The night before had been innocuous enough. Just your standard 'teens going out to party and enjoy the delusion they'll be young forever' type of fun and silliness. They'd gone to the Bronze, which had been packed and fun. Everyone danced to the band Morcheeba. They had all taken turns dancing with each other and eating snacks at their table. Xander and Cordelia had been there together, as had Jesse and Amy – the former pair getting used to being a normal couple in public, while the latter pair got used to being a couple at all. The only one missing was Oz, who had a gig across town with his fellow Dingos tonight, so she and Willow both went stag.

It had been a wild night. She danced with everyone – except Cordelia, who was only just willing to dance with Xander. She did manage to behave civilly for the most part, and Willow – who still held onto some bitterness that Xander had chosen her - managed to have a semi-pleasant conversation with her rival. Jesse and Amy alternated between dancing and acting as a buffer whenever Will and Cordy were almost alone together.

They left the club and headed for home as a group, laughing and chatting, feeling like their troubles were on some other planet and they were safe for now. She'd linked arms with Willow and Amy, while Jesse hung back and joked with Xander, who held onto Cordelia as she leaned against him tiredly.

Once they'd all gone their separate ways, she went upstairs to her room, got everything ready for school tomorrow and tidied up. She'd paused by the window and looked out, lifting the blinds a little to scan around. Satisfied that no one was there, she'd walked back over to her closet, unzipping the back of her dress along the way and changing into her pajamas. Alarm set for the ungodly hour of six-thirty in the morning, she'd gone to sleep.

She woke up the next morning, annoyingly a few minutes before the alarm would've gone off, but her eyes fixed on an envelope left next to her on her pillow. She pushed her hair back and picked it up. It was blank. She opened it and took out the paper inside, unfolding it and stared in disbelief. It was a pencil sketch of her sleeping.


"He was in my room," she announced.

Giles looked up from behind the counter where he'd been checking in various books. "Who?"

"Angel. He was in my room last night." She sat at the table where Xander and Cordelia already sat.

"Are you sure?" Giles asked, coming around to join her.

"Positive. When I woke up, I found a picture he'd left me on my pillow."

"A visit from the pointed-tooth fairy," Xander joked darkly.

Cordelia looked confused. "Wait, I thought vampires couldn't come in unless you invited them in."

"Yes, but, uh, once you've invited them in, thereafter they're always welcome."

"Y'know, I think there may be a valuable lesson for you gals here about inviting strange men into your bedrooms," Xander said annoyingly.

Cordelia realized. "Oh, God! I invited him in my car once. That means he can come into my car whenever he wants."

"Yep, you're doomed to havin' to give him and his vamp pals a lift whenever they feel like it. And those guys never chip in for gas."

While Cordelia huffed in disgust, Buffy addressed her Watcher. "Giles, there has to be some sort of spell to reverse the invitation, right? Like a barrier, a 'no shoes, no pulse, no service' kind of thing?"

"Yeah, that works for a car, too?" Cordelia asked urgently.

Giles pondered. "Yes, well, I could check on my…"

"Hello!" Xander exclaimed, hopping up from his chair. They all turned to look at what he'd seen. She half-expected it to be Angel. Nope, just a couple of kids looking for books on Stalin for their homework. Sometimes it was really easy to forget that this was a school library and not their private Scooby headquarters. They really needed a headquarters.

After Giles directed the kids to the correct books, they all quickly moved out into the hall to continue the conversation. She wasn't sure what made the hall more secure than the library, but maybe it was all the kids moving around focused on other things that made their conversations stand out less.

"So Angel has decided to step up his harassment of you?" Giles asked.

"By sneaking in her room and leaving stuff at night?" added Cordelia. "Why doesn't he just slit her throat or strangle her while she's sleeping or cut her heart out?" Everyone glared at her. "What? I'm trying to help."

Deciding to ignore her, Giles continued as they stepped outside. "Uh, look, it's a classic battle strategy to throw one's opponent off his game. He's just trying to provoke you. Uh, to taunt you, to goad you into some mishap of some sort."

"The 'nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah' approach to battle?" Xander suggested.

Giles resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Yes, Xander, once more you've managed to boil a complex thought down to its simplest possible form."

"Giles, Angel once told me that when he was obsessed with Drusilla, the first thing he did was to kill her family."

The amusement left Xander's face. "Your mom."

"I know. I'm gonna have to tell her something." She sat on a wall and looked at Giles hopefully. "The truth?"

He waved his finger at her. "No. You can't do that."

"Yeah," said Xander. "The more people who know the secret, the more it cheapens it for the rest of us."

"But I've gotta tell her something. I've gotta do something. Giles, Angel has an all-access pass to my house, and I'm not always there when my mother is. I can't protect her."

"I told you I will find a spell," he insisted.

"What about until you find a spell?"

"Until then, you and your mother are welcome to ride around with me in my car," Cordelia offered.

"Buffy, I understand your concern," Giles said, "but it's imperative that you keep a level head through all this."

"That's easy for you to say. You don't have Angel lurking in your bedroom at night."

"I know how hard this is for you." She glared at him, and he wilted a little. "All right, I don't. But as the Slayer, you don't have the luxury of being a slave to your passions. You mustn't let Angel get to you. No matter how provocative his behavior may become."

"So what you're basically saying is, 'just ignore him, and maybe he'll go away'?"

He let out a frustrated breath. "Yes. Precisely."

Xander looked annoyed. "Hey, how come Buffy doesn't get a snotty 'once again you boil it down to the simplest form' thing?" He looked her up and down. "Watcher's Pet."

. . .

It wasn't that Giles didn't sympathize with Buffy's plight, but really, the less people that knew her secret, the better. She was already pushing it with all the students who knew. Besides Xander, Jesse, Willow, Cordelia, Oz and Amy, they also had so many people that she had helped along the way who lived with the secret. Frankly, he was a little impressed the entire student populace didn't know by now.

