"Even a broken clock is right twice a day."
End of Becoming Part 2. Buffy is sitting in the mansion after sending him to hell.
Buffy and Angel aint mine.
"Angel."
That was the last word she had spoken as her lover was swallowed by the red, burning portal to hell.
She looked at where he was the last time she had seen him. There is nothing left of him, just a statue, cold and stone as if it was innocent in her nightmares.
He had been kneeling, and she had finally been ready to giveAngelus the final blow.
That was when she felt it. A settling in her stomach came back like it was before her 17th, but after they had met. And her heart seemed to bottom out as air rushed into both of their mouths.
Buffy felt something connect with something primal inside herself, and for a moment, she felt like falling to the floor like she was high, falling to the floor to weap and thank the heavens for what she was receiving.
And then she saw the light pass through his eyes, the yellow light that burned like gold, and the hatred and evil in them turned to love, and confusion.
"Angel." She had said. It wasn't a question. It was a pronouncement. She knew he was him now, and not his demon. This being kneeling in front of her was not someone to fear for more than her own heart.
"Buffy?" he had asked. "Where are we?"
He didn't know, what his demon had done or what had gone on the last few months. He was completely innocent in everything that had gone on and yet...
She closed her eyes and let herself fall to the floor. She couldn't think, could only feel the him in front of her, some sort of connection ringing true and the beast inside herself purred with the reunion.
That's when she heard it.
It was like a dust storm was starting up, silent and yet loud and getting louder; a hum picking up force and space fizzing out as if gaseos invisible circled the stone unnaturally. And she looked behind him and noticed that the portal was opening; And became confused.
He was back now, so Angelus couldn't have opened it. Angel was back so she could be okay now. Right? Realization came suddenly and without representation. There was no force from it and she acted as if she wasn't there, she floated with his soul away from this and there was nothing.
"Close your eyes." She had said. He did what she had asked. He was trusting her like she trusted him.
But she did it anyway. Her slayer had taken over, and she was doing this for her destiny. Not for her.
When she shoved the sword through his gut, it hurt. When she reached out to hold him, and make him take her with him, it was too late. And he was gone.
"Angel?" she asked the room. Where was he? How had he come to be here now? What had she done?
She was still kneeling on the ground. She sat back, and was surprised that she was still there.
She didn't see her surroundings, or count the time.
There was a broken clock on the wall of the fireplace within a few feet of her. It was broken, and it remained with the hour on the 6, and the minutes between the 8 and the 9 meaning it was just about 6:42 am.
But she wasn't paying attention to the time. It was of no meaning. Her Angel was gone, and the feeling in her stomach, of peace and happiness, had been ripped from her just as harshly as it had been the first time.
But now, she knew it wasn't coming back. But wasn't that what she had though the first time?
So she waited. Minutes, seconds, hours, days, years, weeks...
She couldn't tell the difference.
The clock had stopped the minute the portal opened. The magical interference had messed with it and destroyed the inner workings of it.
She waited. 9:56, 10:28, 11:53, 3:15, 5:43, it was 6:42 again. It had just happened, she had just sent her lover to hell.
She was still. Her lungs had stopped, but she did not need oxygen for she did not move, she did not think. She simply waited. That was all there was to do.
More time passed. She heard a noise. No movement. She heard it again. She couldn't see it. She simply saw the statue with nothing in front of it.
He was gone.
No he isn't, he will be back. He would never leave me. She thought.
She heard the noise again.
Time passed.
It was 10:00 and then all of a sudden it was 1:00. Then, and eternity later, it was 1:02. Time passed. How much, she did not know. But it did, and she waited.
There was that noise again. Someone was here, but she couldn't bother looking over or thinking.
Her lungs weren't working, and her heart wasn't beating. Her blood wasn't pumping and her body wasn't moving. She was still.
Someone moved her, and talked to her, but she could not take the time or bother turning to see who it was. She didn't care.
Angel would be here soon. He would take care of her, and then she would be okay.
Giles was worried. 24 hours after he entered the hospital, he was let out. The staff there didn't have as much patience, it being Sunnydale and all.
His surrogate daughter, his slayer, his charge was sitting in the floor of the mansion doing nothing at all. She wouldn't respond when he called her name, or do anything if he touched or prodded her.
She just sat there, staring at the statue.
Actually, it didn't look like she was staring at anything. Her face was simply turned towards the statue.
He called the others, but they didn't know anything. They had come over and tried to get her attention. It wasn't working. Nothing was working.
She sat there.
Giles wasn't sure if she was even still alive. She felt like a statue herself.
She was clammy and cold. No life could be seen if you looked at her. Her chest was not moving to show breathing, but if she was sitting, she would have to be alive and breathing.
She waited. She felt someone move her again, but did not know or see, or talke, or breath. She simply stayed where she was.
She was still. She was of no conscience to anyone now.
He was gone, and she was waiting for his return.
And that was all.
The broken clock still read 6:42.
For her, no time passed. Nothing happened to her or her surroundings that she could tell. She just waited for the return she knew would come.
Her skin prickled as it was touched, and stroked.
Someone was trying to get her attention.
She did not move. She did not breathe. She did not see. She did not hear. She did not know that her heart did not beat or her blood did not flow. Her brain gave no sign that it was working.
The only knowledge that they had that she was alive was that she was warm, and she did not rot away.
They did not call the paramedics. They did not know what was wrong.
They knew the paramedics would call her dead, but they knew differently.
She was not dead. She simply... was. That was all they could say. She existed, but she held no form to anyone who would not see her statue-like form. Her body would not thin, and she would not have to use the restroom. Her body was simply frozen by her soul, awaiting the return of it's other half.
The broken clock was still on the shelf above the fireplace. It still read 6:42.
It was right twice a day.
They were there when it happened.
The first noise they heard was the clock, beginning to tick.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
By the fourth time it tick-tocked, everyone was staring at it.
A moment ago, it was broken-frozen in time.
But what they did not know, was that it was no broken. It was frozen with Buffy.
By the eighth time it tocked, a mystical interference happened, and a portal opened.
An immortal balance demon came through, pulling the dead weight that is Angel, and the others gasped.
They knew it was Angel as well. Willow realized what had happened right before it hit the others.
Whistler went to Giles and handed him a card. The watcher did not look at it as the Immortal demon left.
Instead, he was staring in awe as the slayer moved to the fully souled vampire that was in front of her.
The group of scoobies just stood there, watching the reunion of soulmates, as the light went back into Buffy's eyes, and Angel was calmed.
It was 6:43.
When Giles looked at the card, it said 'bedroom. 7:00.' It was simple, and explainable.
And when he went to his bedroom, which he had avoided until now, he saw a sleeping Jenny Calendar.
He watched in awe as the breath flowed in and out of her as she slept.
He eventually went to cradle her now-living body. It did not wake her, but she stirred. He could feel the heat coming off of her. He was reassured that she was alive by that.
Buffy and Angel were curled in the bed of the mansion. They slept peacefully for the first time in months. They were together. No worried came to them. Nothing mattered but each other.
They made love when they awoke. They did over and over again until they were both surprisingly spent, and Buffy was hungry. She ate the first meal she had had since her birthday.
When they returned to the bedroom, they made love again. They were content to be in each other's arms, and whole when they were together.
End.