Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are properties of Joss Whedon.

A/N: Hello here is the next chapter I hope you all enjoy.

Tears of Love

Loud bangs could be heard from the gymnasium as Xander made his way to his office. Xander was thoroughly convinced that the previous night was a dream. His conviction was planted in the fact that he had woken up in his own bed. Xander shoved a doughnut in his mouth and grabbed his clipboard from his desk before heading into the gym. Xander had taken one of the larger sparring rooms and set-up a firing range for crossbows. He had not however intended it to be used to practice the use of firearms. Xander nearly dropped the doughnut from his mouth when he saw Buffy standing in a marksman's position unloading a semiautomatic hand gun into his freshly hung targets. Buffy was tearing the target the pieces but not making a single shot in the center. A strange yet familiar voice came form Buffy's side.

"Here let me show you." Said a blonde girl who took Buffy's gun from her hand. "There is no way that your going to hit the target dead on with a hand gun except point blank range. She hefted the gun and aimed, her shot went right through the center of the target. "You see you have to now that the kick back is going jerk the gun up about thirty degrees. With that knowledge you should aim the gun about thirty degrees downward of your target to hit it right in the center." She handed Buffy back the gun as Buffy reassumed the position.

This time Buffy aimed at about thirty degrees south of her target and much to her surprise she hit the target in almost the exact same spot as her friend. "Wow thanks." Buffy said releasing the clip and pulling off her head set. She turned and noticed Xander standing there with cherry filling all over his mouth and shirt and splattered doughnut on the ground. "Um Xander, are you ok?" She asked.

Xander didn't say anything he just stood rooted to the spot and his mouth gaping open. The blonde looked at him and laughed. "Xander you might want to clean that up." She said pulling the target of the pulley that had brought it back to them.

"Anya." Was all he could say before crumpling up in a heap. The two girls ran up to him and tried to lift him up on his feet.

Buffy checked his pulse. "He must have fainted." she said setting him down in a chair.

"This is all my fault." Anya said feeling Xander's forehead.

"Come on don't blame yourself. You sacrificed your life to save everyone in this building. Xander knows that he wouldn't speak to anyone for weeks after you died. I'm sure that all of this excitement has been a little much for him." Buffy smiled at her half-demon friend.

"Yeah I guess your right." Anya said a smile spreading across her face.

"Come on we'll put him in his office and let him rest for a minute. I don't think he has a class for a few hours." Buffy said leading her friend out of the gym.

The kitchen was full of slayers eating third or fourth helping of breakfast. Andrew rushed around trying to replace the pans fast enough to satisfy the slayers appetite. He desperately needed help, thankfully for him he had someone coming for an interview that day. Andrew walked back out into the fray of the dinning hall to put a pan full of pancakes onto the serving line. As soon as he had the pan was half empty as slayers half ate while they stood in line. Andrew threw in the towel for the day and began preparing what he was going to serve for lunch. An hour later he heard a knock on the kitchen door. A twenty two year old girl walked in she looked like she belonged on TV. She had perfect lightly tanned clear skin and long brown hair. Her eyes were brown with a hint of green. Andrew felt awkward with such a lovely young girl in his kitchen. It was several seconds before he though to speak.

"So are you here for the assistant's position?" Andrew said a slight blush in his face.

"Yes well, the man I spoke to on the phone said that the open position was for an assistant house mother." She said with an awkward smile.

"That's right, what are your qualifications?" Andrew said trying to sound professional.

"I have an Associate in Teacher Education with a dual major in Theology. I graduated from the Anglican School of Theology in Chicago and I love kids." She said her smile spreading and becoming much warmer. "I was refereed here by one of my professors he said the headmaster was a friend of his and I jumped at the chance to work in an Anglican private school. You don't see many of them around. Hence why I had to come all the way to Ohio to find a job. But it doesn't bother me the city is similar to Chicago enough that I should manage." She looked around the kitchen and shook her head. "Can I ask you a question?" She wondered looking over at Andrew. "Why is it that the house mother in a place this big is doing all of the cooking?"

"There are several good reasons for that. The most important I think is that I wanted to do it. I regret that decision slightly now but still. The headmaster said the reason he needed me to do it was because of security." Andrew said with a wink. "The Ministry of Faith in England won't let just anybody work here you know. You see this is English soil so no American politician or law enforcer has any jurisdiction here. This is to maintain complete secrecy for the reason the girls are here at this school." Andrew put a large steel pot over a radiant heat element built onto a low counter. "Oh forgive my manners my name is Andrew." He said holding out his hand.

