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//Five Months Later//

England was a mistake. England was a great, black, oozing pit of a mistake. The reasons why could fill a book. And not just any book either. One of Giles’ tomes.

He was everywhere, everywhere she looked, everywhere she turned. London practically screamed of him. Everything reminded her of him. There wasn’t an hour that passed during the waking hours that she didn’t see something that reminded her of him. Today, she had seen a man wearing a Manchester United football shirt, and memories of a long-forgotten conversation were stirred.

Truth is I like this world. You’ve got dog racing, Manchester United......

And that was all it had taken to set her off. Tears had stung her eyes which she fought back with a vengeance. And she was fine until thirty five minutes later, she saw a bag of mini marshmallows at the supermarket.

This was insane. This city was driving her slowly crazy. Everytime she heard a cockney accent, or saw a flash of white-blonde hair, she still half expected to turn round and see him.

So she was leaving. It was decided, it was done. She’d already bought two one-way tickets to Rome in two weeks time, and she was already packing up the apartment. It wasn’t going to take her long, most of the furniture had come with the place, and few possessions had survived the hellmouth. A few dozen photos, Mr. Gordo, Mr Pointy and her diaries were all she had left. At first she was unsure whether to bring them along, but she had reasoned that they talked about Slaying and what she had first gone through when she had become the chosen one. Buffy figured that it might help the girls when they became Slayers. And in the few months since the hellmouth closed, she hadn’t acquired that much. She’d be packed by the end of the week.

She had been unsure where she wanted to go when she decided to leave England. She thought back to Spike’s words in the hellmouth.

“It’s your world up there. Now GO!”

He had died to give her and her sister a life, something outside demons and vampires. She was free to do whatever she wanted, whatever she loved. And what did she love doing? She had pondered. Shopping. So what better place to go than Italy, home of some of the world’s best designers. So she would go. Eat pasta and ice-cream, buy shoes and clothes and generally have fun, and feel free to do whatever she desired. A concept that she was still struggling to deal with. Free from obligations. She liked the sound of it.

Dawn hadn’t exactly been hard to convince. The lure of gorgeous boys, beautiful weather and fantastic shopping was too much for Dawn to turn down. She was already teaching herself Italian. “’Cause” she said, “it sounds dead sexy.” Buffy had laughed at that. Giles was going to sort out a school for her, and she was excited about it. Giles had insisted that Andrew go with her, and Buffy had agreed, although she had been adamant he was at least living three miles away from her.

Andrew was out there now, looking round a few places so Buffy would be able to choose when she arrived. Something Buffy was more grateful for than she let on. It made the whole move much easier not worrying too much about somewhere to live.

They had only been in England for five months. After leaving Los Angeles a little less than a week after closing the hellmouth, they had been in France, and she had spent three weeks in Norway. By the time they had reached England, after another two weeks in Finland, the number of Slayers they had found was increasing daily. After taking all their details down in Willow’s database, they had promised to come and train once the Council and school were set up.

The first month in London had been hectic to say the least. Giles was reaching out to any surviving Watchers, and was pleased to find that many had been with the Potentials when the Council was blown up, leaving a large number to re-constitute the ancient assembly.

Buffy had also met a demon hunter from Chicago, called Jack, who had become an integral part of Giles' operation. Despite her immediate distaste for the man, she ended up patrolling with him most evenings. They had eventually become firm friends (although neither would ever openly admit to that), and she had found friendly competition and easy banter, although even that was bittersweet, as she would ogten be reminded of Spike. He was full of innuendos, and sometimes crude, but she knew he had actually fallen hard for Claire, the first Slayer she had discovered in the country. She would miss Jack, when she left- although, she would never tell him that.

She would miss the apartment, or ‘flat’, she had spent the past three months in. It was a fairly luxurious place, near Edgeware. The school Giles had bought was only a ten minute walk from her, although it would be a good few months before it was up and running. The building was huge, despite it’s deceivingly small exterior. There were five floors, including a large hall, a dance studio, a snooker/table tennis room, as well as a large canteen and reception area. That wasn’t including the numerous offices, and computer room, as well as a number of activity rooms. It was being used as a Jewish Club, but the owners were looking to re-locate near a Jewish School. Luckily, Giles had been able to scrape together enough money to both buy and re-design the club. He was intending to turn the lower basement into recreational facilities, as the club had left much of the equipment behind. The upper basement was being used as training rooms and classrooms. The ground floor was to be left as it was, as it housed only the canteen and reception area. The first and second floors were to be turned into dorm rooms and offices. The project was costing a huge seven million English pounds, the club included. Buffy had promised to come back during the summer, once she had got some distance between her and the hellmouth.

Willow and Kennedy had left for Brazil two weeks ago, and Xander had left for Africa while they were in France. Contact between Xander and anyone else had been limited, but everyone let him have the space he needed and hoped he would return to them once he had worked through his grief. She received a short phone call or e-mail about once a month, but they weren’t detailed and were generally just a note to tell them he was still alive. Willow and Buffy spoke at least once a week, if not more. Buffy got the impression that things between her and Kennedy were strained, and then Willow had mentioned that the Slayer was considering leaving for Cleveland. Willow hadn’t seemed particularly upset at this, and explained that they were separating on good terms.

Two weeks later, Buffy was on a plane, seated next to her sister, headed for Rome.




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I know this chap is short, but I just wanted to get the transition from England to Rome over with. I wanted to do more with Jack, but I'm impatient and want to get to Spike before chapter five :). These chapters are just basically a background on what Buffy was doing during Season 5 on Angel. Also the Jewish club I described is a real place- my step-grandpa is president there.





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