Chapter Summary: Buffy, Dawn, Giles and Spike are at the hospital awaiting Joyce's surgery. Nothing ever goes as planned on the Hellmouth, and that goes now more than ever. Will Giles stake Spike on sight or will he realize just how welcome Spike is to the Summer's girls?

Family and friends surrounded Joyce Summers while they awaited her surgery. Dawn was curled alongside Joyce on the bed. Giles sat in a chair on the other side of the bed. Buffy stood behind Dawn with her hand on her sister's shoulder.

Giles rubbed his hand down his face nervously. After the "band candy" incident he and Joyce had briefly considered dating each other. Various aspects of their lives and schedules kept them apart in the beginning. They'd decided that perhaps it would be better if they simply remained friends. No matter how many times he reminded himself of that fact, he still felt a stronger connection to Joyce. He wasn't here simply to support Buffy. He was here to support Joyce directly. He needed her to know that he cared for her. Now wasn't the time to spring more surprises on her, but Giles vowed that he would have a serious talk with her when this was all over.

Buffy's eyes darted from her mother to the door. She felt his presence almost as soon as he'd entered the hospital. His presence always screamed Master Vampire to her, but underneath that she felt so much more. Her senses felt a distinctive trace that told her Spike was nearby. It was a feeling that she'd only ever felt once before, yet this sensation was even stronger than what she sensed when Angel was nearby. She knew that any second Spike was going to step through the door.

Although the knock was soft, it echoed around the hospital room like a gong sounding. The four occupants of the room, each in their own private worlds, turned their attention to the slowly opening door.

A platinum blonde head peaked through the crack of the door and opened it further. " 'Ello, Joyce." Spike grinned at the woman in the bed. He'd only moved into the room two steps before he was face to face with an angry Giles.

"I'm here to see how my favorite cocoa buddy is doing." Spike smiled brightly at Joyce. He tried to hide his fear at her paled complexion. 'Hold it together. We have to be strong and support our girls right now.' He looked up at Buffy with a smile on his face. His smile grew wider when he realized she was smiling back at him in joy to see him. That wasn't going to stop Rupert Giles' tirade though.

"Your presence is neither wanted or requested here, Spike." Giles wasn't going to let anything upset Joyce if he could help it. He doubted that Joyce would want the vampire around. He was about to find out how wrong he was.

Spike clenched his jaw, grinding his teeth together and sucking in his cheeks so they twitched. He uttered not a word, but he cast a pleading glance from Buffy to Joyce. He knew that they both wanted him here, but he didn't want to cause a fight either. He'd promised Buffy that he wouldn't argue with Giles. This wasn't starting off well.

Joyce raised her hand and settled it on Rupert's arm. "It's all right, Rupert." She smiled warmly at Spike. She then turned her gaze back to Giles'. "He is wanted here." She hugged Dawn tighter to herself. She knew that Dawn loved Spike, and there was something in Buffy's eyes that told her that she wanted him here too. Dawn had told Joyce that Buffy broke up with Riley. Although Joyce never approved of Angel, it had been for more reasons than just him being a vampire. She was willing to wait and see what might be between her daughter and Spike.

"You can't be serious, Joyce?" Giles gasped. He was confused about Joyce's attitude. He knew that Spike helped Joyce out from time to time at the gallery, but he always figured that it was only for pay. He had to admit that he'd walked into the Summer's kitchen a couple times in the middle of a cocoa session between Joyce and Spike. He looked up at Buffy to see if she had any objections to Spike's presence. When he saw none, he was even more confused than he was a few moments before.

"Quite serious, Rupert." Joyce squeezed Giles' arm in support. "Spike is always welcome in my home, and he's been by to visit a couple times already."

Buffy inhaled sharply. 'Spike has been here a couple times already? He came to check on my Mom when I wasn't here too?' She felt her heart swell in joy at this news. This would help to prove to the gang that Spike wasn't just spending time with Buffy at the hospital to get on Buffy's good side. He'd even come by when she wasn't around. "I didn't know you were here after you and I had been here yesterday evening."

Spike shifted his weight from one foot to another. He tried not to look nervous. If vampires could blush, he was sure that he would be. He hadn't intended for Buffy to find out about his other visits. It wasn't that he was trying to hide them from her, but he didn't want her to feel bad that he was here when she wasn't. "Yeah." He looked up at Giles. The shocked look on the Watcher's face made the smirk return to his own face. "I came by this morning for a little bit to see how she faired during the night."

