~* Buffy Goes to Stars Hollow *~

When Buffy awoke the next morning, every inch of her body was acutely aware of the fact that Spike was in her home.

The man she had mourned twice was sleeping in her spare room. Part of her loved him and the other part hated him. One part wanted to lash out and the other wanted to satisfy that empty place inside of her.

Spike didn’t seem so concerned with her pain however, or he would have come to her after the first time he ‘died’. He didn’t though, and that was the part the made her insides ache.

Buffy turned on to her side as she balled up the pillow beneath her head. The clock told her that it was time to get up. For the first time, she really didn’t want to go into work.

What she wanted was to bury herself under her comforter and sleep all day. Sleep was the only way to escape the questions that raced through her mind.

Groaning in defeat, she tossed the covers aside and headed for the shower. At least she had a shot of getting out of the house without running into Spike.

Luckily for Buffy, the only ones in the kitchen were Xander and Willow. By the looks of it, they were going about their business but to a close observer they were avoiding each other at all costs. If one reached for the cereal, the other one had toast; if one had coffee the other had juice.

Willow hadn’t done a forgetting spell on them in case they risked losing valuable information and the fact that Kate was still lost to them.

Buffy smiled at her friend’s awkwardness as she poured herself a coffee. “Are you guys ever going to speak to one another again or is going to be freeze out 2007?” Buffy asked, hiding a smile behind her coffee mug.

Xander pointed an accusing finger at Buffy. “Hey, you don’t know! There were boundary issues…and, and..”

“Bad touching,” Willow piped in between chews.

Xander nodded at her. “Right. Bad touching!” He said. He was so animated the Buffy was trying very hard not to laugh. Xander and Willow had a brief smile with each other over their censuses only to remember they weren’t supposed to look at each other and focused back on their breakfasts.

“It was a spell,” Buffy sighed. “It’s not like we haven’t had to deal with the aftermath of spells gone wrong before. We’ve prepared for this we have kits and everything! So rally the wagons and let’s get over this.” All she needed was a skirt and a set of pom-poms and she would be her own cheering section.

“Ha-rah!” Xander mumbled shoving a spoonful of cheerios into his mouth.

Buffy set down her mug and crossed her arms over her chest. “Seriously guys, you’re best friends. It was a spell. Can’t you just forget about it and move on?”

“It’s hard to just move on Buffy,” Willow said.

“Really?” Xander asked.

“Oh get over yourself Xand,” Willow said, with a first hint of a smile. “I like girls now sweetie.”

“You weren’t so concerned with that the other night,” Xander pointed out. Didn’t hurt the ego that Willow had been drawn to him. He decided not to reflect too much on the fact it took a spell to do it.

“Maybe there was something feminine about you,” Willow suggested, a small smile playing on her lips.

Xander’s ego took the punch. “Hey! I am all man baby,” he said.

“I don’t know,” Buffy said, playing along. “The way you were preening yourself was kinda girly.”

“Hey pastry girl, if anything- that was metro.” Xander said defensively.

“Well it certainly wasn’t hetero,” Buffy said unable to contain the laughter.

Willow laughed along with her. Soon Xander couldn’t help himself and joined in. It felt good to laugh after everything.

Willow put her hand over Xander’s. “We good?”

Xander gave her hand a squeeze. “Always.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Well I’m going to leave this ‘after school special’ moment and go to work.”

She said goodbye to her friends, grabbed her messenger bag and headed out. At least she had a Spike free afternoon to look forward to.


_____________________________________________________________________________



“You don’t look good,” Luke said as he poured Lorelai a coffee.

“And a happy day to you too. Your customer service is amendable!” She said with mock enthusiasm.

Luke’s eyes softened. “Sorry. I just mean you don’t look happy.”

“I think the morning is arriving earlier these days,” Lorelai complained, pulling the mug of coffee close.

“It’s almost Christmas, doesn’t Christmas make you unbearable happy?” Luke asked.

“Unbearable for you, you mean?” Lorelai smiled.

“Mostly, yeah.” Luke smiled back.

“Yeah. I just have a lot of plans to go over for the Christmas Party. This is Rory’s last week of school before holidays and then she is coming to work at the Inn with me. And it’s less than two weeks before Christmas and I feel like I’ve been in a daze this weekend.”

“You too?” Luke said. “ I don’t remember much of this weekend. Part of me was surprised that it was Monday today.

“It seems kind of busy in here today,” Lorelai commented. “ Where is Kate?”

“She’s sick,” he said. “There must be a bug going around.”

“That would explain a lot,” Lorelai said. “Do you have any burgers?”

