A Call Away

by Jess S1

Buffy and Charlie get used to living apart again, but still working together and helping each other as their bond continues to grow. Sequel to 'First Meeting' - Part 2 in M&M.

5. Chapter 4: Within & Without P1 of 2

Disclaimers: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. Numb3rs belongs to Cheryl Heuton and Nick Falacci…I think. (NOT me!)
AN: Well, I really wanted to get this part out all in one chapter, but it's not cooperating. Plus I haven't really had as much free time to work on it since school started again and didn't want to leave this story hanging for too long. When classes aren't in session and all I have to worry about is working thirty-five to forty hours a week I have a lot more time to write then I do with fifteen hours of classes plus hours of reading for said classes, etc. I'll still be trying to update fairly regularly, but it might be closer to every other week from now on.

Thanks again to NeverTooOld for beta-reading.

And First Meeting won one of the Crossing Over Awards for 2008! ACS' Big Reveal. I was a little disappointed at not getting Best Crime TV, but I didn't think it really fit into that category anyway. It was fine under Best TV, but as soon as they switched it to the more focused category of Crime TV it didn't really fit. Some of the later stories in the series—when we get into NUMB3RS—will, but the first story was more about Buffy and Charlie getting to know each other. Still, an awards an award, so many thanks to ACS and everyone else! :-D

And now on with the story! (After the superfluous-warning.)

Warnings: Spoilers for Buffy Season 3, Episode 4, "Beauty and the Beast."

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A Call Away

Part II in Mathematics & Magic

By Jess S

Chapter 4: Within & Without

Part I

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Sunnydale, California – Wednesday, September 25, 1996

Buffy sighed as she led the way into yet another cemetery, "And here we have Sunnydale graveyard number eleven."

"I thought the last one was thirteen?" Faith asked, frowning slightly.

"Oh it was," the older Slayer nodded, partially in response to the question and partially in approval, as the younger Slayer's attention was divided like hers, between their conversation and the graveyard, wary eyes scanning the area despite the fact that both their Slay-dar's were picking up nothing. "According to Wil' that was the thirteenth oldest cemetery in Sunnydale, this one is five years older." She jerked her heard toward the south-west. "Number twelve is on the other side of town, by the ocean."

"How many graveyards are there in Sunnydale?"

"This is the newest. But I think they're startin' fourteen over there," Buffy replied, pointing towards a partially cleared section of the nearby woodland.

"Man," Faith shook her head. "Di said Sunnydale was bad, but I guess I just didn't get how bad."

"I'm pretty sure this is the only town in America that regularly has funerals at night, 'cause there aren't enough hours in the day, even with forty-three churches and at least twice as many priests to handle them. Actually," Buffy frowned at the nearby construction site, "Maybe that's another church. Or both. I guess it could be both, couldn't it?"

"Uh, yeah, I think so." Faith shook her head slightly.

Buffy frowned as she sensed a sudden down-turn in her friend's emotions, a shift that she could actually—for one—see on the younger teen's face. "Faith?"

"Ya got a favorite?"

Buffy blinked, "What?"

"A favorite graveyard, cemetery, whatever?" Faith shrugged, "In our line of work, gotta know our days are numbered, right? Ya told anyone where you want to be buried?"

"Uh, no." Buffy shook her head, "A-Actually, I don't want to be."

"What, dead? Me neither, but—"

"No, no, I mean buried. Not that I want to die, either. But," Buffy shook her head again when Faith looked at her. "I've watched so many vamps crawl out of the ground in the last few years, and fought so many things underground," she shrugged. "I just really don't want to be there. I mean, especially on the Hellmouth. That's underground, too."

"Oh, good point," Faith winced, "So you want to be cremated?"

Buffy sighed, and shook her head again. "Not really. I'm not too fond of fire, either. But I guess that'd be better then possibly waking up underground. At least that way, if I was still human and alive I wouldn't wake up, and if I was vamped or turned into some kind of demon, the fire would kill it."

"It?"

"Well, it wouldn't be me anymore, would it? It'd be the thing that killed me."

"Huh, you'd think the Council would think of that, fit it into their rules."

"Rules?" Buffy blinked again, frowning.

"Yeah," Faith shrugged. "They've got ton's of 'em. Even a few about the remains of Slayers."

"Like what?"

"Well, for some reason, a Slayer's remains—if available—have to be buried for at least a hundred years on holy ground, like—" the younger Slayer nodded to their surroundings. "Unless the Slayer's a potential vamp or demon, then their remains have to be, uh, frozen with magic."

"What happens after a hundred years?"

"Uh, well, I guess you could will that your remains be cremated then, I think." Faith winced, shaking her head slightly. "I really didn't pay attention to those lessons. Just the basics. I only remember that one 'cause the hundred year thing seemed a little weird to me."

"Yeah," Buffy nodded, her frown deepening. "And why would they freeze a Slayer-turned vamp or demon, anyway? Why not just destroy the body, get rid of the problem?"

Faith shrugged, "Ya got me, B. They've got a lotta weird rules like that."

"Wait a minute," Buffy stopped abruptly. "You've read The Slayer's Handbook?"

"You haven't?" Faith frowned, "I thought you had to!"

"Merrick and Giles never gave it to me," Buffy grimaced. "I didn't even know about it till Kendra showed up and talked about it."

"Huh. Maybe they only make you read it when you're being trained as a Potential Slayer?" Faith suggested, still frowning slightly. "I mean, a lot of the stuff in it is mostly rules about controlling your powers, secrecy and stuff. Stuff you probably figured out by using your powers, I guess? And, uh, shouldn't we be, um, moving?"

"Yeah," Buffy agreed, before sighing as they started to move through the graveyard again, only half their attention still on the patrol. "And if you mean 'figured them out' by dodging and catching knives and running around Merrick's obstacle courses before and after hunting vamps in LA, I guess." She shook her head, before raising an eyebrow at her sister-Slayer. "Did it help?"

"What, with bein' a Slayer?" Faith shrugged. "Not really. I mean, I knew what I was and what I could do right away. I knew it meant that Kendra or you had died—for a week or two the Council wasn't sure you'd survived. So they weren't sure if my Calling had been from both your deaths or just Kendra's."

"Only a week or two? I was gone for a few months."

"Yeah, but the Council's Oracle finally prophesized your return about ten days after Kendra died, so they figure that meant you were still alive and hiding somewhere on Earth or going to find a way back from Acathla's dimension."

Buffy blinked again, "They thought I was in Acathla's dimension?"

"Well, yeah. The portal opened and you disappeared. It's not a hard jump ta make, B."

"Who's 'The Oracle,' anyway?"

"Umm, a seer that makes prophecies. Like the one about the Master's Ascension? That prophecy was made by a Council Oracle, um, in the 1800s, I think."

"Oh." Buffy sighed, shaking her head. "So he's the one that told 'em to keep me in the nut-house?"

"He—? Oh, no. The Council Oracle is always a girl. And no, she probably answered some of their questions that way, but," Faith shook her head. "She usually only gives these really twisted phrases. Like poetry, for the Council to figure out. Doesn't answer 'yes' or 'no' questions at all. I met the old one when I was eleven. Didn't understand a word she said."

"They're all girls, really?" Buffy shook her head, "Huh. I wonder why that is."

"Well, I think they really focus on the Slayer-line, so I kinda always figured that had something to do with it. Girl power, and all that."

Buffy chuckled, "Makes sense." Then she shook her head, "Course with all the stuff I'm learning about the Council, I gotta wonder how important that power is. I mean, one girl in all the world, right? Two, now."

"But it was always one, before you came along." Faith nodded. "Di—and a bunch of other Watchers—spent a few months after Kendra was called researching it. As far as the Council knows, it's never happened before."

"Well, CPR's kinda new."

"But magic's not." Faith replied, shaking her head. "Di said some of the Watchers even wanted to try seeing if they could repeat it with magic. Hey, don't look at me," she added quickly when Buffy glared. "Seein' as I'm a Slayer now I'm not too big on the idea either. 'Sides all of the Council's mages, seers and the Oracle were sure it would screw up 'The Balance.'"

Buffy frowned, "Okay, they're wanting to kill me again aside, what is that?"

"What?"

"The Balance. I've heard about it a bunch of times, but no ones explained it yet."

Faith shrugged, "It's The Balance between Good and Evil. Mystical. All I know is that they try to keep the Balance because if either side gets too powerful the other side gets a blank check. Di said it was supposedly how the Slayer-line was created. Evil was so strong then, so out-of-balance, that Good was able to create the ultimate Champion to fight for it."

"The Slayer. Us."

"Yeah."

"Against thousands of vamps and demons."

Again, the brunette shrugged. "Hey, supposedly it's gotten better. I mean, if you think about it, the Slayer was create millions of years ago. But when was the oldest-known big civilization founded?"

"Don't know, I'd guess several thousand years ago." Buffy shrugged. "But I get what you're saying. It took the Slayers million of years to clean up—"

"But they got it done. And so humanity kinda rules the Earth, with the Slayer—and the Watchers, I guess, 'cept they weren't always around—keeping the uglies under control."

