Title: The Surrogate 6/19
Author: Jacqui
Rating: Back to G, sorry folks.
Disclaimer: Buffy, Giles and all other assorted Buffy candies belong to Joss Whedon, WB and ME. Elizabeth, and everything from her world, belongs to me (the real me, not the ‘grr aargh’ ME .
Notes: This fic is supposed to be reaching a finely tuned, well thought out plot, but all these little sub-plots keep popping up. Damn it. Eventually I will get to the end. *sigh* Until then, read on people.

Feedback: Give me a happy. wily_one24@yahoo.com.au

She knew she’d done the only thing she could have done, yet the guilt was piling up as she stood outside of his door. Her door now, too. Their door, Giles’ and Buffy’s door. Though she wasn’t sure of the reaction she would get now. After the act, Buffy felt extremely suspicious that she’d acted far too fast. She hadn’t thought and that was the crux of the matter.

The door opened slowly, easily, as if it had been waiting for her. She listened hard, but there was no sound, she wasn’t sure how to take that. Carefully she stepped into the living room. Elizabeth was lying on the sofa, Xander kneeling next to her and pressing a damp cloth to her forehead. Willow was hovering over the back of the sofa. Only Elizabeth looked up at her, giving her a small, weak smile.

At least one person in the room didn’t hate her. It was Giles, however, that she looked to. He stood to the side, looking at her with interest, cool interest, his face a stony mask of indifference. She felt a shiver dance up her spine. He stepped forward, stepped so close to her that she had to step back or be pushed back. There was no mistaking the anger in his eyes.

"I want to talk to you. In the kitchen. Now."

The steel in his voice left no room for argument as he turned on his heels and walked away. Buffy felt it to the core. She looked at the others for help, but they still would not meet her gaze. This was not their fight, she had made a mistake and she alone would face the consequence. Reluctantly she followed him.

"Giles? I’m sor…"

"No. You don’t talk now. You listen."

He turned to face her. His words barely reached the level of irate, let alone angry, but the feeling behind them was palpable. It stung. Giles looked at her with disappointment. She closed her mouth and wrapped her arms around herself.

"Of all the mistakes you’ve made, the foolish blunders that hurt so many people, this would have to be the worst. It was deliberately cruel and vicious. Buffy, I have never felt so disgusted in you than I have tonight. I don’t have to tell you how you made Elizabeth feel, how heartless you were, you already know that. That’s what makes it so bad, you knew how vicious you were being."

She wanted to cry, but she held it in. His words pierced her, not with their spite, but with their truth, their anger. She’d let him down, she’d let them all down. Tears were not warranted here, she knew that, she had no basis for them. Every word he spoke was true. She couldn’t look him in the eyes now.

"What were you thinking? Giving her an image like that? Tell me, was it worth it? Did you take out all your anger on Ethan? Did it make you feel better? I hope so, because nobody else here does."

He grabbed hold of her elbow and shook it, trying to get her to look up. Giles could see the pain in her, not just her eyes, but all of her. It emanated off her like a bad smell. She shook violently and tried to break from his grasp, he clenched his fingers tighter around her skin.

"Don’t… Giles, please. You don’t under…’

"Understand? No, I don’t Buffy, I really don’t."

She pushed him away from her, making him step backwards, taking a step back herself. The emotions of the past twenty four hours rushing up to consume her. He didn’t understand, of course he didn’t, she barely understood herself. How to explain those strong, overwhelming waves of terror and grief that left her without the ability to think, but with enough fear to goad her into action?

"I didn’t want to hurt Elizabeth, really I didn’t." She spoke quietly. "Please, I just, I don’t know what came over me."

"Tell me then, tell me what was so important that you risked getting yourself killed."

She gaped at him.

"Killed? Killed?!" Buffy raised a hand to her head, it shook. "There was no killed here! I went to him knowing what he was capable of. I…"

"You know nothing!" Giles spat the words out. "Nothing of what Ethan is capable of. Don’t ever fool yourself. And it’s not just him. You know what’s out there."

