The Gift of a Family Chapter 24. The Gift of a Family.
A.N. I think the next one or two will probably be the last chapter. It just keeps growing so who knows how close it is? I apparently don't.
Thank you again to whoever nominated my story for the Best Unfinished Stargate Crossover at Tth.. It gave me great happy warm tingelies kind of like the end of this chapter. (Which was totally unplanned.)
I also want to thank clarityfades for betaing this (awesome!). The people who are recommending this, and you for reading it. Merry Christmas!
I still don't own Stargate or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Jack looked over the brunch he was making for Buffy. Waffles, check. Bacon, check. Eggs, juice, sliced berries in cream, bananas, nuts, whipping cream, powdered sugar and real maple syrup check. He picked up one of the rust colored roses from the 2 dozen sitting in a vase on the counter and set it on the breakfast tray.
It looked like he had managed to get everything cooked before Buffy was up. Now he was debating whether he should take the tray up now or to let her sleep. You need lots of sleep to heal, but you also need food. It was getting late, almost noon.
"I'll just take this up and see if she is up for food yet. If she wants to she can go back to sleep." This decided, he picked up the tray and started walking, intent on taking his daughter breakfast in bed. A door slamming startled him and he wondered if that was Daniel who had just come in the front door.
Walking out, he froze in surprise to see his daughter wearing one of those horrible outfits employees wore at fast food places and looking at a bag of takeout like it was about to turn into something she needed to stake.
"Buffy? What are you doing out of bed?"
"Hunh? I had opening shift, it was dead slow though, so they sent me home early. Is that real food?" She asked a little wistfully. "How did you manage that?"
"I made you breakfast in bed. Which is where you are supposed to be! You were badly wounded the other night. First you won't go to a hospital, then you stayed up all night. At least you slept all day yesterday, but there is no way you were ready to get up this morning and go to work at the...Doublemeat Palace?" He asked getting increasingly angry. "It's not exactly life and death, you should have called in sick!"
"I can't do that, I've had to unexpectedly leave in the middle of shifts too often. If I called in for something like this, I wouldn't have a job anymore. Jack this is a small town, jobs don't grow on trees. Besides, I need the money."
Jack growled in anger and frustration. "Don't these watcher people pay you for being the slayer? You shouldn't have to work at some grease factory to make ends meet."
Buffy sighed, truthfully she was exhausted. She didn't want to have to work feeling so worn, tired, and, yes, wounded. If she had to think about it or talk about it, she would probably break into tears and never stop crying.
"Did you say that food was for me?" She asked instead.
Jack seeing the exhaustion, and buried anger, and frustration let it go. He could see how much she didn't want to talk about this right now. "Yes, but it was meant to be breakfast in bed, so why don't you run jump in bed and I'll bring it up to you."
"Eew! I'm all greasy! I need a shower before any part of me touches my bed. How about we take it into the kitchen and you can tell me more about you while I eat?"
"Only if you promise to take a shower and get to bed right after." He stated feeling like he better make her agree now to get in bed or she might decide she was healthy enough to do something that would get her stitches pulled.
"Yes, sir, Colonel Sir!" She stood at perfect attention and snapped him a perfect salute before she smiled and walked into the kitchen leaving a smirking Jack in her wake.
Buffy was eating his breakfast with gusto while Jack eyed the burgers she had brought home with her.
"Could I?" He asked.
"You have to be kidding me. You made all of this wonderful food and you would rather eat double meat grease-bombs?"
"Hey, I have discerning tastes, but I am also patriotic. Grease-bombs are a way of life in this country, I'm just doing my part to keep this the Land of the..."
"Coronary Bypass Surgery?" Buffy finished his sentence for him but handed him the takeout bag.
"Har-de-har-har." Jack smiled, his daughter was rather sassy...and it made him proud. It was one of those things that they just naturally had in common with each other.
It was silent for a moment, it was somewhat awkward yesterday, or rather the day before, as she slept through all of yesterday. Jack was an acquaintance, a comrade in arms who she respected enough to think would have made a great father...today he was that father. She didn't know what to say or how to act. Would it matter what she said or how she acted? Jack seemed interested in her, but her other father had been at one time too. His interest had faded. Everything fades. She thought to herself as a familiar darkness seemed to descend upon her soul, as she thought again about the fading light and music as she watched a pair of violet eyes slowly fade in death. The dragon's music had a touch of heaven in it and she had to kill it. She had woken from a nightmare remembering the dragon's beauty and grace that she had killed to go to work.
"So, physical wounds aside, how are you fairing up kid?" Jack asked seeing the light fade from her eyes, she continued eating and acting like nothing was the matter but Jack knew better. He didn't have to see it or hear her say it to know differently.
