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Morag gasped as she grabbed her head. Alarmed, her husband sat her on a seat in the hall. He knelt before her, his hands on the sides of her face. "My love, do you need the-""Shh…I am all right," Morag said as she caressed her husband’s worried face. "I will be better now that Mrs. Summers is here with her-her tutor. I simply wish there was some other way, I do like her. And him. Even if he is half Sassenach, Gussie."
"You like everyone you meet, my dear wife," Gussie chuckled as he kissed his wife lightly. "With the exception of me. You hated me on sight."
"Not true, I liked to hate you on sight," Morag corrected as she kissed him on the nose. "And now I love to hate you, Gussie."
Gussie rolled his eyes dramatically, just for her benefit, and smiled when he heard her laugh softly. "My little fey, you still cannot admit that you fell in love with me the moment you saw me. Especially when you fell so quickly into my arms."
Clucking her tongue, Morag chided him. "How can I love you when the moment I saw you, you had caused the book ladder to jolt and thus make me fall and nearly break my neck?"
*~*~*~*~* "Well, that takes care of what happened to the case of the missing underwear," Joyce commented as she picked up a scone and bit into it. "I’ll, ah, get it when this is all over."
Giles nodded, then took a bite from a scone and hoped to the gods above that she would not ask her where he kept the scrap of pink silk and lace. He didn’t want to tell her that he had dedicated a small corner of his underwear drawer for it. And, that in the wee hours of the night, he liked to feel the silk between his fingers, and imagine that he could smell her scent when he held it against his cheek. Giles groaned silently as he pretended to be interested in looking out the window, and not at the woman that was sitting down on the settee, daintily eating scones.
'This is outside enough, Rupert Giles', he said to himself sternly, 'One does not become aroused while having tea and scones! And don’t you dare wonder what kind of underwear she’s wearing right now!'
As Joyce sat on the settee drinking her tea and eating her scones thinking about the looks from the dry cleaner’s face, then she blushed when she remembered that Mr. Giles, er, Ripper, that is, didn’t believe in underwear. She slid a glance at his erect form, and then quickly looked away. She was not going to wonder if Mr. Giles believed in underwear.
When the sudden thought of what her daughter might say hit her, she chuckled. Giles quirked his eyebrow at her in question when she sent him an apologetic, if amused glance. "Sorry. I was just thinking of what Buffy said when I handed her the handcuffs. I was just imaging what she would have said if she knew that you, ah, had my underwear." Giles winced when he thought of that, and sat heavily beside her. Joyce saw this and looked at him questioningly. "I take it, you think she’d had a lot of words to say."
He coughed as he answered sincerely. "Actually, I doubt that she would have had many words."
"You don’t think she would have said anything?" Joyce asked, surprised.
"Oh, I think that she would have said something. But are we talking about what she would say before or after she beat me to a bloody pulp?"
"Oh, I don’t think that Buffy would have beaten you to a bloody pulp, would she? Maybe give you a tongue lashing..."
Giles simply gave the woman his 'I expect better from you' look, but Joyce still looked at him doubtfully. "You’re right," he added, "she wouldn’t have beaten me into a bloody pulp at first, she would have first tortured me and then she would have beaten me to a bloody pulp.”
Joyce was about to argue that point when Morag and Carruthers Fergusson entered the room. Giles immediately stood the moment he saw them, and his eyes narrowed slightly. He knew that he wasn’t the most observant of men at times, but he did know when someone was trying to keep from doubling over from pain. Unsure of what to say, he glanced at Joyce and saw that she, too, was aware that Morag was in pain.
"Morag...are you all right? You’re not looking...well" Joyce asked hesitantly. From what she knew about the society in these nineteenth century novels, no one ever talked about their ailments unless they were family or under dire need of help.
"She will be fine, Mrs. Summers, now that you are here,"said Carruthers Fergusson. He looked at the slender blonde woman and her daughter’s tutor. Though it was beyond him on why a woman would be traveling with her daughter’s tutor.
Morag smiled wanly as her husband seated her on an armchair across from Joyce. When Giles reseated himself beside Joyce, "Did you have enough tea and scones-Gussie!"
Alarmed, Joyce was about to reach for Morag when her husband was immediately at her side, placing a small stone in her hands. And it began to glow...
*~*~*~*~* "So what do we know about this Looking Glass," Wesley started as he walked around it.
Buffy scowled at him, "It took my mother. And Giles," she growled, "And that the mirror was feather light when it was delivered, but now it’s gained weight since it took Mom and Giles."
Wesley cleaned his glassed as he looked at her. "Is that literally what happened, or is that your misuse of the English language again?"
Buffy scowled at him even more when Willow hastily stepped between her friend and Wesley. "That’s what happened, sort of. Giles said the spell in front of the mirror with Buffy’s mom, then these really bright and colorful tendrils? tentacles?"
