Title: All The King’s Men

Summary: S6 Btvs Post Bargaining 2

 

 

            She stood at the top of the lighthouse, her hands wrapped around the railing, the light strobed over her, flooding her world with white light. She closed her eyes and she was free falling through the portal of white light.

 

            It burned. It stripped her skin from her bones and then seared the bones black.  Her back arched to the point of breaking as the fire ran rampant through her body.  She hung there in the liquid light, burning, cleansing, free now.

 

            And then it was warm, safe, hot chocolate on cold nights, Daddy just down the hall to chase the monsters away.

 

            Salty warm tears dripping onto her hand made her open her eyes. The light strobed over her again and she reversed the position of her hands on the rail. She slung one leg over and then the other. She stood like that, boot heels hooked on the railings, hands clinging; body bowed and looked down at the rocks and water below.

 

            She’d smash down there, smash into a hundred pieces.

 

            And all the king’s horses and all the kings’ men couldn’t put Humpty together again.

 

            “Buffy.”

 

            She didn’t turn at the sound of her name. She knew who it was. There was only one person in this world, this dimension, this universe that said her name like that.

 

            Cool hands wrapped around her wrists. Cool lips tasted the nape of her neck. Strong arms wrapped around her waist, holding her against the cold metal of the railing.

 

            “Strong is fighting. It’s everyday. It’s hard and it’s painful and we can do it together,” he whispered in her ear.

 

            She bit her lip and tasted blood. She closed her eyes and let her body sag, let him take all her weight; put her life in his hands.

 

            Where it’s always been.