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.

One Week After The Deal...

Hope awoke in her mother's old bedroom flustered, it took her a minute for her to relax and remember where she was. Once she did that she was fine, at least until she remembered that she was starting her new job that day. Hope scrambled out of bed and headed for the bathroom to shower, figuring that she should at least appear to be clean on her first day. After she'd finished she'd returned to her new room and picked out the clothes she wanted to wear to make a good impression. Then she sat down on the bed not wanting to go downstairs and face her grandmother, until she'd arrived here Hope had pretty much forgotten what a heinous bitca she was. Her phone rang and grateful for the distraction she answered it, "Hello?"

"Hiya Hopey" Nick Doyle's voice said. "How's life in the sticks?"

"Peaceful, especially until you asked my mom for this number" Hope teased glad to hear a familiar voice. Not that she didn't like Sunnydale but the only friend she had here was Spike and he could get annoying in large doses.

"Thankyou so much, you have no idea how much I appreciated that comment" Nick answered back sarcastically.

"Okay, I get the point. What do you want?" Hope asked.

"To annoy you of course. Why else would I call?" Nick replied jokingly.

"Really?" Hope said dryly.

"Everyone's worried about you on the Hellmouth with an obnoxious vampire and a cow for company" Nick informed her.

"My dad said that didn't he?" Hope asked.

"Yeah. How did you know?" Nick replied.

"The reference to Gran as a cow".

"So how are you?" Nick asked concerned. He knew Hope didn't return his romantic feelings but she was still the best friend that he'd ever had and he was worried for her.

"Fine. A little lonely because I miss you guys, but I'll survive. Unless I'm fired for running late on my first day of work" Hope told him.

"Okay, okay. Call later and fill us in, okay? Bye Hope" Nick said.

"Bye little Nicky" Hope teased. She could hear him say, "Don't call me that", as she hung up the phone. She fought off the wave of home sickness, when she had it under control she headed downstairs.

She walked into the kitchen and received a shock, Joyce and Giles were making out and it was the most disgusting thing that she'd ever seen. "Oh My God, I'm like scarred for life" she yelled out.

Joyce and Giles broke apart and both looked extremely guilty. "Hope, I thought that you'd left for work already" Joyce said.

"No, but now I so wish that I had" Hope replied. "Aren't you both too old to do things like that?" Without waiting for an answer Hope walked out of the house.

*

She arrived at the principal's office about ten minutes early because of her escape and as she waited she tried to blank the gross image of Joyce and Giles kissing from her mind. By the time she was shown into Principal Nitski's office she had.

"Ms McKellen, I'd like to welcome you to the staff of Sunnydale High" Principal Nitski, a fat, bald guy said.

"Thankyou" Hope replied politely. She was nervous this was her first real job, if you didn't count working at Angel Investigations.

"Excellent references and good college grades. Do you have any questions about working here?" he asked. When Hope remained silent he continued, "Good, let's find someone to show you around." He got up, looked out of his office door and grabbed the first poor unsuspecting faculty member he could find, "Ms Camberton you are to show our new Mythology teacher around."

"But..." Zola Camberton started to complain.

"No buts" he told her, "Enjoy." He shoved Hope out of his office and at the other teacher.

"Hi, I'm Hope McKellen" Hope introduced herself.

"Zola Camberton, Art teacher" the woman said. She took Hope on the standard tour and before she knew it she was at her class room. "Good Luck" Zola told her, "You'll need it".

Hope watched her walk away and wondered what she'd meant by that statement and unfortunately she found out ten minutes later. By the time lunch had come around Hope had a healthy respect for her former high school teachers and the rest of the afternoon wasn't any better. Hope had never been so glad to hear the bell ring signalling the end of the day. Hope grabbed her stuff, locked up her classroom and was in such a hurry that she bumped into someone, dropping all her things.

"Are you alright?" the person asked.

Hope said "Yeah". When she looked up what she saw was an extremely attractive guy.

"Good. I'm Rick Muldoon, I'm the librarian" he said offering her his hand.

Hope shook it and said, "Hope McKellen, Mythology".

Rick bent down and picked up her things. As he handed them to her, he said "Can I walk you to your car?"

Hope was going to say no, but instead she heard herself say, "Yes". By the time she'd gotten to her car she also had a date for the weekend.

*

Hope arrived home ten minutes later and was met at the door by Joyce. "Hi Gran" Hope said happily.

"Why are you in such a good mood?" Joyce asked suspiciously. She figured Hope was as sneaky as her evil father and was up to something.

"Nothing much, just have a date this weekend" Hope replied heading into the living room and flopping down on the couch.

"You have a what? I thought that you had sworn off dating for all eternity" Joyce asked.

"Not for eternity, just for as long as I was the official slayer and now I'm not" Hope told her.

As Joyce left the living room, Hope heard her mutter "I hope this one is alive."

That night when Hope and Spike were out looking for the new slayer, Spike decided to voice his opinion on the dating issue. "You're nuts" he told her.

"Why? Because I want to date a normal guy?" Hope replied.

"You're normal already, it's the rest of humanity that's screwed" Spike said. "Do you really think you'll be happy with some guy who doesn't know what's really out there? Who would never and will never understand the world you live in?"

"Probably not, but I won't know if I don't try" she replied officially closing the subject.

They then searched silently for a few hours, unable to locate the new slayer and watcher. Hope turned in but Spike continued to search for them until almost dawn.

Go to the next story Unexpected Surprises

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