Authors Note/Next Chapter: Thanks ka-mia2286, this was the hardest chapter to write. Particularly Since I had to write it twice: My computer ate it, and the chapter that followed. So extra review's pleased, because I need motivation to re-write the next chapter: in which a wounded Lindsey visit's, and Stella and Angel grow closer (to each other- not Lindsey).
Disclaimer: Angel still doesn't belong to me; neither does the song Born for me by Paul Westerberg
Dedicated to the lives, of John, Lorna, Sammy, Harvey, Hamish, and Jackie,
Safe in the light (Stella is 17)
They were up on the roof, the sky stretched wide and twinkling above them.
However they weren't looking at the sky, or the car lights that flew through the night street. Like spies on speed. They couldn't feel the warm air around them.
Angle took another gulp of jack Daniels, and Stella who had never seen her dad drink even half a can of beer, was astonished.
"Dad, you don't drink."
"Of course I drink. I'm Irish." Angel, didn't say that line, The Liam that had died centuries ago in an alley did.
Angel fell back on to the cool cement.
"The funerals tomorrow" Stella reminded him.
"Oh no, not another one" Angel said stubbornly.
Angel wanted the next day to come quickly, he needed the sun, he needed to prove to himself that light still excited.
As others stood on there roofs, and gazed out at the comet that was had appeared mysteriously in the night sky, Stella cried. And her father (drunk as he was) just lay there thinking of women whose laughter had now vanished.
The Next Day
The world was wet the next day, the rain falling fast and wet. Cordy arrived twenty minutes late with her reluctant fiancé.
Mr and Ms Berckly-Whendom-Price arrived dressed in black with their three-year-old Christine in tow.
Stella stood in the rain wearing a black dress. The same dress that she had, worn when she was the prime witness at her parents wedding.
Angel was wearing a new dark gray suit and a trench coat, his body soaked from the rain, and his face wet because of something else.
Willow's parents met their son in law for the first time that day. They did not shed a tear during the funeral, to them willow, had died long ago.
Wesley kept trying to stop Christine from practicing her ballet steps among the graves. But eventfully he gave up. No one noticed Christine, and her little attempt to redeem the day.
Angel insisted that only he and Stella carry the casket.
The rabbi droned on for an hour and a half in the rain. Only Cordy's fiancé Marcus noticed. He shivered in the water mourning the destruction of his new and now ruined shoes.
Angle ignored the water that dripped from his nose, he only thought of the way Willow spoke of books, and how she called him Liam in the dark.
Cordy remembered the time she had given willow a makeover: the hilarity that had ensued, as well as the insight
Stella dreamed of her mother: giver of much, creator of more.
Wesley remembered the kiss he stole from willow. The one the tastes like persimmon and licorice. It was before they had both gotten involved with Elizabeth and angle respectively, and It was right for that time and no other.
Elizabeth, remembered, her friend, her confidant. the babbler.
The rabbi finished and a song, carefully selected by Stella began to play
When the loneliest eyes
and the emptiest arms
finally decide to meet
With a head in a lap
and a tongue tied in knots
The loneliest eyes
try and speech
You were born for me
Beautiful and blue
Catharine, Elizabeth, Cordy, and Marcus, offered their condolences, and then left for their respective cars. Wesley still stood in the graveyard, wisely waiting for Angel to turn towards him.
"Angel are you fine?" Wesley asked.
"Don't call me Angel"
"Pardon?"
"Angelus belonged to Darla, Angel belonged to Buffy. I mean I still belong to Buffy in a way, my last name is Summer's still."
"Dad" Stella interjected on her way to the car "your babbling"
"What I meant, was Buffy redeemed the Vampire part of me, and Willow redeemed the human. So from now, on please call me what she did"
"Liam" Wesley said with a nod, rain dribbling down his chin, he turned and headed to his car.
Liam quickly got into his own card, water dripping all over the leather; he drove out of the graveyard quickly.
Chased by the last lines of the song:
You'll be safe in the light
When we kiss,
When we breathe