Don't own any of the characters. Just playing with them. I'll put them back when I'm done.

Think this is a fairly self-explanatory story. Set sometime in early season 2.



I have a family.

Finally, I have a wonderful, together, happy family. Not your regular run of the mill blood-related family, but still a family. I have used 'family' a lot in the last three sentences. The reason is that I have only just realised that I have one. Up until now, I thought all I had was some close friends and advisors.

I now know differently.

Two days ago I was seriously injured while patrolling with the slayer, my best friend and my girlfriend. Cordelia, my girlfriend, trailed behind, complaining about her heels and how her shoes just weren't made for vampire hunting. Buffy, the slayer, walked up front, ready to attack straight on anything that came our way. Willow, my best friend, was in front of me and behind Buffy. She weilded a stake, nervously fiddling with it. As I said, I was behind her, trying to show support and sympathy for my struggling other half. I didn't see the vamp coming, and it was too strong for me.

It pounced. At first my mind was blank, I didn't realise what was happening. It was Cordelia's ear-piercing scream that made me come back to my senses. I fought a good fight and waited for Buffy to save me, but she didn't come. I remember seeing this huge monster on top of me, pinning me down and then darkness. That's all.

I woke up this morning in the hospital, a blurred face hovered above me. For a split second I thought it was Cordelia, then I realised none other than Miss Jenny Calendar, Sunnydale's resident computer teacher. As my vision cleared I noticed another figure behind her, Rupert Giles, librarian by day, watcher by night. Both faces visibly relaxed as I regained consciousness. They explained that a group of vampires had attack us in the cemetery. Buffy was okay, but Willow and Cordelia had been hurt. Neither was in serious danger, but they had got pretty bad injuries. I wanted to see them, but Jenny and Giles made me stay still until they had finished. I had been hurt badly, I already knew that. what I didn't know was that my foot had been so badly damaged, that it had had to be amputated.

For a while, it didn't sink in. When it finally did, they continued. Since I was still at school, I could get a prosthetic foot for free.

I asked where my parents were. The couple in front of me looked down, at the walls, up, anywhere but directly at me. After a lot of coaxing, they told me that my parents had been informed, but they had not been anywhere near the hospital. That did not take as long to sink in. may parents had made it very clear on various occasions, that I was merely an inconvenience to them.

Jenny and Giles looked at each other, and I knew they were having a silent conversation. It was amazing how they could do that. Neither uttered a word to the other, but they got up simultaneously. Giles took his lady's hand, Jenny made their apologies and they left.

I was alone in a room. A stark white room. I knew if I tried to stay awake I would go out of my mind with boredom, so I attempted to sleep.

After two hours of tossing and turning, I woke up with a start. Nightmares from the attack haunting me. I lay down and just thought about things and realised something I never had before.

I had never had a close relationship with any member of my family, but I just thought families were like that. From spending time with my friends, I realise that it is not at all what families are like. Families are like the relationship I have with the people who care about me.

When I think of my parents now, I don't think about the people who used and abused me as a child, I think of Jenny and Giles. They are parent figures for the whole group. They love us, each other and would protect us until they die. That's what parents are.

I never had any brother or sisters, but I think that if I did, they would be like Buffy and Willow. We are so close, no-one could ever split us apart. We share more that friendship. We share a secret, a passion and an understanding that no-one else understands.

Cordelia. Now there's a puzzler. I'm not sue where she fits into my family. She couldn't be a sister. I don't love her like that. I love her like a wife, and I hope she will be one day. That's it. She's the wife I always wanted, and the one I will always want. Only thing is that she will have and amazingly good relationship with her in-laws.

I have a family.

Finally, I have a wonderful, together, happy family. Not your regular run of the mill blood-related family, but still a family. I have used 'family' a lot in the last three sentences. The reason is that I have only just realised that I have one. Up until now, I thought all I had was some close friends and advisors.

I now know differently.