by Katharyn » Fri Jun 07, 2013 5:34 am
Title: Tara and Willow – Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda – Chapter Eighty-Eight
Author: Katharyn Rosser
Feedback: Absolutely, yes please. That’s why I write for this place, to engage in the discussion about the story.
Spoiler warning: Not sure why I am bothering, really, but Season 4 and Season 5 of BTVS.
Distribution: This story was written for Pens. Pens is its home. No archiving off Different Coloured Pens and the Kitten Board please. No conversion to eBook or other formats please. Enjoy it here.
Summary: New canon episode that we’re mirroring – ‘No Place Like Home’.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the copyrights or anything else associated with BTVS. All rights lie with the production company, writers etc. I am making no money from this series of stories however all original characters and situations remain my property. As this is a missing scenes and alternate reality fiction lots of scenes are new versions of those seen in the show, as such dialogue and situations are taken from the show. I’m sure you can tell which. All credit for those aspects goes to the original writers.
Rating: Occasional, tasteful, adult situations and contextual bad language. However by and large equivalent to the show.
Couples: Tara and Willow forever, that’s all I’m bothered about.
Text convention: Use of italics denotes either special emphasis if used for a single or a few words in a sentence OR first person thoughts if used for a whole sentence.
Notes: So this part marks one of those momentous occasions. Well, it was important to me. As I write this I’m looking to canon episodes into the future so I can shape what’s coming a few chapters early. We’ve been touching on ‘Family’ since the very beginning in terms of what Tara believes she is, but before I could start on ‘No Place Like Home’ I had to stand back and look at ‘Family’ for the first time. It felt pretty special…
On the other hand, this isn’t ‘Family’, this is actually ‘No Place Like Home…’
Now also, a few years ago I realised the power of music for writing when listening to ‘Under Pressure’ basically revealed the entire Sidestep story to me. Which isn’t to say that story was contained in the lyrics, but it certainly inspired the couple of hours in which I broke the whole of the first chronicle. So, today was the first time I’ve listened to Queen in absolutely ages and I’m seriously contemplating going back to ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ the next time that I have a big fight to write, but this time ‘Under Pressure’ didn’t give me big, massive thoughts, but then I don’t need to ‘break’ the overall story, it’s all there already. So I was just listening, not really ‘using’ the music and then – with the subject matter – along came ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ and it’s pretty much becoming a theme for the darker side of this story that emerges because S5 is darker…
Finally, audience participation time… If you’ve not already said, how’s Hope coming across to you? More to the point how is her relationship with the others? Is it believable that she’s close to the others, even as Faith’s sister? I have this weird idea that some of the other’s feeling guilty about how they have to treat Faith actually compensate by being more accepting of Hope.
Thanks to:
“All I’m saying is that you’re not supposed to tinker with Teeny Tinkerbelle,” Tara said.
And she said ‘tinker’ like Tinkerbelle was being molested or something. What was up with that? Because it was definitely not the case.
They were on their way back from dropping Hope off. Since Buffy was off on patrol, refusing to let Faith cover for her, and Faith had her own plans… and someone needed to stay with Joyce after her fall. Why not kill two birds with one stone?
Hope had already proven that she knew what to do if something went wrong and, this way, Joyce got to feel that she was being useful when – in fact – they’d set her up with the same guardian angel who’d already come through for her. But this time armed with phone numbers.
It looked like the perfect solution. And – celebrating that – they’d been talking with Hope and then about Hope and… now they were talking about this.
“But it gave us more light!” Willow objected. Why were they arguing about this now? It’d been more than a week ago, but just because she’d mentioned Tinkerbelle again – because of a book Hope had been reading – now they were into this?
“You can’t tinker with Tinkerbelle. Because it’s wrong.”
Ah. Now she got it. And grinned appropriately. That was one of Faith’s sayings and once it had been explained to her where it came from – an imitation of Buffy learned when the other Slayer had stolen her body - she’d not found it as funny. But every so often she caught Tara slipping into Faith’s vernacular. The first time, she’d had to reassure herself that there wasn’t some freaky possession going on there too.
