Title: Waiting

Summary: Buffy contemplates on the past.

Rating: G

 

 

 

 

Ten years ago to this day, it doesn’t really seem possible. So much has happened since then. Dawn got married, to Spike no less. Don’t ask. She’s a watcher now and Spike is still a general pain in my ass.  Willow and Oz are back together. She ran into him in Istanbul while she was supposed to be looking for a slayer. Xander is also a watcher, married to his slayer. Apparently the thing he had for slayers never really went away.

 

            I stand on the prepice and look down. It’s the first time I’ve been here since we left. The others have all visited the Sunnydale State Park.  It’s listed with the tourism board as a natural phenomenon. According to geologists, an earthquake did this. No one would believe it was a vampire and a necklace.  About six years ago, California filled the crater up with water and declared it a State park.  I run my fingers over the sign standing near the edge. It’s bronze with raised letters.

 

This park is dedicated to the

People who lost their lives in

The earth quake of 2003, the

People of Sunnydale, California

1899-2003

 

           

            The people of Sunnydale, there weren’t actually that many people left in Sunnydale, most of them had packed up their things and fled. There were a few, Anya. I think Xander still mourns her sometimes. I’ll catch him looking off into space and when I ask him what’s up he gets this little look on his face and then shakes his head and responds in typical Xander fashion.

 

            I hear the car pull up but I don’t glance back. I know who it is. It’s the only person I’ve ever felt in my bones, in my soul.

 

            “Finally decided it was time to say goodbye?” He asks, walking up beside me.

 

            “Yeah, I have issues with that word,” I say.

 

            “I know,” he says.

 

            And he does, better then anyone. I have even bigger issues telling him goodbye.  I dare a glance at him. He looks the way he always did, beautiful, larger then life, but he’s changed.  His dark hair is still ridiculously thick (I used to spend hours running my fingers through it) but now it’s shot through with silver. Fine wrinkles crease his eyes, laugh lines, and that’s still hard to believe.

 

            “It’s been ten years, Buffy,” he says.

 

            “I know,” I say and toss a rock down into the water.

 

            “I told you I’d wait,” he says.

 

            “You also said you weren’t getting any older,” I say.

 

            “Yeah, but I’m still waiting,” he says.

 

            “You want to know how long I’m gonna keep you waiting?” I ask.

 

            He shrugs. “Considering I stopped counting the grey hairs three years ago, it’d be nice.”

 

            Ten years, a lot of things have changed. I never stopped loving him though. I tried. I went out with people and I even tried to fall in love. It didn’t work, it took me a long time to figure out why. I glance over at him. He’s changed but he’s still the only man I’ve ever loved, the only man I ever will love. I take his hand in mine, twining our fingers.  Ten years, and I finally figured it out. I can’t change, I can’t fall in love with anyone else, I can’t give my heart and soul to anyone else because I gave them away when I was sixteen to the man standing next to me. Okay, so I’m not the brightest crayon in the box, but eventually I get it. We’ve both been holding our breath, waiting. I’m tired of waiting.