A Matter of Time - by Angelic Watcher

DISCLAIMER: The characters in this work of fiction are the property of Joss Whedon, 20th Century Fox et al. No copyright infringement intended. All original characters, and the story itself, property of Angelic Watcher.

AUTHORS NOTES: This is story number 7 in my Living The Dream Saga. First time readers are advised to start at the beginning, otherwise mucho confusion may result!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This fic was inspired in part by the song Sweet Surrender by Sarah McLachlan.

Dedicated as always, to those lovely guys over at Buffysearch. Thanks for being there. AW xx

Buffy and Angel were sitting on the floor of the hotel lounge. Angel was holding Davy, whilst Buffy was reading.

Angel put Davy down on the carpet and started tickling him. He was rewarded by a fit of giggles followed by hiccups.

Angel started laughing, "I hope he doesn't kiss all the girls like that when he gets older."

Sarah was stood in the doorway feeling embarrassed. Cordelia just grinned, and walked straight in.

"We're going out to get something for lunch," said Cordelia. "So we'll take the boys with us if that's ok?"

"Don't mind them," Cordelia whispered to Sarah as they went out of the room."They've got a lot of lost time to make up for. See you later" she called, and was gone.

Some things never alter, and in the future there was, as there had been for centuries previous, a Chosen One.....A Slayer.

Times may have changed, but evil in all its forms still walked the earth, and would do so for all eternity.

The vampires, the demons, the monsters and the hell beasts. They came in all shapes and forms. Some so ugly they made you gag, others so beautiful they could mesmerise you, seduce you. Stupid ones, clever ones, just like humans really. Except they weren't human, and they had to be stopped.

Tonights menu had consisted of two very stupid vampires who had never heard of The Slayer. Unfortunately they did not last long enough to tell the tale.

Christina shook some vamp dust out of her long dark hair and checked the time. "Damn!" she cursed. Her Watcher would be waiting.

She broke into a run and didn't stop until she pushed open the doors of Willy's place. Sitting at the bar was a familiar figure, and even in his later years, still an imposing one.

The only contrast to his completely black outfit was the sprinkling of silver in his hair.

Christina grinned, as she watched a woman, obviously a vamp, sit next to him and try to persuade him to buy her a drink.

He was still a very handsome man, and many women, human or otherwise had tried to get close to him in the past. None had lasted more than a night.

He had only ever loved one woman in his long existence, and she had been tragically snatched away from him many years previous.

The female vamp gave up and vacated the seat, and Christina sat there herself. "Hi Angel," she said. "How's it going? Still getting hit on huh?"

"Well this place sure isn't" he replied. "It's like being in a time warp. I've been coming in here for years, and apart from the bartenders and the prices it never changes".

"I know," Christina remarked. "But theres something about it, keeps on bringing me back for more !"

Christina turned around. "Uncle Davy?" she exclaimed. "You're back," she cried, hugging him.

"Thanks for the welcome," laughed Davy. "Hi Dad," he said. "Thought I'd find you in here."

"Good" answered his father. "Anyway I've been doing a bit of research and I think I've come up with some more information. Come back to the apartment and we'll go through it"

"Its so cool having a grandfather and a Watcher rolled into one" grinned Christina.

"You love it," laughed Christina, putting her arm through his, and walking him out of the bar.

Angel had decided that it was about time they started working on the grounds of the hotel. It would be expensive, so they would just have to do it in bits. His main priority was making a safe play area for Davy and Francis, and somewhere they could all sit out in the sun.

The plans had been drawn up for the first phase, and work was due to start in a few days.

Buffy and Angel sat on the hotel steps, studying the plans and trying to imagine what the end product would look like.

"So how long will it take to be finished?" Buffy asked, turning the plans this way and that, and trying to fathom them out.

"You wish," laughed Angel. "But I made sure all these guys were old, ugly, and wore their jeans half way down their butts."

"Spoilsport!" pouted Buffy, as Angel rolled up the plans, and they went back inside.

Christina took her coffee through to Angel's lounge and sat at the table. She felt a twinge of sadness when she saw the photograph albums which were piled up on it. She did not need to look at them, she had seen them so many times before. When she was a little girl Angel used to show her them every time she visited.

