"It'll be good to have company again after so long," the green skinned demon was saying to Xander as he led him down a long corridor on the way to his room. Xander had immediately felt comfortable in his presence which was an odd thing, considering he usually felt uncomfortable around any demon, regardless of whether they were good or bad. "The hotel's been empty since….well, we've had our troubles here too. One day we were full up and the next…."

"I saw something about it on the news." Xander replied, "some wonder woman nearly swept the world away I hear?"

"Something like that." Lorne said wryly. "It was one of those too good to be true deals though. You know the kind."

"Most of them are." He said, more bitterly than he had intended to. He looked to Lorne sheepishly. "I just mean that sometimes life throws you a curve ball you know?"

"Believe me bucko, I know." Lorne replied. "Looks like your curve ball hit you in the face."

Xander laughed despite himself and his hand automatically touched his eye patch gingerly.

"I wish I could say the ladies find me roguishly handsome with this thing on, but…"

"Hey I get it, believe me." Lorne replied with a grin. "You think that every woman out there wants a horny guy?"

Xander chuckled slightly and it took Lorne a moment to realize that Xander had misinterpreted his statement. With a glare, he pointed to the two horns on his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"I just have to figure out how to deal you know?" Xander finally admitted to him. "Self deprecating humour only works in front of people for so long. When I'm alone…"

"You want to talk about it?" Lorne asked. "I do this thing where…do you sing?"

"Only once, but I learned my lesson believe me." He replied with a grin. "I'm clean now."

They had stopped now, in front of a small, but comfortable looking room.

"Well if you change your mind," Lorne was saying. "Just look for the horny guy. I may be able to help you out."

Xander nodded and gave a small wave as Lorne departed.

Buffy had never liked hospitals. Ever since she was a child and had watched her cousin die from what she hadn't realized was a children targeting demon, she had not been comfortable in them. Odd, considering the hospital was where a slayer spent most of her time. When she herself wasn't injured, her friends were. It wasn't just injuries either. As Xander had once put it, they did morgue time in the Scooby gang.

It was clear just looking at her friends that they shared her reticence about hospitals, however given the injuries many of them had sustained, they had no other choice.

Kennedy sat near Willow, holding her hand and gazing at her attentively. Willow wasn't injured, but the magic use had tired her considerably. She would not be needing hospital attention, but Kennedy still appeared worried. Buffy found herself smiling at the care that Kennedy obviously had for Willow. She deserved it.

Xander was relatively OK, as were Giles, Dawn and Andrew. Faith sat near Robin Wood, holding his hand and talking softly to him in an attempt to keep him conscious. She realized as she stared at the two of them that she did not feel any pangs of jealousy at all. There was a time she would have. She would have seen Faith's attraction to a man she had previously gone out with as an attempt to take something, one more thing from her. Now, all she saw were two people, one a slayer who had had a road almost as rough as she had, maybe moreso. She smiled grimly as they pulled into the hospital emergency area and those uninjured filed out and called for a cab.

Giles, although he was relatively unscathed, elected to stay with Buffy and the other slayers, feeling they were his responsibility. Once a watcher, always a watcher. Buffy did not want to be in the hospital at all, but was smart enough to acknowledge the need for it, slayer healing abilities or no.

The nurses seemed very surprised at the group of young girls and one British man as they marched (well, those that could march), into the waiting room. They went to work doing triage almost immediately and Buffy was rushed into a room for her injuries to be looked at more thoroughly by a doctor.

They answered the questions they were asked with half truths. Sunnydale's collapse seemed too good of a disaster not to use it, so they claimed to have been unable to escape in time and had watched the town fold down around them. It was not completely untrue.

The hospital staff bought it however and Buffy and the others breathed relieved sighs that they would not be questioned further. She had too much on her mind as it was to worry about what the others thought might have happened to them.

The first thing she did when she got the opportunity was call Methos. Her instinct was of course to call Angel first, but she knew that Willow and Xander were already there, telling him that she was OK. Not to mention that she dreaded the inevitable conversation that had to occur between them and she was not anxious to watch as a rift the size of the grand canyon opened between them. If it had to happen, better it be in person.

