The Underground was crowded, which wasn’t all that unusual. Neither was the mixed species nature of the crowd, neutral demons in profusion. Buffy and Angel were regulars here now. Actually, Angel had been a regular customer there long before Buffy had been, but he always appeared silently through the back door instead of with greetings through the front. Now Buffy and Angel had both been acknowledged as fighters in the community they worked tirelessly to protect.
There was a woman behind the bar tonight; not the usual bartender. She waved at Buffy and Angel as they approached her. “What’ll it be?”
Buffy looked at her a bit oddly. “Where’s Richard?”
“He’s in the corner booth,” the woman said. “He’s taking the night off.”
Buffy chuckled. Nice to know someone had even less of a social life than she did. She didn’t spend her time off in the same place she worked. Of course, she also didn’t work, so.... “Thanks,” she said, strolling through the crowd to the back of the bar, Angel a step behind her.
The short, somewhat round regular bartender sat with a large drink in his hands. Buffy grinned. “Fancy meeting you here,” she teased as she rounded the corner of the booth. Seated across from Richard, a surprisingly pretty near-human demoness blinked oddly at Buffy. “Oh, I’m sorry. Am I interrupting something?”
The regular bartender smiled. “Uh...it’s alright. Slayer, this is Daneela. Daneela....”
“Buffy,” Buffy introduced herself, holding out her hand. The demoness shook it. Her hand was uncomfortably warm. “And this is Angel.”
“So, you do have a name other than ‘Slayer,’” Richard said with a grin.
“To my friends, sure,” Buffy said, smiling back. “I’ll just leave you and your date alone.” Buffy took Angel’s hand and went to move away from the booth.
“Angel, Slayer....” Richard called out to them.
“It’s Buffy, remember?”
Richard smiled, a bit wide eyed. “I’m a friend, then?”
“Of course,” Buffy replied.
He looked pleased at that. “Well,” he said after a moment. “Your next order may be a little...late.”
Buffy glanced at Angel, whose focus was on Richard. “Not too late?” he asked with the slightest concern.
Richard shook his head slightly even as he shrugged. “Not too late, no. I’m just...not sure exactly when it will be. A couple of days at the most. Things have been...strange lately.”
“We’ve noticed,” Buffy agreed. A night didn’t go by now where they didn’t encounter something weird. “You’ll be okay?” she asked Angel gently.
He nodded. “I don’t need much,” he said, though Buffy could see the slightest glint of worry in his gaze.
“I don’t suppose you could let us know when it’s available?” Buffy asked Richard calmly.
“Hell, I’d deliver it myself.... That is, if I knew where to deliver it to...”
“You mean that?” Buffy asked.
Richard nodded honestly. “Sure. You going to tell me where you two live?”
“Sure,” Buffy said easily. “You just...” She stopped, at a loss for how to give simple directions to Angel’s lair. “You know, this would be so much easier with a map.”
“Here,” Richard said easily, pulling out a small electronic display.
It took Buffy a moment to make heads or tails of the lit grid display she’d been handed. Then lines resolved themselves into buildings and the spaces in between, and she glanced at Richard curiously. She’d never seen anything like this before.
He smiled. “It’s new, from a young inventor who hasn’t yet made enough money to move upstairs.” He looked as if he knew more than he was saying, but he didn’t elaborate. “Just trace the route on the screen.”
Buffy did as she was told then handed the device back to Richard. “So, you’ll come in a couple of days?” she asked.
“Of course.”
Angel spoke up at last. “You know, you’ll be my first visitor...ever.”
Richard laughed. “I’m honored.”
“We’ll leave the two of you alone,” Buffy said, nodding gently to the quiet demoness. “It was nice to meet you, Daneela.”
“And you,” she replied. “Angel....”
“Yes?” Angel asked, turning in the process of leaving to look back at her.
“I...I’ve never gotten a chance to thank you,” she said a bit shyly.
“For what?”
She looked up at him a bit more confidently. “You saved my brother’s life a couple of months ago from a hungry Grislach demon. He came home talking about being rescued by a vampire, but, well...no one believed him at the time.” She smiled as if embarrassed. “So...thank you, for him. If you ever need anything....”
“Thank you,” Angel said calmly. “And you’re welcome.” He nodded his farewell to Richard, then walked away with Buffy, heading for the bar.
Buffy looked up at him as they maneuvered through the crowd. There was a small, pleased smile on his lips. She grinned up at him. “See?” she said.
He looked down at her. “See what?”
“You’re appreciated, Angel,” she said. “You’ve done well in this town, and now that you’re not hiding in your secret lair anymore...”
Angel chuckled. “Yes, it feels nice to be appreciated,” he said, understanding what she was saying even before she could find the best words. “Now how about we go home to said ‘secret lair’ and....”
Buffy laughed, linked arms with Angel, and happily bounced out of the bar.
“...Buffy...”
Pain. Fear. Pain.
“Where are you...?”
Dawn’s face, dripping with blood. Her mouth was open as if she was screaming. No sound emerged but-
drip
“You left us, Buffy.”
Giles, his face gray with death... becomes her mother, already cold.
“...Buffy...”
Faces, names...all friends. All dead. And all angry.
“No home, Buffy. No home...”
Blood and death...
No air. She can’t scream...
“Where are you, Buffy?”
“No home...”
“You left us...”
And she can’t scream...
Buffy awoke with a start, her heart hammering in her chest. She bit back the scream frozen in her throat, but a whimper still emerged. She forced herself to lie still. Breathing deeply, she stared hard at the darkness above her, trying to see through it to the vaulted, mosaic tiled ceiling she knew was there. She couldn’t close her eyes. She kept seeing her friends...all dead...
