Dawn Summers walked up the street in Oxford toward her apartment building, with a bag of groceries in her arms. She reached the entrance, and fumbled for her keys. She managed to extract them from her jacket pocket without dropping the bag. She opened the door, and went to the row of mailboxes to see if there was anything for her. She pulled several envelopes out of her box, dropped them into her grocery bag, and started up the stairs to her second floor flat. She grinned to herself: she had been in England too long, she was starting to think in Britishisms.
Dawn let herself into her flat, put the bag of groceries on the kitchen counter, and pulled out the mail. She started to flip through it: some junk mail, a couple of bills, a couple of envelopes for her flatmate, Joe, and two for her. One was a bit oversized, and the return address showed that it was from Xander, in Cleveland. It was addressed to 'Dr. Dawn Summers, D.Phil.'
She ripped the envelope open and pulled out a Scooby Doo birthday card. "Rappy Runty-Roar!" was written across the front of it, over a picture of Scooby in a party hat, and holding a cake with twenty-four candles on it. She opened the card to see what was written inside. Opposite a picture of Scooby—with the remains of the cake smeared across his face, and saying, "Rorry, I rouldn't rait!"—she recognized Xander's nearly illegible scrawl:
Happy Birthday Doc!
Sorry I'm going to miss the party. Give everyone a kiss
for me. (Except Giles—You can hug him for me, but any
kissage will have to be from you alone. And oh, give
Joe a good big brotherly glare from me, no hugs or
kisses.)
Congrats on the degree. I knew you'd do it. Even the
Mighty Giles bows before you when it comes to ancient
languages. Be gentle with him, try not to make him feel
too inadequate.
The local Slay Gang all send their congrats too. Have
fun, be careful, and remember not to look back: they
might be gaining on you!
Love Xander.
xxx 000
Dawn smiled, and set the card on the shelf with the others that had come in for her over the last week. She looked at her other letter, and frowned. This one was addressed to 'Dr. Dawn Summers' too, but it wasn't from anyone she knew. The envelope looked very official, but she couldn't imagine why anyone from the U.S. Air Force would be writing to her. It had been over six years since she had met anyone who was involved with them. Sure, she'd sent Dr. Jackson a copy of her dissertation, partially because she had cited some of his papers in it (over the objections of her advisor) but she hadn't spoken with him since that last day on the island. She opened the letter.
Dr. Summers:
We are in need of someone with your qualifications, for
a classified project. I am unable to give you specific
information about the nature of the work in this letter,
but I will be in London from August 22, to the 29th and
would like to arrange a time that I could meet with you.
Please contact me at the number below if you are
interested in learning more about this opportunity. I
can say, that if you accept our offer, the work will be
challenging, exciting, important, and may give you the
chance to travel to some exotic locations.
Col. Paul Davis, USAF
Dawn's frown deepened. She had never heard of this colonel before, and she couldn't understand why the Air Force would want her. She thought back to the speculation that they had all done about what had brought Daniel, Jack, Sam and Teal'c to that island. They'd joked that the Air Force had been looking for aliens, but none of them had really believed it. She looked at the last line again. "Exotic locations?" she asked herself. "Nyah, he couldn't mean that."
She heard keys in the lock, and put aside the Air Force letter to properly glare at Joe as he came in the door. He saw the expression on her face, and looked puzzled. "What did I do?"
Dawn picked up Xander's card, and waved it. "Nothing. The glare was from Xander."
"Aw…and how is the old pirate?"
"Probably piratical," said Dawn. "So, everything's arranged?"
"Yep, we can pick up the van in the morning. So, what's for dinner?"
"I was thinking of ordering Indian tonight," said Dawn. "That good for you?"
"Yeah…but don't tell them you want it extra-hot this time."
Dawn went to the phone. "Wimp!"
"I like the lining of my mouth!" said Joe.
Dawn had been sharing the flat with Joe for two years now—ever since they had both started working on their post-graduate degrees—and they'd been sharing one bedroom for eighteen months. The second bedroom had been converted into a library/office that they also shared. Joe was fun: a good friend, and someone she could talk about linguistics and mythology with. He was also in training to be a Watcher, so she didn't have to hide that part of her life from him. They were leaving in the morning for the renovated manor house that was the new Watcher HQ near Westbury, that Dawn had come to think of as her permanent home, even though she hadn't spent more than six months there, over the last six years. Her things were almost all packed; Joe would be returning here, with one of the Slayers who would be starting classes at Oxford in a couple of weeks. They had decided to leave the moving of the heavy furniture—that would turn it back into a two bedroom flat—for the Slayer.
