Lorne suddenly opened his eyes and looked down an Lisa in tense expectation. The fighting noise in the background, stemming from Spike and Angel who where currently pummelling each other, didn't managed to attract his attention. He was worried. The telepathic connection between Lisa and him had been severed. That could mean only two things. Either she had been able to accomplished what she had been planning to do or…he hesitated before he allowed himself to continue further down this train of thought…or she had died. Time seemed to stretch to an endless eternity while he waited, his gaze fixed intently on her face, then her eyelids began to flutter. She suddenly sat upright, her chest rising and falling elaborately, as she was greedily sucking the air into her lungs. Her eyes looked around unfocusedly.

"She's back!" Lorne called out in relieve.

The two vampires immediately broke apart, becoming rapidly aware of what was happening. They both looked rather tattered - Angel fostered a nasty cut above his eyebrow, that was oozing blood and Spike's lower lip was split.

"What happened? Are you, alright?" Spike asked worriedly, hurrying to her side.

Momentarily it seemed as if she didn't understand a word he was saying. "I think so," it sounded as if she, herself was amazed she was still alive.

A relieved smile flitted over Spike's face, but then quickly disappeared, as he realized how little she had let him know about her actual plan. Why had she been acting like that? Didn't she even bother to stop and think - just for one bloody second - how he would be feeling about all this? Clearly her love for him couldn't be that strong, if she so readily sacrificed herself. He couldn't help, but feel betrayed. What made matters even worse was the fact, that Angel, that big poof of a sire, had seemed to her more trustworthy than him. Anger welled up inside of him incontrollably.

"Glad you didn't die," he said coldly, before he turned around abruptly and left, slamming the door behind him.

"Jerk," Angel muttered hostilely.

Lisa sad there motionlessly, staring into the empty space. She didn't understand what had just happened. All she knew was that he was gone just when she needed him the most. This was just too much for her at once.

It didn't take any telepathic sensitivity to notice that Lisa was utterly distress. Lorne couldn't help, but feel sorry for her, "It's all going to be alright, Snow White " he told her reassuringly, taking her pale hand into his in a gesture of comfort. Lisa let it happen without any protest. She was so tired.

"What happened?" Angel asked curiously in an unusually soft tone of voice. Seemingly they both men had wordlessly agreed on distracting her from the current situation.

"I…," she took a deep breath, to gather her thoughts. "I really did survive," Lisa said, seemingly oblivious to his question.

"Yes, you did, princess," Lorne patted her back soothingly.

A few seconds passed in silence, until Lisa felt able to articulate her thoughts. "When I noticed that no one would help me, I knew, I had to come up with something," she suddenly continued, slowly getting accustomed to the fact that she was back in the real world. "It turned out that more than anything else in the world, Baku wanted to see me dead," the young woman unconsciously rubbed her throat, it seemed as if she could still feel his bony fingers strangling her.

"How did you managed to trick him into believing you were dead?" Angel wanted to know.

"I created a doppelganger of myself. He killed her, while I stayed in hiding."

"And then?"

"He disintegrated."

"Why?"

"You see, after all he was just a ghost. A very powerful one, but still…He got stuck between the realms, because of unfinished business, which seemed to be my death. After he got what he wanted he disappeared." She made it sound rather simple, but her trembling hands betrayed her real emotions.

When Lisa first entered her apartment after one month of absence, it felt to her like some kind of an intrusion. After having roomed out of her spacious loft at Wolfram & Hardt's, she was back in the real world again. Everything seemed so foreign, so cold and unfriendly...

She deposited her travelling bag on the floor and walked into the kitchen. Everything was still as she had left it – a silent, yet accusatory proof for her sudden departure. An half empty mug, filled with a dark fluid that could once have been coffee, stood on the kitchen table, dirty dishes were lurking inside the sink and she didn't even dare to open the fridge. She let out a depressed sigh. It wasn't like she actually was hungry.

On the way to her bedroom she kicked of her shoes and flung herself on her bed, where she lay motionlessly staring up at the ceiling. So this was how victory felt…Depressing, lonely, sad. Mostly sad. She missed him a lot. They hadn't spoken since her return from the astral plan. It hurt royally, but somehow she couldn't blame him. If she had been in his place, she would have probably reacted the same way. It seemed very clear that she was the one to blame. There was no arguing about this.

Again this dreadful thought appeared out of nowhere as it often had done in the last two days: Was he just sulking or did this mean it was over? Tears started forming in her eyes, but she didn't allow herself to cry. Not again. It was quickly becoming a habit and afterwards she always felt completely and utterly drained. So she concentrated on just lying there. It turned out be not as relaxing as she had intended. She quickly started torturing herself with accusations and thoughts that concerned themselves with how much of a loser she really was.

A knock on the door brought her back to the present. She drowsily raised her head and blinked. Had she really just heard that or was it just a figment of her imagination? It knocked again. In the blink of an eye she was out of bed and running towards the door. Excitement made her heart beat faster. Somehow she still hadn't buried the hope of him turning up on her doorsill unexpectedly. Lisa ribbed open the door, but when she saw who stood outside her face fell.

"It's you," she greeted Lorne dejectedly.

"Oh, thanks for the warm welcome," the green demon didn't wait for her to invite him in and simply stepped over the sill without further ado. Just as usual sickening cheerfulness radiated from him in great waves. Lisa was quite sure if she just had to be prone to his good mood just a little bit longer, she was going to puke.

"What brings me the honour of your visit? Did Angel send you?" she asked with as much friendliness as she could muster, which was actually very little at the moment, being heartbroken and miserable.

"No, I came, because I thought you needed someone to talk to, princess," he informed her gently.

"That's nice, but…"

"No, buts. You put on something nice and we head out for a couple of drinks," his red eyes fixed her sternly, then disapprovingly wandered downwards from her worn away black t-shirt to her faded jeans that were tattered around the trouser legs.

"Sounds inviting, but I got some things to do," Lisa lied unashamedly.

"Good try, honey-bun. Unfortunately, I happen to know the biggest brooder known to mankind, so I've already heard all those lame excuses. Get dressed!"

"What if I don't want to?"

"I could give you a few advices on how to fix this thing with Billy-Idol-gone-fang-boy, but if you don't want any help…."

"What do you know about my problems!" she raised one eyebrow at him cynically.

"I had a demon karaoke bar back in the good old days. Believe me I heard a lot about relationship problems, even of some you would never have dreamed of, deary."