Ms Calendar looked at the trio without speaking, and Willow decided it was up to her to get the ball rolling.

"So," she said in her best "take charge" voice, "I guess you know why we're here."

"You need the Slayer," responded Ms Calendar, holding the motionless girl in her arms.

"Yep, but it's more complicated than that. We need her conscious, but we also need her willing to help."

Ms Calendar stared at Willow for a moment, then said simply, "Watch."

As she spoke the stone circle around them dissolved, and they were sitting in Buffy's hospital room. But there was something very strange about the scene; Buffy and her mother were both glowing, their bodies giving off swirls of light.

"Watch", Ms Calendar repeated, and Willow and the vampires obediently looked again. Willow could see that Buffy's aura was much brighter than that of her mother, despite her unconscious state, but there was something, well, distorted was the word that came to mind, about the way the colours were flowing.

Willow looked over to Faith, still in Ms Calendar's embrace, and saw that her aura mirrored that of Buffy - it was as if the flow of the energy was being impeded.

Before Willow could formulate a question the hospital vanished and they were back in their familiar setting.

Ms Calendar looked at willow, waiting for her question.

"What was wrong with the Slayers? Is it because they are unconscious?"

"No," responded Ms Calendar. "The problem existed before they were injured"

"It's because there's two of them, isn't it," Spike interrupted, earning amazed glances from his mates. "What, I can't have a good idea? It's bloody obvious, isn't it? I mean the Slayer, the Chosen One, not the Chosen Seven. Having a mob of them running around is throwing everything out of whack."

"Your mate speaks wisely," replied Ms Calendar, drawing a hastily muffled snort of derision from Angel. Spike, wise? Not two words he would have ever associated with each other.

"The energy and power which is the right and inheritance of the Slayer has been corrupted by the presence of two Slayers, and as time has gone by this disturbance has worsened. It is the basis of the problems which both have suffered. For these problems to be solved, a choice must be made. There can only be one Slayer."

And with this piece of advice ringing in their ears the trio found themselves back in Giles house.

Spike jumped to his feet, grinning like a maniac and rubbing his hands in glee. "We're going to kill a Slayer, we're going to kill a Slayer," he sang, drawing a concerned look from Angel and an amused glare from Willow.

His face settled in it's normal brooding expresson, Angel spoke quietly but firmly. "Willow, despite everything that she has done, Buffy was your friend, and my lover. She is unconscious now, she can't hurt us anymore, and I just don't think we can callously kill her while lies there, defenceless."

"Of course we're not going to hurt her," said Willow, trying to get Angel to focus on her words as she saw him heading for a full-on brood. "Angel, Ms Calendar told us there can only be one Slayer. That is not the same thing as killing Buffy."

Angel looked at her blankly, and Spike started to lose some of his exuberance as he sensed the delicious prospect of a dead Buffy sneaking out of his grasp.

"Look, Buffy is a person and a Slayer, right?" Seeing that Spike was about to add his own insights, Willow hurried on, "so all we need to do is de-Slayer-ise her. Make her a normal person again, so Faith has her full Slayer powers and Buffy can have what she always wanted - a normal life."

Angel and Spike both pondered this new idea, Angel with relief that Buffy would be able to survive without being a threat to them, and Spike depressed by the thought of missing out on watching another Slayer die.

But still, he decided, there was bound to be some great opportunities ahead to watch Buffy agonise over her lost "Chosen One" status. Of the three, he was the only one who foresaw that Buffy, despite all her comments about wanting a normal life, was not going to be pleased to find herself de-Chosen.

"Now all we have to do," declared Willow, "is find a way to do it". Angel smiled and pulled Willow into his embrace. "Don't worry, little witch," he murmured against her skin, "I have every confidence in you. First thing tomorrow - after dusk, of course - we'll head back to the hospital and try out those powers of yours. But in the meantime, what was that you were telling me in the car earlier?"

Willow smiled, her expression changing to one of pure lust as she felt Angel's teeth suddenly graze against the sensitive skin of her neck.

"Umm, I'm not sure, maybe you could remind me?"