"Now then," Giles said, "we need to find a spellbook that might cover revoking a vampire's invitation." He winced a little as he knew his solution would only lower her mood even further. "I'm… afraid there's only one place we can go right now that might hold the answer."

She apparently read his mind, because her eyes closed despairingly. "Ms Calendar," she said in a tight voice.

"She has the experience we need."

"Can't we just get Amy to do it?"

"I'm afraid Amy's a bit put off magic right now, since her last love spell went a bit 'awry'," Giles said, shooting Xander a brief-but-stern glare. The boy looked down awkwardly at the reminder of his mistake. "Well, Je– er, Ms Calendar's classroom is up ahead. I can just pop in and…"

Buffy glared at him, and it just made him sad. Part of him wanted to hear Jenny out and try to fix what had gone wrong between them all, but as long as Buffy remained furious with her, he felt honorbound to side with her. She was the wronged party, after all. But he still believed that this problem needed conversation, not bitter accusing silence. He had to remember that she was young, and to her, the situation was that simple. He hoped one day she would know better.

The door to the classroom was open, and at first glance, it looked empty, but they could hear Jenny speaking… Willow, who was talking in her 'panic' voice about fire or something.

"Willow… Willow, you'll be fine. I'll try not to be too late, okay," Jenny reassured her.

"Okay, good. Earlier is good." Her voice turned eager. "Will I have the power to assign detention? Or make 'em run laps?"

Buffy spoke up, her tone neutral. "Hey, Will."

Jenny and Willow look over at them in the doorway. "Hi, Buffy. Rupert."

Giles looked down while Buffy made a point of ignoring her. "Willow, I thought I might take in a class. Figured I could use someone who knows where they are."

Willow glanced over at Jenny with her eyes and then started to walk out of the classroom. "Sorry. I have to talk to her. She's a teacher, and teachers are to be respected," she said in a low voice as they exited the room, "even if they're only filling in until the real teacher shows up, because otherwise chaos could ensue…"

Giles let the girls go, and now stepped into the classroom, his hands in his pockets, not really sure how to act in her absence.

"How have you been?" Jenny asked gently.

He let out a weary sigh. "Uh, not so good, actually. Uh, since Angel lost his soul, he's regained his sense of whimsy."

"Well, that sounds bad."

"He's been in Buffy's bedroom. I need to drum up a spell to, uh, keep him out of the house."

She immediately reached down to her desk and picked up an old book. "This might help," she said, handing it to him. "I've been doing a little reading since Angel changed. I don't think you have that one."

Well, that was something, at least. "Thank you," he said, leafing through it.

She watched him for a moment, her arms crossed, trying to be cool but still trying to reach out. "So, how's Buffy doing?"

He closed and lowered the book. "How do you think?"

She faced away from him. "I know you feel betrayed."

"Yes. Well, that's one of the unpleasant side effects of betrayal."

"Rupert… I was raised by the people that Angel hurt the most." She looked up at him imploringly. "My duty to them was the first thing I was ever taught. I didn't come here to hurt anyone, and I lied to you because I thought it was the right thing to do. I… I didn't know what would happen. I didn't know I was gonna fall in love with you."

The world ground to a halt under Giles' feet at those words. He was moved, but he was also stuck. He wanted this conflict to be over so badly, but all the bad feelings between her and Buffy – and him, for that matter – still loaded him down.

She looked away again. "Oh, God. Is it too late to take that back?"

"Do you want to?" he asked.

"I just wanna be right with you. I don't expect more. I just want so badly to make all this up to you."

He chose his words carefully. "I understand. But I'm not the one you need to make it up to." She seemed to understand. With nothing left to be said, he gave her a small encouraging smile and raised the book. "Thank you for the book." He turned and walked out of the room.


Dinnertime at the Summers household was quiet, with Buffy mostly just picking at her food, knowing that Angelus could show up at any given moment and kill her mother. Joyce sat across from her, eating quietly all this time, blissfully unaware. Totally oblivious. Living her life, unaware that anything was wrong…

Joyce set down her fork, folded her hands and leaned forward on the table. "Okay, what's wrong?" she asked.

Buffy looked up. Okay, maybe not that unaware. "It's nothing."

"Come on. You can tell me anything." Buffy eyed her, not buying it. "I've read all the parenting books. You cannot surprise me."

Taking a moment to think over her next few words, Buffy put down her fork, put her hands in her lap and looked over at her mother. "Do you remember that guy Angel?"

Joyce thought back. "Angel, the, um… the college boy who was tutoring you in history?"

Okay, good, she already had a cover story for him. God, her life was too complicated. "Right. Uh, he… I… Oh, God. Um…" She chose her words very carefully. "We're sort of dating – were dating, um, going through a serious off-again phase right now."

Joyce smiled. "Don't tell me. He's changed. He's not the same guy you fell for?"

Oof, the metaphor was just being whacked over her head now. "In a nutshell. Anyway, um… since he changed, he's been kinda following me around. He's having trouble letting go."

"Buffy, has he done anything…?"

"No!" she clarified quickly. "No, it's not like that." Other than probably murder innocent people, which would be on her conscience for a long time. "He's just been hanging around… a lot. Just sending me notes, that kind of thing." This didn't make her mom look any less concerned. "I just don't wanna see him right now. I mean, if he shows up, I'll talk to him. Just… don't invite him in."

. . .

The remainder of the night was even less pleasant. She'd tried calling Willow, but during their conversation, her best friend found that Angelus had not only killed all her fish, but had put them all in a blank envelope, all strung together one after the other, lying on her bed. Naturally, she decided to stay at Buffy's for the night for protection, simply telling Joyce that her parents were out of town and she felt lonely – not a total lie, anyway.

It wasn't much of a sleepover. They hung a string of garlic cloves on the wall, and Willow held a stake in her hand, which looked so odd while she wore her pajamas. She wasn't too devastated about the fish themselves as she was about her lack of safety. She tried to (sort of) cheer Buffy up by pointing out that she was still the only thing he thought about, but she wasn't sure if that helped any.


