Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel.

So this is the last chapter of Night Blossom. The next oneshot or short story should take place a while after they've been in L.A.

Hope you guys have enjoyed yourselves as you read this! And some things happen a little out of timeline than they did in Buffy, but since this is AU I guess timelines don't matter that much.

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When Angelus returned from the Hell Dimension with a soul, Chloe was thrown through yet another loop. Chloe hadn't known her place or what she should do as she saw the face of the demon she'd learnt to rely on, to love in her own way--only to meet a stranger.

The soul—Angel—he'd suffered much in the Hell Dimension and, for a loss of a better word, he was messed up. Not only had his body been tortured, but so had his mind. And not only had this been happening for months, no, the Hell Dimension had a different time flux, so what had been mere months for Chloe and the others had been hundreds of years for Angel.

His return permanently ended the tentative friendship Chloe'd made with Buffy. The young woman hadn't been able to forgive the Slayer for keeping Angel's return a secret from them, from her, for the first week--or that she'd kept him chained in the Mansion on Crawford Street.

If Chloe hadn't been the only person to notice Buffy's odd behavior (other than the new Slayer Faith, whom the council had sent when they thought Buffy wouldn't be coming back) around the time and followed her, going into the Mansion to investigate after Buffy left later--she probably never would have found out about Angelus--Angel.

It still hurt the blonde to remember how she'd found her sire. He'd been a broken, beaten mockery of what he'd once been, in need of both mental and physical healing--and the bags of pig's blood that Buffy had been bringing weren't enough to help him.

Chloe hadn't thought it over twice before kneeling in front of Angel's nearly unconscious self, moved her hair to the side, and offered her neck. She whimpered slightly at the pleasure mixed with pain when instincts took over and he'd buried his fangs in her skin, feeding on her blood.

From the moment his fangs entered her she'd known that this was the soul, not the demon, even his manner of biting had changed, and yet she allowed him to drink until she blacked out.

The next thing she'd known was waking up groggily, realizing that she was resting her head on his lap and he, Angel, the soul, he was crying, those tears bathing her face. It'd terrified her unlike any viciousness Angelus had ever shown, and she'd pulled away, frightened as he cried and begged for her forgiveness over and over again.

But at least he was sane. Her blood had at least healed him that much.

"Angelus?" Chloe'd held onto the hope that this was the sire she knew, but when he winced and looked away in shame she finally forced herself to believe what her instincts had screamed at her all along. "Angel."

He turned and looked at her once more, eyes tortured as he looked her over, free now that he was strong enough to break the chains the Slayer had used to bind him with. "I'm sorry." He whispered again, looking so brokenhearted.

"For what?" Chloe asked, swaying slightly in dizziness thanks to his excessive feeding, and yet she didn't complain. The blonde sat on the ground next to him, looking him in the eyes, confused.

"For what Angelus did to you." Angel closed his eyes in self-disgust. "He took away your innocence in almost every way possible. He frightened you and he turned you and then he locked you up in your room out of his obsessive ways and hurt you when you didn't do anything to deserve it."

"Ange--."

"No," he shook his head violently, obviously needing to get this off of his chest. "You don't get it, Chloe. For Angelus you were his most fervent obsession. At first when you--when you woke up, when he found out you had your soul, your heartbeat, when he found out about your inability to drink human blood like any normal vampire he was incensed that something he could have created could ever turn out so wrong."

Chloe winced as if he'd hit her. Had Angelus really thought of her in that way? Like such a failure?

"And then he realized that he'd created the first true hybrid, the first creature of the night who could walk into houses without being invited and wear crosses around her neck." Angel opened his eyes. "He began to read Spike's annotations and realized that he'd created the perfect creature. Chloe, a Master never gives his newborn fledgling as much blood as Angelus gave you. Usually it's a onetime deal unless the fledgling is a Favored One."

"So, I was favored?" Chloe asked, confused but realizing that this was more information than she'd ever gotten out of Angelus.

