"Go on ahead, I need to lock up. We don't want to keep Joyce and Reggie waiting," Giles waved his Slayer and the others off into the evening, "I will just drive my car."
"Okay, Giles, don't take too long. You have dessert in the backseat," Buffy said as she took one of Spike's offered arms and Willow took the other. The three of them left the courtyard trailed by a decidedly healthy Xander and his girlfriend.
Giles locked his apartment door and when he turned around he found himself pinned to the door by a snarling Angel, "You failed to tell me the new boyfriend was Spike, Giles."
Angel was surprised to find a stake pressed to his heart and wondered how the Watcher had produced it without his noticing.
"And why does it appear that none of you seem the least bit concerned that you have a killer in your midst?" Angel continued, "This is not what I meant for Buffy to have when I left. I wanted her to have a normal life."
"Nothing about Buffy is normal," Giles managed to choke out, "And you're right, you left. Nothing here in Sunnydale is any of your business anymore, Angel."
Angel shifted his eyes away from the Watcher almost as if he was embarrassed. His grip loosened on the Watcher's throat.
"You lost your chance in having any say in Buffy's life when you left her. It's your fault, yours and your demon's, that you lost Buffy. She never cared about the restrictions on your soul. She loved you and you walked away from her. Now, your grandchilde is picking up your pieces, yet again, and she's happy now. She's found some peace within herself and with her calling," Giles ruthlessly continued on.
"I left to save her from Angelus," Angel retorted. He glared intensely at Giles. "Every time I'm near her it gets harder and harder not to reclaim her. I want to love her and Angelus wants to possess her, break her spirit, and I won't allow that. Hell, maybe you're right, maybe she is better off with Spike. He can have her in ways that I can't, but then again, it's Spike for chrissakes! He is the most reckless offspring I've ever had to deal with in my unlife. Why him?"
"Because he came along at the right time to help her. She'd been drifting all summer on the verge of a depression that you caused. Due to this she almost let a fledgling get the best of her a few months ago," Giles stated
"I didn't know that but what does that have to do with... " Angel started to say before Giles cut him off.
"And then her first college boyfriend treated her as bad if not worse than your abandonment and Spike was there for her. She knew you were in town, Angel. She decided to just let you play your stalker games and enjoy the holiday with her family. And that includes Spike," Giles pushed past the flummoxed vampire and left the courtyard.
Angel stood there in the darkness for a few minutes as he heard Giles start his old clunker and drive away. He sighed and went to find his car so he could return to LA to the life he had made for himself. A life without his love.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"When did he get back?" Cordelia whispered Doyle as she watched Angel sit at his desk staring out the window.
"Late last night," Doyle whispered back as he too watched Angel.
"And..."
"Well he seemed fine, but he just went in there, sat at his desk and has been staring out the window ever since," Doyle replied.
"You think he found out about you know who?" Cordelia turned her attention totally on her fellow employee.
"I'm sure he did, Cordy. He was in Sunnydale for three days tracking Buffy and the spirit I saw in my vision."
"Well he's chock full of the morbidy gloom." Cordelia gasped as she looked back at Angel, only to find him playing with a stake. She dropped her hand to Doyle's shoulder to get his attention.
"Oh my God, don't do it, Angel," Cordelia shouted as she ran into the office, followed closely by Doyle.
"Listen to me, man, it's not worth it," Doyle yelled, "Give the stake to me."
"You can't let her get to you like this. She's met someone new, so will you. Just give it time," Cordelia tried to comfort Angel the best she could.
"How did you know Buffy had someone new?" Angel asked suspiciously.
Cordelia and Doyle glanced at each other before turning to Angel and shrugged in unison. "Good guess?" Cordelia tried to cover her faux pas.
Angel glared up at Doyle. "You knew. You saw him in your vision and you didn't tell me?" Angel's voice was deadly calm.
"Well if you had given me time to say more than 'The Slayer' I could have told you," Doyle defended himself, "Not my fault you ran out of here half cocked. Besides I just tell you what the Powers That Be want you to know."
Angel rose from his chair and stalked Doyle back until he sat on the couch. "You knew about Spike being with her and you didn't see fit to break the PTB code and tell me? He's my grandchilde! He doesn't have a soul. How did you know he wasn't the danger?"
