"Immortal Beloved..." CXXVII...
PG-13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (127) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)
Archived (soon) at the 'Normal' Buffyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse at . , scroll down to "Immortal Beloved" series ...
The offices of Angel, Burkle-Wyndham-Price, Gunn, and Walthrop...The firm reconstructed by the intrepid former CEO from the old Wolfram-Hart, following its sudden collapse after the violent 'terrorist' attack on LA had been defeated...
Most of the damage...Thankfully confined to a few blocks...By now, one year later, repaired...
"You must be kidding..." a firm refusal on the part of the last named partner, William Soames Walthrop, currently seated in his senior partner's office...The remaining partners, Charles Gunn and Dr. Winifred "Illyria (nickname the boys gave me, Mom)" Burkle-Wyndham-Price ("Dad, we were gonna call right after he asked but then that attack, you know..."), watching from their chairs with considerable interest...As was Angel's beloved spouse, Nina Angel...
"You were thinking of going to England for a while..." Angel pointed out... "And we need a partner to handle these negotiations with the Council if our rescue operations are gonna succeed..."
Save 'em, not kill 'em...I still don't think I've quite wrapped my mind around this one...Charlie noted quietly to Illyria...Who shrugged...Not the warrior queen to ask, kiddo...
Still, if Angel and Will want to try...
"So you go...Or just pick up the phone...You've got me loaded down with the European reorganization and that branch of our little rescue project...I'll be tied up for months...Then I'm going for a well-deserved vacation...Look up my roots...See if any family's left...Or any victims of Spike from our little effort who need help...And I have my boy and...Look, I'll have no time..."
"Will...She's with the Immortal in Rome...She probably won't even be there...You just need to settle things with Giles and the Council...It's important to get them to agree to let us have our chance...Restrain their Slayers till we can get things ready to use the modified spell...Lives and souls depend on this...A phone call won't do and I'm tied down here...Besides, you know Giles and I have a history...A bad one..."
"And we don't?...He tried to kill me, you know...And he..." a hesitant tone...
"...I'm sure he wouldn't have been able to help Winifred by then, Will..." Illyria, quietly...
"No offense or blame intended, love..."
"It's ok..." she smiled, a little wanly... "You guys are always much too nice about...Things..."
"Not at all...Well..." he returned to Angel... "The bottom line is..."
"He owes you...You didn't kill his girlfriend, you saved his little Slayer girl...And you were an innocent soul when he tried to kill you...He owes you and he knows it...That'll help...Plus, if necessary..."
Nina looking rather carefully at both Angel and William...
"Oh, no...No..."
"I'm not saying you'd have to ask her to help...Just remind him she'd probably back you if you did...C'mon Will...This is important and you're headed that way anyway...So you start the vacation first, right after this..."
"Look..."
He caught Nina's nervous glance...Please...?
Oh, Lord...Mum, this is your fault...Pounding it into my head from birth...A gentleman never refuses a lady...Till even Spike was polite with Joyce and such...
Poor kid...He sighed within...I think I see now who decided Angel was too busy to go to this thing...
"Another month's vacation...And no questions about how I operate in Europe...Just clean up any demonic messes I have to leave in settling things...I'm not pussy-footing around with any troublemakers with my boy in harm's way..."
"I said I'd leave that up to you...Just don't get into the papers too much..."
"When's and where's the damned thing...?"
"Next week...London...Giles is holding a full session including Slayer representatives from around the world..."
"What?...She'll be there!..."
"She and the Immortal are on their honeymoon...They're going to his estates in Greece next week...She won't be there..."
Will frowned... So you say...
"You'd be less likely to see her in England than in Italy next week..." Angel pointed out...
"""
London, one week later...New Antiquarian Hall of the Royal Council of Antiquarians and Library Scientists...
A dignified Andrew Wells in suit, dignified as befitting the Vice-Chairman of European Field Operations...Ignoring the slightly mocking looks of several young Observer candidates he passed...
Kids...
...Strode toward the tables now set up for the reception of various international dignitaries and Watcher/Council groups from around the world for the first full session of the Council since the destruction of the old Hall by the First Evil's minion, Caleb...
Hmmn...He caught a brief glimpse of a slight fellow, brown-blonde in suit...But it was the nervous-looking, shy brunette on the man's arm who seemed to be drawing stares...
Holy...! He looked round for the nearest Slayer...Gretchen...
One of the small but growing crowd now talking to the increasing nervous girl excitedly...
What the...? No, wait...My gosh...She's got a pass...
So it's true?...Angel really did?...
Drusilla...With a soul...
Wow...And...
Oh, no...God, no...He looked for an immediate escape route...
"Andrew?..." William called...
His way blocked by the growing crowd moving toward the surprise of the conference...
Poor Dru clearly terrified by the attention...William trying to gently urge folks to back off a bit...
A guard pushed through to Andrew...A little anxious to explain... "They've been cleared, sir..."
"Yeah, yeah..." he waved a hand...
The Chairman didn't say a word...Not a word...
Oh, God...
"Andrew...We're a bit overwhelmed by the kindness here..." Will had managed to push through to him, a rather quaking Dru holding to his arm with a vise grip...
"You know Ms. Waverly..."
"I never..." Dru hesitated... "You're not someone It..."
"No, Dru..." Will patted her arm hastily... "You never harmed Andy here...He works for the Council of Watchers...He used to work with Ms. Summers' people in Sunnydale..."
"Oh?..." she nodded vaguely...
"Andy, can't you get us out of this?..." Will indicated the crowd... "I didn't realize we'd attract so much attention..."
"Everyone is very kind..." Dru noted, nervously...Hastily signing a photograph book thrust at her by an over-eager young Slayer... "Very kind..." she repeated...
"Elise..."Andrew frowned at the girl...
"Sorry, sir..." Elise dutifully nodded, turning to head off in triumph...Got it!...
More Watchers, Slayers, various attendees moving their way...
"This way..." Andrew sighed, pointed...Ordering the guard still by him to clear a path...
"So very kind...Oh..." Dru halted, staring at one Watcher giving her a rather grim stare back...
"Very, very sorry, sir..."
"Come on, Dru..." Will tugged her along...Andrew pulling out handkerchief, mopping sweating brow as they proceeded slowly...
"Wait!..." a Slayer pointed... "It's William...!" she cried...Slayers around the hall, in the crowd all suddenly transfixed...
Oh, Jesus...Andrew groaned...
"William!..." "Spike, I love you!..." "William, it's William!..." cries from around the room... "Oh, gosh, William's alive!..."
Funny, Will thought...Eyeing Andrew who had hand to head...What to do, oh God?...
Surely everyone knew ten seconds after he got back to England that time...Still, I suppose some of the international Slayers never got the word...
"Andy?...Can we go...?"
"God, yes...Lets get out of..." the crowd, a bit thinner in this area, parted a little...
"What were you...?" a slight brunette in suit, talking with an eager Elise...Who turned her slightly to face the group moving their way...
You bitch...the now doomed Andrew fumed in rage...This is just because of that extra training session last week, isn't it?...
The brunette blinking at William, then Dru...Drusilla's face amazingly managing to turn a even paler shade...
"You're...?" the brunette nearly keeling...
I'm dead...Andrew noted, resignedly... "Get the Chairman..." he hissed to the guard... "Get him...Quick..."
No need, sir... the guard pointed to Rupert Giles now moving to them, turning to assist the staggering brunette...
"Buffy...?" William stared at the brunette...
When the devil did she stop?...
Dru looking behind for an exit...Though not releasing her grip on Will's arm... "Is that...?" she whispered...
"Yes...But Buffy won't hurt you, love..." Will, a rather vague pat on arm...
"No..." Dru whispered, eyes bulging now... "It's...Her..."
"Buffy..." Giles was helping Buffy...Startled as she shook him off rather violently...An icy stare at him...
Andrew carefully edging toward the thinner part of the regathering crowd...
There might still be a chance to slip out and head for Mehico on the first plane...
"Andrew..." icy tone...
She has been in England for a bit...Will thought...
"Get over here..."
"Buffy..." Giles began...Halting at her glare...Ummn...
"Just a moment..." she waved him off, turning to William and the quaking Dru...
"You're alive..." she said...In a rather clipped British accent, though unmistakably, if somewhat dazed, Buffy...
"You're brown..." he smiled...
"You..." she stared at Dru now... A cold rage on her face...
The crowd standing round eyeing each other...Uh-oh...
Still nothing like actually getting to see the famed one making her moves...
"No..." Dru gasped a little... "Ma'am...I..."
"Buffy...Dru has a soul, she's fine now...Well, still a vamp like me but..." Will, reassuringly...
What's with her?...Can't believe Kendra meant that much to her all these years...
Buffy calming a bit...Right...Soul...
"Of course..." she nodded...Still white as the frightened Dru... "Hello...You murderous..."
"Buffy..." Giles tried...
Another hard glare...
"Sorry..." she turned to the puzzled Will... "I don't meet my resurrected lover and his murderess...Lover?..." hesitantly... "Every day..."
"Nice to see you too..." he stared... "Didn't Wells tell you?..."
"No..." she said, frostily... "Andrew?...You didn't, did you?..."
"Uh..." the hapless Vice-Chairman croaked out... "Buffy..."
"Very funny...Isn't very funny, William?..." she said, coldly...
"Buffy..." Giles cut in...Earning a look of adoration from Andrew... "I ordered Andrew..."
"I know..." she said, quietly...
"You tried to kill him...You wouldn't let him tell me...You tried to stop me from going through the archives..." she stated, flatly...
Amazing that accent...Will thought...
"You kept him from me, you bastard..." she finished, coldly...
"Buffy..." Giles tried...
"Buffy...I'm sure Rupert thought..."
"I know what he thought..." she replied...Startling him by suddenly shaking, clearly near tears...But she got hold of herself...
"And you two...Back together..." she eyed them...Focusing on Dru...Whose panicked face was quite reminiscent of a deer in headlights now...
