Buffy twirled the tree branch in her hands as she walked, disappointed that the slaying action was at an all time low. She was about to give up, when suddenly, a group of young kids, located inside of a crypt at the far end of the cemetery, caught her eye.
She ran over to the group of young kids, then asked, “Hey, what ya doing?”
The kids looked at her with guilty expressions, before she noticed what they were up to. They were all seated around a sarcophagus, with a Ouija board placed on top.
Buffy sighed, knowing that it was bad luck to try to contact the dead this way. If it worked which required magical skills, it was rarely good spirits who were contacted.
The Scoobies had done intensive research on this topic after encountering some students doing the exact thing back in her Sunnydale. The result had been an evil spirit being called upon tricking the students into thinking it was their dead friend. Buffy had to banish the evil spirit with Willow's help and it wasn't pretty. No good could come of this for these young school age kids.
She took a seat next to one of the younger kids, before asking, “Having any luck?”
The youngest girl in the group shook her head, and said, “Momma not answering.” The young girl's golden curls that surrounded her face moved along with her head as she continued to shake her head completely discouraged and upset.
“Well, Momma must be in Heaven, which means that she gets to look down on you.” Buffy said, slightly frowning, thinking about her own Mother.
The little girl’s tears slowed, as she mustered the courage to timidly asked, “You think?”
Buffy nodded, “Yeah, I do. I think she’d want to look down to see that you’re okay, and continuing to live your life, not searching for her.”
The little girl seemed to sit there, trying to convince
herself that what Buffy said was the truth. Once she finished pondering, she glanced at Buffy one last time. At Buffy's encouraging smile, the girl stood up and straightened her little red dress. Without a word, she took the board and left the crypt. Her friends swiftly followed, yelling for her to ‘wait up’.
Buffy sighed as she kicked the sarcophagus, wishing for more action than a group of kids with a damn Ouija board. She took one more walk around, before finally deciding to go look at the grave-stones for something to do. The grave-stones looked slightly different than in her Sunnydale; some of the stones were the same, only the person had lived a longer life before dying.
Once she looked at a few grave-stones, she plopped herself down on a larger one to do some thinking.
Just then, a bright light appeared, resulting in Anya standing in front of her.
Anya glanced at Buffy, “Are you enjoying your wish or what?”
Buffy gasped in shock, “My wish?”
Anya nodded her head, causing her long hair to cover her eyes, but she brushed it back.
“Yes your wish. You wished that you could have a normal life.” Anya said.
Buffy frowned, before she asked, “Is this permanent?”
“I usually don’t take my wishes back, so you’re on your own for a while. You wanted to see what a normal life would be like, but I have to admit, I’ve seen dimensions with no supernatural beings, yet things are still not happy and normal. There are no supernatural powers in this world; no vampires-no demons-no heroes-no key-and most of all, no slaying.
“So I’m sitting in a graveyard for nothing.” Buffy asked, rhetorically, frowning from the new information.
Anya smiled softly and nodded her response.
“Well, what is there to do around here?” Buffy sighed.
“I’m not from this world. You need to figure that out.” Anya said, slightly shrugging.
Buffy sighed, then threw her tree branch to the side as she made her decision.
“I guess I should get back, then. I’m already grounded.”
Anya said, ’Good luck’ before she disappeared.
Buffy shrugged in defeat at having to deal with her current situation, then headed home.
Meanwhile, Anya slipped into the Magic Box to see herself in this pretend world of Buffy’s. She was staring at a picture of Xander as tears poured down her face.
Anya felt tears sting her eyes as she turned away, leaving. Apparently in Buffy’s dream world, there was no hope for her and Xander either.
Disappointed and hurt, she disappeared.
Buffy snuck into her window, to find her mom and dad sitting on her bed, looking angry. She rolled her eyes, as she realized she was in deep shit.
As soon as her feet hit the floor, Hank demanded, “Where were you, young lady? We didn’t give you permission to sneak out of the house.” Even as Buffy tried to back away from her father, Hank stepped in front of her. He had his hands on his hips and clearly meant business as he yelled loudly, “Were you seeing that Liam boy again? I thought we told you to stay away from him!"
Buffy shook her head trying to make him less mad at her, “No, I just was upset about the grounding so I took a walk, honest!”
