A/N: I must continue to credit Patience with her part in writing this story. ;)
Part 5
"Okay, I absolutely do not want to hear anything about 'slayer stamina' from you," Buffy said, holding out her hand as if to pre-empt any personal disclosures of the most intimate kind from Willow.
"Please! As if any of us have been able to find enough privacy to change our clothes, let alone try out…" Willow's tirade ground to a halt. "Well, I won't say anything further. I don't want to offend your delicate sensibilities." She flopped into her chair with a huff.
"Thanks," Buffy said dryly.
"What's this big obsession with slayers anyway? It's 'slayer this' and 'slayer that' ever since we boarded that big yellow bus. I don't see what the big deal is," Willow said with a half-grin.
"Alright, alright. I'm eating now. And I too am sick of hearing about slayers. Only I got tired of that word, oh about four months before I met you." Buffy punctuated this remark by taking an enormous bite out the slice of pizza she had pulled out of a half-empty box.
Willow took a slice also, and they chewed for a few minutes while they listened to the brushy plantings rustle around the pool as the wind off the desert started to pick up. Buffy sighed deeply and took another slice. It would be so easy to just stay in this moment: pizza, Willow, sun, sand. But her mind kept sliding backward and forward, reviewing and wondering. She wasn't worrying. Buffy knew that the lightness she felt in her herself was real and true. She wasn't afraid. Their triumph had been complete. There was loss. Always loss. She wasn't avoiding reality. But her mind needed to roam.
Buffy kicked off her sandals and leaned back in the lounge chair, folding her hands over her now tender stomach. The sun hit her face and she closed her eyes.
When they had arrived at the motel on that night, the first night, even the high spirits of the newly awakened superheroes had become subdued by the hours of nursing the wounded, followed by the staring lights of the hospital where they had left those in the worst shape. At the motel, the room keys had been passed out and claimed before Buffy had remembered.
"Can we make long distance calls from the rooms," she asked the manager.
"Nope. Not unless you've got a calling card." He scratched his belly and watched the seemingly unending parade of nubile girls as they drifted up past the office and up the stairs.
Not likely. Buffy didn't have her wallet. Heck, she didn't even have a calling card in her wallet at the bottom of the crater that she had consigned her entire hometown to.
"You can use the pay phone 'round the corner." He jerked his thumb towards the sign marked 'Vending.'
"Right," Buffy said. She turned and caught Faith's questioning eye. "Angel," she said and Faith nodded.
"I'll come too, if you don't mind." Faith actually seemed to be waiting for Buffy's answer.
"No, it's okay. We can both explain."
Buffy found herself in front of the ice machine, trying to remember the right numbers to punch in on the dirt-encrusted pay phone. She turned to Faith. "Help me out here."
Faith shrugged. "I don't have the slightest. You were always the responsible one. But I'll give it a try." She stepped up and took the receiver. "It's ringing," she said and held out the phone to Buffy.
Buffy hesitated.
"Come on, B. You've gotta be the first one. If he hears my voice, he'll think I'm calling to say that you didn't make it. Take it." She shoved the receiver at Buffy again.
Faith had a point. Buffy held the phone up to her ear just in time to hear the click of the answering machine. She listened and then hung up. "He's – they're not there anymore. There's another number." Buffy dialed again. This time it was picked up on the first ring. " – Hi, is this? – yes, Angel. Can I – he's there? Yes, I'll hold." Buffy put her hand over the mouthpiece. "They put me on hold. What's up with that?"
Faith shrugged. "His operation wasn't too organized when I was there. Maybe they got their act together."
"Buffy." Angel's voice came on the phone and Buffy's insides twisted.
"How did you know it was me?" Buffy blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.
"You don't want to know."
"Probably not. Uhm, look. About that second front, you won't be needing it. We did it."
"I knew you would."
"You did not. I didn't even know until – " Buffy remembered her moment of certainty. "Sunnydale's gone. It fell in like the biggest sinkhole you've never heard of."
"I've been getting reports about it. But it's good to know that you meant to do that."
Buffy didn't know where to start. "You're getting reports? And that wasn't entirely our intention." She heard her voice rise and fought to calm down a bit. "Whatever. We made it."
"Everyone? Dawn? And Faith?" Angel's voice switched to concern.
"Yes, Dawn's fine. And Faith. But not everyone made it." Buffy stopped. "He wore the amulet. He's dead."
"I'm sorry."
Buffy felt Faith step up beside her, a silent offer of support. "Anya's gone too. And Amanda. But you never met her." Her voice was getting more and more quiet. She could see Faith motioning beside her. "We did it," she said softly. "Here's Faith."
Faith took the phone. "Hey, there Big City Vampire. – Yeah, she's okay. We're all just tired. – The whole gang made it. Yup, even the One-Eyed-Wonder. – What? You didn't hear?" She laughed softly.
Buffy wandered away, hugging herself as the cool desert wind kicked up. The pool area was silent, but the voices of the newly-wakened slayers drifted slowly to Buffy. She stood there for a time before Faith's voice called her back.
"Hey, B. Let's go see where they've got us bunked."
Together they mounted the stairs to the rooms and came to the first open door.
"I can't believe that he's asleep already." It was Vi, standing over the already prone body of Xander. He lay where he had fallen, smack in the middle of the bed next to the window. "We're supposed to be sharing."
Buffy and Faith exchanged a glance. "We'll take care of it, Vi," Faith said. "Go get yourself settled."
Vi shrugged and breezed past them out the door. Buffy took in the other occupants of the room: three newbie slayers arrayed over the other bed and the floor, Dawn in the cot, and Andrew sacked out in the bathtub.
Faith grinned at Buffy. "Looks like as good a place as any." Together Buffy and Faith peeled back the bedding on Xander's bed, removing his jeans and flannel shirt in the process. Then, they shed their own extraneous clothing and slid into bed beside him. Xander neither woke nor stirred.
Buffy caught Dawn watching them. "Not one word," she admonished her sister with a half-smile before sleep overtook her.
"Buffy?" Willow asked hesitantly. "Are you asleep?"
"Nope, just lazing about a little. Thinking." Buffy opened her eyes.
"You were smiling a bit. I hope I didn't interrupt a happy thought." Willow wiggled her eyebrows to punctuate her words.
"Not really." Buffy shifted so she was sitting upright again.
"I did want to ask… Or maybe we can just wait – if you're enjoying the moment." Willow fumbled to a stop.
"No, talk."
"Are we – okay?" Willow pressed her lips tightly together and tried again. "After what happened when you – left?"
"You mean, when you all ganged up on me and kicked me out of my own house?" Buffy saw the remorse and worry in Willow's eyes, so she continued hastily. "Yeah, I think we're okay. Or we will be now that I don't have to be Generalissimo Buffy."
"I just wanted to check because it's been almost as if it never happened. You came back with that scythe and bang! we had to fight. We never had a chance to heal or even talk." Willow's voice started to rise in that familiar anxious-Willow way.
"Okay, we'll talk." Buffy tucked up her feet and angled herself towards Willow.
"Er…" Willow licked her lips.
"Or we can just wait 'til we have something to say…"
"That might be best," Willow said with relief. "More pizza?"
"Past it over," Buffy said and then she smiled.
