The day was on its way to a close when Angel finally made a showing of himself the following day. There were only a couple of visiting hours left and she had begun to worry he wasn't going to come in after all. Willow had been by first thing in the morning but was gone before noon, having to go catch her flight back home. While she appreciated the rest she got in without the visitors, and even some of the extra quiet time to herself, it had gotten rather lonely and she'd gotten nervous more than a few times when her brain wouldn't work with her.

She'd cried when saying goodbye to Willow earlier, knowing she would miss her friend. Of course there were phone calls that could be made and the redhead promised to be back soon and to bring Tara along with her. But it was still depressing.

"Buffy," he greeted upon entering the room. Her head tilted a bit to the side as he came deeper into the room, noticing his hands were full.

"What's all that?" she asked.

He walked over, putting the white carry out container on her bedside table first.

She could have damn near kissed him for that because she was starving, the tray they'd brought in for breakfast had been pretty good but lunch and dinner had been quite a let down. She made a mental note to fill out her day menu in time for tomorrow to give herself at least some sort of better chance. But there was also the fact of her not redeeming the situation and going down to where all the better food was kept as she didn't want to miss him coming by. Stupid as that might be.

"Thank you," she said sincerely, sliding the tray closer to her to have a look at her new goodies. And she was sure a steak had never looked better.

He shrugged. "If there's anything in particular you want me to get someday just let me know. Like I said, there's a pretty good selection downstairs and there's a countless amount of restaurants around here so it's no trouble."

"Thank you," she repeated, taking a bite of her meal. "I might just take you up on that."

"Please do," he said, then he lifted up his other hand that held a few bags in them. "I got you a few things while I was out," he told her, gently laying the plastic bags on the bed. "Your cellphone got destroyed in the accident so I went ahead and got you a new one, for right now. I went ahead and added a few numbers to it that you might need, including mine. There's a few books by a romance novelist you like, some gossip rags that you like to read and pretend that you don't," he said and her heart skipped a beat when he gave a small, sincere smile. "There's some toiletry items you might need, I know hospitals usually give you slim pickens on that. There's some stuff out in the car I'll go grab for you too," he told her.

The next thing she knew, he was already heading back for the door while she sat a little stunned by everything.

While keeping one hand in her food tray, Buffy reached for the closest bag she could get her other hand to and looked at the items inside. Like he'd promised, she found a couple of magazines, a handful of books and even a crossword pad and new set of pens. She had no idea how long she would be stuck in the hospital but knew she wouldn't be released any day soon so she was ever so thankful for these.

Next she found the many toiletry items he had brought with him. There were two regular sized bags then two more smaller ones. One of the smaller ones contained a bottle of perfume, the other a few random makeup products. The other bags contained everything from a bottle of shampoo and another of conditioner in a brand she knew she liked, body wash, a body scrub, shower poof on to even a box of tampons. She blushed a little at the idea of this large slab of a man going through a store grabbing all of these items, let alone just for her.

When he returned those large hands of his were holding several more bags. She was pretty shell shocked so said nothing as he set them down over in one of the larger chairs in the room, and a few even having to be sat on the floor in front of it.

Angel cleared his throat as he straightened back up. "There's some clothes and shoes and things like that," he told her, putting his hands in his pockets. Today he was wearing nice dress shoes, black pants and a nice black pullover. His hair looked a little damp from the light rain going on outside.

Buffy moved her leg, nearly knocking over the last bag that was on the bed with her that she hadn't gotten to yet, the one with the cell phone in it. "Shit," she'd cursed and leaned forward much more quickly than she should have, causing a shooting pain to go through her.

He was there in no time, using those long legs of his to round the bed and grab the small bag before it could fall off and hit the hard ground. "You okay?" he asked next, his hand touching her leg.

Buffy swallowed hard, her pain momentarily forgotten as she focused on the large, very warm hand on her. "Hmm? O-oh, yeah, fine," she mumbled. "Just moved a little too quickly."

As if only realizing he was touching her, his hand jerked back. He nodded then found his way over to his usual chair and took a seat. "How are you feeling today?"

Buffy frowned a little but brushed it off after a few seconds had passed and began to tell him about her lackluster day. Reaching for the phone, she noted that it looked to be pretty snazzy, not just some prepaid or throwaway kind. Lots of bells and whistles to it, something she'd have to figure out later.

"You look tired," she found herself saying out loud several minutes later. She had practically devoured the entire meal already and had set all of the items he'd put up on the bed with her away.

"That your way of saying I look like shit?" he responded.

Buffy blanched, feeling her face turn warm. His tone hadn't changed but the words struck her something funny. First, she hadn't meant to say that out loud, she'd just noticed it when looking him over a good few times. He had the other times too but today he looked far worse for wear. Secondly, there was the way he said it. He'd given a hint of a smile earlier and now he was being snippety… without the snip.

Before she could pull her foot out of her mouth, he sighed, moving slightly in the chair. "I've had a long day," he said.

