Disclaimer: Joss owns the Characters of BTVS, but Valery and Gable are mine (and don’t you just want to hurt them?)

Author’s note: Thanks to all my reviewers!
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“Did we set everything back to the way it was supposed to be?” asked Willow eagerly.

“Looks like,” said Buffy standing up. “I feel strong again, a little more powerful actually, must have been all that demon I inhaled.”

“Ha ha,” said Xander, “I’m just glad this is over. No more...whatever that was. At least this time I wasn’t the only butt monkey in the troupe. Whose butt monkeys were we anyway?”

“I’m afraid that it is worse than you’ve ever imagined,” said Giles, taking off his glasses and cleaning them. “The green light hit the three of us. You, Andrew and myself.”

“Meaning what?” asked Xander.

“Meaning that we are or have been selected to be the new watchers council.”

“Cool” said Andrew, “ I shall endeavour to excel.”

“Hold on, is that why you said we had to come?” asked Xander.

“Well there always was the possibility that a new council would be chosen from her ‘tribe’ as it were. I had hoped that they would choose Dawn instead of Andrew but that point is moot now,” said Giles as he cleaned his glasses.

“I still get to be a watcher though, right?” asked Dawn.

“Oh yes, we will definitely train you to be a watcher, you just won’t be inside that box for all of eternity,” said Giles.

“What box?” asked Andrew.

“The Shadow casting box,” said Willow, “Whenever a new slayer is chosen your spirit will guide her to...”

“Demonic possession,” filled in Buffy.

“Cool,” said Andrew, “very other worldly.”

“What if I don’t want to be in a box?” said Xander.

“I don’t see that you have much of a choice in the matter,” said Giles.

“So, you all are watchers then.. . congrats” said Buffy standing up and blowing out the candles.

“Can we eat now?” whined Dawn “Starving here.”

“I second that motion,” added Andrew.

Willow pulled Buffy aside.

“Buffy are you ok with all this, being the slayer still? I know you were looking forward to no being the only chosen one.”

“Ya, I’m ok with it. Nothing’s changed. I’ve had a couple of months vacation is all. And some
day I’ll die for the third time. I just hope that I’ll get to see my fat grandbabies before that happens.”

“Buffy...”

“No it’s fine Willow, everything’s back to normal now.”

“That’s what you think,” said Willow as she watched Andrew swing the scythe around.

“Hey it’s all fun and games until I lose my other eye. Cut it out moron,” said Xander.

“My Hero,” said Dawn shoving pizza in her mouth.

Turning her attention back to Willow Buffy continued. “So what are Kennedy and Faith going to think about not being the slayer anymore?”

“Kennedy!” gasped Willow, “She’ll be furious.”

“I can’t imagine Faith would be extremely happy about the change either,” said Buffy.

The phone rang.

“Three guesses who that is,” stated Xander.

Willow picked up the phone. “Hello?” she answered. “Kennedy. Please don’t yell. We did what we had to do. Yes, Buffy is still the slayer. No, baby please stop yelling. It was the only way. No, please, I’ll be back soon.” Willow hung up the phone then smiled a very forced smile.

“Willow, you ok?” asked Dawn.

“Ya, everything is hunky dory. Pizza,” stated Willow.

The pizza was passed around. More was ordered.

“So what happens now?” asked Andrew, “ Now that you have a fantabulous watcher’s council are we going to England? Do we have to go through rigorous training? Cause I don’t know if I can do that. I don’t do heavy lifting.”

“So why wasn’t I chosen to be watcher then?” asked Dawn. “Honestly...come on, it’s super sci fi geek.”

“I think our most pressing needs right now are to rebuild, recruit and to find potential slayers,” said Giles.

“Major fun had by all, I’m sure, as long as there is no more butt monkeying I’m cool,” said Xander between bites of pizza.

Buffy pulled a bag of blood out of the fridge and filled up a mug. After the microwave beeped she waded through the living room into her bedroom, where Spike was lying on her bed in a bored fashion.

“Hey,” she said offering him the blood.

“What?” he said annoyed.

“I brought you something to eat,” said Buffy sadly.

