Keeping Up With the Scoobies Chapter 11: A New Chapter, For Everyone, a buffy: the vampire slayer fanfic

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Title: Keeping Up With the Scoobies – The Long Way Home

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Tags: m/f, f/f, hurt/comfort, survivor's guilt, fluff, found family

Main Pairing: Spike/Buffy

Side Pairings: Tara/Willow, Xander/Renee, Robin/Faith, Connor/Dawn, Dowling/Dylan, Angel/Cordelia, Wesley/Fred, Gunn/Anne, Oz/Bay, Buffy/Satsu (briefly), Willow/Kennedy (briefly)

Buffy Characters: William 'Spike' Pratt, Buffy Summers, Dawn Summers, Rupert Giles, Willow Rosenberg, Alexander 'Xander' Harris, Andrew Wells, Tara Maclay, Renee, Faith Lehane, Robin Wood, Robert Dowling, Dylan Turner, Satsu, Kennedy, Daniel 'Oz' Osbourne, Bayarmaa 'Bay'

Angel Characters: Angel, Cordelia Chase, Connor Angel, Harmony Kendall, Winifred 'Fred' Burkle, Wesley Wyndam Pryce, Charles Gunn, Lorne, Anne Steele

Summary: Buffy shared her powers with all potential Slayers. But that was only the beginning. Now, she has to deal with all the new Slayers, with the aftermath of LA going to hell – and coming back. The world knows about the supernatural, there's no going back.

Keeping Up With the Scoobies

The Long Way Home

11. A New Chapter, For Everyone

Buffy and Dawn decided to hang back some, give Angel's team space to talk among themselves. The Summers sisters busied themselves with tending to their exhausted witches, Dawn taking care of Tara and Buffy taking care of Willow. Los Angeles was back and while life wouldn't magically return to normal, it would stop being hellish, at least. They were no longer prisoners, they had the freedom of choice ahead of them and from what Spike had told her, Buffy thought that this choice might not lead to them all happily playing house and pretending nothing had happened.

"You're avoiding Spike. Again," commented Willow with a weak smile.

"Shut up, I'm not," Buffy flushed a light pink. "I am... giving him the space to... decide."

"Have you considered that he might want your input to make his decision?"

"I don't want him to make a decision solely based on me," argued Buffy with a slight pout.

"Not solely," countered Willow with a tilt of her head. "He's a Scooby, isn't he? Wasn't he? I know things with him were always complicated, but there was a time when you were... dead... and he was there and him and me and Tara, we... I think we were friends, or something like it."

Buffy paused at that. She'd never put too much thought into it. In theory, she knew that Spike had gone on patrol with the Buffybot and the Scoobies for months while Buffy was dead, had been there for Dawn too, but... she had never quite considered the social implications. And despite things being different after Buffy returned to the living, they had changed once more when the world was about to end (again) and he had lived with them, trained the Slayers with them. Yes, she considered him a Scooby, but she had never really known how far he considered himself one too.

/break\

"I'm not gonna stick around," declared Gunn, breaking the awkward silence.

The team was gathered in the living room, tension hanging over them all. Spike was leaning against the door, not feeling as much a part of this than the others. He'd been the last to join the team and he had always had his selfish motifs for sticking around. Angel sat with Cordelia and Lorne, Fred sat with Wesley, Harmony was equally awkwardly lingering around as Spike. Fred heaved a soft sigh and got up to walk over to Gunn. Cupping his cheek, she pulled him into a hug.

"I do not blame you for what happened, Charles," whispered Fred gently. "It wasn't your fault. And I'm fine. I... hope this won't be the last we'll see of you, okay?"

Gunn took a shaky breath as he hugged her. "Thanks, Fred. I just... I need a new start. I feel guilty about what nearly happened to you, yes, but... It's everything. I thought that I wasn't good enough as myself, so I sold my soul to evil lawyers. I abandoned everything about myself... I... I need to find myself again. And with Anne... What we're doing, it's good. It's real change."

Wesley wasn't looking at him. While Fred could forgive it, Wesley couldn't. Not yet, anyway. Given time, surely. The two were friends, had gone through so much together, their bond was too strong to break, but it needed time to mend. And perhaps some distance wouldn't hurt either.

"Give Anne our best," Cordelia offered him a kind smile as she went to hug him. "Be good, mh?"

"Yeah. I... Yeah, what Cordy said," Angel shifted awkwardly as he regarded Gunn.

"Fred and I aren't going to stay either. We're leaving Los Angeles," declared Wesley after a beat.

"You're what?" Angel looked genuinely surprised by that.

It had been coming with Gunn; even in the hell-dimension, he'd separated himself from the team and stuck with his girlfriend and her cause, after all. But Fred and Wesley, they may have mostly spend their time with Spike, but they also regularly met with Cordelia and Angel.

