After Life

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.

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"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.

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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.

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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. (UPDATE: As I was watching the Xander/Spike scene again, it occurred to me--there's a third reason that the chip didn't fire, and that's that it =did= fire. But he was just already in so much pain he never noticed. <whiiiiiiimper>)

"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?"

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 kinf 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.

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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..."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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.

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