Rabidreject- thank you for review, glad you liked the chapter and as for the season 6 finale- you will just have to wait and see. But I will tell you that it won't play out like it did in the original ep.

zigpal- yay, claps! Hehe. And you just want Spike to crash and burn don't you? Haha. Glad you liked the chapter and the closing scene and well...hope you like this too. hehe.

g120- thank you very much for what you said re my inventiveness. A tingle moment. Haha. But yah, Buffy being all slayer on innocents- defintely a trip to therapy land (also known as The Bar...teehee). And glad you liked the ending scene and the little trip of guilt. ;-)

A/N: This one was more episode centric than I originally intended but it seems to mainly revolve round how the others are seeing the Joyce/Giles ship...and also Anya/Xander. And ooh la la, once more with feeling next. Bear with me on that one. Already got a start on it a couple of weeks ago, but it's all musical and such. Lyric writing's a pain. Like uber.
"Everything on this table's half off!" Anya announced, skating past the customers, "Including the table!" She was General Retail on wheels, never stopping, not for a moment. She skated over to another group of potential customers, "Buy one eyeball, get the second one free!"

"Argh, careful me mateys!" Xander, in full pirate regalia, was speaking to some seven year old children, making full use of his Pirate Voice. In his hand he held a jar that contained some ominous Magic Box type contents, "These be fire flies spat out of a volcano off the coast of Kathmandu! Argh!"

"You're not a real pirate," One of the kids, presumably the leader of the pack from his size, said, "Real pirates live on boats and don't look stupid"

Xander laughed nervously for a moment that soon morphed into one that suggested he'd like to throttle that kid. At that moment, Joyce, in full white-toga-Grecian-Goddess attire (she had had a wreath-of-a-headdress to complete the ensemble but that had been discarded within the first five minutes much to Anya's annoyance who had insisted that that had been what made the outfit.) walked past him, heading in the direction of Dawn with apparent purpose. Xander stopped her mid-walk.

"'Ere missy, these swashbucklers be not believing- but am I not a pirate lass? Argh!"

It took a moment for Joyce to actually understand what Xander was asking her, his Pirate Voice throwing her off.

"Oh, uh, yes, yes he is. He's a pirate," Joyce assured the children,leaning down to them, so it seemed as though she was cutting Xander off from the conversation, although he could hear every word, "And a very dangerous one at that. You've got to be very careful around him and," She reduced her voice to a conspiratorial whisper,"watch out for his hook"

"What hook?" Asked the same child who had questioned Xander's piracy.

"This one!" Xander exclaimed holding out the hand that was wearing a fake pirate's hook. The kids screamed and scattered in various directions. Xander merely grinned at the scene, pleased by the outcome.

"Hello! Ahab! A little help please!" Giles called to him from behind a very busy counter.

"Argh! And help ye shall have!" Xander replied, heading over while Joyce resumed heading over to Dawn.

"Thank God," Giles said in relief as Xander started helping with the sales, "It's complete and utter chaos"

"Isn't it always on our Halloweens?" Xander retorted knowingly, "Course the sales might go a little easier if you paid attention to the actual customers"

"Hmm? What?" Giles asked, turning away from what he was looking at to return his attention to Xander.

"Joyce," Xander explained, "Could you tear your eyes away from your wife for just a sec? If you like the costume so much tell her after the death crowd has left," A customer looked offended, but Xander was unfazed, "Oh you know it is!" He told her. He was making with the funny, true, but there was one thing Xander had noticed when he saw Giles looking at Joyce- but it wasn't something he was about to bring up. The look hadn't been a 'Hey-Anya-Wanna-Play-Shiver-Me-Timbers' look, but definitely more a wistful one. And he'd seen Joyce returning the same looks when Giles wasn't looking. This could not be good. Dawn had mentioned to him that last week, the couple had started marriage counseling, which if nothing else, showed the two were going through a bit of a rough patch. Xander just hoped it was a rough patch that could easily be smoothed over.

