I honestly and genuinely own all of the characters in this story, despite what the lawyers say

Buffy awoke with a start, feeling out of place and momentarily dizzy. She looked around, not seeing her crappy apartment, but a well-furnished bedroom, and then she remembered she was home. As her muscles unclenched, she thought that word again. Home. It brought a smile to her face. She'd come back to Sunnydale, and her mother had accepted her, no questions asked. Ok, some questions asked, but only general mom-type questions, not "are you guilty of murder?" or stuff like that. She lay back on her bed, far more aware of how comfy it was after a summer working minimum wage in L.A., and took a deep breath. And with that deep breath a wonderful scent came to her nose, a scent of oranges, and figs and sugar. Buffy's eyes snapped open as her stomach made itself known with a growl. She grabbed her robe and made her way downstairs, preparing to conquer nations if that was what it took to eat whatever smelled so good.

Joyce smiled as she saw Buffy stumble into the kitchen, still rubbing sleep from her eyes. "Good morning Buffy, coffee's to your left, and breakfast is almost done. Can you wait five minutes or are you about to start chewing on the counter?"

Buffy grabbed her coffee and drank deeply, savoring the life-giving caffeine. "I don't think I can last five. I'll give you three before I start pouring maple syrup on the counter." Joyce laughed as Buffy gave a rueful smile, just as her stomach growled again. "Well then I guess I'd better hustle unless I want to think up one hell of a story for the contractors. Take a seat, food is moments away."

Buffy sat down as her mother pulled a skillet from the oven with several golden-brown pastries in it, lifted most of them out onto a plate, and poured a healthy dollop of orange syrup on top from a sauce pan. She handed the heaping plate to Buffy, along with a fork and knife, and tried to suppress her giggles as Buffy attacked the food with gusto.

Halfway through the plate Buffy paused for air and looked over at her smiling mother, who had helped herself to the rest of the pastries. "Mom, this is…amazing! What is this? And why haven't you made this before?"

Joyce chuckled "It's fig and ricotta stuffed crepes with orange syrup, and I've never made it before because I found the recipe three weeks ago. I figured it would be a good homecoming meal for my prodigal daughter."

"I'd ask about the Giles-like word usage, but my stomach has decided that I need to eat the rest of this before my brain is allowed to take charge." Fitting word to action, Buffy finished off the rest of her plate and let out a satisfied sigh, patting her belly, which was still flat as a board, despite the sheer volume of food she had consumed. Wrapping her hands around her coffee mug, she looked up at her mother again.

"So, what do I have to do to get you to cook that every day? Wash the laundry? Mow the lawn? Paint the house? Discretely excuse myself to sleep over at Willow's when you find a rich and handsome man to occupy your evening? Find you a rich and handsome man to occupy your evenings? OK, I'm not really on board with those last two, but if you make this every day, I, well, I could be flexible, I guess."

Joyce laughed out loud at her daughter's antics "You'll do the laundry and mow the lawn anyhow, the house doesn't need paint, and if I find myself and rich and handsome man, I doubt I'll be able to stop you from fleeing the house screaming if I decided to put the moves on him. Don't pout, Buffy, you brought this up."

"It's not fair debating me this early in the morning when I'm still all sleepy and have only had half a cup of coffee. It's like…punching baby rabbits. You wouldn't want to hurt a poor little bunny, would you?" Buffy tried to give her mom puppy dog eyes, but as with most mothers, Joyce had become immune by the time her daughter was in her early teens.

"Anyhow, you should probably get showered and dressed. I spent a fair amount of time this summer with your friends and Rupert, and we all promised each other that we'd let the others know when you showed up. I called them about an hour ago, but said that no-one was to come over until you'd had breakfast and were ready for company." Buffy's expression suddenly changed to one of extreme apprehension. Joyce walked over and wrapped her daughter in a hug. "Sweetheart, they're your friends, and they miss you as well. Everyone was worried when you ran off, but rather than track you down and drag you back here, we decided to give you time. But you're back now, and everyone wants to see you. So, you have a choice. You can go hide in your room, and I'll send Xander to tell bad jokes at you until you give in, or you can go shower now so you're ready when they get here."

