Buffy had thought about this for a long time. In fact, she'd not only thought about it, she'd talked and debated and dreamt about it too! She still had no other conclusion to draw.

The phone sat innocently on her table, staring her in the face with an enquiring look. Buffy could either sit there and go through another week of nerve-wracking indecisiveness or she could pick up the phone and tell him what she had decided. She grit her teeth and picked it up:

"Hey, Giles? It's Buffy here. Yeah, something's kind of come up..."

And she told him everything. Well, not everything, because she didn't think she wanted to tell him about Ethan or what she was doing with him. Buffy wasn't all that sure what she was doing with Ethan either. What Buffy did tell him, was about the warrior demon princess who showed up at Ethan's door and tried to kill her. Buffy told him about how Ethan's wards kept her safe for that one time but that she'd been getting the feeling of being followed. Most of all, she told him that she was ready to come back to the Council.

On the other end of the phone, Giles blinked in astonishment at this sudden announcement and decided the phone was no place to be having this conversation. "Buffy, are you certain? Perhaps we should have this conversation tomorrow."

"Not tomorrow, Giles." Buffy's voice was tinny but insistent. "I've made my choice. I want to come back."

"Well, I'm not so sure, Buffy," Giles cautioned. He couldn't have described his gut feeling for love or money but something was telling him Buffy was lying, telling him what she thought he wanted to hear.

"Giles!" Apparently her lies didn't extend to her usual irritation with him. "Don't be so- so... look, if you don't believe me we'll have this stupid conversation. You free for lunch today?"

"Uh, yes?"

"Good! Pick me up at my place and we'll go out for lunch and I'll tell you all about my life- changing experiences on a spiritual thingie in China!"

"You went for a..."

"No, of course I didn't!" Buffy couldn't resist the smile as Giles' obvious astonishment floated over the line, "You English! You really have no sense of humour!"

"Indeed," Giles said dryly, "Very well, then. I'll pick you up and we'll go out for lunch. Buffy, I do want you back but until you're ready..."

Buffy's face softened. Giles or Ripper- whoever the man chose to be, he was still her Watcher. And maybe now she could handle that. "I am ready, Giles. You'll see."

The rest of the morning was spent going over the few bits of information she'd managed to glean from an old informant she'd caught up with last night. If he hadn't been undead, the poor vampire might have had a heart attack on the spot at the sight of her. It was only when she'd questioned him (thoroughly and painfully) about this warrior princess that seemed to be fixated with her that she'd learned that Elena's dealings with the Council had fallen through.

The leader of the tribe, the demon had decided the best candidate to serve as a warning to the Council was the Senior Slayer, the pride and joy of not just the Watcher's Council but the Head of the Council himself. As Buffy put it, "Great! I'm being killed 'cause I'm Giles' Slayer? This sucks!"

Giles appreciated the irony when she repeated her grumble to him. He did not, however, appreciate one of Elena's personal bodyguards following close behind her. While Buffy only shrugged and said she'd get rid of him when she could, that fact, coupled with the conflict in her gray eyes told Giles one thing and one thing only- leaving Buffy alone was not the best thing. So he welcomed her back with open arms and blandly shut his eyes to everything else.

Getting home, of course, Buffy kept her promise and ducked into a conveniently deserted store. Her shadow followed her to the door, peeped in and found himself pulled in with an iron hand while an equally strong fist took the wind out of his lungs with a well-placed blow to the ribs.

"Where's Elena?"

He shook his head and tightened his jaw.

Buffy shot a quick look over at the sale's girl's back and dragged him behind a rack of frilly skirts. "You want me to ask you again? Where's your leader? Oh God, did you just make me ask you to take me to your leader? Oh, I'm so killing you for that! But if you tell me, I'll think about it."

Again, the demon shook his head, stubbornly holding her gaze with fearless eyes.

Buffy sighed, uncomfortable with killing anything without a fight. So she sized him up, formed a plan and turned her back to leave. True to form, the silly git sprang at her back; she spun back, grabbed him and snapped his neck. Then she went home, only to find another battle awaiting her.

"What did he want?" Ethan asked quietly.

Buffy started and stared at this apparition in her living room. She looked around. Nope, it really was her living room. She hadn't walked into Ethan's place by mistake.

"Magic opens doors a lot more efficiently than keys," the mystic smiled. Then the smile faded. "Ripper called and you went running, didn't you? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Buffy said evasively. She didn't know why she suspected he would react badly, but she did. And until she knew how to explain the things she needed him to understand, she didn't want to have this conversation.

But Ethan was having none of that. He had her slammed against the wall, hard fingers pinning her shoulders in place with a lethal enough strength. Being the Slayer, Buffy wasn't in the least bothered; she could break his neck if she so wanted. The fact that he didn't appear to care about that was still somewhat of a novelty. "You left in the middle of the night," he growled, "Without so much as a word of explanation."

"The Council is planning a raid on Elena's safe-house tonight. Giles wanted to know if I could join them on this. The only other available Slayer is pretty inexperienced and he'd rather not put this on her. Now let me go."

Ethan smirked, the expression cold and cruel. "And if I don't? I thought you like being restrained. You certainly seem to enjoy it in bed."

Buffy tossed him away from her as easily as any other human. She made sure to be gentle, not up to calling an ambulance because she'd broken his back or something.

Ethan's response- he chuckled quietly and got back to his feet. "I forgot," he said simply, "You are the Slayer. Have fun, my dear; give Ripper a kiss from me."

And with that, he stalked out of the house into the gray morning. Buffy wrapped her arms around herself and glowered in peace. So she liked Ethan, so what! That didn't give him the right to tell her what to do. This had been getting worse for the last month and the Slayer was seriously having flashbacks to similar times with Spike. Except Ethan hadn't professed to love her. In fact, she wasn't sure if he even liked her at all.

But enough thinking! Buffy had her first fight in months to prepare for and it didn't sound like it would be a walk in the park. She relaxed her tensed muscles and walked to her weapons chest.

Running her fingers over it, she was dimly aware of a surge of power. The chest represented so much to her- family and strength and endurance and destiny. And again she was getting the longing to feel a stake in her hand, to know she was making an actual difference in the world. The chest opened and for the first time in six months she pulled out a sword and got to work.