A week since she'd finally started dealing with her issues, and Buffy had by now reached the conclusion that it would be a while before she'd actually finished doing that. Still, she figured, her friends had forgiven her, and their presence helped to ease her mind. Giles offered his own support, of course, as did her mother – whether she knew it or not. They'd taken good care of her since her return.

Still, she hadn't really seen much of Angel this week. She knew she would need to really talk with him about her attitude towards him, but she figured the guy was over two hundred years old – he could probably stand to wait longer than the others.

For now, she sat on top of a gravestone in the cemetery, belonging to Stephan Korshak, who had more than likely died at the hands of vampires recently. She played with her yo-yo, wishing she could be anywhere else but here right now. "C'mon, Stephan, rise and shine. Some of us have a ton of trig homework waiting."

No response. Typical dead guy.

"Hey."

Buffy gasped for a moment, causing her Walk the Dog to derail a bit as she whirled around. Angel walked up, an apologetic look on his face for startling her.

"Is this a bad time?" he asked.

Buffy didn't bother to regain her dignity – way too annoyed at being out this late to care. "Are you crazy? You don't just sneak up on people in a graveyard. You make noise when you walk. You stomp or… yodel."

Angel shrugged as he sidled up alongside. "I heard you were on the hunt."

"I'm supposed to be, but…," she indicated the tombstone, "lazybones here don't wanna come out and play."

Angel eyed the grave and saw how freshly dug it looked. "When you first wake up it's a little disorienting. He'll show."

Buffy tilted her head curiously at him. "It's weird to think of you going through that," she said thoughtfully.

"It's weird to go through," he agreed. He looked around briefly. "So, uh, you're here alone?"

"Yeah! Why?"

"I just thought you'd have somebody with you. Xander or someone."

Buffy frowned. "Xander."

"Or someone."

"Nope." She hopped down off the gravestone, her lips twisting in a playful smirk. "Why? Are you jealous?"

Angel chuckled. "Of Xander? Please. He's just a kid."

"Is it 'cause I danced with him? Would you have been jealous if I danced with Jesse instead?"

"'Danced with' is a pretty loose term. 'Mated with' might be a little closer."

Buffy faux-pouted. "Don't you think you're being a little unfair? It was one little dance, which I only did to make you crazy, by the way." She gestured at him. "Behold my success."

"I am not jealous."

Now Buffy's pouting felt more genuine. "You're not jealous? What, vampires don't get jealous?"

Maybe not jealous, but Angel became quickly exasperated. "See? Whenever we fight you always bring up the vampire thing."

"Well, I didn't come here to fight." Suddenly, a vampire – the one she'd been waiting for all night – lunged at her and knocked her into Angel. A watched grave never rises, perhaps. They fell to the ground, but Buffy quickly got up. "Oh, right, I did."

Stephan threw a few punches which Buffy easily blocked. She punched him in the face several times and kicked him in the jaw, sending him stumbling into a large adjacent gravestone. She looked around frantically.

"Where's my stake? I-I know I had a stake!"

"I didn't see a stake!" Angel replied, more focused on Stephan.

The vampire grabbed a shovel lying by the other gravestone and came at them again. Angel attacked, but Stephan brought the shovel up and hit him in the side of the face, knocking him onto his back. He left Angel lying there and stepped toward Buffy. She met him and jumped over the shovel when Stephan swung it at her legs. He swung it at her again, but she caught it, hit him again and broke the handle. She spun around with her half and jammed the broken handle into his chest. He fell over backward and burst into ashes as he hit the ground.

Angel got up, holding the side of his head, as Buffy caught her breath. "What do you mean he's just a kid? Does that mean I'm just a kid, too?"

Shaking his head, Angel turned to leave. "Look, obviously I made a mistake coming here tonight."

Buffy refused to let him go that easily. "Oh, no you don't. You can't just turn and walk away from me like that," she said, following him determinedly. "It takes more than that to get rid of me."

And she fell into an open grave with an open and empty coffin at the bottom. To his credit, when he heard her cry out, Angel came over and bent down to look. "You okay?" he called down.

"I'm fine," Buffy said, sitting up and taking a breath to get her bearings. "Gee, I wish people wouldn't leave open graves laying around like this."

Angel frowned as she got to her feet. "So. Another vampire has risen tonight."

She poked her head out of the grave and looked across the grass. She could make out footprints. "I don't think so. Look at those tracks. Whoever was buried here didn't rise from this grave." She climbed out of the grave and found a girl's shoe nearby. "She was dragged from it."

The next day, Buffy rendezvoused with Jesse and Xander at school – Willow was busy at the moment – and headed to the library with them. They walked in and found Giles sitting in a chair and talking to another empty chair across from him. They paused to observe, as if taking part in a nature documentary.

"W-w-w-what I'm proposing is, um… and I-I don't mean to appear indecorous, is, is, um, a, a-a-a social engagement, um, a, a, a, a-a date, if you're amenable." The Watcher winced at his stammering. "You idiot!"

"Boy…," drawled Buffy, making Giles jump up from the chair in alarm. "I guess we never realized how much you like that chair."

Giles tried to compose himself, accidentally knocking over a stack of books in the process. "I-I-I was just working on…"

"Your pickup lines?"

"Um, in a manner of speaking, yes," he confirmed as he tidied up the mess.

Buffy smirked as she and the two boys more fully entered the library. "Then if you wouldn't mind a little Gene and Roger, you might wanna leave off the 'idiot' part. Being called an idiot tends to take people out of the dating mood."

Xander grinned a little. "Hmm, it actually kinda turns me on."

Jesse patted him faux-consolingly on the shoulder. "I'm glad you shared that with us."

Buffy continued to the table and took a seat. "You also might wanna avoid words like 'amenable' and 'indecorous', y'know. Speak English, not whatever they speak in, um…"

Giles raised a sarcastic eyebrow. "England?"

"Yeah. You just say, 'Hey, I got a thing, you maybe have a thing, maybe we could have a thing.'"

The sarcasm didn't fade. "Oh, thank you, Cyrano."

"I'm not finished. Then you say, 'How do you feel about Mexican?'"

"About Mexicans?"

"Mexican. Food. You take her for food, for which you then pay."

"Oh. Right."

Xander chuckled as he and Jesse took their seats at the table. "So this chair-woman. We are talking about Ms Calendar, right?"

Giles' eyes widened in alarm that even Xander Harris had worked out who was the object of his affection. "W-what makes you think that?"

"No offense, G-Man," said Jesse, "but you've been at this school for over a year now, and you only really talk to four kids and the computer science teacher." He paused to think. "Actually, I meant to be kidding, but that's the literal truth, isn't it?"

"Plus, she already knows that you're a school librarian, so you don't have to worry about how to break that embarrassing news to her," added Xander brightly.

Buffy nodded in agreement. "Add it all up and it all spells 'duh'."

Xander's smile turned mischievous. "Now, is it time to have a talk about the facts of life?"

Fearing his pale skin would burst into flames from the need to blush, Giles abruptly left the table. "You know, I'm suddenly deciding this is none of your business," he said, starting up the stairs.

"Y'know, because that whole stork thing is a smoke screen," the lad continued. Giles stopped halfway up to glare at him, but Buffy and Jesse laughed quietly, showing him to be outnumbered in his belief that this was not funny.

