TITLE: The Heart Never Forgets

AUTHOR: Kelly Rowe

DISCLAIMER: Buffy, Angel and the gang belong to the evil Joss and I only own the characters I make up. In a perfect world however I would own all of them, Buffy and Angel wouldn't have broken up and Riley would never have existed.

RATING: PG

SPOILERS: General (if any)

TIMELINE: After Buffy and others graduate from college.

DISTRIBUTION: You want you can have it, just tell me where you put it.

Challenge:

Summary:

Alternate universe. Buffy and Angel had been high school sweethearts when they were at Hemery and broke up when Buffy and her mom moved to Sunnydale after the divorce. After she graduates from UCS, Buffy moves back to LA and they meet again.

Couples: B/A, B/R, A/K, C/D, W/O, X/A, G/Jenny, Wesley/?

Musts:

AU - no slayers, vampires or ugly evil things.

Buffy dating Riley (she hasn't slept with him yet).

Angel dating Kate.

Angel owning Angel Investigations and running it with Doyle and Wesley as his business partners.

Buffy and Willow moving to LA and in with Cordy (they were best friends in high school).

Cordy working for AI and not realising that her friend and her boss once dated.

Buffy and Angel running into each other at the house warming party Cordy throws for them.

Buffy and Angel trying to just be friends but it not working.

Angel getting jealous of Riley.

Buffy getting jealous of Kate.

Buffy and Angel spending the night together (yes they have sex) even though they are both dating others and the next morning they both get upset because they think that the other doesn't feel the same way as they do.

Buffy and Angel living happily ever after.

Use As Many as Possible:

Oz proposing to Willow.

Riley going psycho after Buffy dumps him and killing Kate and then himself.

Doyle and Cordy getting close.

Joyce driving Buffy nuts by calling her all the time.

Spike as Angel's younger brother.

Anya stalking Xander after she suspects he's cheating on her.

Buffy Summers surveyed her almost empty bedroom and was surprised to find that along with the sadness she felt about leaving home, was an excitement at finally being out in the real world on her own, well except for Cordy and Willow. She felt a little guilty about leaving her mom all alone here in Sunnydale, but it was time that she finally grew up.

"Buffy?" Joyce called from downstairs, "Xander, Anya and Willow are here."

"Coming" Buffy yelled back getting up from her position on the floor. She went downstairs to meet her friends, "Hey guys."

"Buffster" Xander replied giving her a hug.

"Xand, let go of me before Anya gets the wrong idea about us again" Buffy told him when he wouldn't let go.

They all moved into the living room and Willow danced around proclaiming, "I can't wait until tomorrow. Finally FREEDOM!"

"Me either, I can't believe we were lucky enough to be able to move in with Cordy" Buffy added.

"You're so lucky, you two are escaping Sunnyhell and heading off to the big city. While poor Anya and I end up as servers at Happy Burger" Xander complained even though he was happy for his friends.

"I like happy burgers, they give me..." Anya began.

"Don't finish that sentence," Xander yelled at her.

Buffy and Willow rolled around the floor giggling their heads off at Anya's comment and Xander's subsequent embarrassment. It was then Buffy noticed her mom was hovering around them and since she wanted to hang with her friends in private, she moved them all upstairs to her bedroom and then she conned them into helping her pack.

Willow was packing up some of Buffy's old photos, when she came across one of Buffy wrapped in the arms of a totally gorgeous guy.

"Buffy?" Willow said trying to get her friends attention.

"Yeah Wils" Buffy replied coming over to her.

"Who's the hottie?" Willow asked showing her the photo.

"Oh My God. I haven't seen this in ages..." Buffy said taking a good look at it.

"And..." Willow pushed, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"His name is Angel. He and I were dating at Hemery, getting serious too. Then the divorce and the move happened and we just lost touch," Buffy told her.

Anya came over and looked at the photo. Then she asked Buffy in disbelief, "You went from his supreme hotliness there to Riley the fishboy. Are you blind?"

"Hey, Riley happens to be a nice guy" Buffy protested even though she secretly knew that Anya was right.

Eventually they finished helping Buffy pack and since Xander and Anya both had to work the next day they said their good-byes to both Willow and Buffy. After they'd gone, Willow said goodnight and reminded Buffy that she and Oz would be there at ten the next morning to collect her. When everyone was gone Buffy went into the living room to spend some time with her mom, especially since she was feeling kinda guilty about leaving her alone.

