p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Buffy found herself on autopilot, not even realizing where she was heading until she got there./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She supposed it made sense to run to Angel in her time of need, not that she was sure how this reunion between them would go., the last couple of times their paths had crossed had been rather tragic if you asked her. They hadn't even spoken now in quite some time by this point. They both agreed it was still a little too painful to keep in close contact with everything./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Buffy felt her mind drifting away from her, her thoughts going back to those meetings, and glimpses of memories of them back in their happier times, but she was pulled back into the present by suddenly hearing a familiar voice. "Well, isn't it the little school girl?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Buffy turned around, her face showing her surprise temporarily. Darla, back from the dead, was hardly the strangest thing she'd come across in her young life so far. Buffy's slayer instincts were well intact despite her current state of distress and reminded her of what few weapons she had on her, also her brain making note of what she could use around her. It was the rest of her that was the mess./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I bet you're wondering, huh?" Darla asked. "How I got back from hell to be standing here before you now."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""No, not really," Buffy eventually replied, feeling her head growing fuzzy again./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Darla paid her no mind though, taking on that sly cockiness she was so good at as she tried to explain her return./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Buffy let her mind drift as the vampire spoke, the horrors that led her back to LA slowly replaying in her mind. Opening the door, making some comment about the flowers her mother had gotten, the feeling of her heart giving out as she spotted her mother on the sofa, that look on Joyce's face... Finding her mother dead.../p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Buffy looked up at Darla, seeking the blonde give her infamous arrogant half smirk. Then she took the worst time to bring up their last run in with one another. Bringing up Angel having staked his former flame in order to save her wasn't so bad, but bringing up what had gone on with Joyce was another story./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Then, one second she was there, the next Darla was a pile of dust./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Buffy's eyes widened as she looked at the shocked face Darla gave right before, and her eyes drifted to the stake clutched in her hands./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She hardly even remembered grabbing it./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Quickly dropping it, she took several steps back, swallowing hard. The very human side of her felt like having a breakdown, feeling tired of death right now. Buffy's head began to shake from side to side slowly, tears reforming in her very tired and itchy eyes./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"OoOoO/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"After the big hubbub back at the law offices of Wolfram And Hart, Angel was feeling lost, defeated. The words from the dead - undead - whatever he was, Holland Manners, echoing in his brain as he headed back to the hotel. For the first time since Whistler came to recruit him, Angel felt he was left without a purpose./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"As he walked the dirty streets of LA, Angel had a number of dark thoughts cross his mind. It was almost Angelus-type dark at times, but that was just where he was right now. Everything from wishing the world would burn to just disappearing and leaving someone else to fight the good fight to waking up with the sun crossed his mind as he went./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Angel found himself back home before he was ready but went on inside anyway./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He could hear Kate's voice as soon as he walked in the door and followed the trail slowly to get to where the phone and answering machine were. He could hear the despair in her voice, he knew something was wrong in his very core, but in that moment... he honestly could not bring himself to care. Not about her, about whatever was going on, about anything./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He stood there for a good long while before walking away from the desk, and he began to walk aimlessly through the large hotel where he resided and formally worked. It felt so empty without Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn. There were traces of them everywhere, and even more memories than physical reminders./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Angel passed a photo of Doyle that Cordelia must have forgotten and felt a tug on his unbeating heart. 'Did he die for absolutely nothing?' the vampire wondered, then thought of the countless others who had given their lives to fight against evil, to help him or he had helped. There was a very short list of those who'd meant as much as Doyle had, and now he wondered if the choices the demon had made were the right ones.. or more so, if they had even mattered to a single thing in the grand scheme of things./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"If anything any of them had done had./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Closing his eyes tightly, he walked away, continuing through the hotel./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"OoOoO/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Even blocks away Angel had felt her presence, though he both ignored it and thought he might have just been dreaming it up. It seemed a little too on the nose for Buffy to be here now, when he was losing himself, needing her more than he had in a long time. That feeling grew as he'd walked through the Hyperion but he still refused to actually believe it. But now, as he walked into his bedroom he couldn't deny it any longer./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Angel's fists clenched at his sides and he was nearly shaking as he spotted her. She was hunkered down against the wall in one corner of the room, looking nothing like the girl he'd known and given his heart to so long ago./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Buffy?" he said, his voice almost a whisper. "What are you doing here?