And she’d come away from that experience very reassured. There were things no body-snatcher would ever be able to duplicate. Things only Tara knew how to do for her.
To her.
With her.
“Because it’s Tinkerbelle? I really don’t think she minds.”
“Because she’s teeny,” Tara pressed. “And that’s what makes it wrong.”
Too much was going on right now for them to really get into anything, of course. They both had school, they had Hope to worry about – occasionally at least – and Tara had Diana’s wishes to consider as well. Fortunately, this time, it’d involved more of Ethan’s time. The Warlock being on the lookout for this ‘Key’ that Glorificus was so interested in, theorising about where and how it might be hidden.
And thus trying to get a start on how to find it too.
Yeah, that was up there in the list of priorities. Had to be kind of important considering that would be the Key that could destroy the whole world… It struck Willow that asking Ethan to track that down was a bit like asking a cannibal to run a plastic surgery clinic. He might do a good job, but you really didn’t want to know what he was doing for himself.
No one had really gotten what she meant. Even when she explained.
“Okay, okay… so we call it something different?” she suggested. “How about… Big Bertha? Does that make it better?”
“I’m…not sure about that,” Tara said.
“I ain’t hearing no objections,” Willow pointed out. “So Big Bertha it is.”
“You going street on me again, Rosenberg?”
“Well, we’re in the street, walking down the street,” Willow said. “It seemed kind of appropriate.”
Tara giggled again, tickling her palm as she did. “Don’t do that.”
“I just thought it was appropriate,” her girlfriend countered. “I wanted to talk to you anyway.”
“All we do is talk,” Willow said.
Tara looked at her significantly.
“Well, okay, not all we do. We do some other things too – I just meant, we absolutely have time to talk. I mean… Please, tell me, what did you want to talk about, Tara?” They might as well make best use of the time they had in transit, so that when they got home they could make the best use of the time that wasn’t in transit.
Sexy girlfriend appreciation, not looking like it was going to wear off anytime soon.
Good.
“I was… I was really wondering if you were planning to do anything for my birthday?” Tara asked, trying to make it into no big deal.
She didn’t think, from the way it had been phrased, that Tara had rumbled her plans, but now was the time to tread carefully. Perhaps a distraction was in order… but they were in the street, so another kind of distraction. “It’s your birthday? When?” she asked, as if she didn’t know that and hadn’t been thinking about it just as much as she could fit in for weeks now.
But time was starting to press.
“Very convincing,” Tara confirmed. “I totally believed you.”
“Why?” Willow asked, moving to phase two of the distraction. The first had been a jokey response but the second absolutely wasn’t anything approaching a lie. No Ma’am.
“I just think… maybe with everything going on that it’s not really a great time to make much of a fuss about it. I mean, it’s not like I’ve been here that long.”
“Fuss?” Willow asked next. “You think I’m going to make a fuss? What makes you think you’re worth a fuss?” Phase three. Vague denial phrased as a question.
“Because you can’t help yourself,” Tara said.
“Not when it comes to you, I can’t…” she confirmed. Phase four. Still not addressing the actual question that had been put to her. This was going well so far.
“I – I just don’t think that now’s the time, okay? With the Glorificus thing and Joyce not feeling great.”
“Oh… You think it’s a party?” she asked, trying to inject some disappointment into her voice. “Did you want a party? I wish I’d known… Tara, I’m sorry.” Five. She’d asked a question, not actually denied a thing. No lie had passed her lips.
Looking good, Rosenberg. You can do this deception in a good cause thing.
“There’s not a party?”
Phase six… avoid the chance to lie and embrace the chance to deflect. “Would you say that dinner was too much? If I’d picked out a nice place with deserts to die for? Just the two of us?”
Questions, always questions. No statements of fact that she could be caught out on later.
Tara smiled. “No, I don’t – I can’t ask you to ignore it, can I? So I wouldn’t say that dinner was too much. Not if the deserts turn out to be as good as you say.”
People talked about lucky seven, but six had worked out just fine... Success.
“I’m not going to lie,” Willow said, absolutely honestly. A little truth to make it all hang together. “The others know it’s your birthday and… I’m sure there will be cards and some presents and maybe even cake. Cake’s good, right?”
