Oh. OK.

We probably have to talk about stuff at some point, I guess, but, uh, I forgive you for murdering me if you forgive me for murdering you?

I mean it seems kinda different since murdering us was a completely reasonable thing to do?

I think it's different because if the magical binding thing was actually real and not made up then you guys had to kill me, and I was killing you guys because the people on this TV I passed convinced me that you were actually evil demons who were trying to destroy the world and that I was really really stupid for trusting you in the first place and that if I went off after Billy then you guys would get the Silmaril and use it to envelop the entire world in eternal nightmares, and that if I weren't the worst slayer in all of history ever then I'd have noticed this and would have shot you guys already, and so - 

I dunno. I felt like - like if I didn't trust you guys then I'd be getting something wrong, and if I did trust you guys then I'd be getting something else wrong, and I didn't know what to do about it, and so I hid the rock and then when I came back as a vampire I tracked you guys down and shot you. I guess.

Magical binding thing's real. But that's just - it's still our mistake it's just a mistake we made a very long time ago.

I guess. I guess I don't - know about it, any of it, really, so I can't really say, but - I'm not mad at you.

The, uh, guy who beat a kid into a coma, is he in jail?

Not right now, it only happened yesterday. We should get that dealt with. And I gotta visit Billy at the hospital in the morning, I promised.

All right. I - guess we can use the normal legal system for this, since he's a normal kind of asshole -

Yeah, that sounds right.

Uh.... I'm sorry to ask this, but....

Hmm?

I'm, uh, I sort of didn't get all the way reset and now I'm sort of on twelfth and main and I guess I could walk home from here but I'm really tired and also I don't have, like, shoes, or clothes other than this kinda transparent nightgown that I'm pretty sure I don't actually own, and - I mean if you don't want to come down with a car that's fine -

Man, I wish I knew more humans. - I'll be there in ten.

Thanks. A lot.

He pulls up a little while later. "Hey, kiddo, I don't think the streets of Sunnydale are very safe at night."

"Gosh," she says, and can't think of anything else to say, so she just gets in the car.

He drives her home. 

She reads random street signs for a while.

"D'you think Father Michael's mad?"

He stops at the next light and doesn't go when it turns green. 

"No, he's not.

I - " he taps the steering wheel miserably - "I keep feeling like there is clearly something that I need to get across to you but then I have no idea how. Maybe - maybe you should just talk to Michael about it, maybe he'll be better at it."

He revs the engine but doesn't actually move forwards. "I dunno. My brother told me a joke, once - a new intern on the trading floor makes a mistake that costs the company a million dollars, and he's pacing miserably around and the director of the company comes over and says 'well, now you know better', and he says 'wait, you're not going to fire me?' and the director says 'fire you? I just spent a million dollars training you!' - 

- only you didn't even actually screw up - easy to say 'don't listen to demons' when it's clearcut who all is a demon -"

- and she's crying in Alex's car, in this weird dream nightgown that isn't hers and probably isn't supposed to exist, at 2:14 AM on the 15th of April, and the world is exactly as broken as it was at 1:59, and she won, so she shouldn't have to hear it from anyone else, she should just know and not make a thing out of it -

- it was really scary, the whole time, and I know it was really scary for you, too, for everyone, so I don't know why I'm even saying this, but the whole time I was just - trying really really hard, and everyone kept saying that I was screwing up worse and worse, and I didn't know if I was, and I thought when it ended I'd know, you know, I'd be able to see the things that were definitely mistakes, and I'd move forward, and I still want to do that, but actually I have no idea how many of the things were mistakes, and I have no idea how well I did, and I shouldn't need anyone else to tell me if I've done OK, and I know from how many times it came up that one of the nightmares that came from me was just - that I've been doing everything wrong at every step, that I'm never good enough at anything to actually do it right, and I shouldn't have that, I should be able to know when I tried my best, and I don't, and I just - and I just want to know if I -

Well on the one hand he's manifestly unqualified to give children hugs, as the not-last-three-days demonstrated, on the other hand there's no one else here doing it - 

He leans over and hugs her. If you want a tactical breakdown later I can do that but, uh, I'm gonna wait for my people to yell at me first, I'm sure they'll think of things I didn't.

She hugs him back.

OK. Thanks. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thanks. We can - we can wait a couple days, maybe, until all of the - until things are less - an hour ago - but that sounds good.

The part where I went to hell and killed Lurconis was cool, right? I mean, I dunno if it was tactically sound, it was maybe kind of idiotic, but it was cool?

Very cool. Does he actually exist or is 'demon who eats babies' just part of the nightmare?

I dunno. We should ask Wishbone later.

Sounds good. - also the Mayor knows some interesting things about us now, that's inconvenient.

Oh yeah. Yeah he does. Uh, well, he really is evil, right, so maybe we can work on getting him removed soon? I guess that might be complicated because he's evil.