CHAPTER TWENTY: CREAM
It was nearly three days before Buffy and Stephen were anywhere near ready to leave the hotel. They had spent the better part of the last few days in the room Angel had given them either crying or making love, or a combination of bother. Cordy had gone shopping for both of them, buying items that she knew Buffy had liked, and buying items for Stephen that she thought would suit them, looking suspiciously like the clothing Angel wore, minus the leather.
The drive to Sunnydale had been done in silence, not even the radio going on as Buffy and Stephen sat in the back, clutching each others hands as lifelines. Angel and Cordy were up front with Angel driving. Stephen had been scared stiff of the car at first, asking what type of a demon it was, and after a brief explanation from Angel and Cordy as to how it worked, they had coaxed Stephen into sitting in the back. The top was open to make it seem less claustrophobic, and the night air was cool against their skin.
Angel kept casting glances towards the back seat, checking on his son and his…daughter-in-law every so often to make sure they hadn't jumped from the car. Buffy looked nervous and was visibly shaking, her hand only kept still by Stephen's larger one enclosing it tightly.
When Buffy started hyperventilating at the thought of seeing her sister and her friends again, Angel was forced to stop the car so that Buffy could get out and throw up on the side of the road. Stephen stood beside her, gently rubbing her back. Buffy had set herself down on the gutter and sobbed miserably into her husbands new button-up shirt.
"I can't do this," she whispered.
He just held her and rocked her gently as Angel and Cordy leant against the car looking at each other worriedly.
"You can, Buffy. And just like you were beside me, I'm right beside you," he whispered. "For better or worse, remember? We're a team and we can do this."
She just sniffled and held onto him tightly, her mind digging through the memories now four hundred and forty years old. She could barely remember what her mother looked like, and that thought was more horrible than any other. She had forgotten the exact shade of hazel that her sister's eyes were. She had forgotten the brightness of Willow's hair and the dark contrast that was Xander's hair and usual five o'clock shadow. Anya and Tara barely even registered anymore, and she couldn't even visualise Spike's trademark smirk either. Giles gentle smile and fatherly scowl were almost lost to her and she desperately wanted to remember.
But she'd been gone for seven months now, according to Angel and Cordy. What if they'd moved on? What if they weren't in Sunnydale anymore? (Cordy had assured her that her sister was still in the house on Revello Drive, living with Tara and Willow as well as the de-ratted Amy.)
Buffy finally calmed herself and looked towards Angel with tears still in her eyes.
"Let's go," she said.
He grinned at her and opened the door to the car as Stephen helped her in, holding her close to him as they continued on into Sunnydale towards her old house.
They parked outside the lit up house and Buffy almost cried out in physical anguish as she felt a million butterflies begin to attack the inside of her stomach. She could see people moving around in the living room, could hear music playing loudly and the laughter of seemingly care-free people. She swallowed hard and looked at Stephen.
"I'm ready."
He grinned and kissed her softly. "You've always been ready."
She smiled and bit her lip, walking halfway up the path before stopping abruptly.
"What the hell am I meat to say?" she asked, her voice becoming panicky.
Cordy stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder.
"We can uh…give them a bit of a warning if you want," she suggested.
"And say what? 'Oh, by the way, you know how your sister died, she wasn't really dead. She's outside'. Yeah, that's brilliant," Buffy said.
Stephen put his hand on her arm and she sighed in resignation. She looked towards Cordy and apologised for snapping at the girl who had been nothing but completely helpful since their return. It was quite a turn-around from the girl that Buffy barely remembered from high school. She had actually had to ask Angel whether or not Cordy had always been like that, because she couldn't remember correctly anymore. Angel had just laughed and put a hand on her shoulder. "Cordy, helpful? Not on your life."
"How about you just improvise," Angel suggested gently. "You were always good at that."
Buffy closed her eyes, trying to imagine what she could possibly say to this group of people who thought she was dead without sounding idiotic. She knew there really wasn't much she could say, but she couldn't come up with a better suggestion than Angels. Improvisation it was.