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She didn't respond at first, just continued to stare off ahead, her eyes blank./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He stared at the ghost of the girl for several more minutes before walking over to her. "Buffy?" he tried again./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She continued to just sit there. She was no longer crying but he could see the streaks down her face from where tears had fallen not too long ago, her eyes were red, her skin looked clamy, and she looked like she could just throw up at anytime. He could feel the anguish pouring from her by the bucketful, mixing beautifully with his own./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Standing before her, he suddenly reached down, grabbing her by the shoulders and hoisting her up like she was a ragdoll. "Buffy?" he tried again, his voice harder now. He waited a moment then tried again. When there was still no response from her, he growled, his hands digging harder into her flesh and he pushed her into the wall with some force and yelled her name once more./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"This time, she showed some sign of life. Her face remained eerily blank but her head did turn up some, her eyes slowly meeting his. Only these weren't the bright, shining emerald ones of the girl he loved but rather the slayer inside of her./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What happened?" Angel questioned, his voice still hard. "What are you doing here?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She remained silent for a long while but as he was getting ready to force some life out of her again, her mouth opened. Her voice was lifeless as the rest of her and she was speaking about herself in the third person but at least it was something. He was given an overview of what was going on back in Sunnydale this way with the situation with Dawn and Glory as well as what had happened to Joyce. Tears began to form when she spoke of her mother, falling in big droplets from her eyes./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Angel closed his eyes, putting his cold forehead to hers. He and Joyce Summers may not have had the best relationship in this world but he had always liked her, had always respected her, and this news hit him in the gut. He couldn't imagine what this might be like for the slayer before him. Her life went hand in hand with death these days but this was too human, too close to home for her./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"In the emotionless voice, she continued after a brief pause. She went on to tell him about what had happened after they took Joyce's body... about how she just walked out the door, found herself here, and eventually went on to tell him what had transpired between her and Darla./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I think I feel everything... yet nothing at the same time," she whispered, sounding more like Buffy for the first time. "How do I make it stop?" she asked, her tiny body starting to shake as sobs started coming in./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"A very dark thought passed through the vampire's mind just then, one he couldn't shake away in his own state of mind. He sucked in an unneeded breath then his hands left her shoulders to grab at the sides of her face. He tilted her head back up towards him then quickly crashed against her, his lips crushing into hers, his hard body pressing her into the wall./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"With whatever part of her brain that still seemed to be functioning, Buffy tried pushing him away as their session heated up. "What are you doing?" she'd asked him./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He'd growled in response, pinning her arms above her head. "I need to feel something. Anything."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He expected a fight or at least her trying to talk some sense into him, but neither came. She surrendered to him as much as he did to her. There was no caring about any consequences, about what this would mean for them, it was all just instinct, pure need for one another./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"In that moment he didn't care about anything else./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Clothes were quickly stripped away and discarded, their bodies being thrown into walls, doors, on top of furniture as they went. They fell together on the bed, his body blanketing hers. One hand slid in between her thighs, fingers finding their way to her silky core. He groaned at the contact with her wetness while she threw her head back and arched her body against him./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Now, Angel, please," she was soon begging him and he didn't need to be told twice./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Angel kissed her hard, drawing blood as their bodies became one. It felt like nothing short of home to be tangled up with her like this. His hands found their way to her wrists again, holding them down against the blue sheets on either side of her head. His eyes were fixed on her face, watching as she slowly came back to him, a fire lighting inside of her as they moved together./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"That alone began clearing his own darkness some as well, reminding him that he did have a purpose in the end, no matter what had happened. Having her here with him like this reminded him that as long as she was walking this earth he would always have something left to keep fighting for./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"span style="text-decoration: underline;"THE END./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She supposed it made sense to run to Angel in her time of need, not that she was sure how this reunion between them would go., the last couple of times their paths had crossed had been rather tragic if you asked her. They hadn't even spoken now in quite some time by this point. They both agreed it was still a little too painful to keep in close contact with everything./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Buffy felt her mind drifting away from her, her thoughts going back to those meetings, and glimpses of memories of them back in their happier times, but she was pulled back into the present by suddenly hearing a familiar voice. "Well, isn't it the little school girl?