Title: War Is Hell

Author: Kirsten Tapp

Feedback: [email protected]

Standard Disclaimer: Buffy, the vampire slayer doesn't belong to the author, but to Joss Whedon, WB, etc. The characters of Cassandra, Marcus, Stephanie, Gareth, Jaden however do belong to the author. No copyright infringement intended.

Rating: PG - some graphical violence

WAR IS HELL

By Kirsten Tapp

December 7th 1941: Pearl Harbor

The sky was filled with planes flying overhead. They almost seemed close enough to touch. Children stared in wonder as the magnificent machines past over the unknowing spectators. None of them could have known what would soon happen.

Angel watched Cassandra looking out of the window at a safe distance. Her face as always remained expressionless, but he could tell that she knew what was about to happen. He could feel it. Meeting up with Cassandra was never an accident. She showed up only when he needed her. She looked so lonely though. "Do you regret not marrying Prince Phillip of Denmark?" His voice seemed so loud in the quiet little house.

Cassandra smiled at him. "No. It wouldn't have been a marriage filled with love, at least not on my part. It would have been a marriage of duty. I have always wanted to marry someone with whom I was in love with. Have you ever been in love?"

Angel shook his head. "Never. I've been with a lot of women, loved them all, but I have never been in love. Does that make sense?" He waited for her to nod. Sometimes she seemed to understand him better than he understood himself. "Something big is about to happen isn't it." Again he was met with a simple nod. "Why do you keep helping me?" He knew the Princess wasn't in love with him. Angel had seen women in love. They had a sort of glow about them.

Cassandra went back to looking out of the window. "You are the only friend that I have that isn't paid to be my friend. That's something I never came across in the eighteen years that I was alive." She took a step backwards. "Get under the door frame and grab the mattress. Pearl Harbor is about to be attacked."

"What?" Angel lunged under the nearest doorway with Cassandra and covered them both with a mattress. The explosions were deafening. The entire building shook as though they had been caught in an earthquake. "Why is this happening?" The walls started to shake. "This is another form of punishment for what I did, isn't it? The curse wasn't enough."

Cassandra looked up at Angel from under the mattress. "Not everything is about you, Angel. They're bombing the ships in the port. We are just in the cross fire." She reached forward and pulled him into a hug. "Try not to panic. There are going to be a lot of people who will need our help and it's not going to be easy considering we both crave blood."

Angel hugged the petite redhead closer. The scent of her perfume and shampoo over powered the smell of burning buildings and vessels, even flesh. For some strange reason holding her made him feel safe. "We'll get through this if we just stick together." Even as the words left his lips, Angel realized he actually believed it. When he had been human, his whole family had considered him a failure. Angel had seen no reason to prove them wrong. He felt stronger, a better person, he felt as though someone really cared about him when Cassandra was with him. She made him feel as though he was her family, something his own family had never managed to do for him.

December 7th 2002 Los Angeles a.m.

Angel woke, sitting straight up, the mixture of smoke and perfume, still strong. The memory of that day and the ones following even stronger. It was then that he realized he wasn't alone in the room. Sitting on the end of his bed was Cassandra, watching him silently, her blue eyes understanding unspoken thoughts.

"How long have you been here?" He spoke merely to break the deafening silence. "You're not exactly big on watching people sleep."

"I still have the dreams of that night." Cassandra never moved an inch. "I figured you probably did too. Buffy suggested that we could probably help each other through it. She even offered to look after Stephanie for me."

Angel opened his arms and waited for the regal redhead to crawl into his embrace. "We couldn't save them all Cass. Nobody could." He knew the Princess constantly carried the burden of knowing there were people she couldn't save. "At least we tried."

"Sorry to burst in on this touching scene and while it's always good to see you Cassandra, we are out of coffee, aspirin and oh I had another mind crunching vision." Cordellia, as usual seemed to take control of the room.

Neither of the soul owning vampires moved out of their embrace, but Cassandra reached into her purse and brought out a packet of coffee and a bottle of aspirin. "Good Morning Cordellia."

Cordellia raced over and grabbed the coffee and aspirin. "Yeah, good morning. Thanks." The attractive brunette disappeared out of the room as quickly as she had come in.

"That Cordellia's a real breath of fresh air, isn't she." Cassandra pulled back to look at Angel.

