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The only question seemed to be if they would reach it before the winter snows brought them to a halt, the Soviets certainly didn’t seem to be able to stop them. The news wasn’t good the Germans had launched a new offensive and were racing toward Moscow. Now I was relaxing on the couch, wrapped in a heavy robe, reading the paper. I’d taken a long hot soak in the tub to ease some of soreness from my injured leg. He’d apologized for not being able to provide us a larger suite but they were all occupied. We’d intended to just get a room but the manager had recognized us and insisted we have the suite, guests of the hotel. We had a two room suite, a comfortably furnished sitting room and a private bedroom and bath. James Park and I had probably walked more than I should have. We’d done a lot of walking during the afternoon, starting from Buckingham Palace, we’d wandered through Westminster Abbey and St. We’d decided to stay in tonight, my leg was still bothering me some and I couldn’t really dance yet. Roosevelt’s comment that we ‘looked sharp, like well dressed officers should’ when Buffy, Chelsea, and I had dinner with her and General Arnold the first night of Buffy’s reappearance.

Nobody had commented on our bastardized version of a uniform, other than Mrs. The general consensus seemed to be just to treat us like one of the guys until further notice.

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Most of the military officers, both British and American, were just sort of at a loss as to how to deal with us. The British public that we met seemed to want to just thank us. The news about us had hit all the papers but I had no idea how it was being received back in the States. We had enjoyed a wonderful meal despite several interruptions when people wanted to congratulate her, and me sometimes, or to thank us. We’d managed to get away that afternoon and had spent the time visiting some of the nearby London landmarks before coming back to the hotel and having dinner at the Grill Room. A couple of times she attracted scowls from the elders with her matter of fact comments on a women's place in the world, essentially anywhere she wanted to be, but I thought the princesses were eating it up. She'd spent a lot of time answering questions and bantering with the two princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret. It had been a surreal experience but Buffy had seemed to enjoy herself. We’d dined with the King and his family in an almost private luncheon, just us and the American ambassador, and the royals. Today had been a long day, we had gone to Buckingham Palace for the investiture ceremony where King George VI awarded her the DSO and made her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. We were spending a couple of days at the Savoy in London. She'd just shrug it off with, 'I didn't violate the first rule of Slaying' and refused to say more, and I didn't know what the 'first rule of Slaying' was. I knew she healed a lot faster than a normal human, but she’d still been showing some signs of the injuries when she’d reappeared so I figured she must have been really hurt but she wouldn't tell me exactly how bad it was. She’d been pretty banged up bellying in her plane and she’d had to lie low for several days until the search for her had cooled down and her injuries had healed.

I'd heard her official story and she’d told me some more of it in private. Officially I was on convalescent leave while my wounds healed and Buffy was on leave to recover from her escape from continental Europe. A week later and we still didn’t know what was going to happen to us.