Author's Notes: Days of the week for this chapter and the next are messed up. Every day of this episode took place at school. The problem you see is that the actual Valentine's day in 1998 was on a Saturday. But in the actual episode Valentine's day fell on a school day. I would say the writers of the episode didn't pay any attention to the actual calendar when writing this one.

Chapter 18: Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered Part 1

February 12, 1998 - Monday

The lawyer was found dead with puncture marks in his neck and blood in his mouth. Dawn had tracked down and staked the vampire responsible for the murder. However, the blood in the mouth meant the the victim may have drank. So, the night after the lawyer's funeral, Dawn's patrolling consisted of waiting by the graveside in case the lawyer came back as a newly minted member of the Sunnydale Fang Club.

Since this was fairly boring work, Xander offered to keep Dawn company while she waited. Besides, he needed a consultation from a teenage girl. Usually, he'd go to Willow, but since this involved his love life, he thought it would be kinder to talk to Dawn. Especially when she likely knew some about his future love life.

After spending ten minutes making lame jokes about the lack of difference between vampires and lawyers, Dawn finally said, "Xander, I know you had an ulterior motive for offering to help me tonight instead of Buffy or Faith. So out with it." She was sitting on the headstone opposite the lawyer's while Xander paced back and forth.

"Sorry." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the little box from the jewelry store. He opened it and removed the necklace.

It was silver, with a solid silver heart dangling from it. Xander had originally been saving up to buy a snazzy new skateboard. But he hadn't actually gone 'boarding in almost a year. Besides which, it was February, which meant Valentine's Day.

For the first time in his life, Xander actually had someone to give a gift to on that day. Hence the trip to Grossman's Jewelers and the spending of the skateboard money on the necklace.

"So, what do you think?" he asked nervously.

"It's nice," Dawn said.

"But do you think Cordelia will like it?"

"I don't know." Dawn admitted.

"Cordy and I are really getting along," said Xander. "We're not fighting as much, and yesterday we just sat together, not even speaking. You know, just enjoying comfortable silence." He thought back over that, and added, "Man, that was dull."

"I'm glad that you guys are getting along," Dawn said with a smile. "Also don't stress over the gift."

"Well, this is new territory for me. I mean, my Valentines are usually met with heartfelt restraining orders."

"She'll love it."

Xander started pacing again. "I wish dating was like Slaying—y'know, simple, direct. Stake to the heart, no muss, no fuss."

"It can be with the right person," said Dawn. "Look at me and Faith, Faith just knew she wanted to propose and she did."

The lawyer chose that moment to climb up out of the grave and embrace his new lease on unlife.

Xander remembered the training that Dawn had insisted he and Willow get. He prepared himself in case the vampire came after him.

Dawn leaped off the gravestone, grabbed the vamp from behind, and threw him to the ground. As he got up, Dawn gave him a double kick, then punched him four times.

This particular vampire, however, had an especially resilient butt. He stood up to her punches, then grabbed her and threw her at the wall of a nearby mausoleum. Dawn took less than a second to recover, give the vamp a low kick to the ankle, then a leaping kick to the throat.

That sent the undead lawyer sprawling on the grass and dirt right at Xander's feet.

Xander with stake in hand, slammed it into the guy's heart and the vampire collapsed into dust.

"Good work," said Dawn as she smiled at Xander. "Those training sessions are paying off."

"Thanks," said Xander beaming with pride.

February 14, 1998 – Tuesday

Valentine's Day in Sunnydale, and Cordelia Chase was concerned.

Nobody called her back last night. They had major outfit coordinating to take care of for tonight's dance. If they weren't careful, there might be some serious fashion overlap—or worse, someone could be dressing in something old. Katie in particular had a tendency to wear last month's clothes. Cordelia had been trying to break her of the habit, but it was slow going.

Cordelia had just purchased a gorgeous new red linen minidress, and so she needed to get Dori to switch to a different outfit. Dori could always wear that red silk sleeveless dress to the pledge dance, or something.

She saw Harmony, Laura, Kimberley, and Dori all sitting around at one of the walls.

But as Cordelia started walking toward them, they got up and headed into the school.

"Wait up," she called out to them, and walked faster across the quad so she could catch up. But they didn't stop. "Hey, wait up!" she said, louder. When she finally reached them, she said tersely, "Excuse me? Where's the fire sale?"

