Disclaimer: You know the drill, still don't own them. Lyrics are by Fuel
Chapter 5
And all of your ways
All you dream falls on me
Buffy spent the morning sitting on the bed with Angel, talking to him, touching him. He didn't say much to her, an occasional one word comment here and there, but he listened and every once in a while he'd reach out and very tentatively touch her. He still hadn't let go of her shirt. There was a knock on the door. Angel scurried back and tried to make himself disappear into the bed pillows. Buffy captured his hand.
"Come in," She said.
Gunn pushed the door open. He had cartons of Chinese food in his hands.
"Thought you might be hungry," Gunn said.
She nodded. "Thanks, I'm starving." She glanced over at Angel. "Angel, it's okay. It's Gunn, remember him? Sometimes you tell him about your visions, just like Wes."
Angel furrowed his brow and looked at Gunn. Finally he nodded. "Remember Gunn."
"Gunn, want to have a seat and eat with me and Angel?" Buffy asked.
Gunn glanced at Angel. It was obvious he was uncomfortable around Angel. Finally he shrugged and pulled a chair over near the bed. He sat tense, wary, a warrior waiting for an attack. By contrast Buffy lay on her stomach on the bed, casually eating Chinese food with chopsticks and chattering a mile a minute. Gunn was surprised. She set him at ease immediately and had him laughing over things like the fear demon she'd squished, or Sweet, the demon that'd made everyone sing.
"I wanna hear about the whole dying thing. I mean it's not often you meet someone who's come back from the dead and isn't you know, undead." Gunn says.
"First time or second time?" Buffy asked digging through her rice with her chopsticks.
"You've died more then once?" Gunn asked.
Buffy nodded. "First time was much less dramatic. I drowned. Xander gave me CPR, I got better. Second time, that was much more sticky, very long story that I will tell you if you'll stay here with Angel while I go call Xander and Dawn. I need to make sure everyone is okay and taken care of so I can stay here and take care of him."
Gunn looked warily at Angel and then back to Buffy. "Alright, there's a phone right through though doors. We never had it disconnected." Gunn gestures to a pair of French doors separating the bedroom area from the living room area.
"Thanks." Buffy turned to Angel and cupped her face with her hand. She made him look at her. "I'll be right back. Gunn is going to stay here with you. I'll just be in the next room."
Angel nodded very slightly. He kept his eyes cast down. Buffy got up and walked toward the other room. She closed the door behind her. The furniture in this room still had all the dust covers on it. She found the phone easily even in the dark. She quickly dialed Xander's number first. He picked up after a couple of rings.
"Xan, its Buffy." She said.
"Buff, what's up? Still in LA?"
"Yah, I'm going to be here a little while I think." She said.
"Don't tell me the world needs saving again? We just did that a couple of weeks ago. Isn't there a time limit on those things, like say you have to go 8 months between apocalypses?" Xander said.
She grinned. "No, there is no world saveage in the cards for me, at least not immediately. Only an Angel saveage."
"Are we talking the kind with wings or the kind with fangs?" Xander asked.
"Fangy kind and I don't want to hear it. I need a favor." Buffy said.
"I don't like it, just for the record, but what's wrong?" Xander asked.
"The short version, Angel gets visions from the Powers that Be and they have literally driven him insane." Buffy said.
"Not liking this, Buffy. An insane Angel sounds an awful lot like an evil Angel to me." Xander said.
"No, he's not. He's- I can't even begin to tell you what he's like. I can't leave him alone like this though, Xander. I need you to go pick up Dawn. She's at Dad's house and Dad had to take a trip to Rome. We don't know when he'll be back. "
"Sure, no problem, I'll swing by there. Want me to just bring Dawnie back here?" Xander asked.
"Yeah, or if you want stay at Dad's with Dawn. He's got a pool and stuff. You could have a little Hellmouth free vacation. Whatever you and Dawnie decide is fine with me, just let me know. Also, could you bring my suitcase by here? I'll make sure Dawn has it all packed."
"Okay," Xander said.
Buffy gave him directions to the Hyperion. "Thanks Xander. I really do appreciate it."