Willow squirmed a little as she felt Spike press his body against her back, and his cool mouth started to suck on the tender skin at the nape of her neck, causing her to shiver uncontrollably, much to the delight of her mates.

"Looks like Red has a sudden memory loss, Peaches," Spike purred as he slipped his arms around Willow, one hand dropping to rub teasingly against the apex of her thighs while the other did the same to the growing bulge in Angel's trousers.

"It would be my pleasure to help her remember," growled Angel as he thrust against Spike's fingers, and he was as good as his word - although with a reminder like that, Willow decided dreamily some hours later, as her languid form lay sandwiched between the slumbering forms of her mates, she was definitely going to have to have more memory lapses from now on.

Spike frowned in his sleep, then gradually opened one eye, trying to identify the source of the uneasy feeling that had roused him from slumber. He soon realised the cause - he was alone. His mates must have woken earlier, and left him by himself in Giles' rumpled bed.

Spike frowned, and was about to reach for a cigarette when the door was flung open and a cheery looking Willow waltzed in, brandishing a mug of warm blood.

"Ah pet, now that's what I call a bloody good way to start the day," he growled, downing the blood in a single gulp then pulling Willow on top of him for a good morning kiss.

"Yuck, Spike, blood breath!" Willow squealed, but Spike noticed she wasn't making much of an effort to get away from him.

"Where's His Broodiness?" Spike asked as Willow finally managed to free her mouth, although she continued to squirm deliciously on his lap.

"He's downstairs talking to the others, we told them we have an idea but we're waiting for you, so-o-o " said Willow as she tried without success to coax Spike from the bed.

"Bloody Hell, I'll be glad when this is over and we can have a bit of peace and quiet. Always knee deep in Watchers and cheerleaders, sodding unbelievable. Bad enough I'm fighting evil, at least I could get some shagging time," Spike moaned dramatically, but he could see he was not impressing the redhead.

"Oh poor Spike, feeling hard done by? Well maybe Angel and I can think up a reward system for you, mmm, let's see," said Willow with a serious voice as she watched Spike's intrigued expression surreptitiously from the corner of her eye.

"I know!" she exclaimed brightly, looking entirely too innocent. "If you behave yourself, we'll cover you in chocolate and lick you clean, and if you don't, I'll do the same to Angel and you can watch me lick him clean!" And smirking at Spike's strangled groan, Willow slipped off the bed and headed for the door, saying, "Five minutes. Downstairs. That will give me time to tell Angel about our new reward system."

And she left Spike alone, trying to work out which one of those options was meant to be the bad one.

Giles' patience was nearly at an end by the time Spike raced into the living room, looking as though he had just crawled out of bed. ( Honestly), thought Giles, (why didn't he take the time to clean himself up? It's not like another few minutes would have made any difference). On the plus side however Angel and Willow had stopped whispering to each other, although Angel had the strangest look on his face. Giles shook his head to try to focus his thoughts on the matter at hand.

"Well," he muttered, after polishing his glasses one more time, "perhaps now you'd like to share this plan of yours with us?"

So Angel explained to the others what had happened the previous night, as Spike sat down beside Willow and made a production of asking her what time it was.

There was a moment of silence once Angel finished, then Wesley nervously cleared his throat. "Well, even assuming that you can wake Faith and somehow take Buffy's powers, what makes you think that Faith will be a willing helper? I mean, as far as she is concerned the last thing she will remember is being our enemy."

Willow curled a piece of hair nervously as she tried to answer. " I know exactly what you mean Wesley, and believe me I have the same fears, but somehow I feel that Faith will be different. I don't know if it is because of being the only Slayer, or having been in a coma, or something else, but," and Willow shifted on the sofa as she tried to express her thought, "I guess it just feels right to me, like this is what we are meant to do."

"Anyway," added Cordelia on a more practical note, "she could hardly be any worse than Buffy is at the moment. And if Faith's still psycho, we'll just put her back into the coma."

While Wesley and Giles looked a bit nervous at the prospect of trying to capture a renegade Faith, Willow spoke up. "It seems to me that we don't really have a lot of choice. Those demons are in Sunnydale now, and I'm guessing we don't have much time. If we can get to the hospital at dusk and wake Faith, then we may be able to go to find them tonight."