“Are you getting the cake?”
“I… might be.”
“Well, make sure they know that it’s not a big deal. Please, Willow. I wouldn’t feel comfortable if… you know, things were happening and we were having a party. It’d be – It’d be ‘wrong’.”
Maybe, even though she wasn’t going to say it, everyone needed a party. A reason to let off some of the steam and the pressure that had been building up. It’d always worked for them in the past, but since they’d come to college… less so. The Bronze wasn’t as accessible and everyone had boyfriends and girlfriends and… Yeah, a party would’ve been a good idea.
If someone had thought of it and been planning it, a party could’ve been a hell of a good idea…
But whether they had or not, she wasn’t going to tell any lies.
Not to this girl who’d know it right away.
-----------------------
Willow’s attempt to steal a piece of crispy bacon – as any good Jewish girl would when presented with the opportunity outside her home – was rewarded only with a rap on the hand from Hope.
“No! I told you!”
Tara smiled, waving to Buffy as she came through the door. The Slayer rolled her eyes, obviously caught up in the whirlwind that was Hope on a mission. It was easy to see that Faith hadn’t needed to become a Slayer to become the young woman she was.
Not if her sister was any indication.
“This is for Mrs Summers,” Hope said. “If there’s any left when we’re done, you can pick away. Not this plate though.”
“What’s this now?” Joyce asked as she came into the kitchen. She was still looking pale and hadn’t gotten dressed yet either. One of those wasn’t that good and the other was, but at least she looked better than she had at the hospital just after – whatever it had been.
“Breakfast, Buffy and I made it,” Hope said, pulling out a chair for Buffy’s Mom to sit in.
“I helped,” Buffy admitted. “Mostly – you know – by telling her where some stuff was. And… looking for it first when – did you move some stuff around since I moved out?”
Joyce didn’t seem to hear the question, fretting instead about the fact she had company but was barely dressed, she kept clutching at her robe, pulling it closed and… it was kind of disconcerting actually, because it didn’t seem to be based on any real need. It wasn’t like she was in any way indecent, it seemed like more of a nervous thing really.
“Don’t worry,” Willow said. “This is the oestrogen squad.”
That one provoked smiles all around. True enough, since most of the male company seen hereabouts was composed of Xander and Eddie, pretty much every day was oestrogen day.
“But you’re a les - ” Joyce stopped, shook her head. Like she was having a conversation with herself. “What am I saying? I must just look frightful.” Now she was worried about her hair too, that just got out of bed look.
Willow linked arms with her, then took her hand in a show of togetherness for Joyce that was very, very real. “If I wasn’t already involved with the most beautiful, perfect woman in the world, I’d be all over you like a rash,” Willow teased.
“That’s me, right?” Tara asked, but then realised that everyone was looking at her girlfriend.
“Or possibly,” Willow conceded, “that statement might sound kind of… odd.”
“Odd’s the least of it,” Tara said, realising what Willow had said even if she hadn’t meant to. She’d been too caught up with being the most beautiful, perfect woman in the world. It wasn’t always easy to take compliments, but when they were so extreme then it was easy to add a few grains of salt and bring it back down to more realistic levels.
Also, Willow was always doing it. So you got to believe some of your own press, when it was repeated enough. To feel good about it.
“I just think,” Willow started to explain, “That your Mom needs to feel good about herself.”
“And you thought you’d do that by coming onto her?” Buffy asked.
“I didn’t come on to her,” Willow said.
“She – she didn’t,” Tara had to back her up on that.
“Hey!” Joyce said. “At this point, let’s just go with someone wanting to come onto me. I can handle that much, I think. No matter who they are. So, thank you, Willow.”
Hope was grinning, especially as Joyce was admiring the food that had been prepared, cooing over every little touch. The positioning on the plate, the crispness of the bacon and the perfect placement of the eggs. Even some herbs, just for effect.
“You were supposed to be in bed, Mom,” Buffy said. “That’s what makes it ‘breakfast in bed’, you know?”
