Immortal Beloved

by regertz

-Different versions of what happened during and post the rendevous in Rome of the Angel "Girl in Question" episode. Brainstorming fragments, shorties, a few full tales but unless indicated not sequential tales.

2. Chapter 2

"Immortal Beloved XXXVI..."

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down! It's all yours and ME's

Spoilers for Angel to the last week...Flee at once!...

Summary: Aw, just one more...Can't resist it...

LA...William's new basement apartment...About one week after the defeat of the Wolfram-Hart Senior Partners...

Will in his most comfy new chair staring for a moment at a resigned Dawn sitting across from him...Then returning to the happily beaming, fervently kissing Buffy in his lap...Ummn...

"Is anything wrong, William?..." she stopped momentarily to stare at his perturbed face anxiously...

Shall I stop?...A crestfallen look...She turned to Dawn... "Dawn?...Am I doing it right?..."

Just fine, Buffy...Dawn sighed...

"Yeah...Fine...But Botty...Er...Buffy..." William pulled a little from her embrace... "Could we stop for just a bit, girl?...I'd like a few more words with Dawn..."

"Oh...Certainly, Will..." 'Buffy' nodded and releasing him, rose... "Would anyone like tea?...You like tea, right, William?...I can make tea very well...Willow prob...Ummn...Taught me..."

"Fine, dear heart...Tea sounds great...Dawn?..." Sure...Dawn sighed...

Great...

'Buffy' happily went to the kitchenette...

William eyed Dawn... "Look, Nibs..." She shook her head... "I didn't want to do this, Spike..."

"William!..." 'Buffy' called from the kitchenette where she was happily locating cups, saucers, etc...A bit sternly, Will noted to his surprise... "We call him William always now...Buffy said to...Spike was Evil and is gone...William is a hero..."

We call him William always now, Dawn...she repeated...

"Yeah...Sure..." Dawn nodded... Sorry, William...she returned to him...

"Like I tole you...This was Buffy's idea...She felt bad about you being alone..."

"Not bad enough to remedy it herself, I take it..."

"She's with the Immortal now, sorry but that's the way it is...And Giles and the guys would never have let her risk coming to LA with Angel working for Wolfram-Hart..."...Dawn insisted firmly...

Yeah, remind us to thank dear ole Rupert for the faith in us...And the generous help he gave Ms. Burkle...Will glared...

"While you're at it, thank Summers as well..." A crash from the kitchenette...They looked over...

"Dropped a cup... William, I'm so sorry..." 'Buffy' called... "No problem, pet..." he called back...

"Buffy believes in you..." she continued... "She wanted to come..."

"Thanks, dear heart...It's fine..." he called to her... "Always the kind lamb, my Botty..." he smiled briefly at Dawn...

"So...Buffy decided to ease her guilt over the thing in the cavern by sending me a new Botty, eh?...What?...Did you two see 'Stepford Wives' this week or something and Buf had a bolt of inspiration...?"

Actually...Dawn thought, blinking...We did...

"No, Buffy just felt bad for you...After hearing about your coming to Rome for her and the fight in LA...She wanted to do something nice for you..."

"A call or letter would have done quite well..."

"Yes!..." 'Buffy' called from the kitchenette... "Buffy was waiting for you to call or write William...Are you going to, now?...And where is the diet sugar?..."

"No, lamb...Dawn will bear my greetings back...I don't use the stuff it causes cancer in lab rats over the long term...Sugar's on the upper cabinet shelf..."

"Tell Buffy I am sorry I didn't...I just felt..."

"Doesn't matter..." Dawn waved a hand...Giles and Willow wouldn't have let anything reach her from you...

"Look, Sp...Will...Buffy had a hard time getting over you...She was a wreck for a long time...Only the need to train the new Slayers and keep the fight on, kept her going...But she's better now and while I appreciate...We all appreciate...What you did..."

"You'd prefer I not take up with your sis again...Hardly likely in any case, Dawn..." he replied...

Though I do have a soul...Have had it for a good time now...he eyed her... And my record's been rather nice in the past year...

"You were my friend once, even when Spike ran the show...You could cut me a break, Ms. Summers the Younger..."

"You let me down, Spike...That day...I'll never Forg..."

"William!..." 'Buffy' called...Pleasantly but a stern edge... "Don't call him Spike!..."

"I didn't have a soul, Dawn...I'm not excusing my behavior but you did let souled-while-mass-murdering Anya off...And while I know ...Or at least my false memories of you say...You always kept aloof from Angel...You did excuse his little soulless faults..."

"Will is very good now, Dawn..." 'Buffy' called in... "Tea should be ready soon..."

"I expected better from you..." Dawn noted coolly... "I guess I was being a romantic kid but I thought you'd won your heart back for her...I couldn't believe you'd...Even soulless...Let yourself try and do...What you tried to do..."

"What Spike tried to do..." 'Buffy interrupted, entering the living room with tea things on a chopping block...Sorry, no trays...she apologetically noted...Setting the things out with a pleasant beam...Oh...She looked at the table...No napkins...

"What a dunce!..." she merrily slapped her forehead... "I should have Willow open my head up again, right Dawn?..." You're fine Buffy...Dawn hastily replied...

"I'll get them now..." 'Buffy' turned back... "William, I saw cookies...Do you want me to bring them, too?..."

Fine, pet...he nodded...

"Anyway...It's over and done..." Dawn noted... "And I said I...We...Are grateful...And going along with this thing is our way of showing it..."

"But Buffy wants to say she loves you!..." 'Buffy' called... "Not just...The other thing..."

"I understand, girl...Thanks..." Good!...she called again...

"Buffy would've brought her and all...But..." a hesitant pause... "We...Encouraged her not to go...And she was feeling better with the Immortal hanging round and all...So..."

Sounds of contented humming from the kitchenette... "Got the cookies...Oh!..I forgot the cream...Wait a minute..."

"But she does care, William...She cared enough to be the template for this one...Hoping you'd find some contentment at last..." Dawn continued...

"So, she's Buffy the matchmaker now?...Ex-lover vampires a specialty...?"

"And how..." 'Buffy' cried contentedly, emerging with a plate of cookies and a cup filled with cream... "You should write her a thank-you note, William...Or should I?...Say..." she interrupted herself... "Your fridge needs cleaning out...Ok if I do it now?..." she set the cookies and cream down and whirling, headed back before he could tell her to sit...

More sounds of contented humming as she pulled the fridge door and began pulling things out

"Maybe later as to the note..." he replied dryly... "Ok!..." she called...Sounds of water filling a bucket now coming from the kitchenette...

He leaned to Dawn...

"Look...Dawn...Tell your sis...Thanks...But no thanks..." Dawn eyed him..

"It's a gift, William...Accept it in the spirit..." He waved an annoyed hand at her...

"I don't need Buffy Summers' charity...Or yours...Thanks...Tell her thanks for the kick in the groin that got me to Africa and the chance to be her champion...And for letting me hang round those last two years..."

"Look..." Dawn began...

"I'll find my own companions..." A sound of a bucket being hastily set down... 'Buffy' emerged from the kitchenette, hands wet, looking anxious...

"William?...Don't you want me?..." she stared at him, biting a lip...

You aren't back with Drusilla?...Some other vamp?...Souled, maybe?...she asked, a nervous look...

"No, pet...This isn't personal..." he told her kindly... "I just..." he paused and grinned at Dawn...

I have fond memories of your predecessor, Warren's bot...I wouldn't want to hurt her by taking another...

"I hope you understand, love..." he smiled at her...No...she shook her head... "My programming doesn't cover that...William...Please...Buffy wants me to make you happy..."

She came to him...Hands clenched a bit...Dawn staring...

"Let me make you happy...Please, Will..." she pleaded... "I love you..."

I was made to...she noted...Taking his hand...

"Buffy..." Dawn looked at her... "You better go back to the fridge...I'll talk to William...It'll be fine..."

'Buffy' looked back at her a moment...And smiling pleasantly, nodded, and returned to her cleaning...

"Will...I don't want to leave a copy of my sis with you..." Dawn frowned at him... "We did everything we could to stop her from trying anything till she calmed down and..."

"Trying...?" he stared... "Yeah, Will..." 'Buffy' called, interrupting her work... "Buffy tried to use magics to reach you...But Willow stopped her and then they all...Restrained her...When she was gonna go to LA..."

"We did what we thought was right..." Dawn noted firmly... "Buffy was irrational...Talking about letting the next vamp have her to be with you...Out of her head with guilt over letting you die there...Willow and Giles did what they had to to keep her safe...We all agreed it was the right thing to do..."

"What did you do?..." he asked coldly...Rising out of his chair...

"Willow prevented her from using the resurrection spell...And from contacting you by seance...Then, when she threatened us and tried to leave, Giles had Willow tranquillize her...I mean as in provide magical tranquility..."

"You used mind control...On Buffy...Your own sister..."

"It had to be done...And it was only temporary...When she recovered, she understood...Then the Immortal came into the picture...And that...Was that..."

"You seem able to deal with another vamp lover for your sis quite well, Ms. Summers..."

"He's not the staying type..." Dawn noted... "And to be honest, he wasn't...But it was good for Buffy and got her over you...It was the best thing for you, too, William..."

Thanks...he glared...

"She's not Immortal, Will...What would you do when she ages?...Transform her and hope her demon's the sweet type?...Abandon her?..."

"Get out of my apartment...No offense, dear heart..." he turned to 'Buffy' now again emerged from where she'd been hard at it...Her security/defense programs being activated by the tone, she explained... "Please don't fight, guys..." she asked, a slight plea in her voice...

"Please don't William..." she turned to him...Taking a hand...Which she then released...

"Ok..." Dawn waved a hand... "I've done my duty...You don't want our help...Fine...Give my best to Angel...Come on, Buffy...Time to head home..."

'Buffy' looked at William... "But...I want to stay with William...Please..."

William stared at his hand a mo...Hmmn...

"The hell with it...Let her stay..." he told Dawn... "If only to make Buffy's skin crawl every now and then thinking of me with her..."

But you get out...And don't ever come back...he finished coldly...

"I won't...We're even now..." she nodded...And rose...

She paused at the door... "I'm sorry...I wish things had been different...I know I've acted badly, you being souled and all...But...I loved you, Spike...Before Buffy did...And when you turned on her...I was glad...Because I could pretend you were mine again..."

And I can't ever forgive myself...Or you...For that...

"Bye, Dawn..." 'Buffy waved...

She left, closing the door quietly...

"Well?..." he eyed her...Raising his concealed hand to show where her blood from a cut she'd given herself in the kitchenette was smeared...

"Tell me you knew it was me before..." Buffy smiled at him...

"I felt something...But that was a powerful glam you were using..."

Had to be...she nodded, a slight glare... "Those bastards were ready to do anything to hold me there..."

William...she raced to him, embracing him... "You believe me?...You know I tried...They even used magics on me to keep me from you...Let the Immortal get close to me..."

Even Dawn agreed to it...she shook her head...Then covered her face with a hand, sobbing...

"If you knew what I've been going through all these months...And then, having to pretend I didn't care so they wouldn't send me off to lotus-land again...I couldn't even risk slippin' away to help you last week...Couldn't do a thing until my copy was ready and I'd had a crack at her alone..."

Buffy...he patted her...She raised her face to his, a grin through tears... "Wait till the glam I used on Botty II wears thin...But they'll probably prefer her anyway...Giles at least...His model Slayer girl at last..."

"Will?...That thing about Dru?..." she paused... "There's nobody I'll have to kill, right?...Cause I'd hate to hafta make you feel bad but after what I been through I'd have to kill any competition..."

"Immortal Beloved XXXVII..."

A shortie

PG-13

Spoilers for Angel to "The Girl in Question..." However everything here except the reference to the episode's enemy is my own playin' round...

Disclaimer: Everything but the 'Soames Walthrop' and I don't use it here is Joss' and ME's

Summary: Ok, but I got asked...From a suggestion by reader Jeremy Schiff...

LA...New offices of Angel, Burkle, Gunn, and Walthrop...LA's most unique legal/investigative team...Two weeks after the defeat of the Senior Partners...Late night...

"The Slayer never loved you, William...For her, being with you was simply degrading...A memory to be banished as quick as possible..."

He eyed her coolly as she spoke, a hard tone in her voice...Angel in turn eyeing him... "Buffy..." he tried...Quiet...she hissed...Pressing the stake she held against his chest tighter... "I'll tell you when to speak, Angel..."

"I don't quite accept that, girl..." Will replied calmly... "I felt caring there...And when I came back..."

"Simple gratitude...You were owed big time for your helpin' during the depression year...And you were needed to fight...Remember?...It was 'I need Spike'...Not 'I need, I love William'...You're getting a soul, however much you may now appreciate it...If you do...Was a waste of effort from the pov of winning Buffy's love..."

He shook his head... "I remember... 'I'm not ready for you not to be here'..." he began...She waved a hand...Please... "You were needed, as I said...Soldier..."

And lets not forget the feeblest 'I love you' ever mouthed...she grinned coldly...Shifting an arm as Angel gave a slight groan...Quiet, she hissed...

"You didn't come to Rome 'cause you knew it was a lie...Kind enough meant...But a lie...And that you'd be as welcome there as horse manure..."

"I was afraid..." he nodded... "But afraid it would be taken back...I knew by then, for that one brief moment...It was true...And I couldn't bear to give that moment up, let the words be taken..." he hesitated...Not looking at her as she grinned...

"...Taken back..." she finished... "Exactly..."

"And didn't your loving Slayer do her damnest for you?...Staying with you to the end, making Willow resurrect or at least contact your soul by seance...Being right there the moment you materialized at Wolfram-Hart...Yeah..." she chuckled... "What loving support..."

"And even after Andrew spilled his guts...Well, hey..." she waved a hand... "Pity you got your hands cut off, trying to save our dear nutty Dana, but the Slayer had a date...A real looker with cash on hand, a string of nice estates, and all the power necessary to impress a girl from the burbs...No time to bother with some ole souled vampire ex-..."

Soil herself trying to comfort him?...Please...she laughed...A real Cathy, that Slayer of yours, Heathcliff... "You know... 'It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff'...?"

"And Heathcliff loved her...Even after death..." William nodded...

"You were nothing to the Slayer in 2004...Just as you were nothing to her in 1880..." she eyed him as he stared... "Yeah, remember William?... 'You're beneath me, William...'?..."

Yeah...she smiled at his startled face... "I'd've thought you'd gotten it sooner...Cicely was a Slayer...And her memories went to the next Slayers...And Buffy..."

Sorry to tell you, kiddo...You didn't beat those Slayers cause you were better...Or even cause of that 'death wish' thing you mentioned that night in the bar...

"They had Cicely's memories of you...And her shame when she'd learned what happened to you...And failed to find and destroy you after causing your death...Seeing you and holding that memory...Those poor girls couldn't bring themselves to kill you...Just as Buffy couldn't...For a while..."

Till she finally found an excuse and someone to do it for her...

"You were better off with the First, Will...She at least pretended to be nice to you at times..." she grinned...As he looked away, trembling...Cicely?...All these years...

"If they couldn't kill me..." he began... "She must have..."

"Sympathy, William...Don't!..." she snarled at Angel...Who'd attempted a sudden move...She tightened her clutch round his wounded body...The stake in her other hand pressing hard... "And don't move a step, Will...If you don't want your limp-haired bloody stupid partner here to bite the big one..."

She calmed as he made peaceful gestures...No one's gonna try anything, girl...he noted...

"I'm the one the love came from, Will..." she said proudly... "Anything you felt from them came from me...The one who's always loved you...From the moment I saw you through their eyes..."

Well...she gave a sheepish grin as he stared...Almost from the moment...It takes time for a demon to fall in love...

"Anne..." Will addressed her coolly... "What happened in Rome?...How did..."

The Immortal found Buffy's behavior...Unacceptable...she chuckled...

"It seems she still felt a little residual guilt over you...And was going to leave to come here and help you all out...He was a bit...Put out..."

Poor kid...She'd gotten a leetle too used to trusting vamps...And this one knew her modus operandi pretty well...Made sure none of the little Scoobies was in CPR or magics range...Gave her the patented Angelus technique...All the sympathy and compassion in the world "I understand dear Buffy...Naturally you still feel for this William"...Such a gent to tolerate dumpin' so well...But the truth was...

"No one does that to His Benevolence..." she sneered..."But hey, we're even...I took care of him soon as I transformed...Don't worry your sweet blonde head over him..." she smiled pleasantly...

"And now the part of Buffy...And Cicely...Who really loves you, William...Is free...I, Anne, demon of the Slayer..." she took demon-face... "You know..." she reverted as he eyed her carefully...Looking for any opening... "I was gonna kill Dawn and my old gang for the way they treated you...Sorta a present for you...But I realized, with that sweet lil' poet's soul of yours back it'd be much better to use them as hostages...Long with bastard boy here...The one who nearly let you slide into Hell without saying a word to Buffy...To me..." she glared at Angel...Then suddenly, smiled gently at Will...

Sweet guy that you are William...she beamed... "I knew my best chance to get you to come round was to leave em alive...That you'd hear me out if their lives were in danger..."

Not if I stake you, they're not...he noted...She grinned...That's my honey...

"You can try...But the bloody stupid Brooding One will be ashes by the time you reach me...And I will be outta here and on my way to Rome or wherever the Council tries to hide the guys from me before you can say 'William Soames Walthrop'..."

See?...Cicely was in me...she smiled...Then frowned... "Buffy sure as hell never bothered to find out who you were..."

"And if I go with you...You'll let Angel go, spare the others?..." Absobloominglutely...she nodded...

"I won't be Spike again..." he noted... "Even if it means the others die, I can't let that happen..."

"I don't want Spike..." she frowned... "I want you..."

I want the prettiest, sparkliest soul I ever saw...she nodded...The soul that won Cicely and me in 1880...

"Cicely?..." Yeah, she sighed... "Didn't mean to let that slip out..." a frown... "Cicely loved you...But, she was a Slayer...With a mission..."

Sound familiar?...she grinned...

She thought if she drove you away, you'd be safe...Hah!...But, hey I tried to warn her...Stupid fool should've sensed Dru's presence in the area...

"But I'm here...And all of Cicely and Buffy that loved you...Really loved you...Lives in me...Anne..."

He stared at her...C'mon...she shrugged, maintaining a tight hold on Angel... "I'm all that left of them and I promise I won't kill anyone so long as you stay with me...And maybe, in time, you can persuade me to go to Africa for love of you after you convince me you can never love so foul a fiend..."

Though no reason we can't have a little fun in the meantime...After all, all of Buffy's best ideas in the crypt?...All mine she grinned...

Hmmn...He pondered...Angel staring at him from her vise grip...

I suppose...In the interests of saving so many...I could make such a sacrifice...

"I suppose my Buf would want me to do what I could to save the others..."

Oh, yeah...Definitely...Buffy...And Cicely...Are 100% with this...Anne nodded...

"Just wishing they'd thought of it before, actually..."

"Say...Wait a minute..." he glared at her as she stepped out into the sunlight as they stood waiting for a cab at the building entrance...

Oops...Buffy grinned...Looking sheepish...

"Immortal Beloved XXXIX..."

A shortie...

PG-13

Spoilers for Angel to "The Girl in Question..." However everything here except the reference to the episode's enemy is my own playin' round...

Disclaimer: Everything but the 'Soames Walthrop' and I don't use it here is Joss' and ME's

Summary: What can I say these things are like candy or Lays...

LA...Offices of the newly established legal/investigative firm of Angel, Burkle, Gunn, and Walthrop...

Remnants of the old Wolfram-Hart staff, hey a paycheck's a paycheck, busily toil at their assignments...Spending perhaps a tad...Well, lots...Less freely than in the old days but grateful to have survived the staggering crash of the Senior Partners...

A still sheepishly apologetic, but at last human-souled...Angel can be damned nasty at all times, William grins to her...Harmony at her new desk, offers William some stacked letters...

"What's...?"

From Rome, she hangs her head... "My other one...It...Didn't want you to get these...And blocked some calls from there, too..."

The Senior Partners via Marcus kinda encouraged it...she sighed...But It wanted to hurt you...

He stared at her...

"I'm sorry...She was Evil, ya know?...You remember Evil, right?..." He sighed...Yeah...Taking the letters...Looking over the familiar handwriting...A dozen letters...

"She kept writing right up to the last week...Will, I'm so sorry..." she shook her head...

No...he shook his head... "I know I treated you badly, Harm...At the very least should've helped you with the souling long before...And I shoulda had the guts to call Rome...Or go...Though..." he eyed the handwritten address...

Was kinda hoping...Well...

"I'm sure Buffy loves you, Will...But in any case...At least..." Harmony began...

Oh...he smiled...So... 'It' read these, eh...?

Well...she meekly shrugged...

"It's all right...What did she...?"

"They're sweet, William...I think you're lucky..." she grinned... "The calls...?" he eyed her... Yeah, all...she nodded...

Well, well...

"Go and read 'em, Will...And William..." Harmony paused...

Don't...You know...she smiled...

Yeah...he took the letters and went to his office...Where taking the seat behind his desk and eyeing his forever empty...By specific order of senior associate Liam Angel...In box...

Mr. Angel feeling Mr. Walthrop best suited to field rather than paper...Work...And requiring direct instructions on all occasions...

He began reading the first letter...

"Dear (Spike crossed out) William,

I've wanted to write you so often...Started so many times, even before Andy broke down and told us the news. I knew somehow you'd make it, just as I always knew, in the old days...Someday you'd win a soul back if anyone could.

I know I've treated you like (shit crossed out) crap and I'm sorry. But William, I was just so afraid...You meant so much to me...I was afraid I'd let my heart run away with my head. Especially after...You know, before the soul. I felt so let down, though I know in hindsight what Spike did that year was amazing...Was you, poking though to tell us you were still fighting, still alive, still capable of being a man.

More the shame on me...For not hearing your cries...I'm ashamed of that Will. I should have heard and helped, long ago. And not to support you when you first came back with that soul...I can only say, I felt I had to be careful...And I was as I said, feeling let down...Angry...

As for this year...I wasn't much better. I could've, should've made Willow reach you, even tried the resurrection spell. But everyone insisted you were at peace...That it would be cruel...And dangerous to your soul to try and bring you back. So I did nothing. I'll always be sad that it wasn't me you first saw when you first came back. (By the way, tell the bloody stupid one, he's dead meat at my hands if the stuff about him nearly letting you slide to Hell is true).

Things are good here in Rome...Lotta work with the Slayers and the new Council and I'm back in school, hoping to make it this time to graduation...

Will...I love you, I mean that. Please write or call...And come by when you can. I'll keep in touch though Harmony claims you don't want to take my calls. Which I guess I can understand, but please write me at least. If I can get to LA later this year, well...I'll try.

Of course, Buffy sends her love too.

(Right...Will sighed a moment)

Love,

Dawn..."

"Immortal Beloved XL..."

A shortie...

PG-13

Spoilers for Angel to "The Girl in Question..." However everything here except the reference to the episode's enemy is my own playin' round...

Disclaimer: Everything but the 'Soames Walthrop', 'Buffy Rebecca', 'Anne', 'Nemesis', and my creative use of Cicely (in those cases where I use her) is Joss' and ME's...

Summary: Of course this is the last one...Remember the IB series 1-40 are separate retellings of events during and after the Angel "Girl in Question" episode...

From an interesting suggestion by Ms. Pamela Rimshaw...

LA, an alleyway...The night of the final battle with the Senior Partners...

An alleyway down which the screaming remnants of the massed forces of Evil were retreating in panic...Not even pausing to mourn the loss of their beloved dragon...

Pursued by a horde of women of various shapes and sizes, not all young, with a number of rather over-dressed men in suits in their midst, trying valiantly to keep up with the ladies...And with a number of skinless-faced humanoids...Identical to the cyborgs who'd tried to capture Angel at one point...Dispersed throughout the mass, though generally keeping by the men in suits, looking to them periodically for instructions...

Near the front of the charging crowd...A short, twenty-something blonde...Very much the Leader, judging by the deference with which a number of the women...And men...Clustered about her treated her hastily cried orders...She paused when hailed by one tall brunette woman, about thirty in appearance... "Counselor General!..." And breathing hard, heard a hasty report by the equally winded messenger...

"The captives are being secured...Mr. Gunn's off to hospital..." the woman, one Brenda Maverly, spoke quickly, clearly anxious to rejoin her comrades in their battle...What little battle was left as several dozen more surviving demons put up their arms in posture of surrender...

"Gutless, worthless!..." the bald, little man...A death's head in appearance, now cornered in the rear of the alley, one Senior Partner Joseph, blocked from his escape portal by several dozen Slayers...Cried out at his treacherous, cowardly... "I surrender...!" he noted with hastily raised hands to the two Slayers now pulling stakes on him...

"Angel's safe with his son..." Brenda continued... "That blue demon...Ms. Burkle or whatever?...Is over with Ms. Rosenberg..."

"Where is he?..." Buffy hastily cut her off... "We don't know..." Brenda shook her head...A trace of sadness in her voice...

"Angel said...When he last saw..."

"I know what Angel said!...Find him!..." the Counselor General snapped... "He's alive...Well..." she paused... "Yes..." she nodded decisively... "His soul is alive...He's alive...And I want him found!..."

He's gotta be here...I know he is...And he's still with us...He has to be...she eyed Brenda...A faint note of despair creeping in...Yeah...Brenda nodded reassuringly... "He's ..."

"Ms. Summers!..." one of the overdressed men called to her...She looked over to see the man, a Watcher, who'd called her, directing a couple of cyborgs carefully carrying...A body...

"Tell Amanda to take as many prisoners as she can...I want all surviving Senior Partners accounted for!..." Brenda nodded, heading off as the Counselor General raced over to the Watcher and his cyborg aides...The crowd now gathered about the body parted to let their commander through...Back off, all of you, she ordered...

William...she breathed, looking down at the blonde man beneath her on the ground...Who stirred a bit as she did so...The Watcher who'd found and brought him, now kneeling by him, gave a look up at her which turned into a gentle smile and nod...A strange tremor overcoming her a moment, she covered her eyes, then nodded back...William moving a bit more now, raising his head slightly...The Watcher nodding to the anxious-looking ring of Slayers, cyborgs, and a few fellow Watchers which had once again closed round...A collective sigh of relief, particularly among the Slayers in the group...

William...she lightly called to him... "William, I'm here..." Then frowned as he raised his head slightly...

"Hello, asshole..." she glared at the battered William...Who opened his eyes feebly...Buffy?...he groaned...One of the Slayers shone a light on him...She shrieked at the sight of his hideous injuries and was on her knees at his side in a moment...William?...

"What the hell...?" he mumbled... "It's all right...It's me..." she stroked his hair... "Get Dr. Fauchon over here!...Now!..." she screamed at one of the Slayers, more now crowding in...She turned back to him...The others?...he whispered...Angel?...

"Your bloody stupid poof of a boss is fine...Posing for a commemorative photo by the dragon's body with Connor...Kidding..." she waved a hand, grinning... "He's a bit battered but ok...Connor is with him, though...And he did ask us to keep the dragon around till he's well enough to stand for a picture..."

Gunn's on his way to the hospital...And Ms. Burkle...I mean, Illyria?...Is talking to Willow about resurrection spells...

Great...he wanly nodded...So...he tried to sit up...Down!...she harshly told him, forcing him back... "Our doctor will be here in a sec...If she would kindly move her butt!..." she turned to another Slayer standing by...Who nodded and headed off...The doctor with the first Slayer sent, now glimpsed moving through the alleyway crowd of jubilant Slayers and numerous others...

The doctor reached them, a fortyish, attractive brunette...Who knelt to examine Will...And looked at her Slayer Commander... "Yeah, a vamp..." Buffy glared... "My vamp...How is he?..."

Oh...The doctor stared at him...William?...A faint smile...Yeah...Buffy nodded, frowning a bit at the doctor's lingering smile, then paled as one of the group about them cried out, pointing to a steadily growing pool of blood... "Where's that bleeding coming from?...Take care of him!..." she cried...

And no handling more than medically necessary...she frowned as the doctor now warmly beamed at her patient...William...

Damned transfer of Slayer memories...the Slayer Counselor General grumbled aloud...Noting the anxious-looking Slayers clustered about as well...Some clearly letting themselves be carried away, teary-eyed, openly weeping, or seeking to reach him, pat the hand which she kept firmly in hers...

Wiping her tears away with her free hand...

Another groan...She glared as the doctor examined the writhing William..."Don't hurt him!..."

Echoed by at least twenty watching Slayers...

"Enough, Ms. Summers...Let me do my job..." Dr. Fauchon gave a hard return glare...Physician-level...Hmmn...Buffy pulled back a bit...Nice one, doc...The doctor carefully pulled off his jacket...And gave a sudden gasp...Buffy blanching as she now saw the improvised tourniquet...And the wrist stump where his left hand had been...

Linea duty, doc...Nothin' unusual...he whispered, trying to give a grin...Buffy...He tried to raise his remaining hand to pat her, seeing her terrified face...As the doctor set to work...A Watcher came over, awaiting a chance to report...Ms. Summers?...he asked respectfully... "Talk to the Chairman!...I'm busy..." she waved a hand...

"There now, love...Nothing I haven't dealt with before...Though if a few of your people would take a looksee..." he raised his head weakly, looking round... "William, lie still!..." Buffy, the doctor, and assorted Slayers cried... "Ah, there it is...Bring my left hand over, would you lad?..." Will waved the stump of his wrist at a cyborg standing just beside the severed hand on the ground...Who brought it over to the doctor, Buffy staring as Fauchon examined it...And hastily applied a real tourniquet from her bag...Tying it off with Slayer speed...She sighed...

"I think he'll be ok, though he should thank God or whomever he's a vamp..." Ummn...Her smile faded a bit at Buffy's sudden killer-intensity glare... "Well...We can reattach the limb...But he's taken quite a beating and lost a lot of blood...He should be transported over to our medical facilities at once..." Dr. Fauchon frowned...Hmmn...Speaking of beatings, Slayer Counselor General...she eyed Buffy...A professionally hard tone coming into her voice...

I seem to remember...A professionally hard tone coming into the doctor's voice...Yeah, two Slayers in the crowd, a bit less awed by their Leader, agreed coolly...Eyeing an increasingly sheepish-looking Buffy...

Ummn...Double damn that memory transfer...the Slayer Counselor General thought...

"Very past tense, doc..." William gallantly, if feebly, noted, taking advantage of Buffy's distraction to sit up now, she frowning as she turned back to him... "And I wasn't human-souled then..."

Uh-huh...The doctor gave a sour look at him, then a somewhat chastened Buffy...

Our sweet, forgiving William...Various Slayers thought, sighing a bit as the Slayer Counselor General gave hard looks round...Watch it, sisters...

Well, maybe not our William...

"Well, in any case, let me get an ambulance over here..." Dr. Fauchon rose slowly, keeping a careful eye on the Slayer Counselor General...Who gave a somewhat nervous smile back...Hey, all beatings in very past tense, doc...Ladies...Guys...she eyed the ring of Slayers, Watchers, and cyborgs around them...

"Lets give the patient some air...Whether he needs it for breathing or not..." Dr Fauchon commanded, stepping back herself to call the ambulance... "What the doc said..." Buffy echoed from her post by William... "Nothin' more to see here...You folks have work to do...Get to your assigned positions..."

How about her?...One Slayer groused to a comrade as the ring of spectators pulled away from the object of their fascination...Double-standard for the head honcho?... "Like when you ran your corporation, Martha?...Till ya got caught?..." the comrade wryly noted...No need to bring that up is there?...Martha sighed...I'm here, right?...Redeeming myself?...True enough, the fellow Slayer shrugged...

"So..." Buffy turned back to William, feeling free to resume her glare, seeing that he was not quite at death's door... "How are you, you little blonde cowardly jerk...?"

Hey?...He looked at her, still kneeling beside him...Several Slayers yet keeping close, eyeing her...Perhaps still a tad nervous having noted Dr. Fauchon's concerns...And feeling the press of their own Buffy memories...

Knock it off, guys...she hissed at the anxious faces eyeing her then William... Well?...she returned to the object of her wrathful affection...

"Considering, girl...That I just took on and defeated several hundred of the Senior Partners' best...And seem to have again lost a reasonably important body part..." he gave another groan...And fell back...Doctor!...she and every Slayer able to see cried...

"William!..." she bent over him, placing a hand under his head, pressing his face to her cheek... "Don't die...or whatever...On me now...Please...You stupid idiot!...God, don't do this...Not before..."

IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou...she hastily whispered...As the doctor returned and knelt by his opposite side... "There...I'm committed...With over 3,600 witnesses from the side of Light reasonably near...I can't retract it...Please, Will...Ya got me where you want me...Spike, I give, you win...Just give Will what he needs to stay...Please..."

"Ms. Summers..." the doctor called to her sternly as she prepared an injection...Buffy waving her off...Don't even think I'm leaving...

Please, darling...she breathed... "Don't leave me now..."

Cause damn you, if ya know what's good for you, you do not wanna make me follow after you...she frowned...

"He's not going anywhere but for a quick ride to the hospital..." the doctor jabbed her needle into his arm...

Right, right...Buffy nodded, a grateful beam...

He stared at her, head cradled in her hand...Buffy...Love...

"Yes, yes darling...Will?...

"What the hell?...As I asked...Are you doin' here?..."

"Whaat?...You thought I wasn't gonna come!...Geesh...I oughta..." she paused...The remaining Slayers still hanging, eyeing her carefully...And some, rather sternly...

Be very annoyed with you...she lamely finished...

"The ambulance is here!..." A Slayer cried from beyond the ring about them which had fully reformed despite the Slayer Counselor General's order...

Ok!...Buffy called...A frown from the doctor forcing her to back off a bit as the EMTs moved in and got Will situated on a pallet, securing him as gently as possible...He raised head again, looking round, to see, looking out through the break now forming in the ring to let him pass, Illyria, very much in Winifred form, with Willow, Giles, and a stricken-looking Roger Wyndham-Price, all turned to view him...Illyria giving a rather Fredish, anxious smile to him...Willow a friendly wave...

An insistent Buffy followed beside him to the ambulance, climbing in with a look to the EMTs that brook no opposition...Several dozen Slayers anxiously moving in to watch as the doors closed... "Take care, William!..." a few dozen calls...

"Try and rest..." the doctor at his side told him...Buffy nodding firmly...Stroking his hair... "Go to sleep, baby...Buffy's here..." she cooed in soothing voice... "All's well..." "No, no...I can't go to sleep...I can't let it be a dream...Not again..." he whispered, tears running now... "No..." he started thrashing a bit...The doctor looking at Buffy... "No, ok...You don't have to sleep just yet..." she nodded... "Just lie still, Will...Please..."

"Tell me..." he whispered...

"Angel and I...Our people have been in secret communication almost right from the day he took over Wolfram-Hart, LA..." she began... "We had to get the Partners to believe that I didn't trust Angel...That our organizations weren't cooperating..."

"Otherwise they'd never have come out from Hell and given us our one and only shot at them..." she grinned... I see...he shook his head feebly... "So Angel and the rest of you had this all planned out...And never trusted me..." No, Will...she shook her head... "That's not true..."