"Because they told me that he was her new partner, Angel."
"I made that boy what he is, Doyle. He's soulless and evil. Did the PTB tell you what the hell she ever saw in him not to stake him?"
By now, Doyle was cowering in the corner of the couch under a towering, very pissed Angel. He had never seen his boss and friend act this way before. It was like something snapped in the man when he had found out Spike was around.
Cordelia felt bad for the Brachen demon. "Angel, I don't think you really want to know that. Just leave it be," she said, trying to calm the vampire down, "Besides if my ex came to town and was all stalking me in the shadows and then left and then didn't even say 'hello' I'd be more than a little upset."
"Have you ever thought the Powers That Be wanted you to know this so you'd move on?" Doyle piped up softly from the couch, trying not to raise his boss's ire anymore than it was already.
"How can I move on knowing she's throwing her life away with Spike? She was supposed to be MY salvation, MY reason for getting out of the gutter, and MY reason for making a difference. Not HIS," Angel growled.
"The Powers That Be don't tell me everything, Angel. I know Whistler said you were supposed to be by her side helping her and you did while you were there. But she requires growth that you would never have been able to provide her with your attitude," Doyle informed Angel as he started to get his courage back.
"What attitude would that be exactly?" Angel asked staring at the Brachen demon with hard, cold eyes.
Before Doyle could answer Angel, a green skinned demon dressed like a Samurai complete with a curved sword crashed through the window and attacked the vampire. Angel leaped away from the sunlight pouring in the broken glass and barely avoided being sliced by the downward stroke of the sword.
"Angel" Cordelia screamed as she pushed one of the rolling office chairs towards the demon hoping to catch it off guard.
Angel leaped up from behind the desk with an axe in his hand which he lobbed at the demon. The demon dropped its sword as the axe hit its arm. Angel slid across the floor to grab the demon's sword and stabbed it in the guts as it attempted to extract itself from the chairs Cordelia kept pushing towards it. Some of its fluorescent green blood ran down the blade of the sword, over the hilt onto Angel's hand. The demon jumped back causing the chair he was wrestling with to fall on top of Angel. It pulled the sword out of its own gut and jumped back out the window it had entered just minutes before.
"Friend of yours?" Cordelia asked gasping for breath.
"Never saw it before," Angel muttered from his spot on the floor.
"It was rude. You and Doyle should go kill it," Cordelia muttered as she plopped down on the couch.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's heading towards the ocean," Angel told Doyle as he sniffed the air, "It's wounded. I can smell its blood."
"Are you sure?" Doyle asked as he wrinkled his nose, "Because, great... handy skill to have, but all I can smell is sewer."
"Yes, I'm sure. And let's get back to 'my attitude'. Which attitude is that exactly, Doyle?"
"The attitude you have to protect her, which you demonstrated by stalking her for the past three days. The Slayer doesn't need protection, she needs strength. Spike provides her with strength..." Doyle tried to tell his boss exactly what was going on.
"All Spike will provide Buffy with is a nice set of holes in her neck as he drains her," Angel snapped in a terse voice.
"Look, Angel, if you aren't going to listen to me, I'm not going to attempt to tell you anything else. You will just have to figure it out on your own. Just remember that things ARE the way that they're intended to be," Doyle informed the vampire then shimmied up the closest ladder and disappeared into the sunlight.
Angel continued to walk until he got to a Y in the sewer line. On the wall of the tunnel on the right he saw a bit of green blood on the wall. Angel reached out to touch the blood and then brought his fingers to his nose to smell them. As he moved down the tunnel a bit, he started to feel dizzy, blinking hard, he leaned against the wall.
"I feel weird," he muttered to himself, "Damn, it's the demon blood. It's powerful somehow."
Pushing himself away from the wall, Angel continued on, not noticing the glowing eyes following his every move. Using the vampire's distraction, the demon jumped out and attacked Angel from behind. The demon sliced Angel's hand open with the sword it had pulled from its own guts back in the office. He looked at the blood on his hand with a confused look on his face.
