Sunnydale
Summer's residence
"I wonder how Will's doing."
"Buffy, she'll be fine. The most dangerous place to be right now is Sunnydale, and she's not here, she's fine," Xander assured her.
"That's not true, and you know it. The First evil is everywhere. It tried to have Willow killed, well, it wanted Willow to kill herself, what's to stop it now, when I'm not around?"
"Buff, I'm sorry to point this out, but so far, you haven't scratched the First, what's stopping it from hurting Willow when she's in this house?"
"You have a point. God, I hate being helpless! I just can't deal, Xander, I can't! Every apocalypse we've ever faced, I could do something to stop it! Every single evil that came to town, I kicked its ass, before either killing it, or sending it on its way! Now, I can't do anything! It's killing slayers, in a way, my family. Without Slayers, the world is just a helpless baby. The world isn't equipped to face what I face every single day! Especially that they don't know this type of stuff exists, that their worst nightmares are real, that they lurk in the shadows, just waiting to take over! And if anybody tried to tell them, they'd lock her up! We were lucky with the Graduation, the students had been around strange things, they weren't too surprised, but the whole world?"
"Buffy, calm down! We'll find away to over come this! Don't worry, we did before, and we will now!"
"Xander, what if I die again? I've died twice! In six years! I don't think I could go through that again! Dying, then being brought back! I've done what I was put here to do. I know that most slayers don't live past 21, hell, I didn't make it, I died at 16! I don't think anybody really understands what it was like."
"Buffy, you don't know how much I wish I knew, if just to make you feel more at ease. And I know that I can't promise you that you won't die, I can't promise you that none of us will die. But I can promise you that we will get through this as well as we can, just as we always have," he tried desperately to console his friend.
Los Angeles
Angel Investigations
"I hope that Angel's alright." Fred told Gun, looking out into the night.
"Baby, we have no reason to think he's not."
"Yet we have no reason to think he's ok," she said, smiling.
"You're too smart for me. Seriously, he'll be fine. You know him. He can definitely take care of himself, or he wouldn't be around. That's how it works with vamps."
"But what if something went wrong? We'd never know, would we?"
"Yes we would, Cordelia went with him."
"Oh, yeah, I forgot."
"And I'm here to remind you."
San Francisco
Halliwell house
Solarium
"What's their deal?" Paige asked.
"Paige!" Piper warned.
"It's ok. It's, like everything else about us, a long story. They grew up in the same hometown, you already know that, and Cordy was popular, Willow a geek. Well, Xander and Willow, friends since kindergarten, or even before, started a 'We hate Cordy Club'. Then in Junior year, Xander started to date Cordy." He then summarized the events leading up to their dispute in the other room.
"That makes a lot more sense now," Paige said.
"Yeah, it would. There is so much that's gone on since Buffy was called," Angel said, apologetically, "It would be so much easier for you to understand where we're coming from if you had been there for the ride. Even I don't know everything that's gone on. God, It's been, what, three years since I've seen her?" He mused.
"Do you miss her?" Paige asked, not totally understanding the pain the question could bring up.
That's like asking a fish if he misses the ocean. I think of her every second, I miss her ever nano second, yet it could never be. "Yes, but we tried just being friends, it just didn't work out, because what we had was so strong, that I couldn't risk loosing my soul again."
"Wait, so let me get something, the Slayer is real! I mean, like a living person! You'd think that I'd understand, with all that I've seen! But, I always thought that the Slayer was the demon equivalent of the boogey man! You know, to make little demons behave. 'Drink all of your blood, or the slayer'll get you!'" Phoebe cried, talking a mile per minute. Angel could tell, that in her own way, she was in denial. She'd seen so much, just like Buffy, she'd seen a world that she shouldn't have had to. And she just couldn't take anymore.
