Moments later, the entire crew was in the living room: Xander, Willow, and Buffy perched on the sofa, Oz occupied the armchair, and Cordelia stood in a corner, following Matti's instructions. The teacher came in from the kitchen, a chair in each hand. She placed one on the hardwood floor with a 'clunk', pointed at Cordelia, then pointed at the chair. The girl rolled her eyes and huffed, but she sat down. Matti placed the last chair in the middle of the room, then turned toward the kitchen.

"Do you–" Willow began.

Matti stopped and thrust out her hand, fingers spread. "Not a word. Not. A. Word." Willow gulped and nodded as the Knight of the Cross disappeared into the other room.

"Did anyone else think that she was going to crush our heads?" Xander whispered.

Matti returned and thumped a bottle of water down in front of each Slayerette. She turned and handed one to Cordelia, who took it in much the same way one would accept the offer of a cobra. Matti sat down in the chair in the middle of the room, twisted the top off her bottle, and drained half the contents in one long pull.

"All right," she said. "Let's start at the beginning, shall we? So, two candidates for prom queen are assaulted, both of them badly injured, and we ended up here because… ?" Blank stares greeted the question. "I'm really asking, so somebody better jump in here."

"Oh," Willow said. "Sorry. We thought it was one of those rhetorical questions."

"It's not." Matti watched as Buffy and Willow looked at each other again. "You do know it looks like you two are trying to get your stories straight, don't you?"

"We're not, we don't have a story and, even if we did, we probably couldn't get it straight. I'm babbling." Willow pressed her folded hands down on her lap.

Buffy nodded slightly. "We, uh, we came to talk to Cordelia."

"Ha!" Cordelia barked, then shut up when Matti raised a hand.

"The conversation must have taken a very wrong turn for you all to end up in the basement like a bad Sonny Chiba sketch."

"You know Sonny Chiba? He's gr– Sorry." Xander ducked his head and shrank in on himself under Matti's glare.

"Go on," she said.

"We… we thought that she might know something about the attacks on the girls at school."

"You mean you thought I did it!" Cordelia thrust her chin toward the Slayer.

Matti ignored her. "Why did you want to talk to her?"

Buffy took a deep breath. "Both of them said it was Cordelia."

"Both of them?" Matti asked.

The Slayer nodded. "And the attacker had long, dark hair."

Cordelia shot to her feet. "That is insane!" Matti threw a look over her shoulder and Cordelia sank back in her chair.

"I saw you in the crowd around Jen," Buffy twisted her water bottle between her hands.

"Of course, you did. Everybody was there!" Cordelia threw her hands in the air. "How lame are you people?"

"But you were the one standing there with crazy psycho-girl eyes," Buffy said, "plus, you got out of there pretty quickly."

"We'll leave 'crazy psycho-girl eyes' 'til later. Is that when Jen told you that Cordelia pushed her over the railing?" The teacher inclined her head toward the Slayer.

"No." Willow leaned forward. "We, Buffy and me, we went to see Jen at the hospital.""

Matti nodded slowly. "And that's where she identified Cordelia as her attacker?" Buffy and Willow nodded in unison. Matti continued. "Did she say it was Cordelia, or did you ask her if it was Cordelia?"

Willow looked down at the floor. "The second one," she admitted.

"Ha, that's leading the witness." Cordelia jumped up and jabbed an accusing finger over Matti's shoulder. "I've watched Law & Order. You can't do that."

"Cordelia, please." Matti leaned back in her chair and looked at the two friends. "Is Jen on any medication?"

Buffy and Willow exchanged glances, then Willow, in a very quiet voice, said, "The nurse told us she was on pain meds… and she has a concussion."

"You see?" Cordelia took a step to her left and looked at Matti. "They came over here to kill me on the word of two people with major head injuries!"

"Kill is a little strong," Buffy demurred.

Cordelia folded her arms and glared. "I said what I said."

"And the other girl?" Matti asked

"You were in the bathroom before I got there, and I was the first person in the hall." Buffy looked over Matti's head at Cordelia." Michelle's attacker had to be someone who knew she'd be in the bathroom."

"You have Sociology that same hour as Michelle," Willow said.

