Witch's Revenge
Chapter Two and Three
Chapter Two
As Buffy made her way out the library doors with Xander, and Willow was busy hacking into the school records with Oz’s help, Wesley indicated to Giles that he wanted to speak to him privately.
Shutting the door, Wesley looked at the other man. “Mr.Giles, I am not quite sure about all this.”
“About all this what? This researching about Cal Perkins? Quite necessary, I assure you, we need to know about him and why he was attacked,” Giles asked as he sat down at his desk. Wesley Wyndham-Pryce waved his arms about in the air vaguely.
“No. Not that. It’s this whole fraternizing with the Slayer. This usage of civilians. This whole association with the Slayer’s family,” he said as he looked at the older man. ”In the Handbook, none of this is encouraged. And nights off so that the Slayer can spend time with her mother? We are in the middle of a war with the forces of darkness, Mr.Giles. There should be no fraternization at all. And no nights out to be with Mother.”
Giles whipped off his glasses and looked at the younger man testily. ”Then, by all means, go ahead and sever the connections you deem inappropriate. And be also aware that when you do this, you will also alienate the Slayer, who is in your charge.”
“I am fully aware of that,” Wesley sniffed as he glared at the other man. ”If I turn her friends away, I alienate her. If I turn her mother away, I alienate her again. No matter what I do, I will alienate her. It is all so blasted frustrating.”
“At least you are aware of that,” Giles chuckled, then he looked sympathetically at the young Watcher. ”This is the Hellmouth, or as Xander once called it, Monster Island. The Slayer is here because she has to be. Her friends and family are here because she needs them as much as they need her.
“Buffy, as you are well aware of, is no ordinary Slayer. She’s sarcastic, emotional, impulsive and irreverent to Watcher and Slayer traditions. But she is also very loyal, dedicated, smart and successful. She needs her support group as much as we need her to battle evil. And to be entirely truthful, being on the Hellmouth, we need all the allies that we can get,” Giles finished.
“But to have a night off patrolling just because her mother demands it?” Wesley demanded. Giles sighed.
“You’ve met her mother when you gushed about Watcher methods. Do you really want another black eye?”
Wesley winced. ”Not really. But to have a night off-”
“Is as necessity for Buffy, though she will never admit it. And it is imperative that her Watcher maintain a working relationship of sorts with her mother,” Giles defended firmly.
Wesley still looked unconvinced. Giles sighed again, saying, ”Buffy’s mother was not raised to believe in vampires or demons. She did not give her daughter up at birth. She is not a grossly negligent parent. Joyce loves her daughter and will not stand back when her daughter is in danger. And if there something that could be done to save her daughter from danger, she would do it.
“Joyce, like all mothers, emphatically does not like her daughter being in danger, but she has learned to accept it. Mainly because Buffy convinced her there was no other choice. But if Buffy does not want to be a Slayer, especially now that we have Faith, Joyce would support her daughter without any hesitation. And we would, in very short order, have very limited access to Buffy.”
Wesley was about to argue this point when Willow screamed as she came barreling into the small office. ”Giles!! Giles!!”
Alarmed, Giles caught the sobbing girl. ”Willow, what is it?”
Her doe eyes, large and filled with tears, she looked up at her mentor. ”It’s Buffy’s mom! She was attacked and now she’s in the hospital!”
*~*~*~*~*~*
Buffy raced into the emergency room with Giles close at her heels. "Where is she? Where's my mother?"
As Buffy looked around the emergency ward frantically, a nurse came to intercept her. "Wait, Miss! Wait!"
"I want to know where my mother is!" Buffy demanded, her voice laced with panic as she grabbed the nurse’s arm. "She's Joyce Summers and I want to see her now!"
"Buffy, calm down, we will find her," Giles said as he stood beside her. Then he addressed the nurse. "Nurse Watson, please. We are looking for a Joyce Summers; we received a call that she was in the emergency ward."
The nurse looked at the librarian and smiled at him. "Hello, Mr.Giles. I wasn’t on duty when she was admitted, but I can look her up for you."
