Latter Days by Enigmaticblue

Summary: Set post-Chosen. After the Slayers are activated, the balance between good and evil is disturbed, and the Scoobies are flung to the far corners of the world to respond to the crisis. In the midst of all of this, will they be able to keep their relationships strong? Or will they be divided by circumstances and torn apart by fate? Follows my short story Yesterday.

Chapter 17

Author's Notes: On we go, back to England.

Chapter 17: New Council Headquarters, Bath, England

“…I’m not exactly sure what you want me to do, Robin. The developing situation in Los Angeles requires me to send several capable Slayers. Willow is stretched thin enough as it is, and you’ve been the most successful at finding and recruiting these girls. It’s time to share the wealth…” ~Excerpt from an email from Rupert Giles to Robin Wood

“He may prove to be a problem,” Miriam warned from her position across from his desk. She had shown up unannounced, and had insisted that she did not want to interrupt his work—part of which included answering emails from people like Wood and Davis Klein.

Both men were complaining, although about very different things.

“I don’t see what his problem is,” Giles muttered. “While he may have an active Hellmouth, we’ve been shuttling nearly all the new Slayers in the States to him, and there have been quite a few American Slayers found.”

Miriam raised an eyebrow. “Do you have to ask? He’s protecting his territory.”

“The girls are not his territory,” Giles shot back irritably. “If they are anyone’s, they’re the Council’s, but even that doesn’t mean much. The Council is more Slayer dominated than Watcher these days.”

“How is that working out?” she asked. “The teachers I sent have all been very positive about their experiences.”

“So far, it’s been quite the success here,” he admitted. “All of the younger ones seem to regard the situation as a big adventure at least. It’s some of the older Watchers who have caused problems. It’s proven nearly impossible to teach old dogs new tricks.”

“Old dogs can be taught new tricks,” was her quick response. “It just takes longer. That being said, I imagine that Robin Wood will pose a problem for you.”

“Something you’ve seen?” Giles inquired sharply.

Miriam gave a quick shake of her head. “No, simply my intuition, based on what information I have about the man and his past.”

“We need him,” Giles admitted grimly. “He’s been very successful, and I don’t want to deny that.”

“He needs to know that he has competition.” Miriam looked thoughtful. “Why not leave Faith and Wesley in Los Angeles? They will be needed there anyway, and you could send some of the American Slayers to them.”

Giles thought about the suggestion but finally shook his head. “Wesley is still employed by Wolfram and Hart, and I’m not sure that Faith has the patience or the inclination to have sole responsibility for a number of untrained Slayers.”

Miriam snorted. “First off, from what you’ve told me about the girl, she’ll do admirably, and she’ll have the Watcher’s aid.”

“He’s—”

Miriam stopped him with a raised eyebrow. “Trust me, Rupert. I think this will be an answer to several issues, but it can wait. You have time.”

“I really hate it when you do that,” he grumbled.

She smiled. “I know, which is why I try to do it as much as possible.”

Giles snorted. There were times when Miriam reminded him of Jenny, which was both comforting and disconcerting. “Very well, I’m leaving Faith in L.A. with Wesley, and eventually things will work out. Is there anything else you’ve seen that I should know about?”

“No, not yet.” Miriam shook her head. “So impatient, Rupert.”

He gave her a sour look but chose not to reply, knowing that would only encourage her. “Spike and Buffy will both be arriving today.”

“If I were you, I would let them do as they please. They deserve a break.”

“Something else you know?”

She raised an eyebrow. “You were here when I uttered the prophecy. Give them whatever time together you can.”

Giles sighed. “Very well. I’ll do what I can for them.”

~~~~~

Buffy walked through the entrance of the Council headquarters with a sigh of relief. Strangely enough, this place was beginning to feel like home, not least because she knew that Spike would be there. “Honey, I’m home.”

“Hey, Buffy,” Dawn said, coming out of Giles’ study. “Hey, Vi.”

“Is Spike back yet?” Buffy asked.

Dawn shook her head. “I haven’t seen him.”

“Giles in his study?”

“Yeah.” Dawn gave her sister a look. “Are you going to stick around for a while?”

Buffy sighed. “That’s up to Giles.”

“Why don’t you get out of here before Giles can think up something for you to do?” Dawn suggested in a low voice.

She frowned. “Huh?”

“Look, I’ve got a rental house set up for you and Spike in the Lake District. He should be here in about an hour, and since he doesn’t have to worry about the sun, you don’t have to worry about leaving during the day.”

Buffy stared at her younger sister in shock. “I thought you were mad at me for being gone so much.”

Dawn smirked. “Are you kidding? With you gone, I can train with the Slayers.”

Buffy opened her mouth to protest, but then stopped. Dawn was right; she tended to be a little overprotective. “Thanks. How long do you think we have?”

“I got you four days and five nights,” Dawn replied. “Giles doesn’t look at the books, so he won’t know where you guys are, and I don’t plan on telling him.”

Buffy seized her sister in a tight hug. “Thank you.”

Dawn patted her gently on the back. “Can’t breathe,” she choked out.

She released her sister abruptly. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Dawn smiled at her. “It’s good to see you happy again.”

Buffy pulled her close again. “Yeah. It’s good to be happy.”

Dawn pulled back. “Go on. You’ve got more packing to do.”

Buffy looked into her sister’s eyes. “You don’t know how much I appreciate this.”

Dawn shrugged. “Just remember this come Christmas.”

