Rabidreject- Thank you very much for the review. And yes, Tara will be playing a big part in this season, or at least a particular arc of it, just like Joyce will have a big part in a different arc. Ooh, there's all these arcs. Hehe. And well, they'll will be a few surprises for CwDP, but you'll just have to wait and see. As for Wolfram and Hart? Not that long a wait for them actually...surprisingly short in fact

Zigpal- Thanks very much for reviewage and claps. And I rock? Ooh, yay, go me- I try. And yeah we have bot Joyce and Tara now. and ooh they are going to be having the fun involvement this season. And as for the spin of same time same place. Well it spun and spun and then went in a completely different direction from the original! haha.Enjoy

A/N: Herein Arc Hintage Begins
Usually flights were boring, long, out-drawn events that all passengers on board willed to be over as soon as possible unless of course they were flying First Class. And also unless you happened to be, on this particular flight, Willow Rosenberg.

"What if they don't want me back?" She asked nervously, turning to Tara who was in the seat next to her attempting to open a packet of peanuts and failing.

"Of course they want you back Willow," She carried on trying to open the packet, "They're your friends. More than that," She looked at Willow lovingly, "They're your family. And family always forgives. I'm not saying there won't be weirdness, but they'll always love you and they will always forgive you" She kissed Willow sweetly on the lips, brief and light and perfectly appropriate for in a seat on a plane from New York to Sunnydale. That said, Tara returned to trying to open the packet of peanuts which was slowly going from 'trying' to all out war. Eventually, Willow couldn't watch the struggle anymore and having sympathy for Tara she yanked the foil packet out of her hands to open them herself.

"I know all that," Willow agreed with Tara's words as she effortlessly pulled open the snack, "It's just so much has changed...everything's different. I don't even think I'm me anymore, the person I was anyway. And I miss that person- peppy Willow who got geeker joy over a computer upgrade." After taking one for herself, Willow handed the peanuts back to Tara which she took gratefully; she was starving. "I just sometimes miss those simpler times, you know? Like really miss"

"Shouldn't she be here by now? Where's the plane? Arrival was nine twenty-five, it's now nine twenty-six, where the hell is it?" Xander was clearly nervous as was evident to everyone waiting with him for Willow in the airport. That everyone being the entire group save for Willow and Tara.

"Xander, calm down," Joyce told him, "She'll get here when she gets here. Don't worry"

"But I do worry. I can't help but worry. And you can't all pretend you're not worried too. I can see it in your little faces" He accused them all.

"I'm not worried," Dawn protested, "Just filled with fear. But I have reason to; she tried to kill me"

"She did not try to kill you," Joyce argued patiently but Dawn was unconvinced.

"Oh yeah, so what was your whole 'get away from my daughter' bit from, huh?"

"I was...that was just...she's not..." Joyce sighed, "Rupert" She prompted for him to finish the explanation while she resumed trying to get Lily to settle. She didn't like the airport, it was clearly too noisy for her, and even though she wasn't crying, her face was not a happy expression, not even when Joyce tried the ever-successful rock and walk.

"Tara has assured me of Willow's recovery, and her return should give you nothing to be worried about Dawn" He assured her and Buffy nodded in agreement.

"No, Willow's still Willow. She went through a very bad time last year, but she's okay now. England was like...rehab."

"Don't people out of rehab regress all the time?" Anya asked nervously causing everyone to throw her a look, while Dawn just looked even more nervous.

"Ooh-ooh!" Buffy exclaimed, "Here comes their flight now...or really like the people who were on their flight" At this announcement the entire group seemed to stand to attention as they watched all the passengers file out, waiting for Tara and Willow appear.

Everyone was nearly gone and they seemed to be the only family left in this area of the airport when finally two familiar faces came from the incoming flights corridor; Willow and Tara. Tara was smiling, but Willow's expression was one akin to someone about to have a root canal. That is, not happy, not good and most decidedly nervous.

"Willow!" Buffy called out, so the two would notice them in the crowd that wasn't, "Tara! Over here!"

Nodding in recognition, the couple headed over to the group which, much to Tara's relief, welcomed Willow with open arms. Willow however, still felt the awkwardness she knew was going to be there and yet again longed for the time when she was sweet, innocent Willow who they all depended on. Why did she even complain the day Buffy called her 'Old Reliable' in High School? She wanted to be Old Reliable again. She sighed. She couldn't think like that; she was sure all of them there at some point in each year thought to themselves I wish was back at such and such a time- things were so much easier and simpler then. But the world just didn't work that way. Unfortunately.

