[If anyone had told him that he was going to Buffy's world he might have anticipated action, vampires, danger -- but he had landed in an aftermath. He had spent many of his hours on the couch, sitting beside the girl in case she required something of him - or wanted simply to talk. He had been right to remain near her. Dawn had spoken in fits and bursts, at times cold, at others, animated. It was clear that she was speaking to herself, however, and not to him. She had used him only as an excuse to speak the words aloud, but she had needed him like a leper needs leeches. So Dawn spent the night in a feat of mental acrobatics, striving to believe that what she had witnessed was some last vestige of her mother. Evidence that somehow, somewhere, she persisted. Their mother. Joyce.]
no subject
[If anyone had told him that he was going to Buffy's world he might have anticipated action, vampires, danger -- but he had landed in an aftermath. He had spent many of his hours on the couch, sitting beside the girl in case she required something of him - or wanted simply to talk. He had been right to remain near her. Dawn had spoken in fits and bursts, at times cold, at others, animated. It was clear that she was speaking to herself, however, and not to him. She had used him only as an excuse to speak the words aloud, but she had needed him like a leper needs leeches. So Dawn spent the night in a feat of mental acrobatics, striving to believe that what she had witnessed was some last vestige of her mother. Evidence that somehow, somewhere, she persisted. Their mother. Joyce.]
I am sorry.
[Poor Buffy.]