"No problemo, again I would like to express my extreme dislike of your actions. My compliance in no way affirms your decision to do this." Xander said.
"I know, I know. I'm still doing it and I still appreciate your help." Buffy said.
She hung up and made the next call to Dawn. She was actually excited about Xander coming to pick her up. Buffy had suspected for a long time that Dawn had a crush on Xander. She grudgingly agreed to pack Buffy's suitcase for her.
"And make sure you put all my clothes in there. I don't want you borrowing. I didn't bring a whole lot of them in the first place. I had planned to get some shopping done." Buffy admonished.
"Like I'd want to borrow your clothes anyway." Dawn retorted.
"I'll see you in a little while," Buffy said.
"Kay, I gotta run if I'm gonna get both our bags packed before Xander gets here." Dawn said as she hung up the phone.
Buffy replaced the receiver in the cradle and walked back into the bedroom where Gunn and Angel sat. Angel noticed the second Buffy walked back into the room. He looked up at her and there was a stir of recognition, a tiny slice of the old Angel reflected in his eyes. She sat down on the bed next to him, her hand automatically going to rest on his knee.
"I feel better now that that's taken care of. Xander, a friend of mine, and my little sister are going to be dropping my suitcase by here. I hope that's okay? "Buffy said. It never actually occurred to her to ask if she could stay there.
"Yeah, it's fine. Wes is down there. He can do the meet and greet. Now you were getting ready to tell me a long story." Gunn said.
She smiled. "Oh yeah, okay so there was this Hell Goddess who got thrown out of Hell, probably for her bad fashion sense possibly for being psycho but I think that's a plus in Hell, anyway she needed my little sister's blood to open a portal back to her world. When the portal opened, things from her world bled into our world, if left open long enough it would turn our world into pretty much Hell. Once the portal opened it would only close once the blood had stopped flowing. I gambled on my blood and Dawn's blood being the same. I jumped into the portal and I was right. It closed it."
"But it killed you." Gunn said.
Buffy nodded. She noticed Angel had drawn back into himself. His arms were wrapped around his knees. She scooted closer to him.
"So how'd you end up not dead?" Gunn asked.
"Willow brought me back." Buffy said.
"Buffy fell, didn't catch her. Buffy fell, gone, gone , not here, not real, gone." Angel started murmuring.
Buffy's heart broke. "Oh, God, no Angel, I am here. Remember, Buffy's real, Buffy's here." She ran her fingers through his hair, leaning in close.
"Sorry, I'm not used to him actually being lucid enough to notice what's going on. I shouldn't have asked you about it with him here." Gunn said.
"He handled it badly." Buffy said.
"Badly isn't the word. He lost what little he had left. He kept saying it was his fault, he should have known, he should have been there. He'd been violent before but that night he completely lost it., attacked both Wes and me. We tranqed him and dragged him up here. He spent months in restraints. He would scream your name for hours on end and then it got worse." Gunn said.
"Worse?" Buffy glanced at him and then turned her attention back to Angel.
"There were no more lucid moments. He'd ramble for hours on end about things that didn't make sense. He saw the people he killed and he'd spend hours apologizing, crying, begging their forgiveness. That was when he started sending us to rescue the people he'd killed. The final walls between reality, vision and memory fell. He couldn't keep any of it straight. When we heard you were alive, Wes tried to tell him. There wasn't enough of Angel left to comprehend it. He never would use the word dead and your name together." Gunn said.
Buffy sighed. "I should have come earlier. I just, I had no idea. Why didn't Wes call me?"
Gunn shrugged. "You'd have to ask him."
Buffy nodded. "I'm going to try and get him settled back down, maybe asleep. I'll be down there later, hopefully by the time Dawn and Xander show up."
Gunn stood up and gathered the empty Chinese food cartons. He shut the door behind him when he left.
"Not here," Angel said. He looked at her mournfully, as if he knew she was vision and she would disappear, whether he wanted her to or not.
"No, I am here, Baby. Willow brought me back, remember." Buffy said. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him to her. He laid his head in her lap and held onto her.