"Hey mom" she said sitting down.

"So...are you all packed?" Joyce asked sadly. She couldn't believe that she was going to lose her baby girl, when it seemed like only yesterday that she got her.

"Yeah" Buffy replied.

They sat there in an uncomfortable silence for quite some time until Buffy finally went to bed. She couldn't sleep however she was just so excited about getting away from Sunnydale and her overbearing mother.

The next morning Willow and Oz arrived on time to collect Buffy and her stuff. However it was almost 11 before they had managed to shove all of Buffy's things into the van and they were ready to head off.

"Bye mom. I'll miss you" Buffy said hugging her.

"Bye. Have fun and be careful," Joyce said holding her tight.

Eventually they climbed into Oz's van and Joyce could hear the shouts of excitement and LA here I come as they drove away. Once they were out of view, Joyce slowly turned around and slowly walked back into her empty house.

Cordelia Chase finished printing and addressing the last invoice, she breathed a sigh of relief then she grabbed her stuff and told her boss she was leaving.

"Sure Cordy, see you tomorrow" Angel replied.

Doyle, one of Angel's associates, asked "Where's my princess going?"

"She's running off to marry Wes" Angel joked. He just loved messing with Doyle's head where Cordy was concerned.

"WHAT?" Doyle screamed.

"Hey calm down, it was a joke. She's going home early so that she can help her friends move into her apartment" Angel reminded him.

"Oh yeah, the one's from high school" Doyle began to recall. "I can't believe Cordy still has contact with her high school friends... I mean I've spent years avoiding mine."

"Hey" Angel said offended, "I still hang out with mine."

"Oh yeah, the snobby-loser squad" Doyle said laughing.

Angel thought about it for a second and even though he knew Doyle was right about them, he figure he should at least defend them.

"They aren't... umm... that bad" Angel managed to mutter.

The phone rang distracting them from their conversation and they both returned to work.

Cordy arrived back at her apartment just as Oz's van was pulling up. Buffy and Willow jumped out and ran over to Cordy, where they hugged.

"Hi Cordy" Buffy said extremely glad to see her old friend.

"Buffy, Willow... it's just so great to have you guys here finally" Cordy replied. When they broke the hug, Cordy said "Hey Oz."

"Hey" Oz replied in his usual manner.

When all of the greetings were out of the way, they spent the rest of the afternoon moving Buffy and Willow's stuff into Cordy's apartment. When they'd finally finished Oz headed off to band rehersal and Willow walked him out which left Cordy and Buffy alone.

"I really am glad that you're both here, I missed you guys" Cordy told her.

"I know, we all missed you too" Buffy replied flopping down on the couch.

"So now you're here you can help me fend off Doyle."

"Who's Doyle?" Buffy asked curiously.

"Just this annoying little guy I work with. No one important" Cordy tried to say calmly.

"You like this guy" Buffy stated in wonder. She'd never seen Cordy act like this, not even back in high school when she'd finally admitted her feelings for Xander.

Cordy looked taken aback, "Is it that obvious?"

"Pretty much" Buffy replied.

When Willow walked back in Buffy told her, "Cordy's in love."

"Cool. Now we all have social lives," Willow said.

"But I'm not... we're not dating" Cordy informed them.

"Well then it's up to you to ask him out" Buffy advised.

The three girls spent the rest of the afternoon and evening strategising and getting caught up on each other's lives.

Angel finally went downstairs to his apartment and found 15 messages on his machine, most probably from his girlfriend Kate. Since that was the case, Angel decided to ignore them rather than have to deal with her tonight. As he passed his bookcase he spotted his most prized possession, the picture he had of him and Buffy on their first date. He looked at it and wondered what would've happened between them if she hadn't moved away, uncomfortable with the emotions that were washing over him he tried to think of something else but it was useless.

He knew he still had strong feelings for Buffy, but he couldn't act on them for two important reasons. One was that he didn't know where on earth she was and two he was with Kate and as annoying as she is, he didn't want to see her hurt. Angel put the photo down and headed to his bedroom, when he was ready he climbed into bed and fell instantly asleep and once again dreamed of the girl he'd loved and lost.

