Chapter 23: Nightmares Part 1

Joyce shook Buffy's shoulder, who was still asleep in bed. "Time to get up for school."

"Oh, Mom ..." Buffy said as she sat up and fell into her mother's arms.

"Are you all right?" Joyce asked.

Buffy shook her head. "No, bad dream."

"Want to tell me about it?" Joyce asked with concern.

"It might be a premonition, I don't know," Buffy said with a sigh. "I want to talk to Paige and Giles and see what they think of it."

"Alright," Joyce said. "But you know if you need me for anything, even if it's just an ear. I'm here."

"I know, mom," Buffy said as she smiled at her mother.

"By the way, I spoke with Hank," Joyce said.

On Paige, Piper and Phoebe's recommendation Joyce had not said a word about Leo being Buffy's father. So as far as Hank was concerned he was still Buffy's father and had visitation rights. He was going to come get her and Dawn for the weekend after school the next day.

"He's coming?" Buffy wondered.

"You and Dawn are set for the weekend," Joyce replied. "Now remember he doesn't know he isn't your biological father, and we're not going to tell him till you turn eighteen."

"I remember, mom."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"So you see your dad a lot?" Willow asked Dawn as she, Buffy and Dawn walked to class.

"Not a whole lot," Dawn answered. "He's still in L.A. He only comes down for weekends sometimes."

"When did they get divorced?"

"Well, it wasn't finalized till last year," Buffy said. "They were separated before that."

"It must have been harsh," Willow stated.

"That's the word you're looking for," Buffy said. "I mean, they were really good about it—around us, anyway. But still ..."

"I can't even imagine it. My parents don't even bicker. Sometimes they glare. Do you two know why your folks ..."

"We didn't ask for all the details," Dawn said. "They just stopped getting along. I'm sure we were a big help."

"With the slaying and everything, I was a mess," Buffy added. "And of course with Dawn helping me, we were in a lotta trouble."

"Well, I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do with him leaving," Willow told them.

"No," Buffy and Dawn said together.

"He still comes down on weekends."

"Sometimes," the sisters said as they looked to one another just as they walked through the door into the classroom.

Everyone was already taking their seats. Cordelia, who sat next to Xander, studied herself in a compact mirror, adjusting her hair. Wendell stopped between her and the window to adjust his books.

"Hello ... Dufus ...?" Cordelia said as Wendell looked over at her. "You're blocking my light."

"Oh. Should I ...?" Wendell started.

"Move on?" Cordelia finished. "What a great idea."

"Sorry," Xander said to Wendell as he moved on by. He looked to Cordelia. "Sweetie?"

"What?" Cordelia said as she looked to Xander. "He was in my light."

"Wendell was in Cordelia's light," Xander told Buffy, Dawn and Willow as they sat close to them.

"Why are you so Evita-like, Cordy?" Dawn wondered. "Could it be the hair?"

"Weighs heavy on the cerebral cortex," Willow added.

"Hardy, har har," Cordelia said with a roll of the eyes.

"Hey guys. Was there any homework?" Xander asked.

"We're doing active listening today," Willow said.

"Cool. What's active listening?"

"That would be the homework," Dawn replied.

Xander shrugged, drawing a blank.

Buffy held up her 'Health and Human Development' textbook. "Chapter five. Active listening. Where you put on your big ears and really focus on the other person?"

Xander shrugged again.

"Ms. Tishler demonstrated yesterday," Dawn said.

"With you," Willow added.

"You have to give Xander some leeway," Buffy said stepping in for her friend. "I believe he was staring at Cordelia's sweater yesterday."

Xander glanced at Cordelia who was looking at him and smiled. "The midnight blue Angora," he said.

"Is that all you think of, Xander?" Cordelia asked. "Is what's under that sweater?"

"No," Xander said trying to defend himself.

"Right," Cordelia said with a shake of her head.

Just as the bell rang Ms. Tishler walked through the door. "All right, take your seats. In a moment we'll choose partners and practice what we read in chapter five ..." Xander looked at her and mimed putting his big ears on. "... good, Xander, that's the spirit."

Willow, Cordelia, Dawn and Buffy all rolled their eyes.

"Before we do, let's review. Isaacson's research lead him to conclude that one of our most fundamental needs, after food and shelter, is to be heard ..." Ms. Tishler said as Buffy dropped her pencil.

When Buffy bent down to pick up her pencil she noticed a twelve year old boy standing by the door to the classroom. He looked at her with a kind of remorse calm. She looked at him, confused wondering why he was there.

