Well, Mr. and Mrs. Kent still got up pretty early, as they always did, and Cara was never one to stay in bed unless she absolutely had to. And Mrs. Digman was actually up and drinking coffee, reading the early morning paper, when Lex and Buffy came roaring up to the castle in his Porsche (Lex drove like a maniac, even completely sober, which Buffy found kind of novel) to warn her that a literal army would be showing up within an hour or two, wanting beds and/or breakfast.
It turned out that Riley Finn was not the only farmboy in the anti-monster commando squad, so Jonathan had plenty of help with the morning's chores, even though they did get sort of a late start.
That was good, because Clark had crashed hard after the big space battle, barely making it home before falling shivering into a heavy sleep on the Kent living room couch. The Kents were taking it in stride, so Buffy told Dawn not to worry about it. She was pretty sure Dawn would worry about it anyway, and made sure that Dawn was bivouacked in the Kents' farmhouse, so she'd be right there when Clark finally woke up.
Buffy decided to stay at the Kents' place, too, instead of at the mansion. She thought it would be too awkward to try to sleep in a place she'd never slept, with Lex and Riley Finn and Mrs. Finn and a ton of Finn-followers all under the same roof. After all the previous night's death, she also sort of wanted to stay near to her sister.
At least Angel and his entourage had all chosen to stay in Metropolis instead of coming down to Smallville. They had a nice block of hotel rooms, that Lex had arranged for them and paid for, and that had those thick expensive light-proof curtains to prevent Angel and Spike from going up in smoke. As soon as Cordy had made sure that Lex really wasn't up for grabs, she'd insisted on six hundred dollars a day plus expenses. After all, Angel Investigations was in the business of helping to stave off alien invasions and things of that kind, and LexCorp Industries would have gone broke if the attackers' plan had succeeded. Lex paid without a murmur. Buffy was pretty sure that Cordelia would be spending at least part of the day enjoying the Metropolis shopping before the AI team caught the red-eye back to L.A. that night.
Stonetree had stayed in Metropolis, too. He'd been completely uninvolved in the big Alien Contraption Scavenger Hunt, choosing instead to offer Lieutenant Sawyer any help that he could, and to wait patiently until Fox Mulder's remains could be retrieved from the Civic Center (which ended up an almost total loss.) He said that Mulder had awoman and a childin Montana somewhere, and he figured he ought to bring them the news, and the ashes. It was very Watcher-like of him, Buffy thought. It was always nice to meet one of the world's Good Guys.
When Buffy woke up, it was almost noon. The residue of restless dreams was dispersed by the sound of normal cheerful conversation downstairs. Dawn's cot across the room was empty, so Buffy figured Clark must have finally woken up too. She was happy to have actual clean clothes to put on, even though she never had gotten that shopping trip with Lex they'd talked about.
It was remarkable how different it felt going down the stairs, compared to how she'd felt just over a week ago. Yeah, people had died again, and odds were it was her fault somehow. But still, the world didn't end. Look at it.
Buffy came into the kitchen smiling, and greeted her sister, and Clark and his folks, and Riley and his wife, and the four soldiers who'd come over with them to lend a hand on the place. She didn't even know their names, but it didn't spoil her mood at all.
"How you feeling today?" she asked Clark, who looked a little down.
"Fine," he said automatically, but Buffy knew different, and Dawn and Clark's folks and probably everybody else in the room knew different.
"It wasn't your fault people died. And the world's still here. You did good," Buffy told him. She could see he didn't really believe her. He'd have to get over it eventually, but it was up to him.
"I told you that," Dawn grumbled, messing up his hair.
Clark dipped his head and blushed, shoving his big black-rimmed glasses back into place. He obviously didn't want to have this conversation here in front of strangers, and Buffy suddenly remembered about the secret identity, and decided to re-direct.
"It's not your fault you got sick, and we had lots and lots of big strong men to fight with us." The soldiers chuckled, shoveling down ham and eggs and muffins. "Your dad and Pete did fine, too. One more guy wouldn't have made that much difference. We'll all miss Mulder, but it's so totally Not Your Fault."
