Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

A/N: In response to a review I received: The timelines between the shows are skewed somewhat--basically, the timelines for Buffy and Angel remain consistent, but the Stargate timeline starts later than it did in the movie and on the show. What this means, logistically, is that the 4th season of Angel, 7th season of Buffy, and 3rd season of Stargate:SG-1 all took place at the same time (at some earlier point in the story, Carter makes a reference to how she missed Fred's lecture (from Supersymmetry)because she was involved with a foothold situation at the SGC (from Foothold). Also, season eight of Stargate mostly happened (with some changes because of Riley's presence as part of SG-1 for the past year), but I'm picking and choosing elements from that to include as I go along. Season nine (and the changes in the character roster) has not happened.

So...to sum up...the story is set in 2009, which means that, with my skewing, it's approximately seven years post-Chosen, six years postNever Fade Away, and somewhere in the middle of an artificially created season 9 of Stargate.

Obviously this is an AU. To my knowledge, Buffy and Co. never showed up on Stargate. Alas.

OOOOOOOOOO

Buffy snapped her cell 'phone shut as she walked through the sliding glass doors into the waiting room, spotting Daniel Jackson staring unblinkingly at the television mounted to the ceiling. She sat next to him, making the cracked orange vinyl upholstery on the bench creak slightly. "Hey."

"Hey."

"Where's everyone else?" Except for the archeologist, the large waiting room was empty.

"Dawn went off in search of the restroom, I think. Jack, Sam, and Riley are all waiting to be examined. Faith, Teal'c, and Spike are keeping them entertained."

"I bet." Was it wrong to hope there was a lively tap number involved? Probably.

"There's nothing on the news."

"Huh?" Buffy glanced up at the screen and saw the weather report. Impending thunderstorm. Looked like news to her–Southern California hadn't been big on having actual weather.

Daniel groaned inwardly. "Sorry about that. I forgot you're not used to my thought patterns yet. Non sequiturs are kind of a challenging way to start a conversation," he said, sheepishly. "I was thinking that twenty vampires were killed in a cemetery tonight. Jack, Sam, and Riley were injured. You said this kind of thing happened all the time. You'd think there'd be something on the news about it."

She shrugged, well used to rambling thoughts. Nice to know being best friends with Willow Rosenberg had taught her something that would be useful in her new life. "There's never anything. Vamps are notoriously media-shy."

"I figured that. I just always feel like someone should have noticed something," Daniel said, angling so he faced Buffy slightly, laying his arm across the back of the sofa. "Whenever we get back from saving the world and I'm laid up in the infirmary, which, trust me, happens more often than you'd think, and the news is on, I'm always slightly surprised that the world's exactly the same as it was when I left."

Buffy smiled. "I know what you mean," she said, pausing briefly. "The world's a really resilient place, when you think about it. But do you ever get this huge urge to run up to a random stranger on the street and spill your guts?"

He grinned at her. "At least once a week," he said, thinking. "I wonder if it would make a difference. On the one hand, the knowledge might make all the countries stop warring with each other so they can bond together and fight, but then there's the flip side of that."

"Total hysteria with a side order of mass panic," she said, nodding. "Catch-22 scenario. Anyway, I hope more than twenty vamps bought it. Xander said three other patrols were out tonight, and I'd hate if it we ruined everyone's fun."

Fun? It didn't look like any definition of fun he'd ever read. "Is it always so..."

She looked up at him. "So what?"

"So brutal," Daniel sighed.

Buffy gave the question some thought, chewing on her lower lip. "Actually, it's usually worse."

Daniel paled. "Worse?" How could it possibly be worse?

Buffy shrugged again. "Except for you guys, those were some of the most experienced fighters we've got out there tonight, plus Teal'c, who's totally amazing hand-to-hand. Have you seen him?" She made a mental note to have Teal'c teach her his fighting technique–she'd seen most of the basic moves before, but never in that sequence.

