If There Was No Buffy

Chapter Nine

Decisions Made

Right after Dawn and Spike left, Willow walked over to the Buffy-bot and looked her up and down, surveying the damage. "I don't know whether to try to fix her up – again, or just keep her turned off and dump her down in the cellar. I mean – the Slayers ARE on the job."

Willow took the flap of hair and scalp and placed back in place on the shiny dome, then let it fall. She shook her head sadly.

"Umm, Will, I think you need to fix her up, at least one more time."

"Why?"

"Don't you know what Monday is? It's the first day of school for Dawny. And they're expecting a parent or guardian to show up."

"Well, I was thinking about just doing a Glamor to look like Buffy."

"Do you really think you can keep it going the whole day?"

"I can try."

"But don't forget, Monday we have to be at college to sign up for our fall classes."

"Oh, god! That's Monday? Already?"

Tara nodded. "Unless you're planning on dropping out."

"Oh no! I'd never do that. Crap! Guess I'll do what I can to fix what I can."

Willow put the hair back in place, trying to figure how to keep it there. "I guess I can glue it to the head," she said mostly to herself. "Tara, do we have any glue anywhere. The good stuff?"

"I can check Dawn's room. I think she was using it for something last week."

While Tara went upstairs, Willow began to examine the damaged right hip. After deciding what she had to do to repair the joint, she reactivated the robot.

"Buffy-bot, I need you to take your pants off so I can see what's wrong with your hip."

"Okay, Willow. Are you going to fix me up again? I was badly damaged fighting that demon."

"Yes, I know."

Using her left hand, the bot unfastened the belt and snap of her jeans and unzipped them. Willow tugged down them to her ankles, and saw that the bot wasn't wearing any underwear, and that she was anatomically correct – just as Spike had Warren make her. There was a discolored bulge on the outside of the hip, and something was barely penetrating the edge of her right buttock from the inside.

Just then Tara returned with contact cement.

"Oh," she said when she saw the pants-less robot. "D-did you shave the Buffy-bot – down there?"

"No. Just one of the Spike's little construction requirements. I guess he thinks it's sexy."

"Can you fix her?"

"Maybe. I'm going to have to cut into the shoulder and the hip to see just what kind of damage there is."

Willow had the Buffy-bot strip completely, had her hop on her good leg up on the kitchen counter, then lay down. And using the scalpel from the first aid chest, began to carefully cut through the outer layers of the hip. But when the bot began to twitch, she ordered her to power down.

"I would have thought her breasts would have been bigger," Tara commented. "Guys like big breasts, don't they?"

"Yeah, I guess some guys do. But I imagine Spike wanted her to look as much like Buffy as possible."

"You know," Tara said, "we're going to have to tell her what not to talk about when she goes to Dawn's school."

"Oh, I know. I've already got a long list in my head."

After some poking and probing, Willow asked for a flashlight, then had Tara get a screwdriver and pair of pliers from the tool box.

"I don't think anything's really broken, it just looks like some stuff got knocked loose. There seems to be a cable that needs to be reconnected." Willow was talking to herself as much as to Tara. "Now, if I can just grab the end of it, there seems to be a loop. Tara can you hold these wires to the side while I get hold of the end of it?"

They worked mostly in silence for the next fifteen minutes while Willow tried to retrieve the cable to loop it around the servomechanism.

"Okay, this isn't working." Willow was starting to get frustrated.

"Anything else I can do?"

"Umm. Okay let's try this. See if you can bend the leg at the knee, and bring the heel up as close to her butt as you can."

Tara tried picking up the leg but was having trouble. "I didn't realize how heavy her leg would be."

"Well, it is mostly steel struts and cables and all."

Eventually she got the leg up.

"Okay, that's almost it. Now I need you to bring the knee up close to her chest."

"Stirrups would be nice to have right about now," Tara said as she struggled with the weight of the bot's leg.

Just at that moment Spike and Dawn came in through the back door.

