Green eyes slowly opened and she looked around the room and she let out a shaky breath. 'Still living the nightmare,' she thought as she looked around the room that greatly mimicked her actual one back home. Sitting up, she fought the urge to scream and to cry, to drown in self pity and got out of tried to hide the shaking as she walked over to the red and white balloons sitting on top of her dresser that were attached to a dozen red roses. She barely touched them, instead her fingertips going for the off-white colored envelope that sat atop a heavy white folder.

She felt nothing but dread when she saw the familiar sight of the folder. Every time there was a new addition there was a folder. She wondered what new unfortunate soul had been dragged into this mess.

Buffy picked the card out from inside the envelope and swallowed. "Happy Valentine's Day Buffy" it read on one side in bold, red letters. Buffy turned it to the other side and her blood ran cold. "Today you meet the love of your life!"

Buffy's hands opened up and the card fell, she took a few steps backwards and tried to calm the panic desperately trying to rise to the surface. She took several deep breaths as she wondered what in the hell that was supposed to mean. She glanced at the folder that remained on top of her dresser right when the contraption on her wrist made a familiar ding. She glanced at the face of it and paled. "He's in your living quarters."

Green eyes frantically scanned around the room. She slowly began checking under her bed, the closet and then started making her way toward the bathroom. The light was flipped on and she nearly screamed as she found the body of a stranger in her bathtub. "He may need some help getting cleaned up," was the next message she received. It took a moment for her to realize he wasn't conscious and she wasn't sure if that made her feel better or worse at this exact moment.

Swallowing hard, she turned around to grab the folder and came back into the bathroom. She sat it down on the toilet seat lid before cautiously tip-toeing over to the large stranger. She held her breathe as she checked to make sure he was breathing and observe the situation. The last time someone had actually been left in her room was when her "best friend" had been delivered and that'd been over a year ago. She winced as she saw how rough he looked. Many of it seemed to have healed or be healing but she knew their captors had put him through the ringer. She hated the horror stories every single person here had.

Buffy got her first aid kid out and made quick work of cleaning him up. She didn't dare look underneath his clothes for more damage, just placed the kit on a small table she kept by the end of the tub. She placed her two Tylenol tablets she was allowed to have at one time on the table as well. Ever since she'd tried to overdose, they had changed a lot with on what she was allowed to have.

Not sure of what else to do right now, she reached for the folder and began reading up on the newest citizen in this hell hole.

OoOoO

Brown eyes fought hard to open. He tried several times before even getting a blurry slant of a view. His whole body hurt. With a groan he turned his body against the cold surface he was on and tried time and again until he could see. His head was throbbing so hard he thought he might vomit. Hands gripped the side of the white porcelain and he looked around the room. It was new, he hadn't been here before. His mind scrambled as he tried to think of the last thing he remembered.

Bile did rise in his throat as everything came crashing back to him.

Joyce Summers came to mind first... the curly haired woman had been crying, pleading, begging anyone to listen. He hadn't met her before but it only took a couple minutes for him to recognize her. He'd calmly got up from his desk and went to her, he got her a small cup of water and took her to a quieter part of the station. She had hardly kept it together as she revealed she had just gotten news of her having cancer and he could see the full blown panic in her eyes as she worried... as she worried she'd never see her daughter again, as she worried that if she didn't keep on their asses and being out there her own self as much as possible than Buffy would never be found, as she worried about everything.

This unfortunately wasn't his first time dealing with a worried mother or even the mother of a missing and/or kidnapped child but it was the hardest he thought. Something about her had put a hollow ache in his soul. He had poured over research at work and in his own time about the Summers girl. He'd even enlisted the help from a private investigator over something in the notes that had struck him funny.

Buffy Summers had nearly vanished without a trace over a year ago. It'd been everywhere when she first went missing. He still would find posters about her almost daily though around town and even off into smaller nearby ones.

