Because nobody likes a vague disclaimer: Characters belong to the fantastical Joss Whedon.

Angel POV. A bit of a longer chapter.

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Chapter III: Body Of A Woman, You Look Like A World Lying in Surrender

from Body Of A Woman by Pablo Neruda

†

The violence of the end lasts about a week after our arrival. Nina does what she can, even despite her lack of experience, and holds her own. She takes to the wounded slayers as Buffy, Faith and I take on the End of Days.

Things don't play out the way I thought they would. The army of slayers turn to Faith for leadership, and Buffy follows suit. She sticks to herself mostly, and while she's deadly lethal, she repeatedly leaves herself exposed.

I recognize the look well though, not by sight, but by memory. With the familiarity of her pain comes the memory of the family I'd also lost, and I promise myself to keep a close eye on her.

As the days pass, and she grows more and more despondent, there is little that I can say that'll she'll even respond to. The emptiness in her eyes frightens me more than they had the time I saw her after she'd been yanked from Heaven.

On that last fateful day, I keep her close as much as possible, but the fight thickens and I can't stop her from moving away, and I lose sight of her. And then Faith nearly goes down, and I stop trying to find her.

Seconds or minutes go by, and she reappears covered in blood that isn't her own, I only know by the blue tinge of it. The next time I steal a glance at Buffy I recognize her resign in the stifled flow of her movements. Knowing the feeling all too well, I make my way closer to her. The steady stream of foes slows my progress, and when I'm momentarily distracted by a particularly nasty F'yorl demon, it happens.

I don't seen the actual moment when she gives up, I only see her bleeding and on the ground after I vanquish the last fiend standing in my way. My eyes flash to her attacker even as my feet rush to her side. A Mohra demon. Despite the way these few seconds seem to decelerate to an almost stand still pace, I don't have time to focus on the irony of the situation.

When I'm upon them, I swing my arms powerfully, my blade connecting with the large ruby on the Mohra's forehead almost of its own accord. But, unlike the one other time I'd faced this particular enemy, it doesn't just crack into light.

Just as the crystal cries out as it's destroyed, a giant white flash appears. Then there's a searing pain like lightning through my chest bringing me to my knees and suddenly my heart is pumping hard in my chest.

I'm human. Even though I'd signed it away, even though I hardly deserve it.

The black of night disappears with the brightness, and in its place shines the sun. I take one quick look around but there's no sign of demons anywhere; it's as if the whiteness burned them all away. However, there's no time to celebrate, and I rush to her side.

There's no way to know if she's alive until I actually reach her and place my fingers just under her jaw to feel her pulse, and I find myself cursing my humanity for the first time.

"Is it over?" I hear among the commotion of slayers gathering each other, some injured more than the other's but all moving together.

"Keep your guard! It's over when I say it is!" I hear Faith yell as she makes her way over to where Buffy lies.

Her pulse is faint but there, and I let out a small breath I hadn't realized i'd been holding.

Checking for wounds, I find that his blade managed to find it's way under her arm, blood is pouring down her side and I tear a strip from my shirt with as much speed as I can muster, and cover the wound as best as I can. She has other fairly serious slices to her body, and she's bruised and broken unconscious.

"Is she alive?" I hear someone ask from behind Faith.

"How about you go find me a car instead of waisting her time with your yapper?" Faith snaps back, her tone clearly exasperated.

Once the slayer's gone she asks, "So is she?"

"Yes." I answer simply.

I tuck my arms carefully under her and lift trying to avoid moving her too much, but as my reflexes aren't what they were, I'm not entirely successful. She doesn't respond at all, and that worries me more because the shape of her bones ought to have forced her to scream out as I jostled them.

Without more words, and all the slayers shuffling out of the way without being asked, I carry her in my arms. As her blood soaks my shirt and I feel her life slipping under my fingers, the slayer from before appears ahead of us. When Faith drives us off, I remember Nina, but it's too late to turn back now and the whole way to the hospital I say Buffy's name like a mantra, over and over again trying to get a response from her, but she doesn't wake.

I deliver her to more knowing hands and after their short interview they shuffle me away, and Faith and I wait. There are other people in the waiting area as well, but the space is large, and we find a spot with enough distance to those around us. We don't speak at first, but when I finally look over at her, I realize that I hadn't even checked to see if she was ok too.

"I'm ok, Angel. Slayer healing, remember?" She says before I have chance to ask.

I try to smile at her but with her reaction I imagine it was a feeble attempt. I look up in hopes of seeing someone with answers, but the room still only occupies those of us waiting.

"So that's all it took huh?" Her voice sounds almost jovial, but the thing that surprises me most are her words, so my gaze quickly returns to her.