"Hello!" Spike said, staring wide-eyed at the naked Buffy-bot.

"Spike! Willow!" Dawn yelled out, then used her hand to cover Spike's eyes, who immediately took her hand away.

"Hey, it's not like I haven't seen her naked before." Then in a slow voice he added, "But it has been a while."

Dawn ran into the dining room, grabbed the table cloth, and ran back into the kitchen to cover as much of the Buffy-bot as she could without getting in Willow's way.

"Got it!" Willow exclaimed happily as the wayward cable was reattached. "Okay, I think that's all I'm going to do tonight. I'll sew her up her hip tomorrow, and then see what I can do to fix her shoulder. So, how did the Slayer spy-fest go?"

"It went fine, until the crystal died," Dawn answered, holding it out.

"What? It shouldn't have."

Willow took the crystal from her, turning it over and over in her hand, rubbing it gently.

"You're right, it's dead. A counter spell must have deactivated it."

"How could that happen?"

"A stronger one could do it. I really didn't think about that happening, so I didn't make the spell that resilient. Makes me wonder. So, other than this, how did things go?"

Spike and Dawn spent the next half hour describing the artistic Slaying techniques of Mary and Marie.

"Well, considering their delicate looks, I can see how they would fight like that," Willow finally said. "Dawn, I think it's well past your bedtime, so…."

"I know. And I am kind of sleepy." Dawn gave Spike a quick hug. "Thanks for taking me." She then hugged and kissed Willow and Tara on the cheeks, touched the Buffy-bot on the shoulder, then went upstairs to bed.

Just as soon as Spike heard Dawn's bedroom door close, he turned on Willow.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking?"

"What?" Willow asked in a confused voice.

"Little Bit told me you were going to bring Buffy back from the dead. Have you lost your sodding sanity?"

"We didn't do it!" Willow said defensively.

"Bloody witches," Spike grumbled. "Thinking you're all-powerful. Playing around with forces you barely understand, and can control even less."

"I said we didn't do it! So get off it already!"

"Umm, guys," Tara interrupted. "It's really late, and we're all tired. So how about if we just go to bed?"

Both Willow and Spike calmed down a little. He shook his head, turned toward the cellar door, then turned back. "I miss her too, you know."

"I know," Willow conceded.

The next morning Willow was up early, working on Buffy-bot's shoulder. Dawn was up next.

"How's it going?"

"Not too bad. There was more damage to her shoulder than her hip. I can fix it up, mostly. It won't be a hundred percent, but close."

"Are you still going to go to school with me Monday?"

"I wish I could, but Tara and I have to sign up for classes. So – it looks like the Buffy-bot's going to have to go instead."

"Do you think that will work?"

"I think so. I hope so. Of course we'll have to give her specific instructions about what not to talk about."

The next morning they walked into the kitchen to find the Buffy-bot was already busy, and had used up all the bread making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Dawn's lunch.

"Maybe we can freeze them," Willow suggested.

An hour later, Dawn and the Buffy-bot left for Dawn's first day at school.

"You kids be good now," Willow said nervously as she watched Dawn and the Buffy-bot walk down the sidewalk to the school. And then Willow and Tara got dressed and left to sign up for their classes.

Later that evening Dawn was summing up their day at school:

"I just knew she couldn't sit there and be quiet, just for a little while, you know? But no! First she stands up and tells everybody that school is for learning. DUH! How dumb is THAT! And then she says she made me peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my lunch. I was mortified!"

"That doesn't sound so bad," Willow answered. "She didn't say anything she shouldn't have, did she?"

"No, thank god. Imagine having to explain about slaying vampires and demons. They'd lock me up like I was some kind of looney!"

"Anything else?"

"My homeroom teacher, Ms. Fortenbury, was like, 'Your sister's an example to us all.' It's like she wanted to make it National St. Buffy Day or something."

"Well, at least that went well," Willow said, relieved.

To Be Continued