Spike, sat in his wheelchair, stared blankly at the puppy Drusilla had held out to him. Blasted cute thing whined pathetically.

"Poor thing," Drusilla said sadly. "She's an orphan. Her owner died… without a fight," she finished with a smile. "Do you like her? Hmm?" She reached her hand into his jacket and rubbed his chest. He kept thinking about how many times she'd rubbed Angelus' chest these last few weeks. "I brought her especially for you… to cheer you up. And I've named her… Sunshine!" she said sweetly, offering the puppy to him. "Open wide." He looked away, thoroughly annoyed. "Come on, love. You need to eat something to keep your strength up. Now, rrrrr, open up for mummy."

Spike still wouldn't look at her. "I won't have you feeding me like a child, Dru," he huffed, wheeling away from her.

"Why not?" his voice rang out. "She already bathes you, carries you around and changes you like a child."

Drusilla looked up as Angelus strolled down towards them. "Why, Angel. Where have you been? The sun is almost up, and it can be so hurtful. We were worried."

"No, we weren't," Spike grumbled, like a child.

"You must forgive Spike. He's just a bit testy tonight. Doesn't get out much anymore."

Angelus grinned. "Well, maybe next time I'll bring you with me, Spike. Might be handy to have you around if I ever need a really good parking space."

Riled, Spike glared at him. "Have you forgotten that you're a bloody guest in my bloody home?"

Angelus stepped closer. "And as a guest," he said, leaning in, "if there's anything I can do for you… Any… responsibility I can assume while you're spinning your wheels…" He looked over at Drusilla. "Anything I'm not already doing, that is."

Spike shoved Angelus away angrily. "That's enough!" he hissed.

Angelus smiled widely and giggled. Drusilla cooed mockingly and gave him a peck on the cheek and put the puppy in his lap. Still resenting her attempt to feed him, he simply held the poor animal rather than drink from it. Dog blood wasn't really his preferred meal anyway, he thought as he absently stroked its head.

"You two boys…," she went on, "fightin' over me and all. Makes a girl feel…" Suddenly she looked up and moaned loudly in apparent pain. Angelus stepped over opposite her across the table, looking concerned.

"Dru, what is it, pet?" Spike asked urgently.

"The air," she panted. "It worries. Someone… an old enemy is seeking help… help to destroy our happy home. Ohhhh…"


"Welcome!" the shopkeeper said with a thick Rumanian accent. "How may I serve you today?"

Jenny looked at him, trying to remain civil. She looked around awkwardly at the display table, focusing on the skull in a covered glass bowl, a small gong hung between two horns and a pig fetus in formaldehyde. The shopkeeper still held his price gun that he'd just been putting on a bunch of jars full of weird animal organs.

"Love potion? Perhaps a voodoo doll for that unfaithful…"

"I need an Orb of Thesulah," Jenny interrupted.

Surprised, the shopkeeper mercifully dropped the accent. "Oh, you're in the trade," he realized, moving behind the sales counter. "Sorry about the spiel, but around Valentine's Day, I get a lot of tourists shopping for love potions and mystical revenge of past lovers. Sad fact is, Ouija boards and rabbits' feet – that's what pays the rent around here." He popped into the back. "So how did you hear about us?"

"My Uncle Enyos told me about you," Jenny said, looking at a crab in a jar.

He looked out at her. "So you're Janna, then." She looked surprised that her uncle had talked about her. "Sorry to hear about your uncle."

"Thank you."

He came back with a round wooden box. "He was a good customer. Well, now, there you go," he said, setting it down to open it. "One Thesulan Orb. Spirit vault for the rituals of the undead. I don't get many calls for those lately. Sold a couple as new age paperweights last year." She handed him her credit card. "Yeah, I just love those new-agers, boy. They helped to send my youngest to college." He continued as he filled in a form. "By the way, you do know that the transliteration annals for the ritual of the undead were lost. Without the annals, the surviving text is gibberish."

"And without a translated text, the Orbs of Thesulah are pretty much useless," she said, signing the form as well. "Yeah, I know."

"Well, I only mention it because I have a strict policy of no refunds," he said, putting the lid on the box.

"It's okay. I'm working on a computer program to translate the Rumanian liturgy to English based on a random sampling of the text."

His expression soured. "Yecchh. I don't like computers. They give me the willies."

"Well," she said shortly, "thank you."

"You're welcome." As she took the lid off of the box on her way to the door. "By the way…," he added, causing her to look back. "Not that it's any of my business, really, but, uh, what are you planning on conjuring up? If you can decipher the text?"

"A present for a friend of mine."

"Really? What are you gonna give him?"

She held up the Orb and looked into it as it began to glow. "His soul."


Giles was putting things away in the library, getting ready to start organizing and going over the late notices for the day, when he heard the doors open. He turned, surprised to hear someone coming in so early in the day. Even more surprising, it was Jesse, walking up with his backpack slung over his shoulder. While he saw the boy often enough, he wasn't much of a reader, so if he was entering the library at this hour, it was probably to see if his friends were here.

"Jesse!" he greeted, checking his watch. "You're a bit early today. I'm afraid Buffy isn't here."

"Hey," he replied. "Er, no, I'm not looking for Buffy. I kinda wanted to talk to you."

Setting his files down, Giles straightened up. "Me?"

"Yeah," he paused to look over his shoulder, "so, during the 'love spell' fiasco last week, I had a little… encounter with Angelus."

"An 'encounter'?"

Jesse nodded, his apprehension apparent. "He'd been following while I was on the run. Fortunately, Drusilla was also 'in love with me' and held him off, and then Xander and Cordelia saved me from her… Seriously, it was a weird day. The important thing is – if Angelus has a hit list of any kind, I'm definitely in the top five."

This was very alarming news to say the least. If Jesse was being personally sought out, that could endanger his life and everyone he held dear. "Why is he so set on you? Surely it's not simply because you're friends with Buffy."

"No," Jesse said on a heavy exhale. "It's because…" He paused, apparently not liking what he was about to say. "It's because I staked Darla."

