Hey people! Sorry this was late, my computer was malfunctioning yesterday (I affectionately refer to my computer as Yorik the Second. I'm sure you can all guess what happened to the first computer I named Yorik )

Anyway! The moment you've all been waiting for! Or at least, the moment mmooch has been waiting for! "Nightmares" And some angsty goodness!!!!

******

In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.

Willow Rosenburg and Buffy Summers were chatting as they walked down the halls of Sunnydale high. Buffy had just told Willow that her father was coming down from LA that weekend.

"So, do you see your dad a lot?"

"Not a whole lot." Buffy admitted. "He's still in L.A. He, like, comes down for weekends sometimes."

"When did they get divorced?"

"Well, it wasn't finalized till last year, but they were separated before that."

And the problems had all started when Merrick had told her she was the Slayer, and her life had gotten out of control. She didn't blame Merrick for that, but she did blame herself. She knew there had to have been a way that she could have handled the Slaying - and everything else - better. In a way that wouldn't have caused her father to run for the hills. Buffy also recognized she had some reservations about returning to the Slayer game here in Sunnydale. What else could this gig of hers destroy?

"Musta been harsh." Willow sympathized.

They had reached Buffy's locker, and as she worked the combination, Buffy said, "Yeah, that's the word you're looking for. I-I mean, they were really good about it around me, anyway, but still..."

"My parents don't even bicker." Willow mused, "Sometimes they glare. Do you know why your folks split up?"

Bufyf opened her locker. "I didn't ask. They just stopped getting along. I'm sure I was a really big help, though, with all the slaying and everything. I was in so much trouble. I was a big mess."

Still am. She let herself admit that, at her to herself.

"Well, I'm sure that didn't have anything to do with him leaving."

How she wished that could be true. Sighing, Buffy closed her locker. "No."

"And he still comes down on weekends."

"Sometimes."

As they entered the classroom, they saw Cordelia checking her makeup in her mirror. Their classmate, Wendell, walked over to look at his paper in the sunlight streaming in the window.

"Hello? Doofus!" Wendell looked down at Cordelia, "You're in my light."

Xander walked over to them. "Wendell, what is wrong with you? Don't you know that she is the center of the universe, and the rest of us merely revolve around her?"

Taking no offence (after all, in her world, it was true) Cordelia suggested, "Why don't you revolve yourselves out of my light?"

The bell rang, and Wendell and Xander took their seats. Willow and Buffy walked over to them.

"Uh, Wendell was in Cordelia's light." Xander explained.

"I'm so ashamed." Wendell said mournfully, though his eyes were laughing, and he did not look at all sorry.

"Why is she so Evita-like?" Willow complained.

"I think it's the hair." Buffy replied thoughtfully.

Willow grinned. "It weighs heavy on the cerebral cortex."

"Hey, guys, was there any homework?"

Willow looked down at Xander. "We're doing active listening today."

Xander brightened."Cool!" Then he frowned. "What's active listening?"

Willow rolled her eyes. "That would be the homework."

As Willow and Buffy sat, Buffy pulled out her textbook and showed it to Xander.

"Chapter five? Active listening? Where you put on your big ears and really focus on the other person?"

Wendell chimed in, "Ms. Tishler demonstrated it yesterday."

"With you!" Willow added.

Buffy had an idea. "She was wearing that tight sweater?"

Xander's brain - or some other equally important organ - clicked. "Oh, the midnight blue angora! See, I was listening."

Willow gave him a look. Then Ms. Tishler spoke from the front of the class.

"Alright, take your seats. In a moment we will choose partners and practice what we read about in chapter five."

Xander cupped his hands around his ears and grinned at her. Even as Willow and Buffy shot each other amused looks, Ms. Tishler enthused, "Good, Xander, that's the spirit!"

She continued, "Before we do, let's review. Isaacson's research led him to conclude that one of our most fundamental needs after food and shelter is to be heard. Wendell, would you read the first two paragraphs on page seventy-eight where Isaacson describes the rapid improvement active listening brought to some special needs clients."

