A month passes before Jenny receives another letter from Rupert. She's sent two since his last. He'd told her he'd be away and that was okay. She went to the Natural History Museum and bought a couple of postcards from the gift shop to slip in the folds of her letter. She tried to keep the topics light, she mentions Laura and casual annoyances because she can. She's begun keeping an open letter on her nightstand to add to it when she has something she wants to tell or ask Rupert. Nothing too personal. What books he's read, a few suggestions from her own reading material.
She doesn't think about calling him. Or his voice.
She also doesn't think about the time that lapses since his last letter; Rupert explained his reasons. He seems fairly concerned about Willow and he wouldn't do so without valid reasons. Jenny's curiosity is piqued but she refrains from asking because she doubts Rupert will be comfortable revealing more than he already has about her former students' personal problems. She did a little digging online about the retreat to make sure everyone involved was legit, but that's as far as she'll let herself get involved.
Jenny settles into work easily. Summers are always long and it takes her a minute to get back into the routine. Despite sporadic rain, autumn is fairly warm, on the cusp of turning chilly, and Jenny enjoys eating her lunch in the quad. She needs the fresh air and she'll get it when she can because when winter brings snow, she'll be snuggled under a blanket in her classroom.
She watches some students putting up posters on the bulletin board for Halloween parties. The same posters popped up on the school intranet a couple of days ago. Sometimes, you've got to cover your bases.
Jenny puts her rubbish in the bin and gathers the rest of her stuff. She tucks the unopened letter between her textbooks and makes her way around the quad. After only two letters, she's developed a habit of opening them at home in private.
She returns the few smiles she gets as she recognises a couple of students. She looks around, feeling like she's being watched. She doesn't notice anyone eyeballing her. She tightens her hold on her books and purse, hurrying towards her class.
"Jenny!"
She stops at the voice and turns around to see Carl striding towards her. Oh, great.
"Hi, Carl," she deadpans as he stops in front of her. "I'm on my way to class to set up, how can I help you?"
"We can walk and talk," he suggests.
"I, uh," she starts, trying to think of a good excuse to run. She's become too polite for her own good.
"I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink or dinner sometime," Carl says as they start off in the direction of her classroom.
Jenny cringes. "Uh," comes her non-committal reply.
"You're probably seeing someone," Carl interrupts, noticing her reluctance.
Jenny pauses. Because she feels like she is, but she really isn't. She's been single for four years and she's exchanging letters with her ex to reconcile how abruptly and unwillingly their relationship ended.
Even without the confusion caused by writing Rupert, she doesn't want to see other people. Jenny feels the need to find an excuse to let Carl down gently; he's not her type but he's oh so persistent. She's not one to get squirrely about a guy who asserts their interest except he lingers a little too much and is a little too friendly for her liking.
"It's long distance."
Rupert won't mind.
"But serious?" Carl confirms.
Oh, yeah. "Definitely is."
It's not a lie.
In an ideal world, she and Rupert would work things out and eventually decide to move forward together. But this isn't an ideal world. As nice as it is that their lines of communication are open, she's quite aware they may never be more than pen pals going forward. There's nearly three and a half thousand miles between New York and Bath and she has no idea how to work around that if they decide to take another chance on each other. She has no idea if Rupert has someone else. She doesn't think he does from how he's worded his letters, she's not certain though.
But for the purposes of this conversation with Carl, she isn't interested in being more than colleagues with him. She won't divulge the eccentricities of her relationship with Rupert to Carl, it's none of his business. If she thought he'd take no, she'd say that. Hell, she's tried that, tried being polite, and now feels the need to embellish the truth because he never accepted it.
"Oh, well, if it ever stops being serious," he jokes.
That pisses Jenny off, causing her to fix him with a blank look. It takes him a beat but he gets the hint. Eventually.
"Can't blame a guy for trying," he mumbles as he walks away from her.
Jenny watches him go, if for nothing else other than making sure he's gone, before heading off towards her classroom. She's about to re-enter the building when the tour groups of prospective students and parents file out of the door she needs to enter through. She plasters on a polite smile when the tour guide greets her and introduces her to the first parents, before making her excuses that she has class.
She grabs the door handle as the stragglers bring up the rear so she can slip past them unhindered. She's about to duck through when she bumps into the last person through the door. Jenny loses her grip on the books in her arms and the letter sandwiched between them and they fall to the floor. The stranger apologises and drops to a crouch to pick up the items before Jenny can react.
"Oh God, I'm sorry!"
Jenny freezes as she recognises the voice. All she can do is watch the young woman with blonde hair stoop to grab a pencil that isn't Jenny's before rising. Jenny holds her breath as the realisation dawns on the young woman's face.
"Miss Calendar?" Buffy says in disbelief.
They stare at each other for a beat, wide-eyed and unnerved. Jenny opens her mouth to say something but no words come out. She can't look away from the younger woman. She looks older than she remembers, mature even. Jenny can't help but think wiser. Weary.
"Buffy! Come on, hurry up, what are you doing?" A shrill voice cuts through the moment and they both look at the source. A young girl stuck at the back of the tour group, flushed with embarrassment at having to call attention to herself.
That spurs Buffy into action. "I've got to…" she nods her head at the young girl and presses the books into Jenny's waiting hands.
The letter threatens the fall in the jostling only for Buffy to catch it. The slayer glances at the writing and instantly recognises it. She gives it to Jenny before running to catch up with the group.
"Thanks," Jenny mumbles to herself watching as Buffy looks over her shoulder at her as she trails after the group.
Oh boy.
AN - For intents of this story, let's say Dawn is seventeen/eighteen here - it's been a while since I watched the later seasons
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