"That ..." Giles removed his glasses and started to clean the lenses with a cloth he drew out from his pocket. "Interesting." He put his glasses back on and glanced at Spike. He sat back down in the chair next to the bed. "I appear to have been mistaken." He looked over at Joyce then back up at Spike. "My apologies."

Spike's mouth almost hung open. 'Did the Watcher just apologize?' His mind went blank to figure out what to say in return. "That's okay, Watcher. Easy mistake to make." He half laughed to cover his nervousness.

Buffy beamed at Spike and Giles. That went a lot easier than she thought it would. Leave it to her Mom to be able to diffuse any situation.

Spike walked around the bed. He leaned down and hugged Dawn. "Hey there, Nibblet." He pulled a little stuffed teddy bear out from inside his duster. It was a soft, fuzzy brown color. It wore a black leather jacket and leather pants. A small gold color chain adorned it's neck, and if you looked close enough you could see little white fangs had been sewn onto the sides of its mouth. "I saw it, and I couldn't resist the urge to pick it up for you."

Dawn squealed in joy. She jumped off the bed and hugged Spike tightly. "This is so cute." She leaned in to whisper into Spike's ear. "You put those fangs on it though, didn't you."

Spike smirked innocently at Dawn. "I'll never tell, Little Bit." He winked at her.

Buffy chuckled. Standing next to Spike, she'd heard what Dawn said. Dawn turned the bear to show Buffy. Buffy shook her head slightly. "He does look familiar. You'll have to think of a good name for him."

"I'm sure that I can come up with something good." Dawn giggled. She nestled the bear into the crook of her arm. She resumed her place lying next to Joyce.

"I'm not sweet. I'm ..." Spike blubbered, but one look at Joyce's teasing face and he just sighed. "Yeah, real softie. I'm still the Big Bad." He said sarcastically.

Buffy playfully slapped Spike on the arm. "Yeah, you Big Fluffy Bad you." She teased.

"Oy, Slayer. It's bad enough that Mum is calling me that." Spike groaned. "Don't need you to help her. My image is already shot to hell."

Buffy, Joyce and Dawn laughed. Even Giles couldn't resist a grin. He couldn't help but to notice how different Spike acted around just the Summer's women. He still seemed guarded at times, but there was an openness to his expressions that he didn't normally show around the other Scoobies.

Amidst the laughter Doctor Kriegel walked into Joyce's hospital room. He looked ragged and tired. It uplifted him some to see Joyce smiling, but he knew they weren't going to like his news.

Spike was the first to realize that the doctor was in the room. "Heya. What's up, Doc?" He chuckled. There was no way that he could resist that old joke.

Dr. Kriegel smiled. "Hello, Spike." He clasped his hands in front of him. "I'm afraid that I don't have good news this time."

Buffy inhaled sharply, Dawn whimpered and Giles squeezed Joyce's hand tighter. "Did the tests show something else, Doctor?" Giles was the first to recover his voice.

"Oh, goodness." Dr. Kriegel stuttered. "The tests are the same. I'm sorry. Nothing more is wrong with Joyce." Everyone in the room visibly relaxed and exhaled, even those that didn't really need to breathe in the first place. "There has been an incident in the hospital and much of our surgical equipment was vandalized or destroyed."

Buffy stepped around to the foot of the bed. "Is everyone okay? No one was attacked, were they?" She wondered what was going on. Had some demon gotten into the hospital?

"The staff is fine, just a few bruises." Dr. Kriegel sighed. "We've had an influx of mental patients lately, and we just don't have the proper staff for them all. We're in the process of sending who we can home or sending them to other hospitals." He shook his head back and forth. "Unfortunately several of the patients were able to break free and overpower the nurses station. They wreaked a bit of havoc through the surgical storage facilities and other places."

Joyce sighed. Her head was starting to throb again. She really hated being in the hospital in the first place. Now she was going to have to worry about loose mental patients? She rubbed her temples.

Spike noticed Joyce's motions. He picked up a glass to fill it with water. He picked up the small cup that had two pills in it. He handed her the glass and the pills.

Joyce smiled up at Spike. She swallowed the pills down with some water and lay back with her eyes closed.

