"Giles, we need a better solution to this." Buffy stalked into the large reasonably empty warehouse, where the watcher was sat on top of a packing crate attempting to Andrew and a tall young woman directions as to the best way to get the large sarcophagus shaped box down from the stack of crates it rested on, without damaging it. "We can’t run an internet advert saying ‘felt strange lately? Have more energy than usual? Feeling stronger, with a fervour to help your fellow man than before? If this comes close to how you are feeling, or maybe sounds like someone you know, try calling this number, we just might be able to help.’ By the way who on earth uses words like fervour? Not that that’s my point, my point is we can’t scour the world for newly turned slayers like this." She tossed the printed sheet of paper she had read the ‘advert’ from on the floor.

"Exactly our problem in all of it’s complexities Buffy." Giles nodded and then scowled as Andrew bumped the just lifted sarcophagus a little worrying the watcher. "I think it’s important that we use all avenues that we can because I don’t need to impress upon you the danger a young slayer faces when she is unaware of the gifts she possesses."

"All avenues is fine, I’m just saying that looking for potentially crazy people over the internet doesn’t work for me." She came over and helped settle the ancient coffin into an upright position against the wall. "And please tell me that there aren’t many more of ultra creepy dead things in the crates from the old watcher catacombs."

"There are 34 total, but this is the only one arriving in this shipment." Giles nodded as he gave her the information. "If you would prefer we don’t run the internet ad then fine." He moved to inspect the casket for any damage. "The reality is that we don’t have the manpower nor the infrastructure to deal with this task properly. We just have to resign ourselves that we may not be able to help all the newly activated slayers in the way that we would like yet."

"See I don’t like that answer either." Buffy scowled. "Damn it, I think I preferred Sunnydale sized problems to world wide dilemmas." She continued to scowl. "By the way Willow called and wanted to know if you were planning going to hers for supper like the rest of us, or are you hanging around here with the dead things?"

"Well if we can stop talking about circular problems, and I can get this new inventory unloaded and catalogued, then yes I am looking forward to coming to dinner." Giles flipped pages on his manifest as he watched Andrew unpacking another smaller crate.

"Fine I’ll tell her." Buffy snapped annoyed with her watchers tone. "Has Dawn been here at any time today?" she added as she turned and walked towards the exit obviously expecting the answer to be negative.

"No, I haven’t seen Dawn since Sunday." Giles shook his head not even watching the slayer leave. Things were just far to complicated, and each of the Scooby core members were trying to fulfil the duties most necessary to their skills, but as Buffy had summed up, there problems had gone from town wide to world wide and they were capable in any capacity to cope. Especially with an 18 year old Dawn who was, rightfully so, disillusioned about most of life and having a rebellious streak that was starting to rival his own troubled youth.

"Great." The established slayer huffed as the door slammed shut behind her.

*****

"I wish you weren’t so far away Xander." Willow admitted as she tucked the phone under her chin and scowled at the sauce she had bubbling in a pan, which refused to thicken. "Everyone is cranky, Dawn is MIA most of the time, Buffy is snippy, Giles is…" she huffed, "Gilesy, Kennedy is driving me INSANE, and there is no one here to break the tension with a badly timed boobies joke or a good old fashioned French farse accident."

"I know…and trust me, there is no one here that appreciates my boobies jokes or any Frenchly farse… they don’t even get my box standard regular impressions and blonde jokes most of the time. I’m driving the contractors as hard as I dare, as soon as I can dig up the last crusty bit of Watcher Memoribilia I’m packing up my newly acquired limited edition R2D2 statue, that I can’t believe the guy was selling for 100 pounds, and I’m back driving you crazy my braniac friend." Xander’s voice relayed his own desire to not be on the other side of the world. "On the up side, wait till you see my new glass eye, I’ll put it in Kennedy’s water and freak her out if you want."

The red head chuckled brightly forgetting as she usually did when chatting with her best friend, about the heavy pressures weighing them all down.

"I miss Sunnydale." She admitted with a hard sigh, "I bought you optimus prime stickies to decorate your room." She remembered that she had picked them up on her latest shipping trip. Willow had been so happy when Xander had asked if he could ‘sub-let’ a room in Willows new apartment. She didn’t like being alone, and most of the time that what she ended up being. She had deliberately not discussed renting the nice two bedroom apartment with Kennedy. The young slayer was more happy living the fun life of hotel room pleasures, and to be honest the times they spent together since the end of Sunnydale were most taken up with bickering, inane conversation or sex, though even that was becoming less frequent and definitely less fulfilling than it once had been.

"Really? That is so cool… thank you again for my bootleg DVD of it, I can’t believe it doesn’t open here for another three weeks. I mean that kind of hard core rockage of the CGI cannot wait to be seen by my one good peeper." Xander knew he’d already watched the video 5 times. His transition into English life had gone… well it hadn’t gone at all. The thrill of the week was going to the football match with the boys from work, but as he didn’t understand Soccer, and still got headaches from long distance viewing of things, he mostly stayed in his little shoebox rental apartment and watched the bootleg videos Willow sent him. "I miss Sunnydale too, I woke up the other morning dying for a doublemeat special. I mean they were gross, and Buffy knew that for awhile they had demon in them, but still, I wanted one so bad."

"I found Dawnie crying in the park yesterday." Willow recalled sadly. "She wanted to get flowers for her moms grave then she remembered…" The redhead frowned hard as she just moved the pan off the heat, giving up on the hopeless sauce. "I don’t know if she’s going to be okay or not." She admitted.

"I know.. I was going to mention that… her last few emails, let’s just say she doesn’t have the usual spunk of the Dawnster. I’ve tried to talk to her, but as you said, without the live jokes and pratfalls, I can’t con her into spillage. Are her and Buffy still orbiting in different quadrants?"

"Totally, I think Buffy’s in some other universe some of the time." Willow was honest, "I began talking to her about maybe she and Dawn could look into getting a plot in the local cemetery, you know so Dawnie at least has somewhere to go. I don’t even think she heard me talking about it."

"You know the Buffster, she’s the Slayer but she never could handle the funeral stuff, unless she was there to stake the corpse." Xander made the usually off colour joke. "I think you should go ahead and do it anyway… for Joyce… maybe for An too… and Tara." He said the last names softly knowing the strike of pain that struck him thinking of his lost fiancé was equal too that which the last name caused Willow.

"I’ve contacted the Jewish cemetery already." Willow explained, "I decided a plaque would be best, with a tree." She told him what she had indeed already chosen.

"She would have liked that a lot Willow." Xander agreed with her instantly, remembering the blonde fondly. "Maybe you could send me some stuff so I can think about something for Anya then… I don’t think she’d go Jewish and she’s more a big statue girl than a tree, but I’m sure they must have some nice stuff out there."

"They do." Willow quickly agreed, "And I know that Tara wasn’t Jewish but she was my… "

"She was your heart Willow, she’s want to be where she would know you’d be happy to join her when it comes to that time whenever that is." Xander underlined that he understood her motivations. Despite her foray into the Wicca, he above anything understood that Willow Rosenberg was a little Jewish princess and always would be. Hell, she was the only reason that he owned a Yamaka.

"Oh Dad called." The red head remembered suddenly, "He and mom say hi, and told you to think about applying for a government grant, and opening your own one eyed construction company."

"I love Pappa Rosenberg’s sense of humour." Xander laughed for a moment the comment striking him as so very funny. "One eyed construction Inc." He giggled more. "I can have a big eye on my sign."

"But would you really get much business, I mean would you trust a one eyed surgeon to operate on your spinal injuries?" Willow quizzed.

"No." Xander said sobering with another giggle. "I miss you too Will, I saw this tiny girl with red hair in the Tube the other day and I swore for a minute while I was stalking her it was you."

"Why did you never stalk me when I wanted you to stalk me?" Willow tsked.

"Cause Boys like it when you play hard to get, come on Willow, I mean how lesbian have you always been?" He teased her with a grin. "Though you should come to visit, SoHo has some really awesome girlie lovin bars I hear."

"You only hear? You’ve not scouted and gotten details for me?" She deliberately sounded disappointed.

"I know I know, but I know the rules, you need a gay friend to chaperone the hetero when you go, if I go by myself I look creepy, if I go with you bisexual girls might take pity on the one eyed construction worker." Xander laughed again. "Everything is so fucked up isn’t it?"

"Yeah pretty much." Willow agreed. "But I guess dealing with it is what being a grown up is all about." She gave a shrug as she sat down on the bean bag near the phone table.

"Which is why I say again thank you for the Optimus Prime stickies, I refuse to grow up, the real grown up world is scary and more evil than the Hellmouth." Xander agreed with her. "But you missy I recall have a dinner party set up and I don’t want to be weeping on the phone knowing I won’t be getting any ice cream, so go on you, I’ll call you tomorrow night to tell you what I find in the new annex we’re ready to open and make more boobie jokes."

"Okay. I miss you." She reminded him again, "Talk soon."

"Miss you and love ya jewish princess…sooner than you think." The phone on his end was swiftly put down, something Willow knew he was hallmarked for now as he couldn’t handle long drawn out goodbyes of any kind.

****

"I’m here, not because she told me to be…" Dawn gave Buffy a hard glare as the teenager closed Willow’s front door behind her, "But because I wanted to be." She clarified for the redhead, "I bought you flowers." She added and held out a bouquet of orange roses for the red head.

"Thank you, they’re gorgeous." Willow took the flowers and moved to embrace the young Summers. "I’m glad you’re here because you want to be." She said softly as they embraced.

"You so didn’t have to do that drama queen." Buffy hissed as Dawn came and sat at the table.

"You so don’t have to breathe but I don’t see you stopping that any time soon." Dawn snapped back.

Thankfully at that moment Giles arrived with a huff and a grumble as he shook rain off his jacket.

"So sorry if I’m late, but the Zambian figurines were mislabelled, so I can only eat and then I have to head back to the warehouse to recatalogue." He hung his jacket up on the hooks by the door.

"That’s fine." Willow flashed him a smile and then passed him a bottle of wine and a corkscrew.

"She didn’t trust me to do it after I broke the last one." Buffy admitted.

"Well it was a rather unnecessary slaying of a good 87 cianti." Giles said with an English laugh as he worked to properly open the bottle. "Dawn, nice to see you."

"Yeah, school’s been super busy, you know." She gave a soft shrug, "I’ll help with the warehouse thing at the weekend though for sure."

"Your assistance is always greatly appreciated." Giles nodded but didn’t formalize any idea of commitment, the teenager had made the ‘for sure’ promise before.

"Is that for sure like the for sure promise that you’d clean up the bomb you blew off in the bathroom?" Buffy sat down and made the aside loudly enough for the teenager to hear.

"No it’s the for sure like the promise that you’d not be a bitch anymore." Dawn bit back

"Time out, time out." Willow came in with one plate of shrimp horderves which she shoved at Buffy, and a plate of crab ou’rderves that she shoved at Dawn, knowing it was each of their favourites and this way there could be no additional squabbling about who was being a pig with the yummy treats.

"This looks delicious Willow, and I must say I like what you have done to the place. New drapes?" Giles enquired as he poured peoples wine.

"Yes, thanks… I went with the waffle blinds, figured they were Californian." Willow made the bad joke thinking back to her conversation with Xander.

The usual double entendre that would have brought out a banter of activity, only resulted in Giles downing wine, Buffy and Dawn seeming to be in a canapé eat off and Willow left to sip her wine and sigh to herself.

****

"Oh God I have officially heard it all." Buffy walked into Willow’s apartment without checking what the redhead was in the middle off or had had to abandon to let her in. "Andrew and Rona are dating." She announced flabbergasted. "I walked in to the warehouse this evening to find them……"

"Ewww enough enough." Willow held up her hands, moving her laptop off her legs onto the coffee table in front of her. "People are showing very weird post traumatic stress lapses in judgement. I thought he was gay?" She asked the rhetorical question. "Him and Jonathon…"

"Wasn’t it him and Warren?" Buffy stopped ranting for a moment. "Perhaps he just wanted to make sure, I’m pretty sure he was a virgin until about fifteen minutes ago, why oh why did I have to interrupt that particular gem of history." She dropped onto the couch.

"Because you are the Slayer and it comes with many weird and strange burdens." Willow leaned over and rested her head on the blonde’s lap. "What can I do to drive it from your mind?"