"Can you do it real fast? 'Cause while you two are standing here and chatting, my mom is here somewhere in this place wanting to see me," Buffy demanded at the nurse. Giles gave her an admonishing look. Buffy caught his look and calmed down a bit. ”Sorry. My mom-”
“Understandable,” Nurse Watson said as she gave the young girl a reassuring smile. ”Let me see if I can find her for you.”
A doctor, who had been standing across the lobby talking to two policemen, came over to intercept the nurse. "Is there a problem, Nurse Watson? Is this young lady causing a problem?"
"Yeah, I have a problem, Doc. I want to know where my mom is," Buffy shot at the doctor. "And I want to know now."
The doctor merely lifted his eyebrow at the girl. "Who are you, and who is your mother?"
Giles interrupted Buffy. "She is Buffy Summers, her mother is Joyce Summers. We were informed that she was admitted into the hospital about two hours ago. There was a problem at the gallery where she works?"
"Oh, yes, that woman. There are some things that you should know before seeing her," the doctor said. He glanced at Buffy, then looked at Giles again. ”But I need to tell you these things in private. I need to know-”
"What things?" Buffy demanded. "What's wrong with my mother? What happened?"
One of the officers stepped up to speak to Buffy. ”Your mother was found on the floor by one of her co-workers. The co-worker didn’t get a clear look at the attacker, except to say that it was a five foot seven female with brown hair. This female, from what the co-coworker said, was laughing when she walked out the gallery. We need to speak to your mother as soon as possible on this.”
Buffy glared at the poilceman. ”You’ll see my mom after I get to see her. And I want to see her now. With Giles.”
"Are you family, Mr. Giles? Only family is allowed," the doctor asked Giles as Wesley, Xander, Oz and Willow ran into the emergency ward, all of them breathless from their rush.
"Is everything all right?" Wesley demanded, as Buffy pointedly ignored him to look threateningly at the doctor, who remained professionally unperturbed.
"Buffy! Where's your mom?" Willow cried as she took in the furious and worried face of her best friend. "What's going on?"
Buffy glared again at the doctor. "I don't know. Mom's in here somewhere and Doc Holiday here won't tell me where she is or what's wrong with her."
The doctor lifted his eyebrow at her. "I'll tell you as soon as there's an adult next of kin present. Mr. Giles, are you a member of the family?"
Giles started to stutter. "Well, I'm-that is, I-"
"He's my mother's fiance,” Buffy blurted out. Then her face turned a bright red as she saw the incredulous stares of her friends. "Well, it’s not really official yet, but he's going to be Mom’s fiance."
"I'm what?"Giles yelped when he stared at Buffy.
"He's what?"Wesley yelped.
“What’s Giles?”Willow squeaked.
A policeman looked at Giles’s shocked face, then at Buffy. ”Are you sure that he’s her fiance?”
The doctor took in the crowd staring at Buffy, then looked at her suspiciously. "He’s her fiance?"
“Of course I’m sure,” Buffy snapped at the police officer. ”Would I lie about something like this? He’s…he’s just not used to the idea yet.”
The doctor looked at Giles then back to Buffy, still suspicious. ”And why isn’t he used to the idea of being a fiancee?”
“Because he hasn’t proposed to her yet. Duh,” Buffy said as she rolled her eyes. The doctor was still looking at her like she was something from a peter dish, or whatever those things were called. ”And she hasn’t accepted yet even when I said it was all right. It’s a strange story, because he’s British.”
“And what does his having to be British have anything to do with his not knowing he’s a fiance?” the doctor asked before he could think better of it.
Buffy smiled winningly at the doctor as she thought of an excuse. "Because that’s where the confusion starts in. See, it's a really long story but I'll tell you the Reader’s Digest version. Giles has been dating my mom, and since he's British, he decided to ask my permission before asking Mom to be his wife. I said yes, though I was a bit confused on why he was asking, but then I chalked it up to him being from the Old World and all that.
"Since everyone knows how proper Brits can be, I was kind a stunned myself. It’s real icky thing to know a man was asking my permission to ask my Mom to marry him. I mean, please, seeing them kiss is like a total ick factor, but then that’s just me. Not Giles. He kind of likes getting kissy-face with her. Other than that he’s sort of cool, but a little slow on the uptake and wanting to do things properly and perfectly, you know how men are, seeing as that you're a man, but not a man from England, so then you wouldn’t care if it was perfect or not. But then that's all right, you’re not the one she’s marrying, which is great, especially since I don’t know you,” Buffy said quickly.
