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| The Wish | Gingerbread |
Dublin Ireland, 1838
A young man stumbles through the snow covered streets. He looks around fearfully. He passes a group of carolers, singing Silent Night.
Angel reaches out of an alley entrance, grabs him, and pulls him in. Angel is hungry, and Daniel owes him money. Since Daniel is broke, Angel is going to take what he is owed in his own way.
Daniel begins to pray, but this has no effect on Angel. “Daniel, be of good cheer! It’s Christmas!” Angel leans in to bite him on the neck.
Sunnydale California, 1998
Angel wakes up in his bed from his dream about Daniel.
Angel walks through the streets of Sunnydale. A TV in a shop window is carrying a weather report. Southern California is having unusually warm weather for this year’s holiday weekend. The streets are full of shoppers.
Angel passes a group of carolers singing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. He runs into Buffy, who’s carrying a wrapped Christmas present for someone. They’re both surprised to see each other.
They exchange some uncomfortable polite conversation, until Angel suddenly stops. Daniel has appeared standing behind Buffy. She turns around to see what has arrested his attention, but she sees nothing.
Buffy turns back. “Angel? What is it?” Angel is unable to speak.
Buffy tells Xander and Willow about her encounter with Angel, and his strange behaviour while she gets her books from her school locker. “And then he just bailed. He didn’t say anything. He just took off. It was so weird.”
“Angel? Weird? What are the odds?” asks Xander. Buffy shoots him a look.
Willow thinks maybe Buffy should talk to Giles about it, if she thinks that something’s wrong, but Buffy doesn’t want to bother Giles. He’s still pretty sensitive about the whole Angel situation.
“Well, it must be that whole Angel-killed-his-girlfriend-and-tortured-him thing,” says Xander. “Hey, Giles is pretty petty when it comes to stuff like that.”
“Xander, enough. Okay?” says Buffy.
Willow thinks that maybe Angel is just suffering from the holiday blues. Everyone gets them. The group starts to discuss their holiday plans. Buffy is planning for a quiet Christmas, just her and her mother. She asks what Willow has planned.
“Being Jewish,” says Willow. “Remember people? Not everybody worships Santa.”
Buffy tells Willow that she just wanted to know how Willow was planning to spend the time off from school. Willow doesn’t really have any plans. She had intended to spend the time with Oz, but that plan has been scrubbed.
They move into the student lounge and Xander and Willow take seats on a sofa. He nervously glances across at Cordelia, who is sitting on the opposite sofa.
Xander tells Buffy and Willow that he intends to repeat his Christmas tradition of taking a sleeping bag out into the back yard, and sleeping on the grass. “I like to look at the stars, you know. Feel the whole nature vibe.”
Cordelia gets up off the sofa and looks down at Xander. “I thought you slept outside to avoid your family’s drunken Christmas fights.”
“Yes,” says Xander. “And that was a confidence I was hoping you would share with everyone.”
Cordelia ignores him and tells everyone that she is going to be skiing in Aspen for the holidays, where they have actual snow. She will be thinking of them, stuck in Sweatydale. She leaves.
Buffy notes that Cordelia seems to have completely reverted to her old form.
Willow is still willing to cut Cordy some slack. “Forgiveness is pretty much a big theme with me this year, ’cause of the—” She stops when she notices that Buffy’s attention has wandered to someone new. She looks where Buffy is looking and sees Oz is standing by the sofa looking at her.
“Hey,” says Oz.
“Hey,” says Willow.
Oz and Willow move into an empty classroom to talk. They both lean against the teacher’s desk beside each other.
“The thing is,” says Oz, “seeing you with Xander, it was, well, I never felt that way before, when it wasn’t a full moon, but I know you guys have a history.”
“But it’s a history that’s in the past,” says Willow. “Well, I guess most history is in the past. But it’s over.”
“Well, I don’t know,” says Oz. “I don’t know that it ever will be between you two.”
“Oz, please believe me.”