He remembered Doyle calling him and then going to a dozen different leads before making the mistake that led to him being captured. He had been keeping so much close to the vest and regretted that so very much right now.

He remembered the room he had been held in until now. He'd been chained up, beaten, berated, question. He had fought so hard but finally he had started doing as he was instructed... maybe enough so given he was here now. Wherever the hell here was. It felt like it took days for him to pull himself out of the porcelain bath tub, he was breathing heavily as he sat back on the edge of it to catch his breath from all the activity.

"L-Liam?"

His eyes shot toward the soft voice and they widened as what he found. He had been told by the people holding him prisoner they had Buffy Summers but seeing her before him was still a shock to his system. His ached as he remembered being told nonsense about how he must be "the one" since he had come so close to finding her and all the stupid role games he'd had to play revolving around her.

"You're Liam O'Connor?" she asked, not taking any advances into the room.

"How do you know that?" he asked, his voice hoarse.

She held up a heavy white folder and turned it around in her hands. He squinted as he read the front of it. "Angel" and "Mate" were written with a dark line separating the words. "I get one of these every time someone new comes," she told him. His brain couldn't even process that at first.

OoOoO

"Angel," he told her after about the fifteenth time she called him Liam.

"Huh?"

"Everyone calls me Angel," he told her and she nodded, saying she saw that mentioned in his file. She was helping him move from the bathroom to a bedroom and sat him down in a chair. He asked her about the file thing and she handed it to him. Before looking at it though he looked around the new room he was in and felt a chill through him. He'd seen Buffy's home from various sources since her disappearance and this looked pretty damn close to the photo and clips he remembered seeing. Thinking back to it, the bathroom had the same shower curtain he would have swore and other similar things were hard to not piece together.

After the blonde handed him the file she stepped back to the other side of the room.

"There's other people here?" he asked. She nodded and began to briefly tell him about a few of them. "And you have one of these about each one of them?"

Again, the blonde nodded. "You probably will too... in wherever your living quarters are." He gave her a confused look. "Everyone has a designated 'home.' Most of us living in this building which is set up like these apartments but they're..." she shook a little "They're designed to look a lot like that specific person's actual home. Not everyone is here though." Buffy went on to explain how she thought maybe they were underground somewhere but couldn't say for sure. She told him they had what acted like a town, there were people, they had rules to live by, and more in their time together. She showed him how the watch looking device on his wrist worked and only then had he really noticed it was now a black one rather than the white one he had been wearing. She mentioned the cameras and how they were always being watched. She gave a veiled warning about not following directions.

He swallowed and looked around her bedroom again and then outward toward where an area resembling a living room and maybe a kitchen was. He wondered how in the hell something like this could even happen.

The blonde dared to ask him if he was really with the police and how he had found her. He began to tell her about her mother's visit and she barely made it through even hearing about Joyce. He decided against mentioning her health problems as that wouldn't have helped anything. He continued with his story until his capture. She was quiet and he thought back to something she'd said about how everyone here had been given "roles" to play like the Willow girl as her best friend, Xander he thought she said for another good friend and he had a girlfriend here... he thought about how what he had been basically told would be his back in that room and what it had said in this file she had.

"You didn't know any of these people before they came here?" Buffy shook her head.

OoOoO

Angel didn't know how long he stayed in the room with Buffy but it felt like a lifetime. She was tense the entire time. He had been shocked twice during his time in there from the device on his wrist. Both times he had a single warning to stop what he was doing but he didn't listen, and then paid the price. He had asked her about her own kidnapping, what had happened to her, and when he pressed too much about how she was being treated had been the first incident. The second was when he began asking too much about who "they" were who had them.

She would get this look on her face of pure panic but he could see her dying to talk, too.

Everything was too surreal.

When his wrist dinged with the message it was time for him to leave he decided to listen. The front door had opened and as much as he wanted to stay, he also needed to know what else was out there and what they were up against. He followed directions through the building, spotting one other person as he walked and how haunted they look wasn't going to leave him anytime soon.