Buffy dropped her pencil and bent to pick it up. As she straightened, she saw a boy standing in the doorway. He was wearing a strange white shirt, and looked far too young to go to Sunnydale high.

She looked away when she heard Wendell's scream. He had opened his text to read, and tarantuals had started pouring out from between the pages. The teacher and students around him screamed and began to scramble away,

The spiders began to crawl over Wendell. "Please! Get 'em off of me! Help! Help! Get 'em off of me! Help me! Oh, please help me! Please!"

"Sorry about that." the boy in the doorway whispered.

"Please help me!"

*****

Giles was lost in the stacks.

He could hardly believe it was really happening. He had nightmares about getting lost in the stacks, of course, but those were just nightmares. Not even midly believable either, because who could get lost in a few bookshelves? But he had already pinched his arm black and blue to try and wake himself up, to no avail. This was no dream.

Suddenly he heard the voices of Buffy, Willow and Xander entering the library.

"You da man, Buff!" Xander was saying.

"Okay, but we're still caring about the spiders here." Willow reminded him."Let's not forget the spiders."

Then Buffy spoke."Well, Giles said he was gonna look it up."

Her voice. He would follow her voice out. If only she would just keep talking. Then she called his name, and he saw the way out.

Just as Willow suggested he might be in the faculty room, he stumbled out of the stacks, looking around him in bewilderment until he eyes landed on Buffy's face. Then he focused, and was able to read the concern in her eyes.

"Hey, Giles! Wakey, wakey!"

He blinked. "I was, uh, in the stacks. I got lost."

Not sensing Giles' confusion, Xander asked, "Did you find any theories on spiders coming out of books?"

Xander moved his hand into a spider shape and reached around Willow's shoulder with his arm, wiggling his fingers.

"Big, hairy, crawly..."

Willow yelped, spun, and hit Xander.

"It's funny if you're me." He told her solomely.

"I couldn't find anything, uh... particularly illuminating." Giles admitted, still slightly shaken. "Um, I think perhaps you'd best have a chat with Wendell himself."

"Okay." Buffy agreed, "If he can still talk." She gave him a final worried look before leaving, with Xander and Willow right behind her.

******

Less then two hours later, Buffy burst into the library.

"Giles?"

"Yes?" He came out back from the office where he had been going over books on magic and spiders, trying to piece them together in his mind. "Are you okay?"

"I am. But a student was attacked in the basement of the school."

"The basement? What would a student be doing in the basement?"

"Smoking apparently." Buffy shrugged, "Anyway, I think this might be our kind of unusual. It might even have something to do with Wendell's spiders."

"Come on then." He said, grabbing his jacket. "I'll take you to the hospital, we'll see what we can find out."

She smiled up at him brilliantly, momentarily stunning him, and said, "Thanks Giles."

He shook his head to clear his mind once more, and lead her to his car in the parking lot.

On the way to the hospital, Buffy filled him in on everything that had happened between then and now.

"Well, we talked to Wendell. Apparently he had the best collection of spiders the tri-county area, before his parents sent him to camp. While he was gone his brother left their lamp on, and they all died. So ever since then he's been having these horrible nightmares where the spiders come to get him, for revenge or something. They're always the same."

Giles frowned. "Let me guess. In the classroom, teacher asks him to read, the spiders come out of the book?"

Buffy nodded, "Got it in one. Exactly what happened in class."

He glanced over at her. "Something else happened too."

She didn't question his confidence in this. "Yeah. I was in history, and we had this test. I looked at the clock, and it was 11:20. Then I sharpened my pencil and looked at the clock again. It was 12:10."

Giles raised his eyebrows. "It took you almost an hour to sharpen your pencil?"

Buffy scowled. "Of course not. It was like time jumped forward. But no one else seemed to notice. Then I wrote my name on the test, and class was over."

By this time they had reached the hospital.

