Author's Note: This Fanfiction does not change anything that Joss Whedon created in his show, and the timeline of events remains the same. Instead this story is adding to the show by providing content that is happening "behind the scenes" without Buffy's knowledge. The author highly recommends watching the Buffy episodes while reading the chapters because the premise of this story is that Jenny comes back to life and has been helping the scoobies the entire time, and some of them never knew about it.

This story begins in Season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, episode "I Only Have Eyes For You"; It is highly recommended by the author that you watch the episodes "Passion", "Killed by Death" & "I Only Have Eyes For You" before/while you read these beginning chapters.

My Sweet Escape

Prologue

*Giles*

Some kind of Paranormal Phenomena was going on and I was probably the only person who knew it, well, for now anyway. I had played the event once more in my mind; The janitor shot a teacher, Ms. Frank, and he claimed to have no idea why. The police could not find the gun he had used to shoot Ms. Frank and what I had seen tonight sounded a lot like the incident Buffy had described the night before when a high school couple got into an argument. The difference was that both students survived because Buffy had interfered, but Ms. Frank wasn't so lucky.

I didn't know Ms. Frank very well and she wasn't the first colleague I've lost to the hellmouth. But due to recent events I've thought it best to distance myself from making any more friends because the pain of losing them is far greater. So I chose not to get emotionally involved and focus on the case. It was easy to conclude that both incidents were related, which means I have a lot of work to do.

But first I needed to visit a friend.

Once I got to Jenny's classroom, I opened the door and I saw her sitting in her chair at her desk, typing. It was exactly the moment I last saw her, replaying in my mind again. I closed my eyes to recall every detail. It was infuriating knowing that if I had stayed with her, it would have changed everything.

I put my hand in my pocket, to pull out the one thing I had left of Jenny. A Rosequartz. I was quietly hating Willow for being the one who was clearing out her desk so quickly, but Willow was doing all she could do. So I couldn't blame her. But how could everyone just move on and act like Jenny meant nothing? I'm barely able to make it through the day sometimes... and it never gets easier.

I didn't want to spiral back into my depression so I turned away, and slammed the door shut on my way out. I glanced back through the small square glass in the door, and my imaginary friend had vanished.

I didn't want to go home. I hadn't slept in my bed and I wasn't about to. But going home was just a horrid reminder of the moment I discovered her body. So I spent most of my nights in the library and other nights out to grab a drink. I had to decide which it would be tonight.

For once living on the hellmouth had an upside. When anything hellmouth-ish happened, it helped me to think of something other than Jenny.

But I could have sworn I heard her voice just before the janitor shot Ms. Frank. I could have sworn on everything that, that was Jenny's voice calling out to me that she needed me.

But I may be going mad.

How could I think for one second that it was Jenny? She is dead. Buried six feet under ground. I felt her blank stare, even now, and remember the cold touch of her corpse. I would have done anything to bring her back, hell knows I've tried. But now she is left rotting and I felt incapable of anything. God emasculated me by taking her away.

I walked down a staircase in another cold high school hallway.

It's been about two months since... since it happened, and I still headed off to her classroom almost every night just hoping, dreaming, that I could have a second chance to save her life. That I could see her one last time typing away on her computer and have the opportunity to change the outcome of that night. I know I'm not yet dealing with her loss but that's because something inside of me was screaming that this wasn't over. I've been doing the best I can to cope, even though it hasn't been going well… I wanted the memories from her funeral to have been just some gruesome hellmouth joke.

My thoughts were interrupted.

Suddenly the whole staircase around me flashed a blinding light, causing me to quickly duck to avoid what ever was coming. The flash had only lasted half a second, but it was followed by a crashing sound as if something big had slammed into the floor. My instincts kicked in and my heart started pumping, jumping into action just as the Watcher's Council had trained into me. I stood up quickly to search for the origin of the sound. Down on the hard cold floor of the first flight of stairs, beneath a rounded window, was a woman. A faint cry escaped from her lips. Immediately, I knew I was dreaming.

This wasn't unusual for me, in fact this was very usual. I would see Jenny almost anywhere I went. And sometimes I would play along and pretend it wasn't just my imagination, especially after I've been drinking. She had become my imaginary friend, and this was the daily game we played where I pretend she is alive by some dramatic occurrence, and we spend the moment talking to each other, apologizing... as if it was a normal day. So I looked down at my imaginary friend, wishing I could do anything to bring her back for real. But since I couldn't, tonight I decided not to play along with this game. It was driving me mad. I held back my tears and turned around so my imaginary friend would vanish.

I could still hear her crying.

She called my name.

I began tear up.

I knew this wasn't real. It was impossible.