"Did you hack into the school computer and look at my schedule? You did!" Cordelia extended her hands toward Matti. "That's gotta be illegal in some way, like, it violates one of those amendments… the Bill of Rights."

"They didn't have to search," Xander mumbled. "I remembered your schedule."

"Yes, I was there because I had to go to the bathroom. I was already in class, then I asked to go to the bathroom, and I got a hall pass." Cordelia was practically jumping up and down. "I didn't have time to go to class, get a hall pass, then go to the bathroom and beat up Michelle, plus, even if I was the Heather wannabe of your imagination, how would I know Michelle was going to use the bathroom before Sosh? She never got to class."

Matti nodded and turned to the Slayer. "Did you think to ask the teacher about that?"

Buffy and Willow exchanged shamed looks. "No."

"Ha! I knew it!" Cordelia clenched both fists.

"But you, you ran away," Willow said, but her voice was much less sure.

"Because I'm the one who found her. I was running to the office. She was bleeding in there," Cordelia put her hands to her head, eyes wide in disbelief. "Did one of your stakes go through your brain?"

"Why don't you explain what you meant by 'crazy psycho-girl eyes'?" Matti leaned back in her chair.

Buffy cleared her throat. "I'd really rather not. It sounds kind of dumb now."

"Okay. Anybody else have anything to say?"

"Judgments may have been hasty," Oz said.

"Oh, I think it's safe to say you got out over your skis." Matti looked from face to face, while Cordelia stood behind her, arms crossed. The Slayerettes exchanged uncomfortable glances.

"Um, we should, we should probably go," Willow stammered and the Scooby Gang began to rise from their seats.

"Whoa." Matti stood up abruptly and everyone else sat down just as quickly, even Cordelia. "Here is what we're going to do. I am going into the kitchen, and I am ordering pizza and, when it comes, we are all going to sit here and eat it together. Anybody have a problem with that?"

Quickly mumbled variations of 'No, Ms. Hollis, no problem at all" rippled through the room.


"They're definitely expecting something," Coyne said. They're trying to act like it's no big deal, but the presence at the docks has definitely begun to increase. Not in numbers, but the quality of their people, plus they've still got a detail on that guy at the college."

The Reverend nodded. "Your conclusion?"

Coyne shrugged. "Seems pretty plain to me, they need this guy for whatever they've got planned."

"Indeed." Hampton looked up at Coyne; his eyes glittered. "Would you characterize this… professor as a weak link in their scheme?"

"I know that we can take him if we choose." Coyne shifted his weight. "You were right. Trick's forces don't take us seriously, they've become sloppy. They're not even aware of how much we've learned about them."

"It sounds as though you were not initially convinced that this was the correct course."

Coyne paused, weighing his words. "I don't think I saw the wisdom of your path of action. I was more… short-sighted."

The Reverend laughed, and it scraped along Coyne's nerve endings. "Well-spoken. You might become a diplomat yet." He leaned forward. "Where and when is the best place to remove this piece from the board?"


"I think pizza's been ruined," Willow whispered.

"I didn't think it was possible, but you may be right." Buffy looked around Matti Hollis's dining room. Two open boxes sat in the middle of the table, courtesy of Mr. Smith's Pizza. Matti sat at the end of the table closest to the door to the living room, Cordelia to her left, Oz on her right. Xander sat next to Oz, then the Slayer, then Willow, with a fair gap between the redhead and the former cheerleader.

Buffy sighed. "I guess I'll be question girl." She held up her slice. "Why?"

Matti looked at her, still chewing. "This?" she mumbled, waving a hand over the table.

"Yeah." The Slayer raised a 'what else' eyebrow.

"I was hungry."

A skeptical look settled on Buffy's face. "Really?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you expect me to share a fable using this as a metaphor for… I don't know." Matti shook her head. "Uh-uh."

Stymied, the Slayer scowled. Xander looked around the silent room, at faces studiously chewing while avoiding eye contact, and announced, "I haven't felt this awkward eating pizza since sixth grade."

All eyes in the room turned to him, staring, then Willow said, "You mean, when Kenny Vaughn threw up in the cafeteria?"

"What?" Buffy said.

