Chapter 3: She's Back
Everyone squeezed back into the car, gyros in hand and ready to get home and sleep off the stress from the day spent at the airport. It was quiet in car, everyone busily munching on their food that is until Dawn let a little drip of sauce land square in her lap. "Dawn! Really, if you're going to wear my pants…" Buffy exclaimed, frantically trying to wipe off the stain before it could really set in. "You'll be eating nothing but bread and apples whenever you borrow clothes from now on. I mean, seriously… every time…" Buffy trailed off. She licked a napkin and tried again to remove the stain from the knee of her favorite pair of jeans. "I would never spill anything on something I borrowed from you…"
Dawn gave a slight shriek, remembering back to her favorite sweater Buffy spilled coffee on not too long ago. "Buffy, it's fine; it'll come out in the laundry." Dawn had grown annoyed with the increasingly painful slaps coming from the napkin Buffy wielded, and brushed Buffy's hands away. She crossed her arms and pretended to pout, and conveniently covering the small spot on the shirt she had also borrowed from Buffy. Dawn made a mental note not to eat gyros in the backseat while wearing Buffy's clothes before laying her head on the window.
"Buffy, really, it's just a spot, it'll come out."Xander said, patting her shoulder. "Besides if it doesn't you can just go shopping for some new clothes, you know, with all your free time you have now and stuff."
"Free time, I do have." Buffy said. "It's the free money I need to work on. Do you think I'll ever see the insurance from my house?" She asked, while crumpling up the wrapper from her gyro and throwing it in the bag.
"You know, Buff, I don't think your insurance covers an entire town falling off the face of the earth, especially if you make that happen yourself." Xander told her, a little matter-of-factly.
"Well I didn't exactly put that on the claim, you know." Buffy replied, "Cause of Accident: Uh, well I blew up the town in an effort to save the world from complete demonic domination." She cocked her head, and smiled, "Come to think of it, I probably should have put that; I might have gotten some sort of hero settlement or something!"
"Well, we didn't exactly blow it up, more like down. But I see where you're going with that. I'm just glad I don't have to replace anymore of the windows in that place" Xander told her. Buffy could see his rant face coming, and new she better divert the conversation before she had to hear about the parameters of the frames, and the holding capacity of the plates, it was a little too much right now.
"Uh, so Willow, are you going to look for some schools around here to start in the fall?" Buffy asked quickly, and looking straight ahead, so she wouldn't see the hurt look on Xander's face.
"I don't know yet, Buff, I was thinking about it. I can't really send for my transcripts though. I'm going to talk around with a few people and see what I can do." Willow, shook her head and continued driving. School was a big thing on her mind these last few days, and she wanted nothing more than to go back. She promised herself that she would be in school for the fall semester though.
Giles patted her shoulder, "We'll get you there Willow, I promise!" He said. "I guess we all should start trying to get settled here, I think this will be a good place for us. This place could definitely use our help." Giles was looking out the window at the buildings as they went by. To the naked eye, the buildings just looked like had graffiti on the them, but Giles new that some of those marks were more than just the handiwork of delinquent teens, and rival gangs.
It was another half-hour drive before they got home. Dawn had dozed off with her head on the window. Willow was in her own world, driving and thinking about her plans for the future. Xander, Buffy, and Giles all spent the last part of the trip talking about the Council, the gang, and Xander even started talking about the job an old co-worker had lined up for him. Everyone was pretty distracted when they pulled the car into the garage. No one really noticed the person standing on the door step, demanding to be let in.
Everyone piled out of the car and into the house. Buffy made a stop at the trash can to throw the gyro bag away, and was the last one in. No one was in the kitchen when she walked through the door, so she followed the sounds of Andrew's voice coming from the front door.
"I don't know what it wants. It just keeps demanding to be let in." Andrew exclaimed frantically. "I'm not letting it in. Tell it to go away." He looked through the window at the top of the door and stepped back quickly. "It's still out there, stomping its non-corporeal foot. It has surprisingly good taste in shoes though." He said, turning his back to the door and staring wildly at everyone.
"Andrew what are you going on about?" Buffy asked, pushing him out of the way of the window, so she could get a look. "What the…"
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"What, what is it Buffy?" Willow and Giles both asked, stepping up to the window.
"Oh, my!" Willow exclaimed.
"Yes, oh, my indeed." Giles added before wiping his glasses and looking again. Apparently satisfied with the state of his lenses and the fact that he was seeing clearly, he stepped aside and scratched his head. "Well this doesn't make any sense."
"What are you people looking at?" Dawn said, before half nudging Giles out of the way to get a look for herself. "Oh" was all she said, and she stepped back from the door. "Really, I was hoping for a few more, you know centuries before we would have to worry about this again."
"So was I." Buffy replied without taking her eyes away from the window. "Do you think it's come to apologize for ruining our plans at the mall?" She asked, looking sideways at Willow.
"Will you people just let me in? I see all of you staring out the window. I'm not stupid I know you're home. Not let me in."
"Anya?" Xander asked from the back of the pack. He hadn't stepped up to the window to look yet, but now he pushed everyone out of the way and swung the door open. "But you… I mean… Andrew said…"
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"You listened to that little dweeb?" She said, walking through the now open front door.
Not sure what else to do, everyone stepped out of her way, and Xander shut the door behind her. Everyone just stood there gawping; nothing particularly important to say came to anyone's mind. Xander was the first to speak, "Anya is that really you?" He asked, reaching out to touch her.
"No it's the other sexy ex-demon you know." She said, as Xander's hand went right through her arm.
"But I saw you fall." Andrew said, "And not get up. What are you doing here?"
"Well I couldn't really stay in Sunnydale now could I? What with there not being anything left there. If you're letting Andrew stay with you guys, then I should be able to as well." Anya stated flatly.
"Okay so that's why you're here, now, how are you here. I saw that bringer slice right through you." Andrew spoke up, from behind Buffy, standing up from his seat. "You know, from your shoulder to your hip. It was actually pretty gross."
"Oh that!" Anya exclaimed mildly, brushing away the comment, and incident, with a slight wave of her hand. "Look, you don't spend hundreds of years as a demon, and not make a few friends in low places. I pulled a few strings, and here I am." She looked up thoughtfully before adding. "They are still working on my body though. I hope that doesn't take overly too long." She said, the last bit more to herself than the assembled group. "I plan on hanging around for awhile." She told them, with a matter of fact nod.
Dawn sniggered and everyone turned to look at her. When she noticed that everyone was looking at her she explained her outburst, "Get it? Hanging around?" Everyone gave her a puzzled stare, forcing her to explain further, "She's a ghost and she's hanging around." Everyone continued to stare, and Anya glared. "That's not what you were going for? My bad." Dawn said, looking at her feet. Everyone focused on Anya again. "Well I thought it was funny."