TITLE: Blank Canvas (sequel to Friends, Lovers and Enemies)

AUTHOR: Jennie Exell

EMAIL:

DISCLAIMER: All stuff BtVS and A:ts belong to joss and co. I'm not making any money from this so don't bother suing me.

RATING: PG for now, I think...

SPOILERS: Every thing up to the end of both shows, especially 'Not Fade Away' and 'the Girl in Question'.

SUMMARY: Post Not Fade Away. As Angel recuperates after the events of Friends, Lovers and Enemies, under the watchful eyes of three overprotective and powerful young women, he must decide what he wants to do with the rest of his life.

AN 1: This takes place exactly where the last story left off... What you actually thought I'd leave you hanging like that? Silly people.

Prologue

It waited.

It was coming, it had to be ready, and so it waited. Patient as marble, silent as death; in the corners, in the shadows. In those secret places where only the dark things knew, it waited.

And it watched. It watched unendingly, every detail, every minute change in the world that could signal Its coming.

It didn't care, didn't think, it had a purpose and it waited to fulfil it. And when it had? It would wait again for the next time It came, until time itself stopped.

It was closer now; the time was coming.

Soon...

Very Soon

Part 1

It was like swimming in cotton wool. A warm fuzzy feeling; but there was something not quite right. There was a noise, not loud or soft, just there; and it was bugging the hell out of him.

He didn't want to leave his safe cocoon of comfort, but the incessant beeping was like a tether, pulling him, unwillingly to the surface. There was no particular reason he wanted to stay away from the source of the sound, he wasn't afraid of it; he didn't resent it or what ever it represented. It was just childlike stubbornness. But the sound continued and he knew he had to give in, would have to leave his woolly floaty place and...

The first thing Angel noticed as consciousness returned was that he didn't hurt, which was unexpected; the second was that he was feeling, well if he had to describe it in one word he would probably use 'giddy'. There was something else too; someone was holding his hand.

He struggled for a moment, but his eyelids felt like lead. Giving up for the time being he sorted through his foggy mind as to where he was. He could smell bleach and disinfectant. There was a soft hum around him, which was nearly drowned out by that infernal beeping. Beeping, oh he knew the sound now, a heart monitor. 'That explains bleach and disinfectant.' And then it came back to him. The hospital, a month's planning and preparation for an operation that would not only save his life, but lengthen it to that of a normal, healthy, human male, with the help of medication of course. Healthy, oh it would be good to be healthy again. Just 5 weeks before he hadn't cared, but then they'd all come. Buffy, Giles, Willow, Faith. Faith's Boyfriend Robin, he'd met briefly just before coming into hospital and apparently the twit Andrew, although he hadn't seen him.

Truth be told, he would have preferred Giles, Andrew and Buffy hadn't come at all. Out of the three it was a toss up between Giles and Buffy which one he resented most. He'd always respected Giles, trusted him, and had even seen him as a strange kind of father figure when he had first started to assimilate with Buffy and her friends. But now that trust was smashed. He understood that the man hated him; he had after all been responsible for the death of the Englishman's girlfriend and had also tortured him mercilessly for hours. But it still hurt that the watcher had tried to kill him, not to mention refusing to help when Fred had been taken over by the demon god-bitch.

Then came Buffy. He couldn't think about her right now, his head was too fuzzy. This strange, light, happy giddiness that blanketed him and brought to mind Casino's and snack food for some reason; was not conductive to clear thinking. And clear thinking is what he needed when Buffy was around. Which was more than he would have liked over the last month if he were truly honest. It was too hard to keep to his convictions, too easy to be pulled in again when she was there, pretending to care, being his 'Friend'. He didn't know what her game was, but he knew they had to talk. She was floating around with air of nervous anticipation and impatience that was beginning to grate. But he hadn't the energy or patients to deal with it before. He had to put 100 of his energy into firstly recovering from Giles' assassination attempt, then getting himself fitter and healthier in order to increase his chances of surviving the procedure he was to undergo.

And that brought him full circle in his thoughts. Despite not quite being able to open his eyes yet, he was fully aware that he was alive, so that was good news, or so he hoped. And he did hope, which was a vast change from 5 weeks ago. Five weeks ago he had been numb, hollowed out by the events of the last couple of years. He'd been waiting for death until Faith had verbally kicked his ass into gear and shown him that there were reasons to continue his existence. He wasn't sure of all of them yet, but he was getting there. Faith had been his rock the last month, had been instrumental in fulfilling his desire to get healthy again. Willow had also been a presence he appreciated over the last month, and not only because she had created his new identity, he was slowly beginning to realise what a true and trustworthy friend the powerful little redhead could be. Now she and Faith were his almost constant companions and along with Gunn, the three of them skittered around him like overprotective mother hens. Although he doubted Gunn would appreciate the metaphor.

The feeling of the hand holding his, squeezing slightly, brought Angel back to the here and now. Feeling slightly more confident that he could, he tried to pry his heavy eyelids apart. After a few false starts his eyes fluttered open and glancing over he saw it was Faith who had hold of his hand. She was looking down, clearly deep in thought. Giving her hand a return squeeze he got her attention.

"Hey."

"Hey" He shot back gracing Faith with a huge smile.

"Whoa check that out!! If I knew morphine did that, I wouldda loaded you up on it ages ago!" Faith laughed.

"Funny." Angel tried to grump but the goofy grin remained. So it was morphine, well that explained a lot. Woolly thinking aside, he was feeling the insane urge to giggle.

