one last chance

chapter thirteen

Chapter 13

"Dawn wake up!" Buffy pounded on her sister's door, "We're going to be late! Faith and her gang are getting here soon! We need to get to the airport yesterday!"

Buffy slammed her fist against the door a few more times before a disheveled Dawn opened the door. Her sister's long brunett hair had fallen half way out of her French braid during the night.

"Shower?" Dawn asked not quite ready for full sentances.

"All yours. Hurry I think Giles is making breakfast this morning, Willow, Kennedy, Spike and Xander are all coming over than we'll leave from here."

"Kay." Dawn numbly replied. She staggered her way down the hall and stumbled into the upstairs bathroom. Her room had a small connecting toilet but no shower. Dawn was not excited to share one of the houses four showers with several people.

Buffy smiled at her sister's half asleep form before heading down stairs to help Giles with breakfast. Even after two years it still made her laugh to see her watcher flipping pancakes while listening to the radio in the morning. It just seemed so domestic, so removed from the world they lived in. The group breakfast over the past two years became a typical Saturday morning thing for the group. It gave them time to remember not everything in their world was vampires and demons. The tranie's also had free Saturdays and Sundays. Voluntary patrol was available to those who wanted to go. If no one did they all took a break. Faith ran her school the same way. Often times Robin or Giles would teach a class at the other school using video conferencing. It kept all of the slayers and watchers on same page.

First to arrive were Xander and Spike, the later wrapped in his usual black trench coat and a heavy wool blanket. Buffy quickly pulled the kitchen shades so Spike could remove himself from his cocoon. Shortly after Dawn came downstairs with her hair still dripping wet and wrapped up in a towel. Not quiet fully awake she muttered hello's to the group before plopping down in the kitchen chair.

"Coffee?" she asked.

Xander placed a cup of steaming brown liquid in front of her.

"Sugar please." She said up grading to two worded sentences. Spike handed her the sugar. Dawn quickly spooned a large amount of the white crystals and stirred it into her sugar. After taking a few long drinks she started to perk up.

"So," she turned to Buffy who was getting plates out of the cupboards, "What time are we heading to the airport? "

Buffy glanced up at the clock above the kitchen sink. "About ten or so I think."

Dawn also glanced at the clock, it currently read a few minutes after eight. She than turned to glare at her sister, "Why did you get me up two hours before we're leaving? I could have slept longer!"

"I got you up because we need awake coherent talky Dawn, not evil half asleep mumbly Dawn." Buffy said with a large smile.

Dawn didn't make the effort to reply, instead she settled for glaring at her sister thinking up all sorts of revenge for being woken up at eight on a Saturday morning. A frog in her sister's bed seemed like a good idea but too difficult.

At eight thirty Willow and Kennedy arrived both looking a little haphazard. Willow's hair was sticking out like she forgot to blow dry it and Kennedy's shirt was more than a bit wrinkled.

"Sorry guys," Willow said, "We got up on time but we got…" she trailed off unsure of how to finish her sentence.

"Distracted," Kennedy jumped in, "We got distracted."

Buffy rolled her eyes at the pair who sat down at the table still holding hands. Xander gave Willow a look and waggled his eye brows suggestively.

Willow laughed and leaned toward him to whisper "She got her tongue double pierced a few days ago."

Kennedy laughed as Xander's eye brows shot above his hair line, Spike chocked on the coffee he was drinking and Giles dropped the spatula he had been holding while flipping pancakes. Buffy merely rolled her eyes at Willow with a slightly smile on her face.

"Don't worry I don't need to think about it this time." Dawn laughed out loud recalling the first time Willow had mentioned her girlfriends tongue piercing the first time.

The gang shared a laugh quietly. They quickly finished eating breakfast before heading out to beat the early morning traffic on the way to the airport. They gathered at the gates waiting not so patiently for the flight to arrive.

Faith disembarked from the plane first followed by a large group of boys and girls. Unlike Buffy's group Faith's kids were split about fifty-fifty for boy's vrs girls. Robin carried the up the back end of the group trying to keep everyone together.

"B!" Faith shouted across the terminal. "Get over here and help with these midgets. I can't always do all the work."

"You seem to be doing alright yourself," Buffy yelled back.

"Oh yeah, it's just five by five."

"I thought you had fifty kids. It doesn't seem like that many." Buffy observed.

"We were able to place ten watcher/slayer pairs before coming. They would have finished in the next month anyway so we sent them to other recently placed pairs. You know safety in numbers and all." Fait replied.

The two original slayers turned when they heard Robin's voice.

"Mary, get your group over to bathrooms! Zach, luggage. And Mat where are you?" Robin looked around the group of about forty some students.

"Right here, Mr. Wood." A sandy haired boy called out.

"Ok, good, Mat please make sure we didn't leave anyone." Robin wandered over to where the slayers stood. "Hello Buffy, it's nice to see you again."

"Hi Robin, I see that being out of the public school system hasn't changed you a bit."

"No, its turned me into a bigger principle type." He answered. Without waiting for a reply from Buffy he turned again to look at his students. After several almost crises of lost luggage and not enough room in the vehicles for said luggage and students they finally moved everyone to the school and into the large gym. The new students chatted with Buffy's students the noise soon reached the level of a dull roar.

"QUIET! QUIET!" Buffy yelled. Her voice was lost in the din of the seventy students. She tried a second time with the same results Buffy stared over the group at a lost for what to do.

Spike stepped beside her and cupped his hands over his mouth, "Hey you!" he yelled to the general group, "Shut your gob's and let the Slayer speak." His voice boomed over the room and one by one the slayers fell silent.

Thank you, Buffy mouthed to Spike. She faced the students and pitched her voice so all could hear her, "You all know what we are facing. You've heard it enough and you'll hear it again. But not right now. you've been flying for God's knows how long you guys get today and tomorrow to settle in and rest. You can look around London go shopping and have fun. Tomorrow night we'll meet back here to discuss how things will work. A few quick rules Faith and I decided on. For both Slayers and Watchers, Faiths guys must always have one of my guys with them, vice versa. One of the positive reasons we're here is to get to know each other. This is a safety thing and a learning thing. Two, no patrols without Faith or I. No exceptions. Rule three, there is now a curfew, twelve o' clock. Ok now before we tell you who's staying with who so you can get acquainted one more thing." She paused for a moment, "Even though something's after us make sure you have fun!" She smiled out at the crowed.

As giggles rippled though the students and Xander, Willow and Dawn came up to figure out rooming stuff Faith came up to Buffy and pulled her aside.

"Hey B, as far as rooms go, I know you got everything planned but this girl and her watcher need to stay with me." Faith gestured over her shoulder to a tall dark haired boy standing next to a petite red head girl.

"Why?" Buffy asked.

"Well B, Shelly there, she's a bit different than the rest." Faith answered.