The next morning Cordy was running around the apartment, sifting through the mess trying to find where she'd put her keys. Once she'd found them she raced out, leaving a stunned Buffy and Willow staring after her, two seconds later her head reappeared.

"Don't forget to clean this place up for the party," Cordy said trying to leave.

Buffy stopped her, "What party?"

"The housewarming... it's tonight" Cordy replied.

"Well, thanks for the warning" Willow said sarcastically.

Cordy thought for a moment, "Didn't I tell you guys?"

"No" Buffy and Willow chorused.

"Oh... at least you know now" Cordy commented as she left.

Buffy and Willow watched her go. "It's amazing... I don't think she's changed since high school" Buffy told Willow.

"So... do you think she actually invited any of our friends and not just all her own?" Willow asked.

"Let's call them just in case" Buffy suggested.

Willow and Buffy called Oz, Riley, Xander and Anya and then spent the rest of the day setting the apartment up for the party.

As the workday neared its end, Cordy barged in on he important case meeting that Angel, Doyle and Wesley were having. "You're coming tonight, right?" Cordy asked Angel.

"To what?" Angel asked.

"The party" Cordy said condescendingly.

"What party?" Angel asked confused.

"Yeah, what party?" Doyle contributed on behalf of himself and Wesley.

"The house warming... I throwing it for my new roomies" Cordy replied rolling her eyes. When their expressions remained blank she said, "Come on, I told you guys two weeks ago."

Angel remembered vaguely, Cordy saying something about a party and felt obligated to attend. "Kate and I will be there," Angel answered.

"Kate? ...Whatever" Cordy replied, "Any other takers?"

"Me" Wesley and Doyle said.

"Okay" she said. "My apartment... say eightish."

They watched Cordy leave and then they got back to their meeting. Each of them was thinking about the upcoming party and not their work, so they called it a day and agreed to meet up so they could go to the party together.

It was a few minutes before the first guests were due to arrive and the girls were all ready. "This is gonna be such a cool party. Just cool, sophisticated LA people and no Sunnydale morons like Xander" Cordy told them.

"Actually Cor..." Buffy began but was cut off by someone arriving.

"Just a second Buff" Cordy said as she answered the door. She received a shock when she saw Xander and Anya standing there.

They barged past her and Xander said, "Hey guys, cool apartment. Could you use two more roomies?"

Cordy would've thrown a hissy fit if more guests had not chosen to arrive, including Oz and Riley (who Cordy insisted on calling Biley Binn).

The party had been in full swing for a while before Angel, Kate, Doyle and Wesley arrived. They were let in by Cordy who quickly disappeared back into the crowd before they could even say hello. There was hardly any room to move and they were all swallowed into the crowd and separated from each other. Angel was looking for Kate or any of the others (even Cordy), when he bumped into someone.

"I'm so sorry" he apologised not focusing on the poor individual.

"It's okay, it's kinda crowded in here" the girl replied understandingly.

Angel recognised that voice, "Buffy?"

Buffy looked up at the sound of her name and the person she saw standing in front of her surprised her. "Angel? Wow, this is a surprise," she said in shock.

"Yeah" Angel answered still in a sort of shock at seeing her really standing in front of him and not some dream. "It's great to see you... you look fantastic."

"Thanks... umm... so do you" Buffy replied. She wasn't sure what to say to him after so long (and she was certain 'Take me now' wasn't appropriate), so she asked, "What have you been up too?"

"I'm a private investigator, one of three partners in a firm," Angel told her proudly.

Awareness settled over her and she asked, "Is one of your partners named Doyle?"

"Yeah, why?" Angel asked confused.

Buffy began to laugh, "Oh My God, you're Cordy's boss."

"What's so funny about that?" Angel asked not sure whether he should be offended.

"I'm Cordy's roommate... well, one of them" Buffy replied still smiling.

"You went to high school with Cordy... and survived. Wow" Angel joked.

"Ha-ha. At least I didn't hire her," Buffy kidded back.

"I didn't... Doyle did. He kinda likes her" Angel confided.

"Feeling is mutual, she talks about him all the time" Buffy said gladly spilling one of Cordy's secrets.

Now that the ice had been broken, the tension ebbed away and Buffy and Angel spoke with each other freely (like they'd never parted) and forgot about their friends that they'd brought with them.

