Willow was supposed to be coming home from England after Giles had took there for witch rehab, and Buffy, Xander, Dawn and I were all at the airport that night to try to pick her up.

Xander was holding a white sign with 'WELCOME BACK WILLOW' written on it in yellow crayon. "You think she'll get the sign?"

"Get the sign?" I repeated. "I don't think she's gonna see the sign."

"Why is it so pale?" Dawn asked.

"I used yellow crayon," Xander answered. "It was a thing from when I talked to Willow on the bluff. I hope she gets it."

"Oh, tell us again what you said," Dawn told him sarcastically.

"Well, I was talking from my heart, and I knew Evil Willow wasn't really ready to..." Xander trailed off when he realized that Dawn was being sarcastic. "You were kidding."

Dawn smiled a little. "Mm-hmm. A little bit."

"We've heard the crayon speech a few times," Buffy told him. "Not that it's not great, of course."

"I saved the world with talking from my mouth," Xander told us. "My mouth saved the world."

Dawn nodded nervously. "Uh-huh. I'm getting nervous. Are you nervous?"

"Yeah," Buffy answered. "It's gonna be weird seeing her. What do you say to someone in this situation?"

I gave them a sarcastic look. "I'm gonna say, 'Hi, Willow'."

Buffy tilted her head at me. "Come on. You're saying it's not going to be the least bit strange? We saw her kill someone. She was about to kill all of us."

"And Giles wouldn't let her leave unless she completed that whatever recovery course," Xander told us.

"Right," Dawn told us. She looked at me. "Right?"

I hesitated, sighing. "She kinda didn't finish."

"She didn't finish?" Dawn asked. "She didn't finish not being evil?"

"H--he said it was really important that she come back early and that she was doing really well and we shouldn't worry," I told them.

"Guys, I just noticed something," Xander told us. "Everyone's off the plane, so where's Willow?"

We looked around, but we didn't see Willow anywhere.

•••••••

Buffy, Dawn, Xander and I walked into Buffy's house.

"They absolutely put her on the plane in London," Buffy told us.

"So, she got off in Chicago when they stopped?" I asked.

"She could've caught a flight anywhere from there," Dawn told us.

Buffy crossed her arms. "Maybe she doubled back. Got off the plane in London after Giles left."

"Well, if she's doing that, ducking Giles, then she's evil, right?" Dawn asked.

"Well, I've avoided Giles tons of times," Xander told us. "Just meant I was lazy, not evil."

"I hope you're right, because defeating lazy Willow, probably less hard," Buffy told us.

"We should check the messages, see if she tried to reach us here," I told them.

We heard something from further in the house.

"What was that?" Dawn asked.

"Upstairs," I told them.

We walked upstairs, but didn't see anyone.

"Willow, is that you?" Xander asked.

We looked around, disappointed.

•••••••

Later, Buffy, Dawn and I walked downstairs toward where Xander was sitting on the couch, sitting next to him.

"Definitely not up there," I told them.

"She didn't leave a message," Dawn told us.

"I checked with Giles again, too," Buffy told us. "Hasn't heard from her."

"Is he throwing a tasteful British wiggins?" Xander asked.

"Oh, with extra wig," Buffy answered. "He's blaming himself pretty hard, like he should've known she wasn't ready to come back. I--I kept telling him, you know, it wasn't his fault. Maybe something about us she couldn't face."

"Like she didn't think we were ready to forgive her?" I asked. "I get that."

"So Giles is blaming Giles, and we're blaming us," Dawn told us. "Is anyone gonna blame Willow?" I gave her a look. "Oh, don't give me shock face. I mean, will anyone around here ever start asking for help when they need it?"

"Look, if Willow flipped out, it's her bad," Buffy told us. "We can only be here for her so much if she won't be, you know, here."

•••••••

Buffy, Xander and I were standing over a body in the construction site the next morning, that had been peeled off completely.

"No skin," Buffy told us.

"Tough to look at us," Xander told us.

I sighed. "And yet my eyes refuse to look away." I rolled my eyes, frustrated with myself. "Stupid eyes."

"I found it first thing this morning," Xander explained. "I gave my crew the day off, and I called you right away."

I looked at Buffy. "We got to get a job where we don't get called right away for this stuff."

Buffy gave me an amused look. We heard a clanking noise coming from behind Xander, turning around, not seeing anyone there.

Xander turned to Buffy and me. "Yeah, I know exactly what you're thinking. Maybe Willow is back."

•••••••

It was my idea to go see Spike to see what he knew about what could be happening, going to the school basement.

"We can't use the blueprints to find our way around down here," Xander told us. "It's like the walls move or something."