"That is definitely strange." Giles said as they walked down the hall, looking for the girl's room.

"I think they said room 3016."

"Do you know the girl?" Giles asked her.

"To say hi to. Laura's nice enough."

"Nobody saw who attacked her?"

"Let's hope Laura did."

They entered room 3016. Laura was lying on the bed, covered in cuts and bruises. She looked up and saw them.

"Hey Laura." Buffy said warmly.

"Hi."

"I hope we're not intruding, um..." Giles looked uncertain as to what to say.

That's okay. I don't wanna be left alone." Laura's voice was hoarse, and she looked weak.

"You understand we're anxious to make sure this, this doesn't happen again." Giles told her.

Buffy sat down next to the bed. "Can you tell us what happened?'

"I was in the basement. I went down for a smoke. There was... someone there."

"Someone you knew?"

"I've never... seen anything like it."

Buffy glanced up at Giles. "It?"

"Can you describe it?" Giles asked.

Laura glanced away.

"Hey, that's okay. Don't worry about it." Buffy assured her, standing.

"Yes, you, you, you just rest now." Giles agreed.

"You know, but i-if you remember anything? You can tell us. Even if it may seem weird."

They started to leave.

"Lucky nighteen"

They turned.

"I'm sorry?"

"It's what he said, right before... He said 'lucky nineteen'. That's weird, right?"

Giles nodded. "Yes. Yes, it is."

Buffy smiled at her. "Feel better."

"Take care."

Out in the hall, Giles spotted one of Laura's doctors. "Doctor, is she gonna be alright?"

"You family?"

"Friends." Buffy supplied.

He accepted that and started walking down the hall, letting Buffy and Giles trail after him. "She'll recover. She's got a couple of shattered bones, a little internal bleeding... she got off pretty easy."

Giles and Buffy frowned simultaneously.

"Easy?"

"Have you looked up the word lately?"

"Well, the first one's still in a coma." He stopped in front of another room.

"First what?"

"First victim." He peered into the room. "They found him a week ago. Exact same M.O. as the girl, only he's in worse shape. If he doesn't wake up soon... Somebody's gotta stop this guy."

"Somebody will." Buffy assured him.

*****

Later, Giles was going over a bunch of newspapers in the library when Buffy entered.

"What's the word?"

"Oh, uh, I've got back issues of the, uh, papers, um, to try to do some research."

"Did you find anything?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know if you didn't find anything."

"I'm having a problem"

Instantly Buffy stepped forward. "What is it?"

"I-I can't read!" How could this happen? Buffy needed him to figure all this stuff out, and now he couldn't read.

"What do you mean? You can read, like, three languages."

"Five, actually, on a normal day. Th-the words here don't make any s-sense. I-it's gibberish!" He stepped away from the papers in frustrasion.

Buffy opened her mouth to reassure him, then spotted something that stopped her in her tracks. "That's him."

Giles turned back to her."Who?"

"The kid I've been seeing around school." She read from the paper. "'Twelve-year-old Billy Palmer was found beaten and unconscious after his kiddie league game Saturday. Doctors describe his condition as critical.' When was this published?" She glanced at the date. "Last week. It says he's in a coma in intensive care. This is the boy from the hospital!"

"The first victim? Uh... You, you've seen him around the school?"

"Yeah, first when the spiders got Wendell, and, and then when I didn't know a thing on the history test. I thought it was weird seeing this kid around, but I forgot about it."

"Uh, the boy's been in a coma for a week. How can this be possible?"

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "What, am I knowledge girl now? Explanations are your terrain."

"Uh, well, um, there's astral projection, uh, the theory that while one sleeps one has another body, a-an astral body, which can travel through time and space."

"Billy's in a coma. That's like sleep, right?"

"In a manner of speaking, a-a-although one doesn't always awake from a coma."

"Could I be seeing Billy's asteroid body?"

Giles smothered a laugh at her pernounciation, and said, "Astral body, and I-I don't know. As usual, one doesn't have an inordinate amount of information to work with."