Clark shot her a grateful glance, and the table's topic of conversation turned to the Fourth of July Fair.
Riley and Company weren't planning to stay for it. They'd arranged to transport out all their booty via Smallville Municipal Airport, which didn't even have a tower and technically counted as Uncontrolled Air Space, which they figured might help avoid questions.
Mrs. Kent was packing up the pies she'd made the day before, while nearly everybody else had been gearing up for the big fight. The best one was going to the fair to be judged, and she was sending the rest with the soldiers for thank-you presents.
Buffy, Dawn and Clark hitched a ride back to the mansion with the soldiers, in their Jeeps. They'd say good-bye to everybody, distribute the pies, and then continue on to the Fair with Lex. The Kents and Cara would probably see them there.
Mrs. Digman had obviously gone all-out with the hospitality. She looked even more cheerful than Martha Kent had, at the large number of guest she had to provide for. Lex, on the other hand, looked more than a little shaky and pale. Either he hadn't been able to sleep, with his house full of strangers, or he was having a bad reaction to last night's events.
When Sam Finn got all possessive of Riley's arm, as Buffy and Dawn were bidding Riley a fond farewell, Lex seemed to perk up a little. Clark seemed more cheerful once all the Initiative-types were gone, too.
"Let's go to the fair," he said. "I want to see if I can win the pie-eating contest!"
"Isn't that a little unfair?" Dawn asked, as she and Clark wedged their long legs into the backseat of Lex's least backseat-challenged sportscar.
"I don't have super pie-eating powers!" Clark protested vehemently.
"Are you sure?" Lex asked.
Buffy and Dawn both laughed. Clark tried not to, but he kind of failed. "I don't!" he muttered feebly.
"We believe you," Dawn said, snuggling him.
Buffy and Lex laughed some more.
The Fairgrounds were crowded with people. A smattering of carnival rides attracted the little kids to one side, and the livestock and domestic arts competitions attracted people's parents to the other. (Jonathan had foregone entering any cattle this year, because he was busy with planetary defense. Martha, trying to keep her mind off the invasion and her menfolks' possible imminent deaths, had gone overboard and was entered in the pie, cake, candy, jam, and flower-arranging categories.)
Buffy, Lex, Clark, and Dawn strolled about, saying hi to kids Clark had been to school with, and to people who worked for Lex. They got some cotton candy, and rode some of the rides. Clark competed in the pie-eating contest, but he heard somebody falling off the Tilt-a-Whirl and had to rush away in the middle of it to save them on the sly, ending up disqualified. Lex got the operator fired on the spot, for failing to check people's seatbelts.
Various Smallville merchants had booths or displays set up. Lex spent quite a while at a scarily pink and ruffled booth, ordering iced coffees and talking with the proprietress. Buffy was about ready to wander dejectedly off and look for something else to do, and Dawn was looking all huffy on her behalf, when Pete Ross came up and defused the whole situation by leaning over the counter and kissing the slightly-built dark-haired girl full on the lips. Clark sputtered cutely, "Pete! You never told me you were going out with Lana!"
Pete puffed himself up proudly and gloated, "You never asked me, man. We been together almost since Christmas."
The girl, Lana, giggled and bobbed her head, blinking.
"Way to go, Pete!" yelled a nearby kid in a letterman's jacket. Lana giggled and bobbed her head some more.
"Congratulations, Pete," Lex said. "I hope that you and Lana will be very happy together." He sort of hustled Clark, who still looked a little stunned, away from the booth.
"Pete!" Clark sputtered finally, when they were out of earshot. "Pete!"
Lex laughed at him. Dawn began to look a little dangerous. Clark visibly started realizing how much trouble he was in.
Buffy saw something strange that drew her attention. There was a crowd of scared-looking people gathered around the Fordman's booth, where a big-screen TV was set up. "Uh oh," she said, and she pulled the whole party over to check it out.