Episode 3: After Life

Written by Jane Espenson

Summary by Dori on 10-8-01

Action continuous from previous episode...

The Scoobies are headed toward the Summers house, where Willow figures
Buffy has gone. Xander says he knows a shortcut, and that he's alert to
danger. At which point three demon bikers nearly knock him over on their
way out of town. With Razor dead, they're all running away.

Willow is worried about Buffy. Anya thinks she's "broken."

Dawn has brought Buffy home. Buffy is in a daze, wandering around the
house, noting what's different. Dawn gets her cleaned up and changed,
talking to her as she would to a small child. She notices Buffy's injured
hands, but before she can take care of them, Buffy wanders away again, into
Joyce's room. Dawn asks her to stop, just wait, and they can talk (MT had
to stoop down in order to look in SMG's eyes, here. <G>) Buffy wants to
know what else is different, and Dawn tells her that Giles has gone.

Buffy hears the door slam; it's Spike, looking for Dawn. He's upset, but
trying not to show it too much. Dawn calls out to him, and goes down the
stairs. When he sees her, he's relieved. "Thank God," he says, and seems
sincere. She scared him to death. Or, more to death. He could rip her
head off one-handed and drink from her brainstem...

"Look," she says, ignoring his rant. And Buffy comes down the stairs.
"I've seen the Bot before," Spike says, and starts to wonder how Willow got
her fixed so fast. And then he realizes. He stares, dumbstruck and almost
not believing. "What did you do?" he asks Dawn, and she tells him she
didn't do anything. He notices Buffy's hands. She hides them behind her
back. Dawn says she doesn't know what happened to them.

"I do," Spike says. "She clawed her way out of her coffin." And he looks
to Buffy for confirmation.

"That's what I...had to do," she says. He looks at her, understanding, and
for a moment he's smiling. But then he shakes it off; he's got important
stuff to do.

"We'll take care of you," Spike says, and brings her into the living room.
He sends Dawn for antiseptic and bandages, and tenderly takes hold of
Buffy's hands, looks at them.

"How long was I gone?" she asks.

Without hesitating to calculate, he says, "A hundred and forty-seven days
yesterday. 148 today, except today doesn't count." He gives her a
hesitant smile, which she doesn't return. Okay, change the subject. "How
long was it for you, where you were?"

"Longer," she says, in a terrible, soft voice.

Dawn comes back with the bandages, and a second later, the gang bursts in
the door, clamoring for Buffy. Spike, looking resigned, slips out of
thehouse while they're all battering Buffy with their concern, all talking
at once.

Dawn tells them to back off. She asks Willow what she did, and Willow
tells her it was a spell. Dawn is spooked. "Is she all right?" she asks.
Anya wants to know what it was like where Buffy was. Buffy can't talk
about it. Xander wants to get her something. Pizza! Everybody likes that
idea, and they start clamoring again. Dawn tells them again to back off.
Willow says yes, they need to be quiet and let Buffy tell them what she
needs. Buffy says she needs to sleep. "Yeah," Anya says, "Jet lag from
hell is...jet lag from hell." Buffy goes upstairs.

Willow, trying to be reassuring, tells everyone that Buffy is fine, just
fine. "She used to go to bed all the time!" she says.

Xander and Anya leave. Anya thinks something went wrong and that Buffy
isn't "right." They find Spike leaning against his tree, his back to them.
His eyes are closed, and he looks haggard, He's holding very still, as
though he's afraid to move. When he hears them, though, he wipes away
tears so they won't see he's been weeping.

Xander says, "I hope you're not going to start your little obsession now
that she's around again."

Spike grabs him and slams him against the tree. The chip doesn't zap him;
either it's stopped working, or he didn't intend to hurt Xander.
"You didn't tell me," he says, his voice ragged. "You brought her back an
-you didn't tell me-."

"Well, now you know," Xander says, snidely.

