Disclaimer: of course I don't own them. I'm only a loyal fan and B/A Shipper who are borrowing these wonderful characters. They all belong to Joss Whedon and Co. So, don't sue 'kay?

3 Guys, a Girl and a Bar(tender)

Okay So I haven't been a bartender that long, and okay I only took the job because I needed the cash and NOT because I'm a great bartender, but in the two months I've been working for Lorne I've seen my fair share of weirdness. That is until THEY showed up…

I was a quiet night. No let me rephrase that one. By "Cheers" standards it was quiet, by Caritas standards it was a DEAD night. I had just made what seemed to be the 1000th. Sea breeze for Lorne and he had decided to call it a night when the first one showed up.

If I'd met him in the streets I would have crossed the street to get away form him. He looked like the kind of guy who would get you into trouble and yet I was strangely drawn to him. There was never any doubt in my mind that this guy was dangerous, my mom had always warned me of that kind of men, but this was Caritas and we have a strict "don't bite or kill the help"-rule.

This guy looked like someone stuck in the 80's, but in a good way. He didn't smell dead like a punk rocker, he just wore a long black leather coat and had blond hair, the kind that comes from a bottle and he was somewhat pale. He didn't say much (at first that is) just sat down at the far end of the counter. Looked at me and said, "got any brew luv?" I nodded. "Well??? Let's 'ave some then. And none of that American stuff. I want a real pint." I handed him a pint of our very best British lager and he started drinking.

What seemed as hours went by. I had nothing better to do than sit back and every now and then give him a re-fill. Then after an unknown number of pints he started talking. He had the coolest accent. "Been dumped before ya know…" Ohh so that's why he's here. iGreat a dumped drunk, the very best kind. Jeez, couldn't he have picked another night?/i I thought. "But this times it's different I didn't even love 'er. I just wanted to kill 'er!"

Until that point I hadn't paid complete attention to what he had been saying but this got it. I looked at him but he didn't seem to care "I mean…. Bloody 'ell how could I love 'er? She's the Slayer, not to speak of the fact that she's my sire's soul mate" the word "sire" sent chills down my spine. Great stuck in an empty bar with a broken hearted drunken vampire. Way to go girl!!!

But that wasn't the end of his monologue. "Why does this always happen to me? I mean you'd think that I'd learned me lesson with Dru. But no, I guess I have a thing for both loony brunettes and dangerous bleached blond babes." At that point, my now somewhat tipsy, "friend" rested his head on his arms face down on the counter.

Once again the bar was quiet. I started to clean the already clean counter and asked myself if I should throw him out and lock up for the night. But I guess the PTB felt like tormenting me that night, because suddenly customer number 2 showed up.

My first customer had scared me, but this one… WAUW! Forget about scary drunk vampire at the far end of the bar and hello hunky college guy right in front of me at the center of the counter.

I completely lost my trademark bartender cool when he looked at me and said, "Guess Sundays really aren't the big social night" I had to agree on that one and asked him what his poison of choice was. "Tonight I think it's Tequila" I poured him his drink and had almost removed the bottle when he griped my hand, "Just leave it. That way you don't have to walk back and forth."

Oh man!!!! Was the thought that went through my mind. What??? Do guys with the blues run in packs in this city? For the second time of the night I cleaned the counter. But then I decide to just hang back and enjoy the quiet. After 5 tequila shots I guess College Guy had reached the point of pouring his heart out over the bartender. "She never said she loved me. I know she never did. She always loved him, never me…."

"Oh so this is a two in one sale" I muttered part to myself but mostly to the PTB.

15 minutes passed maybe half an hour. And then Blondie raised his head. "Luv? Er… Luv!? You got a smoke?" I got to my feet and handed him a cigarette. "Cheers! You know you look a little like 'er. You know you're also a girl" I shook my head and saw Hunky College Guy trying to sit on his bar stool. He finally succeed Blondie had gone to sleep AGAIN! The cigarette lay unlit on the counter.

I started to look at the books. Might as well do something useful with my time. Then College Guy spoke again. "I tried to make her love me but I blew it. I hated that he could still spin her head after all that time. I mean we can't all be broody cursed vampires now can we?" He rested his arms on his arms and crashed.

Okay, I need a drink myself! I took a Carlsberg (me and my European beers, jeez) from the fridge and opened it. This is strange. I've got to talk to Lorne about getting a partner on these late Sunday nights. Then I heard footsteps. And I thought "Please let this be Lorne" but no such luck.

If I'd thought that my previous two customers very easy on the eyes then this one blew the charts! He was tall, dark and handsome, and his long black duster just made him look mysterious, well let's just say he was a very attractive man! He sat down at the opposite end of the bar as Blondie. "Is Lorne around?" his voice was just as wonderful as his looks "No he decided to call it a night hours ago. Can I get you anything?"

His gaze wandered the room, and his eyes settled on the two sleeping forms as if in recognition, but then they moved back to me. "I guess I'll have a whiskey, and leave the bottle" he pulled out a bunch of dollar bills and handed me one which more than paid the bottle of Jameson I had put before him.