“This is what I do know,” says Oz. “I miss you, like, every second. Almost like I lost an arm, or worse, a torso. So, I think I’d be willing to…give it a shot.”
Willow stands up, and turns toward Oz. “Really?”
Oz smiles, and stands too. “Yeah.”
“Do you want us to—to hug now?” asks Willow.
“Yeah, I’m good for that.” Oz takes a step toward Willow and wraps her in his arms. Willow holds on to him tightly.
Buffy and her mother walk through a Christmas tree lot, looking for a tree. Joyce wonders if they should get one of the ones with fake snow sprayed on them, but Buffy doesn’t seem to like that idea. “I think those are just for display.”
Joyce suggests that they should invite Faith over for Christmas. She doesn’t like the idea of Faith spending Christmas alone in her dingy motel room. Buffy doesn’t really want to invite Faith. They haven’t been talking much lately, but Joyce guilts her into promising to invite her.
Buffy suggests that they should invite Giles too. He doesn’t have any family in California. Joyce vetoes that idea much too quickly. She tells Buffy that Mr. Giles won’t want to spend Christmas with a bunch of girls. She decides that they should split up and look for a tree separately.
Buffy wanders through the lot, and comes across a patch where the trees have all died. The lot operator offers to make her a deal on one of them. Buffy declines.
Candles and torches burn in an underground chamber. Three eyeless figures wearing black robes sit around a table chanting.
Angel starts awake from another dream.
Faith is banging on her TV set, trying to get a clear picture of the show she’s trying to watch—A Christmas Carol—when Buffy knocks on her door.
Faith invites her in, and turns off her TV. “What’s going on? Scary monsters?”
“No,” says Buffy. “Um, we’re having Christmas Eve dinner at my house, and I thought that, um, if you didn’t have plans…”
“Your mom sent you down, huh?”
“No,” says Buffy.
Faith thanks Buffy for the invitation, but she already has plans. There is a big party she has been invited to. Buffy tells her that the offer’s still open, if she changes her mind. She starts to go. She stops to admire the Christmas lights Faith has strung around her room.
“Yeah, well, ’tis the season,” says Faith. “Whatever that means.”
Giles is preparing his dinner when there’s a knock on his door. It’s Angel. Giles is not pleased to see him.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” says Angel.
Giles can’t resist a bitter laugh. “Sorry. Coming from you that phrase strikes me as rather funny. ‘Sorry to bother me.’”
“I need your help,” says Angel.
Giles stops laughing. “And the funny keeps on coming.”
“I understand I have no right to ask for it,” says Angel, “but there’s no one else.”
“All right.” Giles turns and walks away from his door, into the back room.
Angel stays outside the door. “I can’t come in unless you invite me.”
Giles returns. “I am aware of that.” He raises a loaded crossbow and aims it at Angel’s heart. “Come in.”
Angel enters the apartment. He makes no comment about the crossbow. He starts to tell Giles about his dreams. He doesn’t understand them, or why he’s back on Earth. “I should be in a demon dimension suffering an eternity of torture.”
“I don’t feel particularly inclined to argue with that,” says Giles.
“But I’m not,” says Angel. “I was freed, and I don’t understand why.”
“Knowing why you were back would give you peace of mind?”
“It might,” says Angel
Giles puts down the crossbow. Angel sees Jenny Calendar standing behind him. She’s wearing the same dress she had on when he killed her. “You think that’s something you ought to have?” asks Giles. “Because, sir, to be blunt, the last time you became complacent about your existence turned out rather badly.”
Angel stares at Jenny, as she reaches out and strokes Giles’ shoulder. Giles notices Angel’s stare, and turns to look behind him. “What?” He looks around.
“Don’t you see her?” asks Angel.
“Who?” Giles is still looking around, without seeing anything out of the ordinary. Jenny walks around him, all the time staring at Angel, who is growing more and more agitated.
“I can’t!” says Angel. He runs from Giles’ home.
