Legal Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights to the Terminator or Buffy characters belong to the respective companies. No money is being made from this. It's all for fun.

Spoilers: See any of the first 3 chapters For Spoiler warnings.

Dream sequence: Italics

Thoughts: (Italics)

Scene opens: Buffy's Room, early in the morning after her collapse. A little over twenty four hours after she had first gotten her Slayer Dream from the powers that be.

Chapter Seven

Count Down to Judgment Day:

T Minus Six (pt1):

(Private Morning Conversations):

Buffy was starting to stir, after a good nights sleep. (Uhm that was some bad dream I had. Thank God it's faded a bit.) After stretching and opening her eye's she saw her mother and Dawn huddled up together in mismatched chairs. It looked as if they'd been crying. "Mom what are you two doing in my room?"

Joyce had been dozing fitfully. Not fully asleep and not fully awake either, for a moment she'd thought it was just a dream that Buffy was awake. Not wanting to wake dawn up she answered Buffy as quietly as she could. "Honey it's so good to see you awake."

Buffy knew what her mom was trying to do by keeping things quite. "Why is it so good for me to be…" Buffy saw the look of concern and sadness in her mothers eyes, and came to a realization. "It was real wasn't it?"

Joyce was scared to death that Buffy would retreat into the catatonic shell that had nearly consumed her. She moved over onto Buffy's bed and hugged her with all of her strength. "Yes honey it was real."

"Oh God all the…" Buffy was starting to remember the smallest portion of what the powers did to her.

Joyce had to keep Buffy from going down that train of thought. "Shh. There's nothing you can do. You got a warning so you could save us and our friends. The nitwits in charge were trying to do us a favor."

"A favor?" Buffy had a look of stunned annoyance on her face.

Buffy's annoyance was just what Joyce was hoping for. "Yes honey a favor. You ask me that if brain cells were matchsticks? I'd say the nitwits in charge would never even be able to find a match let alone light one. Even Whistler said they were wrong and did his best to help you."

Dawn was starting to stir from her uneasy sleep hearing her families voices.

"She stayed with you and me most of the night. C'mon lets go downstairs and let her sleep a little bit longer." Joyce whispered and nodded toward Dawn as she smiled.

"Ok. First though where's that disposable camera? I've got to get a shot of this." Buffy was talking about the long string of drool coming out the side of Dawns mouth..

"Buffy." Joyce decided that a little parental control was needed to keep Buffy from teasing Dawn mercilessly. "She was up with me most of the night keeping watch over you, and running any little errands I needed to be done. Like getting me some more coffee and fending of all the concerned people in this house so you wouldn't be disturbed and you could get your rest.. So don't even think about it. Now lets get downstairs. Once they see you up and about there will be a lot of relieved people." Buffy's smile did Joyce a world of good. But she didn't see the depth of sadness hidden in her eye's.

"Alright mom. Lets go down and meet and great. If I could ask for it? Could you make me some pancakes?" Buffy asked with almost child like innocence.

"I'll make enough for everybody, even Dawn. Lets go now." Joyce answered as they walked quietly out of the room, and down the stairs.

It looked like everyone had grabbed a semi comfortable place to sleep and tried to get some rest. As they were scattered around the living and dining room. Buffy saw Willow snuggled up with Xander on the couch with her head laying on his shoulder.

"Let them sleep. They were all up late from the conversations I overheard during the night. The smell of my cooking will bring them around soon enough." Joyce said quietly as they tip toed to the kitchen. Where they saw Whistler. He looked incredibly haggard and run down sitting there in the kitchen.

"Hey how you doing Slayer?" It looked like Whistler hadn't slept in a week.

"How am I doing? I really feel like I should beat the hell out of you since I can't get my hands on the powers. I know you did something to help me last night. It all seemed like a dream. But I know you did something to pull me back. Thank you." Buffy stated, amazing Whistler.

"Slayer your welcome. The powers gave you a raw deal. I did all that I could to help you. I'm glad to see you up and about. So now that I know your alright I'll leave." Whistler sounded tired as he stood up from his seat.

"Is there anything we could do?" Joyce asked.

"There's nothing any of you can do. I broke the limit's the powers placed on me and they've been trying to call me back since then. The only way I haven't been recalled is that I've been using my life force to resist the call. And it's about all gone now, I'll never be able to manifest on this plane of existence again. For all intents and purposes I'm dead now. It's only will power that's kept me here this long.. I had to make certain that it was worth it." Buffy and Joyce came up to him and hugged him.

"Thank you for saving my daughter." Joyce said.

"Thank you Whistler I take back almost all the mean things I ever said about you. Just not about your fashion sense." Said Buffy with a forced laugh. Whistler hugged them both back.

"Thanks Slayer. Enjoy your life, you deserve it." With those words Whistler faded away.

Buffy had tears in her eye's. "I'll never forget you, be safe Whistler."

-Scene Break-

About 20 minutes later.

Joyce had started fixing a humongous sized breakfast for Buffy with her Slayer sized appetite and a smaller meal for everyone else. The smell of cooking was wafting through the house. Xander was the first one to wake up. He gently eased Willow off of his shoulder and went to see who was making that wonderful smell. He hoped it was Joyce cooking. When he entered the kitchen and saw Buffy with a plateful of food in front of her, his jaw fell almost all the way to the ground.

"Your up?" Xander asked curiously considering the state Buffy was in when she went to bed.

"And down to." Buffy quipped.

"Buffy your you!" Xander shouted with joy as he went over to hug the life out of her.

Xander's shout had finished waking the rest of the house who had all been stirring with dreams of a big breakfast in their heads.

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