Disclaimer: do I really have to write this? It's obvious, isn't it? If I owned them I would hardly spend my time writing fanfic
Distribution: Sure, if you want it take it, but please tell me where it goes.
Spoilers: the whole BtVS and Angel-series; and you should read the previous stories of the series so that you know what's going on.
Summary: Buffy and Angel meet the gang
Rating: see the show, you can read this
Feedback: is begged for

Angel could feel Buffy's tension on their drive to the library. She had been hyper the whole day, couldn't sit for a moment, was fidgeting with her hair, her shirt, which was one of Angel's. In the afternoon the vampire and the slayer were working out, this was the only time of the day she seemed a little bit relaxed, but she wasn't really as Angel's body could tell. Her punches had been hard, her kicks were hitting the right spots, not that she really noticed.

The vampire had been very concerned when she came back from her nightly walk through Sunnydale, seeing her mother must have been hard but surprisingly she slept well in his arms as did he. No nightmares this time. They became less and he welcomed it, but they were still there, especially the ones regarding his time in Hell.

When Angel was pulling the car in the parking space of Sunnydale High he saw his love biting on her lower lip which was trembling suspiciously. He reached over to squeeze her hand for a moment. She looked up and gave him a nervous smile as he smiled back assuringly: "Remember, just look at me when they bully you. Never forget they love you," he laughed shortly: "even Xander in his own twisted way, he's just a strange way of showing it."

"I love you, did I tell you that?," she asked him and her eyes were full of love.

"Once or twice," he joked.

"Do you use every possibility to drool over each other?" Doyle asked from the back-seat.

"Shut up, Doyle," Angel replied, but grinned at the same time. "He has a point, you know," he then said looking towards Buffy.

She grinned back: "Yeah, he has. Kiss me," she whispered, leaning over to him and their lips met gently, passionately.

"You can come when you're ready, I'm not watching you two anymore," Doyle rolled his eyes and left the car.

The lovers' lips parted and they began to laugh while their foreheads were still touching. "Come on, let's go," the vampire whispered after a while. They got out of the car and Angel held his hand out for her. She took it and they entwined their fingers tightly. Doyle looked at them shook his head and sighed dramatically which made the couple laugh again. So they walked to the door of the library in a considerably good mood. Right in front of the swing doors Buffy stopped and looked through one of the small windows in them. There they were, Willow, Xander, Cordelia and Oz. Giles was nowhere to be seen. She also saw Linette sitting beside Xander and staring into space. And there was another girl Buffy had never seen before. That had to be the other slayer she assumed.

Buffy tightened her grip on Angel's hand and looked at him: "So Giles only told them they had to come here tonight, but not about us, right."

He nodded: "Yes. That's what he told me on the phone."

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a short moment and when she opened them again she pushed the doors open.

Hearing the noise from the door the five people at the desk looked up. Willow's eyes widened in shock and a gasp escaped her mouth, Cordelia's reaction was almost identical. Oz looked a bit less indifferent than usual while Linette only smiled, as she'd seen them before. Xander on the other hand, who's feet were on the table in front of him made a sudden movement and crashed to the floor with his chair. The same moment Giles came out of his office and smiled at the small group from LA: "Ah, there you are," he greeted them.

"Buffy," Willow was the first to speak. "Oh god, Buffy, you're alive." Her hand flew to her mouth and tears welled in her eyes. Then her gaze wandered to the vampire: "And Angel. You're alive too. I... I ..., I don't know what to say. I just ... ," suddenly she stood up, ran over and hugged her friend tightly. "Buffy, oh Buffy. This is wonderful," she whispered happily. "I missed you so much." She pulled back, so that she could look into her friend's face. Both girls were crying now and they smiled at each other.

"Hi Will," Buffy said, her voice sounding strange. "I missed you too."

Then the red head turned to the vampire: "Angel. I am ... happy to see you too. I really am. Is it safe to say the spell worked, I mean re-cursing you?"

The vampire wanted to answer but Buffy was talking first: "Will, this is such an incredible story, I will tell you soon. Okay."

The witch nodded: "Okay. I am just so happy you're back." She hugged her friend again. Then she turned round to the scoobies: "Isn't that great?," she asked enthusiastically.

Oz smiled at her and then nodded at the three people from LA: "Yes, it's cool. Three slayers now," he commented.

"Welcome back, Buffy," Cordelia said, but did not get up. "I am really glad, you're alive. Not that we've ever been friends, but I kinda prefer you breathing."

"Thanks Cordy," the slayer replied gratefully. Then she looked at the last person at the desk: "Xander? Are you going to say something?"

