Well, I got such a response for the last chapter, I gave in to temptation and decided I'd go ahead and post this... This is the final chapter, and I hope it's not too disappointing. Endings are the hardest part of a story to write, for me, anyway.

Enjoy.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Recovery/Epilogue

Buffy opened her eyes, only to squeeze them shut again... The bright florescent lights of the hospital were not the greatest thing to wake up to. Groaning, she rolled over, before she risked opening her eyes again. Blinking rapidly to rid herself of the color spots that danced before her eyeballs, she nearly missed the figure looming over her.

Angel. For fleeting moment her mind panicked.

"So you're awake?" he asked, sitting in the chair next to the bed.

"Yeah," Buffy replied, suddenly remembering she had no reason to be afraid. "Lucky me... Where's everyone else?"

"Giles took the girls to get something to eat, Spike went out for a smoke, and everyone else just went to get a cup of coffee... " there was something in his voice that said they'd left to avoid him, "You gave us all a scare, you know."

"I could say the same to you," she replied.

Back in the sewers, when she'd been about to stake him, he'd suddenly grabbed her arm to stop her... Of course, Buffy could have continued anyway, as his grip had been weak... But he'd suddenly gone limp. The sudden dead weight had made Buffy drop her captive. Angel had begun convulsing, and kept doing so for a few seconds, before finally remaining still... There hadn't been any evidence to suggest it, but Buffy had been sure that the First had left Angel's body, and allowed his soul to take over once again... Apparently the prospect of being banished to another dimension wasn't its idea of fun.

When Angel had finally regained consciousness, Buffy lost her grip on it, and had proceeded to pass out again... This time she never hit the floor, as her 'knight in shinning leather' had caught her, while throwing glares towards Angel, as if it were his fault that Buffy was out cold again.

Now, several hours later, Angel was still Angel, and Buffy was feeling as though she'd been dragged through hell and back, over thornbushes, all while being beaten with a sledge hammer. When she was about to say as much, her friends all crowded into the room, followed by a female doctor. The woman didn't look at all pleased with the number of people, but she said nothing about it, but went on to say her name was Allyce Barnes, and to tell Buffy what the damage was.

Four broken ribs, a hairline fracture in her arm, internal bleeding, a concussion, and massive external bruising.

It wasn't as bad as Buffy had expected, but it was enough that the doctor said she was going to be staying for a couple of days. Buffy wasn't at all keen on this idea, and made her protests heard, arguing that one night was plenty for her to rest, and then go home and continue to rest. She still wasn't over her fear of hospitals. Giles, Xander, Willow, and Spike knew why she was afraid in the first place.

After a good half hour of arguing with the doctor, and threatening to walk out on her own, with or without the aid of her friends, the woman finally made her a deal. Stay two nights, then she could go home. Grumbling, Buffy accepted, still not happy with this arrangement.

"Don't worry Buffy," said Willow, in an attempt to cheer her up, "One of us'll be here with you at all times... The rest of us should probably go home, and... and clean up..." Her eyes involuntarily shifted towards Angel, who looked down, ashamed... He knew what she meant. He hadn't had to be filled in on what he'd done. He remembered it all, and every time he thought about it, he began to feel sick.

The fact that the Scooby gang, and the new Slayers kept giving him hateful looks only made it worse, but he wasn't going to say anything about it. He deserved the looks. Hell, he deserved worse... Death didn't seem to quite cover the debt, either... Maybe an eternity in hell would suffice... No, it wouldn't. No amount of suffering on his part would make up for the eight girls he'd killed...

The eight friends he'd stolen from these people. Nor would it heal the damage done to the mousy girl, Gisselle, or make Summer forget what she'd seen, or Jory, or Corrine. Nothing would ever be enough to make up for what he'd done. But that didn't mean he couldn't try.

His cell phone ringing brought him out of his thoughts, and he answered, as the others talked.

"You alright?" Dawn asked Buffy, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Buffy shrugged, "I'll be better once I'm out of here," she replied, "You know how much I hate hospitals..."

Dawn nodded, "Yeah, I do... " she waited a moment, before asking, "What... What did you do with the... The bodies?" The got the attention of everyone else, who hadn't been present for the burial.

"We buried them..." said Buffy, "We would have waited for you guys...But..." She let herself trail off.

