See Part One for Disclaimer and details. Welcome, one and all! The reviews keep comin' and so I gotta keep on thankin' all of you who send me feedback, positive or negative – it truly makes me happy that people are actually reading this story! Please, keep it up. Craig T, I'd like to thank you for your review on the last chapter as well. Well, we're well into the second half of season 2 now, so here you go – my own rather twisted version of the B, B and B episode. I hope you enjoy!

Part Fourteen: Hex In The City

Crawford Street, Sunnydale

February 12th, 1998

In her private quarters within an abandoned mansion, Darla was chaining herself to the wall as she waited for the very late Anyanka to show up.

Ever since killing the Anointed One and taking over as the queen of Sunnydale's vampire population, not to mention flushing out Collin's loyalists along the way, Darla had moved her base of operations away from the Master's cave. Not only did the place hold too many bad memories, it simply didn't have the view she craved. To someone that was used to living in the finest hotels before the soul had been imposed upon her, there was no question of setting up shop in an abandoned warehouse or some place like that, either.

Thus, Darla had chosen this mansion as her new home, the exact same one Angelus would have chosen – for all the reasons he would have had to move in here, too. It was a very quiet neighborhood, and nobody really lived near anybody else. There was excellent sewer access, and there was plenty of room for all the minions.

Plus, it had a great view in all directions, which greatly reduced the threat of a sneak attack.

But that wasn't what was occupying Darla's thoughts right now. She hadn't had her regular dose of the tranquilizer needed to keep her soul suppressed, and so, Soul Girl was starting to wake up and take over.

( NO! ) the inner vampire demon screamed, as Darla began to thrash about in her chains. ( Damn it, Anya, where are you? )

Darla felt sick as the soul finally woke up, and remembered what the demon had done. ( Oh, God, no...NO! )

While the demon had viewed Jenny as competition, the soul had viewed her and Giles as friendly acquaintances...not quite friends, but also not strangers. The ensouled version of Darla remembered the manner of Jenny's death and the death of her unborn baby, which broke something inside her.

While she may not have felt much guilt over her past misdeeds, if only because in many cases, Darla hadn't even KNOWN the people involved – in this case, the victim was someone she knew relatively well...the girlfriend of someone she knew well...and the innocent, unborn child of two people she knew well.

The guilt swallowed Darla whole, causing the inner demon to howl with sheer fury.

A minute later, Anyanka appeared in the master bedroom and shoved the pill into the undead blonde's mouth. Almost at once, the demon felt the soul's shackles fall away as the artificial ecstasy spread throughout her mind.

"It's about time you got here!" Darla then grumbled to Anyanka. "That damned soul of mine...no, never mind, that's irrelevant right now. What IS relevant is that I want more of those pills as an emergency reserve, in case you forget to show up on time again – now give them to me!"

"I will not," Anyanka said haughtily. "And there's nothing you can do or say to make me, either. So nyah, nyah-nyah-nyah, nyah!"

( Crazy bitch, ) Darla thought to herself angrily, before forcibly calming down and asking Anyanka to free her from her chains, whereupon the demoness obliged. Deciding to switch tactics the vampire queen then said reasonably, "Anya, it's not just about what I want – you do realize that, don't you? It's also about whether or not I can keep my minions under control for you. And your boss at City Hall – he wouldn't be pleased if Soul Girl took over again, would he?"

Darla's words were mostly a bluff – she didn't know if Anyanka's mysterious employer was a man, or whether he was based at City Hall, despite the vengeance demon bringing her there to free her and feast on Jenny Calendar last month. But nothing ventured, nothing gained; and it was the height of foolishness for the vampire demon to depend on the drugs for long-term freedom.

"Allan? Don't worry about him. I'm in charge where the leeches like you are concerned," Anyanka said in reply, inadvertently revealing valuable information before she teleported away in blissful ignorance of what she'd just done.

( Allan. Was she talking about Allan Finch, the new mayor? Most likely, ) Darla thought to herself with a shark-like smile. ( Well. It looks like I have some digging to do... )

Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale

February 13th, 1998

Cordelia had been doing a little digging herself lately, as she walked up the stairs towards the school holding a rather large brown paper bag. Namely, she'd had to learn what Xander's sizes were in order to tailor the enchanted letterman jacket to fit him just right.

