When Xander got home from work that evening, he took a shower, got dressed, and headed directly to the Magic Box to try to find out what had happened.

Opening the door, he stepped inside, and looked around.

"Anybody here? G-man? Anya?" he yelled.

"For goodness sake, Xander, do you have to yell? We're right here. And we're not deaf."

Giles and Anya stood up from sorting a box of something. A bookcase had obscured the view, and Xander hadn't see them.

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry. I didn't see you. Can we focus on me for a while? I seem to have a SLIGHT problem going on!" Xander yelled.

"Geez Xander, lighten up, will ya. It's not like you're dead or anything. Is it?" Buffy and Willow had entered behind him while he was yelling about his problem.

"I mean, you're not dead. Right? Someone tell me I'm right. I mean, you're obviously not a vampire. Are you?"

"No, Buffy, I'm not a vampire. Hello, sunlight." He pointed at the patch of sunlight he was standing in.

"Oh. Well, that's good. Right? So. Um, what's wrong again?" Willow looked confused.

"Oh, goody. I get to demonstrate. Is everyone here, 'cause I really don't want to do this twice."

"Do what twice?" Dawn asked.

"Ah, there's the last of us. Lets see. Giles, do you have a sharp knife handy? Thanks." Giles handed him one of the knives from the display case.

"Careful, Xander they're very shar- um..." Giles trailed off as Xander rolled up his sleaves, and slid the sharp blade across his arm.

Everyone gasped, and started yelling at him.

"Xander! What are you doing?" Willow yelled.

"Hey, stop that!" Was Buffy.

"Uh.." Was Dawn's brilliant response.

"Xander! What are you...." Giles demanded.

"Will you guys shut up for a minute and WATCH!" Xander yelled over the commotion.

Silence descended, as everyone stared at the usually less forceful man. Their focus went to Xander's arm, and what was going on there.

Anya leaned forward, and stared with confusion at the bleeding appendage. "What are we supposed to be....Ooh. I see. Pretty."

"Um..That, I believe, isn't supposed to be happening, right?" Willow asked, looking from Xander's arm to Giles. Giles looked more closely at Xander's arm, and said, "Indeed, it's not. No normal human, that I know of, heals like – that." He pulled off his glasses, and started polishing them.

"So, what, he's not human? Xander, I thought you were human. Please tell me you're still human, so I won't have to kill you. You're still human, right? 'Cause I thought you had to be at least bitten or something, and I don't see any bite marks, because a bite from a demon is usually rather big, right, so I don't see any blood, other than from the cut, and you're still human right?"

Everyone stared at Buffy, who went red. "I did a Willow, didn't I." They nodded.

"Wow." Breathed Dawn. "I thought only Xander and Willow could do that."

"As far as I know, Buffy, I'm still human. So, stay away from me with the Slayage, ok? Good Slayer." Xander slowly took a few steps back, moving slowly away from Buffy. She stuck her

tongue out at him, and leaned back against the door, flipping the sign to "closed."

"So, if he's not a demon, not a vampire, and not under a spell....right?" She looked between Giles and Willow.

"Not that I can tell. I'll have to do a bit more in-depth searching, but as far as I can tell he has no magic around him. Giles?" He nodded in agreement.

Anya jumped off the counter, where she'd been sitting, and moved over to Xander. She grabbed his arm, and drug it into the light. Picking up a cleaning rag, she wiped the blood off his arm.

"Hunh, compleately healed. I thought only Slayers and vampires could heal this fast. Hmmm.."

"What? What are you hmming a bout?" Xander wanted to know.

"What? Oh, it's just that I think I heard something about some people who can heal this fast, but I wasn't really paying attention when I was told about them. Just something about how they're invunrable to curses, or something. I was a bit busy with some other....business. Sorry, can't tell you any more than that." She shrugged, then threw the rag into the trash can.

Xander went into the back room, and washed off the blade, and the rest of the blood from his arm. Drying his arm and the knife, he walked back into the other room. The rest of the Scoobies were tossing ideas back and forth about what could have possibly happened to Xander.

"Xander, exactly what happened, and when did you notice this." Giles asked.

"Well, I noticed it today, otherwise we would have had this conversation already. I tripped today at work, and a nail went through my hand. That'd be about when I noticed it. As to when it happened, I don't know. I mean, other than that demon we fought last week, nothing big has happened. Just some vamps. And I didn't even get hurt then." He shrugged, and leaned against the counter.

"Xander, when was the last time you were hurt in one of our....encounters?" Buffy wanted to know.

"Last week, with the demon. Remember, it threw me through a crypt? Hit my head a bit with that one." he rubbed the back of his head in remembrance.

"But you were fine the next day. Weren't you? I mean, you didn't say anything about it the next day." Willow said.

"Yeah. I was fine the next day. That's kinda weird. I had a nightmare that night, something about drowning. Woke up. Everything was fine then." Xander shrugged.

"Hmm..interesting. Xander, I want to do some research, and I want you to write down everything you remember about what has happened since then. Willow, help him with that. Dawn, start looking up fast healing on the internet, you're good with those infernal machines. I'll start going through the library, looking for anything on healing. Anya, if you remember anything, or know anyone who could answer this problem for us, look them up, would you? Buffy...help Willow."

And marshaling the troops, he dispersed orders like a field general. Everyone got down to work.

"Hopefully, we'll have this figured out before too long. Everything's going to be fine, Xander."

Ihope.