Angel slid into game face and attacked the demon. As they begin to fight, the demon sliced off the head of Angel's axe just as Angel managed to knock the sword out of the demon's hand. The demon pulled its short sword and the fight continued. Finally, Angel managed to grab the demon's short sword and turned its hand to stab it in the heart covering Angel's injured hand in the flourescent green blood.
Angel stared at the blood swirling and sinking into the cut as the demon fell to the floor dead. Much to Angel's astonishment the wound closed instantly. A bright, white, shimmering light flashed through the vampire starting at his hand and encompassed his entire body causing him to collapse with a strangled cry. Angel sat there on his knees gasping as he realized his heart was beating.
"I'm alive!" Angel breathed as he continued to stare at his hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Doyle, does this look like the demon?" Cordelia asked as she handed a book to him to study.
"Yes, that's it," Doyle answered and then he began to read, ""It's called a Mohra demon. They're pretty powerful assassins; soldiers of darkness kind of thing. They take out warriors for our side, like Angel. Hmm, book says; 'Needs vast amounts of salt to live'. And it was heading towards salt water. The book also says; 'Veins run with the blood of eternity.' Its blood has regenerative properties."
At that moment Angel walked through the office door with a dazed look on his face. He continued to study his hand as he moved into a sunlit spot of the room.
"Hey, you walked in the front door... from the street.
You're standing in the sun!" Cordelia gasped out. She grabbed him to drag him out of the sun when she realized he wasn't smoking.
"He's alive, Cordy," Doyle gasped.
"Alive? How?"
"When I attacked the demon some of its blood mixed with mine," Angel informed Cordelia and Doyle. Doyle grabbed Angel's wrist to check the pulsepoint and realized that, yes, Angel had a heartbeat.
"I want to find out what kind of demon that was. Ow, my back. It hurts. Everything's..." Angel groaned and and rubbed his lower back.
"More real, now that you're real?"
"Yeah. I'm mortal now. I have a mortal body. And I'm so... hungry," Angel growled in a poor approximation of his former vampiric growls. He rushed past Cordelia to the small refrigerator where he grabbed a small doughnut which he shoved in his mouth, groaning with delight.
Doyle and Cordelia continued to watch as Angel opened the fridge and shove different things in his mouth. He sniffed an apple and moaned with pleasure before he bit into it. He abandoned the apple as soon as he saw the chocolate candy bar that Doyle had left in there the day before. Angel moaned again with delight at the chocolate, but in the next moment grimaced as he tried the non-fat, low-sugar yogurt that Cordelia had brought for her snack.
"Hey, we have a situation here, Angel. We found the demon already," Doyle handed the book to Angel to read for himself.
"Well, that explains what happened to me. But it doesn't explain why," Angel replied. When he looked up he caught his reflection in the mirror Cordelia insisted they hang on one wall of the outer office.
"Hey, what difference does it make, man? The demon's dead, you're alive! It's happy fun time," Doyle said cheerfully as he took the forgotten book from Angel's hands and replaced it on the bookshelf.
"What's going on here, Doyle?" Angel spun to confront Doyle.
"I don't know. I thought the only way for you to be made mortal was for the Powers That Be to step in," Doyle shook his head, not knowing what to tell the ex-vampire.
"What, they could have done this? How come I once again get the feeling you're not telling me everything. That's twice in one week, Doyle," Angel advanced on Doyle and towered over the shorter man.
"I don't know. We're both on a need to know basis here and yes, sometimes they tell me things I am not suppose to reveal to you," Doyle announced.
"I need to know about this. Is this permanent? Am I... am I normal Joe now? Can I live a normal life? I want to speak with the Powers That Be," Angel declared forcefully.
"Hey, hey, hey! That's easier said than done, bud. The Powers That Be don't live in our reality. You have to approach them through channels. Very dangerous channels," Doyle threw his hands up in defense.
"Yeah, you know what? Start approaching!" Angel said in a threatening tone of voice.
"All right. All right. Maybe we can try the Oracles. But hey, if they turn you into a toad... don't say I didn't warn you," Doyle surrendered his stance on the subject.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Angel and Doyle stand in a huge dark underground cavern staring at a brilliantly white door with the words 'The Gateway for Lost Souls' above it in a foreign script.
