The next day, Willow, Xander and Dawn were gathered at Buffy's dinning room table. Giles had wanted to go through Buffy's will with them after he and the former Slayer's lawyer had looked it over, but when Xander and Willow arrived he still wasn't back. The sun hit the thick beige-brown curtains from outside, casting a pale amber glow onto the members of the household. The house was silent except for the low, droned, humming of the refrigerator.
"What do you think it says?" Willow asked quietly, shattering the silence. Before anyone could answer, Giles opened the door and came in. He looked pasty and utterly exhausted. Everyone looked at him expectantly, and then with some confusion when they noticed the videotape in his hand.
"What's that?" Xander asked.
"Well, It's Buffy's will." Giles replied, motioning them into the living room.
"Buffy's will is on a video tape?" Willow asked as they followed.
"Yes…it's uh…rather a live recording of…well everything she wanted us to know in the event that…" he didn't finish his sentence.
"You mean Buffy's on that tape?" Dawn asked, the thought clearly upsetting her.
"Yes she is." Giles said softly, going to Dawn. "And you don't have to watch it if—"
"I do!" she replied. "I need to."
"Why?" Xander asked. "Why did she do it this way?" Giles put the tape in the VCR and pushed play. Suddenly there was Buffy. She was sitting on her bed with her hands in her lap, smiling back at them in faded blue jeans and a green shirt.
"Hi Giles." She looked down quickly and let out a nervous laugh at herself. Then she smiled with amusement at the camera. "Um…sorry, I've never done this before, obviously," she rolled her eyes. "It's kinda ookie, so bear with me here. A pause. I've actually been meaning to do this for a while now, but I kept putting it off… cuz, well, not exactly a task of sunshine and happy dances." She smiled, brushing a strand of hair out of the way, and locking her fingers together loosely. "But now that we know Dawn is the key…I thought it'd be a good idea to get some things squared away…"
Dawn watched her sister with a deep longing that burned her insides and rose into her throat. The others just looked on with more sadness…relentless sadness that hung over them, and wrapped it's self around them like a suffocating blanket: never any worse or any better.
"Um…I wanted to make my will out as a video instead of some formal letter cuz, hey, its unique yet stylish. Plus! Witty side humor, and you get to look at snazzy me!" She said with a shining grin, holding her arms up in self-presentation. " And…because I want you to understand, Giles, how important this is to me." She became solemn. "Before all this stuff with Glory…it was just me…and I know you guys can take care of yourselves. You always have." She said warmly. "But Dawn…" she looked down at her fingers. "I'm her only family right now, and if something happens to me…she can't be alone." She looked back into the camera with serious eyes. "Giles…I haven't seen my Dad in almost 5 years. He hasn't been my father since a long time before that." Her eyes teared up, and they shined against the light. "My mom is gone…and if someone were to ask me who my dad is, you know I wouldn't say Hank Summers. "You…" she stopped. "If something happens…I need you to take care of Dawn for me. Take the house if you need to, or sell it, I don't care, but I don't want her to go to him…if he even…Please Giles…be to her what you are to me, and I know she'll be okay. I need to know she'll be okay. Dawn…I love you…I love you…I can keep saying the words but they'll never be enough. You are my world, and if you're watching this, I'm so sorry…but you're gonna be fine, and you know I'll always be with you no matter where I am…Oh and also, as you've demanded, pestered, and yet demanded more, you do get first dibs on my stuff." she grinned. "Take everything I have in the bank, which is basically nothing if you don't count the dust and bats, and put it in Dawn's saving account for college." Another pause as she thought. "Willow…Xander…God, what can I even say?" She looked down at her hands again. "I know it probably sucks right now…but you guys are so strong…I really hope your home watching this, and not wherever I am right now. You've stood beside me all these years, and I know you were there till the bitter end…but I need you guys to buckle down and fill my void, ok?" She pleaded to the screen, and her eyes met directly the eyes of her friends on the other side. "There's no Slayer now…at least not one who's capable of doing her job, and you guys are the only ones who can do this, so don't fall apart now. I need you all to be strong. Be careful…be relentless…be us. Okay? Okay. Good."
Buffy stood up and turned the camera off. There was a flash of her green torso and an arm, and then black. Dawn got up silently and retreated to her bedroom with out so much as a glance in anyone's direction. The door slammed fiercely and it echoed throughout the house. Willow and Xander stared into the blackness on the screen. Giles walked over to the VCR and popped the tape out. The normal television resumed as the ex-watcher walked into the kitchen and shut the door behind him. On the screen before them was some out dated Loony Toons cartoon. Elmer Fudd had just popped Bugs Bunny with his shotgun, and watched with satisfaction as the rabbit suddenly fell and became buried by a pile of earth, a single daisy poking up from the center. How did he do that anyway? Willow wondered to herself. Dirt can't just pile itself onto people…
In the kitchen, Giles set the tape down with precious care on the counter top. He stared at it momentarily, and then dropped to his knees, putting his hands close to his face.
Elmer, realizing what he'd done, suddenly became remorseful, as cartoon characters back then often did when they hurt each other, to remind the children watching them of action and consequence. He took his goofy brown hunting cap off, shedding sniffley, over dramatized tears over Bugs' grave.
Scwewy Wrabbit…
Willow and Xander suddenly heard squealed and whimpering sounds coming from the kitchen. They were soft, high pitched, and muffled at first, and then as the noise grew louder and became more hiccuped, they realized it was Giles crying, as freely and unashamedly as a child, on the other side of the door. The sounds terrified the other two. They were awful, pitiful sounds of surrender. Xander and Willow had never heard such sounds come from their strong, tireless, all knowing, and ever reassuring Giles; the man whom which they had put their backs up against for 5 years. Xander looked at Willow, but Willow just continued to watch the cartoon, her brow wrinkled as she stared. Giles' pathetic cries filled the empty spaces in the air the sound from the television didn't touch.
Amazingly and miraculously, the dead rabbit suddenly surfaced, pushing the dirt off as he rose. Willow's eyes were fixed, and drawn forward in intense thought. Much to Elmer Fudd's surprise, Bugs bounced up from his grave, rubbing the daisy into the infuriated hunter's face, and then as a Bugs Bunny trademark, leaped up and gave him a sloppy noisy kiss on the top of his head before bounding out of sight.
Willow stared, her mouth cracked.
Giles wailed.
"Will…?" Xander asked, noticing her attention to the TV
Giles began pounding his fist repeatedly against the kitchen wall.
"Xander…" She met his eye. "I think I might know a spell."
End.