"And I’ve fought it every day of my life for the past four years. Don’t you think I can take care of myself?"

"Buffy," Giles lowered his voice, trying to keep calm, trying to calm her. "Things are different now. There have been no pregnant slayers in history, none that survived. You’re so much more vulnerable than you have ever been."

"News flash, Einstein, I’m not pregnant!"

"Not physically no, but you exhibit all the physical manifestations, all the hormonal fluctuations…"

"God Giles, this is a baby we’re talking about, not a science experiment! It’s a baby girl, our ba…" Buffy stopped, realizing what she was just about to say.

"This is what I’m talking about, Buffy," He was almost surprised at the lack of satisfaction he got from being right. This was one of the rare times he would win an argument with her, yet there was no victory this time. "You’re vulnerable now. Demons will have no problem taking advantage of that. You’d do anything to avoid placing that child in danger, anything! And that may very well get you killed, have you thought about that?"

By the look in her eyes, Giles knew it hadn’t even occurred to her. He watched realization sink into her face with astonishing clarity. She looked as if she were about to be sick, suddenly she started to tremble, to shake violently as she hugged her arms close, looking at him as if he were about to attack.

"I couldn’t let him." She spoke shakily, unsure of her words. "Not after all… Giles, I had to stop him."

"He didn’t do anything, Buffy," Giles moved slowly, like someone trying to ease a startled deer, not making any sudden movements as he reached out. "Not in this reality. He probably doesn’t even know what’s going on. You have to remember that."

"No, he did. He did it, he did it all."

"No."

He was close enough to place a hand on her shoulder, trying to bring her down from the precipice of hysteria that she was reaching. He’d never seen her so frantic. As his hand touched her, she sprang as if burned. The way with which she pushed him away shocked him.

"You didn’t see, Giles! You didn’t see it! He killed Willow, he killed Oz." She stopped as if someone had flicked a switch, her eyes looked at him lifelessly. "He killed you."

Without warning she crumpled to the floor, he jumped forward to try and catch her, but he was too late. She curled up into a fetal ball on the floor, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth. It struck him to the bone to see her like that.

"I’ve already killed one lover, Giles, please don’t make me do it again."

* * * *

The balls at the pool tables clinked loudly, somebody cheered and somebody else grumbled. They were far enough away for Willy to not really care about them, but he kept his ears well tuned. He did not want trouble in his bar tonight and he’d been getting a bad feeling. He’d tried to shake it off as a form of guilt for calling the slayer, but he got the feeling it was more than that.

His bar was dimly lit and smoke filled, not unlike any other bar to be found around the world, except this one was frequented by customers not likely to make friends with the slayer. That was one of the reasons he kept on her good side, if he made her happy she looked the other way. Willy was happy about that arrangement.

He wiped a greasy cloth over the top of the bar, it was a quiet night and there wasn’t enough business to keep him busy. Things had been especially quiet since the Mayor’s failed ascension. Not that Willy was ungrateful for it, hell, nobody wanted the ascension, but lately there’d been nothing.

It surprised him when a familiar shape stepped into his vision. As quiet as it had been, he should have heard this particular person enter. His throat closed tightly and he licked his lips with nervousness. A bead of sweat ran down the side of his face.

"I heard a rumor," Ethan spoke casually, running his finger along the wood of the bar. "that you’ve been telling tales on me to the slayer."

"Me?" Willy swallowed. "Not me."

"Really? That’s funny, ‘cause not five minutes after I arrive in town, I get a visitor. If you need more than three guesses to tell me who it was, you’re dumber than you look, and that’s really saying something."

Willy began to shake his head in denial, Ethan reached out and grasped the front of his shirt, pulling him half way over the front of the bar. He sneered into Willy’s face and Willy gave a weak little whimper.

"Don’t worry," Ethan reached into Willy’s front pocket with his free hand, he drew out a match and let him go. "I’m not here to hurt you. If you tell me what’s going on with her."

