Timeline

Chapter 30


It had been a long day and with all the emotional upset , Buffy was ready to sleep for a week. Layton was fast asleep in his crib and Angel sat at his desk going over some cases and paperwork.He had wanted to climb into bed and hold Buffy til she fell asleep , but he didn't want to pressure her. He drank his first mug of blood , it tasted foul , after drinking from Buffy earlier, the pigs blood wasn't satisfying his hunger. He couldn't remember his first feed from his previous change , maybe it was due to the whole Liam cock up, who knew. All Angel knew was he wasn't getting the job done or quenching his thirst with the pigs blood. Feeling cranky , he decided to go to bed . He slid into the bed and pulled Buffy to him.Angel nuzzled her neck and whispered to her .Buffy forced her body closer to him and moaned quietly.
" I love you " he whispered to her .
It wasn't long before he fell asleep .


Gunn and Spike were the first ones down in the morning and they began talking about Angel's change in mortality.
" He always had to be the heroic twit , even before the first soul colonic " Spike told Gunn " Darla would set him up on purpose sometimes , and he fell for it time and time again"
"You might think he's a twit , I think its kinda cool " Gunn said
" He's always been a drama queen , like the time we were in Romania and he had the soul shoved up his ass. Darla came back and saw him , crying his eyes out he was , like some big prancing poof. Didn't see me acting like that when I got my soul" Spike lit up a cigarette .
"From what Buffy said you were ready for the guys in white coats and a trip to the funny farm for a long vacation" Gunn had a huge smile on his face.
"No I wasn't! That was cos the first evil was taunting me , driving me round the bleedin' bend "
"Was Angel like Liam back in his pre soul days "
"He was worse, If that had been a full on Angelus down there , Buffy wouldn't be alive now and neither would most of you "
"Guess the Sunnydale lot are here to stay then?"
"Looks that way , scoobies united" Spike sarcastically held a clenched fist up in the air.
"Scoobies?" Gunn asked
"That's the nickname Buffy gave to her team , unno some pop culture reference from a cartoon, not that I watch 'em" Spike tried hard to look more manly.
"Course not . You sticking around then?"
"Might , if the poof and Buffy want to make use of me. If not I'll go off , travel around and kick demon ass wherever I end up"

Buffy woke up and came downstairs with Layton and put the crib behind the front desk.
"Hi guys, what's the big?"
"Just discussing your intended" Spike stroked Layton's head
Buffy frowned "What about him"
"Nothing important Buffy" Gunn said
Spike looked at the new bite on her shoulder and winced .Buffy saw where his eyes had fallen and instinctively covered it with her hand.She looked at Layton to distract the glances from Spike.
"So , he reclaimed you then" Spike stood up and walked over to Buffy pulling her tank top aside .
"Doesn't concern you Spike" Angel said as he ran down the stairs "Find something else to amuse yourself if your bored , leave her alone. "
" That's advice maybe you should take " he replied .
"Go play human torch on the patio , Spike , the suns just high enough" Angels glare was one of pure anger.
"Will you stop with the bitching!" Buffy yelled " God you two are worse than Cordy with pms right now!"

