To make up for the horrible cliffhanger I put you through, I've condensed most of what happens in Sunnydale in this chapter. So it's extra long. But that's good because next chapter the Doctor returns, and then just after that Buffy goes to Cardiff to meet a certain Captain.

In only a few seconds since hearing the shots, Buffy was dead.

Tommy stood slowly, still not wanting to believe all the signs. But he had to call for the UNIT M.E. He stood, turned, took one step, then another.

From behind him came a gasp. He turned back to Buffy. She was sitting up and breathing deeply and raggedly. She looked at him with wide eyes. He just stared back, and then his eyes went down to the wound. Though there was a bloody hole in the shirt, the skin was perfect.

"Why aren't you dead?" he asked.

She winced. "Ow."

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Tommy held out an arm to help her up, looking her over front and back to see if the wounds really were gone. They were.

"What happened?" Buffy asked, still a bit shaky.

"You died."

"Again?"

"This wasn't drowning died, this was shot in the chest died. You should still be dead."

She looked down and moved the shirt around to look for the wound. Nothing. She felt the back of her head. Though there was blood in her hair, there was no blood coming from her scalp.

"Let's get you inside before someone sees," Tommy said and helped her up to her apartment.

Tommy waited in her kitchen with a beer while Buffy went to the shower and washed out the blood. It took a while for her to finish and come back out in a new outfit. He wished more than once that she kept something stronger in her house, but Buffy only kept the beer for visitors. She rarely indulged in anything alcoholic herself. Tommy tried wondering why, but he kept seeing her on the pavement with opened dead eyes.

She came out, hair still wet, but clean.

"I think the first thing people ask is if this has happened before," he said. "But I think that is a stupid question given… everything."

"I think this has happened before," she said slowly.

"You've been shot dead before?"

"No, but when we fought the Taxi demon…"

"Tallaxian," he corrected automatically.

"You said you thought I had broken my neck. I remember being knocked out, fighting through the black nothing, and then gasping for breath as I regained consciousness. The same as this time."

"Okay, it has happened before."

"Wait… it happened before even that."

"How often do you die? Is it some sort of habit you just can't kick?"

"No. When I woke on the Tardis, after I jumped, I had the same feeling." The pensive, worried look was replaced by determination with slight panic. "I need the Doctor. Only he can explain. I think he knew even then, but why didn't he tell me?"

"I don't know, Buffy. All I know is that from UNIT records he tends to explain things on his own timetable."

"Yeah, but I have his number. He'll explain this time." She looked around the room as if she was searching for something. "You better go home. I think I want to be alone for a while."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Rain check on the movie night."

"Do you want me to pull some of the weekend people and put a unit together for patrol?"

Buffy gave him a grateful smile. "You read my mind."

"On it, boss."

After he left, Buffy dropped herself onto her couch. Her bag was right next to her, so she pulled out her cell phone. She opened it and dialled Donna's number, hoping she was still with him and that she got the time right.

"Buffy!" Donna said happily on the other end.

"Oh good, I got the time right. How long have I been gone?"

"A few days. Were you thinking of… er… coming back?" she asked in a quieter voice.

"No, but I do need to see the Doctor. Something's wrong."

There was a pause, and when she heard from the other end of the line again it was the Doctor speaking. "Buffy? Is everything all right?"

"Not exactly. Can you come and see me?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll have the Tardis lock onto your phone and be right there." He hung up.

Buffy looked around to see if anything needed a quick tidy before the Doctor arrived. It had more to do with finding something to do and distract her rather than impressing her friends with how neat she could be. Sitting just on the side table next to her were a few papers. She was moving them to the file cabinet in the filing cabinet in the pantry (she wasn't a good cook, so why use the entire thing for just food) when something in between the papers fell to the floor.

Buffy put the papers away and picked up the fallen item. It was her mother's old pocket watch. Remembering the first day she found it in the attic, she wondered why she didn't just call the Doctor then. It probably started everything. That whole first trip back to Sunnydale started and ended everything.