Giles regarded him for a moment, then took a moment to clean his glasses as he absorbed this information. He had been at the Bronze that night with the others when Angel's sire, Darla, had been attacking. Angel had made an attempt to stake her but slipped on a billiard ball, alerting her to his attempt. Jesse, from the opposite direction, had taken a broken pool cue and run her through with it. It had been over a year since the incident, and it had largely passed from Giles' mind. Clearly, it had not passed from Angel's. Soul or no soul, his connection with his sire was a strong one.

"I begin to see the problem," Giles murmured. "He's out for revenge."

"The woman who made him," Jesse agreed. "And I dusted her."

"You've never invited him into your home, correct?" Jesse shook his head. "Then, I would advise you to ensure he never does. Tell your parents that if someone shows up looking for you, they are not to let him in. Just make up a story. Arm yourself if you are forced to be out in the open at night – crucifix, wooden stake, holy water if you can get it… He may be a particularly brutal vampire, but he is not more powerful than the others. He can still be taken out by ordinary vampire weapons."

"Good to know," Jesse sighed. "I'll tell Amy, too."

"Amy?"

"I'm worried Angelus might come after her to get to me."

"Why would he do that?"

Jesse smiled awkwardly. "Well, we're… sort of… dating now."

"Oh!" Giles said. At least it wasn't all doom and gloom this week. "Well, congratulations. Glad to hear things worked out with you two. Have you, er, gone on a date together yet?"

"Not just the two of us yet. We all went out as a group the other night." He looked a little embarrassed. "We're still getting used to it."

"Then I would suggest you to be very careful going out together after dark. If possible, try to keep your social activities during daytime hours where he can't see you. He's very likely to go after the ones you care for."

The thought obviously filled the boy with dread. He let out another deep breath. "Man, it's so weird talking about Angel like this. Can't even begin to imagine how Buffy must feel."

"Nor can I," Giles murmured thoughtfully.


Outside, Buffy and Willow were approaching the school, discussing the previous night and how far away they would need to hide to sleep more peacefully. Xander came up, all cheerful after a good night's sleep. "Well, good morning, ladies. And what did you two do last night?"

"We had kind of a 'pajama party sleepover with weapons' thing," said Willow.

"Oh. And I don't suppose either of you had the presence of mind to locate a camera to capture the moment."

Willow rolled her eyes. "I have to go. I have a class to teach in about five minutes, and I have to arrive early to glare disapprovingly at the stragglers." But her face fell when she saw Ms Calendar arriving. "Oh, darn. She's here. Five hours of lesson planning yesterday down the drain…" She walked off, disappointed.

Buffy saw the computer science teacher walking by, and she felt the usual stab of anger. She also felt, much to her disappointment, sympathy – not for the traitor in their midst, but for Giles, who she could tell still wanted to be with her. Realizing she couldn't live with the guilt for being the wedge between them, she reluctantly told Xander to go on ahead while she jogged up to her and got in front. "Hey."

Ms Calendar looked startled. "Hi." There was an uncomfortable silence between them as Buffy tried to figure out what to say. "Uh, is there something that…? Did you want something?"

"Look… I know you feel badly about what happened, and I just wanted to say…" God, she just couldn't do this. She was still so angry and felt so betrayed – and she wanted to stay that way and make this woman suffer as much as she was. "Good. Keep it up."

To her disappointment, Ms Calendar didn't look hurt or racked with guilt. In fact, she looked vaguely annoyed, and maybe disappointed in her. "Don't worry, I will," she said in a flat voice, turning to go.

Dammit, Buffy thought. She held up a hand to stop her. Trying to make her feel bad was only making Buffy feel bad. "Oh, wait. Um… He misses you." That got a reaction. Ms Calendar opened her mouth like she wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. "He doesn't say anything, I mean, but I know he does. And I don't want him to be lonely. I don't want anyone to." She managed to resist adding 'except you' – the pettiness didn't help as much as she wanted it to.

"Buffy, you know that if I have a chance to make this up – "

"We're… good here," Buffy said shortly. "Let's just leave it." She walked away, still angry at the woman, but also feeling a little lighter than she had before.

She found Giles in the lounge talking with some students, handing them some flyers to hang up. As soon as they were gone, she approached him. "Buffy," he greeted. "So, uh, so how was your night?"

"Sleepless, but no human fatalities."

Her Watcher continued. "I found a ritual to revoke the invitation to vampires."

Cordelia, of course, picked that moment to walk up. "Oh, thank goodness," she said with great relief. "I actually had to talk my grandmother into switching cars with me last night."

Everyone stared at her for a moment before they soldiered on. "The ritual's fairly basic, actually. It's just the recitation of a few rhyming couplets, burning of moss herbs, sprinkling of holy water…"

"All stuff I have in my house," Buffy nodded.

"Hanging of crosses, sprinkling of holy water…"

Cordelia looked alarmed. "Holy water? But… my car has leather upholstery!"


The girls looked on as Willow nailed a cross next to her French doors and pulled the curtain over to hide it. "I'm gonna have a hard time explaining this to my dad."

Amy looked up from the spellbook. "He's gonna be that tweaked?"

"Ira Rosenberg's only daughter nailing crucifixes to her bedroom wall? I have to go over to Xander's house just to watch 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' every year." She smiled. "Although it is worthwhile to see him do the Snoopy Dance."

Cordelia looked up from her corner of the room, looking perplexed as usual. "Willow, are you aware that there are no fish in your aquarium?"

Willow frowned and whined. Buffy and Amy both shot her an annoyed look.

"You know, Cordelia," Buffy said as politely as she could, "we've already done your car. Call it a night if you want."

"Right. Thanks. And you know I'd do the same for you if you had a social life." She picked her coat up from Willow's bed and saw a blank envelope there. "Oh," she said, picking it up and handing it to Willow. "This must be for you."

Willow opened it, already looking worried. When she saw the contents, she handed it to Buffy. "It's for you."

