Two days later, Buffy cautiously opened the doors to the library, both hoping and fearing to find Giles there. Her hopes and fears were realized and in fact deepened; he heard the door open and called out, "Joyce? I'm in here." He came out of his office and saw her. "Oh!" His jaw dropped, then he smiled broadly and enfolded Buffy in a hug. "Oh, thank God! Buffy, you're home!"
"That depends," Buffy said, laughing at his unusual display of feeling. "I still don't know if I have a place to live yet, (unless you count here!) but I am definitely back among the living!"
"Have you left Spike?" Giles asked in surprise.
"Oh, no. Well, I left him sleeping in Angel's old apartment, but no, I haven't left him. The ritual worked, you know."
"I know. Adam told me. So you haven't seen your mother yet?"
"Nope. You're my first stop. Sounds like you have, though. 'Joyce, I'm in here'?"
Giles removed his glasses, then put them back on again. "Well, you did say in your note to her that she should come to me with questions. She did."
"Giles. How much time have you spent with my mother?" Buffy demanded.
"Well, she does have a LOT of questions. I begin to see where you get certain of your, uh, personality traits."
"Giles!" Buffy warned.
He sighed and sat down in a chair. "Three or four evenings a month." He confessed. "Also some mornings and afternoons." He knew he might as well tell her; she would find out sooner or later anyway. He looked back up at her, prepared to meet her look of outrage, but was surprised when her expression showed... amusement, and an odd kind of satisfaction.
"Well," she said, sitting down beside him. "At least you're not some psycho android who's going to drug her with cookies and object to my going out slaying every night!"
"No. At least I won't do that. And were I you, I wouldn't worry too much about not being welcomed home." Giles reassured her. They smiled at each other, glad to have things back to some degree of normalcy.
"BUFFY!" came Willow's ecstatic shriek from the doorway as she rushed to hug her friend. "Welcome home! Adam told us you were back, and I had to see you right away!"
"Hi, Will! Hi, Xand-man!" Buffy said happily. Then, slightly nervously, "Hi, uh, Adam."
"Hey, Buff. Glad to have you back with us," Adam said. He had come in with Willow. He hugged Buffy tightly after Willow had her turn, then purposely went and put his arm around Willow.
"Hey, what's all this, then?" Buffy asked, teasing. "Are you guys dating now? How did this happen?"
"It's the hellmouth," Xander started to explain, but got cuffed by Willow.
She blushingly tried to explain. "Well, Oz left me and went to New York, and then Adam came back without you and asked me for a date, and well..."
"I like her. And you seemed so happy with Spike," Adam explained, watching her closely. He DID like Willow, but didn't want to hurt Buffy. "Buff, are you okay with this?"
"Well, other than the fact that it's really weird, yeah!" she grinned. "And yeah, I am happy with Spike. Hey, thanks for letting him have your apartment, by the way."
"No problem. I'm a lot happier with the nice, high, sunny place that I have now." He said. "Been a long time since I could say that!" He grinned.
"Well, isn't this a happy gathering!" Principal Snyder stalked into the library in his usual pompous way. "So, Summers, finally decided to come back and finish the job?"
"You know I didn't do that! Not even the 'deeply stupid' police still think I killed that girl!" Buffy shot back.
Snyder gestured impatiently. "I know that, girl! Do you think I'm as stupid as they are?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?"
"I'll have none of your lip, Summers. Listen up. School starts next week, you've been reinstated, and I expect you to be there. Uneducated Vampire Slayers are a hazard to themselves and others. So finish what you've started!" And with that, he stalked out again, leaving behind a totally mystified group of people.
"Oh, my!" spoken by Giles, pretty much summed up the feelings of everyone in the room.
"Well, listen guys, I'm going to go home now and see where things stand with my mom. I'll see you all later."
Buffy went home to find that Giles had pretty much summed up the situation with Joyce fairly accurately. Mrs. Summers, although still greatly worried about the dangers of her daughter's nightly battles, had had three months to get used to the idea. And with that came pride in her daughter.
"Buffy, can you ever forgive me for being so clueless? For not noticing? All these years I've thought you were an underachiever and a troublemaker, and now I find out you've saved the world several times and you go out every night and fight demons! And win! It was fairly mind-blowing." Joyce told her after the effusive and tearful greetings were out of the way.
Buffy smiled. She couldn't remember a time when every aspect of her life had melded so well and she felt so at peace. Then she remembered. "Uh, mom? Did Giles tell you I'm dating another vampire?"
When the dust had finally settled in the aftermath of that battle-scene and she finally left her mother's house, the late afternoon sun was making long shadows in the streets. She went toward the Bronze and up a small alleyway nearby, and knocked on the door of what used to be Angel's apartment.
"Slayer!" Spike said happily when he opened the door. "Come on in."
Buffy went in and put up her feet, smiling wearily. "Sorry, I'm still not used to being awake all day."
"Didn't think you would be. Here." Spike handed her a cup of coffee, which she sipped gratefully. "So, what's going on? You didn't come back last night. Did your mum-- "
"She took me back. Oh, Spike, it was so weird! Get a load of this: I'm gone for three measly months, and Xander and Cordelia break up. She's moving to New York, of all places, and so is Oz. Willow, who I thought would be heartbroken about Oz, is happily dating Angel -- uh, Adam! My mom knows all about my being the slayer, and Giles even told her about some of the other stuff that's gone on. She doesn't even hate you anymore!"
"Good. Bet she still won't talk to me, though," Spike said, amused.
Buffy shrugged. "And that's not all! She and Giles have a DATE tonight! How gross is that, my mother and my watcher having a.... thing! Xander's still Xander, of course, but instead of lusting after me, he's after Willow now!"
"...who is with Adam, you said?" Spike said, his brain beginning to whirl.
Buffy stood up and began to pace back and forth. "Yeah. The one good thing is that the school board got on Snyder's case and got me back into school. My mom told me about all this. Seems he goofed up big-time -- get this! -- he thought I was a demon, or something! He knows about the hellmouth, but he thought I was part of it! I think he got some sort of reprimand from the Watcher's Council, so he let me back in and he's toeing the line now."
"Finished?" Spike asked dryly as Buffy's torrent of words ended and she collapsed beside him on the couch where he had been watching her pace back and forth, back and forth. Like watching tennis, he thought.
"Yeah, I think that's everything." Buffy said.
Just then the phone rang. Buffy answered it. Giles' voice came across the line, "Buffy? Oh, good, I was hoping I'd find you there. I need you to come to the library right away; while you were gone, I've been studying the Pergamum Codex. There have been some serious portents which point to a rather alarming prophesy concerning the slayer's return. We need to step up your training so you'll be prepared to face it."
"Well, what is it, Giles?" Buffy asked.
"Well, according to my research and Willow's, the signs seem to point to the end of the world." Giles stated flatly.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Is that all? Geez, Giles, you could have waited till tomorrow for that. After all, it's not like we haven't been there before!"
"Buffy, I --" Giles sputtered.
Buffy said, "Kidding, Giles! I'll be there in a while." She hung up the phone and started to laugh.
"What's up, luv?" Spike asked.
"Oh, there's another end-of-the-world prophesy that I have to abort later on tonight. Nothing major." Buffy explained, taking another sip of coffee.
Spike chuckled. "Hey, find one thing and do it better than anyone else! Home, sweet hellmouth, eh?" he said as he kissed his slayer.
END
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