Whenever he pointed to a picture of Grandma Buffy, Christina used to think it was her own mom. They were so alike it was uncanny.

Christina looked more like uncle Davy, and they both looked like Angel.There were no pictures of Christina's mom in the albums, and that always upset her. Buffy died giving birth to her.

It wasn't really anybodys fault, but Angel never got over it. Although he knew it was wrong to feel that way, he couldn't help himself.The father daughter relationship never stood a chance, and Christina's mom had left as soon as she was old enough.

They rarely had any contact because she lived in Spain now. Mother and daughter had only seen each other once in the past three years.

Christina's own father had gone out of the picture when she was only five, and since her call to be a Slayer, she had lived with Angel.

There were only two men in her life, and she knew they would never let her down. Those two men joined her in the lounge, and they all sat at the table together.

"Five murders, all young women on the same college campus," explained Angel. "They were drained, and parts of their reproductive organs removed".

"Yeah, and at the same time those murders took place, I found five Tellack demons," added Christina. "They had been slaughtered and their horns ripped off."

"I've already looked in to that," said Angel. "They've been killed in the past because their horns can be used to make a powerful aphrodisiac."

"Funny," Angel replied. "Actually I think it's all to do with fertility, maybe some kind of ritualistic thing?"

"So I take it you've been checking out the rest of the students?" Davy queried. "Room mates, friends, the usual suspects?"

"Yeah," said Christina. "No leads there, so then we moved onto any new admissions and there have been two since the murders started."

"I'm gonna check them out tomorrow," said Christina. "Think I'll pass for a student there?" she grinned.

"I don't need no school," Christina smirked. "Not when I have a grandfather who's willing to tutor me. And I figure with nearly three centuries of experience in life under his belt, he's gonna do a better job than some newly qualified still wet behind the ears teacher." She winked at Angel.

Buffy stood over the cot, gently stroking Davy's hair as he drifted off to sleep.

"Do you think the boys will be ok when we move them into their own room?" whispered Buffy.

"It's only next door," replied Angel. "We can still hear them if they cry, and if we don't Sarah will."

"It'll seem strange not having him in here," Buffy mused."I'll miss him. Maybe we should have another one?".

"So what part of the curriculum are we gonna be working on tonight?" grinned Buffy.

The two humans known as Darius and Kara were anything but, although in all respects they appeared so.

They had everything they wanted. Strength, power, beauty, brains and the love they shared for each other.

They had been together for nearly a century, and there was only one thing that brought a feeling of sadness to their relationship.

It was this that had brought them here, far back into the past, seeking a cure that would once again give them a bright future.

As demons go, there was nothing thoroughbred about them. Their race had been tainted over the centuries by a variety of inhuman forms, including vampires. Still they retained the dominant genes of their origins, which occasionally threw back a child whose physiology and appearance meant that they could easily pass off as one of their ancestors. A human being.

Darius and Kara had been born two such children, and they wanted to ensure they had a child who looked like them, and acted in similar ways. Not some mutant from a gene pool so large that having a child was like a lucky dip at the fairground.

They felt human, they made love like humans, but that would not guarantee them a human child.

It had taken them many years of practise, and drained them of their inhuman strenghth for days at a time, but they now had the power to conjure up inter-dimensional portals. This was how they found themselves back in the dawn of the 21st century, complete with the knowledge of what they required to fulfill their dream.

They also had the ability to switch off their emotions whenever it suited them, but they very rarely used it.

However, Darius had been glad of this when he had killed those helpless women, he was sure he could not have done it otherwise.

Already they had failed five times and Darius was ready to give up and return to their home, but Kara had begged him to try just once more.

Emotions had not been switched off then, and it nearly broke his heart to see her so upset.

Agreeing that their last attempt would be that night, they decided to choose a victim during afternoon lessons, follow them to find out where they were staying, and wait until dark before they struck.

Christina sat at the rear of the room, trying to blend into the background, but never taking her eyes off the couple whom she now knew to be Darius and Kara. They looked normal enough, but there was just something about them that Christina couldn't put her finger on.

When they left class, Christina made sure that she was right next to them as they waited to file through the door.

