-One year later, "Out of My Mind"-

"Who are you?" Joyce says, looking at her daughter. The voice has a stern accusation in it.

"What are you talking about?" Giles asks, turning toward her. He is just in time to catch her as he falls.

"Dawn, call 911!" he commands Dawn.

-Later-

"What's wrong?" Buffy says, running over to where Giles is sitting next to Dawn in the waiting room of the hospital.

"It's fine. They are still doing some tests, but they are pretty sure that everything is going to be fine," Giles assures her.

"I'm glad you were there for her," Buffy says.

"I was there too," Dawn pipes up.

Buffy is about to make a sarcastic remark about her little sister not being a lot of help. Then she catches a glare from Giles that reminds her that her little sister is scared. "Yes, thanks for that," Buffy says.

-A week later during "No place like home"

"I don't understand how come they haven't figured out what is wrong with Mom yet. I mean, they have been testing her straight for weeks. You think they would have figured it out by now."

"Patience, and time, that is all that we need," Giles says.

"Are you telling me that you aren't worried?" Buffy says.

"Of course I'm worried, but we are getting her all the medical attention that she needs. It's not like worrying about it is going to make it any better."

-The Next Day-

"Someone put a spell on my mom. Something to make it seem like she is sick," Buffy declares.

"That is a new kind of nasty, any suspects?" Xander asks.

"Well, I have the list narrowed down to just under infinity," Buffy says with a sad sigh.

"You know Buffy, there used to be this French sorcerer back in the 16th I don't know what named…"

"Cutlee?" Giles puts in when Anya seems stuck on the name.

"He had this one spell that demons just hated called Tirer La Couyeture" Anya continues.

"Rotate many food stuffs," Buffy guesses, displaying once again exactly how weak her Latin skills are.

"Pull the curtain back," Willow corrects.

"A spell to see spells. Well, a trance to see spells actually, but you get the idea. Try that," Anya offers.

"What do you mean, see spells?" Buffy asks.

"Well, all spells leave a trace signature that is not perceptible to the human eye. In this case it could be the image of a hand choking Joyce," Giles says, with concern written clearly on his face.

"Or a cloud of mist around her," Anya continues.

"Or maybe the shape of the demon that is performing the spell?" Willow offers with a bit of a hopeful question in her voice.

"It is possible, yes," Giles tells her.

"Ok, so I'll do what he did. I'll go home, I'll get trancy, and I'll see what is affecting my mom," Buffy says cheerfully.

"I don't know Buffy, trances?" Willow says skeptically.

"Yes, Buffy the sorcererr Cutlee was legendary. His skills at achieving higher states of consciousness were…." Giles tries to figure out a way to say this that won't hurt Buffy's feelings, but he can't find one.

"Better than mine?" Buffy offers bluntly. "I knew he was going to say that," she tells Willow. "But I have been practicing concentration, Giles, I know I'm close."

"Are you ready?" he asks.

"It's my mom. I'll get ready," Buffy says.

"Well, at least let me help you," Giles pleads.

-Later-

As soon as the trance begins to work, Buffy travels down the stairs to see her mother. She is shocked to see that her mother looks the same as she always does. Actually, a little better as she heads out the door. The medicine is working. Or the magic isn't perhaps. In any case, there is nothing to see around her mother's head.

There is however, a lot to see about her sister. Every picture that she sees of her sister is flicking in and out, as if her sister is both there and not there. When she goes into her bedroom she sees the same thing. It is blinking between a room only for her, and the one she shares with her sister.*

"What are you doing on my side of the room?" Dawn asks, coming into the room.

"You are not my sister," Buffy tells her. As soon as these words are out of her mouth the trance disappears.

"Yeah, like I even want to be related to your nasty self," Dawn sneers. Buffy moves across the room to grab her hard by her shoulders.

"Ow!" Dawn exclaims.

"What are you doing?" Buffy demands.

"Get off me!" Dawn demands.

"You want to hurt me?"
"Stop it, you freak!"

"Then you deal with me," Buffy says with each word falling to the Earth with the force of an atomic bomb.

"I'm telling mom," Dawn threatens.

"You stay away from my mother," Buffy says, throwing her sister against the closed closet doors. The two sisters stare at each other.

"What are you doing to your sister?" Giles breaks in.

"She's not my sister! She's some kind of demon here trying to fool us! She's the one that is hurting Mom!" Buffy says.

