marvelous story ^__^

Just re-read this, and I had to leave a note to say that I've now read this whole story 4 times, and it only gets better when I read it again. I love your characterization of Buffy and Elliott particularly, but the tone of the whole thing is just so enjoyable to fall back into whenever I need a good read that I know will suck me in and distract me from whatever's going on in the real world.

Thanks so much for sharing such an awesome read. You did an amazing job of blending both worlds in a plausible, and more importantly enjoyable, way.

Absolutely superb. Love it.

Enjoyed it muchly. Thanks!

Best epi thing - other than B/A getting a happy ending - Faith & Kathleen becoming pals

He never thought he'd be afraid of her but as Bobby looks at Willow as she is now, black hair, eyes, and veins, her voice much deeper than it should be, he can't help but feel a sparkling of fear. It doesn't change his feelings towards her, just makes him understand her more than he did.

ok so Bobby's tougher than I thought he was

Love how G turns Ethan in!

I thought Willow had somehow made it ok for Buffy & Angel to bump uglies now?

"Oh my god, you just don't change." Angelus mocks. "Whine, whine, whine, you know, it was almost a relief to get the damn soul just to get away from your constant whining."
Darla actually looks taken aback.
"What, did you think we were, soul mates?" Angelus whispers the last word and whips an imaginary tear from his eye. "Or that I would actually want you back? Honey, you're used goods. Over used, washed up, goods." Then he turns to face Buffy, a leer crossing his face. "Ask Spikey, once you go slayer, you never go back. Mmmm, she's got muscles you could only dream about. And stamina, well, she's got more than her fair share. Didn't phase her one bit when we broke the table, destroyed the kitchen…."

ok didnt see that coming

"Well, like your sister said, you do the time, you pay the crime." Kathy says, smiling at Buffy.
"Hey." Buffy slightly whines. "I was close."
Dawn grins. "Yet so far, far, away."

lol

"I don't know how you do it." Elliot mutters. "How can you sit here, waiting, while they're out fighting?"
"You get used to it after a while." Cordy says, briefly looking up from her nails.
"No, you don't." Kathy argues. "But you just learn to live with the fear."
Elliot stops again to look at his wife, finally realizing and understanding what she deals with on a daily basis. "This is what you feel like every time I go to work?"
"Yes." Kathy replies honestly. "I know there's a chance you might not come back every time you walk out the door."

nothing like swapping shoes to make you paradigm shift

Enjoying them getting all unPCy with Ethan in front of the cops they love

"He really does love her." Elliot almost can't believe what he saw.
"Love was never the issue." Giles replies. "Whomever said the world can't survive on love alone was correct. Because as much as they might love each other, they both know they can't be together."
"Then why was Angel sent to her?" Elliot asks. "That doesn't make any sense."
"I'm not sure myself." Giles says. "Perhaps to test them?"
Elliot pushes a hand through his hair. "The more I hear about these powers, the less I like them."
Giles nods. "I couldn't agree more."

Good Elli! he gettin his B.A. in Scoobiness in no time!

"Was he always so big?" Willow asks. "I mean, you're really tiny and he's so not tiny. Is that from his dad?" Realizing what she said, Willow smacks a hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…"

dunno if willow's having fun but whoever reading this sure is

We have two girls here that have turned sixteen; I say wild party down by the pool."
Elliot glares at him.
"Less wild party on the roof?" Xander proposes.
Elliot shakes his head.
"Quiet party in the living room where we give them presents, ice cream and those funny hats we can take pictures of them in and later mock?" Xander asks hopefully.
Elliot looks at Kathy who nods.

lol

"..Then there are the hemorrhoids that I will likely receive, the discomfort that I will suffer through, the stretching and tearing of muscles and bones and for what purpose? A small, squalling infant that will probably one day tell me it hates me and I ruined its life." She touches her stomach gently. "This spawn growing inside me is no larger than a bean and yet I love it more than my money."
"That is so sweet." Willow gushes.

quite

"Holding back?" Fin repeats. "She just kicked him into the wall."
"They're taking it easy." Faith replies. "Their punches aren't connecting with more than half their strength, same thing with the kicks." Then off their questioning looks. "I've fought them both to the death, well, to a coma with B and with Angel pulling back before he killed me. They're holding back."

ouch good fight

Elliot's mouth is hanging open and he can't stand up to protest. He thought seeing them kiss before was bad; this kiss is bordering on explicit.
He knew they were together before but he's finally realizing how much it was. She was never like this with him and he finally and completely accepts that for what it means. She never loved him.

