disclaimer: i don't own buffy, i wish i did

a/n: this is the second of the companion pieces for my fic curse of immortal love. this one deals with joyces foray into demon care.

Joyce Summers...Demon Doctor

It had been a really stupid idea, she knew it the moment the she had declined Clem's offer. She knew what was out there in the dead of night now and yet she'd still chosen to decline the offer of a lift and walk home. Lamenting dropping her car off for a service Joyce Summers clutched her jacket closer and forged her way home. She knew it wasn't safe and that was why she always carried a stake and a cross with her. Those two things didn't prepare her for what she found just three houses down from hers.

A vampire was leaning over a fallen girl and, unlike most vamp attacks, this vampire was not draining the girl, rather he was beating her repeatedly with a metal pipe. All thoughts for her own safety fled and Joyce did what she knew her daughter would do in a situation like this. She attacked the vampire. Well attacked is a bit of an overstatement. Really she whacked him in the head with her purse and when he dropped the pipe she wasted no time in plunging her stake into what she was desperately hoping was the vampire's heart. It wasn't. All she succeeded in doing was angering him. Not one to give up when she knew she was all that stood between the fallen girl and death Joyce pulled the stake free just as the vampire was turning to face her. He snarled at her and grinned. That time she got the heart.

The vampire was a little surprised to find himself dusted by a forty-something housewife. Joyce didn't care; in fact she stepped right through his disintegrating corpse to get to the fallen girl. That was when she realized that the fallen girl wasn't just any girl, which probably explained the beating as opposed to the draining. This girl had earthy brown skin with patches of gold scales. And her ears were slightly pointed. Joyce hesitated for just a second before she pulled the girl to her feet and dragged her the rest of the way home.

She spent hours that night watching over the young demon. She'd stripped her of most of her clothes, cleaned her wounds, bandaged what needed to be bandaged and put her missing daughters perfectly good bed to use. And when the demon woke four hours after Joyce had dragged her unconscious form home, Joyce was delighted to find she would be fit and healthy in no time. It was nice to have someone in the house again, even if that someone was a demon named Tilly who always spoke her mind and frequently got distracted halfway through everything.

It was Tilly who introduced her to the great need the demon community had for a place to get well and recover. What started as a safe place for Tilly to bring her wounded friends turned into the place friends of friends bought their friends. Joyce became well known throughout the demon community as the kind hearted mother of the real slayer who was great for a band aid and a cup of cocoa. When the demons started offering money and trinkets for her services she welcomed it. She put the money aside in a special account and sold the trinkets at the magic shop. All the money went towards keeping her medical supplies stocked and her cupboards full of cocoa. Eventually her services came into such high demand she took Tilly on as a nurse and paid her a small wage.

Angel's patrols always kept her spare beds full and she never told Rupert.