“Thanks,” he said reaching for the mug.

“You don’t seem so happy with all the happy bonding in the living room.”

“Not my cuppa tea pet; you know that.”

“Ya, I do,”

Spike finished his mug of blood in silence and set it on the floor.

“I’m gone,” he said simply grabbing his coat. “Gotta find me a new place.”

“When will I see you?”

“Don’t know, pet. When the Scooby fest is over. I’ll find you,” he said cupping her face with his hand tenderly.

“Don’t be away too long,” she said trying to smile.

Spike crossed through the living room and exited the apartment in his usual surly manner.

“Where’s he going?” asked Dawn.

“Guess we aren’t so exciting,” added Willow.
__________________________________________
Buffy rolled out of bed, trying not to wake Dawn, sleeping soundly beside her. Buffy dressed quickly and was out the door before she could change her mind.

She headed straight for the closest cemetery. She wanted to test herself out. See if she was different since the demon had entered her body. She had been offered the demon’s power before, but had rejected it, that time when they had first found the box. She wanted to know what it did to her.

The first two vampires were easy, fledglings, no experience what so ever, hardly a challenge. She did feel more powerful.

She reflected on the evening. She had experienced a full range of emotions and expectations. She had been so close to being normal again but it was ripped away from her, again. In the briefest of seconds she had imagined a job, a family, with little blond children playing around her feet. She also knew that in her fantasy the father of said children was a vampire, a snarky leather wearing vampire, and therefore said little children would not exist. But it was a nice fantasy, fantasy children were the only ones she would ever have.

Whoa... Buffy stopped her train of thought for a moment, since when is Spike the father of my fantasy children? When did this happen? For the longest time Buffy only ever imagined that Angel was the father of Joyce Anne and Trevor Rupert (Yes like a lot of girls Buffy had named her kids already). Even when she had been with Riley, Angel was still the father. Maybe it was the whole LA sitch, Buffy thought. And Spike’s back so why not?

Maybe cause he hasn’t shown any real interest for you since he got back, said the pessimistic voice in Buffy’s head. Sure he came with you to Cleveland, sure went and got Dawn for you, sure he’s all protect-y and all that, But has he said that he loves you? NO! Resounding nos all around.

And it’s not like he doesn’t know that I love him, I mean I told him! Stupid Vampire.

Buffy shook off the depressing reflective thoughts and trudged into the cemetery, unaware that she was being followed.

“Oof!” grunted Buffy as she hit a gravestone. She turned and looked to see who it was. “Oh it’s you!” said Buffy very annoyed.

Looking back at her was David Gable.

“Why are you here again?” he asked tired.

“Hmm, no stake. Gone soft on the vamps since I last saw you?” countered Buffy.

David crossed his arms and stared.

“No talky today? I gather that since you are no longer trying to stake me that you don’t think I’m a vamp anymore?”

“Nope, just an idiot girl with a creepy boyfriend.”

“Huh, well improvement I guess.”

“You should leave. Now.”

“But I don’t want to,” she said in a little girl voice. “Can’t I just tag along and learn from you?”

Gable softened.

“It’s dangerous out here for ladies like yourself to be out here in the dark.”

“Please, look I know I’ve been all thorns and stings, but I’d like for us to be friends,” she said as
she got up off the tombstone batting her eye lashes.

“Apology accepted, but you should go before the vampires smell fresh blood.”

“No fun,” stated Buffy with emphasis, “boo hoo. Look, I’m only just trying to have a truce with you here. Me no fight you, you no fight me. Evil soulless vampires bad, Buffy good.”

“Buffy dumb,”

“That’s where you are wrong, mate,” said Spike as he lit a cigarette. “She may be impulsive, stubborn, moody, but she is not dumb.”

“Thanks, I think,” said Buffy.

“It was a good show, were you trying to make me jealous, pet or was it just a side effect of the light show earlier?”

“You were jealous?” she asked hopefully at the same time Gable said: “A show?”

“Well I was having fun, as much fun as I could have without you on patrol,” she said walking closer to him.

“Having fun?” shouted Gable, who was being ignored by the vampire and his slayer.

