Zigpal- thank you for claps and all. hehe. Glad you liked it. And hmm...Joyce slapping Mr MaClay? Never thought of that...interesting thought. haha. And don't worry about the ill/writing thing. I'm fine now ('bordering on chipper and tomorrow planning on being obnoxious' haha) and I like writing. I'd have done it while I was ill you know if computers were like big technological headache aggravators. hehe.

Rabidreject- thanks a lot for review. ;-)

He had intended to tell her the moment they came home from Tara's party, but with Dawn there it had made it impossible. He and Buffy had both seemed to have silently agreed that Dawn needn't know about any of it- it would only traumatize her.

So Giles had waited till the next day when Dawn was at school and Buffy was at college. He had initially been worried about not going in, wondering whether Anya would be okay on her own but she had in fact urged him to take the entire day off if he wished, giving her free run of the store. Her chipper assurances were the least assuring thing of all.

The thing was, now it was just him and Joyce in the house, he still found it impossible to talk to her. Yet another exhibition was happening at the gallery soon as she was on the phone to numerous people, looking over final papers, double checking things and then double checking again. She said she would be heading over to the gallery soon so he knew he had to tell her right away, before she left. He couldn't leave it any longer.

But she looked so happy, carefree. Sure, she was a little concerned about the latest show, but no matter how stressed it sometimes made her she was always happiest when she was doing work for the gallery. She was in her element and Giles didn't want to bring her down with the bad, bombshell-dropping news. Nevertheless he didn't really have a choice- he had to tell her.

He walked over to where she collecting things together to take with her.

"Joyce"

"Mm?" She didn't look up as she walked over to where a piece of paper with a number on it lay. She picked it up, checked the number on it before tucking it away in her jacket pocket for later.

"Joyce- I, uh, I need to talk to you"

"Can't it wait?" She asked him, "I kinda need to get going"

"Uh, w-well, I really need to talk now," He said but she just smiled at him as she walked past him, bag in hand, to the hall where her coat was hung.

"I'm sure it can wait till tonight," She told him.

"Actually, well it could…but it really shouldn't," He told her honestly.

"Well it's going to have to," She laughed slightly at his dramatic expression and words- he could dramatize things sometimes. "I've gotta go"

"Joyce-"

"It'll keep till tonight, won't it? I'll see you then" She went to head out the door, already late as it was.

"Joyce!" He hadn't meant his voice to come out so sharp and he saw her visibly flinch as she heard the tone of his voice and she turned around to look at him, her smile gone and her face now deadly serious. "Please…" He asked, his voice softening, "I need to talk to you"

"What is it?" Joyce asked, instantly worried.

"Just, sit down please" he asked and now sensing how serious he was, she did so and he sat down beside her on the sofa.

"What's the matter?" She asked again, "Is it Buffy? Dawn?"

Giles shook his head.

"No it's…." He sighed, this was going to be harder than he thought and he now wished he hadn't turned down Buffy's offers to help, "It's about when you collapsed in the store…a couple of weeks ago"

"What do you mean?" Joyce asked in confusion, "Everything's fine. I mean, I've got some follow-up tests tomorrow, but that's just procedure. I've been fine"

"Yes," Giles nodded, mentally preparing himself for what he had to say, "But you're not"

"What?" She was still confused but he could hear worry in her voice, "Did the doctors call or something? Did-" Giles shook his head, "Then what? What is it?"

"Ethan."

"What?" Joyce breathed. Why the hell was he bringing Ethan up?

"He's…Buffy did a trance- well, a spell to see spells, and she, erm, she saw that uh…Ethan is doing something to make you ill. We're not yet sure what or why…but he is"

"Oh..." She meant the expression to come out in a normal voice but as her own fear and worry took over her it came out more of a squeak as she covered her mouth with her hand, "Oh god…"

"But we're that is we have Willow and Tara working on it, to find him, we're going to sort it out, I promise" He assured her but she just looked over at him silently, before taking her hand away from her mouth and taking a deep breath.

"Is it going to get worse?"

"I, well, there are-"

"Is it going to get worse?" She repeated.

"I don't know," He told her, knowing she wanted an honest answer, "I suppose so- that's more than likely his aim."

"But I've been fine," She told him, trying to convince herself and the situation more than anything.

"I know," He agreed in sympathy, his heart going out to her. "I know"

"What, erm, what," Joyce swallowed, clearly trying to act braver than she felt, "What should I do about the hospital? The, the, erm, tests they have scheduled."

