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Chapter 8

"Mommy?" Buffy asked again in a lost voice. She automatically went to the telephone where she dialed 911.

"911 operator. What is the nature of your emergency?" a pleasant voice asked.

"My mom. She's on the couch. She's not breathing," Buffy replied. She felt blank inside.

"May I have your name and address, please?"

"Buffy Summers. I'm at 1630 Revello Drive. That's near Hadley," Buffy said mechanically.

"I've sent an ambulance, Ms. Summers. Have you tried CPR?"

"I don't remember." Buffy looked at Joyce's body. "I don't think so."

"Buffy, luv." Spike slammed through the front door. "Are you ready to go?"

"Spike," Buffy whispered. "Help her."

"Oh God, Joyce." Spike entered the room. He immediately went to Joyce's side where he felt for a pulse, but hadn't needed to. He could hear that she was no longer alive. After a few seconds, he shook his head. "She's gone, pet."

"Help her, Spike," Buffy whispered again. Spike was making her life better each day. He had to be able to do something.

"There's nothing I can do, Buffy. Nothing." Spike rose to his feet. He crossed over to the Slayer. "She's gone."

"Hello... are you still there?" the 911 operator asked.

Spike took the receiver from Buffy's nerveless fingers. He spoke into the phone. "We're here. Mrs. Summers is unable to be revived."

"Are you a doctor, sir?"

"No, I'm a bloody gang member on PCP, you bint. I think I know my dead bodies," Spike snarled. He swore under his breath when Buffy whimpered. "Just get the soddin' medics here. Her daughter found her."

In the distance, Spike and Buffy could finally hear the ambulance sirens.

"I need to make a call." Spike hit the hang-up button. Then, he dialed another number. After a few seconds, someone answered. He watched Buffy while he waited for the phone to ring. Her eyes were open, but they weren't seeing. She was staring off in a daze.

"Yeah?"

"Harris, get your arse over to Buffy's," Spike growled. "No. No, I need you to go get Dawn at school."

"What's up?" Xander was instantly alert. He had been dozing in front of the television after work while he waited for Anya to get home from the Magic Box.

"Joyce's dead, Harris." Spike tightened his grip on Buffy, who was finally starting to cry.

"Glory?" Xander stumbled to his feet. He practically tripped himself up, nearly hitting the ground face first. "Was it Glory?"

"No, it wasn't supernatural." A knock on the door interrupted the vampire. "Medics are here. Gotta go."

"I'll get Dawn, and be there in a few." Xander hung up the phone.

Spike herded Buffy to the door. Together they let in the paramedics who looked Spike over very carefully. The vamp guessed the emergency operator relayed the gang member info. At least they were being cautious.

"Mom's in there." Buffy pointed at the living room. "She just had surgery. The doctor said she was okay."

"Surgery?" The paramedic pushed past the blonds once he decided they weren't any threat to him.

"Tumor." Spike tapped his forehead.

"The doctor said she was okay," Buffy repeated.

"Come on, sweets. Let them do their job." Spike pulled Buffy into the dining room. He sat down in a chair, and he pulled Buffy down into his lap.

In a few minutes one of the paramedics came in to quietly speak to Spike. He directed them to come to the hospital morgue when they were called. Spike nodded as he rocked the distraught Buffy.

After the ambulance was gone, Spike continued to murmur reassurances in the Slayer's ear. He held her tight while she sobbed into his neck. Spike heard Harris' car pull up outside, and then the dulcet tones of an irate teenager.

Dawn burst into the house. "What was so important that Xander had to come get me?" She took one look at the crying Buffy and her posture deflated. "Spike? What's wrong?"

"Come here, Nibblet." The bleached blond vampire opened his other arm. "I'm really sorry, but your mum..."

"Mommy?" Dawn launched herself at Spike and Buffy.

Xander watched as Spike comforted the two remaining Summers women. When Spike glanced at him, he could see the tears in the vampire's eyes. Xander gestured that he was going to make a few phone calls.

The first couple of calls to the Scoobies were fairly easy for the young man. Willow, Tara, and Anya each promised that they would be there as soon as they could get away.

Then Xander called England. This was a conversation he was dreading. He bet dollars to donuts that Giles was going to blame Spike for crimes real or imagined.

"Hey, Giles. I just wanted to tell you the bad news."

"You're all vampires now?" Giles asked sarcastically. He had been on his way to bed when the phone rang.

"Not hardly. I called to let you know that Joyce passed on unexpectedly today."

"What?" Giles sat down in the chair next to the phone table.

"Buffy found her earlier. Spike's comforting her and Dawn right now." Xander stared out the front window. "Should we hold the funeral until you can get here?"

"I don't think so." Giles sounded a little cool to the Scooby, and Xander decided mentioning Spike probably had done that. "Give Buffy and Dawn my condolences."

"I'll do that, but you should do it yourself." Xander nodded. "Talk to you later, Giles." He hung up the phone. "Ass."

"That the Watcher?" Spike entered the room. He was alone.

"Yeah. Giles has some serious issues with you, man." Xander continued to stare out the window. "Should we call Angel? I really hate that guy, but..."

"Please don't." Buffy slipped into the room. "I can't deal with him on top of everything else. He wants me to move on, and then he gets all grumpy with my boyfriends."

