Next Morning

Main Street

Magic Box

Buffy stepped into the Magic Box then stopped at the top of the small steps. Her eyes stared at Giles with a blank expression.

Giles stood in the centre of the floor wearing a Wizard's hat and purple and silver stared cloak.

They stared at one another in silence until Giles quietly removed the costume setting it aside clearly embarrassed.

DING-DING

The small bell at the top of the front door rang when Dawn rushed inside breathless and grinning with excitement. "Told you, you couldn't ditch me!" Dawn looked at Buffy then turned to the store noticing its impressive layout. "Whoa, Mr Giles, this place is so… wow. I mean, check out all the magic junk."

"Our new slogan." Giles muttered sarcastically.

"When's it open?" Dawn asked noticing the lack of people occupying the store. "You know, for costumers?"

Giles took a deep breath of patients and faced the young teen, "Since nine this morning, actually."

Buffy rolled her eyes stepping down the steps with a heavy sigh. "Go. Browse and—" She started to say waving her hand at Dawn.

"— You break it, you bought it. I heard you the first sixty times." Dawn grumbled moving off through the stacks of magical items.

Buffy smiled to herself as she neared the glass counter window where Giles now stood going over the stores retail books that previous owners had kept. Giles glanced up over the rim of his glasses at Buffy. He noticed the far off look swirling in her green eyes which only meant something was weighing on her. "Buffy, are you alright? You seem distracted."

"Slayer-wise, I'm tip-top. But Mom's still sick and we don't know what the deal is."

"I've been looking into that, but unfortunately had found nothing to support the theory of the supernatural. The only thing we can do is let the doctors work and treat your mother."

"Yeah, that's what Graham said too." Buffy huffed with disappointment. "We've got the whole medical staff working round the lock to tell us diddly."

Giles placed a supportive hand over hers, "I'm sorry, Buffy."

"There's more," Buffy said as she reached into her bag, "last night on patrol—" she was cut off by the door bells chime.

Graham, Willow, and Oz strolled into the Magic Box looking around with smiles.

Willow let out an excited burst of sounds as she reached the top step. "Giles!" She ran down the two steps heading straight to Giles and Buffy at the counter. "Where's your hat and cloak?"

"The hype was out of control." Oz smirked.

"Willow!" Dawn appeared beside the redheaded witch. "You gotta see this, they have the coolest talisman. Mans. Tails-guys—" Dawn waved the talisman in Willow's face.

"Actually," Buffy pulled out the glowing orb sphere from her bag, "I've got a little Scooby-centric deal to deal with first. I put it before the group. What the hell is it?" Buffy squinted examining the sphere curiously in her hands.

Giles lowered his glasses to his nose with a frown, "Appears to be paranormal in origin."

"How can you tell?" Willow asked.

"Well, because it's so shiny." Oz answered dryly.

"Graham and I found it last night on patrol."

Graham crossed his arms over his chest, "Which tells us, there's probably more where that came from—"

"— You can't patrol." Dawn said interrupting his thought. She looked at him with big blue eyes. "Buffy said." She earned a hard glare from her older sister in which, the teen promptly ignored.

Buffy felt Graham's eyes on her. She opened her mouth to defend herself but her mouth only have it bob up and down like a speechless codfish. "No, I—I didn't." Buffy stuttered with an expression of guilt.

"Yeah, you did. Remember, you said it'd be easier if you didn't have to look out for anybody?" Dawn looked at Buffy with a small smirk.

Graham shifted on his feet looking down at his girlfriend curious of her response to the accusations. He folded his arms across his chest and waited for a response.

"Yeah, but I wasn't talking about Graham." Buffy told Dawn then looked at Graham. "I wasn't talking about you."

Graham narrowed his eyes over her skeptically.

"She even said, you look even cuter when you're all weak and kitten-y and she be better solo so you don't get hurt." Dawn told to Graham. "Welcome to the club, she'll never let me go either." Finally feeling a room full of glares, Dawn's eyes went wide and gave an expression of innocence. "What? What?"

The groups attention turned from Dawn to Buffy and Graham. Buffy failed miserably to explain herself and the accusations held against her. Buffy reached out and touched Graham's arm. Graham squinted his eyes over her unfazed by her guilty expression. "Cute… weak… and kitten-y?" His brows pinched together.

"But—but much, much manlier…"

Graham slowly nodded his head, "Mmm-hmm." He tilted his head to the side taking in full enjoyment of Buffy nervous stammer. "Would this kitten be… big and mean?" He lifted his chin giving Buffy a quick squinted sideways glance.

Buffy nodded her head relieved he hadn't totally freaked out on her and stomp off in a macho-ego rampage. "The hugest and—and the meanest—like giant and ferocious."

A moment of tense silence lingered in the air. Graham nodded his head slowly and said, "Okay, I can accept that."

