Series Title: Angel Baiting and Other Contact Sports
Title: Recap: The Love Song of Buffy Summers
Author: Jmaria
Rating: FR-15
Disclaimer: I own nothing Joss owns the Buffy, Kripke owns the SPN, RTD owns the Whoverse, Spelling owns the Charmed verse.
Series Summary: Tales from the Resurrected verse. Bits and insights to other characters mentioned in previous installments.
Summary: The patchwork that makes up Buffy and Graham's relationship in the Resurrected verse.
Words: 2,419
A/N: So these parts featured in 25 for 25. But because not all of the request pieces are connected to the Resurrected verse, I didn't want to lump 25 in with the 'Resurrected verse series and out of the Birthday Insanity series. So. Recapping! Yay. Some of the material may be new - the bridger pieces to make them flow into one - but most of it will be recycled, edited or extended. There will be about two or three of them, depending on how fast I finish up 25.

Angel Baiting and Other Contact Sports


Recap: The Love Song of Buffy Summers

~*~
It gets the best of me

It was funny where life had led her. She'd fallen for Angel, and then hooked up with Spike. She'd fallen for Riley, and now she was sitting across from his best friend Graham. She'd never looked twice at him when shed been dating Riley, and to be honest, she wasnt quite sure why that was.

Graham had defended her to Forrest when he'd been alive, had accepted her powers and had come to peace with them faster than Riley. He'd always been pleasant to her, and Buffy had vague recollections of Riley wanting to set up the slightly shorter soldier/frat boy with post-Oz-pre-Tara Willow.

"This is weird," Buffy smiled at him.

"What's weird is that it took Sunnydale sinking in on itself for us to meet up again," Graham chuckled, sipping his beer. There was a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. "How did you manage that one again?"

"I didn't manage it, thank you very much. That was all Spike's doing."

"Ah, good old Hostile Seventeen," Graham shook his head.

"I should still be pissed at you, you know," Buffy narrowed her eyes at him.

"What did I do?"

"You swooped back into Sunnydale and whisked Riley away," Buffy held back a smile when he blushed a bit. "Didn't think I knew about that, did you?"

"He wasn't happy, and you probably weren't either."

"Oh, no, none of that psychology crap, mister. I am so on to you. Riley could have been the love of my life for all you know!"

"Sucks that he's the love of Sam's life instead," Graham merely shrugged in that annoying little noncommittal military shrug. Buffy narrowed her eyes at him.

"Oh, then you know who's the love of my life? I mean, since it's obviously never been Riley?"

"I have a pretty good idea of who it might be," Graham leaned back, a confident smirk on his handsome face.

"Care to share that with me?"

"I'm not much in the mood for share-time."

"Really? How odd."

"Nah, you know I've always been more show and tell," Graham's smirk widened.

"I don't remember much of the tell."

"I could show you again."

"Again? I don't remember you showing me anything in the first place, Miller."

"Well, I did drag your boyfriend far, far away from you for more than just the mission."

Buffy popped a brow, taking a sip from her glass and not saying anything. Funny, how she really wasn't all that pissed off about that incident anymore. Riley was in the past, and Graham, well, he was kind of the present. But she let him squirm, because she had been pissed at him, a lot, actually. Not as much as she'd been pissed at Riley for the actual leaving. But there had been anger issues directed his way.

"And I was in Sunnydale, when they were," Graham added.

"And you didn't even stop to apologize," Buffy admonished.

"Ri had enough of that to do for himself, figured you could only take so much of groveling military men falling at your feet," Graham gave a small shrug, his fingers playing in the condensation on his glass. "And you were newly alive. Explains Hostile Seventeen."

"Hey, I heard about the demon girl you dated! You cannot pick on Spike or my relationship with him."

"She wasn't you."

"Well, duh, I'm not a demon. Slayer, remember?" Buffy huffed, trying to play off the comment. Was he being flirtatious, or just - ugh, and people wondered why she'd hooked up with the undead. Slightly less complicated then regular boys. Well, not really, but it wasn't like she was going to explain that to him.

"Same goes for all the human girls I dated since I knew you. Same reason they didn't stick. They weren't you, Summers," Graham's voice lowered, his eyes staring straight into hers the entire time, which was impressive. A lot of guys couldn't look her in the eye. "Its easy to get hung up on a lady like you."

