Far from Home Part 9
“So, um, Buffy, let me get this straight,” Pacey said, still a little overwhelmed from finding out about the vampires, “in every generation there is one Slayer and Watcher except that now there’s two because you were dead for a minute?”
“Exactly.”
“And you ran away from home?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?” Buffy was silent. She started playing with a string hanging from her shirt.”
“Do all the vampires do that exploding thing?” Dawson asked.
“If you stab them in the heart, yes. You can also chop off their heads and they’ll do the same thing. Holy water and the sun burns them, crosses repel them, and they can only enter a building if invited in,” Buffy explained.
“Whose the other Slayer?” Joey asked. Pacey gave Buffy a questioning look.
“If she wants to, she’ll tell them,” Buffy whispered to him.
“We don’t know,” Oz lied. “It’s been too soon since Kendra died to tell.”
“Did you guys see where Jen went?” Pacey remembered.
“She ran down that way,” Cordelia pointed.
“She’s back?” Dawson asked. “Why would she run away?” Pacey motioned to Joey. “Oh. Maybe I should go find her.” He looked to Joey. “Or not?”
“It’s okay, Dawson. I trust you,” Joey smiled. He gave her hand a squeeze.
“Okay, I’ll be right back.” He pecked Joey on the lips and went towards where Cordelia was pointing. “Jen?” he called softly. “Jen?”
“I’m here, Dawson,” Jen said. “Now go away. I don’t want to talk to you.” Dawson sat down next to her under the shrubs.
“Jen, what’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? Dawson, you know how I feel about you. You knew and you never gave me an answer. Instead I come back after almost a month only to find you ready to jump Joey!” Jen cried.
“I wasn’t jumping Joey.”
“That’s what it looked like to me.”
“I’m not jumping Joey. And how do you think I felt when you were with Cliff?”
“First of all, I told you how I felt then straight out. Second of all, I had enough consideration not to be rounding second in front of you.”
“Well, how was I supposed to know you would show up? I’m really sorry, Jen. I am.” There was an awkward silence. “So, where’ve you been for the last three weeks?” More silence.
“You know, this is where we first kissed,” Jen finally said. She moved closer to Dawson. “Remember? You got me so nervous because you wanted to kiss me so much.” She put her hand on his arm.
“Yeah, well it was my first kiss,” Dawson blushed.
“It was very nice,” Jen said, inching closer.
“Jen...”
“Shhh,” she put her finger on his lips. She leaned up against him so that he could feel her breathing.
“So, Jen, you cut your hair while you were gone.”
“So did you,” Jen purred, running her fingers through his hair.
“Okay, Jen, that’s enough.”
“What?” she asked innocently.
“I’m with Joey now. Stop trying to seduce me and break us up.”
“Is it working?” Jen raised her eyebrows.
“No.” Jen sighed.
“Dawson, go away,” she said again. “I’m upset enough, you don’t have to make a fool out of me to add to that.” Dawson looked at Jen and then obeyed her. He got up and left. He walked back to be stared at by seven questioning faces.
“How is she?” Joey asked softly.
“She’ll live, I guess,” Dawson said, looking down.
“She struck me!” Buffy exclaimed, rubbing her cheek.
“Please forget it Ang... I mean Buffy. She likes Dawson and didn’t know what was going on. And she’s clearly under a lot of stress,” Pacey defended her.
“I guess...” Buffy sighed.
“What do we do know?” Willow asked.
“How about we get Giles and ask him about what the vamps were doing here?” Xander offered.
“Giles,” Buffy gave a small smile that quickly disappeared. “Is he here too? What did you guys do, all stalk me?”
Her friends looked at each other before Xander replied, “well, yeah. At least we did the best we could.”
“Oh... okay, let’s go.”
*********************************************
Jen walked home slowly. When she got there she peeked in the window and was relieved to see only her grandmother sitting in the kitchen.
“Where’s Giles?” Jen asked as she walked in the back door.
“Willow called and asked him to meet them at the Icehouse. Something about Joey and some girl needing to get back to work. Giles looked confused, but said he had to go. I offered to drive, but he insisted on taking a taxi,” Mrs. Ryan shrugged.
“They found the other Slayer,” Jen said.
“Oh dear. Giles will be in for quite a surprise, then. He’s a sweet man, although sort of nervous. I’ll have to meet her.”
“Yeah...” Jen trailed off. “How are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Without Grandpa.”
“I’m hanging in there, dear. We have to. It will be all right.”
“Grams, I wanted to be here. I really did.”
“It’s okay, Jennifer. You had to meet your destiny.”
“But I’m so bad at it!”
“It will get easier. I promise.” Before Jen knew it, she was bawling in her grandmother’s arms. “It’s okay, Jenny. There’s a reason you were chosen,” she said as she slowly rocked Jen back and forth. “There’s always a plan. Everything will work itself out.”
“I wish I could believe you,” Jen sobbed.
**************************************************
“What was so urgent that I had to rush a cab here?” Giles asked when he saw Willow and Xander waiting outside of the Icehouse.
“There were vampires here--” Willow started.
“Well, that’s to be expected, the new Slayer is here,” Giles said. “So, what’s the problem?”
“Not only one Slayer is here,” Xander looked down.
“What?”
“Come out,” Willow motioned to the door.
“Buffy?” Giles blinked, took off his glasses, cleaned them off on his shirt, and put them back on.
“Hi,” Buffy said shyly.
“Buffy. Buffy,” Giles suddenly got angry, “how could you run off like that? It was totally inconsiderate of you. Your poor mother has been worried sick, not to mention me and your friends. How would you do such a stupid thing?”
“Giles, I’m sorry. I needed to get away--”
“Yeah, so am I. I’m sorry I put so much of my trust in you.”
“How can you say that? How many times did I have to save the world? Again?”
“How could you leave?”
“You don’t know what I went through. How could I stay?”
“Buffy, no one knows what you went through because you won’t tell us,” Cordelia suddenly chimed in. “What did happen?”
“So now you guys are going to gang up on me, too?”
“No,” Xander said, putting his arm around her and glaring at Cordelia and Giles. “No, we’re not. It must have been something horrible for you to do something so drastic.”
“She didn’t answer the question,” Cordelia pointed out.
“Thank you, Xander,” Buffy said quietly.
“Oh yeah. You would defend her, wouldn’t you? After all, you’re so in love with her she can do no wrong!” Giles snapped. Xander looked totally crushed.
“What? You still--” Buffy looked up at Xander.
“Crazy man talk, heh heh. Giles is so overwhelmed to see you, he’s just talking like a crazy man.” Although Xander seemed normal, he was almost in tears.
“Of course he still bloody loves you. Don’t you think it was a little obvious?” Giles asked. Willow was making stop signals with her hands and pointing to Cordelia.
“You still love her?” Cordelia asked slowly. Xander quickly took his arms from around Buffy. He tried to say something resembling denial, but nothing resembling words came out. “That explains a lot. And to think, I actually thought I could be falling in love with a loser like you! What was I thinking?”
“No, Cordy... I-- I... I l-- l... lo... love you.”
“You had enough trouble enunciating it. I’m getting out of here.”
“Cordy...”
“You better stop calling me that. It’s Cordelia. And don’t you dare follow me,” Cordelia warned before she walked into the Icehouse.
“Nice going, Giles,” Willow said pointedly.
“You still love me?” Buffy said meekly. Xander was silent.
“I’ve gotta go,” he said finally. He started running. He didn’t know where he was going, but the overwhelming combination of guilt, remorse, and love pushed him on.