It wasn't until one of the last Marvel moviesthat I knew that Dr. Banner had 7 doctorate degrees, which might make him the most educated man in Marvel even if Richard Reed is supposedly the smartest still.

Also, remember in this story, Willow is not yet a full witch but ensouling Angel was her first major spell.

Chapter 15: Back Home

*****Sunnydale*****

Pepper was not ready to say goodbye to her daughter. Classes didn't start back in Sunnydale for two weeks, but Cordelia was having her eighteenth birthday the weekend before classes resumed. She was planning to have a big party at her house, and Buffy's mother was ready to have her home. Joyce had visited campus with Buffy and Willow, and Pepper had gone with them. Tony had already taken Oz and Willow to visit M.I.T., determined to convince them that his alma matter was the best choice for them. Cordelia went with them to NYU and Columbia, which were two of her choices even though she wasn't real keen on living on the East Coast with all the cold. Pepper had treasured every moment with Willow doing something a mother would. She could tell how excited Buffy's mother was, too, during the tours with her daughter.

"I worry that Buffy won't survive the year," Joyce confessed to her.

Pepper knew exactly how she felt because that fear kept her up at night except it was fear for Willow. Unlike Buffy, Willow wasn't super powered. She knew a bit of magic but not enough to protect from a vampire or demon. For the first time, Pepper understood Tony's desire to want to encase her in iron. She'd even asked Tony about making Willow a suit.

"Babe, you know that I would be glad to," Tony said. "I'd do it for all of them in a heartbeat, but Buffy says my suits are not practical for close quarter fighting. I'm hoping in a few years nanites will be more functional because a suit made with that would be lightweight and would mold to the body. Right now, though, I have designed them all dark chainmail for under their clothes and neck guards. We've also got those arm stakes they can wear, so they'll never be caught completely defenseless."

"I don't think I've seen them wear one," Pepper said.

"Oh, it shoots out really fast since they don't have Buffy's strength, but not like a crossbow where they have to carry it around. It's preloaded with just one stake," he explained. "It'll do in a pinch. It was actually Xander's idea."

Pepper knew Tony was still working, but she still felt uneasy as they were flying back to Sunnydale a few weeks after Joyce's visit. Tony had arranged to fly directly to the small airport outside of Sunnydale. "I'm just so scared to leave her in this literal hell, Tony," she said. They were sitting in the back of the plane. Natalie was two seats in front of them with the kids taking up the front sides of the plane, chatting excitedly about their trip, the party Cordelia was throwing and the upcoming school year.

"We're just a phone call away, and Natalie is going to be with her. Her parents agreed that the new publicity we garnered over the summer as well as your connection with me called for a bodyguard," Tony reminded her. "The fact that it's a woman satisfied Sheila's sense of propriety, and it alleviated her father's guilt."

"He is sweet," Pepper said. They'd had dinner with the couple and some of Willow's Jewish relatives before they left town. It was clear that Ira just never said no to his wife, who had very specific ideas on parenting, but he adored his daughter. Nothing was going to convince Sheila her ideas weren't right, and Pepper had no legal authority to argue. Therefore, she did nothing but charm the couple as did Tony. Willow's parents had seen the footage of Willow and Oz's entry into the Expo and were very pleased with Willow's summer of intellectual pursuit. They had decided that Tony was a very good influence, and the gossip rags about him were all lies, written by jealous critics.

Willow, of course, had been glowing at the dinner. Overjoyed to have her parents' approval and Pepper and Tony there. For once, her Jewish family had looked at her with envy and had really seen her. No longer did she feel invisible in her family because Tony Stark had declared she was brilliant to the world. It made her very happy even if a tiny part of her resented the fact that a stranger to her family had to notice her before any of them besides her father did.

Natasha was reading her new report from Fury. It seemed that Coulson had not only had encounters already with vampires, but he had made first contact with the new slayer in town just as Mrs. Summers reported. She debated on whether or not she should tell Tony and Pepper. It was clear that Pepper was terrified to have her daughter back in Sunnydale. Maybe knowing that another slayer was in town would alleviate her anxiety. She got up and went to the seat in front of them and turned to face them.

"What's up?" Tony asked.

"I received an email from a contact of mine," she said.

"What kind of contact?" Tony asked.

"None of your business," she said with a smile to take out the sting.

Tony grinned. "What did this contact say?" he asked.

