Buffy stood over Caleb's dead body, staring, disbelieving that this threat was finally neutralized, she remembered that word from her Riley days. Those were pretty good times, not Riley, per se, more how easygoing everything was, her best friend hadn't yet turned into the big bad evil witch, Xander was still fun-loving and believed he had a chance at happiness, and Spike, well Spike was just that annoying vampire she couldn't kill because he was harmless. She shook her head, she was just distracting herself with memories from what she was dealing with in front of her.

Angel. She finally looked up and saw Angel staring at her with those soulful eyes that always seemed to draw her in, the eyes of the man she'd been in love with since before she was old enough to know what love was. She stopped in her tracks, for some reason, she didn't feel that same zing that she always felt while looking at him. The love was still there, sure, but even that felt different now. More familial, like she felt for Willow or Xander. She knew it wasn't because of last year and coming back to life, because if it was she'd have felt nothing at all. No, somehow, somewhere along the way her love for Angel had changed, he wasn't the love of her life like she vehemently yelled to anyone who would listen, he was just a close friend, a friend close enough to consider family, now.

She took a moment to take that shift in her life in, though she didn't give herself enough time to think about those implications, she was just standing there staring at the guy for an extremely long and awkward time, after all.

She decided to play it light and continued their conversation from earlier, "See, I've got him under control."

Angel started walking over to her, "Well, you could at least tell me you're glad to see me."

Buffy could tell he was ramping up for a kiss but something inside her was so of the against that. She ignored that part of her that told her she didn't want to kiss anyone other than Spike, that she didn't want to love anyone other than Spike. She took a step back. "Of course, I'm happy to see you. Especially when you happened to come, your assist really came in handy."

Angel eyed her for a moment, noticing the distance she was making sure to keep between them. 'Poor Buffy, still can't handle being close to me while not being with me after all these years.' "I'll always be there when you need me, don't you know that by now Buffy?"

Buffy couldn't help but think back to Glory when she all but begged for him to stay and help but he refused. Again, she mentally shook that thought out of her head, it wasn't fair, he had his own life and people he had to take care of. "Thanks, Angel."

Buffy felt a tingle along the back of her neck, a tingle she knew very well. She looked around but felt disappointed when she couldn't find him. Maybe she was imagining Spike because she wished he was the one there with her now, she made sure to turn her attention back to Angel at that thought, "Angel, what are you doing here?"

"Not saving a damsel in distress, that's for sure."

"Well, you know me, not much with the damseling." She said while picking up her new pretty red scythe.

"Got your share of distress though," Angel walked over to a pile of things Buffy never noticed before, he must have brought them. He grabs something before looking around.

"You heard?"

"I got coverage on the whole thing, it's very gripping, and needs a third act."

"You have to leave LA." Buffy deadpanned.
"It's the first, right? The First Evil? The power that tried to convince me to kill myself?"

"Yeah, it's gotten a little more ambitious since then. It's raising an army."

"Yeah, well it failed once…." He was cut off by Caleb jumping him and knocking him over.

Buffy didn't think, she just attacked with all she had. There were times she thought she was losing and times she knew she was winning, there was even a time she could have sworn she heard Spike say she needed him but she must have been imagining that last one. Finally, finally, she won. She won in the grossest way possible, but still.

When Angel finally stood up ready to fight the battle was already over, "Okay, now I'm really mad. Where is he?"

Buffy looked back and forth between the two halves of Caleb's body. Bodies? If she wanted to get all literal. That's what it'd be called right? Two bodies? Because she cut him in half? She shook her head, the semantics didn't matter. Ha! She finally used the word right, or at least thought it, she couldn't wait to tell Willow, they'd been having that conversation about how she'd been using it wrong for years.

"He had to split." Buffy snorted at her own lame joke while Angel brought over things he'd gathered for her since he'd heard of her most resent threat, "I'll have the guys go through that, and see if there's anything new. Reliable source?"

"Not remotely."

"Hmm, any port in an apocalypse." Why did this feel so wrong to her? Like she was doing something wrong, being unfaithful? She focused back on the now and tried to be her normal lighthearted self or at least the light-hearted person he remembered. He handed her what she thought were papers wrapped in some type of, she didn't know, she hoped she wasn't touching the skin of Wilbur the piggie but it sure looked like it.

"Uh, I brought something else as well," He pulled something out of his pocket and opened his hands, a necklace she thought only someone like Elizabeth Taylor would like hung down from his hand.

"I can already tell you, I have nothing that goes with that." She said, trying to keep up with the light-heartedness.

"It's not for you."

"Explainy?"

"I don't know everything, it's very powerful and probably very dangerous," Angel said as he was swinging it around his hand, "It has a purifying power, or a cleansing power, or possibly 'Scrubbing Bubbles', translation is, ugh. Anyway, it brings strength to the person who wears it."

"And the right person is?"

"Someone ensouled but stronger than human."

"It's me then."

"No, I don't know nearly enough about this thing to feel safe about you wearing it."

"That's not really your call anymore, Angel, if it ever was."

Ignoring her completely he said, "Besides, you got that real cool… ax thing, going for you."

Spike, whose been watching this whole touching interaction decided he'd seen enough, he didn't need to see another woman he was madly in love with fall into the arms of that poofter, so he quietly made his way out of the tomb. As he was leaving he heard, "So, you're with me in this then?" From Buffy, confirming his thoughts.

"Shoulder to shoulder, I'm yours. Wearing this ugly amulet and hoping it does its job."

