Chapter 25
Not Even Half
The Funeral Procession followed the hearse to the church. The gang sat in the limo in silence. Memories of their protector, their best friend lingered everywhere. No one seemed angry with Buffy for the latest events. How could they be? She had been at their side since the very beginning, five years ago. Giles couldn't help but grin when he pictured the young sixteen year-old girl with pom-poms on the day she planned to try out for the cheerleading squad.
The limo finally stopped in front of the church. That was a lot of traffic for a Wednesday night. Giles thought to himself. He looked out the window to see a little man running towards the car. Giles was unfortunate enough to be on a first name basis with the local funeral director. When the door to the limo was opened the man came over to help them out of the vehicle. He seemed nervous and overly friendly.
"Rupert… erm…" The man started as Giles adjusted his suit.
"What?" Giles huffed, today was not the day for anything to go wrong.
"Erm, well it was very unorthodox to hold the service after dark…" Giles shot a look at Angel who coughed uncomfortably. "…the fact that Father even considered it meant that he happened to be quite fond of Ms. Summers."
"And?" Giles said, not at all in the mood for small talk.
The man cleared his throat and continued. "The church just won't go for this!"
"What in God's name are you talking about?" Giles asked with annoyance.
The man pointed his stubby finger to the street that looked lined with bumper-to-bumper traffic.
"We have nothing to do with that…" Giles looked closer and saw every car turning into the already full church parking lot. He looked across the street to see swarms of nicely dressed crowds coming from parking lots across and down the street.
"The church is already packed, and look at all those double parked cars." He said as he pointed again. "How are we supposed to make room?"
"Take out the pews?" Tara recommended giving Willow a look.
"I'm on it." Willow said as she and the others left for the church entrance.
When the walked through the side doors they were astounded by the amount of people, and more and more kept filing in.
"O Man." Xander said with a smile. "All these people are here for Buffy?"
Angel gave a proud smile. "Not even half the people she has saved." Angel said.
"So how are we supposed to move the pews with people sitting on them?" Xander asked. "Do we ask them to move?"
Willow murmured some words in Latin and everyone that was once sitting fell to the floor. The pews had disappeared.
"Willow!?! You can't just…" Xander looked over half-expecting everyone to run out the door. All of them just stood up, looked around confusingly and shrugged.
"I guess there have been weirder things have happened in Sunnydale." Xander said. "Well on that note I guess we should take a…stand."