Ever since she'd acquired the damn thing, Cordy had faced some moral dilemmas – even brushing aside Buffy's questions regarding what she'd been up to that night. Technically, she'd stolen the magical jacket from Lance, and thievery was something Miss Chase had always considered beneath her.

But, on the other hand, one could also argue that Brooks had willingly given the jacket to her and she had 'paid' for the item in question – in terms of allowing that loser to make out with her, and putting herself in danger of getting killed by Xander's nutty vampire stalker.

It was a shyster's argument, sure, but one that Cordy could live with, especially since she'd spent good money altering the jacket to flawlessly fit her crush – and she could also truthfully say she'd dropped the jacket somewhere in the Bronze, after Lance had inquired about his property's whereabouts the next day.

"Cordelia! We so have to talk about our outfits for the Valentine's Day dance," Harmony said breathlessly, as she and the Cordettes converged around their leader. "You didn't call me last night, so I was worried-"

"You were worried about ME?" Cordy interrupted smoothly, with that superior tone she always used to keep her sheep in line. "That's not your job, Harmony. Anyway, I'm wearing red and black to the dance, so you need to wear something else."

"But I just got this brand new Vera Wang – uh, no, never mind," Harmony said hastily, seeing Queen C glaring in her direction.

"So who's taking you to the dance, Cordelia? I heard Larry's been asking if you're available," the Cordette named Kate spoke up, referring to the junior football team quarterback.

"Larry? That big meathead?" Cordelia snorted. Lately, she'd been getting weird vibes from that guy – even though Xander hadn't forced the jock to face the fact that he was gay, during werewolf season. "I don't think so."

"Then who? You're not thinking of getting back together with Devon, are you?" the Cordette named Lisa asked.

"That retard? As if," Cordelia said disdainfully. "If you must know, it's going to be a surprise. Now, I'll see you guys in first period – I have something important to do." So saying, the brunette quickly left her confused followers behind and headed for Xander's locker.

While she waited for him, Cordelia again wondered if she was doing the right thing here. But she'd made a deal with God, and since He had come through in the form of Buffy Summers, Cordy figured it would be better to keep up her end of the bargain.

Otherwise, the next time – the Lord might not be quite so keen to save her life.

"Uch, I've been waiting here for ages! Where have you been?" Cordelia demanded as soon as Harris showed up.

"Library. Lemme ask you something – have you noticed anything weird about Summers, Willow and Giles lately?" Xander asked, frowning.

"You mean, the way they've all been keeping you at arm's length and spying on you both at school and at the Bronze? Sure. What, don't tell me you haven't?" Cordy asked straightforwardly.

Xander shook his head. ( Tact Girl, this chick is not! ) "Yeah, I've noticed that. But the funny thing is – they're also acting like they're afraid of me for some reason. Kinda reminds me of what Soldier Guy saw during the war, whenever someone was suspected of being a Viet Cong infiltrator."

"If you say so," Cordelia shrugged. She didn't know anything about the whole Green Fire avatar business because she wasn't part of the Slayer's inner circle, and so no one had seen fit to confide the truth to her.

Miss Chase just thrust the brown paper bag into Xander's hands and said, "Here. Happy Valentine's Day."

"You got me a Valentine's Day present?" Xander asked in surprise, examining the paper bag.

"You don't have to make a big deal out of it, and it's not like I'm expecting anything from you," Cordelia tossed her hair to one side, trying to appear casual. "You're not my boyfriend, after all."

"Yeah, but – it just strikes me as kinda odd, is all. We went on one date, and you're giving me a gift for Valentine's Day," Xander said slowly, staring at Cordelia strangely.

( Well, considering that vision I had last night of us making out at the Bronze... ) But all Cordy said was, "Look, I'm just getting rid of some junk that came into my possession, and I thought you might as well have it – since you could do with something to help improve your social standing around here. I mean, you've been in Sunnydale for what, four months? And the closest thing you have to friends is me and the Library Loser Legion!" she said scornfully.

Xander ripped open the bag and examined the contents. "Whoa!"