And it was in that instant she fell for plain old Army boy Graham Miller. Because he called her a lady, and excepted all of her weirdness as a bonus and not a flaw.

Jaylin White pressed a hand to her mouth, tears in her eyes. Oh, how she wished her girl had found Graham first all those years ago. It would have saved her daughter so much grief. But she was aware of the path that had to be traveled for her daughter to get to this point - at eighteen, still reeling from the loss of Angel, Buffy hadn't been ready for forever. And that was exactly what Graham Miller, her charge, would be for the daughter of Joyce Summers. Forever.

Buffy stared at the ring on her finger, not really believing that it was there. Finally. Samantha, Xander and Willow were all in the kitchen sending out various e-mails and phone calls. She'd already called Giles, Dawn and Faith. But Graham was in the other room, making the phone call that she and Samantha dreaded making. Sam because she dreaded talking to her ex at all. Buffy because she wasn't quite sure how hed react to it. From the expression on Graham's face she knew how it went - not well at all.

~*~
Well, technically I am

Riley Finn snapped his phone shut with an audible click. The woman with him cocked a brow in his direction. He wasn't even supposed to have the phone on him, according to hunt regulations. But with a pregnant, estranged wife and other operatives out in the field under his supervision, he didn't really give a rat's ass about the regulations right now.

"Bad news, then?" Martha Jones asked, lowering her weapon to her side.

"My best friend just got engaged," Riley hissed through clenched teeth.

"And apparently that's bad news?" she frowned at him.

"He got engaged to my ex -"

Marthas eye's popped open. "Your mate hooked up with your pregnant wife?"

"What?" Riley's head whipped around to stare at her as if she had three heads.

"You just said -"

"Not my wife, my ex-girlfriend."

Martha stared at him, weighing her next words carefully. She crept over to his side of the room, making sure the creatures they were studying didn't notice the movement in the abandoned building across the way.

"How long ago did you break up with her?"

Riley stared down at the suspects, ignoring her question for a few minutes. When he ignored it longer than absolutely necessary, Martha jabbed him in the side with the butt of her laser gun.

"I walked out on her back in 2001," Riley muttered.

"You married Sam in 2002, Finn," Martha's mouth dropped open. "Sam was your rebound girl?"

"Sam's my wife -" Not that the divorce papers hadn't just got to him yesterday.

"And you obviously hooked up with her after you walked out on this girl your mate is now engaged to," Martha snapped, angry for both women.

"Look -"

"You've no right to be upset with him for hooking up with her, nearly what - eight years after the fact. You moved on, she's obviously moved on. So get over it already!" Martha huffed, turning away from him. Honestly, boys could be a little thick at some times.

Riley stewed in all Martha had to say for several long moments before flicking his eyes off of the building they were watching.

"He called me back to active duty," Riley said quietly, his hands shaking angrily. "I left because he told me they needed me."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"But still, he waited eight years to make a move on her," Martha pointed out. "Wasn't as if he waited eight hours or days."

"Can you just be quiet, Jones," Riley snapped, shifting his attention back to their target.

"Poor Sam, though. Being the rebound girl can be a heavy burden," Martha muttered, training her weapon back on target.

Samantha had gone into labor suddenly, but luckily for her, it was an easy birth. It didn't stop her or her extended family from worrying. The fact that Riley couldn't make it home in time didn't help the hurt feelings, but Graham and Buffy had been there, coaching her through it.

And she honestly tried to not feel hurt at another abandonment. She should be used to them.

~*~
So you can be haunted

Graham stood on the back porch watching the government issued car pull up the drive. It wasn't going to be a fun day, but Sam and Buffy had wanted it. The hatchet needed to be buried what with the birth of Riley's son, and the pre-wedding celebration. Shoving his hands in his jean pockets and bracing his feet apart, he glanced out into the mid-afternoon sunlight.

Riley said something to the woman in the seat beside him. Graham clenched his hands inside his pockets. He would not say anything about how tacky it was for Riley to bring another woman to where his soon to be ex-wife was taking care of their week old son.

"Tacky," a voice muttered behind him. Graham bit his lip to keep from smiling at his soon-to-be sister-in-law's comment.

"Leavin' so soon, Dawnie?" Graham asked, ticking a glance over at her.