"Tendrils then tentacles," Oz said to Willow, then Wesley. "Looked like tendrils at first, then they changed to tentacles that kinda yanked them into the mirror."
"Then there was great big flash of light that blinded us, and the next second, they were gone! Kapoof! Like a vampire, but with no dust," Xander said excitedly, then scowled when he felt someone smack him upside his head. "Ow! Will! What was that-"
"They did not go ‘Kapoof!’ like a vampire," Buffy all but wailed at him. "Mom did not get dusted!"
“Xander, you are such an insensitive clod sometimes," Willow hissed as she glared at him. "Buffy, I’m sure that she’s fine, the mirror was heavier, remember?"
Buffy took a calming breath and visibly brightened. "Yeah! That’s right! The mirror was heavier since Giles and Mom disappeared."
"Unless the mirror is heavy from holding their corpses," Cordelia commented as she looked at her nails. At the total silence, she looked up. "What? Like that isn’t a possibility?"
"And you hit me for being an insensitive clod," Xander told Willow. He looked at Buffy’s horrified eyes and tried to comfort his friend. "I’m sure that your Mom and the G-man are still alive, Buff. And that he’s taking care of your mom. After all, he managed to survive puberty, Eyghon and Snyder. The G-man is one pretty tough dude, for a stuffy Brit."
Wesley stared at the Cordelia, amazed at her appalling lack of...tact. He knew from experience that he was considered tactless, but this was...He looked at Buffy. "I’m sure that isn’t the case, and I’m sure that we can find your mother and Mr.Giles. As soon as we do some research."
"Right, research," Willow said quickly. She looked around and sprang into action. "So, let’s get cracking. Wesley, you get the Latin texts, Xander and Buffy, help me go through Giles’s notes on this thing, Oz, call for Angel to get here as soon as the sun’s down, we might need him here to translate some Gaelic texts. Cordelia, go get some coffee and donuts."
"Now just one moment," Cordelia said as she looked angrily at the redhead. She pointed at Wesley. "He’s the Watcher here, not you. So we have to follow his orders and not yours! Wesley, what would you like us to do?"
Wesley looked at the expectant faces surrounding him, then looked at Cordelia. "Well, Cordelia, I actually prefer tea and crumpets rather than coffee and donuts."
*~*~*~*~* Joyce and Giles stared at Morag as the stone in her hands glowed, then stopped a few seconds later. When they looked at Morag. she was no longer in pain.
"My, love, what happened?" Carruther demanded as he knelt beside her. "Was it the mirror?"
Morag nodded as she pocketed the stone. "It was moved in the other world, but now it is back in it’s place."
"That is good," Carruther said with a sigh. Then he remembered his guests. "You were not meant to see this."
"But we did," Giles said as he looked at the man. Then he looked at Morag. "Was that some sort of a healing stone?"
Morag thought for a second, then nodded. "You may call it that. But it is so much more. And I am guessing that you two have many more questions to ask..."
"We certainly do,”Joyce said, her voice still in wonder. "But-who or what are you?"
"She’s not a witch if that’s what you’re asking, Mrs. Summers, she’s a God-fearing woman like you," her husband started as he hovered over his wife protectively.
"And if she is a witch, it wouldn’t matter either," Joyce retorted. "Two of my daughter’s friends that come over to the house are witches, and they’re God-fearing as well."
Morag’s green eyes rounded. "Are they witches, really? And you know about this? And they are invited freely into your home?"
"As long as they don’t set the carpet on fire again or mess up the living room by making a small tornado, they’re free to come over anytime" snorted Joyce as she shook her head. "You don’t know how hard it is to get the girls to clean up after they make a mess when a spell goes awry. At least they promised to never enchant the toaster and the washing machine again, or else I’d ground them."
Morag and Carruthers stared at Joyce as she calmly sipped her tea, then they looked at her companion, whose jaw was wide open.
Giles cleared his throat and sent an apologetic glance at their hosts. "Sorry, but...Joyce, let me get this straight. Buffy, Willow and Amy have been doing spells in your living room?"
"Not exactly. Willow and Amy have been doing spells, Buffy’s just there to make sure that they don’t get into trouble, like they did the last time," Joyce said with a shrug. "Now are you-"
Giles looked nearly apoplectic again. "The last time? Excuse me, Morag, Carruthers. What do you mean Buffy’s there to make sure that they don’t get into trouble? What happened the last time? And when was the last time?"
"Buffy and Willow didn’t tell you?" Joyce asked him, surprised. Buffy and Willow told Giles everything. "That’s why I grounded the both of them a month ago. I grounded Willow since Sheila’s doing what Buffy calls the ‘selective memory thing’."
"And?" Giles prompted. Joyce watched the Watcher warily. He was cute when agitated she thought absently, then quickly quashed the thought as soon as it came through. "Joyce?"
