A/N: This is a short chapter, but it's prolly one of my favorites *coughBuffy'smeantoRileycough* . ;) Enjoy.

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Buffy couldn't remember the last time she had been so nervous. She was in the kitchen, trying her best to scrape together enough food for everyone in the house. She closed her eyes, counting to herself: Six SIT's, her sister, Giles, Anya, Xander and Willow, Andrew, Riley, the two scientist guys, and Spike. Well, Spike obviously wouldn't be eating, but he was still here. Seventeen people in the house, including herself. Wow. She grabbed to more boxes of macaroni and cheese from the cupboard, tore them open, and dumped the noodles into the pot of boiling water. She looked at the stack of boxes on the counter, all eight of them.

"I need a raise…" She muttered to herself, scooping them up and carrying them over to the garbage can. She sighed, opening the fridge and grabbing a package of ground beef. She made a face. She remembered how Dawn used to complain that it looked like brains when she was little, and now that she thought about it, her sister had been right. Her mind instantly went to the thought that there were two guys in the dining room using the table as a makeshift hospital bed as they chopped into Spike's brain to find the chip. Ew. She put the ground beef pack and grabbed seven of the thirty packs of hot dogs Xander had picked up earlier.

Cheap dinners.

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"Guys, food's ready!" Buffy called down the stairs to the basement. A moment later seven girls, including Dawn, came racing up, followed by a weary looking Andrew.

"I don't see why I have to stick around with them all the time." He complained.

"Because I don't have time to babysit you." Buffy stated. "Besides, you'll make a good moving target when we get to tracking." She added, smirking as she turned and led the way to the kitchen. Andrew stood there for a moment, whimpered, then followed after them.

Giles and the others had already gotten their food, having retreated back to the living room to continue researching. Buffy watched as the girls helped themselves to heaping mounds of mac 'n cheese and covered hot dogs with various condiments. One of them had even resorted to mayonnaise when Molly refused to hand over the mustard. Buffy made a face.

"Just go back in the basement and eat, there's not much room up here at them moment." She said, turning to head towards the dining room.

"Oh! 'ow's Spike?" Molly asked, her mouth full.

"Go downstairs." The Slayer repeated. "I'll let you know what's going on in al little bit."

There were a few mumbled protests, but the girls –and Andrew- slowly filed out of the kitchen, leaving the Slayer alone once more. She sighed, turning and walking into the dining room. "Uh, Riley. There some food out here if you're hungry…" She said absently, her eyes locked on the stone still vampire on the table. The two men were standing on either side of the table, looking down at, or better yet, into his head. Buffy cringed, watching the vampire's hand, which was hanging limply at the side of the table, twitch slightly. "Can he feel that?" Buffy asked, looking up at Riley as he walked over to her.

He shrugged. "Couldn't tell you. Never had anyone digging in my head before."

"Oh…" Buffy muttered, her eyes dropping.

"Don't be so worried, Buffy. It's not like this is the first time…. Well, you know. There was the original operation and then the time he kidnapped the doctor and tried to get him to remove it. He's a vampire. It's not like…"

"It still hurts, Riley." Buffy said flatly. "It doesn't matter that he's not human. He can still feel pain."

Riley sighed heavily. He didn't agree, but he didn't disagree either. Instead, he changed the subject. "So how about that food?"

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"It's been almost four hours, Giles." Buffy complained from her seat on the couch, running her fingers over the cover of the book she had been 'researching'. It was upside down. "I mean, they do experiments on vampires. What if they're…"

"Buffy, I understand your concern, but I assure you. Things like this just take time." Giles said, sounding impatient. He had talked Buffy into leaving the dining room and helping with the research almost an hour ago, but he was regretting it. She had done nothing but voice her concerns about the vampire and she kept getting up every couple minutes to see how he was doing.

"But I'm just saying, Giles, what if they…"

"Buffy?"

The group in the living room looked up to see Riley in the doorway, smiling slightly. He had a small metal tin in his hands. Buffy climbed to her feet, walking over to him and looking into the tin. There was a small bit of metal in there, no bigger than the tip of a pencil. There was a small red light blinking on it, and the edges were burned. "That's it?"

"That's it." Riley assured her. "State of the art containment device. Forty thousand dollars each."

"You paid forty thousand for that?" Xander exclaimed, looking over Buffy shoulder.

"God, I can't believe something that small was hurting Spike that much." Willow said.

"It is quite extraordinary." Giles agreed.

"How many volts does it put out?" Willow asked curiously.

"Actually, it…"

"Agent Finn, we need the replacement unit." One of the scientists stated, walking up behind him.

"Wait." Buffy said, her face going cold. "What replacement unit?"

Riley sighed heavily, pulling the small package he had been handed earlier from his jacket and handing it to the man. "It was part of the condition I agreed to, Buffy. The only way they would be given clearance to remove the chip was if it was agreed that a newer, more powerful model be installed in it's place."

"Newer?" Buffy demanded. "More powerful?!"

"Buffy, it's…"

"Riley! The old one nearly killed him and now you want to put a stronger one in!?" She demanded.

"Buffy, the chances that this one will malfunction are…"

"No, Riley. No chances. You're not putting that thing in his head!" She shouted, pushing past him and into the dining room. She grabbed the man who had taken the package by the shoulder, pulling him away from the table. The man across from her looked up in surprise as she grabbed the tin containing the 'replacement unit'.

"Buffy, we have to do this!" Riley shouted after her.

Buffy looked down at the container in her hand. She took out the microchip, which was considerably larger than the last one. "No, Riley. Now tell them to sew him up or whatever or I destroy your expensive little toy." She threatened, holding the chip between her thumb and index finger.

"Buffy, would you just…"

"Try me, Riley. Just try me." She growled, glaring at him.

One of the men grabbed her wrist, trying to wretch the chip away from her. Evidently he hadn't been briefed on what a Slayer was. Buffy balled her fist around the chip, punched him in the face, then jumped in the air, planting her foot in the second one's chest as he came at her. He flew backwards, and an instant later, so did she, her body flying through the air with enough force to smash in part of the wall when she hit it.

"Buffy!!" Willow and Xander exclaimed, staring in horror at what had just happened.

Riley rushed over to help her up, but she pulled her arm away from him, glaring at him coldly. There was a small trickle of blood running from her nose and over her lip. She climbed to her feet, her eyes ablaze. She narrowed them at Riley.

"You triggered the chip, Buffy. It wasn't supposed to activate unless…" He stopped midsentence as she threw the chip to the ground and stomped down on it, crushing it under her heal.

"You were going to put that in his head…" She growled.

"Buffy, I was just following orders. You wanted us to remove it, and in order to we had to…"

"Shut up, Riley. Just. Shut. Up." She snapped. She looked down at her hand. It was singed, trickles of blood running down her fingertips. She looked back up at Riley. "That thing would have blew his skull in two."

"It's been tested in other vampires before, Buffy. It would have just…"

"Fix him." She said coldly. "Fix him and get the hell out of my house."

TBC…

A/N: Yay! New chapter. I'm pretty sure I liked this one too. ^_^ Anywho, yeah. Prolly just one more after this, then I'll finish up Reconciliation. I had the rest of the chapters typed up, but my computer crashed and I lost everything.  *grumbles* Anywho, keep reviewing. I'm lovin the attention. :D