AUTHOR'S NOTE: THIS IS A SEQUEL TO GILLIAN'S SECRET!! Sorry for the caps.This happens about two weeks after Gillian’s Secret, and Gillian's living in what was Angel's apartment. The third season never ever ever happened. As faras this fic is concerned, Angel is still in Hell. Although Joyce knows about Buffy'sslaying and stuff.

Giles had begun pacing along with Buffy, and this put Willow, Xander, and, yes, even Cordelia in a state of fret.

"12:54," Buffy mumbled.

"I would have thought they’d be out by now," Giles mumbled back.

"But, they—WILL be back, right?" Willow asked, suddenly worried. Sometimes it seemed like nothing could ever go wrong. I mean, Buffy always ended up beating the bad guy. But, what if this time was different?

Giles sighed. "If they are not out soon, well . . ." he trailed off, leaving the rest of his sentence unspoken.

"Well, Gillian was really certain about getting both of them out alive," Xander stated, "well, not alive in the actual live sense because they are both vampire, ya know, and they’ve been dead for a few years or so and they aren’t really alive . . ." Xander stopped babbling and looked at Cordelia.

In a voice only he could hear, Cordelia whispered, "I hope they make it out. For their sake."

Xander nodded, "So do I, Cordy. So do I."

And, as one, the five stared into the glowing portal out of which the two vampires who, despite their better judgment, had become their friends would hopefully appear and become a part of their lives once more . . .

By now Angel was practically carrying Gillian as she limped heavily, the pain in her knee increasing. Just when they both thought they were going to collapse from exhaustion, the saw the portal far off in the distance. Shimmering, glowing. All they had to do was get to it . . .

But it wasn’t going to be that easy. Just at that moment, five vampires appeared in front of them. "Not so fast," one growled at them. Neither was in any condition to fight, and all either wanted to do was collapse and fall asleep for, oh, say, a week. Gillian and Angel stared at the vampires in front of them. Neither side attacked.

"Uh-oh, this does not look good for our heroes."

Gillian froze. She’d recognize the heavily accented voice anywhere. "Spike," she said, doing a little half-hop thing to turn around and face him. She saw that he had three other vampires behind him.

He laughed at her. "Well, this looks like fun," he said.

"Y—you can’t be here!" Gillian exclaimed. "You’re in Sunnydale!"

Spike laughed. "See, that’s the thing. I’m only here because it is part of your nightmares. You fear me more than you’d like to admit. I love it."

Gillian was standing on her own now, her back to Angel, who was facing the first five vamps. Spike and the eight other vampires were forming a circle around them. Gillian knew that the Gillian and Angel of the 1930’s could have easily fought their way out of this and been home in time for dinner. But, now, well, they hadn’t worked together like this in fifty one years, and both were wounded. Spike was right. It wasn’t looking good for our heroes.

Just as Gillian was about to whisper to Angel, "Uh, you got a brilliant plan?" she suddenly felt better. She had strength she didn’t even know she possessed. From the tensing of Angel’s muscles behind her, she knew he felt exactly the same. And, surprisingly, Gillian’s knee no longer hurt.

"I know you saw me kill your family today, Gillian. Man, I remember how fun that was!" Spike exclaimed, waiting for her to get mad, upset, or sad. But she didn’t.

"Yeah, I know. Man, I’m so proud of Josh. I always wondered how you got that big ol’ ugly scar," she said with a shake of her head.

Now it was Spike that tensed. "Hey, now—" he started.

But he never got a chance to finish. Gillian struck out with her foot—her right foot—and kicked Spike squarely in the head. Of course he fought back. He dove towards her, tackling her, and they wrestled around for a while. Spike pinned Gillian down.

"You know, you’re the only one who can suffer from any of this," he pointed out, "I mean, I’m not really here. If you kill me, I’m still alive. But if I kill you, well, you die!"

Gillian’s tank top had slightly come up and Spike looked down to see a stake tucked into her belt loop. He pulled it out and tried to aim it towards Gillian’s heart. Before he could puncture her heart, though, he was thrown off of her. Gillian looked up to see Angel standing in front of her. She looked around and saw some of the other vamps running off into the distance.

