We were all sitting in a dark Bio class as Dr. Gregory gave us a slide show on what we'd been studying for the last week.

"Xander!" I turned to see him shake awake from a daydream. "You've got a little..." Buffy motioned to the corner of her mouth and he quickly wiped the drool off of his mouth and chin.

"Their ancestors were here long before we were. Their progeny will be here long after we are gone. The simple and ubiquitous ant." Dr. Gregory turned off the projector, turned the lights on, and began walking up the aisle. "If you read the homework you should know the two ways that ants communicate." He stopped and Xander and Willow's table and turned to face me and Buffy. "Miss Summers."

"Ways that ants communicate," Buffy said and he nodded his head. "With other ants."

"From the homework." Behind him, Willow waved her arms trying to get Buffy's attention.

"Ants are communicating..." Dr. Gregory started for her.

"Um, uh, uh..." Willow started stroking Xander's back. "Touch..."

"Mm-hmm."

"And, um..." Willow started sniffing Xander and Buffy tried to decipher her meaning. "B.O.?" Several students laughed and Willow gave a disappointed look.

"Thank God someone finally found the courage to mention that!" Blayne called out making the others laugh more.

"That would be 'touch' and 'smell', Miss Summers. Is there anything else Miss Rosenberg would like to tell you?" Willow quickly turned away in her seat as the bell rang signaling the end of class. Dr. Gregory started to move back to the front of the class. "Alright, chapters six through eight by tomorrow, people." he turned and looked at Buffy. "Can I see you for a moment?" Buffy nodded while the rest of us left for our next class.

That night, I was in my room getting ready to leave for the Bronze while my father tried to talk me out of it.

"You know what tonight is and what must be done." he reminded me.

"Dad, I'll be fine. The protections are still in place." I told him.

"How can we be sure if we don't check them?"

"You check them every full and new moon, Dad. Missing one isn't going to hurt me." I insisted.

"That could be what makes it take full effect. Elizabeth..."

"Dad," he stopped talking and looked at me. "It's clear what activates her curse and it's not missing one day of checking the protection wards you had the clan in England place on me the moment she told you about it."

"Elizabeth..."

"I'll be safe, I promise," I told him smiling. "I'm just going out with Willow, Buffy, and Xander. No hot guys allowed."

"That doesn't make me feel any better, Elizabeth." I sighed and rolled my eyes at him.

"Dad, I'm fine. We're fine. The curse is... dormant."

"For now."

"By the time the curse activates, we'll be ready." I tried assuring him.

"We can hope that day never comes," he said taking off his glasses and cleaning them.

"I can't guarantee that," I told him. "No one can."

Later, Buffy, Willow and I walked into the Bronze and Willow immediately started looking for Xander.

"Babes!" We turned to Xander as he came up to us with his arms wide open and grabbed the other two around the shoulders.

"What are you doing?" Buffy asked him confused.

"Work with me here. Blayne had the nerve to question my manliness. I'm just gonna give him a visual." Xander told her and I laughed while rolling my eyes at him.

"We'll show him!" Willow said before throwing her arms around Xander. I just shook my head at them before looking at Blayne and getting distracted by the man behind him as Xander gave the boys a thumbs up.

"I don't believe it," Buffy said as I smiled at Angel.

"I know, and after all my conquests," Xander commented and I just gave them a look.

"You guys have fun with that. Gotta see a man about a thing." I walked over to Angel leaving the other three in the dust.

"Well, well, well! Look who's here having fun at the Bronze!" I said smiling at him.

"Hi."

"Hi," I said. "It's been a while since I saw you last. It's kinda nice.

"I can't be long," he told me.

"Then shouldn't you give the cryptic warning to Buffy? She's the slayer, not me," I pointed out before shivering slightly.

"You're cold tonight," he told me.

"Something tells me you can handle it," I said.

"I mean, you look cold." Angel wrapped his jacket around my shoulders and I looked up at him through my lashes.

"Thank you," I put my arms through the sleeves and held up my hands to see my fingers peeking out. "Seems a little big, but I'll... Oh my god! What happened?" I asked pulling his injured arm to me.

