"Is Joyce available?" Xander asked.

"Mom, phone!" the young girl's voice called out.

"Mom?" Xander asked.

"Yeah," Dawn said slowly, "my mom, Joyce."

"I didn't know Joyce had any daughters other than Buffy."

"What?!" she screeched. "Xander... did you take any blows to the head lately?" she asked, concerned.

"No, but I found out the mayor was screwing with everyone's memory," Xander replied thoughtfully.

"Here," Dawn said.

"Hello?"

"Hi Joyce, this is Xander," he replied as he pulled forward to the window and received his food, paying them and accepting change.

"Xander, how's the road trip been going?" the mother of the Slayer and apparently at least one other daughter asked.

"It's been interesting," he replied. "One of the many, many things I discovered was that the mayor had cast a spell on the town that screwed with people's memories... and I don't recall you having any children but Buffy."

"Oh," Joyce said, shock in her voice. "Well I can assure you I have, trust me, I have the stretch marks to prove it."

"I'd have to see them to be sure," Xander automatically teased her, making her giggle.

"Xander, stop flirting with mom," Dawn's voice could be heard in the background.

"Hush," Joyce ordered her daughter.

Xander pulled into the parking lot and parked as he checked his order, finding it all there. "I think I'm going to have to take a quick trip home to make sure I haven't forgotten anything else. I'm not sure what else the mayor may have messed with, but forgetting you had another daughter seems pretty important."

"Where are you?" Joyce asked.

"A McDonald's parking lot about four or five hours away," he replied. "I kept getting distracted by side quests so I didn't make it very far."

"Do I need to call anyone?"

"Just Giles if you have his number," he said. "So set another place for dinner because I should be there around six."

"I'll also make up the couch," she promised, an excited teen squeal sounding in the background. "I think someone may be excited to see you."

"See you then, bye," he said, waiting for her response before hanging up.

Xander ate his food as he considered the problem. He didn't know why he would have forgotten Buffy's sister, it was possible she was a shapechanger with mental powers that could implant memories... but that didn't seem likely even for Sunnydale, so it was likely something had gone wrong with his memory. He knew the Mayor had screwed with their memories with his spell, but he didn't know why he'd remove Xander's memory of Buffy's sister. Maybe he'd been planning to take her hostage? If so, Buffy might not remember her sister either, but he'd been gone for nearly a week and Buffy had surely called home at least once in that time so that was also unlikely.

Xander stuffed all the trash in the McDonald's bag and pulled back onto the road. Whatever the answer was, he'd find it in Sunnydale.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Angel hung up the phone with a frown.

"Trouble?" Doyle asked curiously.

"No, a mage I owe a favor to wants me to retrieve a copy of a tape from Spike," the vampire said with a frown.

"Who's Spike?"

"William the Bloody," Angel explained. "A vampire I used to run with before my soul was restored. I can probably get a copy easily enough, I just have to promise I'll make Xander watch it, but the hard part is finding where Spike and Dru are. Last I heard they were headed to Vegas."

"Vegas?" Doyle asked, perking up.

"I don't know that he's there," Angel said.

Doyle grabbed his temples and groaned theatrically. "I see… neon… and show girls…" he said slowly.

Angel sighed. "You are a lousy actor, I can tell you're just faking a vision."

"What? I was believable," the short Irish man complained.

"No, you really weren't," Angel said bluntly.

"Well… I didn't have a vision showing us not saving people in Vegas," the half Brachen seer offered lamely.

Angel sighed. "Let me make some calls before you start packing a bag."

"You really need to lighten up," Doyle said.

"No, I really don't," the cursed vampire assured him, "my soul depends on it."

Doyle just gives him a look and rolls his eyes. "A little fun and levity won't cost you your soul, you need to make connections to people if you want to live in the world and not merely exist."

"I… I'll think about it," Angel concedes, "but for now I have calls to make."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"What was that quote from Scarface about being dragged back in?" Xander asked himself with a frown as he passed the Welcome to Sunnydale sign. He'd made surprisingly good time only having taken several hours to get back home.

He was surprised to find he wasn't really upset as he realized he could probably take an entire year off for his road trip with the money he had and he was looking forward to seeing Joyce.