When he got to the right place, he stood before a large door and waited for it to open then he stepped inside. Just like Buffy's place, his was eerily a match to his actual apartment. The living area held the same exact sofa, coffee table, much of the same artwork he kept as decoration. He had a bookshelf with books he kept, another with dvds and random knick knacks.

He continued on and it was the same in every room he found. His kitchen had the same rug on the ground in front of the sink, the same type of cookware and plates he owned, the fridge and pantry held foods he knew he had back home. His bedroom was the same... his comforter set, a desk and chair... the bathroom held his same shower curtain, his brand of toothpaste and hair gel even.

He really did not like this situation.

He checked out all the obvious cameras spread around his place and then went toward the tall stack of white folders sitting on his nightstand to get caught up with the people of this shared nightmare until he felt like his eyes couldn't stay open any more. Getting up, he stretched and groaned before going to get a glass of water. His eyes were drawn to the calendar hanging on the door to the fridge and felt like throwing up as he remembered finding out it was Valentine's Day today. He hadn't been able to keep track of time in the period between his last moment of freedom and winding up in her bathroom. Learning it had been months did not ease his mind one bit.

OoOoO

Over the next week, Buffy had gotten to know this Angel character a bit better. She hated how defiant he was, always pushing and pushing. Yes, she wanted to get the hell out of here as bad as the next person but she hated seeing him hurt. The most anyone usually got once they met with her and got past the first couple days was the shocks from the bracelet bands but he was almost asking for worse every day.

Buffy could have been eaten alive by the guilt of knowing any of these people had been hurt because of her. They'd all been brought here and dealt with the same tactics back in that holding room and would be punished as they saw fit all because of her. She didn't understand how or why but it still killed her inside.

She just wanted it to end.

OoOoO

Angel decided to play along when they were instructed to go on an actual date which had surprised her at first. She caught on to him during their meal though, he was being very tactful about their conversation the entire evening and gained a lot of information over their meal. He had even kissed her - on the forehead - at the end of the night when they were told to kiss.

Their next date they had been more specific in their instructions and he had wound up shocked because of his refusal. Twice. Then she grabbed him and kissed him her own self, not wanting a third show of him in pain.

OoOoO

Angel paced through his apartment, reading over his notes and feeling more and more frustrated. He knew they were being watched, they'd been through his things, they could read what he had but he didn't care. He needed to be doing something.

The more he had learned and the more people he had talked to the more frustrated he was. It was like there was no fucking escape from whatever this was. And he could not accept that one bit.

OoOoO

Their third date was held at Buffy's apartment. She made him dinner and they watched a movie on the sofa. She still felt unsure and confused about this whole "love of your life" and "mate" thing "they" had tied him to. How the hell would anyone be expected to come together in this situation she wondered, though she had seen it with some of the others... Xander and Cordelia seemed to either be playing their parts really well or there was something that developed there, there was also Riley and Sam... Gunn and Gwen... But her? And him?

And what was the point? That was always the question, though. Why take her? Put her here? Grab these other people and put them in her life? Act like they were all real life Barbie dolls to some young group of girls? It was insane.

Buffy had to admit he was one of her favorite people right now though. There wasn't anyone she exactly disliked but she felt drawn to him. He had a different story and source to how he got pulled into this and that gave her a sliver of hope that had long since been dead. He was smart, calculated. He was nice to everyone and helped anyway that he could so far. He was stubborn. He was obviously very handsome - no denying that. She enjoyed looking at him and getting lost in a world of daydreams every now and then.

But him and her actually together? What in the hell were "they" thinking?!

He had loosened up a bit on the things they were asked to do... sometimes he would hold her hand without looking like the world would end if he touched her, he kissed her easily every time they saw one another, he always asked the right questions and looked after her so sometimes it was easier to pretend she had to admit.

