Chapter four:

Buffy screamed with pain. The man yanked the sword out of her stomach and then spoke to her again.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, it won't kill you exactly but it will cause horrific pain" he said with a little laugh

Angel saw she was in so much pain just by looking at her and she was losing a lot of blood. He ran towards her, grabbed her and was out the door before anyone could stop them. He ran fast but calmly towards the magic box as he did not want to injure her more than she already was. He knocked on the door and almost immediately Giles answered the door. He was horrified of what had become of his Slayer but got all the first aid he could find.

"Oh my god, Buffy!" her mother yelled as she ran towards her daughter

"Is she going to be ok?" Dawn asked

"I don't know" Angel said truthfully

"What did they do to my little baby?" Joyce asked

"They performed this ritual and stabbed her" Angel replied

"Did you hear what the ritual was going to do?" Giles asked

"No, sorry, I was too far away to hear that part"

"Well, in that case, let's concentrate on Buffy's wound fixed up, shall we?" Giles suggested

They managed to bandage up her wound, while she was screaming and struggling with pain, then they layed her down to rest.

"Is it feeling any better, honey?" Joyce asked two hours after Buffy's sleep

"No, can you get me some pain killers?"

"Buffy, we're not in a hospital" Angel replied

"So, get me some bloody pain killers, it hurts!"

"Thank god we're not in a hospital" Dawn added

Everyone layed their attention on Dawn.

"Well, every time we do go to a hospital you throw a big tanty" Dawn pointed out

"You would too if your cousin died in one" Buffy said mainly to herself

"It's ok, you'll be better in no time, honey" her mother said as she changed the subject quickly

"So Buffy, do you remember what the ritual was about?" Giles asked

"No sorry, I was just waking up and there's the whole shock of being stabbed in the gut by a vampire, so no"

"That's ok; we probably need to get ahead on the research though"

Buffy got up slowly "And I'll go train"

"Buffy, maybe you shouldn't, after all you're badly hurt" Angel pointed out

"I'll heal. Besides, it comes with the 'Hey, I'm the Slayer' package, remember?"

"Go on then, it's not like we can stop you anyway" Giles said

"Got that right" Buffy added

Angel followed Buffy into the training room and watched her struggle as she tried to punch the punching bag and nearly fall over in the process. Then suddenly, she turned to Angel and looked at him strangely as if she didn't know him.

"Who are you?" she asked looking really confused