"I tried ice cream on the way over here. It was a no-go." The slayer sighed heavily.

"Ice cream was no go?" Willow looked astonished. "That just means we have to make cookies." She moved up to stand and towards the kitchen. "Ice cream no go is the worst no go."

"I think Dawn is having sex." Buffy followed Willow dropping her jacket on the beanbag as she passed it

"Buffy, she’s eighteen and doing a senior condensed year for mature students, if she’s normal she’s having sex. Even I had had sex by now." Willow reminded her. "Be it boy sex and I have since come to realize if not for Oz, then I am girl sex only."

"I don’t know what kind of sex it is, but I’m sure she’s in a relationship and she hasn’t talked to me about it. It could be with a man, an old man, with warts." Buffy went a little pale.

"Dawn has better taste than that." Willow put forward as she pulled out ingredients and handed Buffy a root beer knowing the slayer would be in the mood for one. "I’m sure she hasn’t talked to you because right now she wants her own life you know, it’s not that she doesn’t love us, or you especially, she’s just trying to figure out what being 18 going on 19 year old her means, not being Dawnie the wonder teen to us."

"Apparently shes worked out it means sex, and sex can lead to babies…oh god do you think shes pregnant." Buffy stared at her best friend.

"No she can’t be that, remember the doctor put her on the birth control to help with her passing out when she has her period, I still pick up prescriptions for her so I’m sure she’s not silly enough to be that right now." Willow gave Buffy the ‘you’re talking crazy’ look.

"do you think she’s sleeping around? Being sleazy girl?" Buffy kept her deeply worried face.

"I don’t know, but I know Dawnie, and I think she has more respect for herself than that." Willow said honestly. "We just need to give her space and support, whether she likes it or not, remember what we felt like at 18 Buffy, and then think of the extra’s she’s had."

"You’re right." Buffy sighed softly, "I think seeing bits of Andrew I NEVER wanted to see in this life time or any other has made me freak out."

"Justified to the max." Willow reassured her. "Xander is lonely."

"How can he be lonely, he has his new eye." Buffy replied. "Okay, that sounded like his new eye would tlak to him and share his obsession with bad jokes and war films, but you know what I mean. No more mr one eyed creepy dude on the dance floor, he’s two eyed, so one of my eyes can be taken out and washed but im still okay, guy now."

"It’s okay that you admitted you found him sexier with one eye." Willow teased her. "You don’t have to hide your disappointment that he has two again, even if one is wash and wear."

"I had a sex dream about him the other night." Buffy admitted suddenly.

"He had only one eye didn’t he?" Willow giggled into her cookie mix.

"yes, and he was wearing leather and had a parrot…" Buffy grinned now obviously teasing.

"Maybe it’s not so much the one eye, as the greater pirate motif that turns you on FREAK!" Willow teased back.

"Was I the only one that thought the main attraction for the whole Pirates of the caribean was the sexy pirates? All be it that they were decaying and undead."

"Something your used to dealing with so your more open minded." Willow laughed again. "So… why don’t we try to see if we can get you a Pirate on lavalife or something? You have a worse sex life than I do."

"Of ocurse I do, you have a girlfriend. I have magic bullet." Buffy retorted, "The food mixer not the good one."

"I have Kennedy, which is less useful than the food mixer." Willow stuck out her tongue. "Do you know she showed up drunk at 2am in the mood expecting me to get out of bed? How romantic, you smell like gravedust and cheap beer and I so want you now. I"ll take the one eyed pirate."

"I thought your choice of girls ruled you out of drunken idiot moments like that." Buffy was honest.

"Oh no, there is always the option of finding the selfish, self-centered slightly butchy one who can be just as bad as any frat boy. No intended referece to your not to be named dude." She gave the usual casual apology. "Though lesbianism makes some things more intuitive and easier, it doesn’t rule out idiot moments by any means."

"Let’s become nuns." The slayer offered.

"Nuns of the chocolate chip cookie?" Willow poured a small pile of the loose chips for buffy to munch on while they talked and she baked.

"Is it a silent order?" Buffy queired

"No, but no using your food mixer as a sex toy, you have to buy a normal quite vibrator." She teased the blonde.

"I break them." Buffy grumbled. "Three in a month, honestly, they’re not made to last."

"If you were only gay Buffy, I could set you up with a nice butch and you’d have all the boy bits you crave and all the rough and tumble you need." She winked at her friend laughing.

"Sorry, I like the sweaty smelly bristly boys." Buffy sighed with disappointment, "But I thank you for your eternal support and generous offer." She smiled at her best friend. "Oh Will." She added with a sigh, "Why can’t it be like the old days? When just about now the person I love and the person you love would just stumble on in with donuts and mochas, and I’d go play with my boy toy in a graveyard whilst you and your girl do spells at home."

"No one every thought we were doing anything but having sex did they? You ,know sometimes we were doing spells." Willow dumped the dough on the counter.

"But you also had sex, right?" Buffy pointed out.

"Usually." Willow rocked her head back and forth. "Tandem magic can be sexy usually." She smiled to herself.

"Ditto for the sexy slayage." Buffy nodded and again sighed hard. "Damn Riley and his ability to get over me and get married to some super nice super army, super right for him type woman." She pouted.

"I still hate her on principle." Willow reminded with a glance at the slayer. "Maybe we should join a social club or… oh my goddess…" She stopped and turned. "I’m that old, I’m that old I was going to suggest we join a social club to meet friends who are old like us and are boring like us…"

Buffy looked at willow with wide eyes and slipped her hand into her jacket.

"You were and I’m afraid I have to stake you." She pulled out a short redwood stake.

"Do it!" Willow stood with her arms out. "I’m old and must be slayed before I buy some bad stirrup pants and a cardigan that matches any outfit in nice shades of beige and old woman."

Buffy was about to move forward to act out the slayage, when the door bell to the apartment sounded out making both girls drop out of the act somewhat.

"Want me to get that." The blonde pointed over her shoulder to the door.

"Please… I’m cookie forming… I got the cutest cookie cutters, the little gingerbread men shapes have had bites taken out of them." Willow nodded as she moved back to her batter.

"IS that cute so much as … sick?" Buffy offered as she crossed to the door and eased it open. Stood in the hallway beyond were Faith and Robin.

"Hey B, Giles said to try here when you weren’t at the warehouse." The other slayer smiled as she strode into the apartment past the blonde.

"Hello Buffy." Robin Woods smiled briefly at her as he followed Faith.

"Hello… and without trying to be short, I have to ask what is falling apart that you two are here looking for me?" She closed the door after them.

"Chill out B." Faith chuckled, "Not everything is a omen of an up and coming disaster." She flopped onto the nearest chair. "Hey Red, what you cooking up in there?" she called through to the kitchen.

"Cookies." Willow called before appearing out into the room with them and dropping the 3/4 ‘s empty bag of chocolate chips in Faith’s lap for the dark slayer to enjoy. "Still about 20 mins till there ready."

"Probably wont be here then, but thanks for the choco chips, you’re the best Red." Faith smiled brightly at her.

"Faith, it really is nice to see you, but I thought you and Robin were being kept busy over in San Francisco." Buffy pointed out the obvious.

"Always one to jump to the point B," Faith assessed as she glanced at Buffy and then at Robin, "Well go ahead you." She smirked at the tall man.

"Yes…" Robin glanced at Faith and then at the other slayer and Willow. "I… that is Faith and I… I mean,…"

"We’re getting hitched." Faith unterupted him. "Well eventually down the road, for now I just agreed to wear this hunk of rock, but you know someday I might get desperate enough to beg for a wedding or some shit." She beamed.

"Well congratulations…" Buffy looked between them a little confused, then concerned for Robin, then confused again at Faith and then back at Robin. "I don’t know what else to say, I never expected that to be what you said."

"We’re so happy for you both." Willow tried to mediate things a bit better by giving Faith a hug and admiring the ring, and then giving an ackward hug to Robin.

"Well don’t bust a gut or anything B." Faith shook her head but kept her bright grin. "We’re having a party, we thought here would be a good mid place for everyone. Wanted to give you the headsup that I’m gonna be asking Angel and the crew along." She looked at Buffy

"Angel… of course that’s fine." Buffy only flashed a moment of uncertainty though it was obviously more for thoughts of the past then any sort of a future. "And I guess that I can stay away from Spike for a few hours… and I’m glad that you’re getting married, that you’re both happy, you deserve it." She finally moved over and hugged the other slayer. "Though a wedding to go with the party will be more fun in a year or so."

"Well I don’t know if I deserve it but," she paused, "I never thought I’d even get the chance, you know?" she asked of the other slayer with a look of shared sympathy.

"I know, that’s why you deserve it and should run with it." Buffy nodded, sharing the knowing look between them. "When is the party?" She moved to settle on one of the bean bags and go over the details.

*****

"Hey will, is it like before nine there?" Xander asked sounding as apologetic as he felt, if indeed it was as early as he possibly thought it might be.

"Yes…" Willow said groggily turning over to look at her clock. "It’s before fourish here actually… what is going on? Are you okay?"

"Ah damn those british clocks for not being wrong." He cursed playfully. "I’m okay but I have a question, and it’s a tricky one."

"What?" She sat up in bed rubbing her left eye trying to get it to wake up enough to feel semi focused on his questions.

"If you were me right now, and where I was, doing what I’m doing and you found something that you thought really ought to be somewhere else, like with your best friend and other people who could deal with it and protect it, what would you do?" he quizzed.

"Xander if you think it’s that important and it needs protecting, then you do what you have to do. What are we talking about? Did you find something in the new annex?" Willow swung her legs out of bed trying to orient herself. "Give me details, send me digies, I can research."

"Not exactly." Xander replied cagily.

"Xander, then not exactly what?" Willow questioned.

"Well I did find it, but not in the annex, in fact not actually in anything to do with the crusty watchery people place at all." The young man explained.

"Then what is it and where did you find it? And why do you think it’s so important and needs us to protect it?" Willow tried to catch up realizing her brain couldn’t fill in any details that made sense.

"I found it in So-ho." Xander replied saying the sentence quickly and quietly as if almost hoping Willow would miss it.

"You met a boy?" Willow asked now completely confused. "Xander, it’s okay to be confused, you’ve had a lot going on, and with losing Anya, it’s not unusual to feel like you want to do something totally different."

"No! Willow no, I’m not gay, that would be you remember, I’m the straight guy with the two eyes, one glass one real." He did the quick reality check. "Look getting back to my dilemma here, you’re saying I should send it to you guys."

"Of course, if you think it needs it, Xander you might not remember the demon names and dates, but you have good instincts, if you think it’s important it probably is in one way or another." Willow assured him.

"I’m so glad you said that." Xander could be heard to breath a real sigh of relief.

"So what is it Xander?" Willow questioned again directly.

"I think it’s a key." The young man replied.

"Sorry, what kind of key?" The redhead questioned. "Wait…" She suddenly caught up to her best friends cryptic circular questions and concerns. "Do you mean a Dawnish key?"

"Uhuh." Xander replied just as quickly.

"Xander, where in the hell did you find a Dawnish Key? How do you know? Is she being hunted by a hellgod? You totally have to come home." Willow underlined.

"I found her living in a cardboard box under a railway bridge." Xander gave the quick explaination. "And I think she’s a Dawnish key, because all the crazies that were living in cardboard boxed with her, called her ‘shiny’."

"Is she willing to come here?" Willow by now was walking through her apartment and booting up her laptop as she put up lights, hit the button for the set up timer coffeemaker to start brewing and began a text message to buffy to get to her place.

"I don’t really know." Xander replied, "She’s kinda… crazy." He assessed

"Either way you have to get her somewhere safe, there’s the locks the coven put on your place for me, that should be sufficient until we can figure things out." Willow assured him. "Do you have any other info?"

"She’s got this pendant, I took a diggie of it. I emailed you it, and the pics I took of her tattoos." Xander relayed all he had done so far. "I’ve got her and her friend in my bathroom right now cleaning up and whatever, they’ve been in there an hour already."

"Keep her safe, you know the level of crazy this is if there is another Glory around." Willow flicked into her email and started to look over the pendant and the pictures. A cute feminine woman about 20 looked back at her in the photos though her eyes looked busy and her demeanour agitated to say the least. It also wasn’t hard to imagine she’d just crawled out of a cardboard box. "I’ll start research on the pendant and whatever the writing is on the back, I don’t recognize the script. Seems to be the same in her tattoos, wow she’s got more than Faith." The redhead remarked. "It’s best to check all this out Xander, you did the right thing."

