Buffy smiles as she makes her way to the center of the rink. Faster, faster . . . now!

She throws herself into the air and spins once, twice, three times and then lands . . .

Stuck it. Dead solid perfect.

She smiles even wider as she skates towards the rink's edge, takes a wide arc and begins a few of her simpler routines. She loved skating this way --- freestyle. So much more room for individual creativity, though she'd nailed the compulsory as well.

Shutting out the noises around her, Buffy goes back into the center of the rink and did another jump, a double axel this time. The triples were nearly child's play; she can do doubles in her sleep.

Okay, now, a few more simple movements, a couple of jumps . . . time for the big finish. Back somewhere towards the center of the rink, a bit closer to the edge and . .
Spin.

Faster, harder, harder, faster . . . .

And now the move that makes Buffy, Buffy, and not just any one of hundreds of other skaters . . .

She jumps out of the spin, spreads her arms as she lands, and finishes with a deep bow, her arms extended.

The arena erupts in applause and an exhausted Buffy leaves the ice and waits for the judges to give their scores. She's the last skater; this is it. For all the marbles. For her mother, her country.

For the gold.

And this time --

This time she's sure she's nailed it. Not like Nagano, where she stumbled after her final jump. Here, here in Salt Lake City, she knows she was flawless. She sits down and towels off. Mom clutches her hand.

She's so glad Mom's there. After that scare with the brain tumor last year –

But she pulled through. And now she sits here, next to Buffy, as they suffer through the longest wait of their lives.

And then they read the scores.

Yes . . . good . . . good . . . yes. Yes! Yes! Yes!

She starts laughing. Then she starts crying.

She's done it. For herself, for her mom, and yes, corny as it sounds, for her country.

She's done it. She's won the gold.

Yes . . . .

". . . . yes!"

Then Buffy looks around and sees that she's sitting at the table in the Magic Box. "Damn," she says. "Damn, damn, damn."

From behind her she hears a voice. "It wasn't a dream."

Buffy turns her head and sees Anya. "Huh?"

Anya says, "What you experienced. It wasn't a dream. It was real."

Buffy blinks "How is that possible?"

"I have friends who owe me favors. I made a deal with one of them so they'd send you to an alternate universe for a couple of hours. One where you were doing something that made you happy." After a second, "Were you happy?"

Buffy smiles. "Yeah. I was."

"Good to hear. What were you doing?"

"I won the gold medal in the Olympics for figure skating. When I was little it was something I wanted to do. I loved skating. I just – my parents never had the commitment. They thought it was trivial, and I was never able to do it for more than fun.But here . . . in that universe . . ." She looks at Anya. "It was a real universe?"

"Yes."

"So somewhere out there I won the gold medal." She smiles even more broadly, then gets up and hugs Anya. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Anya says. "It's good to see you smiling."

"It's good to know I still can," Buffy replies. "I feel . . . almost golden."

Anya smiled. "Happy birthday, Buffy."