3rd Person's POV

"I want you to come back." Laney cries into the phone as she bites her lip, "But you can't. I'm so scared... I-I'm so terrified...Something bad happened."

"Tell me..."

Gasping awake, Laney sits up alarmed in her bed. She looks around her empty room confused. When and how she got up here?

Slowly moving off her bed, she opens her door and hears scuffling down stairs. Taking a deep breath, Laney makes her way down the stairs and peeks around the corner at the bottom of the stairs as she stares into the kitchen. She lets out a relieved sigh as she sees Buffy standing at the sink cutting fruit.

"Hey sleepy head."

Laney frowns confused. She looks around and notices all the mess was gone. No box. No roses. No heart. No blood. And now that she thought about it her clothes were different and the blood on her arms were completely gone. Not a trace of blood left over.

"Hi? Am I dreaming?"

"No." Buffy smiles sadly as she hands Laney a bowl of fruit and a glass of water, "Now sit and eat because I know you haven't. Apparently you haven't been eating for two days now."

"Who told you that?" Laney frowns sitting at the island.

"Oz and Cordelia."

Laney pouts and shrugs, "Well then... so what are you doing here?"

"I got a note. It said soon. I knew who it was immediately. I was so furious that I wanted to end things right at that moment. So last night after my mom went to bed, I put on some clothes and went ready for war. Looked all around town for A-angelus. All I found was Spike. And after giving him a few punches he blurted out to me that I should probably check on you. That I wasn't the only one with a gift."

Laney freezes and glances up at Buffy who stares at her with a raised eyebrow, "Oh... so you saw all that and I didn't clean myself and everything up?"

"Yeah in your dreams. Of course I saw it all. And Cordelia told me what happened the other night too-"

"What? She promised-"

"Don't be upset with her. I had to practically torture it out of her. You owe her a new makeup palette by the way. I stepped on her other one."

"Traitor..."

"And she was worried about you too. When I got here and saw everything I freaked out. Called her and asked her to come help. If I would've called Willow she would've freaked and I don't think she would've been able to help. Cordelia changed you and cleaned you up. I cleaned the kitchen."

Laney nods, "T-thanks Buffy..."

"I saw that you were on the phone with Colby..."

"Oh my gosh! What did he say? Please tell me he's not coming back right now?!"

Buffy shakes her head, "Don't worry. Me and Cordelia convinced him not too. Too much death happening because of a certain bad vamp right now. It's getting too close to home. And he's safer there than here. Once we deal with Angelus, then he's free to come back."

Laney sighs holding her chest, "I don't want anything to happen to him because of me."

"It won't."

Laney nods.

Buffy sighs placing her hand on top of Laney's in a reassuring way, "We're gonna stop him. I can promise you that for sure."

...

Xander comes moping around the corner. A boy passes him in the halls.

"Dude." Jack pats Xander's shoulder, "Way to get dumped."

He continues down the hall, and Xander does the same. He looks up and sees Buffy coming the other way.

"Ooo, Buffy, my bud," Xander takes her hand and stops her, "you will not believe..."

Buffy looks at him and frowns, "Can't talk right now. Angel."

Xander lets go of her hand, "Do you need help?"

Buffy shakes her head, "It's alright."

She quickly resumes her rapid trek to the library. Xander watches her as she hurries over to Laney who was at her locker nearby.

"Library. Talk with Giles. Now."

Laney pouts and shakes her head as Buffy groans and grabs the girls' arm pulling her in the direction of the library. Xander watches confused and frustrated that he was out of the loop.

A group of girls passes around him, staring and giggling at him. He exhales and watches them go. A few steps further along he hears Harmony address him, and looks over at her.

Harmony giggles into her hand, "Gee, Xander, maybe you should learn a second language so that even more girls can reject you."

She and the other girls around her laugh to his face. Xander just keeps moping along.

A moment later he notices Amy heading toward the stairs in front of him. He looks back for an instant and then rushes over to her, takes her by the arm and pulls her aside.

