A/N: Alright, so I said I wasn't allowed 2 update this, and I'm not. I'm just…* winces* …breaking the rules. Anyways, this fic is told from several different characters points of view and I'm almost positive that it absolutely sucks, but oh well. I can improve on the next chapter. Review please. And if it's a flame please make it constructive. Also, this IS AU. Please remember as you read this. Also, the song is Since I've Seen You Last by Joanna Janet. It doesn't belong to me any more than X-men or Buffy.
P.S.: I just spent two hours trying to find Buffy's birthday, and still couldn't find it, so just for you die hard fans who will yell at me----I'm saying "SCREW THIS!!!" and creating my own birthday for her. Also, I'm trying not to paint her the way they do in the show—incredibly shallow. Oh, and Hank Summers isn't a jackass and Joyce didn't throw Buffy out at the end of season 2. AND they're still married.
Xavier's School for the Gifted
2008
Sister's getting married
Plans to move out west,
I know the last time you saw her
She wasn't even driving yet.
Alex Summers watched his brother pace, knowing that the only reason Scott hadn't set a date with Jean was that he wanted his twin there for the wedding. But Alex also knew that the possibility of seeing Beth in this lifetime was next to none. "It's been nineteen years, Scott. I really don't think you're going to see her again. Just set the date already!"
His younger brother stared at him, shoving the expression of pain from his hidden eyes. "I know that, Alex. It's just…it still hurts sometimes. And so often, I wonder what she's doing or if she's alive. But I'll set the date. You're right," Scott's stony façade collapsed and he whispered, "She's never coming back."
Daddy finally cashed out
Hs working days have passed
Bought a condo on the coast
And him and Mama ain't been back
Since I've seen you last.
Alex knew how hard it hurt his brother to get on with the wedding. Scott didn't know it, but he'd often struggled with the same thoughts and feelings. Every birthday that had come, he'd shut himself off from his adoptive parents. October 31st was the day that other kids went trick-or-treating but Alex hadn't done that since he was 8 ¼ and it was what would have been Beth's 7th birthday.
It had gotten worse when their mother and father had died and they'd been split up by Social Services. Then, Halloween was a time to remember both of his younger siblings. He let himself dwell just briefly on the fact that he'd been reunited with Scott so there was no reason why that couldn't happen with Beth but he also knew it would take a miracle. Beth most likely hated them for what she'd most likely seen as abandoning her.
I finally finished college
Spent a summer in New York
Thirstin' for knowledge
That I flat out can't afford.
Willow Osborne just lay there in bed with her husband and knew a moment of complete bliss. She couldn't help but feel relieved that Amy was manning the store with Anya so that meant… "Oz! I don't have to work today. How about working on the first of little witchy-wolves?"
(And I'm NOT writing a sex scene.)
I met someone who listened
Held me close
And made me laugh
And if only for a moment
I haven't felt like that
Since I've seen you last.
Buffy couldn't help but wonder what her husband would say if she told him that her grandfather was the one person she hated. In fact, other than her biological mother, Quentin Travers was the only person she hated. The only person she'd told about her brothers was Willow, and that was only because Wills had seen a picture of her, Scott, and Alex. That had been seven years before, during the time that Angelus had terrorized them, but Willow hadn't told a soul in the years since.
Perhaps, Buffy reflected wryly, that was because she'd threatened to tell the entire Rosenberg clan that not only was their pride-and-joy resident genius a practicing Wiccan that had gotten married in a Christian ceremony, but her husband was a werewolf. The werewolf threat had come first, with the Wiccan one appearing a few years later. The last one had surfaced two years before when Willow and Oz had eloped. All in all, they never discussed that long-ago conversation, except for a, "Today's Alex's birthday," or "I wonder what my twin turned out like. I wonder if Scott would hate me for what I am. I wonder if he'd think I'm a freak."
Elisabeth 'Buffy' Anne Summers Summers-O'Brien didn't reflect on her early years often, and was surprised that she even was dwelling on the past, and on the things she'd shared with her best friend. It wasn't one of their birthdays, wasn't the day she'd been given up, and wasn't her formal adoption day. So why was she thinking of her siblings?
Since I've seen you last
I been chasin' down
Dreams that I outgrew
But with every turn
Life leads me back to you
Though you've been gone for so long
Not a moment has passed
Since I've seen you last.
Angle watched his wife stare out the window of their hotel room, a forlorn expression on her face. He'd been wondering at her words all night and was still wondering. They'd met when Buffy was fifteen—exactly a decade ago. Three years later after being acquaintances, then friends, then casually dating, then seriously dating, they decided to take the big step on her eighteenth birthday. He'd married her in the old Irish custom beforehand, complete with a Claddaugh ring fir each if them. They had consummated the marriage only to find out there had been a clause on his soul: a moment of pure happiness would unbind his soul and cause Angelus to come out to play. His demon's reign of terror had ended only when his wife had plunged a sword into him and sent her one true love to Hell.
Ironically, it was that love that had been able to bring Angel back from the pits of Hell. Too bad it had also prevented them from ever making love again.
Since I've seen you last.
Oh yeah.
With every new day,
Something brings back our goodbye
And the reasons we had then
So further from my mind
I prayed for this evening
And the chance to finally ask
Do you ever wish we held on
To all we almost had?
Since I've seen you last.
They had decided to separate for awhile, Buffy recalled. Just a month into it, she'd showed up in L.A. missing him with a passion and pleading with him to come back. Angel had shaken his head, and told her that he'd only come back if they could make his soul permanent.
So, she and Willow had done everything but hack into the Vatican searching for a spell that would do just that. A year after he came back, they had preformed the spell. Shortly afterwards, they'd married in a modern church because they didn't feel like explaining to her parents that they were actually already married.
Hank Summers, the man Buffy had called "Dad" since she was seven years old, walked his little girl down the aisle. Granted, he wasn't happy about having a son-in-law that was undead and older than his grandmother, but he dealt. Not happily, but Joyce had only had to remind her husband that he should be glad that he had a daughter to worry about to get him to come around.
Buffy had told them that she didn't want to explain to him about all of it, and they'd honored his request. If he thought it odd that there were very few pictures of his wife before age six, he never mention it.
Elisabeth thanked God every day for her husband. Only He could have given her such a loving husband.
Since I've seen you last
Cuz I'm through chasin' down
Dreams that I outgrew
Cuz with every turn
Life leads me back to you
Though you been gone for so long
Not a moment has past
Since I've seen you last.
Buffy couldn't help but hope that she'd see the boys…they'd be men now…that haunted her dreams again. She knew that it would be hard to find them unless she employed her hacker-best friend, but she would ask Wills about it when they got back to Sunnyhell. But right now, she had other things to worry about…like creating the first generation of Summers-O'Briens.
Oh yeah.
Since I've seen you last.
Oh, since I've seen you last.
Since I've seen you last.
None of them knew it yet but God had decided that it was time for a family to be reunited and another man's past to be revealed to him. Who knew, maybe there'd even be a couple new romances…