__Mighty, Mighty Good Mojo__
By Beadtific



Angela shrugged apologetically. "I'm afraid that's all I have, ladies."

Willow's voice had a determinedly cheerful air, "Well, that's one thing – that slayers and watchers were always *supposed* to be Bonded. It's good news."

The auburn-haired woman added cautiously, "But we still don't know much more about how it's supposed to work – Jonah and his slayer Marie weren't Bonded that long, and Jonah's brother didn't pilfer a great deal about procedure from the council libraries."

"Because there probably wasn't anything *to* pilfer; since the council didn't want anybody Bonding, nobody ever got to try, and, if they did, they sure didn't write about it to the home office." She looked at Willow bitterly, "Is it okay to hate them even more for that, even though they got blowed up?"

A masculine voice said from the doorway, "Anger leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side; I finally got that one worked out." The three women whirled, open-mouthed, to find Xander and a giggle-stifling Dawn standing in the cottage doorway. Both looked entirely too pleased to have snuck past slayer-sense radar.

Buffy took one look at the rest of her core "family," and her eyes filled with tears of gratitude. Her little sister launched, open armed, across the short distance that separated her from Buffy, and Xander enveloped Willow in a hug. Angela remained a little nonplussed by the new arrivals, and noted that the cottage was getting very crowded. She took the opportunity to check on her patient. He was, as always, resting comfortably.

As Buffy hugged Xander and allowed a few sobs to escape, Willow hugged her surrogate sister. "How's my girl?" she asked, looping a strand of dark brown hair behind the younger girl's ear. She had to reach up a little to do it, these days.

"Sleepy, wired, worried," Dawn said, demonstrating her state by fidgeting in place. She cast a grim look over Willow's shoulder at Giles. "How's he doing?"

"About the same," Buffy answered, snuggling under Xander's brotherly arm. "Willow's got a few ideas though."

"Hey, how did you guys get here so fast?" Willow blurted, suddenly realizing she hadn't gotten the call about their arrival. She looked at her phone, which Angela had just handed her. There were five unanswered messages on it. "Oops."

"S'okay, Will," Xander said, "When you didn't answer, I had Andrew get me the number here and called ahead. And Andrew, for a small fee, sent the council plane he just found in a hangar in Fiji. Seems like there was more hidden than just buckets of money. And it looks like he might have found a few more accounts and…a beach house." Everyone nodded grimly at that. They'd had months of discovering just how well the council had feathered its nest, while allowing slayers to live on shoestrings and Doublemeat burgers.

Willow shook herself, "Small fee?"

Xander cleared his throat. "Um, well, I've got to give him the collector's edition Boba Fett I picked up recently, to replace the one he lost in Sunnydale. It's in the original packaging and everything."

All three women rolled their eyes.

"I got off easy, I'm telling you," Xander said in his own defense.

Angela cleared her throat discreetly, "Buffy, Willow, Mr. Giles is resting comfortably. I do think, however, that this room is getting a little crowded. Perhaps if we take our discussion elsewhere?" Buffy made belated, rather embarrassed introductions of her sister and other best friend to Angela.

Willow looked at Buffy. "You want us to hang out on the porch? I think our next step is to plan what we talked about." She looked significantly at Angela, who nodded and headed for the porch.

"Um, yeah," the weary blonde said, "I'm getting kind of sleepy, though. I might go curl up with my guy. Not that I'm not thrilled to see everybody – I'm just not sure I can keep my eyes open." She leaned over and hugged her sister again.

"Sure, sis," Dawn said, "we'll still be here when you wake up."

Buffy gave her sister another squeeze. "Buff?" the young girl said in a tiny voice, "can I say hello to Giles? I mean, can he hear me?"

The slayer smiled at her sister, "I don't know Dawnie, but it can't hurt." Buffy took Dawn's hand and led her to his bedside. Xander cleared his throat, shot Willow a pained look, and shuffled after the sisters.

"What's with the eyepatches?" Dawn whispered.

"So his eyes don't dry out. Go on now, you can touch him, hold his hand if you want."

"Oh," the young woman took a tiny step forward and tucked her hand into his. Buffy slipped her arm around her sister in encouragement, and put her own hand on her lover's knee. Xander went around to the other side of the bed, and placed his hand on Giles’ shoulder. Willow stood at the foot of the bed.