"Oh! Piper, remember when Prue was still around, when we faced the Alcatras ghost? I remember something, that's totally far out! I heard a noise, and asked 'What was that?' Prue responded ' Oh, just vampires or werewolves.' And I quipped, thinking she wasn't real, I asked 'Where's the slayer when you need her?' We had a good laugh out of it. Oh! God! I'm sorry." To Angel, she sounded half hysterical.
"Shhh! Shhhhhh! You've been through a lot, Phoebs, just calm down." Piper tried to calm her, as she handed her son to Paige, and cradled Phoeb's head against her shoulder.
"Why, don't you just take a deep breath, just calm down. I know this is a lot to take in right now. You're in denial, and I know all about that. Buffy went through a phase of denial, right before the master killed her. She was only sixteen, so young, and she overheard us talking, Giles and I. He found a prophecy about her death." And he was back in time, remembering the fear in her voice when she said that she didn't want to die at 16.
Living Room"You whore!"
"You're the lesbian one!"
"Who have you slept with since you went to L.A.? Did you sleep with Angel, so that he would give you a job? Well, obviously you weren't good enough for him, like Buffy was, because he still has his soul!"
"I NEVER SLEPT WITH ANGEL!" Cordelia screamed.
"YOU JUST DON'T WANT TO ADMIT IT, BECAUSE YOU KNOW I'M RIGHT!"
"I DID NOT SLEEP WITH ANGEL, IF YOU MUST KNOW, I SLEPT WITH HIS SON, CONNOR!"
"OOO! YOU LIKE ANGEL, AND YOU SLEPT WITH HIS SON! THAT'S THE WAY TO HIS HEART! OH, WAIT; YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO GO THERE, IT ISN'T EVEN BEATING! Wait, how the hell does he have a son? And why would you sleep with a baby? That's so gross!" Willow asked, their spat almost forgotten.
"Darla, she was brought back by Wolfram and Hart, evil law firm, and Angel slept with her. I don't know why, and I don't want to, but he did. Somehow she became pregnant, she had to stake herself so Connor could be born. While he was just a baby, Wesley found a prophecy, saying the father would kill the son, so he stole Connor. Holts, Angelus killed his whole family, he was frozen until now so he could get revenge, he almost killed Wesley, and took Connor. He fled to another dimension, where time moves faster, way faster. Connor should be just about a year old, now, but he's 21."
"That makes no sense, but when have our lives ever made sense. Hey, where'd everybody go?" Willow asked, looking around for the first time.
"We're in the Solarium!" they heard Angel call. With his super hearing, he had been keeping tabs on them, so they didn't try killing each other. The walked into the solarium.
"Sorry about that. We're not exactly friends. We promise we'll be good from now on, right, Cordelia?" Willow sounded sheepish.
"Yeah, whatever," she said, her eyes were narrowed, and she would not look at Willow.
"What did we miss?"
"Nothing, I was just explaining why you were fighting, for the most part. Are you two sure you're all right now? You don't sm…"
"Yeah, we're fine, Angel, just a little shook up." Yet, he noticed that they wouldn't look at each other, and they sat on the opposite sides of the room, and would not look at each other.
"Phoebe realized that she'd heard of Buffy before, but thought that she was just a myth. Just as others think that vampires and demons and witches, and… whitelighters aren't real." Angel said, and that got a light laugh out of everyone.
"Oh, I just realized how rude we've been! Does anybody want anything, snacks, drinks? Oh, look at the time, you're all welcome to stay for dinner."
"Thank you," Willow and Cordelia said together, than, looked crossly at one another, and looked away.
"Um, Angel, I'm sorry, but I don't know what to serve a vampire!" Piper said, apologetically.
"That's ok, nobody keeps blood in their fridge in case a vampire drops by."
Sunnydale
Summer's residence
"Buffy, we're out of blood!" Spike called, his head in the fridge.
"Well, We'll just have to get some more, then, right? I'll send Xander or one of the girls to get some. Or, hey, here's a thought, get your own blood!"
Author's note:
Sorry about the end of this part, I just couldn't help myself. Reviews, please!