Title: Braving Buffy (11/?)

Author: Katie

Disclaimer: The BtVS and Angel characters don't belong to me, but to
Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc.

Rating: PG - British System

Feedback: Oh Yeah!  I need it - I can't write if I don't know that
someone is reading!

Distribution: If you want it, just let me know.

Dedication: To Krys for betaing this.  To all those who wanted it.

Notes: A sequal to 'It Shouldn't Happen to a Vampire'.
 

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For a moment, the silence was unbearable.  Then Buffy looked down at her
 blood soaked hands and stumbled backwards.

 "Oh God.  Not again,"  she moaned, remembering the evening with Faith
that  had left her with blood on her hands.

 "Willow?"  Angel moved her gently, the stake jutting out of her side.

 "Angel, it hurts,"  she whispered in a voice that even she didn't recognize
 as her own.

"It'll be alright."  Angel laid her down on the sofa.  "Somebody call an
 ambulance,"  he barked.

"Right." Xander flew to the phone.

 "Get something to stop the bleeding,"  Giles told Spike as he knelt by
next  to Angel by Willow's side.  "Willow, try not to move," he ordered as he
 attempted to examine the area around the stake.

 "Here,"  Spike handed him some towels, holding his demon back as he
smelt the blood.

 "The ambulance is on its way,"  Xander stood in the doorway, either
unable or  unwilling to come any closer.

 "I'm so sorry,"  Buffy whispered.

 "Not now," Giles commanded as he applied pressure to Willow's side in
an  attempt to stop the bleeding.

 "Shouldn't we pull it out?"  Cordelia asked from her position in Spike's
 arms.  The sight was too much for her, and she buried her head in his
 shoulder.

 "We don't know what damage it has done," Giles informed her.  "The
hospital  will be better equipped to deal with it."

 "Angel?"  Willow whispered, her eyes searching for him.

 "I'm here, sweetheart."  Angel gripped her hand tightly.

"Hurts."  Was all she could manage to whisper.

 "I know," Angel kissed her forehead, finding her skin clammy.  He
fought the panic that was slowly gaining control of him.

 "I'm tired."  Willow closed her eyes.

 "No, Willow, stay awake."  Giles touched her other hand.

 "But I'm so tired."  Her eyes fluttered open briefly.

"Keep talking to her, Angel," Giles insisted.

 "The ambulance is here,"  Xander flung the front door open.

 "Hello again."  The paramedic surveyed the scene.  He was one of those
who  had attended the scene at the gallery when Willow had so very nearly
died.

 Within minutes, Willow was in the back of the ambulance, Giles
following with  Cordelia and Xander, leaving Buffy alone in the road.

Safely hidden from the sun, Angel paced the Rosenbergs' living room.
There  was at least another half hour until sunset, and he couldn't risk going
outside before then.  Willow needed him alive, or at least undead.  As
a pile  of dust he wouldn't be much good.

 "She'll be all right."  Spike placed a tentative hand on his sire's shoulder.

 "Will she, Spike?"  Angel stopped briefly.  "You saw the blood.  You smelt
 it."

 "It probably looked worse than it was,"  Spike tried to comfort him.

 "Don't Spike,"  Angel wrenched his arm from Spike's light grip resumed
his  pacing.

 They remained that way until the sun disappeared and darkness
encroached on  Sunnydale.
 

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