A Note From the Author: So, as promised, this chapter will contain more eventful goings on. It probably won't contain the main plotline, but it won't just be full of musings and wonderings. Ok? Ok. Oh and also, in this story, Willow and Tara own their own house.

Disclaimer: I own a very large nothing

POV: Giles

I was due to go to Buffy's in an hour to research the demon that had attacked her. I had called Willow and told her, and she said that if nothing had happened by now, it was unlikely that anything really damaging would be in her system. I was growing rather impatient and wished I could just have gone to her house right then. I was worried about her. She had seemed very vague and out of it after the attack two nights ago. The gash had healed badly, leaving an angry red mark. There was definitely something from the demon that was preventing it from healing properly.

Still another 40 minutes of waiting! I paced around my apartment, and when I passed the door for the fifty-seventh time, I threw my hands up in the air, grabbed my book bag and got in my car to drive to Buffy's. I'd just tell her that my clock must have been fast.

As I pulled up outside, I noticed that all of the curtains were closed and there was no apparent movement in the house. Sleeping in again? I walked up the small pathway and knocked on the door. No answer. Opening the door and poking my head in, I called out, "Buffy?"

I walked into the lounge room and saw that she was not asleep on the couch like the other day. I did a lap of the downstairs and figured that she must have been upstairs. Knocking on her bedroom door, I got no answer, so I softly pushed it halfway open and saw her asleep on the bed.

"Buffy?" I whispered, "Buffy, you have to get up."

I realised that whispering would not wake her.

"Buffy?" I said more forcefully, but still did not get a reaction out of her, "Buffy!"

I shook her a bit this time, just softly, because I was starting to get worried. When she remained limp in my hands, I shook her harder, getting more and more worried by the second.

"Buffy!" I yelled, "Dammit! Wake up!"

I leant down, close to her mouth, to check for breathing, and was relieved when I felt her soft breath on my cheek. I pulled out my phone and dialled Willow's number.

"Hello?" came Willow's soft voice.

"Willow, I need you over at Buffy's. That thing that cut her, I think there was poison in it. She won't wake up!" I practically yelled into the phone.

"Ok Giles, I'll be right there," she replied, then hung up.

I threw open the curtains, to let some light into the room, and went back to Buffy's side. I looked at the cut and saw that it was no worse than yesterday, but clearly, more of a risk. I took her hand and squeezed it gently. She did not respond. I didn't think she would.

Waiting for Willow to arrive seemed like the longest time of my life. I felt helpless. Fleeting thoughts were running through my head so fast that I didn't have time to really think about them. I was trying to think of all of the kinds of demons that had poisonous claws, all of the poisons that would be slow working, as it had taken a few days for it to take effect, ways to combat these poisons. Anything. Anything at all that I thought might help. But I couldn't focus for long enough to come up with anything really useful.

I squeezed her hand again…and she squeezed lightly back.

"Buffy?!" I half-shouted.

"G…Giles?" her voice was very soft and strained.

"I'm here luv," I murmured in her ear, "How are you feeling?"

"I…my head…hurts," she whispered hoarsely.

"Your head?" but…wasn't her arm hurt? "Your head hurts?"

She nodded vaguely.

"But…ok. Well, don't worry, you'll be fine luv," I tried to convince us both, as I continued to coo in her ear, "You'll be fine."

"It's…the light…Giles…it…hurts," she squinted heavily in the light and, rather than get up and leave her, I moved into the path and shaded her face.

I looked down at her, and what I saw chilled me to the bone; she looked scared. Not just scared; terrified. I had seen her scared before, sure, but somehow this was different. Perhaps it was because usually when she is scared, she knows what she is scared for, but this time, we knew nothing. As I smiled as reassuringly as I could down at her, her eyes closed and her lolled to the side once more.

I jumped when I heard the front door being opened.

"Giles?" came Willow's voice.

"Up here!" I called down to her.

I heard her hurry up the stairs and deposit several bags onto the floor, Tara in tow.

"She's still breathing, she's just…" I trailed off as Willow and Tara started to unpack potions and books from the ground, "She woke up before, but…" again, I trailed off.

Willow lifted Buffy's arm and inspected the cut closely.

"That's funny," she murmured, "It's…well…it looks like falcuronia."

Tara looked puzzled, but I looked utterly clueless, "Falcuronia?"

"It's…an inflammatory," Willow muttered, almost to herself.

"So…why is she unconscious?" I asked, quite perplexed now.

"I really couldn't tell you," Willow replied, "Well, there's one way to find out whether or not there's anything else mixed in with it."

She picked up a small bottle containing a white power from the floor.