"Us?..." Will blinked... "Oh, no..." he shook his head... "Ole Dru just needed an escort round England and Italy while she got her bearings and helped us out with some rescue work I'm hear to discuss with Giles...She's hoping to get the Pope's permission to let her resume her devotions..."
"Oh?..." Buffy blinked...
Dru getting a slight clairvoyant notion that things were not quite so desperate, calmed a little...
"That's wonderful...Maybe I can put in a good word?..."
"Or maybe your new husband?..." Will couldn't resist it...
"My what?..." she stared...
"His Benevolence...Your beau ideal..."
"My...What?..."
Giles now considering joining Andrew in his slow sliding toward the crowd's protection...
"Giles, Andrew...Stay here, please..." a calm, but deadly tone...
"My husband?...The Immortal?..." she eyed Will...
"Isn't he?...You and he were married a couple of weeks ago in Rome..."
Angel's boys were keeping tabs...He explained...
"No offense intended to your guy...We just knew him from the ole days and wanted..." he eyed her quivering face... "I mean, when I saw you with him and spoke to Andrew in Rome...He said you'd moved on and..."
Ah...Cha...Andrew, though fully accepting of his certain fate, could not resist a choked gasp...
"When you saw me in Rome?...And spoke to...Andrew...?" she repeated...
"It was merely for your own protection, Buffy..." Giles began...
"You really should have burned everything Caleb missed, Mr. Giles..." she waved him off, coldly... "But that's right..." she held up her left hand, a gold ring on fourth ring... "You couldn't have burned this...Even if you'd melted it down, I'd've found it..."
So...Is she married or...? Will, bemused...
"Buffy...William...You must understand that the Council honestly feared..."
"For itself...With good reason..." Buffy nodded calmly at Giles...
"What is this all about...?" William stared at them... "It wasn't you in Rome?..."
"We had a wonderful actress..." Andrew noted... "For Buffy's protection, of course...It just worked out well for His B and ..."
He wilted under Buffy's cool stare... "...they just hit it off..."
"Get out of here...Both of you..." Buffy said quietly... "And please see to Drusilla here...My husband and I have to talk...Please go with Mr. Wells, Dru...No one's going to hurt you...I'm sure Chairman Giles can help with the Pope...The Council has great influence in the world...I can testify to that..."
"Oh? When did you and the Slayer...?" Dru, feeling a bit more secure, politely addressing the dazed William...
"1880...March..." Buffy explained... "We met but I looked different then, excepting the hair now..."
"Oh...Of course...Cicely, wasn't it?..." Dru, brightly...
"Cicely..." Buffy nodded...
"I'm very lucky to be alive aren't I...?" Dru eyed her...
"Yes..." Buffy nodded... "But I can't and won't blame an innocent soul...We'll all get together later..."
All of us...She eyed Giles and Andrew narrowly...
"Cicely...?" William gasped...
"Dad?..." Dawn, suddenly breaking through the crowd, staring at William and Dru, now moving to take Andrew's arm...
LA...
One hour later, London time...
"Angelus...You son of a...!" Giles' raging voice over the line...
"So it went well, eh?..." Angel grinned over to Nina... "Glad to be of service, Giles...Give our best to Cicely and William..."
"Immortal Beloved..." CXXVIII...
PG-13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (128) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)
Archived (soon) at the 'Normal' Buffyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse at . , scroll down to "Immortal Beloved" series ...
"Yes, put her through…Hello, Buffy…What?..."
"Yes, I've seen the papers…" Giles eyes paper in hand… "…I'm sorry about Angel…I…"
"Well, Buffy…As Chairman of the Council, I must consider all potential risks to our Slayers and I did have good reason to think…"
"If I'd truly wanted Angel dead, Buffy…After all, dear, I could have ordered the local California Slayers to leave LA…And they were decisive in…What?...Well…Buffy, I'm sorry he didn't tell you himself but I think Angel made his decision long ago…Frankly dear, I never really thought…What do you mean, 'take a close look'?..."
Eyes photo over story… "Famed CEO of former Wolfram-Hart weds…"…Angel in wedding tux, Nina in bridal dress on arm, beaming for camera…Young Connor to the side looking very content…Some slight rather mousy girl to his right, holding his arm…A beaming young black man beside her…
Some slight fellow to Angel's left…
"Well…The girl…Nina What'shername?...Is a brunette, but she doesn't look anything like Drus…What?...Buffy, I really don't think there's any need for…Shit!..." he stared again at the slight blonde-brown haired figure next to Angel uncomfortably in tux reluctantly smiling at camera…
Damn…
Still…There's no reason she should think…
"Sorry my dear…Well, yes…It does look vaguely like Spike, but... My dear, really…"
"Are you accusing me of?...That's hardly fair, Buffy…Even if he were back, somehow…Highly unlikely, dear…Do you really think Andrew and I would have…?"
He blinked at the phone...
Never knew she knew words like that...
"Buffy...Now you know Mr. Wells always had a tendency to exagg...What?...What do you mean if it's 'ok by the Vice-President of the US'?...Under what?...Buffy?...You left Andrew where?..."
"Dear, really…Buffy…Would you please calm down?...What do you mean the First was more honest with you?...Buffy?...Hello, Buffy?..."
"Immortal Beloved..." CXXIX...
PG-13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (129) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)
"Yes...This is the former corporate global headquarters of Wolfram-Hart, Inc...But we're now Angel, Burkle-Wyndham-Price, Gunn, and Walthrop...Inc... "
"No...He's retired...Permanently...Yes, the same for Mr. Joseph and the rest of the Senior Partners...Would you like me to...?"
"No...We don't carry out assassinations...No, I'm afraid not even if the target is 'kind of evil himself'...Though we do protect the...Why, yes, this is Ms. Kendall, Mr. Angel's..."
Pause... "Sure I do...You still owe me for the movie tickets...No, I wouldn't...No...Look, I have a soul again...And I'm working...Now do you want me to put you through to Mr. Angel or...? I just told you we don't do that...No, the Partners lost and good...er, Good...Prevailed...Didn't you get the memo from Hell?..."
"I tole you I'm at work now...And I wouldn't...At least not with you...And I should tell you we're tracing all calls from former clients...Hello?...Heeelllo?..."
Hmmn...William was right...Harmony reflected, hanging up...It does work...
"Hello...?" she caught the next in series... "Oh, hello...Yes, I'll try and put you through again...Yeah..." curt tone... "It is me...And can I say, thanks for all the help you gave me back in Sunnydale...Just a minute..." she pressed a button...
Dum...dum...dee...da...dum...She eyed the blinking light on her console...
Dum...dum...She observed her nails carefully...Dee...da...
Still...I am a professional...With soul...
She sighed and pressed another button...
"Angel?...She's back on line 3...You want me to tell her to get lost again?..."
I'm so sorry...Mr. Angel is so very busy what with the reorganization and all...she mentally rehearsed...
"Oh?...You sure?...Oookkk...Will do..." she frowned at the phone but pressed the button on line 3...Then held the other lines...
"Mr. Angel..." she told the mouthpiece...
Hmmn...She eyed the phone in her hand...
Just because I have a soul doesn't mean I can't have a little fun...She plugged in her headset and putting phone down in cradle, pressed a button...
"Well, Buffy..." Angel's voice... "I'm really sorry but it's true... I am very busy with the reorganization..."
Thanks, Boss...Harmony grinned...
Always great to have back-up from one's superior...
"And I've already told Giles...I can't..."
"Angel..." Buffy's voice, plaintative...
"Buffy, you have 20,000 plus Slayers available...What do you need me for?...And you've got His Benevolence on your dance card...Hmmn?...Really?...Well, ok...On your side...Just a minute...Harmony, get the hell off this line..."
Shoot...She pressed the line button and the light went out, unplugged the headset, and glancing around out at the hall before her office...Only workmen moving about on reconstruction tasks...Carefully slid her chair closer to the door to Angel's office...Putting her blood glass to the door, ear pressed against the bottom of the glass...
"Well, tell him I'll look forward to reading his latest..." Angel's faint voice... "Buffy, I understand that but I have responsibilities, too...Even if my books aren't vital to restoring the world's spirit, I have a major business to rebuild and redirect toward the Light side...People depending on me for their livelihoods..."
"That's not fair, Buffy...Most of these folks didn't even know what the firm was up to on the darker side of the balance sheet...And some of them were victims whom we've restored or are rescuing..."
Damn tootin'...Harmony glared...
"Hell, Wolfram-Hart ran hospitals and charitable institutions too, you know...And on top of that I have a son and a fiancee..."
Nina will appreciate the upgrade...Harmony thought...
"Yes, fiancee...No, it doesn't bother her...As a matter of fact she's very understanding, mainly 'cause she has her own troubles...Yes, Willow told you right, a werewolf...Pardon me?..." cold tone...
Whoops...Harmony listened intently...Always suspected Summers had an intolerant streak...
"That's not very nice, Buffy...Why is it you Slayers and your Watchers have this habit of always blaming the victim?..." Colder tone...
Long pause...
"Ok..Fine, forgotten...Yes, she is a wonderful person...In fact right now she's pouring through the old records we secured, looking to see if there's a way to keep Angelus away forever...And find herself and maybe Oz a cure...You and Willow do remember Oz?..."
"Well, he'd love to hear from you two... Anyway, Buffy...I don't see...No, I didn't mean anything...I know you were busy saving the world...Of course I did find time to see you after your mom died...Not to mention coming to Rome when I thought the Immortal was bad news..."
"All right, fair enough...I wasn't much help after you resurrected...Look, I wasn't meaning to reproach you either...Buffy, the bottom line is that my precious ass is at least as precious to me and some folks here as His Benevolence's and your Slayers'...Plus they need my signature on the paychecks...But I would be happy to see if any of my people would be willing...What?..."
"Oh?...Yes, it would be really nice if some Champion were at hand to help you out in this crisis..." he said, drily... "Yeah, it's a pity William's gone for good..."
