DISCLAIMER: Nothing belongs to me. Kudos to whoever came up with the lets-bring-people-on-to-TV-and-tell-them-stuff-that'll-shock-them-so-we-can-get-some-juicy-footage idea.
TIMELINE: Post s1/s4.
SPOILERS: Vague for Lie To Me, Becoming pt2, Graduation pt 2 - lets just say all of B/A.
FEEDBACK: Yes, please. I'm not sure if I'm cut out for fluff.
RATING: PG, I guess. I'm being safe.
SYNOPSIS: The gang appear on Jerry Springer.
DISTRIBUTION: Please, take it. Just LMK where it's going.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This came from a challenge which I can't exactly remember and couldn't find again; all I know is that the whole gang had to appear on Jerry Springer, argue about their relationships, and Buffy and Angel had to admit they still love each other, so that's the only criteria I worked with. If it was your challenge, please email me. I don't *think* I dreamt it.
AUTHORS NOTES 2: It starts out B/R. Keep going. Please. No, really. Please. Hello? Hello?
DEDICATION: Seth Green, for his Springer appearance in Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Jerry Springer beamed straight into the camera and said, 'and after the break, we'll be meeting our next couple for "I don't think you're over your ex!" Riley got together with Buffy without knowing that she had some dodgy relationships in her past. Now he's going to confront her about them'.

Seated nervously behind Jerry, Riley winced at how that sounded. He wasn't even sure how he'd ended up on the show, but he had a dim idea it was supposed to be a version of army jokes. He pictured the look on Buffy's face when she found out why she was there, and knew it was no joke at all. He eagerly took the distraction when Jerry came over and sat down next to him.

'You okay, Riley?'

'Yeah, thanks. Just a little nervous,' he replied, aiming for a similar professionalism, 'I'm not sure how she's going to react.'

'Well, she doesn't look like one of the violent ones,' Jerry joked.

Riley laughed weakly. He knew she didn't look like one of the violent ones. The problem was, she was anyway. Luckily, Jerry's attention was diverted by one of the crew indicating they were about to begin filming again, and Jerry moved to take up his 'host' place again.

'Welcome back. This is Riley,' he introduced, indicating Riley who smiled slightly, 'and Riley is here to talk with Buffy about her past choice of boyfriends. Riley, do you want to tell us about Buffy's ex?'

Riley paled and cleared his throat, 'Well, uh, Buffy was, before we met, she was with this guy.'

Jerry waited patiently. After a moment, he prompted, 'Yes?'

Riley thought. How to introduce the subject of the vampire with a soul without mentioning that he was a vampire with a soul? He gamely tried again, 'and he is ... was, um, a bad choice. 'Cause he was a bad influence! On her. One of the bad boy types. And he put her through a lot. He ... wouldn't commit! And then he left her, and she met me, and now, we're together. Buffy and I.'

Jerry looked a little nonplussed, but accepted it, 'Okay. Thanks'.

Riley closed his eyes for a moment, and then checked Joyce, sitting in the audience. She smiled approvingly, and he grinned back in relief. He focused back on Jerry, who was preparing to introduce Buffy.

'Riley's girlfriend doesn't know why she's here. She's been sitting backstage, unable to hear what's going on. She's blonde, she's beautiful, but she's not very discriminating,' Jerry informed the audience, 'we have Buffy to tell us her side of the story'.

Riley took a deep breath and faced the door he had been told would produce Buffy.

**********

Buffy stalked through the door, unable to believe what was going on. All she had gotten was a request to appear, and, curious, she had agreed. She assumed it was something to do with her dad; maybe some kind of 'my boyfriend has a daughter my age', or some such rubbish. Worst-case scenario? It was her mom telling the world 'I can't control my wild daughter'. She knew she should have brought her 'I'm a Slayer; ask me how!' button.

The last thing she expected to see was Riley, sitting grinning unsteadily at her. Her step slowing, she walked over to sit next to him, silently asking him what was going on. She sighed inwardly as he didn't seem to get the message.

