AN: Thanks to my betas for their help with this.



A Little Over A Month Later


Elizabeth Williams, or Beth as everyone called her, left the nice Italian restaurant after her shift was over. She wanted nothing more than to head back to her tiny apartment. Relax and get some much needed rest. But no, she at least had to do some patrolling first... even if the town was low on the action. There was hardly ever anything for a slayer to do, not that she was complaining. It was nice not living on a Hellmouth. If the baddies came all this way, they might as well make the short trip the rest of the way to Sunnydale; so, they usually did. Some decided on little pit stops, though, and that's when she was able to get her slayage on.

She undid the red scarf tied around her neck, part of the restaurant uniform, and stuffed it in the pocket of her black slacks. With that off, she was able to at least undo the top few buttons of her blouse, get a bit more comfortable than the stuffy outfit usually allowed. Next she undid the tight bun her now dark brown hair was in, letting the loose curls bounce free down her back and finger combing it out. Much better.

The town was quiet as usual and she was nearly done, glad to finally be heading back soon.

Turning to head back towards her apartment, she stumbled as the heel on her cheap shoe snapped off. Bound to happen sooner or later, the kind of mileage she was putting on the things... it was actually the second pair she had broken since she had been there. She bent to slip them off to walk the rest of the way back to her apartment barefoot, but froze as she was straightening. That tingle. Figures they would come at the worst possible moment. Gah.

She finished straightening then turned around. Her eyes went up and up. My god he was a big one... This was giving her the worries, but she never backed down from a fight when there was a chance she would make it out alive. She stayed where she was and let him come towards her. He wore a smirk the whole time. Really, there was no reason for him to expect that he had run into the slayer in this tiny town.

When he was close enough for her liking, she dashed forward in a blur of motion to take him off guard with her attack. They fought and she thought to herself, he was good but no other vampire ever compared to Spike. The dancing they did. She shook her head and tried to rid it of those thoughts. Bad thoughts. Too distracting. Sure enough, she took a sucker punch to the jaw and fell backwards.

Grr... stupid Spike... always causing me trouble... she thought to herself as she pushed herself up and dusted off her skinned hands on her pants. Her feet were fairing worse, cut up by the glass, tiny stones, and other such things on the ground.

She ignored the pain and dove into the fight again with abandon. All she needed was something to use for staking him since she couldn't very well bring a stake to the restaurant with her... She ducked a blow and glanced around as she did so, grinning when she caught sight of a tree off to the side with a broken branch sticking straight out towards them. She pummeled him, getting him to where she wanted, then brought up her foot to kick him hard. He went sprawling into the tree with the broken branch sticking through his chest. He had a moment to register shock before exploding into dust.

She dusted off her hands with an accomplished smile then turned to head home, but nearly walked into the chest plate of someone new. She tilted her head back and found herself looking up at a very large and very ugly demon.

"Good god, don't I ever get a break?" She muttered exhaustedly.

"Actually, I sent that guy along as a distraction and to tire you out a bit." The demon said in amusement before cocking back his fist to slam it into her face, sending her to the ground with a cry of pain.

She barely got her elbow under her when next his heavy boot smashed into her ribs and she rolled across the ground, scraping up her arms even more. This was not looking very good. She winced and went to sit up quickly before he kicked her again, brushing messy curls out of her face.

"You wouldn't, by chance, be willing to call a time out, would you?" she gave a nervous chuckle as he advanced on her. He growled and she rolled her eyes with a sigh, starting to push herself up. "No, didn't think so..."

She got to her feet and he was already lunging at her before she could get her bearings. She spun to kick him in the gut, but he grabbed her leg to use it to swing her away like a doll. A tree luckily broke her fall and she grunted in pain. This was sooo not looking good. Her eyes rolled upwards as the demon towered over her, and then moved to lift her up again for more punishment.

That was until an arrow exploded through his shoulder. He reared back and roared in pain, spinning to see who was responsible. He began tussling with a person that Buffy couldn't see, what with the dark and the quickness of their moves as they moved out of her field of vision. It didn't help that the other person was probably dwarfed by the large demon that kept blocking her savior from view.

She started to lower her head, relieved for the time being that it didn't look like she was going to die. That feeling was short lived as someone knelt by her head and she jerked in alarm.

"Shhh, we're here to help you," a familiar voice said.

"Cordelia!?" She lifted her head quickly to look at the other woman. "What... what are you doing here?"

Cordelia looked just as shocked. "Could ask you the same thing." She glanced Buffy over as she helped her old comrade up. "Wow, you certainly did change the Barbie girl look."

"One, it's personal. Two, the outfit is the remains of my uniform for my waitressing job, and three... you say that as if it were an insult to the way I looked before." The slayer planted her hands on her hips, shifting on her throbbing feet.

"Look little miss unappreciative-"

"Girls! Girls!" Wesley stepped between them and held up his hands. "Now, we are all adults and can try to be civil here."

"Okay..." They both said in unison and looked away.

"So I mean, it was good luck you were here to save my butt, but why were you here?" Buffy looked back to Wesley and lifted her brows. "And I can assume the guy doing away with the demon must be Angel?"

"Yes, it is," he nodded. "Cordelia had a vision of a demon attacking a young woman and we were able to track it here. It was fast and with your change of appearance, she understandably didn't know it was you in her vision."

She glanced towards Cordelia. "Vision?"

Cordelia nodded and turned to watch Angel as he headed their way after finishing off the demon. He rested the ax on his shoulder and looked at Buffy, brows shooting up.

"Buffy..."

"In the flesh... that you saved... again..." she spread her arms.

"So you've been here the whole time? You didn't really go far, did you," the corner of Angel's mouth lifted. "And you look... nice." His eyes drifted over her.

"Yeah, even covered in dirt and bruises..." she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Yeah, I've been here. My intention wasn't to go to the other side of the world and I'm close enough that if there's a major apocalypse or something I can go running back. How do you know about any of this, though?"

"Willow called me the night you ran off after finding your note on the counter. Wanted me to keep an eye out in case you came to LA again or at least passed through." He took a step forward. "You really should go back or at least give them a call. They're really worried about you, Buffy."

She frowned and started to back away from him slowly. "Look, I'm sorry they dragged you into this and thank you for saving my butt again, but it's really none of your business. Please stay out of it and don't tell them where I am. I'll... I'll just run again if you do." She lifted her chin stubbornly.

"Fine, I won't... but on one condition."

"What?"

"You call them yourself. You don't have to tell them where you are or anything, just let them know you're okay."

She frowned at the ground and scuffed her foot for a moment, wincing at the pain from the cuts on the bottom, before looking up at him from under her lashes. "Fine. I... I really got to get back now, though. He really laid into me and I need to see what damage he did to me then get some rest. Got another shift at the restaurant again tomorrow, too." She turned to limp off in a hurry before they could stop her.