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The White Picket Fences	By : QueenB Category: -Buffy the Vampire Slayer > Het - Male/Female Views: 2825 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Travers’s announcement of Glory’s status had severely rattled Buffy and her friends. They were up against a god, an actual god. It was true her forced imprisonment in mortal flesh was greatly limiting her strength and powers. But she was still immortal and crazy as a loon, which meant her actions were practically unpredictable.

The other news floored them completely. The Key she was after, the mystical energy that was so important to the fate of the world, was Dawn. They had a hard time wrapping their minds around that one. They all had memories of afternoons spent watching Dawn, bringing her home from school or helping her with her homework.

Willow and Tara were still discussing it in low tones as they sprinkled protective sand around the Magic Box. They’d already made circles around their various houses as an extra precaution. The circles would go off like a magical siren if anything evil tried to penetrate. When Dawn skipped past them into the Magic Box, Tara gazed after her with a bemused expression. “How can she not be real?” she murmured.

“She’s real. She’s just—new,” Willow finished lamely.

The “new” girl sauntered into the Magic Box and slowed as she noticed Xander and Anya whispering together. Lately Dawn had noticed a change in everyone’s behavior. They were defensive around her, clamming up whenever she walked into a room. If it wasn’t that, they were always talking in whispers when they thought she couldn’t hear.

“Hi, guys! Whacha doin’?”

Anya beamed at her. It was an exaggerated smile, nothing like her usual generic perky expression that she used for the benefit of humans. “Hello, Dawn. You make a very pretty girl!”

Xander jumped as if his pants were on fire. “And on some days you make a fairly tolerable human being, Anya. Say, could you help me with that thing we discussed in the back room?”

Anya beamed again. This smile was even more artificial than the first one. “Xander wants me to help him with his thing!”

Xander dragged her off while Anya waved at her. [Geez. She really needs to work on her people skills. She needs to work on her human skills, period.] Dawn poked around at the miscellaneous items on the store shelves.

She straightened up when Buffy and Riley came out from the training room. Buffy had taken to training with Riley and for longer and longer hours. Patrolling was taking up more time, too. When she wasn’t doing those, she took turns with Riley in staying at the Summers’ house. If Dawn didn’t know any better, she’d have sworn they were trying to keep an eye on her.

Dawn wasn’t sorry to see them together, though. A short while back, it’d looked as if their relationship had hit some sort of wall. Riley was still kinda nervous around Buffy as if he were afraid of hurting her feeligs. And sometimes Buffy would get a sad expression in her eyes and a tightness around her mouth whenever she looked at him. And she no longer sent Dawn over to Xander’s apartment so she and Riley could boink in private.

So the two of them were still together. They were just no longer screwing. Dawn didn’t know a lot about how much a part sex played in adult relationships. But she figured that two people who were having sex pretty regularly were in some sort of trouble if they stopped the way Riley and Buffy had. They wouldn’t tell her about it, though. Nope, not little Dawn. She was too young to be let in on grownup conversation.

Riley looked up when he saw her. “Hey, kid. How’s school?”

Dawn hated it when Riley called her a kid but nothing she said about it seemed to make any difference. “Um, the usual. Big square building filled with boredom and despair.”

“Yep, just how I remember it.” Riley sat down at the oblong table and stretched out his legs. “So how’s the homework situation?”

Dawn shrugged indifferently as she dumped her schoolbag on the floor. “We have to imagine what we’ll be like ten years from now and write a letter to our future selves. The teacher’s clearly so out of original ideas. Wanna help?”

Riley shifted in his seat as he considered the request. “I don’t know, Dawn. You’re kinda young to be thinking about a future so far in advance. Most kids your age don’t think much further than what they’re going to have for breakfast.”

“Oh, what? Are you saying you were just as clueless when you were our age?” Dawn retorted, stung.

“Yeah, Riley. Did you know what you wanted to be when you were 15?” Buffy found herself genuinely curious about his answer. Riley had talked volubly about his life back in Iowa in the beginning of their relationship, but she had often been too bored by the tameness of his rural anecdotes to pay them or him much attention. Now that she realized how she hurt him with her indifference she took care to display the proper girlfriend-y interest in his life.