"What?"

He struck the match on the bench and pulled a cigarette out of his own pocket, put it between his lips and lit it. His chest billowed as he sucked in the smoke and held it for several seconds before releasing it in a cloud over Willy’s face.

"See, the girl who visited me tonight was rather different to the one I saw last time I was here. I figured, what with you being so close to her and all, you’d be able to tell me all the riveting details."

"I don’t know…"

"That’s an awfully interesting bruise you’ve got there. The little lady do much damage?"

"About the same as she did to you."

Ethan flinched as Willy gestured to the deep bruising that was beginning to rise on his neck. He almost missed the little shift in Willy’s eyes, but it was there. A silent signal that Ethan slowly began to understand. He walked away from the bar and left Willy standing there, glowering after him.

* * * *

Xander nearly tripped over his own feet in the rush to the kitchen. The loud voices that had emanated there a moment ago would normally have been enough to ensure he kept his distance, but there was no time for tact now.

"Giles! Elizabeth’s getting worse, she’s…"

He stopped dead in his tracks, his words forgotten when he saw Giles crouched on the floor. What astounded him was Buffy, curled up and rocking as Giles tried to soothe her. He’d never seen her so weak, she looked fragile and that wasn’t a word he associated with Buffy. Ever. Giles looked up at him with a stony glance.

"Go away, Xander."

"But Eliza…"

"Leave."

* * * *

Willy glanced around, making sure that no one marked his entry into a small room near the back. It was hardly brighter than the main bar, but there was no smoke. On the other side stood Ethan, who turned around to face him.

"Why all the secrecy?"

Willy held up both hands in a gesture of peace.

"Hey, I’m neutral. I have to be. I work with you, I work with the slayer. I don’t care about either of you, but I’m not about to put her in jeopardy, those things out there don’t need to know what I’m about to say."

"Then say it."

"Strangeness abounds in slayer land. Things just aren’t right. The other week she was supposedly out of town, in LA or something, I don’t know. But she was seen right here in Sunnydale. Which can’t possibly be true."

"Why not? She didn’t go, so what?"

"I have my resources, she boarded that plane and stayed there until her official return. But she was seen here."

"Okay, a little weird, but you’re freaked out about something."

"She’s moved in with that watcher guy of hers. Just while she studies at college, I hear."

"You hear?"

"The most interesting thing is this, I get the information today that the watcher has been asking strange questions in the medical circuit. He’s made an appointment under the slayer’s name at the local ob/gyn."

"The what?"

"The baby doc, genius."

* * * *

He didn’t know what to do, he’d never seen her like this. Buffy whimpered a little from her place on the floor. Giles could only imagine the pain she was going through, could only imagine what she’d seen. He didn’t know the details, and after this didn’t really want to know, but they must have been extremely bad to have such an affect on her. After everything she’d been through. He reached out a hand, trying to soothe her that way.

That’s when he felt it. Her skin was burning up, heated beyond all possibility. He looked at her trembling more closely and noted with alarm the involuntary shudders that were seeming less and less like grief and more like seizures. Her skin was flushed a brilliant red.

"Buffy?"

Her teeth began to chatter.

"Buffy? Can you hear me?"

He lifted an eyelid and groaned when he saw the eyeball roll back into her head, leaving only little red spider webs of veins. Without hesitation he scooped her up into his arms, her head against his shoulder already producing an unbearable heat. When he passed the living room he saw Xander and Willow hunched over a similarly convulsing Elizabeth.

"Pick her up, let’s go! Willow, can you drive?"

Elizabeth fit into Xander’s arms with little difficulty as they raced to Giles’ car.

* * * *

Stacey Beldam had been chief of the Sunnydale Hospital Emergency room for nearly two years, she’d seen almost anything that the town had cared to throw at her and that had been a lot. There was something about this town that made things vital, there was never a shortage of patients and certainly never a moment of boredom.