Making out that somebody in the queue had shoved her, she pressed her hand against Kara's bare arm .

An old trick that Angel had taught her for recognising vampires, worked everytime. Christina had his blood in her, and it had saved her life on other occasions. So, they were not actual vampires, but they definitely had tainted blood of some kind in them.

Darius and Kara gave her a look of sheer panic, and headed off quickly, trying to dodge her. Unfortunately they succeeded, and Christina got caught up in the crowd. Crap, she thought, what now?

"I know," she interrupted. "I thought I was finally free of them, but I just had one of the biggest ever"

"A young college girl is going to be murdered tonight by a boy with dark hair. It's horrible, he cuts her open and takes something out of her. I also saw the number 214," she informed. "Does it make any sense to you Angel?".

"Oh, and I also saw something else, but I can't understand how it fits in to all of this," she added.

They did not care if anybody saw them, they would be long gone before the body was found.

He had his hand over her mouth and was in the room before she had chance to draw breath. It did not take much to snap her neck, and an emotionally switched off Darius thought nothing of it.

Kara wasted no time. It took a good deal of concentration to get her teeth to distend, and even then they were nowhere near the size a true vampire's would be. Still, they would do the job.

There was a knock at the door, and slowly it swung open. Christina and Angel took in the scene before them. Angel went for Darius, Christina went for Kara.

Darius shouted what sounded like an incantation. A huge wind rose up in the room, and the furniture started shaking.

Christina and Kara were fighting like two hell cats. It seemed as if Kara had the upper hand as she hit Christina with such force that it smashed her nose and sent blood spraying.

Unfortunately for Kara, the blood spattered on her face and in her eyes. She instinctively put up her hands as the burning pain shot through her.

"Maybe you're not a real vampire," cried Christina. "But I'm willing to bet this still works on you".

The stake hit home, and although Kara's body did not turn immediately to dust, it began to shrivel, as if the life force had been sucked out of it.

Darius had Angel on his knees, continually pounding him, and Christina flew to help him. Darius looked up to see Kara's lifeless form laid on the floor, and he let out a roar of pain.

He dropped Angel and grabbed Christina by the throat, looking directly into her eyes. Christina felt as if she was being stripped of her memories.

"I know who you are...What you are...I know everything about you now," snarled Darius. "You have killed the only woman I ever loved. The woman who was to bear my child. I will have my revenge on you and the people you love. I will journey back in time and make sure you are never born," he screamed. "Then, I will return here and my beloved will no longer be dead, murdered by the hands of a Slayer"

Angel scrambled painfully to his feet not knowing which way to turn. He had heard the demon's words, and knew he could not let that happen.

Praying that Christina was not too badly hurt, he had to make a decision, and quickly. When Darius jumped through the portal, Angel hesitated for a few seconds then followed him.

Christina's heartbroken cry of "NO" echoed around the room. But Angel never heard it, and the portal was gone.

Buffy watched from the window as the workmen barrowed in bricks and cement, hefted huge timber posts and fencing panels, and all manner of building materials round the back of the hotel.

"Ooh," Cordelia remarked. "What about that one?" She pointed to a boy with dark hair.

The boy seemed to be looking directly into Buffy's eyes, and she felt herself flush with embarrassment. He grinned widely at her and she turned away.

Cordelia nudged Buffy's arm. "I think he likes you," she teased."But you're already taken, so I might just ask him if he wants a soda."

Buffy stood back a little until she knew Cordelia would have made it to the garden, then she dared another look.

Cordelia was passing the boy a drink, and he accepted it. Buffy wished she could hear what they were saying.

Darius made small talk with Cordelia, but all the time his eyes kept straying towards where Buffy stood at the window.

She was Buffy, the Chosen One, The Slayer. Grandmother to the one who had just killed his only love.

It would be at least twenty four hours before he regained enough strengh to re-open the portal and return to the future. A future that would be changed, a future that held no Christina.

She would never be born, because her mother would not exist. Because her mother's mother was Buffy, and she would be dead. It was all just a matter of time thought Darius.

When Angel emerged from the portal it was night, and it took him a few moments to adjust from the brilliant brightness to the dark.

