Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fan Fiction ❯ The Jacaranda Tree ❯ Epilogue

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Spin. Kick. Block. Punch, punch, and stake.

The vampire exploded into a dust-shower, glaring at her accusingly. She wanted to say something witty, but the best she could come up with was a play on <i>steak</i>, and that was just pathetic. She hunched over and put her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.

She leaned down and retrieved her stake from the ground where it had fallen. It smelled faintly of the jacaranda blossoms that had once bloomed on it. Well, that and the musty scent of vampire ashes. She pulled back and wrinkled her nose in disgust. She didn't really want to think about vampire smell.

She pocketed the carved wood and strolled down the street towards the gingerbread house.

"I'm home!" she called out as she entered. She kicked off her boots and searched the first floor, then slowly made her way up the steps and into Faith's room.

Faith was staring at the wall looking vaguely lost.

"Hey," she said gently.

Faith snapped out of it and glanced at her. "You're dusty." A beat. "Don't track it all over the house."

"You got it, Mom." Anne sat down on Faith's bed purposefully, a spark in her eyes as the dust billowed up off her pants and settled on the bedspread. "What are you doing, anyway?"

Faith sighed and lightly fingered the framed drawings. "Reminiscing, I guess."

"Oh. Buffy, right?" Faith nodded and glanced towards the window.

The jacaranda had grown to amazing heights. She remembered the small plant she had brought home so long ago as an apology. But it was more than that, she thought to herself. It was a symbol of some kind. Maybe her love for the little blonde she bought it for, maybe of her own growth as a person.

The years go by so fast. Anne was already sixteen, the same age Faith had been when she first came to California and met Buffy.

<i>Buffy..</i>

Buffy had been sick for so long. She spent more and more time in the hospital hooked up to tubes and wires and finally, in the last days, a machine that breathed for her. At the end she couldn't even speak, but Faith knew she'd heard just fine. Her eyes told Faith that.

And Roy.. she'd been visiting him at the hospital the night a vampire attacked her. He'd been holding on for so long, and Faith broke down that night. She sobbed that he couldn't leave her, too, because Buffy was surely leaving eventually, and Faith did not want to be alone.

Roy liked to say that Faith saved his life. He still got sick sometimes, but he was never that close to death again. He was strong, a warrior, her brother-in-arms.

He was the first one to hold Anne when she was born. He sat at Faith's side night and day in the final days of her extremely high-risk pregnancy. He held her hand and Anne held his finger and he said, my god, she's so strong and Faith knew, then.

<i>From now on, every girl in the world who might be a Slayer, will be a Slayer. Every girl who could have the power, will have the power. Can stand up, will stand up. Slayers.. every one of us.</i>

Faith touched the charcoal picture once more before turning back to her daughter, who was curled up like a kitten on the end of her bed. She sat down and stroked her hair lightly like she did when Anne was little.

"Once upon a time, there was a girl who had burned down the gym at her school and another girl who burned everything in her path.."

Once upon a time. Once upon a time.

And they lived happily ever after.