xander was supposed to keep you busy while Oz, Cordy and I worked on it."

With her tears still in her eyes, Buffy calmly asked, "what was it supposed to do?"

Xander answered in disbelief. "Make him human. Make him alive."

The tears finally broke from Buffy's eyes and made their way down her checks before they rolled off them and hit the floor. "What?"

Willow walked over towards her best friend and was now a little pulled together. "You have been through so much these past few months. Your boyfriend went psycho and evil, literally. He killed and hurt a bunch of people and you have had to physically fight him almost everyday for the past few months. I know that mentally you are at your wits end. You have been through hell and back and then back into hell. You don't deserve that.

"I found that spell accidentally. I was handing back those papers and it was stuck to one. I didn't know that Angel could die."

Buffy interrupted her for a moment. "Wil, I appreciate what you tried to do but you are inexperienced in that area. You have done one spell that worked right. What makes you think you could take on something this powerful? Why didn't you tell me?" She whined. Her heart was broken now.

"Buffy, I-"

Buffy cut her off. "Where is he? Does he have a body or did he go poof or- is he just dust know?" The thought made Buffy sick to her stomach. She ran out of the door and into the garden and vomited.

Willow walked out to the garden and held her friend's golden hair back. When she was done, Willow cradled Buffy in her arms as she let out tears and whimpers.

"Buffy, I am so….I didn't know-….the spell was going to…..things were supposed to be different." Willow said now joining Buffy in tears.

The friends held onto each other for a few minutes. Then Buffy asked. "Where is he?"

"In one of the rooms. I can bring you to him." She offered.

"Okay."

The two made their way into the house, beyond their friend and into the room where Angel's body was. It looked as if Angel was asleep. After all, he was dead. When he slept his stomach never moved up and down and he definitely never snored or anything like that.

"How do you know he's," Buffy stopped in the middle of her sentence. She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.

"We yelled in his ears and shock him a little bit. He didn't responding to anything."

Buffy just stared at him for one moment. Willow left her alone with him. She couldn't believe that the man she loved was dead, for good. The real Angel had finally shone through after so many months of being over thrown by Angelus and it all ended. She understood why Willow wanted to help but she wished she hadn't. He was taken from her forever.

Before leaving the room, Buffy walked over to the still body and held his hand. She thought that he seemed colder than usual. She looked at his face. She kissed him on his check and then stared at him a bit longer. She took his hand and touched her face with it. What she had left of her tears touched his hand. Finally, she put his hand down and rested it on his stomach. "You are finally at peace now. I love you. Good bye." She looked at him until it hurt too much to be in the room with is now still body.

Buffy took her time walking into the room where her friends were. Once she met up with them, silence fell upon the friends.

"We do have a bit of good news." Cordy said softly. She wanted to comfort Buffy but she didn't want to push her. She thought if she changed the subject Buffy could focus on something else for just a little while.

"Which is?"

"Well," Xander began to say. "We know why Wil and Giles healed so quickly."

"What happened?"

"See this old book?" Oz said holding up a book Buffy had seen before.

Buffy nodded. "Yea, it is a book of poetry. It's in Greek or Latin or something old. Angel has showed it to me before. What's the biggie?"

"It's not poetry. It's a spell book. Angel cast a few spells. One to heal Willow and the other one to heal Giles and make him feel like new."

"What?" Buffy was shocked. Why wouldn't Angel have told her? He knew that she was confused with how fast Giles had healed.

"Buffy, I think he died as a hero." Cordy said.

Silence filled the room again. The friends just stared into space. One didn't know what to say to comfort the other. Xander was the first to speak up.

"Buffy, I hate to ask this but what do you want to do with his body?"

Buffy nodded. "I guess there is only one thing to do. We bury him. It's too late now but we bury him tomorrow after sunset. Is that alright with all of you?"

Everyone nodded in agreement. They would support Buffy and help her go though the grieving process. The first step would be to bury him in less than twenty-four hours.

Cordelia and Xander gave Buffy a ride home. Xander walked her up to the door. He gave her a bear hug and said good night. As she fumbled to get her keys, she prayed her mother wasn't awake. She was really late getting back and didn't feel like explaining herself to anyone.

She was relieved that her mother had fallen asleep on the couch. Buffy took a blanket and covered her mother up with it before she quietly went up the sitars to her bedroom.

She changed, brushed her teeth and then washed her face before climbing into bed. She reached into her drawer to grab her lotion. She looked into the drawer and saw the ring Angel had given her for her seventeenth birthday. She placed it on her finger and just looked at it before she burst into tears. She laid in bed and cried herself to sleep.