Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Since I have already stolen Drogyn and hopefully given him a better death than Joss did; you won’t be all that surprised that I am playing with the Angel timeline. I’m just borrowing one more character. But I promise to give him back in the same condition I got him in.
 
Dialog taken from “No Place Like Home” by Doug Petrie. Dialog taken from Triangle, written by Jane Espenson
 
Many thanks to my beta No_Promises. The wonderful banner is by 3hours.

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Joyce had managed to fall asleep in the car and Dawn was keeping her promise to be quiet. They were making good time; Spike had pushed the stolen car up to 80 mph once they hit the highway traffic being light. Wes was standing on the sidewalk as Spike pulled up next to him. Dawn rolled down the window, “Hi Wes!”

“Hello Dawn, Spike if you could pull the car into the parking structure? I think the fewer people that see my guests the better.”

The quiet when the engine was shut off woke Joyce. “Oh, are we here already?”

“Yup, just pulled up.” Dawn bounced out of the car.

“Let’s get these bags inside.” Spike grabbed the bag with the clothes and made his way to the elevator Dawn, Joyce and Wes following. Joyce looked around the apartment carefully noting that there was a small second bedroom that would suit Dawn. It was also surprisingly clean and neat for a bachelor apartment.

“Joyce you can place your things in the master bedroom and Dawn you can have the smaller one. I shall sleep on the couch during your stay.” Wes informed them.

Spike winced at the look on Joyce’s face when she realized what he and Buffy had done. Visions of a fire axe had Spike bracing for flight. “’Ta mate, got a long drive back.” The vampire used all his supernatural speed and ran out of the apartment and down the stairs not wanting to wait for the elevator. Within a minute he was back in the car and on the street heading towards the highway.

By time Joyce walked to the front door the vampire was nowhere to be seen. Unable to vent her frustrations on him she turned her ire on Wesley. Carefully closing the door she marched over to the former watcher. “What exactly did you mean I would be staying here?”

“Buffy and I talked this afternoon. She mentioned you have been having health problems and she wished for you to be seen by a doctor that, as she put it, hadn’t been mojo’d. If anyone like Angel or your ex-husband were to see Dawn it would look unseemly for you to have sent her to LA by herself. We could come up with no good explanation for Dawn to be here in my home by herself. This way we have a cover story, one that has the benefit of being true. You are here for medical testing. Testing that for one reason or another you cannot receive at home. You brought your youngest daughter with you since your oldest is busy with college and much too young to care for a teenager.”

“They didn’t discuss it with me at all.”

“Would you have agreed?”

“Well…” Joyce let out a deep sigh. “Yes, eventually, but not without an argument first.”

“Precisely, that is why we did things this way. Now I have set up a doctor’s appointment for you in the morning. Buffy mentioned you had a portable machine taking readings. She said she would pack it for you.”  Wes asked Dawn to go through the bag and look for the machine. Dawn handed the equipment to Wes and he sat at the table with an assortment of tools arrayed before him. Picking up a screw driver he started to remove a plate on the bottom of the machine.

“What are you doing?” Dawn asked as she peeked over his shoulder.

“There are tags on medical equipment detailing what hospital it belongs to. While I trust the physician we will be seeing tomorrow I do not want to arouse any suspicions if it can be helped. While removing the tag might raise a few suspicions we do not want the doctor to call Sunnydale. By now Kaledena has more than likely infiltrated the hospital staff. A phone call from LA inquiring about Joyce Summers’ will make your trip here a moot point and place both you and this city in grave danger. While I have no doubt that Kaledena will not be satisfied with her domination of Sunnydale hopefully we will be able to stop her before her influence can spread further.”

The next few days went by quickly for Dawn and Joyce. Wesley true to his word had found a doctor who could be trusted to keep a confidence. She was currently undergoing a variety of tests based on the results of the portable EEG machine. The initial diagnosis of migraines had been discarded. At this point the doctor was inclined to think Joyce might be suffering from seizures. They were currently running an MRI to determine if there was an underlying cause for them.

Dawn in the meantime was spending most of her days locked in Wes’ apartment reading dusty old tomes. “Ugh! I can’t believe I bugged Buffy about letting me research! This is soo boring!”

“I should think that stopping an apocalypse is hardly boring Dawn.”

“This is worse than homework!”

“Dawn, while I can see why this wouldn’t be an entertaining way to spend your time. Unfortunately it is imperative that we located the ritual and perfect it if we are to have any chance of stopping Kaledena.”

“Sheesh, I get it already.”