"Lucky nineteen..." She murmured...

Then her father, Hank Summers entered the library.

"There you are! I've been looking everywhere. Why aren't you in class?"

Buffy stiffed, and Giles read surprise, happiness and anxiety on her features before she spun to face him.

"Dad, what are you doing here? Y-you're not supposed to pick me up till after school. Is something wrong?"

"Well, I, I need to talk to you."

Buffy's eyes widened. "Something is wrong. Is it mom?"

Giles shifted himself until he was standing protectively slightly in front of Buffy. As if he could protect her from whatever her father was about to tell her. He didn't like that look in her eyes, and irrationally hated her father for putting it there.

"No, no, it's not your mother, she's fine." He lowered his voice. "Could I speak with you for a moment? Privately?"

"Um, sure! Yeah." She looked up at Giles. "Uh, oh! I'm sorry. Dad, this is Mr. Giles, the librarian. Uh, this is my dad, Hank Summers."

"My pleasure." He forced the words out, and shook the man's hand.

"Likewise."

Buffy looked up at Giles for a moment, and his eyes clung to hers, wishing he could reassure her.

"I'll be back."

Buffy and Hank left the library. For a moment, Giles tried to read the papers. Then he scowled, spun from the paper, and put his hands up to either side of his head in frustrasion. If only he could control the damn visions! He had to know what was happening, what was so horrible that Hank had come early to speak to Buffy about. He had to know. He could not stay here, with that image of the look in Buffy's eyes fully lodged into his mind.

Then he felt a huge wave of dizziness, and with it a burst of triumph. A vision. He had actually called upon a vision. And just in time too. He knew he had to be able to be there in a second if Buffy needed him.

Buffy and her father had left the school building, and were now walking across the lawn.

"I came early because there's something I've needed to tell you. About your mother and me. Why we split up." Hank was saying.

"Well, you always told me it was because..."

"Uh, I know we always said it was because we'd just grown too far apart."

Buffy's voice wavered slightly. "Yeah, isn't that true?"

"Well, c'mon, honey, let's, let's sit down."

They sat down at a bench.

"You're old enough now to know the truth." Hank added.

"Is there someone else?"

"No. No, it was nothing like that."

Buffy frowned, but a horrible understanding was rising in her eyes. "Then what was it?"

"It was you."

Buffy looked stricken, though clearly she had been expecting him to say it. Giles felt like lunging for Hank's throat, and if he had actually been anywhere near that bench at the time, he probably would have.

"Me?"

"Having you. Raising you. Seeing you everyday. I mean, do you have any idea what that's like?"

Giles had no idea what it was like to have or raise a daughter, but he knew that seeing Buffy every day would be... as close to heaven as it was possible to get on Earth. What was the idiotic man talking about? How could her father talk to her like that?

"What?" Buffy's voice was nothing but a broken whisper.

"Gosh, you don't even see what's right in front of your face, do you?" Hank's voice was incredulous. "Well, big surprise there, all you ever think about is yourself. You get in trouble. You embarrass us with all the crazy stunts you pull, and do I have to go on?"

Giles paled. Suddenly, he understood. He understood why Buffy had refused to be the Slayer when he first met her, had tried to "quit" and forget all about her duty. She had believed that her parents had split up over the "crazy stunts" she had to pull in order to be the Slayer. Add that to her father actually leaving, and her mother having to move to Sunnydale to get Buffy into a new school...

Buffy was on the verge of tears, and Giles felt his heart breaking for her even as he watched the terrible scene unfolding in front of him.

"No. Please don't."

"You're sullen and... rude and... you're not nearly as bright as I thought you were going to be... Hey, Buffy, let's be honest. Could you stand to live in the same house with a daughter like that?"

Giles remembered what he had imagined the Slayer would be like on Buffy's first day at Sunnydale High. She had turned out to be almost the exact opposite, but that didn't make her any less amazing. He wouldn't have wanted to change her for anything in her world.