Kate Lockley was at that moment across the room talking to Willow, which she'd just met, and was telling her about every man she'd ever slept with. She paused to take a breath and noticed that Angel was laughing and flirting with some young blonde-thing. Kate watched them and noticed that they seemed to be entirely comfortable around each other, something Angel never seemed to be around her.

She turned to Willow and asked, "Do you know that blonde?"

"Which one?" she asked. Willow didn't want to seem rude but they were at a party in California, so there were a lot of blondes there.

Kate pointed to Buffy, "That one."

"Oh... that's Buffy" Willow replied, wishing Kate would just go away and leave her alone.

Kate recognised the name, Kimberly had told her that some girl named Buffy had been the love of Angel's life. Kate quickly said 'goodnight' to Willow and headed over to where Angel was to show that Buffy that Angel belonged to her.

Meanwhile Riley was searching all over the party for Buffy, with no success. He managed to spot Cordy and headed over to her, "Cordelia... have you seen my darling Buffy?" he asked in that sickening girly voice.

Cordy groaned, "Look Biley, it's a party and Buffy would probably wanna have some fun for once. If she wanted to be bored and hang with a weenie, she'd stand by the food."

"So she's by the food," Riley said not noticing the blatant insults, "Thanks Cordy."

Cordy rolled her eyes and wondered why Buffy was dating that moronic loser. Suddenly a brilliant idea came to her, since she liked both Buffy and Angel and totally hated their current flames... she decided that they would be perfect for each other and decide to play matchmaker.

Kate and Riley arrived at where Buffy and Angel were standing at the same time. "Hi honey" Kate said, kissing Angel and taking his arm.

Angel shot her a funny look and said, "Kate."

"Buffy... where have you been?" Riley whined at her.

"Right here" Buffy replied trying not to roll her eyes in frustration. Buffy and Angel both exchanged apologetic looks and realised that they'd have to make introductions.

Angel went first, "Buffy Summers, this is Kate Lockley... my... umm... girlfriend."

Buffy looked at Kate and felt an irrational sense of jealousy, which kinda wigged her out because she thought that she was over Angel.

"Angel McKee and…Kate, this is Bil... I mean Riley Finn" Buffy introduced the suddenly annoying guy next to her.

Angel wanted to strangle that Riley-guy, he began to realise that he was jealous. He had already admitted that he still had feelings for Buffy, but had always thought she was out of reach and now suddenly, there she was standing right in front of him and he knew that if he didn't go for it he'd regret it forever.

Cordy watched the group from across the room and imagined that she could feel the sparks flying between her best friend and her boss. She was so busy spying that she didn't notice Doyle come up beside her.

"So what'cha lookin' at 'Delia?" he asked scaring her.

"Jeez Doyle, give me a stroke next time or something" Cordy snapped. Then she apologised, "Sorry, I'm spying on Buffy and Angel... I spot definite potential."

Doyle looked over to where Angel was standing and noticed the blonde she looked somewhat familiar. It suddenly came to him; she was the girl in that photo Angel always stared at in his apartment. "Princess... I think they've already had potential," Doyle said.

"What do you mean?" Cordy asked confused.

"That's his old high school sweetheart" Doyle told her smugly.

"No, that's Buffy... my best friend" Cordy replied sure that Doyle was somehow mistaken.

Doyle looked Cordy in the eye and said, "They used to date."

"Damn it, there goes my grand matchmaking plan" Cordy said cheesed off.

"Ah, but 'Delia. You can now be the heroine that reunites them and saves a doomed love," Doyle suggested.

Cordy immediately cheered up and kissed him on the cheek, "You know sometimes you're kinda useful."

"You have no idea how useful I can be" Doyle replied lewdly as he walked off.

{Trust me to fall for a short, badly dressed, drunken, Irish pervert} Cordy thought as she turned her attention back to her new mission.

The next morning Cordy was just about to corner Buffy and pump her for information concerning her feelings for a certain P. I, when Willow and Oz came out of Willow's room and into the kitchen.

"Oz and I have an announcement," Willow told them.

"What?" Buffy and Cordy chorused.

"Oz asked me too marry him," Willow told them smiling.

"That's so great," Buffy said getting up and hugging Willow.