“If it was breakfast in bed, I’d be worried about why you thought you needed to give that to me. Here I know it’s just because you’re good girls, both of you.”
That even seemed to make Buffy happier. “You know, talking about ‘good girls’ I think you should go back to the Doctor, you know? Follow up, see if there are some tests they can do or something?”
“I’m fine. I’ve just been working too hard – I needed to get some rest and now I have. So now maybe if I can enjoy my breakfast without being told I’m a cripple…”
“No one said ‘cripple’,” Willow pointed out. “But – as the girl who would be all over you like a rash - Buffy might be right.”
Tara bit her lip; she’d never have said that. But then she didn’t have the background with Joyce that Willow did. Maybe if she’d known her for years, she’d have told her that she needed to go to the Doctors too. She looked like she needed to, but… wouldn’t they already be doing tests and things if there was something they could think of?
That was how doctors worked. They got paid for doing tests, tests for all sorts of things. Wouldn’t they already be doing that then?
“Are you going to keep bringing that up, Willow? I mean, it’s going to get a bit old for your girlfriend,” Joyce said, forcing a tired smile.
“It’s – it’s okay,” Tara said. “I can share that much of Willow.”
“Oh, it’s an open relationship. I was – I was in one of those once - ” Joyce started to say.
“Mom!”
“Yes, dear?”
“You were - ” Buffy broke off when she realised the same thing as the rest of them. Never mind what she’d been admitting, Joyce had already forgotten what she just said. Looks passed between them all, even Hope who did a worse job of hiding her worry than anyone else. “Never mind.”
“It’s nice,” Joyce said. “All this. Really nice. But you all need to stop worrying about me. I’m fine, I will be fine. It’s my job to worry about my girl… girls. All my girls. All of you. The things you do… Buffy you came home so late last night, is everything all right?”
Tara happened to be looking at Buffy right then and realised that there was something, but clearly she wasn’t about to admit it now.
“It’s fine, Mom. Nothing unusual. Nothing really dangerous. And nothing I can’t handle. So… you stop worrying.”
Joyce shook her head, though it seemed to cause her some pain in her neck when she did, she rubbed it. “You never stop worrying,” she said. “You’ll learn that when you have kids of your own.”
“I don’t know, Mom,” Buffy said. “I can barely balance my check book. And Tara and Willow are - ”
“Perfectly able to have children if they wanted to,” Joyce said. “Even if – is it turkey-baster you’d use? You know, I could pick you one - ”
“Mom!”
“Umm…”
“Umm…”
She and Willow looked at each other, but the moment had passed and Joyce seemed to be gone again, moved on from what she’d said and completely putting it out of her mind. “Shouldn’t you all be at the opening of Mister Giles new store today? I gather it’ll be a grand affair?”
Hope must’ve told her that, relaying the news from the store exactly as Giles had put it. Who else but an Englishman would’ve described it that way? ‘A grand affair’?
And Ethan didn’t count as he probably saw it all a bit differently.
“Do you want to come with us?” Willow asked. “You’ve got your gilded invitation and everything.”
Buffy’s glare suggested that was probably the wrong thing to say and that, even if she couldn’t make her Mom do what she wanted, she could definitely have a say in getting everyone else to try and get her to rest up.
“I – I mean, if you want to?” Willow hedged. “I don’t know what you were planning, you’re probably already busy and… it won’t be very grand. Hardly grand at all. In fact, someone should probably sue – calling it ‘grand’. Pfft.”
Joyce smiled a little. “Grand or not, I’m not very magic. You kids go on without me. It was… It was kind of a bad night and I want to be all rested for tonight.”
“What’s tonight, Mom?”
“I have my book club, and don’t you dare, young lady. Don’t you dare!”
“What?”
“Don’t you tell me that I shouldn’t go.”
“I… I wasn’t going to,” Buffy said.
Well intentioned liar, well intentioned liar, pants on fire…
“But now that you mention it… Would it kill you to miss a week?”
Tara turned away a little, not wanting to see this conversation unfolding, even though she could hear it. Buffy was afraid, she didn’t know what was wrong with what was right in their face and she didn’t know how to fight it either.
