"Don't you ever wish that you were normal?" Dawn asked suddenly.
Sitting in the small living room of the flat she shared with her sister, Buffy blinked – where had that come from? – and looked up from the obituary section of the Santa Cruz Sentinel. "Why do you ask?"
The younger girl shrugged. "I just wondered."
"I see."
"Well do you?"
"I suppose – sometimes," she admitted after a moment. It was hard to imagine but it would be nice to be free of her responsibilities. To not have to worry about the things that go bump in the night. To be able to get a job like other people and not have to fit it in around patrolling, training or saving the world. To maybe for once go out on a date with a guy and not have to worry about telling him about vampires and demons, let alone that she was the Slayer. They were just a few things she'd ;like to be able to do. She sighed. "Yes, it might be nice to be normal. There's no point wishing though."
"No," Dawn agreed, and then smiled, "we know they don't come true."
"Definitely no wishing then." They laughed. "Anyway," Buffy said a few moments later, "isn't it about time you were in bed?"
"Aww, it's only early yet."
"It's nearly eleven and you've got school tomorrow."
Dawn pulled a face. "Don't remind me," she muttered then, quickly changing the subject, asked, "are you patrolling?"
"I thought I might go out for a quick look round a little later."
And it would be quick. Since coming to Santa Cruz, just over a month ago, Buffy had patrolled most nights but supernatural activity was virtually non-existent. she'd seen no signs of any demons and had only staked three vampires. Not that she was complaining but it was a little odd, she would have thought that this town would be crawling with the undead.
"There are other Slayers you know," Dawn pointed out.
"I know there are." Even though most of the young Slayers had gone back to their families, Kennedy had chosen to stay and had enrolled at UC Santa Cruz with Willow. Rona had also opted to stick close to Buffy and the others, and was sharing an apartment with Xander just a few streets away – she frowned – a situation she wasn't entirely sure about. She'd definitely have to ask Xander about that. And Faith was around as well, often crashing with herself and Dawn, when she wasn't off `adventuring' as she now liked to call her partying. She was certain any of the three would take over patrolling for a few nights if she asked – it was just that it was difficult for her to let go."Well it's about time you had a break." A break would be good. "I'll think about it." She forced a stern expression onto her face. "Now come on, if you're late again you're gonna be in trouble."
With Dawn in bed Buffy finished reading the paper, pointedly ignoring the headlines on the front page. She would worry about the news of the earthquakes that continued to shake downtown Cleveland and what they meant when Giles returned from Ohio.

Despite her early night, Dawn still managed to oversleep and Buffy herself was no better. As she'd suspected her patrol had been a bust – the vampires of Santa Cruz were either very smart or very few – but she still didn't get back until gone three and the late nights were beginning to catch up with her. Maybe a break wasn't such a bad idea after all.
It had been a phone call from Willow that had woken them and without it they might still have been asleep at noon. As it was, Buffy was able to hustle Dawn off to school on time, if only just, leaving herself a couple of hours to do some housework before her lunch time shift at the diner.
Hungry Joe's was a homey little place, serving good American food. The staff and customers on the whole were friendly and the owner, the widow of `Hungry Joe', was very sympathetic to her situation – it had been a bit of good fortune when she'd spotted their advert in the paper. Waitressing wasn't something Buffy had planned on doing again but it paid the bills and at the moment that was all that mattered.
Xander had offered to help, he'd had little trouble in finding a job, but Buffy had flatly refused. They were not his responsibility and though she appreciated his offer she was determined to pay her own way.
Her shift was almost over when Willow walked into the diner and gave her a little wave before sitting down at the only unoccupied table. Buffy waved back and smiled; at a minute to two she was as punctual as usual. She quickly said goodbye, took off her apron and was ready to go.
"I agree with Dawn," Willow said as they strolled towards the beach, "you need a break. Kennedy and Rona will patrol for a few nights."
Buffy still wasn't sure. "What if…" she began but the redhead quickly cut her off.
"You've said it yourself, it's very quiet here for some reason but if something out of the ordinary does happen they can come and get you."
"I suppose but I'll patrol tonight, ok?"
Willow nodded. "Ok, and now that's settled, what do you know about Xander and Rona?"

