"Hey, Mom." "Still a couple of guys gettin' it right." "Hey, flower-gettin' lady, want me to pick Dawn up from school?" "Mom?" "What are you doin'?" "Mom?" "Mom?" "Mommy?" " I think we're about ready for pie." " Then I'll be ready for barf." " Xander!" " Gross!" "No, no." "Barf from the eating." "Cos all was good, and too much goodness..." " I'm taking it as a compliment." " Everything was delicious." " Yes." "I'm going to barf, too." " Everyone's so sweet." " Will, you in the vomit club, too?" " I had too much nog." "Oh, baby, want me to rub your tummy?" "She likes it when I... stop explaining things." "My nog tastes funny." "I think I got one with rum." "That's bad." "Yeah." "Now Santa's gonna pass you right by, naughty booze hound." "Santa always passes me by." "Something puts him off." "Could be the big honkin' menorah." " Did you write him a letter?" " What'd you ask for?" "Guys, hello?" "Puberty?" "Sorta figured out the whole no-Santa thing." " That's a myth." " Yeah." "No, I mean, it's a myth that it's a myth." "There is a Santa Claus." "The advantage of having a 1,000-year-old girlfriend." "Inside scoop." " There's a Santa Claus?" " Mm-hm." "Been around since the 1500s." "He wasn't always called Santa, but Christmas night, flying reindeer, coming down the chimney... all true." "All true?" "Well, he doesn't traditionally bring presents so much as... disembowel children, but otherwise..." "The reindeer part was nice." "Damn it!" "I hate this oven." "It burnt." "No, it's just blackened." "You know, it's Cajun pie." " Shall I open another?" " Oh, do you think we dare?" "As long as you two stay away from the band candy, I'm cool with anything." "You are a demon child." " I live to tormentyou." "Is that so wrong?" " A daughter's duty, I suppose." "Look, all we have to do is just cut off..." "Mom?" "Mom?" "Mom?" "Mom?" "Mom?" "Mom?" "MOM?" "!" " 911 emergency." " Hello?" "It's my mom." "She's not breathing." " Is she conscious?" " No." "I can't..." "She's not breathing." "I need you to give me your address." " I'm gonna send an ambulance over." " 1630 Revello." "It... it's a house." "Revello, near Hadley." "I'm sending a unit right away." "Are you alone in the house?" " Yes." " Did you see what happened?" "Did she fall?" "No, no." "I came home, and she..." "What should I do?" "Do you know how to administer CPR?" " No." "I don't remember." " OK." "It's very simple." "You wanna tiltyour mother's head back." "Cover her mouth with yours, and breathe into her mouth." "I knowthis." "I knowthis." "God!" "I can do this." "I can do this." "I..." "Are you there?" "I broke something." " Hello?" " It cracked." " Is she breathing?" " No." "Paramedics should be there soon." "You might have cracked a rib." "It's not important." "She's cold." " The body is cold?" " No, my mom!" "Should I make her warm?" "No." "If she's not responding to CPR, the best thing is to wait for the paramedics, OK?" " When will they be here?" " They're very nearby." "I have to make a call." " Hello?" " Giles." "You have to come." "Buffy?" "She's at the house." "She's in here." " I'm getting no pulse." " Let's lay her out." " How long's she been like this?" " I found her." "A few minutes." " Was she conscious?" " No." " I'm baggin' her." " What?" "We'll intubate." "Try to get her to breathe." "This your mother?" " Yes." " She have any serious health problems?" "No." "I mean, there was a tumour." "A brain tumour." "But she had an operation, and she's fine now." "She... she's been fine." "We got her!" "My God, we got her!" "We never brought one backthis late." " Buffy?" " I'm here." "It's a miracle." "That's what it is - a beautiful miracle." " Good as new." " Buffy, thank God you found me in time..." "She's cold, man." "Call it." " I'm sorry." " What do we do now?" "I'm sorry, but I have to tell you thatyour mother's dead." "She died a good while before you found her." "There's nothing you could have done." "I guess it was an aneurysm or clotting." "Some complication from surgery." "She probably felt... very little pain." "I'm gonna call it in." "The coroner's office will take her in and determine the cause of