Sorry, who's speaking after 'He knew' ?

He could accept the world as it is because he had faith that things weren't as bad as they seemed. That there was a higher power, watching out for everyone. That he wasn't alone, that they weren't alone.
And now he has proof of that. There are powers out there, watching. He knows for a fact that the powers exist but for the first time in his life, he's faithless. And that's the hardest thing for him to deal with. Because even though there are powers, they don't care about people, they can't. Not if they can put his daughter and countless other girls through what they have.

speaking as a devout atheist - lol!

"I'm not saying you should have blind faith in God, because you shouldn't; I don't. But I have faith in people because of Buffy. She showed me that humans are capable of things other than hate and death....And I finally realized something that I never realized before. Nothing matters... There is no big picture, no big win, if nothing we do matters, than all that matters is what we do, now. I fought for so long for redemption, for a reward, and then just to beat the other guy but now I realize that's not why we fight. We fight because we can.

clapclapclap ... though not exactly getting with the restoration of faith program

Angel lets Elliot use him as a punching bag, not once making a move to defend himself. He knows this is something Elliot has to do. And it's also something he has to do. Everything he's put Buffy through, the times he's made her cry, this, letting her father beat on him makes a little bit of that guilt disappear.

good idea

"Giles is the mentor, Buffy is the leader, Anya is the truth, and Xander is heart. Willow is the glue. She's always been the one that everyone has depended on and she bares that responsibility as well as she can. But after awhile, it takes it's toll."

good of tara to tell bobby this

"You two outgrew each other, didn't you?"
"Yes." Tara agrees. "She doesn't need me anymore and I don't need her."

nice to see a normally-awkward conversation not be awkward coz the conversationalists are mature and laid back and nice and smarty

"This is not a democracy." Giles gestures around the room. "Nobody voted; I made the call that I believe is right."
"Please, like you're judgment is so sound." Cordy huffs. "You've been knocked out so many times those stuffy brains are scrambled eggs."

lol

"It makes sense." Anya comments. "If it were me, I would do the same thing. Why kill them when you can make their lives a living hell. Not that Spike could do much damage, with his chip, but it would be an easy way to return Faith to her old ways. And we've all heard how Buffy dealt…or didn't deal the last time Angel lost his soul. Quentin knows too. Angel is the reason Buffy quit the council to began with and it's a well known fact that Faith's fragile mental stability could easily be toppled by the loss of someone she trusts."

oooh Anya is being blunt in a non-embarassy way

"Mortal infants are notoriously fragile, as are other mortals." She turns to look at Elliot and Kathy. "You have numerous spawn; how do you cope with the dangers surrounding them and still maintain some resemblance of sanity?"

Elliot is sane?

"Can she turn somebody into a frog?" Dickie asks.
"She probably could but she won't." Buffy elaborates off the confused looks. "She's afraid of frogs."

lol

"Well, you see…."
"Ewww." A disgusted look crosses Buffy's face. "Ew, I don't want to know."
"Buffy, you need to stop acting like I can't have a personal life." Giles says.
"But you're old and it's gross." Buffy replies.
"Need I point out that Angel is more than five times my age?" Giles asks.
"But he's Angel." Buffy gestures to the dark-haired vampire. "He's cute and Angel-y. You're old and Giles-y."

lol

I'm like one of those punching things with sand at the bottom. We all are. Look at Willow; she never got the time to train properly because there was no time.

well said

"We don't have the resources or the time to follow the rules that you have to."
"We investigate murders and rapes, Buffy." Don points out. "And a lot of the time, the suspects will strike again but we follow the rules because it's the law."
"You're thinking in human terms." Angel says. "You can't compare demons to humans; they're not alike.

long argument this

"I've fixed Spike's like a hundred times. He says I'm the only one that can get it right; Faith boils it and Buffy undercooks it."
"Which you never told me." Buffy accuses.
"Sorry." Angel murmurs.

ah happy families...

