Disclaimer: See other chapters

A/N: new chap. Review please.

When Angel woke up the shades were drawn on the windows of the hospital room, making it dark and rather dreary. It took Angel a moment to remember where he was, when he did he groaned, he had really hoped the accident had been a dream. But it wasn't. There lay Buffy, bloody, pale, and bruised on the hospital bed and around the room, and- whether on chairs or curled up on the floor- her friends lay sleeping. Angel stood up and stretched and, kissing Buffy on the forehead gently, walked off to the hospital cafeteria to get a cup of coffee. When he came back into the room everyone else was awake. They greeted him warmly with small half-smiles, which was as much as any of them could muster under current circumstances. He regarded them with a sad look and a nod of his head then leaned gloomily against the wall beside Buffy's bed.

"The doctor just came in and examined her," Giles said, his voice sad and weary; it appeared as if none of them had slept very well the previous night.

"And?" Angel said, not sounding very hopeful.

"Well...," Giles began, trying to remain calm but contempt dripped on his voice as he spoke of the doctor. "That bloody git just walked out of the bloody room shaking his bloody head. He didn't say a bloody friggin word!" Giles punched his hand into his palm angrily

"I think that's just about all the times you can say 'bloody' in one sentence, Giles." Xander said, not trying to sound funny. "It's not his fault...he probably didn't have anything new to tell us, that's all."

"Well he bloody well should. He's a doctor! He should be making her better, not acting as if there's no bloody hope."

"Maybe there isn't..." Willow said quietly, Angel's head snapped up and he looked at her some-what angrily, though he could blame her for not having hope. He himself found that he had very little.

"Don't say that Willow!" Angel told her, his voice holding back the tears he felt welling up in his eyes. "We can't give up on her. I...I need to believe she'll come back to me...She can't die. God, she just...can't." And Angel left the room, silent tears running down his perfect face. He avoided the others for the rest of the day. Soon night had fallen and the gang went home to try to get some sleep before coming back the next morning. Angel only left for about an hour to run home, drink some blood out of the bags he got from the deli, and run back. For many weeks this process continued. Patrol for rogue vampire, visit Buffy, and sleep on occasion. That became Angel and the Scoobies' life.

Almost six weeks after the accident Angel and everyone else were beginning to despair. It seemed like all hope of getting Buffy back was gone forever. The doctors even stopped examining her. Angel spent most of his nights and days at her bedside, begging her to come back to him, kissing her cold hands and forehead. One particularly dark night, Angel returned to the hospital after patrolling and after spending a few hours talking to her still form he felt his eyelids droop. He fell into a fevered dream.

"Buffy! Buffy where are you! BUFFY!" Angel yelled through the dark mist that filled his mind. He ran blindly into what appeared to be a sun-filled clearing and the mist didn't seem to touch this place. At first he stepped back into the shadows, sunlight is death to vampires but then he saw a large shape lying in the shadow of a tree. The sun glinted off her golden- blonde hair; he knew that beautiful blonde hair. He raced towards the tree, regardless of the sunlight. It wasn't until after he was squatting down beside Buffy's body that he realized that he hadn't burst into flames when he ran to the tree. But at the moment he didn't really care; he had found Buffy, and he wasn't going to let her die. He leaned over and brushed her hair out of her beautiful face. "I love you. God, I love you so much. Please don't leave me. You're my everything, I need you. You're friends need you. Please come back to us." He whispered in her ear. A voice boomed out and shattered the quiet atmosphere, "Do you really love her like you say, Angel?" Angel jumped and looked around him. Seeing no one he spoke loudly to make sure that the mysterious voice heard him. "I do. More than anything in the world." "Good," the voice responded. "She is the Slayer. She deserves the best, you know. And you, being a vampire, is not what is best." "I know," Angel responded, looking down at Buffy sadly. "She deserves better than what I can give her." "Not if I make you human." The voice said and Angel's jaw dropped. "You can do that?" Angel asked. "Yes." "What do I have to do?" Angel asked. "Just love her. Forever. That is all you have to do." "I can do that." Angel said looking at Buffy and love was reflected in his dark eyes.. "Good. Than human it is. Kiss her, and she will wake. I should warn you: You will feel a sharp pain in your chest that will spread through your entire body, it will take a few minutes to pass, but hey, you'll be human. Good bye Angel, lover of the Slayer." "Thank you." Angel called, and he knew that even though the voice was gone, it had heard him. Angel bent down and he gently kissed her cold, pink lips. Buffy's eyelids fluttered and...

Angel snapped awake and a burning pain coursed through his body such as he had never felt before. He collapsed off of his chair and writhed in pain, clutching at his chest. He bit his lip as he almost screamed aloud. Just as suddenly as the pain had begun it began to ebb away and left nothing as a remnant except for a slight throbbing. He picked himself up off the floor and rushed over to Buffy's bedside.

TO BE CONTINUED...

A/N: I know, the kiss-in-dream thing had been done, but it's cute, ne?