Twenty minutes later when Buffy walked back down the staircase, pulling her damp hair into a ponytail, she heard conversation coming from the living room. As she turned the corner, she saw all of her friends. Oz was sitting on the couch plucking a bass in a very mellow manner, no surprise there, with Willow sitting and fidgeting next to him, continually glancing around the room. Cordelia was speaking with her mother, somewhat to Buffy's surprise, and Xander was on the far side of the room, reading a thin book, with a large case in front of him. And Giles was sitting in an armchair, sipping his tea in a very proper British manner. Buffy stopped in the doorway and smiled, beginning to feel whole again now that her friends were here. The scene was interrupted as Willow glanced up at her before looking down, and then did a double take. She leapt to her feet with a shout of "Buffy!" before throwing herself at her. Buffy braced herself so she wasn't knocked over by the ballistic redhead, and her hearing was overwhelmed by high-speed Willow-babble. She eventually pried the euphoric hacker off with a smile so she could greet the rest of the Scoobies. Oz had put down his bass and shook her hand with a "Hey", as though it had only been yesterday that she'd last hung out with the laconic musician. Xander picked her up and twirled her around in a bear hug, giving her a chance to notice that her doughnut-loving friend seemed to have switched diets, as he'd packed on some muscle. Even Cordelia walked over and managed to say hello without a snide remark.

Finally, she turned to Giles. Her Watcher had removed his glasses during the greetings to polish them, but put them back on as he stepped towards her. They both hesitated for a moment before he wrapped his arms around her in a reassuring hug. He released her and moved her to arms length with a very British smile and suspicious wetness in his eyes. "I'm very glad you're back, Buffy." Those few words, not overly sentimental, still made her feel safer than she had in a long time. Combined with the company, she even thought it might be possible for her to be happy again.

Willow grabbed her again and dragged her to the couch, where both of the girls sat down and Oz resumed his acoustic strumming. Everyone else sat down as Willow turned to Buffy "So, um, it's great to have you back! I mean, not that we didn't have a great summer anyhow, and I'm sure that you had a great summer as well, I'm sure you did lot of interesting stuff and we want to hear all about that but we've got a lot to tell you about, what with the changes and stuff we've learned but we're not going to talk business now because you just got home, and it would make more sense for you to just ease back into things, unless you want to talk business, I mean not business business, Slayer business, except we do have some business business to talk about as well and I'm just so glad that you're back and…"

"Will! Breathe!" Buffy smiled as her best friend stopped and took a deep breath. "I'm glad to be back as well. I've missed you all."

"So, uh, Bufster, how was your summer? Hot beaches, small bikinis, tall, icy drinks, all nice normal things that don't go bump in the night?"

"More like a nice, normal boring job waitressing all summer without a hint of excitement at all, Xander. Nope, totally boring and mundane, not even a peep of supernatural-type stuff until last week when I was kidnapped by a demonic slave ring that I had to bust up and free hundreds of tormented victims. But aside from that, nice quiet boring summer. What about you guys? What did you do this summer?"

"Are you sure you're ok with us talking about slayer-y stuff right after you get back? I told everyone that there was no slayer-y talk unless you wanted it, and I put on my resolve face and everything."

"Thanks Wills, but I'm fine. Rested and ready to hear what my friends did with their summer."

"In that case…"

AN: rather than re-cap chapter one in its entirety, why don't we skip ahead about half an hour. It seems like that would make more sense than copy and pasting a whole chapter in here, especially since that chapter was only about three thousand words ago.

The small welcome home party had broken down into small groups of people talking, which was good because Buffy felt overwhelmed. She runs away from her duties for the summer, and everyone prepares for her return to find ways to make her life easier? She felt unworthy of all of it, even with the reassurances that no one begrudged her the time she had taken. She'd listened to Willow break out the numbers relating to combat stress and breakdowns, but she still felt guilty for having run off. She slipped out to the porch for some fresh air, and was surprised to see Xander already leaning against the rail, drinking ginger ale, with another can next to him. He tossed her the spare as she closed the door, and gave her that half-smile that made her feel like the center of his universe.

"Hey. How's the homecoming going?" She tried to force a smile, but she could tell he wasn't buying it "It's great really. I'm glad to see everyone again, and happy that you're all doing well." "And you're so overwhelmed with warm fuzzies that you snuck out here to be alone at your own welcome home gathering. I know I'm not the smartest guy out there, Buff, but you're going to have to try harder than that."

Wrapping her arms around herself, Buffy leaned against the wall. "I really am happy to see everyone again, but I feel like I let everyone down by running away. I go off and pretend to be normal while you're all working to make my life easier. I mean, even Cordy helped out! How can I face all of you with that hanging over my head?"