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Buffy turned around, her face showing her surprise temporarily. Darla, back from the dead, was hardly the strangest thing she'd come across in her young life so far. Buffy's slayer instincts were well intact despite her current state of distress and reminded her of what few weapons she had on her, also her brain making note of what she could use around her. It was the rest of her that was the mess./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I bet you're wondering, huh?" Darla asked. "How I got back from hell to be standing here before you now."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""No, not really," Buffy eventually replied, feeling her head growing fuzzy again./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Darla paid her no mind though, taking on that sly cockiness she was so good at as she tried to explain her return./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Buffy let her mind drift as the vampire spoke, the horrors that led her back to LA slowly replaying in her mind. Opening the door, making some comment about the flowers her mother had gotten, the feeling of her heart giving out as she spotted her mother on the sofa, that look on Joyce's face... Finding her mother dead.../p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Buffy looked up at Darla, seeking the blonde give her infamous arrogant half smirk. Then she took the worst time to bring up their last run in with one another. Bringing up Angel having staked his former flame in order to save her wasn't so bad, but bringing up what had gone on with Joyce was another story./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Then, one second she was there, the next Darla was a pile of dust./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Buffy's eyes widened as she looked at the shocked face Darla gave right before, and her eyes drifted to the stake clutched in her hands./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She hardly even remembered grabbing it./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Quickly dropping it, she took several steps back, swallowing hard. The very human side of her felt like having a breakdown, feeling tired of death right now. Buffy's head began to shake from side to side slowly, tears reforming in her very tired and itchy eyes./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"OoOoO/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"After the big hubbub back at the law offices of Wolfram And Hart, Angel was feeling lost, defeated. The words from the dead - undead - whatever he was, Holland Manners, echoing in his brain as he headed back to the hotel. For the first time since Whistler came to recruit him, Angel felt he was left without a purpose./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"As he walked the dirty streets of LA, Angel had a number of dark thoughts cross his mind. It was almost Angelus-type dark at times, but that was just where he was right now. Everything from wishing the world would burn to just disappearing and leaving someone else to fight the good fight to waking up with the sun crossed his mind as he went./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Angel found himself back home before he was ready but went on inside anyway./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He could hear Kate's voice as soon as he walked in the door and followed the trail slowly to get to where the phone and answering machine were. He could hear the despair in her voice, he knew something was wrong in his very core, but in that moment... he honestly could not bring himself to care. Not about her, about whatever was going on, about anything./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He stood there for a good long while before walking away from the desk, and he began to walk aimlessly through the large hotel where he resided and formally worked. It felt so empty without Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn. There were traces of them everywhere, and even more memories than physical reminders./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Angel passed a photo of Doyle that Cordelia must have forgotten and felt a tug on his unbeating heart. 'Did he die for absolutely nothing?' the vampire wondered, then thought of the countless others who had given their lives to fight against evil, to help him or he had helped. There was a very short list of those who'd meant as much as Doyle had, and now he wondered if the choices the demon had made were the right ones.. or more so, if they had even mattered to a single thing in the grand scheme of things./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"If anything any of them had done had./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Closing his eyes tightly, he walked away, continuing through the hotel./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"OoOoO/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Even blocks away Angel had felt her presence, though he both ignored it and thought he might have just been dreaming it up. It seemed a little too on the nose for Buffy to be here now, when he was losing himself, needing her more than he had in a long time. That feeling grew as he'd walked through the Hyperion but he still refused to actually believe it. But now, as he walked into his bedroom he couldn't deny it any longer./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Angel's fists clenched at his sides and he was nearly shaking as he spotted her. She was hunkered down against the wall in one corner of the room, looking nothing like the girl he'd known and given his heart to so long ago./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Buffy?" he said, his voice almost a whisper. "What are you doing here?