Hey again! Here is chapter 2 of my new story! Don't forget to write me a review on my other chapter and this one! Hope you enjoy! -Spike-n-Buffy4-eva
Disclaimer: Like I said earlier, I wish I owned Spike and Anya but I don't. I own nothing!
Aftermath
Chapter 2- Cleveland Rocks?
Two months later
"I love you." "No you don't, but thanks for saying it." Buffy shook out of her dream. She found herself in her new bedroom of her 5-bedroom house. She was sweating and breathing heavy. She almost fell off her bed she was so close to the edge. This was another of the same dreams she's been having for the past month and two weeks. "Buffy are you okay?" Dawn said rushing in her room. "Yeah, I'm fine Dawnie." Dawn sat next to her sister on her queen sized bed with dark red sheets. "Still having the same dream?" "What are you talking about?" "You talk in your sleep and almost every night you tell someone you love them." Dawn paused to think about who the person might be that Buffy is dreaming about. Buffy interrupted her train of thought. "Oh I see. Are you the only one awake?" "Actually Buffy, it's 12:00 in the afternoon. I just didn't want to wake you. For the first time in a long time you looked peaceful, so I let you sleep. I'll go now so you can get dressed. Today is a big day for you." "It sure is Dawn." Dawn left Buffy's room so she could get dressed. Buffy sat up on her bed and thought about her dream. "Why am I dreaming about him. Why can't I get him out of my head?" Inevitably, Buffy got out of her bed and headed toward her personal blue-sponged bathroom.
This was the tenth day in Cleveland for her and the rest of the gang and this was the tenth day of her new life. She turned the shower and started to undress out of her monkey pajamas. A knock on the bathroom door stopped her from changing. "Who is it?" "It's Dawn!" "One second." Buffy yelled. She then turned and opened her cabinet looking for her red robe, which was nowhere to be found. She then decided to just put a towel on. It was just Dawn after all. If it was Xander or Giles she would have put her pajamas back on but it's just her sister. Buffy opened the bathroom door to find her bathrobe on Dawn. "Oh, there's my bathrobe." Buffy stood there and was wondering why Dawn had her robe on. "Oops, sorry. I've got news. Giles thinks we should all go on patrol tonight to get used to the new place and find all the 'hot spots' in town." Buffy then started thinking. Thoughts of her finally being able to be free of her slayer duties and yet, she still remains a 'Chosen One'. "Okay, whatever. Call Xander and Faith, tell them what Giles told you. Make sure that they bring the potentials also. Are you dressed under my robe?" "Um.....yeah." Buffy looked at Dawn with her confused face on. Dawn took off the red robe and handed it to Buffy and started to walk away but she remembered something she'd been waiting to ask Buffy. "Oh yeah I forgot to ask you, you still want me to be in school right?" "Of course I do Dawn. What made you think of that?" "I know we've only been here for ten days but I thought me getting and education was important and you nor Giles have yet to enrolled me in school." "Oh, I'll get Giles on that right away." Dawn gave Buffy a look that made Buffy think, oh right, that's my job, not Giles's. "Or maybe I'll get on it right away." "See ya later Buffy." "Wait, where are you going?" "With Andrew and Kennedy to check out the mall." Saying those last words Dawn walked down the stairs and headed out to discover her new hometown. Which she hoped wouldn't collapse into the ground like her other one did.
"Good morning, Buffy. Or should I saw afternoon." Buffy nodded her head toward Giles as her response. "How did you sleep? Comfortable I hope." "Very comfortable." Saying that Buffy remembered her dream. At this point she wished she didn't walk downstairs so Giles could ask her that question. She could tell her sad face was appearing. "Buffy? Are you okay?" Buffy looked up at Giles and nodded her head. "I'm still a little tired. Moving and everything kinda wears you out. I think I'm going to walk over to Willow's and Xander's." "Okay Buffy. Be safe. Wait one second. I think it's time to enroll Dawn and the other potential who still need to finish school." "Oh, so Dawn talked to you too huh?" "As a matter of fact she did." "Okay Giles let's do it tomorrow, we will both go." Saying those last words Buffy let out a small smirk at Giles, reached out for an orange, opened the back door and headed outside toward Willow and Xander's.
Buffy walked out of her new house to her new backyard. There were two white chairs on the porch along with two ferns hanging from the ceiling. There wasn't much in the backyard yet. Buffy and Giles planned on making this backyard sort of like a 'training room' for her and the potentials. It took her two minutes to walk over to Xander and Willow's since they lived next door. She loved the new neighborhood she and the Scooby gang lived in. I kind of resembled there old neighborhood. It seemed like the practical thing to do. Split up the group into three houses. Dawn, Giles, Andrew, and Buffy in one house. Willow, Xander, Kennedy, and two slayers in house number two. Robin, Faith, and the other six slayers in house number three. Everyone lived in a two-story house. Like, her old one. Buffy tries to tell herself that they are starting a new life in Cleveland but everything in Cleveland sort of resembles Sunnydale.
