Life was continuing all around her, but Buffy was oblivious to it all. Xander was learning to dance, Willow and Oz were beginning a possible years long journey to solving a puzzle, Jenny Calendar was berating Rupert Giles again and the Cordettes were contemplating geek dating rather than jock dating.

And Buffy was haltingly, painfully explain to her horrified mother that she'd died. Not just died, nearly stayed dead.

"We - we recently figured out it had all been a setup." Buffy told her, shaking as she remembered the fear, the pain, the shock. "This really old and powerful vampire was trapped in a cave under ground by some kind of Magic force field. My blood - a Slayer's blood - has some mystical properties. My blood could make him strong enough to escape his prison, but he had to get me there. If he just sent his followers after me, I could have fought them. I'd have destroyed many of them and in the process probably died myself. He would have lost my blood, so instead, he set a trap. He made it seem like he was already escaping and if I didn't stop him he'd open the Hellmouth."

"Hellmouth? A name like that can only be something scary."

"A tear in reality between here and a literal Hell. Where the monsters, the demons come from." Buffy answered. "Xander's costume drained it in the process of destroying all the vampires. It seems to be dead. No pun intended." Buffy muttered, crossing her arms across her middle and self hugging in an attempt to deal with her fear. Joyce rubbed her hands up and down Buffy's arms, trying to warm her.

"You don't have to do this now if you don't want to, Buffy." Joyce told her daughter, hoping she hadn't pushed her too far.

"No, I - I need to talk about it. I need to tell someone what I haven't been able to say yet." Buffy answered. "I told them, the others, how the Master thralled me. Controlled my mind, my body. But I didn't tell them how he taunted me, told me it was my fault he was free. If I hadn't come, he couldn't go, he told me." She pulled her collar aside and showed her mother the bite scar on her neck. Joyce tentatively touched it, than jerked back sharply and reached for her own throat.

"The scar on my neck, you told me I'd been attacked by a vampire. That was why I ended up in the hospital, the hospital said I fell on a barbeque fork. These scars look nothing like a barbeque fork! I've seen mine in a mirror, it looks like yours. They're teeth marks." Joyce struggled not to hyperventilate as a memory surfaced, a pretty girl, her face going ugly, monstrous. Yellow eyes and then teeth, biting into her neck, the sound of gulping. 'Oh, God, that really happened! To me, to Buffy -.'

"Vampires." Buffy confirmed. "He didn't take it all, he didn't need all of it, but he took enough so that I passed out. He dropped me in a pool of water and I - I drowned. I died." Buffy was shaking so badly one might have thought there was an earthquake happening. Her voice clogged with tears, reminding her of the water sliding into her mouth as she blacked out. "I died."

"But you didn't stay dead, you said that." Joyce reminded her. "You're here, now and I'm holding you and you're alive, Buffy. Alive! Hold on to that thought, you're alive! My baby is alive." Joyce held her daughter tightly, thanking whatever God was responsible for the miracle that her daughter was alive.

"Only because Xander is so damn stubborn he was willing to force a vampire to help him find me." Buffy lifted her tear stained face from her mother's shoulder. "Everyone, everyone else gave up. They all thought there was no possible hope and that I was dead. Done deal. Not Xander, he made Angel help him find me and he gave me CPR, I never even knew that he knew CPR, but he did and he saved me. He saved me."

"Thank God for sheer, stubborn, bull headedness." Joyce's own tears were smearing her makeup. Not that she noticed or cared at the moment. "I will feed that boy anything he wants for the rest of his life." Remembering how enthusiastically he'd devoured her cooking the night before.

"And he'll bless the ground you walk on." Buffy laughed through her tears. "He usually has to cook for himself, even before he got emancipated from his parents." Joyce was startled by the casual comment, but decided now wasn't the time to pursue that. Then she frowned.

"Buffy, you said Xander forced a vampire to help him. How did Xander force a vampire to do anything, I thought he only started doing Magic after Halloween."

"He did." Buffy nodded. "And force isn't exactly the right word. I think shame would probably be closer. Not that Xander's told me anything about it. I heard it from Giles and Angel confirmed it and Angel looked ashamed when he admitted it."

"Who's Angel?" Wondering what this Angel had to do with a vampire.

"You met him, I told you he was tutoring me in History."

"That young man I thought was in college?"

"He's never been to college." Buffy admitted. "I lied to you, Angel wasn't my tutor, he was a guy who told me I was beautiful and kissed me. I thought we were starting a relationship."

"He's too old for you." Joyce said flatly, wiping at her tears.

"So it's been explained to me a few times. It's a moot point anyway, he left Sunnydale just after Halloween and I haven't heard from him since."

"What does this Angel have to do with a vampire anyway?" Joyce asked, still not understanding the connection.

"Angel was unique, Mom. Angel was a vampire cursed with a soul by Magic. The spell Xander's costume cast, made him human, all the other vampires the spell destroyed."

"I couldn't possibly have heard that right." Joyce stared at her daughter. "You just did not tell me that you got involved with a vampire!"

"If it helps, Xander's Eye of Agamotto showed that someone used both Magic and thrall on me, to make me not want to destroy the unique vampire. Which a vampire with a soul is, since no one knows if that curse had ever been done on another one."

"I think we've talked enough for today. I very much want to get drunk now."