Looking around him he noticed the stacks of bricks, the fencing panels and discarded tools, and he knew at once what point in time he had returned to. His few seconds hesitation before following Darius through the portal could mean they were seperated by minutes, days or even weeks.

Angel had no idea whether he was already too late, he had to find out if Buffy was still alive and to try and keep it that way.

If the building work was still in progress, then this was about ten months before Buffy had died giving birth to their daughter.

It was one of the best times in his entire life. They had been so happy together. He had been human for a little over two years, and their son would have been around six months old.

They had been as close as it was possible for two people to be, and loved each other with a passion words could not describe.

As the memories flooded over him, Angel felt the tears spring to his eyes and was overcome with sadness and despair.

All those years he had wandered aimlessly when his soul was first restored to him, all the torments he had suffered in Hell. All the guilt and the pain and the longing had been nothing, compared to how he felt after Buffy had been lost to him forever.

He heard the sound of a door being opened and he looked up towards the back of the hotel. And there she was, standing on the steps, looking more beautiful than he had ever remembered. She had switched the outside lights on, and Angel could see her perfectly.

Angel's heart was beating so fast he thought it would burst through his chest. All those years of loneliness, all those times when he had reached for her in the night only to find the bed empty beside him. All those moments when he would have given anything just to hear her voice once more.

He yearned to tell her how much he loved her, missed her, but he could not move.

Buffy was moving, she was coming down the steps, she was walking in his direction.

Angel panicked. He had to see her, to warn her, tell her what had happened, would happen. But how would she react when she saw him?

The blood within his veins was no ordinary blood. It gave him his strength, his healing abilities, kept him looking far younger than his true age.

Even so, he was still much older than her. Angel did not think he could bear it if she looked on him with distaste, or expressed horror at what he had become. What her Angel would become in the future.

He could smell her perfume on the air as a faint breeze gently lifted up her blonde hair, and she reached up to move a stray lock from her face. She stood motionless looking towards where he was stood.

He didn't know what to say. Yes he was Angel.... But not her Angel, not the one she loved, shared her life with, not the one she wanted or needed. "Buffy," he murmured hoarsely.

"Angel? What are you doing out here?" she said. "I just left you asleep in bed....I don't understand?"

"Don't come any closer Buffy," he said. "I am Angel, but I'm not from this time. I've come from the future to help you, save you from a demon who's intent on revenge for something that happens a long way off from now."

Buffy could not believe her ears. From this short distance the man looked like Angel, sounded like Angel, smelt like Angel.

Was this some stupid joke he was playing on her? The future?.. Yeah right, she thought, I'll teach him.

Angel groaned.... This wasn't quite the way he had imagined this little scenario to play out.

He waited for her to leap off him. She didn't. She just lay there staring at him, her beautiful eyes wide with amazement.

"I did tell you," he said. "I'm from the future...You have to listen to me Buffy, its important....Please"

She was running her fingers over the contours of his face, touching his hair, breathing in his familiar scent.

Angel sat up quickly, he felt embarrassed. It was unbearable being this close to her and not being able to touch her in return.

Buffy could not make sense of the feelings that were running through her. She was frightened and excited all at the same time.

Angel put his head in his hands. It was all getting too much for him. He had to pull himself together, tell her the story, find out if Darius had been there. Track him, kill him, and? Angel wasn't sure what would happen after that.

He began to explain to her what had happened, and Buffy sat beside him listening intently. She kept looking into his eyes, and he kept looking away.

He gave her all the facts and tried to keep the details to himself. But he knew Buffy, knew she would want to know more.

"So if Christina is our granddaughter, that would make Davy her dad?" enquired Buffy.

"Tell me about her, what does she look like, what did we call her?" she asked excitedly.

Angel could take no more, he got up and walked a little way from her, not wanting her to see his tears.

Buffy walked up behind him, and put her arms around his back. She could feel him shaking, feel he was in pain.

She turned him round to face her "Please Angel, tell me. Tell me what happened to make you feel this way?" Buffy whispered.

He could not help himself. Before he knew it he had poured out all his grief and all his anger over her death, and she was holding him and weeping with him for them both.

"I missed you so much," he whispered. "If it wasn't for Christina and Davy I couldn't go on".

