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Summary: Thirteenth in a series.
A/N: I am not intending to completely rewrite every part of every script, if there are parts missing just assume they went the same way they did in the show.
*******************************
It’s the Hyperion at night, Angel, Cordy, Fred and Gunn are talking. Their heads turns as the door opens and Connor walks in. Angel takes a few steps closer to Connor, who has stopped at the top of the landing.
"Hey.---You all right?"
"I went to see my...---He wasn't there."
"Yeah. I'm sorry. He's---he left, Steven.---He gave me this letter to give to you." Angel hands him Holtz' letter and Connor reads it.
"He says my place is here now---with you."
"It wouldn't have to be forever. Maybe just---give it a try for a while."
"Okay.---We'll give it a try."
*
Connor sits in the sun shining on his bed, rereading Holtz' letter. There is a knock on the door.
"It's me." Angel opens the door. "Can I come in?" Connor looks over his shoulder at the door but stays silent. Angel picks up a bookcase and carries into the room.
"I brought you a bookcase and some of my favourite books when I was your age.” He sets the bookcase down. “So---can I get you some breakfast? Are you hungry?"
"Not really."
"We can go out.” He looks at the sun shining in through the window. “I'd have to wear a Burka or something. Hey, you know, we'll stay in, hang out together, tonight we'll---do something special. You ever been to a movie?" Connor puts the letter in the drawer of his nightstand.
"No."
"Oh, we'll go to an action movie. You'll love it. Anything else you wanna see or do---just say the word." Connor stands up and turns to face Angel.
"There is one thing."
"What?" Connor lunges for Angel, but Angel easily captures and deflects Connor's hands.
"I wanna know how you do that."
"Fight?" They break apart.
"Yes."
"I think you got that down pretty good already."
"I wanna learn---to be like you." Angel with the slightest smile.
"Well, there might be a thing or two that I could show you."
*
Angel is training Connor down in the lobby with the help of Gunn and Fred, who are both wearing a seat cushion on their chest.
"Stake." Angel tosses a stake and Connor catches it.
"Vampire!" Gunn lunges at Connor and Connor 'stakes' him.
"Behind you!” Connor spins to 'stake' Fred. “Civilian! Civilian!” Connor pulls his blow. “Protect her, protect her!" Angel comes in to exchange a flurry of quick blows with Connor while Fred helps Gunn back to his feet. "Where is your balance? Where is your balance? Huh? You lose it” He grabs a hold of Connor and pushes him over backwards so he rests awkwardly on Angel's arm. “You lose. Don't worry, I got you. I got you.” He helps Connor back up. “You're doing good, kid. You've got heart." Fred raising her hand.
"I wanna be the vampire!"
"I wanna be in a hot tub."
"I wanna know who's cleaning this stuff up." Gunn points at Fred, who in turn points at Angel and Connor.
"Yeah. It has been a long day.” He turns to Conner. “Had enough?"
"No. I wanna learn." Angel smiles.
"Is this kid a chip off the old block or what, huh?" He gives Connor a playful punch which Connor half ducks.
"He's chippy." Angel turns and points at Fred.
“Okay. Vampire." Fred raises her hands like claws and lets out a growl. "Vampire. You're not in 'Cats.'" Fred pulls her hands in and lets out a small, questioning 'grr.' Angel points at Gunn. "Innocent by-stander."
"By-sitter." Gunn drops down onto and overturned, stuffed chair. Angel to Connor. "Close your eyes. Feel it. Where is the attack going to come from?" Connor fends off Angel's blows with his eyes closed. "Good. Good."
*
Angel goes to answer a knock on his door.
"Yo. Hey! Lorne. Come on in."
"Well, you're in a good mood."
"Yeah. I'm taking the kid to the movies. He's gonna love it."
"Oh. No subtitles or dreary Leitmotive, all bloody action?"
"You bet."
"Oh, he'll love you for it. Well, I thought, I'd stop by and say arrivederci, Angel-hair." Angel after a beat.
"You're really going."
"I'm really going."
“I'm sorry."
"Don't be.” He holds out a CD. “Here, I got you a little something to remember me by." On the CD is a picture of Lorne, smiling while holding a microphone. Angel reads the title.
"Songs for the love---Lorne. Oh, I get it. Lovelorn, because your name is Lorne."
"Yeah, my publicist's idea. Her name is mud now but the tunes are good. And, ah, and that's not my real gift. This is: she’ll come back." Angel looks happier. “And she feels the same.” Now Angel looks surprised.
“Feels the same?”
“Yes, you love her still. And she loves you.”
“No I don’t…she does?”