She frowned...A dark look coming over... "You were the one thing Angel didn't tell me about, the jealous son of a vamp bitch...I'll never quite forgive him for that...Though when Willow tried to find your soul for me...And found out where you were...Giles persuaded her not to tell me..."

Too much chance I'd screw everything, running to LA to get you...Right where the Partners wanted me...Or so Giles and the rest of the new Council figured, assuming they'd held on to you via the amulet as bait for me...

And they...The other new Councilors...Weren't quite sure of Angel...Didn't think we should put too much faith in him...

"Of course it was sweet of you never to call me...Or just come...Jackass..."

"I just thought..." he mumbled... "I know what you thought..." she glared... "Who the hell did you think you're dealing with?...Some bitch of a Drusilla whose vows are worth crap?...If I say I love you...And don't count on hearing it again...You damned well better believe in it and me!..."

Why didn't you trust me, Will?...she began breaking down... "Oh, hell, I know..." she waved a hand... "I left you there, I told you I wanted Spike to fight, I didn't offer you any hope of a future..." she sighed... "But you should've known it was real..."

"I did..." he nodded... "For that minute, it was...And I believed...But I couldn't come to you, a vamp still, and hear you..." he paused...

I don't take things like that back, Mr. Walthrop...she interrupted coldly...Yeah, I found out your name...she nodded...

"Really..." he smiled... "You've been learning research skills, eh girl?...One Rupert Giles must be pleased..." No, she shook her head...One Rupert Giles...Was not pleased to find me researching you...

"He wanted you over and done with..."

"William, lie still, please..." the doctor now cut in...Yeah, Buffy agreed..."Let me just tell you the story, babe..."

"Andrew came back with Dana...And kept your secret about half a day...I was headed for the airport within ten seconds but Giles had Willow come after me, told me I was risking all our plans, everything...Maybe even putting you and Angel in danger as well as the new Slayers and Council..."

So I settled for calls...Which I know, you never got...Angel and I had avoided letting Harmony in on our contacts previously...And were avoiding contact at all by now, expect by way of a very few special telepathic Willowgrams...

Which now included one very angry, expletive-filled one...she grinned...Anyway...We were right to keep to telepathy...

"Harmony was keeping the Partners informed on everything...And she had, by her own admission when we caught and cursed her an hour ago...Yeah..." Buffy nodded... "She's souled again...And fairly happy about it, though I think what really pleased her is the mall trip Dawn's promised to take her on ...Anyway...She admitted her demon had blocked my calls to you...The Partners were getting nervous about the idea of us getting together while they worked on Angel...They'd fallen for our scheme and were hoping to have Angel and me fighting by the year's end..."

And to make double sure, they sent the Immortal...The son of a bitch...she frowned...

Good choice to distract me though, God, what a cutie, she grinned...And just the right combination of your romantic yearning and Angel's hero thing...Though, frankly that's been wearing a bit thin on me since he went to LA and started doing the 'my city' thing...

"The Immortal (soddin' jackass)..." she grinned as Will faintly smiled at her accent... "Didn't exactly side with the Partners...I'll say that for him...But you knew him before and probably know his modus operandi?...You are noting my use of Latin, right?..." she grinned... "I'm back in college...Anyway..."

They offered him a crack at me, another notch for his rather large and impressive belt...And more important, their resurrection spell, the one they used on Darla...He only had to try and sweep me off my feet...And keep me out of LA, away from you...

Like someone else I know, he had this crazed idea that regaining his human body would make him a human being again...Though in his case, his motivation was not love, but just to escape the punishment awaiting him in Hell...

"Loser..." she frowned... "I knew his game from the start...And played along to keep the Partners happily chuckling over the success of their scheme...Even Andrew and Dawn believed I was hooked..."

"But then...Who comes to Rome to 'save' me?...My Champion asshole coward..." she frowned at him...Buffy...he sighed...

"Who doesn't even stay to say hello?...Jackass...When Andy told me you'd been there...I coulda torn my hair out...A chance to get you out safe and sound before things went to hell and you screw it...Why do you think I didn't come after you?...They were watching you and Angel all the time, ready to grab you if I showed any signs of your matterin' to me..."

Angel didn't tell...

"He didn't know...And had to keep quiet about the little he did know...I told you we weren't in contact except for the very rare telepathic note...But you shoulda known...Jerk..."

Of course as I said I was also pissed to hell that you hadn't come or called...And doubly pissed that you didn't wait up that night...I was so furious, I cursed you and your Goddamn soul a zillion times...Hell, Spike would never have run out like that...You little coward, afraid to face me!...

Well...he shook his head... "I only wanted to let you move on, girl..."

"I know..." she sighed... "I cursed myself worst of all...I know you didn't believe me cause I hadn't given you anything to believe in...William, if you knew what I've been through these past months...How many times I was on the verge of throwing it all to hell and just coming...How scared I was that the Partners would figure us out and take you..."

But it's all right now...It's all over now...she beamed...We're together at last...You never lost me...Your Buffy is with you, my darling...Always...She kissed him...Somehow, it not seeming odd to him that her hair had turned black and her face changed appearance...

"Thank you so much...For forgiving me last night..." she smiled...He stared but again, somehow...Was not surprised... "Yeah, I was there...Hiding in the back...But I heard you..."

Always...she whispered...You know that...

"Yes, always..." he whispered back...

"Cicely..." he smiled wanly...And closed his eyes...A bright light swallowing him as he drifted off...

"Dru..." An anxious Angelis stared at Drusilla, standing over the writhing body of her victim...One William Soames Walthrop, poet...In the London alley where she'd just dropped him...She looked up at her grandsire's nervous face...

"We have to get out of here...Darla says she's sensed the Slayer near, closing on us...She knows the bitch's scent, lass..."

If you're going to take that little fellow...He eyed Walthrop, now in his death throes...

"No..." Dru eyed William coldly... "I thought he'd be right for me...But I don't like his dreams...They're not of me...Just of..." she paused...Angelis impatiently looking down the alley where he'd come, then back at her...

He's not for me...she stated simply... I'll leave him to his dreams...Alone...

"Angelis!..." Darla's cry brought them up short... "Lets go, lass...Now!..." Angelis insisted, grabbed her arm...Dru letting herself be pulled away, gave one last look at the dying...Now dead...William...

No...Not the sort of dreams I like...she shook her head...And raced off with Angelis...

A sound of running feet...A young brunette woman in rather elegant 1880's dress, though rather winded and a bit the worse for wear...Incongruously clutching a stake in her right hand...Appeared, shining a lantern from her other hand which, noting something in the dark just ahead of her, she lowered...

"William..." she stared at him...Falling to her knees beside him...All thought of those she'd pursued vanished as she looked over him, feeling... "NO!..." a piteous howl... "They told me you'd be safe if I sent you away!..." she shrieked...

A profound calm suddenly coming over her...She forced herself to check for the signs...No, thank God...No trace scent of its blood in his mouth or anywhere...He was...Safe...

Free...Free and safe, my darling...she whispered...Holding his body in her arms...Rocking him gently...

And, in a moment...she looked down at the stake she'd dropped beside him...

Your Cicely will be with you...For always...

"Immortal Beloved XLI..."

A shortie...

PG-13

Spoilers for Angel to "The Girl in Question..."

Disclaimer: Everything but the 'Soames Walthrop' and I don't use it here is Joss' and ME's

Summary: What can I say these things are like candy or Lays...

LA...Offices of Burkle (Winifred Illyria Burkle), Gunn, and Walthrop...Eight months after the defeat of the Senior Partners...

"William S. Walthrop...How may...Buffy?..." he blinked at the phone...

"Spike!...You've got to come...I need you!...The world needs you!..."

Well...She hesitated...Ok, not the world world per se...But an island...A beautiful island...Where several of our Slayers hail from...Is in danger...

Uh-huh...William eyed the phone...

"Just what the hell is the problem, girl?..."

"Giant killer shrews, Spike...Cursed ones...Well, mostly genetically enhanced...But a spell is involved...See the island shamans wanted the genetic researchers off their island...So..."

"So it was the inhabitants themselves who called down the bogeymen, eh?...And now they're screamin' for help?..."

Well, yeah...But lives are at stake, Spike!...And like I said, the island is home to a couple of our Slayers...

"Killer shrews?...What's the big deal?..."

"Humongous killer shrews...Magically protected from harm...Well, not completely...A military post on the island killed a bunch with heavy artillery from the US test range...But they're overrunning the place and it'll be days before more troops and weapons can get in..."

"So?...Why not have your home-grown Slayers, plus a few hundred extra, fly in and deal?..."

"Spike?...They're magically enhanced...We might lose some of our Slayers..."

But...she paused...There is a way to stop them at a very low cost...

Uh-huh...he sighed...

Why do I think I know what that very low cost item is?...he thought...

"And it would be another chance for my Champion to prove himself..." her voice was encouraging...

"Yeah...Ummn...Buffy?...You know I don't remember you checkin' in on me after I got back...Even after I got my hands cut off helpin' your psycho Slayer, Dana..."

"Ummn...I didn't know you were back..."

"Odd that you knew to call me now..." he noted...

Ummn...See...Andrew only told me long...Really long after...

"And then there's the little matter of poor ole Angel...You didn't even come to his funeral service..."

"I was busy...Besides I sent a card...Well, I bought one, but I lost it...Anyway, Spike..."

William...he corrected... "Spike was my fiend...I'm human-souled, remember?...I want to be called by my human name now...I've earned it and then some..."

Oh...Right... "Anyway, William...What's need here is a Champion...A self-sacrificing one..."

Like you...her voice was warm...

Uh-huh...

"See there's this necklace that the Champion wears...And it attracts the shrews..."

Uh-huh...

"Then they eat him...And they all die..."

Indigestion, no doubt...he noted...

"And all those lives and that nice island property...Saved..."

"Just how many lives are at stake here?..."

"Ummn...Nearly 200...I think...But I did mention a couple of our Slayers are from there..."

"Nearly 200...Right...Ummn, Buffy...Couldn't they be evacuated while the military comes in..."

"Well, some are getting out right now...But, it's their home, Sp...er Will...And they naturally don't want to go..."

Right...Well, Buf...I would suggest your Pago-Pago Slayers offer themselves for their homeland...Or perhaps the bloody shamans who started the whole thing...

"Will...That's not the attitude I expect from my Champion..." she sighed... "These are human lives we're talking about...It's not like they're already dead with no reason to continue their worthless existence..."

"Well...You're already dead, Buffy..." he noted... "Why don't you wear the necklace and get your face eaten?..."

"Spike?..."

"Sorry...How's about Willow?...Can't she hex 'em?..."

"Still on her astral plane tour..."

Pity...he noted...We missed her too...

Hmmn... "Yeah...Sorry about Ms. Burkle..."

"Yes...So were we...Especially me...I haven't met many like her..."

A pause on the line...Buffy obviously waiting for an "...and you..."

"Sp...er William...?" she finally gave up, a slightly miffed tone in her voice now... "Will you come?...For me?..."

"Buf...I might consider coming to fight your shrews...If I thought the situation merited it...But be fed to them?...For 200 or less folks who could get away if they had any brains?...No, girl...I think not...Why not try good ole Harris?..."

"The sacrifice has to be supernatural..." Ah...

"Besides, Xander already said no...We were gonna try and fool em with a charm..."

"Nice to hear Harris has developed a brain..."

"Well, he's got responsibilities now...And he's human...I mean...I view you as human now..." she noted hastily... "With the soul and all...Of course...But..."

Just not 'that human'...he finished...

"William..."

"Buffy..." he sighed... "I'm not saying I wouldn't gladly make the sacrifice again for the world any day...Maybe even for the right group of people...Hell, you know me, probably for the right girl..."

But...I have responsibilities now...Like dear ole Harris...An investigative/legal firm to run, a fight against Evil to wage here in LA in ole Angel's name...

"We can handle that, Will...Just call Giles, he'll send some Watchers to run things after...Well, if...You go..."

"Sorry, Buf...Not this one...Perhaps another time...Say..."

Why don't you ask the Immortal?...He's supernatural, right?...

"Like to feed him to killer shrews..." she groused... "The bastard dumped me...Right after you guys fought the Partners and Angel died..."

Said he couldn't believe I wasn't going to you in the hospital...Or to Angel's funeral...

That I had no compassion...Me, no compassion...Buffy Summers, the Queen of compassion...

"Hard to believe..." he kindly noted...

"You know I was busy, right?...Right..."

Sure...he sighed...I never expected it...

"C'mon, William...For me?...Couldn't you see your way clear on this one?...Just one last sacrifice for your Slayer who you know loves you..."

Within reason, of course...Allowin' for the idea of us as a real thing to be impossible...she hastily noted...

"No picket fence, right?..." she asked...

"Well, not with you, Buf...I know that...Though actually I am having a nice fence put in round my new place...Sarah likes picket fences..."

Sarah?...

"Oh, right...You've never shown the slightest interest in me or my doings since I died for you...Yeah, I'm getting married...Next month, actually...In fact I think you know the lass..."

"A demon?...Did you find some tramp vamp who claims she's got a soul?...You know you can't believe every..."

"Human, Buf...In fact...A Slayer...You know, the divorced actress who resembles you..."

Hmmn?...

"She trained with you three months ago...Refused to stay in England and led that rebellion of Slayers against you?...Got the Council to let them have their lives back, instead of hanging round you there?...Pointed out that you'd actually had a preety nice life here in sunny CA with Mummy and all..."

Ummn...?

"Scooby-doo..." he said drily...

Oh...That Sarah... (Should've killed that bitch...she murmured under her breath)

"That Sarah...Yeah..."

"You could've waited for me to check in, you know..." she fumed...

"Eternity ain't that long, Buf..." he replied... "And my Sarah's a great girl...Just selfless enough to save the world, but devoted to her family and career as well..."

"Divorced, isn't she?..."

"You just heard me say so, girl...Yeah..."

"I remember her, William...Very opinionated, ruthless...Though kinda family-centered, I admit...She wouldn't follow my orders, wanted to go home...And led that rebellion just cause Giles and I wouldn't let her run off home to her hubby..."

"Sure sounds like the girl for me...Care to come to the wedding?...That is unless you sacrifice yourself to the killer shrews..."

"William..." a shocked tone... "I'm the Slayer Counselor General...I can't throw my life away..."

Unless of course it's for Dawny...Part of me...she noted...

Right...he sighed...Well, if your schedule permits we'd be pleased to have you...

"If I say yes, will you come to fight the shrews?..." an eager tone...

"As in...So you and your Slayers can club me one and feed me to them?...No thanks..."

William?...Again the shocked tone...

Gee he knows me so well...she thought sadly...And now...I've lost him...

Like hell...she grimly correctly...Nobody steals the Slayer's boyfriend...

Especially some junior slayer, small s...Who resembles me...

"I'll be there...Tell Sarah...Thanks..." she told him...

Maybe I could even drop by early...she suggested... "We could get caught up on things...?"

Like the most intense sex on God's Earth...she thought...Hmmn, I had forgotten about that...Even better than with His asinine Benevolence...

"Immortal Beloved XLII..."

A shortie...

PG-13

Spoilers for Angel to "Not Fade Away..." However everything regarding the outcome and Cicely here is my own playin' round...

Disclaimer: Everything but the 'Walthrop' is Joss' and ME's

Summary: What can I say these things are like candy or Lays...

Archived with the rest of the "Immortal Beloved" series (each a different outcome of events from "Girl in Question..." on ...) at the 'normal' Buffyverse (hey, you saw the quotes!) of the Buffy Rebecca verse, . (scroll down to the series).

I will also probably file this with the other lost works of England's third worst poet in Book I of the Semi-Complete Works of William Soames Walthrop...

.

On an LA weeknight, oh tres dreary...Pondered I, weak and weary...

Just from the battle, besmirched with gore...Dragging my limbs along the floor...

Heard I soft familiar laughing...And a gentle but steady tapping...Rapping on my new apartment door...

"Tis Illyria or Gunn...Or perhaps Angel...To summon me to fight once more...Bugger that, I'll do no more..."

Only this and nothing more...

To said door went I, unclasping...Turning deadbolt with groaning rasping...Rasping?...From my brand-new door?...

Rates a memo to building super sure...

Only this and nothing more...

Flung I the door with certain caution...As in my own blood I was sloshing...

After all, just fought demons galore...

Could be that there was one more...

"Not a thing..." said I, looking...Searchin' round my new apartment door...

Quoth the Niblett... "Bout time you opened the door..."

"Nibs?..." said I, with cheek atremblin'...Lookin' at her glaring, teenaged form...

"What the hell?..." She entered coolly...Glancing round, closing the door...

"Hey, Spike...Or should I say William?...Walthrop, wasn't it your name before?..."

Researched my past thought I, calming...

Only this and nothing more...Hey?...

"Is Buffy with you?...Is she comin'...?"

Quoth the Niblett... "Nevermore..."

"Bloody Christ?...What the hell is this?...Did she send you to piss on me, Niblett?..."

"Tell me, where is Buffy...Is she in LA?...Is she comin'...?..."

Quoth the Niblett... "Nevermore..."

She took a seat and eyed me coolly...As dread crept on me unruly...

"Tell me, Niblett...Tell me truly...As an old friend...Well, in those long-lost times before...When will I see her?..."

"Nevermore..."

"Now, you ruddy well listen, you little fiend from Hades!...I don't know who put you up to this, Harris maybes...But I want an answer so I'll ask once more!...Where the goddamn's your sister...?"

"You mean the one you abandoned?...For evermore...The one who loved you?...And did before?..."

"Before...?"

"When she was the Slayer in 1880, moron...My broken-hearted sis' gone beneath the floor...Cicely that was heretofore..."

"Cicely...?"

"Cicely..." she nodded...Pausing, then said no more...

"Cicely...A Slayer?...But...Nibs, how can you...?"

"The Council's records prove it...Ask Giles to be sure..."

"As to the rest...She is gone and there's no more..."

"Buffy was Cicely?...She truly loved me?...And now has gone to that distant shore...?"

Quoth the Niblett, rising... "That's for sure..."

"But how..." "Despairing of seeing you, making amends...Knowing what'd happened to you before..."

That's what did it, nothing more...

"Nibs!..." screamed I, in horror reeling...But from current pain would've climbed the ceiling...

"Say a word of comfort...Fore you go out my door...Say I'll yet behold the Buffy I adore..."

"Have you been listenin'?...Nevermore..."

"So she learned she was my Cicely...Of that you're sure?...Then of grief she died?...You said before...That was it and nothing more?..."

Quoth the Niblett... "That's it, sure..."

Oh...she paused...And just one thing more...

"She'd've lived if you'd've come...Of that we're sure...But you didn't trust her love, so..." Buffy burst right through my door...

"Dawn!...Enough already!...Hurt my Will no more!...Ouch!..." she stared at my bruises...

Buffy?...stared I back..."Cicely, too...?" Yeah...she nodded... "That part's true..." Frowning... "Sorry, had to be sure...You know you took your time to say 'how-de-do'..."

Feebly I... "Well, you did too..." As she hugged me...Wincing...At my apartment door...

And from me parted...Nevermore...

"Immortal Beloved XLIII..."

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Swear it's the last in the series...Maybe...Eh, what the hell, I'll try for 50...

LA...The night of the abrupt end of Angel's career as a Wolfram-Hart exec...

"Slayers!..." a voice cried... "Form ranks...Stakes!..." the massed Slayers presented stakes... "For our William!...Charge!..."

He looked to see the group in three rows, stakes out, charging as the Wolfram-Hart forces began to waver, eyeing the determined Slayers bearing down on them...Wavered and then broke, most racing for the portal behind them as fast as legs, wings, or in a few cases, segmented bodies, could carry them...Several isolated leaders, Senior Partners or their seconds-in-command, looking on furiously but helplessly...

And in the vanguard of the fifty or so charging Slayers, crying out the order to charge...Dana?...he blinked at the sight...Struggling to rise in spite of his injuries...

Two Slayers raced to him, one unfolding a sort of stretcher... "No, William..." One called, the other moving to gently restrain him... "Our people'll take care of things...You've got to come with us, we've got a doctor and some medical supplies..." "Angel, Charlie...Illyria..." he gasped... "They're ok, Mr. Gunn's on his way to the hospital, Angel's getting treated...Illyria's with him..." the one hold him gently but firmly down told him...

"What the hell's...?" "We've come to help you, William...It's ok...Come on..." the two carefully placed him on the stretcher and lifted him...

"Buffy?..." he murmured, looking around...The two eyed each other...

He caught sight of a short, thin blonde in the charging ranks... Buffy!...he called...

"Just rest Will...We'll talk later..." they bore him as gently as possible away, though the pain was such that he passed out almost immediately...

He woke to find himself on the ground, a thirties-ish woman attending him, attaching an IV...About a dozen Slayers surrounding his stretcher...And Dana at one side...Holding his hand, an anxious look on her face...Illyria, in Fred form, by his other, looking concerned...Though perhaps a tad confused and wan...

And among the dozen, the blonde he'd seen...Buffy?...He stared...No, though very like...A hair older and a bit stringier...

"William..." Dana breathed gently... "Hey..." she beamed...He involuntarily gulping a bit...Pulling his hand back...She looking a bit embarrassed and downcast as he did so...

Sorry...he whispered...Don't mean... "I understand..." she nodded... "William?..." Illyria asked, looking a bit puzzled... "Your name's William, right?..." she eyed him...

"Illyria took quite a lot of energy shocks..." Dana hastily explained... "Sort of like electroshock...The effects of which..." she wryly grinned... "I can fairly say I am familiar with..."

"Dana?...You seem quite a bit of alright, girl..." he blinked at her...

"Cicely...William..." she eyed him... "My name's Cicely now...Cicely-Dana might be more accurate..."

Cicely?...he stared... "Yeah..." she smiled, nodding... "I was a Slayer even then, darling..."

He turned to Illyria, who looked if anything even more puzzled...

"Dana couldn't save herself alone, Will..." Cicely-Dana explained... "The psychological damage was too great...But when I surfaced in her, the memories I mean...When she'd been given what treatment could be given... We...She and I...Realized our one chance to survive was to unite as one...And so we did..."

"And just in time too, from the looks of things..." she smiled gently again...

"Cicely?..." he whispered... "I was trying to save you, William...That night...I had to send you away...Or so I thought..." she sighed... "I loved you Will...But I was the Slayer and you were a human...A very gentle human...And everyone, the Council, my Watcher...They all assured me I was giving you a death sentence by keeping you around..."

But I was wrong...she frowned... I should have trusted in you and in us...

"I failed you..." she shook her head... "I didn't even stop Spike from rising...But I knew you'd forgive me...And I was there, Will...Yesterday, at the club...When you did..."

"Where's Wesley...?" Illyria suddenly asked, looking round...Several of the Slayers and Dana eyeing her in sorrow... "I have to find my Wes..." she paused...Oh...Her body trembling...Two Slayers coming to her... "Pet, I'm so sorry..." Will patted her hand, still in his, gently as she sobbed...

"Angel?..." he eyed Dana... "He's ok?..."

"A little bruised, the hair mussed...But in pretty good shape..." she grinned... "And very anxious for us to keep his dragon around till he can have it carted away for a trophy..."

He slew his dragon?...At last?...Good for the bloody poof...Will grinned back...

"Yeah...And are his girlfriend and his boy proud...And Charlie Gunn is doing well at the hospital...But there's more Will..."

"We got...!" one Slayer began eagerly, the others shushing her...Dana smiling at them... "We got all the Partners' magics data...Including the Prophecy and resurrection stuff..." she beamed... "Will?...We hafta check, but we think we may be able to help you and Angel...Humanity-wise..."

He stared...

"I thought only one..." he began... "Prophecies are funny things Will, as are magics...But we need to do some work on the stuff yet, maybe call in Mr. Giles or Willow..."

I see...he paused...She eyed him...

"Buffy?..." she asked gently... As a couple of Slayers frowned at the name...

"She's involved with someone these days, Will..." "The Immortal?..." Yeah, Dana nodded...

"She wasn't even gonna..." one Slayer in the crowd began...He eyed her as the others nudged her silent...The blonde, Buffyish girl now in front, eyeing him sympathetically...

"She didn't come..." he looked at Dana... "She thought you didn't want her to, Will...You did take your time about coming to Rome..." the Slayer noted... "And Mr. Giles didn't think she should go to LA, too risky with them uncertain about Angel..." she paused...

"And me..." he finished, looking at his hands... "No...We never doubted you, Will..." Dana told him firmly... "Though Buffy just wanted to put things...You...And me, Cicely... What she had of me in her memories...Behind her..."

"So, we did kinda hafta skip out on the quiet to get here..." she grinned...Then serious... "If she'd known the Partners were coming for you, she'd've come, I'm sure, Will..."

Oh...? "Then why...?"

"I had to see you again...And see if I could work up the nerve to meet you..." she sighed... Then smiled... "But then thank God, I tracked you down to that poetry slam...And I knew you'd forgiven me...Well, Cicely me, anyway..."

Then when we saw what was up, the bunch of us who'd come over to see you called in all the locals we could...And here we are...

"We figured it was about time a few of us went the extra mile for our William...Especially me..." she smiled...

Hands ok?...she looked at them a bit nervously...

Fine...he smiled wanly...

The Buffy near twin stood watching them, the closest of the other Slayers...Cicely-Dana eyed her...

"This is Sarah Gellar..." she made an intro...The woman eyeing William carefully... "The actress...?"

Yes...he nodded to Ms. Gellar's shy smile... "I've seen your work...Always amazed me how much you looked like..." he paused...

"He's got to get to the hospital...And get some rest..." the woman tending his IV noted... "Right..." Cicely-Dana nodded... Ms. Gellar nodding as well...But looking fixedly at him...Two Slayers gently moving the wan Illyria away a few feet...As she fussed and looked anxious, he called to have them bring her back, at which she calmed, retaking his hand... "You'll be alright, William...I'll help you..." she gently told him... "We'll get you to my lab and I'll help you..." she murmured... "Can she come along?..." he asked...Cicely-Dana eyed the doctor who nodded...

The two Slayers by her helped Illyria in the ambulance as others lifted William in...

"Ok, guys...He's gonna be fine..." Cicely-Dana eyed the Slayers clustering round... Yeah...Ms. Gellar nodded... "Lets check and round up any remaining W-Hers and get the prisoners secured...Ok, ladies?..." Buffy now waved off the glam which had altered her appearance slightly...

"Nice job...Cicely..." she eyed Cicely-Dana coolly as the others left their two leaders alone...As they obviously wished...

"You saw..." Cicely-Dana noted, equally coolly... "He still loves me...It's me he's always loved...In you as well..."

"He was looking for me..." Buffy shook her head... "I should have told him, I never should've..."

"I deserve my chance, Ms. Summers...And if you truly wish to allow Will his choice..." she paused...

"You let him die..." Buffy began... "So did you..." Cicely-Dana eyed her coldly..." And you did nothing for him all these wasted, lost years when you could've saved him...Left him as he was..."

"He loved me in the beginning and he...his poor condemned soul...Has waited for me all these years...It was me he sensed in you, Ms. Summers..."

"Well..." Buffy looked at her rival sternly... "When I've kept my promise...And you've had a couple of days to make him believe it's really you...And I have my chance..."

We'll see which of us he loves...

"And if he can't choose..." Cicely-Dana smiled gently... "We'll settle matters between us..."

Yes, Buffy nodded...Sizing up her opponent...Formerly the Greatest Slayer of all Time...To 1981 at least...

"We will..."

"Immortal Beloved..." XLIV...

Summary: One of my various outcomes following Angel episodes "Girl in Question" to "Not Fade Away"...

Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, .

Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...

LA...The battle with the forces of the Senior Partners appears to be reaching its inevitable end...Gunn down, barely breathing as Illyria tries to cover him...Angel, though jubilant as he stood in triumph over his slain dragon, well aware as the hordes round them close in that it may be his epitaph...

An exhausted, battered William barely on his feet as the demons surrounding the little group now move in for the kill...Nearly blind from the blood filling his eyes...As much theirs as his, as far as that goes to comfort him...

A huge fellow reaches him...Green, scaly...Might the humanoid cousin of Angel's opponent, Will notes to himself as he tries to brace to go down fighting...The demon rearing for the final blow...

And falls to the ground with a heavy thud...Dead...A stake protruding from its back...William staggering, sees a horde of young women now sweeping over the panicking Wolfram-Hart forces who fall back in confusion to their Hell portal...The...Yes, no doubt about it...Slayers in hot pursuit...

And now he can, through bloody, bruised eyes, barely make out one of the women standing by his dead former opponent...

She pulled the stake out with a grunt...And eyeing him coolly, tossed it at his feet...He stared, wiping his weary face, trembling with fatigue and pain...She grabbed him as he stumbled, setting him down carefully, anxiously, smiling a bit now, waving in the other Slayers not occupied in rounding up the surrendering forces of Evil, Inc...Calling "Ladies!..." As they formed a line and each dropped her stake at his feet...Grinning at him as they came up and passed by him...

"Buffy?..." he looked up at her...She turned back from calling first to a woman bearing medical supplies, then to Angel and eyed him...Then the pile of stakes...

"Our picket fence..." she smiled...

"Immortal Beloved..." XLV...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...Hmmn...Think I will try for 50...I mean the numbers are easier to write after 40 anyway...

LA...The night of the battle with the Senior Partners...

A battered, bruised William stares up from the ground at a wanly smiling Angel standing near him...He looks to see Illyria protectively covering a collapsed, unconscious Gunn while in an agitated, yet sweet Fred voice, speaking into the cell phone Angel'd just handed her, demanding an ambulance at once...Switching to Illyrian threatening tone when the operator began demanding details...

"Angel?...We're...Whatever version of alive you can call us?..."

"That we are, William..." he turned at the sound of a voice, a rather miffed one...

"Hey!...You might remember who you owe that life or whatever to..." A frowning...

Buffy?...William stared...She now beaming at him... Hey, my lil' blonde babe...she grinned, waving...

Angel frowning at her...

"We're properly grateful..." he began, eyeing Will, now struggling to rise...She was over to him in a second, gently forcing him back to the ground... "No, Will...Honey, lie back..."

Get some help for him...she turned to Angel, startling William a little by her cold tone...

And now, despite his pain...He began sensing...Something wrong...

"Illyria has an ambulance coming from LA General...I've got calls out, our medical staff may see the light and side with the victors..."

Tell them they're dead if they don't...she glared...Kneeling beside William...

"Buffy..." he looked at her... "But...You..."

"I'm here Will, sorry I took so long...Came just as soon as I could..."

"Who...?" Will whispered faintly, twisting to stare at her...Near passing out... "I'm here, baby...Buffy's come to you..." she murmured, stroking his hair... "Just in the nick, from the looks of things..." she grinned... "Don't fret...I'm here..."

Angel now frowned again and would have spoken...But for the sudden interruption of a massive blue light in their midst...

Dawn and Giles...Giles holding an orb...And both staring with cold anger at...

"Anne...!" Dawn's angry cry...

"Angel...That is not..." Giles began...

Hello...I know that, Giles...Angel fumed a little...Vampire here, can sense a sister when I see one...

And by the way, nice of you not to let us know Buffy had deliberately arranged to be transformed when you got to Cleveland after learning she was dying of her injuries from Sunnydale and that Will's spirit was still on Earth with me...Killed Willow before she could curse her...And that you've had an Slayer actress twin of Buffy playing Buf for months to keep the underworld from learning the truth until you could catch her...

"I know Giles..." Angel nodded to him... "She's agreed to surrender now that William's safe...And more..."

And I also know she's the only one of you who damned well cared enough, demon or no, to come and help us out, despite the risk of your finally catching up with her...Though all for William as she explained before I nearly staked her...

Hmmn...Looks like the party's over and I be bound for Africa...Anne frowned at them...

Oh well, just another fool for love is Annie...she sighed...Cradling William in her arms...

"Immortal Beloved..." XLVI...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...Hmmn...Think I will try for 50...I mean the numbers are easier to write after 40 anyway...

LA...Night...

Near their Hell portal, the forces of the Senior Partners pause to group themselves for what, given the overwhelming numbers, ought to be a rather brief charge...Their only concern to be sure of quick withdrawal after victory before human authorities can detect them...

Down the alley from the portal, the pathetic forces of Light under Angel...A battered, stumbling Gunn, a tense, determined-to-avenge-Wesley-in-blood, Illyria, and a grinning, Helluva-way-to-go-out, count-me-in William brace themselves...While Angel eyes his dragon target...

"What the hell?..." Will looks round...As do his comrades...And their adversaries...Hearing...

Uh-oh...The dragon, hovering, eyes his demonic humanoid trainer below...His distant cousin, actually...

Play theme

"Is that Barry White's "Love's Theme"?..." William eyes Angel...Illyria quickly reviewing her Fred memories...Hmmn...Barry...? The music, indeed the opening cascade of "Love's Theme" pouring apparently out of thin air...

Lights from on high...Accompanied by the whir of large chopper blades...The Demonic Forces and those of Angel stare up to see a vast force of men and women in black, heavily armed, descending on ropes...Firing weapons into the now milling and wavering demonic horde...

Trucks pull up at the far, open end of the alley, from which a horde of women, some barely out of their teens, some past forty, pile out on the double...Along with some rather overdressed for the occasion, young men and women, bearing the unmistakably tweedy look of...Watchers...A number of the women bearing stakes, crossbows...Or the occasional bazooka...

Even as the trucks unload and the men-and-women-in-black descend their ropes to William, Angel, Gunn, and Illyria's blinking astonishment and the rhythmic beat of Barry's music...A car pulls up at the far end of the alley...

William looking in wonder at about as an exact a replica of the old Spikemobile as might be imagined...The driver's door, facing them, opens...The same music playing all around them, blaring from within...

A short, lithe young woman with tightly bunned blonde hair...Blonder than he remembered, Will notes to himself...Wearing dark glasses...Dressed to his rather pleased surprise, if the likewise staring Angel's slight annoyance...In a long black duster...Emerges...Scanning the situation with a quick, hard look round...

A look that stops and centers...On him...A smile, gently at odds with her brusque, business-like moves, breaking out slowly...The music behind her reaching just the right framing point as she does...She gives a brief wave...And turns to pull something out of the car...

Buffy...he murmurs...

Before he can call to her, those among the enemy either too determined or not yet panicked enough to join the growing rout of demonic troops racing for their one escape via Hell portal, make a desperate attempt to charge...

The dragon, however, taking the better part of valor to his disgusted cousin's chagrin...And Angel's disappointment, descends in gesture of surrender, denying air support...

And before they can cover the short distance to him, William finds Buffy and three other rather fleet Slayers by his side...She unlimbering her favorite rocket launcher, pulled from her version of the Spikemobile a moment before...

"Hey..." she smiles at him...Sighting the charging front ranks with her launcher as the chopper-flown troops and her own Slayer-Watcher force begin laying down a heavy fire of various weapons...

A well-aimed rocket tearing apart the small group of the enemy front line charging towards them...

"Girl?..." Yeah?...She gives a quick, mock annoyed frown... "Thought I wouldn't come, you little cowardly..." Hey?... "Emotional..." she fires off another... "...cowardice I mean...You know..."

"Nice coat..."

Yeah...she beams... "Hey, Angel..." a quick wave... "Sorry we had to lay it on so thick with the 'not trusting ya'...Knew you'd bring 'em out in the open for us..." returning to Will...