Stephen steered her up the stairs and knocked loudly on the door before Buffy could back out once more. He held onto her wrist tightly, not wanting her to leave the front porch now that she was there.
Buffy swallowed nervously as she heard her sister's voice cheerfully calling out that she would get the door, and Willow's easy response of 'okay'.
Dawn half opened the door and looked at Stephen, not even casting her eyes to his companion.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
Stephen nudged his wife, but she was too shocked to say anything. Her sister looked so different from what she had remembered. She was taller for one, she had lost a considerable amount of her puppy fat, and her usually long hair was now shoulder length.
"Uh…are you Dawn Summers?" Stephen asked, not having prepared himself to say anything, hoping his wife would have just known exactly what needed to be said as she usually knew.
"Yeah I am. Why?" she asked, keeping herself inside the door. Buffy smiled at that, thankful that her sister had learnt to protect herself from undead visitors but keeping a safe distance between herself and the invisible barrier.
Stephen didn't need to answer as Buffy finally regained the use of her voice.
"Dawnie," she breathed quietly.
Dawn finally looked to Stephen's right and immediately paled. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt her knees go week.
From inside the house, Willow bounded up behind her.
"Who's at the door Dawnie?" Willow asked. She flung the door open wider and her reaction was exactly the same as Dawn's. She grabbed hold of the handle on the door to keep herself standing and put a hand on Dawn's shoulder.
Dawn could only stare at her sister in shock, not even noticing the single tear that had slid down her cheek as she stood dumbly in the doorway. She whispered her sisters name questioningly and went to step outside, but Willow grabbed her wrist.
"H-how do we know she's not a vampire?" Willow asked, still staring at Buffy in shock.
Buffy grabbed the cross that was under her shirt and lifted it up for them to see.
"I'm not," she assured them quietly.
Dawn didn't need anymore convincing and flung herself outside and onto her sister who just hugged her tightly, tears streaming down their faces. Willow was only seconds behind and joined them in a group hug, not even noticing Stephen who stood back, leaning against the wall. She didn't even notice Angel and Cordy who were standing at the bottom of the stairs with smiles on their faces at seeing the reunion.
Dawn pulled back from her sister a little, tears streaking her face as more continued to fall.
"How?" she whispered.
Buffy smiled and wiped the tears from her sisters cheeks.
"I was…stuck…in a hell dimension," Buffy admitted softly, running her hands through her sisters shortened hair, recalling how she had loved playing with the longer locks adorning Dawn's head. "But…I - we found a way to get out."
Willow had gasped when she had heard Buffy's confession of being in a hell dimension and had tightened her hold on the short blonde.
"We tried to get you out Buff," she whispered hoarsely. "I swear we tried."
Buffy smiled at her old friend and touched Willow's cheek softly. "I know you would have. And it wasn't your fault. There's only about two ways to get into Quortoth and not a lot of ways out. But…we did it."
"We?" Dawn repeated.
Buffy smiled and held out a hand to Stephen who took it, suddenly feeling incredibly shy.
"Guys, this is Stephen Holtz," she said, smiling at him through her tears. "My husband."
The twin looks of shock on Willow and Dawn's face would have been funny if the reunion hadn't been so solemn.
"Your husband?" Willow repeated, a grin coming to her face. Stephen smiled and let each other girls give him a short hug to welcome him.
Dawn hooked her arm through her sisters, not wanting to let go for a second in case this all ended up being a dream, like so many of the others that she'd had since her sister had died instead of her. But, none of her dreams had ever had Buffy coming back with a husband, so she felt fairly confident that this was real. Her sister was back!
"Maybe we should take this inside," Dawn suggested.
Willow nodded and stepped back inside, Dawn pulling Buffy in with her as Buffy reached out her hand for Stephen to take. Stephen just smiled and gave her hand a gentle squeeze, feeling incredibly emotional at the teary reunion he had witnessed.
Cordy and Angel just looked at each other grinning, before walking slowly up to the house and entering quietly behind Buffy and Stephen. Stephen looked up to see who had followed them but relaxed when he saw Cordy and his…father. It seemed strange to think that the man…vampire who was his father looked to be only five or so years older than himself.
