Jenny avoids the glare of the projector transferring the presentation from her computer to the whiteboard at the front of the class as she looks out over the faces of her students, watching for questioning looks or blank expressions. She can only see the first three rows with the lights out, anyone in the back will have to call out or save their questions for later. She runs through the outline of their winter assignment, the grade percentage and the resources they will find useful.
She brings the lights up as she stops the projector running. She'll send the assignment en masse via email just before she dismisses them for the weekend. She hides her smirk at the blinking and shaking of a couple of heads when the lights go back on; she'd be offended if any of them were sleeping through her class. A few hands go up when she asks for any questions which she fields easily before dismissing them early.
Most of the class starts packing away their notebooks, eager to start the weekend, while a couple of her more conscientious students stay to start looking through the links she's sent to help with their projects. She starts packing up hoping to get away as soon as the last one leaves. She has plans, Rupert should have landed and made his way to meet her.
Jenny reviewed a couple of faculty emails she received during the last class, but nothing urgent. Laura's faculty mixer, a message from the Dean about open lab time for students after hours. She deletes the message from Carl about the usual staff get-together for drinks on the last day of term. She has no interest in being near Carl in the bar just off of campus, in the presence of other colleagues or not.
Her class disperses and Jenny lifts her head to watch the lab emptying. She's felt eyes on her all day, more than usual when presenting her classes. As people weave their way to the back of the classroom, her eyes fall onto the one person sitting in the back row full of spare seats not occupied by her students. He doesn't make any move to leave or approach her.
She freezes, sucking in a breath. It's been years.
Sunnydale.
He'd confronted her in her classroom there, too.
His cold eyes, only slightly warmer than his eyes after his death, look back at her.
Enyos's mouth draws a thin line and she wonders if it's possible, if he's really there. If she missed the bite marring his skin when his body was discovered. The evening has drawn in during her last class...
Jenny squares her shoulders as her students pass him as if they don't see him. Her breathing grows shallow as her heart beats faster. She holds fast, she won't run and cause innocent casualties if he chases.
They'd never been close when he was alive, he saw her more as an inconvenience, a willing sacrifice in the name of vengeance. He pledged her life to the memory and anger of the girl who was taken from their family. She agrees in principle with what they did to Angelus, he needed to be stopped. A hundred years later, Angel had saved her life as a result.
God, she'd begged Enyos to let her abandon Sunnydale and find someone else to take her place because she wasn't sure she was strong enough to keep her distance from Rupert.
He needled at her, asking where her fire was, and demanded to know what happened. He refused to hear how weak she was. It hadn't been a week since Angel saved her from Eyghon but the encounter came spilling out of her. Except for the part about Angel, she knew better than to try and exude his virtues to her uncle.
Enyos sat stunned as Jenny emotionally relayed she had been possessed and Rupert's unintentional part in it. Yes, he raised Eyghon twenty-odd years before but Rupert thought he was gone. He had no idea Eyghon would return to take over her body.
Enyos stared at her, into her, searching for any lingering signs of the demon who took her over. Finally convincing himself, that Jenny was only Jenny, he started to counsel her.
He'd lectured her on duty and reminded her that she had been chosen for the highest honour of their people to watch over their enemy, to watch over Angel's suffering. She bit her tongue, never voicing that she was as good as dead if Angelus ever returned and learnt her true identity.
After he finished, he asked about Rupert.
"The slayer's watcher," he started. "You have feelings for him?"
She'd walked out.
Enyos forced her to stay in Sunnydale. Jenny decided if she stayed it would be on her terms, she would watch and report. She wouldn't get involved.
Three weeks.
Jenny managed to keep her distance for three weeks.
Then Buffy was accused of murdering her mother's boyfriend.
Jenny couldn't stand back, not when she knew what Buffy meant to Rupert even if Rupert hadn't quite realised it himself at the time.
Despite what Jenny had said to him in her classroom, she'd been harsh but couldn't bring herself to pick a fight regardless of how cold she acted towards him when he finally worked up the nerve to approach her, she hadn't been able to keep away. With Buffy incapacitated, there was no one to keep Rupert in check, no one to stop him from being reckless or getting himself killed.
