Radisson Hotel, Colorado Springs

"So what did Willow say?" Xander asked around a mouthful of popcorn. He chewed, happily, as he waited for her to answer.

Buffy tossed her cellphone onto the bedside table and stretched back out beside him on the only open bed. She stole a handful of his salty treat in the process. "She said that the old guy is the girls father and them dancing in the rain signified her being ready to marry."

Xander shoved another handful of popcorn into his mouth. "Hm." He mulled over the explanation for a moment as he chewed. "And the water buffalo?" He asked once he swallowed.

"There's always a water buffalo in these kinds of films." Buffy pointed out. "But Wil is certain that in this movie this water buffalo is a beloved pet that is mourned greatly at the end." She quoted her friends exact words.

"Mourned?" Xander frowned and sat the bowl of salty goodness on the bed between them and turned towards her. "When does it die?!" He demanded to know then grew defensive at the look she was sending his way. "What? We've been watching this movie for over two hours and I've grown rather attached to Philip. He's the only character in the entire movie that I understand!"

Buffy chuckled and patted his leg. "Philip the water buffalo, huh?" She sounded skeptic in his choice of names. "He doesn't look like a Philip." She added for good measure.

Xander stuck his tongue out at her and narrowed his one eye. "Like you could do better?" He faked a cough. "Mister Gordo." Another fake cough followed.

As Buffy opened her mouth to defend her beloved stuffed pig, the girl on the other bed began to stir. "About time." She was starting to go stir crazy being stuck in doors for so long, only going out to get things they absolutely needed. "Shut that off." She motioned towards the tv then the remote in his hands as she slid off the bed and into the chair that had been placed at the girls bedside.

Clicking the tv off, Xander followed Buffy off the bed they had been lounging on. "I was beginning to worry." He admitted as he sat down on the foot of the girls bed.

Buffy nodded. "So was I." They had stopped giving her transfusions hours ago but she hadn't shown signs of life until now. "Hey, can you hear me?" She leaned down, closer to the girl, and asked.

Groaning, Cassie opened one eye then another. Why did they feel so heavy? Blearily, she looked at the form sitting beside her. "What happened?" She mumbled around a dry tongue.

Xander handed Buffy a bottle of water from the floor by his feet before she could ask for it. "You don't remember?" He took over the questioning while Buffy tended to her needs at the moment.

"Here, drink this." Buffy pressed the bottle to her dry lips and held it as she drank. "Go easy or you'll make yourself sick." She warned.

Cassie took several large gulps but took the warning to hear and stopped before she consumed too much. "I remember..." She trailed off as she tried to recall the events that lead up to this point. "I was downtown at Omni with some friends and this boy asked me to dance." Her eyes glazed over as the events began to come to her, little by little. "He said he needed a smoke and asked if I'd join him outside to keep him company." A hand reached up to touch her neck but instead of skin encountered the softness of a bandage. "He kissed my neck and then I felt coldness. I think...I think he bit me." Confusion colored her voice. "Why would he do that?" She mumbled and reached out to clutch the nearest hand, which happened to be Buffy's. "I heard a noise but I couldn't move and suddenly he was gone. You saved me, didn't you?" She blinked to clear the fuzziness from her eyes. "It was you that pulled him away from me." It was whispered as brown eyes locked with hazel.

"Can you tell me your name?" Xander asked after hearing her recount of events. She seemed clear headed but he needed to be sure.

"Cassandra Fraiser." Cassie felt her eyes drop as sleep pressed at her. "Why do I feel like I was hit by a mack truck?" She tightened her hold on the hand she was clutching.

Buffy smoothed back a piece of sweat soaked hair on the girls forehead using her free hand. "Like you said, he did bit you. And because of the bit you lost some blood. So you need to rest, okay?"

Cassie tried to nod her head but winced in pain. "Where am I?" She finally noticed her surroundings and they didn't look familiar.

Xander pushed himself to his feet and opened his arms wide. "Welcome to our humble, temporary, abode. I like to call it Xander's love nest." He grinned, wickedly, thrilled that the girl was alright.