Joyce felt that something wasn't quite right when she woke up the following morning. She was exhausted, yes, but that was to be expected given two things. After Willow and Tara's return from England it had been apparently taken as a given that everyone would come back to Revello Drive for 'celebrations' that would unfortunately last well into the wee hours of the morning. The second thing was that everything that had gone on had caused Lily to become very excited, which led to tiredness, which eventually led to crying which meant that Joyce and Rupert had been up half the remainder of the night (or rather the early hours of the morning) trying to get her to go to sleep, eventually succeeding at exactly 4.32am.

But the thing that made everything feel so odd when Joyce woke up was that she had the weird sensation that she was alone in the room. Yes, sometimes Rupert woke up before her- though most of the time they tended to wake the exact same time, seemingly having synchronized sleeping patterns since the arrival of Lily. However, her bed didn't only feel empty it felt not slept in as though Rupert hadn't been there at all all night. And the other reasons for the feeling of loneliness was that Joyce couldn't sense Lily's presence in the room, which she always unquestionably could; it was like a sixth sense. But this morning it was as though she were completely gone. Sitting up in bed, Joyce looked around for answers or reassurances- whichever came first- but found herself only facing panic and more questions. She saw Rupert's side of the bed had indeed not been slept in and, more worryingly, Lily wasn't in the room. In fact her bassinet was not even there either. It was as though she had simply never been.

She hurriedly got up, determined to find Buffy or Rupert or anyone who could answer these questions, or at least solve the problem. As she shoved the bed covers aside she realized that they were not the same bed sheets that had been adorning her bed when she and Rupert had finally got to go to sleep. This little fact only added to the confusion.

"Rupert?" She called out, wondering whether he was perhaps just up early- maybe with Lily. "Buffy? Dawn?" She reeled off names as she reached her bedroom door, but then stopped as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror pinned to the door of her wardrobe.

Okay, so there wasn't much of a difference. Her hair was a little longer, cut a different style admittedly and if she looked really close she could see, well not so much see as sense, she was slightly younger. Not a lot like dear-god-i'm-back-at-home-with-my-parents younger but about five years or so. Either way it was enough to freak her out and enough to make her realize that the impossible may have just become, as was the tendency in Sunnydale, possible. It was then that she put together the changed haircut, the empty room save for herself, the different bedsheets, everything. She was herself...nearly five years ago.

Buffy was in that blissful moment of sleep, where you're awake enough to be aware you are asleep so as to enjoy the break, but too asleep to be concerned about the fact you will soon have to get up. This happy feeling lasted all of 60 seconds before her alarm clock went off, sounding slightly more gargled than usual as though the electronic device had a sore throat. It was insisting it was time to get up,time to go to work, but no, right now she just could not accept it. She hit the snooze button.

"Buffy! It's time to get up! Otherwise you won't be ready in time for school!"

That wake-up call was enough to make her shoot up in bed. Not only was it telling her she had to go to school, not work, but the voice calling her was not her Mom, nor was it Dawn in an attempt to annoy her. No, the voice calling her was her Dad.

"DAD?!" Buffy yelped back down in surprise.

"Yes!" The voice belonging to Hank Summers called back up, "Your Mother's too busy to yell the morning call!" She heard him chuckle as though he found that joke excessively funny. But Buffy didn't see anything to be amused about. The main reason being that when she looked across the room the full length mirror did not reflect a mature, good-looking-if-she-did-say-so-herself twenty one year old blond in her bedroom in Sunnydale. No- looking back at her was a childish fifteen year old with hair that was ridiculously long in Buffy's opinion, in pajamas that went out years ago sat in a bed that was placed in the bedroom she had had back in L.A over seven years ago. Unable to say much else, Buffy Summers could only scream.

Okay, there was no need to panic. So she was back in 1997- but that was no reason to panic, for after all if she was back here it was more than likely everyone else was too. It was one of those weird demon things that Buffy or Rupert or Tara or Willow or someone could easily sort out. She just had to find them. Hey, maybe they were still in the house...it was possible. Determined to find at least one of them, and knowing that Buffy would be in the house no matter what, Joyce walked out of her bedroom and started calling out their names again hoping to god that someone would answer. Finding someone else in the same situation right now would ground her- rather than leaving her with this floaty panic feeling.

