A/N: Firstly apologies for the delay in this next part. Life has been rather hectic & I have just started writing another story which stole my attention for a week or so but fear not I love all my stories equally and both will be updated as regularly as I can manage. Many thanks to everyone who has added this to your update list & favourite stories & also a big huge virtual hug to Graie and Wolfwarriorz for reviewing. Hope everyone enjoys the next part & reviews are always wonderfully received.
The sofa sagged heavily as Buffy threw herself down onto it and sighed. She'd done the hovering, cleaned the floors, taken out the trash and dusted everything she could think of and it was only half past eleven. She was suddenly filled with a void of time until Spike came home and had no idea what to do to fill it. The idea of just sitting around waiting for time to pass made her feel anxious and restless, although she knew that this was what she did every day there was a part of her that felt like something was missing from her life- some purpose and drive that she vaguely remembered having. Trying to push these thoughts of her mind Buffy picked up the remote and turned on the television, scrolling quickly through the hundreds of channels of nothing that lay in front of her. She stopped on an old martial arts film and as she watched a guy sprang up into a double backflip and kicked his opponent in the throat and knocked him out in one blow.
"Yeah, cause that's realistic." Buffy muttered as she chuckled softly to herself but then a moment later she clapper her hand to her mouth as if she'd just muttered a horrible curse word. What did she know about martial arts? She shook her head and mentally blamed Spike for making her sit through so many of these rubbishy films and she turned the television off once again and the silence engulfed her. She needed something to take her mind off all these confusing thoughts that were rushing around her head, needed to talk to someone who could make her feel at ease no matter what was going on around her. Suddenly she knew who she what she would do to occupy her empty hours.
Quickly Buffy picked up the receiver and dialled the familiar number, as she let it ring she tapped her foot impatiently waiting for someone to answer.
"Hello?" A young female voice answered brightly after a while.
"Hey Dawnie!" Buffy cooed down the phone. Even though her sister has graduated college and was now holding down a steady job and renting an apartment Buffy couldn't help but still picture her as the stroppy teenager she'd lived for so long with. "How's things?"
"Oh hey Buf. It's all good, y'know, same old. I just started this new course at work which is going to get me qualified to be able to set up and run new databases to cross reference all the data between schools so we can better manage transfer students and it's really… boring- I'm boring you aren't I?"
"Not at all Dawnie." Buffy said slightly too quickly as she stopped picking at her nail absentmindedly. "I'm always interested to hear what you're doing just as long as you don't expect me to understand what it all means. I still don't understand exactly what you even do but hey mom always said you were the brains in the family." Buffy swallowed the lump in her throat that still rose when she spoke of her mom. She knew Dawn felt the same and there was a moment of understanding between the sisters before Dawn carried on forcefully.
"Honestly it's very simple if you'd just listen to me once in a while." Dawn sighed. "I'm inter-personnel and student advisement manager for all schools in the local area." There was a pregnant pause. "Basically I help kids that aren't getting on too well at school and try to find them a place where they can learn better."
"See when you say it like that it seems so simple." Buffy laughed. "Shame you weren't there when I was at school."
"The only thing that would have made it a better learning environment for you was if you hadn't been so preoccupied with Spike! You were a smart kid Buf, and you would have got a lot further academically if you hadn't been with him at the bronze every night." Buffy could practically hear her rolling her eyes.
"Speaking of Spike-" Buffy chimed in.
"Go on then." Said Dawn in a bored voice.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Buffy asked defensively.
"Nothing. I just knew there was a reason you were calling and it wasn't just to have a chat."
"Hey! I resent that." Said Buffy sulkily. "If you don't want to hear my news that's fine."
"Of course I do sis, c'mon I'm only messing with you. Let's hear the big news." Dawn laughed.
"Yay." Buffy squeaked. "I'm so excited Dawn, this morning Spike proposed to me!" Buffy instinctively held the receiver away for her as Dawn squealed so loudly that neighbourhood dogs were probably rushing to her apartment in their hundreds.
"ohmigosh. Ohmigosh." Dawn was jabbering when Buffy got up the courage to put the phone back to her ear. "This is the best news ever. D'you remember all the times when we were younger and you made me sit and cut out all those pictures from wedding magazines to put in the 'Buffy and Spike get married' catalogue?"
"Urm… No." Said Buffy in a puzzled voice.
