A short epilogue to the novel "Sons of Entropy" by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder. A three part series, it is set in season three before the appearance of Faith and the Mayor.
From the back jacket of "Sons of Entropy":
'Buffy, Giles, and an unlikely band of allies take their fight to the very mouth of hell itself, desperately hoping to save Joyce and repel the evil spawn befor Sunnydale becomes a demonic ground zero."
Let's just say it involves lots of demons and ghost roads, a gatekeeper, and typical Buffy and Angel angst. If you haven't read it, go get it now!
With evil defeated, Buffy and her friends are reunited. But things are not as comfortable as they seem.
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Angel, or any of them. No copyright infringement intended. So don't sue!
Please feed me!
Buffy sighed as she and her mother entered her home. Surveying the mess, she heaved a big breath again.
"What did I say about slayer duty? And remember, it didn't include anything about housework."
Joyce eyed her daughter with a well practiced "mother" face, and replied, "Go up to your room, honey. I'm not touching this mess til tomorrow. Breach or no breach, the monsters can clean up after themselves."
Joyce dropped her bag at the foot of the stairs, and trundled slowly up to the second floor of the house, leaving Buffy to stare after her.
The last few weeks had been a hell of a ride. Traveling back and forth between Sunnydale and Boston, and then to England. All in the matter of a few hours.
Buffy knew she never wanted to get anywhere near the ghost roads again.
She walked into the living room, collapsed on the couch, propped her feet up.
"Should take a shower," she muttered to herself, but couldn't muster the energy needed to walk up the stairs.
Closing her eyes, her head clonked against the back of the sofa, and almost immediately, she dropped into an exhausted slumber. And almost as suddenly, she began to dream.
Images flash before her eyes:
A shrieking harpy like bird swooping toward her.
Men in robes, bursting into flames.
Oz and Angel, one a furred beast, one a demon, fighting each other.
Willow, hands outstretched, blue flame crachling from her fingertips, chanting loudly in Latin.
Her mother, bleeding from a large gash in her forehead.
Buffy jerked awake, a scream dying in her throat. A hand touched her gently on the shoulder, and a voice said, "Relax. It was a dream."
She knew that voice.
"Angel," she replied, "y-you're back."
His eyes met hers, compassion and tenderness in their depths. She could do nothing but reach out for him, and he took her in his arms, wrapping her in warm, creaky leather.
"I though…I knew I was gonna lose it. The fight. And the worst part was? Not seeing you again. Dying before I could tell you…"
"Shhhhh," he whispered against her ear quietly. "You didn't lose. You beat it. And here we are. Everythings fine."
The pressure and toll of the past weeks had finally caught up with her. Knowing even being held by him was wrong, she tried to pull away, but he held her fast, refusing to give up the simple contact that quickly.
Tears formed in her eyes, of exhaustion and anger, and she let them fall, dripping onto his jacket. His hand rubbed slow circles on her back; his lips whispered nonsensical comfort words to her.
Finally the nearness of him got to be too much, and she pulled away, not wanting to see the compassion and concern etched into his features.
"How'd you get back so fast? Wait, let me guess. Ghost roads?"
He nodded, and for the first time she noticed how weary he looked, how downtrodden, and how…sad?
"You okay?" she asked, not sure that she wanted to know the answer.
He just looked at her, blinking slowly, slightly swaying on his knees in front of her.
"Uh, Angel, I think you need to lay down," Buffy told him, and he waved her off with a hand.
"I'm fine. I just wanted to let you know we were all back. Well, almost all of us. Oz and Willow came with me. Cordy and Xander said they had no desire to be anywhere near the 'yellow brick road of death' as Cordy put it. So they'll be flying in later tonight."
"Is everyone…okay?"
"Yeah. As much as they can be, I guess. Giles? And your mom?"
His concern touched her. "They're fine. Giles is in the hospital, and mom, well, she's sawing logs upstairs as we speak."
"What…Maybe I won't ask. She's sleeping, I take it."
Buffy giggled silently at his apparent confusion at her remark. "Yeah. Everything seems to be of the good here," she finished, and rubbed her arms with her hands. She suddenly realized again just how much she had accomplished, and how tired it had made her. She looked down at herself, and made a face, noticed the dirt and grime on her clothing from her recent battles. No amount of bleaching gets out demon goo, evidently.
"You look fine. You should probably get some sleep yourself, though," Angel touched the back of her hand, and she tucked it in close to her body.
Being around him, working with him more than she had in a long time, well, since the whole 'going to hell' incident, was more difficult than she had grasped. The whole fight to the death issue always brought up mega feelings in her, be they love, hate, arousal, despair, or great joy. Angel seemed to be able to make her feel all of those things at once. And she didn't like it. Confusion was not one of the better slayer powers.
