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"Buffy! Giles! She's here!" Willow called, catching them just as they were pushing through the doors of the school.
"Who's here?" Buffy's eyes widened. "You—vamp you—er, the vampire?"
"Yes! And she's freaky. I shot her with a trank dart, so she's out, but I don't know how long it'll last."
Buffy had questions about how that had happened, Willow could see, but she kept them to herself, at least for now, and they hurried back to the library, where they stood looking down at the vampire's peaceful face. Willow's own face, which got more and more disturbing the longer she looked at it.
"Guys. Guys! Let's … I don't know, let's put her in the cage for now."
They all kept staring for a few more minutes until finally Buffy shook herself a little. "Right. Let's do that."
Xander and Angel each grabbed an arm and between them they dragged the vamp into the cage. Giles watched, still fascinated, looking back and forth between Willow and the vampire. "It's extraordinary," he said several times.
"It's horrible!" Willow corrected. "That's me as a vampire? I'm so evil and—skanky." Remembering hands in the wrong places, she turned to Buffy and muttered, "And I think I'm kinda gay."
"Well, just remember, a vampire's personality has nothing to do with the person that it was."
Angel turned to them. "Well, actually—" Willow caught his eye, hoping he wasn't going to opt for honesty over comfort at this juncture, and he looked flustered, glancing away, and eventually ended with, "That's a good point."
"So, uh, what do we do now?" Xander asked.
"We still have to get to the Bronze."
"Even if they're supposed to wait for her, they may start feeding," Angel agreed. "Vampires, not notoriously reliable."
"So we charge in? Much in the style of John Wayne?" Xander smiled, clearly picturing himself in the lead role.
Giles hesitated. "High casualty risk. But I haven't any other plan, though."
Buffy raised a hand, looking almost apologetically at Willow. "I have a really bad idea."
"What?"
"Well … we know who they would listen to."
Xander frowned. "She's kind of asleep right now, and sounds like she wouldn't be too helpful if she was awake."
"She wouldn't be … but … um … we have someone else who looks just like her."
"Wait, whoa, hold on there!" Willow said. "You want me to wear that?" She looked at the vampire's tight leather outfit. Would that even fit her? Maybe vampires were thinner than humans. And … could she walk in those high-heeled boots? "And you want me to go tell a bunch of vampires what to do?"
Giles was looking at her speculatively, as though he found it all a delightful academic conundrum. "It would be worth a try."
"And if they change me into a vampire for real?"
"We'll be right outside, Will," Buffy assured her. "I wouldn't let anything happen to you."
It was on the tip of Willow's tongue to point at the vampire and remind Buffy that in that universe, she had let something happen to her … but then, Buffy had probably thought of that, too, and who was to know if in the other Willow's world, Buffy had never been born, or had died before Willow was turned into a vampire? And none of that mattered right now, because right now, Willow had to put on some really weird leather stuff and go pretend to boss some vampires around. She sighed. "All right. I'll do it."
Giles unlocked the cage and Willow stepped in. No one moved, and she frowned at them all. "A little privacy, please?"
"Right. Of course." Giles moved away from the cage and Angel hurried after him, Xander following more slowly. They went into Giles's office and closed the door.
Buffy hesitated. "I don't like to leave you alone with her."
"I don't like to be alone with her. You can stay. Please."
"Good. Because I really don't think I could have left you."
Willow smiled, turning to the vampire and trying to figure out how the top came undone, glad to have Buffy at her back.
It was strange changing clothes in the middle of the library, strange and a little chilly. Willow was glad she'd asked Buffy to stay, because it was harder to get the vampire's clothes off her body and Willow's back on it than she had imagined, since she was out so cold she was dead weight, literally, and it was equally hard to pull those tight leather pants up.
"Damn, Will," Buffy said. "You should see the way your butt looks in—" She stopped as Willow glared at her. "Right. You saw. Sorry."
Just what she needed, Willow thought grumpily, to pale in comparison with her own self.
"Hey." Buffy turned her around so they were facing each other. "You know we all love you just the way you are, right? When we thought you were—gone …" She shuddered. "I don't know what I would do without you, Willow, and not because you're reliable. Because you're you—you make us laugh and you tell us when we're being idiots and you help us with our homework and you make a mean batch of fudge and … you're the best best friend I could ever ask for."
Touched, Willow reached to hug her friend, feeling better than she had all day, despite the tight pants and the restrictive corset and the entirely too high heels. She was willing to bet vampire Willow didn't have any friends as good as this.