"I didn't pay attention," he said.

"To who? Freddy Kruger?" I asked him.

"He's coming."

"What? He's real?" I asked him giving him a look.

"Don't let him corner you. Don't give him a moment's mercy. He'll rip your throat out."

"I think you're getting better in your message deliveries," I told him sarcastically. "Improved marks for not being as cryptic as usual, but you lose points for giving it to the wrong person."

"Maybe I wanted to talk to you," he told me and I smiled at him.

"Aren't you a sweetheart." he smiled down at me.

"I have to go. I'll see you later." he left and I turned and watched him leave.

"Sweet dreams Angel." I wrapped his jacket around me more before rejoining the others.

The next morning, Buffy, dad, and I were all walking along in the front of the school.

"That's all he said? Freddy Kruger?" dad asked me for the 100th time.

"Yes, that's all Angel told me. Watch out for Freddy Kruger cause he'll rip your throat out." I told him with a cheery fake voice.

"I think there are too many 'guys' in your life," he said giving me a look. Not just any look. The look. "I'll see what I can find out," he told us before looking up at the sky. "God, every day here is the same," he complained as we met Willow, who was sitting on a bench.

"Bright, sunny, beautiful, how ever can we escape this torment?" Buffy asked him sarcastically. Willow gave us a smile as Buffy sat down next to her.

"Really." Xander came up behind dad as he turned to leave. "Good morning."

"Mornin'." Dad walked off and Xander turned to us. "Guess what I just heard in the office? No Dr. Gregory today. Ergo, those of us who blew off our science homework aren't as dumb as we look." he reached down and flipped Willow's book closed and she stopped it from sliding off her lap.

"What happened, is he sick?" Buffy asked.

"They didn't say anything about sick, something about missing," Xander told her.

"He's missing?" she asked worriedly.

"Well, let me think. Um, the cheerleaders were modeling their new short skirts, that kinda got... Yeah! Yeah, they said missing." The three of us shared a look. "Which is bad?"

"If something's wrong, yeah!" Buffy quickly said.

"He's one of the only teachers that doesn't think Buffy's a felon," Willow explained to him.

"I'm really sorry, I'm sure he'll..." he looked up and his entire conversation dropped. "I, uh, huh..." We turned to see a woman walking towards us. "Uh, huh... huh..."

"Could you help me?" she asked looking at Xander.

"Uuuuuuhhhhhh... Yes!" I looked at the other two girls and held in my laughter. We were all amused by this.

"I'm looking for Science... 109."

"Oh! It's, um..." He looked around himself, trying to remember the way. He turns back to her and smiled. "I go there every day!" she laughed at him and he looked to us. "Oh, God, where is it?" We just shrugged as Blayne appeared behind the woman.

"Hi! Blayne Mall. I'm going there right now. It's not far from the varsity field where I took All-City last year." Blayne smiled smugly at her as she turned her smiling face on him.

"Oh! Thank you, Blayne!" She and Blayne left and Xander's gaze followed them until they were out of sight.

"It's funny how the Earth never opens up and swallows you when you want it to," he said sarcastically.

"I hear it only happens to those who don't want it to happen to them.

In Bio, the woman was writing her name on the board as we walked in. Buffy bent down and picked up the glasses laying on the floor.

"What's wrong?" Willow asked him.

"Dr. Gregory dropped his glasses... Why wouldn't he pick them up?" Buffy asked and Willow just shrugged.

"Maybe missing means something else," I suggested as she set the glasses on the lab table before we walked to our lab tables.

"My name is Natalie French, and I will be substituting for Dr. Gregory." Miss. French told us.

"Do you know when he's coming back?" Buffy asked her.

"No, I don't, um," she checked a paper probably telling her who we all were by the places we sat. "Buffy. They just call and tell me where they want me."

"I'll tell you where I want you," Blayne whispered behind us.

"Excuse me, Blayne?" Miss. French called to him.

"Uh, I was just wondering if you were gonna pick up where Dr. Gregory left off?" Blayne asked her.

