Title: Rearview Mirror
Author: SlayGal
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All characters you recognize are property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemey, Fox, etc. Any characters you don't recognize and the plot is mine.
Summary: The Scooby Gang and new Slayers are moving on after the battle with The First. Their lives have changed forever, be they Slayer or not. Evil is hiding and it's about to make a comeback. But when, where and how?
Chapter one: Casualties
The bus pulled into the nearest motel. It had been a long journey since their last stop just outside of what used to be Sunnydale. It seemed everyone was tired and not in the mood for talking. Buffy got off the bus with Dawn, Xander, Giles and Willow, who immediately following her to the check-in desk. Kennedy and the other surviving Slayers got off the bus and sat just down on the ground. A few remained on the bus, some sleeping, some couldn't be bothered to move and some just not believing they had survived; it was too surreal for them.
In the small town of Brunty, they had rented enough rooms, with people having to share of course, for the eighteen survivors. Miles from no where but for tonight it was to be their home. Willow and Kennedy we're up for sharing a room. Giles had been given his own room, for which he was glad; he didn't want any of the new Slayers bunking down in his room. He had once said secretly to the Scooby Gang that he had had enough of them for the time being with all their yacking, making noises etc. Buffy and Xander had elected to share a room together. Rona, Vi, and two other new Slayers shared a room, leaving the rest to work the arrangements out for themselves. The maximum in a room though was four, but even between all the awkwardness of Faith and Robin still ended up sharing a room.
The organizing of who was going to sleep where was planned outside near the bus and everyone went off in groups to their rooms once it was all sorted out.
Buffy and Xander stayed in their room for a while talking about the good old times in Sunnydale, trying to cheer each other up and they both weren't afraid of using the 'A' word, Anya, or the 'S' word, Spike, with each other which was definitely good. They were helping each other heal the pain from inside.
Dawn sat downstairs at a table in the dining room with Willow and Kennedy. When Faith and Robin strolled in, the other three were in the middle of conversation and dinner. After a few awkward situations with Faith and Robin earlier on in the week you'd think they'd be at least holding hands or something, but there was no sign of that. One, or both, of them was pulling back on the closeness and neither wanted to look each other directly in the eye which, but there was definitely a spark between the two.
Giles had been in his room on his own since he had collected his key and no one had seen him since. His room wasn't close to any of the noisy girls and he was glad about that. He sat on the emerald green armchair in his room with his glasses placed on the bridge of his nose while he read through some texts he had saved from Sunnydale before its collapse. He breathed heavily as he turned the pages and slowly closed his eyes, falling into a light sleep. The book rested in his lap and his breathing slowed.
Buffy was on her way to Giles' room. Xander and Buffy had talked a lot and needed to do some things on their own. Xander took a shower and changed into one of Anya's favorite outfits. It wasn't even anything fancy, it was just normal Xander clothes, which were some jeans and a shirt, with two buttons undone. The shirt was a color blue, in between light and dark. The color Anya liked. He looked through some photos of Anya, and his friends that he had saved at the last minute. A tear went down his cheek, no one was looking so there was no need to hide his feelings and confide them inside himself. The small tears that were released from his eyes left a subtle mark on his shirt and then fell on the photos in his hands.
Dawn still seemed to be in a pissed off mood from when Buffy tried to get Xander to take her away from the fight. The Summer's sisters needed to have a long talk but there was no time for that now. Willow and Kennedy couldn't stop making googly eyes at each other smiling, Dawn's mood would change every now and then, and she would tease them. They all had a good laugh and surprisingly, after all that had happened over the past year and the final fight at the Hellmouth, Dawn had gotten over the potential Slayer jealousness that was inside her and made friends with a few them including Kennedy. Most were around her age anyways.
One of the girls saw some pamphlets near the check-in desk about places near by for tourists. On the notice board was a local town map and the four girls studied it for a short period of time. They spotted the main street and a place called REX. It sounded interesting enough and if wasn't the entertainment they wanted, then they could just stroll down main street for a while.
Julie, Sarah, Belle and Naomi walked into the dinning room at eight o'clock and found Dawn.
"Hey there Dawnie," said Naomi.
Dawn turned around to face the girls, "Hey girls. What's up?"
"We were just looking at the local town map and there could be a place worth looking at for some fun."
"I dunno. Buffy might not like us going out in a town we don't know."
"Well
look at it this way. No matter where we go from here, we won't know the
place and plus we're now Slayers and your, well you know your fighting
stuff, Buffy taught you at all that stuff."
Dawn sat and listened to Naomi, and images of Buffy training her flashed before her eyes and how when the potentials came, her training had come to a halt.
"Yeah I see your point. Plus we do need seem quality down time."
"See I told you she'd be up for it," said Julie.
Willow and Kennedy had paid no attention to the other girls, they were too fixed on each other, so
Dawn left the table and started to follow the other girls out of the dining room.
Willow turned around and said, "Where'd she go?"
Kennedy pointed to across the room, "Over there."
"Oh looks like she's going to hang out with some of the new girls."
Kennedy looked at Willow, "Is that what you call us now, new girls? Is that what you call me?"
"No I meant. You know.. new Slayers.."
"Shh!," said Kennedy putting her index finger up to Willow's lips and pulled it away, "It's okay. I don't take it personally... Much."
Willow smiled and kissed Kennedy on the cheek.
Faith had stopped listening Robin talk on about the Turok-Hans that he had fought during the fight at the high school. Robin couldn't believe some of the things that had happened and couldn't stop talking on about it. Faith had gotten fixated on the conversation between Dawn and the other girls. She overheard that they were heading into the main part of town for some 'fun'. She thought it sounded like a great idea.
