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TITLE: Night of Surprises
AUTHOR: Faith
DISCLAIMER I don't think I own any of these characters, but I could
be wrong so if you see a name you don't recognize from the shows,
it's my character. Lyrics belong to Gabrielle.
SPOILERS Shanshu.
FEEDBACK alwaysluv@lycos.comRATING G all the way
AUTHORS NOTE Feedback is motivation.
SUMMARY Surprise, surprise, surprise. There might be a few more in
there, I didn't really count.
AN: Okay this was written in a short period of time at a late hour,
if it sucks, well, too bad. It's not one of my best, but I think I
got the general idea in there. Hope you enjoy it.
"Wesley," Angel called as he slowly entered the lobby of the Hyperion
reading a small stack of papers in his hand. "Have you found anything
on that demon I told you about?"
Regretfully, Wesley shook his head. "Not a single thing. There just
doesn't seem to be any demons that match your description."
Angel looked up from his papers. "Has Cordelia searched the internet?
Maybe she could turn up something on one of those demon websites."
"Been there, done that, found nothing." The woman in question
answered as she breezed into the room with a steaming cup of coffee
in her hands. She took a sip. "Are you sure that's what you saw?" She
asked, gesturing to a quick sketch that Angel had done of the
demon. "Cause we're not finding anything anywhere."
Angel sighed. He couldn't believe he was having this conversation
again. Mistake one of those freaky looking hairless cats for demon
spawn and suddenly your credibility is gone. What was with the world
these days? Either way, hairless cats should be done away with they
just aren't cats.
"Yes, Cordy, I'm sure. It was right in my face. How could I not be
sure?"
The girl shrugged. "I'm just saying it's happened before, it could
happen again."
"Hey," Angel was immediately on the defensive. "Anyone could have
made that mistake. Who buys a hairless cat anyway? It's not a cat."
"As productive as this conversation is, we really need to focus."
Wesley stood to retrieve another dusty, yellowed text. "That thing is
still out there and, until we dispose of it, it could very well be
reeking havoc on innocents."
The vampire shook his head. "You're right." He looked at his
employees, his friends. "Look, you guys keep looking here and I'll go
listen to the demon grapevine, see if I can't learn anything new
about our friend."
Cordelia snorted and put her hands on her hips. "Why do you always
get out of research? Why can't I go out and listen to the grapevine?"
"They'd use you as seasoning for their grape juice." He grabbed his
leather coat and a few stakes. "I'll be back in a while." With that
he headed for the door and made it as far as the counter.
A sharp pain shot through his body, unlike anything he had ever felt
before, and he had to grasp the counter, hard, to keep himself
upright. His free hand rumbled the shirt on his chest in his fist as
a low groan escaped through his clenched teeth.
"Angel!" He felt Cordelia's arms around his back, offering him
support, but he roughly shoved her back.
"Stay away." He groaned.
She heeded his advice and took several steps back. "What is it?"
Wesley appeared by her side. "Angel, are you all right? What's
happening?"
His fingers tightened around the edge of the counter, his eyes
squeezed shut. "I don't know." He ground out. "I've never felt-" he
fell to his knees as the pain disappeared as suddenly as it had hit.
He drew in a deep, settling breath and slowly opened his eyes.
The laugh that escaped him sent his approaching friends back several
paces farther than before. "Angel?" Cordelia tried. Wesley put a
restraining hand on her arm.
Angel slowly climbed to his feet, still laughing, and walked to the
door.
"Where are you planning to go?" Wesley questioned as he reached for a
nearby stake that Angel had dropped.
"Sunnydale." He answered. "Where else?" Then he was gone, swallowed
by the dark, his constant companion.
The ex-watcher and the seer stood in shocked silence for a long
while, staring after their friend.
"We have to call Buffy." Cordelia decided. "She has to know. We have
to warn her."
Wesley put his hand over hers on the telephone before she could pick
it up to dial. She looked at him in quiet surprise and he shook his
head. "No." Was all he said.
"NO?! What do you mean no? We can't just let him show up without
warning her. She has to be prepared for him."
He shook his head again. "Nothing can prepare her for this,
Cordelia." He removed his hand from hers and returned to his
books. "She'll know soon enough and she'll know what to do. We can't
prepare her for something like this."
The brunette stalked over to him, anger burning in her eyes. "I may
not have been on the Buffy bandwagon in high school, but that doesn't
mean that I can be purposefully cruel to her. I've never exactly been
her friend, but I can't let her go through that again. You didn't see
her the last time. You didn't have the girl talk with her, even
though you didn't want to." She took a deep breath. "She loves him,
Wesley. It will break her this time."
He looked at her with calm eyes. "What makes you think it will be
anything like it was last time?"
She sighed and blinked back a tear before he had the chance to see
Queen C caring about a loser. "Because it's them. It's Buffy and
Angel."
He nodded. "Which is why we haven't the right to tell her. If she has
time to think about it, everything will go bad. If she is forced to
act, she'll do the only thing she can do."