"So, how you feeling?" Faith said suddenly serious. The operation had taken 8 hours and it had been nearly 15 since she'd seen Angel disappear into the OR on the trolley. He'd been so nervous about the anaesthetic, she'd been allowed to sit with him until he'd gone under but that was when she had to leave him. The protective slayer in her had screamed inside her head; but it hadn't been some evil monster that was a threat to him. No, it was the fear she had of him dying on the table, where she couldn't help him, that had made her so worked up. When the doctor had come and found them after the operation to tell them that it had all gone to plan, she had never been so relived in her life.

Angel squeezed her hand weakly. He was suddenly tired again.

"Hey, I'm fine... better than, I'm peachy!" Angel giggled slightly, but sobered somewhat when Faith stared at him incredulously.

"I think they gave you too much."

He was going to reply but he yawned instead. The doctor chose that exact moment to enter the small room.

"Tiring out the patient I see," He said smiling lightly.

"Nah Doc, just keeping my boy company."

The doctor merely nodded and moved to look over Angel's chart.

"How are you feeling Mr keeley?"

"Tired," Angel mumbled sleepily, his eyelids were made of lead again and drooped, despite his best efforts to keep them open.

The doctor smiled again. "The residual anaesthesia and the pain medication will do that. Now as I have already explained to your friends, the procedure was a complete success, I don't foresee any complications but we'll be keeping you in the ICU overnight just in case. After that we'll move you to a ward for a day or two depending on your progress and then you should be free to go home." He looked up from the chart and saw that Angel had nearly fallen asleep again. "I'll talk to you once you're more awake about your meds and follow ups."

"'k"

Faith smiled, she wasn't sure Angel had heard a word the doctor had said. She pulled a piece of still too long hair away from his forehead. It was a sappy gesture, but no one could see, Angel himself was asleep again and the doctor was busy looking at the various machines and noting things down on Angel's chart.

Before leaving the doctor turned back to Faith.

"I know you're worried about him, but please don't stay too long. He really needs all the rest he can get. He'll probably come in and out until the middle of tomorrow, if there's someone here, he'll try harder to stay awake. Besides I know you've been here all day, you and your friends have practically taken over the cafeteria. Get some sleep, you can come back and visit him in the morning."

"Sure, ok." Faith agreed quietly. She was tired, it wasn't easy just sitting around worrying all day, not to mention watching Buffy pace like a madwoman. An orderly had eventually come and told the Blonde to sit down or leave because she was upsetting the other people in the OR relatives room. That's why they had relocated to the cafeteria.

She stayed at his side for another hour. She was sort of hoping he'd wake up again, just so she could talk to him; reassure herself that he was ok. They'd become closer than ever, over the last month. Despite having the majority of the Scooby core in LA, Angel still firmly believed that she and Gunn were all he truly had left in the world. He had never gotten along with Xander, he was slowly warming to Willow again, but he was being a stubborn jackass when it came to Buffy. If she hadn't known how focussed he was on sorting out his health, she would have been sorely tempted to smack him upside the head. As a result of his issues with the Scoobies, Faith had found herself in the role of best friend and confidant. She didn't care what the blood might say; Angel was her family, he may be just one person but he'd shown her more about love and friendship then her own family had ever done.

Giving her friend's hand one last squeeze and promising his sleeping form that she would be back tomorrow, she quietly left the room.

Buffy paced.

And paced

And paced

And paced

Gunn watched her travel up and down the sitting room until his neck hurt. He'd spent the night before at Buffy's house because he'd fallen asleep in the waiting room, he'd even slept through them wheeling him out of the hospital and getting him into the car. He'd woken up when they'd already been halfway back to the house and had agreed to spend the night there instead of having them drive all the way over to the other side of town to take him home. It wasn't a bad thing since he planned to accompany them back to the hospital the next morning, he was anxious as any of them to see how Angel was. They'd filled him in as to what had happened after he fell asleep, on the journey. Faith had finally left Angel's side and after telling them how disturbing seeing Angel on morphine was, had reminded them of the doctors orders that Angel be left to sleep until the next day. According to Willow, Buffy had been less than pleased to hear that she couldn't see Angel that night, but doctor's orders were doctor's orders and she had, after some persuasion, agreed to go home and sleep. That was probably why she was up at the crack of dawn, pacing around the sitting room where he had been trying to sleep, waiting for it to be time to leave for the hospital again. He was glad that Angel had people that cared so much, but was still tempted to find a tranq-gun and knock the girl out.

Since their arrival, the girls had filled him in on all the details of the Buffy and Angel saga, unabridged and without Cordelia spin; it actually made sense, in a 'can these two be more dense' kind of way. Regardless of how epic and tragic their love affair, and regardless of how eager the girl was to see her long estranged true love, was it unfair to ask he be left in peace to get some sleep?

"Hey, your Dad ain't gonna be happy if you wear a trench in his carpet, Buff."

"XANDER!" Buffy spun to face her childhood friend who was stood in the doorway. "Is it time to go to the hospital yet?"

"No..." Xander dragged out the word giving Buffy a pointed look, "Its time for Xander to get ready for work, you remember, the first day at my new job?"

"Good luck, man," Gunn called from his place wrapped up in blankets on the couch. "Think you can take her with you?"

"You're awake?!" Buffy squeaked spinning back around. "But I was so quiet!"

"Not quiet enough, girl." He grumped back, snuggling deeper into the covers.

"Come on, Buff lets let the man sleep. I'll make you breakfast."