Epilogue
Fred Burkle walked into her small LA apartment that could more accurately be described as a studio divided into three rooms. She dropped her keys onto the nightstand and closed the chipped door gently behind her. She slipped off her shoes at the door before continuing down the short length of the carpeted corridor in her socks. After a metre or so she met the carpet of the lounge and sat down on the couch, thinking about things.
It had been a few months since Angel had gotten his human life and since then Fred had gotten a job teaching physics at UCLA. Ever since Angel had been redeemed she couldn't help feeling that feeling. That empty feeling. As if someone had made a huge impact on her life and then left. But no one had come into her life, or left it since the Wolfram and Hart incident. Not that she'd been around for the 'incident', she wasn't even in the country at the time. It was a bit blurry, her time outside LA, but she vaguely remembered something about trekking through a Brazilian forest.
She turned on the TV, not wanting to think about the 'feeling' anymore. 'Moulin Rouge' was on and, although she'd never seen it before, hearing Ewan McGregor say 'The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return' gave her this overwhelming feeling of déjà vu. She shifted uncomfortably and changed the channel.
The face of Ewan McGregor with a bedraggled, shaggy look was replaced with the scene of a hospital room. It was probably ER or Medical Investigation or something similar but even watching the hospital room containing a young man on the bed and a young woman sitting next to him gave her an even stronger sense of déjà vu. She switched off the TV and wondered what the hell was going on. Except she probably phrased it differently in her head.
Then there was a knock at the door and Fred, expecting to see either Angel, Cordy or both, got up and opened it. Instead of finding either of them she saw a handsome, young, twenty something man with brown hair with a tinge of red, turning it slightly auburn, and brown eyes with a tinge of yellow, turning them slightly hazel. When she opened the door fully he looked up at her and his face lit up with a wide white grin.
With that one action Fred felt her knees go weak. She didn't even know who this man was but the feeling that she should know him was really strong. And there was something else. She felt like there was a section of her brain that had been hidden previously and now she was discovering it.
"Fred, hi." He said, smile widening and Fred felt her own mouth stretch into a smile.
"Remember me?" He asked and then he stepped forward and cupped her chin with one hand and, now she was completely powerless to him, lowered his own face slowly down to hers and pressed his lips softly against hers. In a millisecond everything came flooding back to Fred. Everything, about Russ, about her own past. Everything.
"Russ!" Fred said and sat up in the bed, fully awake. She looked around her bedroom, lost for a second. Then she found herself and she felt her stomach sink.
"I remember." She said and a single tear made its way down her face, as if she was making up for the months that she didn't shed any tears for the loss of the love of her life. Then she said again, to no one particular in the room.
"I remember you Russ."
Far away in the Brazilian jungle a young man with brown-red hair and brown-yellow eyes hacked his way through the forest, searching for the nasty that had been giving the local champion of the Powers trouble. The young man grumbled as he picked a lizard off the sleeve of his cream, canvas, shirt. Then, all of a sudden, he stopped and got a feeling. That feeling. The one that came every so often. The empty one. The yearning one. It passed after a second or so and the man stood there for a second before shaking it off and continuing through the jungle, the feeling staying in the back of his mind, not too far off.
He would deal with that after this.
And he promised himself that soon, the empty spot would be filled. Very soon.
(AN: Okay, there is gonna be a sequel to this that is revolving mostly around Fred and Russ. It's called Job Well Done II: Happily Ever After. And, hopefully, Fred and Russ will get their happy ending. Also there was quite a bit that wasn't explained in this story I just thought it would fit better in the second story cos that will be more about Russ and his past and about him being one of the Powers. And, of course, the love story between Fred and Russ. Obviously!)