She felt a small sense of triumph go through her as she saw confused looks on everyone’s faces. Buffy’s smile grew. ”Anyway, you still with me here? Great.”
Buffy’s explanation went faster. “Anyway, he's delayed in asking her and was going to ask her real soon, he was just getting some loose ends tied up before he could go down on his knees. And then this happened, so now he's here, and I know that my mom would want to see him, especially since I said he could be her fiance. So, he’s not family but he’s going to be, and I’m sure that you’d let her have him near her ‘cause I read somewhere that a person gets better when a loved one is near them, isn’t that right? So are you going to let us see my Mom, doc?"
"Oh, I see. Yes, I am. I think," the doctor said a bit dazed, then he noticed Wesley. "And who is this man? Are you also family?"
Wesley sniffed at the doctor. “I am Wesley Wyndham-Pryce. I am Mrs.Summers’s, ah-”
He's a pain in the ass, you nitwit, Buffy thought as she smiled more brightly at the doctor. "He’s, unfortunately, my Uncle Wussy. I'd like to say that he’s nobody, but since he's just my dad's pain-in-the ass half brother, I can’t say that. Instead he’s just Uncle Wussy Pryce, he's just visiting, and he's family as well. If you don't let him in, he'll probably act like an ass until you do. And everybody else here are my friends, but they're awfully like family. So can we all go in to see my mom?"
The doctor nodded as Wesley scowled at Buffy. "I see. Well, then your friends, even if they are like family, have to wait here. Officers, you should wait here. But you, Miss Summers, Mr. Giles and, ah, Mr. Wussy?"
"Wyndham-Pryce," Wesley said as he glared at Buffy's angelic face. "Wesley Wyndham-Pryce."
The doctor led the three farther down the hall, away from Willow, Oz and Xander. He said seriously, "Ms. Summers is, right now, in a stable condition. She was very lucky that her co-worker found her in time...."
Buffy closed her eyes as Giles's jaw hardened. The doctor continued as he looked at his chart. ”She has three cracked ribs, a sprained wrist and a mild concussion. The person that did this was very strong. Anyway, she’s been treated, and would be ready to go home in the next few days except-”
“That’s great,” Buffy said excitedly. ”Mom can come home right away. Isn’t that-”
“I’m afraid not,” the doctor said gently. Buffy stared at him, confused.
“What? You said that she would be able to go home in a few days,” Buffy said, her eyes large with fear and confusion. The doctor shook his head slowly. ”What’s wrong with her? What’s wrong with my mom?”
The doctor looked at Giles-he didn’t want to look at the girl with large, frightened hazel eyes. ”Instead of getting better, she’s getting weaker. Something’s causing her body to slowly shut down; it’s like something’s sucking away at her energy. And I have no idea how to make her get better. It’s nothing that I’ve seen before. There’s no virus, no infection. Nothing. But something is draining away at her energy.”
Buffy closed her eyes as tears started to form in them. Opening them, she looked at the doctor. ”Is she going to live?”
The doctor hesitated. Buffy pinned him with a look. ”I want the truth. Now. How long does she have to live?”
“At the rate she’s going, I’d say about three or four days is the most she’ll have,” the doctor said gently. His eyes were apologetic as he looked at Buffy, then Giles and Wesley. ”If I were you, I’d start praying that we find a cure for her illness.”
Buffy glared at the doctor. ”Take me to my mother.”
She lifted up her laughing daughter into the air. Giggles surrounded her as she twirled her baby around. This was the thing she had wanted most in the world. A baby. Her baby.
“Hi honey. Mommy’s here,” she said as she cradled her daughter in her arms.
“Ma-ma,” her daughter said.”Ma-Ma.”
Her golden-haired daughter looked at her with large hazel eyes as she cooed. ”And you’ll be the happiest little girl. Mommy’s going to make sure that you’re never going to be hurt, or scared or upset. You won’t want for anything. I love you, honey. My baby Elizabeth. My little Bethie.”
