At Tina's apartment building, Tina started packing stuff from her bedroom as Buffy went through to the bathroom. Tina stopped for a second and spun around, aiming a gun at a man's head.

"Russell." Meanwhile, Buffy listened from the bathroom, wondering why her slayer senses were tingling. Russell started to speak; sounding concerned, but Buffy didn't trust him as far as Giles could throw him.

"I've been looking everywhere for you. And here you are right under my nose. Oh, I own the building, most of the block. Are you going to point that gun at me all day?"

'She doesn't need a gun when she's got me.' Thought Buffy.

"What did you do to Denise?"

"Nothing."

"I want the truth, Russell." Tina was standing her ground for once, and not about to give in after Angel and Dawn said she was dead.

"She wanted to go home, I bought her a ticket to Pensacola." Buffy had to give him credit for lying really well, but Angel would never lie to her – Angelus maybe, but not Angel.

"She's dead." Buffy was cheering silently.

"What do you mean? She called me yesterday. She said she's going back to school, she wanted me to pull some strings. Look, we both know that I live outside of the box, but I don't go around killing my friends! - If this about LA. If you need rent. You know I only want to help you. Just tell me what you want."

Buffy couldn't see what was going on, but she had a fair idea that the gun was now in Russell's hands, and Tina was about to break down. But she couldn't go in yet! If it was a vampire (he did own the entire block, so he could just walk in), she didn't want to ruin the element of surprise, and she wouldn't really like Tina to see her fight. But it was daylight, and Angel had said there was no sewer access – how could he have got there? Buffy decided that her slayer sense was just going off because he was a creep giving her the wiggins. Major wiggins.

"I want to go home." Tina started to cry, and Buffy would bet her sister that Russell was about to comfort her, playing nice.

"Done. Poor thing. Who's been spinning your head like this?"

"I don't know. I thought you hired him to start with. He said he wanted to help me, but I don't know anymore."

"And now you never will." Buffy heard Tina gasp, and decided that now was probably a good time to make herself known. She went back into the other room, to see Russell with a vampire game face on and Tina cowering in the corner of the room.

"I just knew there was something off about you – I thought it was the smell."

"Go now, girl, and I'll forget you were even here."

"Well, I'm offended! Normally, vampires want to kill me, not let me go. How about this one: you let Tina go, and your death wont be too painful? I sorta like that deal more than yours."

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into, girl."

"No – you don't know what you're getting yourself into, Russell. If that is your real name." Buffy stopped for a second a laughed. "I've always wanted to say that. Do you think I said it alright?"

"Last chance, girl."

"I have a name you know."

"I don't care."

"You should. In fact, I'm disappointed that you don't know who I am – every vampire and most demons in Sunnydale know me. And I have a bit of a rep here in LA too – burnt down the gym at Hemery High to kill a hundred vamps. Got me kicked out, but hey! I won!"

Without warning, Russell leapt at her, fully intending to drain her. Buffy grabbed the stake she kept in the pocket of the coat, and without even realising what was happening, he was dust.

"And I never got to tell him my name. Buffy Summers – The Vampire Slayer."

"What, what was he? What just happened?" Buffy had forgotten Tina in all the confusion.

"Come on – finish packing up your stuff, and I'll explain everything once we're back at the apartment. It's a bit complicated, but all you need to know now is that he wont bother you again."

"Did you … is he dead?"

"He's dead, but I didn't kill him – he was already dead."

"What? But …"

"I'll explain later."

"You're all joking- right? You don't seriously believe in all this rubbish do you?"

"You saw his face, you saw him turn to dust. Vampires are real, demons are real. I kill them … mostly."

"What do you mean mostly?"

"Well. Okay, don't freak out. Angel is a vampire too, and Doyle over there is a half demon, but they're good guys."

Tina started to back away. "

"You-you're a vampire?" Angel just nodded, and prayed that she wouldn't run off.

"Don't worry, he's good – he's saved the world a few times, and Buffy's life lots of times." It seemed that the voice of a child was enough to convince Tina, and she stopped backing away, instead choosing to sit on the floor.