"The Watchers weren't always around?" Buffy raised an eyebrow, having thought from the way both Merrick and Giles had introduced themselves that they were 'Chosen' in a similar fashion. Maybe in a vision or something, that set them down their path to the Slayer.

"No way. Like G said, they're all old families that are somehow connected to the Slayer-line. One of their ancestors was a Slayer, was saved by a Slayer or, I don't know, they found out about us somehow. Been helpin' ever since."

Buffy suppressed a snort and shook her head instead. "Hey, Faith, do you know where any of this info is? Stuff about the Council and older Slayers, I mean?"

Faith blinked at her, "Yeah. I bet G has the book."

"The book?"

"Yeah, the magic-book that all the Field Watchers get, for quick references on Slayers and demons. I think it can call up all information for the Watchers on, like, the last thousand years, or so."

Buffy stared at her a moment, not believing that finding Charlie's answers could really be that easy. "All of it?"

"Well, no. Just the basics, I think. Who the Slayers were, when they were called, who and what they fought, how and when they died. Stuff like that. For more details on kinds of demons and stuff, you'd have to look them up separately. And more info on each Slayer would be in the Watchers Diaries Archives. All of 'em are sent to London when a Slayer falls, and then I think they make a bunch of copies before sending them around the world to be stored in different places. The Field Watcher gets to keep the original, though."

"What, like a souvenir?"

"I guess," Faith shrugged. "Di's family had three of 'em, all from when her ancestors were Watching specific Slayers. M-Mine woulda been number four, if she'd survived."

Buffy winced, laying a gentle hand on Faith's shoulder for a moment, before withdrawing it. After a moment, she shook her head. "I guess the Watchers are kinda helpful. Least Giles is. But I really have trouble seeing Willow's kids or Xander's kids becoming anything like Giles."

The younger Slayer laughed, "That's a thought." Faith shook her head, "Xander's with Cordy, right?"

"Cordelia, yeah. And thank you. I really didn't need that addition to my mental image of the Watchers-to-be."

"You and Xander ever—?"

"What—No!" Buffy shook her head. "I mean, he had a slightly obsessive, hero-worship crush on me for a while. B—"

"Speaking of crushes, what're you gonna do about Mr. Puppy-Eyes?"

"Mr. Pup—You mean Scott?"

"Yeah. Plan on bringing him around here?" Faith waved the stake she was holding at the surrounding graves, "Doin' the diddy?"

"No. And kids don't do that in Sunnydale, anyway."

"Don't—"

"Not in graveyards, at least. They may be oblivious, but most of 'em aren't stupid." Buffy nodded a little ways north. "There's a smooch spot up by the woods. That's usually where they go—in cars. So they can drive off if there's trouble."

"Huh, so you gonna—"

"One, neither one of us has a car. Two, I'm really not interested in Hope."

Faith raised an eyebrow, "Really? He's quite a muffin."

"He's nice, and funny," Buffy nodded, then shrugged. "And normal."

"Ah, so Angel didn't turn you off all guys, just 'normal' guys?" Faith smirked, "Course, now I kinda wanta see what a vamps like in bed, you know. Lotta stamina, I bet."

Buffy shook her head, rolling her eyes at her friend's crudeness, "It's not that, it's just—" she shook her head and sighed again. "It's not like I want to date any kind of hell beast, it's—Look at Xander. Or Giles. The two totally 'normal' guys of the Scoobies. But Xander more then Giles, 'cause Giles can do magic and—"

"Has book-smarts."

"Yeah. Pay attention to what happens when we have the Scoobies involved with going up against big vamps or demons. I guarantee that at least six out of ten times, Xander's gonna get hurt. If he's not hurt, Willow's hurt, though Oz usually protects her now." Buffy shrugged, "It's not usually bad enough to take them to the hospital, but they don't heal overnight like we do. They limp for a few days. Sometimes a week or two. Wince. And moan."

Faith was quiet for a moment before she replied, "And you think any guy we date—"

"Is gonna have a big red X on his forehead, yeah." The older Slayer shrugged. "I guess if I met someone I thought it'd be worth the risk for, someone who knew the risk and wanted to take it, it might be one thing. But Scott doesn't know anything about us."

"Well, you don't really have to look for boyfriend-material, you know. Why not just go on a few dates every once in a while? Maybe that way you'll meet someone who is worth it." Faith raised an eyebrow again, "Unless you were hoping a human that hunts demons 'll come along and swoop you off your feet, 'cause I wouldn't hold my breath. Di said most demon-hunters avoid Hellmouths, especially this one 'cause demons and vamps are stronger here."

Buffy shook her head. "Since I became the Slayer, I've only met three guys in our age bracket that are or were available and know about me being the Slayer. Pike couldn't handle it after the first few months. Xander is no longer available and I didn't choose to tell him anyway. And I won't risk Charlie."

"That's why you gotta just go out to have fun with some of 'em. They won't mind, B. All men are beasts."

Both of Buffy's eyebrows rose. "OK. Not quite sure where that batch of cynicism came from."

"It's not cynical, I mean," Faith shook her head. "It's realistic. Every guy from manimal to Mr. "I love The English Patient" has beast in him. And I don't care how sensitive they act. They're all still just in it for the chase."

"That's a pretty big generalization, Faith."

"Hey, you're the one that doesn't wanna date any of 'em. Who's 'Charlie,' anyway? I don't think I've met—Vampire?"

Buffy blinked at the abrupt change in subject, a part of her a bit offended to think that Faith might be asking if Charlie was a vampire, but then the more rationale part of her brain caught the signal her Slay-dar was sending her. "Vampire."

"How 'bout first one there gets Saturday night off?"

Buffy rolled her eyes, but nodded and without a word both Slayers took off. Buffy didn't really care about Saturday night, but some part of her really wanted to get there first.

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Eppes House, Pasadena, California – Thursday, September 26,1996

Charlie yawned as he forced himself to get out of his bed. A glance at his nearby clock told him that he didn't really have to get up yet—it was only quarter of six—but he was trying to keep himself in the habit of getting up early, with one of the three classes he'd be teaching at CalSci next semester in mind. The Intro to Mathematics course for undergrads and Calculus were in the afternoon on Monday and Wednesday, but Statistics was from 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Thus, he'd be getting up early on Tuesday and Thursday at the very least. And he'd probably be spending many morning hours in the tutoring center too. Plus this was around the time Annie seemed to be calling lately, so—

*RING* *RING*

Charlie shook his head, but smiled as he hurriedly slipped his hastily chosen shirt for the day on before grabbing his cell phone off his desk and glancing at the view screen before hitting the green button. "Hi Annie."

"Hi Charlie." Annie's cheery voice came over the line, before a little bit of hesitancy crept into her tone. "I didn't wake you, did I? I thought you were up. I mean, I know we really don't have great control, but I really thought you were awake an—"

"No, you—" Charlie tried to suppress a yawn but grimaced as he failed. "You didn't."

"Oh, I did, didn't I? I'm sorry. I'll call back lat—"

"No, no, Annie. Really, you didn't wake me. I got up a few minutes before you called."

"Oh. Why?"

Charlie rolled his eyes again. "Remember, I said I had to fix my sleeping schedule for when I start teaching in January?"

"Oh yeah, 'cause you have an early class on Tuesday and Thursday." He could almost see Annie nod thoughtfully. "That still seems kinda weird to me."

"What does?"

"The way classes are scheduled for college. I mean, I guess it might make sense if I were there, but it looks awful confusing."

"It's really not." Charlie chuckled. "It's just different."

"I guess."

Both were quiet for a moment, before Annie finally sighed. "So, I think I can get the, um, info on Slayers and stuff. From the last hundred years, right?"

"Really?" Charlie smiled brightly, shaking his head. "That was fast. I'm impressed. I hadn't even really started researching yet. I mean, I skimmed through a few newspaper archives a few days ago, but that's it. I was hoping to get more done this weekend."

"Aren't you starting your lessons with Gunn soon?"

Charlie winced, "Yeah. This afternoon at five. And tomorrow, too, apparently. I'm hoping I won't be in too much pain at the end of the week to do research. Am I being too optimistic?"

"No!" Annie replied quickly, her voice a bit higher then usual, and Charlie could almost see her shaking her head frantically back and forth. "No! I'm sure you'll be fine."

Another moment of silence hung between them, and this time Charlie sighed. "You know, I wouldn't think it was possible, but you're actually worse at lying to me over the phone then you are in person."

"Uh-um—D-Did you the package I sent you?"

"Package?" Charlie frowned, "no, I don't think so."

Annie sighed, "Well, it was supposed to arrive before today. I sent it last week." She was quiet for a moment before she asked, "Why don't you postpone until it gets there?"

"Why?"

"Trust me. It'll really help."

"Uh, O-K," Charlie shook his head after a moment's thought. "But I can't postpone again. Gunn wanted to start last week, and he's doing me a favor here, right?"

"I could call him if you want."