"Dawn-" Dawn waited expectantly as her Mom went to speak to her (Most likely about keeping away from the Magick books or something to that effect) when Joyce was distracted by the same little girl that Willow was paying attention to, "Aww, aren't you the sweetest?"

Dawn sighed and resumed what she had been doing. Picking up an appealing gold coin with a dragon design, Dawn knew she'd be hung drawn and quartered if her Mom, or particularly Anya in this case, found out.

Hectic just didn't aptly describe the store tonight, Buffy thought as she came out of the basement holding the jar of mandrake root that Anya had sent her for. Her meeting with Spike down there had, in all honesty, gotten her flustered. And his offer of patrol had been very appealing- if only to get away from this Retail Hell. However, Buffy also knew the 'rough and tumble' Spike referred to definitely had a double meaning.

"So much easier when he wanted to kill me..." She murmured, setting the mandrake on the side.

"Go help Giles!" Anya yelled, wheeling past, "Joyce is useless at bagging,"

"I am not!" Buffy heard her Mom yell over the crowd.

"What happened to Xander?" Buffy asked as she walked over to them and saw her Mom trying her hardest to bag as quickly as Giles sold. "I thought he was bagging guy"

"He kept poking me with his hook," Giles told her, "He suggested if it annoyed him so much, I should get someone else on the job. I quickly sent him away to the charmed objects, and he sent Joyce as replacement." Giles looked thoughtful for a moment, "With any luck he'll poke the wrong charmed object and he'll end up in a parallel dimension inhabited by a fifty foot Giles who squashes annoying, teeny pirates. Well, as you can see we've got a ton of bagging," He gestured to Joyce's hopeless efforts, "So if you could start-"

"Actually," Buffy said, "Spike had an idea about patrolling-"

"Again?" Joyce asked, "Buffy, you've been patrolling every night"

"Well, that's generally how patrol works," Buffy told her.

"Still," Giles said, "Halloween is the one night of the year where evil and therefore by consequence, you, get the night off. "

"But about people turning into costumes?" Buffy asked, "Small Irish Fear Demon thingies? Haunted Halloween Parties?"

"Yes,well," Giles agreed, "if anything calamitous is going to happen tonight, history suggests it will happen to us"

"So maybe I should patrol to avoid-" Giles handed her an item a customer had just bought, while her Mother handed her a bag. Buffy sagged, "-and I'm bagging"

Exhaustion fell extremely short of describing how they all felt. The store was finally and thankfully empty and Dawn was now waving bye to the last customer.

"Come again!" She called with a happy smile before closing the door and sagging against it, completely de-energized, "In a million years!" She finished.

The entire shop looked like an abandoned battleground and the gang, draped over the floor, tables and chairs, looked as though they'd just fought in the fight of their lives.

"Store go boom," Xander said weakly, "Argh," He made a weak attempt to wield his hooked hand, but it took too much energy for him and his hand dropped down by his side.

"I can't stand for a moment longer," Joyce informed them, flopping down into a seat beside Tara.

"It's the scrap heap for my feet," Willow agreed.

"That was," Anya spoke from behind the counter as she counted the money. She was extremely choked up, "That was the most incredible thing I have ever experienced"

Xander gave her a questioning look- the most incredible thing?

"Well, except for that," She told him, before returning her attention to the others, "What you all did for me tonight. The astounding heaps of money you helped me-"

Giles cleared his throat pointedly and Anya rushed to correct herself.

"Us acquire. All I can say is...I hope we make as much tomorrow"

"Tomorrow?" Buffy and Joyce asked in synchronized shock and dread, both now suddenly paying rapt attention to Anya's money ramblings.

"The post holiday clearance" Anya explained excitedly, "The cornerstone of retail"

Her enthusiasm was definitely not contagious and the gang groaned at the mere thought of having to do all this again tomorrow. Joyce smiled weakly at the widely-smiling Anya, trying to look as enthusiastic, but she just couldn't. She slumped at the table, propping her chin up on her fist. Tara looked at her sympathetically, feeling her pain.

"Brooms all around then?" Giles announced, standing up and walking over to the stack of brooms propped up against the wall behind him.