"We didn't want t' leave 'em lying in the house, Nibblet," Spike finished.

"Didn't seem right, y'know?" Faith added. Dawn nodded, as did everyone else.

"We marked the graves," Robin said, quietly, "So you know who's who..."

The sound of Angel's phone snapping shut broke off the conversation... "That, um, that was Cordy," said the vamp, "She said she's been trying to reach me for days...I... I think it'd probably be best if I went back to LA... let her know I'm okay, and what happened..."

There was no protest from the group, none. None of them were too unhappy to see him go... Even Buffy felt a bit relieved, when he left. She knew the First was no longer in control of him... but she still couldn't look at him without the memories of what the mansion had been like when they'd arrived, or without imagining what it was going to be like for everyone else when they went home to find the blood still all over the place, and to see the freshly dug graves, with temporary wooden markers on them... It wasn't a pleasant thought.

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The next several weeks were spent mostly in an uncomfortable silence... No one wanted to say anything, because none of them, knew what to say. To many of the girls, it was quite uncomfortable, being in the house where their friends had been murdered, and all of them used any excuse to get out. Dawn busied herself helping Andrew move, and set up his new apartment, and often spent all day away from the mansion. The others put their time into helping Robin and Faith, or training outside.

Willow remained silent for the most part, rarely talking to anyone. Only Oz seemed to be able to coax her out of her shell. She was feeling guilty about Kennedy. She had said as much to Oz one night... That she felt if she hadn't snapped at Kennedy, or had just ended things quickly, then the slayer might not have ended up dead. She was dead because she'd been to drunk to know what was happening, and she'd been drinking because of Willow. To Willow, that translated as her fault, and no one was convincing her otherwise. Yet.

She used up her time, when she wasn't with Oz, on researching Spike's request. She was pretty sure she could do it, it was just a matter of the right components, and getting every one else out of the mansion for a couple of hours.

Gisselle, Summer, Jory, Vi, and Cory all suffered constantly from nightmares. It had become a normal thing to wake in the middle of the night to hear one or more of them screaming. If Dawn had nightmares, she kept them to herself, like Buffy did, and like everyone else did. Eventually, Buffy knew, the new slayers would learn how to stop screams... And eventually, how to stop the nightmares. You had to, when your job dealt with all sorts of monsters.

Headstones had been put up, for the eight girls they'd lost, by then, and while they still couldn't give them a proper funeral, that was enough. As long as there was a headstone there, there was no chance that the girls would ever be forgotten.

There were going to be new girls arriving soon, along with several of their family members. Giles and Xander had gone out in search of more slayers, as well as recruits for the Watcher's Council, that Giles was so eager to rebuild... but it was going to be done his way. Xander was planning on adding more buildings on the grounds, to avoid over-crowing the house, once they returned. Buffy had found the rough drafts he'd drawn up. He wanted to build a, well, dorm, for lack of a better word, for the new arrivals, and had plans on remodelling (finally) some of the old storage rooms, to use as training rooms, as the ground floor of the library wasn't going to be big enough for long.

Buffy, according to Spike, was one of the worst patients ever. After she'd been released from the hospital with the strict instructions that she was to rest, and nothing more, she'd wanted to go out patrolling. Spike mentioned at one point that he would tie her down if she didn't stay put, and finally Buffy gave in, and stopped trying to escape.
Of course, she didn't have to stay resting as long as the doctor had ordered. Slayer healing, after all. One of the better perks of the job. Within a couple of days her bruises were almost non-existant, and within a couple of weeks her broken and fractured bones were healed perfectly. It had baffled the poor doctor, who'd treated her.

With school starting up again, she was going to have to get all the girls enrolled. The new group was just going to be transferred from their old schools, to save trouble, and questions.

Angel had come by once, after his abrupt departure in the hospital, in order to see how everyone was doing. Both Gisselle, and Cory had much the same reaction they'd had in the hospital. They were both terrified of him. Gisselle had hidden in her room, until he left, and Cory had alternated between sticking to Buffy like glue, and sticking to Spike like glue... Eventually, she'd headed off to find Willow and Oz. The others kept their distance as well. After that, Angel kept any contact to phone calls, and rarely that.

All in all it was a long recovery process. Physical, for some, emotionally for all.