She began to cry even harder and called out to me once more, "Rupert!"

A dream, it has to be.

Rupert don't do this…

"Jenny..." I barely mumbled.

I turned back to face Jenny and accepted the dream, her memory and everything I wanted.

I moved toward her and my body began shivering.

She was lying there crying and clothes covered in earth. Once I reached the bottom step, I bent down toward the perfect ghost and reached out my hand to turn her face toward me. Like usual I expected my hand to go right through her.

But it didn't.

Her cheek was in my hand, and she was looking at me. In a moment of temporary insanity, I thought I was awake. Her face in my hand stimulated something inside of me and I woke up. But she was still there.

She was real.

She was alive.

I don't know why, I don't know how, but there she was lying in front of me, crying, and staring at me.

It is part of the paranormal phenomena, it has to be. This can't happen.

Could it?

I was frozen in confusion until Jenny's hands reached for my face. She pulled my face toward hers until we were nose to nose. I closed my eyes and felt her warm tears race down from her cheek to mine.

I couldn't believe it but I had a sudden feeling that this was the moment I'd been waiting for.

How were her soft perfect hands holding me?

How was something like this even possible?

Then again... for those on the hellmouth, that really was a foolish question.

Was this really happening?

Chapter 1: I Found You

*Jenny*

I gasped for air.

What's going on?

I tried to sit up and my head hit the top of something and my arms couldn't stretch out, like if I was in a box. I couldn't open my eyes, or maybe they were already open but it was dark, so dark that I couldn't see anything. I had no idea what was going on or where I was. Or where I had been. I laid back and reached my arms up the farthest they could go which was not very much.

How do I get out of here?

I tried to push up with my arms but nothing would budge. Suddenly, I found myself once again gasping for air. I didn't bother pushing the top anymore. I started punching but making no progress.

"Giles, I need you." I cried. I'm not sure why I said it, but I felt as if he could hear me.

I punched harder and harder until something cracked and dirt was falling in my face. I was getting frightened and started crying. Then a blue glow started to form from around my skin and it burned. I tried harder and harder to pull myself out, but my body felt like it was on fire.

I screamed.

With the blue glow shining around me I was able to see just enough to feel like I was in a coffin.

As it got brighter, the blue fire got hotter. "What's happening?" I cried hoping someone would hear me or see the blue light. It finally became so bright to the point that it was blinding.

Then it all stopped. The dirt wasn't falling on me, the fire stopped burning, and air was easier to breathe.

I opened my eyes and looked around but everything was white.

I heard somebody shouting, "Don't do that DAMN IT! Don't talk to me like I'm some sort of… " then a loud shot was fired.

Suddenly an Orb of Thesulah appeared in my hands. The orb was glowing a red-ish orange and I could feel a strong connection to it. I still had no idea what was happening, but I gathered up one important piece of information. I died. Where ever I was, it was because I was dead. The orb in my hands began cracking, and it frightened me. Before it could shatter in my hands, I had dropped it into the white abyss below me.

Suddenly I had the sensation that I was also falling. I fell and the darkness all fell along with me. Screams began to sound like cries. Without any warning I landed on a floor and felt the cracking of tile beneath me.

I grabbed my head. It took a couple of moments for my body to process the pain from the fall. Mostly I was feeling numb. Once I was able to recover I opened my eyes and looked around. I found myself lying on the cold, filthy floor of the Sunnydale high school staircase.

And suddenly I remembered everything.

I was murdered, by Angelus.

When I heard footsteps I looked up. A man was walking quickly up the staircase. I got a glimpse of Angelus and begin to panic but after another glance I knew exactly who it was.

"Rupert." I cried.

I don't think he heard me, he kept walking up the steps. I cried out his name the best I could.

"Rupert."

The man stopped at the top step and turned very slowly with the look of desperation painted across his face. He stood still and looked directly at me as if contemplating what he wanted to do. Tears streaming down his face. But I had no patience for this, "Rupert!"

"Jenny." In that same moment he dropped everything he was holding and I watched his briefcase rumble down the stairs. Rupert hurried toward me. Once he finally reached the middle platform, he bent down carefully beside me. He was shaking. It seemed like he thought I would disappear at any given moment. I was scared too. I thought that I would.

His green eyes flared the moment he held my cheek in his palm. I could feel him become tense.

I couldn't bear him being so far away. I reached out for his face and pulled him toward me until we were nose to nose. I closed my eyes. Tears raced down my cheeks and I knew what we were both thinking…

"How?"

So I asked it first.

Seconds had ticked by and he didn't answer so I opened my eyes to look at him and we stared into each other. He consumed me in a kiss. I was overwhelmed with a passion to pull myself so close to him that there could be no space between us. He must have been feeling the same thing because he pushed me toward him with the same intensity.

