Angel made slow progress getting home; the only thing keeping him on his feet was the thought of holding Buffy in his arms.
He felt like an idiot for not remembering her, or where home was. 'Why did I remember when I did? Why not sooner? Maybe when I hit my head again?' He shook his head, 'I've been gone for days, Buffy's going to kill me' He thought and winced at the verbal lacerations he would be spotting, '…if she even lets me in the house at all.'
What should have taken him 15 minutes at a brisk pace, took closer to an hour as he shuffled along, but finally he limped into the backyard, the backdoor was closer from the direction he had come.
He noticed the door was ajar.
'We never leave that door open, unless something happened….'
Fear propelled his hurting body forward, praying something terrible hadn't occurred while he wasn't there to stop it. 'Please, let Buffy and our kids be okay...'
Looking in the doorway he noticed the kitchen was empty of people, but the counters have several casserole dishes, a fruit basket and a sandwich tray. 'They having a party without me?' His ears picked up on the soft drone of voices as he walked into the kitchen and glanced towards the living room, finding the source of those voices to be the group of people he usually saw on a daily basis were standing around or sitting in chairs, their backs to him as they focuses their attention towards Giles, who was making a speech or something. 'Huh, so it can't be too much of a party if Giles is lecturing.'
No one noticed him as he limped into the kitchen.
That's when he realized they all wore black. 'Oh God, maybe someone died? Would explain the fruit basket...'
He spotted Buffy sitting unhappily on the couch, but unhappy was alive. 'At least Buffy's alright.'
Angel would have thought of the children next, but the idea that something that terrible happening to them wasn't even conceivable in his mind.
He noticed Oz was the closest to him, leaning in the opening between the kitchen and living room, his arms folded across his chest and looking almost pensive; he limped up and cautiously asked. "Oz, what happened? Who died?"
Oz actually jumped when he heard the voice behind him, he turned and his eye brow rose in surprise.
Angel swore Oz made an expression as he spoke. "Ahh…well…we thought you…actually." The werewolf replied in typical Oz monotone.
Angel's brow furrowed in confusion, "Me? You thought I died? Why would you...Oooof"
The living vampire's words were cut short and his breath driven from his bruised lungs as Buffy slammed into him like a heat seeking missile, arms wrapping tightly around his waist and sending them both into the closest wall.
Agony exploded in Angel's world as his ribs contorted again from the impact between his wife's body and the wall. His body officially reached its abuse limit, he gasped in pain as the world abruptly went black.
Buffy had felt the familiar tingle of her husband's soul run down her spine as soon as Angel walked into the kitchen. Shocked, she looked up, hope filled her heart as her eyes focused on the man she was afraid she'd never see again actually standing in their kitchen and speaking with Oz.
"Angel?" Whispered from her trembling lips, fresh tears stinging her eyes. 'Please, please don't let me be dreaming...don't make him an illusion.'
Ignoring everything and everyone else in the room, her body darted up off the couch, blew by Giles and ran to her husband.
She had needed to know he was really there, that he wasn't just some twisted mirage created from grief. Without even thinking about it, or the baby, she barreled into him, craving the feel of him in her arms after a week of him being missing from them.
Fear hit her hard when she felt Angel's ribs shift under her crushing hug, she immediately loosened her grip and pulled back, cursing herself for not noticing his injures until it was too late.
Raw panic rushed in, bringing a terrified scream of his name as Angel gasped and went slack against her, his body sliding away from her and limply towards the floor as blood ran down his lips.
'Oh god, I killed him!' She panicked, horrified he'd come back from the dead just to die in front of her.
As Oz had been standing close by, he managed to catch Angel as his knees buckled. The werewolf lowered the semi-demon to the floor, wondering if his friends were going to keep passing out in his arms.
The commotion of Buffy running off caused Giles to pause his eulogy speech and everyone turned in shocked silence upon seeing the subject of the eulogy standing behind them, all of them were too stunned that Angel was actually here and alive to move, at least until he collapsed.
The calm before the storm shattered and everyone shot to action.
Giles and Xander rushed over to Angel's unconscious form to help Oz lower him. Willow ran to get the first aid supplies from the bathroom, and Dawn grabbed a seriously panicking Buffy and tried to calm her down as the slayer stared in horror at her fallen spouse. "I...I killed him." Buffy stammered, shaking with horror.
"No you didn't, he's not dead." The younger sister assured, both incredibly happy her brother-in-law had returned, but not so much for his current unconsciousness.
Everyone within a ten foot radius could hear that Angel was currently still in the realm of the living, the horrible rasp of his blood soaked lungs was a firm indication he was breathing, or at least trying to.
Cassidy was cursing under her breath as she parted friends like the red sea, "Move, let the medical profession though!" Despite the look of anger on her face, she felt an overwhelming sense of relief. If Angel was alive and injured, she had the opportunity to save him this time.
As the red headed medic dropped down beside Angel, she pulled his shirt up and out of the way to reveal his chest while Oz worked to remove the shirt with a pair of scissors Xander handed him from where he snagged them from the kitchen junk drawer.
Cassidy's main concern at the moment were the ribs, as those were negatively effecting breathing.
Giles quickly checked Angel over for other injuries, finding two deep puncture wounds to his left shoulder, numerous cuts in various stages of healing, and a slew of vivid bruises all over his exposed limbs. 'Good Lord, what on Earth happened to the poor fellow?'
"Shit, could really use a breathing tube at the moment." Cassidy muttered as Angel moaned from the pain of his injures being explored, each breath rattled in his chest as he inhaled, blood dripped from his lips are he exhaled. 'Great, he must have a collapsed lung, and highly likely a punctured one too.'
"What do you need?" Giles asked, his hand already pressing to the bloody wound on Angel's shoulder, luckily it wasn't bleeding that badly.
"My Med-Ward would be best, but I will settle for the med-bag in my trunk, here are the keys." Cass pulled a set of car keys from her back pocket.
"On it!" Xander snagged them from her hand and darted out the door to the medic's red coupe parked on the lawn beside the driveway.
Willow opened the acquired first aid kit, "Anything in here help?"
The kit was more for treating minor wounds and bleeding, being mostly Band-Aids that wouldn't cover any of Angel's wounds, but the doctor passed some gauze bandaged over to Giles and had him reapply pressure until she could rotate to that injury.
Right now his breathing was at risk of stopping, so the ribs were her primary focus.
Xander made it back into the room with the medical bag in under a minute, passing it off to Cassidy already open.
While the others looked at each other, feeling helpless and unsure what to do, Cass slipper her stethoscope onto her ears and listened to the raspy inhales and exhales from the unconscious part demon under her. There was a noticeable lack of breathing sounds coming from his left side chest cavity. 'Yup, collapsed lung.'
"Anyone not actively helping or is squeamish, please leave right now." The medic stated as she dug though the bag and pulled out a rather long and thick needle.
Debbie took one wide eyed look at the needle and bolted back into the living room, while Oz, Willow and Xander took a few steps back to give Cass some room.
Dawn was still gripping Buffy tightly, who herself looked ready to drop.
Angel barely reacted as Cassidy lifted his right arm out of the way and slid the thick needle into his side, between his the 4th and 5th ribs.
"Why does he need that?" Buffy questioned, looking green as the medic suctioned blood and air out of the lining between his lung and chest wall with the needle.