"And the girls wanted to snack on toasted bagels with cream cheese and Buffy was supposed to do the laundry, but forgot. So Amy and Willow cast spells on the toaster and the washing machine, and forgot to turn the spells off when they started taking about boys," Joyce finished.
Giles groaned as he covered his eyes.
"And so what happened to this...this toaster and washing machine?" Carruthers asked hesitantly as Morag stared at her, fascinated.
Joyce smiled grimly at him. "Let’s just say that Buffy, Willow and Amy are working on an installment plan to pay for the water damage. And there hasn’t been a bagel or box of cream cheese in the house since."
Giles closed his eyes. "I am going to have a talk with those three."
Joyce patted him on the knee kindly. "It’s not so bad. At last they haven’t tried to make Xander into a teenage Elvis again. Or bake wolf-nip for Oz again."
"Bake wolf-nip for Oz," Giles repeated as he stared at Joyce. "I don’t think I want to know..."
"You don’t,”Joyce sighed as she patted his shoulder. Then she looked at Morag. "But enough about my daughter and her friends. Are you a witch?"
Carruthers was about to say something when Morag touched his hand. She looked at Joyce. "Some would say that I am because I have fey blood in me. But I am not. I am merely a woman that has strong connections to the Highlands, the mirror and her husband."
"I see," Joyce murmured.”And how strong are your connections to the Highlands, the mirror and your husband?"
"Strong enough that when one suffers, I suffer as well, Mrs. Summers,"
Morag smiled sadly. She looked at the mirror wistfully. "The daughters of my line have been guardians of the mirror, while the sons have guarded the Highlands. We can look through the mirror, we can use the mirror to some extent. But neither of the lines can control the mirror. Only you can do that. You and your...husband. And that’s why you were called here."
"My husband?" Joyce squeaked. "But I don’t have a husband any more, I’m divorced!"
"Divorced! Then how is it that you travel with your daughter’s tutor? The master witch? Has he cast a spell upon you to do his lustful bidding?" Carruthers demanded as he shot a look at Giles.
"Master witch? Lustful works? Mr. Giles?" Joyce gaped at him. "Have you been taking too much opium? Or is that cravat on so tight it’s blocking the air to your brain?"
Giles touched Joyce’s shoulder, then gave a hard look at Carruther Fergusson’s outraged face as each word he said shot out like cold bullets. "I am not a Master witch, I am a scholar. I teach Mrs.Summer’s daughter the arts of weaponry, defense as well as the way of book learning. Just as I teach all her friends. I have never taught any of them witchcraft or sorcery. And as for having Mrs.Summers under my spell doing my lustful bidding-"
"It only happened one night. And it wasn’t anyone’s fault."
"Right, it only happened one night and it wasn’t anyone’s fault," Giles repeated, then he realized what he said and stared at Joyce."Joyce!"
"We might as well be perfectly honest about it, and it might have been the reason why you were pulled into the mirror with me, "Joyce defended as she looked at him. Then she looked at Morag. "So how do I control the mirror? And why was I called?"
*~*~*~*~* The man in the woods watched the house from behind the trees carefully. Hearing a twig snap, he put away his spyglass. Looking around, he saw no one, yet the hairs on the back of his neck was standing. After listening for more and hearing nothing but the familiar sounds of the woods, he was about to resume watching the house and its inhabitants when he heard a horse being ridden hard. Then hid himself when he heard a rider approach closer, then stopped.
The horseman unsaddled himself and looked around. "Reveal yourself, my servant Philan," said the horseman. "Tell me what you have learned so far."
Philan stepped out from behind the trees and pointed to the house. "The Lady Morag be getting weaker, sir. And seems the mistress has finally found the mirror. And her man be with her."
"She finally came? And she has her husband with her?" the horseman murmured to himself. "Well, he can be easily gotten rid of...Think I shall go visit the Sir Fergusson tonight. Keep an eye on the house. Let me know when the mistress comes out of the house."
"Aye, sir," Philan said as he was about to resume his post.
The rider reseated himself on his mount and was about to ride away when he stopped. "Anything else worth to report, Philan?"
Philan scratched his chin. "No, 'cepting the good Father Ramsey is supposed to drop in for supper at the house. And word in town is the church be needing a new organ."
The rider winced as he rode away. "I guess putting up with Father Ramsey is worth meeting her..."
*~*~*~*~* "I’m back," Cordelia announced as she flung the bags on the library table. "They weren’t many donuts, so I got some bagels and cream cheese as well as crumpets. Got Jolt, tea and coffee to drink. Dig in."
Willow and Buffy looked at each other, then looked at the bagels. And turned slightly green. Then reached for the donuts.
Angel came out from the book cage reading a passage, then stopped suddenly. He read the passage again, then looked at Buffy. "Uh-oh...".
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