-1I do not own Saved By The Bell. Neither do I own any of the original characters or storylines referred too. They all belong to Peter Engel/NBC productions. Neither am I anything to do with those companies. This is just a story by a fan of the show for other fans of the show

The Gang At The Millennium

Chapter Two

Saying goodbye hadn't been hard when he had graduated Cal U. What had been hard was afterwards when he had to face up to some hard facts. He was no longer surrounded by his friends each day, college was over and he was really out on his own in the world for the first time. But the thing it was hardest of all to face up to was that he wasn't good enough for the wrestling big leagues. He wouldn't be seen competing in any Olympics or world championships. He might have been the Cal U wrestling star, but talent scouts hadn't thought he was good enough. They had been at enough of the matches that he had won. Mike Rogers had once told him afterwards what one of them had said. The most he could hope for was to get a job coaching wrestling to high school and college kids. He could wrestle for leisure, but he wouldn't be making any big money or a career out of it.

Slater had saved some money to go travelling with when he graduated Cal U, so that September after college he had bought a plane ticket to New Zealand, travelled round the country for a couple of months and got a work permit for when the money ran out. The time he got back to Auckland, where he had first landed, he was skint and needed a job fast. The time he had arrived back in Auckland, he had gone through four women and all three thousand dollars that he had saved. He took the first job that was offered to him working as a waiter in a sports bar. It was through one of the regular customers in there he had heard of the job as a wrestling coach to high school age kids at the nearby leisure centre. And three years later, he was still there.

It was new years eve and New Zealand would be one of the first countries in the world to see in the new milliennium . He was hoping his boss was going to close up the leisure centre early today.

'Actually Slater I need to talk to you. I don't think they are going to let me renew your contract next month. Isn't your work permit due to run out then?'

'Yes and they only extended it originally because you gave me another contract for two years after my first year with you. I guess its time to think about going home. I always meant too. Origianlly I didn't know how long I was planning to stay here.'

'We will miss you here Slater, but I know you will go on to far bigger and better things.'

'Thanks Mr Waters.'

'So, its new years eve, the biggest date night of the century. Whose the lucky lady of the many always flocking round you that you've chosen to spend it with?'.

'Actually none of them. I know it's a special occasion, but there isn't anyone special enough to me that I want to share it with.'

'Your not seeing that lifeguard Michelle anymore then?'

'Well, yes, but its not serious, we just enjoy each others company. She is spending holidays with her family in Dunedin.'

'Have a good time anyway, Slater, whatever you do this evening.'

'Thanks.'

Slater walked home in the warm summer sunshine to the apartment he shared with his two friends Lee and Anne. They had met by chance at the lettings agency and had been friends and flatmates ever since. Anne was a psychiatric nurse and Lee was a qualified windsurfing instructor, but got sacked from his last job because of showing up at work drunk and that was dangerous. Now Lee worked at a snack stand down at the beach near where he used to work.

Slater wasn't surprised neither of his flatmates were home, they both had the day off and were probably out celebrating already. He switched on the TV and flicked through some of the channels until he found some sport to watch and settled down with a can of beer. Slater didn't drink that often because of his job and liking to keep fit, but it was a night to celebrate and beer was never in short supply in their apartment. Lee drank beer like it was water and was what had cost him his job as a sports instructor. Slater actually thought Lee had a drink problem and had tried to broach the subject with him once. Lee had gone in to a blind rage and Slater had learnt a valuable lesson. You couldn't help somebody that didn't want to be helped and in future, he would just mind his own business.

Later on he decided to go out to one of the local bars, you couldn't stay in tonight. And it was when he got to the bar that he thought he saw her, the girl he had once loved with all his heart, deep down still did, even though it was all long ago in the past now. She had her back to him, her hair was the same, her figure as slim and curvy in all the right places as it had always been, but it was only when she turned round he realised this girl looked nothing like Jessie Spano, his high school sweetheart. Of course it wasn't going to be her. The last he heard of her, she was happily enjoying life at law school in New York and didn't have any plans to leave there. But still, as he looked around the bar, she may not be Jessie, but it didn't look like there was anyone else here worth talking to, so he decided to talk to the girl anyway. She was about to pay the barman for her drink.

'It's okay, I'll get that for you', he paid the man behind the bar before she could even protest.

'Thanks. I'm Megan.'

'AC, but most people just call me by my last name Slater, I prefer it.'

Two hours later Slater was back home alone, having seen the new milliennium in with Megan, with a new years kiss and then he had left adruptly while she had been at the bar getting them more drinks. He had decided he couldn't do it, he couldn't bring her home and sleep with her, just because she had reminded him of Jessie when he first saw her. Neither did he want to cheat on Michelle, even though it was nothing serious between them, he didn't want to be lying cheating scum, even though he knew the time had come to break it off with her.

Slater was still up watching the celebrations around the world as they happened at four in the morning when he got a phone call from Anne.

'Slater, I'm in the emergency room. It's Lee, they don't think he is going to make it.'

Slater had gone to the hospital and sat with Anne as they waited for Lee to die. He passed away in the early afternoon. The doctors said he must have been a heavy drinker since his early teens, his liver and digestive systems were severely damaged and one bender too many had finally taken its toll. He had been twenty-nine years old.

Back in their apartment later that night Slater and Anne had both vowed to become teetotal having seen what an addiction to alcohol had done to their friend first hand. It hadn't been a very nice start to the new milliennium. And the next day, Slater still had Michelle to deal with.

'Michelle, you are a terrific and beautiful girl, but I'm sorry, I don't love you. I think the time has come for us to stop seeing each other. Not only that, my work permit runs out next week and I've decided its time to go home to the states.'

'Its okay Slater, I always knew you didn't love me. And I always knew you would go home one day, we had some fun while it lasted.'

'Yeah, we did didn't we?', Slater smiled and kissed her goodbye on the cheek for the last time.

Slater landed back home in LA at the end of January. There was nobody to greet him or welcome him home. His parents had temporarily gone back to Germany, his Dad being stationed there again for a while. His younger sister Janine was now in the army herself and was currently based at a US military base France. Zack and Kelly were still living up near Cal U, Kelly being in medical school and in all honesty, he hadn't been very good at keeping in touch with them since graduating college. Screech he had lost touch with completely.

But at least he had a home to go to. His parents house was still here and they had told him he could stay in it as long as he wanted. Now all he had to do was find himself a job and get used to the American way of life again after three years in New Zealand.