“It’s nine in the morning,” Luke pointed out. “Burgers aren’t nine in the morning food.”

“They are if you’ve been up since four,” Lorelai pointed out. “I figure if I eat afternoon food that I will feel more awake.”

“I don’t understand how you aren’t big as a house,” Luke said shrugging.

“Talking as fast as I do tends to burn calories,” Lorelai said. “Burger me.”

“No burgers. I’ll make you pancakes.” Luke said.

“With blueberries?” Lorelai asked with a childish grin on her face.

“With blueberries,” Luke said headed to the kitchen.

Lorelai leaned over the counter. “You are a person to worship Luke!” Lorelai called.

“I’ll go get my robes,” Luke muttered.


_____________________________________________________________________________


“Hey Lorelai,” came a voice from behind her.

It was Buffy’s little sister. “ Hey Dawn,” Lorelai said, tapping the seat next to her. “Have a seat.”

“I can only stay a minute,” Dawn said.

“What’s wrong?” Lorelai asked.

“Nothing,” Dawn said nervously.

“There must be something,” Lorelai said softly, the way she would with Rory. “You are looking everywhere but at me.”

Crap, she noticed Dawn thought. “I felt bad about breaking the lamp,” she lied quickly.

Lorelai’s brow crinkled in confusion. “When did you break a lamp? What lamp?”

“The one at the Inn,” Dawn said. Then she remembered that Willow had cast a spell that fixed all the damage.

“When was this?” Lorelai asked.

“Ummm…the other day. I replaced it though. But the guilt was eating at me so I thought I would just come clean,” she took a big sigh, “ I feel all better. Thanks for listening. I have to go to school now. Bye Lorelai.”

Before Lorelai could formulate words Dawn was already through the door. “Bizarre girl,” Lorelai said under her breathe.


_____________________________________________________________________________


Dawn stuffed her books into her locker and grabbed her wallet. “Hey Dawn!”

Dawn turned towards the voice and saw that it was her newest friend Suzie. She had met Suzie in art class and they had hit it off immediately. Her friendship with Suzie was probably the only thing that made moving to a new high school in her senior year bearable. High school was hard enough, but going into one when she was in her senior year where friendships have already been made, was really hard.

“Hey. Cafeteria or quad?” Dawn asked.

“Art room,” Suzie said presenting a third option. “Too cold for outside, cafeteria too packed with people. The art room is much better.”

Dawn nodded. “Art room it is.”


There were only a couple of people in the art room when they entered. And one person Dawn hadn’t expected to see. Her heart jumped into her throat when her eyes landed on Jess sitting in the corner, nose buried in a book.

For a split second Dawn considered running, but Suzie had already found a seat and was calling her over. Jess heard her name and looked up. He smiled at her, but Dawn found herself looking away and hurrying towards Suzie.

Dawn slid into her seat so fast that she nearly slid over the whole surface and landed on the floor. Suzie put a hand out to steady her. “Whoa, what’s up spaz?”

Dawn smiled, slightly embarrassed, praying that Jess hadn’t seen that. “Nothing. Just a little hyped up,” Dawn lied. “Too much caffeine and I turn spazzy.”

Suzie looked over Dawn’s shoulder and then leaned in to whisper in Dawn’s ear. “That Jess guy is totally staring at you.”

Great, so he saw my near accident. Dawn tried to play as cool as possible. “ That’s nice.”

“ ‘That’s nice’” she said, mimicking Dawn’s statement. “You have been talking about him since you started here.”

Dawn waved her hand wishing she could dismiss the whole conversation. “It was a stupid crush. I’m totally over him.”

“Really?” Suzie said casting her eyes to her own latest crush. “What’s your secret?”

“Him liking another girl helps,” Dawn said, pulling her lunch from her bag.

“Oh. Sorry,” Suzie asked. “Who is she?”

“She doesn’t go here. She goes to Chilton.”

“Ahhh...it’s the skirt thing I bet,” Suzie said. “Guys tend to like the early Britney Spears look.”

“Doesn’t mean he couldn’t fall for you,” Suzie said. “I mean the way he’s staring at you doesn’t make him seem to be so bothered with the other girl.”

Dawn thought of the crush that had turned into a spell. “I’m not going through that again. Crushes are exhausting.”

“Hey Dawn,” came a voice.

Dawn and Suzie looked up into the eyes of Jess Mariano. “Hey Jess.”

“We still going to get together for that project?” he asked.

Dawn shrugged. “I suppose we should.” She prided herself on remaining so cool, when her heart was actually threatening to choke her at any moment.

