I woke up at 5am with a Buffyfic demon clawing its way out of me. It's more like headcanon/meta than fic and I didn't even try for Buffyverse voice because I've been in Tolkienland for three years and can't slip out too easily, but - well. Sometimes you have a lot of feelings about Buffy and Tara's friendship and you're very SAD that Tara wasn't able to be there for Buffy in the aftermath of season 6 and you have to project that sadness onto Buffy herself at 5 in the morning, and anyway here's a fic.

Not in Service

"We're sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service." -various automatic phone recordings

Buffy doesn't realize until she's gone how much she had come to rely on Tara.

of course the trouble with waking up at 5 to exorcise your demons is that it crashes back down on you right around the time you should be gearing up to start work