~~~~~

Spike headed up to his room as soon as he got to headquarters. He didn’t much want to talk to Giles at the moment, since he was certain that he’d only be given another job to do. All he wanted was a day or two with Buffy; he’d teach his classes without complaint, but he wanted some time with his Slayer.

He’d dropped his bag just inside the door to his room when her voice stopped him. “Were you going to say hello?”

A smile curved his lips. “Buffy.”

She was off the bed and in his arms before the word was completely out of his mouth. Spike buried his face in her hair and pressed his lips against the side of her neck. “When did you get back?” he asked, his voice muffled.

“About a half an hour ago, and you need to grab a few things.”

Spike pulled back. “No.”

“What?”

“No. I’m not goin’ anywhere. Your Watcher can take a long walk off a short pier; I’m not doin’ this again. Forget it.”

She snickered. “I’d like to see you say that to Giles’ face.”

Spike glared at her. “Buffy—”

“We’re going to the Lake District. Dawn set it up; Giles doesn’t know anything about it. We leave soon.”

Spike swallowed. “Yeah? Just the two of us?”

“Just the two of us.”

He kissed her fervently, his hands threading through her hair. She returned his embrace with equal passion, her hands grasping his shoulders hard enough to leave bruises—if he hadn’t been a vampire, anyway. “How long?”

“Dawn said four days and five nights. Vi and Audra can take your classes; I’ve already talked to them about it.” Her lips met his again, and Spike didn’t know if he’d be able to tear himself away long enough to leave.

Dawn’s voice broke in. “You know, if you’re going to catch the train, you’re going to have to get a move on. If you’re not gone by then, I can make no promises.”

Spike broke away from Buffy to give the littlest Summers a grateful smile. “Thanks, Bit. This is above and beyond.”

“You better believe it,” she replied. “Like I told Buffy, remember this come Christmas.”

He nodded. “You got it.”

“Giles is lecturing the Slayers on distinguishing between friends and enemies,” she said. “He’ll be busy for about an hour.”

Buffy hugged her sister tightly. “Thanks, Dawnie. I owe you big.”

Dawn grinned. “Think of that the first time I have a boyfriend.”

She was gone before Spike could voice a protest. “What does she mean by that?” he demanded of Buffy.

She shrugged. “Beats me. I’m not going to let it bother me, though. Not right now.”

Spike picked his bag up from the floor. “Let’s go.”

“You don’t need clean clothes?”

“Are we really gonna need them?”