"Gunn is right," stated Wesley in a grave voice. "What we have all done in the name of... We compromised ourselves with this. I can not blame you alone for it, Angel, we all made our own choices and laid in the bed we made. But it was a choice that... culminated from who we are, as a team. And I don't think these are choices I can live with any longer. In the years since I came to Los Angeles... You know best what kind of mistakes I have made."

"But we moved past that-" argued Angel with a deep frown.

"The fact that we had to move past it in the first place, Angel," Wesley heaved a sigh. "And look at your own choices. You chose to do this on your own and only tell us in the very last second, leaving your team entirely unprepared. I... don't think we have moved as much past it as you'd like to believe, because back then... it had been born from lack of communication and distrust. And now, years later, it doesn't... feel like we have gotten better at communication or trust, Angel."

Wow, even Spike felt nearly bad for the big guy. Angel looked like a kicked puppy as he turned away from Wesley. Fred returned to Wesley's side, taking his hand and aiming a small, warm smile at Cordelia and Angel. Apparently, this was a decision they'd made together.

"I... I love you guys," Fred's voice was soft and pained. "You're my family and you will always be my family and we're not saying we'll never see each other again, but... I agree with Wes that maybe it's time to leave Los Angeles behind and... find a new path."

"What... Where do you think it'll lead you?" asked Angel reluctantly.

"We've been talking about it a lot since Buffy and the others arrived," replied Fred. "And we've known that there's a new Watcher Council, that things in the Slayer world have been changing for months now. We thought we'd... go with them and... see for ourselves."

"You want to go back to being a Watcher?" asked Cordelia, genuinely surprised.

"It's different than it used to be," offered Wesley. "The world has changed, Cordelia. I've changed. I'm not the same inexperienced young man anymore. Nearly the entire Watcher Council died when the First rose, I imagine they have quite the shortage, especially considering the sheer number of Slayers there are now. At the very least, I think it'll be worth talking to Mister Giles."

Cordelia offered him the smallest smile. "Whatever Slayer you'd train would be lucky."

"I am super staying in LA," declared Harmony, twirling her hair around her finger. "But, like, so not staying in your employment, I mean, with the Senior Partners gone I don't think you're really... uh... gonna be able to pay me and I kinda like my starlet gig so much more than being a secretary."

Everyone smiled to varying degrees at that. That figured and no one was really surprised by it.

"I'm sticking with Harmony," said Lorne. "The fight against evil was never really mine to begin with and as the agent of LA's hottest reality star, I think I'm going to be quite busy."

Angel looked sad but not surprised by that. After Lorne had killed Lindsey, his relationship with Angel had become incredibly strained. That Lorne wanted his distance and to focus on what truly was important to him, what he held passion for, only made sense.

"Spike?" asked Fred softly, turning to the last member in the room.

"Yeah, I'm sticking with..." Spike paused and swallowed hard. "...my girlfriend. See what she's been up to, how everyone's holding up. See if there's room for me there. LA's not big enough for two vampires with a soul and a hero complex, I guess. You can keep it."

He locked eyes with Angel at that, unsure what he was trying to say. Was it a challenge? Was he trying to taunt Angel? Was he being sincere? His feelings about Angel had always been too complex to put into words, which was the birthplace of the hostility between them, really.

"Be good to her," whispered Angel, turning his gaze to the floor. "Don't fuck it up."

Spike wasn't sure what to do with that, so he remained silent. Too much sincerity.

/break\

Xander was sitting down, but he still felt like he wasn't sitting down enough. Like he needed to sit down more to digest this. Los Angeles was back alright. So was Tara. She stood there, in front of him. Not just him. Giles, Faith, Robin, Andrew and Xander were gathered in the living room. Dawn and Buffy stood aside a little – together with Spike and Wesley and a cute brunette – but Willow stood right next to Tara. Tara. Just standing there, right in front of them.

"Have... Have you come to haunt me?" asked Andrew in a small voice, hiding behind Xander.

"She's not a ghost," replied Willow, reaching out for Tara's hand. "She is... from an alternate reality. One where... where I died, in her stead. And... Buffy too, as a result of it, because I wasn't there to save her in time. We're... We lost her that day. But she has... lost everyone since then. So we decided to bring her here, with us, to give her a second chance. Us."

There was the faintest blush on Willow's cheeks. Though her and Tara hadn't as much as shared a kiss yet, it was impossible to deny the pull. Somehow, it felt both like slipping back into the warmth of familiarity as well as the thrill of something entirely new. The embers of her love for Tara had reignited, but the flame licking at Willow's skin felt different than it used to.

"...Okay," was all Xander could say, because what else was there to say?

