DISCLAIMER: bows to Joss cuz he owns everything (Well I hope that he doesn't own my soul tho I fear he does.) I do not own the characters of "BtVS" and "Angel", nor do I own any rights to the television shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". They were created by Joss Whedon and belong to him, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar Television, Kuzui Enterprises, 20th Century Fox Television and the WB Television Network,... No copyright infringement intended!
COUPLE: "Angel" / "Buffy" -- of course!!!
TIMELINE: It's the year 2002.
SPOILERS: Think not.
SYNOPSIS: What if you're one too many?
DISTRIBUTION:
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Angel tells a story.
FEEDBACK: Do vampires drink blood?
THANKS TO: Everything that B/A stands for.
RATING: You can watch the show, you can read.
Sorry, I had no beta reader.

It was the summer of 2002, a hot and very muggy night.

Everyone was bothered by the heat and to breath must have been a real torture.

Wesley and Cordelia had already left the office to go to some place with air-conditioning, as they told me with a reproachful expression that should be a hint to get one.

I decided to stay and do some paperwork - and to be true, I was relieved to have some time on my own.

I sat behind my desk, thinking about past times, when a sound at the door caught my attention and ripped me from my reverie.

A curious sensation was spreading through my system.

So I slowly made my way to the door to find a young woman sitting in a wheelchair, throwing little stones against the door.

"Hey, not very disabled-friendly your place!" she said bitterly, then

"Now c'mon - don't stare at me! Help your new client to get into your office!" and reached with one hand for me.

I didn't know what to do actually, so I gave her my hand and she managed with my help to get up and make some unsteady steps inside.

I offered her a chair which she commented "I thought you would be a better gentleman, and now get that wheelchair in here! They steal like ravens out there in the streets!"

I did as she said and stood finally leaning on my desk, waiting for something that didn't come.

"I thought it was your job to ask me something, I mean you *are* Angel, right? The Angel guy who owns this agency, right?"

"Well to be true, nobody really owns it, it's a family-run business so to say."

She waved with her hand "Whatever."

She looked around, noticed some books on the table next to her and began to flip through the pages of one of them.

"Oh Bahamish's book of south eastern demons" she placed it back "I bet it makes a good read if you're a sucker for such stuff."She clasped her hands in her lap and looked up, expecting something from me.

"That little birdy that told me where to find you had already told me that you're a silent guy, … brooding dark type you are, but I didn't think that it was that bad!"

She stared at me "You look good for a 240-something year old." and grinned in a bitter kind of way.

"So this is it? You're a vampire ... the reason for ... whatever." she managed to smile and for the first time I could see her sad huge blue eyes.

I wandered to the coffee machine, pointed towards a cup and looked back at her.

She nodded and genuinely smiled at me. "3 sugar and milk, please."

I poured the hot liquid into the cup and made it a ritual to mix everything together. Still with my back turned towards her I started to speak.

"So a little birdy told you to come here? And it also told you that I'd be a vampire." I turned around to see her staring outside the window into the night.

She sighed.

I handed her the mug and was rewarded with a sad smile.

She stared down into the brown liquid as if it was the most interesting thing on earth."Angel, I need your help. I was in that Karaoke bar and the host told me I should go to you. ... and now that I'm here, I no longer know if it was the right thing to do."

She took a sip of the coffee and placed the cup on the table.

"How can I help you?" I walked over to my desk and took something to write.

"And by the way, you know my name, but I don't know yours ..."

"Sascha" she said.

She smiled "Yeah, I know, I know - like that singer" and batted her eyelashes, just to laugh in the next second.

I walked over.

"Hello Sascha, nice to get to know you." and shook hands with her.

There it was again, a strange sensation.

"How can I help you?"

She looked straight into my eyes "I want to get to know the Slayer, Angel."

I wanted to withdraw my hand from hers, but she clamped down and kept me in place.

"I mean what I say, Angel! It's important for me and it has to be this night."

She finally gave my hand free and only then I realized with how much force she had crushed it.

"I only have some more hours to live, Angel, and this is my last wish. You can't deny me this last wish."

She looked down at her hands - again.

I moved a chair to her so that we could talk face to face."Sascha, this is important …"

She took my hands in hers "I know that you feel something when I touch you. The vampire in you recognizes me. I was once supposed to become the Slayer, when I was younger."

