Beverly -- when you get a chance, I asked you questions in response to the feedback you left in my LJ on the fic (a few days ago).

t /needy

I wrote this one day in the Buffy thread, I cleaned it up and thought I should post it here.

Synopsis: If the ceremony hadn't been interrupted in Bargaining, they may have thought about digging Buffy up, like this:

Uninterrupted

This scene could have taken place in Bargaining.

"If the spell worked, why isn't she here?" asked Xander, confused.

"I don't know! It finished! It should have worked!" replied Willow. She was baffled.

"Oh dear god." Xander said, blanching as a thought crossed his mind. "you don't think she's...down there? Alive?"

Willow felt faint. "I - I - oh god! Oh god! The shovels! Are they..."

Anya was out of the clearing, running to Xander's car. "In Xander's trunk! I'll get them!"

"Hurry!" cried Tara, as she joined Willow and Xander tearing away the loose sod that covered the grave.

They imagined they heard a pounding deep inside the earth. Or was it imagination? Xander stood up and found a dead branch on a nearby tree. It yielded quickly to his powerful grip. Even as his mind was on Buffy he felt thankful for the strength given to him working construction during the past year.

Seeing that they had started digging by hand, Xander told Tara and Willow to stand back. He plunged the large jagged end of the four inch branch into the soft earth near the headstone and began dragging back the dirt.

Again and again he dug, taking chunks of earth out of the ground, flinging it every which way, making some progress. By the time Anya returned with the two shovels, The adrenaline was coursing through his body and sweat was dripping out of his shirt sleeves.

Whipping off his shirt, Xander wiped off his brow and chest, and grabbed one of the shovels. Anya stared for a second at Xander's intensity and started in at the foot of the grave.

Tara consoled Willow, who was starting to fall apart. "My fault," she cried, "it's all my fault. I should have known."

"Shhh," comforted Tara, "We all should have thought of it. You missed it. I missed it. We all did."

In the distance, the sound of motorcycles grew closer.

Xander kept digging.

I liked that very much, Daniel. I always thought the clawing was oogy, except for Spike tending her hands. Sigh.And thanks for your comments on T/F...it allowed me to rethink the scene and make it much better, imho.

Beverly -- when you get a chance, I asked you questions in response to the feedback you left in my LJ on the fic (a few days ago).

Now why on earth didn't I get an email ping about that? I haven't checked back on former LJ posts, so I wouldn't have seen it unless I'd had email breadcrumbs. I thought LJ did that automatically. I'll have to be more careful about checking back. Sorry. Off in a minute to read.

Daniel, that was lovely. I like that version much better than the clawing, yes.

erika, I still don't like the food touching each other on my plate. I like my shows-universes-worlds uncollided, for the most part. And also, most people can't make it work (for me, at least) as well as you have with these particular 'verses.

And while I'm at it, I think I've dug down, and your question, erika, helped me discover why I'm not an auto-slasher. I'm not agin it, you understand. I just don't automatically put anybody together. I like reading about relationships, but ancillary to an actual story, rather than story as a means to a pairing. I like my fiction to reflect life. And life as I know it goes on in glorious and grimy grinding detail whether or not there is sex.

This is why I love Buffistas. You help make my head a much less confusing place to be.

"glorious and grinding grimy detail" is sort of "Homicide"-sounding, itself, Beverly. I could picture a number of the squad saying it. I like crossovers ok, but sometimes they have too many gimmicks...freaky portals, dimensional folds, too many "ah hah!" connections. I was afraid I overdid that, myself. Especially in the first one.

Nope. It was lovely. As the present one promises to be.

Cindy, I answered a question. Was it the lie/laid thing? Was there anything else I missed? If so, point me more, um, pointedly. And 'scuse the dense.

All set, Beverly. Thanks for the lay. ;)

Bwah!

Hee. You're welcome. Anytime!

Um, do you guys need a room or something?

Not any more, erika. Sheesh, talk about slow on the uptake. I've got Live Journal creases on my butt, and everything.