(For those who missed the episode where Vash talked about his scars, he stops bleeding, but a human's ability to avoid scarring, is not his ability. Every wound he's ever received is still present on his body. I just thought that he deserved a little more peace. (grin)

Wolfwood had somehow, during the course of the night, wound up with his head on Dawn's shoulder. How that happened when he fell asleep across the room was anyone's guess.

Vash was snoring, but so was everyone else.

Willow was curled up in a ball with Tara. Willow's arms were wrapped around herself, Tara's around her.

Giles had lent Buffy his room, and was sitting in the kitchen catching up on some reading and a decent cup of tea after waking up. He had also thrown Riley's wallet away and then the trash bag in the dumpster, while everyone was asleep. Why bother Buffy with it?

Spike was characteristically standing guard outside Gile's room, in case Buffy needed him.

Xander had gone to be with Anya as soon as it hit daylight. He was going to return later on.

Vash woke up first, and walked into the kitchen. "Where's the restroom?"

Giles pointed it out. He went. As he was returning, he nodded his head at Spike who responded in kind.

Giles looked up from the newspaper. "Make some tea if you want it."

Wolfwood woke up, noticed what he was doing, and decided that Buffy wasn't a safe person to annoy. Therefore, he moved away from Dawn carefully, and went into the kitchen too.

Willow woke up, noticed her position, and went back to sleep.

Buffy woke up, dragged Spike in, and lay back down with her head on his chest.

After drinking his tea, Giles sighed.

"We can try to figure out how to get you home, or you can stay here and help us. Admittedly, most the time it won't be very exciting. We don't always have demons trying to destroy the world, or enslave it. Most of the time it's just some creature wanting to eat, and Buffy has to stop it. If you do stay, we have to come up with some ID's and birth certificates, etc. I have some contacts."

"I doubt this world could handle the fact that I'm a lot older than I look." Said Vash. "Besides, I need to be where I might be needed again someday… and Buffy looks like she's got everything handled here."

"And somebody has to keep him safe from himself." Wolfwood said, grinning. "Though I will admit, I'll miss the greenery."

Giles adjusted his glasses. "It's settled then. Though I think Buffy might be slightly annoyed at the loss of two additional fighters, she will understand that you need to go home. As soon as Willow has recovered sufficiently, she, Tara, and I can start researching. Meanwhile, you two can help Buffy with patrolling if you want."

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Buffy and Vash showed Willow where he had gone through.

Tara spoke. "We should send Wolfwood through Vash's portal."

Willow tried a couple of spells to determine if she could find where the portal led. But it was still going to take a few days.

Xander went and got the donuts for their standard research session. When he returned, he got a shock.

Wolfwood walked into the room with his cross, and handed it to Xander. "I have an older one at home… your friends need some heavy backup. And here's a backup pistol."

Xander's training started in earnest. Including the area of maintenance, and how to find parts in case something was damaged. Willow and Tara figured out a spell to hide the cross as something else as well as avoid setting off metal detectors. Not even a dog trained to sniff it out would sense It., so Xander could carry it around at night. During the day, he'd carry the pistol. A spell was created for that too. After all, walking around with a pistol strapped to his hip in broad daylight was bound to attract the attention of the police.

Willow and Tara also created a silencer spell to keep the general public from being curious about the gunfire. No problems.

As for Giles, he received his own, and he had no problems ordering extra ammo. Spells were created to hide it and spare weapons in areas that Giles had hideaways.

Wolfwood made one for Buffy, but she wasn't ready to use it yet. Spells were created for it too.

Willow and Tara walked to where Vash and Wolfwood stood talking. "We've found out how to get you home."

They nodded, then looked at each other and grinned. All the restaurants in town learned to dread their arrival. They also got copies of the recipes of various foods to take home. Food was important after all.

Willow also found a way to help Vash heal from injuries, though not as fast as humans, as well as eliminate his immortality. She asked first.

He shrugged. "I'm sick and tired of outliving people."

She also found a spell that would work on his world, to hide his true identity from everyone but those who were his ally. The spell would correctly determine who he could trust.

Finally, Xander's training was finished. Even Spike, Buffy, and Giles had been trained in the crosses use. In case, something happened to Xander. Schematics were left for the cross as well.

Vash and Wolfwood waved to everyone as they stepped through the portal. However, the two witches had miscalculated slightly.

Vash and Wolfwood yelled as they fell from the air. Then they landed on something.

Millie yelled with joy, and leaped into Wolfwood's arms, and kissed him. "You're alive!"

Meryl glared at Vash as he lay on her. "GET OFF ME IDIOT!"

Vash ran around town yelling "OUCH!" as she hit him about the head.

Both couples wound up married a month later.

As for Buffy and her friends, the potentials showed up. Then they battled the First. Xander and his Cross made it easier. It could have been worse after all.

Giles managed to keep Anya from being killed.

Xander and Anya gave each other a second chance, and were married 6 months after Sunnydale was destroyed. Spike still gave up his life, but wound up at Angel's new home, Wolfram and Hart. He regained his body, wound up saving the day, and gained a heartbeat. Buffy never fell in love with anyone else, so when he tracked her down… they lived happily ever after as much as a slayer and her human mate with all the strength he had before, can be.

As for Andrew, Dawn turned him straight and they married too.

- - - - - - - - - -

Vash and Wolfwood's world had forgotten the preacher. The bounty was still on Vash's head.

The Gung-ho guns and Knives had been decimated and everyone was able to defend themselves pretty well. Other than the occasional appearance of a mysterious individual in red during troubles in which nobody could ever seem to remember what he looked like, the pair had finally gotten to retire.

Two years after they married, both couples had children. It was worse than Vash on caffeine. Of course, he and Meryl had their ups and down… as all couples do.

Vash's son Xander seemed to be as much trouble as his namesake was. He took after Vash and Meryl both.

Wolfwood's little Buffy tended to get into fights. She had that innocence that Millie had, yet the steady pace of strength of himself. He grinned. "Yep Gotta love children." Little Anya was exceedingly blunt.

Wolfwood and Millie went with groups of people trying to recover as much information about Earth as they could. Their children traveled along and generally caused havoc wherever they went. Vash sometimes went, with Meryl. Because of everything, they couldn't stand to live apart.

Vash and Wolfwood sighed as they stopped yet another bit of trouble in the town next to them. Old habits die hard. They had to protect the innocent.

Two years later Vash and Wolfwood received a shock.

As the two couples dug through some old files, they remembered the conversations with Giles about watchers. On a whim, they typed the information into an old database.

In an obscure file with the words "To Vash and Wolfwood" they discovered a section with the title "On the road again, a Scooby's tale." By Xander Harris.

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End Note: My thanks to Smile7499 who helped me through most of this story including editing then had to stop due to a busy time. My further thanks to CaliaDragon who took up the challenge and went back through to edit a little further as well as help me improve the chapters that Smile7499 had not been able to get to. This was a three person project.

Also, thanks to the reviewers who gave me random ideas. I couldn't use all of them, but they all helped.