“Nothing!” Willow declared in frustration.
“Well, wait a little bit and then try again.”
“Giles!” she cried. “This was the third try! No one’s there – I keep getting the answering machine.”
“Did you leave a message?” Giles asked patiently. His voice was thick with fatigue.
Willow looked at him harshly. “What sort of message do you expect me to leave?” she asked, trying not to whine. “I mean, ‘Hi, Angel, this is Willow. Buffy’s hurt. Come to the hospital now. Bye.’ Buffy would kill me if I left a message like that and he got into a hideous car wreck so soon after he came back to life!”
“Anyone know his cell phone number?” Anya suggested.
Everyone looked at her oddly.
“What? Everybody has a cell phone nowadays.”
Willow looked surprised at the very idea, but she started back to the pay phone anyway. “Well, I suppose it’s worth a try…”
“No need. I’m here.”
Willow and the rest of the group turned in surprise to see the figure in the waiting room doorway. Angel stood there, his face lined with worry, a woman none of them knew walking reluctantly behind him. “Angel!” Willow greeted, pleasantly surprised. “But…how…I never reached you.”
Angel shook his head, coming the rest of the way into the room. “You didn’t need to. I already knew.”
“Extraordinary,” Giles murmured to himself. He stood to meet the ex-vampire. “It’s good to see you again, Angel. Though I wish it had been under better circumstances.”
Angel just nodded in greeting, then jumped to why he was there. “How is she? What happened?”
Giles sighed. “She was attacked by a group of vampires and…very seriously injured. Spike brought her here, but the doctors honestly don’t know why she’s alive.”
“She’s the Slayer,” Angel said, as if that explained everything. Usually it did.
This time, though, Giles shook his head. “It’s more than that. She…she died soon after she was brought here. The doctors tried to save her, but they were all ready to tell us the bad news.”
“One doctor was like three words away,” Willow added.
Angel looked stricken. “But…she’s not…I know she’s not…”
Giles nodded. “She’s alive. She…came back. The doctors have no clue how. They’d…they’d given up.”
“But she is alive.”
“Yes.”
Angel sighed in relief, and his whole body seemed to relax with it. Then abruptly he got a serious, thoughtful look on his face. “Wait…does this mean another Slayer is going to be called?”
“Oh!” Xander jumped in, catching the idea. “Are there going to be three Slayers? Because, you know, three tough girls…they could be like Charlie’s Angels. Well, if Faith wasn’t psycho…”
Giles glanced at him to stop his babble. In truth, Willow suspected both Xander’s babbling and Giles’ patient seriousness were only serving to cover up their concern. “I honestly have no idea,” Giles answered Angel.
“I might.”
Giles looked past Angel at the odd, white haired woman. Everyone else’s attention was on her as well.
“Um, I don’t know you,” Xander managed to stutter.
“This is Jade,” Angel introduced. He was frowning slightly, and Willow remembered some of the stories that Buffy had told her. Buffy did not trust this woman as far as she could throw her, and Angel didn’t look much happier with her presence. “She…helps me.”
Jade did not wait for any further response to be made. “You say she died and came back to life, but no one knows how?”
“Exactly,” Giles replied.
“And…this has happened before? That is, I assume from your statements there are already two Slayers including her.”
“There are two Slayers,” Giles explained. “But this is not what happened before.”
“She drowned,” Xander spoke up. “I rescued her. CPR.”
Angel shot him a look, but it went unnoticed by almost everyone. Jade was nodding to herself, thoughtful. Willow could almost hear the pieces fitting together in her head.
“Another Slayer will not be called,” she said at last.
Giles looked startled at that. “What? How do you know?”
“I just do,” Jade replied in a tone that indicated she would speak no further about it. Willow had the feeling that the woman knew more than she was telling, and both Giles’ and Angel’s expressions matched her suspicions.
“I must leave now,” she said abruptly.