He pulled up in front of the house and hopped out with a spring in his step and a smile on his face, actually looking forward to seeing what new strangeness the Hellmouth was throwing at them and catching up with his friends. Sure, it had just been a week but he wasn't used to not seeing them for even a day.

He knocked on the door and a girl with long dark hair answered the door.

"Xander!" she exclaimed excitedly and threw her arms around him.

Xander reflexively hugged her back. "Dawn I'm guessing?"

"You really don't remember me?" Green eyes stared into his own, searching for something.

"Not a bit," Xander told her. "You know how me and magic tend to go wrong, so I'm guessing the Mayor's spell screwed with things."

"We have to fix this!" Dawn declared firmly.

"Are you going to let go so I can come in?" Xander asked.

"Nope, it could be taken as an invitation now since you said that and as you told me, never let in anything that can't cross a threshold without an invitation, you'll just have to carry me," she said firmly, burying her face in his chest.

Xander picked her up and walked in as she giggled. He liked her already. "Hey Lucy, I'm home!" he called out in his best Desi Arnez voice.

"I heard the squeal," Joyce said as she came out of the kitchen. "I called Rupert, but only got his answering machine."

"It is summer, he's probably off at a tweed sale," Xander said.

"Are you going to let him go?" Joyce asked her youngest.

"Not until he remembers me," she said firmly.

"Are we sure she isn't a shapeshifter who implants memories?" Xander teased. "She's a little too cute to be a normal girl." He could probably feel her smile as she hugged him tighter.

"Still got those stretch marks and a load of baby pictures," Joyce said, grinning as Dawn groaned.

"No baby pictures!"

"To be fair, I have a number of holes in my memory and the Mayor's spell blocked out things he didn't want us to know about like superheroes, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and that MTV no longer just plays music videos," Xander said with a shrug.

"The Tooth Fairy is real?" Dawn asked, surprised.

"Not as far as I know," Joyce said. "Santa is, of course, but I've been on Tooth Fairy duty for you and Buffy since you were old enough to start losing teeth."

"He or she only gives money for the teeth of the sixth child, no idea why," Xander said, "so even with the Mayor's spell gone I doubt we'll see a lot of him or her."

"Why only the sixth?" Dawn asked.

"No idea, for all I know it's union rules, I haven't found a mage to ask yet," he admitted.

"Have a seat in the living room and I'll get you something to drink," Joyce said. "Water or soda?"

"I'll take a Coke if you have one," Xander said, turning and carrying Dawn into the living room. As he took a seat she curled up in his lap, still hugging him.

"So… what all did I forget?" he asked the brunette in his lap.

"You love me and think I'm prettier than Buffy," Dawn told him firmly.

"Hm, you do seem lovable, so that's possible and you're definitely cuter," Xander said, trying to remember her, as she was far too comfortable hugging him to not at least be a close friend.

Joyce set a glass of Coke on a coaster in front of the pair, smiling at the scene.

"You'd watch me when Mom had to work late and Buffy was off doing Slayer stuff," Dawn said. "We'd watch cheesy movies and make out."

Xander looked over to Joyce wide eyed who shook her head.

"Sorry, I meant pig out," Dawn said, trying to sound innocent.

"You might have gotten me to believe that if you'd said it without your mom in the room, which you know, so I'm guessing that was a prank… I score it an eight out of ten," he told her.

"What? I could have gotten away with it?" Dawn asked, wide eyed.

"You could have claimed it was kissing practice that you convinced me to do using puppy dog eyes and turning on the waterworks," Xander teased.

"Curse my sense of humor," she said and groaned.

"Thus I will grant that we are quite close and that our relationship is entirely innocent," Xander said smugly.

"I want a do over!" Dawn demanded. "I had no idea I could get away with that much."

Joyce was having a hard time keeping a straight face and sipped her coffee to cover her grin.

"Sorry, I'm afraid you'll just have to accept the position of beloved little sister of my best friend until you graduate high school," Xander said.

"The kiss of death!" Dawn exclaimed melodramatically. "Well at least you beloved me."

Xander grinned and squeezed her.

"Oh, idea!" Dawn said excitedly.

"Yeah?" Xander asked.

"I'm going to kiss you," Dawn told him. "Just a peck on the lips. That's supposed to break some spells."

Xander turned to Joyce who just shrugged.