Methos on the other hand, was a much less complicated phone call. He was a very dear friend and one that had been invaluable to her after she had killed Angel to stop Acathla and run away for three months.

She had ended up in a city called Seacouver where Methos had managed to literally bulldoze his way into her life. In hindsight she really didn't mind. He had somehow found a way into her heart and she would be lying to herself if she pretended that the idea of seeing him again was not an extremely welcome one. She had left him, thinking she would never see him again and now it seemed that she had nothing but opportunity to do just that. Whatever other heartbreaks she had suffered that day, that particular thought, caused her to smile. He'd always been good that making her smile.

He answered the phone as Adam Pierson, the name he used when he was trying to cover his identity as the world's oldest man. Buffy smiled.

"Hey…it's me." She didn't say her name, but she didn't have to. Methos would have seen what happened on the news by now. He'd be waiting for her to call.

"I was worried about you." His warm Welsh accent carried a hint of relief and she found herself smiling, despite everything. "I was hoping you would call."

"I guess you saw what happened then." It was not a question.

"Me, Joe, Duncan, everybody." He paused. "Was it your doing or a demon's?"

She smiled at that. He knew of her tendency to destroy property when fighting evil. She had told him how she burned down the gym before moving to Sunnydale, not to mention sending him an email after she blew up Sunnydale High to stop the mayor.

"Little bit of both actually." She said in answer to his question. "In our defense though, we were fighting the original evil. Had to do something dramatic."

"But you're OK?" The worry was back in his voice. "You didn't die again did you?"

"No," she said with a laugh, "but I did take a nasty blow to the stomach. I'm at the hospital right now. Well, me and some others. Look, I'm not just calling to let you know all's well."

"I didn't think you were." Methos' voice was all business now and it reminded her how well he knew her. He would have sensed the ulterior reason for the call right from the start.

"To be perfectly honest, I need your help."

"You need somewhere to go." He spoke carefully and Buffy knew he was trying not to sound too hopeful. It had been so long since they'd last seen each other.

"Yes," she said, then took a deep breath. "But it's more than that."

"I thought it might be." He replied carefully. "I figured if it were just about a place you would go to L.A." He didn't say why. Both of them knew it was because of Angel. She didn't talk about him much to Methos, but she didn't have to. He had been there for her, when she had thought Angel lost to her forever. If anybody completely understood the depth of her feelings for Angel, it was Methos.

"I can't explain it all on the phone, but I've done something that could change things in a pretty serious way." She took a deep breath. "Something that will impact everybody. I…I need somewhere to stay not just for me, but for the people I have with me."

"How many people?" Trust Methos to get to the heart of the issue. Buffy took a breath.

"Quite a few. Do you have the room?"

"I'll make the room." He sounded sure, as if he had already made the decision before she called. "When can I expect you?"

"I don't know," she replied running her fingers through her hair. "I'm at the hospital right now, but I still have to stop by Angel's and get the rest of the group. I'll call you before we get on the plane."

"I'll do my best to get some supplies for you." He told her. "I assume you got out with nothing but the clothes on your back?"

"Pretty much," she replied with a heavy sigh. She hadn't even thought of the fact that she literally had nothing until now.

"Don't worry about it," he said softly. There was something about his voice that was almost always soothing to her. "Can you afford to get here?"

She thought a moment before biting her lip in worry.

"I don't know." She had whatever was in her bank account left, and whatever the others had. Hopefully they could scrape up enough for the flight. "Maybe."

"If you need anything, let me know." He told her in a tone that brooked no argument. "I'll wire it to you. Your only job is to get here OK?"

"OK," she said as she exhaled the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "I'll call you soon."

"I'm looking forward to it," was his reply. She could almost hear him smiling and it warmed her, made her feel a little better.

"Me too," she let the smile in her voice be heard. "Hey Methos? Thank you so much….for everything."

"Don't thank me," he said quietly. "Just get here."