Chapter 17

Something Other Than the Cold

Buffy ran back over to Angel's side, looking terrified and ready to do some serious damage to the remaining demons who had made the mistake of messing with her sister.

"Angel, can you stand?"

"Not really sure, but-"

"Buffy, take care of my dad. I'm going after Dawn." Connor was turning to run when Angel moved and knocked him to the ground in a swift swipe at Connor's legs. Connor went down easily not expecting this sudden attack from his father.

"Angel, what the hell are you doing?" Buffy screamed as she made her way toward the boy lying on the ground. Angel sprung off the ground with a pain filled grunt, before Connor was able to get over the shock of his father's attack.

"Sorry Connor." Buffy backed away at Angel's apology as he leaned down and grabbed Connor by the collar and lifted him up. Catching both Connor and Buffy off-guard again, Angel punched his son until he lost consciousness.

As Connor's limp body fell to the ground, Buffy landed a hard kick squarely to Angel's wound, sending him to the ground next to his son.

"You even think about getting up and I put you down again."

"Buffy, you don't understand-"

"What I understand is that I just watched you beat your own son into unconsciousness, limiting our chances of getting Dawn back alive. If she dies-"

"I wouldn't let that happen, you know that"

"Obviously I don't know anything right now! I just came to visit my sister and her normal though secretive boyfriend and instead I find a fight, you, and your eighteen year old son that I knew nothing about-"

"Buffy, I can expl-"

"-who is human, or at least not a vampire. I mean, I did the no invites, the blazing sun…I even considered decapitation but figured that was a hard recover if I were wrong. Believe me. I made sure…you know, given my track record…

"Buffy, I know this is all a shock. I certainly wasn't expecting to meet Dawn as Connor's girlfriend and you as her hot older sister, but it can all be explained."

"Connor said I was hot? Never mind, I don't have time to make sense of any of this right now, because I have to go save my sister, again!"

Angel grabbed Buffy as she moved to go after Dawn, bringing her down hard on top of him. She turned in his arms landing more than a few painful blows before he was able to pin her to the ground beneath him. They both knew he couldn't hold her there, wounded or not she was stronger than he was. But the look in his eyes stilled her. They had always been able to read one another, and this was no exception.

"Ok, fine. Tell me why we are still here and not on our way to save Dawn." Buffy started to move to get out from under Angel but stopped at his pain filled words.

"Uh, wounded here! Can we just not move for a minute."

"Fine, but start explaining." Buffy couldn't believe she was here, lying beneath Angel. The last time they were like this, he was draining the life from her, at her command, in order to save himself. These new circumstances were just as desolate, a testament to what they had always been to each other, and probably always would be.

"I had to take out Connor. I wouldn't have been able to convince him to wait."

"And why should he have? Why are we waiting now?"

"Connor can handle himself. I'm not worried about that. But you saw how he reacted to my injuries, he almost got himself killed. I worry that his feelings for Dawn would get him killed and we'd lose both of them. We have no idea how many of them there are, and we lose the advantage as soon as we enter their territory."

"We don't have any other options!" As dire as their situation was, Buffy was having difficulty concentrating with Angel's mouth mere inches above her own. This was definitely not the way she had imagined seeing him again.

"Buffy, we need back-up."

"We don't have time. They could have already killed her by now, while we just laid here discussing theoretic strategy! Now get the hell off of me!" Buffy bucked up hard and didn't stop this time when Angel grunted in pain.

Angel landed hard on his back and yelled up at her from the ground. "You know if they were going to kill her, she'd be lying here dead! Instead they took her."

"Why?"

"They don't want her, they want Connor. It was obvious to them that he would come after her, so they took her to force him to come to them. They figure their turf, their rules. But we are not going to play their game. Instead we play our game by our rules. I'm bringing in reinforcements."

"And my answer to that still hasn't changed, we don't have time." Buffy turned to take off in the direction they had taken Dawn, but stopped short realizing she had no idea where she was going.