----------------

Months Later

Buffy sat curled in an armchair, enjoying the peace and quiet that came from a lack of construction outside. For months, Xander had been building non stop. The "dorm" for the new slayers was mostly complete, it only had to be furnished, now he was working on a proper training room, and it was rare that the sounds of sawing and banging stopped, so Buffy was going to enjoy it while she could. Being able to be still was a rarity as well.

The reason being, the girls Giles and Xander had found after she'd been released from the hospital, Crys, Nancy, April, Tandy, and twins Joline and Josephine (Jolie and Josie), were far too energetic for their own good.

Giles was working on rebuilding the Watchers' council as well. Already he had a few recruits, Dawn being one of them, though she had a long way to go before she was an actual watcher. All of the others were family or friends to the new slayers. Buffy's favorite of the watchers was Crys' older brother, Eason. She had noticed that he was also Dawn's favorite of the new arrivals...

Faith and Robin had been living together peacefully, at least, and Faith had given up her constant protests that she was sticking around for good sex alone. Andrew was happy living on his own, as well. He and Dawn had gone out once, much to Spike's dismay, though to his immense relief it was only once. Now Andrew was dating Tandy. They seemed perfect for one another, being that they could both go on for hours about comics, and movies.

Willow and Oz had their own place, too, as both of them had gotten tired of having no time alone, save for in their room. Xander and Giles had both stayed, though Giles was gone alot, always on the hunt for more slayers. Vi had moved out of the country, had gone to look after the hellmouth in Cleveland. Gisselle had gone with her.

After that, they'd decided it was best that the slayers operate in at least teams of two, on each hellmouth, or towns with high levels of supernatural activity. But that was for later, once they had more trained. As it was, the only newbie who still lived in the mansion who could be considered fully trained was Summer, and she was firmly refusing to leave. She said she was happy just where she was. Jory, like Summer, still lived in the main house, not in the dorms. Jory was to young yet to be a full fledged slayer, and as much as she claimed she could take care of herself, she did no patrolling on her own. That had to wait until she was fifteen at least.

There was a new group of girls arriving later that evening, with Giles. Buffy knew that most would be fifteen or older. They'd come up with a system for recruiting the new slayers. Any girls fifteen and older were told directly what they were, and given the option to either be trained, or to just go about their lives as normal (after all, it wasn't as if there was any shortage of slayers now). Under fifteen, their parents were told, (or in the case of the few who hadn't witnessed a vampire or demon attack on their daughters, convinced), and given the choice to let their daughters be trained then, or to wait until they were older.

Most chose to wait, a few chose to not accept at all. When Buffy'd spoken to Giles on the phone he claimed that they had one ten-year-old with them, and one that was fourteen. So that made two sets of brave parents so far (or, incredibly stupid, Buffy hadn't made up her mind which). This time there were six girls coming to the mansion. She hadn't asked their names yet. She'd find out when they arrived. She made a point to get to know each girl.

The silence, and the chance to relax, made Buffy realize just how worn out she was, and she began to drift off. She was almost asleep when-

"Joooooorrrrryyyyyy!" The blissful silence was broken by her adoptive daughter's voice.

Twenty seconds of peace, and Buffy thought she might actually get to sleep, then, "Joooorrrryyyy!"

Forty-five seconds this time, and Buffy'd started to close here eyes, "Jooooorrrryyyy!"

A few seconds later came Jory's frustrated cry of "Buffy!"

"Jooooorrrrryyyyy!"

"Buffy!"

That kept going for several minutes, before Buffy sighed, and gave up on a nap, and looked towards the couch. Spike was sound asleep, a book of Shakespeare plays lay open on his chest, and a ray of sunlight danced across his face. It was still an odd sight, to see him in sunlight. Willow had worked a spell for him, that should have turned him human, but, something had gone wrong (according to Giles, it was a mispronunciation of a word) and he hadn't quite returned to being human. He still had his vamp strength, and taste for blood, and he couldn't spend all day in the sun, without getting extreme sunburn (extreme being that he looked as if he'd spent a week in direct sun with no protection, luckily he still healed fast), but he was fine for several hours, at least, and he was no longer dead.

