Chapter 3

Dawn froze. "Benji, do you know what happened to Buffy? Why do you think she's dying?"

"Dawn, do you know who made me?" The bear asked thoughtfully while twitching his little furry ears, "Hmmm, do you?" Sighing quite sadly he leaned back and lifted up his little foot so that she could see what was printed there.

Dawn leaned in and peered at the writing that was etched into his little fuzzy foot. She looked back at him. "But what does that have to do with my sister?"

Benji looked at his little foot and then frowned, "It's smeared, because of all the times you never cleaned me," his voice was bitter, but he did not resort to shouting hoping they could still be friends. He leaned over and wiped his little foot. "Now you can see it," he said raising his foot once more. On his foot you could clearly see, 'Prop. Of E. Rayne.'

"E Rayne..." Dawn thought for a moment. "Oh my God, Ethan Rayne, Ethan Rayne who turned us into our costumes at Halloween!" She realized that this was a solid explanation for the events that had occurred this evening...but she still didn't understand something. "Benji, I still don't understand what this has to do with my sister."

Benji sighed and scratched the back of his little furry head with his paw. "It's tonight, on a full moon in the middle of winter when two sisters fight, I can come to life, he planned it. He put the spell on me, but..." Benji's voice trailed off and he looked almost saddened, "There is a balance to that. I can't come to life without, well...someone dying."

Dawn's eyes widened. "But maybe it's not Buffy! My sister can't die. Benji, what else do you know? Is there any way to reverse the spell?" She instantly regretted her words. She had just implied that she wanted to make the bear an inanimate object again!

I KNEW IT! YOU WANT ME DEAD!" He glared at her and then dove his little body towards the scissors, but because they were way out of reach he landed on the floor with a thud. He glared again in Dawn's general direction and then raced toward the stairs.

"Oh crap," Dawn muttered. "Nice one Dawn." She briefly considered calling after Benji, but decided it would be a waste of breath. She turned to her mother. "We need a plan. And fast. Buffy's in trouble." She ran to the phone on the wall. "I'm calling 911."

Benji ran up the stairs and into Buffy's room. When he saw the slayer he walked over to her and peered into her face. Then, very slowly he took his little bear paws and held them over her nose and mouth.

> > > > >

Buffy shrieked, and fell down, letting the flowers in the field surround her. Then she yelled out to no one in particular. "Where am I? What do you want?"

She ran into a part of the woods, looking around frantically. She had no idea where she was, or what to do. She was running too fast though, and clumsily tripped over a root in the ground. She landed on the hard dirt with a thud. "Ahhhhh," she screamed in frustration, her possibly broken ankle throbbing painfully. "What else could go wrong?" she asked aloud.

She then started to get panic when she felt she couldn't breathe anymore. As far as she could see, nothing was around her to make her not breathe. She could feel herself start to faint from lack of oxygen. Then she saw black.

> > > > >

When Buffy woke she opened up her eyes to see a teddy bear sitting on top of her holding her mouth and nose. She immediately started to shake him off from herself.

Downstairs, someone finally picked up on the other end of the phone. "911, what's your emergency?" the operator asked.
"Hi, I need an ambulance, at 1630-" Dawn heard a click and she paused. "Hello? Hello?" She looked at Joyce. "The phone is dead."
"We need to get to Buffy," Joyce said, running for the stairs with Dawn close behind.
They burst into the bedroom and were shocked by two things: one, Benji was smothering Buffy, and two, Buffy was very awake, and fighting him off.
"Benji, no!" Dawn yelled, grabbing the bear and pulling him off of her sister.

Once Benji was off of her, she wiped away the blood that covered her face. She took a deep breath before picking up the bear and throwing it in a garbage can, which she was pretty sure he couldn't get out of. She took a look at Dawn's bruised face and grimaced. "What happened to you, Dawnie?"

Dawn tried to look angry, but was too relieved that her sister was okay to be. "You kind of broke my nose. While you were dreaming or whatever." She glanced nervously towards the garbage can. "But we have bigger problems right now. Mainly a very pissed off teddy bear named Benji. That is property of Ethan Rayne."

Meanwhile, Benji landed in a carton of Mini Wang Wang's all you can eat Chinese food. Benji narrowed his eyes in disgust and tried to claw his way out. He was going to kill them...KILL THEM ALL..

