Cleveland – present day – Buffy's apartment
"Dawnie, we're not saying you shouldn't spend time with Nick…" Willow spoke cautiously then looked over at Giles for some back up
"Well don't look at me! I'm just as appalled as the rest of you and quite frankly I could go a good long stretch without having to see that again" Giles said as he awkwardly cleaned his glasses
"I think what Rupert is trying to say is seeing that kind of thing is just…" Jenny fished her brain for the right words
"Unwanted" Giles finished for her
"It was gross" Willow added then off Dawns looks "its not that we don't like him, he's a swell guy but… don't you think you're being a bit fast-move-y-gal?" Willow questioned
"No! I love him and you don't have the right to judge us… besides he only had his top off…" she smiled at the memory. She couldn't help herself, he was just so powerful, not to mention attractive
"Yes a detail of which we are all painfully aware of now, we just need to set some rules around here so it doesn't happen again" Giles tried to convince her to clam down
"Oh sure, let's make sure Dawn can't have any fun! I'm not going to stick around here anymore, I'm going to Nicks so don't bother to find me" Dawn grumbled then stormed out the door
"Giles… I think we should call Buffy, just let her know Dawns acting kinda weird," Willow suggested as she was plainly concerned about Dawn
"No, the last thing Buffy needs right now is more things to worry about" Giles replied calmly "but perhaps looking into this fellows history wouldn't be a bad idea… both Buffy and Dawn seem to have odd tastes in men" Giles rolled his eyes, he still didn't trust Spike with Buffy, but he couldn't say anything about it front of the others
"No problem, I can check out the school records and see what our guys been up to, just give me a minute" Willow smiled as she opened up her laptop and began typing away. Giles pulled up a chair and looked at her laptop in confusion, technology was still way beyond him
"Whoa… hold on" Willow's face fell grave with worry
"What did you find?" Giles asked
"Nothing… I cant even get into his files, they're all blocked and figuring out the password could take days" Willow sighed angrily "I'll keep snooping around till I can find something on this guy"
"Yes, try everything you can, meanwhile Jenny…" Giles turned around to speak to Jenny but she gone "Jenny?" He called then realized the door to the basement was closed… she must've gone down to visit Angel. At that moment the phone rang Giles went to pick it up then walked back to Willow and handed her the phone
"Who is it?" she questioned but took the phone from him
"Faith" he replied
"Hello Angel" Jenny greeted emotionlessly
"Well what a shock this is" Angel grinned as Jenny descended the stairs "the woman I killed so long ago… what was your name again? Janna was it? Or was that was those silly gypsy's named you?" Angel asked, enjoying the company, he hadn't been able to torment anyone lately as no one came down to see him anymore except for Willow when she wanted to check up on him
"Jenny, but I'd like you to know whatever spell you've got on me, forget it, I'm over it now" Jenny said getting as close to the bars as she dared "the dreams, the fear, its getting old and I'm over it" she informed him
"The dreams? Should I know what you're talking about?" he looked at her with a bored expression
"Its not you?" Jenny raised an eyebrow
"Listen, sweetheart, I don't know what your problems are but I'm not behind them, if I were you'd be dead by now" Angel finished darkly
"How'd you get your soul back?" Jenny asked quickly, she wondered if he'd achieved perfect happiness with someone other than Buffy
"Don't know, don't care" he shrugged "I do remember though the girl who did it said she was a vengeance demon, which is ironic because this isn't really a punishment for me" he chuckled "except the whole cage of fire thing, I'm drinking blood on cloud nine" he joked with a disturbingly evil smile
"Vengeance demon? Who would want to get back at Angel like this?" Jenny questioned after all, Angelus was the only one who could know
"Well if you go get me some paper I can write you a list," he offered sarcastically
"Forget, we're finished here" Jenny stated as she began running back up the stairs
"Sweet dreams then" he joked
"Go to hell" she spat back at him as she slammed the basement door
"Why do people keep saying that to me?" Angelus spoke to himself
Sydney – present day – Ashley's apartment
"Well Spike and I can take the foldout bed" Buffy suggested, the gang stood in the large white living room or Ashley's apartment. It was incredibly clean with a huge wide screen TV and a view to die for. It was on the third floor of a very expensive apartment on the Rocks and the living room window doors opened up onto a balcony, which looked over the crystal blue water.
"Right and I've got a few sleeping bags as well" Ashley spoke up "Ones mine and the others…" she stopped talking and walked off to go get them.