We heard Spike from the boiler room. "Out! This is my place."

"I think I hear him," Buffy told us.

We followed the sound of Spike's voice. "You need permission to be here. You need a special slip with a stamp." We walked into the boiler room, seeing Spike pacing back and forth, apparently talking to himself. "And put your heart back in where it fell out. You call yourself finished, but you're not. Worse than ever, you are."

Spike stopped pacing, standing still with his head tilted down a little, silent and pensive.

I looked at Xander and Buffy, knowing that they saw how worried and concerned I was when Spike seemed to be losing his mind like this, but I didn't care. I looked at Spike in concern. "Spike? Spike."

Spike walked closer with a confused look, starting to talk in a more calm and restrained voice. "You went away. You've been gone since..."

"The church," I finished. "You worried me. I didn't--I didn't know what to think."

"We're here for a reason, Spike," Xander told him impatiently.

Spike looked away from us, toward empty air. "Tragedy. Is there blood?"

"He knows," Buffy told us. "He must have seen the body."

Spike was still looking at the air. "You did it once. I heard about it."

"Spike, we need to know who did this," Buffy told him.

Spike walked toward me, smiling sweetly. "Look at you... glowing. What's a word means 'glowing'? Gotta rhyme."

"Spike, please," I told him.

Spike backed away, looking worried. "I--I--I should hide. Hide from you. Hide my face. You know what I did."

"Boy, he's extra useful today," Xander told us sarcastically.

I gave him a look. "This isn't the time."

"Everyone's talking to me," Spike told us. "No one's talking to each other."

Spike turned to face over his right shoulder.

"Might as well go," Buffy told us.

Buffy and Xander nodded for me to leave with them. I sighed, walking toward the door with them.

Spike started pacing slowly more confident, stepping behind one of the bookcases. "Someone isn't here. Button, button, who's got the button? My money's on..." He stopped, facing his right. "The witch." We stopped walking, turning to face Spike in surprise. "Red's a bad girl."

"He's talking about Willow," I told them.

"And that means something because he's chock-full-o-sanity?" Xander asked sarcastically.

"Maybe he saw her," Buffy told us.

Spike was looking at the air again. "They think you did it. The Slayers and their boy. They think you took the skin."

"Is there something here?" I asked. "Something that killed?"

Xander gave Spike an offended look. "Their boy? I'm their boy?"

Spike walked toward us. "I have to go. There are things here without permission. I have to check their slips. Make sure they have authorization."

Spike walked away, deeper into the basement, leaving us completely confused.

•••••••

We were back at Buffy's house, meeting with Dawn, sitting around the dining room table, doing research, going through books and using a laptop.

"Okay, so I looked up demons that skin their victims and demons that flay their victims, 'cause, you know, same thing," Dawn told us. "There's a ton of prospects. Anything else gone? Uh, eyeballs, toenails, or viscera? That's guts."

I nodded sarcastically. "She knows about viscera. Makes you proud."

"Just skin," Xander answered.

"Okay, I'll work on that," Dawn told us.

Buffy sighed, standing, walking to a corner of the room. Xander and I stood, walking closer.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I need to do something," Buffy told us. "I just--I have this feeling in my gut--"

"In your viscera," Xander interjected.

"That we know exactly who did this," Buffy told us. "And all of this work that we're doing is just for us to convince ourselves that Willow's okay."

I didn't want to believe that Willow was behind this, and I wouldn't. Because I wanted to believe in her and know that she was fine.

"Oh, guys," Dawn told us, gesturing us to come over to her. "I got a good one. A demon called 'Gnarl'. He's a parasite with these nasty long fingernails. He secretes something through them and uses that to paralyze his victims. He then cuts strips of their skin while they're still alive. It takes hours."

"We didn't find any strips of skin," Xander told her. "Which, by the way..." He shuddered. "Guh!"

"You wouldn't," Dawn told us. "He eats them. That's why he's a parasite. It's like his natural food."

"Dawn, you're new at this, and I get why you're proud, but I'm not exactly sure why this demon is any more likely than any of the others," I admitted.

"You never said pool of blood," Dawn told us.

"There was no pool, just splatters," I explained.

Dawn nodded. "Then this is your guy. He laps up the blood. You could say it's like his natural beverage."

I pointed at Dawn. "You're terrifying."

Dawn smiled. "Now if we just knew how to find this thing."

"Well, we could ask some questions over at Willy's place," Xander told us.

"Or, we could be smart," I told him. "Sorry, Xander."

"What?" Xander asked.

"Whoever did this had to get blood on them, which means they left a trail," I told them.

"Right, minute traces of blood," Buffy agreed.

