be strong, be strong, be strong.
the voice inside her head repeated those two words like a mantra.
she’d faced vampires and demons and death, yet none of it was
as difficult as this. the loss, the grief. joyce was the touchstone in
both of her daughters lives, and without her, buffy was lost. she
could save the world, but could she take care of dawn? would
she be able to be everything to dawn as their mother had been?
there’s a new voice now, not her own: not repeating the same two
words. gaze averted, she blinks away the tears before facing dawn.
she offers her a smile, possibly the hardest thing she’s ever done,
and gladly accepts the mug her sister had offered. why did it feel
like dawn was the one who was taking care of them? she drinks.
‘ it’s perfect, monkey brains and all. thanks, dawnie. ‘
Dawn smiled a little more and sat down next to Buffy. It was ROUGH at the moment,
walking around the house, being reminded that their mom wouldn’t come back from
her showings or be there to tell them to do THERE ever. Dawn had tried to be SOLVE
there problem, solve EVERYTHING, Bring her back, but she couldn’t go through with it.
The spell would have brought her back wrong, and now there was one less picture
of Joyce left.
“I felt bad... for saying you didn’t care and... I thought why not make some hot chocolate...
because... because....”
Tears fell down her cheeks as she tried to speak. Dawn didn’t want to speak the next sentence.
Why was it so hard to say anything. More tears rushed down her cheeks, so quick she was
unable to stop them completely with her hand. She managed to control her tears
“because... that’s what mom would do.... or try and feed you soup, but I didn’t think you’d
want soup.”