Spike looks at him. The hurt is rolling off him in waves. "I worked
beside you -all summer-."

Xander seems to get how much this means to Spike. "We didn't tell you," he
says, sincerely trying to explain now. "It was just... We didn't, okay?"

Spike lets him go, roughly. "Listen," he says, "I figured it out." He's
very upset, here. "Maybe you haven't, but I hve. Willow =knew= there was
a chance that she'd come back...wrong. So wrong that you'd..." He breaks
off, his voice cracking. "So wrong that she'd have to get rid of what came
back. And I wouldn't let her." He gestures toward the house. "Any part
of that was Buffy, and I wouldn't let her. =That's= why she shut me out."
Xander is apalled. "What are you talking about? Willow wouldn't do that!"
Spike steps back. "Ohhhhh, wouldn't she?" he asks. How blind is this kid?
"Look," Xander says, taking the offensive so he doesn't have to think about
this, "you're just covering. Look me in the eye and tell me that when you
saw Buffy it wasn't the happiest moment of your entire existence."

Spike looks at him for a long moment, but doesn't say anything. He turns,
heads for his new bike. "That's the thing about magic," he says, not
looking at Xander. "There's always consequences. ALWAYS." He roars off
on the bike.

Willow and Tara are getting ready for bed. Willow has called Giles, and
he'll be coming back as soon as he can. Tara asks how he took it. Willow
says there were lots of "Dear Lord!'s" and that she could hear him cleaning
his glasses. Tara wants to know if Willow is worried. She says she's not,
in that way that clearly says she is. Tara tells her that they're alone,
that Willow can be worried, that she loves Willow. Willow grudgingly
admits that she's not unworried. She mentions Angel, how when he came
back, Buffy said he was wild. Tara tries to comfort her. Willow worries
that Buffy isn't happy to be back, and Tara guesses that Willow is bothered
that Buffy hasn't thanked them for bringing her back.

Buffy is sitting alone in her room, in the dark, staring at nothing. She
notices a photo on the bedside table, and gets up to look at all the photos
on the mirror. As she watches, all the faces turn into skulls with gaping
mouths and empty eye sockets. She blinks, and the photos are back to
normal.

Willow and Tara, sleeping curled around each other, are wakened by
something crashing through the window. Buffy is standing at the foot of
the bed, and she starts ranting at them, calling them bitches. She says to
Willow, "Did you slit its throat? Did you pat its head? I know what you
did!" and hurls Tara's crystal ball; it smashes on the headboard. Willow
gets up and turns on the light; Buffy is gone, and there's no broken glass
in the bed. They find Buffy sleeping in her bed.

Willow and Tara go back into their room. Tara says maybe they were
dreaming, but Willow says no, different brains. Tara asks if WIllow
understood what Buffy was talking about, and Willow says that she
understood the words, but the sense... Implying that she didn't. Tara
sees something; there's a lump moving across the ceiling. Willow calls
Xander.

Anya can't sleep and is trying to wake Xander when the phone rings. When
she realizes it's Willow, she gets out of bed. Willow explains what's
happened to Xander. He tells her to get everyone out, just as Any comes
back into the room--carrying a knife. Her eyes are all filmed over with
grey, and she uses the knife to cut her cheek. Then she falls down,
unconscious, and a lump moves across the floor.

The next day, Xander, Anya, Tara and Willow are sitting in the Summers'
back yard, trying to figure things out. Anya thinks it was a hitchhiker, a
demon that latches onto souls traveling through the whatever. Xander wants
to know if they can kill it.

Buffy comes up. "What are we killing?" she says.

"A demon you brought back from Hell," Anya says. Willow tells Buffy not to
worry, it's nothing serious, just scary. Buffy remembers about the photos
in her room, and says she thought it was just her, going crazy.

"Maybe you are," Anya says, and then takes it back when everyone gives her
the LOOK.

Willow says that they're all glad she's back. Tara says it's wonderful.
Buffy's only reply is that they need to get to work on it.