"From what Dru said, he's doing his own moving on." Spike didn't think the details were all that important, but he'd spill the beans if Buffy pressed the issue.

"Well good for him." Buffy nodded. "Have Willow do a disinvite just in case he decides to get too happy."

"Where's Dawn?" Xander asked.

"In the kitchen." Buffy sighed. How could this be happening to their family? Her mother wasn't supposed to be the one that died young. "The doctor said she was going to be okay."

"How about we go lay down, luv?" Spike put his arm around Buffy's shoulders. "At least until the hospital calls with the autopsy reports."

"I'll keep Dawn company," Xander replied. "The others will be here soon."

"Thanks, Harris." Spike led Buffy towards the stairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Scoobies gathered around the waiting room. Buffy and Dawn huddled on either side of Spike. Willow and Tara sat across from them with Anya a few seats further down. Xander stood at the window looking out into the sunlight.

"Ms. Summers." Dr. Kriegel, the doctor who had been Joyce's primary care physician, entered the waiting room. "I've finished the examination of your mother's remains. She died of what looks like an aneurysm which is a sudden hemorrhaging from a ruptured arterial vessel near the location of the removed tumor."

"Shouldn't we have known it was a danger?" Buffy asked.

"These things aren't always detectable." Dr. Kriegel looked at the group of saddened young people. He noticed that the older gentleman wasn't with them this time. "I'm positive it was quite painless. She probably just felt a little dizzy and she laid down."

"Can we see her?" Dawn asked.

"Of course," Dr. Kriegel replied. "Whenever you're ready."

"I shouldn't have left her alone," Buffy whispered.

The doctor heard Buffy and turned to back to try to tell her that she was not at fault. "Ms. Summers, even if you had been there, there's no guarantee there would have been time to save Joyce," Dr. Kriegel tried to reassure the young woman.

"It's not your fault, Buffy." Dawn realized that Buffy was having some problems accepting their mother's death. If it wasn't for Spike, the teenager thought her sister might be worse off at that moment than she already was.

"I never thought I'd live long enough to see Mom die, you know?" Buffy whispered. "It's me that's supposed to die young."

"Can I see her now?" Dawn asked again.

Buffy cleared her throat. She didn't think Dawn needed to see her break down at that moment. "Spike, go with her please. I'm not ready to see Mom yet."

"Sure, luv. You stay here with the Wiccas." The vampire put his arm around Dawn. Together they followed Dr. Kriegel out of the room.

Buffy sat down next to Tara. She stared down at her hands while she wondered how she was going to deal with everything. Thank God for Spike. He was her rock. He'd been around a long time. Hopefully he knew what to do because she was lost.

"Would you like something to drink, Buffy?" Willow asked. When Buffy nodded, the redhead waved for Xander to go with her to the cafeteria.

"My mom died when I was seventeen," Tara whispered, trying to comfort Buffy. "It's always a hard thing to deal with."

"Was it sudden?" Buffy asked.

"No ... yes ... it's always sudden." Tara gave Buffy a small smile. "Even when you know it's going to happen."

"How do humans cope with all the death?" Anya asked softly as if she were speaking to herself. "I mean, how am I supposed to act? As many deaths as I've caused over the centuries, I've never dealt with anyone I know personally dying."

"I guess a thousand years as a demon makes you forget being human." Tara looked at Anya with sympathy.

"I've never fit in." Anya wiped a tear from her eye. "Not even back then. I've never had any friends except Halfrek, and she only became a vengeance demon in 1881."

"We haven't been very friendly, have we?" Buffy asked. She felt a burst of sudden shame for their treatment of the ex-demon.

"You're busy. I know that. Being a Slayer's tough work." Anya shook her head.

"It's hard sometimes seeing everyone move on with their lives." Buffy looked down at her hands. "I know someday, you guys are gonna get tired of this life and want to settle down. I'll be alone."

"Don't think that!" Tara said vehemently. "Willow has never said anything like that!"

"Xander either."

"Angel left. So did Giles."

"Because they're both arses." Spike had returned with Dawn.

"Spike had to stake a couple of vamps down in the morgue," Dawn informed Buffy. "I wonder when the body loses its reflection?"

"And that non-sequitur came from?" Buffy asked her sister.

Dawn shrugged. "Vamps in the morgue. They need mirrors."

Willow and Xander stepped into the waiting room. They each carried three cups of coffee.

"The funeral director called." Willow handed Buffy a cup. "He'll see you at 2:00."

Buffy nodded as she took a sip of coffee.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buffy stared at the empty coffin. Spike and Dawn were across the chapel speaking to the funeral director. The Slayer continued to stare off into space while she thought about her mother.

"Do you like that one?" Dawn's voice sounded in Buffy's ear.

"I guess." Buffy nodded. "Mom said to get whatever one we liked." She had to admit the conversation felt more than a little morbid.

"I like it." Dawn linked her arm through Buffy's. She knew Buffy was having a hard time coping with the loss of Joyce. "Spike's arranged everything."

Buffy nodded, but she didn't speak. She was ready to go to bed ... for a year or two at least.

Dawn pointed at the coffin for the funeral director. Then, she helped Spike take Buffy home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The minister looked at the gathered mourners. He cleared his through, and he started his eulogy.

"Joyce Summers was a wonderful woman, a patient mother, a patient employer..."





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