"Pneumothorax, commonly called a collapsed lung, I need to remove the excess air and blood from his chest cavity so his lung can expand properly. As of right now, this lung is almost useless."
They were all quiet as the doctor worked, the only sound was Angel's labored breathing.
A few minutes passed, Buffy had broken away from her sister and began to pace, feeling like she should be doing something to help but equally wanting to keep back as she'd already caused enough damage to her husband.
Unsure what to do while Cass and Giles tended to Angel, Buffy pausing by the fridge and leaning against the counter, she felt herself shaking from the recent adrenaline overload.
When her eyes drifted back towards her pale and still husband, she felt sick, 'I did that. I didn't know he was hurt and I broke him more.' She thought, listening to his ragged breaths. 'It's my fault.' She was afraid to touch him again; afraid he would blame her for his pain. 'What if he really does die now...I don't think I could handle that...'
From the floor, Angel mumbled something. Though her wall of emotional turmoil, Buffy recognized the garbled mess he'd spoken had been her name.
He was calling out for her.
'No, I can't go to him...he's already hurting enough from me.' The slayer thought despairingly.
Cass grumbled something to the now restless living demon under her before waving Buffy over, "Need you over here now please, he really can't be moving while I do this!"
Buffy couldn't say no to that, so she pushed aside her fear of hurting him further and slid down to the floor beside her restless lover, somewhat awkwardly and with Giles's arm as support with her center of gravity shifting to the front with the baby belly. Once down, she slid her lap under his head, took a damp cloth from Dawn and began to wipe the blood and dirt from his bruises face and lips.
From the injuries, he looked like he'd been in a bad fight...or several of them.
When he moaned and fidgeted from Cassidy's invasive treatment, the blonde ran a calming thumb down his cheek, "Shh, it's ok. I'm here." Leaning in closer and lowering her voice, "Relax Angel, you're home."
At the sound of her voice and feel of her caressing touch, she did feel his tensing muscles relax.
With his lung as drained as much as possible with the tools she had, Cass then moved to realigning the broken rib bones, which brought more than a few grunts and groans from the unconscious man, however his demon remained abnormally absent during the treatment. Cass filed that away under 'things to worry about.'
Giles assisted Buffy in lifting Angel, keeping his chest as straight as possible, so Cass could wrap the compression bandage around him, holding the broken pieces of rib together and help guide the bits back into the proper alignment, which would eased at least some of his discomfort. All of them were shocked to see the half-healed lines crossing his entire back, which was a dead giveaway that wherever Angel had been for the past week, it hadn't been voluntary.
"Good lord." Giles whispered, wincing at the damage, watching his ward as her eyes misted over again with pained tears.
Without invasive surgery or an x-ray, there wasn't much else Cassidy could do about the probable puncture to his lung. Until she got him more rather than less stable, she was banking on his demon's natural healing to repair that injury as demon healing would be faster and more effective than the medical alternative.
After the ribs were bound, Cass moved her attention to the twin punctures in Angel's shoulder. The bleeding had mostly stopped by then, so it didn't take much for her to sew the open ends shut and apply a bandage.
Once finished, Cassidy sat back and evaluated her work, checking and rechecking her stitches and making sure the improvised drain she installed in Angel's side was still discharging.
His injuries were giving Cassidy an uneasy feeling. Now that she'd done what she could witht he tools she had, she took a few moments to read the injuries, which told a story as well as if she'd been reading words off a page. "These wounds aren't painting me a pretty picture. These punctures are clearly from a recent fight, so isn't the torn ligament in his knee and shattered ribs, but many of these other bruises, the ligature marks of his wrists and the whip marks, that's a sign of torture. Judging on the various levels of healing, I'd say several days worth, and at least one other fight earlier in the week, possibly more."
Leaning over, she probed her fingers over a discolored part of his forehead, "This looked like a bad blow, judging on the amount of healing, it looks to be one of the oldest. I can't know for sure without an x-ray, but this likely fractured his skull."
Oz and Xander winced at that, remembering how hard Angel had hit the mausoleum wall. Xander gave the medic a quick rundown on the fight in the cemetery leading to Angel's hospitalization.
The medic nodding, seeing the scene in her mind clearly though the evidence in his injuries. "A blow this bad would be concussion grade at best, fatal at worst. I'd have been surprised if he'd remembered his own name until the swelling went down."
"Is...is he going to be okay?" Buffy asked, tearing her eyes off her lover's pale, still face to meet the medic's grey gaze.
With a sigh, "Could be better." Cass replied, looking at the mini heart and oxygen sensor she'd clipped onto his right index finger, neither number was all to reassuring. His oxygen saturation had been perilously low, in the lower 50% range and had only improved to around 61%, which was still way less than the healthy +92% his body needed to survive. His normal resting heart rate was naturally in the lower 40's due to his muscular build and athletic nature, but it was dangerously low at 24 beats per minute. Angel's breathing still left much to be desired and if his numbers didn't improve in the next five minutes, she'd need to call an ambulance to get him the equipment she needed to keep him in the realm of the living.
Xander noticed the frustrated look in the medics eyes and realized Angel wasn't doing so well. He whispered something to Debbie standing beside him and bolted out the door into the Summer's garage.
"Can you feel his demon?" The redhead asked the slayer, a nagging feeling clawing at her that he was being far less growly that he should be under the deathly serious circumstances and not healing at the speed he should be. Both were indicators Angel might be too weak right now for home treatment to be successful. 'Shit, really should have called for the ambulance already..as side note, need to put in a requisition for a Med-Ward ambulance.'
Buffy frowned as the realization occurred to her, "No." Then her face turned towards worry, "He's not...dying...is he?"
Both woman filed away the lack of demon concern to be dealt with later.
'Kinda is...' The Medic thought in response to Buffy's question. "He's not necessarily dying." Cass assured out loud to keep the crowd around her from panicking, "not yet, but he isn't exactly improving either. His numbers, Buffy, they aren't good, I'd really like to have him moved to the Med-Ward." 'Quickly.'
"No." Buffy denied immediately. After spending a week going out of her mind about him not coming home, he sure as hell wasn't leaving.
At the Slayer's firm denial, Cass shook her head, "He's in bad shape, if he's not going to the Med-Ward he's going to need to show some fast improvement. For that to happen, he needs blood."
Buffy nodded and ran her fingers along her husband's jaw, she figured she could rouse him long enough to take a drink, "Angel, can you hear me?"
The slayer tired a few time to wake him, but Cass placed her hand on the younger woman's shoulder after a few moments, "He's too out of it, literally unable to wake up, and if his demon isn't presenting, he doesn't have the teeth to bite anyways. He can't drink blood when in human form. I'll need to get some blood packs from the Med-Ward and deliver it intravenously."
"I can teleport everyone to the Med-Ward." Willow offered, eager for a little magicks that didn't flop like the previous tracking spells, which she planned to ask Angel about why they failed as soon as he was conscious.
Turning her attention to the other red head in the room, "As your physician, I'm going to remind you of my recommend for no big magicks use while pregnant, I have no idea what magic does to a developing fetus so you might want to play it on the safe side." Cassidy said not for the third time in the last few months, mostly because she was entirely not a fan of magic.
Willow frowned, "Magic is safe." The Wicca defended her beliefs, leaning back against her husband, "Right honey?"
