Title: Everyone Has A Secret In Sunnydale - Part 3
Author: Femvamp
Email: femvamp000@y...
Feedback: Yes Please.
Disclaimer: You all know the drill. I don't own the show. I don't
own the characters. I don't own anything of any value except my sick
and twisted mind.
Paring: Joyce/Professor Walsh (Hey just go with it.)
Spoilers: Mild Spoilers for Hush.
Author's notes: I though it would be fun to write Dawn into the plot.
Further note: *** denotes thought. ###Denotes written
And Yet Another Note: My timeframe may be off a bit but then again we
really don't know how many days/weeks/months are between each episode.

Chapter 3: Silent Words

It had been kind of an unspoken thing between them. No strings, no
promises. It was what they both wanted. They would occasionally run
into each other at the Nightlife bar and would inevitably end up back
at the motel. Sometimes one would leave after a few hours and
sometimes early in the morning. Neither woman knew much about the
other. Neither asked.

This particular morning wasn't different. Joyce woke up at dawn ready
to leave the motel and get back home before Dawn woke up. The last
thing Joyce wanted was to have her daughter ask questions, Joyce
wasn't ready to answer. Joyce had gotten dressed and was about to
leave when Maggie woke up.

That's when things got spooky.

*** My God. I can't speak. ***

Joyce looked at Maggie with panic in her eyes. Maggie quickly got up
and wrote something on a pad of paper.

### Don't panic. ###

Joyce read the note and almost immediately felt better. It was
strange. This woman had a calming affect on her. Every time she was
around Joyce felt all of her fears subside. It didn't matter what the
fear was, whether it was about Buffy and her "calling" or Dawn and her
pre-teen angst, or some dumb problem at the gallery. Whenever Maggie
was around, Joyce felt better.

Then again, there were times when this woman annoyed her to
distraction. Maggie Walsh was an intelligent woman who knew she was
an intelligent woman and demanded that everyone else be intelligent as
well. Maggie had once told her that she had been called, 'The Evil
Bitch Monster of Death' and sometimes Joyce understood why.

### I have to call Buffy. ### Joyce wrote.

### How? Can't speak. ###

*** Well Duh. Should have realized that. ***

Joyce just nodded and then grabbed her things. She jumped when she
heard a tapping on the desk.

*** Well at least I'm not deaf. ***

### Where are you going? ###

Joyce mouthed "home."

### Be careful. ###

Joyce smiled and mouthed "you too." Before she left.

As Joyce drove home she watched all the people around her. It seemed
that no one could talk. Joyce even drove past a man who was out early
selling boards and markers to write on.

*** American industrialism at its best. ***

Joyce walked into her house and called for Dawn before she realized
she couldn't speak. She immediately ran upstairs and looked in Dawn's
room. Dawn was still there asleep. Joyce smiled and went downstairs
to make hot cocoa for herself.

A few hours later Joyce heard glass breaking upstairs. She
immediately ran up the stairs and into Dawn's room where she saw her
daughter sitting on the floor crying. Joyce immediately went to her
daughter to comfort her. After a few moments she let go and then
walked to her daughter's desk.

### Hot Cocoa? ###

Dawn nodded her eyes still full of tears. Joyce smiled at her
daughter.

### Whatever it is, Buffy will take care of it. ###

Dawn smiled and then followed her mother downstairs where they drank
hot cocoa in silence both hoping that this indeed was something Buffy
could fix.

Continued in Part 4