Author's Note: Many thanks to Tara for giving me the idea for this part. Also someone asked how long this fic was going to be, and I honestly don't know. I'm really just going day by day on this one. Enjoy chapter 4!

Chapter 4: Eye of the Storm

Later that day Buffy sat in silence down on the beach. Since the huge fight earlier, no one was really speaking to each other. Dawn and Connor had gone off to do God-knows-what, Willow and Tara were walking to get more bananas, Anya, Cordelia, and Spike were moping in the shelter, Xander and Giles were trying to get the fire started again since it had gone out, and Angel was...Buffy actually didn't know where Angel was. Figures, the one person she actually wanted to see was missing. She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. She just wanted more than anything to go home and take a nap in her warm bed.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Angel asked, coming to sit down beside her.

Buffy perked up at his voice and tried to smile. "Just thinking about how nice it would be to be home right now, curled up safely on the couch watching crappy television."

Angel sighed. "I hear ya."

A wind blew in from the ocean, and Buffy shivered. She was only wearing the tank top and shorts she had worn on that ill-fated boat ride, and they were still slightly damp from their morning swim. The sun hadn't been out much today, and she was nervous that another storm was coming. The ominous looking clouds seemed to confirm her fears.

"Are you cold? Here," Angel said, pulling her closer to him. She relaxed immediately against his chest.

"I'm really glad that you're here. I don't know what I would do without you," Buffy said softly.

Slightly surprised at her words, Angel hesitated for a moment before replying. "I'm really glad that you're here too." He paused. "Maybe it was fate. All of us ending up here together. Us," he said.

She smiled up at him. "That's a nice way to think of it." Before she realized what was happening he leaned in and kissed her softly. She closed her eyes and kissed him back, comforted by the feeling of his lips on hers. There was unbelievable chemistry between them; Buffy could feel her skin tingling. Their kiss was interrupted when Buffy felt a drop of water hit her head. They slowly broke apart, and Buffy looked up at the now completely overcast sky. "Oh boy," she said.

"Better batten down the hatches," Angel said.

They hurried up to the shelter while the rain started to fall harder. Willow and Tara had gotten back at some point, and everyone was eating bananas inside the shelter. Except for Dawn and Connor.

"They're not back yet," Buffy said, turning to Angel with a look of panic on her face.

Angel squeezed her hand. "They'll be okay. They probably just decided to wait out the storm somewhere else." But Buffy noticed the look of concern on his face, and knew he was just trying to make her feel better. "Get in the shelter. Hopefully the storm will pass."

They sat in the shelter along with the others. Willow held out a banana to Buffy, but she shook her head. She was too scared about Dawn's safety to eat right now.

The storm was quickly getting worse. When the first clap of thunder sounded, everyone jumped, especially Tara. "I h-hate thunder," she whispered to Willow. Willow put her arms around her.

"It's okay. Nothing will hurt you while I'm here," she whispered back.

When a jagged blast of lightning lit up the sky, Buffy closed her eyes. She wouldn't be able to stand it if anything happened to Dawn. Angel squeezed her hand again. "It'll be okay. Connor knows how to take care of himself, I'm sure he has her someplace safe."

On the other side of the island, Dawn and Connor's make out session had been interrupted by the storm. Now they were running along the trees, trying to find a safe place to wait out the storm.

"There!" Connor said, pointing to a little alcove in the trees. Hand in hand they ran towards it. It was actually a little cave formed by rocks, just big enough for the two of them. They sat down inside.

"Wow, that was scary," Dawn said, shaking some of the water off herself.

Connor put his arms around her. "It's okay. We're safe now."

Dawn groaned. "Buffy must be so worried. I hope they don't come looking for us."

Connor shook his head. "I don't think they will. I'm sure my dad knows we're okay."

"I hope we'll be able to find our way back. We should have left a trail of breadcrumbs or something," Dawn muttered.

Connor smiled. "We'll get back. How big can this island be?"

"Not big enough for the rescuers to see it," Dawn said quietly.

Connor sighed. "Don't worry baby. I'm sure we'll get off this hell hole eventually. And until we do, at least we're together."

Dawn smiled and they kissed. "This is actually kind of romantic you know. Us stranded here in a cave, storm raging, waves crashing."

Connor smiled. "What are you suggesting?"

Dawn smiled back, turning to face him. "Maybe something like this." She kissed him. The kiss quickly grew more passionate, and they collapsed into the wet sand of the small cave. After a while Connor pulled away.

"Dawn..." his voice trailed off.

She frowned. "What is it?"

He looked her in the eyes. "I just want to set something straight. I really like you. And I really enjoy the kissing and everything. But please know that we don't have to go any further than that."