Buffy unfolded the paper and felt her blood run cold as she saw a pencil sketch of her mother sleeping. "Mom."


Angelus waited patiently in the night outside the Summers household. He knew exactly how he was going to play this. When he'd seen the jeep missing in the driveway, he knew Joyce Summers would be out for a while. He waited in the shadows – he wanted to make an entrance. He saw the jeep coming. It swung into the driveway, and he stepped out into the beams, looking all helpless and pathetic.

The vehicle stopped, and the engine cut out, killing the lights, too. He approached her open car window. "Mrs Summers, I need to talk to you," he said urgently.

Joyce got out with a bag of groceries, already looking unnerved at his presence. "You're Angel."

He pushed the door shut behind her. "Did Buffy tell you about us?"

"She told me she wants you to leave her alone."

"I… I can't. I can't do that," he said, laying on the angst as much as he could.

"You're scaring her."

"You have to help me," he insisted as she started toward the house. He followed her just close enough to be creepy while not technically threatening. "Joyce… I need… I need to be with her. You can convince her. You have to convince her."

He managed to get in front of her, and he loved the fear in her eyes while she tried to remain authoritative. "Look, I'm telling you to leave her alone."

"You have to talk to her for me, Joyce. Tell her I need her."

She managed to get around him. "Please, look, I just wanna get inside, okay?" She let go of her bag with one hand and rummaged in her purse for her keys, but she couldn't keep her grip on the bag, and it fell. Several oranges rolled out and around.

Angelus righted the bag and scrambled to pick a few of the oranges up, like he was trying to curry favor. "You don't understand, Joyce. I'll die without Buffy. She'll die without me."

She'd gotten her keys out, glaring at him over her shoulder as she tried to unlock the door. "Are you threatening her?"

"Please… Why is she doing this to me?"

"I'm calling the police now." She decided to forget the grocery bag and went to the door. There she fumbled with her keys, trying to find the right one.

Angelus came up next to her as she finally got it in the door. "I haven't been able to sleep since the night we made love." Oh, how he loved the look of shock on her face. "I need her. I know you understand."

She opened the door. "Just leave us alone," she said, rushing in.

He tried to follow, ready to corner and finish her off, only to bounce against an invisible barrier. What the hell…?!

Then, he saw Buffy, Willow and Amy coming down the stairs. Amy was reading a Laten verse from a book. "'Hicce verbis consensus rescissus est.'"

Buffy came up to him. "Sorry, Angel. Changed the locks." She slammed the door in his face. He stared at the door in stunned silence. Well, there went his evening…


Jenny sat at her desk, working on the translation program. Once classes were finished, she'd gone straight to work, and now she worked well into the night. The Orb of Thesulah sat next to her, glowing faintly. She took a sip of coffee from her mug and set it back down, typing a few keystrokes.

"Hello."

She startled at that painfully familiar voice and looked up at Giles. Quickly, she typed a few keystrokes, and the screen changed before she turned back to him. No point in giving him false hope just yet. "Oh! Hi."

He stepped into the dimly lit room, looking curious. "You're working late."

"Special project," she said simply, and he seemed to accept that. She decided to take a chance. "I spoke to Buffy today."

He looked pleased to hear that as he sat on the edge of her desk. "Oh! Yes?"

"Mm," she said, looking away, playing with a pencil. "She said you missed me."

He looked adorably embarrassed. "Well, uh, she's… a meddlesome girl."

She looked at him, wanting to spill her guts, but she knew she couldn't yet. "Rupert… Okay, I don't wanna say anything if I'm wrong, but I may have some news. Now, I need to finish up here. Could I see you later?"

"Yes, yes," he said, as if it were so simple and the conflict hadn't happened. "You could stop by my house."

"Okay," she smiled, pleased at the invitation.

He smiled and got up. "Good." His smile grew delightfully cheesy as he departed.

Pleased, Jenny turned her attention back to her computer and resumed her work.


The Shopkeeper turned out the light by the front entrance and headed toward the back. To his annoyance, he saw a pale thin woman holding a puppy open the door and step in. "Sorry, honey," he said, blowing out the candles. "We're closed." He looked up, but she wasn't leaving. In fact, there was something downright unsettling about her. "W… What do you want?" he asked nervously.

The woman looked at the puppy, who looked really reluctant to be there. "Miss Sunshine here tells me you had a visit today," she said in a light English accent. She looked at him, now. "But she worries. She wants to know what you and the mean teacher talked about."


Jenny tapped a few keys, then looked up at the screen. A 'percent complete' window appeared over the Rumanian text, and the bar zipped across it. "Come on, come on…," she murmured. To her relief, the bar disappeared, and a translation scrolled up next to the original text. "That's it!" she smiled, letting out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. "It's gonna work!" She clicked 'save', then popped out an unlabeled yellow floppy disk and set it aside by some books near the edge of her desk.

In the meantime, a hardcopy started to print out. She wheeled her chair over to the printer and looked it over, but then, she felt a presence. She looked up and saw Angelus sitting in a desk at the back of the class. She gasped and jumped out of her seat. "Angel…," she gasped, already slowly moving toward the door. "How did you get in here?"

"I was invited," he said casually. "The sign in front of the school… 'Formatia trans sicere educatorum.'"

"'Enter all ye who seek knowledge,'" Jenny translated numbly.

Angelus giggled and got up. "What can I say? I'm a knowledge seeker."

He started to approach. Her heart pounding in her chest, she tried to stay calm. She had no weapons of any kind to protect herself. This is what she got for pulling an all-nighter. "Angel, I… I've got good news."

"I heard. You went shopping at the local boogedy-boogedy store." He saw the Orb on her desk and picked it up. "The Orb of Thesulah. If memory serves, this is supposed to summon a person's soul… from the ether… store it until it can be transferred." The Orb began to glow as he looked into it. He glanced up at her for an instant, and she edged away from him. "You know what I hate most about these things?" He heaved it into the chalkboard behind her, making her scream. It shattered into hundreds of pieces and a lot of dust. "They're so damn fragile," he smiled briefly. "Must be that shoddy gypsy craftsmanship, huh?"