The ghost of a smile pulled at Oz's lips, "Love you." Came his purposely vague response, kissing his wife's temple as he rubbed her slight belly, purposefully keeping himself out from between the 'magic vs medical' argument.
Before Cass could make the call to bring Angel to AI, "I got blood!" Xander announced, running in though the side door from the garage, a full and sagging plastic bag in his right hand and a size D oxygen tank in his left. "Here. Becky and Diana threw a bunch of stuff in, this should help...it will help...right?"
The medic looked dumbfounded as Xander dropped the bag into her hands, having no idea what her Med-Ward assistance had to do with anything. Looking inside, she found in contained 6 blood packs, 2 large saline solutions, 3 nutrient packs, tubing and needles for an IV and the valve for the oxygen tank Xander placed beside her.
"Where did you get this?" The doctor demanded even as she shoved the blood packets to Dawn and gave instructions how to heat them to human body temperature.
When her attention was back towards Xander, he shrugged, "Med-Ward, where else can I loot medical equipment without being arrested?"
As she locked the valve onto the tank and passed the tubing for the nose piece to Buffy to string over Angel's ears and place under his nostrils, "How the hell did you get there and back so fast?"
In an obvious tone, Xander replied, "I used the portal."
Cass almost stopped mid way in inserting the saline IV, but shook it off as she finished what she started before letting her brain try and process the one eyed man's statement.
"Xander! You went though it!" Willow burst out, shocked, "It's just a prototype! We hadn't planned for human trials yet!"
The young man shrugged, "Well I made it there and back without any molecular disintegration, I'd say it works." Xander claimed, looking proud of himself, "Now I know how SG-1 feels portalling to a new world."
The Wicca looked furious for a moment, then grinned, "So it really works then?"
Once the IV solution was dripping into the unconscious man's vein and the oxygen was flowing into his nose at 6 liter per minute to compensate for his lungs poor function, she turned and shot Xander a look. "What portal?"
Buffy was too focused on Angel to be paying much attention to the conversation, so Willow answered, "I've been experimenting with creating portals between the buildings and AI, so we can move quicker and avoid LA traffic. Buffy and Angel agreed they would let us put the prototype in their garage, it links directly to the closet in the training room."
Cassidy blinked at her, "They have a portal in their garage that goes straight into the Angel Investigation's basement storage closet?"
"Built them myself, and Willow waved the mojo into them." Xander supplied before turning to his long time friend, "Oh yeah, the landing needs to be tweaked a bit though, I came out backwards. And as an added bonus, the oxygen tank didn't explode."
Dawn came rushing in then, handing the medic two heated blood packs, "I'll put the other two in now." A moment later, she was hurrying back to the stove to heat more in the pot of hot water.
Now equipped with blood, Cass switched the saline out for what Angel needed most, keeping a careful watch on his heart and oxygen readings.
Almost immediately the blood pack began to drain, indicating the demon within was well aware of the food source and eagerly feeding.
It was the first encouraging sign.
Even if the demon wasn't presenting outwardly, it was still active inside, which is exactly where it needed to be to control the internal bleeding.
Everyone was quiet as Cass rotated between the blood packs, all of them eager to know if the living vampire was improving.
With her stethoscope on, Cass listened to Angel's breathing, checking each side of his chest for auditable indicators the demon was healing the internal wounds.
Already his oxygen has risen from 61% to 78%, which was still well under acceptable, but was showing a vast improvement. His heart rate had jumped up too, from the lowest drop of 22 to a livelier 34 beats per minute.
"Can we maybe move him to the couch?" Buffy asked, wanting to keep her husband as close as possible, however her butt and back were killing her from prolonged exposure to their uncomfortable and cold laminate kitchen floor.
The medic was swapping out the fourth blood pack by then, the demon having sucked them dry within minutes and had Dawn heating the final two. "I'd like to keep him stationary for a little bit longer, moving will only aggravate his ribs."
At Buffy's sad and pained expression, Willow suggested, "Want me to hover him?"
"You are just really gunning to use magic, aren't you?" Cassidy shot at the witch. Not angrily, but annoyed that yet another patient was so bluntly ignoring her medically trained advise.
Willow at least attempted to scowl, "What do you have against magic?"
"It's addictive." Was Cassidy's short but to the point reply.
As her cheeks pinked, Willow looked away.
Just about everyone in the room remembered Dark Willow and no one ever wanted a repeat.
Xander briefly imagined Dark Willow with pregnancy hormone rage boosters and cringed.
"Cassidy." Buffy addressed her friend, "Willow isn't going to go psycho with her magic, she's in control, and frankly, my sore pregnant butt and my shivering unconscious husband would really appreciate a magical boost to the couch." While giving the Wicca a look, she finished, "As long as you don't drop us."
"Never." Willow brightened, excited for a little action, "One couch coming right up. Just give me a second to build up the mojo."
Cassidy frowned but didn't try to interfere, she knew when Buffy wanted something to not stand in its way... or else.
It took only a few seconds to actually hover Buffy and Angel together across from the kitchen to the living room, but the image of them floating disembodied would linger for a while in the minds of those who had watched.
The oxygen tank hadn't fared well for flight, so Cassidy walked it over, keeping her eyes on Angel's monitor, searching for continual improvement.
The rest of the gang hung back, looking around for something to occupy themselves. Each of them still in slight shock Angel had actually come back.
Half an hour after, Angel slowly regained consciousness.
The first thing he became aware of was his head in Buffy's lap as she ran her thumb along his cheek.
It was nice. Soothing. A welcome distraction from the pain in his chest...and shoulder...and knee...and residual headache.
He coughed again, expelling the remaining blood that had collected in his airway and giving himself a little more breathing room. At the gesture, his ribs protested, but not as badly as before; he realized his chest was tightly wrapped, his ribs realigned to where they should be, instead of stabbing into his lungs and muscles.
Someone was cleaning the puncture wounds in his shoulder, smelled like Cassidy, the antiseptic stung as it was rubbed into the wound, but it was a welcomed pain. 'I'm home.'
Slowly he pried his heavy eyelids apart to reveal his wife looking down worried at him, her lips moving, but he could hear no sound.
He shut his eyes again as pain swarmed in but managed to push it away, then the fog that seemed to be hovering over him slowly dissipated.
Sound began to penetrate his muddled world, his wife calling his name, worry thick on her tongue.
"Angel? Can you hear me? Please open your eyes."
He couldn't deny her. Opening his eyes again, he found this time audio and visual both worked simultaneously.
"Buffy." he rasped, his voice sounding foreign in his own throat.
Smiling brightly down at him, she placed a finger lightly on his cracked and swollen lips, "Shh, don't try to talk. You're going to be okay, just rest."
Looking up at her, he could tell her words were a smokescreen, she looked terrified, like her words were spoken out of reflex instead of belief.
Turns out it was true.
He gave her a weak smile, and managed to lift his right hand up towards her cheek. Buffy wrapped hers around it and held it in place against her face as he ran his thumb under her eye, brushing the tears away.
As a reflex, she squeezed his hand tighter.
"Don't worry a ghrá (my love)" He said slurring from pain and exhaustion, "Not goin anywhere."
His words had the desired effect, Buffy's tension seemed to vanish as relief flood her eyes.