"Wendell would you read us the first two paragraphs on page seventy-eight ..." Ms. Tishler asked as Wendell nodded and reached for his textbook, "... where Isaacson describes the rapid movement active listening brought to some special needs clients –"

Wendell opened his text and screamed as spiders poured out of the book onto his desk, up his arms and over his face. He flailed about, scared out of his wits.

The teacher, the class, Dawn, Willow, Laura and Xander all freak out as Buffy whipped her head around, forgetting the boy to stare at Wendell in total shock.

Quietly Buffy and Dawn, being the two closest to the door heard the boy say softly … "Sorry about that."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The next day Joyce drove Buffy and Dawn to school.

"You're awfully quiet this morning," Joyce said with a glance at Buffy.

"I didn't sleep so good," Buffy replied.

"Another bad dream?" Dawn asked.

Buffy nodded with a sigh. "Yeah."

"Did you talk to Paige and Rupert?" Joyce asked.

"I didn't have a chance, I will today though," Buffy said. "Oh no, my bag. I packed for the weekend and I forgot it."

Dawn laughed and held up a bag. "Good thing I remembered it."

"Thanks, Dawnie," Buffy replied with a glance at her sister in the back seat.

"He's picking us up here, right?" Dawn asked. "At 3:30?"

Joyce glanced in her rearview mirror at her youngest daughter. "Honey, are you worried your dad won't show? That he found out about Buffy? That he won't come because he doesn't …" She left the sentence unfinished. Truth be told she had worried he would find out anyways.

"No. I mean, not really. Should I be?" Dawn wondered.

Joyce sighed. "It's just ... I know the situation's hard, with Buffy being Leo's daughter instead of your dad's. But just remember Dawn, and you too Buffy, that he adores both of you." Then she smiled. "No more than I do by the way."

"Thanks," Buffy and Dawn said.

"Have a good day," Joyce said as her daughters got out.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Later as the bell rang Buffy and Dawn ran into Willow and Xander coming out of a classroom.

"Buffy, Dawn. We've been looking for you two," Willow said.

"We have?" Xander asked confused as he and Willow fell into step with the sisters.

Willow nodded. "About the spiders. Have you talked to Giles and Paige about—"

"Oh, the spiders. Willow's been kinda ... what's the word I'm looking for ... insane about what happened yesterday," Xander said.

"I don't like spiders, okay? Their furry bodies, their sticky webs–what do they need all those legs for anyway? I'll tell you: for crawling across your face in the middle of the night," Willow said as Dawn put a hand on her shoulder.

"I feel for ya," Dawn told Willow as she shuddered. "Buffy can attest to the fact that I just hate them with a passion."

Willow smiled at Dawn in appreciation before turning her attention to Xander. "How do spiders not ruffle you?"

"I'm sorry, I'm unruffled on spiders. Now if a bunch of Nazis crawled across my face ..." Xander said.

"It was pretty intense," Buffy agreed as she looked at her sister and Willow.

"Hellmouth, center of mystical convergence, supernatural monster. Been there," Xander said.

"A little blasé here, aren't you?" Dawn asked.

Xander shrugged. "I'm not worried. If there's something bad out there, we'll find, Buffy'll slay or the two of you will vanquish, we'll party."

They turned and walked through the doors of the library.

"Thanks for having confidence in me and Dawn," Buffy said.

Xander smiled. "Well, you both da man, Buff."

"Okay, but we're still caring about the spiders here," Willow said. "Let's not forget the spiders."

"Giles and Paige said they would look it up," Dawn said. "Giles? Paige?"

"Maybe they're in the faculty room," Willow said.

Suddenly Giles emerged from the stacks, coming through the door with a vaguely unsettle expression as he looked behind him.

"Hey. Giles. Wakey wakey," Buffy said.

"I was in the stacks," Giles said before muttering to himself. "I got lost."

"Where's Paige?" Buffy asked.

"Right next to Giles," Willow said. "You can't see her?"

Buffy shook her head. "No. Paige? Can she see me?"

Dawn looked from her sister to Paige. "Paige, can you see Buffy?"

Paige shook her head. "No," she said as she moved next to Dawn. Where is she?"

"Between me and Dawn," Willow said.

Paige looked between Willow and Dawn as the air between them began to shimmer.