He just sat there drinking and not saying a single word. I tried not to stare. And tried to recall what my mom had taught me about dark strangers. He must have sensed my eyes on him because he said, "Are you alright?" I was caught off-guard and could only stutter, "I… I'm f-fine." He just shrugged and I blushed and went back to the books.

"Is that a female thing?" I think my heart skipped a beat. "Excuse me what did you say?" I said. "I was just wondering. If it's a female thing to always say 'I'm Fine' even if you're not…" he hadn't taken his eyes of his drink all the time he had spoken. "Once knew this girl, well she's more like a woman now, she always looked and acted as if she was the strongest person in the world. Even if she was falling apart inside."

Once again Caritas was quiet. At that moment I was starting to hope that somebody anybody would show up to sing. But here I was all alone in a bar with not 1 but 3 broken hearted guys. Maybe I should start charging them? I could get rich!

Mr. Dark 'n' Broody had almost finished his bottle but didn't seem to be that drunk. And he didn't sound that drunk either when he spoke. "I mean I didn't plan to fall in er… love with her. I'm really good at brooding you know" I smirked and muttered "I bet." That put him of I guess because he went quiet.

At this point I figured that I could eat so I picked up the phone and ordered a pizza. "You want a pizza too?" I asked my one still awake customer. "Nah… Really doubt that they've got anyone with 0-neg as a toping. Normally my respond would have been "HUH?" but this night nothing could surprise me. So I ordered the pizza and checked if my stake and cross was still under the counter.

The pizza guy came and went and minutes passed. While I ate I wondered about how sad it was that 3 good looking men could be so broken hearted that they would sit in a bar and drown their sorrows instead of getting back on the horse, so to speak. Almost as if he had read my mind Dark 'n' Broody said, "She's the only one for me in the world. She's my one source of happiness, but I still hurt her! I only did it to let her have a normal life, but it killed me to see her with another, and what kind of name is Riley anyway?" He looked me straight in the eyes and almost shouted "RILEY FINN!?!?!?"

Just seconds before I would have thought it impossible to wake up the Hunky College Guy but now he got to his feet in such a hurry that it almost knocked over the chair he had been sitting on just seconds before. "Huh?!?! Who said my name?" He spun around and looked at the other guy. "Angel!?!? What the…" There was fear in his voice. "I could ask you the same boy. What? You're not the nice and safe farm boy after all? If you hurt her I swear I'll kill you."

All the sudden I found myself wishing that I could go back to the quiet time of the night. The guy called Riley shot back, "I didn't hurt her. That's you're department remember?!? So don't come here lecturing me!" Reality hit me like a blow to the head. They were moping over the SAME girl!!! "I left her because I'm a danger to her, and because I wanted her to have a normal life." This was turning out to be quite the interesting night after all. Angel or what ever his name was (Angel is that even a name?) glared at Riley after having delivered his line.

I guess Angel's words struck a nerve because Riley sat down. "Well maybe you should have considered the possibility that maybe Buffy doesn't want a 'normal' life. She sure didn't want one with me." Those last words were spoken so soft they were almost impossible to hear.

"She left you?" Angel's voice was calm, maybe even cheery. (Go figure) "No I left her. She never loved me. She only loves you, but you don't want her." Riley was trying to make his as calm as Angel's but it didn't quite work. "How dare you say I don't want her? I want and love her more than you can even imagine." The hurt and pain could be heard in Angel's voice. "Funny way of showing it, but as I were trying to say. She thinks that you don't want her so I guess she settled for the next best thing." Riley glared at Angel in such a way that he'd been a pile of dust on the floor if eyes could kill.

I started to feel a little out of place just sitting there listening so I started to check if any of the liquor bottles needed replacements and refilled the snacks. "Can I get you guys anything?" I heard my own voice ask. Riley was the first one to snap back into reality. "Uhm… I don't know about Angel here but I'd like some coffee." I looked at Angel "yeah, coffee would be fine."

"What do you mean with 'the next best thing'?" Angel didn't seem to be the kind of guy who'd let go of something once he'd gone into it. "It's ironic really. I could've killed the guy a million times but I thought he was harmless. I mean all the time I've known Buffy she's always said that Spike was her enemy." Angel looked Riley with disbelieve. "You're saying that Spike and Buffy are together? Spike as in William The Bloody? SPIKE???"

"'Pends on who's asking Peaches." My drunken blonde friend looked up from the far end of the bar. Angel and Riley turned towards him. "Now this is a sight! Me poof sorter sire and Captain Cardboard." Spike (I gathered he was called) was also sober again, or so it seemed because he walked calmly over to Angel and Riley while lighting his cigarette.

"You got to be kidding me!!!" I guess the night had been harder on me than I thought. Because I blurted it out. Which made all three of them look at me. "What's that luv?" I must have looked pretty funny because I swear I heard a chuckle coming from Riley. "Er… Nothing, just talking to myself. So you guys all know each other? Small world huh?"