"Peachy with a side of keen." She answered lightly as if she didn't have a care in the world.
"Don't give me that. I know things aren't sunshine and roses for you Buffy. You almost died several times the other night, you almost killed yourself when that hell beast died!"
"I don't want to talk about it." Buffy answered back. Talking about that would be an intense conversation that she simply wasn't ready for in this stage of their relationship. Her feelings were too intense for the delicate relationship that they had. Finished eating, Buffy got up to leave considering the conversation over.
Jack had other plans. He was on his feet in an instant and stood before her his hands holding her upper arms while he looked at her with an intense expression on his face.
"No." He growled out. "I am not going to let you just let it fester inside of you. You tried to kill yourself Buffy, you almost succeeded. I know you have been living alone in a dark and scary world and that you think you have to be a pillar of strength, to never show fear or pain. But you aren't alone anymore Buffy, and I am not going to loose another child!" Buffy blinked in shock at his tone and his words. Jack took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "I have seen that hollow look in your eyes before Buffy, I have seen it in soldiers who have fought for too long and some of them have let themselves die. I have even worn it a few times myself."
Spike's words about slayers having a death wish came back to Buffy and she knew the truth of them. She said nothing but was looking at Jack more openly now. She was surprised that he hadn't accepted her happy-go-lucky act the way everyone else seemed to, but she still didn't think that she could talk to him about this.
"Look, Buffy, you don't have to talk to me, but promise me that you will talk to somebody. It isn't good to hold pain in like that. You have to let it out to let it go. Talk to a friend you trust or some quack shrink, but promise me you will talk to someone." He demanded.
Buffy's voice was quiet as a wealth of emotion made her eyes water. "I promise, I'll talk to someone." She felt amazed that he really did care about her. She felt a little more confident that he wasn't about to disappear from her life, but she still wasn't ready to talk to him about it.
She would honor her promise to him though, she just had to figure out who to talk to about this. Did she have anybody who she trusted enough to tell the whole truth to? She wondered. It wasn't just the Dragon and Heaven she needed to talk about. It was everything. She trusted Giles but he had left her just when she needed him the most, she still loved and trusted him, but he was one of the issues she needed to talk to someone about. She could hardly talk to him about it now. Maybe later after she had dealt with it better, but not now.
Willow was still picking up the pieces from going off the deep end, she wasn't ready for this. Besides no matter how much she had forgiven her friend, Willow was partly to blame. She wanted someone she could share her pain and feelings with, she didn't want to drudge up guilt and pain for her friend.
Buffy loved and trusted Xander but she just knew he couldn't understand her sorrow for the loss of the Dragon, either one of them.
She could have told Spike, if things hadn't have ended the way they did between them. She didn't know where he was now regardless. Besides, if he really did get his soul restored to him, then he was probably still reeling from the consequences.
Things were still too new and fragile between her and Daniel, the same as with Jack. Angel simply wasn't an option.
Buffy was still debating who to talk to through her shower and getting into bed to take an unneeded nap. She had slept more hours yesterday than she had last all last month combined. Slayers just didn't need that much sleep. Jack was worried though so she decided to humor him.
She wished her sister were there. Somehow she thought she could have talked to Dawn about it. She had just finished thinking this when Faith poked her head into her bedroom.
"Hey B. How's it hangin'?" She asked.
"Hunky with a side of Dory?" Buffy asked.
Faiths brows came down in concern. "What's wrong, Buffy?" She asked.
"You said my name! You never say my name." Buffy stated in shock.
"It was a one-time occurrence ok? I repeat, what's the what?"
Buffy blinked in surprise, didn't anybody buy her acting anymore? Then she froze as she just realized she was wishing her sister were with her so she could talk to her. Faith was her sister in all but blood. She had been through hell, so surely she could understand. But, would she really want to hear about Buffy's problems? Were they past all the crap from their past enough to talk about something like this? She thought they were, but what if Faith felt differently?
"I don't think I have ever really apologized to you face-to-face about how I treated you when you first came to Sunnydale."
"Shit B. That is ancient water under a very old bridge. We both made mistakes then."
"Jack wants me to talk to someone about some things that happened the other day. You are the only one I really feel like I could talk to about this, but, is that alright?" Buffy asked hesitantly.
"Out of everyone you know, the person you want to talk to is me?" Faith asked incredulously.
Buffy nodded her head and Faith realized that they really had come a long way from when she first came to Sunnydale. Her heart felt like it was overflowing as she realized that Buffy trusted her.
"You are like a sister to me." Buffy admitted to her.
"Hell yeah, let's chat." Faith smiled and hopped onto the bed next to Buffy. She had always wanted a sister. Buffy had just given her the most precious gift she had ever been given, the gift of a family.
Merry Christmas!