Buffy released a deep breath she had been holding in. Graham appeared not to be angry with her. He actually appeared quite amused. Buffy then realized she had fallen for his trick. Shaking her head at him, Buffy couldn't help but let a soft smile cross her lips.

Graham was so hard for Buffy to read most of the time. His neutral blank expression could rival Buster Keaton's.

Jeez, Angel's like children's picture book compared to him. Buffy shook her head.

Prospect Park

Carousel Bench

As the days passed, the Summers girls and Graham found themselves camping out in the hospital's visitors lounge. To Graham's suggestion, he took Dawn out of the dreary setting for a bit of fresh air. He tried to hide his disappointment when Buffy declined the offer to take a break. She elected to stay behind, just in case Joyce needed her.

Graham insisted that they wouldn't be able to see Joyce for hours after the second surgery but Buffy wouldn't hear of it. He left her there and told himself that she'll come around eventually.

"You're meltin'." Graham said looking down at the melting chocolate chip ice cream pooling in the styrofoam cup in Dawn's hand.

"Guess, I'm not hungry." Dawn frowned watching the ice cream drip from the bottom of the plastic spoon.

"Maybe this was a crappy idea. I probably should've just dropped you off at your friends or somethin'." Graham adjusted the tattered Cubs baseball cap on his head.

"No," Dawn said quickly and laid a hand on his forearm, "this is better. I just… I like ice cream soup." She turned her eyes to the spinning carousel. "I had my tenth birthday party here."

Graham followed her glance to the carousel and smiled imagining Buffy at that time period. She would have been sixteen years old. "How'd that go?" He asked.

Dawn smiled a little at the memory, "We'd just moved to Sunnydale and my mom rented the carousel for a whole hour for just me and my friends. Except, I hadn't made any friends yet, so it was just me and Buffy and Mom riding the carousel by ourselves… over and over and over again. For an entire hour. Just so my mom felt we'd gotten our money's worth."

A smile crossed Graham's lips easily picturing the warm hearted mother and her daughters riding on the carousel. His arm draped around Dawn's shoulders. Dawn laid her head on his chest taking comfort in his protective presence.

"She's never going to get better, is she?" Dawn asked staring misty eyed at the carousel.

Graham ran a hand down Dawn's arm and gave it a small squeeze, "Of course she will. She's a Summers girl. You chicks are resilient."

Dawn tilted her head upwards to look at him, "I'm really glad you're around, Graham." She told him honestly much to Graham's appreciation. "Buffy's glad about it too—even if she doesn't say it much. She sure cries a lot less with you then she did with Angel."

Graham's brows pinched together trying to catch Dawn's meaning. "What do you mean?"

"Everything with him was all… Eeeee! You know?"

"Um… sort of…" He removed his arm from around Dawn's shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck looking away awkwardly. "Explain it to me."

"You know, the 'my boyfriend's a vampire' crazy, crazy… Everyday was like the end of the world. She doesn't get all worked up like that over you." Dawn sat up and twisted her body to him resting a hand on his knee appearing guilty. "I mean, you're really good for her." She tired to backtrack her offhanded comments. "I've never seen her open up to anyone like the way she does with you. Not even when she was with Angel. Do you know what I mean?"

Graham flicked his eyes to her face and replaced frown with a weak smile then leaned forward pressing his mouth against her forehead. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"Hey,"

Graham and Dawn looked up from each other to see Buffy standing in front of him holding her arms around herself. The sun glowing behind her created a soft yellow halo around her head which only made Graham's heart pound in his chest.

"We were just talkin' about you." Graham said happy she had decided to give herself a break.

"Oh?" Buffy sat down on the bench on Graham's other side. She reached over taking the half eaten ice cream cone from his hand. Graham draped his other arm around her shoulders and watched her take a bite of delight. "Mmmm… yummy… " she continued to lick the ice cream making herself comfortable under his arm.

"Needed a break?" He asked.

Buffy stopped eating and stared at the ice cream cone in her hand, "Yeah, I needed a break."

"Can I go to Janis's later?" Dawn asked over Graham's chest to Buffy.

Buffy thought about her sisters question for a moment and shook her head. "Not tonight," Dawn opened her mouth to protest when Buffy continued, "I want you home with me tonight. Tomorrow, we're going to see Mom then after that you can go."

Dawn thought about the compromise and decided it was reasonable. She nodded her head and rested back down against Graham's chest mimicking Buffy's actions.

Graham smiled to himself holding the Summers girls against him and watched the carousel slowly spin round and round.

Main Street

Later in the night, Graham promised he'd run a few errands for Buffy and Dawn before heading to the Magic Box where the rest of the gang met.

He sat at a stoplight when a demonic snake slithered by across the crosswalk. A moment later, Buffy sprinted across the crosswalk chasing after the snake demon.