OoOoO

When he had refused to sleep with her two more dates down the road Angel found himself passed out from the shockwaves and waking up back in the cement box room he'd been in when he first arrived. "They" were never around him when back in "town" but here he would interact with several of them as they reminded him who exactly was in control here.

Angel still fought though, every step of the way.

Given that, he was surprised when he woke up in bed. He learned quickly it had been five days passed from the calendar.

It didn't take long for him to realize why they had just sent him back. They couldn't break him as easily as they wanted so they had gone after Willow. Angel nearly threw up when he saw her and learned of what had happened and he screamed endless threats until his voice was gone.

OoOoO

Buffy was shaking but trying so hard not to. "We cannot do this," he whispered, unsure of what the hell else he could do but he knew this wasn't right and never would be.

She blinked and a trail of tears fell down her face. "I don't want anyone else hurt," she whispered back.

"We'll figure something out-"

Her head shook. "You know we won't. It's okay," she told him and stepped closer, kissing him.

Angel gently pushed her back. "You are a seventeen year old kidnapped girl," he told her. "I'm not going to take advantage of you. There is nothing they can do to make me rape you."

Buffy shook her head again. "It's not... you're not. I know this is not ideal situations here but this is the situation and this is... I'm agreeing to this against what else is there."

"That's still-"

Buffy stepped back toward him. "I like you," she told him. "Being around you sometimes makes me... almost forget. I can pretend everything is going to be okay again... even if just for a little while. You somehow make me feel like there's hope to this shitty situation, you make me feel almost safe."

"Buffy-"

"So... so maybe you could just help me forget... with this?" They was she looked at him, her eyes pleading and just a tiny bit lustful and a spark of hope in there... he knew he was damned right then and there. She kissed him and he just stood there and stood there, not daring to move. Buffy continued to kiss him, closing the space between them, her body pushing up against his. "Make me forget where I am," she pleaded in a whisper.

Angel kissed her back - God help him, he pulled her against him and let the rest of the world fade away.

He didn't sleep with her, though. Not that night. They at least had approval for the show they did wind up putting on as they made out all over his apartment.

OoOoO

Buffy wound up grateful he hadn't had sex with her that night in hindsight. She enjoyed the build they wound up happening. She usually had to coax him or reassure him it was okay but she also knew she was telling herself the same as she spoke the words out loud.

When she and Angel did wind up together in his bed it was at least on their terms. They hadn't been told to that night, no one was pressuring it so hard like they had been. It almost came natural.

Angel had still whispered apologizes and promises he would stop if she said the word, making sure she was okay with this time and again before they had even begun, but she never needed any of that. She wasn't lying when she told him she wanted this. He would kiss her and the world seemed to fade away, she wasn't Buffy the imprisoned when he touched her, her mind wasn't in this dark hell hole. It was just him and her.

He made her feel alive. He made her feel like she wanted to be alive. And that was something that had been taken away a long time ago.

Buffy's heart raced as she laid naked in front of him. She'd only had sex with one other guy and that had only been twice. Angel was older, sexier, and given anytime he had touched or kissed her she knew he knew exactly what he was doing. She watched him in fascination as he became more acquainted with her body... his mouth and warm hands exploring her with slow ease.

Her body felt like it was on fire by the time he finally entered her body.

As Buffy hit her peak, she whined at the sudden loss of him as her orgasm rolled on. She saw why just seconds later as he pulled out of her and his seed burned as it spilled onto lower stomach. She breathed a sigh of relief that at least he had been smart enough to remember about such precautions.

OoOoO

Angel began to wonder if he wasn't dealing with some sort of Stockholm Syndrome thing as one day it hit him he was almost enjoying this. No, not the kidnapped part or people being harmed or being watched and his life dictated or any of that mess... but he enjoyed Buffy Summers. He enjoyed spending time with her, being around her, he certainly enjoyed sleeping with her any given chance he had. The gnawing guilt of those acts had long since faded. He enjoyed some of the other "towns people" too.

