Sanctuary
by Kookie

I creep up silently behind them. Just as I am gunna pounce, a segment from their conversation catches my attention.

"...man his girlfriend was hot!" exclaimed one vampire.

"Really? You’re talking about that Angel guy?"

"Yeah. Wow, I’d like to bite me off a piece of that!" I jump up at that point.

"I’m so glad y’all feel that way about little ol’ me." The two vamps look confused. The first demon spoke.

"Who the hell are you?" I give them a ‘Duh’ expression.

"Angels’ girlfriend." The vamp shook his head.

"Nah, this girl was a slayer and she had brown hair." My face falls blank.

"What?" I ask tartly. He shrugs.

"Yeah." I take off. I run towards my car and hop in.

"Faith, huh? Always need a slut hangin off your arm don’tcha?" I growl. I floored it all the way to LA. I made it in record time. Half an hour. I stomp to his office.

"Yeah, sure. Tomorrow is fine. No, thank you." Cordeila said as she hung up the phone. She looks up as I open, or rather shove open, his door.

"Buffy!" she shrieks. I give her a murderous look. "Where is he?"

"Who? Oh! Angel! He should be downstairs..." I didn’t hear the rest of her sentence as I flew down the stairs to his apartment. I didn’t even bother to knock.

"It’s okay Faith, it’ll all be okay." I hear him tell her. I see her wrapped up in his arms.

"What the hell is going on here?!" I roar. Both of them jump up. Faith is the first to speak.

"B..oh God, B. I’m so.."

"You apologize to him and I beat you to death." I snarl. Angel steps in between us.

"Faith, leave now." I clench my fists.

"You’re protecting her now?"

"I’m helping her." I am totally enraged. I started to breathe short and hard.

"Why are you here?" he snaps.

"Do you know what she did to me?" I grouse. He nods.

"Do you even care?" He runs his fingers threw his short, spiky hair.

"Buffy, you don’t know-"

"WHAT?! I don’t know?! Don’t even say it! I know! I was there Angel! I was the ONLY fucking person who cared about her! I gave her a chance! I gave her a second and a third chance! When she was trying to kill me and everyone else, I was there! Including you! She tried to kill you and you’re now giving her a nice, warm bed? How could you do this?" I was screaming now. That’s when he hit me. And that’s when my heart broke even more. Tears spilled down from my confused eyes.

"You left ME Angel! Not the other way around! You wanted ME to move on! And I find you moving onto the next slut that walked into the room?! You dared to hit me? What happened to you?" He stepped forward, but I shrank back.

"Keep her away from me or I will kill her."

"Buffy-" he started, but I continued on.

"All the pain the suffering, the misery I endured, it was all worth it. To know that through all of it, until the end, you still loved me. The man I loved, cherished beyond life would never have hit me. He would have killed himself over even the thought. And now you house the monster that betrayed us both?! Her sole purpose was to break us up! To kill us! I never thought, even in all those months we spent apart that I would ever say these words I think my love for you has lessened. I also never thought you’d hit me." There. I said it. Almost a year has gone by. I waited so long, have tolerated so much anguish and now I finally got to say it. I can see the tears burning in his eyes. "Buffy, please..." he murmurs.

"No, don’t touch me," I cry, "Angel you made your decision, now I’m making mine. Go back to her because she’s the only slayer you’ve got left." That was the final blow. I broke down inside. He had hurt me so much, I knew that I finally got back at him. I turn and bolt out the door. When I reached my car, I stopped. I stood stiff as a board and waited for him to come after me. Or something of that sort. I tentatively touched my lip. It is already beginning to heal. The hit doesn’t so much hurt my lip, but it all but destroyed my heart. I don’t know how long I stood there, maybe hours or even a few measly seconds. An icy chill races through my body as the real agony finally penetrates my heart, I start to wail. He’s there. My sorrow is so deep, my pain crushing me down, he always manages to pull me through. My ray of sunshine on this forlorn night. All of this with just one saying,

"I love you." I stopped immediately. It had been too many months since I heard it from him. He embraces me tighter.

"The main reason I why was helping Faith was because, I knew that you would have helped her too. And God Buffy, I’m so sorry! II ...didn’t know what really happened. Because of Faith and you being here and the shock of hearing you had a new boyfriend..." his voice dwindled. I raised my eyes to meet his.

"A boyfriend doesn’t compare to a lover. I take back all I said back there. I’m sorry too." Angel tilts my head and kisses me deep and passionately. For the past year, there has been a lost place inside of me, but when Angel kissed me, I knew I found my sanctuary.

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