If he'd said 'I'm fine', she'd have worried more, but she could tell his comment of not going anywhere had been less about leaving the house and more about not leaving this world.
Not leaving her.
With a smile that was no longer forced, she kissed his hand. "I'm glad you're home."
"Home." He agreed, giving her one last smile as he finally succumbed to his exhaustion. "Tired." he mumbled as his eyes slipped shut, snuggling his head deeper into her lap as he drifted off.
Buffy lowered his hand back down at his side, her fear and worry drained away as she watched him finally getting some real rest. His breathing was still shaky but his heartbeat were continually growing stronger. Everything was suddenly right in the world. She smiled and thought, 'He came back.'
Cassidy spent a few minutes rechecking Angel's lungs and monitoring his breathing, assuring herself he was starting to finally heal now that he'd been pumped full of fluids and all six bags of blood.
When Buffy looked back down at her resting husband, she had to keep pinching herself just so she knew she was awake. She had this horrible feeling she was going to suddenly wake up and he would be gone. That he would really be dead. That she was still sitting in her own personal hell. If that was the case, she hoped she never woke up.
Both the medic and Buffy noticed Angel wasn't healing the numerous minor wounds, granted it wasn't uncommon for his healing to play favorites when he was weak; either from sleep deprivation, or hunger, or from healing near mortal or multiple wounds.
Cass had a feeling it was a combo of all of the above. His body had greedily absorbed the nutrient packs and the saline was helping to rehydrate his parched system.
The worrying wife studied the multiple bruises and welts, 'What happened to you? Who did this? Where were you for a week? Why couldn't we find you?'
Feeling exhausted, Buffy sat back against the couch, feeling her baby kicking inside, being careful the baby's jolts didn't disturb her father. She was starting to feel the emotional trauma from the last few days, her own eyelids felt heavy. 'I'll rest them, but only for a second.'
She was sound asleep for the next two hours.
...
Once Angel was upgraded to stable, the commotion settled back down.
"Well, I suppose resuming my eulogy would be a moot point now, yes?" Giles said to no one in particular.
"I'm cool with that." Oz agreed.
Xander couldn't help himself, his mouth opened before his brain could stop him, "Does anyone else find it ironic that Angel crashed his own funeral? What is this? The 100th time we thought he was dead and 'poof', here he is again? This guy's got more lives than Bill Murray in Groundhog Day."
He got a lot of looks, most of them guilty for agreeing.
The top question circulating was on where Angel had been for the last week and what had happened to him.
"Wherever he was, I don't think it was voluntary considering the condition he came home in." Dawn reminded them, "We should send out a team, sweep for whoever cause his injuries."
"Astute point Dawn. I'll head back to AI and as you say, gather the forces." The watcher in the group agreed as he went to grab his keys.
"Yeah." Cass injected, "Whatever the thing was, it has claws and did a number on a living demon, which isn't exactly easy. Hell, anything that makes me have to patch up my people warrants slaying." For the most part, Cassidy only worked on 'more-than' humans, like Angel, Connor and slayers. None of which were pushovers in a fight. Any creature that could whip Angel around needed to be slayed quickly before any humans got hurt.
"Guys, I think I know where to start the search." Oz spoke up, having recognized the scent on Angel's clothes when he collapsed in his arms. The werewolf explained briefly about the scent and where he'd last smelled it in Rosedale Cemetery while fighting the demon that had stabbed Angel a week ago. The scent hadn't been identical, but close enough to paint a probable picture in Oz's mind.
Oz and Willow ended up accompanying the former librarian back to AI to recruit a slayer team, the three Scooby's eager to find the creature that had done so much damaged to Angel and make sure it didn't repeat on a more defenseless human. As much as Dawn wanted to hunt down the demon responsible as well, she also wanted to be close for her sister and injured brother-in-law.
Debbie kissed Xander on the cheek and thanked him for another exciting day, but she really wanted to go home and lay down. All the dead, not dead, was giving her a headache.
That left Dawn and Xander milling around, neither willing yet to leave until they knew for sure Angel would be okay. Xander and Oz both felt responsible for Angel ending up injured, missing and now injured again. Oz was determined to hunt down the creature, Xander was determined to not let the living vampire out of his sight again until he was fully recovered. On a unconscious level, he didn't want to lose him again.
Cassidy replenished the IV line several times over the next hour, feeding Angel's healing body the hydration and nutrients it needed to regenerate the demon's strength. For safety reasons, the drain in his side had been removed prior to the levitation act to the couch.
Angel's oxygen level had drastically improved within an hour, allowing her to remove the O2 tank shortly before it would have emptied. With her stereoscope, she could hear his lung expanding more normally and the fluid was nearly completely gone. 'Good, at least the demon was able to heal his lung... granted after consuming 6 blood packs, he should be up and dancing...'
Cass stood over the sleeping couple for a moment; she gently pulled the blanket off the back of the couch and spread it over Angel, his body heat would be sufficient to keep Buffy warm too.
The living vampire shifted slightly in his sleep, Buffy's hand moved to lie on his chest over his heart.
...
Xander and Dawn hung around while the couple slept, feeling a little restless.
Not knowing what else to do, they went about cleaning up, blotting blood off the floor before it soaked into the laminate and left a permanent stain, tossing used medical supplies, repacking the good supplies back into the case and in general just tidying up the disaster that had become the Summer's ground floor over the previous week.
About an hour later, the house was clean and Xander was getting hungry, and figured everyone else would be hungry too, especially Buffy and Angel, so he went about preparing an early dinner.
Dawn was just finishing removing all the 'funeral stuff' from the living room when her cell began to ring. Quickly leaving the room and hurrying outside into the hot July heat so she wouldn't wake her sister or bother-in-law. "Hello?" She answered, not having looked at the ID yet.
Her father's voice sounded in her ear, "Hi sweetie, how was Buffy during the service? Does she need me to watch the kids another night? Just tell me what to do and it will be done."
Dawn and the gang had needed to devote more and more time over the last week helping the search for Angel and supporting Buffy during this stressful time, so in a moment of weakness, Buffy had agreed to let Hank take the kids until after the search either found her spouse, or it was known he wasn't going to be found.
"Dad, you won't believe this, Angel came back!" The young woman recounted the story, what little she knew at least, to Hank over the phone, the older man barely believing it.
Elated his grandchildren weren't going to grow up fatherless like his own daughters, he promised he'd drop the little ones off later that evening, to give their parents a few hours to recover.
...
Later that night, around 5:30pm
Katie stirred awake from her nap and was momentarily confused about finding herself in her bedroom. She figured time with grandpa was over now that she was back home and was content to play in her room, which she hadn't been in for a few days since sleeping over at grandpas. That only lasted about ten minutes, Katie was getting restless now, Daddy had been gone for a long time and she wanted to go see him. She knew he was home now, she could feel it.
Sneaking to her door, she peaked out and saw auntie Dawn and Grandpa Hank talking quietly in the hall, they were looking in Liam's room.
Katie took the opportunity to dash to the stairs to see what was going on. She looked through the railings and saw her parents taking a nap on the couch. 'Daddy!' she thought happily and ran down to jump on him.
Angel snapped awake in an abrupt flash of pain as Katie pounced onto his damaged chest, "Daddy your home!" she yelled practically in his ear.
