Giles hadn't been receptive to the idea of classes to learn how to help Buffy deal with trauma, he thought she'd recover just fine. It was like he thought, Slayers could recover from virtually anything. For all their power, they were still human, they still bled. It just wasn't always visual. Like Heidi. He'd checked on her. It was likely she'd spend the rest of her life in the institute. She'd gone totally unresponsive. Kyle would spend the rest of his life being taken care of, probably in a different kind of institute and Rhonda would have to relearn everything she'd known from kindergarten on. At least Amy was talking to her dad, when he'd asked, she said the nightmares were less frequent and Marcie was still seeing the school counselor, but he'd noticed she seemed to have made some friends, including Johnathan, Jonno as they used to call him in grade school. Good, Jonno could use more friends, too. He was one of those that easily got overlooked around here. They didn't need another student going invisible and attacking people. One had been quite enough, thank you. She was becoming more outgoing and was still funny. He'd been passing by when he heard her make a joke and laughed out aloud. It had involved clowns. She'd winked at him when she heard him laugh. Giles was also being passive in regards to Buffy continuing to see Angel. Buffy was happy and when Buffy was happy she did her job, which made Giles happy. It was like Giles thought she was her job and nothing else. Not to mention, Angel didn't seem to be suffering so much. Something else to keep an eye on. After all, Giles had said, less suffering could break the curse. Cue suffering for everyone else.

But none of that was why Xander was here right now, in a cemetery. Giles' week attitude seemed to have sparked a feeling in his gut. A need to make sure the people he was responsible for weren't being preyed on by those unnatural things. He didn't question it, because it seemed as natural to him as they seemed unnatural. He also didn't question how he could find them so easily. Like he could smell them or something. After all, they were corpses, animated or not. So of course they smelled. After dusting another one, he decided to head home. Tomorrow was a school day and he had a test. For now his territory was safe.

#######

Someone was digging up corpses. Buffy had discovered body parts. Was it people or demons, was the question. Xander really hoped it wasn't people because that was just sick. All the body parts had something in common. They came from teenager girls. Giles speculated that someone was raising zombies. Uh no, that requires whole bodies, not parts. The science fair is happening now maybe we should illegally search students lockers to figure out if a science fair contestant is responsible. After all, it isn't like Snyder hates them and keeps trying to catch them doing something wrong. Oh wait, he did! His observation on that idea didn't go over so well. But they did find some interesting things in Eric's locker. Anatomy books, pictures and an article on one of the dead girls. Looks like we've got a suspect. Eric had a brother who died, maybe it put him over the edge.

Buffy searched Eric's home and found a lab. And pictures with a drawn line cutting the heads off. One of them was Cordelia, which sparked a protective feeling in Xander. They'd searched the school and found another lab. Turns out, Eric used science to raise his brother, Chris, from the dead and Chris wanted a girlfriend so he wasn't alone. So Eric was Frankensteining him one. The crowning achievement was to be Cordelia's head on a jigsaw body. She didn't need a new body, hers was perfect the way it was.

She was strapped to a gurney, so while Buffy was dealing with the Frankenstein's monster, Xander was working to get the straps undone around Cordelia. She was clearly scared and frankly, so was he. The lab had caught fire and heat was making him sweat, he couldn't get a good grip on the buckles. Finally he gave up and just pushed it out through the flames, jumping on top of Cordelia and body surfing through the flames.

Afterward he led her out of the building. There were ambulances and fire trucks around. He didn't want to let go of her, she could've died.

As she was being given oxygen, he was gripping her hand and she was letting him.

"Gods, that was scary, Cordy. You could've died. They were clearly nuts. Are you alright?"

She managed to nod, but didn't take the oxygen mask off. After a night in the hospital for observation she was released and went home. The next day she sought out Xander, finding him by the library.

"Xander, I just want to thank you. You were really brave and you saved me."

"I wasn't going to let you die. Cordy. I promise you, if you're in trouble, I will help you."

"That's good to know. Anyway, thank you."

Just as her boyfriend came by.

"Are you really talking to these losers?"

"In case you didn't hear, I got caught in a fire here at school last night. Xander saved me. I was just thanking him."

"You seem fine to me. Still hot."

Cordelia looked disgusted and said. "I think we're done. See you around, sometime." And turned and walked away.

"This is your fault, loser." He said to Xander.

"What, that you're a moron? Nope, pretty sure you came that way. Listen, I gotta go. Damsels in distress to save and all that jive. Have a good life." And walked away smirking. Yep, the week may have started out bad, but it was definitely improving.