Mid-September

**Authors Note: Buffy and Willow are dorm mates at Sunnydale U. Xander and Cordelia are back together and decided to go on Xander's road trip together. They have been gone all summer. Oz is well, Oz. Buffy and Angel are still doing their "non-relationship" thing.**

"Yea, think you can slow it down!" Xander gripped the dashboard so hard his knuckles turned white.

"Stop being such a baby, besides I don't think this piece of crap can possibly go any faster. I can't believe my beautiful baby was repossessed and I'm forced to be seen in this thing!"

Cordelia's parents had moved to LA in search of jobs after the IRS had finished with them. They had wanted Cordelia to go with them, but she had decided to stay in Sunnydale with Xander. Neither of them had any clue what they wanted to do so they bought the Ford Pinto and took off for the summer. Being away from Sunnydale and other people's expectations, they had fallen in love, real love, this time. Xander saw Cordelia in a whole new light, the air-headed socialite was gone and the new grounded-in-reality Cordelia was here. Xander had also done some growing up over the summer, he knew now what love was. He realized that relationships didn't just happen, that they needed time, work and the cooperation of two people to grow. He knew all he ever wanted was Cordelia and the most surprising thing of all was that she felt the same. Once they reached town, they were picking up the local paper looking for jobs and looking for a place to live, together.

"Good ol' Sunnydale! It never changes, look over there! There's my favorite donut shop! Maybe we should swing by the Bronze and take a look at it!" Xander was feeling nostalgic.

"You're such a moron, we've only been gone 3 1/2 months! Did you really expect everything to be different? This isn't the Twilight Zone, you know!"

"No, it's only the Hellmouth. Never thought seeing the entrance to hell would give me such warm fuzzies."

"Speaking of warm fuzzies, when are we going to see Buffy and Angel? I think they need to know what we found out."

Xander and Cordelia not only discovered each other on their road trip; they had discovered a binding spell for Angel's soul. They had stopped for the night at an old Indian Reservation and had noticed an old, blind Native American begging on the street. Xander had approached him and contributed generously; he had also fed him and let him clean up in their room. The Native American oddly enough was called Charlie Sees All. Once the old man was fed and clean, he began to tell Xander some pretty outrageous stories about his battles with demons. Not to be outdone, Xander told his own stories about his Hellmouth experiences. Xander had initially thought that the guy was pulling his leg, he didn't think Charlie was actually telling the truth and believed Charlie would never believe his stories. He was wrong.

When Xander finished his last story, Charlie had reached out and grabbed his hand.

"Your slayer has fought long and hard. It's time now for some peace. She still has many battles ahead of her but it is time for her to find happiness. You all have proven yourselves; the Slayer, her friends, and her mate. All things are for a reason, the fates have plans for you all. Your trip, Xander, was not an accident."

Xander had been stunned, but living on the Hellmouth left him open minded about many things.

"I've been planning this trip for months now, it's just a little R and R, plus I'm patching things up with my girlfriend. This isn't a creepy monster trip."

"Is that what you believe? Are you not on a quest for redemption? Are you not searching for something?"

Xander looked into Charlie's sightless eyes and knew that this trip was not of his doing. Once again, Fate had manipulated his destiny.

"You have it? The cure for Angel."

"There is no cure for Angel." At Xander's crestfallen look, Charlie hastened to explain. "Angel is and will always be a vampire. But he was turned for a reason. This isn't the first lifetime they have spent together and it won't be the last, this is all I can reveal to you."

Charlie reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small bible.

"Take this, young man, here you will find your answer."

"A bible? The answer is in the Bible? That almost makes...sense." Xander turned his back and went to get his wallet; he wanted to make sure Charlie had enough to get by after they left. "Let me give you some cash, it's not charity or anything but...."

Xander had turned back around to hand the money to Charlie, but he was gone. He had told Cordelia the whole story when she had returned from shopping.

"Ewwww...creepy! Did you check out the Bible yet?" Cordelia grabbed the little book from Xander and opened it.

"Xander, is the Bible supposed to have a big hole in it? Is that symbolic or something?" Her face was scrunched up in confusion; Xander thought she looked adorable.

"There's something in there, Cordy, a folded up piece of paper. Let me see it." Cordelia pulled the paper out and gave it to Xander, she watched as he began to read it.

"BINGO! We just hit pay dirt!"

"Whatever...is it the cure?" Cordelia rolled her eyes at Xander's theatrics.

"There is no cure, but looks like a binding spell, smells like a binding spell." Xander brought the paper up to his nose. "It's a binding spell."

"So, goodbye open road, hello Sunnydale." Cordelia was a little disappointed; the last few months with Xander had been great.

"Yep, let's fire up the Pinto and git on outta here little doggie! But first..." Xander leaped on Cordelia, who was lounging on the motel bed. He kissed her passionately until her giggles turned to moans.

It was hours later before the duo actually began their journey home.

"Hey, going to Angel's tonight? Because if you're not, I thought it would be fun to go to the Bronze and check out what the high school kids are doing." Willow had walked into the dorm room she shared with Buffy and put down her bookbag. Buffy was sitting on her bed sharpening stakes.

"And this is different from every weekend how? Will, we go to the Bronze every Friday night, besides we were the high school students just 4 months ago."

"But there's a difference, we're college girls now." Willow loved everything about college; the classes, the homework, the extra buildings. She couldn't get enough.

Buffy, on the other hand, was struggling. College was more demanding than high school and she sometimes didn't have the extra time that her classes required. Giles helped her as much as possible, but he made sure she didn't let up on her Slaying duties. Things were quiet now but that didn't mean that things would stay quiet. Willow helped too, she studied with Buffy as much as possible, even went out on patrol with her so they could go over Buffy's homework. But Buffy was beginning to wonder if going to college was the right choice. If major evil were going on right now she probably would be failing every class. She didn't expect the demons to cut her slack and behave the whole four years.

"Sorry Will, I haven't been by Angel's in four days and I'm starting that whole Angel missage thing. How about tomorrow night?"

"Tomorrow's even better, Dingoes are playing!" Willow and Oz had a minor break up during the summer. She had been devastated until one day, while walking across campus, she noticed Oz walking into a building with a backpack on his shoulder. She had caught up to him and demanded to know what he was doing.

"Going to class."

"Well, that would be just fine, if you were a student, but last I checked they don't take kindly to people just wandering off the streets and sitting in on classes."

"I am a student. I enrolled last week. I love you, Willow. The reason we have been fighting so much is my general lack of direction. I needed to step back and evaluate my direction in life. I also ran into a friend who encouraged me to find myself while taking classes. He had some crazy notion that people found their direction in life through college. So here I am."

"Oz, I love you too, I don't want to fight anymore. I think this is great! We can study together and compare teachers. I can't wait to tell Buffy! Oh, and say thanks to your friend for me, he did me a favor too." Willow had thrown her arms around him and planted little, happy kisses all over his face.

"Next time you see Angel, you can tell him yourself. You know, I think he reads Buffy's textbooks more than she does. He actually wanted to go over linear algebra and matrixes with me."