Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. (Too lazy to write some mildly amusing disclaimer with wit and humor.)

Buffy lay in Angel's arms looking up at him.

"You're a hero, you know that right?" she asked him.

"Sometimes I forget. It's good to have you here to remind me," he said looking down at her smiling.

She turned in his arms and looked him straight in the eyes.

"You have to be able to know it without me, okay?" she asked him completely seriously.

"Yeah, alright Buffy. I know," he said.

"Good. Never forget that, okay? You're a hero," she told him.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you, too," she said breaking a small smile, "Remember that too. Now wake up."

Angel woke up to the memory of the dream he'd just been having. It left an eerie feeling in its wake. He'd had dreams like this one before. Dreams about what he wanted, but couldn't have. He tried to shake the feeling, but he knew there was something different this time.

Buffy was walking around LA aimlessly. Maybe she would find some evil or a really good place to drink. She needed to find something to make herself feel less of everything. Less of the sadness for Cordelia. Less of mourning and guilt for Spike. Less of her aching to be with Angel. She just wanted to step out of it all.

She walked into an alley for no particular reason. A female vampire was about to take a bite out of a guy about her age.

"I guess I'll have to hold off on the plastering for a while."

She kicked the vampire square in the jaw. The she-pire got up and ran towards her. She sent Buffy flying into a wall.

"Ow!" Buffy said, now thoroughly annoyed.

"Sorry, Princess. Did that hurt?" the vamp teased.

"Eh,"

Buffy said kicking the vampire into a dumpster and sticking a stake into her heart.

"Not really."

After that she kept walking. She found one more vampire and it was pretty easy staking.

Angel got up and walked out of his apartment. He needed her. He needed to see her, speak to her, be around her at all.

Buffy was about to head back to the hotel when she saw Angel. He was running at her.

"Buffy!" he hollered.

"Angel? What are you doing here?" Buffy asked rather bewildered.

"I don't really know. I needed to see you," he said.

"Why? I mean not that I'm not happy, but"

"I love you. I have never loved anyone like I loved you. Stay with me somehow," he almost said. It was true, but if he said it she might agree.

"I wanted you to know it meant a lot to me that you came to Cordy's funeral," he said instead.

He wanted to thank her? He wanted to thank her for coming to the woman he...loved, he wanted to thank her for coming to the woman he loved's funeral. It left a kind of stinging that she couldn't express.

"Cordelia was a friend and a hero. She was one of the good ones. She will be missed," she said trying to put on the brave face that she was starting to be so good at.

"Yeah, she was an incredible person," Angel said, 'but she wasn't you,' he thought to himself, 'I can't stay here. I can't have her stay so close to me. Who knows what would happen if either of us gave in to,'

She kissed him. No imagainary thinking about it. It was a real, true, 3-dimensional kiss. Tempatation got the best of her and she couldn't keep resisting him.

"I'm sor-" Buffy started.

He kissed her. There was a moment when they almost forgot they couldn't stay there forever. Almost.

"I-- It's--" both tried to explain what had just happened, but in the end there was no real explanation, so Buffy used her natural instincts again. She ran away from him for the second time.

"It didn't matter. None of it. You loved her. You gave up everything and gave away the thing that once defined you. All for her. You made her real again. Made her feel, but after everything, all of it, it was still him. It was still him that clasped every corner of your love's heart, " Druscilla's sing-song voice whispered to Spike from a dark corner, "Poor, Baby. Just a whisper of what he was. Mummy's here to make it all better. Mummy can save her baby, now."

"Dru? What the bloody hell are you here for?" Spike asked as he searched for where her voice was coming from.

"I'm here to save my baby. Mummy takes care of her babies," Dru said as she stepped out into the light the candle made around her.

"Sorry, Dru, don't know what you've been thinking, but I don't need saving, Pet," Spike said walking towards her.

"The deaf man can never hear his killer coming up from behind him, but he still comes," Druscilla stalked forward towards him.

"Listen, Dru I don't know why you're here, but whatever it I really couldn't care in th--" Spike said beginning to lose his patience

"Shush, do you hear it? It's singing, calling you back. Back home with Mummy. We could wreak such havoc...What's stopping you now? Her? She doesn't even know you didn't burn to a million tiny dancing ashes. She has no room for you in her heart anyways. Angel took it all. No room left for my baby, but you always have a place here," Drusilla spoke dancing slightly with her words.

"Dru, I don't know if you noticed, but this didn't work when I didn't have a soul, why would it work now?" Spike said.

Drusilla smiled as she pulled a long amulet off her neck leaving an identical one still there, "We could destroy it all my baby. Behold the Amulets of Amora."