Amy stares at Xander in surprise, "What are you doing?"

"Amy. Good to see you..." He takes a quick look around before continuing, "You're a witch."

Amy glances around and chuckles nervously, "No, I'm not. That, that was my mom, remember?"

Xander stares at her blankly and gestures behind himself, "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..."

Amy grabs his arm pulling him to a stop as she glares at him angrily, "That's not even... That is so mean!"

Xander glares back, "Blackmail is such an ugly word."

"I didn't say blackmail."

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

Amy folds her arms with a light groan, "What do you want?"

Xander chuckles rubbing his chin, "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 looks back at Cordelia sitting with Harmony now, "we're gonna cast a little spell."

...

Giles is sitting at the table studying a book as Buffy comes striding in while pulling Laney behind her.

Laney pouts as Buffy pushes her gently into the chair across the table from Giles. She then slaps the card that came with the roses into the book in front of him. Giles startles a bit and looks up.

"'Soon' what, Giles? You never held out on me until the big, bad thing in the dark became my ex-honey."

Giles looks between the card, Buffy, and Laney, "Where did this come from?"

Buffy huffs, "He said it with flowers. Look, this isn't the time to start becoming Mr. Protective Guy. I can't just hang around, and I can't prepare when I don't know what's coming."

Giles sits up in his chair now giving her his full attention, "N-no, of-of course, you're right. Uh, s-s-sit, sit down."

He gestures to another chair making her sit beside Laney.

"Now you." Buffy mutters.

Laney shakes her head, "No thank you."

"You promised."

"I'm a liar."

"Laney!"

"Buffy!"

"Girls?"

Both girls glance over at a confused Giles who looks between the two. He raises an eyebrow and shrugs before looking at Laney.

"Did something happen?"

Laney sighs feeling Buffy's firm stare in her face as she tries her hardest to not make eye contact with neither Buffy nor Giles.

"Yes..."

Giles feels his heart begin to beat faster as Laney replies, "Well... go on."

Laney bites her lip as she looks down at her trembling hands. She thinks back to the box and the feel of the heart in her hands. The way she felt when she believed that she lost Colby.

"He was in my house..."

Giles freezes and tilts his head before shaking his head believing he had heard her wrong.

"I'm sorry I thought you said he was in your home?"

Laney nods slowly as Buffy places a hand on her trembling ones while giving a reassuring pat.

"I did... the other night last week. When you guys were focused on Oz being a werewolf. A-angel...um Angelus... he was waiting for me. He was in my room. He had taken all my weapons that I hidden. He knows everything about me. My weaknesses... my strengths... my weapon hiding places. I can't stand a chance against him. I couldn't..."

Giles hand clenches into a fist, "Did he hurt you?"

"Physically? Not really. Just some bruises on my arms from when he was holding me against my door. Mentally?..." Laney smiles sadly as a tear slides down her cheek, "He's destroying me from the inside out."

Buffy frowns, "He stated outside her house all night. Disappeared in the morning. Left her alone for a week. Then sent her something on last night."

Gives stares at the two in question, "What did he leave? Roses like these?" He gestures towards the bouquet.

Laney shakes her head before whispering, "A box filled with bloody roses and a heart."

Buffy nods continuing for Laney seeing how the girl was struggling, "And then he had Spike help him forge a letter from Rahway Bootcamp."

Giles gasps taking off his glasses rubbing his temple, "Don't tell me they-"

Laney shrugs with a nod and blank stare, "Made me think my boyfriend died? Made me call the boot camp just to embarrass myself and sob into the phone? To cry myself to sleep as my boyfriend tried to talk to me?... It's only just started and I don't think I can take much more."

Giles looks to Laney seeing she was about to burst into tears. He peeks to Buffy who gets the hint and nods. She quickly gets up and runs up the stairs into the stack of books. After she disappears, Laney stands from her chair as Giles does the same.

Giles holds his arms out and Laney quickly walks into them. She cries into Giles arms as he rubs her back.

