Title: Torn Part 11
Author: Neamh1
Disclaimer: Not mine
Feedback: Please?
At the hospital everyone had their wounds tended to,
Giles needed a blood transfusion and the doctors told them that had he been bleeding any longer he likely wouldn't have made it. As it was he was lucky that none of his vital organs had been punctured by the blade, he'd have to stay in hospital for a few weeks and after he would need to use a wheel chair until his wound was healed.
Willow had her head in bandages and had been given some painkillers and put to bed to rest for a couple of hours. Aerias, having only a few bruises and cuts was cleaned up and sat by her bedside waiting for her to awake. He had a great deal of respect and admiration for the young witch, not only had she harnessed the power which Layla had bestowed upon her but she used that power with her own initiative to fight off the new threat and save them all. One day she would be very powerful and he hoped that he would be around to see it.
Layla who also had no real injuries went along with Faith whilst the doctors cleaned and closed her wounds, after Angelus' feeding she also needed a transfusion and so Layla watched over the girl whilst she slept.
Xander had numerous cuts and bruises and was bed bound himself for the day after the doctors had stitched him back up. His worst injury was his leg, at some point during the fight he'd had a chunk cut out of it and the bone had been cracked, he now had to suffer with a cast until the bone had healed again.
Angel was bruised and cut from his fight with Angelus but he had refused treatment until Buffy had been checked over. He went into one of the hospital rooms with her and the female Dr. Jennings took a look at Buffy.
"Where are your injuries Buffy?" she asked as she made notes on her clipboard.
"I have whip marks all done my back and legs, not all of them are open wounds but…but a few are. Other than those it's just bruises, I'll be fine." She replied.
"Can I see these marks?" the doctor asked, realising that the girl didn't really want to be treated but was likely doing so because of the man who was now standing in the room with them with a deep scowl on his face.
Buffy turned towards the doctor and lifted her top up to reveal her lower back, the doctor winced and Angel moved around taking the material from Buffy's hands and bringing it up higher.
"Buffy do you have these marks all down your legs as well?" Angel asked and a terse voice. He was angered and shocked by the marks that Angelus had put on her,
he knew that none of them would likely scar due to her being the slayer but still they must be causing her a lot of pain, even when moving. When he had realised back in Sunnydale after looking at the map, exactly what Angelus was doing, he had thought that he would simply use Buffy's pleasure against her. He even imagined that Angelus would throw in a small amount of pain but he never thought that he would whip her this much? One or two lashes yes but it seemed like he'd been hitting her for hours. There wasn't a patch of skin on her back that was red and abused, several deeper cuts were still slightly seeping with blood and he pulled her top up over her head to get a look at the rest of her back. The marks went all the way up to her shoulders and several small marks marred the skin on her arms.
"Okay Buffy, I think you should take everything off and lay on your stomach on the bed and we'll get you cleaned up and close up some of these deeper wounds.
You'll be lucky if the deeper ones don't scar." The doctor said and left them alone whilst she went to get one of the nurses for some help.
Buffy walked over to the bed and facing away from Angel, she stripped the rest of her clothes and got onto the bed, ignoring his hiss of pain when he saw the rest of her abused flesh.
"Buffy I'm sorry." He said when he reached her side and sat down in a chair, moving as close to her as he could.
"It's not your fault, you weren't even there this time, and you don't know what happened. I'll be fine"
She said, not wanting him to take the blame for things this time.
"I know but still, I'm sorry I couldn't be there sooner. What made him do this Buffy, it seems like he was really angry to hit you this much. Was it really because of what you and Layla did to him? By bringing me back?" asked Angel, needing to understand what had happened. For the first time he hadn't known what was running through the demons mind, he hadn't been there and witnessed it and it wasn't his hand that had caused this pain. "He wanted me to submit to him, to tell him that he was my master and I refused. I gave in to him before Angel and I felt so horrible, I …I couldn't…do it again." She cried, her tears falling hard, her sobs shaking her body. "Sshh, its okay now love, its over. I'm here now and everything's going to be alright, I promise." He leaned forward and kissed her brow softly just as the doctor and a nurse walked back in. The nurse was pushing a trolley of various antiseptics and bandages.
"I'm sorry sir but you'll have to wait outside." the nurse said as she brought the trolley closer.
"No. I want him here." Buffy said sternly leaving no room for argument.
The doctor and nurse treated her wounds and closed the deeper ones as best they could; Buffy was covered in bandages by the time they had finished. "I'm going to give you some strong painkillers Buffy and your not to do anything to strenuous, actually anything other than a short walk is out of the question for the next week or so. Then you'll have to go back to your local doctor for a check up to make sure everything is healing well, I'll request an appointment for you and you'll receive an appointment card through the post.
There is some antiseptic cream I'm going to prescribe as well; if you put it on after your shower and then replace some clean bandages you'll be good as new in no time"
"Thank you doctor." Angel replied for them.
"Oh I'm not done yet, on the bed, I want to get the cut above your eye cleaned up." She said smiling and Angel reluctantly agreed. Buffy smiled as he winced whilst the doctor cleaned his cut, she'd missed him so much she forgot how things had been between them. Now she would have plenty of time to remember by reliving them.
After Angel had been treated everyone gathered in Giles' hospital room to decide what they should do next. Buffy refused to leave Giles alone in the city on his own so they decided to get hotel rooms and wait until Giles could be moved back to Sunnydale. Layla went back to Sunnydale and brought Joyce to L.A. along with some clothes for everyone. Joyce called Buffy's father and since he was out of the country on business for the next month or so he agreed to allow them to stay in his house, Joyce went to collect the house keys from his secretary at his L.A. branch office and everyone but Giles was moved in by the next afternoon.
