The minutes crawled by with painful slowness. After twenty-five of them, Angel began eyeing Spike warily, his brow furrowing slightly as he watches his childe hanging onto the steel bars, banging his entire body against them in a violent attempt to break free. "Stupid! *bang* God-damned! *bang* Bloody hell! *bang bang bang* "

"Spike!" Angel's shout knocks the blonde vamp back to reality. "Conserve your strength! Your body beating up the bars isn't getting us anywhere!"

"Well at least I'm making an effort!" he retorts, pulling himself off of the cage, slumping back down next to the others. "I don't see you doing anything to get us out of here *and*, by the way, save your daughter from being a sacrificial goat!"

Hearing enough, Angel quickly sits up, grabbing Spike by his jacket and slamming him back against the bars. "Get this through that neurotic little head of yours-" Before he can get his threat out, Angel begins panting heavily, pulling away from the vampire as he holds a hand to his head, reeling backwards in exhaustion.

"Angel?" Buffy hurries to his side, grabing him by the arm and leading him back to sit down beside her. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Tired..." he sighs, holding his head in his hands. "It's getting...harder to breathe..."

"I know," Buffy whimpers, sliding her arms around him. "You're exhausted- we all are."

"Not me," Spike smugly smiles.

"Of course not!" Dawn snaps at him. "You don't have to breathe!"

"Dawn..." Buffy sighs, trying to calm her sister down.

"You won't last much longer," Gunn assures the bleach blonde annoyance. "It's an energy drainer. Doesn't matter if you're among the land of the living or not, so long as you've got energy to lose."

Ignoring their bickering for a moment, Angel pulled himself back up against the bars to observe Quinn. His eyes bulged at the sight of her, all bundled up in some sort of basket, beginning to faintly cry. What sent such anguish through him was just how close she was to them, but still unreachable.

Quinn's whimpers finally reached Buffy's ears, drawing her over beside Angel. Inside she was screaming, lifting her face and staring with a determined fierceness at the sight of her captive daughter.

"Take a good long look, slayer..." Kamien laughs as he enters the lab, "and know that it will be your last." Buffy blinked at him, then shifted her gaze to scan Lilah standing behind him. She dismissed her and returned her gaze to Kamien once more.

"Kamien!" Buffy's desperate cry caught the creature by surprise as he began to lift Quinn back into his arms. "I am begging you..." Her eyes widened before she allowed herself to continue. In all her life, in all her battles, she'd never spoken so fervently and with such despair. "Don't do this-"

"Oh spare me the sob story!" The demon seemed amused by her desperate attempt to appeal to his emotions. Unfeeling, uncaring, disregarding the idea of such a thing as sensitivity, he straightens with the infant in his arms, cracking a small smile, tight and cold. "Nothing can interfere with my plans."

"Looks like we caught you with your plans down!" Before he can even glance over his shoulder, the shocked demon is knocked to the ground by a kick from Xander, staring down at his prone form as the others emerge from the vortex. Xander's heart is thumping so hard that he felt the pulse, high and fast, in his throat, surprised that he'd managed to make contact with the creature. As he lifts an arm to strike him again, he finds it caught in the air from behind by Lilah.

"A little out of your league, aren't you boy?" She pulls back a hand to slap him but is suddenly spun around by Cordelia who delivers her own devastating punch straight to Lilah's jaw.

"Do you know how long I've waited to do that?!" the brunette shouts as she looks down with a proud smile at the young woman's prone form.

"Taught 'er everything I know!" Spike yells from the cage, beginning in his attempts again to break free and get in on all the action.

"Then explain how you got caught, oh wise master," Cordy smirks, racing over to her friends along with Wesley.

"Never mind us!" Buffy yells. "Get Quinn!" As the two turn to help the others, they find their teammates all laid out on the tiled floor of the lab, slumped over in pain from what they assumed to be a rather quick beating from Kamien.

"Looks like me and the little lady here should be going," Kamien laughs, preparing to port once again. He passes one final look to Lilah as she tries getting up from the floor. "Too bad you won't be able to see the show, but I don't seem to be in any further need of your services." He grabs her by the hair, bending her head back until she was staring at the ceiling, shrieking in response, as he knocks her fully unconscious with a hard blow the the back of her head.

