He rolled over and groaned, not opening his eyes.
"Xander! Wake up!"
He once again groaned, but sat up and squinted his eyes open ever-so slightly.
"Anya," said Xander, slightly annoyed. "I haven't even looked at a clock and I can tell it's way too early for any normal person to be up."
"It's six a.m.," she said matter-of-factly.
Xander laid back down and pulled a pillow over his head.
Anya yanked the pillow off and continued to stand next to the bed, her hands on her hips. "Xander, I need to talk to you."
"Now?!"
"Yes. Now. I had a very bad dream and it's worrying me."
"Anya," said Xander, giving up since he was already too awake to be able to go back to sleep. "Whatever it was, it was a dream."
"But it didn't feel like a normal dream," she insisted. "It was very real."
"Two years ago I had a very real dream that Angel and I opened a coffee shop, but that obviously hasn't happened. Buffy is the one that has prophetic dreams, not you."
"But there was a big hole and it wanted to swallow me," Anya pouted.
And, scarily enough, that reminded Xander very much of the dream he
had had.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," said Buffy as she wrapped Riley in a big hug. He seemed to stagger a bit at the weight of it, but recovered quickly.
"Morning," he said, having been awakened by her knocking at his door only moments before. He smiled and kissed the top of her head. "So why am I up again?"
Buffy rolled her eyes, but continued to smile. "You told me to wake you up, remember? You said you'd give me a good luck kiss before my exam." She batted her eyelashes innocently.
"I did?" said Riley, feigning confusion. "Why would I say that?"
She hit him on the shoulder and giggled. "I've got to get to class."
"Oh, well, alright then." He bent down and kissed her softly. "Good luck."
"Thanks," said Buffy, turning to go. "I will see you at my house this afternoon, right?"
"Count on it," he said with a smile and then closed the door. The second he was out of her sight, his knees buckled under him and he sank to the floor. He touched his shoulder tentatively, and could tell there was already a bruise where Buffy had hit him, as well as around his ribs where she had hugged him.
This is not good, Riley thought as he crawled back to his bed.
The new office had two sets of living quarters, one above and one below. Angel had, of course, taken the windowless basement apartment. The upper floor was now occupied by Wesley.
Though he could sense Angel and Cordelia's discomfort, Wesley was very happy with their new location. He did have to admit that it was probably because his last apartment had been abominable.
He walked over to the safe that was in the corner, dropped in the payment from their latest client and closed the door tightly. The safe was fireproof, a security measure that Wesley had insisted upon after the last office had left little to be salvaged.
"For the irreplaceable items," Wesley had said, pointing to the scrolls he had translated only hours before. Scrolls that said Angel might once again be human.
Angel and Cordelia had both agreed that the safe was a good idea.
Wesley heard the office door downstairs open and close, and he immediately tensed. It was too early for Cordelia to be in and Angel wasn't about to walk outside in broad daylight. He picked up the crossbow he had mounted on the wall next to his door and carefully crept downstairs, loading it as he went.
When he rounded the corner into the office, he probably would have had a heart attack, had he not been prepared for far worse -- Cordelia was at work, at 7:00 a.m., on a Friday, and she wasn't wearing any makeup.
"Good," said Cordelia, smiling at him. "You're up. Doughnut?"
"Why, yes. Thank you," said Wesley, still confused but taking one.
"What?" she asked, not seeming to understand his surprise. "OK," she relented. "I had this freaky dream last night and I-"
"You had a vision?" interrupted Wesley as he jumped up to grab a pen and paper. "What did you see?"
Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Did I say vision? No. I said dream."
He blinked. "You came in early because you had an odd dream?" He looked disappointed.
"Not just any dream. Usually my dreams consist of some hot young doctor driving a Jaguar that buys me lots of things."
"So he wasn't driving a Jaguar this time?"
Cordelia looked frustrated. "Remember our line of work? End of the world, monsters, demons and such? It was one of those kind of dreams."
That got Wesley's attention once again, and he was poised to write. "Well, what was it?"
"Well," she started. "I don't remember a whole lot of it.
Wesley groaned.
"But," continued Cordelia, insistently. "I do remember that there was this huge black space, almost like a lake only it was in the air. I was standing in front of it, and I was scared because it felt like I would get pulled in." She paused, thinking. "Then there was this bright flash of light and-"
"And what?" the other asked, waiting for some clue as to what the dream could be indicating.
"Then that was the end of that dream. It did that weird shifty thing that dreams do."
"So what was your other dream?" he prompted. "It could be important."
"It's not," said Cordelia firmly. "It's private." She hoped he would take the hint. She didn't want to tell him that she had also dreamed that Doyle was still alive, and that she was kissing him.