Buffy felt genuinely happy when she saw the first flutter of familiar red hair through a sliver of window to her room. She was damn near giddy when the door opened and Willow's smiling, and familiar, face greeted her. "Will," Buffy breathed out, tears welling up in her eyes as she began to feel a little overwhelmed.
Willow nearly matched those tears in her own eyes but smiled bigger at the same time, entering the room and crossing over to where Buffy was sitting up in the bed and putting her arms around her best friend. "I am so happy to see you," Willow told her.
Just then a few more familiar faces appeared in the doorway, Cordelia Chase and Xander Harris, two of her other close friends she'd met when she had first moved to Sunnydale. "I'd tell you that you were looking good, but I wouldn't want to lie," Cordelia said as a way of greeting, looking Buffy up and down once. "It is nice to see you're awake though."
Behind her was Xander, rolling his eyes. "You always know just what to say, Cordelia."
"What? I think we can all see she looks like a train wreck," Cordelia retorted. "Not that it can't be fixed with some time and some good makeup of course."
Willow shook her head. "Just put the flowers and balloons over there on the window sill and sit down, will you?"
Buffy couldn't help but laugh as they all fell into a cycle of conversation that she knew all too well. This was the first more-or-less normal she'd felt since waking up without a good chunk of her memory intact. There were obvious changes among the group, a little age to all of them with the time passage, different hair styles and small notes she could take like that. But it felt so, so nice to have them here."So, how are you feeling?" Willow asked after everyone got a bit more settled.
"Lost. For starters," Buffy answered truthfully. "Physically I feel unnaturally sore most of the time, and being limited to what I can do even in the past day or so has made me rather antsy. Emotionally I feel drained and confused... I have this whole life that I can't even remember any part of it."
"Like Angel?" Xander asked with a sneer.
"Don't start," both Cordelia and Willow told him in unison. He just huffed out a breath and crossed his arms over his chest.
Buffy gave them each confusing looks, unsure of what was happening but finally nodded. "Yeah, he is certainly one thing throwing me around in a loop," she admitted to them.
Willow reached over and squeezed her hand gently. "Angel said that the last thing you could remember was back in our first year of college," she said, slightly steering the conversation in a different direction. Buffy nodded and started describing the last few days she could remember to give them all a better idea as to where her memory had cut off.
"Oh, wow. That seems like a lifetime ago," Xander said, not thinking.
"Not to me," Buffy said quietly, earning sympathetic looks from the others. But she smiled brightly next. "So, who wants to start catching me up?"
OoOoO
Buffy and the gang had spent almost the entire day together which had brightened her up immensely. They had stayed in her room very little which she also enjoyed, having wheeled her around the floors, ate in the restaurant area Angel had mentioned the night before, and even got her outside in the sun and fresh air for awhile. It'd been a bit of a task with the few machines still hooked up to her but it'd been worth it as far as she was concerned.
The group had laughed until they cried going over their past... discussing memories from high schools, pranks they'd pulled, memories that would last a lifetime. They'd also helped to fill her in on not only her missing years and what had happened with her, but they had discussed their own lives, new events that had happened with all of them individually or in pairings, as well as other events such as stories in the news, a few big storms that had hit, and things like that.
Cordelia and Xander had been back and forth with their relationship in high school and the two of them had split after graduating, she remembered. Cordelia had left Sunnydale behind to make a big name for herself. They had kept in touch, though didn't exactly go out of their way to. She remembered seeing her once after high school ended.
Buffy learned from their day together that Cordelia had eventually gave up on the whole movie star idea and feeling defeated she'd come back to Sunnydale for a short while. She and Xander had rekindled their romance in the months to follow and while they were still snippy as one can be with someone else, they were actually making a run of it these days. When Xander had been offered a job with some distant relatives of his, she had tagged along for the ride.
In Buffy's mind, seeing Xander heartbroken over Cordelia and his split was still pretty fresh in her mind but it was nice to see things worked out for them in the end. He had started dating Anya soon after Cordelia had hightailed it and while there was potential there, she thought they went about it all wrong and at the completely wrong time for it to really last in the end.
Turned out she wasn't so wrong there. When Cordelia returned to the 'Dale she set her sights on the goofy brunette and apparently stopped at nothing to win him back.
Not having been one for school, Xander had decided against going to college and instead joined an array of parttime jobs after high school ended. She could count at least ten different jobs he'd taken on just to pass the time and rake in a little dough in the process. He seemed to have found his calling in home renovation with his great-uncle up there in the mountains.