Rolling her eyes, Buffy stood and smacked him on the arm. "And to the rest of planet earth that doesn't live in Xander's universe, it's called the Radisson and it's located downtown. Are you hungry? We have some left over white rice from Chinese we had at lunch, you should be able to keep that down."

"Maybe later." Cassie felt her stomach lurch at the mention of food. "I should probably use your phone, though, before Sam has the entire Air Force out looking for me. She's so going to kill me." She noticed a look pass between the two. "What? Did something happen to Sam?" She demanded to know as she tried to push herself up on the bed.

"We're not sure. We tried calling but no one answered and Buffy swung by her house this morning and she wasn't home so..." Xander explained as Buffy forced the girl to lie still. "I'm sure she's alright. How much trouble can she get into working at NORAD?" It was an innocent enough question, if you truly were clueless to what was going on under Cheyenne Mountain.

Cassie forced herself to calm down. "You're right." She finally conceded. "She probably just got caught up in a project at work. She does that sometimes." She felt her eyes droop. "I think I'm gonna go to sleep now, 'kay?"

Buffy smoothed back another strain of hair. "Okay." Buffy whispered when she noticed the girl was already asleep. "She has old eyes." She told Xander after several minutes of silence.

Xander stood and stretched. "She does." He walked over to the table and began to rummage through the cartons of cold Chinese. "Ah-ha!" Turning, he had a fortune cookie clutched in his hand. "How long you figure she'll sleep?" He unwrapped his prize, snapped it in half, and shoved half into his mouth and tossed the other half to Buffy.

"Couple hours, I imagine." Buffy snatched the sailing half of cookie out of mid air and popped it into her mouth. "Hand me my phone, would ya? I wanna call Giles and see if he knew about Oz being in the states."

"You think he's keeping stuff from you again?" Xander asked as he stepped over to the bedside table, grabbed her phone, and tossed it to her before plopping down on the soft mattress.

Buffy shrugged. "Never hurts to be sure, now does it? Doctor Jackson said Oz was flying into Colorado Springs anyways, kinda suspicious isn't it? If it's council business, why haven't we been informed? Hm? You are a Watcher aren't you? And I am a Slayer, last time I checked." She had completely forgotten about the disk Oz had slipped her.

Xander propped his head up. "It is kinda suspicious seeing as we are here too." He frowned. "I hate it when G-Man goes all...old school on us."

"He'll learn someday not to keep things from us, especially the me part of us." Buffy hit one and waited for the phone to dial the familiar number saved on speed dial. "Hi, Jeanie, I need to speak to Giles." She rolled her eyes. "It's Buffy, Buffy Summers? No, I don't have an appointment. No, I won't call back later!" Covering the mouthpiece, she gave Xander a look. "Still think he's not sleeping with this one? She doesn't even know who the hell I am!"

"Man, he gets laid more than I do." Xander pouted. "That is so not cool! He's like old and I'm like not!"

Buffy moved her hand. "What do you mean he isn't taking any calls from me today. Why not? He's busy? Doing what?!" She demanded to know.

Xander watched as Buffy's knuckles began to turn white from clutching the phone.

"You can't tell me?" Buffy's voice dropped and turned cool. "Well then, tell Giles that he better call me when he gets unbusy or he's going to have to deal with one pissed off Slayer!" She hit the end button and flung the phone onto the bed with a growl. "He's not taking any calls from me, what's up with that?" Her voice turned from cool to hurt.

"Maybe he's mad because we both took off to the states without consulting him first?" Xander suggested.

Buffy snorted. "Or maybe he hiding something from me?" She made her own suggestion.

Xander nodded. "Or maybe that too." He agreed and scooted over so she could lay down beside him.

"I hate him somethings, Xand." Buffy crawled into the bed and snuggled up to his side. "He keeps things from me, important things, then wonders why I get all angry and pissed off when I find out. It makes me wonder if Dawn is safe there with him."