It was at that point Lilah made her entrance from the kitchen. Everyone stood with their mouths gaping in shock.
"No need for me to go 'flame on' now , looks like the entertainments just arrived" Spike said with a sniff.
"Miss me champ?" Lilah said , sarcasm dripping from her voice.
Angel looked up to heaven "What did I do that's so bad?"
"Well so far , caused a rift in the timeline , bought the ensouled you back , had a ' cute l'il son ' and oh your ' Pier de Resistance' , destroying Wolfram and Hart , or trying to. Seems you have royally pissed the Senior Partners off."
Angel just stood and laughed at her " So this is my punishment ,you haunting, me cos thats something worse than Armageddon"
Lilah walked forwards with a smirk " Armageddon's coming Angel "
""Why now? It's been weeks since the slayers took the law firm down?"
Gunn and Spike ran and got the other team members that were awake.
Lilah was distracted by the emergence of the potentials and Willow , Wesley Illyria and Giles.
"Now team Angels all here , one of the visions that Cordy traded with us, showed Liam killing the human Angel and the slayer. The team all break up and go their separate ways and you all were picked off one by one, leaving the world without its champions. Now Angels got you all back on track and he's back with the warm and fuzzies , can't have that! "
"So are you their messenger of death then ?" Buffy asked.
" Of sorts"
"Think you need to work on it then , maybe go with a grim reaper look " Buffy couldn't resist it.
"Can see what you see in her Angel , she's a feisty one " Lilah shook her head "You have little time left , the Senior Partners are gathering troops and getting ready as I speak. I wouldn't waste what time you all have left" Lilah faded into nothing.
"You think the spook 'o' gram was telling the truth?" Faith said from the balcony
"Wolfram and Hart, of course she is " Angel said , deep in thought .
"Bugger this , I've only just got back from being dead , I stopped one apocalypse , aint sticking around for anymore. And for the record , I didn't think she was that entertaining" Spike started walking to the lobby doors .
"Erm Spike?"
He stopped and turned to Buffy "What?"
"For it to be a dramatic exit you have to actually leave .It's eleven a.m so unless you are thinking human torch , your stuck here" Buffy said
"And he called Angel a drama queen" Gunn added.
"Get off my bloody case will ya " He paced " It's your fault slayer , you made me soft"
Spike stormed off to his room. Faith came down from the balcony to regroup.
"Plans A?"
"We have no idea what the Senior Partners actually are , so research them, we gather our troops , get more potentials if we need to , then we take them out"
"There are Wolfram and Hart offices worldwide is there not?" Giles asked
"Yes, what's your point?" Angel was still deep in thought.
" Well , we have potentials all over the globe, we make a strike at all the offices , weaken them with several strategic strikes.They would have to make multiple attacks , spreading their resources thinly , giving us a better chance at defeating them." Giles leant against the front desk waiting for Angel's reply.
" Good plan" he walked over and picked up his son " I want Layton out of the way of this , I won't be able to concentrate knowing he's in danger"
Buffy agreed " Dawn and Xander can take him to the house in Ireland . I'll ask the covern to go there and protect you guys" Angel nodded his agreement , but he would rather have some muscle looking after his son.He had no problem with Dawn , but Xander and Angel had never got on and frankly , Angel had no faith in him , regardless of how he had stuck by Buffy over the years.
" Willow , go online and find out where the offices are and start gathering the potentials and dispatching them to those places " Giles asked
"All our major players should have key points of attack and be backed up by a small army of the potential slayers. That's Illyria , Spike , Faith, Angel, Willow ,Gunn, Wesley, Giles , Fred and myself. Once we know what we're up against we should collect whatever arsenal it is that will defeat it. Willow and the covern can also help with some mojo ."Buffy said.
Angel was taken back by Buffy's leadership skills . "Sounds like a plan , lets get all the data and get this plan into action, we have no idea how long we have" Angel put his son back into his crib " Lets get to work people"
Wesley came over to Angel and leaned into him "What about Cordy?"
Angel shifted his stance "We get her into a private clinic out of the way somewhere. If we survive , then we go back and get her. It sounds harsh but I can't worry over her right now , she's part of the reason we're in this mess"
Wesley wasn't entirely happy with Angel's attitude , after all , it was a demon hijacking that had caused Cordy to behave so out of character.Angel had been right about one thing though , they didn't have time to worry about her now. "I'll sort that out first thing then".

Fred and Willow were huddled up on the front desk with their laptops , Willow was looking at magic , spells and conveying messages back and forth from the covern. Fred was looking up weapons , mystical and otherwise. She had hacked into a military base's computer system , with help from Xander , and had commissioned some heavy duty fire power.Fred was now researching Wolfram and Harts Senior partners .

Faith was on the phone to Andrew, He had travelled around the globe as a mobile watcher in training, fetching and gathering Potentials and setting them up with watchers . He was in Greece and was about to head to Italy and then onto London. Suited them just fine.Faith had told him about the situation and had relayed a brief on the situation and what they expected him to do. He had agreed to hurry his trips to each destination and to send potentials to the various Wolfram and Hart locales.Whilst Andrew had shown promise as a watcher to be , he was still an immature cry baby and had stressed that he would ' piss his pants and scream like a girl ' if he had to be there at the time of the next big bad. Faith had tried not to be to short on her temper when it came to him , but instead , had found herself trying very hard not to go into hysterics.
"Potential hunt is a go A " Faith shouted at Angel from across the lobby.Angel had simply looked and nodded to her.

