" You're never going to be alone again." Said Angel softly. Darla collapsed into his arms and he took her with a welcome embrace. She started crying onto his shoulder, he could feel her tears drip down his chest. He couldn't believe it. This was not the Darla he knew, but whoever it was, he knew, deep down inside that he loved her. He loved her more than life itself. He wished this moment would last forever.

Suddenly the door was kicked open and strong, official looking men swooped in. Quickly, before their target could do anything about it, they tore him away from the woman and tried to take him to the other side of the room. They quickly bound him, but Angel would not give up that easily. He took a swing at a couple of them, only to be electrocuted several times. He fell to his knees and looked helplessly at the woman he loved.

Darla tried to free herself from he captors but nothing was working. Without her vampire strength to help her, and being that she was sick anyway, her feeble attempt at freeing herself failed. She looked at Angel helplessly, then over to the door, where Lindsey walked in. He walked over and stared Angel down in the eye.

" Did you really think that you could save her? Did you really think you ever had a chance?" Lindsey stared Angel down, and then spat at him.

Darla winced. If she knew Angel, or Angelus, who was manifested deep within Angel but was still a big part of him, then she knew that he would not stand for that at all. But to her surprise, Angel did nothing but stare back at Lindsey.

Suddenly a dark figure swooped into the doorway. Darla had to do a double take. Was it…it couldn't have been…Dru? Suddenly she knew. Lindsey was desperate to help Darla and the only way he could do that was by making her a vampire again. Had it been earlier that night, this would have been exactly what she wanted, but now…now all she wanted to do was escape…escape with Angel.

Dru headed towards Darla and all focus was on her now. Angel took it as his advantage. Quickly, he pretended to attempt something along the lines of fainting. He through all his weight to the ground and the men unexpectedly let him go. Angel hit the ground with a thud and closed his eyes, not daring to move a muscle. The men looked at him confused.

" What a pussy." One of the men laughed.

Darla saw Angel's eyes snap open. " Shouldn't have said that…" She couldn't help but state. She watched Angel get to his feet in a flash and take on all of the men around him. She watched him move with all the grace and agility, which drew her to him in the first place. How he handled himself in a fight when he was just a mere human all those years ago, his beauty and grace, watching that made her know that he was the one. And now she saw it again, with all the strength of a vampire behind it. Suddenly she realized that there were only three guards left. Make that two…wait, no, make that one. The last guard when crashing into the wall. Drucilla, now afraid of her past sire, fled the building, out into the night. Angel knew he had to pursue her, to prevent something like this from happening again, but the current threat now was Lindsey. He walked over to Lindsey, cornering him.

" Ready to lose the other one?" He asked, referring to Lindsey's only human hand.

Lindsey looked about himself in shock. " How…wha…how did you…?"

" Take this as a lesson Lindsey. I'd say you learned three things tonight. Number one, Never, ever insult me, because I get even. Number two; don't try to stare me down, cause you'll lose. And number three, if you even spit at me again, I'll make sure that your hand isn't all you'll lose." Angel kneed Lindsey in the groin. " If you get my meaning…"

He turned around and, dropping the sword, he cast a glance at Darla. She quickly got up to pack but then she remembered that she already took her stuff over to Angel's earlier that night. She cast a triumphant glace over to Lindsey, then a look at Angel. He understood and walked over of the room, going to start up the car.

After he left, Lindsey got the courage to speak. " Darla don't do this. Don't go off with him. He'll only hurt you. You need help, help I can give you."

Darla looked at Lindsey, almost pitying him, almost. " Lindsey, I'm going to get help. Angel will get me that help. I'm done being Wolfram and Hart's play toy. I don't need you."

With that, Darla turned away from Lindsey and walked out, she saw Angel waiting in his car. She sighed and walked over to him, leaving Lindsey, and the life she just managed to get by in, behind.

Darla was leaning on her arm, which was leaning on the car door. Angel had the top down and the wind cruised through her hair rapidly. She suddenly realized that Angel had just circled the same block three times in a row.

