Chapter Nineteen

Author's note: Thanks to Tiney81, BTVS Afan1996 and X-identaty for the reviews, they are greatly appreciated!!! Thank you all very much! Please keep the reviews coming!! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Thanks again for reading!!

Buffy left a note for her mother saying she went patrolling and that she would return later that evening. She picked up her house keys from the coffee table in the living room and left with Angel.

Silence filled the former lovers. There were so many unanswered questions that needed answers. Both Buffy and Angel wanted answers to the past six months but neither knew where to begin.

The two strolled in and out of cemeteries and eventually ended in a park. Buffy sat on a swing while Angel stood to her left by the pole. They gazed at each other through the darkness. Neither one of them could see the other due to the darkness but that didn't matter. They knew the other was right there near by. Angel walked through the darkness and to Buffy. He knelt in front of her stopping her swing.

"Maybe we should talk."

Buffy nodded. Her body was numb. She dreamt of Angel being alive and coming back to her. She had also always dreamt of Angel becoming human again. They were dreams that she never expected to happen for real. Now, he was in front of her, alive.

"What's going on?" Buffy asked. "What happened to you?"

Angel stood up and began walking back to his pole. "I was sitting back at the mansion. I was reading. The next thing I knew I was on the floor in pain. It was all through my body. Then I blacked out. When I woke up I was in between worlds."

"In between worlds?"

"Yea, Purgatory. I was too good for a Hell dimension but not good enough for some type of heaven. I was told I had to prove myself to get into heaven." Angel paused for a minute before continuing.

"The worse part of being in between worlds was I could see everything that was going on here. I could see the pain you were in. I saw the night you buried me. I saw everything."

"Then you know how this happened, because of-"

"Willow, yea, I know. It wasn't her fault. She was just looking after her friend. She wanted to change things…make things better after us. Her heart was in the right place. I wasn't angry with her, especially since she did it again."

Buffy was astonished. Willow hadn't said anything to her about doing the spell for a second time. "What?"

Angel nodded. "Yea, that's why I am here standing in front of you. She did the spell again."

Tears danced from Buffy's emerald eyes and flowed to the floor. "So she just proofed and now you're here again?"

Angel walked closer to Buffy. "Yea, that's pretty much the abridged version."

"What else happened? Where have you been, it's been six months?"

Angel sighed. "Six months, two weeks and four days." He said offering a half smile. "I have had some time to do the calculations. Actually, I don't know when exactly I came back, maybe a few weeks ago."

Angel let out another sigh as he continued. "When the spell worked, I dug my way out of the ground. As soon as I reached the top, I was teleported to some unfamiliar place. The next thing I knew I was waking up in an unfamiliar place, in an unfamiliar bed. I felt odd, almost alive again. I had a suitcase with clothes, money and some papers. I was in Ireland."

"Ireland?"

"Yes. The hotel I was staying at was in the same place my family used to be, all those years ago. I walked around the city, not really knowing what to do. I ended up in an old cemetery and saw my family graves. I….I even saw my own grave, well, Liam's grave. I began to cry, I actually cried for the first time in over two hundred years, can you believe that? On my out, right before sunrise, an old gypsy woman came over to me. She told me that I was human. She said that the curse had been destroyed because the beast was dead. I was human. She also said I should compassion and love, everything a monster can't show."

"So that's it? You died a vampire and now your human? Is there a loophole?" Tears began to fall again from Buffy's face as she asked these questions. She wanted to believe that everything Angel was telling her was true but there was always some sort of exception to their relationship. Angel's story didn't make a lot of since to her. She didn't understand the whole transportation thing from southern California to Western Europe. Most of all, she didn't care about these things. All she cared about was Angel being alive and standing right in front of her again.

Angel sat in front of Buffy. He took her hand and held it top his now beating heart. Tears rushed through both of their eyes and disappeared in the sand below the swing set. "it's true and," he paused. He had to stop talking for a moment. His voice was cracking as he tried talking again. "I'm human."

Buffy jumped off the swing and into Angel's arms. She still had so many questions. She could not believe that her Angel was back once more.

For the following half-hour they remained quiet. Angel held onto Buffy like he was never going to let go. Finally, the both fell asleep.