Riley appeared a bit embarrassed. “It’s not that big a deal.”

Dawn leaned forward onto the Magic Box counter. She smelled a cover-up. “Oh, c’mon, spill. Make with the details already.” Buffy plopped down beside him and eyed her boyfriend with a knowing smirk. “I bet I know. It was probably something muy macho like being an astronaut.”

“Or a rodeo cowboy.”

“Or a stock car driver.”

“Or an announcer at female nude mud wrestling contests.” Seeing Buffy’s and Riley’s blank stares, Dawn shrugged uncomfortably. “Well, that’s one of Xander’s fantasies. Anya told me so.”

“And on that disturbing note, I’ll bring your speculations to an end. I wanted to be a soldier.”

The girls stared at the tall man who shifted under the weight of their mutual gazes. “You wanted—? You knew you were going to be a soldier when you were still a teenager?” Buffy remembered just what she had mapped out for her life around that age. She had been a lot like Cordelia. There were no thoughts, no concerns beyond picking out her clothes and sweating over her geometry homework. She’d dreamed about going to Paris, being a supermodel and marrying Christian Slater. Then Merrick came and showed her a different world—a world of nightmares made real.

Everything had changed for her after that. She recalled the long, loud arguments between her parents over her increasingly odd behavior. The other girls had ostracized her because she no longer joined in the usual mindless teenage dribble about boys, fashion, music and diet. Becoming a Slayer changed that forever. All of her girlish dreams had been snuffed out after her first vampire kill.

But here was Riley saying that his life’s work was exactly what he’d planned for himself. All at once she was swept by envy so great, she had to choke back a lump in her throat.

Riley smiled uncertainly at her. He was aware of her sudden distress but couldn’t figure out where it came from. When she looked up a moment later, the sadness was replaced by an avid look of attention. Wondering if he’d imagined it, he continued his story.

“My father was a Seal and my grandfather was a Marine. It was expected that I would be in some kind of military service when I was old enough to enlist.”

“So you went into it because they did. Sort of like a family business, huh?” Dawn asked.

Riley hastened to correct her. “No, no, I wanted to go into service. The stories my dad and granpa told me always sounded so exciting and important. I thought I could really make a difference in the world. I’d get to travel, see exotic locales, make new friends…”

“Get to make out with foreign babes,” Dawn added in a knowing tone.

“You’ve been spending way too much time with Anya, Dawn.” Dawn rolled her eyes at her sister’s disapproval. Changing the subject abruptly, she asked, “So, Riley, you coming to Buffy’s birthday party?”

Riley stroked a lock of Buffy’s hair, enjoying the way it curled around his fingers. “Count on it. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Her answering smile made his breath catch. It always took him by surprise, her blinding beauty. It was constantly sneaking up on him at moments like this.

Dawn resisted the urge to make gagging noises. In spite of his sometimes annoying ways, she was glad to have Riley around. He made Buffy happy without the angst and weepiness that Angel brought on. She didn’t want to do anything to spoil it.

Riley stood up and headed towards the door. “I’ll see you later, Buffy. Don’t forget what we talked about.” Giving her a significant look behind Dawn’s back, he exited the Magic Box.

“What did you two talk about?”

“Oh, some new moves for our next training session. I may be stronger than Riley but he knows kick-butt moves that are always catching me off guard,” was Buffy’s quick reply. “We should head on home, too, Dawn. We don’t want Mom to get worried.”

Dawn slung her bag over one shoulder and followed her sister. “Hey, you think Mom got that ice cream we both like?”

Buffy grinned at the thought and licked her lips in anticipation. “You mean Cookie Dough Fudge Mint Chip? She’d better or I am pulling one major slayer tantrum.” The girls giggled as they opened the Magic Box door.

“Hey, Anya, you can come out and stop playing with Xander’s thing now!” Dawn yelled to the rear of the store. Buffy punched her on the arm. “Ow! What?”