She relaxed into her chair and let her eyes roam the audience. Stranger, stranger, her mother (probably not her idea then), stranger, stranger, Tara, Anya, Giles, Wesley, stranger ... Wesley. She looked hard at Giles first. He seemed to be very uncomfortable, which pleased her, oddly. Wesley was a different thing altogether. She realised that Wesley's presence probably indicated Angel's presence. She hadn't felt him near ... Buffy closed her eyes for a second, focusing and reaching out tentatively to search for Angel.

And then she felt him. Her eyes flew open and she gasped quietly, causing Riley to look at her with concern. If she hadn't been mad, and suspicious, and mad, she would have given him reassurance.

As it was, her whole being was locked up in Angel. The part of her which would always be the Slayer was screaming at her, to find wood, to hunt, to kill the vampire she felt more strongly than she ever had before. The rest of her was screaming at her to find the vampire and ... do things to him.

Buffy wondered if she was blushing. A covert glance at her mother revealed that nothing seemed to be wrong.

Apart from that she was being spoken to.

'... feels unable to get over some revelations you made to him about an ex-boyfriend,' Springer finished. Buffy thought about the last part of the sentence and said, 'Angel?' with surprise. She turned to Riley, 'You still feel threatened by Angel?' she asked affectionately.

**********

Riley smiled at her gratefully. She wasn't walking out, or even seeming to actively hate him, which was a better response than he had expected.

'I just know that he meant a lot to you for a long time, and I feel that I can't compete with that.'

Her eyes softened and she turned to him more fully, 'Riley. It's not a competition. How I feel about him has nothing to do with how I feel for you.'

**********

Jerry smiled with pleasure. Of course, such an easy conclusion didn't make for good TV, but it was nice to make the lives and love of such a cute couple run easier.

In the audience, Joyce Summers wore a similar expression of contentment.

Giles looked almost as uneasy as he felt, a sentiment he knew was echoed by Wesley beside him. With excellent knowledge of the people involved, both knew the situation would not be so easily resolved.

Especially not when they started bringing out the various people he knew sat backstage.

**********

Riley stared into Buffy's beautiful hazel eyes and couldn't stop a silly grin spreading across his face. He knew it. He knew she loved him. Actually, while they were in the forum, that was a good point.

He touched her hand gently to bring her back to him, where she belonged, 'That's a point, Buffy.'

She looked at him, baffled, 'What is?'

'Well, you've never said it.'

She smiled at him, 'I just did, Riley. You don't have to feel threatened by Angel. I'm with you.'

He tried again, 'No, not that. The other thing. You know, the three little words?'

She stared at him in consternation, suddenly realising she hadn't. And she hadn't because she'd never felt it. Oh, she loved him in a way. And if she hadn't had the experience with Angel, she would have thought how she felt about him enough to get them through anything, including a house, dog, people carrier and 2.4 children.

But after telling Angel she loved him, she found she couldn't use that word to describe how she felt about Riley. It simply wasn't comparable.

Yet there he was, eager grin on his face, waiting to hear it. It wouldn't hurt her to say it, she rationalised. Of course, she would have preferred him not to have asked her to give him an open declaration on international television (and wasn't that sensitive of him? a little part of her head sniped), but there was no harm in it.

Angel had asked her if she loved him. And she'd had no doubt then.

But, no, Riley. Was asking. She opened her mouth. Nothing happened. She breathed, conjured up a fascimile of a happy smile, and had another go.

'I ...'

*********

'We think you need a little more background on this relationship,' Jerry was saying, oblivious to the inner struggle taking place right behind him. Riley's grin slipped a little, and he settled back, resigned to hearing what he wanted so badly post-show.

'So,' Jerry continued, 'We've brought some of Buffy's friends in to tell you.' Buffy's eyes widened in shock and she drew in a sharp breath before turning to glare at Riley.

'They've witnessed both of these relationships, I'd like you to welcome Willow, Xander and,' Jerry peered at his card, 'Spike!'

The audience burst into enthusiastic applause. Buffy started to quietly hyperventilate. Spike? Of course, he had been around during her relationship with Angel - well, her relationship with Angelus - and he'd watched her get together with Riley, but he hated both men. What could he possibly bring to the bloodshed? Except possibly actual blood?

