CHAPTER 12: THROUGH YOUR FAMILY
An hour or so later, Buffy came out from Dawn's room in the intensive care unit. She had just finished speaking to the doctor. All her friends had been sitting in the waiting room, eagerly waiting for word of how she was doing. As soon as they spotted her coming down the hall, they got up and flocked around her.
"How is she?"
"Will she be okay?"
"God Buffy, just let us know if there is anything we can do…"
"The doctors say that… She could be okay, but there's no telling before she wakes up. With the major blood loss there could be brain damage… If she wakes up at all, that is." Buffy sat down and held her head in her hands, clearly deeply distressed. As soon as she had sat down, she shot up again. "Oh god! My mother, she doesn't know. I have to call her, I…" Giles stopped from running to the pay phone by putting his hand gently on her shoulder.
"I've already called Joyce, Buffy. She's on her way here right now."
Buffy looked worried. Depending on how well Giles had chosen his words, maybe she would have preferred being the one to make the call after all.
"What did you tell her?" she asked nervously, holding her breath. If he had said anything about Angel, things would be ten times worse than they already were. If her mom tried to get back at Angelus in any way, she would stand no chance of keeping her safe.
"I told her that Dawn has been, er, seriously wounded and that she is in the intensive care unit. I left out the part about how she was hurt. I didn't know if you wanted her to know."
Buffy nodded thankfully. She should have known that she could trust Giles. She closed her eyes and massaged her temples with her fingertips. There was still the matter of what to tell her mother when she arrived at the hospital. Frankly, she had no idea what to say. The cut and dry truth was eliminated for obvious reasons.
She couldn't try to pull the story about an attack by a wild dog, or her sister falling on a barbeque fork though – Joyce would see through it instantly. Buffy's hopes of having a few minutes to sit down and think about it were shattered when her mother burst through the doors. It didn't take more than a moment for her to locate Buffy and her friends in the crowded waiting room, and she ran up to her older daughter.
"Buffy? What in God's name has happened, where is Dawn? How is she? What happened?" Buffy didn't know if she should feel jealous and bitter because her mother didn't even include "are you okay" in her hazard of questions. No, of course she shouldn't. Dawn was the baby sister – she was the slayer. Dawn was to be coddled; and she was to stop the world from ending, incessantly.
"She's um… She's in her room. They are taking care of her. Giles, could you see if you could find the doctor?"
"Of course." He nodded and disappeared.
"Buffy!" Joyce demanded. Buffy winced at her harsh tone. If her mother just knew what was going on around them. "Tell me what happened. Now."
"We… we were out patrolling for Angel, and we found her, not long from the house, she'd been bitten by a vampire." Joyce's eyes widened, she put her hands on her hips and seemed to grow at least four inches when she uttered his name.
"Angel. ANGEL did this!"
Buffy knew she shouldn't even have mentioned his name. "We were tracking a demon" would have worked just fine. On the other hand, if she had ever felt any sting of guilt over considering not mentioning that the vampire that bit Dawn was Angelus, it was completely vanished. If that was her reaction to hearing his name, what would she possibly do if she knew the truth? Buffy shuddered to think. Besides, since Angel never would harm Dawn – only when he was Angelus, she didn't exactly lie when she answered.
"No, no, it wasn't Angel." She shook her head violently.
"Are you sure?" Joyce narrowed her eyes, trying to discern whether Buffy could be lying to her. The memory of the clearly psychotic and labile vampire that she had met outside her house a few years ago had never faded.
He had practically held on to Buffy like a madman, and she had never liked the way he had looked at Dawn. Not to mention the mysterious death of that teacher that Buffy had been so sad about just around the time when he had stepped up his harassment of her – Joyce was certain that it was much she didn't know about that man.
Even after that event that was popularly referred to as "when he changed", she hadn't liked him. If he had been the one to harm a hair on her little girl's head… she would do anything in her power to have him destroyed.
"Yes, I'm sure," Buffy assured, and in fact, she did look honest. "And Dawn is alive; the vampire that did this was most probably a fledgling, too inexperienced to bother to drain her completely." Buffy tried to read her mothers expression. "Thank god for stupid vampires," she added.
Joyce seemed to buy the explanation. At least she shrugged and turned away without asking any more questions. Maybe she would have, but luckily Buffy was saved by the bell – Giles arrived with the doctor.
