Buffy made her way down the hall, and as soon as she stepped out of her room, she could hear her parents discussing something in hushed voices in the living room. Not wanting to interrupt them yet, she closed her eyes and listened. One thing her delusion about Sunnydale taught her was how to listen. One needed to know when a certain nasty was out to get you or which direction that certain scream just came from. People assumed that the skill came from her being the Slayer, something like Superman had super-hearing. They weren't wholly right, otherwise it wouldn't translate to what she was able to do now. After all, here she wasn't the Slayer. She was just a normal human being, albeit one hopped up on her anti-crazy meds, but still only human. Theoretically anyone could learn to do it; it just required the focus to blot out other sounds and only hear what one was seeking out to hear. Buffy wanted to hear her parents and pushed out everything that didn't matter otherwise. She listened.
"… something wrong with her still, I'm telling you, Joyce." Her dad sounded worried. "You saw how she was when we brought her back last night. It was almost as bad as when we visited her in the hospital."
"The doctor said she just needed to sleep off the therapy session. When she wakes up, she'll be with us. The doctor said to call him if she wasn't." Her mom's voice, by contrast was calm, belying the volume.
"Even when she's with us, something still isn't quite right. She seems different, Joyce. It's… I can't really put my finger on it, but she's got a look in her eye sometimes that's like she's listening to someone that isn't there." The voices in your head are the voices in mine and the voices in her head are the voices in his. Buffy forced the voice out. No matter how accurate her father's words were, she wasn't in her delusion anymore. She was here now. The voice might have been a side effect of her mind getting those delusions under control, concentrating into that creepsome voice. Still, she couldn't tell how worth it being out of the delusion was sometimes.
"Hank, she's home, and she's lucid. The doctors let us take her home, and she doesn't have to be in the hospital anymore, isn't that enough?" Buffy's heart ached when listening to her mother. She remembered when she told her mom again about being the Slayer, how she had reacted, and how it contrasted with what her mom was doing now. It seemed like her mom was a little more like how she was toward the end… no, she was alive now.
"Yes, but for how long? You know as well as I do that last summer she was lucid for four months. Four wonderful months that she was out of her delusion, but they didn't let us take her home then. And they were right not to! She fell right back into her delusion when her so-called friends called. She felt that they needed her more than we did. She went back to them, and she left us, Joyce. Our daughter very nearly made that same decision when she came out of it this time. Yet they let us take her home. What's the difference between then and now?" Buffy couldn't help but agree in some aspects. While she didn't want to go back into her delusion, she wasn't stupid. It didn't make sense why they were able to release her so fast after she came out of it. She was a practically comatose patient who had suddenly attained lucidity. They should have been wanting to study her, not let her go. Tag them and let them go. See the Kine in their natural habitat. See them behave…
"Don't. Just… don't, Hank. I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. We have our baby back. If it's only for a short time, we should enjoy it while it lasts. Is it too much to just want my baby back?" Okay, now she could smell the whiskey coming from the living room. Were the two of them drinking already? It was a little early in the day for the alcohol to come out, wasn't it? She needed to head in there and end this before it got to a point where she'd want to speak up or they began fighting.
Buffy grimaced as she allowed the rest of the world to come into focus. When she'd done this in her delusion, she'd been able to regain her attention on the general view of reality fairly easily without it overwhelming her. She certainly hadn't expected the colors to sharpen, scents to become clearer, nor could she even think that she'd still be able to hear her parents… and practically everything else. There was a low electric hum and a high pitched hiss that sounded like the TV was on but on mute, albeit not in the living room, perhaps her parents' room? The cacophony of sounds was deafening, causing Buffy to stumble and place her hand down. It was like what happened when she took her pill was multiplied by a factor of ten.
No. This was not happening. She could overcome it. This was just another type of hallucination which she could, and would, force her way through. Push it back. Push it all back. Focus on what was in front of her. She was better than this. She might have been a crazy person, but she would not let that detract from her seeing reality the way it really was. Who defines what is really real? Are you crazy or the only one who is sane?
Focus. Control. Power through it. And then it was gone. The world was normal, and Buffy released a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding. Now she could go into the room, interrupt her parents. She glanced up and let another breath out before breathing in. Smile, Buffy. Your parents need to see that you're fine. You need to be fine. Just two more steps. There.
