Buffy gave up searching a little after dawn herself. It was at that point that she realized just how big a task searching the National Forest could be and knew they needed a better strategy if they were ever to find their missing friends. So she reversed course and where during the night she'd walked the Forest hoping to find Willow and Oz, now she ran. She needed to get home, explain the situation to her mother, get something to eat, a few hours sleep and they could try this again from another angle. All the while praying they could find them before something bad happened.

Joyce paced her living room, scared out of her mind because Buffy hadn't come home last night and terrified a demon had gotten her. When Buffy arrived home exhausted, dirty and upset, Joyce just grabbed her daughter and held her tight before demanding an explanation.

"What's going on, Buffy?! I've been worried sick!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't think to call, I just took off. Last night we were searching for a werewolf."

"A werewolf? Okay, vampires, demons, now werewolves. I should have expected it. Did you, what's the word, slay it?"

"No, werewolves aren't monsters, Mom. They're people with a condition that can be managed, if they know they have it. But there's a bigger problem, Mom." Buffy took her coat off and tossed it on the couch. "Oz and Willow didn't show up to help. Xander was scrying for werewolves and when he was told Willow and Oz didn't show up, he tried scrying for them. He couldn't find them."

"He couldn't - find them?" Joyce sat down as her knees went weak. "Are they - dead? Did the werewolf get them?"

"We think they might be werewolves." Buffy answered. "We think they ran across a werewolf and got bit. And if they were the werewolves in the National Forest than they woke up this morning not knowing how they got there or how far away they are. They may be lost in the Forest, Mom. Xander and I spent all night searching in different ways. I gave up just after dawn, it's so big." Buffy's exhausted state had her near tears. "My best friend is lost and she needs me to find her and I'm just so tired and scared." Joyce held her tight, feeling helpless herself. After a few minutes she gently grasped Buffy's shoulders and pulled back to look at her daughter.

"I can't do anything about Willow myself right now, but I can take care of you, Buffy. Go take a shower, get cleaned up. I'm going to make you something to eat and you're going to get some sleep. I'm going to call Mr. Giles, it apparently didn't occur to him to call me either and that's not acceptable. I'll be sure to tell him that. Go on, get cleaned up, by the time you get back down here, I'll have something ready for you."

"Okay, I don't need a lot of sleep, Mom. Slayers just don't, but a few hours and then we can try finding them again." Buffy trudged upstairs where she found Dawn standing just off to the side of the stairs.

"I didn't mean to listen, I was worried about you too." Dawn admitted. "When I heard you come home I was gonna yell at you for scaring us. They're alright, right?" Dawn asked. "Willow's like me, we both like school and she's teaching me chess and she's alright, right?" Dawn demanded, almost desperate for an answer.

"She has to be, none of us will accept anything less than Willow being alright. Oz too. We're not giving up." Buffy promised and now it was her turn to hold her little sister and try to calm her down. "Go down and get some breakfast, I'll be down as soon as I get cleaned up."

"Okay. They're alright and we're going to find them." Dawn said firmly, needing to believe it as much as Buffy did. She headed down to help with breakfast, it was something to do, to keep them occupied and not overthinking. Joyce was just getting off the phone after a terse conversation with Giles when Dawn entered the kitchen. "I heard, Mom. What can I do to help? The ten year old asked. "I'm scared too." Joyce held her baby for a moment, realizing, this was their life now. Superpowers and demons and werewolves and Magic. How had she gone so long without seeing it?

"Set the table." She said briskly. "I'm going to make eggs, sausage and toast. A filling breakfast. We're going to find them." She assured Dawn. "We're all too damn stubborn to give up "

Dawn smiled half-heartedly. "Yeah, we are, aren't we?" She moved to the cabinet and pulled down glasses and took them to the table, before returning for silverware and plates. She wasn't watching where she was going, her mind on Willow and Oz and trying to think of a way to find them. She tripped and dropped the plates and heard the distinctive sound of one of them breaking. "Damn it!" She swore. "I'm sorry, Mom." She crouched down to pick up the plates. The two intact ones she set on the table, the broken one she picked up separately. "Ow!" She exclaimed as she cut her finger.

"Dawn? Are you alright?" Joyce turned from the stove toward Dawn. Just in time to see a wavery pool spread out on the floor at Dawn's feet where a drop of her blood had hit the floor. Between one blink and the next, Dawn was gone, swallowed by the pool that blinked out after she disappeared into it.

Joyce's terrified scream reached Buffy upstairs and had her bolting down them. What had happened now?