"Why would anyone our age get married? Did he knock you up or something?" Cordy asked bluntly. She wasn't trying to be rude she was just... Cordy and she couldn't understand why a 23-year-old would want to settle down. At Cordy's question Willow and Oz both turned bright red, signalling that Cordy's ill thought out comment was correct.

"Wow, congratulations again" Buffy said trying to be supportive of her friends. She didn't care why her friends were getting married, as long as they were both happy.

"Yeah, congrats" Cordy muttered unconcerned with them, all she cared about right now was her matchmaking mission.

Willow was hurt by Cordy's attitude, but decided to shake it off, after all it was just like Buffy had said Cordy hadn't changed since high school. She changed the subject, "So Buff... saw you last night, almost hooking up with the hottie ex."

Buffy stared at Willow and said, "You've spent way too much time with Anya."

"Answer her question" Cordy yelled suddenly.

Buffy stared at her two friends, "Okay... I spent a little while talking with an old boyfriend and his *girlfriend*."

"And?" Willow and Cordy replied at the same time.

Buffy was about to be forced to answer when the phone rang and Willow got up to answer it, "Hello?"

"Hi Willow, its Buffy's mom. Is she there?" Joyce said.

"Just a sec, Mrs Summers. I'll see if she's around" Willow told her. She looked at Buffy, who was signally that she didn't want to talk to her mom. "Sorry Mrs Summers, she must have gone out somewhere" Willow lied.

"Okay, could you ask her to call me?"

"Sure. Bye Mrs Summers" Willow said feeling really bad for Joyce, she just sounded so sad and lonely.

"Bye Willow" Joyce said hanging up.

Willow hung up the phone and said, "You should talk to her, Buffy."

"I did... yesterday and the day before. She's driving me nuts, she calls at least once a day" Buffy replied glad that the subject had shifted away from her and her feelings towards Angel.

Cordy checked the time and said, "I gotta go to work. I hate that Buffy's lover-boy makes me work on Saturdays."

"He's not *my* anything" Buffy called after her as she left.

After Cordy had gone Willow asked, "So... if Angel didn't have a girlfriend would you have jumped him at the party?"

Buffy groaned and instinctively knew that it was going to be an extremely long day.

Angel was sat in the office staring at Doyle. After a couple of minutes, an annoyed Doyle asked, "Why are you doin' that?"

"Doing what?" Angel replied pretending that he wasn't doing anything.

"For God's sake, tell me" Doyle demanded still annoyed.

"How do you break up with someone without hurting their feelings... too much?" Angel asked him.

"And I'd know this how?"

"Angel just assumes that every woman you date dumps you" Wesley said as he came into the office.

"Hey" Doyle complained offended, "Not all of them dump me... some just refuse to return me calls. So Angel... you thinkin' about ditching the unlovely Ms Kate?"

"Yeah" Angel mumbled.

"Would this monumental decision have anything to do with the cute blonde that you were drooling over at Cordelia's party?" Wesley asked smarmily.

Angel blushed and Doyle told Wesley, "She and Angel used to be... a couple. They were high school sweethearts."

"Aww... isn't that sweet" Wesley mocked.

Angel gave up trying to work in the same room as them (especially since they seemed to be in a mood to torture him) and went back downstairs to his apartment to think and work in peace.

Buffy was rudely awoken from her afternoon nap by the telephone, since she was the only one home she answered it hoping that it wasn't her mother on the other end.

"Hello?" she said cautiously.

"Buffy, you've must help me" a voice whispered.

"Xander? What's wrong?" Buffy asked wondering what mess Xander had gotten himself into this time.

"It's Anya... she's gone nuts" Xander told her.

"Really? How can you tell?" Buffy asked sarcastically.

"Ha-ha. She's stalking me."

"Why?" Buffy questioned sleepily.

"She thinks that I'm cheating on her," Xander answered.

"Are you?"

"No Buff. How could you even ask me that?" Xander replied offended and shocked.

"Well... there was the Faith incident" Buffy reminded him.

"That doesn't count. Anya and I were on a break," Xander explained.

Buffy tried not to laugh at her friend's predicament, "Not according to Anya."

Before Xander could reply Buffy heard Anya's voice in the background. "Who are you talking too? It's that slutty bitch isn't it? Answer me... well then give me the phone..."

Buffy quickly hung up and took the phone off the hook, so that she didn't have to deal with it, because she wasn't sure she could be involved in that situation and not laugh at them.