"That's the scary part."
"I know." He agreed. "But we have to trust her. She's been through it
before, she can do it again."
"Can she?"
* * *
"Oh wow." Buffy gasped as she walked with Riley into the small,
secluded park. She looked up at her boyfriend. "Did you do all of
this?"
He smiled sheepishly. "I did." He answered. "Do you like it?"
She gazed up at the full moon and the stars twinkling above them,
then she looked at the small candle light picnic he had set up for
them. It was the most romantic thing he had ever done for her, and
she was very impressed. She never thought he had it in him to be so
romantic.
"I love it." She answered honestly. "You spoil me." She decided.
He shrugged. "I like to spoil you. You deserve it." He took her hand
and tugged her over to the soft blanket that he had spread over the
ground. "Sit." He ordered and she complied, watching as he sat next
to her. Reaching over he flipped open the top of the basket. "What
would you like to start with?"
She grinned. "What are the options?"
He pulled the basket in front of her so she could see inside. "All of
you favorite desert foods."
"Really?" She squealed in happiness.
He smiled. "Really. Including cookie dough fudge mint chip ice cream."
She giggled delightedly. "If I get all fat and can't fight demons
anymore, it's all your fault."
He shrugged. "It wouldn't matter. As long as you were happy,
everything would be perfect." He handed her the carton of ice
cream. "Here, why don't you start with this."
She happily accepted the carton and Riley watched in nervous
anticipation as she carefully opened it. She froze, a look of utter
surprise on her face, when she lifted the lid. "Oh my God." She
breathed.
He moved closer to her, shifting his legs under him to kneel before
her. "What do you say?" He asked.
She looked at him like he was a three headed monkey escaped from the
circus. "To what?" She asked, officially becoming the epitome of all
blonde stereotypes.
He shifted nervously and carefully plucked the diamond ring from the
top of the ice cream. He wiped it on his shirt to clean it and
wrapped a fist around it to warm it up before presenting it to
her. "Will you marry me?"
Her mouth dropped open. "Oh God."
He watched her expectantly until her silence got to be too much for
him. "How about it, Buffy? Will you make me the happiest man alive?
Will you marry me?"
She open and closed her mouth a few times and the tightly shut her
eyes while she regained her bearings. "Riley, I-"
"Buffy?" The couple turned as one to look at the man standing at the
edge of the trees looking at them in horror. "Oh no." He
breathed. "I'm too late." He drew a deep breath, trying to calm all
the emotions raging inside him. "I'm sor I shouldn't ha I'm-I'm
going to go. Home. I'm going to go home and hopefully forget that
this night ever happened."
But before he could disappear into the trees, Buffy was by his side,
her strong hand on his arm stopping him from leaving. "Angel," she
searched for his eyes but he refused to look at her. "Angel, what are
you doing here? What is it?"
He shook his head. "It's nothing. It's not important. I shouldn't
have come."
He tried to walk away but she tugged him back. "But you did come. And
there must be a reason behind it, so tell me what it was."
His head shook again. "No, I can't."
"Why not?"
He risked a glance over his shoulder at the commando that now stood
only a few feet away, the diamond ring still held between his thumb
and finger, ready to pick up where he left off. "Because he's waiting
for you to tell him yes."
She squeezed his arm and he finally looked down at her. "Who said
that would be my answer?"
He looked confused by her question. "Why wouldn't it be? You love
him."
"Because I've only been back for three months and I've only been with
him for a month and a half. Marriage is a big step, a huge step and
I'm not sure I'm ready for it. Not with a man that I'm not sure
whether I love or not." She watched him take that in, watched
something light up in his dark eyes and nodded decisively. "We have
to talk."
He nodded in agreement. "We really do."
"Don't move."
She walked back to Riley and, though Angel couldn't hear what they
were saying, he knew that she was sending him home for the night.
Riley hung his head in disappointment and Buffy gave him a quick hug
and subtly avoided his kiss. Buffy watched the boy walk away before
returning to Angel's side and, taking his hand in hers, they started
their journey to the mansion.
"So," Buffy cautiously began, "what's the dire this time?"
"No dire."
"Then, not to sound unhappy because I'm really really happy that
you're here, but why are you here?"
"Cordy has been on my case for weeks. She says I have Buffy-face
twenty-four/seven." A small smile curved his lips. "She's been
ordering me to call you and tell you why you were on my mind
constantly."
"It's always a nice thing to hear." He smiled down at her. "Why have
I been on your mind?"
"A prophecy."
She groaned. "Ugh, not another one. I thought you said no dire."
"There is no dire. This is a good prophecy. At least, I think it is."
"Okay." She stopped walking and looked up at him. "Care to fill me
in?"
He smiled, shook his head, and gave her hand a tug to get her walking
again. "If this prophecy doesn't affect me, why are you here?"
"I never said it didn't affect you. I want it to affect you, very
much."
