One Day in Your Life

Willow sighed happily and stretched in her bed before she opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling. For some reason it seemed higher, and clearer than usual. Willow shrugged to herself and sat up to stare straight into Cordelia's face. She yelped in surprise and grabbed her sheet up over her chest.

"I have seen your bare chest before." Cordelia informed her with an amused smirk on her face. "Are you ever gonna get up? Gunn's trying to set up a pool as to how long you'll sleep and Fred's busy working out exactly how well rested you'll be when you get up. Either that or she's trying to figure out how wormholes work again, and you know how that turned out last time!" Cordelia rolled her eyes and moved away from the foot of the bed to pick up some scattered clothing. "Jeez, I'd have thought that someone who's as anal retentive as you could put their clothes away at night."

"I felt weird last night." Willow defended herself, trying hard to remember exactly how she'd come to be in LA. The last thing she could remember was heading to bed, back in Sunnydale, and falling asleep with a headrush from running up the stairs too quickly. Willow considered mentioning her lack of memory to Cordelia but dismissed the notion, sure that it would come back soon and not wanting to make a fuss.

"So you're getting up?" Cordelia asked, wanting to make sure.

"Just gimme a minute to get dressed and I'll be down." Willow told her.

Cordelia nodded and headed for the door.

Willow waited until she couldn't hear Cordelia's footsteps any more, which seemed an incredibly long time, and jumped out of bed. She threw some clothes on, without really paying any attention, as she attempted to piece her memory back together and started to make her way down to the hotel lobby. It was only when she came within earshot of the group gathered in the hallway that she became aware that she was incredibly hungry, and she diverted her steps to the hotel kitchen.

It was there that Gunn found her two hours later, the evidence of a feast strewn everywhere.

"Holy crap, what happened?!" He exclaimed.

Willow looked up from the bowl of waffle mix she was frantically beating and almost burst into frustrated tears there and then. "I'm so hungry!" she wailed.

"Huh?" Gunn was wearing a blank look that reminded Willow of Xander on his face.

"I keep eating, but I'm still hungry." Willow explained, beating harder.

"Right." Gunn stuck his head back through the kitchen door and bellowed. "Cordelia! Wesley? Guys, I found him!"

Willow winced. "Did you have to shout so loud?" she asked petulantly, putting down the bowl and advancing on the swiftly retreating Gunn.

As she got closer, she began to realise that she could hear her heart beating and attributed it to her hunger pangs. It was strange though, surely if she was hungry, her heart would be beating slower, rather than pounding away like a jackhammer.

Gunn finally managed to back himself into a corner and Willow reached past him to yank open a refrigerator she hadn't tried yet. To her surprise, she found it full of blood and realised that she must have stumbled across Angel's supplies. Shutting the door, she crossed back over to the other, now empty, refrigerator.

"There has got to be something to eat in this place!" she exclaimed, incredulous that after everything she had eaten she was still hungry. "Gunn!" She whirled back around to face him. "Have you got anything to eat on you?"

Gunn started and began to say something but seemed to decide against it as Cordelia burst through the door.

"What are you doing?!" she exclaimed, her eyes taking in the sight of the wrecked kitchen.

"I'm so hungry and I kept eating and eating but I'm still hungry." Willow wailed.

Cordelia and Gunn exchanged a look loaded with meaning.

"Get Wesley." Cordelia instructed Gunn.

Gunn nodded abruptly and left the room with a look of absolute relief.

"Sit down." Cordelia instructed and Willow found herself obeying. Cordelia tossed a pack of blood into the microwave and set it on defrost. When the machine beeped, she poured the blood into a mug and set it in front of Willow. "Eat." She commanded.

Willow looked at the blood, revolted beyond belief that that Cordelia actually expected her to eat it. She started to push it away, but then the smell wafted up to her and teased her tastebuds. Despite her disgust, Willow found that she actually wanted to drink it. She battled with herself for a while, but then her overwhelming hunger got the better of her and she quickly downed it. To her intense surprise, it tasted better than she would have thought. Trying not to think about the fact that she had just drunk blood and liked it, she walked to the sink and washed the mug up, her hunger pangs appeased.

"Better?" Cordelia asked from her perch on one of the kitchen tables.

Willow nodded, her gaze on the floor.

"Angel, what's going on? What aren't you telling us?" Cordelia asked.

Willow looked up and looked around the cluttered kitchen, looking for Angel. "Huh?" she asked, when she couldn't see the gentle vampire.

"You see what I mean?" Cordelia walked over to Willow and placed her hand on Willow's forehead. "Are you sick? Under a spell? Whatever it is, you can tell us Angel."

Willow looked down at the brunette seer, registering for the first time that she was now taller than her old school nemesis.

Realisation came swiftly. "Cordy, I'm not Angel, I'm Willow!" she gasped and, not for the first time in her life, wished she could faint. She rushed out of the kitchen and into the nearest bathroom.

"Where am I?" she asked, searching for her reflection.

Around the same time that Willow was realising that she was trapped inside Angel's body, a very bewildered Angel was explaining to a sceptical Buffy that no, he wasn't Willow, he was Angel.

It took Angel some time to convince Buffy that he was actually Angel, and that he had no idea if Willow had done a spell which had gone wrong. After he had her convinced, he impressed upon the Slayer his need to call home and see what was going on there.

The phone rang and rang before the answer machine kicked in.

"Guys? It's Angel. You're probably not going to believe this, but I'm trapped inside Willow. Call me as soon as you get this message. I'm at Buffy's." Angel hung up the phone and it rang almost straight away. Hoping that it was the others, he picked up the phone straight away. "Hello?"

"Willow?" a male voice asked. "Is Buffy there?"

"Who's calling?" Angel asked, not wanting to hand the phone over to Buffy if there was a stranger on the line he could get rid of.

"Will, it's me, Xander. Are you okay?"

Angel mentally sighed. "I'm fine Xander. Buffy's right here, I'll put her on."

Rather than listen to Buffy explain the situation to Xander, Angel wandered into the living room where Dawn was watching cartoons.

"Hey," Dawn greeted him. "Want to watch cartoons with me?"

Angel considered the teenager in front of him. She looked hopeful, yet wary. As if she wasn't used to having much attention paid to her. She reminded him a lot of Willow back when he had first met her.

"Sure," he found himself saying and sat down next to her. "So how come you're not in school?" he asked.

"It's Saturday." Dawn explained.

Angel felt foolish. "Oh."

They sat in companionable silence until the cartoon had ended and then Dawn turned to him.

"So, you're actually Angel." she asked.

"Yep."

Dawn accepted this with a shrug. "Do you think that you could help me with my history homework?" she asked. "Only it's all about the world wars and we're supposed to interview someone who was there and you were there so I was thinking as you're here..." she trailed off, her expression once again bright and hopeful.

Angel thought back to his years in war torn England and then cast a longing look outside where the sun shone brightly. Then he looked back at Dawn and was once again stricken by her resemblance to a younger Willow.

"No problem." he agreed.

"Great!" the smile that Dawn bestowed on him was dazzling to say the least. "I'll get my stuff." Dawn got up and headed for the stairs.

"Dawn." Angel stopped her in her tracks.

"Yeah?" "Do you think that we could do you homework outside?" Angel asked her, "Only..." he looked out of the window again.

"Sure." Dawn smiled again.

