Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy: the Vampire Slayer or Desperate Housewives

Teaser: Wisteria Lane a Hellmouth…? Now it all makes sense

Spoilers: Post-Chosen (7.22) and the middle of the first season of DW

II.

Susan Mayer had to deal with a lot of things in her life. A teenage pregnancy, an asshole ex-husband, a love-life that was nonexistent, her mother who couldn't grow up, the death of her best friend, and the mystery that surrounded it.

But somehow, none of that mattered anymore.

Her daughter was out tonight and it was midnight.

She could be dying.

Robin Wood and his 'partner' Faith had breezed into their lives quite suddenly. Susan hadn't been ready, she still wasn't ready. But Julie…

Susan's darling, lovely, wonderful daughter had been ready. She had taken one look at the new principal—who was more or less really there to be her daughter's Watcher—and the dark-haired vixen—who was there to train Julie—and resigned herself to this Fate.

This Fate Susan could barely comprehend. Robin Wood had explained it to her. The legacy of these women called Slayers. One Slayer in all the world to do battle against the forces of evil, another Slayer to take that one's place when she died.

But—Faith had said—a woman named Buffy Summers had changed that and now all the girls who had the Potential to be a Slayer, if the current one should die, were Slayers. And Susan's Julie had all the Potential in the world. Hadn't she known that ever since she had laid her eyes on her baby?

Not like this, though, not like this.

As the digital clock on her stove added another minute onto midnight, Susan tried to make herself coffee. But she couldn't force herself to swallow. She paced her kitchen floor and tried to watch TV and then just settled for staring out her window.

"Julie, come home." Susan willed her daughter to materialize on their porch. But she didn't come, of course.

Everyone was concerned. Susan knew that she was acting hollow and distant. She couldn't help it. Every minute she didn't spend worrying over Julie and her Fate it was spent worrying over what she had been told lied beneath them. This Hellmouth. A dark, twisted thing that caused demons and vampires alike to haunt Wisteria Lane and the area surrounding it.

And Julie… Julie was fighting it all.

A scream bubbled up in her throat. Susan banked it. She had promised Julie she wouldn't freak out when she was late, when she got beat up, when she had to go. Julie had been so fierce and strong and determined Susan had agreed without really comprehending.

Now she would do anything—anything—to bundle her little girl up and take her far away from this place.

Little girl… she's still just a little girl…

Unable to stand her house any longer, Susan headed for the door, intending to wait on the porch for her daughter. Julie had asked her mother to stay inside the house during the night—apparently, vampires couldn't get inside a house unless it was public or they were invited in—but she hadn't promised it.

But as she opened the door, someone stood in the threshold. Susan blinked.

It was Mike.

Handsome, rugged Mike who, just days ago, had been on the top of Susan's worry list. Now, she had all but forgotten him in the wake of her daughter's Destiny.

"Susan?" Mike said as light pulled at the handsome contours of his face. He looked worried, concerned, for her. Susan couldn't blame him. She knew she looked like a mess. "You're light was on and I… I thought that—what's wrong?"

Those must have been some kind of magick words—Robin had shown her some magick words when he had contacted a witch named Willow to tell her about Julie; Susan had then almost burst into hysteric giggles because… a witch? A real one?—because Susan felt her façade crumble and she promptly threw herself into his arms.

"Mike—Julie… and she… it isn't—!" She couldn't get a coherent sentence out of herself. All she could do was beat against his chest and wail. "It isn't fair!"

"What isn't?" Mike asked, confused.

She didn't answer because she had promised not to tell anyone else. Robin and Faith and Julie had told her because she was the mother. A necessary link in Julie's chain of command.

And because she was too busy passing out in his arms.

-

Julie Mayer walked into her home, tired and aching. Robin and Faith had dropped her off at her driveway, making those kind of eyes at each other. The kind of eyes that signaled her to run like hell.

She knew about sex but she didn't want to see it first hand.

"Mom?" she called as she pushed open the door, gripping her lower back. She had misjudged a kick and she would have a nasty, purple bruise in the morning to show for it. "Mom?"

Maybe her mother was sleeping. Julie hoped so. She had enough on her plate without worrying about how her mother was coping with all of this.

Personally, Julie thought her mother was handling it pretty well. Especially for someone who didn't know. She knew her mother was trying to stand tall beside her and support her even though she didn't understand, nor agree.

And how could she? Susan hadn't felt it, hadn't felt the pull, the electric zing. The flooding of Power, of Knowledge. For a split second Julie had been every Slayer that had ever been. She been Buffy Summers—The Slayer, the Mother Slayer, Slayer Eve—she had been Faith, she had been Nikki—Robin's mother; he had told her—she had been the Primitive, she had been Kendra—Faith had told her about that Slayer—and the countless other girls that had been slew throughout the course of time.

In that moment, Julie hadn't just realized her Fate… she had found her purpose. Her reason for life. Her Potential. This wasn't just her Destiny… this was her choice. She had been born for this.

But there was no way on earth Susan could understand that. She wasn't a Slayer. She didn't know the Power or the Knowledge. She couldn't and it wasn't her fault. Julie had to be patient, that was what her Watcher, Robin Wood, had told her.

She walked into her house and noticed the lights were on. And that Mike was sitting in the armchair with her mother sleeping on the sofa. Julie wished to be still dusting vampires.

Mike took notice of her, unfortunately. He stood and asked, "What's going on? Where have you been? You're mother passed out from worry."

You're not my father nearly escaped from her mother. But Julie seared her mouth shut and glared at him. "You don't understand. Don't understand why she's upset." And she wasn't explaining it him.

He approached. "Listen—"

"Leave," she snapped, cutting him off. She inclined her head to the door. "Or I'll make you." There was no doubt in her that she could.

There was a strange, confused look in Mike's eyes as he turned and left. Julie bid him good riddance. Before, her mother's torrid love affair had interested her. But that was the Old Julie. The New Julie had a war to fight.

Susan stirred from the couch, sat up, and stared at her daughter. "Mike?" she asked, sounding tired and strained and young.

Julie suddenly felt years and years and years older than her own mother. "I made him leave. Sorry."

"Oh Julie…" Susan managed before she burst into tears. Julie's heart clenched, but she shut herself off from it. She had a job to do. Her mother couldn't stop her.

"Don't, Mom," she said weakly and went into the kitchen and made some tea for her mother. She came back into the living room, stripping off her jacket and holding a steaming cup.

Susan took the cup and drank the tea. Then she raised her dark-head to look at her daughter. There was a question there, a plea. Julie couldn't answer it, even if she wanted to. They were on a Hellmouth.

"I can't… Mom, it's my job. I want to do this." Julie didn't know if she could make her mother understand. Didn't know if she even had the right to make her mother understand. If she was Susan, what would she say?

All Susan did was curl into herself and sob.

A part of Julie cried, too.

But not for very long.

FIN

Notes: yay, I know. Ended it crappy, didn't I? Sorry. But, hey, the life of a Slayer, right? Even with there being millions of them… it's still a bunch of young girls against demons. Sounds kinda… unfair, right?