Set during season 5, replacing the episode "You're Welcome". Lindsey plans to ruin Angel by forging a contract between Buffy and Wolfram & Hart which she can't help but break.

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At Wolfram & Hart, Spike enters the main lobby after having been to the medical center for the latest checkup on his reattached arms. He leans against the front desk, flexing his fingers while reading the label on a bottle of pain pills.

"No more than two every twelve hours. Oh, sod off!"

He unscrews the cap, wincing at the tension in his forearms, and mouths six pills which he quickly follows with a sip of hard liquor from a small bottle he carries in his pocket.

"Spike!"

His name sounds across the lobby, and Spike is shocked at the voice he knows so well. He turns around and sees Buffy.

"Buffy?"

While he hadn't seen her, she has been looking at him since he entered the lobby. To her, his entrance was almost unbelievable, and it demanded a few moments of her silence. The last time she had seen him had been under the Hellmouth and his skin was bursting in patches of light and fire. But now here he was, unharmed, as if his great sacrifice was just a magic trick, and she had found the magician safe under the trap door.

Buffy walks to within an arm's length of him, looking him over, tears thinly welling, but not falling.

Spike didn't want her to find out like this. He wanted to plan out something special, a grand re-entrance into her life that could compare to his exit. He didn't know what that special re-entrance was yet, but it wasn't this, with his back turned in the lobby of a law firm, swallowing pills and liquor.

So, he stands there confused, unsure of what he should do, unsure of what she will do.

After a few moments of just staring at each other, he says, "Look- I know you probably hate me right now, but…"

She interrupts, holds up a palm and says, "Could we wait a bit before the post resurrection drama? I'm kinda tired of those scenes."

Then Buffy closes the distance and hugs him. Not knowing what to expect, he is surprised to feel the warmth and strength of her around him, and then in relief he returns the embrace. They both lose tension in their stance and hold one another with comfort and sadness.

"God, I missed you," she says.

"Missed you too, luv," he says, while pressing his scarred eyebrow against her hair. In that moment, he doesn't care how she found out.

From a hallway Angel enters the lobby scanning a folder of documents. When he looks up and sees Buffy and Spike in each other's arms, his body seizes still and straight.

"Buffy?"

"Great," Spike sighs, and then tilts his head towards Angel and says, "We're in the middle of a resurrection reunion here, champ. Give us a minute."

But before he can return his attention to the embrace, Buffy says, "Hugging time's over," takes a step back, and then punches Spike in the face with enough force to make him fly, land, and then slide to stop in front of Angel's feet.

Spike palms the right side of his face, which is in blunt pain, forced to remember how hard Buffy can hit, and groans, "I should'a expected that."

Angel looks down at him with a smile and says, "Not that you didn't deserve it," and then to Buffy, "You probably have more anger you'd like to let out. Feel free." After a beat, he adds "Can I watch?"

Buffy looks up at Angel in anger and says, "I should beat the crap out of both of you."

"What did I do?"

"How long have you known he's been alive?"

"Oh, that," he says quietly as he pockets his hands, slumps his shoulders, and looks away in shame.

"How long?", she repeats louder.

"About four months," says Spike as he gets to his feet, "he knew the moment I came back." Spike looks at Angel with mock scorn and says, "Tisk, tisk, Angel."

Angel replies, "Oh, shut up, Spike!"

Buffy shouts, "Four months! Four months, and neither of you were even in the process of telling me?"

Angel looks downs and says like a child shifting blame, "He told me not to."

"That's your excuse?"

Spike steps to her side, mimicking her glare at Angel, and says, "Yeah. You should hit him."

In frustration, she shoves Spike away.

"And what the hell is your excuse?", she asks.

Almost losing his balance, he replies, "Hey, hey! Alright, I was wrong, but flattening my pretty face doesn't make you right. How did you find out anyway? Andrew snitch?"

"Yes, but only after I read this." She pulls out several pieces of folded, stapled paper from her back pocket. She looks at Angel and then roughly hands them to him. "This is why I'm here. Your law firm is suing me for braking a contract with them that I've never signed."

"What?" says Angel as he grabs the pages and looks at them in confusion. "What was the agreement?"

"To kill Spike."