Angel looked very alarmed at that. “But…”
Jade shook her head. “Just me. I…have things I must discuss with others. Stay here and take care of your Slayer. She will be fine, do not fear that, but until she is…”
“I am needed here,” Angel finished. He said that firmly, indicating that even if Jade had been about to say something else she could not have swayed him.
“Of course,” Jade said easily. “I shall return in time to continue your training.” Anger or something very similar washed over Angel’s features for a moment, but Jade ignored it. She simply swept out of the hospital without another word.
Everyone looked at Angel oddly. It was Giles who spoke the question on everyone’s minds. “Your training?”
Angel looked more than a bit annoyed. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Of course.”
But he wasn’t there. And he didn’t know when or if he’d be able to stay at her side again.
Except for now. Now he was here, and until she healed Angel would do anything in his power to make sure that she was safe. If Spike hadn’t already killed the one that had done this to her, Angel would have found that vampire and given him a slow death. As it was, any demon that wanted to harm her would have to get through him as long as he was here. And that just wasn’t going to happen.
“Are you going to stand there all day? I know you don’t need an invitation.”
Angel looked a bit sheepishly at Buffy’s mother, shaken out of his thoughts of guilt and revenge. He walked slowly into the room. “Hello, Joyce,” he said softly. There was an awkward silence between them. Angel slowly realized that this was the first time they had seen each other since Joyce had convinced him to leave Sunnydale over a year before. “Do you mind…?” he asked at last, honestly not quite sure what he was asking for permission for.
“She’d want you here,” Joyce replied calmly, gesturing at another chair by the bed. “She’s been so happy, seeing you every weekend.”
Angel sat down, pulling the chair as close to Buffy as he could. “It’s been…nice seeing her, too.” Nice, how inadequate. And it wasn’t ‘nice’ seeing her like this, at all.
Silence stretched between boyfriend and mother once again, and Angel gently took the fingers of her uninjured hand in his own. He was so careful as not to disturb anything, not to hurt her. She made no movement or anything in response, but to hold her hand reassured Angel nonetheless.
“So,” Joyce said at last, “I understand that you’re…alive now. Not a vampire, Buffy said.”
“Yes,” Angel replied. He swallowed. “How is she?”
Joyce leaned back in her chair. “Alive. And healing, even if the doctors don’t understand how either one could be. She hasn’t woken up yet, but they say not to worry. That she’ll be in a lot of pain when she wakes up, anyway, so perhaps it’s best if she’s still…asleep.”
Angel nodded. “She’ll be fine,” he agreed.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Joyce smile sadly. “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”
Angel looked at her. She looked…tired. “Both, perhaps,” he said. “Or maybe I believe that she’s so strong in spirit and flesh that nothing can stop her for long. Not even this.”
Another silence between them, but not nearly as uncomfortable as the last. “Thank you,” said Mrs. Summers finally. She stood. “I’m going to get some coffee. Would you like some?”
Angel shook his head. “No, thank you. I’m still a night person, I’m not tired.” He looked up at Joyce seriously. “I’m…just going to stay with her.”
She nodded and left the room, leaving Angel alone with unconscious Buffy and the machinery that told the doctors how she was doing. With Mrs. Summers gone, he could not take his eyes off her. With his free hand he gently ran his finger along her cheek, avoiding bruises and the bandage on her head. “I’m here, Buffy,” he said in a whisper.
His voice sounded loud in the hotel room, but he did not stop speaking. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. Oh, what happened Buffy? How did he manage to get to you, to defeat you?” In his heart, she was undefeatable, even if logic told him otherwise. “I should have been there. I won’t let this happen again. I promise. I’ll be here as long as you need me.”
And then, with an even softer whisper and a squeeze of her hand, Angel made a promise he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Buffy squeezed his hand back.
“Buffy?” He wasn’t whispering now.
She blinked for a second, unfocused, then saw him and smiled very slightly. “Hey.”
Comforted and calmed, Angel smiled for her only as the room settled back into silence.
On to Part Seven
It may be clichéd,
but feedback does make
me write faster...
Back
to Cynamin's Fan Fiction