Buffy got up and went to work the next day. The Boss had scheduled her for a 7 to 5 shift, which included a free lunch as well as free drinks throughout her busy day. If she wanted, she could return at 10 when the diner closed to take a free dinner of any of the day’s specials as there were often enough to fill a plate still at the end of the day. She worked hard waiting on customers of all ages, seeing more people than she had in her lifetime. The diner was constantly busy which caused her to be on her tired feet all day long. She found herself thankful that she had brought along boots instead of high heels.
The Diner’s red and white outfit was kind of uncomfortable and clashed with her hair color but still it was honest work and would pay off when she got her first paycheck on Friday. The boss was a fair boss and seemed nice but was far from perfect. Her coworker Joanne was older and was a no nonsense kind of lady but that was fine by Buffy. Buffy just wanted to be kept busy which helped her not to think of home. She refused to think of Angel or her friends. She would not cry no matter what happened to her. She was brave Anne with no past and working at the diner as her future. She would just have to get used to that now.
Near the end of her shift, the boss requested she stay another few hours until closing, offering her five hours overtime in exchange. She had nowhere to go, so she agreed. The last five hours of her shift were very long. By the end of the day, her feet were killing her, her back hurt and so did her muscles. She frowned realizing she must be getting out of shape. Perhaps she should do some simple training tonight just so that she could keep up her figure. That was Buffy’s logical reason anyway. She mused, ‘Even Anne needs to stay in shape. Never know what baddies are out there in the world trying to prey on innocent teens.'
Buffy sighed grateful that the end of the day had come as she flipped the closed sign on the restaurant door and grabbed herself a plate of the daily special, chicken pot pie, before tossing the rest out. She yelled to the back, “See you later, Henry” before heading out of the door.
As she was walking she felt tingles and sighed thinking, “Just my damn luck. I’m Anne not Buffy anymore.” She was tempted to ignore them but noticed the street was empty for once which was never a good sign. She reluctantly entered the dark alley recognizing it the same dark alley she had cried in her first night here. She frowned knowing that it appeared to be a place that vampires frequented as she quietly prowled for the vampire after breaking off a second leg of that chair.
Spike was determined to find Buffy and wandered around town trying to use his contacts in Sunnyhell to see where Buffy might have gone. He checked Willie’s since he always seemed to have the news. After listening in on conversations and asking a few questions, he realized the rest of the town assumed she was dead. They were all discussing how much the death toll had risen and how the vampire families of the town were on the rise.
Spike was thankful that he did manage to get in a spot of violence while he was there which calmed his nerves a little. A green scaly demon had laughed at him for asking where the Slayer was saying the bitch was dead and good riddens to her. Spike had felt the effects of hearing about her death immediately and had roared at the demon and twisted his head clean off his neck. This had started a bar fight that quickly included a green scaly demon who was the mate to the demon he had just offed and a vampire who had been sitting with them. They jumped into the fight to avenge the wrongful death of their family member. The demon was strong and very angry, managing to give Spike a black eye as well as a bruise on his left leg before he was killed. Spike easily had taken out the vampire leaving a trail of dust behind him. Willie was pissed at the broken table and chair left behind by the rumble but he’ll get over it.
Before leaving the bar, Spike told the rest of the demon world that the Slayer was his if anyone happened to see her. After watching Spike kill the demons and vampire, no questions were asked and no one seemed willing to dispute it.
Spike spent that night checking two more demon bars as well as some local vampire nests all looking for information about the Slayer’s whereabouts without any luck. It seemed hopeless because the replies were almost always the same, “This town has no Slayers anymore. It’s a free town.” The only ones who didn’t believe this, were Buffy’s friends who called themselves the Scoobies.
While Spike was wandering through a cemetery checking out local haunts, he overheard the wolfboy talking to his witch saying that they believed Buffy was still alive out there somewhere just healing before returning to school. This made Spike realize that it was obvious that no one in Sunnyhell had heard from her. Spike sighed discouraged as he recognized that staying in Sunnyhell was getting him nowhere. At this rate, Joyce would never see her daughter again.