The four of them stopped and turned around. "Oh, sorry," Harmony said. "Didn't see you."

Cordelia could've sworn they'd looked right at her just before they got up, but she decided she had been imagining it.

"Well, why didn't you call me back last night? We need to talk about our outfits for the dance. I'm going to wear red and black," she looked pointedly at Dori, "so you need to switch."

"Red and black?" Kimberley interrupted. "Is that what Xander likes?"

"Xander?" Cordelia asked. "What does he have to do with this?"

Harmony said, "Well, a girl wants to look good for her geek."

They all giggled at that.

"Xander is just—"

Harmony interrupted. "When are you two going to start wearing cute little matching outfits? 'Cause I'm planning to vomit." She looked at the other three. "Let's go."

They all walked off, leaving Cordelia with her mouth hanging open.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

As the bell rang in English class, Ms. Beakman said, "Papers on my desk. Anybody tries to leave without giving me a paper is looking at a failing grade."

Dawn knew the paper was instead of a midterm. She had to write an essay on one of five novels. She had done hers on Great Expectations, a book she had always loved.

"Ha ha ha," Xander muttered as Dawn got up and handed her paper in, "this time I'm ready for you. No F for Xander today. No, this baby's my ticket to a sweet D-minus."

As Xander gathered his books into his backpack, he noticed Willow saying hi to Amy Madison. "Hey, Amy."

"Hey," the Amy said in reply. "You guys going to the Valentine's Day Dance at the Bronze? I think it's gonna be a lot of fun."

Dawn noticed that Willow looked like she was about to burst. "Go ahead," she said, "you know you want to say it."

"My boyfriend's in the band!" Willow squealed.

"Cool," Amy said in response to Willow, laughing.

"I think you've now told everybody," Buffy said.

Willow grinned. "Only in this hemisphere."

"What about you?" Amy asked Buffy and Dawn.

"My girlfriend and I have a romantic evening planned," said Dawn.

"Same with me and my girlfriend," added Buffy.

Buffy and Willow handed in their papers to Ms. Beakman just as Xander got up from his chair. As they walked out, Amy approached the teacher and looked right at her.

Ms. Beakman looked blankly ahead for a minute, then proceeded to mime receiving a paper. "Thank you, Amy," she said.

Amy then smiled and left.

"What just happened here?" Xander thought.

Then he remembered Amy's mother, the witch, and he realized that Amy likely had to have powers also just like her mother.

Xander handed his own paper to Ms. Beakman, then ran to catch up with Dawn, Willow and Buffy.

"So, what are you and Faith doing, Dawn?" asked Willow.

"Faith and I are starting with a candlelit dinner. Then we will be taking a late-night ride on Faith's motorcycle," answered Dawn as Xander and Faith came up behind them.

Xander asked, "Did you guys see that?"

"See what?" Buffy asked in reply.

"In class. I think Amy just worked some magic on Ms. Beakman."

Buffy frowned. "You mean like witchcraft?"

"Y'know, her mom's a witch," Willow said, her thoughts tracking with Xander's.

"And an amateur psycho," Buffy said, showing that her thoughts tracked with Xander's also. "Amy's the last person that should be messing with that stuff."

"I take it, this is something that happened last year?" asked Dawn.

"Yes," said Buffy. "Not long after the Harvest."

"Buffy! Dawn!"

Buffy and Dawn turned and saw Giles approaching. "Can Chloe and I have a word in the library?" he asked.

"Nakamura?" asked Dawn.

Giles didn't reply, instead he smiled as he watched his own girlfriend walk out of her classroom, talking to one of the students.

Then she turned and saw the them.

"Rupert."

"Jenny," Giles said.

Ms. Calendar walked over to them and kissed Giles on the cheek.

"I had a good evening last night," he said.

"I'm glad," Ms. Calendar said as she smiled at Giles.

"So where did you take him this time?" asked Dawn knowing that Ms. Calendar liked to tease Giles from time to time.

"Mud wrestling," Ms. Calendar replied as she noticed Giles blush. "Now I assume Rupert had something he wanted to say and I distracted him. So I will head back to my classroom and let him say it distraction free." She turned and headed back into her classroom.

Giles led Buffy and Dawn into the library.

Chloe smiled as she stepped up to Buffy and kissed her girlfriend on the cheek. She handed a jewelry box to Buffy. "Happy Valentine's Day."