The boy looked up and met her eyes for a moment: "What am I supposed to say? You just left and decided to make us believe you're dead." He jumped up and stared at his friends: "I cannot believe you're acting like this. Just 'hey Buffy, great you're back, we missed you, we love you'." He laughed bitterly and turned back at the slayer: "We were your friends Buffy, and you let us believe you died while you were screwing around with your undead lover."

"Xander," Willow yelled at him.

"Sorry, Will," he said: "but I cannot be as forgiving as you are." He looked at the Chosen One again: "How can you even hold his hand," he shouted shooting Angel a hateful glare. "He is a killer, you are the slayer, you should dust him. We saw what happened when you two are all over each other and yet you're with him again."

Buffy was totally taken aback. She had expected Xander to shout and yell, but now that it was really happening, she couldn't say a word. She only stared at him and silent tears were running down her face. Suddenly Angel freed his hand from hers and she gave him an astonished look. He only shook his head slightly, then he stepped towards Xander: "You feel so great, don't you," he began, his voice sounding cold and dangerous. "You are such a righteous man, aren't you." He was now only inches away from the boy. "You know nothing about Buffy and I, you have no idea what happened to her or me for that matter. I suggest, you will sit down and listen to her, before you say another word." Angel glared at him for a moment and was about to turn round, but then something came to his mind and he faced the boy again: "Xander, I always thought you were a jerk, but for Buffy's sake, because she liked you I was overlooking your behaviour again and again. But let me tell you, time's run out. If you should ever ... ever treat her like that again, I'll forget that I have a soul and remember the demon inside me. Is that clear?" He fixated Xander and for a second the vampire's eyes flashed yellow. Xander's eyes widened in fear and he stepped back, while Cordelia who was sitting behind him could hardly keep herself from laughing and put a hand over her mouth.

It seemed that all the people in the library had held their breath while Angel had spoken, it was deadly silent for a moment before Giles spoke: "Well, uhm ... why don't we just sit down, so that Buffy and Angel can tell their story." He looked around and everybody nodded in agreement. Xander only fell back on his chair and swallowed hardly. Angel gave him a last glare then he took a seat beside his lover. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, whispering something in his ear, nobody else could understand, but Angel smiled at her for a moment before he turned his full attention back to the Sunnydale-group.

"So tell," Willow looked at Buffy expectantly. "I assume there is a lot. And by the way who is he," she asked pointing in Doyle's direction.

"That's Doyle," the slayer replied. "He's kinda a messenger. He gets visions from the higher powers, they show us how to help people."

"I see, hi Doyle," the red - head greeted the stranger. "So I introduce us, these are Xander, Oz, who is my boyfriend," she said with a sweet smile. "Linette and Faith are slayers and Cordelia."

Doyle nodded and grinned: "Miss Chase and I've already met."

"Indeed we have," Cordelia grinned as well. "Visions huh?", she asked.

"Yeah, coming with head splitting migranes."

"Doesn't sound like something I'd like to have," she commented dryly.

"Could we just go back to the story?" Giles stepped in.

"Sure," the half-demon said and gave him an apologizing smile.

"Alright," Buffy began. "It all started the night I went to fight Angelus. We fought and suddenly his eyes changed and he was Angel again. But he'd already opened the vortex and so ...," she paused and her eyes were wandering to the floor. Angel squeezed her hand and she continued: "There was only one possibility to close it again and so I did... by sending Angel to Hell."

"Oh god," Willow whispered. "So the spell worked."

"It did," the slayer nodded. "But as I said, it was too late. I ... I will never forget the way he looked at me that night. He couldn't remember what he'd done while the demon had been in control and so he didn't understand what I'd just done to him. I couldn't even meet his eyes." She paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "Well, with Angel gone and my mother having kicked me out of the house and the whole Kendra-thing, it was just too much and I left. And went to LA. There I worked in a restaurant and felt miserable."

"What I don't understand," Cordelia's voice interrupted Buffy. "You said you sent him to hell," she pointed at Angel. "But he's sitting here. I don't get it."

"Well one night Whistler stood in front of my door. He's a demon, a good one and works for the Powers That Be as well. And he showed me to an apartment and there was Angel. Whistler told me that it had been a mistake, that he had never been meant to go to hell. So they brought him back. But he wasn't the man you see now, he ...," her voice broke and suddenly tears were running down her face. The others gave her concerned looks, while Angel just pulled her over and held her tightly in his lap. Still stroking her back, he continued, his voice sounding strangely distant. He'd always avoided to talk about hell, and he dreaded it, but it seemed the right time to do it now, to make them understand and to help Buffy, who's head was still buried in his neck.