Buffy also abruptly awoke when she heard Katie shout, realizing their daughter had just jumped on Angel's broken ribs.
"Hey sweetheart." The wincing living demon said carefully, not entirely trusting his voice. He swallowed a groan and smiled at his eldest, 'Like mother like daughter' Angel thought dryly at his aching ribs.
Buffy panicked and grabbed Katie up off of his chest as he quickly and carefully sat up and leaned his back against the back of the couch. This way Katie could sit in his lap and not put pressure on his ribs.
As Katie wriggled in her arms, Buffy looked over at her husband, worried reflecting in her eyes as she scanned his chest for added damages. The worry ebbed as he met her eyes and nodded he was for the most part, okay.
His ribs were very sore and still bruised, but no longer physically broken. The demon had managed to mend the worst of the damage over the last hour.
Never the less, the ache was still very present.
Relieved he wasn't going to relapse, she let Katie wiggle out of her grip and the little girl quickly flopped down in Angel's lap. "Daddy, grandpa Hank said you went on a trip. Where did you go? Did you help people?" Katie then noticed the bandage around her father's chest when the blanket covering him earlier slid down, "Daddy you all broken again? Can I kiss it and make it better? Or is mommy going to?"
He couldn't help but grin at her enthusiasm, he'd missed her so much.
He'd missed his family so much.
Cassidy had heard Katie yell to Angel and quickly looked into the living room from the kitchen, where her and Xander were making sandwiches. She saw Angel sit up, noticed him moving gingerly, but had recently checked his vitals so she knew his body was mending.
As much as she'd have preferred he'd stayed horizontal, despite the physical toll the kids had on robbing Angel of much needed rest, he did tend to heal faster with them around as opposed to being separated from them.
She nudged Xander back into the kitchen to give the family some alone time together.
Besides, she knew better than to get between a healing Angel and his family.
When Dawn realized Katie wasn't in her room, and then heard her yell from the living room, her stomach dropped out as if she'd taken a roller coaster down a high steep hill. 'Oh crap.'
Hank came out of Liam's room and the two exchanged a look.
Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Liam ran between Hank's legs and charged down the stairs to follow his sister's example.
At least this time, Angel saw Liam coming, and caught him before he too could crush his sore ribs. "Hey champ" he said as the three year old wrapped his arms around his neck and pulled him into a choke hold.
"Daddy's back! Did you miss me? Tell us a story! Uh oh you have an ouchy." The little blond moved back and touched the bandage around his father's ribs and poked at the one on his shoulder.
"You missed me too right? And yeah, tell us a story!" Katie fired back as she watched her brother, quickly looking at her father's face for an answer.
Buffy stopped laughing long enough to finally add some dialog, "Ok guys, Daddy's still tired from his…trip. Why don't you go play for a little while so mommy and daddy can talk?"
"Aww but mommy..." they chorused, having perfected the synchronized whine technique.
Angel smirked at them, he wouldn't trade this chaos for the world.
Addressing his children, "Yes I missed you both and yes I'll tell you a story, but later." He gave them each a hug and a kiss and they reluctantly marched back upstairs past Dawn and Hank who had stood watching guiltily for the last few minutes.
Hank sent a sheepish glance at his daughter and son-in-law, "Sorry, she's a sneaky one."
Her parents were well aware, "Yeah, takes after her father." Buffy accused.
Angel turned to face her, "Says the girl who snuck out her window every night for years to kill demons."
Buffy frowned, "Hey, you snuck in almost as much as I snuck out."
"Defiantly get's it from her mother." Hank muttered with a smirk.
Dawn grabbed her father's arm, "Come on, they'll either argue about it for hours, or they'll start making out. Either way, I sure neither us was plan on hanging around to watch." She pulled the grinning older man up the stairs with her to make sure the kids stayed on the second floor this time.
Xander and Cass had been peaking from the kitchen again, but went back to making dinner. "Well, it looks like the Summer's home is back to its usual chaotic state." The medic said to the dark haired man.
Shaking his head, Xander added, "You know, I really don't get it. Angel can be resting peacefully in the Med-Ward with all the best medical equipment and rest his body needs and yet can still get worse...but if you plop him down in the middle of a hectic living room and have several kids jump on his injuries, he's all smiles."
Cassidy pointed at him as she exasperated, "You have no idea how much that drives me crazy!" Resuming a normal tone, "But as much as it seems to not make sense, you need to realize the demon is also feeling on his emotions. When Angel is relaxed and happy, his demon's healing is stronger. When he's home, he's content, but when he's in my Med-Ward, he's ...grouchy."
Xander nodded, digging a bag of potato chips out of a cabinet. "Hmm, never really thought about it that way."
"Also, when he's being protective of those he cares about, his strength is more powerful." Cassidy continued to explain, enjoying having someone to talk about this to, "It really is fascinating how his demon symbiotically reacts to his mental and physical triggers."
The one eyed man chewed his handful of Lays before responding, "Now if he can only train his demon to keep his fangs to himself."
Cassidy grabbed the bag from him and stole a handful of chips for herself, "Believe it or not, I think he already is."
Xander through her a 'you're crazy' look, but the medic just shrugged. "Well he's getting better at not trying to eat me, and he didn't try to eat you in the cemetery."
"Huh, I guess." He thought, chewing this chips.
...
Snuggling up against her husband and planting a kiss on his cheek, Buffy grinned, "Oh god I missed you." She sighed as she pressed her head into Angel's good shoulder.
He gave her a weak smile, the adrenalin was wearing off, he had lost some of the pep he had a minute ago. "I missed you too." He leaned against her, resting his cheek on her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be gone so long."
"What happened? Where were you?" The question was like a blinking neon light in her head, she had to ask, she had to know.
He sighed, battening down the hatches and hoping not to be blown away by hurricane Buffy. "Would you believe amnesia?" he asked questionably, watching her face for a flair of anger.
Instead her expression showed confusion as she leaned back so she could look up into his face and raised a blonde eyebrow, "Amnesia? You're kidding me, right?" 'Well, Cass did mention his head injury was bad...'
The look on his face said no.
"I woke up in the hospital, but I didn't even know who I was. Then as my memory returned...well, it, it was strange, I knew who I was, or rather who I'd been. I remembered everything Angelus had done; I remembered getting my soul cursed to me for it. I could remember everything until the last decade or so. My current life, everything since knowing you...was just…gone." He confessed, still confused about it himself.
She could hear the pain in his voice, the kind that had nothing to do with his physical injuries.
Her disbelieving attitude was already gone as she looked up at him, sad hazel-green eyes meeting his clouded dark orbs. "You forgot me?" She questioned, a little shocked.
He hated that hurt tone and held her tighter, "I don't remember what happened before waking at the hospital. Something made me forget, it erased everything until just before Whistler found me in that alley." He shook his head, "It would have been better in reverse, forgetting everything before you rather than after."
Buffy leaned in closer to him, feeling his emotional pain, and sharing her strength with him. She took the opportunity to tell him about his head wound during patrol that evening and filled in her with experience during the last few days, on what the Scooby's had been doing the last week trying to find him, leaving out the 'we thought you were dead' part.
