Buffy marched up the steps of the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart, her fists clenched and palms sweating. Willow activating slayers worldwide had been a great help, don't get her wrong but hell, was there a lot more travelling involved. This was the last place she wanted to be. Angel was the last person she wanted to see. Facing him again, after their brief encounter in Sunnydale, was going to be seriously awkward. Hopefully she could just go in there, get Dana's whereabouts out of him and leave. It was so typical that a rouge slayer was in this town, this state. This country even!

She approached the main desk and asked for Angel but to her annoyance, was made to wait as a tall, skinny brunette made a phone call. Her hair was neatly tied up in a bun and her grey suit clung to her curves perfectly. The slayer didn't really listen to her words, as the perfectly made up woman in front of her started talking down the line. Buffy was too busy thinking up what she was going to say to the vampire. She hadn't thought this far ahead.

After what felt like years, the receptionist hung up and got to her feet.
"This way, Miss Summers," she almost whispered in a sickly sweet voice. Angel must've given the woman her name. She followed her to a lift, which immediately opened and she cautiously stepped inside, taking in her surroundings. The receptionist smiled at her, with gleaming white teeth and pressed a button from outside the elevator, sending her up.

Buffy tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the elevator to reach it's destination. She needed this over soon. She'd had the most peaceful period of her life, living in Rome for the past six months. Well, it hadn't been entirely peaceful. The nights that she'd woken up, screaming for Spike, were still vivid in her mind. She told herself to stop then. Thinking about the past, about him, wasn't doing her any favours. He was gone and she needed to accept that. Every evening she promised herself, no bad dreams. Just like Spike had whispered to her, the night before the fall of Sunnydale. She shook away all slayerish unrelated thoughts as the doors pinged open. She stepped out into yet another giant lobby. Oh, this was just brilliant. How was she meant to find Angel quickly now?
"Buffy."
A familair voice caught her attention. She looked over her shoulder. Of course Angel was waiting for her. She avoided his dark, menacing eyes.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, nervously. Buffy slowly approached him.
"Dana. A rouge slayer. Andrew told me that she was here in LA, in some sort of mental hospital. I assumed you already knew about it."
"A slayer? Are you sure?"
She crossed her arms.
"Yep. Pretty sure. The girls...erm, slayers, have been on about nothing else for days now and I didn't want any of them to handle this one. Considering how dangerous we've been told she is."
The vampire took a moment to process all thr information.
"We should be able to get this done quickly if we head down the-"
He was cut off.
"There's no 'we.' Just me. I think it would be better if I handled this alone."
Angel gave her a cautious look, as if he was going to bring something up that he knew she didn't want to hear.
"Buffy. I..uh. About last time we met..."
The slayer shook her head.
"Not here. I don't want to talk about this here."
She headed for the first set of doors her eyes located, Angel's office.
"Wait, Buffy, don't go in there!"
But it was too late. Buffy had walked in. The first thing she heard was raised voices. Two, she thought. She could barely make out what they were saying from all the talking over each other so looked around the large office to pinpoint the source of the commotion. Jee, was that Wesley? Man, had he changed. She looked slightly to his right to see the other man involved in the argument. A man that had only existed in her deepest, darkest nightmares and desperate, hopeless dreams for the last half a year.
"No," she croaked. Both men looked in her direction. She stepped back a few paces.
"No. No, this isn't fair." She backed up against one of the double doors before running out across the lobby, past Angel, whimpering to herself. "Not him. Why show me him?" The tightening in her chest worsened as she distantly heard his voice call out her name. But she didn't stop running.

*

Buffy had found a quiet corrdior corner, in a remote area and curled up in it. She didn't know if she was still in the lobby or not. It had taken her months to push all these feelings so far away that she was able to continue life normally and now everything had fallen apart again courtesy of Wolfram and Hart and their soul destroying mind games. Her head was pondering how they had managed to produce such a realistic copy of him but her heart didn't care. It was too full of loss and mourning again to feel logically. She was pulled from ber greif by Angel's voice.
"Buffy, are you okay?"
The slayer's head shot up and she frantically wiped any possible remnants of tears from her cheeks, even though she was well beyond crying now.
"Yeah, of course. Don't worry about me."
"I know I should've told you."
She looked confused.
"Told me what?"
It was Angel's turn to look puzzled now.
"Erm, about Spike?"
"There's nothing to tell. Its just one of the Senior Partner's cheap tricks."
"What do you mean?"
Buffy got to her feet.
"Spike. Its not him."
"Who else would it be?"
Buffy started to think that Angel was deliberately messing with her feelings now.
"Spike died. He burned up in the Hellmouth, six months ago, Angel."
The vampire started to realise now.
"About that. We, uh, sort of brought him back."
Okay, this wasn't funny.
"The amulet he was wearing arrived here in our offices a few months back and we sort of...resurrected him."
If he didn't shut up, she was gonna punch him in the face.
"Stop it! This isn't a game!"
He held up his hands up.
"I'm not lying. I swear. Ask anyone. His essence somehow got trapped in the amulet and brought him back. He's really here."
Buffy felt sick. Angel wasn't lying. She knew, by now, when he was.
"How?"
"We don't know."
"And you didn't think to tell me?!"
"It wasn't my place to."
Now he was lying.
"That's bullshit and you know it. You didn't want me finding out because of what I told you back in Sunnydale! God, you need to grow the hell up!"
The slayer was surprised with the amount of anger she was suddenly feeling and venting. Angel simply looked on in humiliation and struggled to get out the next few words.
"I guess...you want to see him."
Truthfully, Buffy didn't know what she wanted right then. All she did know was that she had to safely get Dana to London.
"No. Not yet. My priority's Dana right now."
Angel hadn't expected her reaction. He'd expected her to jump at the chance of seeing him again but was secretly pleased that she hadn't. Maybe he was wrong about her feelings towards him.
The vampire nodded and left but the sound of his name stopped him. Wesley was running after him, from a different direction. Buffy looked on from the distance as Wes' panicked expression spread to Angel. They'd only just finished talking when she caught up with them. She knew something was up.
"Wesley, what's happened?"
He looked to Angel for permission. What was with that anyway? Since when did Wesley take orders from anyone but the council?
"It's Dana. She's escaped."
Buffy's face fell. So much for getting the rogue slayer delivered to Giles harm free. She had a feeling catching her wasn't going to be pretty...