"And we have a way to track it," I told them.

Buffy frowned. "We have a..." She realized what I meant. "Oh, I get it."

"What?" Xander asked. "How? What's going on?"

•••••••

That night, we were following Spike through the woods as he was following the trail of blood by scent, mumbling to himself. "William's a good boy. Carries her water, carries her sin. Supposed to get easier, isn't it? Supposed to help to help, but it doesn't. Still so heavy."

"Should've put a leash on him," Xander told us.

"Yes, let's tie ourselves to the crazy vampire," Buffy told us sarcastically.

Xander looked at me. "Zoey, you really think it's gonna work?"

"It's pretty easy," I told them. "Spike follows the exciting smell of blood, and we follow the fairly ripe smell of Spike."

"It's smellementary," Dawn told us. "Also, I'm sure there's tons of stuff like this. You know, procedures we can use that don't involve magic spells. Just good solid detective work. And we can develop a database of tooth impressions and demon skin samples." She looked at me. "And I could wear high heels more often."

"Wow, that was so close to being empowered," I told her sarcastically.

"Everybody loves a slender ankle, Zoey," Dawn told me.

I gave her a sarcastic look.

Spike stopped walking, staring through bushes of a rock cliff. "That's it. End of the line. Everyone off." He turned to us. "Keep your ticket, you'll need that."

"That's a rock cliff," Buffy told him.

"Well, give him a break, Buffy," Xander told her sarcastically. "Maybe it's a vicious skin-eating rock cliff."

"There's a cave in it," Spike told us. "Look." He pushed the bushes aside to show us the cave in the cliff. He turned to us, looking at Xander weirdly. "I'm insane. What's his excuse?"

•••••••

Buffy, Dawn, Xander and I walked into the cave, seeming to be empty, even though there was a light from a fire.

"Dark and dank," Xander told us. "I was hoping it'd be dark and dank."

Buffy gestured for him to stop talking. "Shh. Do you hear that?"

I was listening for noises. "No, I don't. But now I do."

"Something's moving in here," Dawn told us.

"Guess we're in the right place," I told them.

We heard a voice. "All alone. Look at the shorn lamb. See how he trembles. Is it the cold wind? Or is it that the flock is nowhere to be seen? Poor little lamb all alone."

"You guys hear that, right?" Dawn asked.

"Yep," Xander answered.

"It's echoing," Buffy told us. "I know it sounds close, but I don't think--"

The demon Gnarl jumped out, suddenly scratching Dawn, before moving off to hide again in the darkness before we could see where he went.

I ran closer to where Dawn was on the ground worriedly. "Dawn! Are you okay?"

"I guess you so," Dawn answered shakily, uncovering her stomach to show us a large cut across it. "Poison paralyzes."

"Dawn, okay, we need to get her out of here," I told them. "We'll deal with him later. Seal him in."

We carried Dawn out of the cave, blocking the cave opening with large rocks to trap the demon inside so he couldn't leave until we came back for him.

•••••••

Xander, Buffy and I were carrying Dawn through the woods.

"The computer, that thing Dawn was reading might have an antidote for the paralysis," I told them.

Dawn couldn't really move her lips while paralyzed. "Um, Zoey?"

"What?" I asked.

"I'm really sorry," Dawn told me.

"Oh, it's okay," I told her.

"You couldn't help it," Xander told her. "It had paralyzing fingernails."

"Just like you said it would," Buffy told her. "So good on you."

•••••••

We carried Dawn into the foyer of my house to put her at home, carrying her horizontally like a roll of carpet.

"Okay, watch--watch the head," I told them.

"Gotcha," Xander told us.

Dawn still couldn't move her lips, making her voice sound funny. "Watch my head. Watch my head!"

We carried her into the living room.

"Sofa," Buffy told us.

We put Dawn on the sofa, but she rolled over face-down in the pillows. "Face up. Face up!"

Xander rolled Dawn over. "She's right, face up is better."

Buffy sighed. "Okay, I'm gonna check the computer. Find that page. See if there's an antidote."

Buffy walked out of the room.

I sat next to Dawn. "It'll be all right. We'll get you fixed up."

"You'll be doing limbo in no time," Xander told her.

"Yeah, as a pole," Dawn told us.

"No, not as a pole," Xander told her. "I promise."

I looked between them in amusement, sighing.

Buffy was reading from the laptop in the dining room. "Oh, got it. It says the paralysis is permanent." Dawn squeaked. "No, oh, wait, my bad. Permanent until the creature dies." Buffy looked toward us. "Sorry." She walked toward us. "Guess we have to go back."

"We can't just leave her here like this," I told them.

