Buffy opened her eyes to see a blaringly bright light in front of her. She blinked a few times and waited for the adjustment before looking around and noticing Willow sitting on a chair staring at her with tears in her eyes. She said in a tired voice "Hey" Willow smiled and said "Hey." Buffy closed her eyes for a second before taking a small breath and saying "So how did you find me?" Willow looked down and said "Shape shifter", Buffy nodded and said "Silvery eyes, creepy looking." Willow smiled nervously and said "eventually". Buffy nodded and then winced and said "Don't suppose I can get some pain killers or lots of morphine." Willow looked embarrassed suddenly and jumped up and said "Oh right the doctor, be back in a sec, don't go anywhere." Buffy looked around as she exited and said "Like I can".
There was a lot of hustle over the next ten hours, with tests and talks and making Buffy extremely tired. When she was eventually back in the bed it was nine in the morning and being told that she had visitors. She could only nod and fall back against the pillow enjoying the feeling of morphine going through her.
The first person to come in was her mom and her sister. It was strange but a part of her knew that Dawn wasn't her sister even though she had all these memories of her. She smiled and tried to hide the pain when Dawn enveloped her in a hug. She said in a tired voice "Missed you too Dawnie." Dawn smiled and said "Don't ever go away again." Buffy smiled and looked up at her mom and bit her lip and said "Hey mom". Her mom's eyes were glistening with tears as she opened her arms and hugged her daughter and said "I love you Buffy". Buffy hugged her mother tightly despite the pain it brought her mild bruises and said "Love you too mom." Her mother brushed her hair off her face and said "Everything is going to be alright now."
Buffy smiled and they chatted for a few minutes mostly with her mom and Dawn talking while she listened. Then they went out and Willow and Xander came in the room. She was enveloped in a hug by both of them and Xander was apologizing constantly which surprised her a lot. She ended up cutting him off and telling him to quit it, that he was forgiven. It was strange how being in coma for six months and constantly seeing her demons made her feel so much more grown up and the petty things like fighting with her friends seemed so trivial now. Even the fact that they didn't look for her seemed small, she knew deep down the reasons why and although yes she was a little hurt well a lot hurt she understood. They had left the room smiling and chatting happily and Buffy felt a little better knowing she wasn't causing someone else pain now.
The next person to enter was Giles, and she couldn't look him in the eyes. Of all the people in the world that she knew she couldn't face him feeling pity for her. She didn't want to see it in his eyes.
Giles watched her as she looked down at her lap and didn't look at him at all. His heart was awash with sympathy for what his charge had been through. He went to her bed and sat down beside her and took her hand in his and said "You have nothing to be ashamed of, it wasn't your fault." Buffy closed her eyes for a second before bringing her head up to see his face streaming with tears. The knowledge that he knew what it felt like to be in the position she was in screamed at her. She squeezed his hand and said softly "If I had just talked to you, none of this would have happened." She looked back down only to have him left her chin up with his hand and say "You couldn't have known something like this would have happened. It is those demons fault and I promise you we will find them and kill them together, when your better." Buffy managed a smiled and said quietly "Yeah…" He took his hand away and stood up and said "Feel better soon, and Buffy (She looked up to see him smile softly at her) I'm glad your back". He then turned around and a girl Buffy had never seen walked in. Buffy looked at her curiously and wiped her eyes and said "Don't mean to sound rude but who the hell are you?"
The girl smirked and said "Right Shape shifter, Hey B, I'm Faith, the second slayer, you know chosen two and all that, thought I ought to meet you for real now." Buffy looked a bit taken a back but shook the hand Faith offered her before saying "Uh hi, do you mind telling my mom I'm going to sleep when you go". Faith bit her lip before going to door and then changing her mind and turning around and said "I know this is going to sound weird coming from me since you don't know me but I'm sorry for what happened to you." With that she walked out and Buffy relaxed into the pillow trying not to over analyze everything that just happened.
Author note: I hope you all had a great christmas and like my update, thanks to everyone who reviewed.