Buffy let that rest for a few more minutes before starting to ask him what he had been doing in all the time he had been here. She knew he lived states away and seemed to have a pretty important job that he was away from as well and felt bad he was missing work because of her, disrupting everyone's lives in her current situation.

He waved that thought right off though, saying he was able to take care of business from here. There was a larger sales office connected to the hotel chain he had gone to a few times not too far away, though mostly he was working out of his hotel room with his laptop and phone. "We may not get along, at all, but it didn't seem right to just leave you here by yourself," he told her quietly.

OoOoO

"Willow filled me in on what I was doing out here. In Texas I mean," she said, once more her mouth doing something before her brain could catch up. He'd been preparing to leave after they'd discussed a few more random things, mostly a few stories of their past together and other things he knew about her, when she felt a need for him to stay just a little longer.

"That's good." Buffy hated the simple way he said that.

She knew he wasn't going to pry so began to fill him in on her own. "She said I had gone to stay with her and Tara for a few weeks after I left Sunnydale. Apparently the two of us had some sort of big blow-out with one another?" she asked and he nodded, looking away again. "Well, I went up there to figure out what I wanted to do next. She said it kind of dawned on me that I needed a new start, a new place, some new faces in order to get past everything with us. So, when I got a job offer out here I jumped at the chance."

'More than willing to get as far from you at the time,' her mind added, remembering more to what Willow had told her than she was going to tell him about.

Angel nodded, repeating his previous statement.

Buffy continued on, telling him what little she knew... about the move, the job she'd taken, and how things had been going as far as the redhead had known in the few months she'd been here. It did sound a little lonely as far as she knew, but that she had been enjoying the new adventure on some accounts.

She bit her lip as he remained silent once she was finished, wishing she could read what went on in his mind sometimes. Buffy chose to keep the rest of what Willow had told her to herself, especially the part leading up to the car wreck. The why she was so far from her new home, why she was just about to cross the state line when all hell broke loose. It wasn't like he nor she could gain anything by telling him right now.

"I-I think you were going to see him when the crash happened," Willow had told her.

"Going to see him, who? A-Angel?" she had asked in return.

Willow nodded. "I think so anyway, I'm not entirely sure… but that is the impression I got."

Willow had gone on to explain that Buffy had gotten what she wanted when she fled the state of California. She hadn't heard anything from Angel since then and she had finally calmed down a bit because of that, instead of always seeing a blur of red, and she had confessed to her best friend not so long ago that she actually missed him. Just a day or so before the accident actually took place she gave off the impression that she was going back to talk to him, starting to feel unsure if she had been mistaken on everything, that she had started to doubt herself in their time apart.

Buffy didn't see much sense in telling him any of that for the time being. Not when it was likely to stir up emotions in both of them, ones that she wouldn't even be able to understand on her end, questions brought up that she couldn't answer, her intentions lost right along with those six years of her life currently off in limbo. It wouldn't be fair to either one of them like this.

OoOoO

Buffy waited until Angel had left to pull herself up out of the bed and go over to the bags of clothes he had brought in. A nurse popped her head in to check her vitals only a few minutes later, whistling at the scene before her and commenting on how lucky she must be to have a husband like that. Buffy nodded at this, thinking she was lucky to have him right now, even if he wasn't her husband anymore.

Buffy wasn't surprised to find quite the array of clothing after seeing the amount of bags he had brought in. She carefully pulled each item out to inspect it finding herself looking at several pairs of jeans, some pajama bottoms, different types of tank tops and other tee-shirts, a belt, packages of socks, a healthy helping of new bras and panties, one zip up hoodie and one pull over type one, a robe with matching slippers, and some tennis shoes. There was also another bag of toiletry type items in the mix of all of these where she found some hairspray, different sized clips, hair ties, a new toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant, floss, and a brush and comb set.

After finding a place for everything, she climbed up into the bigger chair in her room for a little while to half watch a program on the television and to look back over some of the items Angel had given her earlier. Before getting up and climbing into bed, Buffy grabbed her new phone and sent him a quick text message to tell him thanks once more and she was looking forward to seeing him again tomorrow.

OoOoO

Buffy nearly cried the next day when she was able to clean herself up a little, she still hadn't been given an okay to take a shower but the sponge bath was close enough to heaven for her at the moment. She still didn't feel clean and craved to stand under a hot spray but wasn't going to complain, the nurse had even helped her with washing her hair to make sure she got it all.

She still got spooked by the image of herself in the mirror with her banged up face staring back at her, but she knew she could already spot some slight improvements in just the past couple of days so that was a little encouraging.

The makeup Angel brought helped, too. She fixed her hair after the shower, got dressed in some of the new clothing he had brought her, then put a dash of the makeup on and finished getting ready.

It was all small things, but it put an ease to her emotional and mental states to have some sense of normalcy.

Buffy was over at the nurse's station after having walked around the floor a little when Angel came walking down the hall. She rolled her eyes at herself when she realized she was holding her breath, wondering how he would react. 'He is your ex-husband,' she silently reminded herself. 'And right now he is practically a stranger to you.' But it didn't stop the little skip in her heart when he did a double take upon seeing her.

