Here we are. The final chapter. I just want to thank everyone who reads, and particularly those who review, for their support. Of course, I want to thank Love-el-ly Joy for getting me through this story. You guys all rock. I hemmed and hawed about how to end this between our favorite couple, so I hope you guys like the ending. It was the only thing I could really see happening.

Another note: The Evil Dead is a real movie. That actually happens. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this and thanks again, everyone!

Buffy awoke in a hospital bed. Again. Groaning and rolling her eyes, she eyed Fred, who was fluttering around the machines. She held up her hand as Fred opened her mouth to speak.

"Let's see, severe blood loss, big stab wound in the abdomen, mild concussion, a few broken ribs, maybe one or two cracked ones, sprained ankle, broken wrist, dislocated shoulder, a…" she frowned as she wiggled her toes, "broken toe? – and various cuts and scrapes… sorry, 'contusions' and 'lacerations.'"

Fred's eyes widened. "Is that part of your slayer power? You can catalogue every injury-"

Buffy snorted. "If by 'slayer power,' you mean 'I've been injured so many times I know injuries well enough to diagnose myself,' then yeah. The point is, give me some blood, bandage up the stab wound, and maybe set the wrist and I can hobble myself outta here. I'll be good as new in a day, maybe two."

Fred raised her eyebrows. "And the shoulder?" She wrinkled her nose, regretting the question as Buffy popped it back into place. `

"Fred, I like you, I really do, but I will get my slayer on if you try to keep me here again."

Lips twitching in amusement, Fred raised her hands in surrender.

"Will you stop threatening my staff?" said a voice from the doorway.

"Angel."

"Buffy," he returned, stepping into the room. "Nice to see you're back to normal."

Fred set up the blood transfusion as they spoke.

"Pffft," said Buffy dismissively. "Fred can take it; she's tough." She winked at the girl in question, who smiled back.

"You'll see just how tough I am if you don't stop moving your hand around. Hold still; I need to set it."

"What'd I tell ya?"

Angel's lips quirked. "You'll notice I didn't disagree."

"Smart man. It's always the quiet ones. Just look at Willow and her resolve face." Her smile dimmed a bit. "I should call Willow."

Finished with her work, Fred passed Buffy her cell phone. "While you do that, Angel, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Angel looked at Buffy, who waved to him. "Go ahead, I'm just going to call Will."

"You sure?"

Buffy rolled her eyes, but couldn't contain the smile playing around her lips. "It's not exactly strenuous. I think I can handle it."

Angel gave her hand (the uninjured one, that is) a light squeeze before walking out with Fred.

"So that's it then?" Fred asked, whirling on him as soon as the door closed behind them. "You're just going to pretend we didn't see what we saw?"

"What?" asked Angel in utter bewilderment.

"What just happened out there!"

"You mean tonight? The fight with the Dankaar?"

"Yes!" cried Fred in exasperation. "God, do you always do this?"

"Do what?"

"Pretend like nothing happened when something obviously did!"

He shrugged. "Not always. It's probably about 50/50."

"Don't you think you should not ignore this one?" she said, frustrated. "My god, Angel, you need to talk to her about these things."

Some of the emotion he had been keeping a careful lid on began to seep out. "And what about tonight do you want me to talk to her about? How horrifying it was to see her in danger like that? So close to death? Do you think I should tell her to give up her calling to stay safe? How well is that going to go over when I'm doing the exact same thing?"

"That's not what I'm talking about!" said Fred.

"Ah," he said bitterly. "Maybe you want me to go in there and say 'Don't listen to him, Buffy, he was lying.'"

Fred just glared at him.

"Except he wasn't," Angel continued. "All those things – they really happened. No one knows that better than Buffy; she lived through it all!" He stepped forward. "Or maybe you think I should go in there and hold her hand and promise that I will never leave her again, just to make it that much worse when we say goodbye again in a few days."

Fred blinked. "You're planning on leaving her again?"

Angel ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "No. Yes. I don't know! Do I really have a choice? She'll be going back to Europe, which… she has important work to do there. I have to figure out what to do with this place."

Fred had no idea what to say.

"If we were both still in Sunnydale… but the playing field has gotten a lot bigger." He ran another frustrated hand through his hair. "If I could, I…" He broke off, sighing in frustration. Without another word, he walked back into Buffy's room, leaving Fred blinking at the empty room.

Angel took a calming breath as he closed the door behind him.

"Angel?" said Buffy, as she disconnected her call.

"Buffy."

Buffy smiled in amusement. "I think we already did this part a few minutes ago. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said. "You didn't have to hang up."

She looked down at the phone. "No, I was hanging up anyway. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said, stepping closer to her.