Jenny backed into the wall and trembled with fear. She started to inch her way toward the door as he reached over to the PC and turned the monitor so he could see it. She reached the door and tried to open it – why the hell was it locked?! How had he gotten in and locked the door without her noticing?!

"I never cease to be amazed how much the world has changed in just two and a half centuries," he remarked. "It's a miracle to me. You… put the secrets to restoring my soul in here…" He shoved the computer off her desk and onto the floor. It broke, and the monitor shattered and sparked and started to burn. He tore the printout from the printer. "It comes out here." He looked it over. "'The Ritual of Restoration.' Wow. This brings back memories." He started to tear it up.

She finally found her voice. "Wait. That's your…!"

"Oh, my cure? No, thanks. Been there, done that, and deja vu just isn't what it used to be." He glanced at the fire. "My… Isn't this my lucky day? The computer… and the pages." He chucked the papers into the fire and warmed his hands. "Looks like I get to kill two birds with one stone." He crouched over the fire to warm himself more. Jenny started toward the back door. Angelus looks back up at her sporting his game face. "And teacher makes 'three'."

She started to run for it, but Angelus roared and quickly jumped and grabbed hold of her. "No!" she shrieked. He threw her back into the locked door, and it broke open. She looked back at him, scrambled to her feet and began to run.

"Oh, good. I need to work up an appetite first," she heard him say.

She ran down the hall, opened the door to the lounge area and ran to another set of doors outside, but they were locked. She ran back into the lounge, saw him coming and ran further down the hall. She could hear his fast-walking footsteps behind her.

She burst through the door and ran along the colonnade. His footsteps sounded faster now. She kept running, checking behind her every so often. She reached the next building and struggled with the door. She looked back and saw him running toward her with an evil grin on his face. She yanked hard at the door several more times before it opened, and she ran in.

She pulled the door closed behind her, and Angelus slammed into it. She started to run down the hall. She heard him yank at the door a couple of times before it opened for him, too, and he ran in after her. Seeing a cleaning cart in the hall by the stairs, she grabbed it and pushed it into him. He slammed into it and flew over it and onto the floor while she rushed up the steps.

She ran up onto a landing by a large arched window – and right into a waiting Angelus. She screamed when he grabbed hold of her. He chuckled and looked into her face. He put one hand around behind her head and touched her lips with the fingers of his other. She saw the headlights of a car pass by the window out the corner of her eye.

"Sorry, Jenny," he hissed, "this is where you get off." He took his fingers from her lips and put his hand under her chin. In one swift movement, he twisted her head and snapped her neck.

And she was gone.


Giles stepped up to the door and knocked. Willow came to the door and opened it, and he could see Amy just behind her. "Willow, Amy, good evening," he greeted, stepping through without an invite – just to be reassuring in these stressful times.

As Willow shut the door, Amy handed the book back. "Here's the book."

"Right. Good," he said, looking it over. "I guess I should do my apartment tonight. The ritual go all right?"

"Worked like a charm," Amy smiled.

"Well," added Willow, "until Angel showed up and told Buffy's mom that he and Buffy had… Well, you know, that they had… you know. You do know, right?"

Alarmed, Giles nodded awkwardly. "Oh, yes. Yes. Sorry."

"Oh, good, 'cause I just realized that being a librarian and all, you maybe didn't know."

Not sure if he should be offended by that or not, Giles nodded again. "Oh, thank you. I got it."

"You would have been proud of her, though. She totally kept her cool."

Amy cleared her throat and leaned closer to her. "Okay, Will, I think he gets it," she said gently.

Possibly realizing she'd done too much talking, Willow gestured toward the door. "Okay, well, I'll tell Buffy you stopped by," she said brightly.

Giles looked up the stairs. "Perhaps I should intervene on Buffy's behalf w-w-with her mother. Um, maybe… say something?

"Buffy's mom is covering it," Amy said, already turning him around and guiding him toward the door. "I don't think she'd appreciate the school librarian knowing about her daughter's first time before she did."

He fumbled his words for a moment before realizing she had a point. Willow opened the door for him as he was more or less shoved out. "You will tell Buffy I dropped by?"

"You bet," Willow beamed. She shut the door.


Buffy was certain this would be the most mortifying moment of her entire life. Forget all the death and destruction she'd seen – having to talk about her sexual escapade with her mother was the real nightmare. She watched Joyce pace back and forth across her room. "That stuff with the Latins and the herbs, uh, he's just real superstitious."

Joyce sat with her eyes closed. "Oh."

"We just thought if…"

"Was he the first?" Her mom opened her eyes. "No, wait," she said, standing up again, sounding very nauseous. "I don't wanna know. I don't think I want to."

Buffy wanted to roll her eyes so bad, but she daren't in case she get head knocked off. "Yeah. He was the first. I mean, the only." Just a reminder that she would never love another again.

Her mother glared at her. "He's older than you."

No kidding. "I know."

"Too old, Buffy. And he's obviously not very stable. I really wish…" She sat again. "I just thought you would show more judgment."

"He wasn't like this before," Buffy insisted.

"Are you in love with him?"

"I was." And a part of me always will.

"Were you careful?"

Oh god, she so didn't want to be talking about this. "Mom, this is no time…"

Joyce got up again. "Don't 'Mom' me, Buffy," she snapped. "You don't get to get out of this. You had sex with a boy you didn't even see fit to tell me you were dating."

Buffy nodded, trying to speed this along. "I made a mistake."

Her mother was on to her. "Yeah, well, don't just say that to shut me up, because I think you really did."

"I know that!" Where did her mother get off telling her about making mistakes? "I can't tell you everything."

"How about anything? Buffy, you can shut me out of your life, I am pretty much used to that. But don't expect me to ever stop caring about you, because it's never gonna happen. I love you more than anything in the world."