That night, however, things had been surprisingly quiet, no mysterious neck ruptures at all (and she had her theories about these all too common occurrences, barbecue forks her ass , just your average run of the mill household accidents.

That was, however, until the door flew open and one of her favorite regulars burst in. Not that she liked having these nice people frequent her emergency room, but they were always so nice and obliging. The pretty, red headed teen rushed in, a look of panic in her eyes.

"Help! We need help! Somebody?"

There was something primal about the way Willow screamed these words that made Stacey jump to attention. She and two others rushed out of the doors and almost collided with Giles and Xander, each carrying the girl she knew as Buffy.

She was momentarily caught off guard. Two of them? Then her instincts kicked in and she ran alongside the Englishman as they crashed through the doors, she shouted orders for beds, preparations for the trauma rooms, the equipment they’d need.

"What happened?"

"They’re burning up, I don’t know…" Giles looked at her and she could read the panic, the desperation in his eyes. "The baby…"

This stunned Stacey.

"The baby? Which one?"

They looked at the two women who had just been laid on identical hospital trolleys side by side, a multitude of medical staff buzzing about them. Giles stood by Buffy’s bed, as close as he could get without interfering, Xander was by Elizabeth and Willow hovered between the two.

"Elizabeth," Xander spoke up, gesturing towards the woman closest to him. "Her."

Stacey looked down at the brunnete girl in confusion, then across at Buffy.

"So this one is Buffy’s… twin?"

"No." Giles blinked. "Uh, I mean yes, I mean… This is Buffy, that’s Elizabeth over there."

"They have the same name?"

"Look, could we discuss this later? Just help them! Please!"

* * * *

Buffy placed one foot in front of the other, the path she walked was flat and smooth, but extremely narrow. There was no way that she could deviate from it. Turning to look behind her, she saw that the stone crumbled and broke as soon as she’d stepped away. There was no way she could retrace her steps and go back. She’d have to go forward.

Taking a deep breath, she continued walking the straight line of the path at her feet. To her left ran green pastures, as far as she could see, overrun with weeds and tangled vines. No short cuts were possible. She looked to her right.

That’s when she saw another woman, very much like herself, walking a path very much like herself. The woman looked up, saw Buffy and smiled. She was carrying something, Buffy thought that she should know what this woman was carrying, it seemed vitally important, but no matter how close she tried to look, it never came into focus.

"These paths are tricky, aren’t they?"

Buffy looked at Elizabeth.

"Do they ever change? We’ve been walking the same roads for so long."

"They’re not the same, don’t let appearances fool you." Elizabeth gestured to a small distance ahead. Buffy could see no change in their paths. "Look, the directions change up there. We’ll have to go our own ways then."

"No." Buffy widened her eyes, she didn’t want to walk the paths alone. "Stay with me."

"Buffy, I have to go where I’m led. You know that. Here, I need you to hold this for me, I can’t carry it where I’m going."

Elizabeth reached over the gap and handed Buffy the small parcel. Buffy took it and stared at the woman who suddenly veered to the right and away from her. She looked down at the thing in her hands and began to cry.

* * * *

"What the hell are they doing in there?"

Giles paced the hallway, his hands at permanent stations in his pockets. He kept them there to avoid losing control and hitting out at something. The temptation was great. They had long since been ushered out of the ER and updates were few and far between.

Xander and Willow sat on some chairs against the wall, they alternately watched Giles pace, stared at the floor or the ceiling, occasionally there was a scene to be witnessed in the other trauma rooms, but nothing to ease the growing sense of frustration.

"Giles? Maybe we should, I mean, somebody has to… well… call Joyce."

He paused, looked down at Willow and grimaced.

"Yes, of course. Right," He looked from left to right, searching for a payphone. "well, I’ll, uh, I’ll be back."

Xander stood up.

"Do you want me to…?"

"No." Giles gestured for him to sit back down. "You stay here with Willow, fetch me if anything happens. Anything."