Straightening his glasses, Giles asked, "So, um, how did things go last night? Did Mr Korshak show up on schedule?"

Buffy nodded. "More or less. Angel and I took care of him."

The mirth in Xander's eyes dimmed considerably at that name. "Angel," he said a little bitterly, but Buffy gave him a look that silenced him while Jesse just raised an eyebrow at him sternly.

"There's something else, though," Buffy continued. "We found an empty grave."

"Another vampire?"

"No. No, this one was dug up and the body was taken out."

His interest piqued, Giles came back down to the table, almost giddy. "Grave robbing? That's new. Interesting."

Buffy grimaced as her Watcher's boylike wonder at the creepiness of the world. "I know you meant to say 'gross and disturbing'."

Thankfully, Giles caught her point and corrected himself. "Yes, yes, yes of course. Uh, terrible thing. Must, must put a stop to it. Damn it."

"This is why you need to socialize more," Jesse chuckled.

"So," said Xander. "Why does someone want to dig up graves?"

Giles looked up thoughtfully. "Well, I'll, uh, collect some theories. Uh, it would help if we knew who the body belonged to."

Buffy remembered the name from the headstone. "Meredith Todd. Ring a bell?" she asked, addressing all of them now.

Xander shook his head. "No."

"Should we?" asked Jesse.

"She died recently. She was our age."

Xander shrugged helplessly. "Drawing a blank."

Giles tapped the side of a nearby PC. "Why don't we ask Willow to, uh, fire this thing up and, uh, track Meredith down?"

Jesse grinned. "If you say the word 'computer', do you literally burst into flames?"

Out in the hall, sign-ups for the science fair went on, with Willow writing in her entry on a sheet of paper. One of the boys, Eric, came up to her with a camera and pointed it at her. "Smile!" he announced as he snapped an impromptu picture.

Willow, for her part, didn't appreciate having her picture taken without her saying so. "Hey!"

Eric ignored her, turning around to see another girl. "Oh, look at those legs!" he grinned lecherously as he went for the picture.

"No, thank you," Willow grimaced.

At that moment, Chris, another science student, walked up behind Willow, shooting Eric a disapproving look. "Eric, will you knock it off?" His friend looked disappointed to have his fun cut short, but he relented for the time being.

Willow smiled gratefully. "Hey, Chris!"

"Hey," Chris replied as he picked up the sign-up sheet. She watched over his shoulder at his writing, prompting him to look up at her.

"Oh, I, I was just wondering what you were gonna do this year," she explained sheepishly.

"Why?"

"Because every year you win and I place second, so I just thought I'd see what I'm up against."

Chris grinned. "You know what the key is? If Dr. Clark doesn't understand your experiment, he gives you higher marks so it looks like he understands your experiment." He took a moment to read Willow's entry. "'The Effects of Sub-Violet Light Spectrum Deprivation on the Development of Fruit Flies'?" He smirked approvingly. "That should do the trick."

Their friendly moment was cut short by Cordelia showing up and signing up as well, much to their surprise. "Okay, I'm doing this under protest. It is not fair that they're making participation in this year's science fair mandatory. I don't think anyone should have to do anything educational in school if they don't want to."

Willow frowned as she read the entry. "'The Tomato: Fruit or Vegetable'?"

"I wanted to do something I could finish in a weekend, alright?" she sneered. All of a sudden, Eric flashed a picture of Cordelia, much to her anger. "Stop it! What are you doing?" she demanded. "We are under fluorescent light, for God's sake!"

"The camera loves you!" Eric said as winningly as he could.

"I didn't think yearbook nerds came out of hibernation till spring."

Eric grinned as he took another picture. "It's for my private collection," he said with a wink.

Chris tried to reach for the camera. "Eric! Will you quit it?"

At that moment, Buffy came through the milling students, only to get a face full of Eric's flash, making her blink. "Uh, sorry to interrupt, Willow, but it's the Bat Signal."

Willow nodded, somewhat relieved. "Okay, sure. See you later, Chris. Thanks for the tip."

Cordelia watched them go, then turned to see Eric raise his eyebrows at her. Shuddering with disgust, she followed.

"Cordelia's so fine. Y'know, she'd be just perfect for us," Eric grinned.

Chris glared at him. "Don't be an idiot. She's alive."

Once in the library, Willow sat down in front of the PC and started hacking. "This shouldn't take long. I'm probably the only girl in school who has the coroner's office bookmarked as a favorite place."

They heard the door open behind them, and they only somewhat looked up as Cordelia stormed in. "Hi. Sorry to interrupt your little undead playgroup, but I need to ask Willow if she'll help me with my science fair project."

Willow didn't even look up. "It's a fruit."

Cordelia carried on as if she hadn't spoken. "I would've asked Chris to help me, but then that would've brought back too many memories of Daryl."

"I found it!" Willow said triumphantly. "Meredith Todd died in a car accident last week."

"Of course, I have learned to deal with my pain," Cordelia said distantly.

Buffy squinted at the screen. "How was her neck?"

"Fine, except for being broken," replied Willow.

Realizing no one heard her, Cordelia stamped her foot petulantly. "Hello! Can we deal with my pain, please?"

Giles, coming out of his office, simply said, "There, there," patting her on the shoulder and continuing up into the stacks.

Willow's eyes flitted over the details on the screen. "It says that Meredith and two other girls in the car were killed instantly. They were all on the Fondren High Pep Squad, on the way to a game."

"So what does this mean?" asked Jesse.

Xander shrugged. "That Fondren might actually beat Sunnydale in the cross-town body count competition this year?"

"She wasn't killed by vampires," said Buffy. "Somebody did dig up her corpse."

Cordelia made a face. "Eww! Why is it that every conversation you people have has the word 'corpse' in it?"

"Assuming this girl had no enemies who would want to mutilate her corpse," said Jesse, a little nauseated himself, "why would someone dig her up?"

Giles came down with a couple of books. "Uh, here's what I've come up with. Demons who eat the flesh of the dead to absorb their souls. Or, it could obviously be a voodoo practitioner."

"You mean making a zombie?" asked Willow.

"Uh, zomb ies , more likely. For most traditional purposes, a voodoo priest would require more than one."

Buffy nodded. "So, we should see if the other girls from the accident are AWOL, too. Maybe we can figure out what this creep has in mind if we know whether or not he's dealing in volume."

"So, we dig up some graves tonight?" asked Xander.

"Dibs on not touching the coffin," said Jesse, still looking queasy.

Willow lit up. "Oh, boy! A field trip! Are you gonna call Angel?" she asked Buffy.

But the Slayer shook her head. "I don't think so."

Xander nodded fiercely. "Yeah, why bother him, huh?"

"Angel and I have been, um… Never mind. As far as Angel's concerned, I'm taking the night off, okay?"

Xander nodded decisively. "So, we're set then. Say, nine-ish? BYO shovel?"

"And I'll pack some food," said Willow. "Who else likes those little powdered doughnuts?"

Xander and Jesse both raised their hands before the latter glanced at Cordelia. "Gonna take a wild guess that you're not interested in joining us?" he asked, unable to keep from grinning a little.

Cordelia gave a sarcastic smile. "Darn, I have cheerleader practice tonight. Boy, I wish I knew we were gonna be digging up dead people sooner. I would've canceled."