That night Buffy decided to patrol early and it was still quite light as she made her way across town to the Holy Cross Cemetery and Mausoleum. The afternoon of shopping and chatting with Willow had been a blast and this combined with the fact it would be her last patrol for several nights had put somewhat of a spring in her step.
Her customary starting place for her patrols, the Holy Cross Cemetery turned out to be as quiet as usual, the only dead things being six feet underground – as they should be. From there it was just less than a mile to Oak Wood Cemetery, the scene of her only three vampire stakings, but tonight there was no sign of any undead activity.
Buffy was on her way back across town when she found herself walking passed The Kaleidoscope. She had passed the bar on a number of occasions and always thought it looked a lively place to be – admittedly it was always closed when she went passed – and she'd always wandered what it was really like. And there was no time like the present, she decided suddenly and quickly went in before she changed her mind.
Just inside the doorway Buffy paused and looked around. A small bar ran along the wall to her left, secluded alcoves lined the other three walls and in the centre of the room was the dance floor, which was already fairly full. First impressions were quite favourable.
She wandered over to the bar and hopped up onto a stool. The bartender studied her for a second or two, possibly wondering about her tight black clothes which were a little out of place, then, with a shrug that seemed to suggest he'd seen it all before, he asked, "What can I get you?"
"Er…" Did she even have any money? She dug a hand into her pocket and pulled out…a five dollar bill. She sighed. "Just a coke, please," she told him.
The barkeeper nodded and returned a few moments later with her drink. Buffy took a sip then turned to watch the people on the dance floor. There seemed to be a fairly wide age range, mainly early twenties but there were a few older couples, and they were all having a good time. She smiled, it was nice to see.
So engrossed was she in watching the dancers that she didn't notice the man approach, until he spoke. "Can I buy you a drink?"
Buffy blinked. "Er…no, thank you. I've already got one." She didn't have time to get chatted up by some random guy.
"Your glass is empty."
She looked and was surprised to see that it was. Still, she would be going soon and was just about to tell him she was fine when she remembered her talk with Dawn. When was the last time she talked to a normal guy? She tried to remember but couldn't, which was just sad. Maybe it was time to change that, she didn't have to stay long. "Ok, another coke please."
Calling the bartender, he sat and Buffy got a good look at him for the first time. He was a bit older than herself, maybe in his early thirties, tall, with dark hair and a scraggly beard. Not too bad at all, quite the studmuffin in fact. Out of the corner of her eye she glanced at the mirror behind the bar and silently breathed a sigh of relief when she saw his reflection. The last thing she needed was to get friendly with another vampire.
"Hi, I'm Michael."
"Hi, Buffy," she told him, which earned her a raised eyebrow.
"That's an…interesting name."
"It's a family name." It wasn't but her mom had never told her where it had come from. "So Michael what do you do?"
"I'm an electrician with the fire department. Nothing glamorous, I just check wiring and stuff. What about you, Buffy. What do you?"
"Well," she began. "I'm a waitress at the moment."
"There's nothing wrong with waiting tables, I've done it myself on more than one occasion. It's a great thing to do between things you really want to do."
Buffy smiled.
For the next several hours they talked about different things – work, music, films, even sport – and not once were the words vampire, stake or slayer mentioned. Not since before Willow and the others had brought her back had she felt so comfortable talking to someone. So comfortable in fact that she lost all track of time and when she happened to glance up and noticed the time she gasped."Oh crap!" It was nearly twelve o'clock. She jumped up. "I've gotta go."
"Already?" Michael asked, his disappointment plain.
"Yeah. I'm sorry but I've…got something to do."
He nodded. "I'll give you a call then?"
"I'll look forward to it," Buffy told him with a smile and dashed out.

Michael watched her go with what he knew must look like a big dopey grin but he didn't care. She was amazing – fun, intelligent and gorgeous. Already he was looking forward to seeing her again and that's when it hit him – she hadn't given him her number. With a curse he ran for the door but by the time he got outside she was already gone.
It was a disappointment Buffy didn't realise until the following morning when Willow asked her if she was gonna see him again? Buffy's reaction to her question turned Willow's face as red as her hair.