Creative Works   

Memories Recalled (Page 7)
By Jessi Knorr

Disclaimer: Not mine, never were, never will be. They're Joss', aka The Devil. I own Sage, Summer, Tia, Cora and all the other weird people, plus the plot.

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Chapter 6

She was upstairs again when the phone rang. Once, twice, three times. "Sage honey, can you get that?"

"Got it!" Sage called back. He talked to the person on the line for a minute or two before adding, "It's for you Mom! It's Aunt Willow!" *What would she want? * Buffy thought as she stumbled sleepily down the stairs. They hadn't gotten back until late the night before, after Xander insisted on buying them all a few rounds. She hadn't gotten to the point that she would look like roadkill, but she'd fallen on her bed and hadn't woken up until a few minutes before. Sage gave her the white portable and stepped away.

"Hello?"

"Buffy? It's Willow... "

"Is there something wrong Will? When I'm here you never-"

"No, well, yes... You know how Xander and Cordelia doubted us when we said Angel was back? Well, living proof of his being back just came in asking for your address. He's on his way over to the house now."

"What!?" Buffy's heart thudded against her chest.

"Angel just asked for our address. I think he may want to talk to you."

"I-I got that part, but... "

"Mom," Sage said casually from by the window in the den. Both girls paused, Willow heard him too. "Summer's Dad just pulled into the driveway."

Buffy was so tense now she dropped the phone to the floor. Willow winced on the other line.

"Is everything all right? What happened?"

"Peachy Will, but he's not on his way over, he's here now! And I look like... Call you back, 'kay?"

"Okay," and the line disconnected. Buffy slammed the phone onto the table below the mirror in the foyer. She looked okay, except her frazzled hair and the red circles under her eyes. She pulled a compact of makeup out of the drawer of the table and hastily went to covering up the circles. She was brushing away at her hair when the doorbell rang, and she froze in mid stroke.

. . .

Daniel had gotten even antsier on the way to their house. And his nerves got even worse now that he was outside their place. Modest size, Victorian architecture. Brick, high windows with the curtains drawn, cute little garden in front. Typical life at it's best, but it wasn't his. He was the richest man in the Bay Area, so he probably wouldn't be living in a low rent place like this right? He bit his lip so hard it started bleeding and when he heard the lock unlatching from the other side he tried to wipe it away as fast as he could.

Buffy took a deep breath and opened the door. There he was, the sun spilling over him like candlelight. Her heart was pounding so hard and loud she thought he'd heard it, or that she was going to have a heart attack. He turned to face her and her heart stopped. She didn't move, didn't speak, just silently pleaded it to keep beating and for him to leave her alone. His fingertips were covered in blood and for a second she was bewildered until she saw his bleeding lower lip.

"Hello," Daniel said after a few minutes of staring. Buffy pushed herself onward, her heart doing the brain's work.

"Hello, Mr. Cooper. Uh, may I help you?"

"Yes, actually. I'm looking for... Buffy Summers," she felt like she was going to choke on her racing pulse. Maybe she really was sick; sick with unrequited love that hadn't been as extinguished as she thought. Here was the only guy who she could ever date for more than a day without turning her back on him. His hair stood full up in spikes, normally how he kept it. His shoulders were wrapped in a beige polo shirt and black leather jacket, and his legs in black jeans. Except for the polo shirt, and him being out in the sun, he was her Angel. But he didn't know that, he didn't know what they had shared. What they had made... "Are you okay miss?"

"Huh?" Buffy looked at him, drunk on the thoughts that had just come up from no where. "Oh, oh, I'm sorry! Yes, Buffy... me's she!" She slapped her hand to her forehead as she felt her cheeks heating up. "I her... uh, she's me. Hi, I'm Buffy," she finally spat out, glowing red. Daniel smirked at her self-chided idiocy. She wished he'd just go away and leave her alone. *No! You want him to stay! You want to bring Angel back, and save him from that wretched witch!* She mentally told her brain to sit on a stake and twist, and opened the doorway to him. "Why don't you come in before I embarrass myself anymore to whomever may be walking down the street?"

"Thank you," he took the invitation with a curt nod and smirked again. She closed the door after they reached the foyer and she saw him walking towards Sage. And for the first real time it dawned on her how much they looked alike. Did Daniel notice the similarities too?

"Hey Sage, how are you?"