"All right," said Xander, "but if you come across the army of zombies, can you page us before they eat your flesh?"

Making a look of absolute disgust, Cordelia huffed and left the library.

Giles looked so weary. "Xander?"

"Huh?"

"Zombies don't eat the flesh of the living."

"Yeah, I knew that," Xander grinned. "But did you see the look on her face?"

That night, they gathered in the cemetery. A familiar enough location for them – weirdly – but tonight, they had a different mission from just wandering around waiting for a grasping hand to emerge from the dirt. Giles, Jesse and Xander dug at the grave. Despite assurances that it wasn't that big of a deal, Jesse still complained occasionally about how gross he felt digging someone up, even if it were to aid with their mission. "I make no promises I won't be sick," he said firmly.

Buffy and Willow watched from nearby, trying to see how many powdered doughnuts they could eat before the guys noticed. "I couldn't believe Angel," Buffy said with a mouth full of doughnut. "He was acting all jealous, and he wouldn't even admit it."

"Jealous of what?" asked Willow.

"Of Xander."

"Because you did that sexy dance with him?"

Buffy made a face. "Am I ever gonna live that down?"

"No," Willow shrugged, munching on another doughnut. "Personally, I would've preferred it if you danced with Jesse. I mean, I know you only did it to make Angel jealous, but come on."

Buffy sighed. "I guess I was just trying to piss everyone off." She smiled briefly. "Besides, Jesse probably would've had a heart attack if I sexy danced with him."

Willow nodded. "He probably would've flailed his hands all over the place."

"Sweat would've gotten everywhere!"

The two girls giggled until a small mound of dirt suddenly landed not too far from them, kicking up a cloud of dust. "Hey!" they both protested, trying to protect the innocent doughnuts from being ruined.

"Oh, I'm sorry ," said Jesse dramatically. "I didn't mean to interrupt your idle chit chat while we're busy digging up a dead body ."

"Agreed," said Xander. "This might go a lot faster if you femmes actually picked up a shovel, too."

"Here, here," said Giles wearily.

Buffy sniffed daintily. "Sorry, but I'm an old-fashioned gal. I was raised to believe that men dig up the corpses and the women have the babies."

Jesse grumbled under his breath. "Welcome to the '90s, my ass."

Buffy and Willow giggled again as they resumed snacking. "So," said Buffy, "what was Cordelia's whole riff about painful memories? Who's Daryl?"

"Daryl Epps," said Willow. "Chris' older brother. He was a big football star. All-State two years ago. He was a running… He was a running…" She couldn't think of the word. "Uh, someone who runs and catches."

"Was he a studly?"

"Big time. All of the girls were crazy for him."

"And he broke Cordy's heart? Thus possibly proving its existence.""

"He died. Rock climbing or something? He fell."

Buffy winced. "Man, that's lousy. Poor Chris."

"Ever since then Chris has been real quiet," said Willow wistfully. "Kind of in his own world. I heard their mother doesn't even leave the house anymore."

Suddenly, they heard a loud thump from the grave, and then Giles called out, "I think we're there."

Buffy and Willow got up and approached the grave. "By the way," said Willow, "are we hoping to find a body, or no body?"

"Call me an optimist," said Xander, "but I'm hoping to find a fortune in gold doubloons."

Giles mopped his brow with a handkerchief. "Um, body would mean flesh-eating demon, while no body would point towards the, uh, army of zombies thing. Take your pick, really. Right, then, uh…" He paused before gesturing to Xander and Jesse. "Go on."

Jesse gave him an incredulous look. "I seem to recall you being the authority figure," he retorted. "The one who signed off on this little archeological dig."

"Plus," added Xander, "you're closer."

Buffy rolled her eyes as she climbed down. "Pathetic much? Move over." Once all the way in, she opened the casket.

Back at the high school, Cordelia gave her cheerleaders one last chewing out before they headed home. "Guys, if we don't get this down by tomorrow, no one's gonna be led by our cheers. Practice."

The girls agreed and took off, leaving Cordelia to continue on to her own car as the others got in theirs, most of them driving off before she'd even reached it. She heard something by the fence and stopped to look around, realizing properly for the first time how empty the parking lot was.

"Hello?" she called out. She continued to her car and started to dig in her pack for her keys. She got them out and ran the rest of the way to her car. She nervously fumbled with the lock. "Xander Harris, if this is some kind of joke…"

Then – because of course she did – she dropped her keys, and they rolled under the car. She knelt down and reached for them frantically. On the other side of her car, she could see someone in black shoes approaching. She quickly got up and started to run. She could hear him following her, so she rounded a corner and dove inside a dumpster. She didn't care if it was grimy and smelly – she would live to shower another day.

She listened carefully until she heard him walk past. Cautiously, Cordelia checked to see if the coast was clear. When she pushed the lid up all the way, she turned around again to hop out, but was startled by… Angel. She let out a gasp but calmed down when she recognized him.

"Cordelia," he said cordially. "This is the last place I expected you to hang out."

"Oh, God!" Cordelia sagged with relief. "God, it's you. Why were you following me?"

"I wasn't sure it was you at first. I'm looking for Buffy."

"Buffy? Well, she's, uh…" She rolled her eyes at the thought – and she thought the dumpster was gross. "Big shock, she's at the graveyard."

Angel frowned. "She said she'd be home."

"Well, she lied. Isn't she a rascal? Well, you're in luck. It just so happens that my night is free." She struggled to get out, but something prevented her. "Uh, hold on, my skirt is caught." She reached behind her and got her skirt loose. "There."

She picked up what was holding her skirt and saw… a severed hand. She dropped it and screamed.

"So," said Xander as the gang headed back to the library, "both coffins are empty."

"Can't tell you how disappointed I am," Jesse grunted, wringing his hands.

Xander continued. "That makes three girls signed up for the army of zombies."

"Is it an army if you just have three?" asked Willow as they pushed through the doors.

"Zombie drill team then," shrugged Buffy.

To their surprise, in the gloom of the library, they saw Angel rise from the table and face them, with Cordelia also getting up while clinging to his arm. "You're back."

Buffy came up short. "Angel!"

The ensouled vampire's eyes darted to: "Xander."

Xander, not sure why he'd been acknowledged out of everyone, replied coolly, "Angel."

Angel's eyes returned to Buffy. "I thought you were taking the night off."

"I, I was, um, but something came up."

"Cordelia told me the truth."

Jesse tutted. "Cordy, you tattletale ," he grinned, earning himself a sneer from her.

Giles cleared his throat, hoping to stave off a lover's quarrel in his library. "Um, as long as you're here, perhaps you could be of some help. Hmm?" He looked at Buffy hopefully. "Hmm?"

Sighing, Buffy agreed. "We were investigating. Somebody's been digging up the bodies of dead girls."

"I know," Angel replied grimly. "We found some of them."

"You mean, like, two of the three?"

"I mean, like, some of them. Like parts."

Cordelia nodded, still gripping his arm. "It was horrible. Angel saved me from an arm. God, there were so many parts, they were everywhere. Why are these terrible things always happening to me?"

" Karma !" Xander coughed into his fist, getting a jab in the ribs from Jesse's elbow to shut him up.

