CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: MOMMA
Wednesday: 7pm
14th January 1998
California: Sunnydale
Tim unlocked the door and walked inside.
"Hey girls," he called. "I'm home. And we've got a visitor."
Beth walked in, feeling suddenly nervous. She'd spent nearly all day with Dawn, as well as the previous day, but somehow in a more formal setting, it was strange. She'd never been invited to dinner before.
Joyce walked into the hallway from the kitchen and smiled as she saw her husband and her (hopefully) eldest daughter.
"Hi Tim," she greeted, kissing his cheek. She turned to smile at Beth, ushering her further inside the house. "Beth, you made it. And I see you've met my husband."
Beth smiled and walked inside.
"You're house is gorgeous," she said, looking around.
"Thank you," Joyce said, smiling. "I can get Dawn to give you the grand tour if you'd like."
"That'd be nice, thanks."
There was an awkward silence until Tim cleared his throat. "Well, Dawnie's probably upstairs if you wanna go up and say hi to her," he said. "How's dinner coming Joyce?"
"It'll be ready in about ten minutes," she said.
"Did you need a hand with anything?" Beth offered.
"Oh, no, dear that's fine. Tim and I can handle it. If you'd like to see Dawn, she's in the first room on the left at the top of the stairs," Joyce said.
Beth nodded and took the stairs, trying not to forget that this wasn't her Watcher's house where she could rush up them three at a time. Tim took Joyce gently by the arm and pulled her into the living room.
"Joyce, I have to tell you something," he began.
Joyce barely even noticed that he had spoken. She began pacing the room, biting her nails nervously.
"Oh, what if it's her? Do you think it is? Oh, but what if it isn't? She's so lovely Tim. She's…she's so beautiful. I never thought I'd see her again, and…oh, but what if it's not her?"
Tim gently pulled his wife to sit on the couch and opened his briefcase. He took out the stuffed pink pig that he had stashed inside and handed it to his wife. Joyce took it, her eyes widening as she recognised the item. Her breath caught in her throat and her eyes darted to the top of the stairs.
"It's really her," she whispered. She looked at Tim, her eyes wide and excited. "Oh god, it's really her!"
He nodded and took her hands in his, squeezing them gently.
"I went to her uncle's house and asked him. It looks like they were looking for you as well," he explained. "When I told them about you…I think they were as shocked as we were. She…she didn't know you were alive until a few days ago."
"But…she does know, right? She knows that she's my daughter?" Joyce asked.
"Not yet, no. We…we thought it best to wait until you knew before we told her," Tim said.
"We? Who's we?"
"Her uncle and her father figure," he said.
"Two of them?" Joyce asked.
"Rupert Giles and Ethan Rayne. They've both been scouring through old police records trying to track you down," he said.
Joyce swallowed hard and tried to comprehend what her husband was saying. Her eldest daughter was alive, here, and in her house. She couldn't think, she could barely breathe.
"It's really her," Joyce said again. "Oh god…how am I meant to tell her? What if she hates me? What if she doesn't want her family back? She's been happy for the last twelve years without us, she's…oh god, Tim, she's…what if she doesn't want to stay here with us?"
"Joyce," he said calmly. "Whatever happens, happens. We can't change that. She's known you for under a week and she already likes you. Dawn worships the ground she walks upon, and I think that Beth – Buffy really does love her little sister. We have to tell her."
"Can we…can we wait? Until after dinner? I don't want it to be awkward. And…we should tell her privately. And then we can explain it to Dawn later," Joyce said.
Tim nodded. "I was going to suggest that myself. I think we'll need to talk to both of them, together and separate. This…it changes a lot."
She looked at him worriedly.
"It's not going to change us will it? You won't be angry that she's finally back? That my daughter from my first marriage is here as well?"
"Joyce," he said with a smile, "to see you as happy and carefree as you are now, I would do whatever it took to keep that in your life. And if accepting a lovely young woman into ours lives is what it's going to take, then I'm not going to ask you to give that up. She's a wonderful girl Joyce."
She nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes. She stood as she heard two sets of footfalls coming down the stairs, her two daughters talking happily. She smiled and looked towards Tim as they came into the room. Tim took the stuffed pig and hid it behind the couch.
"Hey daddy," Dawn greeted, stepping into her father's embrace. "How was work?"
"Oh, you know, same ole same old."
She grinned and looked at Beth.
"See, told ya he'd say that," Dawn said.
Tim laughed and gave his daughter a playful hit. She squealed and hugged her father tightly.
"Well, dinner's just about ready," Joyce said. "Tim, if you'd give me a hand setting the table, please?"
Tim nodded and Dawn grabbed Beth's hand, pulling her into the dining room.
------------------------
An hour later, the four of them were seated in the living room, soft music playing in the background. Dawn had fallen asleep a few minutes ago, her head resting on the arm of the couch as Tim, Joyce and Beth talked quietly.
Tim stood up and gathered his young daughter into his arms, taking her up the stairs to put her to bed. He gave an encouraging smile to his wife and silently told her that he would give her whatever time she needed to try and explain to Beth that not only was her mom alive, but that she'd just eaten dinner with her.
Joyce smiled nervously and got up off the couch. She went to the bookcase and took down an old photo album. It was the photo album from her first marriage.
"I want to show you something," Joyce said, seating herself beside Beth. Beth shifted closer to have a better look at the photos that Joyce was about to show her.
Joyce opened to the first page, the wedding pictures of herself and Hank.
"That's…Tim's not your first husband," Beth commented.
Joyce shook her head. "He died in a car accident," Joyce explained.
"I'm sorry."
Joyce flipped over the page to some more photos, skipping past the pictures of herself and Hank and getting to the baby pictures. The photo taken in the delivery room of Joyce and Hank looking proudly at their daughter after she had first been born.
Beth's breath caught in her throat. She didn't dare hope that this was what she thought is was.
"You guys had a baby together."
"A little girl," Joyce said, tears coming to her eyes. "She was the light of our lives. Quite possibly the only thing that kept us together. Hank was…whenever she was around, he was a different person. He loved her with everything that he had."
Joyce looked at Beth who was keeping her eyes on the photos, willing herself not to let tears drop.
"He called her princess," she continued. "When she was three, he bought her something that she never parted with. Ever."
Joyce brought forward the pink pig from behind the couch and handed it to Beth who took it with shaking hands.
"He bought her this."
Tears fell from Beth's eyes and she looked up at Joyce.
"Her name was Beth, but we called her Buffy."
Beth's lower lip was quivering violently, the young Slayer trying to keep the tears at bay.
"You're my mother?" she whispered, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Joyce nodded and felt tears trickle down her own cheeks as she saw wonder and fear and love and worry flash across Beth's face.
"I don't know what to say," Beth admitted.
Joyce couldn't stand it any longer and reached out to the girl, hugging her tightly. "You don't have to say anything," she whispered, stroking Beth's hair.
Beth's resolve shattered, and the girl quickly burst into shaking sobs, clinging to her mother desperately. It was ten minutes before either of them said another word.
Buffy could only whisper: "Momma."
(Awwww…*sniffles* Who else loves a nice piece of family fluff like I do?)