"Great." Elliot mutters. "Her first crush is on a centuries old former evil vampire."

lol

Faith whistles. "Damn, B, what's with you and the hot father figures. First Giles and now him. And all I got is Princess Margaret pants."
..."Faith, can you please stop referring to my dad as 'hot'?" Buffy pinches the bridge of her nose. "And Giles."

lol hope Kathy dont get green

"Anya, there are children in the room." Xander whispers.
"Oh." Anya says. "An orgasm is the clima…."
"ANYA!" Various voices yell.
"You said there were children in the room." Anya says, not understanding what she did wrong. "Since they probably don't know what an or…"

lol - cliched but I like cliched lol as u well know

"Back to drivin' stick, red?" Faith grins.
Willow closes her eyes on a groan.
"You're not a very good lesbian." Anya comments, stepping in front of Willow and the big man beside her. "Hello, Willow's not a female orgasm friend. My name is Anya."

LOL

"Not many people could pull off that color orange." Munch comments. "But it goes good with the green."

You like giving Munchkins the last line, dontcha? :-)

"You're not patrolling." Elliot declares.
"Says who?" Dawn crosses her arms over her chest and glares up at him.
"Your father." Elliot yells at her.
A huge grin crosses Dawn's face and she throws her arms around his neck with a squeal. "This is so great."
Elliot shakes his head, amused at her excitement. "I can't believe your excited that I just yelled at you."
"Buffy doesn't yell at me, not really." Dawn explains. "Giles tried to do the punishing thing but frankly, he sucked at it. Spike thought it was funny and Faith just gave me tips on getting away with stuff...It'll be nice to have parents, you know, rules and limits. The only real rule at home is don't invite anybody in and you killed it, you dispose of it.

lol, in a way

"Can you make cows into vampires?" Elizabeth steps forward until she's right in front of him.
"No." Angel winces, his finger poking at the burn on his stomach.
"Elizabeth, come here." Elliot orders, finally getting over his shock at his daughter wanting to feel Angel's fangs.
Elizabeth ignores her dad and climbs onto Angel's lap, her hand moving up to cover Angel's mouth and nose.
"Elizabeth, you can't smother him." Buffy says, barely holding back laughter.
...
"You're not a very good vampire, are you?" Elizabeth pokes his cheek.

lol, in every way

"You sit there and say that's not my fault but it was. I should have died, not you. Everybody makes all these big sacrifices for me. Heck, Spike was freakin' evil and he let himself get tortured for me. And you left and god, I hated you so much for it. You left me when you promised you wouldn't and….I was happy I wasn't dead and…." She stands up suddenly and runs down the hall to her room.

I dont blame Dawn

He's not used to this, sharing her with another father figure. For almost the past seven years, he's been the only steady male in her life and he's surprised with how hard it is to step aside and be just her watcher again.

aha!

I've thought about this, a lot. If Dawn had jumped, if she had died, and if there was even the slightest chance she was in hell, like even a point one percent chance, I would have made you do it.

cool

"The smells are too strong, the city is too loud, and they can't block it out. Most of the vampire's that you'll find in the city will be at least a hundred years old.

hunh - interesting

"Yes but….Quentin has gone mad, Buffy." Giles tries to make her understand. "He cares about nothing but killing you and Faith and he will kill everyone he has to in order to get to you two. You can protect yourselves but you have a large family now that can be used as leverage."

Damn - so that's the external threat now for the fic, yeah?

"Bram Stoker's Dracula?" Munch asks. "He's real?"
"He's a ponce." Angel's voice goes husky with his Irish accent. "He caused more deaths for vampires than any slayer. Thanks to his books, everyone knows how to kill us."

lol

"So you let everyone think you're some kinda of heartless vampire?" Buffy rolls her eyes. "That masochist streak is irritating at times."
"I am not…okay I am but…" Angel lets his sentence trail off.
"Got nothing to say, do ya?" Buffy grins. "You're a obsessive compulsive brooder."
"I don't brood that much." Angel protests.
"Angel, sweetie, you're like the gold medal winner." Buffy smiles. "If brooding was an Olympic sport, you'd win."

lol

good confession chapter - 8/10