"Hell is not a playground, you know. They torture you, body and soul and you forget everything. They find your weak spot and they easily found mine," his gaze wandered to the girl in his lap and then back to face the others again. "So they showed me Buffy in every possible situation. I am not going into details, but take your worst nightmares, duplicate them a hundred times and you don't even come near to what hell is like. Plus time is moving different there. A day on earth are hundred years there. So over the time you forget everything, and I did. I forgot my name, people I knew, who I was, the only thing I remembered were Buffy's face and her name, although I couldn't place them anymore, they were just something I connected with good." He paused and took another look at Buffy who was staring at him now, listening carefully. "So I was more like a shell when they brought me back and Whistler took care of me for the first time. He didn't want Buffy to see me that way."

"Yes," the slayer was sensing how difficult it was for him to talk about this. She knew the only reason he did it was to help her and her heart almost burst with love. Not moving from his lap, she said: "But Angel wouldn't heal properly as he refused to feed most of the time and so Whistler took me to him." She looked around and saw that everyone was listening: "I didn't know that you all thought I was dead. And I am sorry I didn't come back earlier, but I was dreading what I had to face if I did. And then Angel was still so weak, you cannot imagine... When we heard about the presumed-dead thing we wanted to come immediately but then Doyle had a vision. Oh, sorry, I left out the part where we have an investigation agency now and do special cases, haven't I." When she saw the others nod she smiled sheepishly. "Well it's Angel's way to redemption, his possibility to make amends. By helping people, I mean. So we do cases including demons, vampires and stuff." She looked at her lover for a moment and frowned:

"Although I still don't get it. Why they want you to make amends, I mean you've never done anything, the demon..."

"Buffy," he interrupted her. "We've been over this."

She sighed: "I know, I know."

"Wow," Willow said, looking in awe for a while. "You came back from hell, wow."

"Yeah," Angel replied. "It's pretty amazing."

"It's more than that," Giles said. "I've never read about something like that before. There's never been a reported case of someone escaping a demon dimension." He thought about it for a moment and then looked back at the vampire: "You have to be pretty important to the Powers."

"It seems so," Angel admitted.

"So you're going back to LA?" Willow asked, her voice sounding a little bit sad.

"I have to," the vampire answered. "It's my destiny."

"And Buffy?," Xander wanted to know.

"I'm going with him. Wild horses couldn't drag me away from his side again. I lost him once and I am not going to risk that again." Unconsciously she tightened her hold on his waist.

"So you just came to say hello and then it's goodbye scoobies again," Xander's voice sounded angry again and hurt. He'd missed Buffy, he'd hated Angel and in his eyes Angel was taking Buffy away from him, again. Taking her with him to LA.

"Xander," Buffy's voice sounded soft. "I am sorry, if I hurt you. I really am. I never intended to do so. I care for you, a lot. Your friendship means so much to me. And LA isn't so far. I would love you to come and see us at any time."

The boy looked at her for a moment and then he replied with a sad gaze: "I don't know, Buff, I really don't know. I am not sure what I feel towards you at the moment, besides the fact that I cannot stand the person on who's lap you are sitting. I think I need time." He shook his head sadly and then added: "I am sorry, but that's the only answer I can give you now."

The slayer nodded, her face wearing a sad expression as well: "I understand," she said with a small voice.

"How long will you stay in Sunnydale?" Linnette wanted to know.

"Some days," Buffy replied. "Although we don't really know. If Doyle has a vision we might have to leave earlier."

"Maybe we could do something together, while you're here. Have some ice-cream," Willow suggested.

"I'd like that," the slayer said, her voice sounding more optimistic now. She looked at Faith who hadn't said one word since they'd arrived and who was now standing in a corner, leaning at a bookshelf. "Would you come too?," she directed the question at the brunette slayer.

Faith was a bit started, but then she shrugged: "Sure. I'd like to know you a bit better," she grinned. "You're kind of a hero here, you know."

Suddenly Willow remembered something and looked at her friend: "Buffy, what about your mom? Did you talk to your mom?"

*********

"So we are meeting them tomorrow night for dinner and ice-cream," Doyle resumed when they were back at the mansion. "That's great," he added.

Buffy grinned: "You're only looking forward to, how did you call it, drool over Cordelia Chase," she shook her head. "She's never going to fall for you, Doyle. Cordelia wants to marry a millionaire. Besides she's with Xander."

"I am not so sure," Angel said thoughtfully. At her questioning gaze he explained: "I got strange vibes from them. I would bet they broke up."

"Really," the slayer replied. "Well, if you ask me it's not surprising. I never understood their relationship, if you could call it one at all."

"That means I've got a chance after all," the half-demon said, yawning. "I am heading for my bed." He grinned: "Don't do anything I wouldn't."

Buffy shook her head and laughed when he had disappeared from their sight: "I like him, you know. The longer I know him the more I like him."

"Me too." Angel replied, then he locked eyes with her: "But coming back to Willow's last question, love. When are you planning to see your mom?"

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