My Destiny is You

Ch. 14 ~ Fulfillment

            One by one they were chucked out of the white light onto the ground. As they looked around, they realized they weren't vaporized by the power source after all but in fact had been thrown back through the portal and were back at the base. It was daylight and Spike and Angel screamed as the sun burned them. Angel was still holding Lorne and Willow had the wherewithal to telepathically push the yellow alarm so the doctors would come with multiple stretchers for the injured. Thankfully they were chucked out near the hospital so it didn't take long for everyone to get inside. Spike and Angel's hands were badly burned but they were healing quickly.

            Lorne was taken into one of the ER's right away along with Willow who knew she had to help heal him. He was worse off than Clem was when he was brought in. By that time, the rest of the gang that had stayed behind had raced to the hospital to see who was alive and who wasn't. Connor and Dawn came from Buffy's house. As soon as Connor saw Angel, he didn't even bother with his usual crap but hugged his father tightly as the gesture stunned Angel but he put his arms around his son as a tear squeezed out of the eyes of both father and son. Connor had finally become the son Angel had always wanted ever since he came back from Qor'Toth after Holtz kidnapped him. 

            Buffy hugged Dawn just as hard and inquired why she was limping. That was when everyone who traveled to the hell dimension found out about the earthquake from hell that happened up here. They turned on a TV that was located in one of the rooms just as the news anchor was showing the devastation around Southern California. The destruction of the hell dimension destabilized the San Andreas Fault and it completely ruptured causing a mega quake that registered as an 8.1 on the Richter Scale. The governor had declared a state of emergency and every government agency including FEMA was on the scene to restore power, stop fires, and get a handle of the apocalyptic disaster.  

            Buffy knew in the days coming, she would have to reach out to the agency that was in charge of the base to make sure it was safe to operate in which meant checking foundations, fixing what was broken, and do something to the library so her sister wasn't in mortal danger from falling bookcases. She thanked Connor for saving Dawn's life from the tree and being there altogether. Connor had explained that Stanford was in ruins so he felt safer here and thanks to Tara's magic he was able to get one phone call out to his parents through the land line that he was with Angel and that the base was a lot safer. His parents told him to stay there and not go anywhere. Of course they didn't know that Angel was in a hell dimension. Their own house being made from wood only had fallen trees, cracks in the ground, and their chimney had collapsed so they were fairly lucky considering.

            Fred had rushed to the hospital as soon as the green alarm went off but as Lorne was in surgery, there wasn't anything she could do but wait. Meanwhile, everyone wanted answers from Illyria. What in the hell happened down there? But they couldn't find her until Spike said she went back to her greenhouse room to be alone. He figured she needed time to think things through and they were going to let her do just that. Willow emerged from the surgical quarters and said that Lorne would be ok though he would be out cold for a few days. She was so tired that she weaved and collapsed on the floor as Tara ran to her and held her up followed by Buffy.

            Angel—despite the burns on his hands that were already wrapped in bandages and disinfected—picked her up and carried her to an empty room and lay her down on a bed where she closed her eyes and just lay there as Tara didn't leave her side. The others felt sorry for her. She'd done so much. But as she lay there, there was something she couldn't bring herself to tell the others. She never opened the portal that brought them home. She had no idea how it happened. She kept trying and she kept failing and then all of a sudden they were back at the base. She was very unnerved by it. But she was too tired to speak.