Disclaimer: "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" belongs to Joss Whedon, UPN/Paramount, and Mutant Enemy Productions. "MacGyver" belongs to Henry Winkler/John Rich Productions and Paramount. No copyright infringement is intended and no money has changed hands.
Author's note: I'd like to thank my sister, who is the voice of Joss Whedon in my head and is helping his characters to remain true to themselves.
This thing is the result of much research and the decision that Buffy needed a better dad than the one she got stuck with. I've tried to remain as true to both series as possible. Since MacGyver has been known to run into things like ancient curses and booby-trapped Incan grain-lofts, we didn't think that running into those things that go bump in the night would be much of a stretch. We did, however, decide that we would completely ignore Buffy's father from the series and the appearances he made in a whole two episodes. It begins during "Graduation," but it extends after it. As for MacGyver, this is all after the series ended. Feedback would be very much appreciated.
ELIZABETH ANNE MACGYVER
PROLOGUE
Sunnydale, CA, June, 1999...
Joyce came in the door and looked around for her daughter. "Buffy, I'm home. Do you wanna go to, uh, ...? What are you doing? You're running away again? And you're taking my clothes." Sure enough, the beautiful blonde teenager was packing her mother's suitcases with enough clothes to last a week.
"Mom, I need you to leave town. Tonight."
"Buffy, I'd miss your graduation. "
"Buffy: Yeah, that's sort of the idea."
The older woman shook her head. "There's no way. I wouldn't dream..."
"Mom, graduation is a pointless ceremony where you sit around and listen to a bunch of boring speeches until someone hands you a piece of paper that says you graduated which you already know and maroon does nothing for my complexion, so don't argue, okay?"
"What, is some terrible demon going to attack the school?" She said it sarcastically, but at Buffy's look, she paled. Buffy kept packing. "Oh, I see. Oh, you know, Buffy, looking back on everything that's happened, maybe I should have sent you to a different school."
"Just promise me that you'll be far away from here."
What is she thinking? "I'm not leaving you to face an awful monster. If I go anywhere, you're going with me!"
"You know that I can't."
Joyce said stubbornly, "Well then I can't either."
Buffy sighed. "Mom, I know that sometimes you wish I were different."
"Buffy, no."
But Buffy knew she had to convince her mother that this was the only way. "I wish I could be a lot of things for you. A great student, a star athlete, remotely normal. I'm not. But there is something I do that I can do better than anybody else in the world. I'm gonna fight this thing, but I can't do it and worry about you."
Frustration colored Joyce's voice. "Buffy, you just can't ..."
It was time to pull out the big guns. "You stay, you'll get me killed. You'll have to trust me on this. Can you do that?" Tearfully, knowing that she was right but not wanting her to have to face this fight alone, she nodded. "Good."
The women hugged fiercely, then separated. Buffy had finished the packing, so she picked up several of the suitcases, leaving only one for her mother, and headed down to put them in the car. Joyce said, "I guess I'll go to LA for a while. How will I know when it's safe to come back?"
Buffy handed her mother a cell phone. "This is Willow's phone. I'll call you when it's safe. If I don't call within two days, we blew it. Don't ever come back to this town."
Joyce sat on the pier, watching the boats as they went along. Of course, she wasn't really seeing them. Her mind was back in Sunnydale, her heart worrying intensely over the safety of her daughter and her friends.
Suddenly, there was a voice behind her. "Joyce? Is that you?"
She turned and got a shock. Not the shock of her life, of course. That had been when Buffy revealed her role as the Slayer. But this one certainly ranked. "MacGyver? Oh my God! I thought you were dead!"
Well, this chapter is pretty boring, but it sets the ground work. The next one should be far more interesting!