Willow looked so deflated. "So much for our zombie theory."

"So much for all our theories," sighed Giles, putting his hands in his pockets.

Buffy frowned. "I don't get it. Why go to all the trouble to dig up three girls only to chop them up and throw them away? It doesn't make any sense. Especially from a time management standpoint."

"Well, what I saw didn't add up to three whole girls," Angel elaborated. "I think they kept some parts."

Buffy wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Could this get yuckier?"

"They probably kept the other parts to eat," Willow said with a helpful nod.

"Question answered."

Giles still looked perplexed. "Why dispose of the remains five miles from the cemetery at a school, of all places?"

"Probably because yet another one of our classmates is a psycho?" Jesse suggested dryly. "Gotta wonder how much of this is the Hellmouth's doing, and how much is just kids being crazy."

"This was no hatchet job," Angel continued. "Whoever made those incisions really knew what they were doing."

"Yes, really," said Giles, disbelieving. "What student here is gonna be that well versed in physiology?"

Willow squirmed. "Well, I can think of five or six guys in the science club. And me."

Xander's expression turned grave. "So, Will, come clean. Promise to never do it again, and we'll call it a night." She looked at him, her eyes wide. "He joked!" Xander joked awkwardly.

But Buffy made her mind up. "Willow, why don't you get these guys' locker numbers so we can do some checking?"

Willow nodded in agreement, but Cordelia shook her head. "No. I have to go home now. I have to take a bath and burn my clothes."

"You have to go?" Xander pretended to be disappointed. "Aw, too bad. Keep in touch. Buh-bye."

Cordelia ignored him. "I don't wanna go alone. I'm still fragile." She looked imploringly at Angel. "Can you take me?"

Angel, for his part, looked startled by the suggestion, turning to Buffy in open-mouthed shock. She gave him a stare of disapproval.

Naturally, Cordelia took it as a 'yes'. "Great! I'll drive?" She led the way out of the library as Angel gave Buffy another helpless look. The others stared after them, dumbfounded.

Except Xander, of course. "How about that? I always pegged him as a one-woman vampire."

Later that evening, the team set to work opening lockers with the sheet of combinations Willow had printed out. Giles fretted as he watched the four teens working on opening them. "You understand, in my capacity as school official, this search is completely unauthorized, and I, I cannot condone it."

"Fine, your butt's covered. Wanna grab a locker?" Buffy asked, handing him a sheet.

Giles reluctantly took it. "Uh, yes, yes, of course."

Satisfied, she directed Jesse to another locker. "Okay, Jesse – go see what's on Eric's annoying little mind."

Jesse frowned as he took the sheet and started on the locker. "Why am I looking in the future sex offender's locker? Is this another one of these 'old fashioned values' of yours?"

Buffy simply smiled sweetly before moving onto another locker.

Willow looked up from another locker. "Nothing in here but back issues of Scientific American," she said before doing a double take. "Ooo, I haven't read this one!"

Giles looked through his. "Nothing remarkable here."

Xander, however, opened another locker and immediately called them over. "Guys!" The others swarmed around him. "Your friend Chris Epps' locker," he told Willow.

Willow read off the titles of several books. "'Grey's Anatomy', 'Mortician's Desk Reference', 'Robicheaux's Guide to Muscles and Tendons'."

Giles reached in and pulled out a newspaper folded open to a picture of the three cheerleaders. The title above the picture reads 'Tragic Accident Kills Three'. "I think it's fair to say Chris is involved."

Xander nodded. "He's into corpses alright, but we still don't know why."

But Jesse called over to them from Eric's locker. "Ohh, I think we do," he said, looking mildly sick. He opened the locker door and showed them a collage of a woman made from parts of various pictures.

Down in Chris' basement, Eric sang to himself while Chris worked on a body. "I guess you'll say… What can make me feel this way? My girl… Talkin' 'bout my girl… My girl… How's my baby?"

Chris glared at him. He really hated working with this guy, but he couldn't get help from anyone else. "She's not your baby."

"She's not gonna be anybody's baby if we don't finish her soon," Eric replied.

"I'm working on it."

"So am I, friend. So am I." He hung up freshly developed pictures of Buffy, Willow and Cordelia to dry.

The next day, out on the school's balcony, Buffy joined Jesse, Willow and Xander sitting on the railing. "Any sign of our suspects?" asked Xander.

"Not yet," said Buffy, scanning the crowd below. "I don't get it. Why would anybody wanna make a girl?"

Jesse raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you really need me to explain it? What sad pathetic fool wouldn't dream of just pressing a button and creating the 'perfect woman'?" He paused briefly before looking sheepish. "I mean, I'm sensible enough to leave it to idle fantasy. These guys are going way overboard."

Xander sighed wistfully. "The things we do for love."

"Love has nothing to do with this," Buffy said sternly.

"Maybe not, but I'll tell you this: people don't fall in love with what's right in front of them. People want the dream. What they can't have. The more unattainable, the more attractive." Of course, during this little speech, Xander didn't notice Willow looking at him yearningly, nor did Buffy really notice how intently Xander looked at her while talking, and Angel was probably somewhere unaware that Buffy was thinking about him. Suddenly, Jesse felt very glad he was between crushes right now.

Willow hopped down from her perch. "And for Eric, the unattainable would include everyone. That's alive," she added. She walked around Xander to head down the stairs, the others following her.

"But what's the deal with Chris?" Jesse asked her. "Yeah, Eric's a creepzoid, but I didn't even think Chris and Eric were buddies , let alone reanimation partners."

Willow shrugged. "I dunno. That thing with his brother was really hard on him. And he talked about death a lot. Maybe he just wanted to get one-up on it."

"But it's not doable," insisted Buffy. "I mean, making someone from scraps, actually making them live."

"If it is, my science project is definitely coming in second this year."

Just ahead of them, they spotted Giles. "And speaking of love…"

Willow frowned at him. "We were talking about the reanimation of dead tissue."

"Do I deconstruct your segues?"

Buffy led them to the twitchy-looking Watcher. "Hey."

Giles jolted, having not been aware they were approaching. "Oh! Yes. Hello."

Stifling a smile, Buffy asked, "Still no sign of our mad doctors?"

For a moment, he didn't seem to remember their mission before his eyes lit up. "What? Oh! Uh, corpses, yes. Evil. Huh. Very good." He turned, and then they saw Ms Calendar talking to a student about some project they'd forgotten. "Very, very good," he murmured.

"Dude, we can hear your heart racing from here," grinned Jesse. "You gotta loosen up a little. You wanna show her you can be fun."

"Just remember," Buffy said quietly. "'I feel a thing, you feel a thing…' But personalize it."

"Personalize it?" Giles asked.

"She's a technopagan, right? Ask her to bless your laptop." She grinned. "Have fun." She immediately turned and left, with an also grinning trio of Jesse, Willow and Xander right behind her wishing him luck.

Giles looked alarmed at their retreating forms. "What? Oh! Don't… leave?"

Jenny walked by, smiling pleasantly as she passed. "Good morning, Rupert," she said, continuing without stopping.

Momentarily stunned by her acknowledgement of his existence, he called after her. "Uh, Ms Calendar?"

She looked at him but kept going. "Oh, no, please call me Jenny. Ms Calendar's my father."