"Remind me of that if I end up in Scotland yard accused of kidnapping or am found in a ice cube bath missing a kidney." Xander hissed.

"Buffy is on her way to me, stay by the phone I’m sure she’ll be calling you back soon okay?" Willow outlined the plan for the short term.

"Okay." He paused for a moment, "Can we deal with another Glory?" he asked his voice heavy with concern.

"We don’t have a choice Xander." Willow spelled out the grim reality. "We can definitely not deal with the world being sucked into inter-dimensional space now can we?"

"Seeing your point, hanging up…" the young man replied and the phone clicked off.

******

It was in the late afternoon, not long after Buffy had returned from Willow’s and the new mystery of Xander’s British Key when there was a knock on the door. It was loud and firm and when the slayer first looked out the peep hole, she was faced with the broad wide back of a tall muscular figure holding a ladder over one shoulder and a tool box in the other.

When she finally opened the door, she was met by the tall figure turning to reveal strong features and deep grey eyes, short dark hair and a instant wide smile.

"Hi, sorry to disturb you, the Super has me doing some repair work for him, he said you needed the attic space checked out, you were hearing some weird noises?"

It took Buffy a moment to remember that Dawn had informed her that they had rats and had put in a ticket to the main office, before she had left for school the day before.

"Noises, right, yes." Buffy nodded, her mind still full of the worries and conerns Xanders discovery had stirred inside her. "My sister was worried it might be mice or something, she might be 18 but shes a big baby." Buffy stepped back slightly.

"Better to be safe about these things, it shouldn’t take me long to peek around, see if there are any airholes or any evidence of critters. If it is a critter it’s more like a racoon or a squirrel looking for somewhere warm to hole up in." The tall, obvious to Buffy now woman, moved into the middle of the living room and put the ladder down, positioning it to get up to the framed area in the ceiling that could be moved back to get to the attic space.

"When she was little she would have been dying to get up there herself and keep whatever it was." Buffy tried to keep engaged in polite discussion.

"Though furry things are usually cute, they aren’t as keen to be pets as people, especially little ones, like to think." The woman smiled again moving up the ladder to easily put aside the false area of ceiling. "Have you had any other maintenance concerns?"

"Dawn, my sister says the fire alarm isn’t working properly, but I think that was more her subtly suggesting I burned supper." Buffy offered.

"I’m sure even if you’re not much of a cook, you have other special skills." The tall woman winked at her before hoisting herself with apparent ease up into the crawl space with nothing but the power of her arms. The sound of a flashlight being turned on and the inspection starting was easily heard by Buffy in the living room.

"Did you want a drink or anything, I was just getting myself one." Buffy offered, a little unsure as to what was considered polite in such circumstances, after all she’d never lived in a condo complex before.

"A glass of water will be good, I might have to bother you for a few more minutes then I thought, there definitely was a critter up here and it’s made a mess of the insulation. No point in you paying more for your hydro to cool the place down if you don’t have too." The woman’s head poked out reaching down into the tool box to get a can of spray insulation. "My name is George by the way, I live in 1029."

"Buffy." Buffy offered, "It wasn’t a rat was it?" She asked and then realised how horrible that sounded, suggesting that the building that obviously employed as well as housed the other woman had vermin issues.

"To be honest looks like a bird tried to get in, found it wasn’t the sorta place good for laying eggs and left." George answered back. "usually a good sign of no rats." She looked down again and held out a bright red feather to Buffy. "Good thing she wanted somewhere with more natural light, nothing worse then having to rehome a nest full of cardinals."

"But they’re so pretty." Buffy pouted a little, "People should just let them live in their eaves." She clarified as she took the feather. "Dawn would be upset if you’d have moved a nest or anything." She added trying to share the ‘cute birdy sympathy’ between the two of them rather than taking the whole share herself and appearing a ‘sentimental weirdo’.

"Oh no worries, I convinced Ernie the Super to let me put birdhouses in the back of the parking garage so they would stop burrowing into the crawl spaces in the condos." George admitted. "Makes the birds happy and the tenants happy, this one must have realized after all the hard work of getting in here that the bird condo was confier, and Mrs Okeefe from 3030 brings bird seed to the houses ever day."

"You must have lived here a while." Buffy offered as she got a glass of water for George and a can of pop for herself.

"Not quite a year, ever since I left the Marines." George said coming down the ladder to accept the glass. "Just have to let that cure for five minutes or so and then I can do a air leak test."

"You can just leave the marines?" Buffy asked offering the glass of water.

"Not exactly, but my tour was up and I was offered a nice honourable discharge package." George gave a left sided grin. "If you just leave they have this tendency of sending the MP’s after you."

"Well yes, I thought that, my last boyfriend, he was in the military." Buffy replied, "They didn’t seem the so long thanks for all the fighting, have a nice life type." She gave a hesitant smile, "Not that I mean they’re all Nazi you must stay with us till you die, or your limbs shrivel or we make you into a human demon hybrid…" She stopped herself. "I didn’t think you could resign from being a marine’s all I meant."

George looked at her for a moment and then smiled with a soft laugh.

"I guess the easiest way to say it is that I’d served my purpose for them, and they had stronger younger solider to fill my place. They can recall me under certain circumstances but I don’t have to salute my boss every morning anymore." George leaned against the ladder still smiling at the blonde.

"Ernie doesn’t look the type to get off on that kind of thing, oh, not that I think of Ernie getting off…" Buffy blushed horribly, "I think it’s best I just close my mouth now and drink my pop, through my nose."

"I’m not sure the bubbles in your sinuses would be good, but I’m sure the smile you would get would be cute." George just continued to smile warmly at her, not reacting in any way badly to the slayer’s a la Willow babble fest. "Besides the idea of rats in your attic could send anyone off the rails a little."

"Oh no, I mean rats aren’t too bad, you know there are worse things, much worse… bats… bats are worse than rats, even if they rhyme." Buffy pointed out. "They carry rabies, and no one wants that."

"Or typhoid." George added with a soft laugh.

"Exactly." Buffy nodded, glancing around in silence for a moment or two.

"I really am sorry for disturbing you, I know it’s impossible to feel at home with a stranger poking around in your attic, but don’t let me keep you, as I said another five ten minutes and I’ll be out of your hair." George relayed after the moment of silence.

"No it’s fine, I’d just gotten in myself, wasn’t even sure what I was going to do." Buffy shook her head, "I have a friend who’s just…" she stopped. "That is I’ve got a hundred things I could be doing but right now they’re all just rumbling around so I cant focus on any of them. So do you do most of the maintanence?"

"Yes, you can’t trust Ernie on a ladder or with a wrench or a screwdriver or any tool for that matter." George laughed. "It keeps me busy and lowers my rent a little which is always good on a servicemens pension." She laughed lightly. "Though I have to say, no matter what is going on the best way to tackle it is to set priorities and goals, make an attack plan and be ready to think on the fly cause no plan ever works out right no matter how you try to think of all the angles."

"That just proves you’ve lived through the marines and come out the other side, Riley would never suggest that any mission plan had flaws and could go wrong." Buffy chuckled, remembering how at the first of it all Riley had been so innocent and so trusting in the goodness of the initiative. Then remembering not so jovially the learning curve they had all experienced in it.

"Well not being sure what capacity he was stationed in, all I can say is most of my missions involve covert action, being somewhere I shouldn’t with large guns and explosives and doing most things on the fly when it goes FUBAR." George admitted.

"Not that you should admit that." Buffy teased, "I know all about governmental security."

"Oh no ma’am, every 467 secret missions I have been on were 110 percent successful according to the brass, now for those of us in the middle of it, there was some deviation from the original plan, but primary objectives were met." George nodded that Buffy was completely right.

Buffy glanced at the clock on the fire mantel and cursed softly.

"Any minute now my sister may, or may not, burst through the front door, full of complaints and demanding food and or solace. I apologise in advance for anything she or I may say to each other, and for any apparent drop in my demeanour and apparent age."

"I understand, no one knows how to push your buttons like your siblings." George nodded. "I’ve had enough brothers and sisters in the service to know how down and dirty it can get when you’re in a rough patch. She seems a nice young woman though, lucky to have you looking out for her."

"If only she thought that." Buffy rolled her eyes, just as the rattling echo of the main buildings front door rang through the entire apartment. "Oh I do believe the hurricane landed."

"Let me leave you too it and check the draft up there." George headed up the ladder with a smile.

"Coward!" Buffy called childishly after her as the front door swung open and Dawn stormed in with a head full of steam.

"Great, I get home hoping to talk to you about how my life is over and your staring at the maintenance man’s ass like some desperate house wife." Dawn stopped briefly looking at her sister in disgust.

"I’m not staring at Georges, or anyone else’s ass, I’m wondering what the extra charge for you breaking the main door will be." Buffy snapped back.

"It’s a big security door Buffy, the only one here likely to break it is you!" Dawn struck back instantly. "And hello, we both know you are so desperate, you’ll probably make George do five other fixes just to stare at any boy ass. NO OFFENSE GEORGE!"

"None taken ma’am." George’s deep voice called out of the attic.

Dawn seemed to stop and look at the hole before moving closer to Buffy.

"You’re looking at butch bum?"{ She said in a softer voice shocked by her sister.

"I’m not looking at anything." Buffy replied just as softly, "I was trying to be a polite normal everyday condo renter." She hissed, "Whilst George, aka the ‘tight ass cheeked work man’ fixed our cardinal problem." She held up the red feather.

"Oh cool, must be the same ones that nest out by the edge of the parking garage." The brunette took the feather and then looked at her sister. "Is george a girl or a boy?" She mouthed the question now confused as her sister had said that despite the definitely female voice, that she was a work man.

"She’s a girl." Buffy mouthed back, "Ex-marine, boy ass." She added.

"Oooo can we set her up with Willow? I always tell Willow she needs a butch to look after her." Dawn looked up into the dark hole.

"Go to your room!" Buffy stared hard and pointed.

"What? Everyone knows Kennedy has been fucking around on her, stupid bitch." Dawn hissed.

"What?! Kennedy is sleeping around?" Buffy literally stopped stock still.

"Look I only heard from Tira recently, last time they went clubbing, Kennedy was basically doing some chick behind the shadow screen at the Crazy Cat Club downtown." Dawn rolled her eyes. "I was pissed too, but I didn’t see her so it’s not like I can tell Willow without knowing for sure."

"Okay today has officially gone in the toilet." Buffy huffed and moved to sit down. "What are your plans tonight?" she asked glancing at Dawn.

"Sit and think about how I’m never getting out of high school because the school board has decided that since the records from Sunnydale can’t be found, I have to do 4 other credits to graduate, English and math courses and a history I did already." Dawn literally growled the facts.

"Willow will help you wiz though them, or just hack your results if you crap out." Buffy shrugged

"I didn’t crap out the first time." Dawn huffed. "It’s all so stupid, I think I’m dropping out." She moved off towards her room.

"Dropping out!! Get back here missy!!" Buffy pushed up and scooted after her.

Before the slayer could get very far there was the loud sound of Dawn’s door being slammed closed and locked.

"I…um… it’s all done. Shouldn’t be any more noises." George seemed to appear at the bottom of the ladder.

"What? Oh thank you." Buffy clued back in to that element of her day once more. "Would you like a sister as a tip?" she added with a smile.

"If I thought it would be best for the both of you I’d say yeah, I’ve always wanted a little sister." George gave a soft smile. "I’m sure you can talk her out of it, though don’t let her do anything silly like join the army to get into University faster."

"Not a chance." Buffy shook her head, "They don’t take immature whiners that can’t act like reasonable human beings." Buffy said overly loudly.

"I think that’s the definition of all of us as teenagers." George gave a non judgemental shrug. "But at least I can get out of your hair and simplify things… and for the record, if you need a place to vent for awhile and have coffee I’m in 1038 like I said, I’m usually around."

"thank you, really, thank you for the offer." Buffy gave her a genuine smile.

"And if there is anything else that needs looking after, just slip me a note or give a knock to find me, it’s quicker than using Ernie and his official tickets." George picked up her gear and moved to the door.

