Buffy fic: One Girl (1/1)

[locker_monster]

Title: One Girl (1/1)
Rating: G
Characters: Buffy, and Giles makes an appearance
Timeline: Post Chosen but no spoilers for season eight.
Summary: The past pays Buffy a visit.
Disclaimer: Joss is boss.
A/N: I was trying something a little different with this fic stylistically so I hope it's not too confusing.

           An angry teenaged girl is speaking with a forty-something librarian. It’s her first day at a new high school. The library in which they stand is filled with bright sunshine.

            The girl has just discovered a dead body on campus.

            Okay, what’s the sitch?

            Sorry?

            You heard about the dead guy, right? The dead guy in the locker?

            Buffy’s seen this all before. Of course she has. She was there, living it, seven years ago. So long ago.

            “Why have you returned?”

            The conversation from the past carries on as a voice sounds from nowhere, from everywhere. Buffy looks around the library, looks around at the room that shouldn’t exist anywhere anymore. She runs her hand over the surface of the table in the centre of the room, the fixture for so many late night research sessions. She can feel the grain of the wood under her fingers. It feels real.

            ’Cause, it’s the weirdest thing. He’s got two little, little holes in his neck, and all his blood’s been drained. Isn’t that bizarre? Aren’t you just going, ooh?

            “Why have you returned?” the voice asks again.

            Buffy clenches her hand into a fist. This can’t be real. It’s a dream. She’s fallen asleep and is dreaming about a simpler time.

            “This is dream,” she says out loud to the room. “Dreams don’t make sense. You’re just some voice in my head. I don’t need to answer you.”

            There is no reply. The girl and the librarian continue to talk, the words so familiar.

            “Why do you assume I’m talking about you?” The voice sounds right behind Buffy, causing her to whip around. But no one is there. “This is about her.”

            The emphasis on “her” is what makes Buffy turn back to the conversation.

            To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood. And then you have to suck their blood. It’s like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they’re just gonna kill you. Why am I still talking to you?

            “What do you mean ‘her’? I’m her, that’s me.”

            “You’ve changed.”

            “Yeah, people tend to do that. It’s called aging.” Buffy pauses and watches as the girl leaves the conversation. She doesn’t quite make it.

            You really have no idea what’s going on, do you? You think it’s coincidence, your being here? That boy was just the beginning.

            “Why have you returned?” the voice asks again. It sounds so close, like a person is standing next to Buffy, speaking.

            “Shouldn’t you be asking, why has ‘she’ returned?” Buffy waits for the voice to response but nothing comes. She scowls. “Fine. I returned to tell Giles about the dead body stuffed into a locker.”

            “But he already knew.”

            “Well, it’s not like I knew he knew.”

            “But he would have found out about the boy on his own eventually. He would have heard about the bite mark and know it was a vampire who did it.”

            The girl and the librarian are standing in front of the table now. Buffy lifts her hand. If she reached out, could she touch them?

            “You could have never returned to the library. You could have gone about your day, making new friends and settling into a new town. An entire lifetime of slaying could have been avoided. Why did you return?”

            But, okay, first of all, I’m a Vampire Slayer. And secondly, I’m retired. Hey, I know! Why don’t you kill ’em?

            I-I’m a Watcher, I-I haven’t the skill…

            “Why do you keep asking?” Buffy’s eyes scan the room, her voice raised to no one. “You’re a voice and this isn’t real.”

            “Did you return out of duty? Did you feel honour bound? Were you compelled to tell someone else who knew about vampires? Or did you just want to play the hero one more time?”

            “Stop!” The one word rings out across the room.

            And the room complies.

            Buffy stares at the frozen figures of the girl and the librarian. All she can think about is how young the girl looks, how young she looked. Seven years. Is she a stranger to the girl?

            “So why?”

            Buffy turns. Someone stands behind her. Someone she hasn’t seen in ages. “Why does it matter to you?”

            Jenny Calendar smiles. “I’m not the one who needs to know the answer. I’m just the one asking the question.”

            “Are you the First?”

            “Why would I be the First?”

            “Because the first time we met, it looked just like you. Right down to the clothes.”

            Jenny, long dead Jenny, looks down at her outfit. A sheer flower top over a camisole with a matching skirt. She looks back up at Buffy and takes a step forward. Instantly, her clothes change. The skirt becomes a pair of jeans. The top and camisole morph into a black button-up blouse. “Does this make you feel better? I doubt the First has the time to bother you, not after what you did.”

            “Fine, you’re not the First–”

            “So answer the question.”

            “–but why you?”

            A smile blossoms on Jenny’s face. “I stopped asking questions a long time ago. I just go where I’m told.”

            “Do I even want to know what you’re talking about?” asks Buffy.

            “Not really.”

            Buffy gets the feeling that even if she pushed Jenny on the topic she wouldn’t get a straight answer. “So I should just answer the question and you’ll leave me alone?”

            “Basically, yeah.”

            Buffy’s gaze drifts to the girl and the librarian. If they only knew what waited ahead for them. “I came back because… I needed to say it. I needed to tell someone that I didn’t want to do this anymore. A person died because of me, but who could I admit that to? Being the Slayer was robbing me of a life and I couldn’t tell anyone.”

            The words settle. Buffy looks back to Jenny, expecting a look of impression or satisfaction from the woman.

            Jenny just nods. “Thanks.” She turns, as if to leave the room.

            “That’s it?” Buffy rushes forward to block Jenny’s path. “This whole elaborate song and dance and I just get a ‘thanks’?”

            “What? I’m supposed to say some words of wisdom? Remember, I’m not the one who needs an answer.”