Her daughter clapped her chubby little hands as she loudly squealed. ”Buf-py. Buf-py.”
“No, not Buffy, honey. Bethie,” she corrected. Her daughter shook her head so vigorously, her entire body shook.
“Buf-py. Buf-py.”
“Buffy,” Joyce murmured as she laid on the bed. ”Buffy...”
Buffy hated this place. She hated it with a passion. No offense to the doctors and nurses and the other people that worked here, but hospitals just weren't her thing. And when she looked down at her mother, lying down in that bed, tubes in her arm, making her look small and pale, she hated the hospital even more. Especially now that she was informed that something was rapidly weakening her mother. She hated hospitals. Buffy sniffed again as she sat at the edge of her mother's bed. All Buffy saw was her mother: she barely glanced at the tubes in her mother’s arm or her thinness. She bit her lip when she saw the bruises on her mother’s face.
“I’m here, Mom,” Buffy said quietly as she sat gently next to her mother on the bed. ”Mommy? I’m here.”
Joyce opened her eyes groggily, and smiled weakly when she saw her daughter’s concerned face hovering above her. ”Hi, honey.”
Buffy smiled tremulously at her mother. ”Hi, Mom.”
Though she was tired, Joyce Summers looked at her daughter with a mother's eye. She saw the slightly red nose, the falsely bright smile and the eyes that shied away from hers. Something was bothering Buffy, she thought absently.
Then from the corner of her eye, she looked at her daughter's Watcher. Ex-Watcher, she amended as she noted his appearance. He was looking at her with guarded eyes as well as a half-smile. The same look he’d had on his face when he was guarding Buffy's secret from her. Her attention was turned again when she heard a sniff coming from her daughter.
Smiling at her daughter, Joyce opened her arms wide, and Buffy buried her head at the crook of her mother’s neck, and started to sob. Not caring about the other people in the room, Joyce concentrated on calming her distraught child. ”Shhh. It’s all right. Mom’s right here, baby. Shhh. It’s all right.”
The doctor, Giles and Wesley stood aside as Joyce Summers comforted her child. When Buffy quieted down a bit and lifted her head, Joyce smiled tiredly at Giles. ”Did you get the name of the lightning bolt that hit me?”
“No, but we’ll get it soon,” Buffy sniffed as she gave her mother a wobbly smile. Joyce’s eyes narrowed slightly, she might be tired, but she knew that smile. She’d spent the last four years hating that smile, knowing it was Buffy’s ‘I Have to Shut You Out of My Life’ smile. Buffy smiled it all during the time that she hadn’t known that her baby was the Vampire Slayer.
But since last summer, she knew it for what it really was. It was Buffy’s ‘I Don’t Want to Tell You What I Know Because It’s a Bad Thing Related To Being a Slayer’ smile. Joyce’s eyes narrowed even further when she saw the guarded looks on the faces of the doctor, Mr.Giles and Mr. ’You Should Be Glad That Your Daughter is Alive’ Wyndham-Pryce. Joyce frowned at them as they came closer to her bed. ”What’s going on? Why are you here? Buffy, why is Mr.Gi-”
“Darling, we were all worried about you,” Giles said loudly as he quickly made his way towards Joyce’s bed. He bent and caught her mouth in a kiss. Buffy stared, her mouth slightly agape. Wesley stared in shock at Giles’s actions.
When Giles lifted his mouth from hers, he smiled at Joyce’s astonished look. ”Darling, you gave us a scare. The good doctor was telling us how badly you were hurt, and let us in, knowing that we were about to be married soon.”
Joyce’s eyes widened. “We’re what? Have you been eating the band chocolates again?”
“Mom, the secret’s out, at least in here it is,” Buffy said as she gave her mother a pleading look. ”I know that you’ve been wanting to marry Giles for the longest time.”
Her face red, Joyce stared at her daughter as if she had two heads. ”I have?”
The doctor frowned worriedly at Joyce. ”Can you remember anything? You were hit pretty hard on the head Mrs.Summers. Your daughter was saying that Mr.Giles asked her permission to marry you-”
Buffy giggled as she hinted at her mother again with her eyes. ”The doctor tried to stop Giles and Uncle Wussy-Wesley from seeing you, so we had to ruin Giles’s surprise proposal.”