"She's Dawn. We know that she's your sister. We can remember her," Giles says.

"When I was in the trance she kept blinking in and out. I'm telling you, something weird is up here," she says.

"There has to be some sort of an explanation," Giles says.

-Later, During "Family"-

"I found out what is going on with Dawn," Buffy tells Giles as the two of them have a bedtime cup of tea in the living room. Joyce went to bed early with a headache, and Dawn is up in her room after a heart to heart that Buffy had with Dawn, after she found out that her sister wasn't real anymore. Not that she'd actually told her sister that she wasn't real. But she had apologized for her actions, which was sort of ironic, since she'd just found out they were completely justified.

"Are you sure it isn't what is going on with you?" he asks with a raised eyebrow.

"She's not real," Buffy says. Giles shakes his head and opens his mouth to say something, but Buffy cuts him off. "I know this sounds crazy, but it's not coming from me. There was this monk, and he said that there was some key. They had to hide this key, and they hid it in her. Well, that's not true. They made her in order to hide the key."

"She's a person, Buffy, she's been around forever. You know that as well as I do."

"That's the thing, Giles, they messed with our memories. I saw it when I was in the trance. There was no magic around my mother, but there was a whole bunch around Dawn. She's some magic thing, not my sister."

"I don't know what to say," Giles says after a sigh of disbelief. "She has no idea?"

"No, she thinks she's my kid sister," Buffy tells him.

"Are you going to tell her?" he asks.

"How can I?" Buffy asks in shock. She can't imagine what it would feel like to suddenly find out that you weren't who you thought you were. More than that, that you weren't really anyone at all. That your whole life was a lie, and that you had no real existence. "She'd freak. It's the last thing that we need." Buffy stands up and walks across the room. She stares up the staircase to where her sister lays in bed, happily asleep. Blissfully unaware. "We have to keep her safe."

"Should we be thinking of sending her away?" Giles asks with concern.

"Away where?"

"I don't know, maybe to your father's?"

"Yeah, he's in Spain, with his secretary. Living the cliché. I remember when he bailed on us, Dawn cried for like a week. Except she didn't. She wasn't there. But I can still feel what it was like."

Giles puts his hand over his mouth in shock.

"They sent her to me, Giles, I think I have to take care of her. I want to."

"I'm going to help you do that," he promises before asking, "Do we tell the others?"

"No, no one. They would act weird around her, and it's safer for everyone if they don't know." Buffy says. Silence looms in the room for a couple of seconds, and then Buffy says, "I'm going to move back home."

"You don't have to do that," Giles tells her.

"I just told you that I was going to take care of Dawn, that I felt it was my responsibility. I can't do a whole lot of that from my dorm room."

"Buffy, your mom and I were going to tell you and Dawn something this weekend. I think I'm going to have to let it leak a little early so you don't make life decisions based on a lack of information," he tells her.

"Ok," she says slowly, sounding confused.

"We're getting married," he says matter-of-factly.

"Wow, congratulations! You finally popped the question!" Buffy exclaims.

"Well, technically speaking, she popped the question to me," he says, using the strange voice that he always uses when he attempts an American colloquialism.

"Ok, well it's still great news, right? How come your face isn't making a great news face?" Buffy asks, looking critically at him.

"Well, the news is great. Marrying your mother is great. The reason that we are doing it is less than great," he tells her. "Your mother wants to make sure that you and Dawn are taken care of…"

"I case she dies," Buffy says with anger in her voice as she stands up, and turns away.

"Buffy…." Giles says quickly, following her.

"No, that is what this is about, right? Mom wants to make sure that we have someone to take care of us in case she dies. Well, I've got news for you, we don't need someone to take care of us. If it came down to it, I could take care of us," Buffy says, beginning what seems destined to be a much longer rant.

She is cut off by Giles's soothing voice, "You don't have to. Look, I love both of you. I have been thinking about marrying your mother for some time now. This just…sped things up a bit. This doesn't mean that we think she is going to die. We don't. Preparing for something and expecting it are two separate things. We haven't given up fighting."

"I still want to come back home," Buffy says firmly.

"Ok," he says with a nod of his head.

"I guess I should say welcome to the family or something now, only that's a little bit weird, because you've been a member of the family for quite some time."

He smiles at her.

"Are your parents coming down for the wedding?"

He nods his head. "It's going to be a quiet little family thing, but they are family."

*In this version I'm sure Dawns room would be the baby's, and the sisters would share.