"Buffy? Rupert? Dawn-" She stopped at Dawn's name. This was 1997 so that meant...Dawn wasn't even here. That was unnerving, disturbing and upsetting all at once. No Dawn or Lily in this time. She'd gone to bed last night and in the time from falling asleep to waking up she had lost two of her daughters. That was not a comforting thought.

"Mom?" Buffy finally answered back sleepily, stumbling out of her bedroom with the eyes half-closed look of person who could really do with being in bed a couple of more hours, "What's the matter? Who's Rupert? You mean like, Giles, at school?"Buffy sounding incredulous and skeptical through her tiredness and Joyce felt slightly sick. Buffy was clearly clueless and from this time, this was sixteen year old Buffy; so much for her everyone's in the same situation theory.

Giles' Watcher-like panic had begun the moment he woke up and realized he was not at home, but in fact was back at his old flat. Alone. His first thought had been why he was there followed quickly by where were Lily and Joyce followed eventually by 'what's the date'. He had expected some sort of time flux, but so many years back had shocked even him. There was only one thing for it; research. He didn't even know if Joyce and the others had come back with him and he didn't want to risk calling them up and having 'Mrs Summers' answering the phone. So, the only thing he could turn to were his books. Which, he realized, the majority of them weren't at house, but were in fact back at the Sunnydale High Library. Thank God it was still there and he hadn't been sent back to a time before he arrived in Sunnydale. If the same thing had happened to everyone else they were sure to be waiting for him at the library.
After looking at the dates on the calendar that was hanging on her bedroom wall, Buffy finally figured out where she was, or rather when she was. She was barely fifteen which would explain the hair she felt the desperate need to layer and chop off and the lack of in the chest area of all things girly. She just looked like such a little kid; urgh, she hated it. She was going to be twenty-two this year and when she looked at her mid-teen self, that just made her feel so old. She did not like it. What she liked even less was that the date on her calendar not only revealed her to be fifteen but at a time before she had become the Slayer. So not only was there no Giles in this time, there was no Watcher at all, and worst of the worst? She was just an ordinary girl who could only jump to spell letters in the air. Yes, she was back in the days of being Buffy the Cheerleader.

Breakfast had been the weirdest thing for her so far. Sat in her old kitchen munching on cereal with both her parents. She knew it used to be like this, but she had spent so much time with it just being her, her Mom and Dawn that this extra presence of 'Dad' was a little wiggy. Wiggier? No Dawn here. As much as the teenager could annoy the hell out of Buffy, now she was in a time where she didn't exist Buffy felt as though she had lost her right arm. She'd never truly understood that expression till now.

"You're awfully quiet this morning," Her Mom commented

"Oh..just had a couple of weird dreams I guess," Buffy excused herself, whilst silently racking her brain of how she could escape and get back to her own time without any Watchers or Willows to help her out. Oh god, Willow and Xander weren't even here. At Hemery High she had the type of friends she now wouldn't be seen dead with and she was expected to make nice? Completely and utterly depressed and deflated Buffy slumped her head on the table.

"Buffy?" Her Dad prompted but she didn't reply, so Hank turned to Joyce for answers, "What's the matter with her?"

"She's just tired I guess," Joyce reasoned.

"Tired? She had ten hours sleep"

"She's a teenager Hank," Joyce explained patiently, "Don't expect everyone to be as rise and shine as you. We can't all be irritated whirlwinds at 7am"

Great, Buffy thought as she heard her Dad reply of how it was better than the morning all-over-the-place ditziness Joyce seemed to adopt earlier on. She was not only back in L.A, at fifteen before she became Slayer. But she was in time to see one of the very first of her parents 'disagreements'.

Driving Buffy to school had been an odd experience for Joyce. For one she was actually driving Buffy to school, which while admittedly it had happened only three weeks ago, that had been to the new Sunnydale High and it had been work for Buffy, not school. The other weird thing was no Dawn in the back seat pestering her sister. Then there was the fact she was dropping Buffy off at a school that had been blown up years ago. Also, something that hadn't occurred to her before but she was only just fully realizing now was how much Buffy had changed over the years. Oh of course she had sadly noted how much more serious Buffy had become about Slaying, after seeing so much darkness in her life it was upsetting, but hardly surprising. No, the thing that was so different about her was the way she spoke, the way she talked to her. With this being a time when she didn't know about the Slaying, Buffy seemed more sulky and reserved, not talking as much to her Mom as she now did. No wonder she had thought her depressed sometimes in High School- she had worried it was over the move or the divorce or even something bullying related in school, but Buffy never came to her about it so in typical denial mode she had put it down to typical teenage stuff, reasoning that if it became serious she would come to her Mother. But no, the only time she ever confessed anything to her Mom was when she absolutely had to. When Joyce had seen Spike and Buffy dust a vampire right on her front doorstep.