"No." the genius shook his head again. "Maybe your package'll show up this morning. Anyway, I'm sure Gunn doesn't have anything too rough planned for the first lesson. Probably just a few, um, kata's—"

"Um, Charlie," Annie cut in, "Krav Maga doesn't have kata's to practice. You practice the moves you'd use in actual, you know, life-or-death situations." She was quiet for another moment, before she added. "I mean, I've never taken any self-defense courses, just what my Watchers have taught me. But my ex, Pike, started taking them after Merrick was killed and I picked up a few things from watching him practice. Before Mom and Dad threw me in the nuthouse, anyway." (2)

"O-Oh," Charlie winced as all the doubts he'd had earlier about self-defense lessons rose to the forefront of his mind again. The Slayer cut in before he could say anything, probably sensing his sudden distress just as he'd felt her much more poignant trip down memory lane a few days before.

"But, you said he's a brown-belt in Karate too, right? Maybe he'll start with that."

"Y-Yeah, maybe." After another moment of thoughts towards his probably pain-filled evening, he shook his head and forced his mind back to the earlier part of their conversation. "But you found Council records of some kind?"

"Uh, yeah." Annie confirmed, clearly surprised by his change of topic but going with it anyway. "Faith says Giles should have a magic book that tells him stuff about the past Slayers. Who they were, what they fought, when, where, like that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The only problem is that if it's magically protected—which it probably is—I won't be able to copy it."

"So you want me to ask Constance or Deborah to visit you?"

"And save me from weeks of typing, yeah. I figured they might like a copy for their records anyway."

"Probably," Charlie agreed, before frowning again. "So your Watcher's just going to let you borrow this?"

"Um, I hope so." Now Charlie could almost see the frown that was taking over her face. "And I'm actually trying to be really optimistic today. I have to see Mr. Platt this afternoon."

"Mr. Platt?"

"Yeah, the school guidance counselor. I get to convince hum that I'm 'Miss Stable' so I can stay in school. Gotta meet him this afternoon."

"Well I hope it goes well," Charlie offered truthfully. "The one I saw at Princeton was great. Once I learned to be honest with him, he really did help a bit."

Annie suddenly snorted, "Uh, sure, Charlie, I'll try to open up and tell him about all of my demons. Then I'll try to call you occasionally from the asylum when the guys in white-coats drag me off."

Charlie shook his head, "Well, at least be as honest as you can, okay? When's your meeting?"

"Two o'clock, I think."

"Well, give me a call later tonight, okay? Let me know how it goes."

"Okay." After a moment, Annie sighed again. "Just got to school. Ooh, nice flowers."

"What?" Charlie blinked in confusion.

"Oh, nothing. Just a girl in the courtyard got some really nice flowers from her boyfriend." For some reason Charlie was sure she was frowning even before she continued. "You know, Angel never got me flowers."

Charlie grimaced at the depressing shift in the conversation, not quite sure what to say, so he was more then a little relieved when Annie continued on her own.

"I gotta go, OK?"

"Sure. Have a great day, Annie."

"You too, Charlie. Bye."

"Bye," Charlie was smiling as he hung up. Flowers aside, with a little luck he should be able to test his brain against the so-called Balance in just a few days time.

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High School, Sunnydale, California – Thursday, September 26, 1996

"Buffy, hey."

Buffy blinked as she looked up, shaking her head a little to clear her thoughts as she met Faith in the hallway outside of the library. "Hey Faith. How was your day?"

"Great. How was your meeting with the shrink?"

"Actually, I kinda liked it," the older Slayer shrugged at the younger's disbelieving look. "A lot of what he said made sense."

"Well that's good, I guess."

"Yeah." After a moment, Buffy shook her head. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"G called me. Wanted us both here, now."

Buffy winced, "Can't say I like the sound of that. Come on," she turned to lead the way into the library. "Let's see what he wants."

They'd only gone a few steps into the unusually quiet library before they spotted the Scoobies. The quiet was unusual, because it wasn't peaceful with the call of research—always under ridden by the taint of the Hellmouth—no, this quiet was heavy and dismayed. And all of that Buffy's erratic empathetic abilities had an easy time immediately pinpointing on her group of friends.

Giles was the only one in a chair, while Cordelia was sitting on top of the counter, and all of the other Scoobies were huddled on the nearby stairs, looking entirely depressed. Giles was worried and not angry, but really annoyed. Cordelia was frightened and worried. Xander was worried, sad and generally unhappy. Willow was really, really worried and Oz... Just a glance at him brought on a pounding headache from all the negative emotions rolling off him.

After setting her purse down on one of the library tables, Buffy crossed her arms, "I'm afraid to ask."

All of the Scoobies looked at each other—except for Oz, who didn't consciously acknowledge her comment, just sat there with guilt and self-hatred rolling off him as he stared at the ground—before Cordelia shrugged.

"Oz ate someone last night."

"He did not!" Willow immediately insisted, glaring at the brunette.

Xander quickly tried to back the redhead up, snapping at his girlfriend, "Oz does not eat people. It's more of werewolf play. You know, I bat you around a little bit, like a cat toy."

Buffy glanced at Giles, and bit her lip when the Watcher nodded. This was not good. The Watchers Council had been firmly against allowing Oz to stay on the Hellmouth—since it was likely to make his wolf much stronger then most. It had taken Giles weeks to get them to back down on that, and as incompetent as the Watchers they'd sent to help with Kakistos had seemed to her when fighting in a vampire nest: give them guns and no full moon and Oz wouldn't stand a chance. If they found out about this, she'd want to protect him, but she'd probably have to ask him to leave town. And he would. When it came down to it she knew Oz wouldn't hesitate a moment if his being here put any of them—especially Willow—at risk.

"I have harmless wolf fun," Xander added, apparently on a roll with the werewolf-defense. "Is it Oz's fault that, you know, side effect, people get cut to ribbons, and maybe he'll take a little nibble and—" he shook his head suddenly, wincing at the glare Giles had turned on him. "I'm not helping, am I?"

"No." The Watcher snapped.

"Whoa, whoa. Back up a minute." All eyes went to Faith as she shook her head and pointed to the nearby cage. "I thought Oz always went into lock-up during the full moon."

"I do," Oz confirmed quietly, and Buffy had to frown as the self-hate she could still feel coming from him didn't decrease at all.

"He—The wolf may have escaped last night," Giles explained.

"How?" Buffy asked, frowning at the perfectly intact cage that had kept the wolf contained through many full moons before this month's.

"Apparently the window was open," Giles told her.

Faith spoke up again, "But doesn't one of you—?" she pointed at the cage.

"I had to study," Willow murmured, sounding almost tearful. "So I left just before midnight."

"And I fell asleep a little while after she left," Xander sighed, his voice full of as much sorrow as Buffy had ever heard from him, before it became defensive as he added, "B-But he was asleep in the cage when I woke up at 4:30!"

"But then how do you know—?"

"Jeff Orkin, a student here, was found in the woods nearby," Giles explained, shaking his head. "And according to the news report, he was terribly mauled."

"I killed him," Oz almost chocked the words out, shaking his head.

Before Buffy could say anything Faith cut in again. "That a confession, O? You remember doin' it?"

"What—N-No!" Oz shook his head, "But—"

"But nothing. This is America, ain't it? Innocent till proven guilty, and all that," the brunette insisted with a shrug. "'Sides, even if the wolf did get out, ain't your fault. Most were's don't have any control over their actions. My old Watcher said they usually don't remember anything past the first burst of pain from when their body starts changing to when they wake up, human again."

"That is, to my knowledge," Giles nodded, "Entirely true."

Buffy nodded in agreement. "And it could still be something else, couldn't it?" she asked, almost directing all eyes to her Watcher.

"P-Perhaps. It is, of course, possible that something else entirely is behind this."

"Or another werewolf?" Oz suggested softly, and Buffy was happy to feel a little bit of hope coming from him.

"Yeah," Buffy agreed, nodding. "Whatever it is, we'll figure it out, okay?"

"Yes," her Watcher confirmed. Then sighed as he nodded to her. "Buffy, you should patrol the woods tonight. The others will check the morgue."

Willow nodded, "Right. We can see if it's a werewolf-kill or no not." She frowned as she glanced at her boyfriend. "B-But what about Oz?"

"Unfortunately I have some research materials I need to look at tonight, at home. Perhaps Faith…?"

"Sure, I—" Faith stopped abruptly as Oz cut her off, sounding almost horrified.

"You're making a Slayer watch me?" the guitarist shook his head as he jumped to his feet, his entire body screaming self-hate and anger again. "Good we're not over reacting!" He started towards the doors, but stopped as Willow grabbed his hand.

Buffy was pleased to feel his emotions lighten again.

"OK. You know that thing where you bail in the middle of an upsetting conversation? I have to—"

"You can't, Oz." Buffy interrupted as she sensed his negative emotions rising again from the Willow-induced calm, and shook her head when the werewolf looked at her, nodding towards the nearby clock.

"Moon rise is only twenty minutes from now," Willow agreed.

Everyone winced as Oz moved towards the cage, somehow slipping his hand out of Willow's tight grip as he went. Once inside he checked the lock on the closed window, then turned back to the entrance and closed the cage, barring Willow outside with everyone else. Buffy winced as the self-hatred she could still feel from him seemed to grow as he closed the door and looked out at his girlfriend.

"Oz?" Willow murmured softly.

After a moment the older teen replied, his voice hard, "Get away from the cage."

Willow winced and Buffy winced with her as the redhead's pain rolled around the room with her boyfriend's. "What?"

