Buffy rolled out of bed the next morning to the sounds of frenzied activity in the room next to hers. She hastily looked in to see Dawn throwing things into a suitcase.

"Dawn, what are you doing?"

"Going to L.A.," snapped Dawn. "I already phoned Dad. He says I can come."

"Going to L.A." Buffy struggled to find something to say. "but...But...," her voice trailed off as Dawn turned a tear streaked face towards her.

"Willow tried getting to me with her magick, I don't know what she was trying to do, but I'm sure it was for my own good." Dawn dumped another pile of clothes in the suitcase. "I can't do this Buffy. I don't want to leave you, or live with Dad, but I can't do this. Not if I got to worry about Willow using her magic on me."

"But it's Willow. She wouldn't do anything that would.. you know that?"

"Do I?" Dawn glared at her sister. "I told her yesterday that I could shield, sense her magick. I told her I didn't know what would happen if I had to, if someone did try and I had to put them up. Well, she did try, and it wasn't just a probe. She was trying to get in and do what she was going to do before I could get my shields up. Didn't work though?"

"Willow, did something happen to Willow?"

Dawn stared at Buffy. "I don't know Buffy. Why don't you go see."

Buffy found Willow seated at a table in the Library, surrounded by stacks of books. She looked like hell. Bleary eyes, traces of a nosebleed. Dishevelled hair.

"What happened," Buffy asked.

"B-Buffy," Willow stammered. "I just wanted to keep Dawn safe, and I thought that if I could figure out where these attacks were coming from then we could trace them the next time and .. well stop them." Willow looked miserable. "I just wanted to keep her safe.'

"What did you do," Buffy sighed and took a seat, placing her head in her hands.

"I tried putting a spell on her, not a big one, one that would tell me when she was being probed. I almost had it but her shields kicked in too soon. I wasn't expecting it and it through me for a loop." Willow paused as a thought hit her. "But, how did you know?"

"Dawn was packing when I got up," Buffy said, without lifting her head. "She's going to L.A. She's already called Dad, and he said she could."

"L.A.," gasped Willow rising from her seat. "I'll go talk to her. Maybe if I explain..."

"Brat's not gonna listen to you Red," said a new voice. Faith stepped out of the stacks. "Not after telling you to back off yesterday and you going ahead anyway. You'd be wasting breath."

"Faith," snapped Willow, "what do you...how did you.... does everyone know?"

"About what you did, nope. About the words you'n Dawn had yesterday? Loud noises, farm full of girl's with slayer-hearing, you do the math." Faith grinned. "Brat's growing up, learning to fend for herself. Gotta admire that in her."

"I suppose you have a better idea/"

"Maybe," Faith straddled a chair. "She needs a good talking and listening to."

"Once again in English."

"Something neither of you are very good. What Dawn needs is someone to lay things out for her, explain the sitch, and then let her talk, spell out what bugs her, and listen to her. Really listen to her, and take what she has to say into consideration. Not just dismiss it because she's just a kid. Half the problem will be solved with the listening to her."

"I could do that," said Willow.

"Other half of the problem will be solved by her listening to you," Faith sad. "Somehow, I don't think she's in much of a mood to listen to you, Red, or to B. Right now, you're the bad guys."

"So how do we become not the bad guy?" Buffy was listening despite herself. "She's already packed and ready to go."

"But she's still here which gives us some time. Be a while before she can get into town, buy a ticket, or even for Hank to get one to her. So, we got a little bit of time. It'll be dicey, cause she's feeling all betrayed and from where I sit, she's got reason to. So, you chill, and I'll see if I can find someone to talk to her."

"You mean you're not going to?"

"We got history, Buffy and I, and I'm thinking that'll stand in the way."

"Whatcha doing?" Andrew poked his head into Dawn's work room to see her poking at a strange looking boxy type computer thing. "Is that an Apple IIgs?" Cause if it is that's cool. My Uncle had one one, and I used to play games on it which was cool, cause it had a colour monitor and everything. did I say it was the coolest thing?"

"Yes Andrew you did say that it was cool." Dawn looked sideways at him. "II suppose Buffy sent you."

"Well actually no, cause I never saw Buffy today so she couldn't have sent me."

