A Slayers' Wish
Chapter: Three
A Brand New Day
The next morning, Angel awakened to find that he was lying in bed in the bedroom of his penthouse apartment with spike sitting in a chair fast asleep right next to him. Angel tried to put his body into a sitting position but felt almost too weak to move. Angel groaned aloud as he lowered his body back down onto the bed. The noise awoke his fellow Vampire. Spike looked at Angel and seemed to be glad that his employer had regained consciousness. "How are you feeling, mate?" Spike asked seriously. "There's a lot of pain. It's so hot in here." Angel replied exhaustedly.
Spike placed a hand onto Angels' burning forehead and announced calmly. "I hate to tell you this, but your fever's only getting worse. Can you move?" Angel shook his head weakly. Spike suddenly smiled and added in a voice that was full of delight. "Good." The blond haired Vampire reached behind the chair and to Angels' horror pulled out a large razor sharp machete. Spike got to his feet and said as he stood beside Angels' bed. "It looks like I just got a promotion." Spike raised the machete high above his head and brought it down towards Angels' neck. Angel awoke with a fright-sitting bolt upright in bed gasping for air. I can't believe this. I'm actually breathing, He thought in amazement.
Angel placed two fingers on the left side of his throat and was even more astonished to find that he had a pulse. "Oh, my god. I'm alive. I've actually become human." Angel declared under his breath. The CEO looked around him and found to his relief that he was completely alone in the bedroom. Angel slowly moved his legs over the side of his bed and instantly felt a severe wave of dizziness take hold of him. "You have to take baby steps, Angel. You need to take this slowly." The man told himself comfortingly.
Angel got to his feet very slowly and proceeded to carefully get himself dressed. Angels' first instincts were to find out how this happened, but then the memories of Buffy flooded into his mind, and he realized that he could be with her for the rest of his life. Whether that lasted for years or even just one day, he didn't care. He had to be with his first true love. At that moment, the ex-vampire realized the true implications of his situation. What would he tell the others? How would they take the news? Would they be happy for him, or would they be disappointed that his long struggle for redemption was finally over even though there were still so many lives out in the streets of L.A. that needed to be saved?
Angel thought about this for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he decided to keep it a secret for as long as he could. The ex-vampire finished getting dressed and then strolled over to his private elevator. After a five-minute elevator ride, Angel wandered nervously down the long hallway heading towards his office, when he suddenly ran into Lorne. Angel hoped that the Empathy demon would just pass him by, but his heart felt wish wasn't to be realized.
Lorne looked his employer up and down and remarked with a delighted smile, "There seems to be something distinctly different about you today." Oh, God. Angel thought to himself fearfully as a hundred different scenarios raced through his mind all at once. "Angel cakes forgive me for saying this, but you seem a tad anxious all of a sudden." Lorne said mildly. Angel shook his head and replied evenly, "Who's anxious? I'm not anxious. Why would I be anxious?" Lorne gave Angel a searching look and then went on his way down the corridor. After a moment, Lorne stopped, turned back to Angel, and remarked with a grin. "It must be the hair, right?"
With that, the Empathy demon walked away. Angel placed a hand on his chest feeling as though he were about to have a panic attack. Calm down, Angel. You need to remain calm. Everything's going to work out. Angel said inwardly and finally caught his breath. Angel made it the rest of the way to his office without incident.
Meanwhile, both Wesley and Fred were in the lab busy preparing test slides, when Lorne cheerfully walked in. The Empathy demon sat himself down in a conveniently empty chair and asked curiously, "has either one of you two been putting Caffeine in Angels' blood again?"
Wesley looked up at their ally and replied seriously. "No, why?" "I just bumped into his royal vampness a couple minutes ago, and I said that I had noticed something different about him, and he nearly flipped out. I'm telling you kiddies there's definitely something not right with Angel cakes." "It could be all the stress he's under." Fred suggested trying to be helpful." "Yes, and it could also be that he's trying to hide something from us." Lorne replied worriedly. Wesley nodded and said reassuringly. "All right, Lorne. Just give us a moment to get this done, and then Fred and I will go up to Angels' office and have a talk with him."
Angel sat behind the desk in his trying to pull himself. The ex-vampire knew that his encounter with Lorne was a close one, and realized that if he was going to get through this with his sanity he needed to act as though nothing had happened. Angel picked up a one of their pending case files and started to review the documents, when Spike walked in casually. "What do you need, Spike?" Angel inquired without looking up. "I just got car jacked, and I'm in need of another ride. So if you......." Spike suddenly stopped short.
Angel looked up at his employee and asked wonderingly. "What is it?" "I hear the sound of a heartbeat. Are we alone in here?" Angel nodded tensely. Spike thought about it for a few agonizing moments and then said dismissively. "Don't worry about it. I probably need to get my hearing checked. So how about that ride?" Angel relaxed and said as he sat back in his chair, "Give me a couple hours spike, and I'll get back to you." "All right." The blond Vampire said with a nod and left the office.
Angel took a deep relaxing breath and got to his feet. He was about to walk out from behind his desk, when a wave of dizziness suddenly took hold causing him to stagger back wards and cut his left wrist deeply on the sharp edge. The well- defined pain brought Angel back to his senses. He looked down at his wrist and noticed that it was bleeding severely. "Oh, no!" Angel ex-claimed under his breath. The ex-vampire frantically searched his desk for anything that could stop the bleeding before the inevitable weakness set in. He was already to late. Angel could feel his entire body turning cold as it slow went into shack from the heavy blood. Angels' last thought was of Buffy as he slowly fell to the floor and lost consciousness.