It was a few weeks after Travers had left Sunnydale. The clerk who had given Giles the information on Travers' plans had also sent him a letter informing him of Travers demotion from Director of the Board to Supervisor of the Dangerous Relics Library. The news, along with the information that the new Director had put Faith's Cruciamentum on hold until after the current policies could be reevaluated had made for a wonderful celebration for Faith's birthday. Today there was another reason to celebrate as well because Xander had finally managed to get enough money together to move into his first real apartment. It was in the demon section of town, which was why the rent was so cheap, but Xander didn't mind. None of his neighbors were the kind of demons who ate humans and the apartment was very nice. Dean thought it said something about the man that he was perfectly fine with demons for neighbors as long as they weren't interested in eating him. When he said this to John, his dad reminded him that this was the man Dawn and everyone else had called a demon magnet and that Spike was moving with Xander. "The man voluntarily keeps blood in his fridge for the vampire he accidentally married." That really about summed Xander up for them. This was a man who really rolled with the punches. He had accepted reality and distilled his reactions down to the most basic; was it going to try to eat, rape, mutilate, or kill him? Then it needed to be killed. Anything else was met with a shrug and a live and let live policy.
The news about the marriage had been shared rather reluctantly with the rest of the group due to Anya's outing them to Willow. She had demanded an explanation for Anya wanting them to have sex, something Willow was personally against as she knew Xander wasn't gay. Rather than keep the information to herself, she had immediately asked the rest of the Scoobies for help in researching a way for Xander to get out of the marriage. It didn't take long for them to find out what Xander and Spike already knew. The marriage would only end when one of them was dead. Spike had then explained that there was a way to make a paper marriage out of it, and they had already taken the steps needed for that. Xander had also explained that he really didn't want to dust Spike for something that wasn't his fault because Spike hadn't put a hit or something out on him like he had on Buffy a few years ago. After a little gentle ribbing about Xander and his demon magnet status now being confirmed, they had dropped the subject altogether. Giles had been mentally kicking himself for not considering that possibility as being the reason Spike now considered the Scoobies his nest. He knew all about Xander's talent for getting into the most unlikely situations.
Everyone had pitched in to move them and between two slayers (and Spike after sundown) to move the heavy stuff, the move had only taken a single day. The apartment was nice. It had two bedrooms, one for each of them, a decent sized living room/kitchen combination and a single bathroom with laundry hookups. When everything had been set up and put away the Joyce, Giles and John had collapsed on the old couch and everyone else had taken positions on the floor or in the few chairs that Spike and Xander had. As the pizza was passed around, the conversations turned to the end of the summer and the resumption of school for those who would be attending this fall. "All I'm saying is that you should at least get your G.E.D., Faith." Willow was saying. "You aren't stupid. There is no reason you can't finish high school at least. Then you can get a job for when you aren't out slaying, or doing slaying related stuff. You can have a life outside that. You know, find something you like and go for it."
"I don't know, Red. What school would even take me? Even the G.E.D. people want you to show up at certain times, and there's no guarantee of that once I get back into slaying." Faith said, looking rather depressed at her prospects.
"So do it while you're benched." Dean said and passed her more pizza. "No reason why you can't do something while the doc says you're out of the game."
"He's right Faith." Wesley agreed. "There is no reason you shouldn't get at least a basic education. Having a life outside of slaying is important if you want to regain your balance. I think that part of the problem you had before was that you didn't have a life outside of being the slayer." Giles nodded in agreement and pointed at Wesley, being unable to say anything as he had a full mouth at the time. The sight made Faith giggle just slightly. She couldn't believe how relaxed the British men had become, not that they weren't still both very British and responsible and all, but they had both relaxed a lot from when she had known them before.
"I agree." Buffy said from her place resting against John's legs. "I'm going back to college in a few months, although I still haven't decided what I'm going to do for a major yet. I don't think I'll be going into psychology though." Those who remembered Maggie Walsh had a laugh over that.
"I'll be going too." Sam quietly announced. "We really need a doctor in this group, and as I've already finished the basic college courses so I can get started right away with UC Sunnydale's medical program."
"I thought you were going out for law school?" Dean asked.
Sam shrugged. This really wasn't the time or place for this discussion; on the other hand, everyone here had become a part of his family. "The reason I was going out for law school was because I wasn't able to do what I wanted thanks to the fight. Now that it's been resolved, I can go and do what I wanted to in the first place and become a doctor. That way we'll have more than Dad's medic training to fall back on." Dean looked at Sam and understood. There had been more than a few trips to the hospital where Sam had been the one holding the injured person, either Dean or their dad, together. The fear of losing the person you were trying to keep alive because you didn't know enough had been very hard on Sam over the years. It suddenly made Sam's insistence on education and going to college fall into place for him. It also made sense that he would have given it up rather than face people's injuries day after day, not knowing if his father and brother were in one piece or not.
Everyone was still, realizing that more was going on than was being said. "Stanford has a better program." John said carefully. He didn't want to start another fight with Sam, but he also didn't want him to throw away what he had worked so hard for.
"This way I can stay with my family and I'm not looking to become a plastic surgeon or something where prestige is important." Sam said looking straight at his father. "There are always scholarships for medical students. It's getting into the internship programs that are difficult."
