"What's up?" Buffy asked when Xander approached her after dinner. Her voice was decidedly peppy and upbeat. Buffy was standing on the roof of the Hyperion, gazing up at the stars.

"Not much," Xander said, his hands thrust into his pockets. "You?"

Buffy shrugged. "Lookin' at stars. There are a lot fewer stars here than there were in Sunnydale."

Xander looked up at the sky. "Shouldn't you have known that? You used to live in L.A., right?"

Buffy nodded, turned and pointed. "Over there," she said. "They rebuilt the gym a few years ago, I think."

"Girl goes to all the trouble of burning it down, you'd think they'd let it stay burnt," Xander said.

"Nobody respects good work these days," she said.

"You okay?" Xander asked.

Buffy nodded. "Dunky-hory. Why?"

"Well," Xander said, shrugging a little, "you seemed uh… a little down, yesterday. What with…"

"What with… what?"

Xander sighed. "The attention Angel was giving to Cordelia."

Buffy smiled and turned away. "Noticed that, did you? I wasn't too thrilled about you including Faith so much, either."

"Well, that bit I missed," Xander said. "But I do make a habit of watching people. Not, you know, in a scary, stalker-like way. Uh. Observing. And stuff."

"I know what you mean."

"So… are you okay?"

"Did you know," Buffy said, "that the world doesn't revolve around me? According to Willow, it has like its own axis thing that it spins on, independent of my location on this planet."

"Really?" Xander asked.

"I know," Buffy said. "Surprised me, too." She took a deep breath. "I don't feel great about Angel and Cordelia. But they're adults, Angel… more so than most. What they do is their business. And I don't think anything, really, is going on with you and Faith –"

"It isn't."

"But if there were to be, well, that's your business."

"It is," Xander agreed.

"Not to mention? I actually have a boyfriend. Who is very hot, and thinks I am very hot, too. Oh, crap, I was supposed to go out with him tonight. Do you think Angel will mind if I make a long distance call?"

Xander shrugged. "He runs a law firm. Call China."

"Why would I call China?"

"I don't know. They make good food?"

Buffy looked up at him. "You're weird."

"You're short."

They nodded in agreement with each other.

"I have to go make a phone call," Buffy said. "Talk later?"

"Sure," he said.

Buffy walked off towards the stair access, paused and turned around.

"Xander?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Xander turned. "For what?"

"Asking if I was okay."

Xander smiled, nodded once, and watched Buffy descend into the Hotel.

The Hyperion Hotel was dark, and quiet. For a paranormal detective agency run by a vampire with a soul, and a building that was currently housing one of the largest gatherings of people ever to use the plural of the word 'apocalypse,' a quiet night was decidedly unusual. Sleep before 5 a.m. was decidedly unusual.

In the lobby, Wesley sat by a desk reading over some book of demons or other. He had drawn phone duty for the night. Lights clicked off all over the hotel, many before midnight, and most of the rest soon after. These were hours that were considered luxurious.

Except in one room.

"Frogs," Faith said. Xander nodded. "You're shitting me."

"I swear I'm not," he said.

"So, let me get this straight," Faith said. She was sitting on the love seat, as stretched out as she could get, wearing sweatpants and a tank top. Across from her was Xander, similarly attired. "The girl has the power to literally rip the flesh from the bone with a thought. She can injure, freaking, Gods, and if she's pissed enough she can, you know, destroy the world assuming you're not around. But she's afraid of frogs."

"Yeah," Xander said. "That's about the long and short of it. And good job focusing on all the bad stuff, by the way, and none of the good."

"Habit," Faith said. "I know Red's a team player. Just, the bad pops up first, you know?"

Xander nodded, knowingly. "What about you?" he asked. "What are you afraid of?"

"Oh, nuh uh," Faith said. "We ain't getting into that."

"Oh come on," Xander said. "I've been dishing on Willow all night, and on the assumption she might eviscerate me in the morning, I should at least know something. Wasn't that the point of this whole exercise? The whole 'getting to know you' deal?"

Faith looked down at the floor. "Yeah, just… fears and shit? I don't know, man."

"Okay," Xander said. "So… what was your childhood like?"

Faith looked up at him, her hair sweeping across her eyes. She coughed. "I think," she said, "that I'm afraid of losing it again."

Xander frowned. "You're not going to lose it again, Faith."

"Don't be so sure," she said. "Every now and then, I get the urge to just cut and run, you know? Maybe boost your truck and see how far I can get. Somewhere I could just get lost, and do my own thing."

Xander leaned forward. "You're not going to lose it. You're stronger than that."

"But what if I'm not? What if it gets too hard, and I just lose myself somewhere?"

Xander reached out and took her hand, and Faith looked up and into his eyes.

"Then we'll find you," he said.

The two of them sat there for a few seconds, just staring at each other. Xander coughed and released her hand.

"After all," he said, his voice lighter than his eyes, "my truck has a GPS. Wouldn't be that hard."

"Yeah," Faith said, shaking off the momentary funk. "Yeah, that's good."

She stood up. "Well, I should probably uh…"

"Yeah, me too," Xander said, standing and pointing to his own bedroom. "Well, uh… goodnight."

Xander shut his door behind him.

"Yeah," Faith said, her gaze lingering on his door. "Night…"

Deke walked up to his house. He had been helping his dad clean up at the restaurant, and then spent some time just talking with him, like they hadn't done in a couple of years. He was happy they had the time, finally, when he wasn't too tired.

He noticed his front door was open very slightly, and all the lights were off. He quickly lost whatever happiness was left in his system.

Deke pulled his back-up gun. He stepped carefully inside his house and flicked the light switch next to the door. Nothing happened. He was able to make out a very quiet sound coming from the upstairs, and headed in that direction. Checking each room on the way, Deke cleared the hallway, before tracking the sound to the master bedroom at the end of it.

He opened the door slowly, clearing his line of sight as it opened. He was startled when someone screamed, angrily, and a petite form charged him and swung something – something heavy – in the general area of his head. Deke caught what he now recognized as his Louisville Slugger, and aimed his gun at the culprit.

"David, no!"

Deke dropped to the floor and embraced his wife. "Baby," he said, soothingly, as his children ran up to them from behind the bed. He hugged them all and made sure they were all right before questioning his wife.

"It was insane," she said. Her voice was raw and gravelly. "This man came to the door… he was dressed in a business suit, really nice, he said his car broke down and asked to use the phone… I let him in, and his face… it… I don't know. Something was wrong with his face. He… he picked me up by the throat and dragged me up here, and knocked me out. I woke up and the house was dark, and the kids were in here with me. They… they said he told them that if they left the room before their father came home, he'd kill them."

"Symone, why didn't you call me? Or the police?"

Deke's wife picked up the receiver on the phone next to their bed. No sound came from it.

"You said something happened with his face?" Deke asked.

"I know, I know, it sounds crazy," she said. "I was thinking it must have been a hallucination. It was probably just –"

"No, don't just write it off," Deke said. "Did his eyes kind of… glow yellow? Got ridges between them, and up from his nose?"

"I… maybe. Yeah, yeah, I think that sounds right. How did you –"

"Baby, I'm gonna call someone, he knows about this sort of thing, all right?"

"Call someone? David, someone broke into our house. Don't you know about this sort of thing?" Symone asked.

"Not like this," he said as he stepped outside the bedroom for some privacy. "This is a whole different level."

End Chapter 25