Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Season 8 Episode 14
What's on the Inside?
Chapter 4

"Is everything okay?" Julie asked as she returned from the counter with her coat and purse. She wrapped the long black coat around her shoulders and studied Xander's exasperated expression. She liked him a lot, but she'd picked up on the fact that he was dicy on the subject of his life before Cleveland but she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt…at least until the third or fourth date.

"Yeah just trouble back at the house," Xander replied. Xander felt his phone vibrating against his thigh and knew it was Buffy growing impatient and waiting for the address.

"You help run some sort of orphanage right?" Julie asked puzzled.

"It's a lot more than that but it's a long long long story," Xander replied looking shifty.

"Look Xander, I like you, but being an English teacher you know a thing or two about analysing and right now I can tell you don't wanna be here," Julie said as she tucked her hands in her pockets. "So if you wanna go then go-"

"No!" Xander interrupted, "trust me, there isn't anywhere I would rather be right now, it's not you," he saved. Julie's phone suddenly began vibrating in her pocket. She looked to it and her expression changed at the caller ID.

"Could you give me a sec?" she asked.

"Sure," Xander replied. Julie took a few paces back toward the sidewalk and flipped up her phone and held the receiver to her ear. The caller ID read Tyler Combs.

"Hello?" Julie greeted worried.

"Miss Carter?" a scared adolescent boy by the name of Tyler called down the phone over loud music.

"Tyler, what is it? Where are you?" Julie asked.

"I'm at Katie Higgins' party, could you come get me? Things are getting weird," he pleaded.

"What do you mean weird?" Julie asked.

"Please Miss, you said if I was ever in trouble to call you," Tyler said.

"What's the address? I'll be there as fast as I can," Julie replied.

"It's uh, uh, 134 Prescott Street," he told.

"I'm on my way," she exhaled as she closed the flap of her phone and tucked it back in her pocket. She swirled around on her heels and her long black hair followed behind her. She walked back to Xander and tried to think of a convincing excuse for why she had to leave other than the kid I mentor needs me to come get him. Instead she went with "I'm sorry, I've gotta take off."

"Wait, what?" Xander said flabbergasted.

"It's a long story, something you'd understand," Julie jabbed.

"And she comes out swinging," Xander said with a look.

"I'm sorry that was…unfair," Julie said.

"Don't worry about it," Xander said with a hand gesture.

"Call me though; I had a good time tonight. Maybe we could catch that movie another time," Julie suggested.

"I'll bring the popcorn," Xander nodded with a smile.

"Goodnight Xander," Julie smiled. She stepped onto the sidewalk, placed her palms in her coat pocket, and walked purposely to Katie's house. Xander, back in the coffee shop, felt his phone vibrating vigorously in his pocket still and he knew it was his impatient slayer friend waiting for an address. He had no idea how he was going to get it for her. Besides, in Cleveland he had no connections, no Willy the Snitch to bribe.
He then realised he'd just had coffee with the girls possible English teacher.

"Julie!" he shouted after her. From down the street she turned and made eye contact. Xander jogged down to her. "This is going to sound completely crazy but do you know a girl called Katie Higgins and her address?" he asked. Julie looked at him wide-eyed.


Back at Katie's party, Dawn and Seth stood weary near the door of the bedroom and listened to the shrill cries and coming growls of the blonde girl that was hidden from view behind the bed. Dawn's mind was running through every piece of lore and demonology she had ever read as junior watcher. Whatever was happening to Katie had to be supernatural. As soon as she saw Katie's elongating nails, her darkening eyes and heard the sound of her adjusting bones, she knew what was happening, but she had to be sure. Seth looked to Dawn like she was the second coming, he was completely confused, scared and he felt like it was his fault. Seth began, "Dawn, I really think we should call an ambulance-" He stopped still and quiet when Katie suddenly stopped screaming. The spine chilling sounds of Katies' bones cracking stopped completely and all Dawn could hear was the loud music and her own breath.
Dawn looked to the window and saw the almost Full Moon rise high into the sky. The sun had completely set.
Dawn grabbed Seth by the thread of his letterman's jacket and began pulling him from the room. Seth resisted when the sight of a shaggy light haired dog with black eye's leapt from were Katie was lying and onto the bed spread. "Oh my God," Seth hummed at the sight of it. Dawn looked to the monster and, almost superhero-like, pulled Seth from the room and closed the door of the bedroom so fast she could barely remember doing it.

"You have to help me barricade this door!" Dawn cried over the music on the landing. Seth, laid on the landing carpet after Dawn pulled him from the room, was in shock. He'd just watched as his girlfriend go from hot blonde to crazy wolf dog thing. He'd seen enough movies to know what was happening. He heard Dawn's outburst but it took a few moments for it to register in his brain, the sudden banging behind the door and Dawn's screaming did the trick though. He bounced from the floor and starting pushing cabinets from across the landing toward the door.

"Dawn what just happened!" he cried. He knew the answer, but he wasn't crazy enough to say it. Dawn avoided his eye-contact in order to avoid the question as she helped him carry a computer desk and put it in front of the door.

