DISCLAIMER: Buffy, Angel and the gang belong to the evil Joss and I only own the characters I make up. In a perfect world however I would own all of them, Buffy and Angel wouldn't have broken up and Riley would never have existed.
RATING: PG
SPOILERS: General (if any)
TIMELINE: Ten years after the wedding (part of long ago series).
DISTRIBUTION: You want you can have it, just tell me where you put it.

The Day after Unexpected Surprises:

Hope arrived at Sunnydale High extremely early that morning and headed straight to the library. She needed to talk to Rick in private and she figured this was her best shot at doing so. When she arrived she just walked straight in and saw that a slayer training session was going on. Hope stared in disbelief at the lack of skills that this slayer was displaying, it was a miracle that she was still alive.

It took a few minutes but Rick finally noticed Hope standing in the doorway, he wondered how he could get out of explaining this to her. "Hi, Chyna here was just..." he started.

Hope cut him off, "Training...a good thing, she needs it."

Rick stared at her, < How did she know? >. Before he could ask her anything, she spoke.

"We need to talk...in your office...now" she told him.

He followed her into his office and asked her, "Hope, what's going on? How do you know..." He trailed off when he saw her face. "You're working for the council aren't you?"

"Yeah" she answered not able to look him in the eye she felt so guilty about this.

He got angry, he looked at her and asked, "So was it your idea or the council's to screw with my emotions?"

"Listen to me you jerk...I had no idea that you were a watcher until yesterday" Hope yelled back at him, she was so angry at his accusation. "The damn council told me exactly zip about who you were, I was supposed to find that out myself."

She went to walk out and he grabbed her arm, "If they didn't tell you how did you know?"

"I came to meet you for lunch and I overheard the argument about dating" Hope replied.

"But that wouldn't of..." he started.

"It reminded me of the dating argument I had with my watcher" Hope explained.

"You were a slayer?" he asked in disbelief.

"I wasn't just 'a slayer'...I was the second best slayer to ever live" Hope replied angry at his assessment of her potential slayerhood.

"Who was the best then?" Rick asked sarcastically.

"My mom...Buffy Summers" Hope answered walking out of the library without looking back.

*

When Rick walked out of his office, he collapsed into a chair at the library table. "Rick, what's wrong?" Chyna asked, "Miss McKellen stormed out of here in a really bad mood, who'd have thought it of her she seemed so sweet natured."

"She's a council spy" Rick told her bluntly.

"Is that good or bad?" Chyna asked.

"Bad. It means they have either no faith in me as your watcher, or they believe you have no skills and will die soon" he said without emotion.

"Dead? No way, a couple of other slayers have survived, why not me?" Chyna cried.

"If you want the secret to long life as a slayer, ask Miss McKellen" Rick spat out bitterly.

"She's a slayer" Chyna replied, "That is so cool."

"Retired slayer" Rick corrected her.

"There's a retirement plan, this is just so awesome" Chyna exclaimed.

"No, it's not" Rick replied.

"Why?"

"It's just not" Rick said getting up and going into his office, leaving one very confused slayer behind.

*

Hope and Spike were taking a walk that night, trying to watch the slayer from a distance but they had long since lost sight of her. "So what do ya think of my plan?" Spike asked her.

"It sucks. The last time you went after Dru, she tried to stake you for being a traitor" Hope answered.

"She only did it because she cares" Spike defended his old flame's actions.

"Spike...why go after Dru, when Harmony is still hanging around..." Hope started.

"No way. I am not dating that psycho bitch again. Everytime I hook up with her I get screwed, and not in the good way" Spike replied.

"I so don't need to hear about your sex life" Hope told him.

"What sex life? Why do you think I'm after Dru?" Spike told her.

"Gross" Hope said walking off.

Spike caught up with her and said, "Sorry. But you know what it's like when your in love with someone who doesn't want you back."

"I know" Hope replied sadly thinking momentarily of Dev. She turned to Spike and said, I finally figured it out, you're trying to drive me nuts so you'll feel like Dru's around."

"It's my sole reason for not living" Spike joked back.

Hope hugged Spike and said, "Let's do one more sweep and if we don't spot her, we'll go home and I'll make you hot chocolate."

"With the mini marshmallows?" Spike asked.

"Yep."

"Agreed" Spike said dragging her off on another sweep.

*

Meanwhile across the graveyard, Chyna was on patrol with Dev and she was busy telling him what she'd learned that day.

"What was the retired slayer's name?" Dev asked Chyna, praying that it wasn't Hope. He'd thought he'd felt her presence around and personally he hoped that he was going insane rather than have to face her again.

"Miss McKellen, she's a teacher at my school" Chyna told him.

Dev sighed in relief, "I've never heard of a slayer named McKellen."

"Pity, I wanna know everything about her. Did you ever know any slayers?" Chyna asked.

"One, Hope Summers. She was my everything" Dev said sadly.

Chyna looked at him and asked sympathetically, "Did she die?"

"No, I realised that she deserved better than me" Dev said.

"That was stupid" Chyna told him, "Shouldn't that have been her decision?"

"That's what her dad told me" Dev replied.

"Smart dad" Chyna commented.

Dev was about to say something, when he felt that Hope was around again.

"What is it?" Chyna asked concerned.

"Nothing...I thought...Nothing" Dev replied as he walked out of the graveyard and away from that feeling.

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