Closing Time
AngelSummers

I'm really sorry it took so long, I had some unforeseen events happen, namely my computer almost blew up and therefore I lost all the data I had saved on my computer, but not worry I have plenty of back up disks. So anyway I had to find a working healthy computer for the time being and so on. So without further ado I give you Closing Time Chapter Five: Find Your Way Back

Chapter Five

"God is it dizzy or is it just me?" Buffy projected as she stumbled out of the club still laughing at 12:30 in the morning.

"Not you." Angel replied stumbling next to her.

"I think the real question is why am I dizzy? I'm not drunk," Buffy stated trying to stand up a little straighter, "You're the one that's drunk. Maybe I danced too hard or something." Buffy slurred.

"Baby…"

"Buff, I think that you're the drunkest here." Xander replied to Angel's unfinished reply, leaning on Anya's side; also wasted.

"Angel, I think I'm going to--" Buffy started to say as she started loosing her balance and tipped over and watched as the ground started to come nearer and nearer to her face. And just as she was about to hit the ground strong arms pulled her back up to her feet.

"Hmm, you're warm." Buffy replied sliding in closer to his chest.

Angel laughed and wrapped his arm around her waist helping her, and him, stumble better to the waiting car a head. Cordelia, Riley, Willow, and Tara all already waiting in the car for the pair to stagger their way to it; where as Xander and Anya were just behind them, Xander staggering and Anya stumbling because of him.

"I am." Buffy stated

"You're what?"

"Just a little drunk." Buffy replied, both her an Angel sobering up and being left with a weary feeling instead. Hanging on to Angel's side for support, they hobbled the rest of the way to the Suburban.

Angel supported Buffy fully as they went around the side of the car. Propping her against the car, Angel steadied his eyesight, trying to stop the dizziness, and opened the car door. Flashing Willow a tired smile, Angel grabbed Buffy and hoisted her into the Suburban, setting her on the back seat, and then climbing in around her and sitting on the far side of the seat. As Buffy slowly began to tilt to the side, Angel, turning slightly, put one arm under her knees and the other around her lower back he hoisted her on his lap and set her down, just as Anya and Xander straggled into the car. Falling asleep, Buffy laid her head on Angel's shoulder as her entire body relaxed against him.

"She's sitting on you lap again? No way. Willow switch with her. I know you won't try anything. You're gay." Cordelia started objecting.

"Hey, she's my wife. She won't try anything, either. But I agree Willow get back there." Riley protested as well.

"Will both of you just shut up. Buffy's already asleep and it will only wake her up if we try to move her. Now if you have a problem, suck it up. I promise to behave myself and Buffy is already asleep, so there's a dead end. And as for Willow sitting here instead, first of all, I'm sure she wouldn't want to sit on my lap, no matter how attractive I am, second, you should ask her if she wants to sit on my lap before volunteering her or demanding her to do something, and third, we're already situated and comfortable, and some of us are already asleep. So just shut up and drive fish boy." Angel harshly whispered to the rest of the car, giving them a piece of his mind. Yes, Buffy and he were lovers and cheating on their spouses, but seeing her even drunk or dizzy always got him protective and worried, friends or more or even less then, he had promised years and years ago that he would never let her fall or get hurt, he vowed protect and comfort her no matter what the cost.

"How close are we?" Willow asked after a couple of minutes, unable to see the street names.

"Almost there." Riley supplied.

"Good," Tara added.

A few more minutes passed before the car pulled into the parking lot of Willow and Tara's building. Piling out of the car, Willow looked into the back seat of Xander's Suburban and solemnly smiled at the sleeping pair in the back. They looked so right together and yet they were married to different to people. Looking at them again, and secretly tapping Tara, she nodded at the two sleeping forms. Buffy had her head in the nook of Angel's neck and her hands on his torso, weakly holding herself to him and Angel was much the same; having his head buried deep into her neck and hair, with his arms fully around her, holding tight. Noting the two weren't going to awaken anytime soon, Willow climbed back into the car and gently tapped Angel's shoulder.

"Angel, wake up,"

"Hmm." Angel mumbled, pulling his head out of Buffy's shoulder.

"Angel, you're at my apartment. Do you think you can carry Buffy without waking her up?"

"Huh. Oh, yeah." Angel whispered to the red head.

As Willow exited and convinced the group to head up to the apartment, Angel once again placed Buffy on the seat next to him and got out of the car. Gingerly, so as to not wake her, he lifted her up and out of the car, shutting the door as he did so. Still sleeping, Buffy replaced her head on Angel's shoulder as he took careful strides to the doors of Willow's and Tara's apartment building. Entering the doors, he saw the rest of the group just entering the elevator, and began to pick up his pace. Looking at his wife, as he got into the elevator, he saw the jealousy written all over her face, and choose to ignore it; not wanting to deal with her petty and unwanted jealousy at the moment.

"Angel, I can take her." Riley commented already moving to pry Buffy out of his arms.

"It's alright Riley. I've got her." Angel replied looking at their reflection through the shiny chrome doors instead of at Riley.

"I insist. She must be heavy."

"Heavy? Please, if anything the girl could use some weight. Not that she's to skinny or anything because I mean look at her she's really… I'm shutting up now." Xander covered up.

"No, Riley. She needs to sleep and moving her might just wake her up." Angel replied, ignoring Xander's usual mess up.

"Come on, she won't wake up. That woman could've slept through Pearl Harbor." Riley tried again.

