FIC: Per Omnia Saecula Saeculorum 14

["cdreramius" <mike_mcd@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Per Omnia Saecula Saeculorum
Author: Tony McD
Rating: M (15+ for language and adult themes)
Summary: The events and consequences immediately after `Grave'.
Distribution: Anywhere, just keep my name on it. As long as I am
remembered, I will never truly die.
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer nor do I own any
other characters. This is a work of fiction written for your enjoyment.

*-*-*-*-*

"What are you doing?"

Xander had been going around measuring the house and the backyard all
morning and curiosity had gotten the best of Buffy.

"Nothing." Xander told her, doing his best to look innocent and
failing even more miserably than usual. He quickly dropped the act as
he realized it was pointless.

"Alright, alright... you were gonna find out sooner or later seeing
how I've got to ask your permission before I start work."

"Work?"

"Yeah. I guess it'll be easier to explain if I start from the start.

"I've been talking to Giles a lot lately. Mostly to check on Willow
and let Giles know how we're going and stuff. Anyway, one of the
things that I've also been doing for him is wrapping up the Magic Box.
Will completely wrecked the place but thankfully the insurance company
decided that the damage was caused by the earthquake so they coughed
up the money. I also went through what was left of the stock in the
Magic Box and what I could salvage the Watchers Council brought. I
guess that Giles has got a friend in the accounts department because
they paid a fortune.

"Upshot of all this is that Giles has this big pot of money sitting in
the bank and he's wondering what he should do with it."

"He isn't going to rebuild the Magic Box?" Buffy asked.

"I suggested that but he's had enough of retail. Besides, Anya was the
real driving force and these days she isn't much into retail either."

Anya's return to the Vengeance Demon fold was an awkward issue and one
that the Scoobies would have to deal with sooner or later. But right
now neither Buffy nor Xander was in any rush to deal with it.

"I made a couple of other suggestions but in the end he decided that
the best use of the money would be to help you out. Since you don't
have the Magic Box to use for training and research anymore he
suggested that we could build an extension on the house here. I talked
it over with Jim and he's happy to let me run with the job and use the
guys from work and stuff.

"In fact the only person I haven't talked to about it yet is you. So,
how about it? We'll extend the basement, move the washing machine and
all that other stuff out and convert it into a training room. We can
then extend the side of the house for a laundry, research room,
garage... On the second level I also want to add an extra bathroom and
a bedroom for me so that Willow doesn't have to share with you or
Dawn. Oh, and any money left over gets used to pay off the house.
Giles was adamant about that."

Emotionally overwhelmed, Buffy hugged Xander, tears rolling down her face.

"One of these days we're gonna hug and there'll be no crying involved."

*-*-*-*-*

sedit in foribus domus suae super sellam in excelsis urbis,

(She sits at the doorway of her house, on a seat by the high places of
the city)

*-*-*-*-*

Buffy went to her usual lunch time spot under the shade of a tree
across the road from the construction site. Normally Xander would join
her and the two of them would eat lunch and chat and just generally
hang out. But Xander was on the other side of town supervising the
loading of some equipment for the site, so Buffy was alone.

She wasn't alone for long as Ricky, one of the plumbing guys, wandered
over.

"Mind if I sit with you?" Buffy, a mouth full of sandwich, gestured
for him to sit down.

The two sat in silence as they ate their lunch.

"I'll be glad when the school is finished. The kids won't have to
travel as far." Ricky remarked, striking up a conversation.

"I don't mind having to drive Dawn to school." Buffy was more than
willing to do what it took to keep Dawn away from Hellmouth High.

"It's not the drive that worries me. Carlos, my son, keeps getting
into trouble. He's not a bad kid, just keeps falling into the wrong
crowd. Maybe a change of schools will help."

Buffy smiled as she remembered how her mother used to say the exact
same thing before she found out about Buffy's calling.

"I was forever in the principal's bad books. Skipping school, cutting
classes, getting into fights..."

Ricky looked at her in amazement.

"No way! You?" he couldn't believe it.

"It's not as bad as it sounds and, I know this will sound really lame
but, it really wasn't my fault. I never started it."

Ricky laughed.

"You sound just like my Carlos. It's never his fault."

Buffy flushed with embarrassment.

"I shouldn't laugh too much. I wasn't exactly an angel at school
either. Or even afterwards." Ricky admitted.