"You need me to track her. You won't be able to find her on your own. I can have my team here in less than an hour. One good thing about working at Wolfram & Hart is the transportation plan. Well the 401K's not bad either, but what are the chances I'll ever get to use it."

"Angel! I can't just stand around waiting and wondering if she's alive or dead. We can't be sure they will keep her alive until they get Connor."

"Buffy I am sure about this. Now I have to make this call." Angel sat up and reached painfully for his jacket pocket. "Um, do you think you could pull out my phone for me?"

Connor was beginning to stir on the ground, slowly gaining consciousness.

"Buffy I need to make this call. He tries to go after her, I need you to make sure he understands it isn't an option, no matter how you have to do it."

"Sure, make your call."

Angel pressed a button on the phone, then uttered a name Buffy definitely hadn't been expecting to hear. "Harm-Harmony, I don't have time to help you pick out a nail color. I need to speak to Wes."

Angel looked over at a shocked Buffy. She mouthed Harmony's name with a questioning look at Angel, whose only answer was an irritated shrug of his shoulders.

"Dammit, I am staking her as soon as I get back to the office, she just transferred me into Wes's voicemail. How is it that no one has staked her yet?"

Buffy started to answer him but was cut off when he once again had Harmony on the phone.

"Harmony, your very survival resides on your ability to put Wes on this phone right now. You go and find him if you have to, call every remote contacting device we have in our multi-million dollar land of evil, and get him on the phone- Oh, hey Wes, so how much of that was you and not Harmony? Forget it, doesn't matter. I have a big problem here at Stanford-"

Buffy stood silently listening to Angel's side of the conversation, wondering if they had some sort of portal traveling device that would get them here immediately. Poof, right in front of her.

"Yes, it involves Connor and the demon problem. I need the team here and that book that calls other books thing you have. I'm not sure what kind of demons these are. I've never fought them before today. But I need everything we can get on them. Wes, they have Dawn."

Buffy thought back on the last time she had seen Wesley her ex-watcher turned, what was it, a rouge demon hunter? He had been with Angel who'd been protecting Faith, from her. Wow, how much things change. Buffy turned her attention back to Angel's phone conversation.

"Yes, Dawn, Buffy's sister. Long story Wes, can't really get into it now. But Connor, Buffy and – Yes, Buffy's here too, another thing I can't get into now. Anyway we are going to start after them as soon as I hang up with you. I'm confident that we can track them and scope out the scene before you get here- Yeah, I realize I may not be able to get a signal to let you know exactly where we are when you get here,"

Angel looked over at Buffy before he continued on. "You're going to have to bring Spike. He can track me, and if for some inexplicable reason he can't, I have no doubt he will be able to track Buffy." Angel's attention returned to Buffy holding her gaze until she looked away as he continued his conversation with Wes.

"Don't worry about trying to get him to be a team player. He'll agree to come as soon as he knows she's here. He'd never miss the opportunity to play hero for her. Make it fast Wes, we're going in now."

Angel hung up the phone and looked over at Buffy and a now slowly awakening Connor who still sat disoriented on the ground next to her.

"I'm figuring you caught most of that. We should go, be ready for them when they get here."

"Angel-"

"If you want to talk about Spike, I'd just rather skip it. I don't really think I want to know how you feel about him coming. If I hadn't needed him, I wouldn't have let him near you."

"Angel-"

"Can we not do this right now Buffy?" Angel turned harshly on her. "I mean it. We don't have time to do that thing that we do."

"What thing would that be, exactly?"

"That thing. Where every time we see each other we're either kissing or fighting, or generally just putting each other through hell."

"I thought that last time we saw each other went well."

"Which part are you thinking about? The kissing, the argument over you and Spike, or the hell that was that damn cookie dough analogy?"

"It was a good analogy!"

"Cookies yet?"

"Fine. We don't have time for the you-and-me-epic-romance-saga-chat right now. I get it. So can we just go and save my sister already?"