"That the new slayer is already in Sunnydale saving lives," she said. "I thought that might reassure Ms. Potts."

Pepper nodded. "It does. Joyce already told us that, but thank you for telling us what you know," she said.

"I spoke to her watcher once when her council head gave me her contact information, and she said they were going to stay in Boston to work on Faith's training. However, after my visit to the UK, they decided it was prudent to have both slayers there since Buffy and Kendra both were killed on the hellmouth. Of course, Buffy had friends to help her, which is why they agreed to not interfere with Buffy. Glad to hear they are settling in. I will call the watcher asap," Tony said.

"I'm just relieved there's another slayer in town when school starts. The more help, the less chance of them getting hurt or worse," Pepper said.

"I agree," Natasha/Natalie nodded.

"I purchased that mansion Buffy's ex used to crash in and began renovating it, so we would have a place to stay when we're in town," Tony said.

"You did?" Pepper asked in surprise.

Tony nodded. "Yes. Since hotels are so dangerous," he said. "It also has space for the kids and training areas for all of them. I want Natalie to keep working with them. Now that Buffy will have another slayer to work with, she can elevate both of them."

"They do have watchers that train them," Natalie reminded him.

"Yes, but Rupert won't care. He's the best," Tony said.

"So I've heard," Natalie said dryly. "Faith's watcher might."

Tony waved his hand dismissively. "Rupert will take care of her," he said.

Natalie grinned. "I look forward to seeing your own James Bond at work," she said.

Tony's eyes brightened. "That's not bad, but he's more like Q although I've heard his nickname when he was younger was Ripper," Tony said. "He refuses to tell me why, but Xander has a big mouth. I've heard a few stories."

"Tony stop gossiping about your underage friend," she admonished.

"Speaking of friend," Natalie asked. "What is Dr. Banner's plans?"

"Well, Oz gave him a list of some werewolves he knows who might be interested in working with us on our cure," Tony said. "He's going to approach them about it. We need more blood samples from a wider pool of wolves to really get a good baseline he says, and since he's the one with seven doctorates, I agreed that he could be in charge."

Natalie laughed. "I bet that nearly killed you," she said.

"You have no idea," Tony said.

"There's also the added bit about how people instantly like Bruce, and not so much Tony," Pepper said with a smirk.

"Hey, they love my money!" he quipped.

"What are you guys talking about?" Willow asked, walking up to them.

"Natalie was just telling me that she heard from a friend that the new slayer is in town already saving lives," Pepper said. "I feel much better about you going back home just knowing that."

"It'll be okay, Mom. I promise," Willow told her, smiling. She loved how her mom worried, especially since her other mom didn't worry at all.

Buffy raised her head, overhearing. "Did you say slayer? What?"

Willow turned back toward her. "The other slayer is already in town," Willow shared.

"Yes, I know. Mom already had her and her watcher over for dinner," Buffy said. "In fact, I think the slayer's been over more than once. Mom likes her."

"Two hot slayers killing the undead? Nice!" Xander said, earning an elbow and a glare from his girlfriend.

"How do you know she's hot?" Cordelia asked.

"'Cause they all are. Buffy is. Kendra was. It's a given that this one is," Xander said with a smirk. He loved getting Cordy all riled up. Not only did it give her a sexy flush to her cheeks, but the make-up was always so hot later.

Tony snickered as he watched the two bicker. "I'm so going to miss their daily squabbles," he observed.

"It gets so old," Willow said, rolling her eyes. "They seem to fight more now that they're dating than before."

"It's because Xander likes to get her all worked up," Tony said with a knowing grin. "I do that sometimes with your mom. She looks so adorable when she gets that outraged look on her face." He glanced at her. "See. She's wearing the look now."

Pepper closed her mouth, releasing her annoyance and just laughed. The man knew her entirely too well.

*****Late August*****

It was Thursday. Classes started back on Monday, and Cordelia's party was Saturday. Tony and Pepper were planning on staying until Sunday as he promised Cordelia that he'd put in a half hour appearance at her party in order to seal her social status and redeem Xander's. As he adored the hell out of the girl, he couldn't refuse her. Pepper, however, was going to dinner with Joyce. They had really connected when the slayer's mother had spent four days in New York with them a month earlier. Friday, they were going out with Rupert. Now that Tony knew the new watcher was in town, he would insist that Rupert bring her along.