Dawn knew what was happening, she knew now why Katie had been off for the last month, she'd been bitten and was a werewolf.

Chase, stood at the bottom of the stairs, heard his girlfriends echoing screams from the landing. He looked over the head of the crowd and found Natalie, passed out and alone, on the couch where he'd last seen Dawn. He heard her scream again and bolted up to her. He found Dawn and Seth on the landing with their backs leaning heavily on a large cabinet full of plates and photo frames. He looked puzzled at them until he heard the banging coming from behind the cabinet. "What's going on?" he called.

"Chase! You have to get everybody out of here now!" Dawn yelled as the cabinet began to shake with the force of the werewolf behind it.

"Why?" he asked.

"Just do it!" Dawn replied.

"You heard her!" Chase said to Seth. Chase took Seth's place against the cabinet and was shocked at the force required to keep the cabinet from toppling over. "Did somebody break into the house?" chase asked frantically.

"You could say that," Dawn replied as calmly as she could. From downstairs the couple heard the music being cut off and the load complaints of the drunk and disorderly under 18's. The loud ripping and cracking of the wooden door behind the cabinet was heard throughout the house and it was then that the party goers heard the banging and growling.

"Dawn, this isn't going to hold, we should run now and call the cops from my car!" Chase warned. He took his weight from the cabinet and Dawn leaned harder.

"We can't let this thing out of the house!" Dawn rejected.

"What do you mean thing?" Chase asked as he tugged at Dawns' arm and tried to get her to leave.


Buffy walked briskly down Prescott Street looking for house number 134. "Buffy!" Xander called from behind her. She turned in her boots to find her best friend and a woman she'd never seen before in her life. She remembered Xander talking about his date but she was busy worrying about Dana and the patrol root. Julie and Xander caught up to Buffy and they greeted each other pleasantly. They arrived just as Seth turned off the music inside. "Buffy, this is Julie," Xander introduced. "Julie, Buffy, Buffy, Julie," he added.

"Hi," they greeted together.

"So are you a school mentor too?" Julie asked.

Buffy began, "Actually I'm-"

"Buffy's a volunteer…at the police station, yeah she uh, she got a call about the noise and that's why she wanted the address," Xander added.

"Oh, how…charitable," Julie said puzzled.

"I'm all about the law," Buffy replied sarcastically as she gave Xander a look.

"Looks like the party's died down, I should run inside and find Tyler and maybe the sight of a teacher might scatter the ravers," Julie nodded as she stepped up the path and out of earshot.

"A Police volunteer?" Buffy mocked with a playful smack to Xander's arm.

"It was all I could think of!" Xander replied.

"Why not tell the truth and say I just wanted to find my sister?" she asked.

"That would have made more sense," Xander acknowledged.

Buffy began, "Plus you don't bring a date to a…a-"

"A grounding? A scolding? A telling off?" Xander said with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't get all richeous on me Xander," Buffy said as she began toward the house.

"I'm not, but Buffy you called me out of a date to come along with you to scold your little sister," Xander said. "Where's the logic?"

"You sound like Giles," Buffy mumbled under her breath.

"Yeah well maybe Giles is right," Xander called after her. Buffy swirled around with a look in her eye that made Xander want to disappear into a bush. "Buffy, when you were Dawn's age you'd died, had sex and saved the world a bajillion times. I get that you don't want the bad stuff that happened to you to happen to Dawn, but if you don't loosen your restraints around her she'll suffocate."

Buffy punched Xander square in the jaw and he fell to the ground. Buffy stepped back; shocked at her outburst. Xander spat blood from his mouth to the ground.

"Hitting me won't make your issues go away Buffy, I love you, I lost an eye for you, I think I've earned the respect to be listened to by now," he said as he got back to his feet. "Dawn will never forgive you if you barge in there and drag her out…take my advice…just walk away."

All of a sudden, loud screams of panic and fear rang in Buffys' and Xanders' ears. Students began to flee the house in terror and glass smashing, doors breaking and people crying for help oozed from the scene. "You were saying," Buffy replied to Xander. Buffy took her stake from her jeans pocket and cut a path through the fleeing rampage. She got into the living room and looked as people toppled over couches, tables, stereos and TVs to get away from what looked like a large furry wolf. Buffy's eyes grew wide as she realised what it was. She looked to her stake and prayed for it to magically turn into a tranquiliser rifle. "Xander, get these kids out of here!" Buffy ordered.
Xander began shepherding students out of the house from the kitchen and dining room while Buffy looked to the wolf that seemed to be enjoying the pigs in blankets that where on the snack table. Buffy didn't have time to think of how she was going to deal with the situation best. A werewolf is only a demon three nights out of the month. There is always still a person in there. The wolf looked to Natalie's passed out body lying incapacitated on the red living room sofa. The wolf bound from the table toward the couch but instead it received a swift kick to the nose from Buffy's boot. It slid across the wood of the hallway and into the kitchen.