"It's gonna happen soon," Oz turned away from them, walking towards the far corner of the cage as he all but growled, "Get away from me."

After several moments of tense, painful silence Buffy shook her head. "Okay. Guess we should get going." She glanced at Faith, "Want me to get you anything from the house?"

"No, I'm—"

"You're gonna be here through dinner, Faith. At least till, what four in the morning?"

"Five," Willow replied. "Moon set is at quarter after five tomorrow morning."

"Damn. Good thing I don't really need any beauty-sleep," Faith smirked, then shrugged at the look Buffy shot her. "I guess something for dinner'd be nice. And maybe my CD player?"

"Sure," Buffy nodded. "I'll grab that, and then I'll head out on patrol. Do you want me to take over later tonight, or—"

"Nah, I got it, B." Faith smirked. "You're the one that has to look for the new ugly. And they have to look at the body. All I gotta do is sit here and do nothin' but watch Red's boy bounce around a cage."

Buffy laughed, "Fair enough. I'll see you in about an hour?" then she nodded to the Scoobies as a whole, "And you guys tomorrow?" After receiving a bunch of "sures" and "yeahs," the eldest Slayer went over to the entrance of the cage and locked it with the key her Watcher provided, before whispering—so faintly even Faith probably couldn't hear from halfway across the room—"Don't give up, Oz. Willow believes in you. We all do." Then she nodded to the others, grabbed her backpack and left the room, a part of her really hoping Charlie might have some kind of idea to help clear Oz's name.

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Eppes' House, Pasadena, California - Thursday, September 26, 1996

Charlie frowned as his cell phone rang, his frown lessening slightly as he glanced at the caller ID, and shook his head as he answered it, "Annie?" he asked let the phone rest in the crook of one shoulder while he continued rummaging through his bureau for something that'd be suitable to wear to his first self-defense class. "How did your meeting go?"

"What? Oh, that. Right. It was okay."

"I take it you're not calling to talk about your meeting with Mr. Platt."

"No. I mean, it was good. He was nice and—Can we talk about that later?" Annie sighed, "I need your help."

Charlie's frown deepened, and he paused in his search for pants that might be good for learning how to not be beaten up in. "Sure. What'd you need?" he asked, backing up to glance at his clock as he sat down in his desk chair. "And how important is it? I've gotta go to my class with Gunn in about forty minutes, but I can call and postpone if the world's at—"

"No, no. It's not an apocalypse. It's just—" Annie sighed again. "I told you about Oz's monthly problem, right?"

"Willow's boyfriend?" The mathematician blinked, then nodded as he remembered hearing about the other teen. "He's a werewolf, right?"

"Yeah. Three times a month, whenever the full moon's up. And this month that's last night, tonight and tomorrow night. He um, we keep him locked up in a cage in the library when he's, uh—"

"Dangerous?"

"Furry and unfriendly, yeah."

As his friend sighed again, Charlie winced as he realized the only thing that could be causing this phone call. "And something happened last night?"

"Y-Yeah." Annie confirmed, her voice a little shaky. "Um. A kid was killed. A sophomore, I think. Near the school, and it—"

"Looks like a werewolf killed him. Does someone watch—"

"Yeah. Usually Willow or Giles stays with Oz, but they were busy last night, so Xander took over. And apparently he fell asleep. A-And the window in the cage was open. But Oz woke up in the cage. And he was there, sleeping, when Xander woke up. Can—"

"You want me to figure out if Oz could have, uh, been responsible for the death?"

"Yeah. Can you?"

"What'd you know about the victim? If you can give me the exact time of death, the location, exactly when your friends were awake, I should be able to figure out something. Do you know how fast Oz is capable of moving in werewolf form?"

"N-Not exactly. It's usually easy for me to catch him."

"And your top speed is thirty-five miles an hour?" Charlie remembered, shaking his head in amusement at the memory of that calculation. "In high heels."

"Yeah, that's how fast you thought I'd have to be to have run across town for—"

"Yeah." Charlie nodded, shaking his head as he quickly wrote all the known variables down before turning to his laptop. "Is this in the local news?"

"Yeah. The Sunnydale Times*, I think. Th-They have a webpage. Willow said—" (4)

"I've got it," Charlie cut in, nodding as he rapidly read through the headlines, before opening the link to the relevant article. After a moment he shook his head. "There's not much here."

"Yeah, Willow and the others are gonna go to the morgue to check out the body tonight."

Charlie blinked, swallowing a small amount of nausea at the thought as he glanced at the reporters vague but still horrifying description of the victim's injuries. "You do that?"

"Sometimes," Annie confirmed.

"And the coroners just let you do that?"

"That would be why they're going late at night, Charlie. The coroner won't be there."

"What about a diener*? They might still be working." (5)

Annie snorted, and he was sure she was shaking her head. "Not in Sunnydale. Anyone stupid enough to work a late shift at the morgue here probably wouldn't survive more then a few weeks, maybe a month or two if they're really lucky and I'm working overtime." She paused, then asked. "What's a die—dine—what you said?"

"Diener," Charlie repeated shaking his head. "They work with the coroner. The coroner examines the body, the dierner takes care of it."

"Oh. OK. Well, they might pull late shifts outside of Sunnydale, but they're not gonna do it here. And I can't think of a reason they'd want to stay late, surrounded by dead bodies, anyway."

Charlie chuckled, shaking his head even though the idea didn't appeal to him either, but, "The work has to get done. Someone has to do it." He sighed as he hit 'print' to print out the article, before closing the window and glancing back at his equations. "I still don't have enough to work with here. Do you think it's worth hacking into the police department?"

"No. They're—"

"Incompetent idiots, yes, you've said that. You know, there could be some good people working there." He suggested mildly, even as half of his focus was on his notebook as he quickly ran through some expressions and equations to figure out what he could tell her with what he had, and what else he needed. "I mean, how many have you met?"

"Not many," Annie agreed easily enough, and again he knew she was shaking her head. "But they don't do anything in town, except occasionally get in my way. Or worse, try to arrest me or shoot me. 'Bout the only useful think I've seen one of 'em do was suggest—to the newspaper—that Sunnydale citizens be 'vigilant,' I think was the word he used, in the evening and at night. I felt bad when I had to stake him a week later."

Charlie stopped writing, frowning as he demanded, "You staked a police officer?"

"He was a vampire!"

"Why would a vampire tell—"

"No, no. He was—a vamp got him. Turned him into a vampire after he said that. Then I had to stake him."

"Oh." Charlie nodded, before shaking his head as he sighed and finished up the too short equations he'd been running through. "Okay."

"OK?"

The mathematician nodded again, "I just need to know the exact time of death. And the times your friends know Oz was in the cage." He finished, nodding to himself as he quickly calculated the distance between where the boy was killed and the high school—where werewolf-Oz was locked up.

"When Xander fell asleep and when he woke up, you mean?"

"Basically. Though you might not want to phrase it th—"

"Xander was an idiot last night." Annie cut in shortly, a small bit of anger leaking into her tone. "I'm surprised Willow and Oz are even talking to him right now. They were counting on him, and he let them down."

Charlie sighed, "Everyone makes mistakes, Annie."

"But everyone has to pay for them, too, right?"

"You don't think he feels bad enough about this on his own?"

Annie was quiet for a long moment before she sighed. "I haven't said anything to him. Just like I didn't say anything when he made a comment about Angel a few days ago."

"What did he say?"

"Nothing. Just basically Angel and Angelus were the same thing and 'good riddance' to both of 'em. Giles and Willow had been talking about Jenny Calendar and Angelus—"

"Killed her."

"Yeah. I don't think he knew I was in the library, 'cause I'd just walked in, but it still hurt."

"I'm sure it did." After several seconds of silence Charlie continued again. "Um, I talked to the Constance a few hours ago. She said she and a few more members of her coven will be able to visit you the day after tomorrow. Is there some place you want them to meet you?"

"U-Um, yeah. Yeah. C-Can you tell them to come to, uh," the Slayer paused a second, and Charlie frowned at what clearly felt—over the bond—like hesitation and uncertainty, like she wanted them to go to a specific place, but wasn't sure she should. "Tell them to meet me around three at number 6 Crawford Street."

Charlie nodded, frowning as he tried to figure out the significance of the location to his friend but his mind—brilliant with numbers and occasionally names he knew—was coming up blank. Probably because he really knew very little about Annie's life on the Mouth of Hell. "Sure. I'll be working on the equations now, right after I call Gunn. Let know the times as soon as possible, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll talk to you later, Charlie. Take care."

"You too. Bye." He sighed as he hung up the phone before quickly dialing the number for Angel's House.

*RING* *RING*

Charlie started tapping his pencil impatiently as he waited for someone to pick up.

*RING* *RING*

Finally, there was a click and a familiar voice greeted him, "Angel's House, this is—"

"Lily, hi," Charlie cut in. "It's Charlie. Is Gunn there yet?"

"Yeah, he and Alonna have been here all afternoon, actually. Are you gonna be late?"

"No," Charlie sighed, a little surprised at how bad he felt for canceling his first self-defense lesson. "Actually I can't come. Annie called—"

"Is she OK?"

