Fallen Angels

By Kristi

Recuperation and Research

@--Angel--@

“Angel, what happened?” Fred meets us at the door of the hotel. She is fussing over Gunn’s shoulder. I lay Buffy gently on one of the couches in the lobby. I know I am still in vamp face and I can’t help it.

“Mohra demons.” Wesley says. “Could you get the first aid kit, Fred? I think we’re going to need it.”

Cordy comes down the stairs from the room she has been resting in. The visions take a lot out of her. “Mohra demons?” She looks up at the ceiling. “That would have been nice to know, guys, thanks.” She walks into the lobby. “God, are you all okay? You look sorta, beat up.” She winces taking in the various injuries.

“We’re fine. Buffy has lost a lot of blood.” I say.

“Hello, hospital.” Cordy says.

“I’m not going, Cordy.” Buffy says. Her voice is strained and it doesn’t sound as if she could put up much of a fight even if she wanted to. “They’d only give me some blood, which I’ll make enough of on my own and then want to do a thousand tests on me because they’ve never seen anyone heal as fast as I do.”

“The healing is part of the slayer package, right?” Gunn asks.

“She heals almost as fast as I do. She’s right; there would be a lot of questions.” I say.

“Well if you pass out, I’m taking you.” Cordelia says to Buffy.

Buffy looks at me. There is steel in her eyes. “You try to take me to the hospital, or let them, and I will get up and walk out of here. You don’t believe me, try it.”

“Just lay still, Buffy.” I rip her shirt just below her breasts. The stab wound has stopped bleeding for the most part, but there’s so much blood I can’t tell how bad it is. Cordy walks up behind me with the first aid kit.

“Angel, you might want to look less bumpy, more broody.” Cordy says.

“I can’t.” I growl

“Then step back and let me take care of her. Fred has Gunn and Wesley. You don’t need to be this closes to this much slayer blood.” Cordy steps in front of me and gives me a gentle push.

I start pacing in front of the desk.

“So, Angel, are you going to actually tell us what the deal is with the face and the blood or just wear a track in the floor.” Gunn asks. He’s waiting in line for Fred’s medical services. Apparently Wes’ arm is worse then his shoulder.

I snarl in response. Wes decides to take up the gauntlet and tell the story. “Slayer blood is an aphrodisiac, a delicacy of sorts, to vampires. There have been reports of it being particularly powerful.”

I glare at Wes. “I was almost dead. Her blood healed me in a matter of seconds.”

“Yes, well then. There you have it.” Wes looked uncomfortable and not from just the disinfectant Fred was using.

“Wait a minute. You drank her blood? This was when you were evil?” Gunn looks suspiciously at me.

“He was dying. I made him drink.” Buffy says weakly from the couch. She is defending me even in her condition which doesn’t surprise me; she defended me after I had nearly drained her of blood too.

“And you thought your relationships were screwed up.” Cordy quips.

I snarl at Cordelia’s comment and continue pacing in front of the desk. The smell of Buffy’s blood is overwhelming.

“So, should we be worried about Angelus coming for a visit?” Gunn asks. His comment enrages me, but he doesn’t mean anything by it.

“My demon is as obsessed with Buffy as I am. He’s not going to kill her, even if I did slip and let him out, which I won’t. Contrary to the way it looks, I am controlling him, not the other way around.”

“He’s right. Angelus would be much more likely to kill and torture us all and then turn Buffy.” Cordy says.

“Cordelia, not helping.” I snap. “How is she?”

“Well, I still say hospital, but it’s not as bad as it looked. The bleeding has stopped and it’s kind of already healing.” Cordy says. “Buffy, can you sit up? Slowly, you don’t want to start bleeding again. I want to wrap this gauze around you so it stays in place. “

I am beside her in an instant. I prop her up against me and kiss the crown of her head. Cordy has washed away a lot of the blood and while the vamp face is still making an appearance, I’m not fighting such an internal battle with the demon at the moment. Cordy finishes bandaging Buffy’s abdomen and both her hands.

“Do you want me to take you up to our room?” I ask Buffy.

She shakes her head and looks up at me through sleepy eyes. Her eyes show no revulsion or terror at seeing my vamp face. She looks at this face with as much love in her eyes as she does my human face. I am struck once again by what a miracle she is. She looks so young and vulnerable. It is very easy to forget she is the slayer. “No, here is good. I just wanna sleep.”

I smile at her and I feel my human face slide into place. I smooth her hair back from her forehead. She is everything that makes me feel human. “Sleep, I’ll be here when you wake up.”

The lobby clears out quickly. Wes and Cordy go to their own apartments. Gunn and Fred go to their room. Everyone is exhausted. Buffy falls asleep almost instantly. I sneak into the kitchen and make myself a glass of blood. I take it back into the lobby and scoot a chair close to the couch. I sip at the blood and try to ignore how much I want it to be Buffy’s blood.

When I finally fall asleep, I am plagued with nightmares of Angelus drinking Buffy.

*

@--Buffy--@

The phone wakes me up. “Angel Investigations. We help the hopeless.”

I stretch and a twinge of pain reminds me of my injuries. I instinctively place my hand over my stomach. Angel is there beside me. I can feel him even before I open my eyes and it makes me smile. The first sight I see when I open my eyes is Angel, smiling at me. “Mmm, what’s the smile for?”

“You’re awake. How do you feel?” The smile is instantly replaced with worry. If Angel aged at all he would have deep wrinkles from all the worrying, frowning, scowling and brooding he does. One day I’d like to see those wrinkles.