Willow made a rude noise. "I can make sure you don't have to pay for school. The Watcher's Council has a fund for education and I don't even have to hack anything to get you on the list. The people who want to learn medicine and already know about the war are in short supply. Most of the Watcher families produce Watchers and other scholarly types. There aren't that many doctors of the medical type and those that are focus on demonic poisons and stuff. There really aren't any combat type doctors, so the funds just sit there for the most part."
"No way you wouldn't get into any program you wanted little brother." Dean saluted Sam with his beer.
"Is there anything close?" John asked, very much aware that he was the one who had told Sam that if he went off to school he couldn't come home.
"There is a teaching hospital in LA. I'd probably need someone to drive me there and pick me up because interns' shifts are so long." Sam offered, letting his dad know that he wanted to stay at home while he did this. He had his family back and didn't want to have to give it up again.
John nodded and quietly thought for a few minutes. "We're going to be staying for a while. No reason not to do it, if you're sure you don't want to go back to Stanford."
"I'm sure." Sam said and smiled, the breach from the long ago fight finally healed.
Quentin Travers locked himself in his bathroom and opened his bathrobe. No matter how he looked at it, the tattoo those people had put on him moved so he could read it. It was the slayers' fault. They should have died, both of them. The rage over his humiliation was growing stronger by the day. It didn't matter, he consoled himself. Soon they would all be dead. Each and every one of them would fall and then he would be avenged. He had found a way. All he had to do was turn over the information on where the potential slayers were to the Harbingers. They would take care of the rest. Then there would be no more slayers, and he would out live them all. He smiled into the mirror, not caring about the madness that was grinning back.
Dean walked into his room, surprisingly happy. His father and brother had finally come to an understanding. He shook his head. It was so hard to believe those four years of silence and years before that of bickering were caused by Sam's wanting to be their family doctor. Of course, he also had wanted them to settle down into one place, stop with the cons, and a lot of other things, but wanting to go to school to be a doctor? It just blew his mind. He knew Sam had the brains for it, no problem. But he had never even caught a glimpse of Sam's ambition. But then by the time Sam had probably decided he'd been complaining about the hunting and other stuff for so long, who would have guessed? He had certainly never told Dean. The closest he had ever come was wishing out loud that he could do something when they were stuck in that ER in Chicago.
Dean's internal musings stopped short when he saw what was on his bed, an envelope and a small package. He picked up the envelope first. Inside was the paperwork for a bank account. Dean sensed Willow's hacking at work due to the large amount of money the paperwork said was in it. Not only would neither one of the hackers steal money from anyone but the Watcher's Council, they only did it to pay for things that the Council should have been paying for already, and Willow was needed to get past the magical protections on the accounts. Sure enough, when he opened the note that accompanied the paperwork, he found not only his brother's handwriting, but also Willow's. 'As you have appointed yourself the personal chief of the Slayer, Faith, this account is to ensure that you have everything you need to supply her with whatever food she needs.' 'This should help with your mother hening, jerk.' Dean snorted, the last remark was so typical of Sam, was it his fault the kid needed looking after?
He put down the paperwork and picked up the box. He wondered what else Sam had gotten him. When he opened it, his jaw dropped in shock. This was sooo not cool! He burst out of his room and stormed down the hall to the kitchen. "SAM!" He yelled.
"What?" Sam asked. Dean was freaking out and waving a box around that he had never seen before.
"That's not cool! I don't need the help! That is just so low!" Dean continued to sputter at Sam. Sam didn't know what his brother was talking about, but he was pretty sure it had something to do with the box Dean was waving around.
Finally having enough, Sam grabbed the box out of Dean's hands. "Give me that you jerk. What's in it any way?" He opened it just as his words hit Dean's brain and Dean realized that it hadn't been from his brother. He tried to get it away from Sam but Sam's extra height made all the difference. Sam stared in shock at the contents when he finally got it open. The vibrator was bad enough, but the 40 pack of batteries to go with it was more than he could take. It was only as he fell down laughing that Dean finally managed to snatch the box out of his hands. Who had done this? Dean wondered. It hadn't been there when they'd left, and no one had breached the wards while they had been gone. If it wasn't Sam that only left… Dean turned around and looked at his father, who had been the last one out of the apartment that morning. John's smirk was the only answer Dean needed. He hung his head in defeat. There was no doubt about it, when it came to practical jokes, his dad was the master. He was thoroughly paid back for the slayer care kit he had made up for his dad. He shuffled off to his room.
The advance scout was called James. He looked like a clean cut military recruit, dressed in kaki pants and a button up shirt. He had nothing but contempt for the humans surrounding him. The safety of his clan was on the line and nothing was going to get in his way. Moving unobtrusively around the town, he made note of the businesses that catered to demons and the most likely places where the clan could gather in safety. Even a hellmouth was no guarantee of the safety for the clan. There were warriors here beyond the ones they were hunting. That the hunter had become a seer years ago was bad enough, but the baby the clan had tried to kill had become one as well in the last year. Now a third child was born of the line with power. She was most likely a seer as well, although their own seer had not said. She never did. Three children of the line, all with power, all within the same family, all of an age to take up arms. The hunter of course, had taken up the fight years ago, soon after they had failed to kill the seer baby. That child had taken the life of an ally of the clan years before he had reached even the beginnings of manhood. And now the seer had said that the last child had defeated her first foe. If they did not kill them all, even the powerless brother, the clan would be destroyed. The prophecy was clear on that point. And it was happening now. Before the snow fell at the clan house, all of their fates would be decided.