Oh, please...Harmony frowned...
"Rumors?...What 'rumors'...?"
"Well, Buffy...As head of a major corporation I have to tell you as one CEO to another...You can't gamble on 'rumors'...What?..."
"Oh...Andrew said that, did he?...Well, you know Andrew...He always struck me as kind of...Say, just when did Andrew say that?..."
"Really?...And you've waited all this time to try and confirm this wild story...?"
"Now, Buffy...Say, would you like to hear another wild rumor?...I've heard the craziest story that those cyborgs sent to kidnap me a while back...The ones who used poor Wes' dad's face and personality for their leader...Were working for your Council?...Crazy, isn't it?..."
"Oh did he?...And you just kinda went along with it, eh?...Thanks for that show of support, Ms. Summers..."
"Fine..." curt tone... "I understand you nearly let the world be destroyed for your little girl's sake...?"
Huh?...Harmony blinked...
"Well, to me, Dawn doesn't exist as your sister...I had all spell traces removed from me years ago for my protection...I don't remember her outside meeting her after I left Sunnydale...For me, she's your daughter...Well, if I ever meet her socially I'll try to do that..."
Dawn?...Oh, right the artificial sister/energy key...
"It's nice you're taking an interest in him, Buffy...He'd've been pleased..."
Long pause...
Oooh...Angel...Harmony sighed a bit...
"Buffy?...I'm sorry...That was a little mean...No, no...Buffy, c'mon...You know he's a survivor...He's fine...Yeah...I wouldn't lie to you about that...He's just fine..."
"Well sure...He's not a monk, Summers...But no one serious that I know of..." he paused...
"Did you get that, Harmony?..." he called...
She moved away from the wall...For a moment...
Then cautiously eyeing the still-closed door moved back...
"Of course she's still listening...Harmony, don't forget the notes for my meeting at 3..." he called...
She managed to repress the urge to "Yeah, boss..."
"He's not going to consider it...'Cause I'm not telling him..."
"No, I won't...Buffy, he doesn't deserve this...He's got a soul...He's not vamp fodder for the grist mill...Plus he has his own responsibilities these days..."
"No, not Dru...Though he did help me rescue her...By the way, please don't let your people kill her when she comes to Rome, I already told Giles she has a soul again and she's just trying to get permission from the Vatican to rejoin her order...Thanks...No, actually...He has a son..."
Long pause...Harmony frowning after a bit...
Boss...That was a little...
"Buffy?...No...Adopted...Yes, adopted...He saved a baby from some demons after his parents offered to sacrifice him...Actually, he does look a lot like him...And he's just a toddler...Will can't just run off and throw his life..."
"Of course he would...He already did...Who do you think came with me to Rome, as if you didn't already know?..."
"Oh?...So now you'll get Willow to do a spell?...He might have appreciated that back when he materialized here..."
"No, I didn't...But I didn't know William then...And I did know Spike..."
"Fair enough...Yes, I was a little jealous..."
"Fine...A lot jealous...But why didn't you come when Andrew found him here?...Buffy, he lay in our hospital for a week with his hands stitched on, because he'd tried to save that crazy woman Dana for your sake as much as his redemption...Why didn't you come then?...Or at least after he came to Rome with me for you..."
"Well, I can tell you why...He was afraid you'd say you were 'glad to see him...But'...And then after Andrew told us you'd moved on..."
"Well, so do we...He, most of all...Anyway, I'll inform my people and if any of them..."
"Some are...Though your Council would have to pay them...They're not in it for the joy of protecting Humanity...Of course some might do it free just to suck up to me or your Council..."
"I told you, no...You want to see him, come over and track him down...It wouldn't be that hard, he's a partner in a multinational corporation that's on the front page of quite a few magazines and newspapers..."
"Yeah...He still writes poetry..."
Long pause...
Sigh...
"Yeah...Of course he does...He always will...But it's not fair of you to..."
"No, I told you...No one else...Seriously, anyway...So, about this crisis..."
"What do ya mean, it's nothing?...Yes, he still writes poetry...Much to my horror..."
"Immortal Beloved..." CXXX...
PG-13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (130) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)
This one plays with events in London before the action of "Heliophobia"…Although I do plan to tweak that story a bit sometime, this doesn't quite fit but I'm intrigued by some notions, so…
Archived (soon) at the 'Normal' Buffyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse at . , scroll down to "Immortal Beloved" series ...
London…An elegant converted townhouse now the site of a law firm...
"It's very kind of you to show me around, Mr. Knowles…I appreciate it..." Buffy in rather chic white overcoat, green suit, a wan smile to the kindly face of the early-sixties?...she judged…lawyer…Brushing a loose strand from the carefully pinned mass of her hair...
"A pleasure to show it to one of our American side, Mrs. Walthrop… There's so few of the family left around here these days…" he returned the smile, moving to the first door in the second floor hallway he'd led her to…
And a pleasure to encounter such a sweetly old-fashioned type...Haven't seen a young woman wearing hair that way in twenty years, outside of television or movies...Nice to know the US branch has kept the standards up...
Sounds from below, where glancing over the elegant restored railing of the balcony hallway she could see several staff scurrying about below…
She instinctively put a hand to touch…No…She looked…
"Gone?..." she half-whispered…
"Mrs. Walthrop?..." Knowles called to her…
"I…" she looked over the carved railing again…The room was not so crowded but there were carpets laid and hangings of fabric on the walls…Gas lights burning brightly, a candle or two in places…James serving…She gripped the railing…Kneeling…
Had to hide…In a moment she'd be going down…Where all of them…Where he… Was awaiting her…
"Mrs. Walthrop?...Is something wrong?..."
"The lion's gone…" she looked up at him...Blinking a bit…
"Lion?..." he eyed her… "Do you mean the brass one?..." He cocked his head a bit… "It's been sold by the firm to Sotheby's…Didn't quite fit the décor up here…How did you know?..."
"Saw it in a photograph…Back home..." she quickly replied, turning away…
So that's where you stayed…Bitch…she thought…Hiding…While…
She came over to Knowles… "Sorry to keep you waiting…Yeah, my mom had one of it in her old photos…"
"It was a shame to lose it…I would have purchased it myself if I could've afforded it…"
"She used to…My namesake…I think she used to play with it a lot…The lion…My mother told me stories about it…"
"It was a noble beast…" he smiled... "Right out of "Narnia"…Hopefully they found it a good home…I think this room is still not in use yet…" he opened the door…
She moved to the door frame and peered in…Brushing hair back…Always coming down when I wear it this way, she noted apologetically to Knowles…
Dawn's puzzled look the day she came out, hair piled…You look like you're trying out for an old movie…
Henri likes it, she'd told her…Not quite ready to discuss it, then…She looked into the room...
Papa moving me round the floor…I must learn to dance like a lady…Like Mother…She eyed the old rug…
"You haven't changed things…?"
"Not much in here…The wallpaper had to be restored but we were fortunate to find it was still available…" Knowles noted…
I have something to tell you, William…She saw his worried face…Have I done wrong?...His eyes staring up at her from the seat he'd taken on her bed…Nervous that Father would come looking for her…Had to be done quickly…
Henry's found a minister…Who'll do it…Tonight…
Don't you believe me?...She stared at his nervous face…Didn't he?...
I meant every word…I…
Betrayer…Liar…Coward…
You lied to him…You left him…Always…
"It's amazing…" she gave Knowles a smile…Moving slowly about…
But not here…They didn't bring us here…After...
"This was the daughter's room, I believe…Cicely's room…"
"Yes…" she nodded…
He couldn't believe his luck…That she really meant it and…Oh, God…
She put hands to her head…Not again…She closed her eyes…
"No, you don't…" his words lingering…
And I left him…Just as she did…
And now…Now…Her dead hand on his heart forever…She won't let him live…
And I...
No, you don't...The whisper...
Please...Please...She closed her eyes...Oh, God...Please...Just one more chance...
"Mrs. Walthrop?..."
"Sorry…A bad headache…" she put her hands down…
But she still saw him…Burning, alone…And all for…
Well, at least not for Dru…Poor kid…
But not for me…Not really…Not for me...
She calmed...Her face setting...
But it will be for me…What ever I have to do…
I'll beat her...And free him...
"There used to be a back stairway…To the roof…In here…?"
"Yes, it's right up there…Pulls down…" Knowles pointed…
Up there on the roof…The first night?...No, later…I…She wanted to prove a point…Some star that wasn't blue?...
First time he touched me besides taking my hand…Helping her up the stairs…
I stumbled a little…Deliberately, so he'd hold me…
But it wasn't here where they brought us…Her…And…Dawn…
"And there's an old sitting room next door…But that's being replastered…It'll be an office…I'd show you the old master bedroom, Sir Richard's old room but it's in use by one of our seniors…"
"He'd be pleased to know an important man was using it…Sir Richard, I mean…" she replied…
"Yes, I suppose so…" Knowles eyed her… "You've learned a great deal about your husband's family, Mrs. Walthrop. Not that many people know of Sir Richard these days, especially outside of England…"
"My family actually, since I'm an Addams…I mean…" she paused… "I'm a descendant…"
"Yes, I remember now that you'd mentioned it…How did you manage to meet a Walthrop?...Are the families so well known to each other in America?..."
