With Arms Wide Open Book 2 Chapter 11
This is my version of Graduation. I'm going by what I remember. I just watched the episodes and so if something sounds familiar, then you know it didn't come from my brain.
Translation: For the web site that I use for my translations, google English Irish Dictionary
Tá mé chomh mór sin i ngrá leat,Muirnín = I love you, Sweetheart. Found on my usual Irish Gaelic to English website: http(colan)
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Angel had read about a professor's murder being murdered, he had thought it sounded like a hit ordered by the mayor; a message from Faith confirmed it. She had tried to stop it, but one of the mayor's minions tagged along and had pushed the man into Faith's knife as she was holding it. She wasn't sure why the mayor wanted this man dead, but he did.
When Buffy and Angel went to the professor's apartment, to have a look around they had decided it was best to pack up the man's research into a box and take it to Giles and Wesley. As they were leaving, they started arguing in the middle of the street about a letter Buffy received a letter from an old boyfriend from when she lived in LA. In the middle of the argument, Buffy suddenly saw an arrow stick out of Angel's chest. It was dangerously close to his heart, she caught him just as he pitched forward. She looked around to try to see where the arrow came from but the only thing she saw was Faith falling from a roof nearby. She saw a vampire standing on the roof that faith had falling from, "Traitor!" the vampire yelled out as he left the scene. Buffy was torn, she wanted to go see Faith, but couldn't bear to leave her husband. She heard someone yell "call 911" and made the decided Faith would be ok and figured it was best that she carried Angel out of the scene so no one asked questions As soon as Angel was better, she would check up on Faith.
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Buffy took Angel to the school library where Giles was. She and Giles removed the arrow, but as soon as Angel stood up, he fell back down again. "Buffy, the arrow it had poison on it. I can feel it burning through my body. Tá mé chomh mór sin i ngrá leat,Muirnín" with that Angel passed out. Giles said he would do his best to research it.
"Buffy you should take Angel home and have him rest, sunrise is coming soon. I'll call you as soon as I find something."
Buffy agreed with Giles, "Alright. I'll take him home. I think you should check on Faith and make sure she's ok. See if you can find out what that vamp meant when he called her a traitor."
"I don't think we need to concern ourselves with that right now," Wesley said.
Buffy turned on him, "What if she was trying to get away from the Mayor; had a change of heart?"
"I seriously doubt that."
Buffy rolled her eyes.
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Buffy tried to get Angel up to their bedroom but he was just in too much pain, so she decided it was best to put him in a spare bedroom on the first floor. She pulled up a chair beside the bed and wiped his head with a cool cloth. He was burning up with fever. It was as if his body was slowly boiling from the inside out and he would eventually turn to dust.
Giles walked into the mansion and Buffy left Angel's side to go see what Giles had found out. "Faith is in a coma. While I was there the mayor was there as well and I heard him talking to her, he said he didn't believe the vamp that had told him that Faith had been playing him all along. Apparently this vamp found out that Faith was spying for us and had tried to kill her for it."
"Did the mayor see you?"
"No. I left before he saw me."
"Good. I wouldn't want him to pull the plug on her if he found out that she really was a spy for us."
"What about the poison?"
"Willow traced it to Killer of the Dead. It's mystical and used on vampires. We haven't found a cure yet."
Wesley walked into the mansion. He looked at Buffy with sad eyes and said, "The council can't help."
"Can't or won't."
"They won't."
"Then change their mind."
"It's not that simple. They're following old laws that have been in place for millenniums…,"
Buffy interrupted Wesley, "I'm talking about watching my lover, my husband, my Marked and Bonded Mate slowly burn to death from the inside out! I don't have a clue what you're talking about and I don't care."
Wesley stood there stunned. He had suspected that Buffy and Angel were more than just friends, but he had no idea they were married. That's when he noticed their wedding picture above the fireplace mantle. Beside the wedding picture was a framed Wedding Invitation and to the right of the invitation was another picture of Buffy and Angel, both in leather and standing in a garden. He took a deep breath and then said, "Buffy, the council's orders are…"
"Orders? Orders? I'm not going to be taking any orders from anyone anymore!"
"Buffy, you can't just turn your back on the council," Wesley tried to reason with her.
Buffy lost her temper. "They're in England. They can't see which way I have my back turned."
"Buffy, be reasonable."
"Be reasonable? Be reasonable? I am being reasonable. For the first time in five months, I'm being reasonable! What was unreasonable was following council orders after they drugged me without my knowledge and caused me to be raped! But no, I listened to you, because you blackmailed me into it! You said you would have Giles removed from my life if I didn't obey you! I needed him! I still do. You? I have no use for as long as you are associated with the council."