In the Magic Box, they're all in research mode. They haven't come up with
much. Buffy, who misses Giles, seems distant and not-quite-there. She
says she needs to go and patrol. The gang offers to go with her, but she
wants to go alone. As she leaves, Dawn says, a little desperately, that
she'll be safe with the gang, and that Buffy should go. Buffy doesn't seem
to hear her as she leaves. As the door closes behind her, Dawn's eyes go
cloudy.

Some time later, Buffy is walking in the cemetery as Anya brings back
coffee to the gang. She's brought hot chocolate for Dawn, who's too young
for coffee. Dawn, off by the bookshelves, starts to rant at them, then
spits fire at them, setting the books on fire. Xander scrambles to put out
the flames as Dawn collapses and the bump moves over the floor. Everybody
wants to know where it went. Anya says, "Evil things have plans. They
have things to do."

Cut to Spike, in his crypt. He's pacing, agitated, obviously not knowing
what to do next. He punches the wall, cutting his hand. He stands there,
and begins to laugh at himself, but it's the kind of laugh that's really
sobbing wearing a mask. He hears the door slam, picks up a wicked-looking
kukri knife, and goes upstairs.

He finds Buffy.

"You should be careful," he says. "You never know what kind of villain's
got a knife at your back." He moves the knife, so she'll see.

"Your hand is hurt," she says.

"Hm. Same to you," he replies. Trying for normal...

"Right," she says.

He walks over to the table and puts down the knife. "Willow's getting
pretty strong, in't she?" he says. "Bringing you back." He gives a weak
smile. "Hard toget a good night's death around here." But the joke falls
flat; Buffy just stares at him. Right; time to change the subject again.
"You can sit down." She does. He keeps going, uncomfortable with her
silence. "I got furniture. You should see the downstairs, too, it's quite
posh..." Still, she says nothing. She's sitting there, staring at nothing.

He goes around to lean on the table in front of her. Her silence is
unnerving, now, and he sighs. "I do remember what I said," he tells her.
He gives quick glances at her, but can't really look at her. "The promise.
To protect her." His voice shakes a tiny bit. "If I'd done that, even if
i didn't make it, you wouldn't have had to jump." She doesn't reply. He
bows his head, still hurting over his failure. Then he looks up. "But I
want you to know that I did save you." He looks down again. "Not when it
counted, of course, but after that. Every night, after that. I'd see it
all again. I'd do something different, faster, more clever, you know."
This is tearing him up, but it's almost a relief to have it said, finally.
"Dozens of times, lots of different ways..." He looks up at her. She has
to understand this... "Every night I save you..."

Back to the Magic Box. Xander asks Tara if she knew there'd be
consequences. If...somebody knew. Tara leaps to Willow's defense. Xander
backs off.

Willow, excited, thinks she's figured it out. The demon didn't hitch a
ride, they made it with their spell. But it's out of phase with their
dimension, which is why they can't see it. Unfortunately, the demon's
existence is tied to the resurrection spell, and if they get rid of the
demon, it'll negate the spell, making it as though the spell didn't happen.
Which means Buffy wouldn't be back.

Dawn freaks at this, and tells Willow, "You can't bring her back to me and
then take her away again! That's wors than if she never came back. You
can't mess with people's lives this way!"

Tara calms her down, saying that they'll find another way. Willow, still
looking in her books, tells them that there's good news; the demon is
temporary, and will disperse eventually. The only way it can live in their
dimension is if it kills Buffy.

Xander, his eyes cloudy, thanks them for the tip, and then collapses.
Buffy comes home and heads upstairs. She doesn't see the misty demon right
behind her...

The demon comes into her room, tells her she doesn't belong there, and
attacks her. Buffy tries to fight it, but it's insubstantial; she can't
touch it. It can touch her, though; it flings her about the room, then
grabs her.