“A little too much fun, pet, if you want my opinion,” Spike said as he slid off the tombstone he was sitting on.

“All I wanted was a little slaying, to, you know, test out my new inner demon,” she said all flirty, her fingers walking up the arm of his leather jacket.

“Demon?” questioned Gable. “I knew there was something evil about you!” Gable dug a stake out of his pocket and made to stake her.

“Whoa, hey buddy, stakes are for vampires, not demons,” said Buffy as she kicked the stake out his hand easily. “And secondly, we are having a moment here!”

“I thought you had had enough of this Pansy,” said Spike to Buffy.

“I told you, I just wanted a little action and he spoils my fun.”

“You two are crazy,” shouted David.

“Nice come back,” taunted Buffy. “I knew fledglings with better come backs.”

“You know, you are starting to get on my nerves, so why don’t you scamper on home like a good undertaker,” said Spike trying to make himself seem impressing and scary. “You see over the course of my long existence, most of the peop0le who have annoyed me found themselves dead mate.”

“Spike...” said Buffy reproachfully.

“Look this is my cemetery, I will do what I want in it. If you have any problems with that, bring it on. I’ve killed a lot of vampires, means I could wipe the grass with you man.”

“Hey!” yelled Buffy, stepping more between them and holding out her arms. “Chillax already. God, men!” Buffy took two calming breaths. “Ok, clearly this just isn’t going to work for us. You...” she said looking at Gable, “have possessive cemetery issues, a death wish and a male chauvinist thing going on. And you...” she said looking at Spike, “ have a temper, bloodlust and are stunningly good looking.”

Spike smiled.

“Obviously,” she continued, “issues to be resolved. It’s late and we could catch our deaths out here.”

“Don’t come back,” said Gable meanly as he walked away.

When Gable was safely out of hearing Buffy picked up the stake he had left and started walking. Spike followed at her side.

“Wanker.”

“Spike, please...You were gonna eat him weren’t you?” said Buffy.

“No of course not pet, made my stomach growl thinking about it though.”

“You’re sick.”

“Nope, just a tender soul in an evil body, which you happen to find stunningly good looking.”

“I should have tried harder to think of nasty things about you or hit you or something.”

Spike noticed that they were heading back to Buffy’s apartment.

“I thought you wanted to test out your inner demon?”

“I wanted to. It’s 4:30am Spike. It will be dawn not too long from now. I need to sleep. I’m having a bed delivered. Dawn needs to go to school and the apartment hunt continues. Did you find a new place to crash? I mean, a new crypt?”

“Ya, Pine Creek cemetery, north of here.”

“Show me?”
__________________________________________
Buffy walked into the crypt and wrinkled her nose.

“Crypt sweet crypt? Like the air freshener scent, Ode to rotting corpses?”

“I’ll clean it up a bit, it’ll be just like Sunnydale when I’m through with it.”

“Right, Sunnydale,” said Buffy suddenly losing all happy thoughts.

There was a long pause.

“What are you thinking pet?” he asked moving closer to her.

“I don’t know, Sunnydale, all the things that happened there, the people that I lost there. I destroyed it all.”

“No, you didn’t, pet.”

“I’ll never see my mother’s grave, lay flowers on it, pray beside it, Tara’s grave, Miss Calendar. It was my home. My family, we’re all broken apart now. Willow will go back to LA, Giles to England, Dawn may have to go back to LA too. Nothing is familiar here. All those things in my apartment aren’t mine. I have no memories with them.”

“Make new memories pet.”

“I want Sunnydale back, living with Willow and Dawn. Having a life, doing something with it, other than fighting undertaker boy and worrying about Dawn. Barging into your crypt to get information out of you, fighting beside you,” she looked into his eyes, “this isn’t your crypt Spike, it’s not the same.”

“I know. You were, relatively speaking, happy in Sunnydale, but things change pet, we move on. Do you think I don’t dream of being in my home again in London with my mum waiting to fuss about me? Even after I was turned I sometimes dreamt of home, but I moved on, otherwise I’d still be there in that house, scouring the neighbourhood for fresh blood. I’d be a tired old man, stunningly good looking, but not the clever chap I am today.”