Joyce nodded slowly, her eyes wide. “Well, it is a surprise all right.”
"Mom, it was supposed to be a secret. You know how stuffy and proper, he is, and not to mention that he's such a perfectionist to want to propose to you properly," Buffy admonished gently. Come on, Mom, read my mind. You do it every other time when I don't want you to know something. "I know that you're not feeling well right now to talk to the police, let alone Giles and me, but you have to, Mom."
The doctor smiled at her. ”There are also some officers in the hall that would like to see you about what happened. If-”
“I’ll see them later,” Joyce said as a wave of dizziness hit her. ”I’m a bit tired right now. And a little dizzy.”
"Mrs. Summers," the doctor repeated. Joyce looked at him. "Do you remember anything that happened in the gallery?"
"Mom?" Buffy whispered as she slipped her hand into her mother's. Joyce looked at her daughter's wide hazel eyes, then at the doctor, and blinked. ”Mom?”
As Joyce summoned a tired smile for the doctor, she squeezed Buffy's hand. "I remember something. But it's all so fuzzy… it happened so fast. And I feel so weak. I think that I need some rest before I talk to the police. It's getting so hard to talk,” she said, yawning.
Joyce focused on her daughter, and smiled tiredly at her.”I guess I need some more rest. Doctor, can you tell them to see me later? I want to talk to my daughter...and my fiance and brother.”
The doctor nodded. ”I’ll tell the officers that you have to rest a bit before they can question you.”
"Thank you. And if I may ask, when may I go home?" Joyce asked with a small smile. She squeezed her daughter's hand. "I'm afraid that I'm not all that fond of hospitals."
The doctor smiled at her. "We'll arrange it as soon as we can, Mrs. Summers. Mr. Giles, Miss Summers, Mr. Wesley, she needs her rest. Try not to tire her out."
The doctor nodded as he left the room. Joyce tried to sit up straighter, but could not. Instead, she simply laid her head back against the pillows and sighed.
"Joyce, did you see anything?" Giles asked gently as he stroked her hair back gently. Joyce closed her eyes as he spoke. "The person that attacked you?"
"Yes, any descriptions would be most helpful. The sooner you can give us some descriptions," Wesley instructed pedantically- he didn’t see Joyce’s look of annoyance as soon as he began talking- "-the sooner we are able to-
"Wesley? Shut up, you're upsetting my mother," Buffy said sweetly. Wesley glared at her, affronted, but was quiet.
“Not upset, honey. Just tired,” Joyce said as she tried to gather her strength.
From the corner of her eye, she saw her daughter shoot a quick look at Giles. Though she couldn't place a finger on it, Joyce definitely knew something was wrong.
Joyce fixed at her daughter with the best steely, maternal eye she could manage. "Buffy, what's going on? Out with it."
"What do you mean that something's going on?" Buffy asked innocently. Her mother narrowed her eyes at her.
"I mean, what is going on? Why pretend that Giles is my fiance? I mean, Wus-Wesley as your uncle?" Joyce demanded as she looked at the faces around her. "I was hit by a lightening bolt, not a burglar."
Wesley stared at her.”You were actually hit by a lightning bolt? That wasn’t a figure of speech?”
“No, it wasn’t just a figure of speech,” Joyce snapped. She looked at her daughter, her face worried, ”Buffy, you have to be careful. This woman is, I think, some kind of witch. She’s as tall as I am, with brown hair. Totally black eyes that glowed with...madness. And hate. She’s after you.”
Her face pale, Buffy looked at her mother. ”What?”
Giles forced Joyce to look at him. ”Joyce, tell me what happened. As best that you can remember.”
Joyce’s brow knitted as she tried to remember. “I was on the phone with, ah, an art dealer from Mexico and she came in. As soon as she came in, she hit me with a bolt of something flying from her fingers. It looked like lightening, but it wasn’t. When I hit the wall, she hit me with another bolt of lightening. And she was laughing as it hit me against the wall again.”
“Did she say anything?” Buffy asked. ”Did she take anything?”