"Or I could whip up a jaunty self-cleaning spell," Willow suggested cheerfully, "It'll be just like Fantasia"

"Yes and we all know how splendidly that turned out for Mickey," Giles agreed sarcastically, handing the redhead a broom which she took.

"I think I'm a little more adept than a cartoon mouse," She grumbled, walking off to start cleaning duty.

"I notice you're not taking part in the cleaning duty," Joyce remarked on the fact Anya was remaining behind the counter.

"Oh no," Anya said enthusiastically, "I have a much more important job; counting the money."

"Ooh, can I help?" Dawn asked, already setting her broom aside and rushing over to the other side of the counter.

"Sure," Anya agreed and promptly started counting notes with Dawn. When she got to a certain number she began to dance. "C'mon- join in!" Anya encouraged the teenager.

"You do this every night?" Dawn asked, giggling as she joined in the dancing.

"After I close out the register," Anya explained, "The dance of capitalist superiority!"

Joyce shook her head with a smile, before returning her attention to clearing up a table that had been demolished presumably by the pirate-hating group of children Xander had been talking to earlier on the day. God, that had only been a few hours ago. It felt like a few years. Several even.

"Hey everybody," Xander called out, drawing Joyce and everyone else's attention, "There's something that Anya and I wanted to tell you"

"Now?" Anya asked Xander in disbelief and Xander nodded.

"Now," He confirmed, talking to her intimately, before looking back at the rest of the group, "We're getting married"

"Oh my God!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Congratulations!" Tara added.

"That's-- with the-- wow...that's wow..." Willow was blown away as was everyone else.

"When, when did this happen?" Joyce asked, assuming it hadn't happened just today, because, seriously, who on Earth had time to propose in that hectic rush?

"Right before..." Xander looked nervously at Buffy, "Right before we fought Glory. I asked her to marry me-"

"-and I said yes," Anya finished, looking as completely smitten with Xander as he was with her.

"That's wonderful," Joyce smiled at the couple genuinely, but her thoughts briefly drifted back to a memory Xander's proposal story had sparked.

Giles looked around hopelessly at all the texts in front of them all. There must be an answer in one of them, something that they had previously overlooked. He glanced around for a text he had not yet read to death and spotted one on the far side of the coffee table just out of his reach.

"Joyce," He said seeing she could reach it easily, "would you pass me that book of marriage?"

She immediately looked up over at him sharply her eyes widened in shock as everyone else fell into a shocked silence. Even Willow stopped writing as her pen froze on the page and her eyes just stayed focused on her notes.

"Pardon?" Joyce asked.

"D-d-do you want to pass me that book of spells? Spells"

"That's not what you said," Joyce insisted, acutely aware of the deathly silence in the room as she looked intently at Giles not sure whether she wanted to have heard right or not.

Willow was looking down at her legal pad as though it would be intrusive to watch the couple, while Xander couldn't have cared less about how much he was staring as he watched the conversation play out in anticipation. Buffy however had stopped pacing in shock when she heard Giles' words and was now stood, gormless, in the middle of the room watching them. Giles cleared his throat.

"Do you want to uh…?" He gestured at the book in question, indicating for her to pass it to him. She sighed with a slight smile.

"I do," She said picking up the book and leaning over to hand it to him. As he grabbed a hold of the book she didn't let go and he was forced to look straight at her despite how uncomfortable he felt. "And…I will," She added, smiling. As he took in what she had said and what her words meant he couldn't stop staring at her.

"W-was that…did, did y-you-" He stuttered unable to form actually words as he continued to stare at her smiling face.

"Was that a marriage proposal?" Xander asked filling the blanks as he looked around at everyone.

"An ac-cept-ed marriage proposal!" Buffy exclaimed in utter shock.

How times had changed since then, Joyce thought. So much had happened in just over a year. So much it was ridiculous. She decided not to dwell. Dwelling would only put her in a really bad mood and this was Anya and Xander's engagement and so things should be happy. Would be happy. What they really needed was a party to celebrate. It'd have to be impromptu of course, but Joyce was sure if the whole group got in on it they could throw something together-

-Or just have everyone over at the house with music, thrown on the CD player by Buffy, playing in the background and Giles on the kitchen search trying to find alcoholic beverages.