Joyce… Joyce was afraid too. She also didn’t know what was wrong but she might’ve taken things to a different end point.
Buffy didn’t lose; she was just trying to figure out how to win.
Joyce… she was afraid of the battle as much as losing it.
She’d seen all this before, with herself in one of the roles. Of course, there’d been her Dad too, but he’d spent most of that time in a state of denial. Denial that there was anything too serious going on to start and later denial of anything that’d make life worth living and fighting for in favour of going to – or staying in – bed.
I was too young then to say what I thought. Now I’m not. “I think it’d be a good – I think it’d be good for you to get out of the house,” Tara said, very deliberately avoiding Buffy’s look.
“Thank you, Tara. You can have a piece of bacon, if you like.”
She smiled and pinched a piece she refused to share with her girl. But inside, she was afraid too. Afraid that she was right about what she was seeing… It all seemed achingly familiar. And the salty goodness of the bacon did nothing to ease her worries.
-------------------------
Willow didn’t think much of Buffy’s mini-rant at Tara but since Tara had just let it wash right over her, accepting everything Buffy said without arguing or backing down, she’d just known that stepping in wasn’t something that either of them would’ve welcomed.
Buffy’s need to blow off that steam had met Tara’s serious belief in what she’d said. She had a sneaking suspicion about why that might be. Even in Sunnydale, there wasn’t much call for the word ‘spectre’ but there was one looming over all of this. Tara’s Mom… and what disturbed her even more was that – on some level – Tara was seeing parallels here.
Was that just fear? It’d be very natural and understandable if it was. Or was it some kind of experience that was relevant? To be honest, this was one occasion that she wasn’t sure she wanted to know and definitely didn’t intend to ask…
Change of subject required.
Possible options:
1) Boyfriend enquiry – downside, any potential disagreement with Eddie that might’ve put Buffy in a worse mood.
2) Weather – downside, it was South California. Generally, by worldwide standards, it was pretty good.
3) Sports – downside, she didn’t actually know a lot about sports.
So there could only be one winner, option 4.
“So… anything come up on patrol last night?” Willow asked. It may have been obvious, but everyone seemed to welcome the opportunity to get out of that conversation. And it might lead to a random segue to other acceptable topics.
“Random slaying,” Buffy said. “Two fewer night walkers to trouble the population of Sunnydale.”
“You… slayed prostitutes?”
“No. Night walkers, vampires?”
“Oh… Two. Quiet then?”
“For here, sure. But I was out in the industrial park, for the second one, and - ”
“What were you doing out there?” Willow asked. It wasn’t like that was a place that should’ve been drawing the predators in the middle of the night.
“It’s called patrolling because we keep all the town safe, Will, not just the cemeteries.”
“Touchy…”
“Anyway, I was out there after I killed this vampire, I found something.”
“Was it a shiny penny?” she wondered.
“No.”
“Small model animal?”
“No, why would you even ask that?”
“It’s possible,” she said, shrugging. “I give up then.”
“It wasn’t a game, baby,” Tara confided to her. “You weren’t supposed to guess.”
“Ohh.”
“So I found this.” Buffy pulled the object out into the light.
“Oooh, it is shiny though.”
Just much larger than a penny.
“That’s what I thought,” Buffy said, “I did think it was shiny.”
“I wonder what it is,” Willow said, looking at Tara for any suggestions. A slight shake of the head told her that her girlfriend didn’t have any immediate thoughts either.
“Why did you only ask Tara, Will?” Buffy wanted to know.
“Umm… because… because Tara’s a witch. She knows witchy things. If it was a witchy thing then she might have known what kind of witchy thing it was.”
“I am a witch,” Tara agreed.
“Okay, but couldn’t it have been a Slayer thing?” Buffy asked.
“I guess…”
“If it was a Slayer thing then I might’ve known what it was, right?”
Willow nodded. “Absolutely, you’re the expert on Slayer things – after Giles of course. You’re much better than Faith.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“So? Is it?”
“Is it what?”
“Is it a Slayer thing?” Willow supplied.
“Does it look pointy or have a cutting edge?” Buffy asked, holding it up.
