Hey! This is my new story! Read, enjoy, and REVIEW! PLEASE! I know I probably should have finished my other story first, but this came to me. Plus, the last episode left things hanging so I just had to finish it. And read my other story, The Trip, in the Buffy part of this site.

Many thanks to my beta, Les. Your great!

It had been four years since Angel had last seen Buffy. They hadn't been in touch since he left her in Sunnydale to fight the First. She had told him that she needed time to figure out who she was, and that once she was done "baking" she find the man she loved, so he decided to give her that much. He laughed whenever he thought of her 'cookie dough' improv, but it contained sadness. He had been waiting for seven years, not sure that she would ever come at all.

"Hey man. You ready to go?" Gunn came into Angel's office and interrupted his thoughts. They were all going out to dinner because things had been slow for a few weeks. They decided to take the night off and relax a bit.

"Yeah." He answered, getting up and walking into the lobby with Gunn to meet everyone else.

Things had changed for Angel since the First. Spike had come to the hotel in dire need of help. He had been bruised and bleeding, and had stayed ever since, and surprising everyone, had gotten along with them all, even Angel.

After saving the world from the First and making Sunnyhell into a huge ditch, Spike became a human. Well, sort of. He was alive but had retained his vampire strength and senses, as did Angel. Angel had become mostly human as a gift from the Powers. They had told him that Spike hadn't been seen, and that the Shanshoo prophecy had been meant for him. So three years ago, he got his gift.

He still 'helped the helpless', owned the Hyperion, and ran Angel Investigations and Wolfram and Hart with the rest of the Fang Gang, including Spike. He lived at the Hyperion with the rest of his friends and kept the part they didn't live in as a hotel that people actually stayed in.

"Hurry up Peaches. I'm hungry." Spike yelled to him, having seen his grandsire coming out of his office. Once Angel joined the rest of the group they headed out to the cars. Since they couldn't all fit in one car, they decided to take two and meet each other at the restaurant. Once seated around the table, the conversation began.

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After the First had been defeated, Giles had rebuilt the council with the husbands, wives, sons, and daughters of council members that had died. Buffy, Dawn, Xander, Willow, Kennedy, Faith, Wood, Andrew, and Rona had all gone back to England with Giles to help. They were all living in a mansion together, paid for by the Council. Luckily, the Council had kept all of its money in a bank in Sweden, and Giles and some of the new members had gone and taken out a large sum of it; enough to rebuild the Council and build a place for everyone to live.

Buffy, Kennedy, Faith, Rona, and even Wood were teaching the new Slayers from all over the world and being paid well for it. The slayers had to be fifteen or older and have the desire to learn. Willow was a goddess, when she used her magic anyway, and was helping wayward witches come back to the good side and learn how to control their magic. She also helped the Council in anyway she could, training some of the slayers in magic.

Dawn had gone back to the U.S. for college a year ago and was attending UCLA, majoring in psychology. Her reasoned, "I figure, there isn't anything anyone can say that will surprise me." It was the middle of July, and Dawn was on summer break, but had decided to stay in where she was. She rented a condo with a three of her friends.

Kennedy, Andrew and Rona were planning to surprise everyone with a trip to L.A. to see Dawn and had gotten everyone packed and to the airport, refusing to tell them where they were going until their flight was called. Everyone had boarded the plane and was seated when the questions started again.

"Everyone shut up!" Kennedy yelled at he group of friends. "Were going to L.A. for vacation for two weeks. Dawn knows were coming, and Rona, Andrew and I have been planning this for about two months. We are not going to tell you anything else, except that we have made reservations at one of the best hotels in L.A. I have seen pictures and read reviews, it's truly magnificent. We also have reservations for some of the best restaurants there. Everything else is a surprise and your not getting any specifics, so don't bother asking!" Kennedy said, briefly looking at her girlfriend and adding, "Not even you." She said this to the red head, knowing that she had been thinking that Kennedy would tell her everything with some persuasion.

"Humph…" Was Willow's only reply, figuring that her girlfriend had read her thoughts.

"Does this mean I finally get to meet my little sis' boyfriend?" Buffy asked, thinking of all the times she had spoken to Dawn and had to listen to her go on and on about how great the guy was

"You'll have to wait to find out." Rona told her.

"Ok. I plan on making her introduce us anyway." Buffy informed them. "This trip actually has good timing. I had been planning on coming back to L.A. soon but hadn't gotten around to planning my trip." Buffy had been planning on going to see Angel. It had been four years, and she missed him desperately. She had become her own person, for the most part and needed him now. (lots of info to absorb, but you get us up to speed. I like it.)

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Andrew had given Dawn the name of the hotel they were going to be staying at, and she looked up the address so she could meet them there that night. She had heard of the hotel before. It was five stars, and there were always commercials for it on TV. She put her makeup on, got dressed, and drove there. Once inside the lobby, she looked around. The hotel had been remodeled a few years ago and now had marble floors and mahogany front desk, with an office behind it. She walked up to the front desk and asked the girl behind it if the Mendel's (Kennedy had made the reservation under her name) had checked in yet.

"I'm sorry they haven't arrived."

"Figures they wouldn't be on time." She told the teller, figuring she might as well talk to the girl while she waited. "Kennedy tells me to make sure to be here right at eight and gives me a whole big speech about it, but they aren't even here yet!"

"Sounds just like my family." The girl tells Dawn. Just then the doors opened to let in, what Dawn can tell, a fairly big group of people. Assuming that it's the Scooby's, she turned around with a smile, which quickly faded into a look of confusion at who she saw in front of her.

"Dawn?" Connor asked. "What are you doing here?" Her boyfriend asked in surprise at seeing her there.

"I'm meeting-" Dawn abruptly stopped what she was saying, her face went pale, her eyes got big, and she got a look of horror on her face when she noticed the other people there. "Angel?!" She asked meekly.

"Dawn." That was all Angel could get out, thinking about the implications of her being in his hotel. They had just come back from dinner, and he had been ready to go work out when he saw her there.

"Hey there Bit." Spike said. Dawn briefly looked at him and went even paler. He was supposed to be dead, but that didn't matter right now. She looked back at Angel.

"You know each other?" Connor asked nervously. He and Dawn had only been going out for a few months and he really liked her. He didn't want his abnormal family to ruin what he had with her.

"Sort of…" She said, still staring at Angel. "This is bad. Very, very bad…"

"Who are you? And what's so bad?" Gunn asked just as the hotel door opened again. What he saw was three very pale and shocked females, one more so then the other two, two equally pale men, and three other people looking around confusedly. "Oh." He said. "Got to agree with the girl. This is bad." Gunn had never met Buffy before, but he had been told about her. He had met Faith and Willow before and figured out who the extremely pale little blonde was. "Very bad…"