"I will, thanks again." Buffy moved after her and closed the door after she left.

******

"Did you try Klingon?" Xander asked his best friend who was giving him the updates, or lack there of on the script and the tattoos of his ‘guest’.

"Yes, I even tried Klingon and the language of Dune, no luck." Willow admitted her own desperation on the particular topic. "I even got ahold of Clem and he’s never come across it either, his guess was interdimensional, which does make sense with the key idea." She leaned back in her chair. "At least Giles says his ‘contact’ should have the ID documents for you to bring her here by the weekend. As soon as they are in your hands then I can make the flight arrangements, are you sure you can travel with her?"

"She’s a pussy cat Will." Xander assured her. "Her basic run down of an average day, is, wake Xander when the sun rises, to tell him the sun has risen. Poke around the apartment naked till Xander leaves for work. Watch TV. Xander returns from work, and insists she puts on clothes, AGAIN. Xander works out what she has tried to eat, dissect, or taken apart during his absence. Xander rings the cable / fridge / microwave guy to see if the warrantee covers experimentation by an interdimensional key. Xander cooks food, she eats, finds gas amusing takes a shower and goes to bed whe the sun has gone down."

"So other than you working, she’s a you clone?" Willow teased him. "And since when does naked girl cause you concern?"

"Since shes wandering around my apartment and I’m NOT having sex with her." He clarified

"Ahhh right, well soon she’ll be wandering our apartment and neither of us will be having sex with her." She tried to cheer him up. "And you’ll have Transformers wall stickies and bedset. They had them at Target finally."

"And hey perhaps you and I can have sex to make up for the lacking." He teased outrageously.

"Okay, but only if you wear a strap-on, I have my needs." Willow sipped her coffee knowing that if they had nothing but slightly dodgy jokes then they must be at a research dead end.

"I don’t need a strap on will, that still works, I just lost an eye." Xander quickly pointed out.

"I know but the real you isn’t coming anywhere near me, and besides it’ll get sore around hour three of the lesbian sex." Willow laughed at the ‘lost an eye’ quip. "By the way, just so you’re prepared, Buffy thinks Dawn is having sex with some new boyfriend. So she’s on cloud Psycho Sister."

"IS Dawn having sex?" Xander couldn’t help but ask

"She hasn’t talked to me about it, or anyone that has confirmed it for me. I wish Tara was here, she’d have talked to Tara." Willow sighed. "Or Anya would have just had the balls to come out and ask her, unlike the rest of us."

"Hey it’s not appropriate for me to be asking about Dawngiovani’s cherry." Xander flatly underlined.

"Exactly… Giles is too old, Buffy is her sister, I’m… well I’m the lesbian so unless it’s a girl, I’m not it… whatever is going on I hope she’s happy that’s all. Buffy has convinced herself Dawn is sleeping with half the football team to overcompensate for the Hellmouth Blowup, which I tried to tell her isn’t Dawnie."

"Hell do you think she’s pregnant? We both commented she was acting weird lately." Xanders tone filled with concern.

"You and Buffy must be sharing a freak channel." Willow laughed. "She’s not pregnant, I know my aura reading isn’t world renown but I can pick up two auras."

"Yeah right sor…" Xander was cut off by the distinct sound of a loud BANG in the background.

"Call me later to tell me there isn’t WWIII on the go, love you." Willow hung up the phone knowing he had other things to deal with.

*****

"Okay… now I have tried not to pry, I have tried not to freak and put you in a locator bracelet but…" Buffy stalked into Dawn’s room with a long plastic glove on holding an offensive used condom in two fingers away from her like it was as disgusting as it appeared. "But hello… I know it’s not mine as I wouldn’t leave it in the garbage in the bathroom so… what the hell is going on?"

"Sex Buffy that natural thing that normal people do because it feels good." Dawn hardly blinked, "And flushing them is bad for the environment and the sewer system, I read it on the web." She flipped her hair back over her shoulder and turned back to reading her novel.

"Okay hello, the grossness outweights the environment… and since when are you having sex?" Buffy dropped it into Dawn’s deskside garbage. "And in this house? What is he stashed outside waiting for me to leave? It is a he right?"

"What do you think the white stuff is Buffy?" Dawn replied huffing.

"Fine, stupid question but… you’re having sex and I don’t know? I don’t even know who it is? Does he go to school with you? Is he old and ugly? Is he okay.. is he a demon?" Buffy listed off her questions.

"He just one of my teachers." Dawn shrugged and turned back to her book.

"I know sending you to that progressive school was a mistake." She headed towards the phone.

"Buffy that was what is called a joke, his name is Ray and he’s in the football team, I am the definition of cliché." She flipped over on her back to actually look at her sister. "We been having sex, for, oh a couple of months, it’s not hard to have it here because you’re not exactly Miss around a lot, and he’s really nice." She summed up.

"Okay, that’s all good… I want to meet him." Buffy sat down on the bed taking off the glove and throwing it at the waste paper basket.

"Fine." Dawn shrugged.

"How about he comes for dinner tonight? We could have say chicken." Buffy offered unable to believe how ‘not freaked at her’ her sister was being.

"okay, I’ll text him." Dawn reached for her cell phone.

"Great… do you want chicken or Chinese?" Buffy said still in shock after all she expected a screaming match over her need to meet the boy and size him up. That and getting Willow over to use magic to scare him and remind him of the shovel facts of life.

"Either is good." She replied as her fingers flew quickly over the digit’s. "You want him to bring it in with him?" she asked pausing mid text.

"Yeah sure, I’ll pay him back when he gets here." Buffy stalled as well. "Do you love him?" She asked softly.

"Don’t think so." Dawn gave a shrug as she sent the text. "Does that matter?"

"Well yeah kinda." Buffy admitted moving to sit cross legged on the end of the bed. "Does he love you?"

"Buffy we’re 18, and neither of us is you or Angel." She pointed out.

"True." Buffy nodded. "So… anything you want to ask me?"

"Nope we’re all clear on everything, I only have so many holes so it’s not easy to find one that felt good." The teenager said with the best straight face she could.

Buffy went an ashen colour.

"Dawn…" She suddenly realized that her sister was again ‘joking’ with her or at least she hoped so.

"Buffy it’s fine, Tara and I talked about a lot of stuff before she died…" her teasing tone softened slightly, "It’s all good, no ones making promises and no ones getting hurt."

"Good, though for the record I don’t care about Ray, I only care about you." Buffy nodded. "I know everything has been crazy, is crazy, will continue to be crazy… and I’m sorry it makes your life so crazy."

"I’m kinda used to it." Dawn shrugged and then glanced down at her phone that had given off a bright beep. "He’ll be here around six with chicken, okay?"

"Great." Buffy nodded standing up knowning she should probably say more but not knowing what to say. "Mom would give you this lecture like she did me about something to do with free milk, but I think you’re a little advanced for that."

"What? If I dated a milkman I should get milk off him because we’re having sex?" Dawn screwed up her nose.

"No, it was more about the whole boys just want one thing, and if you give them that for free they’ll never marry you and such…" Buffy tried to explain.

"Buffy if I make him pay for it that’s called prostitution." Dawn looked horrified.

"No, no Mom wasn’t talking prostitution." Buffy rolled her eyes. "She meant giving up the sex without making them marry you, I think it was some 50’s concept you know… before the sexual revolution. And I think she panicked when she found out about Angel and I and reverted to 1954."

"Sure that wasn’t 1954 BCE, you know because surely until man cleared out cave and built fire no milk was likely." Dawn laughed.

"Probably… oh but remember to warn him…" Buffy stopped in the doorway. "He hurts you and I rip off his good and bad football limbs." She gave a feral smile.

"It’s okay Tara’s got it covered, when I was sixteen she did a if anyone hurts Dawnie then they’re wee wee shrivels and drops off spell. It was cool." Dawn smiled.

"Good good to know." Buffy smiled. "I’m sorry she’s not here Dawn." She said softer. "For you just as much as Willow."

"She is, that is, I talk to her whenever I like, Will got her a place in the Jewish cemetery off Ninth Line, do you ever listen to your best friend anymore?" Dawn blinked dumbfounded Buffy didn’t seem to know this.

"No, I listened." Buffy said looking down. "I just… she shouldn’t be in a graveyard, that’s where I spend my time killing vamps. I should go set the table though." She tried to focus on anything else then talk of the dead people she loved being stuck in the ground, even symbolically since Sunnydale was 100miles into the fault the Government had decided caused the collapse.

"She shouldn’t but she is Buffy, so is mom, and Anya." Dawn pushed up and followed her sister. "You have to face that." She added. "Because if you don’t, then you’ll never get over it."

"Dawn, I’m happy you go there, I’m happy Will got a spot… that doesn’t mean I have to talk about it." She pulled open the cupboard having reached the kitchen to take out plates. "I’ve done the dead thing, I don’t like to think of them in the ground okay?"

"They’re not." Dawn objected, "And you of all people should know that, you said yourself when you were brought back, you were happy, you were some place safe and happy. That’s where Mom, Tara and Anya are." She stated firmly. "The only thing in the ground is the bodies they can’t use anymore. They’re not coming back Buffy, ever, any of them."

"Yes, but I can’t protect their bodies…" Buffy looked at her sister with an almost panicked look. "Before I could… but what if Anya is paying some stupid price for her making all those men suffer, what if Mom is being used by some demon, what if Tara get resurrected and has to crawl up… I can’t think about it Dawn, any of it okay? I just can’t, I’m glad you’re coping, but I can’t, I’m not, I won’t…" She started to shake a little.

"Okay freakazoid, I was just saying…" Dawn backed up a little. "I’ll be in my room." She turned.

"Tara should have been the one that Willow could bring back, not me." Buffy whispered not looking at her sister. "You would be happier, she would be happier, she was better than me."

*****

"So he was polite, nice, brought her flowers, wouldn’t take money for the chicken but you still don’t like him?" Willow looked across the coffee shop table at the slayer.

"His eyebrows meet." Buffy frowned, "that’s going to have to be sorted if he turns pro, and he doesn’t like the colonels gravy, I mean who doesn’t like the colonels gravy?" she looked at her best friend with wide eyes.

"True, Xander would agree with you." Willow nodded. "Do you think maybe you don’t like him because he’s doing your little sister?"

"WILLOW!" She glanced around horrified

"See just proving my point." Willow assured her. "It’s hard to like anyone doing the sweaty mambo with your little sister, I’m not too keen on the idea of him either, and I will dislike on principal especially if he has super macho unibrow." She gave a shiver. "I’ll have to talk to Dawn about having respect for oneself in the no hairy Neanderthals department, no offence to Beer Bad Buffy."

"Non taken, I shampoo condtition rinse, at least five times after that and still felt ichy." Buffy admitted.

"I always thought your fascination with ‘girl soft’ was the cutest bit." Willow winked at her.

"That’s because you’re a lesbian." Buffy replied evenly, "apparently Neanderthal Buffy is Bi."

"I think all Neanderthals were bi, what choices were there really when you had a 22 year life expectancy?" Willow shrugged. "Hey the good thing here is you know who he is, and I have a big shovel if necessary, though I’m sure Tara’s if you hurt Dawn you’re wee wee shrivels and drops off spell is effective for like 40 years or something. She put extra mohohov root in it."

"Dawn was serious about that?" Buffy blinked at her best friend.

"Oh yes, Tara took that kind of thing really serious. Why do you think they rushed that one rugby player to hospital after Riley’s keg party? He did something with a friend of hers he shouldn’t have." Willow gave an evil but satisfied grin.

"Perhaps I should have told her about Spike earlier." The slayer actually smiled.

"In hindsight yes, just imagine Big William the bloody with no wee wee for eternity." Willow smiled back.

For a moment Buffy seemed to do just that, before bursting out in a loud guffaw of laughter, that didn’t stop until tears streamed down her cheeks, and she had to breathe.

"And before you ask, yes Tara never referred to a boy’s bits as anything but a wee wee." Willow giggled with her. "I got her to say penis once and I thought she was going to die of embarrassment. Well real boy’s bits were wee wee, our boy bits had their own names." She grinned to herself.

"Too much info Will." Buffy pointed out softly. "Dawn told me you have a place for her here." She added.

"Yes, in the Jewish Cemetery off ninth line. It’s a plaque with her picture in this special viewer and her favourite lines of Sappho… it’s next to her Willow tree." She answered softly. "You and I could go see."

