AN: I can't remember how the apartment was set up, so I'm taking artistic licence here, k? Well, it's not like you have much of a choice really…

"DOYLE!" Angel took one glance at the angry Cordelia and moved out of her way, slowly backing away into the main room once more. He had seen that look before, and it never boded well for the male in question. It was a night on the sofa or similar punishment for the guy. It could well be both for Doyle, because they weren't dating, and he would probably spend the night on Cordy's spare settee anyway – that is if he wasn't chucked out now for whatever he'd done.

In the lounge/dining room/Tina's room/study, the girls were looking at the kitchenette doorway in shock – clearly it had been a surprise to them whatever it was that set her off! He walked towards them, preferring to sit next to Dawn instead of moving Buffy so she could sit on him as he usually would – he wasn't quite sure what he had done earlier to upset her, but he didn't want to be in the same position as Doyle. Even if they couldn't actually do anything, he still slept the best when she was wrapped up in his arms. Plus, he hated fighting with his girlfriend. Plus, he hated fighting with the slayer – it tended to be hazardous.

He turned to Tina, and missed the hurt look on Buffy's face – she wanted everything to go back to normal. She was slightly upset with him for not realising that he could never be in her way, and he wasn't helping by being typically male about it. Last time there was a communication break down (pre graduation anyway), he had fed the heart of a demon, talked with her, kissed her – a lot –, and then everything was normal again. This time, she figured it would be her doing most of the talking, as soon as dawn had gone to bed if she could wrangle it. Then again, with the speed at which the men had gone for the alcohol, and the length of time they would be there, she doubted if he would be in a state to do anything remotely serious by the time the three of they got home! Tonight, instead of Angel stopping them from going to far, it would be Buffy. She wasn't sure if she had the will power.

"What happened with Cordy then?" Clearly, Angel had no more of an idea than they did.

"No idea – we were talking, and someone said something about Doyle being a demon, and she just. Well, you saw." Angel groaned – he knew Doyle should have told her.

"Doyle likes her – don't tell either of them I'm telling you this, PLEASE!"

"Don't worry baby – I'll protect you from the big bad cheerleader and harmless half-demon"

"Hey – they can both be pretty scary sometimes!"

"Angel has a point, Buffy. Well, I don't know about Doyle, but I remember that Halloween when we all got turned into out costumes, and she was definitely kinda scary then. How did you manage to convince me that that was all a dream anyway?"

"You were young and impressionable. Plus, you believed everything big sister Buffy said, on account of hero worshipness."

"Anyway, Angel, why didn't Doyle tell Cordy?" Tina was determined to get the story – detective life was growing on her.

"Because he thinks she;s a hottie. Ouch! What was that for? There's no need for that, Buffy! That's what he said. Okay, the exact words were "She's a stiffener, alright!" but – OUCH! Tina! What did I ever do to you? All I said was –"

Meanwhile in the kitchenette …

"Why" poke "didn't" poke "you" poke "tell" poke "me" poke "that" poke "you" poke "are" poke "a" poke "demon!"

Allen Francis Doyle moved his hands up, surrendering to Cordelia's wrath. The look on her face was not dissimilar to the one that Harry had worn after a night of unplanned drinking. Scary how much alike they looked with that face. Was it a class that all women take before they get a serious boyfriend. No, he had seen that look on the faces of little girls as well. It must be a gender thing, the same way that no men ever understood exactly why he was getting the look.

"I … I, er …" he stuttered, not really wanting to tell her the real reason, but not really knowing what else to tell her instead.

"Well?"

"It just never came up?"

"Was that a question or an answer?" Cordelia felt like she was channelling her high school English teacher for second there. It was slightly worrying.

"Answer."

"And what else 'never came up'? The fact that you aren't actually who you're pretending to be, you're really a blood-sucking evil demon who I've now invited into my home!! Oh come on, you know I'm only joking – sort of – don't look at me like that!"

The rest of the evening went more or less as planned. Just before ten, Dawn passed out in Cordelia's room while the other women talked about life, the universe and everything – it had been a long week, and she wasn't even thirteen yet! Doyle and Angel drank the night away, until even Angel was completely out of it – Doyle spent the night on the sofa, having drifted off at about two in the morning. Cordy didn't have the heart to throw him out, even if he had lied to her.

At about half two, the girls called it a night – in truth, they had run out of topics, and the hapless males had run out of alcohol. Buffy woke Dawn and half carried both present members of her small 'family' back to the apartment whilst Tina made up her sofa bed and Cordy went to bed, both ignoring the sleeping half demon in the other sofa. It was a good job that neither of them were particularly light sleepers!

It took Buffy a good half hour to get her drunken boyfriend and half asleep sister the normally five minute walk back home, and she was very surprised that she hadn't run into any vamps on the way. That would have been difficult to cope with. Having said that, Angel could have probably held his own against them, and not many of the LA vamps knew about the good vampire yet. Or if they did, they only knew him by name and rep. not by face – it would have been really impossible in Sunnydale.

One thing Buffy had noticed in the last week or so were the different lifestyles of the different vampires. You were more likely to find unfortunate fledglings without any guidance from their sires in LA, whist in Sunnydale; most of the new vampires were made for a reason, either as minions to an enterprising new vamp, or as a message to the slayer. In Sunnydale, the only real threats were the master vampires like Spike, Drusilla, Darla and Angel (plus The Master), in LA; they travelled around in large, scary packs. She supposed they were less likely to be recognised as creature of the night that way – vampire are seen in pop culture as lonely, solitary people, and there were enough street gangs in any city to reduce suspicion from a large scary group of people.

In response to Tiffani, who asked about Joyce's death, these past chapters were sort of a back in time thingy, because I wrote and posted them after I had posted Joyce's death, and I kinda like it that way. I was hoping for more of a response, but I don't think that many people actually read this! I'm going to finish off this weekend, possibly leaving Buffy storming out of LA or something drastic; I haven't quite thought that far ahead. It will go back to Joyce/Buffy/Angel stuff in two or three chapters, and I have already written most of the funeral stuff.

I don't really tend to write stuff in any chronological order, because it depends on my mood. If I am happy, I wouldn't be able to write the funeral stuff, and when I'm pissed off, I cant write fluffy stuff. Most of the time I cant write fluffy stuff! That's another reason for sometimes slow and sometimes fast updates. You just have to be patient, and I haven't forgotten about anything … at least not that I remember!