Daniel gave a small smile, quirking up one side of his mouth. "A few too many times, actually."

"Right. I guess that makes sense." Duh. Way to impress the cute archeologist with your intellect, Buffy.

"What else made this fight different?" He was curious–most of his fighting against the Goa'uld was done with zats or P-90s, without a lot of close contact combat. If Daniel used his fists at all, it was usually because he needed to defend or prove himself in a civilization with its roots in one of Earth's earlier cultures.

Buffy shrugged again and began listing reasons on her fingers. "Everybody had weapons...there wasn't a big prophecy about it...most of the vamps were newbies. Your basic Wednesday night slayfest. Once we got down to things, it didn't take that long to kill the first group," she said, turning to face Daniel and crossing her legs. "Dawnie and Riley might not be slayers, but they've done a lot of time in the trenches and aren't going to make stupid mist...okay, Dawn won't make stupid mistakes and Riley's a little out of practice," she said, grinning, "and there were some injuries, but nothing serious."

"Tell that to Jack." He'd been hiding it well, but Daniel's eyes were now full of worry and concern for his friend.

"How is he?"

Daniel stood and put his hands in his pockets as he made a slow circuit around the waiting room. "I don't know yet. Teal'c's in with him now. No matter how bad it is, though, it's not as bad as it could have been."

"Oh?" Buffy watched Daniel wander around the room. Daniel Jackson, whatever else he was, was extremely watchable. Tall, well-muscled, bright blue eyes. Good arms, strong shoulders. The glasses made him look very approachable and only a smidge geeky, even if she was more than a little intimidated by the fact that he was probably smarter than Giles.

Daniel walked over to a rack of health issue leaflets and rifled through them, scanning the titles. None of them applied to him, luckily, so he left them where they were. Having run out of things to do, he sat back down on the sofa. "Yeah. If this had been a year ago, that knee injury might have put Jack out of commission for weeks; maybe longer, depending on how bad it was."

"And now?"

Daniel smiled slightly, still amused by the concept of Jack-as-General, even after almost a year. "He's in charge and can't go off-world much, so he doesn't have to walk, run, or fight the way he used to. He'll be able to stay off his knee and let it heal properly." Not that he would, but it was a good theory.

"That's good, right?" Sometimes with guys it was hard to tell.

He nodded. "Assuming he actually does what he's told, yeah, that's good."

"Not good with doctors, huh?"

"Nope." Not even with Janet Fraiser.

Neither one of them said anything for a few minutes; Daniel caught in memories of Janet and Buffy remembering all the times she'd been in hospitals, either recovering or waiting for news of someone else who was sick or injured. Eventually, the silence and the antiseptic smell got to her. "So, weird night, huh?"

One side of Daniel's mouth quirked in a wistful half-smile. "Yeah. Not nearly the weirdest, though."

Okay, that was definitely a conversational opening she could work with. "What was your weirdest night?"

He pondered that for a minute. "Well, there was the time we found a machine that made me switch bodies with an old alien guy and also switched Jack and Teal'c. I almost died. That was pretty strange. And, of course, terrifying."

Buffy frowned in thought. "Huh. Yeah, that happened to me once. Strange doesn't begin to cover it. Uber badness. And, y'know, terrifying."

"What's your weirdest?" he asked, curious. If fighting vampires was a nightly activity, he bet she had some doozies.

"I don't know if this is the weirdest, but once a singing demon came to town and made all of us act like we were in a musical."

Well, that was certainly different. He grinned and pushed his glasses up. It wasn't everyone with whom you could have this kind of conversation. "What did you sing about?"

Buffy blushed and fidgeted. How did you tell someone you'd been pulled out of heaven? "Stuff. I was in a really bad place back then."

"Oh." Daniel decided not to push that issue further. He'd been in a few really bad places himself–and most of them weren't even off-world. "How did the demon get to town?"

