Jess tucked the Moleskine under his arm. Then he asked Dawn cheerfully "So, are you any good at accents?"

"Not particularly. Why?"

"Well, if you want to be a linguist, shouldn't you be good at accents? Come on. Do a Latin accent."

"Latin's a dead language. You can read or write it, but no one speaks it anymore. There's no accent."

"Okay, what accents ican/i you do?"

"I'm pretty good at stuffy upper-class British. Lower class too, I suppose." Dawn said, smiling slightly as she waited for Jess to ask her to do them.

She didn't have to wait very long. "Ooh, go on then."

"One had tea and crumpets with the Queen the other day. It was simply spiffing, old bean." Dawn said, somehow managing to keep a straight face. It wasn't all that hard for her to sound like a British aristocrat, she'd practiced speaking like Giles years ago (well, actually, she hadn't, because it had happened before she actually came into existence, but she remembered it anyway).

"Jolly good show!" Jess exclaimed in an accent that was closer to Welsh than anything else.

Dawn giggled. "One might want to put in a little more practice."

Jess, who had been staring at Dawn's lips - ostensibly so he could better imitate her, but he promptly go distracted by, well, her lips - said "Maybe you'll teach me?"

"Sure. Although why you'd want to learn how to speak like that is beyond me."

"Fun, by Jove!" Jess said, punching his hand up in the air. "Anyway, how about the lower class British accent?"

"Sodding Hell!" Dawn said. Her first thought upon saying that was, once Spike got over his amazement at hearing her curse, he would probably laugh himself silly. Then she remembered that he was dead.

Jess was about to ask her how come she'd learnt to speak like one of the Sex Pistols when he saw the smile drop from her face and she looked away. Jess might not be the most astute of people, but he knew what that meant. He didn't want to push Dawn to tell him anything she didn't want to, so he decided to change the subject.

"So, Lorelai's holding some kind of opening dinner thing at the Dragonfly tonight."

It took a moment for Dawn to realise that Jess was expecting some sort of response. "Yeah?"

"Luke wants me to go, mainly so he can keep an eye on me and make sure I don't knock over a liquor store while he's gone."

"Well, I hope you have a good time." Dawn said absently, still not looking at him.

"So, anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to go."

Dawn, having already been emotionally walloped by suddenly remembering that Spike was dead, was taken completely off guard by that. "What?"

"Dinner. Dragonfly. Tonight. Us?" Jess said succinctly.

"Us us?"

"You and I. As opposed to whatever other us you thought I was talking about."

"You mean... like a date?" Dawn queried. Besides the kiss which had established that she and Jess liked each other, neither of them had made anything even remotely resembling a romantic move. On top of that, this was actually kind of her first date.

"No. Not a date."

Or maybe not. "Not a date?" Dawn repeated, thoroughly confused now.

Jess took the Moleskine out from under his arm and absently began twanging the elastic band. "I can see that, from some angles, asking you to dinner might be construed as me asking you to a date-"

"Yeah, that's what a date iis/i."

"-but it isn't."

"Uh... how isn't it? I'm not an Avril Lavigne fan, but to paraphrase her - you're a boy, I'm a girl, isn't it obvious?"

Jess dragged a hand through his hair. "I-I would rather that it not be a date. I'm - well, dates aren't really my thing."

Dawn tilted her head. She wanted to say something like "No, dating isn't imy/i thing." because, at eighteen, the closest she'd ever come to one was hanging out with someone who turned out to be vampire at Halloween. Instead she said "How come? You dated Rory, didn't you?"

"Technically."

"How can you technically date someone?" Dawn said, getting a little exasperated now.

"Well, um, I kind of... don't do well with that kind of thing. While I can happily talk about the Romantic Movement, actual romantic stuff isn't my scene. If you wanted to go and see The Distillers play, sure, I can do that, but dinner... not really. I couldn't even manage Prom. I, uh, kind of skipped town instead." Jess admitted.

"Okay then."

"Okay then?"

"Isn't that what I said?"

"Yeah, but... I thought you'd be kind of... annoyed, I guess."

"I should point out that my school collapsed into a sink hole before my Prom. And that I didn't have anyone to go with anyway. To be honest, going on a definitely-not-date is still the closest thing to a date that I've ever come."

Jess ran a finger along an eyebrow. This conversation wasn't going where he'd expected it to. He hadn't expected Dawn to think he was asking her out on a date (although, come to think of it, he could understand why she would). He certainly hadn't expected her to take the revelation that he'd skipped town before Rory's Prom that well. "Don't you, um, want something more, or something?"