His arm moved behind my back, supporting me up and my arm moved around his neck, hand in his hair. I would have kissed him like this forever, except I was getting dizzy and had a very difficult time breathing. I pulled away.

*Giles*

"Are you okay?" I asked when she pulled away from our kiss.

She grabbed her head, not responding to the question. She began looking as if she was about to faint.

"No no no..." I said holding up her head, "Jenny stay with me."

I lifted her into my arms. It was the first moment I noticed how dirty her clothes were, and that the tiles were cracked beneath her. I wasn't sure what happened to her. I had no idea why she was even here. But I needed her to stay here. I rushed to the library and my mind began racing with what to do. Her heartbeat was strong and her breathing was normal, but she wasn't conscious.

Once I reached the library I had placed her down on the library table. The same moment I bent over to check her vitals, the rosequarts fell out of my pocket and onto the floor. It was glowing.

It has healing powers! I remembered.

I took the rosequarts and quickly placed it her hand. It continued to glow and I noticed a sudden change in her condition. Her skin began warming up with some color, her breathing grew stronger and when I took her pulse, it felt steady. She was getting better.

"No." She began coughing. It startled me. Jenny opened her eyes and looked around, "I'm not okay."

She looked around confused. I laughed when I realized she was answering the question I asked before she had fainted. She looked over at me, watching me laugh, and traced her hand on my cheek. She began clearing tears off my cheek. It wasn't until that moment that I had realized I had been crying. Her face changed.

She became very serious, "Why am I back?"

"I don't know." I admitted. I didn't have the heart to tell her she could be a ghost. With the paranormal activity going on, she could be a part of it. Or the cause of it. I wasn't sure and I didn't want to think about it. If she was a ghost, that meant she wasn't going to stay. I didn't think I could let her leave me again.

She looked up at the ceiling and I could only imagine what she was feeling. I was wishing so badly that I could read her mind. I grabbed her hand tightly and she noticed the pink glowing gem I had placed in her hand.

"Am I a vampire?" She asked, still serious.

I chuckled, "You have a pulse."

"Oh."

Her eyes wandered to mine again. She looked like she was full of questions.

"Where did you get your hands on a Rosequarts?"

"Oh… uh, yes, the Rosequarts." I said nervously, "Actually, it's yours. Willow, she gave it to me… found it in your desk."

She grabbed it in her hand, "Do you know what it's for?"

"Willow said you told her it has healing powers."

"Yes. That's true." She said. Slowly she began sitting up, "But it can do more than that. I used it all the time to find you when you were out on patrol with Buffy. It was like a guide telling me where to go. A rosequarts can help you find your loved ones. See how It's glowing." She paused, "That means I've found you."

I had thought it was glowing because it was healing energy. I looked at the glowing gem in her hands, "Why didn't you ever tell me about this before?"

"Because I wasn't ready to admit to you that I love you."

I looked over at her. She smiled.

The gem wasn't glowing because she found me.

The gem was glowing because I found her.

"I love you Jenny."

Her smile disappeared. She looked at the gem and I could see the moment she realized the same thing I had just realized. She looked back at me scared.

"I love you Jenny." I said it again.

I stood from my chair to meet her lips for another kiss. As she sat there on the table, she kissed me back. I felt her move the rosequarts back into my pocket before she wrapped her arms around my neck. It was as if the two months she had been gone had disappeared all in this one moment. I wanted to show her how much I missed her. Everything inside of me felt warm. My legs felt weak. I had to open my eyes just to see her kissing me because I couldn't believe she was here.

"Slow down tiger," she sighed, "I'm not strong enough yet."

"We'll get you there." I promised.

I pulled off my jacket and folded it onto the table. She had tears on her face, but she was also smiling. "Lay down. Get some rest." I urged her, "I'll be here all night."

I suddenly thought of a list of titles I could use to research what was happening.

"Where are you going?" She asked. Refusing to lay down.

"I'm grabbing some books." I quickly went into my office and continued talking, "If I can do some research, maybe I can find out what's going on."

I grabbed a few books sitting on my desk and then quickly walked back out to her. I froze in the doorway looking up at her. I smiled. It was the farthest I had been from her since I've found her and I was so amazed she was sitting there watching me. I walked back to her side and sat in the chair beside her. She finally decided to lay back down on the table, using my jacket I had folded for her head. I grabbed her hand and watched her drift to sleep. When I was sure she was sleeping, I started my reading. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I began my research.

Some kind of paranormal phenomena was going on.

And I wasn't sure if I had caused it.