@slaegirl gets a plotted thing that hut me as wild horses plays in the background!!
The moment he saw Willow that night, his world had changed. Of course he knew that at some point, further down the road he had hoped, he would have to say a final goodbye to her. For as long as he had lived, it wasn’t the first nor would it be the last time he would lose someone close to him, close to his heart. But she had always been different from the others. She was Buffy Summers.
Angel had done his best to go on in a world where his soulmate no longer existed. He put on a mask and pretended to be moving on from the loss. Did his best to keep everything locked away and hidden in private. Some days were harder than others, the weight of it all coming crashing down around him again, leaving him feeling more alone than ever. Facing James and admitting to losing the only person he had truly ever loved aloud had hurt him more than anything he’d ever endured in this world.
Four months had passed by and the ache remained buried in his chest. But he had to keep fighting the good fight, continue to make sure that no one else had to face the same loss he had. Then the phone call came. Willow was both the deliverer of bad news and unbelievable news. There was a moment where Angel believed himself to be dreaming, fast asleep up in his room, dreaming of a dream he had had many times. When it finally sank in, the realization that she was alive...the soul crushing grief he’d kept to himself behind closed doors caused his knees to give way. There was no thought other than needing to see her, to make sure that it was real, she was real.
Having made arrangements with Wesley and the others and making the hardest phone call ever, he departed for the meet up location. He couldn’t go to Sunnydale and she couldn’t come to Los Angeles. So they met somewhere in the middle, somewhere only they knew where they’d be. And as he waited for the slayer to arrive, he was sure that if his heart could beat, it would have been pounding in his chest, threatening to give out.
Angel had found a small diner along a stretch of the highway, somewhere no one would bother them. He had been sitting at a table, staring into a cup of coffee until she arrived. Hearing the bell above the door chime through the silence, he looked up and there she was. Living, breathing, her heart beating as it should. Silently he stood from the table and just stared at her, forgetting every thought of the last time he saw her, thinking that it was indeed the last time he’d ever see the woman he loved alive. But that all changed today.