__________

Presents. Cake and candles and decorations. All the trappings for a normal birthday. One could only hope. Buffy brushed her hair until it gleamed. It wasn’t just anticipation driving her. It was nervousness. Riley had been pressing her to reveal the truth to Dawn. She just didn’t know how she was going to do it. Or when. Or if.

Stepping back from the mirror, she paused to assess her appearance critically. With the Council’s review, the Glory menace, the constant round of patrolling, training, training and more training, she’d been running herself ragged. [But you’d never know it from that girl smiling in the mirror. Thank goodness for slayer stamina.]

“Hey, Buffy. You look great. Are you coming down soon? If you don’t hurry, Anya’s going to start opening your presents herself.”

Buffy’s expression was wry as she slipped in her earrings. “Well, we can’t have that, can we, Willow? She’ll just have to get her own presents.”

Willow snorted in playful disdain as she plopped onto Buffy’s bed. “You’d think all that lovely money she makes from Magic Box sales would be enough, but oh no. Honestly, it’s like she’s got only two topics of conversation: sex and cash.”

Buffy shook her head so that her hoop earrings flashed and sparkled in the light. “Let’s not forget the men she used to torture and kill.”

“Okay, three topics of conversation. Say, speaking of men, when’s Riley getting here? Isn’t he kinda late?”

Buffy shrugged and turned from the mirror, smoothing down her blouse. “I don’t know. He’s been all secretive these last few days. He said he had to make a few phone calls but he hasn’t told me what it’s about.”

The two women made their way downstairs to the Summers living room. Hearing Xander’s jokes, Dawn’s happy chatter, Willow’s and Tara’s girlish giggles as they bent their heads together and watching Anya pick up and shake her presents one by one, Buffy was happier than she’d been for a long time. Glory and the threat she posed seemed very far away at the moment.

Dawn’s present was simple enough: a picture of Hank summers with his wife and two little girls. It was in a chintzy frame hand decorated with the seashells found on the beach that same summer when the picture was taken. Dawn made light of her gift by pointing out its cheapness but everyone could see how much the memory meant to her.

Buffy got an odd feeling when she looked at the picture. Dawn hadn’t been there. This memory was as false all the rest her little sister possessed. But looking up at Dawn’s face, with its studied expression of teenage indifference, she did her best to smile. “It’s beautiful. Thanks, Dawn.” Buffy’s hug was interrupted by the doorbell ringing. “I’ll get it.”

“No way. You’re the birthday girl. I’ll see who it is.” Dawn ran towards the door and opened it, grinning in delight at the figure who stood outside. “Well, look who finally decided to show up.”

“Hey, Dawn. Sorry I’m late. Where’s Buffy?”

The younger Summers girl stepped back so he could enter. “She’s in the living room opening her presents.” As she shut the door Dawn shouted, “Buffy! Riley’s here!”

Riley entered the living room, pulling off his jacket, and Buffy’s eyes widened. He was wearing a dark blue shirt of shimmering material and form-fitting slacks. He looked incredibly handsome and her breath came a little faster as she took in the sight of him.

Dawn was equally admiring. “Wow, Riley, you look even better than the birthday girl.”

“Is that why you were late? You needed the extra time to make yourself look beautiful for Buffy?”

Anya’s outspoken comment didn’t go unchallenged. “Anya, only women make themselves beautiful. Guys just basically throw on the first thing they find in their closets.”

Anya ran an admiring eye over Riley. “Speak for yourself, Xander. Riley clearly took a little more effort than that. You could learn a thing or two from him.”

“Since when do you have any complaints about my clothes?”

“Well, since you asked—” she replied in a thoughtful tone.

“Guys, could you remember this is Buffy’s special day?” After chiding the two, Dawn sat down next to her sister on the couch. “What’d you get Buffy for her birthday, Riley?”

The hazel-eyed man pulled a small box out of his jacket pocket and extended it to his girlfriend. “Here, Buffy. Happy birthday.” Buffy tore off the shiny paper and opened the red velvet box underneath it. Inside was a silver heart-shaped locket.

