The summer passed and their Senior year began. One by one they turned 18 and Gabrielle turned one. A few demons made it a boring year broken by occasional moments of terror. Including an actual fear demon that turned the adults in town against their children and an apocalypse cult of demons that tried to open the Hellmouth and a group of students raised from the dead as zombies that tried to blow up the High School.
For half a second all four of them considered letting the zombies blow up the High School, then they remembered good guys weren't supposed to let zombies set off bombs and they destroyed them and Mason disarmed it.
After that the rest of their Senior year was quiet and they graduated and began to prepare for college with Xander and Cordelia heading off to England to attend the Watchers Academy and Faith and Jesse, now officially dating, planning to attend UC Sunnydale together, while continuing to patrol Sunnydale with Mason.
"You better damn well video chat every damn night." Faith ordered. "Gabrielle's going to have a hard enough time not getting to play with her Daddy every day."
"Part of the 'I refuse to be a deadbeat Dad' promise." Xander agreed. "My little girl isn't going to forget what I look like just because I'm going off to college." His voice roughened by his tears.
"And we'll be home every break." Cordelia reminded them. "Thanksgiving and Christmas, bearing lots of presents. We no more want to be just a picture or a memory than you do." Fighting back her own tears at saying goodbye to the people that meant so much to them.
"We'll keep Sunnydale safe while you're gone." Jesse promised, struggling with his own feelings. For the first time ever he wouldn't see his best friend every day like he had since they were little kids.
"You're still my kid." Mason reminded Xander. "I better not hear that you're spending more time with partying than you are studying. I'll come to England and kick your butt if I do." He warned.
"No worries, never been my style anyway." Xander assured the man who'd been more father than Tony Harris ever had.
"I'm very proud of you, Cordelia." Charles Chase told his own little girl. "And your willingness to use your gift to help people. Just stay safe."
"I will, Dad." She promised, letting her father hug her for a good long while.
"Call anytime, night or day, if you need anything." Diana insisted. "But call my cell so you don't wake Gabrielle up."
"They're calling your plane for boarding." Faith wiped the tears blurring her vision. "You'd better go."
"Hug for Daddy?" Xander asked Gabrielle, who wrapped herself around his torso like a little monkey, she didn't understand what was going on, but everyone she loved seemed upset and her confusion was adding to her own upset. "Daddy loves you, honey." Xander kissed Gabrielle's cheek and held her before passing her to Cordelia, who also kissed the little girl who bound their family together before passing her back to Faith. "We'll call as soon as we land." She promised, picking up her carry on and her purse, while Xander shouldered his own carry on and grasped her hand in his. Together they boarded the plane, already homesick and missing the people they loved.
Gabrielle's heartbreaking cry of "Daddy?" nearly made Xander break and run back to her and he felt awful as he forced himself to keep going, reminding himself that he wasn't abandoning his little girl, he was going to finish his education and come back and spend his life taking care of her and any brothers and sisters that came after her.
As the two teenagers took their seats they held each other's hands tightly, supporting each other as they tried not to break down. They stayed silent as the plane took off and began the long flight to England.
The stewardess came by and reminded them that meals would be served on the flight and asked if there was anything she could get them.
"I should have brought something to read." Xander shook his head. "I never even thought about it, but it's a long flight and I should have."
"A disembarking passenger left a Los Angeles paper in their seat earlier." The stewardess told him. "Would that interest you?"
"It'll keep my mind off of missing my family for awhile." Xander smiled half-heartedly at the stewardess and thanked her as she handed him the paper. He started with the first page and read every article to pass the time. Inside the paper he found a human interest story that made him pause for a moment. "Cordy, listen to this."
"Hmm?" She asked, she'd been dozing. "Something wrong?"
"No, just interesting. There's an article in the paper about a Los Angeles girl who's training for the next winter Olympics in figure skating and ice dancing, she's qualified for the team."
"So?"
"Her name is Buffy Summers."
Cordelia turned her head to look at him. "Even in California, with the weird names that are practically part of our culture out here, Buffy isn't usually a name. How old is she?"
"Our age, 18 as of January. You don't think?"
"It's the girl that was removed from the Slayer line?" She murmured softly. "The Council tried to find her back when we first 'remembered' the other timeline, they couldn't find her, she wasn't even showing up as a Potential. They weren't sure how she would have been removed from the Slayer line, she could have been killed or never born. Or the Potential was removed from her somehow. If it is her, it sounds like she's living an interesting, but still normal life."
"As long as she's not falling for vampires and keeping hunters from destroying them, I don't think she's anyone we need to worry about." Xander decided. "I already miss everyone." He changed the subject. "Thanksgiving can't come soon enough."
"I wholeheartedly agree." Cordelia laid her head on his shoulder and went back to sleep, Buffy Summers dismissed from her thoughts.
As Mason had once said, this was the timeline that mattered.