After this registered, Dawn blinked. "Connor, I know. I mean, I'm only sixteen. And we've really only known each other for about 48 hours. But it feels like so much longer. And I hope...I hope that when we get home we can have something wonderful. Because these past two days with you have felt so good. And I'm willing to wait until the time is right," she finished.

Connor smiled softly. "Wow. You are one amazing girl." They kissed again.

Dawn shuddered. "The storm is getting worse." The trees on the beach were blowing sideways, and the thunder and lightning seemed to be right on top of them.

Connor frowned. He was a little worried about the others. At least him and Dawn were in a pretty sturdy cave, the others only had a shelter made of logs on the bare beach.

"Have I mentioned all the good this is not?" Xander said nervously as the storm worsened.

Unaware of her actions, Anya snuggled up to him. "I don't like this either." Xander was a little surprised by the sudden contact, but welcomed it.

As the rain became harder, it started coming through the palms that made up the "roof" of the shelter. As Buffy began to get drenched she looked at Angel, scared. As their eyes met she knew they were both thinking the same thing: the shelter was not going to hold.

Spike seemed to catch their drift. "Look, I think we should think about getting somewhere safer than this before we all get struck by the bloody lightning."

Giles looked at Buffy. "Where should we-"

He was interrupted when a huge gust of wind blew through the shelter, chilling them all to the bone and lifting the rood completely off the shelter. Now the rain poured down on them with nothing to hold it back. They were virtually sitting on a pile of logs with some more logs on two sides, which looked like they were going to give any minute.

"Whoa, I spent a lot of time and effort on this shelter," Xander said, moving to hold up one of the supports. "Help me out here guys. It would really suck to be back to square one."

Angel moved slightly away from Buffy to grab the support on the other side, but he was too late. The wind knocked it over, and it came crashing into the former shelter where they all sat. Angel pulled Buffy out of harm's way; Spike and Giles moved on their own, rolling out of the shelter into the sand. Willow and Tara had been sitting far enough to the back to be out of danger. Xander let go of the other support to rescue Anya from the falling log, causing the support on the other side to collapse into the sand. But Cordelia wasn't so lucky. She hadn't moved fast enough, and the log had crashed down on her leg. There was a sickening cracking noise, followed by a scream.

"My leg!" Cordelia shrieked. Spike and Giles quickly lifted the log off of Cordy's leg. It was bent in a really unnatural way. "I think it's broken," Cordelia moaned.

Angel looked at Buffy. This was just great. There was a torrential storm going on, their only shelter was long gone, they were all drenched to the bone, Cordelia had a broken leg that they had no way of treating, and Dawn and Connor were still MIA. Yup, everything was just peachy.

All that remained of the shelter was a few logs that formed the base. Spike had picked up Cordelia and was heading for the trees. "We need to get her somewhere safe," Spike yelled over the wind.

"Let's all go, we can take shelter in the trees," Angel called. Holding Buffy's hand tightly, he followed Spike into the trees.

After reaching a spot where the thick canopy of trees protected them from the majority of the rain, they stopped. Spike placed Cordelia gently on the ground. She was crying.

"We need to make like, a splint or something," Willow said. It was quieter here, so they were able to talk at a normal volume.

Giles came over, carrying two long pieces of wood. "We need something to tie it with," he said. Spike ripped a long strip off his T-shirt, and handed it to Giles.

"I'll help her as much as I can," Willow said, sitting down next to Cordelia. Tara sat on the other side and held the crying girl's hand.

Buffy, Angel, Xander, Anya, and Spike moved off to the side, while Giles stayed to help. "We really need to do something," Spike said quietly. "She needs a doctor."

Buffy sighed and rubbed her forehead. "We need a plan to get us off this stupid island."

"What about a signal?" Anya said. "Like a really big bonfire. Then maybe a plane would see us."

"It could also go wild and burn us all to death," Spike replied. "Maybe we can build a raft. Carpenter boy can help," he said, gesturing to Xander.

Xander shrugged. "I can try. Then maybe a few of us can go look for help."

Meanwhile, Willow had finished the splint. The rain was also slowing down, and the thunder had stopped. Giles walked over to where the others were huddled together.

"We should get back, start on a new shelter," he said tiredly. Buffy nodded.

"At least the rain's stopping," she said. Now there was only a small drizzle, and the sky was clearing.

The group began to move slowly back to the beach, Cordelia limping along on her good leg with the help of Spike. They reached the spot where their old shelter had stood. Buffy sighed.

"Buffy!" Dawn yelled. Buffy turned quickly, and saw Dawn and Connor emerging from the trees.

"Oh thank God," Buffy muttered, running to hug her sister. "I was so worried!"

"We found a cave and hid in it until the storm ended," Connor said, hugging his relieved father.

"H-hey, l-look!" Tara said, pointing to the sky. There was a beautiful rainbow stretching across the horizon.

Buffy smiled, arms around her sister. The storm was over, and at least they had each other.