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While Tim stayed in the car to give Buffy both space and a quick getaway if needed, Buffy and Xander walked into the mansion she had hoped never to enter again. It looked similar to when she had last been there, but there were several little decorative differences. The biggest difference was that it had a bit more of a lived in feel than before, but she couldn't pinpoint just what gave that impression. She walked around a little. The drapes were drawn, but the lamps were on and brightened the room. She noticed a woman's sweater that had been thrown and left on the couch: Dawn's sweater, it had to be.

There was the sound of another car on the drive. Two car doors closed. Laughter. Buffy turned to the doorway. Dawn came walking in with a boy who couldn't have much older than her, a boy Buffy had never seen before.

"Dawn," Buffy whispered.

"Buffy?" Dawn stared at her sister. "Buffy is that really you?" She turned to Xander. "Did Willow…"

"No," Buffy answered quickly. "It wasn't Willow. It's… it's complicated."

"You were dead, Buffy," Dawn choked out, tears coming down her face. "You were dead for four years, you come back, and all you can say is that it's complicated?"

"Dawn," the boy said as he tried to wrap an arm around Dawn.

She brushed him off. "What happened? Where were you?" she practically screamed.

Buffy didn't know how to answer. But she was interrupted by the arrival of someone who came from another part of the mansion rather than the outside.

"Niblet, keep the noise down. Still a few hours till sundown and some of us are trying to slee…" Spike let the word drop unfinished as he saw who was standing (and not dead) in the middle of the room.

If the idea of Spike and Dawn living in Angel's old mansion wasn't wigging Buffy out enough already, the arrival of Angel was more than enough to send anyone sane crazier than Drusilla.

"He's done it again!" Buffy said to herself and the ceiling.

"Buffy?" Angel said. "Did Willow…"

"No," answered Xander.

Buffy was pacing the room, muttering then shouting. "He's done it again. He got the coordinates wrong. I'm in some sort of alternate reality. Or maybe I was sent to an alternate reality when I jumped and so it isn't his fault."

"Who's 'he,' Buffy?" Angel asked.

"The guy I was travelling with." But travelling wasn't a word she should have chosen. Dawn and Xander both erupted with questions, they started arguing, Connor came to Dawn's defence, Angel tried to calm them all down, and Spike and Buffy stayed silent. Not one for chaos (at least while his soul was intact) Angel finally took control of the situation.

"Hey! Everyone just calm down, sit down, and we'll talk this through." Everyone took their time to settle down around the living area. Angel continued, "Buffy, we'll start with you. What happened the night you jumped?"

"How do I know that this is my reality?" Buffy asked. "When I was here, Angel was in LA, Dawn lived in our mother's house, and Spike would never have come back to this mansion."

"A lot happened," Angel said. "But yeah, that all sounds about right."

"Okay, so maybe this is my reality."

"What happened, Buffy?" Angel asked again.

"I jumped."

"We remember that bit," Spike said painfully.

"Well, after I jumped I woke up… Oh god! You're going to think I'm majorly crazy."

"After four years of thinking you were dead or trapped in some sort of hell dimension," Xander said, "I think we can believe a bit of crazy."

"When I woke up I was in the Tardis."

"The what?" Dawn asked.

"Tardis. It stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It's an alien spaceship that travels in time." She looked around and waited for the first person to call her crazy.

The boy spoke up. "She's right; that does sound crazy."

"Connor," Angel said with reproof.

"What?" he said. Buffy could have sworn there was almost something like family about the exchange.

"So if you woke up in a time machine, why didn't you come back until now?" Dawn asked with an edge of bitterness.

"I couldn't," Buffy said. "I wanted to but I couldn't."

"Why not?" Dawn demanded. "Was there really nothing here worth coming back to?"

"No, Dawn, it wasn't like that. It was impossible to come back right then because of the portal that Glory opened. It locked out those coordinates. We tried to come back but the Tardis was thrown into the future… on the other side of the galaxy!"

"You could have tried harder," Dawn said stubbornly. "Or come back sooner."

"I had to come back now. When I was three years in the future I found out that I come back now. And because of that it's a fixed point in time, and no matter who you are you can't change a fixed point in time. Believe me, I asked and got this whole explanation about wibbly wobbly…"

"Okay, this is slightly ridiculous," Connor said with an unlikely combination of amusement and worry. "You went to the future in your time machine and found out that you come here in the past?"

