________________Beginnings
Fanlisting opened on July 22, 2006 by Laura.

________________Info
The following was apart of the original fanlisting & is credited to Laura.

Written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner
Directed by David Solomon
Original U.S. Air Date: November 28th, 2000


________________Why Precious

JOYCE: That Dawn... She's not ... mine, is she?
BUFFY: No.
JOYCE: She's ... she does belong to us, though.
BUFFY: Yes, she does.
JOYCE: And she's important. To the world. Precious. As precious as you are to me.
JOYCE: Then we have to take care of her. Buffy, promise me. If anything happens, if I don't come through this-
BUFFY: Mom-
JOYCE: No, listen to me. No matter what she is, she still feels like my daughter. I have to know that you'll take care of her, that you'll keep her safe. That you'll love her like I love you.
BUFFY: (teary) I promise.
JOYCE: Good. Good.
JOYCE: Oh, my sweet brave Buffy. What would I do without you?

________________Episode Summary
Buffy, Dawn, & Joyce are informed that Joyce will have surgery in a few days. The Scooby gang takes care of patrol as to not bother Buffy. Meanwhile, Riley is allowing another vampire to feed from him but he does not stake her. Joyce is having outbursts and the girls (including Willow who had brought everyone gifts) decide to let her rest. Dawn gets a scare when a mental patient insists there is nothing inside of her.

Willow & Tara camp on the roof of a building and watch the stars. While there, they see a large object crash. The mental patient from earlier is walking through the forest when a creature kills him. The creature goes to the hospital undetected where it attacks a mental patient.

Buffy convinces the doctor to take Joyce home before the surgery. At home, Joyce says things she doesn't mean causing Dawn to be upset.

The Scooby gang finds that the creature is called a Queller demon which is sometimes summoned to rid the world of crazy people. At the Summer's house, Dawn listens to Joyce while she talks loudly to herself. However, she is talking to the Queller demon who is watching her from the ceiling. Dawn tries to ignore the talking while Buffy is downstairs doing dishes, sobbing.

The demon spits on Joyce and attacks her. Dawn hearing the commotion goes to check on her mom where she hits the demon. It flees the room and Dawn screams for Buffy's help. Buffy goes to find it where she finds Spike coming out of the basement stealing photos of her. The demon attacks before she has time to yell at him. Together they fight off the demon, which Buffy kills with a knife after wrestling with it on the kitchen floor. Riley comes bursting in with soldiers as Spike helps Buffy up.

Back at the hospital, Ben gets into his car only find that Dreg, Glory's minion, is waiting for him. He reveals that Ben is the one that summoned the demon in order to rid the growing number of people left from Glory's brain sucking. Meanwhile, Joyce who realized who Dawn is during her bought of mental breakdowns has it confirmed by Buffy. Joyce insists that Dawn her daughter and tells Buffy she needs to care for her if anything happens during the operation. Buffy & Dawn along with the Scooby gang watch as Joyce is wheeled off to surgery.