Crap. It wasn't like he'd never seen his mother cry before, but there was three or four too many and his dad proving that Xander didn't get the smart mouth from some recessive gene somewhere, and there was... well, this.

If it were Dawn or Willow or Isabel, he'd know what to do or say to make them laugh, or just be able to reach over for a hug when there wasn't anything else to say, but here he was stuck awkwardly wrapping an elastic strap around his fingers tight enough to cut off circulation.

"No, it doesn't hurt. Well, sometimes I get headaches, but that's--" More about nerve-pressure and bone-damage, and hey whaddya know, there are some things he's not dumb enough to let himself get into. "--no big deal."