*****Friday*****

It was weird being back in Sunnydale, but the group unpacked and were welcomed by their parents. Well, Willow's parents were due back Labor Day weekend, and Pepper was very glad that they had agreed that Natalie could stay in the house as her full-time bodyguard. They had a guest room downstairs with her own bathroom.

Natasha settled in, perfectly happy with the room as she had stayed in much worse places. She accompanied the teens to meet the new slayer, Faith, for lunch and grinned to see that the girl was a budding femme fatale.

Faith heard they were back from Buffy's mother. Mrs. Summer was very cool in Faith's book as she'd had Faith over for dinner three times during the summer, and she always made plenty of food. It was great that a parent understood how much a slayer could pack away, and she seemed to genuinely care about getting to know Faith, which was a novel experience for Faith. Faith's watcher was pretty cool, but that was her job—to know and guide Faith.

Joyce made the introductions over the sandwich spread that she had prepared.

"Well, damn, B, I didn't know you had such cute boyfriends," Faith said, flashing her dimples at Xander and Oz.

"Oh, those are not mine," Buffy said quickly. "Oz belongs to Willow."

"Xander is mine, so keep your slayer hands off of him or I'll break them," Cordelia said. "Got it?"

Faith's smile widened. "I like her. I appreciate in-your-face hostility rather than that passive aggressive bullshit," she said.

"As long as we understand each other," Cordelia said. "No hitting on Xander, turning on Xander, or making a play for Xander."

"Hey, now, I'm pretty damn hot, so I can't help it if he gets turned on just looking at me," Faith said with a grin.

Oz laughed, surprising everyone, who knew him. "What? She's funny," he said. He could see that her bravado was an act, and he appreciated her boldness and the affect she was having the group. Change was good—they were growing a bit stale.

"If you think you can keep your hands off our boyfriends, you can come to my eighteenth birthday party tomorrow night," Cordelia said.

"A party? Sweet," Faith said. "This town has been pretty dead, so I could use a good party."

"It'll be big 'cause most of the school will be there," Cordelia said. "You can meet some students before school started."

"Oh, I'm not going to be going to school," Faith said. "My watcher is letting me study for the GED. I wanted to dropout entirely, but she's kind of a ballbuster. Since Buffy is all about the school, we figured that I could do the later patrols on school nights to make it easier on her. Mrs. Summers thought that was a great idea."

Buffy blinked in surprise. "Actually, that is a good idea—thanks, Faith," she said.

"What's your watcher like? Is he a British stick in the mud?" Faith asked. "Mrs. Summer didn't seem too keen on him."

"How would you know?" Willow asked, frowning. "Giles isn't a stick in the mud. He's wonderful!"

"Yes, Giles is the best," Buffy said. "I've missed him this summer."

"Well, he's gotta be kind of cool if he was willing to let you bone a vampire!" Faith said with a smirk.

Buffy's friends showed various degrees of shock at her words—even Oz raised an eyebrow. Buffy, however, looked outraged. She stood up. "Excuse me?" she asked.

"I'm just saying he's gotta be less strict than my watcher if he's going to let you get vertical with a vampire," Faith said. "I mean, necrophilia doesn't do it for me, but whatever floats your boat—I don't judge."

Xander spit out his drink at her words while Cordelia pounded him on his back. Willow's face turned bright red as disgust filled her as the image Faith created with her words.

"Are you kidding me?" Buffy said. "Necrophilia? That's disgusting! Angel wasn't dead. He was alive!"

"He didn't have a pulse, B. You basically had sex with a corpse. One that happened to be a blood sucker," Faith said with a snicker. "It's like you kind of forgot that we're vampire slayers."

"First of all, I didn't know he was a vampire before I fell for him," Buffy said. "Second of all, we had sex exactly one damn time! Then he turned into my worst nightmare, so don't you dare say such a vile thing in my house again. Do you hear me?" She was about ready to jump across the dining room table and beat the smirk off the girl's face.

Faith held up her hands. "Hey, I'm sorry! I wasn't really trying to pick a fight. Seriously!" she said. She grabbed another sandwich. Then she turned to Cordelia. "So tell me about this party."

Cordelia was happy to change the subject and began telling her about the party plans.

Buffy sat back down, exchanging a look with Willow, who still wasn't quite recovered from the exchange.

In the other room, Natasha was snickering. The new slayer was a firecracker—this was going to be very a very interesting school year.

******Chapter End******