“Umm, no.”
“So… probably not a Slayer thing then. I guess I could tie it to a chain and – nah.”
“Right. Not a Slayer thing. So… we don’t know what - ” she was cut off by Buffy though.
“Actually, I’ve been doing some research.”
Looking at Tara, exchanging a look, Willow had to wonder if that was going to go any better than relying on intrinsic Slayer knowledge. “We’re all ears.”
“So… I found this website - ”
“Shiny things found in creepy places dot com?”
“Be serious, Will? Do I mock when you’ve done the research?”
That was true, Buffy was only ever grateful, occasionally with a side order of confusion with a frustration topping. But mostly grateful. “No… No, you don’t. I’m sorry. Please… what did you find, Buffy?”
“Well, I can’t be one hundred percent certain,” Buffy said. “But I’m fairly certain, it’s an orb.”
“An orb. Really?”
Another word, just off the top of her head, might’ve been ‘sphere’. Either you could get just by looking at it.
Silence reigned for a few, very long seconds, before the tension that had lingered since they’d met up this morning was broken by the laughter. “Okay, okay, I admit it’s all kinds of pathetic. But I did try the research thing.”
“And you used a website, that’s impressive all by itself,” Willow said.
“What can I say, I’m this year’s girl, modern and with it. You think maybe Giles will have more luck?”
“Let’s hope so,” Willow said, just as they reached the store.
“Welcome!” said the man himself as they entered, then realised that they weren’t – in fact – customers about to hand over their money. “Oh, it’s you.”
“Way to greet your Slayer, Mister Watcher,” Buffy quipped.
“I was rather hoping for customers,” he said, sighing. The robe and the big pointy hat she’d found him looked good. She wished that he’d still gone with one that said ‘Wizzard’ on it, it would’ve cried out to the fan-boys and girls and helped him start all sorts of conversations that could lead to sales.
He’d be a good Rincewind.
Instead the caution over the legal position of claiming to be a wizard and the more important risk of looking illiterate had dominated his thoughts. Englishmen… what could you do with them?
“No one biting yet?”
“My line is unbitten,” he confirmed.
“Well, look what I found,” Buffy said, showing him the orb-y thing she’d proclaimed to be exactly that. “I found it last night.”
“Oh? Did something extraordinary happen?”
“Absolutely not, I just dusted a vampire, talked my way out of getting caught by a security guard and found this.”
“It is very shiny isn’t it?” he asked, smiling at the new mystery.
“Go on, you rapscallion, you go and solve the mystery of its origins if you like,” Willow teased.
“Oh, okay. You’ll watch the store?” he asked.
“We’ll watch it like it had real customers,” Buffy promised, then to her when Giles had moved to his personal collection at the back of the store. “What were you thinking with that hat, Will?”
“I think he looks very… distinguished.”
“Yeah, that’s the word everyone would use.”
“Look,” she said. “I wanted to catch you alone.” Tara had followed Giles, obviously hoping to be of some help, or possibly just to learn something. She took her informal position as Faith’s sort-of-watcher very seriously. Too seriously sometimes.
“The party?”
“I… Tara thinks now isn’t the time for a party,” Willow said.
“You’re calling it off?” Buffy asked.
“No. I think we should party like it was nineteen-ninety-nine,” she said. “Or… something like that. But I thought I’d ask you, you know because…” She shrugged. “If you don’t think we should, or you don’t want to come – it’s okay.”
Buffy smiled, touched her arm. “It’s okay, I mean… thanks for thinking of it and thanks for offering but… I’m going to need a night where we can all just be together with nothing else going on. Even if stuff is going on, outside, in there… We’re going to shake it, baby.”
“Really?”
“You know it, but shhh, here she comes.”
Before that happened though the doorbell tinkled again and Giles spun from his books, ready for that customer… Only to find it was Hope.
“Didn’t think you were coming down yet, honey,” Willow said. “You could’ve walked with us.”
“I gave in trying to catch you up,” Hope said. “Your Mom told me ‘quote – go and enjoy yourself – end quote’ but I couldn’t think of anything to do so I came here. When do you open, Mister Giles?”