It took three hours for her to get Angel calmed down. When he finally fell asleep she stood up and stretched. Xander and Dawn would be here shortly. She went ahead and walked downstairs, leaving the door to Angel's room open so she could hear him if he needed her. Gunn and Wes were in the lobby sharpening weapons. She picked up a broadsword, looking fondly at it. Its edge was sharp but somehow it had an unused feeling to it.
"Angel's favorite." She said and smiled slightly.
Wes nodded. "I try to keep it in good condition. We don't use it much though."
She nodded and placed it back in the weapons cabinet. "Why didn't you call me and tell me about him, Wes?"
Wes kept his attention on the ax edge he was sharpening. At first it appeared he wasn't going to answer her. "I didn't know what to say. The last I'd heard you two were going on with your separate lives. He said you were in love with someone else."
"He thought that?" Buffy asked.
Wes nodded. "He said he'd seen him both times he'd gone back to Sunnydale."
Buffy sighed. "I didn't love Riley, not ever, not like I love him." There was no need to ask who him was. Him was who it had always been for Buffy.
"There's nothing you could have done anyway, Buffy. There's nothing anyone can do." Wes said.
"So, what, he stays like this for eternity? That's not fair. Even the powers can't be that cruel." Buffy said.
Wes continues sharpening his ax. "He won't last an eternity. Somehow, some way he'll end up staking himself."
Buffy looked down at her feet. She couldn't argue with Wes and she couldn't blame Angel. If he truly had to spend an eternity like this, she couldn't blame him for wanting to end it. She remembered all to well the night Angel stood on a hill and waited for the sun to rise. The powers had saved him then, for what, a life of misery, insanity. They should have let the sun rise.
The door to the hotel opened. Xander and Dawn walked in carrying a large black suitcase. Buffy hugged Xander and Dawn.
"Xander, you remember Wes. That's Gunn. This is my friend Xander and my sister Dawn." Buffy introduced everyone.
"Wow, Wes-you're so-not the dork anymore." Xander said.
Wes chuckled. "Hello, Xander. Nice to see you again."
"Yeah, that's totally what I meant." Xander said.
Dawn looked around the hotel curiously. "So, where's Angel?"
"He's upstairs, asleep." Buffy said.
"Cool, I'm gonna go say hello." Dawn started to bound up the stairs. Buffy caught her arm.
"No, it took me three hours to get him to sleep. Besides, he's not the Angel you remember Dawnie." Buffy said.
"So, I want to see him. He used to like me you know. He'll be happy to see me." Dawn argued.
"Dawn, he won't remember you." Wes said.
"Why? Because I'm the key? Didn't the monk screw up his memories too?" Dawn said.
"He doesn't remember anyone, Dawn." Buffy said.
"Then why do you get to be here?"
Buffy sighed. She didn't want to have this conversation with Dawn. Wes saved her. "Angel remembers Buffy but most of the time he doesn't think she's real. Seeing you might confuse him even more, Dawn."
Dawn rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Can we go now, Xander?"
"We're headed back to Sunnydale." Xander said.
Buffy nodded. "When you talk to Giles let him know that I'm here in LA. You can give him this number if he needs to call me. You might avoid saying the word angel or even implying that I'm here. Giles has enough on his plate with Willow. He doesn't need the Angel saga too."
Once they were gone, Buffy picked up her suitcase and carried it up to Angel's room. She tucked it neatly just inside the door. Angel was still sound asleep, curled up around her shirt. She decided to leave him like that. He needed the sleep, from what Wes had told her he didn't sleep much. He was plagued by visions, memories and nightmares all too often. She walked back downstairs. When Angel woke up she'd have to bring him down into the courtyard. Never leaving that room couldn't be good for him. She'd only been up there a few hours and it made her claustrophobic. She slumped on the round couch next to Gunn. She noticed a nasty looking scar on his forearm.
"Where did you get the scar?" She asked.
Gunn looked down at his forearm, as if reminding himself which one it was. "That was one of the first ones Angel gave me. It was before we started tranqing him. He had a vision, got violent. It was my turn to try and subdue him. It didn't work so well. This is what it looks like when you have to rip a vamp's teeth out of your forearm. Pretty ain't it?"
