Buffy rested her head on Angel's chest, marveling at how warm his body felt against hers. Even more amazing, however, was the feel of his heartbeat.

If she placed her ear close enough, she could even hear it.

"It's a good sound." She traced her fingers around his chest in little circles, feeling the steady beat underneath. "Thump-thump. Thump-thump."

"It feels pretty amazing."

"I'm so glad we didn't logic ourselves out of this. We'll make it work, right?"

"We will."

Buffy wrapped her arm around him, nuzzling closer. "Oh, I'm so sleepy, but I still want..."

"What? You couldn't possibly…. Not that I wouldn't…"

"No, no. I'm spent. Pleasantly numb even. You?"

"For now."

"No, I want to stay awake so this day can keep happening."

Angel kissed her on the forehead. "Sleep. We'll make another one like it tomorrow."

Buffy opened her eyes, realizing she'd fallen asleep. And apparently, she'd been dreaming again.

They'd been in bed together. Buffy smiled to herself. That was a nice one. She had a vague sense of her and Angel making love in the dream. It was really too bad she couldn't remember more than that.

Had she seen a glimpse into their future? She hadn't recognized the room, but that didn't mean anything. Maybe it would all make sense in due time.

Or maybe it meant the Shanshu wasn't going to happen as soon as she hoped.

Buffy sighed. She'd just have to be patient a little while longer.

Looking at Angel, she smiled at how peaceful he looked at this moment. They were lying on the couch in the same way they had in her dream, fully clothed though. Buffy placed her head back on his chest, thinking once again how wonderful it would be when he was human.

A buzzing sound in her pocket interrupted her reverie, and Buffy fished her cell phone out. She glanced at the screen, realizing she had missed a called from Xander earlier. She then remembered her forgotten plans for lunch.

Looking back at Angel, she placed her hand on the side of his head, running her fingers lightly through his hair. "We'll have that day, Angel," she whispered.

"Ahh, here's something!" Wesley said.

Giles briefly glanced at Wesley and resumed his own translating of the material. For the past hour, Wesley felt the need to announce everything he had discovered. And nothing, it seemed, appeared to be relevant to their current research.

"It's appears to be something about the Hellmouth. Another prophecy."

Giles looked at Wesley again, this getting his attention. Perhaps Wesley finally had found something important. "What did you find?"

Wesley placed his translation in front of Giles. "Read this last verse."

Giles stared at the translated passage for a moment, then read it aloud. "'When the moon is full and the tide is high, the earth shall open and evil shall rise.'"

"I think if we were looking for a time frame on when this is going to happen, it's just been narrowed down considerably."

"Except for the fact that there are a dozen full moons in a year, not to mention how many tide changes."

"True, but some other wording in the passage leads me to believe something will happen in the year 2000, specially towards mid-year. Perhaps the Y2K end-of-the-world hysteria wasn't too outlandish, just several months off. And…I just had a thought."

Wesley rose from his chair and walked over behind the counter. "Do you have a calendar around here?"

"There's one beside the computer. What do you need a calendar for?"

"Just a hunch." Wesley grabbed the small calendar and flipped it to August. "I was right. August 15th. Angel and I came across that date in our research, but didn't know of what significance it had. Not until now at least."

Giles shook his head, not understanding. "What do you mean?"

"August 15th. It'll be a full moon."

"Oh, there's Buffy," Willow said as Buffy walked into the room. "We were wondering where you were."

"Xander was about to send out a search party," Anya said.

Buffy looked at Willow, Tara, Xander, and Anya sitting around the table, apparently splitting a pizza. "Sorry, guys. I sort of…fell asleep at Angel's. Hey, is there any of that left for me?" She pointed to the pizza box on the table.

"Sorry, Buff, you snooze, you lose," Xander said.

Buffy frowned, but Xander opened the box to reveal one slice left. "Just kidding. Of course we left you some."

"Thanks!" Buffy grabbed the lone slice from the box, but before she had a chance to sit down, the phone rang. Buffy quickly swallowed the bite she'd taken before answering the phone. "Hello…Oh hey. Is anything wrong?...Oh she did?...Describe him."

Xander and Willow exchanged glances as they listened in on Buffy's conversation.

"Okay, thanks for calling…Bye."

"Who was that?" Xander asked as Buffy hung up the phone.

"That was the nurse at the hospital, the one I asked to keep an eye on Faith for me. Apparently Faith's had a visitor."

"I should have never let him help with Faith," Buffy muttered as she slammed a plate into the dishwasher.

Willow frowned, rinsing another plate in the sink. "I don't understand. What's the problem?"

"Isn't it obvious what the problem is, Will? If Faith and Spike are getting along, this can only mean trouble for us."

"Maybe he's trying to get information. You know? To see what she's up to? Or maybe he's simply keeping an eye on her."

"Or maybe he's glad he finally found a slayer he can relate to. One who can do his dirty work for him."

"Look, I don't trust Faith, okay? But Spike…I'm not so sure he would do that. I think he's okay."

Buffy's jaw dropped. "Are you taking Spike's side?"

"No! I'm on your side! I'm just trying to make you understand that he's changed!"

"He has a chip in his head so he can't hurt humans, but he doesn't have a soul, Will."