"Well, I guess a walking concussion would explain the memory problems." He then filled in the holes in her story with the details he knew, he told her about waking to a killer vamp nurse, the sewers, fighting with Deimos's group, and the demon battle in the tomb. To prevent upsetting her, he played down his few days of torture, he didn't think listening to his experience with the whip was beneficial.
"Two fights in row where you're accused of killing someone's mate?" She questioned after he finished, believing him but finding the circumstances a little nuts.
He shrugged, and then winced at the action as the twin punctured throbbed.
"Don't do that, Cass will get pissed if she has to stitch you back up." She scolded as she gently rubbed the tension from his injured shoulder, checking the status of his healing and assuring herself he wasn't going to start bleeding again.
They sat quietly a moment, letting their minds digest the previously unknown details of the last few days and to absorb as much together time as they could.
"If you didn't remember me, how did you miss me?" Buffy finally questioned, a slight bit of a challenge in her tone.
A small half smile tilted from his lips as he ran his fingers along her cheek. "Even though I couldn't remember your name, your face, I couldn't recall our life together…I could still feel my heart crying out for you. I knew I belonged somewhere, with someone that I loved, I just didn't know where to find you."
Tears streamed down her cheeks at his confession. Warmth filled her heart and a loving smile spread across her lips.
Desperately hungry for her Angel's lips.
Her hand reached up and caressed his stubbly cheek, a moment later it moved to the back of his head, tangling in his naturally spiky hair. The need hit, and she pulled his head down hard, crushing his mouth against hers.
Raw need filling her, her body demanding to feel him, to know that he was really here, alive.
His lips were just as hungry as hers; being denied her for a week had left this junkie in need of a fix.
They both needed far more from one another than one simple kiss could provide, no matter how deep and passionate it was.
However, it would have to hold them over for a little while more.
He was still injured and both of them where still physically and emotionally exhausted, and most importantly, they were sitting in the living room with many prying eyes.
Best to keep their love life behind closed doors.
The kiss was interrupted by a firm thump from within Buffy's belly. "Oh feel!" She grabbed her husband's hand and held it over her womb as their child kicked.
A smile washed over Angel's lips, "God I missed that too."
Both of them sat in silence after their passionate reunited kiss and their baby within settled down, both content to be wrapped in each other's arms and just enjoying being close to the one they loved.
After a few minutes Angel finally asked, "This was my funeral? Wasn't it?"
Buffy looked away from him and replied "No" quickly, too quickly.
He kept his eyes on her, she felt them.
After a few minutes she caved, "Ok so yeah, maybe we were having a little ceremony, but I never really believed you were dead." She looked at him, "I would know." Her hand caressed his cheek, "I would feel it."
He flashed her his smirking half smile, "And you felt after a few days you're ready to bury me? Nice." He'd meant it as a joke.
Except Buffy was stricken.
The tears that suddenly filled her eyes were evidence enough she didn't find it funny.
'Shit, smooth move dumbass.' He immediately let the humor go, "Buffy I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. Exhaustion is making me stupid." He said quickly, mentally kicking himself for saying something like that even now, he knew she'd been a wreck over his disappearance.
She sniffled and buried her face in his shoulder, needing his comfort, despite the emotion originating from him to begin with. It was also comical how much he could driver her nuts, and need him just as much with the same breath.
He painfully reached for the tissue box on the end table and handed one to her, his damaged shoulder protesting.
She blew her nose then resumed her snuggle, not actually willing to move away from him, even if she wanted to slug him.
His arms wrapped tightly around her, ignoring any pain the action stirred. "I'm sorry." He repeated into her ear, looking for forgiveness. The very last thing he wanted right now was his wife angry at him.
With her face still against his warm skin, "I know, it's…not what you said, not really. It's just…the stress I've been under and crazy whacked out hormones…the reality that you actually could…die." She almost sobbed the last word.
He held her even tighter, "Hey, I'm right here, I didn't die." He said firmly to her, forcing her to look up and meet his eyes.
"I know, and you're not allowed to." She leaned over and kissed him again, not as frenzied as before, but with the same depth and meaning.
Reaching for his left hand, she squeezed it tightly in hers, wanting as much contact as possible.
He felt her wedding ring pressing against his naked finger.
When the kiss ended so they could breathe, he gently removed his hand from hers and looked down at it, not seeing the symbol of his marriage to her adorning his finger.
"Buffy, I don't know how to even being to apologize for it, but I lost my ring." He whispered apologetically and with deep remorse. 'So much for promising to not removing it while still having that finger. Can I ever keep a promise?'
Instead of the hurt and anger he expected, she smiled and reached down her shirt, pulling her mother's day necklace free.
His eyes widened when he saw his wedding band dangling from the chain above the charm.
"Lucky for you, I found it." She told him as she slipped the ring off the chain and lovingly slid it back where it belonged.
Watching her slip the ring in place brought back their wedding again, seeing her that day in white, holding his hand just like she was now. 'With these hands I give you my heart, and crown it with my love'
He felt his own eyes mist at the relief she'd kept it safe for him.
Her fingers lingered on his a moment, also remembering their wedding day.
His fist closed tight, keeping the ring secured on his hand. 'This time it better stay there...'
"How? Where?" He asked her after a moment, still astonished she had his ring and needing to know how she got it.
It didn't take long to explain to him how they found his ring in the ash pile in the hospital bed, where his belongings sat untouched and where his trail had run cold.
He nodded, understand full well why they had thought him dead, the only way someone could take his ring would be to literally pry it off his cold, dead finger. "That vampire must have pulled it off while we fought." He said sadly. "I should have known to look for it, but my mind was too muddled to function."
"You have it now." Their lips met briefly again before she leaned back against him.
Unable to stop rubbing his thumb reassuringly over the silver circle, he told her " For days I was rubbing my finger, I just didn't know why. Even though I didn't have my memories of it, I still knew I was missing it."
Kissing the top of her head, he added, "And missing you."
"I know the feeling." Came her reply.
"So." Cassidy broke up the touchy moment as she came into the room to check on her patient, "How are the ribs?"
"Fine." The living vampire lied, having no intention of making Buffy move away from him.
"Huh." Cass send him a I-know-you're-lying look, "Funny, you don't usually wince so much when not in pain."
Buffy sat up off him and whipped a lecture at him, "Don't let me lean on you if it hurts! All you have to say is 'ouch, that hurts' and I won't do it. Now lie back down before I knock you out."
"Okay, okay, don't bite my head off." He sent his wife a half amused, half scared look as he gingerly settled back down, "You know, you're supposed to me on my side, it's Cass that yells at me."
"I was on your side, which is still broken...that's the problem." Buffy countered Angel's complaint, helping him lay back down and making sure his head was back in her lap.
"For the record, I don't yell, I order." Smirking at them, Cassidy checked her patient over again, assuring herself he was well on the road to recovery but having a little fun with him while she could.
Despite the playful banter, Angel slipped back to sleep not long after he was horizontal again, his body still weary from both his ordeal and the strain of healing so many injuries spanning over the last few days.
When Buffy opened her eyes, she realized she'd dozed off herself again. 'Damn it, all I've done since he came back was sleep...granted I likely slept 10 total hours the week he was missing.'
Her returned spouse was still stretched out on the couch, his head still in her lap, his eyes closed, breathing slow and deep.
