I still like this one so please update again soon.

Very interesting. Any chance in this making a comeback?

I would love to read more of this story. I am interested in seeing what comes next in this nice and sweet tale. Thank you for posting what you have.

Thanks for the comments :-). The next part will appear eventually - as soon as I decide a few plot points that are up in the air.

very interesting.

I'm really enjoying this. Your take on Joyce is really unique and while terribly unusual is somehow made believable by your story. Give yourself a pat on the back and kep up the great work. I'll be back to read more when you get it posted. Thanks for sharing your fic with us.

-Ellie

I like this. Its slow-paced and emotional (for now), which makes it very different from most other fics. Looking forward to more.

Interesting so far. It will be interesting to see the reaction of people when Willow resurects Buffy.

This is such a lovely story. I love Joyce centered stories and now that you have added Dawn back to the mix, I think this is going to a favorite story of mine. I like the way you are characterizing all the main players. I was afraid you were going to have Willow go all wonky, but the way she reacted was perfect. I can't wait for more of your story, especially if an evil immortal type tries to get to Joyce by kidnapping Dawn. I would expect heaping piles of bodies if that happens. Especially if it is a Tuesday. Lol!

this is interesting and pretty cool. love the connor!

Joyce has an interesting idea about handling her Watcher, and I wonder how it will work out. I also wonder if Adam will be assigned as her watcher and the thought of a possible Joyce/Methos pairing intrigues the hell out of me. As for Con Crit, I couldn't find anything in this story that I thought needed changing, not even a typo.

Thank you for updating this story! I'm greatly looking forward to the next one. :-D

Picking the Watcher was very tricky. Honest. It had to be a non-mmortal and someone Joyce would trust around Dawn. And someone I thought would add another dimension to the story (It's really too bad I couldn't use Cordelia. She would have been perfect.)

It's someone from a completely different fandom. Hopefully, how I insert them into this story works out.

I really have no planned pairings for Joyce - Connor, Adam, or otherwise. She's going to be focused on Dawn and her gallery for this story and doesn't need to romantic distractions.

Great Joyce / Dawn. The Highlander characters work well. I am not so sure about Conner but considering the movie versions - who can really tell?

Will you be bringing Spike or Xander in? Those are the only ones I see as possibly working with the way you have set this up unless you picked Wesley.

More soon please.

Thanks for the comments.

The original Highlander movie just barely fits into the tv series mythos but that is what I'm trying to base Connor's character on. But at this point expect only minor appearances from him for the rest of the story.

As far as appearance by other Sunnydale denizens... I have left it open enough for Xander to wander thru at some point but I have no definite plans for him to appear.

But no Spike or any other of Buffy's groupies. And if Buffy does get resurrected (A big IF at this point) she won't be showing up for a very long time...

Eleanor of Aquitaine was the person I thought of when I saw the title of this fic, but I have to admit I'm not at all familiar with her sister Alix. I'm enjoying that you've made Joyce an immortal and am looking forward to seeing what you do with the rest of this interesting tale. I love it so far!

Well... Eleanor of Aquitaine was who I actually thought of first... but she was too famous/well known for her to work in this story.

Her sister Alix had the same background (part of the nobility of what eventually became France) and she ran off with someone else's husband (a Count?), eventually married him, had several children, was divorced (and he married again), and she died a year or two later, before she was 30 - if I have the dates/hisotry correct. She seems like the perfect semi-tragic, semi-obscure figure to make an immortal. And a distinct contrast to Amanda who would be the same approximate age but from a completely different background.

Thanks for the comments :-)

Joyce! Holy SH*t! That woman is gorgeous in a way that makes my fifty six years seem like I could make a successful play for her affections. I was born in '51, so

it's not completely out of the question,right? Oh yeah,made up character,pretend single woman and I thought her real husband kicked acting ass in Mad About You.

I felt every moment of loss watching The Body and reading that Joyce is a long time immortal comes as welcome relief for my fantasy reading heart.

Dawn is going to have a tremendous shock. I look forward to reading more.Soon!

I think your story works well so far, and I very much enjoy reading it. The meeting of Dawn and her mother should be difficult to get right, I wish you luck with that,
Chaja

Thanks for the coments :).

Yeah, the next part is basically written except for that... I've been writing around it for the last week or two (I'll probably have the NEXT part after that finished before I have the Dawn-Joyce scene worked out to my satisfaction.)

Unfortunately, it isn't my only story at that stage - the emotional confrontation - I have 3 other stories at the same kind of juncture right now %(. I used to think writing action was harder... now I'm not too sure.

I'm sorry, I don't buy this chapter. Magic can do a lot of things, possibly even forge documents. Dawn was just being chased by a bunch of fanatical knights, and they only know all that came after them and Glory are dead. There could be a training camp and administrative center. What happened to Glory's minions? Do they know Doc is dead? They haven't seen or heard from Hank in years, and suddenly this... guy... shows up and says he's going to take Dawn to her father. Who can't even be bothered to show up. I think Willow would have gotten violent then. In addition Dawn's asking to "take" Xander, a grown man, who has dedicated his life to fighting on the Hellmouth, a Hellmouth now without a protector and who has a girlfriend and a job is ridiculous. She's old enough to know better.

In addition I enjoyed the first chapter at first but over further scrutiny, if Joyce is going to eventually reveal herself to Dawn, then why not come back while her "golden girl" is fighting for her life against a far superior foe? I'd have loved for this story to work for me. But really it just doesn't.

Oddly enough, this story is not about Glory or the cleanup afterward. If you'll go back and watch the last few episodes of Season 5 and the beginning of Season 6 -- none of your questions are addressed by canon. Or in this AU story (I'm assuming you remember this is AU)

This story is about Joyce and how SHE reacts and picks up the pieces after Buffy's death - if you go back and read the first part you should see that there was a reason why Joyce wasn't there after her supposed death. Why she wasn't there to help Buffy. I made it very clear that it wasn't Joyce's choice to not be there.

Note: That particular issue will be addressed during the course of this story. Though in large part for Dawn's benefit.

You are also forgetting how old Dawn was at this time. We are obviously seeing things through her eyes through a large portion of this chapter. She was still a kid when Buffy died.

I'm sorry this doesn't work for you. It tells the part of the story I wanted it to. I also warned in my authors notes at the beginning of it that I wasn't going to make a big production out of Dawn leaving Sunnydale.