Angel chuckled. "Just wait until she has a cup of coffee, then she'll actually pause for a breath in between groups of words." He climbed out of bed and helped Cassandra up. "I hope you have some teabags in your purse Cass, cause we're out of those too."

Cassandra reached into her purse and smiled when she pulled out a box of teabags. "You know I always come prepared. Why don't you go and take a shower and get dressed and we can find out what Cordellia saw in her vision.

"So then Denis threw the lamp at him and Rick ran screaming from my apartment." Cordellia brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful for Denis' help but now I have to get a new lamp."

Cassandra smiled as she sipped her tea. "I will get you a new lamp. It sounds as though Denis is a hand ghost roommate to have."

Cordellia beamed at the thought of getting something new. "Yeah, I guess he is."

Cassandra poured a cup of coffee and handed it to Angel as he walked in the room. "Why don't you tell us about your vision." She sat back in her chair. "Good Morning Wesley."

The former watcher was briefly startled as he walked into the room. He still couldn't get used to the Princess' ability of knowing what or who was outside the room that she was in. "Your Royal Highness. What brings you to LA?" He seated himself beside Cordellia.

"A trip down memory lane." Cassandra wasn't willing to let the others in on what she and Angel had gone through at Pearl Harbor just yet. "What was in your vision, Cordy."

Cordellia threw Wesley a filthy look for the interruption. "As I was about to tell you before we got interrupted, there was this guy and planes bombing something. Sorry, no names, no address. Does any of this mean anything to you guys?"

Angel reached for Cassandra's hand. "I thought he was destroyed when we left. Isn't that what your contact told us."

Cassandra nodded. 'I got a call from Whistler this morning on my way here. It appears that particular contact may have switched sides and we're not sure how far back. A few demons that should be dead are turning up. My people are working overtime back tracking every demon he was supposed to have destroyed."

Wesley pushed his glasses up his nose. "How far back are we going in this particular case?"

Angel was still holding Cassandra's hand. "Pearl Harbor. That far back." If he was reading Cordellia's vision right, then they were about to relive Pearl Harbor again.

"That's a long way back." Cordellia had learnt about it in history class and seen the movie, but somehow she had a feeling it had been a lot different from Cassandra and Angel's experience.

Wesley leaned forward in his seat. "That must have been tough considering your liquid diet." He wasn't sure how to ask exactly what had happened. It was rather obvious by the way Angel was holding Cassandra's hand that it had been traumatic for both of them. "I can't even imagine what that must have been like."

"No you can't." Cassandra's memory had always been excellent, which in itself was a curse.

Cordellia for once tried to be diplomatic. "I don't wish to bring up bad memories but you mentioned that the guy in my vision was supposed to be destroyed. What sort of demon is he?"

Angel rubbed his forehead with his free hand. "It was daytime, early morning in fact when the bombing started. We ran over to the hospital covered with a mattress to see if we could help. That's where we met Gareth."

Wesley moved uncomfortably in his chair. "Gareth? Considering he made it into the hospital I'm guessing he either got in there the same way you did, under cover or he's not a vampire. What did he want?"

"Spare body parts." Angel could feel Cassandra's hand start to shake in his. "People were being brought in by the truck loads. The hospital got so full that the wounded were being marked outside so that they could treat the ones they could save. Gareth was harvesting the bodies the second they were pronounced dead."

"The worse part was that he thought it gave him power ingesting the internal organs of the dead. It didn't. It only hurt the people whom had lost loved ones in the war." Cassandra's voice quivered slightly.

"Sounds like a real cretin." Cordellia had never seen Cassandra like this. Even when the Princess' life had been in danger, she had never been this unsettled. "How did you stop him? I mean you must have stopped him somehow cause you thought he had been destroyed."

"A demon associate of mine cornered him and supposedly blew him up." Cassandra shook her head. "It turns out that it was probably just a fancy light show."

Wesley watched the Princess. She looked exhausted. "Why don't you get some rest Cassandra. After all, you won't be able to do anything until sundown anyway."

Cassandra nodded. "Thank you Wesley. I think I will." The Princess stood and started to walk towards the door, but stopped when she realized Angel hadn't let go of her hand.

"Go and use my bed." Angel wanted the Princess close by so that he could keep an eye on her. "I'll wake you if we find out anything. I promise." He squeezed her hand as she smiled her thanks and walked towards his room.