Buffy followed Dawn's gaze toward where Paige stood as the air shimmered there as well and suddenly she and Paige could see each other again. She immediately fell into Paige's arms relieved that she could see Paige.

"Well, did you two find any theories on spiders coming out of books? Big crawly hairy …" Xander said as he ran his hand up Willow's back, causing her to jump. She turned and glared at him. "It was funny if you're me."

"We didn't find anything," Paige said as she stood there just holding Buffy.

"I think perhaps you'd best have a talk with Wendell himself," Giles added.

"Okay," Dawn said. "If he can still talk."

"You guys go ahead," Buffy said. "I'll catch up. I have to talk to Giles and Paige."

Willow, Xander and Dawn nodded as they left the library.

"What is it, Buffy?" Paige asked suddenly concerned.

"The last two nights I've been having dreams of facing the Master and in both of them I die," Buffy said as she buried her face in Paige's shoulder and tears began to fall.

Paige let out a sigh. "Do you think this was a premonition or just a random dream?" she asked.

"I don't know," Buffy said as she looked into Paige's eyes. "And that's what scares me."

Paige nodded and looked at Giles. "We'll look into it."

"Right," Giles agreed.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Wendell stared ahead, lost in thought as Dawn, Willow and Xander approached him.

"Hey Wendell, how're you doing?" Dawn asked.

"Huh?" he said.

"You okay?" Dawn wondered.

Wendell shrugged.

"Good talkin' to ya', man," Xander said as he started to leave.

"Did you guys want something ...?" Wendell asked.

"We just thought you might want to talk about what happened yesterday," Dawn said.

"You know with the spiders," Willow added.

Wendell looked up at them for a moment as if debating with himself. "I don't know what to say about that ..."

"There's nothing to say. You saw two hundred insects, you Gonzoed. Anybody would have –" Xander said.

Wendell shook his head. "They're not insects. They're arachnids."

"They're from the Middle East?"

"Spiders are arachnids, they have eight legs, insects have six," Wendell said. "Why does everyone make that mistake?"

"I don't know," Dawn said. "Has anything like that ever happened before?"

Wendell looked at Dawn and she saw that he had a haunted look in his eyes as he nodded.

"When?"

"Lots of times ..." Wendell said.

"Eeeee," Willow said. "You must hate spiders more than I do."

Wendell laughed. "I don't hate spiders, I love them. They hate me."

Just then the bell rang as Cordelia walked up to Dawn. "Hope you studied for the history test."

"What history test?" Dawn asked.

"The one we're having right now in fourth period," Cordelia told her.

"There's a test? Nobody told me about a ... I better, I gotta ..." Dawn said as she glanced toward Wendell, "we'll catch up during lunch."

Wendell shrugged as Dawn took off after Cordelia.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The teacher walked the aisles as he handed out the test.

Dawn looked around, a little desperate. Many of the other kids, including Cordelia, are already hard at work scribbling on their exams.

The Teacher gave Dawn a decidedly dirty look, dropped a test in front of her and then moved on.

Dawn looked at the teacher wondering what his problem was. She looked down and stared at the test, suddenly having no idea what the answers were. She looked at the clock: 11: 20 before looking back at her test. "I know my name," she said as she started to write 'Dawn' when her pencil broke. She sighed, dug out a small pencil sharpener, started to sharpen the pencil, glancing up at the clock again. It now read: 12: 10.

'Something is not right,' Dawn though as the glanced at the clock again. There was no way 30 minutes could have passed already. She looked over at Cordelia, completing the third page of her test.

Suddenly the bell rang as the students got up and filed out of the classroom as they dropped their tests on the teacher's desk. Dawn looked at her own incomplete test: what just happened?

As Cordelia left Dawn noticed the boy from yesterday standing in the hallway just outside the door. Looking right at her before moving out of sight.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The boy, Billy, walked slowly through the hall unobserved by everyone else. He stopped as he looked at two girls gaining on him from behind. One of them, Laura, is talking to the other. "Well, they both got detention. Which is completely unfair since Sean started it. Anyway it means we can't do the movie."

Laura and the other girl stop before a door with a sign on it: BASEMENT ACCESS, MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL ONLY. "I'm gonna take a," she said as she mimed smoking, "break."

As her friend nodded and walked off, Laura walked up to the door and looked around. There were a few kids at either end of the hall, but no teachers or other staff. She quietly opened the door and slipped inside.

Billy watched her go into the stairwell, his face for the first time showing a hint of dread. "You shouldn't go in there ..."