Anya and Xander had remained in their costumes, but Giles had immediately tossed aside the wizard's cloak the moment he got home and Joyce, almost as quickly, had gone upstairs and changed into some a little more normal and American and less crazy and ancient Grecian.

"Where I come from this sort of thing requires much in the way of libation," Giles announced as he returned to the room and he and Buffy handed out drinks to everyone.

"God save the Queen!" Xander agreed readily, holding his drink up in a momentary toast before taking a sip (that threatened to become a gulp)

"Sorry we couldn't do more," Joyce apologized to the newly engaged couple, "It's just with it being, uh, spontaneous there wasn't time to do much else"

"Oh that's okay," Anya assured her with a bright smile "This is just the first premarital celebration. We'll have lots more. With gifts!"

While Joyce, Buffy and Giles looked slightly concerned by this announcement, Tara just laughed.

"Sure," She agreed, "Maybe we'll even have time to decorate for the next one"

"Why wait?" Willow asked, with a smile, "Karzaritate tamae"

Suddenly (As if by magic...?) the living room, foyer and dining room were adorned with Japanese paper lanterns and decorations. Anya beamed while Joyce and Buffy looked around it all very impressed and Willow looked very pleased. Xander hadn't quite been paying attention at the time and when he looked up he started in slight surprise at the sudden change in the house decor.

"This is much better than it usually looks," Anya enthused, "Thank you!"

Tara and Giles didn't say anything but merely shared a very concerned and worried look- was that little bit of fanciful conjuring really necessary?

"Oh, Rupert," Joyce said, grabbing his attention, "About tomorrow, you know-" She cast a wary glance at Anya who had presently started talking to Dawn. She pulled Giles slightly away from her so Anya was definitely out of earshot. "I can't help out...and then we can't help out"

"Sorry?" Giles asked, completely lost.

"Well, I've got to be at the gallery tomorrow morning and then in the afternoon it's our next session with Rita"

"Joyce, tomorrow the store will be just as busy as it was today if Anya's right-- and needless to say she usually is about these sort of things-- and I think perhaps we need to prioritize-"

"Prioritize?" Joyce asked incredulously, cutting him off. She looked at the group in the living room, that was presently absent Tara and Willow, before grabbing a hold of Giles' hand and dragging him into the dining room out of sight and earshot of the others.

Dawn was wondering what was taking Tara and Willow so long. They'd only gone in the kitchen to refill the chip bowl. Deciding to see what was causing the hold up, Dawn got up out of her seat on the sofa and walked into the foyer in the direction of the kitchen. She stopped though when she heard her Mom and Giles' voices from the dining room. They were stood just out of sight, but now Dawn was no longer in the loud living room, she could hear what they were saying clearly and she didn't like it.

"Prioritize?" Her Mom was saying, "Are you saying our marriage is not a priority?"

"I didn't say that"

"Then what were you saying?" Joyce asked, "Because I sure as hell don't seem to know anymore"

"All I was trying to say, before you bit my head off, was perhaps we could reschedule the appointment with Rita?"

"Why?" Joyce challenged.

"For the same reason we're having this conversation?" Giles guessed, slightly confused as he thought they at least had the whys cleared up.

"Well, I'm taking time off for work for it, Rupert, so I don't see why you can't"

"Because tomorrow-" Giles began but Joyce talked over him.

"'Because tomorrow is the post-holiday clearance'" She filled in, "I know but Anya can handle that fine with the others"

"Yes, but as co-proprietor of the shop,I feel my presence would be needed...also, Anya tends to haggle with the customers in a way that borders on harassment," He added as an after thought, but Joyce wasn't relenting.

"You'd just like any excuse to skip out the marriage counseling wouldn't you" Giles was silent in response to Joyce's request and she sighed in frustration mixed with exasperation, "I can't believe this"

Dawn's attention was drawn away from this argument as she heard the sound of another one coming from the kitchen.