Smiling briefly at the joke, Giles followed her into the halls. "Jenny, then," he said, still on edge. God, had he always been this pathetic? "You know, uh, Jenny, um…"

"Hmm?" she asked patiently.

"Would it a-appear indecorous… Uh, no, not in-in-indecorous, um…"

"Yeah...?"

Good lord, it was hot in here. "Well, um… Wha…" He tried taking a breath, but his brain still wouldn't get it together. "Ah, ah, um…"

"Rupert, look, I've gotta get inside and set up the lab," said Jenny.

Giles tried to speed himself up. "What, what I'm proposing is…"

But then, the accursed bell rang, indicating classes were to begin. "Ah! I gotta go! Sorry!" she said, hurrying into her classroom, leaving Giles standing out in the hall feeling like…

"You idiot!" he grumbled to himself.

Jenny suddenly stuck her head back out. "Hey! Listen, if it's important, why don't you just tell me at the game?"

Giles whirled around, startled. "Game?" he asked before he remembered. "Oh, uh, you're going to the football game?"

"Yeah, you seem surprised," she smiled.

"No! No, I… I just assumed that you… spent your evenings downloading incantations and, and, and casting bones."

"On game night? Are you nuts? You're going, too, right?"

"Oh, of course. Always, always do," he blatantly lied.

"So, we should just go together!" she said brightly. "Look, I could pick you up after school, and we'll grab a bite to eat on the way if you like. How do you feel about Mexican?"

Giles nodded, still unable to believe this was happening.

"Good! Okay! And whatever it is you wanna tell me, you can just tell me then. Okay?"

"Okay! Tonight, then." Jenny smiled and went back into her classroom. Giles, grinning like an idiot, murmured, "That went well. I think."

In the science classroom, Willow looked through a book while Xander fiddled around with the plastic body parts on the counter. Buffy and Jesse entered with more bad news. "Well, it's official," Buffy announced. "Chris and Eric didn't come to school today."

Xander set down the disembodied head he'd been playing with. "That's no coincidence."

Willow looked greatly disturbed. "Maybe they finished their project."

"God!" Buffy exclaimed. "What if it worked? What, what if that poor girl is walking around?"

"Poor girls , technically," Xander pointed out.

"Do you think we'll be able to spot her outright?" asked Jesse. "Like, I don't think these guys are professionals, but if they do a good enough job, she could be anyone."

"I don't think we need to worry about that just yet," Giles announced, stepping into the room. "I spoke to a press person this morning about the remains. The police have finished sorting through them, and apparently they found three heads in the dumpster."

Buffy frowned. "They only had three girls."

"Precisely."

"So, they don't have the whole, uh, package?" Willow asked awkwardly.

"Heads must be no good," mused Xander. "Huh. I found 'em attractive enough." Everyone gave him a disturbed look. "Well, obviously I'm not as sick as Chris and Eric," he said defensively.

"I'm relieved to hear that," said Jesse, still looking nauseated.

"Based on what the police have put together," Giles continued, "I would say they're one step short of completing their masterpiece."

"One step," Willow repeated, her eyes falling on the plastic head Xander had been playing with.

Down in Chris' basement, Eric was giving an impassioned speech to try and motivate his partner in crime. "We're running out of time. If we wait too long, the onset of atrophy in the limbs will be irreversible."

Chris fidgeted, not meeting his eyes. "We can turn up the current. That'll buy us a day, at least."

But that wasn't good enough for Eric. "We will lose the entire body if we don't attach a head soon."

"We have time."

"We don't ! The crash with the girls was lucky. But we can't just keep waiting around for another lucky accident to drop a head in our laps. You know what we have to do. Hell, it's just one lousy girl."

Chris glared fiercely at him. "I won't do it. I… I can't… kill anyone." He turned to the figure in the shadows. "Please! Understand. I… I can't do that! Please don't make me."

Daryl stepped forward, his discolored face and criss-crossed stitches now more visible. "But you gave me your word. You promised me, little brother, that I wouldn't be alone."

Eric indicated the incomplete female body on the table near them. "The body is perfect. And if we harvest a head tonight, she'll be ready by sunrise."

Daryl looked at Chris imploringly. "When you brought me back you promised you'd take care of me. I need this, Chris. I need someone."

Chris tried to reason with him. Surely, his older brother could still be reasoned with. He had to understand how tall of an order this was. "Please don't ask me to do this. Don't ask me to take a life."

Eric shook his head. "I tried to tell him," he said to Daryl. "If you take a life in order to make a life, the whole thing is a wash. No harm, no foul."

Ignoring him, Chris continued to try and appeal to Daryl. There had to still be a shred of humanity left in him, despite his current state. "Maybe you could… you could go out…"

"No!" Daryl insisted.

"Let people know!"

"They can't see me. Chris, you've always been smarter than me. You were always the brains. You're the only one who can help me now. Third and long, seconds to go. Where do you throw? Where do you throw?"

Chris sighed. Football metaphors again. Never a good sign. "Number five. Daryl's gonna drive."

"Help me, brother." Reluctant, Chris nodded. He would do what he could. Daryl hugged him. "Thank you." Then, he looked at Eric. "Show me!" Eric pulled out the photos he'd taken the other day of Buffy, Willow and Cordelia. It didn't take long for him to choose. "This one," he said, pointing at the photo of Cordelia.

"Ha, ha," Eric chuckled. "A man of taste." He grabbed a pair of scissors and cut around Cordelia's hair. " My girl… Talkin' 'bout my girl… My girl…! " he sang as he snipped her head off.

In the library, Willow had checked the obituaries for the three girls but hadn't found anything that would make for a likely candidate for being a reanimated girl head.

"They seem kinda picky for guys who had three heads to begin with," said Xander.

"Formaldehyde," Willow explained.

"No, thanks. I'm not thirsty," replied Jesse.

Giles, of course, got it before the rest of them. "Formaldehyde. Yes, yes, yes, yes, of course, it accelerates neural decay in the brain cells."

Willow nodded. "After a couple days they're useless. They're gonna need something really fresh."

"How fresh?" asked Buffy warily.

"As fresh as possible." Willow's expression turned fearful. "Buffy, you don't think that they would…?"

Jesse made a face. "Guys who are so desperate for a date that they Weird Science a bunch of girls against their will? I'm not holding my breath that they wouldn't."

Buffy nodded. "I wanna end this thing now. You guys go to Eric's, we can go to Chris', and meet up."

Giles, however, remembered something important. "Oh! I'm supposed to be at the big game, I believe it's called."

Knowing how much this date with Ms Calendar meant to him, Buffy decided to grant her Watcher shore leave from their current mission. "Fine. Go ahead. We'll take care of this."

"Well, yes, but shouldn't I, I-I, um…"

Shaking her head, Buffy racked her brain. "Okay, then why don't, uh, we all meet there?"

"Fine. Yes."

Willow, however, looked apprehensive. "Buffy? Don't be too hard on Chris. I mean, he's not a vampire."

"No," said Buffy darkly as they left the library. "He's just a ghoul."

Buffy arrived at Chris' house later that afternoon. His mother answered the door, and within half a second, she could smell the older woman was a smoker. Her face sagged with deep sadness, and her wavy hair had gone gray. Clearly, this was a woman lost in a deep depression.