Buffy winced inwardly. Not to be outdone, Wes stepped out from behind the desk. He was unbuttoning his shirt. He shrugged one side of the shirt off his shoulder. There was nice round scar there just under the ridge of his collarbone. "Quit whining, Gunn. So you had vamp teeth pulled out of your arm. I got shoved into a piece of steel trying to restrain him." Wes said.
Gunn snorted and pulled up the edge of his shirt. "He shoved a stake back into me." There was almost round scar on his abdomen.
"What were you doing holding a stake to Angel?" Buffy said.
"Just a threat, wouldn't really have done it, unless I had to. I thought it'd help restrain him. I got this the same night he shoved Wes into the steel bar. It was the night Willow called to say you were dead. Come on, you spent 3 years with him. I'm sure it wasn't all fluffy bunnies and flowers. You gotta have some Angel scars." Gunn said.
"Most of my Angel scars are the kind you can't see." Buffy said, unconsciously her hand drifted to the curve of her neck. "I do have one." She pulled aside the collar of Angel's shirt so they could see his mark there. It was an obvious scar, but almost delicate looking, as if it had been placed there lovingly rather then violently.
Gunn whistled. "Nice. How'd you get his fangs out without ripping the crap out of your throat?" He'd seen plenty of vamp bites in his time. They either drained you or you had a hell of a scar from someone ripping their fangs out. He'd never seen such a neat, perfect scar.
"I didn't. He took them out." Buffy said.
"He what?" Gunn quirked an eyebrow at her.
"He was poisoned, dying. The only thing that would cure him was draining a slayer. So I let him." Buffy said nonchalantly.
"You let him drain you? Was he a good guy during all this or was this an evil phase? And are all slayers this stupid or are you an exception. No wonder you died twice." Gunn said with a note of disgust in his voice.
"He wasn't evil. He was sick, dying. I made him drink, to save his life. He didn't want to. If you weren't human, the last part of your statement would get you killed." Buffy said meeting his glare with one of her own.
Wes stepped in front of them. "Yes, well, I think we'll all agree, Buffy wins the best Angel scar award."
Chapter 5
And all of your ways
All you dream falls on me
Buffy spent the morning sitting on the bed with Angel, talking to him, touching him. He didn't say much to her, an occasional one word comment here and there, but he listened and every once in a while he'd reach out and very tentatively touch her. He still hadn't let go of her shirt. There was a knock on the door. Angel scurried back and tried to make himself disappear into the bed pillows. Buffy captured his hand.
"Come in," She said.
Gunn pushed the door open. He had cartons of Chinese food in his hands.
"Thought you might be hungry," Gunn said.
She nodded. "Thanks, I'm starving." She glanced over at Angel. "Angel, it's okay. It's Gunn, remember him? Sometimes you tell him about your visions, just like Wes."
Angel furrowed his brow and looked at Gunn. Finally he nodded. "Remember Gunn."
"Gunn, want to have a seat and eat with me and Angel?" Buffy asked.
Gunn glanced at Angel. It was obvious he was uncomfortable around Angel. Finally he shrugged and pulled a chair over near the bed. He sat tense, wary, a warrior waiting for an attack. By contrast Buffy lay on her stomach on the bed, casually eating Chinese food with chopsticks and chattering a mile a minute. Gunn was surprised. She set him at ease immediately and had him laughing over things like the fear demon she'd squished, or Sweet, the demon that'd made everyone sing.
"I wanna hear about the whole dying thing. I mean it's not often you meet someone who's come back from the dead and isn't you know, undead." Gunn says.
"First time or second time?" Buffy asked digging through her rice with her chopsticks.
"You've died more then once?" Gunn asked.
Buffy nodded. "First time was much less dramatic. I drowned. Xander gave me CPR, I got better. Second time, that was much more sticky, very long story that I will tell you if you'll stay here with Angel while I go call Xander and Dawn. I need to make sure everyone is okay and taken care of so I can stay here and take care of him."
Gunn looked warily at Angel and then back to Buffy. "Alright, there's a phone right through though doors. We never had it disconnected." Gunn gestures to a pair of French doors separating the bedroom area from the living room area.