“Come by Luke’s after school?” he said. Dawn wasn’t sure it was a question of a command, but she nodded anyway.

After Jess had left Suzie smiled. “Round two?” she suggested.

Dawn sighed. “Hit me baby one more time,” she muttered before her and Suzie burst into peals of laughter.


_____________________________________________________________________________

“Rough night?” Lorelai asked.

Buffy looked up from her agenda. “That’s putting it mildly.”

“What’s wrong?” Lorelai asked as she took the seat across from Buffy, grateful to put her mound of paperwork down.

Buffy covered her notes on the Kate situation as discreetly as possible, as she pulled the Christmas party plans closer. “An old ex came to town last night,” Buffy said. When she put it like that, it actually sounded pretty normal. She left out the part that he’d died twice, was currently without pulse and, oh yeah, a vampire.

“Yikes, nothing causes dark circles under the eyes like the old ex coming to town,” Lorelai said as she put a coffee in front of Buffy.

Buffy sipped it gratefully. “I thought I did a good job covering those,” she said, touching the dark marks under her eyes.

“Metaphorically speaking,” Lorelai said. “ You look great. You can get away with sleepless nights when you are your age.”

“I feel old,” Buffy muttered.

“Oh hun, you’re not old until you have a child.” Lorelai said, as she laughed. “And even then it’s all about skin care.”

Buffy laughed. “Raising Dawn makes me feel like I have a child. Does that count?”

Lorelai shook her head. “If she didn’t come out of you, it doesn’t count.”

Buffy grimaced at the imagery. “ I’m going to have nightmare now.”

Lorelai laughed. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Buffy shook her head. “ A world of no,” she said. “But thanks. As the queen of procrastination, I can’t believe I am going to say this, but I would rather work.”

“Fair enough,” Lorelai said. “The offer is always on the table.”

Lorelai looked down at her plans as she began to go over preparations. Buffy smiled at her down turned head. It was nice to have a friend that knew her as Buffy and not the slayer. As her eyes scanned Lorelai’s pretty features she found herself wondering how much easier it would be to be a lesbian.

“Mistletoe?” Lorelai asked.

Buffy’s mind snapped back to reality. “Huh?”

“Mistletoe?” Lorelai asked again. “ You sure you’re ok?”

“I’m fine. Just a little spacey,” Buffy said. “My bad. I’m completely yours,” she said with a smile.

Lorelai smiled back. “Good,” she said, returning to her plans.

Buffy felt something go between them and chalked it up to exhaustion. Pushing aside feelings of relationships Buffy concentrated on the task at hand.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Willow sat in the teacher’s lounge pretending to enjoy the salad that sat in front of her. The fact was she couldn’t even taste what she was chewing. Everything was done mechanically to keep up the appearance that she was just enjoying the lunch hour like everyone else.

Inside her stomach was in knots and her mind was racing. She hadn’t spoken or seen Ashley all weekend. The spell had taken her mind off her for a while, but now it was Monday and back to normal and that girl was occupying her mind yet again. Willow figured she had valued reasons for not calling her…lusting for her best friend, fearing her other best friend was dead and sharing a house with a vampire were all in a weekend’s work for her, what was Ashley’s excuse? Had she been out with another women? It wasn’t as if they were exclusive. They’d been on one date and made out a little. When you looked like Ashley, you probably didn’t spend many nights sitting alone.

Willow checked the clock again. Only two minutes had gone by since the last time she checked. Where was she? Maybe she is avoiding me, Willow thought.

And then as if on cue, the door to the teacher’s lounge open and in a whiff of fragrant air that made Willow’s head spin, Ashley entered the lounge. Her eyes landed on Willow within seconds and a grin spread across her face that made Willow’s stomach flip.

Willow noticed that most heads turned when Ashley entered a room. It made her feel extra special that Ashley didn’t seem to notice them as she slide into a seat across from Willow.

“Hey Willow,” Ashley said, setting down her tray. “How was your weekend?”

“Not very eventful,” Willow said. And then she figured that Ashley might wonder why Willow didn’t call her then and thought up an excuse. “ Wasn’t feeling that well.” At least that part was true. Images of making out with Xander were enough to make her feel a little nauseous, sorry Xand, she thought.

“Poor baby,” Ashley said with a sexy pout. “ You should have called. I like any excuse to play candy stripper.”

“You mean striper?” Willow blushed.

The corner of Ashley’s lips turned up into a sexy half smile. “ No.”

Willow swallowed hard, but tried to remain just as flirtatious. “ And here I was thinking chicken soup was the cure for what ails you.”