* * * *

The ground underneath her shook, causing her to fall to her knees. She hit the ground hard, overbalancing as she tried to protect the heavy item she held in her hand. Behind her the path was broken, corrupted and disintegrated, she could not see what lay ahead.

A hand reached out to help her to her feet. Elizabeth looked up and saw a woman, not unlike herself, walking a parallel path marked with similar breaks and contusions. She took Buffy’s hand and felt the warmest sense of companion, of understanding.

"You can’t stay down there."

"I try, Buffy, but I can’t help falling."

Once again upright, the two girls began to walk their allotted paths. It seemed to Elizabeth that she encountered many more obstacles, many more setbacks than Buffy did. Or maybe they were just different.

In her hands the thing became an enormous weight. She looked at it and saw a beating heart. It shuddered and thumped with its rhythmic beat, glistening almost obscenely. Yet it was one of the most beautiful things Elizabeth had ever seen.

The path underfoot changed, she felt it suddenly. Looking down, she saw that her path had veered off and that she must leave Buffy. It sickened her, made her physically ill to think of doing that. She wanted to walk forever next to this other person who understood her more than anyone she’d ever met.

Elizabeth cast a frantic, helpless glance to Buffy. Buffy was looking back at her with a look of fear and pleading, her hand reaching out to Elizabeth.

"Don’t leave me."

"I don’t think I have a choice."

The thing in her hand grew unbearably heavy, she almost dropped it. Looking ahead, she saw the path she must walk and knew that it was no path for her precious bundle. She lifted it up and out, towards Buffy, who took it with reverence.

"Please look after it, it’s all I have left."

She heard Buffy’s cries as she walked away, knowing that they were only a fraction of the tears she was shedding herself. Or maybe they were just different.

* * * *

"This is unbelievable."

Stacey whispered under her breath as the two machines showed exactly the same rhythms, exactly the same responses. They’d been doing that since the girls had been hooked up. Everything, pulse, heart beat, even down to the brain waves, these girls didn’t move without the other feeling it.

It was the most accelerated form of twinning she had ever seen. The subject had fascinated her for most of her life, her mother being a twin herself, and Stacey had seen some undeniable accounts of it, but nothing like this. These two girls, it was almost as if they were the same person.

"Ok people, we’re done here. Let’s get them up to the ward."

* * * *

Joyce crashed through the doors with a purpose. She’d received the call from Giles less than fifteen minutes ago, there was no traffic law in the country worth obeying when Buffy was in trouble. And she knew there was something about this time that made it more serious than usual.

Something about Giles’ voice, about the way he had sounded as if he were about to break down into a quivering pool of jelly, the almost guilty reluctance with which he’d spoken, as if he shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

In the back of her mind it all added up, she knew he felt the same way about her daughter, that Buffy did about him and that, sooner or later, they’d admit it to each other. If they hadn’t already. She hadn’t thought about that since she’d gotten back from LA.

It scared her, terrified her actually, the thought of Buffy in a relationship with Giles. More so than her time with Angel, because that relationship had been plagued from the start with fate and inevitability. This one, and it tore right through her heart, this one would surely last. It was serious in the purest sense of the word.

With a purely maternal instinct, Joyce regarded Giles with a deep, jealous fear of losing her daughter. Nothing had so threatened her and Buffy’s relationship so much. Not that Giles would ever hurt her, far from it, he was the only person she’d trust more than herself with her daughter’s life. Except… no, not even Hank, she realized.

None of that was in her conscious thought, however, which mostly revolved around Buffy and seeing her, making sure she was okay. She rushed through the gentle confusion of people, those who looked shell shocked and confused, those that stared off into space, those that just looked worried and even those who talked with each other, seemingly used to the ER.

She spotted the three of them, standing and talking with a doctor. Well, Willow and Xander were standing, Giles was the one talking and he was talking quite animatedly. As Joyce got closer, she could make out his words.

"They are not a test case. I understand your interest, but there are to be no examinations or studies done on these two, do you understand?"

