CHAPTER TWO
Buffy stood in her mother’s empty hospital room and cried. Ben put a sympathetic arm around her shoulder.
“I don’t understand how this could have happened.” Buffy sobbed.
“We’ll find her, she’s too ill to have got far.” He said, then mentally kicked himself, as he felt Buffy wince. “Have you checked her house?”
“My friend’s doing that, now.” Buffy said, blotting her tears with the tissue that Ben had given her. Wesley had gone to check Buffy’s old home and had promised to wait there in case Joyce showed up.
“I’m sure the police will have her back here in no time.” Ben said, in a reassuring voice.
“The police?” Buffy asked, incredulously.
“Of course. Your God-mother’s tumour has obviously unbalanced her mind, she needs to be brought back here for her own good. They’ll be very gentle with her.”
“She’s done nothing wrong…”
“No, of course not but she needs that operation urgently…”
* * * * *
Wesley saw Buffy’s mother at the same moment that she saw the police car parked outside her house. He opened the door of his rented car.
“Mrs Summers? I’m a friend of Buffy’s, do you want to get in the car? The police are waiting at your house.”
“You promise you won’t take me back to the hospital?”
“Not if you don’t want to go. I’ll drive you away from the police and we can talk.”
Wesley followed Joyce’s directions and they parked in a quiet alley, near the gallery.
“You’re British but you’re not Buffy’s young man, are you?” Joyce said, hesitantly. “I can almost see him in my head, bleach blonde, bad boy…”
“Spike.” Wesley supplied.
“William.” Joyce said and Wesley nodded.
“That would be the name on his birth certificate.” He confirmed.
“You know them both, they’re still together?”
“Oh, yes and very much in love.”
“And do you know about…?”
“The vampires? Yes, I know all about them but…”
“You want to know why I left the hospital?”
“Yes.” Wesley said, nodding.
“You know about witches and spells and things?” Joyce sounded embarrassed to be asking.
“Yes.” Wesley said, blushing. “I’m sorry to say that my father was responsible for changing your memories - the memories of every human who had contact with Buffy.” He looked down at his lap, too ashamed to meet her eyes.
“Your father…? Are you really a friend of Buffy’s?” Joyce sounded panicky, now.
“Yes.” Wesley said, firmly. “She saved me and I hate what my father did to her, to you…” He was close to tears, remembering the events in the cellar.
“So, you’ll help me?”
“I can’t reverse the spell, only my father could have done that and he never would have. He’s dead now.” He added, surprised at how easily those words came.
“Buffy didn’t… did she?”
“No and neither did Spi…er William.”
“Well, that’s a relief. I like your sweater, handmade?” Joyce asked, unexpectedly.
“Not by me.” Wesley stammered, blushing.
“Sorry.” Joyce said. It hadn't crossed her mind that he had knitted it but he obviously had and was ashamed of his talent. She had hoped for a little social chit-chat while she mentally prepared herself for a difficult conversation. Oh well, she thought, here goes.. “You need to know why I’m not going back to the hospital and why I need you to help me…”
* * * * *
Buffy was sleeping. She'd spent the day wandering all over Sunnydale, looking for her mom; checking back at the hospital every couple of hours, until she'd finally fallen asleep in the chair in her mom's room.
Buffy was dreaming. There was a little girl in the dream, she was holding a small wooden box and singing a strange little song which made Buffy think of the song in 'Nightmare on Elm Street' - childish but menacing. The girl was standing in Buffy's mom's hospital room, staring at Buffy. Buffy opened her eyes with a silent intake of breath.
'You OK, Kitten?' Spike asked, in her head.
'Slayer dream.' Buffy replied. 'Just what I don't need, right now.'
'Let the other slayer handle it, your mum's more important.'
'I think me having the dream means I'll have to help. Besides, mom's somewhere in Sunnydale, if something's threatening the town it could threaten her.'