"Well, medical and magickal don't normally…mix too well," Giles told her slowly, "And since we've linked this to magick now…"

Joyce nodded, taking in what he was saying but her thoughts unable to stray away from the fact that Ethan was doing this to her. She was privately ashamed to admit that after last year the thought of him still terrified her. And now that he was doing something else…it made her feel dirty. What was he trying to do? Why was he doing this to her of all people? Why at all? And they hadn't found him yet, so what was going to happen to her until they did? What could progress from a fainting spell? How ill was she going to get? How was she going to get ill? Thinking too much about it and the frightening thoughts taking over, she could no longer hold it together and she broke down. As she started crying, feeling everything fall apart she barely felt Giles put his arms around her as she lent into him, tears still falling

"It's okay to use the D-word Giles," Buffy said as they stood together, Watchers' diaries surrounding them in the magic store.

"Dead. And hence not very forthcoming"

"Why didn't the Watchers keep fuller accounts of it?" She asked, "The journals just stop"

"Well, I suppose if they're anything like me," Giles replied, "They just find the whole subject too-"

"Unseemly?" Buffy filled in with a shake of the head, "Damn, love ya but you Watchers can be such prigs sometimes."

"I was going to say painful," Giles told her carefully and the two shared a meaningful look.

"By the way," Buffy said to break what was fast becoming an awkward moment, "My Mom cannot know about this…this 'mishap'. She'd completely wig- like as in uber freaked"

"You want me to keep another thing from her?" Giles asked exasperated, "I have to tell you Buffy this is becoming a tad tiresome. It's very hard to keep things from your Mother"

"I know, believe me" Buffy told him, "But I have total faith in your ability to lie" At his look she quickly changed her choice of words, "Ability to hide certain horrific facts that would be too harmful to my Mom's delicate nature?" She bit her lip, waiting to see whether Giles would go for it and when he nodded reluctantly she sighed a sigh of relief. "Thank you!" She then looked over to where Tara and Willow were sat at the round table, their own halo of books around them, "Speaking of- how goes the Ethan hunt?"

"Its erm…still hunting," Willow told her with a small smile, before giving in and telling Buffy the absolute truth, "We can't find him Buff- it's like he doesn't exist."

"What?" Buffy asked, worry making her words sound tense.

"But we can work on it," Tara assured her, "It's properly a blocking spell he's using…like a cloak? So no one can find him."

"Right," Buffy nodded, refusing to accept the information as anything but positive, "You can break it then?"

"Yeah," Willow told her with a smile, "We're working through it. Don't worry- we'll do it."

As Buffy nodded in relief and resumed her talk about the deaths of Slayers with Giles she didn't see the look Tara and Willow shared that showed they weren't so sure whether they could break the spell at all.

It was late on in the night and Giles, Tara and Willow will still researching on ways to break the cloaking spell. They'd tried numerous counter spells but none had work, though Giles wasn't surprised. Although he was loath to admit it- Ethan was highly adept at the Magicks, more so and so he knew it was going to take more than a few meagre counter spells to remove the cloak. If only he could figure out what deity it had used for the cloak. His first guess had been Janus, but being a chaos deity the god apparently wasn't big on hiding from the chaos and so didn't have any specific cloaking spells.

The sound of the wind chimes above the door ringing drew his attention away from the books as he turned to see Joyce walking over.

"Joyce, what are you doing here?"

"Well, erm Dawn is sleeping over at a friend's. Again. And Buffy's out slaying I suppose and so the house is pretty much empty…and I felt like a little company," She told him honestly as her eyes fell on Tara and Willow, "Hi girls"

"Hey"

"H-hi"

As Joyce sat down beside him, Giles couldn't help noticing how tired she looked and worried that it was probably down to more than just work.

"So what you all up to?" She asked in interest, "Nothing too scary I hope"

"Well, erm actually," Willow wondered whether to say or not, "We're, erm, we're trying to find Ethan"

"Oh," Joyce responded, looking shocked. She knew it made sense that they'd be doing that, the two girls were always kind enough to help, but it just seemed to be a painful reminder of the situation. "Oh, o-of course. Course you are"

"We're getting really close," Tara assured with a little smile, sensing Joyce's discomfort and Joyce smiled a silent thank you.

"Can I help?" She asked, "With the research I mean?" She shrugged with an apologetic smile, "I just…I'd feel kinda useless if I didn't"

As they all worked for a little while longer, Tara noticed how tired Joyce seemed to become with each passing minute. It was as if a little effort was exhausting her. Tara remembered when her Mom had died- it had been terminal cancer, so the family had known for weeks before she had passed away, even though it had still been as much of a shock as if she had died suddenly in the middle of the street. The thing was, the symptoms Joyce was giving off were similar to that of Tara's Mom's. The fainting spells the headaches, the tiredness and Tara wondering what on earth the spell was that Ethan had cast to cause these symptoms. Giles had given her and Willow the symbol Buffy had seen and along with researching an anti-cloaking spell, they had been looking for what spell had been used also. So far though, they'd found nothing. Though Tara had yet to meet Ethan, she could say one thing about him- he used powerful spells- so much that they seemed to be untraceable. Maybe there were of his own fabrication or so ancient they'd be impossible to find in the many texts, Tara didn't know, but she did hope they would figure it out soon.

