Potential Friend - SEASON TWO

by garfieldodie

A year has passed since Jesse McNally's fate was changed, and he is now a firm part of the Scooby Gang with his friends. This year, the gang meet new enemies and encounter more challenges to solve - from the supernatural to personal relationships. Can they survive growing up in these situations? Season 2 Rewrite!

16. Bewitched, Bewildered and Bothered

"So, what do you think?" Xander asked his friends. He held a heart-shaped locket, dangling it from a thin chain in front of them.

"It's nice," Buffy said from the gravestone she sat upon.

"And with enough force, it could take out Superman," Jesse added, standing next to her.

"But do you think Cordelia will like it?" Xander asked hopefully.

"I don't know," Buffy shrugged, pulling it toward herself with her hand to take a closer look. "Does she know what one of these is?"

He yanked it out of her hand and put it and his hands into his jacket pockets. "Okay, big yuks," he chuckled. "When are you guys gonna stop making fun of me for dating Cordelia?"

"You mean, dating the girl who you've been verbally sparring with for the better part of a decade?" Jesse replied. "Honestly, we should be mocked for not seeing this painfully obvious plot twist coming."

"I just think you could find somebody more… better," Buffy added.

Xander grinned. "Uh, parallel universe, maybe. Here, the only other person I'm interested in is, um… unavailable." Buffy looked down at that. "Besides, Cordy and I are really getting along. We're not fighting as much, and yesterday we just sat together, not even speaking. You know, just, uh, enjoying comfortable silence." He grinned and laughed, then lost the grin and let out a breath. "Man, that was dull."

"Happy relationships are boring. That's why they never show it on TV or in movies," Jesse said.

"And therefore, we have no idea how it works," Xander concluded. "Interesting hypothesis."

Buffy tilted her head at them. "I am beginning to see why you guys have been single for so long."

Jesse ducked his head briefly as if summoning courage to ask something. "So… vaguely on that note, what do you guys think of Amy?"

Xander shrugged while Buffy's eyes widened. "Nice girl," Xander said. "Brave in a dangerous situation but panics enough to remain relatable. Slight brownie fixation, but I'm more of a cookie man myself."

"Why-y-y-y-y are you asking?" Buffy asked cautiously. She knew Amy Madison had a crush on Jesse that seemed to only grow every time they hung out, but she'd been sworn to secrecy on that subject. Waiting for him to figure it out was like torture.

"I dunno," he said, still looking off into the middle distance thoughtfully. "We had a… moment a while back, and the more we've hung out…" He looked up. "I just kinda got to thinking… Do you think she'd go out with me?"

Buffy smiled. "I'll put it this way – I think you and Amy make so much more sense than Xander and Cordelia."

"So we're keeping the bar low here. I can work with that…"

Xander laughed ruefully. "Yeah, yeah, pick on me. I wish dating was like slaying: you know, simple, direct, stake to the heart, no muss, no fuss."

The vampire they'd been waiting all night for chose that moment to rise from the fresh grave. Xander and Jesse reacted quickly and jerked back as the newly risen demon came for them, but Xander tripped and fell backward onto his butt. Buffy hopped off of the gravestone and grabbed the vampire from behind as he was about to grab Xander and threw him high and away, while Jesse dragged his friend to safety.

The vampire's momentum carried him into a reverse somersault, and he rolled to his feet. He started to come to Buffy, but she leapt at him, did a double kick to his chest with both feet in rapid succession and landed upright as the vampire staggered back into the corner column of a small mausoleum. Buffy came at him, but he blocked her first two punches and ducked a third swing. Her fourth and fifth punches, however, landed on his face, but he wasn't fazed. He pushed her aside into the wall of the mausoleum, and after regaining his balance came at her again. She slid down the wall and kicked out with her leg, making him trip and spin down to the ground.

As he got up, she leapt at him with a high kick and knocked him back down again. She reached into her jacket for a stake, and when the vampire stood back up again and tried to make a grab for her she deftly plunged it into his chest. He immediately burst into a cloud of ashes.

Buffy yanked the stake back and watched with satisfaction as the ash rained to the ground. Then she headed over to Xander and Jesse, who somehow still looked amazed despite having seen her do this several times by now.

"Sorry to say, Xand, slaying is a tad more perilous than dating," she said, and they departed the cemetery.

"Well, you're obviously not dating Cordelia," he replied.

---

Cordelia was wigged. She'd tried calling her friends last night for an all important conference call so that they could figure out their outfits for the upcoming Valentine's Day dance. She walked up the school steps from the street that morning with the intention of finally finding them and sorting this out. She'd sensed some growing distance between them lately and it really riled her up.

She saw Harmony and the others all sitting on a wall and headed over to them, but when they saw her coming, they all stood up and made their way toward the main entrance, ignoring her. "Wait up. Hey, wait up!" she yelled, jogging to catch up. "Excuse me! Where's the fire sale?"

They all stopped and turned around to face her, none of them looking thrilled to see her. "Oh, sorry. Didn't see you," sniped Harmony.

"Well, why didn't you call me back last night? We need to talk about our outfits for the dance. I'm gonna wear red and black," she pointed at Kate, "so you need to switch."

"Red and black?" repeated Kate snottily. "Is that what Xander likes?"

"Xander?" She felt a stab of insecurity stab her in the stomach. "What does he have to do with this?"

"Well, a girl wants to look good for her geek," Harmony smiled icily.

Oh god, this was just what she'd feared would happen. "Xander's just…"

But Harmony interrupted. "When are you two gonna start wearing cute little matching outfits? 'Cause I'm planning to vomit." She addressed the others. "Let's go." They all turned away and headed into the building, leaving Cordelia behind, terrified for what she should do.

---

Later that day, with American Literature finished, the teacher, Ms Beakman, stood at the front of the class. "Papers on my desk. Anybody who tries to leave without giving me a paper is looking at a failing grade."

Everyone started getting their papers out and getting up to leave the room. Xander looked particularly pleased with himself as he and Jesse got up from the back row. "Ha, ha, ha. This time I'm ready for you. No 'F' for Xander today. No, this baby's my ticket to a sweet D-minus."

Jesse smirked as he eyed his friend's paper. "Well, she can't accuse you of not turning in your best work."

They stepped up to join Buffy, Willow and Amy as they started down the line to the front. "Hey, Amy," Willow said brightly.

"Hey," Amy said, pulling on her backpack. "Are you guys going to the Valentine's Day dance at the Bronze? I think it's gonna be a lot of fun."

Willow turned to look at Buffy with a huge smile on her face. "Go ahead. You know you wanna say it."

"My boyfriend's in the band!" Willow told Amy excitedly.

Amy chuckled. "Yeah, Will, I know that. I think you've told so many people, you've officially lapped yourself." She glanced sympathetically at Buffy. "What about you?"

Buffy waved her off. "Oh, Valentine's Day is just a cheap gimmick to sell cards and chocolate." She glanced back at the guys. "Jesse? Are you going to the dance?"

Jesse looked startled to be included and looked between the girls nervously. His eyes fell on Amy, just as Buffy subtly hooked Willow's arm and hustled her to the front to turn in their papers. "I, er… I mean, I would, but… I kinda already had plans that night," he said, wincing as those words made her expression wilt a little. "Like, plans I made about a month ago, and I didn't really plan to…" He trailed off awkwardly.

Amy nodded, trying not to look disappointed. "What kind of plans?" she asked.

For a moment, Jesse looked at her, then he glanced around to make sure no one was listening. "You can keep a secret, right?" he asked in a low voice.

Intrigued, she nodded, and he leaned forward and whispered something in her ear. She listened, and when he pulled back, she gazed at him in amazement. "Really?!" she whispered excitedly.

He nodded, grinning a little. "Yeah. It's been happening for a while now."

"And your parents are okay with it?!"

"Psh! My parents don't know anything about this. I'm a rebel, baby."

Amy still looked excited. "But why would you keep it a secret?"

Jesse stole a glance at Xander – still putting things in his backpack – and Buffy and Willow – turning in their papers and leaving. "I'm not ready for my friends to know about it. Still getting used to it." He leaned in closer. "It's our little secret, okay?"

"Okay," she beamed. "Just, y'know, be careful."

He took a cocky pose. "I can't be careful. I'm not made that way, baby."

Mrs Beakman's voice cut through their fumbled flirting like a sharp blade. "Mr McNally, do you have a paper for me?" she asked, eyeing him with a raised eyebrow.

Startled, Jesse held up his paper. "Uh, we'll continue this discussion later," he said sheepishly. Amy smiled back at him as he hurried up to the teacher and handed her his paper.

"Thank you," she said, unimpressed. Jesse slipped away.

. . .

Xander, having just gotten his things together, looked up in time to see Amy stand in front of Mrs Beakman and stared deeply into her eyes. He looked between them, confused – and he began to wonder. His suspicions were confirmed when Mrs Beakman smiled and gestured as though she was accepting a paper from her.

"Thank you, Amy."

Amy smiled and started out of the classroom. Xander came up to the desk staring open-mouthed after her as he also handed his paper in, not sure whether to be frightened or impressed.

He kept an eye on her as she bounded down the stairs with a notable spring in her step – probably excited that she'd cast some kind of spell on her teacher to get out of homework, although he also figured it might be some kind of thrill from her interactions with Jesse. How long had that been going on? Had he been so wrapped up in his tryst with Cordelia that he hadn't noticed?

He watched her pass Buffy, Willow and Jesse, who were all huddled at the bottom of the stairs, so they missed each other. She disappeared into the student lounge, but he still stared after her as his friends chatted.