"Oh but you must, I'm sure you've still got it somewhere!" As Dawn spoke Buffy noticed a battered old album lying on one of the bookshelves and the memories came back to her in a wave. Her and Dawn sat side my side clipping out pictures of wedding dresses, they wrapped themselves in sheets and pretended to walk down the isle. How could she have forgotten?
"Of course I do." Buffy exclaimed quickly. "I don't know what's wrong with me today I feel like it's such an effort to think and remember stuff I should know, y'know?"
"Well it's understandable that you're going to be a bit scatty today- this is the moment you've always dreamed of."
"Urm.. Sure is." Buffy laughed uneasily. She thought of Spike and this warm glow flooded through her, she thought of the upcoming wedding and knew that when she finally married him she would feel complete and secure in a way she had never felt before but she felt that there should be more to life than this. She felt there was a calling somewhere she was missing. Quickly she stopped her train of thought and shook it off as freakishly early pre-wedding jitters.
"So I'm guessing I'm maid of honour." Dawn announced in a blunt way that was so Dawn-ish it made Buffy laugh out loud.
"Of course, who else could I choose?" Buffy replied. She'd meant it an off-hand way but suddenly she was struck with the reality that there really was no one else. Willow, maybe, but they hadn't been that close since college. Willow was ambitious and had moved away to run a business with Tara fixing computers or something similar and since then it felt like they had very little in common. Sometimes Buffy felt a bit lonely. As much as she loved Spike he wasn't great at girl-talk and sometimes she got the feeling Dawn got bored of her frequent phone calls- she was young and in a new city and didn't want to spend every night in chatting to her big sister.
"Yay!" Dawn squeaked. "Well in that case I have a lot of planning to do…"
The res of the conversation passed in a blur of colour schemes, seating plans, dress fittings and hair styles and before Buffy knew it she was caught up once again in her bubble of happiness and all of her worries and doubts faded into nothing as she ran her phone bill up.
Across the country, in a darkened corner of a cemetery three gowned figures stood huddled around a cauldron bubbling gently as dusk fell around them.
"When shall we three meet again?" The youngest cackled gently as she stepped forward to stir the potion that lay in front of them.
"Huh?" The second figure asked the elder and leader of the pack. "What is she rattling on about now?"
"Oh come on." The younger shouted impatiently as she threw the stick back into the pot. "Shakespeare… Macbeth… The three witches… Am I the only one of us to have some culture?"
"Well firstly," the second replied argumentively "we're not witches we're demons and secondly I, unlike some, have been alive for over a thousand years so I cannot be expected to remember ever play that was written in that time."
"Yes, but, I mean, Shakespeare-"
"CHILDREN!" Boomed the elder "cease this constant chatter you are driving me insane."
"I was merely stating the fact a bit of culture wouldn't-" The youngest started.
"Culture? We're demons set on world destruction and-"
"SILENCE!" The voice of the leader rang across the cemetery once more. "Did I personally select you, elevate you from your pitiful lives and bestow upon you the gifts that men merely dream of so you could bicker and squabble like children in a play ground?"
"No sir." The minions muttered dully.
"No I did not. I chose you, from the millions I encountered, because you possessed the burning knowledge of how your lives could have been if one factor had changed in your favour and while this factor crippled your meagre, human existence I alone showed you how to harness your knowledge to change the world in our favour by preying on the misplaced desires of others. Now we are on the verge of something monumental you threaten to ruin it all by becoming distracted with your pretty differences.
"Sorry sir." They whispered.
"Now the world is changed you feel we can sit and rest but it is now, more than ever, we need to be vigil. If the Slayer or the mutilated vampire rediscover their true destinies before the ceremony all our work will be undone and the previous world will be restored as if nothing had happened. We must make sure the wedding takes place at all costs! Once they are bound together in their mortal lives nothing can destroy the world we have created. Fila," he addressed the youngest minion, "you must journey now to visit the one destined to be a watcher while you Gura" he turned to the elder minion "you must observe she who would be the Wicca. You must prevent them at all costs from discovering their true identity- even the smallest trigger could spark their memories to flood back. The demon world shall not bother them for they know not who they should have been. I shall stay close to the would-be-slayer and ensure she remains so engrossed in her own selfish desires that she lets the world go to hell. I hope I do not have to remind you of the serious nature of this assignment. If the Slayer and the Vampire are returned to the old world and are bound together there all demon-kind are doomed to be forced into oblivion. We must avoid this prophecy coming true at all costs!"
The minions nodded solemnly and together they spun into the darkness leaving the cauldron bubbling slowly into the night.