/break\

There was so much to catch up on. Right now, Fred was very excitedly telling everyone about the hell-dimension. Having already heard that bit, Buffy slipped out. She'd noticed how Faith and Robin had both left not long ago. Supposedly because the baby got hungry – which, there was a baby now. And the baby was Robin and Faith's. They'd procreated. What a weird thought.

"Congratulations on the baby," offered Buffy as she stepped into the kitchen.

"Thanks, B," Faith offered a crooked grin. "Her name's Hope."

Buffy smiled as she took the baby's tiny hand to shake. "Hello, Hope. Nice to meet you."

Hope made a gurgling sound at that. Adorable. Buffy had never considered herself a baby-person, but then Buffy had always dealt with the expiration date of a Slayer in the back of her mind. Marriage and children were not exactly on the long-term plan for a Slayer. Because there had never been a long-term plan for Slayers. Now there were Slayers. Things had changed. For them too?

"We need to talk, don't we?" asked Robin, his arms crossed over his chest.

He was leaning against the counter, his eyes on Hope, not Buffy. Ah. She stepped away from the baby and hopped onto the table top, kicking her legs back and forth as she looked at the three. Robin and Faith stood close. Not intimately close, but close enough to give something away. Buffy just wasn't entirely sure what it was. Were they trying? Or was it about the baby? Maybe both?

"You're going to leave," stated Buffy in a soft voice, managing half a smile.

It wasn't an order, or a question. It was an observation. A conclusion she'd come to when entering the living room with everyone gathered. It wasn't that she meant to kick Robin out of what had been his headquarters, but with everything else considered, it felt like that was where this was headed.

"I'm not going to live under the same roof as my mother's killer," stated Robin simply.

"We could take a different location. We only came here because everyone's here right now."

"You could," agreed Robin. "But Andrew's been bonding with the girls already. Xander's been... doing good leading the network from here. And something different came up."

"The Slayer you left in charge of Cleveland died," explained Faith. "You stayed in England for little sis' sake. I stayed away from everything for obvious, baby-shaped reasons. Now that that's out in the open... Robin and I decided to take over Cleveland. Hellmouth feels like a senior Slayer's duty and since you took the last one, this one is mine. We're gonna try this whole... co-parent thing. Leave you in charge of San Francisco, California's always been your territory."

Buffy hummed at that and nodded. Cleveland had been a sore spot. They'd send a senior Watcher there, together with one of the few Slayers who had fought at their sides during the apocalypse and had survived. But Buffy had always been wary about it. She'd considered making that the Scoobies' future home-base, but if Faith was volunteering for it, Buffy wasn't going to stop her.

"I'm sure you'll do great," Buffy smiled a little, before it turned into a teasing smirk. "On the parenting, I mean. The slaying... If you need some pointers, you know where to find me."

/break\

Fred smiled as she inhaled the scent of old books. This library was amazing. So much knowledge of the supernatural. Her fingers traced the spines of the books, her ears only half-focused on the conversation between Mister Giles and Wesley. While the most focus had been on Tara, who was apparently dead in their reality, there had been some more or less awkward reunions between Wesley and the Scoobies. And then they took Mister Giles aside to talk to. The senior Watcher had been surprisingly pleased, a sparkle in his eyes. He'd never been interested in leading the Watcher council himself, but after the activation of the potential Slayers and the death of over 80% of the Watchers had made it a pressing matter. It seemed what Mister Giles really wanted was to stay with his family though, that much had been apparent even to Fred, in the day they stayed with the Scoobies. She'd heard a lot about the Scoobies – from Cordelia, Wesley, Angel, Spike – but actually meeting them was an interesting experience. The way they were with each other, it reminded Fred of what they used to be like themselves, before... Well, before Wolfram & Hart. Maybe even before Holtz. She missed that, she wanted that back, but she also knew that they couldn't force it. Their family had fractured and if she'd try to force them back together, it may break for good.

"The numbers and addresses of all active Watchers, with the respective squad-leaders," stated Mister Giles as him and Wesley approached her. "We have all of this... digital... too, but I prefer things to be more physically present. I believe you have everything you need. Do call if you need any help, or if anything... unusual happens. It'll need updating, but I trust you can handle that."

There was a large whiteboard dedicated to the network. Photos of Watchers and Slayers, with yarn connecting them. Mister Giles stepped up to remove his own picture from the label of Watchers Headquarters and moved it toward the center, right next to a picture of Buffy Summers. He switched around the labels too, attaching San Francisco, CA to their photos. With a bright smile did Fred take a picture out of her wallet, of Wesley and her, holding each other in front of Spike's villa in the hell-dimension, and pinned it over the label Watchers Headquarters. This was going to be a very interesting new part of her life and she was looking forward to tackling it with Wesley.

