A week had passed since Faith and the others had left for the other hellmouth. Buffy had been busy, though no one knew exactly what she was up to. As she rushed about, Angel began spending more time with his own friends/crew. They were testing out their resources at Wolfram and Hart, exploring the building and meeting the employees. Willow and Giles had managed to get most of Angel's formidable collection of books and prophecies onto the computer, as all of the Scooby Gang's research materials had been lost with Sunnydale.
Buffy wasn't surprised to find Oz in Willow's room. The pair had been spending a good deal of time together, in between Willow's many tasks and Oz's new job. In the absence of Xander, Faith, and Robin, Dawn had been overwhelmed with the sudden increase in her responsibilities in teaching defense to the new slayers. Oz volunteered to help out, much to her relief. But whenever Willow or Oz had free time, they could usually be found together. When Buffy sought her redheaded friend out, she found her sitting at one end of the couch in her room, levitating a book in the air and occasionally turning the pages with a flick of her finger. Oz was lying across the length of the couch, his head in Willow's lap. He seemed to be contemplating the ceiling, humming under his breath, a Dingoes Ate My Baby song, no doubt.
"Hey, guys." Buffy called softly, feeling a little guilty for disrupting the quiet. Willow reached up to grab the book, and laid it down on the end table, turning to Buffy with a smile. Oz raised a hand in greeting.
"Hey Buffy. What's up?"
"I need to talk to you. Oz, you mind if I borrow Willow for a minute?"
"Not a problem." He replied, giving Willow's hand a brief squeeze as she stood, carefully easing a pillow under his head. She followed Buffy out into the hallway.
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah. But... okay, you know I've been really busy lately?" At the redhead's nod, she continued, holding up a manila envelope that she'd had in her right hand. "This is what I've been doing..." As she explained, Willow's expression shifted from worried to relieved to confident and back to worried again. When she'd finished telling her everything, she gave her best friend an anxious look.
"What do you think, Will?"
"I think... this is a good idea. Really, Buffy, you did a good job. Have you told everybody else?"
"Nope. You're the first to know." Willow tried, and failed, not to look immensely proud of that. She gave Buffy a reassuring smile and a hug, and turned to go back to her room.
"You'd better tell the others. I'll tell Oz, and don't worry. Everything will be fine." Buffy nodded, heading down the hall. There was a ballroom down that way, which was where Dawn had been training the slayers. Since Oz was with Willow, Dawn was probably working with the younger slayers, and any others who felt they needed a little extra practice. Buffy felt a swell of pride for her little sister. She had not only outgrown her childish practices, she had become a full-fledged, contributing member of the Scooby Gang. When Buffy opened the doors of the ballroom, she was smiling broadly. Dawn was walking around the room, which held about twelve slayers, paired off in twos. Each group was practicing basic defense, with Dawn observing and pausing every now and then to correct mistakes. Buffy called her over to the doorway.
"Hey Buffy!" she said cheerfully, toying with the ends of her brown hair, a habit she'd picked up after cutting it to shoulder length. The effect was what Buffy told her was adorable and Xander assured her was very mature.
"Hey Dawnie. You got a minute?"
"Sure. What's up?" Once again, Buffy held up the folder.
"I need to talk to you about something." And again, she explained her plan, and what she'd been working on. Dawn grinned at her as she finished.
"I love it! I can't believe we're actually gonna do it, but I love it!"
"Good." Buffy breathed a sigh of relief. Two down, three to go. "Thanks Dawnie. I'll let you get back to the girls." She started to leave, then turned back to her sister, "You're doing a great job, sweetie." Dawn beamed at her. Buffy watched her walk back to the training slayers, then headed for the first floor. Her first stop was the front desk, where she called Xander and told him what was going on. He promised to inform the others, and she went off in search of Giles. She found him in the basement, looking for some obscure book that had just been brought to his attention. As she helped him look, she launched on her fourth explanation of the day.
"Are you sure about this Buffy?" he asked her; giving that concerned father look she loved so much. "This is a very important decision. I mean, of course I support you, I just want you to be sure." She gave him a reassuring smile.
"I am, Giles. Really, I think this is the best thing."
"Very well. I suppose you're right." His forehead crinkled in a sudden frown, and he pulled off his glasses to clean them. "Have you told Angel?" Buffy sighed, running a hand through her hair.
"Not yet. I'm on my way to tell him now."
"Good luck. I imagine you'll need it." She nodded, giving him a weary smile. He had found the book he'd wanted, and was now wiping layers of dust from it. She headed upstairs, the folder still in hand. Four down, one to go.
