Disclaimer: No, I don't own Angel, Buffy, or anyone else. The story is mine, we all know Joss would never write a happy ending!

A/N I realized after I published this chapter, that some of it was deleted, so I had to redo it.

Angel climbed the stairs from the basement of the Hyperion. Connor had left him at the hospital, going home to his parents. Gunn had been awake, still weak, but alive. His doctor had been cautiously optimistic about his chances of recovery.

Angel's heart felt lighter than it had in months. He was still worried about Wolfram and Hart, and what exactly had happened in the alley, but Gunn was alive, he and Connor were getting along, and Buffy was here with him.

"Angel."

Angel kept on walking through the lobby. "Not now, Spike. I'm in a good mood, and I don't want to ruin it, talking to you."

Spike followed him. "You're gonna lose it, anyway, you big pouf!"

Angel stopped and turned around, and Spike almost ran into him. "What do you mean?"

"Why didn't you tell Buffy about the Shanshu?"

Angel's eyes narrowed, and he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "What did you tell her, Spike?"

Spike held up his hands. "Look, I didn't know that you hadn't told her! You can't blame this on me!"

Angel closed his eyes, trying to control his temper. Once he had calmed down, he opened them again and sighed. "Where is she?"

"Don't know, peaches. She went out for a walk about 2 hours ago." He smirked. "Guess you'll just have to wait for her to come back. Wouldn't want you to burst into flames now, would we?" He thought about it for a second, as he watched Angel heading for the stairs. "Wait! On second thought, have at it!"

BBBBBB

Buffy stared at the woman in front of her. "Is that name supposed to mean something to me? 'Cuz it really doesn't ring a bell."

"I was Angel's liaison to the Senior Partners."

"Was?"

Eve sighed. "It's a long story."

"Well, as fascinating as I'm sure your story is, I'm really not in the mood." Buffy walked toward the door.

"It's not over, you know."

Buffy stopped at her words. "What do you know?"

"Tell Angel that if he tells me where Lindsey is, I'll tell him everything he needs to know."

"Who's Lindsey?"

Eve shook her head. "Just tell him."

Buffy was confused, but she thought this woman might have the answers they were looking for. "How can he find you?"

She shrugged. "I'll be here."

Buffy looked at her. "You're staying here? In this ruined building?"

Eve looked at her. "I don't have anywhere else to go."

BBBBBBBBBB

Angel was in his office when Buffy walked into the hotel. He had spent the afternoon working with the slayers. Some of them were quite good, not on Buffy's level yet, but with training, they could be.

He was tempted to hide, he knew she was going to be mad, but he knew he would have to talk to her sooner or later. Spike. He couldn't believe that he had told her!

Angel hadn't wanted her to know about the prophecy, because he wanted her to get on with her life, to forget about him, fall in love, get married. Do all the things a normal girl should do. If she knew, she would have waited for him, and while he had wanted to be with her, spend his life with her, he couldn't do it. She deserved better, and besides, he didn't know how long it would take. When he had signed over the prophecy to the Circle of the Black Thorn, he was glad that he had never told her. She would never know what she had missed, what they had missed.

Now, thanks to Spike, she knew. And he had to come up with a way for her to realize that it would never happen, without letting her know what he had done. He had hurt her so much, and he knew that if she found out he had given it all up, once again serving the greater good instead of thinking of their happiness, she would be devastated. It seemed like everything he had ever done, all in her best interests, had ended up hurting her.

Angel watched her make her way upstairs. She obviously thought that he would be in the room. He had a short reprieve, and he used it to try to come up with a good lie, one she would believe, that wouldn't hurt her too much.

"Angel?" Buffy opened the door to the room, and walked inside. Her eyes quickly scanned the room, before realizing that he wasn't there. Against her better judgement, she had gone by the hospital, hoping to see him, but he hadn't been there, so she had come back. Maybe he was downstairs with the slayers.

Angel sat in the office, eyes closed, his back to the door. Buffy stood there for a moment, then.. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

He sighed and opened his eyes, spinning the chair around to face her. "Buffy..."

"Let me guess. You didn't want to get my hopes up, right?"

"Prophecies are...well, nothing is straightforward. There are always conditions, loopholes, and I just thought..."

"Thought that I wasn't strong enough to handle it?" Buffy moved forward, and he stood up.

Angel reached out to touch her, but she moved away. "Why do you always do this? Why do you always push me away?" She shook her head. "Even when we were apart, I always felt that if we ever needed each other, we'd both be there. When my mom died, you were there, when Willow brought me back, you were there, and when I was ready to fight the First, you were there again. But when you were having the dreams about Darla, you never bothered to tell me. You were going down a road that led to darkness, and maybe I could have helped, but you shut me out."

"Buffy, look I..."

"And now I find out that there's a prophecy that says you'll become human, that we can be together, and you don't even bother to let me know!"

"Buffy!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. "Listen to me, okay?" He reached out and caressed her cheek. "I'm sorry. I didn't tell you about Darla because I thought that I could handle it on my own, and I didn't want to involve you in the mess I made. And I didn't tell you about the prophecy, because..." He took a deep breath. "...because I wasn't sure if it was real. I didn't want to get your hopes up, just to have to knock them down again."

Buffy looked into his eyes, and she could see the truth there, but she also knew there was something else, something he didn't want to tell her. "Angel, what is it? What don't you want to tell me?"

Angel dropped his hands and turned away. "Nothing. That's everything."

"There is something. I can tell." She stood there, staring at his back, waiting for him to say something. When he didn't she sighed. "Okay, you don't want to tell me." She turned, intending to leave, but his voice, whispering her name, made her pause.

"Buffy..." She turned, and he was standing there, staring at her, a hurt look in his eyes. "Please don't go. I...I'm sorry."

"Angel..." She made her way to him, stopping as she reached him, taking his hands in hers.

"I just...I can't talk about it right now, okay? I think...I don't think the prophecy is going to come true, and I'd just rather let it go for now."

"But we could..." She searched his face, seeing the despair written there, and she stopped. "Okay. You win, for now. But we will talk about this."

He nodded. He knew she wouldn't stop until he told her, but he just couldn't deal with it right now. "So." He tried to attempt to change the subject. "Where'd you go this afternoon, anyway?"

Buffy suddenly remembered her walk, and her odd meeting with the woman at Wolfram and Hart. "Actually, I think I met an old...aquaintance of yours."

He smiled slightly. "Really? Who might that be?"

"She said her name was Eve."

Okay, sorry I didn't get this up sooner, but I was kind of struggling with this chapter, and it didn't go exactly like I wanted it to. Let me know what you think.