"This isn't about me," She heard Tara say and Willow was quick to respond.

"This is so about you. You're always coming down on me for using magic that wouldn't hurt a fly. What's your problem?"

"Willow, I j-just want you to stop and think about what you're doing..."

Dawn walked off, back into the living room, not wanting to hear anymore of the arguing from either couple. It was all too much badness at once. She needed to get out of there, escape for just a little while. Away from all. Thank God she had that night planned with Janice.

"Xander, you're just all so grown-up," Joyce said later on, slightly teary eyed as she hugged him. Xander didn't respond, but merely took relief in the fact that Buffy was no longer hugging him. Slayer-strong hugs tended to be lethal.

"I know," He agreed, just as blown away by the next-step-adulthood fact as Joyce.

"Yeah," Buffy agreed as her Mom and Xander broke apart (Joyce then moved on to give Anya a quick hug also), "Doesn't seem that long ago when you had to go to extreme measures to get a girl to date you. Money, black mail..."

"And let's not forget love spells gone horribly wrong" Xander added and every woman in the room except Tara and Anya suddenly looked extremely embarrassed and couldn't quite look Xander in the eye. A long since repressed memory brought to the surface once more.

"What? What is it?" Anya asked impatiently, "Why've you all gone weird?"

"Dawn, where are you going?" Joyce asked as she spotted her daughter putting on a jacket. She was extremely relieved that such a distraction had occurred and both Buffy and Willow were now paying full attention to Dawn also.

"I'm spending the night at Janice's remember?" Dawn prompted, before going to head to door once more, "See you tomorrow everyone"

Joyce grabbed her arm, stopping her from making a quick exit.

"What do you mean staying over at Janice's? When did this happen?"

"A couple of weeks ago...?" Dawn tried to trigger a memory for her Mom, but it wasn't happening. "You were kinda busy and such," She explained, "So I kinda asked Giles...and he said it was okay"

"Only if it was okay with your Mother," Giles was quick to add.

"And is it?" Dawn asked Joyce pleadingly and she seemed to relent a little, "Come on- Pleeease!"

"But what about Xander and Anya's party?" Joyce asked, gesturing vaguely at the magically conjured decorations.

"We're good," Xander assured her, "But you'll have to cough up extra gifts at the reception"

"Yes, please!" Anya agreed eagerly.

Joyce seemed to relent a little bit more.

"It's just a couple of blocks," Dawn said, "I'll walk straight there" She smiled appealingly and Joyce sighed.

"Fine, you can go,"

"Yay!" Dawn squealed, giving her Mom a quick hug, before running to the front door. "Bye guys!"

"And don't stay up too late!" Joyce called after her, but Dawn had already closed the door behind her.

Giles handed Xander another drink as the two of them sat on the stairs.

"Anya's a lovely former vengeance demon," He told Xander, "I'm sure you'll enjoy many years of non hell dimensional bliss"

"Yep," Xander tightly agreed taking a big gulp of his drink. "The big marriage hullapalooza" He turned to Giles, "How's it treatin' you?"

Now it was Giles' turn to down almost half of his drink.

"Huh," Xander merely said, choosing not to delve any further into that response, "Who knew you and I would ever have anything in common," Xander said wryly.

"Hmm," Giles said thoughtfully, "Well if you need any help sorting through it all- the wedding that is..." He offered, clasping Xander's shoulder warmly for a moment, before getting up off his seat on the stair and walking back into the living room.

"Help?" Joyce asked weakly, completely exhausted by Anya's enthusiasm.

"Yes," Anya nodded eagerly, "You know, with the wedding. I mean you've been there before. Twice." Joyce's fixed smile became even weaker, "So I figured, this means twice the insight!" Anya beamed, "See, I was thinking a June wedding-"

"Well, that would be very n-"

"-And then I remembered they always prompted the largest percentage of calls for vengeance," Anya continued, "So now I'm thinking soon as possible"

"Soon as possible?" Xander asked, his smile just as weak as Joyce's as he walked over and sat beside his fiancée.

