Thanks for all the awesome feedback, it makes me feel like I'm actually a kind of good writer! Heh.
There was a band playing at the Bronze that night; there was always a band playing at the Bronze. The three monster fighters walked in and saw it was crowded, everyone had out strange devices that confused Buffy.
"What are those?" She asked, pointing at the rectangle that someone was holding in their hand. It was lit up and they seemed to be tapping at it.
"Uh, his phone?" Dean asked, getting a look at where Buffy was pointing.
"His phone?" Buffy exclaimed, she began walking towards him, but Dean pulled her back, pulling out his own phone and handing it to her.
"When did phones become so weird looking?" She turned it over in her hand and her fingers ran over the letters on the back.
"What does HTC mean? Handle this carefully? Because it seems to be made of glass." She began tapping at the screen and Dean stared at her, his brows furrowed.
"Have you never seen a cell phone before, Buffy?" Sam chimed in and she looked up at him, confusion in her eyes.
"This is what cell phones became in the months I was dead?" Dean clicked the power button for her and it lit up, she half smiled, "Cool."
"They didn't have touch screen's before you died?" Dean asked, but Buffy was staring at the date, noting the very different numbers for the year.
"It's 2015?" She asked, looking back to them, her lip turned up into a slight grimace.
"Wasn't it when you died?" Dean asked, "You said you were only gone for a couple months here."
"No, I was... Willow said I was..." Her mouth twisted as she tried to think of an explanation and then it hit her, "Oh! Cass said it, I should have listened better."
"What did he say?" Dean asked, a slight hopeful tone to his voice.
"Calm yourself there, lover boy, nothing about you." Buffy smirked, looking back down at the phone once more before handing it back to Dean, who was glaring at Sam, who'd stifled a laugh and was trying to clear his throat to seem like he was just coughing, "He said that our worlds merged, right? Which clearly they did, so the time here must have been moving slower than the time in your universe... Because it was definitely 2001 when I died."
"So... The iPhone, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia..." Sam began listing things Buffy had never heard of.
"Kardashian's." Dean added, smirking with a raise of his eyebrows.
"What's that? Is it a demon?" Buffy asked, Sam laughed.
"More like a family of demons." He said, Dean shrugged and agreed with a nod of his head.
"Huh, do you think Willow and Dawn and the rest of the group noticed the time shift? Like, do they also not know what any of these things are- or, or do they know? And it's just like, it changed in their minds?" Buffy asked, rambling slightly, Sam shook his head and laughed.
"I need a drink." Dean growled, turning for the bar, Buffy shrugged and followed him, defeated and Sam followed as well, still laughing lightly.
Spike watched from the balcony as the slayer filed in with her two new best buds and scoffed. He took a swig from a flask he'd produced from his pocket and tried his best to ignore them, but he found that his eyes couldn't help but wander to her.
"You're quite the pathetic one, now aren't you?" A familiar voice said from behind him, he turned to see Drusilla skulking towards him, but something didn't register right. Her wistful tone was gone, and the smirk on her face was devilish, yet understanding.
"Dru?" He asked, his head tilting, she stopped, a frown forming on her face.
"That confirms it, the way you just said my name..." She shook her head and held up a finger, "Naughty Spike thinks I'm still me." There was a hint of the girl she used to be in there somewhere, but something was blocking it.
"Why are you here?" He asked, remembering their last encounter, when Buffy'd learned of his feelings.
"I came for you." She said, feigning hurt, "I've got a way to fix your head." She stepped towards him, a hand running through his hair, he stared up at her, transfixed and didn't miss it when her eyes flashed black. He nearly fell off his stool trying to get away from her, he had no where to run, she was blocking the stairs.
"You're one of them, they got to you." The panic in his voice was new and he didn't like it, but the presence of new and unknown evil forces confused him, he didn't know if staking her would do the trick anymore.
"They helped me." Dru said, her hands flying up to her head, "Got inside my crazy old brain, made me whole again. I haven't been this clear in decades, Spike. They can do the same for you." The predatory gleam in her eye was apparent, she wanted him back the way he was, right after she'd turned him. She was here trying to be his savior again; but he didn't want that anymore.
"No thanks, I like myself the way I am." He backed up against the wall as much as he could when she came near him again, her face inches from his, a slight smile on her face.
"You'll like yourself even more." She whispered, "Just wait for the black cloud to come down and you'll be put right again, just I have." Then she backed off and headed for the stairs, "I'll be waiting for you when you do." She headed down the stairs and into the bar, Spike watched her as she blatantly walked right by Buffy.
"So the Dracula?" Sam was laughing into his beer and Dean was staring incredulously, Buffy opened her mouth to continue her story when she saw her. Drusilla walked right past her, a smirk on her face; they locked eyes, or they would have, but Dru's eyes were all black.
"What the hell?" Buffy snarled, standing up, Dean followed her eyes in time to see black blink back to normal and the girl who's eyes had changed so quickly duck out of the Bronze.
"Let's go, Sammy." Dean said, Sam checked his jacket for his angel blade and they got up to leave.
"Don't." Spike appeared behind them suddenly and they all jumped and turned, Dean stood tall, ready for anything.
"Don't go after the black eyed son of a bitch that just ran away?" Dean asked, "Why not?"
"Because it's his ex girlfriend." Buffy said, glaring at Spike, "So Drusilla went and got herself all... Demon...-y... Ish... Demonized?" She looked to Sam for help.
"Possessed works." He said, she nodded, looking back to Spike.