It was three hours and a lot of research later before anyone noticed that the answer machine was blinking at them. It was Willow who noticed, trying to find the source of the irritating clicking noise that only she could hear. After finding the answer machine, she pressed play and Angel's voice, her voice, filled the room.

"Guys? It's Angel. You're probably not going to believe this, but I'm trapped inside Willow. Call me as soon as you get this message. I'm at Buffy's."

During the message the entire group had congregated around the answer machine and Willow. Now that it was over, they all looked at her as she stood, still awkward in an unfamiliar body, with her head down, looking at the floor.

Willow looked up and met their gaze, her eyes, Angel's eyes, haunted. "Oh my God." she half-whispered, horrified beyond belief.

"What?" Wesley was curious.

"Do I really sound like that?"

"'Fraid so." Gunn informed her.

Willow picked up the phone and dialled Buffy's number.

"Are you calling Angel?" Fred asked.

Willow nodded. "Dawn, hi. Is Buffy there? It's important." she asked, not knowing how much or who Angel might have told.

"Oh hi Willow." Dawn replied, scotching Willow's idea that Angel might not have told her. "Buffy isn't here, but Angel is if you want to talk to him instead?"

"That would be great, thanks Dawn."

"No problem."

"Willow?" Angel was on the line.

"Angel!" Willow almost burst into tears again. She briefly wondered what was going on, as she wasn't normally so emotional. Then she remembered that she was dealing with extenuating circumstances and was having to cope with a hormonal change as well. All in all, she figured that she was lucky she hadn't tried to blow up the hotel yet. "Angel, I'm stuck inside your body and everything's different, and I don't know how I got here or why you're in my body and there's a voice inside my head that wants me to kill everyone and I need to pee!" she almost howled, finally giving into the urge to cry. "And I'm crying blood!" She wailed as she caught sight of a red teardrop. Cordelia handed her a box of tissues and she accepted it gratefully, mopping up her tears and blowing her her nose.

"Willow, it's okay." Angel tried to appease her.

"It's not okay!" Willow sobbed. "How can you say that it's okay?"

Wesley placed a cup of tea in front of her and she curved a hand around the cup, craving the heat that it provided.

"Then it's not okay, but we'll fix it. Willow, please don't cry. We'll fix things, I promise." Angel almost sounded as though he was pleading with her, Willow reflected and hiccuped in surprise, drying the last of her tears.

"Willow, are you still there? Willow, talk to me. I'm sorry, we'll fix this, I promise. Willow?"

Willow hiccuped again. "I'm here."

"Good." Angel sighed miserably, hating the fact that she was upset and he couldn't do anything to help because they were miles away from each other. "Look, I'm heading out to LA. I should be with you in a couple of hours."

"Okay."

"Are you gonna be all right until then?"

"Yeah." Willow looked up and jumped out of her seat as she registered the fact that a green demon was standing in front of her. "Green demon! Green demon!" she shrieked down the phoneline.

"Willow, calm down! Does the demon have red horns?"

"Yes!"

"Is it wearing a dodgy lounge suit?"

"Yes!"

"It's okay, it's just Lorne. He lives at the hotel."

"Are you sure he's good?" Willow asked in a hushed voice.

Angel laughed.

Willow realised with a sickening lurch that she had never heard him laugh before.

"I'm sure." He assured her, with a smile in his voice.

"Why is he holding a baby out to me?"

"That's Connor, my son." Angel informed her, with more than a slight note of pride in his voice.

"You're a father?!" Willow was flabbergasted. "Since when!?"

"It's a long story. Get someone to tell you the story and I'll finish it off when I get there. Put him on."

"Who, Lorne?"

"No, Connor. I want to talk to him."

Willow held out her arms and with a dubious look, Lorne placed the baby tiny baby in them.

Willow promptly fell in love. "He's gorgeous." she breathed down the phone.

"Put him on."

Willow juggled baby and earpiece for a while and then settled them both down. She tried hard not to listen to what Angel was saying to his son - his son - but with her enhanced vampiric hearing it was difficult. To distract her attention from the burbling baby, she turned to Lorne.

"Hi." She smiled at Lorne... who looked even more wary. "How's it going?" Willow asked before her wandering attention was caught by Angel calling her name. She juggled a bit again and then stuck the phone next to her ear.

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna go now." Angel hesitated. "Can you do me a favour? Sing for Lorne."

"Sing?" Willow was confused.

"Sing. It's the fastest way to explain everything to him."

"Okay. Talk to you soon."

"Willow?"

"You know, I'm just gonna hang up on you."

"Go to the bathroom, Willow. See you soon."

"Bye."

Angel hung up. Willow replaced the receiver and cooed over Connor for a while before looking up at Lorne.

"This is embarrassing." She told him. "I have to sing."

Lorne nodded. "Go ahead Angelcakes."

Willow composed herself and opened her mouth to sing. She closed it again when she realised that her mind was a blank and she didn't have a clue what to sing. Looking around for inspiration, her gaze fell on Connor, fussing quietly in her arms.

Willow's muse slapped her around the face with a dead parrot. Blinking, she removed the stuffed toy from Connor's grasp and began to sing softly to the little child.

"Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

There's a land that I've dreamed of

Once in a lullaby."

Willow bit her lip nervously. "Are you okay?"

Lorne cradled his head in his hands. "I'll be fine." He looked up suddenly. "Do you know how powerful you are?"

"I'm not good with the singing." Willow told him.

"I'm not talking about singing, Angelcakes, I'm talking about the waves of energy that roll off of you. Do you know how powerful that could make you?"

Willow squirmed. "I don't want power."

Lorne stood up and moved closer. "Then what do you want?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

Willow looked him directly in the eye, daring him to call her a liar. "I just want my friends to be happy." She said and thrust Connor at him. "He needs his nappy changing."

"Do I look like Mary Poppins!" Lorne asked, outraged.

Willow smiled evilly.

Angel dumped the bag that he had packed in the hotel lobby and smiled reassuringly at Dawn. Unable to contact Buffy before he had left, he had decided to take Dawn with him rather than leave her home alone. He had explained in the note that he had left for Buffy that Dawn could stay overnight and then catch a bus back home to Sunnydale on Sunday, arriving long before sunset. He looked around, unable to believe that the usually busy lobby was empty.

"Hello? Anyone around?" He called, crossing to Wesley's office and throwing back the doors, expecting to see everyone crowded around the desk, listening to Wesley tell them that it was all part of a prophecy and things should go back to normal after a good nights sleep. It was wishful thinking.

Down in the kitchen with the others, putting the shopping away, Willow cocked her head and listened. "Angel's home!" She announced and raced out of the door.

"She's like a dog." Fred remarked to Gunn as they abandoned the shopping where it lay and followed Willow out of the kitchen at a slightly more moderate pace.

"I drool at the sound of a bell?" Willow asked for clarification, clearly puzzled.

Fred giggled. "I meant with the extraordinary hearing and all."

"Fred has a thing about dogs." Cordelia explained on seeing Willow's frown. "I'm like Lassie." Angel's Seer told Willow in an overly bright voice and a big grin as they walked into the lobby and Willow realised that Cordelia was finally mastering tact.

Willow grinned at Cordelia before she caught sight of the two people waiting for them.

"Angel!" She wailed.

Angel frowned. Somehow he had assumed that she would be more pleased to see him. "What?"

Willow gestured at him. "I can't believe you're wearing black! It's makes me look so pale."

"It co-ordinates." Angel defended himself and then gestured back at her. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"You're wearing red!"