Spike started thinking, ‘If Buffy wanted to get away, she probably wouldn’t stay by the Hell mouth. She would go someplace far away, someplace where she knew she could make a new start.’ Spike returned to his car as he thought about where she might go. Suddenly he had an idea. The rumor was that she was from L.A. so chances are high that she’d run there. Surely heading to LA. would be a better place to start than to deal with this fucking town that knew nothing. Spike got into his Desoto and took off into the night heading to L.A. figuring that was the best place to start.
Buffy dodged a kick from the vampire turning to the girl who had been the vampire’s dinner and shouted loudly, “Run!” Buffy was pissed off and kicked the vampire to the ground muttering loudly as she did, “I was just trying to get away from my duties. I went away to a huge town to get lost instead of living on the Hell mouth where you guys tend to flock. I’ve done enough damage with my life that I just wish to be left alone. I want to live in a peaceful little house where I work at a diner for a living and worry about the lifespan of my cat. I don’t want to be sitting here kicking your vampire butt in a city I should be a tiny speck in. I want to be normal Anne damn it. Not Buffy the Slayer.”
Her voice trailed off as she heard the vampire question, “Ssslllaaayyeerr?” Just then two more heads popped out of the trashcans all questioning her with, “Slayer?”
Buffy screamed, “Can’t I just be normal, damn it?”
One of the vampires ran away but the other came over to help his friend quickly jumping into the fight. Buffy wasted no time in dusting the vamp on the ground instead of continuing to vent and spun around to kick the other vampire’s butt. Buffy looked confused as she knocked him to the ground and as he got up, slammed him into the wall behind him demanding, “Where’s your friend?” The vampire shrugged not really looking concerned as he admitted, “He wasn’t much of a friend anyway. Was more of a coward.”
Buffy nodded, “Well at least he lives then.”
With that she kicked him in the head and dodged a kick he made by jumping over his leg and she threw the stake at him, “I’m Anne not some Slayer!”
With that she dusted off her diner outfit frowning at the dirt and grim now on it and sighed muttering to herself, “Now I have laundry to do again.”
She wandered back to her apartment where she found Lucky sitting in front of the door waiting for her. She picked Lucky up and hugged him tight to her chest and refilled his food dish, “I’m sorry Lucky about how long I was gone today. I hope you weren’t too hungry but we can eat together. I have a plate of potpie to eat that is now officially cold thanks to some mean ol’ vampire.”
Buffy frowned as she watched as the cat happily ate his food and ate her cold potpie thinking, ‘My life royally sucks.’
Meanwhile Spike was driving the 6 hours it took to get from Sunnyhell to L.A. cursing his life. ‘Why do things have to get so complicated? All I wanted is to settle down with my Dru and live my unlife happily ever after. But no, here I am helping out the Slayer’s mum, trying to find the Slayer to make sure she’s safe and I find myself actually worrying about her safety. Bloody Hell! I even beat up a demon that spoke badly about her announcing to Willie’s bar that she was mine. I am a bleeding ponce. I should just walk out into the sunlight when I get to L.A. and just end my unlife.'
Spike sighed and muttered, ‘I hope Dru is at least happy with her minions and demons. She deserves happiness even if I’m not meant to give it to her. I still don’t understand the part of the sunshine. Perhaps she really thought I’d go dust myself. I might threaten myself with that but I won’t really do it. I don’t have a death wish. If I am going to die, I’m going to go out fighting like a master vampire should. I am William the Bloody and I will go out in style. Hmm why am I talking about dying? I don’t plan to die again. What I do plan to do is find Buffy and drag her cute ass back to her mother and figure out how to…Actually I don’t know what I plan to figure out but I’m sure it will be good once I figure it out. Damn it, I need music.’
With that he put in the Ramones tape and began to sing.