Chapter 4: Malibu

*****Two Weeks Later*****

Willow couldn't believe how amazing Malibu was. Tony's house was so cool, but his lab downstairs was the best thing ever. He had these awesome robots, and he let Willow work with them. She and Oz wanted to work on their own design for a robot, and he was showing them how to do it. He even shared his Iron Man work with her, surprised she could follow his conversations. Willow was fast developing a crush on the man, but when he was around her mom, she knew that Tony's heart was taken.

"Pepper, your daughter might be as smart as I am," Tony told her at dinner. Oz spent the first week with her there, but now he was doing a week tour with his band in places around Los Angeles County while Xander went with Giles to meet with Buffy's dad. They still hadn't found her.

Willow blushed, not used to compliments. "I don't think it's possible to be smarter than you," she said to him.

Pepper beamed proudly at her. "Well, you have the advantage of knowing when you're hungry and tired. Tony doesn't always know that," she said, smirking at him.

Tony grinned. "That's true," he said. He looked at Willow. "So when is your rock star boyfriend done with his tour?"

"He finishes his last gig tomorrow night in Los Angeles," Willow shared.

"We should go and support him," Tony said.

"You know you can't just go anywhere, Tony," Pepper warned. "You might get mobbed."

"The people that go to those kind of places won't notice me," Tony said. "I'll wear a hat."

"I will call Xander since he and Giles are in Los Angeles already," Willow said, pulling out her new cell phone that Pepper gave her. She felt very adult with it.

Pepper looked over at Tony, giving him a smile of approval. He was being so great with Willow and the kids. If she hadn't already loved him, she would now. Although she'd kissed him once or twice since the last kiss when he'd first came out as Iron Man, she'd been reluctant to enter into a relationship with him. As CEO of his company, she didn't want people to think he'd made his assistant CEO because of their relationship. Of course, it was because of their relationship since she was the only one in his life that he trusted besides Happy.

"Tony, I love you," she admitted to him for the first time—her voice soft.

Tony's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?" he said, showing a rare touch of vulnerability.

She smiled and nodded. "I do," she said.

Tony grinned and stood to his feet, and then he reached for her hand, pulling her up. He was kissing her as if he was a starving man, and she was a buffet when Willow looked up from her phone.

Willow's eyes bugged out and a gasp fell from her lips. "Ah, should I leave?" she asked. Not once had the couple really indicated they were in a physical relationship. Of course, they were connected in a way she'd never experienced before. Her mother knew what Tony was going to say or do before he opened his mouth or did anything. It was vastly amusing to the teens who saw her in action. Their admiration for Willow's mother grew every time they witnessed Pepper's near psychic ability with Tony. Tony was such a larger than life figure, but Pepper handled him so effortlessly. It made her mother seem like a goddess. More and more Willow hoped she'd grow up to be just like her mother—the thought produced a warm glow inside her.

Tony—never as oblivious to his environment as Pepper thought—pulled back enough to glance at Willow. "Sorry, kid, but your mother finally admitted to me that she was crazy about me," he said, looking immensely satisfied. "As I am completely in love with her and totally besotted, I had to act. But we'll continue more privately. Don't bother us until tomorrow."

Then he all but dragged a laughing Pepper from the room.

Happy for the couple, Willow couldn't stop grinning.

*****Los Angeles*****

Xander and Giles met Willow at the club Oz was performing at. Giles wasn't going to go until Xander assured him that both Pepper and Tony would be there. As Giles did love music, he decided to go. Trying to locate his missing slayer filled up most of his days, and it'd been too long since he'd gotten to relax.

Tony and Pepper were holding hands when they arrived with Willow in tow. Giles hadn't been sure exactly what the relationship status was of the pair, but the handholding did give him a clue.

Naturally, Xander had to comment.

"Is there a relationship status update here?" he asked, pointing to the hand holding.

"If you're referring to the fact that Pepper finally admitted she was madly in love with me, then yes," Tony said with a smug smile.

"Don't you mean in a fit of madness I admitted that I loved you?" Pepper asked with a smile.

Xander snickered while Giles glared pointedly at him. Would the teen ever learn tact? Xander, of course ignored Giles. Why did he bother?

"Well, I am happy for you both," Giles said, smiling at the newly formed couple.

"Yes, totally," Xander added.

"There's Oz!" Willow said excitedly. She moved to greet him. Pepper watched with approval as Willow merely hugged her boyfriend.