"Yes," she smiled at the class. "His notes tell me you were right in the middle of insect life." she picked up a praying mantis in a cage and held it as she walked down the aisles with it. "The praying mantis is a fascinating creature. Forced to live alone. Who can tell me why? Buffy?" she put the mantis down on our desk.

"Well, the words 'bug-ugly' kinda spring to mind," Buffy told her making people laugh, but Miss French just took a deep breath.

"There is nothing ugly about these unique creatures. The reason they live alone is because they're cannibals!"

"Eww!" Buffy moved away from the bug on our desk before Miss French picked it up and moved back towards the front of the class.

"Oh, well, it's hardly their fault! It's the way nature designed them: noble, solitary and prolific. Over 1800 species worldwide, and in nearly all of them the female is larger and more aggressive than the male," she told us.

"Nothing wrong with an aggressive female," Blayne whispered again. I sent him a look before Miss French picked up her notebook and walked around the room again.

"The California Mantis lays her eggs, and then finds a mate to fertilize them. Once he's played his part, she covers the eggs in a protective sack and attaches it to a leaf or twig out of danger. Now, if she's done her job correctly, in a few months she'll have several hundred offspring." she moved back to the front of the class and put down the notebook. "You know, we should make some model egg sacks for the science fair. Who would like to help me do that after school?" I looked around as all the boys raised their hands. "Good!"

Later in the cafeteria, we were all talking while in line to get our food.

"Hot dog surprise. Be still, my heart," Buffy said sarcastically.

"Aren't there enough surprises in hot dogs?" I asked.

"Call me old-fashioned, I don't want any more surprises in my hot dogs," Willow told us.

"I wonder what she sees in me? It's probably the quiet good looks coupled with a certain smoky magnetism," Xander said pulling the conversation to his new obsession. Willow turned to us, her eyebrows raised and we all smiled. "Miss French. You two're probably a little young to understand what an older woman would see in a younger man."

"Oh, I understand," Buffy told him.

"Good!"

"The younger man is too dumb to wonder why an older woman can't find someone her own age, and too desperate to care about the surgical improvements!" Buffy said.

"What surgical improvements?" Xander asked taken back.

"Well, he is young," Willow commented.

"And so terribly innocent!" Buffy chimed in.

"Oh, to be young in infatuated with someone." We laughed at him.

"Hey, those that can, do. Those that can't laugh at those who... can do," Xander tried to defend himself when Bayne came up to us, grabbing a lot of food.

"Gotta carb up for my one-on-one with Miss French today. When's yours? Oh, right, tomorrow. You came in second, I came in first. Guess that's what they call natural selection," Blayne told Xander before leaving.

"Guess it's what they call a rehearsal!" Xander called back to him before looking at us. "Rehearsal..." he laughed lamely while we just smiled at him. Buffy went to get something else while we waited for her.

"What do you think is the surprise?" Xander asked.

"Are we really brave enough to guess?" I asked him as I stared at the "food" on my plate.

"Excuse you!" I looked up to see Cordelia going behind the counter after bumping into Buffy.

"Oh look. It's our queen making us all feel like the insects we all are," I commented sarcastically as Buffy rejoined us. Buffy was about to comment when we heard Cordelia scream. The four of us rushed to her and looked inside the refrigerator.

"His head! His head! Oh, my God, where's his head?!" My mouth fell open at the sight of Dr. Gregory, headless, handing.

In the library, dad poured Buffy a glass of water before giving it to her as she sat on the steps with Willow. Buffy'd been crying about what we'd seen so we'd been doing our best to help her.

"Here. Drink this."

"No, thank you," she said as she took the glass and sipped on it.

"I've never seen..." We all looked to Xander who was standing behind dad. "I mean, I've never seen anything like... That was new."

"Who would wanna hurt Dr. Gregory?" Willow asked and we all looked at dad.

"Uh, he didn't have any enemies on the staff that I'm aware of. He was a civilized man. I liked him." Dad told us.

"So did I." I was going to try and comfort Buffy again but stopped myself.

"Well, we're gonna find out who did this. We'll find them and we'll stop them." Willow said looking up at dad.

"Count on it." Buffy chimed in.

"What do we know?" Dad asked.