Buffy's father's house was large; it had four bedrooms although why he needed that many were beyond reason.
Joyce stayed in one room, Buffy and Angel in the other, Faith shared a room with Layla and Xander occupied the sofa bed in the living room. To everyone's surprise Willow and Aerias took the fourth room, Buffy didn't know who this new person was but Willow seemed to trust him enough to share a room with him and so that was good enough for her.
They decided to order take-out at dinner time as no one really had the energy to cook anything. As they sat down in the living room they watched the news report, no one was really shocked when the reporter began talking about an old hotel that had been burnt down the day before. The police were investigating the cause of the fire and trying to identify the bodies that had been burnt to a crisp inside. Buffy doubted that any names would be given out as all the occupants in the building were demons.
"So what started the fire?" Angel asked as he took a bite from his slice of Pizza. "God I miss the taste of food." He muttered to himself and smiles broke out around the room.
"Willow, she turned all 'I am almighty you must obey me' on everyone. Muttered some strange words and burnt all the demons but not before they were done running around screaming and setting fire to everything"
Xander said, far more interested in his food.
"It was Latin I was speaking and if I hadn't done something then we would have been overrun with demons." She replied to Xander who smirked at her.
"You were magnificent." Aerias told her and they shared a warm look that made Buffy's eyebrows rise.
Willow smiled at him, she didn't know exactly what it was that drew her to him but she felt compelled to get to know him better, they had spent a long time talking in the hospital. They had talked about magic and the way she had felt to have all that power coursing through her veins. Aerias had offered to help tutor her and she had eagerly accepted. She could feel that he was powerful, even more so than Layla and it made her slightly dizzy but not as dizzy as when he'd kissed her. Gently and slowly with so much passion that she struggled to remember anything but him, even her name was lost to her.
They watched the TV for while, before people began to fall asleep. Joyce herded everyone upstairs to their beds and went into her own room. She wasn't happy with the sleeping arrangements but none of them were kids any longer and it didn't seem as though anyone was in the mood to argue over who was sharing who's bed. She closed her bedroom door and looked around the unfamiliar room, she didn't know her ex-husband at all anymore and the room didn't give anything away about him. It was like a hotel room, no personal touches,
and no photographs. She thought that he might have one photo of Buffy but no, she'd have to explore the house properly and see what she could find, it would be the only chance she got to see if he ever cared.
Buffy slipped on a pair of long trouser pyjamas and slipped into the bed next to Angel, she lay down on her side facing a way from him but he moved closer,
wrapping his large body around her much smaller one.
She relaxed into his embrace enjoying his warmth which she had never experienced before but found herself wanting more of. She lay awake for a long time,
thinking over everything that had happened recently.
She kept thinking about Angelus lying there on the floor upstairs, how long had he stayed unconscious for? Until the flames began licking at him and set him on fire? What did he do if he woke, did he try to get out? How long did it take for the flames to burn him to ash? She couldn't stop thinking about it, she had to get out. Maybe she could go back there and sneak in, she most likely wouldn't find anything but it might set her mind to rest. Gently she moved Angels arm from around her waist and slipped from the bed.
She grabbed her jeans and pulled them on and then pulled her coat over her vest top, she didn't have time to mess about with other clothing.
"Where are you going Buffy?" The voice in the silent room made her jump and she turned around to see Angel staring at her.
"I have to go out for a walk, can't sleep. Don't'
worry about it, I won't go far, you go back to sleep and I'll be back before you know it." She smiled to him and walked over to the door taking hold of the handle and turning it.
"You're going back to the Hyperion aren't you?" asked Angel, it wasn't really a question because he knew she was going there.
Buffy sighed and turned around to face him, "I have to, I just need some closure, I think. "
"I'm coming with you." He said and jumped from the bed, "Don't argue with me Buffy, I'm coming and that's the end of it." He said at her look of disapproval. She waited patiently whilst he dressed and then they both silently slipped from the house and walked towards the town centre where they caught a cab to the Hyperion.
She stood outside looking at it for a while, it was completely burnt to a crisp, police tape blocked off the grounds from the public and the place was in total darkness. She didn't have the courage just yet to go inside and so she crossed the police tape and walked around the exterior of the hotel. Angel followed her,
looking out for anyone who might still be hanging around.
A loud crunch in front startled him and he looked towards Buffy who was crouched on the floor over a pile of broken glass. He looked up towards the hotel and saw one of the windows broken on the second floor.
Realisation hit him as Buffy said the words.
"He got out." She started shifting carefully through the glass looking for ash but found none. "No ash." "He's still alive." Angel confirmed their thoughts and they both stayed exactly where they were for a while,
both scarred to make any movement in case Angelus were to jump out from the shadows.
Finally Buffy stood up from her position on the floor,
"Let's go, this is all I needed to know"
They left the hotel and went back to the house, the trip was silent and when they got back they checked all the doors were still locked and that everyone was fine and went back to their room.
"I really don't want to have to tell them about this,
it's my fault, if I'd just staked him when you told me to he'd be gone now and not hanging over our heads"
"Hey, it's not your fault and I doubt he got out of there without being severely burnt. It was most likely the flames that woke him and he dived out after realising it was his only way out. He'll need time to recover so for a while we'll be okay." Angel said. "Maybe, but he will be back"
"And when he comes we'll face him together." Angel said, holding out his hand to her.
She took his hand and smiled. "We will, together. God I'm so glad you're here right now, I've missed you so much." She placed her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"I've missed you too." Angel replied, kissing the top of her hair.
