Disclaimer: I own not. Joss, ye man of BtVS/A owns all.
Rating: PG
Timeline: Sometime after S4, before S5
Dedication and thanx: Everyone as always
Distribution: BA_Fluff, Leonie, B/A Coalition, anyone else, ask and ye shall be given.
Spoilers: None
Author's Note: I realize that this idea has been used before and it's a common one, but I wanted to write my version. It's mainly for the writing, someone told me it had a poetic beauty to it. So, I hope you enjoy it anyway.
Feedback: I would very much appreciate it. Please?

The room was dark and quiet except for the continuous bleeping from the machines around the room. The machines keeping her alive. Buffy lay motionless is the hospital bed, an IV in her arm, pumping fluids into her body.

She'd been there for about two hours, laying in a coma that the doctors weren't sure she'd come out of even though she'd only been unconscious for a short time and her hands occasionally twitched and she'd moaned a few times. The doctor said that was normal. Coma patients frequently made noises and twitched. Call it brain spasms.

The tears of anguish and worry had stopped rolling down everyone's faces earlier. Now, they were just exhausted and as Riley watched his girlfriend laying lifeless from the doorway he felt the urge to cry come over him again.

"Riley," Willow began, "I, uh, called . . . "

"Angel?" he asked quietly. He knew it was coming and he knew that Angel was coming.

"I had to. If something happens to her and he wasn't here or didn't know, neither of them would ever forgive me," Willow said quietly, trying to explain to him why Angel was coming.

"I know," he answered. There was an edge to his voice, hostility towards Buffy's first love. The man that held her from being his completely. He looked back towards Buffy and as his eyes caught the scar on her neck, he sighed. Angel had marked Buffy. She was his and Riley knew this. He knew it from the moment he saw Buffy; that there was something that was never going to be his. When he fell in love with her he hadn't known that it would be her heart.

Riley turned around and walked over to the window and looked out over the lights of Sunnydale. When he turned back around, he saw them all; Giles, Joyce, Xander, Anya, Willow, Tara; gathered closely together, watching the room where Buffy lay. He walked over and saw. Angel was cradling Buffy in his arms. Tears were rolling down his cheeks as he gently pushed a wisp of her blond hair away from her face.

"What happened, baby? What happened?" he whispered.

"Kastiel. He surprised her and . . . " Xander began before his voice cracked.

"He was too much for her," Giles continued, "We found her like this in the cemetery." Angel just nodded.

"The doctor, he said that the damage done to her brain was so extensive that he was amazed that she's even alive. The fight would've killed anyone else instantly," Willow said quietly, "but at this point, the machines are keeping her alive." She spoke and tears coursed down her cheeks uncontrollably. Tara pulled her into her arms as Willow continued sobbing.

"Hey, baby, I'm here. I'm sorry I wasn't here before," Angel whispered into her ears, "I'm so sorry, so sorry." He rocked her body in his arms as pain racked through his body.

He had known instantly. Before Willow even called him, before Cordy had the vision. He knew before it all. He had been rummaging through a pile of papers on his desk when a wave of fear overcame him and then anguish as he whispered a single word, her name, "Buffy..." He had gasped in pain, a pain only soul mates knew, worse than the sword Buffy had shoved in his gut before Acathala had taken him to Hell. Worse than being wrenched away from Buffy and into a day already lived, but to be lived again completely different. He felt as though he had died the moment she lost her battle without knowing that she was even fighting one.

He was hugging her closely to him as her eyes fluttered.

"Angel?" she managed. Angel gasped as he heard his name.

"Hey, baby," he whispered.

"Wha . . . ," she tried to say.

"Shh, don't talk. I'm here because you need me," he said softly, knowing what she was going to say, a small smile appearing on his face as the tears fell.

"I love you," she managed, "Only you." She smiled at him. She had an almost unethereal glow about her.

"I love you," he answered, his voice cracking.

"Tell the gang that I love them, too. That I couldn't have done it all without them," she replied as he nodded, unable to speak. She hadn't seen the rest of the group gathered at the door, only Angel and he was all that mattered. "I'll never forget," she whispered, knowing their day. He nodded again.

"I'll love you forever," he finally managed as her eyes started to flutter and she struggled against it.

"Love . . . you . . . always . . . only . . . you," she whispered before she slipped away. He nodded, kissing her lightly on the lips, and laid her back down on the bed. He looked towards the doorway and saw everyone, but his eyes meeting only Riley's. The boy nodded in understanding even though Angel knew that his heart had probably broken completely in the moments before. His love confessed her undying love to another.

"I'm sorry," he muttered to Riley.

"Me, too," he replied, the edge still in his voice, "but in the end, she was always yours." Angel looked down at his feet and then up again at Riley.

"She did love you, you know," he said, trying to offer some kind of comfort to the boy.

"I know, but it'll never be the way she loved you. She loved you with every ounce of her soul. I envy you for that," Riley responded quietly. Angel's answer was silence. It was the same for him. Every ounce of his soul and nothing would ever change that. He would love her until his dying day and then, he knew that somehow, he would still love her, undying.

Go to the sequel, Promises

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