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| Longer, Then Forever - Chapter 8 by Demonica Mills (20 Reviews) | | abc + + + |  | | | A/N: Okay, the title of this fic is Longer, Then Forever and while I appreciate how some of you have tried to nicely tell me that I mean than (and I don’t appreciate those of you that got snarky with me), I promise that I do know the difference between then and than. Huked on fonix worked fer me! (No offense to those who are, um, whatever the politically correct term for people who have difficulty with spelling and grammar). Anyway, I have had a bad few days and the upcoming ones aren’t looking very promising, so even though this is one of the more boring chapters of the fic (boring, but needs to be out there), please leave a few kind words to brighten my day. Wow, this is the longest author’s note I’ve ever left…
Chapter 8
She was standing in a graveyard facing a mirror image of herself.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“I’m you…or you’re me, I’m not so sure how this whole thing works,” the other Buffy replied.
“And I can understand what you’re saying.”
“Well, duh. Hello dream world here,” the other her smirked.
“Oookay, well then, oh great dream weaver, why am I here?”
The other Buffy shrugged. “Why not? You have somewhere more important to be? ‘Sides the great Powers That Be have decided to do a little explaining…” she frowned for a moment. “Not that you’ll really remember any of this when you wake up.”
“So what’s the point?”
“Look, I wish I could just be all explaining girl and then you’d wake up and everything would be all hunky dory, but the Powers don’t work that way…even when it’s their screw up that you’re living. So, I’m gonna tell you what happened and then you’ll wake up and remember nothing…although I think you’ll get little memory zaps from time to time.”
“Little what zaps?” That didn’t sound like fun.
“You know, little memories that just pop up in your head or things that you suddenly remember how to do…like using a toilet cause peeing on the rug is so not cool.” The other Buffy clapped her hands together. “Okay, so let’s recap. You jumped into swirling votexy thingy expecting to die, but you didn’t die. So, why didn’t you die is the question you are asking yourself. Well, it seems that your services are still required on this realm and, well, not so useful if you’re dead. So, you were supposed to be sent to a different dimension for a short period of time until you were needed, but somebody in the higher realm messed up.
“ Seems there was this HUGE screw up where some future higher being got sent into some Hell dimension and all the Powers were working on getting her back and…well, forgot to pay attention to what you were doing. At the last possible second, like the second you jumped, they noticed their mistake and tossed you into the first dimension they could find, hence the whole ‘beginning of rainbowland’ scenario thing.”
“So you’re saying that I spend how many years in Hell because of a mistake?!”
“147 years. You were there for 147 years…hence the cave-like Buffy thing going on here, and hey, for 167 you sure look good.”
“Okay, so what’s the plan then? ‘Cause I’m assuming there’s a purpose or a prophecy to all this?” She crossed her arms.
“Isn’t there always?” The other her grinned. “Of course, I can’t tell you what it is. You have to figure it out yourself.”
“Great!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. “Even dream me talks in riddles. Why am I in this stupid dream anyway?”
“To remember one thing,” the other her said, moving closer to whisper in her ear. “Telemalta.”
XXX
She woke up slowly, unsure of her surroundings. There was a set of muscular arms wrapped securely around her, an unmoving chest pillowed her head, and her legs were entwined with another set. This wasn’t her cave. She was warm, covered in soft cloth, and she wasn’t afraid. Normally she awoke in terror from her dreams, but not today. She felt…safe, secure even.
A hand came up to stroke her hair, and she nuzzled her face against her pillow. She never wanted to leave this place.
“You awake then, luv?” Spike smiled down at her.
“Spike?” she sat up with a frown on her face.
“Yeah,” he answered. Did she regret waking up with him?
“T-telemalta,” she said.
“Telemalta?”
Buffy nodded, excitedly.
“I don’t understand, luv.”
Buffy sighed at his look of confusion. She lay back down on the bed and closed her eyes. Then she pointed at her head. “Telemalta,” she repeated.
“Is-is that where you were?”
“Telemalta,” Buffy said again.
“Yes, yes I get it. Bloody telemalta, but I don’t know what you mean?” Spike ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.
A knock at the door interrupted them. “Buffy, you awake? I brought-OH!” Dawn’s face turned bright red at the sight of the naked Slayer and vampire in bed.
“’T’s all right, bit. Completely innocent here,” Spike tried to assure her. He slid out of the bed, wrapping a sheet around his hips, and collected his clothes. “I’ll just, uh, get out of yer, er, hair.”
“Uh-huh, sooooo if you catch me naked in bed with a boy will you believe me if I tell you it’s ‘completely innocent’?”
