Title: Driving In Cars

Author's note: Eh, well, you know it's coming so here it goes. Yet another excuse but let it be known that this excuse is actually factual. I moved. See, told you it was legit. So anywhos, moving is a bitch as I'm sure anyone who has done the moving thing is well aware. Oddly enough, I'm damn near ready to move my behind right back to New York. How I miss it so.

Moving on, (pun intended)this chapter is pretty much mostly filler…

-giggles and thinks of Willow in "Once More With Feeling"-

Anyhows, like I was saying, this is mostly filler but it's been a few months since I updated this so I figured I should, hence I did.

Buffy eased up the shade on her hotel bedroom window and stared down pass the parking lot and into the well tended backyard of a near by house. The sun was soft and golden, typical of the early spring and already the sun was warm against her cheeks as it filtered through the snowy white curtains.

She watched as a young boy, 5 or so, played with his dog, rolling around on the grass, his mother sitting on the porch watching silently. She thought of Joyce and memories similar from her childhood filled her head. A smile took appearance on her face, but she couldn't help feel the niggling pain in her stomach and the flat, empty feeling inside her chest that reminded her of that certain void in her life. The void she had eagerly come to this town to search out and failed in her goal.

She turned from the window, letting the curtains fall back into place, then, slowly began the walk back to her bed where two filled suitcases waited for her. Stuffing the last of her belongings into one, she pulled down the flap and zipped it shut.

Meanwhile, at that very same moment, a red flashy Mercedes Benz pulled up in the parking lot of the Preston Hotel. Curious eyes watched as two men exited the vehicle, dressed in business wear. One older, the other incalculably younger.

Jessica Etchers watched with interest as she sat in her parked car. It was at around 12 O'clock, when her stomach had began to growl for food, so it was at that time that she decided to take her lunch break an hour earlier than normal. And it was a good 10 minutes later when she had snatched up her purse, sauntered passed a family of 4 boys and a mother from Mississippi, saying hi, before she made her way to exit the Preston Hotel. Turning the corner and making her way to the parking lot where she parked her car every weekday in the employees' only parking space, did she notice through the corner of her eye, the car of her dreams. Red, ostentatious, and just a vision to behold.

Her boyfriend of 2 months had been wide eyed when he'd first met her, at the revelation that his girlfriend knew far more about the advancements of the automobile than he could ever claim to know. And the week later when he introduced her to his friends and wowed them with her knowledge of cars, did he then realize that he would one day marry this woman.

And so, Jessica had made her walk to her car, the entire time, keeping her eye on the flashy red Mercedes as it eased slowly on the pavement of the parking lot, coming to a leisurely stop in parking space number 44. And as she entered her vehicle and sat, did then, two men, very attractive, more so the younger of the men she thought, exit the Mercedes and walk in the opposite direction she had so recently trekked.

Willow Rosenberg sat on her bed with the phone to her ear, smiling and giggling as she conveyed the events of the past hour to Daniel Osborne. She told him that she was leaving this very morning; back to the big city she called home, though she however left out the whys and wherefores. She didn't think her best friend would be thrilled at all to know that a stranger, though they'd met before, knowing her business. So she settled with telling him that Buffy felt homesick and was quite ready to head home and as it coming from her, he had accepted it as the truth.

And so they made plans to visit each other and keep their relationship intact, until further time, they could come up with a permanent arrangement which saw them both in the same city and only a 30 minute commute away from the other, if not closer.

Driving up to the front entrance of the Preston Hotel, Angel quickly exited his car, calling out to the bus boy, he had known since childhood.

"Hey Carl," he said, waiting for the younger man of only a few months to turn around. "Do me a favor and park my car. I'm sorta in a rush".

"Sure," was Carl's only reply as Angel handed over his key and rushed through the turning doors and into the foyer of the hotel. Busy morning he observed from the flow of people making there way from place to place within the lobby and the chatter of noise flowing in from the lunch area.

Making his way further into the hotel, Angel stopped when a ball crossed his path. Blocking the progress of the ball any further on mere instinct, Angel bent down to pick it up. And as if on cue, the owner of said ball stood a good four feet from his eye level, looking up with extended hands.

"So," Angel said, looking down at the young boy. "I'm guessing this belongs to you," he offered as he bent down once more and returned the ball to its owner.

A pocket-sized "thank you" fell from the boys' lips right before he turned from Angel and ran to gather around 3 other young boys as they threw the ball from one to the other. Smiling, Angel made his way to the front desk. Once there, he found Charlize standing behind the desk. Charlize Barton, he remembered quite fondly from high school. He remembered crushing on her something fierce for a good year before he'd found the nerve to actually ask her out. She had accepted which had led to dating. And dated they did for two months which pretty much amounted to a very long time in the eyes of teenagers back then.