As she pulled it out by its chain, Anya snatched it from her hands. “Oh my goodness. It’s so lovely! I wish it were mine.” She squealed and clutched it to her chest and then noticed everyone else’s amused stares. “Oh, like you weren’t all thinking it.”

Giles murmured, “I’m fairly sure I wasn’t thinking it.”

Xander pulled it gently from Anya’s grasp and handed it to Riley. “I got it engraved. It reads ‘To the Slayer of my heart.’ “ He unhooked the chain and clasped it around Buffy’s neck. There was a moment of nice, comfortable silence as they kissed.

“Now that’s what I call a gift,” Anya sniffled. “Xander, why don’t you get me things like that?”

Xander pulled her into a hug and asked, “Well, when is your birthday, oh tactless one?”

The ex-demoness blinked and furrowed her brows. “Um, you know, I’m not really sure.”

“You mean it’s so far back you don’t remember?” The shy comment came from Tara.

“No, it’s just we weren’t big on celebrating people’s birthdays back then. Most of the time we didn’t notice specific days as such so people tended to be kinda fuzzy on their ages. Mothers would tell their kids things like, “Aye, you were born in the year of the great flood that destroyed all the corn, nigh onto ten and a half years now, give o’ take.’ That sort of thing. Then I became a demon so the trappings of humanity like birthdays became irrelevant so I gradually forgot about mine…”

The talk drifted onto other matters and Buffy and Riley wandered into the kitchen. “This is a great gift, Riley. Thank you. The tiny picture of you inside is so sweet.”

“Glad you like it.” She leaned against the counter and idly fiddled with the locket. “Now, c’mon. Tell me.”

Riley’s eyebrows lifted in obvious puzzlement as he heard her question. “About what?”

“Why you’ve been so secretive the last few days. You’ve been gone a lot and I haven’t seen you around much except during training.” A wary expression flew onto her face as an ugly suspicion came into her mind. “You haven’t been going to—”

Riley drew back; he was hurt by the accusation but he couldn’t really blame her for it. “No, Buffy, absolutely not. That’s over and done with, I swear.”

“Then what is it?”

He reached out and touched the locket lightly. “Well, I had to get a few added details for my little gift.”

She raised her eyebrows and looked down at the small heart. “How long does it take to get things engraved?”

“It wasn’t just the engraving. I-I had a tracking device implanted in it.”

Her eyes widened at that and she gaped at him. “A tracking device? How? Why?”

He grinned at her uncertainly; he couldn’t tell whether she was riled or simply disturbed at the news. “The how isn’t hard, Buffy. You pick up these kinds of tricks in the military. As for the why, that’s easy. I worry about you. I know, you’re the Slayer. But after that vampire stabbed you in the stomach I came to realize that you’re not invincible. You can be injured, maybe even killed.

“And if you ever got wounded too badly to call for help, this would let me find you. Wherever you might be.” He held his breath and waited for her reaction. He knew Buffy liked to think of herself as all powerful but he wanted her to realize he had done this out of love not because he thought she was weak.

Buffy searched his honest face and saw the love and concern written there. [He’s just trying to watch out for me. Just like a real boyfriend.] Tears came to her eyes for a moment and she blinked to clear them away. “Thanks, Riley. I appreciate it. I mean that.” She stood up on tiptoe and pulled his head down for a deep and thorough kiss.

When they parted, he smiled at her gratefully. She wasn’t going to be upset. He had a feeling his other news wouldn’t go down as well. He glanced through the open doorway. “Have you told her yet?”

Buffy’s expression became slightly mulish. God, why did he have to bring this up now? And she’d been in such a good mood a moment ago. This was the last conversation she wanted to have today. Couldn’t she just forget about this for one day? “Now’s not the best time, Riley.”

“The best time for what?” Dawn stood there holding a couple of plates, her eyes darting between the two of them. They were talking behind her back again, she just knew it by their strained expressions.

Riley spoke carefully, keeping his eyes on Buffy’s face. “This is something I have to discuss with everybody, Dawn. Come outside.”

“Riley—”

“Buffy, everybody’s here. Now’s as good a time as any to tell them.” Striding back into the living room, Riley spoke to the assembled gathering. “Everybody, could you listen up for a minute? I’ve been in contact with my old unit. I told them about the Glory situation.”

