AN: Maybe you remember that Whistler said in the second story Buffy was presumed dead at home. I forgot to explain. In "Anne" she saved Lily and had to go to hell. In my series this was a sort of dying. She didn't die in the classical sense of course but the council got news of her death. It is important for this part of the series.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters - I wish I would, sigh. They belong to Joss Whedon, WB and Fox and other companies. I only use them for my and hopefully your pleasure. So please don't sue.
Distribution: if you want it, take it and tell where it goes
Spoilers: Basically the whole BtVS and Angel-Series. And the first two stories in the series: "Lonely" and "Dreaming".
Summary: Buffy and Angel meet the new messenger.

It was a beautiful night at the beach in LA, the moonlight was shining brightly, the sea was quiet. The sand was still warm from the day's sun when Buffy walked along the shore. She stopped, took a deep breath and closed her eyes when suddenly hands were slipping around her waist. She smiled and leaned back into the familiar chest:

"How did you find me here?"

"If I was blind I would see you," came the whispered reply.

"Stay with me?" she asked, her voice also a whisper.

"Forever, that's the whole point. I never leave, I never leave you again."

She sighed and relaxed totally in the safety of his arms, there was no other place in the world like this, no other place she would rather be. She slightly turned her head and looked into his eyes: "Why did you come looking for me?"

He smiled: "I woke up and you were gone."

"So you miss me in your sleep too?," she asked with a smile of her own.

"I do," he whispered. "It is as if a part of me is missing. So I went out looking for you."

"And found me."

"As I told you, even if I was blind I would see you," he repeated his words. "Did you think about it?"

"What?" she asked although she already knew what he wanted to know. Ever since he had recovered enough he wanted to know when she would go back home.

"I am not ready," she said.

"They will be worried, love. Your mother, your friends and Giles."

She shrugged slightly: "As I told you, mom kicked me out. Xander will freak when he hears about you being back as will Giles I am sure and just don't start about me going alone. I am not leaving you, I can't ever be without you again. The past months were like a nightmare."

"It's okay, I don't want to push you. It should be your free decision."

"And I am grateful. I miss them, Willow most of all but I'm not ready, not yet, maybe soon, but I do not know. Can we now change the subject," she pleaded. The whole 'going home' thing was something she didn't want to deal with. Something she could not deal with. She could imagine the hateful eyes of Xander and Giles looking at Angel and she knew he wasn't able to face this, well maybe he was but she wasn't willing to let him face it. He felt bad enough the way it was, she heard him dreaming every night, dreaming about his time as Angelus but also about his time in hell. He hadn't been there for long but as time moved different there it had been hundreds, no make it thousands of years and she could see them in his eyes. He was also still weak. When Whistler had shown him to her three weeks ago she could feel the pain he was suffering. It was better now but it would need more time to heal the body completely, the soul, well that was a totally different story.

"You look so beautiful in the moonlight," he whispered.

She sighed happily: "Go on saying these things, it is nice." She heard him chuckle and then felt his lips on the back of her neck. She closed her eyes again and drank in the feeling being so near to him, something she had thought lost only some weeks ago.

"Well, isn't that the happy couple," a voice came from behind.

When they turned round they saw a young man with dark hair, blue eyes and of medium height. His arms were crossed in front of his chest and he was smiling.

Angel raised an eyebrow: "What do you want?" he asked sounding slightly annoyed.

"I was looking for you," he said simply. When Buffy quirked her eyebrows as well he continued: "For you both, the vampire with a soul and the slayer who sent him to hell." He saw Buffy wincing a little and raised his hand: "Sorry, I am not here to revive bad memories."

"So why are you here, or is this going to be a quiz show?" the slayer pulled back from her lover and put her hands on her hips.

"Sorry princess," he smiled apologetically. "I was sent to you. By the Powers That Be, they are the ones who watch the fate and all. Powerful beings. I get visions by them and they made you two to their warriors. Oh and I forgot, my name is Doyle."

********

Joyce was sitting on her sofa deep in thoughts. She had been like this since Buffy had disappeared. She blamed the fate for it, the fate that had made her daughter a slayer and took away any possibility for a normal life. She also blamed Mr. Giles, who had become so close to her daughter, for Joyce he had simply stolen Buffy away from her influence. Late at night when she was all by herself she sometimes blamed herself, but she wasn't really ready to deal with the fact that she might have made her daughter run away. And she blamed Angel, who had disappeared from Sunnydale and nobody really knew what had happened to him.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. She went to answer it with a twist in her guts, every time someone was knocking at her door she silently hoped to see her daughter but her hopes were always in vain. Today it wasn't any different: "Mr. Giles," she said, her voice friendly but also slightly cold. Then she suddenly noticed his eyes were wet and he was obviously struggling with his emotions. She felt a cold hand gripping her heart: "Has something happened," she asked frantically.

He only nodded and she motioned him to come in.