> > > > >

Angel, aka the vampire with a soul, walked down the darkened streets. He wanted to see Buffy, well he always wanted to see Buffy but this time it was important. Okay, no it wasn't, but he still was going to visit her anyway.

> > > > >

Buffy tried to think back to see if she remembered breaking Dawn's nose, but she had no luck. "Sorry sis, I don't remember, but what is your teddy bear trying to suffocate me for? I mean yeah your nose might hurt, but getting a teddy bear to kill me is a little harsh don't you think?" Buffy asked, annoyed hands on her hips.

"I have no idea, he just kind of walked in. Something about a full moon. But I spent like an hour convincing him NOT to murder me with a pair of Mom's scissors, and then I screwed up and sort of implied that I didn't want him alive, and now he's all homicidal again," Dawn rushed.

"I SWEAR, I'M GOING TO GET YOU FOR THIS..." Benji yelled as he climbed up the side of the trashcan. As he did it tipped over and spilt papers, soda cans, chicken bones, and the rest of the contents all onto the Summers' clean floor.
"Okay I'll get you for this AFTER someone cleans this mess up," Benji yelled.
"Buffy, are you...uhppphhh..." Just as Angel waltzed through the Summers' back door and past Joyce he slipped on a rotten banana peal and landed on the stinky garbage with his feet in the air.

Joyce winced as the garbage fell all over the floor. "I just cleaned in here! Oh, hello Angel."
Dawn tried to suppress a laugh at Angel's less than graceful exit. She then turned her attention back to Benji. "Benji, if you insist on being like this, then I'm afraid we'll never be able to be friends again," she said, feigning sadness in hopes that the little bear would reconsider his plan to kill them all.
Buffy tried not to giggle at Angel clumsiness, but she couldn't hold it in. She helped him up, and gave him a smile. "You're a graceful one, aren't you?" she said with a smirk. She then saw Benji come out of the garbage can. "I swear if that ball of fluff comes near me again, I will rip it into a million and one pieces," Buffy threatened, making sure Benji knew she was serious.

Angel let out a very audible groan as he pulled noodles from his hair and tossed them back down to the garbage. With his acute vampire senses he could tell that Ms. Summers had added too much oregano to her pasta again. "What is going on here?" he asked looking at Dawn's swollen noise and a little stuffed bear that was flipping him off.
When Benji saw Angel looking at him he quickly shot his hand back down. He had heard Buffy's threat, but what scared him more was Dawn's, though he wasn't going to let it show.
"FINE," he yelled, crossing his little furry arms that were now filthy, "But, someone has to die..."

"How about you, furball?" Buffy said taking her attention away from Angel to pick on Benji. She actually liked the furball; she would never admit it but the bear was growing on her.

Dawn looked from Buffy, to Angel, to Joyce, to Benji, not knowing what to do or say. She did feel like this was all her fault. Why had she abandoned Benji for cuter, newer, cleaner toys? That was kind of mean. But then again she couldn't forget that he had tried to murder her with scissors...

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE," Benji said with all the hurt and pain he could muster, then he appeared to be shaking all over as if Buffy would make use of her threat. He was just a misunderstood pychotic stuffed bear, why couldn't they just see that.
Angel looked from the bear to Dawn to Joyce then to Buffy and then back again. Finally he said, "Uh, is someone going to tell me how and why that bear is talking?"

"I honestly have no idea. I wake up from what was a very scary nightmare, and this furball is on top of me trying to suffocate me. I would like to know how he came to be alive as well," she said, looking at Dawn fiercely.

"Hey, I didn't do it!" Dawn protested. "I told you, Ethan Rayne, full moon, it's this whole big thing." She looked at Benji. "Benji, I'm sorry to break it to you but you are the one who started all of this violence! You attacked me with scissors, remember?"

"Yeah, well," Benji was at a complete loss, finally he stuck his little bear chin out and said, "YOU MADE ME HATE YOU!"
Angel rolled his eyes. "How can he even talk, he doesn't even have a larynx! And if he doesn't have a larynx then he shouldn't talk." Shaking his head again and then shrugging Angel said, "Why don't we just find Ethan Rayne and then kill him?"
"I hate you a lot less now," Benji said to the giant, dirty, stinky vampire before him.