"I love how sweet Willow and Oz are," Pepper whispered to Tony.

"It's puppy love still," Tony said. "It's impressive that Oz doesn't push for more even though he's older."

"He better not," Pepper said, frowning.

"Relax," Tony assured her. "Oz adores her."

"So you've talked to him?" Pepper asked.

"About having or not having sex with your daughter?" Tony asked with a smirk. "No, of course not."

"Well, maybe you should put it on your agenda," Pepper said.

"Okay, I'll get right on that," Tony said, kissing her neck to hide his grin.

"Hello," Oz said as he and Willow made it to the couple. "I've got a table for you guys in the front."

"What do you think of my incognito outfit?" Tony asked Oz as he followed them to the table.

Oz saw he was wearing a Dingoes Ate My Baby t-shirt, sunglasses and a L.A. Lakers cap. "I'm not sure we've met. Who are you again?" Oz asked with a straight face.

"I'm the president of your fan club," Tony said, holding out his hand.

"I thought I was president of your fan club," Willow said, smiling up at Oz.

"You can be co-presidents," Oz said.

Tony grinned, appreciating the young man's dead-pan sense of humor. He'd never spent much time around teenagers, but these kids were always so entertaining. Each of them was nearly as gifted with the verbal barb as he was, and anytime he managed to get one from Oz, he felt as if he'd accomplished something great. The young man was more self-contained than anyone Tony had ever met. Before spending time with him, Tony might've thought the guy just didn't have anything worthwhile to say. However, the teenager just didn't feel the need to speak unless he really had something to contribute, and he lacked the nervous energy most teenage males had. There was a stillness about him that Tony found oddly soothing. He'd speculated it was his werewolf nature, but Willow said Oz was like that before he got bit. The fact that the teen didn't feel the need to conform to any norms earned Tony his respect and admiration.

"When does your set start?" Pepper asked.

"In five minutes," Oz said. He looked at Willow. "I'll see you on my break, okay?"

"Sure. I'll order you a drink," Willow said.

"Thanks," Oz said, squeezing her hand before walking off.

"I really like that guy," Tony said.

"Yes, Oz is cool," Xander said with a sigh.

"Jealous, huh?" Tony asked with a grin.

"Oz is cool without even trying," Xander said glumly. "Everyone likes him—even the guys who hate everyone. I don't know how he does it."

"He's Oz," Willow said with a shrug. "I'm going to go get some drinks."

"I'll go with you," Xander said.

Tony and Pepper sat across from Giles. "Did you find out anything from Buffy's dad?" Tony asked.

Giles shook his head. "No. He insists that she's not so much as called. Nor has she been in touch with her old friends in town," Giles said.

"She'll turn up," Tony said. "I'm pretty confident we'll find her. I've got eyes everywhere."

The band started, and the teens returned with drinks. Before Tony could take a sip, though, JARVIS spoke in his ear. "Sir, I have found Miss Summers," he said.

"You did?" Tony asked. The noise was too loud, though, so he excused himself and went outside.

"She is not far from you," JARVIS told him. Tony looked around and didn't see anyone.

"To the north," JARVIS said.

Tony turned and walked in that direction, and then there she was. Buffy was walking in a straight line, not looking left or right, so she didn't notice Tony, who crossed the street and was right in front of her.

"Fancy seeing you here," Tony said, causing her to look up.

Buffy gave a mental groan. This was not good. "Hey, Tony," she said, glancing warily up at him.

"You do realize that everyone who loves you is worried sick about you?" he said. "Does that matter to you?"

"Tell them I'm fine," Buffy said, trying to brush pass him.

However, Tony wasn't about to let her escape so easily. "Not so fast, little girl," he said.

"I'm not a little girl, and you can't stop me," Buffy said, knocking his hand off her shoulder.

Tony debated on how to handle her, and he moved to keep step with her. "I know having to kill Angel was hard," he said.

Buffy stopped and looked at him. "What do you know about it? Have you ever had to kill the woman you love and send her to a hell dimension to be tormented forever?" she asked.

Tony winced. "Well, no," he admitted. "But I know what it's like to have to kill an uncle, the only family I had left. He tried to remove me from my company after selling me to terrorists didn't work out. Then he tried again to kill me."

"My mother threw me out," Buffy said, refusing to acknowledge the kinship his words stirred in her. "She can't deal with what I am."