"Thanks." Buffy turned to Angel and cupped her face with her hand. She made him look at her. "I'll be right back. Gunn is going to stay here with you. I'll just be in the next room."
Angel nodded very slightly. He kept his eyes cast down. Buffy got up and walked toward the other room. She closed the door behind her. The furniture in this room still had all the dust covers on it. She found the phone easily even in the dark. She quickly dialed Xander's number first. He picked up after a couple of rings.
"Xan, its Buffy." She said.
"Buff, what's up? Still in LA?"
"Yah, I'm going to be here a little while I think." She said.
"Don't tell me the world needs saving again? We just did that a couple of weeks ago. Isn't there a time limit on those things, like say you have to go 8 months between apocalypses?" Xander said.
She grinned. "No, there is no world saveage in the cards for me, at least not immediately. Only an Angel saveage."
"Are we talking the kind with wings or the kind with fangs?" Xander asked.
"Fangy kind and I don't want to hear it. I need a favor." Buffy said.
"I don't like it, just for the record, but what's wrong?" Xander asked.
"The short version, Angel gets visions from the Powers that Be and they have literally driven him insane." Buffy said.
"Not liking this, Buffy. An insane Angel sounds an awful lot like an evil Angel to me." Xander said.
"No, he's not. He's- I can't even begin to tell you what he's like. I can't leave him alone like this though, Xander. I need you to go pick up Dawn. She's at Dad's house and Dad had to take a trip to Rome. We don't know when he'll be back. "
"Sure, no problem, I'll swing by there. Want me to just bring Dawnie back here?" Xander asked.
"Yeah, or if you want stay at Dad's with Dawn. He's got a pool and stuff. You could have a little Hellmouth free vacation. Whatever you and Dawnie decide is fine with me, just let me know. Also, could you bring my suitcase by here? I'll make sure Dawn has it all packed."
"Okay," Xander said.
Buffy gave him directions to the Hyperion. "Thanks Xander. I really do appreciate it."
"No problemo, again I would like to express my extreme dislike of your actions. My compliance in no way affirms your decision to do this." Xander said.
"I know, I know. I'm still doing it and I still appreciate your help." Buffy said.
She hung up and made the next call to Dawn. She was actually excited about Xander coming to pick her up. Buffy had suspected for a long time that Dawn had a crush on Xander. She grudgingly agreed to pack Buffy's suitcase for her.
"And make sure you put all my clothes in there. I don't want you borrowing. I didn't bring a whole lot of them in the first place. I had planned to get some shopping done." Buffy admonished.
"Like I'd want to borrow your clothes anyway." Dawn retorted.
"I'll see you in a little while," Buffy said.
"Kay, I gotta run if I'm gonna get both our bags packed before Xander gets here." Dawn said as she hung up the phone.
Buffy replaced the receiver in the cradle and walked back into the bedroom where Gunn and Angel sat. Angel noticed the second Buffy walked back into the room. He looked up at her and there was a stir of recognition, a tiny slice of the old Angel reflected in his eyes. She sat down on the bed next to him, her hand automatically going to rest on his knee.
"I feel better now that that's taken care of. Xander, a friend of mine, and my little sister are going to be dropping my suitcase by here. I hope that's okay? "Buffy said. It never actually occurred to her to ask if she could stay there.
"Yeah, it's fine. Wes is down there. He can do the meet and greet. Now you were getting ready to tell me a long story." Gunn said.
She smiled. "Oh yeah, okay so there was this Hell Goddess who got thrown out of Hell, probably for her bad fashion sense possibly for being psycho but I think that's a plus in Hell, anyway she needed my little sister's blood to open a portal back to her world. When the portal opened, things from her world bled into our world, if left open long enough it would turn our world into pretty much Hell. Once the portal opened it would only close once the blood had stopped flowing. I gambled on my blood and Dawn's blood being the same. I jumped into the portal and I was right. It closed it."
"But it killed you." Gunn said.
Buffy nodded. She noticed Angel had drawn back into himself. His arms were wrapped around his knees. She scooted closer to him.
"So how'd you end up not dead?" Gunn asked.