Angel tosses and turns in his bed. He’s dreaming about a 19th century Christmas party he was at. He’s seducing one of the servants there, a girl named Margaret. She’s afraid that she’ll lose her job, and be put out into the street with her little boy if she makes a fuss. Angel tells her she’d better be quiet then. He backs her into the alcove under the stairs. She’s too afraid to make any noise. No one will believe the word of a servant over that of a “gentleman.”
“We’ll be as quiet as mice.” Angel transforms into his vampire face. “No matter what.”
Margaret is terrified, realizing too late that it isn’t sex on Angel’s mind. “Sir! My son!”
“Oh, he’ll make a fine dessert!” Angel sinks his fangs into her throat.
Angel drains Margaret and drops her onto the floor. He looks up and sees that there has been a witness to her murder. It’s Buffy.
Angel starts awake in his bed.
Buffy starts awake in her bed.
Angel gets up and gets dressed.
“Trouble sleeping?” asks Jenny.
“You’re not here,” says Angel
Jenny moves toward him. “I’m always here.”
“Leave me alone.”
“I can’t,” says Jenny. “You won’t let me.”
“What do you want?” asks Angel.
“I want to die in bed surrounded by fat grandchildren,” says Jenny, “But, guess that’s off the menu.”
Angel tells Jenny he’s sorry, but that isn’t why she’s there. She’s dead, she’s over it. “If you want to feel sorry for someone, you should feel sorry for yourself. But I guess you’ve already got that covered.”
“I am sorry for what I’ve done,” says Angel “What else can I say to you?”
“I don’t want to make you feel bad,” says Jenny. She transforms into Daniel as she says it. “I just want to show you who you are.”
Buffy meets with Giles in his office and tells him about her dream. It wasn’t a dream about Angel, she was in Angel’s dream. Giles is a little dubious about that, but Buffy is sure that’s what happened. There’s something wrong with Angel. Giles tells her that he knows. Angel came to ask him for help. He has been looking into it.
“Well, let me look, too,” says Buffy. Giles gives her an enquiring glance. “I’m not seeing him anymore. I’m trying to put all this behind me, and I’m not going to be able to as long as we’re both doing guest spots in each other’s dreams.”
Giles sits back and considers the truth of what Buffy has said.
“So we help him?” asks Buffy.
“Yes,” says Giles reluctantly.
Xander steps into Giles’ office. “Where do we start?” Buffy and Giles look at him in surprise. “Look, I’m aware I haven’t been the mostest best friend to you when it comes to the whole Angel thing, and, um, I don’t know, maybe I finally got the Chanukah spirit.”
Giles hands out the research assignments, and Buffy and Xander head out into the main room of the library. “Are you sure this is how you want to spend your Christmas vacation?” she asks him.
“Yeah, this is actually the most exciting thing I’ve got planned,” says Xander. “Who else can claim that pathetic a social life?”
Willow comes into the library. “Hey, guys. What are we doing?”
The group researches through the day, and into the night. Willow tells Buffy about her and Oz’s plans. Her parents are out of town, so he’s going to pick up some videos and come over to her place.
“That’s good, right?” asks Buffy. “You guys are back.”
“It’s good,” says Willow. “It’s perfect. In an awkward, uncomfortable sort of way. I just don’t know how to make Oz trust me.”
“Xander has a piece of you that Oz just can’t touch,” says Buffy. “I guess now it’s just about showing Oz that he comes first.”
Angel collapses in his mansion while a middle aged businessman tells him about how Angel had killed him, after first killing his two young children. Angel had left their bodies arranged in their beds as if they were only sleeping.
The businessman transforms in Margaret. “But you see, that’s what makes you different than other beasts. They kill to feed, but you took more kinds of pleasure in it than any creature that walks or crawls.”
Angel tries to get away, but he finds Daniel standing in his path. “I was to be married that week, but then, as I recall, you knew that.”
“It wasn’t me,” says Angel.
Daniel transforms into Jenny. “It wasn’t you?”