"Mr. Giles?" Joyce could barely say the words without panting, so worried and rushed she had been. He spun around to face her, both shock and relief at her fast appearance evident in his expression. "Is she okay? Where is she?"

"Mrs. Summ…" He blushed. "Joyce, they’ve just been taken up to the wards. They’re stable now, but not conscious. We’re about to go up."

The elevator dinged, signaling its arrival, Giles cast one last glance at the man in a doctor’s jacket and glasses and then turned, placing one hand on Joyce’s back, pivoting her away from him before she could ask any questions. Giles did not know how much Buffy had told her about the whole thing, and some questions now might be awkward. Xander and Willow followed them into the waiting elevator.

The ride was short, but extremely uncomfortable and silent. Joyce made to speak several times, but then decided against it. When they alighted from the tight, airless box, they spotted Stacey talking to a nurse at the nurse’s station. She looked up and smiled.

"Mr. Giles. There you are, I’ve been waiting for you. We’ve just gotten the girls settled. They haven’t woken up yet, but I don’t think it will be long."

"Do you…?" Giles pushed forward, stepping ahead of the little group. "Do you know what happened to them yet? I mean, why…? Is the baby…?"

"No. There doesn’t seem to be any indication of what came over them. And yes, the baby is fine."

Joyce watched the two, uneasy. It occurred to her that the doctor was speaking to Giles as if he were the girls’ guardian, or next of kin. Or… She shook that thought right out of her head. She noted that the doctor, who she didn’t know from Adam, but who seemed to know Giles and Buffy by name, was smiling warmly at him without even giving her a second glance.

"Excuse me? My daughter, can I see her?"

Stacey looked at Joyce with a mixture of confusion and annoyance.

"I’m sorry. What’s your daughter’s name? I’ll check for you."

Giles coughed.

"Stacey, this is… uh… this is Buffy’s mother."

"Oh!" Stacey’s mouth fell open, she covered it by extending her hand. "I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean, it’s just that… Oh Jesus, I’m so sorry. Hi, I’m Dr Stacey Beldam, I took care of your daughters downstairs."

She missed the brief look of confusion that passed Joyce’s face and was replaced by realization. Her hand pumped Joyce’s firmly, but not uncomfortably.

"We’re all very intrigued by the twin syndrome so strong in your daughters. Really, it’s rare to see so obvious a sign. Especially since they’ve lived apart from each other all their lives, I mean, having the same name and all, that has to be more than a coincidence, right? Sorry, if I’m rambling, I’m just so interested. Oh! Silly me, here, your daughters are in this room just over there."

Joyce flashed a puzzled glance at Giles, who looked back at her, trying to convey the message ‘just go along with it and I’ll explain later’. As they stepped into the room, Joyce paused. It came as a complete shock to see them. Two of them. She’d known about Elizabeth, of course, but she’d never seen the two of them together. It was remarkable.

Added to that was the mixture of wires and tubes that attached her daughter, and Elizabeth too, to the many machines that buzzed and beeped. She’d never seen Buffy look so weak and fragile. Her daughter, her strong, self reliant daughter looked like a little china doll.

She didn’t have to look twice before rushing to the bed on the right. Clasping the small hand in hers and brushing the blonde hair away from Buffy’s face with the other, Joyce leant down and lightly kissed the still flushed forehead.

"I’m here, baby, Mommy’s here now."

Buffy eyelids twitched, the skin crinkling with the movement. Her head inched towards Joyce, her hand jerked a little within Joyce’s.

"I’m here, honey."

"Giles?" Came the blurred, hazy voice.

Joyce stepped back as if slapped. She turned to the man in question and ceded to him with a nod. Giles stepped over to the bed, kneeling down and taking Buffy’s hand in his, he kissed the delicate fingers and then rested them back on the covers, near his chin which rested next to her face.

"It’s okay, Buffy, I’m here. You’re going to be fine."

His voice acted like a drug, the instant he spoke, calming and relaxing her. A small smile whispered across her lips and she opened her eyes and immediately focused on him. Her eyebrows arched with an unspoken question.

