Hyperion Hotel- LA

"Angel?" Cordy said when she heard the lobby door open.
"Yeah Cor it's me." Angel replied as he and Buffy entered the hotel.
Buffy gave him a look to say "you've done good for yourself", and smiled.
Cordy came out and was surprised to see Angel wasn't alone. He was with… "Buffy. Hi." Cordelia smiled and gave Angel a look of pure confusion.
"Buffy's gonna spend the night here." It was one of Angel's statements that you knew left no room for argument.
"Oh." Is all Cordelia could say.
"Come on Buffy. Let's fix up a room for you and then we'll get you something to eat."
Suddenly the lobby door opened. Gunn and Wesley walked in with bags of food in their hands.
Gunn and Wesley noticed Buffy and stopped in their tracks. "Anne?" Gunn asked.
Buffy's eyes lit up for the first time that night and it didn't go unnoticed by Angel. She ran toward Gunn and right into his open arms. They embraced each other as though they had known each other, and it had been years since they last spoke.
"Charles. God Charles I thought you were dead. I was looking all over for you." Buffy said as she planted a large kiss on his cheek.
"Anne. God I've missed you so much. How are you? What are you doing here?" Gunn asked. He was still shocked that she was actually there.
"I've missed you too. I had to leave. I had to get some down time. I thought maybe I could stay with you for a while."
"Yeah sure anything. I'm here for you Anne." Gunn said reassuringly.
"Anne?" Cordy, Angel and Wesley said in unison.
That brought Buffy and Gunn back to reality.
"Oh. Yeah that's my middle name." Buffy answered shyly.
"Your middle name? What's your first name then?", Gunn asked.
"Buffy."
"Buffy? As in Buffy, Angel's ex love. The slayer of the hellmouth. Cordy's ex high school friend? English's last slayer?"
"Yes to the Angel thing. Not really to the Cordy thing and kinda to the Wesley thing."
"Excuse me. But how do you two know each other?" Wesley was still clueless and by the looks on Cordy and Angel's faces, he wasn't the only one.
"Oh well we met when I was in LA."
"When you lived here?" Angel asked.
"Or when you ran away after sending Angel to hell?" Cordy asked bluntly.
"When I ran away." Buffy really didn't want to discuss this, but she knew there really wasn't any way out of it.
"Yeah Anne, I mean Buffy saved me and some friends from a gang of vamps. After that we formed our group and starting saving people."
Buffy turned back towards Gunn with pride in her eyes. "How's Alana and the guys?"
Gunn's smile faded quickly. "Alana was turned. I staked her. Ray was drained." Gunn replied sadly.
"Oh God. Charles. I'm so sorry." She moved toward him and gave him a kiss on the cheeks and pulled him into a hug.
" Yeah so am I."
"So. Anyone hungry?" Wesley asked. Everyone began to move toward the counter. Gunn pulled Buffy along with him. Wesley ran upstairs and dropped off Fred's food at her room.

After dinner and some meaningless chit-chat everyone was gathered in the lobby. Gunn and Buffy sat next to each other on the round sofa in the middle of the lobby. Cordy sat on the counter, Angel and Wesley on the stairs. Gunn and Buffy were telling the them about her time in LA.
"God. I had to much fun that night." Buffy said.
"Please I'm surprised we were able to get you out. You'd spent all your time in that crappy apartment of yours, when you weren't working". He added.
"Yeah well. I wanted to stay as far away from George as possible. He was always hitting on me." She said with a smile. "How is George anyways?" She asked rather wryly. She didn't want to hit another sour spot with Gunn.
"He's doing pretty well actually. When I started hanging with Angel here, I left him to run stuff. I see him every once in an awhile on the streets. I give them some money, every now and then. Well I try to anyways, you know George." He said with a slight smile on his face.
Angel just watched his love and his friend talking. Gunn had a smile in his eyes, he'd never seen before. * If I didn't know any better I'd think he was in love with her. * * Why wouldn't he? She's attractive and sweet, why wouldn't he love her? How couldn't he? * * Stop it. They're just friends. Like Xander and she. * * Wait! Not good. Xander loves Buffy. * He was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of his name.
"Angel? Angel you alright?" He heard Buffy call.
"Oh yeah. I'm fine. Just thinking." He said. He looked up at her and he noticed she seemed much more at ease, much more relaxed then when he first saw her earlier in the ally.
"Well, I'm gonna spend the night at Gunn's. I was looking for him anyways, and now that I found him, I'm just gonna leave you alone." She said getting her bag off the floor by the stairs where she had left it.
"Oh umm, sure whatever you want."
"Thank you." She said. They hugged shortly and then she moved back towards Gunn's side. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah. I'll see you all tomorrow morning. By Angel, Cor, English."
He waved to his friends and left.
Angel just sat there and looked at the door where his beloved had left with his friend.
"Angel you okay?" Cordy asked as she came up and sat next to him.
"Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine. I just think I'm gonna take a shower and get some sleep." He said and got up. "Be careful on your way home Cor. I'll see you tomorrow. Good night." With that he climbed the stairs to his room for a little bit of brooding.
"Great there he goes. Off to brood again. I hate when she comes." Cordy mumbled.
"Cordy will you stop. I don't understand why you hate Buffy so much."
"And I don't understand why you don't hate her more." She said getting up and moving toward her desk.
"Why should I?" He asked following her.
"Because she fired you. Plus you see what she does to Angel. She puts him through so much pain."
"First of all, yes she did fire me, but I'm over that. She didn't need me to begin with and she had good cause to fire me. Secondly, she doesn't mean to put Angel in pain. You also must remember that he left her. Imagine how it must feel to know your life is naturally shortened by your destiny, then when you finally find someone you love you lose them. This can hardly be easy for her too. Also I don't think she planned on seeing Angel."
"Please, she knew that she would run into Angel. He lives in LA and prowls the neighborhoods like the vamp he is. How did she expect to evade him?"
"She was looking for Gunn. That's why she was in LA."
"Whatever. I still don't like her." She grabbed her house key and jacket from her desk and headed towards the door.
"Do you want a ride, Cordelia?" Wesley asked as he moved to the lobby doors.
"Yeah thanks."