"I know. But he doesn't have to help us, Buffy. If he wanted to hurt us, he would have found a way to do so months ago."

"He tried to kill me, Willow."

"I know. He's tried to kill me too. But he hasn't tried to since then. And besides, he helped you before, remember?"

Buffy shook her head. "No."

"Yes you do. When Angelus…"

Willow didn't finish her sentence. She didn't have to.

"Sure, he helped me then, but only because it served his own selfish purpose."

"Okay, right, the whole thing with Dru. But he didn't want the world to end either, right?"

"I suppose."

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe he still doesn't want the world to end?"

Buffy didn't reply.

Willow placed the last dish into the dishwasher and closed it. "When you were in a coma, he patrolled for you. I'm just saying…maybe you should give him a chance."

With that, Willow left the room, leaving Buffy alone with her thoughts.

The phone then rang, and Buffy sighed, grabbing the cordless. "Hello?"

"Buffy?"

"Giles? What's going on?"

"Wesley and I examined the scroll again. We've discovered something important."

"About the Shanshu prophecy?" she asked hopefully.

There was a moment of pause before Giles continued. "No, I'm sorry, Buffy."

"Oh. Well…what then?"

"About the plans Maleficus has for the Hellmouth."

"So August 15th is when this is all going to go down?" Xander asked, rocking back in his chair as the group met for a meeting.

Giles straightened his glasses. "It's an educated guess, but yes. On the night of the full moon, and when the tide is at its highest point, the Hellmouth will open. Willow, can you get on the computer?"

"Yeah." Willow took her laptop out of her bag. "What do you need me to search?"

"Do a search for the tide tables for the month of August."

"Sure, I'm on it."

"So wait a minute," Buffy said, thinking aloud. "If we know when Maleficus is planning on doing this, all we have to do is stop him before then, right?"

"No," Giles said, then oddly, smiled. "We let him."

Xander raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, Giles…come again?"

Giles reached for the scroll and laid it out on the table. "I discovered something else. When researching the scroll, I came across a spell that seemed familiar, and I thought at first that perhaps I had performed it before. But then I realized it was slightly different."

"What sort of spell?" Tara asked.

A smile came across Giles' face. "A spell to close the Hellmouth…permanently."

"We can close it permanently?" Buffy asked. "Is that even possible?"

"There'll still be supernatural activity, of course, but the threat of hell being unleashed on Sunnydale will be greatly reduced."

"Will it even still be a Hellmouth?" Cordelia asked, speaking up.

"It'll still be a Hellmouth, although it won't be quite as active as before. I imagine it'll be a lot like Cleveland's Hellmouth."

"Cleveland has a Hellmouth?" Buffy asked.

"An inactive one, yes. It's been dormant for years."

"Wait, I'm still a little confused," Xander said. "Why can't we kill Maleficus before the full moon and nip this apocalypse in the bud? And why not do the spell now?"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, Xander," Giles said grimly. "In order for any closing Hellmouth ritual to be performed, the Hellmouth has to actually be open. And if we have the opportunity to prevent this from happening again, it'll be better for us in the long run."

"Let's not forget Wolfram & Hart's involvement in this," Angel added. "They want the Hellmouth open too for their own apocalyptic plans. If Maleficus is gone, they certainly have the resources to send someone else in."

"I think it's quite obvious now why Wolfram & Hart kept this scroll under such tight security," Wesley said.

Angel turned to Wesley. "They didn't want anyone to know how to stop them."

"I've got those tide tables pulled up," Willow announced. "It says on August 15th, the high tide will be at 10:24 p.m."

"Okay, so we know when this is going to happen," Buffy said, looking to Angel. "Now what?"

"We plan our strategy now," Angel answered. "And we work fast, because August 15th is just…"

"A little more than a month away," Giles said, finishing his sentence.

A/N: Okay, short chapter I know, but a lot of new info!

Regarding the scrolls….A spell that reveals how to close the Hellmouth permanently? I think that's perfect! And of course, W&H would want to prevent that since their aim is to open it and unleash hell. I figured there had to be something of importance in that thing, not just the whole Shanshu stuff.

Oh, and speaking of Shanshu, you might have noticed (and thanks to a reviewer for pointing it out!) that I didn't include anything about the uncertainty of which side Angel fights on (which is the second part of the prophecy on the show). The reason why is because I wanted the Shanshu to be more about a reward for Angel. Also, I don't think there is any doubt which side Angel will fight on in my story, so just ignore anything on the show that implies this part of the prophecy. ;)

So yeah…full moon, this is when it's all going down. Why the full moon? I don't know…doesn't everything odd on this show seem to happen in time with the phases of the moon? I just threw the tides in for good measure, and it sounded cool when read in the prophecy, ha! I wish I could have found a way to work Oz into the conversation. Like, "Where's Oz when you need him? He could tell you when the full moon is!" But it didn't work out that way. And no, in case you were wondering, Oz will not be in the story, although I do love Oz! It would just be too complicated to bring him in at this point. I've got enough going on in this story lol.

Okay, so now, I reveal how much of a geek I am. I actually researched when the full moon would be for August back in 2000, as well as the tide tables for Santa Barbara. (Since Joss Whedon said it's nearby, lol) :P

Until 38…