“Thanks Spike, that oh so cheered me up.”

“Glad I could oblige pet. Now what do you say to properly christening this place?”

Buffy gave him a look.

“Please don’t mean what I think you mean!”

“Why not? If it is be home. A ship can’t set sail with a little champagne getting spilt.”

“Metaphors abound, just what are we comparing the champagne to?...Wait. No. I don’t need that mental picture.”

“No need for mental pictures pet. I’m offering the real thing,” he said softly running his finger down her arm.

“It smells gross in here.”

Spike sighed.

“Right then, I’ll walk you home,” he said resigned.
__________________________________________

“I can’t believe you gave up so easily.”

“You know you confuse the hell out of me,” said Spike as he reached for a cigarette. “One minute you are all touchy feely, the next your the ice queen, and too bloody cryptic. Picked up some tips from Peaches while I was away?”

Buffy decided to let the Angel comment pass. She really didn’t want to get into a fight with him right now.

“Are you really going to live in there?” asked Buffy after a good 5 minutes of silence. “It’s skanky.”

“Yep, and I’m a vampire. Are you telling me, I’m too good for that place?”

“You are too good for me,” she whispered.

“Again, no, Vampire, bad.”

“Buffy stupid, tells Spike, I love you while dying, which you didn't believe and pissed me off.”

“I believed you.”

“Then why did you say ‘No you don’t but thanks for saying it?’”

“Um...The ceiling was collapsing. Wanted you to leave pet.”

“Oh,” said Buffy disappointed.

“Isn’t that what you expected to hear? You can’t honestly think that I wanted you to stay there and die again while we had a heart to heart about your impeccable timing.”

“Kinda, no, actually, I imagined that we’d have a fight about it. How I never mean what I say, say what I mean, that my words don’t mesh with my actions.”

“They don’t.”

“Then...Huh?”

“I’ve been trying to figure you out for a good long time Slayer, you confuse the hell out of me. You made it very clear for a very long time that you didn’t love me, you said it often enough to my face for me to start believing it. I know you, you would never say that to some one without meaning it.”

“I should have told you before that.”

“Would it have made any difference?”

“Probably not,” said Buffy. “Might have made me feel better in some small infinitesimal way.”

“I’m all for that.”

Buffy smiled.

“Are you really going to live there?”

“It’ll clean up nice, just hope gravedigger boy leaves me alone there.”

“Me too, but if you find him hovering over your tomb with a stake, defend yourself.”

“Don’t worry about me luv.”

Buffy kissed Spike on the cheek and left him to go up stairs, Her apartment was still a den of sleeping scoobies. Giles, Andrew and Xander were sleeping all over the living room, Dawn in her bed, Willow on the floor in her bedroom. Buffy tip toed into the bathroom for an extremely early shower; the smell of that crypt was in her hair.

It was terrible to think of Spike living in that skanky crypt. No matter how much it cleans up nice, it’s still going to smell.
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Buffy trudged Dawn to school in the next day, and spent forty minutes with the principal showing her the facilities at the school. The cafeteria was clean, the library full of new-ish looking books and computers.

“Giles would have hated this,” whispered Dawn.

The science lab was science-y and their guidance team top notch. Buffy agreed that Dawn
would be fine at such a well kept school.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how’s the student mortality rate her at J. F. Kennedy High School?” Buffy asked near the end of the tour.

“Why Miss Summers, what an odd question,” said the principal.

Buffy looked like she wanted an answer.

“We have a few suicides every year, the occasional accident of course. But J. F. K. is a very safe school. Your sister will be safe here.”

“I was wondering if you have any courses on ancient languages, Greek, Latin, some Native American languages,” asked Dawn, “I didn’t see any on the course list.”

“We offer Latin every other year, sadly this year we aren’t offering it.”

“Does this mean I’ll have to take French?”

“Yes,” said Buffy. I endured French, you will endure French.”

“Ick French bad.”

“And Latin is funner?”

“Latin is useful.” said Dawn

“And French isn’t?”

“Latin is more prolific.” Dawn noticed the puzzled look on the principal's face. “Uh, I want to study ancient languages at University.”