Joyce thought about it. ”She said she was taking a lock of my hair. And she said... she said that the Slayer’s going to suffer. And all the rest of her nerds, then my brat. And something about ‘Catherine the great is here’. It was all very odd, like she wanted me to know what she was doing. And who she was.”
Buffy froze, then shot a look at Giles. Joyce saw this and frowned. ”Buffy, out with it.”
Buffy smiled brightly at her mother. ”Out with what?”
Joyce was having none of that. She looked at her daughter sternly. ”Out with the secret that I know that you don’t want me to know.”
“What secret?” Buffy asked innocently. She looked at Giles for support. ”Have I got a secret, Giles?”
“Well, I, ah,” said Giles, looking hunted as he looked from the determined faces of the daughter to the mother. Joyce was having none of it.
“Buffy, you have the same look on your face when you were trying to hide the fact that you had a pig in your room,” Joyce said flatly. ”It’s the same look you have when you swear you never jump on my bed or yours after turning them over.”
Joyce narrowed her eyes at her daughter as she remained silent. Then she glared at Giles. ”You said no more secrets. Not anymore. You promised. Tell me what’s going on.”
Giles cleared his throat. ”We recently found that there’s a witch going about. One that we had thought was gone forever. Her name is Catherine Madison.”
“Remember cheerleading tryouts when we first came here about two years ago?” Buffy asked. Joyce nodded. ”She was a witch that switched bodies with Amy to become cheerleader again.”
Joyce stared at her daughter. ”A witch wanted to relive being a teenager again? What a horrifying thought! Is she insane? Why would anyone want to go back to those years again?”
“Don’t ask me,” Buffy said with a small smile. ”And now she’s back, from whatever she was, wanting to get some revenge, I guess.”
“And she’s using me to get to you,” Joyce said slowly, horror filling her deep down to her bones. She looked at her daughter, then at Giles. ”Take her out of here. Now. Get her away from that- that madwoman. You’re responsible for her, get her away from that insane woman before she come back to hurt Buffy.” Joyce turned to her daughter. “Honey, get out of here. Now.”
Buffy looked at her mother, scared. ”Mom, she already has hurt me.”
Joyce stopped moving and looked more closely at her child. Buffy’s face was filled with fear. Joyce opened her arms, and Buffy buried her face into her mother’s hair. Joyce looked at Giles, her brown eyes demanding an answer. ”I want to know more. I know you know more. Tell me. No more secrets. You promised.”
After a brief fight with his conscience, he gave it to her. “Catherine Madison is sapping your strength. If we don’t find her or her spell book, you’ll be dead within days.”
Chapter 3
The black DeSoto sped across the near deserted road as night fell. Though his stomach was growling, he didn’t stop the car to go hunting. It would have taken too much time.
Bloody Hell! What the fuck was going on? Where the bloody hell was the Slayer? Why didn’t she protect her? What’s happened to her? thought Spike as his foot went down harder on the pedal. Thoughts of Joyce being attacked made his blood boil. He had often wondered, in his rare philosophical moments, why he liked the Slayer’s mum. It was just something he couldn’t explain, and he never really bothered to wonder why he liked her. It was a weird relationship that still a mystery to him.
For the Mother of the Slayer, she was nagging, obnoxious, silly and annoying. And she had hit him with an axe. But every single time he decided to cut off the connection, he would call just to hear her talk and he could never do it. Every time he called her, he decided it was the last time he would call her. He would be rude. Annoying. Despicable. Anything to make her hate him. Instead, when he heard how happy she sounded when he just said ‘Hello”, he ended up being…polite. Helpful. Sweet. How was that for disgusting behavior in a bloodthirsty vampire? She sent him ‘care packages’ of human food, clothes and knick-knacks. She wanted him to forget Drucilla and to stop killing humans. She had no idea that he killed two Slayers. She wanted him happy.
The car sped faster as Spike’s brow knitted when he thought about that last bit. No one, since the death of his mother and grandfather, no one cared if he was happy. Not even Dru when he was with her.
