Hey guys! Here's the next chapter. Things are really getting interesting now, and I'm having a lot of fun writing memory-loss Buffy. It's frightening though, still having no idea how I'm going to end this. I'm pretty satisfied that Buffy and Angel have met, even if she pummel him into the ground. As always, read and enjoy.

Buffy groggily awoke in the hospital bed, the heart-rate monitor beeping constantly.

There was a man kissing her forehead lightly, and her Slayer instincts told her straight away who it was.

Her first thought was that, for a life-sucking demon, he smelled nice. She automatically attempted to raise her arm in an effort to shove him away from her, but the morphine made her weak and lethargic and all she achieved was a small, unnoticeable twitch in the hand of her injured arm. Hoping to silence the pain shooting through her arm, she drifted back into comfortable unconsciousness, thinking no more of the vampire.

According to the doctors, the morphine would keep her knocked out for hours. Angel knew that for a Slayer this meant she would be out for an hour, tops.

Using this time, he stayed with Gunn and watched over her. When Gunn left to get some food for when she woke up (and a coffee for himself, as it was past midnight), Angel gently pressed his lips to her forehead. He could have sworn he felt her stir, but after a few seconds she was still again. Angel tried to tell himself that it didn't mean anything, she'd always moved a lot in her sleep, anyway.

Sadly removing himself from her bedside and seating himself back into the chair on the furthest side of the room, Angel mediated upon what he would say to Gunn.

Gunn, silenty returning to the room, beat him to the punch. "Maybe you should get outta here, I don't want her going Slayer on your ass when she wakes up."

Angel indicated her arm with a flick of his wrist in her direction and shrugged, "I'm not really that threatened."

"I didn't say it was for your sake," Gunn replied coldly, his anger and confusion with the whole situation rendering him hostile.

"Gunn..." Angel tried to figure out how to say what he needed to, and to a major extent what that was. "Buffy and I–"

Gunn's nostrils flared but he made a deliberate effort to calm himself. "Her name is Anne now. Look – I know you two had something, and I know it was big, and I'd never do anything with Buffy, but this isn't Buffy. She doesn't remember you, Angel. This isn't about me wantin' her for myself; she hates you, and we don't know who's putting all this stuff into her head. I can't abandon her, man. It wouldn't be right; I'm all she's got."

Angel glared menacingly, he knew that he and Buffy couldn't be together, but he also knew his limits. He couldn't live with her so close to him all the time, feeling nothing for him. It would distract him from his work, and it would probably tear him apart. "Not for long."

"Angel, you left her! Why are you trying to get her back? You can't be with her. You'd only end up leaving her again. This isn't the girl you knew, she's different," Gunn said, his body language stating 'and she's mine'.

Angel found himself temporarily stumped by the totally logical question which he had been delicately blocking out ever since the tiny blonde had appeared and started assaulting him. What did make this different? Was he going to act like a petulant child and try to win her back because someone else had her?

Yes.

No.

His mind contradicted itself again and again, conflicting answers swarming within it. He was no closer to deciding on his course of action when he got back the Hyperion than when he had left it earlier. Just as he was ascending the stairs to his room, he realised that there was someone he needed to talk to.

*

Hearing a knock on her office door, Cordy welcomed the unknown guest in.

"Angel," she shuffled some papers and hastily shoved them away, attempting nonchalance, "Was there something you needed?"

"Um," he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "Could I sit?"

Cordelia knew what was coming, what was happening and her heart responded accordingly, but still she allowed him to give her the talk that she knew she would have had to suffer through the day that Buffy and Angel decided they had grown up enough that they could work out their problems and be together.

Cordelia was tactless sometimes, but deep down she was gentle. Like a true actor, she hid the emotion she felt the most: when her heart was breaking, she smiled and embraced her dearest friend.

Angel's social skills had improved a vast amount over the last few years, and he found that he was able to be honest with Cordy without nearly as many awkward silences as he feared.

"I... I love you, Cordy. I feel like we were heading that way, but..." he paused, regathering his thoughts, "Buffy is... A part of me. We're connected; I can't walk away from that, not when she needs me, even if she doesn't know it yet."

Cordy allowed tears to sparkle in her eyes, but she held them captive. 'No tears, only love,' she told herself.

"I understand. You're a good man, Angel," she whispered, placing her palm on his cheek. Pretending to brighten up she smiled, mock punched him on the arm and said, "Now go play the hero."

Angel nodded, his eyes filled with gratitude for her. He knew what he needed to do now.

No tears, only love.