Lifting himself up from where he'd been knocked only seconds ago, Xander's eyes focus on the sight of the creature, positioning himself into the familiar stance he had seen him take just before he would teleport. As she glimpes her ex beginning to make an attempt to charge after Kamien, Cordy races over to him, helping him steady himself on his feet. Sharing a determined look, their initial shared impulse was so strong that it overrode everything, including the sure knowledge that by doing what they were about to do, they would be risking both of their lives. Without thinking, they each make a leap forward and grab hold of Kamien just as the demon teleports himself, Quinn, and the two daring young fighters.

"No!!!" Angel cried to himself, now beginning to mourn the sudden loss of both his daughter and his two friends. "Get us out of here! Now!" he shouts, instructing the others as they gathered around the steel bars, still in shock by what they'd seen done.

"Be careful of the light," Gunn warns them, panting for air as he does. "It's an energy drainer...don't get too close."

Despite the group's efforts, they had little success in breaking the barred frame. After a few more exasperating attempts, Dawn's meek voice finally spoke up over all of the clamoring with her sudden idea. "If this light is absorbing all of our energy, if the five of us were to just let it drain us while the rest of you kept trying on the outside-"

"Their would be a sudden surge of energy," Anya finishes for her, picking up on the young teen's keen insight. "Maybe it would be enough to break this open." Willing to try anything, Angel was the first to reach back and touch the circular rheostat projecting the light from the wall. When he touched it, blue electric fire squirted out between his fingers, so thick it was more like jelly than light. Following his lead, the other captives rush the light as their saviors on the outside made a solid attempt to break down the steel.

The rheostat's center began to turn black, blowing off of the wall and zipping across the cage like a bolt of lightning. It's surge broke the bars, the steel shattering, showering the others with assorted fragments as its inhabitants collapsed forward, their energy levels almost totally drained.

"Are you all alright?" Giles asks them, helping the slayers to their feet.

"Where did..." Buffy stumbles, lifting a hand to the side of her head at the sudden onrush of pain. "Kamien...where did he take them?"

"Don't worry, Buffy," Fred assures her. "We've got the reader working. That's how we found you. We can trace wherever Kamien took them." The young girl fell silent for a moment as she began fiddling with the device's controls, cursing under her breath as her efforts produce nothing.

"What's wrong?" Dawn asks. "Why isn't it working?"

"Because no one gave me a chance to test it," Fred sighs. "I told you I didn't know how stable it would be. Just give me a minute- maybe I can fix it." As her brow furrows in deep concentration, Angel, slayer healing starting to kick in, takes command.

"Did you guys find anything else about how to fight this thing?"

"Well we've got the reader," Anya says with an unconscious arrogance to her voice. "What else is there? We grab him and send him through the vortex."

"And how do you propose we do that since the bugger won't stay still long enough for us to grab him?" Spike snaps at her. "I suppose we could just go up to him, hand him the reader and say, 'Here- hold this while we suck you into it' !"

"That's enough!" Buffy shouts, turning to her former watcher for any added guidence. "Giles?"

"If we could just manage to get him to teleport into a solid object. I mean, even if it was only half-way through it, that would be enough to hold him- maybe even kill him before he's sent back."

"Well we'd need to get him to teleport into someplace he's never been or seen," Buffy reminds him, taking notice of her best friend, standing alongside her with eyes that seemed to be struck with a startling notion. "Will?"

"The roof," she mumbles, trying to gather her thoughts before continuing with her proposed plan. "If we could lead him up to the roof, maybe we could get him to teleport through the ledge or something."

"I think our man's a little too smart to just go teleporting through a ledge," Spike says.

"A spell," Tara adds to her lover's idea. "We could do a glamour spell to make the roof appear longer than what it is, that way when he teleported, he wouldn't be able to tell where the ledge was and just go right through it."

"You sure magic is going to work on him?" Angel worries.

"No better time to find out," Willow passes him a weak smile. As the others began pondering, realizing that the idea seemed to make sense, and was so far there only one, Fred gleefully starts cheering as she finally picks up a signal on Kamien and his fellow teleporters. "They're right outside- Quinn too." A huge sigh was shared among the group as Angel and Buffy formulate their plan of attack.