It had amazed Buffy that she could feel his heartbeat, and that his skin was no longer cold. He could also age, albeit a bit slower than a normal human. Along with the being alive came the possibility for he and Buffy to have children (which made Buffy think of something she'd said to Angel about not seeing fat grandchildren anywhere in the future with him). But as the shouts from the second floor continued, she knew that the odds of that happening were slim. Corrine was enough of a handful, and always training the girls kept both Buffy and Spike busy enough, that had Cory not had other people to keep her company, she might have been lonely.

"Spike!" Buffy called, to wake her sorta-vamp lover.

"Wha'?" he asked not opening his eyes. She didn't need to answer, for right then, another round of yells came from above them. Now he did open his eyes, "Bloody hell... No."

"Yes," Buffy argued.

"She's callin' for you... I don' remember changin' my name t' Buffy, Slayer."

Buffy crossed her arms, and gave him a scathing look. "Cory's the one causing trouble, and she's yours too you know."

Another round of shouts, and a groan from Spike, "Righ' now, I wish you wouldn' remin' me o' that." He sighed, slammed his book shut, and headed for the stairs.

Buffy rose from her chair, when she heard the front door open. Dawn was heading for the library.

"Hey."

Dawn paused for a moment, "Oh, hey Buffy." She continued on her way.

"Hey."

Dawn stopped again, "What?"

"What time's school let out?"

"Three thirty," Dawn replied with a shrug, and started to head off again.

"Hey," Dawn stopped again, and turned towards her sister, "What time is it now?"

"Seven," the younger Summers girl replied, and tried to leave.

"Hey," Dawn was looking extremely annoyed by this point, "Where were you?" Buffy asked.

"Eason came by to give Crys a ride home, but she went with Jolie and Josie... So we went to see Willow and Oz, then went for a walk.."

Buffy sighed, she'd figured that Dawn being late would have something to do with her asian crush. She'd leave that part out when she told Spike where Dawn had been- he was far to protective of her. "Call me next time... You forget, we're on another hellmouth... Not as bad as Sunnydale, but it's still not safe, oh and tell Eason that I wanna talk to him." In reality, Spike wanted to, but Buffy figured she'd get to him first. After all, Spike would probably just traumatize the poor guy, as he had Andrew. Dawn nodded, and finally made it to the library. Whenever she got home, she sat down with Summer, and the other watchers-in-training, and go over their studies. Ancient languages, proper training methods, all that.

Upstairs, Spike had caught Cory as she'd tried to escape from him. While she squealed to be let go, she didn't really try to get away. She was too busy laughing. Once she noticed that the girl had been caught, Jory came out of her room. She complained to Spike that she was trying to do an assignment for school, and Cory kept bugging her. Cory however. claimed that it was Jory who was bugging her by not answering when she called. It didn't take long to resolve the matter by sending Cory off to go and bug the girls in the dorm. Something she loved doing. Since she wasn't afraid of bugs, or any critters of the like, she often caught them and released them in there, when the girls were working on decorating and furnishing their rooms. The squeals and screams could be heard even in the mansion.

The matter with his daughter (strange thought, that... His daughter) resolved, Spike headed back to the living room, to resume his nap. There was going to be much chaos later, what with a new batch of girls coming. He'd need all the sleep he could get... After all, just because he wasn't all vampire anymore didn't mean he couldn't put on the act of being the Big Bad. Had to give the newbies a good scare.

That was just the way he did things. That was just the way things are.

END

Couple of things I'd like to mention;

For those of you who wanted Angel dead, trust me, so did I, but I wrote several different versions of this chapter, and I couldn't get his death to work, so I let him live... Believe me, I REALLY wanted to kill him off...

Also, if the ending seems kinda corny, or maybe just a little too happy: Forgive me, but my stories have all been ending badly as of late... Deadly Games, a fic I haven't posted on this site, ended with the last character left alive in a situation that no matter what he did, he was dead... And there was no sequel to that one... This is the first real fic in a while that I've written (with the exception of Trial by Fire), that has ended on a happy note, with no bad omen looming over the characters' heads

and, I kinda want to write a sequel to this, I have a couple ideas, but I'd really like to get everyone's opinion on the matter, and maybe a couple suggestions on things that should be brought up, should I write a sequel...

Please please please let me know what you think, and thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. -hands out virtual boxes of candy and cookies-