"Willow brought me back." Buffy said.
"Buffy fell, didn't catch her. Buffy fell, gone, gone , not here, not real, gone." Angel started murmuring.
Buffy's heart broke. "Oh, God, no Angel, I am here. Remember, Buffy's real, Buffy's here." She ran her fingers through his hair, leaning in close.
"Sorry, I'm not used to him actually being lucid enough to notice what's going on. I shouldn't have asked you about it with him here." Gunn said.
"He handled it badly." Buffy said.
"Badly isn't the word. He lost what little he had left. He kept saying it was his fault, he should have known, he should have been there. He'd been violent before but that night he completely lost it., attacked both Wes and me. We tranqed him and dragged him up here. He spent months in restraints. He would scream your name for hours on end and then it got worse." Gunn said.
"Worse?" Buffy glanced at him and then turned her attention back to Angel.
"There were no more lucid moments. He'd ramble for hours on end about things that didn't make sense. He saw the people he killed and he'd spend hours apologizing, crying, begging their forgiveness. That was when he started sending us to rescue the people he'd killed. The final walls between reality, vision and memory fell. He couldn't keep any of it straight. When we heard you were alive, Wes tried to tell him. There wasn't enough of Angel left to comprehend it. He never would use the word dead and your name together." Gunn said.
Buffy sighed. "I should have come earlier. I just, I had no idea. Why didn't Wes call me?"
Gunn shrugged. "You'd have to ask him."
Buffy nodded. "I'm going to try and get him settled back down, maybe asleep. I'll be down there later, hopefully by the time Dawn and Xander show up."
Gunn stood up and gathered the empty Chinese food cartons. He shut the door behind him when he left.
"Not here," Angel said. He looked at her mournfully, as if he knew she was vision and she would disappear, whether he wanted her to or not.
"No, I am here, Baby. Willow brought me back, remember." Buffy said. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him to her. He laid his head in her lap and held onto her.
It took three hours for her to get Angel calmed down. When he finally fell asleep she stood up and stretched. Xander and Dawn would be here shortly. She went ahead and walked downstairs, leaving the door to Angel's room open so she could hear him if he needed her. Gunn and Wes were in the lobby sharpening weapons. She picked up a broadsword, looking fondly at it. Its edge was sharp but somehow it had an unused feeling to it.
"Angel's favorite." She said and smiled slightly.
Wes nodded. "I try to keep it in good condition. We don't use it much though."
She nodded and placed it back in the weapons cabinet. "Why didn't you call me and tell me about him, Wes?"
Wes kept his attention on the ax edge he was sharpening. At first it appeared he wasn't going to answer her. "I didn't know what to say. The last I'd heard you two were going on with your separate lives. He said you were in love with someone else."
"He thought that?" Buffy asked.
Wes nodded. "He said he'd seen him both times he'd gone back to Sunnydale."
Buffy sighed. "I didn't love Riley, not ever, not like I love him." There was no need to ask who him was. Him was who it had always been for Buffy.
"There's nothing you could have done anyway, Buffy. There's nothing anyone can do." Wes said.
"So, what, he stays like this for eternity? That's not fair. Even the powers can't be that cruel." Buffy said.
Wes continues sharpening his ax. "He won't last an eternity. Somehow, some way he'll end up staking himself."
Buffy looked down at her feet. She couldn't argue with Wes and she couldn't blame Angel. If he truly had to spend an eternity like this, she couldn't blame him for wanting to end it. She remembered all to well the night Angel stood on a hill and waited for the sun to rise. The powers had saved him then, for what, a life of misery, insanity. They should have let the sun rise.
The door to the hotel opened. Xander and Dawn walked in carrying a large black suitcase. Buffy hugged Xander and Dawn.
"Xander, you remember Wes. That's Gunn. This is my friend Xander and my sister Dawn." Buffy introduced everyone.
"Wow, Wes-you're so-not the dork anymore." Xander said.
Wes chuckled. "Hello, Xander. Nice to see you again."
"Yeah, that's totally what I meant." Xander said.
Dawn looked around the hotel curiously. "So, where's Angel?"
