Disclaimers, etc, see part one.

Author's Notes: Thanks everyone for the reviews. This story is the beginning of a series of stories where everyone comes back together. But the intervening years have separated them. The next story is Dawn's, but I haven't finished it yet.

Back to the Beginning.

* * * * *

Trevor tried to follow them, but Sally slipped in front of him. He raised his left hand to knock her aside. She caught it with the hand that held the stake. He dropped Michelle to face Sally.

Philip bent down low to grab her out of Trevor's line of sight. I know robots are strong; Ted fought Buffy April threw Spike out of window. And that was before the Buffy-bot patrolled for several months. But I hadn't realised that they didn't have muscles before I saw Sally holding Trevor.

Buffy never seemed to sweat it, or tense up, when she was fighting, so the bot didn't either. But Sally had both Trevor's wrists. She looked like she could stand still, holding the struggling vampire until the next apocalypse, or maybe two after that.

With silence in the room now I could hear Trevor's gang outside and Lizzie whispering furiously in the next room. Trevor could probably hear what they were saying. The invite had been for 'daddy' only. It seemed like Lizzie was trying to keep everyone in the room. I hoped she wasn't telling them about vampires. I had a plan.

Michelle began to crawl towards the bedrooms. I had to keep Trevor's attention on me.

I dropped a stake and took a bottle of holy water out of my bag. The back compartment had held stakes, holy water and crosses for as long as I could remember. The look on Buffy's face when she handed me the cross on my first trip underground had drilled 'be prepared' into me more deeply than any number of boy scout meetings.

"This is holy water," I told Trevor. "Do you know what it can do?"

He nodded.

"I want you to hide your face, explain succinctly to your wife that you're leaving her, and not taking anything. I want you to tell your children that you love them, but you might not be able to see them for a while. Then you will walk out of this house and this city and you take the others out there with you. In return I won't tell the local Slayers that you were here for two days. If you don't agree, you will drink this bottle slowly over the next three days. If you try anything Sally will stake you well and good."

Trevor managed to look contemptuous despite his bindings.

"By the power of the Watcher's Council and the BoM I declare Trevor McKenzie a vampire and his status legally dead. As witnessed by Philip Hardesty, muggle, on the 13th day of June, 2021. His widow is to be offered compensation. Do you wish to offer any explanation, sir?"

Damn Giles, and Willow, and Buffy, for their faith that I would do what had to be done when it came down to it. An anonymous enveloped arrived in the mail five days after we moved into our house. It was addressed to me, but there was no telling who it was from. It contained a short note from Willow congratulating me on settling down somewhere so much more appropriately named than Sunnydale. I gave the note to Angie.

The rest of the message was a long, formal letter from Giles explaining the structure and duties of the Watcher's Council and the BoM. I also received an ID card with all my details; name, age, height, hair and eye colour, my father's middle name, my mother's maiden name, and my favourite colour. I'm sure it's charmed in some way to make sure that people can't pretend to be me.

I got it out, still holding the stake, to wave it in Trevor's face.

The WC and BoM work as undercover as possible. There aren't as many rules on them as in the Men in Black movies, because we are dealing with people who are already dead. Legally they have no rights, and they also have no corpses. And BoM's associated with the CIA now, who do everything below board anyway.

So much for everyone being sad that I ran away. Willow and Kennedy don't run the school full time since Willow's son was born. Giles researches from the England end of things, although he's been spending more time in LA apparently. Buffy's a therapist and Dawn's an assistant to someone in Washington. Andrew, of all of us, is the most involved in the higher ranks. Faith's still at least half a rebel. And still I get sent the updated rules.

The rules changed about nine years ago, of course. The first two rules of the 'public' handbook Buffy put together are the same; 'don't die,' and 'anyone can stake any vampire at anytime.' But if the family is to receive compensation they need to be declared a vampire, and in order to do that they need have a distinguishing description. They couldn't just declare all out war on the vampires with the new Slayers, because they would have organised a defensive position. A vampire can still survive reasonably well on it's on it's own and quiet.

So if you want to hunt a vampire deliberately, it needs to have been declared. But that was really just to keep Angel safe. All witnesses need to be identified by their 'official' description. I had thought Dawn had put 'muggle' in. But actually it was probably Faith. According to my card my official description is 'aware muggle.' Which means I have to show my identifying card to the vampire I'm about to stake. If it's not too risky. It's been sitting in the back section of my wallet for over ten years now.

The first time I got to use it was on my brother-in-law, while my wife huddles in the next room and my daughter knows what I'm facing. I wasn't happy. And Trevor seemed to know what I was talking about. I surprised by that because most fledgling vampires didn't know about the Slayer. The group outside must have been around a bit.

Trevor didn't say anything.

"Why?" I demanded. I held the bottle close his eye.

I could see the fight between the demon, which wanted to attack, and the force of the memories, which knew to trust me. The demon's plan was held in check by Sally. He had to talk, so did so in the cocky manner Spike had had.

"I owed them money. Not much, and nothing to hurt the kids. I couldn't when they came round today. I wouldn't let them at the house. They said they couldn't make me do it, but they could make me want to. So they did."

He shrugged. All I could feel for him was pity. Faintly I could hear Jesse's mocking voice, saying he wasn't sorry. Then Giles said "you're not looking at you're friend, you're looking at the thing that killed him." And my own voice telling Buffy that Willow said to kick Angel's ass.

'I don't like vampires,' I thought 'I'm going to take a stand and say they're not good.'

And yet I was as scared that day as I was last Sunday. Twenty-five years and shock finally does wear off.

I nodded to Sally. "Let go."

Trevor lunged at me. When it comes down to it, they really are all just stupid. I had my stake up ready, and with the force of his lunge it went through his heart.