Buffy was with the potentials ."As of tomorrow morning we will begin advanced fighting techniques , including weapons that you have not had a chance to train with . Some of you will train with Spike , some with either Faith, Angel or myself. The stronger of you will be in the first wave. We don't know what this apocalypse consists of as of yet , but we are treating it as a hellmouth special.It's eat , sleep ,train from now on girls no more vacation, no slackers!" Her lecture had been cut short by the sounds of a very hungry baby.

Fred had found brief notes on the law firm , but as of yet , any real informative text had evaded her.Fred was a skittish girl by nature and was shifting in her seat and huffing . She found a website that had a picture of a huge beast and a dragon wrapped around a trio of beasts, a wolf, a ram ,and a hart. She hopped up and down in her seat and shrieked , causing everyone to stop and stare. Suddenly realising what she had just done, she blushed , tucked her hair behind her ears ,and shrunk back behind the screen of the laptop. Fred clicked on the picture . A huge amount of data spilled out of a file and filled the screen. Most of the data was in a language she had never seen before. Wesley came over and was looking over Freds shoulders. He hit the print button and stood by the printer , waiting anxiously.Fred took a break from the screen and waited for the print outs with Wesley.

Willow had found several spells that could help with the destruction of hell beasts. One spell she had found was a cloaking spell , it consisted of runes and symbols .The description was simply 'Protection runes derived from the Enochian alphabet,' Hide ones from your vision through symbols, concealment spell,Clouds before the all-seeing eyes.' Willow thought this could come in handy should they fail and need to retreat. There was a paragraph that related to a man that had been tattooed with the runes from head to foot . He had eluded his enemy by using these , and had been successful for over thirty years . He had a nasty car accident ,and a few of the tattoo's had been removed through trauma and he had been uncovered. It didn't say who his enemy was and what happened after his foe had found him. Head to toe tattoo's would be painful , maybe she could play around with it a little though, she would ask the covern for help with it.

Illyria knew what she was capable of, and said that she was possibly the strongest warrior there and was uninterested in battle plans and the like.

Giles was going through book after book , accompanied by the potentials. He had taught them that only fifty per cent of the job consisted of the fight , twenty five per cent was study and research and the other twenty five per cent was training with weapons. This news was met with sunken shoulders and deep sighs. Still there they all were, deep in research mode.

Buffy had fed and changed Layton and he slumbered in his crib. Angel was watching her with his son and a smile crept to his face. He went and met her at the crib. His fingers searched hers out and linked with them. Buffy leant against Angels chest . She missed the warmth and the gentle beat of his heart, but she was ever grateful that she had her Angel back. Times like this made her even more so. Angel bent to her ear and kissed it gently." Come with me now" He slowly left her side and signalled to Illyria, who took up watch over the infant without question or hesitation. Buffy followed Angel. He led her to a room in the far wing and it was possibly the furthest from everyone .He drew Buffy into his embrace.
" I want you to go with Layton" he sighed deeply " I need to know that at least one of us will get through this and be there to watch him grow"
" I know my place is by your side in this . My heart is breaking because of it , but I have Faith in knowing we make it through. How can we not , Have you seen us ? She smiled , it was a mask .
Angel granted her one of his slight smiles and then he rained down a flood of kisses on her lips and neck.
" I need to have a few stolen minutes with you . I know it's selfish but ......."
Buffy knew why he needed them , she felt that need and want to. Last time was the hunger of the demon claiming back what was his. This was gentle, pure , it was love. They made love to each other , both remained silent throughout. No words were needed , they knew each others thoughts, feelings and emotions.

The lovers returned to the group after an hour .Nobody seemed to have missed them. Illyria had Layton cradled in her arms and even smiled at him. Who knew the god could do that!Buffy took her son in her arms and stood with Angel.


Everyone was sat in the lobby, spread out, all engrossed in their own projects. Only Buffy and Angel stood. The warriors, their miracle son and their troops . Joined for the battle of their lives.