"What's all that about then?" Spike questioned
"Darla took her sister" Grace explained quickly and everyone seemed to fall silent
"How unfortunate" Anya nodded absently to herself "are we going to get food soon?" she asked Xander impatiently
"Ahn, just sit down and wait" he sighed as the two of them sat down on the couch
"Help yourself to the TV, I get most channels, I have some movies on there too" Ashley called from the other room, then skipped into the room balancing two sleeping bags in her arms. She tripped over the kitchen counter on her way and almost face planted herself into the carpet until Spike caught her
"Easy there niblet" he said as she put herself back on her feet
"I was fine!" she insisted then off Spikes look "I had a plan…" she added as her face went bright red "anyway, who's sleeping where?" she inquired hoping they'd sorted it out while she was gone
"Yes, Xander and I will be taking the large double bed in your room, its big and made for two people" she grinned "and you're not two people little missy, so I think that beds ours!" she patted Ashley on the shoulder
"Why? You guys can take the guest room, that's got two singles and a bunk bed" Ashley shrugged, she didn't care much either way
"Yes, but see at some point we were planning on having sex, and to do that we'd need the double bed" Anya explained
"We were planning on doing what?" Xander asked suddenly, Anya hadn't said anything like this to him before
"You're not doing that on my bed!" Ashley refused in a panic
"Fine, fine, have it your way" Anya grumbled
"Ahn!" Xander warned
"Right…" she sighed "thanks for having us over at your lovely home!" she smiled
"Okay so Xander, Anya, Faith and Robin will take the guest room, Spike and I will take the couch and Grace you don't mind the floor?" Buffy felt guilty for doing that to Grace
"Yeah, I'm sure I can handle it" Grace put her hand to her head for dramatic effect
"Willow said the seers might not be able to get back to us by tonight" Faith announced as she and Robin walked into the room
"What? We can't just sit around!" Ashley complained, worried about her little sister's safety
"Don't worry, I'm sure your sister is perfectly fine" Robin assured Ashley
"Yeah the seers would have seen it and called us right away" Buffy added reassuringly then Grace jumped off the table she was sitting on and clapped her hands together and grinned and evil grin
"Who's up for poker?"
"This is getting pointless" Buffy laughed looking down at her hand, things were not looking good and she'd already put what little remained of her counters in the middle of the table
"Yeah, not to mention depressing" Xander agreed then placed his cards face down "I fold" he sighed. Buffy placed hers down too
"Yeah I'm with Xander… poker is not my game" Buffy complained then jumped off the table and walked around to Spikes side of the table to look at his cards
"Well it's certainly mine!" Anya sang joyfully as she pushed two more black counters into the middle and gave a challenging look to Grace, who had more counters than she did
"Don't count your chickens…" Grace warned
"What chickens?" Anya questioned as Grace laughed and pushed four blacks into the middle and the girls glanced at Spike expectantly
"Give a bloke a minute!" he defended himself, he wouldn't admit it but he knew he was going to lose "its very hard to cheat with a see through table!" he complained and put his cards face down
"You in the fold club too?" Buffy asked him
"Seems so love" he replied as she grinned and he bent down for a kiss. Buffy wrapped her arms around his human neck and Spike immediately deepened the kiss. The door clicked open and Faith, Robin and Ashley waked in holding bags full of Chinese food
"Get a room B!" Faith laughed as Buffy pulled away from Spike
"Thanks for that Faith" she gave Faith an annoyed look
"Hey, I'm not the only one in the room who doesn't want to watch a saliva show" she smirked as she placed the bags on the table
"Second that" Ashley laughed
"Aha!" Grace yelled and threw her arms up in victory. Anya pouted and got up from the table
"Xander, she's rubbing it in my face, make her stop" she whined
"Anya, you would have done the exact same thing, don't be a sore loser" he scolded
"Sore? Oh fine take her side! Just because I don't have the memories doesn't mean you can make fun of me!" she said angrily
"I'm not making fun of you," he said defensively as she stormed off for the guest room "Anya!" he called out for her then followed her, bringing a few boxes of food just in case she didn't want to come out again
"Do they fight a lot?" Ashley inquired opening a box of fried rice and digging into it with a spoon
"No… well yeah, it's a long story" Buffy shook her head "are you okay? You look kinda bad moody… no offense" she added quickly at the end and Ashley shrugged
"Yeah well I'm not really that new to the slayer thing, and the strength is awesome and all that" Ashley smirked "but how would you deal if some evil thing took your sister away from you when you could have stopped it?" the questioned was rhetorical but Buffy answered anyway
"Well you haven't gone catatonic so that's a good sign" she smiled friendly
"Huh?" Ashley asked in between mouthfuls
"A hell God took my sister from me, I went catatonic" Buffy explained like it was no big deal anymore
"Whoa… well thanks, that makes me feel strangely better" Ashley smiled then the smile disappeared and her eyes went wide "wait, you get hell Gods?" she questioned unbelievably
"Just the one" Buffy said
"I almost killed her once too" Spike added then exchanged a grin with a Buffy
"Huh?" Ashley couldn't wrap her head around this, but it was taking her mind of things so it was a welcome distraction
"Yeah and I tried to kill him" Robin added pointing at Spike
"Because I killed his mum" Spike explained like it was all ancient history
"Yeah and I had to kill my mom" Grace added casually
"I tried to kill Buffy a couple of times too," Faith reminded them
"Yeah but then I put you in a coma" Buffy replied then Ashley stopped eating all together
"Wait… can you just kinda… start from the start before I get the feeling you've all tried to murder each other!" Ashley laughed awkwardly; this was all way too much to take in for her right now
"I don't think everyone has…" Buffy searched her mind
"Nope, sorry pet, we have" Spike patted her shoulder
"Xander hasn't has he?" Faith double-checked, the Xander she knew wouldn't hurt a fly. In fact the Xander she knew wouldn't be able to hurt a fly without hurting himself
"Oh yeah! Good point, Xanders fine! He even saved the world once" Buffy informed Ashley happily
"How?" she questioned
"With his… words he saved the world with his words" Buffy smiled hoping this would make sense, obviously it didn't
"Okay, from the top then?" Spike suggested as the six of them took seats around the table again and Buffy began recounting life back in Sunnydale