I slipped my coat on as I exited the Bronze, and soon caught sight of Buffy and Cordelia. Buffy stood facing the girl, and her shoulders were stiff in agitation, while Cordelia had her hands planted on her hips.

"You know," Cordelia was saying, approaching Buffy, "we've never really been close, which is nice since I don't really like you that much, but you have on occasion saved the world and stuff so I'm gonna do you a favor."

I frowned and tilted my head. What was she up to?

"And this great favor is?" Buffy queried.

"I'm gonna give you some advice:" Cordelia answered, "Get over it."

Buffy gaped at her.

"Excuse me?" she said.

"Whatever's causing the Joan Collins 'tude," Cordelia continued, "deal with it. Embrace the pain, spank your inner moppet, whatever, but get over it. Because pretty soon you're not even gonna have the loser friends you've got now."

"I think it's about time you started minding your own business." Buffy hissed.

"No, Slayer." I said, stepping out of the shadows. I slid my hands into my pockets but lifted my chin so that I met her hardened gaze in defiance.

"You've made it everyone else's business." I continued, walking slowly into the light to join them.

"What're you talking about?" Buffy demanded in exasperation.

"When you're behaving so callous, so unthinking, so hurtful, you've made it everyone else's business." I told her. "Cordelia's right, much as I am loathe to admit it. You're pushing everyone away with how you're acting."

"I don't know what you mean." Buff insisted. I shook my head at her, but never took my eyes from her face. She was having trouble holding my gaze.

"You know precisely what I'm talking about." I said quietly, I took a hand out of my pocket to motion back to the Bronze.

"That display in there?" I said, "That jeopardized the friendships you've been privileged to have so far." She bit her lip and looked down. "You can't play with emotions like that," I continued, keeping my voice low, "You can't play with the feelings of others and not expect repercussions. You know how Willow feels about Xander, and you know how he feels about you. For that matter, you know how Angel feels about you. How could you do that to all of them?"

"What would you know about it?" Buffy snapped, "Either of you?" Her eyes flashed angrily at me.

"You're not even human." She reminded me.

I felt a growl rumble deep in my chest, but it didn't surface.

"I may not be," I acknowledged, "but I know what it's like to lose friends, to be toyed with, to be hurt." I took a breath, and stepped even closer, "I promise you this, Slayer," I tried to sound nonthreatening as possible, but I'm not exactly sure I succeeded; "if you hurt either of those children, you will have me to reckon with."

There was a heavy silence as Buffy registered what I was saying. She looked hurt, confused, embarrassed, and then she swallowed, blinked, and the look was gone.

"I'm shaking in my boots." She said, smirking, but she would remember what I had said. I could see it in her eyes.

"Nighty night." She said, then turned away and left us.

"Thanks for the backup." Cordelia said after a pause. I shrugged. I didn't feel as though I'd accomplished much.

"I'm going home." I told her.

"You're not going after her?" she asked. I shook my head.

"There wouldn't be any point, right now." I answered with a sigh. "I'll see you tomorrow, Cordelia. Tell Willow and Xander where I went, will you?"

"If I think about it." Cordelia answered, but I was already walking away, my mind in a whirl, trying to come up with some way to snap Buffy out of whatever it was that was bothering her.

When I reached home, I was no closer to figuring out what to do. Talking to her hadn't really produced any immediate effects, although maybe over time my words would yield more fruit. Or maybe they wouldn't. And I hate waiting.

I sighed, unlocked the front door and stepped into the foyer.

The lights were on in the kitchen and in the den. I heard Giles humming quietly to himself, accompanied by the clinking sound of a spoon against porcelain. I could smell Yorkshire Gold in the air and it was a calming sensation. Not to mention the faint smell of old leather, paper, and ink adding to the effect.

"How much did you make?" I asked, entering the kitchen. Giles started in surprise, then turned to smile tiredly at me.

"A potful. I need it." He answered. I nodded, and he wordlessly handed me the cup of tea he'd just prepared for himself, then started making another one while I gratefully sipped at the steaming beverage.

Through the steam, I saw him glancing at me curiously.

"You look as though you've had a rough night," he murmured, "Was the band too loud again?"

I forced a small smile and shook my head. He'd become a little over-protective about me going to the Bronze, since one time the band playing had been especially loud, and we'd been sitting so close I'd come home with a headache that left me even more sensitive to sunlight, and too sick to eat anything for a week.

"No." I said, pinching the bridge of my nose, "No, it's not that. It's Buffy."

"Hm." Giles answered, frowning at his tea.

"She's not well, Giles." I told him, and then explained everything that had happened in the Bronze.

When I'd finished, we both sat on the sofa, silently drinking our tea.

"She's not well." Giles murmured after a long time. I nodded.

"Exactly." I answered.

"I don't understand how she could do a thing like that to the both of them," he continued, as though I hadn't spoken, "that's just not like her. Whatever she went through, it couldn't make her blind to what she's doing to them." He sighed and shook his head.

"It's troubling, to say the very least." I said. He nodded.

"I need to talk to Willow and Xander," he said, "we've got to figure something out. Or at least smooth things over until Buffy goes back to normal." He shook his head again and stared into his tea, as though it somehow would reveal a solution to our problem.

