Buffy Who?

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon

Spoilers: Post "Chosen"

A/N: While this isn't a crossover with "Samantha Who?", the idea was plucked from there.

--

'Keep running. Don't stop, can't stop.'

She was in a graveyard, just like all the other times. She didn't really have time to figure out why every time she ran it was in the same place because something was always chasing her. It was familiar, but it was felt evil.

'Don't look at it, just keep running.'

Jumping over fallen trees, she kept going only to be stopped short by a hand grabbing her ankle. Falling forward, she rolled. Stopping, she turned and stared in shock at the hand sprouted out of the ground, trying to dig itself free.

Looking up, whatever had been chasing her had stopped, but it wasn't visible. Thinking she was safe for awhile, she looked at the hand. The dirt gave way and another hand came out, pulling its body out of the ground. The head came next, a man. He smiled at her as he pulled himself out. Standing above her, he pulled something from his pocket.

Was that… It couldn't be?

"Would you like some cheese, dear?"

--

Eyes opening, the first thing she became aware of was not the noises that most would notice in her position. No, what she first noticed was a red headed woman at the head of her bed, floating in the air! As if noticing eyes on her, the red head's eyes popped open and she landed on the ground, smiling.

"Buffy, you're awake! We were so worried about you after the accident! I mean, slayers are pretty resilient against demons and stuff, but who would have thought you guys would have to watch out for stray cars, huh?"

She was more than amazed that the woman could speak so much without breathing, but she was still stuck on what she saw before. And why couldn't she speak?

"Wh a-ar?" That was all she could manage at the moment, but she hoped the woman understood.

"Buffy?" the woman frowned, walking closer to her friend. "Okay, blink once for yes and twice for no, got that?"

Blink? What was, oh! The eye thing.

Blinking once, the woman smiled again.

"Um, do you know where you are?"

She blinked twice, though she had an idea.

"You're in the hospital," she answered. "Do you know how you got here?" Blinking twice again, the woman went on. She seemed to be struggling with her next question. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

Finally! She blinked twice, and for an added measure, another two times.

"Oh Goddess, and I did magic in front you!"

Magic? Magic. This woman couldn't be serious.

"I can fix this!" the woman yelled.

Wondering how she was going to do it, she tensed up as the red head pointed a hand at her face and spoke something in another language and everything went dark.

--

'Keep running. Don't stop, can't stop.'

--

Fidgeting in her chair, Willow threw the occasional glance at Buffy's room. The doctors mentioned a possible chance of memory loss, but Willow just assumed that wouldn't happen. Buffy'd been taken by bigger things than cars before and came away with barely a scratch. And of course, Willow just had to be doing magic in front of her!

"Willow!"

Looking up, she smiled as Dawn came running at her, Giles staying behind, walking, at a fast pace, but walking nonetheless. Opening her arms, Willow caught the younger girl in a hug. How was she going to explain this to her?

"We came as soon as you called," Giles spoke, giving her a more dignified hug than Dawn. "What's happened?"

"She woke up, b-but--"

"Is she okay, Willow?" Dawn asked, her voice almost breaking. She lost her sister because of a Hellgod, she was not losing her because of some hit and run!

"She's fine, she's asleep," Willow reassured Dawn, squeezing her shoulder. "The doctors don't know it yet, but she has amnesia, retrograde, I'm pretty sure."

"Willow," Giles had taken up speaking as Dawn fell into a vacant chair, too shocked to continue speaking, "What do you mean the doctors don't know it, yet?"

"Oh, you heard that," Willow looked away from Giles' gaze. "She may have woken up and saw me in the air. I was trying to figure out what was wrong with her! And so I asked her if she knew who I was and she blinked twice, which meant no, and so I panicked and made her sleep until we figured out what to do next."

"Uh, right," was all Giles could manage as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Deciphering what Willow said, he had to agree that she did what was necessary, though why she was levitating in a hospital room where anyone could have walked in on her was beyond him. "Shall we, uh, go and wake her a-and bring a doctor in to examine her?"

