******

"Oh Buffy..." Willow lets out a deep sigh as she listens to her best friend confiding to her over the phone the next morning. "He wouldn't answer you?"

"No...h- he barely even looked at me." She pauses for a moment, listening to the punches and kicks coming from the training room down the hall. She'd suspected that Angel had been in there since late last night. "Will...maybe now that he's human...maybe he doesn't want me anymore. I mean, maybe he figures that now he can have someone normal instead of having to deal with me-"

"Buffy, stop. That's crazy," Willow tries comforting her, though not too sure herself of how to explain Angel's behavior. "That's impossible. Angel would never do that. You're the only thing in the world to him."

I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you
It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

"Sometimes I wonder, Will. He won't even talk to me-"

"So make him. If you can't reach him one way, find another. Be more forceful- you can do that. You're really good at that," she smiles into the phone.

"But-"

"Nope- that's it," Willow silences her. "The next time I talk to you I wanna hear a full, glowing report about how you and Angel spent the entire day in bed making up. Except, you know, you don't have to go into all the lusty details."

"Thanks Willow," Buffy smiles, unable to hold back a small chuckle as she hangs up the phone.

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Shaking his head trying to remove the sweat from his brow, Angel runs his hand through his hair roughly, ignoring the twinges of pain as his muscles stretch, overexerted from his strenuous training. He throws a few punches and kicks, trying to work out the knotted muscles. Closing his eyes, he lets his body flow through the routine, just letting his mind sit and look for flaws in his movements. Finding none, he opens his eyes during the final killing move, then quickly retracts the punch as he sees someone's face fill the air that should have been empty. Wincing as the tightly leashed energy in his muscles protest, he glares at the young woman in front of him. "Buffy! What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

Stepping aside, the slayer ties her hair back into a ponytail, moving towards him again once she readies herself. "Okay- let's go."

"What are you talking about?"

"Come on, tough guy. If you're so into training, let's train." Not giving him a chance to respond, she throws the first punch, connecting with his jaw.

"Buffy!" Angel steps away from her, shocked by what she was doing. "What is this?!"

"Come on-" she delivers a kick to the side of his stomach, "my grandmother fights better than this! Hell- I think Xander fights better than this!"

Maybe I've been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

After a minute's hesitation, still with no clue as to what was really happening between them, Angel twists around and lands a high kick to Buffy's back, knocking her to the ground. He barely has time to gasp at what he'd just done before the small blonde flips herself back to her feet, spinning around landing a sharp right cross to Angel's eye.

With a series of punches to him, seeing that he was barely fighting her back, Buffy gains a bit more confidence in her method. Angel's breathing was coming in ragged gasps, but he keeps trying to do what was expected of him, determination etched hard on his face. He was about to raise his leg to deliver another kick to her when Buffy sees an opening in his defenses and uses it, knocking his feet out from under him and throwing him down to the mat.

An awkward silence follows as Buffy scrambles on top of him, stradling his waist, keeping him pinned to the ground. He begins to struggle underneath her but finds himself unable to escape her. "Why are you doing this?!" he demands.

"Because this is the only way you'll talk to me!" she responds, receiving a confused glare from him. "This is the only way you'll even touch me!"

There was a time you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you
I remember when I moved in you
The holy dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Regaining some of his strength, Angel manages to push her off of him, crawling backwards on his hands, reaching out behind him until he can feel the wall to brace himself against.

"After what I did?!"

"Uggh! When are you going to realize how much I love you, Angel? When are you going to be able to understand that I'd die for you in an instant?!"

"How am I supposed to even come near you!" he shouts back to her, now beginning to finally release his own frustrations. "Why do you think I've been keeping myself busy doing all of this?! To keep myself from you!"

"Why?!" Buffy cries back, still sitting on the mats herself across from him. "Why are you even letting this get to you?!"

"It's not just what I did to you, Buffy-"

"Angel, you didn't do anything!"