"If it turns orange, then it's just falcuronia, but if it turns any other colour, there's something else," Willow said as she tipped a little bit of the power onto Buffy's arm.

As we all waited, there was complete silence. Even beyond the window, barely anything could be heard.

"It's turning," Willow muttered.

We all leaned in and watched as the colour changed from white to bright orange.

"That's…odd," Willow whispered.

"Maybe it's something that we've not seen before?" suggested Tara, I had almost forgotten she was there.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

I sat with Tara in the lounge room while Willow tried her best to find out what Buffy was poisoned with. She had been up there now for half an hour.

"Maybe we should take her to a hospital," Tara murmured, breaking the silence.

"If it's a magical poison, they'd have no idea and it would just waste time," I said softly back.

She just nodded once.

"So…what took you so long to get here?" I wasn't meaning to be rude when I said it, but Tara looked a little shocked.

"We were camping with Dawn, remember?" she said, a tiny amount of hurt evident in her voice, "We had to go back to our place and pick up some things."

"I'm…I'm sorry," I quickly got in before she could say anything else, "I'm just…worried."

She took my hand in hers and squeezed it gently, "I know how much she means to you."

I nodded, "We have developed a rather close bond. I just hate to see her hurt."

"Giles…I don't just mean how much the Slayer means to her Watcher…I mean how much Buffy means to Giles," Tara murmured.

I opened my mouth to respond, to say that I didn't have feelings for Buffy in that way. To say that Tara was wrong. To say that she had no idea what she was talking about. Me have feelings for Buffy? Certainly not! …Right? Right? I…oh my gosh…

My train of thoughts was interrupted by Willow coming down the stairs.

"She's awake," she said softly, "I still don't know what it was…what it is. But I think I'm getting closer to finding out. She seemed to respond to strong stimulants, but I don't know if that's just because they're…well…stimulants. And when I say respond," she added, seeing my look of joy, "I mean, she's awake…barely. She won't be getting up any time soon. Did she say anything when she woke up before?"

"She didn't really say anything," I said, "Oh, but she did say that it was her head that hurt. I don't know if there's any relevance to that, but it struck me as odd, seeing as it was her arm that was cut."

Willow just nodded, seeming to agree with me, "Anything else?"

I shook my head.

"Ok, well Tara and I will start trying to find out more about the poison, why don't you try and find something out about the demon? That might give us somewhere to start," Willow said.

"Yes…yes that sounds…like a good idea," I said, quite clearly shaken.

Willow put her hand on my shoulder and smiled, "She'll be ok."

I looked into her eyes and saw a fierce determination there; I knew my Buffy would be safe with Willow working on her.

It suddenly dawned on me, that instead of thinking 'my Slayer', I had thought 'my Buffy'. It was at that moment, that everything gained a degree of clarity. The first thing I realised was that I had been harbouring feelings for Buffy for at least a year now. The second thing I realised was that her head hurting might have nothing to do with her arm. And the third thing I noticed may have been the most important; it probably didn't have anything to do with the demon at all; she had been ill with headaches and migraines for the past few weeks.

"Willow," I said softly.

She looked over to me.

"What if it doesn't have anything to do with the demon?" I asked softly.

"What do you mean?" she asked with a puzzled look.

"I mean…what if it's not…magical?" I posed softly.

"I…well…why do you ask?" she asked me.

"Well…for the past few weeks, she's been having bad headaches, possibly migraines, and she told me she hasn't been thinking straight or concentrating well for quite a while now," I said softly, hoping I could be of some help.

Willow's expression changed from puzzled to thinking hard to…fear?

"Giles, has she had any sensitivity to light?" Willow asked, fear definitely evident in her voice now.

I nodded.

"Stiff neck?" she asked.

I remembered back to when I had brought her home from the attack. She had said that she had a stiff neck. I was still not sure where Willow was going with this, but I nodded again. Without warning, Willow ran upstairs. Tara and I followed her quickly, both looking as confused as each other. She burst into Buffy's room and leaned low over her. She seemed to be shining a torch in Buffy's eyes.

"She has dilated pupils," she said, turning to me with a look of utter terror, then she whispered, "Giles."

Suddenly I understood.

"Call an ambulance Giles!" Willow yelled at me.

As I rushed down the stairs, I couldn't stop thinking about how stupid and ignorant I'd been.

A Note From the Author: So…what is wrong? You will have to wait and see =D Hopefully this chapter meets with the FanFic standards, I am quite enjoying where this is headed. Well...not enjoying, perse, more liking how easy it is flowing. It's about to get a whole lot angsty-er.

Review if the mood strikes you, many thankyous to all who do; ye shall receive a lengthy reply. I promise.

Oval and Out

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