"Where do you think she is now?" Buffy asked staring down at what lay in front of her, tears were streaming down her eyes as Spike and Dru looked on.
"I don't know pet, I don't know where people go when it happens." Spike said softly. He was really worried about Buffy she had been very upset since it happened. "I know it doesn't amount to much, but it stops today, the little squirt is going down."
Buffy stared down and nodded, "I want to be there, when it happens. I want to see that little pissant burn."
Dru moved towards the young girl, "shush luv, shush. It'll be all right, she'll wake up some day. You'll wait and see."
"But she won't recognize me this time, she won't know who I am Sil." Buffy whispered softly to her friend. "I won't be her daughter in her mind anymore."
Drusilla sighed and turned to Spike, they looked at each other for a moment. Then Spike turned towards Buffy, shaking his head.
"Buffy, I know that I can't do anything to make things the way they were the before, but I know that we can stop the creature that did this."
Buffy looked up at him, "You saw it?"
Spike shook his head, "No luv, I sorry I didn't, but Dalton did. Got a good description of him going too. Recognized him as a black man quoting scriptures about the rising of the…"
"Anointed One, darn I thought I nailed that guy." Buffy said lightly, but her eyes betrayed her thoughts, "So what do you say Spike, want to help me fry the little nuisance?"
Spike looked at her in mock shock, "What do you think I was going to let you have all of the fun?"
Buffy laughed at the hysterical look on her best friend's face, "Nope, I figured that I would let you have a go… after Dru!"
Drusilla was clapping her hands by now in joy, "The bad little boy is going to away! No more daisies will he steal from me."
Buffy turned back to Joyce Summers, "I guess we'll have to send her back home to her parents."
Spike put his arm around her, "I know you don't want to hear it, it's for the best luv. They'll be able to help her through the time that's going to come after this, without the hysterical drama of her screaming that her baby daughter is dead. … but me an' Dru leave you to say your good-byes. I know it's hard to leave people behind."
Although the words seemed unfeeling, Buffy knew what Spike had said was true.
'If she stayed she would ruin everything we worked for, plus she would never now believe that I was daughter, she would go into a hysterical fit and wind up in an insane asylum. And I know that is somewhere I rather her not to be.'
Before he and Drusilla left, Spike leaned over Joyce's bed, "Thanks so much Joyce for taking care of my mate. You did a really good job of raising her proper. I thought you should know that. Maybe we'll come visit you one day when you can remember things straight, like we did before Eily died." Buffy could almost swear that Spike's voice cracked when he said those words.
'He's a big softy after all, just under a costume of the big bad. Got to love him.' Buffy that sincerely to herself. 'I have got to spend more time with people of my own country with out looking suspicious. I'm being to really talk like an American.'
Dru looked down on the woman, her eyes full of tears. "I'm sorry you had to be hurt, we never wanted you to get hurt pet. Me Spike and me care for the girl so much that we hurt when she hurts. She'll miss you, so will we. Grey skies don't last long, the little birdie will see the sun again."
As they turned to leave, Spike turned around and looked at Buffy seriously. "Buffy no matter what you think luv, when Joyce wakes up she will recognize you. She'll know how you are, it just she'll need to come to grasp that she lost a child once. Joyce will need help, professional help to get her through this, but she will remember the daughter she has loved for seven years."
And then they were gone, not to long after the hospital service came from Los Angeles to get Joyce. Buffy was glad she had already said her good-byes, for they didn't even pay any attention to the figure at the end of the bed, for she wasn't any of Joyce's family. Not anymore at least. The spell had ended, and Buffy's heart hurt. For some reason she couldn't believe Spike's words of consolation. They were just to hard for her to grasp, for Joyce would forget everything that happened during the spell, well wouldn't she?"
When she saw Angel coming towards the room where she had been sitting, Buffy ducked into the night's shadows concealing herself in their warm embrace. She wasn't in the mood for him to ask her where she was going to leave or what she was going to do now. Buffy wasn't ready to face that quite yet. He never heard her heart beat or her lungs inhale in the moment in entered and stayed in the room, for neither organ did anything like that. Not when she didn't want them to.
When he disappeared back into the night, Buffy made her move. She had made her decision, and daylight was approaching, announcing it was time to give a wake up call to the vampire community. She was back in the fold.
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"Things are going to be run differently now." Spike said as he hoisted up the crate containing the Anointed One. "We're going to have a little less ritual, and some fun."
Then he whisper softly to the boy vampire, "This is for Buffy, for all the pain you caused my dear girl." Then he left the little vampire dangle for a moment.
Then he said loudly as he stepped back to appraise his own work, "We're in charge now." Spike moved back to his family and watched as the child vampire slowly burned.
Buffy and Drusilla smiled gleefully as the Anointed One cast his downward only to see his worst nemeses in the group with the people who betrayed him. Then Buffy walked up and pulled the little smoking wanker completely into the sunlight.
The Anointed One cast his final glare on the girl who was destroying him. "I know what you are dehy…"
Buffy, Spike and Drusilla turned to face the crowed, "Any objections?" Buffy asked.
"W..why are you here?" A young vampire girl asked, "S…slayer ain't suppose to rule with vampires, let alone live with 'em."
Buffy turned towards Spike and Dru. They shared a look, Buffy smiled evilly. "Because I can."
TCB