"Why are you saying all these things?" Buffy asked in a broken voice.

A tear rolled down her cheek, and Giles'. The tear on his cheek was not Buffy's, but his own. Even as she cried while facing her father's cruelty, Giles' cried because he could not stand to see such pain on Buffy's face.

"Because they're true." Hank said ruthlessly. "I think that's the least we owe one another." He sneered at Buffy's tears."You know, I don't think it's very mature, getting blubbery when I'm just trying to be honest. Speaking of which, I don't really get anything out of these weekends with you. So, what do you say we just don't do them anymore?"

She stared at him in shock, but he only patted her leg.

"I sure thought you'd turn out differently."

He left.

Giles came out of the vision shakily, and pressed a hand over his eyes, wiping the tears away. He had to get to Buffy.

Suddenly, the library doors opened, and Willow and Xander came in. Xander was pulling on his gym shirt.

"Red alert! Where's Buffy?" He demanded.

"Uh, she, she just stepped out. Her, her father came by early. He, he needed to talk to her." The bastard. Why had Willow and Xander come in now? A few more seconds and he already would have been gone, looking for Buffy. To distract himself, he asked, "W... where are your other clothes?"

"Oh, don't I wish I had the answer to that question."

Giles frowned.

"Xander kinda found himself in front of our class not wearing much of anything." Willow explained.

"Except my underwear."

Willow laughed. "Yeah! It was really..." She caught the expression on Xander's face and tried to hide her amusement. "Bad. It was a bad thing."

"'Bad thing'? I was naked. 'Bad thing' doesn't cover it."

Willow nodded. "Everyone staring? I would hate to have everyone paying attention to me like that.

"With nudity!" Xander cried, "It's a total nightmare."

Suddenly Willow realized something. "Well, yeah Xander! I-it's your nightmare!"

"Except the part with me waking up goin' 'it's all a dream'. It happened."

Willow was getting excited. "Like it happened to Wendell. That thing with the spiders? Wendell had a recurring dream about that."

Giles' eyes widened "I-I dreamt that I got lost in the stacks and I... I couldn't read... Of course!"

"Uh, our dreams are coming true?" Xander asked.

"Dreams? That would be a musical comedy version of this. Nightmares, our, our nightmares are coming true."

He wondered, suddenly, if that would explain the scene with Buffy. Was her father really just so cruel to her, or was it Buffy's nightmare, made reality? He supposed it didn't matter either way. Buffy's pain had been real, and if she was having nightmares about such an event, she must believe everything Hank had said was true.

"So, why is this happening?" Willow asked.

Luckily, he had an answer for her. "Billy."

Xander's eyebrows shot up. "Well, that explanation was shorter than usual." He turned to Willow with mock-excitement. "It's Billy!" Dropping the act, he asked Giles, "Who's Billy?"

"He's a boy in the local hospital. He was beaten. He's in a coma. Somehow I think he's crossed over from the nightmare world he's trapped in."

"And he brought the nightmare world with him. Thanks a bunch, Billy."

"How could he do that?"

Giles shrugged. "Things like that are easy when you live on a Hellmouth."

"Well, um, we have to stop it." Xander pointed out.

"And soon." Giles agreed, "Or else everyone in Sunnydale is gonna be facing their own worst nightmares."

Giles, Willow and Xander walked out of the library to search for Buffy.

"Buffy doesn't know this is happening." Giles said, "And given the sort of thing that she tends to dream about, it's imperative that we find her."

Especially since she believed her father really had just completely abandoned her.

"Probably faster if we split up to look for her." Xander said.

"Good idea."

They both went off their own ways.

"Uh, faster, but... not really safer." Willow protested, to no one in particular.

******

About fifteen minutes later, Giles was walking into a room when he heard a scream and Willow and Xander crashed into him.

"No sign of Buffy?" He asked.

Ignoring his words, they grabbed him and started to pull him along with them as they ran. Looking over his shoulder, Giles realized why they had screamed. They were being chased by a clown wielding a very dangerous looking knife. Instantly, he began to run too.