"Feel like telling me wants on your mind?" Joyce asked Buffy, playing along as they got closer to the school. She had debated confessing to Buffy all that happened and that in fact she was her Mom from the future and not the present, but then she had worried over whether this would have had long lasting consequences wherein she would return to a much darker future. This thought alone proved the kids were right and maybe she did spend too much time with Rupert, husband or no. But it was that very man that she had to go see now. Whether he was from the future or not he would have the answers, and hopefully directions as to how to fix it all.

"Thanks Mom," Buffy smiled as they pulled up outside the school and she immediately took off her seatbelt to slide out of her seat. However her peppy attitude faded when she saw her Mom was doing the same thing. That is, getting out of the car, "Mom, what are you doing?" She asked, slight panic creeping into her voice, "This is school. As in for students of. The non-students tend to inhabit the non-schoolgrounds"

"I just need to speak with..." Joyce trailed off as she realized how strange it would seem to Buffy if she said she needed to speak the school librarian. After all, why on earth would she need to do that? "Some members of staff"

"Members of staff?" The color drained from Buffy's dace, "As in Snyder? No, no, no Mom, you don't need to talk to him, why would you need to talk to him? I thought we agreed after Parent-Teacher night there'd be no more Snyder talk. That way leads to badness and sweaty palms. Not to mention groundings"

"Buffy, calm down," Joyce laughed, "Don't worry- this has nothing to do with you"

"Oh good," Buffy breathed a sigh of relief, but the relief was soon overtook by suspicion, "Then why do you need to go in?"

"Grown-up stuff," was all she replied, "Which I'm sure is much too boring for a busy teenager such as yourself," She joked and Buffy smiled in patient amusement.

"Bye," She said, kissing her Mom on the cheek, before getting out of the car.

"Have a great day," Joyce automatically replied with a smile, "And before you say anything- don't worry, I'll wait a suitable amount of time before going into the building after you"

"Good" Buffy nodded with a smile before walking off. Joyce watched her go with a feeling of nostalgia. This was a much more freer Buffy. Maybe not as free as she had been in L.A back before she became the Slayer at all, but certainly free enough. She had so much pain and heartbreak to go through and Joyce really wished she could prevent it all.

Once she saw Buffy was now in the building, Joyce opened the car door and got out, making sure to lock the car before heading up the Sunnydale High front steps and in the direction of the area of the building where she knew the library to be.

Students were piling reluctantly and disgruntedly into class after the sound of the bell as Joyce walked down the corridor towards the library and the halls were slowly and conveniently emptying. She took a moment to consider that the majority of the students here now complaining about school were, in her time, for the most part adults with responsible jobs. It was a surreal thing to consider as it was impossible to consider the contrast when put into practice.

She arrived at the library doors just in time to see a much younger Willow racing down from the opposite corridor, apparently with the same destination in mind as Joyce. She skidded to a comical halt just before she ran directly into the woman.

"Willow,slow down," Joyce smiled, catching the girls shoulders in her hands to steady her, "What's the rush?"

"N-no no rush," Willow panted heavily from the recent burst of speed she had put on, "None at all. Just, heh heh, just want books. I like, heh heh books."

"Uh-huh," Joyce nodded, but then Willow frowned through her heavy breaths that showed she was crying out for oxygen.

"Wait, what are you doing here?" She asked and Joyce stuttered in panic, wondering how on earth she was going to explain her presence there without arousing suspicion, "Wait- you're coming to see Giles aren't you?" Willow smiled and Joyce became even more confused.

"Well, actually, y-yes I am coming to see Rupert, but how-"

"Yes!" Willow squealed, embracing Joyce in an excited hug that caused the woman to yelp slightly in surprise.

"What was that for?" She laughed.

"You're from the future aren't you?" She asked, "Wake up in your bed like five years from the past?"