"Couple of hours," Dawn shrugged, her fingers hovering over the phone in her pocket, betraying her nerves. "Sammy-boy can't get himself in too much trouble in a few hours, right?"

"Are you sure he shouldn't be getting the shovel speech?" Graham chuckled at the look of revulsion on her face.

"Ugh, Sammy's so in the Xander-zone it's not even funny," Dawn shuddered. "Who's the chick with Ri?"

"Haven't the foggiest."

"Tacky," Dawn muttered again.

The woman was shaking her head at whatever Riley was saying and quickly pushed herself out of the vehicle. She smiled brightly at them as she made her way up the porch.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Martha Jones," Martha smiled brightly at them. "A friend of Sam's and Riley's partner."

"Oh, Sam was talking about you the other day!" Dawn said brightly, losing her attitude with the other woman suddenly. "Sam's in here."

Riley's pace was a lot slower as Dawn and Martha disappeared into the house. He stood at the bottom stair for a few minutes, anger in his eyes.

"Ri," Graham smiled easily at him.

"Miller."

Graham's brow popped at the comment. He didn't say anything about it, but he still held out his hand in welcome to Riley. By now the taller soldier had made his way up the steps and was face-level. Graham should have known that Riley's fist was coming for him, hell, he'd even braced himself beforehand. He rocked back on his heels and felt the skin break at the force of the punch. Still didn't say anything.

"Sam's in the back with the baby," Graham said, gently rubbing at the blood starting to ooze from his lip. "She didn't pick a name yet, but was thinking about Jesse. Wants to put it to a vote."

"You're not even going to say anything about him hitting you?"

Both men turned to face Dawn, who'd come back to see what was taking them so long. Riley clenched his jaw and stared down at the youngest Summers. Dawn crossed her arms and gave him a fuck-off look. Graham smiled a bit at this, trying not to wince at the pain in his mouth.

"Nope," Graham sighed.

"Fuckin A," Dawn shook her head, leveling her gaze at Riley. "You need to get over it. Seriously. You could move on, but Buffy couldn't?"

"Dawnie -"

"You don't get to 'Dawnie' me, Finn," Dawn snapped. "You walked out on Buffy, and waltzed back in on her life with Soldier-Girl Sam. So what if Buffy's engaged to Graham ? Now you decided to be pissy about who she's sleeping with? Oh, wait, I forgot, you were determined to wreck her thing with Spike too. And you popped up when she had that fling with the Immortal. Douchebag!" She punctuated this with a sharp kick to Riley's shins.

"Dawnie," Graham warned, setting a hand on her shoulder. "Go help Buffy with dinner. I know you want to hit the road soon so you can get back to Winchester."

"Oh, don't throw the puppy in my face," Dawn huffed, turning back into the house. "Douche-y solider boys. One of these days, I am so giving up on the male sex!"

Graham laughed at both her comment and the look on Riley's face at the kick. Riley glared at him. Graham shook his head.

"I didn't know eight years ago that this is where the road would lead, Ri," Part of him had wished it, sure. He hadn't believed it ever would, just as he hadn't been sure Riley would have come back to the agency. But he had, and the road did. "We needed you, period. It had nothing to do with her or your relationship. But its done."

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to go after her, once your time was up?" Riley crossed his arms and stared him down.

"We bumped into each other on accident back in '03, in New Orleans. Her and Dawn were down there looking for a slayer. It started out as casual group or work things. I helped out on a few jobs for the new council. I didn't make a move on her that way until I left the agency three years ago."

Riley stared at him, knowing that everything he'd said made sense. He and Sam had been married for nearly four years before Graham had even thought to make a move in Buffy's direction. Because he knew that should anything come out of it, Riley would be beyond pissed. The tension seemed to drain from Riley.

"Will he be a good father to my son if anything happens to me?" Riley asked, glancing through the screen door to where Sam sat resting on the couch beside Martha and Buffy, their son in her lap.

"The divorce is final, then?" Graham asked, already knowing that Sam was through with the life that had already lost her one child and had ripped apart her shaky marriage. She'd asked for the separation the minute she'd found out she was pregnant. Riley nodded. "Yeah, he's a good guy."

"She's happier then I've ever seen her," Riley sighed.

Graham wasn't sure if he was talking about Buffy or Sam, so he only replied, "She really is."