"He'd never hurt Dawn, Buff." Xander placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Besides that, Andrew's there with her. He wouldn't let anything happen to his little wookie-pie." He said with a smirk, using the nickname Andrew made up for Dawn. "How'd those two ever hook up, anyways? You never did tell me." Not so subtlety he changed the subject.

Buffy signed but didn't say anything when he changed the subject. "Dawn said it was love at first fight. They were arguing in the kitchen over what to make for dinner and she slapped him. Needless to say, he slapped her back and..." She made a face. "The rest is history."

Xander chuckled. "Who would have thought that Dawnie was into that kind of thing? I mean it's no surprise with Andrew, he's always been weird and slightly deranged. What do you think about their engagement?"

"I try not to, actually." Buffy said, softly. "I wasn't too comfortable, at first, with her dating the little weasel, not after all the trouble he caused. But, as Dawn is so fond of mentioning, he proved himself in the end. So as long as he treats her right and doesn't try to end the world or murder someone, I'm cool with it. I haven't seen her this happy since...before the divorce. I'm not going to be the one to take that away from her. Not now or ever."

"You're a good sister, Buffy Summers." Xander wrapped her in a hug and breathed in the scent of her perfume. "Dawn's lucky to have you."

Buffy felt herself blush at his kind words and managed to wrap her arms around him in return. "And you're too good to be true, Xander Harris." And that's the way they stayed for the next two hours, wrapped in each others arms.


Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado Springs

Oz fought back the urge to roll his eyes. Ever since Daniel had connected the names that the Carter's had been researching with those he interviewed about some incident at a café, all hell had broken loose. Everybody was talking at once and Colonel Davis, his escort for the day, was trying to bring things under control. "I'll give you one final chance to tell me why you wanted this information so badly. If you don't tell me, Great Britain and France will both pull their support for this little program." He stated calmly and knew they had heard him when the room grew quiet once again.

"Excuse me?" It was Daniel that broke the new wave of silence. "Was that a threat?"

"No, it was a promise. As Colonel Davis mentioned at the beginning of this...meeting...your Commanding Officer is meeting with the President for a briefing on this very subject. The Prime Minister of Great Britain and the French President will also be attending the briefing." Oz told them, matter-of-factly.

Sam had fought to keep her private life private but now she had no choice or did she? "Why is France involved?"

Oz eyed her. "France owes us a favor." Was all he said. "I don't know what you do here..." He motioned towards the closed blast doors blocking the view to anything beyond the briefing room. "But I do know that it's secret and extremely classified. Those two words usually don't go well with United States Military added in, as the Prime Minister and French President are now learning. Be happy that it was the Army, not the Air Force, that screwed up last time or we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Now do you really want this information or not?"

"Buffy Summers and Xander Harris came to my house yesterday afternoon. They claimed that Xander just found out that he was adopted and that I was his sister." Sam finally admitted with some reluctance.

"Really?" If Oz was shocked, he didn't show it. As a matter of fact, Oz didn't show much emotion at all. "Interesting." This was not what he had been expecting or what he had been told to expect. "Did they say anything else?"

Sam shook her head. "Not really. Buffy just said that they'd be in town for a couple more days and that Xander was a good man.

Oz nodded, once. "He is a good man. A good friend too." He pushed the two folders towards her. "You and whoever else reads the files will have to sign the forms inside saying you won't tell anyone about what's in the folders and about this meeting. No one outside this room is to know, understood?" He waited until she passed out the papers and each person signed them and passed them to him. "If you break the agreement, not even your government will be able to protect you." It was clearly a threat and he left it that way. "Now, if you will excuse me, I places to be and people to see." He stood, gathered up his signed forms, and motioned for Colonel Davis to lead the way.

Jacob cleared his throat to stop the younger man from leaving just yet. "The newspaper articles we read about Sunnydale, were they true?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Oz threw over his shoulder as he followed the Colonel out of the room.

Daniel waited until he was sure Oz was gone before speaking again. "I think we just got a polite classified handed to us. It felt weird being on the receiving end, didn't it?" He was trying to break the tension that was still hanging heavy in the room. "So...want to fill me in?"