Buffy nodded, but turned to Dawn "There is no way we're taking him with us, he could be a liability. Ya know, try to sabotage our whole plan to kill Ethan once and for all," she said, turning to glare at Benji.

"Do we even know where he is?" Dawn said out loud, to no one in particular. "And what else are we going to do? We can't just leave him here. We might not have a house to come back to."

"He lives over on 7th and 12th, it's a big spooky mansion so you can't miss it," Benji said with a wave of his furry little paw. And then realizing what Dawn meant he yelled, "I WON'T DO ANYTHING. I'll just sit around and bake cookies or something, like Snuggles does."
Angel rolled his eyes, "Snuggles the bear? That's for laundry detergent."
"THEN I'LL DO THE WASH," Benji shouted.

Dawn gave him a look. "Well when we come back we had better find things just how we left them."

"And if anything is out of place, and I mean anything you will be wishing you could never feel," Buffy warned before walking out of the house and to Ethan's mansion.
Benji merely mumbled cursed words under his breath and watched them leave. Once the door slammed shut he turned to Joyce. He glared at her and picked back up the scissors. He walked slowly, very very slowly while looking at her with those black cold button eyes. As he finally approached her he lifted the scissors up and said, "I think I have something stuck in my fur, can you cut it off?"

> > > > >
Buffy stood outside the mansion, and wondered what she was thinking bringing Dawn with her. "Dawnie, I don't know whats in there, so I don't want to put you in danger. You should go back to the house and make sure mom is alright with Benji." With that she took hold of Angel's hand and went inside the mansion.

Dawn stared after them. She was mad at first, but she did realize now that leaving her mom alone with Benji was pretty risky. And she did feel pretty much responsible for the entire situation, so she started to walk home. "They're probably not even going to do anything about Ethan, they're probably just going to make out," she mumbled to herself.

> > > > >

Suddenly the mansion door slammed shut behind them, making Angel grab Buffy. He felt the need to protect her after all, even though she could very much handle herself and he probably didn't smell all that welcome at the moment. He looked around hoping for a clue of some sort, but couldn't find anything other then dimly lit candles.

Buffy scooched closer to Angel, smelling him. She decided to look into one of the rooms. She motioned to Angel to follow her into a room that had a giant bed with a bathroom attached to it. Buffy jumped into Angel's arms when the door slammed behind them. She rushed over to it trying to pull it open. "It's locked."

"It is?" Angel asked, deciding just to try the door for himself. Yep, sure enough it was locked. He looked over at the bathtub and then at Buffy, the smell on his body was really getting to him."Well, since we're here, or since I'm here," he let his voice trail off hoping she got the hint.

Buffy nodded, trying to ignore the voices in her head to ask him if she could join. She just missed being with him so much lately. She was still freaked out by the dream she had with him earlier, and she wanted to convince herself that it was just a dream and he was still her Angel.

He quickly pulled off his clothes, letting his manly body show. He climbed into the water and washed himself as quickly as he could, knowing Buffy was probably uncomfortable.
"Done," he said as he pulled on a bathrobe that happened to be lying nearby. It would kinda defeat the purpose if he wore the same stench filled clothes.

Buffy could feel her whole body heat up, but she tried to tame herself. She didn't know if he still had any feelings for her, it had been a while without him, and she missed him terribly. Missed talking to him, touching him, kissing him, and just being his. She looked up into his eyes and she could have melted.

Angel tried to stare down at the ground, but he couldn't help but raise his eyes to meet hers. "Since we're locked in, what do you want to do?"

Buffy blinked a few times, trying to get her focus back to rational thoughts. "I don't know, do you have any ideas?"

Angel looked down at the floor and then slowly his eyes slid back towards Buffy. He did this a few more times, wanting so much just to run up and hold her and kiss her, but he knew it wouldn't be right. Especially when there was evil on the loose. "I guess we should just try to figure out a way to get out of here," he said.

> > > > >

Joyce looked warily at Benji. "I don't see anything in your fur."
Benji threw the scissors at Joyce, which thankfully missed. "It's right here, can't you see it?" He bent over so the woman could see his backside.
Joyce gasped as she dodged the scissors, then widened her mouth in aggravation as the little stuffed toy mooned her. "Okay, that is it. No one hurts my girls and gets away with it," Joyce said, picking up the scissors and hovering over Benji.

> > > > >

TBC! Please review!