Chapter 2

The next day was Friday - the end of the school week, and Xander was looking forward to going to the Bronze and having a good time with Willow and Buffy. He caught up with them just before school started to check that all was still go for tonight.

"Hey guys" said Xander. "Is Plan Bronze still a go?"

"Sure it is" replied Buffy. "There has been no vamp activity lately and I've managed to convince Giles to let me go out tonight"

"Yeah, you just told him how much of a basket case I was and I bet he said yes straight away" said Xander with a big grin.

"We didn't actually say 'basket case' Xander" Willow replied for Buffy. "There might have been words used like, 'dumped', 'Valentines' and 'necklace', but there was no 'basket case' ".

"Thanks Will, you really know how to cheer a guy up, don't you. Gee if you only knew the truth", said Xander wistfully.

"The truth?" asked Willow and Buffy at the same time.

"What, oh - nothing. I was just babbling" said Xander, trying to cover himself.

"Xander" said Willow in her stern mother voice.

"No" was all Xander could manage.

"Xander". It was Buffy's turn.

"No, really, nothing" said Xander, now backing away.

"Xander!" said both Willow and Buffy.

"Oh what the hell. It can't hurt now, the spell didn't work anyway" confessed Xander.

"Spell, what spell?" said Buffy quickly.

"Well after, you know, with Cordelia. I was upset, and let me tell you not planning revenge of any kind" Xander said justifiably. "And then I saw Amy working some mojo on one of her teachers. I, uh, convinced her to do a spell for me. A love spell"

"Oh Xander. I never knew you were so head over heels for Cordelia" said Willow sadly. "But a love spell is a dangerous thing. They can have all sorts of unintended side effects".

"Yeah Amy told me the same thing" said Xander. "But all I wanted to do was put Cordelia through the same thing that she did to me, so hopefully she would realise that other people have feelings too, and that you just can't trample all over them without caring."

"Geez" said Willow. "Splitting the atom, flying to the Moon, cloning animals- these are all things that people can do. But teaching Cordelia that other people have feelings too, that's just too far out there" replied Willow seriously.

Buffy was about to say her piece when she was interrupted by the bell signalling the start of school. The three of them ran off to their various classes with a quick promise to meet at the library after school to organise their night out.

Later the same afternoon after class Buffy, Xander and Willow sat sprawled around the large wooden table in the library, while Giles pottered around in the stacks reshelving books.

The Scoobies were casually talking about their plans for the night, along with the different things that could have happened had Amy's spell worked. The gang were laughing at the thought of Cordelia following Xander around all day like a homesick puppy that had lost its way.

Willow could see that Xander had begun to genuinely cheer up again and was also secretly thankful that the spell hadn't worked. 'You can never tell what might go wrong when trying a love spell.' thought Willow.

A little while later they all went home with a promise to meet at the Bronze at 8pm.

Abandoned Factory Sunnydale Outskirts

Spike had still not recovered from his encounter with the pipe organ, and was confined to a wheelchair for the time being. He had not realised how frustrating it must have been for Drusilla to have to rely on him to do everything while she was weak. Now that Drusilla had regained her strength and he was the weak one, Spike was constantly on edge and short tempered because of his current state of uselessness.

He was unable to argue with Drusilla when she insisted it was time to make the Slayer pay for what she had done.

"Dru honey" Spike pleaded. "I want the Slayer dead as much as you do, and normally I'm all for haste. But don't you think we should wait until I get my strength back?"

"Spike my love. I'm not going to kill her tonight" replied Dru in a dreamy voice.

"The Slayer has been naughty and must be punished. The Moon has spoken to me, and now is not the time. We can punish her later, once we get rid of her beastly friends."

"You are my dark princess" said Spike from his wheelchair. "Tell me then, what are you planning to do?"

"Watch. And wait. We need information about the Slayer and her friends" continued Drusilla. "

"Dru" Spike called out to her as she was leaving. "Bring me back someone to eat".