"He's upstairs, asleep." Buffy said.
"Cool, I'm gonna go say hello." Dawn started to bound up the stairs. Buffy caught her arm.
"No, it took me three hours to get him to sleep. Besides, he's not the Angel you remember Dawnie." Buffy said.
"So, I want to see him. He used to like me you know. He'll be happy to see me." Dawn argued.
"Dawn, he won't remember you." Wes said.
"Why? Because I'm the key? Didn't the monk screw up his memories too?" Dawn said.
"He doesn't remember anyone, Dawn." Buffy said.
"Then why do you get to be here?"
Buffy sighed. She didn't want to have this conversation with Dawn. Wes saved her. "Angel remembers Buffy but most of the time he doesn't think she's real. Seeing you might confuse him even more, Dawn."
Dawn rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Can we go now, Xander?"
"We're headed back to Sunnydale." Xander said.
Buffy nodded. "When you talk to Giles let him know that I'm here in LA. You can give him this number if he needs to call me. You might avoid saying the word angel or even implying that I'm here. Giles has enough on his plate with Willow. He doesn't need the Angel saga too."
Once they were gone, Buffy picked up her suitcase and carried it up to Angel's room. She tucked it neatly just inside the door. Angel was still sound asleep, curled up around her shirt. She decided to leave him like that. He needed the sleep, from what Wes had told her he didn't sleep much. He was plagued by visions, memories and nightmares all too often. She walked back downstairs. When Angel woke up she'd have to bring him down into the courtyard. Never leaving that room couldn't be good for him. She'd only been up there a few hours and it made her claustrophobic. She slumped on the round couch next to Gunn. She noticed a nasty looking scar on his forearm.
"Where did you get the scar?" She asked.
Gunn looked down at his forearm, as if reminding himself which one it was. "That was one of the first ones Angel gave me. It was before we started tranqing him. He had a vision, got violent. It was my turn to try and subdue him. It didn't work so well. This is what it looks like when you have to rip a vamp's teeth out of your forearm. Pretty ain't it?"
Buffy winced inwardly. Not to be outdone, Wes stepped out from behind the desk. He was unbuttoning his shirt. He shrugged one side of the shirt off his shoulder. There was nice round scar there just under the ridge of his collarbone. "Quit whining, Gunn. So you had vamp teeth pulled out of your arm. I got shoved into a piece of steel trying to restrain him." Wes said.
Gunn snorted and pulled up the edge of his shirt. "He shoved a stake back into me." There was almost round scar on his abdomen.
"What were you doing holding a stake to Angel?" Buffy said.
"Just a threat, wouldn't really have done it, unless I had to. I thought it'd help restrain him. I got this the same night he shoved Wes into the steel bar. It was the night Willow called to say you were dead. Come on, you spent 3 years with him. I'm sure it wasn't all fluffy bunnies and flowers. You gotta have some Angel scars." Gunn said.
"Most of my Angel scars are the kind you can't see." Buffy said, unconsciously her hand drifted to the curve of her neck. "I do have one." She pulled aside the collar of Angel's shirt so they could see his mark there. It was an obvious scar, but almost delicate looking, as if it had been placed there lovingly rather then violently.
Gunn whistled. "Nice. How'd you get his fangs out without ripping the crap out of your throat?" He'd seen plenty of vamp bites in his time. They either drained you or you had a hell of a scar from someone ripping their fangs out. He'd never seen such a neat, perfect scar.
"I didn't. He took them out." Buffy said.
"He what?" Gunn quirked an eyebrow at her.
"He was poisoned, dying. The only thing that would cure him was draining a slayer. So I let him." Buffy said nonchalantly.
"You let him drain you? Was he a good guy during all this or was this an evil phase? And are all slayers this stupid or are you an exception. No wonder you died twice." Gunn said with a note of disgust in his voice.
"He wasn't evil. He was sick, dying. I made him drink, to save his life. He didn't want to. If you weren't human, the last part of your statement would get you killed." Buffy said meeting his glare with one of her own.
Wes stepped in front of them. "Yes, well, I think we'll all agree, Buffy wins the best Angel scar award."