"Just bad timing, is all," Jesse was insisting. "Besides, I don't want to be embarking on some romantic entanglement while you're still reeling from… y'know."

"I'll be fine," Buffy assured him. "Honestly, I've kinda been hoping you two would get together."

"You have?"

"Jess, come on – you seriously didn't notice she likes you?"

"What was there to notice?" he asked, genuinely clueless. "I mean, we hang out all the time, she laughs at all my dumb jokes, she's always winking and smiling at me and oh my god, I'm a moron."

Buffy laughed while Willow looked between them, confused. "So wait, Amy does like Jesse?" She looked at Jesse again. "Not that that's surprising at all!"

Xander cleared his throat. "Y'know what is surprising? I just saw Amy work some magic on Ms Beakman."

"You mean like witchcraft?" Buffy asked, sounding genuinely disturbed.

Jesse cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah, turns out when her witch of a mom swapped bodies with her and used magic in her body, she still left behind some magic-type 'residue'." He shrugged apologetically. "She kinda confided in me. Keep it on the 'down low' or whatever the kids say these days."

Buffy still looked concerned. "Her mom was an amateur psycho. Amy's the last person that should be messing with that stuff."

Xander peered into the lounge again. "Maybe I should go talk to her," he suggested, but he couldn't see her anymore.

"Buffy!" They all turned and saw Giles walking up to them. "Buffy… Might I have a word?"

"Have a sentence, even," she replied briskly.

Mercifully, he got the joke. "Oh. Good. Well, uh…" He trailed off as he glanced around and froze. They followed his gaze, and they spotted Ms Calendar inside her classroom, talking to a student by the door, giving him instructions. She stepped out into the hall, and her eyes locked with his. Buffy noticed, too, and looked down.

Ms Calendar, for her part, shrugged and smiled thinly at Giles, at least trying to stay civil. "Rupert."

"Ms Calendar," he replied, looking down at his feet.

That seemed to sting her a little, but she tried again. "I'm glad we ran into each other, actually. I was hoping that we could, uh…" She gestured vaguely toward her room. "Do you have a minute?" She fidgeted in a way Xander had never really see her do, playing with her hands anxiously.

Giles stumbled for a moment before he made an excuse. "Actually, not just now. Um, I, uh, have a matter to discuss with… Buffy."

"Right. Let's go," Buffy said calmly, giving the older woman a quick glance before squeezing between her and Giles, as if trying to physically keep them apart. She headed for the library. Giles looked up at Ms Calendar for a moment, then slowly turned to follow Buffy.

Ms Calendar dropped her arms in despair, looked at Xander, Jesse and Willow, and then started down the hall the other way.

Xander watched her go sadly. While her hiding her true identity and withholding info really screwed them all with Angel losing his soul, and Buffy had a right to be angry about that, he could also tell her remorse was genuine and not just about getting back with Giles. She wanted to make things right with Buffy as well, but his friend didn't want to hear it. Maybe she never would. In the meantime, Giles felt loyalty to his Slayer and seemed to think he was obligated to take her side in the matter, and that included shutting her out. He and the others were similarly staying out of it. This was a level of screwed up he hadn't known existed.

---

Buffy sat at the table, hugging her knee, while Giles came slowly toward her with his hands in his pockets. She didn't want anything to do with Miss Calendar. As far as she was concerned, it was partly her fault Angel lost his soul simply because she hadn't been upfront about her identity from the start, and she would never be able to forgive that. She was grateful to Giles for standing by her, but she could tell it was still hard on him that the woman he'd been in love with had been a lying, duplicitous, thoughtless… She stopped herself and focused on him. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

Giles looked up at her. "Me? I'll be fine," he said vaguely convincingly. Good enough for her. "Um, I was more concerned about you, actually. Uh, since Angel, um… uh… turned…," he continued awkwardly, sitting on the table, "I've, um, been reading up on his earlier activities. Y'know, uh, feeding patterns and the like."

Another topic she didn't want to think about. "And?"

"Around Valentine's Day, he's rather prone to, uh… well, um, brutal displays of, uh… He would think of it as affection, I suppose."

"Like what?"

He got back to his feet. "No, no, uh, no need to go into details."

"That bad?"

He turned to face her, his expression serious. "Suffice it to say, I think it would be best if you stayed off the streets for a few nights. I'll patrol and keep an eye on things. Better safe than sorry."

She looked over at him. "It's a little late for both."

---

Spike smiled from his wheelchair as Drusilla opened the jewelry case, smiling gently at the gold necklace inside, complete with rubies set into an integrated pendant. "Fancy it, pet?"

"Ahhh. It's beautiful," she purred.

"Nothing but the best for my gir – "

There was a thud on the table, and they looked up to see Angelus had set down a fresh and bloody human heart in front of them. He smiled mockingly at Spike, then at Drusilla. "Happy Valentine's Day, Dru."

To Spike's irritation, Dru looked even more enamored at the gruesome gift. "Oh…," she gushed, holding her hand over it. "Angel! It's still warm."

Spike closed his eyes and let out a deep breath, trying not to lose his cool.

"I knew you'd like it," Angelus said, inhaling the aroma. "I found it in a quaint little shopgirl." He saw the necklace, picked it up and held it out to have a look at it. "Cute," he remarked mockingly. He reached around Drusilla's neck with it. "Here." She pulled her hair back and away so he could close the clasp behind her neck.

Spike wheeled toward them, upset. "I'll get it."

"Done. I know Dru gives you pity access, but you have to admit it's so much easier when I do things for her."

Glaring at the bastard, Spike tried to control his anger. Angelus didn't love Dru – he just wanted to take her away from him. "You would do well to worry less about Dru and more about that Slayer you've been tramping around with."

Angelus rolled his eyes and paced behind the table. "Dear Buffy. I'm still trying to decide the best way to send my regards," he said, sitting down.

"Why don't you rip her lungs out? It might make an impression."

"Lacks… poetry."

Was that a shot? "It doesn't have to." But Angelus didn't look up, so he inhaled and thought. "What rhymes with lungs?"

"Don't worry, Spike," Dru smiled. "Angel always knows… what speaks to a girl's heart."

---

Xander absently bobbed his head to the music as Oz's band, Dingoes Ate My Baby played their song 'Pain' up on stage. He sat at a table with Willow, turning a jewelry box around in his hands, staring off into the crowd. He knew Buffy would be at home with her mom tonight, trying not to think about romance, while Jesse was off… somewhere. He saw Amy walk around with some of her single lady friends, laughing about something. He still wondered about the magic, but Jesse had assured him she hadn't abused it yet.

"Oz has his cool hair today," Willow said with a sappy smile. "I think I'm a groupie!"

Xander nodded, but thankfully, his friend was too focused on her guitar-playing boyfriend on stage. He scanned the crowd for Cordelia. He spotted her sitting alone at a table. She actually looked kind of down. It only made him hesitate for a moment. He would later wish he'd listened to his gut and left her alone for now.

He slowly got to his feet and walked over to her. She noticed him coming, looked at him and stood up to meet him as the song faded out. "Hey," he smiled.

She looked him up and down. "Your clothes… You look so good."

Trying not to be offended by how surprised she sounded, he looked down at himself. "Oh. I let Buffy dress me." Her confusion made him clarify. "Well, not physically."

This only seemed to upset her. "Perfect. You had to make this harder, didn't you?"

"Okay, clearly the fact that I please you visually has got us off on the wrong foot here," he said awkwardly.

"Xander…"

He stopped her with a gesture. He needed to say all of this before he lost his nerve. "Let me finish. I've been thinking a lot about us lately… the why and the wherefore. You know, once, twice, a kissy here, a kissy there. And you can chalk it all up to hormones." She looked confused again, but he soldiered on. "And maybe that's all we have here. Tawdry teen lust. But maybe not. Maybe something in you sees something special inside me. And vice versa. I mean, I think I do. See something. So…" He pulled out the jewelry box and handed it to her.

She took it and looked up at him, looking… sad. "Xander…," she started, but she opened the box and stopped short at seeing the necklace and pendant. "Thank you," she said, holding it up. "It's beautiful." She let out a breath and looked him dead in the eye. "I wanna break up."

She said it so suddenly that Xander nearly got whiplash. "Okay, not quite the reaction I was looking for," he croaked out.

She shook her head, almost apologetically. "I know. I'm sorry. It's just… Who are we kidding? Even if parts of us do see specialness, we don't fit."

Xander barely heard her, just staring at the necklace he'd blown so much money on. The hurt immediately turned to bitterness and he did the only reasonable thing he could do in this situation – he lashed out. "Yeah! Okay. Do you know what's a good day to break up with somebody? Any day besides Valentine's Day! I mean, what, were you running low on dramatic irony?"

She winced at his harshness that he wished he could've found satisfying, but he was still too angry for that. "I know. I didn't mean to do it this way. I…"

"Well, you did," he replied snidely. He stared at her sorry face before turning and leaving. He hoped that she would feel guilty enough to follow him, but by the time he made it out the door, he looked back and saw no one there. Angry – at her for dumping him, at himself for ever thinking she could be more than a shallow… whatever – he turned and stormed off.

---

The next morning, Xander came moping into the building. The anger had started to fade into a dull ache that made him wish he was old enough to drink. He slouched through the building, hoping to reach his locker without incident. He was just about to round the corner when he heard footsteps approaching and spotted Jesse – looking annoyingly chipper.