Willow shifted uncomfortably. "I can't wear red normally. And you have to admit, it suits you."

Angel tipped his head slightly to one side and considered. "But it's easier to co-ordinate with black. Especially when you have no reflection."

Willow conceded the point and rushed over to hug him. "It's so good to see you... me... you." She frowned. "Grrr! This is all so confusing."

Angel nodded, and reluctantly let her go. "So what's going on Wesley? How do we fix this?"

Wesley took the floor. "There are many ways to transfer souls between one person to another, but the majority of those require at least one of the two people involved performing the practice, and as far as I am aware, neither of you performed any such ritual, correct?"

Angel and Willow nodded and Wesley continued. "So, bearing that in mind, we turned our research to demons that could produce this... this effect and other spells. However, if you had been under the influence of one of the possibilities we have so far found, then the side effects would have been far more severe than those you have experienced."

"So, you haven't found anything?" Angel asked.

"No."

Dawn spoke up for the first time since they had arrived. "What about Darcy? She might know something."

"Dawnie!" Willow cried, noticing the Slayer's sister for the first time and giving her a big hug.

Dawn didn't even want to think about the fact that she was basically getting a hug from Angel, her sister's ex-boyfriend and the guy she'd had a crush on for as long as she'd known him. Okay, so it was actually Willow inside Angel, but the principle was the same. Angel's body was hugging hers.

It had been so much easier to approach Angel now that he was in Willow's body. They'd had a proper conversation for the first time ever and he was so funny! Dawn noticed that the conversation had gone on without her as usual and Cordelia was calling Darcy to get her come over.

"Swift, stop playing with the phone and get Darcy! It's an emergency." She said into the phone.

Dawn moved closer. Sure Cordelia had always been pretty mean to her, but she was nicer now and she'd always had such good fashion sense. "Is Swift what Darcy decided to call the cat in the end?" She asked.

Cordelia shook her head. "The cat's pretty much remained Basil, although Swift tells us that he does object to it because it's not his real name. Swift's the name of the dog Angel bought Darcy. It's turned out to be some kind of guardian spirit and looks out for her. Not very well though because he's dragged her through two lilac bushes this month. Yes, Swift, I am talking about you, now get Darcy. We keep getting calls from the morgue to tell us that our friend has died and will we please pick up her dog." Cordelia rolled her eyes expressively.

"He can understand you?" Dawn asked, curious to know why Cordelia was talking to the animal like she would a human.

Cordelia nodded. "And he can talk too. Either just to Darcy or to everyone. Hey Darce!"

Dawn moved away from the phone and closer to the small group congregated near a cool circular seating arrangement. Cordelia murmured into the phone, talking to Darcy, who Dawn had always thought was pretty cool. After all, how many people do you meet who are the offspring of a vampire? Just as she was thinking that, a green demon came down the stairs holding a small baby. Dawn rushed over to coo over him.

"Wow!" She exclaimed. "Is he yours?"

"Actually he's mine." Willow, Angel, Angel in Willow's body, said behind her.

Dawn whirled round to face him. "No way!"

Angel chuckled. "Way."

Dawn turned back around to offer her little finger to the baby, who curled a chubby fist around it. "Does Buffy know?" She asked absently, all of her attention focused on the small child in the demon's arms.

"No." Angel said and clammed up.

"Angelcakes, am I glad to see you." the green demon said and gave the baby to Angel before moving off.

"Who was that?" Dawn asked, struggling to extricate her finger from the baby's grasp.

Angel was absorbed in his son. "Huh? Oh, that was Lorne." He moved off, cooing to the child in his arms.

Dawn made her way back to the group of people again, joining them at the same time as Cordelia, who had just gotten off of the phone.

"What about D'hoffryn? Maybe this has something to do with him." Willow suggested.

Fred wrote it down on the whiteboard, underneath Wolfram and Hart.

Wesley shook his head at her and she rubbed it off again.

"D'hoffryn deals with wishes. Unless one of you wished this would happen then I think that it is highly unlikely that he is involved." He explained.

Willow tried her hardest to ignore Dawn's pointed look.

Unfortunately, Cordelia noticed. "Willow, did you wish this?" She demanded to know.

Willow squirmed. "Not exactly."

Angel turned to her, his attention momentarily diverted from Connor, and Willow was struck by how tiny she was.

"What do you mean, not exactly?"

"D'hoffryn asked her to become one of his minions." Dawn revealed.

Everyone turned to look at Willow. Gunn realised a second too late that he was actually looking at Angel, and turned to look at Willow instead. He looked back. And then back to Willow. He took a step back and viewed the situation logically. Everyone was looking at Angel's body, so that must be the right person to look at. Right? His head hurt.

Fred patted him on the shoulder sympathically. Gunn looked at her helplessly.

Willow decided it was time to break the blank silence. "I turned him down."

Angel walked up to the group. "So how far have we got?"

"So far, we've managed to conclude that the most likely people to have done this include Wolfram and Hart." Fred said, turning so that he couldn't quite see the whiteboard.

"And?"

"Wolfram and Hart." Fred moved away so that he could see the whiteboard with its lone name. And a load of Fred's mathematical equations.

"You've been working on wormholes again, haven't you?" Cordelia accused Fred.

Fred blushed, and Gunn's head still hurt.

Angel handed Connor over to Cordelia and walked into Wesley's office. He emerged two seconds later swathed in one of his leather coats. Three seconds later he landed flat on his face. He glared at the offending hemline and then transferred his glare to the hysterical bunch of people three feet away. Snapping out of it, Angel mentally slapped himself. Willow's body was starting to affect him, he reasoned. He was beginning to think like a woman. Hemline?! He asked himself.

Willow helped him up.

"Thanks." He said, straightening his collar and trying to stand more like a man.

Willow looked pained. "Please don't do that with my body." She begged him.

"What?" Angel didn't have a clue.

"You make me look like a dyke." Willow explained.

"Is that the butch kind or the sexy kind?" Gunn asked.

Everyone looked at Gunn.

Gunn hadn't thought it was possible for his head to hurt more than it did. He was discovering how wrong he could be.

"Ow!" Cordelia slapped him again. "Do you know how hard your head is?"

"Not very." Gunn replied, sitting down and cradling his aching head.

"I thought you were a lesbian?" Angel murmured to Willow.

Willow was uncomfortable with the amount of squirming she was doing today. Angel wasn't. "Yeah, but you make me look it." She whispered.

Lorne wandered back into the lobby, trying to conceal the fact that Gunn wasn't the only one whose head was hurting. "Angelcakes, where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go pay a visit to some lawyer friends of ours." Angel grinned evilly.

Lorne studied his outfit. "Good idea. Go for it. You've really got the 'I'm an extremely pissed off vampire who's going to rip your head off' vibe going for you what with the oversized coat and all. Nice knowing you." Lorne went to walk off.

Angel promptly tripped over his coat again as he rushed to catch up with him. Picking himself back up again, he cast a beseeching look at Willow who immediately stopped Lorne in his tracks.

"Hey Lorne! Your underwear's showing." Willow shared a delighted grin with Angel as Lorne twisted himself around in circles, trying to see his arse.

Taking a side each they stood next to the green singer.

"Just kidding." Willow told him.

If looks could kill, Angel's body would have been a pile of dust. "Oh very amusing." Lorne said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go shut my head in the trouser press. All this droll wit is just too much for me."