"Hi," Buffy said, already feeling awkward. "Um, I'm a friend of Chris'. I kinda need to talk to him. Uh, do you know if he's home?"

Mrs Epps didn't respond. If anything, she looked incredibly uninterested in the conversation. Not bored, per se – just not interested. She simply turned away back into the house and sat down in her chair in front of the TV. Not sure if that was an invitation or not, Buffy came in and shut the door.

She tried again. "So, is he home?"

Mrs. Epps finally spoke, her voice having not been used in a long time, as she gestured to the clearly-taped football game on the TV. "Westbury game. November 17, '95. Daryl rushed 185 yards that night. Four TD's. He was MVP, and he made All-City that season."

Buffy forced a smile. Was this whole family crazy? "Yeah, that was a great one. Um, but is Chris home?"

Mrs Epps shrugged. "I dunno. Is today a school day? Oh, watch! Watch this move! Daryl takes a kickoff, he sheds one, two, three defenders, and he breaks into the open field for a ninety-five yard touchdown!"

Buffy found it increasingly difficult to keep her smile up, so she looked around a little. She spotted the basement door with its 'Keep Out' and 'No Admittance' signs.

"He woulda been nineteen next week," Mrs Epps murmured.

Deciding the older woman didn't give a damn anymore, Buffy went over to the basement door and opened it, quietly making her way down the stairs. She looked around a bit, and then went over to the table. There, she found the pictures of herself and Willow that Eric had taken. Major creepy.

Then, she found the plans for the body – with Cordelia's face pasted on top. "Cordelia!" She thought for a second she could hear footsteps behind her, but then, she heard the door open upstairs. Looking up briefly, she quickly hopped over to the open basement window and climbed out. She needed to get to Cordelia before these creeps did.

Cordelia put on one last dab of her lip-gloss for luck. Big game today, which naturally meant big cheerleading. She gave herself one last check in the mirror. She could see Joy, the squad leader, passing with Lisa.

"Cordelia. You coming?"

"Yeah, I'll be right out," she replied, finishing with the lip gloss. She saw the other girls leave, and she was just about to follow when she caught an unwelcome sight in the mirror – Chris. Startled, she turned around to face him. "Oh, God! Chris, you scared me. What are you doing in here?" He looked down and away from her, and she felt a stab of concern – not sure if it was for him or herself. "Is something wrong?"

Then, she screamed as Eric pulled a bag over her head and dragged her off.

Out in the hall, Buffy came around a corner and saw Joy and Lisa coming down the stairs. "Joy! Lisa! Where's Cordelia?"

Joy sneered dismissively. "Cordelia has a game to think about. She doesn't need losers like you." She attempted to move off, but Buffy blocked her way, a fierce look on her face.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Eric had Cordelia on the floor, trying to tie her hands. Buffy came running down the adjoining hall and stopped to look into the locker room. Eric saw her and got up to defend himself. She came running in and jumpkicked him, knocking him down. She crouched down and pulled the bag off of Cordelia's head.

"Are you okay?" she asked her not-quite-a-friend.

Cordelia, for her part, was relieved to see her. "Oh my God, Buffy!"

Taking advantage of the distraction, Eric got up and ran away.

"Don't worry, he's gone."

Cordelia talked at a mile a minute, clearly panicked. "I was on my way down to the field when Chris came in, and all of a sudden someone jumped me."

"Shh! Quiet down. Relax. Take it easy."

Then, in the distance, they could hear powerful music. Cordelia realized."That's the fight song. Oh my God, it's time for the cheerleader pyramid at mid-field. I've gotta go."

"Well, are you sure you're okay to go out there?"

"Yeah, you don't understand, I have to go," she said, just a little snottily. "I'm the apex!" She ran off to join the others in leading their cheering.

Buffy thought about following to make sure she was okay, but then, she heard a noise and looked around. "Chris?" She walked slowly, trying to remember Willow's hopes that her science friend could be redeemed. Buffy doubted that, but she would try. "I know what you're trying to do. You and Eric. I know about the bodies from the cemetery. But you haven't hurt anyone yet." Chris stepped out into the open, and in a moment, Buffy could see the distressed look in his eyes. This wasn't a psycho like Eric. This was someone in way over his head – a head that had been distorted by grief. "Look, I know what it's like to lose someone that you're close to. But that's no excuse. What you're doing is wrong."

"I have to do this for him," Chris insisted, sounding so desperate to believe his words. "He needs someone."

Buffy frowned. "Who, Eric? He needs industrial strength therapy!"

Chris didn't seem to have heard her. "He always looked out for me. Stood up for me. He's all alone. Everybody loved him. And now he's all alone."

"Who are you talking…?" Buffy trailed off as the penny finally dropped very loudly in her head. "Oh my God!"

Eric backed away as Daryl trashed the basement in a rage. "You promised me! You promised I wouldn't have to be alone!"

Eric swallowed, trying not to sound too scared. "It's not too late." Clearly unconvinced, Daryl came over to him and lifted him by the shirt. "Nothing's changed!" he insisted, his mind racing. "We can still do this! You and me. Your brother's not the only one who can create life. Whadaya say?"

Daryl regarded him for a moment, then finally set him down. Eric took a few deep breaths to steady his nerves, and then he smiled.

"Let's go scare you up a date."

It didn't take long to run to Chris' house. Not even bothering with his mother this time, they ran down into the basement, calling Daryl's name, but it was empty – just a lot of equipment and cut up pictures lying around. "He's not here. Where else could he be?" asked Buffy.

Chris looked very alarmed to find his undead brother not present. "But he would never go out," he murmured to himself. "U-unless…"

Buffy picked up on his train of thought. "He's gonna pick up where you left off." No choice, then. They would have to go to the game.

Giles had already decided he didn't care much for American football, but he also decided he could put up with it if it made Jenny happy. He could hear the cheer squad being led by Cordelia in the distance. " Go, Razorbacks, go! Go, team, go! Go, Razorbacks, go! Go, team, go! " He shook his head as he finished gathering their snacks from the refreshment stand. With an armful of popcorn and drinks, they headed for their seats.

"I don't know what it is about football that does it for me," Jenny told him over the cheering. "I mean, it lacks the grace of basketball, the, uh, poetry of baseball. At its best it's unadorned aggression. It's such a rugged contest."

"'Rugged'. American football," Giles chuckled, as they climbed into the stands.

Jenny gave him an odd look. "And that's funny because?"

Checking himself, Giles tried to save face – and also to stop laughing. "No! I just think it's rather odd that a nation that prides itself on its virility should feel compelled to strap on forty pounds of protective gear just in order to play rugby."

Jenny still looked unimpressed. "Is this your normal strategy for a first date? Dissing my country's national pastime?"

Giles, however, picked out one word in that sentence. "Did you just say 'date'?"

Her disapproving look became a teasing one. "You noticed that, huh?" she said, taking her drink as they sat.

At that moment, however, Jesse, Willow and Xander approached. To Jesse's credit, he looked sheepish for interrupting. "We debated for a minute whether or not to approach," he admitted.

Jenny managed to smile a bit at their sudden appearance. "Hey, guys. What's up?"

"Eric's was a bust. Nothing there," said Willow.

