Thanks, Bev.

I do like her justification for believing Buffy was in hell, though on thinking about it, I'm not sure Willow would go with a belief that came from Tara's father. Is there a Jewish equivalent to despair being the gravest sin? And what is the sitting with the dead called? My Access Trivia command is bringing up "shiva" but I'm not sure.

Willow is using Tara's statement to justify what she plans to do. Since the Jewish concept of Hell is Teppy's office, I don't think that would be enough of a prod to get her to raise the dead.

Oh, dear, so Willow's fanwanking herself.

And that came out a lot pornier than I intended.

OK, fun with Willow after Tara's mind got sucked. This is easier than emailing it to myself from work.

Buffy walked Willow back towards the dorm. "You can come stay over with us, if you want," she offered cautiously.

"No, I--I want to be around her things. Hug her pillow if I can't hug her."

Buffy nodded, but she wished she could insist. She understood how shock could turn people into zomboids, but something in Willow's calm worried her. "I don't think it's a good idea for you to be alone right now."

Willow smiled fondly. "Always the Slayer. Thanks. But I really want to go wallow in Tara-smell for a while."

"OK." Buffy couldn't really argue. She'd slept with one of her mother's sweaters for the first few nights Joyce was in the hospital. "But be careful. It's going to be dark soon."

"I will." Willow hugged Buffy. "Who's with Dawn and your mom?"

"Xander and Anya." Buffy frowned thoughtfully. "Do you think Mom's strong enough to travel?"

"Travel? To where?"

"I don't know yet. It's OK, just a thought. Go, get some sleep if you can."

"Sure. Good night, Buffy."

"Night, Will."

Willow stood and watched Buffy disappear down the sidewalk toward Revello, her smile slipping away. She looked at her surroundings, some older houses on the border of campus, then began walking. Towards the wooded areas in the opposite direction from her dorm.

As twilight gathered, she found a park bench to sit on and observe the world. It was a pretty evening, the light fading in the west, a few stars peeking out, the moon starting to rise in the east, a vampire sneaking up on the right. Well, he wasn't in gameface, but, really, too many Bela Legosi viewings. At least he wasn't wearing a cape as he stalked towards her.

"Good evening, miss," he said in what he thought was a charming voice. "Can you help me? I think I'm lost."

She got to her feet and smiled her most harmless smile. "Sure. What are you looking for?"

He almost smirked but wiped it off. "The science building? I could have sworn it was near here."

"Oh, gosh, no, it's on the other side of campus. Come on, I can show you. We can take a shortcut through here." She led the way into the trees, managing not to snicker.

Once they were out of view of any passers by, she turned to face her companion, who leered and shifted into fang mode. Then blinked when Willow didn't gasp in shock.

"Where's Ripper?" she asked calmly.

"Huh?"

She sighed. "Ripper? The vampire Ripper? English? Hangs out with Spike, AKA William the Bloody?" The vampire just blinked at her. "Oh, come on, you have to have heard of Spike. Or aren't you in with the cool crowd?" Vampire dweebs. It could happen.

"Who are you?" the vampire demanded. He frowned. "The Slayer's a blonde."

"Slayer, Slayer, Slayer." Willow pulled a stake out of her pack. "She's not the only one out here, you know. Now, come on, do you know who Ripper is and where I can find him?"

The leer was back. "If you're not the Slayer, then you're not super strong. You're just a girl."

She was sighing a lot with this guy. "Do you or do you not know who Ripper is and where I can find him?" She held out her hand with the stake on the palm, and slowly it lifted into the air.

"What are you doing?"

"Never mind." With a magical shove, the stake slammed into the vampire's chest. After a moment, Willow went to pick up the stake and shake the dust off. "Twit." She looked around, glanced at her watch, then headed off in another direction.

• **

The evening was just beginning to get noisy at Willy's Bar. No one had died yet and there were no poker games scheduled, so Willy had hopes for the evening. As he turned from handing over an antifreeze-and-7up to a Kroxgar, though, his hopes dwindled. Across the bar was a slight, red-headed human girl, smiling in that reasonable way that said someone was going to be in pain soon.

"Oh, uh, you, um, hi." He looked around desperately but didn't see the Slayer. "Um, Birch, Aspen ..."

"Willow," she said helpfully, still smiling.

"Yeah, Willow. Yeah." He looked over his shoulder again. "So, uh, Willow. What can I, uh, do for you?"

"I need to find Ripper."

He dropped the glass he was polishing. "R--Ripper? Who's Ripper?"

Willow sighed and lost the smile, giving him a look that screamed "Do not even bother." "Ripper," she repeated. "Vampire? English? Hangs out with Spike? You know who Spike is, don't you, Willy?"

The bottles and glasses behind him were beginning to rattle against each other very faintly. "Yeah, I know Spike. He's in here all the time, my buddy Spike."

"Your buddy Spike. Then I've bet you've met his new buddy Ripper."

She was kid, a little girl, a human. And the last time he'd been this scared was the last time Angel had wandered through. "Yeah, I know Ripper."

"Do you know where he is? Where I can find him?"

"You, uh, going to send the Slayer in on him?"

"The Slayer has nothing to do with this," she said flatly. "It's just between him and me."

The practiced weighing of pros and cons and the possibility of personal injury ran through his head. "Him and Spike, they're holed up in the rec center of that subdivision they started on the east side of town. Sunrise Grove or something."

Willow snickered. "Great name for a vampire hangout. Thank you, Willy. I promise I won't tell him you told me."

"Hey, thanks! Uh, can I get you anything? On the house?"

"No, thanks," she grinned, "I'm underage." She walked out.

I recall that she was. Not overtly, or anything, like the full-copper-pipe-refit, but she had to deal with it. Giles did end up taking care of Joyce's funeral expenses, I guess I assumed the financial difficulties from there. I know that there were problems with Dawn and school.

Actually, she wasn't concerned about money until she came back.

The money stuff in S6 came as a shock to her, which leads me to suspect she hadn't had the time/need to think about it in S5. Giles taking care of the funeral arrangements seemed less about money, more about keeping Buffy from having to deal with it. YMoneyMV.

Okay, I'll take out the bills and maybe segue into taking care of Dawn.

connie, I'm loving it.. I love Willy.

t latecomer

Where can I find the early V!Giles stuff?

t /latecomer

And...umm, mmooore Aragorn'sss handssss

Beverly, most everything is on my website [link] under the Career Change heading. That includes the stuff not yet published to Shriftweb, which should be corrected very soon, as I finish the latest mega-chapter.

Thankee very much.