Buffy walked with Eve for a while, her head occasionally turning to look at various people or objects as they talked. She was pretty sure that she had covered some of the major stuff. Like the who's, and the why's of Eve's sudden appearance in her world.
It was because Buffy herself could no longer escape fate. The powers that be simply wouldn't allow it. So they had killed her and found a new slayer- one better equiped for the upcoming battles against the never ending darkness.
Someone who knew how badly things would become if she perished and left the world undefended. A slayer of unparalleled strength and ability. Someone who could use her demon abilities as well as magical ones.
Frankly Buffy thought that Eve was a bit...off.
Not in a bad way. She just seemed more childlike than Buffy had expected. And while it was all well and good to preserve one's innocence, it also left one open to being corrupted.
She looked over at the other woman and wondered if maybe the childlike side of her personality was something that Eve had developed because of her demon abilities. Or if maybe it was because of something else entirely. Either way, she was a little bit relieved. And worried.
Relieved that Eve's childlike personality would allow her to become attached to her new home, it's people, and Buffy's watcher and friends. Relieved that Eve's attachment would allow her to fight as fiercely for this world as she had for her own.
And she was worried because Eve's attachments would only go so far. She may now be living Buffy's life- With a mother, friends, and watcher to have her back, but she would always long for her own home. Her own friends. Her own world.
Buffy glanced down at herself and saw that she was barely there anymore and then looked back at Eve. "Any last requests?" The brunette asked sagely. Seriously.
For once all traces of her childlike self was gone and the change in her was so startling that for a moment all Buffy could do was stare in shock before she finally managed to pull herself together just enough to manage a small smile as she said, "Take care of them as if they were your own..."
"Anything else?" Eve asked, sensing that there was something else that Buffy wanted to say.
"Just live as best as you can and be happy..."
(*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)
"What-" Cordelia practically shrieked as she looked back and forth from her boyfriend Xander to Willow who was partially hiding behind her boyfriend Oz with a wide eyed look of horror on her face. "Buffy's back in town! How? Since when?" Cordelia asked as she rudely invaded everyone's personal space.
Xander glanced down and back at Oz and Willow and felt Oz's hand on his back, giving him a small push forward as the red head said, "Hey man, she's your girl."
"Gee thanks." Xander said sarcastically before turning to face his girl. "First off let me just say this, we don't know when Buffy got back into town. Secondly, she's in the hospital-"
Cordelia huffed and said, "Great. So she's back in town. That's fantastic because it means that we don't have to cover for her sorry butt anymore."
Xander and Willow both gaped at the diva in horror and outrage. How could she just go and say that without knowing what Buffy had been through? It wasn't like the slayer had left town just for giggles for christs sake! She had left because of deep emotional wounds and because she had felt that, like her mother, they wouldn't want her around anymore.
"Cordy!" Xander growled, both furious and embarrassed by his girlfriends lack of sensitivity. Cordelia blinked at him for using his, I-will-hurt-you-bad tone with her and was about to take him down a few pegs when Xander cut her off. "Buffy is in no condition to fight right now. She may not be in any condition to fight later-"
"Why the hell not?"
"Because her memory isn't functioning like it should, Cordy! She doesn't know her mom. She doesn't know Giles or me or Willow. What makes you think she can slay anything in such a state? Are you really so selfish that you would send someone to possibly die for you when they may not even remember or know how to defend themselves?"
Again Cordelia blinked then opened her mouth and said. "Oh whatever Xander. She could just not feel like fighting-"
"We were there Cordy! We heard the doctor tell her mom that she had braindamage of some kind!"
"So? She's like a retard now?" Xander gave his girlfriend such a look of pure rage that she should have spontaniously combusted on the spot. Even Oz took a step or so back away from the normally lovable goof, dragging Willow with him because he was uncertain of what Xander would do.
Not that he was terribly worried about Xander raising his hand to Cordy. He simply wasn't the type to hit a lady no matter how mad he was. But that didn't mean that he wouldn't lash out in other ways.
(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)
It was about noon when Eve finally stirred and started to wake from her sleep and in the past few hours Giles had been wracking his brain. Trying hard to figure out how much Eve must have suffered and just how miraculous it was that she was not only home again, but still breathing...period.
He heard the bed squeak and looked over at her as her eyes fluttered and opened. She glanced at him and groaned as she shoved the covers back so that she could rub her eyes. "Morn'in..." She rasped in a husky tone.
"Good morning Eve." Giles forced himself to say before asking. "Are you hungry? A nurse was nice enough to bring you breakfast several hours ago."
Eve shook her head no. She had long outgrown any real need for human food thanks to her demon half. No, she could live longer on life energy.
She had used to feed from Ripper whenever she got hungry, which was every four to six months. And since taking life energy was tricky business that often left the person being fed from feeling a wide variety of things ranging from weakness in the knee to arousal, which got awkward fast when you came into your demon abilities as a young teen.
So she had adapted her body so that she didn't have to feed often. If only to avoid strange and embarrassing situations while with Ripper since he had been twenty five years older than her.
Moving her hands away from her eyes, she quickly estimated how long it had been since she last fed and how long it would take for her to need to feed again.
Five in a half months. She had at least five in a half months until she would need to feed again. She was so engrossed with her own thoughts that she didn't seem to hear Giles ask her if she was okay...four or five times before he moved over to her bed and very gently framed her face in his hands to draw her attention to him.
The warmth of his skin against her own snapped her from her thoughts just enough to blink up at him before giggling. "Sorry. I was thinking."
He gave her a small smile, relieved that she was finally responding to him again. He'd been really worried there for a second that she had gone to a really dark place in her own mind. Perhaps where she relived what had been done to her. "Thinking about what?" He asked after a moment or so as he started to remove his hands from her face only to be stopped by her hands gripping his wrists lightly.
"You're hands are really warm..." Eve said in a drowsy tone as Giles blushed a little bit. She smiled and let his wrists slip from her grasp and closed her eyes again as she said. "I really like your hands..."
Giles flushed a bit more and started stammering, unsure of how to react to Eve's words. Not that it mattered any. The blasted girl had managed to doze off again.