They reached the end of the hallway before Xander stopped and turned around. Reluctantly, Giles and Willow stumbled to a halt and spun around as well. Without a second's hesitation, Xander walked up to the clown. As it raised his knife to attack him, Xander punched him in the face, knocking him out cold.

"You are a lousy clown!" He cried. "Your balloon animals are pathetic! Everyone can make a giraffe!"

Leaving the clown lying there, Giles, Xander and Willow rushed out of the building in search of Buffy.

"I feel good! I feel liberated!" Xander said, once they were outside.

Looking around at the people running past them, Giles said, "You seem to be the only one. Things are getting worse. In a few hours reality will fold completely into the realm of nightmares."

"Well, what do we do?"

Find Buffy. He had to find Buffy. "The only thing I can think is to try and wake Billy."

"Uh, no, we can't leave without Buffy."

"Agreed, but who knows where she might have gone?"

"Excuse me," Willow interrupted, "when did they put a cemetery in across the street?

Xander looked over at the shift in space, where a cemetery now stood across the street. "And when did they make it night over there?" He added.

Knowing this was the most likely place for Buffy to be, they walked through the rift and into the cemetery.

"Whose nightmare is this?" Xander asked, looking around with interest.

Giles had found what he was looking for though. He stopped next to a grave that read 'Buffy Summers 1981 – 1997'. Pain knifed through him, worse then anything he had ever felt before. Everything else that mattered in his life faded away from him, and he could only stare at that grave in hopeless despair.

"It's mine."

His voice did not sound like his. It was broken, so raw with agony that it barely sounded human anymore.

He dropped to his knees beside the grave, not caring if he never left this spot. He could hardly believe that he had dragged Buffy into his nightmare. She was gone now, and it was all his fault. She was gone. The words, the concept of Buffy being dead, had not sunk in yet. There was no way she could actually be dead, because the pain that would come with that would be far too horrible to imagine. To survive. He had not known her that long, in the scheme of things, but he knew that the end of her life might as well be the end of his.

"I've failed... in my duty to protect you. I should have been more c... cautious. Taken more time to train you. But you were so gifted. And the evil was so great. I'm sorry..." He rested his hand on the grave, and in a voice far too quiet for Willow or Xander to hear, he whispered, "I love you Buffy."

Suddenly, a hand reached through the dirt and grabbed his. It was Buffy's hand, but it felt strange. Cold. Still, the sensation of her hand in his brought an overwhelming surge of joy and disbelief that left him speechless. He barely even heard Willow scream behind him.

Giles reluctantly pulled back as Buffy crawled out of the grave, brushing off the dirt. His happiness at seeing Buffy was so great, that at first Giles did not recognize the change in her. Then he saw it. Her face was creased and folded in a similar way that the vampire's faces were. Not even similar, she was a vampire.

This registered, finally, but he realized, selfishly, that he did not care. Buffy was back. She was alive. Anything they had to do to help her, they would do. They would get her a soul – like Angel – before she ever hurt anybody. Anything they had to do... She was alive. Nothing else mattered.

"Buffy?" He whispered, still hardly believing she was really there.

She looked up at him. "I thought I was dead!"

"Buffy, your face!" Willow cried.

Buffy reached up and felt her face and realized instantly what had happened. "Oh God!" She turned away from them. "Don't look at me!"

More than anything, Giles wanted to take her in his arms, to comfort her and tell her he didn't give a damn what happened to her. But he knew she would not want to hear it. Not from him. Fighting down the wave of depression, he managed to say, "You never told me you dreamt of becoming a vampire."

"This isn't a dream." Her voice sounded so final. As if this were the end of everything. He wondered if she imagined her friends would abandon her now that she was among the living dead. Wondered if she thought he would abandon her. After all, as far as she knew, her father had left her just because she was the Slayer. How must she think people would react now that she was actually a vampire?