"Hey, Xan-Man!" he said brightly. "How was the dance last night? You all have fun without me?"

Before Xander could answer, another boy came from the opposite direction and patted him on the shoulder as he passed. "Dude – way to get dumped."

They watched him disappear into the crowd. "Did I miss something?" Jesse asked in confusion. "Also – who was that?"

Buffy was coming the other way. He tried to stop her. "Ooo, Buffy, my bud, you will not believe…"

"Can't talk right now," Buffy replied shortly. "Angel."

Both boys looked at her with concern. "Anything we can do?" Jesse asked.

"Just go about your business," she replied shortly, quickly resuming her rapid trek to the library.

They watched her go before turning down the hall again. "Okay, so what's going on?" Jesse asked. "Something happen?"

Xander exhaled as he noticed a group of girls staring and giggling at him. "Not much. Just Cordelia decided to dump me on Valentine's Day because she values being popular more than… whatever the hell we had."

"Oh… Ouch. I mean, is that what she said?"

"She said something about how we 'don't fit' and 'specialness' or some…"

Harmony's voice cut through him like a high-pitched buzzsaw. "Gee, Xander, maybe you should learn a second language so that even more girls can reject you." She and the other girls around her laughed in his face.

Jesse glared at them and guided him away. "Did that make you feel like a grownup, Harm?" he scowled, before readdressing his friend. "Just ignore it, man. It's your fifteen minutes of fame. Soon, someone else will get dumped or have something equally unpleasant happen to them and you'll be yesterday's news."

Xander nodded sullenly, but he could already feel the anger returning. He didn't want his fifteen minutes of shame. He wanted revenge.

Jesse didn't seem to notice his mounting fury, instead checking his watch. "I gotta get to class. I'll talk to you at lunch, okay?" Giving him one last pat on the shoulder, he turned and hurried up the nearby stairs.

A moment later, he noticed Amy heading toward the other stairs in front of him. He looked back for an instant as a very bad idea blossomed in his head like a really ugly flower, and he quickly rushed over to her, took her by the arm and pulled her aside.

"What are you doing?" she hissed angrily.

"Amy. Good to see you," Xander said quickly, looking around once more to make sure no one was watching or listening – especially Jesse. "You're a witch."

Amy took on the classic 'deer in the headlights' expression before smiling nervously. "No, I'm not. That was my mom, remember?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking it runs in the family. I saw you working that mojo on Ms. Beakman. Maybe I should go tell somebody about…?"

Her expression turned indignant. "That's not even… That is so mean!"

"'Blackmail' is such an ugly word."

"I didn't say 'blackmail'."

"Yeah, but I'm about to blackmail you, so I thought I'd bring it up."

Amy folded her arms, not happy at all. "What do you want?"

Xander chuckled. "What do I want? I want some respect around here. I want, for once, to come out ahead. I want the Hellmouth to be working for me. You and me, Amy…" He looked back and saw Cordelia sitting with Harmony now. "We're gonna cast a little spell."

. . .

Xander shut the door to the empty classroom as Amy looked at him suspiciously. "A love spell?"

"Yeah. You know, just the basic 'can't eat, can't sleep, can't breathe anything but little old moi'," he said, trying to make this sound like no big deal.

"Well, that kind of thing is the hardest!" Amy objected. "I mean, to make someone love you for all eternity?"

"Whoa! Whoa, back up," Xander said quickly, hating the thought of 'eternity' with Cordelia Chase. "Who said anything about eternity? A man can only talk 'self-tanning lotion' for so long before his head explodes."

Now the poor girl just looked confused. "Well, then I don't get it. If you don't wanna be with her forever, then what's the point?"

"The point is I want her to want me. Desperately. So I can break up with her and subject her to the same hell she's been putting me through."

She turned and stepped away. "Oh, I don't know, Xander," she said, annoyingly choosing to have a conscience. "Intent has to be pure with love spells."

"Right. I intend revenge. Pure as the driven snow. Now, are you gonna play, or do we need to have another chat about invisible homework?"

Her expression told him she was considering it, but then, to his disappointment, her uncertainty seemed to change to something else, and a small smirk settled on her lips as she took a step toward him. "Who exactly are you going to tell about my invisible homework?" she asked.

"Well, Ms. Beakman," he replied, shrugging at the obvious question.

"And you think she's just going to believe you?"

"I expect some resistance, but it wouldn't be hard to prove you didn't turn anything in…"

"Unless I just magic her memory?"

Xander's face fell. "Whoa, hold on, you would just do that?"

"You're asking to make Cordelia become obsessed with you. Don't get all 'uppity' with me, Xander Harris."

Realizing he was losing control over her, Xander held up his hands placatingly. "Now, just wait a second here…"

She interrupted him. "I'll do it."

"You will?"

"But you have to do something for me."

Suddenly, Xander felt very afraid of her. "Oh god, do I have to kill a sheep and drain its blood for the spell?" he asked nervously.

"What? Ew! No!" she said disgustedly. She took a deep breath, her expression very serious. "If I do this, I want you to get me a date with Jesse."

Xander's brain skipped a beat, but he managed to keep his expression neutral. "Oh," he said. "Date with Jesse?"

"I really like him," she said, "and I really want to go out with him. But… I dunno, it's just been tricky and… Well, anyway, if you promise to do that, I'll cast the spell."

Suddenly, this all seemed so much easier – he gets revenge on Cordy, and he could play wingman for his bud at the same time. "Deal."

"Okay," she said, letting out a breath. "I'll need something of hers. A personal object."

Xander thought for a moment before he smiled. "All right."

. . .

Cordelia strode semi-confidently down the hallway, on her way to her next class. Everything had worked out perfectly. She'd ditched Xander the ultra-geek loser, and everyone had given her mountains of praise for it, and she was finally getting back in Harmony's good graces. Yep, she was back to being Queen C after a momentary lapse in judgement, and she now had everything back the way she wanted it.

So why the hell did she feel so lousy? Every laugh and smile felt so forced today. She hadn't liked breaking up with Xander like that, but what choice did she have? Being the cool girl was all she knew, and she couldn't just give it up for a geek who spent half his time insulting her anyway. He hadn't even taken the break up all that well. He'd lashed out and been super immature. Couldn't he take it like a man?

She looked down the hall and saw him waiting for her. Oh god, what did he want now? She stopped, spun one hundred and eighty degrees and hurried the other way. Dammit, she could hear his stupid feet clomping up quickly behind her until he overtook her and got in front, stopping her in her tracks.

"Oh, come on, don't flatter yourself," he sneered. "I'm not gonna make a big scene. I just want the necklace back."

She looked at him in disbelief. "What? I thought it was a gift."

"No. Last night it was a gift. Today it's scrap metal. Figure I can melt it down and sell it for fillings or something."

"You're pathetic!"

"Come on, I'm not gonna add to the Cordelia Chase castoff collection."

See, this was why he wasn't boyfriend material – geek or not geek. "It's in my locker," she said coldly.

He gestured to said locker with his eyes. "I can wait."

She gave him another look, then went over to her locker. Mercifully, he didn't follow her, maintaining a decent ten foot distance between them, looking the other way.

She opened the locker and set down her book. Satisfied that he wasn't paying close attention, she leaned in behind the door, exhaled, reached under the collar of her blouse and pulled the necklace and pendant out. She undid the clasp, took it off and let out a deep breath. It really was pretty, and she knew he must've spent a lot of money on it.

She closed her locker, stepped over to him and handed him the necklace. "Here. It's a good thing we broke up. Now I don't have to pretend I like it."

He just gave her a very cold look and left – probably glad they'd broken up now. She bit her lip to keep it from trembling and left quickly. Why was she all torn up over him?

---

Xander sat in the darkened science lab that night, holding a candle and sitting bare-chested and cross-legged on the floor inside a large red symbol for woman painted on the floor. Amy painted three red vertical stripes painted on his chest before going to a lab table where she waved the locket over her witch's brew, which boiled in a beaker over a Bunsen burner. He was beginning to think maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

Amy began to intone. "Diana… goddess of love and the hunt… I pray to thee. Let my cries bind the heart of Xander's beloved." She lowered the necklace into the brew. "May she neither rest nor sleep until she submits to his will only."

The flame of the burner became huge as the power of the spell emanated from the beaker and swirled above it and between her hands. Xander felt like he was on a rollercoaster about to start the maddening descent, just waiting for something terrifying to happen.

"Diana, bring about this love and bless it." The swirls of energy began to return to the beaker and disappear. "Blow out the candle now!"

With the spell's power dissipating, Xander blew out the candle, plunging them into darkness. For all this insanity, it sure as hell better work.

---

Xander approached the lounge the next day. He could see Cordelia and her friends sitting at a table. He mentally prepared himself to go over and enjoy having her drool over him, allowing him to reject her advances, and then he'd seek out Amy and have her end the spell. Nice, quick and easy.

Jesse came from the other direction, looking concerned. "Hey, man, you okay? You kinda disappeared yesterday."

"Oh, everything's fine, Jess," Xander assured him confidently. "In fact, things are so okay – watch this." He strode towards the table with a noticeable swagger, probably leaving his friend confused as he went.

He rested one hand on the table and leaned over it next to Cordelia, looking around at all the girls and giving them a smile. She looked up at him, confused. "What?"

"Morning, ladies," he said suavely. "Some kind of weather we've been having, huh?"

"What do you want? You can't be sniffing around for more jewelry to melt, because all you ever gave me was that Smallmart-looking thing," she snorted before looking back down at her notebook.

