"And the babies? Did you get the whole dream?" Buffy interrupted.
"We had one child. A little girl." Fawn's face was wrought with sadness suddenly and James wrapped his arms around her tighter.
"You were able to have a child?" Buffy asked. Angel turned his face away from her quickly.
"We adopted. We thought it was best not to try for one. Though we could have if we'd wanted to," James replied, still rubbing Fawn's back.
"Why didn't you?"
"We weren't sure how they'd turn out," James replied. "With her being immortal and me being a vampire, we weren't sure what the kid would be."
"So you adopted? When did you adopt?"
"She was born in 1961 but we adopted her in 1964, when she was three," Fawn spoke up. "We were great parents. Even she thought so. She had a rebellious stage in the seventies. 1977 was a big year for her. She tried illegal substances for the first time. She didn't know that she had three guards at that party. She was only seventeen. But before her little rebellion, we were closer than peas in a pod. I was up with her in the mornings, and Jamesy started waking up earlier so that he could be with her, spend time with her and the like. He read her bedtime stories. Dara would throw a fit if I tried to read them to her. She was a complete daddy's girl."
"Dare bear loved her mommy just as much. She wanted to be just like her. She even studied literature when she went to college. She was just perfection."
"Is she still around?" Buffy asked. "She'd only be in her thirties now."
Fawn turned away from Buffy and Angel and buried her face in James's shoulder. James explained, "We wanted to make her invincible. We wanted to make her immortal. But we left it up to her, and she didn't want it. She loved the life she grew up with. She had vampires and demons who were like her uncles and aunts. But she met a boy. A boy that she didn't want to change. She didn't want him to become a demon or live forever like her mother. She saw what it did to Fawn and she wanted more of a normal life. So we gave that to her."
"And what then?"
"She was in a car crash a few years ago," Fawn said softly. "She didn't make it. We tried to save her but she didn't want to hold on. I think she knew what it would mean if she held on. That we would make her like us."
"It still hurts. The two of us know that eternity heals feelings. But I don't think that we'll ever stop hurting over our Dara."
"Will you tell me about her?" Buffy asked carefully. "What was she like? What was it like to raise her?"
"It was the most frustratingly beautiful thing in the entire world," James chuckled. "We raised her in two worlds. The demon world and the human world, as much as possible. They loved her. They didn't like to admit it, but every demon that served Fawn and her father adored Dara. They never dared to let a thing happen to her."
"She adored them too. You should have seen her running up and down the halls with vamps chasing her. Their faces twisted and sneering the whole way. Most people would be terrified. Dara thought it was hilarious. We let her go to public school for a while when she was older, but it wasn't good for her. Well, it was fine for her, but it gave us some problems with humans. She chatted a lot about our home life and we got some calls from some teachers. So we homeschooled her. It was a lot better."
"We taught her demon lore and vampire lore and mythology and everything we could about the human world and the vampire world. She took all the state tests. She was considered a genius. Made it into Harvard. Not an easy task back in those days. Even during her rebellious stage, she still excelled at her homework. She was perfect. She double majored in classic English literature and Chemistry. She was incredible."
"She spoke five languages by the time she was twelve," James chimed in. "Anybody who says the child of a demon can't live a normal life is an idiot. Dara loved her home. She loved her family. And her family loved her. We took care of her. She never wanted for anything. She had it easier than most kids in that respect."
"And it helps with school when your mom was around when Algebra was invented."
James and Fawn smiled sappily at one another and kissed. Buffy groaned, "So that's your great big love story?"
"Slayer, we've been together over a hundred years. Our great big love story isn't half over. She's over a thousand years old and she could have had any man that fell into her lap. She could have chosen anyone. But she chose a fledgling vampire that showed up out of the blue, ready to eat her. And she fed me. She took care of me. She let me into her life. That's all I needed. And that's all the two of you need. To let each other in."
Fawn nodded wisely. Buffy asked, "But can you tell us that everything is going to be like you? That things are going to turn out happy and perfect."
"Absolutely not, bunny. Don't even consider thinking about it," James warned. He turned to look at Angel and Buffy and continued, "She can't tell you that things are going to turn out. She can't tell you what's going to happen in her life. She can only tell you if the next decision is going to be good or bad."
"Well, is it then?" Buffy questioned.
"It will make you happy," Fawn said vaguely. "You will be utterly happy. I don't know past that."
"Do you promise?" Buffy asked.
"I don't lie," Fawn promised. "I'm sorry. But I don't lie. I wish I did sometimes."
"Don't think on it, bunny," James whispered.
"You will be happy," Fawn swore again.
"The sun will be coming up soon, Angel, Buffy," James announced. He scooped his cup up off the table and drained the last of the blood from it. Fawn did the same with her glass of wine.
"It was so lovely to meet you, Buffy." Fawn rose from James's lap and crossed the table to shake her hand and pull her up into a hug. "The next time we're back in the states, we'll look you up, okay?"
"Thank you, for everything," Buffy replied in Fawn's tight embrace.
"No, please don't. Please don't thank me. Just thank you. For visiting. For listening. Goodbye, Buffy." Fawn smiled at Angel and floated out of the room, graceful as ever. Like an ever moving saint.
"She's tired," James explained. "Thank you for stopping by. It helps her to tell her story sometimes. To talk to people. She was very excited to meet you, Buffy. She'll talk forever about how she met the Slayer."
Buffy smiled and left with Angel, both of them feeling better about their relationship. James went up to his bedroom where his wife was sobbing into a pillow. He crawled into bed with her and murmured, "You have to stop doing these things, bunny. They're killing you."
"I'm killing people."
"You're not, sweetheart."
It was months later that Buffy found herself in front of the house again, tears staining her cheeks. It was empty. Dark. Nobody had lived there for months. She'd gone there when Angel lost his soul again. She'd searched out the Chosen One and her lover, to no avail. They were nowhere. She screamed, "You promised me I'd be happy! You swore to me that I'd be happy! Why!? Why would you do that to me? Why would you let me think he'd be alright? Why couldn't you just tell me?"
They were the last words spoken in Sunnydale before she took the bus out of town.