Disclaimer: All characters are the property of Joss Whedon – I'm just borrowing them.
Notes: Crossover picking up where Buffy The Vampire Slayer, season 7, and Angel, season 5, left off. While the L.A. team fights on, Buffy contemplates their latest victory …
Picking Up The Pieces.
Prologue.
"So you up for crashing in the bus as we are, B?"
"I thought we'd reached an agreement that we weren't calling me that, F?" Buffy sighed from where she stood with her back to the others, looking out towards the horizon.
"Sorr-ee – jeez, lighten up! Anyone would think we hadn't just saved the world!" Faith shot back with a toss of her unruly dark locks and a cheery grin. "So whadda ya say? Do we make do as we are or brave the unsuspecting population of the nearest town and try explaining why we don't have a dollar between us?"
"We stay here – how could we explain … this?" Buffy asked, not really looking for an answer. "We've come through worse …"
"Not wrong there."
"Wrong …" Buffy echoed distantly, her gaze still fixed unseeingly in the distance.
Although her gaze rested unsurely for a moment longer on her fellow Slayer, Faith said nothing and just shrugged to herself before wandering away – what they had been through would be hard for anyone to process so it was no surprise that Buffy wasn't quite herself, given the circumstances. And dealing with all that emotional baggage wasn't Faith's scene. Buffy would be better off dealing with it in her own way, just as Faith would deal with it in hers – namely, by putting it well and truly in the past and not dwelling on it.
Not paying attention to whether Faith stayed or not, Buffy remained where she was, lost in thought. Something just felt …
Granted they had just witnessed the collapse of their entire town into a crater – there was no right way to act after something like that. They had fought possibly the most important fight of their lives and won, but there had been losses too. Many of the Potentials had lost their lives – young girls she had lived and trained with in recent weeks, girls in whom she saw so much of herself … Anya had not made it out either – Xander was holding up for now, focused on the pride he felt that his girl had gone down fighting, but the grief in its uncensored form would no doubt kick in soon. And regardless of things which had happened in the past, the ex demon had shown where she stood when it mattered most and they had all lost a friend …
And then there was Spike.
She had called him many things over the years, most of them negative to say the least. The very least. But lately, he had proven beyond doubt that he had changed. No longer an evil, soulless monster – he was … well, ensouled for a start. But he was also so much more that words could do no justice to. All she could say was that she had meant what she had told him, even though it had been said in the heat of the moment – that in itself was typical of the nature of their tumultuous rollercoaster of a relationship. She couldn't claim it was a true love, or a pure love, but it was there and it was real. And now he was gone.
Of all the things she had ever called him, this was the least expected – hero. He had died, sacrificed himself, and he had done it willingly. He had done it for all of them. But mostly for her.
It was small wonder that her emotions were all over the place. She felt grief for the fallen … hope for the future … triumph at their victory … pain for their losses … But there was something more than that. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something just felt …
Wrong.