"No, Chloe. It was more than that." Angel growled, clenching his fists in anger. "The reason why a Master never gives his or her childer (especially a newborn fledgling) their blood is because it has highly addictive qualities."

The blonde's head jerked up in surprise at that. "What?"

"A newborn is at its most vulnerable, especially concerning their bloodlust." Angel's voice was hoarse from lack of use. "Their sire's job is to teach them to control their bloodlust--not to make an addict out of their childe."

Chloe frowned as she scooted closer to Angel, looking deep into his eyes, trying to access the demon she knew was trapped deep in there. "I was an addict?" She made a face. "No wonder Spike's blood tastes like crap."

Angel looked so ashamed. "Angelus planned for it to be that way. You would want only his blood. And your blood, Chloe, after a while your blood changed as well. It's--it's just as strong if not stronger in power than that of a Slayer. With one feeding I--." He suddenly winced. "I fed from you. A human. Even with my soul I--."

"Angel," Chloe reached over and placed her hand on his thigh without even thinking. "Even with your soul you're a vampire. From what I've been told about you I understand that you hate what you are and what you've done, but that was Angelus, not you." She shook her head. "Believe me, I know Angelus, and he would never be weak."

Angel stiffened slightly.

The blonde didn't apologize. It was the truth. "Angel, you're a vampire, and even with a soul you need blood—you especially needed it then. And you didn't take anything I didn't offer you freely."

"Because I'm your sire." Angel whispered, head bowed, hair falling into his face and shadowing it. "Don't I disgust you? When Darla, Dru, Spike--when they all found out I'd lost my soul the first time I disgusted them."

"You're forgetting one thing, Angel." Chloe whispered, squeezing that thigh. "I have a soul too."

He looked up at her in surprise as he suddenly realized that that was true. A small, hopeful smile touched his lips as he looked up at her. "Yes, you do."

"So if there's anyone out there who can understand half of what you're going through, it's me." Chloe reiterated with a smile small of her own. "And you're not going to get rid of me easily even if I did find you repulsive. You said so yourself, I'm addicted to your blood, and even if I wasn't I still need family blood to survive."

Angel nodded.

They continued to talk, and Chloe told him about all that'd happened while he was gone. Angel'd been surprised when he'd found out that Spike had left Chloe in Sunnydale instead of taking her with him, but when the ensouled vampire heard the whole story he shook his head in surprise.

"He obviously realized that Angelus had made an addict of you," the brunette announced. "And he agreed to Giles' plan to help you with that addiction. Sure, you need blood, but you wouldn't be having mine nor would it be a frequent feeding. Spike knew that if he'd taken you with them Drusilla wouldn't have listened to reason and would have continued feeding you regularly like Angelus had, transferring your addiction to her blood."

Chloe blinked. "Are you telling me that Spike left me in rehab?"

Angel nodded. "I believe so."

Chloe snorted, shaking her head, and the conversation shifted from there to other subjects as she got to know the soul of her sire. Soon it was nightfall and she knew that Giles would miss her at his apartment and grow worried if she didn't appear, but Chloe didn't want to leave her sire, not after so long. Sure, he wasn't the vampire she knew but he was still her family, and now that she'd found him again she was terrified of losing him.

When Angel didn't tell her to go and accepted her petition to stay, Chloe knew that while things would definitely never be the same between them, she didn't care. She tried not to overanalyze things when they shared what had once been their bed in the Mansion and he never tried to touch her like Angelus would.

Instead Angel had just held her, and Chloe had let him. She awoke later with his sleeping with his ear against her heart, as if the beats soothed him.

It was a tender sight and he was obviously seeking the solace of family. He'd literally been through hell and needed someone who would hold him through the night, listen to him, speak with him--he needed her. He needed her friendship, and Chloe wasn't going to make things awkward or uncomfortable between them with her desires for the body of her sire.

If with his soul Angel chose to bed her she wouldn't think twice before offering herself, but until he did so she'd just be there for him in any way that she could.