"Giles," the blonde turns to face him, "take Will and Tara up the back hall and head up onto the roof. The rest of us will try and get him up there."

"And what about her?" Wes points to a still-unconscious Lilah, lying helplessly on the cold floor.

"Dawn-" Angel addresses the girl he'd come to cherish and love more than his own recently demised sister, "you and Anya tie her up- bring her back to the hotel and stay there." He pauses to take in the sight of her, his lips quivering into a small snarl that only Buffy and Spike's hearing picked up on. He'd momentarily considered sending her to Mekon with Kamien, but ultimately decided against it, wishing to deal with her himself once they'd finished with the demon.

"Angel, come on-" Dawn tries arguing with him, but upon seeing his resolute face, simply nods and wishes them luck before she and Anya went in search of whatever rope they could find in the lab.

Deciding to conserve the reader's energy, the others split up and race out of the lab, down the back stairway. The emotions playing across their faces made their eyes look almost confused, bewildered, and somewhat dazed. Even after all they'd done, all their battles, they'd never had a dealier enemy to deal with or a deadlier price to pay.

"If this is going to work, we can't be a millimeter off," Gunn warns as they reach the back of the Wolfram and Hart offices.

"This *will* work," Buffy silences him, spotting Kamien out of the corner of her eye and preparing to take her position.

"How can you be so sure?" Spike questions her confidence, though knowing full well the lengths they would all be willing to go to to stop Kamien. One look at Angel's face, along with his accompanying remark, was enough of an answer for him.

"Because it has to..."

******

Cordelia and Xander collapsed to the ground as Kamien landed, reappearing in the back of the building. There was a moment of silence while the two brave friends carefully observed the demon looking around in shock, his energy levels also drained by the strain of teleporting such a huge mass along with him. "You fools!" he screams at last. "Do you know how long its going to take me to replenish my energy?" He leans over, grabbing Xander by the neck with his free hand, letting out a soft laugh. "No matter...I was going to start by taking Quinn out of the picture, but now...I think I'll start with you."

"I don't think so." A swiftly approaching Angel grabs Kamien from behind, picking him up and sending him flying into the metal fence. As the surprised creature bounces off the chain links, Buffy makes a fast grab for her daughter, extracting the infant from his arms.

Dazed momentarily, Kamien realizes the change of weight in his arms, lunging forward to recollect Quinn but lands right into Buffy's quick kick, his head slamming into the sidewalk, hurt by the impact of the slayer's boot. His lip starts to swell as Angel picks him back up and slams Kamien's face directly into the fence. His lip immediately bleeds and Angel rubs his face in the now-broken part of the metal, draining the blood from his swelled lip even more.

Before moving in to assist Angel furhter, Buffy turns to Xander, handing over Quinn as she shouts over her shoulder to the others. "Get back to the Hyperion- now!! Go!!"

"What about you guys?" Cordelia pleads.

"Go!!" Angel reiterates, landing another punch on a weakened Kamien.

"Come on luv," Spike grabs hold of her arm, steering her in the opposire direction. "We'll get the lil' bit home," he nods towards Quinn, saying his own silent prayer that the child had been recovered before the ritual could take place, seemingly unharmed.

Kamien slowly comes around and notices that Angel's back is turned towards Buffy and the others were already out of the slayers' helping distance. He wipes the blood from his lip and crawls over to the corner of the alley, noticing the chain cutter laying thoughtlessly in the clearing.

Buffy sees out of the corner of her eye the glint of the metal instantly and she tries to warn Angel but it's too late. Kamien smashes the tool into the side of Angel's rib cage and he collapses to the ground in immense pain. The assassin grins and continues to ram the tool into his side as the slayer groans from the sudden pain, doubling over as Buffy's face tells it all.

Wanting desperately to rush to the aid of her husband, Buffy resists the urge, remembering their original plan of splitting up and drawing him up to the roof. "Let's take this little tango up top, shall we?" she shouts to Kamien, taking off up the fire escape before he can even begin his pursuit. Still not having enough time to build up his energy, Kamien opts not to teleport and instead revel in a good old fashioned chase.