"Your wife here got all dolled up today," she heard from her left and blushed.

Angel smiled easily with the audience. "I see that," he answered, looking her over. "Even all bruised up like this, you are still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen," he told her in a soft voice. For the first time, Buffy saw those sharp features lose their edge as he said that last statement, he had a look of wonderment and adoration that made her weak in the knees.

But the trance only lasted so long before he seemed to snap back out of it and it wasn't long before she was questioning herself on if it had even really happened or if her mind was just getting loopier.

OoOoO

Instead of going back to her room, the pair went down to the restaurant and deli area, Buffy had eaten breakfast already but then had begun to crave one of the cookies and cream parfaits they served so she had no complaints there. It was also the first amount of time she had spent with Angel outside of her small hospital room other than back at the nurse's station when he came in.

He'd kept an eye on her as they walked through the halls but seemed to look anywhere else while in the elevator, he kept a close enough distance to grab her if she started to falter on her feet but far enough away to keep a nice enough distance.

He held the door open for her when they reached their destination then insisted on her going to pick a table for them to sit at once she'd gathered what she wanted. She'd grumbled about his heavy handedness on it but was thankful when she did take her seat, feeling a little tired still.

It wasn't long before he came over, sliding her items over to her and taking his seat on the other side of the table. "So, tell me about yourself," she asked after they finished exchanging the rest of their morning pleasantries.

She was well aware how ridiculous it was to some extent to ask such a question to him but at the same time she had her reasons. Reasons which were rather justified.

"It might be best if you focus more on answers about yourself," he answered after a tense pause.

"In a way, finding more about you is learning about myself, is it not?" she countered. This made him sigh. "Obviously we shared a life together and you would currently be the expert on that particular part of my life that I've lost. And that says a lot about me. Who I fell in love with, what we shared together." At his subtle glare, she added, "Besides, I can't say I'm not simply just a little curious."

At first, she thought he wasn't going to answer her since his silence ran on and on. But after he grabbed his small bottle of water, took a sip, and placed it back down on the table he began to fill her in some on just who Angelus O'Connor was.

He gave brief information about his earlier ancestors, about who they were, things they had done, and how his family wound up leaving Ireland for the United States. He'd lost his grandparents on his father's side before he was born, his mother's when he was still quite young, though had been close to them. Angel told her that his father had been in the military so he moved around a lot as a child, but he hadn't minded, he had liked the life when he was younger, getting to go new places, meet new people, start over time and again. His mother had been a baker but mostly enjoyed being a homemaker than anything else so kept her hours of work light. Angel had spoken highly of both of them, telling her several details about each of his parents and shared a couple of stories when prompted.

She also learned he'd had a sister, Kathy, who had passed away before the age of ten. She'd been several years younger than him but he obviously cared a great deal for her from the way he spoke.

"Did I know them?"

"My parents?"

Buffy nodded.

"Yes," he answered then began to tell her that they had adored her, having met her just a month after their meeting when he brought her along with him to their anniversary party. Angel described many other times their paths would cross... including the wedding and several other holidays or just special occasions. His father, who had always been a heavy drinker, found his body punishing him for the past many years but it'd taken his life just two years ago. His mother passed away mere months later.

Angel told her about having left for Boston after high school ended, how he'd graduated two years early having been put a few grades ahead back in late elementary school so it'd been a bit of a challenge to move away and start college when he was younger than most of his peers. But he had enjoyed it, even more than he had his previous education and his parents were both proud of him.

Angel described a few jobs that he had held, be it as an intern or finally becoming an employee and how he had later landed at Wolfram and Hart after getting his first degree. He left Boston for New York when he was hired on and seemed to have really enjoyed his years there.

Buffy couldn't remember ever having been but Angel said they had made a few trips out and described some of the activities and events they'd participated in. He'd become an asset to the company, having been promoted a few times already in the NY office before being transferred out of state. He'd continued his education along with working and it seemed to have paid off pretty nicely for him.

She already knew he'd moved to LA for the job and that's how they met but he went on to tell her a little more about the company and his job, then divulging some more information about the two of them, which had her hanging on every word.

"Did you have many relationships before me?" she asked, a bit weary on what his answer might be. She could only remember a handful of guys that she had dated in high school and then Riley at the first of college. She was sure with his looks he had to have women fawning over him.

And it made her jealous even now to think about.

One of his hands came up to rub the back of his neck. "I wouldn't exactly say they were relationships," he offered.

"A lot of one night stands?" she prodded, her mind once again not working to stop her from blurting stupid things out. She felt her face flush.

"There were some... flings," he finished after searching for the right word. "I dated casually, and sometimes, yes, less than that. I think the closest thing to a real relationship I had lasted six or seven months. I didn't think I was the type to want to settle down."

"What happened?"

Those brown eyes met hers, something inside of them stealing her breath away. "You came along."