Chapter Five


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Two days and ten hours later, a train still moved while a tiny blond woman hopped from the caboose and ran towards the train station. Unable to control her excitement, she raced along the tracks in the dead of night, moving forward towards the station. If the vampires had a window, they would have watched her run as fast as the train, while she released the pent up energy stored up in her body for too long. They would have envied her freedom and joy.

A moonless night and the stars seemed not to shine. The only brightness was in the distance, at the train station, and at the inn that lay to its right. Buffy sprinted towards the door, knocked, and gleefully searched the hanging plant for a key.

"Dawnie, I hear someone at the door."

"I'LL GET IT!" A young voice hollered from inside. But Buffy's impatience unlocked the door first. Face to face, the girls stood.

"Oh my god, it's BUFFY!" The younger shrieked and embraced her older sister.

"Dawnie? I can't believe it's you!" She was no longer the lanky mousy haired girl anymore. She had grown six inches, and towered over the blond. Rich auburn hair reached an impossible length behind her back, and two dark brown eyes took in her older sister's appearance. "Eww! You're all sweaty. Mom! Tell Buffy to get off of me!"

But the older woman standing from the corner did not mind the sweat from a midnight run. Open arms and dewy eyes greeted her oldest daughter. Buffy saw that her light brown hair had turned white in patches. New wrinkles had appeared beside her eyes and across her forehead, but her warmth and love had not changed. And that was all that mattered.

Years passed before her mother could finally talk. After handing her daughter a plate of food, and caressing her cheeks, and running her finger through her hair, she finally could tell Buffy what needed to be changed.

"Where is Mr. Giles? Buffy! Stop stuffing that pizza down your throat. I demand that you sit down and eat slowly !" declared Joyce Summers, mother of both girls, and surrogate mother of all. "You look like you haven't eaten in days! What have they been doing to you?"

"It's hard work, mom," Buffy declared between bites of pizza.

"I don't care. Your Mr. Giles is responsible for your health, and I won't have him slacking off just because he's got other things on his mind. You are only skin and bones!" She clucked, "Now where is your troupe?"

"Giles snuck up to his normal room when you weren't watching." Dawn chirped, "He motioned for me to be silent."

"The nerve of that man for hiding out in his room!" Joyce shook her head, "Rupert Giles, get down here this instant before I come up and get you myself!"

But Joyce never had time to scold him about her daughter's treatment, because she was attacked on all sides by her adopted children. Kind words flew out of her mouth as she addressed every girl and boy who grew up to be a man and woman.

"Xander, how handsome you look with your hair so long! Can I cut it tomorrow... this must be Anya, I've heard so much about you from Xander's letters. I cannot wait to hear about how you two met... Willow, I hardly recognized you! You look beautiful. I just cannot get over how grown up you are! Tara, after Willow's description of you, I could have known you anywhere. I can tell that she was not exaggerating a word... Jonathon, are you still with these crazy people? I thought you had better sense..." And on and on until she had settled everyone down in the living room with a nice cup of cocoa with tiny marshmallow's floating on the surface.

"Joyce, I must say, you have done a wonderful job in maintaining this inn. It hasn't changed a bit." Giles followed the wooden trim around the ceiling, and the brightly colored wallpaper.

"After four years, this is still standing. Unlike the High School..." She glanced pointedly at her daughter who spluttered in her drink.

"I... that was... Mom!" Buffy cried indignantly while Dawn giggled maliciously at her sister's discomfort.

"Do not Mom me! You filled it with fertilizer and lit it on fire!"

"Joyce, you know as well as I that it was filled with—"

"Mr. Giles, my daughter has not been eating correctly. Do you really think this is the time for me to point out that she destroyed Sunnydale High underneath YOUR instructions?"

"I... um... would you like some more cocoa Joyce? I think everyone needs a refill."

"Sit down Rupert!" Buffy's mother laughed, "Don't be scared of me. I am powerless against all these glowing faces. Though later, we shall converse about Buffy."

"When she's not in the room."

"Naturally."

"You know I'm sitting right here."

"I know dear." She smiled at her oldest daughter and then across the room to every face. "Everyone is here."

"Do you need any help on appliances or carpentry?" Xander asked while added some more marshmallows to his cocoa.

"Not right now, but in the morning I can probably think of something. My neighbor's son, Scott, has been helping me with the smaller chores, and everyone for that matter. This town has taken a long time to rebuild and is still working out all the kinks. But no one is complaining."

"I am sure that we can help out while we're here." Tara added softly, "I mean, i-if we aren't obligated anywhere else..."

"I think that's a wonderful idea, Tara." Giles nodded. "We should put every man forward and make the best of the time we have here."

"AND woman." Anya added, somewhat forcefully. Giles blinked at her.

"Pardon?"

"Every man AND woman. You cannot just exclude women from contributing to the work. Unless you mean to say that we are weak and unworthy of work—"

"That is hardly what I was suggesting," Giles scoffed.

"Then did you mean that we are insignificant, and should only be seen in chattels as harlots?"

"Anya, really."

"Giles, how could you be so sexist? We are trying to achieve an age of prosperity and peace, and while you are sitting on your pile of gold—"

"This is getting ridiculous..."

"—and your white supremist attitude—"

"... Xander, please, will you..."

"—we WOMEN are standing out in the cold, being ill fed and mistreated still. Xander—"

"...please! Restrain her from any more insulting comments towards my nature..."

"—tell him to stop insinuating comments that are chauvinistic and bigoted—"

"Whoa, you guys!" Xander shouted and then with a glare from Anya, he quickly added, "and girls!"

"We prefer to be addressed as women."