Managing to stay a good two or three feet ahead of him, Buffy reaches the top of the roof, seeing the two wiccans in deep concentration of maintaining their glamour spell over the outstretched ledge.

"Where's Angel?" Giles yells as he and Fred begin readying the dimensional reader.

"Just get ready," Buffy dismisses their concerns as she stands on guard, hearing the demon's footsteps fast approaching. When Kamien appeared at long last, Buffy was most fearful upon noticing that Angel was not following behind him. Pushing her accompanying idea out of her mind, she quickly goes to swing a punch at Kamien, only to find herself crash as he teleports out of the way.

"Thanks for the warm-up run," Kaminen smiles, reappearing behind her and kicking her onto her back. "Helped me build up just enough energy." Another few kicks leave Buffy rolling in pain, holding a hand to her stomach as she passes up a glare to the attacking demon. "Pity...I was hoping you would've put up more of a challenge than Angel." He lifts his foot to plant another kick to the side of her head, shocked to have it grabbed just before impact as Buffy flips him onto his back.

"Advanced healing as well," Kamien laughs, porting to another spot on the roof. "I'm impressed."

"We?re not here to impress you." Angel comes leaping straight at him, but finds himself coming up short, instead spearing Fred down knocking the reader out of her hands as he hears Kamien's maniacal laugh echoing as the demon disappears once again.

"Fred," Angel jostles her slightly, trying to rouse her. "Fred!" Sensing a perfect opportunity, Kamien reappears, swooping down to snatch the reader from where it had landed and decides to use it to his own benefit. Taking aim over the side of the ledge, he opens a new vortex, then using his own body for force, dives at Angel and Fred, sending the three of them into the portal, Buffy's scream the only sound to be heard as the swirling black oval closes.

*****

"Where are they??" Buffy cries, scurrying over to her former watcher. "Giles- where are they??"

"Stuck in the vortex," he replies blankly. "We hadn't set the frequency yet, so they haven't been teleported anywhere. They're just...stuck between dimensions."

"Well unstick them!" she demands, shoving the reader into his hands. "Do it!" As Giles begins fumbling around with the controls, Buffy's ears pick up on an approaching sound. She turns to find Kamien materializing behind them, just inches away from the ledge Willow and Tara were still manipulating with their spell.

"Tricky little machines, aren't they?" he laughs. "You should've let me try to fix that one for you too." He pauses in his mocking to take in Buffy's despairing look upon seeing that only he had teleported back to the roof- Angel and Fred were still nowhere to be seen. "What's wrong, Buffy?" Kamien lets out a maniacal laugh. "No quick comebacks? No clever one-liners?"

"You think this is a game, Kamien?!" Buffy screams, racing towards him in rage. "It's not!" Despite the current onrush of emotions, she manages to maintain a hold on their strategy, making a quick dive for him, knowing that he would only port again. After being sent flying through the air, crashing yet again to the hard surface, she pulls herself to her feet, turning her back to the ledge and only hoped that the demon would indeed try sneak attacking her from behind again.

"As befits an adversary of your caliber," his voice comes as his form begins to materialize behind her, "I'll grant you a demise with dignity." As he goes to lunge for her, he finds his legs trapped within the roof's ledge, Willow and Tara's glamour spell having worked to perfection. "No! What is this?!" he yells in panic, struggling to free himself. A sly smile crosses Buffy's face as she purposely takes her time walking back away from him, eyeing his helpless form with a proud glare.

"Looks like you're a little stuck, buddy," she smiles, turning to see the two witches racing over to her.

"Giles, do you have the reader working?" Tara asks, clutching her lover's hand even tighter as she finally comes to realize just how successful they had been.

"Got it!" A split-second later and a new vortex appears directly in front of Kamien. As Giles increases the reader's frequency, the dark dimensional whirlwind increases, completely engulfing the assassin and his shrieks of anguish. But as his form disappears into the darkness, a sudden zipping noise blasts from the vortex as the electric hurricane begins glowing, winding in the opposite direction. "Something's wrong..."

"Giles, what's going on?" there was more than just a trace of panic in the slayer's voice as she turns to the englishman. "It can't be broken! We still have to get Angel and Fred back!"

