A/N: The phone call is for Queen Boadicea, as for why he hasn't called
before now, we all know Angel is a great big dufus when it comes to Buffy.
Chapter 9-The Gift
-Angel-
The edge of the horizon is still pink with sunset when I get into the car. I curse the traffic going out of LA. Some one has had a wreck on the 405 and traffic is at a standstill. I want to scream. Don't they understand I might already to be too late? My cell phone vibrates against my chest. I dig in my inside jacket pocket and pull it out.
"What?" I snap
"Well, it's nice to see you're full of good cheer this evening. We were supposed to meet at the hotel and discuss Mr. Richardson's case. We're all here, your not." Cordelia said.
"Cordy, I'm not going to be there. The rest of you can take care of his case." I'm looking for a hole to squeeze the GTX through.
"And where are you Mr. shove-my-cases-off-on-my-associates?" Cordelia asks in her superior tone of voice.
"I am sitting in traffic on the 405, trying to get out of LA."
"Oh, God, you're going to Sunnyhell. What did our Little Buffy stub her toe and she needs her big strong Angel to come save her? Just call and tell them to put the impending apocalypse off for a couple of hours. She can't call you every time something in her crappy little life goes wrong. You live here now and we need-"
I hang up on her and dial the Summers' home. The phone rings several times before the machine picks up. Joyce's voice is still on the answering machine. I hang up because what kind of message do you leave in this situation. The Magic Box is the next place on my list to call. Xander picks up the phone.
"Xander, its Angel. Is Buffy there?"
"She's a little busy right now, Angel. She's got a hell god that wants to kill her sister so you'll excuse me if I don't give her the phone. She doesn't need you to worry about too." He hangs up on me.
I crush the phone in my hand, reducing it to little more then plastic and some wires.
*
It's nearly ten o' clock before I get out of LA proper. Every idiot with a driver's license and probably quite a few without them are on the road tonight. I push the gas pedal all the way to the floor on the GTX. There is a chanting between my ears whispering too late, too late, too late. If I get stopped by a policeman I will be sorely tempted to crush his skull between my hands and leave him beside the road. Xander said Dawn was the one in trouble but I know it's Buffy that's going to end up paying the price. She'll protect Dawn with her life.
I am finally within the Sunnydale city limits and I want to weep. It's nearly midnight. I can't be too late. I drive by the Magic Box first. It's locked up tight and all the lights are out. The last time I was in Sunnydale was more of a get in get out kind of deal. I didn't have a chance to look around for construction sites, which is I'm almost certain where I need to be. As if in answer to my quandary, a white blue portal rips through the black night. It looks like the one in my dream. If I had a heart that beat it would have stopped. I start driving again, keeping my eye on the portal. I duck as a dragon flies over my head. I slam on the brakes; the GTX squeals and fishtails, sliding to a halt just before plummeting into a deep crack in the road. I get out and start running.
The light is so bright I don't see her at first. She is exactly where she showed me she would be, at the very top of a tower that must be 50 stories high, it's just above the portal. All the dreams make sense now. I scream her name as she takes a beautiful swan dive into the portal.
Oh God, she's falling. She's falling and everyone is just standing around. She can't hit the ground. No human, even a slayer, can survive a fall like that. She falls into my arms; the force of the fall drives both of us to the ground.
She's alive, but just barely. I can very faintly hear the thread of her pulse but it's getting weaker by the second. Even if there was an ambulance here, I don't think they could do anything for her.
I can't let her die. She is my light in the darkness. She makes eternity easier just knowing she's alive somewhere in this world. This isn't supposed happen. I don't have prophecy dreams in which she asks me to save her if I can't do anything about it. Her pulse is getting weaker; it's just a whisper now.
I can't let her die. I put on my game face and open the vein in my wrist. I hold it to her mouth, letting the blood trickle down her throat. At first she is impassive then her little mouth starts sucking at my wrist, wanting the blood. She can have it, every drop inside of me if it will save her. I pull my wrist away when she's had enough. I cradle her to my chest.
"That's enough, Buffy. It's okay. I'm here. That's enough." I pick her up, still in game face. The others stare at me in complete shock.
"Willow, get the ingredients for the ensouling spell. Bring them to the mansion as soon as you gather them. I want to get this done before she wakes up." I keep walking with my salvation in my arms, the salvation I just damned.