“A demon isn’t a man. I was a man once.”
“Oh yes, and what a man you were.”
Angel remembers a time from before he was a vampire. Drunk in a tavern.
“A drunken, whoring layabout,” says Margaret, “and a terrible disappointment to your parents.”
“I was young,” says Angel. “I never had a chance to—”
“To die of syphilis?” asks Margaret. “You were a worthless being before you were ever a monster.”
Angel doesn’t want to hear any more. He tries covering his ears. Jenny reaches out and puts her hands on his as he lowers them away from his head. “I don’t want to hurt you, Angel, but you have to understand. Cruelty’s the only thing you ever had a true talent for.”
“That’s not true,” says Angel.
“Shhh. Rest.” Jenny gently guides Angel down onto the hearth of his fireplace. “You mistake it for a curse, Angel, but it’s not. It’s your destiny.” He lies down and she strokes his hair. “I’ll show you. I’ll show you.”
Xander yawns. He’s sitting in a chair with a book behind the library counter, and struggling to stay awake while he studies. Willow has already lost the struggle and is curled up asleep in a chair in Giles’ office. Buffy has dozed off too, on the floor back among the library stacks. She’s sharing another dream with Angel.
Buffy is lying in her bed when Angel comes to her. They kiss tenderly and start to pull off each other’s clothing. They tenderly make love. There’s a man in her room. He has no eyes. There are symbols branded where his eyelids should be.
Buffy and Angel’s lovemaking becomes more passionate. Angel transforms into a vampire, and bites her as he climaxes.
Buffy and Angel both start awake.
“You want her,” says Jenny. “Take her. Take what you want. Pour all that frustration and all that guilt into her, and you’ll be free.”
“No,” says Angel.
“You can’t live for eternity with all that pain,” says Jenny. “This is what you are. This is why we brought you back. Take her! And then you’ll be ready…to kill her.”
Buffy comes out of the stacks, feeling a little groggy. Giles shows her some papers he found, describing something known as “the First.”
“First what?” asks Buffy.
“Evil” says Giles. “Absolute evil, older than man, than demons. It could have had the power to bring Angel back.”
There’s an illustration on one of the pages of a man with symbols where his eyes should be. Buffy recognises it from her dream. Giles wants to hear more about her dream, but Buffy doesn’t want to tell him. She just wants to know what the picture is.
“They’re known as the Bringers, or Harbingers,” says Giles. “They’re high priests of the First. They can conjure spirit manifestations and set them on people, influence them, haunt them.”
“These are the guys working the mojo on Angel,” says Buffy.
Xander comes out from behind the counter. “We got to stop them.”
“You can’t fight the First, Buffy,” says Giles. “It’s not a physical being.”
“Well, I can fight these priest guys,” says Buffy.
“If we can find them,” says Xander.
Buffy and Xander’s search takes them to Willy’s bar. “Hey, it’s the Slayer!” Willy calls out loudly as they enter. “What brings the Slayer down here?” A couple of vampires quietly get up and head for the back door.
Buffy ignores the vampires, and walks up to the bar. She asks Willy how he’s doing. Willy says that he’s staying out of trouble, and asks if he can get them a drink.
“Yeah, let me get a double shot of, um…” Xander notices the look Buffy’s giving him. “…of information, pal!”
Buffy asks Willy if he’s heard anything about anyone known as the Bringers, or Harbingers. They’ve got a no-eyes kind of look.
“Doesn’t ring a bell,” says Willy.
“How about I ring that bell for ya?” Xander looks at Buffy. “Does the threatening come now?”
Buffy suggests that Xander not help. She asks Willy if he knows about anything which may have come to town recently.
Willy doesn’t really have much he can tell her. He has heard a few things from the underground.
“The underground?” asks Xander.
“Yeah, you know,” says Willy. “Things that live under the ground.” Something has gotten the underground scared lately. A lot of them have already left town, and these are things that are not easily scared. Whatever is responsible is probably underground, but he has no idea where.