They walked in silence for a short while, Angel gathering his
thoughts and Buffy waiting for him to continue.
"Cordy and Wesley are probably worried sick or they're packing up the
weapons and following me here. I didn't have time to stop and tell
them that the prophecy had been fulfilled." He explained off her
questioning gaze. "I was in a bit of a hurry."
"You're doing a lot of talking, which is very unusual, but you're not
clearing up a whole lot of confusion. I'm not getting what all of
this has to do with me or why you're in Sunnydale. What was the
prophecy?"
"I'm really hoping that it was the beginning of something wonderful."
He told her and she moaned.
"Again with the lack of answers."
They had finally reached the mansion and Angel opened the door and
then stepped aside to allow her to enter. He was quiet as he led her
to the living room, shed his coat and pulled a dusty white sheet off
the couch that was still there.
When he finally looked at her his gaze was intense and loving and
fearful? He gestured for her to sit down and she did, never taking
her eyes off him.
He cleared his throat. "I know that you're with Riley now and I know
that you might say yes to his proposal, but before you do that I'm
asking you to hear me out."
"Of course, Angel. What is it?"
He paced the room and his apparent fear scared her more than almost
anything else ever could. "The prophecy, it prophesied my redemption.
Given time, if I saved enough souls, averted an apocalypse or two, I
would regain my humanity." Her eyes widened. "It happened tonight,
Buffy. I was walking out the door to patrol and it hit me. It was the
worst pain I have ever felt, I thought I was going to die. But I
didn't. My heart started beating and all of my dreams passed before
my eyes and everything was possible. I can have everything that I
have ever dreamed of. I'm allowed to have it all now."
"Angel?" She asked uncertainly.
In two large steps he was kneeling before her, her shaking hands
caught in his own. "I had to come here. As soon as it happened I was
in my car. I had to see you, I had to take the chance. I had to risk
losing everything to ask you if I could have everything." He looked
deep into her eyes and she suddenly understood the fear she had seen
there. "Buffy," he said in that way that only he could. "I love you,
I've never stopped. Never. And I knew that I had to come here and see
you and beg you to be mine."
Tears welled in their eyes and she gave his hands a tender
squeeze. "I can't guarantee that I'll never hurt you again and I
can't guarantee that I'm the one you should be with and I can't
guarantee that I'll be able to give you everything that you want or
deserve or should have." He took several deep breaths. "But I can
guarantee that I will love you until this world no longer exists and
beyond then even; and I can guarantee that no one will ever treat you
as good as I will; and I can guarantee that not a single day will go
by that you won't know how much I love you.
"I know that I don't deserve you, not after everything that I've put
you through, but I also know that I would never forgive myself, I
would never be able to live in this world, if I didn't ask you to be
mine. So, here I am, asking you to marry me and love me until you
can't anymore if you even love me now, that is. If not, well, that's-
" He was silenced when she pressed her finger to his mouth.
"I have always loved you." She vowed and smiled at him through her
tears. "And you should know by now that there will never come a time
that I will ever stop loving you. It's not possible, Angel. You're a
part of me and you always will be."
"Thank you." He whispered. "I know this isn't exactly a romantic candle light picnic in the park, but it's all I've got right now."
She grinned. "It's all I need."
His nervousness eased and he found himself grinning like a fool. "Will you marry me, Buffy? Will you spend your life with me and have my children and make them all look just like you?"
She sniffled quietly and slowly stroked her hands up his arms and around his neck. "Of course."
He laughed aloud and scooped her up from the couch, swing them around in circles until they were both dizzy and laughing. "You have no idea how happy you've just made me." He told her when he set her on her feet again. He crushed his lips to her in a hard, passionate kiss. "You've just made all of my dreams comes true."
"I know exactly how you feel because they were all my dreams too."
Her hand tenderly stroked his cheek. "I love you so much." She pressed her body to his in a strong hug then suddenly pulled back and met his gaze. "Wait. Children? How many are we talking here?"
He grinned and, with a shrug, said: "I was thinking nine or ten."
She laughed at that. "I don't think so, buddy. I'm thinking more two or three."
His brow furrowed as he considered the offer. "How about four or five?"
"Three or four. That's my final offer." She negotiated with a laugh. "Okay." He conceded and met her lips with an achingly sweet kiss. "As long as they look just like you."
She was quick to shake her head. "Not the boys. The boys have to look like you. They'll be little heartbreakers. I'll have to warn all the little girls running around."
He grinned again. When had she ever seen him so happy? "It's a deal." He kissed her again, slowly backing her in the direction of the bedroom. "What about Riley?"
Her thumb traced the line of his lips. "Tonight is for us, it's ours alone. We'll deal with everything else tomorrow. Let's just forget about everything except you and me and that wonderful bed of yours. Tomorrow will be dealt with tomorrow." "I like that plan."
"Good." She kissed him again and that was the end of all discussion for the night and most of the next morning.
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