Dawn sighed. "I don't want to be one of those clichéd girls who say they don't want their, um, significant others to change only to turn around and try just that. I can't guarantee that I won't at some point get really frustrated that you're emotionally unavailable. But, really, at the moment, I'm fine with going on not-dates." She didn't add that this was because she had seen what happened when people idid/i start dating and then broke up. Jess had already convinced her to stick with whatever it was that they had rather than boycott it entirely to avoid that, but, if it stayed casual, then that was fine by her.

Jess wanted to say that he wasn't emotionally unavailable. He'd wanted to be there for Rory - but, on the other hand, he'd seen the other side of relationships that wasn't all moonlight and music and love and romance. He'd seen the drunken, drug-using boyfriends that Liz seemed to attract everywhere she went like flies to a rubbish heap. He'd experienced first-hand the kind of things they were capable of.

It wasn't that Jess was afraid that he'd turn into someone like that. Sure, he drank and smoked, but he wasn't like them. But, when he'd actually gotten close to Rory, and Dean had been out of the picture, Jess had screwed everything up. He'd made a complete mess of things with Rory, flunked school, and then left. He hadn't meant for things to happen like that. It had just kind of happened.

Maybe Jess had subconsciously sabotaged things. Maybe, having been witness to a dozen miserable excuses for a relationship and having had his fair share of one night stands, he'd manage to ruin the one genuine relationship that he'd ever tried to embark on, because he didn't have anything to compare it to. He'd floundered, not having the faintest of ideas about what he was doing, because it had been so far out of his frame of reference that he hadn't been able to see it with a telescope.

In short, Jess didn't want to go on a date because he hadn't the faintest of ideas about how to be on a date. If it was a date, he'd mess it up.

But dinner? Dinner he could do.

Instead of saying all of that, he just said "Okay then. You on for dinner?"

"Sure."

Xander knew that Lorelai would want to talk to him about what he'd told her last night. He figured that she'd probably gotten over the shock by now, and had about a million questions. Given that Xander didn't want to answer iany/i questions about his life in Sunnydale, he figured that the best time to give Lorelai the opportunity to interrogate him would be when she was busy, so that she wouldn't be able to mercilessly pester him when he refused to answer.

So, while she was busy getting the inn up and running, then.

Xander knew that Rory was going to help out there, so when they parted ways he knew that she would be heading over to the Dragonfly. Xander took some time to figure out what he wanted not to say, resolved to stick to that, before going there himself.

He was greeted at the desk by an irritable Frenchman. "'allo. Who are you?"

"Valley Jesus." Xander responded, with a quick smile.

"I am sorry, but zere is no madhouse in Stars Hollow. Perhaps you 'ave escaped from 'artford?"

"I am here to see, like, Lorelai." Xander said, exaggerating his Californian accent. "She's totally expecting me."

"Zere are no divine visitations scheduled for today. Come back later." the Frenchman said, obviously wondering how to make Xander leave.

"Xander? What are you doing here?" Lorelai asked, appearing in the doorway. "Is Michel bothering you?"

"Xander? 'e said 'e was Jesus." Michel said grumpily. "Why could 'e not just give me 'is name?"

"I'm standing right here, you know." Xander pointed out. "And at least I don't have a girl's name."

"Michel is not a girl's name!" Michel said indignantly.

"It kind of is, actually. Maybe you and Rory should swap names?"

"Xander, stop teasing him." Lorelai admonished. "What do you want? Whatever it is, can you come back in, oh, three days?"

Xander went into the dining room, which was currently the only room not filled with bustling work men or the early arrivals. Lorelai followed. "I wanted to talk about last night."

Lorelai was tempted to make a joke about how she must've been really drunk not to remember them doing anything last night, but she was too tired. After this, she needed coffee. Lots of coffee. "Now? Why inow/i?"

"Because you're so busy right now that you won't follow me for the rest of the day pestering me when I say that I don't want to talk about last night." Xander said truthfully.

Lorelai blinked. "Well, I appreciate the honesty."

"So, we good?"

"But-"

"No questions."

"But-"

"Please?"

"Horses-"

"Lorelai!" Xander exclaimed. Then he paused. "Okay, I've got to know. What sentence could you possibly say that begins with horses?"

"Horses are in the stables."

"Why did you feel the need to tell me that?"

"Uh, can you come back to me when I have enough time to follow you through town to pester you for details about your life as a Zorro?"

"Yeah, while I'm sure that the revelation about the location of your horses will keep me awake all night, I suggest you hold them, because I'm not going to tell you anything." Xander said. "Just out of curiosity, though, why Zorro? I thought you would've gone for Batman."

"Well, Zorro knows his way around a sword."

"Ah."

"Anyway, you have to tell me something. You're dating my daughter, you know. You can't hide something like that."