"Howdya like the car?...That was the damnest hardest thing to find..."

Just great...Beautiful...he beams... "Off...!..." she screams at a large green demon, well-fanged, who'd broken through to them and was seeking to stomp William...A crossbolt from a Slayer behind them taking him out quite effectively...

Music ok?...she smiled... "I figured I'd go with something a bit older yet still super cool...Like my honey..."

"So...You believe now...?" she eyed him... "No more doubts?...I love you?..."

"In that coat, with that car...And that musical backup...I guess I have no choice..." he smiled...Then hesitated...Ummn...

Several Slayers and Watchers came up, dragging captured senior members of the enemy forces...He saw Riley and wife now talking to Angel and Illyria back down the alley...

"The Immortal...?" he turned back her

"Right...Andy mentioned him to you that night...?" she frowned...

So, you guys ready to surrender?...she eyed the enemy prisoners... "Never!..." one stout red-faced...red-furred and red-horned fellow cried...

Ummn...Luki?...Several of the others eyed their gallant comrade...Discretion is Wolfram-Hart's middle name, ya know?...

"Andrew may have dropped a name that night, it does sound familiar..."

Oh, really?...she frowned, an annoyed one this time... "Then you mighta stuck round and fought for your girl you know..." Turning to wave on more Slayers towards the Hell portal...

"Andrew said..."

"'Andrew said'..." she mimicked... "Since when do you take love lessons from Andrew?...Damnit, if he hadn't coughed up the beans at last that night..."

"Oh really...?" he eyed her...Several of the captured leaders eyeing the couple now...

They do make a nice pair, one noted to his companions...Though it's probably best that he's wearing the short jacket now...Both in dusters would just be a little too...

C'mon...Angel hissed to the dragon, now patiently awaiting chains and other restraints... You're a dragon, practically the last of your kind...You can't want to go out this way...C'mon, lets fight it out...

Plllease...the dragon shook its massive head...And I expect Geneva POW rules to apply...it noted in dignified, if hoarse tones...

Of course...Riley, beside it, nodded...

Angel frowning slightly...This is my dragon, Finn...his look saying...

"You had no...idea that I'd materialized, let alone corporealized here in LA...?" Will frowned at a slightly sheepish-looking Buffy...Rather incongruously sheepish-looking in her "Modesty Blaze, Ms. Spike..." outfit...

Well...she looked down... "Willow did say your spirit didn't seem to be in Heaven when we checked by seance...Me knowing you weren't in Hell..." she nodded firmly...

"But Giles didn't think...After Andy told us about Dana...And you...See..."

"We needed to have the Partners think I didn't trust Angel at all...If I'd come to LA too soon..."

I did try to call and write...she sighed... "After Dana and the hands, I mean..."

They ok?...Fine, he wiggled them for her... Phew...she nodded...

"But Harmony being Angel's secretary...It was clear they weren't reaching you..."

"Slayer-Counselor General?..." A formal-looking Watcher approached... "The enemy appears ready to surrender..." Yeah, yeah...she waved

They didn't reach ya, did they?...she gave an anxious, sad stare...

"I figured " she beamed, nodding at his confirmation...

"And you coulda called me...Come to us in Rome..."

"Well..." he begin... "I know, you didn't believe me..." she sighed...

"I believed...But..." he paused... "I wasn't sure...if it was just for the moment, you might ask me to let you take it back..."

William...? she stared...

"I mean...As lifetime commit and all...You know... 'No picket fence for us'..."

"Yeah...I prefer iron or at least black aluminum grilling..." she grinned...Turning to the captured enemy leaders...

Ok, guys...Two options...

"One, we fight it out to your deaths..." she eyed them coldly...

Or...

"Two...You guys and your pals stack arms and be my guests at our wedding reception..."

Ummn...Will blinked...As she unbuttoned her duster to reveal a lovely wedding gown...Pulling veil from a duster pocket...

"You clowns are damned lucky not to have mussed my dress..." she glared at the prisoners...

Wedding reception?...Sounds good to me...One valiant but sensible fellow beamed congenially upon the happy...If in the groom's case, a bit bewildered...couple...

"Hey, Your Eminence..." she called...A handsome, young-looking man stepping forward...In cardinal's robes...

"Will, meet His Benevolence..." she eyed a startled William... "Who's kindly agreed to marry us...Right now...Before you run on me..."

The Immortal gave a friendly smile...Offering a hand... "Mr. Walthrop, I presume...I understand you and Angel received the capo without any difficulty?..."

"Cardinal Immortale took holy orders a century ago when he achieved redemption..." she grinned... "But he likes to get out and mingle in his street clothes every now and then..."

Be nice...she hissed... He went outta his way to come along to do the services...And he was the one who told me you were probably just scared too shitless to face me...

"Immortal Beloved..." XLVII...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...What the hell, I'll try for 50...I mean the numbers are easier to write after 40 anyway...

"Buffy..." Willow shook her head sadly, staring at the Slayer where, rather oblivious to the chaos about her, she now cradled the still, battered body of William Soames Walthrop, aka William the Blood aka Spike...

"If you'd just called me in sooner..." she looked round the blasted alley, where remains of various demons lay scattered, blasted and flash-fried by the rather substantial energy pulse the wiccan had just fired down the way...

I mean...she paused... "You were here all day...You were following him...Didn't you get any inkling of what was up until just before..."

Didn't you even try to speak to him?...she, seeing the tears on her friend's cheek did not say...

"I'm so sorry, Buf..."

Buffy stroked William gently, tenderly...Shaking her head...

"We didn't know what was going on until they came here...I didn't think we should speak to them directly til we knew what was up...Not that I ever doubted him...But you know Giles said not to risk contact until we were certain of Angel's intentions..."

Dawn, beside her, gave a slight, brief, narrow look...Which she wiped quickly as possible...Willow sighing again... "Poor Charlie Gunn...And Wesley, too...Well, at least Angel is still kickin'...And that blue lady..." she looked to where Illyria was being tended by two Slayers who'd teleported in with her moments ago...

Yeah...Buffy nodded, a wan smile... "I'm glad for him...And what's his latest's name..." She stared down briefly to where Nina was helping Angel rise to his feet...

"Poor guy..." Willow sighed again at William... "I wish he'd had the guts to come to you..." Yeah...Buffy nodded... "But he's in Heaven now and, maybe...Maybe now he believes I wasn't lying..."

Dawn staring at her...

"Well, I'll go check the Hell portal and make sure it's secure...Then maybe one of us..." she eyed Buffy gently rocking the corpse in her arms... "Then I'll call Giles and let him know it's over..." Fine, Buffy murmured... "Thanks, Wil..." Willow rose and headed down the alley...Dawn remaining by her sister, eyeing her and William...

Willow gone out of earshot, Buffy stared up coolly at her sis...Well?...

"We could have got here sooner...We could have called Willow in sooner...You deliberately waited until it was too late..." Dawn stated flatly... "And I know why...I was there in the club, Buffy...And I heard him...And saw you after..."

Her sister just stared, coldly... "He's in Heaven now..." she repeated...

With her...she did not say...Nor did she have to...

"Tell me, Buffy..." Dawn paused... "Tell me you did it, for him...To let him have peace at last...And...And not because..."

"I loved him..." Buffy replied quietly...Staring fixedly at her sis...

"I want to believe it was unselfish...Pure...I'll try to make myself believe that, Buffy..." Dawn sighed...Looking over to where Willow was helping Illyria to the waiting ambulance... "There's no point in telling Willow or anyone else anyway...It's too late now and he's gone..."

She paused a moment...

"He loved you, Buffy...I'm sure of it...Whatever he said today...Who or whatever she..."

Yeah...Buffy nodded...Holding him tight against her body...Rubbing his cheek with hers...

Dawn walked slowly away, over to Angel, now being placed on a stretcher for transport under Nina's watchful eye...

"I don't really know why, Will..." Buffy whispered... "I hope Dawn is right to believe in me and that I did it for you...To let you have...What you really wanted..."

All I know is...All these weeks since Andrew told me...I was sure you'd come...Though I even stooped to playing around with the Immortal, just to get you to come...I was sure you loved me and you'd come when you were ready...But then, today...After Giles told me what was up here and I couldn't wait any longer and came to you...I heard you in that club...And then I knew...

All you gave me these last years...Everything...Was for her...It was hers... Buffy murmured...Rocking the body of her dead lover in her arms... "I heard you..."

"It was all...For Cicely..."

"Immortal Beloved..." XLVIII...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...What the hell, I'll try for 50...I mean the numbers are easier to write after 40 anyway...

I've Got You Under My Skin...Cole Porter...

Play

I've got you under my skin

I've got you deep in the heart of me

So deep in my heart

You're nearly a part of me

I've got you under my skin

I have tried so not to give in

I have said to myself this affair

Never gonna go somewhere

But why should I try to resist

When baby I know so well

That I've got you under my skin

I would sacrifice anything

Come what might

For the sake of holding you near

In spite of a warning voice

That comes in the night

It repeats and it shouts in my ear

Don't you know blue-eyes

You never can win

Use your mentality

Wake up to reality

But each time I do

Just the thought of you

Makes me stop before I begin

'cause I've got you under my skin

I'd sacrifice anything

Come what might

For the sake of having you near

In spite of a warning voice

That comes in the night

It repeats and it shouts in my ear

Don't you know you old fool

You never can win

Use your mentality

Wake up to reality

But each time that I do

Just the thought of you

Makes me stop before I begin

'cause I've got you under my skin

And I love you (when you're) under my skin

LA, morning...Ten hours before the battle in LA...

"What do you want with a company card, Spike?..." Angel eyed his, well...What the hell since they'd be even deader in ten hours or so anyway...Partner...

"My business...The upstanding business of one of the human-souled, mate..." Will shook his head... "I've no plans to welch on you, boss...But you did say to live the day to the max...And I need a little lucre for my entertainment..."

Angel frowned...Then shrugged...Hell, why not...He's earned it and if he socks Wolfram-Hart with a day's orgy...Am I gonna worry?...

"Here..." he signed a form... "Take it to Harmony and have her rush it through..."

But Will...Angel eyed him... "If you are having second thoughts about things...You're still a volunteer..."

"Thanks...I'll be back on time and then some..." Will nodded... "Not that I owe you, poof, considering everything I've done for you recently...Risking both existence and my innocent, non-redemption-needing soul..."

"Yeah...Thanks...Just remember, you're pledged to be there now...And dust if you let us down..."

"Just make sure you don't spend the evening plucking hairs from that overgrown single brow of yours, poof..."

A shabby shop in a run-down part of town...Though why they're always shabby and rundown, Will thought...Considering the owners always have access to tremendous occult power...

"I need an orb of Callos...Price no object..." he eyed the elderly proprietor who'd frowned at the beginning of the request...But, on seeing the presentation of a Wolfram-Hart credit card...Beamed jovially...

Certainly...he smiled, reaching down to a locked box...

"Ummn...You do know how to handle these, son?...Very tricky if you've never played with one..."

Hmmn...Will turned away from the ad for a poetry slam on the near wall...4pm, Riallo St...

"Oh, sure...Say, have you got a piece of paper and a pencil...?"

The elderly...Man?...William eyed him...Yeah, man...Handed a pad and pen over...

"If it's not imposing..." the shopkeeper paused... Will noting down the address and time...

Yeah...

"I was wondering what you were planning to..."

"Yeah...As in, yes...It is imposing..." William frowned...

But if you must know...And as I could use a little advice...

"Teleportation..."

Oh...The old man nodded wisely...Done a bit in my day, his expression saying...

"Any experience with long-distance, pops?..."

Rome, evening...Nine hours before the battle in LA...

Buffy leaned against her chair...A slight chill, despite the warm Roman evening, running yet again down her spine...As if a premonition of something...Some danger, or some thing, coming...

Her companion, the famed Immortal...Image of actor Jude Law (my wife adores him, that's why, ya happy now?)...Smiling at her...Though under his ever gracious manner, a bit annoyed by her distance this evening...

As if she were once again obsessing about the ominous news from her Chairman regarding that ridiculous posturing 'hero', Angelus and the buildup of dark forces in LA...And above all, about that pitiful Billy Idol impersonator, poor man's James Dean in blonde...Cheap, third-rate, not-even-imitation, would-be Shelley...

"My dear..." he tried gently...Hmmn?...she stared...Oh...

"Sorry, Henri...Mind on business, ya know..."

But of course mon cheri...he smiled...

Girl, you are with The Immortal, Count Henri Faucomb d'Vestigy, himself...At least show some modicum of interest...Americans, he sighed...

Still, poor thing has had her share of troubles...Working night and day with her Council and new Slayers coming in from around the globe...One must make allowances...

And, if one could take a neutral view...As befitting a French aristocrat and many-lived man of the world...Rather sweet to see her take on after her lost little fellow so...

Even if dear William's stock had dropped somewhat after, bless him, dear Andrew had let slip the knowledge that William the Bloody, apparently still with human soul, had reappeared in LA...

Knowledge that had plunged her, after a brief moment of disturbing joy...Into a profound depression when the nobody self-professed "poet" and second-string "champion" had failed to make contact...

Though she'd the good sense and tact not to go rushing off to LA...Even when her charming little weasel of a sister had urged it on hearing from Andrew of William's little encounter with the psychotic Slayer Dana...And his subsequent forced hospitalization...Noting sensibly, to his pleased satisfaction, that if William didn't wish to contact her, it was best not to rake old matters up...

Well, pleased satisfaction until it had occurred to him that she might, possibly, one day serve him in similar manner...

Hmmn...Nah...C'mon, The Immortal here...he'd noted to himself...What female of any vaguely humanoid form would be inclined to allow herself...Or even wish to...Forget him...

Heck, Angelus' old mate Darla and his sired 'daughter' Drusilla had continued to try and persuade him to meet up right up until the last couple of years ago...Despite his heavily publicized redemption of sorts a century ago...

But, and in spite of his, The Immortal's, presence...Ever since the news from Mr. Giles the other day that things seemed to be reached a head in LA, and the Senior Partners and their Circle of the Black Thorn to be preparing a major operation...With uncertainty as to Angel and his people's position...She'd been pensive, like this...With an occasional demand to her Chairman that he keep her informed as to William the Bloody's whereabouts...

Frustrating...I thought she'd finally trashed the memory of that fool like an unprofitable dream.

Well, at least the news was promising and with any luck, by this time tomorrow, no William to bother one's head about...

"Buffy..." A voice called softly from behind their table...

"My God, William?..." she turned round, rising...As Will stared at her...Standing with some kind of orb in hand...Giving The Immortal...A rather astounded Immortal...Only the slightest of brief looks as he came up to their table...

"Sorry to intrude, Slayer..." he smiled wanly... "Had some time on my hands and well..."

I...she blinked...

"You look a little under the weather...Things been busy?..." he pleasantly inquired...

Get out...he briefly eyed The Immortal again...Who blinked in intense astonishment...

William?...Buffy stared...

"Mate, I have some business with Ms. Summers...Go enjoy the nightlife or take a tour of the Roman ruins by night..."

I've no time to play round with you, go...he waved Henri off...

Who, to his renewed, more intense astonishment...Found his date not all that put out about their sudden guest's rather impolite attitude...

"Buffy?..." Henri turned to her...

Not of course in the manner of one seeking help against a potential foe...Hey, The Immortal here...

Just...To indicate, in his trademark gracious manner...His shock at such a display...

Well...William sighed at her...Since your friend here doesn't seem to take a hint...And I don't wish to muss my perfect resouled behavior record...

"Come on, girl..." he waved at the dance floor... "Surely I rate a dance..."

"Back in a bit, Henri, sorry..." she hastily mumbled as she got up...Leaving His Benevolence in open-mouthed astonishment...

Well, Maman had warned him, centuries ago...To beware forward and impudent girls...

"Will...Why?..." she began as he led her out to the dance floor...

He raised a hand...In a bit, girl...Lets have it out in a bit...

"For now...Whatever you're willing to let me claim you owe me for last year is settled if you'll just give me one dance...Please, darling..." he looked at her...And seeing her face, nodded to the heavily bribed bandleader who'd been eyeing him...

"I've got you under my skin..." the band's singer and music began...She clung to him...A little desperately, sensing the urgency in his words and manner...

"William..." Ssssh...he hissed...Later...Later, my love...he held her... "Just let me hold you a bit, love...Please..." she letting him pull her close...

"When did you..." she looked up at him finally...He swung her round gently...

"Come on, Buffy..." he gave a gentle smile... "Don't try to tell me Andrew didn't tell the moment he reached Rome..."

I...Well...she began, brokenly...

"I know I should've called or something...I just couldn't work up the nerve til now...Sorry..." he sighed...

"I've got you...Deep in the heart of me..."

"I couldn't lose that moment back in Sunnydale..."

She pulled away a bit... "You said you didn't believe me..."

"So deep in the heart, you're nearly a part of me..."

"Didn't want to hold you to it, girl...I knew it was only the moment speaking...You meant to be kind, I know...But I also know...For just that moment..."

"I thought about coming, calling William...But..."

"I've got you...Under my skin..."

"No hard feelings, love...None...I understand...I do..." he smiled...

"I understand everything now...Cicely..." he eyed her...

I'm sorry...she began...Then blinked at him...Who?...

"You remember..." he told her quietly... "You've known about Cicely a long time now...I know..."

Access to Wolfram-Hart surveillance reports, girl...Very handy...he grinned...

"William...I..."

"She was a Slayer, you're a Slayer...You have her memories...Poor kids..." he sighed, shaking his head...

"I was wrong that night..." he explained... "Saying they wanted to die...My two poor Slayers...It was me who wanted to die, throwing myself at them, hoping they'd be strong enough...And they, with Cicely staring out of them, who wanted to save me, couldn't bring themselves to kill me...Though she wasn't in them as clear as in you...They hesitated out of compassion for me, seeing the night I died all over again...Poor, poor kids..."

How long have you known, Cicely?...he eyed her...

"Months..." Buffy stared at him...No point in trying to evade...And maybe, she sensed...No time...

I've had visions, clearer than anything I'd ever had, ever since Sunnydale...she sighed...And finally, when Dawn and I and Willow were with Giles in London for a while...I found what was left of the old archives...Cicely's Slayer records...

"I see..." he nodded...

"William, I'm so sorry...If I'd known before..."

"Makes no difference, darling...I understand...And I appreciate what you did for me...Giving me a chance to prove myself and all..."

"I did...That moment in the cavern...I did, Will...Please believe me..."

I did...he nodded...I do... "But I know...It was only for the moment..."

She was silent, holding him...Then... "If I'd come to LA...The moment Andy told me..."

If I only...That night in London...she eyed him, tears welling...

"Thank you..." he smiled... "But I didn't come to pressure or accuse, love...Cicely, I'm not here to blame..."

"Just to tell you...I love you...Always...Forever..." he kissed her as the music stopped and the dancers began heading back to their tables...And stepped a bit away from her...

William?...

And, the orb held in his hand glowing...Vanished...

"Immortal Beloved..." XLIX...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...What the hell, I'll try for 50...I mean the numbers are easier to write after 40 anyway...

Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered...

I'm wild again, beguiled again

A simpering, whimpering child again

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I . . .

Could not sleep, would not sleep

Till love came and told me I should not sleep

Bothered and bewildered am I . . .

Lost my heart, so what of it?

He was cold, I agree,

He can laugh and I love it

Although the laugh's on me.

I'll sing to him, each spring to him

And long for the day when I'll cling to him,

Bewitched, bothered, so bewildered am I . . .

LA...Angel's apartment...Night...Just after the victory of his forces...With a little surprise help...Over the Senior Partners...

"Guys..." Angel beamed at his crew... "I'd say tonight was high time we burned up whatever is left of the Wolfram-Hart, LA CEO's expense account...And painted this town...Any other color than red..." he eyed his, Spike's, and Gunn's old blood-covered clothes, piled for disposal in a corner ruefully...

Before the Feds move in to pick over the corporate debris and freeze every account, prior to launching a major investigation...he did not say...

Guys?...he eyed William, Connor, then Illyria who stared back at him...All three exhaustedly sprawled on sofa in front of the large TV...

"It's been a long day and night, poof boy..." William noted... "We're waiting to see if ole Charlie wakes up tonight...Willow said she'd be back, soon as she reported to Giles...And most important..."

"Gilmore Girls on the telly..." he nodded at the screen...

"Gilmore Girls..." Illyria repeated...Eyeing the screen intently...

Connor however, seeing his dad's crestfallen look, attempted to show a little enthusiasm for the idea...

"Fellas...And lady..." Angel sighed... "We just survived the biggest of our apocalyptic battles...Wiped out...With a little help from Willow Rosenberg..." (Little?...We were all about to terminate when the mighty red Wiccan destroyed the front ranks of our foes and turned the tide for us...Illyria eyed him, her ever more Fred enhanced nature barely restraining her impulse to answer with a harsh correction...)...Our greatest enemies and Evil's best..."

"Thanks to Willow we know Wes is safe and happy with Fred's spirit in Heaven..."

Illyria sighed a very Fred sigh audibly...Will...and Connor...Frowning a bit at the boss' thoughtlessness...Not that Illyria hadn't expressed herself as very pleased for her Wes...Just...The poor kid...

"I even got the dragon home and ready to be stuffed and suitably mounted..." he beamed again at the thought...Eyeing the spot on his wall he'd selected as perfect for the head...

"Rory!...Not the polka dots, girl..." William called to the screen... "Indeed I would veto the black dots as well..." Illyria nodded, staring...It'll be ok, Gran'll straighten her out, Will noted...

"People...Gunn's fine but the docs say he's sure to be out till tomorrow...Willow may not be back from Giles' for hours..."

"Besides this is a tape..." Angel frowned at the screen... "You can watch it anytime...Come on, we'll go and celebrate...I have the whole night mapped out for us..."

William frowned but eyed Illyria who gave a Fredian smile...C'mon the big lug just wants to show his thanks, her Fredish expression said...Connor eyeing both...Guys...I think Dad's really up for this one, Please...

"Fine...Lets paint..." Will sighed, staggering to his feet... "Twenty-four hour party people that be us..."

Just as soon be out on the town as here when Red returns...he noted quietly...Angel eyeing him...

"Don't suppose you'd care to make it a real blast and jet over to New York while we still have a jet to jet in?..."

"I have everything set..." Angel frowned... "And we need to keep town in case Charlie does wake tonight or Willow comes back..."

Right...Will sighed...

Back to tell us how pleased Buffy is she was able to help us out...And how great things are going for her with his Buffoonishness...And maybe a polite remark or two as to how I'm doing...

Great...

"Have the limo brought round..." Angel spoke into his cell phone... "Yes, this is Mr. Angel...Yes, I am still CEO...In fact, I am the only surviving member of the senior staff...And therefore, the only person left authorized to sign your paycheck..."

I thought you'd see the light...he noted...Spread the word around for anybody who'd like to remain gainfully employed here...

"William..." Will eyed the lad coolly...A bit soon for first-name basis, lad... "...Ummn...Mr...Uh.." Connor looked at him...

"Walthrop..." Will replied... "William Soames..."

Really?...Angel stared...Hmmn, never did ask him...

"Mr. Walthrop...Aren't you kinda...I mean after what Ms. Rosenberg said when she came..."

Illyria, risen to check her Fred dress and appearance in the bathroom, turning to eye Will as well...

Buffy sending her and all...Connor paused...

"She heard what was up via the Council and sent Red...Kind of the Slayer to lend us her big gun..."

"But Ms. Rosenberg said...Ms. Summers hadn't known until today when Mr. Giles..."

William waved a hand...Please...

"Andrew Wells?...Keep his mouth shut on something like my resurrection for more than five minutes?..."

"Could be she didn't ask him..." Connor noted... "If she never asked about you, thinking you were dead...Ummn...Deader..." he corrected...

Hmmn...

Nah...he shook his head... "See, kid...Andrew told us in Rome she still loved us...Both..."

Right...Angel nodded solemnly...Illyria, in very Fred mode, frowning at him...Geesh...That's a bit cruel, Angel...Stomping out the renewed hope before the poor guy even...Hmmn...Willow...she sighed...

Willow, who'd proven, by seance, at Angel's anxious request, that Wesley was safe and happy with Fred in Heaven...And even, not a little pleased by the turn of events, given that they might have been separated for many years had he not, as her Winifred memories suggested, "kicked the bucket..."

Though what kicking a container often made of wood or plastic and usually used to transport waste or essential materials, or contain cleaning solutions, should have to do with the events of his tragic and...Internally and for as long as a former demon queen had existence on this wretched globe, lamented death...?

"Geesh, just an expression..." she suddenly said aloud, Fred side to the rescue...Startling the others for a moment... "Sorry, we're havin' a discussion in here..." she giggled a bit...

"I look ok, right?...Should I wear somethin' more formal?..." The guys eyed each other...That last blast from the Partners really brought the Fred out...Unless, knowing it wouldn't keep Fred's spirit from Wes now, she'd deliberately decided to cave to the human fragments to fit in better...Or a little of both...An idea Connor had suggested to Angel as they'd staggered back to his place after the battle, noting her extreme burst of Freddish behavior, including post-fight girl talk with Willow, who'd been pleased to see Ms. Burkle clearly ok, at first, til Angel explained, and intense mothering towards her wounded boys, especially Charlie...

"If she thought you were dead and gone...What else would she say?..." Connor eyed Will... "Especially if she meant to be nice about the them not trusting Dad after he took over Wolfram-Hart thing..."

Well...

Nah, ridiculous...Summers sent Willow to help us out...Gesture of an concerned old friend who felt a tad guilty regards their treatment of ole Angel and kind at that...That's it...All...he thought...

But Willow did say she was coming...No...He pushed the thought down...To see her old ex- and the other guy who died for her were ok and the world properly safe, if she came at all...That's it, nothing more...

"I think it's best we leave my miserable excuse for a love life for a bit as a conversational topic, lad..."

"Limo's here..." Angel called... "Lets get moving...And see what the night has to offer the world's greatest heroes..."

They stared at him...All looking rather worn and battered...Illyria with Fredish instinct desperately trying to straighten her hair a bit...Puzzled to find herself wishing for a hair stylist...Or at least a hair brush...

"I do mean you guys, ya know..."

C'mon, a little enthusiasm, fellas...he sighed... "We're gonna have a great time...On our enemies' stored nickels, wrested from the oppressed..."

"Just as along as we don't wind up you know where...I do not want to spend the rest of tonight emoting my guts out, thank you..." William noted...

"Leave it to me..." Angel waved a hand... "We're gonna have a ball..."

After all, tomorrow we gotta start trying to pull the wreckage back together...Lets feast on the remains while we can...

The Windows Lounge of the Four Seasons Hotel...

"This is quite a place..." Will stared round...Illyria, in Fred form, giggling a bit nervously, gasped... "Is that Julia Roberts?...Oh! Gosh!..." They stared at her... "Yeah, great place..." she giggled again... "Ummn...Sorry, guys...Not used to such a fancy place..."

At least not for 10,000 years...her Illyria side kicking in... "When I stayed at the Temple of Isis...Which was indeed quite the hot spot then..."

"Yeah...?" Connor grinned... "But did they have HDTV in every room...?"

I'm dressed ok, right?...she eyed them...

"Beautiful...As Wes would say if he could be here..." William gallantly noted...She shyly smiling...

Aw...William...

Then looked away, a tad downcast...

Whatever he says about his Slayer beloved, after what the wiccan girl told them...Not much hope...

And while he wasn't quite a Wesley...Considering Wes was lost to her other self forever, he might've done...

Rats...And he did like me, I know it...

Course if I went to Rome later today, or lay in wait at the airport...Assuming Willow's right and she is coming...And killed his Slayer...

I mean she has failed him...And in my day, Death was the appropriate punishment for a lover's failure or betrayal...

As it was for stealing...For lying...Giving the wrong look to one of the elite...Crossing a road when one of us was passing by...

"First stop..." Angel beamed... "Lets pull up to the bar, enjoy some music, and have ourselves a few drinks..."

"Sounds peachy...First stop, eh...?" Will eyed him... "Well, just so long as we don't wind up...You know where..."

"Care to dance, Ms. Illyria...?" Connor asked politely...

A cell phone buzzed...Angel pulling out and taking a seat as Will moved to the bar...Connor and a rather nervous Illyria moving to the dance floor... "Is that Brad Pitt?.." she pointed...Think so, Connor agreed...

"Angel...Yeah...What?...Whatdaya mean the European accounts have been wiped clean?...Oh...You mean our European bank accounts have been cleaned out...Right...Well, are there any leads, have you called the police...?" William returned, bearing something fancy for Illyria, a ginger ale for Connor, and six boilermakers for himself and boss...

Right...We're Wolfram-Hart...We don't call the police...We buy them off...

"Well, we do now...We've been cleansed, our Evil Partners purged and from now on...What?...Oh...Books to the present don't reflect that?...Lots of illegal transactions?...Deals that won't bear scrutiny with the Partners not around to cover?...Right...Ok...Well, you said you think you know who?...Our own European vice president of accounting looted our accounts?..." William eyed him...

Right, Wolfram-Hart...Our junior executives are trained in that...And he was one of the Senior Partners top men...Not exactly inclined to care if I make out well financially after their defeat...Ok, I get the picture...Angel sighed... "Well, try and get me the details of what's still left, will ya?...Remember your job is on the line...Literally...Ok...What?...Who?..."

Interpol?...And the Italian police?...

"Why are they?...Oh...Evil law firm and multinational collapses on global scale, fleeing execs loot all accounts and leave paper trail...Got it, right, thanks...Ok...Well, Brigsby...I promote you to CEO, Europe...Hold the police and any other investigators off as long as you can...And fax me any info you've got..."

He closed the phone...Will staring... "Things going to pot in Europe?"...he asked...

"Well...We had to expect some of the boys would try to grab what they could in the fall..." Angel sighed...

"Interpol...?" Will eyed him...

"Well, had to expect ramifications from the collapse...We'll make out ok, I'll handle it..." Angel waved a hand...

Right, poof...You and your what?...Equivalent of a sixth-grade education?...Will thought...

Still, we must have quite a nice bit stashed away in the corners...Not to mention prime real estate, etc...Unless our financial wizard here manages to blow all that too...

"Well...Lets leave business till tomorrow..." Angel grabbed a boilermaker... Yeah, by then, no business to worry about...Will sighed to himself...

"So..." Angel eyed him, after a nervous glance to where Connor and Illyria were attempting to dance...Illyria weaving between sheepishly apologetic Fred nods to trampled fellow dancers and grimly threatening Illyrian glares to those nudging each other at the rather hapless and oddly matched pair...

"You dance divinely, Connor..." Illyria gave him a smile...

That was correct procedure, yes?...she hissed...It wasn't a very strong Winifred memory...

Just fine, perfect...he nodded... "Thanks...And so do you..." Aw, Connor...She blushed...

"So..." Angel continued...As William grinned at him...She's not gonna run off with him...Yet...Dad... "You didn't believe Willow?...About Buffy not knowing...?"

"You were with me in Rome, you pointy-haired poof...Andrew sure didn't sound like she didn't know...And you know how long our Andy would hold up under Slayer interrogation..."

"Unless Connor's right...And she never asked him..."

"Giles knew..."

"But he had good reason not to tell her...From his pov..."

Will eyed him with a wry smile... "You suddenly seem anxious to push me and Buffy together, boss...Nina getting antsy every time she hears Summers' name mentioned...?"

"To keep the Immortal from getting her, I'd even back you, Spike...Though it would clean us out, trying to overcome the drawback of your bad poetry with a little glamour..."

"Hey?...The slam crowd this afternoon gave me a standing O..."

"And speak of the...Wonderful, beautious, divine...Nina..." Angel waved at the just entered Nina...Hey, fellas!...she waved, hurrying over...

"Angel...Hey, Spike...You made it!...Oh, guys!..." she hugged Angel, then William...

"Obviously, fur girl..." William nodded...Angel glaring...Watch the cracks with my lady, there...His dark look saying...

"He's just doing his routine, honey..." Nina patted her beau, taking a seat... "Connor, Fred!...Hey!..." They waved from the dance floor...

"She's still Illyria, right?..." she hissed... "Just taking Fred's form?..."

Yeah...But a little more Winifred post battle...The demon front line gave her some pretty hefty electrical shocks...Angel noted...

"And Wes...Gone?..." Nina sighed...Yeah...Angel nodded, looking a bit less eager... "But Willow Rosenberg reached him by seance just after the battle...He's safe in Heaven with Fred...Her soul..."

Oh, that's great...Nina beamed...Oh...She looked out to where Illyria was attempted to follow Connor's dance instructions...

"Poor thing...She did love him, Angel...Whatever she is, that was obvious..."

"We'll do what we can for her...And she seemed happy to know Wes was happy..."

Unselfish love...Nina nodded thoughtfully... Not bad from a demon just recovered from homicidal mania...

"What will she do now?..."

"She wants to go on playing Fred...For the parents' sake...Fred's spirit seemed ok with it...It should give her a little grounding..."

Hmm-hmmn...she nodded again...And eyed William, now on boilermaker three...

"And hows about you, blondie?...Are you finally gonna make tracks to Rome?..."

"There's nothing in Rome for me...Except as a tourist..." he shook his head firmly...She frowning at him...

"Besides...Willow says Buffy is coming..." Angel noted...

Whoa...Nina stared...Then a peeved tone... "And knowing you guys were in danger, she couldn't make it in time to help you?...See William before he might've died?..."

Though I don't have much sympathy for you, pal...she eyed Will... "Letting her hang like that if she knows...And not letting her know if she didn't..."

Great way to prove your undying Undead love...she frowned...

"She wasn't the one who summoned me back...Who corporealized me...Who gave a damn if I lived or died..."

"All pretty difficult if the lady didn't know..." "Andy must've told her, if she didn't know already...And why didn't she have Willow try to reach me if..."

"I'm not angry, though...I don't mean to make it seem like that..." he hastily noted...

But I am not getting my hopes up...I couldn't bear it...In fact, I think I might not wanna be around when she shows...If she shows...

"Will..." Nina frowned...Angel eyeing her... Will rising..."Lets let it rest, girl...I'm up for another round, what would you like?...Boss, more of the same?..."

Nina watched him, then looked at Angel...Who bore a rather noncommital expression... "You're not encouraging him in this?...If she is coming, this might be their last chance...If she cares..."

He'll stick...Angel shook his head... "He's just trying to get himself ready for when she starts telling us about her latest...And gives him the 'cookies' speech..."

Uh-huh...She eyed him...Hmmn...

Next stop...The Ritz-Carleton...And dinner...

Attentive waiters scurrying round their table...Illyria, hand to mouth blanching at the menu prices...

Though a little Illyrian outrage seeped through... "I would've roasted the cook alive who overcharged me like this in the old days..." she noted to Connor...Who was a little bug-eyed, looking at the menu himself...

"You sure we can still afford this, boss?...The company having been blasted apart and all?..." Will eyed Angel...Who waved a hand... "Wolfram-Hart's collapse'll take months to impact...The company accounts I have direct control of alone should see us through to a new place, not to mention the real estate, the European and Asian branches...Don't worry..."

His cell phone buzzed...Will staring intently, Nina sympathetically watching him...