"Rachel Dawson." She said shaking his hand. "So what is the real reason these girls are here?" She asked not sure she wanted to know.

"They are vampire slayers Miss Dawson." Andrew said pouring water into the pot and adding pasta.

"Vampire slayers?" She laughed she couldn't help it the idea was just so absurd.

"Yes that's right." Andrew walked over to the intercom and pressed the send button. "James this is Andrew could you send the five year old class down here to help me out."

"You've sure got a soft spot for those girls don't you?" Came a British voice that Rachel recognized as the headmaster. "All right I'll have Anya bring them down in just a moment."

Andrew turned to Rachel and smiled. "Your hired the first task you need tackle is put on an apron and help the five year olds when they come in. The other side of the kitchen is where the dish washer is. I want you to help them clean all of the dishes from this morning and put them back on the serving lines. Then help them to clean up the dinning hall and prepare it for lunch." Andrew said turning toward the back of the kitchen. "Oh one more thing, don't underestimate those girls."

Rachel was left all by her self. She had just come in for a preliminary interview and now she was on the job how odd. She supposed he was trying to pull one over on her so she bit. She grabbed an apron form the wall and waited. A few minutes later seven or eight five year-olds came crashing through the door followed by a blonde girl a little bit older than her.

The blond waved. "Hey I'm Anya."

"I'm Rachel the new assistant house mother." She said waving.

One of the girls turned to Anya with a confused look. "I already have a mom Miss Anya."

Rachel giggled the girls were all adorable she saw a mixed look of frustration and understanding on Anya's face.

"Don't worry sweet pea Rachel is just a teacher like me." Anya said trying to comfort the child.

Rachel took the silence as a good time to start. She got down on the girls level so she could look into their eyes. "So what do you guys say I show you the dish washing room?" All of the girls squealed in anticipation. Rachel lead them to the other side of the kitchen were the large conveyor belt driven dish washing system was located. The mess of steel and steam was a complete mystery to her. She realized that Andrew must have wanted to see how well she thought on her feet. "Ok first off al I need you all to carry over all of the dishes from the window over there and put them into the sink here against the wall." She said indicating the large sink next to her. The girls all ran over to the draining ledge that connected to the dinning hall. Several of the girls started working as a team; one girl would hold the dishes as the other stacked them into her arms. Rachel walked up to one of the girls with a confused look on her face. "Honey why don't you carry a smaller stack those lo ok to heavy for you to carry."

The girl was holding at pile of plates two feet high. "No I can get it." She said walking over to the sink and setting them down.

Rachel was utterly confused, then she saw one of the girls carry one of Andrews four foot steel cauldrons that she had seen him struggle carrying up over her head. She turned her head to see Anya laughing at the look on her face.

"You've never met slayers before have you?" Anya asked.

Rachel looked at her dumbfounded. "Slayers? So Andrew was right these girls are."

"Vampire slayers, yes." Anya said finishing her sentence.

"I think I'm going to faint." Rachel said watching the little Herculean girls rinsing off dishes and carrying heavy plates and serving pans around.

"Please don't, I've already had to carry one unconscious body too many today." Anya replied watching to make sure the girls didn't drop anything.

Rachel laughed it was the only thing she could think of to do. An hour later everything was done and the dinning hall looked like it would shine. Anya excused herself and led the girls back to their class room. Rachel sat down at one of the tables in the dinning hall and waited. She been their long when Andrew came walking into the room with a tall man following him. Andrew came up to her and smiled.

"So how did you hold up with those girls running around the kitchen?" Andrew asked

"Ok I guess all things considered." She said eyeing the man next him.

"This is Angel he's the vice-headmaster." Andrew said indicating the tall man.

"So you must be Rachel." Angel said in a n almost intoxicating Irish accent.

"Yes sir, pleased to meet you." She said with a slight bow.

Angel turned to leave and stopped before he got to the door. "Oh Andrew Giles wanted to know when we were meeting to play dungeons and dragons this week."

"Tonight at my place about seven." Andrew called after him.

Rachel lost it as soon as Angel had left. "You guys play DnD?"

"Yeah what's wrong with that?" Andrew said defensively.

"Nothing at all it just seems weird that you guys seem to live that kind of stuff every day and then you go and pretend to be what you already are." She said shaking her head. "So what are plans for lunch?" She said slapping him on the arm. "I still have to get all my stuff from the hotel and get situated."

"Don't worry about that one of our teachers Robin took care of that already. All of your stuff is in the apartment between mine and Buffy's."

"Who's Buffy?" She asked following him into the kitchen.