"And what about before- what about that? All those years...all the lives I took. And now that I've been given all of this- thanks to feeding from you," he says, disgusted by his own actions, "I don't know what to do with it because I don't deserve this! I don't deserve to be human again..." His voice lowers to a faint whisper as he averts his eyes to the floor. "...I don't deserve to have you..."

Maybe there's a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

In an instant, Buffy's at his side, cradling him in her arms, relieved to find him seeking comfort from her instead of pulling away. "I'm sorry..." Angel pleads with her, reaching his arms around her, tugging her close. Buffy rocks his limp form, whispering to him, to herself, for a few minutes before pulling him fully into her grasp and standing with him.

"It's okay..." she begins whispering into his ear. "It's alright...Angel- Angel, look at me." She pulls back, lifting his head up to fully face her. "You deserve so much more than all of this. I've never known anyone with such an amazing soul. You are the one absolute thing in my life- the one thing I will never give up for anything. I can't...I don't understand anything else but loving you..."

Angel steps forward, tenderly taking her into his embrace, running his thumb along her jaw. "I love you," he says as he brushes Buffy's hair behind her ear. "I love you so much."

"I love you," Buffy gently whispers with a seductive smile, pulling him closer to her as she draws him in for a passionate kiss.

******

Buffy curls herself further into Angel's embrace, running a hand through his hair as she slowly pulls him down ontop of her. She loved the feeling of his body and it's almost-crushing weight on top of her. It seemed to give solidity to the moment. Angel cradles the sides of her face in his hands, his face directly above hers, just looking at her as if he would never see his fill. He slowly lowers his head to hers, and softly feathers light kisses across her face. On her eyelids, the tip of her nose, her forehead, her flushed cheeks, her chin, and finally, he captures her sigh in his own mouth.

Buffy couldn't imagine ever feeling this sense of overwhelming love with anyone else. She couldn't imagine living the rest of her life with anyone other than this one man who had come into her life, first to protect her, then to love her- utterly and completely. He feels her body tremble beneath his, and he pulls back and just holds her for a moment. "Are you okay?"

"Mmm..." comes her only reply, slowly opening her eyes to greet him.

"I'm too heavy," he chuckles, going to move out of their embrace but finds her arms pulling him back to her.

"Uh-uh..." Her hand slides up and down his back slowly as she stares up into his eyes, her heart beating so hard in her chest she was sure he could feel it. She reaches over, lacing her fingers with his, bringing their interlocked hands to rest between between them against their hearts, beating in unison underneath their palms. "That feels so good," she smiles up at him.

"It's pretty amazing." Lowering his head to her, he buries his nose against her neck, taking in the intoxicating scent of her soft skin before reaching her lips again. After a few timely moments, he slowly breaks the kiss, pulling away from her, drawing an instant moan of disapproval from her lips. "Apples..."

"Huh?" she stifles a yawn, sitting up with a confused look.

"Do we have any apples?" He slides off to the side of her, running a hand through his hair as he grabs his sweatpants.

"Yeah...I think..." Buffy crawls over to him, wrapping an arm around his waist as she rests her head against his back. "Though I would've thought you'd prefer some double chocolate cookie dough mint ice cream in bed."

"I just realized..." he hops out from underneath the covers, sliding on his pants before heading for the door, "...I'm starving."

Feeling a bit ignored, though too happy and tired to give it a second thought, Buffy pulls on one of Angel's shirts, quickly following him downstairs to the kitchen. "Well- considering the fact that you kinda have to eat now, I'd say that you barely eating anything for the past week might have something to do with that. Plus, the fact that it's almost six and we've spent the majority of our day making up for lost time probably hasn't helped your stomach much." She hops up onto the counter, watching as he pulls open the fridge door. "But why apples?"

"I don't know..." he smiles, offering her the shiny red fruit he'd just taken a bite out of. "I've always loved apples...ever since I was a kid...I used to pick them with my mother..." Buffy sees his face start to show signs of shifting into brood-mode and she reaches over, tugging him by the shoulder into a deep kiss.

As their kissing continues, they're soon interrupted by the sharp ringing of the phone. "It never fails," Buffy complains, leaning over on the counter to answer it. "I swear, one week we're disconnecting this thing. Hello?"