"Oh my god, Willow?" Joyce was flooded with relief; someone else was in the same predicament as her- she wasn't alone. That feeling was wonderful. Things were so less frightening when you knew you weren't going through the experience entirely alone. "Hold on- how did you know I was from, oh I can't believe I'm saying this, from the future? You could have given yourself away to past me then"

"Nuh-uh," Willow shook her head with a grin,the fact that someone else was stuck in the past also and she wasn't alone apparently making her a little giddy. She'd spoken to both Buffy and Xander briefly but enough to realize they weren't their future selves and she had begun to believe she was the only one sent to the past, "I figured you from five years ago, considering how little you saw Giles, wouldn't call him 'Rupert'."

"Oh..."

"Now, let's just hope Giles is in the same predicament as us," Willow said, starting to push open the library doors, "That way he can set off the research party without us having to explain everything"

"Yes, that would be definitely an upside," Joyce admitted, stepping into the library as Willow let her in first. What she saw in the center of the library made her stop cold.

"What? What is it?"Willow asked, wondering what had caused Joyce to stop so suddenly, and then she saw, "Oh..." She really hoped this was Giles from the past for Joyce's sake. Because in front of them Willow could see Giles having some serious lip-locking with a woman that wasn't his wife. Jenny Calendar.

When Giles arrived at the library, expecting to see at least some of the Scooby Gang waiting for answers from him, he instead found the entire place to be abandoned. Even fresh air seemed to have been left it to its own devices also as Giles saw how the shafts of sun pouring through revealing the millions and millions of flecks of dust floating in the air. He was clearly alone in his predicament.

"Marvelous," he mumbled to himself, before heading in the direction of his office where he knew he had kept some of the more useful occult books. Hopefully, they would give him some insight into what was going on and how exactly he could resolve it.

Just as he was settling down for some good reading, or at least some very intensive research, Giles heard someone speaking from the center of the library.

"Hello?" The voice sang out. The voice was female and Giles instantly recognized it. So the others were in the same situation as him;well that made things decidedly less daunting. He got up out of his seat and rushed out into the main part of the library to see Buffy stood there at the library counter, her back to him, "Anybody here?"

He walked toward her and tapped her on the shoulder lightly to alert her to his presence and smiled with relief when she turned around, expecting her to do the same, but instead Buffy only looked jumpy from the shoulder tapping.

"Anybody's here," She smiled. "I was looking for some, well, books actually"

"Buffy?" He checked, seeing if it really was the Slayer from the future.

"Good call," Was all Buffy said in reply, seemingly surprised that he knew her name already, "Guess I'm the only new kid, huh?"

Giles sagged; this was not Buffy from the future. This was Buffy Summers from early 1997; she was barely sixteen and had only just arrived in Sunnydale. What was he supposed to do now? He couldn't confess anything to her- for one she would probably think him insane and for another she was presently hostile to all things Slayer and Watcher. So did he have to play things out as they occurred? So as to not to disturb past order of events? He supposed so. That is until he found out more.

"Right," He nodded without the initial enthusiasm he remembered having the first time round, "I know what you're looking for" He headed behind the counter.

"Cool," Buffy half-smiled as she waited for her 'Prospectives on 20th Century History', but the smile immediately faded as Giles placed the Vampyr book in front of her. Once again he saw her back away slowly as she had done the first time, but now he understood and knew her so much more and he now got why she was backing away, why she wanted to leave it behind so much. Unfortunately that wasn't an option.

"That's not what I'm looking for," She told him firmly, before backing her way towards the library doors and running out of the exit. Giles sighed in resignation as he went to return to his research.

"You know if that's how you greet a new student- giving them an old musty book that doesn't know how to spell vampire- then no wonder she ran away screaming the silent scream," A voice said and Giles looked up to see a much younger Xander walking casually into the library. He hadn't realized how much older the children had all gotten in the years, until he saw them now- still with innocence and that remaining look of childhood in their faces.

"Xander?"

"G-man," Xander nodded in reply, not being able to help smiling when he saw Giles visibly sigh in relief at the sound of the name, despite how many times he had instructed Xander never to call him that. "So done a little time-traveling too huh?" He asked, "Well..." He gestured down at his baggy high-school-Xander clothes that were so unlike the mature man-with-a-tie-and-a-job him, "we have to fix it"

"Thank you Xander," Giles told him with a slightly sarcastic tone, "I had gotten that far myself. I was just about to start research when Buffy came in. She isn't from the future though, unfortunately."

"Neither's Will," Xander told him, "I don't think anyone's back but us. Have you checked with Buffy's Mom?"