"I know. It sounds crazy… and it was. I kept wishing Xander was there to make jokes about it."

"So you did miss us." Xander also seemed to have some bitterness.

"Of course I did!"

"How long has it been for you?" he asked. "How long have you been gone from us?"

"A few months," Buffy said with some guilt.

"A few months? What were you doing? Going around time and space having fun?"

"Well, there were some not so fun parts…"

Xander abruptly stood and walked out of the room. Dawn followed, and Connor followed her.

"That went well," Buffy muttered.

"All right," Angel said. "Aliens? This is all getting too crazy."

"You're a vampire, Angel," Buffy said. "And technically vampires were originally aliens too."

"What?" Spike asked as his chin hit the floor.

"Long story, I can't remember the details," Buffy said quickly. "But anyways, what happened after I jumped? Why is Dawn here… with you… both of you?"

The room filled with even more awkward tension.

Spike spoke, but he didn't look her in the eye. "There was nothing after you jumped. No body. Everyone assumed that you were in a hell dimension. After the second year, and knowin' about what Angel went through, we had to assume that since we couldn't get you back you were dead."

"Willow tried to do a spell?" Buffy said more than asked.

"Yeah, still is. So obsessed with it that she ran the Bit out of the house; even Glinda left eventually. Dawn came to me, but the crypt wasn't right for her, and I wasn' going to leave her, so here we are."

"But why did you come back?" Buffy asked Angel.

"I had to. No slayer on the Hellmouth meant trouble. Someone had to defend it. There was no slayer called after you were gone, and Faith was in prison. Everyone tried their best, but after a demon biker gang discovered that the Slayer was gone and it was only a robot protecting it, they came and trashed the place. Me and my gang had to drive them out of town. After that we decided to stay and help out."

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After that difficult first explanation things only got worse. No one could understand that it was impossible for her to return sooner. Some she didn't think even believed her. No one trusted UNIT, and they didn't trust her working for them. Oddly enough, only Spike supported her decision in the end. Even though he had the most reasons not to trust any government organisation, he trusted her. He didn't like it, but he trusted her.

But even stranger was that she trusted him. Ever since that first night back, maybe even before. Angel had offered a couple of rooms to Buffy and Tim while they were in Sunnydale. Somehow she and Spike were left alone in the living room later that night.

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Buffy and Spike sat for a moment in awkward silence.

"I wonder where Tim's got to," Buffy said just to break the silence.

"I imagine your new boyfriend is around here somewhere," Spike said.

"He's not my boyfriend."

More silence. Buffy shifted and Spike was looking from the floor to the ceiling.

"I met King Henry the Eighth," Buffy blurted.

Spike raised his eyebrows. "You're kidding."

"No. I saved his life, actually. There was this shape stealing alien—really, REALLY big octopus thingy—that wanted to kill him."

"But you killed the big octopus… thingy?"

"Yeah. During the jousting tournament just a few feet away. It was right behind the royal box."

Spike laughed. "Anyone but you, Slayer, and I'd never believe it."

"Sometimes I don't even believe it. I've been… so many places."

"It's changed you. You're a whole lot smarter for one."

"Hey! I was always… no, I guess not." When he shook his head, Buffy realised something was off. "Wait. We're sitting here and actually having a conversation."

"I've changed too."

"Really?"

"Yeah." There was a long pause. "Henry the Eighth?"

"He actually didn't seem all that bad. Good looking too."

"And even while you were travellin' in time you still took time to fight."

"When I had to. The person who I was travelling with tends to solve the big world ending problems without violence. It was nice not to be in charge, not to be responsible. But I did kind of miss beating things up."

"Bet you've gone soft, Slayer."

"No way. Even if you didn't have a chip I could still kick your pathetic vampire butt."

"He doesn't have a chip anymore," a voice behind them said. Connor had just come into the room.

"What?" Buffy said with panic creeping over her.

"I hadn't exactly gotten around to telling her that yet, Whelp," Spike said angrily.

"You don't have the chip?" Buffy said. "Why aren't you trying to kill everyone?"

"He has a soul," Connor said.

"Which doesn't prevent me from hitting you," Spike growled.

"I thought you would have told her!" Connor said.