"Sometime for sure." Buffy nodded

"I didn’t mean tonight, but yeah sometime." Willow nodded back. "So anyway, I have to ask… Dawn said you have a tranny doing your maintenance work?" she quirked an eyebrow.

"George is not a tranny, she’s just an ex-marine who keeps in serious shape." Buffy tutted at her sisters appraisal. "She’s actually nice, normal you know?"

"More normal than a transsexual ex marine is good." Willow laughed. "And Dawn wasn’t being mean, she was just trying to explain why apparently you were staring at her ass."

"I wasn’t!" Buffy squeaked, "She was up a ladder in my attic space…"

"I’ve heard it put a lot of ways but never that one." Willow teased her instantly.

"You’re a beast." Buffy pointed out, "An evil lesbian beast."

"I did point out to Dawn that even if she is a very masculine woman, that doesn’t mean she plays on my team." Willow laughed at the shade of red the slayer had gone. "And trust me, I know how confusing butchy girlish butt can be, think of my predicament, does the super butch really count as dating a girl?"

"Doesn’t that depend if she still likes being a girl or would actually prefer to be a boy?" Buffy mused, "I mean I read once that some actually wear you know… wee wee’s." her blush worsened.

"You were doing great on the PFLAG pamplets talk until the wee wee." Willow giggled. "And for the lesbian record, yes some women want to be men and wear prosthetics to make them feel more manly, while other butchy women or sometimes non butchy women wear them and as you said want to be a girl, are a girl and like to make other girls happy with them in a non-I’m a boy way. After all a dildo never tried to tell you that this has never happened to it before." She giggled more.

"Honestly Willow I just don’t understand how a plastic wee wee is anything like a real one, and I really don’t understand how if you don’t like one, you would ever like the other." Buffy admitted her mystification, "But its okay I can live with my ignorance and have no need for explanations."

"that’s no fun, I was going to go into long detail about non phallic vs phallic, and empowered penetration without the hinderance of male egotism and penis centric dominance." Willow shrugged.

"It’s okay, I like y sex penis centric." Buffy smiled at her best friend, "At least from what I remember I do."

"The way I figure it, to each there own." Willow smiled back at her. "I can’t say I have much experience with the real or fake, just a dabbling in both really."

"How is Kennedy?" Buffy asked suddenly blushing instantly, "Please don’t answer that in a wee wee sense."

"She’s… driving me insane." Willow put her hands up to her face exasperated. "I mean I know it’s my fault I’m a coward but… is she ever going to clue in that there is not really an us anymore and just dump me and take the freedom she so desperately wants?"

"You’re breaking up?" Buffy frowned. "But you looked great together at that party we went to… three months ago…"

"She’s young Buffy, and a new slayer, her life is so much more exciting and she’s not happy settling, and she doesn’t get the magic, she doesn’t get that I don’t want to march in the parade and show my boobies on main street to freak out the straight people. I can’t even remember what on earth made us think we were compatible in the first place, well other than the first trying to kill us all and the impending end of the world." Willow admitted the sad realization she had come too. "And selfishly on my part, I think I needed someone, and she was there wanting to be them, even if it wasn’t good for either of us in the long term."

"Oh." Buffy frowned softly, "So she’s not the one." She asked gently.

"No." Willow said confidently. "Tara was the one Buffy, Kennedy is like my mid life crisis, it’s my giles singing acoustic in the expresso pump in a cardigan."

"there might be a two." Buffy offered.

"there might, but I don’t think she’s going to be a lot unlike Tara." Willow smiled softly thinking of the blonde. "I’m not the loud and proud type, I mean I’m not ashamed but I don’t need a rainbow flag on my house."

"Will, I know that with the magic, and the revenge thing and then the in England thing and then the first and everything, I don’t think I ever really told you how sorry I was about Tara." Buffy winced softly as she spoke. "She was nice, she was more than nice and she made you so happy, and then before I knew it, she was gone and I didn’t know what to do, because you were gone too and everything was crazy and…" she took a breath, "And I don’t think I ever told you how much I wanted to save her, to make it better." She blew out a concentrated breath. "I wish I could have done something."

"I always hoped you thought that way…" Willow reached out putting her hand over Buffy’s and squeezing it. "But it means a lot to hear you say it, more than you know, I know you didn’t have time with her, not like Dawn or even Anya, things were crazy, and you had things to do, but I always hoped you wanted to know her, the regular day her, you know." She squeezed Buffy’s hand again. "You are my best friend, and she was my everything, I think if you’d had more time you and here would have been best friends too."

"I think I want to kill Kennedy. "Buffy suddenly blurted out.

"It’s okay Buffy, it’s been strained but it’s not volatile or anything." Willow assured her.

"No… She’s cheating on you Will." Buffy looked at her best friend with eyes full of tears.

"What?" Willow looked at the Slayer a little sidelined. "Oh…. Ohhhhhh." She seemed to stall as the idea cleared in her head. "I guess that would be why she spent 100$ on a rose bouquet delivery last month on her visa that I didn’t see any roses from." She added almost finally letting her own mind put the pieces together.

"Oh god I’m sorry will, do you want me to kill her?" Buffy asked somewhat desperately

Willow seemed to take a minute to think, even though it wasn’t about Buffy’s offer so much as the situation she found herself in.

"No." She finally said with a soft smile. "Believe it or not, this is probably the Goddess telling me to get off my ass and stop being a coward." She added softly. "But thank you for telling me… and secondly that Bitch, making me feel bad for not wanting her 2am booty calls and she’s off doing the nasty with some slutty lesbian. Oh god you don’t think she’s doing a wee wee do you?"

"No wee wee would dare." Buffy shook her head adamantly, "She’s the make it shrivel by looking at it type of lesbian."

"You never really liked her did you?" Willow asked softly with a knowing smile.

"She wasn’t Tara, she wasn’t anything like Tara, she wasn’t soft or strong or… "Buffy paused to think. "Or anything you needed."

"Anya once told me that if I was that desperate for sex I should have hired a hooker, it would have been less hassle and less bad lines about lickableness." Willow laughed remembering the odd conversation with the ex-demon.

"Shes a nice enough girl, but not good enough for my willow." Buffy summed up.

"Watch it now, you’re starting to sound like Neanderthal Buffy again." Willow squeezed the slayer’s hand laughing. "Okay so my girlfriend is cheating on me, we need more coffee and sinful cake." She waved for the waitress’ attention.

*****

Willow rather uncharacteristically just let herself into the Summer’s Condo and moved in to flop on the couch.

"I did it, I beat my cowardness." She explained without any other introduction to Dawn who was sitting on the side chair giving herself a pedicure and Buffy who was obviously re-watching the latest Brad Pitt movie that Willow had got her in bootleg so she wouldn’t have to go to the theatre. "I need ice cream and wine."

"You did what?" Dawn looked at the redhead and then at her sister who instantly got up and moved towards the kitchen. "Oh my God did you touch a frog?"

"Ewww no." Willow looked back at the teenager and made a face. "I broke up with Kennedy." She explained the real point. "Do you know she had the audacity after I confronted her about her rampant affairs to say that she couldn’t believe I was breaking up with her and not giving ‘the beauty of us’…" She made a gagging noise. "A chance."

"That’s because she knows you’re the best ass shes ever going to get." Dawn summed up.

"Thank you Dawn." Willow grinned at her. "Other Summers sister can now rave about my ass, I have been doing pilates you know."

"You really do look great." Dawn grinned dropping her pedicure things and sitting up, "so was she like totally repentant and begging you to forgive her?"

"Yes, after she tried to deny anything and I had to show her the visa bills." Willow lamented. "I think by the end of it she was pitching for ‘the last time ever sex’ and I was just wanting to puke. I even told her that if she wanted she could finally have the fabulous New York assignment she wanted and she accused me of trying to get rid of her so that I could see other people. Me, Willow Rosenberg, I’m that much of a goer aren’t I. I mean I should have her replaced by breakfast right? That’s about my usual." She laughed.

"She’s a bitch, that’s all there is to it." Dawn folded her arms across her chest. "You’ll find someone totally hot and totally great when you want someone." She added.

"Thank you." Willow again smiled at Dawn. "And if I don’t I can just have Xander and his transformer collection and your sister and her Brad Pitt bootlegs to keep me company, oh and you telling me wonderful stories of your love life."

"I really have a sex life not a love life right now, but I’m still young." Dawn grinned brightly.

"You are, and drop dead gorgeous, so why do I hear your settling for a man with a unibrow? Did Tara and I not teach you the goodliness of girls?" Willow pulled off her boots and settled into the couch more.

"You did but all the you’s and Tara’s were taken." Dawn grinned, "So I went for manly man." She giggled, "I’m going to Nair him at the weekend."

"Good good." Willow nodded. "And by the way, I talked to your sister, and I now know that George is not a tranny, so you must owe me ice cream or something."

"We don’t know anything of the sort, that could be why she got an honourable discharge for all we know." Dawn countered, "Her superior officers didn’t like the fact hers was bigger than his."

"Why is it for the last few days I have heard more about wee wee’s real and fake then ever before?" Buffy came in and delivered everyone’s glass of wine.

"Because I just want to make sure you remember what one is." Dawn grinned. "You know desert and rain analogy." She winked at Willow who chuckled along.

"Well thank you for that, both of you." Buffy looked between the two of them. "Did I tell you that Giles left a message saying all the paperwork is in, he couldn’t get a hold of you Will, so he did the flight booking they arrive Sunday at 11.55."

"I hope he didn’t do anything Giles-ish and send them economy." Willow fretted. "At least I can review the booking tomorrow and make it right if I need to and now Faith can plan her I’m engaged the world is strange party, do we all get to meet Ray at it?"

"Yes because that would be an easy group of people to explain to him." She arched her eyebrow at Willow.

"I don’t mind if you tell him I’m something that rythms with Bitch." Willow laughed seeing the young girl’s dilemma. "Maybe he can make it to the next dinner at my house though? I need to give him a heads up about my shovel, in case Tara’s wee wee shrivel isn’t enough."

"It’s okay, it’s enough, he’s very fond of his wee wee." Dawn grinned, "All eleven inches of it." She winked at the red head as buffy looked like she may just explode.

Realizing she had no choice but to fight fire with fire the Slayer took a relaxing breath.

"You might want to rethink the whole you and him future thing, no one else will want you when he’s stretched you like a Russian baby machine." Buffy smirked pleased with her comeback.

"EWWW!" Dawn squeaked, "You’re supposed to BE grossed out, not gross me out." She pouted.

"I’m your sister, it’s my job to gross you out." Buffy stuck her tongue out.

"Oh you two." Willow did her best Xanderish sitcom sum up voice as she laughed.

*****

"I know she’s… volatile." Willow watched as the young woman that had accompanied Xander seemed to try to find a way to adjust to her new sudden change in surroundings. "Okay not volatile but infantile?" She rushed over to take a staple gun from the woman before she put one of the stables in her arm. "I’m not sure we can keep her here." She looked at everyone else.

"There is no where else Willow." Giles assessed. He had spent the whole hour and a half that she had been in their care, including the whole journey from the airport literally staring at the girl, occasionally cleaning his glasses and then staring some more. "Not until we understand more about her." He added frowning as she moved and picked up the teapot Giles had on the small tray near one of the power sockets, She held the spout to her mouth and tried to blow it like a trumpet, most perturbed when no sound came out.

"Broke." She announced and dropped it watching as the china smashed on the concrete floor.

"Well now it is." Xander sighed and went to grab a broom from it’s place leaned against another wall.

"It doesn’t matter, she’s not an animal, we can’t chain her to the piping in your bathroom like Spike." Willow moved over and managed to get her to put down the cup she was about to send with the teapot to the floor marvelling at the broken pieces. "She can have my room, my pull out is comfy, then maybe I can try some therapy, maybe hypnosis to see if we can find out anything new."

"This isn’t china." The young woman tugged Willows arm trying to get the cup back. "China is a country, a large country with a population that is dangerously high, they give incentives to people to have one baby, they used to give you money if you had a boy, but now they want girls to. This is a cup, it is not china." She told her pointedly.