She shot him a look that clearly called bullshit. Finally, she took his hand. "Hey, we all have our demons."

He nodded. "I know, and I… I think I get why Spike is so…" he almost choked on the words, "important to you."

Unexpectedly, she grinned. "You look like you just swallowed bad milk."

He grumbled something unintelligible.

"You know why Spike's so amazing?" she asked.

Oh god, did he ever not want to know. "Why?" he asked, masochist that he was.

"Because he's still there for me, even though he knows he'll never mean to me what you mean to me."

A slow smile spread across his face. Eventually, he cleared his throat.

"Alright, let's get you out of here before Fred gets back."

Buffy threw off the covers and leaned on Angel as he helped her hobble out of the room.

Giles was walking back into the building with a shopping bag when he quite literally ran into Gunn.

"Ooof," Gunn grunted, more from being hit with the freezing cold bag than anything else. "Hey, man, what the hell do you have in there?"

"Gunn," said Giles. "I have a bit of a favor to ask of you."

"A favor?" asked Gunn suspiciously, making Giles laugh.

"Nothing too strenuous, I assure you. You and Buffy seem to get along very well."

"Well, sure. I mean, you gotta respect a girl who can kick both Spike and Angel's asses and still have a sense of humor. Why?"

Giles sighed. "Back in Sunnydale, after going through a particularly rough battle, she would gather with her friends to watch movies and eat ice cream. Obviously, Willow and Xander are not around at the moment, but I can't help but feeling as if she needs that right now."

Gunn blinked for a moment, then laughed. "You call ice cream and movies a favor? Usually I'm asked to help someone move or something. What's the movie?"

Giles reached into the bag and pulled out a DVD.

"The Evil Dead?" Gunn laughed. "You brought her a zombie movie?"

"She likes them!" Giles said defensively. "She says they're funnier than any comedy she's ever seen."

Gunn just laughed as they made their way to Angel's apartments. "She is not most girls."

Giles smiled faintly.

They pushed open the door to find Angel settling Buffy in his bed, pulling an arm chair up next to it for himself. They both looked up as Giles and Gunn walked in.

"Giles! Hey, what's up?"

"I come bearing gifts."

Buffy's eyes lit up in a kind of girlish glee Giles hadn't seen in years. "Oooh presents! Lemme see," she said as he handing over his bag.

Her eyes almost teared up when she looked in.

"What is it?" asked Angel, concerned.

Buffy just looked at Giles, blinking furiously. "Cookie dough fudge mint chip?"

Giles just smiled at her as Angel reached into the bag to pull out the movie.

"You still like zombie movies?" he asked.

"If you'd just give them a chance, you'd like them too!" she replied hotly.

"Buffy, they're ridiculous."

"I know! And that's the whole point!" She turned to Gunn. "Tell me you're sticking around for the show."

Gun grinned. "Wouldn't miss it."

"Good, you can help me make Mr. 'I'm-too-old-to-have-a-sense-of-humor' stay and watch. Giles, you in?"

"Erm, I'm afraid not. I have some… um… important Watcher stuff to discuss with Wesley."

"Hmph," Buffy said, making a big show of huffing, but unable to stop the smile that crept over her face.

Five minutes later…

Spike poked his head into Angel's apartment, finding Buffy, Angel and Gunn settled in around the room, watching the movie.

"So this is where the party is. I've been wondering," he said, walking further into the room. "Good to see you doing alright, pet."

"Spike!" she said, smiling at him. "Hey, we were just starting a zombie movie.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," said Gunn, joining in. "So far we have five college students on their way to an old, abandoned cabin in the woods."

"Oooh! Sounds like a good one."

"Pull up a chair," said Angel, unexpectedly.

Spike looked at him in surprise. Buffy was ready to start tearing up again. "Stupid hormones," she muttered, trying to discreetly wipe at her eyes. "Must be getting menstrual."

"You are," said both Angel and Spike in unison.

She shot them both "that-is-completely-gross" looks before demanding the ice cream from Gunn.

Spike cleared his throat. "Um, where can I find a chair?"

Angel looked around the room. "Um, here, you can have mine," he said, settling himself in the bed, next to Buffy. "What?" he asked innocently, when she shot him another look, its effect somewhat dampened by the smile playing around her lips.

20 minutes later…

"She's gonna get it," said Gunn.

"Why, just because she's a fraidy-cat who heard a strange, ghostly chant coming from the dark woods and decided to go out alone to investigate?" Spike said.

"Why is there so much fog out there? The only time I've seen so much smoke was when we blew up your school. Seems like they should be more concerned about forest fires than any zombies that might attack," said Angel.

"The guy with the unibrow is going to be the hero. I can't believe the hero is going to have a unibrow," said Buffy.