"The Gateway is under the post office?" Angel asked in an incredulous voice as he turned to Doyle.
"It makes sense if you think about it. Now listen to me, the Oracles are finicky and unpredictable. You do get in, don't dilly-dally. Ask your questions and get out," the seer told Angel.
"Aren't you coming?"
"Not allowed. I'm just a lowly messenger, you're a warrior. Now if your heart is pure... and I do this right..." Doyle mused as he threw some herbs into an urn in the middle of the cavern. He began to recite the calling ritual as he put a lighter to the urn and ignited the herbs, "We beseech access to the knowing ones... You're in..." Doyle said as the urn burst brightly into flames.
The doorway began to glow and Angel stepped through it into a pristine white marble chambers. Angel grimaced as his eyes adjusted from the darkness of the cavern to the brightness of the chambers. When his eyes became accustomed to the room, he could see two beings at the other end of the room; a woman and a man.
"Come before us, lower being..." the male sing-songed
"... What have you brought us?" the female finished in a lilting voice.
"Was I suppose to..." Angel asked in a confused tone.
"You call us forth and bring us no offering?" the male tilted his head in confusion.
"I brought you this," Angel said as he hastily took off his wristwatch. He watched as his expensive Rolex flew off his hand into the waiting hand of the female.
"I like Time. There is so little and so much of it," she murmured as she examined the timepiece.
"Well?" asked the male.
"What's happened to me?" Angel questioned.
"It's true then, brother," the female intoned as she stepped to one side of Angel and stared at him.
"He is no longer a warrior," the male followed suit and stepped to the other side of Angel.
"It was the demon's blood. It wasn't the Powers That Be that did this?" Angel was feeling a little nervous at how the two beings were looking at him.
"The Powers That Be? Did you save humanity? Avert the Apocalypse?" the male demanded.
"You faced a Mohra demon. Life goes on," the female said dismissively.
"My life as a human... I'm not poisoned or under some spell?"
The female looked away as if consulting someone only she could hear before looking back at Angel, "The Auguries say no. If it has happened it was meant to be."
"From this day forward, you will live and die as any mortal man," the male sing-songed.
"Privy to all the attendant pains... and pleasures," the female began her sing-songing again also.
"That which we serve is no longer that which you serve. You are released from your fealty," the male said in his strangely lilting voice as both he and the female turned and walked away from Angel.
"That's it? I'm free?" Angel asked, but received no answer as the man held up his hand and Angel flew backwards out the door he entered through. He landed on top of a very disgruntled Doyle.
"It didn't work?" Doyle asked as he extricated himself from the sprawling ex-vampire who was staring at the white marble doorway.
"What?"
"Look at your watch, Angel, you just went in this instant," Doyle informed Angel as he helped him to his feet.
"I can't do that, Doyle. Next time remind me to bring a gift," Angel muttered as he pushed back his sleeve to show the Brachen demon his bare wrist.
"Oh, I knew I forgot something. So... what happened? What did they say?" Doyle asked to cover his embarrassment.
"They're a little confusing but... the gist of it is... it's real. I'm free. I mean what do I do now? I have my whole new life spread before me. I don't know where to begin," Angel told the seer.
"Right. It's overwhelming. You can pretty much do what ever you want now. The question is, what do you want?" Doyle asked, although at the back of his mind he knew what Angel was going to say.
"Go to Sunnydale, of course. Go to Buffy," Angel answered. He mentally began his argument on how to win Buffy away from Spike. After all, now that he was human, how could a vampire without a soul compete with that?
Doyle heard a little voice pipe up telling him that he and Cordelia had better go along. They were all in store for a bumpy ride.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spike couldn't believe he had let his mate drag him shopping even if he had to admit watching her model formal gowns had him hard and ready all afternoon. And the two dresses they picked for the auctions were hot, sexy and classy. He absentmindedly listened to her chatter about Christmas being only four weeks away as he went over what the Watcher had told them had happened with Peaches the night before.
"Oh God, that's Angel's car parked outside our house!" Buffy exclaimed when Spike turned the Desoto down the street their home was situated on.