"China is also a name given to certain types of material used to make drinking cups." Willow looked at her very shocked by the suddenly high verbal and reasoned statement. "So you’re right China is the name of a country, and it is the name of a type of material to make cups and teapots like the one that just broke." She looked at the floor and then back to hold the woman’s violet eyes. "My name is Willow, a Willow is also a name for a type of tree. What is the name that describes you?"

"The Willow comes in many variants, though the genus Will****** is most famous for the weeping willow, which prefers rich loamy soils, like those found on river banks." She looked back at the red head. "Xander said you like the nature channel, I learned about willows from there." She gave what could only be described as a smile to the red head.

"I do like the nature channel." Willow nodded knowing that everyone were just staring, especially Xander, as she had a somewhat lucid conversation with the wild woman that had more than three words. "Xander told me that you watched a lot of TV, what was your favourite channel?"

"I found the National Geographic very informative." She replied, "Tanya called me Anna." She added linking back to the previous question. "Xander curses a lot."

"Yes he does." Willow glanced at her best friend with a smile. "He doesn’t mean it at you though, he just wants to help you and he’s not sure how to do that best, we all want to help you, do you understand that?"

"You are trying to help me, trying to get me home." She glanced at Xander, "Right?" she added looking back at Willow.

"If home is where you want to be then yes, mostly we want to protect you." Willow tried to stress the point without unnecessarily worrying the woman with details. "Buffy’s sister Dawn, everyone called her ‘Shiney’ like they called you…"

"That’s because she is a key. A culmination of energy, of an emerald hue." She glanced at the brunette, "Very pretty." She added.

"You’re totally right." Willow smiled at her. "And like you, we had to protect Dawn and we did, so we will protect you and help you okay? Do you want to stay here at the warehouse or would you like to stay at my house with Xander and I?"

"I am not sure." She shook her head, "But I do know I am not like Dawn." She looked again at the teenager. "I am not a key." She summed up.

"Why of course we didn’t just ask the girl, who profoundly stupid of us." Giles huffed and moved off to find another teapot.

"Don’t mind Giles, he’s british, he was born in the country Xander met you in." Willow tried to explain his demeanor. "Anna, can you tell me what the writing on your amulet means? What language it is?"

"It is in the language of the infants." She answered immediately.

"Does the language have any other names?" Willow tried not to be discouraged.

"I’m afraid I don’t know." A frown danced across Anna’s brow.

"that’s okay, I’m probably going to ask you a lot of questions and it’s not your fault if you don’t know the answers." Willow assured her it was okay as she reached out and put her hand over the woman’s comfortingly. "I’m sure that while understanding what you know about things like the language of the infants, is as confusing as China the country and china the material. We’ll work on translation between how you look at the world and we look at the world."

"Xander tells me this is America." She glanced at the young man, "And that I was in England. I have never been here before." She assessed. "I do not know all of your language yet, so I am not clear sometimes." She explained looking at Willow the whole time. "Do you speak the tongue of the Slaves?"

"Hebrew?" Willow questioned and then asked the girl again in yiddish if this was the language she meant.

In fluent ancient Hebrew Anna replied that she did mean that and that she liked that language because she knew and understood it well. That she had used it for much time, before sleeping again.

Using her best memories of the Hebrew classes her parents made her take she tried to use the more comfortable language to get better ideas about the new key.

****

"Okay she’s asleep." Willow came back out into her living room where the core Scoobies were waiting for her to explain her hours of conversation with the Key. "And I know this is going to sound crazy but she’s not like Dawn, whoever or whatever sent her here, she’s been here forever." She let the word sink for a minute knowing someone would object to the point.

"Forever, what like Bob Barker?" Xander scrunched up his nose.

"Forever… she remembers the dinasours or at least something that sounds like them, then she slept, and then she woke up in what sounds like the ice age, and then she slept, and then she woke up when men in skins killed each other and then she slept… she told me about Jesus’ crucifixtion but apparently he didn’t rise up as the stories claim so much as his people’s magic made his corpse rise.." She made a grimace knowing how crazy it all sounded. "She told me how pyramids were built and then how she lived in a castle while a black magic spread across the land bringing so much death and suffering, so she went to sleep on purpose… and there was so much death in Germany, how it was so loud with the big explosions their gods made, so she slept again… and then most recently when she woke up it was because the evil made her, the presence of it made her unable to sleep, because death might come to everything and she was so scared because she didn’t know what that would mean to her." She sat down and took the coffee Dawn offered her. "She doesn’t remember where she came from, as she said in the warehouse it was the language of the infants that marks her, the language of those in whatever other world she’s from who wanted to hurt her, she thinks… she’s so unclear about anything to do with where she comes from or what she is. She keeps being adamant she’s not like Dawn, she has no power to open doors… her power is to take the door away. But even that was clear, she speaks a really old Hebrew."

"She’s an alien?" Xander blinked, "We have a real live alien in the apartment, but she looks nothing like ET or those saucer eyed guys." He pouted.

"Willows not saying she’s an alien, are you will." Buffy looked at her best friend for confirmation.

"No not at all, she’s like Dawn, she was sent here and made a person, but she’s immortal, or at least has lived for thousands of years with a lot of that in some sort of sleep hibernation." Willow tried to sum up. "I can only assume that whoever the infants are, someone sent her here so she was protected against them along long time ago, and she’s been here hiding among humanity ever since. She wasn’t lucky like Dawn…" She smiled at the teenager. "There was no you to send her too to make sure she was protected."

"You think she predates the slayer line?" Giles took off his glasses and looked at Willow.

"Not even the first slayer hung out with the dinasours Giles. I showed her some pictures of a Braciasaurus from an encyclopedia, and she drew me a picture in colour showing me how their ideas about it’s coat and markings were all wrong. I mean with everything else she’s said, and the tattoo’s and the amulet which has a huge magical signature of some sort on it, I don’t think she has the capacity to deceive us." Willow summed up honestly.

"I wish Ahn was here." Xander summed up what most of them thought, "She would know, or know someone who knew." He sighed.

"I can ask D’Hoffrin, he should know what Anya knew." Willow put forward the somewhat objectionalble offer.

"I don’t really that is necessary willow." Giles shook his head. "Perhaps now that the evil, which I am assuming was the first, is now vanquished, she will just… go back to sleep."

"Giles that isn’t a solution." Dawn stared at him. "What if the First helped whatever these infants are chasing her to help find her? We could have a whole dimension of firsts coming to hurt her… which if she’s at all like a me key, even if she doesn’t open doors like I did, we have to protect. Buffy you have to protect her."

"But you know ‘the infants’ I don’t like to be the one to say it, but hey, not exactly a creepy name they got going there." Xander offered perkily. "What do they do, rain down diapers on us?"

"Until I know they’re not a worry, I worry." Buffy stood up. "We keep on researching, we figure out everything we can, and if all we can do is give this girl a safe place to go back to sleep, we do it. If there is one thing I know about Key’s they are interdimensionally important to us all, and if she’s one of them, which I’m willing to take on face value, then she is important. Maybe Will you could try to work with her more and get more information, but don’t overload her, the other thing I want everyone to be very aware of is that we don’t know what she is or what she’s capable of. So until we do, we treat her like the question mark she is, okay?" She looked around making sure everyone was on the same page as her.

"That’s a big roger." Xander nodded, "She can be scary when armed with a screwdriver around electrical objects."

"I really must once again object to you keeping her here Willow." Giles spoke up eventually. I feel a more secure location and…"

"Giles, if she gets out of control Willow can handle it better than anyone." Buffy shot him the ‘watch it watcher’ look. "What are you going to do slowly translate ancient Hebrew too her? Or ask me to bonk her on the head and knock her ancient eternal ass out? She seems to trust Willow already, Will speaks her language so to speak, she was at Xanders for two weeks and most of the things she tried to do equate to a child who doesn’t know that fire is hot or that sharp things cut you. So for now, she’s here, we reevaluate that if we have reason too."

Giles a ‘humph’ noise but didn’t comment further.

"She’s probably really scared." Dawn offered quietly.

"She probably is." Willow looked at the teenager and agreed with her. "Maybe you could get her a stuffy or something tomorrow, she really likes you, keeps talking about what a pretty emerald colour you are." She smiled at the brunette. "Said she wished she was like you, understood."

"She’s a lot like Tara, after Glory…" Dawn frowned, and looked around hoping someone at least got what she was trying to say. "I just mean…" she stopped again

"You’re right Dawnie." Willow said softly. "maybe you could add apple sauce to the list of provisions for her."

Dawn and the redhead shared what could only be as an understanding smile.

"Do you need anything else special." Buffy checked looking at willow after a moment of silence.

"No we’re good, you should patrol." Willow gave the slayer the easy out.

"And watch out for diapers." Xander grinned.

A group eye roll was all that Xander received for his comment before Buffy and Giles left. Possibly without realising Dawn hadn’t moved.

"Do you think there’s a Glory that wants to kill her?" Dawn asked of Willow as the others left, even Xander headed to the kitchen to get a drink.

"I don’t know, but one thing I’ve learned is that for every good thing like you, and probably her, there seems to be a super evil thing that wants to hurt you." Willow was honest.

***

"Buffy…" Andrew hurried after the slayer as she walked away from Giles in the warehouse, after recapping what Willow had told her of the uneventful night that had just passed.

"Andrew, I’m know you’re sorry about the other night, it’s fine, I’ve had the images burned off my eyeballs. We don’t have to talk about it." Buffy huffed at him hoping it would make him go away. He was the last of her worries at the moment and as often, due to his past crimes, she just didn’t have time for him even though he seemed to eternally be around now.

"No, it’s not about what happened when you interrupted Rona and I’s moment of blissful connection." He shook his head, "I sort of over heard what you and Giles were talking about, and well I might have listened in to a few of his conversations over the last little while." He babbled, "Is it true you have an alien hidden away with Willow?"

"Yes." Buffy looked at him deadpanned for a moment. "She’s got six tentacles and a big bulbous head, looks a little like the little green men in those bad ‘biopsy of an alien’ movies" She continued to look at him. "Andrew don’t be ridiculous, she’s just supernatural, not inter stellar. Magic brought her here, not a spaceship."

"Are you sure? I mean Giles didn’t seem sure at all." The young nerd persisted. "I mean I know some things about aliens, I interviewed some people who had been abducted by them once for a science project."

"Trust me Andrew, if I get any real indication that she came on a spaceship, you will be one of my first ‘expert’ advice conversations. Deal?" Buffy gave him a tight smile.

"Right, yes…" this seemed to satisfy the young man momentarily. "Oh and Buffy about the other thing… You haven’t told anyone about that have you? I mean we did want to go public just yet and well, I think it would be better if it came directly from use without the embarrassing discovery details."

"Don’t worry, even in the cases, like Willow, where I didn’t mention specific people, I just concentrated on my own well surprise. You and Rona can tell everyone whenever you want too." Buffy began to walk again towards the big doors. "Now I really got to go, try to lock doors!" she urged him.

"Yes, I will… we will." He called after her as she left.

***

"Will, she’s doing it again, and this time it’s your place to tell her." Xander moved through the hallway towards the kitchen with his hand held over his good eye.

"What do you m…" Willow stopped herself when she saw his body posture. "Oh nakedness… okay." She swallowed suddenly realizing that maybe she wasn’t the best one to do this. She’s already ribbed Xander excessively about looking at her despite the weirdness factor, but now she was worried her eyes would betray her and do the same thing. After all she was a girl, if it was a boy prancing around naked she’d just be solid about the wee wee must be covered. But she liked naked girl bits. "Okay… dealing." She finally made herself head towards the bathroom where Anna was currently bent down looking in the cupboard vanity. "Anna… is there anything you need?"

"No," The slightly girl turned her head towards the redhead, her mouth covered with toothpaste foam. "Your toothpaste tastes better than England and it has strange white squares in it." She held up the nearly empty bottle of pink toothpaste. "Almost like confetti." She added.

"Oh Anna, you didn’t eat all of it did you?" Willow moved over and pulled a dixie cup from the little dispenser turning the tap on. "You’re going to probably have a stomach ache in awhile… come here and rinse, you look like a rabid dog." She laughed lightly. "Please tell me you didn’t eat anything else under there? There are cleaners and stuff that could hurt you."