She tried to get up "Please help me into my wheelchair, I feel so immovable without it".After she had seated herself, she moved over to the window and looked outside, then suddenly spun around.

"I really don't have the time to explain further right now. Please help me to get to know her, at least to see her from a distance and I will never bother you or her - ever again!"

"Faith" I said.

"What" she said "I should have faith?"

"No, that's the new Slayer's name - Faith" I said.

"Oh" was my reward. "Where is she?"

"Actually, she's in jail." I met huge questioning eyes. "Yes, in jail - and I fear that we won't be able to see her tonight since the responsible authoritiesmoved her last summer from L.A. to Iowa. Nobody knows why."

Without a visible emotion she turned around back towards the window where I could see her reflection. A single tear was running down her cheek, but she wiped it away in the second she became aware of it.

"So that's it? The Slayer is in jail ..." there was a long silence "I bet The Powers That Be didn't think about something like that when they created the Slayer - jail I mean." She turned around to face me again. "Armageddon has to be cancelled because the Slayer is in jail" she said sarcastically.

"Now how funny is that?" she was slowly moving towards the door. "I better go now, nice to meet you, Angel." She looked over her shoulder and smiled.

It was a bright true smile, not a fake one, like most that I got to see those days and somehow this thin, tall young woman with the glasses and short hair, struck a chord inside me.

I walked over and closed the already open door. "Sascha, there's another one. Another Slayer, I mean."

"That can't be, Angel, but nice try." she smirked. "There's only one Slayer meant to be at one time to walk on this earth. Believe it, I know exactly what I'm talking about."

She tried to open the door again, but I wouldn't let her.

"I'm not lying to you, Sascha, it's true. She died when she was 16, her heart stopped, but she was revived, so another Slayer had already been called, but she continued to work as Slayer as well." I answered.

"She *works* as Slayer, nice term. So what's her name?" she asked.

"Her name was Kendra and when she died, Faith was called."

"No, I mean the name of the Slayer, the one that isn't in jail. And where can I find her?" she asked.

I must have looked sad when I said it "Buffy, Buffy is her name and she lives about 2 hours from here in Sunnydale."

She looked at her watch. "There's enough time left!" she said excited.

"I ... we can't go there ... it would take too long to explain, but ..."

"Now, … now don't come with something like that! You can't drive a car? I will drive! You have no money for gas, I'll pay, no matter what, there's no reason that we can't overcome to go there!" she was starting to look angry.

I was standing there, shaking my head. Why had the Host sent her to me? He must have known what would happen.

After a silent break I finally gave in although my heart felt like it had been ripped into pieces.

"OK, but we'll only watch her from afar!" I said a little too loud.

She smiled at me and said "What are we waiting for?".

After some minutes on the freeway leading outside the city she stopped searching for good music on the car radio and leaned back into the seat. "You aren't curious why I want to see her?"

"Of course I am." I smiled.

She watched me driving and sighed.

"Have you ever wondered what happens to the supposed to be Slayers that don't get called, because the Slayer survives longer than expected?"

"Actually no." I looked over and met her eyes. She turned away and stared outside the front window, as if I had caught her doing something she shouldn't do.

"They die."

"What? Sorry, you spoke too low." I said.

"They die, I said they die!" there was a short silent break "supposed to be Slayers that don't get called by the age of 18 slowly die." She stared outside the right door window.

"They first get sick, it gets worse and worse and then they simply die." She made it a point.

"I never read about that."

She jumped into my words - "They try to keep it a secret, but it's true. We're the garbage of the whole system of Slayers and warriors. We were supposed to die while killing vampires after being called as Slayers. If a girl that's supposed to turn won't, because the Slayer survives over the 18th birthday of the future Slayer, the watchers council sends a vampire to kill them. If one escapes she starts to get sick and it will get worse and worse - until the 25th birthday."

"And then they die?" I asked.

"And then I'll die." She answered. "My 25th birthday will be at 4 am ..." she looked at her watch again and sighed "it's past midnight, so at 4 am today."

There was a long silence.

She spoke again. "Why did you hesitate to bring me to Sunnydale? Does the Slayer want to kill you? I mean yes, you're a vampire, but even I can feel that you have a soul and that you're a warrior. She wouldn't kill you, would she?"