Buffy prepared herself to glare mightily at each newcomer. Willow, blushing madly and looking incredibly guilty as she scuttled in and mouthed apologies at Buffy, Xander trying not to look overwhelmed, and Spike sauntering in and hamming it up madly for the audience. Buffy squinted at him. At least he'd had his roots done. She presented them with the most betrayed look she could manage as they sat down.

*********

Backstage, Angel sat, fuming silently and glowering at Cordelia, who was preening for her forthcoming TV appearance.

'I can't believe you tricked me into coming here,' he said again.

Having already explained her theory of closure, she ignored him again.

*********

Onstage, Jerry was questioning the newcomers about Buffy's relationship with Angel.

'Well, it was difficult,' Willow explained haltingly, catching Tara's eye in the audience and drawing strength from her, 'because of him being,' she stumbled.

Spike rolled his eyes, 'Amish.'

'Right!' Willow said gratefully, 'the Amish thing. He was different to her, you know. They were different. And then after he,' she ran into trouble again.

Xander rescued her this time, 'became a priest.'

'Yes, exactly. After the change, to, um, priesthood, he really did change. And then the relationship just never really recovered after that. It completely altered the whole dynamic.'

'Well, surely it changed the physical side of the relationship?' Jerry probed.

'Yeah,' Xander chipped in, 'They could no longer have the sex, and judging by the way she and Riley go at it, that was a big problem.'

'Xander!' Buffy exclaimed. He shrugged.

'But that wouldn't be a problem anymore,' Spike said smugly.

Buffy felt dazed, 'What did you say?'

'The ... ritual that made him unable to, was changed to take that clause out,' Spike revealed.

'How do you know?' Buffy said in a silky, dangerous tone. Spike recognised it instantly, and replied just as fast, 'the watch, um, Giles told me.'

In the audience, Giles cringed as she gave him an agonized look of betrayal. She stood up.

'How could you do that to me?' she asked in a heartbreakingly disbelieving tone.

Jerry hurried to give Giles the microphone.

'Sir, you somehow got this Angel out of his vows?'

'His what?' Giles asked, confused.

'His priesthood vows,' Jerry clarified.

Giles still looked confused for a minute, 'Oh, yes! Actually, a friend told me that it had happened shortly after I asked him to do a favour that was ... somewhat related.'

Buffy thought about it, then realised he must mean the shaman who had pretended to release Angelus during the lets-make-Faith-talk fiasco, a memory she still shied away from.

'And you let him go anyway? You let him leave me?' she asked pitifully. Giles stared at her and regretted his decision, not for the first time.

'I'm sorry, Buffy. At the time it seemed like the ... it seemed to be the best way.'

'The best way? How could that have been the best way? It killed me to watch him walk away from me!'

*********

Angel shot up reflexively as an agony of confusion, disbelief and betrayal passed to him from Buffy.

*********

'Well, excuse me for not believing a man who could almost kill you was the best option!' Giles shouted, in his anger forgetting that such a statement might lead to awkward questions.

'Twice!' Xander added for good measure.

'Could you explain that for us?' Jerry asked loudly.

Giles stared at him in shock, remembering where he was, 'Well, he, aah, I mean, Angel, um'

'Emotionally,' Spike said.

'Yes!' Giles clutched gratefully at the reprieve, 'emotionally.'

'Neither of those were his fault!' Buffy shrieked, tears beginning to well, 'the first time, that wasn't him, and the second wasn't really either!'

'Please!' Xander yelled, 'He almost sacrificed you so he would be okay!'

'I forced him!' she screamed, 'Okay? I made him drink! I chose that, because I would rather die than see him dead!'

'Does he become violent when he drinks?' Jerry asked, unheard.

Joyce marched up to him and grabbed the mike.

'It's okay,' she assured him, 'I'm her mother.' Confused, Jerry fell back and let her take the microphone.

'BUFFY!' Joyce said sternly, 'Sit down now! Mr Giles, Xander, do the same.'