"She's fine," Charlie reassured his slightly younger friend quickly, before sighing again. "But she needs my help with something."

"Can we—"

"Something mathematical."

"Oh. OK," Lily sighed, and Charlie was pretty sure she was biting her lip as she paused in thought, trying to think of anything she might be able to do to help. After a few seconds, she sighed again. "OK. I'll tell them. Do you want to canc—"

"I should be fine with tomorrow afternoon."

"OK. And you'll let us know if we can help at all, right?"

"Of course," Charlie smiled slightly, then blinked as another thought struck. "Actually, are any of the coven members there?"

"Not me, you mean. The useful ones that actually know some magic?" Lily teased and Charlie winced slightly at his faux pas.

"Yeah, sorry. How are your lessons going?"

"Great. It's really nice, actually. It's...peaceful, I guess." Lily sighed again, sounding a little sad as she added, "It's easy to see why Annie liked it so much, those last few weeks she was here and could spend some time with the coven leaders. With all she has to deal with—"

"Yeah," Charlie nodded in agreement, also sighing. "Any bit of peace she can get is a good thing." Then he shook his head. "So are Deborah or Constance there, or—um, anyone I don't know the name of?"

Lily laughed, "Yeah, Deborah's here. One second," there was a faint, rustling sound as she probably put her hand over the phone, but he could still hear her yell, 'Deborah? Charlie needs to talk to you,' before she took her hand away to talk to him again. "Here she is, I'll tell Gunn and we'll see you tomorrow, OK?"

"Great, thanks Lily."

A moment later, the older witch's pleasant, confident voice came across the phone line. "What can I do for you, Charlie?"

"Hi Deborah," Charlie greeted her, before continuing. "Can you tell me anything about werewolves?"

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High School Library, Sunnydale, California – Thursday, September 26, 1996

"B, your back!" Faith greeted her with a wide smile. "What's for dinner?"

"Mom was planning on hot roast beef sandwiches, all the stuff's in here." Buffy set a plastic bag on the library table, "And the directions are in there. Giles has a microwave in his office that he never uses, but it works." She glanced at the cage, where she could sense and hear, but not see their werewolf friend. "How's Oz?"

"He's been pretty calm the last few minutes, compared to the first half hour, at least." Faith winced as she shrugged a little. "The transformation sounds like it hurts a lot, though. I swear I heard his bones crunching and grinding together."

"Yeah, it is pretty bad," Buffy agreed, wincing as she remembered some of the times she'd watched over their wolfy-friend.

"Yeah, no surprise they're so loony every night then, huh?"

Buffy laughed, "There's a little more to it then that, but I guess so." After a moment the elder Slayer shook her head again, sighing. "I feel horrible for Oz," she murmured softly. "I mean, it's bad enough for us, when we fail. When we can't save someone. But could you imagine what it'd feel like if you'd actually killed an innocent? Let alone someone you knew?"

"Yeah," Faith sighed, shaking her head in agreement. "He's really got a raw deal with the full-moon. Doesn't even have any perks, bein' a wolf-man, does he?"

Buffy shrugged again, "I think he has stronger senses and is physically stronger than he would be if he wasn't, well, if he was human. But not like us."

"Nope. Cause we're only two of a kind. The chosen two," Faith grinned, before grimacing as a thought occurred to her. "At least unless I somehow survive dying—do you think the council would think of that?"

Buffy grimaced, "Of what?"

"Stopping my heart to call another girl and then bringin' me back?"

"Uh, I don't think they could even if they would," the older Slayer shook her head, grimacing at the morbid thoughts. "I really don't know much about them really. Merrick taught me the basics of Slaying and Giles is research-man. Before the slightly-competent soldier-Watchers showed up last week, I always thought they were just supposed to, you know, back Giles up."

"Nah, they have lots more power then that, B." Faith shook her head, clearly surprised by the older girl's ignorance. "I'm serious. My watcher said the council has people and resources everywhere. They're just based in England. There are watchers all around the world training potentials and, uh, watchin' the uglies. And they have a lot more of the ones that are trained to fight, like the guys that helped us with Kakistos."

The older Slayer shook her head. "Kinda makes you wonder why they don't lend a hand more often, doesn't it?"

"W-Well, I think they kinda do. Just not here." Faith shook her head and shrugged. "You know, they figure that with a Slayer on guard—now two Slayers—the Hellmouth's under control."

Buffy shook her head again, "Maybe. But everyone else gets back-up. Why shouldn't we?" At Faith's confused look, she elaborated. "I mean, in the military, or law enforcement, anything that's dangerous—like what we do—they have back-up, right? You'd think the Council would be willing to back us up, help us live a little longer. I mean, you said the Slayer before me—India, right?—she lasted three years. I technically only lasted one, and Kendra lasted one." (3)

Both were quiet for several long moments before Faith shook her head again. "It's the nature of the beast, ain't it, B? That's the way it's been for—" she shrugged. "Centuries, at least. And before that, the Slayer really was totally alone. Didn't even have the Watchers. Just visions and super powers."

"I guess," the blonde shook her head again, sighing. "But that doesn't make it right."

Both glanced towards Oz's cage when he suddenly started another attempt at breaking out by ramming into the locked entrance before giving a ferocious growl and stalking back into the darker corner of the cage.

Buffy sighed, "He'll probably be a lot more active later tonight. The moon's not that high yet, but it's at it's fullest tonight."

"Yeah," Faith nodded in understanding. "Red mentioned that," then she shrugged. "He still hasn't even looked at the window, though. Just keeps trying to get through the front and growling at me. He started scratching and biting himself a while ago, too, so I got a cup of water and splashed him with it. He didn't like that, but he stopped scratching for a little while, got another two in case he starts again," she pointed to two full cups of water on the counter nearest the cage.

"Huh," Buffy laughed, shaking her head. "Never thought of that. Good idea. 'Course, I'm not sure Willow or Giles'd be able to do it. You can probably only hit him with it—"

"Cause I'm a Slayer, yeah. Could get 'em a water gun, though. Or a spray bottle, I guess."

"Yeah, I guess," Buffy smiled slightly, nodding again before she asked. "So did Willow and the others say when they were gonna hit the morgue tonight?"

"Uh, yeah. Willow said the place's always closed up before sundown—probably because most of 'em have figured out that anyone who takes a night shift there ends up dead pretty quick—but they were gonna go around nine. Sneak in when it's dark."

"And they have crosses, holy water—"

"Yup. They're all geared up." The brunette shook her head. "Relax, B. They'll be fine. Even if a vamp does rise there tonight, they're ready for it. And I just don't see 'em getting caught there either."

"No. I know," Buffy shrugged, shaking her head again, "I just worry some times." She glanced at the window, where she could see the last hues of sunset fading into twilight in the evening sky. "I'm gonna head out. Start patrolling soon. Do you want me to check ba—"

"I told ya, B. I can handle Mr. Fur. You're supposed to look for the ugly that's making him look back. Don't worry about us," Faith insisted as she sat down and reached for the CD player and the pack of CD's the blonde had brought her. "We'll be fine. And I'll see you tomorrow afternoon when we check in with G-man, k?"

"OK," Buffy smiled softly, nodding to the food on the table as she turned to leave. "If you're not gonna eat that soon, you might want to put in the fridge."

"G has a fridge?"

"Yeah. It's attached to the microwave. Looks weird, but it works." Buffy waved as she pushed open the door. "Good night, Faith."

"Happy dusting!" the younger Slayer called back.

As the doors swung shut behind her, she heard Faith call, "Hey, what's the math book for?" and smirked slightly, a part of her absolutely certain that by adding that to the bag, Faith's innate curiosity would eventually lead her to at least looking at some of it. She'd never admit it, but she might learn something, and hopefully her Council-appointed teacher would arrive soon, otherwise they might have to look into getting Faith into Sunnydale High.

With a sigh, Buffy pushed open the door to exit the school and then took off, headed for the morgue her friends would be hitting later tonight. Odds were, as the sun had just set, that everyone that worked there was already gone. So she could check to make sure her friends wouldn't have to worry about vampires, and sneak a peak into the coroner's file for the information Charlie wanted.

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Eppes House, Sunnydale, California – Friday, September 27, 1996

"Charlie." A warm, familiar voice was calling him. "Charlie, wake up, sweet heart."

Charlie came to with a start, nearly slamming his head back into his mother's as he'd apparently fallen asleep at his desk and she'd needed to lean over him to wake him up. "Huh—What—"

"You were dreaming," his mother told him, smiling softly as she shook her head. "But you should be in bed anyway, it's almost two A.M.. What are you working on?"

The mathematician blinked at his mother for a moment, not really used to lying to her, and never having needed to lie to her about his math before, but then he sighed and shook his head. "J-Just a statistical analysis. I told Annie I'd do it for her."

"Well, you really should get to bed, I'm sure Annie won't—"

"No. I'm almost done. I'll just finish this," he pointed at his notebook and winced as the his shoulder protested the motion, apparently having frozen into one solid, semi-sleeping mass when he was sleeping on his desk. "Owe. I just have a little more work to do. Annie really needs it tomor—today, actually."