"I'm good Mr. Cooper. How are you? How's Summer, is her cold gone?"

"Just about. She should be back in school next week. How about you, are you feeling okay?" Sage only nodded at him, looking past to his mother who looked either about to break out the camera or the tears. "That's good. You look after your mom; you're a good kid. And an even greater tutor." Sage smiled politely but didn't flinch, still looking at Buffy. Daniel turned to see her red with tears in her eyes.

"How are you, Miss Summers. You don't look well, was this... a bad time?"

"Oh, no! No, actually you got me up from a bad dream. Uh, Sage, could you go back upstairs? Mr. Cooper and I would like to talk."

"Okay Mom," the boy replied and hurried back up to his room. Or his mother's room; this welcome interruption would give him a chance to pick up where he left off in the books...

Daniel watched as he scrambled away, one eyebrow arched. *I'd like to take Old Flames, New Identities and Having to Tell Them Stuff for $1000 please Alex... * "So... "

"Are you sure you're fine, Miss Summers-"

"Buffy, please."

"Uh, Buffy... You really don't look good. Like, you look like you're really sick. Or you've been crying."

"Damn squid. Never go to a place called Lee's Lounge, they never cook their... sushi, which I know isn't supposed to be cooked because it's raw fish, and would you like to come into the den and sit down before I become the Rambling Airhead that I always do?" They both laughed quietly and she led the way from the front into the spacious living room. The darker interior helped Buffy calm down a bit, the smell of her vanilla candles carrying around the room. Daniel took to instantly examining the various snaps and professional photos and trinkets the family had gathered over the years. One of the pictures she noticed he was staring at. It was the drawing of her, in the park.

Daniel stood, transfixed by the beautiful sketch. The younger Buffy was captured extravagantly, as if who ever had drawn it was a true artist. And not only was it drawn with charcoal, but with love. Intense, real, raw love. Unrequited, even. It was undeniable, and radiated off the framed parchment to fill the house. He found his gaze now falling on the signature in the middle at the bottom, which threw him completely off. It read, "Always, Angel" in his handwriting. Daniel heard his breath quicken and he was sure Buffy did too, for he felt her presence behind him, near enough to touch without even reaching out. The image of Cora coming into the house and seeing him and Buffy kissing flashed through his mind and he lowered his gaze to the smaller frames that contained pictures of the residence owners all smiling and playing happily with three more people, a young couple and an older man. He recognized the picture from her desk back in the office, it was the same one. In the office, the label on the glass of the frame had read 'Giles, Xander, Cordy, Oz, Will & Me-The Scooby Gang'. Strong arms held the blonde in the next group photo, all of them plus a curly blonde woman about the age of the man, Giles. The owner of the embrace was decapitated from the picture.

"Um, would you like me to get you something to drink Mr. Cooper? Water, milk, soda... ?"

"No, thank you very much though. And please just call me Daniel. Formalities aren't needed when I happened to have been the one disturbing you... that's quite a lovely drawing. August 2000?"

"Yeah, I've gotten that a lot. Thank you, rather. My... boyfriend drew it," she noticed him staring not at the picture itself but the signature of the artist. "Old. We haven't seen each other in forever. His name was... Angel... " Daniel jumped when he heard how her voice rolled the name out like gold leaf. He ripped his staring eyes from the drawing and looked at her, even more beautiful in flesh than paper. Even if he vividly could picture the colors of her cheeks and the glint of her blond hair, and the sound of her talking and her laughter on the day it had been drawn...

. . .

"Are you done yet?"

"I would be if you'd stop fidgeting."

"I'm not fidgeting Angel. For all I know you could be drawing a stick figure of me with pony tails and smiley faced sun and flowers that reach to the clouds. Don't give me that look... Okay, maybe not that bad but still."

"Drawing takes time, especially when the subject can't sit still for fifteen minutes."

"Are you sure you're back's okay? You keep moaning as if you're in blinding pain."

"It's burned. A little, remember, yesterday if I'd even stepped outside the jeep onto the beach I'd have been a smoldering pile of ash? Now I can stay outside from sunrise to sunrise... and my skin's a little sensitive. These things take time. Now just hold that pose, I'm almost done."

"Come on! I'm hungry! When this is done I'll introduce you to the fascinating world of the more than 31 flavors of Baskin Robbins.

Ice cream, Angel. Ice cream."

. . .