Xander walked over and put his arm around her. He held her like a sibling, rather than a lover, and she relaxed into the feeling. "Buffy, you spend every night going out looking for supernatural evil to fight. Sure, we all back you up, but you're the part of the group that we need to keep working, and that means there's ten times the stress on you that there is on the rest of us. And really, it was your mom that got us all organized and stuff, so you should blame her for all this." At Buffy's incredulous look, he smiled. "It's true. We were all running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Well, Oz wasn't, because, he's Oz. I'm not sure that man actually knows how to panic. Giles was doing his stiff British thing, Willow was talking a mile a minute, and Cordy was complaining that she was missing a sale, and your mom comes bombing in, shuts us all up, and hits us with this plea to hold the town together for you, and to find a way to better support you when you get back. She was all like 'My daughter is going to graduate high school and go to college, I don't care if the world is ending. So if she has to go out and fight vampires, then find a way for her to do both, or so help me I will make you regret you ever heard the name Summers!' Your mom's kindof badass, Buffy."

Buffy started to chuckle "Thanks Xander. That does help, actually." They stood there in silence for a minute, just enjoying the breeze and the quiet. "Hey, what's going on with Cordelia? I mean, before I left you two were all about the subtle smoochies with a simmering side of dislike, but now it's like there's this other thing between you two. Did something happen?"

Xander sighed, "Yeah, it's kindof tied to this. You know her parents never liked me, right? Well, when she went to her dad about getting the funds for Slayers Inc., he put his foot down. He wouldn't release the money to her unless she broke up with me, and didn't get involved with me again in high school. We both knew our relationship was doomed because she has always planned on moving to L.A. when she graduates, but this was the final nail in the coffin. At least she held out for a good deal. A loaded college account, a sweet coupe, and the seed money we needed. She'll be set for life even if her daddy and his money vanish off of the face of the earth. Don't sweat it, we both knew that it wasn't going to last, but I miss her anyhow."

"You miss her? Gosh Xander, I never pictured you as a masochist."

"Of course I am. I hang out with you, after all. Hey, ouch, no hitting, I bruise easily! You're just proving my point!"

Buffy laughed as Xander clowned around, he always knew how to cheer her up. After they stopped laughing, he looked at her, and there was something in his eyes, regret, or maybe fear. A cold knot of panic started to grow in her belly as he began to talk.

"Buffy, there's something I need to tell you. Something bad that I did. You may hate me after, but I shouldn't keep this from you anymore."

"What, Xander, what did you do?"

"Remember last May, when you went to confront Angelus? Willow was in the hospital, but I came along to get Giles out?" Buffy nodded silently. "Well, what I didn't tell you is that Willow was trying to curse him again, to bring his soul back. That's why she sent me to find you, to tell you what she was trying to do. But I was scared and angry, and I told you she said to kick his ass. I'm sorry, Buffy, sorrier than you'll ever know. I just didn't want you to hold back when you fought him, because he wouldn't, not with his apocalypse on the line."

"I knew."

"What?" Xander leaned forward, barely having heard Buffy's whisper.

"I knew he got his soul back. The portal had opened, and I was almost beaten, when he got this look in his eyes, a soft look that I'd seen a hundred times from him, and I knew it was Angel again, he was back, but there was no time. I kissed him, and then I stabbed him, and sent him to hell." Unlike when it had first happened, or when she'd thought about it over the summer, her admission didn't fill her with pain. Emptiness had taken its place, there was still a void in her heart, but she didn't feel like her soul died anymore. "Thank you for not telling me, Xander. Angelus would have killed me otherwise, and Angel would have still been in hell, along with the rest of us. It hurts, but you did the right thing."

"Come on Buff, what do you say we head back inside and join the rest of the group? If I keep you out here much longer I'm sure I'll be on the wrong end of a furious Willow-babble for hogging the guest of honor. And maybe you can convince G-man to play a duet with Oz? I know Oz brought his guitar along with his bass, whatdaya think?"

Buffy tried to suppress a laugh, and found she couldn't, even with the reminder of her pain. "Sure Xander, Giles is a musician? What next, Cordy is the incarnation of good, and can see the future?"

"I don't know about the good part, but have you seen her play the stock market? I don't know about you, but I'm spooked."

Buffy smiled as she went back inside to join her family.

AN: I'm on a roll. Or possibly a pita. Regardless, I'm very much in the mood for writing, I just hope that you are in the mood for reading.

Also, I know that Oz is a guitarist, but I'm going to assume that he's talented enough to be able to play both guitar and bass.

The breakfast that Joyce makes Buffy is a favourite of mine, and I have no problem sharing the recipe if you PM me for it. (Don't complain about my extra u in favourite, I use British English, thought I'll continue to write my stories in American, save for Giles' dialogue and internal monologue)