Mrs. Eppes shook her head as she stepped directly behind him and started massaging his shoulders with expert hands, strong from years of playing the piano on afternoons when they had the house to themselves, and experienced from having done this numerous times before.

After a little more then a minute she stopped and he sighed as he carefully rolled his shoulder and felt no pain from the motion.

His mother also sighed, "You know you won't be able to do this when you're teaching full-time, don't you, dear? It won't be fair to your students if you need to cancel classes just because you were up too late the night before. They can't cancel because of hangovers, after all."

"I know," the genius winced again, unable to suppress the reaction in response to his mother's disapproval. Glancing at the clock he frowned, "D-Did I wake you u—"

"No, no, dear. I was just getting a glass of water when I heard you," his mother murmured, smiling gently before raising a disproving eyebrow at him. "You will go to bed soon, right? You can't stay up all night. It's not healthy."

"Yes, Mom," Charlie nodded quickly, gesturing to his notebook. "I just have to finish this. It won't take long."

His mother nodded, also glancing down at his notebook, and then she blinked, frowning slightly. "Annie wanted you to do something on the moon?"

Charlie suppressed a wince and gave a small nod instead, even as he quickly picked up his notebook and angled it away from her, in a way that he hoped didn't look suspicious, not entirely sure of what else was on that page. "Uh, yeah."

"I thought she was taking physics this year?"

"Um, there's some astronomy in physics classes. Dr. Fleinhardt loved to use astronomy—"

"In college, I know. But—" Mrs. Eppes shook her head, smiling slightly as she stepped back from the desk. "I'm sorry. Here I tell you to hurry up and get to bed, and I'm delaying your work with questions I probably wouldn't ask if I was completely awake, aren't I?" Not waiting for a reply, she leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. "Good night, sweet heart."

"Good night, Mom," Charlie returned, smiling softly as he watched her leave his room, closing his door gently behind her before he turned back to his notes.

He really had been very close to finishing when he'd fallen asleep, which he didn't think was long ago. He wasn't even sure why he had fallen asleep, he hadn't been all that tired. Now or then.

Of course, that made his nightmare all the more strange. His professor in psychology had claimed that the mind dreams during REM sleep, which is only several hours into a sleeping cycle. Not a few minutes of dozing.

He only vaguely remembered it. Annie had been patrolling in a woodsy area, and she'd been attacked by a feral, growling man whom she'd then started fighting. Then his Mom woke him up.

He supposed it was possible that his mind had made up the feral man as a representation of a vampire, but he'd had nightmares about Annie patrolling, fighting demons and vampires—that looked like real vampires—before, so that didn't make much sense.

Nor had the feelings of shock and horror he could still remember running through his mind. After all, Annie was winning the fight when he woke up, and the feral-man looked much nicer then most of the opponents he'd seen Annie face in person. Wipe the snarl off his face and ignore the blood dripping down his chin and most girls would probably call him a hunk, or something similar.

Charlie sighed and shook his head as he finally finished his calculations, glancing at the clock before quickly reading through the work once more.

He really did want to call Annie, he knew she would probably still be awake—sometimes she patrolled till four or four-thirty in the morning, after all. Still, it really didn't feel right to call her so late, even with the answer he knew she really wanted. So he quickly sent a text message to her phone instead, knowing that she'd look at her phone when she got up later in the morning.

'Annie. Sent answers. Check email. Charlie.'

Setting his phone down, he opened his email, quickly addressing the new message to her account and the subject line: 'Innocent.' Then he stopped, blinking at the realization that this would probably be the first Annie's Sunnydale friends—and her Watcher—heard about him.

He bit his lip in thought for a second, then nodded to himself and closed the window, instead opening his newly granted Cal-Sci email account. If he wanted Annie's Watcher to take him seriously, it was probably a good idea to not allow any doubt at his credentials from the start. Which also meant he couldn't really just give Annie the answer: no, werewolf-Oz could not have killed Jeff Orkin. Though Annie—and probably her Watcher—wouldn't understand all of the math, he might as well send it.

Besides, he'd just finished his fifth cup of coffee shortly before he'd dozed off, so it wasn't like he was going to be able to sleep any time soon.

So he sighed as he opened up a word document and, after glancing at his notes, quickly started typing up all of the work he'd done for this problem. From his point of view, it really wasn't that much. Though he was sure it was a lot more math then Annie would have any desire to attempt unraveling. But then, Annie knew and trusted him.

About forty minutes later, he finished writing up the math with as many explanations of it as he could think of, knowing that Annie would at least try to understand it and that his 'math metaphors,' as his mom had dubbed them, really helped on that front. Then he opened the window to his Cal-Sci email again, typed Annie's email address into the 'send to' window, 'Innocent' in the subject line, and wrote out a quick message to his friend before adding the signature he'd designed for his Cal-Sci emails—that listed his name, credentials and school contact info for his students—before attaching the actual work he'd done. Then he hit the send button, and it was only a matter of moments before his computer was shutting itself down while he rose wearily from his chair and started changing into his PJs to go to bed.

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High School Library, Sunnydale, California – Friday, September 27, 1996

Buffy shook her head as she stepped into the library just in time to see Faith tossing a piece of roast beef through the bars of the cage to their still wolf-shaped friend, who growled but caught the meat and gobbled it up. "You know, we usually don't feed him," she commented, then frowned as the younger Slayer remained facing the cage, moving her head a little this way and that. "Faith?" she called a little louder as she came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. Her senses blared a warning, but she wasn't quick enough to move her face out of the way of the fist that came at her jaw with an instantaneous speed only a surprised Slayer could reach.

"Oh! Buffy!" the younger Slayer looked—and she could tell honestly felt—horrified as she pulled her headphones off, the sound of heavy metal music blaring out of them. "God, I'm sorry. I guess I didn't hear you," she held up the CD player she'd been holding in the hand she didn't punch her with.

"Figured as much," Buffy nodded with a wince as she kept pressure on her jaw, eagerly waiting for Slayer healing to kick in and dull the pain of the unexpected blow. "Owe again."

"Are you OK?" the younger Slayer asked, biting her lip in another display of worry and mortification. "I'm really sorry, B, I—"

"It's OK, Faith," Buffy shook her head and started to force a smile before thinking better of it as her jaw protested. "I, uh, may be bleeding internally for a little while, but I'll live. Bonus of being a Slayer, remember?"

"Yeah," the brunette agreed, wincing as her eyes remained focused on where she'd nailed the older Slayer. "Um, what are you doing here? I thought I was here till sun-up, then we were meeting back in the afternoon, right?"

"Right," Buffy nodded, sighing slightly as the pain in her jaw started to ebb. "I couldn't sleep. Had a weird dream, so I wanted to look some things up."

"Was it a vision?" Faith asked with a frown as she turned her CD player off and set it down on the nearby counter.

"I don't think so," Buffy shook her head, pausing for a moment before sighing again as she looked down. "It was about Angel. I-I dreamt that he came back." She bit her lip at the pang of surprise and sympathy she felt from her sister-Slayer, before closing her eyes as the taller girl's arms wrapped around her.

"I think that's normal, B." the brunette murmured after a moment of silence, then took a step back, keeping one arm wrapped around her shoulders and drawing her over to the nearby library table. "I mean, I still have dreams about Dianne some times. It's natural to miss the ones we love, to want them back, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Buffy nodded, before shaking her head again. "But I was having dreams like that for weeks a-after I—when I was in LA," she shook her head again. "They weren't like this. This one was different."

"What'd you mean?"

"It was vivid." Buffy murmured, shaking her head as she closed her eyes and the images immediately jumped back to the front of her mind. "Really vivid. Three dimensional, sensurround, the hills are alive. You know, just—"

"It felt real." Faith suggested, then nodded when the older Slayer looked at her. "We've all had dreams like that, B. Dreams that feel so real that's it's a shock to wake up and find out they weren't. It happens."

"I know. I guess it just," she shrugged slightly, sighing again. "It made me wonder." She bit her lip again as she glanced up at the younger Slayer. "Do you think there's a chance, even? That is could happen?"

Faith shook her head, also sighing. "I really ain't the person ta ask, B. You should ask G-man," she winced as she glanced at the clock. "Though you might want to wait till he's had a full nights sleep."

"Yeah, you're right," Buffy nodded, sighing again.

After a moment of silence, Faith pulled her away from the table and back towards Oz's cage. "But hey, no reason we can't look a few things up, right? Do you remember how to use this thing?" she asked, pointing towards the library's card catalog.

This time Buffy didn't let the small amount of pain smiling caused deter her from doing so. "Thanks, Faith," she nodded to the other Slayer, before pulling out the first drawer of cards and leafing through it for any book that might be useful.

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Eppes' House, Pasadena, California – Friday, September 27, 1996

Charlie groaned as a familiar voice roused him from sleep for the second time in far too few hours.

"Rise and shine, sleepy head."

The math-genius squinted at his nearby alarm clock, then groaned as he buried his head under his pillow. "Mooom! I's no' even seven, yet!" he grumbled through his pillow.

"Yes, well, your father and I are up. We were hoping you'd join us for pancakes."

"Don''ike'ancakes," Charlie grumbled grumpily through his pillow again.

"What was that, dear?"