Undeterred, Xander chuckled and leaned in towards Cordelia. "Is this love? 'Cause maybe on you it doesn't look that different."

Annoyingly, she pushed him away. "What are you doing? Are you going, like, stalker-boy on me now?"

It finally occurred to him that maybe the spell wasn't working. Confused, he looked between them. "Sorry. My mistake."

"Yeah, I should say so."

He walked away, his brow furrowed and a little embarrassed. He approached Jesse again, who looked like he was trying not to laugh. "So what exactly was the 'this' that I was supposed to 'watch'?" he asked.

Xander crossed his arms and sulked, glaring across the room at Cordelia while she wasn't looking. "I just can't win here," he grumbled. "It's just my destiny to always be the loser."

Some random girl walking past smiled brightly. "Hi, Jesse!" she called.

"Yeah, hi," his friend replied absently before focusing on Xander again. "So what's the deal? You thought she'd have a change of heart overnight?"

"No," Xander sighed. "Nothing like that. I just… Oh, it's dumb. I'm dumb. The whole thing is dumb. I should just… forget about it."

"Hi, Jesse!" They both glanced up and saw another girl smiling at him as she walked past.

"Hi," Jesse replied, not really paying attention. "Just let it go, man. You'll move on, find someone else." He paused, then frowned and looked in the direction the girl had gone. "Who was that, anyway?"

Xander shrugged and slouched off. "I'm gonna go mope in the library."

"You have fun with that. I'm off to French studies. À bientôt." He set off in the other direction.

. . .

When Xander arrived in the library, he found Giles and Buffy already there. The former sat on the table, looking through a book, while the latter sat in a chair across from him. "Look, here's another. Here. Um, 'Valentine's Day.' Yes, uh… 'Angel nails a puppy to the…'"

"Skip it," Buffy interrupted.

"Uh, but it…"

"I don't wanna know. I don't have a puppy. Skip it."

Giles closed the book in understanding. "Right you are. I'll get another batch." He got off of the table and headed into his office.

"I have a plan," Xander announced, "we use me as bait."

Buffy looked up at him in surprise. "You mean make Angel come after you?"

"No, I mean chop me into little pieces and stick me on hooks for fish to nibble at 'cause it would be more fun than my life."

She stood up. "Yeah. I heard about you and Cordy. That's her loss."

"Yeah. Not really the popular theory."

She glanced around. "Where's Jesse?"

"He had class to go to. I mean, I technically did, too, but I'm too miserable to study geography right now."

"Huh. Too bad. I was hoping he could hang out later."

Xander nodded. "Yeah…" Then, her words really occurred to him and he looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"Oh, I dunno. I was gonna talk to him later, see if he wanted to go to the Bronze or something."

"What, like the four of us? I think Willow's probably busy with Oz these days…"

"Oh, no offense, Xander," Buffy said apologetically. "I just meant Jesse and me."

Xander frowned suspiciously. Of course, he knew Buffy and Jesse had hung out together before, but that had always just been friends hanging out – the same way he hung out with Willow. "Just… as friends, right?"

Buffy looked down, but he could see the embarrassed smile. "I dunno… It's just, ever since Angel turned, I've been feeling really lost and scared, y'know? But today, I just started thinkin' about… Jesse, and how supportive and kind he is… I never used to, but… it's funny how you can see a person every day and not really see them, y'know?"

Xander stared slack jawed at her. "Yeah, I tend to be the person not being seen."

She smiled sympathetically and patted his arm. "Well, hang in there. I'm sure you'll rebound from this Cordelia thing soon, and you'll find someone special."

The library door cracked open, and they both looked to see Amy walking into the library. "Xander, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Xander looked between her and Buffy before getting quickly to his feet. "Yeah, coming," he said, sparing his friend one last confused glance before following.

They stepped out into the hallway, and he saw the anxious expression on Amy's face. "Xander," she said in a low voice, "I don't think the spell worked out right."

"Yeah, it totally bombed," Xander sighed tiredly. "As does everything else in my life."

"Well, we can always try again," she said. "I am still pretty new at this."

Xander mulled it over for a moment. "You know what? No. It's okay. I did what I did yesterday because I was angry and hurt and… maybe it's for the best." He let out a sad sigh. "Cordy and I are just so not meant to be that even the spell backfired."

Amy nodded, looking awkward for a moment before clearing her throat. "So, um… about what I asked for…"

He looked at her again, and then it twigged. "Oh, right – date with Jesse. Yeah, don't worry about it. I'll talk to him next time I see him. I'll get you all set up. No worries." Busted spell or not, Jesse still liked this girl. The least he could do was get them together.

Amy beamed. "You're the best! Thanks so much!" She actually hugged him, and then, she turned and skipped merrily down the hall.

Xander watched her go, bemused. At least someone was getting girls around here. He turned back to the library, and he remembered Buffy. She had been kidding about all that stuff earlier, right? Just the other day, she'd been encouraging Jesse to get with Amy. If something were going to happen with her and his best friend, it would've happened right now, right? Maybe it was just a rebound thing…

---

Jesse stepped out of French class, his backpack slung over his shoulder as he headed for his locker down the hall. The day had started normally enough. Just getting through classes, taking notes, the usual boring stuff – but he'd had this feeling he was being watched. He could feel so many eyes on him, it was unreal. He was halfway to his locker when he stopped and looked over his shoulder. Several girls, some of them moving, some of them standing still, were all looking at him with big smiles. He smiled awkwardly back and resumed his journey.

He got to his locker and opened it. He looked around and saw several girls still smiling at him as they passed, some waving, some blowing kisses, and some trying to push other girls out of the way to wave and blow kisses.

Weird…, he thought to himself.

He swapped out his textbooks and kept walking. Something didn't feel right.

---

At last, Jesse made it home. His parents were out, as per usual, so he went straight to his bedroom and opened the door, finding it in darkness. He set down his backpack by the doorway, and he was just about to take his shoes off when he flipped on the light, and he got the fright of his life.

Willow Rosenberg under the covers of his bed, wearing one of his button down shirts with a coy expression on her face.

"Willow!" he exclaimed. It took a moment for his heart to calm down. "Holy crap on a cracker, you scared me!"

Her expression remained coy. "I'm sorry. I wanted to surprise you."

"Well, I'm totally surprised," he panted. He took a few deep breaths before gesturing to the bed. "What are you doing here? Why are you in my bed?" He frowned. "Is that my shirt?"

Her smile widened as she lowered the covers. "Yeah, it is. I thought it looked better on me." She pretended to look concerned. "Unless you want to… take it off me?"

Jesse shrugged, moving across the room to his desk. "I mean, I'd like it back before you leave. Where are your clothes? Did you have another accident in Chem class again? Because nitrochloric acid does not come out easily."

"Oh, they're somewhere." She grinned. "I just needed to feel a little more comfortable."

He had his back to her as he put a couple of binders away and checked his assignments. "Well, I suppose it's okay. I just don't get why you'd come here for…" He trailed off as he turned around and saw that she'd sat herself on her knees now, causing him to realize… "Will, where are your pants?"

Willow began to rub the sheets for some reason. "How long have we been friends?"

"Since second grade. What's that got to do with anything?"

She moved to the edge of the bed. "Well, friendships change all the time. People grow apart. They grow closer." She smiled.

Growing a little uncomfortable, Jesse smiled. "Yeah, we're pretty close, Will. Remember that time in fifth grade when we accidentally used the same piece of dental floss? I think that was close enough."

She got up from the bed and approached him. "I want you, Jesse…," she smiled with a dramatic pause, "to be my first!"

For a few seconds, Jesse stared blankly at her. "First… what?"

"You know what," she giggled.

"Your first…" She raised her eyebrows expectantly, waiting for him to get it. "Your… first… national bank?"

She was slowly approaching him, and he warily backed away. She reached across and put a hand on his chest. He backed into the door. She rubbed her hands up and down. "We both know it's right."

She leaned in for a kiss. Jesse gave an undignified high-pitched yelp and backed away, right into the door. "Will, stop! I don't know what's going on, but you don't really wanna do this!"

She pulled back to look at him, perplexed. "Is it Oz? Don't worry about him. He's sweet, but… he's not you." She started rubbing his chest more.

He grabbed her wrists and gently tried to push her back. "No, come on. Whatever's going on, try and think about Oz. Remember? Cool Oz. Funny Oz. Kind Oz. Totally gonna kick my ass if he finds out about this Oz."

She leaned up to the side of his face and tried to reach his earlobe. She couldn't reach it, so she tried jumping up and down, but it still wasn't enough. With her fixated on that, he fumbled around for the doorknob, grabbed it and abruptly turned and ran away.

---

The next day, Cordelia came in at the far end and walked up to her friends standing there in a huddle. They all crossed their arms and faced her when she arrived – disapprovingly. Oh great. "Ha. Very funny," Cordelia griped. "What did I do now, wear red and purple together?"

"You know what you did," Harmony sneered. "He adored you, and you wouldn't even give him the time of day." They all walked past her in disgust.

She turned around, and they faced her when she spoke. "Are you tripping? I thought you wanted me to break up with him!"

Harmony frowned. "Break up with him?"

"Yeah, you wanted me to ditch Xander, and I did!"

"Xander? You think this is about that loser? No – you rejected Jesse McNally! You were so cruel to him for years! Only a sick pup would let Jesse get away, no matter what her friends said." They all gave her a huff and left.

Cordelia stared after them, stunned. "What does it take to make you people happy?"