Well… great, now Buffy really did feel guilty. Her mother sounded more upset than angry, like she really did feel hurt by the whole thing. She really wished she could just spill her guts about the whole thing, but Giles insisted this was better. How was keeping her mother in the dark about all this for the better?

Joyce sat next to Buffy on the bed. "That would be your cue to, uh, roll your eyes and tell me I'm grossing you out."

"You're not," Buffy replied. She felt glad her mother cared enough to give her hell like this.

Joyce took a breath, relieved to have that out of her system. "Oh, well… I guess that was 'the Talk'."

"So how'd it go?"

"I don't know. It was my first."

"Well, what did you tell Grandma when you…?"

"Nothing!" She thought for a moment. "I don't think she knows…"


On the worst night of his life, Giles arrived at his apartment. He was just getting his keys out when he saw a red rose on the door, and he realized he could hear the opera La Boheme by Puccini playing inside. He took the rose and inhaled its aroma, smiling faintly in surprise. He hadn't been expecting Jenny to be so forward so soon. In hindsight, he would wonder why it hadn't occurred to him. Perhaps he had missed her so much that the very thought of her presence was enough.

He poked his head in but saw no one there. "Hello?" he called out as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "Jenny? It's me!" He put his briefcase aside and took off his coat, hanging it up. He looked around again and saw a chilled bottle of champagne and two long-stemmed glasses on his desk. On top of the crystal ice bucket, he found a folded piece of paper leaning against the bottle. He set down his keys and the rose and unfolded it. One word: Upstairs. He smiled and looked up toward the loft. He took off his glasses and set them and the paper down. He ran his fingers through his hair, took the bottle, looked at it, took the two glasses and started up the stairs.

The opera music became louder as he neared the loft, climbing the stairs. Honestly, he could not recall a time in his life when he'd been this happy. He saw a rose on each step. When he reached the top, he had the biggest smile ever on his face.

When he reached the bedroom, he saw Jenny on the bed. She wasn't moving, and his smile quickly faded. The opera reached a crescendo as he dropped the bottle and glasses, and they shattered on the floor. He continued to look at Jenny's body, her dead eyes staring back at him.

. . .

Giles leaned on the wall by his front door staring blankly into space. Only an hour had elapsed since he'd found her, and it felt simultaneously like minutes and years. The coroners took Jenny's body away. A police officer approaches him, his voice gentle but firm. "Mr. Giles, I need to ask you to come with us. Just to answer a few questions."

"Of course. Yes. Procedure." He came out of his daze. "I need to make a phone call… if that's all right."


Angelus looked into the dining room through the window from the porch. He'd been there for a couple hours, just waiting for the inevitable. He could see Buffy, Amy and Willow walk through into the living room, probably talking about him. He just had to wait a while. It was kind of like fishing – he'd put out the bait, and now he had to wait.

He could dimly hear the phone ring. Buffy ran back into the dining room to get it. She picked it up and turned, just enough that he could see her face. He saw the color drain from her face as her Watcher delivered the news. She lowered the phone from her ear. Willow and Amy had both joined her, the former took the phone while the latter tried to get Buffy to talk.

He smiled as Willow listened to Giles on the other end, while Amy held onto Buffy as she slid down the wall to the floor. He took great satisfaction in watching Willow – the girl with all the answers who wanted to control everything around her – started screaming and sobbing so hard that Joyce ran in and had to comfort her without knowing what the hell was going on.

Pleased he'd been able to salvage this evening after all, he turned and left.


Later that night, Cordelia drove Xander and Jesse to the Summers house after first stopping at the police station. They'd asked for Giles, but he'd already gone home after being asked some questions. Knowing he would probably be out for blood, Buffy got them to drive her, along with Willow and Amy to his apartment.

When they got there, Xander found the door already unlocked, a line of yellow crime scene tape stretched across the doorway. He called out, but he got no reply as he ducked under it and entered, followed by the others. He saw the ice bucket and the roses. "I guess Giles had a big night planned tonight."

Buffy picked up a sketch of Jenny's dead body – not too dissimilar to the one of her mom sleeping. "Giles didn't set this up. Angel did. This is the wrapping for the gift." She handed him the sketch as she went upstairs.

"Oh god," Amy murmured, looking at the sketch as well. "This is…" She looked away, repulsed and heartbroken.

Willow found the nearly empty weapons chest. "Look, all his weapons are gone."

"But I thought he kept his weapons at the library," said Cordelia.

"No," said Xander, "those are his everyday weapons. These were his good weapons. The ones he breaks out when company comes to visit."

Jesse looked pale. "Oh god, he's gone after Angel."

"You think?" asked Willow.

"Do you remember the movie Tora Tora? The sleeping beast has been awakened."

"So Giles is gonna try to kill Angel then?" Cordelia asked, incredulous at the idea.

"Well, it's about time somebody did," Xander said harshly.

Willow looked aghast. "Xander!"

"I'm sorry, but let's not forget that I hated Angel long before you guys jumped on the bandwagon. So I think I deserve a little something for not saying 'I told you so' long before now. And if Giles wants to go after the fiend that murdered his girlfriend, I say, 'Faster, Pussycat! kill! Kill!'"

Jesse held up a hand, unimpressed. "Okay, first of all – you had your own reasons for hating Angel in the first place, so don't get all high and mighty," he said, his voice hard enough that Xander looked away petulantly. "Second – we are not letting Giles just go kamikaze himself, taking down Angel."

"You're right." Everyone looked up to see that Buffy had come back downstairs, her expression dark. "He's gonna get himself killed."


Spike wheeled after Angelus around the factory, giving him a right bollocking for his latest 'performance piece'. "Are you insane?! We're supposed to kill the bitch, not leave gag gifts in the friends' beds."

Drusilla cuddled her puppy, who looked very uncomfortable. "But Spike, the bad teacher was going to restore Angel's soul."