Leaving Joe was one of Dawn's regrets about her impending move, but the time had come for them to go their separate ways. They had both understood that this part of their relationship wasn't permanent. One or the other of them would be moving on eventually. She'd miss Joe being there for her all the time, but she knew he'd stay someone she could phone up to shoot the breeze with, any time she needed to have someone's ear to bend, and they would always be able to drop in on each other with minimal notice if they needed a place to crash for the night.
They finished packing Dawn's stuff into boxes that evening. There were a few disagreements over who some of the books belonged to, that got settled with a coin toss. They also polished off a couple of bottles of wine while they worked.
They went to bed before midnight, and made love like it might be their last time together…in that bed anyway. Dawn expected that they'd still have a couple more nights together over the weekend, before Joe came back here.
They awoke early the next morning, and after showering and dressing they went out to have breakfast at the little restaurant across the street from their flat. They played /Rock, Paper, Scissors/ to see which of them would go get their rental van, while the other stayed behind to start carrying down boxes. Dawn lost.
Joe gave her a quick kiss. "Be back in half an hour."
"You better be," said Dawn.
Dawn had most of the lighter boxes moved down, and sitting in the alcove just inside the back door of the building when Joe pulled the van into the alley. They quickly transferred that stuff into the van, and then went back up to the flat for the rest of it. It was nearly ten o'clock when they were done, and they climbed into the van for the hour and a half drive to Westbury.
Dawn honked the horn as she pulled the van to a stop in front of Watcher HQ. (She'd won the /Rock, Paper, Scissors/ to see who'd drive.) She was getting out when the front door of the house opened. Dawn recognized the first person who came out to greet them. Holly had been the youngest Potential who'd been called by Willow on the day of Sunnydale's destruction, and she was still one of the youngest of the Slayers. She was also the girl who would be going back to Oxford with Joe.
Six years ago there'd have been up to a dozen young Slayers living here, as all of the girls had rotated through Watcher HQ for their training, but now Holly was the last of them, and she'd be leaving in a couple of days. There were a few younger girls—new Potentials—who were in residence, and some of the older Slayers who still came back for refresher courses and to help train the Potentials, but it felt a bit like the end of an era to Dawn. They had changed the world that day. Seven years had passed, and the effects of Willow's spell were still echoing. Slayers used to have a life expectancy of about a year, but only a couple of Slayers had died in combat since that day in Sunnydale. No Slayer was ever "one girl in all the world" anymore; no Slayer went into battle alone. The Scoobies had kept Buffy alive for seven years on top of the Sunnydale Hellmouth, and she made sure that none of the Slayers who were called as a result of her decision that day ever went into a fight without similar backup.
The other big change was that no Slayer had to sacrifice her family, her friends, or her education, for her calling anymore. When Willow was finished digging through the resources of the old Council—getting control of their assets transferred over to the new administration—they had found that there was more than enough money to pay for a top notch education for all of the new Slayers and Potentials. The new Council provided every girl with a full scholarship to the educational institution of her choice, if she could meet the academic standards required—which meant that Slayers pretty much got into whatever universities they wanted: whatever power chose these girls, didn't choose stupid ones. Some of the Slayers from third world countries had needed a lot of remedial education to get them ready for it, but now the only Slayers who didn't go to university were the ones like Faith, who didn't want to go.
Even Buffy had gone back to university, once things had settled down a bit. She had surprised nearly everyone by deciding to major in Education, though it made a certain amount of sense for the role that she had made for herself. She joked that she was the first Slayer to ever retire, but that wasn't really what she had done. She had moved on to take charge of the education and training of the Slayers who followed her.
Buffy, Willow and Giles followed Holly out of the house, and Dawn gave them their hugs and kisses from Xander. With everyone pitching in, all of her boxes were moved up to her room before it was time for lunch.
