Chapter 5

******************************

Walking leisurely through the now empty dark streets, the small woman thought back on her recent excursion with her friends. Looking up at the bright stars overhead, she felt a shudder as she saw a pink hued shooting star. Brooding slightly as she continued on her undetermined destination, she almost ignored a feeling in the pit of her stomach. The same feeling that had many times warned her of impending danger –her slayer-sense- as she secretly called it.

Stopping suddenly, she let her adrenaline pump through her body as she listened. Leaves rustling, newspaper and Styrofoam cups being blown along the street by the cool night breeze, the faint sound of cars at the intersection several blocks back. As her mind was being lulled by the tranquility of the night she almost missed the sound of several blades slicing through the night air. It was due only to the fact that she was the slayer that she was able to narrowly dodge the deadly trajectory of the projectiles.

"Good," said a familiar male voice.

The woman looked at the aforementioned man in bewilderment; emerging from the shadows, cleaning his wire frame glasses, and wearing his worn in tweed coat and slacks, he offered the young woman a sheepish grin on his aging face.

"Good to see you again Buffy," he said in his English accented voice, "but I must say that your reflexes aren't what they used to be. Seems as though we are going to need to practice."

"Giles, is that you?" exclaimed Buffy, "how was the motherland? Did you have a good time?"

Giles frown was enough to answer her question. Buffy then launched herself at the man and gave him a hug.

"I've missed you," she confided to him.

"As have I," he said, " but to tell you the truth, I was worried that you would slack off and I'd return to find the city in ruins."

Buffy looked up at Giles's face, expecting to see an ingenuous smile, but instead was faced with a deadly serious expression. She stood there staring at her mentor slack jawed. It wasn't until Giles's lip started to twitch that she figured out that he was pulling her leg.

"I'm sorry," he chuckled, "I just couldn't help but try and get you speechless."

"I hope you got that childish behavior out of your system," said a somewhat irritated Buffy.

"I apologize, I really do."

"Fine, lets go somewhere and catch up," she suggested, "I'll bet that everyone will totally freak out when they see you."