"I guess we kept in touch…Somehow…" she smiled… "I met him at a sort of family get- together one fall years ago…Over time we found out we shared a lot of the family history…" She stared at the closed door to the old master bedroom as they passed…
"That's good to hear…That the family continues to be close in the United States…" Knowles nodded…"I'll have to come over sometime and trace that side…"
"We'd love to have you…Though since my mom died the family hasn't met… But my husband is always ready to tell what he knows of the stories…"
"Indeed…Well, not much more we can see up here…There's an old sitting room that belonged to…"
"Mrs. Addams…" Buffy nodded…Peering into the room…Elegant old wallpaper of green and gold… "You've changed the carpet…" she noted…
"Yes, it was too worn to save…And the pattern couldn't be replicated within our budget…Still, not too off a match, I hope…"
"Very nice…" she stared…
Father kept it so long…Exactly as she'd left it…Wouldn't even let me move a few things…I could see he hated to see me in there…I looked so like…
She blinked hastily…
Fine...Fine, have your fun…But not till we strike a deal, lady…
And Henri agrees…
But we have to be quick…He's human, vulnerable…
And God knows I'm not losing him to some cute girl in LA 'cause he's given up on me…Or Dru changes her mind again…
Dru…
We can agree on that one, can't we…Cicely?...Human or no, Drusilla is not going to win…
Big vows, Summers...But you nearly lost him to her without so much as… Words not deeds…Deeds are what matter…He knew that...
"Deeds…" she whispered…
"Mrs. Walthrop?..."
"Hmmn?...Sorry, I was thinking of Sir Richard…A man of many deeds…"
"Yes, quite…And a tragic figure, at the end, rather…"
"Yes…" Oh, poor papa…So alone…What did you do without even me to ease that loneliness?...
"Wife lost in childbirth…Daughter died as a young woman…"
Like mother, like…
"What, Mrs. Walthrop?..."
She hadn't realized she'd spoken the words…
"I think the daughter…Cicely…Died in childbirth as her mother did…"
"Really?...In childbirth?...I'd known she'd married just before her death but…"
"Her husband…William…Died just before her…"
"Your husband's people…?"
"Yes…His side…I never…" her voice trailed a bit…
"Sorry, Mrs. Walthrop?..."
"I don't know about them…I never asked him about them…My husband…"
"I think one did well in munitions during or before the First World War…A brother of the William who married your ancestor, I believe…"
"I never asked…" Buffy repeated…Nodding vaguely to Knowles' words, brushing hair back lightly…
"It's strange sometimes how little we know about the people we love… Their family histories, their childhood…" Knowles noted kindly…
"The things they had to endure to be with you…" Buffy said quietly, staring at the wallpaper a moment…
"I'm afraid the garden has been built over in front…There once was a fine overlook down that way…" Knowles nodded in the direction of the hallway running toward the front of the house.
"That's too bad…"
"Yes, a pity...But...Too much of an expense for us to maintain, I'm afraid...Would you like to see the lower level?...There's been some work and in fact we just uncovered a little mystery..."
She looked at him...
"Some rooms, sealed off from the current rear of the house...Our architect and I suspect it may have to do with the fact that the Addams' were closet Catholics..."
"The chapel..." she nodded...
"Yes, quite...Even in the nineteenth century it wasn't something every prominent family would advertise..."
I'd've loved to have been married there...But Papa would surely...
So cold there...In the dark...Papa used to tell those stories about the priest they caught in the old manor...
Cold...Dark...But not lonely...
"...but why it would have been sealed up..." Knowles shrugged...
"Lets have a look...If you wouldn't mind...?" she paused, nearly at the stairs...
"Certainly...We will have to be a bit careful...It's still being opened up...But the workmen have put in some lighting... " he waved her on and she continued onto and down the staircase...Passing the busy first floor...Down...
I've felt this before...Once...
But I was digging my way out then, not crawling back in...
Oh, William...Don't abandon me...Not now...
They stood in a large room on the lower floor...Covered gas and plumbing fixtures about...A large old sink to their left...Brick, whitewashed walls...
"Kitchen here..." Knowles waved at the old fixtures... "Just a storage area now...And through here...Laundry room...And..."
He paused at the rear of the laundry...Nothing but file cabinets in it now...She eyeing the wall...Not quite able to stare at it for more than seconds...
"And down here is where they realized the wall had been blocked off and we got permission to pierce the wall..." he waved at a large opening, torn into the wall...He reached to a jury-rigged fixture and snapped a switch...Lights came on in the room beyond...
"Please be careful..." he told her...
"Yes..." she nodded... "I'd better be..."
Here...I'd better be...
She stepped inside, carefully protecting her coat from catching on the torn bricks...
Another large room, not different from the laundry, though fewer fixtures about...
"Back there..." she moved on...Passing into another room...Where a long wall was heavily paneled in carved wood...
"Magnificent isn't it?..." Knowles stared at the paneling... "This must have been the chapel..."
"Yes..." she nodded... "The altar was there...Nothing very big..." she pointed to where a rectangular black space could be seen on the floor...As if something large had been moved away...
"I think you're right...It must have been removed at some point..."
She stared at the long sweep of carved wood paneling...
"This is different..." she touched a large square...Which appeared no different from the rest...
"You think so?..."
"Listen..." she tapped the wood...He came and put an ear closer, imitating her own move...
"Yes...I hear it...Hollow, you'd say?..."
"I think I can..." she carefully pulled at a piece of molding on the panel...Working it gently to the eye but with concentrated, concealed force...
God, I hope I don't...The panel moved back...
"Well, hollow it is..." Knowles stared... "How did you guess...?"
"Mom must have mentioned it..." she said, hurriedly...Pushing the large panel to the side...A space large enough...
"Do you have a flashlight...Or can that reach...?" she indicated a work light hooked to a chain on the brick wall to their left...
"Just a minute..." he moved over to the work light and carefully lifted it off its hook...
"You'd better let me..." she took the light from him and turning, stepped inside before he could protest...
He followed, frowning slightly... "Mrs. Walthrop, please be careful...I..."
He froze at her sharp scream...Not a frightened cry...More like...
Rage...
"Mrs. Walthrop?...Are you all right?..." he came over to where she stood, the light a bit weak for the room's blackness...
"Murder..." she whispered...Staring...
He peering at the large bronze plaque, set in stone into the wall...
"Cicely Anne Walthrop...1857-...My God..." he backed away...
So...There you are...Bitch...She stared...
Poor bitch...So that's what happened to you...That's why you didn't...
"They did this..." she whispered...
Oh, God...They did this...
Giles...Giles...No...
I didn't want to...Believe her...
Giles... All these years...And when he finally freed himself...And you could have told me...
"Buried...Here...?" Knowles shook his head...
"Why?..."
Giles...You...Bastard...Her hands clenching...
You knew...You knew...
That's why...You didn't need to kill Spike...
But William...She put her hands to her face...
"Murderers...All of you..." she whispered...
"Look..." Knowles, touching a lower plaque...
"What?..." she stared blankly...
"Another one...Amelia..." he began reading...
"...Dawn..." she said, staring at the words..."Amelia Dawn Walthrop... 1880-..."
"No death date..." Knowles pondered...
"Yes, there is..." Buffy said quietly... "It was all the same...The birth and death day..."
It was kind of Father, really...To put a proper plaque up...
"Mr. Knowles?...You've been so kind...Could you just let me have a moment here?..."
"What?..." he looked at her, still stunned...
"Just a moment..." she said, her accent rather clipped...Precise... "I'd like to say a prayer or two..."
"Well...Yes...If you'd like...But please, not too long, Mrs. Walthrop...We should get upstairs...I'll have to let everyone know...This is quite a..."
"Of course..." she nodded...Smiling... "I'll be out in just a minute..."
He left her, cautiously backing out...Wiping his brow as he emerged...
So...She eyed the plaques...
Here you are...But thanks to me...And the Benedictine monks...Dawn's free...And you're alone...
"What a fool you were, Cicely..." she told the plaque... "You couldn't even save Dawn...Didn't even manage to stake him..."
This'll be a piece of cake, sweetie...
Though I am sorry for Henri...I think he really did care for you...And he means well...
"But you'll have your chance...I'll keep my end...And when we get him over here...We'll see..."
Just don't count on my playing fair...Cause you've had your chances before, loser...And Buffy Summers has never lost a battle...
"And this..." she felt the chain on her neck and pulled up an antique pendant... "This is gonna be mine fair and square...William's gift to the woman who loves him...And didn't fail him...In the end..."
Sorry...She looked down to Amelia's plaque... "But you're mine as much as hers now, Dawn...And I swear...I'll give you your father back...Whatever it takes..."
"Loser..." she repeated bitterly, eyeing Cicely's plaque... "You won't keep him in there with you, bitch...Cowardly bitch..."
"Bring it on..."
"Immortal Beloved..." CXXXI...
PG-13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (130) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)
Office of the CEO, Wolfram-Hart and Associates , October 2003...
"I'll take that..." grab at envelope...
"Buffy?..." Angel stares at the newly materialized figure...
Geesh, that encounter with the First has aged her a couple of years...
"Ms. Summers, what are you doing here?..." Wesley staring...
"Wes..." Buffy nods... "Tell Charley Gunn...Forget the brain boosters...If you really love Winifred, her life depends on it..."
"Buffy...What the hell are you doing here?..." Angel asks... "Is something wrong?..."
"I'm altering the past...For love..." she notes... "Angel...I'm sorry that I let my anger get in the way...I know what you're up to here..."
"What?..."
"I won't let you down next time, I promise...Will and I will be there..."
"Buffy?..." Wesley, shocked... "Are you saying you've altered the timeline?..."
"Hell, yes..." Buffy nodded... "I found out about Cicely, Wes..."
Uh-oh...Wesley gulped...
"But, Ms. Summers...To alter the timeline..."
"Wes...If Star Trek, Inc can do it...I can..." she nodded... "Bye..."
"Buffy?..." Angel blinked as Buffy vanished...Bearing envelope...
"Immortal Beloved..." CXXXII...
PG-13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (132) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)
Los Angeles…
Yesterday…
New offices of Angel, Gunn, Walthrop, and Burkle-Wyndham-Price…
"You're really up for this?..." Angel eyes his partner… William nodding…
"Well, I gotta admire you…The Immortal is a challenge…Though it's odd there's been nothing new about the two of them in over three years…" he leaned back in his chair… "But I did think you and Fred-Lyria…"
"I said I hate that name…" Illyria in Winifred form frowned from her seat…
"Fred has a fella waiting, Angel…" Will smiled at her… "I may have been many things in my time but I've never stolen another bloke's girl…"
Angel blinking at that one…Oh, really…?