Buffy and Xander start to go. “Hey!” Willy calls out to Xander. “You did great, by the way. I was very intimidated by you.”
Xander smiles. “Really?” Willy gives him a nod. “Thanks!”
Buffy takes hold of Xander’s elbow, and hauls him toward the door.
“Hey kid!” Willy calls after her. “Merry Christmas!”
Buffy and Xander step out of Willy’s and back into Sunnydale’s Christmas heat wave. Buffy thinks the trip to the bar was pretty much a waste of time.
“We know underground,” says Xander. “That’s a start.”
“Sure,” says Buffy. “In a town with fourteen million square miles of sewer.”
“Plus a lot of natural cave formations and a gateway to Hell,” adds Xander. “Yeah, this does resemble square one.”
“I don’t know what to do,” says Buffy.
“I think right now the best plan is to deck the halls with boughs of holly,” says Xander. “Look, we’ll catch the bad guys, sooner or later.”
Oz arrives at Willow’s bearing videos. He comes to a stop when he steps into her living room. Willow has the lights down low, candles burning, and a fire going in the fireplace. There is a bottle of Sprite cooling in an ice bucket on the coffee table. She is wearing a low cut red dress. Barry White is playing on the stereo. She invites Oz to come sit with her on the sofa.
Oz slowly walks across the room and sits beside her. He doesn’t quite know what to make of this. “You ever have that dream where you’re in a play, and it’s the middle of the play and you really don’t know your lines, and you kinda don’t know the plot?”
“Well, we’re alone, and, we’re together,” says Willow. “I just wanted it to be special.”
“How special are we talking?”
“Well, you know, we’re alone, and…we’re both mature younger people, and so…we could…I’m ready to…with you.” Willow’s voice drops into a whisper. “We could do that thing.”
Oz stands up.
“Where are you going?” asks Willow.
“No, I’m not going,” says Oz. “Just a dramatic gesture. That’s, pretty special.”
Willow stands up too. “Oz, I want to be with you. First.”
“I think we should sit down again,” says Oz.
They sit down. “Oz?” says Willow. “I’m ready.”
“Okay,” says Oz, “Well, don’t take this the wrong way, but, I’m not.”
Willow is a little confused. “Are you scared? ’Cause I thought you had—”
“No, I have,” says Oz. “But this is different. I mean, you look great. You know, and, and you got the Barry working for you, and, and it’s all…good. But when it happens…I want it to be because we both need it to for the same reason. You don’t have to prove anything to me.”
“I just wanted you to know,” says Willow.
Oz smiles at her. “I know. I get the message.”
Willow leans over to Oz, and they start to kiss.
Christmas music plays in the Summers house while Buffy decorates the tree, and Joyce adds another log to the fire burning in the fireplace.
“Nothing like a roaring fire to keep away the blistering heat,” says Buffy.
“Oh, come on. It’s lovely,” says Joyce. “Maybe I should turn the air conditioning on.”
Buffy goes back to decorating the tree, and becomes lost in thought.
“So, Angel’s on top again?” asks Joyce.
Buffy turns to her mother in surprise. “What?”
Joyce waves a couple of tree ornaments at her. “Angel or star?”
“Oh!” says Buffy. “Star.”
The doorbell rings and Buffy goes to answer it while Joyce puts the star on the top of the tree. It’s Faith at the door. She decided that the party she was going to go to was going to be a drag, so she came here instead. Buffy is glad to see her, and invites her in.
Faith has brought a couple of presents for Buffy and her mother. They look like they have been wrapped in newspaper, and Buffy’s kind of resembles a stake.
Joyce is happy to see Faith. She takes the gifts. “Oh, that is so thoughtful.”
“They’re crappy,” says Faith.
Buffy leaves Faith with her mother while she goes upstairs to get their presents from her room. Joyce offers Faith an eggnog.
Buffy enters her room, and is surprised when Angel closes the door behind her. He is very agitated.
