After being stitched up and replenished with various fluids, Joyce woke up. Unfortunately, she didn't remember anything other than inviting someone in for a study session, a person who claimed to be Buffy's friend. Presumably, the girl's arrival preceded an accident with a barbecue fork. She was adamant, however, that they didn't own a barbecue fork.

Once Joyce was stable the siblings found themselves joined by Buffy's two friends and the librarian (another odd association that needed clarification). As Giles greeted the injured woman, Dean grabbed his sister's wrist and dragged her down the hallway. Sam, Xander, and Willow followed. "Okay," hissed Buffy's eldest brother as he cornered her into the wall, "now tell me why you Hulked out at the house!"

"While you're at it," Sam tossed in, "tell us why you lied about knowing Rupert Giles."

Buffy glanced up from one looming, cross-armed brother to the other, attempted to signal for help from her stupefied friends, then mimicked the two men's autocratic stances. "No, you tell me why you're hiding firearms in your underpants! What, you finally go all out delinquent?"

"This isn't the time for that!" Dean refuted.

"This is the perfect time for that!"

The sound of a disapproving Englishman clearing his throat halted the impending argument. "As I am the only one here who knows the entire truth," Giles stated quietly, "I can shed light on all of your secrets. However, I would prefer to do so away from prying eyes and ears."

"No!" cried Buffy. "I invited Angel into my home even after I knew what he was and who he was. This is my fault!" After a pause, she quietly added, "I… I didn't do anything about it because had feelings for him."

"If you care for somebody you care about them," Willow said gently from around Dean's side. "You can't change that by—"

"—Killing them? Maybe not. But it's a start." Buffy used her preternatural strength to shoulder her way through the large wall of brothers and started to storm off.

His own reflexes honed by years of training and hunting, Dean had no problem snatching his sister's upper arm and preventing her flight. "You are not killing anybody!" he whispered harshly. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

With one quick motion Buffy flipped her brother's grip to her advantage and twisted it to his back. She slammed him against the wall, face first. "I don't have time for your crap, Dean," she growled. "I've got a vampire to kill." She shot a glare at Sam. He immediately lifted his hands up in surrender and took a step back.

"Vampire?" Dean scoffed, his squished mouth slightly mangling his words. "Vampires are extinct."

"Well why don't you come with me and tell him that yourself."

"Fine, I will. Leggo of my arm!"

"Buffy, no!" Giles cried. He positioned himself in front of her as she released her hold on her brother and spun around to leave. "This is no ordinary vampire. He knows you, he's faced the Three and lived! This will take more than a simple stake."

"I know. I'm borrowing the crossbow."

"Got one in the trunk," Dean offered.

"What? Why? Why the hell do you have a crossbow in your trunk?" Before he could answer, Buffy placed her hand on her brother's sternum and pushed him against the wall again. "Wait a sec. Why did you say that vampires are extinct and not imaginary?"

"Because we're hunters, Buffy! We've been ganking monsters since we were kids! If there really are vampires out there then we're gonna go kill them, not you. C'mon Sam."

"Oh no you're not," Buffy amended belligerently. Dean's eyes bulged as his effort to push his sister's hand away had no effect. "If there are vampires out there I'm going to take care of them because I'm the Slayer!"

"The what?" asked Dean.

"Slayer?" asked Sam.

"What's a hunter?" asked Xander.

"Oh, dear Lord," sighed Giles as he rubbed his forehead.


Buffy didn't leave much time for the proffered elucidation, but in lieu of details she took the fact that Dean knew what he was doing when it came to monsters and insisted he immediately drive her to the local club, The Bronze. As she'd been attacked there previously, and had been saved by this Angel thing during said attack, she theorized his home must be nearby. Before anyone could stop them Dean and Buffy sprinted off, jammed themselves into the Impala, and drove away.

"Great," Sam grumbled from the hospital curb. "Now what?"

Breathing hard from running after his wayward Slayer, Giles managed to huff out, "Perhaps… you'd like… more of an explanation… than your brother."

"If you're going to have a heart attack this would be the best place to do it," Xander quipped.