---

Jesse stepped through the double doors of the school and entered the main hallway. The walk to the library felt longer than ever as he once again felt so many eyes on him. He could see all the girls looking at him with love in their eyes, some giggling, some giving him sexy looks, some just watching him walk. Everywhere he walked, it was more of the same. What's more, there were plenty of guys not looking too happy their ladies were giving him so much attention.

Wincing uncomfortably, he reached the library door and ducked inside. Making sure no one was following him, he stepped further inside, where he found Xander and, to his relief, Giles.

"Jesse?" he heard the Watcher's voice as he came down the stairs, setting down some books. "What is it?"

Jesse held up his hands. "First things first – Willow hasn't been here, has she?"

Xander shook his head. "Haven't heard from her all day."

"Okay, good, because something weird is going on with her."

"What? What is it?" Giles asked, immediately full of concern.

Jesse took a breath and ordered his thoughts. "She tried to mount me last night."

The other two men stared at him – expressions completely blank. Giles took off his glasses and started to clean them – never a good sign. "She… she what?"

"I came home, and she was in my bed, and she was all… 'come hither' and stuff… Oh, and she was wearing one of my shirts and nothing else."

Xander leapt to his feet. "She what?!"

"Yeah, I really hope she put it back on the hanger. Ironing is a bitch." He thought for a moment. "Oh, that's good. I gotta write that down…"

"I don't understand," Giles said, looking between them. "Wasn't Willow fretting about Oz just a couple weeks ago?"

"She was calling herself his groupie just a couple days ago," said Xander. "Jess, what happened?"

"I don't know! Something's felt a little… off lately. I can't put it into words. I just walked through the halls and everyone's staring at me. The women are all 'wavey' and 'flirty' and the guys are… less so. And it's kind of been like that since yesterday."

Xander's eyes widened, but no one really noticed at first.

"Have you done anything different lately?" Giles asked. "Anything at all out of the ordinary?"

Jesse thought. "I had a stale tater tot at lunch yesterday that was kinda gamey…"

"Well, that probably wouldn't cause anything."

"Oh god," Xander said suddenly, his hand flying to his mouth in alarm.

"What? Xander, what is it?" Giles asked as they both looked at him.

Xander took a few steps backwards, looking like his whole world just got turned upside down. "I… I found out that Amy's into witchcraft, and I was hurt, I guess, so I… made her put the love whammy on Cordy, but I thought it didn't work, so I didn't say anything…"

Jesse stared at his best friend incredulously. "You… you tried to… do a love spell on Cordy… and now… Willow's in love with me?!" he said, his voice increasing in volume as he spoke. "How the hell does that even happen?!"

Giles was also staring at Xander, looking more angry than anything. "Doing magic on a Hellmouth can cause all sorts of problems," he said, his tone in that dangerously low tone he had perfected.

They were interrupted when the doors opened, and they all turned to see Ms Calendar walking into the room, her eyes focused on Giles. "Rupert, we need to talk. Hey, Xander. Jesse – nice shirt." She paused to rub his shirt. "Look, Rupert, I know that you're angry at me, and I don't blame you, but I am not just gonna go away." Now she was rubbing Jesse's arm. "I mean, I care far too much about you to…" She looked at Jesse's arm. "Have you been working out?"

"Uh, no, why?" Jesse asked, weirded out. Giles grabbed Ms Calendar by the arms and pulled her away and behind him. She still stared at Jesse with a look of desire in her eyes. It finally dawned on him. "Wait, her, too?!"

Giles glared at Xander. "I cannot believe that you are fool enough to do something like this!"

Xander shook his head guiltily. "Oh, no, I'm twice the fool it takes to do something like this."

"Well, where's Amy?" asked Jesse. "Can we get her to reverse the spell?"

"We can try, but I don't know where she is."

Ms Calendar took a step toward Jesse. "Rupert, Xander, maybe I need to talk to Jesse alone."

Giles pushed her back. "Do you have any idea how serious this is? People under a love spell, Xander, are deadly. They lose all capacity for reason." He looked at Ms Calendar who had begun rubbing her hands over her face and neck, then down her body. "And if what you say is true and the entire female population is affected, I…" He gave Jesse a stern look. "Don't leave the library. Xander – we need to find Amy and see if we can put a stop to this thing."

He started to leave the library. Ms Calendar rubbed her fingers together, alone at last with Jesse, and sashayed up to him. He backed away from her in alarm before Giles came back, took her by the hand and pulled her out after him, much to her disappointment.

Jesse wrapped his arms around himself. He felt so… wrong.

"Jess…," Xander said, his tone desperate. "Man, I am so sorry. I had no idea this – "

"Xander," Jesse said quietly, not able to look at him. "Just… just go and find Amy. Please."

For a moment, his friend didn't move, but he at last heard his footsteps hurriedly scamper across the floor and out into the hall, the door shutting behind him.

At last, he was alone. Still feeling weird, he leaned against the counter, trying to come to grips with this. The thought of every woman in town going nuts for him – it was overwhelming. Even when he'd been into Cordelia, he still thought of himself as a one woman guy. He could never understand wanting more than one. Life was complicated enough. Imagine having so many women – he'd have to move to Utah!

He barely heard the door open behind him. He figured it was Giles or Xander again. He heard slow-moving footsteps coming toward him, but he was too lost in his thoughts to register them properly.

"Alone at last," said a familiar voice.

Startled, Jesse spun around and came face-to-face with… Buffy – wearing only a short black raincoat that reaches barely down to mid-thigh and black high heels.

"Uh… hey, Buffinator," he said, trying to stay calm.

She smiled as she walked towards him, strutting like a runway model. "I like it when you call me that." She grabbed her raincoat belt to untie it.

Jesse backed away, instinctively covering his eyes with his hand, waving her away with the other. "No, Buffy, stop!"

"Come on! It's a party! Aren't you gonna open your present?"

Jesse didn't lower his hand just in case, but he kept backing up. "Buffy, I know you're not yourself right now – it's a spell. Xander did a spell on Cordelia, and now everyone's in love with me, and Giles is trying to fix it." He tripped and fell backward onto the stairs. She was still in the raincoat but she'd undone a button now. "Buffy, please, you're one of my favorite people in the world. You're one of my best friends. You do not want to do this."

She looked at him in confusion. "So… you make me feel this way, and then you reject me? What am I, a toy?"

He tilted his head curiously before nodding in concession. "I mean, you're not, but I appreciate that you're still standing up for yourself even with a spell."

The door banged open again. They both turned to look, and there was Amy – regrettably without any sign of Xander or Giles. "Get away from him," she hissed at Buffy. "He's mine."

"Oh, I don't think so. Jesse, tell her."

Jesse looked between them – one of his closest friends, and the girl he wanted to ask out. How the hell did he handle this? "Uh…"

"He doesn't have to say," Amy snapped. "I know what his heart wants."

"Funny, I know what your face wants." She swung and punched Amy in the face, sending her falling to the floor.

"Hey!" Jesse yelled, suddenly angry and leaping back up to his feet. "I don't care what spell you're under! You do not hit her! Hell, you're the Slayer! You shouldn't be hitting anybody!"

Buffy looked taken aback. "What is this, you're two-timing me?"

Amy got up, her nose bloody. The sight of her injury nearly made Jesse go to her, but her pitch-black eyes made him think twice about it. "Goddess Hecate, work thy will," she intoned.

"Ohhhhh, this can't be good," Jesse muttered, taking a step back.

The spell's energy swirls around Amy. "Before thee let the unclean thing crawl!" She thrust her arms out at Buffy, and the power of the spell leapt from her hands and enveloped the Slayer.

It finished as abruptly as it started. One minute, Buffy was there – the next, she was not. Just an empty raincoat and a pair of heels on the floor. Jesse looked at Amy in horror. "What did you just do?!"

"I have made her what she really is," Amy replied. "So we can finally be together."

Before they could continue, the doors banged open again, and Xander, Giles and Ms Calendar ran in. "We heard a loud noise," said Xander, out of breath. "What happened?"

"Amy and Buffy had a jealous tiff, so… Amy did a thing and now Buffy's gone!"

They all looked at the raincoat. One of the sleeves was moving. A little rat came crawling out.

"Oh, my God!" exclaimed Giles.

Amy stepped over to Jesse, gesturing at Ms Calendar. "Why is she here?" she demanded.

"Okay, stop it," Jesse snapped. "Amy – you have got to fix this. You only like me right now because of that spell you cast."

Amy tilted her head, confused. "But that spell had nothing to do with you! Jesse – my love for you is deeper than the oceans, as infinite as the bright blue sky…"

"And as cliche as a supermarket romance novel? Please – turn Buffy back."

"Buffy can take care of herself." She took his arm with a sultry look. "Why don't we go someplace private?" Ms Calendar put her hands on her hips and gave Amy a haughty look. Xander and Giles looked around for where Buffy went.

Jesse yanked his arm away. "I am not going anywhere with you until you change her back."

"You heard him," said Ms Calendar, strolling over smugly. "So why don't you undo your little magic trick and get lost?"

"Who made you Queen of the World?" Amy snapped. "Well, you're old enough to be."

"Well, what can I say?" the teacher said, grabbing Jesse by the shirt. "I guess Jesse's just too much man for the pimple squad."

Amy put her arm between them and pushed him away from Ms Calendar. She waved her hands before her and began to cast another spell. Her eyes turned pitch-black, and energy began to swirl around her as she spoke. "Goddess Hecate, to you I pray, with this…"

Jesse put a hand over her mouth and gave her a stern expression. "No. More. Hecate."