Joyce Summers was immediately alarmed and she looked at Mr. Giles as if for clarification. “Situation? There’s a situation?”

Buffy sighed. It looked like a normal birthday was out of the picture. “Mom, that girl who came to the house a few weeks ago—remember her? I said she was dangerous and evil. Well, it’s worse than that. Some of Giles’s fellow Watchers came into town and told us she’s a god. A hellgod.”

Joyce’s face blanched. “A god? Sh-she’s a god? As in—god?”

“Yeah. She’s anxious to get her hands on something called the Key. That’s why she was here. She thought I had the Key or could get to it and she’s determined to do whatever it takes to get it.”

“The Key? What’s that, Buffy? Do you have it hidden somewhere? Where is it ‘cause I sure haven’t seen anything Keylike lying around.” Dawn ran over all of Buffy’s better possessions in her head. She was always borrowing Buffy’s stuff (usually without asking her first). She’d have known if there was something new that Buffy didn’t want her to touch.

Buffy stared at her younger sister. Random memories flew through her mind. Afternoons spent shopping for school clothes at the mall. Family evenings playing board games. Feeding baby Dawn when her mom was too busy. Holding Dawn when she cried for a week after their father left. Dawn squirmed under Buffy’s scrutiny. “Buffy, why’re you looking at me like that? You’re creeping me out.”

“It’s you, Dawn. You’re the Key. You’re what Glory wants.”

“What?” Dawn’s gaze swung around the room. Everyone was either staring at her or trying to avoid it. “That’s—I don’t get it. What are you talking about?”

Buffy moved closer to her as she made her explanation. “It’s what we’ve all known for a couple of weeks now. You’re, well, you’re really special. You’re pure energy that was fashioned by these monks using a spell. They gave you flesh and made you human. You’re the Key. That’s why we’ve been acting so protective around you.”

Dawn shook her head as she backed away from Buffy. This was stupid, crazy talk. Buffy had lost her mind. But the concerned looks from everybody else told her this was the truth. “I don’t believe you. You’re lying! It doesn’t make any sense. I’m real! I’m human!”

“It’s not crazier than the other stuff that goes around this place.”

“Anya, you’re not helping.” Xander frowned at his girlfriend.

But the ex-demon ploughed onward. She wasn’t unaware of Dawn’s distress; she sincerely thought it might help Dawn to know she wasn’t that unusual.

“Xander, I’m just pointing out that Dawn is in excellent company. I’m an ex-demon, Willow and Tara are lesbian witches—”

“Wiccans,” Willow chimed in.

“Whatever. Giles is part of a secret society that fights evil like the superheroes in those comic books you’ve got under the bed. Dawn’s sister is a Slayer and Riley used to catch demons as part of his nightly routines. Dawnie is part of a very special group. She should be thrilled.”

“Thrilled? To find out I’m not real?!” Dawn was on the verge of screaming.

Joyce flew to hug her. “You are real, honey. You’re real in every way that matters. You’re my daughter and I love you. You’re my little pumpkin belly.”

Buffy hugged her, too. “Yeah, Dawn. You’re my bratty kid sister and don’t let anyone tell you any different.”

Everyone jumped in now, even Riley. Dawn’s lips quivered as she fought not to cry and then she sniffed hard, rubbing her nose. “This is what you guys have been hiding from me, huh?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Buffy replied guiltily.

Dawn thought for a moment. “Wait, if I’m so important to Glory, why’s she only showing up now? Where’s she been all my life?”

Buffy bit her lip while she considered her answer. The hardest part was over but there was no telling how Dawn would react to the rest of the truth. Still, she was taking this rather better than expected. “Actually, she has been around all your life. See, the monks only cast the spell recently and they threw in memories of you and your life. They didn’t just do it to you. They did it to everyone around you so you’d fit into our lives and no one would be any the wiser. It was a perfect way to fool Glory. She’ll never dream of looking for her Key in the body of a young girl.”

“Recently? How recent is recently? I mean, ho-how old am I really?” There was a short silence.