“You better bloody well believe I will not. Twist the boy’s head off and drink from his-“
“Spinal cord, yeah I’ve heard it.”
“Well, I will,” Spike muttered and left the room.
“Buffy, Buffy, Buffy,” Dawn said sitting next to her sister on the bed.
“Telemalta,” Buffy replied.
“Um, sure. So anyway, I brought you some books to look at. See, Everybody Poops. I used to love this book,” Dawn frowned a moment. “Well, I remember loving it. Anyways, so Tara has, like, this whole schedule worked out for you. She’s going to teach you grooming stuff and Willow’s gonna teach you school stuff and Giles will do fighting,” she was clicking the items off on her fingers as she spoke. “Oh, and I get to do photo albumy stuff. You know, talk about Mom and Dad and stuff.”
Buffy had started flipping through the book, staring at the pictures. Her eyebrows were scrunched together as she turned the book on its side, then upside down, the right side up.
“Um, so yeah. I’ll let you get to it. Uh, Tara should be here in a minute,” Dawn muttered quickly as she stood to leave. This wasn’t how she pictured any of this. She thought that when Buffy came back she’d be, well, Buffy. This was like a cave person. Dawn cringed as a small thought flitted through her head that maybe it had been better with Buffy not here. Okay, so maybe that was really just a jealousy thing cause of the whole finding Spike and Buffy in bed together…naked. Spike was hers. Okay, maybe not hers in the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing, but she had been friends with Spike waaaaay before her sister even thought about him. Dawn stopped abruptly in the hallway. What was she doing? She’d spent all summer crying about the disappearance of her sister and now that her sister was back, she was complaining about it. Okay, bad Dawn. Must try to be more understanding. Yeah, understanding. That should do it.
XXX
Tara arrived a few minutes after Dawn and began patiently taking Buffy through her daily routine. Luckily, the girl seemed eager to learn and loved to be patted on the back when she did something right. That was something that Tara was noticing more and more of, Buffy’s need for personal contact. She was always trying to touch things, feel them, as though her fingers remembered more then her memory. Tara wondered how long the girl had been without the simple comfort of another’s touch.
The two girls made it downstairs just as Xander and Anya came stumbling through the front door.
“I don’t understand why we are here so early,” Anya said, closing the door behind her. “Buffy’s back so research can definitely have a later starting time.”
“We’re here because we have to figure out how to get the old Buffy back,” Xander said. “You know the not so cave-like Buffy.”
Willow came out from the kitchen at the sound of the voices. “Oh good, I was just getting some material together for Buffy to work on as soon as she eats. I thought starting off with some Dr. Seuss stuff or something…You don’t think that’s to babyish, do you?” she asked her girlfriend worriedly.
“No, she picks up pretty fast as long as you go slow,” Tara said. “Oh, and she likes it if you kinda touch her a lot, you know? I-I don’t think she’s had too much of that in a long time.”
“Oh, okay. Lots of touching, got it…like hugs and stuff? Cause, you know, not wanting to get all tossed over her shoulder or anything,” Willow said.
Tara walked up behind Buffy and began slowly stroking her hair, “Buffy, you did such a great job this morning. I’m very proud of you.”
The group watched in awe as Buffy closed her eyes and leaned back into Tara’s touch.
“Do you want to tell everyone what you did today?” Tara asked. “First we, what, your teeth?”
“Buffy brush teeth with paste.”
“Yes, we brushed your teeth with toothpaste. Then what did we do?”
“Buffy brush hair…Not Buffy. Me…I? I brush hair?” Buffy looked over her shoulder at Tara in confusion.
“That’s right,” Tara smiled at the girl and patted her on the arm. “Then what?”
“I…get clothes? Now get…fooding eat?”
“I think she means food to eat,” Anya said helpfully. “Foood toooo eeeeeeat,” she said, bending over to look Buffy in the eye. She said each word slowly, pursing her lips together and smiling brightly. Buffy just stared at her as Anya then patted the blonde on the head before turning back to Xander. “See I was helpful. Now, I’m going to go open the store. Bye.” She paused to kiss Xander on the lips before leaving the house, letting the door bang shut behind her.
“You know, I think she’s really growing as a person,” Dawn said dryly as she cut up the pancakes on her plate.
Buffy tried to emulate how the others were eating their pancakes, and managing to be slightly successful until one of the pancakes fell apart on her fork and dropped into her lap. She tried to pick the pancake off her lap with her fork and succeeded in smearing it into her clothes.
“Buffy, pick it up with your fingers,” Dawn instructed.
“Dawnie, you have to show her,” Tara said.
