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Chapter 19

“Okay, so…what? None of us have any humanity?” Dawn asked, her confusion very evident in her tone.

Giles smiled at her. “No, dear, the spell doesn’t actually activate until midnight, and then it runs for twenty four hours.”

“Oh.” Dawn pouted, disappointed that she would have to wait to see the effects of the spell

“Shouldn’t we do something about the younger Buffy, so that she doesn’t come around here and discover this Buffy and Spike before Monday?” Jenny was concerned that if the situation wasn’t handled in a controlled environment, that it could turn very ugly very quickly. She herself had only a limited time to come up with some solutions to the loophole in the curse. She would not fail in her duty to her people. The brunette vampire would suffer for eternity, even if she had to find a way to modify the curse so it included the afterlife.

“Buffy, do you know where the other Buffy is at the moment?” Giles asked the blond slayer.

Buffy searched her memories; concentrating on her actions after the ‘singing incident’. Getting a clear picture in her mind, she answered decisively, “At mom’s place.”

Giles moved to the phone, explaining as he went that he would let the other Buffy know about the Monday evening meeting, whom she should invite and whom she should not.

~*~*~

Willow and Xander silently followed Buffy into the Summers’ living room. They moved like automated robots that had not been programmed to communicate. None knew what to say. To suggest that they were seriously squicked out would have been an understatement. Each were lost in their own thoughts

Willow surreptitiously peered at the other two as she sat down; her internal ramblings did nothing to calm her. ‘What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Do I say something? What would I say? What could I say? I mean, it was Angel…and with the singing and the lyrics and ewww…very high with the creepiness and ick and what do I do now? Do I tell my best friend that the guy…er vampire that she’s in love with is sooo on my list with Cordelia of things to avoid at all cost? Or do I just do the best friend thing where I support her boyfriend decision without question? ’Cause not really sure I can pull that off…oh goodness, what do I do?’

Xander’s thoughts were dark. His glee at being able to use the freakiness factor against the object of his jealous hatred was tainted with a cruel edge. He felt a deep satisfaction in his belief that Buffy’s taste in boyfriends could, in the future, be used with some advantage. He convinced himself that the hated vampire would soon be gone and then the door would be left wide open for him. Surely Buffy would choose him now?

Buffy contemplated what she had heard in the library. ‘Okay, shouldn’t I be more wigged? Shouldn’t I be like crying or something? Unless I was wrong about the whole being in love thing? Huh? Who’d a thunk it? Dawn is gonna be all oooh-I-told-you-so, I sooo hate it when Dawn is right. Ugh, what if she finds out about the Angel singing, ‘cause Angel and singing…sooo not of the good…and he is seriously delusional if he thinks I’m ever giving him a happy, ‘cause that was just ewww. And what was he doing in the library on a Saturday anyway?

All three were snapped out of their thoughts by the ringing of the phone.

~*~*~

‘What was that? Angel jumped at the noise he thought he heard. Letting out his senses, he checked that he was alone. When he could sense nothing, he resumed his place at the table and tried to relax into his previous state.

Irritated that he had lost his train of thought and that he remained unsettled, Angel stood and started pacing. Pacing soothed him. It allowed his thoughts to calm and take on a steady rhythm. It allowed him to organize his thoughts. It allowed him to work though problems.

He turned his musings to the problematic subject of the watcher. Maybe he should have concentrated on Giles earlier, even though he would never admit that hours spent drawing Buffy was time wasted, he had to admit that it was lucky Giles had yet to arrive. He was no where near prepared enough in his arguments to deal with the wily watcher. It was obvious the watcher was avoiding him, the question was why? What was Giles hiding from him? Somehow Angel just knew that it was important and that it was something about him. He thought about confronting the watcher in his home, but dismissed the idea as giving Giles some sort of home ground advantage; no, the watcher couldn’t be allowed that much of an edge.

Angel’s demon whispered in his mind, soothing, enticing, beguiling; words of wisdom from a master manipulator, a true genius at psychological torture. Angel listened.

~*~*~

Spike watched as Buffy left the room on her way to bed. It had been a long day and while she hadn’t yet started showing signs that she desired to get back out to patrol, he knew she wasn’t far from it. His own need for violence had been pressuring him for days.

His daily updates from Dalton had convinced him that the need to do something about Drusilla was getting critical. William was trying to convince him that Dru would be better off dust, but the fear of Angelus’ re-emergence, was holding Buffy off making any decision. He was discovering that patience was seriously not one of his virtues.

“Spike,” Giles verbally nudged the unusually quiet vampire. “Are you alright?”

“Just thinkin’ ‘bout things, Rupert, it’s been a strange couple o’ days, you know?” Spike smiled at the gentle watcher. Thinking that now would be the perfect time to broach the other subject that seemed to be constantly in his thoughts; Spike opened the discussion with a question of his own; “Do you think this spell that the gypsy did, will be able to give us some sort of insight into my chances with the ritual?”

“I hadn’t considered that,” Giles honestly told the vampire. He thought for a moment before giving his considered opinion; “It will certainly tell us if the abilities you require are there, but I think it is equally important that you believe in your own capabilities. If you are in any doubt at all, it would not be safe for you to perform the ritual. Have you discussed the ritual with Buffy yet?”

“Not yet…don’t think she’s gonna take it well,” Spike reluctantly informed the watcher.

~*~*~

Young Buffy looked around her, okay, why was she at Giles’? She thought it was Giles’ place, it looked like his place, and she seemed to be moving funny, like she was walking through water or something. Hmmm? Okay, she didn’t seem to have any control over her body, must be dreaming, that was it. Her body made its way into Giles’ kitchen, and opened the refrigerator door. Her hand reached for a bottle of water, ewww, was that blood? What was blood doing in Giles’ fridge? And where the heck was that light suddenly coming from? Apparently her dream body wanted an answer to that last question ‘cause it turned in the direction of the living room, where the light seemed to be centred around…yum.





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