As Buffy steps over the curb, she enters her favorite cemetary. The darkness that fills the sky with the night supplies only the glowing light of the slivered moon. Although she walks in the crisp, cold night her body remains warm and balanced. Almost unwillingly she is some what guided to a particular grave. An unexpected gust of wind seperates the weeds and grass from the head stone. Buffy tries to focus on the engraved rock, and starts to read the inscription--

"Buffy...?" Angel becomes worried by her sudden jolt in his arms. It wasn't until the morning sun had rose that her respiration had quickened as she slept. He had kept a close eye on her since the first inkling of change in her dream state. Buffy's head still lied on his arm as he cupped her body with his behind her. Meeting her lose fetal position. As she moves slowly in his arms she implies that she's awake. With her head still in the crook of his arm and chest his other remained wrapped around Buffy's waist. "You alright?" Angel softly asks as she resettled herself.

"Emmhmm." Although it was hardly a breathe, it was loud enough for her lover to decipher. Her eyes were, unusually at such an early hour, wide open. Confussion and worry filled her head as well as her stomach. She had not only been holding a lot of her emotions in, well...when it came to her mother's resent death, but she had also been wondering about how she was going to tell Riley what she was thinking. Or even if she should be completly honest with him at all. She wasn't sure as to how to tell him that his present fear had become true and that there was no way to get around it. That she had made her choice.

Angel knew that she wasn't being completly honest with him either at the moment, but let it quickly go. Thinking of how to respond to what she must have been thinking he came to a conclusion. He tightened his grip around her waist and kissed the base of her neck, where her hair line ended. Smiling with his actions, she folded further more into him.

Caela's nightmares had not yet ceased. Although she was more relaxed after getting to know her new friends and family, she was still afraid of her past. The same dream and the same words came from her mouth each night. But she was determined to make herself wake up if anything got over a simple whisper. She didn't want to be a bother and nor did she want anyone to worry over her when it didn't seem to compare to the other monstrous problems that presently existed.

After being awake for nearly 3 hours, do to the lack of sleep of course she started to walk about the house. She had finished an entire novel that morning since starting it the first night she stayed in Buffy's house.

She made her way into the kitchen and noticed that the house was a mess. Excluding from the over population of people in a single house at the time, the sanitation level was dropping tremendously with each day. Finding the chemicals under the kitchen sink, Caela was able to clean up the kitchen, both of the restrooms, pick up lose clothing around the house, disposing them into a single hamper and loaded the washer.

Being contemt with herself and her deeds afterwords she realized what time it was. Walking past the bathroom she inevitably passed Buffy's bedroom door on the way to go down stairs. With a rush, information and voices pored into her head. It disappered just as sudden as it had came. Looking at the door as if she knew what exactly had gone on the night before she smiled at her new thoughts.

Freeing one hand of the stuff that she carried, Caela knocked lightly on the door just loud enough for those who occupied the room to hear and no one else in the house. "The house stirs, my friends." Caela tried to give them a heads up of the time instead of actually reading it to them.

With small contemplation she slowly turned around and returned to the laundry. She still wanted to keep busy. No one was really awake yet, at least not enough to interact with and keep her company. She knew she would be bored if she were to try and do something else.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Caela noticed a strong gleam of light shinning through a loosly covered window. She dropped the boundle of clothes in the hamper near her feet and walked over the window to admire the new day. Everything was glowing with the sunlight's rays. Every last drop of rain from the earlier days had vanished with the sudden boost in the weather's temperature. Thinking that it was too late for anyone to be sleeping she wanted to share the beautiful sight with the rest of the occupants. She suddenly opened the curtains of all the windows in the kitchen and livingroom.

Wesley was most desturbed by the invador of his dream. Rolling to his side to look at the small fram that stood in the surrounding glimmer of the day he placed a hand about his brow to gaurd his eyes. Although Caela knew that she had woken someone up she only gave her best smile in greeting and a small, "Good morning," and went on to finish the last parts in sorting the house. After all, she had contributed to the mess.

Buffy and Angel decided to be discreet and exited the room separately with Angel first to make it seem that he had slept in his own sleeping area. He made his way downstairs and padded into the kitchen. He smiled a "good morning" smile in Caela's direction as he entered the tiled room. "Beautiful morning, don't you think?" Caela meant more than just the day itself but also last nights events and he knew that. He looked into himself for a brief contemplation of what happened between he and Buffy and finally returned to the question.

"Yes, it is." He pored a cup of coffee for himself and sat down next to her at the table where she attempted to read the newspaper. "How are you?" He meant to make it seem as if it were an everyday question but she knew that there was more to it than that. He was referring to the nightmares, the geographical change and the new people.

"Better." She admitted that she was at least getting used to her surroundings but she could not promise a decrease in her disturbed sleep. "What about you?" Caela gave him a coy smile, almost making fun of him. It was impossible for anyone else in the house to know what they did, but Caela was different. And he knew that.

"Wonderful." His mind was flying in the clouds as he answered. He felt free, that he was able to finally be with Buffy and not have to worry about the consequences.

"Really?" She laughed a little as she flipped to another page.

He acknowledged her statement and looked at her with a crimson river flowing to his ears.

"We have nothing to worry about now." He took a sip of his hot beverage.

"Aye?" Looked at him with confusion to his last comment. "What about Riley?"

Part Fifteen Forthcoming

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