By Janna, age 14 and a half
Buffy watched as Dawn walked down the driveway and onto the yellow school bus. She had died for Dawn, and of course she still absolutely loved her, but Buffy's emotions had been toned down recently. She was trying to cope with living again. Life used to be important to Buffy. But now all she could think about was how wonderful heaven, or whatever it was, had been.
Buffy sighed and went inside to call the plumber. There was a flood in the basement. Lucky me, Buffy thought. Willow and Tara were inside talking.
"Oh, Buffy, are you going to call the--?" Willow started.
"Yes," Buffy replied, not letting her best friend finish-- Her best friend who tore her out of heaven.
Willow was quiet and watched Buffy pick up the phone. Tara gave Willow a sympathetic half-smile. They listened and watched Buffy talk briefly to the plumber before hanging up.
Buffy started to go outside when she noticed Tara and Willow looking at her.
"Um, he'll be over in a few hours," Buffy told them. There was an awkward pause and then she said, "I'm, uh, just going to go out for a bit. I'll be back in time to see the plumber." Buffy talked more slowly now.
"Oh, take your time," Willow said. "We'll wait here for him."
Buffy nodded absently and shut the door behind her.
Spike took off his leather duster and fell upon his bed with it in his hand. He closed his eyes and tried to remember how it felt to inhale and exhale fresh air. Then he realized the only air he had ever breathed was London air, which wasn't quite "fresh".
Spike had been a vampire for so long he had almost forgotten how it felt to be human- until recently. Now with the chip in his head, he started to feel less like a vampire, and more human. When he was with other vampires, they treated him like a wimp. When he was with humans, they treated him like a monster. He wasn't sure where he belonged.
Suddenly Spike's peace was disturbed when he heard footsteps from the other room of his crypt. He got up, alert and ready for any possible danger, grabbing a knife. He left the bedroom with the knife behind his back in his right hand.
Buffy was looking at some things on his stone drawers. He sighed, because it was only Buffy, and smiled.
"Hey. You should be more careful. Never know when someone's gonna have a knife behind their back," he joked in his English accent. He showed her the knife in his hand.
Buffy turned slowly to look at it then looked up at Spike blankly. He smiled awkwardly. He didn't like seeing her unhappy.
"So... any particular reason why you're here?" he inquired.
She shook her blonde head and shrugged a little. Spike watched her, still not totally believing she was alive after four months of her being dead. It was wonderful, but also sad, because she had told him (and only him, which he was proud of) that she been in heaven. He couldn't believe Willow and the rest of the Scooby Gang hadn't told him that they were going to bring Buffy back to life. He knew they thought he was only sexually attracted to Buffy, but they were wrong- very wrong. It may have started only about sex, and with that bloody Buffybot, but now so much had changed. What he felt for Buffy was nothing they could ever understand.
"So, um, how are you?" Spike asked her.
She shrugged. "Fine."
Spike nodded, taking out a cigarette and lighting it.
"A plumber's coming to put the copper pipes in soon, or whatever they are." Spike had noticed Buffy had gotten a lot more cynical. Who could blame her, though?
"Giles went back to dear ole England?" the vampire asked, trying to add humor to the conversation.
Buffy nodded again. She sighed and Spike worried he'd brought up the wrong topic.
Buffy started to go up the stairs to get out of the crypt. "I better go back now," she said, drawing out her words. "I need to deal with that flood. Xander said we'll need to start pairing off animals pretty soon."
Spike smiled, but Buffy kept a straight face.
"Well," he said hurriedly as Buffy started to leave, "Maybe I'll come `round tonight."
Buffy nodded and Spike stayed away from the light that came through when she opened the crypt door, so as not to get burned.
"Bye," she said quietly, and slipped out.