"…before it was over…Nina doing well at the 'spa'?...Osborne been dispensing useful advice?..." innocently…
"Yeah…Great…" narrow look…
"Anyway…Now we got the Partners finally licked once and for all, I thought I ought to see what's up in Europe with our favorite Slayer…"
"Reports are pretty scarce on her…" Angel shook his head… "I'm convinced she's deliberately been keeping a low profile at least since the Partners tried to grab and enslave those Slayers two years ago…Frankly I wonder if she and the Immortal as a couple was some kind of smoke-screen…"
"All the more reason for me to pay a call on His B…" Will noted… "He'll at least have some answers…And I do have some formidable support…"
"You got him?..." Angel blinked again… "I thought for sure he was dead…"
"Actually he's in our waiting room…Eighty-three years old and semi-retired but still the man to call for a mission like this…" Will noted… "If I may…?"
"I gotta see this…" Angel nodded…
"Harmony…" Will buzzed the intercom… "Send them in…"
"Harmony?..."
"Uh, yeah…" vague reply… Giggling laughter… "Oh, I'm only in my twenties…Even with the vamp body…" to someone…
"Harmony…" Angel cut in… "Would you please send our visitors in?..."
Ummn… "Yes, Mr. Angel…"
A group of five entered…One woman, four men…All a bit on the far side of senior…But all good-looking for their age and extremely well-dressed in suits and lead by a tall man in gray suit…Who, despite white hair and wrinkles had a bearing and projected a general air of confidence and well…
Illyria smiling brightly at his smile…
"Mr. Walthrop…My team…Paul Kinsey, Salvatore Romano, Peter Campbell, Peggy Olsen…"
Slight frown from Peggy…Lord, when is he gonna put me before Pete…
"Mr. Draper…My partners, Mr. Angel and…"
"Hi, Winifred Burkle…" Illyria smiled warmly, hastily offering a hand… Uh… "Burkle-Wyndham-Price…" Draper, warm smile, appraising look…
Sorry, Wes…Just lost it there a sec…
Peter Campbell frowning to Paul Kinsey…Damnit if Draper still hasn't got it…
"You suppose his wife still hasn't caught on since '63…?" he whispered…
"You wanna keep working…?" Kinsey returned…
Salvatore still shaking William's hand…Apparently reluctant to release…
"Well, our campaign…" Draper nodded to Kinsey and Ms. Olsen who pulled folders from their respective briefcases…Romano setting up on a laptop…
"In dealing with your Ms. Summers we thought nostalgia might be the way to go…" Draper noted… "It's delicate…But potent…Screen, please…"
Slide of Buffy facing William in battle appears…
"When I got my first job as a copywriter, I worked for an old Greek named Teddy…" Draper began, exalted look, persuasive voice… "Teddy once told me…"
"He's the best…" Will noted to Illyria…
"Yeah…Shhh…" she said, staring at Draper…
"Immortal Beloved..." CXXXIII...
PG-13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (133) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)
The City of Angels…One more just arrived…
The night of the epic battle with the combined forces of the Senior Partners…
Now, despite the ridiculous odds at the opening, in full, disorganized retreat to their overloading Hell portal…
An anxious, weary-looking slight blonde-haired figure bending over what appeared to be a heap of debris or garbage covered in gore and a torn black jacket…But which in moving revealed itself to be…
"You're here…" he looked up at her through a world of pain…Recognition of her face slowly coming to him almost as if out of a mist… "You came…"
"Yes…I came…Now lets get you outta here…Are you in a lot of pain?...Can you lean on me?..."
"I'd say I can walk but the leaning thing is too good to pass up…" he grinned wanly…Feeble wave of arms…
She put her arm round him and his arm on her shoulder… "Ok, now…"
He groaned a bit as she raised him to his feet…
Careful…He looks bad…
I know that…
"Will…I'm sorry…" she turned to his battered face, pausing…He saw a tear run…
"Should we stop?...Should I put you down, get some help?..."
My dear God…You are now off the hook for my unjust condemnation, old fellow…He mentally, thankfully prayed…
"No, no…It's fine…Nothing that won't heal in a day…"
"Well, we'll let a doctor decide that…" she said firmly…
"Just don't go…" he looked at her face… "Even if this is just a dream before dying or you're the First or some shapeshifter…"
"It's me, Will…And I won't…"
"Angel...The boy…Lyri…" he looked around…
Lyri?...Is that the…
"They're safe, Will…The human guy…Charlie?..." she hesitated… "He's on his way to a hospital…Dr. Burkle's with him…" she paused again… "Is that her nickname?...Lyri?..."
"Yeah…" he nodded… "From her middle name…"
"Part demon, isn't she?..."
"Since her 'accident', yeah…"
"She was worried about you…But Angel and I told her we'd go on looking…Angel's somewhere about now…I'll see someone lets him know…"
I agree...I like William better…
Will you stop?...
Well, Angel's engaged or something isn't he?...
"That's great…" he was gasping a bit now…
"We'd better get a move on…Unless you need to…"
"I'm fine…Fine, now…"
He went limp and she took him up in her arms…
"Will…Will…"
Oh…Buffy…He's…
Quiet…He'll make it…We're going…
He opened his eyes…
"This one just keeps getting better…" another faint smile…
"I'll get you in now…" she said… "Just hold tight…"
"Forever…" he smiled…
They hurried on through the streets…The night lit up by the fires blazing merrily throughout the area…Consuming cars, buildings, the occasional screaming demon…Rain though was just starting to fall…
Hurry, hurry…
I am…I am…
"Will, are you ok?...Tell me to stop if you need me to…"
"Fine…fine…" fainter…
He's so much more beautiful than…
Yeah, yeah…Don't distract me…God knows what's still out here…I better keep talking…They say it's wrong to let somebody pass out after a head injury…
"Will…I'm sorry I didn't come before…" she spoke to him …
"How…Long…"
"Not long…A month…Andrew told me…"
"Really…" stronger voice, surprised… "Wells held out all this time?..."
Andrew…Anger…
Stop it…Giles told him not to…
"He wanted to tell me…Giles made him keep it to themselves…"
Damn…Is that the word?...Giles…
He was protecting me…He and you and I have a deal…And we are not gonna hurt him…You understand me?...
Yes…Reluctant…
"So, after Rome, eh?..."
He sounds better…Hurry up…
I don't want to hurt him more…
Tell him…That'll cheer him up…
Enough…
"He told me you were in Rome…" blurted…
Hey…What do you think you're doing?...
Sorry…But tell him…
"Did he?...Angel was there too, you know…"
"So he said…"
"Haven't read anything in the mags…How'd it work out?..." he asked, wearily…
See…He thinks…
I know…
"I wasn't with the Immortal, Will…That was a stand-in…An actress Slayer…"
"What?..."
I knew that would cheer him up…Look…
Stop it…
"Giles and Andrew thought I needed protection after Angel seemed to be going with the Partners…She was a very good copy…And was willing to take the gig…Also Giles wanted info on His Benevolence…"
"I rather suspected I was makin' a fool of myself…" whisper…
No…
"No, Will…It was beautiful of you…And Angel…Why didn't you try and…" she paused a second…
"…Punch his lights out…"
Good one…
Thanks…
Faint chuckle from Will… "God knows I wanted to…But I figured…" groan…
"Lets hold up a mo…I need to catch my breath…" she halted… "How are you?..."
Didn't you ever learn any medical procedures?...What do you call it…'First Aid'?...
I don't know anything that'll help here…He's a vamp…He'll either make it or…
"Help!...My William's hurt!..." she screamed suddenly…
"Buffy?..." William in her arms stared up at her…
Stop it…Don't do that again…
He needs help…
We have a deal and you're breakin' it…
Sorry…He needs help…
I know that!...
You don't care…You wouldn't even have come…
That's not true…
You could have come days…Weeks ago…We could've got here before he even…
Shut up!...
"Will, I'm better now…Are you ready to go?...We should get outta here…"
"Your call, love…I'm sure I'll go where you go…"
Move it!...
I said shut up!...But she hurried on…
"Will…Of course I came…But William…" Buffy sighed…
Not now…Buffy…
He needs to know…I won't let him die, thinking…
"I understand…" he said quietly… "I'm just glad you came…"
You told him you loved him…
I do…In my way…
"I'll always love you, William…"
In my way…Sarcastic…
Stop…
Where I come from…
You can do as you please…But here, you follow my lead…Or else…
Take me to Drusilla as soon as we get William safe…The Council's got her in confinement now…
You can't deal with a vamp…
I'll guide her…It'll save lives…Besides, she may opt for soul recovery…
Dru?...Please…
My mission with you is done…I have enough information…
Great, then you can go home…
"Leave me here, love…" whisper…
What?...Dual voices in head…
"I've no great wish to hang round…Let me go and see if I've made enough points to reach Heaven…"
"William, be quiet…"
"There's nothing for me here, Buffy…I have family in the afterlife…Just put me down and promise to think kindly of me…I'll be fine…"
Great job, Slayer…Sarcastic voice…
"No…" she replied to him…
"I'm not your burden, love…Let me go…" he feebly struggled…
"I can't…" she replied… "I won't…Besides, we're almost there…"
"Fine…" he sighed…
"I take it back…" she said, hastily…
"Sure…" he said, quietly… "I've never held you to…"
"No…That's not what I mean…"
"Buffy…We've never lied to each other…"
You didn't stop me…
No…I didn't…But leave this to me…
"I wanted to stay…At Sunnydale…" she said…
"That's not what I wanted, Slayer…"
"Why didn't you come to me?...Were you afraid?..."
"To death…Undeath…"
I see them…
Yeah…
"There's the disaster team…" she told him… "Just a little longer…You'll be fine…"
"Sure…"
"Give a girl a chance, Will…This is huge, you know…"
"Buffy…Don't…I'm sorry…I won't do anything…Just don't…"
"No, we love you…!"