'Yeah. Been a while since Wesley checked in, you think he's asleep on the job?'
'I'll call him. He looked so guilty when I took him that double-meat burger and coffee last night. I'm sure he blames himself for what his father did.'
'Do you really think your mum will go back to the house?'
'I don't know but I'd rather Wesley brought her back here than the cops.'
'Yeah.'
Buffy was speed dialing Wesley's phone, as she 'spoke' to Spike. She could hear it ringing and then the click that said he'd picked up and then... silence.
" ." Buffy tried to say Wesley's name but only silence came out of her mouth.
'What's wrong, pet?' Spike reacted to her feeling of shock.
'I can't talk. My voice is gone.'
'Find a doctor.'
'It's to do with the dream... 'You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard' ..Some kind of spell, maybe; stop us calling for help?'
' 'They need to take seven' Seven what? I feel so helpless, stuck at home while you're in danger.'
'I'll be alright, I'm in the mood to kick some demon butt.'
'That's my girl.'
* * * * *
Wesley sat in the hired car, pointlessly watching the Summers' residence. Whatever happened, Buffy couldn't find out what he had done; she had to believe that her mum was still in Sunnydale. He idly wondered if Buffy or Spike would kill him for this and he found that he didn't much care. After Joyce had spoken to him, calmly and rationally laying out her reasons for not returning to the hospital, he had come up with a plan. He had found out just what he was really capable of. Bluffing Buffy when she'd brought him his burger and coffee had been the hardest part - much harder than doing the spell on Joyce - he had been sure Buffy would see his guilt but if she had, she'd misinterpreted it.
His phone rang. Buffy.
" ." Wesley had no voice.
He panicked. Was this a side effect of the spell he'd done? He decided that the best thing he could do would be to go back to the magic supplies shop that he and Joyce had visited yesterday. Maybe they could help.
* * * * *
'The newscaster on TV said it was an outbreak of laryngitis - as if - but it's official, the whole town's affected.' Buffy silently told Spike.
'So what now, wait for these 'gentlemen' to show up?'
'I guess; it's hard to worry about anything else, with my mom gone.'
'How's Wesley doing?'
'He went to the local magic shop as soon as he realized his voice was gone but there was nothing he could do. The shop owner said - well, wrote - that it was too powerful for one person to fix.'
'He's not met you, obviously.'
'I just don't see how slayage can bring back our voices.'
'Maybe when whoever caused it is dead...'
'Yeah. Lets hope.'
* * * * *
Buffy - using Spike's skills - carefully picked the lock on what used to be her own front door. Being bonded to a bad-boy vampire was so useful. The police that had been watching the place, had left hours ago; more important things to do than watch out for Buffy's mom. People were scared and some people became violent when they were scared...
Buffy's plan was simple; Wesley should stay at her mom's house, in case Joyce came back, now that the police were gone. He was to keep the curtains closed, so no one would know he was there and Buffy would continue to comb Sunnydale for her mom and also for these mysterious 'gentlemen'. Buffy wrote on her 'message board' - at least one enterprising soul was making money out of this - that she would return to the house at dawn, for a couple of hours sleep.
After Buffy had left, Wesley - true to his watcher training - went into research mode. Plugging in his laptop, he emailed Dalton and together they pooled their knowledge...
* * * * *
Tara was busy; she was sure that this was caused by magic - no way would a whole town lose its voice by natural means - she meant to find out what had happened and try to fix it. She was fairly certain that she couldn't fix it on her own, so she was doing a locator spell to find any other practitioners in Sunnydale. The so-called Wicca group had been a bust - the phrase 'empowering lemon sponge' was something she would laugh over for years to come - but the local magic shop did good business, so there must be other witches - real ones.
The spell she was using would light up her map of Sunnydale with different colours, these would indicate both the power of the spell-caster and whether they used their power for good or evil. Her results were interesting.