“Chicken soup has nothing on a little TLC,” Ashley informed her.

“Well next time I will definitely give you a call.” Willow said.

“I can’t wait that long,” Ashley stated. “What about coffee tomorrow night?”

‘What about tonight?’ Willow thought. And then she immediately felt bad when she remembered that she was supposed to be concentrating on Kate. “Sounds great,” Willow said.

“Good,” Ashley said, sipping her coke. Willow beamed. Another date with Ashley was the cure for what ailed her. She couldn’t wait! Willow could have laughed for worrying about anything, as clearly Ashley liked her. So what was she so worried about?


_____________________________________________________________________________

Xander wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his gloved hand. He set down his sledgehammer and told the guys he was taking a break. He headed over to the lunch station, glad to be in the shade. There may have been snow on the ground but with the sun shining the way it was, he was already sweating.

“Taking five?” a female said from behind him.

Xander turned and smiled at the office assistant, Brooke. “ You’re not going to tell on me are ya?” he asked.

Brooke smiled as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “Only if you don’t tell on me. This is like my fifth cup of coffee.”

Xander smiled. “It’s a deal.” They made a show of shaking on it, before Brooke sat beside him on the picnic bench.

“How is the office stuff working out?” Xander asked.

Brooke shrugged. “Office like,” she said with a smile.

The guys gave Xander a hard time about Brooke. After a couple of weeks on the job, Xander was the only one that Brooke had ever tried to talk to. Not that Xander minded. She was beautiful, but she was also the boss’ daughter.

Straight from college, Brooke had come to help her dad out with the business set on starting her own one day. She was very strong and didn’t seem to notice the leers the others gave her when she walked by, swinging her hips as if she were on a runway.

The guys would never say anything to her if they wanted to keep their jobs, and that gave Brooke a certain amount of power. But when she talked to Xander she was sweet and funny.

Even in a button down parka she was gorgeous. She was wearing a white wool cap, and her blonde hair flowed in ringlets out the bottom. A pair of black-rimmed glasses perched on the end of her nose, unable to hide the piercing blue eyes that lay behind them. Her cupid bow mouth was turned up at the sides in a secret smile as she caught him looking.

“ Want a camera?” she asked.

Xander blushed, looking away quickly. “ Well that’s my cue to get back to work. The building won’t build itself.”

Brooke reached out to grab his arm before he could get away. “Hey Xander?”

He turned. “Yeah?”

“ When were you going to ask me out?” she asked.

Xander coughed. “Ask you out?”

“Yeah,” Brooke said confidently. “ This playing hard to get thing is cute and all, but was there a point where you were going to ask?”

“Me playing hard to get?” he asked in disbelief.

“You have this whole unattainable thing going on,” Brooke said. “Don’t get me wrong-it’s sexy, but give a girl a break.”

“Unattainable?” Xander said again. “ I’m not unattainable. I’m an attain-a-thon.”

Brooke smiled her eyebrows rising in amusement. “You know there is a better word for that right?”

“Easy?” Xander asked, smiling back.

Brooke laughed. “Something like that.”

“Well, alright then,” Xander said. “When?”

“Uh no way mister,” Brooke laughed. “I’m not doing all the work here.”

“This weekend?” He asked.

“Sounds good,” Brooke said. She handed him a card. “There’s my number.”

“A card. I feel so grown up,” Xander laughed as he pocketed the card.

Brooke smiled as she turned to head back to the office. She turned just before heading through the door. “I never do this by the way,” Brooke said.

Xander smiled. “ Neither do I.”


_____________________________________________________________________________

After school Dawn headed to the Inn to have an early dinner with Buffy before she headed home to do her homework. She hadn’t forgot that she was supposed to meet Jess, and she was very aware every second she was away from the diner that he might be waiting.

‘Let’s see how he likes it’ she thought. Part of her still wanted Jess, but the confusion of the weekend made her feel stupid for doing so. The crush had taken over her logic, and she learned the hard way that it wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t like love had made her do the wacky before. She’d almost killed herself on the train tracks once while under a love spell, and she couldn’t forget her first kiss either-with a vampire. She truly was Buffy’s sister-doomed to have bad relationships.

As she turned the corner by the diner she realized that she would have to pass it in order to get to her house. She crossed to walk on the other side of the street, but soon after she heard her name being called.

She turned to see Jess jogging after her. “What’s up?” he asked, after catching his breath.

Dawn shrugged. “Nothing. You?”

“I thought we were supposed to meet up?” Jess asked.

“Oh. I forgot. Sorry,” Dawn said, turning towards her house. “Why don’t you just study with Rory?”

