This time when they stopped they saw Willow and Buffy sitting in Buffy’s bedroom. It was the larger bedroom so they discerned that this had to be around when the First came at them.
Buffy and Willow were just lying on the bed beside each other staring up at the ceiling.
“This is nice.” Buffy told her friend softly.
“Yeah.” Willow replied, “This is nice.”
With that they were on the move again. Buffy and Willow looked at each other slightly confused. Both also wondered when the last time was that they had done something like that together. They walked to each other and gave each other a quick hug before looking around to see where they were.
They were in the dining hall in Scotland. Buffy gave a sigh of relief until Dawn pointed through the foyer to the living area that they had all been in not long ago where she herself was standing.
“Oh balls.”
They all walked forward. Buffy was looking at a picture of her and Dawn in a frame when Conner entered the room.
“So did everything check out?” Conner asked calmly.
Buffy put down the frame and turned to Conner. “Yup, you’re Angel’s son alright.”
“You didn’t call him or anything did you?” He asked Buffy with worry etched on his face.
“No I didn’t call him, Willow did a spell to confirm it. Sorry that we had to, but someone shows up claiming to be Angel’s love child but won’t let me tell him, it kinda makes you wonder.”
“I get that.” He laughed slightly at the craziness of the situation.
“I think you should call him though.” Buffy told him rather seriously.
“I’ll look into it.” After a slight pause he asked, “So where does this put us on the me working with you guys issue?”
“Give a girl a minute to adjust,” Buffy joked slightly, “Yesterday I found out that Angel had a son and now that son is asking to work with me unbeknownst to Angel.”
Conner’s face was crestfallen. “It’s okay,” he began looking at the floor then looking back up at Buffy, “I should have known…”
Buffy looked confused and then realization hit her face. “Oh hey kid, no…I’m adjusting to this but I have no problem with you.”
“I find that hard to believe…”
“Hey,” Buffy said sternly taking a step forward making sure he was looking at her, “Believe it. Angel didn’t tell me this, and to say I’m disappointed would be an understatement since apparently in your memory Angel got both Willow and Faith to lie to me as well.” Buffy took a brief pause and continued, “But none of that has anything to do with you. You can stay here and work with us. I think you should tell him, sooner rather than later, but I’m not going to interfere, I promise. Now, tell me you believe me.”
“Are you sure? I mean…you wouldn’t be the first to prefer I don’t exist.”
“Hey! You listen to me. From what I can tell, you’re quite the awesome kid, but even if you weren’t, you’re existence still wouldn’t be what’s screwing me up right now. Got it?”
“Got it.” Conner told her with a smile.
Angel now looked at Buffy watching. “I’m sorry you know…also thank you.” He told her guilt mixed with gratitude.
“For what?”
“This.” He told her pointing at the scene where now Buffy was giving Conner their first hug and Conner began to tear up silently.
“No problem whatsoever.” She told him staring back at the scene with a smile on her face.
Buffy didn’t notice Conner come up behind her to give her a grateful bear hug from behind. “Umph!” She exclaimed her surprise then relaxed. “You’re welcome too.”
Conner ended the hug and looked at Buffy, then Faith, Willow, Dawn…continued to everyone and landed on Angel. “Thank you.” He told them all with sincerity, keeping the same happy tears at bay.
At this Dawn gave Conner a playful punch on the arm and called him a wimp.
Conner looked at her with mock hurt in his eyes and playfully punched her back calling her a bitch.
They laughed as they were on the move again.
They were back at the Summer’s house in the living room and Spike was sitting on the couch looking tired and miserable. Then Dawn’s voice came from the hall leading to the kitchen.
“So my homeroom teacher, Ms. Lefcort, was like, ‘Your sister's an example to us all.’ Hmm! She wanted to make it National Buffy Day.”
Dawn was holding a mug in her hand that she put on the coffee table as she sat next to Spike on the couch.
“Makes sense.” He told her.
“It does?” She asked looking at him.
“Yeah, she responded to BuffyBot because a robot is predictable. Boring. Perfect teacher's pet. That's all schools are, you know. Just factories, spewing out mindless little automatons.” Off Dawn’s raised eyebrow he continued back-pedalling over what he had said. “Who go on to be...very...valuable and productive members of society, and you should go.” He continued quieter with sadness in his voice, “Because Buffy would want you to.”
They both sat on the couch for a second looking mournful until Dawn decided to respond. “Check, one mindless automaton coming up.”
They continue to mourn until Spike decides he doesn’t want to and gets up searching for something. “So, uh, what do you fancy, bit, uh, game of rummy?”
“Well, uh, Willow and Tara said they'd be back early. You don't really have to hang. I mean, if you're bored.”
Spike replied a little stern. “I’m not, and yeah I do.” He took a pack of cards out of a side table and pulled a chair up on the other side of the coffee table.
“But I'm fine alone. It's not like anyone's coming after me. I'm not the key. Or if I am, I don't open anything any more. It's over. Remember?”
Spike now sat down in the chair and quietly told her, “I'm not leaving you here by yourself, so forget it.”
Dawn continued to protest with “Well, I'm just saying-“ But Spike quickly interrupted her by slamming the cards down violently on the table. All of the on looks jumped slightly at this except for Dawn and Spike. Spike was now looking at Dawn who was looking angrier by the minute.
Spike in the memory explained, “No. I’m not leaving you…to get hurt.” He continued more softly, “Not again.”
They look at each other for a second before Spike points at the cards and instructs her to deal.
Once again when they left the memory they found themselves standing in the dining room. No one said anything until Darla appeared again and told them, “You can breath again, it’s over.”
With that Buffy actually let out an audible sigh before looking at her sister with concern. Spike was doing the same thing and took a step towards her. “Dawn-“
“Stay the hell away from me.” She told him not looking at him as she swiftly walked out of the room and up the stairs.
Spike’s guilt only grew on his face, though he couldn’t help but notice Buffy look at him with pity, but only for a second before she snapped out of it and turned to Willow and Faith.
“Should I go talk to her?”
“I think she needs a little bit, B”
“I agree with Faith, give her time.”
Spike wanted to ask if he could go talk to her when the time came, but he didn’t think it would go over well.
Everyone was feeling a little raw after the compilation of moments they had all shared. They stood around the table again all not sure what to say.
“Umm…so any ideas as to who the danger is coming from? No?” It was Conner asking the group as if nothing had just happened, evidently trying to lighten the mood. “Anybody?”
TBC
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Author's Chapter Notes:
So this is the last chapter with memories like this. I may go back to this later with different people going but I'm not sure if it will be necessary or not. Thanks so much for those who stuck it out through realizations with a considerably low amount of new plot. It will become relevant if it hasn't already. I will also be posting the first chapter of my supplemental story based on the first memory in the chapter before this one, very soon. I hope you all come out to see it. It will be considerably shorter than I plan for this one to be but I"m thinking anywhere from 10 - 20 chapters. Without further adoooooo
Chapter End Notes:
I'm steadily getting more reviews per chapter...and I like it! Thank you so much guys!