DISCLAIMER: Buffy, Angel and the gang belong to the evil Joss and I only own the characters I make up. In a perfect world however I would own all of them, Buffy and Angel wouldn't have broken up and Riley would never have existed.
RATING: PG
SPOILERS: General (if any)
TIMELINE: Over 17 years after IWRY
DISTRIBUTION: You want you can have it, just tell me where you put it.
NOTES: This story takes place in decisions between where Hope left to meet her boyfriend and the Buffy and Angel wedding. To make sense of it, you may need to read the other stories in the series first.

Angel was sitting in his office thinking about Buffy again, it had been almost a week since he'd seen her and although they'd spoken on the phone every night, he missed her. The situation was beginning to become intolerable, Buffy was a major part of him and he wanted...no, he needed both Buffy and Hope to be with him in LA.

Angel was so busy thinking that he didn't notice Cordy standing in the doorway watching him, until she said "You know it's been 15 years and I still can't get used to seeing you in the sunlight".

"I know" Angel replied, still with the distant look on his face.

"So...thinking about Buffy again?" Cordy asked sarcastically. She didn't like to see her boss/best friend like this, she just wished Buffy would hurry up and put the poor guy out of his misery.

"Shut-up Cor" Angel told her grumpily.

"I don't believe this, no matter where I am, at home or the office I am surrounded by grumpy men" Cordy muttered loud enough for Angel to hear.

"So what did you do to Doyle to make him grumpy?" Angel asked not really interested.

"Not Doyle...my little Nicky" Cordy replied.

Angel suddenly looked interested. "Why is Nick grumpy?" he asked.

"Because my baby boy has developed a major crush on your scheming teenaged daughter. The day she left to go back home, she broke his fragile little heart" Cordy answered.

Angel couldn't believe this, not only was Cordy acting as if the world was ending over a little crush, she also was acting like it was Hope's fault. Angel decided to be objective. "So that's why he looked so upset when she said she had a boyfriend" Angel replied. "Pity Nick wasn't a few years older, maybe he could've taken her away from her blood-sucking-cradle-robbing-creature-of-the-night-boyfriend".

"But weren't you..." Cordy started to say.

"No" Angel answered emphatically, "Buffy and I was a completely different situation".

Cordy gave him a funny look and asked, "How?"

"Buffy wasn't my teenage daughter" Angel answered.

"Well, I should hope not. That is a way scary visual place" Cordy replied as she walked out of the office.

The second Cordy was out the door, Angel grabbed the phone and dialed Buffy's number, unfortunately he got the machine. He left a message and hung up and instantly began waiting for her call. It was then he realised that he wasn't completely alive without Buffy by his side.

*

When Buffy arrived home from work, she found the house empty and a note from Hope saying that she and Spike had gone patrolling. With nothing to do she went upstairs and changed clothes and headed back downstairs. Buffy played back the messages on the machine and found 10 for Hope, 5 for Spike and one for her. Buffy was suddenly in a terrific mood, she'd been waiting to hear Angel's voice all day and she had to actually restrain herself from calling him while she was at work. Buffy grabbed the phone and dialed Angel's number but she got a busy signal, Buffy sighed and hung up.

She didn't know what was wrong with her, she'd gone almost 18 years without seeing Angel and now it seemed that she couldn't go a day without hearing his voice. The best and worst times were the visits, too have him only for a little while before he'd leave. She wondered how Angel would feel if she brought up the subject of co-habitation...nevermind Angel's feelings, she also had to consider Hope. Buffy was about to pick up the phone, when it rang. "Hello?" Buffy said answering it.

"Hey" Angel said happy to finally be able to hear her voice.

Then they both said instantaneously, "I've been thinking..."

Go to the next story Telling

Send feedback to Kelly Rowe

Back to the Fanfiction Archive