"Yea, that makes sense," Dawn finally spoke. Looking at Willow, she asked, "Willow, why'd you change clothes?"

"No really thinks of these things, so I figured if we woke Buffy up, I could convince her that everything she saw was a dream and it helps to see me in a different outfit," she shrugged.

"That makes sense, in a weird way," Dawn nodded as she followed the witch to her sister's room. She wasn't sure what she was expecting after hearing the news, but when the door opened, she smiled. On the outside, everything appeared to be fine. This was her sister, she was just asleep and with possible amnesia; nothing Dawn couldn't handle. "Oh, lift the spell, Giles is coming with the doctor."

--

Buffee.

Buffy.

She had a name, and she knew it. And with it brought unpleasant memories of several people butchering her name and then making fun of it and wondering what her mother was on when she named her.

And hey, memories equal a plus.

Well, memories plus jello equals a plus.

"Is there anymore?" Buffy asked, holding up her empty bowl of orange jello.

The nurse on duty smiled as she took the bowl and went to get more, leaving Buffy only with her sister. And talk about awkward! How did she not remember her own sister?

"Dawn," Buffy spoke. The girl's head turned to look at her, and Buffy could see the look in her eyes. The look that prayed she had remembered. "I'm sorry, I just hoped that if I said your name I'd remember something."

"It's okay, Buffy, really," Dawn smiled, lying through her teeth.

After waking up, the doctor did examine Buffy and confirmed their fears; because of her accident she suffered from retrograde amnesia. She didn't remember anything prior to her accident. Well, that was a lie, she remembered common things. What she didn't remember was her life, or the life of her friends. And most of all, she didn't remember being a slayer or anything that dealt with the supernatural. They didn't outright ask, but when Giles started asking indirect supernatural questions, Buffy was drawing blanks.

"I'm sorry I can't remember, but you say I'm you're my sister and I know that, I think. I can feel it."

"Good," Dawn nodded. She was worried about how Buffy's amnesia would be affected by the spell the monks performed to make false memories of Dawn. It wouldn't do well for Buffy to remember everyone and then not know who Dawn before the year 2000. "You really like that jello."

"I know!" Buffy nodded. Taking a minute to think, Buffy asked, "Do I like jello?"

Scrunching her face up in thought, Dawn answered, "I've never really seen you eat it. I mean, you hate, er, hated hospitals, so there was never really a jello eating opportunity."

"I guess that makes sense," Buffy shrugged. "So when are you breaking me free?"

"Well, they wanna do some tests, make sure nothing else is going to happen and they'll let us know," her sister answered. Dawn hoped it wouldn't be for awhile. Willow and Giles had left earlier to make sure everyone who needed to know knew what happened. Since they hadn't told Buffy about her real life, they were making sure no one else did, or that Buffy wouldn't find out. Fortunately, the Council possessed several houses that were not a part of the campus they owned. Buffy would be moving to one of the houses, living with Dawn and whoever else wanted to.

"Cool, cause I'm getting kind of antsy."

Dawn was hoping and praying it wasn't because of her slayer abilities.

"So was that really a dream?" Buffy frowned. "Willow, right? I mean, flying women, a little extreme, but it felt so real."

"Well, you were in a coma for a week, maybe that's enough time for dreams to be in full Technicolor," Dawn answered. Even she didn't believe that, but it seemed to suit Buffy as she nodded. "We're technologically advanced, but people flying? That's a little farfetched."

"Yea, you're right. Okay, now that my craziness it out of the way, tell me something good!"

"Like what?"

"What am I like? Am I nice, or mean? What else do I do at this Council place, besides teaching self-defense?"

'Crap,' Dawn thought to herself. How were they supposed to pull this off?

--

Okay, quick question. How should they handle Buffy's abilities? Are they going to dampen them, so they won't have to explain to her what she is, or should they not do anything about it and just hope she won't question it?