Dawn looked over Buffy's shoulder at the jewelry box as Buffy opened it. Inside was a small locket with a inscription: Forever Yours.

Buffy smiled as she handed the box back to Chloe. "Help me put it on?" she asked as she turned around and lifted her hair out of the way.

Chloe smiled as she took the locket out of the box and put it on Buffy.

"That out of the way," Giles said. "We've been reading up on Nakamura. Well on the Nakamura from this time period. Feeding patterns, and the like."

"And?" Dawn prompted.

"Around Valentine's Day, he's rather prone to brutal displays of—what he would think of as affection," said Chloe.

"Like what?" Buffy asked.

"Sadly, we're not too sure," answered Chloe. "But given your future in Dawn's original timeline. I would say whatever it is, it will target you."

"Suffice it to say," Giles said, "I think it would be best if you stayed off the streets for a few nights. All of you in fact."

"I agree," said Chloe. "I expect he could very well swap targets if he can't get to you, Buffy, easily."

"So, Faith and I probably should reschedule our moonlit ride," said Dawn with a sigh. "Faith was looking forward to it. Since it will be the first time that she's gotten me to agree to ride her motorcycle since I got it for her."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Spike didn't go for the gift-giving sentiment as a rule. Valentine's Day, though, was different, especially this year, for two reasons. For one thing, Spike had always liked the idea of celebrating the anniversary of one of history's more entertaining massacres.

For another, given his physical condition, gifts were all he could give to Drusilla.

It was maddening, really. Spike had only come to Sunnydale in the first place in order to find some way to cure Dru of her illness. While the physical wounds of the mob attack in Prague had healed, she was still drained, like a car with a low battery.

They had finally found a cure in the du Lac manuscript, stolen from the Sunnydale High library. Though they hadn't completed the ritual laid out in the manuscript, they had done enough to restore Drusilla to her old self. But the blonde Slayer put a spanner into the works by dropping a church organ on him and leaving him to burn.

Spike had encountered many Slayers in almost two centuries. None of them had even so much as scratched him. He'd even killed two of them himself.

Until Buffy and Dawn came 'round.

Now, when Spike wanted nothing more than to put as much distance between him and them as possible, he was stuck in a bloody wheelchair. He had burns over half his body, and his legs had been crushed. The damage would heal in due time, but he couldn't travel until then.

Worse, Nakamura had shown up.

He didn't mind the bloke being from the future to make sure the Slayer from the future didn't change how things went. What he did mind was the fact that not only did Nakamura seem to have a big yang on the blonde Slayer. But for some reason he never mentioned, he seemed to know Dru intimately.

Drusilla opened the box that Spike had given her and stared in wide-eyed wonderment at the antique ruby necklace inside. The rubies were blood red, of course.

"Fancy it, pet?" he asked.

She sighed contentedly. "It's beautiful."

Spike smiled. He lived for these moments. "Nothing but the best for my gir—"

A wet plop sound interrupted him, as a human heart was placed on the table.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Dru."

"Oh!" Drusilla said with an even bigger sigh than Spike's necklace got. "Nakamura, it's still warm!"

Spike seethed.

"I knew you'd like it," Nakamura said with a feral grin. "I found it in a quaint little shop girl." He noticed the necklace and picked it up. "Something Buffy would love. Do you mind, Dru?"

"Oh," said Drusilla as she smiled at Nakamura. "It would look lovely on her neck."

"I think it would be better if you rip her lungs out," said Spike. "Would make an impression."

"Then I lose her again," growled Nakamura as he glared at Spike.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy had lost track of the amount of junk food she had eaten. She had considered keeping a tally, but by the time she and Chloe got halfway through War of the Roses— the first of their double feature, which was followed by Thelma and Louise— she gave up.

Chloe asked why the second movie. She had found out that the film was an annual tradition of Buffy, Marie and Joyce's Valentine's Day movie watching.

Downstairs in the living room of Dawn's home; Dawn and Faith were also watching a movie.

A knock came from the door. Dawn handed the bowl of Thin Mints that she hadn't even realized was still in her lap to Faith and said, "Here." She hauled herself up off the couch and went to the front door.

There was nobody there.

Suddenly, all her senses went on alert. In Sunnydale, the only people who went for the knock-on-the-door-and-run-away trick were demonic.

She closed and locked the door, then went back into the living room.

Faith was gone.

"Faith?"

