"Immortal Beloved..." LXXXVI...
A shortie...
PG-13
Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!
It's all yours and ME's...
Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...
Summary: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...
Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."
Archived at the 'Normal' Buffyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, https://www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/index.html (scroll on down to the IB series)...
***
LA...Aftermath of the battle with the Senior Partners...Early morning...
Very early morning...
A battered William wakes suddenly to find himself, surprisingly, still Undead...And apparently in a reasonably safe place...And startlingly quiet, given the roar of battle that had been going on continuously before he'd collapsed after being surrounded by a horde of the enemy closing on him...
"Angel?..." he looks up to see a bloodied, slightly bowed, Angel looking down, smiling a bit at him...
Christ, don't tell me he saved me...I'd rather have died my second heroic death...Please let it be Illyria who got me out...
He notes vaguely the forms of many women standing round, quietly watching him as he lay...Someone bandaging his wounds, applying ointments...More women, mostly but by no means all young adults or teens, rushing by...
Slayers?...Meaning?...He anxiously tries to stir and can't...
"Don't Will..." Angel comes to him... "She's already gone...Soon as she got you in and the Partners were flying back to Hell..."
Lovely...Didn't even stay to say...Well, must be fair...I didn't stay in Rome that night...
Still...His deliberations end with his loss of consciousness...
He wakes in a hospital bed...Angel and now Illyria by him...
A quick, hopeful look round...Nothing...
"How's Charlie...?" he mumbles...Straining to hear a voice...The sound of her feet...The rustle of her blouse...Sniffing discreetly to catch a trace of her perf...Well, Nina's about anyway...No doubt on that Chanel she pours on...
"She's not here..." Angel smiles...Choosing to kindly answer the key question first... "And Charlie's doing well...Thanks to her and her Slayers..."
Not here...
Well...Guess His Benevolence must run a tight ship...
Nice of her to come though...he tries a sigh but the pain involved makes him switch to an agonized gasp...
"Angel..." Illyria frowns at him, moving to pat William slightly...
"Ok..." he puts up a hand...Pulling something out of his pocket with the other...
"She left this for you..." he shows a cassette tape...
Apologized handsomely for letting Giles sway her on the 'not trusting Angel anymore' issue...he beamed...
"And..." Illyria glared...
"And...Said you were a jerk and a little blonde coward..." Well, she did...You heard her...he noted to the frowning Illyria... "But to play the tape soon as you felt up to it..." he finished...Lifting a small tape player onto the table near the head of William's bed...
"Do you want it now?..." Illyria asked gently...
"Yes, thanks...But don't start it yet...Great, thanks...Now, get out...Please..."
"We said our goodbyes
The night before
Love was in your eyes
The night before
Now today I find
You have changed your mind
Treat me like you did the night before
Were you telling lies
The night before?
Was I so unwise
The night before?
When I held you near
You were so sincere
Treat me like you did the night before
Last night is the night I will remember you by
When I think of things we did it makes me want to cry
We said our goodbyes
The night before
Love was in your eyes
The night before
Now today I find
You have changed your mind
Treat me like you did the night before
When I held you near
You were so sincere
Treat me like you did the night before
Last night is the night I will remember you by
When I think of things we did it makes me want to cry
Were you telling lies
The night before?
Was I so unwise
The night before?
When I held you near
You were so sincere
Treat me like you did the night before
Like the night before..."
(The Night Before, Lennon/McCartney)
"I have a world-famous, more-or-less redeemed vamp, incredibly cute Immortal billionaire waitin' on me so you damned well better be dialin' the followin' number right now...And be armed with one of the world's truly great excuses, you son-of-a-Dru..." Buffy's voice noted in stern tone...
"William...Please don't make me cry any more..." her voice in a tense whisper... "I couldn't...Can't...Bear it, beloved..."
"DAWN!..." A faint... "Yeah?"... "How'd ya dial our damned number here?..."
***
He opened his phone...
Out in the hallway various passing members of the hospital staff eyed the group clustered around William's door...Particularly the two young women performing a minor acrobatic feat at said door...
"Well?..."
"Ok, he's got his phone open...Gee, he looks awful bad, I don't think he'll be able to..."
"Right...Good enough...Here, Angel..." Buffy waved the waiting, staring Angel over... "Take her..."
"Whoa...Wait a minute!...Hey!..." Dawn tried to secure a hold on the window above Will's door as Buffy manuevered her from her shoulders onto Angel's...And rushed through the door...The thrown-open door slamming back against the wall...
Angel staggering as he was pushed aside, Illyria, Nina, and several Slayers about trying to grab at Dawn as she desperately hung on to the upper window frame...
"So..." a nonchalant pose...Will blinking at the Buffy standing at his bed... Buffy?...
"Just thought I'd save you the charges..." she smiled...
Uh...Huh...He started to pinch his arm... Will?...she stared...
"Right..." he stopped, nodding... "Last thing I want to do is wake up now..."
.***
