Couldn’t Drag Me Away
By Felicity

Disclaimer: If I owned them, this wouldn't be fanfic...it would be a two hour show called Buffy and Angel, Star Crossed Lovers...Sadly, that is not to be. Joss owns them (::hiss, boo::) and let's not even go into *him*

Author's Notes: IWRY therapy fic. I told you more was coming!

"No," Buffy sobbed. "It’s not enough time!" She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, clinging to him for dear life. "I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget–"

And they were somewhere else.

But not the right somewhere else.

Buffy drew away a little and looked around, desperately wiping at her eyes. She remembered!

"Where are we?" she asked, glancing at the absolute whiteness of their surroundings.

"The Oracles," Angel whispered. Buffy turned to him with a questioning look. She wiped away his tears with her thumb.

"How? Why?" she asked softly.

"You passed," an odd voice said. Buffy whirled to see two…people…standing before them.

"Passed what?" Buffy demanded.

"The Test," the male Oracle said. Buffy rolled her eyes.

"That was informative," she snapped. Angel gave her a look. "Sorry. I’m a little on edge."

"What’s going on?" he asked, turning back to the Oracles.

"You have shown your worthiness," the woman said. "Both of you were willing to give up happiness, and you, Angel, would give humanity, for a life of pain, simply because others need you. You are true Warriors."

"Well thanks for telling us," Buffy said bitterly.

"You are impatient, Warrior," the man said. Buffy sniffed, wiping away more tears.

"I think understandly heartbroken."

"Well you need not be," the woman informed her. "The Powers That Be tested you and both of you passed. Angel shall keep his humanity."

Angel opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off. "He will still have the strength and agility of a vampire."

"You mean–?" Buffy began, tears welling up again. The Oracle nodded. Buffy choked on a sob and turned to throw herself back into Angel’s arm. He held her tightly and the white room faded, replaced by Angel’s living room.

"Buffy," Angel breathed. "My heart–"

"It’s still beating," she sobbed happily. "It’s still beating!" He stopped her mouth with a kiss and scooped her up into his arms, laughing at the strength that allowed him to do so easily. She laughed too, into his mouth, tasting the bitterness of tears andknowing they were only of joy now. He spun around, holding her easily and she kicked her feet in the air, threw back her head and laughed giddily.

"Is everything okay down here?" Doyle asked, peeping in on the stairs. His eyebrows went up as he saw them. "What happened to the losing a day thing?"

"The Oracles gave me my strength and my humanity," Angel shouted, grinning. Doyle looked stunned, then smiled.

"Good deal. I’ll leave you two alone then," he said with a knowing wink. Buffy laughed again out of pure joy and kissed Angel deeply.

It was going to be all right. Everything was going to be perfect.

**

"How do I look?" Buffy asked, twirling. Hank Summers grinned.

"You look stunning. Though I don’t know if I should let you out of the house that way," he said teasingly. Buffy laughed and walked over to him, stopping to look at herself in the front mirror again. After she and Angel had calmed down a little she’d realized she really should go see her father for a little while anyway. He’d dropped her off earlier and they’d decided to go out to dinner. So Buffy had spent the day with Hank and Angel had gone back to get things with his business back on track. Hank had taken her shopping.

"You bought it for me," she reminded him, looking over the slender red dress with tiny roses embroidered all over it. It fell almost to her knees, but the slit up one side made up for that (much to Hank’s chagrin).

"I did, didn’t I? My God, my little girl’s all grown up and going out with–who did you say you were going out with again? And why didn’t I know about this boyfriend?" Hank asked, coming to stand behind her. She smiled at him in the mirror.

"Well, we kinda were taking a little break. But we’re definitely back together now. And you’re a doll for letting him impinge on my visit Daddy. I just haven’t seen him in ages, and we wanted to celebrate his new company…Did I mention he has his own company?"

"Several times," Hank said dryly. Buffy smiled and turned to see him. The doorbell rang. She kissed her father’s cheek.

"Will you get it? I need my purse." He nodded, laughing softly and went to the door. Buffy dashed into her room and grabbed her purse, then tiptoed back to the front hall and listened to their conversation.

"It’s nice to meet you Mr. Summers," Angel was saying.

"Nice to meet you too. I admit, I don’t have much experience with this sort of thing. When Buffy lived with me she didn’t really let us meet her boyfriends." Buffy winced. Why did he have to talk about former boyfriends? She’d been going through a phase. A bad, bad phase.

"Really? I’ll have to ask her about that," Angel said, obviously amused. Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Well, I want you to be careful with Buffy. She’s still young. Much younger than you."

"I know, and believe me, I would never hurt her," Angel said fervently, a note of absolute truth in his voice that even Hank would pick up. Buffy smiled softly, leaning against the wall and remembering the night before. Oy, how was she ever going to get through dinner?

She took a deep breath and straightened up, walking into the hall. "Angel," she said softly, kissing him lightly. She turned to her father. "You guys met?"

"Mhmm. You two have a good time. Don’t stay out too late," he said, giving them a significant look.

"Don’t wait up Daddy," Buffy laughed and kissed his cheek. She took Angel’s hand as they went out the door and down the steps to his waiting convertible. "Did I ever tell you I want your care?"

"About ten times this morning," Angel laughed. "Your dad seems nice. Was I well behaved?" Buffy opened her mouth to ask him how she would know and realized he was laughing–he’d known she was there the entire time. She scowled at him.

"Oh you," she muttered.

"What?" he asked, touching her hand softly.

"Oh I love you," she whispered, unable to stay even mock-annoyed.

"I know," he replied, and started the car.

**

"You should keep your business," Buffy said, setting down her fork. They’d chatted all through dinner about people, about the past five months. About possibilities.