“She’s scared, lost and alone and she has a lot to deal with. You can’t even imagine. She’s not the innocent school-girl who you fell for. She’s all grown-up and she didn’t grow slowly, she grew fast, in fact she was pretty much dragged up kicking and screaming. She’s hiding it, hiding everything. Ignoring it all and hoping it’ll go away. And if she’s ignoring that to avoid the pain well she’s obviously hiding some other stuff.”
*
The phone in the lobby is ringing just as Angel and the others walk in.
"I got it!" Angel runs across the lobby, whistling.
"He's whistling. I've never heard him whistle."
"He's happy." Connor closes the door behind them all.
"Angel Investigations. We can help you. I know we can!"
"Hi. It's me."
"Buffy?”
“Hey.”
“Where are you? How are you?”
“I’m okay…I think. You?” Angel glances at Connor.
"I'm pretty good."
"Uhm, Angel, I sort of need to talk to you, in person."
"Is it something---bad?"
"Um well I’m not saying good I’m just not saying bad either."
"About what?"
"Well---about me."
"Oh."
"Could you meet me tonight?"
"Tonight? Sure. Okay. Where?"
"I've always loved Point Dume. There's a viewpoint. It's the first turn north of Kanan. Really pretty spot." Angel as he writes down the directions.
"Point Dume. Viewpoint. First turn, north Kanan. We'll meet there.---About an hour?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
"Okay."
"Yes."
"Good. Okay then, we'll do that." Angel slowly hangs up the phone. Angel slowly takes his hand away from the receiver and turns to find everyone looking at him.
"I've got to go out for a while, son."
"With Buffy?" Angel nods. “Who is Buffy?”
“When you first came through the portal, she’s the little blond woman.”
"She's beautiful. How do you know her?" Gunn and Fred exchange a look.
“Well…I know her from a while back.”
“She makes you happy. It's good to see you happy, dad." Angel turns away with a smile, humming a little tune.
"Now he's humming."
"He's really happy." Fred, still clutching her jumbo tub of popcorn, gets up from the couch and grabs the stake lying on the sofa table. She walks over to Angel and starts to poke him with the stake.
"But not perfectly happy, I hope!"
"No! Ouch!" Fred holding up the stake.
"Just checking." Angel slowly walks out, no longer smiling or humming.
*
Angel arrives on a short cliff, a sign reads ‘Dume.’ Angel’s convertible pulls up beside it. Angel gets out, sighs, then checks the smell of his breath. He’ll tell her tonight exactly how he feels and they can find a way.
*
Buffy, driving down a crowded freeway, honks at the car in front of her then pulls all the way from the right, across the middle and into the left lane.
"Slow poke! I'm late. I'm late."
*
Angel walks up to the edge of the cliff and checks his watch. He sighs, checks his hair, then pulls out his cell phone. He flips it open and begins to dial, but the phone tips out of his hand and tumbles down the side of the cliff. Angel looking after it.
"I hate those things."
*
"We're just gonna talk like two grown-up adults. I have some feelings. You may have some feelings. He may not even know I'm insane until he hears my feelings." Suddenly everything starts glowing. Buffy closes her eyes to hide them from the blinding light. The light disappears and Buffy opens her eyes. She looks around her and sees that her fellow motorists are frozen in time.
"Oh, sh..."
*
Angel, at the edge of the cliff, checks his watch again. He pulls out his keys and starts to walk back towards his car---only to see Connor walking up beside it.
"Connor."
"Dad."
"What are you doing here?"
"We're family. And I wanna show you how I feel about that." With that Connor launches himself at Angel and they both tumble over the edge, down the side of the cliff and onto the beach below. Angel and Connor pick themselves back up off the sand.
"Connor. Connor." Connor attacks Angel, who fends off his blows.
"It's all about balance. You lose it.” He tosses Angel onto the sand. “you lose."
*
Buffy gets out of the car and walks over to look into the window of a car at a woman frozen in the act of fixing her lipstick.
"Don't be frightened."
"It's a little late for that!"
"Sorry. You remember me? I'm..."
"Yeah. Whistler. You tend to remember guys who guide you on killing the man wearing your lover’s face. What is going on?"
"I think you know."
"I'm dying."
"No. No, you're not---dying. Don’t sound so hopeful either." Buffy looks down.
“Why can’t I be dying?” Whistler looks at her and takes in her lost and lonely little girl expression and the voice of someone who is afraid of what’s next.
“Cos kid, you weren’t meant to be brought back but now you’re here, your destiny’s been rewritten.” Buffy’s eyes are sparkling with tears and she looks angry. She starts to pace in front of Whistler.
