DISCLAIMER: Buffy, Angel and the gang belong to the evil Joss and I only own the characters I make up. In a perfect world however I would own all of them, Buffy and Angel wouldn't have broken up and Riley would never have existed.
SUMMARY: It's been more than 17 years since anyone has heard from Buffy...until a phone call changes that.
RATING: PG
SPOILERS: General (if any)
TIMELINE: Over 17 years after IWRY
DISTRIBUTION: You want you can have it, just tell me where you put it.

Buffy Summers was sitting in her living room, channel surfing while she waited for Hope to come home, when she saw it. It was an commercial for Angel Investigations, Buffy was still sitting there thinking about Angel when the front door opened. In walked a teenage girl, about 17 years old with dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

"Hey mom" the girl said.

"Hi sweetie, how was patrol?" Buffy asked her.

"Same old, same old. You know vamp + slayer = dust" Hope replied.

"With you it's more like, vamp + slayer = make out session", Buffy commented dryly.

"Mom, what makes you think that Dev and I would ever do that?" Hope asked innocently, wondering how her mother had guessed.

"This may shock you, but I was 17 and in love once myself" Buffy replied, wistfully.

"Oh, yeah. Who was he?"

"Your father. Now go wash up for dinner" Buffy said, ending the conversation.

Hope realised this and with a sigh, hung up her coat and headed upstairs. Buffy watched her daughter go, she couldn't believe how lucky she was to have her. It was ironic that with this had come the normal life, Angel had so desperately wanted for her, and yet without him she wouldn't have it. She walked into the kitchen to finish making dinner.

The next afternoon, Buffy sat with the phone in front of her and she finally gave into temptation, she picked it up and dialled a number she knew by heart.

A voice answered, "Angel Investigations".

She hadn't heard his voice in over 17 years.

"Hello, is anyone there?" he asked.

Buffy was about to respond when she heard Hope come home, she quickly hung up and headed into the den to catch up on some work.

As Angel was hanging up the phone, Cordy entered the room and asked, "Who was on the phone?"

"I don't know" Angel replied. "They didn't say anything anything and then they hung up".

"Angel, we are never going to get any clients if you keep answering the phone" she teased.

"Ha-ha" Angel replied sarcastically.

Cordy stared at the phone for a moment before suddenly saying "I can't stand it".

"What?" Angel asked, confused.

"Not knowing who called. I'm gonna *69 them" Cordy said.

"What?" Angel repeated.

"Are you totally clueless?" she asked.

"I know what *69 is Cordy, I just can't believe you'd invade someone's privacy. If you're doing it, I'm leaving".

"Bye Angel" Cordy said, picking up the receiver.

Hope was hanging up her coat, when the phone rang. She reached out and grabbed it, saying "Hello Summers' residence".

There was silence on the other end until a voice asked uncertainly, "Is Buffy there?"

"Yeah, she is. I'll get her for you"Hope said, then yelled "Mom, phone".

Buffy cam and took the phone saying, "Thanks sweetie". She then spoke into the phone "Hello".

"Hi Buffy. Thought you were dead" cam the answer.

"Cordy?" Buffy asked in disbelief.

"So what's up? Besides playing Mommy" since there was no answer, Cordy continued. "I guess contact with friends wasn't a high priority" and with that comment she hung up.

Buffy stood there for a few minutes and when she finally snapped out of her funk, she got angry. She was not thinking straight when she called Angel Investigations, so when she got the answering machine she left Cordy a message.

"Cordy, you'd better hope that our paths don't cross anytime soon, just stay out of my life. Oh and if you want to know why I disappeared, why don't you ask your boss, Mr-I-Make-All-Buffy's-Decisions-For-Her-No-Matter-The-Repercussions. And Cordy however you got my number lose it. I didn't want to know you in high school and I sure as hell don't want to know you now".

Buffy hung up, feeling much better now she'd vented. She went into the living room and started to read.

When Doyle walked into the office the next night he saw Angel sitting in his office, more deeply involved in brooding than he'd seen him since Buffy died. "Hey man, what's up?"

All Angel said was, "Listen to the machine".

Doyle did what Angel asked and was shocked by what he heard. "Was that Buffy?" he asked.

"Yeah, she sounds pretty good for a dead woman, doesn't she?"

"I'm guessing my princess knows that Buffy is alive and kicking?" Doyle said.

"I gather this means she didn't tell you"

"No" Doyle said, "Look man if I'd known about Buffy, I would of told ya"

Just then Cordy walked in and both men turned to look at her. "What?" she exclaimed.

"Well princess, you have a message" Doyle told his wife, as he played back the message.

"Oh, boy" Cordy muttered, after she heard it. When she looked up she saw Angel and Doyle waiting for an explanation. "Ok, yesterday when I *69'd the call it was obviously Buffy's number and we had a fight. I hung up on her and she must of called and left the message".

"And you planned to tell us when, princess?" Doyle asked.

"Never. I mean I didn't want to send Angel into turbo brood again" Cordy replied.

Turning to Angel, Doyle asked "What do we do now?"

"We call Giles" Angel said.

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