His patience having run out, Giles addressed the remaining (human) women sternly. "You two, sit. And be quiet." They both sullenly walked over to the table while he took off his jacket. "We have to catch the Buffy rat."

"Ooo, there!" Xander said, pointing at a bookcase. They all turned to look and saw the rat trying to squeeze behind it. He and Jesse both ran at the same time, bumping into each other and missing as she disappeared behind it.

"Stay here in case she doubles back," Jesse said. "I'll try to coax her out on the other side." He got down on his hands and knees, crawling along the front to head her off. He peeked around the other end of the bookcase to wait for her to come out. He thought he could see her coming and made a few noises like coaxing a kitten out of a tree when –

Pain exploded across his face as Oz threw a punch strong enough to send him crashing backwards into the bookshelf. The noise startled the rat, who made a break for it and vanished out the library door.

Oz stood over him, still shaking his hand. "That kinda hurt," he remarked.

Jesse rubbed his cheek. "Yeah, same here," he grunted, getting himself upright. "I take it this is about Willow."

"I was on the phone all night, listening to her cry about you. Now, I don't know exactly what happened, but I was left with a very strong urge to… hit you." He offered a hand to help Jesse up, which he accepted.

"Yeah, it's a very long story," Jesse sighed, working his sore jaw. "Short version is – Xander's a moron."

"Yeah, one hundred percent," Xander agreed sadly.

"Where's Buffy?" Giles snapped at them, looking around again.

"Amy turned her into a rat," Xander explained to Oz.

Oz simply said, "Oh," and proceeded to help them look

They all tried looking on their hands and knees again, making squeaking noises, but it was no good. She was gone.

Furious, Giles straightened up to glare at them. "I don't see her. If anything happens to her, I'll…" He trailed off, seeing how shamefaced Xander looked and how frustrated Jesse looked and just sighed disgustedly. "Jesse, go home. Lock yourself away. You're only going to cause more problems here. Now, Amy, Jenny and I will, uh… try and break the spell. Oz, if you could aid us in finding, um… Buffy."

Oz nodded. "Sure. Absolutely."

Xander started to say something, but Giles cut him off before he could even get out a word, doing his best to control his anger. "You – just go. Get out of my sight."

Stung, he turned away and started for the door. Jesse glared at him, but he followed him all the same. They walked out the door and, after both checking the coast was clear and that the rat wasn't around, they moved off.

Xander cleared his throat. "Look, Jess, I – "

"Don't," Jesse said bluntly. "Just don't."

"Jess, come on, I'm sorry this happened, but – "

A shriek down the hall interrupted him, and they both turned to look. To their alarm, they could see what appeared to be a catfight. Concerned, they dared to venture closer, and they could see the conflict more clearly – Cordelia was being attacked by seemingly every female student in the building, led by Harmony and the other Cordettes. They were slapping and scratching at her with a fury.

"How could you just break his heart repeatedly?!" Harmony shouted. "You think you're so special?!"

"What are you doing?! You guys are crazy!" Cordelia shouted.

Xander and Jesse looked on in horror. "We've gotta get her out of there!" Xander exclaimed.

"Right," Jesse said, his mind already racing as it formed a plan. "I'll draw them away. You get her out."

"But Jess – !"

"Just do it!" Jesse ordered, pushing him into hiding behind some lockers. He sprinted out in front of the crowd of girls, put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loud and long. Most of the girls looked up from their violence and saw him waving. "Hello, ladies!" he shouted down the hall.

"It's him!" one of the Cordettes yelled. They screamed like they were in the peak of Beatlemania and surged toward him.

Yelping, Jesse turned and ran down the connecting hallway. His only hope was to get outside and away before they caught up with him. His sneakers pounded the floor as he glanced back over his shoulder. The bulk of the girls were chasing, but they kept pushing each other aside or bumping into each other, slowing them down. Seeing he had a fair chance, he increased speed and charged ahead for the nearest exit.

. . .

With the crazed mob of girls now after his best friend, Xander could move in and tend to Cordelia. She sat in a heap on the floor, crying and frightened. "Cordy!" he shouted, skidding to a halt and dropping to his knees beside her. "Oh my god, are you okay?"

She couldn't answer, just too busy weeping. Unexpectedly, she hugged him. He didn't feel like he deserved it right now, but he still stroked her back.

"Cordy, what happened? Why were they attacking you?"

Sniffling, she pulled back. "They were… angry at me for… never dating Jesse!" she wailed. "Like, what the hell?! What is going on?"

Wincing, Xander helped her up. "I'll explain on the way. Right now, we need to help Jesse. He's leading the herd away, and if they tear him apart, he'll never speak to me again."

Cordelia grunted in confusion, but she cooperated as he led her towards the nearest exit, looking for the parking lot.

---

Having given up the search for Buffy right now and sent Oz to search outside – his werewolf sense of smell helped – Giles went through some witchcraft books in front of Amy at the table while Jenny paced behind him. "You must have botched the ritual so that Cordelia's necklace actually protected her from the spell," he said, having finished the appropriate passage. "That one should be easily reversible. Where did you learn animal transformation?"

Amy looked up at Giles, looking like she might cry. "Why did you send Jesse away? He needs me." He put his head in his hands, exhausted.

Jenny chortled behind him. "That's a laugh."

"He loves me. We look into each other's souls."

"No one can love two people at once. What we have is real."

Giles lifted his head and looked between them. "Instead of making me ill, why doesn't one of you try to help me?"

Amy looked back into her pocket mirror to check the blood from her nose. "You have no idea what I'm going through."

Giles got to his feet, fuming. "I know it's not love. It's obsession. Selfish, banal obsession." He continued to glare at her, satisfied that she at least looked startled enough to focus for a moment. "Now – the one thing I don't understand is why a spell for Xander should affect Jesse in the first place. What did he have to do with the spell?"

Despite her current condition, Amy furrowed her brow in thought. "Nothing. It was meant to be a temporary spell – should only last a few hours, but…" It looked as though she was fighting against it, pressing her fist into her head as she thought. "I… wanted to date Jesse…"

Believing he had lost her again, he rolled his eyes and turned to face Jenny – only to find that she'd disappeared when he wasn't paying attention. "Oh, great!" he complained.

---

Xander and Cordelia came running out of the building, the task at hand having mercifully distracted her enough that she had recovered. "Come on," he said. "We need your car. We gotta find him."

"You don't think he'd stay here somewhere?" Cordelia asked, already digging her keys out of her purse.

Xander shook his head. "Too many places where they could corner him. He'd go out in the open and find a hiding place. We gotta catch up and give him a lift. They'd never catch him in your car."

Cordelia nodded as she unlocked the doors, and they hopped in. "Well, I did just have a tune up after the werewolf tore it up." They hopped in, she started the engine, and they peeled out of the parking lot.

---

Jesse's feet pounded on the pavement, keeping to the sidewalk. His plan had simply been to get out of the school and keep ahead. Fortunately, he was young and in pretty decent shape, and he had spent a lot of time running from monsters lately, so that gave him a good start. Now, though, he was beginning to tire, the sun was going down, and he knew he couldn't keep this up forever. They weren't exactly on his heels, what with them crashing into each other and fighting for his attention, but they were still coming in hot.

He spotted a church on the corner up ahead and put on enough speed to get around it, putting him temporarily out of sight. It was too big for him to get around the next corner without them seeing him. Panting heavily, he looked around for anything that might help, but the grass alongside was empty.

In his desperation, he racked his brain, and he came across the part that retained the knowledge of the Sorcerer – his ill-fated Halloween costume he'd turned into months ago. He went through the mental rolodex of spells until he came up with one. The sounds of the mob closing in on him frightened him enough that he knew he had to try. He focused all his mental energy on the spell, put his hands to his temples and felt a wave of energy surge over him.

The world turned white and blue for a moment, and when he looked around, he was no longer standing next to the church. He looked around in the growing darkness for some idea of where he was, but once his brain wasn't on fire anymore, he realized he could still see the church in the distance, but from a different angle. He'd only succeeded in teleporting himself some distance away, just a couple streets over.

Looking around again, he realized he was on the old playground. Monkey bars, swing set, slides, jungle gym, etc. He looked back at the church, and he could see the mob of women disappearing around it, accompanied by many yells of confusion at his disappearance. He immediately hid himself in the playground, placing himself inside the large slide's housing, just barely able to squeeze himself inside. Panting heavily, he realized that his feet hurt, and he looked down and saw his shoes were missing. His socks smoked and crackled with residual magic.

Dammit, he thought. He really hoped his shoes were still where he'd teleported out of them, and that maybe they wouldn't tear them apart.

---

"Hopefully, we can do the spell without Jenny," Giles sighed, flipping through the pages. "We still have the pendant, so that should make it reversible, yes?"

Amy continued to massage her temples, as if she had a terrible headache. " … Yes…," she managed to say.

He looked at her again with concern. "Amy, if you could please focus. I know it's… difficult being away from Jesse, but…"

"Xander," she said forcefully, sounding like she was fighting against something. "He… He…"

"He what?" Giles asked, confused.

"He… wanted the spell… for Cordelia… I said… I would only perform the spell… if he got me a date with Jesse."

At that moment, it all clicked into place for Giles. "When you did the spell," he said quietly, "you were thinking about Jesse, yes?" She nodded, still trying to stay focused. "That's why it backfired on him instead of Xander. Your genuine feelings for him disrupted the magic."

