On the Phone

Sunnydale/ San Francisco

"Hey Will. Didn't expect to hear from you so soon," Buffy said by way of greeting, curling up on her bed.

"Yeah, well, I learned a lot, and, well, I knew you'd be curious as to what's been going on. I think I have an idea on how to beat the First, but we'll need Angel and his friends in LA., and the people I've meet here. Maybe you could catch a bus up here, so we could talk about it? I don't have enough thought out to start on the phone."

"Will, you know I can't!" Buffy said, ignoring the comment about needing Angel, "I'd love to, I really would! But, there's a new slayer-to-be here. I have to train her. You know that I can't leave it to anybody else, I'd feel if I was letting her down! As well as responsible if anything happened to her."

"What about Giles? Couldn't he take over?"

"He's no longer my watcher, technically, there's no longer any such thing as a Watcher's Council, or a Watcher."

"But that is what he trained his whole life for, Buff, he's a watcher, his father was a watcher. His grandmother was a watcher! And he's a watcher!"

"What if everybody came here?" Buffy asked, already regretting the question. With the potentials, and Andrew, and Spike and Giles, the house was already crowded.

"Well, they have a small baby, I'm not sure how they'd feel about being asked to come there, especially since he was born 6 weeks early. And there are others here, I'm not sure if you would want to see them again."

"Who?"

"Angel and Cordelia."

"What! Why are they there!" Buffy asked, miffed.

"Same reason as me, they got some info that something freaky was going on here, and they came to visit."

"Does everybody know about my slayer status?"

"Yeah, I meant to mention that," she said, tracing circles on the desk "I sorta had to tell. They fight demons to, the Halliwells, Piper, she's the one with the baby, Phoebe, and Paige. Piper's husband, Leo, is a whitelighter."

"Huh?"

"From what I understood, like a guardian angel, only for witches. Maybe like watchers, only not human?"

"Strange."

"Yeah. Oh, they said that they've heard of you from vampires, a nest was looking for you here, but they thought you were just a myth."

"Huh, funny, that's exactly what Professor Walsh thought I was, too. What exactly did you tell Angel?"

"I couldn't lie to him, Buffy," Willow bit her lip, tensing for the outburst.

"Willow!" She cried horrified "Does he know about Spike!"

"Yes. I didn't tell him, he guessed. I wanted to make sure that whatever I told him, he wouldn't hurt me, because some was bad news, and he told me he wouldn't think of hurting me, unless you and Spike dated or something. I said no, but then he guessed that you'd…he got mad, and he left."

"Well, ask them, all of them, if they would like to come here, and meet the rest of the gang. If they can't possibly come here, I might be able to find away to come, or to meet halfway somewhere. Though I would be pretty suspicious to be traveling with twenty girls!"

"Ok, I'll call you."

"Talk to you soon."

"Bye!"

Sunnydale

I can't believe her! I know that she had no choice, but, hell! This makes my life so much more difficult! Things are strange around here with Spike and Wood, I think he knows more than he's telling, but if Angel comes, and now that he knows, things are going to become a whole lot worse! I can't be babysitting them while I have a job to do, I have to baby-sit the Slayers-to-be, as well as I have my counselor job! Buffy thought as she went downstairs to beat the crap out of the punching bag in the basement. She was in such a fit that she didn't realize that Spike would be in the basement, and she really didn't want to answer questions.

San Francisco

Halliwell house

Damn! Buffy's pissed at me! This isn't going to be easy, how do I ask them this?

Nothing is ever easy, you should know that by now, the voice in her head told her.

Get out of my head. I have enough to worry about, without worrying about you!

Suit yourself…the tone was singsong, and just made Willow feel worse.

"Piper, Phoebe, Paige, Leo?" Willow called, uncertainly, as she walked down the stairs. She had been in the attic, Piper said that she could sleep up there, and she was welcome to stay as long as she wanted.

"We're in the kitchen!"

Here goes!

"How do you like your 'room'?" Paige asked, smiling as Willow came into the kitchen to find Piper cleaning up, and Cordelia, Phoebe and Paige sitting at the kitchen table. Leo was playing with Wyatt.

"It's nice, very spacious, even if it's a tiny bit dusty. I just got off the phone with Buffy, and she thinks that if we all work together, you too, Cordelia, she thinks that we can solve all of our problems. The only problem is, she has to stay in Sunnydale, the slayers-to-be count on her so much, and if she leaves now, they might think she's deserting them."