"I can't believe the trees are going to be evil," said Gunn. "Mark my words."

Spike shrugged. "Makes sense to me. Never liked trees. Entirely too… made out of wood for my taste."

"A flowy white robe!" said Buffy. "Could you get less imaginative?"

"Buffy, with lines like 'Hello?' and 'I know someone's out there,' I don't think…"

He trailed off, staring at the screen as his jaw dropped.

Everyone else in the room had the same reaction.

"Oh… my…god," was all Buffy could say. She picked up the remote and paused the movie. For a few minutes, they all stared blankly at the paused screen. Finally, Buffy spoke again.

"Did that just happen?"

"I…" said Angel.

"Man, that is messed up," said Gunn.

"Did the girl really just get…?" Buffy couldn't finish the sentence.

"Raped by a tree," Angel finished for her.

"I told you trees were evil," said Spike.

Hours later, after they'd finished the movie, sides aching with laughter, and after Buffy had taken a long nap in Angel's bed, surrounded by his comforting scent, Buffy found herself back at the shelter, packing up her things.

"When do you leave?" asked Anne.

"A few hours."

Anne nodded. "When are you going to say goodbye to Angel?"

Buffy sighed. "Right after I finish packing." She gave a short, bitter laugh. "It'll only take a few minutes. We've shortened the goodbye script over time. You'd be amazed how many ways you can say goodbye without saying the actual words."

"Maybe you can make it work this time."

Buffy looked at her incredulously. "You say that just before I'm going to leave for another continent!"

A knock sounded from the doorway. They both looked up to find Angel standing on the threshold of the room, knuckles still on the open door. "Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey," returned Buffy, just as quietly.

He stepped further into the room. "Can I help?"

Anne looked between the two of them. "I need to go check on a few things," she said before making herself scarce.

"I…" Buffy began, looking up at him. "Umm… thank you. For all your help, I mean."

He stepped closer. "Of course."

"It…" she took a deep breath. "It really meant a lot"

He took another step closer. "Buffy, you don't have to thank me. You can always come to me."

She gave a short, sarcastic laugh. "Right." She looked up at him, their faces mere inches away from each other. "Can we not do this?" she breathed.

"I don't want to say goodbye."

"We never do anyway," she said, backing up.

"You know what I mean."

"Angel," she said, blinking away tears, "I have to go back. I want to go back. I love you, but I love the work I'm doing over there."

"I know," he said. "I know. I'm not asking you to give it up. I never would. I'm just…" he paced. "People make long distance relationships work all the time! Normal people!"

Buffy laughed in disbelief. "Angel, our lives are complicated enough without trying to throw a long distance relationship in the mix!"

"Why not?" he exclaimed. "The world has changed. We have cell phones, internet… Buffy, I have a private jet, for god's sake!"

"Are you hearing yourself? Do you know how rare it is for long distance to work?"

Angel almost laughed. "Buffy, do you know how rare it is for a vampire with a soul and a vampire slayer to be in love? Do you know how rare and… bizarre just about everything in our lives are?"

He took her hand, pulling her towards him. "My life is better with you in it. Just hearing your voice brightens my day. I want to hear it regularly. I want to call you when I'm thinking about you; I want to talk things over with you when I'm confused, and I want to be the one you call at the end of a long day. I want to see you, or at least hear from you, more than once a year when disaster strikes. And I know that one day we'll find ourselves in the same city. I can feel it. But I don't want to wait until that day."

"For such a laconic guy, you sure talk a lot," said Buffy.

He waited her out.

"How do I know that one day you won't just get scared or impatient or decide for me that I need more than long distance or…" She broke off as he wrapped his arms around her. She didn't resist, but neither did she relax into his embrace. "I can't take that again, Angel."

He shushed her. "I won't."

"Promise me," she said, pulling away and looking him straight in the eye. "I need you to promise me that even if you get scared or it gets hard, you'll work through it with me. You won't give up on me again."

"I promise."

She looked at him for a moment, then laughed. "I can't believe I'm doing this again."

He brightened. "But you are?" he asked cautiously.

She sighed. "My life is better with you in to, too," she said, reaching up to cup his face. "Besides," she added, "it would be such a waste if you never used that private jet."

Gunn was using his manly strength to help Buffy with her bags. Buffy was giving Spike a big hug goodbye. Fred was on the phone with Willow, discussing the details of Angel's curse, and Wesley was hovering near Fred.

Giles leaned over to Angel, speaking in a low, controlled voice filled with deadly steel. "If you ever hurt Buffy again, I will hunt you down and show you exactly why they used to call me Ripper."

Angel looked at the Watcher for a moment, then back at Buffy. He smiled. "Understood."