Amy looked like she might cry. "Oh goddess," she squeaked. "What have I done…?"

Giles put a hand on her wrist. "You must listen to me, Amy. Your spell has twisted your own feelings for him into obsession. But your real feelings for him are helping you. Focus on that."

"I'm trying," she wailed, "but it's like I'm just barely hanging on in a storm."

He leaned in closer but spoke softly. "Amy – Jesse is in danger. All those women out there will destroy him because he doesn't return their obsession. You must save him."

It took a few seconds, but Amy's breathing became steadier, and she didn't press into her temples nearly as hard. Her body relaxed a little, and she wiped the forming tears from her eyes. "Let's get started," she said hoarsely.

---

Peering out from under the slide's enclosure, Jesse could see the mob still hanging out around the church. They seemed to be fighting each other. He didn't care. He was willing to hide here as long as necessary. He wondered if maybe he'd subconsciously wound up on the playground because he thought of it as a safe place.

"Well, well, well," said a familiar voice. "Look who's suddenly very popular these days."

Jesse looked up and came face-to-face with Angelus, who was grinning sadistically at him. He stumbled and fell backwards, tumbling awkwardly down the long plastic green slide that twisted around in a corkscrew. He barely had time to get back to his feet once he hit the mulch, standing just as Angelus leapt down to him, that overhanging brow enhancing the evil look in the pale moonlight.

"Well, this works out," the vampire grinned, walking slowly toward him. "I wanted to do something special for Buffy, actually to Buffy, but this is so much better!"

Jesse kept his hands at either side, like a cowboy in a western waiting for the right moment to grab his gun. He wasn't dumb. He'd already been nearly killed by Darla last year. He had the right tools. The question was – could he reach his crucifix fast enough to defend himself?

Angelus grinned as he came closer. "See, Jess, you and me? We got some unfinished business to take care of."

Jesse watched him warily. "We do? Business? Us?" he stammered.

"Yeah, y'see… you killed Darla last year."

As the memory of that frenetic night at the Bronze flashed through Jesse's memory, he couldn't help a sardonic look at his enemy. "Right. To save you, I seem to recall. Just sayin'."

Angelus made a show of pretending to consider that. "True…," he said slowly, "but honestly…" He closed the distance in a half second and grabbed him by the neck. "I was never big on gratitude."

Jesse tried to get his crucifix out of his back pocket. He'd just gotten his fingers around it when Angelus threw him to the ground, causing him to lose it in the grass. The vampire bent down, grabbed Jesse's hair before he could crabwalk away, and lifted his head up.

"If it's any consolation, I feel very close to you right now," he hissed, baring his fangs. Suddenly, a hand grabbed him by the shoulder, pulled him up and threw him aside into a tree. He hit it hard and slid down to the ground.

Jesse barely had time to scramble away and look for his crucifix again – these things did not come cheap. He turned around to see his savior was… Drusilla?! "Don't fret, kitten," she purred, helping him up. "Mummy's here."

"You, too, huh?" Jesse sighed sadly. He almost felt bad for her.

Angelus slowly got to his feet, taken off guard. "I don't know what you're up to, Dru, but it doesn't amuse!"

She growled at Angelus and he growled back. "If you harm one hair on this boy's head…," she hissed, stroking his hair.

Angelus looked between them, incredulous. "You've gotta be kidding. Him?"

She smirked. "Just because I finally found a real man…" She turned Jesse to face him. He looked back at Angelus with an apologetic shrug.

"I guess I really did drive you crazy," Angelus murmured, backing away from them.

Drusilla ran her cold fingers over Jesse's lips. "Your face is a poem," she moaned. "I can read it."

Jesse cleared his throat, still terrified. "Um, does the first line contain 'Nantucket'? Because I've already heard that one."

Drusilla actually laughed before she kissed him. "How do you feel about eternal life?"

Trying to get his crucifix back, Jesse smiled nervously. "Well, I could finally learn how to play guitar, but I'd much rather get to know you first!" She grabbed his hair and jerked his head to the side, exposing his neck.

She moved in to bite him, but they were both abruptly bathed in bright light coming from across the playground, followed by a car horn. They both squinted as the lights quickly came closer, an engine roaring at them. Seeing his chance, Jesse wrenched himself free of the distracted vampire's grasp and tumbled to the ground. She jumped aside in the opposite direction. He rolled around in the grass, unfortunately landing on the crucifix's pointy end. He managed to grab it before he saw the car skid to a halt just a few yards away.

It was Cordelia's car. Xander turned in the passenger seat and waved to him. "Jesse! Hurry!"

Without a moment to lose, Jesse sprinted across and dove into the convertible's backseat. The minute his body hit the leather, Cordelia floored on the gas, and they peeled away back onto the road, leaving a furiously howling Drusilla and an amused Angelus behind.

"Who died and made you Elvis?!" Cordelia demanded as they sped down the road.

---

In the darkened science lab, Giles and Amy had a beaker of brew going over a Bunsen burner. Giles checked everything. So far, Amy had managed to stay focused and had done everything correctly. "Right," he told her. "Go on. You first."

She nodded determinedly.

. . .

Jesse sat up in the backseat to make sure they weren't being followed. No sign of an all-female mob, nor of any vampires. Relieved, he sat up and looked between his two rescuers. "So what's the plan?" he asked.

"We're gonna get you out of town until the spell's been broken," Xander explained, glancing over his shoulder at him. He did a double take. "What happened to your shoes?"

Jesse looked at his feet. "Uh, long story," he fumbled. "Anyway, it shouldn't take them too long to undo the spell. We just gotta give the mob the runaround until then."

Unfortunately, the adrenalin of the situation meant that none of them noticed that Cordelia had just run a stop sign. There was no traffic, but just a few seconds later, they saw the flashing lights of a cop car behind them. "Oh, great!" Cordelia complained, now forced to pull over.

"Okay, just be cool," Xander assured her. "We just talk to the nice cop, promise never to do whatever we did again, and we resume driving."

"And what happens if I get a ticket?!"

"I'll go to court and take responsibility! Just go along with it!"

The car rolled to a halt as they continued to bicker, while Jesse subtly positioned himself and got a seatbelt on just in case they got in trouble for that, too. They heard the car door on the vehicle behind them slam shut, and they listened to the footsteps coming up alongside. A tall slender policewoman stepped up to the driver's side door. "You know why I stopped you?" she asked.

Cordelia looked nervous. "Um, was I speeding?"

"I saw you go through a stop sign at the last intersection. License and registration, please."

While Cordelia complied, Xander leaned forward. "Officer, I take full responsibility for this. You see, we were being chased, and – "

"Did I ask you to speak?" the policewoman snapped.

"No, ma'am," he stammered.

While Cordelia dug around in her purse for her license, the policewoman glanced at Jesse in the backseat. "Are you with them?" she asked.

Jesse tried not to make eye contact, still trying to put the seatbelt on. "Er, yes, ma'am. Just a friend."

"Just a friend," she repeated. "Well, I'm glad to hear that." She leaned closer and smiled at him. "Anyone ever tell you that you've got nice shoulders?"

"Oh god," Jesse groaned, already inching away from her.

"Oh, barf," Cordelia groused, already setting her purse down. "Do you want my license or not?"

The policewoman barely glanced at her. "Tell you what. You're free to go." She leaned forward and started to grab at Jesse. "I'll just take him in for questioning." She got him by the collar and started to drag him out of the car.

"Whoa! Hey!" Xander shouted, already grabbing at his friend's leg as the surprisingly-strong police woman got him half out of the car. "Put him down – !"

The policewoman managed to hold on to Jesse with one hand while drawing her gun and aiming it at Xander with the other, causing Cordelia to shriek. "Would you be disobeying an officer, sir?"

Xander put his hands up but still remained where he sat. "Now hold on a minute. Let's just be reasonable about this…"

But now, they could hear a mob of angry voices coming up the street. They all turned and saw that the mob of angry women was storming towards them. At the front, they could see Willow, Harmony, and even Ms Calendar, shouting and raving. Willow even had an ax that she swung in their direction.

"Stay away!" the policewoman shouted. "He's mine!"

She aimed the gun at the crowd, but Jesse, now almost completely out of the car, grabbed her arm and aimed it upwards, away from the crowd. She fired six shots into the wall of the neighboring building, putting four bullets into the cement walls, one through a streetlight, and one through a hanging flower basket that came crashing down.

With the gun no longer aimed at him, Xander leaped out of the car to try and help his friend, shoving her away. She tripped and fell over in the street, so he shoved Jesse back into the car, but he could already see another mob of irate women coming from in front of them. They were surrounded.

"Do you have any weapons?!" he shouted to Cordelia.

She looked frantic for a moment, but then, she remembered something and pressed a button to pop the trunk. "There's a tire iron in the back!"

Good enough for him. Xander reached inside, pulled open the hidden compartment and pulled out the nice heavy metal tire iron. As the women came closer, he swung it like a bat in an attempt to keep them at bay.

Cordelia, meanwhile, looked around the front seat for anything heavy. "If we die out here, I'm gonna kick your ass! I mean it!" she shouted at him.

"None of this would've happened if you hadn't broken up with me. But no, you're so desperate to be popular!"

"Me? I'm not the one who embraced the black arts just to get the girls to like me – and you couldn't even get that to work right!"

Xander glared at her. "Would've worked fine, except your hide's so thick, not even magic can penetrate it!" He swung at the crowd again.

Startled by this tidbit of info, she stopped and looked up at him. "You mean the spell was for me?"