"All clearly marked corrosive or poison." Anna pointed out as she stood up, revealing both the extent of her nakedness and of her complex tattoo work, The elegant script covered most of her back, with her shoulders covered in complex designs that could have been Celtic in origin had it not been for the interspersal of one particular word taken from the text, through out the curling filigree. Her upper arms both had a blue lattice work band around them, about two inches down from her shoulder, and about two inches in depth. These were repeated on her wrists and ankles. The back of her calves were marked with bold black marks that seemed almost random to the common eye, these continued up along the back of her thighs, just curling up enough to curve onto her ass cheeks. Around her waist she had what seemed best to be described as a mosaic. Tiny blocks of colour made up a complex mural of plants, animals and what looked like people, rain, sun, fire, mountains, waves. Looking almost like an illustration from and ancient bible of the seventh day of creation, when God rested and observed the life he had created.The mural itself began just above her waist, and finished mid-hip, crossing the girls perfectly flat stomach, the last line of coloured squares resting just above the dark curls that led lower.

"So… what we need…" Willow closed her eyes forcing herself to look away and holding the cup out. "Is get you washed off, and back into something comfortable. I know it seems odd Anna, but in today’s day and age its not considered the social thing to do to not wear clothes. How about I go out later and try to get some comfier things for you? Do you think say cotton or leather would be more familiar?"

"I have clothes." Anna briefly rinsed her mouth and pointed to the bath. In it was the top sheet from Willow’s bed. "I was looking for a wrap, a tie." She tried to explain.

"Oh." Willow had to stand in awe for a moment when she realized how ‘much more aware’ the woman was of ideas like even clothes now, as Xander had first explained, she screamed whenever forced into anything inside his apartment. She had ‘evolved’ so to speak to understand that clothes must be worn inside now as well but had gone for a probably known acceptable like a toga, a very civilized form of clothing for many hundreds of years. "How about a compromise? I want to pick you out something from my wardrobe, you can even try on a few things and see what you like best. That way you can learn about how people now dress, unlike in the time of the slaves."

"Very well." Anna moved directly out into the hall

Willow was left to follow the other woman into her own room again where she stood in front of the closet waiting for Willow to do something.

"Okay, I’m not going to go into formal wear, like a toga was then with my pretty bedsheets." She smiled at Anna. "But how about…" She looked through her closet for a moment before picking out a baby blue fluffy sweater with an attached hood and a wide stretched main body where there was a kangaroo pouch in front. "Made of nice wool, it’s one of my favourites." She offered it out.

Anna took it and stroke it for a moment, then she sniffed it, and stuck the end of her tongue on the collar.

"What blue animal makes this wool?" She asked.

"No, the animal is a white wooled sheep. We just use dyes to make it blue, we have found things, plants and minerals that can be used to dye things certain colours. Our world has to come to like colour, it’s a way to express your own individuality, but the way you dress, the type of things you wear and when you wear them. That’s why were so strict about the having to be dressed thing, a lot of us have special clothes to wear to bed, or to work, or to church, or to something stately. Do you like skirts or pants better?"

"I am not an animal, I do not pant." Anna shook her head.

"Sorry." Willow gave a quick apology going to the closet and taking out a long denium skirt and a pair of blue jeans. "See these are made from the same material, but this one is a skirt." She showed Anna the familiar first. "The second are called pants, not like the animal, but just a name for things you wear on your legs."

"This a nobleman wears." Anna pointed at the skirt. "Slaves wear these." She pointed to the jeans. "I saw it long ago, many black men wearing these… being beaten by proud white men in things like this." She looked back at the skirt. "I am neither slave nor noble." She pointed out.

"Today… skirts are usually only worn by women, they are a sign of women’s feminity. The exception are kilts, that are worn by men of scotish, irish and sometimes welsh descent. They were them in there family tartan." Willow tried to explain. "Now pants, are worn by anyone now a days, women had to fight for the right to wear pants like men, men didn’t want to let them lose their feminity. But that’s a whole other story. Basically, I wear pants…" She pointed to the black dress pants she had on. "I wear skirts too… and even…" She went back and pulled out a long black dress she’d had to have for court when they sorted out the Sunnydale Inquiry. "Evening dresses." She brought the shimmery material back for her to see. She’d worn it with a jacket to the inquiry, giving it a much more sophisticated look. She wished she had somewhere worthwile to wear the dress on her own.

"Feels like fish." Anna reached out and felt the slinky material between her fingers. She then looked at the wardrobe. "I like this, this is pretty." She fingered a few things on hangers before pulling out a long tye-dyed cotton skirt, with simple cords around the waist that even had tiny bells on. Willow had bought it from a street fair just after they had settled down. It had been obvious to everyone why, it was quintessentially Tara. Without waiting for any input Anna slipped it on, letting it rest on her hips, so that the broad mural over colour that wrapped around her body still showed. "And this." She picked up the small white baby t that willow had been wearing the night before. Pulling that on she smoothed her hand over it as it fit perfectly over her shoulders and breasts ending just at the top of the broad band of tattoo work. The complete effect made her look somewhat like an Egyptian princess.

"See now you look like the special thing that you are… regal and beautiful." Willow smiled at her, somehow thinking now how maybe it hadn’t just been a for Tara motivation that day when she’d bought the skirt, but more of a nudge from Tara about something she needed to offer a ray of help in the future. "Is it comfortable?" She checked.

"Very," Anna nodded, "Thank you, all Xander owned were boy things." She added, "Which smelled."

"Don’t worry, hopefully my things smell better. Maybe you’d like to try some perfume? Ours are a little different from yours, they have many rare combinations and base oils." She pointed to the chair near the vanity where her perfume collection lived.

"No." she shook her head, "This is fine for now." She assessed. "I don’t know how long I will be awake for this time, but I want to say thank you, for all you and your friends are trying to do."

"You’re very welcome. I hope we can keep you safe nomatter if you stay awake permanently." Willow gave her a soft smile.

"You think I am in danger." Anna made it a statement not a question. "Why do you think that?"

"Because Dawn… when she was sent here to us, as Buffy’s sister, she had a very bad hell goddess chasing her. Glorificus." She said the name trying to keep her inner calm. "Her goal was to blood sacrifice Dawn so she could open a portal back to her world… because of her Buffy died, as Dawn’s genetics were made of her, her blood closed the portal once Glorificus’ henchmen had started to cut Dawn up. Buffy is the Slayer, she has a lot of fights with the really bad." She admitted.

"I wish I knew what I was, so that I could help you." The young woman admitted with a slight frown. "I know I am not like Dawn, but I am also not like you. You are not an infant."

"I’m not, some people would call me a witch. Do you know what that is?" Willow questioned of her, she knew it could be an open ended question with many bad ends, but she wanted to be as honest as she could with Anna.

"Your kind were killed in Salem." Anna said almost immediately, "I was awake a while, but I could not be where there was such death. And it was all over this plane of existence for many years."

"Yes, unfortunately the human race keeps hurting each other so badly over and over." Willow herself frowned a little. "And yes you’re right, like what they claimed the Salem witches were, but I use magic, I can do spells to help Buffy." She decided for her own sanity to not focus on her ‘dark evil days’.

"You can bend and shape the powers that surround us." Anna nodded, "You can use it to help and to harm." She let her purple eyes close slightly.

"Yes, sometimes I have managed both, when I wanted to and often when I used to much power and I couldn’t control it." Willow admitted feeling almost as if this woman knew this, somewhere in her brain, but she wasn’t clear enough yet to find the information.

"I need to learn more." Anna suddenly summed up turning and moving to the door.

"I was waiting to hear that, I have something called the Animal Planet to show you." Willow grinned and went to follow her.

***

"Buffy, Buffy you HAVE to save me." Xander moved through into the summers condo the instant buffy had opened the door. "I can’t cope with it any more, I know more about how praying mantises eat and digest their mates, than I ever wanted to know after nearly being eaten by one of them as a teenager. I have seen hippos do unsavoury things with dung, and Kangaroos display feats that made me pale thinking of how much it would hurt if I was the fence it had just kicked. I cant take it any more. And Anna is there sititng on the couch looking like that Canadian singer, Sarah whos-her-face, with Willow doing her ‘scientific boffin’ impression beside her. I need sitcoms, talk shows and junk food, stat."

"Oh come on what’s wrong with… fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa." Buffy headed towards the kitchen. "I was watching Entertainment Tonight, they might have confirmation that JLo is preggers. Like we all didn’t know?"

"I thought she’d just gotten fat and had implants for bigger boobies." Xander dropped onto the couch. "Where’s Dawngiovani?" he added.

"Out. I had a stickie note when I got in, even had Ray phoning looking for her so I’m guessing with all the weirdness of another key… who knows with Dawn. I texted her awhile ago and she told me she was fine so I guess I’ll have to wait till unreasonable hour and make a fuss." Buffy came out of the kitchen with a can of beer and a bag of chips poured into a big yellow bowl. "And for the record, JLo is so pregnant but that ugly Marc Anthony, I mean come on, if she’d go for him why didn’t she go for you?" She plopped down beside him.

"Because I am not available." Xander said with a nod, "I have declared myself ineligible for female partnerships." He underlined.

"You know I love you and Willow, but just because you caught the gay thing I’m not." Buffy teased him.

"Very funny. No, I’m ineligible period, no boys no girls, no demons, no animals." He wiggled his eyebrow.

"Good decision, so that means I’ll have company more often cause so have I." Buffy laughed at there joint decision, from varying perspectives but with the same outcome. "I’ll even let you watch Monday night football if I can watch Desperate House wives."

"Sounds good to me. I have had so many boobies and naked hoo-hoos in my face recently I cant deal with it any more." He huffed.

"I wonder how long till Willow cracks." Buffy laughed to herself. "See that dress… totally knocked up." She pointed to where JLo was back on the screen.

"Could be a falsey." Xander countered. "And Will’s fine because she doesn’t even look at Anna as a sexual being, she’s more of a… well a science experiment."

"I guess, I just thought… naw I’m probably just seeing things." Buffy took a handful of chips.

"Seeing what?" Xander shifted to look at Buffy, glancing occasionally at the tv.

"Well you know, the way she was with Tara… you were the one who mentioned it to me, I know Kennedy is scum bag but Willow hardly ever touched her when anyone was around, she didn’t even look at her most of the time. But with Anna, she’s all… hand on the hand, hand on the arm, hand on the shoulder… you know touchy feely Willow." Buffy watched the ‘on the set’ interview with one of the new shows that hadn’t been cut for bad rating talk about how grateful they were.

"But when you have a lab rat in your hand you gotta keep hold of it." Xander countered, "Or it might turn and attack." He made pointy ‘rat’ teeth.

"I missed your weirdness." Buffy laughed and leaned against him. "The twenty top car crashes is on, you want to watch it before patrol?"

"Most definitely." Xander put his feet up on the coffee table and leaned back, putting his arm casually around her shoulder so she could lean in properly.

****

"Ah Miss Rosenberg, this is… unexpected." The rather goat headed demon made something akin to a smile at her and offered her a plate. "Cookie? They’re fresh, Bloodworm chip I believe."

"No, thank you." Willow softly shook her head. "I was actually just looking for a little private sharing of information." She smiled at him and sat down in one of the ornate chairs by his desk. "Have you ever heard of ‘The Infants’?"

"Ah what happened to the little Miss Rosenberg I knew who would babble through small talk for at least ten minutes before cutting to the chase, must be the dealings with death you’ve had, and the world ending moments, how they change a person." He sighed and sat down too.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude." Willow apologized feeling horrible already, where she had really intended on not wasting his precious time, as Anya had often warned her, she’d obviously been rude. "How are the records? I bet you’ve had lots to do since Sunnydale."

"Oh yes, yes." D’hofrin nodded, "And don’t apologise, who am I to question a worlds renowned spell crafter like yourself, and to think I once had the audacity to offer you a place in my home, a place which is still open I may add." He paused momentarily as if looking for the inkling that she would accept. "No?" He quickly verbalized her silence, "Very well, I just wanted to keep you updated on the offer. Now what was it you wanted?"

"To know if you could tell me anything about the Infants? Or the different types of keys that exist." Willow expanded a little, seeing that her original mention of the Infants had caused the orange vein running up his forehead to bulge a little.

"Oh the Infants, you see I don’t really deal with them." He shook his head, "A little pact between me and their big wigs, I leave them out of the records, they leave me alone, it’s a nice deal." He assessed, "I wouldn’t advise you to seek them out." He added, "Even if you could, which I’m not sure you could, I mean you’re good, but.. possibly not that good. Not to deflated the ego of such a powerful caster as yourself, but they dwell in a separate dimension, not even one linked to this."