Buffy had just begun to tell a slightly edited version of the story (minus the songs and the shoplifting) when Dawn returned from the restroom. Before she entered the waiting room, she noticed Buffy's animated face and gestures as her sister chatted with an obviously enthralled Daniel Jackson.

Dawn smiled to herself. Buffy hadn't looked that happy just talking to a guy since she was first getting to know Riley. This was definitely behavior that should be encouraged. She turned around before she was spotted and headed towards the cafeteria so she could leave them alone...um...get a soda.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Have I said I'm sorry?" Faith sat on the hospital bed next to Riley and couldn't bring herself to look at him. She'd shot another human while slaying. She was having a hard time getting past that and had an urge to call Angel for support, like he was some kind of Homicide Anonymous sponsor or something. At least he'd be in Cleveland tomorrow. She could probably wait that long without going too postal.

Riley rolled his eyes and pressed down on the gauze over the bolt wound in his shoulder. The bolt itself was sitting on the silver tray with all the sterile surgical instruments. "Yes. Right before you yelled at me."

"Yeah, okay. Good." Faith nodded absently. God, she wanted a cigarette.

"You're not going to apologize for that? You were pretty harsh." He hadn't been reamed out like that since Sam died. Why had Faith done it?

She shrugged. "You deserved it. You should know better than that, Finn."

The realization that she was right didn't make sitting there any easier. Not that sitting there would have been easy even if she'd been wrong–every so often a sharp pain in his shoulder reminded him that yes, he'd been shot. At least the bolt hadn't hit anything deeper than pectoral muscle; the dusted vampire must have slowed it down before it made contact.

Plus, he was currently in a hospital cubicle, next to a woman he'd unintentionally made love to years before, and was waiting to be stitched up after he'd gotten accidentally shot while out hunting vampires. On his day off from protecting the world from invading aliens. God, his life was strange.

"So, this is wicked awkward." Faith was fidgety, like she always was after a good slay. The sudden trip down memory lane didn't help–she hated when she got all introspective and crap. She swung her feet against the lowered metal rail, making the bed roll a little. She picked up a pair of surgical scissors and idly opened and closed them.

"Um, yeah." What was there to say? Riley thought he very manfully resisted the urge to edge away from the convicted murderer playing with a sharp implement by trying to fold his arms across his chest, but deciding against it when the muscles in his shoulder pulled. He laid his arms at his sides instead.

Faith finally looked up at him, after putting the scissors back on their tray. The only reference she'd had before for Riley's height was from Buffy's perspective, which was lower than hers. Seeing their height difference from her own body kept surprising her–Faith kept expecting the proportions between them to be different.

She shifted her weight, then stood, still unsure what to do with her hands. "Do you want me to go? 'cuz I can. I could send B or Dawn in, if you want."

He shook his head and closed his eyes, leaning back on the pillows as he put his feet up. "You can go if you want, but don't send anyone else in. It shouldn't be much longer."

"Okay, then." Faith walked past Riley, towards the hallway. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

He heard her. "You said that already. It's...okay, it's still painful, but I'll get over it. Don't worry about it."

She stopped, cursed to herself, and turned to face him. She could do this. All she had to do was swallow her pride one more time. "Not for that. For the...other thing."

"Right." Riley swallowed and looked at the cardiac monitor for help. Being an inanimate object, it stayed where it was and didn't change the subject. Darn it. He could have happily gone through the rest of his life without ever having this particular discussion. As long as they were having it, though, there was something that had always bothered him. "Why did you do it?"

Faith sighed and approached the bed, sitting at the end by his feet. "I thought it was just sex. Didn't know there was anything else, so I didn't think who was under you really mattered. Me, her, it's all the same, right? I mean, you're a guy, what the hell did you care?" She chuckled once, bitterly. "Just a body in the dark. But it wasn't that, was it? You had to tell her you loved her. And I had to hear it. Found out that the whole Prince Charming thing wasn't a big con after all. I hated you both for that. You more than her, maybe."