"Lorne, wait." Angel called.

"What do you mean?" Willow asked the green demon.

Lorne sighed. "Okay Angelcakes, you want to know how to get through this?"

Willow and Angel nodded.

"You can't afford to show any weakness. If you do..." Lorne paused and then clapped his hands together. Angel jumped. "That's when your enemies will pounce. So you have to become each other. That's all the advice I can give you." Lorne walked away.

Angel and Willow stared at each other. Angel handed his coat to Willow.

"This is going to make my head hurt." Gunn remarked to no one in particular.

"Angel Investigations, we help the hopeless." Cordelia said brightly into the phone. Listening to what the person on the other line was telling her, she sighed and pulled a notepad towards her. "I see. Uh huh. No problem. Where exactly are you? Uh huh? Okay, we'll be right there." She hung up and grabbed her coat. "Angel, saddle up! We've gotta go collect Darcy." She called.

Angel stuck his head around the basement door. "I'm busy, can't Gunn go?"

"Gunn's picking up the Chinese. Besides, you're her next of kin." Cordelia waved her notepad at him. "Guess where she is."

Angel rolled his eyes. "Not again."

Wesley came out of his office, coat on. "We should take Willow too."

Angel disappeared back down into the basement to tell Willow that they were going to have to break off their training session.

"I'll just tell Gunn where we've gone." Cordelia said, crossing back the the reception area and scribbling down a note.

Angel and Willow emerged from the basement and the small group left the hotel.

Angel, Cordelia, Wesley and Willow approached the lone security guard on detail at the morgue.

"Wonder how many of them they've gone through this month." Cordelia muttered to Willow with a nod at the guard. Willow smothered a grin.

"Hi, I'm A-" Angel scowled at Wesley and rubbed his ribs where he had elbowed him. That was going to bruise.

"I'm Geraldo Angel." Willow said stepping forward. "You called me earlier about my sister, Darcy Regan?"

Cordelia smiled encouragingly at Willow. The impromptu coaching she'd given her in the car on the way over was paying off, Willow had their cover story down pat.

The guard visibly relaxed and actually went so far as to smile at them. "Yeah, you here to collect her dog?"

Willow nodded briefly. "I'd actually like to collect the... the body if I could. I'd prefer it if Darcy were to remain at home until her funeral." Willow ducked her head, pulling herself together.

Cordelia was impressed. Back in high school, Willow had been unable to tell a lie without blushing furiously. Then again, vampire physiology wasn't exactly geared towards blushing.

"No problem." The guard said, and pushed some paperwork towards them. "You just gotta fill these forms out."

Willow picked up a pen and pulled the top sheet towards her. She frowned and scratched her head.

Sensing a problem, Angel spoke up. "Would you be able to get Swift for us?"

"Swift?" The guard seemed puzzled. "Oh, the dog, right? I'll go get him."

As soon as the guard had left the room, Angel moved to stand next to Willow and helped her with the forms. They almost had the last one finished when Willow looked up, head cocked slightly to one side.

"He's coming back." She whispered to him.

Quickly, Angel pulled the forms towards him, grabbed the pen and signed each one.

"Finished." Willow said as the guard came back into the room and handed the paperwork to him.

A small black and white border collie slunk over to her side and looked up at her, whining. Willow crouched down beside him.

"Hey fella." She said, rubbing his ears.

"Don't make a fuss of him." Angel told her. Willow looked up at him, surprised. "He's done something wrong and he knows it."

The security guard cleared his throat. "I sorted out the body for you, I'll just get someone to give you a hand to your car."

"That's okay." Willow said, standing up and glaring briefly at Angel. "I'll carry her."

The guard nodded and motioned for Willow to follow him. She did.

"What was it this time?" Angel asked Swift.

Swift looked up at him and then turned to Cordelia. "Who is this person?" The small dog asked.

"That's Angel." Cordelia enlightened him.

The dog looked at the door that Willow had gone through. "Then who was that?"

"That was Willow." Cordelia told him. "Stop stalling and tell us what happened."

Swift yawned and stretched. He'd told them before that it was the dog equivalent of a shrug. "There was a cat. I'm a dog. It's my duty to chase cats." He defended himself.

"You live with a cat." Cordelia pointed out. "Why would you want to chase one?"

"Basil is different. He's intelligent. Don't tell him I said that!" Swift sniffed Angel curiously.

Angel gently pushed him away with a foot. "So you chased a cat. Then what happened?"

Swift got as low to the ground as possible. What he wouldn't give to be able to express his emotions as well as humans. "The cat went under a lilac bush." He whimpered.

Cordelia rolled her eyes.

"I hope Gunn's prepared the rooms." Angel said as he held the door open for Willow to pass through.

Willow frowned and shifted Darcy slightly, trying to get a better grip on her. "Huh?"

"We have a standard procedure for these events." Wesley explained. "There are certain rooms that we use whenever Darcy is incapacitated. For example, we use the Lilac Suite whenever she suffers from toxin inhalation. It's a series of three interconnecting rooms. One of the is the contaminated room, another is the decontamination room and the third is the recovery room. We use each room only for it's specified purpose. Otherwise we risk cross-contamination."

Willow was stunned. "Wow. You've really put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?" She said, following Cordelia up the staircase.

"Angel felt that with all of the problems Darcy's had to overcome, she should have one place where she was always going to be safe." Cordelia explained, leading the way into a room.

Putting Darcy down onto a small bed Willow took a long look around the room. It was decorated in dark shades of lilac and the outside of the door Cordelia still held open was painted a bright red. Willow supposed that this was meant as a warning for Darcy, in case she inadvertently went to open the door.

Fred scooted past the door, having been fully briefed by Wesley downstairs.

"Where's Fred going?" Willow asked, surprised that she wasn't going to give them a hand.

Cordelia closed the door. "She'll be in the other room, getting some fresh clothes out for Darcy." She moved over to the bed. "Help me get her clothes off."

Between the two of them they quickly stripped the tiny dhampir and Cordelia bundled up the clothes Darcy had been wearing.

"I'm going to go put these in the washing machine and take a shower. You take Darcy into the bathroom and give her a cold shower. When you're done, shower down the room and give Fred a quick knock on the other door and go take a shower yourself. If you leave those clothes outside the bathroom door, one of the boys will make sure they're gone by the time you come out." Cordelia instructed the bemused Willow.

Willow did as she had been told. When she had showered, she stood in front of the bathroom mirror, entranced by her lack of a reflection. She kinda wished she did have a reflection, it would be fun to see Angel naked. Not that she couldn't see him naked, she mused, after all she had to do was drop the towel.

Willow didn't drop the towel. She walked away and got dressed, trying her hardest not to look at the thing nestled between her legs.

When she was dressed, she stood in the middle of Angel's room, unsure of what to do next. Slowly, her thoughts pulled her away from her current predicament, which was why she jumped at the knock on her door.

"Willow?" Angel called from the other side of the door. "Are you dressed?" He administered another mental slap to himself. What did it matter if she was or wasn't dressed? It was his body damn it!

Despite the late hour, Lilah Morgan was still working. The detective Wolfram and Hart owned had reported back to her just as she had been about to go home and now she was desperately trying to figure out who the two women who had gone into the Hyperion Hotel were and whether or not they were new players. To make matters worse, the detective had called her three hours later to report that the redhead had gone out with Angel and two of the others and they had returned with an unconscious Darcy Regan.