Buffy stared at her mother for a few seconds, then collapsed into her chair, the tears beginning to flow freely. Riley reached to comfort her, but she pulled away from him, turning instead to Willow's unjudgmental presence next to her and sobbing in the redhead's embrace. He sat back bewildered. He'd known that Buffy and Angel had a convoluted past, but not that it had been quite this complex. Then something Buffy had said registered with him and his eyes fastened on the scar at the base of her neck. *I made him drink*. He couldn't help his soft gasp of disgust.

*********

Jerry was glad to reclaim the microphone. He tried to collect himself. The girl had seemed so small. He became aware of an arm waving next to him, and walked over, 'Do you have a comment?'

'Yeah, I do,' the woman said, glaring at Xander and Giles, 'I think it's pretty obvious from all this that the girl,'

'Buffy,' Jerry interjected.

'Yeah, fine, isn't over this Angel. It's getting to her too much for her to have detached.'

'Thank you,' Jerry said, then realised she'd given him a great lead-in, 'Our next guest has known both Buffy and Angel for quite some time, but she's going to give us Angel's side. This is Cordelia.'

*********

Cordelia made her entrance to the best of her ability; Springer wasn't the best place to get discovered, but it beat not getting discovered at all. She gave the audience, and cameras, a dazzling smile before checking out the state of the stage. Buffy crying, Willow comforting, Xander looking disgruntled, Spike smirking (anomaly, but understandable with new information), Giles looking worriedly on. Quite standard, really.

She turned her attention to Jerry as she swept gracefully over to her seat. He appeared quite taken with her and her new Little Black Dress.

'Cordelia,' he addressed her and the cameras, 'You went to school with Buffy, and you now work with her ex-boyfriend, Angel.'

'That's right.'

'What can you tell us about the relationship?' he asked.

'It was hard,' she replied, getting into the part, 'because of what he is,'

'A priest,' Jerry added.

Cordelia stared at him for a second, 'What?'

'The priesthood vows Angel made. That make him different. And unable to consummate,' Xander said quickly, hoping she would get it. She stared at him for a moment now, then realised, 'Oh! Yeah, that's it. And he and Buffy never went together that well,' she supplied.

Buffy erupted out of her seat, 'What! How can you say that?'

Cordelia narrowed her eyes at Buffy, then turned deliberately to face the cameras and spoke calmly, 'She wasn't very nice to him.'

'Why not?' Willow asked.

'Come on,' Cordelia said, 'I mean, we never knew because he's not exactly Mr Share-a-lot and we didn't like him much anyway, but she put him through a lot.'

'She put him through a lot!' Joyce exclaimed from the audience.

Cordelia defended herself - and Angel! 'Yeah, she did. I mean, he put her through a lot, like when he ... changed,' she hoped that was acceptable, 'but that wasn't him. Angel would never hurt Buffy, but she flirted with other guys,'

'I did not!' Buffy shouted.

Cordelia continued smoothly, 'She blew hot and cold towards him all the time, she never thought about how he might be feeling,'

'Aah!' Buffy complained.

'Well, you did. Like when he split up with you. I mean, that just wrecked him, but you just thought about how hard it was for you, and then got over him really quickly and didn't even remember when he gave up humanity -' Cordelia rushed out.

'When he, what!' Spike yelled.

Cordelia mentally replayed what she had said "break-up, rebound guy, human day" and realised that she had said the thing she wasn't supposed to know, let alone tell Buffy. She blew out quick, short breaths "OhGodOhGodOhGod".

The audience had gone quiet in confusion. Jerry assumed he must have heard wrong and went on regardless, fervently wishing the producers had refused this particular request. He leaped on one part of Cordelia's allegations gratefully, 'Let's talk about the break-up for a minute - someone in the audience mentioned it?'

'Giles,' Buffy answered quietly,' my, um, mentor.'

'Okay,' Jerry said, slightly manically, 'can we just focus on that for a moment?'

Buffy acquiesced with a slight nod.

'Was it a hard split?' Jerry asked, relieved to be on familiar ground.

