Epilogue

"To life, to life, l'chai-im!
L'chai-im, l'chai-im, to life!
Life has a way of confusing us
Blessing and bruising us,
Drink l'chaim,
To life…"

The house was quiet. Its empty rooms were full of boxes, none of them unpacked yet. There was more than enough space here for five people with few possessions and even fewer expectations. Paying in cash up front hadn't hurt the Scoobies' quick closing on the house, either.

Giles knew the quiet wouldn't last for long, but at the moment he didn't care. With a heavy sigh, he set down the last box of his books and sat heavily on it, looking around at the room that he'd claimed for his study. All it needed was a little paint on the walls, a desk in the corner and some decent lighting and it would feel just like home. He looked down at the single book he'd found earlier and set on his desk to deal with. Reaching out with a finger, he traced the letters in the worn leather cover absently, remembering Buffy's face when she'd seen it.

Somehow it only seemed right that this book that had started it all eight years ago in the Sunnydale Library be the first one on his new bookshelf. He placed Vampyr in its place of honor and then returned to his seat on the box, lost in thought.

Buffy tapped on the door and entered with a soda for herself and a cup of tea for him. He smiled gratefully at her and took the preferred cup, gesturing with it towards the bookshelf. "I started unpacking."

"One book doesn't count." Buffy went over to it and traced the letters on the spine just like he had. "I don't think I've seen this since you slammed it down in front of me." She pulled up another box, sat, and popped open her soda can.

They both took several sips in silence before Giles said, "I do wonder..."

"Whether the whole Laurence making peace with the Slayer thing was really on the level?" Buffy finished for him. He smiled a little at the way she'd read his mind. At his nod she shrugged. "It'd be the first time! I guess we'll never know..." The silence grew heavy. In her classic manner, Buffy completely changed the subject. "Dawn wants to paint her room periwinkle."

He raised an eyebrow skeptically, gladly moving onto lighter topics. "I'm not at all convinced that periwinkle is an actual color, but if she wants it then I suppose there's no stopping her."

"Pretty much what I said," his Slayer agreed. "Xander said they were going to stop at the store and pick up some nails for those shelves Willow needs for her room after they got done paint shopping."

Giles nodded slowly and looked around, a satisfied expression on his face. "It's a good house," he said thoughtfully.

Buffy rolled her eyes affectionately. "I liked Rome! But it doesn't hurt that this place is only like three blocks down from where you lived before. I can't believe that after all the air miles you spent coming to California we all ended up in England anyway."

"The irony does not escape me," he assured her. He sipped his tea and sighed happily. "Heard from the others?"

"Andrew is now officially rooming with Kennedy, which I would pay good money to see, but Faith says they're getting along really well." She took another long drink of her soda before continuing, "Rona started up the Slayer Program that Willow sent her and she says it's working. She's already found like six more Slayers in her area, and Vi's got four. Once everyone else has them this thing should be a cinch." She seemed mildly uneasy. Giles understood why.

"It's almost too easy, isn't it?" he said wistfully.

"Almost," she agreed.

He smiled knowingly at her and leaned back comfortably on his box. "There's quite a lot of work to be done, you know. We have to set up some sort of training facility for the Slayers around the world, find the ones in our own area, completely furnish this house and somehow convince Dawn to go back to school in the fall. Not to mention that another apocalypse is doubtless on its way even as we speak." At her glare he shrugged innocently. "Not necessarily in that order, of course."

Buffy laughed and he laughed with her. At some point his hand came to rest on her shoulder and he left it there. When they finally managed to collect themselves, Buffy raised her soda can and looked at her Watcher seriously. "To the people that got us here," she said solemnly.

Giles looked to the one book on his shelf before he raised his teacup and touched it to her can. "To those we've lost," he agreed softly. "And to the life they gave us."

They drank the rest in silence.

-FIN-

(The Very Last) Author's Note: If this wasn't quite the ending you were looking for, I'm terribly sorry. It's very hard to find something emotionally satisfying after how far this story has taken us, but I think this little scene fit the bill. The lyrics are from Fiddler on the Roof.

...What more is there to say? 112 Microsoft Word pages, countless hours of writer's block, untold gallons of coffee and over 61,000 words later, this little thing that was supposed to be a one-chapter b/g moment turned into all of this. To those of you who have read this all the way through, thank you. I cannot possibly say that enough. To those of you who took the time to review, well...I just hope that this story made your day half as much as your comments made mine.

Those Loved and Lost is officially at its end, and I'm ready to move on to greener (not to mention shorter) pastures. Look for upcoming Buffy stories soon; I have several in the works. Whether any of them will be this long or fun to write, who can tell?

An author's commentary on this story will be available at the beginning of March; if you're interested in reading about how I got my ideas, why I wrote the things I did and the general insanity that went into this story (or if you're just really bored and need something to put you to sleep at night) message or email me and I will be more than happy to send you a copy when I finish it.

I'm procrastinating on this because I don't want it to be over, but I have other things to do and all good things really must come to an end. ...Not to mention that for the first time in fourteen months, I can get some sleep without wondering how Buffy and her friends are going to get out of the most recent mess I've put them into.

So good night to all, and may your own dreams be peaceful.

Cheers.