Whoa indeed. The letterman jacket looked brand new, with a different colored 'S' over the left breast and the smaller '99' to the right of it, indicating the year of graduation. Harris quickly slipped the jacket on, and immediately noted how it was a precise fit for him. He said to Cordelia suspiciously, "Getting rid of some junk that came into your possession, huh? I gotta wonder, what are the odds that it'd fit me perfectly like this?"

"All right, so I may have made a few modifications to the jacket here and there, after I got my hands on it. What, is that a crime?" Cordelia demanded, eyes flashing.

Xander exhaled. "Cordelia – (a), thanks for the gift, but (b), why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"This. The whole gift thing, and everything else," Xander gestured between them. "'Cause apart from what happened during Halloween, we have practically nothing in common. You're rich; I'm not. You're a cheerleader; I'm not even on a sports team. You're practically the most popular girl in school; I can count the number of people who speak to me on two hands. There's gotta be heaps of other guys out there, who are better suited for you than me. So why the interest in yours truly?"

Maybe it was because of that vision Cordelia had had that she and Xander were destined to be together, at some point soon.

Maybe it was just a remnant of Jasmine's former plan to get herself born into the mortal world.

Or maybe it was as Jenny had said to Enyos months ago: the heart wants what it wants, and pays no attention to what the head is telling it.

"I'm outta here, this conversation is so over. And consider my good deed for the year done, already," Cordelia said in reply to Xander's question, turning around and marching off as the bell rang. Miss Chase tried not to think about Xander's eyes drilling into her back as she walked away, since she knew that he wasn't satisfied with the explanation she'd given him.

( Well, too late to worry about that now. I just hope the jacket's mojo starts working soon! 'Cause I've invested a lot of time and effort in this... )

The Bronze, Sunnydale

Later that night

Willow watched Xander carefully, wondering what the heck was going on with that guy.

It had all started with Ms. Beakman's American Literature class earlier today. Xander had been wearing a Sunnydale High letterman jacket, one that she'd never seen him wear before, and practically the entire female portion of the class couldn't keep their eyes off him. Even she herself had been a little distracted, despite her newly acknowledged attraction towards girls.

At the end of the class, Willow had seen her friend Amy Madison giving Xander strange looks, before she had performed some mind-control magic on the teacher. When Willow had confronted her about it, Amy had sworn her to secrecy about the spell after admitting she was desperate and hadn't had a chance to do the homework – and then, Amy had confessed that she'd constantly been having lustful thoughts about a boy she'd never even glanced twice at before today.

The rest of the day had only gotten stranger. Students and teachers had started gravitating towards Harris and engaging him in conversation in the school corridors, despite the amazed look on Xander's face regarding what was happening. Pretty soon Cordelia had started hanging alongside him, and deftly handling all the questions being thrown his way.

Questions like, "Would you like to be on the Prom committee this year, Xander?", "We sure could use you on the team, Xander, are you interested in joining?", and even "The school newspaper would like to interview you, Mr. Harris, when would be a good time?"

"Buffy, I just don't get it," Willow said to her best friend standing alongside her. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear Xander's done some sort of love spell on himself, everyone's treating him like a rock star or something! But look at his face – it's obvious the guy doesn't know what's going on anymore than we do. I – Buffy?" the redhead asked, as she saw the blonde Slayer staring at Xander. "Buffy! Are you listening to me?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, Willow," Buffy nodded absently, her eyes still fixed on Xander's inexplicably attractive physical form. "I just realized – it's funny how you can see someone every day, but not really see them. You know what I mean, right?"

( Oh God, she's falling under the spell or whatever it is! ) Willow thought desperately, and so she dragged Miss Summers out of the teen club. "Buffy? Vampires. You gotta get out there and slay! Darla's still on the loose, remember? Not to mention Ford, too!"

"Oh yeah..." the Chosen One finally seemed to snap out of it as they walked out the club's front door, she knew that Friday night was prime hunting time after all.

Back in the Bronze, Cordelia was totally in her element. She was hanging off Xander's arm, not to mention rubbing elbows with all the right people who were coming up to talk to him. Sure, the guy was looking kinda dazed and confused right now, but she could deal with that-

"What the hell's going on?" Xander muttered, wanting some privacy and inadvertently yanking Cordelia along with him – when they collided with Lance Brooks.

