BtVS Triple Drabble: Slayer's Mom

[badly_knitted]

 


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.
Written For: Challenge 381: Amnesty 63 at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 362: Brave.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BtVS, or the characters.
A/N: Triple drabble.
 


 
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
 



 
 
 

Comments

[apachefirecat]

You know, I don't think I've ever seen it explored how much it had to hurt Joyce to realize that her daughter's future had been decided for her, after all the dreams she no doubt had her for her only child and all the struggling she had done to be able to provide her a future.

[badly_knitted]

I think a lot of people overlook the impact it had on Joyce, and her guilt over punishing Buffy for her 'delinquent' behaviour now that she knows what was really going on. Now she knows that Buffy might not survive her teens, that has to be hard to deal with. She wants to protect her daughter, but she can't.

Thank you!

[apachefirecat]

A good mother's worst nightmare is something happening to their child, and Joyce had to contend with that nightmare every night! Then when she got sick... She knew she was dying and still powerless to help her baby girl. It had to seriously crush her at times!

[badly_knitted]

Yes, poor Joyce, I really felt for her. She had such a tragic end after all that.

[apachefirecat]

There really was so much more they could have done with her, but it's a sad fact that creators often look at killing the parents off at being essential in the main character's coming of age progress. Still, at the very least, they could have done far more with her and if not Buffy then with Spike, Giles, or even maybe... Tara?

[badly_knitted]

Sometimes creators run out of ideas for characters, or find themselves juggling too many, and there's no denying The Body was a very effective episode, but it was a waste of potential. Then again, I think that every time a character I like gets killed off. At least with fanfic we can study the characters in more depth, and even change things we don't like.

[apachefirecat]

Two reasons why I'll always love fan fic! :)

[badly_knitted]

We often do better by our favourite characters than the writers did.

[apachefirecat]

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[badly_knitted]

♥