“Well you know what destiny always screws me, this time I’m screwing destiny!”
" You're a great warrior, Cordelia. The battle that we're all a part of is fought on many different planes and dimensions. You've outgrown this one. You've become---a higher being."
"Me?"
"You. You lasted a long time, longer than most. You sacrificed everything for your sister, a sister you knew perfectly well wasn’t even your sister. A sister you’d only known for 8 months.”
“I’ve known her for 15 years.”
“You know what I mean kid.”
“What do you mean…a higher being, outgrown this dimension?”
“I mean you’re moving up in the world kid.
"Now I'm really scared."
“I know. But I also know you're ready."
"Oh, no, I'm not."
"Ah, the universe begs to differ. And deep down inside, I think..."
"Yes! All right? Stop saying I know! ---Maybe I do know. Maybe. If given enough time, I might even get used to the idea, but---I don't have enough time, do I?" Whistler shakes his head. “But Angel…he’s waiting for me. He lost me once and he needs me.”
“He survived without you when he moved here, built a whole new life. Survived when you’d died.”
“I need him.”
“Buffy you have wanted to go back to heaven since you got resurrected and so maybe this place isn’t heaven but it’s a lot nicer than here. No more demons and vampires to fight. No more pressure and confusing emotions, a sense of pure peace in that place.”
“But no Angel right?”
“You know the guys that make destiny…”
“I’m gonna…wow. But still I won’t have Angel.”
“You’re over our boy, remember?”
“We both know that isn’t true. I’m a good actress but I’m not good enough to hide it from myself.” Buffy turns and wipes a tear from her eye. “Whistler I can’t go. I have to stay here and fight. I can’t sit back and let others do it knowing that I pushed them. I can’t do it. Once a Slayer always a Slayer.”
“So let me get this straight you are giving up the chance of perfect peace and happiness and a kick ass job for fighting and Angel.”
“When you say it like that it sounds dumb. But yeah.”
“I thought so, I even told them. You’re very special Buffy Summers and you will change the world. And maybe everytime you give something up someone else receives something in return.”
“Meaning?”
“Half and half.”
“Half and half?”
“Our boy, they’ll make him half and half.”
“Which means?”
“Rainy days, cloudy days he don’t need sunscreen. And Angelus is not a threat no matter how happy he gets. And that little heart that’s been dead for so long, well it’ll have a little life in it.” Buffy couldn’t contain her happiness. She pulled herself up onto her tiptoes and kissed Whistler.
“Thank you.”
“You did the hard part. The only thing is, he has to drink from you.” Buffy pauses.
“Then he’ll drink from me.”
*
Connor kicks Angel across the face.
"Easy. He catches Connor from behind in a nelson. “Talk to me! Talk to me, okay?" Seeing that he can't get free Connor stops struggling.
"Okay." Angel lets go of him. Connor pulls something out of his pocket, then turns and zaps Angel full in the face with a tazer. Angel flies back, landing in the surf. Connor jumps on him and starts to slug him across the face. A wave rolls over them, and Angel uses it to roll on top of Connor. He holds Connor's face under the water for a moment then pulls him up.
"I don't know what the hell is wrong with you but you're gonna talk..." Connor slugs him across the face with the tazer. Angel drops to his knees, and Connor keeps zapping him until Angel lies facedown in the water, no longer moving. Pulling a flashlight from his back pocket, Connor turns it on and signals to a boat waiting off shore. The boat flashes a light in response, Justine is steering the boat closer to shore. Angel wakes to the sound of a screw-gun. He is lying on his back inside a metal casket. Connor is tightening the screws on it. Thick steel cables are wrapped over Angel's ankles, thighs, abdomen and chest, confining his arms at his sides and holding him motionless.
"Connor.---Why are you doing this?"
"You murdered my father."
"No. I didn't. I swear."
"He's lying."
"I'm not lying. And she knows it."
"You're the prince of lies."
"That's why you wouldn't let them kill me at the drive-in. So you could."
"Killing is to good for you. You don't get to die. You get to live---forever." Connor is still tightening the screws on Angel's coffin.
"Some day you'll learn the truth---and you'll hate yourself. Don't. It's not your fault.” Justine looks over at Connor and Angel. “I don't blame you."
"Liar!"
"Listen to me. I love you! Never forget that." Connor and Justine go to pick up the lid of the coffin.
"Connor?! Connor, never forget that I'm your father and that I love you." Justine and Connor start to lower the lid in place.