"I was gettin' to it."

Connor quickly left the room again.

"A soul?" Buffy asked, disbelief in her voice.

"Had to. I made you a promise, and I did what I needed to keep the Bit safe… even if that was from me."

"You did that for her?"

"For you, Slayer. I never stopped loving you. Not one day I didn't think about you, not long to be with you… even if you were 'ere and still hated me."

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It had taken a while for Buffy to deal that, and when she did it was in typical Buffy Summers fashion—she ignored it. Eventually she got the whole story: the chip started firing all the time and had to be removed or it would have killed him. And it was Spike, not the others, that asked Willow to give him a soul. Since she knew the spell well, she agreed to take a few minutes away from her attempts at retrieving Buffy. She even altered the curse and made the soul permanent… and Angel's as well. It was one of the few things she had done right in the past years.

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The second day of Buffy's return to Sunnydale she had gone to see Willow.

"Buffy!" Willow pulled Buffy into a tight hug. She had decided to see the witch the next day after returning to Sunnydale. From what the others had said, it didn't sound as if Willow was doing too well. "I knew I could do it! They said you had died in that hell dimension, but I knew I could get you back.""

"Willow," Buffy said while pulling away. "I wasn't in a hell dimension."

"Of course you were! You jumped into the portal that was opening into all those other hell dimensions."

"But I didn't go there. I was travelling in time and space with this alien I met."

Willow just smiled as if Buffy was a young, confused child.

"But now you're back and that's all that matters," Willow said. "Now it can be just like old times. I've kept your room the same as always. Dawnie's too, so she can move back in and we can all be here together."

"No Willow. I'm moving to San Diego. I've got a job with the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. I'll be saving the world from demons and aliens."

"The Unified…"

"UNIT. It's a UN special ops group."

"Military?"

"Yes."

"But Buffy… after the Initiative…"

"These aren't them."

"But you're the Slayer! You should be here. Sure you aren't the only one anymore, but this is your home, Buffy."

"Not the only one? Did Faith break out of prison?" She remembered Angel mentioning that she was in prison… but not if that was current.

"Oh, you're going to be so thrilled," Willow was gushing. "While I was trying to call you out of the hell dimension, I had Spike get this artefact that was tied to the Slayer. I used that as an anchor to call you out of hell, but it didn't work exactly right."

"Willow!" Buffy had flashes of another spell not exactly right… and how it had put her straight into Spike's lap.

"No, no. It's good. I called all the potentials."

"The what?"

"All the girls that could be the next slayer became slayers. And then there was the rebellion against the Watcher's Council, and now Giles runs it and is setting up training schools all over the world. Isn't that great? Apocalypse comes and you've got an army of slayers to back you up."

Part of Buffy liked the idea; it was a weight off of her shoulders not to have to be the only one, but the Doctor had already taken that weight off for her somehow. He had opened her eyes. And because her eyes were open she saw the problems.

"An army of slayers? What if governments find out? And the demons. They know the difference between good and bad demons, right?"

"Buffy…" Willow looked at her with a shocked and saddened expression. "I thought you would be happy. Don't you want to thank me?"

"For creating all these problems?" Buffy nearly shouted. In her mind she kept thinking that she'd have to tell UNIT. The UN would be the best to regulate things and make sure Giles' new council was under control. "Willow, I'm glad that you were a loyal friend and didn't want to leave me in a hell dimension. But I wasn't in hell. You should have realised that! After a few tries you should have known and then stopped. Because I wasn't in hell; I was travelling through space and time with the most wonderful man. I saw so many great things. And now I have to come back and fix the problems you've caused."

"Buffy… I had so many plans for when I brought you back."

"No, Willow. Just forget the plans. I'm only here a fortnight and then I'm going back to San Diego and my new job."

"Fortnight? You sure you weren't just in an English hell dimension?"

"God, I've been spending too much time around people from the land of tweed… or that just act like it. I'm sorry, Willow. I'm not staying."

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Willow guilted Buffy into staying with her at Revello Drive while she was in Sunnydale. As upset with Willow as Buffy was, she wanted to stay in her own house. Life at the mansion was too weird for her to handle right then, and Dawn was refusing to speak to Buffy.