Dawn went into the kitchen, hoping that Faith just went for something to drink.

"Faith?"

"Out here," called Faith. She came in through the back door carrying a black box. "Thought I would check, just in case. The card has B's name on it."

"Buffy!" Dawn called suddenly worried.

A moment later Chloe and Buffy had joined Dawn and Faith in the kitchen looking at the box.

Buffy hesitantly opened the box, there was a dozen red roses and a jewelry box. She picked up the jewelry box and opened it. Inside was an antique blood red ruby necklace and another card that simply read: Soon.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Xander sat in the Bronze, fidgeting nervously. Cordelia still hadn't shown up yet. They were originally going to come together, but Cordy had decided at the last minute to just meet here. So Xander sat next to Willow, constantly taking the gift box out of his pocket, tossing it back and forth from hand to hand, then putting it back in his pocket, then taking it out a minute later.

Willow didn't even notice. She was listening to the music. Oz's band, Dingoes Ate My Baby, was playing a straight-out rock number. Xander had to admit, the band was good, and he loved their name.

But just at the moment, he was way too nervous to appreciate them.

"Oz has his cool hair today," Willow said. Oz had been going back and forth between his natural strawberry blond hair color and jet black. No one was entirely sure why. "I think I'm a groupie," Willow added, earnestly.

Xander smiled at her. He had to admit that, even if he wasn't keen on Oz, he liked seeing Willow this happy.

Finally, Cordelia entered. She looked around, seemed disheartened with something, then sat at a table by herself.

"Weird," Xander thought as he gathered up his courage, went over the speech one last time, then went over to the table where Cordy sat.

As he approached, she got up.

Xander took a moment to take in her very hot minidress and how well she occupied it, then said, "Hey."

"Your clothes," she said, sounding almost stunned. "You look so good."

Xander was wearing a light gray button-down shirt, black slacks, and a charcoal gray suit jacket. At least Dawn had said it was charcoal gray. Xander didn't see much difference between that and black, but he accepted that as secret girl knowledge and let it go. "I let Dawn dress me," Xander said, then at Cordy's look added quickly: "Well, not physically . . ."

"Perfect," Cordelia said, sounding annoyed, of all things. "You had to make this harder, didn't you?"

"I think I speak for everyone here when I say, huh?" Xander thought. "Okay," he said slowly. "Clearly the fact that I please you visually has got us off on the wrong foot here."

"Xander—" she started.

"Let me finish," Xander said. He'd been rehearsing this speech since lunch, and he wasn't going to let her stop him now. He took a breath, then started. "I've been thinking a lot about us lately. The why and the wherefore. You know, once, twice, a kissy here, a kissy there. And you can chalk that all up to hormones. And maybe that's all we have here: tawdry teen lust. But maybe not. Maybe something in you sees something special inside me. And vice versa. I mean, I think I do. See something."

"You're losing it," he thought. "Cut to the chase, no pun intended.

"So . . ." He handed her the gift box.

Cordelia opened it. "Xander, thank you." She took out the necklace. "It's beautiful." Then she lowered the chain into the box and said, "I want to break up."

Xander somehow managed not to scream. "Okay, not quite the reaction I was looking for."

"I know, I'm sorry," Cordelia said, and for once in her life, she sounded sincere. "It's just—who are we kidding? Even if parts of us do see specialness—we don't fit."

A small part of Xander saw this coming. A lifetime of rejection, of guffawing from the female population, of overall abysmal luck in love had prepared him for this moment.

"Yeah, okay," he said, trying and failing to keep his temper. "You know what's a good day to break up with somebody? Any day besides Valentine's Day! I mean, what, were you just running low on dramatic irony?"

"I know, I didn't mean to do it this way," Cordelia said, and again, she sounded sincere.

At another time, Xander would've been amazed at the genuineness of her emotions. But, again, not tonight.

"Well, you did," Xander said, and turned on his heel and walked out of the Bronze.

February 15, 1998 – Wednesday

Xander hadn't slept very well the previous night. Last year, when he'd asked Buffy to the prom, he'd said, "I don't handle rejection well. Funny, considering all the practice I've had." But no rejection had hurt quite like this one, because no other relationship had been even moderately successful. This one, though, actually started to be something real.

So Xander went into class on the fifteenth of February thinking he was as low as he could possibly feel. He hadn't taken into account the speed with which the high school gossip machine operated. Half the school was at the Bronze when the most popular girl on campus dumped him, and the other half had heard about it from the first half by sunrise.

