Book I: Autumn Sky in the East

Part I: Leaning Together

Chapter II - There's a Whole World Waiting

Buffy liked Europe. Never mind the fact that she had never been to Europe, she was fairly sure that once she got there she would like it. She would start by liking Paris and long strolls along the Seine and sitting in little outdoor cafes, and oh yes, wearing those cute little berets. She would wear a green beret; no, not green because she was pretty certain that the words green and beret went together in some organized fighting sense and the whole purpose of liking Europe and being in Europe was to avoid the whole organized fighting deal.

Actually, it was to avoid the fighting deal completely, organized or no. The only thing Buffy imagined fighting in Europe was the bad reputation that American tourists had a "ugly Americans." And how ugly would she possibly be wearing one of those cute little striped shirts and a red beret while she drank coffee in front of the Eiffel Tower? And maybe, if she stretched her imagination just a little there was a painter who wanted to paint her portrait or he wasn't a painter, he was a starving artist who would take her on those long strolls along the Seine.

Could you even stroll on the Seine or was it like those rivers that were all mud and sand that you couldn't get to without getting your feet crusted with dirt? Not that Buffy had an issues with dirt; after spending eight years cleaning out cemeteries, she was familiar with dirt. But this was her fantasy and therefore she didn't want to ruin it by getting her adorable strappy sandals all dirty because she was walking along a mud bank instead of a sidewalk.

Frowning, Buffy flipped the page in the travel catalogue. She knew that she had seen people actually walking, not sloshing, along the Seine. It would truly suck to get to Paris and find a good fantasy had been totally ruined all because she didn't take enough time to study the travel brochures. The same brochures that she had picked up on a whim at the tourist stop outside of Phoenix.

"Now, I have to ask, who thought that travel brochures for Paris and Rome would do any kind of good at a truck stop?" Xander asked, shaking his head as Buffy paused and studied the display.

It was old, some of the brochures curled and faded with time, but it stood proudly beside the brighter, shinier and new display filled to overflowing with maps.

"It's not a truck stop, Xander, it's a rest stop," one of the Slayers whose name she didn't remember, corrected him.

"Yes, and there's such a broad difference," Giles sniffed with disapproval just behind them.

"Rest stop. McDonald's. And donuts," Xander pointed out.

"Of course," Giles remarked with that tone that said Xander really only just proved whatever point it was that the Watcher had been trying to make.

After Xander and the Slayer walked away she had taken one of each brochure of any place that wasn't here. By here she meant anything within close proximity, and simply being on the same continent was far too close of proximity, to the crater formerly known as the Hellmouth.

Giles gave her that soft, sad, fond smile each time he caught her looking at them.

She looked at them pretty often.

The first time had been at the second motel they stopped at, the one that they all felt better about because by that time Giles had allowed them to descend upon a strip mall complete with a Wal-Mart and new clothes, new shoes, shampoo, toothpaste and the odd tube of lipstick went along to way to helping soothe ruffled feathers when people started to remember that everything that they owned or brought with them was at the bottom of that crater that would forever be burned into their minds.

The drinking among the new Slayers started that night. Everyone remained convinced that the beer and the wine had all been courtesy of Faith, but no one begrudged the survivors their fun and frivolity. They earned the downtime. Unfortunately, the drinking led to the crying, and the crying led to fighting, mostly with walls and vending machines. Not fighting so much as freaking as the dust settled and realization dawned of what really happened and what it all really meant. With the adrenaline high gone, the girls crashed back to earth.

Buffy helped in the calming and the soothing, and then in exhaustion retired to her room, shared with Dawn and Willow and Kennedy. There she saw the brochures again, sticking out of the half-zipped pocket of the backpack she picked up at Wal-Mart. That night it was Willow who gave her the soft, sad and fond smile when she what Buffy was reading.

"You can, you know," Willow told her softly, later, giving her a warm hug. Willow who understood what Buffy was thinking without having to ask; the most powerful woman in the world whom had just called Slayers everywhere and still she was just Willow.

"I don't know," Buffy held the brochure for Athens in her hands, not really looking at it, but not really looking at Willow either.

"You've earned it, Buffy."

"Maybe," Buffy agreed with a slight nod. "I'll sleep on it."

