Yeah, I had a problem with my Internet – that's why the last few chapters were all put up at once. It will probably happen a lot, because my connection is in no way reliable. Oh, and I'm skipping over Dawnie's b-day and calling her 13 now.
It had been two days since the service, and to Dawn's way of thinking, life was nearly back to about as normal as it was going to get. Angel had left for LA again the early hours of that morning (about three hours before sunrise, so he could do some work when he got home), and Buffy had started her patrolling again, and willow had finally stopped crying. Buffy hadn't gone back to school again, and neither had Dawn – she really didn't want everyone staring at her. Even Giles had said she could have at least a week more off, and she could go back when she felt ready. For some strange reason, he thought that she would actually want to go back to school, and would tell someone when that happened. In reality though, staying at home (at Giles' house) while Buffy and Giles talked about adult type things wasn't really much fun. There was no where to go and no one to go with during the day, and yeah, like Buffy would let her go anywhere at night without her or Angel. In. Her. Dreams.
It had been two days since Buffy had let it all go. Angel had left just as soon as he felt he could leave her (it was becoming extremely difficult to be around each other again, and she was starting to understand why he'd left her in the first place). She was just starting to get back on track, with mostly Giles' help – she spent a huge amount of time at his place sorting out what to do now. He had offered to do it all at their house, but dawn really wasn't comfortable, and it didn't really bother Giles or Buffy where they did it. Willow was back at collage, and had finally stopped crying, or maybe that should be: willow had finally stopped crying, so she had gone back to collage! Dawn was staying off school for the time being, until she was over her mother's death enough to get through an entire school day full of semi-evil kids – kids really are the cruellest creatures of the night! Last night had been her first patrol for over a week, and she was beginning to feel like the slayer again. Strangely, it was a nice feeling – it gave her a bit more of a purpose.
Rupert Giles hadn't been quite prepared for the invasion of his house after the summers' girls lost their mother. Of course, he didn't mind, but it was a bit unexpected. The watcher's council had been right – he did have a father's love for his slayer, and that love had swiftly gotten through to dawn too. He had quickly re-assured the youngest that it was quite all right for her to stay off school for as long as she wanted; with the restrictions placed on her, she would soon long for school to see her mates again. Eventually, she would want to go to school again, and by then, she really would be able to face it. Buffy felt that she had far too much to do to go back to school for the time-being, and she wasn't sure how it would look to social services that she was looking after a thirteen-year-old, but still at university herself. Of course, if it ever did get to that, he was quite prepared to take official guardianship of dawn, and still allow the girls to be together.
It had been a few days, and both willow and Xander were feeling normal again. Oz was never really that bothered; save for it was someone he knew who had died that time. It was strange how Joyce was not one of them, and yet the Scooby gang just didn't function nearly as well without her. There was suddenly no one to go to and know there would be marshmallows awaiting, nobody to beg to do washing, because you couldn't afford it, and your mum would never let you go anywhere ever again if she knew you owned some of those clothes. Joyce had been like a surrogate mother to the whole gang, minus Angel, who she hated with a passion. But then, he stole her first-born's heart (figuratively, although, angelus had thought about it literally, much to everyone's disgust) and had yet to return it. Really, he never would – even if they did split up, both of them would still own the other, even when they were trying to say otherwise.
He had left Buffy just about as soon as he could. He just couldn't stand it anymore – that curse would be the death of him! Un life was so unfair. After her cry, Buffy had seemed a lot more at ease about the whole thing, and Angel felt that she would be fine without him. They told everyone else that he had to work on a case back in LA, but the two of them knew the truth. It was just too difficult. After their talk, Buffy had still not made up her mind, but he knew she was meant to be asking Giles for help at some point over the weekend – she was going to give dawn money and let her go out with some friends. It was amazing (she had become very overprotective of her baby sister). Maybe then he would have a clue what to do! When did life get just so complicated?