"It's created an imbalance between the gravitational pull of this dimension, and the vortex. If it continues to increase...Buffy, we have to close it!"

"So close it! Push a button, end this session, then we start another one to get-"

"I can't close it manually," he turns to face her with a solemn look. "It's not responding. The reader has to be tossed in to shut it. It's the only way!"

"Are you crazy!" she screams, grabbing the reader from him. "Angel and Fred-"

"We can build another one," he assures her, extracting the device from her hands. "It'll just take time-"

"Time I don't want to spend!"

"Buffy!" his desperate cry catches her offguard. "Do you want this whole dimension to get sucked in?! We have to!" Being left with no other choice, she simply nods, a tear rolling down the side of her face as she watches Giles toss the reader into the vortex, the portal quickly whirlwinding to a close.

Each day of the many that had passed since the first time she had sentenced her Angel to a dimensional hell on that fateful day, she'd speculated for hours on end just why she hadn't let the world get sucked into the portal, just so long as she would've gotten sucked in along with him, but most of all- how had he ever been able to forgive her.

Four years later, she now found herself in the same position, most fearful that upon returning this time, Angel would never be able to forgive her exact same decision. The slayer and her best friend glanced at one another, Willow having a good idea as to where her friend's thoughts were upon seeing the ex-vampire's only means of escape closed forever.

"Buffy..." For the first time in a long while, Giles was speechless. He passes her a small glance, feeling somewhat ashamed by the decision he'd forced her to make. Before he can say anything else, Buffy looks up at him, eyes still brimming with unshed tears.

"So what do we do now?"

"We do the hard thing," he answers her. "We wait."

The approaching sunrise was bleeding slowly out of the sky, making its exit above the gathering of clouds that were dispersing to make way for the glowing orb. It was the sky that the four friends were watching and listening to, and the most maddening thing was that there was no sound at all. The only sound that radiated in Buffy's ears was the voice that insisted that she had once again betrayed her soulmate. she thinks to herself.

And as if this thought had caused it to happen, she begins to hear a wind begin to blow- a strange, whirring sound echoing from overhead. She looks up, eyes wide, as the others began hearing the noise as well. "Angel," she tries to say, but her voice fails her. There was a strange clashing noise followed by a blinding shot of light, forcing the onlookers to avert their eyes to the ground.

"I'm getting too old for this. You couldn't have teleported us back to land on something soft?" Angel moans, rubbing his throbbing head with his hand as Buffy races over to him, toppling him back down as she jumps ontop of him.

"Angel!! Oh god- you're alright!!"

"Tell that to my head," he flashes her his trademark half-smile, wrapping her up into a heated kiss.

"Okay- why couldn't I have just stayed unconscious for all of this?" Fred sighs, standing to her feet with a little help from Willow and Tara.

"Giles," Willow turns to him, "what gives? I thought you said they were stuck? How did they get out?"

"I'm assuming that when the imbalance between the gravitational pull of this dimension and the vortex was created, the portal opened so greatly that there was just enough room for Angel and Fred to escape. Tossing the reader into the vortex was probably what caused the reaction to be delayed, hence...hence..." as he turns to finish explaining his theory to the slayers, he finds his efforts to be useless as they were too wrapped up in one another to pay attention to anything else.

"Hence those two are gonna be stuck like that up here all night unless we pry them apart," Willow smiles, reaching over to grab Buffy by her shirt, trying to lift her off of Angel.

"Can't talk," the small blonde pushes her friend away with a free hand. "Angel...busy..." As tight as she can, Buffy wraps her arms around him, pressing her head tightly against his chest. "I thought I lost you again."

"You're not getting rid of me that easily," he chuckles, drawing her in for another kiss before picking the both of them up to their feet. "Quinn? Wh- where's Quinn?"

"She's fine," Buffy calms him. "Xander and the others took her back to the hotel. Kamien's back in the Mekon dimension- everything's okay until the next disaster we have thrown at us," she lets a small laugh escape, her first in the past few days since their nightmare had begun.