"So Drusilla went and got herself all possessed, gotta say, didn't see that coming. What was she doing here?" Spike smirked slightly at the hint of what he hoped was jealousy in Buffy's tone. He pursed his lips as he took in the slayer, Dean nudged Sam.
"You're looking kind of..." Sam began, Dean interrupted.
"Predatory, like you're really looking hard, man." He said and as he said it he took a step to the left, his arm now rested in Spike's path to Buffy. Spike saw this, and his face changed from predatory to, well, predatory, but a different kind of predatory. Like he wanted to rip out Dean's jugular.
"Guys, it's fine." She rolled her eyes and rested her hand on Dean's arm, nudging him out of the way, "Anything happens, I can take him." Spike scoffed and laughed slightly, obviously offended, he stared up at the ceiling and when he looked back at Buffy, she could tell his bad guy persona was now on.
"Fine, Slayer, don't listen to me. I only came over here to stop you followin' her cause not only is she now possessed, she also is completely sane." He didn't look anywhere but at Buffy, and he watched as she tried to comprehend his meaning, "Looks like when we get taken over by the black cloud's or whatever, they don't take over us, they help us."
"So what did she want?" Buffy asked, slightly afraid, insane Drusilla was no picnic, she didn't want to find out what not insane Drusilla was like.
"Wanted to tell me they'd be coming for me." Spike said and Buffy's heart immediately sank.
"What do you mean?" His smile returned because she couldn't cloak the concern in her tone, he knew she cared.
"Don't know, only said to look out for the black cloud and that when it took me, my chip wouldn't work anymore. Guess she wanted to come collect me before so we could go on a spree together..." He looked to the Winchesters, "Like old times." He smirked at their horrified yet confused expressions and then looked back at Buffy, who was pouting angrily.
"Well you have that charm thingy, so they can't get you." Buffy said, shaking off her fears and crossing her arms over her chest, "Easy peasy."
"Right." Spike patted his chest pocket, "Got it right here, pet." He smiled and with a tilt of his head he turned, heading out of the Bronze.
"So- Spike?" Sam voiced the unspoken question and they turned to Buffy, "Do you guys have a thing?" She snorted and looked up at him.
"No." She shook her head, "He's got a thing for me, I have no thing for him."
"Oh, cause you know he's a vampire." Dean said, Buffy tilted her head at him.
"Yes, I do." She got slightly defensive, but they didn't understand why, she however shrugged it off and moved on, "If you're wondering why the slayer hangs out with a vampire who used to go on killing sprees with his insane ex girlfriend, it's because the government put a microchip in his head that stops him from hurting anyone. Since then he's helped us out a lot, took care of Dawn when I was-" She stopped and breathed deeply, "He tries." Dean nodded and looked at Sam, he wondered if Sam knew who came to his mind when he thought of a vampire that tried to do good. The look on Sam's face when he looked at Dean told him he'd also had Benny on the mind.
"Alright!" Dean said, trying to liven the mood, "Let's do shots."
They ended up stumbling back to Buffy's house a few hours later, Dean and Sam were joking with her about getting her a badge and allowing her to be an FBI agent whenever she needed to get into a place. She assured them that she would just blunder it up and wouldn't be able to pass for an agent.
"I'm like three feet tall!" She howled and Sam burst into a fit of laughter as they began climbing the steps to her house. They sat down for a few moments to calm themselves down, then Dean put a hand on Buffy's shoulder.
"Oh, come on, don't sell yourself short!" Dean said and they all began laughing all over again. The door opened behind them, Dean turned, Dawn was standing in the doorway, everyone else behind them.
"Hey!" He exclaimed, standing up, Buffy and Sam turned and then got off the steps.
"We've been worried sick." Dawn said, he arms crossed, her face impassive. Buffy's eyes widened and she tried hard to hold back a laugh.
"Okay, mom. Calm down." As soon as the words were out of Buffy's mouth, she wished she could take them back, Dawn's eyes widened and then began to fill up with tears, she turned and stomped off, everyone followed her into the living room, "Dawnie, I'm sorry! I didn't to bring her-"
"Shut up!" Dawn said, growling slightly, "Did you get to see her?"
"What?" Buffy asked, suddenly more confused.
"When you died, did you get to see her?" Dawn calmed down slightly, and shifted awkwardly where she stood, Buffy let her face drop to her hands which she was now wringing in front of her.
"I-it wasn't exactly a family reunion where I went, Dawn." Her voice was quiet, full of some unknown shame that they couldn't understand. She didn't like lying to them, but they couldn't know she was in heaven, they couldn't know that they'd ripped her from her happiness. From her mother.
"So it's not true?" Dawn asked, Buffy looked up, confused.
"Huh?" She asked.
"Buffy..." Willow said from behind her, she turned and saw that she'd obviously been crying, Tara had an arm wrapped around her shoulders and was stroking at her hair, "There's a guy here, he just sort of popped in... And... He..." She blinked back some more tears and Buffy looked around, still confused. It was Xander who stepped up to tell her.
"He said he's an angel of the Lord... That he met you when... Well when you were in heaven." Castiel walked in from the dining room and waved awkwardly to the rest of the group, Buffy looked from him to the Winchesters who were slinking back to join their friend. Then she looked around at all her friends who were looking to her for the answer, they were looking to her to tell them that it wasn't true, but she could only shake her head and open her mouth to speak.
"Oh..." She squeaked.
So I'd been debating whether or not I wanted them to find out in the same way they found out in the show... But if I had the Winchesters there for once more with feeling, then I'd have to write them a song, or two... And I'm not good at songs... OR AM I...
I might have a Once More With Feeling chapter with an interesting Dean Winchester song... or a Destiel song... ;)