"Cordelia, you slut – what did you do with my jacket?" Lance snarled at the brunette. He was at the end of his tether with regard to his lost property, which he failed to recognize as what Xander was wearing due to Cordy's alterations.

"Hey, pal, that's no way to talk to a lady!" Xander said sternly, he didn't know who this guy was but he wasn't about to let him speak to Cordelia like that.

"Buzz off, dickwad; this is between me and her!" Lance growled, just barely glancing in Xander's direction.

"I'm not going anywhere-" Xander abruptly ducked as Lance turned and took a swing at him, before Harris punched Brooks directly in the face and the guy went stumbling back, crashing into a number of people.

"Hold it! Xander, I'll deal with this," Cordelia abruptly took charge of the situation. She got right up in Lance's face and said, "Who the hell do you think you are, mister? Like, where do you get off thinking that YOU can threaten ME? My father owns the company you work for, remember? Lance, if you don't get lost right now, I'll tell him to fire your ass first thing Monday morning! And if you ever hassle me or Xander again, I'll see to it that NO ONE will hire you in Sunnydale – for the rest of your lousy, miserable life!"

Lance hesitated, seeing the crowd gathered around them. Most of the looks on people's faces were unfriendly, since he had thrown the first punch and he didn't have his jacket on. Silently cursing Cordelia's name, Lance eventually walked away in defeat – his glory days finally at an end, and a dreary future waiting just around the corner for him.

"Wow, Xander, you were so forceful!" Harmony gushed, as she and the other Cordettes gathered around their leader.

"Well, I..." Xander trailed off, not sure what to say.

"Xander, I wanna thank you for the way you defended me just now," Cordelia's eyes seemed to sparkle as she said that.

"Oh, uh, it was nothing, really-"

But that was all Xander managed to say, before Cordelia grabbed him into a scorching, passionate kiss that seemed to last forever – and the gathered crowd all enthusiastically cheered them on.

Just as the former Oracle of Delphi had foreseen during the previous night.

1420 Truman Drive, Sunnydale

February 14th, 1998

Willow and Amy were about to do a spell within the Madison girl's bedroom, not long after midnight. Willow had come here after parting company with Buffy outside the Bronze, and enlisted her friend's help to try to figure out what was going on where Xander was concerned.

"So what kind of spell are we doing, exactly?" Willow asked Amy. She didn't have much experience with magic yet, as Jenny had been killed before she could teach the redhead anything beyond the basics.

"Uh, it's a supplication to Hecate for enlightenment," Amy replied, focusing on her witch's brew. "The ritual's fairly standard."

"Have you done lots of spells before now? I mean, I knew your mom was a witch, but until today I, uh, I didn't know the talent ran in the family," Willow confessed shyly, recalling the body-switching incident during sophomore year.

"Well, I've done some animal transmogrification spells," Amy said, straightening up and finally giving Willow her full attention. "And a few other things."

"Right. Uh, I was wondering – have you ever...um...tried any...uh...tantric," Willow stammered, her face going bright red, "rituals, before?"

When Amy looked at her strangely and shook her head, Willow's face turned even redder. It looked like she was about to have an aneurysm as she asked, her voice going up in pitch to a near screech on the last two words, "Well, maybe one day, would you...like to?"

Amy just stared at her friend with shock-widened eyes. ( Is Willow coming on to me or something? ) "I, I'd say we're just about ready to cast the enlightenment spell," Miss Madison said shakily.

"Okay, let's do that," Willow gratefully changed the subject, already regretting being so bold with her fellow practitioner.

The two female teens joined hands and started chanting, with a black candle burning alongside the bubbling solution. When the spell was concluded, the candle flame shot upwards; a swirl of red energy then appeared over the small pail and dived into the mystical brew, causing it to spark and flash.

"Blow out the candle, now!" Amy called to Willow.

She did so; but just as it had always been destined with Miss Rosenberg during the early days of practicing her craft, the spell had unexpected results.

In this case, firstly – Willow and Amy just sat there in the bedroom before concluding the spell had completely bombed, there was no new information that had been magically downloaded into their minds.

