It took another week before the White Hats (who now officially included Tara, Amy, and Jenny) figured out how to implement Oz's idea of using Buffy as a surge protector for Angel's curse, and it took almost that long again for Buffy to persuade Angel that it was really what she wanted. The ritual was not unlike a wedding ceremony. That was perfectly fine by her, as she meant to hold onto him and never let him go. Figuring out how to make it legal was a formality, as far as she was concerned. She wore a yellow sundress and let Tara and Amy weave tiny flowers into her hair, and Angel surprised her by bringing a pair of matching Irish rings.

According to Tara, as soon as the ritual was done, beams of light had shot from Angel's soul to Buffy's, and they stayed in place no matter where either of them stood in relation to the other. Even though Angel was as happy as he'd been since Tara met him, there were no longer any signs that the cords binding his soul to his body were fraying.

The couple had their next confirmation that it had worked before they even made it into their apartment. They were already kissing furiously and tugging at each other's clothes when they got the door open, and then Buffy tumbled ungracefully inside while Angel found himself caught on the threshold.

"What—?" said Buffy, rather disgruntled.

"Would you care to invite me into your home?" said Angel, eyes bright with happiness.

Buffy got to her feet, her irritation vanishing. Even as long as they'd stayed there together before the Council's inspection, she'd never had to invite him in. She smiled and held out her hand to him. "Come in, Angel."

He took her hand and stepped inside.

This epilogue wasn't part of my original outline for the fic. I was originally just going to leave off with the prospect of fixing Angel's curse, but this insisted on being written too. I like that it shows how far Wishverse Buffy has come from the friendless lone soldier she was when she first arrived in Sunnydale, and that it brings everything full circle by ending at the basement apartment.

If you're wondering how a Wishverse story could have such a happy ending, well, two things. One, I'm nearly incapable of writing sad endings to Buffy/Angel fics. Two, and more importantly, the Wishverse, to me, is a timeline of greater entropy than the main Buffyverse timeline, not necessarily a timeline that's always darker. The lows will certainly be lower, but the highs will also be higher, and equilibrium tends to be harder to maintain.

I hope you liked it! This fic has been sitting half-finished but fully outlined on my hard drive for two years. In addition to the Buffy/Angel stuff, it was an interesting change to write the White Hats instead of the normal Scooby gang, which I didn't really do in "Windows to the Soul." I feel like they have more of an Angel Investigations vibe than a Scooby one, what with how dedicated they are to the mission and how normal it is to them to fight monsters.

Please let me know what you thought!