Meanwhile Buffy was having her own problems with being back in Lawrence. There had been a finality to watching Sunnydale implode upon itself. The hellmouth was gone. Slayers were everywhere. She wasn't the chosen one anymore. Maybe she could finally take the time to grieve the people she'd lost and move on with her life. But Buffy's life was never that easy. She went from one apocalypse right into another, only she was familiar with the one in Lawrence because she'd been there before.
On top of having to deal with yet another apocalypse now she had to deal with the fact that all of her friends were from different points in time. She felt so disconnected from them. Buffy could barely look Tara in the eyes and Xander wasn't the same man she remembered. Dawn was Buffy's age now and that was a whole load of weird she couldn't really wrap her head around, but then there was Spike. Despite their past she found he was the only person she could really talk to. It all felt too familiar, but maybe what she needed was a little familiarity.
Buffy was startled when she heard Spike. He seemed to have popped up out of nowhere. "Geez, stalk much?" she asked in typical Buffy fashion, but then she seemed to relax and gave him a shrug. "There's not a whole lot to it. See vampire? Kill with stake. Easy."