It was a good sound, his body automatically cycling the natural in and out rhythm without the added sounds of fluid obstructing the internal pathways or of grinding bone. His chest moved freely as he inhaled and exhaled, the bandages covering his ribs tightening and loosening with each breath.
Watchful hazel-green eyes traced over his face, noting the earlier deathly pallor had faded as color returned to his cheeks, but his skin tone still looked paler than it should be. What caught her eyes was the bruising along his jaw, around his left eye, his nose and it continued further as her gaze followed down his exposed areas of his chest, arms and abdomen where it ended at the lip of his pants.
'Those aren't his pants.' She thought curiously, wondering where he got the once khaki slacks that were now stained closer to black with dirt and dried blood.
Angel helped her a lot with chores, even when she wasn't pregnant, but even if she didn't wash the laundry all the time she still knew most of his clothes, a majority of them she'd purchased in order to freshen up his somewhat bland wardrobe.
Angel owned exactly one pair of light colored pants, and those were gray. Buffy had long ago discovered Angel and light colors didn't mix. He might look sexy in a white shirt, but he also got it dirty in like 3 seconds. Not only that, she could tell by how he wore the slacks they were actually too big, the way they hung around his waist and too short as they ended slightly above his ankles.
Cass had cut the pant legs earlier, to access the highly swollen knee, but the swelling had receded since and all that was left were more bruises, which although not life threatening, still upset Buffy because they hadn't healed yet.
Her thoughts were dispersed as Cassidy cleared her throat, apparently the medic had been sitting quietly in the adjacent chair, likely checking in on her patient, or perhaps just sitting as there wasn't much going on in the Summer's home now that the funeral was a bust.
Wanting to talk to the doctor but not wanting to disturb the subject of the discussion, Buffy called upon her slayer skills to maneuver her pregnancy belly out from under her spouse without waking him.
She almost succeeded, but when she failed to regain her balance, Angel's hand reached out and propping her up before she fell back down onto him. With a groggy voice, he asked where she was going.
Using his arm to help stabilize herself, she leaned over and planted a kiss on his forehead, "Go back to sleep. I need to get up for a while, someone is using my bladder for kickboxing practice again, then I really need to take the bump for a walk and stretch my legs."
Those dark eyes opened for a moment before he groaned in defeat of losing his self-warming pillow.
Smiling, she kissed him again and tucked a throw pillow under his head and the blanket back around him after her movement dislodged it. It didn't escape her notice that lack of growls that usually accompanied his protests.
Satisfied he was settled, Buffy grabbed a hold of Cassidy's arm and practically dragged the woman with her out of the living room, though the kitchen and out the back door onto the little porch.
"Thought you had to pee." The redhead pointed out, folding her arms as Buffy turned to face her.
"That can wait." However the statement ended almost immediately as a developing foot drove down onto the abused organ again. With a stifled groan, the blonde ran back into the house muttering, "No...no it can't!"
A few minutes later, Buffy returned, not looking at all relaxed, and dove right into why she dragged the still smirking woman out into the cool evening, "So? How is he? Angel doesn't seem to be healing anymore, those bruises were there when he came in and they haven't faded at all. I'm not sure I can even feel his demon, what if it's dormant again? He's not going to get sick, is he? I just got him back Cassidy, I can't deal with anything else right now."
The medic blinked her grey eyes a moment, "Did you take a breath during all that?"
Throwing the slightly older woman an annoyed glance, it was the blonde's turn to fold her arms over her chest.
Shaking her head, Cassidy relaxed her position and leaned back against the rail, "Buffy, it doesn't have to be instant, but he is healing. If he wasn't, he'd have been dead hours ago. Trust me when I say the difference between the condition he came home in and now is night and day. I listened to his lungs earlier, they're clear. His vitals are stable. It's not unusual for his healing to slow after sustained usage, he must have depleted his energy reserves already and used up the blood to fix his lungs and ribs, that's all. I'm sure the demon is just recharging. In my honest opinion, Angel's fine."
When Angel said he was fine, there was usually a problem, but Cassidy's medical conclusions held a significant amount of weight in Buffy's book.
"Fine is okay, but I'd rather have him at 100%." The worried wife muttered, absently rubbing her hand over swollen belly as she thought about the injuries her husband was still sporting.
"He'll get there, just give his body and demon time to recover. Bruises may be uncomfortable and visually unappealing but are far from lethal."
Sighing, the slayer nodded, "I know, I just..." She thought a moment before continuing, moving over to Angel's grill at the edge of the porch and running her hand over the cover, "I think I knew deep inside he wasn't dead, but I was beginning to think I would never see him again. I really just want this whole last week to not have happened, I want everything to go back to normal... including Angel."
Cassidy thought about pointing out that Angel being hurt was in fact fairly normal, but remained silent to avoid any pregnancy charged slayer-strengthened backlash.
A whoosh of small feet flew past as a giggling Katie and Liam charged out the back door and into the backyard. A few moment later, their biologic grandfather hurried though the door, looking around as he called out, "Ready or not, here I come!"
When his eyes fell on his daughter and Cassidy looking at him with raise eyebrows, his grin faltered and his cheeks reddened, "Oh, sorry, didn't think anyone was out here."
"You're fine. Anything that tires them out without injuries is automatically acceptable in my book." The young mother said around a smile, enjoying seeing her father interacting with her children as it brought back a collection of fond memories from her own youth.
He'd been in her life a few times since the coffee meeting, joining her, Angel and Dawn for dinner once, then against with the kids, but with the chaos of running a demon hunting business, she hadn't had spent as much time as she'd wanted to with him, especially during her pregnancy.
Cassidy grabbed a folded yard chair from the pile on the side of the house and made her way down the few steps onto the grass beyond, "I'll go make sure there are no fatalities."
With the kids being watched, Buffy took a few minutes to fill her father in on Angel's current condition when he asked, but as she spoke Dawn and Xander came out to see what was going on.
Before she knew it, they were all sitting out on the lawn in the cooling early evening air, talking and watching the kids chasing each other around, the little ones catching various insects or cycling though a slew of toys.
Not long after, Willow, Oz and Giles returned with the news that the demon that attacked Angel had already been slain by the living demon some time ago.
Feeling let down by the anti-climactic findings, the three opted to join the others as the sun slowly sank further down from the sky, leaving the horizon a bright swirl of reds, pinks and purples.
"So where is Angel anyways?" Xander asked, having just come back out from the kitchen with a case of beers he'd found the garage.
"The couch, asleep." Buffy responded, her attention caught quickly by the tone of Xander's voice, "Isn't he?"
The dark haired young man looked back, his one eye looking around at those surrounding him, "Uhh, not unless he can turn invisible."
Buffy was already pulling herself up out of the low chair to investigate, a mix of worry and annoyance blending inside as she went to check on her spouse. 'Really need to install LoJack on that man.'
Entering the kitchen, she took the few steps though to the opening in the wall between the two rooms. Xander hadn't missed seeing the living vampire due to a blind spot, the couch was indeed empty.
Background noise filtered though her thoughts, the sound of water running.
Casting a glance to the left, the door to the downstairs bathroom was open, the small room dark. He wasn't in there.
Looking up at the top of the stairs, she quickly ascended to find their bedroom door partly closed.
Not bothering to knock as she could clearly hear the shower now, she slipped inside and shut the door behind her, her hazel-green eyes watching the steam drifting out from the joined bathroom door across the room.