"Well…Thank the Nibs for me…"
Damnit, I said!…
Sorry…
"We've gotta talk, Will…When you're better…Please…"
"Ok…"
I still say, take me to Dru if you aren't gonna…
Shut…The…F…Up!... She halted, nearly stumbling with him…
"Slayer?..." Will looked at her…
"Ummn…Sorry…Not you…"
"That was internal…" he said…Staring… "I'm still demon enough to sense that…When you shout at least…And I thought I heard…Whispering…Who's in there with you?..."
Oh-oh…Say, he's good…
I'll have to tell him…
Ok…Happy tone…And tell him I'll gladly take him off your hands…
In a whatever you use for a farm animal's eye…
"Yeah, there's someone else in here…" Buffy sighed…
"Not demon…I think…" he looked at her face…
"May I present my guest…Sorta…Malica…My visiting thing from another world…"
"Call me a visitor from Planet X…My people don't like to give away our stellar position till we know whom we're dealing with…" sheepish smile on Buffy's face…
"She's not in control…Just along for the ride…" Buffy explained as he frowned… "It's a deal between her folks and the Council…We were looking for new allies and they wanted more info about Earth…"
"I'm sorta an explorer and ambassador all rolled up in one…" she continued… "But like Buffy says, I'm not running her…" warm smile…
"I volunteered…We were worried what with some of the new Slayers turning to evil and Angel maybe lost to us…" Buffy shrugged…
"And our people were worried about your darker forces here…Some of them have been colonizing out in the Galaxy, you know…"
"I see…I guess…" Will stared…
"I'm not Evil, Will…Buffy can oust me at any time…But we oughta get you to the hospital…And let Angel know you're ok…"
"It really is ok, Will…"Buffy nodded… "But she's right, lets get you in, ok?...Then we can talk…"
"Dru's been caught…" she added hastily… "So if things don't work out…"
"That 'ousting' is starting to sound good…" Buffy said, coldly…
Just making my case, Slayer…
"I guess…I'm…Flattered…" Will blinked…
"You're the most wonderful creature I've ever…Jesus!..."
Like I said, Slayer…
"Very flattered…" he grinned…
"She didn't make me come, you know…" Buffy, grousingly…
"Immortal Beloved..." CXXXIV...
PG-13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (134) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)
UCLA subcampus …Evening adult extension class…
"Lit 311… "Shakespeare, Swift, and Joyce…A brief tour…" written on the large chalkboard at the auditorium hall's front…Thirty-seven students scattered about the only room available…
"The word known to all men…" written and underlined on the board…The instructor eyeing the class as best he could, given the scattering…A few, mostly women concentrated in the first two rows…A number clearly in hiding in the sides and rear…
"Right then…Nice to see a few of you have returned…To return to the theme we began at the end of class Tuesday… '…the word known to all men…' in 'Ulysses'…We've established from the earlier passage in the National Library scene that the word Stephen wishes from his mother's ghost… '…the word known to all men…' is love…"
Oh, yeah…One young brown-haired woman in front row nodded eagerly at the young teacher, rather too-good-looking for such a class despite his sedate beige suit pausing before her…
That's that word…
"Now the lines we discussed confirming that from the passage include a line conjoining two phrases from Thomas Aquinas's 'Summa contra gentiles', namely distinguishing between two forms of love…That unselfish love which in the first six words 'amor vero aliquid alicui bonum vult' genuinely wishes another's good and the selfish desire of one to secure pleasure for him- or her- self 'unde et ea quae concupiscimus'…"
"Jesus…" one young man in the back, left side, reasonably secure from the teacher's direct attention, whispered to the girl next to him…She even better hidden by a cement pillar… "He's giving us Latin now?..."
"Shut up…" the girl whispered back…
The man frowned but, noticing that despite the distance the young brown-haired teacher was now clearly eyeing him, was silent, pulling back a bit in his chair…
So much for that…Girl's cute but just a bookhead…Like a lot of the girls in this damned class, he noted to himself…
Ah…Sides, she's wearin' a wig…Probably got cancer or something and she's all "soulful"…Not worth the trouble…He resumed the doodling in his notebook he'd been at since the class' start…God, did Jackie steer me wrong on this class… 'You'll get good lines to pick up girls', he said…
Uh-huh…What…Am I gonna quote Latin in a bar?…And all the good girls exceptin' Ms. Snotface here are down there droolin' at the guy…
"So we see the larger implications of 'Ulysses' follow from the accord of Bloom and Stephan Dedalus about love. If we consider the book as a whole, the theme of love will be seen to pervade it… 'Love's bitter mystery', quoted repeatedly from Yeats's poem 'Who goes with Fergus?' appears repeatedly, primarily as the song Stephen remembers having sung to his mother on her deathbed. Although Buck Mulligan is the first to quote the poem, he can't understand it, being a spirit that always denies. It's also alien to the experience of our womanizer Blazes Boylan. Yet Bloom understands it, and so does Molly, and both show us that they cherish moments of affection from their lives together as crucial points from which to judge later events."
Pen drop by a very young brown-haired woman in large hat, barely out of her teens if that, seated next to the woman in wig…She leaned to pick up the pen, holding hat firmly…
" …In the last episode of the book, Molly Bloom, after some equivocation between her physical longing for Boylan and her thoughts of Bloom, comes down firmly on the side of Bloom and of their old feelings for each other. 'Ulysses' ends in a vision of reconciliation rather than of sundering…"
Sound of book hitting floor…Hasty grab by woman in wig…
"Joyce, following his master, Dante, has made the case for love…Love in its various forms, sexual, parental, filial, brotherly, and by extension, social…Obliquely, to preserve the novel from didacticism or sentimentality…Like Dante, he tells us that affection between human beings, however transitory, however qualified, is the closest we can come to paradise…"
Oh…Yeah…Collective sigh from various women and men across the large auditorium…Gazes fixed on the teacher…He, catching, just a bit disconcerted for a second…
Ummn…He caught sight of the young woman usually hidden by the pillar…She staring back a moment, then pulling up her copy of 'Ulysses'…
"Ummn…Yes…That this affection may at times lose its force does not invalidate it…Dante claimed that Adam and Eve's paradise lasted only six hours and Proust reminds us that the only true paradise…" he stared again, a moment…
"…is the one we have lost…But, the word know to all men has been defined and affirmed, regardless of whether or not it may be subject to diminution…"
"Say, he's good…" Dawn hissed…Pulling hat down as the instructor eyed her as well…
"He went to Cambridge…" Buffy replied, a tad proudly, adjusting her brunette wig…
"How do you spell 'Aquinas'?" she whispered…
"Immortal Beloved..." CXXXV...
PG-13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (135) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)
"Are you sure?…" Angel eyes William…
"Pretty sure…" sigh…
"Really…?" looks over to group of assorted demons, vamps, occasional well-heeled corporate human types…All clustered rather respectfully about a slight blonde female of human aspect, in rather dashing red and black ball gown…Hair elegantly piled, with tiara…
That look a somewhat more difficult thing to do that one might imagine… Both of our heroes currently swinging upside-down, bound and hanging from cables…Though only about twenty feet up…
"Angel…Don't be a putz…" another sigh… "She might be annoyed with us, want us out of her life, but even she wouldn't have us in this position…"
Hmmph…Angel shakes head…
And they claim he got to know her better than me…
"Boys…You comfortable?…" Grinning image of Buffy Summers in gown staring up at them…
"Only thirty minutes till dawn you know…I hope the…Suspension…Ain't killing ya…"
Hee…Chuckle…
"Watch…" Will hisses…Giving final rub to loosened shoe on right foot… Which dropped toward the ground…But, to Will's startled surprise…
"Ow!…" the figure howled, jumping back…
Right…Angel, smug look to his swinging…and twisting, slowly in the wind, partner…You know her so well, don't you?…
"It can't be…" Will blinked… "She must have found a way to go solid…"
"Jerk!…" she picked up and threw the shoe, missing him…
First or no, she throws like Buffy…Angel thought…
"Lower them!…" she cried, waving to the hulking demons demoning the pulley system to which their cables were attached…
The boys were lowered slowly until their heads were just above hers…
"Nice touch, girl…" Will, pleasantly… "How'd you manage corporeal?… Lindsay make a deal with you or something?…"
"That's some way to treat your girl, Walthrop…After she's done so much for you…" grin…
"She's gonna give the speech now…" Angel noted…
"Ah right, the Speech…Remember when I was Evil?…I never wasted time with the Speech…Or, the Plan…" Will, nostalgically… "Just grabbed what I needed and came in, fangs out…"
"Are you interested in why I'm going to kill my lovers or not?…" she fumed…
"Girl…Why are you playing this broken record?…" Will did his best to shake head… "We've met, remember?…Or did our destroying you and your army leave you with amnesia?…"
Lovers…She did say…Lovers…Angel noted to himself, pleased…
Not that I need another girlfriend right now…
"You just saw proof I'm the real Buffy…"
"Please…"
"Fine…" she came to him, waved to the demon crew…
He was lowered by a foot…And gasped suddenly as she grabbed and kissed him…
Mmmppphhhff…
She let go…Arch look…
"Was that a trick?…Or real tongue…?"
