Buffy took the towel Giles offered, watching him carefully.

It really wasn't reassuring that he looked as freaked out as she felt.

She wrapped the large towel around her shoulders, shivering a little, and watched as he dried himself and retrieved his glasses from the counter. His hands were shaking which, for Giles, meant serious worry.

As he shrugged into his robe, Buffy whispered, "Giles, what's going on here?" She did her best to steady the trembling in her voice. Vampires, demons, she knew how to fight those. But this-? Even if we can figure out what's causing this, how can you fight something that's in your own head? Her hands trembled as she gripped the edges of the towel where it hung around her shoulders.

He stepped close, enveloping her in a warm embrace and, despite all that was happening and that she could hear his heart pounding in his chest, Buffy relaxed against him. There was just something so reassuring about his presence, even when neither of them knew what was going on.

We've been through so much else together. We'll figure this out, too.

"I don't know what this is, love," he murmured, pressing a kiss into her damp hair. "But we will figure it out." Buffy nodded into his chest and took a steadying breath.

"I know. It's just... freaksome, you know?"

Giles stepped back slightly and when she looked up at him, she could see the rueful smile. "I do, indeed." Reaching out and taking her robe from the hook, he helped her wrap into it and they went out to the living room as quickly as they dared, fearing another round of vertigo. It seemed to be quiet but Buffy noticed an unsettling doubled effect to her vision as they made their way out into the living room.

She curled up into one end of the couch as Giles dropped into one of the armchairs. "Right," He said with a deep breath, visibly pulling "research mode" around him like a piece of clothing. "Let's look at this logically."

Buffy smiled in spite of herself. She could almost see the wheels turning as he thought, almost hear him running through mental lists of possible research materials.

Some things never change. Put a Watcher in a strange situation and the first thing they want to do is hit the books.

"You know," she said, as drily as he ever had managed, "the response from most people to something like this is not 'ooh, I bet I'll get to research it'."

He glanced at her, one eyebrow raising in surprise. "How did you know-?"

Buffy scoffed. "Please. I know you."

Giles gave her a withering look which, of course, had little effect. "By now you should be well aware of the fact that I am not 'most people'." He stood and began to pace, looking as if he promptly regretted it as another wave of vertigo flashed through. Buffy was grateful she had been sitting down for it. Giles had to reach out and catch the edge of the mantle to steady himself.

What does it mean that it seems to be hitting both of us?

"It had to have been that little demon," she said aloud, "It's the only thing that makes sense. Its lightning bolt attack thingy hit both of us."

"I would agree," Giles murmured as he steadied himself once more and moved to his bookcases. "The only other thing that's been out of the ordinary lately has been... well..."

Buffy couldn't hold back a giggle. "You mean realizing we were madly in love with each other, had been lying to ourselves, then admitting how we really felt and becoming lovers all within the last few days? Yeah. That's all totally normal for us."

Giles turned to her with a look that said he wanted to scold her, but she could see the strained smile underneath.

"Quite."

Buffy frowned, thinking hard. "I can't see any of that causing this... whatever it is, though."

Giles examined his books, tracing one finger along the spines. "Nor I. So we are left with the demon." He pulled several books from the shelves and brought them over to where Buffy sat on the couch before seating himself next to her.

Buffy grabbed a book off the stack and flipped it open. Only to realize she had no idea where to begin.

"Giles," she complained, "why can't these things have indexes? Or tables of contents?"

He peered over at the book she held. "That one is separated by colors of demons. Just look for the section with demons that look most like the one we saw and narrow it down from there."

She grumbled under her breath and got to work, needing to close her eyes against the vertigo several times. The double vision really made it look like she was holding two books in one.

She jumped when Giles gave a cry of triumph. He laid out the book he had been leafing through on the table and gestured to a small drawing in the corner of one page, looking extremely proud of himself.

She leaned over, examining the yellowed page. The drawing certainly looked like the demon that had attacked them. There were even little wavy lines that seemed to show the crackling energy that had surrounded the thing. There was only one problem...

"Giles. This isn't in English. How am I supposed to-"

She trailed off as he protested that he would have, of course, translated for her. Because somehow, bizarrely, the longer she looked at the page the more she realized that she could read it.

Sort of.

This wasn't like reading in French class. She couldn't have said how the words on the page fit together or even that they were actually words. She had no idea what language it even was, but somehow she knew what each word, each sentence, meant as she looked down at the page.

"Giles," she said quietly, interrupting him, "Why do I understand what this says?"

Giles fell silent and tilted his head questioningly. "What do you mean, you understand it?" he asked, his voice very low and quiet. And that scared her almost more than anything else had that evening.

Serious Giles voice means this is bad. But what is it...?

"I-I'm not sure," she said quietly, "I don't recognize it as a language. But somehow I know what it says."

He frowned down at the page, glancing between it and her face. "I have no idea how that could be. I can read it, but I would never expect you to be able to..."

A sudden flash of intuition made her blood run cold as Giles trailed off and his eyes darted to her face, wide and shocked. It all suddenly made too much sense. The feeling of switching, being able to read these old books...

With shaking hands, she pulled several books from the pile, ignoring his squawk of annoyance as the stack teetered. She flipped them open one after another, confirming the same thing with each one. She had the same bizarre understanding of each language.

Giles watched her, worry creasing his brow. "Buffy, what are you thinking?"

She leapt up from the couch and began to pace, ignoring the washes of vertigo, only knowing she needed to move, to think. "Giles, there's only one thing that makes sense, that explains why I can understand these books, this weird double vision thing we have going on. That's why it seemed like I could read the book. I couldn't. Not really. But you can. And earlier when I just guessed that you were all excited about researching, what if..."

He stood quickly from the couch, moving in front of her and stopping her pacing with his hands on her shoulders. "Buffy, slow down! What are you getting at?"

She looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes. "We're switching places, or telepathic... or something... I don't know what, but think about it. It's the only thing that makes sense!"

He paled as her words sank in. She could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he thought and thought hard. Moving back to the bookshelf, he pulled out one with an odd, cracked leather cover, flipping it open to a random page. He held it out to her, his face white as he asked, "Can you understand this?"

She tilted her head to see the page. Flowing, spidery lines skittered across the page but it looked nothing like words to her. Buffy shook her head. "Nope, can't. But what does that prove?"

Giles flipped the book shut and replaced it on the shelf, his face grim. "I can't read it either. Supposedly it's a text on the flora of a demon realm but I don't know the language and I've never been able to get a translation."

Buffy sank down into the armchair, fighting down a rising panic. "Giles, last time this happened to me, we needed the demon that did it. That little demon is gone. What are we going to do?"

His expression was bleak. "I don't know."