Chapter 3
At first the light had hurt her eyes. She blinked at the fuzz that covered her sight. The beings that came into her line of focus looked oddly familiar. She didn’t feel the need to attack them, so she just stayed where she was while she tried to figure out what the feeling in the pit of her stomach meant. It wasn’t what she felt like when she wanted to eat…it was something else.
There was a tingling in the back of her neck that made her slowly turn to the being behind her. She cocked her head to one side, studying it. For some reason the tingles made her think danger, but at the same time, she didn’t feel like killing this one. Then she saw the eyes, the blue eyes from her dreams.
She leapt on top of him, needing to know this wasn’t a dream. He didn’t fight her off as her fingers traced over his face. She avoided direct contact with his eyes. For some reason that scared her, as though looking into his eyes would tell her secrets she didn’t want to know. But he ducked down a bit to catch her eye, and then he made a sound. He looked at her as though waiting for a response, but she didn’t give one. His eyes mesmerized her, and she leaned farther forward to try and figure out why.
The other being behind her began to make a lot of noise. They closed in around her, making her feel trapped. She looked up over the blue eyed one’s head at the two beings moving toward her. One had things over his eyes, the other tall with dark coverings on his head. She growled low in her throat, trying to convey her superiority over them. She gave a quick glance around her and, with a start, recognized the red head and the long, dark haired one from her dream as well.
“Buffy, do you know who we are?” Giles asked slowly, adjusting his glasses.
Buffy ignored him, intently studying Willow and Dawn. She stood slowly and stalked toward Willow, grabbing one of the redhead’s hands. Willow gave a startled shriek, but stilled under Buffy’s glare. The group watched as Buffy studied the tips of Willow’s fingers for a bit before lifting her own hand and wriggling her fingers.
“What’s she doing?” Xander asked.
“I’m not sure,” Giles replied.
Buffy grunted, stamped her foot, pointed at Willow’s hand again, and made the wiggling motion with her fingers.
“I-I don’t understand what she wants,” Willow said.
Buffy pulled on her hair in frustration. She walked up to Willow and pulled Willow’s arm so that it was straight in front of her body. Then she spread Willow’s fingers and made them wiggle.
“I’m sorry, Buffy. I don’t understand,” Willow cried, exasperated.
“Wait!” Tara called before blushing over how loud she’d been. “I-I t-t-thing she’s trying to covey your power? You know, like it comes from your fingers?” She posed it as a question, waiting for approval from the group.
“Willow, try doing a simple spell,” Giles suggested.
Willow muttered a bit under her breath, and the rock next to Buffy’s foot levitated off the ground. A big smile broke on Buffy’s face as she pointed from Willow to the rock.
“She remembers you’re a witch,” Dawn smiled. “She remembers…”
Dawn trailed off as Buffy moved to stand in front of her.
“Hi, Buffy. I-I’m Dawn, your sister. Do you remember me?”
Buffy picked up Dawn’s arm and studied it. She smeared a bit of the mud on her hand onto the inside of the arm. She looked back to Dawn before spitting on the mud so that it dripped off Dawn’s arm.
“Okay, ew!” Xander muttered.
“It’s supposed to be Dawn’s blood dripping,” Spike announced softly.
“How do you know that?” Xander asked.
“I think…I think she’s trying to show us what she remembers. I think that wherever she was…it was a lot longer then a hundred and forty seven days…”Spike trailed off as he noticed Buffy’s shift in attention. She had seen Glory’s tower.
“Now what’s she doing?” Anya asked.
Buffy had walked to the staircase of the tower and was slowly running her hand up and down the railing. Hesitantly, she climbed up on the first step, paused, looked to the top, and then resumed climbing.
“No, don’t let her go up there again!” Dawn cried out.
Spike was already at the foot of the stairs following her up. Buffy didn’t stop until she was standing on the platform of the tower. She looked out into the horizon before turning to face Spike. She stared at him for a moment before pointing at him and then pointing at the ground.
“That’s right,” Spike said softly. “I was on the ground when you were up here.”
Buffy turned back toward the edge and stared out into space again. Spike moved closer so that he could grab her if she tried to jump again. She surprised him by spinning around to face him and wildly gesturing at herself.
Spike cocked his head. “You jumped to save Dawn…and the world.”
Buffy looked at him in frustration and began poking her index finger violently to her chest.