When Buffy came the next day things went ugly rapidly. The words and brutality exchanged between the two blondes had severed any friendship they had managed to create, and Chloe had felt the loss but didn't regret anything she told the Slayer. She didn't regret anything. Buffy should have told everyone the moment Angel returned, and Chloe told that to the Scoobies when everything was made known to them.

And surprisingly they'd backed her up on that. Sure, they weren't pleased with Chloe for unchaining Angel or feeding him her own blood, but they'd tried understanding the 'call of the sire', or the duty a childe had to their creator. They also had to accept the fact that the spell Willow had cast right before Angel had been sent to hell had given him back his soul--but that didn't mean they'd welcomed the vampire back into their midst with open arms.

Still, Buffy and Angel decided to try and work on the relationship they'd had before he'd lost his soul, and in the process Chloe had learnt how Angel could lose his soul.

A moment of perfect happiness.

Buffy had given him that, and because of it Chloe respected their turbulent relationship and removed herself from Angel's life as much as possible to give him the opportunity to be with the Slayer. Of course, Chloe had to continue meeting with Angel to feed, but she tried to otherwise stay away from him.

She wouldn't have him miserable because of her or her jealousy.

In the end she made friends with Faith and Wesley the new Watcher sent by the Council. Like her, both were not part of the original Scooby Gang, they were somewhat different, and felt out of place and lonely. Faith had a temper as violent as her past, Welsey was a snooty little know-it-all with a girlish squeal, and Chloe was a big freak. And yet somehow they somehow managed to have a good friendship.

When Faith was injured horribly while fighting the Mayor during their graduation, falling into a coma with little chances of waking up, and Wesley was called back to the Council all in the same week, Chloe broke down. She skipped town for a couple of days, spending the nights in abandoned buildings and trying to overcome her sense of loss.

She'd been surprised to wake up to an intruder, only to discover that it was her sire. The blonde had felt disoriented and numb all at the same time, listening to him growl at her about the stupidity of her actions, reminding her that she couldn't survive without his blood. He shook her, an act reminiscent of Angelus, telling her that he wasn't about to lose the only family he had left.

And that was when Chloe realized that just as she'd resented Buffy for her place in Angelus--Angel's--life, he'd resented Faith and Wesley for their importance in hers. They were each other's family, they were all the other had left in this world, and they finally admitted it to each other.

"I don't want to go back there." Chloe whispered as they slept on the musty bed in the long-ago abandoned apartment building. "I know that that is your calling, to help the Slayer, but--."

"Buffy and I, we're finished." Angel whispered, heartbroken. "And I don't think my place is in Sunnydale anymore either. Things were fragile between the group and I before I went Angelus on them. Now, now they will never look at me and not see the demon or what he did." Angel closed his eyes. "Especially Rupert."

Chloe nodded her agreement. "He would get drunk the first two months I stayed with him, and he'd talk about her—about his gypsy love."

Angel nodded. "It's better that we start off somewhere fresh. Somewhere where we can help people in our own way. Somewhere where no one knows our name. I just don't know where we should go."

"We?" Chloe asked, looking up at him in surprise.

"Of course." Angel looked at her oddly. "You're coming with me."

She smiled at him. He hadn't even asked her. How Angelus of him--not that she'd ever tell him that of course. "What about L.A.?" The blonde suddenly suggested. "It is the 'City of Angels'."

Angel'd rolled his eyes at that, and yet the next night they'd bought tickets and were on the next bus to L.A. It was an odd life, and at first they didn't exactly know how they fit into it.

They'd gotten themselves an apartment whose bed they shared, but didn't live like man and woman. Angel not only feared that he might lose his soul again, but he didn't want to use his sireship influence over Chloe, and he was still so ashamed for what Angelus had done to her that he couldn't find it in himself to touch her like a man should.

And Chloe slowly accepted her new role in his life, even if she did resent it slightly.

Together they fought evil at night, stalking the dark ways and killing whatever creature preyed on the oblivious humans all around them. Together they slept in the apartment, tired from a night's work. Angel fed from pig's blood he would get from a butcher's just down the street, and Chloe would feed from Angel.