Cordellia waited until Cassandra was out of earshot before she spoke. "What aren't you telling us Angel. I don't mean to play down the trauma of being smack in the middle of a war, but Cassandra's very shaky about this whole thing. So what gives?"

Wesley nodded. "Yes. There's something definitely off this time around. You seem to manage to be even more protective than usual. I didn't think that was even possible."

Angel looked at his two friends. "Cassandra always planned to help people even though she was a vampire. She discovered her magic powers by accident, but she was always in control of her vampire side. You only see her demon side if she wants you to.." He shrugged his shoulders. "Or if she's processed. Pearl Harbor was the first time she couldn't stop people from getting hurt and she couldn't control the demon inside."

Cordellia frowned. "Unless she has a power that she had kept hidden all of this time, Cass couldn't have stopped that war anyway."

Wesley realized that might not be the problem. "That doesn't help you sleep when you have had someone die in your arms though, does it." He looked at Angel. "Which would have only been made worse when Stephen was killed later."

Angel nodded. "I was helping pull bodies out of the water at night, while Cassandra was holding the hands of injured people trying to give them a will to live. That's not easy when you crave the blood of the person you are trying to help."

Pearl Harbor 1941
Volunteers had been asked for, to help pull bodies out of the water. As soon as it was dark, Angel decided to help. Making his way through the multiple injured strangers, he found Cassandra, a small boy in her arms, rocking him back and forth. "Your Royal Highness." He waited for her to look up. "I'm going to help pull the bodies out of the water. Will you be alright here?"

Cassandra nodded. "Just be careful if they are blessing the bodies in the water. I don't want to have to explain why you suddenly turn into a pile of ciders."

"I'll keep an eye on the Princess." Angel turned to find a bulky young man behind him. "I'm Jaden." He held out his hand and shook Angel's. "I serve the Princess. She will be perfectly safe with me."

Angel glanced at Cassandra to confirm the young man's story. "Demon?" When she nodded and didn't appear to be alarmed by the demon's presence, he leaned closer to Jaden. "If anything happens to her, anything at all, I will take it out on you. Understand?" He waited for the demon to nod before kissing Cassandra on the top of the head and heading out of the hospital.

By the time Angel got back to the hospital, news of the Arizona and it's entombed crew had spread. Devastation on top of devastation spread through Pearl Harbor. Wounded were still pouring in. Cassandra was still where Angel had left her in the back of the hospital. When Angel knelt down beside her, he could hear her singing softly to the child in her arms.

Suddenly the child started to rise from her arms into the air. It wasn't until Angel saw the stunned look on Cassandra's face, that he realized something else was moving the boy's body. "Princess, what's happening?"

Cassandra shook her head. "I don't know. I have never seen anything like this before." She stood slowly as the boy floated down the packed corridor. Silently she took Angel's hand and followed. Their footsteps made no sound on the floors. In an office at the end of the corridor stood a man about six foot tall, his arms raised. "Who the hell is this?" Cassandra's voice was barely above a whisper.

"I, Gareth, your faithful servant offer this boys soul up to you in return for the power his empty shell will give me." The boys body seemed to disintegrate above Gareth, leaving only his kidneys and liver which fill into Gareth's waiting hands.

"No!" Cassandra's piercing scream echoed through the hospital. Angel grabbed hold of the Princess around the waist as she lunged towards Gareth. She jerked her arm across her body as if she were pushing something away. Gareth's body flew across the room crashing into the wall.

"Cass, I don't know what's going on, but how do we fight it? Cause I'm guessing Gareth here isn't human." Angel kept his arm around Cassandra's waist. At this stage he wasn't sure if he was protecting the Princess or if she was protecting him.

"Allow me. I think I can probably handle this." Jaden stood behind them. His face turned quite pale as he looked at Cassandra. "I give you my word."

Angel, confused, looked down at the Princess' face. It was the first time he had seen Cassandra's demon form. For such a beautiful woman, Cassandra looked down right frightening. "Princess? It's your call. Leave it to Jaden or finish it ourselves?"

"Leave it to Jaden." Cassandra reached up to brush her hair off of her face and realized her features had changed. She seemed as surprised as everyone else. She turned away, ashamed. "Angel. Try and keep anyone from coming in here." When she turned back around, her features had changed back to the beautiful woman that Angel had grown to know and love.