death." "Dispatch 7, we have a 206." "What's your status?" " We're moving." " Location is Beaumont and 9th." "Go now." " We gotta fly." " I'll call this now." "The coroner's office may take a while." "In the meanwhile, you should sit, have a glass of water." "Try not to disturb the body." "Do you need anything?" "Is there someone you can call?" "Someone's coming." "Let's go." " I'm very sorry for your loss." " Thank you." "Good luck." "Buffy!" "What is it?" "Is it Glory?" "I'm waiting." "The... the coroner's coming." " What?" " I have to tell Dawn." "She's at school." "I'll go there." "I'm not sure..." "No." "No." "Don't." "No, it's too late." " Joyce?" " They're coming for her." "No, no." "We're..." " Joyce!" " We're not supposed to move the body!" "Oh, God." "I can't believe it." "It's not that bad." " How can you say it's not that bad?" " I just don't think it's that big a deal." "Kevin Berman called me a freak in front of everybody." "No, that's no big deal." "He didn't say you were a freak." "Forget it." "He just said you were... freaky." "Which, you know, freaky can be... sort of cool." "Yeah." "Real cool." "I'm a suicidal headcase." "It was Kirstie." "She told people you were into cutting yourself and..." "That's such a lie!" "I got cut, by accident." "One time." "Now Kevin thinks I'm a..." "That was when you were wigging out aboutyour family." "And, of course, Kirstie's gotta turn everything into a story." "She was telling people thatyou were adopted." "What a primo bee-yatch." "I swear, if I could make her head explode using only the power of my mind, that's what I'd be doing right about now." "Great." "Now I look like a wet rat." "You can't go out looking all cry-face." "That'll give Kirstie more ammo." "You know, my big sister could really beat the crap out of her." "I mean, really really." "What do you think?" "Can I show my face?" "You're good to go." "We're gonna be late anyway." "Kirstie alert." " Hey, Dawn." " Hey." " How you doing?" "You OK?" " Good." "Thanks for asking." "Bee-yatch." "OK." "Remember, we're not drawing the object." "We're drawing the negative space around the object." "Hey." "Oh." "Hey, Kevin." "Give me a sense of the spaces around." "The space in-between." "What's goin' on?" "Um, negative space." "Yeah." "What's that all about?" "That's pretty good." "Thanks." "I heard you had a freak-out and cutyourself." "Uh, no." "Not even." " It was a whole..." "It was so not..." " I've felt like that before." "Things get so crazed, you know?" "You just feel like you wanna do something... extreme." "Yeah." "I just..." "I had a lot of intense stuff going on." "A lot of people don't understand that." "Pain." "Yeah." "Then Kirstie blabs it everywhere, cos she's..." "It's like she thinks "I'm so hot, everybody should just bow down before me."" "And I'm like "Whatever."" "She's so superficial." "Everything's about clothes, or who likes who." "And there's just way more important stuff going on." "There's a lot of crucial... you know, stuff." "Yeah." "This one time in History, she had this book called Annals of History." "She didn't know howto say "annals", so she kept saying..." "Dawn." "I have to talkto you." "Um..." "What?" "Can it wait?" "I'm in the middle of class." "I know." "Please, come with me." "I thought Mom was picking me up." "What's going on?" "Something's going on." " Let's go outside." " No." "Tell me what's going on." "It's... bad... news." "Well, what is it?" "What happened?" " It's bad." "Please, can we..." " Where's Mom?" "Mom had an accident." "Or, um... something went wrong, from the tumour." "Is she OK?" "Is she..." "But she's OK?" "But..." "It's serious, but..." "Dawn..." "I thinkthey're here." "Do you wanna come up?" "You're double-parked." "Let 'em give me a ticket." "What do you think?" "The purple, right?" "Cos... cos it's sombre?" "No." "No, it's too depressing." "It's like I'm a funeral... guy." "Well, this is... this is cheerier." "Maybe I wanna be cheery, like..." "like everything is normal?" "No, that's rude." "That's... that's disrespectful." "La-la-la!" "I don't care!" "If I had that blue one..." "Joyce really liked the blue