It was strange to have someone care about his being happy, it was even stranger that it was the Slayer’s mother who cared. About him. But in a very strange way, it felt good for him to call her ‘Mum’ and to have her call him ‘Liam’, the name that his mother and grandfather had used. As the car sped down the road, all Spike could think was, No one hurts my Mum. Whoever did is a dead one.
As Buffy sat restlessly in the library with her friends, minus Giles who was posted at her mother’s room, her hands clenched and unclenched.
“So what do we know?” Buffy said as she looked at the Slayerettes and Wesley. ”What’s the sitch?”
Willow cleared her throat. ”We know that Cal Perkins graduated Sunnydale High a year after Amy’s mother did.”
“Word from Jake, the other custodian, was that Cal was cleaning the trophy case when he was struck blind. And that Snyder is on the warpath because one of the trophies was busted,” Xander added.
“So we know that Psycho Mom was a classmate with Cal. But why make him blind? What did he do to the trophies?” Buffy asked.
Xander gave a small smile. ”Maybe he was playing with them. Or just rubbing them the wrong way?”
Buffy gave him a withering glare before she continued. ”And why is she back from… wherever she was trapped in now?”
“Hey, what’s up?” Angel asked as he entered the library. He took one look at Buffy’s frightened face and immediately went to stand protectively over her. ”Buffy, what’s wrong?”
Buffy took one look at Angel’s concerned features and flung herself into his arms. As Angel held her close, her face buried in his chest, he looked at Willow.
”Willow? What happened? Who hurt Buffy?” Angel asked, obviously furious at whoever had done this to his Buffy.
Willow winced when she saw Angel’s game face. “Buffy’s mom is dying in the hospital.”
Stunned, Angel held Buffy closer to him. ”Oh, Buffy. I’m so sorry. What? How? Why?”
Xander, his face filled with anger, clenched his hands into fists as he thought about it. “Mrs.S is in the hospital because Amy’s psycho mom is back for revenge against Buffy. The why is-”
“Because why not?” said a laughing voice. Buffy’s head shot up when she heard that voice. As she pulled away from Angel’s arms, Buffy glared at the woman who was laughing at her pain.
In front of the library doors stood a lovely woman wearing a silver jumpsuit. Who was once the Homecoming Queen, and now a witch. It was Amy’s mother. Catherine Madison.
When Joyce opened her eyes again, her room was dark. Turning her head, she noticed a hunched figure resting his head on the side of her bed. When her head cleared a bit, she realized eh was sleeping. Studying him, she gently shook him with her free hand. He looked exhausted and she hated to bother him, but her bladder was ready to burst.
Giles’s head rolled as he felt something shake him. Still asleep and grumbling, he merely changed sleeping positions. Sighing, Joyce shook his shoulder harder. Again, Giles changed positions and remained asleep.
“Mr.Giles?” Joyce said softly as she shook his shoulder again. ”Wake up.”
“Later, Mum. Five minutes more,” he mumbled as he turned his head over once more. Joyce rolled her eyes, then studied the other side of her bed. She could get out that way. The trick was not to disturb Sleeping Beauty.
Feeling vaguely disturbed, Giles lifted his head from the bed, and his heart stopped. The bed was quite empty. ”Joyce?”
His chair nearly overturning because he stood up so quickly, Giles looked frantically about him. ”Joyce?”
“In here,” came a muffled voice from behind him. Giles raced towards the closed door.
“Joyce?” Giles shouted as he beat the door. ”Are you in there? What are you doing? Are you all right?”
The door opened, and he saw a mildly irate, although tired, woman. ”I’m fine. And I’m baking cookies in there, what did you think I was doing in there?”
Giles blushed as he nodded. ”Yes. Well, I was worried when I didn’t see you in the bed. Buffy-”
“Probably placed you here to guard over me,” Joyce sighed as she leaned heavily against the doorway. ”But I don’t want you here. Go away.”
As he winced at her words, Giles saw her slump against the door. Over her weak protests, he carefully lifted her up into his arms. He frowned as he noticed how light she was- the spell to make her weak was already working fast. As he tucked her in bed gently, he spoke briskly to her.”I know that you don’t want me to be here. But I must be, you are in grave danger and-”
“Buffy is in greater danger,” Joyce said as she grabbed his tie and pulled him closer to her face. That small act tired her even more. ”I don’t want you here. I want you beside Buffy. Helping her defeat this psycho that’s after her. I’ll be fine.”
