Ethan was just telling Giles about how, during the time when he'd still cast chaos spells, he'd turned Riley into a woman just as he and his wife were... ahem, getting intimate and how they hadn't mentioned anything the following morning, after the spell had worn off, when Giles' phone rang.

"Excuse me a second." Giles said, standing up.

"Hey, Giles." Xander said cheerfully.

"Hello, Xander. What are you calling me for?"

"I wanted to remind you that Taylor wanted us to go to the town meeting tonight. Just wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten."

"I hadn't. I'll be back by then."

"Yeah, just thought I'd make sure. Oh, and there's something else."

"Yes?"

"Rory's turning into a vampire."

Giles nearly dropped his phone. "iWhat?/i Are you sure?"

"Uh huh. Holy water test was positive." Xander replied calmly.

Giles nearly asked him how he could be so calm, but he realised that, in a normal situation, Xander would be anything but calm. So, given that Xander was unlikely to be hiding his fear for Giles' sake, that meant that Rory was probably with him, most likely on the brink of a perfectly understandable panic attack. "There aren't any vampires in Stars Hollow."

"I know. It's like she's getting the symptoms of vampire-ness one at a time. I thought I'd call you to see if you've ever heard anything like that before, what with you being the library-on-legs, and to show you that sharing information is good, before I ask Willow to come down and sort it out."

Giles opened his mouth to say that he'd never heard of anything about a vampire turning someone into a vampire, when he realised that just a few feet away was a warlock whose specialty was transmutation magic. One who'd been in Stars Hollow just a few days ago.

"I might have." Giles said in a carefully bland voice. "Don't contact Willow just yet. I might be able to fix this myself. I'll call you in a bit, see if I get anywhere."

"Thanks Giles. Just... don't be slow, okay?"

"Tell Rory not to worry." Giles hung up, fighting the urge to throw the phone clear across the street in a fit of anger. Instead, he went back inside and sat down in front of Ethan.

"Anyway, as I was saying-" Ethan said, oblivious to Giles thunderous expression.

"I can't believe I trusted you." Giles said in a low voice.

"What? All I did was put extra sugar in your tea while you went outside to take that call. It's no big deal."

"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Rory."

Ethan frowned, confused. "Who's Rory?"

"The girl you hexed."

"You know a girl called Rory? Were her parents especially stupid or just plain sexist?"

"It's short for Lorelai, but-"

"Oh. It would've made more sense if you'd just called her Lorelai. I expect you get a lot of confusion, otherwise."

"Stop trying to change the subject."

Ethan shrugged. "Well, there's not much to talk about, really. So what if I cursed some girl? It'll be a few days yet before the spell is done, and given that Stars Hollow is what it is it's unlikely that-"

"You cast a Goddamn chaos spell on an innocent girl, Ethan! How exactly is that reformed? I don't know how you managed to fool Riley, but you're clearly just as dangerous as you were when the Initiative first picked you up."

"It's your fault." Ethan said, idly tracing a pattern on the table.

Giles' mouth worked as he tried to speak. Finally, he managed to say "What? How can you possibly blame me for this?"

"You didn't believe me, Ru. You didn't believe that I'd change. So I thought I'd show just what a chaos mage can really do."

Giles was silent for a long moment. Then he said "You did that... to get my attention? You thought, oh hey, he thinks I'm still bad, so let's show him how bad I can be? How the ihell/i does that make any sense?"

"It doesn't, when you put it like that. To be fair, it's mind-bogglingly boring working for the Initiative. I've been dying for something interesting for years. You were just the excuse."

"You're insane. You're a completely bonkers adrenaline junkie."

Ethan gave him a lopsided smirk. "Well, yes. Yes I am. Why do think I suggested that we summon Eyghon, back then? All those dangerous stunts we pulled were my idea, if you remember. Sure, it was you and your meticulous planning that actually made them happen, but they were my ideas. I can't stand boredom. Why else do you think I kept popping up wherever you were and wreaking havoc? Sure wasn't because of the company, most of the time you were a self-righteous arse. I did it because it was fun."

Giles managed, with great trouble, to restrain himself from leaping across the table and punching Ethan in the face. Instead, he said in as controlled a voice as he could manage "Break the spell, Ethan. After that, I don't want to ever see or hear from you again. If I do, you'll wish that you died alongside Randall."

Ethan rolled his eyes at the melodrama. "Fine. But you can pay for the tea." So saying, he stood up and walked out of the cafe.

Or at least, that's what Ethan tried to do. Giles grabbed his arm in a grip of iron and prevented his exit. "No, I don't think so. I'm not letting you out of my sight."

"You want to never see me again iand/i never let me out of your sight? Really, Rupert, I thought you hated paradoxes."

"I won't let you out of my sight until after you break the spell." Giles clarified.

"I'll need my arm back for that."

Giles ignored him, and steered Ethan back to the counter to pay before frogmarching him back to his hotel room.

Once there, Ethan pulled out the bust of Janus he'd stowed under his bed, gave it a considering look for a moment, and then smashed it with a handy chair.

"It's done? You broke the spell?"

Ethan nodded. "Yes. Now feel free to return to your exceedingly dull life as caretaker to a bunch of teenagers."

"Any news?" Xander said in a carefully calm voice the moment Giles called.

"It's sorted out."

"Oh, thank God." Xander exclaimed prompting Rory to look at him in bemusement and hope. "What happened?"