"There are still people out there to be helped," Angel agreed.

"I’ll come on weekends. Or you can come visit me. And sometimes I could come in the afternoons, and drive back the next morning," Buffy pointed out.

"If I don’t have any work, I’ll come distract you from school," he promised.

"And vice versa," she added.

"Of course."

"I can come most of winter break, and you can come home with me for Christmas. And next summer, I could move in with you, if you want," Buffy suggested, catching his eyes hopefully at the end. He squeezed her hand.

"Of course I want. I don’t think I could ever get enough of you," he murmured. She laughed.

"Well, let’s see how you feel after three months! I warn you, I am not a neat person," she said seriously, her eyes glittering with laughter.

"I’ll just have to live with that," he promised, eyeing her with equal gravity.

"I can’t wait to tell Will and Xander and Giles. They’ll freak!" Buffy exclaimed, bouncing in her chair. Angel laughed.

"I hope in a good way."

"Of course!" Buffy exclaimed. "Xander has completely gotten over being Jealous Boy. In fact, he enjoyed having you around for Thanksgiving…well, when he wasn’t being upset about the siphilus."

"Siphilus?" Angel asked, raising his eyebrows. Buffy grinned.

"It’s a long story. Don’t worry, he’s prefectly healthy now–at least until Spike gets his vampire-ness back."

"Spike?"

"Told ya it was a long story," she laughed. She paused and cocked her head, something striking her about the opening notes of the song playing. Where had she heard it before?

She looked at Angel, and as their eyes met, she knew. "Do you remember?" she whispered.

"Of course. I spent five months playing that dance back in my mind," he said softly, holding out his hand. "Will you dance with me?" She nodded, blinking back tears that threatened again. Why was she so weepy all of a sudden? This was happy. They stood and walked out to the dance floor as the words of the song began to flow.

Childhood living is easy to do
The things you wanted I bought them for you
Graceless lady, you know who I am,
You know I can't let you slide through my hands

"It hurt so much to know you were going away," Buffy said softly, letting him guide her into the dance. Their hands twined together and he pulled her closer.

"It hurt so much to know I had to," he replied. "Will you ever forgive me for that?"

"You were doing the right thing," she whispered. "And besides, if you hadn’t moved ot L.A. you wouldn’t have become human. A few months of misery is worth this, right?"

"More than you can imagine," he murmured. "You know I’ll never let you go again."

"You know I’d kill you if you tried."

Wild Horses,
Couldn't drag me away,
Wild, wild horses,
Couldn't drag me away...

"It’ll all work out, won’t it Angel? The weekend visits and everything?"

"Of course it will," he assured her, smiling. "And if it doesn’t, we’ll find another way. Buffy, we can be together now. There’s nothing else standing in our way. There’s just you and me. We each have lives, it’s true, but nothing in them restricts out being together. If it did, we’d just change it. Nothing will ever keep me away from you now that we can truly be together."

"Good," Buffy said softly, laying her head down on his chest and closing her eyes. She reveled in the feeling of rightness, in the sound of his heart beating, the feeling of his breathing. He was alive. And they were together.

No more pain. No more heartache. Just the two of them.

I watched you suffer a dull, aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or offstage lines,
Can make me feel bitter or treat you unkind

"I think I should leave you, just to see how you feel," Buffy laughed, pulling away enough to look up at him with sparkling green eyes.

"Oh. Sure. Torture the two hundred and forty year old who went through Hell and untold years of misery and guilt," he replied, grinning. She rolled her eyes.

"Fine, make your problems seem big." They laughed and he bent down to kiss her lips softly.

"If you did try and leave me, I’d follow you to the ends of the earth," he informed her seriously.

"Well I should hope so."

Wild Horses,
Couldn't drag me away,
Wild, wild horses,
Couldn't drag me away...

Buffy lay her head down again, content just to be there, with Angel. For the first time she let herself feel the memories of the prom without anger or regret. It had been hard, and it had hurt, but in the end, it had all worked out. And this was the end. Of that chapter anyway. It was the beginning of the rest of her life, as cliched as that sounded. The rest of their life. Together. Maybe not as normal people, because she would always be the Slayer, and he still had super-strength, but as people who could grow old together, and go for walks on the beach and go out to dinner. People who could spend weekends in bed together eating ice cream and chocolate and making plans for the future.

She remembered hating this song with a passion, because it was so untrue. All she could think was it didn’t take wild horses, that Angel would leave her by himself, because he didn’t want to be with her. What she hadn’t realized was that nothing could ever take Angel away from her, not his heart or his soul. That he had just left for a little while, because he had to.

That now, he would never have to again.

I know I dreamed you a sin and a lie,
I have my freedom but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken tears must be cried,
Let's do some living after we die

There would always be bad memories. They’d gone through a lot, and they’d hurt a lot. But that was over now, and it was time to live. It was time to love each other and be happy, for once. Finally.

"Ready to live?" Buffy asked, pulling away enough to see his face.

"Long past ready," he replied. "After all, I’ve been waiting a couple hundred years."

"Only a couple hundred?" Buffy asked, laughing. "I feel like I’ve been waiting much longer than that."

"I say we start right away then," Angel said softly, pulling her even closer.

"I’m all for it. How does one begin?" Buffy asked, caught in the dreamy darkness of his eyes.

"Like this." He leaned down and caught her lips, gently, softly, making her knees melt.

"Shouldn’t we wait to get home?" Buffy asked in a whisper into his mouth. He smiled and didn’t let her go.

"We are home."

Wild Horses,
Couldn't drag me away,
Wild, wild horses,
We'll ride them someday

The End