Once they had all made it safely through the portal, and Buffy had once again regained control of her gag reflex, she looked up at her surroundings. They were in the surveillance room of the castle. The room had no windows, which was very good because while it had been the middle of the night in Los Angeles it was morning in Scotland, and Buffy didn't fancy going halfway across the world to save Angel and Spike just to have them burst into dust the moment they arrived. The stone walls of the room were covered in video screens, computers, and other high tech surveillance equipment. The room was quite large, but felt cramped because of the forty or so people no occupying it. Buffy could see Xander, Andrew, Robin, Dawn, and Giles all staring at her from across the room.

"SPIKE?!" Dawn yelled before running up to the blond vampire and hugging him. "I am so glad to see you!"

"Me to pet" he told her returning her embrace. Dawn pulled away from him, before punching him in the face. "Ow!" he said annoyed "That hurt!"

"Why didn't you call us? Why didn't you tell us you were okay? We thought you were dead!" Dawn yelled at him before turning towards Angel, who while Dawn had been yelling at Spike looked amused, but now looked terrified, and saying "and YOU! Why didn't you call us? WHAT were you THINKING! You can't pick up a PHONE!!"

"ENOUGH!" Buffy yelled, managing to scare the entire room into silence. "We'll have time to throw blame around later." She really just wanted to take a nice long bath and a nice long nap away from all of this chaos. "We have a lot that we have to get done here. I realize that those of you who have been on Los Angeles time are probably exhausted, so Xander here will show you to your rooms." Buffy told them while motioning across the room to her friend, who waved at them. She could tell that he wasn't very happy about all of this, but at least he was trying to behave for her sake, and for the sake of the humans. "Girls, you'll have the morning off, but I'll expect you to be back at training by this afternoon."

Buffy was about to walk over to the others and fill them in so that she could go and take her shower, when she remembered something important. "Oh, on more thing girls, you guys saw a lot of interesting things out there tonight, and met some new people, but I need you guys to keep it quiet for now. I don't want any of you to tell any of the other girls what you may have seen or heard tonight. For now, if they ask, just tell them that Los Angeles is back from hell and everyone seems to be all right. If I hear one word about Angel or Spike or even any of their friends I will personally make sure that you spend all of your time doing mess hall duty. Understand?" All of the girls mumbled a yes ma'am although she could tell in her eyes that they were not happy. The fact that there were vampires staying in their castle was big news, especially since it had been Buffy herself that had wanted to protect them. Even better though was that some of them were beginning to suspect that these people they had found in Los Angeles may have been involved in the city being sucked into hell in the first place.

Giles gave Buffy an evil look as she said this, but he understood. If any of the girls found out who Angel and Spike were, what they had done, and that they were here in the castle their lives would be at great risk. As much as Giles didn't trust the two vampires or their friends, they mattered a great deal to Buffy and while he may not always understand it, he knew that there was nothing he could do about it. So many things had tried to come between Buffy and either of the two vampires, but nothing thus far had succeeded. Giles wondered if anything ever would. Besides, even though they may not always be the most trustworthy creatures to walk the earth, both of them would make good allies in the upcoming battles.

The thirty or so new slayers slowly filed out of the room, leaving the others alone in the room together. Everyone except Buffy, Faith, Willow and Giles were still glaring at the new comers. Giles was still clearly unhappy with the idea of bringing these people back with them, but he was more concerned with Buffy now. He knew how hard this whole ordeal had been on her.

"You will have to tell them eventually you know." Giles told Buffy referring to the slayers. "You can't keep it a secret forever."

"I know" Buffy replied. "It's just we have so much to deal with right now, and I don't want to have to answer a million and one questions about who these people are, what they are doing here, and why they can't kill the vampires and demons."

"You're going to have to do it soon." Xander cut in. "News and gossip travel fast around this place, and two vampires, and two demons arriving tend to make headlines. Especially when they're not dead."

"I will Xander. Just not right now. Right now I just want to get down to business so that I can take a shower and a nice long nap." She responded.

"Um… I know this may sound like an odd question… but… Who are all you people? Where are we and what are we doing here… I mean its not that I don't appreciate being saved from hell and all, but I'm not exactly used to the idea of being kidnapped through a strange portal thing by a bunch of strange women." Connor asked timidly. "After all I just got used to the idea that vampires and demons existed before being sent to hell, and now this?"

"Its alright Connor" Angel told him. "These are old friends of mine."

"I wouldn't exactly call us friends." Xander said warningly.

"Enough Xander" Giles told him. "You're right though," Giles said to Connor. "I don't know everyone here either, and I think it would be best if we all knew what was going on before anything else happens. Also, for the safety of everyone involved I need to know who and what we are dealing with.