Whatever Buffy might or might now feel for him, he had to convince her that everything would be okay. Perhaps she would not even have to be a vampire forever. "No. No, it's not. But there's a chance that we can make it go away. This all comes from Billy. Now, if, if we can only wake him up, I believe that the nightmares will stop and reality will shift back into place, but we must do it now! I need you to hold together long enough to help us. Can you do that?"

His voice gentled as he spoke the last words, as he begged her to have the strength to fight past the vampire instincts, and her own depression, to fight for her own life.

She met his gaze evenly, and there was trust in her eyes, and hope. "Yeah. I think I can."

"Thank you."

Facing the others, Buffy said, "Well, we better hurry... 'cause I'm getting hungry."

She started to walk away.

They followed her.

"That is a... joke, right?" Xander asked.

Giles, who had seen the mischief in Buffy's eyes before she turned away, knew it was a joke, so he did not bother to answer him.

"Are you sure everything will go back once he's awake?" Willow asked.

"Oh, uh, positive." Because Buffy trusted him to make it better, he had to be positive.

"Well, how do we wake Billy up?" She asked. "What if we can't?"

"Willow, do shut up."

*****

They reached the hospital, and Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander ran down the hallway towards Billy's room. The doctor is outside the room, apparently looking in on the boy.

"Doctor! Is the boy Billy still here?" Giles cried.

The Doctor turned away from the window, his eyes wild; his hands deformed and crippled, "My hands!" He wailed, and left.

They ran into Billy's room.

"What now?" Xander asked.

Giles bent over Billy. "Um... Billy! Billy?"

"That won't work."

They all turned to see Billy's astral body standing beside the curtains.

"Billy! Uh, Billy, you have to wake up." Giles pleased.

"No. I told her. I have to hide."

"Why?"

"From him!"

Giles turned at the sound of Buffy's voice. She hadn't entered the room; instead she was standing out in the hall, looking down the hallway.

Giles moved to the window and looked out to see a large deformed man running down the hall. Buffy had told him about this man on the way to the hospital. The Ugly Man. Apparently, Buffy had expected him to show up, and had chosen to stand guard outside the room while they tried to wake Billy.

"Aw, man, what do we do?" Xander asked.

"I think I know." Buffy's voice was calm, certain. She took off her jacket.

Hearing a buzzing outside the window, Willow turned and looked through the blinkds to see giant black wasps flying over the town, and other evidence of people's horrible nightmares. "Whatever it is, it'd better be soon!"

The Ugly Man was making his way toward Buffy.

"Glad you showed up!" Buffy called, unafraid, "You see, I'm having a really bad day."

"Lucky nineteen!" Ugly Man called.

"Scary! I'll tell you something, though. There are a lot scarier things than you." She took a few steps towards him. "And I'm one of them."

The Ugly Man stopped and stared at her. Without warning, Buffy snarled at him and ran, jumping on him and knocked him down, punching him twice in the face.

The Ugly Man clocked a third punch and kicked her off him. Undaunted, she stood and gave him a roundhouse kick to the gut. He doubled over, but slammed her into the window of Billy's room, and against the opposite wall.

He tried to punch her with the arm that was formed into a club, but she ducked, came around and kicked him in the back. He slammed into her again, and both fall into Billy's room, against his bed. When he swung towards her, she broke the club arm over her knee, causing him to scream in pain, then bodychecked him into the wall, where he collapsed unconscious.

After a moment of silence, Astral Billy stammered. "I-is he dead?"

"Come here, Billy." Buffy said gently. Even with her vampire face and strange yellow eyes, kindness and understanding shone through her face, gentling the harsh features.

"I, I don't..."

"You have to do the rest." She insisted.

Billy reluctantly moved around the bed and over to the Ugly Man.

"What are they doing?" Willow asked, but Giles gestured at her to be quiet.

"I get it." Xander said quietly.

Buffy took Billy's hand. When Billy looked up at her, she said, "No more hiding."

