The previous chapter is now a chapter and not an author's note, so if you haven't read it, go back and read it now.

I've tried to put Joyce's viewpoint across, and just for the record, I don't like her, but someone needs to say it all, and it was either her or Giles. And I really didn't want to make Giles into the bad guy … this is all motherly concern, and you also have to remember that Joyce doesn't really understand the whole slaying gig.

It was only half an hour after her mother got home that Buffy also returned, with a big smile on her face, and blissfully unaware that Joyce was still fuming. She had practically ordered that, that thing to stay away from her daughter, and now that he was gone, she was a lot happier. There had been less strange things happening, and somehow, Joyce summers knew that that was because of Angel not being there.

Buffy practically floated inside the house, hung up her coat, called a nonchalant "Hello" to her mum, and started up the stairs. On her mother's first sentence in reply to her "Hello", she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Buffy, what's this I hear about Angel being back? He left Sunnydale didn't he – for your own good as well. He can't provide anything for you; you and him are from different worlds. You've had to grow up fast, and sometimes even I forget that you're still just a girl – he's old enough to be your ancestor and you're just starting out in life. But in reality, you are just a girl, and you are blinded by your love for a vampire – a vampire for goodness' sake!

"You say he's a good guy, and he says it won't happen again, but Angel has changed once, what makes you think it won't happen again. There was never a reason that he turned bad last year, and then out of the blue, BAM he was good again. So many men are like that, and I don't want you getting hurt like other girls who are too blind too realise that their boyfriends and husbands are not the men they thought they were.

"You've been happy without him here, and not as much …weird stuff has been going on, and maybe now you can have a normal life, without any of that Slayer funny business going on."

Throughout the entire speech, Buffy's face had been getting paler and paler, and her mood had gone from being high enough to touch the stars, to worse than it had been before Angel got back.

"Mum! You may not like him, but I love Angel, and maybe you haven't noticed, but I have been miserable without him. You were too wrapped up in your own stuff to notice, and there hasn't been so much supernatural stuff happening because of the ascension that was just last week, on my graduation, when I asked you to take yourself and Dawn somewhere, anywhere other than here.

"Angelus came back, because we made love, mother! And it will not be happening again – we'll find a way to stop the curse. And you know when I ran away last year? That was because I had just beaten him in a fight, stuck a sword in his gut and sent him to hell. Somehow, I got him back, and then he left me again – only this time it was by choice, and why do I get the feeling you had something to do with that?"

"Well I had to do something!"

"What did you tell him?" Buffy was nearly in tears, wondering how on earth she still had moisture left in her eyes to cry. In the last two days, she must have cried more than she had in her entire life. It was just one big emotional roller coaster.

"I only told him what I just told you. That he's too old for you, and needs to make the choices that you can't." Buffy was shaking in fury now, all thoughts of crying were way out of the window.

"What gave you the right to destroy all of my happiness? No, don't even answer that question. I'm going upstairs. I'm going to sleep for a few hours, then have a shower and go out to meet Angel to patrol.

"Did you know that if it weren't for Angel, I would be dead at least ten times over – probably more. As it is, I've only died once, and then he helped bring me back to life."

And leaving her shell-shocked mother alone in the sitting room, Buffy went upstairs to bed, but first, she had to make a small pit stop. There was only one person to blame for all of this (telling her mother), and she happened to be sitting in her room, doing her English homework.

"Dawn, how could you tell her about Angel! I wanted to tell her at the right time so she wouldn't fly off the handle like this!

"Buffy, I'm really sorry. It just sorta all came out, and I didn't find your note until afterwards, and I didn't think she would get so upset, and I'm really sorry, and, and I didn't mean to!"

Dawn was nearly in tears, and still mumbling apologies, and Buffy couldn't find it in her heart to be angry with her. The news had to come out at some point, and it was better that it was sooner, and that she knew the whole truth.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Dawnie. I just wanted it to be perfect, you know? Well, no, you don't, but that's not the point. Mum's never really liked him, so I suppose we would have gotten this reaction anyway. She just can't see how much I love him."

Buffy walked over and sat on dawn's bed next to her little sister, curling up together just as they had during arguments their parents were having downstairs. Nothing else mattered, just that they would always have each other.

"Dawn, I love him so much; I can't stop. He turned evil, I sent him to hell, he left me, I left him, and he left me again (supposedly for ever) but none of it mattered in the end. Whenever he's near me, I can feel him, and that's not including my spidy-sense-for-slayers! Sometimes I feel like I have three lives. Before Angel, during Angel, and after Angel. Well, four now – during Angel mark 2!"

Dawnie smiled at her big sister, happy that she wasn't in trouble. Then a small frown crossed her face.

"Will I ever find someone like that?"

"Of course you will, Dawnie! How could you not? You'll find your someone, and be very happy, but you're only 12, and I didn't find Angel till I was 16. Give it some time, Dawn."

Dawn just looked dubiously at her sister, who laughed and started to tickle her.