"Please try to remember that Faith has been in a coma for several months. She will no doubt need some time to get her bearings," Giles pointed out.

"Too bad," was Spike's blunt reaction. "She's no good to us in a month's time, we wake her and she slays the demons. She's got all those super powers, let's see her use 'em."

Seeing that Giles was on the verge of starting an argument with the blonde, Angel quickly intervened. He knew first hand that once Spike got started, they could be there for hours listening to his views on Slayers, none of which would really be appreciated by the two Watchers.

"There is no point discussing this now. It seems to me we could go to the hospital now, if Giles can bring the car to the door, Spike and I can use blankets for cover. That will give us more time to see Buffy, and try and rouse Faith, and if we succeed she will have a few hours to recuperate before dusk. We can then decide whether we think she's ready."

"Assuming Willow can actually wake her up," Cordelia pointed out helpfully, ignoring the hurt look on Willow's face and the nervous glances the redhead received from the Watchers.

"Of course we can do it," said Willow, sounding much more confident than she felt. But as she leaned more heavily into Spike's cool body, and felt Angel give her hand a reassuring squeeze, she felt a little of her nervousness dissipate. Maybe they really could do, she mused. Anyway, there was only one way to find out.

Xander paced nervously as he waited outside Buffy's room. Willow had called him and told him to meet her there, and he was anxious to get an update from her on what was going on.

He hadn't even known that Buffy was in the hospital, hadn't spoken to her since Cordelia had dragged him along on her "Mission: Impossible" book recovery.

He had a feeling he and Willow had a lot of catching up to do.

Xander had gone in to see Buffy, and was horrified by her condition, although he had done his best to hide his reaction from Mrs Summers. Xander was unable to wrap his brain around recent events, and he just wondered what the hell had happened to rip everyone apart in such a short space of time.

But the more he thought about it, the more Xander realised that whatever problems had surfaced in recent days had been around for a lot longer than that. Irritated with his own introspection, Xander was relieved to hear his name called, turning to find himself enveloped in a bear hug as Willow flung herself at him, squeezing him with surprising strength.

"Wills! What the hell is going on? Buffy looks like she's on the menu for Thanksgiving, Cordelia's turning into SuperGirl, you're involved with Deadboy and Deadboy Junior, and, and," Xander's voice trailed off as he realised his words were becoming increasingly high- pitched, and he tried to take deep breaths.

Willow gave him a sympathetic look. "I know, I know, it's too weird for me as well, but look, we have to do something," and she gestured casually to the two vampires who were standing close behind her, keeping a careful eye on the reunion, "you stay here with the others and they can update you."

His mouth half open as he tried to organise his thoughts sufficiently to form a coherent sentence, Xander's brain belatedly advised him to stop bothering, as he glimpsed the door to Buffy's room swinging shut behind Willow and the vampires.

Willow walked to Buffy's bedside, nervously rubbing her hands together as she wondered what she was supposed to do next. Maybe wave her hands in the air and yell "Abracadabra"?

Sighing, Willow turned to Angel, and looked at him hopelessly. "I don't know what to do," she said in a dejected voice. Angel quickly moved across the few steps that separated them and slid his arms around her small frame. "Don't worry, we can work this out," he said soothingly, while wondering how on earth they were going to find out how to activate Willow's powers.

He heard a snort, and looked in displeasure at his grinning grandchilde, standing next to them and snickering.

"Something funny, boy?' Angel asked in a dangerous growl.

"Sod off Peaches," said Spike lazily, fully aware that he was fairly safe from Angel's temper with the Watchers outside and Willow here. "If you want to play hide the sausage with Red here, I am definitely in, but I thought we were meant to be doing a job. You know, Slayer, Buffy, demons rising, is any of this sounding familiar?"

Angel started to growl, but the feel of Willow in his arms, her hands rubbing his back in what he guessed was meant to be a soothing way - although to tell the truth that was not exactly the effect it was having on him - anyway, the end result was that his mood was swinging more towards lust than anger at the moment, despite his childe's provocations.

