Title: Only When You Dream

Author: Xanderschick AKA Sarah

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Joss owns the park; I'm just playing in the sandpit til my hands get dirty.

Rating: M rated action. Children avert your eyes!

Spoilers: BtVS seasons 1-3

Distribution: Take it; just make sure you let me know when you review (hint, hint!).

Plot: After Graduation Angel didn't leave. He's been visiting Buffy every night since then because he can't bear to be away from her. But now she's moved to college and his nightly visits aren't an option anymore, so after a visit to a local demon/warlock he's found a spell that allows him to enter and manipulate his girls dream to his every will. If only I could do that to David Boreanaz. All I can say is: WOW! Anyways, they've been dream 'getting it on' and after a snap decision to get married Angel finally let Buffy in to the little secret that he's still in SunnyD. He proposes that they give up on their miserable lives and dream forever. She agrees and they do the spell. The Scooby gang find out but they can't get her back and Buffy and Angel are left alone in their new world.

A/N: Yes, I got the whole dream walking idea from AtS S2 but I thought to myself, "Self, wouldn't this be much more fun if it was Buffy instead of the ex-vamp ho?" Answer: "Yup!" After borrowing the fab DVD's off my sister (AKA Xanderschicklet), I've just realised that they have kinda the same thing going on with Isabel in "Roswell" but I didn't know that when I started this.

A/N 2: This chapter is an Angel POV.

A/N 3: This story is 100 Blondie Bear free so don't even ask. Ever. I mean it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Seventeen - Protector

Two days later…

I watch her as she sits with her back against the wall, her knees pulled closely to her. She's staring at floor. She literally hasn't moved for about an hour. I could kill them for this.

But it's not their fault. It's mine.

I should have known that it could never have worked out. That we would never have got to stay as happy as we were. It was so predictable. Never expect a happy ending.

I see how much pain she's in and the guilt overwhelms me. She won't even talk to me. The second I go anywhere near her she freezes up. It's because we know each other so well now. She can feel Angelus and she wants nothing to do with him. I can hear his constant laughs piercing my brain, taunting me.

"You'll never get rid of me. I'm more of a part of you than your dead daughter."

"We were gonna have another baby." She speaks so quietly, barely a whisper.

"I know." She'd done nothing but hint about it for the last week. That's why I started the baby conversation when we were out walking that day.

Because I knew.

I don't know what to say to her. How to make it better. She's grieving for our family. The life we could have had. It's all my fault. I never should have taken her to that place.

How do I make amends for that?

I stand up and walk over to the door, turning for a moment to see if she might follow. She gazes up at me, her face blank.

"I'm gonna go for a walk." I wait for a response but she just turns back to stare at the floor again.

I reach out for the black duster hanging on the peg, slipping it on slowly. When I turn around she's still in the same position, but her eyes are closed.

"Goodbye."

That word echoes round my head.

With us it always seems to be goodbye.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The cool summer breeze plays with my hair as I walk through the lamp lit park. There's something different about tonight. I can feel a deep burning in the pit of my stomach.

I'm afraid.

Giles told me that the 'end of days' was approaching rapidly. I read about it in the Codex, the same book I gave him over six years ago. A demonic army. A psychopathic General. The First.

All the slayers are gone. Buffy is the only one left. If she dies before another potential slayer is born then it's over. No more slayers, just a mess of demons, vampires and everything that goes bump in the night. The world as we know it will fall apart. All hell will be unleashed if we don't do something about it right now.

But she doesn't care.

All she does is sit staring out of the window. She's ready to die. Why shouldn't she be? She doesn't owe the world anything. She's played the hero enough times to earn her reward but instead she had her heart broken. She has every right to give up.

Then there's me.

I hurt so many people when I was…him. I didn't earn that little girl. I didn't earn the child I'll never meet. I didn't earn my right to walk in the sun. I've been living on borrowed time and now I have to pay it all back.

I hear a faint rustling in the bushes a few feet away. Probably a cat. Willow said that she hasn't set eyes on a demon since the day Buffy and I left.

I keep walking, glancing at the bush as I pass by it.

Nothing.

I take a few more steps when suddenly I'm hit full force on the back of the head. My legs give way and I fall to the ground. Pain clouds my vision as I turn to view my attacker. All I see is a mangled face and a flash of grimy yellow teeth fly towards me. I feel them, like razor blades, cut into the muscle on my neck. The animal begins to suck, clamping its jaws tighter. I have the overwhelming urge to scream in agony but I can't find the power to force my voice to work.

I feel my insides start to tremble.

Oh God. This is it.

I'm dust.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Come on, buddy. What did he ever do to you?"

I hear a faint voice in the distance as the…thing rips himself away from me to glare at someone behind him.

It drops me, turning to look at the guy who interrupted him. My new best friend.

"If you're gonna go for the Irish at least get one a' the guys who uses his accent like a man."

What? Who is this guy?

As my sight begins to clear I finally set eyes on the thing that bit me.

Turok-han.

This just keeps on getting worse.

The vampire starts to pounce at the guy, a fierce roar emitting from his withered lungs.

"Run!"

I try to warn the stranger what he's dealing with but before I have the chance to get up I'm showered with a dirty rain of dust.

What…?

"Are you ok, big guy?" The man wanders through the falling cloud and reaches his left hand towards me. I take it and he helps me to my feet. I stagger for a moment and slowly make my way back to the path. I lower myself onto the nearest bench before stopping to take a proper look at him.