I did not need to hear that, Angel thought…
"Lovely…Come on…Buffy would join the Partners and overactingly want us dead…Why?…"
"Ah…" grin… "Now I got your curiosity…"
"That was sarcasm, girl…"
"Oh…" slightly crestfallen look…
"Still as we've nothing to do till sunrise…And you obviously are desperate to tell us all…" Will paused…
"That's making a girl feel wanted…"
"You're not a girl…And you're not Buffy Summers…But…" vague hand motion… "Give us the Speech, if you must…"
"I am Buffy Summers…" she frowned… "Of course…I'm the First, too…" she resumed her grin… "And all thanks to my dear Willy-boy…"
"I think she's telling the truth, Spike…" Angel frowned…
"Shut up, you pointy-haired idiot…" she glared…
"Though you are quite correct…"
"Crap…" Will sneered… "You vs. the Greatest Slayer of Them All?…Who whipped your lil' ass thoroughly last time?…"
"I did it for you, Will…" she glared… "And some thanks I get…Betraying everyone and thing I hold dear…Letting the First crawl right back into the world through me…"
"Which of course was always my real plan…" grin… "Though I was willing to give Caleb and the Uber-vamps their shot…"
"Uh-huh…"
"You don't believe me?…Geesh…Angel?…You believe me, right?…I sense it's kinda tearing your guts out…That I'd do something so incredibly…"
"Stupid?…" Will, politely…
"…I was gonna say self-sacrificing…" she frowned… "But fine, 'stupid', if you like…"
"You?…For him?…"Angel stared…
"Bw…Ha, ha, ha…" both Unmen burst into laughter…Rapid swinging and twisting…
"Jesus, guys…" she stared at the two rather dizzy vampires… "Even I can get that this was an incredible act of Love…"
"Buffy coming to LA with a hundred Slayers would be an incredible act of love, girl…" Will smiled… "She don't do possession…"
"She's been possessed…Angel, tell him how I got possessed by a ghost that time…What?…" she looked over to where a demon was waving an arm at her…
"Great…We only got ten minutes now…" she sighed…Damn…
"Better move it along, girl…" Will, helpfully…
Oh, fine…She waved over a demon from the pulley team…"Eh, have the guys bring them into that big warehouse over there…" she pointed…
Eh…Seven feet of something like fossilized pus…Nodded and complied…
"Must be quite a Speech…" Angel noted as the two, still hanging, were towed along toward and then into the large warehouse…
The LA block around them utterly devastated, burning …
"Ok…" the First/Buffy?…nodded…Smile to the boys now swinging rather widely, thanks to the dragging…
"Hey, stop them would you, I'm getting dizzy watching them?….Thanks…So… Now we got a little more time…"
"We should finish them now!…" one of the Senior Partners…One of the humanish, corporate types in suit…Insisted…
"I'm running this show!…" Buffy/The First?…glared… "And I'll say when we destroy my boyfriends!…Hey…" she grinned… "The ultimate female fantasy, eh guys?…"
"Right…So why don't you cut us down and let your ex-s…"
"Ex-?…Will?…Are you dumping me, now?…" she frowned… "Without even hearing the story of what I/she did for you?…"
"Buffy is with the Immortal and has moved on, girl…And I'm good with that…But kudos for a good try…"
"That miserable Andrew!…" she cried… "I shoulda killed him in Rome before I slipped out of England…Damn him and his little jokes!…Well, don't worry Will…I'll have a Slayer disembowel him before the next sunrise over there…"
They trust me kinda blindly, she explained… "Most of them…So what I say goes, even if it might sound a little Evil…Stupid, but along with my slightly diminished but still pretty fair persuasive powers…You know, Will…And that's of course how we'll rule the world through the Slayers…"
"So I'll just tell one of them Andy's returned to Evil, gut and stuff him'…No problem, Will…"
"Uh-huh…"
"I got Giles and the whole remaining Council under Slayer lock-and- key, awaiting trial and execution on my return…" she noted… "You can magine…I told the girls he didn't say a word about you to me, letting you and Angel die when we couldn't get to LA in time to save you … Wanted to control us forever like they always did…That sort of thing…"
"Sure…Fine plan…"
"Angel?…" she turned to face his face, hanging about two feet above her… "You believe me?…"
"She has been possessed, Will…And it sounds like a Partners' scheme…"
"Yeah?…Lemme get this straight?…You got Buffy to just hand over …"
"For you…" she insisted, eagerly…
"For me…Right…And she fell for it, let you in, and you're now about to do global mayhem in her boots…And this was the real plan all along… Not Uber-vamp uber alles…?"
"The Ubies vs. the US military…In daylight?…Come on, Will…Give me credit for half-a-disembodied brain?…A few smart bombs on wherever we were hiding by day and it's over… "
Point there…Angel noted…
"Hans Christian Anderson couldn't have written a more tragic one, girl… I'm weepin'…Now can we cut the crap and you do whatever you plan to do with us?…You know by now, the Council's gotta have figured out Angel's plan or at least noticed your handiwork in LA…And Buffy and several thousand Slayers must be on the way…"
"Some guys…" she glared… "You don't believe I cared enough?…You think I took up with His Pompousity?…That was Andrew's plan to divert attention…That was an actress-Slayer you saw with him…You know, the one who did those Scooby Doo movies…"
She did look like Buf…And she'd be hard up enough, Angel nodded… And Wells kept that secret from us in Rome?…Andrew Wells?…" Will chuckled…
"Giles told him to…You know how he worships Giles…Besides he thought it was hilarious after the way you left me hangin'…"
Literally, I mean…She noted…"They found me on the end of a rope one day…Too Slayer to choke and not enough knowledge of how to do the neck break so I didn't quite manage it…But while I was in the coma…"
Bwwha…Ha, ha, ha, ha…Angel and Will…
Her face fell…What?…
"Buffy tried to kill herself…Over me?…" Will sputtered as he continued laughing…
"Lady…I take it back…"Angel, chuckling… "I don't believe it…"
"You assholes!…" she shrieked… "William, do you know what I went through after you died?…Again…And when I found out about Cicely…"
This is gonna end badly…I feel it…The Senior Partner who'd spoken up before, hissed to his comrades…
Can't we just blow the building and apologize to her redisembodied lf later?…When she's out of Summers and her fully uncaring self again?…
"Fate Joe…" Mao, his comrade noted… "Fate…"
"Cicely?…" Will stared…
"Well, that's got your tongue…" she noted, crossly… "Yeah, Cicely…"
"Cicely?…" Angel repeated… "Was that the girl you were always going on about but never would go out with Dru to kill?…"
"Yeah…Cicely?…" Will frowned… "Are you trying to say Buffy was jealous of Cicely?…And cut a deal with you 'cause she didn't want me going after her in Heaven or something?…"
"What?…Heaven, No…" she shook her head…
"She went to the archives in London…To look up your last name for a headstone…"
"Nice…Have to thank her…"
"And the idiot Watcher there let her see the files on Cicely Addams Walthrop…Vampire Slayer…"
"What?…"
"Walthrop?…" Angel blinked… "Say, wasn't that your…?"
"William Soames Walthrop…Beautiful name…" she beamed…
"Why would she keep the name?…And what do you mean, vampire-Slayer?…"
"You were married to her?…" Angel stared… "And all that time I thought Dru was being irrational…I mean over her usual…"
"Vampire-Slayer…As in…How could I make such a terribly selfish decision as to love and marry a poor man who'll be vamp-fodder no matter how much I try to protect him…?"
"Really?…"
"You seeing the point at last?…I sent you away to save you…But my Watcher and the Council had other plans…"
"You?…"
"Me…"
"I'm confused…" Angel sighed…
"Like we're surprised?…" she sneered… "Too much blood rushing to that little brain…Guys, put them on the floor…I want 'em both up for this…"
I'm heading home for Hell now…Good luck, boys…Joseph sighed to his mates…Mao and Adolf eyeing each other…
"Maybe we better…" Mao suggested…
"I won't go back from LA…" Adolf insisted… "We must hold every inch of Earth…"
"It didn't work on the Eastern front, Dolf…It won't work here…"
Will and Angel, still trussed up, on the floor now…
"Either of you need some blood…Water…?" she asked…
"A little Marcus would be nice right now…" Angel suggested…
"Funny…" she frowned…Chairs…She waved to her demon crew who brought chairs over…
Thanks…Will told the demon hoisting him into a chair…
"You welcome…" the fur-clad female smiled demurely…Backing off at severe glare from her mistress…
"So where were we?…Oh, yeah…" the First/Buffy? resumed… "So I went to Giles, raging…Cursing…Holding him up by the throat with one hand…Boy, was I pissed…But you remember how he tried to kill you with soul, Will? …Now I knew the real reason he'd done that…And that he'd known about you all along…And that the Council had suspected I'd be back for you… And them…And that Buffy Summers seemed to fit the bill for a Cicely reincarnate very nicely…If not brunettely…"
"Wait…"Angel frowned… "So that means…"
"I was looking for a soulful…If not necessarily souled vamp…When we met…" she nodded… "And that the only thing really between you and me, ex-beau, is that you created the thing that killed my husband…"
Very disturbing turn of events for Buffy…As you can imagine…She noted to the boys…
"Caused the death of her husband…The condemnation of her husband…Dated the thing that helped to kill him…Let the Council hoodwink her again… Failed to help him when he was right in front of her, suffering, for years…Even when he got enough of himself back to love her…Even when he got his soul back without her help…And to top it all off…"
"You can see how this could lead to a major shift in thinking on her part…" she noted…
"She'd never sell out…Not even…"
"Oh, God, Will…You know me well enough to know I thought I could handle me…She/I offered a chance to save you if I agreed to let her have some access…I took the deal and she/I told me where you'd been all this time and the danger you were in…Thanks to our wanna-be Christ figure here…" glare to Angel…
"Unfortunately…Once you let me in…I've a way of taking root…I played the waiting game and didn't push…And over time her anger and sense of betrayal…And Giles' efforts to prevent me from helping you…Pushed me into the driver's seat…" she beamed…
"So I owe it all to my hubbie…"
"Great…" Will frowned… "Brilliant, Cicely…Another fine plan…I think I want a divorce…"
"What?…" her face fell…
He grabbed her, ropes loosened round him, falling off…
"Hey…" she and Angel startled…
"I met Houdini once…Got him a genuine séance with his mother in exchange for a few tips…" he noted…
"So dearest…I guess this means you can die now…" he told her…Rope about her throat…
My minions'll kill you!…" she cried…
"Ok, ma'am!…" Eh nodded…Waving to archers…
"Hold it!…" she screamed…
Fine…Eh frowned…
Ever since she went solid she's been so changeable…
"How much longer….?" Will hissed…
"Fifteen, I think…Xander's bringing them in from the south of the city…" she whispered back… "God, did you know all the time?…"
"Pretty much after you didn't kill us right away…You know you're playing with fire, girl…It is the First…"
"Thanks…" whisper… "Nice to get a little respect after the way…"
"I can hold her till the exorcism…" Buffy nodded…
"At least let me kill my partners…" she whispered… "They persuaded me on this one…"
"And Buffy promised I could stay for the wedding…"
"Immortal Beloved..." CXXXVI...