Secondly, the green beret of Xander's Special Forces tattoo glowed brightly, fusing the letterman jacket to the young man's skin and rendering him unable to take it off. Xander didn't know that yet, since he was in the middle of listening to Cordelia's plans for becoming a movie star after high school, but he would learn about it soon enough.

Thirdly, Allan Finch started screaming in pain as the Orbs of Nezzla'khan began to burn inside his chest, and Anyanka had to slice him open with a letter opener to get them out – whereupon the pain abruptly ceased, and both human and demon wondered what the hell had just happened.

Sunnydale High Library, Sunnydale

February 16th, 1998

Xander was feeling pissed as Giles and Willow left the library to track down Amy, in order to undo the spell the two witches had cast in her bedroom the other night. He hadn't called the members of Team Slayer during the weekend because of their behavior towards him lately, but after hitting the books himself this morning, Harris had eventually acknowledged defeat and spoken to the Scooby Gang concerning his problem.

After hearing that Xander had been unable to take the magic jacket off since Friday, Cordelia had reluctantly confessed how she had 'acquired' it from Lance after Buffy had saved her from Ford a few weeks ago – and, more importantly, what she thought the jacket could do.

( I shoulda gone straight to Rory and begged him for us to go back to LA, as soon as that thing with the Judge was over, ) Xander thought angrily, as he barricaded himself inside Slayer Central. ( Because not only have I gotten stuck wearing this damn jacket, it's stolen property – and I punched the guy who it actually belongs to! )

"Hey, Xander? Are you mad at me or something?" Cordelia asked, seeing his expression.

"Mad? Why would I be mad? Just because I haven't been able to take a shower for the past three days, and this morning nearly all the girls in this school wanted to make me their personal cuddle monkey, which may sound swell on paper but in practicality, not so much..." Xander ranted as he finally managed to drag the mobile card catalog in front of the library doors.

"Okay, so I messed up – a little! But hey, I didn't cast that spell on you – Willow and Amy did that!" Cordy attempted to defend herself.

"Right. You just gave me a jacket, which had a fricking LOVE SPELL on it!" Xander shouted, trying and failing to contain his ire. "Almighty Zeus, do you really hate me that much?"

"No, I don't hate you!" Cordelia exclaimed desperately as Xander stalked towards her. "I was just trying to help you!"

"HELP ME?" Xander yelled.

"Yeah, help you become popular enough for me to date. Because I – I think I love you," Cordelia confessed, thanks to the enlightenment spell.

Luckily, though, Cordy didn't admit that ever since Friday night, she'd worn out the batteries on her mom's vibrator thanks to Harris deliberately avoiding her. The Chase girl was effectively immune to the jacket's effects nowadays, but the spell had caused her libido to go into overdrive as well as come to terms with her real feelings.

Xander's eyes bulged out after hearing Cordelia's admission, but then he heard the grinding sound of the card catalog being shoved forward and Buffy stepped in through the library's double doors – wearing nothing but a short black raincoat.

"Hey, Xander," the blonde Slayer purred like a cat in heat, almost stalking her way towards the guy.

"Oh dear God – check out the slut-o-rama look on her," Cordelia said in amazement.

"Summers? Okay...look, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, right now? It's not real. You're only here because of this jacket, a-and a spell," Xander babbled urgently, whilst backing away carefully.

"A spell? Oh, I don't think so. It's you and me, Xander, we were always meant to be. All those years in LA, I was fixated on Ford and those other boys – but deep down, it was you who I wanted all along," Buffy said in that same purring tone. "It just took me all this time to finally realize it."

"Okay, she's totally lost it. We gotta get outta here!" Cordelia whispered into Xander's ear. Not only had the Slayer's play for Xander's heart caused Cordy's already-intense dislike for Buffy to skyrocket, she didn't want to take any chances that Harris would throw himself into the nutcase's arms and say he felt the same way.

"Don't worry, Xander, I'll take REAL good care of you from now on," Buffy said seductively, grabbing her raincoat belt in order to untie it.

"Summers, for the love of all things good and holy, don't open that raincoat!" Xander pleaded with her as Cordelia pulled him backwards.