"Charlize… Hi," Angel was able to make out in surprise

"Oh my god. Angel! I haven't seen you since… well, don't really know, but it's been a while. How are you?" she made for small talk.

"I'm good. But I had no idea you worked here"

"Oh, well, I don't actually. Came to visit Zoey, and she sorta had this emergency, so Mrs. McClay said it was ok if I filled in for her. She so owes me for this too," she finished jokingly. "So, Mr. O'Brien Sir," she continued after some awkward silence, in a very proper sounding voice, 'what is it that I can do you for today".

Laughing, Angel responded. "First off, it's 'for you" and secondly, Mrs. McClay sounds nothing like that, though I think you may have been close with Mr. McClay," he rounded off, as they both broke out into laughter.

"Do for you, do you for… same diff if you ask me" she joked.

Once the laugher subsided, Angel went on. "Can you ring room 210 for me to see if the person is in?

'Oh, yeah. She's in. I just rung her up just a couple of minutes ago," she told him, neglecting to add that an attractive pair had only seconds before asked her the very same question in which she had searched the computers database, found the name Buffy Summers, called the number affixed and sent the two men on their way up to room 210. She had to admit though that she was somewhat curious as to what Angel's affiliation with this woman was. The woman sounded blonde over the phone, and as she herself was a blonde and remembered Angel's attraction to women with such hair color, an irrational sort of jealousy came about and was quickly dismissed and forgotten about after Angel took his leave and she began to tend to the next awaiting customer.

Angel stood just behind the threshold to the elevator instinctively pressing the second floor button inside repetitively as if the action would hasten his ascend to Buffy's floor. To his dismay, the elevator doors opened one floor below his destination. He sighed in frustration for the umpteenth time as a flow of patrons hurried passed him out onto the first floor leaving him alone save two other occupants he hadn't noticed till now. Smiling in greeting, he turned his back to them, pressed the 'close' button and waited.

The elevator door closed as the two occupants at the rear delved into a hushed conversation.

"Sir, do you really think this is best? Your daughter is quite headstrong and the two of us showing up like this will only irritate her"

"Well then, it's a good thing I brought you along. As her boyfriend, I'm sure you'll have some leverage in swaying her to see things my way."

The elevator doors slid open just then. Angel stepped out, turned left and began the walk down the hallway to room 210. He walked and the sound of his heavy feet on the lush carpet was joined with the pair of two others. He turned to notice that the two men in the elevator with him followed behind still deep in conversation.

"Sir, I think you're giving me far too much credit where Buffy is concerned than I garner".

Angel swallowed harshly, stopping dead in his tracks. Were those two men referring to his Buffy? He had been vaguely listening to their conversation before, but now his senses were finely tuned in on their exchanges.

'Perhaps, but I refused to let her run a muck in this town searching out a wild goose chase. Whether she likes it or not, she's returning home with me today"

Angel was rooted in one spot for a good few seconds before his limbs regained movement. Not being one to believe in coincidences, he turned, eying the two men as they strolled by him and walked a few paces until they reached the door they were looking for. Buffy's hotel door.

Pacing her room for the past few minutes, Buffy finally stopped when she heard the knock at her door. A few minutes earlier, her phone rang, she picked it up thinking it to be Willow. To her surprise, her father and her boyfriend showed up unexpectedly and were now on their way up to see her. She'd concluded that the visit was merely a farce and that the two were actually there to take her home. She normally would have been infuriated at their audacity, but considering that her wishes now coincided with that of her father, she let it slide.

Assessing her circumstance over in her head, she smiled anddeduced the unexpected visit was a welcome. Her priorities of late have been tumultuous, so she thought it over and figured that the arrival of the two men that meant the most to her in life would help pacify that uncertainty. With that notion in mind, the corner of her lips curved into a smile, as she walked towards the door.

The fist to wood sound vibrated through Angel's ear, time seamlessly passing by listlessly. It seemed like he stood there for an eternity, his heart beating to the rhythm of an imaginary drum, before a creak was heard as a door opened and Angel spied a lock of blond hair. He heard Buffy's voice then and at his angle, he was only able to make out her side profile. Her voice sounded chipper as she reached out to hug her father, inviting him in, but not before greeting her boyfriend, Riley, Angel construed, with a kiss to the lips.

To Be Continued

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO ALL!