Back in the Pasadena park, Faith snickered to herself over the fun she and the rest of the Scoobies enjoyed for the next couple of months while incessantly teasing Dawn about her vulgar counterpart. It only got better when Celeste's self-styled music career shortly crashed and burned in a spectacularly gaudy scandal. Something to do with a funeral home and vague rumors of necrophilia… Anyway, even though that resulted in the conceited celebrity utterly vanishing from further public notice, this was no help for a certain Summers daughter. Dawn remained in such a vile mood regarding Celeste that just mentioning her lookalike's name ever afterwards risked having this young woman irately throw something heavy at the ducking head of her persistent leg-puller.
Brushing away a fallen lock of hair from her forehead, Faith mentally smirked, *Damn, but Little D's got some arm on her.*
The Slayer's quiet gratification was interrupted by an odd pop! noise coming from the spot on the other end of the picnic table bench. Faith had earlier laid down her purse there which contained the magical object she'd recovered from those geeks. Glancing over in surprise, this woman saw the purse had just disappeared into thin air, with a single sheet of paper now taking this leather bag's place.
Leaning to the side to grab that unexpected gift, Faith straightened up in her seat, and she read with interest the scribbled words hastily written on this note:
Faith:
Your job's finished, and you can return to your vacation now. After getting rid of what you collected, Giles and I will check out your latest double. We'll tell you and the other Scoobies the results of this when you get back. In the meantime, follow the usual rules and stay far away from Agent Page of the FBI, if possible. Boy, you can sure pick them, can't you? Anyway, see you later, and have a good time!
Willow
P.S.: How do you like your mood ring?
Letting out a loud guffaw, Faith fondly regarded the small ring still on her left hand, which was now displaying a cheerful dark blue representing its wearer's sudden happiness. Getting to her feet while crumpling the note into a little ball with her other hand, the Slayer amiably strolled out of the park, flipping the discarded note into a nearby trash can along the way. Pausing at the street sidewalk, Faith had to grin over one of Willow's sardonic comments in that recent message, about how she could pick her doubles. Hey, if that was true, Red damn well wouldn't have elected to choose one of her three dead ringers.
That had been quite a shock to the Scoobies. Not just for the number of Willow replicas presently running around. Though before getting to her real reason for definitely feeling uncomfortable about this, the witch pointed out to her friends there hadn't been any actual grounds for thinking their doubles were limited to just one person, even if Xander and Dawn had tentatively demonstrated this. Not even when Willow's first lookalike had been discovered, either.
Michelle Levenstein (née Flaherty) had been completely ordinary, nothing more agreeable than a just-married young woman starting a life with her new husband. There'd been some enthusiastic discussion by a few of the Scoobies about anonymously sending a late wedding gift to the couple on their honeymoon. However, this debate had been thoroughly squashed by one of Giles' most disapproving harrumphs.
After holding up several napkins with 10's scrawled on them, the small group of Sunnydale survivors at their own table well to the rear of the large room reluctantly agreed with their beloved leader to refrain from possibly interfering in a pair of complete strangers' lives. Giving one last approving glance at a red-haired woman in her bridal dress joyously dancing with her spouse, Xander, Faith, Buffy, Giles, Dawn, and a suitably-disguised Willow left the reception to head back to Scotland. Now, that had certainly been a good time, even if a more thought-provoking surprise was waiting for them several months later in New York City.
Again, nobody had any problems with Lillian Aldrin Eriksen. 'Nice' was the most suitable description of this kindergarten teacher, who never had any idea of how the news of her existence made a number of people immediately travel by magical means to her location. There, still more of Willow's spells kept them hidden while they'd followed after the witch's double, her husband and two other people, who at that moment all seemed to be heading into a pretty crummy part of the city. Everyone's curiosity abruptly changed into total incredulity when their quarry walked into a strip club…and both Mrs. Eriksen and the whole Scooby Gang soon stared in shock at a very bored Russian woman perfectly resembling two other ladies in the audience coming out on the stage and beginning to take off her clothes.
Not even Faith had been unwise enough to laugh at Willow about the whole thing, until this woman eventually cooled down over this (much later), and she could herself see the humor in it all… "Barely", as Xander quipped. Their Sunnydale comrade's fragile tolerance of how one of her doppelgangers was behaving out there was further bolstered by this same one-eyed man freely admitting at last just what occurred during his short-lived road trip years ago. All it took was some sheepishly-uttered words of the "Fabulous Ladies Nightclub" to make Willow perk up from her previous grouchy temper, so that the others gladly stopped tiptoeing around the dangerous subject of Stripper Willow.