Chapter 14 by ThomasMoro

What happens next?

Buffy overreacts a bit

"Those can't possibly be real," said Buffy.

"I beg your pardon?" asked Joyce, glancing down at the top of her low-cut dress.

"Your fangs, I mean," said Buffy. "They have to be fake. You can't possibly be a vampire. I won't let you."

"Buffy," said Joyce, "it's not something that you get to decide."

Buffy turned away from the woman who appeared to be her mother and looked across the room at Vamp Buffy.

"It's your fault that she ended up like this," said Buffy. "It's your fault that my mom's a vampire."

"Actually I had nothing to do with it," said Vamp Buffy. "The Joyce in my world was dead by the time I was turned."

"You liar!" screamed Buffy.

She bent down to pick up the stake she had discarded earlier and ran across the room toward Vamp Buffy. "I'll kill you!" she screamed. "I'll kill you!"

Halfway across the room, Buffy was grabbed in a harsh embrace and **** to drop the stake she held in her right hand. She looked around to see who had done it and saw that it was her own mother who was holding her.

"Buffy, calm down!" exclaimed Joyce. "It wasn't her. I'll admit I wasn't completely honest earlier about how I became a vampire but I can tell you one thing for sure -- it wasn't her."

"But it had to be her," said Buffy. "Who else could it be?"

"I could tell you, Buffy," said Joyce, "but you'd never believe me. Anyway, the two of us need to talk. Preferably in private. Let's go outside so that I can talk to you without the whole room listening in."

"But it's a bit nippy outside," said Buffy, immediately covering her bare breasts the minute Joyce let her go. "And I'm not exactly dressed for it, anyway."

"I know, Buffy," said Joyce. "But I really need to talk to you."

Buffy looked around at the room -- and at all the stares she was getting from Willow and Kennedy and Jenny and Tara and Amy and even the Count -- and then she nodded.

"Okay, Mom," Buffy said. "Let's go outside."