******

The returning members of Angel Investigations didn?t like the ominous quiet in the Hyperion. Buffy calls out softly to her friends, hoping they were downstairs. When she receives no reply, she walks across the lobby, making her way into the hotel's kitchen. The sight that her eyes took in was enough to cause her to softly call Angel over to the doorway to catch a glimpse himself.

A smiling Xander was reaching over to hug his wife and then extracted Quinn from her carrier. Holding her up and kissing her, he settles her in his arms and begins gushing over her. "Okay Quinn, here's your first food lesson..." He holds up the yellow, cream-filled puff, first showing it to the infant before taking a bite of it himself. "This is a twinkie- spongy cake goodness. Can you say twinkie?" He tilts the pastry towards the child's mouth, twirling it around a bit before trying to get her to take a taste.

"Xander!" Gunn shouts at him, grabbing his hand and stealing the twinkie away from him. "Don't give her that junk! How's she even supposed to eat it?"

"Well gee- I would give her some milk but I think Buffy's a little more *equipped* for that job than I am!" Xander turns back around in his seat, focusing his attentions back on the infant. "And how is my beautiful little Quinn feeling? The big nasty guy is gone now, huh?"

"Yeah," Spike chimes in, "now she's got the big, nasty, *stupid* guy to deal with." Grabbing his mug of blood from the microwave, he uses his free hand to lift the infant into his arms, sitting down at the table. "Stick with me, kid. You don't wanna be stuck having to hang out with any more freaks than you have to."

"Spike," Cordelia paces over to him, glass of juice in hand, "stop trying to warp my niece. Hasn't she been through enough already?"

"Oh come on- me and the lil' nipper are bonding. Isn't that right, cutie?"

"Please!!" The friends gathered around the table turn at the sound of their latest captive's shout. "If I have to listen to any more of this ridiculous dribble I'll call the cops myself and have them lock me up for life!"

"Sorry pet," Spike stands to approach the tied up and bound Lilah, Quinn still in his arms. "You don't get off that easy. At least not until I get my fifteen minutes alone with ya."

"And what do you plan to do to me with those fifteen minutes you neutered, whining excuse for a vampire- serenade me with some of that *wonderful* poetry you were known for?!"

"Do I need to punch you again?" Cordy snaps at her, sharing an exasperated look with Dawn as they finish their breakfast.

"Save you strength, Cordy." The brunette smiles as she sees Angel leading the others into the kitchen, safe and sound. "I may need you to help me carry out whatever's left of her when I get done having a few words with Ms. Morgan here," he brushes past her, patting her on the head as he wraps Cordelia into a hug.

"Thank god you're all okay," she cheers, making her way over to welcome the others with open arms. "Kamien?"

"Gone for good," Buffy answers, giving Spike a smile as she lifts her daughter out of his arms. "Sweetie..." Quinn gurgles delightedly as her mother lifts her into the air. Buffy lowers Quinn to eye level after one last lift and gurgle, planting a kiss on her small forehead. "Thank god..." she whispers, clutching her daughter tightly against her chest.

"Hey there, sweetheart," Angel smiles at the infant, leaning over to kiss her, thanking whatever powers were listening that his child, his other reason for living, was back in his arms. The little girl raises her head at the sound of her father's voice and smiles again.

"She must've really missed you guys," Cordy smiles up at Angel, searching his eyes for the forgiveness she hoped to find there. Stepping away to leave Buffy with Quinn, he takes hold of the brunette's arm, leading her over to the kitchen counter. "Cordelia...when I said earlier about...about not wanting your help- that you had done enough...I didn't...I was just so upset, and..."

"Angel..." Cordy bows her head, shaking it to the side slightly as she tries making her own apology. "You have nothing to apologize for. I- I was so careless with Quinn-"

"You couldn't have known," he assures her. "None of us could have," he throws a glance to Spike, motioning for him to come over to where they were talking.

"I know that, but it doesn't make it any better. I'm so sorry."

"And I...umm..." the bleach blonde vamp struggles for the right words to make his first apology in over a century. "I'm sorry I didn't keep a better eye on things...namely your daughter," he chuckles, hoping his sire would maintain some sort of sense of humor.