She hadn’t meant to sound so bitter when she said that last part, but it was the girl in her coming out.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Jess said catching her by the arm. “Is that what this is about?”

“It depends what you mean when you say this?” Dawn asked, crossing her arms.

“This little tantrum,” Jess said.

“Tantrum?!” Dawn spat,” this isn’t a tantrum? This is indifference.”

“Seems like anger to me,” Jess said with an easy smile on his face. He was enjoying this Dawn thought angrily.

“I’m not angry Jess. I loved being used to make other people jealous.”

It was the first time that the coolness of Jess’ expression faltered. “ I’m sorry,” he said.

Dawn checked his features for a hint of insincerity and was surprised when she didn’t find any. “It’s fine,” she said with a sigh.

“Let me make it up to you,” Jess said as he rested his arm on hers.

“Like how?” Dawn asked, now intrigued.

Jess smiled. “I’ll buy you something to eat.”

“I ate,” Dawn, said.

“Desert?” Jess asked.

Dawn looked down at the ground. “Say more things like that…” she said peeking at him beneath her lashes.

Jess laughed. “Lots of chocolate. Girls like chocolate right?”

Dawn laughed. “Ok, you’re on.”

Jess put his arm around her shoulder and steered her towards the diner. The weight of his arm across her shoulders, and the heat of him pressed along her side made her stomach do flips. Just as they neared closer Dawn noticed Rory sitting inside with her books on top of the table. Dawn stopped in her tracks as she stared at Rory through the window. She turned to look at Jess, brushing his arm off her shoulders. Jess looked at her in surprise, and then followed her gaze.

“I can’t believe you!” Dawn accused. “You were going to do it again.”

“Wait a minute. You have this all wrong,” Jess started.

“Ya, you’re right. This is all wrong,” she said turning on her heel.

“The project!” Jess yelled out, unable to think of anything else to say.

“I’ve just become a single parent,” Dawn yelled over her shoulder.

Jess watched her retreating form. Cursing he kicked at a piece of garbage on the road and then dug his hands into his pockets. He turned to look back at Rory. Dean emerged from the washroom and joined his girlfriend.

“She’s with Dean, not meeting with me,” Jess mumbled even though Dawn was too far away to hear him.

_____________________________________________________________________________


Buffy set the phone down and booked a new guest into the computer when Michel hovered over her.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Lifting weights,” Buffy replied sarcastically, “Want to spot me?”

“You think you are funny don’t you?” He asked, his voice oozing contempt.

Buffy shrugged. “Most of the time. I do enjoy a good pun.”

Michel glared at her. Buffy picked up the keyboard and starting doing reps with it. “See, this is comedy my French friend.”

Michel didn’t laugh. Buffy set the keyboard down. “I was just entering a guest Michel. Take a pill.”

“I enter guests in the computer,” Michel said.

“Well you weren’t here when the phone rang, were you?” Buffy stated as she finished entering the last of the information.

“I was in the washroom,” Michel said.

“Then you’re welcome,” Buffy said.

Michel wasn’t amused. “ Please move.”

Buffy rolled her eyes as she moved down the counter. “ Things are back to normal then,” Buffy muttered.

“What was that?” Michel asked.

“Nothing,” Buffy said smiling. She dropped down behind the counter to search for the invitations for the party.

“Hey do you know where Buffy is?” Came a voice.

Michel sighed. “ She is down there,” he said pointing down.

Spike raised his eyebrow at the suggestive comment. “Really?!”

Michel sighed. “ Oh ha ha, Michel made a sexual comment. Americans.”

“Hey, I’m English,” Spike, said defensively.

“That is so much better,” Michel said as he walked off. “Please feel free to take her.”

Buffy stood up and smiled at Michel’s retreating form. “He put you in your place,” she said.

Spike leaned on the counter. “Bloody nancy boy.”

“Now Spike, use your grown up words,” Buffy said, sorting through her paperwork.

“Hey luv, I know it’s hard me being here, but do you have a moment?”

“Why would it be hard for me that you are here?” Buffy said in a rush of words.

“You haven’t looked at me once yet,” Spike pointed out.

Buffy brought her head up and made a show of staring at him. “Better?”

“Do you want me to go?” Spike asked.

“No!” Buffy said a little too quickly.

Spike smiled. “Listen, I wouldn’t normally just show up like this but I think I found a nest.”

Buffy looked around her, worried that someone had heard. “ Very stealthy, stealth guy.”

“Sorry,” Spike apologized. “Will you come?”

Buffy looked at her watch. “Yeah. Let me just go tell Lorelai.”



To Be Continued…