Disclaimer, etc, see part one.

Author's Note: This is set after Season Seven of Buffy and Season Four of Angel. Angel has Wolfram and Hart, but not the amulet, so not Spike.

Unexpected, last contact.

* * * * *

I haven't really spoken to anyone in almost twenty years. I sent regular updates of my progress through the country. But we didn't exchange emails, only sent our own updates. It's nineteen years since I last any of the others. I still get the occasional message from Buffy, she's a counsellor and Dawn's in Washington. Willow sends regular group updates about the Slayers school. She and Kennedy are big parts of that. I don't reply. The last time I saw Willow was my wedding day, sixteen years ago, November.

That was a strange day, with a pleasantness I hadn't associated with 'strange' before. We got married in a gorgeous little church out of Saginaw, like in the Simon and Garfunkel song. It was a little ceremony. Angie's parents moved there when she left for college, it was their local church and they were the only people present. Until Willow showed up.

I think she'd done some kind of mojo on me so she'd know where I was. She didn't deny it, not really. The four of us, me, Angie, and her parents were standing around outside waiting for the time to begin when I saw red hair at the bottom of the path.

I just stared along with everyone else as Willow waved and continued walking towards us.

"Sorry, the others couldn't come," she said when she reached us. "I told Kennedy it was an old Scooby thing, but I'm not even sure it's that, is it, Xander?"

She grinned cheekily at me. I shook my head, too shocked for the moment to move.

"You didn't think I'd let you go without actually being there, did you?"

I shook my head again. She laughed and hugged me tightly. I'd missed that. Almost two and a half years without seeing Willow and hugging her was the one thing I still knew how to do. I laughed into her hair.

"You know how much I love you, right?" I asked.

"About half as much as I love you," she said gently.

It was the exchange we'd shared on the day I was supposed to marry Anya. It grounded everything again. I realised exactly where I was and how affronted my parents-in-law-to-be actually were.

"Ah, this is Willow Rosenberg," I said, presenting her to them.

"You were part of the Scooby gang, too?" Angie asked.

Willow glanced questioningly. I shook my head, hoping Angie wouldn't notice.

"Yeah," Willow said. "I live in Cleveland now. I couldn't let my best friend get married without me."

"I've known Willow since the first day of kindergarten," I said.

Willow chuckled lightly. But she became aware of the awkward glances she was getting from the others. She held her hand out to Angie.

"You have to be Angie," she said. "Xander hasn't told me very much about you, except that you're brilliant."

"He thinks he'll score points that way," Angie said. She seemed to be warming to this latest, female, invasion.

"He doesn't get any points with me," Willow said, sounding curious. "But then I don't suppose brothers ever do, either."

She smiled at Angie in way I may have described as flirtatiously except that I really didn't want to think about that.

That seemed to do the trick. Angie was now quite happy to stand out side the church she was getting married in, between her parents and her fiancé and make fun of me.

The priest called us in. Mr Hardesty was to be my best man, but in the end he stood next to Willow and she signed under my name on the papers. It was just the way it was supposed to be. Buffy didn't need to be there because there weren't any demons. I couldn't remember a time I hadn't noticed Buffy's absence.

It was nice seeing Will again. She chatted Mr and Mrs Hardesty up as we walked from the church. They had been suspicious me, naturally enough. It wasn't an impression that was helped by either the eye patch or Angie's sudden announcement that we were getting married.

I had actually, and properly, proposed after Angie had changed the latest flat after we crossed the state border. But when we'd showed up on her parents doorstep about three weeks later Angie had introduced me as her fiancé, before she even gave them my name. I was dirty and sweaty from driving, and my eye patch was itching.

Whatever stories Willow told they liked me.

We had a late lunch after the ceremony. It and the night in the hotel were a wedding present from Angie's parents. Angie had actually blushed at the gift of the room. I acted properly manly and thanked Mr Hardesty solemnly. I think he winked at me.

"Ooo, I got you a present too," Willow said.

She'd grown a lot in the four and a half years since Tara's death, but that was pure Willow-ness from as far back as you wanted to go.

She pulled a little box out of her bag and placed it on the table with a flourish. Angie opened it. It was intricately wrapped and tied. While she struggled with the wrapping Willow pressed a little bottle into my hand.

I patted her hand and slipped the bottle into my pocket. It was no doubt something magic. And either Willow would tell me of she wouldn't need to. She'd gotten craftier since tenth grade. I think Kennedy was influencing her.

Angie opened the box with a 'ha' of triumph and held it out. Nestled in the folds of tissue paper were two wooden turtles and an interlocking puzzle, which appeared to have been made out of pirates' hooks.

"The puzzle's 'cause of Xander's eye, and how he always wanted to be a pirate. The turtles are for the two of you. They fit together like a puzzle. They don't know where they're going, but they'll get there, and they'll get there together."

She smiled. Mr and Mrs Hardesty smiled. Angie grinned so widely she was holding back tears. I traced the metal of the puzzle with one thumb. Willow had come. Willow had come; and she'd let me go.

"Mazel Tov," she said, raising her glass to the table and nodding at me.

I reached for her hand under the table and squeezed it tight. I held Angie's hand too, but I wasn't saying goodbye. Willow was the first Sunnydale person to meet Angie. And she knew Anya much better than Faith did.