While he didn't beam from one ear to another when talking about his day in and day out process like Cordy had, she could tell his own career choices matched him well. He looked grown up, maybe more than any of them, these days. He looked to be in real great shape, rough, his job wearing on him. But in a good way.
Xander did beam a big, bright smile when they discussed anything about his and Cordelia's relationship, however.
Cordelia had brought a few pictures for her to look at which she had appreciated. It helped her another type of glimpse into those lost years... seeing pictures of them.
As for Willow, there were quite a bit of surprises there as well. Willow had been accepted to several colleges but stayed in Sunnydale in the end. She had several reasons for making that decision but Buffy always thought she'd been better off at a better school. Not that she wasn't absolutely happy to have her sticking around.
She had found a love of traveling, sharing stories of all of her adventures so far. Willow had gone on cruises in her off time, taken a road trip across the U.S., spent her summer's in one country or another. The mousey redhead had surely grown into her own.
Buffy learned that she and Oz had split up after he had made a mistake with another girl, how it had wrecked her best friend for a good, long time after that. And Buffy didn't doubt it, remembering how adorable the pair were together. Oz just didn't seem like the type... But Willow had explained he'd been drugged that night, along with several others who had been at that particular party, so it wasn't exactly his fault. But they had both taken it hard all the same and couldn't seem to get past it once other issues began seeping in as well. Oz had left Sunnydale and went on to focus on his music. Willow would later fall in love again with a girl named Tara Maclay.
While the news surprised her, Buffy took to her just as she had the first time she learned about Willow and Tara. Not that she remembered. But she didn't bat an eyelash in being happy for her friend and began to ask all about the girl who'd stolen Willow's heart. Willow told her Tara had been unable to come this time but she had been up the previous weekend and hoped they could get together soon.
Willow had also brought Buffy some pictures, a few albums in fact. She had skimmed through, everyone pointing at different photos and telling her what was going on in each, but she didn't have a chance to really go through them just yet. Willow had also brought Buffy a few letters she'd been sent from the blonde to see if anything in there might help.
Willow told her she had more items she'd brought along but didn't want to overwhelm her on Day One so she would bring the rest tomorrow when they came back.
She'd begun to get drowsy but had stubbornly pushed it away for as long as she could manage, not wanting to end their day together until she absolutely had to. She knew it wasn't doing her healing any good to refuse rest but at the time she hadn't cared with everything else going on. She was sad when the time did come for everyone to say goodbye for the evening but looked forward to resting and letting all the information sink in.
OoOoO
Having felt overwhelmed enough, Buffy let sleep overtake her not all that long after she'd parted ways with her friends for the evening. It wasn't until morning that she picked up the items Willow had left for her the day before and started going over the letters and photos the redhead and brought along.
Buffy saw a lot of familiar faces in the photo album, along with plenty she didn't recognize. She read the names and descriptions to the photos, learning the names and seeing different events that must have taken place in the past six years... along with some older photos of things she did actually recall having taken place.
What struck a cord in her the most was a few photos she stumbled across of her and her ex-husband that were in Willow's photos. She'd sucked her breath in painfully at the first glimpse of a picture of the two of them together, unable to steal her eyes away from their happy, smiling faces.
Buffy's hand had come up, sliding the tips of her fingers over the photo, entranced. You could practically feel how much adoration the two people in this photo had for one another, the look on her face was of entire bliss, as were his. That was a far cry from the cold but polite man she'd "met" the other day.
He was relaxed in this photo, in all of them she would later come across, a smile gracing his face that reached all the way to his eyes, his arms seemed to be around her in each photo, holding her like his world would slip away if he let go.
Buffy had been so caught up in the photographs that she didn't realize she was crying until a fat tear plunked down on the page and a tiny bit splashed on her finger. She also didn't realize the man helping cause these strong emotions had come into the room at first. When his voice came out, asking her if she were alright,much like he had that first day, she nearly jumped, then hurried to wipe away the wetness from her eyes and face, feeling more ridiculous than ever.
There was her emotional breakdown over a relationship and a man she didn't remember but also the fact that she felt her heart beat a little faster at the sight of him standing there now. She realized that she had missed him a little yesterday, having not seen him once. Which was utterly, completely ridiculous.
"I-Yes. Just a little emotional it seems," she told him, feeling her face blush a little.
He gave her a tight smile before his eyes looked around the room. She was surprised when they returned to her, knowing how he seemed to hate keeping eye contact with her. "What do you have there?" he asked, nodding toward the pile in her lap.