While the librarian treated the teenaged boy to a scathing glare, Sam agreed to Giles' offer. "Long as you're sure they're going to be okay," he said worriedly.

"No, I'm not," Giles grimly replied as he straightened. "But I'm fairly certain a hunter and the Slayer can handle a single vampire. We should go back inside and watch over Joyce whilst I explain everything."


Dean picked The Bronze's front doors and he and his sister stole inside. Other than to verify available weapons the two siblings hadn't spoken on the ride over. Getting rid of a vampire with in and out privileges to the Summers' home took precedence over their squabble.

"How do we kill it?" Dean whispered as they tiptoed around the upstairs.

"Stake to the heart," his sister answered in the same hushed tone. "Any kind of wood will do."

"Pool cues?"

"Should work."

As they approached the staircase, Dean asked, "When were you going to tell us about this… whatever this is?"

"When were you going to tell me that you knew how to kill monsters?"

Dean sighed. "Old man's orders. He didn't want you and Joyce getting caught up in our crap."

"Well, the crap found me anyways. Good job, dad." She paused and crouched down, gesturing for her brother to follow. "Shh. You hear that?"

"Someone's by the stage."

Much to her brother's irritation, Buffy stood up and walked openly down the clanging metal steps. "I know you're there," she announced. "And I know what you are."

"Do you?" came a voice from the shadows. Buffy's vampiric paramour strolled out from the backstage curtains. Dean assumed Angel was good-looking enough, but he thought the man's expression might be permanently set to "brood." Odd match to his perennially optimistic sister.

Dean only half-listened to their inane banter; a small, shuffling noise had come from the opposite side of the room. He crept across the upper floor to perform reconnaissance and was sidelined by an inhuman snarl. When he whipped his gaze downwards he saw that the vampire's face was horribly altered, just as it had been at the Summers' home. Angel's brow ridges now protruded to form an angry, demonic mask and his teeth had grown large and feral. A grimly determined Buffy was aiming her crossbow at his chest.

Angel leapt onto the pool table and the Slayer fired. The vampire dodged, his unnatural agility enabling him to spring up to the second floor. Dean grabbed the closest chair and smashed the creature on the side of the head, sending him tumbling back down to land at Buffy's feet.

Dean's sister planted a foot on the vampire's chest and aimed her reloaded crossbow. Swiftly, Angel snatched her ankle and tossed her away. She rolled neatly on the green of the adjacent pool table and regained her feet on the floor at the other side. Despite himself, Dean was impressed with Buffy's moves.

Distracted as he was by the sight of his sister planting her fist in Angel's face, Dean failed to notice the thing sneaking up behind him until it was too late. The arm that snaked around his neck was nubile but abnormally strong. His suspicions regarding his captor's lack of humanity were confirmed when fangs scraped gently along the upper curve of his ear.

"My, aren't you a delicious one," Dean's captor murmured. The voice was high pitched and girly; it conveyed a jarringly false sense of innocence. "Since you came in with the Slayer, I bet you two are friends."

"Nope," he lied. "Just some dude she picked up on the street."

"Liar, liar!" she sang. "Let's allow the Slayer to be eaten, shall we? Then once my lovely Angelus has finished, the two of us can have you for dessert."

Dean opened his mouth to retort and the female vampire clubbed him over the head. His chin hit the metal railing with a loud clang. The last thing the hunter heard was Buffy shrieking his name.


"So after you guys lived with Buffy's mom for a couple of years, your dad took you around the country and you guys hunted monsters?"

"Yup," said Sam.

"Now your dad's missing," Xander continued to summarize, "and you and your bro are trying to find him?"

"Pretty much."

"You had a full scholarship to Stanford?" Willow squeaked.

Xander stared at her, incredulous. "He says he's been hunting monsters since he was a kid, and you're asking about his school."

"W-Well we've got monsters here. That's nothing special. Oh my gosh," Willow gasped as she looked up at Sam, "what did you do to get in? What extra-curricular activities did you list? What was your SAT score? What was on your essay?" She grabbed the sides of his arms. "Tell me your secrets!"