The principal gave a lot of trying to understand. The bell rang.

“Well I guess I’d better get to my first class,” said Dawn, “ Chemistry.”

“Good luck!” said Buffy.

“And Miss Summers what do you do?” asked Principal.

“I am currently between jobs actually. I was a high school guidance counsellor, before our town was swallowed by an earthquake. I’m hoping to go back to school actually.”

“You are from Sunnydale then. Terrible tragedy. I should tell you that our school works very closely with social services. Dawn’s state of California records show her as frequently absent from Sunnydale high and low test scores. She was at school for 2 days in LA before coming here. May I ask why she was moved so early in the school year? Obviously it wasn’t work related.”

Buffy bit her tongue, choking down what she really wanted to say to this nosy woman.

“My father is under suspicion of arson in California.”

“And your mother?”

“Died of a brain aneurysm two years ago. I have legal custody of Dawn. Look I know you want to help and I'm very grateful this has been rough for her. I thought leaving her in LA with our Dad was better for her. But with what happened, I just want her to have a normal life and graduate high school with out any problems.”

“I’m very glad to hear it Miss Summers. I hope you find a job soon,” said the Principal. “Good luck.”
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Buffy spent the day phoning places for rent, had a bed delivered and tired to entertain her friends and Andrew. Willow was to catch a plane to LA that night. Giles and Xander had conspired to fly to England in a day and Andrew had volunteered to stay in Cleveland and be Buffy’s watcher.

“I think he’s crushing on Dawn a bit,” warned Xander.

That much was obvious.

Now with another bed in the living room the apartment was way too cramped. Seriously expediting the reasons to locate another place to live.

“What you want to do is buy, not rent,” said Xander. “I’m thinking condo or small house.”

“I’m sure the condo board will enjoy the clash of weapons, the pounding from the punching bad, the strange hours and weird people I bring home,” said Buffy trying to move Dawn’s bed in a better location.

“Right, house it is,” said Xander.

“I need to get a job, I can't afford a house outright, I’d need to make payments.”

“How about law enforcement? You did test well for that at career day in high school,” said Xander.

“Career day,” sighed Willow. “I met Oz at career day. Goddess that was long ago. I’m old.”

“Some of us are older than others,” said Giles wiping his glasses.

“Where is Oz anyway?” asked Buffy.

“I don’t know, he took off last night,” answered Willow.

“Did you guys talk?” asked Buffy.

“There was talking. I don’t think it went well. He still has girlfriend issues.”

“Oz has a girlfriend?” asked Xander.

“No, my girlfriend issue, that I have one,” stated Willow. “I just wish I could reach him. I want to be friends again. I miss talking to him.”

“Uh huh,” said Buffy totally not believing the talking part. Willow wanted smoochies with Oz.

“Buffy...”

“I’m not saying anything,” she said raising her hands in the air.

“How is Spike?” asked Willow mischievously

“Moving in to a smelly old crypt as we speak.”

“Does it really smell?” asked Willow.

“And how, gross. I just hope that the mad vampire hunter of Cleveland leaves him alone.”

“The who?” asked Xander.

“David Gable, caretaker of one of the local cemeteries I believe, fanatical, loaner, very unpredictable.” said Giles brewing himself a spot of tea.

“You know him?” asked Buffy shocked.

“Yes, he’s been operating for 15 years or so, killed his share of vampires, been in the hospital quite often.”

“I’d like to put him in a hospital,” said Buffy, “arrogant jerk, thinks that little girls like me aren’t fit for vampire slaying.”

“His father was a watcher, his slayer was killed in an automobile accident in the 1970’s. He hunted vampires himself before being killed 15 years ago. I doubt David knows anything about slayers or the watcher’s council. Gable was an old eccentric man,” said Giles.

“The son is just as freaky. He didn’t know anything about the slayer, seemed out of the loop. He kills vampires, that is all. Thought I was a vampire, last night he finally clued in, but now he thinks I’m just an idiot girl.”

“I hope Spike’s ok,” said Andrew.

“Me too,” agreed Buffy.
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tbc...