At the thought of the diminutive dhampir, Lilah allowed a small smirk to play on her lips. The last time the two of them had tangled, Darcy had reportedly been dead for the rest of the day. Nowadays, whenever Darcy sought legal representation, she went to one of the underlings, rather than one of Lilah's opposites. Lilac perfume was better than mace any day.

The smirk slipped when Lilah recalled that she didn't know who the two girls were, never mind their connection to Darcy Regan. She sighed. It looked like she was going to be taking another trip down to Files and Records.

Darcy gagged and tried to take another breath in. This time it worked. She smiled. Finally, she could get out of her vampiric face and back into her human one again. She sighed in relief and started coughing desperately. Maybe she should wait awhile.

"Are you okay?" Willow asked her solicitously.

Darcy nodded slightly. It still freaked her how much Willow could still sound like, well Willow, when she was in Angel's body. Come to that, the whole situation was freaking her out. She took the glass of water Angel held out to her and sipped at it gratefully. The freshly bathed Swift looked up at her in concern.

"So where are we at?" Gunn asked, digging into the cold Chinese.

Cordelia shuddered in disgust. "How can you eat that?" She asked him.

Willow giggled. "It's not as bad as the sight of Xander eating crumpets!" She and Darcy burst out laughing.

"What's so bad about crumpets?" Angel asked.

Darcy grinned at him. "Nothing," She rasped. "But Xander eats them raw!"

Angel and Wesley both went pale and Willow and Darcy started laughing again at the look of abject horror on their faces.

"So what caused this?" Cordelia asked with a wave in Angel and Willow's direction as soon as Darcy and Willow had sobered up.

The smile faded fast from Darcy's face as she caught sight of the expressions on Willow's, no Angel's, no Willow's - her head hurt - no Angel's... on her friends faces. She glanced up at Wesley.

"It's not a demon." He informed them. "Other symptoms would have begun to manifest by now."

"And so far the only spell that fits is too generalised." Darcy added.

Fred frowned. "I still think it could be the answer." She told Darcy.

"What does it do?" Willow asked them.

"It was designed to work on humans." Darcy told her. "For use in combat. It gives a metaphysical shove to the soul, and stops the soul from re-entering the body, the idea being that without a soul present, a human is dead." She looked around to see if they were all following. "The only problem with it is that it expends way too much of the caster's energy and they wind up dead as well, so it doesn't get used very often."

Cordelia frowned. "So why did you rule it out? I mean, Wolfram and Hart would probably do anything to get rid of Angel's soul."

Darcy bit her lip, searching for the right words. "It's not a spell that would send a soul anywhere. It would just push it out. The soul wouldn't go anywhere. It would just hang around, unable to go anywhere."

"But if Wolfram and Hart did use it on Angel, and his soul was given a big enough push, then it's possible that it could have switched with Willow's" Fred argued.

"There's an awful load of ifs in that scenario and why Willow? Why not someone else closer to him?" Darcy asked her, not noticing the pained look that briefly crossed Willow's face.

"Because Willow performed the soul restoration." Angel said. "That had to have created some kind of link between our souls, right?"

Wesley nodded. "That would certainly create a bond between the two of you."

"Which means that this could have been the spell used after all." Darcy said thoughtfully, biting her lip again.

"So how do we break it?" Gunn asked, his mouth full of food.

Darcy winced. "I don't know if we can. The spell is designed to stop Angel's soul from crossing back into his body, and if we were to attempt the spell again, this time on Willow, we'd have no guarantee that it would work or it could backfire horribly and whoever cast the spell would die."

Angel grabbed Willow's hand. "That's it. We're going to see Wolfram and Hart!" He told her, trying to drag her out of the building. He mentally cursed his human strength and tried harder.

"Uh, Angel?" Willow said, resisting all his hardest efforts. She frowned, realising just how weak her body really was.

"What?"

Willow looked pointedly at the clock. "It's two in the morning Angel. No one will be there."

Angel frowned unhappily at the hapless clock.

"Why don't we reconvene at ten tomorrow morning?" Wesley suggested. "Angel and Willow can pay a visit to Wolfram and Hart and the rest of us can work on a way to reverse the spell."

Wesley's suggestion was greeted with relief from the majority of the group and Cordelia and Gunn quickly left to go home. Fred started backing towards the elevator.

"Are you sure you don't want my help researching something first?" She asked anxiously.

Wesley smiled at her. "We'll be fine." He told her. "I'm about to leave myself."

"Okay." Fred grinned. "G'night!"

"Night." Wesley began to pack his stuff up as Fred headed up the stairs.

"If it's okay with you guys, I think I'll stick around a bit longer." Said Darcy, crossing to the bookcase in Wesley's office. "I want to see if I can find anything that might help."

"Aren't you tired?" Willow asked curiously as Angel followed Fred's example and set off up the stairs to go to bed.

Darcy grinned at her. "Nah, I just had a couple of hours of really good sleep. I could stay awake for days!"

"If you're sure." Wesley said, on his way out. "It would be a big help."

"I'm sure." Darcy assured both of them. "Now get some rest, the pair of you!"

Wesley promptly left the building.

"I'm gonna grab something to eat." Willow told Darcy. "Do you want any?" She asked, knowing how much of a delicacy blood was for Darcy.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'll pass. If I have blood just after I've died I wind up craving it for weeks." Darcy told her, her nose already in a book.

"Okay, night guys." Willow said and walked off in the direction of the kitchens.

"Night." Swift called after her, knowing that he was banned from the kitchen since he'd eaten all of Cordelia's cookie dough fudge mint chip ice cream. His ears perked up as he realised that Willow didn't know that and he raced after her.

"Lilah Morgan, clearance oh-one-one-two-seven-seven-three." Lilah recited, standing in front of Files and Records.

"Good morning Miss Morgan."

Lilah placed the photographs of the two women that the detective had given her on the desk in front of her. "What do you know about these two people?" She asked.

"One moment please." Files and Records' eyes flickered and Lilah could hear a faint rattling sound. Files and Records pointed to the brunette. "Summers, Dawn. Sister of the Slayer, Summers Buffy. The Key."

Lilah frowned, she hated not knowing what something meant. "What about the red head?"

"Rosenburg, Willow. Known associate of the Slayer, Summers, Buffy. A powerful witch. Recently gave up magic because it was felt that she was becoming addicted. Performed the Soul Restoration on Angelus in March 1998."

"Damn!" Lilah cursed. "I thought the person who cast the Soul Restoration on Angelus was dead."

"The original caster died in..." Files and Records' eyes flickered briefly. "1910."

Lilah pursed her lips and folded her arms. She didn't know how this news was going to affect the spell they had cast on Angel. Maybe the witch was there to recurse him. Perhaps she had locked down his soul so tight, nothing could disturb it. "Thanks." She said and walked out of the file store. One thing was certain. She was going home to sleep.

Angel stood in front of his bathroom mirror, entranced by his reflection. He could stare at Willow all he liked and no one would ever know. He moved his arm and watched it move in the mirror. Angel grinned wickedly and rolled his shoulders back. Willow's breasts pushed against the towel covering them. An evil thought popped into his head and he raised his arms above his head. Willow's breasts rose high and firm beneath the towel. Angel decided that he liked being a woman. His shower had been fun! Willow's body felt all alive and tingly now. He hadn't looked though, that would have been an invasion of Willow's privacy. Well, he hadn't looked at much anyway. Angel stretched, curious as to what effect that would have. His towel dropped to the floor. Angel gaped at the mirror.