"Well, uh, no," He replied, "Well, I can't exactly explain the phone call if it's Joyce from this time can I? I think she would consider it slightly odd if the school librarian called on her daughter's first day. Besides if she were in the same, ah, predicament as us, I do believe she would be here already"

"Good point," Xander agreed, realizing what Giles was saying, "So...research huh?"

They were still in the library but things had now been explained in a complicated roundabout I'll-have-to-explain-it-two-more-times kind of way and now in the far corner of the library near the back office Giles and Jenny were talking in quiet, frantic voices over what should be done, while Willow and Joyce sat patiently at the center table.

Willow felt like she was radiating sympathy as she saw the woman wasn't taking her eyes off Jenny and Giles, she was watching them closely with an almost sad reflection. They had only admitted to the barest of information about the future- how far they were from and how, obviously, Joyce now knew of Buffy's identity, but beyond that they had understandably revealed nothing. Which meant Giles had no clue in heaven or hell that he was doing the touchy-feely girlfriend/boyfriend thing in front of his future wife and the mother of his only child. And Willow, whilst feeling truly sympathetic towards Joyce, didn't know who she felt more sorry for out of the three of them. Jenny, for the fact that while Giles loved her now, she would be taken away from him before the relationship had chance to blossom and in fact he would come to love another. Or Giles for being stuck in the middle of it all, completely oblivious to everything that was to come; the loss of Jenny followed shortly by the seemingly-too-soon gain of Joyce. Willow had never considered it till now, but knowing how deeply Giles had loved Jenny and would have given everything he had in this world to have kept her alive, there was a silent conflict between Joyce and Jenny. Neither were wrong in their standing, and neither were wronged by the other in return, but still the conflict was always there and only now, visually, could it come to the fore. And then there was Joyce. Willow felt sorry for her for the most obvious of reasons. She was stuck in the past, unable to admit to anything of the future, so forced to see the man she loved freely love another in a way that seemed to brook the question of could he ever love another to the same extent.

It was all very tragically romantic and depressing. Willow wished to go home now desperately.

"Are you okay?" She asked Joyce quietly and the woman started, Willow's words having obviously broken into her reverie.

"Hmm? What? Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine, really, I am..." She smiled.

"Yes," Willow agreed in a tone of voice that revealed she hadn't fell for it one bit, "You're repetition of the word fine just so proves that"

Joyce sighed in admitted resignation.

"He really loves her doesn't he?" She asked quietly.

"Yes," Willow nodded, "He did"

"Still does," Joyce amended Willow's answer, "He has too. Love like that doesn't go away...especially when you lose that person in such terrible circumstances. It just stays with you, it just does"

"He loves you," Willow told her kindly, feeling slightly strange comforting an adult in the same way she would comfort someone like Buffy after a break-up, though this wasn't a break-up and it wasn't Buffy.

"I know" Joyce agreed with a small smile, returning her gaze to Jenny and Giles, "But still.." She looked to Willow, "I haven't felt this small since Buffy grounded me"

"I kn- wait, what?" Willow was slightly thrown, "Buffy grounded you? When?" Joyce just gave her a look and Willow realized she shouldn't have even bothered asking, "Oh- band candy, right." She frowned at the woman, "She seriously grounded you?"

"Right," Giles said, eventually walking back to the table with Jenny, "Erm,well,this is...well, I-I'm quite flummoxed, both of us are actually. I don't think I've ever come across anything like this before in theory or practice"

"But there is a way to fix it,right?" Joyce asked, sounding slightly desperate, "I mean we're not stuck here?"

"No, n-no, not at all," Giles reassured her, "We'll er, get you back, once we ah discover how you got here in the first place. You say none of the others have, uh, that is are in the same predicament as you two?"

"No, Buffy was sixteen-year-old Buffy," Joyce replied, "She didn't re- erm, she didn't say anything or know anything about the future"

"Oh," was all Giles said but that word alone seemed to convey a cornucopia of worries.

"What? What is it Giles?" Willow asked him, but it was Jenny who replied.

"Well, it's kinda odd that it's just the two of you that you know have come back to the past. So it sorta follows through that the others would have done the same...only we don't know when exactly they've gone to..." Jenny winced in apology.

"What?!" Joyce exclaimed, "You mean Buffy and Dawn and Rupert could be anywhere? In time? And the others as well?" She turned to Willow, "Oh god, what about Lily?" Willow didn't reply though, only gave her a pointed shut-up-now look at the fact Joyce had for one, called Giles Rupert and two, she had mentioned both Dawn and Lily, both of which didn't exist yet.