"Oh, not a lot, um..." Buffy sniffed and wiped a tear from her nose. "He was killed here on campus. I'm guessing the last day we saw him."

"How do you work that out?" Dad asked her.

"He didn't change his clothing."

"This is a question that no one particularly wants to hear, but... where did they put his head?" Xander asked.

"Good point. I didn't wanna hear that." Willow told him.

"Maybe not, but it needed to be asked," I told her. "Maybe the head has something on it that can give us a clue to what we're fighting."

"Angel!" Buffy said standing up. "He warned you that something was coming." she took another sip of her water as she walked to the table.

"Yes. Yes he did, didn't he?" Dad asked throwing me another look. We still hadn't talked about why Angel talked to me and not Buffy. "I wish I knew what he meant. I've been trying to gather more information about the Master, our, uh, local vampire king. There was one oblique reference to a-a-a vampire who displeased the Master and cut his hand off in penance."

"Cut off his hand and replaced it with a fork?" Buffy asked him.

"I don't know what he replaced it with," Dad told her.

"So, why would he come after a teacher?" Xander asked.

"And why wouldn't his blood have been drained?" I chimed in.

"I'm not certain he did. There was an incident two nights ago..." Dad walked over to the counter and picked up a newspaper before returning with it. "...uh, involving a homeless person in Weatherly Park. He was practically shredded, but, uh, nothing like Dr. Gregory."

"Fork Guy doesn't do heads," Buffy said looking at the paper.

"Not historically."

"And Dr. Gregory's blood wasn't drained," Buffy added.

"I thought I mentioned that already," I mumbled.

"So there's something else out there? Besides Silverwareman? Oh, this is fun, we're on Monster Island." Xander complained.

"We're on a Hellmouth. It's a center of mystical convergence. Guess it's the same thing," Buffy said walking towards Xander.

"Well, unpleasant things do gravitate here, it's true, but, uh, we don't know there's anything besides this chap. He's still our likely suspect," Dad told her.

"Where was that guy killed? Weatherly Park?" Buffy asked him.

"Buffy." Dad advanced towards her. "I know you're upset, but, uh, this is no time to go hunting, not until we know more. Please promise me you won't do anything rash?"

"Cross my heart."

In bio the next day Miss French gave us a pop quiz. Buffy was giving dad details about her unsanctioned hunt. Dad was angry with her, almost as mad as he was with me. I'd been avoiding him since yesterday. I was so not ready to have the talk on Angel giving his warning to me instead of Buffy or about the protections for the curse.

"Keep your eyes straight ahead on your own test." Miss French told us and I just focused on my paper as she got closer to my table. I turned to look at her and my eyes widened. She spun her head to look at the door behind her, and I don't mean she turned. The only thing that moved was her head.

"No, I'm not saying she craned her neck. We are talking full-on Exorcist twist." Buffy explained to Willow.

"Ouch!"

"It was disturbing," I commented sitting next to my dad as he read from one of his books.

"Which reminds me, how come Blayne, who worked with her one-on-one yesterday, isn't here today?" Buffy asked.

"Inquiring minds wanna know," Willow said.

"Any luck?" Buffy asked dad as Willow sat down in front of the PC and began a search.

"Um, I've not found any creature as yet that strikes terror in a vampire's heart," Dad told us.

"Try looking under things that can turn their heads all the way around," Buffy told him.

"Nothing human can do that."

"Not without turning the rest of them," I added.

"Nothing human. There are some insects that can. Whatever she is, I'm gonna be ready for her," Buffy said turning the hopping up the stairs to the stacks.

"What are you going to do?" Dad asked her.

"My homework." She answered before continuing up into the stacks. Willow and I share a smile before we go back to what we were doing. "Where are the books on bugs?"

"Dig this:" Buffy called to us as she came out of the stacks. "'The praying mantis can rotate its head 180 degrees while waiting for its next meal to walk by.' Ha!" she said proudly slamming the book shut and looking at us. "Well, c'mon, guys. Ha!"

"Well, Miss French is sort of big. For a bug?" Willow suggested.

"And she is, by and large, woman-shaped."

"And human," I added.