Wow! Willow's body was... perfection.

Angel touched Willow's breast, curious as to how her body would react.

Willow's nipple hardened into a tight bud. Angel brushed it with a thumb and deep inside him something pulsed in response. He cupped each of Willow's breasts with both hands and massaged them gently. The thing inside of him began to ache sweetly. He could feel the area between his legs beginning to get moist. Angel dropped his hands away and squeezed his legs together in an effort to get himself under control. He almost jumped through the roof instead.

God! The pressure felt good.

Stop, he had to stop this. It wasn't fair to Willow. How would he feel if he knew that Willow was masturbating just down the hall?

A wave of heat shot through him.

He'd feel pretty damn good.

He spread his legs in an effort to cut down on the friction. With a groan he realised that this position was just as bad, with the cool air brushing at him gently. It didn't help that he was still stood in front of the mirror. Almost against his own will, almost, his hand trailed its way up Willow's hip, along her flat stomach and back up to her breast. He began to massage it gently and accidentally touched Willow's nipple again. Angel moaned.

It all felt so good.

Willow's innermost core was throbbing insistently now.

Angel's other hand traced a path from the side of Willow's neck, over her breast, down her stomach, across her abdomen and lower. Lower. Lower. It circled around Willow's inner thigh once, twice, three times, and then dipped to the hollow between her legs.

Angel shuddered in ecstasy.

Lost to all reason, oblivious to the world, he wriggled, he twisted, he burned. He thought he would explode, the pressure gathered deep inside him was so great. Tension wound tighter and tighter. He was slowly being driven out of his mind. He ached. He tried every trick he knew of and still the pressure gathered. He had yet to look away from the mirror.

In frustration, Angel pinched Willow's tight nipple hard.

With a barely muffled scream, Angel felt the pressure break. Waves of pleasure shot through Willow's body, throbbing with an invisible electricity. His legs buckled and he fell to the floor. He couldn't stop whimpering in pleasure as he was wracked with uncontrollable tremors.

When it was all over, he looked at his reflection in the mirror, his eyes still wet from the tears of sheer delight he'd been unable to stop.

He wanted to be a woman forever.

Willow walked along the corridor on her way to bed. A strange scent teased her senses and she stopped in her tracks. Moving slowly, she stalked the smell down to its source. It was an odd kind of smell, vaguely musky with a sharpness all to itself. Oddly it reminded her of raspberries, her favourite fruit.

With a jolt Willow realised that it was her. It was her body. It was somewhere close and it was aroused! What the hell was Angel doing to her!?

She moved closer to the door she knew led to Angel's bathroom. She could hear Angel panting and gasping inside. She could hear her heartbeat pounding so hard for a moment she thought it might break. She could smell her own arousal.

Dimly Willow registered that Angel's own body was also becoming aroused.

Enthralled, Willow followed every one of Angel's twists and turns. She could hear her own hands caressing her body. It was mildly disturbing. And a big turn on.

With a scream, Angel orgasmed. Willow was almost disappointed. Normally it took her much longer to build up to an orgasm. She wondered what exactly Angel did.

With a pleasurable ache dangling between her legs, Willow walked away and treated herself to a cold shower.

Downstairs, Darcy searched long into the night for an answer.

It took a while for the shame to creep in. By the time it did, Angel had crawled into bed and was on the verge of slipping into oblivion.

He felt sick, he decided. He'd abused Willow's trust in the worst possible way. And the truth of it was that he wasn't even truly sorry. He'd been privy to something that men could only ever dream of. But he was ashamed of himself.

There was only one thing for it, he decided. He'd go apologise to her.

Downstairs, Swift helped himself to Cordelia's cookie dough fudge mint chip ice cream.

The cold shower had helped, but not much, Willow decided as she pulled the bedcovers higher around her freezing body. Her teeth were chattering away to themselves. She cursed as there was a knock on the door. Now she'd have to get out of bed and go answer it.

"Willow!" Angel said as she answered the door.

Willow slammed the door in his face.

"Damn it!" Angel cursed, kicking the door. She obviously already knew. He ran his fingers through his hair. They stuck. He pulled on the knot. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" He winced in pain.

Willow opened the door again, swathed in a blanket. You really should brush that as it dries." She told him sarcastically and went to close the door again.

"Willow wait! I can explain." Angel stuck his foot in the door.

Willow shut the door on his foot.

"Ow!" Angel hopped on one foot. "I think you broke your foot!"

Willow wrenched the door open a third time. "Great! It's like a bad episode of The Three Stooges. I'm hitting myself!"

"Hey! There are no bad episodes of The Three Stooges." Angel informed her, still hopping. "Seriously, I think you broke your foot."

Willow groaned and looked down at the foot Angel was clutching. "I'll get some ice from the kitchen."

"I'll come with you." Angel called, hopping after her.

Down in the kitchen, Swift was quivering in ecstasy. He'd just discovered another tub of ice cream. So he didn't hear Angel, supported by Willow, enter the room.

"Swift!" Angel shouted at the adolescent dog, sitting down heavily.

Swift looked round guiltily. "Food!" He barked back. "Food, food, food, food, food, food!"

Willow grabbed the small dog by the collar and dragged him out of the kitchen, closing the door firmly on his expectant face.

"Sorry about that." She said, busying herself with finding some unmelted ice. She dragged a defrosted raspberry pavlova out of the freezer and dumped it on the side. "I let him into the kitchen earlier. I didn't realise he hadn't left with me." She found some ice and shook it into a towel.

"It's okay." Angel winced as she slapped the ice down on his aching foot. "Willow, I'm sorry."

Willow ran her hand through her hair and Angel realised exactly what caused his hair to stick up like it did. She sighed. "It's okay, I guess." She said, opening Angel's blood freezer and selecting a pack at random.

Angel frowned as he realised how much his supplies had diminished. "Going through that a bit fast aren't you?"

"It keeps Angelus pacified." Willow told him shortly, tossing the pack in the microwave and punching the nuke button.

Angel looked at her, concerned. "How are you holding up with that?"

Willow turned to look him in the eye for the first time since she'd opened her bedroom drawer to him. "I've started seeing your memories."

Angel winced again. Whatever she was seeing, it couldn't be good.

"Other than that, as long as I keep drinking the blood, he leaves me pretty much alone. There are certain times when he wants me to kill people. He really doesn't like Cordelia much, does he?"

Angel shook his head slowly, not wanting to tell her the reason why. The microwave beeped and Willow retrieved her blood. She poured it into a mug and hunted through the cupboards a bit. Finding what she was looking for, she squeezed a little of the raspberry syrup into her mug and stirred it with a spoon she immediately washed. Grabbing two forks she plonked the raspberry pavlova and herself down in front of Angel. Offering him a fork, she sipped at the blood.

"Take it." She told him with a nod at the fork. "If you're anything like me, you're starving right now and raspberries are my comfort food."

Angel took the fork and tentatively ate a bite of the pavlova. He grinned at Willow. "That's good!" He told her, between mouthfuls.

Willow smiled back. She sipped at the blood for a while, watching him eat, trying to choose the perfect moment. "Why'd you do it Angel?" She asked him as he took as massive bite of pavlova.

Angel promptly choked. He struggled to swallow, still choking. Willow placed a glass of water in front of him. As soon as his mouth was clear, he downed the whole glass. "Thanks." He croaked.