"Mrs Summers, I understand and appreciate your concern," Giles said to her, seeming slightly confused over her concern for his well-being "But I'm sure Buffy, myself and the others are perfectly fine"

Buffy was so very far from okay. She couldn't go back to High School, she'd left high school. But then again she'd left puberty but nobody seemed to have taken that into consideration when she was shoved back into the body of her fifteen year old self.

"Mom? If I tell you I feel ill what would you say?" She asked her Mother as they came closer and closer to Hemery High.

"I would say that you're trying to avoid your History test," Joyce immediately replied smoothly, causing Buffy to sigh.

"So...you wouldn't like take me home? With chicken and stars?" She asked hopefully, but her Mom merely spared a moment to throw her a look and Buffy sighed, "Thought not..." She couldn't go back to school, not this school anyway. This was a school that held no comforting Xander, no all-knowing Giles, no magic-solver Willow, no- wait, hang on. Something clicked in Buffy's mind as she thought on Willow. The girl, although no longer evil, wasn't exactly riding the full self-control train was she? Didn't this seem like a magical slip-up, and given Tara's recent promotion to all powerful light Wicca, it wasn't likely to be her magic mishap causing this. Which left Willow. Great, so she had figured out why she was here, but that wasn't exactly going to get her back was it? She literally had no one to turn to. She'd never felt so alone.

"You know I want to go look around, see what things used to be like; a little skip down memory lane," Willow said to Joyce as the four of them were delved deep in research as to why the two women were doing a little Quantum Leap meets Back to the Future, "But I'm kind of afraid that I'll bump into Oz or something and that would be mucho weirdness"

"As opposed to this which is perfectly comfortable and normal," Joyce replied sarcastically, looking across the table at Jenny and Giles. The two were subconsciously holding hands while they researched. Frustrated, but unable to do anything about it, Joyce slammed the book she was reading closed and stood up abruptly to walk over to the shelves for another book; anything to keep her attention away from Rupert and Jenny.

"Mrs Summers?" Jenny asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"No, erm," Joyce forced a small smile, "Everything's fine. Just...getting another text" Giles watched as she took a subject-related book off the shelf and walked back to them.

"What?" She asked, frowning a little in puzzled amusement at his scrutiny.

"You research a lot in the future, do you?" He asked.

"I thought I wasn't to reveal anything of what's to come?" Joyce replied smoothly, "Future consequences and all that?"

"It's just a small question," He answered just as smoothly.

"In a way, yes," She replied with a sigh, "It's hard not to when it's your family in danger isn't it?"

Giles seemed to fully consider this answer completely before he nodded with a small, almost bemused smile.

"Yes, I suppose so"

"You know," Willow said to Joyce, quietly enough so that Giles and Jenny would not quite hear her, "I was just thinking last night how much simpler these times were and now here we are and it's all complicated. Or maybe it was like complicated originally, and I'd just blanked out how much. I mean sure, the Angelus things was a big bowl of complicated cereal but-" Willow saw Joyce was looking at her with wide eyes, "What?"

"Willow, did you say you were thinking about this last night?" Joyce asked.

"Well, no not exactly," She replied, "More I 'I bet we all wished we were sometimes back to when we thought things were simp...oh..." Willow trailed off as she realized what Joyce was getting at, "You don't think I- no, I couldn't do that, could I?"

"Willow, I don't mean this to be offensive in the slightest," Joyce whispered intensely, "But you drained every dark magick resource in the Magic Box; I think you can manage a little time travel"

"Oh," Willow said, sounding very small, before turning to Giles and Jenny, "Erm...guys? We think we may have found the answer to our little problem," She smiled weakly.

"Okay, I'm thinking you've got like five minutes, before Buffy comes bursting in demanding to know about the vamps at school," Xander said to Giles, looking at the clock, "Hey you don't think it's gonna cause some weird time ripple backlash thing do ya? Me not being all there with the stake returning and the amusing ramble at break?"

"Hmm? What?" Giles was slightly confused by Xander's present ramble, "No, I don't believe so. I believe that once we return to our own time the time line will revert to it's original ah, layout"

"And how exactly are we gonna get back? Coz in case you haven't noticed we're getting a boat load of nothing here on the answer front"

"Yes, believe it or not I had noticed," Giles replied, temper rising. "We just have to first compile a list of creatures that have this potential ability and then maybe we could-" Giles blinked, "Well, that was decidedly sudden," He spoke into the empty living room at Revello Drive. Anti-climatic didn't quite cover it; he was back exactly where he had been stood when he had blinked his way into the past. Maybe that had been the trick; blinking. Or maybe he just shouldn't have got up as early as he did. Anti-climatic or no though, he didn't really care just as long as he was back and everyone else was back in their rightful place to.