"Hey, G-man," Xander half-whispered, squeezing Giles' shoulder.

Dawnie whispered vehemently, "Don't call him that; he *hates* that!" A breath of laughter swept through the little family.

"Well, just trying to get his attention. You hear me Giles? Wakey, wakey," Xander's words were light and whimsical, but there was a thread of fear running through them.

"We'll bring him back," Willow said firmly, despite a certain teary quality to her voice.

"We?" Dawn asked.

"We." Buffy agreed. "But can Willow explain things? I'm so beat."

Xander nodded, and leaned over to kiss Giles' cheek. "Can't wait to see you again, all up and polishing your glasses at me, big guy," he said, his voice a little husky. He squeezed Giles' shoulder one last time, smiled comfortingly at the Summers girls and walked over to Willow, who slung an arm around his waist and led him to the porch.

"Okay," Dawn agreed, but remained rooted to the spot. She reached out a tentative hand and stroked Giles' hair.

"He likes it when I sing him your lullaby," Buffy offered, giving her sister a little squeeze.

"He does?" Dawn said, beaming. Her eyes filled with tears. "I don't know why that makes me all gushy."

"'Cause you're Gushy Girl; it's your job," Buffy said sweetly. Dawn sniffled at her uncertainly.

"He gets nightmares, I think, sometimes, and his heart rate goes up," Buffy explained. "If I sing it to him, he calms right down."

"Oh," Dawn breathed, smiling proudly, and squeezed Giles' hand. A few tears slipped down her cheeks. "He sang it for me once," she whispered. "He heard me sing it to myself, when we'd crashed in his room and I'd had a nightmare. He tried to pretend he didn't notice, but then gave up, sat beside me and hummed for me until I went to sleep."

Buffy's heart swelled with love for both of them. "He asked me to marry him, Dawn."

Dawn's whole body crackled with delight. "He *did*?" she asked in the whisperiest squeal ever. "I knew you were together but, wow! Really?"

Buffy smiled, "Yup. Want to be maid of honor? I'm here to warn you that the maid of honor is mostly a maid, you know. Big chores and all."

Dawn bounced. "Don't care, don't care, don't care." She hugged Buffy, then turned and kissed Giles. "Oh my god, I love you. You've got to wake up, Giles, so I can squeal in your ear and embarrass you to death." She turned to her sister and said, half-teasing, "Oh yeah, and I love you, too."

"Yeah, yeah, nice to be included, you big spaz. Now let me get some sleep."

"Okay, okay," Dawn said, impulsively giving Giles another kiss, and then turning and kissing her sister's forehead. "Shrimp," she smirked to cover her gushiness.

"Mutant giant," Buffy rejoined, much for the same reason. They grinned at each other, and Buffy yawned, pointedly, in her sister's face.

"Alright already," the teenager grumped discreetly. She headed for the cottage door.

"Dawn?"

"Yeah?" the teenager turned, with a touch of an eyeroll in her expression.

"I know you sang for me too, once upon a time. I just wanted to say thanks. I do love you, you know." Buffy's eyes were bright as she smiled at her little sister.

Dawn's chin trembled a little, but she managed a smile. "Yeah, I kinda picked up on it," she waved an overly casual hand, "anyway, you're welcome."

Buffy rolled her eyes, "Wierdo."

"Mutant, uh,… mutant."

"Snappy. Now shoo, will ya?"

Affectionately poking out her tongue, Dawn trotted to join Willow and Xander.

Buffy crawled up into the bed with her fiancé. "Hey sweetie, how's about a little nap?" She snuggled down so that her head rested on top of his, and drifted off in a surprisingly short amount of time.

* * * * *

"Good heavens, what on earth are you wearing?" An unfamiliar voice asked.

Buffy opened her eyes, and discovered a middle-aged, dark-haired man standing right next to her side of Giles' bed.

'Intruder alert! Are my slayer senses completely shot?' she wondered to herself.

"Oh no. They're not, my dear, you're just tired, and I'm, well, kind of a ghost."

Buffy looked at him through narrowed eyes. Popping in and mind reading; this wasn't good.