Buffy opened the door to Willow and Xander's house and found Xander walking down the stairs toward the kitchen. "Hey Buffster! What brings you to our humble abode?" said Xander while walking toward Buffy. "Just wanted to hang out." "Don't you have a new job to get to?" "Well, can't I delay the inevitable?" "No, you don't want to be late on your first day." Xander paused. "Did I really just say that?" "Xander, that was really out of character for you. It was kinda scary." "Sorry Buffy. I guess Cleveland's hellmouth is making me go all daddy on you." "Please don't say that again." "Done." Buffy and Xander both giggled. Willow walked into the hall where both Xander and Buffy were standing and laughing. "What? I don't have anything on my shirt do I?" Willow looked down at her shirt checking for any mustard stains from her ham sandwich she just had for lunch. "No, Willow. Just another joke. So, Giles said we should patrol tonight." "So we've heard." said Xander answering for both Willow and himself. "That kinda puts a damper on exploring the town tonight. I guess we will be exploring though, in a looking for fiend from hell kinda way." After saying that all three shrugged their shoulder and then started to laugh. "Buffy have you eaten yet? Why don't you eat with us?" Willow asked in a caring way. "Nah, like Xander said I've got to get to my new job. Thanks though." "Come on Buffster, a ex-slayer's gotta eat." "You mean still slayer but not as high and mighty right?" Xander and Willow let out a small laugh. Buffy couldn't help but agreed to Willow's offer of lunch and started walking toward the kitchen of the two-story house.
"Hey Buffy!" Kennedy said walking toward the refrigerator. Buffy swallowed the piece of ham sandwich so she could respond to Kennedy. "Hey Kennedy. How are you?" "I'm great. I love this new town. I can't wait to stake something! I've had a hankering to do just that since last week. Haven't you ever had a hankering to kill something?" Kennedy said while pretending to stake the air or what she thought was now a dusted vampire. "I guess I know how you feel." Buffy shrugged as she continued to eat her sandwich when Xander interrupted Kennedy's and Buffy's conversation. "Hey Kennedy, I thought you, Andrew, and Dawn were going to the mall." "I told them we would around two so when you drop Buffy at work you could swing by the mall to drop us off." "Wait a minute." Buffy threw her hands abruptly in the air and stood up almost choking on her food and dropping her lunch on the tile floor. "Dawn left the house like twenty minutes ago saying she was leaving with you. Don't tell me she pulled another Halloween stunt. I don't want her out there all alone in a city we've lived in for only ten days!" "No, Buffy, calm down. She didn't." Kennedy reassured. "She came here and I told her to wait till two so she said to meet her at Faith's." Buffy let out a sigh of relief. "I wish she would tell me these things! Well Xander, are you ready to take me to work?" "I thought you wanted to delay the inevitable." "You were the one that said I had to get to work." Xander sighed. "Let's board the yellow bus and go I guess." Xander grabbed the bus keys and escorted Buffy out of the door.
"This is way better than flipping burgers at the Double Meat Palace," Buffy thought to herself as she stood on the outside of a store that read 'Rita's Clothing Shop'. "but it's still retail. Ugh." "See ya Buffy!" Xander yelled out of the big yellow bus. Buffy turned, smiled and waved at Xander as he pulled off heading for home. Buffy wanted to chase after the bus and go home but she knew she had to start helping out financially. Not just helping out in the safety way. Buffy walked into the clothing store with nothing but making money on her mind. This was a new city, a new life. She didn't want to end up in debt like she did in Sunnydale. Now that she wasn't the only 'Chosen One', this was the only thing she could do, work. It still made her feel human.
Buffy stood at the check-out counter with her head in her hand, watching 7:00 slowly come by. "6:59. One more minute and I'm outta here." Buffy said this in a whisper because her new boss was standing right behind her. "Buffy, you can go now. Good work for your first day." Her boss said with a smile on his face. Buffy thought about her past two bosses. "He is much nicer than 'Manny the manager at the Doublemeat." She thought to herself. "It's kinda creepy." "Have a good day. See you tomorrow." Buffy smiled at her new boss. "See you tomorrow." Buffy walked toward the back of the store to check-out for the day. She grabbed her coat off the coat rack, checked the pockets to make sure everything was there. Buffy opened the back door toward the employees parking lot looking for Xander to pick her up. Not seeing the big yellow bus, she looked down at the paved parking lot and started kicking rocks. A horn honked in the distance and there she saw the big yellow school bus. A smile grew upon her face as she started walking toward it. The doors of the big bus opened and there was Xander sitting behind the wheel with a smile on his face. "Hey Buffy! Ready to go patrolling?" "Patrolling? I just got off work!" She said in her whiny voice poking her bottom lip out. "And plus, it's still light out!" "Wow, nothing gets past you. Well, you still have two hours to wait." "Oh thank God!" A smile grew on Buffy's face as her and Xander drove off toward home.