Dawn arranged to be alone with Buffy and Giles in the library after lunch. She felt the folded letter in her pocket, and looked at them nervously.
"What's bugging you Dawn?" asked Buffy.
"What?"
"There is obviously something that you want to talk to us about," said Giles. "What is it?"
"Um…nothing much," said Dawn, "it's just…"
"Spit it out," said Buffy.
"Umm…I've just been thinking about some stuff lately," said Dawn. "What I'm going to do next."
"I thought you wanted to be a Watcher," said Giles.
"I did," said Dawn. "I mean, it always seemed like it was the most important thing that anyone could do…you know…anyone who wasn't actually a Slayer. Helping save the world, and all."
"But now you don't want to help save the world?" asked Buffy. The smile on her lips kept the sting out of the question.
"I do!" said Dawn. "It's just, now… There's over a hundred Slayers now, all over the world, and we've got enough Watchers for all of them… You don't really need me."
"Dawn—"
"No, Buffy. I know I'm good at what I do. I know I've helped you a lot in the past, but I don't feel needed anymore. We've gone seven years without a major apocalypse to avert. Vampires are almost extinct: at the rate we're going, in another year or two the only vamps left will be your ex-boyfriends. The only demons left are the ones that are smart enough not to kill people!"
"You've been training for a war," said Giles, "and now you've graduated, and the war is over."
"Exactly!" said Dawn.
"But it's never really over," said Buffy. "There will always be evil, waiting for us to drop our guard."
"I know." Dawn shrugged. "And if you ever need me, you know I'll be there for you, but I'm thinking that maybe…until that happens…I want to try something else."
"Like what?" asked Giles.
"I don't know, but I want to have a look around at other possibilities. I've been focused on becoming a Watcher so long, that I haven't really considered anything else." Dawn looked back and forth between Buffy and Giles. "I know that the Council has paid for my education, with the understanding that I'd—"
"Stop!" said Giles.
"But—"
"No!" said Giles. "You owe us nothing Dawn. If anything, we owe you!"
"But—"
"You have been helping Buffy for ten years," said Giles, "and in that time, you haven't only helped to keep her alive, you have helped to save the world. All of the assets of the Council couldn't repay the debt that it owes to you."
"But it wasn't just me," said Dawn. "It was all of us."
"I know." Giles gave her an ironic smile. "The Council owes a lot of people more than all of its assets. You, Buffy, Willow, Xander, even Andrew…well maybe not all of our assets for him."
"But I owe all of you too," said Dawn. "If not for you guys, Glory would have killed me."
"So we call the slate clean," said Buffy. "Our debts cancel out. You don't owe us, and we don't owe you, anymore than we owe, or are owed, by any of the other people we love." She leaned back against the library table. "So, was there anything specific you wanted to look at?"
Dawn pulled the folded envelope out of her pocket. "I'm not sure. I got this yesterday." She handed it to Buffy.
Buffy's eyebrows went up as she saw the envelope. "The Air Force? You planning to enlist?"
"Um…he doesn't say anything about me enlisting," said Dawn. "I think it's more like a civilian consultant deal. I also think it may have something to do with whatever Dr. Jackson and the rest of them were doing on that island six years ago."
Buffy quickly scanned the letter, before handing it to Giles. "You mean we might actually get to find out if those were alien spiders?"
"Maybe," said Dawn.
Buffy frowned. "I'm not sure that this is a good idea. We've had problems with the military."
"I know you got badly burned by the Initiative, but we've had good relations with some of them too," said Dawn. "Riley's teams helped us out a couple of times, and we've helped them."
"I know," said Buffy, "but every time we get involved with them, I get nervous. I trust Riley and his people, but I'm not sure if I trust the people he reports to."
"So you don't think I should do this."
"You're an adult Dawn. I think you should make up your own mind. I have some misgivings about this, but I won't tell you not to do it, not that it would do any good if I did."
"And I doubt if just talking to the man will create any hazard," said Giles. He handed the letter back to Dawn. "Even if you don't accept his offer, it could be useful to find out just what he wants from you."
"Right," said Dawn. "I guess I've got a couple of phone calls to make."
"A couple?" asked Buffy.
"Yeah, one to Colonel Davis, and one to Riley, to see if he's heard of this guy."