Jenny had paced her apartment a dozen times before she'd grabbed her car keys. Telling herself she would help one last time and then tell Rupert the truth. If she couldn't convince him to keep his distance, she decided the truth would do what she couldn't. If he knew the truth, he'd never speak to her again.
Between the cemetery and the hospital, Jenny hadn't found the words to tell him. She'd been full of adrenaline, fear and guilt. She couldn't bring herself to hurt Rupert. He'd gazed at her, full of love and Jenny had gazed back, unable to deny herself that moment with him. Missing him had been a physical ache inside of her.
Instead of confessing her true identity, she ended up kissing him. She let herself love him as she continued to omit the truth.
"You shot him with a crossbow?"
"You shot him in the ass? If that's not payback, I don't know what is."
Buffy and Xander had chorused when the kids noticed Rupert limping in the library when they recounted their respective adventures and explained how Jenny was back in the fold and making out with Rupert in the library. She and Rupert let the kids have their fun and accepted their teasing for being caught smooching while sharing blushes and affectionate glances.
Right now, Enyos was staring dead into her eyes.
None of her students notice or check with her about the strange man in the hat sitting in the back row. They just strolled on past without batting an eyelid. He stands when the last one leaves. His dead expression gave way to anger. Jenny stands still, frozen in fear as he stalks towards her.
"You had no right."
Her scream is met with the darkness of her bedroom as she launches herself up and flips on the lamp on the bedside table. Light fills the room as she breathes deeply. She draws her knees up to her chest, and her forehead drops forward to rest on them as she fights to control her heartbeat.
Her breathing evens out as her pulse slows. She stays in position as she listens for any sounds. Nothing. She's not getting out of bed to find out if she's wrong.
Enyos's eyes and words echo in her head.
You had no right.
Jenny takes a composing breath.
You had no right.
What wasn't her right?
Normally, she'd dismiss it as a nightmare. She doubts her ability to shake it off though as Enyos's eyes flash in her head.
She turns her head to look at the lamp, trying to focus on the bright light and forget her uncle's expression. Her eyes fall on her phone and alarm clock. Two in the morning in New York, eleven o'clock at night in Sunnydale. She wonders if it's too late to call Rupert. He'd probably be awake if Buffy was patrolling tonight.
Jenny reaches out to grip the handset, pausing before pressing the number she now knows by heart.
"Summer's residence," comes a cautious answer when someone picks up and it takes her a moment to realise it's Willow, her voice so different from when she was Jenny's chirpy student.
"Willow?" Jenny asks. "It's Jenny."
"Miss Calendar?" Her voice is brighter and welcoming. "Oh, hi, I'm sorry about…I thought, it's late and Buffy's out so I thought it might be a different kind of call, you know?"
The kind of call everyone dreads, the kind of call when Buffy doesn't come home. Jenny curses silently. Of course, Willow would assume the worst with a late-night call.
"I'm sorry, I should have thought before calling," Jenny says, slipping back into the role of responsible adult. "How are you?"
"I'm okay, Giles, Dawn, and I were watching a movie and waiting for Buffy to get home," Willow pauses. "Do you want to talk to Giles?"
"In a minute, it's been so long since you and I talked," Jenny finds herself replying. Her nightmare starts to drift. If she spoke to Rupert, she'd be seeking comfort rather than a distraction. Speaking with Willow was like interacting with Buffy after so many years.
Jenny hangs onto the grounding realisation that the kids aren't kids anymore. Right now she needs that as Willow starts talking into Jenny's ear about things she's missed. About things Willow's learnt, about Willow's plans to go into teaching. Jenny's touched when Willow admits that's because of her.
When Willow hands the phone to Rupert, Jenny's calmer. He gives her his flight information. He'll be with her in a few days. Jenny takes comfort in the anticipation taking hold in her stomach, more powerful than her fear.
When she hangs up, she leaves her light on as she settles against her pillows and focuses on the reunion that's a couple of days away instead of her dead uncle haunting her dream.
You had no right.