'Yeah, it was,' Buffy said, eyes cast downward as she remembered, 'He was very - autocratic about it all. He decided that he wasn't good for me and that I deserved more, and he told me he was leaving.'

'And that made you feel ...'

'Bitter,' she replied honestly, 'And annoyed, because he didn't seem to trust me enough to make my own decision, and betrayed, because I thought he loved me,' she rubbed a tear from her cheek impatiently, 'and terrified. Because I didn't know how I would make it without him. He was the only one ... he never judged me. He was just there whenever I needed him.'

The audience now went silent, awed at the strength of the love this girl still seemed to carry for the now infamous Angel. On the stage, Willow reached for Buffy's hand and clasped it tightly. Buffy returned the squeeze and smiled at her through the tears again adorning her cheeks. Riley sat back, finally defeated by the memory he had thought dead.

'Okay,' Jerry said, near tears himself. He'd thought he'd seen some screwed up relationships, but this one had to be one of the most; and one of the most that seemed destined anyway.

He collected himself and looked around the audience. The mentor guy seemed penitent, the guy beside him thoughtful; one of the girls next to them appeared to be communicating obscene sign language to someone on the stage. From the look on her face, she wasn't getting too much joy. The mother looked both weary and upset.

And, slowly, much of the remainder of the audience were raising hands, desperate to have their say. Robotically, Jerry went over to one of the closest.

'What do you think?'

The man stood up, 'Obviously she's not over this other guy. It's not fair on the first one for them to be having a relationship.'

Buffy risked a glance at Riley; he smiled at her, a small, bittersweet smile that let her know he agreed with the man. She smiled back, and both knew that, someday, they could be friends.

Buffy looked around at the situation she was in - revealing some very private things on national TV, makeup everywhere, very embarrassing - and thought "or not".

Jerry was moving, offering the microphone to another man, 'I think she needs to talk to Angel, because she needs to do something about that so she can have other relationships.'

And a woman, 'I think to be that sure of someone else even with that many problems is just beautiful.'

Then one, final, woman, 'It seems to me that Buffy's grown a lot since she and Angel broke up - has Angel changed?' she directed the question to Cordelia, who, disconcerted, only nodded back, 'good, then I think they should have another try. She's obviously still in love with him, and that must be something pretty special to have lasted so long.'

They had been, Buffy realised. It was just that in the recriminations, and the longing mixed with a kind of hatred for his leaving, together with a dim understanding that maybe they did need something else, she had forgotton just how special they were. Forgotton his sweet touch, the memory of which on their one night together could turn her on more than a thousand nights with Riley. Forgotton the surprise of his smile, or laugh, when it came, always more readily in her presence.

It had taken the course of another relationship to make her remember. And now she had, she didn't intend to forget again soon. In fact, she intended to make him remember. Forcefully, if necessary.

'We have one last thing today,' Jerry was saying when Buffy pulled herself back to the present, 'We have Angel, here, backstage. Would you like to meet him?'

The crowd cheered, and Buffy started, recollecting that she felt his mind earlier.

'This is Angel!'

Unconsciously, Buffy rose to her feet, opening her mind again to his, feeling his surprise at her readiness to accept him and joy that she had done so.

He entered the room. The audience's catcalls and yells fell silent as they watched intently to see what would happen.

Buffy and Angel stood motionless and regarded each other for years. Then she was across the room in seconds. She grabbed him and pulled his head down to her, murmuring, 'I love you,' into his ear before kissing him passionately. He responded instantly, his tongue slipping into her mouth, his lips crushing hers, until he pulled away. She stood before him for a moment, unable to gauge his reaction. He smiled and pulled her close again to whisper, 'I love you too,' into her ear before their lips met again.

The audience went crazy, and Jerry Springer grinned in pleasure before thruing to the camera to say, 'Well, this is quite the happy ending, if not quite the one we might have expected.'

He grew more serious and the crew shushed the audience, though they could do nothing about the couple who kept on kissing in the background and their friends arguing quietly beside them.

'Everybody has some stuff in their pasts that they're not proud of. The important thing for us to remember that it's in the past. People can change. Until next time, take care of yourselves, and each other.'

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