"We will figure this out, Laney. I swear it."

...

The next day, Giles is sitting on the table looking through a book as Buffy is sitting in a chair across from him.

Giles sighs fixing his glasses to see the book better, "Look, here's another. Here. Um, 'Valentine's Day.' Yes, uh... 'Angel nails a puppy to the...'"

Buffy interrupts shaking her head, "Skip it."

Giles clears his throat, "Uh, but it..."

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

Giles closes the book, "Right you are. Where is Laney and the others?"

Buffy shrugs, "No idea. Willow has been MIA. Laney has probably locked herself in her room for the weekend. And Xander... I actually don't know. I haven't seen him since yesterday. "

"Well then... I'll get another batch."

He gets off of the table and heads into his office. Just then, Xander walks in the library and up to the table.

"I have a plan: we use me as bait."

Buffy frowns, "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."

Buffy gets up nodding, "Yeah. I heard about you and Cordy. That's her loss."

"Yeah. Not really the popular theory."

Buffy looks up at him, "You know what I'd like? Why don't you and I do something together tonight? Just the two of us."

Xander does a double take, "Really?"

"Yeah. We can comfort each other."

"Well, would lap dancing enter into that scenario at all? 'Cause I find that very comforting."

She stands up, stares into his eyes and takes a step closer to him.

Buffy smiles, "Play your cards right..."

Xander frowns confused as he stops her with his hand, "Okay, uh... You do know that I'm Xander, right?"

Buffy looks Xander up and down, "I don't know, I just... heard that you and Cordy broke up, and I guess I was just surprised how glad I was."

She plays with his shirt and leans into him, "It's funny... how you can see someone every day but not really see them. You know?"

Xander smiles and chuckles nervously, "Yeah, it's funny. And it's just gettin' funnier."

She puts her finger to his lips to quiet him and slowly leans toward him for a kiss. Behind them Amy walks into the library.

"Xander, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Buffy pulls back slightly. Xander looks at Amy, back at Buffy, then at Amy again.

"Yeah, okay."

Amy comes out the library into the hall with Xander right behind her. He makes sure the door is closed, looks in through the window at Buffy for a second, and then gives his attention to Amy.

"Xander."

"Yeah."

"I don't think the spell worked out right."

Xander grins, "Oh, yeah, it bombed. No biggie."

"Well, we can always try again."

He looks back through the window and sees Buffy looking out at him.

"I am still pretty new at this." Amy frowns.

"Oh, no, no, no. It's okay. You know what? It was wrong to meddle with the forces of darkness. I see that now."

Amy smiles at him.

"I think we've all grown. I gotta go."

He goes to move back into the library but Amy steps in-front of him with her hand on his chest, "Oh, we don't have to cast any spells."

He sees Buffy staring out at him with her finger between her lips.

"We can just... hang out."

Xander looks at Amy confused, "Sure. Wait... What?"

Amy smiles, "Well, I liked spending time with you. You're so sweet. You know, it's funny how you can... you can see a person every day and..."

He starts to realize what's going on.

"Not really see them."

He looks in at Buffy again. She's still staring out at him, playing with her hair between her lips.

"Exactly. So, anyway, I thought it might..."

Another girl approaches them in the hall, "Hi, Xander."

"What?" He looks over in question.

Cordette smiles, "You're in Mr. Baird's history class, right?"

Xander smiles nervously, "Yeah."

"I thought maybe we could study together tonight."

Amy interrupts raising an eye at the girl, "Do you mind? We were talking."

The two girls glare at each other. Xander begins to worry.

"Uh, I really gotta go. Right now."

He heads down the hall away from them. They both just watch him go.

...

Xander runs home quickly hoping that he wouldn't run into anyone else until he figured out what was going on. He barges into his bedroom and slams the door behind him. He calms down a bit, takes the few steps over to his bed and sits on it.

Behind him Willow sits up from under the covers wearing one of his shirts and touches him on the back. Xander jumps up in surprise and stares at her in shock.