“Buffy?”
She started, and in her moment of shock another whimper crawled out of her throat.
“Hey...” Angel’s strong, cool arms wrapped around her, pulling her close. “What’s wrong?”
Buffy opened her mouth to answer, but no words emerged. She felt like she was shaking inside her skin. Her cheeks... Why were her cheeks wet? An unexpected sob tore painfully from her throat.
Angel’s arms wrapped around her tighter. “It’s okay,” he said softly. “You can cry.”
And she did, her entire petite frame shaking with the release. Once it was started, she couldn’t control it. She cried until there were no tears left and she felt as if she were gulping for air. It hurt.
Angel ran his hands gently over her hair. “Ssh,” he whispered soothingly. “It’s okay.”
Buffy sucked in several more painful gasps for air as her body calmed itself. At last she pulled away, and Angel loosened his arms so that she could wipe her eyes. Buffy sniffed. “God, I’m a mess.”
“Hey,” Angel said gently. He wiped her cheeks with his thumbs. “What was that about?”
Buffy leaned back onto his bare chest. “It’s stupid,” she said dismissively.
“No, it’s not.”
“You don’t even know what it is!” Buffy cried defensively.
“If it made you cry, it can’t be stupid,” he replied.
Buffy sighed. “I dreamed....”
“Yes?” he prompted.
A lump rose in her throat. “They...were all dead, and they were blaming me...” she struggled.
“They?”
“Dawn. Giles. My family and friends and anyone I’ve ever been close to aside from you.”
Angel gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze. “Oh,” he said softly.
“Oh?”
“I...don’t know exactly what to say, Buffy,” Angel said slowly. “It’s understandable that you dream of them.”
“But...I haven’t before. And why now?”
“I don’t know.”
Buffy swallowed. “I keep seeing them, in my head. And they’re all dead!”
“Buffy,” Angel said with excruciating gentleness, “they are all dead.”
“I know that.”
“Do you? I mean, have you actually mourned them?”
“I...” Buffy faltered. “I don’t know! It’s like my brain says they’re long dead – and this isn’t my first crying fit, by the way – but the rest of me says I just saw them a couple of months ago and if I could just find Sunnydale again, they’ll be there waiting for me!” She looked him in the eye. “How am I supposed to mourn them like that?”
Angel was silent for a long moment. “Maybe it’s time you started,” he said.
Buffy was still a bit wild eyed. “What...?”
He looked at her earnestly. “You told me you felt like now was the time you were supposed to be in. That you have things to do. Do you still feel that way?”
“Yes,” Buffy said, though her confusion as to his point made her sound uncertain.
His second question was less confident and touched with hesitancy. “Are you happy here?”
“Yes,” Buffy said quickly.
Angel smiled slightly.
“Did you doubt that?” Buffy asked. She couldn’t help but smile at him. He still seemed to show doubts that she was willingly by his side. She loved reassuring him, even if she was glad he was more self-confident than he used to be.
Angel smiled a bit broader. “Not really,” he said pleasantly. “But that’s not the point, either.”
“Then what is the point?”
He was silent for a moment, and Buffy could see the thoughts racing behind his eyes. “If you have something to do now, than you have to live now,” he said. “You have to put the past in the past.”
“You speak from experience?” Buffy asked.
Another pause. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
Still, Angel had centuries untold more to put these particular people behind him. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“I’ll help you,” Angel said. He held her gently against his side. “Can you sleep now?”
Buffy nuzzled his shoulder for a moment, getting comfortable and feeling safe. “Yes.”
“Then sleep,” Angel said. “Tomorrow...”
“Tomorrow?”
Angel smiled, reassuring. “Tomorrow will take care of itself.”
They didn’t bother with the door signal. Hell, they didn’t bother with the door.
“Hasna!”
The doctor nearly jumped right out of her skin. She did jump right out of her bed, clutching her nightshirt to be sure it was closed across her breasts.
“You can’t be here!” she snapped.
The man standing in her bedroom wasn’t really there. He would never walk on these levels in the flesh. “Why not?” he asked arrogantly.
“This place is protected,” Hasna protested, but she knew it sounded weak.
“Silly girl,” the apparition replied. “You should know that any magical spells can be broken if you have the time, energy, and knowledge to do so. I taught you that.”
Hasna was chastened by his reminder. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“You called for my attention, did you not? With that ridiculous letter.”
Hasna frowned. Dropping the defensive position of her arms, she paced to the kitchen, knowing she would be followed. “Your attention was already here,” Hasna pointed out.
“Ah, yes. Such a psychically interesting region you chose to live in.” He was nearly licking his lips in delight.
“This is not your place,” Hasna snapped, disgusted. “Stay away, or...”
“Or what? What can you do to us?”
Hasna tried a different tactic. “Do not deprive this district of its only defense,” she said.
“There is no defense aside from the Watchers,” he replied.
“And what of the Slayer?”
“She is ours. She always has been.”
The finality in his voice was disturbing. “Listen....”
“No, you listen, Hasna. Do not forget your beginnings. You know what we must do. Since you refuse to help us any longer, do not hinder us either.” His disapproval radiated from his image. “You know what happens to those that oppose us.”
“I know,” Hasna said bitterly.
“Well then,” he said. “You have been warned. I trust a repeat of this will not be necessary.”
With that, the apparition vanished, leaving just Hasna and her muttered curses in the vacated apartment.
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