"So what are you doing here?"

:Just wondering what you were doing." Andrew waited while Dawn scribbled some notes, and clicked the mouse a couple times. "So what are you doing?"

"Well I was going to use this IIgs as a server for the girl's network, but I guess I won't be able to do that. I'm going to L.A."

"Aren't they using the Network?" Andrew pondered. "Cari said you and she got computers in all the rooms and everything, with cables that kind of stuff."

"Yeah, the networks working, but they can only talk to somebody, and everybody gets to read the messages, cause it goes into every computer, and it's all so bollixed up."

"So, you're trying to get this computer working as a server. My Uncle never tried that. Course, my Uncle's computer didn't have much memory, so he probably couldn't do it. Even if he wanted to. Which he didn't cause he only had one computer, so didn't need to..."

"Andrew," Dawn interjected. "Is there a point to this."

"No," Andrew said disconsolately. "But maybe you could do something like what Xander did. You know with that funny looking computer he has."



"A bulletin board system?" Dawn's eyes lit up. "That could so work, okay not as fast as a real network, but it could. Andrew, I don't know how to thank you."

"Well, if you have another of these Apples, cause I really liked my Uncle's computer, you know, when I was a kid, and if there's another one, I wouldn't mind having one. That is if you don't mind."

"No, I found three of them, I wanted one for the server, and one I want for myself, so you can have the other one." Dawn paused as she realized what she was saying, thinking. Andrew saw an opportunity.

"They really do love you, you know."

"They DID send you."

"No, it was, uh, Faith who talked to me. Honest, Buffy doesn't even know I'm here. But she doesn't want you to go, live in L.A., away from her, and she's scared that you will, and she doesn't know what to about it."

"Big surprise. Besides, she's the Slayer. Slayers don't get scared."

"Slayer's get scared. They got to fight monsters and demons and things, and other stuff. Stuff like everyday living which can be scary enough. Maybe even scarier. Cause you can't just slay it or kick it, or anything like that."

"So Buffy's scared I'm leaving. Well what can I do about it?"

"Talk to her, giver her a chance." Andrew shrugged. "Sometimes, you can spend a lifetime trying to find something that is real. Something that can be your's, which is what I did. Going to school, trying to make that real for me, and failing, and then there was the Trio. They accepted me and for a time that felt real, though it wasn't really real at all though it felt like it was. But what you have with Buffy, that's real and you may never find something like it again."

"Yeah so real," muttered Dawn. "So real that I'm just something to be protected, kept out of the way. I'm the key. A target, I have to learn how to protect myself, not to be protected. So real that she banished me to the basement."

"Not banished, but," Andrew looked around the room. "Not all that bad an idea."

"What?"

"Why do demon's like living in caves, sewers, places like that?"

"Cause they're demons. That's where they're supposed to live."

"But that also means they're living underground. Which means they're surrounded and covered by earth, and that has magick blocking stuff. So anyone trying to magick you, particularly from a distance, maybe couldn't do much."

"Yeah but Willow's right here, and it's not like I'm underground. Just in some dank old basement."

"Sand, gravel, water." Andrew shrugged. "Should do the trick, and wards can help." A smile passed across Andrew's lips. "So that's what happened to Willow."

"What?"

"Well you have these deflector shields, or at least that's what the girls were saying last night, ad Willow looked like something the cat dragged in and out and in and out, well you get the picture. Really bad. " Andrew looked at Dawn. "Willow tried to magick you didn't she, and your deflector shield rebounded it back at her and she got zapped. I don't think she'll be trying that soon."

"She's not really hurt is she?"

Andrew shrugged. "She'll get over it."

You don't think she'll try magicking me again?"

"Not if what I saw this morning is any indication. She got a good dose of her own medicine, and I know its wrong to think that maybe she deserved it, but she did kill one of my few friends and well, he might have been a rotten person, and maybe he did deserve to die for what he did to Tara and to Buffy, but he didn't deserve to die the way he did." Andres gulped and wiped away a tear. "Look, I can't tell you what to do or not to do. Just be careful, that what you find to replace this is as real as what you're losing." Andrew stood. "I'll just go get my computer now, and go."