I feel my breath catch once again, and I feel compelled to disagree with her.

"That's not what-" I start to say but she speaks over me seemingly not having expected an answer.

"All you had to do was save the damsel! And here I thought you'd already done that. Numerous times, in fact."

This isn't where I thought she was going, and I'm glad she hadn't given me a chance to finish my sentence. However, this conclusion is also preposterous, and offers the same wrong connotations as the one I'd come to, and is just as dangerous if spread to the wrong ears.

"I finished what she started and killed the right demon. That's all that happened."

She smirks, "That's a good way of putting it."

I open my mouth to argue but she beats me to it again.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

I find myself weary of this conversation, and know that if I argue her point i'm only adding fuel to her fire and so I turn away from her and stand.

I'm pacing the waiting room floor, the blood drying on my clothing, when Nina finds me. She doesn't reproach me, just rushes into my arms, even despite the gore that covers me. She pulls away almost immediately, gazing at me hard.

"Angel?"

Somehow she's picked up on the change i'd actually forgotten. My lips turn up haphazardly, and I reach out for her hand, placing it over my chest. I don't have the courage to say in words what the pumping of my heart can say for me.

Her confusion shifts to joy as her smile deepens, and she wraps her arms around me once more. I wish I felt the same, but I'm not at that feeling quite yet. I can't celebrate my life when it might possibly be the end of Buffy's.

It isn't until the next day that we hear anything concrete. The doctor says she's very lucky to have survived (having blamed her state on a car accident), with all the broken bones and blood loss it's a wonder she made it to the hospital at all.

She's out of the woods mostly, but she's in a coma and the longer it takes for her to wake up, the smaller the chances are that she will. Then he leaves, the nonchalance all doctors have when it comes to the lives of patients, colouring his steps.

On the third day, Nina finally agrees to go home and rest. She tries to get me to go with her, but I can't bring myself to leave. I tell Nina it's because I'm worried of what Buffy's capable of, considering how she'd gone down, though I haven't yet told her exactly how I got my human life back.

Faith returns a few hours later, and even though I still want to rage at her for waiting till it got as bad as it had to call me, there's just no room for that now. With everything regarding the apocalypse over, she now seems determined on the future.

"They're all looking to me Angel. And as much as I'd like to be here to give her a piece of my mind, i've got a hell mouth to protect and a -now small, no thanks to her- army of slayers to command."

Faith speaks with her usual sass, but there's real anger laced in her words.

"She never meant for this to happen." I answer evenly.

She scoffs, giving me a look, and takes a few steps back and forth in the waiting room, the tension in her movements palpable.

"Well it did. She made the wrong choice, and now she's gotta live with it. Just like the rest of us."

I don't pretend to know everything that's happened with the Scoobies, all I know is that after they'd left Sunnydale, Buffy had eventually gone on the road to look for slayers, and even though she continuously sent them back to Cleveland, it was like she was gone.

"She's lost everyone Faith-"

"She's not the only one!" She nearly exclaims, interrupting me.

Reigning in her anger, she remains solemn as she adds, "They were my family too."

I'm not sure why I hadn't realized it; she'd been with them ever since the collapse of Sunnydale, and with Buffy gone, they'd undoubtedly rallied behind her.

"I'm sorry-" I start to say but she doesn't let me finish.

"I'm not saying I don't hope she wakes, all i'm saying is I can't afford to wait and see."

She stops moving to say this and looks me in the eye, her manner firm. She's about to continue but I speak first.

"Why did you wait so long to call me?"

She falters, and her expression softens.

"The Scoobies, they were great and I'll always miss them, but they weren't the most forgiving of people."

I know exactly what she means, and even though I thought i'd proved myself years ago, it seems old prejudices are the hardest to die. Though I can't say I hold it against them because I have a set of my own, and it's now obvious why she hadn't called. After everything that had happened with Wolfram and Hart, I was the last person they'd call for help, likely even, to be the last one who'd want to help. I now realize she'd only called because they were gone.

"Call me when she wakes, will you?"

My attention goes back to her, and she finally seems resigned with whatever animosity she'd been holding before. I nod, resigned as well with her, and the rest of the slayers' departure. She moves to leave and I feel compelled to say one more thing.

"Don't make the mistake she made. Don't doubt yourself, but don't forget that you don't have to do this alone either."

She smiles genuinely, and leaves.

A/N: So I know I said no Scoobies, and there really won't be, but I thought it was necessary to explain some things about Faith and the others. Other details regarding them will pop up here and there, but we won't be seeing much more of Faith from here on out.

Anyways, Buffy's up next, and soon!

Thanks again.