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Part 1
<If I could turn back time, what would I change?> Willow wondered to herself as she got ready to do her paper.
She thought back on her life, there were so many things she had done that she regretted now. There were also some that she didn’t really regret, but if she could she would change.
She had to pick one. But which? What one thing was there that she could change? What should she pick? She thought things over, and kept coming to one event.
She knew what she had to do her essay on.
The first thing Xander did when he got home was call Giles. He thought that it would be neat if Giles and Angel were involved too, they just wouldn’t hand their’s in.
Then he started thinking about his essay. He had a hard time choosing between two times, two things he did wrong. Which did he choose?
He couldn’t decide. But in an instant he knew. As bad as the other had been, this was one was far worse.
This one he would regret until the day he died.
Oz sat down pen in hand and tried to think.
<Is there anything I really regret?> He asked himself.
He didn’t really, he didn’t let himself regret. He dealt and then moved on, he didn’t think back. Therefore he had nothing to regret, at least nothing he could think of.
He thought for a while longer, wondering what that one thing would be. Then, suddenly he knew what his essay had to be about.
Cordelia tapped her fingers on her page.
<Why me? Why Now?> She wondered. <Don’t I have to worry about without some stupid report>
As she was complaining to herself, she suddenly flashed back to Homecoming. She realised then the one thing she regretted more than anything else. Something she still wondered about.
That’s what she would do her essay on.
Giles pounded his hands on his desk.
He wasn’t even a stupid for Christ sakes, yet he was doing the bloody essay. It was all Xander’s fault. Damn the boy for suggesting it.
There were so many things he regretted, which did he choose? It wasn’t an easy question, because he had a lot of answers.
As he thought back through his life he came to the answer and realised what he would choose.
“What are you doing?” Joyce asked as she walked into Buffy’s room.
“An assignment. The one thing I’ve done in the past that I would change if I could.”
“That sounds interesting.” Joyce commented.
“Why don’t you do it too?” Buffy suggested. “Xander told me that Giles and Angel are.” Her voice faltered over Angel’s name and she looked as if she was going to burst into tears.
Joyce watched her with a feeling of terrible guilt inside, and then she left. Once downstairs she sat at the table and thought about what she would choose.
<Getting pregnant when I was only 20?> She asked herself silently, and then dismissed it.
No, she didn’t regret one moment of having Buffy. At the thought of her daughter Joyce remembered the look on Buffy’s face and knew what she would choose.
Angel paced around the mansion.
What was he going to choose? He was 243 years old! He had made so many mistakes he couldn’t count them all, and he had to choose just one? That was easy.
Not.
It was just about the toughest thing he ever had to do, and he had to do it. He thought back through the years, trying to find one thing that stuck out.
Then he found it. Instantly he knew what he would choose, what he had to choose.
Buffy thought about it for a long time. She closed her eyes, and it came to her.
That night with Angel, everything had changed then. So much would have been different if it hadn’t happened. As soon as she began to write it on paper though she changed her mind.
No, that wasn’t it.
As much pain as it caused that night was the only one she and Angel would ever share together. It was her most precious memory, something she held close to her heart and couldn’t let go of.
No, she wouldn’t change that night because as much as she should, she didn’t regret it. She loved Angel, always would, and that night they were one.
Even if it was only for a few minutes, and she couldn’t ever wish it didn’t happen. No, she would have to choose something else. And a minute later she knew what.
She knew what she had to write her essay about.