Buffy hurried towards the cafe at what she presumed was the back of Giles' head. She stared at the patio in front of the cafe, hoping that this was the end of the 'finding-Giles' part of her day.

There had been 3 more reported deaths of slayers in the last week. One in the UK, two others in the states. None of them she'd been particularly close to, but their deaths stung. Same staked with their own stake. And no leads as to what might be killing them.

She'd been tracking Giles for the better part of the day. No one had known exactly where he was.

Suddenly Giles caught sight of her, "Buffy."

The woman who sat across from him was in her 40s, dark hair liberally streaked with gray.

Buffy took a breath, wondering whether or not she should interrupt Giles on what was probably his version of a hot date.

"Hey, umm can I talk with you a minute?" Buffy hurried her way up to the table trying to convey urgency in her voice.

"Now isn't the greatest time." Giles responded.

"Who is...?" The woman seemed to be assessing them rather quickly.

"This is my... daughter, Buffy Summers. Buffy this is my friend Lydia"

"Lovely to meet you."

"First date?" Buffy looked at Giles questioningly.

"Er. Second actually." He took off his glasses and cleaned them as he cleared his throat and began to resemble a deer caught in the headlights.

"So Rupert, any other children?"

"No...no, just the one. Though her friends are around so much it seems like they are mine as well." Giles laughed awkwardly.

"So...Dad...we lost a few..."Buffy paused for words. "kittens today."

"Kittens...really... Ah...Buffy volunteers at the animal shelter. How many today?"

"Three."

"Oh dear. That is quite awful. Do you have veterinary aspirations Buffy?" Lydia asked.

"No, no I'm a... personal trainer."

"She's quite good." Giles chimed in.

"Well you are quite fit." Lydia smiled "And American, I had no idea you were so well-travelled Rupert."

"Do you have any children Lydia?"

"Me? Oh no no...I was married once, but no children."

'Well...see you...around...Dad." Buffy smiled and gave Giles a quick hug before running off.

"I never pictured you as a father Rupert, it suits you."

"Eh, well yes. So what did you think of the movie?"

BBB

Willow sat on the beige couch, sinking into the too squishy cushions. She flicked through channels at a rapid pace.

It was mostly soaps.

She'd been living with Tara for two weeks now. They'd fallen into what Willow decided was a comfortable pattern. If a bit different from before. Tara had classes four days out of the week, she spent her non-class day- Wednesday either at the library, or she and Willow would truck out to the nearest group of (non-magical) Wiccans or grab a bite somewhere.

She'd made Tara a schedule for school, a chore checklist, and then she'd spent most of her time watching movies, or whatever was on television.

The lock clicked as Tara struggled for a moment to unlock the door. They'd recently discovered the door stuck slightly. But hadn't made arrangements to get it fixed yet.

"Hi baby." Willow glanced up from the show she was half-watching, with her new macbook on her lap as she played with a new draft of Tara's schedule.

Tara was quiet as she brought in her stuff and set her book-bag down on the kitchen counter.

"What's wrong?"

"Sweetie have you been inside all day again?"

"Err. Well I went to go check the mail, and I fell up the stairs, but otherwise yeah. Pretty much in this general vicinity all day."

Tara slumped next to her on the couch, glancing at the computer screen which was code she didn't really understand.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but honey, you need to get a job."

"But I do. I slay, I cast spells-"

"Darling, you answer emails. Slayer-attendance." Tara cracked a smile at her own line.

"That's working. We lost three more slayers this week- I have to keep an eye on things."

"I just think maybe it would be better to get out of the apartment, at least a little bit," The blonde tried a more gently approach.

Willow thought about it for a moment, "I'd need to keep being able to check on things, keep answering, running the computerized resources."

"Well maybe you could get a job that you could do both at?" Tara suggested diplomatically.

Willow turned to face her, "What do you have in mind?"

BBB

"Yes, yes. Have a good day. Thank you." Willow chirped as she hung up the call.

She glanced around her cubicle before the phone rung again.

She answered it promptly,"Tech Support, Willow speaking, how may I help you today?" Her response was so scripted, maybe she should design a randomized series of responses to ease the boredom.

