A red-tinged tear slid down Angel's cheek. By this time, all eyes were focused on him, and a heavy silence had fallen around the room once more. Giles, this time, broke the silence. "The doctors say she won't make it. She's been slipping away for the last hour or so." He stopped to wipe his eyes. "I think that she was waiting for you." Angel only nodded as he moved towards the bed. He didn't take his eyes off her for a moment, not even to watch the others vacate the room. He just sat down in a chair next to her, took one of her hands in both of his and waited. After a few minutes, she stirred.
Weakly she opened her eyes and looked at him. "Angel?" she whispered, as if not believing he was really there.
"I'm here, Buffy," he answered.
"Spike?"
"He'll never hurt anyone ever again," he said. His features hardened into a mask of anger. "I made him pay for what he did to you."
"It was my fault," she whispered.
"No it wasn't."
"Yes," she said, "I should have taken him out before I went for Drusilla."
"You couldn't have known what he would do."
"I should have," was the reply, "If it had been you instead of her, I would have done the same." Buffy closed her eyes and let out a breath. She stayed that way for a while.
"Buffy?" Angel asked, getting worried.
"I'm still here," she answered, keeping her eyes closed.
"I'm sorry I left," Angel apologized.
"I know why you did," Buffy replied. "I understood that you had to be alone for a while after all that happened. I just didn't think that it would be this long. But I'm glad your here now."
"Me too," Angel forced a smile.
Buffy shivered and looked at him. "Hold me," she finally asked, weakly. Angel moved over to the tiny hospital bed and gathered her in his arms. He spent the rest of the night laying in bed with her, just holding her.
At about 8:00 the next morning, the rest of them filed back into the room. Buffy was laying on the sunlit bed with a peaceful look on her face; the first she had worn all that terrible week. The group began to hope that the worst had passed, that the doctors had been wrong... That was when they noticed the thin layer of ash that covered her. Willow reached over to feel for a pulse, but all she found was a cold hand with something resting in it: it was Angel's Claddagh Ring with a slip of paper rolled up inside it. She slipped the ring off the paper and read what it said:
... And I'll never desert you...
... I promise you this till the day that I die..."
Back to my Fan Fiction Page
