UNTIL THE END

By

Nikki Harrington

A sequel to Innocent Though Experienced.

Angel wishes he could give some of his strength to Buffy.

An established relationship story.

Warning: Up-coming major character death mentioned.

Written: August 2009. Word count: 400.

 He stands in the doorway watching her. Once again she has fallen asleep while watching a DVD.

Moving quietly, in the way only he can, he crosses the room, stops the movie and takes the DVD out to put it away. It's Dirty Dancing, a movie she's watched many times over the last few weeks. Well, a movie she's started to watch; he can't remember if she's managed to watch it all the way through.

As he puts it back on the shelf, he has a vivid memory of Buffy and Faith 'dancing' at The Bronze, when Buffy should have been at school. At least he thinks it was meant to be dancing. What it appeared to his eyes was very much 'dirty dancing'; something he never thought he'd see his Buffy indulging in. He wishes now she had the strength to dance like that; he wishes she had the strength to dance at all.

Who would have thought it, after all her years slaying demons and vampires, that she would lose her life to an illness? To a disease even the best medicine in the world still had no absolute cure for?

She's still so young, not yet thirty, they should still have many years, many decades together. And he'd have proved Mayor Wilkins wrong; he would not have been disgusted by her growing old; he would not have resented being tied to her. He'd have been there, caring for her, holding her, loving her, being with her, just as he's been for the past few years.

They've been good years; very good years. They found a way to manage, to be together, to love without risking him having one moment of perfect happiness. The disease hit hard and fast and for that he is glad. But they should have had more time.

But they won't have. She won't have the chance to grow old. It won't be long now; the doctors are now talking weeks, not months. His one hope is that Willow and Xander will arrive before it's too late. They have to say their goodbyes.

He can't say goodbye; he won't say goodbye. He will stay with her until the end, and then he will simply walk out into the sunrise and wait. And this time she won't be there to take his hand and lead him to safety. This time the snow will not fall.

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