The Gang all eventually found their way to the kitchen where they sat for a while drinking tea and feeling awkward. Surprisingly Buffy had no inclination to cry again, even though she had a feeling this was the definite 'last straw' in her relationship with her mother. She clung to the hope that when this was all sorted out she and Joyce would be able to sit down, talk things through rationally and everything would be all right between them. A small voice at the back of her mind told her that was unlikely, but she decided to ignore it for now.
"So, what do we do now?" Xander asked to break the silence.
"Establish what happened, and try to work out what caused all this," Giles said.
"In English, we research," Buffy added.
"Quite."
"Well, what do you remember Giles?" Willow asked.
He thought for a moment. "I remember waking up on Wednesday morning. I felt nauseous, so decided not to go to work and went back to sleep. When I next woke up I was in Las Vegas, ah, uh . . ."
"Ditto," Buffy said quickly to save him embarrassment.
"That can't be a coincidence," Willow said excitedly.
"Pardon?" Giles queried.
"You both felt ill, and then you have the blank." Willow clarified.
"Well, it gives us a starting point," Giles said, already mentally going through his texts trying to remember if there were any spells that sounded like this.
"And Buffy's already had a flashback," the red-head added without thinking.
"Willow!" Buffy hissed.
"Really?" Giles asked, interested. "Can you describe it?"
Buffy felt her face heating again and vowed to do something horrible to Willow later. Like putting a frog in her bed. "You, uh, don't want to know."
"Any information would be useful at this point." Giles insisted.
"Trust me, this is not something that's going to be useful."
"You never know."
"I know."
"Buffy, I really must insist. We have so little to go on, anything you know could help."
While she knew she going to be totally embarrassed, Buffy also knew that he was not going to give up. And a tiny part of her always enjoyed the way he blushed and stuttered when this stuff came up. So she stood on tip-toes and whispered a detailed account of the flashback in his ear. Giles' face grew redder by the moment, and when she finished and drew back she almost giggled at the look of total shock on his face.
"I n-need, to uh, to-to research, uh something," he stuttered, rushing from the room. And take a very cold shower he added to himself.
Buffy turned her back to Willow and Xander and began rooting through the fridge, suddenly feeling very hungry.
"What was that?" Xander asked.
"You don't want to know," Willow told him.
"What would make - oh! I did not need to know that. I really did not need to know that."
***When Giles had recovered his composure somewhat they gathered in the lounge to listen to the recording of the answer machine. It seemed to be their only contact with whatever had happened to them. Xander and Willow knew no more than they did and the note said no more than that they were going to Las Vegas.
As the recording played Buffy had a strange feeling of déjà vu, as though she had heard it before. Of course I've heard it before. It's my voice so I made it!
"Hi guys!" Buffy's voice called out happily. There was a lot of background noise, the murmur of people talking and the occasional harsh sound of a PA announcement, although it was all jumbled and they could not make out the actual words. The only thing that was clear was Buffy's voice. "I hoped you'd be back from classes by now, but you're not, so I'll leave a message. By the time you get this Giles and I'll probably be halfway to Vegas, but I don't want you to worry. This isn't a Hellmouth thing, it's way better. We're getting married! I'm so happy. Oooh! There's our flight being announced! Sweetie do you want to say anything?" Muttering. "Ok, we have to go. See ya Sunday! Bye! Love you all!" The machine cut off.
Giles could not believe how much that recording affected him. It was only brief, and the quality was not good, but she sounded so happy. Happier than he had ever known her to be. Whatever had been affecting them had at least given her that, even if it was only a short time.
"That's as much as we know," Willow said when she thought they were listening again. "Although, I did some searching on the Net and found the record of your marriage. You got married on Thursday the tenth of December at ten thirty in the morning. It's all legal and everything."
Two days ago. They had been married for two day. Wow, thought Buffy, rubbing the ring. I'm a married woman.
***
Late that night they finally all went to bed. The research was going nowhere and they were all tired. Giles walked heavily into his room, rubbing his aching head . . .
** She stood before him, clad only in one of his shirts. She was beautiful, with her golden hair loose around her shoulders and the sunlight from the window lighting it up so it looked like a halo. Her smile was gentle and so full of love it made his heart ache.
"I'll always love you," she said softly.
His emotions choked him, so he answered her the only way he could. He swept her into his arms and kissed her passionately. She returned the kiss with equal fervour and began running her hands up and down his bare back . . .**
Giles was standing again in the middle of his room. It felt darker and emptier than it ever had before now that he had that image of his sunlit Slayer burned into his mind. He knew it was going to be impossible to sleep here, so he picked up a blanket and went downstairs.
*finis*