Giles woke up on his couch after hearing a thud of something hitting his front door and jacknifed upright blinking bleary eyes as reached for the nearest weapon that was handy and found himself holding the black onyx paper weight that Xander, Buffy and Willow had picked out for his birthday just weeks before Buffy had left Sunnydale and frowned at the object as he slowly got to his feet.

Trying not to make noise so that he didn't alert the person or thing outside to the fact that he was now up and wide awake.

Though the piece of stone was heavy and fit his grip well enough it would be no match for a demon if it was laying in wait for him outside. Although he supposed that he could just throw it at the demon's head and run like hell up stairs to his weapon's chest.

There was another thud, this time a little bit louder and he felt his heart slam against his ribs as his door rattled on it's hinges this time. Good lord, what was out there must be strong. Even he couldn't rattle the door like that without slamming it hard enough to damage the heavy wood.

Slowly making his way around the couch and across the floor, he paused well out of reach of his door.

After all he'd been attacked enough to know that once he was close enough, the door would swing open and he'd be knocked across the room and then he'd wind up without a weapon. And that was the last thing he needed right now- There was another thud followed by a pained cry and everything in him froze and went cold to his core.

Oh dear god, someone was outside! Possibly being attacked!

Rushing forward he grasped the knob and jerked the door open and blinked at the blinding sunlight that hit him square in the face and prayed that his eyes would adjust before something happened. But once his eyes adjusted and he had the chance to look around- there was no demon on his doorstep. No monster waiting to rip him apart.

There was however a young woman laying on his doorstep on her side, right at his feet. Her clothing was covered in blood and her skin discolored with bluish, black and purple bruises.

Dropping the onyx stone he dropped to his knee next to the- well he assumed that she was between the ages of seventeen and twenty- though she was a might on the smallish and petite side, and reached out and brushed back the mid back length chocolate colored hair obscuring his vision of her features and started to open his mouth to speak when his breath caught in his throat.

Oh my god- He thought as he reached out tenatively to touch the familiar face of his lost slayer and felt her skin.

It was warm to the touch and though she wasn't moving he could almost feel her breathing even without placing his hand near her face of chest. His chest started to ache as his eyes misted over and he slowly, carefully took stock of her injuries before running back inside to grab his phone and call an ambulance for her.

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An hour later-

Giles was sitting in the waiting room when Joyce Summers, Buffy's mother- and several other familiar figures came running through the front door to the waiting room. Each of their expressions holding a touch of hope, trepridation, and other things that were best not to dwell upon at the moment.

"Is it true? Is Buffy back?" Willow asked in a rush, beating Joyce to the punch as Giles slowly stood and hugged Willow who had become a little bit clingy since Buffy had left. He suspected that it was a sort of habit that she had had before Buffy left and had simply transferred her clingyness from the slayer to him because he was closest at hand.

Not that he minded all that much.

He adored these kids. They and Buffy had swept into his life like a hurricane and knocked down every barrier that he'd erected. Reminding him that he was more than just a Watcher. He was a human being. And Buffy for all her gifts, was human as well.

Creating a deep bond of kinsmanship between them all.

"I believe it's her. I mean she's changed her look a bit, her hair is a dark brown and she was hurt fairly badly. But the face... I could never mistake her face and that was definitely Buffy's face I saw." Giles said, hoping to god that he wasn't wrong. Because he knew that it would kill them all if he was.

"If you say that you believe that the girl you found is Buffy then I believe you." Joyce said with a small smile before asking, "How long have they had her back there?"

"A while. They said something about maybe needing to do a few scans and check her for internal bleeding... S-She was pretty badly hurt." Giles said as he took his glasses off and polished them like he always did when he was feeling awkward or uncomfortable.

He was in the middle of cleaning one of his lenses when he noticed that he had dried blood on his shirt from where he had lifted Buffy and helped put her in the ambulance earlier, and paused.

It hadn't occurred to him until now, but what if he had accidentally done more harm than good? The thought in itself was horrifying. "Where is that damned doctor?" Xander growled impatiently as he shifted nervously from foot to foot over by Willow and Joyce.

Joyce started fidgeting herself while Willow bit her lip and looked around while muttering under her breath about anything and everything however unintelligible. They must have stood around for what was another thirty to forty minutes before someone came out of the ER to speak with them.

They all listened to the exstent of Buffy's injuries and marveled at the fact that she was even alive. They were told that she would need complete bed rest until her wounds healed before the doctor asked to talk to Joyce alone and pulled her aside for a moment.

Walking a little ways down the hall until they were out of earshot before delivering the news that her daughter had sustained some sort of brain damage a while back and may not remember her.

Giles and the others stood there, watching and saw the look of horror on Joyce's ashen face, mere moments before she shrieked. "What do you mean she may not remember me? I'm her mother!" The doctor reached out and started to place his hands on her shoulders and she slapped his hands away and started crying as crumbled to the floor.

"What happened to my baby?"

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She awoke slowly, her eyes flitting open to the shock of eggshell white hanging over her head and frowned. The last time she had seen eggshell white- it had been burning, the smells of smoke and blood mixing together in her nose. The sounds of slaughter sounding in her ears.

She blinked her eyes and tried not to start crying. The last time she had seen eggshell white had been when she was a child. No more than ten and already answering her calling in life.

The last time she had seen eggshell white she had been convinced that she was in hell. Now she was worried that history was doomed to repeat itself. And that in itself is what scared her.

She bolted upright and looked down at herself in confusion when she felt a slightly painful twinge in one of her arms and looked down to see clear tape attached to a needle stuck in her arm, and promptly ripped it out then started to get off of the lumpy surface that she had been laying on when suddenly she was surrounded by people.

All of whom were uncomfortably grabby with her person.

"Buffy! What are you doing trying to get out of bed? You're hurt! Lay down?" A red headed girl with shoulder length hair who looked like Willa yet wasn't, placed her hands on her shoulders and pushed her gently back depite the fact that she was straining to get up.

The second her back was against the bed some others leaned over her, one was an attractive woman in her forties with curly blond hair and wide concerned blue eyes. And next to her was a man who looked like Ripper, yet a little younger. Maybe by ten years or so.

And next to him was a dark haired young man that she distinctly recognized as Xan, but he had two- yes two- brown eyes instead of one icey blue. She didn't know what was going on or where she was but the more the people crowded around her, the more everything hurt. Her body, her head, her organs, even her teeth seemed as if they had just been jarred by something within.

She lifted a hand to touch the girl who looked like her Willa and let her finger tips brush the girl's red hair when she an agonizing sensation between her eyes and quickly put her hands to her head and screamed, startling/alarming the people around her, as all thoughts of Willa, Ripper and Xan were ripped from her mind.