Title: The French Connection
Author: Lily
Rating: PG to PG-13
Spoilers: Bargaining, but really only part one
Disclaimer: pshaw. not mine.
Summary: Yes, the resurrection worked. But no, it didn't wake Buffy up where she last was (that part seems to have gotten messed up, no?)...
Author's Note: *la la la* denotes Buffy thoughts

Oz was silent.

"Why didn't you tell her?" Buffy didn't get it.

"I thought I should ask you first..." Oz looked at her.

"Oh. Well...what did she say? How is she? How's everyone?"

"I think they're dealing. She didn't really say. But she kind of explained how you got here."

"She did?" Buffy was even more surprised. If Willow knew how, how couldn't she know that Buffy was alive?

"Yeah."

Buffy waited, but Oz said nothing. "Well what did she say?"

She waited some more, wondering if talking to Willow had really been such a good idea for Oz.

"I have to ask you a question," he began. "This place where you were between Sunnydale and here. The place that you said was beautiful. Where were you?"

Buffy quickly looked away from him and he didn't have to wait for her answer.

"I'd rather not talk about it. What did Willow say?"

"Was it a hell dimension?"

"I said I'd rather not talk about it, Oz." She stared right at him, and, since Oz had never been one to push for anything, she was surprised when he persisted.

"It wasn't, was it?"

"No, Oz, it wasn't..." she sighed, "but I really don't see what that has to do with anything at all, and now that I've told you this fact, even though I told you repeatedly that I don't want to talk about and it still doesn't have any relevance whatsoever, will you please tell me what she said?"

"She said a lot." Oz was still looking at her, but he was distant, remembering his conversation with Willow.

"Thanks, helpful-boy," Buffy countered, quickly and sarcastically, before standing. She walked to the door and turned around to look at Oz again. "You said she knows how I got here." Buffy started pacing. Walking to and from the door, she continued. "How would she know? I mean, it just doesn't make sense. Last night I seem to have, I don't know, fallen from the Eiffel Tower or something, when I was under the distinct impression that I had died. I was perfectly happy dead, really. And before you even tell her that you found me wandering the streets of Paris, she knows how I got there? How is that possible? Did you call her while I was sleeping? No, you didn't know the number. How did she know about some freak accident with fate, or the grand designs of the Powers That Be, or whatever it was, before you told her?"

Buffy stopped walking.

*A freak accident...*

*Or not.*

"Oz?"

"Yeah?"

"It wasn't a freak accident...or grand designs...or anything, was it?" Her bandaged hands shook slightly as she sat back down on the bed.

"No."

"Tell me." She stared at the wall and listened to him explain.

"They thought, in Sunnydale...they assumed that you were in a hell dimension. They wanted to get you out. They thought, Willow thought, that since you didn't die naturally that it would be possible to bring you back. They did the spell last night. From what Willow said, it sounded like some pretty heavy stuff...it took a while for them to get the ingredients together. But demons interrupted the spell and broke an important urn. They all thought that the spell failed." He paused. "Apparently successful. I can't figure out how you ended up here in particular, but..."

She cut him off. "It's how I died. I fell from a tower."

"...and so you ended up here when the spell got messed up. I guess it makes some kind of sense."

"So they...Willow...brought me back here?"

"Yeah. Are you okay?"

Buffy finally took her eyes off of the wall. She looked up at him and asked quietly, "they won't know if we don't tell them for a little bit, right?"

"No. We can wait."

She reached out a took his hand, but looked at the wall again.

"Good."
**end six**