Xander put his hands on Lorelai's shoulders. "Lorelai. Listen. I'm not not telling you because I don't want you to know. I'm not telling you because I would really, really, ireally/i like to forget all about it. So, please, let me do that?"

Lorelai hesitated for a second before saying "Okay." How could she say anything else?

"I promise, when I'm ready - when I can think about it without it being so - without it hurting so much, I'll tell you about it." Xander said.

"Okay." Lorelai repeated. She knew that she would be writing down every idea that popped into her head so that she could compare it to what Xander had actually done.

Rory didn't even have to open her eyes to know that something was wrong. She felt the same as she had when she'd woken up in the night with supernatural hearing. Only, this time, she wasn't so overwhelmed by it. She wasn't deafened by the sound of her blood pulsing through her ears.

Hold on...

Rory sat up, opening her eyes. She noticed that, although only a tiny glimmer of light from outside was sneaking through her curtains, she could see her room as clearly as if the sun was streaming in.

She searched for her pulse, didn't find it, tried again, and still didn't find it. Okay. So her heart had stopped.

She was a vampire.

A few seconds and a quick visualization later, Rory discovered that she was no longer nauseated by the idea of biting someone. In fact, it made her salivate, and reminded her of how hungry she was. Or thirsty, she supposed.

Okay. She needed to find Xander. Rory opened the front door, and it was only then that she realised that letting loose a ravenous vampire in Stars Hollow wasn't the best of ideas. However, she still needed to find Xander. He was the only one who could help her.

Sadly, the only phone number she had for him was the one Giles had given her. That was for his room at the branch of the reformed Watchers' Council that he'd been staying when she'd first called him after Sunnydale. She didn't know how contact him in Stars Hollow.

Okay. So, she would go to Xander's house by the least travelled streets and hope that she didn't meet anyone. Rory walked through the door.

Or tried to, at least. Instead of going through, Rory found that there was an impenetrable invisible force field of some kind blocking her exit. Poking an umbrella out of the door quickly proved that it was only her that couldn't leave.

Okay. So, if vampires needed an invitation to enter a house, and she had been turned inside one... maybe Rory needed an invitation to leave? Was that possible? She didn't know, and, really, it wasn't high on her list of priorities right then.

Fortunately, Rory had invited Xander to go to the Dragonfly that evening for dinner. It was late, he might be there now. So Rory called the inn.

"'allo?"

"Michel! It's Rory. Is Xander there?" Rory said urgently. "I need to talk to him."

"Who?"

"Tall, dark haired man, early twenties. Californian." Rory said quickly. "Please tell me he's there!"

"Would zis be the man who introduced 'imself as Valley Jesus?"

"Yes!"

"'e is 'ere somewhere."

"Um, could you bring him to the phone?"

"Zat is not my job."

"Please?" Rory begged, feeling as though she just might burst into tears if Michel didn't get Xander right now.

Fortunately, Michel managed to pick up on the urgency. Rory dimly heard him call "Xander? I 'ave a phone call for Xander. Are you 'ere?"

A moment later, Xander said "Hi, Rory. What's up?"

"Oh thank God. Xander, come home, to Lorelai's. Whatever Giles did didn't work, I'm a vampire, yes, I'm sure, don't bother asking, just get here now and fix it."

"Right." Xander said in a steely voice that Rory had never heard before. "I'll be right there. Try and stay calm."

Xander hung up, and Rory, now left with nothing to occupy her mind and hands with, utterly ignored Xander's words and panicked.

Xander ran to the parking lot and dove into his car. Then he drove off as fast as he could. He didn't care if Taylor gave him a thousand parking tickets. He was going to be there for Rory.

Heedless of the danger of driving while using a mobile, Xander pulled out his phone and called Giles.

"He-"

"Giles. Ethan lied. He didn't stop what he was doing to Rory. She's turned into a vampire. So, find him, get him to fix it, and then cut him into little pieces from the feet up and make him watch." Xander said in a perfectly flat voice. He hung up.

Giles looked as his phone for a couple of seconds before swearing in half a dozen different languages. He hunted for the scrap of paper that Riley and given him that had his contact details on it, then hastily dialled them in.

"Major Finn."

"Hello, Riley. Listen, you know what I told you about Ethan before?"

"Yes." Riley replied. Giles had told him all about Ethan's curse on Rory.

"He lied. He didn't break it. She's just turned into a vampire. So make him reverse it."

"Giles-"

"And then shoot him before Xander gets his hands on him. Trust me, it'll be a mercy."

"Giles, it couldn't have been Ethan."

Giles hesitated. "What?"

"It can't be him. He's bound, Giles. After what you told us we asked our null magician to bind him. He can't work magic. Any ongoing spells he had were cancelled by the binding. Trust me, Giles, there is absolutely no way that Ethan did it."