The Hart of L.A.

No one in the room spoke for a long time. Angel, Wesley, Lorne, Gunn, and Fred looked like it was the end of the world that this man just walked in. Everyone else, however, looked very confused. Lindsey walked farther into the room, and walked up to Angel.

" Well, it looks like you've done a good job here. I'm a little confused, though. I thought you were a doer of good. Why are you in the heart of everything you tired to take down?" Before Angel could say anything, Lindsey was walking around the room. " Looks like you've added a few different players then from what I remember. It also looks like you're missing someone." He turned around Angel again. " This is going to be fun." Once again before Angel could speak up, Faith came around and started talking to Angel.

" Dude, do you want me to kill him?" Lindsey started laughing. " Faith, you can't kill me. I thought you'd found redemption or some nonesense like that." She walked up to him, and got right in his face. " You're partially right. I did find redemption, but I can still kill evil things. If I'm not mistaken, you're evil. I remember you. From what I've got from Angel, I thought you'd turned good, too. I guess he was wrong, otherwise you wouldn't be here." This made him start laughing again.

" Oh, please don't give me that crap! Did you hear what you just said? You can't say that in one breath, and the other say you work here! Hypocrite much?"

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Buffy slides over to where Dawn is standing. She leans over to ask her a question. " Hey, Dawn, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Dawn leaned into her. " The hottest guy on the planet just walked in here, and looks like he's evil?" Buffy nodded. " Glad to know we're still on the same page. I'm going to find out what the hell is going on."

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Angel saw Buffy talking to Dawn, and Dawn saying something back to her. He wasn't expecting her to say anything to the crowd. He was wrong again, though.

" Okay, can someone please explain to the audience what the hell is going on?" She walked around the table to where Lindsey and Angel were standing. " For the last half hour, you've been whispering to each other, and frankly it's starting to piss me off." She turned to Lindsey now. " Who the hell are you? You're obviously not welcome here, so why don't you get the hell out?"

Faith started to laugh. " Finally, B., you speak up. I love it when you get mad, because then everyone in your way gets some of your wrath. I love it!" at the look on Buffy's face she elaborated. " I meant that as a compliment, because you don't let go until you get really pissed off." Buffy just shook her head and ignored her comments all together, and turned back to Lindsey, who was smiling at her.

" I'm Lindsey McDonald, and you're Buffy Summers. I finally get to meet you, it's an honor." She gave him a look of confusion. Then Spike spoke up. " Oh for crying out loud, I'll kill him!" This caused Dawn to sit down in a chair, and start laughing really loud. Spike looked at her, and grinned. Buffy raised her hands. " Spike, shut up! Mr. McDonald, could you please tell me how the hell you know my name, before I introduce my fist to your face?" At this Dawn gets louder with the giggles. " DAWN, SHUT UP!" She did, but not without throwing buffy a nasty look. Lindsey walked closer to her.

" Call me Lindsey. I know you because I know Angel. I used to work here when this place was still up front about it's evil business. My job was to make sure Angel became evil. When that happened we were supposed to capture him, and make him work for us. It was very hard to do, since the key to his evilness was you. When you came to visit him that one time, we figured you'd get together, and bump uglies. You did, only Angel had been turned into a human. We weren't counting on that at all. It was lucky for us that the demon came back, and Angel decided he didn't want to be a human anymore."

While he was saying all of this, Buffy thought she might pass out. She hadn't known that anyone else had known about that. When he paused saying all of this, everyone in the room became very quiet. Giles spoke up. " Buffy, you never told me about this. I know it's personal, but you should have told someone." Willow looked very hurt. " Yeah, Buffy. I've always considered you my best friend. I can't believe you didn't tell me about this." Xander and Spike just stood there. She could tell that Xander was hurt, but he wasn't saying anything. Spike sat down, and wouldn't look at her. Then Wesley spoke up.

" Yes, Angel, why wouldn't you have said something to me? I'm sure there would have been something I could have done." Angel opened his mouth to say something, but he saw Buffy's face. He went over to where she was standing to put his arm around her shoulder, but she jerked away from him. " How could you tell him? I thought he was supposed to be your arch rival?" Lindsey came foward then.

" He didn't tell me. My firm when I worked here had knowledge of this kind of thing. Everyone else, I'll say this. Buffy didn't remember it. Angel made a deal that would wipe everyone's memory except for his." Buffy looked up at him.

" Then how do you know that I still don't remember it?" Lindsey smiled. " I didn't. I was just trying to give you an idea on how this firm works. I gathered from your facial expression that you remembered." She smiled very sarcastically at him, then reached back punched him right in the nose. This caused him to fall backwards. She then resumed her place beside her sister. " Sorry, I yelled at you, Dawn." Dawn just looked at her. " God, Buffy, it's ok. I had no idea that you went through that. Do you remember it now? I mean of course you do, but when did you remember?" She looked away. " When you guys brought me back from the dead I had all of my memories back. including those."

Angel walked up to Wesley. " Wesley the reason I didn't tell you, was because you weren't there when it had happened. I told Doyle, but he died very shortly after. That's why I didn't tell you. I didn't even tell Cordelia." Wesley nodded at him. He understood perfectly. " It's okay, really it is. Should someone help Lindsey up?" They all turned to see Lindsey struggling to his feet. " I can see I've over stayed my welcome. You've got a great arm, Buffy. I'll be leaving now, but I will be back. You can count on it." With that he left.

Xander spoke up then. " Can we go now? I really don't want to be in this room anymore." Oz looked up at him. " I'll second that." Everyone got up and started moving into the hallway. Fred went up to Buffy. " Hi, are you okay?" Buffy looked up at her. " Oh, you're fred aren't you?" The girl nodded. Buffy smiled at her. " I'm ok. Thanks for asking." Fred smiled at her, and then followed Wesley out of the room.

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When the room was empty the lone figure appeared, and began walking around the room. Oh, yes things were turning out very nicely. With the appearance of Lindsey, things just got sweeter. The pieces of the puzzle were going to fit after all. Couple more days. That's when he'd make his entrance. Wonder if they'd be glad to see him? Probably not. Just as well.