Willow's attempt to shake out Sam's collegiate admission techniques was interrupted by the sudden arrival of a worried Giles. He glanced back at the doorway to Joyce's room and gestured furtively for them to follow him down the hallway. "We have a problem. It wasn't Angel who attacked Buffy's mother; it was Darla."

"Who's that?" asked Sam as they hurried out of the hospital.

"Bad news," Xander replied.

"So either Buffy's off to kill the wrong vamp or there's a trap."

"Most likely both," Giles said. "Let's hurry. The Bronze isn't too far."


Sam began sprinting once they got close enough to the club and the explosive pops of guns being fired echoed down the road. He tore open the door to see his sister hiding behind a bullet ridden pillar. A lithe, blonde vampire joyfully wielding two automatic pistols was standing on the bar trying to mow Buffy down. Above them Sam could see Dean's arm hanging limply from the second floor.

He crouched down and snuck inside. Giles, Willow, and Xander followed his lead. "Buffy's trapped," Sam told them as quietly as he could over the gunfire. "We need a distraction."

"Buffy!" Willow called loudly much to the hunter's surprise. She stuck her head over the lip of the pool table they were hiding behind. "It wasn't Angel who attacked your mom! It was Darla!" The female vampire heard, laughed maliciously, and trained her guns on the new arrivals. Sam swiftly pulled Willow underneath the overhang as the thing pulled the triggers.

The distraction served to give Buffy the opportunity to try and knock Darla from her perch. She grabbed the closest piece of furniture and ended up flinging a small side table at her. Darla ducked, briefly stilling the flow of gunfire, and let out an animalistic snarl. She prepared to leap down and was slammed back by a crossbow bolt to the chest.

In the proceeding lull Sam wove his way around the tables and climbed the stairs to check on Dean. Oddly, Giles stole away behind the stage while Willow and Xander continued to cower.

Darla straightened, the bolt protruding from her sternum, and giggled. "Close, but no heart." She yanked out the stick and flung it off to one side. With one quick motion the vampire dropped one gun, reloaded the other, and resumed firing at the Slayer.

Thankfully, Dean was merely unconscious. Sam checked around for injuries and found only a drying mat of blood from a blow to his head. An additional movement caught the corner of the hunter's eye and he watched the other vampire, Angel, snatch up the discarded crossbow bolt and creep up behind Darla.

"Come on, Buffy!" the female vampire taunted. "Take it like a man."

The lights suddenly began flickering, a simple yet effective distraction that revealed the purpose to Giles' foray backstage. Darla reflexively snapped her eyes over in confusion. Much to Sam's surprise Angel immediately leapt up onto the bar and plunged the discarded quarrel into the female vampire's back. She turned, the incredulity at his betrayal writ large on her expression. "Angel…?" she wondered sorrowfully before falling over and disintegrating.

Angel hopped down as Buffy inched out from behind a couch. They exchanged inscrutable looks before the vampire turned and walked steadily out of the club.

Dean let out a groan. "Stupid vampire bitch," he grumbled as Sam helped him to his feet.

"Well, vamp bitch is, quite literally, dust."

"Good. I'm gonna piss in it," he declared as the two brothers lumbered down the staircase.

Their sister met them at the bottom and stated, "That's why I don't like guns."

Her friends rushed over to make sure she was all right. Amidst Buffy's repeated assurances, Giles walked over to Dean and said, "I think it would be best if the three of you talked this over before you leave town."

The eldest brother locked eyes with his sister. "Yeah, we will."


They decided to meet at the local park. The hour was late enough for it to be unoccupied and the open space was comforting. For the better part of an hour Buffy told her tale of vampiric battles, steady new friendships, and how she was forced to juggle her duties as the Slayer and as a standard California high school girl. Afterwards she hung disconsolately from the swing and concluded her tale with, "So that's it."

"Well, that explains your stint at the mental joint," Dean commented from the bottom of the slide. Buffy kicked a rock at him. "Ow."

"So you didn't get a say in it at all?" Sam asked. He was far too tall for any of the playground equipment and had settled for leaning against the swing supports.