PG-13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (136) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)
"You're out of your Undead mind..."
"Poof, we've no choice...We've got to take a risk..."
"A risk, Spike?...This isn't a risk...This is sheer suicide..."
"I like that...Angel, I happen to know what I'm about..."
"Right..."
"This is a sure-fire plan, Angel...And we can't go on like this, waiting for the inevitable end..."
"We've survived up to now...Illyria?...Gunn?..."
"Winifred..." Illyria corrected from her chair where she sat, decked out in Fredian dress...Extremely Fredian... "I don't mean to hurt anyone but you...Guys...All agreed..."
"Sorry, Winifred..." Angel sighed... "But you agreed this idea is insane?..."
"I don't know Angel..." Charley shook head...Will brightening at the support... "William may have something here...'Twilight' made a fortune and is still raking it in..."
"The last of what we scraped from the collapse of Wolfram-Hart after the LA battle?...On a book?...By him?..." Angel frowned at William...
"A book about zombies...?" he stared...
"Not just any run-of-the-mill zombies, Angel...Heroically redeemed, world-saving, romantic zombies..." Will noted, rather proudly...
"Oh, come on..."
"It's the untapped market, Liam..." Will enthused... "And best of all...Our main character is a woman...A heroine..."
"A zombie woman..."
"An Undead Heroine...Seeking her lost love..." Will beamed... "Defeating Evil while seeking to prove her regained...Well, semi-...Humanity...Repairing the damage she's done to others while unable to help herself...And of course the romantic quest..."
"Repairs the damage she's done...You mean, in eating brains?...Just how does she manage to repair that?..."
"We drop the brain-eating...It's passe anyway...She feeds off bioenergy..."
"Great...So how does she repair bioenergy sucking?...Her victims are dead, right?..."
"Ah, but in what form of dead are we talking?..."
"Ok...She goes round like some Undead Earl, what, finishing off her victims who are also zombies?..."
"Well...Sort of...But she restores them to a kind of normal life..."
"As domesticated zombies...?"
"I know of a lot of people who'd take their beloved ones back in any form not involving Evil and killing..." Will noted...
"And the sappy quest...?"
"I thought it romantic..." 'Winifred'/Illyria, a bit miffed... "William modeled the quested one on my Wesley..."
"Oh?..."
"Ummn..." William eyed Angel... "Yeah..."
"Oh...I see...So then the 'object of zombie desire' doesn't have blonde hair?..."
"No, certainly not...Brown hair..."
"And he's a scholar...From the nineteenth century..." 'Winifred'/Illyria noted...
"Really...?" Angel, thin smile at Will...
"Poet, by any chance?..."
"A very fine one..." she nodded... "Wesley did write poems, didn't he?..."
"All English scholarly types write poems, love..." William, hastily... "Of course, the character incorporates many different people...But the main thing is it's a star-crossed romance...That's always sure-fire..."
"But he's dead too, right?...Nineteenth century and all?..."
"Oh, yeah...But see, his soul hovers about, seeking to aid the love who killed him...Involuntarily of course...In her more Evil days..."
"Uh-huh..."Angel, frowning... "Who's gonna find a dead poet and a lumbering female zombie heroine an attractive couple...Wait?..."
"She's a Slayer, isn't she?...A zombie Slayer?..."
"We don't use the word...An Undead protector of Humanity..."
"I still see potential, Angel..." Charley noted... "We already have a studio interested..."
"What?..."
"I'm tellin' you, Angel...The gravy train is pulling up to our battered and weathered door..." William nodded... "We'd best be ready to hop on board...What?..." he eyed Angel's somewhat downcast face...
"It couldn't be vamps...?"Angel, reluctantly... "I mean, vamps are big now...At least on the screen..."
"Vamps have had their day...But they're passe now...We want to be on the cutting edge of the next wave...I see a TV series...The first season is all about our heroine's redemption..."
"From eating brains..."
Frown...
"Ok, from sucking bioenergy...And how does a zombie find redemption...Not to mention enunciate dialog besides...'Grrr, arrgh'..."
"Karloff's monster did it with hands and 'Grrr'...A fine actress...I'm thinking Hathaway, maybe...Can do the same...Besides a brilliant noble physician helps her recover some of her faculties midway through the story..."
"Well?..."
"Awful as it is..." Angel frowned... "I suppose..."
"Gunn, get Lorne on the phone and tell him we're in..."
"Great...So, who do we cast as her son?..."
"Son?..." Angel sputtered... "The zombie heroine has a son?..."
"Thought you'd like that touch..." Will nodded...
"Immortal Beloved..." CXXXVII...
PG 13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan fic writers, where's your disclaimers?
Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you
no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (137) versions of events
following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through
to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...)
Archived (soon) at the 'Normal' Buffyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca
verse at . ,
scroll down to "Immortal Beloved" series ...
LA…Offices of Angel, Gunn, Burkle-Wyndham-Price, and Walthrop…
Yesterday…
"Well, well, well.." frown…Brush back of blonde hair…
"Psst…I see dead people…" Buffy eyed the two before her… "They don't know how dead they are…"
"Immortal Beloved..." CXXXVIIII...
PG 13
Disclaimer: If ya are fan fic writers, where's your disclaimers?
Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you
no stinkin'...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: Though the standard IB format, one of (138) versions of
events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question"
through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some
are multipart...)
Archived (soon) at the 'Normal' Buffyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca
verse at . ,
scroll down to "Immortal Beloved" series ...
Two figures on a suburban street corner…One overdoing all in poseur casual black…Jacket, shirt, trousers, shoes…Socks…Screaming… "Brooding schmuck"…The other in a tasteful mix of black leather jacket, red shirt, brown trousers…Urbane, yet just a touch of bad boy…
"Angel…" nod…
"Yeah…Say…Are you writing again, Spike?..." curious peek over shoulder…"
"Giving my old craft a whirl…Privilege of the human souled and heroic, you know…"
Hand put up… "I'm just glad to see it…And Nina and Lyri will be pleased…So, another poem?...What's it about?..."
"The empty hell of American suburbia…Speakin' of which…" he glanced round…
"Seems like a nice little town to me…And it's nice to be near the Atlantic again…" Angel noted…
"If you're going to take that tone, shouldn't you be in ice cream vanilla?..."
"Jesus…Give it a rest, will ya…Besides, you know I just don't want to stand out…"
"Right…And in that outfit who would suspect a brooding prince of dorkiness was lurking in their streets…"
"Spike!..."
"Look, I wasn't the one who dragged us here, across the country…"
"You sound like you don't even care…"
"Is that why we're here?...You're playing matchmaker?..."
"I'm concerned about her…And about you…"
"So there is no great threat to her Blondness and I've once again been put on a wild goose chase?..."
"No, certainly not…Well, not exactly…Will, do you think I'd leave my Nina and head here unless I thought there was something to beware…?"
"Really…" dryly… "God…She didn't ask you to bring me?...She's not round here, somewhere, waiting to tell me about the place I have in her heart…"
"She doesn't know we're here…Or about you, least from me anyway...Can't say as to what Andy Wells told her …"
"And we are here…Because?..."
Spike, it's a matter of life and death, I can tell you that much…"
""What…Bad dating choice again?...I thought she was still with the Immortal, she manage to drop the I for him and moved on to someone or –thing else?..."
"She's still with the Immortal…At least most of the time…" Angel noted…Slightly hesitant look…A former boyfriend not quite comfortable with revealing an ex-'s troubling secrets…
"Oh, like when she was screwing me like mad and still telling you you'd be together someday when the time was…Right?..."
"Spike…You didn't have the chip when Buffy and I were together…If you were screwing Buffy then, she'd be sipping warm blood with you at the Partners' Welcome Hell on Earth ball right now and I'd be ashes…"
"Damned straight…" sigh…
God, it sucks to have a soul sometimes…He eyed Angel…
"Look…Liam…I'm touched to the heart by this…You've more than earned 'Christ Jr. of 2010', lad…But you're beating an undead horse, poor thing…"
Hmmn…Angel eyed the attacking demon he'd been slamming to the ground as they walked and talked…
"Mercy, I'm just transport, sir…" the horse demon whimpered…
"Fine…" he released the creature who galloped… "Sucker!..." yell back…Arggh…Groan and crash of large bulk to ground as William tossed a nearby fence pole like a javelin…
"Thanks…" Angel nodded…
"Anyway, as I say…" Spike resumed as both resumed walking… "It's water under the bridge, Liam…I appreciate the kind thought…But…"
"You've moved on…"
"Shut up…That's crap fit for the same bin as 'tough love' for resouled psychotic vampires…But there's no point to this…You said she doesn't even know…"Lets just head home and leave Blondie, female, be…"
"For ole times sakes, Will…Can"t we just check this out?..."
"She can handle the Immortal, I'm sure…"
"I didn't say it was the Immortal who was the problem this time…"
'Oh?...Well, I guess that leaves God Almighty himself…A tall order but I am her Champion…"
"Spike…"
"Sorry, don't mean to get you in Dutch with the new boss…"
"Spike, if you knew what I've learned…And if it were definitely true…"
"If she's gone for Willow's ex-, the Wolfboy, I'm all for it…He's a fine lad and will make her very happy…And warm…All that fur…And nice for you and Nina…Social acquaintances who won't require that elaborate sneeking about and fumbles for the door to the locked room…"
"It's not Willow's ex-…"