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She didn't respond at first, just continued to stare off ahead, her eyes blank./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He stared at the ghost of the girl for several more minutes before walking over to her. "Buffy?" he tried again./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She continued to just sit there. She was no longer crying but he could see the streaks down her face from where tears had fallen not too long ago, her eyes were red, her skin looked clamy, and she looked like she could just throw up at anytime. He could feel the anguish pouring from her by the bucketful, mixing beautifully with his own./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Standing before her, he suddenly reached down, grabbing her by the shoulders and hoisting her up like she was a ragdoll. "Buffy?" he tried again, his voice harder now. He waited a moment then tried again. When there was still no response from her, he growled, his hands digging harder into her flesh and he pushed her into the wall with some force and yelled her name once more./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"This time, she showed some sign of life. Her face remained eerily blank but her head did turn up some, her eyes slowly meeting his. Only these weren't the bright, shining emerald ones of the girl he loved but rather the slayer inside of her./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What happened?" Angel questioned, his voice still hard. "What are you doing here?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She remained silent for a long while but as he was getting ready to force some life out of her again, her mouth opened. Her voice was lifeless as the rest of her and she was speaking about herself in the third person but at least it was something. He was given an overview of what was going on back in Sunnydale this way with the situation with Dawn and Glory as well as what had happened to Joyce. Tears began to form when she spoke of her mother, falling in big droplets from her eyes./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Angel closed his eyes, putting his cold forehead to hers. He and Joyce Summers may not have had the best relationship in this world but he had always liked her, had always respected her, and this news hit him in the gut. He couldn't imagine what this might be like for the slayer before him. Her life went hand in hand with death these days but this was too human, too close to home for her./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"In the emotionless voice, she continued after a brief pause. She went on to tell him about what had happened after they took Joyce's body... about how she just walked out the door, found herself here, and eventually went on to tell him what had transpired between her and Darla./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I think I feel everything... yet nothing at the same time," she whispered, sounding more like Buffy for the first time. "How do I make it stop?" she asked, her tiny body starting to shake as sobs started coming in./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"A very dark thought passed through the vampire's mind just then, one he couldn't shake away in his own state of mind. He sucked in an unneeded breath then his hands left her shoulders to grab at the sides of her face. He tilted her head back up towards him then quickly crashed against her, his lips crushing into hers, his hard body pressing her into the wall./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"With whatever part of her brain that still seemed to be functioning, Buffy tried pushing him away as their session heated up. "What are you doing?" she'd asked him./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He'd growled in response, pinning her arms above her head. "I need to feel something. Anything."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He expected a fight or at least her trying to talk some sense into him, but neither came. She surrendered to him as much as he did to her. There was no caring about any consequences, about what this would mean for them, it was all just instinct, pure need for one another./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"In that moment he didn't care about anything else./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Clothes were quickly stripped away and discarded, their bodies being thrown into walls, doors, on top of furniture as they went. They fell together on the bed, his body blanketing hers. One hand slid in between her thighs, fingers finding their way to her silky core. He groaned at the contact with her wetness while she threw her head back and arched her body against him./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Now, Angel, please," she was soon begging him and he didn't need to be told twice./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Angel kissed her hard, drawing blood as their bodies became one. It felt like nothing short of home to be tangled up with her like this. His hands found their way to her wrists again, holding them down against the blue sheets on either side of her head. His eyes were fixed on her face, watching as she slowly came back to him, a fire lighting inside of her as they moved together./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"That alone began clearing his own darkness some as well, reminding him that he did have a purpose in the end, no matter what had happened. Having her here with him like this reminded him that as long as she was walking this earth he would always have something left to keep fighting for./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"span style="text-decoration: underline;"THE END./span/p