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Chapter 2 – Looking for Answers


“Giles?” Buffy asked for the third time, looking at her Watcher before gesturing for something to write with.

Giles didn’t have the heart to let her know that he could hear her as he walked over to his desk. Returning after a moment, he handed her some paper and a pen.

‘Gentlemen?’

He closed his eyes at the written question, unable to look at the hope in her eyes that the Gentlemen had stolen the town’s voices again. Taking a deep breath, Giles shook his head.

“Buffy,” he started, sighing when she studied his lips carefully, her brow furrowed in concentration. Giles realized this would be easier if he could get this out without any confusion. Slowly leaning forward, he took the paper and pen from her and quickly scrawled something underneath the note.

Holding her breath, Buffy read the question.

‘Do you remember fighting a demon?’

Buffy nodded hesitantly, unsure of what was happening and where Giles was going with this.

‘Do you remember what happened?’

Buffy thought for a moment before her eyes widened. She frantically gestured to her head, covering her ears, shaking her head back and forth. It took only a matter of seconds before she seemed to realize what happened. Giles watched as she began to withdraw into herself.

Gasping for air, Buffy shook her head in disbelief, sinking into the back of the couch.

“You can hear me?” she asked, tearing up when Giles nodded.

Buffy jumped up from the couch, pacing the room and trying to keep her tears from spilling over as she worried her bottom lip.

‘This can’t be happening,’ she thought, running her hands through her hair, trying to do anything to keep her mind occupied. Shaking her head back and forth as if she was trying to expel her thoughts…or trying to get her hearing back.

“How is this possible?” she asked, finally turning back to Giles, who was already flipping through his books, wanting to give her an answer to that very question.

“I’m trying to find out,” he replied, making sure to look directly at Buffy and speak slowly so she could read his lips.

Buffy studied him carefully, nodding when she comprehended what he said.

“B-but we can fix it, right?” she asked with the apprehension clear in her voice. “I-I mean…it’s only temporary?”

“I don’t know,” Giles said, never looking up.

Buffy didn’t need to read his lips or even look at him to know what he said. She thought back to the fight, remembering a particularly brutal punch to the face. Reaching up and gently running a hand over her tender cheek, she cringed in pain. It was already beginning to swell, and Slayers weren’t supposed to swell. They bleed, they get broken bones, but they don’t swell.

Nearly collapsing onto the couch, Buffy looked at her Watcher, a heartbreaking expression marring her features. “How can I be the Slayer if I’m deaf?” she asked in a whisper. “I won’t know if something is behind me, I won’t…”

She trailed off in a choked sob as Giles looked at her with tears in his eyes. ‘She’s going to need someone strong enough to help her.’



Spike poured himself a tall glass of blood before mixing in some burba weed. Staring into the crimson liquid, his mind wandered as he took a long swallow. He couldn’t help but wonder how the Slayer was doing.

“Why do I care about her?” he muttered to himself, confused.

Nevertheless, his thoughts continued to drift to the blonde girl, genuinely perplexed by what happened tonight. It wasn’t exactly a normal occurrence for the Slayer to lose one of her senses. He’d never heard of anything like it, and he’d been around for over a century.

Sitting down in his chair, Spike didn’t even bother to turn on his TV. ‘What does it mean when the girl who needs each one of her senses to work in the highest capacity doesn’t have that anymore?’ Spike wondered, running his teeth along his bottom lip and staring at the back wall of his crypt.



“There it is!” Giles yelled excitedly.

Buffy looked up, unable to hear him, of course, but seeing that he had leapt from his chair in excitement. She waited anxiously, being unusually quiet for a change as Giles read the passage in his book.

The frown on his face did not serve to dissuade Buffy from any of her fears. Giles tossed the book on the coffee table before taking his glasses off and frantically cleaning them.

Hesitantly picking up the book, Buffy decided it would be easier to read for herself than trying to interpret whatever Giles would have communicated to her.

‘Tacora demon- preternaturally strong- intelligent’

Buffy continued to read, not seeing anything that would be helpful. The demon didn’t have venom that could cause an unusual reaction. Nothing that explained what was happening to her.

Slamming the book shut, Buffy threw it across the room. She didn’t know if it hit anything, since she was swimming in a sea of nothing. Dropping her head into her hands, she breathed deeply, trying to ward off the tears that were threatening to spill over.

Feeling a gentle touch to her shoulder, Buffy looked up into Giles’ kind eyes as he sat down across from her.

“I think,” he began slowly. “I think when the demon hit you…it must have been powerful enough to make you lose your hearing.”

The miserable look on the young woman’s face almost had him in tears, as well. It wasn’t much of an explanation, but it was the only one he had.

Buffy knew that she had someone sitting less than two feet away, but she’d never felt so alone in her life. “How am I going to get through this? How can I…”

She trailed off as Giles’ mind wandered. He would have to be very careful in how he arranged his plan.





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