I couldn't let her die.
Chapter 9-The Gift
-Angel-
The edge of the horizon is still pink with sunset when I get into the car. I curse the traffic going out of LA. Some one has had a wreck on the 405 and traffic is at a standstill. I want to scream. Don't they understand I might already to be too late? My cell phone vibrates against my chest. I dig in my inside jacket pocket and pull it out.
"What?" I snap
"Well, it's nice to see you're full of good cheer this evening. We were supposed to meet at the hotel and discuss Mr. Richardson's case. We're all here, your not." Cordelia said.
"Cordy, I'm not going to be there. The rest of you can take care of his case." I'm looking for a hole to squeeze the GTX through.
"And where are you Mr. shove-my-cases-off-on-my-associates?" Cordelia asks in her superior tone of voice.
"I am sitting in traffic on the 405, trying to get out of LA."
"Oh, God, you're going to Sunnyhell. What did our Little Buffy stub her toe and she needs her big strong Angel to come save her? Just call and tell them to put the impending apocalypse off for a couple of hours. She can't call you every time something in her crappy little life goes wrong. You live here now and we need-"
I hang up on her and dial the Summers' home. The phone rings several times before the machine picks up. Joyce's voice is still on the answering machine. I hang up because what kind of message do you leave in this situation. The Magic Box is the next place on my list to call. Xander picks up the phone.
"Xander, its Angel. Is Buffy there?"
"She's a little busy right now, Angel. She's got a hell god that wants to kill her sister so you'll excuse me if I don't give her the phone. She doesn't need you to worry about too." He hangs up on me.
I crush the phone in my hand, reducing it to little more then plastic and some wires.
*
It's nearly ten o' clock before I get out of LA proper. Every idiot with a driver's license and probably quite a few without them are on the road tonight. I push the gas pedal all the way to the floor on the GTX. There is a chanting between my ears whispering too late, too late, too late. If I get stopped by a policeman I will be sorely tempted to crush his skull between my hands and leave him beside the road. Xander said Dawn was the one in trouble but I know it's Buffy that's going to end up paying the price. She'll protect Dawn with her life.
I am finally within the Sunnydale city limits and I want to weep. It's nearly midnight. I can't be too late. I drive by the Magic Box first. It's locked up tight and all the lights are out. The last time I was in Sunnydale was more of a get in get out kind of deal. I didn't have a chance to look around for construction sites, which is I'm almost certain where I need to be. As if in answer to my quandary, a white blue portal rips through the black night. It looks like the one in my dream. If I had a heart that beat it would have stopped. I start driving again, keeping my eye on the portal. I duck as a dragon flies over my head. I slam on the brakes; the GTX squeals and fishtails, sliding to a halt just before plummeting into a deep crack in the road. I get out and start running.
The light is so bright I don't see her at first. She is exactly where she showed me she would be, at the very top of a tower that must be 50 stories high, it's just above the portal. All the dreams make sense now. I scream her name as she takes a beautiful swan dive into the portal.
Oh God, she's falling. She's falling and everyone is just standing around. She can't hit the ground. No human, even a slayer, can survive a fall like that. She falls into my arms; the force of the fall drives both of us to the ground.
She's alive, but just barely. I can very faintly hear the thread of her pulse but it's getting weaker by the second. Even if there was an ambulance here, I don't think they could do anything for her.
I can't let her die. She is my light in the darkness. She makes eternity easier just knowing she's alive somewhere in this world. This isn't supposed happen. I don't have prophecy dreams in which she asks me to save her if I can't do anything about it. Her pulse is getting weaker; it's just a whisper now.
I can't let her die. I put on my game face and open the vein in my wrist. I hold it to her mouth, letting the blood trickle down her throat. At first she is impassive then her little mouth starts sucking at my wrist, wanting the blood. She can have it, every drop inside of me if it will save her. I pull my wrist away when she's had enough. I cradle her to my chest.
"That's enough, Buffy. It's okay. I'm here. That's enough." I pick her up, still in game face. The others stare at me in complete shock.
"Willow, get the ingredients for the ensouling spell. Bring them to the mansion as soon as you gather them. I want to get this done before she wakes up." I keep walking with my salvation in my arms, the salvation I just damned.
I couldn't let her die.