"Alright... whatever Anya. Giles didn't mean to exclude women. He only meant it as the human race, which is often addressed as men." And with a pointed and slightly desperate look, he added, "And I am sure that Giles is sorry for anything negative he might have accidentally and unintentionally said about womankind."

In the background, Dawn was giggling into her mother's shoulder. Giles' face had a look of undignified shock and loathing at the idea that HE had to apologize to Anya, who was looking very proud that she won this battle. Though neither had really won.

"Anya, I am sorry that you got offended when I stated "men" instead of "men and women"." It wasn't really an apology but she took it anyways.

"And Giles, I am sorry that that you have been brainwashed by the patriarchal society that instilled a corrupt set of beliefs into your morals."

Giles looked as if he was going to strangle her.

"And?" Xander prodded.

"And... I shall be more forgiving towards your occasional prejudiced and pig-like slip ups since you do pay me." The woman patted Giles on his back, and then smiled, beamingly, at Xander. "Speaking of payment, will we get money if we do physical labor for the sake of the town?"

"I am sure that the gratitude of every townsm—wo—person is gratitude enough for us." Xander replied.

"Right." She said while putting on an obviously forced smile, "This is one of those things that are good for humanity that will reward us with fuzzy feelings of happiness... though not as happy as the feeling of money"

Xander put his arm around the girl to silence her.

"Or sex."



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Buffy's eyelids were growing heavy as they stared into the eerie television light. She felt comfortable and satisfied as her sister leaned against her, and they both snuggled against the back of the couch. Circled around were her friends, finding soft places on pillows and carpeting. In the back, she could hear the voices of her mother and Giles, doing the dishes and talking.

The blond girl's desire to hear their conversation soon overtook her slumber, and softly, she unwrapped herself from Dawn's tight hold and carefully tiptoed through the sleeping couples. Giles and Joyce were standing close together washing and drying the plates and cups, talking softly. Buffy silently watched the pair together, feeling a sense of home.

She once had a father who unwillingly left their family when Dawn was young. Buffy knew that he had died in the fight against demons and vampires when they attacked the southern borders. She remembered opening their door to an army officer, who took off his hat and apologized to her mother. And with a baby in her arms she listened as the soldier said that Hank Summers had died during battle. And that he had saved their team. Buffy, later discovered that he had poisoned himself and sacrificed his life to Lothos, vampire master. Her father's bravery was never forgotten in her mind, though in her dreams, she often saw visions that undermined her father's heroism... but she had the medals of bravery to prove it, and her mother's teary eyed reverence whenever anyone rarely mentioned his name.

Yet at eighteen, Buffy never noticed the growing attraction between Giles and her mother until the night before she left Sunnydale. She had come home late from saying goodbye to neighbors, and in a moment, saw how easily Giles held her mother's hand. It was an unintentional gesture, but one that shook her. Going back into her mind, she saw her mother's loneliness and then the way that Giles treated her during his year of stay. The memory is fond, but years before, it was filled with anger.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Buffy demanded bitterly at nineteen, a month after their departure from Sunnydale. Giles had given it three weeks of Buffy's silent disposition, thinking it was homesickness. But after those weeks, he saw that she was only silent in his presence. Finally, he took her away, and confronted her. She burst open and angrily told him that she knew.

"Buffy. There are some things that you must discover for yourself and some things that you keep private from everyone. This was one of those things, for me."

"But my mother, she's alone now."

"I know."

"You broke her heart! You left her!"

"Your mother and I talked about this, and we both understand one another."

"I trusted you! How could you... you betray her!"

"Buffy, I did not betray your mother. She does not think that I betrayed her. So then why do you believe I betrayed someone?"

"I... I cannot believe that you would... oh my god!" She cried, and then tears started in her eyes. Giles took her resisting body into his arms. She fought, naturally. But he fought back too. And eventually, she clung to the side of his jacket, and wept while Giles soothed her through words.

"Buffy, you are so young. And you have carried so much on your shoulders. Have you ever wanted something for yourself? That you never asked for because you knew you couldn't have it? Listen to me; I am taking you away from that. You will have no worries. You can let go of the responsibility of saving everyone in your town, and concentrate on being a girl."

"But... that doesn't... justify... mom—"

"Your mother and I know where we stand in our lives. Joyce is an incredible woman. I've never met anyone like her in my life. But we both knew that I was in Sunnydale for you. At the end of the day, she would stay to rebuild Sunnydale and raise Dawn, and I would leave with you. I have never wished to erase, or undo the memories of your father, and the last thing I wanted was your worry about a matter like this. Your mother is discovering herself as a woman without a husband and her oldest child, just as you are finding what it is like to be without the weight of the world on your shoulders. I like to think that I helped her find herself, just a little, through our time together."

"What will happen when you see her again?" Buffy whispered. Now Giles looked away.

"I don't know." He said in a far away voice. "Sometimes, it's not about love, it's about need."



Buffy didn't understand the statement until she fell in love with a sweet faced boy, ten miles outside of Los Angeles. He worked in the California vineyards. They spent four weeks with one another, as he traveled with her to San Francisco up the coast. He was muscular and wonderful, and Buffy found herself wrapped up in his adoration of her. But when the second week ended, she had to return to her vampires and him to his laborious work. It took a month for her to experience love, and three years to understand that nothing is ever enough. She would see him soon, Buffy realized. She always wrote him and told him about her adventures. But in this last letter, Buffy had only included a place, date, and a question mark.

And Riley Finn simply wrote, "of course".



Sitting, studying her mother and her guardian gently touch shoulders, she understood that their intimacy was far greater than anything she had ever had. And longingly, she watched their fingers brush as one dish passed to the other. As silently as she came, she left, letting their rolling conversation travel on, without interruption.