Buffy slowly approaches Giles's apartment. She'd called an emergency Scooby meeting last night after talking to Angel. He went back to LA to get his team down here, which happened to coincide with Doyle's return, or so he told her on the phone later that night. Both Oz and Tara were called as well, but Buffy wasn't sure if they would be able to make it. The setting sun dips behind the apartment buildings, leaving her in semi darkness.

'Here goes nothing.' Buffy thinks as she opens the door and steps into the cool apartment.

"Hey guys." She greets, seeing that the Scoobies are already there. They all turn to look at her, concern coloring their faces.

"Hey Buffster! So what's the sitch? What big bad are we facing this week?" Xander greets as she enters.

"No big bad Xand. This is a good news kind of day, which, yeah, we never actually get. But we have one today!" She tells them, smiling nervously. She really hopes Angel turns up soon.

"Um, what's the good news?" Willow asks, a bit tentatively.

"It's a long story, and we're still missing a few people." Buffy tells them.

"Buffy, every one is here. You can tell us." Giles tells her. Buffy looks at them sheepishly.

"Not really. There's still Angel's team, and Tara and Oz." She explains. Willow goes white at the mention of Tara.

"T-Tara? How do you know about her?" She asks nervously. Buffy raises and eyebrow at her best friend.

"Angel told me." She explains quickly. She can feel his presence and relaxes slightly.

"Angel? You mean Deadboy's here? Is he evil?" Xander asks bluntly.

"No, I'm not evil. Why does everyone think I'm evil when I come back here?" Angel asks as he steps through the still open door, his team following him. Buffy turns to look at him and smiles, earning one back from him. "Hello Buffy."

"Hey Angel. Hi Cordy, good to see you again. You too Wes." She greets the two people from Sunnydale with smiles. She then turns to the two other men. One of them she vaguely recognizes from the first time she visited Angel in LA. The other, was surprisingly familiar as well. She greets them both with a bright grin as well. "You must be Doyle. Congrats on the whole, brought back from the dead thing by the way, I've done that before, not pleasant."

"Thanks. And you must be Little Miss Slayer that Mr Broody-pants was always moping about." Cordelia slaps his arm. "What? It's true! Stop hitting me, I just came back from the dead, you should show a bit of respect." The Irish demon complains. There's a tentative knock on the door, which is still open. All of the heads gathered turn to look at the new comer.

"Um, excuse m-me? Is th-this Mr. Giles's apartment? I was t-told to c-come h-here." A timid blonde girl asks, scanning the faces gathered.

"Tara!" Willow exclaims, her face brightening at the sight of the newcomer.

"Willow?" Tara's face also brightens and steps into the room.

"Hello Sunnydale. LA. Other people." A short red-haired man greets them all.

"Oz." Willow says, surprised, her eyes flickering between Tara and Oz. The tension in the room breaks and suddenly everyone is talking at once, asking who everyone is, why they're there, what's going on.

"QUIET!" Buffy yells. The groups turn to look at her and stay quiet. "If you would all sit down and stay quiet, I can explain what's happening." They all move further into the room and close the door shutting out the night. Most of the people gathered find seats, and a few of them stand or lean. Buffy and Angel stand in front of the fireplace and look at the two groups gathered.

"Uh, lets to introductions first." Buffy suggests, realizing that a lot of the people in the room are total strangers. "I'll start. I'm Buffy, the Slayer. I fight evil."

"Angel, vampire with a soul. Same, but in LA."

"Giles, Buffy's old Watcher. I, well, I research mostly."

"Cordelia. Secretary, ex-Vision-Girl, actress."

"Doyle, half-demon, gets visions from the Powers, recently brought back from the dead."

"Wesley Wyndam-Price, ex-Watcher and rouge demon hunter."

"Uh, Willow, Wiccan, part of the Scoobies."

"T-Tara, Wiccan."

"Xander, Scooby member, handy-man."

"Anya. I'm an ex-Vengance Demon, currently dating Xander."

"Oz. Werewolf."

"And there's Faith who's also a Slayer, currently in a coma, my sister Dawn, some guy named Gunn, and someone named Fred." Buffy adds on behalf of the people absent. "Right. Okay, now that that's over, here's the real news. Remember the Gem of Amarra? Green gem thing that makes its impossible to kill a vampire? Well, Angel now has its powers, which means he can't be killed. Um, also, uh…" Buffy looks at Angel for help.

"My soul is permanent." He says bluntly. A few gasps come from the Scoobies.

"Yeah, we already know this." Cordelia says. "Why are we here? Not that I don't enjoy being in Sunnyhell, oh, no, wait, I don't."

"Yes and we just love seeing you." Xander remarks, sending a glare at her.

"Guys? Focus." Buffy tells them. "You're here because Angel's not the only one with news." Buffy looks at Angel, and at his nod continues. "To put it frankly, we're all immortal."

Gasps and exclamations of surprise and confusion fill the small living room.

"Could everyone stop talking at once?!" Buffy yells, quieting them again. "Look, there's this whole prophecy thing, did I mention I don't like prophecies? Anyways, there's gonna be this big battle thing and they decided we needed to be together for it, I don't really understand, but I'm not complaining. Faith and Dawn are included. Faith's gonna wake up and Angel will help her work on redemption." She looks out at the sea of faces. "Any questions?"

