Chapter Six: And it just keeps Getting Weirder

Buffy had had that dream again. Dawn, Faith, Robin, Spike, Giles, Willow, Andrew, Xander, Anya, and the potentials that had turned into Slayers at last minute for the big battle were fighting for mankind at the mouth of Hell. Buffy had felt bad for Xander. He had lost Anya during the battle just like she had lost Spike. Thankfully she hadn't lost Dawn. Buffy was coming to consciousness and yawned. She had stirred in her bed and stretched immensely. Her bones ached from being in that bed for so long. Buffy had needed to move. She had opened her eyes and realized that the battle never happened again. Each time that she had woken up back in that house Buffy's real world sunk in just a little bit more.

Buffy had decided to ignore that she had dreamt about a lie and swung her covers off of her body. The comforter was too thick at the moment for her to breathe. It was too hot. Buffy looked at her clock and saw that it was only six in the morning. My God that was so early! Well her body had done a lot of resting for the past day. Buffy carefully placed her feet onto her white carpeted floor. It felt nice and clean beneath her toes, as if her mother had just vacuumed it the night before she had come home from the hospital. Buffy loved the feel of the carpet between her toes. She yawned and she felt the need to stretch again which had made her fall backwards back onto her bed. Buffy groaned and rubbed her eyes for clearer vision. She hadn't wanted to ask for help. No, she refused to ask for help. It was too embarrassing.

Buffy now knew how the elderly felt. She had hoped that she had never ended up as one of those people that needed help doing absolutely everything. Buffy stretched and some of her bones had made a snapping sound. Buffy winced and sighed heavily. This was going to be a long day and it had barely just started. Buffy walked to the door slowly and managed to walk over there without falling which had made her feel confident. She wrapped her hand around the wooden doorknob and opened the door. This walk had taken a lot of her, but she had continued forward.

The journey to the bathroom was not that bad. It was getting into the shower that had made things extremely difficult. The shower flooring was slippery and hard to gain balance after years of sleep plus another day of rest but Buffy had eventually managed it. She pressed her palms against the wall where the shower knobs were and let the warm, relaxing water hit her skin. The water felt like tiny pinches at first but then her body grew used to the warmth. The shower felt amazing on her body to the point that she had stayed in the water for about an hour before she had begun to finally wash the grime off her tannish-pinkish skin. Buffy was surprised she hadn't heard her parents get up yet. It was early in the morning, weren't they morning people? Buffy had wondered. She shrugged in thought and pushed the thoughts in her head aside.

Buffy finished with the shower and from having to stand a long time, Buffy was finally getting some feeling back into her system. She had felt better and less queasy. Buffy wrapped her body in a towel and wrapped her hair in one as well. Buffy looked in the mirror and realized that she hadn't turned on the lights yet to the bathroom that was above the sink. She looked at the lightless bulb and shrugged. I guess I got used to the darkness while I had been asleep. Buffy thought and a memory flew by her. Spike had wanted her to join him in the darkness once, but that was before he had gotten his soul. Buffy closed her eyes tightly. She was disappointed in herself for remembering. That world wasn't real, this one was. A knock at the door had made her jump out of her skin. Goosebumps lingered on her body from fright and she walked to the door. Buffy had opened the door a slight crack and saw Faith in front of her. That was still hard to get used to. Faith was actually her sister. Buffy had shrugged the awkward feeling off and looked at her, in the eyes actually.

"I'm sorry," she had said without meaning it. "Do you need to use the bathroom?"

Faith had nodded. She looked terrible. Her dark make up was smeared all over her eyes and her hair looked like she had sex in all different directions. Then Buffy had wondered if her so called sister had had sex in this reality. Had Buffy ever had sex? Wow, she had just thought of herself in the third person. Buffy shook her head and then looked at Faith.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Here I'm done with it." Buffy told Faith and got her things out of the bathroom.

Faith watched Buffy leave the bathroom and go back into her room. Buffy sighed heavily and walked into her room. It was still hard to see Faith in her house. Buffy hadn't wanted to see Faith at all. She had tried to steal Angel from her, she switched bodies with her, and she had slept with Riley while she was in her body. Buffy had walked to her bed and sat down. She hadn't wanted to see Faith at all and here she was, living in her house and it was her house. Faith had no right being here. Buffy had stopped herself right there. She had realized she was starting to sound like a psycho. She shook her head, which had made her towel fall off and her wet hair unraveled. Buffy had to accept Faith sooner rather than later. If she had not, Buffy had realized that it was not going to be good for her mental state and she had needed her mental state to be in tact right now. Especially, with all this change. Buffy looked around her room and frowned. It had looked like the road to sanity was going to be long and trying. She was not looking forward to it.

The telephone rang and Buffy wondered who had to be calling this early. She turned to her side and found her clock on the end table to the right of her. Her eyes widened when she had discovered that it was nearly eight o' clock. Damn, she had taken a long shower. Buffy got up off her bed and walked to her dresser. She half smiled at the thought that she was getting better at walking already. It had appeared that her mind wasn't completely crazy. The slayer-strength idea had not been completely a lie, which had made her feel better about being in her new found skin. Buffy opened her drawers and found a few jeans and some t-shirts which were most likely Faith's hand me downs. Buffy pulled out one pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She looked at the other drawers and found some appealing under-clothing. Buffy had gotten dressed for the day and she felt as though that was a big accomplishment considering everything that had happened.

It wasn't the fact that Buffy hadn't cared about her appearance, because she had cared. It was just that she wasn't ready to face this new word and she hadn't really given a hoot that really saw her right now. Buffy was too upset to really see anyone right now. She just wanted to get her life back in order and figure out what she was going to do now. Originally, Buffy had planned Dawn's life and was going to take action right away, but now with that option completely gone, she had her life to focus on. Buffy was able to go to college and earn an actual life in the real world. Buffy had wondered what she was going to do. She could be a lawyer, an artist, or a teacher. Buffy smiled and then that smile had vanished. She hadn't known how to do any of those things. A knock at her bedroom door had snapped her out of her life thoughts and she walked to the door. Buffy had opened the door to see her mother. She smiled. It was nice to see someone she hadn't disliked.

"Hi mom, did I wake you?" Buffy had asked her.

Joyce smiled and shook her head. "No, the telephone did. Oz had called. He would like to know if he can come over and see you." She said which had surprised Buffy.

"Oz," Buffy asked with a clueless expression. "Why does he care?" She hadn't meant to sound so rude it was just a huge surprise to her.

Joyce had also looked surprise. "Oz was your boyfriend in L.A, dear." She told her.

Buffy's mouth dropped. "No way," she had said a little too loudly. Her voice and actions had made her mother jump. "I'm sorry mom, it's just, in my dream Oz was someone else's boyfriend." She had confessed.

Honestly Oz was not attractive to Buffy. For starters, he was too short for her taste. Sure he had cool hair and he was a good person (right up until the point when he had cheated on Willow), it's just she wasn't able to wrap her mind around the fact that she had dated him or was even still dating him. Buffy had looked at her mother as she had sighed.

"Is he still able to come and see you, Buffy?" Joyce asked. "He and Cordelia are the few people besides your sister and us that had checked on you. You at least owe him one visit."

Owe him? Buffy had wondered. She felt like she had owed no one anything and especially, Faith. Buffy noticed her mother's expression. It would have meant a lot to her.

"Alright," Buffy had told her. "I guess one visit isn't going to hurt anyone." She smiled. So long as she hadn't added Cordelia to that visit, Buffy hadn't cared.