FEEDBACK: Yes please! Flames will be used to burn the potroast.
DISTRIBUTION: Anyone that's been given permission to have any of this series may have it, but others please ask!
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing! It belongs to Joss!
SPOILERS: All seasons
RATING: PG
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Follows "Wisdom From the Foolhardy" and all other fics in this series:)

Angel pulled into the driveway exactly an hour and thirty-six minutes later. The drive had taken longer than expected because Cordelia insisted that they stop at the cleanest gas station possible so that she could properly do her hair and apply her makeup.

Angel didn't bother to carry Cordelia's backpack inside of the watcher's home, even when he heard her incessant whining and knew that she would be crabby for the rest of the night.

He instead threw open the car door and dashed up to the front steps, shoving the door open and stepping inside.

Five heads turned to stare at him, and he shifted uncomfortably as Cordelia came up from behind him.

"Alright, what's the big emergency which caused my boss to call me at 1:00 in the morning and intrude on some much needed beauty rest?"

Xander, sitting on the couch beside Anya, nodded his head at her. "Nice to see you, too, Cordy. And yeah, I have to agree with you, that beauty rest is *much* needed."

Cordelia glowered at him, and Angel took a seat beside Willow, who was at the far end of the couch, putting as much distance between herself and the unlikely couple as possible.

Spike glared at his sire from his spot on the well-worn rocking chair. "Why'd we call the poof here again?"

For the first time, Angel noticed the presence of his childe. "Spike?!" He incredulously said. He switched his gaze from Giles, to Spike, then back to Giles again. "What's he doing here?"

"Long story." The watcher mumbled. "We have much more important things to discuss right now."

"And what's that? Another life-threatening prophecy that's gonna kill our dear Buffy? Oh, well, wouldn't be the first time!"

Everyone glared at her for a moment, Anya doing so just a tad bit longer and more intense than the others'. Although she wouldn't admit it, she was feeling slightly pressured with her Xander's ex in the same room as him.

She snuggled closer to Xander in an attempt to make the girl jealous.

Cordelia rolled her eyes.

"Cordelia, we do not know if this is life-threatening, but-"

"Then why are we here?!" She exclaimed.

Giles was quickly losing what little patience he held at the moment. "I was getting to that!" The room quieted. "Anyway, what has happened to Buffy could be dangerous. We haven't found anything in research yet, and we don't know what caused this, but it seems that Buffy has.. well, to put it bluntly, she's forgotten about Angel."

Angel gulped. He should have known that over time, his Buffy would move on with someone else, would learn to love that person, and would forget about him. He stood. "That's not unusual, Giles. I *did* tell her to move on."

"No, he doesn't mean that." Spike absent-mindedly said. "What he means is that Buffy wakes up one morning, finds devil-boy Riley on her left shoulder and forgets about angel-boy on her right shoulder. Giving in to the devil. Forgetting the angel. That's how it usually goes, isn't it?"

Angel's eyes widened in disbelief and he took his seat on the couch again.

Not wanting her feet to start aching in the morning, Cordelia took a seat on a rather uncomfortable hard back chair sitting in the corner and dragged it up to the group.

"You're saying she's totally forgotten about me. That if someone said my name...?"

"She wouldn't know who we were talking about." Willow gently said. "I mentioned you this morning and she thought I was talking about angels."

Cordelia raised her eyebrows. "Isn't this a good thing? Now she won't be brooding in the dark like.. hey! Can you do the same thing for Angel? 'Cause then maybe they'd both move on and there wouldn't be anymore brooding! I could buy pastel curtains for the office and-" Angel shot her a look, "Or maybe not."

Giles sighed and picked up a large tome sitting on the small table beside him. "We must figure out what did this to Buffy and quickly reverse it, or something terrible may happen."

"Like always." Xander put in.

"Like always." The watcher echoed.

Spike rolled his eyes as he saw the gang begin to assemble around the living room in a circle, grabbing various books and beginning to read them. "Bloody hell. I need blood."

They ignored him as he got up from his seat and walked to the kitchen.

Angel took a dusty, old book of his own and settled it into his lap, but he didn't open it. Instead, he gazed upon the black cover, his thoughts focused on his Buffy, which wasn't unusual at all.

He didn't know how he felt about this. Although he knew that it was potentially dangerous, he also knew that it had to be wonderful for Buffy. After all, she wasn't in any emotional pain right now. She was fine.

Or so he thought.

In actuality, Buffy Summers lay in her bed at home, tossing and turning in a restless sleep.

She was dreaming.

She was talking to a muddled and blurry figure, one that she couldn't quite recognize. "I want my life to be with you." She brokenly said.

"I don't."

This simple, gruffly spoken answer caused her more pain than it should have, and she didn't understand it. After all, it wasn't as if she knew this person that was speaking to her!

The dream continued.

"I love you. I try not to, but I can't stop."

Images fading in and out of eachother, meshing together to form a coalesce of unseen people and places, broken and shattered memories of something once had and something once lost.

"I want you so badly! I want to take comfort in you, and I know if I do it'll cost me my soul. And a part of me doesn't care."

Memories of something that had seemingly never occurred, and she knew because if they did, she would certainly remember them.

"How can we be together if it costs you your life, or the lives of others?"

Unspoken words, inarticulate murmurings, broken phrases and sentences. Memories floating just below the surface...

"I'll never forget, I'll never forget, I'll never forget, I'll never forget..."

She awoke with a start, her heart hammering in her chest, gasping for much needed breath.

A second dream with the same man.

She probed her mind and focused intently on the images that were slowly fading away, attempting to find out who this mystery man was, to no avail.

Would she ever find out who he was?

Go to the next story Confronting the Enemy

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