"Connor? Con..." Angel's voice is cut off as the lid comes down. Connor looks down through the wire-mesh glass window at Angel's face, then he and Justine slide the two rods that lock the lid in place into their channels, and Justine welds them into place, while Connor keeps looking at Angel. Justine looks at Connor. They move to one end of the coffin and are about to push it off the boat when a voice is heard.
“Don’t!” They both turn back to look. Buffy makes her way from the front of the boat. As she walks towards them silently thanking Whistler from dropping her off on the boat. Connor stares at her. Justine turns back.
“Come on Steven.”
“Don’t.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Buffy. You know your dad taught you all about vampires, did he teach you about me?”
“A girl? Why would he teach me about you?”
“Cos I’m the Slayer. Not to go all Watcher on you guys but…
‘Into each generation a Slayer is born.
One girl in all the world, a Chosen One. One born with the strength and skill
to fight the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their
numbers.’” Justine turned back. She laughs a bitter laugh.
“Those vampires said
I was trying to be a Slayer. Look at you, you don’t look like much.”
“I could kick your
ass without breaking a sweat. But I’m more than a Slayer. I was meeting him
tonight. But Whistler stopped me, he’s a demon, a messenger for the PTB. Tells
me I’ve graduated to higher level. My sacrifice didn’t go unnoticed and I’m now
a Higher Being. Yet I’m still here. They offered me everything, peace,
happiness and a kick ass job and here I am. Cos what they didn’t offer is
something I want more than anything. Angel. Okay so he’s this bad guy that
killed a load of people but he helped a lot of people too. He didn’t kill your
dad. He hasn’t got it in him. Angelus now he has but not Angel. You wanna know
something, it’s not his soul that makes him special. It’s him. Just the way he
is. And you’d understand that if you weren’t so…rigid. What is the most ironic
thing you’ve ever heard? Get that in your mind and I bet I can beat. A vampire
SLAYER in love…with a vampire. Yep that’s right I, Buffy Anne Summers am in
love with Angel, the souled vampire.”
“How can you love
that?”
“How can you not? Oh
wait I know. Cos you don’t know him. Circumstantial evidence, did anyone see
him do it. And vampires need an invite do you really believe he invited Angel
in? You know Angelus, you have no clue who Angel is. Angel is the guy that goes
out every night to kill his kind to save people. Angel is the guy who walked
away from love because people told him it was in her best interest. Angel is
the guy who gave up his humanity so one person, one person could live. Angel is
the person who saved someone’s soul when no one else would ever touch her.
Angel is the person who is forever reaching out to me, to help me. And you know
what I do, I shove it back in his face. I was in LA a while back, we fought and
I was a bitch to him. I even lied to him, told him the one thing I knew would
break him just to make myself feel a little better, and then I went home to the
arms of someone I didn’t love. And which of us was it that went out of their
way to apologise. Him. He came to my home to apologise even though he’d been
right and I’d been a bitch. Oh yeah and Justine Angel is the guy who’s son you
stole, the guy who put that aside and saved your ass. You know I could have
been over there and kicked your asses overboard and gotten him out by now.”
Justine stares at her before turning and viciously shoving the casket. Connor
stares at Buffy for a long time before he crumples to the floor. Buffy slowly
walks over to him. He is crying. She sinks to the ground beside him and wraps
her arms round him. She rocks him like a small child.
“Shush, it’s okay. It’s okay. Mommy’s here. It’s okay. It’s okay.” Connor makes no reaction when she calls herself his mother. Justine snorts with laughter and gives one final shove, enough to send the casket overboard. Buffy launches herself to her feet and stares into the sea. “ANGEL!” She turns and Justine sees the vicious glint in her eye. She swings and knocks Justine clean out. Connor is still sobbing and does nothing. Buffy jumps overboard and Connor finally notices he is practically alone on the boat. He stares into the water after. He grabs a rope and goes down after her. When he reaches the bottom Buffy is there trying to get the lid off. He passes her the rope and they tie it round the casket. They both grab it and swim back up. Buffy climbs back onto the boat and takes the rope from Connor. She helps him back onboard and they both pull on the rope. They eventually manage to haul the casket back up. Connor goes to the front of the boat and steers it back to shore. Buffy works at getting the lid off.
*
“Oh god what happened?” Cordy rushes over to Buffy and Connor as they walk in with Angel between them. It’s now daylight, luckily a cloudy day. Angel goes over and sits down. He is staring outside.
“Connor what do you want for breakfast? How ‘bout pancakes and strawberry syrup with pecan nuts grated and sprinkled on top.” He looks at her in surprise but nods. Angel’s attention snaps back to her. He smiles at the closeness between her and Connor.