Unfortunately, the tea did not give us a solution, but Willow had a theory as to what was wrong with Buffy when we convened with her and Xander at school the next day.

"She's possessed!" she declared. I raised an eyebrow at her, but she didn't notice my skepticism.

"Possessed?" Giles repeated, retrieving a soft drink from the machine. He caught my glance and motioned to the can he was holding, asking me if I wanted one. I shook my head and came towards the table we were seated at.

"That's the only explanation that makes any sense," Willow continued, "you should have seen her last night, that wasn't Buffy."

Xander looked ruffled.

"Are we overlooking the idea that she may be very attracted to me?" he said. As if on cue, all of simply looked at him.

A faint blush rose in his boyish cheeks.

"She's possessed." He agreed.

"Possessed by what?" Giles asked.

"A possessing thing." Willow supplied. I gave a grunt.

"Well, that narrows it down to the few hundred beings of legend and mythology that can possess human beings." I muttered.

"Well, what if when the Master killed her some mystical bad-guy transference thing happened?" Xander asked.

Willow at least was willing to accept the theory.

"I mean," she continued, "why else would she be acting like a B-I-T-C-H?"

I smirked at the comment and Giles sighed.

"Willow," he said, "I think we're all a little too old to be spelling things out."

"A bitcah?" Xander said in confusion. Giles glanced at him, blinked, and gave a slight shake of his head. I could see him giving up on ever explaining anything accurately to Xander.

"Yes," he murmured, "I suggest, that the explanation to her behavior may be something more mundane."

"If one can call post-traumatic stress disorder mundane, certainly." I agreed.

The bell shrieked at us to get to class, but while everyone else began to file away, we remained seated.

"She may simply have what you Americans refer to as 'issues'." Giles said.

I was going to object that technically I wasn't American, but I could see he was speaking to the children, not exactly to me.

"Her experience with the Master must have been extremely traumatic," he continued, "she was, at least for a few minutes, technically dead. I don't think she's dealt with that on a conscious level." I caught a whiff of the Slayer in the air, and saw Xander stiffen.

I reached over and tried to tug at Giles' arm before he said something Buffy would overhear, but he was ignoring me.

"She's convinced herself that she's invulnerable," he prattled on, "for the very reason that she feels-" I gave a hard pull on his arm that almost made him spill his soft drink while Xander interrupted loudly by saying: "That's a very interesting point about trout."

I swear I don't know where the boy comes up with these distractions. His brain is forever a mystery to me.

"Trout?" Giles repeated, frowning in confusion.

Then Buffy stepped up to our table and Giles caught on to what Xander and I were doing.

"Trout!" He repeated, "Yes, trout i-is a-a fish." He continued, then looked up at Buffy, "Good morning," he greeted her, "did you sleep well?"

Buffy crossed her arms, very pointedly refusing to look at me.

"Like a rock." She answered. "Master's gone."

It was said so casually at first the words didn't sink in, but we all froze and stared at her. A sick feeling came over me and I looked at Giles.

"I'm sorry?" he said, lost.

"The Master," Buffy repeated, "I went by his grave last night. And they have a vacancy."

"Good God." Giles murmured.

"What would somebody want with Master bones?" Willow asked.

"The point is, who'd know about them?" I answered.

"Vampires." Willow said.

"So they want them as a trophy?" Xander asked, "A horrible conversation piece?"

"Dark magic." I murmured, looking at Giles again. Buffy nodded.

"They're gonna bring him back." She said. Then she turned and fixed a fierce look on Giles. "They're gonna bring the Master back to life and I seem to recall you telling me he was history."

"Buffy, I've never heard of a revivification ritual being successful." Giles defended himself.

"But you've heard of them," Buffy snapped, "thanks for the warning."

I felt another hot flush of anger and I curled my hands into fists. The Slayer was really beginning to rub me the wrong way.

"Buffy," Willow interrupted, "Giles did bury as best we-"

Buffy whirled on her.

"This is Slayer stuff," she snapped, "can we have a little less from the civilians, please?" Willow's face fell and I stood up, knocking my chair back.

"Buffy-" I growled, while Xander stepped in for Willow as well.

"That's just about enough-" he snapped back at her, but the situation was deescalated before it had really even begun by the arrival of the principal.

"I believe some of us have class." He said, glancing around at the children and the Slayer, but he seemed not to even notice me.

He looked at Giles.

"And some of us have jobs."

"Yes," Giles said, rising, "well, I'll uh, see you all in the library, later. We'll continue this discussion."

"About trout." Willow said before taking her leave. Buffy lingered long enough to give me a scathing glare. I ignored her, which I think bothered her more than an answering look or comment would have done.

I gave Giles a quick tug on the hem of his shirt to let him know I was heading to the library, and then slipped away before the principal thought to glance at me.

I don't think I'd ever been angrier with Buffy. I'd very nearly been ready to, how do you put it nowadays…'throw down' with her when she spoke so sharply to Willow. At the same time, it hurt that I was losing her.

But we would get her back. We'd fix it. We had to.

Whatever the vampires were planning with the Master, it wouldn't work. If I had to rip every one of them apart myself, I would. They weren't going to take another friend from me. Not again.