Chapter 45

Buffy sat on her bed and stared at the phone. She had planned on calling Giles and telling him that she wasn't sure about moving to England. But something had stopped her. It might have been the sudden pain she had felt in her back when she had sat down on the bed, but she doubted that. England would be a nice change of pace and she felt that after Wolfram and Hart, she could handle anything. England was beautiful and the people were great, but did she really want to live there? LA was her home. It had been before Sunnydale and it had been after Sunnydale. This is where she belonged. The move to England would be a huge step to take. Buffy had Dawn to think about. Buffy had a son to think about. What did they want to do? Everything in Dawn's demeanor said that she wasn't happy with the move, but she would go along with whatever her sister thought was best. Connor was a different matter. Buffy couldn't tell what he wanted. And as for Angel, he would support whatever she decided.

"Hey mom?" Connor called from the doorway. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah."

Connor opened the door to her bedroom. "You didn't answer the door out there, so I figured I'd try this one." He looked at her. "What's up?"

"Oh.... I'm just thinking. Which is actually kinda hard on these drugs. Can't really focus without putting some effort into it."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Giles' offer to take over the Council."

"You should do it."

"You think so?"

"Yeah! You can handle it."

"It would mean moving to England."

"Oh."

"Not so fast to accept now, huh? Didn't think you would be."

"Do you want to go?"

"I don't know. I love it over there. It's beautiful. But LA is home."

"Then stay here. You can still be head of the Council here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if you're the head, doesn't that pretty much mean that your word goes on anything?"

"I guess so."

"Then say Council HQ is here in LA with you." Buffy stared at her son. "You didn't think of that, huh?"

"No." She smiled. "I have no clue where you got your smarts from."

"Well, it definitely wasn't dad."

Buffy laughed. "Be nice."

"I am." Connor smiled. "I KNOW I got that from you."

"Of course you did. I'm the queen of nice." She said sarcastically.

"Well, I'll let you get some rest then."

"Ok."

"Later mom."

"Later." Buffy watched her son leave the room and then picked up the phone. Giles answered on the eighth ring. "Geez, Giles, what would you have done if I was Ed McMann?"

"Who?"

"Never mind."

"I'm glad to see your very near death experiance hasn't dampened your spirits."

"Has it ever before?"

"Point taken." Giles let out a sigh of relief. "So how are you?"

"Tired. I just got out of the hospital yesterday."

"You should be resting."

"I know, but I needed to get this off my chest."

"What's that?"

"I've thought about your offer and.... Giles, I don't want to move to England." Giles started to say something, but Buffy stopped him. "Being the head of the new Council.... It's something I want to do. It's something I feel I'm capable of doing, but not in England. This is the 21st century, Giles. The old Council is gone. Time to base it somewhere new."

"And where would that be?"

"Here. In LA. Where the right people can get to it."

"And the Slayers?"

"We can leave the training camp there, fund everything from here, but I want the new Council to be here. There's plenty of room in the hotel."

"But Buffy...."

"No buts. You're either with me, or your against me."

"Well, it never did me any good to be against you."

"Nope."

"This is what you want?"

"Yes."

"How soon can you be prepared for the files on the Slayers we've rounded up so far to be delivered to the hotel?"

"You're going to deliver them here?"

"I'm going to make copies of them and send the originals to you. You'll need to know everything about them. And you'll also have to assign Watchers."

"We don't have any...."

"You'll have to hire some."

"Where am I going to find Watchers at!?"

"Well, I do believe you have a few people there who are perfectly capable of filling those shoes. As for the other Watchers.... Look for them. Believe me, they're not hard to find. There are some Watchers left out there that managed to escape the attack on the Slayer line. I can help you find them, if you wish."

"Good. Yeah."

"Very good. So, how soon can you be ready?"

"A week. Maybe two."

"Ok. I'll keep you posted."

"Giles?"

"Yes?"

"Why me?"

"Why not you? You've experianced more than any Watcher could ever hope to experiance. You know more about demons than any Slayer and your knowledge of the supernatural world is limitless. I have complete confidence in your skills, Buffy. You'll make the decisions that will bring the Council to a level that it never even imagined reaching before its demise. And you are the greatest person I have ever had the pleasure of knowing."

"Thank you, Giles."

"Goodbye, Buffy."

"Bye."

Willow and Xander were starting to pack books in boxes when Buffy walked down the stairs. "You can put those back."

"We're not moving?" Willow asked.

"Nope. You're looking at the new Council headquarters." Buffy said. "I talked to Giles and he liked the idea."

"Yes!" Dawn yelped. "Sorry. I was completly against the move."

"It's ok. So was I. Angel, we need to start cleaning out more rooms. Giles is going to be sending us lots and lots of files. We're also going to have other Watchers working here."

"Where we live?" Faith asked.

"We're going to save the top two floors. They'll be off limits to everyone but us."

"These renovations are going to cost a fortune." Xander said.

"We've got the money." Angel said.

"Yeah." Spike said. They all looked at him. "What? The last thing I did at Wolfram and Hart was rob their safe clean. I took everything from 'em. I'm willing to share it."

While everyone else was staring at Spike in shock, Buffy just laughed. "Good work, Spike. I'm proud. Should've thought of it myself."

"Thank you."

"And I want to make a plaque. One we can put somewhere where everyone will see it."

"A plaque for what?" Dawn asked.

"Honoring our fallen friends that sacrificed their lives in this absurd battle."

"That's a lot of names."

"I know." Buffy looked at her family. "Guys, this is a new beginning. The future of the world depends on us now. Can you handle it?"

THE END

(For right now.)