" Where are we going?" she said, breaking the uncomfortable silence between them.

" I don't know. I was going to take you back to the hotel, but now I'm not so sure."

" Why? I would think that that's where you'd want me to be. With you and your gang fighting for the good of mankind…" she said the last phrase sort of dully.

" Well I wouldn't put it exactly like that, but yes, that's where I would want you to be."

" Then why aren't we going there?" Darla was confused now.

" Because that's where I want you to be, but I'm not so sure that's where you want to be."

Darla looked at Angel in a new light. She knew that he wanted her with him, where he could watch over her, but he also wanted what was best for her. But at the moment she didn't know what was best for her.

" I don't know exactly where else to go…I'm not sure there is anywhere else for me to go…I'm so lost…"

Angel hated to see Darla like this. He wasn't used to seeing this side of her at all. He kept on forgetting that she was human now. Then he thought of an idea.

" Tell you what," he said. " Why don't you come back to the hotel. I'll make the gang vote on whether they want you to stay. If so, then you stick around until we find a way to save you. Then, when you're better, you can decide if you want to leave."

Darla considered this for a long time. Living with Angel wouldn't be to terribly bad, but him and the humans? She wasn't sure if she could take it. But then she thought about her disease, how it stole a piece of her life everyday. She had her humanity stolen from her long ago, so long that she couldn't even remember her real name, she would have gave everything to get it back, and now she had the chance. And more than anything, if she was going to die, she wanted Angel there by her side.

" I would only feel comfortable staying if everyone's votes said I could stay. I don't want to stick around knowing that one of them would prefer not to have me there."

"…Okay…"

Hours had passed. Darla was pacing up and down the hallway, waiting for Angel to tell her what they had decided. Suddenly she saw Angel gravely walking up the stairs. She walked over to him.

" So…?" she asked, trying not to sound to hopeful.

" Well…I…"

Suddenly, Gunn was in the lobby looking up at them. " Angel!" he called.

" Yeah?"

" Cordy changes her vote." He said, with something that might have been a smile on his face.

Angel nodded and looked back at Darla. She looked back at him. " You can stay."

Inside Darla jumped for joy. She could have reached the moon and back, but of course she didn't show it.

" C'mon, I'll show you to your room."

" Which one?" she asked.

" Uhh…well…how about the suite next to mine."

Angel guided Darla down the hall way and into the room. Her bags were unsurprisingly already there. She walked over and sat on her bed.

" What now?" she asked.

" Well, get some rest tonight and, well, tell you what. We'll just take it one day at a time."

" Since when are you ever satisfied with that?" she asked, shoving her backs to the floor and laying back.

He sighed and closed the door. This was going to be a challenge. He walked down the hallway thinking. Darla was so moody it was ridiculous. One minute she was in his arms and crying on his shoulder, the next she was irritable as anything. He shook his head. He was just glad she could stay. After everything that had happened that day, from the tests to try and save her, to beating the shit out of Wolfram and Harts goons. It all happened so fast that when he tried to think about it, it made his head spin. He was in his room now. He crashed face first onto his bed. He sighed and tried not to think of what tomorrow would bring, and attempted to sleep.

Angel snapped his eyes open. He looked over at the clock at his bedside. 11:43…he'd only been asleep for four hours. Oh well… he thought to himself. There was no way he was going to get back to sleep. He jumped off his bed and put on fresh clothes. He was about to through his door open but then he figured Darla was probably still sleeping. He opened it and quietly he stepped out into the hall. He saw her door was still closed. He walked down the hallway and then down the stairs. He looked in the office and saw Wesley and Cordelia going at it again, with Gunn watching amused.

" Cordy, you can not just cross out the demons in these books!"

" Well, if we already killed them then why keep their descriptions? No ones going to need it!"

" But these are ancient books!"

" But they aren't useful!"

" But these books are precious. If you weren't going around being so careless all the time, you would have known that!"

" I'm careless? You're calling me careless? You who manages to through a hurling axe into the wall behind him!"

