by Mace

Buffy awoke in between the red, silk sheets and sighed. Her head was positioned on Angel's bare chest, her legs entwined with his. Angel was stroking her hair and bare back softly. It took a second before she remembered everything that had happened.

"Oh, God, Angel!" she said as kissed him desperately.

"Buffy? Are you okay?" Angel asked, looking into her frightened and confused(?) green eyes.

"How- how did you get here? Are you okay?" Buffy asked, looking around the room.

"I'm better than okay. What do you mean how did I get here?" Angel asked, worried that she regretted or . . . forgotten . . . what had happened.

"I killed you and sent you to Hell!" Buffy said.

"Shh- Buffy- everything's okay. It was only a dream. I'm just fine. Everything's okay, Buffy," Angel said softly. "Do you wanna tell me what you dreamed?"

She touched his face and stared deeply into his eyes. He looked at his young love and continued to brush her hair with his fingertips.

"You- you lost your soul. The curse was broken because of one true moment of happiness . . . of contentment. When I woke up, you were gone. You said . . .

Angel had paled, and his face had grown serious. "Said what?"

"'You've got a lot to learn about men, kiddo. Though, I guess you proved that last night.' I didn't know you were bad," Buffy said, tears rolling down her face.

Angel brushed the tears away and held her close.

"It's not true, Buffy. Not at all. I would never say anything like that, and he was lying. Is that all?" he asked.

"No. There's a lot more," Buffy answered. "We killed the judge with an antitank missile launcher. I went off to fight you. I won, but I couldn't . . . I couldn't kill you. You said, 'You know what the worst part was? Pretending I loved you. If I had know how easily you'd have given it up, I wouldn't have even bothered.' You killed . . . Jenny because she found the spell to restore your soul. Then, you tried to raise Acathla. Drusilla killed Kendra, and they thought I did it. I was running from the police, and I teamed up with Spike to kill you. I sent you to . . . Hell and ran away from Sunnydale. It lasted til the end of school," Buffy said, her breath coming in big gulps.

"It was just a dream. Everything is okay, now. I do love you. I love you with all my soul. You don't have any . . . regrets, do you?" Angel asked unsurely.

She leaned over and kissed him fully on the lips. "No, none at all," Buffy said. "The dream was just so real."

She sat up and looked down at Angel's chest. A scar about four inches long rested in the middle of his breastbone. He followed her eyes down to the scar and paled.

"That's where I stabbed you, Angel. I stabbed you with a sword right in the chest. That scar wasn't there earlier, Angel," Buffy babbled.

"My God!" Angel said. "Come here, Buffy. I don't know how or what happened, but I'm fine now. We should get dressed. We need to stop the Judge."

"It's what . . . barely three o'clock, and my mom thinks I'm staying at Willow's. I'll explain to Xander about the antitank missile. If it really did happen, that will stop him," Buffy said.

"I take it you aren't that anxious to leave then," Angel said, grinning.

"I just got here . . ." Buffy said, slipping her arms around his neck.

Buffy was startled out of her fantasy by a knock on her motel door. At this point, she did not much care. She got off the squeaky bed she had been occupying for a month or so and answered the door. She nearly jumped ten feet in the air when she was greeted by the all too hated face of the crazy vampiress, Drusilla.

"I'm sorry," she said without a hint of madness.

What was that she saw? Sadness? Regret?

"What do you want?" Buffy asked, knowing she was still safe from Drusilla because she hadn't been invited.

"To apologize. I'm so very sorry about everything. I'm sorry I killed the other Slayer. I'm sorry about Angel," Drusilla said, bursting into tears. "I'm so very sorry."

Buffy was startled to say the least with Drusilla's apology. It was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the fact that she was drawing the attention of several passers-by.

"What's in the trunk?" Buffy asked, noticing the wooden box at her feet.

"My dolls. They . . . belonged to my sister, Edith. I've kept them all these years because it was all I had to cling onto," Drusilla said, smiling pathetically through her tears. "Why did you leave Sunnydale?"

Buffy looked deeply into the eyes of Drusilla, holding her gaze. It seemed as though she was peering into her . . . soul? Buffy stepped out of the way and took Drusilla's hand.

"Why don't you . . ."

"Don't, Slayer," Drusilla said.

"Come in," Buffy finished.

Drusilla pursed her lips together in confusion and picked up the trunk. She stepped over the threshold and closed the door with her foot. Buffy sat down on the bed and motioned for Drusilla to sit in the chair in front of her. Drusilla looked uncomfortably around the room and plopped down in the chair.