"I don't want pancakes," Charlie revised his earlier statement, picking his pillow up just enough to say it clearly before firmly smothering himself again, hoping his mother would take the hint and leave him alone.

After a moment he heard her chuckle, "Well, all right, sweet heart. I've got to head to work pretty early today, and your Dad's leaving soon. I'll fix up a sandwich for you, for lunch, all right?" She waited a moment for a reply, then apparently accepted that she wasn't getting one and closed his bedroom door.

Charlie sighed happily as he heard her footsteps departing and headed downstairs, emerging from beneath his pillow and resting his head on top of it instead as he happily let exhaustion drag him back into the presently peaceful labyrinth of his subconscious.

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High School Library, Sunnydale, California – Friday, September 27, 1996

Buffy groaned softly as her ever-aware internal alarm sensed motion and forced her out of the light sleep she'd fallen into. She winced as she raised her head slightly from where it'd been resting on her arms, right on top of the one of Giles' old texts, which she'd apparently been reading when she fell asleep. Seeing her Watcher moving away from Oz's cage, she nodded slightly and only just managed to keep herself from dislodging her sister-Slayer's head from its resting place on her shoulder, "Hey," she murmured quietly, not wanting to wake Faith but knowing the brunette wouldn't be able to sleep through the early morning mayhem that was the high school's hallways' before the first bell anyway.

"Hello," Giles returned just as quietly, a soft smile on his face as he took a sip of his coffee while glancing down at the texts she and Faith had dragged out. "Exploring Demon Dimension and Mystery of Acathla?" he raised an eyebrow at the two closed covers closest to him.

Buffy blinked, biting her lip slightly to keep from wincing as she gently shifted Faith slowly away from her, so that her head was resting against the nearby wall while Buffy herself slipped out of her chair, and rolled her neck away with a grimace. "Yeah, uh." She shook her head and sighed softly. "I was just curious, I guess. Faith was helping me look." She glanced over towards Oz's cage as she heard movement from within, but quickly diverted her eyes as the older teen rose and began to dress behind the towel Willow had put up for modesty.

"Might this curiosity have something to do with Angel?"

"She had a dream about him," Faith told the Watcher as she pushed herself up with a yawn, wincing as she also stretched out tense, sleepy muscles.

Buffy winced and looked down, not sure what she was expecting her Watcher to say to that, but totally sure she wasn't comfortable talking to him about it. She hadn't even told Charlie—who was sympathetic to Angel's plight—about the dream. She hadn't had the chance. Though she was kind of surprised when he didn't call right after her nightmare. Maybe the distance was affecting their bond much more then they thought. Still, she was still pretty sure she could sense him on the edge of her mind: barely there, but there. And she wasn't sure why she'd told Faith.

"Of course," Giles murmured kindly, his voice still soft in the early morning hours despite the lack of sleepers in the library. "After Jenny was killed—" he didn't seem to notice Buffy's flinch at his quiet sorrow, though Faith frowned at her, "—I had dreams that she was still alive, that I saved her."

After a heavy moment of silence Buffy shook her head again, sighing as she tried to remember everything she and Faith had read about the night before. "Is there a chance even? Could it happen?"

"Well, there's no record of anyone returning from a demon dimension once the gate was closed. I-I can't imagine how it could happen, or why," the Watcher shook his head as he took another sip of coffee, "What's more, even if the Powers were moved to intervene on his behalf I can't see why they would wait so long to do so. Time moves differently in different dimensions—"

"I remember," Buffy nodded to herself, then shrugged and jerked her head towards the texts when the Watcher and the other Slayer looked at her, leaving them to draw their own conclusions from the fibbing motion. "Time wouldn't really matter as much for Angel, would it?"

"Yeah," Faith agreed quickly, raising an eyebrow as Oz came out to join them. "Cause he's a vamp. Not mortal. Won't age or die from old age. Right?"

"Y-Yes, but f-from what is known of Acathla's Hell Dimension," Giles shook his head, his eyes distant as he set his half-empty coffee cup down and took off his glasses to start polishing them. "It is believed to be a world of brutal torment. I-It would take someone of extraordinary will and character to survive that and retain any semblance of self. Most likely, he'd be a monster. Even with his human soul."

"A lost cause?" Buffy asked quietly, even as a part of her wondered why this didn't bother her more. She should probably be in tears as this revelation. That she sent the supposed love of her life to this fate. But then again the Slayer itself never had liked Angel. It had learned to tolerate him, because he had a soul and Buffy loved him. But it hadn't liked him.

"P-Perhaps," the Englishman nodded, a sad expression momentarily stealing his face. "Perhaps not. In my experience there are two types of monster. One type can be redeemed, or more importantly, wants to be redeemed."

The ones they let go. That deserved a second chance. Sometimes even a third or a fourth.

Buffy nodded, already knowing something along the lines of what her Watcher would say, but wanting to hear him say it anyway. "And the second type?"

"Is void of humanity," Giles murmured, a serious expression on his face as he put his glasses on again. "Incapable of responding to reason. Or love."

"So type one is Angel and type two is Angelus," Faith summarized with a frown, shrugging when everyone looked at her. "Basically."

Everyone then looked at Oz as he shifted uncomfortably. "That's a debate to wake up to," he shook his head, smiling ruefully. "Is there a verdict on which one I fit into?"

"Don't be silly, Oz," Buffy scolded, carefully pulling most of her strength as she punched his shoulder. "You're not a monster."

"Yeah, even if the wolf did eat the stupid kid that was running around in the woods in the middle of the night, it ain't your fault," Faith pointed out, earning reproachful looks of varying degrees from all three. "What?" she shrugged, "B said most of the kids 'round here know better then to be out after dark. So the ones that don't are just stupid."

"I did not say that," Buffy shook her head, rolling her eyes. "Besides, he could have been chased out, or lured out—"

"Any number of events or circumstances could have led to his unfortunate demise," Giles agreed with a firm nod. "None of which give us any reason to speak ill of the dead."

"And I thought I was up early," Willow greeted them brightly as she entered the library, the double doors swinging shut on squeaky hinges behind her.

"Ooh breakfast!" Faith darted around Buffy and halfway across the room, where she eagerly relieved the redhead of her burden, grabbing the box of doughnuts to open it and snatch one before passing the box to Buffy a few steps closer to the table.

"It's fun to watch them make them," the young witch told them, smiling at her boyfriend as she stopped by his side, gesturing to the box. "They use this spritzy thing, and they drop the batter into this—"

"Couldn't sleep, huh?" Buffy cut in with a small smile, shaking her head at her friend's nervous energy even as she suppressed a frown at the darker emotions the redhead was carefully concealing.

"I've been at Mr. Donut since the TV did that snowy thing*," Willow confirmed with a wince, before trying to redirect the conversation with a frown at the oldest Slayer. "How come you're the wakey girl? I mean, it's not like—" she stopped abruptly, glancing at Oz then looking back and forth between both Slayers, clearly worried. "Did—" (6)

"Nothing happened," Buffy shook her head, nodding to the younger Slayer. "Right, Faith?"

"Nope. Nada. No action whatsoever. Though your boy likes roast beef and doesn't like water in wolf-form," the brunette replied, earning odd looks from everyone except Buffy, who rolled her eyes.

"Don't ask," Buffy shook her head before anyone could open their mouths to do so, then nodded to Willow again, meeting her eyes seriously. "Anything happen with the body?" when the redhead looked away nervously, the Slayer frowned, "I swung by there early last night, to make a copy of the file and make sure they weren't any vamps around, did—"

"Oh no, no vamps," Willow confirmed quickly, before frowning as she asked, "what file?"

"Uh, the coroner's report?" Buffy raised an eyebrow, "Didn't you...?"

Willow looked down, a sheepish expression crossing her face. "I, uh, I didn't really think of it." Eyes darting to Giles, she added, "I-I got samples from the body, but, I couldn't," she took a deep breath and shook her head. "M-my i-inspection was inconclusive."

"How can it be inconclusive?" Oz frowned deeply, shaking his head at his girlfriend's statement. "Did it look like—"

"Like he was ripped apart by a big, wild animal?" Cordelia asked as she and Xander entered the library, ignoring Willow's shaking head. "Yeah, it kind of did. What?" she rolled her eyes when she noticed the shushing motions her boyfriend was making at her. "You were there, too, Xander. It's true."

"S-So I did kill him," Oz murmured, staring dejectedly at the ground, black emotions swirling out of and around him, making Buffy wince.

"No, you didn't." Buffy cut in firmly before anyone else could say anything, suppressing a wince as everyone looked at her and as she realized she probably should have started off with that statement. She sighed as she reached across the library table, over the demon texts and grunted as her backpack was just out of her reach. "Faith, could you—thanks," she nodded as the brunette picked the bag up with one hand and tossed it to her.

"Buffy, what are you—"

"When I stopped at the morgue for the coroner's report last night, that wasn't really for you, Giles," she cut her Watcher off, and shrugged when he frowned at her. "I mean, you can have it if you want, but I got it for someone else. That and the idiot's report. I grabbed 'em for a friend of mine in LA. He said he needed 'em to determine if Oz could have killed Orkin."