Angel merely shakes his head, turning to walk back over to Lilah. "Will you excuse us for a moment?" he addresses his friends, grabbing hold of Lilah's chair from behind, beginning to wheel her helpless frame into the lobby. "We need to talk..." He takes his time in rolling her into the spacious clearing, a wry smile across his lips as he spins her around in the chair to face him.

"So how're you holding up, Lilah? You thirsty? Hungry?" A snarl-like sound escapes her lips as she looks up to eye him.

"The minute you untie me, this little game starts all over again, Angel. I don't know why you're even wasting your time."

"Oh, I'm not. See..." he begins to circle around her as he continues, "who said I'm even going to untie you? Or better yet..." he pauses to remove a handgun from his belt behind his back, "who says I'm even going to let you out of here alive? I seriously doubt you would be sorely missed."

"Oooo...since when do you need to carry a gun, mister big and bad slayer?" she smiles, trying to hide the trace of panic she was sure her voice was carrying.

"We're a legitimate detective agency here," he replies, clicking back the gun's hammer. "I think it's only fitting."

"No need to be angry, Angel. You've got your daughter back, don't you? So what do you say we just forget about this whole past week, and maybe start things up again in another few days. Thursday's good for me, but you let me know what day you have free in your schedule and we'll set a date-"

"No need to be angry, huh? What makes you think I'm angry?" With a steady hand, he lifts the gun, pointing it directly at her. "Lilah, you've really offended me here. I'm not angry. No, no...see if I was angry..." he takes a step closer to her, pressing the weapon against her forehead, "...I would just ask you whether you wanted to end our little feud now, or whether you wanted to see if you can breathe through your fucking forehead!!"

Seeing her eyes tighten closed, her body shivering as beads of nervous perspiration begin to form on her face, Angel unclicks the hammer, quickly pulling the gun back away from her and setting it back into it's holster. "But I don't have to do that with you, do I Lilah, cause we're pals- we're buddies, right?" he gently shakes her shoulders, the confident smile reemerging on his face. As her eyes slowly begin to open, she lets out a heavy sigh of relief as she sees Angel begin to untie her.

"This isn't a threat, this isn't a warning, it's a promise- if you or anyone else from Wolfram and Hart *ever* come after any of us again, I swear to god, I will take great pleasure in slicing you limb from limb and then feeding you to whatever dog would be able to stomach you. And I'll even do a little dance for you as I smile on the way to receive my death penalty for murder. Is any part of this in anyway unclear, Lilah?"

Receiving only a small, frightened nod from her as an answer, he grabs her roughly by the arm, dragging her over to the front doors. "Good...now get the hell off of my property!" With a final shove, he slams the door behind her, tossing off his jacket as he makes his way back into the kitchen to enjoy breakfast with his family.

"Just another fun-filled weekend at Angel Investigations, huh?" Xander speaks up, patting Angel on the back as he passes him by.

"You know Xander-" Angel pulls up a chair, taking a seat beside him, "what you and Cordy did back there, charging after Kamien, that was really impressive. I mean, I've come to accept that sort of 'the hell with reason' logic from Cordelia, but you...thank you." Overwhelmed by the compliment, Xander tries to hide his slight blush as he sits back in his seat.

"Just call me Mr. Action Hero," he smiles sweetly, receiving a quick kiss from Anya in return.

"I'm glad you said that," Angel says, standing from his seat. "How'd you like to become a full-time, more...*active* member of the agency?"

"Uh...great, I guess...but, umm...I'm not really liking how you said 'active' there man. What's up with that?"

By lunchtime Xander was kicking himself for having that third helping of waffles. Through blurred vision he could just about make out the image of Willow, Tara, Cordelia, and Anya following alongside Buffy as the young mother was happily pushing her daughter along in her stroller down their chosen path of travel.

Wiping the sweat that was streaming down into his eyes, he takes notice of Angel, still a ways ahead of him, clad only in a pair of blue shorts and sneaks. The slayer's newly tanned skin was quickly soaking up more of the sun's rays as he jogs up behind his wife, pulling her to a halt as he wraps his arms around her waist. He places a kiss against her neck, eliciting a giggle from her in response.