"Okay. Factoid 1: Only the praying mantis can rotate its head like that. Factoid 2: A pretty whacked-out vampire is scared to death of her. Factoid 3: Her fashion sense screams predator," Buffy explained.

"It's the shoulder pads," Willow said.

"Exactly."

"If you're right, then she'd have to be a shapeshifter or a perception distorter. On a helpful note, I had a chum at Oxford, Carlyle, advanced degrees in entomology mythology," Dad told us.

"Entoma-who?" Buffy asked confused.

"Bugs and fairy tales," I said.

"I knew that," Buffy said trying to cover for herself.

"If I recall correctly, poor old Carlyle, just before he went mad, claimed there was some beast..." Dad was cut off by the PC beeping.

"Buffy, 911! Blayne's mom called the school. He never came home last night." Willow told us.

"The boy who worked with Miss French yesterday?" Dad asked us.

"Yeah! If Miss French is responsible for... Xander's supposed to be helping her right now! He's got a crush on a giant insect!" Willow exclaimed.

"Okay, don't panic, I'll warn him. But I need you to hack into the coroner's office for me," Buffy told him before rushing from the room.

"Well, what are we looking for?!" Willow called out to her.

"My guess? Autopsy on Dr. Gregory. There were these marks on his corpse... If Buffy's right, I'm thinking teeth," I told her looking at the picture in the book Buffy had brought down to us. "And these nasties should be brushing after every meal." Willow started typing and I looked at dad. "Maybe you and your old chum should get back in touch?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, I just need to make one transatlantic telephone call," he told us and I leaned over to watch Willow. "Um, this computer invasion that Willow's performing on the coroner's office, one, one assumes it is entirely legal?"

"Entirely!"

"Of course!"

"Right. Wasn't here, didn't see it, couldn't have stopped you," Dad said going to his office.

"Probably best," I told him.

A little while later, Buffy had joined us again after her failure at warning Xander about Miss French.

"Got it! Coroner's report, complete with... Yuk! ...color pictures." Buffy and I looked over her shoulders at the notes and pictures.

"There are teeth marks. Which match perfectly the one insect that nips off its prey's head," Buffy told us.

"Okay, I-I don't like this," Willow said seeming to grow paler.

"It's the way they feed, head first. It's also the way they mate. The female bites off the male's head while they're..."

"Thank you, Buffy!" I cut her off with a smile. "I don't need to hear how bugs have sex."

"No, no, no! See? Xander's, I like his head! I-it's where you find his eyes, and his hair, and his adorable smile..." Willow told us.

"Hey, hey, take it easy, Willow. Xander is not in any immediate danger. I saw him leave school. He's probably safe at home right now," Buffy tried to console her when Dad came out of his office.

"Dr. Ferris Carlyle spent years transcribing a lost pre-Germanic language. What he discovered he kept to himself until several teenage boys were murdered in the Cotswolds. Then he went hunting for it," he told us.

"It being...?"

"Uh, he calls her a She-Mantis. This type of creature, the Kleptes-Virgo, or, or virgin-thief, appears in, in many cultures. The Greek sirens, the Celtic sea maidens, who, who tore the living flesh from the bones of, um..."

"Giles, while we're young!" Buffy complained.

"Uh, well, basically the, uh, the She-Mantis assumes the form of a beautiful woman and then lures innocent virgins back to her nest," dad told us.

"Virgins? Well, Xander's not a, uh... I mean, he's probably..." Buffy stammered before Willow quickly got up.

"...gonna die!" she rushed to the phone.

"Okay, okay," Buffy walked around us. "So this thing is breeding and we need to find it and snuff it. Any tips on the snuffing part?"

"Uh, Carlyle recommends cleaving all body parts with a sharp blade," Dad told her.

"Slice and Dice," Buffy said.

"Something we can do and are good at," I said sharing a look with her.

"Well, whatever you do, it had better be certain and swift. This beast is extremely dangerous," Dad told us.

"Well, your buddy Carlyle faced it, and he's still around." Buffy pointed out.

"Yes, in a straitjacket, howling his innards out day and night."

"Okay, Admiral, way to inspire the troops!"

"Sorry..."