But the next morning, Buffy awoke disoriented. She couldn't remember anything after jumping from the tower into the portal. Willow explained to Buffy that she had been in a hell dimension and it was probably a good thing that she couldn't remember it. Willow also told her not to worry; Willow would take care of everything.

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It was afternoon of the day after Buffy had decided to stay with Willow, and Tim still hadn't heard from her. She had promised to stay in touch and to show him around town. Getting worried, Tim headed out to Revello Drive.

"Buffy, you're here," he said with relief when she answered the door.

"Do I know you?"

"Are you kidding me? Buffy, we spent hours in a car together."

"I have no idea who you are."

"I'm Tim! Buffy, what's happened?" He sounded scared even to himself.

"I don't know. But I do know that I don't know you… you know! Just go away!" She slammed the door.

Tim quickly got into his car and drove back to the mansion. Spike was just outside in the shade smoking a cigarette.

"What's got your knickers into a twist?" he drawled. The vampire obviously didn't trust him, but Buffy had assured Tim that he could trust Spike.

"Buffy," Tim said, and immediately Spike paid more attention. "I went to see her. She promised to call and never did. But when she answered the door she had no idea who I was."

"Bloody…" Tim nearly blushed at the profanities coming from Spike as he stomped out his cigarette. "I'll take care of it soon as the sun sets."

"You know what's happened?"

"Bloody right I do. That bint's gone and mucked up the works with her magic again. This time she's gonna face the consequences." With that less than lucid explanation Spike stormed into the mansion.

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After the disturbing encounter with the man at the door who claimed he knew her (Willow had been out getting supplies at the magic shop), Buffy felt a bit of a headache and decided to try to sleep it off. But sleep brought no relief. Instead it was filled with dreams of strange demons and places. There was a giant octopus, potatoes in blue armour, and a midget demon with three curled head horns. There was a blue box and a man in a brown coat. Voices whispered around her. All she could make out was "child of Time" and her mother's voice calling her name. She woke up after sundown feeling worse and more disoriented than when she had first gone to sleep. Then she heard voices arguing in the kitchen. She crept out of her room to hear who was arguing.

"Don't give me anymore bollocks, Red." That was clearly Spike. "You've worked your little mojo and now Buffy does exactly as you like."

"She was in hell, Spike. It's for her own good not to remember."

"You have got to be kidding me! She wasn't in hell. Slayers are the Chosen Ones, and the chosen never go to hell."

"Angel…"

"Angel had all those sins from being Angelus to make up for. A little time in hell, and now he's their golden nancy boy. But that's not the point. Buffy wasn't in hell, and I had the distinct impression that she liked what she remembers from her travellin'. But you wouldn't see that. You just can't believe that she's been safe and happy. Open your eyes, Red. She's changed since she… since she's been gone. She's smarter, happier, better for wherever she's been."

"That's a delusion!" Willow said. "It's her way of dealing with being in hell."

"She wasn't… Bloody hell! Red, you take off whatever spell you've put on her or so help me!"

"What are you going to do, William the Bloody? You're just another pathetic excuse for a vampire who's had a soul shoved into him. By me!"

"I'm just going to wait. For all your power you never do those spells completely right. You don't have the patience or the discipline. Buffy's going to remember, and when she's does I'll grab a front row seat to your funeral."

Buffy then heard the back door open and slam shut. She quickly and silently went back to her room; she had a lot to think about.

Spike had a soul? She hadn't gone to hell?

The headache was pounding harder than before. She went to the bathroom to get painkillers and also took pills to help her sleep.

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She was surrounded by fire. Everything was burning. She could hear all sorts of terrible screams and panicked yells. She looked in the sky and saw flying garbage cans with plungers that looked like they belonged in one of Xander's spaceman movies. Amid all the chaos she found her mother. Joyce was surrounded by a strange glow, like something from some tacky scene with a person going to heaven. She held something small and round in an outstretched hand.

"Remember, Buffy," she said.

Buffy was about to take the object her mother was trying to give her when she suddenly woke up.

"Morning Buffy!" Willow said cheerfully. "I made pancakes. I thought we'd eat a nice big breakfast and then go to the mall for some quality shopping time."

