Xander stared out the window, or at least at the constant rippling cascade flowing down the glass. The storm's rhythm was highlighted by syncopated pings and thrums from the various buckets set to catch the drips from the ceiling; it turned out the Harris family roof was not up to this level of inundation.

His arm itched inside the cast, and his knee ached with a low, pulsing pressure. The swelling was going down, which was good, because the surgeon had said that once it was gone, the reconstructive surgery could be scheduled.

"How are you, sweetie?" His mom patted him on the shoulder as she passed. Her wake contained a faint odor of sour mash.

"I'm fine, mom," he said, still looking out the window. He heard her rummaging in the kitchen, which intrigued him until he heard the familiar snick. She had been looking for her lighter.

"The school called. You're gonna get what's called a home-bound teacher until after your surgery." Jessica Harris passed back through the room, trailing a cloud of menthol-scented smoke.

"Thanks, mom," he called. He felt the rain in his bones, felt its pounding in the broken places in his arm, felt its throbbing in his knee. He swallowed and stretched his neck; he felt that he needed to pop his eardrums.

Unsuccessful, he turned back to the window and felt his mood slide down with the water.

Trick looked around the conference table. "Status reports. Where are we?"

Delilah looked at the tech team. They glanced at each other, then, by unspoken directive, one of them stood to serve as spokesman. "The… anomaly is continuing. It's still causing disruptions in our communications. We have confirmed that it appears to be magical in origin, which means that our normal procedures are… well, frankly, they're worthless." He collapsed into his chair; the entire tech team pulled away.

Trick raised a hand, palm out toward the team. "Okay, stop looking so scared. If it's magic, there's nothing technology can do about it. Stay on it. Whenever this lifts, I expect us to make up for lost time. Understood?" The tech vamps nodded furiously. Trick nodded and looked down at his legal pad. "If this is some kind of hoodoo, what do we do about it. Any ideas? Anybody looked into what kind of magic this might be?" He looked around the table but only encountered downcast gazes and averted glances. He sighed. Quisling would have been all over it.

Cordelia hurried down the stairs. She just had time between classes to change her shoes. Her rain boots might be genuine Hunters, but no way was she wearing them all day. She hit the door and rushed to her locker. She quickly worked the lock; her stash of emergency shoes was stacked inside. Cordelia had chosen her outfit to match the available footwear.

She kicked off the Hunters and slipped her feet into a pair of black Chelsea boots. She took a quick outfit inventory: plum-colored sleeveless mock turtleneck, sage-green Eisenhower jacket, vanilla flat-front chinos. She slammed the locker closed.

"That's the smartest thing I've seen today."

Cordelia jumped and whirled in one motion. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

Matti Hollis laughed. "Child, you need to dial it back. If you don't, it's gonna be messy when you snap." She ignored Cordelia's scowl. "Keep your eyes on the school announcements tomorrow. There's talk that the basketball game may be postponed due to flooding."

"Okay." Cordelia hefted her backpack onto her shoulder. "If that happens, I'll start the phone tree."

Matti nodded. "Knew I could count on you. Oh, and, Cordelia?" The cheerleader turned in the doorway. Matti cocked a finger. "Those boots definitely look better than the galoshes."

Willow frowned and twitched her head to the side. Buffy watched as her friend tapped her pencil behind one ear, tugged on the lobe of the other ear, then gave her head a quick shake. The Slayer shrugged. It was better than listening to… what subject was this anyway? The ringing bell ended the agony. Buffy found Willow as students streamed out of the room.

"What was that? Signalling for the suicide squeeze?"

"What? Oh, no. It's the rain. It's really getting to me."

"Agreed." The Slayer glanced toward the ceiling. "It is the annoyingness."

"No, not like that." Willow frowned. "It's like there's something inside the rain, or at least inside the sound, like when you hear a song and really like it, but after you've heard it a bunch of times, you realize that there's a sound that really bothers you."

"Ah," Buffy said. "So, like the banjo in 'Come On, Eileen'."

"Exactly." Willow clutched her friend's sleeve. "I really like that song, It's so catchy. Anyway-" the redhead's serious face returned "-what I meant about the rain."

"Kind of like what Oz has going on? They say that couples grow more alike the long they're together." Buffy nudged Willow.

"No,it's just really loud for Oz. That's not what I mean. I mean, it's loud enough, but I can almost hear something else, kind of behind and inside it. It's making me wacky."

"Are you gonna be okay?" Buffy's concern was obvious.

Willow offered a wan smile. "I'll figure it out… besides, it'll probably go away when it stops raining. It has to stop raining soon."

Three people were swept away when they made the mistake of driving into water-covered streets. Between the rain, flooding, and other mayhem, the Sunnydale PD assumed they were all dead.

The massive dock cranes towered over the ship at the Grangemouth terminal. As cargo containers were lifted and swung into place, a single figure, hilariously small by comparison, made its path away from the ship.