Ashamed that he thought she didn’t want him here for other more personal reasons, Giles looked at Joyce and pushed the hair from her frightened face. ”No, you won’t. No one knows what this woman could do. Buffy fears for your life, and I must protect you for her. Buffy loves you and she wants you safe.”
Her brown eyes pleading, Joyce brought his face closer to hers with a yank on his tie. Their noses were almost touching. ”I don’t care about my life. I care about hers, and you’re the best shot she has against this psycho, not Wesley. Forget me. Go to her. Please, go help my baby. She’s all I’ve got.”
“It will be all right. She will be all right, Joyce,” said Giles as he gathered Buffy’s quietly crying mother into his arms, his mind replayed what Buffy had said to him in the hall:
“Giles, she’s my mother. I want you to stay with her,” Buffy said as she pinned him with a look. ”She’s not safe being alone.”
“Buffy, I think that I had better go with you. Wesley can-”
“No. Wesley doesn’t know what Amy’s mother looks like. He doesn’t know magic. He’s never fought against vampires. And he’d probably die from fright before he could defend my mom,” Buffy said firmly. Her eyes pleaded with him. ”I’ll survive, but I can’t fight knowing that she’s not safe. Unprotected in a hospital where that witch and vampires could get to her. Think of it. The Slayer’s Mother, helpless. What better bait could there be?”
Then she shrugged as she smiled at him impishly. ”Besides, Mom took him out with one left hook. It takes several to knock you down. Keep my mom safe, Giles. I’m trusting you with her. She’s all I’ve got. She’s my Mom.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“What’s going on? Who is this woman?” Wesley whispered to Willow as she flanked him on one side.
“She’s Catherine Madison. Amy’s witch of a mother,” Willow whispered back. ”And the one that has the spell over Buffy’s mom.”
Buffy glared at the woman in front of her. ”Still wanting to try out for the cheerleading team? Haven’t you got a life yet?”
Catherine Madison glared at her. “Oh, I’ll get a life. After I make sure everyone of you and your friends are dead first, little Slayer.”
She looked at the people who surrounded the Slayer. “I’ll make sure that you all suffer horribly. A handful of stakes for your vampire honey, a load of silver pins for the werewolf, a spell most vile for the witch, a gaggle of rabid vampire women for the geek and a load of demons for your Watchers. And you will watch them all die slowly. Horribly.”
“You’ve been watching too many B movies, you need a new script writer,” Buffy retorted. ”Better yet, someone to write you out of the script. And you put on a little weight.”
Catherine’s face whitened with fury, and a lightening bolt flew out of her hands. Buffy and her friends scattered as it hit the library table, shattering it to pieces.
“Hah! Amy has better aim than you,” Xander taunted. He leapt as another lightening bolt flew his way. ”Yeow!”
“Don’t mention that brat’s name!” Catherine screamed as she threw another lightening bolt at the boy. Then at the vampire who tried to get close to her. ”And you stay away from me you stupid blood sucker!”
“Why not come and get me?” Buffy taunted as she went into a fighting stance. ”Are you afraid to take me?”
Catherine smiled coldly at the Slayer. ”No, but I have something you want. The cure for your mother. And I can make a little deal with you.”
Buffy froze as she stared at the madwoman in front of her. ”What? What deal?”
“I need a new body, a young body. A strong one,” Catherine said, almost musingly. ”One that has alot of agility, stamina, skills. And one that is pretty.”
“So? Go to Bally’s and get a facelift,” Buffy sneered. ”Heard they can do wonders for a woman of your age. And now they have a two-for-one sale.”
Her eyes glittering, Catherine smiled at the girl. “Want your mother alive? Then give me your body. Better make a decision soon, or she dies within the next two days. And then one of your friends will fall next. Think about it.”
Then in a puff of black smoke, she was gone.
“Bet she’s a hit at the smoking section,” Xander said as he came away from his hiding place.
“Along with the psycho queens of yesteryear,” Oz said as stood next to Xander. ”Now what?”