"Don't mind Spikey," Willow said playfully, "he just wants to see you get covered in chocolate." Enjoying the golden tinge that entered her lovers' eyes, Willow freed herself from Angel's arms and looked down at Buffy, trying to gather her thoughts.

"Spike, do you have any idea what we should do?"

"Bloody Hell, it's so obvious," said the blonde, a smug smile firmly in place as he enjoyed a brief moment of power over his mates.

"Well are you going to enlighten us, then?" asked Angel, shaking his head to try to clear it of images of chocolate and Willow's pink tongue and ... (focus, focus!) he repeated to himself.

"Well...." said Spike, still enjoying this chance to irritate his sire too much to let it go quickly.

"For Goddess' sake Spike, do you want to spend all day in this hospital with unconscious Slayers, or will you just help us so we can do what we have to do and go back to Giles house. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I can think of something more interesting to fill the hours before dusk than arguing with Angel."

Willow's flashing eyes and irritated tone convinced Spike it was time to play nice. "Alright, alright, no need to get upset pet," said Spike, trying to look as innocent as possible. "Look, it just seems like the whole emphasis here is on the three of us, you are one, blah blah blah, if I've heard it once I've heard it a hundred times. Last night we did the holding hands thing, and that worked, so it seems bleedin' obvious that's the way to go."

Angel looked dubious, but Willow smiled slowly. "Well, well, well, Spike, looks like you're behaving after all. Now what was that reward system again?" As Spike made to lunge for her, Willow laughed and dodged to the other side of the room, leaving Buffy lying on her bed between them. Angel sighed needlessly. "Children," he said sternly, watching them both glare at him for interrupting their fun, "I believe we have a theory to test?"

So the three linked their hands, Angel standing beside Spike so that the circle of their arms formed on top of Buffy's still form. Nothing happened.

"OK, well maybe we need to focus," said Willow, trying to concentrate on the power she knew was humming within her. She closed her eyes and visualised the centres in her mind that were Spike and Angel, smiling slightly as she caught the happy glow that both were giving off. As she concentrated she could feel their presence in her mind grow stronger, could almost see the bonds that bound them together.

She slowly became aware of the soft strains of a wild music humming through her mind gradually becoming louder, and she felt the strange sensation of her power start to move, flowing through her to her mates and then back, each time returning stronger than before.

Willow opened her eyes to see that both Spike and Angel had their eyes shut, and both had dazed expressions, completely overwhelmed by the power surging through the bond. She looked down at Buffy, and she focused on the Slayer's still form, until she saw the same energy patterns that she had noticed in her dream start to become visible.

"A Slayer no more," Willow muttered, and she suddenly saw that a part of the energy swirls on Buffy had become more vibrant. Somehow Willow knew that this was the centre of the Slayer's powers. Focusing as hard as she could, Willow repeated, "a Slayer no more," and watched in amazement as the energy patterns burned brightly then disappeared, leaving the remaining colours to run together over the removed patch.Willow also noticed that the colours were swirling in a different, more harmonious way.

Willow felt a sudden emptiness as the energy within her dissipated, and in her surprise she let go of her mates' hands, rubbing her head to shake out the strange sensations. She slumped slightly, feeling exhausted and almost hollow now that the music of her power was once again muted to an indistinct hum.

Two sets of cool hands suddenly descended on her body, and Willow found herself embraced and soothed by her mates, who gently stroked her trembling frame until she calmed, regaining her equilibrium as she enjoyed the attentions of her mates, made all the more welcome by the love she could feel flowing through the bond.

"Willow?" asked Angel, wondering what had happened. He had felt the link come into place, felt the power that had flowed between them, but he was not sure what exactly Willow had done. "Did it work?"

The redhead leaned back against Spike as she looked thoughtfully at Angel. "I think so," she said, torn between doubt and amazement. "I think so!"

Angel smiled and leaned down to feather a kiss against her lips. "One down, one to go," he reminded her, and Willow nodded in agreement as the trio slowly left the room, arm in arm.