Angel was alone in his apartment but wasn't able to concentrate on anything, all he could think about was Buffy. He was so wrapped up in a dream about her that he didn't hear his door open or someone creep inside. In fact Angel didn't even realise that he wasn't alone until a hand clamped down on his shoulder, which caused him to scream.

"Jeez Peaches, scare me next time" Spike (Angel's extremely bratty younger brother) said.

"Look Billy, I'm not in the mood to deal with your whining. So piss off," Angel replied.

"Hey... First off the name is Spike. Also, I don't whine... and lastly I need your help" Spike said.

Angel sighed, "What kinda help do you need, Billy?"

Spike let Angel's use of his real name slide and replied, "I kinda slept with Darla and Dru found out about it."

Angel couldn't help it he laughed. "You are a deadman, for two important reasons. One you cheated on the one girl who for some unknown reason seems to adore you and got caught and two... you did it with Darla who was a major psycho when I went high school with her."

"I know I'm an idiot... how can I fix it?" he asked.

"That's up to Dru" Angel replied, "Besides I am not exactly the best person to ask advice on this topic at the moment."

"Ooh... did Kate finally realise that she was dating the brooder and cheat on you?" Spike asked excitedly.

"No" Angel said, "Buffy's back."

Spike clapped his hands together, "Even better... True love Vs new love."

"SPIKE!" Angel yelled.

"Alright, alright" Spike said laying off the teasing, "Are you gonna help me or not?"

"Not."

"Stuff ya then ya bloody poof" Spike yelled, slamming Angel's front door on his way out.

Angel stared at his front door and prayed (not for the first time) that either Spike or he was adopted.

The next couple of weeks passed without incident, Spike and Dru made up as did Xander and Anya and all was well in LA. Well it was until Cordy decide the agency needed to do something special for it's clients and arranged a party. That in itself wasn't the problem, what was, was that all the waiting staff walked out after Cordy bossed them around and Cordy was forced to recruit Buffy, Willow and Oz to help out. A problem with this arrangement was that Buffy and Angel were totally uncomfortable with it, especially since they were having major feelings towards each other... but they went along with it rather than deal with Cordy.

The night of the party finally arrived and Buffy was handed the job of passing the drinks around to all the clients. Angel couldn't help but look at her; he was totally stunned by her beauty... even now when she was hot and sweaty from working the room. Angel wished that he could just march across the room, pull her into his arms and kiss her until she was breathless. He pulled himself out of his fantasy and turned his attention back to his clients.

Buffy tried not to but she couldn't help but stare at Angel, he was looking even more gorgeous than usual tonight. She wished that she could just walk over to where he was standing, rip off all of his clothing... throw him down on the desk and ravish him. Someone bumped into Buffy, jarring her back to reality and she quickly moved as far away from Angel as she could get and continued to do her job.

A few hours later everyone had gone home except for Buffy, Cordy and Angel. They were cleaning up and Cordy thought that this was the perfect opportunity for matchmaking (even though her last two attempts had flopped)... she was going to push Buffy and Angel together.

Cordy walked up to Angel and said, "Sorry I gotta... umm... I have a date and I can't blow it off."

"Sure, I'll clean up" Angel told her.

"I'll stay and help" Buffy volunteered.

{Perfect} Cordy thought as she left, all she had to do now was sit back and let nature take it's course with them. Buffy and Angel watched her leave and both secretly began to wonder now that they were alone, how they were going to keep their hands of each other. They temporarily settled the problem by cleaning opposite sides of the room... however eventually they had to take all the dirty dishes down to Angel's apartment and wash them.

After a few minutes of high-tension dish washing Buffy couldn't take it, so she splashed Angel with the soapy water. This started an all out water fight and it wasn't long until they were both saturated. Buffy made one last attempt at an attack on Angel, but he'd seen her coming and grabbed her. Before either of them realised it they were lost in each other's eyes... all either of them could do was stare at the other. Slowly Angel lowered his head and kissed her, he was surprised when she responded, instead of pulling away. Angel broke the kiss and pulled back, waiting for Buffy to make the next move... he didn't have to wait long before Buffy had pulled his lips down to meet her's once again. He scooped her up into his arms and headed for the bedroom, without any objections from the girl in his arms.