The next words pulled the redhead out of her own brain and back into the real world.

"Hello?" The voice rang slightly too loudly through her headset. Distinctly male.

"Hello." Willow responded on autopilot as her pen fell to the floor and she bent briefly to pick it up.

"Yes my computer isn't working." The voice had taken on a distinct panic.

"Can you tell me what its doing sir?"

"Blue screen, it won't really turn on."

"Are you getting anything? Error messages?"

"Yeah. Constantly. You really need to help me fix this."

"Okay, so what happened before you got the blue screen?"

"Nothing. I just tried to fix my computer speed problem by deleting system 32."

Willow smacked one hand audibly to her head, "Why did you do that?"

"Advice from a chatroom." The voice on the other line answered seeming perfectly calm.

Taking a deep breath Willow continued, "Ok. Well that is why you can't get anything but a blue screen." She rubbed her temples briefly, this shift was way too long for this job.

"So how do I get it to work again?"

"Well, you have to reinstall your system software." Willow opened up a new window on her computer- running through the list of emails that really was slayer attendance, she multitasked and quickly opened up her excel attendance sheet and absentmindedly made note of who had checked in.

"Oh ok, I can do that." The voice seemed somewhat relieved.

"Great, so just get your Windows XP disk, and -"

Then the voice started again, "So how do I get my files back?"

"Well, sir. You can't. You just deleted everything." Willow's attention was once again redirected to her job.

"I just deleted system 32."

"Yes. Which deleted everything. Its a big part of the system software, imagine your computer is a sandwich, only now there's no bread, or meat or anything in it anymore, and you are left with an empty plate and no lunch at all." Willow attempted gently to calm the man down.

"You have to help me fix this."

"I'm afraid I really can't."

"This is tech support."

"Sorry?" Willow suggested hopefully. She hated the angry ones. Especially the stupid ones who had never skimmed through a manual in their lives. Although the clueless ones were a bit annoying too. But the older lady that had called this morning had been very nice, and talkative...

Willow was shocked back into reality by a louder voice echoing through her headset.

"You are supposed to help me fix this!" The voice exclaimed.

"I'm sorry sir, next time you have a computer problem maybe call tech support before you go online and take advice from random people." Willow attempted diplomatically.

"I want to speak to your supervisor."

"Alright" Willow transferred the call, and noted it in her log.

The phone rang again.

She glanced at the excel sheet, ticking off the last few names. One was missing. Buffy was not going to like this.

BBB

Willow came home, the usual bounce in her step more or less absent. She struggled to unlock the door and stepped inside. Stupid lock still stuck. They'd have to get that fixed. Sometime.

"Hey Sweetie," Tara called from the kitchen.

Her girlfriend only moaned slightly in response and flopped on the sofa.

"Could you take a look at the printer later? It's been acting weird." Tara called coming closer only to see Willow in the fetal position on their couch.

"How was your day?" Tara tried again, sitting down beside the small lump that was Willow.

Her response was to quickly crawl into Tara's lap and bury her face in the other witch's neck.

"Okay. You don't have to fix the printer. It's alright." Tara wrapped her arms around Willow, "Was your day really awful?"

She then mumbled something that sounded like "mahmmmcadstup" into Tara's skin.

The redhead pulled back slightly with the lack of response, "Really stupid callers, my cubicle is boring, my legs hurt and we have a missing slayer. I hate my job."

"Is the job really that bad?" Tara's voice was heavily laden with concern and her own guilt.

"Sometimes. Sometimes its ok." Willow reached out to run her fingers through Tara's hair.

Tara kissed Willow's forehead briefly, "Do you want me to call Buffy for you?"

"I better do it."

"Honey, I can do this one if you need a break from being the bearer of bad news all the time."

Willow seemed to process the suggestion for a moment before shooting it down, "I better do it Tara. Buffy is really not going to like this."

"Of course not. Its hard on all of you. Every time you lose one. I feel it too."

"No I mean. Really not like it."

"Why? What do you mean?"

"I ran the attendance- not just the numbers. I know who the missing slayer is... and Buffy won't like it." Willow said nervously.

Tara looked into her eyes urgently, "Who?"

The response was a single word. "Faith."