"You know there's really no need to rush," Joyce assured her, but Anya shook her head adamantly.

"Yes, yes there is. With mortal life being short, we've gotta cram in as much marital bliss before we wither and die"

Xander, Joyce and Giles all finished their drinks (the latest of many) in one gulp, but Anya was oblivious to their reaction though. Tara, however, wasn't, and winced at the group in sympathy. Particularly Xander.

Five minutes and six drinks later, Anya was still rambling about life plans, unknowingly rubbing her happy-happy thoughts in the recently not-so-happy Joyce and Giles and also making Xander hyperventilate. The three of them were very tipsy, bordering on quite drunk, but somehow still managed to form coherent sentences.

"I mean there's so much to plan," Anya gushed, "The wedding, new cars, a house-" She looked at Xander, "A better one I mean," Both Giles and Xander looked offended, "oh and babies! You have to plan for babies or they'll just run roughshod over your entire existence"

"Yeah," Xander agreed, clearly in full hyperventilating mode, "Gotta decide what to call 'em before they go to college"

"'Rupert' is an exceptionally strong name," Giles told them, a little drunkenly, and Xander tried to look as though he was considering the thought, but Anya just bowled right over that.

"Yeah," She agreed sarcastically, "If we want our progeny to eat paste and have their lunch money stolen"

Feeling the alcohol she'd been forced to intake tonight had made her thoughts a little free spoken, Joyce got up and wandered over to where Tara and Willow were sat, before Giles could question her on her opinion of the name 'Rupert'. Buffy seemed to be smoothing things over by comforting Xander on a 'everything's great' front.

"Having fun over their with the Hell Bride?" Willow grinned as Joyce came over.

"Not really," She admitted, sitting down, "I-I have a strong feeling that my helping Anya is going to be me taking orders from Anya"

"You're absolutely right," Willow grinned even wider.

It was a little later on in the night, Buffy had decided to patrol with Spike and despite protest from parents, surrogate or biological, she had left anyway to check there were no Halloween Vamp Hijinks. Xander, after taking a break outside (and one last alcoholic beverage) had started funking away to the music with a peppy Anya and an equally peppy Willow. Joyce and Tara remained on the sofa, watching the scene in amusement. Anya's enthusiastic moves were particularly crazy.

Suddenly, the music cut off.

"Hey, we just getting our funk on," Willow said to Giles in complaint, but he had serious face on.

"Janice's Mother just called. Apparently Janice told her she was sleeping here."

"What?" Joyce asked, standing up, all happy-go-lucky effects of the wine washing away in an instant.

"Digging into the classics," Xander nodded, "Gotta respect that"

"So we don't know where they are?" Joyce asked.

"No," Giles replied, "I believe I covered that" Pointing out the fact that if neither Mothers knew where the girls were, then no one did.

"Well, this wouldn't have happened if you hadn't said she could go in the first place,"she retorted.

"I-uh-my-" Giles stuttered in shock, "You can't possibly be implying this is my fault?"

"Yes. No. Yes," Joyce really didn't know. She needed someone to blame and Dawn wasn't around to ground and throttle, "We just need to find her"

"At last we agree," Giles commented neutrally. "Xander, Anya- you stay here in case Dawn returns. Willow, Tara- check downtown. Joyce and I will go to Spike's- see if Buffy's there yet"

"Spike!" Joyce called urgently, rushing into the crypt and looking around, "Spike!"

"I really wish you wouldn't do that," Giles told her tiredly, "He is a vampire and -"

"A harmless vampire," Joyce corrected.

"Be that as it may to so loudly announce-" Giles began but was cut off by the arrival of Spike.

"Come to wish me Happy Halloween, have you?"

"Have you seen Buffy?" Joyce asked in response, "Or Dawn?" Spike frowned.

"And a happy Halloween to you to," He grumbled, "You know you're gettin' as bad as your daughter for this. Just trouncing in without even asking, just coming for information. Some people would consider that bad manners"

"Spike..." Joyce said impatiently and he sighed as he relented.

"What's the trouble?"