"Oh she is the chosen." Andrew said draining his large pot of pasta.

"The chosen?" Rachel asked incredulously.

"That means that she is the end all be all of slayers. She has the power of the scythe which is this magical weapon forged back when the slayer tradition began." He said tasting the pot of sauce. "She is also the last according to slayer myth."

"Why is that?" She wondered as she began using large tongs to take the pasta out of the pot.

"Within her lifetime she will lead a massive army of slayers against the hounds of hell on the day of judgment." He said throwing sage into the pot of sauce.

"So you're saying that within my lifetime I am going to see the last days of earth and since I work here probably have front row seats." She said laughing to keep herself from having a nervous breakdown.

"Not necessarily, Buffy may live to be a hundred and fifty for all we know. We have been averting Armageddon for years. Seemed like a monthly occurrence back in Sunnydale." Andrew said

"Sunnydale isn't that the town that got buried during a massive earthquake?" She asked as she set up numerous serving pans full of pasta. "Do we really need all of this pasta?"

"It was hardly an earthquake it was a bomb of sorts. We closed the Hellmouth which is sort of like a gate to hell and the land on top of it was buried in the crater. And you obviously haven't seen a slayer eat if you think those six pans will be enough." He said eyeing the pans she had just covered.

Lunch went rather routinely and Andrew loved having an extra pair of hands. Much to Rachel's surprise they went through sixteen pans of pasta before the bell to begin afternoon classes rang. Rachel helped Andrew to clean up and thirty minutes later they called it a day. Andrew showed her to her apartment; it had its own kitchen as well as a living room with dining table and a large bedroom with adjoining bath room. As far as she was concerned it was perfect. Her suit cases were both sitting on top of her bed. After she changed out of the cloths she had been wearing all day she walked over to Buffy's apartment right next door once she knocked Buffy answered the door.

"Hey you must be the new girl. How can I help you?" Buffy asked a warm smile on her face.

"Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself." Rachel said.

"Well come on in I was just teaching Illyria how to paint by numbers." Buffy said shutting the door behind Rachel.

"Is Illyria your daughter?" She asked taking in the size of the apartment. The place was huge it looked more like the inside of a single floor home rather than an apartment.

"Not by birth but she might as well be." Buffy said walking into her kitchen. There was a girl about Rachel's age with light blue veins visible in the edge of her face sitting at the table with a paint brush in one hand and a paint by numbers picture of Winnie the Pooh on the table. She looked up at Rachel and smiled. "Illyria this is Rachel she is going to be living right next to us from now on."

"Hi Rachel." Illyria said waving her empty hand.

"Hi Illyria, do you like Winnie the Pooh?" She said pointing to the picture.

Illyria nodded her head. "I watch it every morning." She said.

The front door opened and Angel walked into the kitchen. "Hey Buffy." he said kind of monotone.

"Hello Angelus." Was Buffy's only response.

Illyria however jumped up and hugged him. "Hey daddy, do you want to go to the park a saw this cool swing set there the other day."

"Sure, what do you think Buffy?" Angel asked looking over at the blonde.

"I don't mind just put away all of your stuff before you leave ok Illyria." Buffy said looking at the girl.

"Ok mommy." she said gathering up all of her stuff and following angel to her room.

"Wow there is sexual tension between you and him thick as cement." Rachel said after the two had gone.

"Tell me about it." Buffy said plopping down at the table.

"Well give me the dime novel explanation." Rachel said sitting down next to her.

"Well for starters he's a vampire." She said rubbing her temples.

"A vampire is a co-head at a school for vampire slayers?" Rachel asked mystified.

"Yeah well Angel's different. He has been forgiven. He spent almost a hundred years in a church trying to atone for his sins through prayer." Buffy said grabbing a cookie from the package Illyria had left there.

"Prayer can only get you so far. You have to actually make up for what you do with action." Rachel said grabbing a cookie as well.