She stood up, nodding. "Yeah, as much as it pains me to say it, there's the unholy idea looming that I actually have to go to school tomorrow. And try and explain all my absences. I'm sure Snyder will have come up with a grand scheme to get me in trouble once again. Man, I hope Giles has a plan. Or at least a semi plan. Or a semi truck? We could bulldoze the school," she said, a troubled expression crossing her face.
Angel gave her his 'what the hell is she talking about?' face, and she laughed at him. "Kidding. Only sort of."
He levered himself to his feet as well, and they walked together toward the door.
Opening it, Buffy stood on the porch, inhaling the night air and gazing about at her little street. Her little haven in a very mixed up town. And the other part of that haven stood behind her, hands on her shoulders.
They stood together for a while, not speaking.
She stirred finally, reluctantly turning away from him, and gave him a little push down the stairs.
"Hie thee home, sir. You need your beauty sleep as much as I need mine."
He cracked a weak smile at her, walking slowly toward the street. He stopped suddenly, as if remembering something. Hesitating, he turned back toward Buffy and walked back up the drive.
"I think this belongs to you," he said, a sad smile on his face. He held out his hand to her, and when she put her own out, handed her something cool and metal.
She knew what he had given her before she opened her hand.
"I bought this for you, Angel. I think you should keep it."
He shook his head. "It's yours," he replied, voice cracking a little on the last word. "I'm not gonna go over it again, Buffy, not now. I…I love you. And I love that you bought that for me. But you know how it is. We can't be together. And having reminders of you around me, I can't do it. It's too hard, and frankly, I don't think either one of us needs any more pain. So keep it, okay? I don't need presents or any kind of physical things to remember you or know how you feel about me. You're in my heart. And you always will be. And that's all I need."
He watched her with an unnecessarily held breath, and she looked away, staring at the stars, the I.D. bracelet clenched in her fist.
For Angel. Always, Buffy.
Finally she met his gaze, and he winced at the look in her eyes, shining brightly with unshed tears.
She said the only two words she could bring herself to say at that moment.
"I understand."
A few days later, a slowly recovering Giles limped slightly out from behind the checkout counter in the library. A great giggling and talking noise assaulted his ears, and he frowned as Buffy, Cordelia, Xander, Willow and Oz ambled into the large room.
"Well, Giles, I don't know how you did it, but whatever you said to Snyder has him fully believing the 'research trip' story. Kudos," Buffy told her watcher. He grimaced slightly at thememory of the spell he'd had to cast to convince the weasily little principal not to expell all five of the children.
"Yes, well. I, ahem, Cordelia!"
"What?" came the annoyed reply.
"Please do not use that on Xander's face. It's an extremely expensive collectors towel. Burburry, you know," Giles told the girl, as she wiped some non existant grime off her boyfriends' nose.
"Fine, fine, but you know, Giles, Burburry is so out this season," she grumped back at him, while Buffy and Willow giggled behind her back.
As the others settled into their accustomed places around the rectangular table, Buffy drifted slowly toward the one of the large windows at the top of the stairs next to the stacks.
"Buffy? Are you quite well?" Giles' voice behind her made her end her contemplation and turned to face him.
"Right as rain. Whatever that means. I'm good, Giles. Mom's home, you're out of the hospital, my friends are here, the gooey icky demons have been defeated, the gatekeeper is alive and well, and all is right with the world," she told him, a slight sadness eating at her heart despite her brave words.
"Well, if you're sure…" the librarian trailed off, giving her once last chance to spill her guts if she wanted to.
"Everything's hunky dory. I promise. Girl scouts honor," she said, raising her hand, three fingers pointing up. "Is that the right salute? I could never figure it out."
Giles shook his head, smiling at her. "We should get to catching up on your studies. You all missed quite a bit in these last few weeks…" he wandered off toward the others, lost in thought, dreading the amount of tutoring he was going to have to undertake.
Buffy turned again to the window, and the bright sunlight streaming through it. Deep in her pocket, she fingered the bracelet she had bought for Angel.
You're in my heart. That's all I need.
God. Would it ever get any easier? She doubted it.
"Buffy! Come on, study time!" Willow yelled at her, waving a hand at her. "I saved you a seat!"
"Uh, Willow, there's only the six of us. I'm sure there's plenty of seats here in the totally empty library," Buffy answered her friend, smiling at the sweetness of the gesture.
Willow blushed, but came back quickly, telling Buffy and everyone else present, "yeah, well, if six of us can save the world, I'm sure we can save our grades as well."
Buffy joined in with the laughter of her friends.
Fin.