"Dawn has seemingly 'done a number' on us," Giles explained, using Willow's quote even though Spike hadn't been there to hear it. "She lied about her whereabouts-- uh where she was ah going tonight-- and so we need to find Dawn and well, uh, also Buffy"

"Sorry, not seen either," Spike shrugged, "I could go on look-out though," He offered.

"No, no," Giles shook his head, "It's best if you stay here- in case Buffy comes by. Or Dawn for that matter"

"Right," Spike nodded, "I'll tell the Slayer you were looking for her- sister on the lam and all"

"I just don't think Dawn would hide in a cemetery is all," Joyce protested as she and Giles walked through a graveyard that couldn't possibly get any creepier., "She has some sense"

"Well, teenage Halloween pranks usually-" Giles broke off as he disappeared out of sight. He'd tripped over a gravestone.

"Oh!" Joyce exclaimed in surprise, before helping him up, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," He said, brushing dust off himself, "Bloody brilliant"

A scream rang out through the cemetery.

"Dawn," Joyce gasped,looking at Giles in panic before the two of them set off in the direction of the scream. They came to find a girl with long brown hair being pressed up to a tree by a vampire, her face obscured by his as he leaned towards her neck, teeth bared. "Dawn!" Joyce exclaimed, running over with Giles.

The vamp turned to see who the human interuptus were, but before he could look Giles smashed the flashlight into his temple and the vampire went tumbling away down the small embankment.

"Dawn? Are you okay?" Joyce asked, heading towards the girl to see it wasn't Dawn, but Janice.

"The guy bit me!" Janice exclaimed, holding her neck, "That jerk bit me!"

"Like you weren't asking for it," The vampire, Zack, said, having got back up and had now headed towards them.

"I'm fairly certain she wasn't," Giles retorted.

"What do you know about it, Grandpa?" Zack asked before completely wailing on Giles, but as he swung round with a brutal punch, Giles caught it in his hand, surprising the vampire.

"Quite a bit actually," Giles replied, before unleashing a flurry of blows and, surprising the vampire, spun round, kicking Zack in the chest. Zack flew back with the impact and landed on a conveniently protruding tree branch.

"Dude, that sucks," Zack complained, shortly before turning into dust.

Giles was quite pleased with himself.

"Very good," Joyce hurriedly and impatiently told him when she saw his expression, "Janice is fine, but she said Dawn is this way" And with that, she'd gone, not wanting to waste one more moment before she could get to her daughter. Giles quickly followed.

Finally they arrived at the destination, just in time to see a vampire leaning in to bite Dawn seductively. Dawn didn't seem to be doing too well resisting. In fact she wasn't attempting to resist at all. In fact her eyes were closed. Joyce's mouth dropped open in horrified shock at the scene.

"It'll only hurt for a minute," The vampire was saying.

"I bet you say that to all the girls," Giles interrupted loudly as he and Joyce started walking over.

"What?" The vamp looked confused by this interruption.

"You can get the hell away from my daughter," Joyce ordered and Dawn snapped out of her daze at her Mom's voice.

"Mom, Giles--"

The vampire, Justin, in one swift movement, swung Dawn around, grabbing her by the throat.

"Let her go. Now." Joyce ordered quietly, but her words were clearly heard.

"How about no?" Justin challenged lightly as several car headlights flashed on, blinding Joyce and Giles. Out of each of the cars stepped out couple after couple. All of them vampires. This was a make-out lane alright. One where necking had an entirely different meaning.

As Joyce looked around at how they were clearly surrounded, fear for her life filling her, her eyes fell on Dawn again. But rather than noting the fact that a vamp had her by the throat, she noticed that Dawn was wearing the vampire's jacket and they were right next to a (presumably his) car.

"Oh my god," Joyce exclaimed in shock, "Were you...Dawn were you parking? With a vampire?" She sighed in frustration, "I know girls want to be like their big sisters, but this is ridiculous"

"I have to say I resent that comment," Buffy said casually, arriving with Spike, the two of them standing on either side of Joyce and Giles, "But I have to agree on the whole 'what were thinking' front. Making out with a vampire?"

