title: Daylight Dancer
word count: 200
fandom: BtVS/Stargate
challenge: #67" Song Title
disclaimer: I own neither Buffy the Vampire Slayer nor Stargate: SG-1.
notes: The song is "Daylight Dancer" by Lacuna Coil. This ties in directly to the following drabble, "Swamped."
summary: It is the same expression you see when you look in the mirror...

You can see that she's tired. Not physically, perhaps. She doesn't seem to sleep, yet she always seems ready to go, ready to join in where she's needed.

Under that veneer of vitality, though, you notice the sagging shoulders when she thinks no one is watching, you see her expression slip into one you are more accustomed to seeing on men and women like Jack, who've seen and done too much, yet they move forward.

It is the same expression you see when you look in the mirror on a bad day, on the days you remember Sha're and Janet. On the people you've lost, your failures.

After a time, she opens up. She sees her life as one of shadows. She tells you of the desolation, the grief.

She tells you, too, of her joys.

Later, you seek her out while on base. There is more to her than the darkness she sees, more than the death. You want to give her another way, to be her bridge into a different outlook on life. She will always be the Slayer, she tells you. You nod.

It doesn't mean she can't dance in the daylight.

You're determined to help her see that, to believe it.