"A peck on the lips isn't that big a deal and if you don't she'll be trying to kiss you all night," Joyce told him, "but only do it if you're comfortable with the idea."

"Alright, one little kiss, no tongue," Xander told her.

Dawn squealed and both Xander and Joyce winced at the high pitched noise.

"Three second limit," Xander said firmly.

"Okay," Dawn agreed, closing her eyes and puckering up like she was making a duck face for a picture.

Xander leaned down and pressed his lips against hers for a three count.

Dawn's face was a solid red. "Did it work?" she asked hopefully.

"No," Xander said, "but I got to kiss a pretty girl so I'm happy."

Dawn smiled and snuggled into his chest.

"I should have gotten my camera," Joyce said. "How's your trip been so far?"

"And what happened at graduation?" Dawn asked. "Buffy told us her version, but you know how she is."

"She gets tunnel vision and misses a bit," Xander said. "I doubt she leaves out much on purpose."

"She's a bit better about things than she was in LA," Dawn offered. "She might just be growing up."

"You tease her about being short, don't you?" Xander asked.

"You remember?!"

"No, but her complaining about it makes a bit more sense now," Xander said.

"Well, she is short," Dawn said smugly. "I'm already as tall as she is and I'm going to get taller."

Xander grinned. "Well our plans for dealing with the Mayor were pretty simple, I made a large amount of explosives which we filled the library with while trying to turn the entire senior class into an army."

"You made the explosives?" Joyce asked.

"I thought Buffy and Giles trained them," Dawn added.

"Buffy tried, but no one could really keep up with her and she didn't have the patience," Xander said. "Giles was much better at demonstrating basic techniques for them, but he wasn't trained in military tactics, so the majority of it fell to me while they worked on other things. For instance, I'm pretty sure the super soakers filled with Holy Water were her idea while Giles was the one who showed us how to fire flaming arrows safely and Willow got together with Andrew and Jonathan and somehow made a working flamethrower, which our quarterback was sad he never got to use. Oz helped me gather all the fertilizer and fuel oil to mix for the bombs. It really was a group effort, but training the students and leading them in battle was mostly on me since I kept the most out of our Halloween costumes and had dressed as a World War One soldier."

"Buffy left most of that out," Dawn said.

"Well she was probably distracted as we weren't sure we were going to make it, I know I had dreams that convinced me I was going to die every night leading up to it," he said, "and Buffy had the most dangerous job of leading the Mayor into the library and then escaping so we could blow him up."

"I can't believe you all had to do that," Joyce said, "I'm so glad you all survived."

"No one was hurt?" Dawn asked.

"Wussley fainted," Xander said smugly, "but yeah, no one even got a scratch."

"And the Mayor's spell kept us from calling for the Justice League," Joyce said, shaking her head. "I'm really glad they arrived anyway."

"When the Mayor transformed, Snyder started yelling at him and was half a second from attacking him," Xander said with a grin.

"Principal Snyder?" Joyce asked in disbelief.

"The one and only," Xander said. "He was so hard on us because he'd been told we were the cause of everything, but on seeing the mayor transform…"

"Evil Overlord's list?" Dawn guessed.

Xander grinned, instantly getting it. "Bingo. If they turn into a giant snake, they are the baddie."

"Hard to believe, I almost wish someone had filmed everything," Joyce said.

"The AV Club might have," Xander said and shrugged. "Anyway, I ordered everyone into formation, an army of vampires came out as the eclipse started and then as they fired, The Flash stole all the arrows and disarmed us."

"Buffy said he was completely mortified about that," Joyce offered.

"I'm still going to tease him about that when I run into him," Xander said. "Anyway, Superman punched the Mayor into the library and Giles set off the explosives, ending Mayor McSnake and we all got our diplomas."

"And then they left without you," Dawn said with a frown, clearly offended on his behalf.

"And then they grabbed all the mystically inclined Scoobs," Xander said, "which I am not, or rather wasn't. I'm working on it, but I'll get to that later."

"And then you just started on your road trip as if nothing had happened," Joyce said. "I think I'd have gotten quietly drunk at least. Well, at least that has to be less dangerous."

"Well… there's a bit more to my story," Xander said with a grin.

Typing By: Abyssal Angel

Beta By: Abyssal Angel, Mist of Shadows, and Kyrin Fireheart