There was something simply awkward about sitting in silence while a loved one ground their mental gears just to find an ounce of healing magic. Buffy wondered if it was equally weird to, say, date a dentist and then sit there uncomfortably while he poked around your molars.

Eventually, she had to interrupt: "Steady, now. Before you give yourself an aneurysm."

And then Buffy groaned at her own joke -- there were years, now, between her and her mother's death and it wouldn't have been in such bad taste except...except Joyce had seemed so very real in that dream.