Daniel shook his head and brought his hand up to cradle it. They were supposed to come when he was asleep...

"Are you all right? Are you sure you want to put a rain check on that water?"

"I'm fine, I'm just getting a bit of a headache. Well, I'm guessing you want to know why I came by. Well, this is going to make me sound a bit like a perverted stalker but," Daniel chuckled and turned to her and cleared his throat. "I've been having... weird dreams. Dreams of you... of us... And I don't know why. They started about three years ago and at first I didn't think it was anything but then they got even worse. I actually felt like I was in them. That I could... touch who ever was in them. And the only other person was you, Buffy. This beautiful, tall young girl with flowing gold hair and eyes... I can't even describe it, but the Dream Girl was you. And... I came to find out if you knew why I was having them. As if you even knew I was dreaming... And you shouldn't care, either. It's just, I know my girlfriend has been getting tired of this and I can tell that she's planning on going.

I need help. I've gotten help, but what the last one said was to try to find the source, well before he called me a lunatic and recommended to Cora I be put in a comfy white jacket with brown straps and locked in a padded room. But that's beside the point. What I'm babbling on about is... "

"That you think I could be giving you nightmares," Buffy felt anger rise up that she couldn't control. He was doing it again, he was playing with her heart. And he was going to break it again. He was also remembering, which meant she was at another crossroad. And crossroads didn't like her and she didn't like them... "That I'm the source of all your misery for the past three years." She wanted to add that he'd been the source of her misery for over a decade but didn't because he wouldn't understand. "You think that if you talked to me, or got rid of me, you'd be saved and you could get on with everything else in your rich little life. We'll you're right about one thing, I do think you're a perverted stalker. And I don't want you around anymore, so just... go. Please, just leave."

"Buffy, I-" She glared daggers and he scrambled out without so much as a gesture. She watched him peel out in his black Porsche and just kept staring into the sunny afternoon. She let out a wail and shut the door gently, leaning against it with her head.

"I blew it," Buffy put her hand to her mouth and fought back the tears. This time, she wasn't going to cry. She told herself to fight it, that she was strong. She was strong enough to haul her soulless body back to her room, but stopped halfway across the threshold. Sage sat, perched on the edge of her bed with the Watchers' Diaries strewn all around him. He had three on his lap, until he stood up in shock. They all clattered to the floor loudly and she discovered one of them as the one with Angel's biography in it, which was the one he'd been reading.

"Mom! Did Mr. Cooper leave?"

"Sage, what the... what's going on? What are you doing with those books?" He looked down at the fallen volumes and sputtered. When he looked back up at his mother, he was shaking with fear. What was going to happen? He knew she had a short fuse, and he probably had just burned it at both ends...

But when she walked to him, she did something he totally was not prepared for. She bent down and hugged him. Squeezed him tight as if he were a life raft, the only thing anchoring her to this world. And in her mind, he was just that.

An hour, a cup of herbal tea and a box of Kleenexes later, she'd told him everything that had happened during high school. Including who and what his father was and had been, and how they'd met, fallen in love and broken up so many times it was like an episode of 90210. Sage's response when she'd finally stopped? Very Oz-like, in an eight year old, befuddled way: "Whoa".

. . .

Daniel slammed the front door shut so loud pieces of the chandelier clattered to the ground and broke. He was panting, and sweating. The look Buffy had given him when he'd left, there were too many emotions below the burning green of her eyes that he couldn't pick out just one. But something was evident; she didn't want him to ever be around again. And he hoped he wouldn't have to be. And he had a plan to make that happen.

Daniel ran all the way from the foyer up to his study on the second floor and within the security of his own personal library, he pulled out the phone book and looked for 'jewelers'. He dialed the first number he found on the portable and tapped his fingers rather impatiently.

"Frollen Jewelers? Hello, this is Daniel Cooper; I called some weeks ago about an engagement ring? I was calling to inquire whether it is still available. Yes, thank you. I'll pick it up in two days, thank you. Um, I told you the verse when I first came in, right? Can you put, at the beginning, Darling Cora? Thank you. Right, goodbye." Daniel turned the phone off and held it. It was now, or never. And not that it was his decision on the matter... After the wedding, he would take Cora and the girls and move far away from San Francisco, from California. And definitely from the blonde enchantress Buffy Summers... If Cora could love him anymore. He'd find out when she came back in half a week.

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