"Ok, well, we could probably go to Sunnydale, just for a short while. Leo, the Elders wont mind, will they? We'll still be protecting innocents, just not here." Phoebe said quickly with a smile; she prided on her skill of getting around things. "Plus, we need a vacation, even if it is a working vacation."

"This won't be easy, I want to point that out right now, this will not be a walk in the park! This is going to be very dangerous, not just for you, but for us as well, the First has ways of controlling people, we don't know if it might try it with you. It tries to rationalize with the evil inside you, and bring that evil out. If you see anyone that you know that's dead, don't listen, no matter what they say. It's the First trying to manipulate you," Willow cautioned.

"But what about if demons come here, looking for us, they could destroy the house," Piper said, "And what about the Nexus?"

"It's not as if it's been destroyed before!" Paige quipped.

"I could help with that. I know that you can't do stuff for yourselves, but what if I did a protection spell? I've gotten pretty good at them, well, my magickal power has grown since I've last done one, but it shouldn't be to hard. Even one the size of a house."

"Would it stop them from getting in? Even blinking in?" Piper asked.

"I think so, if we word it correctly, but I can't guarantee anything. The only protection spell I tried was for Buffy, it was to be a surprise, but she found out. And they don't work well with her line of job."

"Just do your best. We can leave tomorrow morning, if you want," Phoebe said after silently conversing with her sisters.

"No, it'll take longer than that to set up the spell, and Angel, we need to tell him, and we'd have to leave after dark."

"There he is now." Cordy said, as they heard the door close.

"You tell him, you guys pack, and I'll set up the spell." Willow dished out jobs.

"Great, give me the dangerous job!" Cordy muttered.

Willow went to the living room, so do and inventory of what she had. Before she started, she called Buffy, to tell her the plan was a go. She decided to ask Paige where the magical supplies were, she didn't have enough stuff. As if I didn't bring everything I own, well, some of each, and I don't have what I need. Maybe Giles knows something about this type of spell, I'm gonna need help coming up with something!

Sunnydale

"Ok, everyone here? Good. This is very important so pay attention, Spike, Xander, Giles and Wood you especially. Willow thinks that we might have found a solution to this First problem. But, it means getting help from a very old friend, an old vampire friend…"

"Buffy! What are you saying!" some of the potentials cried, Xander's voice among them.

"Xander, please don't interrupt. We don't have a choice, the world is at stake."

"I don't understand why it's so important that I be here," Principal Wood said.

"Speaking of stakes, my friend, you must not stake him! None of you are to think about staking him! I know that only Xander, Spike, Dawn, and Giles know who I'm talking about, but…"

"I'm drawing a blank, luv."

"Well, let me help," Buffy said, irritated that he had called her love, "You despise him, and you are one of the reasons why he left, even if he doesn't know it, and you weren't even around when he left. And he left right after graduation. That help?"

"Oh, the Poof coming back!" Spike cried with a laugh, "This is going to be a barrel of moneky."

"Yes. For the rest of you, who have no clue, let me explain…" Buffy said,c asting a glance at the potentials.

San Francisco

"Are you sure you're ok with this, Angel?"

"I'll manage. Don't worry about me." It's too late for that Cordelia thought.

"Spike's going to be there, as well as Principal Wood, Buffy's boss," Willow added.

"Just great, Roller boy!" He realized that that was what Angelus had called Spike, and shuddered inside.

Somewhere in South America

"Agent Finn, are you sure about this?" a captain asked

"All the signs are pointing in that direction. Something is about to go down, something big."

"We move out at your command," he folded, acknowledging Finn's expertise in the area.

On the phone

Los Angeles/San Francisco

"Wesley, we're headed to Sunnydale. We don't need anyone, Angel doesn't want anyone there, but we need the information, I expect that you'll want to be there. Bring the info about the Beast. We're going to crack this case wide open."

Sunnydale

"Ok, today we will not train, we will clean," Buffy said the next morning when she had the potentials assembled.

"But why? Isn't our time better spent training, not cleaning?" one of the girls asked.

"Have you taken a good look around here lately! We are going to be having guests here in a few days. I know that we are cramped as it is, but it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. There are to be new sleeping assignments, we need to make room for our guests…" Buffy went on to describe the way things were going down from now on.