"Vacation isn't a bad word, you know that right?"

"I know."

That had been the end of that conversation, and Buffy hadn't pulled out the brochures again until they arrived at the old Watcher safe house outside of Santa Fe. Saying "outside of" was actually being generous because it wasn't at all what anyone had been expecting when Giles said that he'd confirmed the location of the Watcher ranch "just outside of Santa Fe."

Evidently in Watcher speak, "just outside" meant two hours away from civilization. Still it was better than nothing and a step up from the rest stops and motels. Two and a half bathrooms which the girls all saw as the first great luxury even if many of them still had to spread out sleeping bags, and moving around in the wee hours of the morning or night still involved navigating through a sea of slumbering bodies.

They were all more relaxed than they had been in a very long time.

That was when the Slayers started heading home. Giles bought them bus tickets or plane fare depending on how far they had to go and when they wanted to get there. After the spending of several hundred or thousand dollars, it was finally Dawn who asked him where he was getting the cash from. With some reluctance Giles revealed that all the telephone calls he made since leaving Sunnydale was to seize and get proper control over a "sizeable portion" of the Watcher funds and assets.

Rightfully, he should have control and no one argued that. Giles was the one who ran around the globe rescuing the girls before agents of the First could kill them; Giles was the one who stood and fought that epic last battle above the Hellmouth. If anyone deserved control of those funds and assets it was Giles.

That didn't stop them from teasing him, however.

And somehow after one of their trips to drop a few Slayers off at the bus stop, Willow returned with a new laptop.

"Research," Willow explained instantly. "And work. We have Slayers all over the world to track."

"Right Wills," Xander said simply.

No one begrudged Willow the laptop either. She earned it as much as Giles did his control over Watcher funds.

Buffy, for her part in averting the Apocalypse, had her brochures.

"Well, that confirms it," Giles hung up the telephone, the sound of his voice pulling Buffy from her memories and her fantasies. "Just as I thought I remembered, there is a Watcher owned house within walking distance of the Hellmouth in Cleveland. It was once a fraternity house so it will most likely be in some disarray and in need of some repair -"

"That would be where I come in," Xander spoke up. "I may not have depth perception, but I can still supervise a mean crew of construction workers."

"Yes, indeed, we will be hiring a crew for you to work with, Xander," Giles agreed. "The good thing is that it's quite spacious and there will be room for all of us. Comfortably. We'll stick with the plan to leave in three days. Robin, Faith, you may stay here as long as you need."

"You're not coming with us?" Dawn's head snapped towards the former principal and the other Slayer, once Buffy's nemesis and now . just Faith.

"Somebody's gotta get a head start looking for those other Slayers, Dawnie," Faith pointed out with a nonchalant shrug that really didn't fool anyone. Buffy heard the betrayal in Dawn's voice and knew from the way Faith briefly glanced down that the other Slayer heard it as well. And knowing Dawn, it was probably also written all over her face.

Buffy tried to sort through how she felt about that. Dawn had gone from hating Faith to liking her, more than liking her really. Dawn treated Faith like she was a part of them, like she belonged with them now. Really everyone did and it was only Buffy who remained with one foot stuck in the past, remembering being stuck in Faith's body, remembering the sting of being thrown out of her own home. She should move past it, and for the most part she had. But there were moments, like now, when the green-eyed monster reared its ugly head.

"Besides," Faith continued, "Buffy, Kennedy, Chao Ahn, Cenzi are all going and I think that five Slayers on one little hellmouth is kinda overkill."

Chao Ahn, seated across the room diligently working her way through an English textbook she'd purchased in Santa Fe, looked up at the sound of her name. Then, apparently deciding that she really didn't want to expend the effort to try and make sense of the conversation, returned to her studies. Xander remarked once that he thought Chao Ahn understood a lot more than she pretended to for someone who studied English so intently since arriving in the States all those months ago.

Buffy agreed that he was probably right. She always listened at the appropriate times and asked the appropriate questions. But they each had their own coping mechanisms; Chao Ahn used the language barrier and Buffy - well, Buffy had her vacation.

"Three Slayers." Buffy put down the brochure and stood up, wondering why after all her inspirational speeches and all dress downs, she should now feel nervous and shaky talking in front of everyone. These were her friends; for the most part everyone in this room was family.

