TITLE: Where Your Road Leads

AUTHOR: AngelicVampyre

RATING: You watch it? You can read it.

DISCLAIMER: Not mine; don’t sue.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and ye shall receive.

FEEDBACK: Please, I crave it! It’s like cigarettes, ya know? Just when I think I’ve quit…

SPOILERS: Minor for IWRY

NOTES:I don’t usually write songfics and after reading this you’ll probably understand why but I heard this and the lyrics just seemed so perfect for Buffy & Angel that I just had to do something with them.

NOTES2: This hasn’t been edited or even read through and it was written in 20 mins at 03:00am so I’m well aware that it isn’t the best fic I’ve ever written.

SUMMERY: Buffy has a message for Angel and Cordelia helps her deliver it.

Where Your Road Leads

Brrrrring…brrrrring…brrrrring…brr – “Angel investigations, we help the hopeless…Oh. It’s you. Well, what do you want?” Cordelia demanded belligerently, but her hostility faded, sympathy taking its place as the person on the other end explained the reason for their call.

~~~

It was nearly midnight and Angel looked up in surprise when Cordelia walked into his office – as usual, without knocking. “Cordelia? I thought you’d gone home?”

“I came back,” she said simply, setting the radio she carried down on the desk and switching it on, “Buffy has a message for you. She asked me to help to make sure that you got it and since I’m kinda sick of you sitting around brooding all the time, I told her that I would.”

Angel had started to get to his feet but at her words he sank back into his chair and sat staring at her, his eyes filled with a combination of hope and pain.

A song was just starting as Cordelia switched on the radio and, with a fond smile, she slipped out of the room so that he could listen in private. As she made her way out of the office she switched on her Walkman so that she could listen to what Buffy had to say, hoping that the Slayer would keep her word and not say anything to hurt the vampire who loved her.

~~~

Angel stared at the radio as though it were a dangerous animal that would attack him if he were to turn his back on it. All his though processes had shorted out when Cordelia told him Buffy had a message for him and he realised with some distant part of his brain that he was literally shaking with a mixture of anticipation and terror.

The request that had been playing came to an end and Angel’s world narrowed until nothing existed for him except the words that filled the air.

“Our next request goes out to Angel from Buffy,” the DJ announced, “She wants you to know that she’ll always be your girl and understands why the two of you can’t be together now but she has faith that, one day, you’ll find a way. Until then, she’ll never forget that day.

Here’s Trisha Yearwood singing ‘Where Your Road Leads’, and Angel? Buffy means every word.”

Angel barely registered the instrumental that signalled the beginning of the song, he was reeling from the import of the last part of Buffy’s message. She remembered! She had given him her word that she would never forget and, though the day had been turned back, she had kept it. His mind slid back in time to the forgotten day when they had, for too brief a time, been happy together and a bittersweet smile touched his lips

As he sat there, the song gradually filtered into his mind and his eyes filled with tears as he realised the depth of love contained within the words.

I believe in Miracles,

I believe in signs,

And I believe that mountains move,

One prayer at a time.

If I could be an Angel,

I’d make your every wish come true,

But I am only Human,

Just a woman,

Loving You.

Where your road leads, I will follow,

When your heart bleeds, I’ll be there for you,

When your night grows dark and you can’t find your tomorrow,

Then you can follow me.

Someday we’ll look back and see,

Our footprints in the sand,

Sometimes you would carry me,

And sometimes you’d be in my hands,

If we can love forever,

That won’t be long enough for me,

I wanna hold you tender,

Be your shelter,

All you need.

Where your road leads, I will follow,

When your heart bleeds, I’ll be there for you,

When your night grows dark and you can’t find your tomorrow,

Then you can follow me.

Ohhhhh, we can be each other’s guiding light,

Through this lonely world unite,

Where your road leads, I will follow,

When your heart bleeds, I’ll be there for you,

When your night grows dark and you can’t find your tomorrow,

When you’ve lost sight of your dreams,

Then you can follow me.

It was a message of hope, a promise of loyalty, and an affirmation that the bond between them would remain for eternity, no matter how far apart they might be and, for the first time since he had left her, Angel allowed himself to truly believe that they might one day be together once more.

Without consciously thinking about it, his hand reached for the phone and he punched in the number that he knew by heart though he had never used it.

The phone and the other end rang twice and then he heard her beloved voice, “Hello?”

“Buffy…” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion, “it’s Angel…”

Where Your Road Leads

The End