“Just a little over four months,” Buffy gently answered.

“Oh.” Dawn sat down hard on the couch. She picked up the gift she’d given Buffy earlier and stared at it for several long moments. Buffy sat beside her uncertainly. She could imagine the thoughts that were running through Dawn’s head. “This day at the beach—it didn’t really happen, did it?”

“Of course it happened. Just—”

“Just not with me in it,” she finished in a flat voice. She swallowed heavily and put the picture down onto the couch again. “Do-do you think Dad remembers me?” Her voice was so small and lost when she asked. The other Summers women exchanged a helpless look.

“I’m sure he does, sweetie,” her mother replied. “As much as he remembers any of us.”

Dawn’s mouth twisted up at that comment; her expression was rueful as she added, “That’s probably not much seeing as he didn’t even send a card for Buffy’s birthday. I guess whether he remembers me or not wouldn’t make any huge difference in our lives.”

A palpable wave of relief swept through the room. Dawn wasn’t going to freak. She seemed to be taking the revelation of her existence tolerably in stride. There were bound to be difficulties later on, of course. Most teenagers underwent identity crises as they tried to figure out their place in the world and Dawn’s self image had now received a powerful blow. But if she got over the initial hump as quietly as this then maybe she could deal with whatever else came her way.

“Now that that’s out of the way, I have to tell you what arrangements I’ve made for Dawn’s safety.” Everyone looked up at Riley’s words. They had forgotten about his announcement in the light of everything that had just passed. Now they all waited to hear what he had to say.

“I managed to get in touch with my old unit. It took me days to locate them since they’re deep in the jungle and it took a hell of a lot of talking to convince them we’re up against a god. Even after everything they’ve witnessed, it was tough for them to deal with the concept of a flesh-and-blood god. But I finally managed to persuade them—especially after I mentioned that there’s another army headed towards Sunnydale. We’ve made arrangements to get the Key to safety.”

“Riley, what did you do?” Her boyfriend didn’t falter under Buffy’s suspicious gaze. “They’re sending a vehicular transport to get you out of Sunnydale. You, your mom and Dawn will be taken to a secret location until we can figure out the best way to neutralize Glory.”

Dawn bounced up and down a little on the couch, her earlier unhappiness shelved for the moment. “Cool! Road trip!”

Buffy wasn’t as easily swayed. She demanded, “How could you just do something like this without telling me first?”

“I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure I’d succeeded. Communications in that part of the world are a little spotty. Besides, I didn’t know if my old unit would be able to provide us with the assistance we needed. I had to be sure before I sprang the news. I didn’t want to get your hopes up in case I failed.”

Buffy automatically found herself vetoing the idea. “Riley, we can’t just leave! Dawn and I have school, Mom’s got the gallery, I still have to patrol…”

“Glory doesn’t care about any of those things. I heard her, Buffy. Do you really think she’ll stop her plans or leave Dawn alone just because she’s got a big test coming up?” Riley didn’t intend to sound so harsh but he wanted to impress on Buffy the seriousness of his decision. He knew Buffy was the Slayer and had faced countless battles. He was also certain that nothing she and her friends could do would count for much in the battle against a god.

Joyce spoke up at this point. “I don’t see why we can’t stay here, Riley. Glory doesn’t know that Dawn’s the Key. Doesn’t that give us a big advantage?”

“Unless she decides to kill all of us the way she threatened in order to force Buffy to give up the Key. No advantage there.”

Buffy pursed her lips and ignored Anya’s comment. “Riley, it’s not that we don’t appreciate your messing with our lives and all but what about my friends?”

Riley looked around at the others. “What about them?”

She gaped in disbelief at her boyfriend. “Are you insane? When Glory finds out I’m gone, she’ll start tearing through the others to find out where I am. We can’t just leave them here defenseless.”

Riley turned to Giles for support. “Mr. Giles, I think the best plan is for Buffy and her family to leave BEFORE Glory goes ballistic. I just didn’t see any need for the rest of you all to give up your lives here. You can all stay and carry on in Buffy’s absence. We’ll come back when the threat is over.”