"Hi sweetheart."

"Mom- hi!" Angel smiles to himself as he sees Buffy's face light up at the sound of Joyce's voice. "What's up?"

"Just wanted to see how things were going. I'm guessing pretty well?" she smiles to herself, happy to hear her daughter in a much better mood from the last time they'd talked.

"Mmm...wonderful...couldn't be better, mom."

"Well, if you two haven't eaten yet, maybe you'd like to come by for dinner? Then you can fill me in on just how *wonderful* things are."

"Dinner? Great...we haven't eaten yet," she throws a glance to Angel, giggling softly as he places a kiss to her forehead. "We'll be around in a little bit."

"Oh- why don't you invite the others? It'd be nice to spend some time with you kids before you all go running off to college."

"Right mom- like we're all so anxious to start classes in the fall. In fact, Willow's already camping outside the front of UC Sunnydale. Actually, in her case, that may actually be true."

"Well we'll ask her tonight. I'll see you guys in a little bit, hmm?"

"Great. Bye mom." Setting the phone back down, she turns to look for Angel, finding him rummaging through the cabinets, pulling out a jar of chunky peanut butter. "Angel- mom just invited us to dinner, so stop scarfing down everything in sight."

"I'm starving," he pleads, reaching over to grab a few chocolate bars. Buffy can't supress a laugh at the sight of him and scoots over to join him. "Uggh...well at least share with me!"

******

"Psychology?" Buffy passes her best friend an incredulous look from across the dining room table. "What makes you think I'd be any good at that?"

"Well...you're good at reading people," Willow smiles. "I think you'd really get interested in it."

"But they do all those weird experiments- depriving people of sleep, and inecting them with a bunch of drugs, and electroshock therapy, and...wait- remind me again why I'm against this?"

Joyce wraps an arm around her daughter, pulling her into a small hug. "I'm sure whatever you decide to go into you'll be great at. You all will," she beams towards the rest of them. "Do any of you have any idea what you'd like to study yet?"

"I for one am going into the arts," Cordelia proudly declares.

"What a surprise," Willow mumbles, sharing a small laugh with Oz.

"You wait- when I'm rich and famous and finally able to break away from all of the stress of living on a hellmouth, I'll be making acceptance speeches for my numerous awards *without* mentioning any of your names."

"We should be so lucky..." Oz muses in typical fashion. "I'll stick with the old standby known as history. I'm hoping it'll give a nice balance to all of Will's forays into science."

"Speaking of which," Buffy jumps in, "have you decided between chemistry and biology yet?"

"I'm still not sure," the redhead pouts. "I'll probably wind up double majoring. Ooo- but I wanted to do something with medieval literature too-"

"Oh please- you'll probably wind up majoring in everything!" Cordy snaps. "God- don't you ever get tired of being an overachiever and making all of us look like a bunch of lazy toads?"

"Speak for yourself, toadie," Buffy laughs back at Queen C. "Ya know, maybe I'll give psych a go. What do you think?" she turns to her left, seeking Angel's assured support.

"I think you'd be great at it," he leans over to give her a gentle kiss on the cheek.

"So Angel," Joyce draws his attention, "now that you're...human..." the joyous mother still has trouble believing the wonderful miracle that had been brought forth, "...what do you plan on doing? Taking classes with everyone else?"

"I can't see that happening, Joyce," he smiles over to her. "I'm not really sure. I can still fight and slay with Buffy, but other than that...I don't know what I'm supposed to do now."

"You know...my offer's still open to come work at the gallery. We could really use you."

"Thanks, Joyce," Angel passes her his trademark half-smile. "I really appreciate that. It's not money that I'm worried about...I just won't know what to do during the day while Buffy's in classes."

"So you came into some money from your family?" Joyce guesses at his last remark, hoping she wouldn't offend him.

"Not quite...the years I spent...throughout Europe...I...attainted a lot of finances from...people..."