Riley kept silent while Faith inhaled deeply and tried to regain some equilibrium.

"Never heard 'I love you' without strings attached before and I didn't know how to deal. So I took off."

"And I thought it was Buffy leaving." If he was honest with himself, that had been the beginning of the end for them–not Dracula. He'd been hurt that she wasn't able to accept his declaration of love. Things had only gotten worse when the entire situation had been revealed, and Buffy had been so hurt that he'd been unable to tell her apart from Faith.

"Yeah, sorry." Christ, this was worse then when she'd had it out with Buffy, and that had been no picnic. What the hell was it about this guy that messed with her head so badly? He was straight-laced and boring.

Riley watched her with steady eyes. Something more was going on here. "You said that already."

Faith stood quickly and backed up a step, eyes locking with his as she jammed her hands into her back pockets. "Shit, Finn, but right now all I got is a bunch of lame-ass sorrys."

"Tell me about it." He sighed. Might as well come clean.

Okay, now she was confused. "The hell?" What had scout-boy ever done wrong?

He shrugged, then winced when the motion pulled the muscles surrounding his wound again. He lifted the gauze to peek and was happy to see that the blood flow seemed to finally be slowing. "That's when things with Buffy started to fall apart. I've been blaming you for about ten years now. And, yeah, you were part of the problem. Not denying that. But you weren't the whole problem. So, for what it's worth, I'm sorry and I'll try not to do that anymore."

Faith sat on the end of the bed, avoiding Riley's feet, not used to people apologizing to her for things they did to her while she was riding the crest of the evil wave. "Huh. Yeah, okay." Unsure of what else to say, she began pulling at the lint pills on top of the blanket.

OOOOOOOOOO

"So what's the story with you and General Grayhair?"

"Who?" Considering her options, Sam was positive who the vampire was talking about, but she wanted to check to make sure.

"Gent who growled when I shook your hand."

She smiled. It was nice to know she hadn't been imagining that. "It's a long story."

Spike shrugged, laced his fingers behind his head and propped his feet on Sam's bed. "Not goin' anywhere. Heart attack coming in. Plus there's a big car accident about fifteen minutes out. Nurse isn't gettin' to your little scratch for another coupla hours, at the least."

"You can hear the dispatcher?"

He winked at her. "Vampire."

Sam grinned back. "Handy." It was really too bad he wouldn't be able to come with them to Colorado–they could always use good scouts and trackers at the SGC. It seemed like they were always misplacing people on missions. "So, Buffy said that when you're not killing vampires, you're training young girls how to kill them. How's that work? Because, to me, it sounds like a huge conflict of interest."

Spike cleared his throat and straightened up marginally, thumping his feet to the floor and bending forward, resting his forearms on his spread knees. Figures that would be her first question–anything else he could have just shrugged off. "Uh, yeah. It's a long story."

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." Sam had no idea what had gotten into her. She didn't flirt and was usually pretty clueless when it came to anything verging on romantic, but Spike was fascinating and didn't seem to be an alien, a psychopath, directly in her chain of command, or a police officer. Besides, he was really attractive and looked appropriately mysterious in his black leather duster. Okay, yeah, vampire, but it sounded like he was under control. How bad could he be?

He chuckled, always ready to play the game. "Well then, luv, you first."

"What?" That didn't seem at all fair. His story had to be much more interesting than hers.

"Formerly evil." He smirked at Sam.

Her eyes widened. That was certainly a new one. "How can you be formerly evil?" In her world, you were generally either evil (and Goa'uld) or not evil (and coincidentally, not Goa'uld).

Spike heaved a huge, melodramatic sigh and made a project out of studying his bootlaces. "You fall arse over teakettle in love with your fated enemy, for starters."

Sam looked him over. "Yeah, I guess that would help."