"I don't mean to sound uncaring, but what does this mean for us?" Spike glanced down at Joyce then back up to the doctor.

"It means we can't do the surgery until at least tomorrow night." Dr. Kriegel placed his hand on Joyce's arm. "We don't want to take any chances that something might not be functioning properly. Also one of the machines that we need to monitor and perform the procedure was irreparably damaged. We need to get a replacement from LA. That will take until at least tomorrow."

"I'm so tired of this hospital." Joyce moaned out. "I swear that I'm going to go crazy in here myself if I have to wait much longer."

"I sympathize Joyce, but we don't want to take any chances on your health. The machines ..."

Joyce interrupted. "Damn it all. Just rip them up and shove them in the trash. You're all worthless anyways." Her voice was full of anger and loathing.

Everyone stared at Joyce, stunned. Joyce never swore, and her tone was nothing like the sweet woman that had always cared for everyone in their group.

"It's all right, Joyce." The doctor watched Joyce's face change back to a passive, yet pained one, a few seconds later. He let his gaze travel to everyone present. "The tumor is putting pressure on various parts of her brain. I expected this kind of a reaction as a possibility." He pressed the button for the nurse's station.

Two beeps echoed throughout the room followed by a soft female voice. "Nurse's station. How may I help you, Joyce?"

"Actually this is Dr. Kriegel. Please get a mild sedative for Mrs. Summers stat. Her surgery has been postponed, and I want her resting as much as possible."

"Thank you." Dr. Kriegel looked back down at Joyce. "You need to sleep as much as possible Joyce. I'm going to give you something to help with that." He turned to the rest of them. "Once she is asleep, it would be best if you all leave until tomorrow morning."

Joyce opened her eyes. "I'll be fine." She tried to sound convincing. "You can go out patrolling now. I doubt that Riley will be doing it tonight now."

Giles looked questioningly at Buffy. Buffy cringed. "Yeah, I doubt that he shows up."

Spike secretly squeezed Buffy's hand, using his long and flowing duster to hide their joined hands. He was willing to wait for Buffy to make their relationship known, but he was going to comfort her in any way that he could.

Buffy, Dawn and Spike walked out of Joyce's hospital room. The trio strode down the corridors of the hospital. Things still seemed a bit chaotic around the nurse's stations they passed. A couple of mental patients were still unaccounted for.

A heavyset man looked up at Dawn from between a younger couple near the nurse's station. "No input." He got closer to Dawn. "No data. You have no data."

Protectively, Spike pulled Dawn closer to him. He looked up at Buffy and nodded to head down the other hall. Dawn squirmed in his arms, freaking out.

The man started shaking his hands at Dawn. "Not here. Not real." The young couple pulled their father's hands to pull him towards the exit.

A young doctor that Buffy and Dawn had met earlier stepped over to the trio. "Are you guys all right? Was he bothering you?"

Buffy spoke up first. "It's okay, Ben. He was just muttering a bunch of nonsense." She ran her fingers through Dawn's long brown hair. "They are letting him go home?"

"Yeah." Ben placed his hands on his hips. He huffed. "After the incident earlier today they are trying to send any patients home with their families that they can."

"Is that safe?" Buffy looked at Spike worriedly. "If they are causing trouble here, won't they hurt their families?"

"They're trying to weed out the more passive ones, but a passive patient could be aggressive in the next moment." Ben shook his head back and forth. "I don't like it all, but who am I to argue with the doctors. I'm just an intern. They don't listen to me."

"Will Mom be safe here, Buffy?" Dawn was scared. This was the second time someone had told her that she wasn't real. Nothing about it made sense, but it was starting to creep her out.

"Giles is with her now. I doubt that he'll be leaving any time soon." Buffy tried to reassure her sister.

"The Watcher seemed like he wasn't going to be moving from her bedside." Spike agreed. "Buffy and I can come back to check on her after our patrol, Nibblet."

"Your Mom should be perfectly safe." Ben rested a hand on Buffy's arm. He quickly removed it at the sound of something like a growl coming from the blonde man. "Security has been doubled and the damage has mainly been to property." His name was paged over the intercom, and he quickly left the trio.

"We'll see, Dawn." Buffy continued her stroking through Dawn's hair. "Right now we're heading to Xander and Anya's. You can stay there until Spike and I are done with patrolling."