"Joyce?" He called out, heading up the stairs, "Joyce? Are you here?"

"In here," Her voice called back from their bedroom and he walked in to see her holding onto Lily tightly. The kind of tightly that a mother would only do after being unwillingly away from her child for an amount of time which could only mean that while Joyce hadn't been in the same time as him, she'd obviously been on her own time-travel excursion.

"Are you okay?" He asked, walking over to the two of them, "Nothing happened?"

"Except for waking up five years in the past, no, everything was okay. I'm guessing you went through the same thing?" She asked and he nodded.

"Except actually it was seven years. To Buffy's first day at Sunnydale High actually. Which is rather odd. I wonder why we weren't sent to the same time" He pondered as he was handed Lily for his own much-needed hug despite the fact Joyce seemed reluctant as she did so.

"I think Willow will be the one to answer all your questions," Joyce told him.

"Why would Will-" It then all sunk in and he sighed in realization, "Willow was behind all this..."

"Accidentally," Joyce pointed out, "But yeah. I think she feels really bad about it though..."

"I can't say how sorry I am guys," Willow repeated for the umpteenth time as everyone was gathered in the small apartment Tara had temporarily rented. It was small but livable and the price didn't stretch Tara and Willow's small funds too much. Though it made them both decide that they needed jobs fast.

"Willow's fine," Buffy assured her, "These things happen. And you didn't send us all to like Hell Dimensions which is all a good in my opinion. Though I could have done without the Hemery Regression"

"Yeah, see that's the part I don't get," Xander said, "How we went to like different times, I mean Anya went three hundred years back-"

"Just when I was cursing a man for cheating on his wife with four men," Anya said with a nostalgic smile, "Those were good times"

"-and" Xander continued pointedly, wishing his wife would stop talking about her demon days in such a happy way, "like Dawn and Tara they didn't go anywhere. I don't get it"

"Well, I kinda do," Willow admitted, "When I was getting all nostalgic about you know days gone by I wasn't really specific. I just thought how we all from time to time wanna go back to when things seemed simpler"

"So, we we returned to what we subconsciously viewed our simplest time," Giles completed the train of thought with a research-i-have-the-answer-now smile. "That makes perfect sense"

"Well, yeah..." Buffy agreed, thinking on it herself, "I went back to before I became the Slayer, Mom went back to before she knew I was the Slayer, Anya thought things were simpler as a demon, Giles went back to...hey, wait, he went back before he knew any of us"

There was a general chorus of 'hey' from the entire group at this revelation.

"Wh- I, well I don't mean it in that sense," Giles protested, clapping Lily's hands together playfully as she sat on his knee. Buffy still thought these sort of scenes surreal and she figured it would take at least a year for her to get used to it, "But I'm afraid you can't deny that things became much more complicated for me the moment I moved to Sunnydale and came across you all"

"He has a point," Dawn nodded with a grin, apparently proud of her complication-causing life.

"Hey, what about you?" Buffy said to her, "You and Tara didn't go anywhere- you like, think this is the simplest time. That's just insane"

"Or maybe we're just entirely happy with ourselves," Dawn replied smoothly with a grin, "Unlike all of you harboring inferiority complexes"

At this, the group fell silent, contemplating the surprising truth in Dawn's words and the teenager began to feel uncomfortable.

"Jeez...I was only kidding guys. No need to get offended," She joked weakly, hoping they'd all snap out of it which seemingly they all seemed to pretty easily.

"Nope, no offense," Buffy told her, "Completely offense-free. Now worries or concerns here, right guys?" She looked around at everyone for confirmation and they all nodded and smiled in agreement murmuring of-course-nots, but there was an undertone of something that wasn't quite convincing as they all thought back on the time they had just come from, but they all seemed to unanimously agree that these unresolved issues- Buffy's Slay-free life, Willow's Innocence, Joyce's hidden worry and feeling of inferiority and conflict with Rupert's past love, Giles' thoughts on pre-Sunnydale life, Anya's remaining nostalgia over her demon days- were to be kept firmly to themselves. That was for the best.

Wasn't it?