Connor got up off the ground, not saying a word to either of them, and picked up a few of the scattered weapons before heading in the direction the demons had taken Dawn. Angel moved to help Connor gather the weapons.

"Connor, I hope you understand why I had to do what I did."

Connor stopped and turned to stand mere inches in front of Angel, a hard look on his face. "What I know, is that if she is hurt, and it is because we waited, the last thing you'll have to worry about is spending three months in a box at the bottom of the ocean."

"I'm going to let that go because you're worried about Dawn, but I wouldn't risk threatening me again. Are we understood?"

Connor just turned and continued to walk ahead of both Buffy and Angel tracking Dawn's scent.

"Box at the bottom of the ocean?"

"Yeah, came in a close second to the hundred years in a hell dimension."

"Wow, then it must've been an eventful three months. So, it seems this super smell thing runs in the family. Want to explain that little shocker along the way?"

"Not really. I think it's best if we just wait for calmer waters, don't you?"

"Well, it's possible we will die horribly tonight and never see those calmer waters, so why not just humor me."

"Fine, what do you want to know?"

"Since vampires can't have children, I think the most obvious question is how?"

"Not really sure, something to do with a prophecy, but doesn't it always? I stopped asking myself how a long time ago."

"Well, he has a mother right."

"Yes."

"OK, then who is she?"

"See, now we're getting into those dangerous waters. I don't think you really want the answer to that question."

"Oh, so I know her."

"Yeah once. Listen Buffy, you have to understand, it was a really dark time for me…and it just happened-"

Connor turned around with a derisive look aimed at Angel. "Oh for God's sake! Could you make this any more dramatic?" Then he turned his attention to Buffy. "It was Darla. She's my mother."

"Darla? The same Darla that tried to get you to kill me and when that didn't work tried to kill me herself. That Darla? Who I watched you dust seven years ago? Your sire, Darla?"

"Yes, that Darla. The hows and whys of her coming back are complicated. But she was human, and I tried to save her. When I failed, they turned her, and I lost it. Ending up in bed with Darla was my wake-up call."

"But Darla?!? Really? I mean she's just – it's Darla"

Angel's response was one word, one deafening word to Buffy's ears. "Spike"

"What?"

"I said, Spike. I just don't think you should be judging me on my less than sane decision, when yours has been the epitome of insanity."

"I already told you it was different, he has a soul."

"Do you think I'm stupid Buffy? I have to deal with Spike in my face on a daily basis, relishing the moments he gets to tell me about the two of you together, what you like, the things you did…" Angel looked away from her, anger seething from him now. "I know he was still evil, he didn't have a soul when you…"

"You couldn't possibly understand what I was going through. Being pulled out of heaven, back into the pain of reality…I just needed, I needed-"

"To feel? To feel something other than the cold?"

"Yes" Buffy whispered, surprised he would know so intimately that which she had been unable to explain to anyone; finding the very words she had spent arduous hours seeking, to give it some semblance of meaning. She looked into his eyes, and saw understanding that could only come from someone who had also been there, lost, in the darkness…in the cold.

They stopped and stood there in silence, both caught in the awareness of their shared experience. Then something finally dawned on Buffy.

"Wait, you didn't lose your soul?"

"What?"

"You didn't lose your soul."

"It seems there is only one woman in this world who can give me a moment of perfect happiness." He had that look in his eyes, the one that always made her feel he was touching her even when he wasn't.

"Angel, I…" Buffy started to move toward him. Angel followed her lead, leaning down intent on taking her mouth with his, just a breath away - until Connor broke their hold.

"Hey, wouldn't want to ruin this inappropriately-timed-moment-given-our-current-circumstances, with a reality check,…but, I think we're here."

A/N - Thanks to all of you for your wonderful reviews. I've appreciated them. I'm glad you enjoyed the meeting, and I hope it wasn't what you were expecting...cause there in lies the fun!