Chapter 6

...Give Me Steam...

Xander sat in the steam room with the other teens on the swim team and frowned.

"I love swimmin'," Xander said good-naturedly as he looked at the other guys relaxing in the fog. Once more, he ignored the headache in lieu of trying to get information. "When do we get our next fix?"

The others looked at him curiously, but the young man, Sean he thought was the guy's name, was the spokesman as he said, "What do you mean?"

"Who has the stuff? I need something to improve my game…" he smiled in that persuasive manner that he had.

"You're soaking it up, dude," Sean said as he leaned back and closed his eyes.

"What?" the transgenic's attention snapped to the jock.

The young man inhaled deeply and told him, "It's in the steam."

Xander nodded and played along for a few more minutes before he could not ignore the headache at the back of his skull.

"I gotta go to the head," he said as he stood shakily and left the sauna, towel securely in place.

…An Experiment with Life…

Xander bit his thumbnail as he paced back and forth like a junkie on speed.

Willow and Buffy sat together, thick as thieves as they watched their friend from a different table than their usual one.

Cordelia watched her boyfriend concernedly as she sat at the main table, a frown on her pretty face.

Giles cleaned his glasses once more as he watched the young man pull a bottle from his bag, pull out about five pills and dry swallow them.

The other X5 wanted to comfort him, but knew in the face of their friends her actions would look suspicious.

Xander shoved the medication into his messenger bag and set the bag on a chair by the counter.

"You said they were absorbing the steroids through steam?" Giles asked as he cleaned his glasses.

"Yeah, I got outa there as quick as I could, but I didn't want it to look like I was gettin' the hell outa Dodge."

"It's not like you were exposed more than once," Cordelia said worriedly as her eyes got that doe eyed look.

Buffy and Willow shared a look and the red head indicated Xander's bag with a jerk of her eyes.

Buffy nodded as she looked at Xander, "More than twice?"

"Third time's the charm," the young man said as he paced nervously.

"Damn," Giles said.

"What's gonna happen?" Cordelia asked as she rose from her seat and moved in to hug him.

Xander sagged against her as she caressed his barcode in a comforting manner.

While he was distracted, Buffy rose from her seat and moved over to lean on the counter. Very slowly, she moved her hand down to open the flap on the blue and white bag.

"We should find the rest of the swim team and lock them up before anything else goes wrong," the blonde Slayer said confidently.

"What's it gonna do to your revved up genes?" Cordelia whispered into his ear so the others could not hear.

"Maybe it's what triggered the shakes," Xander whispered as he rested his forehead against her shoulder.

Unseen by the others, Buffy removed the pills from the bag and quickly closed the flap.

"Yes, that's a good idea," Giles said loudly, "Perhaps we could get a tox screen on the gas to create an antidote."

"I can talk to the nurse," Willow said as she noticed Buffy's nod.

"I'm gonna go chat up the coach," the blonde said in a perky tone, almost too perky, "just after a trip to the little girls' room."