" Good morning children." Angel said as he walked over to the fridge.

" Angel, would you please tell mister tight wad over here to mellow fucking out?"

" I need to mellow out? Excuse me but-"

" Guys, were on the same side remember?" Angel said to them, pouring himself a cup of pig's blood. Wesley glanced at Cordy and then walked away, carrying his books as though they were precious cargo. Cordy sighed and walked over to her computer.

Gunn chuckled and stood up. " Now why'd you have to do that? The good insults were just about to come out."

Angel smiled, which soon turned to a frown as he looked at the fridge. " All we have is blood, milk, and ketchup."

" Yeah so?"

" Darla is going to be wanting something to drink…"

" Oh yeah. How is she?"

" A little shaken up I think. To tell you the truth I'm not all that sure, she's so hard to read, now more than ever."

Gunn nodded. " Well, I can take Cordy with me and we can go get some stuff."

" Only if we can take your car though." Cordelia, who had been listening the whole time, chimed in.

" Like I'd trust you with my food." Wesley said as he walked in.

Cordelia was about to say something back but Angel shot her a glare. " Why don't we all go? We can use my card." He suggested.

" Free food? I'm in." Gunn said with a shrug.

" Me too." Cordelia said.

" Me three." Wesley said.

" Okay. We'll just wait until she gets up."

" Why wait?" Darla said from the stairs. She walked down them, dressed in a simple black long sleeved shirt and blue jeans.

Angel was taken a back. He didn't think he'd ever, ever seen Darla in jeans. Even now, she looked so beautiful.

The car pulled up to the nearest grocery store and Angel practically flew out of it, with a blanket over him. He ran up to the building and stopped short as soon as he was in its shadow, safe from the sun. People around them looked at Angel awkwardly.

Cordy looked at them. " Very sensitive skin. It's amazing he isn't set on fire every time we take him outside!" she explained to the people around them. Wesley elbowed her in the rib, but the people seemed to accept it and go on with their business. The group walked into the store, each one of them taking a cart, except Angel and Darla, who shared one.

Darla felt a little awkward. Never before, that she could remember, had she gone shopping for food other than blood. She wasn't used to it.

" So what do you want?" Angel asked her, looking at the rows and rows and rows and rows and yes, indeed, more rows of supplies.

Darla sighed; she didn't even know where to start. Luckily, Angel was there to help her out.

" Let's start with drinks." He said as he walked over to the drinks. " Do you drink soda?"

" I don't know. I never tried it."

He put some bottles of soda in the cart, along with some iced tea, orange juice, and other assortments of fruit juice. He walked over and put some chicken, and beef in, along with some yogurt. She said she needed a toothbrush and toothpaste, a hairbrush, and some shampoo. Then, Cordy accompanied Darla to the make-up section of the store.

They were browsing through lipsticks when Cordy couldn't take the silence anymore.

" So, you're really going to try this, huh?" she asked.

Darla looked at her, confused.

" You know, this whole being human thing, living with humans."

Darla thought for a moment. " Well I don't really have a choice now do I?"

Cordelia shrugged. " I would just think that you'd run away eventually. I don't even know why you agreed to come her in the first place."

" Are you saying you don't want me here?"

" No, I'm just saying it will be hard. I just need to know that you aren't going to go breaking Angel's heart again."

This earned Cordelia a look of shock and wonder from Darla.

" C'mon. You know that he'd do anything for you. You change him some how. I mean c'mon, he was acting different when he knew you were just in the same city as him, imagine how he's gonna act know."

Darla looked over to where Angel was pushing a cart, where Gunn was sitting. It was aimed straight at Wesley. Angel let go as the cart went speeding into Wesley and knocked him, and the cart, and Gunn over. They all started cracking up.

Cordelia had a good laugh herself. " See? He'd showing off. The only time I've ever seen Angel show off was when Buff-"

Darla looked away.

