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'.

"What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you,"  Angel spoke softly.  As the door was about to shut
in his face, he added, "Please, Joyce."

"I'm not inviting you in,"  Joyce stood in the doorway, her arms folded
across her chest.

"You don't need to.  Once I'm invited I can just come in."  He did, however,
remain on his side of the doorway.

"You can say what you want to say out here."  Joyce refused to move from the
doorway.

"It's about Buffy."

"Buffy?  She's not hurt, is she?"  Joyce asked anxiously.

"No, but she's hurt somebody,"  Angel told her, seeing the look on Joyce's
face change from relief to panic.

"Buffy wouldn't do that, she's not like that..."  Joyce trailed off as she
saw the look on Angel's face.  She stood aside and motioned for him to come
in.

"What happened?"  Joyce shut the door behind Angel and walked into the living
room.

"She put a stake in Willow's side."  Angel sat down rather heavily on the
sofa.

"What?"  Joyce felt her legs begin to shake, and made it to a chair just
before they gave out.

"There was a big argument,"  Angel began his explanation.  "Buffy tried to
stake me, but she got Willow instead."

"Is she...Willow is okay isn't she?"  Joyce closed her eyes as she asked the
question.

"She'll live."  Angel confirmed.  "She's sore, and she lost a lot of blood,
but the stake missed her vital organs."

"Where's Buffy?"  Joyce felt the disappointment rising within her.  In her
mind she was reliving all the similar talks she had been through when Buffy
was younger and acting up.  She had had to deal with Buffy herself, then,
Hank much too busy to be bothered with routine discipline.  Idly she wondered
if that would have made a difference.  She shook her head to clear her
thoughts as she heard Angel explaining about Buffy's visit to the hospital.

"So, she just left?"  Joyce felt panic begin to replace the disappointment.
"You've no idea where she went?"

"No.  That's why I came here."  Angel rose from his seat.  "You need to talk
to her, Joyce, for her sake."

"I will.  I just need to find her."  She began searching for her keys.  Angel
located them quickly, and handed them over.  "Did you two have a favorite
spot, or something?"

"I don't know,"  Angel searched his memory.  "The hill...Christmas, when it
snowed."  As he remembered that time, he became convinced that that was where
she was.

"She told me about that,"  Joyce ushered him out of the house, slamming and
locking the door behind her.  "Are you coming?"

"Is that a good idea?"  Angel wanted nothing more than to get back to Willow,
but he had vowed to make sure that Buffy wouldn't hurt her again, so that was
what he had to do.

"Somebody needs to get through to her.  Come on."  Joyce unlocked the jeep
and Angel only just about made it into the passenger seat before she took off
down the street, her driving making Cordelia's look positively safe.

They pulled up at the side of the road, and began to climb the hill.  Angel
slowed down a few times to help Joyce, who naturally found the climb more
difficult than he did.  After what seemed like hours to both of them, they
reached the top.  Angel scanned the area for Buffy, and for a moment he was
convinced that he must have been mistaken.  Then he heard it, a faint crying
sound.  In a heartbeat, Joyce was making her way over to the rock the sound
seemed to be coming from.  Either the noise was louder than he thought, or
Joyce had the parents' equivalent of Vampire hearing when it came to Buffy.

"Buffy?"  Joyce startled the Slayer, and she instinctively reached inside her
coat for a stake.  Whipping her head up, she saw her mother, and drew her
hand back, empty, before cradling her head in her hands and weeping into her
knees.  "Oh, honey, what have you done?"

"Mom,"  Buffy sobbed.  "It wasn't meant to be like this, I promise..."

"No, I don't expect it was, was it?"  Joyce moved closer to her daughter.
Angel stood back, feeling uncomfortable with the whole situation.

"Why, Buffy?"  Joyce reached out a hand to her.  She was torn between an urge
to yell at her for being so reckless, and the overwhelming need she felt to
comfort her little girl.

"They betrayed me,"  Buffy whispered in a quiet voice.

"They didn't, Buffy."  Joyce shook her head sadly.  "I know it hurts, but it
just wasn't meant to be."

"It was, it was, it WAS!"  Buffy was becoming increasingly hysterical.
Suddenly she jumped up, forcing her mother backwards onto the ground.
"Angel..."  She whispered, seeing him for the first time.

"Listen to your mom, Buffy.  Slayer and Vampire, it just doesn't work."
Angel moved a step closer.  Buffy reached inside her coat once more, this
time withdrawing a stake.  She held it in front of her like a shield, not
pointing it towards Angel, but just holding it.

"Don't come any closer," she warned.

"Buffy, don't threaten anyone else,"  Joyce pleaded.  "Enough people have
been hurt."

"I'm not going to hurt anybody."  Buffy spoke calmly now.  Perhaps too
calmly.  "I just want Angel to say that we're soulmates.  Forever."  Buffy
raised the stake and pointed it towards her own heart.  "Say it!"  She
commanded.

"No, Buffy, Please..."  Joyce tried to move towards her daughter, but her
legs wouldn't co-operate.

"Buffy, I did love you,"  Angel took tiny steps towards her as he said the
words.

"Did?  You still do!"  She insisted, drawing her arm back as if to strike.
"Say it!"  She commanded again.

"Buffy I..."  Angel lunged for her as he said the words.  He knocked her to
the floor, the stake falling from her grip and rolling along the ground.
"...Can't do that,"  he finished as he lay on top of her, pinning her arms to
her sides.

"Why can't you?  Why?"  Buffy sobbed against him.

"It's not true anymore,"  Joyce answered for him.  "Angel's moved on, Buffy.
You need to do the same.  It's destroying you."  Joyce offered her daughter a
hand up as Angel rolled off her and grabbed the stake, placing it safely
inside his long coat.

"I can't.  I can't.  I can't.  I can't."  Buffy wrapped her arms around
herself as she repeated the words like a mantra.

"You can, and you will,"  Joyce interrupted her.  She put her arm around
Buffy's shoulders and began to lead her down the hill.  She turned back to
Angel.  "Can you make your own way back?"

"Don't worry about me."  Angel watched as they resumed their descent.  He
shook his head as they disappeared out of sight, and began to make his own
way down.  Willow needed him now, his relationship with Buffy was a part of
his past.
 

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