Wesley heard everything she said, but nothing made since after the word rape. She was raped? No wonder she never trusted him or the council. And he didn't make anything better by having Faith arrested. "Buffy, I had no idea that you had been…."
"I didn't want you to know. It just slipped out because I lost my temper. Get out. The council's not welcome here anymore."
"Giles, can you watch him? I can't sit here and do nothing. I have to try finding a cure, I can't lose him."
"Sure, Buffy."
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"Any luck in finding a cure?" Buffy asked as she walked into the room that Willow, Xander, and Oz were in.
"No, not yet. But we haven't given up," Willow said.
"Wait, I think I found something," Oz spoke up.
"Don't think – be certain," Buffy demanded.
Willow read aloud about a vampire being cured and the effects of the poison being fully reversed, then stopped.
"What's the cure? The suspense is killing Angel," Xander said.
"The vampire drained a slayer."
There was a pause before Buffy said, "Great. If that's what he needs, then that what he will get."
"Buffy, it will kill Faith."
"Faith is in a coma, Will. I'm not talking about Faith."
"But, Buffy, it will kill you."
"Willow, I appreciate your concern, I do. But, think about it, if it was Oz, would you do it?"
Without thinking, she answered, "Yes."
Buffy nodded, "So you understand what I must do."
As she turned to leave the room, Xander followed her, "Hey, Buffy, wait up. I know you trust Angel, but this isn't just a sip like you guys had at the Bonding Ceremony. I don't want to loose you."
"You won't."
"We're talking about all of your blood."
"No, not all. It said the vampire drained the slayer, but that doesn't mean its necessary and even if we were talking about all of it; I would die for him, just like I would die for you, Willow, Oz, Giles, even Cordelia and Wesley. But Angel is my husband and I know you don't know what it was like for me when he was gone a couple of weeks ago but being separated from my Bounded Mate is like dying myself and I can't live without him. So, Xander, either I cure him and we both possibly live, I cure him and only he lives, or I don't cure him and we both die. Which is it?"
"Well, when you put that way, at least let us be there to help pull him off of you. He may not be able to stop."
"Xander, I need to be alone with him. I might have to force him."
"How can you force him?"
"I'm going to try hitting him first, but if that doesn't do it, I might have to," she blushed as she continued, "get a little intimate."
"Oh. He thinks about that while…."
Buffy rolled her eyes and went home.
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When she got home, she asked Giles how Angel was, "He's delirious. He thought I was you a few times."
"Can I be alone with him?"
"Sure, just call me if you need anything," Giles said as he left.
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"Angel, sit up. We found a cure."
Angel sat up in the bed as best as he could. She pulled the shoulder of her shirt over to expose her Mark to him, "I need you to drink." She took his hand and he saw in her thoughts, the conversation that she just had with her friends.
"No, it's too dangerous."
"It's the only way."
"I might not be able to stop!"
"Angel, I don't care! You need to get better! You have to drink."
"It's too dangerous. "
"What do you mean? You drink from me every night when we make love! You can drink from me now. If you want to drink from me while making love, fine, but I thought you were too sick for that."
"Don't be ridiculous, Buffy. I'm too sick. I won't be able to stop. I'll kill you."
"Our Bond won't let you."
Angel just stared at her. Buffy had to hit him three times before he looked like the vampire that he was. When this happened, Buffy pulled his head down to her Mark. Angel licked the Mark and then bit down. They fell down to the floor. When Buffy lost consciousness, Angel licked the Mark again and laid there on top of her until he realized that she was barely breathing and her blood flowed sluggishly through her veins. He picked her up and rushed her to the ER.
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Angel called Giles from the ER phone. Giles and Buffy's friends made it to the hospital within half an hour. "Where's Joyce?" Angel asked.
"I convinced her to leave town until after graduation," Giles said. "How is she?"
"She's going to be fine. She's sleeping. I had to pull the mayor off of her though. He tried to smother her; he said he blames Buffy for Faith's 'accident' as he put it."
"You better go home, Angel."
"No. I'm staying here. If she wakes before sunset, then we will take the tunnels. I only came out here to give an update. She hates hospitals. I'm staying with her." He turned and walked to Buffy's bedside and sat in a chair that had been placed there for him.
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Buffy and Faith walked into a room together. *Faith said, "Miles to go - Little Ms. Muffet counting down from 7-3-0."
Buffy grimaced, "Great. - riddles."
Faith stood in front of a broken window looking out, "Sorry, it's my head. A lot of new stuff."
Buffy looked at her with a half-smile. A cat on the bed turned for a split second into the image of Faith laying on the bed in white gown at the same time as Faith was looking out a broken window asked, "They are never going to fix this, are they?"
Buffy concerned, "What about you?"