Buffy's automatic reaction was to say no, to tell Angel to get somewhere safe, to stroke his ego in some way like saying she needed a 'second front' in case she failed, so he'd be able to leave without feeling terrible. But then she got to thinking if she said no, who would wear it? It couldn't be her, Angel was right about that, even if he came to that conclusion in the most annoying and wrong way possible. She did have the scythe, and that was where her attention had to be. It'd just be impractical if she had both the scythe and the ugly necklace. No, someone else had to wear it. There was only one other person she trusted enough and who also fit the rules left to wear it, Spike.

Her next thought was to give it to Spike, it'd mean so much to him, for her to choose him in this, to be her champion. She wanted to give that to him, after all that they had gone through he earned it, and in her head, he was her champion. Wow, that was a hell of a realization to come to right now, standing in front of her first love. Yeah, he should be the one to wear it, he's earned it after all.

Except, something inside her told her not to do that, it was too dangerous, she knew she'd lose him and well, she couldn't even bear thinking of that. Not right now when her head had to be in the game, hell, she wasn't sure she could bear thinking of that ever. Spike deserved it and she knew he'd be hurt when she didn't choose him but that was a problem for later Buffy. Right now Buffy had to make a decision, if she couldn't give it to Spike who was left?

She made eye contact with Angel and nodded, she knew not many people would be happy with her choice but they wouldn't dare to kick her out again, right? "Okay. Thanks, Angel, I appreciate it."

Angel looked surprised, it was clear he didn't think she'd take him up on it. "Uh, okay, well, good then."

"Okay, let's get back to the house. I'm sure there will be a bunch of talking after showing up with you, and I'm majorly tired so I need to get to bed as soon as possible."

Woah, woah, woah, you're not telling me something. I thought you'd be happy I came and have help." Buffy started walking to leave the tomb and Angel followed.

"I am, I'm just tired, like I said. But if I didn't get my thanks across to you enough, thanks, Angel."

"Is it Spike?" Angel asked, ignoring her words. "You're not telling me something. The scent, I remember it pretty well."

Buffy stopped and turned around, "You vampires. Did anyone ever tell you the whole smelly thing is pretty gross?"

"Is he your boyfriend?"

"Is that your business?" She asked before continuing her walk.

"Are you in love with him?" Buffy slowed her steps and started walking a little angrily, which Angel picked up, "Okay, maybe I'm out of line but this is kind of a curve ball for me, I mean we're talking about Spike here."

"Well, maybe that's because you haven't been here for years now."

"So you are dating him?"

"I didn't say that. It's different, he's different."

"Oh, well, then that changes things," He said sarcastically.

"He has a soul now."

"Oh," Angel said intensely while looking away.

"What?"

"That's great, everyone's gotta soul now. You know, I started it. Having a soul, before it was the cool new thing."

"Oh my god, what are you, twelve?"

"I'm getting the brush off for Captain Peroxide. You wouldn't even kiss me earlier! It doesn't necessarily bring out the champion in me."

"You're not getting the 'brush off'. Ar-are you just going to come here and be all Dawson every time I have a new boyfriend?"

"Ah-ha!" Angel said while pointing at her, "You said boyfriend!"

"Whatever, I'm so not dealing with this right now. Like I said, there's much with the talking when we get home and I'm tired, come on." Buffy said and started walking away before Angel could speak again.

She was right, as soon as she walked through the door and explained the new situation everyone started talking at once. From what she could tell, as soon as the potentials found out who Angel was, their common thought was "Is she really going to bring another vampire in here? Why can't Faith be in charge again?'.

"Buffy, are you quite sure this is a good idea?" Giles was the first of the adults to speak.

"Yeah, Buff, we've been doing fine without Captian Hairgel all these years, I don't think that needs to change now just because he has some stuff that might eventually be helpful with our Big Bad," Xander might not like Spike but one good thing he could say about him was his aptitude for thinking up good nicknames for Angel. His words gave Buffy pause, he did just lose his eye because of her, after all. Xander might not like Spike but one good thing he could say about him was his aptitude for thinking up good nicknames for Angel.

"Come on G-man. Angel's a good guy, he's helped me out a lot. He's helped all of us out a lot over the years, there's no need to think badly of him now." Faith said.

"You're only saying that because you weren't called as a Slayer yet the last time Angelus showed his face." Anya piped in helpfully.

"And who are you?" Angel asked Anya snarkily.

"Oh, whatever, you weren't even part of our group when Angelus was here last time." Willow snarked at Anya over Angel.

Listen!" Buffy said loudly in her commander's voice, realizing that Spike wasn't there when she hadn't heard him speak out against Angel. "He's staying, and that's final. If anyone has a problem with that you can try kicking me out of my house and overthrowing me again." Wow, she guessed she wasn't quite over that yet like she thought. All the sheepish looks and no one making eye contact with her made her realize no one else was over it yet either. "No takers? Good. Now, Xander, find him a place to sleep, not in the basement. I have something to do before bed."

She knew putting Angel and Spike in the same room was a recipe for disaster and she also knew Xander was the type to do it just because he wouldn't think about the consequences, and if he did, he'd do it because he didn't like either of them, so she decided to be smart and stop the problem before it could start. Plus she was thinking about possibly spending the night down there again, though she wasn't even really admitting that to herself yet.

With those last words, she left the room and headed towards the basement. She knew she was leaving behind a very uncomfortable group of people with Angel but she didn't care.