He's kinda short. Dark hair. Definite beer gut. His dress sense is…questionable at best and he stinks of coffee.

"That looks nasty. Good thing ya don't have a circulation."

And he's Irish.

"What just happened?" I can feel my strength coming back already but I can tell that it'll be a few days before I get over that.

"Turok-han." He states casually, pulling a messed up piece of material out of his pocket. He offers it to me and I take it cautiously, wondering what the various stains on it are.

"I know that. Where did it go?" I press the handkerchief to my neck, wiping away the stationary blood. He's right. I've lost more blood than any human could afford to.

"I killed it!" He sound almost excited about this. He puffs out his chest proudly and his wide grin is nothing but smug.

"What! How!" I can't help but show my surprise. There's no way someone like him could have…

"With this." He disturbs my train of thoughts and I watch as he bends down to pick a large red scythe off the nearby grass.

"What is that?" I still can't speak too well but curiosity overcomes me.

"It's…a scythe." He looks puzzled for a second but nods to himself to clarify his answer.

"I think that's kind of obvious. Is it yours?" I lean over to drop the blood-soaked handkerchief into the nearby bin.

"Yes. Well, no. I found it but technically it belongs to your girlfriend." That got my undivided attention.

"Buffy. What's do you mean?" I push myself up a little higher on my seat as a wave of dread washes over me.

"That vampire was after her. She's gonna need this when the next one comes."

"What? What next one?" I can hear the panic in my voice as I force myself up off the bench. He frowns and backs away a few steps, raising his hands in defence.

"Don't worry, Angel. I'm here to help" He almost shouts the word 'help'.

He's scared of me. I can smell it.

"Who the hell are you?" I try to sound intimidating. I don't think it worked. In my current condition I don't think I could even intimidate Xander and that boy is terrified of me.

"I'm Doyle. And I may just have the answer to all your problems."

His face remains straight as he turns slowly around, walking away from me. I take a few steps but fall against a streetlight.

"What do you mean? Where are you going?" I call out to him eagerly, unable to follow. I don't have the strength.

"Come with me and you'll find out" He doesn't stop to answer. I watch him vanish from my sight. Taking a deep unnecessary breath, I throw myself forward and try to stay on my feet as I make my way along the path.

As I turn a corner I see him leaning against the wall of the entrance to the park. He nods his head at me and smiles a little before making his way out into the street.

Somehow I feel compelled to follow him

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bright lights of Los Angeles fall like a million angels as I drop down into the damp filth of the sewer.

"Where are you taking me?" I've lost count of the number of times that I've asked him this on our journey here. I followed him all the way to the outskirts of Sunnydale only to be more than a little surprised at the car that he casually hopped into. The way he was acting before had me expecting some sort of vision quest, not a rusty Vauxhall with a broken gear-stick.

It took us a few silent hours to reach the city, another thirty minutes to reach our destination - a run down post office in one of the worst parts of town.

"We'll be there soon." He turns round briefly to acknowledge me and I catch a faint glimmer in his eyes as the light from his flame torch illuminated him.

Five minutes later the sewer smell begins to fade and I find myself faced with a stone corridor. The guy - Doyle, I think - continues without hesitation so I trail after him further down into the earth.

"This is it." He pauses suddenly and I walk straight into him almost knocking him to the ground.

"Jesus, buddy! No need to get rough now!" He wipes a nonexistent speck of dust from his shoulder before reaching up to slip his torch into a holder on the wall.

"Sorry." I scan the small cavern we're in. I'm greeted only by an urn and a wall with an archway to nowhere built into it. As my eyes drift I quickly become aware of some foreign writing engraved over the door.

"The gateway to the lost souls…is under the post office!"

"Kinda makes sense if you think about it." He smirks at me knowingly, his hands pulling something out of his pocket. He drops a number of things into the urn, speaking under his breath as he concentrates.

"I don't understand. What is this place?" I turn to face him as he finishes what he's doing.

"Oracles. They'll tell you what you need to know." My confusion grows as he reaches up to pull the torch back off the wall. He can't mean THE Oracles. It's not possible. Especially not under a post office opposite a place called 'Joe's Meat Locker'.

"How…" before I have time to finish he cuts me off.

"Don't mess about now - just get in, ask your questions and get out. They're not exactly know for their pleasant nature if you get what I mean." He dips his torch down into the urn lighting the contents.

"But…" I begin to object but he interrupts me again. Why does this guy keep doing this?

"We beseech access to the knowing ones."

His voice echoes in my ear as I'm wrenched so hard that I feel like I've left my skin behind. A blinding white light shrouds my vision and I feel overcome with lethargy as my feet finally meet solid ground again. Before I have time to recover a cold female voice breaks through the ringing in my ears.

"Come before us, lower being"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry this took so long! The good news (if you wanna call it that) is that the last chapter of this fic will be up on Monday coz I actually have time to finish it this weekend!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I was thinking of ways to change it but the reviews convinced me to leave it alone. You guys are the coolest!

REALbluelightsaber and centrepretender - what I was going for at the end of Chapter 16 was: Willow tried to wake Angel, Buffy tried to stop her, Xander stepped in, he and Will got hurt, Xander shot Buffy with a tranq gun (which knocked her out), Angel woke up, Willow passed out, Xand shoots Angel with aforementioned tranq gun. Sorry if it didn't seem too obvious but I wanted to make you guys think for a minute!

Remember guys - last Chapter is up on Monday! How will it all end…?

Thanks for reading!

P.S. Reviews make me wanna write a sequel…(hint, hint!)