Faith turned around and gestured at her head, "Scar tissue. It fades. It all fades." Buffy looked down with a frown. For a split second Faith's bloody knife appeared in the palm of her hand. Buffy looked back up as Faith continued, "You want to know the deal? Human weakness - never goes away. Not even his."
Buffy asked with a half-smile, "Is this your mind or mine?"
Faith answered with a short laugh, "Beats me."
Buffy gave a little laugh in return and looked down.
Faith walked toward her. "Getting towards that time."
Buffy looked at all the boxes and the weapons laid out on the table beside her. "How are you going to fit all this stuff?"
"Not gonna. It's yours."
"I can't use all of this!"
"Just take what you need." She reached her right hand up to touch Buffy's cheek. "You're ready?"
Buffy woke up in the hospital bed.* She noticed Angel had fallen asleep holding her hand, she gave his a squeeze and kissed him on the cheek. *She got out of bed and slowly walked over to where Faith's bed was. She looked down at her then softly kissed her forehead.*
Hand in hand, Buffy and Angel walked into the waiting room and Buffy finally spoke up since going into the hospital, "Let's get ready for war."
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Everyone gathered in the library and they began to plan for graduation, everyone got their assignments. Even Wesley arrived for an assignment informing everyone that he quit the council. While Buffy and Angel were sharpening stakes, Angel spoke up, "I'm not going to drink from you again."
"What? Angel…."
"No. I almost killed you."
"Angel. You were sick. You don't take nearly that much when we make love. Please, Angel, don't take that away from us. When you're not sick, you can hear me and stop when I tell you to stop. I'll let you know through our Bond if I start to feel light headed."
Angel looked at his wife and said, "If it gets to that point, to where you feel light headed, I won't ever do it again. You have to swear to me on our Bond that you will tell me at the first sign of feeling light headed."
"I swear it on our Bond."
Angel nodded his head.
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At the graduation ceremony, everything was going as planned until the eclipse happened a few minutes early, then things sped up. The mayor ascended into a pure daemon that looked like a giant snake. After he ate Principal Snyder, Buffy got his attention by waving a knife around, "Hey, remember this? It's Faith's. She gave it to me. Yeah. We knew everything she knew. She was really working with us. She was on our side. What do you think about that, Dick?" Buffy took off running when he started to come after her. She led him to the library and then jumped out of the window and ran over to where Giles was. As soon as she got to his side, Giles blew up the library.
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As the rescue workers were trying to get the injured taken care of, Giles came up to Buffy with two pieces of rolled up paper. "I found these in the wreckage." One was Buffy's diploma and the other one was Faith's GED. She had passed. Only Giles and Angel knew. Angel had made friends with the staff and some of the teachers had heard that Angel was homeschooling his younger sister, they talked Snyder into handing it to Faith at graduation as a special favor. However, Faith was still in a coma. Buffy and Angel would make sure to keep it for her until she woke up.
Angel walked up behind his wife and put his arms around her waist. Buffy's friends came over to her. They were in awe that they had survived high school and the battle. Buffy congratulated everyone on a job well done, "Wake me when it was time for collage to start."
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Angel hired a contractor to come in and remodel the mansion. He knew if Willow was moving in, then that meant that Oz would probably move in as well. Then, it would be Xander and whatever girlfriend he had. If Buffy's friends were going to be living with them, then he would make sure that they had spacious rooms of their own so that they wouldn't be in his and Buffy's room. He was also going to set up a few guest rooms downstairs for Hank and Giles and maybe even Joyce. Of course Joyce would probably just stay with Giles. He didn't expect Giles to move in, but he knew that there would be all night research parties when Giles would need a room to sleep in. He wasn't sure if he was ready for this, but it would make his Bonded Mate happy and he couldn't deny her.
End Book 2
A/N: First, yes I know I changed it and Faith and Buffy didn't fight in Faith's apartment/townhouse therefore the broken window didn't happen. However, in this universe, the broken window represents Faith and Buffy's "broken" minds at this point in time. Their minds are healing through a coma. Buffy's comes out of her coma and Faith is left in a coma at the end of Book 2. But still... that's what I was thinking at the time I wrote this.
I know I said a few chapters back that Season 4 & 5 were already typed and just needed to be beta'd. Well, I was wrong. Only Season 4. However, after looking at it again, it's horrible. It needs a lot of work before I can even send it to the betas. I wrote Season 4 & 5 *before* I wrote Seasons 2 and 3. A lot of things have changed since then in my writing style. And in the way that I write Angel. So I have to go back and add in Angelus and fix a lot of grammar and continuity mistakes.
Please be patient. I will try to have it to the betas by August 2013, but I can't promise anything right now. Things are busy here at my house right now. I think I have two betas for Book 4, but if you want to join the beta team, I can take two more. This time, I want the whole thing beta'd instead of chapter by chapter.