"Immortal Beloved..." LXXXVII...

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 theBuffy Rebecca verse, https://www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/index.html (scroll on down to the IB series)...

***

Rome...Three days before William and Angel's brief tour of the Eternal City...

"Please..." a gasping whimper... "I'm only doing my job...Mr. Angel assigned me to follow you..."

"Mr. Angel, eh?..." the frowning slight blonde woman eyed the rather husky, well-built, apparently human agent whom she'd just cornered and body-slammed after luring him into following her into the nearest dark alley...

"And what else did 'Mr.' Angel want you to do..."

"Just...To follow you...He was concerned about you..."

Right...she looked him over carefully...Definitely human...Unfortunately...

Leaving torture out as a option...

Maybe...

"Buffy..." a nervous Dawn beside her cut in... "He's probably tellin' the truth...Angel would do something like that..."

"Yeah...?...Yeah, I suppose..."

The agent, still in her choke hold, nodded vigorously...Trying to glance up the alley for any hope of help or rescue...

"When he's not passin' out amulets, I guess..." Buffy frowned... "All right..."

Oh...The man moaned as the initial fear of death which had kept the pain of his injuries at bay to some extent faded a bit...

"I think we better get him to a hospital, sis...You slammed him one pretty hard..."

"I was picturin' Angel..."

"Just...Following...Orders..." another gasp...

"Buffy you can't keep blaming Angel for what happened..." Dawn sighed...

"Right..." the Slayer nodded... "After all, I left him there..." Arggh...Dawn fumed...

"William wouldn't want you to..."

"No..." the agent grabbed at a faint hope of mercy... "He wouldn't want you to let me die...A great guy since he won back the soul...He'd be very...Oh..."

"Pal...My concern over how Angel would feel is not quite what it..." she blinked...

"Won back?...Angel didn't..."

"No..." the man groaned... "I mean William...Slayer, he'd be upset for you, hearing....You'd done harm..."

I think he's...Got you on a...Ped...Arrrrghh...Destial...

"William...?" she stared at him...Lifting him to his feet...

Arrhh...Oh....

"Whatdaya mean, William?..."

***

As they stood in the hospital corridor, waiting the newly summoned member of their party, Dawn eyed Buffy's grim face...

"Didn't trust me...Was alive all this goddamn time..." the Slayer mumbled... "All this goddamn time while I..."

"Buffy?..."

"Wishin' I'd stayed at the cavern, apocalypse or no...Wantin' to die...Giles havin' to get Willow outta town after I wouldn't stop hounding her, even when Osiris turned us down for the third time..."

And all the time...Bastard...

Cowardly little blonde...Never trusted me for a minute...

"Buffy?...Are you gonna...?"

"But he's alive...Well...Whatever..." a gentle smile...Followed by renewed frown...

"Who the hell is it?...Dru?...Harmony?...One of Angel's ex-girls, tired of not being able to go all the happy way?..." she turned to Dawn... "Who's keepin' him in LA, Dawn?...What dimwitted idiot...Or maybe some greedy WH staffer, claiming to love his poetry ...?"

Dawn gave a shrug, raising arms...How would I...?

"Ladies and cohabitors..." Andrew gave a warm beam as he entered the corridor from the elevator...The beam freezing as he saw Buffy's furious face...

You...she glared at him...

"You...Knew..."

Ummn...He looked at Dawn...Who gave a brief nod...Jig's up, Andy...

"You knew William was alive...You must have...You were in LA..." Buffy came to him...He looking desperately for the elevator door, now closed behind him...

"He didn't want me to...Uhhh...."

"Buffy, put him down..." Dawn grabbed at her sis' arm... "He gets nosebleeds real easy..."

***

A bench in the hospital corridor...Andrew slowly recovering from his intense session with his Slayer Inquisitor...Buffy and Dawn sitting on his opposite sides...

"All right..." Buffy frowned... "He's not being held by the Partners or Angel...Though if you got it right, Andrew..."

I did, I did...

"Angel nearly let his spirit slide to Hell...And never told me about him..."

I'd say I'm no longer feeling a little uncertain as to if Giles' evaluation of Angel's action in taking over Wolfram-Hart, LA...And our need to keep from trustin' him too far...Was entirely justified...

"Great...Well...Fine..."

Ah...Dawn sighed with relief...

That's ov...

"I'll just have to come up with something that'll get him over here...And keep him jerkin' round for a few months till he decides he's got the guts to face me..."

Hmmn...She thoughtfully tapped Mr. Pointy against an urn and a folder of documents she'd been carrying...The urn containing the ashes of the fiendish Immortal...Her latest victory, saved for study as an unusual type who'd found a way to function for long stretches of time in the light of day...A master manipulator who'd actually strung even the Council along for a century or two...

A couple of pages fell out of the folder...Dawn picking them up...Some important as to the location of stolen art and magics treasures the Immortal...Dumbass, Dimwitt...She felt a tad sad not to have Spike here to help think up some good ones...Had secreted away over the centuries...

Not to mention some pretty nice properties...She eyed a real estate document referring to an estate in Grenoble...Make that damned nice properties...

Hmmn...William must be loaded if he's workin' with Angel the CEO now...And I betcha we could pick these all up for a song, relatively speakin'...And not meanin' to summon the demon Sweet...

"Nice..." she noted to Buffy, seeing her sis eye the photo of the late, less than Immortal Immortal's estate...

Hmmn...Buffy stared at the folder...

"Didn't Giles tell us Spike and Angelus had had dealings with this guy?..."

Yeah...Dawn grinned... "He did..." Boy, did he...she chuckled...

Ummn...Right, I wasn't supposed to be listening in the other room when Giles told you about the Immortal and Darla...And Dru...

"And everybody but Giles, you, and me thinks the Immortal is a preety great guy, right?...Not to mention, still alive..."

"Yeah...He's famous for his...so-called...Redemption..." Dawn rolled her eyes... "A very nice act he had...Even Angelus mighta taken notes..."

Ok...Buffy eyed her two companions...Andrew nervous again after having had a moment's escape from her attention...

"We're gonna bring His Benevolence here..." she tapped the urn... "Back to life...In a way...And as exactly the kinda great, redeemed guy he loved pretending to be..."

The perfect guy...For an Undead type, anyway...

A paragon...

"William's ultimate nemesis..."

Andrew eyed Dawn who eyed him back...Hmmn...?

And Angel's boy in there...She pointed her thumb towards the room door...Is gonna help us...

"And tell Angel...And therefore William...That I am fallin' head over heels for Mr. Undeadly Right..."

That'll get him here...she smiled angelically... "Probably Angel too..."

Then...We'll really give it to him...

"Andy, your role is gonna be essential...But you oughta love this, loving old movies as you do..." Buffy grinned...

Ever see... 'North by Northwest'?...she smiled...

***