Willow grew slightly more animated. "We had recess right before lunch, and it was a warm day, so everybody was pretty hot, and, in the middle of lunch, Kenny–" She brought her hand up in front of her face and pushed it outward, spreading her fingers.

"You're kidding," Buffy said as she dropped her slice onto the paper plate in front of her.

"The old Technicolor yawn." Xander nodded.

"I don't remember you being awkward," Cordelia said. "I remember you going around and taking the pizza off everyone's plate while they were gagging."

The room lapsed back into silence. Of the Scoobies, Oz alone seemed unruffled by the situation.

"So," Matti said, "all of you were there when this kid yakked?"

Oz shook his head. "I wasn't. I was a year ahead. It's a story," he said in response to Matti's look.

"I hadn't moved to Sunnydale yet," Buffy murmured.

"So, just you three." Matti made a sweeping gesture that took in Cordelia, Willow, and Xander. Willow nodded. "Hmm." The Knight took a large bite.

Cordelia put down her slice. "It wasn't really the 'three' of us. Those two were best buddies."

"And you?" Matti asked.

"I had a life," Cordelia responded, her voice full of bitterness.

"And a rich and full one it was," Xander murmured.

"Excuse me?" Cordelia snapped.

"Nothing," Xander said. The room lapsed back into silence, but it was a charged quiet, like the evening air before a storm. Oddly, the Slayer found herself eating with much more fervor; maybe chewing would dispel the tension, like popping one's ears during takeoff. In spite of the strain, the pizza disappeared, although it appeared that Xander did yeoman's work in making that happen. Everyone else stared as he finished the last two pieces. After he swallowed, he looked around at their faces, where expressions ranged from horror to morbid fascination. "What?" he said.

"I can't believe you can eat like that right now." Cordelia's voice was a mixture of scorn and disbelief.

"Oh, I've eaten through worse than this," he replied.

"Well," Buffy said, "on that sparkling comeback, we should probably leave." The gang got to their feet, awkward and uncomfortable.

"I, uh, well, thanks for the pizza," Willow stammered, "and, uh, sorry about… the other thing."

"Child, please," Matti said. "That is far from the worst situation I've ever walked in on." She let that hang in the air for a minute. "You all were wrong about your little Murder, She Wrote thing, but nobody got killed… ah." She held up a hand; Cordelia scowled but remained quiet. "So, think about this the next time."

"Next time?" Buffy said.

"There's always a next time in this business."

"Well, if I was giving a review," Xander said, "I'd say the food was terrif, but the ambiance was tres weirdness."

"From the world expert on weirdness," Cordelia snapped.

"Drive careful, get home safe, see you at school tomorrow," Matti said, rising from her chair. "Cordelia, walk your friends out."

"My friends?" Cordelia's eyes flew open wide. "They came here to kill–"

"Walk 'em out," Matti said. Cordelia fumed, but she shut up and went to the front door.

The Scoobies moved out of the dining room in a sort of instinctive protective huddle. As they passed through the doorway where Matti stood, the teacher gave the Slayer a sharp, pointed look. Buffy raised her eyebrows in confusion, but the look only intensified. As the chastened group shuffled onto the porch, Buffy touched Willow on the shoulder. "You guys go ahead."

"You sure?" Willow's brow furrowed.

The Slayer nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay." Willow nodded, her mouth a small, straight line, and the three Slayerettes stepped down from the porch and headed toward the van.

Buffy turned around. The porch light cast pool between her and Cordelia. "You, uh, you put up a good fight."

Cordelia stared down the Slayer, her jaw set in a hard line. "You took it easy."

Buffy shrugged. "Not as easy as you think."

"Well," Cordelia said, "at least you didn't punch me in the face."

Buffy thought about that for a second. "No, even if I could've... I don't think I would've. I… I would've felt bad if I broke your nose." Cordelia snorted and looked away; Buffy looked down at her hands. "I, uh, I know you think I'm responsible for… a lot of stuff that's happened to you… and I can see why, and… you might even have a point, but…I remember, when I came back, who found me, and brought me to her house… and I remember waking up and you were sitting in front of the door… we've gone through a lot together… we know things…" She sighed. "Like it or not–"

"I don't," Cordelia snapped, but her eyes glistened.