"Sorry. I wanted to surprise you."

Xander grins nervously, "Good job! High marks."

Willow smiles, "Don't be so jumpy. I've been in your bed before."

"Yeah, but Will, we were both in footy pajamas."

"Xand, I've been thinking..."

"Will, I, I think I know what you've been thinking. But this is all my fault. I cast a spell, and it sort of backfired."

Willow rubs the sheets, "How long have we been friends?"

Xander looks at Willow very nervous, "A long, long time. Too long to do anything that might change that now."

Willow moves to the edge of the bed, "Well, friendships change all the time. People grow apart. They grow closer."

"Uh, this is good! How close we are now. I feel very comfortable with this amount of closeness. In fact," Xander points behind himself and steps back smiling nervously, "I can even back up a few paces and still be happy. See?"

She gets up from the bed and approaches him. His shirt is the only thing she's wearing.

"I want you, Xander... to be my first!"

"Baseman. Please tell me we're talking baseball."

He starts to back up when she reaches him. She puts her hands up against his chest.

"Shhh."

He backs into the door. She rubs her hands up and down his chest.

"We both know it's right." Willow leans into him for a kiss.

Xander backs his head away, "It's not that I don't find you sexy."

Willow leans away to look at him and shake her head, "Is it Oz? Don't worry about him. He's sweet, but... he's not you."

She rubs his chest more.

"Yes, he is. And you should go to him."

She leans up to the side of his face and starts to suck on his earlobe.

Xander is sweating bullets now, having no idea how to handle this, "I-I don't wanna use force."

She lets go of his ear and leans back to face him again with a wide smile on her face, "Mm. Force is okay!"

She tries for his ear again, but he takes her by the arms and pushes her away. She stares at him in confusion.

"Th-that's it! This has gotta stop. It's time for me to act like a man." Be opens the door behind him, "And hide."

...

Back at the school, Cordelia comes in at the far end and walks up to her friends standing there in a huddle. They all cross their arms and face her when she arrives.

"Ha. Very funny. What did I do now, wear red and purple together?"

Harmony glares, "You know what you did. Xander is wounded because of you."

They all walk past her in disgust. She turns around, and they face her when she speaks.

Cordelia scoffs in shock, "Are you tripping? I thought you wanted me to break up with him!"

"Only a sick pup would let Xander get away, no matter what her friends said."

They all give her a huff and leave.

"What does it take to make you people happy?"

Xander strides into the hallway hurrying past all the girls who were looking at him with love in their eyes, some giggling, some giving him sexy looks, some just watching him walk. He looks over at the other side of the hall, and it's more of the same.

Xander keeps walking up the hall. The guys are clearly not happy that he has the attention of all the girls. Behind him the girls start to gather and follow. Several girls cross in front of him and check him out.

Xander looks around in disbelief.

More girls stare at him walking by, and he gets looks and shakes of heads from the guys.

A group of four girls starts to tail him down the hall.

Xander quickly runs into the library and closes the door behind him. He checks to see if any of the girls are following him in.
Satisfied he has no stalkers, he heads towards the office to find Giles.

Giles comes down the stairs and sets his book down as Xander comes out the empty office, "Xander. What is it?"

Xander frowns, "It, it's me... throwing myself at your mercy."

"What? Why?" Giles takes off his glasses to clean them.

"I made a mess, Giles. See, 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 it backfired, and now every woman in Sunnydale wants to make me her cuddle monkey, which may sound swell on paper, but..."

Jenny comes into the library behind them and strides up to Giles.

"Rupert, we need to talk. Hey, Xander. Nice shirt." She unconsciously rubs 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." She keeps rubbing Xander's arm then looks at it in awe, "I mean, I care far too much about you to... Have you been working out?"

Xander gives Giles a 'see what I mean?' look. Giles grabs Jenny by the arms and pulls her away and behind him.

"Oh!"

She stares at Xander with a look of desire in her eyes. Giles looks at her, at Xander, back at her, and finally back at Xander.

