She didn't cry again the entire time.

Her first day that she left bed, she went on a nighttime walk with Angel.
They walked around the campus silently.

Finally, Buffy spoke up. "I miss him."

Angel nodded. "You both went through something no one else has."

She looked at Angel, stopping where they stood. "Do I look for heroes? To
fall in love with?"

Angel sat down on the bench by the sidewalk, the one Buffy realized she'd
broken when she and Oz had patrolled, way back when Kathy was her roommate.
"You want someone who understands what it's like to be a hero, at times." He
paused. "But you really want someone who loves you."

"I think he did," Buffy said, not moving from her spot on the sidewalk.

Angel stayed silent. "I think, now, the future will be better. Not only
because the past changed, but because he's there. He'll help the Slayer there
the same way he helped you. Maybe...maybe it was his destiny, just like yours
was to be a Slayer."

"I said if things...if everything...had been different, than maybe we could
have...been together." Buffy shook her head. "He said we never would have
met."

"And you probably never would have...but neither would we. And as much as you
hate him, you wouldn't have met Riley either, and he changed the way you
are." Angel smiled a small, sad smile. "And you never would have met Graham."

Buffy paused. "No, I wouldn't have."

"And maybe Oz knew this better than anyone else," Angel said.

"Maybe," she agreed.

"I think," he continued, "that it's time for me to go back to Los Angeles.
There's things happening there."

"Go," she said. "Graham's dorm's right there. I'll get him to walk me home."

Angel went over to her, kissed her on the forehead. "We can't be lovers, but
I think Spike was wrong. I think we *can* be friends."

She hugged him. "I think we can too." A single tear fell down her cheek as
she turned away.

She walked towards Graham's dorm, but then veered and headed back to hers.
She knew Willow was at Tara's, and she'd be in peace for a while. She sat
down and wrote a lengthy letter, and then placed it in Giles' Watchers diary,
which he was letting her write her experiences in.

When that was over, she called Graham and asked him to come over. It was time
for a new start, she thought, and she deserved it.

***

Oz opened up the Watcher's diary. Sunnydale had gradually changed from a
bleak landscape to something resembling the Sunnydale he knew and loved,
except it was somehow better.

A letter fell out. It looked old, and he had never seen it before.

"What's that?" Drew asked, looking over his shoulder after giving him a kiss
on the cheek.

"It's a letter...from Buffy," he said opening it. He read it out loud.

"Hey, Oz. I don't know if everything changed so much that you'll ever read
this, but... Well, things here have changed. Spike and Anya left town. I told
Spike that Dru had regained her sanity and stuff, and I think he's going to
look for her. Anya went away, but we don't know where."

"Angel and Graham went after Tsar. He wasn't as powerful in our time as he
was there, so they killed him easily. Xander and Cordelia have started
talking again...they were talking after she called with info on Tsar or
something like that. So don't be surprised if Cordelia and Xander got
together, not Cordelia and Wesley."

"Willow misses you. She's finally starting to understand why you stayed,
but...I don't know, she might never understand. But she's trying, so that's a
good thing."

"Graham and I...I think it could work. In a way, I just needed to know what
was stopping me. And I think it was the need for a hero. You were right about
that...Oz, you were right about most things."

"I miss you."

Oz set the letter down. "I miss you too," he said softly.