Buffy - Epilogue

Buffy sat at her desk, trying desperately to pay attention to the kid sitting across from her. She knew he was just here to get out of class and didn't really have anything important to talk about. Buffy was thinking about tonight. She had just spoken to Faith 20 minutes ago and knew everything was in place. Their girls were about to turn 15 and they had a huge party planned.

She rarely saw anyone from her slayer days anymore. Even Dawn had moved away. None of them saw the point in staying in Sunnydale with no demons to fight. They had considered leaving Sunnydale themselves but had decided to stay. It was their home, so much of their lives were in this town, and they didn't want to leave it behind.

Tara was the only one who had stayed. Willow never forgave any of them for destroying magic. They never saw her after she left the hospital that day. Tara had been immensely helpful to the new parents, moving in with them for the first several years of the girls' lives. Eventually, she found new love in her life, but she remained incredibly close to the ex-slayers. She and Buffy both worked at the school. Tara as a teacher and Buffy as a part-time counselor. Each of them able to finish their education after the war with the First had ended.

Mostly Buffy had been completely happy with her situation. She loved her family and they had made new friends. Friends who had no idea that she was ever a slayer or that magic was once a real thing.

Their lives hadn't been blissfully perfect. There had been disagreements about a wide variety of things. Getting used to their new slayer-less bodies while also being sleep-deprived led to a lot of misunderstandings. It didn't help that they had grown so accustomed to generally knowing how the other felt, that they had forgotten they had to actually tell the other what they were thinking now.

It did not take them very long to adapt to their new situation. Faith had made sure that everyone always knew they were loved, no matter what was going on. Nobody ever left the house or went to bed without knowing that they might fight, or disagree about something, but that didn't mean that they weren't loved.

Every year on the girls' birthday they would get together. Dawn, Giles, Kara, Xander, Anya, along with the potentials and watchers who didn't resent them for destroying magic would all return to Sunnydale. It was always a complicated emotional time for them all. The death of magic and the birth of her daughters. Buffy was the only one who didn't have any negative feelings about what Faith and Tara had done. She understood everyone else's pain though, and she did feel sad for how it affected them.

The boy was still droning on about some girl he liked when she felt it. Something she had never expected to feel again. She perked up and looked around the room, trying to figure out what it was, and then she heard a scream. The boy didn't react to the scream, so she wasn't sure it had really happened. But then she heard another and she knew it had been real.

She ran down the hallway, ignoring the buzzing of the phone in her pocket. The feeling was pulling her in multiple directions and she couldn't figure out which way to go. She turned towards where it was the strongest and saw Joy running down the hallway at full speed, a speed she most certainly should not have been able to achieve.

She reached the girl and wrapped her in an embrace. Not at all understanding what might be happening. Again her phone buzzed in her pocket.

"Mom! What is happening to me?!" Joy was panting, fear and confusion painted on her face.

A few seconds later her other daughter appeared in the hallway and ran towards them. "Hope?"

Hope was panicking, just like Joy was. Buffy could feel the buzz of their energy. Buffy closed her eyes and held her daughters close, realization finally hitting her. She remembered how terrified she felt when she was called, knowing that her girls must be feeling just as scared and confused. At least they would have her and Faith to explain everything to them. They would never be alone in their calling.

Her phone buzzed again and she pulled away enough to answer it.

"B?" Buffy closed her eyes and held her breath at the sound of Faith's voice.

"We'll be home soon."

"I'm so sorry." Faith whispered into the phone and Buffy sighed.

"Don't be sorry. We knew this might happen. It's going to be ok." She took a deep breath and tried to believe what she was saying. "We'll see you soon." She ended the call and walked her girls out of the school.

She found Tara standing in the parking lot before they could reach the car. "Tara?"

Tara turned at the sound of her name, but she looked very confused. Her eyes took in the two teenagers and she nodded in understanding.

"Wanna ride with us?"

Tara nodded again and climbed in. They rode in mostly silence back to Revello drive. Buffy telling them they needed to wait until they were all together before she could answer their questions.

"We're what? You were what? What?" The girls asked an incoherent stream of shocked questions as Buffy and Faith tried to explain what was happening to them.

The elder slayers sighed and tried to remain calm. Neither of them feeling particularly calm at the moment. It was made even more difficult by the steady stream of phone calls and visitors who were already in town for the party. Only some of which were at all aware of what was happening.

Buffy's phone began to ring again, she didn't recognize the number. Normally she would not answer, but she had a feeling they might be hearing from a lot of unexpected people today.

"Hello?"

"Buffy?"

"Willow!" Buffy moved into the dining room to talk privately. They hadn't heard a single word from Willow since that day. They had no idea where she had gone. Tara had been devastated, but after some time began to understand why Willow couldn't forgive her for her decision. "I guess you… can feel what happened?"

Willow laughed a little, "Do you know why?"

Buffy sighed, "the girls. They… they were called."

"Girls?"

"Joy and Hope? Our daughters?"

Willow was silent on the other end of the phone for a long time, Buffy checked to see if the call had dropped. "I just assumed since they were magic…"

"Oh.. I see.." Buffy frowned, she had always hoped that Willow kept tabs on them somehow. Realizing that her best friend didn't even bother to find out that the girls she helped create still existed, stung. "Today is their birthday, they're 15 and apparently slayers now. We're still kind of figuring it all out."

"I'm glad to hear that." Buffy wasn't sure Willow was glad about it at all, though she must have been glad about the return of magic.