She gave him an impish smile. “Good point.”

~~~~~

Dawn had been torn when she’d realized that Spike and Buffy were going to be back in Bath at the same time. On the one hand, she hadn’t seen him or her sister much at all of late; on the other, they hadn’t been able to spend time together either, and she had a feeling that might be more important.

Not that family wasn’t important, but Dawn kept getting the impression that Buffy and Spike wouldn’t have much time together. There was nothing solid, but things that Miriam had mentioned, plus the fact that they were often needed in different locations, told her that maybe they needed this.

Dawn still remembered how broken up Buffy had been after Spike’s death, and how hurt she’d been because she’d wasted so much time.

Besides, Dawn was beginning to understand what it was to want to be with someone that badly, something she hadn’t felt since R.J., only not spell-induced.

She hadn’t said anything to Spike or Buffy yet, mostly because it was very new, and they hadn’t been around. Plus, she’d only known him for a week.

Dawn slipped into the classroom that Giles was using to lecture. She caught sight of Oliver up front; Giles had told her when he had arrived that he’d been badly injured during a training exercise at the Academy. He’d been sent home to recover, but no one had thought he’d be back.

Of course, that was back when they’d had no shortage of Watchers.

Now, of course, they needed teachers, researchers, archivists, and field Watchers, and there was plenty of room for a young man who got around with the help of crutches. “It’s rare to find a vampire that can be classified as an ally,” Giles was saying. “Most of you have met Spike, and Angel, of course, has a soul, but other than those two, there are perhaps two examples in the archives.”

Giles looked at Dawn standing in the back of the room. “Dawn, would you like to say a few words?”

He’d warned her that he was going to ask about her personal experiences in Sunnydale, but Dawn wasn’t sure what he wanted her to say. She made her way to the front of the room and stood there awkwardly. “Uh, I guess to start I’ll just ask if anybody has any questions.”

Rose’s hand shot up in the air, and Dawn hid a sigh. She loved Rose, but the girl could be really annoying. “Yeah, Rose?”

“If some vampires are good, how do you tell the difference?”

Dawn sat on the edge of the desk at the front of the room. “Well, if the vampire is trying to kill you or someone else, it’s safe to assume that it isn’t good. With Angel, he didn’t try to kill anybody until after he lost his soul, and Spike joined up with my sister to stop the world from ending. You don’t have to worry much about vampires and whether they’re good or evil.”

“Why?” one of the girls asked.

“Vampires need blood, and there has to be something else that’s more important to them to make them want to quit killing,” Dawn replied.

“What made Spike quit?” Rose asked innocently.

Dawn had no idea how to answer that; it was too complicated. Had it been the chip? Had it been love? Without one or the other, would he have changed? “Spike was different,” she finally said. “You’ll have to ask him next time he’s here.”

Oliver raised a hand, and Dawn nodded at him. “Then your strategy is live and let live?”

“Why not?” Dawn asked. “We have enough enemies actively trying to kill us; it’s not like we need to go out and find more.”

“Dawn has an excellent point,” Giles interrupted smoothly. “What are the pros and cons of building alliances with the demon world?”

Dawn listened to the discussion with the various points of view. She had expected a lot of the comments that came from the older Watchers who were present, the ones who were either from old, established families or who had been nearly through the Academy when the First had struck. Most of them seemed to stick by the standard “the only good demon was a dead demon,” but many of the Slayers liked the idea of not having to fight every monster that came across their paths.

“Why should we kill someone who doesn’t want to kill us?” Audra asked reasonably. “My Watcher used informants sometimes, and they weren’t always human. It’s a good way of staying alive.”

“And Spike died to save the world,” Vi added. “You can’t just say that all demons are evil.”

“But you can say that some kinds of demons are evil all the time,” Rory objected. He was one of the younger Watchers, and would need another couple of years on training to be ready for the field.

Oliver cleared his throat. “What kinds would that be?”

“Fyarl demons,” Rory said triumphantly. “They’re always bad.”

Giles chuckled. “Normally, I would agree with you, Rory, but I was a Fyarl demon for a short period of time. So, it is not precisely true that all Fyarl demons are evil. Although I will grant you that it is more likely than not.”

Several voices clamored to hear the story, and Giles smiled and obliged them. Dawn had heard about it, but never from Giles himself, and it was amusing to get his version of events. As he finished, Giles added, “And you can see that assuming that all demons are bad is just as dangerous as assuming that all humans are good.”

“Not to mention the fact that you may at times be forced to take on strange allies,” Oliver said.

“A very good point,” Giles said. “Now, I think it’s time for dinner.” There was a stampede for the door, and the head Watcher turned to her. “Did Spike and Buffy get off alright?”

Dawn raised her eyebrows. “You weren’t supposed to know about that.” When he let out a sound that was a lot like a snort, she sighed. “I told them you didn’t know.”

“You didn’t know that I knew,” he pointed out. “Therefore, it wasn’t a lie.”

“You don’t mind?”

Giles shook his head. “They both deserve some time off.” He smiled. “Besides, I’m sure it pleased both of them to think they were fooling me.”

Dawn grinned. “Yeah.”

“Go get something to eat,” he ordered. “You’ve been working hard today.”

She left the room, and was thinking about her next assignment when a voice stopped her. “Dawn!”

Oliver limped towards her, his crutches thumping rhythmically on the floor. Dawn stopped to wait for him to catch up. “Hey, Oliver.”

“I wanted to talk to you,” he said.

She smiled, trying to control her nerves. “Sure. What about?”

He opened his mouth to reply, then stopped, his face flushing. “Nothing really. I just wanted to talk to you. I thought you’d be the person to go to, since I’m supposed to start teaching soon.”

Dawn could feel herself flushing. “Oh, well, I’ll do whatever I can. Did you have any questions?”

“Are there any girls I should look out for?” he asked.

Dawn grinned. “Just a few.”

If she wasn’t mistaken, Oliver was going to ask her out eventually, and when he did, Buffy and Spike would be in her debt. With any luck, they wouldn’t try to scare him off.