"Xander's not home!" Willow told us once she was off the phone. "He told his mom he was going to his teacher's house to work on a science project. He didn't tell her where."

"See if you can get her address off the substitute rolls," Buffy ordered her before turning to me and dad. "And you need to record bat sonar, and fast!"

"Bat sonar, right. What?" Dad asked her.

"Bats eat them," I said leading dad to the stairs. "The mantis hears sonar, the entire nervous system goes haywire."

"Where are we gonna find the..."

"In the vid library," I told him leading him to the part of the library he avoided. "There're no books, but it's dark and musty, you'll feel right at home. Besides we can have that talk you want to badly."

Dad and I were looking through the video library in silence when he finally spoke up.

"You and Angel?"

"What about him?" I asked.

"Why give you the warning and not Buffy. She's the slayer, not you."

"Which is what I told him." I pulled a video from the stack and smiled. "Got it." I put it in the VCR and started the video waiting for the right moment to record the bat sonar.

"Elizabeth, what is your relationship with Angel?"

"He's my friend, dad. Nothing more,"

"Do you have any feeling for this boy?" he asked and I was suddenly hyperfocused on the video. "Elizabeth?"

"Of course I do. He's my friend." I said.

"You know what I mean Elizabeth." I ignored him when the bat sonar began screeching. I winced at the sound before dad pressed record on the tape recorder. Once that was done we went down as Buffy came in the door.

"Getting the address," Willow told her.

"Great! Giles? Liz?" she looked at us and dad held up the tape recorder.

"Recording bat sonar is something soothingly akin to having one's teeth drilled," dad told her.

"Let's roll!" Buffy said and we all left for Miss French's house.

"According to Miss French's personnel records, she was born in 1907. She's, like, 90 years old!" Willow told us,

"And extremely well preserved!"

"For a bug lady."

Dad drove us to Miss French's house and we quickly got out and ran to her door.

"What now, exactly? We can't just kick the door down," dad reminded Buffy.

"Yeah, that would be wrong." Buffy got ready to kick the door down, but it opened revealing an older woman.

"Hello, dear! I thought I heard... Are you selling something? Because I'd like to help you out, but... You see, I'm on a fixed income," she told us.

"I'm looking for Miss French," Buffy told her.

"I'm Miss French."

"Natalie French, the substitute biology teacher?"

"Goodness, that's me! I taught for over thirty years. I retired in 1972." she laughed and Buffy turned to us.

"I can't believe this! She used Miss French's records to get into the school. She could be anywhere!"

"No, dear! I'm right here!"

After our failure at finding Miss French and Xander we made our way back to the car.

"What do we do now?" Willow asked.

"Abject prayer and supplication would spring to mind," dad said.

"I saw her walking past this park with her grocery bags. She lives in this neighborhood.," Buffy told her.

"I'm gonna start banging on doors," Willow said going for the next house, but Buffy and I held her back.

"Wait, no, we do not have time for that!" Buffy told her.

"We have to do something!" Willow reminded her.

"We will."

"I think it's time for you to see Freddy again," I told Buffy.

Buffy lifted the manhole cover and started to climb in.

"I won't be long," she told us before dropping.

"W... Buffy?" dad called after her.

"Come on, Buffy!" Willow called to her a few minutes later. We turned when we heard the sounds of fighting coming from the bushes close to us. Freddy was pushed out fo the bushes with his arms tied around his back.

"You!"

"Me!" She grabbed him and she shoved him down the street with the three of us following her. "Come on! Come on, where is she? Which house is it? I know you're afraid of her, I saw you! Come on!" Suddenly, he tries even harder to get out of her grasp. We must have been close. "Come on. What? What is it? This is her, isn't it, this is her house? This is it! Better than radar!" she let go of him and went for the house.

"Buffy!" Willow called to her in time after Freddy cut the ropes off his arms. He swung at Buffy, but she leaned back just in time, only to trip and fall backward over the miniature picket fence running along the walk to the house. Freddy jumped to follow and I rushed forward as she crawled backward on her butt. I grabbed one of the white picket fences. I thrust it into his back as she thrust one in his front. He fell over dead.