Robert Woo kept to the shadows. He moved slowly, both out of caution and a sense of unsteadiness; he had been at sea for some time. He found his predicament grimly amusing: a powerful magician, he could not use magic to aid in his travels, for that would surely reveal his survival. He could not fly, so he had adopted one of the oldest ways of crossing the oceans: a ship. He had been secure, lost in the vastness of the container ship and protected from most magical detection by the vast amount of steel and array of electronics on board. Kirkland (for Woo was sure the Grand Inquisitor was responsible for the attack) would have to be looking precisely for Robert Woo, looking in pretty much the right place, and using some very particular forms of spells to find him.

Woo was a naturally cautious, sober man. He believed that he was as safe as he could hope for, but his next step was to shelter in place for a bit. He would make sure he was undetected.

Oz nodded toward the two boys squared off in a far corner of the cafeteria. "Third one today. Strange days indeed."

"It's the rain," Willow said as she toyed with her food.

"Definitely," Oz agreed.

"I mean it's not the rain," Willow said. "I mean it's the rain, but it's not just rain. Something strange is going on. Can't you feel it?"

Oz shrugged. "Kinda, but I don't really trust my mojo. I'm processing so much new stuff, I can't really, y'know."

"Yeah." WIllow sighed and pushed away her tray.

Oz leaned toward her. "You okay?'

Willow shook her head slightly. "I think I'm getting a headache."

"Boy, could today get any weirder? Don't answer. Rhetorical question." Buffy dropped into the chair next to Willow. "Man, what's with all the fisticuffs?"

Oz shrugged. "Pent-up testosterone?"

Buffy looked around, puzzled. "Where's Cordelia?"

"Oh," Willow said, "I don't think she wants to sit with us any more, not after, you know, Xander and, you know, her mom."

"Then where is she?" Buffy asked. The trio scanned the lunchroom, but Cordelia was nowhere to be found. Harmony and her junta held their usual spot, as did the usual groups. The unrelenting subwoofer rumble of the rain filled the cafeteria, which was both quieter and edgier than usual. Cordelia was not to be seen.

"That's weird," Willow said.

"Not really," Oz said. "She can't go back to her old crew, at least, not with our stink on her."

"'Stink' is a little strong," Buffy said, biting into a french fry.

Oz shrugged. "Can you see her crawling to Harmony? I can't, and if she won't do that, who's she supposed to hang with?"

"Good point." The Slayer nodded. The rest of lunch was subdued. As they left the cafeteria, Buffy nodded toward the library. "I'm gonna check in with Giles. You coming?"

Willow shook her head. "I have a tutoring session before fifth hour."

"Will, you're getting tutoring? How did we miss the cry for help?"

Willow punched Buffy in the arm. "No, silly. It's Tyler."

"You're still seeing him?" Oz frowned. "How did I not know that?"

Willow shrugged. "For all the good it's doing, I might as well not. At least it'll look good on the old CV."

"CV?" Buffy's eyebrows arched.

"We are definitely spending too much time with Giles," Oz observed.

Matti Hollis's office had a window that allowed her to monitor the locker room from her desk. She glanced up from her gradebook and did a double-take Cordelia Chase was sitting in front of her locker, eating from a Tupperware container. Matti started to stand up, then sat down again. This was strange. She sat for a moment, then got up and opened the door.

"Cordelia," she said, "are you okay?"

The cheerleader gulped and choked for a moment, then swallowed hard. "What are you doing?" she gasped, drawing a deep breath. "Are you spying on me?"

Matti shrugged. "This is my office. I'm not the one out of place."

Cordelia considered this for a moment, then shrugged. "True."

"Again, is everything all right?"

Cordelia shrugged again. "I'm trying a more healthy diet." She held up the plastic bowl. It seemed to contain some sort of fruit-and-yogurt mixture.

"I see." Matti looked around the room, then back at the girl. "I think they'll let you bring outside food into the cafeteria."

Coredelia glanced up toward the ceiling, then back at the gym teacher. "The cafeteria is gross on a good day. The extra noise from the rain… I might as well be at a Phish concert."

Matti stifled a grin. "Not a jam band fan?"

"Please. Stop wandering around and pretending you're creative. Play a melody." Cordelia wrinkled her nose. "Plus, since I've changed my diet, I've become really aware of how greasy the atmosphere is in the cafeteria."

"The atmosphere?"

Cordelia nodded, an disgusted look on her face. "You might as well swim in grease. Terrible for your skin"

"Okay," Matti said. "I'll leave you to it." She retreated into her office and closed the door.

Cordelia stared at the closed door for a minute, then exhaled her held breath in a noisy rush. She shook her head slightly, then went back to her lunch.

Puzzled, Matti Hollis stared through the office window, the end of a pencil caught between her teeth. She watched while Cordelia returned the bowl to a small lunchbox, stowed the lunchbox in her backpack, then went to the line of sinks outside the shower room and quickly brushed her teeth. As the cheerleader left the locker room, Matti shook her head, rolled her eyes, and went back to grading.