Giles took a deep breath, then he turned round to face the mother of the girl he loved like a daughter: "I came ... This morning I was informed," his voice broke but he was able to recollect himself in seconds. "The Watcher's council informed me that a new slayer will be sent to Sunnydale." He closed his eyes, still not completely able to face the truth. When he looked at her again, he could see the confusion:

"A new slayer?," she asked. "What do you mean?"

He took another deep breath: "Mrs. Summers, a new slayer is only called when ... only if the other slayer dies."

"Dies," she asked, her voice shrill. "But how can they know. No, you must be wrong, you have to be wrong."

"I am sorry, but there is no doubt. The slayer is connected to the Watcher's council. The moment the slayer dies they know. Buffy only died for a minute about a year ago and they sent a replacement," he tried to prevent his tears from falling. The phone call this morning had pushed him into an emotional pain he never thought possible. Now he could understand all the parents who lost a child, it was living hell. He had missed her terribly the last months but there was always the hope she would return. The hope that had been destroyed by a simple phone call. And the worst of all, he didn't know what happened, he didn't know how she had died, where she was, they couldn't even bury her. The Council couldn't locate her, they just knew when a slayer died.

"Oh god. She ...," Joyce looked at him for a short moment, then she closed her eyes. When she spoke again her voice was cold as ice: "Mr. Giles, would you please leave my house and never come back."

"Mrs. Summers," he tried to say but she wouldn't let him.

"Leave and please do never come back. You took my baby away from me, you guided her and now she is dead. It is your fault she left and died, she was to young to bear this kind of burden. I don't want to see you again."

Giles knew it was not the time for a discussion now. And her words had hurt him beyond imagination, deep inside he knew they weren't true, but he felt guilty nevertheless. He had been her watcher and he had not been able to protect her. Instinctively he knew that something terrible must have happened on that fateful day in the mansion all these months ago. Angel had disappeared the same day Buffy had. Giles didn't know what had happened, he didn't know where the vampire was. All they had found was the stone statue of Acathla in the abandoned mansion. Spike and Drusilla were also nowhere to be found.

Giles looked again at Joyce, her face was contorted in pain and he knew he would not be able to comfort her, more importantly she wouldn't let him. So he simply turned and left.

********

"So you want me to work for you," Lily asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Buffy smiled. "Angel and I are going to open a sort of detective agency for ... uhm ... special cases. Demons and all, you know. You are perfect, because you already know what goes bump in the night. So do you want?"

"Do I ... of course I want. Buffy you have been a real friend, you have saved my life. I'll do whatever I can to help you," she smiled with happy tears in her eyes.

********

"I feel as if a part of us has died," Cordelia said with a sad expression on her face while the gang was sitting in the Bronze listening to the Dingoes.

"A part of us has," Willow replied, the tears running down her cheeks. "I miss her so much. I was angry with her for leaving us like this and now I feel so bad, for having been angry at all. I still cannot believe Mrs. Summers wouldn't allow us to attend her memorial service."

"Me either," Xander said with pain in his eyes. "Why does she think she is the only one missing Buffy." He felt especially bad for lying to Buffy about the curse Willow was trying on Angel. He didn't know if it had worked, but he could not come over the feeling that Buffy might still be here if he had been faithful, that Buffy might still be alive.

"Especially the way she treated Giles," the red head said, she had seen the hurt in the watcher's eyes when he had received the note that they were not welcome at the memorial service.

"Self centered much," Cordelia rolled her eyes. "I can understand she grieves and all but Giles looks so sad."

Willow looked at her in surprise, she had not expected this amount of sympathy towards Giles from the brunette May-queen.

"I do not know him so well," Linette said from her seat. She was the new slayer in town, a sixteen year old girl from England who had been sent to Sunnyale a week ago. "But I can see him staring into space from time to time and he avoids saying Buffy's name. He always says the 'former slayer'."

"It's very hard for him. Buffy was like a daughter to him." Willow explained while wiping away her tears.

"I am really sorry I never met her," Linette said. "She must have been special."

"She was," Xander replied, his eyes seemed to be far away. "She definitely was."

********

"I like the office," Buffy said. "It looks good."

"It sure does," Angel replied entwining his fingers with hers. They were lying in bed, the slayer snuggled into his chest. The last weeks had been busy with meeting Doyle, setting up the office and already saving some people, so they had barely thought about Sunnydale and the people there. But now Angel felt he had to bring up the subject again: "Have you thought about calling someone in Sunnydale," he asked as softly as possible. He felt her stiffen immediately. When she didn't answer, he tried again: "I really don't want to push, I already told you, but..."

She finally sighed: "I know. And I also know they worry for me. But please give me some more time. I will contact them, but ... And after all it is not as if they think I am dead or something."

As a response he pulled her closer, trying to tell her silently that he would support her no matter what.

Go to the next story Dreaming Again

Send feedback to Jill

Back to the Fanfiction Archive