*

Buffy felt whatever had been keeping her mind dormant and constricted suddenly lift and her eyes sprung open, observing that she was in a hospital bed with an injured arm; this observation brought memories of the one with the glassesf taking a blade to her arm. She could hear the never ending cycle of life and death outside her room. She could hear everything. Every stutter of a failing heart, every breath of a newborn baby. The sighs of relief and the cries of anguish that accompanied each event. She could hear it all.

And it was grating on her nerves.

Wincing as she pulled several tubes with different coloured liquids out of her, she grounded herself unsteadily and grabbed a pair of jeans that were placed on her bedside table, promptly smashing the beeping machine next to her with ease. There were too many situations in which she felt irrational fear or foreboding, but she did remember why she was so afraid of hospitals; seeing your cousin die in front of your eyes would deter anyone from them.

Lilah: that was who she needed. She hadn't been in the apartment for two days – she was probably worried.

Angelus and Gunn were standing outside her room in a heated argument.

"How long have you known her? Five seconds. I know this girl–" growled Angel, who held strong under the larger man's glare.

"Why can't you get it through your head? She's not the same person. She's not mooning over you, she tried to kill you."

"Not exactly a new thing for us," Angel retorted.

"There's no 'us'! To her, there's only the Slayer and the vampire. I know you're different, but she doesn't," said Gunn. They had been having and reiterating the same argument for hours, neither budging an inch.

Buffy moved towards the exit, eager to discreetly escape the place that brought her so much unease. As she placed her hand on the door handle to exit, the nurse that had treated her before recognised her.

"Dear, you'll have to come back with us, there's no way you can leave. Your injury is far too severe."

Becoming nervous when the rest of the waiting room drew their eyes to her, she went on the defensive.

"No, I'm fine," she assured the woman sweetly, trying to leave without making a scene. Too late; Gunn and Angel had both realised she was there and were making their way over to her. Still reluctant to harm the kind-looking woman, Buffy simply shook her off (even though her instincts told her to knock the woman out) and sprinted outside.

"Taxi! Taxi!" she yelled as she ran onto the road (yet again) and hailed a cab. Angel made it outside first, grabbing her arm firmly. She was stunned by his being considerably stronger than the average vampire.

"Buffy, don't run, we need to talk to you," he pleaded.

She promptly rammed her fist into his face, "I. Don't. Need. To. Talk," a punch filled each pause, "To a vile. Creature. Like. You."

Throwing the twenty she had in her pocket at the man driving the cab that had pulled over for her, Buffy gave him her address and sped off.

Gunn ran outside and found not Anne, but a pretty badly beaten Angel. Again. Although he was angered by the situation, Gunn wished his boss no ill-will. Giving him a look that said'I told you so' Gunn helped Angel back to the hotel to get him fixed up.

"Should we go after her?" Angel mumbled, not really up to decision making at that point.

Gunn shook his head, "No, she'll come back when she's ready. You can hold your own against an enraged Slayer who has absolutely no positive feelings for you and wants nothing more than your ashes in a trophy on her mantle, right?"

Angel didn't look so sure.

*

Lilah was never one to lose her head: she was a calm, cool thinker and it was what helped to make her so dangerous. She liked the Slayer, but her death would be of no concern other than a major business inconvenience.

"Yes? The vampire's dead, then?" Lilah snipped into the phone. The Slayer had been hospitalised, but when Lilah had been assured that it wasn't life-threatening she had instead revised and pursued several business expenditures that required her attention. "Good. Yes, Buffy's in the hospital. Tell the Senior Partners that the deal can go ahead. No, don't worry; she'll kill who I tell her to. No, she's unaware of that. No, an assassin seems to... Crass," she drawled, "I think we need the personal touch for this one. Angel dead at her hand, it's too ironic to pass up. Of course she does, who do you think I am; you?"

At that moment Buffy crashed through the front door, looking instantly relieved to be back. She walked over to Lilah and waited for the flow of questions. Lilah, already knowing the answers, decided to play anyway.

"Where were you?"

"I killed the vampire. I tried to kill Angelus, his friends," the word dripped with an acidic inflection that she had picked up from Lilah, "knocked me out. Tied me up. You were right, they knew who I was. They tried to convince me that they were good. No one that dresses in that much black could ever be good," she said with more of her usual lightness incorporating itself into her tone.

"And you were there the entire time? How did you escape?" Lilah asked, placing Buffy in a seat at the table.

Buffy shook her head, "No. They tried to get me to talk about you, about what we're doing. I wouldn't, so the one with the glasses – Wesley?" Lilah nodded, "Cut me. It's already healed, but I'm not sure about the scar." Buffy raised her arm and tore off the bandaging, revealing a long, white scar – that extended from her elbow up to her wrist, half a centimetre away from the main vein in her arm – for Lilah to look at.

Lilah held a neutral expression as she examined the scar. "It should fade soon enough, your healing process is fairly accelerated."

