AUTHOR'S NOTE: For purposes of this story, none of the Conner stuff happened on Angel. Even though this storyline is pretty much set in season six of Buffy, which would match up with season 3 of Angel, we're going to go back to before all the Darla/Conner/Holtz stuff. This also means that Lindsey still works for Wolfram & Hart and Darla and Drusilla didn't slaughter all those people that worked for the firm.

DISCLAIMER: The characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy Productions. I do this for fun, not for profit.

The rain beat down on the windows of the taxi as it drove through the streets of Los Angeles. There was a song she had heard once about the rain in L.A. It was a very melancholy song as far as she remembered. She couldn't quite recall the tune. She just felt it would be appropriate at the moment, even though she couldn't remember much about it. She was feeling melancholy at the moment.

The bus ride had tried her patience. She had never been an angry person. Even in the demon dimension. It was all about survival there. Survival and instinct. But on the bus she had to use all the control she could muster to keep her temper in check. An old man with a thousand stories to tell decided to tell them to her. Eternity in a demon dimension didn't seem that bad when he started talking about his health problems. Thankfully she was only going to Los Angeles and not somewhere further away.

When the taxi pulled up to the hotel, she looked up in awe. The place had a presence, a personality. She could feel the spiritual energy from it before she even got out of the car. She quickly gathered her bags, paid the driver and then jogged through the rain to the door, struggling with her bags. She set them all down, opened the door and was about to grab her bags again when she stopped. She heard the sounds of a fight and looked up immediately.

A man in dark clothes with dark spiked hair was fighting an extremely large and ugly demon. It had four arms, three horns on its head and was about 8 feet tall. When the demon grabbed the man with the spiked hair, a black man charged the demon with a battleaxe. The demon swatted him away easily. Another man with glasses fired a crossbow at the demon, but the arrow just bounced right off of him. The man with the spiked hair was still struggling to get out of the demon's strong grasp as the others' attempts to save him were repeatedly stopped.

Tara knelt down and placed both her hands flat on the ground. Her gaze fell on the demon as the ground shook beneath everyone. The demon released the man with the spiked hair and it turned to her. The earth stopped shaking as she stood, ready to defend herself. But the demon suddenly howled in pain and fell forward directly in front of her, an axe embedded in its back. The man with the spiked hair had flung it at the demon.

"Angel, the horns have to be broken off to kill it," the man with the glasses said to the man with the spiked hair. Angel hurried forward and snapped off all three horns before the demon could recover. There was a flash of blue light as he broke each horn off. Then the demon was dead.

Angel looked up at Tara and then stood quickly. He held his hand out for her to shake it, but pulled it back when he saw it was covered with the demon's blue blood.

"Uh, I'm Angel," he said. "Are you Tara?"

She nodded her head and grabbed her bags. Angel wiped his hands on his pants and took one of the bags. They made their way away from the demon into the lobby. The others started to gather and Tara saw that there were also two women there. She knew all their names. She just wasn't sure who was who, except for Angel.

"You caused that earthquake," Wesley said in realization. Tara nodded her head. "That was very helpful."

"It was no problem," she said shyly. Angel set the bag down and started the introductions, pointing to each person as he said their name.

"Tara, this is Charles Gunn. We just call him Gunn. That's Wesley Wyndham-Price, Cordelia Chase and Winifred Burkle," he said.

"You can call me Fred," Fred said with a smile. "Everybody does."

"So, do things like that happen a lot around here?" Tara asked, gesturing toward the dead demon in the doorway.

"Well, not so often in the actual hotel," Wesley explained. "But we do fight demons on a regular basis."

"We usually track them down, not the other way around," Cordelia continued.

"You probably are tired from the bus ride," Angel said. "We've got a mess to clean up. How about you get settled in? Fred can show you to your room."

Fred grabbed one of Tara's bags and led her up the stairs. She began babbling, as Fred tended to do.

"I think you'll like it here. They're all really nice. I spent five years in Pylea—that's a demon dimension—and when they brought me back they took really good care of me."

Tara followed her down a hallway and into the room that was meant to be hers. Fred switched on the light and turned to Tara. She noticed Tara seemed nervous.

"Angel explained to all of us what happened," Fred said, her tone changing to an understanding one. "I know five years in Pylea doesn't come close to comparing with what you went through, and Angel might be more help to you. But I know what it's like to lose yourself and then have to find yourself again. I'd like to help you any way I can."

"Thank you," Tara said. She sat on the bed and looked around the room. Fred decided it was time for her to exit.

"Well, I'll leave you alone.  If you need anything, we're downstairs." She was about to close the door when she stopped and looked back to Tara. "By the way, thanks."

"For what?" Tara asked in confusion. Fred smiled.

"For saving the world."

Tara smiled,  nodded her head and watched as Fred closed the door. Then she stood and walked over to the window. She was glad they had given her a room with a window. Unfortunately because of the rain, she couldn't see the moon now. She felt uncomfortable, on edge. Coming into the hotel during a fight hadn't helped that feeling. She turned away from the window and moved over to one of her bags, unzipping it and digging through until she found what she was looking for. Finally her hand closed around the edge of the picture frame and she pulled it out, smiling at the image of her and Willow from her birthday party. She sat cross-legged on the floor at the end of the bed, staring at Willow's smiling face. She just hoped she would see her in person again soon.