Bright rays from the morning sunshine woke Buffy up. She turned to look at Angel and he was gone. I knew this was too good to be true, I knew he wasn't really here, she thought to herself, but she sat up and focused on the swing set. Angel was right there, sitting on a swing, in the light.

"Good morning Mr. Sunshine, what are you doing?"

Angel smiled. "Basking in the sun. After so long I forgot what it was like to wake up in the sun. It's so warm, so gentle, so nice."

Buffy stood up and walked over to Angel. He held out his arms and singled for her to sit on his lap. After Buffy sat down, Angel closed his arms around her and held her again like he was never going to let her go.

"I like this?" Buffy smiled.

"Me too," Angel said, beaming.

As they watched people walking their dogs and jogging in the early morning, Buffy asked one of her many questions, "Where are you living?"

"I'm back at the mansion. I'm cleaning the place and fixing it up so it looks nice. The garden is going to be so nice, so beautiful, with lots of irises."

Buffy smiled as Angel remembered her favorite flower. Her smile faded as she got a confused look on her face. "Angel, now that you are human, exactly how old are you?"

Angel held Buffy's hand in his. "I think my birth certificate said I was born twenty years ago so I am twenty, I guess." He began to laugh. " I don't know what twenty year olds do."

"Some of them work and some go to school, like college."

Angel nodded. He had a diploma and transcripts from high school in his bag that he found the morning he woke up in Ireland.

Buffy stood up as of she was startled. "Angel,. it's seven o'clock in the morning. We have been out all night, my mother is going to kill me."

"You could tell her that we were just talking."

Buffy began to laugh sarcastically for a moment. "Right. I'll just explain to her that you and I were just chatting, you know, I was chatting with, you, my ex boyfriend who was evil and tried to kill everyone I knew before trying to suck the world into hell before he turned good and died. But it's okay that you're back, your human now. I'm sure she would understand that." Buffy got serious for a moment. "I know that is too much for her to handle right now."

"So what are you going to do?" Angel asked now standing and moving towards Buffy.

"I-I don't know. Angel I am so happy that you are back and I am even more ecstatic that you are alive. When we first started dating I dreamt that of nothing else but you holding me in your arms as we did couple things, like picnics and walking along the beach, or to watch the sunrise with you. I wanted nothing more than for you to be human. I loved you, how you were…..but….. being human-…..I always wanted that. I love you with all my heart and soul. But we have to face reality, you have been gone for six months, then you were evil before that for three months, three weeks and four days, I had some time to do some calculations too. Things aren't like they were before. I don't know what to do."

Angel was both shocked and confused. He thought they were just talking about how to explain to Buffy's mother about the previous night. Now, they were talking about something completely different. "Buffy, what are you saying?"

"Things are different now Angel. I mean, you died. It took a lot for me to mourn and to get over-"

"And to move on." Angel said very matter a factly.

Sheepishly, Buffy answered. "Yes, to move on. Angel, it took almost everything for me to get over you. When you died, a part of me died with you. Now you're back and now I'm confused."

Angel wanted to yell at Buffy. He wanted to stress the fact he was alive and well and most of all, he was human. "Do you want some time to get used to this?"

"It would help. Angel, I care about you so much, I just don't know how to deal with this. I'm doing well in school, I may even make honors this term, my sister moved in with my mom and I and that's going well and I love having Dawn around, well most of the time, and-"

"And you have a boyfriend."

"How did you know that?"

"I could see you, remember? Also, I saw him leaving as I was walking to your house last night. I saw you kissing him so I figured that you and he were dating."

"Yea, you're right, and then there's Scott."

"You need time, I understand that. Buffy, I was over two hundred and forty years old before I died, I have waited a long time to be with the love of my life," Angel said walking away from Buffy, " I can wait a little while longer." With that being said, Angel walked away from Buffy and walked back to the mansion.

Buffy sat down on a bench and watched people. She watched couples and children walking around that Saturday morning. Angel is really back, alive and human, she thought to herself.

Buffy started to get up and make her way home too. Her head hurt from thinking so much. She decided to focus on one thing as she began to walk home, and that was what to tell her mother about the night before.