"The baby’s just fine, you rest, I’m not going anywhere."

Stacey coughed from the doorway, drawing everyone’s attention.

" I hate to break up the party, but I think we should keep it down to two visitors for tonight, the girls need to rest."

Nobody said anything for a split second until Willow stepped out of the corner, raising her hand timidly.

"Uh, we’ll go. Now that we know they’re going to be okay… Giles, you and Mrs. Summers stay. I’ll bring the car back in the morning, and some clothes and junk for these guys."

"Thank you Willow," Giles nodded gratefully to them. "Xander."

Elizabeth lay on her back, her head resting to the side. She took hold of the tears that rose and pushed them down again. Silently, she regarded the people in the room, most of all Joyce. Not her Joyce, she had to keep telling herself that, not her Joyce at all. Her Joyce was long gone, buried, unknowing and mostly unknown, in another dimension. She was not standing in front of Elizabeth now, living and breathing. She was not standing painfully close, so close that Elizabeth was almost swooning with the indiscernible scent of her childhood.

Because, no matter how similar, Buffy’s mother was not her mother and it was not her mother who was standing back, watching, as her daughter unconsciously severed the maternal ties that had been weakening for so long. And it wasn’t really her mother that Elizabeth had to keep from weeping for now.

* * * *

"This is serious, Will, what do you think happened?"

"I’m not sure," Willow crunched the gears and turned the wheel while peering, fixated, out the windscreen. "But I may just have a theory…"

"I mean," Xander was frantic, he could barely sit still in the passenger seat let alone pause for any length of time, he could not understand Willow’s seeming calm. "This was some serious stuff. I’ve never seen anything like it. What if it keeps happening?"

"I’ll have to look it up, of course." Willow suddenly careened into a u-turn of epic proportions. She looked at him thoughtfully.

"Will? Where ya going?"

"Giles’. I think I may have something."

"What? Temporary insanity? Watch the road!"

* * * *

"It’s alright, you know, she won’t break."

Giles looked over at Joyce and gave a small, encouraging smile to back up his words. She had spent the last twenty minutes, since the girls had woken and then fallen asleep again, inching her way closer to and then further away from Elizabeth’s bed. Joyce looked as if she were trying to convince herself that the girl in the bed was real, that she wouldn’t burst and dissolve if Joyce reached out to touch her. Joyce turned slowly to look at him.

"It’s all so unreal, isn’t it? Well," She shrugged nervously, "probably not for you, but… They’re so much alike and yet they’re so different. I don’t really know how, but it’s there, you know?"

Giles nodded, he sat by Buffy’s bed, holding her hand and absent mindedly stroking her thumb with his own. It was a gesture to comfort him as much as her. Joyce was looking at Elizabeth, her breath coming slow and gentle.

"She’s pregnant?" Giles nodded again, he knew that Joyce knew the details, but he also knew she needed a form of reassurance. "A widowed baby bride about to have a baby of her own."

He looked up at the catch in her voice.

"She’s been through so much, so much more than Buffy." Her eyes pleaded with Giles, he closed his eyes, unable to meet hers as he spoke.

"Buffy’s been through a lot too, but," And now he did look at her, a plea of his own visible, "I promise you Joyce, I’ll do anything within my power to keep her happy."

Joyce couldn’t do anything but nod as she felt her fears and hopes strangely merge and disappear as one.

* * * *

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Xander hopped nervously from one foot to the other whilst looking from left to right.

"Relax," Willow turned the key in the lock and twisted the door knob. "Giles wouldn’t mind, we’re doing research. He’d probably be proud. Let’s book."

"Okay, but for the record, this was all your idea."

They stepped through the door and Willow reached around the wall for the light switch. Neither of them saw the figure that stood there until he stepped forward. Willow took a step back, bumping into Xander who placed his hands on her shoulders.

"And here I thought nobody was home."

"Ethan."

NEXT