Buffy lifted his face and looked into his eyes. "But Angel, don't you see? We can alter the future now," she cried. "I know what's going to happen, I can prevent it happening again, so all we have to do is stop Darius from killing me this time".

"Exactly," confirmed Buffy. "I promise I'll be careful, I know what to look out for. I won't die again Angel, I won't leave you all alone... I won't, " she sobbed.

"Shhhh," he murmured. "Please don't cry.... Please." He rummaged in his pockets for a handkerchief, which he used to gently wipe away her tears. They looked into one anothers eyes. "I love you so much" he said brokenly.

"I love you too," she breathed. Very slowly, she touched his lips with hers and kissed him.

He didn't mean to kiss her back, couldn't believe she was doing this, couldn't believe she wanted to. But she was, and it was just like he remembered.

Buffy didn't notice or care that he was older now, he was still her Angel. He had suffered so much pain because she had left him.

Angel tried to control himself, not let her see how hungry he was for her, how starved he was for the taste of her on his lips.

But it was no use. The only woman he had ever loved was back in his arms. His soulmate, his lover, his best friend.

Darius watched from the shadows. So, he had been followed through the portal by the man who had aided the Slayer in the murder of his beloved Kara. The same man who was now in the arms of the current Slayer, the one he wished to kill. Four birds with one stone, thought Darius.

He checked the bathroom, but Buffy was not there, and Davy was sound asleep in his cot.

It was quiet and dark in all the rooms, and when Angel looked out of the window, he noticed the outside lights were on.

Angel pushed open the doors which led outside, and could not quite believe what he was seeing. Buffy was fighting a young man who seemed vaguely familiar. To the side of him, a bright blue light was gathering strength, shimmering and swirling and forming a doorway.

Angel could just make out a dark clad figure lying on the ground nearby, and as he ran towards them, he saw the hilt of a dagger protruding from the figure's back.

Buffy had no weapons on her and was finding it increasingly difficult to stay on her feet.

Angel wondered what the hell was going on, then he realised that the boy she was fighting was one of the builders.

Fuelled by rage, Dariu's strength was at an all time high. He lashed out at Buffy with the dagger he was wielding, slashing into her right forearm.

Angel slammed into him, causing Darius to drop the knife, but the momentum carried them all forward and they fell heavily on the ground. Darius had landed with his face on Buffy's arm, it began to smoke and blister but he took no notice of it.

The ex-vampire had already noticed the boys reaction to Buffy's blood. He rolled quickly, reaching for the dropped dagger, and stabbed it into Dariu's back.

Buffy hauled herself up and ran towards the figure laid motionless to the left of them. The older Angel opened his eyes to see Buffy knelt beside him.

"Angel," she wept, gently lifting his head onto her lap, and stroking his cheek.

Darius was struggling for breath, his hand reaching out towards the blue light of the portal. Angel pulled the dagger from his back, flipped Darius over and slammed it into his heart.

Dariu's body had all but crumbled away, and Angel watched until he was jolted back to reality by the sound of Buffy weeping.

He went over, expecting her to be knelt beside the body which had lain there previously, but it had gone.

He dropped down next to her and she clung to him sobbing. He could get no coherent words out of her , so he gently picked her up and carried her inside.

Angel placed Buffy on their bed, and carefully dressed the wound on her arm which was already closing.

He pulled the covers over her, but she was shaking so much he thought she had gone into shock and wondered about calling a doctor.

He remembered what the female oracle had once said to him when he had given her his watch as a gift.

Angel had never really thought about it before, but he now realised how true that was.

The time they first met, first made love, their forgotten day. The time when he became truly human again and the time they became a family. All that time had been filled with happiness and joy and he could never get enough of it.

"Angel?" whispered Buffy. "We can change the future can't we? I can't bear to think that...."

"Don't worry, everything will turn out right," he replied, as he held her close and kissed her. "We've got all the time in the world to make sure of it".........

EPILOGUE: The future?

Angel had been pacing up and down the corridor of the maternity ward for hours.

"I was getting worried," he frowned. "It was so fast with you we hardly had time to get here".

"Yes, but our daughter's not a Slayer," she reminded him. "Say hello to your new granddaughter."