A week or so later… sometime past midnight…

Buffy walked through the cemetery, her stake hand ready and willing. She was still in her work uniform, having gone straight to patrol from work. It was a balmy Southern California night, and, so far, a remarkably vampire-free one too.

"Here, vampires, vampires. I'm alive, awake, and enthusiastically waiting to slay you." Talking to herself during patrols helped to keep her occupied when she was alone. The Scooby gang was operating on a skeleton crew this summer what with all that had gone down this spring. Giles was back in England, seeing to Willow's recovery. Anya had disappeared soon after. Spike was still vampire in absentia, which was, you know, good. So Dawn and Xander were the only ones even in town.

Tonight, Dawn was taking a break from Buffy's I'm-going-to-show-you-the-world campaign to spend the night at Janice's and Xander had had a long day on his construction site, so he had begged off of patrol.

Buffy sighed lightly. She was tired from work, not physically tired, but tired nonetheless. Adulthood, to be honest, sucked. Although, compared to this time last summer, Buffy was much alive-er, so progress had been made. Plus, the thick, fog-like veil of depression had, for the most part, been lifted, so life was sucky only in the general, everybody-feels-this-way sense, rather than the torn-out-of-Heaven sense.

Her work at Umbrella over the past month was, admittedly, boring, but it made her feel strangely content. Nobody that she worked with was unbearably obnoxious and there was a much-appreciated lack of grease, powdered shake mix, and meat substitute. She was settling into a fairly doable routine. She had mornings and afternoons to run errands and spend time with Dawn, sometimes eat lunch with Xander at his site, or even go to the beach. She went to work, then went on patrol for an hour or two, then came home. Not bad, all 'n' all. There had definitely been times in her life when she would have begged for such quiet normalcy. True, it wasn't an exciting, cosmopolitan life, but it was… hers. And she was okay.

Enough contemplation. Time for serious slaying now. Need something to slay, though - in fact, crucial to serious slaying plan. Ooh, what was that? Hearing a noise over on the other side of the cemetery, Buffy went to investigate. As she approached, she was semi-disappointed to see that it had been a car noise, not an evil noise. A man had gotten out of his car, and had opened a map onto the hood, where he was perusing it. She couldn't help but notice that the man was youngish, and… hmm, cute. Tall, well-built, brown hair cut short. Looked like maybe he was lost. Well, was she a Slayer or was she a Slayer? Time to help mankind.

She deliberately made some noise as she got closer, so as not to startle him. He looked up.

"Hi," she said, "looks like you're a little lost. Do you need some directions?"

The man looked a little surprised that she had approached him. Guess where he came from young women didn't prowl the streets in the dead of night, seeking to help lost travelers.

"Hi, um, well, actually, I don't think I am lost. This is Sunnydale, right?"

"That it is. You passing through?"

"No, I'm here on business. I'm a reporter."

"Oh. Are you going to be doing a hard-hitting investigative report on the strange and nearly simultaneous grand openings of two Starbucks right across the street from each other?"

The man chuckled. "Well, not exactly, but that might bear some looking into." He paused, then said, "If you don't mind my asking, do you think it's entirely safe for you to be walking around by yourself at this time of night? Can I drive you somewhere?"

Right, because it's so much safer to accept rides from strange, unknown men, she thought wryly. "Oh, no, thanks. I was just on my way home from work. I'll be fine, really."

He said, a touch uncertainly, "Okay, as long as you're sure." Then, "Hey, is there a motel in the area?"

She nodded. "Sure, go down the street a couple blocks, then hang a left. The Sunnydale Inn always has a vacancy." Buffy decided to give the man a heads-up on the Sunnydale nightlife. Wouldn't want his business trip to be marred by death. "By the way, if you're out at night, I'd stay away from the cemeteries. Sunnydale is a small town, but we do have some nasty types, and they, um, tend to hang out in the cemeteries."

"Didn't you just come from the cemetery?"

Oh, yeah, he had seen that. "Well, yeah, but I - know my way around. Anyway, it's just a little warning. We locals like to keep our visitors safe and sound." Buffy smiled, hoping he wouldn't take the warning as an aspersion on his manly ability to take care of himself.

He appeared to accept her explanation. "Okay, thanks. Better get to that motel; I'm beat. Thanks for stopping to help me out." He smiled at her. A nice smile.

She gave a little wave. "Take care."

Buffy waited until the car had turned off the street, then went back to the cemetery. After another half-hour or so, she decided to head home. Slow night for slayage. But, hey, fast night for cute reporters. Maybe she'd see him again. Not that she was looking for, you know, anything, but it was nice to realize that there might be non-demony type guys out there who, maybe, someday, she'd get to know. During her... interlude with Spike, she sometimes wondered about that. It was good to feel optimistic for a change.