"Yeah, I have one." Xander says, raising his hand slightly. "What happened to Riley and the Initiative?"

Buffy and Angel exchange a look. Buffy takes a deep breath and looks back to Xander.

"Riley, wasn't who we thought he was. He, he was addicted to vampire bites. We broke up, and he was kinda a jerk about it too." She explains.

"Oh, Buffy! Are you okay?" Willow asks, in true best friend style. "I have a shovel, if you want me to beat him with it. I kinda promised him I would."

"Uh, thanks Will, but let's keep the shovel beatings to a minimum." Buffy tells the red-headed witch, slightly worried about her violent side. "Um, we'll keep working on the Initiative front, I have a bad feeling about them. Also, can we find Spike? He's not really useful to us, and I really want to stake him."

"Get in line." Angel growls, scowling at the mention of his grand-spawn.

"Buffy, are we sure this isn't some sort of trick? No offense to Angel and his team." Giles questions.

"I know you don't trust me Giles, but I promise that if I was not completely sure, I would not have told you. I went to the Oracles themselves and they confirmed this." Angel assures the older looking man. The Englishman nods at the vampire.

"Very well." He relents. Buffy hugs him.

"It was Jenny, she gave him back his soul. She made it permanent." She whispers into his ear. He returns the hug and kisses her forehead. She steps back and looks at the group. They're milling about, talking, introducing themselves, reacquainting themselves. Buffy smiles and grabs Angel's hand, dragging him outside into the courtyard. They sit down on a bench and face each other.

"Angel-"

"Buffy-"

They laugh and Angel gestures for her to go first.

"Angel, I know you need to stay in LA, you've got a good thing going up there. It's good to know that there's someone else out there helping people. But if you ever need help with something, please, just ask. No more radio silence, okay?" She asks him.

"Of course. The same goes for you. You might be the Slayer, but that doesn't mean you can't ask for help." He agrees. They smile at each other and Buffy scoots closer, leaning into him. He wraps his arms around her and they sit like that for a while, enjoying the simple act of being together.

"Angel, I never asked. What was it like in Hell?" Buffy asks him suddenly. Angel stiffens behind her and she cranes her head to look at him. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay. If you want to know I'll tell you, but you have to tell me what happened when you went to LA that summer." Angel agrees. Buffy nods and squeezes his hand. Angel pulls in an unnecessary breath. "It was always dark. The only sounds were screams and the laughter of demons as they tortured souls. I was kept in a cage for most of my time there. They would take me out and put me on what they called 'The Rack' and torture me. The physical torture wasn't that bad, it was Hell, so it was bad, but it wasn't as bad as the mental games they would pull. They would parade you in front of me, sometimes as my torturer, sometimes as a fellow soul, sometimes you would just stand outside my cell and talk. You told me that it was a mistake to ever love you, that I was a worthless monster. Sometimes the other Scoobies would show up, but you kept coming back. After a while I started to lose my memories. First I forgot who I was before I turned, then my times as Angelus, then before I came to Sunnydale. But I always remembered you, even as you taunted me and tortured me, I always knew that you loved me. But then, even that started to disappear. By the time I was rescued, or whatever happened, I only knew that there was a girl, and she loved me." Buffy is silently crying by the time Angel finishes talking.

"Oh, Angel. I'm so sorry." She gasps. He reaches for her hand and cradles it in his.

"It's okay, I knew it wasn't really you. I always knew." He reassures her, kissing her forehead. "I should be the one apologizing to you for what I did."

"No. You didn't do anything. Angelus did, but he's gone, and he's not coming back." Buffy tilts her head up and kisses him lightly on the lips. "My turn." She leans back again and wipes the tears from her eyes. "I left after I sent you to Hell. Mom and I had this big fight, she told me not to come back. So I stopped by the house and packed up my things. I left a note for Dawn, saying that I wasn't coming back. Then I took the first bus to LA. That's where I met this guy and his crew, going by my middle name, Anne. I was fresh off the bus, still at the bus station actually. This vampire found me and led me into an alley. I knew what he was, and I was prepared to let him kill me, I didn't really want to be alive at the time. But this guy and his crew found us just as the vampire was going to sink its fangs into my neck. They dusted him and warned me not to go into dark alleys with strangers at night. He took me in for a bit, 'trained' me to recognize vampires when I saw them. He even helped me find a job and a place to stay. I thought that it could be my second chance, that I could try to have that normal life I wanted. It went okay for a while, I was working in this diner, Helen's Kitchen. Life was boring. Then someone recognized me. Do you remember Chanterelle? She used to hang out with Ford and his group. Anyways, she had cleaned herself up, started calling herself Lily, met a guy. Then, well, let's just say that the hellmouth caught up with me. I let Lily take over as Anne, packed up and came back to Sunnydale." Buffy tells him, omitting her own very brief stint in a hell dimension.

"I wish I could have spared you all of that. I wish I could erase everything that happened after your birthday." Angel confesses, stroking her hair. Buffy smirks up at him.

"Everything?" She asks, raising one eyebrow. Angel laughs at her.

"That doesn't count, it happened on your birthday." He protests, shaking his head at her. "Don't you have a sister to talk to?"

"Spoilsport." Buffy murmurs, kissing him. He smiles into the kiss and strokes a hand through her hair.