"What do they look like?" Willow questioned wanting to get to know as much as she could. "What powers do they have here?"

"Well that’s hard to say, there has never been an Infant here as far as I know, and I do know a lot about the comings and goings as it were." The demon replied. They are a race that resemble your own primarily." He added, "With the obvious differences being in size and wings." He assessed

"They look like XL angels?" Willow asked him making the curious image in her head. "Do you have a translation of their language to anything from our dimension?"

"I’m not sure such a thing exists." D’hofrin was honest, "I’m being very patient here Miss Rosenberg, why do you want to know all of this? What information is being traded here as you mentioned?"

"Unfortunately nothing of much use." Willow looked accurately forlorned. "The Slayer is facing something, and we got the name the infants, but our problem sounds nothing like them." She shook her head. "Though… since Anya was your vengeance demon, does her soul come to you?"

"Ah anyaka." The demon sighed slightly, "One of my children who had no concept of the pain she brought me. Such pride I had in her…" He frowned. "I should be mad at you that she is dead." He added looking at Willow briefly, "But it is of no matter. Anyanka’s demonic history was erased by way of her death, no demon ex or otherwise who dies in such a selfless way is passed to me to hold forever. She is wherever her soul chose to take her, the dimension choices are endless. She probably chose one without rabbits." He assessed, "Or one near your friend." He looked at her for a moment, his voice lowering, "IF you slayers problem has anything to do with the Infants, then you should use your powers and run." He breathed out quietly.

"What information do you need to not make a point of passing them the information of my enquiry?" Willow questioned in a low tone back.

"I need to know why you need to know." D’hofrin replied, "I’ve always been a keen business man, you know that Miss Rosenberg." He clarified.

"I posess something, that if the legends are right suggest that it once belonged to the Infants but they can’t find it to reclaim it." Willow gave him the more accurate half truth, she’d known, as had Buffy, that this kind of contact could bring just as much help as hinderance.

"You lie badly." The demon chuckled. "You have the Rune, and you want to know what to do with it." He laughed more. "I should have known this little problem with the First evil would wake it up." He rolled his eyes.

"I know I’m a bad liar, but if there is one thing I will do anything I can to do, it is to keep her safe." Willow laid out the end line clearly.

"What do you think we’ve all been doing for the last 20 million years." D’hofrin again rolled his eyes as he pushed up from his large chair. "How is she? Still as pretty? As innocent?"

"Yes, she’s trying to learn all she can, catch up, I don’t think she’s been awake since WWII." Willow estimated. "She says she is a key… you say a rune, what is a rune?"

"This information is free, on one condition." The demon moved closer and sat on the edge of his desk closer to willow.

"What?" Willow asked immediately for clarification.

"You take up my offer." He said with a straight face, that only lasted for a few seconds, enough to make willows face drop in horror, he then laughed, "Just kidding, oh you know how I like a joke." He let the laughter settle, "I ask that you look after it, let it catch up, make sure nothing happens to it, and in a month or two she’ll just… you know, zip and she’ll be asleep in some cave somewhere."

"I plan to do that, but I needed to be sure the Infants weren’t going to show up like an Army of Firsts on the doorstep looking for her." Willow admitted. "But… she only stays awake for a month or two?" She frowned suddenly.

"Well not necessarily." D’hofrin admitted, "She tends to be awake for as long as the stirrings that woke her remain." She was around for years around the turn of the CE. Hundreds of years then actually, there was so much spiritual activity and power around then, it’s not surprising she couldn’t get a good millennia sleep. The cretaceous era wasn’t a busy one for her, in fact she was only up and about for brief flickers during the majority of the ‘prehistoric’ period. Had a thing about the woolly mammoth though I seem to remember."

"Do you know what her tattoos mean? The writing on her amulet?" Willow questioned him further.

"Oh sorry, I’ve not actually told you anything about her have i. What you have with you is a Rune, it’s not a person, well no technically its not, but it is… oh this is confusing." He sighed. "when the Race, known as the infants were created, they were just that, a new life form that were created as almost a science experiment by their creators. They were made from nothing and in the beginning were nothing, but their goal was to become everything. Their creators encapsulated everything they would need to become ‘all’ and closed in within containers, known as the Sacred Runes. There were Forty. Inert jars containing secrets and powers only unlockable by the Infants when they had proved themselves worthy of the contents. Clear so far?" he checked

"Sounds very interdimensional but yes continue." Willow nodded that she was following along.

"The first rune was fire, a very basic power to unlock, and one which the infants quickly showed themselves ready for, but when the creators came too the sacred Safe, to present the rune to the infants for the ritual of breaking, they were suddenly faced with a dilemma. As they opened the great sealed room, they found inside, a child."

"I don’t understand instead of finding a stone rune to break open, when they came to Anna, she was Anna and not a piece of rock?" Willow’s brain came up with the off sided interpretation all on its own and she had to catch up to herself. "Wait, say again?"

"No that was a surprisingly accurate description of events, though the rune they came after wasn’t Anna as you call her it was fire, and so they had to find out where the child had come from, as it appeared that all the runes were there. But one the top shelf with the final five runes, they noticed one was missing. The Sacred Rune of Life. Over the years that it had taken the lifeforms to develop enough to even unlock the first rune, the pure essence of life that the creators had forged into a stone jar, had done the one thing life will do, it became a life."

"And then what happened?" Willow asked the standard awed question when he paused at all.

"Well basically cosmic panic." D’hoffrin replied, "The creators knew that their experiement was not ready for the concepts and gifts that the Sacred Rune of Life brought, but how could they imprison a lifeform in a tomb created to house nothing more than stone jars? They could not, so they could not keep her, nor could they release her into the infant realm. So they had to put her somewhere. Somewhere the infants wouldn’t get to her, before they were advanced enough to handle her, but some where she would be safe. The latter is where I come in. The creators came to me all that time ago to ask for a favour. They needed a place to keep and I had this handy little lump of rock realm, with a few little bacteria type creatures swirling around in some water." He gave willow a smile/

"And in all that time no Infant has been here to try to even find her let alone confirm she’s here?" Willow checked.

"The universe, the cosmos, the dimensional possibilities or endless Miss Rosenberg, so far the infants haven’t tracked her, either they’ve not unlocked the runes to give them the powers to do so, or I did a good job hiding her." D’hofrin replied. "But I think I should tell you something about the infants." He added, "They are looking."

"What powers do they have, what weaknesses?" Willow asked not even thinking of his previous advice to run.

"Well that’s hard to say, it depends on which runes they have unlocked, and how their powers change through dimensional travel. I’m not an expert on what the creators put into the runes Miss Rosenberg, most probably they ranged from the little things like fire, and flight to the greater mysteries of magic, Telepathy, telekinesis, that kind of thing."

"Oh." Willow swallowed. "Thank you for the information, you know Buffy she’ll do her best to keep her safe. She’s faced some pretty crazy things already."

"Yes." D’hofrin stood up, "Would you like me to ask around to see if I can get any other information, that may be more up to date?"

"Anything you can do to keep the 20 billion year streak of no one finding her going will be greatly appreciated." Willow nodded. "Though I have to at least ask, do you know what she does for them?"

"Oh yes." D’hofrin nodded, "When the infants were created they numbered 50,000. To this day there are 50,000. Their creators rightly assessed that one of the most valuable things in any realm is the ability to create new life, to make a copy, another of you to exist on. She is life, she is the key to the final rune. And of course I know you are dying to know what that is." He laughed loudly for a moment. "Dying to know, oh that was a good one." He chuckled more.

"The last one is Death, the only equal in mystery to life." Willow said giving him a brief smile for the bad pun. "The Infants don’t have any new births and they have no deaths, they’re almost like eternal zombies that can’t find the one thing they had taken from them to give them a way to finish their prophecy."

"Indeed, their cycle of growth must end with death, but knowledge means nothing if it dies with you, so before they can embrace death they need to pass on their knowledge in new life. And as you imply, the creators of the infants did not create eternal bodies for their creations, they waste and decay, whilst at the same time never coming closer to any release from their existence. I think it’s fair to say, that if they have released all 38 other runes, finding Life is going to be a priority."

"Please do whatever checking you can quietly." Willow stood up and gave him a worried look. "Thank you for telling me all of this."

"My pleasure. Of course Miss Rosenberg, you could always just hand her over." He made the offer. "Then I could put her somewhere else entirely."

"Sorry, you know I won’t do that, she was sent to us for a reason, just like Dawn was. We’ll protect her, it’s what we do." Willow’s voice was surpringly confident.

"I can assure you Miss Rosenberg you have never dealt with anything like the Infants." D’hofrin warned, "IF they find her, if they come for her, they will kill anything that tries to stop them."

"Thank you D’Hofrin." Willow didn’t address the warning as she stepped back into the portal she had cast to get there in order to return home.

***

"Okay Giles, this is where you, after all of Willow’s input, nod and say ah yes, that in this smelly tome over here…" Buffy looked at the watcher intently.

"Buffy, what on earth makes you think that I have information in one of my very valuable and rare books, that mentions a race of people from another dimension who have to D’Hoffrin’s knowledge have not been to our Earth in 20 billion years?" Giles gave her an incredulous look. "Don’t be ridiculous, I don’t know a thing about them."

"What? Giles, wait…" Xander looked at him, "That makes you just like me, Mr no clue about it, can only bring donuts and hope not to die." The idea seemed to please him to an almost ridiculous level. "But I’m cooler because I only have one eye."

"Yes, clearly that is not the case." Giles stood up. "I’m afraid our only possility might be to look for angelic unexplainable other dimensional references, I know that I for one loath looking through the forums on those UFO sights, but they may actual have some information in an unfiltered form."

"Anal probing." Xander put his hand up, "I know they do a lot of that." He added looking around wondering why everyone was staring at him. "What? Giles mentioned aliens and UFO’s all that stuff has anal probing."

"I can’t believe I’m going to say this but Andrew is up on a lot of those UFO sights, I"ll call him get him to run some searches." Buffy gave a sigh of disbelief as she headed for the phone.

"Don’t we have to worry about Anna too?" Dawn asked glancing over to the far end of the warehouse where the other woman was sat on a beanbag talking to Rona and flicking through one of giles old books. "I mean, should we tell her what she is?"

"Yes." Willow agreed with her instantly. "I mean… she is constantly trying to learn all that she can, maybe if she can learn what she is, she will remember how to protect herself from them."

"You think she has super powers?" Xander perked up

"I don’t know, but at the least she might be able to detect the Infants, know when they are getting closer, know how to stop them." Willow offered an explanation.

"You know I still cant get over the idea that they are these big dealio things, and they’re called infants, its like oooh look at me attacking you with this marshmallow…" Xander chuckled more to himself than anything. "What? Oh yeah sorry, I said that aloud didn’t i>\?"

"You did." Willow looked at him. "I think you need to take more painkillers for the headaches you get, they headaches are eating your good brain cell."

"Leaving just the bad and the porn?" Xander grinned and then glanced at Dawn, "-able ones, pornable ones , the ones you can pawn, those braincells, no brain cells specially developed for looking at boobies."

"Don’t worry, I think you one eye has developed a keen sense for that." Dawn rolled her eyes trying not to laugh at his usual Xanderness.

"Okay, Andrew is going to scour the forums and stuff and get back to us. Should we be bringing Ms Life back home and minimize her outdoor trips?" Buffy questioned coming back to the group.

"That’s probably the best course of action." Giles nodded glancing over to where she was still sat reading. "I could make her quite comfortable here." He added.

Willow and Buffy shot him a warning look at the same time that automatically re-closed the idea from being mentioned.

***

"It’s so weird." Dawn looked at her sister over the taco she was eating. "I mean what’s a rune anyway? I thought it was like a squiggle on a rock."

"That’s how we know them." Buffy nodded picking up little bits of cheese and lettece from her plate where they had fallen out of her own taco. "But in a universal sense, they are still squiggles on rocks, but Anna went from being a rock to being a people."

"Weird." Dawn summed up again. "I mean at least I was like made, I didn’t just happen, like a big accident or something."

"Oh no Will said something about that, the Creators, the ones who made her, they had this big plan, she was supposed to do what she d