Buffy persisted. "-like it or not, we're… part of some weird thing, and if you… ever need me… you can call me, and I'll be there."

Cordelia brought her hand up to her face, thumb and pinky extended in the classic gesture. "Oh, Motown called, they need their chorus cliche back." She made a sour face. "Don't wait by the phone."


Cordelia closed the door and threw the deadbolt with an authoritative snap, then turned to see Matti shrugging into her jacket. "I'll be back soon," the Knight said.

"What? Where are you going?"

"Got an errand to run."

"To the liquor store? That's the only thing open now."

"Ha ha." Matti flipped her hair free from the collar of her coat. "Won't be a minute."

"So, wait. First, you feed the death squad, now you're running off again?" Cordelia was open-mouthed with disbelief.

"I told you, I'll be right back. You have all your school work done?"

Cordelia stared at the teacher for a moment, then her eyes narrowed. "Yes. I have the rough draft of my literary analysis ready to hand in… mein Fuhrer."

Matti ignored the jibe. "Then watch some TV, or… whatever. I won't be long." She left Cordelia standing in the middle of the room to stew. The drive didn't take long; Sunnydale wasn't that big. She parked the 4Runner on the street and took long strides across the sidewalk. She paused on the step and took a deep breath, then raised her fist and pounded on the door.

The porch light flicked on, but she expected that and had looked down. Her eyes adjusted, and as her head came up the door opened to the length of the security chain..

"Ms.- Ms. Hollis?"

"Yes, Mr. Giles. Are you feeling alright?"

"Uh, yes." The door closed, there was the distinct rattle of the chain being undone, then the panel swung wide. "Would you– Would you like to come in?"

"Just for a minute," she said. "I gotta get back home quick. I just wanted to make sure you were okay and that you'll be at school tomorrow."

Giles sighed. "Yes, I realize that my absence was unexpected, and that I did a poor job of notifying people who needed to know." He shook his head. "Did Buffy say something to you?"

"In a manner of speaking. I came home tonight and found all your little munchkins in my basement about to start a battle royale."

"What?"

"Yeah, apparently they figured out that Cordelia was the one who attacked those girls at school and came to my house to talk to her. It went downhill from there."

Giles opened and closed his mouth like a fish gasping for air. "Was anyone injured?"

"No, I think Buffy pulled her punches and Cordelia did a pretty decent job defending herself. Willow just kept hopping around and waving her hands, and the two knuckleheads just kinda stood off in a corner."

The Watcher held up a hand. "Just a moment. You said two girls were attacked at school?"

Matti kept her fists jammed in her jacket pockets. "Yes, two of the four candidates for prom queen ended up in the hospital."

"Is it serious?"

"Yeah, pretty serious. One girl has a broken thigh, a punctured lung, and some broken ribs, the other one got her head slammed into the post of a bathroom stall and has at least a concussion, some shattered teeth, and a busted nose."

"Good lord," Giles stammered. "And, and Buffy thought Cordelia had done this?"

Matti shrugged. "Her reasoning wasn't bad, it was pretty solid on motive, she just, you know, omitted facts, jumped to conclusions… oh, and decided to interrogate Cordelia."

Giles blinked rapidly. "But… you said everyone is fine?"

"Oh, they're embarrassed as hell, and Cordelia's mad as hell, but nobody's bleeding. Luckily." Matti shrugged. "So, you see why we'd like to have you back tomorrow."

"I, uh, I have been very busy," Giles said. "But I will be back tomorrow. In fact, it would be good if we could all meet after school."

"All, meaning?"

"All of us… you, Mr. Warner, the students…"

"You want to break Stefan's cover?"

Giles pushed up his glasses. "I don't think any of the students will be shocked, and, yes, it's that important."

Matti nodded. "If you say so." She turned to leave, then looked back. "Buffy needs you back, Mr. Giles. She listens to you."

"I don't know if that's correct."

"Oh, I know she's snippy, but she really does. I don't think she'd have come to my house if she could have bounced the idea off you, and that's not to make you feel guilty. Just facts. She's still a kid and she needs someone to count on. She counts on you." The Knight winked at the Watcher and stepped out into the night.