My change of subject seemed to work, because they stopped looking at me and started glaring at each other. "Spike, what are you doing here? I thought I taught you that this is my city!" Angel's voice was cold as ice. "Well I never could keep away from 'your' things now could I?" Spike pulled a bar stool up to Angel and Riley. "Why are you here Spike?" Riley asked. "Did you hurt her? You know I promised you to kill you if you touched my girl." Things were getting pretty tense. Riley and Spike were now standing face to face and something seemed to snap inside Angel because he jumped up from he stool and yelled, "She was NEVER you're girl!"

It seemed as if it would come to blows any second now (thank the PTB for the no violence spell), and then suddenly it hit me like a migraine, "Buffy! That was the name of that girl who was in here the other night!" I looked at the three men. They all seemed pretty tied up in their glaring contest. "She talked to Lorne. She was one of those vision girls, cuz she kept talking about this angel..." My mind was working on the mystery. "MY GOD!! How blonde can a brunette be? She was talking about Angel not an 'angel'!" I was shocked! That just had to be fate. It sounded to me as if they'd been apart for some time. I mean they had to have been apart to fit BOTH Riley and Spike in between.

RIIIINNNGGG!!!! It was the phone of the bar. I picked it up "Caritas, how can I help you?" The other end was quiet for a while but then finally. "This is Cordelia Chase. Can I talk to Lorne?" "No sorry he went home long ago, but do you wish to leave him a message?" Once again the other end was dead, and I started to wonder if something was wrong. "Er... I guess. Tell him that if he sees Angel, he should tell him" "Hold on, just a second, Angel is right here would you like to talk to him?" I could hear a whisper on the other end "Angel is there…. I know but what do I tell him… Okay fine but don't tell me I didn't warn you?" I had only been able to hear one side of the conversation, but now Cordelia that was her name wasn't it? Turned back to me "Yeah, I'd like to talk to Angel, Just to make sure we talking about the same guy. Angel, he's a tall dark and brooding guy right?" I had too agree on that one and handed the phone to Angel. "It's for you, some woman called Cordelia."

Angel didn't even look at me twice before he snatched the phone out of my hand. He turned around before he started talking. "Cordy? What's wrong did you have a vi-." He suddenly stopped talking. He was facing the main entrance and he seemed to be frozen solid. Spike and Riley also looked at the door. "Buffy?" Angel was the first to speak; he still had the phone at his ear. "Hey how did you know? I didn't even tell you that yet!!!" Cordelia's voice could be heard through the phone.

Spike did not seem like he wanted to be there anymore. Funny I would have thought that he of all the guys would have enjoyed a good bar-room fight any day of the week but he got up sooner that I could say, "Lorne, I need a raise." The girl, or Buffy as I now knew she was called, just looked at him and said, "Spike I thought I made it clear that if you ever came to California again I would kill you." Ok so the love between the two of them was obviously deader that the plant that I had in my window at home. "I think you're confusing me with Cap. Cardboard over there, he's the one who follows orders Pet."

Riley got up from where he had sat down while Angel was on the phone. "Buffy, what are you doing here?" There was a look of both love and concern on Riley's face and at that time I knew that he truly loved her. "I need to talk to Angel about something." Buffy shot Spike a glare which if it's even possible intimidated him and made him get out of there faster than a bat out of Hell. Riley took one look at Buffy and decided that she was ok. "If he hurts you let me know. You may not love me, but that doesn't mean I've stopped loving you." Now you might have thought that Buffy would have been unaffected by this being the slayer and all, but I could tell from her eyes that this guy was dear to her. "Thank you Riley. That means a lot to me." She smiled one of these smiles where you can just see a person's soul and she then stood up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek. Just as her lips touched his cheek I'm sure I heard Angel growl.

I have to say that I was a little confused by it all. As far as I'd understood it all Angel and Buffy hadn't been together for years, but then why was he acting all possessive alpha-male like? When Buffy turned around I could understand why, she had a scar on her neck, but not just any scar a vamp scar and I'd bet my entire paycheck that Angel was the one who put it there. "Angel, no need getting all passive aggressive. I came here to see you." Riley took that as his cue to leave the scene.

So there we were. A pair of ex-honeys, who were so not over each other and a nosey bartender. What happened next is something straight out of the fairy tales. The two of them just looked at each other for a couple of seconds and then Angel said, "You said you came to see me?" The funny thing was that it didn't seem as if he needed her to speak. "Yeah, ermm this is gonna sound really silly but I err… I need you to… err…. kiss me."

Angel moved so swiftly that I almost didn't see it before he was holding to her as if for dear life and kissing her with such passion that I almost felt shy watching it.

As I was about to turn around a do something else a flash of purple light appeared and Angel fell to his knees gasping for air. Yeah that's right, air. You see apparently Angel had been waiting for a big reward which now had been handed to him by this petite slayer. Buffy knelt next to him concern written all over her features but when he looked up at her his face was a mask of amazement and love. "Happy Shanshu Honey" she said and kissed him again before helping him to his feet taking his hand leading him towards the door.

As the walked up the stairs I could hear Buffy saying "Now since our love was the key to you humanity you better not go getting the idea that you aren't good enough for me. Or else I'll make and exception in the Slayers don't kill humans rule." I wasn't able to make out the reply but I doubt he's interested in finding out if she's serious.