Thinking back to his earliest memory, he could remember the pride in his mother's voice as she hollered for her husband to come look: Angel had taken his first steps. When he done it only a few weeks later it was a clap of excitement and nothing else.

Angel had always been the first of the pair to crawl, walk, talk even, it seemed silly, everyone reaches milestones in their own time but nothing he did ever pleased their parents in the same way as when his brother done something.

Call it sibling rivalry, call it pettiness, he didn't care, he was sickened being in his brothers shadow his full life and when little sister came along it got worse. She was the baby and the only girl in a long line of boys from the O'Connors.

Once the incident happened, everything got worse. His parents took some time away from speaking to them, they held back, making him feel all that much worse. Things between him and Angel also went further south, the chasm growing larger by the second.

High school, he had comparable scores in the SATs, he was pre-med at a fine institution but his parents didn't care, the favourite, he chose to go into the arts and become a painter or whatever, and that's all they talked about to their uppity social circle.

The one thing that he could find a positive in was that their mom sort of took his side when it came to their drift. She had always tried to see the best in him and defended him when Angel decided to be an asshole and talk shit about him.

They had spent a fair amount of time around shrinks and family who wanted nothing more than to chat, about their feelings, their thoughts and everything in between. He had been told before about his volatile nature but he shrugged it off. He knew he had a short fuse but who doesn't?

Their mom had dropped in conversation recently that Angel was studying at UC Sunnydale, up until then he didn't know that, and frankly didn't really care. On a whim travelled out west and by chance ended up in this small town, finding himself once again playing with fire. It was like a drug, a calling, or whatever fancy terminology you wanted to throw at it.

Damien leaned over the edge of the balcony and scowled to the crowds below, when he left Buffy's dorm earlier, he came back for a drink but found that Angel was already here. Dearest brother hadn't seen him, so he stayed in the shadows watching him carefully.

He watched as Angel and his roommate chatted by the bar, both nursing the same beer that they had ordered thirty minutes ago. He saw as his brothers smile widened upon seeing the tiny blonde make her way over to them and he wanted to heave.

Sure, he appreciates a pretty female, he'd been around enough to know that blondes have more fun and that he could sweet talk them into doing the dirtiest of things. That look though, the one that says I'm dumb and in love, he hated. Scoffing, love was for idiots.

This Buffy though, he fully understood why his brother was like a dog with a bone, constantly wanting to be around her and be with her, she was something different.

Staying in the shadows he flowed down the stairs and into the alleyway a short distance behind them, listening to them being so wrapped up in each other that they didn't even notice him. He smirked when he overhead his name being mentioned.

Angel came to a halt when she uttered Damien and her dorm in the one sentence. He looked at her and frowned "What do you mean he was in your room?"

Buffy rubbed her arm gently and sighed "Earlier he came by, pretending to be you" when she saw his eyes darken, she reached up to touch his face "I knew it was him right away, he wants nothing more than to ruin what we have and I would never let him touch me"

Before Angel could say anything, they heard a snort of derision and turned to face Damien coming out from the shadows "Oh don't flatter yourself Buff, you may be a pretty little thing but" he whistled mockingly "You would just be another notch on my very long bedpost, not important enough to meet the family"

At the look of hurt in her eyes, his shit eating grin got wider. He looked to Angel who looked like he was ready to kill "Oh lighten up Angie, you take life too serious, live a little"

Angel clenched his fist, each knuckle popping as it got tighter "Why in the hell have you come here? I don't want you here and you have no right to get in between me and Buffy"

Damien shrugged mockingly "Just thought I'd pay my favourite person a visit, nothing wrong with that" he rolled his eyes then smirked "…besides, who said anything about getting in between you two, huh, but I wouldn't mind getting in between those pretty little thighs of hers though" he let out a groan as he raked his eyes over Buffy.

Hearing enough, Angel strode over to his brother and swung. He landed him dead centre and caused Damien to stumble back a few steps before regaining his footing and charge at him. The brothers locked arms and began throwing punches haphazardly.

In a panic Buffy pulled out her phone and dialled 911, stating that there was a fight and they needed to arrive as soon as possible. Seeing Damien drive his fist hard into Angel's stomach, she ran over and tried to grab his arm away.

Struggling to hold on to his muscular arm, she swung her purse against his head to disorientate him. At first, she thought it worked but panicked when he grabbed onto her wrists with a near bone crushing grip and pushed her forcefully. Buffy yelped as she stumbled then fell silent when her head hut the metal dumpster a foot or so away, landing awkwardly on her arm.

"Buffy!" Angel had saw his brother shove her and watched as her head clashed against the metal, his heart rate increased and panic set in. Before he could get up Damien threw another round of punches into his abdomen, then was lifted off of him by two officers who had responded to the call.

The officers struggled to contain him as he thrashed against them but when they threatened him with brute force he settled down. Although he looked calm, he was still yelling at them and at Angel. Angel didn't take any notice of this as he pressed his hands against his tender stomach and tried to get up.

Carefully standing up, he winced as he tried to straighten his body, he felt achy and the wind had been truly knocked out of him. He dragged himself over to the edge of the alley and tried to kneel down, brushing some hair away from her face as she lay immobile on the ground "Buffy?!"

As Damien was handcuffed and loaded into the back of the vehicle, a second car pulled up and the officers ran towards Angel. As they pressed him up against the wall, he pleaded with them "Please, help her! Help Buffy, I won't do anything stupid!"

The officer twisted his wrists to position them for the handcuffs to be snapped on, which caused a groan of pain to escape Angels lips. The officer didn't apologise, he only shared a look, willing him to say something stupid. Angel pleaded with him again but this time remained silent, he looked down to her then back up again.