"HEEEELLLLP! HEEEELLLLP!" we heard Xander call out. We found the window into the basement and Buffy smashed it and slid in.

"Uh, hey, o-over here, hello! In the cage!" I followed her with her bag in time to hear Blayne call out to us.

"Let him go!" Buffy ordered. She ran down the stairs and set the bag down. Buffy pulled out two cans of insect spray from the bag and sprayed Miss French in the face.

"Help me! Help me!"

"Get them outta here!" Buffy ordered us. She pulled the tape recorder and a machete from her bag as dad and I went for Xander and Willow went for Blayne.

"Hey, help me! Help me!"

"Remember Dr. Gregory? You scarfed his head? Yeah, well, he taught me, you do your homework, you learn stuff. Like what happens to your nervous system when you hear this!" she played the video but what played wasn't the bat sonar.

"...extremely important to file not simply alphabetically..."

"Giles!"

"I-it's the wrong side!" Dad called to her before Miss French knocked the tape recorder out of her hands. I watched the recorder fly through the air before sliding under a refrigerator. Dad and I scrambled to get it as Buffy turned back to Miss French. Dad reached for the recorder first but I moved him out of the way before going after it myself. I reached for the recorder and grabbed it. I pulled it out from under the refrigerator and switched the tape before pressing play. The sound of the bat sonar severely disoriented and hurt Miss French, making Buffy's job easier.

"Bat sonar. Makes your whole nervous system go to Hell. You can go there with it!" Buffy slashed at Miss French fiercely and repeatedly with the machete, having her to pieces getting winded in the process. Dad helped me up and Willow ran to Xander with Blayne out of his cage.

"Well, I... I'd say it's deceased." Dad said.

"And dissected," Willow added.

"You okay?" Xander asked Buffy.

"Yeah."

"Just for the record, you were right, I'm an idiot, and God bless you!" Xander told her and she lowered her head in a mock bow. "And thank you guys, too."

"Nice to be remembered," I joked.

"Yeah, really!" Blayne chimed in.

"Pleasure..." dad told him.

"I'm really glad you're okay. It's so unfair how she only went after virgins," Willow said making Xander laugh and look between all of us.

"What?"

"I mean, here you guys are, doing the right thing, the smart thing, when a lot of other boys your age..." Willow said.

"Flag down on that play, babe. I am not..." Blayne started saying.

"Nice try, Blayne." I smirked at him.

"Well, you see, that's the She-Mantis' modus operandi. Uh, she only preys on the pure." Dad instructed.

"Well, isn't this a perfect ending to a wonderful day!" Xander smirked at Blayne.

"My dad's a lawyer. Anyone repeats this to anybody, they're gonna find themselves facing a lawsuit." Blayne warned and I gave him a look.

"Seriously? And how will that look on your dad's record? Filing a lawsuit against a teen simply because they told someone his son's a virgin," I asked him and he just glared at me.

"Blayne! Shut up!" Xander ordered him.

"I don't think it's bad, I think it's really..." Willow started saying when Xander picked up the machete. "...sweet! It's certainly nothing I'll ever bring up again." Xander took the machete over to Miss French's next, looked it over, and started hacking away at it.

Later that night, I was sitting at the bar in the Bronze with Angel's jacket. The plan was to give it back to him once he showed. If he showed. I played with my drink before smiling and looking behind me to see him.

"Hey, you."

"I heard a rumor there was, uh, one less vampire walking around making a nuisance of himself," Angel said smiling.

"There is. Thanks for the tip," I said.

"Pleasure's mine."

"You know this could be easier if I knew where you lived." I mock glared at him. "Not really fair since you know where I live."

"I'll be around," he told me.

"And we're back to being cryptic," I sighed. "Come on, we've been friends for a while now. Don't I get to know more about you?" he just smiled again before moving to the other side of me.

"Hey!" he turned back to me. "Want your jacket back?" I asked him starting to take it off. He moved back to me and pulled his jacket back up over my shoulders.

"It looks better on you." he turned and left as I stared after him.

"If he turns back around then I'm in trouble," I mumbled right before he gave me another smile over his shoulder and disappeared into the crowd. "Oh boy!"