Sister, Sister (Book Five, BTVS)

chapter 17 - Forever

Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles and I were in Buffy's house.

There were flower arrangements scattered around, food laid out over the dining room table.

Xander was sitting down, eating.

I looked at the card in a flower arrangement.

Giles and Buffy stood at the end of the table, looking at paperwork.

"I checked prices at different florists, and the funeral home seems to be fairly competitive," Giles told her.

"Let's just go with that," Buffy told him. "It's easier." I sat at the other end. Willow walked closer with a pitcher of water, pouring a glass, sitting opposite of Xander. "Uh, what about an announcement? People are gonna be expecting a wake after the burial unless we say something."

"Um, well, we could put a--a line in the program expressing your mother's preference not to have one," Giles told her.

"There's no wake?" Willow asked.

"Mom didn't like them," Buffy told us. "She said that potlucks are depressing enough as it is, right before she went in for the operation. We had a talk about what she wanted... in case." She looked down. The cordless phone on the table rang. Buffy sighed, looking at Giles. "I'm all phoned out. Will you? Unless it's my dad."

"Of course," Giles answered, picking up the phone, answering. Buffy returned to the papers. "Hello? Yes, yes, they did." We looked at him. "Thank you." Giles stood. "The, uh, funeral is at, uh, three tomorrow. Do you know the Brown Brothers mortuary?"

Giles walked out, leaving.

Buffy was disappointed. "Can't believe he still hasn't called."

"Your dad's still AWOL, huh?" Xander asked.

"The number he left for us is no good, and I've left messages everywhere," Buffy told us. She looked at the paperwork. "Um, how about a line that just says, 'Following the burial, there will be no wake'? Or gathering? 'At the request of Joyce, there will be no gathering'? That sounds lame."

Buffy put a hand to her forehead.

Willow looked at her in concerned.

I stood, starting to clean up. "What are we gonna do? After, I mean. Are we just gonna... come back here?"

"Uh, I--I don't know," Buffy told us. "I guess so. Um, how about, 'At the request of the family, there will be no wake'?"

"Good, yeah," Xander told her. "It's got, uh..."

Xander didn't know how to finish.

"Should I put it at the top, or just a small line at the bottom?" Buffy asked.

We didn't answer.

Buffy returned to the paperwork.

~~~~~

Willow, Xander and I walked out of the house.

"You going home?" Xander asked.

"I'm gonna stop by my mom's first," Willow told us. "Been doing that a lot lately."

"Yeah, I actually might stop by your mom's, too," Xander told her. We looked at him. "Well, I'm not going to my place. Those people are scary." Xander looked at me. "Why are you heading over to see Willow's mom?"

"My mom's over there," I answered. "She's been really busy lately, helping, you know. She's taken a lot of time off of work for this, and it just might break us, but..."