I have a feeling that I'll be saying 'sorry this came so late' for the rest of this story. Sorry about that.

Chapter 7

The Recent Past

By the time Lorne had finished making the antidote potion from the smashed bottle, the big question was still hanging in the air. Who was going to risk taking it first? None of them had enough magical experience to know if he had made the potion right.

"I could probably do it?" Fred hesitantly said. She was having a sort of phantom feeling of familiarity.

"Are you… I'll do it," Wesley said. He stepped up and Lorne put a drop on his tongue. He staggered back as the lost years came rushing back to him.

"... Did it work?" Willow asked.

"Uh, yeah. Um… I think I'm going… I think I'll just go…"

Fred looked after him as he left.

"You want to go next, Fred?" Lorne asked.

Fred nodded and stuck out her tongue.

The Present

Fred and Gunn sat across from each other on opposite beds.

"What do we need to talk about?" Gunn finally said after a few seconds, although he had an idea. Either way, he knew what he needed to say.

"Um… During the spell…" she bit her bottom lip. How could she say this?

"I kissed Wesley," she blurted out.

Gunn gave out a bitter laugh.

"Charles…" Fred started.

"It's not that," he said quietly. "I did the same thing." He shouldn't have been feeling like that. He had literally had a full-blown make-out session with Cordelia, and he severely doubted Fred did anything close to that.

Fred gave him a look. "With Wesley?"

Gunn snorted. "No. With Cordy."

"Cordelia? Sixteen-year-old Cordelia?"

"I know. Young me apparently had no taste in girls."

They got quiet and started looking around the random hotel room they were talking in.

"I don't know… I don't know if we're working, Charles."

"Fred…" he started.

She put up a hand. "Listen to me. It's not you, or even me, but… I think we just need a break."

Gunn sighed. He had known this was coming. "I think you might be right."

"But maybe-"

"Someday?" He gave a small smile. "That'd be nice."

He stood up and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "See you tomorrow." He left Fred alone to let out her sobs.

The Recent Past

When Willow got her memories back, the first thing she did was laugh. Not a "ha-ha that's so funny" laugh, but a "wow-that sucked" laugh.

"You okay, Will?" Xander asked hesitantly, not sure if this Willow was mad at him.

"That sucked," she responded. She moved out of the way and let Xander step up.

He grimaced at the taste of the potion before his memories came back and he raised his eyebrows.

He turned to her. "Totally sucked."

The Present

"What's wrong, Will?" Xander asked, shaking his friend out of her thoughts.

"What- Oh, nothing."

"What is it?" he asked again, a touch of a smile on his lips.

Willow hesitated. "It's just… Well, for one thing, I'm still mortified at how I gave my 'ultimate confession'."

Xander laughed. "Definitely not going to be one of the people to wish to relive the good ol' days."

Willow smiled back. "It's just…" she hesitated. "I keep thinking - What if Tara had been there?" Willow felt Xander's comforting arm as she felt the fresh, warm tears slide down her face. Why did it still have to hurt so much?

"Well, I think I can answer that question," Xander said. Willow turned to him.

"You would have been so caught up in that beautiful blonde girl you would have forgotten my name."

Willow let out a laugh that quickly turned into a sob. Xander pulled her in tighter.

"She still loves you, you know. Wherever she is."

Willow looked up. "Thanks, Xander."

He shrugged. "What are friends for."

The Recent Past

Lorne looked at the last three people in front of him. Angel, Buffy and Cordelia. There was a some kind of irony there, he thought as Angel stepped up for the potion. Even if he didn't fully understand it.

BtVS - A:tS - Sw9

Liam stepped up to the demon to receive the potion. If Buffy was a Vampire Slayer, and he was a vampire… Well, it would probably be a good idea to know what was going on before she did. Still, he was hesitant when he received the potion. He swallowed the bitter liquid as over two centuries of memories came flooding back.

Angel staggered a little when one conversation with Buffy came back. His sister... It hurt to have mentioned her so casually, to just be a part of small talk. He turned around and closed his eyes to take a moment get himself together. Okay.

The Present

"What?"

Buffy glanced up at Angel from a chair in the lobby. "What do you mean, what?" she responded.

"You keep looking at me like you want to say something. What is it?"

"I don't really know," she said honestly. "It's just… earlier… you said something that got me thinking."

Angel frowned as he sat down next to her. "Like what?"

She hesitated again. "Like the fact you had a sister."

When Angel didn't respond, she continued, "It's just making me think, we were together for two years, give or take, and I never once heard you mention her."

"It was just a hard topic to bring up," he finally said.

"I know," Buffy responded. "I just… I just missed you," she said quietly.

After a beat, he responded. "I missed you, too."

Buffy gave a small chuckle as the deja vu from the previous year kicked in. "Anyone else feel like we've already had this conversation." She stood up and turned away.

"Buffy," he said, standing up, too.

"No, Angel," she said as she whirled around. "I know what you're going to say, I know nothing can happen, I know better than anybody, but I just-" she cut herself off as she realized they were only standing a foot away from each other. She glanced up and found herself in the kiss she should have expected, yet was still surprising. And amazing. An amazing surprise.

After who knows how long, they finally pulled apart.

"We have things to talk about, you know," she finally said.

"A lot," he responded.

Buffy looked back up at him "Can we just wait until tomorrow?"

"As long as you want."

The Recent Past

It seemed rather poetic that Cordelia was the last one to get her memories back. As it was, she seemed rather confident as she stepped up, seeing as no one before her had dropped dead yet. The others in question were standing around rather awkwardly, wanting to pair off and start the conversations they no doubt wanted to start by now.

Lorne carefully placed the drop on Cordy's tongue and saw something unrecognizable flash in front of her eyes before she ran down the hallway. The others looked after her in concern, but didn't go after her, figuring she needed some alone time. Two by two, they made their way to different parts of the hotel to talk, leaving Lorne alone to contemplate the thing that had been bugging him from the moment he had read his brown-haired, ex-cheerleader friend.

That was chaper 7, once again very late. I decided to try something a bit different with the style the chapter's in, so I hoped you liked it. After a while, it got annoying to find another way to say: Person steps up. Person gets potion. Person gets memories back, but I hope I did an okay job. And I finally got some solid B/A. In case you couldn't tell, the deja vu reference was about their offscreen meeting in season 6/3. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!