NORWAY, EARLY AUGUST, 2002

The redone vampire got who he didn't want to speak to on the line, but made the best of it.

"Harris? Bloody grief. Look--don't hang up--you're not going to hang up. Oh. Buffy-Buffy said that you should let her deal with me, in her own way. That's that's good. Is she there? Oh. Lil Bit's Summer School Grad Ceremony. Only one ticket? For the best. Dawnie's prolly got nerves to spare. Err--she talk to you bout her and me and errr---she did. That's why she made you promise to scamper off, if I show. Will you? Well, pally, you beat the holy crap outta--OK, if it had been you and Dru somehow, yeah. You're--sorry?"

Spike put down the receiver. He breathed in, quite deliberately, despite not needing to.

"Yeah--I'm here. I just never expected to hear...Look, how's every little....she did? But you lot stopped her, right? Yeah, I guess the world is still here and all. Dumb question. So what else gives, cause' you seem like a whole different...."

For the next ten minutes, Spike heard Xander explain the incredible revelations of the month prior. Every up and down. Every change. Everything. Spike then reacted.

"Look, you stupid git! If you didn't want to tell me what's going on here, just tell me to bugger off and have done! Don't waste my time yanking it for all I'm worth. I thought you'd changed!"

Spike hung up, angrily.

"Wonder what dime-store romance he lifted all that from?"

====================================

ENGLAND

She heard the hello on the other end. Buffy. She probably thought it was Angel.

She heard the hello on the other end. Dawnie. She sounded very, very happy.

She heard the hello on the other end. Xander. He'd moved in with them. Like a shot.

She heard the hello on the other end. Giles, who'd ruined everything.

Her phone-time up, she walked back into the disguised hostel that was the coven's HQ. She was muttering as she went, and looking very pouty.

Its me! I and I alone am the one-truly true sister-person!"

A nightmare she'd hadn't created but had tried to hold back was now ascendant. For that nightmare was the truth. No spell. No curse. Just petty people who stole a baby that happened to be the Slayer's twin brother. Now that theft was all undone, and the truth known. Eventually, they would find out how she had known, but hadn't told them.

Willow cried herself to sleep that night.

===================================

A MENTAL HEALTH CLINIC NEAR THE OREGON STATE BORDER

The supervisor frowned.

"We have to release her. Today?"

The lawyer nodded.

"We hold her any past this, her attorneys will have us all on a platter. We're already facing a humongous settlement, and we've had to absorb all her long-term care costs. Don't even mention making her disappear. I am not facing inquiries twenty years from now, or whenever."

The supervisor stared at the patient's records in disgust.

"How could this happen twice? I mean, bad enough we made this mistake in the spring of 98, and didn't even catch it til late September of that year. But she comes to visit two years later, and our late friend manages to pull it off again!? Didn't the doctors think that the sudden vanishing of an inoperable brain tumor was a clue? Thank God she's finally dead, that's all I can say."

The lawyer shrugged.

"But she did her damage. And she'll do it again, despite being in the ground. When her family learns of all this---oy."

"Yeah--oy. The one daughter will go ballistic. She's not a fan of our services."

Walking together, they saw that the former patient had been cleaned up, and was wearing clothes that looked like those she'd arrived in, almost exactly two years ago.

The rather attractive middle-aged woman had her arms folded. She spoke her impatience with a single word.

"Well?"

The supervisor then said words that rivaled Giles talk with Xander, a month before, in terms of what it would do to the family of Buffy Summers.

"Joyce, you're free to go."

TBC......Duh! :)