Buffy stepped into the living room, but her parents continued their discussion in hushed tones, not seeming to notice her presence. Apparently, despite Buffy's near-collapse from sensory overload, she still managed to be unintentionally sneaky. That, or her parents were so engrossed in their conversation about her that they couldn't focus on anything else. That wouldn't do at all.
Buffy cleared her throat, "Morning, Mom, Dad." She glanced at the clock. Well, it was still morning for another twenty minutes anyway.
Her voice seemed to have the necessary effect on them as Hank and Joyce Summers turned to face their daughter. "Good morning, pumpkin. Glad to see you up and awake."
"Yeah… how come nobody woke me?" Buffy asked. "I mean, isn't Sam supposed to be meeting up with me in a half hour?"
"We would have, sweetie, but something came up. You looked so peaceful there on your bed anyway, and we figured it wouldn't harm anything if we let you sleep in a bit more." Her mother said with a smile. Familial strife takes precedence over wakefulness. A universal truth.
The voice in her head seemed a little off-point today, but that was fine. She could deal with it if it wasn't making sense. The moment it started to make sense was when she'd be worried.
"What if Sam had shown up before I'd had the chance to get dressed?" Buffy asked, allowing a bit of petulance to creep into her voice.
"We'd have sent her in to wake you herself. And then maybe broken out the video camera to tape the – ow…" Her father rubbed his shoulder and gave a bemused look to her mom.
"If Samantha had shown up, I would have had your father wake you up and stalled her with some hot chocolate. Of course, you're awake now, and as you said, she'll be here in half an hour. You'll probably have lunch with her." Her mom smiled to Buffy and then her eyes flicked downward from Buffy's face.
Buffy looked down at herself. While her Yummy Sushi pajamas were fine for lounging around the house or sleeping in, (speaking of, how did she get dressed in them?), they were wholly unsuited to going out on the town with an old friend. Muttering something unpleasant under her breath, Buffy nodded. "I'll go get ready to go out then. No telling what Dad would pick if we gave him the chance."
"Just because I want to keep the boys off of you…" Hank started, and Buffy turned on her heel, swiftly heading back to her room.
Buffy's wardrobe wasn't all that extensive. Actually, to be accurate, it was pretty extensive, albeit with clothing that was far better suited on a freshman or sophomore at high school than on the twenty-two year old adult she happened to be. Luckily, the day after she managed to get released from the mental hospital, she took a shopping trip with Samantha to get some appropriate clothing for the season. It wouldn't do to be caught in clothing that was so last year… six years ago. Buffy scanned the wardrobe, letting her eyes fall on an outfit that hung on the interior door. A smile played itself on her lips as she remembered when she'd joined Hemery High's Cheer Squad, and a wince happened when she remembered Amy's mother in her delusion. The cheerleader outfit on the doorway wasn't her Hemery High uniform, no. This was something that she and Sam had bought because they'd thought it would be funny. The appropriate underwear to go with this was a white, hip-hugging thong, whose straps would be visible with how low the skirt hung on her hips. The shirt would bare almost all of her midriff and reveal a great deal of her chest if she wore it. It was, in short, almost a fetish cheerleader outfit, something that Sam seemed to enjoy seeing her in.
Now that she thought about it, there were probably reasons for that, but Buffy didn't really care much. The slutty cheerleader outfit was definitely not something she would wear, even to go out to a club. Instead, she reached for a far better and stylish outfit. She put on a sports bra and a tank top that matched the colors, and she put on a pair of Capri jeans. She and Sam were planning to walk around a bit that day, and she wanted something that would be comfortable and easy to move around in. Of course, this left heels out. As nice as it would be to stand at Sam's eye level, her feet would not thank her for it.
Tying her hair back, she surveyed herself in the mirror, and jumped. Reflected in the mirror nearby was a little girl, perhaps no more than eight. Her brunette hair came down to the small of her back, and she wore a hospital gown. Buffy glanced to where the mirror was reflecting… No little girl, back into the mirror, and the girl just smiled at her. Buffy knew that this had to be another symptom of her lack of sanity, but it had been so long since she'd even had a glimpse of this girl, even in her delusion.
"Hello Buffy…" The little girl said with a wave and gentle smile.
Buffy couldn't help it. She knew this girl. She knew this had to be her mind playing tricks on her again. "Hello, Celia."
