The cool washcloth felt soothing to Buffy's pounding forehead. Distantly she could hear Willow nattering on about feeling sorry for messing up the spell and stewing over how to fix Buffy's problem. She heard a knock on the outside door followed by Willow's footsteps and the sound of Giles' voice.

"Is she any better?"

"I don't know. She's mostly been quiet, but I don't think she's sleeping."

From the foot of the bed she detected the familiar sound of her Watcher clearing his throat.

"Ahem, Buffy."

She peeked at him from under the cloth.

"How are you feeling now?"

"It depends," she muttered. "Are you still making with the Anya smoochies?"

Giles blushed slightly. "Well, I guess you could say that, though Anya is unpacking now."

Buffy sat up. "Where?"

"In my room, of course. Why do you ask?"

"Because it isn't right!"

"Buffy?" Anya had opened the connecting door and walked into the room without knocking. At least that wasn't anything different from the usual. "Are you lecturing Rupie on his sexual behavior? Because a girl who has slept with not one, but two vampires has no room to throw stones."

"I'm not throwing... I mean," Buffy took a deep breath, "I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about you and how you're here and not dead."

"Rupert, make her stop. She wants me dead." Anya crossed her arms and glared at Buffy. "I think she's jealous."

Giles shook his head, "I sure that's not the case, dear. You know that Buffy is like a daughter to me."

"Well I don't get any of this backtalk from your real daughter. She likes me and we make jokes and talk about boys and occasionally beat on Andrew together. She's fun. Buffy hates me. She stabbed me through the chest, you know."

Buffy gasped at the unfairness of it all. "Only because you'd just committed mass murder!"

"Buffy," Giles began in his favorite placating tone.

"Oh don't you even start!" Buffy wagged a finger at him. "Wait a minute," said Buffy, realizing what Anya had just said. "Daughter? You have a daughter now?"

"Ha!" Anya interjected, "Jealousy. I told you!"

"It isn't jealousy," Buffy gritted out slowly. "Giles has never had a daughter and now everyone is acting like he does. Who is she anyway?" Suddenly Buffy realized what she hadn't understood earlier. "Dawn?" she gasped. "You think Dawn is your daughter?"

Willow moved over to Buffy. "Don't you remember anything?" she asked. She began to wring her hands. "I knew it. Something went wrong with the spell. We need to fix it." She turned her big green eyes to Giles. "I think maybe she's stuck in a dream world of some kind."

Giles removed his glasses. "This would appear to be an alternate reality of sorts."

Buffy closed her eyes in frustration, "It isn't me. It's you!"

"All of us?" Giles asked her. "Buffy, try to concentrate. What are the chances that we are all experiencing a common temporal distortion and you alone are not?"

Buffy rose from the bed and paced furiously around the room. "Is it really all of you?" She stopped walking. "What about Xander? He seemed to be mostly normal. Where is he?"

"Where else?" Anya said. "He's playing that stupid video game with Andrew. The one with the beautiful woman with impossibly large bosom who searches for artifacts."

"Aha!" Buffy pointed at her. "You're wrong again! Xander doesn't play those games."

"Perhaps you should sit down again," Giles told her in that overly gentle tone that grated on her nerves. "Willow, why don't you ask the boys to come over so we can all work this out?"

"Oh, okay!" Willow bustled out of the room, apparently ecstatic over being asked to do a favor by Giles.

"What's with her anyway?" Buffy asked, "she's like the queen of the mood swingers."

"You know how empathetic she is, Buffy. She hates seeing you distressed in any way, but she loves to be helpful. I do believe she's the most unselfish girl I've ever encountered."

"Willow?" Buffy laid down again and covered her eyes with the now dry and warm cloth. She loved Willow as much as anyone, but unselfish was not exactly one of the more accurate descriptive words for the witch. Giles in particular had always been big on pointing that out to her. That he was now extolling her praises was out of character. Buffy sat up with a start. "That's it."

"What's it?" Anya asked her rudely, "I wish you'd stop waffling back and forth. You have a headache then you don't. There are things I'd rather do than sit and watch you bounce around on your bed. I'd like to go and bounce around on my bed. With my fiancé." She took Giles' hand and pulled him toward the connecting door. "Like now. Naked."

"Oh, well yes, of course," Giles stammered and blushed.

"See?" Buffy stood and pointed at Giles. "There's the proof. He isn't Giles!"

"Of course he's Giles."

"No, he's not. He's too... too perky. Giles is never perky. He's perkless. Plus Giles would know that Dawn isn't his daughter and that you're dead."

Anya crossed her arms and glared at Buffy. "Of all the nerve! If I'm so dead why are you wasting your incredible superior Slayer breath and talking to me?"

"I... I don't know." Buffy sat down on her bed again, deflated, just as Willow returned with Xander, Andrew and Dawn. As Xander smiled at her in greeting her mood lightened again. The familiar goofy grin was reassuring, as was his concern for her.

"Hey Buff, feeling better?"

"I think so." Buffy's smile felt tight, but she really was glad to see him. "Will you please explain to Giles that what he is saying is impossible? He thinks that he is marrying Anya and that Dawn is his daughter." Her optimism began to wilt and die as she noted the long look Xander exchanged with Giles. She eyed Xander warily as he moved over to sit beside her. She also noticed Dawn as she quietly moved over to stand beside Giles. The girl looked perfectly comfortable as he draped his arm gently across her shoulders. Buffy's dismay and frustration joined together in her chest as a tight, hot knot. Her breath caught and tears burned along the rims of her eyes. "Please," she begged, "someone just..."

Xander held her. "What Buffy? What can we do?"

"Someone tell me that I'm not crazy, or that I'm still in my own world. I just don't know how this..." She lost her train of thought as she noticed Anya caressing Giles' shoulder. The diamond in her ring glinted in the morning light that flooded the room. She felt a stirring of hope.

"Xander," she pulled back to study his face, "will you tell me something?"

"Sure, what?"

"Are Anya and Giles engaged?"

"Yes, they've been together for a while now. Almost two years."

"And you're okay with that?"

"Oh sure. I was all wrong for her, all hung up on the demon thing. I broke her heart and she's better off now. Happier."

Buffy smiled in genuine relief. "Good! Then tell me one more thing."

"Go ahead."

"If Anya is marrying Giles, why is she wearing your ring?"

Xander was stunned into silence. His dark eyes filled with confusion as he searched for a way to answer her.

Buffy stood and moved to stand in front of Dawn. "And if Dawn isn't my sister," she turned to Giles, "then who is her mother?"

She looked around the room at the identical astounded expressions on the faces of everyone there.

"Now, somebody tell me that I'm wrong." Buffy crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

"I'm waiting."

***