Buffy nodded dumbly, still trying to hold onto the strange dream before it vanished completely from her memory. Willow left the room with a bounce in her step and humming an aimless tune. Buffy got out of bed and was walking to her closet when she heard a whisper.

"Buffy." It was her mother's voice.

Shaking her head, Buffy got dressed, fixed her hair, and went down to the kitchen.

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Once again, Buffy was dreaming. She was with Dawn on the tower again. Chaos in the air, and the sun was just starting to rise. Once again she ran and jumped into the light. But this time the scene immediately changed to some strange room that looked almost like sea coral. There was a pleasant hum in the room, and whispers of which she could only catch a few words. Child of Time. Tardis. Lady. In the whispers she could also hear her mother's voice calling her name. She focused on that and let it lead her to the centre of the strange room, to a green column surrounded by a hexagonal control panel. On one of the panels sat a pocket watch, small and round. The voices became louder as she got closer. She was just reaching out to touch it…

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Buffy woke up. She remembered the dream so vividly she wondered if it was a slayer dream. It was so clear to her she thought she could still hear the faint whisper of her mother's voice calling to her.

It was still the middle of the night. Buffy took a drink of water from the glass she had left beside her bed. As she set the glass down, she could still hear the whisper. Buffy got out of bed and followed the sound. It led her to the attic. She looked around and found an old box of her mother's things from college. There were a few books, some flyers for dances and parties, pictures of her mother with a great looking guy that was definitely not Hank Summers, and a jewellery box. She took out the small box and pushed aside the earrings and necklaces. There at the very bottom was the pocket watch.

She held it in her hand. Her mother seemed to whisper for her to open the watch, to look inside, to learn the truth. Buffy opened it. A light swirled out and seemed to go straight into Buffy's eyes.

Then Buffy remembered.

The Doctor, the Tardis, Donna, Henry VIII, Martha and UNIT, the Sontarans, the shape stealer, the grask, all the aliens from the different planets she had seen. Everything came rushing back. How could she have forgotten?

Willow.

"Buffy?" She turned and saw the red-headed witch just coming up into the attic. "What are you doing up here so late?"

"I remember," Buffy said. "You made me forget, but I remember. How could you, Willow? How could you do that to me?"

"I was helping!" Willow protested. "You were in hell and I…"

"Shut up!" Buffy shouted and walked towards Willow. She brought out as much of the Slayer as she could, both for protection and for intimidation so that Willow would back off.

Willow backed up. But she had forgotten the stairs behind her. Willow fell and tumbled down the stairs. When Buffy reached her she was unconscious and had clearly suffered serious head trauma. Buffy called an ambulance, explained the accident, gave them Dawn's cell number to call, and watched as the ambulance drove away to the hospital. Buffy then went to her room and started packing—including the box of her mother's things from the attic. She had just finished calling Tim when she heard a motorcycle screech to a halt outside the house.

Spike rushed in the door ad Buffy was coming down the stairs with her luggage.

"Buffy? Dawn got a call from the hospital saying…"

"I remembered. I told her, walked towards her, she fell down the stairs," she said calmly.

"Buffy." There was worry in his voice.

"I'm leaving now. I just need to wait for Tim to come and…" She stopped. "Can you let everyone know? And it's not like I'm going to be very far away, but I doubt they'll visit."

"I will. I'll come with you if you want."

"As I work for a government agency that deals with aliens and demons? No. Stay here, make sure Dawn is ok, and tell her I still love her and she can stay with me anytime she likes."

"Sure. I'll keep my promise until I'm dust."

Once again there was that look of absolute adoration on his face. Buffy, too shaken by the events of the night, looked away. She heard Tim's car pull into the driveway. She walked past Spike and didn't look back at him, the house, or Sunnydale itself.

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As Buffy held the watch while waiting for the Doctor, she remembered why she hadn't called the Doctor right then. She had noticed that the designs were similar to the markings on the Tardis console. But with everything being so strange, happening so quickly, she just hadn't thought of it. And when she did she worried about calling at the wrong time. Time travel was just too confusing to deal with, and so she hadn't called.

But now she was ready for explanations. Finally she heard the familiar sounds of the Tardis materializing.