"Help nothing," he said, straightening, his blue eyes blazing, "from the moment I first encountered the Slayer, she became my entire existence. When I wasn't fighting her, I was studying her for weaknesses. When I wasn't studying her, I was plotting her demise. Sometime between all the fighting and the plotting, she got stuck in my brain like some kind of tumor."

She smirked. "Sounds very romantic."

The vampire sighed in fond remembrance and leaned back in the chair. "You have no idea." Sam swore he looked downright wistful.

"Why aren't you still together?"

Spike abruptly realized what she'd done and shook his head firmly in negation. He'd have to remember that this woman was smarter than his average playmate. "Not touching that one with a fifty foot pole 'til you tell me the story between you and General Admission."

Sam snorted at the name, opened her mouth, and promptly chickened out. "Hobbies! What do you do in your spare time?"

He smirked. "'sides training slayers, you mean?"

"Yes, besides that."

"'m restoring my old DeSoto."

Sam's eyes sparkled with excitement. Now that her motorcycle was complete, she was looking for a new project. Maybe he'd let her consult. "What happened to it?"

"Fell to the bottom of the crater when Sunnyhell collapsed. Hoisted it out." Nothing like escaping from an evil law firm by the skin of his fangs to make him reevaluate his priorities. As soon as Spike realized (with a little help from Lindsey and Gunn) that he wasn't bound to Wolfram and Hart by Angel's moronic contract, he and Clem had immediately headed for Sunny D in the demon's red Beetle, acquired a tow truck, and pulled the car out. The engine still ran, but most of the body was deeply dented, the front fender was missing, and the windows had been shattered.

As long as they'd been there anyway, he'd hunted around for a while–eventually, he'd found what he thought was Joyce Summers' headstone and grabbed a couple of pieces of it for Buffy and Dawn. He'd done the same with what he'd thought was Tara's, giving a piece to Willow. He hadn't found any sign of Anya, not that he'd been thinking of Xander's feelings when he'd gone looking; demon girl deserved to be remembered, that's all.

"Did you use a winch or a tow truck, or did you just pick it up and carry it on your shoulders?"

Spike was startled into laughter. He wasn't quite used to benevolent teasing about being a vampire–most of slayers were too young to do anything more than whisper behind his back, and quips from the older slayers, the Scoobies, and anyone from Angel's old crew still tended to have more bite than not.

As his laughter died off into chuckles, he smirked and raised an eyebrow at Sam. "A winch, eh? Now why didn't I think of that? Sodding hell..."

She giggled, then got down to the serious (and not at all heartbreaking) business of interrogating Spike about his car.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Damn it. She's giggling."

Teal'c looked up from the magazine he was reading and raised an eyebrow at O'Neill.

The general appeared to be pouting, and was shifting positions every few minutes. The right leg of his pants had been sliced open to mid-thigh and his right knee was propped up on a number of pillows. Every time O'Neill shifted, the ice pack slid off onto the floor, Teal'c picked it up, replaced it on the most swollen area, and returned to his magazine.

The Jaffa sighed and prepared to keep his friend entertained. The things he did for the Tau'ri. "I was unaware that it was inappropriate for Colonel Carter to enjoy herself."

Jack sighed and shifted again, sliding the ice pack off his knee to the left this time, and onto the bed. He bent in half and replaced it awkwardly. Looked like it was time to educate the alien. Again. "No, it's perfectly appropriate."

"Then what is the problem, O'Neill?"

He frowned. "She's laughing. With him."

Of course. "I believe that Colonel Carter is finding that she enjoys spending time with Vampire Spike. He is an intriguing individual."

O'Neill frowned harder. He'd thought the way was finally clear after Shanahan took off. Or Carter dumped him. Whichever. Point was, the cop was back in Denver, where he belonged, and Carter was still in Colorado Springs, where she belonged. With him. No! Bad thoughts. Damn it. "Intriguing's a good word...I dunno...I just don't trust him."