"Good," Buffy sighed, relieved, "I was worried that I'd have to do one on the other arm to match."

Lilah simply stared at her, waiting for some continuance of the more important topic.

"That was a joke, Lilah."

"Yes, very funny. How did you get yourself to the hospital?"

"They broke Wesley's arm after he went all stab-happy on me," Buffy replied, looking resentful because she hadn't been able to do it herself.

"It was probably prearranged," Lilah dismissed.

Buffy wasn't as certain. She had felt the most confused when the vampire had lunged at the man who had cut her arm. She told herself it was a ploy to gain her trust, determined to think of it no more. "Probably. The man called an ambulance and I got dragged along for the ride, too."

"And you came straight here from there?"

"Yes."

"What are you going to do?" asked Lilah, referring to the members of Angel Investigations.

"I'm..." Buffy was unsure, she didn't want to hurt Gunn, but she wasn't sure what else there was. He killed the innocent. Before she had replied, Lilah was speaking again.

"Buffy, I know it isn't pleasant," she began, her voice strong and reassuring, "but sometimes sacrifices must be made. I know they're human, but for the good of the world, they may have to die."

"All except the Seer?" Buffy stood and gathered weapons, her face a mask of determination.

Lilah, pleased by her readiness, relished the sight of Buffy holding the instruments that would bring about so much death. "Yes."

Before Buffy walked out the door, she turned to Lilah once more;

"Then they die."

*

The most important thing to realise is that Buffy never actually planned to kill the human members of Angel Investigations. She was simply heading there for the one thing that she had been searching for since she had woken: answers.

Buffy dragged herself from the lift to the apartment door, which was unfortunately at the end of the hall. She could hear Lilah on the phone from ten metres away, she was using what Buffy dubbed her 'crazy bitch' voice. Lilah insisted that she call it her 'business voice' instead. Buffy ignored that particular recommendation. Preparing to walk in, she paused when she heard her name being spoken.

"– The deal can go ahead. No, don't worry, she'll kill who I tell her to. No, she's unaware of that. No, an assassin seems to... Crass. I think we need the personal touch for this one. Angel dead at her hand, it's too ironic to pass up. Of course she does, who do you think I am; you?"

Okay, now things were getting too confusing. Buffy refused to think ill of the person who had welcomed her into her home all those months ago. Her Watcher. Her mentor.

Now that she thought about it though, it was a bit odd that a Watcher was a part of a law firm and not working with the Watcher's Council directly. She had thought this before, but she'd never had a reason as to why it wasn't possible. It seemed clearer now though, she was being used. Determined not to show any sign of suspicion in case it did happen to be true, Buffy began to pant heavily and barged into the apartment.

Lilah looked surprised, thoughtful, concerned and then decisive. "Where were you?"

If there was one single thing that had failed to change in Buffy's absence, it was that no one in this town was what they seemed.

Almost as soon as Buffy had stepped out with her bag of weapons and spare clothes, it began to storm. Thunder raged in the sky and the rain poured mercilessly down on her. The drenched Slayer reached the Hyperion fairly quickly, thankful for the small distance between.

Now came the hard part; to knock, or not to knock. Buffy couldn't strolling listlessly into the hotel, but she couldn't exactly imagine knocking on the door with a 'hi, I'm sorry I punched you in the face more times than I can count, help me?'

The second option seemed even more implausible because the Slayer wasn't sorry for punching the murderous demon in the face, and she imagined she probably would again. Luckily for her, the two seemed to have some sort of complicated history – in his mind, anyway – that she could play to her advantage, so the Slayer walked up to the door, knocked and prayed to God that Gunn was the one to answer the door.

No such luck. It wasn't Gunn, but Angelus who answered the door. She measured many different emotions as they played across his face, all halting as he simply stood there expectantly.

She hadn't counted on the vampire being laconic, and was almost rueful that he didn't simply hit her. "I – you... M – no," she jumbled indecisively through a number of incoherent sounds before stopping herself and forming a sentence. Raising her eyes to his, she made certain that her features were void of the disdain that she felt so strongly in that moment. Taking a deep breath, she finally spoke.

"Tell me who I am."

There we go, I'm getting there slowly. I finished it there because I know that it'll take me another week to write the next chapter, and I felt bad leaving you guys hanging for so long.
Also: I know the Gunn choosing a girl over Angel thing was a bit out there because he's pretty loyal, but in my opinon if someone he cared about was so vunerable, no matter what her past was, he wouldn't abandon her, because Buffy hates Angel and she doesn't know anyone else. Gunn knows he's all she's got, which is why he's sticking by her instead of moving over for Angel. I'll try to update soon.
If you liked it, feel free to review. :D