Distribution: A Witch's Love and Garden of the Jai. All others,please ask. I share.
Disclaimer: None of it belongs to me. Its all Joss's...except the plot. 'Yesterday' belongs to....the Beetles? Did they do it first? I dont remember...
Summary: Its sad...I dont know how else to describe it...
Feedback: Is great...but its not necessary for this one...
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{{Yesterday...
All my troubles seemed so far away
Now it seems as though they're here to stay
Oh I believe in yesterday}}
On a clear night, with the light of a crescent moon shining down, the funeral none of us ever wanted to attend was held. I watched as they filed slowly across the cemetery, peering from the shadows as the man she had considered a father stood quietly at the head of the casket. Even with the scent of upturned earth filling the air, I could still smell the hot saltiness of their tears.
I don’t blame them.
She was one of the few true souls of light this world has ever known. Her innocence was something no one had ever been able to take from her. She fought side by side with the Slayer, risking her own life time and again to save a world that had ignored her for most of her life. After all that time, we truly began to think of her as invulnerable.
How wrong could we be?
{{Suddenly, I'm not half the man I use to be
There's a shadow hanging over me
Oh yesterday came suddenly
Why she had to go, I don't know
She wouldn't say, she wouldn't say
I said something wrong now I long for yesterday}}
Buffy is speaking now, shedding tears for the woman she had never really taken the time to thank enough while she was alive. But she –is- hurting, as much as someone as shallow and self-involved as her –can- hurt. She’s clutching her boyfriend’s hand and crying over the witch who saved her life more than once.
Who saved all our lives.
Who saved –my- very soul.
{{Yesterday...
Love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh I believe in yesterday}}
I nearly lose it when Xander starts to speak. It takes all my control not to end it all right there, send them home to their warm houses to sleep away the misery in their hearts. I want to end his suffering, take him in my arms and console him. As he weeps for the girl who always loved him – always was there for him – I can’t help but feel my own undead heart break. She was beloved by him in the only way he knew how.
As a sister, a friend, a confidant – someone he could turn to in times of pain.
He’s whispering to the sleek black coffin, telling her he loves her and hopes she’s better off wherever she is. If its within my power, I won’t let him hurt for very long. I won’t let him cry these tears for the rest of his life if I can do a damn thing about it.
But is it really my choice to make?
How can I take away the one thing he has left of her?
{{I believe in yesterday
Why she had to go I don't know
She would not say
I said something wrong
Now I long for yesterday}}
The last to speak is Giles. The one who stand where her biological father should have been standing – the man who couldn’t leave his business trip long enough to come bury his only child. In hushed tones Rupert speaks of the light he had hoped to never see extinguished. Of the girl who had held such promise. With a tear in his eye he cries for her, his red haired daughter.
Oh Rupert…if only you knew how better off she is now. Better than all of you. No more pain, no more heartache. She’s truly happy where she is.
I wish the same to all of you.
{{Yesterday...
Love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh I believe in yesterday
I believe in yester...day
Was so far away
Oh yesterday was far away
And I know I can't turn back
'Cause yesterday's gone}}
I hear her crying as they begin to move away from the coffin, only Xander staying to see it lowered into the ground. My eyes meet the cool blue ones of my Childe and I sigh. “Are you ok, little one?”
Willow nods, her hand gesturing to the scene only a few yards away. Blood red tears are spilling over her pale cheeks. She licks her lips before speaking. “I’m fine, Angel. I just didn’t know this would be that hard….”
“Its not too late to tell them, pet,” Spike murmurs, caressing his Childe’s arms. Its only been two days since the accident that ended her ‘life’, only two days since he stole her dying body away from the scene, turning her under the darkness of night. Two long days since he called me to ask for the soul restoration spell.
It had been her choice not to tell her friends. Why worry them any further with the mess her life had become? It was easier this way, she had said. To just let them grieve and move on. None of them would be able to deal with what she had become.
I knew Xander could…and –would-. But tonight wasn’t the night to tell the boy. He could survive another day without knowing that his friend was a member of the living dead. He didn’t even know I was in town. Tomorrow night I would make everything clear to him, though.
“No…” Willow shuddered. “This is the right choice…I think.” She met my eyes and I knew then she knew I would tell Xander. The knowledge seemed to take away some of the guilt she was feeling.
“Ready to go, pet?” The vampire wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissing her forehead.
“Things were so much simpler once…” She smiled – a small sad expression
that was gone as quick as it came and surprised me by grabbing me with
her free hand. “Come on, lets go.”
{{ Now I long for yes…ter…day….}}