"I cannot believe that you are fool enough to do something like this!"

"Oh, no, I'm twice the fool it takes to do something like this."

Jenny keeps staring at him while she plays with her necklace.

Giles huffs, "Has, uh... Has Amy tried to reverse the spell?"

Xander shakes his head frantically, "I get around Amy and all she wants to do is talk honeymoon plans."

Jenny steps toward Xander, "Rupert, maybe I need to talk to Xander alone."

Giles pushes her back, "Do you have any idea how serious this is? People under a-a love spell, Xander, are-are deadly. They lose all capacity for reason."

Xander looks at Jenny stands behind Giles staring at him rubbing her hands over her face and neck, then down her body.

Xander quickly looks away and gives his full attention back to Giles.

"And if what you say is true and the entire female population is affected, I..." Giles continues sternly, "Don't leave the library. I'll find Amy and see if we can put a stop to this thing."

He starts to leave the library. Jenny rubs her fingers together, alone at last with Xander, and sashays up to him. He steps back away from her.

Giles walks back up to them, takes Jenny by the hand and pulls her out of the library behind him. Jenny moans and reaches her arm out to Xander as Giles drags her off.

"No!"

Xander realizes he's finally alone without any girls around, and quickly moves to push the mobile card catalog in front of the doors in an attempt to keep it that way. As he heads back toward the table Buffy pulls the door out and open and steps in wearing only a short black raincoat that reaches barely down to mid-thigh and black high heels.

When Xander hears the door swing shut and smack the card catalog behind him he spins around and stares at Buffy in shock. She is standing there with one hand on the catalog and the other propped up on top of the theft detector and smiles at him as she raises her right ankle and rubs it against her left calf.

"Alone at last."

Xander stares open-mouthed, "Buff, give me a heart attack!"

"Oh," She starts a sexy walk toward him, "I'm gonna give you more than that."

She grabs her raincoat belt to untie it.

Xander backs away, gesturing with his hands, "Buff, for the love of God, don't open that raincoat."

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

She undoes a button. Xander keeps backing toward the stairs nervously.

"It's not that I don't want to. Sometimes the remote impossible possibility that you might like me was all that sustained me. But not now."

He trips and falls backward onto the stairs.

"Not like this. This isn't real to you."

Buffy steps up and puts her leg over him.

"You're only here because of a spell."

He gets a confused stare from her and continues, "I mean, if I thought you had one clue what it would mean to me..." He shakes his head, "But you don't. So I can't."

Buffy starts to get upset, "So you're saying this is all a game?"

"A game? I... No!"

Buffy stands up straight angrily, "You make me feel this way, and then you reject me? What am I, a toy?"

"Buffy, please calm down."

"I'll calm down when you explain yourself!"

Amy appears behind them, "Get away from him. He's mine."

Buffy turns to Amy then takes a step forward, "Oh, I don't think so."

She looks back at him.

"Xander, tell her."

"What? I, uh..."

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

Buffy glares, "Funny, I know what your face wants."

She swings and punches Amy in the face. She falls to the floor.

Buffy confronts Xander, "What is this, you're two-timing me?"

Xander doesn't know what to say. Amy gets up. Her nose is bloody and her eyes have become pitch-black. She begins to weave a spell with her hands.

"Goddess Hecate, work thy will."

"Uh-oh."

Is the last thing Xander mutters before the spell's energy swirls around Buffy.

"Before thee let the unclean thing crawl!"

Amy thrusts her arms out at Buffy, and the power of the spell leaps from her hands and envelops the young blonde Slayer. The energy soon dissipates and Xander stares down in utter disbelief.

"Buffy! Oh, my God!"

What did we think of this chapter?!

So super excited to get closer and closer to the finale!! It's gonna be a wild ride y'all!!

Giles and Laney's relationship is literally just amazing.

If you haven't seen this episode before, what do you think Amy did to Buffy? How is this going to end?

Future predictions?

Any special requests...