"Miss Summers!" Chase called from the landing. Buffy looked up to find Chase looking over the balcony with blood running from a cut on his forehead.

"Chase you have to get out of here!" Buffy shouted as she heard the wolf growl. She looked back to the kitchen where she'd seen it hit the ground but it wasn't there anymore.

Chase began to stammer, "I can't, it-it's Dawn she's-" The mention of Dawn was all Buffy needed to leap over the banister and bolt up the stairs. Buffy laid eyes on the scene. Dawn lay bleeding under a huge cabinet and what was left of the wood of a once expensive door. Chase had been trying to lift the cabinet off of her but the weight of it and with his injury it was proving impossible.


Outside, Xander stumbled upon Julie as she helped an injured boy who Xander assumed to be Tyler out of the house. The front lawn was still full of fleeing students. "Julie," Xander said, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Tyler passed out from fright when…when that…thing jumped out at us," Julie said.

"What thing, what did it look like?" Xander asked.

"You'd think I'm crazy," Julie said as she tried to move around Xander.

"Try me," Xander added. Julie exhaled heavily and released a breath.

"It looked kinda like a…it looked like a werewolf. But that's crazy right?" Julie said, struggling to hold up the boy as he slipped in and out of consciousness. Xander didn't think to reply, he realised his friend was still in the house with a werewolf and she had no way of defending herself against it. He figured the wolf had to be a student and he figured Buffy knew it too. He bound back into the house purposely and left Julie confused on the lawn. She followed the scattering crowd away from the house.

Xander stepped into the house and saw the light haired werewolf at the bottom of the stairs. He saw Dawn's boyfriend and Buffy through the bars of the landing and then he realised they were trying to pull Dawn out of fancy wreckage. The wolf was about to bound up and attack when Xander exclaimed, "Hey!"
The werewolf turned devilishly and snarled at Xander, Buffy looked over the balcony to find Xander breaking a wooden table to get a leg for a weapon. Buffy jumped over the landing and landed heavily on top of the werewolf. Buffy, wrestling with the demon, managed to mumble, "Get Dawn out of here!" Xander headed up the stairs.

Buffy did all she could to avoid the wolfs' bite. They traded blows for a few minutes until Buffy managed to lift her legs under the body of the wolf and launch it toward the flatscreen TV. It crashed heavily and yelped. It hit the floor like a furry bag of bricks and appeared completely immobile.
Chase and Xander struggled to carry Dawn on their shoulders and down the stairs. Xander and Chase looked to the werewolf in the living room and then to Natalie who had managed to remain asleep throughout the…incident. "Is it dead?" Xander asked.

"No, how is she?" Buffy asked as she held Dawn's unconscious head in her hands.

"We need to get her to a hospital," Chase said.

"Buff, what about the…you know?" Xander asked as he inclined his head toward the wolf. "It's not gonna stay passed out all night."

Buffy began, "I guess we'll have to lock it-"

"Watch out!" Chase exclaimed. The werewolf had woken up and turned to the Slayer. It leapt into the air with its mouth wide open with all thought on the kill. Buffy foolishly had her back to the attack. Chase ducked out from Dawn's arm and pushed Buffy out of the way. Xander quivered with the sudden dead weight, Buffy stumbled to the side and Chase was leapt on by the werewolf.

It sunk its teeth deep into his shoulder and its canines grazing the bone was a sound Xander would take to his grave.

The werewolf was about to tear out his shoulder entirely if it wasn't for Buffy ripping it's furry body off of him and tossing it into the mantelpiece. The wolf was knocked unconscious once again and Buffy and Xander exchanged a worried look.
Chase was bitten, his life was changed forever.


Author's Note: Thank you to Boris Yeltsin, Jeremy Shane, Calilily and maxthehobbit for their reviews on my last chapter. I hope you're still interested in this story and your reviews are appreciated so much.
Maxthehobbit sent me a message with the most amazing review I've had in a while, it gave the confidence boost and inspiration to finish the episode.
I hope you enjoyed the plot, I had originally intended for Julie to get bitten, but as I was writing I was thinking of so many other story possibilities for Chase and Dawn if Chase was a werewolf. However, leave me a message or in a review, tell me if you would like to keep the tradition of Xander and his demon girlfriends or if you think he deserves to have a normal relationship, I'd love to know what you prefer.
I have one episode left until I get to write one I've been looking forward to doing for weeks. It ties in with Angel season 5 and hopefully I do a good job of it.
The next episode, episode 15, I have planned to reveal to you who the mystery man with the cane and the suit is, but as you know my writing sometimes takes on a life of it's own. It might also reveal what else happened to Faith while she was in the gauntlet when she saw another dream catcher!
I've also decided to have Willow and Riley in the Rainforest continue into the next episode if you got confused as to why she and Riley weren't in that chapter.
Please review and follow me on tumblr:

www. Keep calm and open the hellmouth . tumblr . com -all one word.

Please review and as always, thank you for believing in me and reading this.