Angel nodded and moved into the doorway. "No offence, but can you make it quick? I can see us having trouble explaining all of this."

"Oh, I don't think so." Cassandra watched as Jaden began reciting the ritual. She had a bad feeling about this and it wasn't because of the explosions outside. "There's a war going on outside. People have other things to worry about."

When Angel looked over his shoulder, he saw Gareth consumed by what looked like lightening of every colour of the rainbow. "Wow!" Just as Gareth turned to a pile of dust, a lightening bolt seemed to fly loose and head towards the Princess. "Cass! Look out!" Without a moments thought, Angel threw himself towards the Princess, knocking them both to the ground.

Cassandra looked up at Angel. "My Hero." She was mocking him, he knew it, which was why he chuckled at the woman lying beneath him. They both turned to see a pile of dust where Gareth had previously stood. Jaden turned and saluted the Princess before walking away. As Angel helped Cassandra up from the ground she muttered under her breath. "Why do I have a feeling this is going to come back to haunt me."

LA
"Cass! Wake up. You're having a nightmare." Cordellia's voice pierced through Cassandra's dream.

Cassandra groaned as she opened her eyes. "How could you tell? I don't think that I have ever had a good dream in your presence." Her head ached from the war torn memories still racing around in her mind.

Cordellia arched an eyebrow. "Lucky guess. That and you looked as if you were fighting an invisible demon." She watched the Princess ease herself out of Angel's bed. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Cassandra smiled at Cordellia's concern. "Thank you, but I don't that it will help." She swept her hand across her face and her hair and make up instantly looked as though it had just been freshly applied and brushed.

"Damn. I wish I could do that." Cordellia muttered as she followed Cassandra out of the room.

Angel and Wesley looked up as the two women came in the room. Angel noticed that the Princess looked as exhausted as before. "You alright Cass." Angel wasn't convinced when Cassandra nodded. "It looks as though Gareth has been busy." He handed the paper to Cassandra. "What do you think the chances are that Jaden is in town as well?"

Cassandra shrugged her shoulders. "It's a good possibility I suppose. Does Kate owe you any favours this week?"

Angel shook his head. "No, but when has that stopped me?" He grabbed his jacket. "You two stay with Cassandra. Kate seems to be more co-operative when I'm on my own."

"Gee, I wonder why that is." Cordellia stood with her arms crossed in front of her. While behind her Cassandra and Wesley were struggling not to laugh.

Angel looked confused. "I don't know. Maybe deep down she's shy." He turned and walked out of the door.

Cordellia snorted. "Yeah right. Physco cop lady is shy. That's it. Can you say clueless." At her comment Wesley and Cassandra burst out laughing.

Kate was so engrossed with reading the open file on her desk that she never noticed Angel until she reached for her coffee and found that he had moved her cup to get her attention. "So you came here to play pranks, lucky me." The police detective faked over zealous glee.

Angel chuckled. "No. I think we have a case in common." When he saw that he had sparked her interest, he continued, keeping his voice low so that the rest of the police station couldn't hear him. "Cass and I came across this demon when we were at Pearl Harbor."

Kate looked up at Angel. "You're talking about Pearl Harbor 1941, aren't you." When he nodded, she had to admit, it still amazed her. "Why didn't you or Cassandra destroy this demon?"

Angel leaned slightly closer. "We left that up to someone else and he double crossed us and now we think they are both in LA."

Kate tried to concentrate on something other than how close Angel was standing to her. "So why do you need my help?"

Angel grinned. "Well I was hoping you could help me find some sort of pattern to his victims or where he is attacking them."

"Then what are you going to do?" It sounded simple, but Kate knew nothing was as simple as it sounded.

Angel stood up straight. "Well this time we were planning to finish him ourselves, instead of leaving it up to someone else."

"I'm guessing that I should ignore any reports of freak lightening in the near future." Kate leaned back in her chair.

"That's a pretty good guess." Angel nodded. "So, can you help?"

Kate smiled. "Sure." She pushed a few keys on her keyboard. "There doesn't appear to be a pattern to the attacks, but the victims seemed to fall in the same age group."

Angel's mind drifted back to the boy who had died in Cassandra's arms before Gareth had taken him. "Young children? About eight to twelve years old."