"What if she vomits?" Xander asked.

"Ew," Dawn told us. "I won't vomit."

Buffy looked at me. "Do you think she'll vomit?"

"Stop talking about vomit," Dawn told us.

I sighed. "I'll call my mom, see if she's off work yet. Or if not, Anya."

"Right, they'll love being called for vomit watch," Xander told us sarcastically.

I picked up the phone, dialing.

Dawn still couldn't move her mouth. "Stop talking about vomit."

•••••••

Anya was here now because our mom was still working, looking at Dawn. "I bet she's dying."

"She's not dying," Buffy told her. "She's just paralyzed."

"Oh, paralyzed how?" Anya asked.

"Paralyzed how?" I repeated. "In the not moving way."

"Well, there's lots of different ways," Anya told us. "Did you try this."

Anya took Dawn's legs, lifting them up ninety degrees, bending her at the waist. Her legs didn't fall back down.

"Hey!" I told her.

Dawn still couldn't move her lips. "Hey!"

"Oh, you're poseable," Xander told her.

"She's poseable?" Buffy asked.

"It's a common variety," Anya told us. "Watch this." she rearranged Dawn so that she was sitting on the couch now, upright. "Huh. Neat as you please. Hardly a need to undo her."

Buffy was eating a handful of nuts that Anya had brought. "Where'd you get the nuts?"

"Brazil," Anya answered. "No need to thank me, by the way, for sitting with her. I'm feeling very benevolent today. Helping Willow. Helping you. You might even call it even for that whole worm thing last week."

"Yeah, I don't think we could call--wait, you saw Willow?" Buffy asked.

"Mm-hmm," Anya answered. "Oh, she's looking for you, by the way. Decided you might be out in some cave. Sounded pretty tenuous."

"Cave?" Dawn repeated.

We were all worried now.

"Anya, listen, this is really important," I told her. "Did Willow go to that cave?"

"Mm-hmm," Anya answered. "Last time I saw her, that's where she was headed." She turned to Dawn. "Shall I make her salute? That'd be very cute."

"Xander, Zoey, she could be there right now," Buffy told us. "Willow could be trapped with the Gnarl."

Anya was playing with Dawn's head. "Uh, it's not 'The Gnarl', just Gnarl." She looked at me. "Oh, wouldn't it be tragic if you were being kinda silly with your comically paralyzed sister while Willow was dying?"

I walked over to Anya with a battle ax in hand. "Anya, you know about this creature?"

"Uh-huh, sure," Anya answered.

"You're coming with us," I told her, handing the battle ax to Anya.

Anya looked over the battle ax, finishing posing Dawn in a two finger salute, patting Dawn on the head, walking off.

Dawn grunted with displeasure because she couldn't do anything else.

Buffy, Xander and I started to follow Anya, but I ran back in to place the remote in Dawn's posed hand, before leaving.

Mom would be back at the house soon, and she would be with Dawn before we were finished with Gnarl.

•••••••

We were running back to the cave in the woods. Anya was lagging behind, apparently unable to teleport for anything except vengeance demon business because she had stopped her last vengeance wish.

"Anya, you gotta keep up," Xander told her.

"Uh, I'm out of shape," Anya told us. "I've been teleporting for months."

"Hurry," Buffy told us.

We kicked down the rocks to get into the cave.

Gnarl was kneeling on the ground, leaping up.

I swung my sword toward Gnarl, slitting him in the dead, making him run away.

Anya ran past us to the ground where Gnarl had been, kneeling down.

"What's going on?" I asked. "Where's Willow?"

"She's right here," Anya answered. "Can't you see her? She's hurt."

"What?" Xander asked. "Where?" He felt around with his hand. "There's nothing here."

"Your hand, it's going right through her," Anya told him. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, but I'm starting to get why we haven't seen her," Buffy told us.

"Because we haven't seen her," Xander told us.

"I have this feeling that whatever's causing this invisible thing is a whole separate issue from the skin-eating monster," I told them.

"Behind you!" Anya told us.

Gnarl lunged toward Buffy. I ran closer to pull Buffy out of the way just before Gnarl could slit her with the paralyzing fingernails, which only cut her shirt and not skin.

"Close one," I told her.

"Thanks," Buffy told me.

Buffy and I both used our swords or blades to slash toward Gnarl repeatedly from either side. Gnarl was ducking, dodging, or using his nails to deflect.

"Remember what I said," Anya told us. "Get him in the eyes. Willow, I'm here. Wow, you're really hurt. Buffy and Zoey are fighting the demon over there, see. But if they get too close, I'm gonna have to run. But they're here. Buffy, Zoey and Xander. No, they didn't leave you. They can't see you. Good. You're doing really good."