"Yeah, nothing but a bunch of computer equipment and a porn collection so prodigious it even scared me ," added Xander.

"Any word from Buffy yet?" asked Jesse.

Giles, a little miffed at their date being interrupted, tried to get them to leave."No, uh, no. Uh, perhaps you should, uh, circulate nearer the field, see what you can find."

Completely missing the point, Willow and Xander slipped under the railing and sat in front of Giles and Jenny. Xander reached back and took Giles' popcorn. "So, what's the score?"

Giles' frustration at their intrusion must've been apparent because Jesse smiled nervously as he joined his friends. "Just pretend we're not here," he said quietly, taking a seat.

Under the stands, Daryl crawled along, looking for Cordelia. He could see the action on the field and stopped for a moment to watch and remember. A player on the field got tackled, but he had gained several yards and got high-fives from his teammates. Daryl lowered his eyes a moment – that had been him once, and he wondered if he ever could be again.

Then, he noticed Cordelia. She took a break from cheerleading and walked over to the coolers next to the bleachers for a drink. Moving with his old speed from his football days, Daryl came up behind her as she drank and grabbed her. She screamed, but her yell was drowned out by the crowd cheering another touchdown. The other cheerleaders jumped and waved their pom poms, unaware of what had happened.

Buffy and Chris arrived by the bleachers, heads swiveling in every direction for Cordelia. "I don't see her. Do you?"

Chris craned his neck, but he had no luck. "No."

Buffy let out a frustrated breath. That probably meant Daryl already had her. What to do now?

Cordelia had been blindfolded, which sucked enough, but now she was being tied to a gurney. She'd heard voices and movement behind her, but she still couldn't figure out where she was. "Please, what's going on? Just take off the blindfold. I promise I won't scream! I promise!"

She heard a sheet being drawn back, and she heard someone's voice. "She's beautiful!"

"No!" said another voice – Eric. "It's bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding."

She heard the sheet being replaced. She should've guessed Eric would be a part of this – the creepazoid. "Please? Just take off the blindfold! I promise I won't scream! I promise!"

The first voice spoke again. "Cordelia?" He took off her blindfold. She took one look at that face – pale, dark eyes, the scars zigzagging across the face that hadn't really healed yet – and she screamed at the top of her lungs.

She saw Eric working on some medical equipment nearby. He just looked up and smirked at her. "You can scream all you want. We're in an abandoned building."

Cordelia screamed again, this time trying for an even higher pitch, in the vain hope someone would hear her. Eric held up a pan and threatened to hit her with it.

"Okay, that's enough," he snapped.

Cordelia reluctantly stopped her screaming, and Eric put the pan back down and resumed his work..

The weird-looking guy in front of her had barely reacted to the screaming. "You were always good to me. Always noticed me. But I ignored you. I'm sorry. I'm glad I have a second chance to tell you that."

Cordelia racked her brain, trying to figure out who this weirdo was – and then it hit her. "D-Daryl?" she stuttered.

Daryl continued as though she'd never spoken. "I was thoughtless. I see that now. But I've changed. I've learned to appreciate how much it meant that you wanted to be with me."

"We're ready." She could hear Eric, but he'd moved to another part of the room, and she couldn't see what he was doing.

"Ready? Ready for what?" she asked warily.

He walked back into her line of vision, a dark smile on his face. "You're gonna feel a little pinch, maybe some discomfort around the neck area. But don't worry. When you wake up, you'll have the body of a seventeen-year-old. In fact, you'll have the body of several."

He lifted the sheet, and Cordelia let out a very intense scream when she saw the body.

Buffy and Chris found the cooler had acquired an abandoned set of pom poms discarded haphazardly. "He was here, Chris. Where did he take her?"

"To the rest of the body. To the lab," Chris explained, looking almost resigned that they were too late.

"Where is that?" Buffy demanded.

Chris hesitated. "I promised him that I…" He trailed off, reluctant to say the words.

"Look, he'll kill Cordelia!" Buffy snapped, trying to keep his conscience onboard. "You can't just give and take lives like that. It's not your job."

Nodding, Chris got over himself and told her. "He's in the old science lab. Everything's set up there."

"Thank you. Now find Jesse, Xander and Willow and tell them what's going on." She left quickly for the lab while Chris went to find the others.

Cordelia struggled to break free from her binds, but they'd been done too well. Dammit, she hated being kidnapped. She could just about see Eric pouring gasoline into a sink, so she appealed to Daryl instead, who looked longingly at her. "Daryl, please. You don't have to do this."

"We have to. So we can be together."

"We'll be together anyway! I'll be with you, I promise!" Okay, she was lying, but dammit, she needed to escape somehow .

"Is that right?" Daryl asked, not sounding like he believed her.

"Mm hm!" Cordelia said as innocently as she could.

He gestured to his deformed face. "You see anything you like?" He went over to the other body and lifted the sheet. "And when you're finished you won't go out. You won't run away. But we can hide together."

Had he always been insane, or was this a recent development from being resurrected? "Please! Please!"

Eric held a knife into a flame a moment, and then came over to her. "Sterile enough for government work," he said, grinning delightedly at her. He bent over Cordelia to begin the procedure.

Cordelia futilely struggled to move from the gurney, but she could do nothing but cry out. "No! No, please!"

Then, bang on cue, someone banged on the door. It broke open, and Buffy came storming in. Eric turned around, saw her and threw the knife at her. She caught it in midair like a circus sideshow act.

"Buffy, help me!" she cried.

While Eric ran for safety, Buffy homed in on Daryl. "Daryl, listen. I know what you're doing, okay? Your brother sent me to stop you."

Daryl looked stricken. "He wouldn't do that. My brother loves me."

"Buffy, they're crazy!" Cordelia practically sobbed, so relieved to see her.

"It's okay, Cordelia. I'm gonna get you outta here."

Daryl's face suddenly turned fierce with anger. "No, I'm not done with her yet!" He turned to the instrument tray and fumbled around for something. He grabbed a cleaver. "I'm not finished!"

He took the cleaver back to Cordelia and tried to start hacking at her neck. Buffy rushed over, grabbed Daryl's arm, knocked the cleaver away and punched him in the face. She scrambled around the table to continue the fight, but Daryl punched her hard in the face. He grabbed her, slammed her head into the instrument tray and threw her over Cordelia and onto the floor.

"I won't live alone!" he roared. He pushed Cordelia's gurney aside, and it knocked over the can of gasoline. The gas started pouring out onto the floor.

Seeing this, Eric declared, "I'm getting out of here!"

But Daryl grabbed him by the shirt. "You have to help me!" he shouted furiously.

Eric, for his part, didn't seem to realize he wasn't in charge anymore. "Let go!" Daryl threw Eric aside, sending him sliding into a barrel with his head, knocking him out.

Daryl faced Buffy again, coming at her, but She kicked him in the knee, making him collapse to the floor. She kicked him again in the gut as he tried to get up. He tried to get up again, and she kicked him in the face. Not even remotely fazed, he got up and tried to swing at her. She ducked it. He tried again, and she ducked again and kicked him in the chest, sending him staggering backward and knocking the Bunsen burner to the floor, igniting the gasoline.

Then, Cordelia could see Xander run into the room. "Buffy!" he shouted.

"Get Cordelia!" she ordered.

