Author's Note: Written for Day 15 of the 2022 August Fic-A-Day.
A/N 2: This is meh, but I've had a 10-hour day at work so, yeah.

Buffy was moved from one of the guest quarters into a set of rooms where she was allowed to decorate how she wanted, within reason. Truthfully, she wasn't sure if General O'Neill were afraid she would make it into a pink Barbie house, if he were afraid she would make it into some kind of warrior princess barricade, or some horrifying mix of the two, but he was apprehensive.

If he had been aware, he probably should've been more afraid of Colonel Carter and Vala Mal Doran taking her shopping. It had been a lot of fun, especially since she literally only had the clothes she had arrived in a few days before. Since the clothes had both demon guts and alien guts on them, they had been deemed as trash, and Vala had suggested they go shopping for an entirely new wardrobe for her by using Daniel's little plastic card.

The three of them went to acquire a new basic wardrobe for her, but luckily for Daniel, there was some kind of slush fund for buying things for visiting aliens. She also got other basic necessities since it appeared she would be staying in this reality at least for a few weeks if not longer. It all depended on if Sam and the other scientists were able to figure out which reality she came from, and how to get her back there.

Buffy herself had this feeling in her stomach that she would be staying where she was, and that her own reality was lost to her. If asked how she knew that, or why she was so certain, she would not have been able to explain it since 'Slayer sense' was not an actual explanation with these people.

Still, she had a new set of clothes. Jeans, slacks, skirts, dresses, tops, jackets, shoes, and so on. It was on the cheaper side of the prince range since it wasn't any of their money, but it was still cute. Sam had also made sure she had several sets of workout clothes since Buffy had kept up her training, and used the base personnel as her training dummies when Teal'c wasn't available. Amusingly enough most of them kept coming back, either to try and prove to her that winning was just a fluke or to actually spar with her.

General O'Neill had finally given her permission to call him Jack a couple of days into her stay. He had also given her a limited access card so she could use the elevators instead of using the stairs all the time. Which was nice.

Daniel had given her a proper tour, excluding certain areas where apparently teenagers were not welcome. Although the Gate Room and the main control center for Stargate Command were included, much to her amusement.

Sam's lab, Daniel's office, and Jack's office were also a part of the tour. At the moment she was sitting in Sam's lab reading through Sam's report on her alternate reality parents and their families. It was eerie. She had a sister named Freya who was almost the same age as her and a brother named Keith who was five years her junior. There was no resemblance between them and her, much to Buffy's disappointment.

"Sam?"

"Hmm?" The woman asked distractedly from underneath whatever it was she was working on.

"I don't look like my siblings, and I don't really look like my mother either, so why can't I just meet them and pretend I have no idea who they are and then try and befriend them?"

Blue eyes looked at her from between pieces of technology before the woman rose from her awkward position. "Because there's too big of a risk you'll say something that will inadvertently spill our secrets. You know your mother, she is a safe person for you. Someone you love and trust. If the two of you meet up and become friends, your walls will come down, and at some point, you will say something that your mother from your reality said or did, and your mom in this reality will be asking questions. We can't risk that. I'm really sorry."

It was expected, but this was her mother. Even if she wasn't. And Buffy was alone for the first time in her life.

"What about my future if your gadgets can't get me home? I'm guessing I won't be allowed to live at this super secret military base indefinitely. There's school and college, and stuff."

The school wasn't really what was bothering her, but her mother had always insisted she needed a college education, and even if she wasn't here Buffy didn't want to disappoint her.

"You're a Senior, right? So you'll be 18 soon." Buffy nodded. "If this doesn't work out, we'll enroll you in one of the local high schools and then help with college applications. Since you pretty much landed in our lap you're our responsibility. While you're not an alien in the strictest sense, there are bound to be at least some differences between our realities. But with any luck, it won't be too noticeable."

Sam looked thoughtful for a moment, "We are going to need to check for that before we allow you to go to school or interact with anyone outside of this base."

"We've been shopping for hours. It all looked pretty normal to me."

Carter smiled, "We were in crowds, but you recognizing pretty much all of the stores does give credence to our realities being very similar. There will be a kind of quiz later to see how similar."

"Um," Buffy hedged a little. "I'm not very good at those, and I don't follow politics and stuff."

"You don't have to be. It'll have a wide variety of questions and you are supposed to not know the answers to some of them. It'll be fine. Actual aliens have managed to become part of our strange little planet by using a little effort. You won't have a problem, Buffy. Just be honest and do your best."