“Well, I’m going to pass on the Boston Marathon but something local might be an option.” I say with a grin.

He chuckles and kisses the back of one of my bandaged hands. “I’m going to make breakfast. You still like your eggs scrambled?”

“Yes, please.” I smile at him as he takes everyone else’s order. I look down and notice how gross I am, still in my bloody clothes. “Cordy, or Fred, if I go take a shower and change into something less gross, will one of you come help me with new bandages in a little bit?”

“I can do that. I think my brain is getting cramped from all the reading anyway.” Fred offers helpfully.

The hot water feels wonderful. The shampoo and soap stings the healing cuts on my palms. I can see blood washing down the drain with the water. A little voice in the back of my head reminds me that one small shot of heroin could take all this pain away. I squash the voice and try to ignore the pain. In my years as a slayer, I have learned a lot about pushing through the pain.

I get dressed in a very loose, low rise pair of navy workout pants and a bra. I open the door a crack and yell for Fred. She is up here shortly with gauze, tape and disinfectant. I wonder how many miles of gauze and tape I used in my time as a slayer.

“It started bleeding a little in the shower but I think it’s stopped now.”

“It looks like it has. You know, this wound really could have used stitches.” Fred looks up at me.

I wrinkle my nose. “We need an on site paramedic or something. I hate hospitals.”

“Well, they aren’t fun but the doctors there do a lot of good.” Fred said.

I shake my head. “When I was eight my cousin, Celia, died in a hospital. I was with her, alone, when it happened. Then the flu, with the help of Angelus, put me in the hospital when I was 17 and Willow was in the hospital. Then I was in the hospital again, and Faith was in a coma. Then all the stuff with my Mom, I don’t do hospitals. Sorry, I’m rambling.”

“No, it’s okay.” Fred smiles at me as she finishes taping my stomach. I hold my hands out and she quickly wraps those up and secures the bandages with tape. “There you go, good as new---well, a new hurt person.”

I pull on a white tank top and a navy sweat jacket. I braid my wet hair back in one long braid and start back downstairs. In the lobby everyone is scarfing down eggs, bacon and toast.

“Feel better?” Angel asks.

“Much and everything seems to be healing okay.” I answer him with a smile. He pours a glass of OJ for me and fixes a plate. I sit down at the curved desk with him and the others. Wesley is eating and simultaneously flipping through a dusty old book, much like all of Giles’ old dusty books. I am eating very clumsily with my bandaged hands. Angel smiles at me and takes the fork from me. I’m not sure if it’s comforting or disturbing to be fed by someone.

“So, this is the demon that turned Angel human, right?” Cordelia says. Everyone in the room turned and stared at her. “What? Doyle told me before he died.”

“You never mentioned it.” Angel said.

“Oh, yeah, I’m going to come up to Mr. Broody Boss and say by the way I’m really sorry you had to give up every bit of happiness you’ve ever known to save Buffy and oops she died anyway. I’m blunt I’m not completely insensitive.” Cordy said with a roll of her eyes. “Geez, you people.”

“Ok, seriously needing back-story here.” Gunn said.

“It’s a long story, filled with angst, sappiness, pain and all those other ingredients in the Buffy Angel saga.” Cordelia said.

“Buffy was in LA. A Mohra demon attacked us. His blood mixed with mine and I ended up human. Buffy and I spent the day together. The demon came back because I didn’t smash his jewel. It said the End of Days had begun and more would come. I talked to the Oracles. They said Buffy would die in the End of Days. I traded my life for hers. They turned back the day. It never happened. No one remembered but me. Mohra attacked I smashed his jewel. Buffy went home. End of story.” Angel tried to sum it up quickly. The pain in his voice was evident.

“Until I went to Heaven, then I remembered what Angel has come to call the Day that Wasn’t.” I injected.

“Wow. So what happened? I mean, Buffy died anyway.” Gunn said.

“That was a whole different tragedy. Let me see if I can do it in 25 words or less. Hell god opened a portal to her dimension using my sister’s blood as the key. It would only close when all of Dawn’s blood was gone. I jumped in her place and closed the portal. Wound up in Heaven. And I think I ran a bit long.” I open my mouth for another bite of eggs.

“18 months. She died 18 months after I traded my life for hers.” Angel said. He was quickly becoming broody guy.

“And hey only dead 4 and I’m back in action.”

“Impressive.” Cordy said.

“I thought so, but I did kind of ruin it by taking the 2 years vacation.” I retort. “I’m thinking it cost me the Watcher’s Council Employee of the Decade award.”

“Hmm, probably.” Cordy muses like what I’ve said is perfectly sensible.

“Wes, I need as much information on Mohra demons as you can find. Doyle said they were assassins before, sent to take out warriors. There were 6 of them in that cave. I want to know what’s up. Last time it was the End of Days, and only one Mohra was sent. It’d be nice to have a heads up.” Angel was looking more worried by the moment.

“I’ll get on it. I have to be honest though, there’s not a lot of information on Mohra demons as a whole.” Wesley said.

Angel nods. “Okay then find out what you can about oracles. Somebody had to replace them when the old ones were killed. I’m going to talk to Lorne and see what he knows about this.”

I put my hand on Angel’s arm. “I want to go with you. This has as much of an impact on my life as it does yours.”

“Buffy, you’re injured.” He argues.

“It’s talking, not fighting. On my worst day, I can still talk.” I tell him. I fix him with what I call my “slayer” look.

“Alright, but if it gets dangerous, I fight, you hide. There will be no exceptions.” He gives me that intense, authoritative look that turns my knees to jelly.

“Okay.”

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