The halls of the Summers' Academy for Gifted Children were never quiet. There was always someone sparing in the gym or muttering spells over a beaker in the lab or screaming in the library because they'd translated a prophecy. Buffy found the low hum of activity soothing. It reminded her that she was alive and that she wasn't alone. She would miss the sounds when she left.

Buffy had left packing up her office until the last possible moment. Jason—Shelly's replacement for medieval combat from a high Nonsense, high Linearity Underworld—was keeping Xander occupied as an assistant for disarming techniques. Kit and Carlos were taking Dawn out to celebrate her successful master's thesis defense. Giles was supposed to be keeping Willow busy with a project in the library, but something must have come up that needed his attention because Willow appeared at Buffy's door when she was halfway through.

"You're really leaving," Willow said, looking around at the boxes Buffy had scattered over the floor.

"I told you I was," Buffy said. She closed a full box and tapped it shut. "Three times. Heck, I told the whole school."

"Well, yeah, but I didn't think you actually would." Willow sounded hurt. "This is your school. The kids need you."

The school had been Buffy's idea—a safe place where the new Slayers could train and have the same experiences as normal teenagers—but the Scoobies had made it happen together. They'd expanded it to train Watchers and magical support within a year. It wasn't only Buffy's school any more than it was Willow's or Xander's. And, yes, their students liked her. She'd learned from the best, after all. Their students liked her, but they didn't need her, not anymore.

"I'm not the only therapist on staff," Buffy said. "And every teacher here is the best we could find. Our kids will adjust."

That didn't mean that she wouldn't miss them.

Willow's frown deepened. "But they're not you, Buffy. You make everything work around here. And what about during apocalypse season?"

"I have flexible leave from April to August," Buffy said. "And I think you're giving me too much credit. Vi does more admin stuff than I ever did. She's the real hero."

"Well, yeah, Vi's amazing," Willow admitted.

Buffy finished filling another box. She didn't know why or how she'd collected so many knives in her office over the years, but there were enough of them that she'd have to be really careful with this box.

"You'll be fine without me," Buffy said. "Better than fine, even. Do you really think you won't be?"

Slowly and reluctantly, Willow shook her head.

"See?"

"But you're the Slayer," Willow said in a small voice.

"I've been the Slayer for half my life. It's time for me to be something else."

Buffy dusted off her hands and started on another box. Willow stood in the corner, watching with narrowed eyes, but neither of them said anything more.

Dinner was a series of goodbyes and well-wishes from her students. They'd accepted that she was leaving much more quickly than her friends and family. Willow was still wearing a pinched expression. Jason was still keeping Xander distracted. Buffy already had a gift basket waiting for him in his office, but she made a note to send him another one. She smiled at the students who came to talk to her and tried not to think about which of them might be dead by the end of the next apocalypse.

She left after dinner, quickly and without fanfare, concealed by the patrol groups heading out for the night. She'd already said her goodbyes, and she didn't want her friends to try to stop her again.


The drive from the Summers' Academy for Gifted Children to Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children was completed without any notable interludes caused by vampires, demons or forces of darkness. There was only an extra hour because of delays, making it take five hours instead of a nice round four to put Buffy back on the steps of the school that she loved like her own with stars glittering in the night sky above. She was expected. The door was unlocked.

Kade was sitting in one of the chairs in the entryway with a book in his hand and a teacup by his elbow. He looked up when she entered and a smile flashed across his face. "Hi, Dr. Summers."

Buffy smiled back. "I thought I asked you to call me Buffy."

"And I thought I made it clear that I'm going to show you some sort of respect since most of the other students here won't," Kade said.

Buffy laughed. After a second, Kade joined her. Respect came in a hundred different flavours at Eleanor's, most of them foreign to those who called Earth their home. Buffy would learn what was respect and what was distain from her new students soon enough.

"Need any help unpacking?" Kade asked.

"I could use a hand bringing a few things in, but the rest can wait until tomorrow." Most of her belongings could spend the night in the U-Haul trailer she'd rented without incident.

Kade helped her bring a few boxes and bags that couldn't stay outside to her new bedroom, not the one she'd shared with Shelly when she'd been Eleanor's student but a room a floor up and a hallway over that was set up for one person rather than two. For the first time since she'd been Called, Buffy went to sleep before midnight.

She set up her office after being reintroduced to the student body as the new therapist at breakfast the next day. She had commandeered a cozy little room with empty bookshelves on one wall and a big window that let in the sunlight, plus a hidden compartment behind a painting that she could use for emergency Slayer-related things. A few students popped their heads in between classes to say hello. Most didn't. Buffy didn't blame them. Though she was more than a year gone, Lundy's presence still lurked in every corner of the school. Even Buffy sometimes felt like she was replacing her. She wasn't. She would never try to. She couldn't be Lundy any more than Lundy could have been her.

Eleanor came by just before dinnertime. She wasn't leaning on her cane as heavily as the first time Buffy had seen her after Lundy's death, and the lines that stress had left on her face didn't seem as deep.

"All ready to go?" Eleanor asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Buffy replied. "Do you want me to run group therapy tonight or…?"

Eleanor nodded. "It will be good for them, I think. I can't thank you enough, dear girl. Kade and I can only manage so much on our own."

"You're not on your own. You never will be."

They had to stick together, tired chosen ones and used-up prophecy children. They had to help each other, because no one else would.


The End