"Kennedy behind you!" Kennedy turned quickly but just got a fist in her face. "Oops. Too late!" Willow said to herself. Kennedy jolted up quickly. Buffy, Kennedy, Willow, and the six potentials were surrounded by fifteen maybe twenty vampires. "I guess we found a 'hot spot'." Willow commented while the gang huddled in a small circle with there backs to each other. "Without a slayer in this town, the vampires think they have the place as there own." "I've got it! I'll go first and Kennedy you cover me!" A smile grew upon Victoria's face as she thought she made a brilliant plan. "She's just a potential, just a potential, she doesn't know any better." Buffy kept saying over and over to herself. The others looked at her with there confused faces on. The vampires even looked at her with there confused faces on. "What? I sounded good when I said it in my head." "How bout we help you?" Buffy looked up at the familiar voice. Xander staked a vampire and Giles followed along with Faith. "Don't worry B! We got your back!" Buffy ran for the vampire that was straight in front of her and staked him in less then two seconds. "Wow. A new Buffy record!" Buffy was then hit hard across the face by another vampire. "Okay, your gone in about hmm......five seconds!" The vampire let out a small snicker. Buffy punched the vampire senseless and he fell immediately to the ground. Buffy pulled out trusty Mr. Pointy and staked the vampire and he turned to dust. "Told you!" Buffy looked up and saw that Xander was pinned between a tree and a vampire. "Xander!" Buffy ran and dusted the vampire so Xander could breathe again. "Thanks Buff." "No problem."
Ten minutes later all the vampires were dust. "Anyone else wanna give it a try?" yelled Nicole who was another potential. "Shut up! I've had enough of this for one night!" said Denise who lightly punched Nicole on the shoulder. "I think we should call it a night. Twenty vampires is enough if you ask me." Xander said nearly out of breath. "I agree. I'll start looking at maps of the city. Just to see where the cemeteries and when I find them we can start looking there." Giles said while cleaning his glasses on his shirt. The gang all looked at Giles. "Are you kidding? Come on Giles! We just moved here and already you wanna start slaying?" Faith said heading toward Giles. Giles started to back up. He knew Faith's strength. If it was anything like Buffy's he had a reason to start backing up. "I just want to get a head start. This town hasn't had a slayer in five years. You never know what could be lurking in the dark." "He's right, but Giles, don't you think you could let us hang out for just another week before heavy slayage?" Buffy commented. "How about every other night till we are settled?" "Deal!" The rest of the gang looked at Buffy with disgust. "Hey guys, that's the best we will get! Trust me!"
"Wow. Now, that was fun!" Kennedy opened the door to her house and ran toward the couch to lay down. "Fun? You think that was fun?" said Willow in an exhausted and confused voice. "Yeah. I mean staking vamps is like what I live for now." Kennedy stood up and walked toward Willow. "Oh, I see. Staking vamps is more fun than hanging out with me, huh?" "That's not what I meant." Kennedy said shaking her head. She put her hand on Willow's shoulder and leaned in for a kiss. The front door opened. "Oops wrong time! I'll come back later." The front door shut. Then, two seconds later opened again. "Wait, I live here." Xander walked into the house and immediately headed toward the kitchen. The phone rang and Xander yelled "Willow, are you gonna get that?" Willow and Kennedy were still making out in the living room. "Willow?" Xander walked toward the living room while the phone was still ringing, "Never mind. I'll get it myself." Xander picked up the red cordless phone. "Hello?" "Bunnies! I hate Bunnies!" It was a voice filled with anger but yet sounded so familiar to Xander. He knew this and he lost his breath. His eyes widened and his heart started racing. He felt the phone was going to slip out of his sweaty palms He finally put words together. "Anya?" The phone clicked on the other side. "Hello? Hello?" Xander started breathing heavy. He hung up the phone and walked upstairs. He didn't bother to say goodnight to Willow or Kennedy. He was too questioning by the phone call he just received.
Xander woke up early the next morning. "Hey Xander. Oh my gosh. Are you okay?" Willow said looking at him. He looked terrible. His hair was shuffled in many different directions and he had rings under his eyes. "I didn't get much sleep last night." "Why?" Xander thought about his phone call and the dreams he had. "I have no clue." "Xander, are you keeping something from me?" Willow looked at Xander and raised her eyebrow. Xander didn't want to look up. He knew if he did he would crack and spill everything that has been happening to him. "Willow, I'm fine. Don't worry about me so much." "Your my best friend Xander. I have to worry. After what happened with....." Willow stopped. Xander looked up abruptly. He eyes were starting to tear slightly. He quickly looked back down. Willow didn't want to finish her statement but Xander knew what name she was going to say. "I'm going to go into town. Do you need anything?" "No." Xander walked toward the stairs with his head down to get ready to go to town. "Call everyone else and see if anyone wants to go." "Sure." Willow said. Tears started to fill her eyes.
I know it's kind of a cliffhanger! I'm going to try and post a story every two weeks! How's the story so far? Good? Bad? The only way I'll find out is through your reviews so don't forget to send me one every now and then! Let me tell u I know all the 'potentials' are now slayers but I still call them potentials to not confuse u....you'll see why in my later chapters!