Big Sister: Homecoming Part One
by MissEdith
Chapter Nine: Homecoming

Giles had not woken to the sound of someone moving about in his home for a long time. After the initial confusion and then brief stab of fear, he remembered the events of the previous night – well, morning really. He dressed quickly and went down to the kitchen to see the Slayer’s small figure kneeling in front of an open cabinet door. He coughed slightly, alerting her to his presence. She whipped her head around, a tension in her shoulders that Giles had not expected to see. She relaxed slightly when she saw him, and rose to her feet, a box of crackers in one hand.

“Good morning, Buffy,” Giles said gently.

“Morning,” she replied dully.

Giles knew his Slayer was not a morning person. “You’re up early.”

“Couldn’t sleep,” was all she said.

Giles frowned slightly at her admission, but did not question her about it. “Are you hungry? I have better breakfast foods than that, you know.” He gestured at the box in her left hand.

She considered it for a moment before speaking. “I don’t know,” she said thoughtfully without looking up at him.

His frown deepened at her perplexed expression.

“I mean, yes,” she continued, “I am hungry. But shouldn’t I be hungrier? I haven’t eaten in eight months,” she muttered.

“Well, the doctors have been keeping you fed,” he reminded her gently. “I daresay you wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t.”

“It’s just so weird,” she said with frustration. She placed the box of crackers on the counter and turned her gaze on him. “It’s not everyday you wake up and find out that yesterday was eight months ago.” She hopped up onto the counter, her melancholy mood giving way to a semblance of cheer that Giles hoped was at least somewhat real. “What’s this about better breakfast foods?”

Giles gave her a slight smile. “Why don’t we put away the Wheetabix, and I’ll fix some sausages?”

Forty minutes later, Giles found himself standing behind a fidgety but well-fed Slayer.

“Are you sure she’s here?” Buffy asked once again.

“Yes, Buffy,” he replied tiredly. “She is home, but she is not going to open the door unless you knock.”

Sighing, Buffy raised her fist and gently rapped her knuckles against the smooth wood. Not ten seconds later, the door swung open and Buffy was engulfed in her mother’s arms. It did not take long for her to return the older woman’s enthusiastic embrace.

“Oh my baby, my baby,” Joyce whispered over and over into her daughter’s hair.

“It’s okay, Mom,” Buffy replied. “I’m here, I’m here . . . ”
~~~
“I was so scared,” Joyce repeated for what felt like the millionth time that day, running her hand through her daughter’s soft blond hair. It had been so long since she enjoyed such a simple pleasure. Joyce had tried to visit her daughter in the hospital, but the sight had been too much for her. The idea that Buffy could be right in front of her yet so far out of reach had been overwhelming. But none of that mattered now.

Mother and daughter were seated on the couch. Giles had left several minutes ago, though neither woman had noticed. Joyce was too busy relishing the sight of her only child alive and well, and Buffy was too busy trying to comfort her mother.

“I’m here now, Mom,” Buffy consoled her. Truly, she was feeling bewildered by the whole turn of events. Here sat her mother, sobbing as she spoke of her eight-month-long agony. Yet to the Slayer’s mind, it had been a matter of days since they last spoke. “You don’t have to be scared anymore.”

Joyce smiled through her tears. She opened her mouth, unsure what she was going to say. The phone ringing interrupted her before she could conjure the words though. Buffy quickly answered the phone, deciding that her mother was in no state to be dealing with such trivial matters.

“Hello?” she spoke into the receiver.

“Buffy?” the person on the other end of the line gasped into the phone.

Buffy instantly recognized the voice. Willow.

“Oh my god, Buffy, it’s so good to hear you!” Willow squealed. “I went over to Giles’s before classes ‘cause he’s become kind of a hermit since you’ve, well, you know, but Xander and I’ve done our best to make him feel loved. Anyway, he was acting all weird and I at first thought it was something of the apocalyptic variety, but he didn’t seem too worried and kept smiling into space, so then I started to worry that he’d gotten a girlfriend or a mid-life crisis car or something like that, you know, until finally he said you were awake and . . . oh it’s so good to hear you, Buffy!”

The Slayer couldn’t help smiling as the typical Willow babble gave way to a breathless pause, giving her a chance to speak.

“It’s good to hear you too, Will. Giles filled me in on some of the local news last night, but I definitely wanna hear your scoop – and Xander’s too.”

Willow said that she had to hurry or she would be late for her psychology class. Buffy understood since this was Willow, after all, and it was comforting to know some things would never change. When Willow added something about the substitute who had taken over after the previous professor had “pulled a Dr. Frankenstein,” Buffy thought it best to let her friend go and obtain an explanation later. They quickly set a date for mochas at the Espresso Pump after Willow’s last afternoon class.

“Mom?” Buffy said as she returned to the couch. “Did you hear that? I’m going out with Willow later.” Joyce just nodded, not meeting her daughter’s eyes. “Mom?” Buffy said, concerned. “Is something wrong? Did you want to do something later?”

Joyce looked up at her daughter. “No, it’s not that. It’s just . . . Mr. Giles. You went to him . . . Didn’t you want to come home?”

Buffy stared at her mother for a few long seconds, unsure how to proceed. “I . . . I did want to come home, very much, but . . . ”

“But what?” Joyce said, tears gathering in her already puffy eyes.

“But I was scared,” Buffy choked out through her own tears.

“Of what?” Joyce anxiously scooted closer to the younger woman, wanting desperately to hold her.

“Of . . . of what I might find. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing or where I was going, but deep down I was afraid . . . afraid that you wouldn’t be here.” Buffy stood up and began to pace back and forth, wringing her hands nervously. “I felt like the person in that old story. The one where the guy goes off into the woods or whatever and comes back years later to find that everyone he knew and loved was dead and gone.”

“Oh Buffy.”

“And I knew that I just couldn’t take it . . . Giles would be bad enough, but if you . . . if you were . . . I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

In that second, Joyce practically shot out of her seat and hurried to embrace her sobbing daughter. Wrapped in each others’ arms, they sank to the floor in an ungainly heap. Neither knew how long they sat like that, but when they finally pulled apart they were both much happier – and much wetter.

TBC
AN: Sorry about the wait, and then the shortness. Originally, this was just going to be part of a chapter, but the second part is taking too long. And I just wanted to remind you all that I'm still here, and I'm still updating! I've just been very very very busy.

It's also occurred to me that not a lot has happened in the last few chapters. Rest assured that, well, stuff is going to happen. In the next chapter.

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