Kate realized that Angel had seen whatever was dicecting these children at work. "It must have been horrifying to see happen." Then she remembered the horrors the Angeles had committed before he had regained his soul. Reading those history books had given Kate nightmares for months. "Or does it fall under the category of done it once, seen it all." She instantly regretted what she had said when she saw Angel wince. "Sorry."

Angel shrugged his shoulders. "Forget it. Yes, it was horrifying to see happen. The boy I saw was about ten years old. He was pulled straight out of Cass' arms. She was devastated that he had died in her arms, only to have him taken from her and pulled apart for a meaningless ritual."

Kate was worried. "She didn't kill the boy did she? I realize that there was probably a lot of blood all over the place, but still."

Angel looked disgusted at the thought. "No. The boy had been caught in the bombing. No one could have saved him. Cass held him and sang to him and he died in her arms. There were a lot like him. Kids that had barely started life, only to have it taken away from them. If there is one thing that gets to Cassandra more than anything else, it's children suffering."

Kate placed her hand over Angel's. "I'm not even going to pretend I know what it must have been like for the two of you back then. At least you have each other."

Angel nodded. "There's a lot of things I wouldn't have made it through if it hadn't been for Cass. A few years later, I could only be a friend when Stephen was killed." Angel carefully pulled his hand away. "I better go and see if I can stop an organ eating demon."

Kate watched him walk away. "It must be nice to have you run off to every beck and call." She muttered under her breath. A twinge of guilt stabbed at her. Cassandra had never been anything but nice to her. Kate couldn't say the same thing.

Dark covered LA like a blanket. There was no moon tonight, not that it bothered either of the vampires. Not knowing where to start, the small group decided to begin with the hospitals. As they pulled into the car park, Cordellia screamed in pain as another vision came crashing through her head.

Flashes of the children's ward, a man standing his arms raised beneath a levitating body and another man watching the whole scene from behind him. Cordellia rubbed her temples as the vision stopped. "OK. I think we've got the right place and Ow!"

The foursome climbed out of Angel's car and made their way to the entrance. "Wait." Wesley stopped them. "Don't you think this looks suspicious? It's not as though we can claim that we are visiting someone at this hour."

"He's right." Cordellia stood with her hands on her hips. "You two stand out like sore thumbs, dressed in all the black." She looked at Cassandra and Angel whom were both wearing black jeans and black jackets over bright coloured tops.

Cassandra watched a truck pull up to a side door of the hospital. "I'll be back in a minute." She walked towards the van. A few minutes later she came back wearing a nurse's uniform, carrying a couple of lab coats and some doctor's scrubs. "Look what I've found." She tossed the others the clothes.

"White is definitely your colour, Cass." Angel grinned as he pulled a lab coat on. "I'm no fashion expert, but I don't think those shoes go with that outfit."

Cass looked down at her black ankle boots. "It was a laundry van not a shoe van. Somehow, I don't think anyone is going to be looking at my feet."

Cordellia nodded in agreement. She had the other lab coat and Wesley had the scrubs. "Not with the hem on that thing being so short."

Angel gently pushed the women in front him. "Come on, lets do this." He glanced over his shoulder to make sure nobody had been watching them. Seeing no one he followed the others.

Wesley kept his voice low so that the nurse at the front desk couldn't hear him. "Shall we split up? We'll cover more rooms that way."

Angel nodded. "When we get to the children's ward I'll take Cordellia, Wesley you go with Cass." When he saw their surprise at his choice of pairings he reminded them. "Cass and I know what Gareth and Jaden look like."

Cass walked ahead of the others. It was more likely that Gareth would strike one of the rooms that had the terminally ill children in. But then people changed, so why couldn't demons. "Wesley, we'll start this end and meet Angel and Cordellia somewhere in the middle."

Wesley nodded and moved from room to room with the Princess. It was quite heartbreaking to see so many ill children. "How did you do it?" He watched the confused look cross Cassandra's face. "Angel told us you looked after some of the children caught in the bombing. How did it not destroy you?"

Cassandra smiled sadly. "I wasn't alone. Angel was there to remind me that I could make a difference. It took me a while to get him to realize that he could make a difference as well." Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks.

"What is it?" Wesley had seen that look before. "He's close by, isn't he?" He looked around the room, expecting someone to appear. When he turned back to the Princess, he saw that she was heading for the door. "Wait for me."