Now it was my time to sigh. "It's not that, it's ... it's complicated, *very* complicated to say the least."

I tried to change the topic. "So the vampire they sent after you to kill you, it didn't succeed?" The road was suddenly very interesting.

"You're trying to change the topic, Angel." she teased me. "But yes, I managed to kill it and run away. ... Wow, that's 7 years already! Gosh I'm old!" She looked outside the window again. "I managed to buy myself a new identity after I did some hot jobs in a nuclear power station, I mean if something would have happened, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I was already sentenced death. …

Then, some months ago I had to watch a vampire killing a girl and I couldn't help her. It changed something in me. The wish to get to know the actual Slayer was born, I wanted to understand it, to see that probably my death wasn't as worthless as I think it is. So I searched for her and finally some weird incident brought me to this Karaoke bar and the host made me sing something."

"What did you sing?" I asked.

She answered "Here". We said both in unison "by VAST" and laughed.

"That was my story then. What about yours?" she asked. "We have some more minutes left and ... you know, I won't tell anybody your secrets, I'll take them with me into my grave."

I looked over at her. "Why are you talking about it like that? Is it easier to bear with sarcasm and irony? Oh wait, I can answer myself. Yes."

I read the road sign 'next exit Sunnydale'.

"To make it short" I said "Buffy, the Slayer, is the love of my whole life, my one true love, but we can't be together for reasons that would take too long to explain."

"Woah wohohoa" she said "now that is a story! I want to know more!" She watched my facial expression.

"We don't have enough time to explain, really, but OK. I'll tell you and try to make it short."

And I told her everything, how I met Buffy, we got to know each other better, the night I lost my soul and then when I came back from hell and how I drank from her, I told her that I left her, when we met again, I even told her about the day that wasn't ... and suddenly we were not far from Buffy's house. I knew the way in my sleep, but still I wasn't aware that we were that close already until I felt her. Buffy.She was so close.

I must have stopped talking, because Sascha touched my arm questioning. "What's wrong?"

"I can feel her. She's close." I said.

"Your love is that strong? It's that strong that you can feel her when she's around and still you aren't together? Why not? I, I can't believe it!" she said angry.

"I never had the chance to fall in love in my life and you, you throw it away because of some stupid gypsy curse?"

I interrupted her "She's coming closer." I wanted to run away because the draw was so strong to just catch Buffy in my arms and never again let her go.

I started the car, but Sascha turned the car key back and took it.

"I won't allow it, Angel! I won't watch you run away from this. *I* don't have a chance, but you two have one - if you want to."

I was getting angry at her "Of course I want her, of course I lover her, you have no idea how much I want it, but it won't work! There are too many issues!" Buffy was coming closer and closer.

---

Angel saw a small movement under the bedcover and heard a silent snoring. He smiled, got up and brushed a kiss on the little girls temple. "Sweet dreams, honey."

"How does the story end?" he turned around to see his wife standing in the doorway, leaning against the jamb. "C'mon, I love that story." she smiled.Angel walked over and crushed her body against his and kissed her in the most tender way. He took her hand and lead her towards the bed.They cuddled together and finally he spoke again.

"Sascha answered: 'there's nothing you can't overcome with love, Angel. I told you that I wanted to come here to see that my life wasn't senseless, in vain. I know about you and Buffy. Don't ask me, but the Host is a nice guy ... and I'm here to tell you something. I can't give you humanity and daylight, but with my love I can give you something different. Go to Buffy, love her. Give her children, give her a future with you. She deserves it as much as you do.' and with that she ripped an amulet that she wore around her neck away.

She fell over and was dead. In that second I heard somebody knocking on my car window.

I didn't turn around because I knew already who it was. Slowly I let my gaze wander towards her and brushed the clock next to the steering wheel with my gaze. It was 3! Again the knocking on the window. 'Why did she die too early?'The door got ripped open. 'Angel, you have to come with me inside! It's close to dawn. … Angel, I had a vision! Angel, the Powers That Be ...' "

Angel heard a silent snoring, Buffy had fallen asleep in his arms - again. How much he loved it to hold her like this, she'd never know - and he never told her that she snored.In 3 days they were married 5 years, they married one year after Sascha had given her last hour for them. The best present they got, OK not true, the best present was their little girl and they had called her Sascha.

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