"Your mother was upset and didn't react well," Tony said. "It doesn't mean she doesn't love you. It doesn't mean that she's not missing you. She wants you to come home."

"I'm not ready," Buffy said. "I don't want to go back to Sunnydale. Not yet."

"Well, Willow and your friends are spending the summer with me and Pepper," Tony said. "How about you join us?"

Buffy examined in closely, trying to determine if he was serious or not. "For real?" she asked.

He nodded. "Absolutely. They're hanging in my Malibu house now, but we're going to be going to New York City soon. Then we'll go around and look at colleges and do New York City tourist stuff, too," he said.

"Willow's parents agreed?" Buffy asked in surprise.

"Yes," he said. "They're traveling most of the summer anyway, and they liked the idea of Willow checking out MIT, Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, and NYU. I'm sure they'll be some others thrown in there, too."

Buffy considered the idea. "I'm not sure I'm really up for weeks with my friends," she admitted.

"They care about you, Buffy," he said. "They should know what you're going through, so they can help you."

"Xander hated Angel, so he won't really care. Angelus killed Giles' girlfriend, and Willow restored his soul minutes too late," she said flatly. "How can knowing exactly what happened do anything for them? Willow shouldn't have to feel bad for trying to help. This isn't their fight, and my life has hurt them too much as it is."

Tony acknowledged that she had a point. "Well, I get that. But it's their choice to fight—just like it's mine to put on my suit and stop being just a playboy philanthropist. And you don't have to tell all of them. They understand you're sad because you had to kill him," he said. "You probably should tell your Watcher, though."

"I don't know," she said. "Besides, I don't think my mom will like knowing what I am and what I have to do."

"You ran off and left your mom to worry for weeks. Do you really care that much what your mother would like?" he asked bluntly.

Buffy glared at him. "Of course, I care about my mother!" she insisted. "She told me to leave, so I left."

"It didn't occur to you that she'd be worried sick?" he asked.

Buffy shrugged. "No, not really," she admitted. She was too busy wallowing in her guilt and heartbreak to think much about her mother. More proof that she sucked as a daughter, too.

Tony couldn't help but feel bad for the girl. "Look, I know things haven't been easy for you, kid. You have been dealt a crap hand all the way around," he said.

"I am not a kid!" she growled.

Tony sighed. "Yea, I know," he said quietly. "But you should be. You should be able to have fun with your friends and forget about the shit destiny you have—at least for a while."

Wouldn't that be nice? Buffy would love to forget for even a short bit that her life wasn't full of danger and heartbreak.

Tony could sense that she was relenting and pressed forward. "Why don't you come to the club I just came out of?" he suggested. "Listen to some music, get a coke."

"Are you alone?" she asked suspiciously.

"Of course not," he said. "Happy, my security guard and best bud is right over there. Wave at him." Tony waved at a large man watching from across the street. "Pepper's waiting for us inside. I didn't tell her why I stepped outside, so we should go in."

"Why did you step outside?" Buffy asked.

"JARVIS saw you on a camera and told me where you were," Tony said. "I've been looking for you since you left Sunnydale."

"Really?" Buffy asked in surprise. "Why?"

Tony could see that she really didn't seem to get how important she was to everyone. "Because I love Pepper, and her daughter was freaking out about your disappearance," he said. "And I felt a bit guilty as I was the last to see you, and I knew how bad things were for you."

Buffy knew he wasn't going to stop pushing, so she relented and walked across the street with him. As they entered the club, Tony said, "Oh, I guess I should tell you that your friends already know that Angel was souled before he died."

"What?" she demanded.

"Buffy!" Willow called out.

"Oh, and your friends and your Watcher are also here," Tony added with a smirk.

"I am going to kill you!" Buffy threatened, clenching her fists.

"Taller men than you have tried," he said, winking at her as her friends and Giles moved to hug her.

Buffy let them hug her, unsure of what to do next.

*****To Be Continued*****

Yes, I didn't drag out the hunt for Buffy. Because Buffy isn't gone but a few weeks, the storyline of season 3 events will be altered. As some of you were wondering, I am just letting all those people stay in the hell dimension. Choices and action have consequences. Buffy's time away hurt a lot of people, but she saved a lot of people with her foray into the hell dimension. I'm focusing, though, on her mental well-being and not on that episode some wanted to see, and others didn't.