"Why not? It's long past time, and you'll be safe with me. I won't let anything happen to you, 'cause it's my job to protect you. I won't let that Green Fire thingy happen to you, for starters," Buffy said, advancing slowly.

"What Green Fire thingy?" Cordelia demanded immediately.

"Oh, just something that Giles said would happen sooner or later; I dunno, Xander's supposed to go nuts and destroy Sunnydale or something, that whole Avon calling-slash-avant garde thing," Buffy said. The spell and the jacket's combined effects had truly dulled her mental faculties, as the Chosen One carelessly spilled the news concerning the avatars of the four elements.

"WHAT?" Xander exploded in disbelief before Cordelia yanked him towards the exit in the stacks.

"You're abandoning me for HER?" Buffy suddenly lost the seductive look as she saw Xander willingly go with Cordelia. "Of all the – you two-timing BASTARD!"

The seer and former soldier ran for their lives, with a suddenly-livid Slayer chasing after them. Buffy wasn't alone for long, as an angry mob of females began chasing after the fugitives as well – determined to mate with their Xander-shaped obsession, or else kill him trying.

A few hours later, sunset had fallen – and the two teenagers were still on the run, trying to reach the relative safety of the Chase mansion with that mob on their trail.

"I think we've lost them," Cordelia said uncertainly as they finally made it to Parkview Crescent.

"No, we haven't! What the hell is taking Willow, Giles and that Amy girl so long..." Xander grunted, spying the mob not far away. "Come on, run!"

There was no chance of making it to Cordelia's house, so the pair ran down a side street and attempted to ditch their pursuers. But as luck would have it, they ran into an old 'friend' who had started looking for Xander as soon as the sun had gone down.

Darla.

"Be my valentine!" the vampiress howled at her obsession, seemingly ignoring Cordelia.

Xander stammered, wide-eyed, as he tried to back away, "Um...okay...sure...uh...sweetheart?"

"I give you my heart," Darla told him, her yellow eyes gleaming.

"Only in the literal sense, I hope," Xander mumbled as he edged away cautiously, pulling Cordy along with him.

"What the hell is her deal?" Cordelia asked. She simply couldn't accept that the spell and/or the jacket had made women from the undead side of the street go nuts, as well.

"To hell with that idiot Jesse – I've finally found a true replacement for Angelus! How do you feel about eternal life, my love?" Darla asked Harris excitedly.

"You're gonna turn Xander into a vampire? Ewww!" Cordelia said unthinkingly.

Darla snarled at her, going into her demon face. But then Ford showed up and said, "Darla? What's going on?" He had followed the new boss after hearing her muttering about Xander back at the mansion.

"Go away! This is personal," Darla growled at her minion. "No, better yet – kill that insipid little fool at once!"

"You want me to kill Xander?" Ford asked in astonishment.

"Not HIM! Cordelia!" Darla shouted impatiently.

"Oh, right! No problem," Ford smiled and came forward.

"You so much as touch Cordy, Ford, and I'll shove a stake up your ass before I dust you," Xander told him warningly, pushing Cordelia behind him. "The only way you're getting to her is over my dead body!"

"Don't hurt him! Just kill her!" Darla shouted again. She could have easily done the job herself much quicker, true, but then her lust-clouded mind wasn't firing on all cylinders right now.

Ford did not hesitate; between Collin's torture and Buffy's revelation that Xander hated him nowadays, there was no way he was going to disobey Darla's orders. He charged forward, and the obligatory ferocious fight took place.

"Buddy, where the hell did you learn to do that?" Ford demanded, only just avoiding Xander's double fisted strike to the head.

"Fort Bragg, sorta," Xander replied as his former best friend's next attack got through his defences and winded him badly.

Shoving Xander aside, Fordham reached for his prey – but with perfect timing, Cordelia's foot impacted upon his groin, lifting him up at least two inches off the ground and making the soulless vampire whine and curl up into a fetal ball, after Ford crashed back down to earth.

"You IDIOT!" Darla cursed, almost foaming at the mouth.

"Ohhhh, that's gotta hurt," Xander winced in sympathetic pain.

"Well, he SO had it coming!" Cordy replied, just as the mob of crazed females showed up and distracted Darla with their presence.