Dawn cast a curious glance to see who had shut the door and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What are they doing here?"
Buffy turned to see whom her sister was talking about.
"They drove us here," she explained.
Dawn nodded, seemingly content with the explanation, though she would have nodded at pretty much anything her sister told her at that point in time.
They sat in the living room, Stephen sitting on one side of Buffy holding her hand as Dawn curled up on Buffy's other side, leaning her head against Buffy's shoulder.
"So, uh…where are the others?" she asked. "Giles and Xander?"
It didn't escape Willow's attention that Buffy had left out Tara and Anya, though the two women weren't really part of the core Scooby Gang. She still thought it was a little odd though.
"Xander's bringing Anya around later, we're uh…about to start decorating this place for Christmas. Or Hanukah, depending on your religion," Willow rambled nervously.
Buffy looked startled at first until her face lit up as though remembering a piece of the past that had long being forgotten. Willow studied her best friend curiously, wondering whether her friend had all of her memories. She suddenly wondered who Stephen was and what how he had come to bring Buffy back to their front door step.
"So, Stephen…how do you know Buffy?" she asked casually. The question seemed so strange to her lips, so foreign to hear the name Buffy coming from her mouth when it wasn't in whispered tones that usually brought about a solemn silence.
"We met in Quortoth a few years ago. We uh…fell in love and married last week," he explained succinctly. He smiled at his wife and she managed to smile back, squeezing his hand gently.
Dawn sat up and looked at her sister curiously. She hadn't changed at all, except she seemed to be baring a few more scars than usual. Apart from that, she looked to be exactly the same as she had when she had leapt off the tower.
"Years?" she asked quietly.
Buffy looked at her sister and ran her hand through Dawn's hair, trying to sooth both herself and herself.
"Time moved kinda differently there," Buffy explained.
"But you don't look any older," Willow exclaimed. "Not that that's a…you know…bad thing or anything."
Buffy grinned a little at that and looked towards Willow.
"I didn't age at all there. The…the Powers That Be said it was kind of a test. To see if I could work things out on my own," Buffy explained.
She still couldn't understand how the Powers could possibly think that four hundred odd years in a hell dimension could be a test. And if the Circle of Three was the only way she could get out, why hadn't Stephen been sent to Qourtoth earlier? Say, in the first year. She had wanted to ask that to Whistler when he had told her she could go home, but he had disappeared before she could. She knew that if ever she met the Powers, they would be on the receiving end of a severe ass kicking.
"Wow," Willow whispered, looking at her friend in awe. She couldn't believe what was happening. Willow had tried so desperately to bring Buffy back, knowing within her heart that Buffy hadn't been in a good place. And the spell had been so close to working, but it had been interrupted. She idly wondered whether or not the spell would have worked in any case.
"So uh…where did you say Giles was?" Buffy asked nervously. In the four hundred years, she had never been able to forget Giles. His journal was the one thing that had kept her almost sane in the hell dimension. It was the only pseudo-contact that she had with human life and had helped her immensely with remembering why she was even trying to get back.
The journal was tattered and falling apart though, even though she had always taken such good care of it. The pages were becoming yellowed and fragile, and in the last three years, she had only dared take it out every month of so for fear of completely ruining it. She wanted to give it back to him, to tell him how much it had meant to her to have part of their group with her in Quortoth.
Dawn looked towards Willow, her face falling. Of all people who should have been there at the reunion, Buffy's 'father' should have been there to welcome her back.
"He's…Buffy, he's…" Dawn couldn't bring herself to say it.
Buffy felt her heart plummet and Stephen's hand suddenly took the brunt of her panic.
"Oh God," Buffy whispered quietly. "What happened? Is he…he's not…he can't be dead."
"What, no!" Dawn cried and immediately Stephen could feel the circulation return to his hand. "He's…he's in England."
Buffy's heart fell with disappointment, but after thinking he was dead, she cold live with him being out of the country.
"Oh, but he's coming back next week," Willow said excitedly. "He said he'd be back for Christmas."
Buffy nodded and tried to smile.
"Looks like everyone's home for Christmas," Buffy commented quietly.