Finally, a positive development. "Xander!" she cried. He noticed her and ran over to untie her. "Get me out of here!"

Daryl grabbed hold of Buffy and flipped her over onto the floor. As she got up he grabbed a canister and threw it at her, which she ducked. As the flames around them got higher, Buffy kicked Daryl twice in the side. He grabbed her again, lifted her and held onto her while she struggled to free herself.

Xander, however, couldn't undo Cordelia's bindings and tried to find a knife. God, what a clown show she'd found herself in. "Get it off! Get me outta here! C'mon!" In her peripheral vision, she could see Jesse run in with Giles and Willow. Maybe they'd have better luck – if they could get past the flames.

But then, Xander gave up looking and proceeded to just wheel Cordelia out. As she traveled, she saw Jesse and Giles spot Eric, pick him up and get him out. Why they would want to rescue the little creep, she didn't know, but whatever. She felt the heat around her, and before she could condemn Xander for getting her nearer the fire, he gave the gurney a good shove, hopped on and they rolled through the flames while Cordelia screamed. He hopped off, and she could see Ms Calendar help him stop the gurney. Thankfully, the teacher had better luck at getting Cordelia loose.

Buffy hit Daryl in the neck, and he let go of her. She tried to kick him again, but he grabbed her leg, lifted her up and threw her to the floor. Stunned, Buffy could only lie there while Daryl grabbed a desk and raised it over his head.

Suddenly, Chris ran in, his eyes frantic at what he saw. "Daryl!" he shouted. Daryl froze where he stood and looked behind him to see his brother there. "Don't!"

His brother's presence had an effect on Daryl, who looked back at Buffy, and then noticed the body on the other gurney surrounded by flames. He tossed the desk aside and rushed over to it. "She's mine!"

Chris attempted to run after him. "Daryl!" Buffy, however, regained her senses, got up and stopped him, pulling him back. "Daryl!" he cried despairingly.

Everyone watched from the doorway as Buffy forced Chris back to safety, watching as Daryl tried to embrace the sewn-together body while the flames engulfed them. "No. We'll be together always. No! Mine!" he shrieked, his mind totally gone as the one thing he'd yearned for was taken from him.

With no other choice, they evacuated the building and called the fire department.

Fire engines and police cars surrounded the building. Thankfully, only the one room had really sustained any damage – and with its destruction, very little remained of Daryl or his unfinished bride-to-be. Chris sat in the back of an ambulance, his gaze a hundred miles away while wrapped in a blanket to help him deal with the shock. Buffy and Jesse stood with him as he tried to explain himself.

"The first time he woke up after… He said I shouldn't have brought him back. I - I was just… tryin' to look out for him. Like… he would've done for me."

Buffy glanced at Jesse, and she could see he felt bad for the guy. Truthfully, she did, too. Despite everything, she couldn't hate Chris for wanting to get his big brother back. While his methods were creepy, his heart had been in the right – if misguided – place.

"Well, we're gonna have to get our story straight," Jesse said, eyeing the police who were walking out of the building. "They're gonna want to know what happened here."

"And what is our story, exactly?" Buffy asked.

Jesse shrugged. "Eric did it."

"Sounds good to me."

Chris looked between them, a little surprised, but he did manage a small grateful smile before the stress of the evening sent him back into his thousand yard stare.

Entrusting him to the paramedics on duty, they turned away and stopped short when they saw Angel had – once again – suddenly shown up. "I saw the fire. I figured you'd be here. Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah. We're okay," Buffy nodded.

"All thanks to the Buffinator," Jesse added, patting her on the shoulder. She smiled, but she also saw Angel's eyes looking at Jesse's hand on her shoulder. Jesse seemed to pick up on it as well as he cleared his throat. "I'll just see how Xander and Willow are doing," he said, awkwardly slipping away into the crowd.

Buffy rolled her eyes at Angel, who had the decency to look embarrassed. "Gonna be jealous of Jesse now, too?"

Giles approached Jenny with a cup of coffee, hoping she would take it as the peace offering it was. While she hadn't made too much of a fuss at having to leave the game once she knew lives were at stake, he could tell she was still annoyed. To be honest, he was rather disappointed that it had been interrupted so abruptly. "Sorry about all this," he said sadly.

Thankfully, Jenny took the coffee, but she didn't really smile. "It's okay. Although a good rule of thumb for a first date is 'don't do anything so exciting that it'll be hard to top on the second date'."

Giles shrugged. "Believe it or not, since I've moved here to live on top of the Hellmouth, the events of this evening actually qualify as a slow night." Then, her words really got to him, and he noticed something peculiar about them. "Did you just say 'second date'?"

"You noticed that, huh?" Now she was smiling, and he smiled, too, as he sipped his coffee.

Jesse chuckled as he joined up with Xander and Willow. They could see Giles with Ms Calendar, smiling away over coffee, and while they were happy things worked out for them, Xander grumbled like anything.

"Well, I guess that makes it official. Everybody's paired off. Vampires get dates. Hell, even the school librarian sees more action than me. You ever think that the world is a giant game of musical chairs, and the music's stopped and we're the only ones who don't have a chair?"

"Totally," sighed Jesse.

"All the time," Willow agreed.

Just then, Cordelia walked up, and she was actually smiling at Xander. "Xander? I just wanted to thank you for saving my life. What you did in there was really brave and heroic, and I just wanted to tell you if there was anything that I could ever do to…"

Xander, however, scowled at her. ""Do you mind? We're talking here."

Jesse watched as the smile left Cordelia's face. She rolled her eyes and left, Jesse staring after her in confusion.

Xander, for his part, didn't seem to realize what he'd just done. "So where were we?" he asked his friends.

"Wondering why we never get dates," replied Willow, seemingly equally clueless as to what just happened.

"Yeah, so why do you think that is?"

Jesse looked back and forth between Xander and Cordelia's retreating form, and he began to question his own sanity. He managed to resist the urge to smack his best friend over the back of the head.

Buffy and Angel took a little stroll away from all the crazy. It took them through the cemetery, as seemed to be the norm for them. Just as well – she needed to clear her head. "God, the whole thing was so creepy. Well, at the same time, I mean… he did do it all for his brother."

"Sounds like he took it a little over the edge," remarked Angel.

Buffy nodded in agreement. "Love makes you do the wacky."

"What?"

"Crazy stuff."

Angel looked at his feet. "Oh. Crazy, like a two-hundred-and-forty-one-year-old being jealous of a high school junior?"

Buffy looked at him knowingly. "Are you fessing up?"

"I've thought about it. Maybe it bothers me a little."

She stopped and gave him a reassuring look. "I don't love Xander," she said before smiling a little. "Or Jesse, in case you were actually worried."

"I know," he conceded. "But they're in your life. They get to be there when I can't. Take your classes, eat your meals, hear your jokes and complaints. They get to see you in the sunlight."

"I don't look that good in direct light."

Angel smiled a little before looking to the horizon. "It'll be morning soon."

"I should probably go. I could walk you home."

They looked at each other for a moment, and then, he offered his hand. Smiling, she took it, and they walked off through the tombstones. As they walked, she spotted one in particular. She didn't stop, but she made a mental note to stop and leave flowers next time she came through. It was the least she could do.

Daryl Epps: 1978 – 1996