Part 4

The school bus skidded to a stop with a trail of gravel from the poorly paved parking lot. Everyone turned to watch through the fence as Giles emerged and wiped a hand across his forehead. "Bloody well needs air conditioning," he muttered as he helped Jackie off the bus. With her arm in a cast and a nasty no-longer-quite-black eye, Jackie looked a bit battered, but happy.

"Pizza!" she cried excitedly. "And beer!" more excitedly. Instead of walking to the gate, she hopped the fencewith ease,despite having the use of only one arm, and snagged a can from a table.

Buffy turned to see Faith raise her Bud in a distracted salute. With her other hand, Faith steered herself to the edge of the pool and climbed out, heading for Giles.

"Towel…" Dawn gasped. Recalling the combination of red underwear and wet white tank top, Faith paused to grab a towel before approaching Giles.

Buffy patted Xander on the arm and jumped up to intercept Jackie. Smiling, she dumped the beer into the trash with one hand and held out an anchovy pizza with the other. Jackie gave her a look of disgust. "Just because you…" Jackie trailed off as she grabbed a slicebeforeflopping down on an orange striped lawn chair to glare at Buffy.

"So…shopping?" asked Willow brightly. "Now that we have transport, maybe it would be a good idea to make good on our original idea and shop."

"And where would we do that?" asked one of the Potentials, rolling her eyes as she flipped over on the lounge chair. "Raid the hospital again?"

"Hey! Hospital gowns are cool," Andrew interjected and then looked at the ground as many pairs of adolescent eyes glared at him.

"We've exhausted this town," Kennedy shrugged at Willow. "Hospital, Pizza Hut, Seven-Eleven. That's it. What do you want to shop for? Mad Magazine and YooHoo?"

"Slayer healing powers at their best," Buffy said quietly to Willow. "They're bored already."

"I don't blame them," replied Willow. "Magically or spiritually or whatever, they have a lot more energy than they used to..." She trailed off as her attention switched to Gilesand Faith, who conversed with in low tones as they bwalked through a rip in the fence to join Buffy and Willow.

"Everyone is as well as can be expected," Giles answered their unasked question. "We'll be here a bit longer though, with Robin's recovery, and the doctors think it might take another week in order to get the worst back to traveling condition. Granted, they don't understand Slayer strength, but…. Another day, another discharge though. That's the best news." Giles smiled weakly.

"A week…." Willow trailed off.

"We could always start training again," Buffy smiled wickedly.

"I took the liberty of asking some of the nurses where…ahhh…the best places to shop are." Giles said. "There's a fairly large mall about an hour south."

"Good news," Willow said. "Although I wouldn't want to contemplate your May credit card bill, Giles."

Giles blinked and shook his head.

"You're tired, and probably hungry," Buffy said. "Why don't you head in for a bit? You've certainly been doing more than your share watching over everyone at the hospital and you even remembered the shopping!"

"But…. I promised I'd take Faith to the hospital to see Wood."

"But me no buts!" replied Willow. "Kennedy! You can drive the bus, right? Why don't you and Dawn head up a shopping party? You can drop Faith off at the hospital on your way."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Giles whispered to Buffy.

"You need rest; they're getting restless. Seems like a reasonable solution to me."

Kennedy stood up. "Ladies!" she called. "Let's shop! Everyone get as dressed as you can and meet here in 15 minutes."

Dawn and the Potentials scattered to their respective rooms to dry off.

"You can take Xander's bed. I think they cleaned the room," Buffy called. "Room 212. Bed closest to the window. We'll keep things under control." Giles smiled gratefully at Buffy and Willow and stood up to leave.

Buffy and Willow looked at each other. "Peace at last," Willow smiled.

It was Andrew's and Xander's turnto exchange glances, Xander still dangling his legs in the pool, Andrew floating lazily on a full size light-blue inflatable raft. "Oooh, private Slayer-Witch talk," said Andrew.

Xander rolled his eyes. "Hey buddy, how about a trip to the Seven-Eleven to see if they have comic books or girlie mags?" this last said with an apologetic grimace toward Willow and Buffy.

"But I like the sun…." Andrew started to whine. "It's warm on my….oh. Okay, then I want a Big Gulp." Andrew paddled to the side and tried to pull himself from the raft directly onto the concrete. He failed, simultaneously sliding off the raft into the water with a sploosh and banging his elbow on the concrete. "Owwww…."

"C'mon Andrew. Let's go."

Willow nudged Buffy with her elbow. "How does two lounge chairs, a warm Coke and cold pizza sound to you?" she asked.

"Perfect," replied Buffy and both stood and moved to the east edge of the pool to face the early afternoon sun.