Thank you so much to everyone that reviewed, and I am so sorry that my updates are getting worse – I'm now starting to panic that I have a 5000-word essay due in a few weeks that I haven't started. Anyway, information about thanksgiving is much appreciated, although now I have to change the story a little bit.

Do we reckon that Buffy's dad really was in LA during IWRY, or was it just an excuse? I somehow doubt it, as we never hear from him again, but … actually, I'm not sure which answer would be best for the plot. I need help!

The service had ended. She was reluctant to call it a funeral, because there had been no body to bury, or burn. She remembered two things about it in the following days: she made a big important speech which all of her friends thought was very fitting, and she and dawn were sat either side of Giles, with his arms around both of them, filling the part of the father who couldn't be bothered to be there.

The week before the … memorial service, she thought it must have been … was pretty much a flurry of activity. There had been decisions to make about flowers, plaques and whether or not to have a wake. In the end, dawn hadn't wanted to go through one, and Buffy had made the executive decision to not have one, even though everyone else had said that was the wrong decision. Well, not in so many words, and Angel and Giles hadn't really said anything either way. Angel hadn't said anything at all really. He had left LA in the semi-capable hands of Cordy, Tina and Doyle, and was seemingly stuck to Buffy's side – wherever she went, he went too. Until today that is; it was the first time the slayer had gone outside during the day.

She hadn't been to college, and wasn't really sure what she should do about it, Giles had done all of the shopping for Buffy and dawn, and the 'Scooby Gang' had been slaying for her, just as they had the summer before, when she was Anne. The 'Fang Gang' on the other hand were sorting out a case which would be much easier with Angel around. A girl was being harassed by her ex boyfriend, and had turned to Angel Investigations to help. Cordy had another houseguest, whilst Doyle exercised his rights as a demon to beat up a human jerk.

Life was so much easier now that Cordelia knew about him being a demon – she didn't think he would break if he got into a fight with another demon. Sure, he didn't fight as well as Angel or Buffy, but then, he wasn't as strong, and hadn't really been honing his abilities all that much; all he had wanted to do before the PTB showed up was to fit in as a human. Now, he was more concerned with fighting the good fight.

This was the first time in a week that Angel hadn't been by her side – she followed him when he went away to eat, and he had a few bites off of her plate when someone reminded her to have food – usually dawn or Angel. Each night he stayed by her side, reading softly to her in some language or another (it didn't really matter, because she was tired enough that even in English it wouldn't have made sense to her) and then sleeping only once he was sure she was safe.

It was getting harder and harder to not o much more than kiss, but that curse was still in place, and that was their bit in life. A few weeks ago, they had got to the same stage they were at just before her seventeenth birthday. The part at the end of the night, now weekend, where they had to say goodbye was getting harder. The part first thing in the morning when they either woke to an empty bed, or to a lover they couldn't love was much easier said than done. The bits in the middle when all either of them wanted to do was to be with each other with no restraints had never been more difficult. There was no longer a law in place making sure Buffy stayed at school all day, there was nothing tangible to keep them apart, only their sense of duty to the world.

Angel loved seeing Buffy when she had just woken up in his arms, even if it took a lot of self-control on both their parts. He loved knowing that there was someone in the world that loved him even though he could change into a soulless beast the moment they made love. He was getting to the point when he was going to tell willow to have that curse ready, and lock both himself and the slayer in a room somewhere. She could handle herself against angelus, and willow could quite easily re-curse him. Well, maybe not quite easily, but it wouldn't be like averting an apocalypse type hard … just preventing one from ever happening in the first place!

As everyone left the building, dawn approached Buffy.

"Is it okay if I stay somewhere else tonight? I don't. I don't want to go home by myself. Not now."

"That's fine Dawnie. Do you wanna go with Giles? He has a spare room that he said I could use whenever – I'm sure you could too."

"Yes please."

Buffy walked her sister over to where Giles was standing at the exit, wishing people well as they left; he didn't think Buffy needed the extra trouble just yet – not for people she only knew by sight. He knew none of them, but was quite able to do the 'adulty thing you do so well' and accepted as soon as Buffy had asked him.

"Giles? Dawn um doesn't want to go just yet. Could she maybe"

"Yes, yes of course. Come along then dawn – my car's just down the road, and I'm longing for a good strong cup of tea. I'm sure you could use a hot drink too, and then maybe I'll be able to find …"

The voices died away as the slayer watched her only family walk away from her, protected from the big bad world by a librarian. The irony was almost amusing, and might well be in any other situation. But this was her mother's memorial service, and nothing could really be humorous right now. She sat on the steps of the small church, surprised at how many people didn't realise she was there until they had almost tripped over her. The few that she did know sat with her for a while, reminiscing, whilst the others just walked away and got on with their lives; she wondered why they were even there.

Buffy only realised that sunset had been and gone when she heard him sit beside her, and whisper for her ears only,

"I'm sorry I couldn't be here earlier."

"It isn't your fault, Angel. You're here now, and I don't care about earlier."

She placed her hand in his and rested her head on his reassuringly sturdy shoulder, and for the first time since her mother died, she really talked to someone. Granted, he was not really a person, but he was close enough.

"What happens now, Angel? Up till now, I've had things to do, people to phone, places to visit. I don't know what happens now."

"Now? Now you live. Now, you do everything you would normally do, because that's what your mother would have wanted."

"But she's gone! She's gone and nothing will bring her back. Not now, not ever – she's left me. I thought she would always be here, always disapprove of slaying, always hate you, always love willow and Xander because I do (and they're human), and always make me watch Dawn when I really didn't want to. Now she can't. She can't!"

And for the first time since her mother's death, Buffy summers, the vampire slayer, cried.

Alright, I know I said that this storyline was over, but I wanted to put in a little bit more angst and Angel comfort. So sue me!