Seeing that he wasn't resisting compared to the other one, one officer went over to the unconscious girl and felt for a pulse. After a beat he pressed the button on his device and radio'd for an ambulance to be sent. The other grabbed Angel by the shoulder and frog marched him to the second squad car.

Having heard the sirens screech over the music from inside, Lindsay made it out on time and down the alleyway to see Angel being buckled into a cop car and Buffy lying on the ground. He ran over and was stopped by the cop "Hey, hey, let me see her!"

The cop looked him dead in the eye "You know this girl?" He scrutinised the young man in front of him, already not happy with the situation. He hated fights, never saw the point in them, and hated them even more so when it involved someone being hurt as much as it looked like the young lady was.

Lindsay nodded "Yeah, she's my roommate girl, is she okay?" He felt a little relief when an ambulance pulled up and the EMT stated that her pulse was stable. Although he should go downtown to see Angel, he knew that Angel would want Buffy to be looked after first of all.

As they tried to rouse her back into the waking world, they carefully placed her onto a stretcher and into the back of the van. Lindsay tried to get inside but was stopped "Let me go with her, please" the EMT exchanged a look with the cop and nodded before letting him in.

Lindsay looked down to the tiny blond on the gurney and felt his heart lurch, she looked so frail. He watched as they used smelling salts with no success and as they attached all sorts of wires to her to track her heart rate and oxygen levels. He sat back and took a few deep breaths as his leg shook with worry.

Oooooooooooooooo

With a groan, Buffy opened her eyes and winced at the pain she felt radiate from her head, she tried to reach up but felt a tug on her arm. When she looked down, she saw a cannula inserted into her forearm and she panicked.

The last thing she could remember was Damien full out attack Angel and she decided she couldn't stand back and let that happen. She remembered wrestling with his arm before darkness consumed her.

"Nice to see you up, sleepyhead" she whipped her head round to see Lindsay sit on the chair beside her bed, with a relieved look on his face. A pain shot through her, and she yelped, Lindsay sprang out of the seat and pressed the call button.

"Take your damn time, you can't just try to move like that" he helped her lie back down and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Before he could say anything else a nurse and a cop walked in "She's got some pain"

The nurse snorted lightly then looked to Buffy kindly "Tell me where it hurts and on a scale of one to ten, ten being the highest, how sore are you?"

Buffy blinked heavily and motioned to her head, she cleared her throat "uh, a seven, I guess?" When she tried to clench her fist, she let out a scream of agony "TEN! Ten…" Looking down at her hand she noted that it looked normal? The nurse went to the trolley containing medication and produced two painkillers and a glass of water.

Downing them quickly, Buffy coughed a little as they stuck in her throat momentarily before being washed down with the water. The nurse asked her to raise her hand up and instructed her to move her fingers "You'll have to go down to X-ray, I couldn't tell you if its broken or not but best be safe"

Buffy frowned, never in her life had she been in a hospital, sure she had visited her cousin Cecilia before she sadly passed away but an overnight, with the possibility of having a serious injury? That just topped off a streak of bad days that she was having recently.

"Where is Angel?" Not wanting to spiral on thinking about her bad luck and bad health, she wanted to focus on him and what had happened after she blacked out. She looked to Lindsay and then to the cop who was watching her with avid interest, worry written all over her face.

The cop cleared his throat "If you mean those two who were fighting, then they're downtown, ma'am" he saw the heartbroken look sweep over her face and continued "You call it in, huh? we'll need you to give us a full statement about what happened"

Buffy laid back in the bed "Angel acted in self defence, it looked like Damien was going to hurt him, so I tried to stop him" the cop quirked his eyebrow at her, giving her that really, you? Look. Both twins were a good foot taller than her and muscular, she stood no chance at playing referee to them.

"Can I go see Angel?" When the cop shook his head no, tears formed in her eyes. The nurse who was with them asked everyone else to leave, they had some additional tests and questions they wanted to go through with her to see if she was okay.

Lindsay waited outside the room and had been told by the cop that nothing would get done until morning at the earliest in regard to the O'Connor's. After five minutes the nurse let him back in the room to see Buffy.

"I'll give you a few minutes but then get gone, Buffy needs her rest and visitors shouldn't be in this time of night" her gaze bore right through Lindsay before turning to Buffy "We wont get to X-ray for another couple of hours so try to get some sleep and you can press the call button if you need anything, dear"

Buffy nodded and waited until she was out the room before speaking "Will he be okay?" She looked sadly at him, this was her fault that they were fighting "I don't want him getting in trouble and getting kicked out"

Lindsay clicked his tongue "Ah he'll be fine, I'm sure if there is a discussion, it's nothing that his parents wont sort out" he knew about his family and their social standing, they're a big influence and typically get what they want.

Buffy looked sadly to her hands "If you see him, tell him I'm sorry" she felt the tears well up in her eyes, not only did she feel bad about what happened but the pulsing in her head and wrist were still causing pain for her.

"The first thing that kid is going to do is come find you, even if he's on little sleep and having all sorts of trouble hang over his head, you're the first thing he thinks about Buffy" he ran his thumb over the top of her hand and smiled kindly.

Looking up at him, she managed a small smile, thanking him for his kind words silently. He leaned down to kiss the top of her head and said he would contact her in the morning if that was okay with her. Although they didn't have much interaction before this week, he felt fiercely protective over her and wanted to make sure she was okay.

Buffy sighed as he left the room then she reached out for her phone to see no activity. She was hoping that maybe he was allowed to contact her, but it was doubtful. She debated whether or not to phone him but thought better of it, chances are it would be useless.

After sending a quick text to Willow saying that she was spending the night elsewhere, she pulled the thin sheets up and tried to get some rest.