Cordellia felt a chill go down her spine. "Angel. I've got a really bad feeling about this."

Angel turned around to ask her what she meant, when he saw a child rising from the bed behind Cordellia. "Cordy, grab that kid." He ran out of the room and caught sight of Gareth at the end of the corridor. Raising his arm, Angel fired one of the stakes he had strapped to his arm out of his sleeve.

Gareth let out a blood curdling scream as the stake pierced his chest.

"Got him." Cordellia caught the child when he suddenly fell from the air. "Back to bed for you." She carefully put the boy back in his bed and tucked him in. "Don't go anywhere." She ran to the door to see what was going on.

Gareth ran towards Angel, the stake still protruding from his chest. At the last minute Angel stepped to one side and brought his foot up into Gareth's stomach. The demon went flying backwards.

Jaden was watching the whole scene from a nearby room. Feeling that it was probably a good time to leave, he started edging backwards, keeping his eyes on Angel and Gareth fighting. As he turned to make a run for it, he found himself face to face with Cassandra.

"Going somewhere?" Cassandra raised an eyebrow. Her blue eyes as cold as ice. "What's the matter Jaden? No fancy light show this time?"

"Your Royal Highness." Jaden bowed nervously. "What a pleasant surprise. I was just going to get help. It appears that I need a specific spell to get rid of Gareth."

"Yes I know I found it." Cassandra pulled a small blue book out of the pocket of the nurses uniform and handed it to Wesley. "Would you mind Wesley."

"Of course your Royal Highness." Wesley opened the book at the page Cassandra had marked and started reciting the spell.

Jaden turned pale. It was obvious that Cassandra knew what he had done. "It's not what it looks like." He realized that is exactly what it had been at their last meeting. "I mean it's not what you think."

"Liar!" Cassandra fist hit Jaden straight in the jaw. For someone so fragile looking, the Princess packed quite a punch. "You've been double crossing me to save your own skin." Cassandra was so angry that a glowing blue haze appeared around her. "What did you bargain for? Minor powers in return for a bunch of evil demons not being destroyed. Tell me, was it worth the suffering they brought forth?"

Jaden was shaking like a leaf. "I needed the cash. You're rich. It's not as though you would understand."

Cassandra let loose a bolt of lightening at Jaden. "I didn't get to take my money with me when I was killed, you idiot."

Jaden flew into the wall with the impact of the lightening bolt. He got to his feet, a look of pure fear on his face. He looked over to Gareth for help, but Gareth was getting pummeled by Angel. He looked back at Cassandra as she grabbed him around the throat.

Cordellia felt as though her head was going to fall off from looking from Angel fighting Gareth to Cassandra choking Jaden, to Wesley reciting the spell. Some of the children from the ward had gathered around her to see what all of the excitement was about. "Angel! Duck!"

Angel hit the ground seconds before Jaden came flying over head straight into Gareth. Angel scrambled backwards out of the way as Wesley finish reciting the spell.

"No!!!" Jaden and Gareth cries fell on deaf ears as the floor opened up and swallowed them both.

"Rot in hell." Cassandra's voice rang out cold and clear in the silence. She joined the group standing outside the children's ward. "It appears we have an audience." She knelt down so that she was level with the children. "I think we had better get you lot back to bed."

A little girl moved forward and hugged Cassandra. "It's safe now, isn't it?"

Cassandra held the little girl and looked up at Angel. "Yes. It's safe now." She stood taking the child with her. "Let's get you all tucked in."

Cordellia was amazed when a child took hold of her hand and allowed her to put him to bed. "At last someone who appreciates our hard work and wouldn't you know it, none of them are old enough to pay us." Everyone turned to look at her. "What?"

Angel and Cassandra sat on top of one of the many buildings in LA staring out into the dark city. Angel wrapped his arms around the Princess. "Do you think the nightmares will ever stop?"

Cassandra leaned back against Angel's chest. "After all that we've seen in our lives or rather after lives, I'd be more worried if we didn't have the nightmares."

Angel kissed the top of her head. "I guess they remind us of the human side we still have. Always have to find a bright side to everything, don't you."

Cassandra laughed. "What would you do without me to find the silver lining for you?"

Angel hugged her tightly. "Let's never find out." They stayed that way until just be sunrise when they said goodbye and went their separate ways.

THE END