Rating: PG or PG-13. Depends on how much violence and very brief, non-graphic sexual situations offend you.
Last time: Buffy ran away from her friends with Pacey to the beach from her dreams. Angel then took over Pacey's body for a short time and talked to Buffy.
Far from Home Part 8
"They're not here," Cordelia pouted her lips. "Damn it, Buffy!"
"We can't have come this far only to have lost her again!" Willow exclaimed.
"It's okay. I'm here."
Buffy's friends spun around and looked at her. Buffy looked at her feet and then to the shocked faces in front of her. Her face twisted into a sad frown and then a smile. "What, no hug?" Buffy laughed nervously. She sniffed and quickly rubbed her nose with her palm. Everyone was silent. Pacey looked confused.
"Of course you get a hug," Willow said reassuringly. She slowly approached Buffy, smiled, and threw her arms around her. "Buffy, I was so worried."
"Hey, you should know not to worry about me," Buffy said, relieved to see everyone. "Anyone else miss me? Xander?" Xander tried desperately to avoid eye contact. Then he thought better of it.
"Of course I missed you, you big lug." He caught her in a big bear hug. "No one else can slay vampires with the same witty remarks. Whoops--" Xander said slowly. He glanced at Pacey. "Did I say slay vampires? I meant to say... stop vandals. Yep, there's no one else who can fight crime quite like you, hehe." He looked back and added, "Well, I covered that one up pretty well, didn't I?" Cordelia slapped her forehead with her hand and Oz rolled his eyes.
"Now I understand why Giles was so anxious to get a separate room," Oz mumbled.
"Stop vandals?" Pacey nodded. "Okay, you're some kind of super hero changing identities to protect yourself from some master vandal?" That sounded really stupid, even to him.
"She's a vampire slayer," Jen said suddenly. "I am, too." Everyone looked at her, shocked that she had said that, especially Buffy and Pacey.
"Could you say that a little louder? I don't think everyone in the theater lobby heard you," Cordelia snapped at her.
"Kendra got replaced already?" Buffy murmured.
"Yeah. Yeah, about a month and a half ago," Jen put her hands on her hips and looked away.
"That's only a little before I got here," Buffy commented.
"You know, I don't think it was a coincidence that Jen's the new Slayer," Willow said thoughtfully. "I think that part of the reason she got picked was to lead us to Buffy."
"Of course. Slaying coming back to haunt me on my vacation," Buffy sighed. Pacey was still nodding.
"Would someone like to explain to me what's going on?" he asked.
"Let's go to the Ruins and I'll explain," Jen said. "That's the only place I can think of where no one will over hear us. I would having suggested going back to my house, but I think my Grams would kill me for telling Pacey."
"Yeah. Pacey, this is really top secret," Xander nodded to him. "Do you think you could stop doing that? Now you have me nodding, too."
"Oh yeah, sorry," Pacey said. "Get in my car. I'll drive to the Ruins and you guys can explain what's going on."
They all left the movie theater and piled into the car. "Good thing I'm not claustrophobic or I'd be having a major problem right now," Jen said. She was squashed in the back seat between Willow, who was or Oz's lap, and Cordelia, who was on Xander's lap. Buffy was sitting shotgun.
"So why'd you run away?" Cordelia suddenly asked. "Did something happen between you and Angel?"
"Shut up, honey," Xander whispered. Cordelia ignored him.
"My aren't we blunt?" Buffy replied. Xander quietly stared out the window.
"Why don't you all just tell me about the whole Slayer thing?" Pacey nervously asked. "I can drive around until you're done. It's private in the car."
"No way," said Jen. "You guys may be comfortable, but I will not sit here for the amount of time it takes to tell you what's going on."
"It's not so bad," Willow smiled at Oz, touching his nose with hers.
"Just keep driving, Pacey," Buffy said, thankful at the change of subject.
"You guys aren't trying to play a joke on me, are you? 'Cause if you are, ha, ha, it's funny, now you can stop."
"It's not a joke, Pacey," Jen put her hand on his shoulder to reassure him.
"Unfortunately," Buffy quietly added. "So what have you guys been doing without me?" Buffy asked, trying to be cheerful.
"Going to school, trying to slay vampires, humoring Giles, you know, the usual," Willow said.
"And searching for you endlessly," Cordelia added. "Why, what have you been doing?"
"Well, basically I took a bus and hitch-hiked cross-country until I found a job here as a waitress. I haven't slayed one vampire yet, though."
"Oh," Cordelia said. She nudged Xander. "You're being strangely quite. What's wrong?"
"Huh? Yeah. I mean, oh, nothing. Nothing." A silence fell onto the car.
"Does someone want to say something? It's too quite," said Oz.
"We're here. When everyone gets out of the car, they'd better start talking," Pacey said, turning off the ignition. "There are benches near the fountain so we can sit there. Just run if you hear any one coming so we don't get arrested for trespassing." They filed out of the car started walking to the fountain.
"This place is beautiful," Buffy commented. She looked over to where there was a hill sloping down to the water. "Hey, I guess Joey took my advice."
"What? Joey?" Jen looked to where Buffy was watching. A look of anger flashed across her face. There was Dawson lying on top of Joey with his hands under her shirt. They were so involved with each other to the point that they didn't even realize that they had an audience. "You advised this?" Jen yelled at Buffy and slapped her across the face. Buffy recoiled back and put her hand to her throbbing cheek.
"You may be the new Slayer, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to kick your a--" Buffy looked up and saw Jen already too far away to hear her and she wasn't about to stop running.
"Oops, maybe I should have prepared her for that," Pacey looked over guiltily.
"That's Joey? Go Dawson!" Xander said. He got smacked by Cordelia.
"Maybe we should go before they realize we're all watching them," Willow suggested.
"We're not the only ones," Buffy said. "Luckily I hadn't gotten out of the habit of carrying this." She pulled a wooden stake out from her boot and rushed down the hill. She flew into a kick and knocked down one of the three vampires creeping up on Dawson and Joey.
"What the--" Dawson looked up. Joey did, also, and started to scream.
"Don't worry, Jo, I've got it all under control. Shouldn't you be at work?" Buffy said casually. Dawson sat up and protectively put his arms around Joey. Xander and Oz ran down to help Buffy. She soon had turned all three of the vampires to ashes.
"What the hell?" Dawson asked slowly.
"Well, at least we're all here to explain this to," Buffy put the stake back in her boot. "Hi, my name is really Buffy. Buffy Summers. The vampire Slayer."