one." "She told me one time." "You sure it's not in your room?" "I..." "I can look again." "No, no." "I should..." "I should wear the purple." "The purple." "I thinkthe purple." "It's just that it's so..." "I don't know." "It doesn't mean something bad?" "I think it's, um... royal." "Purple means... royalty." "Well, I can't see Buffy at the morgue and be all royal!" ""Oh, I'm the king of everything." "I'm better than you!"" "I have to be supportive." "Buffy needs me to be supportive." "I mean..." "God, why do all my shirts have stupid things on them?" "Why can't I just dress like a grown-up?" "Can't I be a grown-up?" " Sh." " Tara." " Sh, darling." " I can't do this." "We can do this." "OK." "We can be there for Buffy." "And Dawn." "Little Dawn." "We can be strong." " Strong like an Amazon?" " Strong like an Amazon, right." "But I wish I had the blue." "So, what do we do?" "I'm not sure." "Willowtalked to Giles." "Xander, what will we do?" "What will we be expected to do?" "Hey." "How you doing?" "I knowthe feeling." "I'm afraid I'm gonna start to cry again." "Xander cried at the apartment." "It was weird." "It's a..." "It's a thing we do." "What's going to happen?" "Well, I..." "I guess we're gonna..." "meet them at the morgue." "That's where they were taking her." "Um, Giles said that he was gonna go with Joyce, and Buffy was gonna go to... the school to tell Dawn." "God!" " Do you know howto get..." " Yeah." "It's at the hospital." "It's a wing." "We do morgue time in the Scooby gang." "I have to change." " What else did Giles say?" " Not a lot." "Are they sure this was... natural?" "I mean, Glory." "Giles was pretty sure that it wasn't her." "But she said she was gonna come after Buffy's family." " I don't..." " I mean, she could have done it, and..." " covered her tracks." " Why would she?" "She'd want us to know." "I'll tell you what it is." "It's the frickin' doctors." "They just let her out." "Clean bill of health." "Dig a hole in your skull - here's a Band-Aid." "Next!" "Xander..." "They should have checked her." "They should have had her in." "We don't have enough monsters?" "The doctors gotta help 'em out?" "I don't think it was..." "It just happened." "Things don't happen!" "I mean..." "They don't justhappen." "Somebody..." "I mean, somebody's got..." "OK." "Let's go." "Come on, you and me." "Come on." "You know I can't take you." "Damn straight." " Are we gonna see the body?" " What?" "Are we gonna be in the room with the dead body?" "I don't know." "No." "But I guess we should take over patrolling." " Yeah." " Oh, yeah." " For however long." " You know it." "I can't wear this." "I really should have the other." "Joyce liked it so." "Do you think you could have left it in the laundry room?" "Maybe." "I'll go check." "I'll just be one minute." "We're cool." " Are they gonna cut the body open?" " Oh, my God!" "Would you just stop talking?" "Just shutyour mouth." "Please." " What am I doing?" " How can you act like that?" "Am I supposed to be changing my clothes a lot?" "Is that the helpful thing to do?" " Guys..." " You behave..." " Nobody will tell me." " Because it's not OK to askthese things!" "But I don't understand!" "I don't understand howthis all happens, how we go through this." "I mean, I knew her, and then she's..." "There's just a body." "And I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead any more." "It's stupid." "It's mortal and stupid." "And Xander's crying and not talking." "And I was having fruit punch." "And I thought..." ""Well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch ever, and she'll never have eggs, or yawn or brush her hair, not ever."" "And no one will explain to me why." "We don't know... how it works." "Or why." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Some... pent-up..." "Xander?" " Where did your hand go?" " As I said, some frustration, and now, uh..." " I appear to be stuck." " My God." "Is your hand OK?" "Pretty much." "I'm really sorry." "You could have hit an electrical... thing!" "And once again with the sorry." "Did it make you feel better?" " For a second there." " A whole second?" " In my defence, some crappy wallmanship." " Yeah." "You can hear everything next door." " Who did the dry wall in this place?" " I always forget to ask." " Did I miss something?" " Xander decided that he blames the wall." " Can you turn your wrist?" " Hold on." "It's OK." "It hurts." "Here, wash it off." " Band-Aids?" " Underneath." "I couldn't find it." "It doesn't matter." "We should get there." "Yes." "I wanna be there for Buffy." "You're right." "The Avengers gotta get with the assembling." "We'll go." "We'll deal." "We'll help." "That's what we do." "We help Buffy." "How are we going to help?" "If there's anything we can do..." "Glad you're here." " Love you so much." " I know." "They're not telling us anything." "Doctor?" " OK, I've examined your mother's body." " Can we see her?" "Dawn, not now." "The on-site report seems more or less accurate." "Your mother did have what looks like an aneurysm." "A sudden haemorrhaging from a ruptured arterial vessel near the..." " Where the tumour was removed." " Shouldn't we have known about that?" "That... was a danger?" "Sometimes these things are detectable, and sometimes they're not." "Joyce was aware of the possibility of a rupture, and the effects." "She didn't even get on the phone, so clearly this was very sudden." "She may have felt a little nausea, and probably passed out as it happened." "I doubt there was much pain, and even if someone had been by her side..." " My head." " Mom?" "...it's doubtful that this could have been dealt with in time." "Thank you, Doctor." "Are you sure..." "that there wasn't a lot of pain?" "Absolutely." "I have to lie to make you feel better." "What, uh..." "What needs to be done now?" "Well, there, uh... there'll be some forms, and some decisions you'll need to make." "Buffy, why don'tyou let me handle those as much as I can?" " Please." " We will need you to sign release forms." "Yes." "Thank you, Doctor." "I'll figure out which ones you need to see." "We'll be here." "What did the doctor say?" "Nothing." "It's, you know, it's what we thought, the tumour." "Why don't we sit down?" "Giles says he's gonna go over the paperwork." "Man, if there's one day they should not give you homework." "Dawnie, do you wanna sit?" "I don't think we're gonna have to be here very long." "What about..." "What about what?" "Nothing." "I have to pee." " Do you want someone to go with you?" " No." " I still remember howto pee." " Do you know where it is?" "Yeah." "I think maybe she's mad at me or something." " Cos you were the one that told her?" " How'd she take it?" "Meltdown." "She just wouldn't believe me." "I still don't think she does." "I wish that Joyce didn't die." "Because she was nice." "And now we all hurt." "Anya, ever the wordsmith." "Thank you." "Do you want anything?" "Something to eat, or soda?" "Honestly, I couldn't tell." "Well, I think you should try to eat something." "Yeah, maybe Dawn could use a snack." "I'll find something." "Xander, do you have any money?" " We'll come with." " We'll be right quick." "I'm sorry you have to go through all of this." "You don't have to worry about me." "Everybody wants to help." "I don't even know if I'm... here." "I don't know what's going on." "Never done this." "That's just an amazingly dumb thing to say." "Obviously, I've never done this before." "I have." "My mother died when I was 17." "I didn't know." "I'm sorry." "No, no." "I didn't mean to..." "I'm only telling you this because..." "I know it's not my place, but..." "There's things... thoughts and reactions I had that I couldn't... understand or even try to explain to anyone else." "Thoughts that made me feel like I was losing it, or like I was some kind of horrible person." "I know it's different for you... because it's always different, but if you ever need..." "Was it sudden?" " What?" " Your mother." "No." "And yes." "It's always sudden." "We panicked." "Uh-huh." " Have anything you want." " The sandwiches are meat." "I'm just not hungry." "What about Dawnie?" " Is she still in the bathroom?" " I guess." "You guys wait here." "Dawn?" "Is she cold?" "It's not her." "It's not her." "She's gone." "Where'd she go?"