"I need to think about all of this."

"That's fine."

Everyone moved off to give her some space, Angel to his weapons (they were the only things left to pack, bar furniture) and Buffy and Dawn into the kitchenette.

"You get all of your homework done, Dawnie?"

"Who cares about homework when I just helped save someone's life!"

"Dawn!"

"Yes, Buffy. I got all of it done – Angel helped with history and English. I had to do maths by myself, and mum helped me with science on Friday."

"Nothing else then?"

"No! God – I'm only in middle school. We don't get as much homework as you're used to getting – and it's only the beginning of school anyway. We never get set that much to start with, or at the end."

"Just you wait till high school!"

"I know, I know – I'll be slaving away at work, and then I'll understand why you got such bad marks because you had to be saving the world plus school, not to mention a social life. You've told me about a million times!"

"And yet, I never get tired of saying it!"

Ten minutes later, Angel walked over to Buffy (Dawn had retreated to the bedroom) dragging Doyle with him.

"He says this vision is done, but he got another one – it's Cordy."

"What's Cor doing in LA?"

"Trying to get an acting career up and going – I saw her at the party last night."

"Okay, what about her, Doyle?"

"I only got her name and a place – a bar. I think there are going to be a few vampires hitting it or something. She needs help whoever she is – I didn't see her."

"Any idea on timing?"

"Midnight … ish."

"Okay, I'll take you and Dawn home, Buffy, and then come back to help her."

"I'm sticking with you, lover. We still need to talk about what we're gonna do with ourselves. And anyway, you don't know how many vamps we're talking about here – it could be more than you can handle. We'll go back and drop Dawn with mum, and then come back."

"Fine. Doyle, Tina? Coming for the ride?"

"I'll stay here if that's alright."

"Me too."

The next day

"We still need to decide what to do. I think it's pretty plain that you're needed here, and I'm needed there. What do we do, Angel? And what about Tina and Cordy?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure we can work something out."

"He's right, love."

"Who asked you? You're the one who got us into this whole mess in the first place!"

Someone screamed from upstairs, and all three of them glance at one another before jumping up and running to the saris. They burst into the office upstairs, Angel carefully avoiding the sun streaming in through the windows to see Cordelia and Tina both with dusters in their hands and standing on chairs."

"Aaaaah! Look over there! A cockroach! In the corner. I think it's a bantam weight! Okay, first thing. We need to call an exterminator and a sign painter. We should have a name on the door!"

"Okay. I'm confused."

"Not the only one, baby."

"Doyle filled us in on your little mission. So I was just saying, if we're going to help people, maybe a small charge. You know, something to help pay the rent, and our salaries. You need somebody to organize things, and you're not exactly rolling in it Mr. I-was-alive-for-200-years-and-never-developed-an-investment-portfolio."

"And I can earn the money to pay for a ticket home and live with Cordy at the same time. I'm keeping my old job, and I can work on stuff here when I'm not there … just organising stuff – not fighting."

"You want to charge people?"

"Well, not everybody. But sooner or later we are going to have to help some rich people, right? Right?"

"Possibly, yeah."

"This is great! That means you actually have a business, which means you have off hours when you can be in Sunnydale, and I can come see you when I have a non class day if there aren't any pending apocalypses."

"Hand me that box. So I think that we should charge based on a case-by-case analysis, but with me working for a flat fee. I mean, um that is, - if you think that you can use me?"

After a moment Angel handed her the box with a smile and nodded to Tina. This way he could help her and he would have someone to keep Cordy busy; they seemed to be fast friends.

"Of course this is just temporary - until my inevitable stardom takes affect."

"And I go home."

All three girls walked off, talking and laughing together and helping to get things situated in the office.

"This will be good. You've made the right choice there, and Cordelia will keep you and Tina both grounded … she seems like that sort of person." He trailed off, but had a small smile on his face.

"You think she's a Hottie."

"Yeah, she's a stiffener alright, I can't lie about that. But, you know, she could use a hand."

"True."

"You know there's a lot of people in this city that need helping."

"Hmm. So I noticed."

"You game?"

"I'm game."