                                                                                                                                 §

Clem had found a small cavern to call home for now not to far from where the gang was staying. During the day he would stop in and talk with everyone but as night fell he would take to the sewers trying to gather up enough friendly demons to help the slayer.

Tara and Anya were watching Buffy and Spike closely. After Anya’s talk about tension relief to Buffy, the blond had been avoiding Spike since he got back from the trip to LA. “I give it a week.”

“Give what a week Anya?”

“Before they have orgasms together of course.”

Tara was about to tell the ex-demon that she was wrong when Spike walked into the room wearing only his jeans. He had obviously just come from the shower, in one hand he held his t-shirt and the other was using a towel to dry his hair. Water droplets glistened on his bare chest. Buffy blushed and quickly looked away. The words popped out of her mouth before she realized it. “Two weeks at least.”  

                                                                                                                               §

“Spike we can’t break into any stores.”

“Slayer we need more food for you humans an’ I’m runnin’ outta blood. Gettin’ low on candles too. Can’t exactly go shopping during the day now can we?”

                                                                                                                              §

Anya leaned closer to Tara. “You might be right, she is stubborn isn’t she? She and Riley weren’t a good pair. He was always jealous of her strength. Spike’s just a strong and is very nice to look at.”

“He is good looking.”

“Tara!”

“What? I’m gay Anya not blind. He looks like those Greek statues in my art history book.”

The two women started giggling when they noticed that Buffy was having a hard time tearing her gaze from Spike’s well-muscled chest.
Spike was smirking; he had heard the whispered conversation between the witch and the ex-demon. Deciding to make a show of it, he slowly ran the towel down his torso as he made his way over to them. “So you ladies need any supplies while the slayer and I hit the stores tonight?”

Anya couldn’t stop looking at Spike. “I miss Xander! I haven’t had any orgasms in days!”

“Anya!” Buffy blushed at the outspoken girl’s words. Tara and Spike just started laughing.

Getting herself under control first Tara spoke up. “We’ll make a list for you Spike. There are a few things I need. Willow keeps sending out spells looking for us. I need to make the wards stronger, I’ll need some ingredients.”

                                                                                                                                    §

“Argh! All the spells I cast keep bouncing back! The locator spells are worthless. The whole town keeps lighting up!”

“What does that mean?”

“It means Xander that Tara has managed to place a spell that blurs their location. We are unable to pinpoint where they are hiding. But it also means that they must still be in town.” Giles explained.

“Okay so what do we do now?”

Giles stood and walked over to his book case, after searching through the volumes on the shelf he pulled one dusty tome down and quickly flipped through the pages. “I think we shall have to try this one. It’s a Dissolution Spell. It breaks down magical barriers.”

“Great let’s get started!” Xander was eager to find the rest of their group. Kaledena had promised if they were successful in locating Buffy and Dawn Xander would become her Sergeant at Arms, helping the former PTB to prepare the battle plan for her takeover of the world.

“We will need supplies and Willow will have to be at full strength. I’m afraid we will have to wait until tomorrow to cast this spell.”

                                                                                                                             §

“Joyce, I have examined your MRI and I am happy to tell you that there does not appear to be a tumor that could be the cause of your symptoms. There is some mild scarring in your right temporal lobe however.”

“I was in a car accident in my twenties and I had a concussion last year.” Joyce remembered the blow that Faith had given her while in Buffy’s body.

“The fact that the injuries occurred so long ago doesn’t affect my diagnosis. The brain injury actually helped confirm it. When you combine those findings with the results of the EEG the only diagnosis that fits is Epilepsy.”

“Epilepsy? But I haven’t been having seizures.”
 
“Actually those headaches you have been having are seizures. You have Simple Partial Seizures. In rare cases, the brain wave changes seen on the EEG show that a headache can actually be the only symptom of a seizure. If you have a seizure disorder, you are twice as likely to have migraine headaches. And adding worries about your health to the everyday stress of life may even increase your chances of having an uncomfortable tension headache leading to more seizures.”
 
“So what do we do now?” Joyce thought that if the doctor knew exactly what kind of stress she had been under lately he might just decide that she was crazy instead.
 
“I am going to start you on a medication to help control the seizures. It will take some time for it to work. We will have to adjust the medications and dosage quite often until we reach a combination and blood level that controls them.” The doctor took a prescription pad out of his desk drawer and started writing. “I am prescribing you two different medications for now. The first is Tegretol. It is the most common treatment for controlling seizures. We can adjust the dose as necessary. The second medication is Ativan. Take this only if you are actively having a seizure. It is a quick acting drug that will stop an active seizure. Eventually we should be able to control your condition with just a daily medication but until then keep these with you at all times.”
 
