Wayward Ones TW/SPN/BTVS

Chapter 10

Buffy stood in front of Stiles's bedroom door with a tray of breakfast food. She didn't know what he would like so she had brought a bit of everything. She shook her head at herself. She had faced demons. She had been to hell and had even died a few times. But she couldn't bring herself to knock. She was terrified that it would end like it had with Jessica.

She hadn't been expecting that beautiful little girl to knock on her door. She had never prepared anything to say to them. She didn't think they would have ever been able to find her. She should have known better. Nothing in her life was easy, why would protecting her children be any different.

She took a deep breath and knocked. "Stiles? Are you awake?"

She heard a sigh through the door. "I don't want to be. You can come in if you want to."

She opened the door slowly and held up the tray like a peace offering, "I wasn't sure what you liked for breakfast so I... may have got you too much food... but your also a seventeen year old boy and Xander used to eat my mom out of house and home when he was that age, so maybe it's not too much food. But I knew you had to be hungry because you didn't eat dinner and-"

He smiled at her. Something she wasn't ready for. "So I get that from you... And technically I did have dinner, in the form of woodland animals." He sighed letting his head drop into his hands before picking it up again like it didn't fall in the first place. "I'll eat anything. I'm not picky..." Then in a begrudging voice he sighed. "Clearly."

She gave him a tentative smile back and placed the tray on the bed next to him. "Have at it kiddo. It's all for you."

"Um, thanks." He said, picking up a sausage with his fork. Smiling uncomfortably as she was mildly staring. And he didn't have the best table manners as is. He bit into it as she started talking.

She didn't know how to start. So she tried small talk. "What did you mean you didn't want to be awake?"

He rubbed his eyes tiredly, swallowing what was in his mouth. "I get these nightmare's, nearly every night. Sometimes I- actually never mind. That probably should be kept to myself." He sat back up and stared at her.

Buffy opened and closed her mouth a few times, wanting to comfort him, but not wanting to over step. This was so much more difficult and awkward than she had ever imagined it would be.

She finally sighed and rubbed the back of her neck, "There is no not awkward way to start this conversation so I'm just going to jump in while you're eating."

She looked to him to make sure this was okay, at his nod she jumped into her rehearsed speech. She had only practiced about 100 times while making breakfast. Not too much... right?

"I heard you and Mr. Singer talking last night before you went to bed. I want you to know that I wanted you and your sister. I thought that I was protecting you both by taking you out of my world. If I had known that... 20/20 hindsight... But I can't change the past. However, your old friend is right. You are a Winchester, but you're also a Summers. Between the two, you have a team behind you that would let the world burn to protect you."

"I- I kinda thought that when you gave us up you didn't want us or something. And when I saw a real monster under my bed I thought I was going crazy. But because of that monster, and the other few that liked the orphanage we were at. I got to meet my grandpa before he died... When I saw my adoption papers your name wasn't there. I figured that was your way off cutting ties. So when you told me you were my bio mom. I thought you'd be disappointed."

She scooted up the bed and cupped his cheek in her hand forcing him to look at her, "Oh, honey. No. I could never be disappointed with you." Tears filled her eyes, "My name wasn't on the birth certificate because I didn't want my enemies to be able to tie you to me. You both were so tiny and precious... I did what I thought I had to do to keep you safe."