"Mrs. Summers, I'm Dr Jensen. Shall we step into your daughter's room and talk?"
As Joyce and the doctor left, Buffy turned back to the gang. If she hadn't been exhausted before, dealing with her mother had truly drained the last of her energy. Her legs felt weak and wobbly and head hurt with the desire to rest.
"What do we do now, Buff?" Xander asked, tiredly. Buffy looked at the gang. They were all tired. So very tired – and even more so as they knew that this was far from over. No matter what they wanted, they were forced to stick together, work hard around the clock and never let their guard down. Not until Angelus was brought down, one way or another.
"Go home. Sleep. It'll be light soon and we'll need to rest. I propose all of us revoke Angel's invitation before nightfall." She swallowed. "Then we have to get on with stopping Angelus."
"Thank God you're finally realizing that he needs to be staked!" Xander said loudly.
Buffy didn't meet his gaze.
"'Cause… You DO realize that he needs to die, right Buff?" Xander swallowed hard. Deep down he knew the answer, but he needed to hear it from her, how she was still making excuses for her psycho-ex. Even after he had almost killed her sister.
"Angelus, yes, but since that also means killing Angel, no, we can't destroy him. We need to reintegrate them, and then perform the curse. Again." Buffy was glad that Xander was too tired for a heated discussion concerning Angel's blame and right to live. She certainly was. Buffy turned to Willow. "Will, can you do it?"
She nodded. "I think I have an idea how to reintegrate them. I'll, um, I'll have to look it up to be sure, though. The soul isn't a problem, but I'll need another orb of Thesulah. I–I don't think there are any more in Sunnydale." Buffy nodded.
"So order it, and do it fast. It's a matter of life and death here."
Willow looked angrily at Buffy, a wave of pain washing over her face.
"I KNOW that Buffy. God, I know that!"
Buffy realized how she sounded. Here she stood, acting like she could lecture everyone and order them around. She was the only one fated to do all this – she should be thankful that the others had devoted their lives to hunting demons as well. If they hadn't, she would be long dead. And she definitely shouldn't speak to Willow, her best friend and only person on record that had the power to re-ensoul Angel, as if she diminished the fact that her own girlfriend had been murdered just 24 hours ago.
"Sorry Will. I'm just tired…"
"We all are," Wesley cut in. "Let's end this discussion and get some rest."
The next day, or more accurately, later that day, the gang gathered back at the Magic Box. After a few hours of rest, they had all performed the spell to revoke Angel's invitation. An orb of Thesulah had been ordered and was to be express delivered some time during the evening. Willow had presented an idea on how to reintegrate the Angelus's, which meant that, if things ran smoothly, they might have Angel back in one piece and re-ensouled in less than twelve hours.
But how often did things run smoothly? The biggest worry so far was the fact that the spell wasn't exactly calling on the goddess of love… it was a dark spell, calling upon powerful and evil gods. Willow was very determined – she could do it, and she would do it. However, Giles wasn't the only one standing against her in the matter.
"No, Willow. Don't you realize how dangerous it is?" Xander said, upset. He couldn't fathom how everyone was so willing to take risks, possibly die for Angel's sake.
"I agree. Will, I don't want to put you in any danger," Buffy said. She wouldn't risk her best friend – if the spell she was purposing they would use wasn't safe, she couldn't allow it.
"Buffy, we're all in danger right now. Even if we stay together and surround us with an arsenal of weapons, there are always times when Angelus can get to us. Especially now, when there's two! Now, the orb of Thesulah is arriving from Cleveland tomorrow. That's plenty of hours for either of the Angelus's to make a move. If I can reintegrate them before that, at least there's only one to worry about, and we can get on with the curse right away."
"Willow, channeling such potent magic's through your body is quite the risk. You may open a door that you cannot close again." Giles was cleaning his glasses – as usual when he was worried, angry, upset or simply didn't want to see the world around him clearly for a while. Right now the reason was probably all of the above.
"I know, Giles. You've told me that before, remember? The thing is, I think… No, I KNOW, that I am able to do this. Guys, I've come a long way with my magic since I cured Angel the first time. I can do it."
Cordelia spoke. "Willow's not a child. We really need to rejoin them as soon as possible, and if she thinks she can handle it, who are any of you to tell her that she can't?" Wesley nodded.