Joyce placed both prescriptions in her purse. After spending an additional half hour asking questions Joyce left the office feeling much better about what was going on.
 
                                                                                                                              §

Tara sat on the floor of the main room in the cavern, a four pointed star surrounding her.  There were four candles one on each point of the star. One for each of the elements, brown for the earth, red for fire, white for wind and blue for water. There was a sucrose crystal, in the center, its many colors creating a rainbow of prisms on the walls in the candle light. Four sticks of Frankincense incense burning next to each candle. Two small bowls sat next to the blonde Wicca. One held holy water while the other bowl was full of herbs that Spike and Buffy had brought back from their shopping last night. Tara was casting the strongest protection spell she could think of and the ingredient list was extensive.

                                                                                                                               §

“Wow! This is some list Tara. Are you sure we need all this?”

“Willow keeps trying to find us. I can f- feel her testing the spell I used. She’s strong st- stronger than me.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I am.”

The super beings left the cave with a long list of things the group needed. “That’s odd.”

“What?”

Buffy lowered her voice, “There’s like no demons around. I figured with Kaledena sending out hunting parties the tunnels would be full of demons.”

“They’re here slayer. Just hiding from you. Bad enough that bint has the humans on the warpath they don’t feel like fighting you right now too.”

“Okay that makes sense in a Hellmouthy kind of way. How are we going to get all this stuff back? We need food plus the spell stuff and blood for you.”

With a deep sigh Spike replied. “Slayer, if the demons in town don’ wanna fight you right now what makes you think they’re gonna scarper off with our stuff? That’s a sure fire way to brass you off.”

“So what we’re just gonna leave all of it in the tunnels?”

“Yeah, unless you have a better idea?”

There was silence after that remark having no other idea Buffy chose silence instead of admitting Spike was right. Luckily they found that most of the ingredients Tara needed for the spell could be found in the grocery store. They did have to make a stop at a local florist for the Angelican Root, Bramble Leaves, Juniper Berries and Thistle which needed to be blessed. But the carob, cumin, salt, comfrey and fennel seed were in the spice isle at the store. A quick stop at the church where Buffy got her supply of holy water and some fast talking had a priest blessing the thistle and a bottle of holy water.

The only problem they encountered was when they went to get blood for Spike. The butcher he usually used had stopped carrying blood. The reason soon became clear as the two looked around the store. “Balls.”

“What’d you find Spike?”

The vampire held up a flyer, in large letters across the top was an announcement for a meet and greet with Kaledena. The date on the bottom told the two that it had been held a few days ago. “He must be under her control. By now the whelp, Red and Giles have told the bint I’m with you. Probably told the shop keep to stop carrying blood, trying to starve me out.”

“What are we going to do? She could have gotten to them all by now? You need blood.”

“Let’s go see the other shops ‘fore you panic alright?” They had better luck at the next store. Apparently this store owner hadn’t fallen to Kaledena yet. Grabbing all the blood in the refrigerator the two made their way to a local hardware store.

“Grab a few coolers, we’ll stop at the liquor store an’ grab some ice.”

“What happens when the ice melts? Won’t the blood go bad?”

“Yeah, but if I ‘member right there’s an underground stream not to far from the cave, was on the maps. Soddin’ minions almost tunneled into it. Between the two of us we should have no problem diggin’ our way to it. Water should be cold enough to keep the blood from going bad. ‘Sides if we can get to it we can store some better food, fresh stuff for you and Glinda and demon girl.”

                                                                                                                                §

Taking a deep cleansing breath Tara started sprinkling the herbs over the candle flames. “Terrae, ventus, ignis et aqua. Cunctari quattuor diis, imploramus vobis. Defenderent nos ab illis qui intelliguntur nobis nocere.” Taking a handful out of the bowl she let the mixture slip from her hand in a steady stream into the bowl of holy water. “Earth, wind, fire and rain. Linger four gods, we implore you. Defend us from those who mean us harm.” Repeating the chant four times she waited until the last flake of herbs landed in the bowl of holy water. “Fiat voluntas tua, petimus a vobis praemium. This boon we ask of you may thy will be done.” The flames on each of the candles flared high, colors exploding from the crystal, everyone in the room could feel a presence move through them. Tara slumped over exhausted from the spell casting. “I, I think it worked.”