"Mickelson?...Glad to hear you're still with...What?...When?...Well, set up a meeting with the insurance companies for 10 am tomorrow...Better make it one of the ground level conference rooms, my office is on one of the unsafe floors since last night..."

What's the status of our US accounts, can you give me a general...? Oh...That bad?...

Connor looked at Will who rolled eyes...Might not want to give up that phony family of yours just yet kid...If you want to finish college...

"How's about the...Bahamian accounts...Really?...Vickers, eh?...Got it all?..."

Told him he should've fired that guy...Vickers, a little weasel of a middle manager in Accounting...William explained to the others...

Vickers, yes...Illyria nodded... "I remember him...I wished him dead on sight...The true face of a traitor..."

"Well, we still have our real estate holdings...Lets be grate...What?...No, I didn't know...Who authorized that?...Well, what didn't the Partners mortgage to supply their army?...Hmmn...Our blasted place here, right...And the HQ in Rome?...Well, that's something...Look, Mickelson, go though what's left and have a report for me on my desk tomorrow...What?...Who?...No, no one from the SEC has called me...Why?..."

Ahem...A cough caused the group but for Angel, still occupied on cell to turn...One of their waiters and a frowning, well-dressed man standing beside him...

"Pardon me, our manager would like to speak with whoever...?" the waiter looked at the credit card in his hand... "Mr...Angel?"

Him...They all pointed...

"Sir...May I speak with you a moment...?" the manager eyed Angel...Hmmn...?

"What do you think?..." Illyria eyed Nina, Connor, and William...As they awaited Angel's return...

"I'd guess we may be glad we didn't order dinner yet..." Will frowned...

"You think there's something wrong?..." Nina asked, anxiously... "Fellow on the phone mentioned the SEC..." Will noted... "I'd guess the shit is beginning to hit..."

"Maybe I'd better go see..." Connor rose... "I do have my father's card if Dad's having some trouble..."

Angel and Connor returned, the manager and waiters in tow...

"Alls well, guys..." Angel smiled... "Just a temporary problem with one of my corporate cards, probably due to some damage to the office server during that minor earthquake tonight..."

"Please excuse any inconvenience..." the manager nodded...

"Lets eat..." Angel beamed...He turned to a waiter...

"Connor?..." Nina hissed... "You didn't..." Nah...he shook his head...Dad called somebody in London...Some guy named Giles?...Guess he got it sorted out...

Giles?...William blinked...

The phone buzzed again...

"Mickelson?...What's...What?...The who?...From where?...The SEC...Tonight?...Who've they got on this one...Mulder and Scully?..." he fumed at the phone...

Oh...The FBI is involved, eh?...Already?...Fast work...he noted...

Ummn...Illyria eyed Nina...Nina eyed Connor...Connor eyeing William...

"Yeah..." Angel sighed to the phone... "It is inspiring to see them working so efficiently..."

"Well, tell them I can see them at 9 tomorrow...And get me those records of our remaining holdings..." he hung up...

"Looks like tomorrow will be a busy day...Lets make this one a good one, fellas...And ladies..." he raised a glass...

"To the greatest team on the face of..." the phone buzzed...Excuse me, Angel frowned, pulling away from the table...

Uh-oh...Nina sighed...

"Giles...Hey, thanks for...Yeah...Yeah...I see...Now wait a minute...I can't let our London office go for that low a...Hmmn...That much damage?...Well, look, I'm gonna hafta have the place reappraised...No, I'm not backing out of the deal, but Giles come on...I'm trying to keep people employed here...I can't just sell everything off at bargain basement...Well, lets talk tomorrow...Your people can call my people..."

Whoever that remaining 'people' is by tomorrow...William noted...

You guys are gonna stay with him, right?...Til this gets sorted?...Nina eyed the others anxiously...

Course...Mutual nods...

'Sorted out' as in an eight-to-ten stretch in a minimum security prison...Will thought...Though with time off for heroic behavior and a few strings pulled, probably no worse than probation in the end...

I warned him not to sign everything they put in front of him...

"And thanks for letting Buffy know about our sit...Tell her Willow was...Oh, great...Sure...Hey, Willow...When are you...? What?...Oh...When?...Where?...There?..." Angel eyed the gang... "Ok...We'll be there...Yes...We're on our way..." he closed the phone...

Hey, guys...he called to the gang...Willow's on her way...Will meet us in an hour...

"What about...Ummn..." William spoke up, an anxious tone...

"She didn't mention Buffy...Sorry..." Angel shook his head...

"Where do we meet Willow?..." Nina asked... "I'm anxious to meet her for the first time..." she smiled...

And considering she's been in my Angel's mind, very grateful she's a lesbian she did not say...

"Just so long as it's not...You know where..." Will sighed...

Ummn...Angel paused a moment... Then was interrupted by the first course's arrival...

"Sorry..." Angel eyed William as they entered...You know where...An hour later...

"Slight change of plans...Willow wanted to meet here..."

Right, Will sighed... "Just, please nobody go up tonight..." he looked at the rest who nodded...No one anxious to start spilling guts tonight...Having already spilled enough that evening...Even if mainly the guts of enemies...

They sat... "When's Red gonna show anyway...?" Will began...And another cell buzz...

"What?...What?...Whatdaya mean my personal accounts are frozen?..." Angel shouted into the phone...Oh...Right...I'm acting head of Wolfram-Hart...

Well, now I know why my ATM card didn't work just now outside...

A waiter came over...A well-dressed man and woman...Looking slightly familiar to the group...Behind him..."...?" the waiter paused, eyeing Angel...

"These folks wanted a word..."

The others stared...Where have I seen these two...? Nina hissing to William...

"Mr. Liam Angel, of Wolfram-Hart?..." the man noted...The woman eyeing them all carefully...

"We're from the Securities and Exchange Commission..." he presented credentials...Angel eyeing them...Hmmn...

"I'm Agent Scudder...This is Agent Mully..." the woman frowned... "Just kidding...It eases the tension..." the man grinned at the startled faces... "Everyone sees the resemblance...I'm Drake, this is Ms. Callahan..."

We'd like to ask you a few questions, sir if we may...

"I thought I'd set up an appointment with you guys tomorrow..." Angel frowned...

"That was another matter sir..." Ms. Callahan eyed him... "This concerns your own holdings..."

Nina looked at Connor...

"Regarding your sale of Wolfram-Hart shares this morning...Before tonight's events..."

Yeah, that minor earthquake was a tragedy...But I hear no people were harmed but my assistants Mr. Wyndham-Price and Mr. Gunn...

Uh-huh...Drake nodded... "We understand you're a known world-saving hero, Mr. Angel...Our questions concern why you sold your shares this morning...Before the firm's collapse this evening?..."

Angel?...Nina stared...Dad?...Connor blinked... Sounds very clever to make such use of advance information, good strategy...Illyria noted to herself...

Mate...Will shook his head silently...After what happened to Martha?...

"There's Ms. Rosenberg..." Connor pointed...A smiling Willow and Kennedy approaching their table...Hey guys!...Ummn...Willow paused, remembering...

"Sorry again about Wesley..."

"We understand that Wolfram-Hart was Evil, Inc, Mr. Angel...And worthy of destruction...But that's not our department..." Drake eyed Angel as they sat... "A lot of people had funds invested in your firm, Mr. Angel..." Ms. Callahan was likewise eyeing him coldly..."They're taking heavy losses...And yet you seemed to have avoided that..."

Based on your inside information...she stared at him...

"Ummn...It seemed like a good idea at the time..." Angel looked at them innocently...

Something wrong?...Willow hissed to Nina...Seeing the man and woman in suits with Angel...And the somewhat subdued faces of the others...

Hey, William...Long time no tell us you're alive...Kennedy mock frowned at him...Hitting his shoulder...

Oops, sorry...she helped him up... "Forget that Slayer strength sometimes, even now..."

"SEC investigators..." Nina hissed back to Willow... "I think we may be in for a little bit of it..."

Now?...Willow sighed, looking to where William was hesitantly trying to ask Kennedy...Without actually asking...If maybe...Someone else...Might just possibly be...

"Lemme handle it..." the wiccan frowned... "Magics...?" Nina stared... Nah, Willow shook her head...Pulling her own cell phone... "Giles has access to governments around the world now as our new Council Chairman...I'll have him call about this...At least get 'em off him for a coupla days til he can get things in order..."

Hey, Giles...she spoke into the phone...

"There wasn't enough power for her to come in any case..." Kennedy was explaining to William...

But she is coming to LA...If she didn't get here already...

"Here, Angel..." Willow handed over the phone... "Giles has their boss on conference call..." He gratefully passed the phone...Thanks, Willow...Over to Drake...Who with his partner were shortly involved in a discussion on the phone...

"Say...Who the hell is singing?..." Angel turned to stare at the stage... "Of everyone I've ever heard here, she's gotta be the wor..." his jaw dropped...

They all stared up at the stage...

(Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered...Opening with your author's lyric)

Play

"Round and round we've danced together...Says he loves me, doesn't show...

I tell him no future for us...Year later I can't let go..."

"I'm wild again, beguiled again

A simpering, whimpering child again

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I . . .

Could not sleep, would not sleep

Till love came and told me I should not sleep

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I . . ."

Buf...William choked...Staring at Buffy on stage...As she stared back...

"Lost my heart, so what of it?

He was cold, I agree,

He can laugh and I love it

Although the laugh's on me.

I'll sing to him, each spring to him

And long for the day when I'll cling to him,

Bewitched, bothered, so bewildered am I . . ."

Hey guys!...Dawn and Andrew came over from the front...Grinning at William, eyes glued on stage...

"Well?...Jerk...Go on up..." she poked him... "And Willow'd better be right about there being no one else...Cause sis has been in a horrible state since Giles told us yesterday..."

"Greetings most glorious victors..." Andrew bowed solemnly...Meet the Sphinx...Dawn frowned at him... "We call him 'the Sphinx' now...Moron..."

A pledge of secrecy is a pledge, Dawn...Andrew noted, nodding to William who was still staring... "Yeah, right..." she glared...

Still, alls well that ends well...Kinda feel sorry for His Pomposity though, he took it kinda hard when she dumped him this morning before we caught the first plane...Dawn noted to the others as Will, standing hesitated...

"But...When your guy suddenly resurrects and you learn he's gun shy...You can't fool around, ya know?..."

Buffy nervously staring back at Will from the stage, likewise silent...

"You knew..." Nina eyed Angel...Whose attention was divided between the SEC agents on phone and Buffy...

Yeah...Buf called...She was terrified he'd run before she could get here, but Willow had to go the teleport route to save us...Begged me to keep him busy till she could...he gave her a grin...

"Stop staring at her and go!..." Dawn whacked William... "Or she'll sing another verse..."

He stumbled toward the stage...

"You might have helped her a little with the singing...This meaning so much to her..." Kennedy noted to Willow...Who frowned...

"I did..." she sighed... "You should've heard her without my help..."

Thirty minutes...And four duets later...

"Liam?..." Nina hissed... "Do something...Cause if they do one more, I'm committing suicide..."

Though he is pretty good, actually...she noted...Smiling at Dawn as Angel frowned...

"Buffy...?" At the stage, Willow tried a pull as she and Will geared up for their next...Hmmn?...Buffy vaguely answered, not turning away from her beloved's equally locked love stare...

"Angel has a great room lined up for you guys at the Four Seasons...And the minister is waiting over there..."

Minister?...William asked, blinking slightly...Yeah...Buffy murmured wanly...I got one standing by...

Great...he nodded vaguely...Neither able to tear themselves away...Hmmn...Noting the anxious stares from their table and from the general audience...Help, please!...Willow climbed onto the stage...

"Mr. Angel...?" A waiter came over...

"What is it now, FBI at the door for me?..." "Uh...Well, yes they are...But I was sent to ask if you might possibly persuade the Slayer...For the love of God's mercy?...And to prevent a last ditch, suicide attack by several of our patrons?..."

We're trying...Angel sighed...

"William?..." Willow tried... "Lets get out of here and get you guys hitched before Buf has that usual case of the jitters..."

Yeah, lets go...After just one more song...Buffy nodded wanly...Then blinked... My 'usual case of the'...what?...

"Just one more...Then we go..." William nodded wanly... "And...Get hitched..." he smiled...

Right...Willow gave up...

"Yep, just one more...Cause she sings...Like an angel..." Will smiled...Still lost, gazing into those deep greens...

I mean an angel, not...You know... "I know, darling..." Buffy smiled...Still lost in her gaze as well...

Oh, please...Dawn now at the stage in desperate support of Willow's efforts to save the mercy-begging audience...

"She sings like he writes poetry..." she hissed to Willow as the wiccan descended...Just one more, folks...she brightly noted to the sighing crowd...A number putting heads...Several putting more than one or literally...Into their hands...

"I heard that..." Buffy eyed her sis...

"Hey, I signed off on the vamp brother-in-law thing..." Dawn glared...

"Immortal Beloved..." L...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...What the hell, I'll try for 50...I mean the numbers are easier to write after 40 anyway...

Rome...Early afternoon...Two weeks after Angel's group's victory over the Senior Partners...

(Really more of an endurance thing after the dragon went down as the Hell boys couldn't risk a lengthy stay above ground and detection by human authorities...Hey, magics and superpowers are all very well, but nukes are nukes...And with that right wing maniac in the White House, hell...Who knew what kind of weapons he might sanction against them?...)

Hmmn...No answer to the third pull at the antique door buzzer to the Summers' apartment...

Well, one may as well enjoy the Roman afternoon sun...Strolling unhurriedly on a beautiful, clear late spring day...

Rather a new...Or at least, a long forgotten sensation...

And a fine cue to play one's new favorite song as one walked, seeing the sights of Rome...Now that one had time and peace enough to rediscover one's love of such beautiful things...

Such a wonderful world really...As dear Mr. Louie Armstrong would sing...And currently, via cd headphones was...

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD

(George Weiss / Bob Thiele)

Play

[ I see trees of green, red roses too

I see them bloom for me and you

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world]

To see all these things in the light of day, feel the sun on my face again...After so long, so very long...

[ I see skies of blue and clouds of white

The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world]

To feel no rage or bloodlust in my heart again...My head clear of all the evil that gripped me...

Though I did want to kill that hotel clerk this morning who shook his head and shrugged, waving hands when my shower water failed, God forgive me...

But even humans...Humans like me again...Have such thoughts...

And perhaps...That which held me so long...Sprang from the darkest of my thoughts...

Perhaps...But even so...It was never the sum of what I was...I will not let it be the sum of what I am...Never again...

[ The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces of people going by

I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"

They're really saying "I love you"]

"Hello there...Beautiful flowers you have..." "Si...The finest in Rome..." The florist beamed...Offering a rose...

"Oh, thanks...Thank you so much..." No, no...the man smilingly refused the offer of money...

"For you...On this beautiful day..." he nodded...

"Yes, it is...As is your rose...Thank you..."

Yes...A beautiful day...And at last, thanks be to God and my dear friends I can experience it once more...

[ I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow

They'll learn much more than I'll ever know

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world]

And now when I breathe...It means something again...

And when I listen hard enough...I can hear my heart beat once again in my chest...Feel my pulse racing with joy or slow with sorrow...

Oh, Mother...Mother I am alive again...Father I am free again, thanks to my friends...And in God's good time, I will see you both again...

[Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world

Oh yeah]

Yeah, Louie...It's a wonderful, wonderful world...

Well, there's the Summers' building again...Surely Giles is right and Buffy and Dawn will be home this afternoon...But, however long it takes, excepting an hour or so for my four o'clock engagement...After all, time for me to start showing a little gratitude...And it is a beautiful afternoon...

"Yes...Hello?...It's me again...Yes, here to see the tenants in 3A...The Miss Summers?...I'm afraid they weren't home before...Thank you..."

And there's their door...Well...

Well...Here goes nothing as the Americans say...Hope the new Chairman of the Watchers' managed to get through the Rome telephone system and reach the ladies... Hmmn...I think I hear...

The door opened suddenly...Dawn starting an automatic "Hel..." Followed by a shocked silence...

Hmmn...I'm think they have mice in this building...

"...Ahhhhh!...Get away!..." Dawn screamed, backing from the door... "Buffy!..." she shrieked...

"Dawn...Miss Summers...Please...!...It's all right, really..."

Guess that answers my question about Mr. Giles reaching them...

"Buffy!..." Dawn screamed again, a sound of a desperately hurrying Slayer coming to them...

Buffy appeared stake in hand...And stopped, open-mouthed...

"Buffy!...Wait, please!...I'm not what you think...Look..." A quick back away to the open hallway window... "You can see I'm standing in sunlight...I'm human again!...Please, listen to me!..."

Human?...Dawn stared...

You?...Human...?

Buffy held her stake at the ready...But noting the bright sunshine flooding through the open window...And the cross on a necklace now held out to her...

"Human...?"

"Yes, Buffy..."

How...?

"It's a lie...A trick..." Dawn eyed her sis... "We can't trust..." "I understand your fears, Dawn...But I swear to you, it's true...Call Giles in London, he'll confirm it...I've already seen him...He was supposed to call you..."

"Right...You killed and transformed Giles in London and now he'll say anything..." Dawn frowned...

"Dawn...Sunlight, cross..." Buffy noted...

"How...?" she repeated...

"The love of a good man..." Drusilla smiled wanly... "Well, two good men, actually...As William offered Angel the chance first after the Guardian of the Prophecy offered it to him after their battle with the Partners...Before persuading him that I was the innocent one who needed the Prophecy to be saved and so was...After they cursed me, the Guardian agreed..."

William...? Buffy whispered...Dawn looking at her...

"As I set the process in motion that led to William's decisive participation in defeating the Senior Partners' last chance of victory..." Dru looked down...

William?...Buffy stared... "William's dead!...I mean..." she waved a hand... "Beyond dead..."

"He's in Los Angeles, Buffy...Very much in this world...To my blessed fortune...Praise be to God for his gracious mercy..."

William?...Dawn stared...Alive?...

Well, you know...

"He's back..." Buffy murmured...Staring at the gently smiling Drusilla...Who nodded quietly...

"Are you wearing a nun's...?" Dawn asked... "Habit, we call it...Yes..." Dru beamed... "But I'm only a novice yet..."

"Thanks to William and Angel's compassion I'm at last to have another chance to dedicate my existence to God...And to have a chance to make amends to all the souls...I..."

"Oh!..." Buffy gasped suddenly... "Why didn't he let me know?...How long has he been back?..."

"Since September...And you know why, Buffy..." Dru eyed her...The Slayer frowning at one of the very few she'd never quite been able to defeat...

"I told him I loved him...Why didn't he..." "He's afraid, dearest..." The girls stared at her...

Hmmn...Another gay, now thing?...Dawn wondered...

"Sorry...Dearest is one of our Victorianisms from my day...Didn't mean to step in your personal space..." an apologetic sigh...

"Anyway...Will is afraid, Buffy...That's why he didn't come...Or stay to see you when he was in Rome..."

He was...here...?...Buffy blinked, then frowned darkly...That little...Hmmn...Wait a mo...

Uh-oh...

"Ummn...When was he in Rome?..."

"He knows about the Immortal..." Drusilla eyed her...

Oops...Dawn looked at the ceiling...

"That was business...I was trying to get some info for the Council..."

I staked him last week...she noted...Phew...she thought...

Hope Will buys that one... Dawn thought...Don't think the truth...Caught His Benevolence trying to compare vamp girls within a hour of Buffy...And overheard his schemes for taking Buffy to be his ally/enslaved siree...Would not quite do just now...

Though it did start out as work, that's true...

"A very poor choice of boyfriends, Miss Summers..." Dru noted, a bit sternly... "Glad to have seen his destruction in a vision...A terrible creature, skilled in deception, worse in some ways than...It..."

It?...Dawn eyed Buffy... "Angelus..." Dru explained, quavering just a bit at the name on her lips...

"And if I remember him, rather a pompous jackass once the...Ummn..." Dru blushed a bit...

Other things...Are dealt with...

Yeah, yeah...I don't make good romantic choices...Buffy sighed... "Everyone's been doing their best to remind me these past few..."

"You made two excellent choices..." Dru smiled... "Or maybe three...Was there another beau back at Sunnydale?...I seem to remember a very nice tall boy in black..."

Yeah...Buffy nodded curtly...Then eyed Dru intently... "Where?..."

Still in LA...Dru noted...And has no idea I've come, in part, to see if I could speak to you...But him being so clearly desperate, so devoted to you...

"So scared shitless to see you..." she grinned...

"He's all right?...We heard about the battle...I would have gone if Angel'd let me know..."

"He's fine...Helping Angel to reorganize what's left of the firm to fight evil...And try to be one of the more ethical multinationals..."

Angel and Spike trying to run a law firm and multinational corporation...Without the Senior Partners backing Angel up...I'll go to LA just to see that...Dawn thought...

"He doesn't...He didn't believe..." Buffy eyed Dru...Who now stepped into the room and out quickly...

Don't mean to be rude...she smiled at Dawn... "Just giving a last proof...No invite required..."

"Well, come in and stay a while..." Dawn smiled back, offering a hand...And led her to a chair, she and Buffy taking the sofa...

Dru turned to the pensive Buffy... "I think he does believe, Buffy...He wants to, has lived on it, I'm sure...But he's afraid it was only for the moment...And..." she paused delicately...

"Something to drink?..." Dawn suggested, kindly offering a moment alone... "Coffee, tea...?"

"Tea would be heavenly, thanks..." Dru nodded...

"...only for the moment..." Buffy murmured... "I've been...God...A wreck all year, thinking of him and how he died, thinking...But you say he did believe?...At the least at the moment, I..."

She sighed before Dru could answer... "And why should he believe?...I didn't have Willow pull him back...I could have made her do it...Wait..."

"Andrew was in LA...Did Angel?...Did Will...Hide...?"

Ummn...Well...Dru paused...

"I'll kill him..." Buffy whispered grimly... "That little geek playing mystery man..." "Buffy, Will made him promise not to tell..."

"I mean William, too..." the Slayer fumed...And burst into tears...

Dawn returning to find the interesting sight of Buffy sobbing in Dru's arms, Dru in habit stroking her hair...

"He loves you, Buffy...Truly..."

"I didn't...The Immortal...All his talk about loving me, finding his way back through me...I...It made me think of him...I..."

"He'll understand...Buffy, he's been trying so hard, just to be worthy of you, if any chance ever came..."

Moron...Buffy pulled away... "Who cares about his damned romantic quests?...He shoulda come here, first day...Damn him!...Little cowardly..." she paused...

Ummn...I don't mean the damn thing literally...she hastily added... "No offense, Dru...But you could be a vengeance demon trying to fool me..."

"None taken, a wise precaution...But it's ok..." They sat...

"So...He's got...Had a string of girls in LA I suppose...?" she asked, in a desperately causal tone...

"Nope...Not a one...Well, he did..." a pause... Buffy interrupting her initial pleased flash...No one?...To glare a bit...

"Just when he recorporealized...He told me he'd...Ummn...Wanting to more or less explain why he'd felt it was right to curse that poor girl...That he felt some obligation to ..."

Harmony?...Buffy's glare reached sudden kill intensity...

I believe that was the name, yes...Dru eyed Dawn who rolled eyes...

"But it was only one time, Buffy...And he didn't think there was a commitment..."

Yeah, yeah...Hmmn...

"Only once?...Only Harmony?..."

That's all...

Whoa...Dawn grinned... "Get the tea, Dawn!..." Buffy glared...

"Shouldn't have let her stay, sorry..." she noted to a Dru who'd been blushing through most of the recent conversation...

Not that sexual matters had not been on everyone's mind in her former human days...Just...We put these things so much more discreetly in my day...she thought...

"Only once, eh?..." Buffy repeated...Smiling a bit now...

But why the hell couldn't he have left a note when he came to Rome?...she sighed...Hmmn...

"He gave up Humanity?...The chance to be a man...For you?..." she eyed Dru coolly...

"Strictly kindness, Buffy...And Angel agreed as well..."

Yeah...Only after Will had already cornered him into it...That's our William...a returned Dawn joined Buffy in the thought...

"Gave it up..." Buffy shook her head...

"Should it make a difference?...So long as he has the soul..." Dru gave a somewhat stern look... "If you love him?..."

"Didn't say it made a difference..." a glare...

Sugar?...Dawn offered...Two, thank you...Dru nodded, offering cup...

Buffy looked the serene-looking former psycho over carefully...

"You recovered your sanity pretty fast..." "Buffy..." Dawn frowned...

"Actually, my demon had been doing a little better since her time in Sunnydale...And I only went... bananas..." Dru grinned at Dawn... "At the very end, when there was no hope of escape from Angelus...and no place to run but the darkest corners of my mind..."

And Angel still had a good team of psychiatrists on staff, luckily for me...she smiled...

"Sorry..." "No problem...I understand your suspicions, Buffy...They're only natural..."

"Cookies...?" Dawn offered... "Oooh, vanilla creme, my favorite...Thanks..."

"And yes..." Dru smiled... "Your real, unasked question is quite valid...I do love him...How can I not love such a good and kind man who offered me compassion when he should curse my very name...?"

But...I'm already married...Even if the ceremony was incomplete for a century...

Dawn stared...Hmmn?...

"To Christ..." Dru explained...And I love my husband more...Whatever I feel for William Soames Walthrop...

"Yeah..." Dawn grinned, poking Buffy... "We know...We got his name back in October...Set up a nice plaque and everything...We both wore black at the memorial service..."

"That's so nice...He'll be so touched..."

"Anyway...I can't offer him any more than a dear sister's love...And I am blessed to have such a fine brother...Two fine brothers..." she eyed them... "In this somewhat confusing new world I find myself in..."

"That's kind Dru..." Buffy nodded... "Angel must...or better...be very grateful..."

"He wasn't responsible...Though I must admit I still get a little skittish around him...Anyway, as I say I can't give Will the love he deserves..."

But I can offer him a service of love...And that why I came to you, Buffy...Someone had to tell you...

"And I had to be in Rome anyway...The Pope is giving me a special audience this afternoon and has arranged a Mass of thanksgiving tonight..."

Whoa... "Yeah..." Dru nodded... "I couldn't believe it myself...But the Church has really put out the carpet for me...Of course it's a celebration of a triumph for God's mercy, not for me personally..."

If you two would like to come tonight?...It's at the Vatican at eight and I can invite a few guests?...

"With bells on..." Dawn nodded... Ummn...Unless...She eyed Buffy... "We'll leave for LA after Mass..." her sis nodded...

"Though I may yet give that guy of mine one last good sock when I catch up with him..."

Sorry, sister...she shrugged to Dru...Who winked back...

"He does deserve one good sock for not trusting in you..." she grinned...

"Immortal Beloved..." LI...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...Ok, just had to do one more...but I absolutely, positively...On my mother's soul...

Rome, the plaza in front of Buffy and Dawn's apartment...1 am...

11 hours after the defeat of the Senior Partners in LA...

"Yous star'..." "Yous..."

"No, yous...Youda poet, yous star'..." "Nah...don' wanna..."

"Les' match fa' it...One, three...Hah...Oops..." Sound of a bottle smashing on the ground...

"Hey!...Ya broke da champagne!...Ya lummox!..." "Don' wor'...Des pleny mor'..."

"None fer Dawnie..." A sudden, stern look... "Course not..." A firm if bleary nod...

"But you lost sos yous go furst..."

Ok...A sigh...

"Well?..." "Wa a mo...Gotta get the muzic an da..." Pulls out a shelf of papers...

Music from a portable cd begins...

"I'm Unman, hear ma ro'r

In numbers ta big ta bore

An' I knows ta much to go back an' preten'

'cause I've heard it all bafore..."

(Ya bet I 've...)

An' I been down der on da floor

No on's ever gonna kep ma down

again..."

CHORUS ...Two drunken voices join...

"Oh yes We's wis...

But it's wisom borna pain (ya said it!)

Yeah, we paid the price... (an' how! )

But looka much we gained

If we have to, we can do anyathin'...(includin' whippin the asses oda Partnas!...)

We's strong (strong...ah, por' Wes. A sigh)

We's invisible (invinsable, ya moron!)

We's Unman! "

A light goes on in the apartment above...

"Ya ca bend but nefr brak us (No Way!)

'cause it ona serves to mak us ("Dat wha it says, Will?"... "Yeah, lookee...")

Mor' detamined to 'chieve our final goal

("Dat Buf?... Cause I don' know, I gotta girl...Don' wanna hurt Nina..." "Nah, ya dope...Buf's ma goal...Yous wans the huma thin'..."

"Yeah?...Though you wan' dat?"

"O'ly if Buf wan' ma to...Else ya can haf it..."

"Cana..." A sigh... "I done signed off..."

"Don' be a dope, ya lummox...Theys ded...And a deal wid eva demmens don' count no ways..."

"Hey, I sea lite...betta kep singin'...")

CHORUS.

"An' wes come back... ev'n stronga...

Noa novius an' longa

'cause ya deepened da convicta in our souls...

Wes Homan-Souled Unman... watch us grow!

See us standin' toe to toe (Watcha feet, ya big ape!)

As we spread our lovin', word-savin' arms across da land

But wes still embryo

Wid a long, long...way ta go

Until we make my homan bros (and Slaya girls!) undastan'

LOUDER...(More lights come on, shouts in Italian for the gendarmes...Threats of violence...)

"Oh ya wes wise!

But it's wisda borna pain! (an' how!...)

Ya, we paid da price (God, ya!...)

But look how much we gained ("Wha da the hell did we gain, Angel?..." )

If we haf ta we can face anyathin'

Wes strong (strong)

Wes invinsoble (invincible)

Wes Un...Man!

(Holy!...Dawn stared out from their balcony at the sight...

"Jesus Christ!..." Buffy stared...

"Na, ona Christ Junior and his padna!..." Will called up...

Hi, Buf...he added, waving gently...Brod ya some champy...He raised a bottle...

"You throw that brick and you die!..." Buffy shouted in a startlingly loud voice to a fellow tenant taking aim from an opposing balcony... "William, stay there...Don't you move!..."

"Whers I goin?..." he turned to Angel who shrugged...)

"OH!...WES UNMAN!

WES INVISABLE (Invinsuble, dammit!)

WES... (Not feelin' sa well...Angel noted...Staggering a bit...)

HOOOMANNN SOULLLEDDD UN...MANNNNN!"

Three hours later, after a fuming Dawn had been ordered back to bed by a Buffy who'd led the boys off to try and get something lucid out of them...

Pebbles at the apartment window...

"'Awnie!...Hey!..."

CHORUS, three now...

"YA WES PAID THE PRID'...

BUT LOOKIE WHA' WES/I (Buffy's "I" overwhelming her comrades "WES")

GAINED...

(A rock follows the pebbles, smashing the...Wrong...Apartment window...Shouts for the gendarmes, threats of immediate violence...Dawn emerges at the balcony... "Goddamnit you jerks!...Buffy?")

WES STRONG (STRONG...YA BET!)

WES WHA'EVER (INVOSY, ri'?)

WES HOUMAN-SOULED ("ASSHOL', JER', LUVA MY LIF' THA GOD HES LIVE WHO TAK'S HIS TIME 'BOUT SHOWIN' UP!..." "Ow, Buf!..." "Ya deserve a gud whack, jer'...Oh, ya ok, ma hon'?...Oh, Wullam..." brief sob...) UNMAN AN' SLAYA WUMAN!"

("Dawnie, cum on down an' says hi ta ya bro-in-la!..." Sirens in background...)

"Immortal Beloved..." LII...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...Ok, just had to do one more...but I absolutely, positively...

On my mother's soul...Ok, I lied...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

London...Six months after the defeat of the Senior Partners at LA...

"Meeting of the Royal Council of Librarians and Library Scientists..." the hotel conference room placard proclaimed to the young-looking, slight blonde-brown- haired man looking rather uncomfortable in his obviously new suit...

"May I help?..." a young, tall, red-haired woman at a reception table eyed him...Jaw dropping..."William?..." she gasped...Ummn?...he stared back... "Do we...?"

"You're William..." she stated in a hushed tone... "...Walthrop..." he finished... "Guilty as charged...Representing Angel, Burkle-Wyndham-Price, Gunn, and Walthrop...And you are...?"

Melanie...she touched her nametag...Yeah, that's me...she blinked...

"William?..." Another young woman came over... "Is it really?..." "Yeah..." Melanie nodded...

"Are you both...Slayers?..." he asked quietly... Yeah...the two chorused... "I'm Rachel..." the new arrival noted...

And you're William...she sighed...

"Well, what's left of him, yeah..." he nodded...

"Sorry..." Melanie recovered a bit as new arrivals came up... "Slayer memories...We've all got em from Ms. Summers and the others..."

"Sounds like they're certainly better ones than what poor Dana had of me..." he smiled...Both women eyeing each other...Dana...A dark look exchanged..."We've got her locked...Er, safely confined...In a sanitarium...She won't ever hurt you again..." Rachel firmly nodded...

"You are ok, right?..." Melanie asked, anxiously... Fine, fine...No permanent damage...he grinned...

"Is that?..." yet another young woman, followed by several others, ranging from teens to middle-age, approached...

"Hi...Ummn...Ladies, I appreciate the attention but..."

"Buffy's here..." Rachel offered...Then a slight frown...

"With... 'The Immortal'..." Sour looks breaking out on several faces...

"Oh...I see..." Several Slayers looking downcast at his quiet tone... "Well, I'm really here for the meeting...And to see Chairman..." Giles appeared at the large conference room doorway... "Rupert..." Will called in a somewhat relieved tone...Noting six more ladies eagerly approaching...

"William?...Glad you could make it..." the new Chairman of the restored Council strode to him, hand extended for a shake which was given... "Are things well in LA?..." Leading him into the hallway from his growing circle of fans...Who watched devotedly as the two strolled...

"Chaotic...I'm afraid...At least in the underworld and behind the scenes...The one thing the Partners did provide was a bit of structure...But it's gradually falling into place..."

Thanks for the rescue, mate...he hissed...Nodding cheerfully at the swelling line paralleling the doorway and causing some difficulty for those simply trying to enter the main room...Most waving or nodding back eagerly...

"I'll try to get them to settle down...I'm afraid you've quite a reputation...An implanted one...To live up to..."

Sorry Angel couldn't make it...the Chairman eyed his guest...

"I suppose he's still a bit..." "A bit, Rupert...Winifred meant a great deal to him...It hurt to have you and your people slough us off...Though we do understand..."

"I suppose my own feelings got in the way there..." Giles sighed as they moved down the hall and turned back... "But I do regret what happened and I hope this meeting will be the start of proper cooperation between us again..."

"We've never stopped being on the same side, Giles...Ludicrous as that may sound coming from me..."

Well...Giles smiled... Things change...And you have lived up to Buffy's hopes for you...

"She's here, by the way..." "So Ms. Rachel told me..." Rachel hearing, gave a happy beam...

And how is our champion Slayer...And her latest...?

Giles gave him a close, shrewd, and somewhat hard look...

"She's well...Seems to be enjoying her little romance with yet another member of the Undead..."

"Good..."

Really?...Giles eyed him again... "Can I do a thing about it?..." Will smiled, shrugging...

"I was surprised...After the shock of hearing about you from Andrew wore off...That you never came to Rome..."

"Nothing for me there, Rupert...I had no illusions..." Giles gave another hard look as they paused in the hall...

