Wildest Times In The World (Part 4)
Christine Luland
Chapter 4
//You never thought you'd be alone
This far down the line
But maybe someday you will find
That it wasn't really wasted time//
"Wasted Time" by the Eagles
November 1, 2017
Angel's Apartment
"What about you? What have you been doing and what brings you here
now?"
Angel's question hung in the air as Buffy got up from the couch and
began to investigate the room. "What have I been doing for the past
twenty years? Keeping the world safe from vampires and other things
that go bump in the night. No, really I stayed in Sunnydale for my
senior year. When the time came to go to college I attended Sunnydale
Community for two years. But by that point things had slowed down
tremendously at the Hellmouth. The slayer that had been called when
Kendra died seemed to be handling most of the vampire problems in the
world."
"So if you were no longer needed to handle vamp problems what did you
do?" Angel asked.
"I said things had slowed down, not that they stopped completely. I was
alternating my time between Sunnydale and L.A. There were still a few
of Lothos's boys running around down here and they needed stopping.
Then Willow started training to be a Watcher. I spent time with her,
learning all the things I should have learned when I was younger."
Buffy smiled as she thought of how she had first approached slaying.
"Looking back at everything I didn't know it's a wonder I survived. If
it hadn't been for you, Willow and Xander helping Giles and I out, my
reign as the Slayer would have been a very short one." Running out of
things to investigate Buffy returned to couch and sat down next to
Angel.
"Buffy, you came into your role as the Slayer in the worst possible way.
You did the best you could with the resources around you. Letting
Willow and Xander help you was the best decision you ever made."
Angel's voice was solemn as he spoke.
"Hey, you helped too!" Buffy exclaimed.
"I caused more problems..."
"Angel, we've talked about this before. That wasn't you! I wouldn't
trade any of the time we had together for anything. Now before you put
on the sad face, let me tell you the rest of my story. As I started
getting older I noticed that my Slayer abilities seemed to be slowly
diminishing. I wasn't as strong or as fast. By the time I was
twenty-six I was pretty much a normal person. Or as normal as a person
could be when they could still sense a vamp at two hundred paces. Giles
didn't know what to do. The Watcher Diaries were useless. Did you know
I was the first Slayer to live past twenty-two?" Without waiting for an
answer she continued to speak. "Giles finally decided that the
Hellmouth was slow enough that I shouldn't patrol any longer. Of course
he decided this only after he saved my butt from a knife-wielding vamp.
I was shocked that I couldn't fight them off any longer without being a
danger to myself." A flurry of emotions crossed her face, disbelief,
humor, frustration and shock appearing and disappearing as she wrinkled
her nose. "My mom was certainly glad when I stopped. She came to
understand my being the Slayer, but she was never happy when I went out
on patrol. It was such a great time for us. We became so close once I
no longer had to hide anything from her."
Angel's eyes narrowed as he listened to her story. "I'm glad things
worked out with your mom. I still feel like I should have been there
with you though."
"No Angel, it was probably for the best that you weren't there. Giles
was still hurting pretty badly. It wasn't till later that he started to
move on. But I'll tell you about that in a bit. Where did I leave off?
Oh, so what's a newly retired Slayer to do? I took my two years of
credits from Sunnydale Community College and put them towards a degree
in phys. ed. I think Principal Snyder spun in his grave the day I
applied for a job a Sunnydale High. But I did get a job teaching gym.
Things seemed to working out reasonably well. I almost had the normal
life I always wanted. It was a little after this that the love bug
struck. Can you imagine how I felt when after all that time my mom and
Giles started spending quality time together? I was amazed. But I
figured it was good for her. And for him. He had shut a big part of
himself off. It was really nice to see him smiling again. And then mom
died..."
She stopped for a second as the loss struck her like a physical blow.
Angel pulled her to him and gently kissed her hair. "You don't have to
go on if you don't want to," he whispered.
"It's ok." Pulling away she continued, "There's not much more after
that. Giles was terribly broken-hearted, for both of us. But he felt
he had to get away. Sunnydale held entirely too many memories for him.
I certainly understood. I wanted to get away too. I was no longer
needed; Willow was working with the other Slayer, the one before Claire,
the newest Slayer. I took a job up in Capeside, a little town up the
coast north of Sunnydale. Giles took a job in the Watcher Archives back
in England."
"So you've been all alone for the last six years?"
"Well there was this marriage proposal" she smiled trying to lift the
sad mood.
"What? Never mind, as long as you're happy. Do I get to meet your
husband or do you keep all your ex-boyfriend vampires hidden away?"
Angel's voice was joking but Buffy could hear the hurt hiding behind the
words.
"I said proposal! Not marriage! When I first got to Capeside I was
alone. I met Greg at the local gym. We started to date. We had dated
for almost two years when he proposed. I thought I could do it. I
thought it was what I wanted. But when I went to take off my ring I
couldn't." Looking down at her hands Buffy softly touched the Claddagh
ring on her left hand. She continued to stare at the ring as she spoke
again. "I realized that even though you and I weren't together, hadn't
been together for over fifteen years; I still couldn't love somebody the
way I loved you. I turned him down. He was very understanding. He
told me he always knew that a big piece of my heart was locked away for
somebody else."
Angel tenderly reached over and lifted her chin with a gentle finger.
Looking into her eyes he saw all the love he had been missing for so
long. Reaching out for her he pulled her into his lap. He kissed her
softly and felt his kiss returned with rising passion as twenty years of
longing caught them up in its grasp. Until it no longer mattered that
they had ever been apart, only that they were once again together.
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