“Stop, luv, you’re going to hurt yourself,” Spike said as he tried to grab her hand. She pushed him away and stamped her foot before poking herself in the chest again. When Spike still didn’t get it, Buffy leaned forward and poked him in the chest and then herself again.
“Yeah, I’m a vampire, you’re a Slayer.”
She pulled at her hair, strangled cries coming out of her throat and suddenly Spike understood. He grabbed her hands and pointed his own finger at her chest.
“Buffy.”
Buffy stilled and cocked her head at him.
“Bu-ffy Su-mmers,” he repeated slowly.
“B-B-Buuf,” her voice was hoarse with disuse.
“Bu-ffee Su-mmers,” Spike said.
She peered at him from beneath the rat nest that was her hair and tried to imitate the movements of his lips.
“Bu-ffeeeeeee,” she tried.
“That’s good, luv. Buffy Summers, that’s you.”
“S-S-Sommors.”
“Su-mm-ers”
“Buffee Summers.”
Spike smiled. “That’s it, luv.”
Buffy broke into a big grin. “Buffee Summmers! Buffee Summerss! Buffee Summers!”
Spike laughed at her childish jumping up and down. “Come on there, Buffy Summers, let’s get off this infernal tower, eh?” He took her hand and started to lead her down the stairs, but she pulled on him to stop. Confused, he turned around to face her only to find her finger in his chest. “Oh, who am I then? Spike. Sp-iik.”
“S-Spiiiikuh.”
“Close. Spike.”
“Spikuh…Spike…Spike,” she grinned again. “Buffy Summerss, Spiike.”
Buffy continued chanting their names all the way down the tower. When she got to the bottom, she walked up to the Scoobies, pointed at herself and announce, “Buffy Summers.”
“Um, yeah…doesn’t she know that we know who she is?” Anya asked.
“I don’t think she does,” Giles responded.
Buffy walked up to Dawn and pointed a finger at her. Dawn looked up questioningly at Spike.
“She wants to know your name, bit. Can’t remember.”
Dawn looked at her sister a moment. “Dawn.”
“D-D-D,” she stopped and swallowed. “D-Doowwn.”
Spike walked up beside them. “Duhaawn,” he said slowly.
“D-duhaawn,” Buffy said and grinned when Dawn nodded. “Duhawn, Spiik, Buffee Summers.”
It took an hour for Buffy to figure out everyone’s names. She got stuck the longest on Anya because the girl wouldn’t take any sort of mispronunciation of her name. Finally, looking quite pleased with herself, Buffy turned away from the group and walked over to the side of a building. She laid herself down on the ground and curled up like she was going to go to sleep.
“Now what’s she doing?” Anya asked.
“I, um, I think she’s going to sleep,” Tara replied.
“Outside?” Anya gasped.
“I don’t think she knows any different,” Giles said. “I would have to, erm, agree with Spike on this one. Where ever Buffy was, it was a bit longer for her than it was for us. Possibly years longer.”
“Maybe she just hit her head and she’ll remember everything tomorrow?” Xander asked hopefully.
“But she will remember, right? I mean, she has to, right?” Dawn flung her arms around Spike’s waist and buried her face in his shirt, trying to hide the tears that were already falling. “She has to.”
Spike stared at the sleeping figure in front of him. “I don’t know, nib, but we’ll try, yeah? Try and help big sis out?”
“We need to get her home, and get her cleaned up, and oh, research, we need to research on where she was and what happened, and food, I think she needs food, and-“ Willow’s ramblings were cut off by the gentle squeeze from Tara’s hand.
“I-I think that s-someone should try and get her to f-follow us home,” Tara said. “And I-I think that it should be S-Spike because she r-recognized him first.”
“I think that you may be right,” Giles told her and the blonde girl released a breath that she didn’t know she was holding. “Spike, would you please try and get Buffy to follow you home?”
“Me? You want me to get the Slayer home?” Spike turned to the man with a questioning look on his face.
“Yes, you,” Giles said impatiently. “Tara is right, she recognized you first.”
Spike took a quick glance around the group before nodding his affirmation. He walked over to where Buffy was lying on the ground, trying not to be too quiet.
“Buffy, luv, time to go home. Need to get you all cleaned up and proper like, yeah?” Spike rambled off a few more nonsensical lines hoping that Buffy wouldn’t wake up and attack him.
“Spike?” Dawn’s voice called out.
“Just a minute, bit,” he called back.
“Um, SPIKE!”
Spike turned around to see a large demon heading straight for the group. There was a growl behind him and a muddy blur as Buffy streaked by him.
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