Buffy awoke the next morning and realised something was off. For a start instead of wearing her warm fuzzy pj's she was naked and there seemed to be an arm draped across her body. The night before events all came rushing back to her and the guilt began to set in... What had she been thinking, she was dating Riley and she shouldn't have made any sort of move towards Angel (regardless of her feelings) until she'd resolved that situation. Since it was fairly obvious that Angel was still asleep, Buffy decided to enjoy the feeling of being in his arms and allow him to make the move this time.

Angel awoke a few minutes later and immediately felt two distinct and conflicting emotions. He felt an inner peace... a rightness that had accompanied being with Buffy and spending the night in her arms... the arms of the woman he loved. Unfortunately he also felt a gut-retching guilt... he had cheated on Kate and the fact that he had intended to break up with her didn't matter, he should've done so before he began anything with Buffy.

Angel was about to say something to Buffy, when the bedroom door flew open and in walked Kate followed closely by Cordy.

Kate stopped in shock, but eventually managed to say, "Angel... what are you doing?"

"Actually, I think that it's fairly obvious," Cordy said trying not to smile, because her plan had actually worked.

"Kate..." Angel began uncomfortably.

"It's okay, we'll work it out" Kate replied cutting him off.

Angel took a deep breath, "I don't want to work it out. The truth is I want to be with the woman I love... Buffy."

"You do?" Buffy asked rolling over to look at him.

"Always... that's if you want me?" Angel replied.

"Forever" Buffy answered kissing him.

"Wait... you're breaking up with me for her. Are you nuts?" Kate asked in disbelief.

The new lovebirds were so involved with each other that they didn't hear her, but Cordy did.

"Oh, get over it. He picked the better woman" she told Kate as she pushed her out of the door.

Cordy quickly then left the apartment and went up to the office.

"Why are you so happy?" Doyle asked her as she skipped into the office.

Cordy kissed him in reply, "I am a matchmaking genius. Buffy and Angel are once again experiencing coupledom."

"Good going 'Delia" Doyle congratulated her, glad that Kate was gone from his friends life.

Cordy kissed him again and said; "I've decided that you can show me how useful you are. Starting with dinner."

"You're askin' me out?" Doyle replied in shock.

"Yep."

"Pick yer up at seven" Doyle told her.

"Okay" Cordy said getting back to work.

A couple of hours later, Angel was dropping Buffy off at home and kissing her goodbye, when they heard a noise... it was Riley snorting in disbelief over what he was seeing.

"Get away from my girl... you- you bully" Riley wheezed in that girly voice of his.

Angel wanted so badly to punch Riley, but Buffy stopped him. "Riley, I'm not your girl" Buffy told him.

"Sure you are" Riley said stubbornly.

Buffy was suddenly sick of being nice and said, "If I'm your girl... would I have spent last night making love with Angel."

Riley looked at Angel who nodded, confirming Buffy's story. "I should've listened to Forest, he kept telling me that I was too good for you" Riley yelled and stormed off.

"I guess this means were both free" Buffy told Angel.

"Nope, we have each other" Angel replied.

"I like the sound of that" Buffy said kissing him.

When the kiss broke Angel said, "Move in with me?"

"Shouldn't we have at least have one date first?" Buffy replied.

"Okay, one date and then... eternity" Angel compromised kissing her again.

Two Weeks Later:

Buffy was sitting there reading the paper in disbelief when Angel came up behind her. "What's wrong?" he asked concerned. "You have to read this," she said shoving the paper at him.

~ DUMPED IOWAN KILLS COP, THEN SELF

Riley Finn, an Iowa native, living and working here in Los Angeles took a shotgun up onto the roof of the Hyperion Hotel yesterday morning. He was apparently upset over being dumped by his girlfriend for a much more attractive man, and was threatening to kill himself. Officer Kate Lockley was sent up to diffuse the situation; she was picked because of her own recent dumping by her boyfriend who ran off with a former girlfriend. When Officer Lockley arrived on the roof, she and the gunman seemed to recognise each other. Then she must have said something offensive because he shot her through the heart. Realising what girly-boys like him become in prison... he then shot himself. ~

"Whoa... good thing we got rid of those two" Angel said.

"Totally" Buffy replied, "Let's go back to bed."

"I thought you'd never ask" Angel said scooping her up and carrying her off to their room.

The End