Somehow, despite the incredible arousing influence feeding from one another created, they managed to never pass that line Angel had marked and guarded between familiar and dangerously close.

Time passed and Chloe grew more comfortable with this respectful Angel of hers, and when Doyle appeared, the demon who had a connection to what he called The Powers That Be appeared—he changed their lives. He gave them purpose again, and thanks to him--even though it was quite indirectly--they met up with Cordelia Chase once again, and while Chloe and Cordelia had never been exactly close, the blonde had been happy to have a female she knew close by.

Then Cordelia came up with the idea for Angel Investigations and somehow everything was right.

Sure, there were odd moments, but the four of them quickly became a well-oiled machine. They worked wonderfully together, and once Chloe taught Cordelia how to type more than two words per five minutes they were made for success.

Doyle had the visions, Cordelia ran the small office, and Angel and Chloe fought the baddies. Despite the fact that Chloe had already been trained by Giles and Buffy about how to fight, Angel soon found her training to be 'inadequate' and took it upon himself to teach her the 'vampire' way to fight.

And Chloe learnt rapidly, enjoying her lessons with Angel because it gave them time alone amidst the hustle and bustle of their lives together fighting general evil, and Wolfram and Hart, which happened to be an evil law firm--yeah, go figure.

When Buffy sent them the Ring of Amara and Spike appeared in L.A. to take it from them Chloe was caught in a tough position. On one hand this was Spike, her family, her old confidant, the vampire who'd tried to help her after Angelus had made her an addict to his blood--and on the other hand it was Angel, the soul of her sire.

Things had become even more complicated when Spike had used an ability she hadn't known he'd had over her, the power of subtle manipulation. Apparently since she'd only drank from his blood for those months had created a similar bond between her and the platinum blonde that she had with Angel, and when Spike called for her she'd come to him.

Chloe had been unable to resist the pull of Spike's call, and she'd met him in the abandoned warehouse, telling him immediately that she would never betray Angel by revealing where the Gem was. She'd been surprised when Spike had chuckled and said that he knew that, and had instead offered her a cold beer and patted the place next to where he sat.

Confused, Chloe'd taken the beer and sat next to him, listening as the drunk vampire spilled out the story about how Dru had hated him for his betrayal of Angelus, calling him weak and leaving him for some sort of slime demon. He wanted the gem of Amara to show Dru that he wasn't weak and convince her to love him again.

He'd cried over his heartbreak at losing his 'dark princess', and Chloe'd held him close as he sobbed drunkenly against her. She could understand him because she felt the same distance between Angel and herself, and so she could understand the rejection Spike was receiving from his sire. She told him so, confessing to the vampire about her feelings and how hard it was for her to adjust to the relationship she now had with her sire.

And suddenly she wasn't just comforting Spike, Spike was comforting her back as well, muttering about how 'bloody stupid' the soul was.

The blonde never could understand how things happened, but somewhere between the holding and the whispers that everything was going to be alright their lips touched, innocently at first, and then all their feelings of loneliness and of being unwanted exploded as they reached for each other once more.

They knew that it wasn't love, it was understanding, it was comfort, and they took all they could, sharing, trying to not feel so unwanted anymore, if only for one minute.

So Chloe welcomed the first man other than Angelus within her as they moved together as one on the dirty floor of the abandoned building. It was over almost as soon as it'd started, and there weren't any words of love or adoration exchanged between them.

They knew that it hadn't meant anything. They knew that they'd needed something the other could give, and as a true vampiric family they'd tended to each other's needs.

"You're not going to get the Gem, Spike," Chloe whispered as she buttoned her shirt up again later. "And I don't want to fight you if you try to take it anyway. I don't."

"Me neither, my lil' Night Blossom." Spike admitted softly, sitting naked smoking a fag. "Right now you're the only family I have who gives a flying fuck if I met the dawn or not."