"Well, some illusions that I wanted to keep, yes..." a sheepish nod... "But I knew they'd fade like mist in the morning sun if I met with her...So..."

I see...Giles sighed...

"Things are all right?..." Will hesitated... "His Buffoonishness isn't souled, I know...But I understand he's more or less..." Giles smiling at the "Buffoonishness..."

"He's acquired some kind of a moral sense over the centuries...And is, or is giving a reasonably good performance of, seeking some form of redemption...I'm fairly willing to accept that and his claims for being with us in the fight...To an extent..."

I suspect that redemption-seeking may in fact be his primary attraction for Buffy...he looked at Will closely...

"Outside his overall attractiveness, aristocratic bearing, profound intellect, amazing abilities, and vast wealth..." a thin smile...

"Sounds like quite a catch..."

"If one wants an aristocratic vampiral...Buffoon...with the smatterings of a moral sense in the family...Perhaps..." Giles nodded...Will grinning wanly in his turn...

"Will...I am sorry...About our differences the other year...I realize I should have recognized your soul recovery as marking a profound change...And I should have tried to help you in regaining a place in Humanity..."

Afraid, young Randall...he grinned, but with a sincere sigh...That Father has failed you...

"Daughter was your focus, Mr. Chairman..." William smiled back... "And she was lucky to have you keeping a crossbow trained on me..."

"Mr. Chairman!..." a call from Melanie... "They want everyone to get seated..."

Yes...Well...He turned to William... "Shall we go in and see just how tedious a Council conference can be...?"

"I'll show William to his chair..." a chorus of voices from the only slowing breaking line...Melanie moving to try and secure first spot...

"Thank you, ladies...And you, Andrew..." Giles nodded to an eager, newly-arrived-in-the-line, waving...Hey, Spike!...Andrew...

"But I'll bring Mr. Walthrop in...I need to speak with him regards matters with his organization..."

The line reluctantly parted to let the two through...See ya, William!...Several calls...

"Just keep moving on through before more get here..." Giles hissed...

Giles summoned away to deal with a preliminary procedural matter, Will scanned the room from his chair...Trying not to look too intently round...

Hmmn...No sign of...

"William?...Hiya...Ok if I?..." Dawn paused... Sure, Ms. Summers the younger, he nodded, waving her to the seat beside him...

"She's over there..." she pointed... "Just heard you'd come in..." Ah...he looked to see Buffy in the distance, turned away, arm-in-arm with and speaking to a tall, youthful-and-distinguished-looking man as various milling Counselors, Slayers...Several waving his way...Hey, William!...and various guests stepped to block his view...

"Well...She looks good..." he smiled faintly at Dawn...

"I guess..." she began...Staring at his quiet face, then looking away... "I s'pose you were hoping for a different kinda reunion with Buffy..."

"I didn't expect to see Buffy at all here, Dawn...Nor you..." he gave a faint smile... "It's nice to see you again though..."

You, too...she hastily replied...A quick glance at him...

Ummn...

"How's Rome...?" he asked... "You oughta know, you were there, right?..." she replied...A slightly hard tone...

"Just on business...And I knew Buffy was busy..."

"You should have stayed and looked in on us, William..." "And the reason for that, apart from a Spikish desire to embarrass your sis, would be?..."

We woulda been glad to see you...I would've been...she sighed...

"Best to let things be, Dawn...And your sister seems quite content with that..."

"You aren't...I mean...You don't..." "I've tried to put things behind me and move on as Andy suggested when we came to Rome..."

"But you came to Rome 'cause...?" "Yeah, not knowing which way the Immortal was currently leaning..." She stared as he grinned... "Evil or good, I mean...But, things are the way things are...I've accepted it, girl...It's fine..."

I never expected as much as I got from her...

"You should've come, William..."

"Maybe...But I think not...Anyway, we'll never know and as long as Buffy is content, it is best to leave things be..."

"I'm sorry..." she hastily blurted... Uh...Sorry...

"I mean about last year...I shoulda been a little more supportive, I know..."

"I nearly raped your wounded sis, Dawn...I understand your feelings..."

"That was Spike...Hey, Angelus nearly killed us and destroyed the world..."

"And I've noticed you've never been too anxious to sit and chat with the ole poof-boy..."

"He shouldn't have left sis...And he might've tried to help her out after she came back..."

Like you always did...she eyed him... "Anyway, I wish I'd handled things a little better back then..."

"How's His Benevolence?..."

She made a face... "About what you'd expect a guy who calls himself 'The Immortal' to be like...But ...He does seem pretty unevil...Buffy seems to like the attention...And he does offer a lotta perks...They were at his estate on the Rivera for a week last month..."

"Nice to think she's with someone who'll take her to a few decent places, at last..." he smiled...

"Drusilla paid us a call..."

"Did she?...Post-rehumanity, I hope...?" "Yeah..." Dawn nodded...Staring at him carefully...

"That was great of you, Will...Giving the Prophecy up to her..."

"Angel's choice too, girl...And Dru was the one who needed...And deserved it...Most...She'd never have been able to bear the curse in that vamp body and after all she's suffered, soulwise...There wasn't really much of a choice, once we'd convinced the Guardian..."

Was she doing well?...

"Fine...Or seemed to be...They rolled the carpet out for her at the Vatican...A PR thing for Catholicism and Christianity I guess...But it was nice..."

"Good..." he smiled... "God rest her, the poor thing's earned a little kindness and support at last..."

"So have you..." Dawn told him quietly... "I'm fine...And very lucky, really..." he shook his head... "I may have put off Humanity for the moment, but that may come someday for me...And Angel...But otherwise things are fine..."

And best of all, Angel didn't beat me to it...he grinned to her...A grin she returned...

"Dru said..." she stared at him... "You still loved her...In fact she'd come to see us, hopin' Buf would..."

"Kind ole thing, my poor Sister Drusilla..."

"She loves you too, you know...In a Sisterly kinda way..." "I know..." he nodded...

"Odd that I have regained a family in a way...An older brother and sister..." a faint smile...

She looked over where Buffy was sitting, talking rather loudly to the Immortal...Eyeing them from where she sat every now and then...

"It's...Gonna end badly, isn't it?..." she eyed William, who nodded slightly... "I'm afraid it's likely...Given what I know of His Benevolence's rep with the ladies...Though I think Buf can handle him even if his 'redemption' bit is an act..."

"Don't suppose there's any chance...If things go that way...?" Dawn hesitated... "You might..."

"I won't risk my heart...And soul...another time, Dawn..." he said quietly...

"I see..." she sighed... "Well, anyway...I am sorry, William...And I really do hope you can forgive me...Someday..."

"Forgiven, Niblett..." he smiled as she wanly grinned back...See ya...she patted him...On rising, turning to give Buffy a brief, hard stare and then turned away as she moved over several tables over to where Willow sat...Who, catching his eye, gave a quick, bright...Heya!...To William...

Buffy looking back over at Dawn , then quickly at William...Still eagerly chatting to her beau...Only the faintest fleeting flicker of a shadow across her face which vanished fast as it had come...

"Mr. Walthrop?..." "Mr. Wyndham-Price..." Will eyed Roger Wyndham-Price standing before his chair, who held his usual stern pose...If at least the cyborg copy had been as good as poor Wesley had insisted...

With perhaps, just the faintest trace of...something...

Pleading?...

"So...You appear to have done well since your soul's recovery..." Wyndham-Price hesitated...

"Please..." William pushed the seat Dawn had occupied... "Yeah, 'bout as well as could be expected I suppose..." he nodded as Roger took the seat gingerly...

"He...My son...Wrote me about you once...Said he was unsure how they should proceed with you and for the first time in years, actually requested my opinion..."

"And...?"

I told him to stake you...Wyndham-Price shrugged...If you gave the slightest sign of regression, that is...

"We do, even on the Council, make some allowances..." he smiled faintly...Will chuckling...

"He was a good lot, your boy...A fine man as they say...And a true friend to Angel to the last...Though, judging from what Angel has said, at times a friend who did not fear giving offense..."

Which, I'd say is the best kind of friend...he smiled...Roger silent...

"William...Mr. Walthrop...Did my son?...Did Wesley ever speak to you about what I told him about you?..."

As in the staking advice?...Will grinned...

"No, but I got the general impression he was quite ready to..." "No..." Roger shook his head... "I mean about our family ties..."

"Ties...?"

"We are related, William...Distantly now, of course...But the tie exists...You see your younger brother..."

"Are you saying...?"

"My maternal great-grandmother..." Wyndham-Price eyed him...

Whoa...Well...

Always did see a little Walthrop blood in ole Wes...The courage, stout-hearted Englishness...Poetic sensibility...Way with the ladies...

"No...He never mentioned it...Shock, I'd guess..."

Yes, I'd rather expect...Roger nodded...

Living relatives...My God...

"I..." Wyndham-Price hesitated... "You were there...When..."

"Ms. Burkle-Wyndham-Price was with him...Though I did see him before...He was a man to be proud of that day, sir..."

My...Multiple times removed...Cousin...Wesley...

"Yes..." Roger nodded... "And we were...Whatever he seems to have convinced himself of...We...I...Was..."...He paused again...A slight smile breaking...

"Ms. Burkle-Wyndham-Price..." he shook his head... "She called us, you know...His mother and I...Wanted our permission to take the name..."

"She...Both of her...Loved him sincerely...Maybe, on Illyria's part even more, knowing she must lose his soul to our Fred..."

"That was not difficult to see...Even in a brief conversation...A most remarkable...Woman..."

"That she was...And Illyria, thanks to what she gained from her, is..."

"William...Mrs. Wyndham-Price...That is, both of us...Would very much appreciate it if you'd consider coming out to us at our home?...When you've finished with the conference?...I can't say we have a great deal of information to give you about...Our family...But..."

"I think I'd like that very much, thanks..."

"Excuse me...William?..." Kennedy stood by his chair...Ah, hi...he smiled up, she smiling back... "May I?..." she looked at him...He waved her to a seat...

"So...That amulet worked out, huh?..." she grinned... "Depends on your pov...I suppose so..." he hastily corrected, seeing her face fall a bit...

"I guess it hasn't been a very happy homecomin' for you..." she sighed... "Sorry we didn't handle it better..."

"You didn't know, lass...But I've made out ok...Angel's been surprisingly decent to me as time's gone on...For a brooding poof, he's not all that bad a mate..."

In the 'ye merrie ole England' good ole boy sense, he grinned...I haven't gone the distaff way...

"Are you?..." she paused... Looking over where Buffy had again briefly glanced their way... "Were you in Heaven, Will?..."

"God knows, girl...Not likely with my record...But I've no idea...No memories of the experience to share I'm afraid..."

"You would have deserved it, William...Your soul was innocent...And you died a hero..." she smiled faintly...Looking him over carefully...

"How's Red these days?...You two were having quite a time in Rio I understand from ole Andrew..." "We're not together anymore..." she hastily interrupted... "Willow and I decided to call it quits a while ago...She wasn't quite as sure as before about the 'gay, now' thing...And hadn't forgotten either Tara...Or Xander..." she looked over to where Xander now sat by Willow, she talking to him quietly...

Guess she figured he needed her more now...

"But I wasn't dumped...It was mutual..." she noted hastily...

After all...I never took the vows myself...

"Keeping your options open, eh?...Well, that's my motto myself these days..." he smiled...

"Are you ok?...I mean..." she looked at him... "My poor ole bleeding heart is slowly healing...Yeah, ok.." he grinned at her solemn face...

She was silent a moment...

"William?...Ummn...I've been thinkin' about you...Ever since...Well, since I first saw you with Buffy...But especially since...I mean about what you did for Buffy and everything..."

"Anyway, ever since I got the Slayer memories...And knew the details of what you did for Buffy...Souled and soulless...And the rest..." she paused...

"Yeah, I've acquired quite a fan club thanks to Ms. Summers..." he smiled...

"I think I've gone a little beyond fan status..." Kennedy gave him a cool stare...

What?...she stared at his blinking face, grinning... "Like I said, I never took the perpetual vows..."

And I always thought, if I were to reconsider...You'd definitely be a candidate...

"That is, if Slayers are still on your list..." Another stare as he blinked at her...

"Hey, Will..." Willow taped him on the shoulder, Xander, looking rather uncomfortable, in her tow... "This is so great to have you here...Congrats on how things went in LA..." She startled him by giving an embrace... "You've made us all proud, there, Mr. W..."

Right, Xander?...She turned to him...

Yeah...Sure...he nodded... "Hi, Spike...Still kickin' I see..."

"William, Alexander..." Will eyed him coolly, offering a hand... "Spikey is gone to that warm place where demons dwell when not on vacation here..."

"Good...Hope he stays there..." Xander...Willow hissed...Squeezing his hand...Kennedy glaring from her seat...

"And how's dear ole Anya?..." Will eyed him... "I assume you have called her via seance...?"...A hard look...Willow gulping slightly, then frowning...Geesh, Will...

"She's good...And thanks for the instructions...I did prefer doing it personally..." Xander grinned...Kennedy and Willow staring...

"Sorry, ladies..." Will grinned as well... "Mr. Harris and I are pulling your legs a bit...We've been in touch the last few months ever since Xander sent me a most charming note..." Xander rolled eyes... Knew that good deed would go neither unpunished nor unpublished...

"You wrote Sp...er William?..." Willow stared...Yeah, yeah...Xander shrugged... "I thought one of us oughta...Him dying to save us and all..."

"It was like having a younger brother again...I was deeply moved..." Will smiled..."If only I'd been of the right persuasion...My problems dela coeur would have been settled at once..." "Shut up..." Xander mock-glared...

"You guys were in touch all this time?..." Kennedy shook her head... Just since our two vamp stooges did their Rome trip...After Andy told us, I thought somebody...Xander gave a sheepish look...

"That's my Xan..." Willow patted him...

"You had a younger brother?..." Kennedy eyed Will...Xander and Willow looking at him as well...

"Hello, I was human once...Had a family like most...Yeah, I had a brother...Good ole Phil...Fortunately I didn't maintain the old family ties..."

My God...Willow shook her head...Gee...Never even thought...She stared over to where Buffy, Immortal still on arm, was making rounds as the rest of the onference attendees trickled in slowly...A quick, questioning glance from the Slayer catching her...

For Godsakes, Buf...At least come over and say hi...Preferably minus his BennyHilliness...Can't believe she can tolerate that clown and his pretensions...Hell everything he's got fell off the cart of somebody he killed centuries ago...Giles says even his title was swiped from some poor nobleman whose estates he grabbed back in the back ole days...

Then again, Will here doesn't seem anxious to visit with his girl...Though I suppose even though we're quits I wouldn't relish having to make nice meeting Ken's...she paused...Eyeing Kennedy who was eyeing William with a rather...look...

Hmmn...I think, maybe...Unless my acute perception is off...

I just did meet Ken's latest...

"You two look like you'd like to be alone..." Xander grinned at Will and Kennedy...

Ummn...They looked at each other then the others...

"Actually..." Kennedy grinned... "I would like a few minutes..."

Yeah...Willow sighed to herself...I just did...Given that even Xander's picking up the vibes...

Well, he is a nice, heroic guy...Post-soul...And given the current sit ala Buf...Maybe it's for...

"William...How ya doin'?...Long time no return from beyond the grave..." Buffy beamed...At somewhat overintense intensity...Fine, Slayer...Will nodded, briefly eyeing her...

Hmmn...Well, she did lose her Jude Law clone...Willow thought...Catching sight of His Benevolence now conversing with some animation with Giles...A rather interested-looking bevy of Slayers in close attendance...

"So how's my guy who couldn't be bothered to call me even when in Rome?..." Buffy continued brightly...With a brittle edge in her voice...

Uh-boy...Willow gave Xander a sidelong glance...

"Still dead..." William nodded politely... "And His...Or, rather Your, I guess...Benevolence?...I'll have to thank him for sending that capo to us...Saved us a minor war..."

"He's great...I'll introduce you later...Say could you guys give us five?...I wanna talk to Spike before the meeting starts..." she pulled at his hand, speaking in a rush...

"His name's William, Buffy..." Kennedy said, in a slightly cold voice... "He'd prefer we lose Spike these days..."

Oh?...She locked eyes a moment with her fellow Slayer...Then turned to William...Pulling a bit harder... "C'mon William, just gimme a minute of your precious time..."

He rose, a bit reluctantly...Sure...Buffy pulling him along...

Xander rolling eyes at Willow who wrinkled her mouth...As Kennedy watched the two moving off...Then turned back to her friends...Willow eyeing her now...

"I'll be fair..." Kennedy nodded to Willow's careful stare... "She can have her chance..."

"But I won't sit by and let him be jerked around...Or used, again...She's not the only Slayer now and she can't have it all her way..."

"These are Buffy's memories you're..." Xander began...

"But the use I make of em is my own choice..." Kennedy nodded firmly... "And I choose to follow through on them...Kinda speeds the process up, ya know..." she grinned at Willow...

But I will give her her chance...

"This thing with the Immortal..." Buffy spoke hastily, in a low voice as they moved to the back of the hall, resuming a more normal tone as they reached an empty corner... "You know it's only that, right?...William?...I mean he's fun and all but I wouldn't stick with some other...You know I wouldn't..." she paused... "I was so lonely after you died...I had to have..." He nodded...Sure...

"He is trying for redemption...It reminded me of you...Though I wouldn't take any vamp, not permanently...You understand?..." "That's fine, Buffy...No sweat..."

She frowned at his calm face...Biting a lip...

"Dru said..." "Dru is very sweet...And cares a great deal for me..."

"Why didn't you come to Rome?...Was it what she said?...You were afraid?..."

"How long have you known I was back, Buffy?..."

She stared a while...That long, eh?...he smiled wanly...

"So that's it...You don't love me?...Anymore?..."

He stared at her face a long moment...The sad, puzzled face of a hurt child...A loving and courageous, if thoughtless and selfish child...

And forced to be so, by a calling she never chose, he knew...The world-saving Slayer, blithely demanding and receiving the unending sacrifices and support of family, friends, and assorted lovers as her due...Which, given her own willingness to sacrifice herself, he could now agree dispassionately, it was...However abstract and bound up in pride and pleasure in her work her love of Humanity in the general might be...

"I'll always love you, Buffy...Of course..." he nodded kindly... "But I understand what can and cannot be..."

She smiled at him, relieved, patting a hand... "I love you, too...You know that...And if you ever win Humanity..."

"Thanks..." he smiled back... "I'll keep trying..."

She nodded...And went back to her seat...

Immortal Beloved..." LIII...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...Ok, just had to do one more...but I absolutely, positively...On my mother's soul...

Ok, I lied...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

Sides, after the last one, I had to do another nice one to balance things out...And there was that mistake with the numbers earlier...I mean there's no choice but to press on (over your pleading screams to desist, no doubt...)

The Austrian-Italian border...Castle Immortale...

One month after the defeat of the Senior Partners at LA...

A tall and aristocratic-looking, apparently youthful, but with cold eyes at variance with such youth, Immortal greets his...Barely tolerated, let alone welcome, guests...

"Gentlemen..." a phony congeniality

"Welcome..."

"There is she is, guys!..." Dawn pointed at Buffy standing by His Benevolence...A rather vague and blankly wan expression on her face... "Look at her...She's in thrall...William, you gotta get her out..."

"Gentlemen...Lady..." The Immortal eyed Dawn coldly... "Please...I believe there has been a misunderstanding...The younger Ms. Summers is mistaken and has dragged you here under a serious misconception...Dear Buffy is here of her own free will..."

Yeah, right...Dawn glared... "Just look at her, guys!...Come on, you know thrall when you see it...!"

"I'm fine, Dawn...Hello..." Buffy murmured... "I know you...You're William...And Angel..."

Hi...she waved vaguely...The boys staring at her, then each other...Dawn fuming, arms firmly folded across chest...

"Buffy...?" Angel eyed her... "Are you ok?...Dawn told us the Immortal had taken you away...And that you were acting...Well...Pretty much like you are right now..."

"I'm fine...His Benevolence would never let me come to harm..." she gave the Immortal a beaming, if still vague smile...

Hiya William...Nice to see you alive...she nodded to him...

"Yeah...Thanks..." he sighed...

"William?..." she looked at him...A slight cloudiness in her face when he turned away...

"You ok, Slayer?...Dawn's been worried...Called us in..."

"Fine...Nice of you to come...But His Benevolence's love shields me from all harm...Thanks for coming..." she turned to the Immortal... "Henri...?...Uh, Your Benevolence?..."

Is she waiting for...Orders...? Angel hissed to Will...Who shrugged...

"This is Buffy, mate...I told you it wasn't likely..."

Magics?...Dawn suggested, eyeing Will...C'mon Will...Do somethin'...her expression saying...

"He don't use em..." Will shook his head... "Quite right..." the Immortal nodded...

"You're a liar...What did you do to my sis?...We know you're evil...Angel found out about your deal with the Partners...Buffy, you gotta come with us!...William, grab her!..."

"I'm fine Dawnie...The Immortal loves me...He needs me the way William did, even more so...And when I prove my love by helping him win back his soul...Instead of failing to help him like I failed William...I'll be worthy of such love at last...

Or if that doesn't work, He's promised to transform me with my soul intact so that I can be with Him...long adoring glance...Forever..." Buffy beamed...Eyeing Will a bit carefully as he continued to avoid her stare...

"You never failed me, girl..." he shook his head briefly... "Oh, but I must've..." she wanly insisted... "Or you would have believed me and come to Rome..."

Though thank goodness His Benevolence was sent to try and keep me busy there...While the Partners dealt with you two...

"Course Henri was far too wonderful...And had too much good sense...To carry through with their plan..."

Hmmn...Angel stared, turning to his junior partner... "Will?..."

"Great, lovely..." William sighed... "Much happiness and all that..." "William?..." Dawn fumed... "He's got her and he's gonna kill her!..."

"Please...My dear little child..." the Immortal smiled, glaring slightly at Dawn at the end... "While it is true I did briefly treat with your enemies, Angel...Against my better judgement but for the sake of protecting Humanity...And my own interests, I admit...In the likely event of your failure...I quickly abandoned their schemes for Ms. Summers on meeting her..."

And she...As so many other females have been...Was swayed to forebear her initial impulse to destroy me on learning of my initial plot by love of me...

Oh, yeah...Buffy nodded wanly...Eyeing Angel, then William...

"I just adored him from the start...Andy musta told you that night in Rome, right?...When we were being seen together in every possible public place?..."

Whatdaya think?...Angel hissed to William...She does seem kinda...?

"You detected no magics with that thing from the office, right?..." Will eyed him...

"I never use magics!..." the hearing Immortal frowned... "They are...Dirty...I, the Immortal, have no need of such toys..."

"Having graciously allowed you and the...Dear child..." he frowned at Dawn... " To enter my home, I have also kindly given you, gentlemen...An explanation of the situation...Buffy is here of her own free will and quite content to remain with me...I believe she will consent to any examination which you care to make..."

Before...Leaving...he glared...

"Buffy, please summon Robbins...I shall retire to my study while your friends complete their interview...Gentlemen, Buffy and my butler will be happy to provide you with anything you require...I will say...Good evening..." he turned...

"Oh, and Buffy...Please bring my evening's brandy to my study later?...Thank you, dear..." he exited through the nearest door... "Yes, Henri...Your Benevolence..." Buffy called after him...Moving to a panel on the wall by his exit door and pressing a button...

"Jesus..." Dawn hissed... "Does that look and sound like my sis to you clowns?...Do something..."

Will, you know she's always been a sucker for love spells...she turned to him...

Buffy returned... "Want anything, guys?...William, it really is nice to see you alive again...Sorry the Immortal's overwhelmed and enraptured me with his...Charms..."

"Charms, get it?..." Dawn hissed...Dawn, Will sighed...

"Dawn, no spells are in play..." Angel noted... "Well, maybe he hexed her earlier...!"

"I just adore the Immortal...He's so...I don't know..." Buffy vaguely told William, staring at him...

"Delightful...Well, Angel..." William turned to him...

"Brainwashed, that's it!..." Dawn tried... "Angel, you gotta take her to your place and deprogram her..."

"Buffy?...Brainwashed?..." Angel shook his head... "Dawn, come on..."

"Drugs!...That's it!...He don't use magics but he pumps em full of..."

Well...? Angel eyed William...Who was looking anywhere but at the still staring Buffy...Who now put a hand out to him...

"Really glad to see you again..." she murmured... "William, right?...Did I tell you about how I suddenly found myself in love with the Immortal one day?..."

"That's nice..." he sighed...Turning to Angel... "Any way to check for drugs?...I suppose we should..."

Brought a general testing kit...his partner nodded...Dawn eyeing Buffy...

"Buffy, could we have a urine and blood sample...Just to check?" Angel eyed her...

Uh...She eyed Dawn...

"I'll need to check with Henri...His Benevolence...If that's ok..." she turned to the door as a distinguished-looking butler entered...

"This is Robbins...Robbins, His Benevolence wants His guests properly cared for..." Buffy dreamily noted... "I'll be back to help in just a bit..."

She paused and glanced at Dawn...

"You ain't going no wheres without me, Buffy!..." Dawn hurried over and went out with her...

"Nice girl..." Robbins noted to the two guests... "Seems a trifle submissive though..."

Well?...Buffy hissed as the sisters paused in the hallway...

Dawn shrugged... "No go, they aren't buying the thrall bit...They think you're voluntary..."

"What the...Whadaya mean they still don't believe it?...I'm acting worse than with RJ!..."

"Buf...You're the greatest Slayer of ever...I told ya they'd never believe His Doofusness could get his hooks in ya..."

"They think...William thinks...?"

"It's love?...'Fraid so..." Dawn sighed...

"But I caved to love spells lotsa times...How can he believe I'd ever voluntarily let that lump of puff pastry push me around like that?...Jerk..." she groused...

If he weren't the lovea my life...

"So...Knock this nonsense off and tell him...He's the Slayer's mate-for-life...A nonvoluntary, nonresignable position...And kill that stupid jackass before word gets out to the underworld how you've been acting..."

"Can't believe he'd think..." Buffy looked down...Damn jerk...All this trouble getting him to come and see me...Putting up with that worthless clown of an Immortal dumbass for all these weeks...

"Damn him!..." she fumed... "Where the hell's the guy who won his soul back for me?...Died for me?...Geesh..."

"He thinks you'd do it for love...That's not so bad..." Dawn noted... "Least he thinks you're capable of it...That Love could even make you do something like..."

Yeah?...Buffy beamed...Well, if it were Will...

And he didn't act like as big a jerk...

Hmmn...Wait a mo...She waved a hand... "I got an idea...Just gotta get His Schmuckness back and to think Will's challenging him...He'll try to have me deal rather than fight himself of course..." Gutless creep...the sisters glared down the hall...

"Torn by my conflictin' emotions when sent to deal...My love for Will overcomes His Swinishness' sinister influence..."

Not bad...Dawn nodded...But His Dumbassness doesn't use magics...Even before he told them that, the guys knew...Some guy told them in Rome, they said...And Angel's screened for spells...

And you'll fail a drug test...The wrong way...she sighed...

"So?...Maybe it was the First...Yeah, she's in league with him and usin' my despair over Will to gain a hold on me...Enthrall me to him and turn my body over to her in the end..."

Well...Bit hokey, sis...But it is better...And with our dim boys...Might work...Dawn agreed...Hey?...A glare...

"Sorry, sorry..."

"And best of all will be the look on His Dipshitness' face...Just before I let him have it...Well, no..." Buffy sighed...

Best will be my Will's face when he knows at last...What I said was true...she smiled...

"Yeah, but ya are gonna kill that asshole, right?..."

"He was in league with the Senior Partners to distract me while they killed the boys...Of course I'm gonna kill him...Soon as the douche bag's served his purpose..."

"Buffy, my dear..." His Benevolence called sharply from the door of his study...

"Yeah?...Ummn...Yes, Henri?...Your Benevolence...?"

I think the best part is watching him so utterly clueless while she does this act...Dawn gave a slight grin...

"After our guests leave, I'd like that brandy...And my study requires straightening...My shoes a brisk wiping...If you would cease your chatter with the little one a moment and hurry these awful people on their way..." he frowned at her...

"Of course, dear...Your Benevolence..." she nodded...A wan smile...

Oh, I am gonna love the final scene tonight...Gotta get the video camera and see if we can run it in slo mo later...Dawn thought...

"Immortal Beloved..." LIV...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away"

on Angel...Ok, just had to do one more...but I absolutely, positively...On my mother's soul...

Ok, I lied...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

London, Heathrow Airport...Six months after the defeat of the Senior Partners at LA...

Angel and William strode out of their gate, luggage in hand...

"If it's all the same to you, poof-boy...I'll be heading on out..." Will eyed Angel as they paused, looking about the airport hallway...

"Spike?...Whadaya mean?...You said you were ok with this?..."

"I..." he waved a hand... "Don't need this...I think I'd like to just go, find a room in town...On my expense card, of course...And get started seeking my roots and any surviving family..."

"Spike..." Angel sighed... "You said you could handle this...I'm no more anxious to..."

"William!...Angel!...Hey, guys!..." a loud bellow from down the hall...Buffy, with Dawn...And a rather handsome thirtiesish-looking, very well-dressed and groomed man...in tow...

"So!..." she whacked William in the side as she came up to them... "Long time no tell Buffy you're up and kickin'..."

Hello...

"What, no hug for your old Slayer general?...And your...Ummn...Old girl?..." she raised arms eagerly...He eyeing her coolly...Then let himself be embraced...Spike...she hugged him tightly...He stiff in her arms...

"Spike's a demon in hell...Please, call me William, Buffy..."

"Sorry...William..." she smiled, pulling back...The smile fading fast as he eyed her quietly...Ummn...

"Hey...William..." Dawn reached out to pat him... "Nibs..." he nodded to her... "Sorry bout...Things..." she eyed him...Buffy watching him questioningly...

"I came through fine..." he shook his head...

"I mean...Last year and all...I know I wasn't exactly...Supportive...Post-soul and all..." Dawn explained...

"Will?...Are you angry at me?..." Buffy asked suddenly... "I mean, you took your sweet time about..."

"Angel, this is Buffy..." William turned to Angel... "Very funny..." she frowned... "Hi, Angel..." she patted his arm... "Look, I'm sorry about Giles and everything...The Wolfram-Hart stuff threw us for a loop...I had faith in you, though..."

"So Andrew told me..." Angel smiled faintly, but accepted an embrace in his turn...

Don't be too...On her, I mean...Dawn hissed to Will as he stood by her... "She really was kinda broken up about you for a long time..."

"Oh...Henri, sorry..." Buffy turned to the good-looking fellow just behind her... About what I expected, William sighing... "Guys, meet Henri...Faucomb...Count d'Vestigy...Better known as 'The Immortal'..."

"Henri...Angel...It's Liam Angel, now, right?..." she smiled at Angel... "And...William...Soames Walthrop..." she grinned at William who blinked at her... "Didn't think I'd bother to look your name up, eh?..." "Thanks..." he replied coolly... "That was nice of you...Was it for my tombstone?..."

Actually...Dawn thought...As Buffy stared back at him...Some anger in her eyes now...

"D'Vestigy..." Angel nodded, moving to smooth things... "Thanks for the capo..." "Don't mention it, mon ami...My dear Buffy was most anxious it reach you in time..." The Immortal beamed...

Yeah...Will nodded, frowning...

"You're angry..." a somewhat cooled Buffy gave a shrewd look... "I'm the one who should be angry, you know...You resurrect and never call..."

"So when's the happy day for you two?..." he ignored her, smiling coldly at the Immortal...

"Well, my friend...We hope to conclude things shortly...Naturally there are many details to consider before we move on to embrace our happiness..." Henri smiled...

Yeah...Buffy nodded briefly... "So, why are you angry?..." she frowned at William... "I thought Angel said you doin' fine since the big battle...You sure weren't so desperate to see me you hopped on the first plane to Rome...If Giles hadn't arranged this conference with Angel over disposing of the remains of Wolfram-Hart, Inc I bet you never woulda..."

"Buffy?..." Henri tapped his right forefinger with the other... "That's 'would have'...I do not mean to correct you like this but you did ask me to let you know..."

Our social responsibilities require we discipline ourselves as role models for Society, not only in our heroic endeavours, but even to the lesser details...he smiled at the boys who eyed each other, then Buffy...

Right...she nodded at Henri... "I'm watchin' it...No sweat..."

Dawn rolled eyes...Yeah, he is like this all the time...Her expression said...

"So...? You never would...Have...Come?" "Buffy...Look...You're happy, I'm ok...It's nice to see you again..."

"All you had to do was pick up a phone..." she told him...

Uh, Buf...Dawn eyed her...Devoted buffoon of a sorta fiancee at two o'clock...Eliciting even my very hard won sympathy by his patience...Her expression said...

"But anyway, it's nice to see you again, too...Henri and I are thinkin' about gettin' married...Did you hear?..."

Thinking?...Henri stared slightly... Mama is getting ready to have herself souled for the occassion...Not to mention planning the invitations...

"Saw a sidebar in 'People'...Congrats..."

"Just rumors...Nothin' definite...Though we're definitely considerin'..."

Buf?...You said we'd go dress shopping this weekend?...Dawn blinked up at her...

"Nice...Guess you've expanded your definition of a suitable partner since I fried..."

"You never gave me!..." she calmed hastily as the others stared... Uh...

"Henri, honey?...Could we go to the clubroom?...It's noisy out here..."

"Certainly, dearest...Gentlemen...And Ladies..." he waved them along... "The clubroom is much better for such a joyous reunion...Let me phone ahead and see that some refreshments have been brought up..." he left the room...

"C'mon..." Buffy muttered, grabbing at Will's arm...Dawn giving Angel a sly smile as they headed off...William doing his best to avoid looking at Buffy's half-anxious, half-angry face...

"So..." Buffy glared at Will as they awaited Henri's return in the rather elegantly appointed clubroom...

Buffy...he sighed... "Lets just leave it at... 'Spike died at Sunnydale for you and remains a fond memory'...While as for me, the Buffy I loved died likewise of her injuries after telling me she..."

Sounds good to me...Very sensible...Dawn thought...Clearin' away the past and leavin' all kinds of new opps for the future...Way to go...

She colored but said nothing...Glare reaching kill intensity...But calmed as His Benevolence returned, attentive staff in tow...Angel eyeing him as he entered...

Hmmn...Henri quickly sized up the sit...This looks like a job for an aristocrat with exquiste sensibility and taste...

"That's the way you...?" Buffy stared... "It's damned well the way you wanted it, at least regards me, right?..."

"My friends...My dearest girl..." Henri hastily interposed...Receiving a mutual glare for his pain as Angel watched quietly...Dawn rolling eyes...God, will you two ust...

Course, it does seem...From an objective pov...A little hard on our pretentious aristocratic one, here...Henri being of the soulless vamp persuasion and all, it was something for him to...she thought...

"Buffy, my darling...I cannot bear to see you in such pain...I must relinquish my claims..." Huh?...Dawn stared...Angel and William as well...

Huh?...Buffy eyed him... "No, ma petit...It's clear to me your heart is pledged to another...And, being... 'The Immortal' ...there is but one course I can follow...Walthrop..." he turned to William... "I entrust her to your care...Farewell..."