"Angel! Eww...you're all sweaty and sticky!" Not that she was complaining about the sight. The waistband of his shorts was darkened by the pool of sweat drenching his abs, and his skin was warm and glistening, the streaks of heavy perspiration outlining his muscles even more.

Giving Quinn's tummy a quick tickle before leaning in to give her a kiss as well, he smiles up at Anya. "I think Xander's doing pretty good, don't you?" The ex-demon peers out from underneath her sunglasses back along the street to take a glimpse of her husband. "Oh yeah...at this rate, maybe he'll make it back to the hotel by next week!"

"An...Ang...Angel..." an exhausted Xander finally chokes out, catching up to his extremely more fit friend. "Don't you...think we've done enough...running today?" He leans over, placing his hands on his knees as he breathes in a few more huge gulps of air.

"Are you kidding?" Buffy answers for him. "This isn't half of what we do everyday! Angel's going too easy on you if you ask me."

"Forgive me...for not being...as athletically inclined...as you slayers, okay?"

"Come on, Xander," Angel tries urging him on. "It's not that much further."

"Besides-" Cordy takes the opportunity to chime in, "you could afford to lose some of those excessive chunks." Willow and Tara could only laugh at her observation, as Anya passed him a pitiful glance.

"It's only one more block, Xander," Angel pulls him back up straight, giving him a slight push from behind to get him started running again. "Come on, move it. Let's go."

Back at the Hyperion, Dawn was too busy pestering Spike to notice that her sister and the others had been gone far longer than any walk should've taken. "Come on, Spike. Tell me!"

"No."

"Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me!"

"What part of 'no' don't you get, bit? Sheesh- you're just like your sister."

"Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment," she giggles. "Come on- you're telling me that you don't know anything about Buffy and Angel throwing a surprise party for my birthday next week?"

"You think they'd tell me?!"

"Hmm...you've got a point there," she pouts, grabbing a pillow from the couch and stretching out on it. "Okay- what about gifts? Have you heard anything about what they're getting me?"

"Nope," the vamp tries to supress his knowing smile, wanting to keep at least one thing a secret from the teen.

"What about what *you're* getting me?"

"And what makes you think I'm even getting you something?"

"Because I know you, you big softy!" she punches him lightly in the arm. "So what're you getting me, huh? What is it?"

"Something I think you'll enjoy, and that's all I'm saying." Before she's given a chance to protest, her eyes shift up to see the others returning from their walk, Angel being more drenched with sweat than a simple walk could've warranted.

"How did Quinn enjoy the walk?" she smiles, standing up to bounce over to them.

"Quinn's fine," Buffy boasts, lifting her daughter into her arms.

"Yeah-" Willow agrees, "it's Xander who had problems with it." A large lump comes plodding through the doors, collapsing with a loud thud onto the floor.

"I'm...okay..." Xander squeaks out between pants before his head slumps onto the cold, tiled surface of the Hyperion's floor.

"Is he okay?" Giles yells over from behind his desk.

"Perhaps you should've gone a bit easier on him, Angel," Wes adds, walking towards the kitchen to fetch the poor young boy some water.

"This *was* going easy on him, Wes," Angel defends, accepting the towel Fred had carried over to him, beginning to wipe himself free of moisture, hearing Buffy's immediate disapproval. He leans over into her neck to whisper in her ear. "We'll take a shower in a little bit, hmm?" Letting out a light giggle before leaning up to kiss him, she turns back around to see Xander's arm reach up to grab the glass of refreshing water Wes had brought over to him.

Dousing his head with the liquid, Xander lets out a low moan. "I can't feel anything below my chin- and even that's starting to get numb..."

"Why don't you just go on upstairs and take a nice, long, hot shower, honey?" Anya offers him, seeing his eyes widen at the mere mention of walking, let alone up any stairs.

"Oh no...I don't think I'll make it up any stairs for a shower..." He pulls out his arms from underneath of him, beginning to crawl towards the back doors leading to the courtyard.

"Look Quinn," Buffy gushes over her daugher. "Uncle Xander learned to crawl! Isn't that great!"

"I think I'll just...go out back...and wash myself down with the hose." Having covered barely five inches in his attempt to reach the door, he pauses to take a quick breather. "Damn...where's a good teleporting do-hickey when you really need one?"

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