"I guess you wanna know how I got my soul back," Drusilla said, her accent still present, but without the pouty sound to accompany it.

"Yeah, I do."

"What makes you think you can trust me?" Drusilla asked.

"Because if you were gonna kill me or torture me, you would have started already. And because you aren't insane anymore."

Drusilla blushed and looked down at the floor.

"I'm not really sure what happened. When Spike was beating Angelus with an andiron, I just kinda . . . flipped(?). . . . That's how you say it?" Buffy nodded. "He strangled me, and I passed out."

"Vampires don't breathe," Buffy said.

"I know. It's because my soul came back. I don't know why I'm sane . . . but I am. When I woke up again, I was in a cellar with Spike. It was daylight. I left just as the sun set. I've been looking for you since, Slayer," Drusilla said.

"Buffy," Buffy said.

"What?"

"My name, it's Buffy. You don't have to call me 'Slayer.' It sounds kinda . . . like you're still my . . . enemy," Buffy said.

"Alright, Buffy," Drusilla smiled wanly. "Why aren't you in Sunnydale?"

"How did you find me?" Buffy asked, suddenly apprehensive.

"I'm clairvoyant. I have been for along time. When I found out you were missing, I just tried to find you. And besides, the older you get, the easier it is to recognize a Slayer," Drusilla said.

"Well, I guess it's my turn. Angelus and I were fighting. He was gonna kill me . . . but I ended up winning. Since he had already pulled the sword out, I had to send him to Hell. The only problem is that right before I killed him, he gained his soul back. I had to send him to Hell with his soul," Buffy said, letting the silent tears fall in front of her once enemy. "That, compounded with the fact I'm wanted for murder, I've been expelled, and my mom kicked me, I didn't have any reason to stay in Sunnydale."

"I'm so sorry, Buffy. I had no idea. It's all my fault," Drusilla whispered.

"No, no more than it was Angel's fault. It was the demon that killed Kendra. The demon that killed Jenny. It's no one's fault, Drusilla," Buffy said.

"The only thing I guess I don't really know is how Angel lost his soul," Drusilla said.

"You don't know? He never told you?" Buffy asked incredulously.

"No. He didn't. I was too . . . flipped out . . . to care, and Angelus wouldn't ever answer Spike. After awhile everyone just gave up asking," Drusilla said.

Buffy looked dazed. <> "It was my fault. We . . . when we escaped the Judge, we ran back to his apartment. The curse was broken when he no longer felt the guilt and pain of everything he did as Angelus. One moment of contentment, and his soul was ripped away," Buffy said.

"What . . . how was it your fault?"

"We . . . we made love. It . . . it was my first time. It was probably my last. I can . . . I won't ever forget what happened. I guess I'm just ruined for anyone else," Buffy admitted sadly. "I won't ever get over him."

"After all that he did to you, you still love him?" Drusilla asked.

"Angel never hurt me. It was Angelus. I made the distinction between the two along time ago. I wasn't so sad because it was Angel's body that was doing all those bad things, it was because I lost Angel. I was . . . grieving for his death. It's like he had a twin brother that was hurting me. I couldn't blame Angel for that," Buffy said.

"We've been enemies ever since I met you. Why do you trust me all of the sudden?" Drusilla asked.

"You don't have any friends now. I don't either. I think you're the only person who could possibly understand how I feel. No one could understand how deeply . . ."

"Lost you feel. For over a hundred-years, I killed and maimed innocent people. Mostly children. I was nothing but a soulless demon. The police aren't looking for you anymore. You can go home," Drusilla said.

"I can't go back there. Not ever again. Too many memories. Besides, I'm still expelled from school," Buffy said. "I never even finished my exams to pass."

"You're the strongest Slayer ever, and you're gonna give up because you were *expelled*? You're gonna give up without a fight? You hafta fight again. You need to go back," Drusilla said forcefully.

"Will you come with me? I can't go alone," Buffy pleaded.

"I- I- Buffy, I can't go back there. You've got friends, and they're all gonna hate me. I don't wanna be hated," Drusilla said.

"Please, Drusilla," Buffy said.

Drusilla smiled weakly at the Slayer. She nodded and nearly grinned. "Call me Dru," she said. They both burst out laughing at the absolute hilarity . . . craziness(?) . . . absurdity of their conversation.

Do you want to read part two? Go here.