"Do you think you'll come back? We would love for you to meet them, you are kinda responsible and now they might believe us about how they were conceived." The girls had never believed that both Buffy and Faith were both their biological parents. They had always assumed it was just a story they had made up.

Willow was quiet again, "maybe. I'm not sure."

Buffy was getting a little exasperated. She had other things to worry about right now. "Well, you are always welcome." Buffy sighed at the silence on the other end of the line, "we'll probably need help getting them trained and prepared to start fighting evil."

"Actually, you might not have to worry about that just yet."

"Oh?"

"Reach out, what do you feel? Do you feel anything remotely dark or evil?"

Buffy closed her eyes and tried to focus, it had been a long time and she was never great at sensing magical beings. Following the energy as best she could, she felt the power of Faith, Joy, Hope, and Tara in the living room. She reached further, reaching into the energy of the earth until she found more signatures. All of them were good and pure, they all felt like her family. "Wow. So you don't think we'll have to fight any time soon?"

"I don't think so, not unless something major changes."

Buffy had never been more relieved, she hadn't had much time to process everything that was happening. Most of her energy had been on her girls and trying to help them understand what was happening to them. She hadn't really had time to even start worrying about the endless fight against evil that was likely coming.

Now that she was feeling energy again, she could feel Faith in her head, and it felt amazing. She was no longer interested in talking to Willow, she had other things on her mind. "Thanks for calling, Willow. Is it OK if we keep in touch?"

Willow sighed, "Look - you don't have to worry about me."

"Worry about you?"

"I'm not going to go evil again, I'm not out for revenge."

"What... what are you talking about?"

"Oh." Willow as quiet again, "the reason I left. It was because I remembered what I did... and what I almost did."

"Shit." Buffy gasped.

"I've had a long time to work through everything. But I had to leave... I couldn't face any of you, after what I had done. I don't even know how you stayed friends with me."

Buffy was still processing the news, these things happened a long time ago, and they didn't even actually happen. "If you remember, then you also remember everything that happened with Faith... so you know forgiveness and second chances are kind of a theme."

"What I did was so much worse than anything she ever did."

"You were more successful at being evil than she was, but you were both manipulated by the First Evil and you both made the most of your second chances."

"You don't know everything I did." Willow's voice was timid, Buffy could barely hear her.

"No, it's true. I don't know." She really didn't want to know either but didn't think saying that would be helpful at the moment. "But I do know that if you want to come back here, you will be welcomed."

"I don't know if I can. I have a life here, and I'm not sure if magic and demon fighting fits into it anymore."

Buffy chuckled, that was something she could definitely relate to. "I get that. Just know that you are welcome, and if you ever need anything, we are here for you."

"You're really not worried about what I might do?"

Buffy sighed, "honestly - I haven't had time to figure out what I'm worried about. Once things settle down, maybe we can have more of a discussion about this? And if you're at all worried, maybe there's something we can do to help you."

"That's fair. Thank you." Willow actually sounded relieved.

"Ok, I gotta go. We'll be in touch." Buffy was still annoyed at Willow's gruffness. It wasn't like it was her fault any of this had happened and shouldn't she be happier now? She ended the call and returned to the living room, deciding she had more important things to focus on.

"Who called, B?"

"Can we talk about it upstairs?"

There was a collective groan from the couch, "we know what that look means."

"Hey! There was no look! And you shouldn't know about these things anyway! Not that there are things to know about." Buffy pouted with her hands on her hips as she tried to recover from the embarrassment.

"Smooth, B." Faith laughed and started to follow Buffy upstairs.

"Tara, do you mind… um... Getting everything set up?"

Tara chuckled, "of course."

The once again slayers ran upstairs and into their room. Buffy immediately turned to pin Faith to the wall as soon as she could. The slayers moaned into each other as they kissed, Faith's legs wrapped around Buffy.

There hadn't been anything lacking in their magic-less sex life. There had been a lot of adjustment, just having two little ones to take care of changed things immensely. They had always taken the time to love each other as much as possible. Nothing could compete with what they were feeling now though.

Increased strength and stamina were certainly nice, but the ability to feel each other through the connection was what mattered. Every touch amplified and compounded, they could direct the other without words, without even having to be fully aware of what they themselves wanted.

They were laying together contentedly. Buffy was letting herself feel Faith completely, their emotions and energies rebounding. It was something she had never expected to feel again, it was the only thing she missed about the world of magic.

A knock at the door took Buffy out of her extremely happy place.

"I'm really sorry to bother you guys… but you need to see this." Tara's voice called from the other side of the door.

"Can't we even get a few minutes to ourselves?" Faith groaned as she started to pull clothes on.

Buffy closed her eyes and frowned, she looked at the clock and laughed. "They gave us two hours."

Faith only laughed herself and threw Buffy's clothes at her.

"So what's the big deal?" Buffy said as they joined everyone in the living room. Many of the guests had arrived, including Giles and Kara. They were all watching a news report. There were strange reports from around the world of teenage girls suddenly showing abnormal strength.

"Fuck." Buffy hissed, she thought it was quiet, but forgot that the ears she was trying to hide from, now had slayer hearing.

"Mom!" Both girls chastised her.

"What's up? Isn't this a good thing?" Faith asked.

"That depends, do you consider thousands of slayers as being something major?" Faith quirked her eyebrow. Buffy dragged her into the other room. "That was Willow who called earlier. She was telling me how she didn't think we'd have to worry about fighting evil anytime soon… unless something major happened."

"Fuck." Faith whispered.

Both senior slayers jumped at the combined shout of "Ma!" From the living room.

END