            “Then what was the point of this?” Buffy gestures to the girl and the librarian though she knows she means this room, this illusion of a place lost in an explosion.

            It seems like Jenny can’t answer. She looks away, uncertainty in her expression. It’s complete silence. The only thing Buffy can hear is her own breathing. “You changed the world,” Jenny finally says, looking back at Buffy. “For the first time, the Slayer isn’t alone. Thousands of girls need to know that.”

            Buffy’s expression softens.

            “If you’re done…” Dodging around Buffy, Jenny heads up the library stairs, her footsteps making no sound. She makes it to the top before she pauses. When she speaks, her voice is soft. “When you see Giles…” Her voice falters. “He looks good.”

            A smile creeps onto Buffy’s face. She turns on her heel. “I’ll tell–” The sunlight suddenly engulfs the library.

            Jenny is gone.

 

            The first thing Buffy is aware of is a soft beeping. As she takes in a breath, her nose twitches. The air smells like disinfectant and she feels like sneezing. She opens her eyes. White walls and white floors. Her head rests on a lumpy pillow and a thin blanket covers her body.

            Hospital. She’s intimately familiar with the details that it’s instantly recognizable to her. Buffy moves to roll over, to survey the rest of the space, but sudden pain stabs at her side and she lets out a surprised gasp.

            And the gasp is echoed. Ignoring the pain, Buffy rolls over.

            Giles, his clothes wrinkled, sits in a chair by the bed. His bleary-eyed expression is enough to tell her he had been sleeping a moment ago. It takes a second before he focuses and sees Buffy. “You’re awake.”

            “Don’t remember falling asleep.” Her tongue feels like sandpaper.

            “Your wound re-opened.” Giles reaches over to the bedside table and picks up his glasses. A glass of water also waits there and he hands it to Buffy. “You were bleeding heavily. You passed out before we found a hospital.”

            Buffy searches through her memories as she takes a small sip of water. She can remember boarding the school bus, talking with the others about what to do next. But after that… She quickly swallows the water. “Everyone–”

            “The injured girls are here as well.” Giles’s gaze briefly drifts to a curtained off bed at the other side of the room. “Dawn and the others are at a nearby hotel.”

            “Good.” Giles takes the glass from Buffy as she rests her head back against the pillow. Aside from the stab wound, she feels rested and it has nothing to do with being unconscious for hours.

            Giles places his hand over Buffy’s and gives it a squeeze. “I’ll let you rest.”

            “Giles.” She says his name as he rises to his feet. “I don’t know why, maybe it was the blood loss, but I was back at the library. The first day we met. I…” Buffy pauses, tries to find the right words to describe it all. “Jenny was there.”

            A name not uttered in years. Giles’s hand tightens around Buffy’s. “Did she–”

            “She says you look good.”

            The comment gets a small smile from Giles though it’s not without a hint of sadness. He lets go of Buffy’s hand and heads for the door.

            “We changed the world,” she says quietly.

            Giles looks back over his shoulder and smiles. “We did.”

            Buffy closes her eyes and settles back in the bed. The room is quiet.

            But she’s not alone.

Comments

[blueanddollsome.livejournal.com]

Okay, this was just perfect. I loved it. Great idea to ask that question retrospectively, and perfect answer. And I loved that Jenny was there too :-)
Aside: I always forget that Buffy was run-through with a sword; even for a Slayer that's a pretty serious wound. Yet she's seldom in the hospital in post-Chosen fic.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

Originally I had thought Joyce would appear to Buffy or maybe even Kendra, but they seemed too personal somehow. Jenny seemed like the next natural choice. Plus you get some Giles angst in there. :-D

Did the past dialogue confuse the narrative? I had someone read through it and she suggested I should distinguish the past dialogue.

You have to wonder if Joss forgot about Buffy's wound, too. I don't remember seeing any blood on Buffy's shirt after she gets stabbed. And she seemed pretty lively for someone who was run through with a sword. ;-)

[blueanddollsome.livejournal.com]

Kendra would've made sense since the dream was about being a Slayer. But I get what you mean about it being too personal. Jenny makes a good dream-guide for Buffy. And Giles angst is always enjoyable. ;-)

The past dialogue wasn't confusing at all. I thought it worked well.

[mabus101.livejournal.com]

I guess after Buffy gets up from it, people just forget about that sword wound. She's up and fighting, after all.

Retrospectives after the end of a series are always a good idea. This was a brilliant way of doing that.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I suppose Buffy was going on adrenaline, what with the town collapsing in on itself. And who really wants to end the show with the hero bleeding heavily and not looking happy? ;-)

I'm glad you liked it. I was inspired by a comment Joss made about that scene in the library. He said they had to film it twice because the first time Sarah came off as too angry. Joss also joked that he would send Buffy back in time to that point so Sarah would have to film that scene a third time.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

I liked this. It's good to experiment. Buffy's voice rings true and I especially like the title, which really brings the two moments together and highlights the meaning of what Buffy has done in changing the world.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I took a Creative Writing course this year from my university and it left me with the desire to try something different. Good to know it wasn't completely confusing. :-D

Initially Buffy's last line was, "We saved the world", but then I realized it made more sense for her to repeat what Jenny said.

[kayla-holly.livejournal.com]

I really love the way its written. Very orginal.

And I've always thought she was pretty lively with a sword through her too!

Kayla

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I usually don't write in the present tense, but this was a fun way to experiment and try something a little different with the narrative and dialogue.

It had never really occurred to me that Buffy should have been in pain and her shirt be covered with blood until this fic. Ah, the things that come to you years later. :-)