Grabbing Cordelia's hand, Xander made his way to the nearest house after seeing the front door opening up – the occupant had chosen the worst possible time to take out the trash. The two teens barged inside, the invitation barrier keeping Darla out but not the human mob, and they subsequently tried to barricade themselves in the basement as the homeowner was knocked out cold by the tidal wave of humanity pouring into his house.

Luckily, the spell was ended by Willow and Amy just in the nick of time – and as Xander gratefully took off the enchanted jacket for the first time in three days, Cordelia babbled something about 'a really exciting scavenger hunt'.

Sunnydale High Corridor, Sunnydale

February 17th, 1998

"Scavenger hunt?" Willow said to Xander in surprise as they walked along. "And, and everyone actually bought that?"

"Why not? This is the Hellmouth," Xander grimaced. "Denial City, in all its glory."

"Listen, Xander – I, I'm really sorry about the spell and all," Willow apologized for her actions yet again. "I swear, I didn't mean for any of that to happen! I was just worried that-"

"That something was up with me. I get it, there's no such thing as being overly paranoid around here," Harris cut her off. "So, as far as I'm concerned, we're cool. No harm, no foul 'n all that."

"Really?" Willow said uncertainly.

"Yeah, and ditto for that Amy girl. Just do me a favor, and give this back to Cordelia," Xander handed the redhead a bag containing Lance's jacket. "Tell her to burn it, or throw it into the sea, or whatever. I don't care, as long as no one ever wears it again."

"Okay," Willow said obediently, not knowing that Cordelia had just had a vision of this conversation – and the beauty queen was wondering if she'd totally screwed things up and lost Xander forever, now that he was back to being the most invisible student on campus.

Not that she was going to destroy the letterman jacket after spending two hundred bucks on it, of course. Cordelia was fairly confident that Amy could discover a way to strip the magic away from the enchanted item, and make the jacket harmless. The Chase girl only prayed she could somehow make Xander believe that her declarations of love had been the real deal, because she knew the odds were that he'd start avoiding her like the plague now.

Xander made his way alone to the library, where he suspected Buffy would be. And sure enough, there she was; looking hunched over and miserable. The young man said, "You oughta turn that frown upside down, Summers. Things aren't that bad this morning, are they?"

"Xander!" Buffy leapt up off her chair as she began to apologize, "Look, about what happened yesterday – everything I did, everything I SAID-"

"Hold it! Like I said to Willow, Summers, no harm means no foul. And as far as I'm concerned, we can live out the rest of our lives without ever mentioning any of that again," Xander said firmly.

"Really?"

"Good Godfrey Cambridge, yeah," Xander nodded resolutely. "And I'm talking never, ever again!"

He didn't appear to notice the odd look on Buffy's face; a mix of relief and disappointment, as the blonde girl hadn't been able to help wondering if her former childhood friend might be interested in giving 'them' a chance. As well as thinking some major grovelling had definitely been in order to make up for chasing Xander around town, and threatening him at the top of her lungs like that.

"Okay," Buffy said, deciding to head out and clear her head a little. "I'll, uh, see you later then."

"Yeah, I guess so," Xander nodded, waiting until she'd gone before heading up into the stacks to find Giles.

"Ah, Mr. Harris – err, Xander," Giles corrected himself, as soon as he saw the student.

"G-dawg," Xander said in reply, knowing the librarian hated that nickname even worse than 'G-man'.

"What can I do for you?" Rupert asked with forced patience, his voice filled with a deep annoyance over that deplorable nickname.

"Well, I've been thinking ever since last night. And it's occurred to me that I'm not here to be a normal high school student; if I was, I'd still be at Hemery right now. I'm here to do the job the PTBs need me to do," Xander said in a steady tone of voice.

"Yes; I-I suppose that's a, a fairly accurate assessment of the situation," Giles said warily.

"So that's why I want you to spill everything you've been hiding from me lately. Like this Green Fire thing, which Summers mentioned in passing yesterday," Xander's voice abruptly turned as cold as ice.

Rupert Giles, scholar and Watcher to the Slayer, stared at a young man he suspected would soon be called upon to burn down all of Sunnydale – which caused his heart to be filled with trepidation, anxiety and even genuine worry.

TBC...