Angelus shouted the last words of the spell and the swirling soul shot forward, directly into him.

Angelus's body went ridged as his eyes glowed bright orange and he collapsed, convulsing to the floor.

Buffy instinctively ran to him, "Angel!" she cried as she dropped beside him.

His eyes opened, strangely still glowing orange as he panted for air. Usually the glow only lasted a second.

His eyes shut again, a look of pain flashed across his face as his demon features rippled beneath the surface. His face morphed, switching between demon and human as if it couldn't make up its mind which to portray.

Buffy pulled back, wanting to comfort her husband but not sure if the man lying in front of her was him or his not-so-friendly alter-ego.

After a few long seconds Angel's body went still, his face settled on human, his breathing evening out to a normal rate.

'His eyes did the weird glowy thing, his soul must be inside…right?'

Buffy bend forward and placed a hand on his neck, checking and quickly finding a steady beat.

She inched forward and brushed her hand along his cheek, "Angel? Can you hear me?"

He stirred, eyes slowly opening; she was shocked to see his eyes still shimming orange.

'Ok, that's not normal.'

He blinked a few times, and the glow softened, turning yellow and receding into his iris.

'Ok vamp eyes with no vamp face…creepy.'

"Angel?" she asked again, worried as hell.

His golden eyes turned towards her, "Buffy?" he asked confused. "Wha-what happened? I don't…" his eyes widened as his memory began to return, he sat up looking afraid, "Oh God, are you ok? Katie? The baby?" he asked almost panicked.

Vamp eyes aside, she threw her arms around his neck, relieved beyond expression that he was back, "Angel! Yeah, I'm good, we're all good now." She cried into his neck.

His right arm hugged her tight, is left still weak from his wound.

...

A few minutes later she pulled back, and found his eyes back to normal chocolate brown.

"What?" he asked, noticing her stare but obviously oblivious to his kaleidoscope changing eyes.

"Your eyes, they were changing color." She said to him as they helped each other stand up.

"Changing color?" he asked her, confused still as he helped her up.

"Yeah, they did the orange glow thing, but it didn't fade right away. Then they went all vampy, but they're back to normal now." She said while running her thumb along his cheek. "Are you ok?" she asked.

He was still shaky, and that worried her. "Yeah, I'm…fine." He said without much confidence.

She noticed the lack of confidence in his reply.

After a moment she pulled away, "Wait. What just happened?" she asked, confused.

He looked at her, "You've seen me re-ensouled before."

She nodded, "Yeah, but Angelus, he had the book, your soul. How…who put your soul back?"

He closed his eyes a moment, still reeling himself, then met hers, "I did …I…re-ensouled myself."

She looked at him, "What? How?" she demanded.

He shook his head, "I'm not entirely sure. My head's still a little scrambled."

She reached for the book that he had dropped from his hands, and glanced over the text he had read. It wasn't in English.

"It's not possible, Angelus can't re-ensoul himself."

Angel glanced at the book the looked up at her, "Well I did have the text, my soul, and the ability to read Latin. Not to mention, I actually remember doing it now." He put his hand to his head as the memories continued to flood back, "and now I know why it feels like I was kicked in the groin."

Buffy winced, "Sorry."

He shook his head, "No, you did the right thing" he groaned "…unless you wanted more kids." He mumbled under his breath.

Buffy switched back to the issue at hand, "Angelus hates his soul, why would he put it back?"

Angel thought a moment, "I didn't have a choice."

Buffy felt a stab of fear run down her spine, she stepped back, afraid of the reply "Why do you keep saying I?"

'Angel never calls himself Angelus and he would have been Angelus at the time…but he keeps saying I like he's still Angelus…I really hope I'm wrong.'

"Alright, I umm…It's still a little muddled in here, but I think I know what happened…I'm just not sure how happy your going to be to hear it."

She looked at him afraid, "What do you mean…what happened?"

He looked away a moment, gathered his wits then proceeded, "I am Angelus…but I'm Angel too." He bomb shelled.

She looked at him a moment, then stepped back, putting distance between them "Wh-what! What do you mean?"

He grabbed her wrist to steady her but she yanked it out of his grasp.

