Giles called the subdued Scooby meeting to order. This meant coughing, and they all looked at him. They were seated in their usual arrangement, and Buffy's absence was still a physical hole in the group. It had been just over a week since her death, now, and the group was beginning to deal with the shock.

Giles could sense the hidden menace in Spike's posture and wondered who would take his news the worse. To a certain extent he trust that Spike's obsession with Buffy had been channelled to keeping Dawn safe. But that left Xander and Tara to see the problems with what had been proposed.

They were still looking at him expectantly. He was the grown up. He had been in charge of Buffy's welfare, as well as that had gone. And he was the one standing up.

"I received a phone call from an old acquaintance of mine," he began. "Last Monday."

Willow and Xander exchanged nervous looks. Dawn looked at him fearfully. They all remembered Ethan, and obviously took his reluctance to tell them, and lack of joy, as a bad sign.

"I received another call on Wednesday from a man I would call a friend. They were ringing about Buffy's death."

Spike was on his feet glowering at Giles in a moment. Giles tried not to be too alarmed. He sat down, Spike joined them at the table, and Willow narrowed her eyes.

"How do they know?" she asked. "Sure, we buried her, but we didn't tell anyone, and we'd know if someone had found out."

The certainty in her last statement lead Giles to believe that she had put some sort of spell around Buffy's grave. By Tara's look, she was worried by, too. Giles thought maybe he had found this month's major concern under his own nose.

"A Slayer was Called," he said.

"She can't have been!" Willow paused a moment. "I mean, she was already dead, and we have Faith, and even if we don't want to have her you can't just say 'we won't ever need you.'"

"Shh," Tara said, squeezing Willow's hand. "But it shouldn't have hap-happened, sh-should it?"

"No," Giles said.

Dawn was still looking at him, trustingly, which made his positions more awkward. He bit the bullet.

"A Slayer was Called, when Buffy died. She wasn't discovered until two days later, after her Watcher had performed a searching spell. The Lord Watcher says that it is the beginning of prophecy. So we are all going to Washington to help him work out what's going on."

"Washington?" Willow breathed. "What does the prophecy say?"

"Yeah, Giles, they must have told you something to get you to get us to go."

"The shop," Anya said. "We can't leave the shop. And we can't leave the Buffy-bot. And Dawn should go to school."

"No, I shouldn't," Dawn said, sneering at Anya. "I should go were I'm needed. Where Buffy needs me." She turned to Giles. "I am needed, aren't I?"

"Yes," he said.

"But Anya's right about the Buffy-bot," Xander said. "We can't leave her here on her own, and we can't leave the Hellmouth unprotected. Do we all have to go? Because I vote for Spike staying and looking after his toy."

Despite the obvious barb in his comments, Spike seemed to agree.

"'And those who saw the Slayer in her death, all of them…' That's what the prophecy says. My Lord Marbury has organised security for Sunnydale, and transportation for us. We leave on Friday. The team should arrive on Thursday evening, which will give us a day to bring them up to speed."

There was nothing anyone could say, so they said nothing. Dawn continued to go to school, there were three weeks left until the end of the year. Willow and Tara continued to prepared for their exams. Xander got up every morning and went to work, Anya opened the shop, Spike prowled at nights, and Giles sat in his office worrying about the sudden arrival of the Lord Watcher into his Slayer's life.