Gnarl leaped over Buffy's head to get toward me. I raised my sword to stab him in the foot to pin him down. Buffy turned toward us, plunging her thumbs into Gnarl's eyes to kill him.

Xander had to look away. "Ew. Ew. Thumbs? I can't believe you did that."

Anya was still talking to the invisible Willow. "Oh, Buffy killed the demon. It was gross."

Buffy and I ran over to Anya and Xander, but we couldn't see Willow.

"Willow, are you here?" Buffy asked.

"Where is she?" I asked worriedly. "Is she alive?"

"She's right here," Anya answered. She looked at Xander. "Okay, stand back. You're getting your feet in her."

Xander backed away. "Willow?"

"She's hurt really bad, you guys," Anya told us. "I'm gonna go get help."

Anya stood, leaving the cave.

Xander gestured over the floor. "I think she's sort of... here-ish."

"Willow?" I asked. "W--we can't exactly see you, but we're really glad that you're back. I--I don't know how badly you're hurt, but--"

Willow appeared on the ground in front of us, also in mid-sentence. "I couldn't find you guys and I looked everywhere. And the demon said that you left me, and..." She could see us now, too. "Oh, there you are. There you are. Don't go away."

Buffy, Xander and I instantly knelt next to Willow worriedly in relief now that we could see her.

"We're not going away," Xander told her. We saw that her wounds on her stomach were pretty bad. "Oh, God."

"It's gonna be okay, Willow," Buffy told her. "You're gonna be okay."

"I know," Willow told us. "You're here."

•••••••

The next morning, Buffy and I were in Buffy's house, seeing that Willow was in her room, seeing that she was sitting on the bed in pajamas, meditating. Buffy and I were about to leave her be.

Willow opened her eyes. "Buffy... Zoey..."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Buffy told her. "We didn't mean to interrupt."

"That's all I had left in me, anyway," Willow told us.

"I didn't realize meditating was such hard work," Buffy told her.

"I'm healing," Willow explained. "Growing new skin."

We walked toward her.

"Wow," I told her. "That's magic, right? I mean, when most people, when they meditate don't get extra skin, right? 'Cause Clem should, like, cut back."

Buffy and I sat on the bed next to Willow.

"It's magic," Willow answered. "I'm drawing power from the earth to heal myself."

"We're on the second floor," Buffy told her.

Willow chuckled. "You know Giles says everything's part of the earth. This bed. The air. Us."

"Explains why my fingernails get dirty even when I don't do anything," Buffy told us.

"Plus you stuck your thumbs in a demon," I told her.

"True," Buffy told us. Willow leaned back, exhausted. "You're wiped out." Buffy looked at me. "We--we should go."

"No, please stay," Willow told us. "I missed you so much, when I couldn't find you."

I nodded understandingly, worriedly. "We missed you, too. I missed you. Dawn's, uh, working on what caused the mutual no-see-ums, but, so far we haven't--"

"I did it," Willow told us.

"You did a spell?" Buffy asked.

"I didn't mean to," Willow explained. "I--I just remember thinking I wasn't ready to see you guys yet. I was afraid we wouldn't, you know, connect."

"So, you made it happen just by thinking it?" Buffy asked.

"Guess I have a ways to go before I master my powers, huh?" Willow asked.

"It's okay, as long as you're all right," I told her.

"It's nice to be forgiven," Willow told us. "Too bad I need so much of it."

"I have a confession to make," Buffy told her. "I thought it might be you, with the flaying."

"I know," Willow told her.

"I wanna be the kind of person that wouldn't think that," Buffy told her. "Zoey and Xander never thought it."

"Xander did, a little," I told them. "I never wanted to think it."

"It's okay, Zoey," Willow told me. "I thought it, a little. Xander has the luxury of not saying it, but you're the Slayers. You have to think and say stuff like that. It's okay. It's okay too if you still don't think I can recover from this magic stuff, 'cause honestly, I'm not that sure about it either."

Willow leaned forward, sighing, to begin meditating again.

"I thought you were too tired," I told her.

"It hurts too much not to try," Willow told us.

"I'm sorry," I told her.

"It just takes so much strength," Willow told us. "I don't have that much."

I smiled a little. "I got so much strength, I'm giving it away."

"Are you sure?" Willow asked.

"Will it help?" Buffy asked.

"Much," Willow answered.

"Good," Buffy told her.

Buffy and I sat cross legged with Willow, all of us holding hands, so that Willow could channel our power to heal herself, all of us smiling a little.

We had known that it would be hard. But at least it wasn't impossible.