"Two to one, Spikey boy," Gillian said. "Now those are the kind of odds I like."

Spike looked from Angel to Gillian, who stood beside each other in fighting stances, ready to kill him should he get within five feet of them. Thinking quickly, he threw the stake. He had not aimed for either of their hearts; even he knew that would be stupid. He had aimed for the exact right spot. Gillian’s right knee. He had seen how she was limping earlier. Surprisingly, the stake that punctured the knee caused Gillian no pain. Angel pulled a stake made out of a piece of wood out from—well, somewhere and threw it at Spike before he even saw the stake. It punctured his heart and the vampire turned to dust. Of course both knew he was not really dead in the world. But that didn’t matter. He was out of the way.

As Spike turned to dust, both Gillian and Angel once again felt their previous pain and Gillian felt the stake in her knee. She *really* felt it. "Oh, God, Angel!" she gasped, clutching his arm tightly and sinking to the ground in a little ball of pain.

Angel picked up Gillian’s watch. "Gillian, it’s 12:58! Come on, we gotta hurry!" he cried.

But she paid no attention. She was curled in a ball, screaming in agony. He picked her up and started running as fast as he could to the portal. Two minutes, two minutes. They had to make it in two minutes . . .

"Oh, my God, Giles, they only have two minutes! How are they gonna get out in time!" Buffy was screaming now and Willow, Xander, and even Cordelia had joined the pacing brigade.

"Buffy, I don’t know if they’re going to make it," Giles said softly, stopping his pacing.

Xander also stopped pacing. "They’re going to make it, damnit! They have to!" he shouted.

No one stopped to think that Xander had once wanted Angel dead, thinking he deserved to die. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting them out.

Angel was at the portal. It was 12:59. They were cutting it extremely close. He couldn’t get through.

"Gillian, help me," he cried, almost screaming at her.

She looked up at him, pain filling her eyes.

"Gillian, say something!" he exclaimed. Now he was not only worried about getting them out, but also worried about Gillian’s health.

"Ow," she said, fulfilling his request.

He chuckled briefly, then said, "Gillian, how do we get out of here! Giles must have told you something!"

"Blood," she whispered, "you have to . . . shed . . . . fresh . . . blood. Both of . . . us do."

Angel set Gillian down on the ground and grasped the stake, pulling it with all of his strength. Again, the wood splintered in his hands. But it was enough. He took the sharp end, ignoring Gillian’s cry of pain and cut a line of blood along his arm. The portal glowed a shade brighter.

Then he took the same piece of wood and reached for Gillian’s arm. He made a cut along her arm, too. Once both were cut and bleeding, the portal glowed with a blinding brightness. Angel picked Gillian back up, praying they would be able to get through . . .

"Giles, look!" Willow exclaimed.

All five looked at the portal. It had grown a shade brighter.

"they’re at the portal!" Giles cried. "They might still make it!"

Then the portal flashed with extreme brilliance.

"They have about five seconds!" Buffy screamed at the top of her lungs.

So blinded by the light of the portal, they almost missed it as two figures came tumbling out of the portal to land in a bloody, disheveled heap on the ground. Not even half a second after they came out, both Gillian and Buffy’s clocks turned to 1:00 and the portal closed forever in an even brighter flash of light.

Everyone in the library was silent, watching as Angel untangled himself from Gillian. He sat up and looked around at all the faces. None of them were accusing, but he felt as if they should be. He looked at all the people he had hurt and silently, he bowed his head and started to cry.

Gillian was floating in sort of a darkened abyss. She knew she need to open her eyes and do something, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want to. Then she heard the sounds of crying. It sounded almost like Angel. But it couldn’t be. Angel was dead . . .

Then in a flash, Gillian remembered everything. She opened her eyes and found herself on the floor of the library. Angel was crying and what had been the portal wasn’t there anymore.

Buffy kneeled down beside Angel and said, "Angel . . . I . . . I mean, . . . well . . ."

It was obvious Buffy didn’t know what to say. She had no way to know what she should say to him.

Gillian thought. With this thought in her mind, she painfully crawled over to Angel and simply wrapped her arms around him. He returned the hug and, with the rest of the Scooby Gang looking on, the two began to sob their grief out onto each others’ shoulders.