“Riley’s right, you know.”

Buffy glared at this calm assertion from her Watcher. She had thought that he would be the most likely to back her up. “He-he’s right? I should simply pick up my things and abandon my friends?”

Giles smiled gently at his charge. “No, not about leaving us behind. I mean about leaving Sunnydale. If we stay here, waiting for Glory to strike, chances are great that she will attack and kill one of us, possibly more. It will be impossible for you to protect us while keeping an eye on your sister.”

Anya was quick to support Giles. “Yes, look at all those people Glory’s already put in the mental wards at the hospital. You weren’t able to prevent that or help any of those people once they lost their marbles.”

Buffy didn’t bother answering her. “Giles, you talk about not leaving you behind. You don’t know how long we may be gone. Are you really prepared to come with us and leave the Magic Box for Anya to run?”

“Hey! What’s wrong with me running it? I’m much better with money than he is!” Anya thrust her chin out in defiance and then abandoned the pose when she realized no one was paying her any attention.

“Buffy, as your Watcher I’m obligated to aid you in all your struggles against such creatures as Glory. I shall most certainly be accompanying you on your travels.”

Willow walked up to Buffy. She hugged the blonde tightly with one arm as she answered, “It’s not just Giles, Buffy. I’ve been with you from the beginning so I go where you go. That’s a given. I’ll leave messages for the people who count, pack my bags and be ready to go when Riley’s ride gets here.”

“Am I included in that trip?”

Willow grinned at her lover’s quiet question and pulled her closed, pecking her on the cheek. “You know it, girlfriend. Like I’d leave you behind.”

“As if you could,” Tara replied and kissed her full on the lips.

“Count me in, too, Buffy. Like you told those Watchers, I’m part of the unit. No way you and soldier boy get to take the Magical Mystery Tour and ditch the rest of us,” Xander moved to stand by his two best friends.

“That settles it. If Xander’s going, I’m going. He needs me to look after him.”

Willow raised her eyebrows in mock surprise at Anya’s bold assertion. “You’re really prepared to go and leave behind your wonderful money and the store? What about your customers? Your profit margins? Your devotion to the American way of capitalism?”

Anya tossed her head in dismissal. Sarcasm was usually wasted on her as she was too forthright to understand its subtlety. “As if any of that is as important as taking care of my Viking stud. Besides, I’d miss all those terrific orgasms he gives me.”

Xander flushed beet red and started chattering to cover up Anya’s candid answer. “I guess that makes it official then. All of the Scoobies are coming along with. Guess you’re stuck with us. Hope that transport of yours has plenty of room in it.”

Riley smiled. “Plenty of room. Not much privacy, though. If Anya’s expecting orgasms on this trip, she’s going to be sharing them with everybody else on board.” Hearing everybody chuckle at Xander’s obvious discomfiture, he glanced at his girlfriend. Buffy had become oddly silent after her friends started talking. Would she still put up a fight about leaving now that all of them were committed to standing by her?

Buffy looked around the room at her assembled friends and family. She had never doubted their loyalty to her and to each other. But it was deeply moving to hear them state their determination to throw in their lots with hers. She blinked back tears and hugged Willow. “You guys.”

In moments, they all gathered around her, hugging her in turn, reassuring her of their commitment and love. Riley was impressed; the resiliency of the Summers women never failed to amaze him. But Buffy’s friends were equally surprising; they were as brave as any of his fellow fighters in the Initiative. Noticing his distance from the group, Buffy gently disengaged herself and walked over to him. Winding her arms around the tall Iowan, she tilted her head to look into his face.

“When does this transport of yours arrive?”

“Four days.” Buffy’s face took on a slight look of dismay at that quiet declaration. Four days? That would barely give them time to pack and make all the needed plans. Then she smiled.

“Then we better get to the ceremonial eating of cake and ice cream.” The party continued for a few short hours after that, a little more sober in tone, perhaps, but no less hopeful for all that. Buffy’s extended family were rallying around her as they had done in the past and pledging their undying love.

It was the best birthday gift Buffy ever got.

TBC
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The White Picket Fences