She found Angel in his office. He seemed to be doing what he did best; namely, brooding. She knocked lightly on the doorframe before entering.
"Hey. You busy?" he chuckled a little.
"How could I be? With all the new slayers, there's not much for me to do. You okay? You look worried." He stood from his chair and moved to stand in front of her, leaning on his desk. She took a deep breath before beginning, telling him everything she'd told the others.
"You know I've been really busy lately. And I haven't told anyone what I've been doing, because I wanted to keep it to myself until I knew it was all ready. And now it is. So... You know that there's already a group of us in Cleveland. And things are running really smoothly, with the training and researching, and locating new slayers. In fact, Willow and Giles have pretty much perfected the slayer finding mojo, so we won't have to use Wolfram and Hart anymore. Angel... in this folder is information on a property in Pennsylvania. It's an old inn. It's kinda remote, off in the woods, which is good because we'll have privacy. There's plenty of room, and a big basement we can turn into a gym. I want to move my guys, the Scoobies and the slayers, out there." For a long moment, there was silence. Angel stared down at the carpet. When he spoke, he sounded defeated already.
"Pennsylvania? That's on the other side of the country, Buffy."
"I know." She replied softly, "But it's a hell of a lot closer to Cleveland, and there's some pretty serious demonic activity on the East Coast. I want to check out Maryland while I'm there, actually. I really think this will be a good thing for us. All of us." He didn't answer, and she reached out for his hand. "Angel, please. You know I'm grateful to you for letting us stay here. But it's time for us to go, find our own place. You have your own life, and we've disrupted that. I wish we could stay, Angel. It's been wonderful being here, and with you... but we set a lot in motion when we made all the potentials full-fledged, and it's time I started really dealing with it.. Please, say something." He met her eyes, looking despondent but accepting.
"I understand. I just... I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too." She stepped forward to give him a hug. "But that's what e-mail is for!" They both laughed at the idea of the 240-odd, technologically impaired vampire sending off an e-mail. They stayed wrapped in each other's arms for several moments, then Buffy slowly pulled away.
"I've got to go start packing, getting everybody ready. It's gonna be rough, moving all this stuff and all the people."
"I'll call up Wolfram and Hart, have them send over a few vans."
"Thanks, Angel." She paused in the doorway, anxiety creeping up her spine, "Do you think this is gonna be okay?" He smiled for her sake, nodding.
"Of course it will. You can do this, Buffy. And I'm here, whenever you need me. Slightly farther from you then I'd like, but still..."
"I know." She told him, smiling, "I'm gonna go. I'll see you later, okay?"
"Yeah." He returned to his chair, and she set off to begin her preparations. For a long moment, he sat in silent contemplation, then he picked up the phone.
Buffy began delegating tasks, worried about getting everything done. Gunn and Oz packed up weapons, while Wesley helped Giles with the books. Fred followed Willow around while she packed up majick supplies - whether she was actually helping, who knows. Buffy herself was rushing between everyone, checking on everything. She didn't need much time to pack her own stuff, most of her belongings had been swallowed up with Sunnydale, and though Angel had tried buying her new things, she hadn't wanted much. Once her bag was packed, she paused for a moment at her window, looking out onto the city. The lights sparkled and shone, and reminded her of her bedroom window growing up here in L.A., before the move to Sunnydale. She imagined briefly what would have happened had she never left L.A., never been called as the slayer. She would never have died, never have faced so many demons and horrors. Never have met her best friends, or fallen in love with the two men who still owned her heart, even if they were both dead (one more so than the other, Spike's voice whispered in her mind). She laughed softly, staring at the night sky. It would be hard to leave this. Here, she felt safe. With Angel, she felt safe. In Pennsylvania, she would truly be on her own, in unfamiliar settings without him to fall back on. She shook her head sharply. She would be fine. She would take care of her now very extended 'family', and she would kick demon ass at the same time. Yeah. She had killed a Master vampire at fifteen, died and returned twice, and battled countless monstrosities that would send older, wiser people running for cover. She was powerful, and strong, and she was going to go have a cup of hot chocolate with her little sister, and tomorrow they would start the long drive across the country to Pennsylvania. A road trip. Fun. She smiled confidently, then headed for the stairs. Once again, she was starting over. And one way or another, she was going to make this work.
Author's Note :
Okay, so it's been two years since I finished this thing. I'm finally starting the sequel, which is gonna continue from an existing vignette – Sweet Dreams. Go read and review now!