Hearing his somber tone at thoughts of the years his now-vanquished demon had spent killing and plundering, Cordy takes it upon herself to lighten everyone's mood. "So you're rich? Well this is just my luck, and irony in the worst way. The week after I become single *you* become human and to top it all off, you're rolling in cash. But of course, I'll never get the chance to enjoy either one of these things because little miss slayer over there already has you wrapped around her finger."

Queen C throws a glance across her plate to the small blonde whose head was resting peacefully against Angel's shoulder. "You so totally suck!"

******

You are free to change your mind
Any place or time
You are free to change your mind
Any place or time

The night was charged with electricity. As thunder begins to roll, lightning flashes across the sky, throwing streaks of energy into the atmosphere. Before midnight, the heavens finally open up to pour upon the city. The rain falls hard and cold, and late-night revelers run for cover from the pounding, stinging drops.

Along the sidewalk of Revello Drive, however, a solitary figure stands silent and still. Rain beads off of the hooded jacket covering his camouflaged gear, puddling beneath him. After observing the sight before him for awhile, somewhat sickened by the sight he'd seen inside the cheerful house, the figure makes his departure, headed back down along the street, already pulling out his cell phone to let headquarters know he would be in shortly.

Burning down the riverbank
Deliver us deliverance
Deliberation of the people
Is irrelevance
The liberation of the mind and the body comes first
For a change in the politic of politics

From across the street, another figure stands, making his own careful observations of both the inhabitants of the house, as well as the figure who'd just made his own stealth departure. Watching the figure fully disappear down the street, the new stranger makes a slow approach to the Summers' home. Peering in a bit through the window, though staying out of clear sight, he watches as Angel reaches over, stealing a kiss from a more than willing Buffy. "That's him?" the dark-haired stranger asks aloud, a heavy Irish accent and more than a hint of alcohol lacing his words. "That's who Whistler wants me to help? This oughta be fun..."

Several miles away, in a secluded sub-basement laboratory, a middle-aged woman looks up from her desk when an associate gently knocks at the door. "Come in."

Graham Miller enters the room and, seeing beads of sweat flowing down her forehead as she continues toiling on an awkward-looking piece of machinery before her, he makes his apologies for the interruption. "I'm sorry to bother you, but you told me to let you know when-"

"He's back?" she looks up fully, a hopeful glint in her eye.

"Yes ma'am."

Enough for one, enough for two
Enough already son
I've come to tell you that
The future is undone

Quickly following after Graham, the woman makes her way out to the foyer to greet her returning squad leader. "Agent Finn...welcome back."

A not-so-alluring 21 year old, with dirty-blonde hair dangling in awkward pieces over his forehead, Riley Finn shrugs off his gear as he moves to stand before Maggie Walsh. "It's good to be back after two weeks."

"Job well done, Riley," Walsh congratulates her prized member of the Initiative. "Have they all been recovered?"

"All present and accounted for. Ready for demobilizing and rehabilitation."

"Excellent." Walsh makes a motion of her hand towards Graham. "Get a team on this right away. Oh- and now that Agent Finn's back, I want him to meet-"

"I know, ma'am. He's been waiting here for the past hour. I'll bring him over."

You are free to change your mind
Any place or time
You are free to change your mind
Any place or time

Riley follows Walsh into her office, intrigued by his mentor's mention of his being introduced to someone. "Meet?"

"We've acquired a few new recruits while you were on assignment. One in particular has been quite impressive. Not since you first joined us have I seen a young man so eager. I've decided to place him in your squad, and...oh-" Walsh looks past Riley at the sound of her latest addition to the Initiative entering her room. "Here he is now. This is Agent Finn," she introduces her prodigy first, not masking the extreme pride in her voice.

"Glad to have you aboard," Riley extends his arm, grabbing his new squad member's hand in a firm grip. "Professor Walsh tells me you're going to be quite an asset to us...eager to help in the Initiative's fight against some of curses of humanity."

With a sly smile crossing his face, almost twisting his normally cheerful and upbeat features unrecognizable, Xander Harris offers his unyielding reply. "Oh...you wouldn't believe..."

Enough for one, enough for two
Enough already son
I've come to tell you that
The future is undone...

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