She blushed a little more. "Oh, um, Willow, Cordy and Xander brought me some photos, letters and stuff yesterday. To try and fill me in on those lost years or maybe see if anything might jog my memory."
"Smart idea," he said, leaning back against the sliver of wall behind him as he continued to stand near the doorway. "Is it working?" he asked next.
Buffy shook her head. "No, not really. I-I mean, I've had a mix of emotions looking at a few of them but I don't really know if that's because of remembering something exactly or from just the photo itself or even just feeling flooded with everything that's happened and I can't remember any of it."
Angel nodded at this. "Those memories will return to you, one way or another, Buffy," he said suddenly.
"I-I hope so." He put his large hands into his jeans pocket, remaining standing. He looked like he didn't want to be there. "Would you like to sit down?"
"No, I was only stopping through for a few minutes," he replied. Angel scratched at his chin, which was clean shaven today she noted.
"Oh," she said and knew her voice and face showed her strange disappointment.
Angel's head tilted and she felt her throat tighten at the first sign of real emotion that quickly passed over his face as he looked at her. He nearly seemed spooked at it, visibly shaking himself a second or two later and that stoney look put back in place.
He cleared his throat and looked down at his feet, which were covered in those expensive looking sneakers he'd worn the other day when he'd been here. "I should go. Willow and the others should be here soon."
Buffy soon realized the reason Angel was trying to leave before they arrived and why he'd been mysteriously absent yesterday when the trio arrived before he got his foot back out the door. The tension had quickly filled the air when Xander, Cordelia and Willow entered the room and noticed Buffy's ex-husband there. She'd watched them all interactive from the bed, Willow and he exchanged polite hello's while Cordelia simply nodded her head at Angel. Xander was a different story, getting annoyed at the mere sight of the other man and started smarting off at him.
Angel had ignored him at first, again stating that he was heading off. Xander didn't seem to take anyone's hint to lay off and kept running his mouth. "Just because I've sat back and taken her shit does not mean I'm going to take yours," Angel growled out softly, making his way to the door. The two men stared one another down for several tense moments before Angel slipped back out the door.
"Okay. Anyone want to start explaining?" Buffy asked after he'd left and the room fell silent.
OoOoO
Angel cursed under his breath as he headed back to his vehicle, mad that he'd lost control at Harris, mad that he taken his time in leaving Buffy's room and hadn't got out of there before the others arrived as he had intended. He and Xander Harris had never seen eye to eye but somewhere in between their first meeting and his split with Buffy they had learned to tolerate one another. Then when everything went to hell, well, all bets were off on that.
Thankfully he'd been able to avoid the carpenter since the first few months of their break up.
Of all the problems in the world, Xander Harris was not on the top of his list to waste time or effort on.
He and Willow were another story. Or, rather they had become one. She hadn't exactly been Team Angel when the shit had hit the fan but had always tried to keep some sort of peace between everyone, not that it did all that much good, but something had shifted with Buffy's accident. He'd gotten in contact with her and later when she came out to visit the comatose blonde, the two of them had wound up having a nice, long, honest talk with one another.
Willow had been shocked, though not nearly as much as him by it all. He didn't know how it happened, but they wound up talking for hours, him explaining his side of everything that had happened for the first time and someone actually listening for the first time.
And believing him for the first time, too.
Not that it was going to do much good at this point.
Angel was agitated all the way back to the hotel room he'd been shacked up in since his arrival in The Lone State. Yesterday had felt long enough to be a month of Sunday's unable to go see Buffy as to avoid getting into it with her friend. And today wasn't going to be all that much better but at least he had seen her for a few minutes. So at least it was something. He figured he could at least get caught up on work that he was ages behind on.
OoOoO
Buffy had another long but good day with her friends. Cordelia and Xander left before Willow decided to as they had an earlier flight to catch than she did. Buffy hated to see them go but knew they had their own lives back up North to get back to. She was happy to hear everyone promise to call and to come back and visit the next chance they got and hoped it wouldn't be long before that time came along.
She also didn't mind some one on one time with her best friend.
While she adored the other couple, she had grown a little tired of Xander's attitude anytime Angel was brought up and Cordelia droning on about one thing or another from time to time.
The two girls gossiped back in her room for what felt like ages. And she'd been able to talk about the mess that was her former relationship without Xander's two cents being thrown in.
Buffy sighed. "Do you know what I'm doing in Texas to begin with?" Angel hadn't known so she hoped that maybe Willow did. She was surprised she hadn't thought to ask earlier.
Willow nodded. "I also know why you were leaving," she said. "You know, when the accident happened."