She was surprised at how few genuine witches were in the area - of course the shop sold a lot by mail order and the owner was always saying how much he made out of 'new-agers'. Of the genuine ones, the most powerful seemed to be the most evil - a large cluster in one location made her wonder if these were responsible for the town's current problem - she'd stay away from those. Finally, she spotted what she was looking for and wrote down the address...
* * * * *
Wesley - together with Dalton - had found out what was going on and he'd typed up a thorough report for Buffy. It had just finished printing out when there was a knock at the door. Wesley opened it, expecting Buffy and found instead a nervous looking girl. She held up her message board.
'Please let me in, I think I'm being followed.'
Wesley nodded and closed the door behind the girl.
* * * * *
Buffy tapped on the door of her mom's house, just before dawn and Wesley let her in.
'Anything?' He wrote.
'Fought one but it wouldn't die. Had to run and hide.' Buffy wrote. She saw Tara, dozing on the couch and looked questioningly at Wesley.
'Tara. Witch. Wants to help.' He wrote, completely leaving out the many interesting things that he and Tara had 'talked' about. He handed Buffy the computer print-out which detailed how to kill the Gentlemen.
'First I have to run away and hide, now I have to scream. I'm turning into the blonde girl in the horror movie.' Buffy 'said' to Spike.
'Which movie?'
'All of them.'
'Yeah, the monsters have it in for the blonde girl.' Buffy could 'hear' Spike's chuckle in his 'voice'.
Wesley tapped her arm.
'Tara thinks she knows where they spend the day.' He had written on his board.
* * * * *
Buffy stood in the shower, washing brain matter off herself.
'This is becoming a habit.' She told Spike.
'There's no more danger?'
'Not from the 'Gentlemen'. Why, what are you hiding?' She sensed he was holding something back.
'Your mum's here. In England, with me.'
* * * * *
"Talk to me, Wesley." Buffy said, trying not to get angry.
"It was what she wanted, she said it was the only way I could make amends for what my father did. She doesn't want the operation, she doesn't want to forget you."
"But... she'll die without treatment." Buffy's tears were flowing now.
"M-m-m-maybe not," Tara said. "Your mom's t-t-tumour was caused because of magic, working against nature. It should be c-c-curable with a healing spell."
"Why didn't you tell me that?" Buffy demanded, glaring at Wesley.
"I didn't know. I don't know that much about magic. The spell I did on your mother..."
"You did a spell on her?"
"It was only a glamour. The police were watching for her, so I made her look like me. She took my passport and my credit card and flew to England."
'S'true, pet. She knocked on the door looking like Wesley, took off an amulet and turned into your mum. Gave me quite a shock.'
'How is she?'
'The headaches are bad, even though she says they're not but she won't take anything for them. She's remembering all the time, now.'
'I need to get home...'
'Wesley will have to stay there, for a bit. We've mailed his passport and card to a friend of your mum, in L.A. He'll have to go there to pick them up.'
"What do we need for this healing spell?" Buffy asked, looking at Wesley and Tara.
"I c-c-can do it from here, I th-th-think. I'll need help." She looked shyly at Wesley, who nodded. "And I'll n-n-need a connection to your mom, hair maybe?"
Buffy ran upstairs to her mom's room and brought back her hair brush.
* * * * *
'How much longer?' Buffy worried, inside her head.
'As long as it takes, pet. You can't rush these things. They're not working against nature, though, so there shouldn't be consequences.'
'How do you mean, consequences?'
'Magic usually comes with a price, the darker it is, the higher the price. Your mum had to pay part of it.'
'RatBastardWatcher paid quite high, though.'
'Yeah. His death should make this spell easier.'
'Let's hope so...'
Pet, I think something's happening...'
Buffy closed her eyes and opened her link with Spike all the way. Suddenly she was in their house in England, looking out of Spike's eyes and seeing her mom, suffused in a golden glow. There was a smile of pure bliss on her face and she looked healthier than Buffy could ever remember seeing her look.