Episode 1: Life Goes On
Chapter 1: We'll Take It From Here
The bed felt uncomfortably new underneath her as she lay there, lost in her reflections. It was painful for her, but Giles said it would really help to ease her mind. Willow even gave her an amulet to store some of the more troubling and painful thoughts and memories. It was agonizing to siphon through all the memories and find the ones that needed to be locked up and out of her head. It wasn't an easy task; the last few weeks, no months, have been full of bad memories. She slowly opened the door wider into her head and entered, losing herself completely in her own mind.
"It almost looks painful." Willow said, standing in the doorway with Giles. Willow watched as a flurry of emotions flicked across Buffy's face.
"She's got a lot of bad stuff up there, she's carrying more than any of the rest of us." Giles replied, watching Buffy as well. His look of concern grew deeper as he watched Buffy flinch at some unseen terror. "This will be good for her though. Maybe now she'll be able to rest a little; she needs it." Giles leaned up off the doorframe and uncrossed his chest. "C'mon, we have a lot to do today." He patted Willow on the back and turned away from the room and the sight of Buffy lying on the bed.
Willow looked once more at the somber image before turning to follow Giles down the hallway. "Has anyone from the Council called yet?" She asked, catching up with him.
"I haven't heard from them yet, but I expect to any time now." He explained. He exhaled loudly and shook his head. He could hear the clatter coming from the crowd that was just waking up. He exhaled again and sat down at the top of the stairs. "There are too many people here." He said sounding utterly exhausted.
"I'm sure that it would help ease the stress of everyone to get them settled. It would also help with the healing process." She told him, resting her head lightly on his shoulder.
"We should probably send the girls home to wait for the Council to regroup. It will take them some time to get back up and running. Too long for everyone to stay here." Giles pulled off his glasses and began cleaning them methodically, the irritation evident on his face.
The tension in the house was practically palpable. There were no casual conversations or chatting. The only time anyone talked was for the necessary remarks. Most spent their time watching television, writing to family or in diaries. The guys spend a lot of time out of the house, buying some needed item, or "looking for a job". The only thing comfortable about the situation was that the house was usually quite; while it wasn't peaceful, there was no fighting or arguing yet. But it was crowded, very crowded, and there was no privacy; each day the tension in the close quarters grew. Giles was definitely eager to disperse the group before anything came to a head. "I'm going to make some phone calls and see what kind of plans I can make. Why don't you go coordinate breakfast?" Giles said, raising from his seated position and heading to his door.
"Great! Leave me with the dirty work." Willow said, with a slight grin, and started down the stairs.
Walking into the kitchen, she saw that everybody was already up and crowded into the small area; some were seated at the dinning table, others at the breakfast bar. Cereal, milk, bowls and spoons littered every surface, and quite munching was all that could be heard. Willow felt as if she was interrupting some sort of viewing. Dawn looked up from her bowl at Willow and smiled. She scooted over in her chair so that she could share the seat, and Willow walked over and sat down. "Did we have enough cereal and milk?" Willow asked, taking a bite of Dawn's Cap'n Crunch. She handed back the spoon after Dawn nodded, and looked up at the rest of the group. "Okay, so today we have to do a major cleaning of the house. The bedrooms need to be straightened, laundry done, house vacuumed. You know all that fun stuff." With that said, she went back to talking to Dawn and Xander.
"There won't be enough breakfast food for tomorrow. Someone will probably have to go shopping again today." Xander said, with an almost happy glee on his face. "I would be glad to go."
"I'll go with him. To get the things that guys don't think of." Dawn said, dropping her spoon in the empty bowl in front of her. "I'm not staying here to be forced to clean that room. I didn't make any of that mess."
"Okay Dawn." Willow told her patting her arm. "You go with Xander. I really want the bedrooms done in order for the girls to get all their stuff together. Giles is working on getting everyone back home to their families until the Council gets back up and running."
"Well who all is going to stay here?" Dawn asked, picking up her bowl, and getting out of the chair.
"I don't know Dawn." Willow answered with a solemn shake of her head.
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Buffy and Willow sat crossed-legged beside each other on the bed. Neither was really talking, not aloud anyway. Willow was not exactly sure how it happened; one minute, she was putting a pile of Buffy's clean laundry on her dresser for her, the next she was sitting here helping Buffy sift through her thoughts.
It was just as painful as Willow imagined it was, and she found herself immensely thankful that she didn't have to do this alone. Uncontrolled tears streamed down Willow's face as the final battled scene played out before her. Buffy had seen everything, every death. She felt a slight shutter in the ling between them as Buffy transplanted these painful memories into the amulet. The sensation was odd, and although she had felt it a few times before now, she could still not quite get used to it. As she watched Spike tell Buffy that he knew she would never love him, Willow braced herself for the shutter, but it never came. Instead she felt a clipped jerk as Buffy severed the connection. "Everything after is more of a blur." Buffy said, lying back against the pillow. "You probably remember it better than I do."
It was true Buffy definitely was not completely there during the bus ride to the Initiatives complex in L.A., and she wasn't an active member of the agreement party when the Initiative gave them the house to use here in Cleveland. She barely spoke to Angel when he and his gang came by to help get things settled. Willow truly hoped that with most of the painful memories gone, Buffy would get back to normal. Her help would be needed to help get everything settled the rest of the way.
With a large sigh, Buffy sat back up and hugged her knees to her chest. "So what is everybody up to?" She asked casually, all genuine interest was lacking in her voice.
"Well I have all the girls downstairs cleaning, slash getting all their things together. I think that Faith and Robin are still holed up in their room. Dawn, Xander, and Andrew went to the store, and Giles is in his room making phone calls."
"Wow, everyone is really busy." Buffy said with a yawn.
"I was doing laundry before I sat down to help you, and I should really get back to actually." Willow stretched out her legs and swung them over the side of the bed.
"What do you want me to do?" Buffy asked, following suit and sitting up, swinging her legs over the bed.
"Nothing Buff. You just need to relax and maybe rest." Willow told her. She patted Buffy's leg, before picking them up and putting them back on the bed. She adjusted the pillows and laid Buffy's head down on them.