In the car, Xander, Anya and Dawn are on the way to the Summers house.
Dawn is worried that the spell Willow and Tara are doing will send Buffy
away, but Xander explains that it's supposed to turn the demon tangible so
Buffy can kick its ass.

Willow and Tara are doing the spell; Buffy continues to try to fight the
demon. Xander, Anya and Dawn arrive. Willow is seized by some pink glowy
power, opens night-black eyes, commands, "SOLID!" And Buffy is able to
whack off the demon's head with the ax she keeps under the bed.

The next day, Dawn is on her way to school. Buffy comes out, calls her
back, hands her a bag lunch. Buffy looks normal, her hair done, makeup on,
but there's still something a little far away in her eyes. Dawn asks if
Buffy is all right, and she says she's going to start charging money every
time someone asks that. She assures Dawn she's fine. Dawn says the gang
is just worried, but that now that they can see Buffy being happy, things
will be better. Buffy doesn't reply to that.

Later, the gang is at the Magic Box. Buffy comes in, tells them that
there's something she needs to tell them. She was in a place... She was
in Hell. And they brought her back. She thanks them for what they did.
But it's hard for her to look at them when she does. Xander and Willow hug
her. They're happy, but Buffy just stares at nothing over their shoulders.

Afterward, Buffy goes out into the alley behind the store. Spike is there,
and she notes that it's broad daylight. He says that the sun's low enough,
and it's shady enough right there that he's safe. He says he was going to
go inside, but he heard the gang being all mushy and came all over queasy.
And isn't she leaving a hole in some soggy group hug?

She replies that she just wanted to be alone. Oh, right. He gets up to
leave, but... the sun. The shadows have shifted and he can't leave.
"That's all right," she says. "I can be alone with you here."

"Thanks ever so," he says, but doesn't seem too stung, really.
He turns back to her. "Buff. =Slayer=." He comes toward her, plainly
worried. "You okay?"

"I'm here," she says, not looking at him. "I'm good."

Now he's even more worried. He comes toward her. "If you're in..." He
breaks off, almost unable to say it, but he goes on. "If you're in pain,
or if you need anything, or if I can do anything for you..."

"You can't," she says, flatly. Still not looking at him; staring at the
ground, or the distance, or somewhere...else.

"Well," he says, trying for light and not quite getting there, "I haven't
been to a hell-dimension of late, but I do know a thing or two about
torment." He comes and sits beside her, waiting.

"I was happy," she says, still staring into that other place. She goes on,
telling him that she knew the people she cared about were all right, that
she was warm and loved and happy. And finished. Complete. "I don't know
much about theology, or dimensions," she says quietly. "But I think I was
in heaven." Spike stares at her, horrified now. She tells him how bright,
and hard, and violent it is in comparison. "This is hell," she says. She
stands up and walks into the sunlight, where he can't follow. "They can
never know," she tells him as she walks away. "=Never.="

Roll credits.

Original synopsis posted 9-6-01 by Wendy; note the incredible accuracy :)

After fighting the demon bikers, the gang head home. Dawn brings Buffy home and washes her up. Spike comes back, frantic because he hasn't been able to find Dawn. He sees Buffy. When the Scoobies arrive, he leaves and sits against a tree crying. When Xander and Anya leave, they hear him and confront him. Spike gets angry at them for not telling him. He storms off, telling them that magic always has consequences.

A demon presence haunts the Scoobies. It seems to possess them, almost, turning their eyes white. Willow and Xander discuss what to do. They research the presence. It possesses Dawn, who spits fire. Buffy returns to her slaying duties. While on patrol, she goes to see Spike. They talk together, awkwardly. She returns home to face the demon. She fights the demon as Xander, Anya, and Dawn arrive. Willow and Tara work on a spell to fight the demon.

The next day, Buffy sees Dawn off to school, but they fight. Buffy thanks the others for bringing her back, but has a conversation with Spike outside the Magic Box about when she was dead.