"I didn't know he was dead!" Dawn protested.

"Undead," Justin corrected casually.

"Shut up," Dawn urged him not to make a bad situation worse.

"How could you not know?" Buffy asked.

"I just met him!" Dawn told her and now it was Joyce's turn once again to be shocked.

"Oh so you were just making out with a guy you just met? Dawn- a little responsibility is all ask. I mean first- you lied to us and both you and Janice played me and her Mother against one another. Second- you lied so you could park with a boy you just met. And third- he's the undead."

"I'm in trouble?" Dawn asked weakly.

"You're already in trouble," Joyce told her, gesturing around at all the vampires surrounding them, before fixing Dawn with a steely glare, "But trust me, when this over and I get you home- you're going to be so much more than grounded"

Dawn suddenly found herself wondering whether getting bit would be so bad.

"Uh...can we fight now?" One of the surrounding vampires, Carl, asked meekly.

"Did anyone come here just to like make out?" Buffy asked in exasperation and a terrified human couple held up their hands in answer. "Aww, that's sweet," Buffy told them, "You run," They did. Buffy turned to Carl, "You scream"

Then the fight broke out, all the vamps charging the four at once.

One of the adult vampires chose to try and take out Buffy first (Foolish boy) and she connected a vicious kick to his face causing him to reel in pain.

"Die Slayer!" He yelled, running toward her again, but she whipped out a stake and it was ashes to Halloween ashes.

"Been there, done that," She told the pile of dust, without emotion. She whirled around to see Giles getting tag teamed by two girl vampires and her Mom having the same treatment from the girls' equally vampiric boyfriends.

"Mom! Giles!" She called out, throwing spare stakes at them, "Catch!" She told them, before returning her attention to the other vampires that were attacking. After all, Spike could only deal with so many at one time. She heard the nice and familiar sound of several vamps being dusted at almost the same time and knew her Mom and Giles had done okay.

"Where'd Dawn go?" Joyce asked worriedly after the vamps were dust.

"I-uh," Giles almost shrugged, "I think-" He pointed in a general direction, before he and Joyce headed that way. So much for 'it's a night off on Halloween'. It never was for them. Never. It just wasn't fair.

At Slayer central, Buffy had just got off the phone with Tara, saying how everything was okay and Dawn (Who was waiting sullenly in the dining room on Joyce's orders) was back safe, and now Anya and Xander were getting ready to leave.

"Sorry about how wrong the party went. What with the whole Dawn missage" Buffy apologized.

"Don't worry about it," Xander told her with a smile, "We're just glad Dawn's okay"

"Yes and it gave me time to plan the bridal shower. Where do I order obscenely muscular male strippers?" Anya asked eagerly and Xander gave her a look.

"Ahn..."

"I'm kidding, jeez," She told him, but before she left with him she turned back to Buffy to mouth 'We'll talk'.

Buffy rolled her eyes with a little smile, before closing the door behind them and heading into the kitchen where Joyce was tending to Giles' head wound from where one of the vampires had knocked him down.

"How's the face?" She asked.

"Still ruggedly handsome," He informed her and Buffy smiled, not so much at what he said, but at the fact that her Mom did smile at the comment. An affectionate smile- one that she hadn't seen her wear for a while. Xander thought he was the only one who noticed things around here, but Buffy was finding out that talking less around people meant you got to notice things too sometimes.

Buffy looked back into the dining room to see Dawn fingering Justin's jacket absently. So, she really had fallen for him. Like sister, like...erm... sister. Too bad he hadn't had a soul. Not that that worked out anyway.

"She's taken it pretty badly," Buffy commented, assuming the two of them would know what she was talking about. They did.

"I know," Joyce agreed, "I should probably go talk to her" She sighed a little before heading out of the room to have words with Dawn.

"She's not going to be too hard on her is she?" Buffy asked Giles worriedly.

"I don't know...We can't ignore this sort of behavior you know. Something has to be done before it spins out of control."

"I know," Buffy agreed somberly and somehow, secretly, they both knew that they weren't just talking about Dawn.