It was a shocking thought that crossed his mind and he began to wonder what the hell was happening to him.

He fought it upon realizing the road he was heading down but it didn't do much good. Months went on in this place and he found himself falling in love with the girl. Worse, she seemed to feel the same, probably even before him.

OoOoO

The rescue came with no warning. And it had not gone without incident.

He'd been gone over a year, Buffy two years by the time they were found. Angel sat with his ears ringing and his hands shaking as the doctor looked him over. Sometimes he could answer questions, other times he was too zoned out. He didn't know the doctor and some of the officers but some he did - including his boss.

Everything felt like a blur. He was there, then he wasn't. Everything was in chaos. Police, fire trucks and fire men, flashing lights everywhere, ambulances... people talking to him... smoke... blood... lights... hospital...

The room felt like it was spinning. "Where's Buffy?" he asked and had to be told she was fine and they had her in another room five times before he actually heard/read lips well enough to understand and process what he was being told.

OoOoO

Buffy's eyes were wide, staring at the black and white picture on the screen. "D-do you know wh-what this means?" the brunette asked her.

Buffy barely squeaked out a noise. She hoped it sounded like an "uh huh."

"This shows that you-you are... uh... pregnant."

Buffy felt her head nod slightly. She hadn't taken her eyes off the ultrasound screen though. She didn't look away until she heard her mother crying and she turned quickly. Her mother started rambling on about how these people could have done this to her... Buffy shook her head. "N-no," she told her. "No one... no one... they didn't touch me like that. Not that I'm aware of anyway but I don't think... so. No?"

"Then..."

Buffy took a deep breath as all eyes were on her.

OoOoO

Joyce Summers burst into the room. Angel said a thank you to the heavens that she was alive to see her baby come home... but she did not look happy.

"Is everything okay?"

Buffy ignored the captain and stepped closer to Angel. "My daughter is pregnant."

Angel heard her loud and clear but wished he hadn't. "Buffy's..."

"She said it would belong to you."

Not for the first time since entering this room, Angel threw up violently.

OoOoO

Life did not stop being a whirlwind for Angel even after his rescue. There was dealing with the police, the hospital, trying to get him better, trying to adjust back to the real world, seeing his family again, the media out pour, the and everything in between. The questions were endless.

He knew once the many, many, many members of "The Initiative" were on trial it would only get worse. Right now, it was still all being sorted out in the first place it seemed, everyone trying to piece together everyone involved, how they were involved, how something like this, something is grand scale and elaborate had even happened.

Angel doubted he'd ever be good to go back to work at the department after this version of hell. He didn't know what to do with himself though. He stayed with his mother and began going to therapy, slowly trying to fix what was broken inside of him from what had happened. It was a hard balance of constantly retelling his story of what had gone down to the police and to lawyers and everyone else and trying to put it behind him and wanting to pretend like it never happened.

And there was the others... there was Willow and Xander, Teresa, Riley... etc. He fought back and forth with wanting to reach out to them and make sure they were okay, offer to help in any way that he could, but also wanted to stay as far from them as possible at the same time. He had met with Willow and Xander a number of times though or seen them in passing and felt a little better knowing it wasn't just him dealing with those type of back and forth feelings.

Then there was Buffy...

OoOoO

Buffy felt like a whale. She was breathing heavily as she made it down the steps and to the front door, hoping the person was still there and she didn't just waste all this time and energy getting down here. Opening the door she let out a heavy breath and her eyes widened as she saw Angel on the other side. His eyes took her in, his jaw clenching as he looked at her very pregnant stomach.

He was the last person so expected to find. She was six months along now and hadn't really seen him much since the hospital when he came to talk to her and ask her if it were true that she was pregnant and ask how she was. She had seen him in passing a few times but they both had kept their distance.