They looked at each other for a moment. Then, Jesse cleared his throat. "Can we keep fighting for our lives, please?" he asked hopefully. The women were getting closer, all crying out for him.

. . .

Amy began to chant. "Goddess of creatures great and small, I conjure thee to withdraw. Hecate, I hereby license thee to depart."

Giles sprinkled a powder into the beaker and it sparked.

. . .

Oz had been following the scent of the rat all the way down to the boiler room. He'd smelled a cat as well, but as the rat scent remained strong, he assumed that meant Buffy hadn't been eaten. He sniffed around some crates and pipes, which were a seemingly unending maze. He tried singing the theme from 'Ben' to lure her out.

A bright light began to flash from behind the crate where Buffy was. Oz held up his flashlight and squinted against the light. In a few seconds, it was over. "Buffy?"

She raised her head and looked around from behind the crate.

. . .

"Oh, my God!" Cordelia shrieked, trying to keep the mob away from her car. She'd been able to find her jack and swung it awkwardly, but they just kept coming.

"Stay behind me," Xander said.

"Guys, just go!" Jesse yelled as the women came for him. "We don't all have to go down like this!"

"This is my fault!" Xander yelled back, still trying to shield him. "If you're going to be torn apart, then I am, too!"

. . .

Giles took a pinch of an herb from a jar. "Um… Diana, goddess of love, be gone." He put the herb into the brew and it sparked. "Hear no more thy siren's song." He waved Cordelia's pendant over the brew and dropped it in. Suddenly, a cloud of energy appeared above them, and they had to hold onto the lab table to keep from being knocked down. The energy drew in from the windows and spiralled down into the beaker. As quickly as it was there, it was gone.

. . .

Willow had dropped her ax and pawed at them like the others. Xander and Cordelia tried to maintain a barrier between the mob and Jesse, but now they were all practically on top of him as he struggled to keep from being torn apart.

Then – it all stopped. The women stopped shrieking and screaming and now started to murmur with confusion. What were they doing here? Why were they swarming around this small car?

Cordelia forcefully pushed the nearest ones off of her, shoving them all away from her car. She looked back down at Xander and Jesse, who were both hanging onto each other for dear life. "Okay, boys, they're done now," she said quietly.

The two guys immediately let go of each other. "We knew that," Xander said sheepishly.

. . .

Buffy stood up, and Oz raised his flashlight and shined it on her. She looked down at herself, and he immediately raised the light away from her and turned it off. She hugged her arms around herself to cover up. "Hi, Oz!" she said brightly.

"Hi," he replied, completely unfazed but still not looking directly at her.

"I seem to be having a slight case of nudity here."

"But you're not a rat. So call it an upside."

"You think maybe you could get me some clothing?"

"Yes, I can. Just, uh… don't go anywhere," he said, heading back to the library.

Buffy looked around the cold dank boiler room. "Really not an issue."

---

"'Scavenger hunt'," Buffy repeated, sharing an unconvinced look with Willow.

Xander shrugged helplessly. "Everyone seemed to buy it."

Willow gave him a scolding look. "I just can't believe you seriously tried to love spell Cordelia just to embarrass her."

"I know, I know. I thought it would only last for a few hours, and she'd go back to normal." He sighed heavily, looking around the school at their back-to-normal classmates. His eyes fell on Jesse, standing at his locker with his back to them, putting things away and taking out a binder to look through. "He barely spoke to me once it was over."

"Considering the entire female population nearly ax-murdered him, can you blame him?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, you need to start your groveling now," Willow nodded. "Considering how long it's going to take you."

Taking a deep breath, and making sure the girls stayed with him, he made a bee line for his best friend and stopped alongside him. "Hey," he said quietly.

Jesse looked up, surprised, but his expression remained unreadable. "Hey," he said in return.

The ball firmly in his court, Xander put his hands in his pockets and effortlessly looked shameful. "Look, I know I apologized, like, a billion times yesterday, but I'm here for the one-billion-and-first. Second and third are soon to follow." He looked at his friend imploringly. "I know it's gonna be a while before we're better, but… can we still be friends?"

Jesse regarded him for a way-too-long moment. Honestly, he had every right to never speak to Xander again, and he knew it. Fortunately, he nodded slightly, almost smiling. "Yeah, we're still friends," he said, leaning against the locker. "I mean, you were all set to get chopped into kibbles 'n' bits along with me. I can't say you're not sorry."

Xander raised his eyebrows hopefully. "So… we're good?"

"Well, I didn't say that," Jesse said pointedly. "I'm just saying… we'll get there."

Nodding in acceptance, Xander knew he would just have to take his punishment like a man.

Jesse eyed their female companions. "How are you two doing?"

"Thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed," Willow sighed wistfully. "Also, I think I might've been a lumberjack in a past life. I wielded that thing!"

Buffy nodded along. "I remember coming on to you, I remember begging you to undress me… And then a sudden need for cheese. I also remember that you didn't. Undress me. It meant a lot to me what you said."

"Yeah, Jess, it means a lot to us that you didn't take advantage of us," agreed Willow. "I know we didn't exactly make it easy on you."

"Oh, it was no trouble at all," Jesse shrugged. "Never even crossed my mind."

As he put a book back in his locker, Buffy and Willow exchanged confused glances. Should they be offended by that?

But while his friend's back was turned, Xander spotted a familiar face in the crowd looking in their direction – Amy. Another person he needed to apologize to. But then, he had an idea. Maybe he could apologize to two birds with one stone. He subtly waved her over. She looked uncomfortable, but she obliged.

As she approached, Xander addressed Jesse again. "Do you mind if I ask you something, Jess?" he said, making sure Amy could hear him as she closed in. "Why do you want to ask Amy out?" He smiled as the incoming lady's eyes widened in alarm. "I mean, she's cool and she's got magic and she's extremely forgiving, but what is it about her?"

Jesse looked startled by the question, but he gazed off into the middle distance as he thought. "I dunno, man," he said bashfully. "I mean, she's… fun, y'know? We laugh together a lot. She's always ready to help us when we need it." His smile grew as he thought about it. Amy just looked at the back of his head, her apprehension becoming hopefulness. "And really, I just wanna do stuff for her, y'know? Like take her out, buy her dinner and make her laugh. Just stuff like… like…" He trailed off when he saw his three friends all grinning at him, and he quickly looked thoroughly embarrassed. "She's… right behind me, isn't she?"

"Yes, she is," said Amy.

Very stiffly, he turned around to face her, laughing nervously. "I… er, well, I…"

"Yes?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes at him teasingly.

He took a breath, cleared his throat and got his tongue under control. "Amy, do you want to go out sometime?"

"Yes, please," she said. So simple, yet clearly trying to keep her delight contained.

"Good. Yes. Right. Um… I have to go to class in a minute, but maybe after school, we could… plan something?"

"I'd like that," she smiled, holding her books to her chest.

"I'll see you on the quad, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," she said, her cheeks pink as she smiled at him, then at the others, and then turned and practically skipped away.

Xander watched his friend watching her leave and leaned forward a little. "So… are we good now?"

Snapping out of his reverie, Jesse turned back around, his eyes fixed in the happiest thousand yard stare, before he shrugged. "Eh – we're getting there," he grinned. They all had a good laugh and congratulated him.

---

Cordelia walked with Harmony and their other friends through the colonnade, their earlier attempts to murder her now forgotten – possibly literally – and they were chatting away about clothes and boys and music, as per usual. They walked around under the balcony and headed toward the foot of the stairs.

"Cody Weinberg called me at home last night," Harmony dished.

Cordelia's eyes widened. "Cody Weinberg? The one with the 350 SL?"

"The very one. Said he's thinking of asking me to the pledge dance on Thursday."

"That's so huge!"

"Yeah, there's just two other girls he's gonna ask first, and if they refuse, then I'll…" She got cut off when someone bumped into her as they rounded the corner of the stairs, and her mood switched from smug to snotty on a dime. "Watch it!"

As fate would have it, it was Xander, who immediately looked cowed. "Sorry."

"God!" Harm continued as she looked him up and down. "Y'know, I'm glad your mom stopped working at the drive-through long enough to dress you." Then, she changed gears and became cheerful again as she turned back to Cordelia. "Oh, that reminds me," she said as Xander started away. "Did you see Jennifer's backpack? It is so a crying…"

"Harmony, shut up," Cordelia snapped, almost against her will. Because yes, Xander was immature, impulsive and made a bad decision the other day – but she really didn't care. She cared for him, and she wanted to be with him. "Do you know what you are, Harmony? You're a sheep."

"I'm not a sheep." She didn't seem to get the point of the insult, but she didn't want to look dumb.

"You're a sheep. All you ever do is what everyone else does just so you can say you did it first. And here I am, scrambling for your approval, when I'm way cooler than you are 'cause I'm not a sheep. I do what I wanna do, and I wear what I wanna wear. And you know what? I'll date whoever the hell I wanna date. No matter how lame he is."

She turned and stormed away from the group and went over to Xander, who lit up when he saw her coming. When she reached him, she took his arm, and they started walking together along the colonnade.

She picked up the pace. She was starting to lose her nerve. "Oh, God! Oh, God!"

He patted her hand. "You're gonna be okay. Just keep walking."

"Oh, God, what have I done?" she wailed. "They're never gonna speak to me again!"

"Oh, sure, they are. If it helps, whenever we're around them you and I can fight a lot."

"You promise?"

He took her hand in his. "You can pretty much count on it." They both smiled as they continued walking.