Title: A Slayers Holiday: There and Back Again
Author: Wildecate
Email: Wildecate@hotmail.com
Rating: G - for the moment
Notes: Since you were all so nice the first time round, here we go again.
Pairing: None as yet
Credits: Joss Whedon/JRR Tolkein - ya de ya de ya

*This chapter was written in response to a plea for a link between the original chapters 5 and 6. Some readers seemed to like the abrupt change from Middle Earth to "The Gift" but others didn't and this is as a result of my inbox being flooded with pleas for a link between the chapters. This chapter is especially for you.*

"You're telling me?" Buffy repeated "You can't force me to go."

Legolas' brow crinkled in confusion "It's not safe here Buffy,"

"Big whoop, you think the place you're planning on sending me back to is safe?" Buffy folded her arms defiantly "I'm staying."

"Buffy…."

Aragorn and Gandalf watched as Legolas and Buffy continued to argue, Legolas trying to plead with the stubborn girl. Buffy was shaking her head and gesturing. Gandalf sighed.

"Does she want to stay and fight or does she want to stay with Legolas?" he asked Aragorn who shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine." He gave Gandalf an enquiring look "So how do you know so much about her?"

"I have been to her world. When I fell, I fell through fire and water until I passed beyond this world and lost all awareness. When I awoke there was an evil creature attacking me. She saved me." Gandalf observed the girl as she argued with the elf. She seemed so tiny. So fragile. With the stubbornness of a mule it seemed.

"She will not give in Gandalf."

"We cannot afford the time for them to have this argument" answered Gandalf wishing he didn't have to do what was he was going to do.

Gandalf raised his voice and called Buffy loudly "Slayer".

She turned immediately at the sound of her name and stared in surprise at Gandalf calling her that.

"Why did you call me that?" she asked, moving away from Legolas and back into the clearing.

"You have a hundred names my dear. I simply use one of the more well known ones."

"A hundred names? What do you mean?"

"Slayer is one. Hero is another. Daughter. Saviour. Friend."

Buffy bit her lip and looked down. He sounded just like Giles when he was trying to push her into taking up her sacred duty. Buffy was protective of her friends. It gave the duty she performed a reason, it gave the people she protected a face. Gandalf was well aware of this and was taking full advantage of that fact.

"You have saved hundreds of people in your time. You still have much ahead of you before your time comes. You would leave your friends and family alone as the darkness of evil covers your land?"

"I…" Buffy couldn't answer him.

"I would not presume to tell you how you feel, or understand how difficult and lonely your life must be sometimes. But I've seen your friends, young Willow and Xander and Giles who all love you dearly. You fight because you have to, they fight because they want to. It is not their calling. It is yours. And you would leave them?"

"No" Buffy sighed "I would never leave them."

"So, I may open the portal?"

Buffy glanced up at Legolas who was watching her before she turned back to Gandalf.

"Don't think I don't know what you just did" she said "And if I had the time.."

"You'd beat three kinds of hell out of me. Or at least you could try" his eyes twinkled merrily.

"Now?" she asked.

Buffy mutely held out her hand, allowing Gandalf to slice his knife across the tip of her finger to let the blood flow. She bound her finger up again and Gandalf held up his finger with the plaster that Willow had so carefully put on there. Buffy allowed a smile to twitch across her face. Winnie The Pooh plasters. Typical Willow. She handed her weapons to Aragorn, and he handed her back a knife, intricately engraved with leaves and flowers down the blade but still dangerously sharp.

"I can't accept this" Buffy ran her fingers down the shiny metal.

"Use it well Buffy." Aragorn kissed her forehead "You know this is the right thing to do."

"I know."

"We don't think any the less of you for going home, you know that don't you?" Aragorn saw pain flare in her eyes "You have a job to do, just as we do. But there are many of us to perform this job, to stand against the darkness in this world. In your realm, there is only you. That is the prophecy."

"But Legolas.." she pleaded.

"Legolas does not want you to go any more than you do but he understands." Aragorn stroked her cheek and smiled at her "I wish we had the chance to travel together further Buffy Summers but it is not to be."

Buffy turned next to Gimli and hugged him hard. He did not speak, could not speak but simply handed her a small cross fashioned in light glowing metal. She recognised from Gimli describing it as Mithril. She took it in her hand and the tears began to well up in her eyes. The dwarf turned away from her. He could not believe that they were sending this girl back to what sounded like Hell. Could not believe that the others would not let her continue with them even though she wanted to. He had heard the stories from Aragorn and from Buffy, what she did and he had seen how she fought.

She turned away from him and faced Legolas. How could she ever have thought him distant and uncaring? She could read everything in his face. The feelings that had grown between them over the time she had been in this place were intense and deep and Buffy was not sure if she could deal with loss all over again. But she was who she was, the Slayer. Her friends might be fighting for their lives in Sunnydale, they would need her help. Aragorn was right. She had to go.

"I will miss you"

"I know" Buffy took his hands and held them tightly "I'll miss you too. But Aragorn is right. I have to go."

"I have nothing to give you. No parting gifts only this" Legolas kissed her for a long moment.

"I won't forget you"

"Nor I you."

"Funny" Buffy brushed her tears away "Usually I'm the one that gets left, now its me doing the leaving."

Gandalf tipped the blood she had given him high in the air, chanting as he did so, allowing the drops to spill out slowly. They all watched as the portal took a shimmering shape in the air. Buffy stood in front of it and with a final look to Legolas stepped through.

She found herself back in Giles house, standing in the centre of the floor where the portal had been created in the first place. Giles and Willow were pouring over some books at the table and Willow jumped up hugging Buffy joyfully.

"You're back. God I'm so glad. Are you OK? Where were you? We were trying to find another spell for a portal but there wasn't anything. How did you get back? Is …" Willow's babble faltered for a moment "Everything's not OK is it?"

"Buffy" Giles hugged her closely "Are you OK?"

"No" she answered truthfully "But I will be."




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