Henri?...Buffy stared... "No, my love..." he raised a hand... "I cannot oppose true love...Your kind heart that would spare my feelings does you credit...But alas, I am not the One..." he hastily turned and exited through the back door, Angel following...As Dawn stared after him...

Did that pompous French jackass just pull an Angelus?...Or, maybe drop the last two to be fair...Angelus at least never jerked her around, claiming he was just waiting and hopin' for...The Day of Final Redemption...While sleepin' round with every girl in LA...

Phew...The Immortal mopped his brow... "A close one, eh...?" Angel grinned...

"At least you had Angelus and Duty to get you safely away from her..." Henri shook his head... "Mon Dieu, the girl nearly had me... 'The Immortal'...Bound, gagged, and delivered into the hideous bonds of matrimony..."

"You didn't have to..." "Have you ever tried to tell her the relationship is over?...The look on her face when I even suggested that we might care to see others again...Merde, mon ami...I thought it was going to be fun...The Greatest Slayer and the Immortal...A few pleasant weeks, no doubt a spread in "People" at the very least...Great for my book sales, naturalement...Then we'd go on our merry ways...What was she thinking of?...I'm soulless for crying out loud..."

"She was probably transferring...You're lucky William's back..."

Transferring?...Henri frowned... As in me, 'The Immortal' for that two-bit Billy Idol impersonator?...

The door back opened, both falling hastily silent as Dawn emerged...And eyed Henri coolly...

"Nice dodge, Your Bullshitiness..." she frowned...The mouth on that kid...the Immortal glared a bit... "Just thank whatever equivalent of God you pray to William was available...I think she's actually not that unhappy how things worked out..." Please...For sparing me from a daily dose of you alone, I thank the gods for Walthrop's sudden appearance...he thought, giving her a benevolent smile...

"As I said, true love..." Henri began...

"Bollocks!..." a shout from within... "Andrew told you I was alive!..."

"You coulda stayed in Rome!...Ummn..." an answering shout... "Hah!...So, you knew I came to Rome...You knew I was alive!..."

"Uh...You coulda come to Rome..." a somewhat feeble retort... "Yeah..." the retort gathering strength... "You left me hangin' all those months...Not knowin' if you didn't believe..." "All...Those...Months, eh?..."

Uh, I mean since Andy tole me...Willow wasn't sure when... "Willow...Wasn't...Sure..." he repeated...

"I love you...Henri was just filling in..." she played her despairation card...

"Willow?..." Angel eyed Dawn... Filling?...Henri blinked... "Willow did a seance...I asked her to..." Dawn sighed...

"You had Willow check on me?...When?..." a somewhat happier tone... "Oh, yeah...Right back in October..." an eager reply... "She said you were around on Earth somewhere, couldn't pin you down..."

She had Willow checkin'...Dawn rolled eyes...Angel giving her a sympathetic look...Dawn...

"You had Willow looking for him?..." he smiled at her...Filling...In?...Henri mumbled...

"I just wanted to know he was ok...Soul and all safe in Heaven..." Dawn nodded... "I wasn't very nice to him last year...I kinda felt bad after it was all over, him saving us and all...And I, I sorta missed him...He was always so much fun when we hung out after Buffy was gone..." she was silent a moment, then perked a bit "...Buf was glad to hear he was ok after Willow did it and we told her...Ummn..."

"And knowing I was around, you left it at that...?" a rather more strident tone resumed from behind the door...

"You coulda come to Rome!..."

"Well...Suppose we just let true love take its natural course..." Henri hissed...Angel nodding solemnly...

"Immortal Beloved..." LV...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away"

on Angel...Ok, just had to do one more...but I absolutely, positively...On my mother's soul...

Ok, I lied...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

London, Heathrow Airport...One night, four months after the defeat of the Senior Partners in LA...

A strolling Buffy, Dawn beside her, paused to stare at the short, blonde-haired man sitting quietly in a lobby chair...Listening to a tape player without headphones...

"William?..." she came over to him... "Buffy?...Dawn?...Nice to see you..."

"What are you doing here?..." she eyed him...A nervous look...Dawn eyeing him coolly as well...

"Some business for our firm's European office...Basically, cleaning out the European office..." he grinned...

"Rape any other Slayers while you were at it...?" Dawn sneered... "Dawn..." Buffy muttered...

"Sorry...Bad memories of the guy who let my sis down..." Dawn eyed him...

"Sorry, Will..." Buffy sighed... "It's ok...Dawn's right...I did let you both down that time...Though it was pre-soul..."

"That's a neat excuse..." Dawn grinned coldly... "Almost as good as Angel's for not being there for sis that year she came back from the grave..."

Dawn...Buffy frowned...She shrugged... "Fine...Maybe I shoulda included ...As good as Buffy's for not bringing you back herself...Or calling you when you came back..." A dark look from Buffy...

"Andy told us when he got back from LA...We were just thrilled..." Dawn grinned sarcastically...

"Dawn...Enough..." Buffy glared coldly... "It's ok, Buf..." Will nodded...

"I heard you slaughtered the Partners...Nice..." she nodded now to Will, smiling a bit...While Dawn maintained a haughtily reserved air...Looking round the lobby a bit...

"Things well in Rome, Slayer?..." "Fine, fine...Had a little down time and decided to take Dawny on a little trip before my university classes resume..." "Very nice...Are you here in England?...Staying with Giles, perhaps?..."

No...Not staying with Giles...she shook her head... "In fact he doesn't know we're out here...Kinda flew the coop..."

Work with the Slayers and all...Plus my new classes...Was all getting a bit much...We needed a break...

"Great...Well, mum's the word if I should speak to your Chairman by phone when I get back to LA..."

"Buffy's with the Immortal now you know..." Dawn chimed in... "A fabulous guy, in case you hadn't heard..."

Dawn...Buffy hissed... "William, you understand I hope...I mean...Back at Sunnydale and all..."

"You were just being kind...I understand, Buf...I told you I did, remember?...And it was very kind..."

"Course..." Dawn interrupted again...A hard look in her eye... "You know His Benevolence is a vamp...But just way outta your league...Wealthy, powerful..."

Dawn...Stop it...Buffy hissed, pulling at her...

"It's fine...I understand, Buffy..."

"I do wish you'd've come to Rome before...It might've made a difference..." she eyed him... "Dawn is right about you're being gutless there, no offense..."

Though I guess it's true...I was just being kind... she spoke hastily...Dawn eyeing her...

No offense...Taken...he smiled...A hair brittlely...

"Yeah...Pity you didn't have the same guts Spike once had...You might've had a chance with sis if you'd shown before the Immortal..." Dawn eyed him coldly...

"Enough, Dawn..." Buffy waved a hand... "Just letting your ex- know what he missed, sis..."

"Well...Things are what they are, right?..." he smiled faintly...Fiddling a bit more with his tape player...

"Yeah..." Dawn leered... "But say, sis hasn't told you the big news..." Buffy stared at her, looking a bit puzzled...And uncomfortable... "Go on and show your ex-, sis...You got the photos..."

Oh...Right...She turned to her bag...Ummn...

Go on...Dawn frowned... "William will be so interested to see..."

She reluctantly pulled out a wallet from her bag...Opening it...Revealing among various photos, several of an infant...A girl...Ranging from apparently just after birth to about six months...

Will stared...At the female spitting image of one Alexander Harris... "See..." Dawn grinned maliciously... "Big news..."

"You and..." he stared at Buffy...

"Yeah..." Dawn smiled... "They finally hit it off...After you croaked..."

Ummn...Buffy looked away, sighing... "Uh...Yeah...It was a spur of the moment thing...We were lonely...Drunk..."

"She's beautiful...Though I don't see a lot of you in her..." Will told her quietly... "Well, she's all sis'..." Dawn chuckled...Xander having displayed his usual fortitude in such matters...

"We decided it was best I keep her..." Buffy nodded... "Xander's a fool when it comes to responsibility, you know..." she gave a hard look... "But she's cute...And Henri...The Immortal...Likes kids..."

"Loves em..." Dawn grinned...

Nice...Will nodded...Well...Congrats... "Thanks..." Buffy bit a lip... "One more drawback to you, eh William...?" Dawn smiled...

"I suppose, Dawn..." he answered quietly...Well...

"So what's the name?..."

Ummn...Buffy eyed Dawn... "Anne..." Dawn noted... Yeah, Buffy nodded... A faint smile... "Anne..."

"Xander wanted Anya...But we told him to go to hell, right sis?..."

"Anne Harris?...A fine name..." Well...He looked at the girls...Dawn frowning a bit...Buffy looking rather...He turned back to the tape player...

"There...At last got the thing running..." he beamed...As the strains of "I've Got You Under My Skin..." played ..."'Fraid I'm a sucker for Cole Porter..." he grinned...

"Always the romantic..." Buffy smiled back... "Wish you'd follow through a bit more, though..."

"Yeah..." Dawn sneered slightly...

Well...The way it goes with love, sometimes...he smiled again, shrugging... Buffy staring...William?...

"Well, must be off...Got a plane to catch...It was nice seeing you both again...Drop by LA some time if you can..." he headed off...

Yeah...Buffy stared after him... "I've Got You Under My Skin..." still playing from the player he'd left behind...

Geesh...Dawn shook her head... "What a weak-kneed putz...All that chasing after you and ..."

She eyed Buffy coldly now...As her sis continued to stare after the vanishing Will...

"His Benevolence won't be too pleased, sister...You should have dusted him...Or at least driven him to the despair of a tan attempt tomorrow morning..."

Our sire will not be pleased...she frowned...

"I'm tired of being Henri's doormat...Sire or no..." 'Buffy' fumed... " 'Sides, I can deal with William any time...We weren't expecting to meet up with him here..."

And it was good practice playing human...she insisted...For when we have to meet up with Giles and Willow at last...Surely even Henri would appreciate that...Especially fooling William...

"You still like that fool, don't you?...You silly bitch..." Dawn shook her head... "Just thank the demon gods he's a romantic idiot and our Master's human glam concealed our natures from him..."

No wonder you were such an easy prey for the Master...A little phony pining after redemption, a little sympathy for your poor wittle William...

"Shut up..." Anne, demon of Buffy, eyed her sister coldly... "At least I don't go round calling Henri 'Lord and Master', prostrating myself before his photograph a dozen times a day..."

"He's our Sire...Show a little respect...And get any dopey notions about that traitor to our kind outta your head..."

"As Buffy I ate clowns like 'His Benevolence' for breakfast, once...I don't intend to let him push me around...As for William...I want Spike...And when the right time comes, I'll get him..."

"Yeah?...Well your dimwitted hero left his little music box behind...Gee, maybe he'll come back for it and you tell him how much you really cared..."

"Hmmn... 'I've Got You Under My Skin...'...I think he meant to leave that..." Anne smiled faintly...

"He still loves me...I..."

"Too bad he doesn't know...Well, we'll have our chance to tell him in our sire's good..."

"Fraid I do know, ladies..." a voice from behind...They whirled to see William eyeing them carefully...

Both sisters now looked at the player in shock as a chant began...Dawn looking at Anne in anger and fear... "You stupid...!" It was over before she could turn back to spring at Will...

"Buffy...?" Dawn wanly stared... "Yeah..." Buffy nodded and turned to William...

"The curse, huh?..." "Yeah..." he nodded...

"I'm so sorry, William..." "I'm the one who's sorry, Buf...I should have come...This was my fault..."

I think I killed...A bunch of people...Dawn stared at William, then Buffy in shock...

"Not you, Nibs...Your demon..." Will told her... "You didn't, Dawn..." Buffy agreed., hugging the shaken, trembling Dawn...

"Anyway...I was the idiot who fell for the Immortal's redemption-seeking line...And got drunk one night with him..." she looked up at William...

"Guess he reminded me of somebody...Somebody who, in spite of his nature...Never let me down once he told me he loved me..." William smiling gently at her wan face...

Buffy...

"I'm dead..." Dawn said blankly... "Dead and a murderess..."

"No, honey..." Buffy rocked her... "You are not a murderess...And as for dead, well...It's a relative concept..." she smiled at Will...

"Buffy..." Will reached to her... "We have to get you and Dawn to LA at once...There is a chance...Willow says..." "Willow knows?..." Buffy stared...Looking down... "She and Giles guessed after you both left Rome so suddenly and reports of two remarkably capable female Slayer-killing vamps matching your descriptions started spreading...They contacted us in LA..." "Slayer-killing?...Oh, right..." Dawn sighed... "...Though it was clever of His Benevolence to have you use covering glams and spare Andrew to tell everyone you were fine, dandy, and enjoying a new romance..."

Naturally Andy never noticed we were turning viciously evil and staying home by day, even if he couldn't help not being able to see past the glam that we were vamps...Dawn frowned...Moron...

"Anyway...Willow's done some work and if she can get to you both quickly...At the Well of Souls in our place...She may be able to restore you to Humanity..."

Whoa?...

"But it has to be done within twenty hours of soul recovery and the spell's damaged by teleportation, so there's no time to lose..."

Right...Buffy nodded...Then paused... "William?...You know it was a lie what my demon said...About Sunnydale...What I said that day...It was the reason the Immortal was able to get to me...I needed so bad to make you see I did mean it...And he was clever enough to make himself the perfect stand-in..."

"Later, Buffy...The thing to do is to get..." "No, now..." she shook her head... "Here you are saving me and Dawn again and I'm not taking a step until you know and believe...I love you, William..."

And I can deal with giving up a picket fence...she grinned...

And as for Xander's kid...she grinned... "Amelia Anya Harris is a doll, as her mother, Amelia Harris, would tell you in a minute..."

"I vouch..." Dawn nodded... "She was a wreck...And a perfect setup for His..." she shuddered...Buffy hugging her tight... "That...Bastard..."

And, Buf's right... Amelia An is a doll...she grinned wanly...

"Whom, thank God, we haven't seen in the flesh since she was here with her parents before the...That thing...Showed..."

Say?..she asked...We do get to kill him...Soon?...

"Right now, if you like..." Will grinned... "Angel!..." he called...Angel emerging from the men's room down the hall, His Benevolence firmly in his grip...

"We couldn't leave our dear Immortal out of this party..."

"Angel..." Buffy sighed as he came over, the Immortal feebly struggling in his grip... "Thanks..."

"Don't mention it..." he smiled... "Just watch the sort of vamp you hang out with from now on..."

Odd...Dawn sighed, trembling again as she stared at the Immortal's fear-distorted face as he made vague sounds of pleading for mercy...

This is the only real father I ever had...Daddy being mine only in false memory...

"Please..." she eyed William... "Just make him go away...Quick?"

"We will, honey..." Buffy nodded...

"Bring him over there..." she pointed...Angel nodding and dragging...

"Will?..." she eyed him, then glanced at Dawn...

"Your sis...And step-daughter...Needs you..." she smiled...He nodded and led Dawn away...

So...She asked him nervously as he pulled her away...

Do I still drink blood or what?...

"Henri..." Buffy eyed the Immortal as Angel held him in the well-hidden corner where he'd dragged him ... "There was a time when at this point I would've made a dumb joke or what I took to be a sharp remark...I'm ashamed now to think I've dealt with people like my William and poor Drusilla like that..."

I'm grateful to you, in a way...For showing me what this side of things is like...Giving me new eyes to appreciate, really appreciate...What my Will and Angel and all the others have gone through...

"But...You hurt my sis...My daughter, in a mystic sense...And for that I can't forgive you...Not that I would let you go in any case..."

Still...she paused... "May God have mercy on your poor soul...And all the poor souls..." And staked him...

"Angel...?" she eyed him as they now both glanced back to where William was gently talking to Dawn...

"I'm sorry to have let Giles make me doubt..." He put up a hand... "There was good cause, Buf...I did it for my boy and maybe...Maybe a leetle too much pride and overconfidence...I was sure I could handle them and they played on that..."

"But thanks..." he beamed...

"Has my boy been doing well?..." she grinned... "A credit to the girl who had faith in him..." he nodded...

"But never lifted a finger to help him..." she sighed...Looking over again...

"Willow's idea...The Humanity thing?...Will it help you...And Will?..." No...he shook his head... "It's much too late for us...This can only help the very recently turned..."

But there's always the hope for that one special day...he grinned... "As, I'm afraid...I have kinda dragged out on you a little too often..."

Maybe William's approach...Being here for the one you love now...Is the way to go...he sighed, smiling...

"Is Nina nice?..." Better than I deserve, no doubt about it...he nodded... "Good...Then she'll hold you up to the mark..." Yeah...he grinned...

"Thanks for taking care of him for me..." she eyed him... "I know what it must've cost you..."

Well...The cash I'll deduct from his future salary...Believe me...he smiled...

"The emotional...Well...After the initial desire to shove him off to Hell wore off, he kinda grew on me..."

"I'm not sure what to do now, Angel...Not that I don't love him...But..." she sighed...

Making him watch me rot away and die...

"He'll stake himself on your last day...He's got it all planned out, down to a sunrise ceremony to be certain...Been driving me crazy this last week going over it..."

She smiled wanly and looked away...

"It had to be the curse, huh...?" she sighed...

"Not...THE curse..." Angel eyed her...She blinked...

Willow's made a few adjustments...

Regarding the happiness quotient...As it's no longer intended for revenge...he smiled...

I see...she grinned...

"I think...While you guys get Dawny to her plane seat, I'll just use the ladies room for a little while...I noticed it's a long, confusing way there...If I do get lost, tell Will to wait for me?"

I wouldn't wanna miss the last plane to LA outta here for twelve hours...And my chance for human restoration...she smiled...Angel smiling back...

"He'll wait...Till the end of the world...I know..." she grinned...

"And I'll be there with him..."

"Immortal Beloved..." LVI...

...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...Ok, just had to do one more...but I absolutely, positively...On my mother's soul...

Ok, I lied regards stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

Sides, after 51, I had to do another nice one to balance things out then I had to balance that one...And there was that mistake with the numbers earlier...I mean there's no choice but to press on (over your pleading screams to desist, no doubt...)

"So..." Dawn stepped quietly into the room...Xander looking up at her from where he was tending the large television...Rewinding a tape...

"How's the best sis in the world today?..." she smiled at the wan-looking figure in robe sitting quietly in the chair next to Xander...Moving to give a hug which was barely acknowledged, let alone returned...A slight troubled, clouded look briefly coming over the Slayer's haunted face as she vaguely eyed the newcomer, then turned back to the TV...Which had started again...

A slightly graying Jimmy Stewart, talking anxiously to a lovely blonde lady who seemed a little out of it...Dawn briefly noted...

"It's Dawn, Buffy..." Xander said carefully... "She's come to see you..."

"Yeah..." A hearty cheeriness... "Got lots to tell ya, sis...Things are really cookin' out in Slayerland these days...Your girls are wiping up the mat with the baddies...Though they can't wait to have their Number One, Greatest, back...I'm putting together my stuff to apply to the University of Milan and some other places...And Giles, Willow, Andrew, and some other folks are coming by in a little while..."

That'll be nice, right?...she eyed her blankly staring sis...

The room door opened and a doctor came in, with nurse...Dawn looking at them with a troubled expression...

"There's nothing wrong?..." The doctor shook his head...Just the daily visit...We've been a little delayed today...The nurse gently pulling at Buffy's arm to strap a blood pressure gauge...

The doctor began doing a few standard tests, trying to catch Buffy's attention as she returned to watching the TV screen where Jimmy as Scottie Ferguson was now showing Kim Novak's troubled Madeleine Elster around a stable... "See...There an explanation for everything..." he was saying as a wan Madeleine looked round...

"How..." Dawn began... "She's about the same as usual...But remaining fairly calm on her new meds..." the doctor gave her a reassuring smile...Returning to Buffy...Who seemed to be showing a vague interest in the film...

"Has she been watching like this all day?..." he looked at Xander who nodded... "She seemed to like this one from the video library...Maybe it's the blonde girl...I've been running it back and forth on some scenes she was kinda following..."

Hmmn...

"Is that good?..." Dawn eyed the doctor...Knowing already what his response would be...The usual... 'Possibly'...

Possibly...the doc nodded...Right...Dawn sighed...

"How long is this gonna take, doc?...You said you were sure she'd pull out of it...It's been months since..." she paused... London...Xander mentally filling in... London, where her incessant, worsening nightmares became 24/7mares... "...and you haven't even been able to tell us exactly what's up..."

"She's suffering from acute melancholia, complicated by a guilt complex..." Xander eyed the Slayer, now a bit more intent on the screen, wisely...The doctor and Dawn staring at him..

Well...He indicated the screen...That's what Scotty Ferguson's suffering from...Later on...

"And the cases do seem kinda similar..." he noted...Dawn and the doctor frowning

"I believe she's improving slowly, Ms Summers...As you know, she's generally much calmer now...But it may be some time..."

"Six months to a year for Scotty..." Xander noted...Dawn frowning at 'Dr.' Harris...

Doctor?...the nurse was having trouble getting Buffy let her take a pulse...Moving her arms and trying to slow edge toward the screen...Where Madeleine was pleading with Scotty to let her go to the mission church building across from the stable... "You believe that I love you...?" she began...

Buffy moved closer, staring more intently...

"Sis...?" Dawn stared at her, then the screen...

"Could you freeze the scene a sec?..." the doctor asked...Sure...Xander halted the tape...Buffy blinking a bit, then settling down to a quiet stare again...The nurse taking her pulse...

"Haven't seen her so responsive in a while..." the doctor noted...

A knock at the door...Dawn went over...

"Sarah...Your Benev...Hey..." Dawn nodded to the couple just outside, welcoming them in...A young-looking, almost divinely handsome man and...A twin of Buffy...

"Ms. Gellar, Count d'Vestigy...Dr. Eckles..." she introduced them to the doctor who stared a bit at Ms. Gellar...

"Ms. Gellar?...The actress...?..."

"And Slayer..." Dawn smiled... "It's ok, doc...She's one of the new Slayers...And Buffy's stand-in while Buf's..." she paused... "...Been ill..."

And Count d'Vestigy is the famed Immortal...Our friend and her uh...Intended...

"Just tryin' to keep things quiet while we waitin' for Buf to get back on her feet..." Sarah smiled at Buffy...

"A secret that doesn't leave this room..." Dawn eyed the doctor and nurse sternly...

"I see..." Dr. Eckles nodded... "Chairman Giles had told me in confidence you'd secured someone to take Ms. Summers' place...Amazing..." he eyed Ms. Gellar who smiled... "Luck of nature, doc..." she grinned...And turned to the quiet Buffy...Who was staring at Xander now...As if wanting him to do something...

Ms. Gellar giving her a gentle hug as the Immortal gave Buffy a kind smile... "Miss Summers...How are you today?..." She now blankly staring at her twin, the faintest of smiles on her lips...Sarah now giving Dawn, then Xander a careful look...

Something up...Xander realized...

"Thanks for coming by guys...Buffy?...Wasn't it nice of the Immortal and Ms. Gellar to come by on their visit from Rome to the Council and see us?..." Dawn pressed a bit...

Buffy gave a slightly more focused stare at her near-identical twin...A vaguely puzzled look as Ms. Gellar stepped back a bit at the doctor's hasty glance... "Hello, Buffy?...Do you remember me?...You trained me here in London for a week when I came after being activated as a Slayer a few months ago?...It was so odd that we looked so much alike, remember?..."

Buffy was still...Dawn sensing the wisps of some fear or anxiety... "Buffy...Sarah looks like you, you remember...There's nothing to be afraid of...She's been helping us while you've been ill...She's an actress, so she's been playing at being you so you wouldn't be bothered here while you got well again...Remember her Scooby Doo movies?...(Wish I could forget them...Sarah thought, sighing a bit...)...We saw them and you were so startled to see how much she looked like you?..." A vague hint of a smile... "Yeah, that's right...Sarah's our friend...There's nothing to be concerned about..."

"That's right, Buffy..." Sarah gently smiled at her...The doctor nodding for her to come forward, again, she did so and took Buffy's hand... "We used to joke that we must've been twins separated at birth, remember?...Here in London?..."

Yeah...Dawn encouraged...Buffy apparently losing interest, stared at the paused TV screen, then again at Xander...The faintest air of expectation...

Should I?...he stared at the doctor who nodded... "We're finished...Enjoy your movie, Ms. Summers..."

Let me know if she continues to follow it...he eyed Xander...The nurse packing up and following him out the door...Buffy giving a vague aura of contentment as the film resumed...Sarah stepping back to the Immortal who put a arm around her as she looked at him..."I guess we'd better tell..." she began...He nodding... She moved to Dawn...Pulling her over, away from a Buffy now focused on the scene in progress...

"...And if you lose me now..." Madeleine was saying... "You'll know I loved you and wanted to go on loving you..."

Dawn...Sarah hissed... I hafta to talk to you...Something's happened...

"Last night I was talkin' to Andrew at the apartment after Henri brought me home...He was all upset about something big going down in LA with Angel and his people there...And then, suddenly...He told me I...Ummn, you know...Buffy...Had to go to LA...Right away..."

That's why Henri and I came straight here...

"Was it that bad?...I know Giles said Angel seemed to have gotten himself into some pretty deep..."

No...Sarah shook her head... Not Angel...This wasn't about Angel...

"Sarah?...Dawn?...This film..." the Immortal suddenly interrupted...She paused and looked in shock at the TV screen...Holy shit, that's...

My God...Xander?...She stared at Xander...Buffy glued to the screen, shoving Dawn off as she tried to pull her away...Xander, suddenly realizing the film had taken a rather downbeat, shattering course, fumbled with the remote buttons...

"Uh...Uh...Ahhh!..." Buffy screamed at the TV set...Dawn and the others turning to see Scotty Ferguson, desperately staggering up the stairs he could never climb, trying to stop his Madeleine from rushing to her doom at the top of the mission bell tower...A doom he could not avert as her falling body passed by the window he'd barely managed to struggle to...Her scream echoing in his ears...

The film jumped forward...A cold on-screen voice quietly, sanctimoniously accusing... "...He claims to have suffered a mental blackout...And to remember nothing until he found himself in his apartment several hours later...That you may chose to believe...On oath...Or you may choose to believe..That having once again allowed some one to die through his...Weakness...He ran away..."

"Ahhhh!...Ahhhhhhh!..." Buffy shrieked, staring in horror at the screen...

"XANDER!...Goddamn you!..." Dawn rushed over to shut the set off... "...What the hell were you thinkin' puttin' a movie like that on...With a death scene like that...!"

"Xander?.. 'Vertigo'?..." Sarah shook her head, staring briefly at the videotape box ...Holding the screaming, sobbing Buffy in her arms...Buffy...Buffy...It's all right...Shhh...shhh... "Nonono!...William!..." Buffy cried... "No!...No!." she twisted desperately...Dawn hurrying over... "It's all right, Buffy...It's just a movie...Just a movie...Not real...Not real, honey..." she hugged her, Sarah releasing her but maintaining a Slayer hold on her arm...

"Just a movie some thoughtless idiot put on..." Dawn glared at Xander...As Buffy's screams faded a bit, turning to racking sobs...

The Immortal eyeing the chagrined, downcast Xander sympathetically as he joined Dawn and Sarah at Buffy's side...Standing by in case a single Slayer was not enough restraint...

She seemed to be following it...I thought she liked it...Xander feebly noted as he removed the tape...

"Immortal Beloved..." LVII...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary:Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...

Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

Sides, after the last one, I had to do another nice one to balance things out...And there was that mistake with the numbers earlier...I mean there's no choice but to press on (over your pleading screams to desist, no doubt...)

Night...LA, the alleyway of the just-ended battle with the Senior Partners...Who'd just retreated back to their hell portal in panic as reinforcements had arrived to bolster Angel and his associates in the nick of time...

"Where is he, Angel?..." Buffy in despair, pulling barrels, ripping out boards in the alleyway walls, looking for any place where a badly wounded individual might have crawled for protection...Or a body might have been dumped...

The battered Angel, in rough shape himself, but as determined as his companion to find his...What the hell, yes...Partner...he noted to himself, shook his head slowly...Wincing a bit at the pain...

"Dad..." Connor's worried tone... "We've gotta get you to a hospital..." "Later..." Angel waved a hand...

"Angel...Ms. Summers...!" a cry from back up the alleyway...

Illyria...They turned to find her supported a wan-looking, stumbling blonde... "William!..." Buffy ran back... "William!..." she grabbed at him...

"Buffy?..." he stared... "You came...They said you'd come..." he staggered a bit...

"Yes, yes...Will...Oh, William...I came as soon as I could after I heard...Just a leetle problem with the Immortal, that bastard...He was working with the Partners to keep us apart...He..."

"My God!..." she put a hand to her mouth... "You...You're...Human..."

Yeah, fraid so...he smiled wearily... "Apparently, my good deeds filled the stamp book...I was with the Guardian of the Prophecy after I'd thought three of the Partners had finished me..."

"Next thing I knew...After what seemed like five years of trials...Here I was..."

"Oh..." Buffy eyed him...Then Angel...Uh...

"That's...Ummn...Great..."

"You said..." he leaned on her arm a bit... "The Immortal?..."

"They sent him to keep me busy...They knew I'd learn you were back...And he played every trick...Angelus was never half so good...Uh...Sorry, Angel..." she turned to him...It's fine, he smiled...

But gave William a strange look...Sympathetic, somehow...He staggered a bit...

"Connor, you better take your dad to the ambulances..." Buffy noted...Yeah...Connor nodded... "I'm..." Angel began... "Come..." Illyria dragged him off... "I am very weak and in need of care and will need you to guide me through the LA hospital system..." she lifted him over her shoulder as Will and Buffy stared, Connor following...

"So the Immortal..." Will began... "Played me like a harp..." she sighed... "But it was the redemption, remorse song that got me..."

I thought you were gone forever, Will...And Willow's in hot water with Osiris since she blasted him after Tara...There was no way to get you back...

"Forgive me?..."

"Buffy...There's nothing..."

She whacked him one... "The Hell there's nothing to forgive!...Why the Hell didn't you call me?...What kept you from hoppin' on a plane the day you went solid?...Oh, I know...Your pure sacrifice...Wow...So...Angelic..." she rolled eyes...

I know...she sighed...Looking down... "You never believed me for a moment...You let yourself die thinking..."

Will, how could you?...she shook her head...

"I believed it, Buffy...For that one moment...But..."

"But?...You son of Drusilla!...Bastard!...Do you know what I been going through?...What I was willing to do to be with you?..."

Hell, you are Goddamn-lucky I got Andy to spill the beans and caught on to the Immortal's little game in time...she glared...

"Else I wouldn't be human-souled now and this would be ending very differently..." she took demon-face...

"Buffy?..." he stared in shock...

"After I realized what was up Immortalwise, I figured nothing would prove it better than to go along with part of his little scheme..." she smiled fondly... "Of course Willow thought it was a modified happiness-permissable curse for Angel...Not something for me, although I am giving it to him to see if it can help..."

And it...Would've...Eased me of the last block between us...Having to have you watch me rot and die...

A sheepish grin...Guess it works out though really...

"The family can hardly object to you now..." she grinned...

"You're a vampire..." he shook his head in wonder... "Let the Immortal turn you..." With soul, she insisted..."You can check me out and Angel will vouch..."

"Well..." he eyed her coolly... "Fine mess you've gotten us into now, Summers..."

Me?...She glared... "You and your macho noble quest...Proving you could outdo Angel..."

I did say, provin'...You heard that?...she grinned...Though for poor Angel's sake I will never say it except between us...

"What?..." She stared at his shaking head...

"Well, I sure as hell don't want you now, Summers...You're a filthy beast of the night and I'm a human being again..."

William?...

"Now, after a bath...And if you'd brush those fangs..."

"So..." Will eyed her as they strolled arm-in-arm down an alleyway filled with the dead and...Well, pretty much all dead...The Slayer takes no chances with her honey...Enemy...

"Just what gave you this brilliant idea to let His Lucky-to-be-Dustiness transform you...?"

Hey guys!...a newly arrived Dawn ran up from where she'd been held back by Willow...Who frowned from down the alley at Buffy the rather sheepish Vampire...

Hey, Wil...she waved... "Found him, alls..." "Suicidial Jerk!..." Willow politely replied, shaking a fist...

"So my idiot sis with you know what for brains show you the new face...?" Dawn frowned...

"Guess Spike must be chortlin' inside there somewhere..." she eyed William...

He's...Ummn...Human...Buffy noted, biting a lip...(Sucking the blood down as discreetly as possible...)

"Really?...Great...Lovely...Gotta hand it to you, sis..."

"Buffy?...What in God's name made you do this without speaking to me about it?..." Will sighed...

Hey...The Summers girls gave a united glare...Personal matter of choice here, pal...

"Well...I thought of you..." Buffy sighed... "All alone...Forever...Even if I got you to believe what I'd said before..."

I wanted to give you a Gift, Will...Like the Gifts you've been giving me...A love token...

"Been reading , eh... 'Gift of the Magi'?" he eyed her...Oh, yeah...Buffy nodded hastily...Exactly...

Oh, please...Dawn rolled her eyes...

"Or maybe you watched 'Shrek' one night?...The princess' 'true love's form' speech...?" he grinned...

Well...That's romantic too...he smiled at her somewhat crestfallen face...

"Look...This is strictly against procedure and twenty thousand years of custom..."

The interdimensional reception room of the Guardian of the Prophecy...Where Willow had brought William, Dawn, and vamped Buffy...

"What's the big deal?..." William frowned... "We just want one additional transformation to Humanity...And God knows, Buffy Summers has certainly earned it..."

Aw, Will...she beamed...

"This is strictly against procedure!..." the floating head of the Guardian fumed... "And if you're thinking of trying what you tried with Osiris, Ms. Rosenberg...I am not physical..."

Play

"Oh, the Night...Is my world..." Buffy began singing in low voice...Doing vamp face at Dawn..."Ooooh...Dawnie, lookie at fiendish Buffy..."

Knock it off, sis...a hiss... "She's kinda out of it, it's been a long day for her..." she explained to the frowning head...

And judgin' by her breath, she took a few belts on the plane in from Rome...she hissed to William...

"C'mon..." Willow sighed... "If you can't approve it, just let us speak to the guy over you..."

"Take us up to the Top Gent, if you like..." William nodded...

"Wearin' white...As I'm walkin'...Down the street of the soul...Oh, I...I live among the crea-tures of the Night..." Hey, Dawnie...Dawnie...low voice... "I vant to suck your blood..." demon-face...

"Will ya knock it off?..." fuming hiss... "You're the Greatest Slayer for cripessake...And you're embarrassin' your boyfriend..."

"Am I Will?..." "Nah, cut loose while you got the chance, love..."...he grinned... "With luck this won't take long..." he turned to glare at the Guardian...Who fumed...Hey, kid...I bent the rules for you already...

Lota help you are...Dawn William...Letting your girl act like this in front of a biggee...

"My fiancee is just dealing with a tense sit..." he explained to the Guardian smoothly...

"City lights, painted girls..." Buffy resumed...Then paused... Ummn... "Say, guys...About that vanting to suck blood?..."

I was kidding, ya know...But I am just a teeny-weeny...Lil'...Bit...she eyed them...William passed a blood packet... "Had a couple left over..." he smiled...Thanks,honey...a contented beam... Uh... "Wil, Dawn...Don't look for the next minute or so..." she eyed Willow and Dawn...