Graham shifted the truck in gear and sped after them. He reached across to the passengers side door and opened it as he neared Buffy. "Get in!"

Buffy did not hesitate as she climbed into the moving pickup truck speeding off to following the snake demon. "I've gotta stop this monster snake before it gets to Glory."

"Glory?"

"Yeah, the blonde bimbo from the factory." Buffy explained quickly.

"Right." Graham rammed the truck through the chained fence following the demon snake to a rocky area. From afar, they could see a luxurious apartment complex where presumably Glory stayed.

"Stop here." Buffy jumped out of the truck and took off after the snake on foot grabbing the broken chains on her way.

Graham contemplated whether to follow her or stay in the truck. "Fuck it." He jumped out of the truck and raced after the Slayer.

At the end of the trees there were three separate paths to take and Buffy was nowhere in sight. "Shit." Graham caused and quickly played, 'eeny, meeny, miny, moe'. He finally chose the second path and sprinted through it when he saw Buffy straddling the now strangled demon snake. Buffy's fists pounding into its disfigured face on a continuous rampage.

Graham slowly approached and held out his hands around her shoulders. He carefully eased her off of the demon. She turned her into his arms falling into his tight embrace. "It's okay… It's okay, the demon's dead… Dawn's safe." He pushed her hair off of her face and cupped her cheeks in his hands to look at him. "Dawnie's safe, Buffy, you did good." Buffy's reddened eyes were filled with terror and rage. "You did good, baby… You did good." Graham whispered and held her against him.

Sunnyvale General Hospital

Visitor's Area

Graham waited patiently outside the wooden door Buffy had disappeared into an hour before. He sat beside Dawn and stared up at the television on the wall watching rerun episodes of some game show Graham couldn't remember the name of. He hated to say it but he sort of missed Wheel of Fortune endlessly. This gameshow had too many rules to follow.

Instead of watching, Graham closed his eyes careful not to fall asleep. Nope. No sleepin' for me. He told himself and closed his eyes.

The wooden door of Joyce's room opened as Buffy stepped out. She walked the short distance into the waiting area where she found Dawn and Graham. "You can see Mom now." Buffy told Dawn.

Dawn nodded her head and stood from her chair following the same path Buffy had taken to Joyce's room.

Buffy released a deep breath and opened her eyes to Graham. To her amazement, he was still there just as he promised. She ran her eyes over him drinking in the sight of him for a moment. His eyes were closed, head rested back against the wall. His elbows were propped on the chair arms and his long legs were extended out and crossed at the ankles.

He hadn't left her. Not once. Graham has totally been there. He took over her patrols when she needed him to. He ran the family errands without a single complaint. He dropped off and picked up Dawn from school or wherever she needed to be. He didn't push Buffy or make her feel any sort of guilt for putting her mother and sister first. He has been whatever Buffy needed him to be, just as he promised her.

Buffy sat down in the vacant seat Dawn had previously occupied. She reached over the chair arm and took Graham's hand. She ran her thumb over his knuckles slowly waking him from his short-lived nap.

He blinked his eyes and looked at her, "Shit. I told myself I wasn't gonna fall asleep." Graham tiredly smiled and rubbed a hand over his face.

"You're tired."

"We all are. How you doin'? Are you okay?"

Buffy gave him a half smile and shrugged, "Minimal damage of the fighting kind. And it's all the other kind." She looked down at their conjoined hands.

For the first time since that night on the porch when she was told Joyce needed to go to the hospital for a CAT scan. Buffy finally let a tear slip down her cheek as the day slowed down letting her fully process its high stress.

Graham did not respond as he reached out a hand to brush her tear away.

"I keep telling myself that I can't." Buffy admitted. "Because more than anything, I just want to be in your arms and breakdown." She quietly told him. Her lips were narrow and tight restraining the emotions threatening to spill over. "But I can't. Not now… Not yet… They need me and if I start… I won't be able to stop."

Graham brought the hand he held to his lips, "You know where I'll be when you're ready." He told her with understanding.

Buffy let out a breath of relief and leaned forward pressing her forehead to his. "Thank you."

"Go," Graham drew back his head and let her hand go, "be with your mother and sister. I'll be here."

Buffy felt her heart inflate with love the longer she looked at him. She knew he was telling her the truth. He would still be there waiting in this bleak waiting room waiting for her return. She nodded her head and stood from the chair and headed back to the room closing the door behind her.

Graham rested the back of his head against wall settling in his previous position. He crossed his arms and shut his eyes until he heard the signature opener indicating a new hour and new gameshow.

"The. Wheel. Of. Fortune!" The audience shouted at the tops of their lungs and clapped their hands with excitement.

Graham released a heavy breath and muttered, "Finally…"