"Should've known he wouldn't leave with his tail tucked between his legs, luv," Spike said as he pulled to the curb about a block from the house and switched off the engine. He rolled down the window and pulled a cigarette from the inside pocket of his duster. Spike lit the cigarette and then sat there flicking his lighter open and closed.
Buffy could feel the tension, nervousness and downright fear rolling off of Spike. Finally she grabbed him and using her Slayer strength she slid him across the bench seat towards her. Ignoring the surprised look on his face, she swung herself around so that she could settle on his lap facing him. Buffy pressed her body up to his as she gripped the lapels of his duster.
Spike threw the cigarette out the window and automatically settled his hands on her hips pressing her even closer. The feel of the Slayer's body next to his was like nothing he had ever felt before and he was terrified he was going to lose her.
"Spike, please tell me what's wrong?"
"I love you, Buffy. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you. It's not like it's the first time the poofter has come around and... " Spike broke off and Buffy could see the memories filtering through his mind of all the times that Drusilla had dropped him for Angelus without a backward glance.
"You're not going to lose me. You're mine and there's no way I'm letting you go," Buffy assured him as she buried her face in his neck.
"He's gonna challenge the claim. You know that, don't you, pet?" Spike asked as his hands moved up Buffy's back and buried themselves in her long blond hair. While they were out shopping she had stopped in at the salon to have a perm and the silken curls glided through Spike's fingers like water.
"I know, baby, but you're strong. You're not the vamp you use to be. You have the Gem, you have Slayer blood and you have me. You. Have. Me."
"Until you see him and then you will..." Spike didn't get to finish his sentence before he felt the Slayer's blunt teeth tear into his throat. The brutality and possessiveness of the act excited him even as it reassured him of his place in his mate's life.
Buffy pulled away from Spike and watched with great interest as the blood trickled down his neck to his collarbone to disappear under his shirt. Then she smiled at him before smashing her lips to his and when she pulled away, for once he looked like the one totally ravaged.
"Now are you ready to go face him?" Buffy whispered as she slid off of Spike's lap and back onto the seat beside him.
Spike nodded and slid over behind the wheel of the Desoto. He started the engine and the car purred to life. In just a few seconds they were pulling into their driveway. When they were finally parked, Spike climbed out and came around to open the door for Buffy.
Buffy had learned very early on that the Victorian gentleman in Spike was alive and well, and he expected her to let him treat her like a lady. She waited until he opened the car door for her and then waited for him to open the trunk to remove the purchases they had made that day.
"Five heartbeats inside, luv. Two of them are our Watchers. I don't recognize the other three. Appears Peaches brought reinforcements," Spike said as he closed the trunk.
"Well, one of 'em is probably Cordelia and the other might be the friend with the visions," Buffy replied as she held the garment bags holding her new dresses and Spike's new tux very carefully so not to drag them on the ground.
Spike held the front door open for his girl. As he kicked the door shut behind her, he gathered all the bravado he had learned over the last century and swaggered into the living room.
"Rupes, Reg, I see you both are havin' a drink. Mind if I join you?" Both men in question raised their glasses to the blond vampire as he made his way to the sideboard and poured himself a drink.
Buffy's voice floated down from upstairs, "Don't forget you are taking me out tonight, Spike."
"As if I could forget. We ran into Red at the dress shop and they talked about it for 20 soddin' minutes," Spike muttered as he took a gulp of his whiskey. He set his glass down long enough to slip his duster off and toss it across the back of one of the armchairs. Spike ignored the gasps as his Slayer ravaged neck was revealed. He grabbed his glass again and settled down in the chair he had laid his coat across.
"I heard that," Buffy said as she entered the room. "Angel, we didn't know you were stopping by for a visit or we would have gotten home sooner."
Spike mentally rolled his eyes, earning him an evil eye from Buffy. If he had known Angel was coming back he would have taken her and ran away for the weekend. Spike was just a little surprised when instead of getting a chair from the dining room Buffy came over and settled in his lap. His empty hand came up and curled around her waist.
"Buffy, I don't know how to say this, but I fought a Mohra demon and its blood mixed with mine and made me human. We can finally be together. Be everything you wanted," Angel stood and announced as soon as he saw Buffy curl up with Spike.