"Why?"

Angel cleared his throat. He wished he had more water. "I didn't mean to. Honestly. I had a shower, and then I was looking at my reflection and the towel, sort of fell."

Willow frowned at him. "Why?"

Angel couldn't believe it, he was actually blushing. "I sort of stretched and it fell down. And I was looking at your body and it was so perfect."

Willow ducked her head, embarrassed and no longer able to meet his eyes.

~Wimp.~ Angelus chuckled.

"And I wanted to touch your breasts." Angel told her, noticing her embarrassment and empathising. "And then, before I knew it, I was touching them. And they felt so good. I could feel myself getting turned on, and it was such a familiar feeling and yet so alien to me. I told myself I had to stop and I did."

Willow wondered if this was turning him on too. She shifted uncomfortably, glad she was sitting down.

"I pressed my thighs together. I didn't know what that would do to me. I tried standing with my thighs apart but that was just as bad. I even went to walk away and the friction was unbelievable, unbearable. Before I knew it I was masturbating in front of the mirror. It was almost like you were right there in front of me, it was something I'd only dared dream of. I couldn't believe it. And then when I came, it was like I'd died and gone to heaven. The whole time it was like you were right there with me. It was the most fantastic experience of my life and I don't regret a minute of it. I'm only sorry that I hurt you." Angel ran out of words.

Willow looked up at him, her pupils dilated. She reached out with her fork and snagged a piece of pavlova. Leaning forward, she gently fed it to him.

Angel chewed slowly and swallowed, unable to believe, yet hoping desperately that this meant that she'd forgiven him.

Willow removed the fork and replaced it with her mouth. Pulling away before Angel had a chance to react, she stood up. "Thank you." Shakily she walked away.

Forgetting his painful foot, Angel chased after her and swung her around. Pulling her head down to meet his, he kissed her.

Willow couldn't believe this was happening. Had she wanted to, she could have quite easily pulling away, but she didn't want to. She wanted Angel. Willow gathered him into her arms and deepened the kiss. Her head felt like it was floating away and yet her feet were firmly attached to the ground.

Angel felt Willow's erection pressing into his stomach and felt like dancing for joy. Willow wanted him. Pure, innocent, fantastic, unbelievable, unforgettable, perfect Willow wanted him! Moaning deep in the back of his throat, he scraped his nails down Willow's back. Willow shuddered and cupped Angel's breast. Angel arced back into Willow's touch, wanting more. Willow gently tweaked Angel's nipple, pulling at it. Angel groaned and burrowed closer to Willow, wanting all of her.

Remembering that Angel needed to breathe, Willow broke the kiss off.

They stared into each others eyes, losing themselves in a world of lust.

"Bed." Angel rasped.

Willow nodded her agreement and, hand in hand, they left the kitchen.

In the hotel lobby, Darcy turned her attention to the Internet. Maybe there was something there that could help her.

Willow wasn't sure how exactly they'd made it back to Angel's bedroom. Their journey was a was a hazy memory of stolen kisses, touches, sighs and moans. Now they were actually there, neither of them was sure of what to do next.

Angel opened his mouth to say something and Willow pounced. Their tongue tangled in an erotic mock of the sexual act they both knew would come.

Willow pressed herself closer to Angel, seeking the stability he offered. The feelings and emotions coursing through her body were exactly as he had described earlier. Such a familiar feeling and yet so alien. She ran her hands up his back and ground her lower body into his. Gently, she stroked the back of his neck and Angel sagged in her arms. Willow picked him up and carried him to the bed. Placing him down softly, she joined him.

Angel frantically tried to undo the buttons on Willow's pyjama suit. Muttering fiercely, he gave up and ripped it open to expose her bare chest instead. He burrowed closer, desperate for the body contact. Laughing softly, Willow enfolded him in her arms and slipped his night-gown over his head. Bending her head to seek his lips again, she cupped a breast in one hand, whilst the other dipped down to gently play with his clitoris. Angel bucked beneath her hand and scrabbled at her pyjama bottoms, pushing them down to her thighs. Willow abandoned Angel's breast for a moment to push them further down and Angel moaned his disappointment, reaching out to her blindly. He curled one hand around her dick and Willow groaned helplessly. Now she finally understood why guys were always going on about penis envy. She hadn't known it could be this good.

Kicking off the pyjama bottoms, Willow rolled out Angel's reach and parted his legs. Gradually, she licked her way up his leg, starting at his ankle and working up to his inner thigh. Pausing, she breathed softly on his mound and Angel sobbed, lifting his pelvis up off of the bed.

"Willow, please." He begged.

Willow repeated the procedure on the other leg, with Angel squirming all the way. So this was what it was like to be a man. You were in control, dominating the pace. This was what she had been seeking with Tara.

Reaching Angel's inner thigh again, Willow stopped and considered the sight before her. Tentatively, she leaned forward and licked her way up Angel's pussy. Angel moaned and bucked his hips.

"Steady." Willow cautioned, taking hold of Angel's thighs and repeating the procedure.

"Please, Willow, please." Angel pleaded, pulling Willow up to kiss her.

Willow returned the kiss enthusiastically, bending her knee so that it applied pressure to Angel's clit.

Angel bit her lip as he squirmed on her thigh. Suddenly he pushed Willow off of him and straddled her. He nipped roughly at her throat and she growled playfully at him. Gradually Angel worked his way down Willow's body, alternatively nipping, licking and kissing. Eventually he reached her cock and he placed a soft kiss on the top. This time it was Willow's hips that bucked. Very slowly, Angel licked from the base of Willow's dick up to its head before taking it into his mouth. He gently sucked on the head before going down even further. Willow moaned and thrust her hips up to meet his mouth. Her right hand tangled in Angel's hair and she stroke the back of her neck, knowing how crazy that usually made her.

God! Her eyes rolled back as Angel varied the pace. She never knew what he would do next. She wanted to be a man forever!

It was when Angel gently gripped her ball bag that Willow's control burst. Tearing Angel off of her she flipped him onto his back and placed herself at his entrance.

"Are you sure?" Angel asked her.

Willow nodded. "You?"

Angel arched his hips up and Willow's dick went about an inch into him. "Hell, yes." He replied.

Nodding slightly again, Willow eased into him. Slowly she began to move back and forth, experimenting to see what Angel liked best. When she hit on a rhythm and style they both enjoyed, she let herself loose.

The two of them rocked back and forth, when Angel's heartbeat quickened even more and his breathing became panting Willow knew that he was near. Gradually she released her control and started pounding onto Angel even more quickly. Bending her head, she bit him sharply on the nipple and felt him spasm around her as he spiralled out of control. With one final thrust, Willow joined him.

Downstairs, Darcy slept peacefully, her head pillowed on the computer keyboard and Swift curled up at her feet. Swift was pissed off. He'd been deprived of his food and now he had to listen to Angel and Willow discover something that had been obvious to him the first time he'd clapped eyes on them. They loved each other.

It was a dogs life, it really was.

It was some time before they both floated back to earth. When they did, they simply curled up next to each other and slept.

When they awoke again, it was still dark. Willow turned in Angel's embrace and kissed him gently.

"That was wonderful." Angel said with a smile on his face.

They both froze.

"Willow?" Angel asked, an odd tone in his voice.

Willow sat up and snapped the light on. Blinking in the sudden glare, she squinted down at Angel. Silently, Angel reached over and took her pulse.