Chloe didn't contradict him. She knew Dru, knew her loyalty to Angelus, and knew that Angelus would always come first in her unbeating heart. A betrayal of her daddy wouldn't be taken lightly, and Drusilla most probably had left Spike for a slime demon just because she knew that it'd hurt him even more.

And Chloe knew that every time Angel saw Spike he was plagued with the evils of his heart, tortured by the memories of how he'd created the bloodthirsty creature that was his grandchilde. Angel felt heart-stopping remorse and guilt every time he was around Spike, which was why he hated to even see him.

So, yes, at the moment she was the only member of their family who gave a fuck about the platinum blonde.

"Go back to Dru," she whispered, causing Spike to look at her in surprise. "She's angry, yes, but you're her 'dark knight', you're the villain of her stories, and she adores you." Chloe finished buttoning her shirt and turned to Spike completely. "Convince her to forgive you and love you like she used to. Women want their men to fight for them--being alive or undead doesn't change that fact."

Spike paused, thinking this over. "Do you really think that I can win back my dark princess without the Gem of Amara?"

"Of course, Spike!" Chloe exclaimed, reaching over and touching him. "Out of all the people in England she chose you to sire. You. YOU are her dark knight." She smiled when she saw the hope in his blue eyes. "Go find Dru and remind her of that." Chloe paused. "Torture her if you have to. You know how she loves it when she get's tortured properly."

And suddenly Spike was grinning. "You're bloody brilliant!" Cupping her face with his hands, Spike kissed her before pulling away and pulling on his clothes rapidly. As soon as he'd put on the last of his clothes he'd hugged Chloe, thanked her for everything, and rushed into the night, promising to stay in touch and let her know how things ended up with Dru.

Chloe'd returned to the apartment, where Angel, Doyle and Cordelia were all going over what to do about Spike. The moment she'd walked in Angel's nostrils had flared and he'd turned to her angrily, and she'd known that he could smell Spike on her and what they'd done.

"Spike's gone, left town." And with that she'd walked passed the three sets of surprised eyes and locked herself in Angel's and her bedroom.

The next day, with confirmation from their sources that Spike had indeed skipped town, things returned to normal between them all and Chloe didn't know whether she was relieved or not that Angel never brought up what'd happened between her and Spike--never questioned her about it.

She'd finally caved and tried bringing up the subject herself, but Angel had stopped her, apologizing for his behavior.

"You didn't betray me, Chloe, we weren't and aren't together." Angel looked at the files in his hand. "And even if you had been with me at the time, Spike is a part of our family, whether I like it or not, and as you well know vampiric families share, it's our custom."

And when he'd said that she'd finally accepted that he was truly going to let things remain the way they were.

So she began to let go.

Doyle's heroic death a little while later, his powers transferring to Cordelia through the brief kiss he'd shared with her moments before his death, and Council-fired Wesley reappearing as a self-proclaimed 'rogue demon hunter' made life hectic enough for her to put everything behind her and concentrate on the now and not on the past.

And when Angel found and bought the Hyperion it was her idea for her to get her own room. She'd seen the surprise and hurt cross Angel's eyes, but he'd remained silent, he hadn't fought for her, and she'd realized that deep down inside she wasn't surprised.

She loved Angel, she always would, but what she'd told Spike was true.

Women wanted a man who'd fight for them, and Angel wasn't that man.

That didn't mean that she would ever leave him, he was her family, and she needed him as much as he did her.

And with that understanding came peace, and finally Chloe was on the road to regaining her heart and fixing it up for the man who might one day claim her and fight for her like no one else had.

She didn't know that events had already been set into motion for this man to appear, she didn't know that her own miraculous existence hadn't been a mistake but a plan, and she didn't know of all the drama she'd soon be experiencing.

No, as Chloe slept peacefully in her room besides Angel's, she was innocently ignorant of higher powers and of the greater plan.

The night blossom was on the road to blooming in the day once more, and it didn't even know it.

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So, that's the end of Night Blossom. Keep an eye out for the next segment in the series--shouldn't be out in too long.

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