Her words were greeted with a chorus of confused, "Buffy?"

"I just thought that you know, seeing how we defeated The First and all, and now that you've got an arsenal of Slayer power, Giles, well, I'd just like," Buffy paused and took a breath, sorting through her thoughts. "I've done this for eight years, Giles. I think I've earned a vacation."

For a long moment, or at least it seemed like an excruciating long moment during which Buffy wondered if she had actually spoken or if the little speech was all in her imagination. She didn't think that she was given to moments of lunacy and delusion, but who could tell what the long-term effects of Willow's spell would be? Buffy braced herself, ready to repeat her request when the questions, objections and agreements spilled over all at once.

"So, you're really going to go, Buffy? That's great!"

"Why don't we go to Europe, honey? That could be fun."

"Were you going to mention this to me? Or are you going to just dump me on Giles?"

"Buffy, why haven't you ever mentioned this before now?"

"Way to go, B. Kick back, take it easy. Wish I'd thought of it."

"And if you thought of it who would help me track down other Slayers?"

"I don't want to go to Cleveland with Giles. That would be so unfair and selfish if you run off and leave me here."

"So glad to know that my company is appreciated."

"Chill, Wood, I'm still going on a Slayer hunt. I just said that I wished I thought of it first."

"You know what I meant, Giles."

"I think that Buff is right. She deserves a break."

"Only not at McDonald's."

"It would be so cool. Slayer in Europe. It would be like when Luke walked into Mos Eisley and -"

"I second the idea. Mostly because I didn't really get to see much of Europe while I was there because I wasn't really on a tour. It was more of - rehab."

"I went on this grand European tour for my Sweet Sixteen -"

"You went to Europe for your Sweet Sixteen? Hello! Sixteen here - almost sort of anyway."

"Everyone please! I can't even hear myself think!" Giles's voice finally rose over the din. "Personal thoughts and popular opinion aside, I think that we need to listen to what Buffy has to say."

Buffy looked around, aware now that all eyes were on her and she wondered why it would be now, after everything was said and done that she would feel oddly self-conscious being the center of attention. "I've said it. I want a vacation. I want time off. It's like Faith said, we don't need five Slayers guarding one hellmouth.

"Giles," Buffy looked to her Watcher, knowing that she would perhaps sound like she was pleading, but unable to help it. "I'm not saying that I won't be a Slayer. Or that I won't go to Cleveland eventually. But here and now, I want some time off."

Giles studied her for a long moment before pulling off his glasses and beginning to polish them. Buffy resisted the urge to sigh, resisted the urge to shake him by the shoulders and stop him from dismissing her request so easily and forced herself to wait patiently and at least pretend to listen to his objections.

"Eight years is quite a long tenure as a Slayer, Buffy, that's true. And seven being spent on the hellmouth was quite trying for all of us. All that being said, I don't see why you can't take a few months for a holiday."

"But Giles see, the thing is -" Buffy stopped in mid-sentence, actually hearing the words that Giles spoke and not the ones she imagined him speaking. "What did you say?"

"I said that you've earned a vacation. And you have, Buffy. As a matter of fact we all have." Giles replaced his glasses and looked around the room. "I've been so wrapped up in getting in contact with other surviving Watchers, and with being a Watcher that I seem to have forgotten that while the war is not over, we certainly won the battle. I think that perhaps we could all use a break."

"I can go to Europe? I mean because I'm kind of with the broke and all and you've been supporting us with the Watcher money and stuff. And I figure that you with the Watcher money could support the charitable cause of -"

"I will send you to Europe, Buffy. And you as well, Dawn."

"Really?" Dawn practically squealed the words, and without waiting for an answer, ran forward and flung her arms around the stunned and baffled Watcher. Giles had barely a moment to catch his breath and awkwardly return the unexpected hug before the girl was off again, this time launching herself at Buffy. "Did you hear that Buffy? We're both going to Europe because you are so not leaving me behind."

"I wouldn't," Buffy promised giving her younger sister a tight hug. "There's still a whole world out there that I have to show you."

And now, Buffy realized with a smile as she listened to the excited chatter around her, she would finally really get to keep that promise to Dawn.

It really was the beginning of everything else.

End of Chapter II