“Actually, we’ve been open for an hour now,” Giles replied, returning to his table. “But if you have the goods they will come. Speaking of your mother, Buffy, how is she?”
“Oh, we have a highly trained medical staff working around the clock to tell us diddly.”
“Well, I’m sure they’ll come good.”
“And we have other problems,” Buffy said. “The orb, it is an orb right?”
“Give me a moment,” Giles said.
“Surely you can tell me whether it’s an orb or not, I mean, even I know it’s probably an orb,” Buffy said.
“She some did in depth research,” Willow explained. “On its orb like qualities.”
“Thanks.”
“Well, I’ve only had sight of it for a couple of minutes, so you’ll excuse me if I don’t pass judgement on it quite so quickly as that. But almost certainly it’s paranormal in origin.”
“Because it’s shiny?” Willow asked.
“Yes, quite…” Giles said, discomforted not to know any more than anyone else. Give him time though, he’d certainly come good eventually. He always did. “Perhaps you could go back to the spot where you found it?”
“We could have a picnic,” Hope suggested.
“Not really a picnic spot, Hope,” Buffy snapped and if anyone was wondering where the tension was, there it was again… just buried beneath the surface.
“What was frilly heck that for?” she asked as the girl looked hurt and retreated.
“I – I don’t know. She’s always around, my Mom looks after like she’s her own daughter and…”
“You’re not always there,” Willow said quietly. “You have other responsibilities but you want to be there for your Mom. I get it, I do. You know, you should be glad. Me and Tara – we help when we can, but Hope likes being there. She likes having someone like your Mom around to tell her she’s doing good in school and to put grades up on the refrigerator. Joyce likes it too.”
“I know… but she’s not even part of the family, Will… I can’t ask her to do that – and what if she backs out – she’s only a kid. And she’s Faith’s sister. Can I even rely on her?”
“We talked about this, Buffy, your Mom needs to feel like she’s contributing too, you know? You’ve left home; she needs to get that Mom-purpose back.”
“Mom-purpose?”
“I figure she’s been doing it so long for you, must be kind of hard to just go cold-turkey.”
“I guess… I guess I could try to be needier,” Buffy said.
“Or you could just, you know, apologise to Hope?”
Willow watched as Buffy went over to the younger girl. “Hey… I’m – I’m sorry I snapped at you, it’s definitely not your fault. I’m just… You know better than most people how Slayers can be. But… after you made that big breakfast, you can’t be hungry again already?”
“Your Mom ate most of it,” the younger girl defended herself.
“Good,” Buffy seemed happy with that. Appetite had to be a good thing right? “And you know what?”
“What?” Hope asked.
“Don’t you even think of staying with my Mom tomorrow, right?” Buffy said, winking with the eye that Tara couldn’t see but she could.
“Right. Absolutely. Point taken,” Hope said, suppressing a grin after the uncomfortable moment where she thought Buffy was really having a go at her. “I understand you perfectly.”
“Look, I… I have to go get my Mom’s prescription,” Buffy said. “And since we don’t know what this orb is can I leave that with you guys?”
“When haven’t you being able to leave it with us?” Giles asked. “Of course, and please pass on my best wishes to your mother when you see her.”
“Want some company?” Tara asked.
Glancing at her before answering, Buffy finally agreed. “Sure… it’s not going to be very exciting.”
“And this is?” Willow asked.
“I heard that! There will be customers,” Giles shouted from his books.
**********************
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If I wanted a little pussy, I've got my own to play with.
Chance in *Chance*
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I can see jarring and that's not ideal, but you know I can linger if I want to. 
We have plenty to do even though - as you point out - there's all sorts of fun you can have with this stuff. It's classic sci-fi ground. 
Dawn was the best thing that happened for that character and I want it to work with Hope too - even if it's a little convoluted (far too much babysitting going on (even before they know about the Key) considering that at her age Hope could BE babysitting someone else's kid...)
And having a little cry for poor Hope. 
Somehow, I think Faith would feel protective of her even without the false memories. I suppose we’ll find out in short order how/if the truth about Hope’s origin changes their relationship.