"Nope. Just one day, guy shows up, says I'm Chosen, and uber Buffy was born."

"That… sucks."

"Yeah," sighed his sister. "Now everyone thinks I'm some crazy psycho violent delinquent when I actually saved them from being vampire chow. By the way, you can not tell mom about this."

"What? Why?"

"Because she'd freak! You think she'd be thrilled to find out dad was a monster hunter? And that you knew how to fire a gun at, like, five?"

Dean smirked. "Gotcha there, Sammy. Besides," he said to Buffy, "we get it. Why do you think we never told you about our gig?"

"Well, okay. I guess." Buffy suddenly perked up. "Now that I know, can I hang with you guys during the summer instead of Hank? Mom said he's starting seeing someone that's, like, your age and, you know, ick."

"Wow," Dean said, impressed. "Go Hank."

Sam, however, ignored Buffy's stepfather's midlife crisis and cautiously told his sister, "I don't know. Let's figure it out after we find dad."

"Well, then let me come with. He's my dad too."

It was Dean who denied her this time. "Not a chance, Buff'. Stick here for now, okay?"

"Have some normal life," added Sam. "Trust me. Enjoy it as much as you can."

"Besides, Joyce would kill us."

"You scared of my mom?" Buffy teased.

"Damn straight," Dean said firmly. "Remember that time I snuck a girl into her guest room? Joyce nearly clobbered me with a frying pan."

"Because that skank tried to steal her jewelry," Sam clarified.

"Fine," Buffy pouted. "But now that all our secrets are out you two have to text and email, like, all the time and let me know what's going on."

"Long as you promise to do the same, especially if something comes up around here that we can help with."

"Okay." The youngest sibling hopped off the swing and spread her arms. "Group hug to seal the deal?"

Sam eagerly stepped into the embrace, and when Dean merely stood and stared reluctantly Buffy reached out and forced him to join in. "Oh, come on!" he objected, his attempts to wriggle out of the arms of his taller brother and his superpowered sister failing miserably.

"You love it," Buffy responded happily.


The brothers left early the next day despite Buffy and her friends' insistence that they try to stay for the reopening of The Bronze. Apparently the only reason it had been vacant the night before was because it was in the process of being fumigated; the post fumigation party was scheduled for that evening. Dean and Sam, however, were eager to be back on the search for their father.

"Here," said Sam as he placed a Blackberry in Buffy's hand. "I've programmed all our numbers in there."

His sister pocketed the phone. "You let me know if you find dad, okay?"

"Promise." Sam and Buffy shared one last hug before he entered the Impala.

Dean merely gave her one of his signature smirks from their car's driver side. "Just so you know," he warned, "I catch that Angel dude around again, he's dust."

Buffy smiled and rolled her eyes. "Don't worry. I've got it handled."

Before they could leave, Joyce hurried out from the house with a plastic bag filled with various containers of food for their trip. "I know John eats terribly, so here's some fruit, salad, and cold cuts. Should last you a couple of days at least."

"Thanks, Joyce," Sam called.

Dean eyed the meat, but muttered something about rabbit food when he spotted the rest. He tried to smile and thanked Buffy's mother anyways. "Much appreciated."

"Oh good grief, Dean," Joyce laughed. "There are some cookies, too."

The eldest brother beamed at her. "Now we're talkin'!"

"You two be careful, all right?"

Sam and Dean promised and gave significant glances to their sister, warning her to do the same. Then Dean revved the engine of the Impala and the brothers drove off. Joyce watched them go worriedly. "I hope they find him. Goodness knows what John's gotten himself into this time."

"They'll be okay, mom," assured Buffy. "Trust me. Speaking of dad," she said as they headed back inside, "can we talk about the summer?"

"I know what you're going to ask, and I don't think—"

"Sam will be there." Probably, she added to herself.

"Really now? That's a different story. Let me think about it, okay? And when they find John we'll see what he thinks."

"Okay, mom. Thanks."


Acknowledgement : Some lines of dialogue are taken directly from the episode, "Angel" (BtVS 1.07).