'Okay, so a shower wasn't really such a terrible idea, he really did need one.' Not only was the poor guy covered in his own blood, but various demon bloods, dirt from the fights and an ample amount of sewer contents.
As a bonus, since Angel wasn't fully healed yet, that meant her playing nurse was so totally an option. Giving her absent and thought-dead lover a nice long sponge bath sounded like a great way to become reintroduced. Or maybe just a quick pick me up in the shower with him.
Her sexy thoughts were dashed as the water turned off before she could turn the knob.
'Rats! Okay fine, be that way.' She frowned, then figured she could help him dress at least and went to his dresser to find him something clean and comfortable to wear.
After waiting for him on the bed for a few minutes, she got worried and called out to him, "Angel? You okay in there?"
"Yeah." Came a short reply, which sounded odd to her.
Deciding to see for herself, she reached the door in a few steps and twisted, relieved he hadn't locked it.
A cloud of steam drifted passed as she entered the decent sized room, the warmth felt like a repeat of the summer heat from the last few days.
Her husband was standing at the sink, back to her, the towel wrapped around his waist was covering some of his best masculine parts.
Most of his face was hidden under a layer of shaving cream.
"Guess you don't really need a mirror to do that." Buffy commented as she noticed the mirror was completely fogged over.
"Not so much." He replied, trying to not speak as he was currently running the blade over his throat. A few hundred years of not casting a reflection made him fairly good at doing this by feel.
She might have left him to his chore, but she could tell he was having trouble raising his left arm due to the wound in his shoulder. The punctures were closed, but his skin still showed angry red marks where the punctures had been.
In fact, as she looked him over her stomach tightened, the heat had brought even more bruises to the surface, making it had to tell where one bruise started and another began.
"Damn it, you look even worse now." She couldn't help herself, his body just looked like one giant ball of abuse.
"Thanks." He muttered somewhat sarcastically. He felt like crap, but at least he didn't smell like it anymore.
Closing the distance between them, she waited for a safe moment and snatched the razor from him.
"Hey." He began to protest but she cut him off, "Sit."
He looked back at her a moment, not exactly knowing what she wanted. "I'd like to finish shaving first."
"You can't even lift your arm, now sit before I make you." There was no arguing with her tone.
With a groan, he shook his head before relenting and carefully lowering himself down onto the closed toilet seat.
"How are your ribs?" Buffy asked, gently probing and watching his face for signs of distress.
"Honestly? Just about everything hurts and I wouldn't mind a week long nap." He just wasn't in the mood to sugar coat, nor did he had the ambition to lie about it.
Right about now, she wanted to pull him into her arms and rock him like a newborn. However the act would not only likely hurt him because of his injures, but his face was still covered in cream. Also, he likely wouldn't enjoy being treated like an infant, something to do with demon and manliness.
"I promise, I'll make you forget about the pain later tonight, okay? But right now, let's clean you up." She brought the razor up with the intention of clearing the left side of his face, however, the living demon pulled back, "Whoa, really rather not have my throat slit on top of everything else this week."
Frowning at his reaction, Buffy's hands went to her hips, "I'm not going to cut you."
"How often have you done that?" He questioned back, eyeing the straight edge and knowing his wife was capable enough when it came to any and all weaponry, but there was still something highly unnerving about a slayer wielding a blade against his face and neck...
"Angel, I've been shaving since I was ten, besides, I've done this before...you might not have been conscious, but I did give you a shave a time or two when you were sick." The slayer pointed out, not amused at him shying away from her.
He watched her for a moment, his head still feeling light from the heat and hot air of the shower. "I don't know...more blood loss really wouldn't help me right now."
"Shut up and tilt your head back." She ordered, applying an additional dollop of shaving cream to her hand before slapping it, a little roughly out of annoyance, on his face. She at least made sure not to add unneeded pressure to any areas already sporting color.
Angel's jaw clenched, but he did as he was told, it was just easier to go with the flow as opposed to fighting the current. Especially when the current was holding an extremely sharp blade an inch from his jugular.
After a few tense moments, he relaxed to the feel of the razor running smoothly over his skin.
True to her word, there were no 'oops' and his skin remained uncut.
As she was nearing the end of her task, she noticed his eyes had slipped shut.
With a winning grin, she finished her last stroke before attacking any missed spots.
Finally, she put the razor down and grabbed another towel from the rack, dampening it so she could wash the leftover cream from his face.
The towel seemed to revive him a little, and as his misty eyes opened she understood he was half asleep already.
"Let's get you dressed and into bed." She told him and she helped him back to his feet.
"Bed and dressed don't go hand and hand." He mumbled, leaning against her more for the feel of her that need for support.
"Well you can't be that bad off if you're thinking about sex." She mused, finding way more enjoyment in dressing her spouse with the clothes she'd had laid out earlier than was strictly necessary.
'Granted nothing beats undressing him.' She smiled to herself as she thought about all the times she'd started a pleasant evening by disrobing her spouse.
While reading her expression, he grinned as he watched her cheeks flushing with heat. "Thinking about getting me naked again already?" His eyebrows wiggled at her as he thought about how it would feel to wrap her bare form in his arms. The thought of his wife naked always made him feel better.
She gave him a annoyed glare, but failed at it. "You be quiet."
After he was dressed, she was preparing to tuck him into their bed when he abruptly turned and headed for the door.
"Hey! You and bed are having a meeting, don't make me drag you into it." The now actually annoyed wife called as she went after him.
"I'll sleep later, right now I need something else." His right hand was on the doorknob when she grabbed his other wrist.
"Like what?" she demanded.
"Food."
As he said it, his stomach made one of those unearthly growls.
"Okay, fine, hard to argue with the sound." But instead of allowing him to leave the room, she tugged back at his arm, "I'll bring something up, go lay down."
He turned back to her, shaking his head, "Oh no, food coming to me takes way longer than me going to food."
There was a slight tug-of-war game going on between the two while Buffy tried to persuade her bullheaded husband to rest.
"It only takes me two minutes." She defended, simultaneously blocking the exit while prodding at the few non-bruised areas of her spouse's body in the direction of the bed.
Angel scoffed, "Not if the kids distract you. And more often than not, you take a bite, if not eat half, before I even get it."
"You jerk, I do not!" Her anger was mostly fueled by embarrassment due to his statement being completely true. "And okay, so even if I do, I am over here creating a human being inside me, your child to be exact, pretty sure that grants me a cosmic pass on taking a bite of your food."
He stopped resisting for a moment, causing her tug to pull him right up against her, which he took advantage of by wrapping his arms around her swollen waist, "Okay, oaky. Creating life does absolve you of a lot, so I'll let you get away with eating my food...but no more than half."
Thinking she won, she grinned at him, "Good to know you weren't hit hard enough to not see reason. Now lay down and I'll bring you up a half a peanut butter and jelly."
Instead of him sitting down on the bed as she planned he would, he used the momentum to swing her gently around and backwards onto the bed as he headed for the door, "Sharing has its moments, but right now I'm starved and I'll get a whole sandwich if I make it myself."
"Angel!" She barked out at him, annoyed at being out maneuvered. 'That only worked because my center of balance if off.' By the time she was able to regain footing and lift up from the bed, he was already on the stairs heading down. With a huff, she followed after him.
...