SPOILERS: Welcome to the Hellmouth, Bad Eggs, Surprise, and What's my Line 1 - just for lines, and tiny little pieces
SUMMARY: Angel muses as he patrols

Reunion

I feel...empty. Happy, yes. Empty too. Our house is too. It's kind of symbolic. Empty nest syndrome. I think this is supposed to be your part Buffy, to feel like that. I'm supposed to be happy, because now, after all these years, I should be able to be a naughty man with you. But our chance for that was stolen. 20 years ago. Melissa's wedding...2 months ago. We're back into our ordinary lives. I miss you now. The house is empty, and this is the first time I've lived alone, since before we got married. I said to Missy, and Kristen, that I'd patrol tonight. I've got some old haunts to visit, and I still have that vampiric strength.

I put my long coat on...yeah, I still have a penchant for those jackets, they help me blend into the shadows. Guess I'm too old for the leather fetish these days.

My first stop is the Bronze. I'd never go in, for too many reasons. I'd look too out of place, and I know they've changed how it looks inside. I like remembering it. I walk past the alley where we first met. That lamp-post is still there...the one you knocked me flat in! I smile at the memory. I keep walking and I see the cemetary where we were kissing that day when those texan brothers were getting an eyeful. I pass the man-hole we escaped from, before we made love the first time. It's raining, about as heavily as it was that night. I arrive at where I want to be. Where your grave is. It's a simple stone, you wanted it that way, remember? So that nothing could get damaged in a fight. I look down, and there's a rose on it. A red one. I read the note attached.

"Buffy. I used to say I'd bring Dru here, and dance on your grave, but that all changed when I met you. You were a bloody brilliant girl, and an amazing slayer. Funny that one of the things which is supposed to bring me the greatest pleasure is only giving me horrible pain...worse than the worst hangover!...still, even after 20 years. Hope you're happy. Spike."

She managed to do that to everyone who knew her. You couldn't hate her. She was always too nice. Even someone who was her arch nemesis, Spike, liked her. Hell, I don't know what I'm saying, *I* was her arch nemesis for a while. I hate to think about that time. While I'm sitting on her grave, I'm deeply lost in my own thoughts, and don't realise the ruckus behind me. It's only when someone grabs around my neck and presses a stake to my back I realise whats going on. There's about 30 of them.

"Angelus. Look at you. You're a man now. A pathetic weak little man"

I answer the speaker with a headbut. But it's useless. They catch me again. I wonder why they aren't killing me straight off. I realise that I wouldn't be a tasty meal, considering I've still got vampire traits, like my blood tasting vile.

"Where's the slayer?" or you know, it could be about that.

"I'll never say."

"I said again, _Where's_ the slayer?" He's talking through his fangs again. I struggle around, suddenly realising who this vampire is.

"Not talking to old friends are we Angelus? You know you remember me" And the scary thing is, I do. He's Andrew. He was, and it kills me, literally to remember this, a protege of Darla and me. He was, to all causes and effects, our son. He possessed the same cruel traits as I did in my evil days. I had thought him dead.

"Andrew."

"Glad you remember me. So, I feel like a new companion, and now that youre, well, HUMAN, and Darla's dead, and Spike's been pussy-whipped by that army crew, and Drusilla's too insane to contemplate, I figure, the Slayer is next on my list. She's your daughter, isn't she Angelus. It's fitting you know, since you're my father figure and all."

Oh, god, Melissa. She's been lucky so far, as not to come across former companions of mine. They don't know exactly how evil I was. And Andrew was worse than me. He liked torture even more than I had. I knew what I had to do. I flipped the stakes out, from their wrist holster inside me jacket sleeve, headbutted the vampire holding me, and lunged for Andrew. Luckily for me, he didn't see my stake and laughed. I pushed the stake through, and I saw the shock in his face. Unfortunately for me, I missed the vampire behind me. He had managed to grab another stake in the process, and I suddenly felt it enter my back. The most intense pain I've ever experienced followed. A stake may be a vampire killing method, but apparently it works just as well on humans. I slump to the ground, beside Buffy's headstone. I can feel blood in my mouth and with my own blood, I scawl "Andrew - dead, lackeys alive." The effort is horrendous. As I close my eyes for the final time, dying again after 250 years, I see a shadowy form. As it grows closer, I realise its my beloved Buffy. I run towards her, and embrace her.

"Buffy."

"Angel"

There's no words for this moment. I hug her tightly, clutching her like there's no tomorrow. We kiss, and just before, I catch my reflection in her shining eyes. I look like I did on the day Maighan was born.

"You were right Buffy. I had to go out fighting, or Andrew would have gotten Melissa."

"I know. It's why I came, that night, remember?"

And as I hold my lost love to me, its the first time I've experienced true happiness in years.

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