Buffy let out a little whimper and held out the syrup smeared clothes to Tara. “Messy, bessy, Buffy girl,” she said.
“Ookay, what does that mean?” Xander asked.
“It’s something Mom used to say to use when we were little,” Dawn said. “Messy, bessy, Buffy girl and Dirty, girlie Dawn.”
“She must have remembered it,” Willow said. “It’s okay Buffy. We’ll get you clean clothes.”
Buffy looked around the kitchen and sighed, before pushing back from the table. She stood in the middle of the kitchen with her eyes closed for a moment before pulling open the basement door and heading downstairs.
“Now what’s she doing?” Xander asked, exasperated.
“Spike?” Buffy asked softly.
He was curled up on a cot in the corner of the basement, his back toward the stairs. It had been too nosy for him to sleep in the living room. When he heard her voice, Spike rolled over. “’S’matter luv?”
She didn’t say anything, just stood at the edge of the cot until he moved over to make room for her. Buffy made a murmuring noise in the back of her throat as she curled up next to him. She lay facing him, eyes open, just staring as he wrapped his arm around her waist. Touching her. She still couldn’t get over the miracle of people touching her, and Spike, his touch was the best of all. It sent electric tingles all over her body. It made her want to…well, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, just that she wanted him to never stop touching her.
“You still tired?” he asked.
Buffy reached out and traced her fingers over his face. She wondered if her touch did the same things to him, and smiled when he shut his eyes and released a small sigh. As he leaned into her touch, Buffy let out a small giggle.
Spike opened his eyes and cocked his eyebrow at her. “Something funny, Slayer?”
“Sshhh, dancing,” Buffy answered.
“Buffy! Buffy, what are you doing down there?” Willow called from the top of the stairs. “Giles is here and he wants to talk to you…Spike, can you bring her up?”
“Yeah, Red.” He called back. “Seems like we’re always getting interrupted, huh?” he said to Buffy.
Buffy let out a sigh, but let Spike guide her back up the stairs where they caught the tail end of an argument.
“…with evil dead in the basement?” Xander said.
“Xander, how could you? Spike was instrumental when Buffy was gone. Between the patrolling and-and the researching and the-the paying of the bills. Did you even know we had bills? I didn’t. I mean, I figured that we would but I never saw them. I was all in the ‘we need to research and save Buffy’ mode. We could have lost her house! We-we could have lost Dawn!” Willow’s face was as red as her hair.
“Hey! I’m not a kid here. It’s not like I would have wander off, you know,” Dawn said, hotly.
“Um, I think she means lost in more of a ‘the government comes and takes you away’ thing, sweetie,” Tara said.
“Oh, I knew that.”
“Stop! Stop right the instant every one of you,” Giles said, ripping his glasses off his face and pressing his hand over his eyes. “I’ll admit that I wasn’t Spike’s biggest fan in the beginning of this, but I think that he has earned a right to be here. He has proven his reliability and his loyalty. Now can we stop this nonsense? We have so much to cover here.”
“Fine…fine, but I don’t want to have to say ‘I told you so’ later, okay?” Xander said plopping himself in a chair and heaving a sigh.
“And we don’t want to hear you say ‘I told you so’ either,” Giles muttered. “Now where are-Spike, Buffy so good to see you today.” A large smile spread on his face at the sight of the vampire and Slayer walking through the basement door. He had no doubt they heard ever word of what had just happened.
“Slayer keeps repeating a word. Seems like it came to her in a dream or something. Least that’s how it appears to me. Think we should look into it,” Spike mumbled.
“O-Of course. Buffy, would you like to tell us about your dream?” Giles asked, clasping his hands together and leaning forward as though he were talking to a little kid.
“She’s not a little kid,” Spike said sternly. “Don’t talk to her like that.”
“Oh, er, right, um-“
“Telemalta,” Buffy said, effectively cutting Giles off.
“Is-is that it? One word?” Willow asked.
Buffy nodded. “Telemalta,” she repeated.
“Oh, okay. Well,” Willow trailed off.
“Why don’t we get started researching, and you can start working with Buffy on her reading and such,” Tara suggested.
“Not me, I have plans with Janice,” Dawn muttered and was out the door before anyone could reply.
“Okay, is it me or has she been acting weird lately?” Xander asked raising his hand in the air.
“ ‘ll talk to her later, let’s research,” Spike said, grabbing the nearest book.
Willow slid the book in her hands over to where Buffy could see, and used her best little kid voice. “Here, Buffy. We are going to read, um, ‘The Flower Fairies Alphabet.’ You’ll love it, all the letters that form the words that we speak. Just twenty-six letters, that’s all you need. Isn’t that amazing?”
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