TITLE: Trade
AUTHOR: Ragna (writinggoddess@aol.com)
RATING: FRT
CLASSIFICATION: Past B/A; current W/O; future B/A, Kate/Lindsey, Kennedy/Tara, C/Doyle, W/X; future Spike/Dawn friendship
SUMMARY: Instead of Angel leaving for Los Angeles, Buffy goes.
SPOILERS: Set in an alternate universe beginning just before season 4 BtVS/season 1 A:tS.
DISTRIBUTION: Any sites with my fic up; you all have unspoken permission. I write it, you can post it. Everyone else just keep my name on it and let me know.
DISCLAIMER: If you don't recognize it, chances are it's my own creation. If you do, I don't own it. Joss Whedon, Kazui Sandollar, The WB, UPN, et. al. most likely do.
FEEDBACK: Please send it offlist and let me know it's feedback; I do rapid delete on my account due to a lot of spam.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: An answer to Aaronlisa's B/A challenge: "What if it had been Buffy who left Sunnydale instead of Angel at the end of Season Three? How would this have affected them, would Doyle have made his way to Sunnydale to be Angel's Seer? Who would have gone with Buffy and who would have stayed? Requirements: 1) They would have to meet up somewhere in the S.6 timeline (essentially Buffy still dies but gets brought back to life by whoever went with her.) 2) Doyle has to be in there somehow (I don't care how, just he has to be there. He can be Angel or Buffy's Seer.)"

***

Buffy looked at her packed up bags. "So, Giles, you're sure everything's going to be okay?"

Giles nodded. "Faith is being taken to a hospital in England and the Council is sending over a young Slayer named Kennedy to take her place."

Buffy hugged him tightly. "I'm going to miss you." She pulled away and looked at all her friends. "I'm going to miss all of you."

Willow looked like she was about to start crying again, and Oz threw his arm around her. Xander smiled a little and waved.

The clearing of a throat made Buffy turn around, where she saw Cordelia impatiently waving at her.

"And we'll miss you too, Cordy," Xander added, waving a little more.

"Sure you will. You can't wait till I'm gone."

"Yeah. Then Sunnydale will be quieter."

Cordelia tossed her hair, turned towards the bus and huffed off to her seat.

"Hey...tell Angel..."

"We will," Giles said gently. Buffy nodded and followed Cordelia onto the bus headed towards Los Angeles.

***

Angel sat at the mansion, miserable. He should have been the one to go, but Buffy...

She got accepted to UCLA, her father was moving to New York and giving her his apartment, and there was a big crisis with a sudden unleashing of demons due to a shady law firm. The Slayer was needed there more than little old Sunnydale.

Of course, he wasn't going to be all alone. Only once before had he met The Powers That Be. Whistler had made the introduction and Angel had learned about what his connection to Buffy was going to be.

They'd paid a visit to him that morning. Nothing too fancy, considering they looked like overdone Greek statues, but they informed him of a former Sunnydale resident, a half-demon, who would return and be his seer.

He actually begged for them to send him to Buffy, saying she needed all the help they could offer her, and they just laughed.

So at some point today, he'd be meeting Alan Francis Doyle.

He just couldn't wait...

***

Buffy leaned her head against the window. She hadn't wanted Cordelia as a roommate, but it was that or stay in Sunnyhell and let Angel leave.

Angel must be awake by now, she thought to herself. She hadn't even told him good-bye the night before because she'd spent it on her bed, sobbing.

Maybe he was thinking of her.

She hoped so.

***

It took only one look at her photograph to know that she was going to be a hard one to deal with, if he dealt with her at all. After all, Lilah was kissing Holland's ass lately; maybe he'd just hand the Slayer assignment to her and Lindsey could focus on other things.

She was tough, cynical to a point, like a lot of her childhood had been stripped down to the bone and a little of it had been reapplied with paste glue. There was a steeliness in her eyes, but her smile was genuine.

The more he looked at the picture, the less sure he wanted to take this young woman on. He knew he'd lose.

***

Wesley had been halfway back to England before he decided to break free of his father's grip and live his own damn life. If his father wanted a Slayer, he could have the comatose Faith all to himself; it wasn't as though he could do much to help her now.

And besides, he'd grown to like the States. And he'd always wanted to see Los Angeles.

And there was that dream about owning a motorcycle...

***

Alan Francis Doyle, or Doyle, as he preferred to be known, walked up to the Crawford Mansion. Still looked just as spooky as it did when he was a teacher at Sunnydale Middle School.

He'd seen the wreckage of the high school as he drove to meet Angel, and he saw the growth of the suburbs and the growth of the cemeteries. He didn't know which disquieted him more. And this place held memories, of him and his now ex-wife, that he wasn't sure he wanted to revisit without a pint of whiskey on hand.

However, Destiny had called, and when Destiny calls, it won't let you ignore it for long.

Doyle paused at the doorway for a moment, looked at it, and knocked.