"Yeah he finally figured that out about nine years ago. He found me, the newest slayer at the time and decided to follow me and protect me. Didn't work that well within a year I died fighting his old boss. I came back fairly quickly seems god gave me this innate ability to defy death. So he blamed himself and I didn't see him for nearly four months after that. Of course I didn't really want to see him either I had gone through a lot and spent that time training as hard as I could to make sure that would never happen again. Then when he came back and we started dating again he turned evil again and it was all my fault well it was partially my fault you see this gypsy had cursed him and said that if he ever found true happiness that he would revert back to the way he was. Well he found out about a year ago that it was all psychological his subconscious mind had told him that he didn't deserve to be human so he started to eliminate all of the people he cared about mainly being my friends. He killed my watcher Giles girlfriend Jenny and then he tortured Giles. So I had to kill him so I could stop this portal from opening that would give him power over demons. So then I ran away and lived on the east cost of a while. I couldn't get over the fact that this spell a friend of mine had come up with had worked and he returned to normal right when I sent him into the portal he had opened. I can still remember the look on his face as I did it. But he hadn't died I think part of it was because he wasn't supposed to die yet he needed to be alive so he could finally make the right decision. Well when he came back we spent almost a year trying to work out his demons we would train together and do Ti Chi. Well at the end of that year he decided that my life would be better with out him so he took off for Los Angeles. He started an investigation agency and did that for five years until coming to the realization that he had spent five years going through hell alone when he could have spent it with me. So he came back again. Apparently though he stayed in contact with my friend Willow and when he learned about all of the stuff we had gone through about a year and a half ago she got this old nemesis of mine out of jail and gave her a chance by sending her to Sunnydale to help us. I'm still not convinced that it was a good idea though. She was always a loose cannon. She even turned all the potential slayers we had gathered to fight this huge battle against me and they made me leave my own house. I don't know it was a weird time I think he sent her because he didn't want me to get killed again he had to deal with the fact the he had been gone when I died the second time to save my sister Dawn. I don't know I know he has been in love with me for a long time I just wish he would walk up to me and say it." Buffy was in tears and sobbed uncontrollably. Rachel patted her on the shoulder.

"Yeah men can be totally clue less sometimes." Rachel said. She turned her head when she heard one of the floor boards creak. It was Angel.

"I've got it room here." He said as he sat down in the chair next to Buffy.

Rachel wasn't sure how long he stayed because she could hear Buffy sobbing for hours. She made her way down the hall to Andrews's room. When he answered she saw several people inside all hovering around the kitchen table.

"Hey Rachel come on in." He said motioning her forward. "We were just about to get started."

She didn't recognize anyone in the room except for Anya and the headmaster who seemed to be trying make heads or tails of Andrews hand drawn map.

"Hey guys this is Rachel she just started here this morning." Andrew said introducing her.

"Ah fresh meat." Said a black haired man sitting next to Anya. "Oww what did you do that for." He said looking at Anya and shaking a reddening hand in the air.

"Rachel this dumb lug is Xander." Anya said pointing to the man now emphatically blowing on his hand.

"Names Giles,." Said an English man sitting at the table between Anya and the headmaster Mr. Davies.

"So you're Giles." Rachel said remembering Buffy's story. "Buffy and I were just talking about you."

"So you met Buffy already that's good." He said cleaning his glasses. The two love birds in front of you are Dawn and Spike. Dawn is Buffy's sister."

"Yes she had mentioned you." Rachel said shaking Dawns hand.

"More than likely it had something to do with her death." Dawn said lighting a cigarette.

"How did you guess?" Rachel said thinking it an odd thing to bring up.

"Well seeing as I heard her crying through the front door when I walked by I figured you too were talking about either that or angel."

"Actually." Rachel said sitting down next to her. "We were talking about both. That was until Angel showed up now I don't care to think about what they could be doing right know."

Every own laughed but no one harder then Dawn. "So do you think he heard what you guys were talking about?" She said

"I think he heard all of it. He seemed to only make a noise because he wanted me to know he was there." Rachel said pulling out a piece of paper from her pocket and handing it to Andrew. "Can I use this?"

Andrews's eyes flew open at the professionally written character. "Wow didn't know you played."

"My dad used to write the books so I got hooked pretty early." Rachel responded

"We started playing back in Sunnydale during that long stint where we were fighting The First." Giles said.

"But that was only because we couldn't get out of the bloody house." Spike said taking off his coat exposing a Billy Idle sleeveless T-shirt.

"Well I don't seem to get the point of all this. You are playing as mythological creatures that are fighting real life monsters. Why bother when you could all go out on patrol and actually fight them." The headmaster said.

"Because this way I don't lose an eye." Xander said pointing to his own.

"Jolly good point." James said setting down the map. Well I am going to go do some evening sparring with Faith before I turn in have nice night." James said getting up from the table.

"Wait faith is here as in the bitch with an attitude." Rachel said bewildered.

"Yes well you have been talking to Buffy haven't you." James said before excusing himself.

Xander leaned over and smiled. "Just watch you don't say anything like that around Robin he might just go off on you."

"I'll try to keep that in mind." She said as Andrew began the game. It had certainly been a long day and she couldn't help but wonder what the next day would be like.