Bon appetit...Dawn glared...Turning away...

Whoa!...A scream... "William!..." He whirled...As Willow moved onto laying out her threat potential to the Guardian...I can reach right into your home dimension...she began...And... "You and what Wiccan army...?" he sneered...

"William!...Fiancee!...Are you askin'?...'Cause hot damn if you are, I'm acceptin'!.." Buffy cried out happily...

Oh, that's some way to ask my sis, the Greatest Slayer of ever...Dawn glared...

"Sorry, it slipped out...I really did want to do it the more formal way..." he sighed... "Screw the formal way, we done waited long enough!...Though you can ask again me at a restaurant or a party with the guys later on..." Buffy beamed...

"I can call in power reserves from the Council of Watchers..." Willow frowned... "Pfffft...'The Council of Watchers', gee...Now I'm scared..." the Guardian chuckled coldly... "You people got ten to vacate or I call in my guards..."

"This is just gonna take a few, guys..." Willow called back...

"Oh-oh-oh...Oh-oh-oh...Oh-oh-oh...Oh-oh-oh..." Buffy resumed her song...Strutting round as she sang... "Oh, the Night is my world..." The Guardian grimacing...Must she keep singing?...It's hurting even my disembodied ears...

"Are you critiquing my fiancee's singing, mate?..." Will glared...Lord, even I can't take much more, Willow thought...

A first-rate place...You can afford it on your salary with Angel now...And you're gonna do the bended knee, the ring, the flowers...Dawn hissed to him...And a half-decent poem...

"You know the Slayer can keep at this all night if need be..." Willow solemnly nodded...

"I know the Night is not as it would seem!...I must believe in somethin' so I'll make myself believe...Tonight will never go...Oh-oh-oh!..." Hah!...she donned demon face...

"Geesh, and I used to think this would be my worst nightmare..." she grinned at William... "It's kinda fun, actually..."

"Excepting the bloodlust tearing at my soul of course...Driving me to the edge of..." she gave another hah! and snarl...

"That's not funny, Buffy...Think of William...You're dredging up..." Dawn began...

OH!... "God, honey...I'm sorry!...That was so stupid!..." Buffy hurried over... "I didn't mean it, just kiddin' round..."

"It's fine, pet..."

"And you know what I could do to you!..." the Guardian glared at Willow who'd resumed the 'threat potential' approach...

"Look, mate..." Will went over to them... "Now, you must've been considering a possible scenario where Angel and I both would show here..."

"City Lights, Painted Girls!..." Buffy began again...Ohhh...the Guardian winced...

"And you could make it four additional transformations while you're at it..." William smiled...

Hmmn?...Willow and Dawn stared...

Four?...Oh...Buffy beamed...My sweet, thoughtful Champion of a poet...

"Buffy, Angel, Dru, and Harmony..." he explained...

Ah, c'mon...The Guardian frowned... "Two of 'em don't even have souls...That's pushin' my...And my superiors' benevolent nature, pal..."

"Like you didn't expect we'd be dragging Dru and Harmony in later?..." Will eyed him...

Isn't he wonderful?...Buffy gushed to Dawn...So compassionate?... "Shut up..." Dawn made a sour look...Hey...Buffy glared... "That's your brother-in-law and surrogate dad you're talkin' about..."

"I'll never get four additional passed upstairs..."

"Well, then..." William beamed... "Lets settle in for another chorus..."

"Ok..." the Guardian sighed... "Anything to get her to stop...I'll speak to my people, hang on just a minute..." the head faded out...

"...I'm livin' in the forest of a dream!..." Hah!...Snarl...

"The answer's No!..." the head returned...

"WEARIN' WHITE...!...AS I"M WALKIN"...!"

"We're talkin' all night long..." Willow noted, eyeing Buffy happily strutting about the room in demon-face...

"Lemme try one more guy!..." the head vanished...

"Immortal Beloved..." LVIII...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...

Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

Sides, after the last one, I had to do another nice one to balance things out...And there was that mistake with the numbers earlier...I mean there's no choice but to press on (over your pleading screams to desist, no doubt...)

This one requires a little knowledge of my BR verse (., try one of the Semi-Parallel Lives tales to get a handle on the interdimensional Buffies as well...)

Downtown LA, just outside the ruins of the Wolfram-Hart tower...Night...

A badly battered William looked up to see...Hey...Willow waved...Buffy sliding down too fast beside him for him to immediately be sure...

"You're here?..." he whispered... "Yes, Will...I'm right here...It's gonna be fine, my baby..." she stroked his hair...Listen, darling...she breathed to him... "Willow and I are gonna take you to where we can get you some help..." "Angel, the others..." he twisted to look... "No, they're fine...The fight's over, Will...Look over there, there's Angel with..." Is that a dragon's head?...she hissed to Willow... "Not really an expert, Buf...But based on fairy tale and movie experience, I'd said ye-ah..."

Well anyway, she turned back to William... "The other guys are fine...Now just lay quiet a moment here and..."

Buffy...Willow eyed her...Buffy looked at the wiccan coolly...And rose... "Will, we hafta take care of one thing...Just stay quiet here and I'll be right back..."

"Don't..." he whispered... "I'm not going anywheres but with you, baby...Just a minute..."

Moving off with Willow... "Buffy!..." Angel waved... "Yeah, Angel...Nice dragon!..." she waved back... "Is Will ok?..." "Fine, fine...We're gonna move him in just a sec..."

"Buffy..." Willow hissed... "Angel's not surprised you're here...We had a deal...Only a William whose Buffy wasn't..."

"Do you see her here...?" Buffy waved a bit... "But if she..." "If she cared, why isn't she here?...Willow, there isn't much time...Angel is gonna find out who we aren't soon enough...This Buffy's people could check in anytime..."

Willow sighed...Buf...

"Willow, you promised you'd help me...You're the only one who can...And it's not like I won't give him a choice after he's recovered on our world and we explain things to him...If he wants to go back then, it's up to him..."

"Buffy, if we pull William from this world for you...And this Buffy does love him, just needs time or some humongous event, as you did, to realize just what he means to her..."

She could...

"End up like me?..." Buffy eyed her friend coldly... "Capable of doing what I did?..."

"Everything you've learned on our world regarding you and Will says that he's essential to you...When the chains of events leading you back to him was broken on our world, the effect on you..." Willow paused...

"When she came to our world, did she wait to see what it would do to me?..." "Different circumstances, Buffy...We had no idea what a link you and Will had...And she was seeking to fill her own gap herself...You and he weren't..."

"We would've been...If she hadn't come...If Warren hadn't..." Buffy paused... "It was Will's decision, Buffy...He thought there was no chance for him with you, so he did what Spike seemed to think was the next best thing, the only possible one...And you only...Suffered...Like this because of that mental merging with her..."

"Not only with her..." Buffy shook her head...Looking back at Will...We've gotta go back to him, he's looking for me...Needs me...she noted...

"Not only with her...With hundreds of them...My twin sisters across time and the universe...And all, all those who were happy...Were with him...Our soulmate...My other half..."

I'm incomplete without him...I know that now...And you've seen what the consequences of not having him with me were, Willow...

"Yes..." Willow sighed sadly... "We've seen..." They'd reached William, unconscious now...Buffy kneeling, then sitting to gently take up his head into her lap...She looked up at Willow...

"We've checked this world out...This Buffy's made her decision...She's taken this Immortal goonboy...And this William is alone, after winning his soul back...Willow?...His soul, won back?...He deserves the right to happiness with me as much as I do with him..."

And if we learn we've unbalanced the Buffy of this Earth by taking him?...Willow shook her head...

"She's fine...Happy...William...And I...Are the ones in torment...Willow?...Are you here to help me or should I have let them put me in jail?..."

"They wouldn't've...Charge you with what?...There was no way to prove you'd done anything...Only your confession...Our William will never know...And she...And the rest of us...have..."

Forgiven me?...No, Wil...Maybe some of you...Maybe even Dawn...But not her...No...

"What I did...Can't be forgiven...We both know that, my poor sis and me...But...For her Will's sake and you guys...She'll let it be buried...Try to forget..."

"I still can't believe you could have done it, Buffy..." Willow said simply, a terrible sadness in her eyes... "And I do believe you were insane..."

"I don't believe it myself...But whether I was half or fully out of my head...I did it...I..."...Buf...Willow patted her...A groan from William quieting them for a moment...Buffy stroking his head till he was quiet, then standing as Angel came over...

"Girls...How's..." "Fine..." they replied in chorus... "Well..." Buffy paused... "He needs to get to a hospital...Willow's gonna teleport us in just a mo..." He nodded and grinned... "He will be glad you made it, Buf...He's been terrified to face you and, well ...After our trip to Rome..."

"I love him...I'll take care of him, Angel...Don't worry, I promise..." she smiled at him... "I'm glad for you both..." he patted her... "But what about...His Bness?..." "Eh...He'll get over it...Quick...You'll be amazed..."

You really will, tomorrow, if we do get him outta here...Willow thought. glancing at William while maintaining a friendly smile at Angel...

"Well...I'd best go and see how Charlie's doing...I'll send more help back..." he moved off with a wave...

Nice as ours...Willow noted...Yeah, Buffy nodded... "Buf?...There is an Angel on our world...?"

"And a Warren who'd try his damnedest to love me as much as he loved his Katrina in spite of...What's happened...I know the options I have Willow..."

I've tried the options...Tried...And you know the result...she sighed...Well...

"You've seen quite a few of my nastier other selves in the trip's course, Wil...Not to mention some of your own darker selves...You know what I can be capable of...And last year, you all saw the proof..."

Even the Willow of this Earth's committed murder...A Warren, no less... Buffy eyed her companion...

Warren...By me...And him, evil, to boot...Willow shook her head...Such a bizarre universe where such things could be...But bound to occur in an infinite one, I guess...

And if I had lost my Tara...Yes...I think I could kill...she closed her eyes a moment...

"They're all sides of me...The good and bad...As with yours..." Buffy eyed her...

Help me, Willow...Best friend...The last to believe in my sin...The first to forgive me...There's no other option for me...Either I find a William to replace the one taken from me...Or...

"I continue down the path I took last year...I'm not threatening, Wil...Just stating a fact...I don't want it, didn't want it...Would, did fight my own self to avert it...But I know I can't prevent it, no matter how hard I try...Not without William..."

Sorry to disappoint and shatter your vision of my perfect nature...she smiled wanly... "But in the end, I'm only human...Like you..." she noted...A hard stare...

And if I am taking another Buffy's William...To all accounts an unwanted William...I'm only doing what was done to me...

"Just as Buffy Rebecca came to take mine..." she was cold... "I've passed on twenty other available Williams because their Buffies seemed to be about to take the plunge with them...This one's off in Europe with her Immortal boyfriend while Will's been alone here, nearly killed here, calling for her...For me..."

"I'm not about to wait around and see if she decides to reconsider...Please, Wil..."

"Immortal Beloved..." LIX...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...

Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

Sides, after the last one, I had to do another nice one to balance things out...And there was that mistake with the numbers earlier...

I mean there's no choice but to press on (over your pleading screams to desist, no doubt...)

Angel and Will stood, watching their seated, disheveled, somewhat frantic, just admitted to their new offices, guest...Who'd run in, disguised in wig and long coat, begging for them to keep her presence secret...

"Guys, ya gotta help me!..." Buffy pleaded... The Immortal...

What, now we gotta rescue her boyfriends?...Angel eyed William...Who sighed...Natch...And the pathetic thing is, I'll probably do it too...

"What's happened to your latest?..." Angel turned back to her... "My...What?..." she stared...Then at Will... "You think...?"

"We were in Rome, Buf...Andrew told us how things were between..."

"That moron!..." she rolled her eyes... "William, you can't believe I'd...I mean without even checkin' on you?...Though you were a jackass coward not to come to me as soon as you went solid...Oh, is that what you thought...What an ass you are!...Oh, Will..." she sighed...

"But we saw you with..." Will began...But a light had flashed in his eyes...

"That wasn't me...And that's why I'm here...Guys I just escaped from the Immortal's castle...Two days ago, to be precise...The Buffy you saw in Rome is not me..."

The boys stared at each other... "She's a clone...An evil clone, no less, though that bastard was clever enough to train her to play me preety well...She even fooled Dawn for a while..."

Evil clone, naturally...I knew that...Angel nodded...

"He...Well, ok..." she eyed William sheepishly... "When I thought you were gone for good back in October he showed up and did the 'tormenting and suffering one seeking redemption' routine...Angelus' favorite game..." Not to mention...she did not say but frowned at Angel... "I fell for it...For a little while...But all he wanted was to get close to me...To gather some genetic material...Hair samples, skin scrapings...Ummn...Other things...So with help from your Senior Partners, Angel...He could build an anti-Slayer army to oppose ours...He's had me in his place since November..."

And now he's nearly succeeded...There were 1,000 Buffies in training and 10,000 more in prep when I escaped...

11,000 Evil Buffies...Hmmn...The boys eyed each other...Maybe not Angelus' but certainly Spike's view of Paradise...

"God, William...Why didn't you come?...You've guessed and we coulda stopped this..."

"Now wait a minute, Buffy..." Will eyed her... "I find it a little hard to believe you couldn't escape the Immortal in all this time..."

Unless...he paused...She nodded...

"His test prototype's in position to kill Dawn and all my family...She has my strength...What could I do?...Plus he had me drugged and guarded 24/7...I only managed to make my break the other day...I couldn't even risk trying to contact Giles..."

Hmmn...Having to kill 11,000 Buffies...In a way kinda cathartic...Angel desperately repressed the thought...

"Well, we'll do whatever we can, Buf..." he noted... "Of course our resources are more limited these days since we kicked the Partners' asses...But we'll do what we can, naturally..."

"Thanks, Angel...And congrats on the Big Win...Well?..." she eyed Will... "Are you gonna stand there like a log or are you gonna kiss me?..."

"How do you know these clones are evil?..." he stared at her... She stared at him... "Will, I was there for months...He naturally ranted his plans to me every chance he got...Besides, what?...You think he's going to use them as Peace Corps volunteers?"

He continued to stare...Ok, she sighed and gave a hard smile... "I see you figured it out..." she pulled a stake...Angel blinking...

"I know...Cause I'm one of them..." a malicious smile...Which suddenly was replaced by an anxious look... "But one sent by Buffy...Not under his control..."

"Uh-huh..." "Fine..." she lowered the stake...And handed it to him...Will quietly putting it on Angel's desk...

"Buffy sent you?...And got you free of the Immortal's control?..." Will gave her a hard look... "Isn't that unlikely...?"

"We all carry her memories...A benefit...And a drawback..." the clone noted coolly... "Unfortunately most of us are pretty well imprinted to serve His Benevolence..."

But, a few of us early prototypes were a tad...Defective...And, while not exactly world-saving compassionate heroines...We prefer to think for ourselves...

"And all of us, even the controlled ones...Love our William..." she beamed at him...

"Being an early model, I was assigned to guard our prized prisoner...With about 100 others...But when we had a moment alone, Buffy pointed out to me that the first thing His Asinine Pomposity would do is kill you, Will...Remove a potentially dangerous focus for my sisters..."

So I agreed to come...And tell you what's up...

"Course being evil...My thought was to kill her and claim she'd been trying to escape...Then slip out, come here, and play Buffy for the rest of my life...But...I guess I knew you'd figure me out in time, Will...Or Angel would have me exposed via genetic testing...And I'd rather share you with the original idiot than have you hate me..."

All I ask is that you consider me after we save Buffy and destroy my sisters...As the one Buffy who came to you without hesitation, I figure I got a leg up over ole 'he's got a place in my heart but the cookies ain't baked'...

"Sides...I got no family hanging on to give us trouble...No prob with a vamp husband, soul or no soul...And I shag a lot better, it's the extra dose of evil..." she grinned...

"Immortal Beloved..." LX...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Archived on the 'normal' Buffyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, ., scroll down to the "Immortal Beloved" series...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...

Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

Sides, after 50, I had to do another nice one to balance things out...And there was that mistake with the numbers earlier...I mean there's no

choice but to press on (over your pleading screams to desist, no doubt...)

LA...Night of the battle with the Senior Partners...

The Partners and minions fleeing in panic before a massive charge of Slayers and new Initiative personnel...Rather to the shocked relief of a battered Angel, Illyria, Gunn, and...

"William!..." a mix of anxious panic and joy... Buffy raced to him...Dawn trailing behind, but racing up as well...A nearly identical expression on her face...

"You're all right?...You're alive!...I mean, you know...You're so dead, asshole!..." her rapid mood shift startling him as much as her sudden appearance...

"Hey!...The dragon's mine!..." Angel charged after the fleeing enemy and their pursuers...

"Now, Charlie..." Illyria in Fred mode to a Gunn struggling to join the Boss... "You gotta help me to a doctor...I'm too weak to make it alone..." she gently lifting him and carrying him to where he'd noted an ambulance and police pulling up...

"Jackass!..." Buffy whacked her Blonde One, staggering him...Though perhaps the staggering was more from the realization...Dawn frowning at him as she came up...

"Buffy...A mo, please..." William rose...Ummn...She looked at Dawn, now frowning a bit at her as well...

Gotta try finding a new way to express my love with him, I think...

"You let me think you were dead, gone!...What kind of...Didn't I tell you..." she broke down into incoherency and tears...

Kennedy coming back from the assault line with a beaming smile... "Got em, Counselor Gen..." she eyed the weeping Buffy...Now responding emphatically to William's silent embrace...Rocking him gently...Dawn shrugged...So much for Buffy's promises to take things slow when we get here...

"Great...Thank everybody..." Buffy managed to croak out...Kennedy nodding, then heading back with a wry grin to Dawn...Buffy pulling back from Will...

"Dammit, you were in Rome!...Andy said so when he finally caved at Giles' meeting this morning to discuss reports from LA and told us about you...How could you not..."

"I thought it was the right thing...I made a sacrifice...I wasn't human..." he tried...

"Bullcrap, what do I care?...Do you think I care so long as ya got a soul?...Well, ok..." she eyed his frowning expression...Ummn, Buf...Last year, remember?... "I wasn't certain for a while...But when the Slayer damn well tells you she loves you, you damn well better believe it, bucko!..." she paused in mid-renewed-whack...And hugged him again..

"And then there was the little matter of the Immortal..." Will noted as she pulled him close...

Huh?...she pulled back again...Staring at him...Dawn as well...

"Andy told me you and he were quite the item...I..." "What?..." Buffy staring at him then Dawn...

"Jesus, William..." Dawn gave a part angry, part disgusted look... "Is that supposed to be funny?...That's disgusting!..."

"How can you say something like that?..." Buffy glared...

Geesh...Will blinked...Thought the Immortal overwhelmed the ladies...Has his charm faded in the last century or something?...

"Buffy..." Dawn suddenly grinned... "He doesn't know..." Buffy stared at her, then suddenly both burst into hysterical laughter...

"Andy...Pfft...Hmmmpf...Ha...ha...ha..." Dawn howled...Buffy shaking with laughter...

What?...Will stared at the two...But noted a tall, strapping fellow of good looks approaching...

"William...You took info on my love life from...Andrew?..." Buffy chuckled...

"Buffy?..." the tall man asked gently... "Hey..." she smiled at him...

"William...Soames Walthrop...Yeah, I know..." she grinned turning back to him..

"Meet my father...The Immortal...Dad, my feller..."

Hank Summers, aka the Immortal, giving a friendly smile as he stepped forward hand outstretched...

"Immortal Beloved..." LVI...

...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...

Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

LA...Offices of Angel, Burkle-Wyndham-Price, Gunn, and Walthrop...

One month after the defeat of the Senior Partners and the collapse, literally in the case of the Wolfram-Hart Tower building, of Wolfram-Hart, Inc...

Angel waved his two available partners (Charlie Gunn still in hospital recovering from injuries)...Noted researcher "Dr.". Winifred "Illyria" ("just a nickname the guys cooked up for me, Mom") Burkle-Wyndham-Price...And the distinguished attorney-at-law, occult researcher, and poet, William S. Walthrop, Esq. (Degrees and titles courtesy chameleon-like abilities, well-forged documents, and hefty bribes)...Into his office...

"We have a guest..." he indicated the elderly woman seated...White-haired, tall, well-dressed, quite elegant, clearly a great beauty in her youth, though a bit worn and looking rather anxious... yet with an energy in her movements that belied her years and...Whoa...Definite aura of power...William noted...

Though not quite one he could put a finger on...Demonic traces, yet not...

"A Slayer..." Illyria smiled kindly in her best Fred mode...Hmmn shoulda thought I'd've caught that, Will thought... "That must be wonderful for the new Slayers to have someone older to..." she continued in rather bubbly Fred style...

"Yeah, yeah..." the woman waved, impatiently...Eyeing William carefully...As if seeking something in his face...

Hmmn..Something more than just the Slayer in her...William smiled back...Some other aural trace...Definitely demonic though somehow, not quite her own...Like a powerful echo clinging to her...

"Ms. Smith urgently requested meeting you, Will..." Angel explained... "She has some vital information..."

Yeah, right... "Ms. Smith..." nodded...And rose...Eyeing Will firmly...Sudden fire in her eye...

My God...He blinked at her...I...know...That...Glare...

"Dammit, William!..." the old woman banged her stick on the floor...Creating a slight dent...Heh, I still got it...she grinned at the depression... "You know who I am..." a pleading stare that belied her crotchety tone...

To both vampires' and Illyria's shock...But especially Will's...She suddenly grabbed him, jerked him to her, and embracing him with one firm arm...Stick clenched in the hand of the other...Kissed him passionately...

Then released him...He stumbling back...

"Old humanity-restored girlfriend?..." Angel guessed, eyeing him... "The Cicely girl you used to go on about when Dru wasn't around?..." The woman giving William a triumphant, yet still slightly pleading look... Well?...she glared...

"Buf...Buffy..." he looked at Angel, now blinking rapidly... "It's...Buffy..."

"In the wrinkling flesh..." Buffy nodded... "Excuse me, gotta set a spell...Ain't quite as limber as I was..." she sat down...

What?... "Are you sure?...This woman's nothing like...I mean even if she were aged..." Angel stared... Buffy glaring at her ex-...Then shrugging...The one who left me to face Glory in Sunnydale to go rompin' with Darla and God knows how many others here doesn't know me with a minor bodily readjustment...Should I be surprised?...

"It's her...After 67 and a half...You bet I counted them...ecstatic trysts in my crypt, her backyard, and her basement...Not to mention at least five utterly sincerely affectionate kisses...I know my Slayer's touch..." Will nodded...Buffy winsomely beaming at him...Aw, William...

A half?...Illyria stared... "We were interrupted one time when I was invisible..." Buffy explained, Will nodding...

"But what the hell happened to you, Buf...?" he turned to her...

"Hmmphf...Like you care, jerk..." she glared, waving the stick at him... "Maybe I'm testing your devotion for when I've got one foot in the grave and you're still...My utterly beautiful William..." she grinned, looking him over with a gaze loving, possessive, and rather effectively...Especially considering the eighties-ish body...seductive...Ummn...Cuse me...she hacked a bit...

Stupid cold...Catch one like that nowadays...she grumbled, blowing on a hastily pulled handkerchief... "Couldya turn the heat on for cryin' out loud?..." she eyed Angel... "It's freezin'..."

It's 73 degrees, I just complained to maintenance...Angel thought...

"Buffy...?" Will tried again...

"What?..." she stared at him... "Oh, yeah...The ole biddy Buffy bod...Say?..." she eyed Illyria narrowly...

"She your new girl?..." she turned to William, a sad, even bitter tone... "God knows you must have a slew by now..."

"No...And no one...Things have been kinda busy for that, Buf..." he paused... "And I'm a sentimental idiot when it comes to moving on...You oughta know that...Love..." he smiled...

Really?...A wan, but eager...Even...My God, she is Buffy...Angel blinked at her...Girlishly shy smile...

Followed by a grumbling, old lady's frown... "Then where the hell where ya?...William?...Why didn't ya come to Rome?..."

"When Andy told us you'd been there...Been in the apartment and couldn't be bothered to wait long enough to...My heart broke..."

Again...she sighed, then sobbed a bit...

"Buffy..." Will came to her, embracing her... William!...William...she hugged him close...

"Buf..." he pulled her tear-streaked face up... "Just what in God's holy name happened...?"

"Eh..." she waved a hand... "You know me, honey...Love spells and body swapping are my Achilles' heel..."

Body swap?...Angel stared... Hmmn...Definite traces...Illyria nodded... "Mental transfers leave a very clear sign when the original host is psychically or demonically powerful..."

And looks to my lil' sixth and seventh senses like the lady who ran this body before you had some preety nifty power...she cheerily nodded at Buffy...Who glared...Who's the happy nut case?...

Still, not Will's girl...She opted for moderate glare only...

"Buf...Who did this?...Who was she?...Or he, given some of the body snatchers we've been dealing with here..."

Buffy put on a sheepish look... "I love you William..." she said solemnly...

But...

Uh-huh...He eyed her...Knowing what was coming...

"When I thought you were dead...And Willow said an appeal to Osiris, Lord of the Dead, was not an option after their little spat over Tara..."

I was lonely in Rome...Thinkin' about you and how...Goddamn furious I was with you...

"Dyin' like that...Not believing you were loved...Not believing in me..." she angrily explained to his startled face...

"Was I gonna kick your butt sideways in Heaven when I got there...Before draggin' ya to the nearest hitchin' place..."

Then...Asshole showed...

"His Benevomitus..." she glared... "Playin' at being yet another vamp seeking redemption, captivated by my legend and willing to risk dustin' to meet me..."

Yeah...she frowned at the boys' noncommital faces... "I fell for his line like a tona bricks..."

But he was good...At the game, I mean...she added hastily, catching Will's hard stare...

Well...Pretty good at other stuff, too...she grinned...Though not as good as you, hon...she patted a crestfallen Will...No way...she nodded...unt-uh...a solemn head shake...

Really...she tried a wistful look...Fine, fine...Will waved a hand... "I'm champion stud...So...?"

"He had a record of small heroics and boy scouty good deeds (My nuns, Angel sighed wistfully...Catching himself as the others looked at him...Ummn...I mean, thank God he saved my poor would be victims...) stretching back long enough to look preety good...Though he'd never of course taken any real risks...He was clever enough to want to be on the winning side and had seen clearly enough to know that Evil wasn't gonna be it..."

Though he had another agenda as well...

"And another girlfriend..." she indicated her body...

Who hadn't held up through the centuries, being a sorceress rather than a vamp, quite so well...

He needed a worthy new host for her...And had been planning this for quite a while...

"It was gonna be a Slayer...The only body suitable as he...And she...Wanted her human...But he wanted the best Slayer possible...And waited..."

Until a dimwitted, mourning blonde with her self-esteem in the gutter and her guilt meter on max fell into his clutches...

"But I never loved him, Will...I just wanted to help him for your sake..." she anxiously pleaded...

And the terrific sex...Will eyed her...You coulda come to Rome!...she dodged...Banging stick again...

"And when Andy spilled the beans after Giles said things were lookin' dangerous in LA for Angel...Told me you were alive..."

And after I spent a night smashing everything breakable I could get my hands on and cursing your gutless coward's name in every language I could netsearch...

"I was gonna come...To save you...After I beat the crap outta ya..."

Naturally...she sighed... 'The Immortal' didn't take kindly to my plan...Especially when his own was nearly ready...He had to move before I let anyone else know we were through so his girl could convince my guys she was good ole moi...Happily in dewy-eyed love with her latest...

"I thought I was being decent, telling him alone, before I told the guys I was going to LA...No good deed ever goes unpunished..." she smiled wanly at William...

"Like saving a woman's soul from God knows what would have happened to her if you hadn't been there for me that year, eh Will?...All that got you was a good beatin' and roastin'..."

And a soul...he smiled fondly...

And fantastic sex...she grinned...

Titanic...he smiled back...

"But why didn't he kill you afterwards?..." Illyria asked...

He thought he had...Buffy grinned..."And nearly did...Fortunately my imposter wasn't too eager to start slicing me up...They dumped me in a hole and hey,with my honey here still on Earth, was I gonna kick-off?...No way..."

Was a leetle gross digging my way out...But, hey...once you've done it...

And with a tangible, rather hot and sweet lil' goal awaitin' me...she beamed at William... "I managed..."

"Well, so where are your body, this sorceress/snatcher, and the soon-to-be-no-longer Immortal now?..." Angel asked...Which alone will be reward enough for me...he grinned at Buffy...Who beamed back... "Thanks, kiddo..."

"Well..." she rose carefully...Will helping her... "He's tryin' to keep his place with my organization through her...She's been doin' a fair job of fooling the guys..."

"Dawn, too?..." Will stared...

"She's at university in Milan...Glad to see how happy sis is on those brief visits...Moron..." she glared...

But he did have his girl study me for quite a while...Took his time before makin' his move...

"Willow?..." "Willow?...Oh...She's still out searchin' the astral plane..."

Oh...?...Will frowned... "Just what the hell is she doing there...What's she searching for...?"

"For you, jackass!...I begged her to find your spirit when she told me she couldn't revive you and your soul wasn't available via seance...She's been on the track since...Dropping in at times to give me reports and do some work at the Rio center..."

"Red's been looking for me all this...?" Will began, a rather touched expression...God, sweet ole Red...

"Kennedy was with her, I think they've spent most of the time messin' around in different Paradise dimensions..."

"Oh...Well, it was still nice of her...And you, pet..." he beamed... Just protectin' my investment in ya, babe...she smiled...

"If you were in Heaven, no prob...Anywhere else, I've gone to get you out..." (Oh?...Angel stared, a tad coolly...)

"So, assuming we can catch 'The Immortal' ('The Immortal'...French vamps, Buffy sneered...Didn't stop you from dating him...Will noted...You coulda come to Rome...she solemnly replied...)...And his phony Buffy..." Angel eyed her...

What then?...

"She's wearing an antique necklace...A gift he gave me, the worthless sob...Ummn, I didn't intend to accept it, honey...It was just...He seemed so like you when he asked me to take it..."

Right...William replied curtly...

"Honey..." she sighed...Then glared... "Next time damn well believe it when the Slayer tells you she loves you!...This is really your fault, you know!...Uh..."

Sorry...she put a hand out to him...Which he took after a second... "I didn't mean it...I shoulda had more sense...But I missed you so much, William..."

"Well, next time I croak on you, settle for some human gigolo..." he noted...Who is not versed in magics...

"The Hell there's gonna be a next time, lessen I croak with you..." she coughed a bit, raising a hand to keep him back...I'm ok...

Though 'fraid I may be the one to go this time...she noted...Not alone, he firmly replied...

William...she looked down shyly...Never alone...he kissed her...

(Angel?...Illyria hissed...Was I supposed to commit suicide when my Wes died?...I know some of the human cultures require that...)

"So...We get this necklace, break it, you're back in your body?..." Angel interrupted the lovefest...

"That bout the size of it..." Buffy nodded...But he's got a good number of minions and of course my guys and the new Slayers will protect the one whom they think is Buffy...We'll have to do this carefully to avoid causalities among them...

"We will have to check this out, you know..." Will paused... "Speak to Giles, double-check that it's Buffy's soul in there... Make sure you're not this lady fooling us to destroy Buf's one protection against you..."

"Sure...I understand..." she nodded...

"I think we have something that should confirm a soul's identity in my occult research files..." Illyria offered... "Angel, you should contact Giles..." she turned to him...Hmmn?...He stared...

"Give them a moment alone..." she hissed... "You know it's her in there..." "Come on, boss..." she led him to the door... "Thanks folks..." Will called... Indeed...Buffy smiled at Illyria...Definitely thanks...

"It's just precaution, pet..." "It's ok, Will..." Buffy nodded...

Though my money's on you, dear...he smiled...It's just that I couldn't take chances with my Buf...Even if she really were the Immortal's girl ...

Aw, Will...she beamed..."I appreciate it...You're the best...So long as you never again go gutless regarding my love for you..." a stern look...

"Never, ole girl...And I mean, ole girl..." Hey...she frowned... Bet I could still rock your universe...

"And as long as we have a few alone..." she eyed him...Ummn...Buffy...he paused delicately...

"Just be gentle...Like that time when after I started talking to you like you were a person I cared about?...Consider it practice for when I really do hit the upper numbers..."

Oh, you definitely are my Buffy...he grinned...

"Immortal Beloved..." LXII...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down! It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...

Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

Like I said earlier, these things are like Lays or candy...

And this one's just plain cruel to the bloody stupid, pointy-haired one...

LA...New offices of Angel Investigations...

Morning of the second day after the defeat of the Senior Partners and the collapse, literally in the case of the Wolfram-Hart Tower building, of Wolfram-Hart, Inc...

Angel frowned at his...Well, hell yes...Partner...Then at William's surprise guest, one Buffy Summers...Hanging on his arm and looking rather annoyingly content...

"I can't believe you're walking out on me now, Will...Charlie's in hospital...Illyria is heading home to connect with her 'parents' while she learns to be the best Fred she can be...The old Wolfram-Hart has to be completely reorganized..." he eyed the mound of paperwork on his desk...

"I need you..." Not to mention, he did not say...But Buffy rather guessed, seeing his frown...

He's taking her back rather easy...Considering Rome and all...

Sure, she did show at the last minute with one hundred Slayers and saved us...But hell, after what I...er we...er he...Went through in Rome...

"It's not like I'll be gone for good, boss..." Will smiled... "I'm just a phone call away..."

"In Rome..." Angel glared...

"Ok, a long jet flight or instantaneous teleport away...But I'm hardly much use to you on the administrative end, anyway..."

Buffy blinked at that...Will?...He put up a hand... "The short of it is, Angel...My work here's done...You're ok and fightin' the good fight again, Dru's saved and human again thanks to our both deferring the Prophecy to her after the battle...I'm with Buffy and she loves me..."

Put that far enough down the list...she mock-groused...

"And Harm's souled again...And able to...Uh...Help you..."

"Absolutely!..." a shout from the door where a reinstated, post-soul Harmony had been listening...

"Get back to your desk!..." Angel called... "I still think she only got the soul to get her job back when every other firm in LA turned her down..." he groused...

"And what's that crap about 'your work bein' done'?...You've been hangin' round here, tryin' anything to get points over me and hopin' she'd call or come runnin'..."

Ok...he shrugged...Which she did...At nearly the last minute...

A slight glare from Buffy... Just a mo, bucko...

"Buf..." Will began...

"And you're kinda back together quick...What happened to... 'the Immortal'?..."

Huh?...Buffy stared at him, then William...Will smiling at her briefly...Ohhh...she grinned...

"You...little..." she chuckled...Then frowned at Angel...

"Listen, pal...William has been the one thing keeping us from takin' you and co out all these months...If it hadn't been for his reports..."

Personally delivered to me every weekend...she beamed...

What?...Angel stared... "What?..." Harm's voice echoed from the door... "Go back to work!..." he hollered...

"You never asked me what I was doing weekends, boss..." Will smiled...

"Yeah...And as for administrative ability..." Buffy proudly beamed at her feller... "His Benevolence managed to run his entire organization with a few phone calls and just those weekend visits..."

His?...Angel eyed William...

"Lets lose that title, Buf..." he sighed to her... "At least between us, if I can't get the minions to stop...You know I loathe it..."