"Faith?! Are you even listening to me?"
"Oh yeah," Faith faced him directly, "Yeah. I heard you. You fought some Turok-Hans."
Robin rolled his eyes.
"What now?"
Faith tried to keep one ear on the end of the conversation and one eye looking in that direction while the rest of her paying attention to Robin.
"Ah what do you mean what now? It's not like I do this all the time."
Robin looked at her with slight smile.
Faith could now see Dawn making her way to the day to the entrance and exit of the dining room. Her chance for out about in the town fun was slipping from her small grip.
"Faith?"
"C'mon," she said excitedly and tugged on Robin's right hand and she stood up.
"Huh?"
"Just trust me. We're going to have fun."
She tugged on his shirt sleeve now.
Robin looked down at his meal, "But we haven't finished our meal and the dessert looks nice."
Faith was practically bouncing up and down now full of hyperness, "C'mon man. Forget about the food and..."
"Forget about the food? Huh. You're always the one saying your hungry and wanting food even if haven't been out patrolling."
Faith smiled and then sighed.
"Robin! You coming or not?" said Faith with her arms crossed.
"Okay, okay. This better be good."
"Of course it will be. Trust me."
Robin stood up, placed his napkin on the table and Faith grabbed his arm straight away and started to run towards the door with Robin tagging on behind. When they got through the door and down the hallway they saw Dawn tagging along with the other girls she had recently become friends with.
"Dawn!"
Dawn turned around after hearing her name being screamed out at the top of some girls' lungs. She saw Faith with a grin on her face and then Robin looking puzzled beside Faith.
"Yeah?"
"I heard you talking about going into town for some fun. We're coming too," she said, jabbing her thumb at Robin.
His head turned and looked at her.
"How did you hear from where you were sitting?"
"Slayer hearing."
"Stupid question."
"C'mon on then," called Naomi, "we don't want to hold up the fun any longer."
They
all started walking out of the motel and into the street. They weren't
going to take the school bus into town, so they walked for a bit until
they got to the Brunty Rent-A-Car Shop.
Wood was blackmailed into getting a fiery red MX-5 SE, while the girls went for a misty blue Mazda-3. Wood had convinced Faith that he was in a good enough condition to drive since of his injury to his head, so he was driving the fiery red machine while Faith was looking at the miniature pocket size map. Faith had decided to let him drive anyways, she didn't want to argue about who would drive this once. She let him win this time. Wood thought it was enough to let Faith pick the car, but since she was in an extra hyper mood maybe it was safer for him to drive.
"On the map it says turn right after the next two sets of lights."
"You sure?" asked Robin.
"Yep."
The roof of the car was open and Faith's hair was blowing in the wind. The misty blue machine had music blaring from it and the windows were wound down as the cruised the quiet streets which now filled with the sounds of their music as they made their way to REX.
As Buffy had made her way to Giles' room she had heard a few weird noises but paid them no mind.
Giles had just about fallen into a deep sleep; his breathing could no longer be heard by the average person. Images of his life were flashing before his eyes, like one would imagine what might happen just before you die, but Giles wasn't close to dying. The images were of certain events in his life but were all jumbled, some he had tried to forget. It then focused on the memory of when he was told he was going to become a Watcher at a young age by his father who explained what the job and 'destiny' entailed and that he had been and was one just like his father had been. It seemed to be a family tradition that young Rupert wasn't so keen to carry on to the next generation. Giles started to twist and move more frequently and roughly in his chair, tossing and turning. New, not so well known images flashed before his eyes and he woke up suddenly. He sat himself up better in his chair. The book suddenly fell off his lap and closed with a loud noise which startled him and then there was a knock on the door which startled him again.
Giles got out his handkerchief, wiped his glasses clean, placed them on the bridge of his nose again and said, "Who is it?"
"It's me Giles, Buffy. Can I come in?"
"Oh, come in. The doors unlocked."
Buffy turned the door knob. The door opened and she stepped inside. He looked at her and smiled. She tried to smile back through the pain, but failed. Giles got up from where he was sitting and walked over to her and gave Buffy a hug. He pulled back and walked over to the bed.
"So what have you been up to in here?"
On his way back to the bed, he stopped and turned around, "I was doing some reading," then walked over to where he had dropped his book, bent over, picked it up and placed it on the beside table.
Memories flashed before his eyes again and he tried to maintain his balance.
Giles was standing in the doorway to Buffy's bedroom back in Sunnydale.
"Buffy I-I understand your anger. Please believe me, we did what we-"
Buffy trying not to look directly and Giles said, "He's alive. Spike's alive. Wood failed."
"Well, that doesn't change anything. What I told you is still true. You need to learn-"
Buffy looked at Giles.
"No, I think you've taught me everything I need to know."
The door to Buffy's room shuts in his face.
Giles blinked. He took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes and turned to look at Buffy. She was still standing in the doorway. He signaled to her for her to enter the room. Buffy, however, wasn't so sure. Giles didn't look too good. Reluctantly, she sat down on the bed.
"Are you okay?" asked Buffy.
"I think the question should be the other way around. I'm fine. What about you? How you holding up? Truthfully."
Buffy paused for a moment, as if thinking about what to say, and then began talking. "The thing about a war, a battle, a fight, is there are always people left behind at the end. There are the people who died and who were wounded, known as the casualties of war but did anyone think of the people remaining, having to deal with the pain, the aftermath, have to deal with reality? They are the casualties of war too."
Beck Rogers was sitting on the couch in her living room in her small home town of Cherster, when a memory, an image, flashed before her eyes, one she did not remember owning. The man was Rupert Giles, in his Ripper days. Someone was dying and there was nothing Beck could do.
