Giles took his glasses off and began to wipe them almost until they shattered. Buffy sat nervously in his apartment with Willow sitting by her side. "Oh dear." He repeated again and again.

"Giles…" Willow said quietly. "…are you okay?"

Giles sat forward in his chair and looked at Buffy. Oh dear… "How did this happen?"

"Well…you know…do I really have to explain it?" Willow said uneasily.

"No Willow. I understand that part." He jumped in to answer before she did explain the process. "I meant how did a vampire reproduce? It's impossible…until now. There has to be some magical reasoning to this."

"Tara's been looking through some books and incantations but nothing so far." Willow answered, dissapointed that Giles didn't have any new ideas. "Well we should get back to the house and look in our books. Call us if you find anything?"

"Of course." Giles said as Willow was on her way out the door. Buffy was walking across the room towards the door as well when Giles stopped her. "Buffy, how are you holding up?" She's like a daughter to him and he didn't want to see her in pain.

Buffy turned to him and paused. "Not really sure. I mean, I'm a little tired. I know you don't want to hear about him…but Spike is really helping me through this. I want him to stay with me through this but I need to know that you're okay with it."

"Buffy, you know I don't approve of this whole thing. This can't possibly be safe for you….but….I trust you. I trust that you know what you're doing and I want to help however I can. But this doesn't mean I like Spike or trust him with you."

"Thank you." Buffy said as she smiled and left. As the door shut behind her Giles returned to his seat. He put his head in his hands and ran his hands through his hair. At the same time, across town, Spike was doing the same. He paused for a moment as he heard a noise coming from downstairs.

"Dawn?" He asked aloud. He went to the top of the staircase and at the bottom was Tara.

"Spike." She was startled. "Is Buffy back from Giles' yet?" She asked inquizitively as she looked around.

"Not as yet. There something I can do for you?" He asked kindly.

"No that's alright thanks. Just let her know I stopped by when she returns?" She asked politely as she made her way back outside.

Spike stood akwardly. "Sure." Something's going on. He shrugged his shoulders. Beats me. An hour or so passed and Buffy and Willow returned to the house.

"Red, your girl was here not too long ago." He began talking to Willow then turning his attention to Buffy. "But she wanted to talk to you."

"Did she say if she found something?" Buffy asked with new hope.

"Didn't say much of anything. Took off in quite a hurry." He added pecululary. He continued down the staircase. "So how did old Rupert take the news?"

Buffy sighed. "I'm not sure. He seemed bothered but okay I guess. You know how he gets sometimes. Everything's a mess right now. I don't know if it was the best time to break it to him with Xander and Anya still gone. He's really worried about them."

"Well we're all worried about you too." Spike interveined.

Willow started off into a daze as she thought about Xander's reaction to this whole ordeal. "I wonder where he is…" She spoke. Buffy wrapped her arm around her best friend. It's really hard for her with him being gone. She's probably feeling pretty betrayed these days what with that and now this on top of it.

"You know Will, you should get out of the house. Maybe go see some friends from your Magics Annonymous group? We've got everything under control here." Buffy insisted.

"Thanks Buff. Maybe I will take you up on that later but I really should be here now. Something somewhere did this for a reason and the sooner we find out who—or what—and why the better."

Somewhere else…

"The deed has been done. What you have foreseen has been set in motion. The cosmic balance between good and evil will be alter as you had predicted. What do we do now?" Asked a demon hidden in the shadows…

"We stop it." Answered another demon.