Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Doctor Who, or Torchwood.

A/N: This just kind of came to me while I was watching the episode Parting of Ways.


Staring at the ceiling, Buffy Anne Summers wallowed in self pity. There was no point to not doing so. Faces she hadn't seen in a millennia and change were there. Unchanged, unforgiving as ever.

Jack had always told her there was no guarantee, but some grain of hope had stuck with her through everything. Hope that they would be safe, happy, okay. They were foolishly still hunting demons and vampires—though now not on the Sunnydale Hellmouth, but in Cleveland. Xander had two eyes and was constantly fighting with his wife, Anya, Tara was angry with a black eyed Willow, Dawn dropped out of school, and Giles was supporting them all. Angel and his gang were going strong in Los Angeles, battling a coven of sorcerers. And Spike, Spike was knee deep in bottles of Jack.

Still, Buffy didn't know if this was an improvement on the other dimension. Part of her wanted to run up to them the first day back, but she knew better, she had to stay away from them, nothing good could come of it. It was Willow's confidence after her resurrection that had destroyed the witch. This time she failed, perhaps that would be her saving grace this time around.

Sighing, the slayer glanced at the disposable phone that she always kept within reach.

No Messages.

It blinked with a fury that irritated her to desperation. It had taken her months to get used to the technology again. Jack had pretty much thrashed his watch with all the time travel they had been doing. Sometimes Jack and Buffy got stuck for decades, other times minutes. Their last home had been 1983, what a year. Jack had some how managed to get them invited to the 55th Academy Awards. She had asked how, but he wouldn't say…she could only guess that it had involved copious amounts of flirting with the coordinator. There were some things in her life that just weren't worth asking about.

They phoned every day without fail. Being separated by a big pond was not something that was all that conducive to taking care of each other. Buffy had been forbidden from being in America for five years because of some paradoxy thingy. Jack had settled down in Cardiff right away and built up Torchwood. Buffy had stayed hidden, doing things she had never dreamed she would. Climb Everest without oxygen tanks, trekked through the Sahara and Antarctic deserts, lived in the Brazilian Rainforest, and worked in Egypt as an archaeologist (She and Jack had spent a fair amount of time living during the pharaohs era—70 years).

The moment she was sure she could go back, the start of Will's junior year at the University of Sunnyhell, Buffy had booked the first flight to Los Angeles. Although in hindsight she probably would have swum all the way there, she was that eager.

Jack…It was Jack that had saved her all those years ago in the future. It was Jack who was her constant companion. It was Jack who stood the test of time. He was it.

But time does take a toll on everybody. Jack had finally decided to stay—which had more to do with Buffy than anything else in the world. He however was sitting on top of the Cardiff Rift, Buffy Summers was haunting Cleveland.

Despite their near stalker behavior towards the other, they both had things to do. Jack was waiting for his Doctor, and Buffy was watching and protecting. It had been decided too long ago. Maybe they decided the very first day that Buffy spoke coherently, Buffy couldn't really remember it wasn't important anyway.


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