"Ethan Rayne came wandering through town and thought he could cause a little trouble. I convinced him that that wouldn't be a good idea."

"Well, thanks, Giles. Thank you so much." Xander said effusively before hanging up. "It's done, Rory. Everything's been fixed."

Rory, however, wasn't quite as trusting towards Giles as Xander was. Maybe because, thanks to Giles' naturally secretive nature, she'd completely forgotten about the man who'd just told her that he loved her. "Are you sure?"

"Well, do you feel like ripping out my jugular?" Xander said, light tone completely incongruous to what he'd saying.

Rory blanched and swallowed convulsively. "No. No, but then I didn't feel like doing... like doing ithat/i even when I was changing. Assuming that I'm not now."

"How's your hand doing, then?"

Rory looked at it. It had been red and sore, as though she'd spilt boiling water on it. Now it wasn't. It was the ordinary smooth pale skin that her hand had always been.

Somewhat tentatively, Rory rolled up her sleeves. The sunburn that'd been there earlier was gone as though it had never been there.

Well, the proof seemed conclusive: Rory was no longer becoming a vampire.

Rory didn't say anything. She just stared at her arm, feeling unbelievably happy and incredibly relieved.

Xander gently ran a finger along Rory's thumb, down to her wrist before circling back up to her index finger. Rory shivered, goose bumps erupting at the feather light touch. "How are you feeling?"

Rory grinned at him. "Wonderful."

Xander smiled back. "Well, isn't that something."

"Yes. It is." Rory said, leaning forward to gently kiss the side of Xander's neck.

Rory didn't do that for an erotic purpose (well, not isolely/i for an erotic purpose). She did it because she had recently been turning into a vampire, and no matter how conclusively the proof seemed to indicate that that was no longer the case, Rory still felt the need to prove that to herself. Hence placing herself in close proximity to Xander's unprotected throat.

Xander didn't know any of that, of course. He felt slightly nervous having someone so close to his throat, but then he felt like that towards anyone, whether they were a vampire or not. After having his best friend, Jesse, turned into a vampire, and not exactly having his low opinion of vampires changed by Angel or Spike, that kind of thing had always alarmed him.

However, Xander did manage to guess why Rory was doing what she was doing. As uncomfortable as it made him, he should could hardly push her away, not after telling her that he would be there for her, that he would help her.

Still, Xander was pretty relieved when Rory moved upwards to kiss him firmly on the lips.

At that point, Xander took the initiative and lifted Rory so that she sat on his lap. Rory let out a squeak and broke the kiss, looking at Xander with wide eyes.

Xander flashed her a self-confident smile and kissed the tip of her nose, slowing making his way down her cheek to her jawbone before coming back to capture her lower lip between his teeth.

Xander's hands moved, one going to the small of her back and the other gently cradling the back of her head, holding her close to him. Rory, in the meantime, hadn't the faintest of ideas what she should be doing with her hands - she started off with them on Xander's shoulders, before letting them hang loosely at her sides. Not comfortable with that, she eventually settled for fisting them in Xander's shirt.

Slowly, Xander began tracing a pattern on Rory's back, through her shirt. Although not nearly as sensuous as the earlier stroking of her hand, the extra tactile sensation was enough to make Rory emit a little groan and close her eyes, the better to revel in the feeling. As such, she missed the slightly amused look that Xander shot her.

Moving with glacial slowness, so as not to alarm her, Xander moved the hand he'd placed at the small of her back lower, until he reached the small strip of skin between her shirt and her trousers. When his fingers reached that zone, Rory stiffened. Xander thought about moving his hand, not wanting to pressure Rory into anything, but then she melted, kissing him with increasing ardour.

At that point, Xander completely forgot about the gentle movement of his hand that he'd been planning on. He was feeling more than a little blown away.

Then Rory broke off the kiss for air, and Xander gawped at her with a glazed expression as she opened her eyes and blinked at him. She smiled at him archly, and then released one of her hands that she had been gripping Xander's shirt with, moving it in a slighter faster version of what Xander had done to her.

Slowly, she ran her fingers up under Xander's shirt, tracing his navel. Xander removed the hand that had been wound in Rory's hair - if he hadn't, he would've probably torn her hair out at the sudden rush of sensation. Instead, he tightly gripped the sofa.

Gradually, teasingly, Rory's hand crept upwards. Xander didn't even think about doing something similar for Rory - truth be told, he wasn't entirely capable of rational thought at that point.

Then the texture of Xander's skin began to change. Rather than the sensation of skin over muscle that Rory had felt so far, the skin began to feel like leather.

Xander frowned. "Why did. You. Stop?" he panted.

Rory withdrew her hand, and leant back as much she was able to with Xander's hands holding her in place. She didn't want him to remove them, not at that moment, but equally she didn't want to continue the make out session either. "Your scar."

Xander's frown deepened as he fought to think. Having Rory sitting on his lap didn't help much. "My scar?"

"Your burn." Rory clarified. "The one you told me about. Remember?"

Xander's face lit up with understanding. "Ah. Willow's scar. Of course." That explained why he had thought that Rory had stopped when she hadn't. The magical blast that Willow had hit him with on Kingman's Bluff had left him unable to feel anything on that particular spot.

Rory shifted, which did... distracting things to Xander, although clearly she just wanted him to let go, which he reluctantly did. She got up.

Xander sighed. "Well, there goes my chance at glad to be alive sex."