A DNA test had been done for the baby in her womb to make sure Angel was indeed the father and had never felt so relieved as she was to have concrete proof of such. She'd made sure he'd gotten that bit of news but had never pressed for anything more despite the overwhelming need to talk to him, see him... She'd forced herself to wait and see what he would do and left the ball in his court.

"Hi," he greeted after a moment. "H-how are you?"

"Okay I guess. Worn out most of the time. How about you? You look healthier."

He almost smiled a little. "I'm trying. How's..."

"The baby is fine. He's making it hard to breathe sometimes and get around..."

"He?"

Buffy nodded. "Yeah. It's a boy."

He looked nervous. "I'm sorry I haven't... been around. I didn't know if I should be or not, if you wanted to just be left alone, if you wanted me around. I didn't know what I wanted either in all honesty."

Buffy gave him a knowing look. She had been a mess of emotions her own self on that, back and forth endlessly on everything under the sun since she had been freed from that prison. "It's okay, Angel. We were put through hell. There wasn't a right or wrong I don't think. Everyone's just been trying to deal with their own shit the best that they can. I don't even know what I would have really wanted or how I would've handled something being different these past months..."

He let out a shaky breath. "Do you live here now?"

Buffy nodded. Mom sold the house, we moved in with her boyfriend for now. I keep saying I need to get my own place before the baby is born as it's not exactly family friendly here but..." she trailed off. It was terrifying to think of her living alone. She knew eventually she needed to but she had no idea when or how that day would ever come.

"I've been staying with my mom. I get it."

"Willow told me."

He nodded. The pair stared at each other for a long while. "I miss you," he said quietly. How his voice sounded made her heart break a little. "I know that's probably the last thing you want to hear or deal with and it's wrong-"

"I miss you, too," she cut him off. "Do you want to come inside?"

OoOoO

Angel kept nervously pinching his arm to keep him from reaching over to her, touching her round stomach that showed the proof of their relationship. He knew he kept staring but she never called him out on it. The two had drank tea and tried to just sit there and talk a little but everything was out of place.

"Do you need anything?"

"Hmm?"

"Money? I mean... for the baby... something you need bought? A crib? Car seat? Clothes?"

"I'm having a baby shower this weekend and I have quite a bit but I'll let you know if you want."

He nodded. "I'd like that. I'd like to... help. Anyway that I can. I know I'm way late about that but..."

"I'd like that," she butted in. "You could come... to the shower thing... if you wanted?"

"Yeah? She nodded and he pinched his arm again. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Everything," he whispered. He saw tears spring up to her eyes in record time. She made a great effort of getting out of the chair and coming over to sit beside him on the love seat. She took his hand in hers. She went to say something that he was sure would be profound but the second he felt her skin on his again he lost all common sense. Angel leaned forward and kissed her. "Sorry," he said again afterward.

She shook her head. "I've really missed you," she whispered.

Angel kissed her again. "I tried to stay away," he told her. "I thought it would be best at the time. But it's been killing me."

"You are the one good thing - truly good thing - that happened to me at the worst time in my life," she told him. "And that's led to another," she said, cupping her hands around her stomach. "I try really hard to stay focused and strong for that, for him."

OoOoO

By the time their son was born, Buffy and Angel had decided to try and make a real relationship work between them. Angel had convinced her to move closer to his home. He moved out of his mother's house and had snatched up the house across the street from her as soon as he saw it go up for sale. Joyce and her boyfriend had also come along for the ride, finding themselves a new home a block away.

Joyce had been the hardest to convince they could make this work and having harbored ill feelings about the older man who had gotten her only child pregnant, but it took very little time with watching them together for her mind to change.

Angel made them a home and had gone out of his way to try and make up for having not been there the majority of her pregnancy. Buffy understood why he wasn't but he still tried so hard to make it up to her. She made sure to include him on every little thing that happened there on out and truly felt at peace knowing he would be there for her and for their child.

The End.