They giggled. They tittered. They guffawed. They pointed and laughed. They shook their heads in amused dismay. One jock, whom Xander didn't even know, said, "Dude, way to get dumped!"

Then he saw a lifeline: Dawn. While Dawn had not been dumped in her original timeline that he knew of. He knew that for a long time Dawn's love had been unrequited because of her captivity. If anyone knew how he felt it would likely be her.

"Hey, Dawn, my bud, you would not believe the—"

"Xander, can it wait?" Dawn asked as he fell in step with her. "Faith, Buffy and I are meeting Chloe and Giles in the library."

"Something happen?" Xander asked suddenly worried.

"Nakamura is sending Buffy gifts," answered Dawn.

"Gifts?" said Xander shaking his head.

"Yeah, dead roses and a necklace with a card that read, soon," said Dawn with a sigh.

"Soon as in he's going to kill Buffy soon?" asked Xander. "Wouldn't that change the timeline he's here to ensure happens?"

"He could be meaning soon as in he's going to kill me soon," suggested Dawn.

"If you need any help?" suggested Xander.

"Would you be willing to watch Elizabeth tonight?" suggested Dawn. "Till I am sure Buffy's not getting more gifts…"

"Sure," said Xander. He sighed.

He moved on to see Cordelia and four of her usual gaggle of bleached bimbos sitting on one of the benches outside the restrooms. Half the time Xander couldn't tell them apart. Is that Harmony or Julianne next to her? He then placed it as Harmony—she was a victim of that invisible girl last year.

Harmony was, in fact, the first one to speak. "Gee, Xander, maybe you should learn a second language so that even more girls can reject you."

They all laughed. Except Cordelia, who couldn't even make eye contact. Somehow, that just made it worse.

Xander walked off, then caught sight of a second lifeline.

Amy Madison.

In an instant, a plan began to form in Xander Harris's head. He thanked whatever gods or fates were responsible for his catching Amy's little illusion act on Ms. Beakman yesterday, and walked over to the young witch.

He grabbed Amy by the arm and led her to a corner.

"What are you doing?" she asked indignantly.

"Amy, good to see you," he said conversationally. Then, small talk taken care of, he said, "You're a witch."

"No, I'm not," she said with a forced laugh. "That was my mom, remember?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking it runs in the family. I saw you working that mojo on Ms. Beakman. Maybe I should go tell somebody about that."

Okay, here's where we see if she calls my bluff. The fact of the matter was, Xander didn't have a thing on her, not really. He had no proof, and it was unlikely that anyone, aside from Giles, would believe that a student had bewitched a teacher. But Xander was counting on the fact that Amy knew a, what Buffy could do; b, that Giles had reversed the body-switching spell Amy's mother had cast; and c, Xander was tight with both of them.

"Don't even—that is so mean!"

Paydirt! "Blackmail is such an ugly word."

Amy frowned. "I didn't say blackmail."

"Yeah, but I'm about to blackmail you, so I thought I'd bring it up."

"What do you want?" Amy said, defeated.

Xander laughed a bitter laugh. "What do I want? I want some respect around here. I want, for once, to come out ahead. I want the Hellmouth to be working for me. You and me, Amy, we're going to cast a little spell."

"What kind?"

Several students walked in their direction, and Xander decided it was best to be discreet. He led Amy into an empty English classroom, closed the door, then said, "A love spell on Cordelia."

"A love spell?" she repeated.

"Yeah, y'know, just the basic, can't eat, can't sleep, can't breathe anything but little old moi."

Amy shook her head. "That kind of thing is the hardest. I mean, to make someone love you for all eternity—"

"Whoa, whoa, back up. Who said anything about eternity? A man can only talk self-tanning lotion for so long before his head explodes."

Again, Amy frowned. "Well then, I don't get it. If you don't want to be with her forever, then what's the point?"

"The point is, I want her to want me. Desperately. So I can break up with her and subject her to the same hell she's been putting me through."

"Oh, I don't know, Xander," Amy said, wincing. "Intent has to be pure with love spells."

"Right. I intend revenge. Pure as the driven snow. Now, are you going to play or do we need to have another chat about invisible homework?"

Sighing, Amy said, "I'll need something of hers. A personal object."

Xander smiled. He knew just the thing.