"Fine, if it means that much to you," Angel grumbled as he positioned Buffy into Riley's waiting arms as the elevator dinged and opened up.

"Well that was a hoot." Xander replied sarcastically, referring to the gang's night out.

"Oh yeah, tons of fun. So much, in fact, that I'm left feeling like I just got hit with a sledgehammer or a Mack truck. Take your pick." Willow replied, also having gotten terribly drunk that night.

Opening the door, Tara replied to Willow, "Oh, honey, I told you not to have that shot of Tequila."

"We all shouldn't have." Xander replied.

"Here, here." Angel agreed, plopping down on Willow's couch.

"Angel, aren't we going home?" Cordelia inquired, grabbing her hung up jacket out of Willow's closet.

"No one is going home; especially you too. You live way too far to be driving home that tired and with that much alcohol in your blood stream. We half two spare bedrooms and a couch for everyone to stay so it's settled." Willow motherly stated, already moving to the hall closet to grab extra blankets.

"Really, Willow I think I'm just going to take Buffy home. Thank you though."

"No way Finn. You're exhausted and live even farther then Cordelia and Angel." Willow replied, coming back in with arms filled with pillows and blankets.

"Fine." Grumbled Riley.

"Okay now that that's settled, here's the plan. Since Xander an Anya were already staying in the first guest bedroom, that leaves one room left and the couch and/or, if so chosen, the pull out couch. It depends on how you people want to sleep." Willow said looking at Riley, Angel and Cordelia.

"Let Buffy and Cordelia have the room. Finn and I will sleep out here." Angel replied automatically, looking at Buffy's sleeping form.

"Angel," Cordelia whined, "Why don't we let them sleep out here together and we sleep in the spare. I'm sure Riley wouldn't mind."

"True." Riley agreed.

"Because Cordelia, Buffy is going to have one hell of a hang over in the morning and sleeping on an uncomfortable, no offense, couch won't help. If you want to sleep out here fine but don't whine and complain when you don't get any sleep." Angel replied.

"Fine." She grumbled, moving in the direction of the spare bedroom.

"Riley, I'll take her back there. You can pull out the couch or not. I'll sleep on the floor."

"I can take her back there."

"I know where it is and besides I've done this before. All I'm doing is taking her back there once you're done with your bed you can come back and say goodnight or whatever." Angel replied using his lawyer magic on Buffy's husband.

Deciding to just let it go, Riley handed his wife to her best friend and started towards the pile of blankets and pillows. Angel moved down the hallway to Willow's and Tara's room. Reaching their door, he lightly knocked and waited. A second later Willow's head popped through and saw Angel holding Buffy and gestured him inside. Sliding into the room, Angel sat Buffy down on the bed and looked back at Willow.

"Hey, sorry to bother you."

"It's fine." Tara said from beside Willow.

"I was wondering if you had any pajamas she could were. I mean, I just want her to be comfortable, she was the drunkest tonight, meaning she's going to be really sick tomorrow and I just want her to feel as good as she can, because I'm her friend and I care about her and love her and I'm also babbling." Angel smiled sheepishly at the two lovers across from him.

"Of course we have pajamas. We even have a couple of her pajamas." Willow replied moving to her dresser.

"So you kept Riley busy long enough to sneak her back here?" Tara asked Angel who was staring at Buffy's sleeping form.

"Yeah I told him to make the couch up and we both know what a pain in the ass that couch is." Angel smirked.

Willow laughed and handed the clothes to Angel and helped hold the sleeping body up, so that he could expertly slip the oversized shirt that technically belonged to him, over her head and pulled the zipper of the dress down. Sliding the straps of the dress down, he pulled the shirt the rest of the way down and continued to remove the dress. Taking her heels off and proceeded to pull the dress completely off her body; Angel grabbed the pajama pants off the side of the bed and pulled them onto her legs. Helping Willow stand Buffy up, Angel propped an arm around her waist and pulled the also oversized pajama pants up to Buffy's waist.

"Wow, you seem to have the hang of that." Tara commented.

Angel smiled and replied, "Oh, she gave me lots of practice when we were younger."

"There wasn't a sexual innuendo in there was there?" Willow asked.

Angel laughed and told her, "No, I mean that we used to take these day long trips to LA after I got my license and we would pack all these things to do in LA in one day and by the time we got home she would be dead asleep and I'd change her into pajamas or in most cases my shirts and boxers and put her to bed. There were other times that I've had to, too but I vowed to never speak of those again."

"See how he does that. He always does that. He tells you certain information and then stops and leaves you wondering. I hate that." Willow rambled to Tara.

Angel smiled and thanked the two holding Buffy to his chest and leaving the room. Walking down to the end of the hallway, Angel slowly stepped into room where Cordy was pulling the bed cover down.

"Are you going to share the comforter or do I need to get more blankets and stuff?" Angel asked half sarcastically.

"I share."

"Not with Buffy."

"Humph." Cordelia snorted.

"I'll get some more blankets. Hold on." Angel said, setting Buffy down and walking to the closet and pulling out a soft and heavy blanket and a lighter one, too just in case.

Moving back into the room, Angel picked Buffy up and asked Cordelia to pull out the comforter to her side of the bed as Angel set Buffy back down and spread the heavier blanket over her body and moved a pillow under her head. Setting the light blanket on a near by chair, Angel said goodnight as Cordelia moved under her own comforter and turned off the light. Shutting the door, Angel took pity on Riley and went back to the living room to help him with the poor excuse for a couch that resided there. Or maybe the couch wasn't the only poor excuse in the living room…

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