"We're back." He said in a wondering tone of voice.

Willow blinked again. "How? Why? When? How?"

Angel sat up. "I don't know." He looked over to where Willow sat staring into the middle distance, shellshocked. A sharp pain tore its way through his heart and involuntarily, he looked down to see if he'd been staked. He hadn't. "Do, do you regret it?" he asked her, not wanting to know the answer, but compelled to.

Willow turned to him. "No! No!" She insisted, hurt to the core that he would think she could have any regrets. It had been magical. But maybe it hadn't meant anything to him. He hadn't lost his soul. Not that she wanted him to, but that meant she hadn't given him perfect happiness. "You?"

Angel reached over and kissed her lightly. "None whatsoever." He told her with a soppy grin.

Willow smiled at him, her heart shining in her eyes and kissed him back.

Angel drew her back down to the bed and the light was turned off again.

Angel rolled over and thrust a questing arm out for Willow. His arm met with the cold bed. Groggily, he pushed himself up and looked around for Willow.

Willow. Angel's soppy grin returned. She'd given him so much and he loved her all the more for it. She shown him time and time again in the course of the night that he could have his perfect happiness and still retain his soul. Shaking his head slightly, he wondered how she'd managed it. How she'd tamed the demon enough to bind his soul permanently. He wondered where she was so that he could show her again how much he loved her.

Willow turned from her perch in front of the window and looked over at Angel. He was wide awake and staring at her with that ridiculous smile. Despite herself, she returned his smile with one of her own. Then she turned back to the sunlight. She'd missed the sun. But she was glad that Angel had been able to experience it, even for a day, even if it meant that she had been deprived of it.

"Willow? What's wrong?"

She turned back to him and stepped out of the sunlight.

"I'm going back to Sunnydale with Dawn." She told him.

Angel leapt out of the bed, dragging the sheet with him. "What? But, we agreed, no regrets."

"No, no regrets." She agreed with him. "But I don't belong here."

Angel's eyes blazed. "That's crap Willow and you know it! You belong here, with me. I lo-"

Willow shook her head and placed a finger on his lips, her eyes shining with tears she was determined not to shed. Angel kissed her finger, trying to tell her how he felt without the words she'd just forbidden.

"Maybe, maybe some day. When Buffy... When she's gone. But for now my place is by her side. I'm her friend. I owe her so much."

Angel couldn't argue.

Willow knew that, and it still broke her up inside. Deep down, she'd been hoping that he would manage to find a perspective she hadn't thought of and convince her to stay. But they both knew it was hopeless.

Silently Angel dressed and they made their way downstairs.

"Do you think we should wake her?" Fred asked.

"Leave her be, she needs her rest." Wesley told them, his eyes on the book Darcy had discarded.

"We should at least turn the computer off, she's drooling on the keyboard." Gunn pointed out.

"Ew! I use that keyboard!" Cordelia exclaimed, and shook Darcy awake as Angel and Willow came down the stairs.

Darcy sat bolt upright. "True Love!" She exclaimed.

"Come again Sweetpea?" Lorne asked her.

Darcy looked around at them excitedly, convinced she had hit upon the answer. "True Love breaks all spells."

Darcy's revelation was too painful for Willow and she fled back upstairs. Angel looked after her helplessly. There was nothing he could say to comfort her, and his presence could only distress her more.

He looked at the group gathered around Darcy and met their gaze.

"You already figured that out, didn't you Angelcakes?" Lorne asked him sympathically.

Angel nodded morosely and headed towards the kitchen for some blood. His demon was screaming at him for being so useless.

Cordelia turned to the others. "They're back!" She said wonderingly. "But that means..." She trailed off as the full magnitude of what must have happened last night hit her. "Oh God! Why are they so miserable? And why isn't Angelus back?"

Darcy scraped her chair back. "I'll take Angel."

"I'll go after Willow." Wesley offered.

Lorne gently restrained him. "Let me."

"Hey Connor." Willow cooed to the baby in her arms. "I'm leaving today, and I guess I just wanted to say goodbye. I'm sure it's not going to be the last time we meet, I've got a lot of unfinished business here in LA. But I'm gonna make sure you're not part of it." She began to croon softly to the small child.

"Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

There's a land that I heard of

Once in a lullaby

"Somewhere over the rainbow

Skies are blue

And the dreams

That you dare to dream

Yes they do really do

Come true

"Some day I'll wish upon a star

And wake up where the clouds are far

Behind me

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

Way above the chimney tops

That's where you'll find me

"Somewhere over the rainbow

Oh, Bluebirds fly

High

Birds laugh

Over the rainbow

Why, oh why,

Can't I?

"If happy little bluebirds fly

Above the rainbow why

Oh why

Can't I?"

"You're leaving." Willow jumped at the sound of Lorne's voice and turned around to face him. "Why?" He asked.

Willow put Connor back in his cot before replying. "It's for the best."

"You're the best thing that's happened to that brooding lug of a vampire in a very long time and you and I both know it Angelcakes. You're his mate."

"Will you still say that after Buffy stakes Angel, because he dared to look at another woman, let alone her best friend?" Willow demanded.

Lorne frowned. "Well, no. But that might never happen."

"You see people's destinies. You know that if I stay here it will happen."

Lorne bowed his head, knowing that what she said was true.

"Angel?" Darcy called, entering the kitchen.

She was greeted with a fierce growl.

Two can play at that game, she thought, and growled back at him.

Angel threw his mug at the wall.

"Angel, what's going on?" Darcy asked the vampire she considered to be family. Just not family in the totally evil, wanting to turn you and use you in a ritual to blow up the world kind of way.

"She's leaving." Angel growled. "For all of the right reasons damn it."

Dawn wandered into the kitchen, yawning. She took one look at the scene in front of her and did a sharp turn back out.

Darcy wanted to cry. She wanted to rip Willow's heart out and present it to Angel, but she had a pretty good idea that Willow had already done that for her. She wanted to kill, maim and destroy. She wanted to make it all right. Damn the pair of them, they were both too selfless for their own good. "God Angel, I'm so sorry."

Angel growled again, and she gave him the privacy he so obviously desired.

The small bag Angel had brought from Sunnydale was packed and Willow was ready to go. Almost. There was one thing she had to do first.

She found Angel in the basement, killing a punchbag.

"You're going then?" He asked, carefully not looking at her.

This was killing her. She loved him more than life itself, how could she ever leave him. "I'm all packed."

"See you around." Angel said carelessly, punching the bag even harder.

"Yeah." She picked up her bag and walked away.

Angel caught up with her in two strides and spun her into his arms. He kissed her with a fierce desperation and she felt her knees weakening. Winding her arms around his neck, she returned Angel's kiss fiercely... And then walked away.

Angel let her.

Dawn was quiet on the journey home, something which Willow would always be grateful for. Perhaps she had guessed a little of the life shattering events that Willow had experienced. Perhaps not.

Willow closed her eyes. No matter what else happened now, she would always have her memories. Her memories of their short time together and the memories that Angelus had given her of the times when he had watched her. When Angel had watched her, his feelings burgeoning, but something that he had deliberately denied, telling himself that he didn't deserve her, that she could never love him. And when Angelus had watched her, always plotting, always planning a way for them to be together forever.

Those memories were precious to her. Who knew when she and Angel would meet again.

~Wimp.~ Angelus chuckled mockingly.

Willow's eyes snapped open.

THE END

back