“What’s going on?” asks Buffy.
Angel rambles incoherently, too upset to complete any sentences. He looks around the room, at Buffy’s bed, at her neck. He sees Jenny standing behind Buffy.
“She wants you to touch her,” says Jenny. “What are you waiting for?”
“You have to stay away from me,” says Angel.
“You came to see me to tell me that I can’t see you?” asks Buffy. Angel struggles hard to maintain control of himself. “Angel, something is doing this to you. You just have to control it, okay? I know that you’re confused.”
“She wants you to taste her,” says Jenny. “Think of the peace. You’ll never have to see us again.”
“Angel, how can I help you?” asks Buffy.
“Leave me alone!” shouts Angel, and jumps out her window.
Buffy tells Faith to stay with her mother until she gets back, just in case Angel returns. Faith says she’ll do it, but she doesn’t understand what’s going on. Buffy promises to explain everything later.
Buffy goes to Giles’ apartment. They have to do something soon. Giles doesn’t really have any ideas about what they can do.
“Giles, he’s slipping,” says Buffy. “I think we’re losing him.”
Giles looks up at her. “You realize if he truly becomes a danger, you may have to kill him. Again. Can you do that?”
Buffy doesn’t have an answer for that question.
Angel paces in his mansion. “I can’t do it!”
“You have to do it,” says Jenny. “What else are you good for? Couldn’t you just feel her? Couldn’t you almost smell her skin? You never were a fighter, Angel, don’t start trying now. Sooner or later you will drink her.”
“I’ll never hurt her.”
“You were born to hurt her,” says Jenny. “Have you learned nothing? As long as you are alive—”
“Then I’ll die.”
“You don’t have the strength to kill yourself.”
“I don’t need strength. I just need the sun to rise.” Angel walks out into his garden and up the back steps.
“You’re not supposed to die. This isn’t the plan.” Jenny stops and thinks a bit. “But it’ll do.”
Buffy reads from one of Giles’ books. “‘A child shall be born of man and goat and have two heads, and the first shall speak only in riddles…’ No wonder you like this stuff.” She closes the book. “It’s like reading The Sun.”
“Yes,” says Giles absently. He finds something in his own book. “Ah!”
“Priests?” asks Buffy.
“Um, Yes,” says Giles. “But, more posturing, I’m afraid. ‘For they are the Harbingers of death. Nothing shall grow above or below them. No seed shall flower, neither in man nor…’ They’re rebels and they’ll never ever be any good. Nothing specific about their haunts.”
“Let me see that,” says Buffy. Giles hands her the book, and Buffy reads it for herself. “‘…the Harbingers of death. Nothing shall grow above or below.’” She stops to think.
“What?” asks Giles.
Buffy returns to the Christmas tree lot. She breaks open the gate, and proceeds to the patch of dead trees. She looks around and sees an axe. Buffy picks it up and starts to chop at the ground. She breaks open an entrance into an underground passage.
Buffy jumps down into the hole she has made. The passage leads to the Harbingers seated around a table chanting in a candle lit chamber. “All right. Ten more minutes of chanting, and then you guys have to go to bed.”
The Harbingers jump up and attack Buffy. She knocks a couple of them aside with the axe, and the third runs away. Buffy takes the axe and uses it to sweep the paraphernalia off the table that the priests had all been chanting around.
“I’m impressed,” says Jenny.
Buffy is too startled by her appearance to say anything at first. “You won’t get Angel,” she says after a pause.
“You think you can fight me?” asks Jenny. “I’m not a demon, little girl. I am something that you can’t even conceive. The First Evil. Beyond sin, beyond death. I am the thing the darkness fears. You’ll never see me, but I am everywhere. Every being, every thought, every drop of hate.”
“Alright, I get it. You’re evil,” says Buffy. “Do we have to chat about it all day?”
“Angel will be dead by sunrise,” says Jenny. “Your Christmas, will be his wake.”
“No,” says Buffy.