Teal'c resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Of course O'Neill was unable to trust someone who showed an interest in Samantha Carter and whom he therefore immediately saw as his competition. Like a true warrior, O'Neill was more focused on his opponent's weaknesses than his strengths and would always approach him from a skewed perspective. "Why is that, O'Neill?" As if he was unaware.

Jack couldn't hide his wince as he heard a peal of laughter from Carter from the curtained area to his left. What was the guy, the second coming of Lenny Bruce? "He's a vampire. He used to be one of the bad guys."

That reaction Teal'c had not expected. He raised an eyebrow. "As did I, O'Neill."

Oops. Nothing like accidentally offending a Jaffa to take all the fun out of sitting in the emergency room. "Um...yeah, well, but...," he sputtered. Suddenly, inspiration came to him. "You didn't eat people!" Ha. So there. He'd take a victory lap if he didn't think he'd fall on his ass doing it.

"It is my understanding that Vampire Spike only consumed people when he was controlled by his demon and not in possession of his soul."

"What'd she do, tell the whole bloody hospital? And I never ate whole people. Just sucked all the juice out. Who am I, Gnarl?"

Teal'c looked questioningly towards Carter's cubicle at the vampire's disgusted tone. He poked his head around the curtain. Colonel Carter seemed to be engrossed in drawing something on the back of the wrapper for a gauze bandage. The blond vampire saluted Teal'c, then winked. "Vamp hearing."

"Indeed." He returned to O'Neill's cubicle and resumed his seat, replacing O'Neill's ice pack in what had become a familiar exercise. The general was sitting with his jaw tensed. "Buffy Summers said that Vampire Spike was now training warriors in the battle against evil. This is someone who appears worthy of our trust, O'Neill."

Jack didn't say anything and decided to reserve judgment on that subject. He shifted his weight again and replaced the ice pack when it fell. When he retired, he was inventing an ice pack that tied on to the joint and becoming a millionaire off the profits. "What the hell happened out in the woods, anyway?"

Teal'c straightened imperceptibly in his chair and prepared to give his report. "By the time Riley Finn and I arrived in the clearing, Dawn Summers, Buffy Summers, Vampire Spike, and Slayer Faith were fighting in close quarters. Dawn Summers was on the back of one of the vampires attacking Buffy Summers, trying unsuccessfully to ram an arrow into his chest. Riley Finn stabbed him through the heart with a pencil..."

Jack's jaw dropped. "A pencil?" What kind of bad guy couldn't be taken out with a firearm, but could be killed by a writing implement? Talk about the pen being mightier than the...he couldn't even finish that thought in his head, let alone say it out loud.

Teal'c nodded briefly and closed his eyes so that he could visualize the past battle accurately as he recounted it to O'Neill. "Indeed. That vampire disintegrated and Dawn Summers fell to the ground. Riley Finn helped her to her feet. They were immediately rushed by four vampires. Slayer Faith saw their predicament but was unable to assist them because she was fighting two vampires of her own. I fired upon them, but it appears that bullets are ineffective against vampires..."

O'Neill snorted. "Ya think?"

Teal'c continued as if O'Neill hadn't spoken. "Buffy Summers grabbed the weapon out of my hands and threw it to the ground, then broke a branch off from a nearby tree. Before she was able to provide me with any instructions more than 'stake,' 'natural wood,' and 'go for the heart,' she was tackled by another vampire. We fought individually. They were surprisingly knowledgeable about Tau'ri fighting techniques. They were unfamiliar with those of the Jaffa, however, and I was triumphant. As opponents, they are remarkably disorganized and undisciplined. They were, as Colonel Carter stated, toast." He concluded, somewhat smugly. "Then, we heard gunfire and ran to your aid."

O'Neill swallowed and pretended he hadn't paled. He thanked whoever was listening that Teal'c was on his side, for the umpteenth time. "I see."