/break\

"Home, sweet home," whispered Angel in a sullen voice as they entered the Hyperion.

"Oh, stop moping, Angel," chided Cordelia, hip-checking him. "It's not like you're alone. You still have me. You and me, against the world. With nothing but my sparkling personality, your fighting abilities and the powers of visions. Like the good old times, mh?"

Her thoughts drifted to Doyle for a heart-clenching moment, but that wasn't what she should focus on right now. The loss of teammates was what Angel was focusing on, after all. Gunn, Wesley, Fred, Lorne, they all had moved on to a new part of their lives, but Cordy knew that Angel would never be able to turn away from this. Helping the helpless, doing good. Perhaps, she thought, this could be good for them, if it was just the two of them for a while. Back to basics.

"I'm... sure we can do this. Just you and me," Angel smiled softly as he took her hand.

The others would come around, one way or another, Cordelia knew that. She genuinely wished them to find what would work for them, what would make them happy, wherever it took them.

/break\

"That looks amazing! You have to keep it!" Dawn cheered and whistled.

Tara laughed, a flustered look on her face as she whirled once. She was acutely aware of the way Willow looked at her. So much like her own Willow had. It felt as though her redheaded goddess was just... back in her life again. Buffy was laughing, leaning against Willow as she saw the dress Dawn had picked out next for her to try on. Seeing as Tara had come from an alternate universe, she had no clothes aside from the ones on her back and the change of clothes she had stuffed into a backpack when leaving. Buffy and Willow had declared they needed a shopping trip. This was nice, hanging out with the girls like this. There was one more who had tagged along, a Renee Falkner.

"So you are... Xander's girlfriend?" asked Tara as she sat down next to Renee.

Renee fidgeted with her jacket sleeve awkwardly. "I... uh. Yes. We've only gotten together a few weeks ago, so I don't know... It feels a bit weird, being here, to be honest?"

Her gaze wandered, looking at Willow and Buffy, who were arguing about a blouse for Dawn. Tara smiled faintly and reached out to rest a hand on Renee's thigh, patting it in a reassuring manner. At that, Renee turned her attention toward Tara again, blinking curiously at her.

"I know how you feel," assured Tara. "They've always been the core. Willow, Buffy, Xander and Giles. Every time the circle of the Scoobies grew, it because because... Well, because we were dating the original Scoobies. Angel and Buffy, Jenny and Giles, Oz and Willow, Cordelia and Xander, Anya and Xander, me and Willow, Spike an Buffy. It's... strange, coming into it as an outsider and trying to... find your own place. But in my experience, they're... very accepting, albeit a bit territorial about their own. Once you pass their assessment of your character, you'll be fine."

"Well, and then there's Andrew, who... if I gather that correctly... became a Scooby by being their hostage and then just integrating into the team?" Renee frowned. "But... Maybe you're right. They do seem to gather strays. Perhaps, there is a place... for me...?"

"Okay, no, this is absolutely perfect for Renee!" declared Buffy, holding up a green dress as she walked over to Tara and Renee. "This would look so good on you, you have to try it on."

Renee looked startled by the open familiarity and insistence, but she smiled as she got up. Tara gave her a little thumbs up as she watched Renee. Not that Tara wasn't in a similar situation right now, she too didn't entirely know where her place was. On the one hand was it so easy to slip right back in, because they were the people she had loved and called family for such a long time, on the other hand did it remind her of how she had lost them and their conversations sometimes got awkward because of their differing experiences. But she knew she would find her place.

/break\

Spike was sitting perched on the edge of the bed, eyes closed, enjoying the warmth of the sun on his skin. Buffy smiled to herself as she watched Spike behave like a kitten. After their return to San Francisco, Willow had cast a strong magic spell on the windows in the house, inspired by Wolfram & Hart. Windows that allowed the sun's light and warmth in without the deadly UV light.

"Hey," Buffy spoke up as she approached him. "I bought you a little something."

Blinking lazily, Spike turned to look at her. "Back from your little shopping trip, luv?"

Buffy came to stand in front of Spike, gently kissing the scar on his eyebrow before handing him the bag she was carrying. He made a pleased and surprised noise as he got the black leather coat out and quickly got up to put it on. His hadn't survived the hell-dimension, she'd noticed. While he turned around in front of their full-length mirror, she took his place on the bed, letting her eyes wander over their room. They had never done anything the order it was supposed to be, so moving in together now felt very on brand for them. The thought made her smile to herself.

Author's note: I KNOW this feels like the end but that's since it's pretty much the "season finale" for my season 8. Next chapter is kind of in between seasons before we're starting a new arc. This story is far from over, there is much more to tell about how I want their lives to continue ;) NEXT chapter, Spuffy are up for their first proper official DATE!