Dawn rolled her eyes. They headed out into the night. "I don't see why I can't come with you."

"I'm almost as old as you were when you were called." Dawn countered, arms crossed in front of her.

"But you haven't been called. You aren't as strong as I was, and I was petrified when I was called." Buffy didn't know how long Dawn would be around. Would she disappear once the key's usage time was up? Was Dawn able to handle getting hurt? She didn't know the answers to way too many questions. Each answer she found seemed to lie in just another question. She looked up at Spike pleadingly.

"Let your big sis and I handle the patrolling tonight, Nibblet." Spike ruffled Dawn's hair playfully. "Once we get everything settled with your mum maybe we can talk Buffy into letting me train you some. No matter what you should be able to defend yourself." He looked over Dawn's head at Buffy in support.

"Goodie!" Dawn practically bounced for the several block walk from the hospital to Xander's house. All earlier thoughts and worries were gone. She had something to look forward to. Spending more time with Spike was always a good thing in her book.

Buffy smiled at Spike. Behind Dawn's back she reached out her hand and gathered his hand into hers. She squeezed it tightly in a form of thank you and for safety. She felt so much more at peace in his presence. She knew that he would support her, and he seemed to know just what she needed without pressuring her. With him by her side, she knew that she could handle whatever the next couple of days had for them.

Giles remained behind to watch over Joyce for a little bit longer. The nurse arrived only 10 minutes after Dr. Kriegel made his request for a sedative. It wasn't long before Joyce was asleep, but Giles didn't want to leave her yet. While she was asleep the pain seemed to fade from her face. He memorized every soft curve by tracing his fingertips along her cheeks, forehead and lips.

"Rest, my beloved Joyce." Giles cupped her cheek, rubbing his thumb gently over her skin. "We'll get through all of this somehow. I know you are strong." He sighed, dropped his head to their joined hands on the side of the bed, and closed his eyes.

Xander opened the door to reveal Buffy, Spike and Dawn. "What the heck is the bleached wonder doing here?"

"Let it go, Xander." Buffy snipped. Dawn's bouncing had annoyed her for half the trip to Xander's house. Her mother's health weighed on her mind. Something nagged at the back of her thoughts, telling her that trouble was near. She didn't have the time to deal with Xander's pettiness.

"Whoa, easy Buff." Xander took a step back. He took in the downtrodden faces of the group. "Did something go wrong with the surgery?"

"Yeah, it didn't happen, Whelp." Spike growled at Xander. With his hand on the small of Dawn's back, he gave her a little push into the apartment.

"The equipment they needed for Mom's surgery was destroyed by some mental patients." Buffy sighed. 'And I just left here there, helpless if one of them decides to come after her.'

"They delayed her surgery until tomorrow night." Spike continued for Buffy. "Buffy and I are going to patrol, but we need you to watch the Nibblet until we're done."

Anya peeked her head into the doorway. "Sure. We can play Life again." She giggled gleefully. She loved to play with the money. "Or maybe Monopoly."

"Of course you are, Honey." Xander glanced back and forth between Buffy and Spike. There was something going on there, but he couldn't put his finger on what it might be. Spike was standing awfully close to Buffy, and Buffy didn't seem to be minding his presence at all. "We'll take care of Dawn until you get back."

"Thanks, Xander. We ..." Buffy was interrupted by the sound of a loud whistling from the sky. When she looked up it seemed that the sky was burning in a streak of fire. "What the heck?"

Spike was already halfway down the stairs when he shouted back up to the group that now stood on the landing outside of Xander's apartment. "Meteor or something else." He took off in the direction of a booming sound from the object hitting earth. He wasn't sure just how close it was, but there was a burst of light as the object hit the ground. It seemed like it was coming from some nearby woods.

Buffy skipped several steps before she hit the ground and followed Spike. Xander, Anya and Dawn decided without even saying a word that their help might be needed. Xander and Anya grabbed their coats quickly, locked the door and ran in the same general direction that Spike and Buffy had took off in.

"Somehow I don't have a good feeling about this Xander." Anya huffed as she ran in-between Dawn and Xander.

"Maybe it will be an alien?" Dawn picked up her pace, wanting to get to Buffy and Spike soon.

"We'll find out soon enough." Xander pointed to a clearing where Buffy and Spike stood near a huge path that was gouged out of the earth. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto."

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