"Actually, I think I'll have to agree with Cordelia here. It's better that she does this spell under our supervision, rather than we dismiss her and therefore drive her to try anything completely by herself."
"Easy for you two to say – you don't loose your best friend if it fails," Xander shot back, glaring at Cordelia and Wesley. Cordelia glared angrily at him, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Yes, I do. Angel is my best friend, so if Willow screws up her spell I'm loosing just as much as you. Jeez, Xander! Just because you're so hard headed that you refuse to change tour opinion of Angel, it doesn't mean everybody that was with you on your bandwagon three years ago still agrees with you. Angel is my friend. He's saved my live more times than I can count this last year. So, shut up! Besides, Willow is our friend too, even if we haven't lived here for a year. Maybe we just have another perspective than you have; which is the perspective of an air head."
Wesley couldn't avoid a slight smile. It took only days in Sunnydale and the presence of Xander Harris for Cordelia to revert to her old self. Not that they never saw that side if her in Los Angeles – they certainly did, but she had matured a lot.
Buffy wasn't sure if she should be glad that Angel had a friend that evidently cherished him greatly, of if she should be envious at Cordelia because she had gotten to be with Angel this past year. So much had happened, and he had obviously changed a lot. It was almost like – like Cordelia had grown closer to him during a shorter amount of time than she had during three years. It definitely pained her. Still, she was glad that Cordelia stood up for him, though.
Willow looked at Cordelia and Wesley thankfully.
"Thank you for your support guys. Now, I have already found the spell. It's very simple, really, it's just, it calls on some really dark gods. Basically, what you need to do is getting the Angelus's next to each other, keep them still for a few seconds, which gives the spell time to reintegrate them. The only thing is, they can't be restrained or drugged when I do the spell."
"Whoah." Xander jumped up from the couch. "Let's apply the brakes and check the rear- and side-view mirrors here. Very simple? We're talking about being close to TWO of Angelus, keeping them still and close together, without loss of our own limbs. The only way I see that scenario play out happily is by giving them the big sleepy dart and holding them together with large and heavy chains."
"It's not an option. Apparently, if they are put under, the spell can mess up so the one body doesn't awaken at all when reintegrated. If they are bound together the one entity can be some hideous monster with chain growing out of its arms. Not pretty."
"Yeah, that would be sad," Xander muttered under his breath.
"Could you use that 'thicken' spell again?" Buffy asked Willow, not taking notice of Xander's comment. When he came to the subject of Angel, he could be a pain. She had learned to live with that a long time ago.
Willow nodded. "Yeah, that was the plan. It we get them close to each other, using force is okay to do that, I can do the that spell and then the reintegration spell. Should work out fine."
Giles looked seriously at Buffy. "There's one more thing we should decide. When the reintegration spell is done – assuming that it does indeed work – what do we do with Angelus?"
"I think it's to big a risk to try to capture him there." She looked at Willow. "You know the most about this spell Willow, what do you think?"
"Yeah, I agree. This spell will rejoin their bodies, which should be an easy thing in itself since they belong together. It's simply Toth's spell that's forcing them to be apart. However, when the bodies are recombined, everything the separate entities have done is sort of meshed. For Angelus, I guess it should be a similar experience to getting his soul back, maybe without the temporary memory loss though."
Xander spoke. "That's bad? I think that sounds like a great opening for capturing Sir Smirks-A-Lot, yah?"
"Well, yeah," Willow agreed. "But, Angelus is very strong and very smart. He'll be very dangerous even if he's confused. I'd bet." Willow glanced towards Buffy, encouraging her to take it from there. She nodded slowly.
"Yeah. That time, uh, when we fought, um, in the mansion… I only barely beat him, even though Spike had smacked him massively just before, AND he was about to get his soul back."
The gang looked a little discouraged. Well, it wouldn't do them any good to even for a moment give them the impression that Angelus was an easy opponent, confused or otherwise. He really wasn't. To be honest, that time in the mansion, Angelus had defeated her. It was only his unnecessary cockiness when he told her that she had nothing left that had given her a chance to gather herself enough to catch his sword. If he had wanted to go straight for the kill… he could have.
"So, were all agreed then. Stand back when the spell is finished. That should keep carnage down to a minimum – with any luck Angelus will flee the scene if he can. Besides we don't need to capture him, we just go back here and curse him again as soon as possible."
"Good." Buffy looked at everyone in the room. "Tonight, we go Angelus hunting."