He met her eyes, "I'm…I'm both. My two personalities aren't divided anymore. When I performed the spell to put my soul back, it…I don't know…it triggered something. My soul and my demon merged." He waited for her reaction.

"Merged?" she asked, still freaking. "What the hell does that mean! More like Angelus? More…evil?"

"No. Nothing like that, I swear. I have my soul. It has nothing to do with being good or evil Buffy. Even then, whether I was good or bad, I was still the same person. Yeah, my morals changed drastically, but the parts that made me…me…were always the same. That's true now too. I'm still me."

"And who exactly is that?" she questioned in a small voice, terrified she was now a single mother of two.

"Your husband, the father of our children, the man that's always been completely and hopelessly in love with you." He inched closer and reached his hand out to touch her face, she allowed the contact, finding comfort in his caress. She looked into his eyes and recognized the love in them she'd seen over the years, she saw none of Angelus's hate, he couldn't fake that. She leaned forward and let him wrap his arms around her, his embrace soothing her fears.

"Buffy nothing's changed between us…I might be a little different personality wise…but the important things are still here. I'm still me." He kissed the top of her head.

She nodded against his chest, "Well you're defiantly acting the part." She blurted.

He grinned, "It's not an act Buffy."

They stood still a moment, taking in the disaster of their living room. "Well you did mention you were thinking of remodeling." He deadpanned.

She frowned, "Not exactly what I meant." She replied stoically. After a moment she asked him, "So…how much different will you be now?"

"Truth is I can't tell you. I don't really know. I guess you'll have had to wait and see. As weird as it sounds, I'll probably need a few days just to figure myself out."

She nodded, "Yeah that is weird." She mumbled against his chest, still trying to absorb it all.

"I know we agreed we would discuss all the big decisions in our life together first…but I didn't really have a choice in this." He said apologetically, pulling her back enough to see her face.

"Yeah, we did…and no, you didn't. I guess I can let this one slide, for now." She said, half-joking, half freaking over how different he will be if he's both Angel and Angelus.

"Why?" she suddenly asked him.

He looked down at her, "Why what?"

"Why did you, or he…Angelus re-ensoul himself? He hates his soul. Why would he willingly put it back?"

He took a deep breath, "I would have died if I didn't." he said quietly.

She looked deep into his eyes, "What? Why? I don't understand."

"You remember why my heart started beating to begin with?" he asked, knowing she knew the answer but needing to let her see it too.

She nodded, "Yeah, some sort of…poison for vampires." She said realizing where he was going with this.

"Without my soul interfering, it was starting to kill me, to kill my demon. As much as I like vegetables, I didn't want to be one."

She hugged him tighter, knowing she could have lost him all on fronts.

Had the poison killed his demon, his soulless body would have been left vacant, and without a soul to sustain it, it would have died not long after.

"As a demon, I wasn't about to sacrifice myself so my soul could re-enter our body and live completely human, if that was even possible. This was the only way to save myself, to save my demon side."

She nodded against him again, "How is the poison still in your system after all this time?"

"I dunno, guess it's not the kinda thing what wears off."

...

Their embrace was interrupted as a dozen more of Graegus's goons rushing in.

'Shit, second wave.' Angel thought as he stepped in front of Buffy, "Go, I'll cover you." He urged to her.

She looked like she was going to argue when he grabbed her and kissed her, "You can't fight, and our children need a mother." He said quickly after the kiss.

"They need a father too" she countered.

He threw a backwards kick at the first goon, sending him flying into his buddies, buying them a moment.

"Liam won't need a father if he doesn't get the chance to be born." He yelled over to her while diving into the fight.

Buffy was torn for a moment, not wanting to leave her husband injured and outnumbered, but also not wanting to leave her daughter an orphan or take the chance of life away from the babe within her.

Motherly instinct won over in the end, she grabbed a sword from a previously fallen goon at her feet, "Angel!" she yelled.

His demon features surface as he managed to turn and catch the weapon she tossed him. He nodded his thanks and was relieved when she exited though the back.

'All I need is for them to live.'

Angel tore his focus off his family and concentrated fully on the fight, he had no intentions of leaving Buffy a widow.

...

TBC