"Who—"

This time Oz cut Giles off, "And he said I couldn't?" the older teen asked, an almost painful note of hope in his voice as he stared at her.

"Yup." Buffy nodded, grinning triumphantly as she finally managed to pull the printed pages of Charlie's email and work out of her bag. "Here," she handed them to Giles quickly, before she could change her mind, knowing it was past too late to try and find another way to introduce Charlie. And anyway, maybe his work was the best way to introduce him. Especially since it was clearing Oz.

"What does it say?" Willow asked as Giles read through the email and then started scanning the pages of math—and long explanations that Buffy had only barely understood—that followed.

"Yeah, G-man, what's the verdict?" Xander demanded, clearly just as eager to have Oz cleared, though his eagerness was probably based at least somewhat in guilt from falling asleep on duty.

"Lemme see," Willow insisted, reaching for the papers, then frowning, her brow furrowing when Giles deftly dodged her grab and took several steps away from her, still reading. "Giles!"

Buffy decided to take pity on them while her Watcher read. "Basically, it says that wolf-Oz couldn't have killed Orkin, 'cause Orkin was too far away from here for wolf-Oz to have gotten to him even if he did get out. Based on when Orkin actually died, I think. Though I'm still not sure why your wolf would climb back into the cage if it had escaped anyway." She smiled slightly as a look of complete relief overtook the werewolf, the stress and worry of the past twenty-four hours seeming to drain away with her words.

"OK." Oz nodded, breathing a deep sigh of relief before nodding to her. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Buffy nodded, a soft smile still owning her face.

"Buffy," everyone turned to look at Giles, who had a puzzled expression fixed on his face as he stared at her. "How exactly do you know—"

He was cut off by the ringing of the first school bell and Buffy quickly closed her bag and hurried for the door. "There's the bell, gotta get to class. See you all this afternoon, ok? Bye!"

Coward. She couldn't help but think to herself as she dashed out of the library and continued moving quickly through the hallway, not really noticing the way all of her fellow students cleared a path for her, something about her: perhaps their subconscious awareness of the Slayer, telling them to stay out of her way.

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Angel's House, Los Angeles, California – Friday, September 27, 1996

"Charlie, hey!" a cheery and vaguely familiar feminine voice greeted him as he entered the house that was fast becoming a well-known haven for most of LA.

The mathematician smiled slightly as he recognized the younger teen waving him towards the staircase nearest to the House's entrance. "Hi Alonna."

"Ya ready for this?" the teen asked, grinning as he nervously shook his head in response.

"I hope so." Charlie shrugged. "Athletics have never really been my thing. I mean, I hike and ride my bike, I used to play basketball every now and again with my brother. And I'm good at air hockey. But the one afternoon he and my dad spent trying to teach me baseball was awful."

Alonna laughed, shaking her head as she led the way up the stairs. "Well, that should make the rest of us normal folk feel a little better, shouldn' it? Proves your human."

"I guess," the genius replied with a grimace. After a moment's hesitation he asked his soon-to-be-teacher's sister, "So you do know what, um, what—"

"What Gunn's gonna be teaching you today?" Alonna suggested, smiling over her shoulder at him as she led him up the second flight of stairs, shaking her head before turning her attention forward again. "Not a clue. Usually he makes sure all of us know how to fall, get out of a stronger attacker's hold, how to dodge, stuff like that." Then she shrugged, "But most of the gang grew up learnin' stuff like that, so I don't know where he'd start with a real beginner."

"Same place I start with everyone, 'Lonna," Gunn nodded to them as they finally reached the House's make-shift gym, where several more mats had been laid out in the center of the room. "Sure, it might be harder for Charlie, but he'll get the hang of everythin' soon enough." Then he nodded to two larger young men that were still laying out mats in the room. "Rye an' Devon are gonna be helpin' us out this time."

"Oh, o-ok," Charlie nodded, smiling nervously at the much larger men. Rye was probably six feet tall and Devon was five inches taller than him. Both also probably weighted between seventy to a hundred pounds more then the mathematician, and it looked like most of it was muscle. Charlie nodded to both of the twenty-some-odd men, raising his hand in small wave. "Hi guys."

"Hey, doc," Devon nodded in return, crossing the room in several quick, long steps to seize his hand in a firm grip, a wide grin on his face as he shook his hand. "Nice ta meet ya." The smaller assistant just nodded, a serious look on his face as he laid out the final mat, then turned to the other side of the room, walking over towards the open door of a nearby closet, where several large crates that were stacked up against the walls inside.

"Nice to meet you, Devon, and Rye, too," Charlie wetted his lips as he nodded again to the older men. "Um, so all three of you are—"

"Oh no," Devon cut him off, shaking his head, that same wide grin still set on his face as he grabbed Charlie's arm in a surprisingly gentle grip and steered him across the room to where Gunn and Alonna were waiting, amused looks on both their faces. "Nah, Gunn's gonna be doin' al the teachin' stuff. We'll jus' be helpin' where he tells us to."

"Yeah," Gunn confirmed, also smiling as the pair reached them. At the confused—still nervous and a little lost—look on Charlie's face, he explained, "See some a the time you'll be able ta learn jus' from watchin' me do somethin'. Sometimes I'll need Rye or Devon ta actually show you the move with me, or jus' against each other. Plus, for practicin' it'll be easier for me ta see how you're doin' if I watch ya try somethin' with Rye or Devon. An' if ya try somethin' against Devon, you'll have a better idea of if it might actually work against a vamp."

"Oh," Charlie nodded after a moment of thought—and a glance at the grinning man that probably weighted a hundred muscular pounds more than him—"Th-That makes sense." Glancing at the mats, which now took up two-thirds of the room, he frowned. "Do we really need that much—"

"Room?" Gunn nodded, exchanging a conspiratorially grin with Devon and his sister, "Oh yeah. Here, you can leave your bag with 'Lonna," He replied as he rose from the thickly-cushioned chair he'd been occupying, rolling his eyes as his sister quickly stole it. "Cause the first thing we're gonna do today is make sure ya really, really, know how to fall. Come on over and we'll get started." He ordered as he moved over to the center of the mats, Devon a few steps behind him.

After slowly, almost hesitantly, handing his backpack over to his instructor's smirking sibling, Charlie then just as slowly turned to followed his new teacher to what he was pretty sure was going to be a very painful first lesson.

End of Within & Without – Part I.

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AN: Well, there's Chapter 4! I hope everyone liked it. ^_^

Here are some notes from within the chapter itself, (and I'll say a little more after that):

(1) I know NOTHING about professional wrestling, past or present. 'Chyna' was the only female wrestler I could find through Google and Wikipedia that seemed to be around—and well know—in the late 1990s. If anyone has a suggestion of a better wrestler for Gunn to mention, please feel free to speak up! (URL: .org/wiki/Chyna)

(2) All I know about Krav Maga is what I've managed to research in the last three weeks, but as far as I can tell this is true. It says it right on the official website of Krav Maga Worldwide. (URL: .)

(3) India Cohen is actually Canon, I didn't make her up. For more information, have fun with Wikipedia. (URL: .com/wiki/India_Cohen)

(4) I'm not sure if Sunnydale's local newspaper was ever given a name, but I ran a search for "Sunnydale news" on Google, and found a fairly amusing example of what said paper might look like. I'm pretty sure it was meant as a joke, but couldn't find anyone to credit it to. It's just a random site, I think. Still, it's kind of funny. (URL: .com/)

(5) I had to look this one up. 'Diener' translates to 'Servant' in German, and is the name of the person "responsible for handling, moving, and cleaning the corpse" in the morgue. The term is "derived from the German word Leichendiener, which literally means 'corpse servant.' I'm not entirely sure it's a term that's actually used in the U.S. but I liked the word, so I used it. (URL: .org/wiki/Diener)

(6) I know I stole a lot of lines from the episode—because I love them—but I actually included Willow's comment about 'the snowy thing the TV does' because I didn't know what she meant. My beta told me that when the TV-station stops transmitting the TV produces a 'snowy thing' because it doesn't have any signal to convert to images or sound. Honestly, I never though they stopped processing. I've been up at all hours of the night/morning and while they're usually isn't anything really good on after 2AM, there always seems to be something. And lots of commercials.

AN#3: OK, there are all my in-story notes so far! :-D

I'd also like to offer many, many thanks to the recent influx of reviewers! I'm glad you're enjoying the story/series so far. And, in response to the most frequently asked question: I have no intention to leave you hanging with this one. My muses like it too much. Though I think the muse that's responsible for my sense of humor got a little carried away in this chapter.

The only problem I've had with the series itself so far is that I keep getting great ideas for stuff to happen MUCH later in the series, and that's irritating, but it'll be nice when we eventually get there, since I have all of that written down.

The next chapter may be a little later in coming, because I'll be going to the NYC Comicon this weekend, and may not have much time to work on it. I suppose the friends I'm staying with will have to do some schoolwork this weekend too, and hey, I'll probably be stuck in more then a few lines where I'll have time to take out my notebook and write, but I can't promise that. Still, I hope to have the next chapter ready before the end of next week. And I invite all of you to yell at me if it isn't out by then. :-D

Bye for now!

Jess S

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NEXT: Chapter 5: Within & Without – Part II.