Billy looked down again, and Buffy released his hand. Slowly, Billy reached down and peeled back Ugly Man's mask. A bright light lit the room, blinding everyone. Suddenly, everything is normal again. Astral Billy is gone, as is Ugly Man, and Buffy's face is normal. Buffy smiled and felt her face. Willow sighed in relief.

"Hey, he's waking up!" Xander said.

Everyone gathered around Billy's bed.

"I had the strangest dream. And you were in it, and you..." Billy looked confused. "Who are you people?"

They smiled at him.

"Let's get a doctor." Giles suggested.

Before they can, a man enters the room, and takes off his hat. "Oh! Huh. Billy's got company. I-I-I'm his kiddie league coach. I come by here every day, just hoping against hope that he's gonna wake up soon. He's, uh, my lucky nineteen."

Buffy and Giles exchanged a look.

"So, um, how is he?" The coach asked.

Calmly, hiding an inner fury, Buffy stepped aside to show that Billy was awake.

"He's awake."

"What?"

With certainty, Buffy said, "You blamed him for losing the game. So you caught up with him afterwards, didn't you?"

In an innocent voice, the coach said, "What are you talking about?"

Billy sat up. "You said that it was my fault that we lost."

The coach realized he'd been caught and spun away. Before he could escape, Xander grabbed him by the jacket and stopped him.

"It wasn't my fault. There's eight other players on the team. You know that." He lay down again. Buffy smiled at Billy. "Nice going."

Billy smiled back.

*****

Back at Sunnydale high, Willow, Buffy and Xander walked together outside.

"I just can't believe a kiddie league coach would do something like that." Buffy mused.

Xander scoffed. "Well, you obviously haven't played kiddie league. I'm surprised it wasn't one of the parents."

"I'm just glad he's behind bars where he belongs." Willow said.

"But that was kinda heroic, Xander, grabbing him and all."

"Well, I just did what anyone else would've. I mean, if you wanna label it heroic..."

Suddenly, Hank drove up, honked the horn on the car, then got out and waved at Buffy.

"Hi!"

"Have a killer weekend, guys!" Buffy said, then hurried over to her dad, who hugged her.

"Hi, sweetheart! Oh, it's so good to see you! How was your day?"

"Fine. You know, usual."

As they drove off, Willow turned to Xander. "Personal question?"

"Yeah, shoot!"

"When Buffy was a vampire, you weren't still, like, attracted to her, were you?"

Xander flushed. "Willow, how can you... I mean, that's really bent! She was... grotesque!"

Willow grinned. "Still dug her, huh?"

"I'm sick, I need help."

"Don't I know it."

Watching all this from the doorway of the school, Giles did not even feel a stir of jealousy over Xander's comment. In that moment, he had much more on his mind then the teenager's crush on Buffy. Although Buffy had appeared to be pleased to see her father, and had greeted him warmly, he knew that was not the end of it. Buffy's fears had been in no way dissolved, and there were still a lot of issues she would have to deal with.

He wanted to be the one to help her through that.

Knowing that made him think back to his declaration beside Buffy's grave. I love you Buffy. He had not realized it was true, until that moment. Did loving Buffy make him sick? Twisted? Maybe. He was much older then her, after all. But he could not see it as sick or wrong no matter which angle he looked at it from. It felt too right, too good. His love for Buffy, despite the fact that he had only known her a short time, was pure and real, no matter the difference in their ages.

But how was he going to deal with this realization? How would Buffy react to it, if he ever had the courage to tell her the truth? Would she ever understand how he had wanted to kill Owen, that boy she had dated for all of ten minutes? Would she ever understand that the idea of her pain was so intolerable to him, that he had cried along with her at her father's cruelty, dream or no? Would she ever love him back?

******

Haha! That was fun ^ ^ It was really hard to do that justice though. You were right, Mmooch, there is a lot of wonderful material in that episode.

"Prophecy Girl" Will be next, and that will be awesome too XD Hopefully that will be posted tomorrow (Pray for Yorik!)