"Couldn't have been that bad." Buffy insisted.

"Really? I did time for re-birthing cars."

"I've got that beat. Once I was wanted for murder."

"What?" Ricky couldn't believe his ears. This tiny little girl a murderer?

"I didn't do it, but I had to skip town until it got all cleared up."

"You're kidding!"

"No, I had to change my name and everything. Eventually I was cleared
but it was a pretty bad time."

Buffy wiped her hands on her jeans and sighed.

"My parents got divorced and I haven't seen or heard from my dad in
years. Then mom died and suddenly I find myself having to look after
my little sister. I've got to be this parent figure to Dawn but I
don't know how to be a good parent. All I know is that I don't want
Dawn to make the same mistakes I did. I want her to have a better life
than I did."

"If that's all you know then I think you're on the way to being a good
parent. I'm not the best dad in the world, but I try. You love your
sister and you try to do what's best for her. That's the important
part. Besides, she's, what, 15 or 16, right? Soon she'll be an adult
so you haven't really got the time to figure out the whole parenting
thing. Just do your best. I think you'll do great." he told her.

Buffy looked at him, grateful for the talk and the advice.

"Thanks." she got up and brushed the grass off her jeans. "I'd better
get back to work. Thanks for the talk."

Ricky smiled at her.

"Hey, talking with a pretty lady like you, no great hardship."

With a chuckle Buffy headed back to the office.

"Catch you around, Ricky."

*-*-*-*-*

Idipsum invicem sentientes, non alta sapientes, sed humilibus
consentientes. Nolite esse prudentes apud vosmetipsos.

(Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate
with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.)

*-*-*-*-*

"Xander, are you going to have the extensions finished before I have
to head back to school?" Dawn asked as the three sat down at dinner.

"Unfortunately not. But don't worry, hopefully by the time school goes
back all the major work will be done. It shouldn't interrupt your
studies too much." Xander promised. Buffy just rolled her eyes.

"Like she'll be studying all that hard anyway."

Dawn shot her sister a venomous glare.

"Just because you hardly ever studied at high school doesn't mean I
don't either. I'll have you know that I study hard and I get the
grades to prove it."

"True, but I think Buffy might be thinking more about you going to
school on the Hellmouth. Your biggest concern will be survival, not
study." Xander explained. "You're not going to change your mind about
going there, are you?"

Dawn shook her head. Since Buffy had started working, she wanted Dawn
to go to the Catholic girls' school just outside Sunnydale. Not
because it was better (which it was) or cheaper than Sunnydale High
(which it definitely wasn't), but for the simple fact that it didn't
sit over the Hellmouth, and thus was much safer.

Dawn refused to even consider it.

"I'm not going to run away from this because it's dangerous. You
didn't run away from it." Dawn challenged her sister.

"Well, technically Buffy did run away from it once." Xander reminded
them, earning the death glares of both Summers women.

"I couldn't leave because -a- Mom didn't know about the school being
on top of the Hellmouth until the end of junior year, and -b- I'm the
Slayer."

"Not being the Slayer didn't stop Xander and Willow." Dawn pointed out.

"That's because their parents didn't have a clue about the Hellmouth.
If they knew what actually when on in this town they would have yanked
Xander and Willow out of the school, probably even out of the country."

"Uh, for the record? Jessica and Anthony Harris would stop at nothing
to save their own worthless skins. My parents would have left town and
left me here to fend for myself." Xander stated "Just thought I'd
better clear that up."

The two sisters ignored him.

"So what are you going to do, Buffy? You gonna send me to boarding
school on the other side of the country? Ship me off to a convent in
Switzerland? No way!"

"I just want to keep you safe." Buffy pleaded with her sister.

"You said it yourself, you can't protect me from the world. The best
thing for me is to learn how to protect myself, to know what's going
on and help you and Xander and everyone fight all the evil that's out
there."

"But..."

"No. You were chosen for this, you didn't get a say in it and you
hated that, right? Well, I get to choose. Xander and Willow chose to
fight and now I'm choosing to stay and fight too." With that Dawn
stood up and went to her room, leaving Buffy and Xander to their concerns.

*-*-*-*-*

Noli prohibere beneficium ab eo, cui debetur, si in potestate manus
tuae est, ut facias. 

(Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your
power to do it.)

*-*-*-*-*





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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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