Title: Slayer's Mom
Fandom: BtVS
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Joyce, Buffy.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 300
Spoilers: Shortly before Gingerbread.
Summary: Joyce is struggling with being the mother of the Slayer.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 381: Amnesty 63, using Challenge 362: Brave.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BtVS, or the characters.



Joyce wants to be proud of Buffy, honestly she does. Her daughter is so brave, so selfless, battling demons and vampires, putting herself in harm’s way to save the lives of people who probably have no idea what dangers lurk in the dark. A few months ago, Joyce herself had been completely unaware that demons were real, and that the peaceful town she’d bought her little girl to was situated on a Hellmouth.

But now she does know, and it changes everything. Part of her wishes Buffy had never told her, that she could go back to the blissful ignorance of before, when all she’d had to worry about was her daughter getting into fights. That had been bad enough, but knowing what it is that Buffy’s fighting…

She’s scared. Some of the monsters don’t even look like monsters, they could be ordinary people, until their faces change into something hideous, unnatural… Buffy is only seventeen, still a child, and yet she’s also the Slayer. She’s expected to sacrifice her teenage years, all the experiences she should be having, to walk the streets and alleys at night, battling the forces of evil, and it’s not fair! She should be making plans for her future, and instead she might not even have one.

The burden that’s been placed on Buffy’s shoulders is more than any child should have to bear, and she’s already been carrying it for years, since before the divorce, back when they were still a normal family living in L.A.

If she’d known back then, would things have been different? Could she have helped Buffy more instead of being angry and disappointed, thinking she was raising a juvenile delinquent?

‘I need to do more for her, be a supportive mom.’ Joyce wishes she was as brave as Buffy.


The End