" Oh, I'm sorry, it's just that…"

" Look. This whole thing is really awkward to me and I'm making the best I can of it. It's not like I want to hurt Angel. This isn't all part of a secret plan I've made up. I'm dying and I want him with me when I do."

Cordelia was silent for a moment. " You're not going to die. He won't let you."

Darla looked at Cordelia, confused. Darla knew full well that Cordelia was pretty much against sharing a roof with her, and she also suspected Cordelia was the one who said no, but then changed her a vote. Maybe if she was willing to give Darla a chance, maybe one that she had not yet earned, than she could learn to except her present situation, as she had been willing to do before…

Are you two ready yet? Angel came up to the pair. " The manager says we need to buy our stuff and get out of here or he'll kick us out."

" I'd like to see him try." Gunn said, saying the challenge loud enough so the whole store could probably hear it.

They went up to the counter and, putting all their wallets together, they were still ten bucks short. Darla made her way to the counter and threw a ten down on the counter. Angel looked at her.

" I took it from that shemp last night before you dusted him." Darla said, referring to the previous night, when she was desperate and picked up a loser from a vampire bar to change her.

Hauling all the groceries into the hotel took a couple of trips, in which neither Angel nor Darla participated. Angel, not wanting to be burned alive, and Darla, feeling a little tired.

Gunn came in laughing. " I can't believe Cordy's carrying in heavier bags than you, Wes!"

" Yeah, I thought you were supposed to be a rogue demon hunter or whatever before you came here?" Cordy mocked.

" I was! I can't help it if Cordelia is strong!" Wesley defended himself.

Angel and Darla looked at each other, amused.

" Well, I'd make fun of you for that, but you're right. Cordelia is freakishly strong…" Gunn murmured, reminiscing about when he arm-wrestled her once.

" Hey, I can't help it if I grew up on a Hell mouth! Besides, I had to keep up with Buffy back in Sunnydale, she made me look weak. So I adapted. Now I could probably lift more than Wesley anyway. He can't help it if he's a pansy."

" I most certainly am not a pansy!"

" I'm gonna have to side with Cordy on that one." Gunn said as he brought the last of the bags in.

" I am not a pansy!" Wesley whined.

" Children, are we done yet?" Angel said, amused.

" Tell them I'm not a pansy! If anyone should be made fun of it's Miss. Oh-look-at-me-I'm-the-queen-of-the-world-because-I-lived-on-a-hell-mouth-all-my-life over here!" Wesley retorted.

" Hey! Watch it or I'll sick Darla on you!" Cordy said without thinking.

The gang all fell silent, not knowing how Darla would react to the joke. They looked to where she was sitting on the round couch. Far from everyone's expectations, she looked highly amused and was even smiling somewhat.

Tensions lowered as they all relaxed again. The groceries were put away to their right full places. Now, instead of blood milk and ketchup the fried was loaded with things to eat, and the few cabinets they had were packed full of things.

" Alright. Now we need some serious paying clients to recover from that." Cordelia said.

This brought something to Angel's attention. While the others began eating, he walked over and sat next to Darla.

" So?" he asked.

" So what?" she replied, looking at him.

" So, you're very aware of what we do here. We help people. The others are going to expect you to help out, even if it's just a little. You up to that?"

" You mean become one of your people, join the side of good, fight the good fight and all that jazz?" she replied, not looking to thrilled.

" Well, yeah."

Darla considered this a moment. Then she looked at him, completely sincere. " Angel, I want more than anything to be by your side. And if that means fighting for good as opposed to evil, well then, I'll give it my best, which is all I have to offer."

" Which is enough." He reassured her, holding her hand before Cordelia called him over.

Darla watched him go, wondering with uncertainty about her future here at Angel Investigations, where she would help the helpless. The thought of that seemed so foreign to her. Even when she was alive the first time around, she never would have dreamt of saving innocent people. " Well," she mumbled to herself. " I'll give it a shot."

Hello all. I hope you liked the first chapter of my story! I know it's kinda long, but hey. Please, if you would read and review and be so kind as to tell me how I'm doing and is I should keep going! Thank you!