Joyce shook her head with a look of disappointment on her face. In some ways to Buffy that disappointment was worse than anger. Joyce moved closer to Buffy stepping in front of Hank to gain her attention, “You know Buffy, that grounding includes no leaving the house-only to go to class, and take Dawn to and from school. This punishment doesn't include taking walks, so now you are grounded for three days instead of the two.” Joyce crossed her arms to make it known that she was not going to back down from that decision no matter what pleas Buffy had. Joyce went on to continue as she looked Buffy in the eye, "That will give you extra time to think about your actions and realize that as long as you choose to live under our roof, you will obey our rules, which aren’t very difficult. We ask you to not fight with others, be home at a decent hour, inform us of where you are going, which includes no sneaking out, and no having sex while under our roof.”
Joyce lifted her hand to Buffy's face to make sure that Buffy wasn't tuning her out. Buffy frowned as she listened to Joyce continue, “It’s all about being responsible, Buffy. We are trying to do the best we can with you and Dawn, and with you fighting us all the time, it makes it harder. Do you understand that?”
Buffy nodded, feeling guilty for upsetting her mom like that.
Hank spoke up then as he stepped up to be next to Joyce. He put a hand on her shoulder to show his support for her as he spoke towards Buffy, “Buffy, really you are smart; surely you can handle our rules, can’t you baby?”
Buffy curtly nodded her head in agreement, before her parents gave her a hug and said, “Get some sleep. You have a long day tomorrow.”
Buffy nodded in silence and watched as they left her room, before she laid on the bed, fully clothed, thinking of how her life was different now. She had always dreamt of her parents staying together, and for her to never have been the Slayer, resulting in a normal life. She had always thought it would be so much easier, but now she wasn’t so sure. She found herself thinking of the vampires that were in her life; Angel who had left her, but she still cared for, and Spike who cared and loved her, deeply. She wasn’t sure how she could make it through life without them. Her life would be so much different now, especially without them.
After she thought of her two vampires, she changed into her frog covered pajamas again. Longing for release from her exhaustion, she crawled into bed to sleep until the morning.
Buffy woke up, took a shower, then changed into a red skirt with a white shirt. She went to her closet to retrieve her leather coat, but sadly realized that it did not contain the garment. She must have not bought it in this dimension.
She brushed her wavy hair back from her face, wishing she was different. She missed how she felt unique with her abilities to fight and save the world. She missed the feeling of doing good and knowing her actions made a difference. Looking at how plain and ordinary she looked, she found herself longing to just have one special thing that made her stand out.
Thinking on herself, Buffy made the decision. She would make the best of this world. If she thought about things long enough she realized she was unique here. She was Buffy Summers, college student who was 21 years old and had a second chance at life, or was this her third? Possibly fourth, if you count the Master. Not everyone could claim they had near death experiences and made it out alive.
Buffy shrugged, not wanting to think about the times she had died. She grabbed her school books, before she bounced down the stairs, thinking that she would make this work, even if it killed her.
She walked into the kitchen as Dawn stated, “You’re earlier this morning.”
Buffy nodded softly as she smiled, both sitting down for pancakes. She wasn’t very hungry, so she didn’t want breakfast, but she figured that part of being normal meant having pancakes for breakfast.
She quietly ate her breakfast as Dawn watched her with curiosity.
Dawn suddenly whispered, “Where did you really go when you snuck out last night?”
Buffy leaned over, saying, “Just a walk.”
Dawn shook her head, “You snuck out for a walk, and got grounded for an extra day? Now we will end up spending our weekend stuck inside. That is so not fun.” Dawn pouted as she continued to eat her pancakes.
Buffy frowned, now feeling guilty for ruining Dawn’s weekend.
Once she finished eating, and Dawn as well, she offered, “Come on Dawn, let’s get you to school.”
Dawn followed, still sulking, even as she sat in the front seat of the car.
Buffy finally felt the urge to say something, because Dawn being so quiet was reminding her of the Dawn she left in her Sunnydale, and this was her chance to make things right.
“I’m sorry Dawn, I didn’t mean to ruin your weekend and mine.”
Dawn said nothing, as she played with the leather straps from her backpack.
When they were almost at school, Dawn turned towards her and frowned, “Just try to be good from now on, so you don’t ruin next week for me as well.” Once the car stopped, Dawn rushed out, slamming the door behind her.
Buffy said nothing as she watched her sister’s display, then slammed her foot on the gas, heading to her class, her heart and mind heavy with thoughts.