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(This is original creative material copyright Chris Kenworthy, based on characters that he has no right to owned by someone else blah blah biddy blah...) |
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Buffy looked up, from her spot on the Rosenberg lawn right beside the newly inserted iron spike. "Hi Will, what's up?"
"Not much here, actually I was wondering how you're doing."
"Me? I's fine."
"Really?" Willow challenged her with a concerned smile, swinging down onto the dead grass opposite her friend.
"Hmm." Buffy considered. "Well, I suppose everything's not peachy-keen at that. I've got a psycho-witch who used to be an almost-friend wanting to kill me- that's okay. I've had bigger problems as the Slayer. I'm going Limbo-crazy, but who isn't. And..."
"Yes?" Willow prodded.
"I feel as if everything suddenly changed between Xander and me the moment Cordelia walked into that room, and that scares me. I mean, this morning I thought I was madly in love with Xander, and now..."
"And now?"
"And now, I feel like there's nothing I'd rather do that march into Angel's room and do something to make him notice me again!"
"Buffy!" Willow squealed, scandalized, and then recovered her composure. "You know you can't do that - I mean, you'd only have to pass by his window for Angel to notice you, but going down that road again, it's only likely to end one place."
"I know," Buffy said. "Angelus again. And I didn't say I was gonna do anything like that, just that that's how I feel. It's as if I was just fooling around with Xander, getting off on the secrecy, and now that we're perforce all the way out in the open, I can't pretend to still be interested in him. And that leaves me exactly where I started - loving Angel."
Buffy looked up at her friend, but Willow just sat in silent consideration for a few long moments. Finally, she said, "Well, let's look at this. You're still in love with Angel, right?" Buffy nodded. "But you know you have to stay away from him." Buffy nodded again. "Until this afternoon, you thought you were also falling in love with Xander, but now you're not so sure." Nod.
"Well," Willow continued, "I don't know what's in your mind, but I'd wonder if there aren't other reasons your feelings for Xander could be confused. You've just had a very embarassing moment having to do with him. He's suddenly free to be with you, which he hasn't really been since you first fell for him, and that's kinda scary. Also, you're in the middle of dealing with a tricky situation that your relationship with him got started. I think it wouldn't be a good idea to write him off before all that gets settled."
A smile spread across Buffy's face. "Of course! That makes a lot of sense, really. Thank you."
"Any time."
"Can I ask one other thing of you?"
"Sure, Buffy."
"Could you, I don't know, go and check on Angel sometime? I know it isn't a good idea for us to see each other, but he's spending too much time shut up in that room. I'm worried about him."
"Of course, Buffy," Willow answered, smiling.
"So, what have the two of you been chatting about?" Buffy looked up to see Oz, standing a few feet away from them.
"Oh, just talking about," Willow began, then caught Buffy's warning glance. "Um, uh, the Limbo blues."
"Oh, yeah," Oz nodded sympathetically, crouching down near them. "We've been through some weird stuff, but this place is something else, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Buffy agreed. "Did you ever think about what must be going on in the real world right about now? A few weeks have gone by, we're all missing, but life is going on."
"Yeah," Willow agreed morosely. "At this very moment, mom and dad might be sitting on that porch, waiting desperately for me to come home..." she broke off, holding back tears.
"Hey, come on Will," Oz said, reaching out to hug her.
"We're gonna get home," Buffy asserted calmly.
"Not..." Willow choked back a sob. "Not as long as Kaliya's in the mix."
"Then I'll deal with Kaliya," Buffy replied confidently. "Count on it."
* * * *
Across Limbo, Cordelia pranced erratically down an alleyway. "Fire and wind and earthly rage," she called out to no-one in particular. "Serpent's poison mixed with sage; Troubled sky and waters tend -" she waved a hand, and a bolt of lightning came down in the distance from the cloudless Limbo sky. "That will lead to Xander's end. Iron's touch and ice's bite, veils of black to mask her sight."
Cordelia rose again into the sky as she finished her rhyme. "Worms should crawl towards her tomb; This night will bring Buffy's doom!"
* * * *
Buffy knew who was coming from the footsteps on the sidewalk, before she even looked up. "Hi, Mom."
"Hi, honey," Joyce Summers said, blushing.
"Gee, I guess it's really 'come talk to Buffy down at the spike'" day, isn't it?" Buffy flashed a sarcastic grimace at her mother.
"Well, at least I know that you're not gonna find an excuse to run off somewhere."
Buffy frowned. "Mom..."
"You've been shutting me out," Joyce said flatly. "That's nothing new. From what Hank tells me, you've been giving him even less attention than you used to give me - freezing him out to hang with your watchers and friends. He doesn't have the nerve to say anything about it to you, because he feels responsible for the divorce and doesn't want to scare you off the way I did."
"But..."
But Joyce was still talking. "That I do have a problem with, Buffy. You don't have to talk to me, you don't have to live with me. But your father has changed his whole life for you, and I've shared my life with you for a lot of years. The least you could do is let one of us into your own life!" Joyce was projecting loudly, her voice seeming to carry endlessly across the deserted street. "We're your parents, Buffy! We are where you came from, and if you paid any attention to us, maybe we could teach you something about yourself!"
"Mom!" Buffy finally broke in. "You've got a point here, maybe a few points. But this is SO not the time! I mean, I'm sitting out here waiting for a deadly magical attack, and the longer and louder you're here, the more chance you stand of getting hurt too."
"Okay, okay, I'll go." Joyce headed back away. Suddenly she stopped, paused where she was for several moments, and turned back to Buffy. "You're so worried about us getting hurt if we get to close to the slaying," she told her daughter. "Can't you see how much it hurts us to get too far away from you, Buffy?"
Buffy's face fell as Joyce turned and walked away again.
"She's right, you know," Buffy turned and looked over her shoulder. Giles was standing there with a friendly and concerned look on his face.
"You gonna start in on me now?"
"Not if you don't want me to," Giles responded pleasantly. "Is there anything you would like to talk about?"
Buffy sighed. "I dunno." She considered a moment. "Life. Limbo. How much I wish this trail of evil and nerve-wracking adventure that's always crossing the Slayer's path would just go away. What a mess I've been making of my family and my life lately." She looked up at Giles and smiled faintly. "Sound like enough to start with?"
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