After having been lost in one particularly thick tome for a while, Tara looked up from the book to across the table where Joyce was sat. Exhaustion having taken over she had fallen asleep at the desk. Tara nudged Willow and she saw the same thing.

"Giles," Willow called gently and Giles came out of the back room.

"What?"

"She's erm fallen asleep," Willow told him.

"I think she was really tired when she came over," Tara added helpfully, "Just needs some rest,"

"Yes, I uh, I suppose you're right," Giles agreed, walking over to her, though he sounded unconvinced. "I'd better, erm, take her home. Willow could you, uh, could you get the door for me?"

"What? Erm, yeah sure," Willow answered, heading towards the front door, wondering why he'd asked her to, until she saw him lift Joyce up and carry her out so he didn't have to wake her.

It was only then that Willow realized how really bad things could become.

"Hey, I'm home," Buffy called out as she stepped into her house after her night with Spike. What he had told her had been disturbing- his words connecting to her on some level- but what he had tried to do was even more so. Kiss her? Who did he think he was? And what the hell did he think he was doing? Buffy shook the gruesome thought aside as she saw Giles walk into the hall, "Hi,"

"Hello"

"Where's Mom?" Buffy asked, craning her neck to see if she was in the nearby rooms.

"Erm, she's asleep, upstairs." Giles told her, "She was uh, she was very tired"

There was a moment of silence, as the two of them understood what was to be read between the lines. "So, how was your talk with Spike?" Giles asked, searching for a change of subject.

"Oh erm, you know…Spikeish" Buffy said, feeling uncomfortable talking about what had gone on. The words he had said Every Slayer has a death wish, even you, they just came at her, reached her, and she did not want to share that. With anyone. She wasn't even sure she wanted to share it with herself. "you know- nothing helpful"

Giles nodded in understanding.

"So are Willow and Tara any closer to…you know…finding Ethan?"

"Yes, erm pretty close," Giles told her though inside he knew it was a lie- when he had left with Joyce they hadn't been any closer to find anything out than they had been two days ago, the case seemed to get more hopeless with every passing day, but he couldn't tell Buffy that, "I think they're near to figuring it all out"

"Good, erm, good." Buffy nodded distractedly, clearly unconvinced by his words as she walked past him and by the sound of the back door opening, went to sit on the back porch.

"We should really flick another light on," Tara suggested, "It's getting as dark in as it is out,"

She and Willow were still in the Magic Box, still researching. Since Giles left with Joyce, Willow had become even more determined to find something. Either the origin of the spell that had been cast or the location of Ethan. Spell after spell after spell had been found and cast or found and cast aside. Willow seemed to be close to something and Tara had utter faith in her.

"Yeah, in a min," Willow agreed, not looking up from her book. Tara smiled slightly at her, although it was unseen by Willow, before getting up to flick some of the store lights on. As she looked over in Willow's direction she saw her girlfriend suddenly stop flicking the pages as something caught her interest, "Oh my god"

"What?" Tara asked, walking back over to the table as Willow looked up from her book, a familiar look of excitement on her face.

"Oh my god, that's it" And Willow jumped up heading over to the shelves where she could collect the ingredients she needed for the spell.

As Buffy went out onto the porch, obviously needed some time alone, Giles headed up the stairs to his and Joyce's room. He paused at the doorway, just looking in watching her sleep. If what she was doing could be called any form of rest. Her sleep was clearly a fitful one and Giles didn't know whether it was through nightmares or the pain of whatever Ethan was doing. If he ever got his hands on him, which he planned to, he was going to kill the bastard. Actually, first he would have Buffy release some slayer strong rage on him- he knew she'd been dying to for a long while- then he was going to kill him. Share; share that's fair wasn't it?

The sound of the phone ringing drew him out of his thoughts and he turned away from watching Joyce to walk downstairs and answer the phone in the living room.

"Yes, hello?"

"Giles?" It was Willow's voice.

"Yes, Willow, what is it?"

"We've found him."

"What?" Giles couldn't believe his ears.

"Ethan. We found him. We broke through the cloaking." She explained, "He's not far from here. But erm, Giles?"

"Yes"

"He's definitely heading towards Sunnydale"