"But not the First, see?" He grasped the bedrail and chuckled. "Rupert was worried about the same thing. Nearly beaned me with a rock."

"You've talked to Giles, recently?" She couldn't keep the excitement out of her voice.

"Yes, and by the way, David Robson - former watcher, current agent of the Powers That Be - at your service," he offered his hand to shake, and Buffy took it warily. "And yes, Rupert and I have been on a little magical mystery tour recently. By the way, you're still asleep. Your friends would have noticed if I'd popped in the room, or if you started speaking to imaginary friends, so I rather tweaked it so you'd want a nap. We don't have much time, so we need to get down to business."

Buffy shook herself, "Wait a minute, buddy. You come popping into my dreams and you're not going to get with the explaining? "

"Right. I explained this all to Rupert, but, of course, you're as stubborn as the reports suggest." Buffy fixed him with a glare. "Oops, so sorry, did I say that out loud?" He said, deeply unapologetic, "Listen, you two are supposed to be Bonded, and trip off happily ever after, all peaches and cream and well cut clothing."

He cast a scandalized eye at her baggy gray sweater. "Which looks like it would be an improvement. And *mostly* happily ever after; there will be the odd battle here and there. I'm here to help you get the Bond back. Giles is unhurt, but the Powers have fixed it so that you must go in to his mind, with Willow, as sort of a quest to get him back. Romantic, isn't it?" Buffy moaned in frustration and Robson went blithely on, ignoring her.

"You need to claim him, again, re-initiating the Bond, and then, as soon as he wakes up, do a *small* Bond dedication, like blood bonding. Willow needs to put up a very strong protection spell around the two of you after you make the claim, and before the Bond dedication. Remember that. Now, I need to heal your Bond wound, which is in rather a delicate place for an old man like me to get at. I promise no naughty touching." He motioned for her to sit up.

"How do I know you are who you say you are?" Buffy said, and stayed put, still suspicious. Robson sighed, and his cheerful expression slipped.

"I can't help you with that, my dear. You're just going to have to trust me. I was a watcher once, like your old man, there. I had my potential killed right in front of me, and then the Bringers killed me too. Rupert found me before I kicked off, and I tried to give him what information I could." With a deceptively casual shrug, he brushed off his potential's death, his own, and the explosion of the council. "They weren't willing to listen. He's a good man, your Rupert, and a friend I wish I'd had more time with."

Robson smiled painfully, "I want you to have what I never could, and all the other watchers were too stupid not to grab onto with both hands and heart. If that doesn't do it for you, I thought the pink pump/crossbow trick was brilliant, and the look on Rupert's face was bloody priceless. Oh, do tell Willow to add a bit of rosemary to the watcher location spell, will you?"

"You want me to be Bonded with Rupert," she said in confirmation.

"Yes, I do, you silly girl," Robson with exaggerated patience, widening his eyes and nodding to her as if she was a small child, "I do."

Buffy snorted and rolled her eyes at him. "Okay." She sat up and turned toward him.

"Finally! Now, I'm going to put my hand here," he grasped her shoulder, "and the other here." His palm hovered over her breastbone. "All right then?"

"Okay," she was starting to feel a little nervous. "We can Bond again? Do you think Rupert will want to?"

"My dear," Robson said with warm sincerity, "I know he will, especially since he asked the same foolish question about you." He felt Buffy's shoulder relax under his hand. "Honestly, the two of you…"

"The two of us, what?"

Robson placed his hand between her breasts and began to glow a brilliant white. Buffy was filled with an incredible sense of well-being and joy – joy so thick and rich that she could almost taste it. She could feel a warm, soft wind brushing her face.

"The two of you," Robson said softly, completing his task, "are perfect for each other. Have a long and happy life, Miss Summers; the both of you."

Brilliant white light spilled out of Giles' room onto the porch. Following the light, a refreshing, gorgeously-scented breeze lifted the ends of the women's hair, particularly Willow's. She inhaled deeply and she smiled to herself, as Angela and the others rushed to check on Giles and Buffy. It seemed awfully familiar. Even though she had not cast a spell, she had to check the ends of her hair; it remained red. 'Still,' she murmured to herself, 'that was some mighty, mighty good mojo. Somebody's giving us a break.'

* * *