Previously in "Sum": In searching for tools to fight the First, Buffy had a slight accident. Now it's the rest of the Scoobies' turn to get an inkling that something ain't quite right . . .
Chapter 3 Homefront
As soon as they got back to the house, Xander and Anya put Buffy straight to bed. They checked on her every half hour, but she slept motionless until well after dark.
She came downstairs just as Dawn was sneaking in the back door. “Buffy!”
Buffy nodded at her as she went to the fridge. Dawn shifted her feet nervously as Buffy began piling sandwich fixings on the counter. Finally she burst. “Okay, enough with the cold shoulder guilt already! I’m sorry I didn’t get the dishes done!”
Buffy looked up from her sandwich in puzzlement.
“You mean you didn’t notice?”
She looked over at the sink piled high with dirty dishes, then shrugged and went back to layering cold cuts and cheese.
“Okay . . .” Dawn was confused. “Don’t you even want to know where I’ve been?”
She slathered mayonnaise on another slice of bread, looking from Dawn to the door and back. She shrugged again, picking up the now enormous sandwich. “Out,” she said finally, taking a bite.
“Geez, hungry much?”
“Starved,” she said with her mouth full, spitting crumbs everywhere. Dawn watched in awe as she proceeded to decimate the sandwich.
“Holy Dagwoods, Buff!” Xander stopped in the doorway, taking in the scene. “Hungry?”
She swallowed the mouthful she had angrily. “I wouldn’t be eating if I wasn’t hungry. Why does everyone keep asking me that?”
“Whoa now, ease up. I was just asking,” he said soothingly. “You just haven’t been appetite girl in a long while. We don’t usually see you so . . . enthusiastic about food.”
She got the milk out of the fridge and slammed it on the counter. “Yes, I’m hungry, okay? Can I eat in peace now?” She took a long swig straight from the jug and began assembling another sandwich.
Dawn and Xander looked at each other in concern “Sure, Buffy, go ahead.”
“Hey guys, I’m home!” Willow called as she came in the front door. When there was no answer, she went into the dining room, dropping her school bag on the table as she passed through to the kitchen. “Guys?”
She found the three of them, Xander, Anya and Dawn, in the back hallway peering through the curtains into the back yard. “What’s going on?”
“Training.” Xander didn’t turn from the window.
“At this time of night?” She was surprised.
“Yeah, and it’s not your usual training, either.” Dawn stepped back to let her look.
Willow peered out the window and was appalled at what she saw. Buffy had the girls ringed around her, all heavily armed and, except for Kennedy, unsure of themselves. She was obviously egging them on to attack her, but whenever one approached she laid into them with full Slayer skill, knocking the girls around painfully.
Willow flew out the door just as Buffy let loose a wicked roundhouse to Rona’s head. “Buffy!” she screamed, leaping off the porch to stop her.
Buffy was bemused. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? You almost took Rona’s head off!”
“We’re just training.”
“Just . . .” Willow was dumbfounded. Finally, she said “I think we’re done training for tonight. Girls, why don’t you go get ready for bed.”
The Potentials all collapsed gratefully, leaning on each other as they limped into the house.
Willow turned to Buffy. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She stretched, catlike. “I think I’ll go grab a shower and go patrol.”
“Yeah, you do that.”
Buffy didn’t even glance at the others as she crossed the deck into the house. Willow stopped next to them, watching her friend disappear up the stairs. “Is she okay?”
They looked at each other. “She’s been weird since the accident,” Anya finally admitted.
“What accident?”
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