“You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
“Let me guess. Is it…evil?” asks Buffy.
Jenny transforms into a giant insect like creature, and lunges toward Buffy. Buffy doesn’t even flinch, and the creature vanishes.
“Dead by sunrise!” echos through the chamber.
Buffy runs to Angel’s house, but he isn’t there. She goes out into his garden, and up the back stairs.
Buffy finds Angel on a hilltop, overlooking the town. She tells him that he has to get inside. It’s almost sunrise. Angel knows that. He can smell it.
“I don’t have time to explain this,” says Buffy. “You just have to trust me. That thing that was haunting you—”
“It wasn’t haunting me. It was showing me.”
“Showing you?”
“What I am.”
“Were!”
“And ever shall be,” says Angel. “I wanted to know why I was back. Now I do.”
“You don’t know,” says Buffy. “Some great evil takes credit for bringing you back and you buy it? You just give up?”
“I can’t do it again, Buffy. I can’t become a killer.”
“Then fight it,” says Buffy. “Angel, please, you have to get inside.”
“It told me to kill you. You were in the dream. You know. It told me to lose my soul in you and become a monster again.”
“I know what it told you. What does it matter?”
“Because I wanted to!” says Angel. “Because I want you so badly! I want to take comfort in you, and I know it’ll cost me my soul, and a part of me doesn’t care. I’m weak. I’ve never been anything else. It’s not the demon in me that needs killing, Buffy. It’s the man.”
“You’re weak. Everybody is,” says Buffy. “Everybody fails. Maybe this evil did bring you back, but if it did, it’s because it needs you. And that means that you can hurt it. Angel, you have the power to do real good, to make amends. But if you die now, then all that you ever were was a monster.”
The sky is starting to brighten. The sun will be rising soon. Buffy grabs Angel by the arm and tries to pull him away from the hilltop. He pushes her away.
Buffy is at a loss for words. She punches Angel. He hits her back, and knocks her to the ground.
Angel rolls Buffy over to face him. He grabs her arms, and shakes her. Buffy is suddenly afraid.
“Am I a thing worth saving?” Angel shakes Buffy again. “Am I a righteous man? The world wants me gone!”
Buffy starts to cry. “What about me? I love you so much, and I tried to make you go away. I killed you and it didn’t help.” She shoves Angel off her and gets up onto her knees. “And I hate it! I hate that it’s so hard, and that you can hurt me so much. I know everything that you did, because you did it to me. Oh, god! I wish that I wished you dead. I don’t. I can’t.” She stands up and turns away from him.
“Buffy, please,” pleads Angel. “Just this once, let me be strong.”
Buffy turns back to Angel. “Strong is fighting! It’s hard, and it’s painful, and it’s every day. It’s what we have to do. And we can do it together. But if you’re too much of a coward for that, then burn. If I can’t convince you that you belong in this world, then I don’t know what can. But do not expect me to watch. And don’t expect me to mourn for you, because—”
Buffy stops. It has started to snow. Both she and Angel look around in amazement, as the snow falls around them, blanketing the hilltop, and the town in white.
Willow is cuddling on her bed with Oz when she notices the snow falling outside her patio doors. She gets off bed and goes to the windows to look out at it. Oz follows along behind her.
Faith and Joyce step out onto the Summers’ front porch. There’s already a couple of inches of snow accumulated on the roof.
Giles, a cup of tea in his hands, looks at the snow outside his window.
Xander sleepily brushes snow from his face, and pulls the corner of his sleeping bag up over his head. After a few seconds he pulls it back down, and looks up in wonder.
The morning weather report is playing on the TV in the store window. The heat wave is continuing throughout southern California. Everywhere but in Sunnydale, which is getting its first recorded snowfall ever. There is heavy overcast, and the sun is not expected to shine all day.
Buffy and Angel walk down the main street of town, hand in hand.
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| Daniel | Dublin, 1838 | Killed by Angel |
| Margaret | A 19th century Christmas party | Killed by Angel |