"You?...You're the Immortal?..." Angel hopped up... "Impossible!..."

"Very possible...Did you ever see him and the Immortal together?..." Buffy smiled... "Like back when he saved your nuns while staying with you in the 'house of pain'..." Will grinning slyly...Eh, cat's outta the bag on that one at last...

"My nuns!...You saved my nuns?..." Angel shouted...

Er, I mean...No... "This is impossible!..." he fumed... "You can't be the Immortal!...What about Darla?..." he gulped...

Oh, no...

"Turnabout is fair play, mate...After the game you played on me with Dru and all..." Will noted... "And heck, I was Evil incarnate then...Well, apprentice evil incarnate...Though apprenticed to the best..."

Darla?...Angel stared...She wouldn't have...Who the hell am I kiddin', of course she would've...And would've loved doin' it...

"Wait..." he blinked... "Dru...Dru said..."

"Game girl, my Dru in those days...Always up for a practical joke...Not to mention group sex..."

Glare from Buffy... "Apprentice evil incarnate in those days, love...Had to earn my points over Angelus..." he noted... "And you know I was a family man ever afterwards even as Spike..."

"But those followers?...In Italy and round the world...?"

"Loyal crew my bunch..." Will nodded... "Kept mum for more than a century, even when you snapped one of their necks..."

"But...But they told us...Me...The Immortal'd been around for hundreds of years...We'd all heard that..."

"The former Immortal had been, mate...Some poof superhuman I ran into one rainy night in...Hmmn, Scotland I think...Remember when I took off after you and Dru?...Anyway this fellow called himself 'The Immortal', claimed he'd been fightin' evil...And his own mates...For centuries...Started making me some long speech about his destiny while groomin' himself and waving a sword...So, naturally I grabbed the poof's sword and let him have it in the neck..."

Next thing I knew his followers were calling me by that bloody awful title and pledgin' me eternal fealty as 'The...new...Immortal'...Some kinda inheritance by combat, top dog wins the marbles kinda thing...

As a hefty wad of cash and some nice houses came with said title, after I munched on a few, I accepted the inheritance...

"And, while my new folks couldn't obey immoral orders even from me, Spike liking the world in general, and loving the chance to put a few over on you, was not adverse to confining himself to limiting his requests to cash withdrawals, the occasional overnighter in one of his homes, and a rare good deed or two guaranteed...Like that stunt with the nuns...To tie your panties up..."

"But Glory, the First...If you were the Immortal..." Angel eyed Buffy as well... Surely this was something to piss her off...

"His people were only human, Angel..." Buffy frowned... "They'd just have gotten in the way, coming to Sunnydale...And until the chip and Will's soul's slow emergence, Spike wasn't much inclined to order them to help me...And they woulda refused orders to kill me or help others kill me..."

Besides...she beamed at her honey... "He did use them to help after he fell for me...They were researching Glory all that year...He had them consulting with the world's leading psychotherapists regarding what to do for my depression when I came back..."

"I meant it when I told her I could get money that year..." Will grinned... "But Buf had to do it on her own for her own sake..."

They were the ones who found him his demon soul-restoring god in Africa...she noted...

Hmmn...Did wonder how he'd managed to find that guy...Angel sighed...

"And who do you think found that amulet to give to the guys who gave it to you?..." Buffy eyed him...

"No wonder he was desperate that day you came...He knew it was the only hope to save the world and prove his redemption beyond all doubt...And he knew..." she gave him a deeply loving look... "He already knew what would happen to him..."

Wait...

"Your materialization..." "That was luck, mate...And it wasn't till Lindsay corporealized me that I was able to reach my people...Who told Buffy..."

Who thanked the God she'd been certain couldn't exist...Buffy sighed happily...And had Willow teleport him to Rome that afternoon...

"You went to Rome?...You lied to me?..." Human souled Harm called through the door...

"Had to, pet..." Will called back... "The Council was on the brink of ordering a pre-emptive strike against you here, after they'd failed to capture Angel with those cyborg agents earlier..."

When I had Willow send me back, I had to make you all believe that nonsense about my wantin' to keep my sacrifice pure...Though I did hope to win Humanity for Buf as a kinda wedding present...Till we agreed Dru deserved it more, poor lamb...

"Will insisted you'd come through...Even I had doubts but he was sure of you...So he agreed to monitor things in LA for us..." Buffy patted her honey fondly...

"Sorry for the deception, old pal...Had to be done to save your pointy-hair..."

"But in Rome...You were as shocked as..."

"My instructions..." Buffy frowned... "The Council was still considering what to do about you and Wolfram-Hart, Angel..."

Well, actually, just you...We'd decided to take the Partners and their globally Evil firm out...

"You were on probation, mate...We couldn't let you know and after one of your boys spotted me in disguise with Buffy one weekend..."

A great disguise...Buffy noted...Even fooled Andrew for a little while till he caught us the weekend after you came to Rome...

"I had to play along and go with you to Rome..." Will grinned... "It was for your own good, mate...Until you proved yourself..."

"But...Fred...Why didn't you?..." "I did, mate...Course I did...Every man and wiccan was on it...Including Willow and the Council...Giles' terseness was just a cover to keep the Partners thinking Buf and co were truly and finally cutting you out of their picture...Nothing could be done for her, poor sweet..."

Though she is safe in Heaven with Wes, we confirmed that...

"But that demon in Rome?..." Angel tried lamely... "The one who loved...You and your..."

"Books?...I am a poet and writer, mate..." "Who writes the most life-affirmin' books ever..." Buffy proudly noted... "And I use a stand-in for the book jacket...Some tall, dark, brooding guy..."

"But wait a minute...?" Angel tried one last, desperate effort...

"Who sent the capo?...Signed the note?..You were with me the whole..."

Buffy gave a Cheshire cat grin...

"I had Willow's girl Kennedy sign the card...She writes a very fine, bold hand doesn't she?..."

"Well..." William gave a wave...Buffy beaming... "We'll be off...The wedding..." "Reaffirmation of vows...And big reception..." Buffy firmly noted...

Wedding?...Reaffirmation?...Angel...And Harmony at the door, blinked...

Hold on the Cicely thing just yet, Buf...Will smiled at her...We want to tell everyone at once, remember?... "Right...Sorry, honey..." she nodded...

Cicely?...Angel blinked...

"...Anyway the wedding's set for Columbus Day weekend so if you guys can make it...Dru is a bridesmaid..." "You too, Harm...!" Buffy called...

"Thanks!...Who's Cicely?..." "You'll hear the whole incredible tale in Rome...!"

"Dammit, Harmony!..." "I'm goin', I'm goin'..."

They went out the door, Angel looking down at his desk...Wait...

He raced after them to find Harmony inquiring about job opportunities with the Slayer-Watcher Council/Immortal Associates Group...

"That guy you were with in Rome!...We saw you dancing...When the little demon grabbed the capo!...The bartender said you..."

"Told you to have some wine and relax...And he was one of our people, making sure you two didn't get hurt...Much... by that little guy's goons..." she grinned...

"Will has to do some things on his own, after all...Much as I hate him in any danger..."

Or you too, Angel...she nodded solemnly...

"Now that I'm convinced you never betrayed us for a deal with Evil..."

"All that moping in Rome, back here..." he growled at Will... "Had to play the role, boss...You hafta admit I threw the towel in rather easily and accepted my defeat with admirable restraint...No rejoining Evil in rage, etc..."

"Angel...We're sorry to have fooled ya..." Buffy sighed... "But you've won a great victory, with a little last-minute help...The Guardian of the Prophecy rewarded you with your curse-free soul after you helped Dru...You got Connor back...And a nice girl..."

"Dump the brood, you don't need it and you'll be a lot more attractive..." she patted him fondly...

"Immortal Beloved..." LXII...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...

Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

Like I said earlier, these things are like Lays or candy...

(I did mention in the LXII thread I'd just seen that new adaptation of Ulysses, "Bloom")

Rome...Buffy and Dawn's apartment...Night...

Yes...He's been doin' it somewhere...Even with the soul he couldn'ta been doin' without it for so long...Yes...It's gotta be Harmony...He's had her before...Yes...And one good thing about him's always been that he sticks with one girl...Yes...If only he'd believed me and come straight to Rome...Yes...Gee that would've been so...Yes...But what a prick he is, 'His Benevolence'...This evening...Hell, every evening...Prancing in at any hour now, expecting I'll be available...I have my work, God...Will always respected that, even as Spike...Yes...I knew it would never be the same when he didn't come after Willow said his soul was somewhere about here...But I won't think about that, no...His problem if he's such a fool and a coward...Yes...Well, then...Suppose I took on His B... 'Her Benevolence'...Nice...Yes...But geesh, so proud over a few boy scout tricks to please the Powers That Be and win a few points towards Heaven...Did he ever die for love?...Please...And all those idiots fawning over him who's done practically nothing...God...I miss him...Yes...But if he won't come, damn him...Yes...In Rome, in this very place, and no guts to try his luck...Is that the way to impress a girl?...But he did have the good manners to leave it to me...Yes...I wish it had been me there...In LA...Willow summoning him and the look on his face when he saw me standing there, smiling on him...Oh, that would've been...Yes...Lord, I never thought I could feel that way I did when His B was in me the other night...Not again anyway...But, life goes on they say...And they're right...Yes...But I miss him...Yes...Angel, funny...I only did it the one time with him and can't even say if it really was him or the other...I mean, did the demon pop in just as he came in me or what?...Was Buffy's first Angel or Angelus?...Wish I could ask Giles...Yes...Dawn's angry at me...Doesn't say a word but she mourns him...Wants me to go on mourning too...Hmmn...Black's ok once in a while, but geesh...Well, she might've treated him better when he was around and had just gotten the soul...That's the time to treat him well, not when he's off God knows to what place...She was cool enough to him when a little word might've helped...Now she's his High Priestess...Well, she did love him too, I know...Me, after all...Yes...God, they didn't?...When I was gone?...She said they were alone together a lot?...Nah...Not even Spike...He had the chip after all...Yes...Wonder what she'll do when I tell her, go off to LA on the first plane just to show me up?...Yes...Europe's such a pretty place, though...All the history and buildings...And the guys...And the stores...God, those were some shops in London when we attended Giles' inauguration as Chairman...Yeah, I'm glad we came here...Always nice to have a change...And get away from Hellmouths and the whole thing...As much as one can...Yes...Lookee at that pretty blonde face in that mirror, girl...Hey there, Summers...Lookin' good...Gained a pound or two and lost some of that haggard look...Yes...I did mourn...I wanted to die...Be with him...Yes...But if he can come back and not believe...Bastard...Well...No need to think on that...Yes...I wonder if Connor would like Dawn...That'll be cute...And a little kinky...Hmmn...I wonder if he's hot...Not that I'd pull another RJ sans jacket on her...Still...Kinda nice to have a cute young guy round, makin' eyes at my sis and seein if maybe...Just for fun...I can get him to take a peek or two my way...Yes...Gotta get to sleep, supposed to meet with Giles tomorrow...Bout?...What?...Damn...Ohhh...LA...That's it...The Blackthorns...Angel's joinin' them or killin' them or somethin'...Killin', yeah that's it...Yes...Nice to know he's still with us after all...Oh, right, the Partners are gonna blast their way outta Hell when he ...Yes...Whoa...Hmmn... Nice the way my hair's bunched up there...Like the way it did when he kissed me after the first time...The first time it really meant something...In the heart...And he put his hands through it...Wanted to feel the sunshine on his fingers, he said...A poet for sure...Oh...Yes...You are my sunshine, he said...Yes...Well...Yes...It would be nice to bring him into the sunlight, if Willow could give me that spell she was workin' on...I could call her in Rio...Yes...Neat...See me rushin' in at the nicka time...Fifty Slayers chargin'...Yes...Put his hands through my hair...All William, no Spike...I felt it, I felt him...Felt Cicely rushing up from her grave to embrace him...You are my sunshine...My love...Yes..

***.

" Immortal Beloved..." LXIV...

...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down! It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...

Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

Rome...September 2003...

"Wil..." Buffy sighed to Willow as the wiccan rose to make her final farewells... "Thanks..."

"I want to find out about him, too, Buf...Hey, I was nearly his lil' girl a few years back..." she grinned...

"Don't take any risks...Just...Well..."

"Moi?...When my honey's with me?...No way...Sides, I hafta to learn more about this goddess thing...Schmooze with my fellow gods and all that..."

Yeah...Buffy nodded...

"But if his spirit's free, I will find it..." Willow nodded firmly... Then another grin... "Any messages for the blonde and doubly dead one?..."

"I love him...And I'm so mad at him..." Buffy replied hastily, wiping a tear, pursuing trembling lips... "Sometimes I could just resurrect him and kill him again for not believing in me..."

But mainly, I love him...she finished... Yeah...Willow patted her... "Well, gotta pick up my honey and hit the astral plane..." she vanished with a wave...

And as suddenly, reappeared...Hey...a wave...

"Willow?..."

"Thought I'd forgot something...Nope...So, tell him you love him but you're furious with him, right?..."

Yeah...Buffy sighed... "And sometimes you wish you could...Drag him back and make him feel what you felt when he died?..."

Absolutely...Buffy nodded... "Great..." 'Willow' grinned... "Bye..." she vanished...

"Wish granted..." D'Hoffryn quietly smiled from the corner to which he'd just teleported sans Willow suit...

"Immortal Beloved..." LXV...

...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down! It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...

Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

Rome...Plaza outside Buffy and Dawn's apartment building...Evening...

Play theme

A feeble groan is heard as Buffy and William continue an argument which has clearly been going on for a while...

"The Immortal was plottin' my downfall and enslavement and you were sittin' on yer ass...!"

"Oh, right...I was supposed to 'telepathically' sense that you were waiting for me to come to Rome and 'save' you from the clutches of the fiendish Immortal..."

"That was the scenario!...And if you really loved me!..."

"Save you?...You expected me to believe that you, Buffy Summers...Greatest Slayer of all Time...Needed to be rescued from the likes of this..." he stomped the prostrate body of the Immortal beneath them yet again...Eliciting a faint whimpering cry...

"Andy said you came to Rome to check on me!...How could you not stay and finish the job?...You actually thought I liked..." A hard stomp by her now, a faint plea for the mercy of a quick staking from below... "...this phony aristocratic piece of..." Another grinding stomp... Ahhhhhh!...Oh, by the gods just let me dust!...Take pity on me, brother!... "With his Angelus...'Oh, I seek redemption through your pure soul's compassion' routine?...You just come, talk to Andy...And vamoose?...That's the way you check on the love of your existence?...Hell, you may as well start a brood!...Angel-boy!..."

Now that is below the belt...he fumed...Grinding hard in his rage...Ahhhh...mommie... ohhhhhhh...

"And as for checking on the 'love of my existence'...Considering you never even had Willow try to reach me..."

Uh...She shifts position, heel landing solidly into one of the few sensitive areas yet untouched...Yeeowwwww!... Wait...Yeah... "I did...Will...I swear I did, back in May...She said Osiris wouldn't speak to her after some scene she made over Tara..."

"Seance?..."

Uh...Well... "Willow and Giles didn't think it was a good idea..."

Right...he sighed...Frowning at her...Since when did she follow their advice...?

"Alright..." she sighed... "I shoulda...Whatever they said...I'm sorry William...I shoulda...But with you gone, I had to get on with life..."

Death...Please...Oh, merci...ful God in...Heaven...A groan...

"Great...Hope you wasted no time mourning me..."

"Did you race to Rome the minute you went solid, like you shoulda?...And you weren't the one who resurrected me!"

"Did I leave Dawn alone after you died and go off to find love?...Did I?...No, I hung around, tried to please your soul by protecting her and your band of morons, and to see what Red came up with..."

Really?...Buffy beamed...Aw, Will...As quickly followed by a guilty look...Ummn...

"I nearly slid into Hell at Angel's...And I don't mean figuratively..." What?...she stared...

"But hey, what did you care?...You had to get on with your life...Hook up with Studily the Latest here..."

"I didn't know...Why didn't Angel call me about this?..." He gave her a hard stare...Moving back a step...Mmmpf...the Immortal tried to gasp a curse as the boot slammed into his open mouth...Why do you think he didn't call?...Will's look saying...

"I'll kill him!...That pointy-haired, bloody stupid rat!..." she fumed... "Oh, please..." he shook his head... "Now it's a big deal?...C'mon...The simple fact is girl, you didn't give a damn what had happened to me...You didn't need me anymore and that's that..."

"Will!...That's not..."

He stepped off the whimpering body...And jerked what was left to its feet in a sudden move... "Here...He's all yours..." He tossed the groaning, quivering form at her... No, please, no...a faint whisper...Death, please...

Don't leave me with her again...

"Don't think he'll give you too much trouble now..." he turned and stalked off...

"William Soames Walthrop!...You come back here!..." she threw the Immortal to the ground, hurrying after...

"Damnit, girl..." he whirled round as she caught up to him... "Damnit, yourself!..." she grabbed at him... "You're right...I shoulda stayed, clubbed you one and dragged you out, or leaped off that crater...I didn't...I'm sorry!..."

"But I love you, Will...Let me try and prove it...Please..."

For the rest of my life...she pleaded... "Please...Darling..."

"How the hell did you know my name?..."

Hah...She grinned... "I didn't forget you, babe...I looked you up in the Council archives Giles reconstructed...Along with a search of the universities of the day..."

For your memorial plaque...she smiled...Really?...he beamed...The Immortal slowly dragging himself across the plaza to a puddle...

A dog trotting in for a drink sniffed at him...Nice...Do...he began...Ahhhhhhhhhhhh...As the dog tore in and ate several vital organs...

"You really did get me a plaque?..." "What, am I a liar, now?"... "I didn't mean that...Well, where...?" "Just outside London...Same place as where your mom's is...The one Spike bought after...You know..."

We could go and see it...Honey?...she eyed him...They turned to see the dog dragging the remains across the plaza...The still functional parts vaguely writhing in agony...

"Geesh, for all the build-up, he sure wasn't much..." she noted...

"But good in the sack, huh?...Darla and Dru certainly thought so..." "Jesus, William!..." she glared... "I tole you I was just trying to get you to come...Some romantic you are...Wimp for love!..."

"Look who's talkin'!...Miss 'Get-on-With-Life-Not-Even-a-Seance-For-Her-so-called- Beloved'...!"

"But a plaque..." she slyly grinned... He stopped and smiled back...Ok...

"Immortal Beloved..." LXVI...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...

Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."

November 2004, night...On board the Venice Simplon-Orient Express, heading for Budapest...One of the luxury dining cars...

Beautifully attired in black evening gown, though worn with a careless air as if to say it hardly mattered to her if you were attracted or not, the young blonde woman was smiling softly at first one, than the other of the two seated on either side of her...One, a tall, dark-haired, immaculately-groomed, elegant-looking man, with an aristocratic air...Youthful one might say unless one looked closely into his old, even ancient, eyes...The other, a bit more conventional, a handsome, reasonably dashing young officer of one of Europe's various armed forces...

From his secluded seat, carefully chosen, the slight blonde man watched the group impassively as the train sped on through the night...The woman playfully touching the sleeve of the officer, then turning to the other...Who seemed unruffled by her obvious flirtativeness while the officer seemed a bit more anxious, even a little insistent in his efforts...She whispered in his ear, something that clearly did not please him, most likely a gentle tease or perhaps a polite, half-joking insistence that he tone his ardor a trifle...

He flushed and pulled back...The other man giving him a faint smile of something like sympathy mixed with a kind of world-weariness, as if the game of the evening was beginning to bore slightly...She turned back to him, flashing a bright smile...Playfully fingering a large earring...Pearl, almost no doubt...Looking round the train car briefly...

Blinking as she looked in the direction of the hidden blonde man...Who realized she'd caught the briefest glimpse as he'd leaned forward to observe her better...But he'd pulled back before she'd been certain, he was sure...

She stared his way for a long moment then seemed to shrug the vision off and returned to her teasing game between her two companions...But the young officer had apparently had enough...He rose, a bit tense, but managing to maintain a polite air, excused himself...The other rising slightly, offering a gracious hand...She looking a bit furgitively yet again in the direction of the blonde man's booth for a bare second, then smiled up at the soldier...Or pilot or sailor...Yes, pilot most likely, the blonde man thought, pulling back into the recesses of his booth...

A few moments later, after a bit of apparently idle chatter, the dark-haired man rose, clearly making a polite good-night to the woman...Who extended her hand for a brief kiss and smiled gently at him as he turned to go...

After he'd gone, she waved to the waiter passing by and reordered the drink she'd been slipping from...Again glancing down the way...Then idly fingering the newly delivered drink for a bit after smiling kindly at the young waiter, clearly as smitten as the young officer...

Suddenly she rose and moved down the car towards the booth...Halting by it without looking at the man seated, he leaning back against the wall of the booth...

"The fourth car, compartment 3...He's not there..." she murmured to the dark booth softly, still not looking into it...And continued on...

About fifteen minutes later, he rose out of the booth, left some money on the table, and went down the car in the direction she'd taken...

"Well...Spike..." she smiled at him...As he stood in the doorway of her compartment...Saying nothing...

"Are you coming in?...I mean, come in..." a wry grin... "I assume you still..."

"Please call me William, Buffy..." he said quickly...A flat tone... "And yes, I still need the invite...But lets us pretend my soul gives me some human status and use my human name..."

She looked away... "Come in, William..." she said quietly and moved back into the compartment, he following...

"Been tracking me long?..." she eyed him as she sat down, waving him to a small chair... "I'm in Europe for Angel..." he shook his head... "We're trying to reorganize what was left after the Partners were destroyed...It was coincidence that I spotted you..."

Champagne?...She offered a glass, he shook his head and she poured herself a small glass...

"Pretty good coincidence our both being on the same train...Especially this line..." she smiled, sipping...Then rose, frowning a bit... "And lousy timing..."

"Sorry if I put a damper on tonight's high jinks..."

"Hardly...But I mean you're a bit late..." She moved towards him... "You materialized at Angel's when?..."

"Nice to know I was an object of curiosity..." he sighed... "Were you and the Council concerned I'd revert and lead Wolfram-Hart to victory with or without the help of Angel's pointy-hair?..."

Unnnh...She grabbed him suddenly and pulled him close...Staring in his face for just a second then kissing him violently...He struggling for only the barest second...

"I should kill you..You bastard..." she whispered, releasing him and pulling back... "Too late...By a century..." he noted...

Yeah...She nodded... "Well, you should get what you came for..." she turned around, making a coquettish smile into the large mirror facing her now... "It's easier to undo than it looks..."

Silence for a long moment... "It's a pity I can't see you this way...I'm sure I missed a great facial expression..."

"Nothing you haven't seen from me before...Turn around..." Aw...She pouted, then spun round, a hard, brittle smile on her face...

"The Immortal's done a bang-up job with you...You've become a first-rate courtesan...Tell me, what was he after from that kid you were stringing along?..."

"Hey, it's still Slaying, right?...In a manner of speakin'..." she grinned so quickly the dark look that had flashed on her face almost escaped him... "I just don't hafta kill them now after I break their hearts..."

She shrugged at his hard look... "Who knows...He's up and comin' in NATO, I guess Henri wants to expand his list of potential friends in high places...He likes to plan ahead..."

"No point in asking why, I suppose?..."

"So..." she grinned again...Putting a lace-gloved finger in her mouth and slowly pulling the glove off... "You didn't come stumbling in just to find out what was up with me..."

Giles?...Dawn?...she eyed him ...

"Both..." he nodded... "It took both to get me to come...Though my business for Angel is real..."

"They should mind their own business..." she turned and went to the small table where her champagne glass stood, taking a seat... "Dawn's in college now, she's doesn't need an ersatz mommie any more...And I thought I'd made it clear to Giles that I'd resigned..."

The train, moving through a tunnel, made a low deep hum from amplified vibration on the tracks...

"Dawn still cares about her sister...As does your substitute father..."

"Hows about you?..." she asked lightly, but did not look at him...

"I died for you...Twice really if you count Spike's little sacrifice in Africa..."

"That was then, this is now..." she looked at him... "What about now?..."

"If I didn't care..."

Ah...She grinned again... "You...Care..."

That's sweet...She took another sip of champagne...

"Did you come to LA when you heard I'd returned?...Did you try to get me back before then?..."

"Nah, I was busy with other things...You know me..." she rose... "I have no heart and never give a damn...So long as the mission gets accomplished..."

"Why are you working for the Immortal?...This way?..."

"What?..." she looked down at her dress... "You don't like?...It sure cost enough..."

"Buffy..."

"William..." she licked her lips with her tongue... "If the sis and the 'ersatz dad' are nervous, tell 'em I haven't joined the ranks of Evil, Inc...Henri's just interested in good old fashioned power, wealth, and influence...Not world conquest or destruction..."

As for that 'courtesan' crack...I just smile, make nice talk, and keep the clients happy...And on occasion have myself a good ole time...At my own discretion...she frowned...

"Which I damn well think I deserve...As well as piling up a nice lil' nest egg towards retirement...Something even a young, retired Slayer has to think about..."

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer, world-savior...The Immortal's little trophy girl..." he eyed her... "Tell me, how big a client does one hafta be to rate your company?...Surely the assistant head of the reorganizing former Wolfram-Hart multinational comes close?..."

"You're here, right?..." a sly grin...

"'Henri' expected me to show?..." "No...I don't think so...I told him Angel had sent someone though, someone who wanted a little time with me...He'll probably want to talk to you later..."

Be kinda nice to see him surprised...He's a hard guy to surprise, given his lifespan...

"So that's why you have ten to spare on me...Thanks..."

"I have as much time as I choose to give you...Stay the night if you like...You can try to talk me outta this sordid existence I've taken up since..." she paused...

"The love of my life died for me...And rejected me, all at the same time..."

"So...It's my fault...And you are nursing a bitter and broken heart..."

"Hardly broken, William...Patched up very well...Though I missed having you to administer the first aid this last time..."

"Does the Queen of 'tough love' expect sympathy from me?... 'Show me you have a soul', that was your cure for mental illness, wasn't it...?"

"Yep...But I rate a double-standard...Always did..." she smiled...Gently settling into her chair... "Camere here..." she waved him over...He stayed in place... "Well, at least, sit down...You're makin' me nervous..." He turned slowly and took a chair...

"And all this..." he waved a bit... "Throwing yourself away like this..."

"Hardly..." she glared slightly... "All this is because I didn't show in Rome...?"

"Certainly not..." she pouted... "It's cause I...With a little help from my latest boss and more or less latest in general...Came to realize that it was time I got on with life...And tried a new professional path...One with less stress and personal risk and a helluva lot better return..."

However...Owing to my previous career...And my general unsuitedness to do much else...I was not exactly prime executive material...

"You had your work with the Council...The Slayers needed..."

"I gave that up at Sunnydale...Except for helpin' Giles gather his girls in...And beatin off the guys who still want to challenge me and get their names in the occult book of records...I quit that day...And Giles knows that..."

And he knows what I threatened to do if he tried to pressure me back into the fold...she stared at him...

"We're nowheres near the Sunnydale crater...Though the way you're hitting the booze you won't need to leap off a cliff soon enough..."

"Short life but a merry one..." she raised her glass... Then was silent...

"I hated you that day...And for quite a while..." she said flatly...

Cause you let yourself die alone...Unloved...And made me a monster...she eyed his questioning look...

"All you had to do was believe me...And after all that damned effort one might've thought..." she sighed...

"I believed you..." he eyed her... "You loved me for a moment...That's why I couldn't come to Rome..."

Yeah...she nodded... Heartless Buffy wouldn't have wasted any time takin' that foolish slip of the tongue back...

"I guessed that was it..." she sighed...Playing with the glass in her hands...

"But I kept hopin', after Giles let me know what Willow had learned, trying to get a handle on what ole Angel was up to at WH...I kept hopin' you'd believe...And come...I even got myself worked up at Angel for a while...Made myself believe you would come like a shot but he and the Partners were keepin' you..."

Then Andy came back from LA and when I cornered him, told me you'd told him not to let me know about you...

"Well...Then I knew..." she leaned back... "You'd never trust in me...And you'd never come to me..."

And Henri showed up, eager to meet me through his connections to the Council, about two weeks later...

"Nothing like a semi-redeemed vampire to win a girl's heart..." he regarded her coolly...

"Not to mention an out-of-this-world fuck..." she smiled... "Not the same as ours but in its own unique way...Quite something..."

"So Darla and Dru once told Angelus and me..."

Yeah...I gathered pretty quick he wasn't the 'one-woman' type...But then I've gotten around in my time...How brief it may be...

"And he was more interested in the status of acquiring me...For his company..." she grinned at his frown...

"Job situation being what it was for college dropout Buffy, I took the offer...Anything to get away from Slaying, the Council..."

"Congrats then...Your life is right on track...As is our train...Sorry I let the Nibs get me nervous..." he rose...

"Wait..." she stared at him...

Why did you come?...Now...

"I thought you needed me...Coming when I think Buffy needs me has become a habit...That's why I came to Rome earlier..."

"Though I always make a fool..." he began...

"Rome?...When were you in Rome?..."

"Angel heard you were being 'stalked' by the Immortal...We came...Didn't Special Agent Wells tell you?...He gave us quite a lecture on 'movin' on'..."

The Head Poof took it hard but I...he paused...

"I knew there wasn't anything waiting for me there...I just wanted to be sure you were ok..."

She startled him by rising suddenly, fists clenched... "Bastard!...You stinking coward!...What do I have to do?...Die for you?...If I shove this..." she pulled a stake...A rather gleaming one...Mr. Pointy stained, varnished, and oiled he noted...from behind her champagne bottle on the small table beside her chair... "Into my heart, will that be enough?..."

"Buffy!..." he moved over, grabbing her arm...She furiously jerked her arm free...Staring at him, trembling... "I may as well, I'll never be free till I do...!"

"Buffy!..." He grabbed at her again... Then calmed a little as she pulled free and stood facing him...

"Fine...You want to play games, go ahead...I concede...You're as big a fool as I was...And as wallowing in self-pity..."

She stared at him a while, holding the stake by her side... "I'm not the cause of you throwing your life away, Summers...And I say 'throwing away' with all due respect to your new 'career', employer...And your obviously hefty income..."

You couldn't give me what I needed...Maybe you aren't what I was seeking...he eyed her... "But that's not a reason to punish yourself..."

And it sure as hell does me no Earthly good...he sighed... "As it's got Dawn and the rest determined to hound me until I get you back to your senses..."

She wanly grinned..."Here to save me...Again?...And this time for totally unselfish reasons, eh?..."

"Totally selfish..." he corrected... "It gave me the excuse I needed to make myself see you again at last..."

"Give it to me, girl..." he indicated the stake...Ummn... "From the other side, please..."

She chuckled and handed it over... "Guess I don't quite make it on your suicidal romantic scale... But then Henri's no Drusilla so I've got a much tougher job that way..."

"Well...You were never..." he began...Stopping as he saw her bleak face... "I will...Not today, not tomorrow...and not quick...But I will..." she told him quietly...

"Unless...You save me..."

"Girl...Hardly a twenty-first cent..." "I let you go last year and the year before I didn't lift a finger to help you even when Spike did all that he did to save me that year...I haven't any right to ask you to...But...Stay, please...Please...That's all you hafta do...Just stay...Save me, William...Like you came to..."

"You have to, you know..." she smiled wanly... "It's what you do..."

"Immortal Beloved..." LXVII...

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down! It's all yours and ME's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...

Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say,

"so long as I like it, it's ok..."

Rome...The eve of the day of the final battle with the Senior Partners...

Play main theme

The very thought of you...

She frowned at a rather agitated Andrew as he paced the apartment nervously...True, the news from New Council Chairman Giles was not too cheery regards Angel and his group...Though he'd cautioned them that the rumors of an impending power struggle in LA should not be taken as proof that the Brooding One had abandoned his alliance with Wolfram-Hart...It might even be a deception by an Angel who'd completely given himself over...No action was to be taken unless and until the situation cleared...

Naturally one felt concerned...But a little much considering he'd only known Angel slightly...

"Andrew...What's the deal?...Giles is monitoring the situation best he can...And Angel made his decision...He has to..."

Andrew halted and stared at her... "This isn't about Angel..."

She blinked at him...

"There's something I haven't told you..." he began... "But I was pledged..." he hastily added as she stared...

And I forget to do...The little ordinary things everyone ought to do...

The mere idea of you...The longing here for you...

You'll never know how slow the moments go til I'm near to you...

She dragged him out of the cab...Scanning the signs...Ok, that way...she grabbed him and set off...

"Where..." Andrew tried as she pulled him along... "Where do you think?..." she glared at him...Here...She pushed the terminal door and made for the departures desk...

"I called in...For two tickets to LA, first available?..." she handed over id and credit card...

"Here..." she turned back to Andrew, still firmly in her grip...Pulling out a cell phone and handing it to him... "See if you can reach any of the Slayers on that list..." she tapped the screen...

"They're locals...They might be able to reach them in time..."

Well?...She glared again... He took the phone and began selecting numbers...

"Don't you think we oughta...?..." he looked at her a moment, waiting for a number to go through as she nervously tapped on the counter in front of her... "No, but go back if you want...Thanks..." she nodded at the returned attendant, grabbing the offered tickets... "Gate 14..." the attendant called to her.. "Right...C'mon, Andrew, if you're comin'...We've only got fifteen minutes!...Use the phone on the plane!..."

I see your face in every flower...Your eyes in stars above...

Downtown LA...Thirty minutes before the battle...

"So...?" she eyed him... Andrew shook his head... "I still can only reach four in the area...Gilda and Phebe are the only ones who can get here in less than two hours...If we can pick Gilda up..."

"You..." her glare was near killing range... "If you'd only told me..." He blanched a little... "Spike made me promise..." he repeated again for the fortieth time...

All right...she sighed... Damn, why did Willow have to be off on that astral plane trip now?...Well... "You grab a cab and go get her and meet up with Phebe...Bring them over as soon as you can but don't let 'em get into it unless I tell ya...Probably all we can do is..." she paused... "We'll find him and get him out..."

"You're not going over there alone..." he eyed her, frowning... "I'm just gonna look things over and see if I can get them to wait for help...And I'll see if I can reach anybody else..."

"No...Not even the Greatest Slayer could do anything for them, alone...I won't..." he went down as she socked him in the jaw...Dragging him to a hidden alley corner...

"You're right, Andy...Even four Slayers won't make much difference here...Goodbye..." she kissed his unconscious face and headed out to the street...

It's just the thought of you...The very thought of you...

The alley where Angel's band was struggling, poor Gunn down and the rest isolated from each other as the hordes continued to pour in from their hell portal...

"William!..." she cried, seeing him in his tiny zone, surrounded completely now...Barely holding a few of the braver ones off with thrusts of a sword he'd picked up from one of them...He stared at her quickly, shocked...

Too late, I'll never reach him now...she realized...As a group from the mass moved on her, a bit uncertain as to what they might be dealing with...She grabbed a stick from the ground, making threatening motions, surrounded herself now...And cried to him one last time...

"She's coming, she'll be here in a minute!..." Dawn lied...

My love...She did not say...As the respective circles of demons closed in on them...

Of course it's not the last one...If you can't wait for the posting here, the full set of 138+ is at the Buffy Rebecca verse, "normal" verse page

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