Buffy was speechless for a few seconds. Before, this would have been a dream come true, but now it seemed the Fates had played a cruel trick on Angel.
"Wow, Congratulations, Angel. I'm so happy for you," Buffy finally said when she found her voice.
Angel couldn't understand what was going on. Instead of flying into his arms like he expected, Buffy continued to snuggle up in Spike's lap. What the hell was going on here?
"Buffy, we can have the normal life you have always said you wanted. The normal life I have always wanted for you. You don't have to stay with Spike and pretend he is a substitute for me," Angel blurted out as he moved closer to the couple in the armchair.
"What? Spike is not a substitute for you," Buffy growled as she leapt up off of Spike's lap, "You left me to find someone and I have. Spike is that someone, Angel. You may not like it, which I'm sure you don't, but it's reality. What we had together was a first love, and I will always care for you. But, and it's a big but! I'm in love with Spike. There's nothing you can say that will change that."
"No, but there's something I can do about it," Angel growled and in a sudden, unexpected move that caught all the others in the room off guard, he launched himself at Spike stake in hand. The stake plunged into Spike's chest and directly into his heart. Both Angel and Spike looked down at the stake; one in astonishment and the other in smirking triumph.
"Oh do it, again. It tickles. You know, in a good way."
Angel withdrew the stake from Spike's chest and watched the wound close before his eyes. Okay, that wasn't normal. Vampires were supposed to dust when a stake was inserted in their hearts, but before Angel could say anything he had a pissed off Slayer glaring at him.
"Just what the hell do you think you are doing, Angel? Do you really think killing my boyfriend would win you points in your favor?" Buffy demanded.
"But it's Spike, Buffy. You remember; the same Spike that came here to kill you, the same one that stalked you all over Sunnydale on Halloween when that spell happened. He's my errant grandchilde, for fuck's sake!" Angel stared daggers at Spike never taking his eyes away from the blond vampire through the entire rant.
"He's also the Spike that helped me defeat Angelus. The only vampire I have trusted alone with my mother and who still has an invite into her house. That's how I knew he would help me play a trick on Parker when he dumped me in the middle of the UCSunnydale Commons; you know, the 'normal' you wanted me to find," Buffy ranted in return.
"Going through boyfriends like Parker is what a normal girl does, Buffy. I'm sorry you were hurt and misplaced your trust with the boy, but it's part of a normal life and now that I am mortal, we can have that. The only reason I left you was so that you didn't have the complications of dating a vampire. Yet here you are with my grandchilde. I'm finally free to be with you in all ways. We can walk in the sun together," Angel pleaded with the little girl in Buffy that he loved from day one. She had to be in there somewhere. This rough exterior would fade away to the sweet, innocent girl he loved once he got her away from Spike.
Buffy smirked at Spike before turning to her Watcher, "Giles, could you open the curtains, please? I don't know why they are closed on such a beautiful fall day."
Giles moved over to the curtains and opened them wide, letting the sun flood the living room. He grabbed his and Reggie's glasses to pour them each another drink. Giles had the feeling things were going to get worse and he wanted to be pleasantly plastered when they did.
Spike leaned forward to stick his hand into the light. He twisted his hand around, first looking at the palm and then at the back. When nothing happened he sat back against the chair and smirked at Angel. This was getting good and he hadn't even said a word yet.
"You're going to choose him? Over me?" Angel asked in the most incredulous, jealous voice that Buffy had ever heard.
Buffy's patience came to an abrupt end and before she turned back to face Angel she let her eyes bleed iridescent green-gold and her Sultana fangs to descend. She whirled to face him, ignoring the looks of shock from Cordelia and the man next to her on the couch. Buffy's entire focus was on her former lover.
"Yes, I am choosing him over you. He's mine. My mate, my vampire, my Aurelian," Buffy growled.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I did use dialouge and reworked ATS Season 1 I Will Remember You to fit into my story. So it does go a bit different than the show. LOL A few moments of mild pelvic grinding, but that's it. And Thanks to Aribelle, my most wonderful, wonderful beta who only mildly complains about my long, long chappys.