"What if she did? If you ask me, I find myself preferring the old Buffy-whipped Angelus. This new, improved one is not playing with a full sack." Dru gave a sad whine, but Spike ignored it. This was too important to take lightly. "I love a good slaughter as much as the next bloke, but his little pranks will only leave us with one incredibly brassed-off Slayer!"

Angelus sneered. "Don't worry, roller boy. I've got everything under control."

Bang on cue, a Molotov cocktail swooshed in and burst on the table, setting it ablaze. Drusilla ran away with Spike wheeling right behind her. They stopped out of reach of the flames. Angelus cut across at the end of the table and got hit in the shoulder with a crossbow bolt. He grabbed it to pull it out while looking to see who attacked him.

To Spike's surprise, instead of the brassed-off Slayer, they got the immensely pissed off Watcher, who walked toward Angelus with a baseball bat. Angelus pulled the bolt out and threw it aside as the Watcher put the end of the bat into the flames, and it caught fire. He swung it and hit Angelus in the face, then again on the return swing.

Bloody hell, the dusty old Watcher's got moves, Spike thought, almost grinning at the sight.

Angelus was less amused. "Jeez, whatever happened to wooden stakes?"

"They don't hurt enough," the Watcher replied, his voice hard as steel. He whaled on the vampire's back several times.

Drusilla made a move to intervene, but Spike held her back. "Uh-uh. No fair going into the ring unless he tags you first." He had no idea how this would go down – even if the Watcher got in some damn lucky shots, Angelus still stood a chance of overpowering him. His grandsire fell after an attempt to stand up, getting beaten again and again.

Alas, as the Watcher wielded the still-burning bat over his head, Angelus caught it before it could make contact, and they began to struggle. Angelus quickly gained the upper hand, and took Giles by the throat, lifting him off of his feet, causing him to drop the bat. "All right. You've had your fun. But you know what it's time for now?"

He got kicked in the back, and the Watcher fell to the floor. It was the Slayer – in all the chaos, Spike hadn't seen her enter. She pulled Angelus back and slammed him into the spiral staircase. "My fun," she hissed.

Spike suppressed a smile as she kicked Angelus in the face and then shoved him onto the floor. Unfortunately, Dru picked that moment to wheel him away. He understood – the fire was getting worse – but still, he wanted to see who would win this thing.

. . .

As Angelus tried to escape up the stairs, Buffy got back to her feet fast with Giles' dropped baseball bat in hand and pushed it between the stair railings to trip Angelus up. He fell, and she grabbed one of his legs. He kicked out at her with it and knocked her off of him and onto the floor.

He scrambled up the stairs. She got up quickly, seeing a stack of crates. She ran up to the catwalk above and met Angelus there. He swung at her, but she ducked and kicked him in the back of the knee, making him collapse onto the railing. She grabbed a loop of rope, threw it around his neck and yanked him back and forth between the railings several times, then kicked him in the chest, making him stagger back and fall onto his butt. He got up fast, but she grabbed onto a pipe above her head and swung with both feet into his chest again, making him fly back into a barrel and some ducting. She waited on the catwalk for him to come at her again, ready to fight. He charged, and she took him and diverted him past her and onto the catwalk grating, where he landed with his head against one of the vertical railing bars. She kicked his face, and followed up with several punches and another kick. He started to laugh as she grabbed him by the coat and banged his head into the railing a couple of times.

"Are you gonna let your old man just burn?" he mocked.

She looked down and saw the flames getting higher and nearer to Giles – still knocked out. Angelus took advantage of the distraction and grabbed her legs, lifted her and threw her over the railing. She manages to control her fall and land on her feet near Giles. Angelus took off down the catwalk and out of the building.

Deciding to let him go, Buffy managed to rouse Giles enough to get him to his feet, and she supported him as they made their way from the building. They both came out coughing from the smoke. He pushed her away from him.

"Why did you come here?! This wasn't your fight!"

She responded by punching him in the jaw. He spun and fell to the pavement. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" she roared. He weakly tried to get up, only managing to get to his knees. She could see he was spent – physically and emotionally. The events of the past few hours finally took their toll on the pair of them. Beginning to cry, she crouched down and hugged him, and he cried and held onto her. "You can't leave me," she whimpered. "I can't do this alone."

He held onto her a little tighter.


It was a nice spot. There was a small pond nearby. The grass was nice and green. They really couldn't have picked a better spot for Ms Calendar's grave. The funeral had been a few days ago. Not a big turn out. Xander, Jesse, Willow, Cordelia, Amy and Oz had all come, as well as some other students to pay their respects. What few family she had came.

She watched as Giles left a bouquet of flowers on the grave, pausing to look at the headstone, which simply read 'Jennifer Calendar' – her chosen name. He stood back up and joined her nearby.

"In my years as a Watcher," he said quietly, "I've buried… too many people. But Jenny was the first I've loved."

Buffy stared at the gravestone numbly. All that anger and bitterness gone – replaced with sorrow and regret. "Sometimes, I wonder if any good ever comes of it."

"Comes of what?"

"Falling in love. Letting your emotions call the shots for you. Because if there is an upside, I sure haven't come across it." She let out a sigh. "You're right about that rule of yours. You're the Watcher, I'm the Slayer… we don't have the luxury of passion. It just gets in the way. Life's easier without it."

Giles nodded, still staring at the grave. "Yes. It's just not… life."

She looked up at him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't kill him for you… for her… when I had the chance. I wasn't ready. But I think I finally am. I can't hold on to the past anymore. Angel has gone. Nothing's ever gonna bring him back."


The students all waited at their desks for the teacher to arrive. Willow walked in and stood at the front of the room, clutching the lesson plan in her hand. They all looked at her expectantly, and she took no joy in it. "Hi. Principal Snyder asked me to fill in for Ms Calendar… until the new computer science teacher arrives. So I'm just gonna stick to the lesson plan she left." She walked around to the front of the desk and looked over the books and things that were there – the things she left behind.

She put down her own books, and in the process, nudged a few books aside a little. She thought she heard something small and plastic fall down the side of the cabinet, but she didn't think much of it…