Buffy's hours long search, for the deranged slayer, had lead her to the docks. It was getting later and later and she was no closer to finding her. Other things were playing on her mind and distracting her from the job at hand when she needed full concentration. By 'other things,' she meant one thing. And that thing being Spike walking around, alive, back at Wolfram and Hart. She wasn't emotionally prepared for seeing him again so she was hoping some fresh air and a successful mission would give her the extra courage she needed. She pulled the lapels of her leather coat around her further as the bitter wind picked up, dragging the disgusting smell of gas and pollution along with it. She really, really hated LA. Nothing about it was welcoming anymore and it always delivered a painful blow, in some shape or form, every time she turned up.

A sudden crash caused her to quickly whip and out the tranquilizer gun, Angel had given her but it was knocked out of her hand by a blood covered Dana. Buffy had never seen the girl before but instantly knew it was her. She had something that connected her to other slayers. Buffy didn't have chance to react before she was knocked over too. The dark haired girl leant over her and pinned her to the floor, her strength unreal. Her expression was angry but her face was sad, frightened, alone.
"Dana," Buffy breathed, under the pressure of Dana's hands on her throat.
"You don't have to do this. I can help. I'm a slayer too. I don't want to hurt you."
"Doesn't matter," she spat, through gritted teeth. "You're as bad as him. Want to take me away."
"To help you. You can be with other slayers."
The insane woman still wasn't moving so Buffy felt she had no choice but to disable her and throw her against a wall. She hit with an earth shattering crack but it was going to take a lot more than that to contain her. Catching her breath, Buffy got to her feet, her eyes not leaving the other slayer.
"Dana, please. I'm not your enemy."
The girl wiped blood from an injury caused by her impact with the wall. She looked ten times more pissed off now. Foolishly, Buffy had decided not to go for the tranquilizer straight away, hoping that words could still bring Dana round and recieved multiple blows to her face and stomach. Buffy retaliated, with all her strength, to get Dana to the ground again. She dealt and took several more punches but eventually trapped the girl beneath her and rolled them once so that they were in reach of the gun. She strained herself to reach it but was overturned by Dana again, who now had a surgical saw, in her grasp. Where the hell did that come from? The rogue slayer pinned her arms at an awkward angle and slowly lowered the blade to her throat.
"Dana! No!" Buffy used her remaining strength to try and push her arms away but the teeth of the saw were slowly but surely making their way closer to her jugular.
Suddenly, Dana's grip loosened a little on the saw and she wasn't as tense. Buffy didn't dare move. Then after a few more seconds, the slayer dropped the saw and went limp completely, presumably unconscious. She shoved her off of her and then threw the saw away. She noticed two cleanly shot tranquilizer darts in her back. She looked behind to see Angel and Wesley stood a few metres away.
"I told you not to come along," she snapped.
"Aren't you glad I did?" he asked, hinting to the scratch she had on her neck from the saw.
"Thanks but I could've stopped her."
"Yeah, well...I'll get my team to pick her up."
Buffy shook her head.
"You don't need to worry about that. I've got a group of girls on back up to take her to England."
Wesley interrupted.
"She's murdered people. Its our responsibility to deal with her."
"No it's not. She's a slayer. We take care of our own. We know more about how to help her."
"But..."
"It's not up for discussion, Wesley. You're not a watcher anymore so please don't tell me what to do."
Angel tried to think of what to say next as Buffy crouched down next to Dana's body and turned her over, removing the darts from her back as she did so.
"Are you at least coming back to Wolfram and Hart?"
The slayer froze.
"And why would I do that?"
"So we can talk this all over, make proper arrangements about Dana's transfer because man, is there gonna be a lot of paperwork."
"Since when do you care about paperwork, Angel? There's nothing to dicuss."
"What about Spike?"
She knew he was going to get to that. Could she really face him now?
"I don't know."
"He wants to see you, Buffy. He won't admit but its's obvious," Wesley butted in.
The slayer's heart fluttered oh so slightly. She wanted to see him too. Desperately! Why wouldn't she want to? It was just finding the strength not to break down in tears in front of him that worried her.
"We better go then..."