The night of Buffy's 17th birthday two life-changing events take place as a result of Buffy and Angel making love. Event one is that Angel loses his soul because he achieved perfect happiness. The second event is that Buffy is now pregnant even though she doesn't know it. Assume that the rest of the season goes along as the TV series portrayed until the last scene between Buffy and Whistler at the end of Becoming Part 2. In my story Whistler's last message to Buffy is this "If he ever were to return then his soul would be permanent, but only you have the ability to find the answer within." Of course, Buffy thinks that Whistler means if Angelus were to turn back into Angel, but he really means that if Angel ever returns from hell…the closing fight of Becoming Part 2 goes the same way – nothing changes there and Buffy has to send the love of her life to hell. After sending Angel to hell Buffy understands what Whistler meant. She packs up and heads to LA thinking about what Whistler said and believing that she may have already failed, but still clinging to the hope that Angel will return to her one day. Nothing will ever be the same again. And this is where my story really begins.

Buffy arrives in LA during the middle of the day and gets easily lost in the crowded streets. She has no particular destination in mind, she just keeps walking around the city. Sometimes she looks up at the surrounding buildings and recognizes them from her life in LA before she was the slayer. Amazing how that was just over two years ago, so much changed so fast and she's not sure her world will ever stop spinning. As the sun begins to set Buffy finally realizes that she needs a place to spend the night. Now that she has a mission in mind she picks up her place, but really still doesn't have a clue as to where she's headed. She just lets instinct guide her steps. Buffy stops outside a rundown hotel that has the name "Hyperion" still written across the building. Not caring why she felt it right to stop here Buffy goes in without further hesitation, but keenly aware of her surroundings in every possible direction. The inside looks worse than the outside, but it's a roof anyway. Then a well-known feeling rises within her. Her slayer blood and instincts are screaming that there is a demon very near. Buffy throws her bag down and goes on the hunt, determined to make the hotel her demon free home. Buffy finds the demon in room --. They fight a lot and talk little. Buffy isn't up to her usual smart mouth comments while fighting demons. But is able to take out her pent up feelings on the demon and soon defeats him. Having defeated the demon completely on her own gives her a little self-confidence and the desire to do more for herself. Buffy settles in for her first night there wishing that Angel was with her. She dreams of him that night (the dream shown in the first episode of season three).

After dreaming about Angel Buffy decides to see if she can come up with a way to bring him back. Buffy, still thinking about Angel, decides to research him first. But instead of researching him as a demon she wants to look up Ireland in 1753 and before. She wants to know more about the culture that Angel was born into and grew up in before Darla turned him. The most interesting subject to Buffy is the tradition surrounding the Claddagh ring Angel gave her on her birthday and she begins her search there. On the public library's internet and in their history section Buffy finds all she needs to on the ring. She feels that bringing Angel back is tied to the ring. It doesn't take long to find out that in Angel's time the exchanging of two Claddagh rings followed by the consummation of the relationship legally binds the couple as man and wife, and that the rings are supposed to be worn by each until the day that each dies. Only after one's death can the ring be removed and then either passed on to other family members or buried with the deceased. Buffy's first response was to wonder why Angel hadn't told her all of this when he had given her the ring. But then figured that he didn't want to scare her or that maybe he didn't still believe in all the traditions two hundred years later. No matter what his reasoning had been, and Buffy also admitted that maybe he just hadn't had time, she decided to perform a wedding ceremony on her own. She wanted the chance to tell Angel how much she loved him…and she hoped that in doing so it would bring him back. She was convinced that their love for each other would never allow them to be parted forever. At the Hyperion that night Buffy lit some white candles, took out her Claddagh ring from Angel and spoke her wedding vows to him into the empty night that invaded the hotel. "I, Buffy Summers, do solemnly swear to love, honor, and cherish Angel for all of time. Angel, even though you are no longer with me I know that you still love me and I promise to remain faithfully yours in the hopes of reuniting with you somehow, somewhere, one day. You are still the only person I have ever been in love with and love is the only thing that makes sense to me anymore. I don't know how I am supposed to go on without you here, even seeing you as Angelus made it somewhat easier than it is now knowing that you're in hell. I will always love you. Forever, that's the whole point."

After letting her heart spill out to the empty room Buffy slipped the Claddagh ring onto her left ring finger, laid down on the pallet she had made and cried herself to sleep. As Buffy does so Angel suddenly appears in the middle of a clearing in a forest outside the city of Galway in Ireland. The only thing Angel was wearing was his own Claddagh ring on his left ring finger also.