"Angel?  Is that you?"  Called Cordy from her, Wes, and Angel's suite.  She had been lying out on the balcony, tanning when she had heard the door open.  Cordy walked into the kitchen to find Angel pouring himself a glass of blood.  "Hey, you've been gone pretty long."

Angel turned to face Cordy, a sad look on his face.  "You'll never guess who I ran into today!"

"The pope?"  Asked Cordy, she smiled, then frowned at Angel's confused look.  "Okay, okay, who?"

"Buffy!"

"What?  What is she doing on this cruise?"

"She's relaxing, and that's the way it's going to stay."  Angel left the kitchen and went and sat down in the living room, Cordy followed.

"What does that mean?"

"That she will know nothing about why we're here, and we are going to steer clear of her for the next three months."

"Three whole months on a cruise ship with Buffy, and we have to stay away from her!  Yeah that'll be easy."

                                                                      * * * *

Every passenger on the ship had two choices for dinner.  They could either order room service or dress up in formal wear and go to the ballroom for dinner to dine with the other passengers.  Buffy had chosen the latter.  She thought that since she was going to be spending three months with these people, she might as well mingle.  Buffy entered the ballroom, in a long white dress.  The dress itself, had spaghetti straps, and a flared out skirt that reached a little past her feet.  Buffy's hair was twisted up in a clip, with wisps of hair hanging down.

Wow, this looks great!  Thought Buffy.  Despite Angel, maybe this will be a good summer.

"Buffy?  Is that you?"  At the sound of her name, Buffy turned to come face to face with her old watcher, Wesley Whyndym Price.

"Wesley?"  Contrary to what she had said to Angel, Buffy was very glad for some reason to see Wes, and gave him a large hug.  After a few seconds, he hugged her back, then smiled at her as they broke apart.  "You look great!"  Buffy gave Wes a once over.  He wore a black tux with a black tie, he looked very handsome.

"I must say, after the surprise of seeing you here goes away, I must say you look quite good as well!"  At his comment, Buffy laughed and blushed.

"Thanks.  So do you have a dinner partner?"

"Ah, no!  Do you?"

"No, I just thought you might have brought Cordy or Angel with you!"

Wes sighed.  "I guess you have already run into them, Angel at least?"

"Yup!"

"So, do you want to talk about it?"  Asked Wes, giving Buffy a warm smile.

"No, it's okay."  But Wes just kept smiling warmly at her.  "You know you really remind me of Giles?"

"I hope that's a compliment?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Does this mean you'll tell me what happened?"

"Uhn, okay.  But will you be my dinner partner?"

"Of course!"  Wes offered his arm to Buffy, who smiled and took it as Wes led her over to a table.

                                                                  * * * *

As Wes entered his hotel suite that he shared with Cordy and Angel, he sighed.  All during dinner and during a walk on the deck, a tired Buffy had told him all about what had happened through the past year in Sunnydale.  And after hearing about it from Buffy, who had gone through it first-hand, Wes was devastated about what had happened.  He was even more devastated about what Buffy had gone through and was going through.

"Wesley?"  Cordy came out into the main room from her own bedroom.

"Hello, Cordelia!"

"How was dinner with the others?"  Cordy smiled with sarcasm.

"Enlightening!  Where's Angel?"

"Out on the balcony brooding.  Why?"

"Come on, we've got to talk."  Cordelia followed Wesley out onto the balcony and sat down on one of the beach chairs, across from Angel.  Who was standing against the rail, Cordy took the other chair.

"Hey Wes.  How was dinner?"  But Wes didn't waste time with saying hello to Angel, he just dropped the bomb.

"Buffy didn't tell you the whole story about what happened in Sunnydale, did she?"

"No, just skimmed the surface, why?"

Wesley sighed, retelling it would make him feel even worse then he did now.