Buffy and other characters belong to a bunch of people and none of them are me.
Spike comes back to town but so does Riley. Who will Buffy choose? Don't count Riley out too soon. ;)
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The summer following Willow's attempt to destroy the world passed pretty peacefully for a summer in Sunnydale. Willow had completely given up magic, Giles had stuck around, Anya remained at the Magic Box and Xander was pretty much like he always was, just there. Spike was still gone. No one knew where to and they didn't talk about him.
As for Buffy and Dawn, the two had never been closer. Buffy had been both surprised and pleased to learn that her little sister was reasonably proficient with several weapons. Dawn had shyly said it was because she'd been paying attention to Buffy's style, but the slayer suspected her sister's skill was innate. Over the summer, they had trained together and Dawn had improved immensely, to the point where she'd begun accompanying Buffy on patrol. The news spread that two slayers were on duty in Sunnydale. Soon the demon population dropped way down.
Buffy had quit her job at Doublemeat Palace. She couldn't remember why she'd been working there in the first place. She had to be able to do better than that! She went back to the construction site and demanded another chance there or she would sue. The boss, knowing he was already in trouble because of not filling his quotas, took her back. Since Buffy was stronger than all the other workers, they hated her but the supervisors loved her and that was really all that mattered. She had a good job with flexible hours and didn't have to pinch pennies anymore.
Summer ended and Dawn went back to school with a positive attitude, finally knowing she and Buffy understood each other. Anya was still a vengeance demon but she spent most of her time at the Magic Box anyway. She had begun looking at Giles in a very interesting way. Willow noticed but didn't say anything. Giles noticed but he was in denial. Xander didn't notice at all.
Basically, life was good. Then one night, Buffy's phone rang. As she picked it up, she heard a knock at the front door.
The person on the phone said, "Buffy, it's Riley" just as she opened the front door to find Spike standing there.