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Into the Woods

Prologue

Buffy waits to learn how her mother’s operation is going. Dawn has fallen asleep on the sofa beside her in the waiting room, with her head on Buffy’s lap. Riley is seated in a chair beside her. Someone steps in front of Buffy and she looks up hopefully, but it’s only Giles. He asks if he can get her anything. She says no, and Giles goes and takes a seat himself.

Willow and Xander are still there too, but Anya and Tara are gone. Willow asks Xander for the time. He suggests that she look at that clock on the wall behind her, but she thinks it will be easier to just look at his watch. Xander shows it to her.

“That can’t be right,” says Willow, and turns around to look at the clock. It says it’s five to one. “Oh.” She slumps back down in her seat.

Buffy is wondering what is taking so long, but Riley tries to reassure her. Long is better than short. If the doctor came back too soon it would probably mean that there wasn’t anything they could do. Buffy is not reassured. She looks up and sees Dr. Kriegel in his scrubs walking down the hallway toward her.

Buffy gently shakes Dawn awake, and they all get up and go to meet Dr. Kriegel.

Act I

Dr. Kriegel tells Buffy that her mother is in recovery. Buffy just wants to know if her mother is going to be okay. The doctor tells her that he removed all of the tumor, and barring complications, Joyce should make a complete recovery.

Buffy, Dawn and their friends are overjoyed by the news, and they all start hugging each other. Xander and Giles start to hug, but they settle for a handshake. Buffy turns back to Dr. Kriegel and gives him a hug too. This one is a little too enthusiastic, and she nearly breaks a couple of his ribs.

Dawn, Xander and Anya finish off a meal of Chinese takeout in Xander’s apartment. Xander asks what Dawn wants to do next, and Anya suggests that they could play Life again. That was fun.

“For you,” says Dawn. “You always win.”

“Well, we can make a wager this time,” says Anya. “You can give me real money. That would be different.”

“And after we teach her how to gamble, maybe we can all get drunk!” says Xander.

“I don’t think the bar would serve her, but we could bring something in,” says Anya. She turns to Dawn. “Strawberry schnapps tastes just like real ice cream.”

Xander suggests that they go see a movie, and flips through the newspaper to the movie ads. “They’re showing them in theatres now. I hear it’s just like watching a video with a bunch of strangers and a sticky floor.”

Dawn looks at one of the ads and says she doesn’t want to see that one. It looks sad.

“The chimp playing hockey?” asks Xander. “Is that based on the Chekhov?”

That instantly gets Anya’s attention. She grabs the paper and checks the ad for herself. She wants to see the movie about a chimp playing hockey. Xander tells her it’s Dawn’s choice. This is her celebration night. “Go monkey. Choose monkey.” Anya starts whispering to Dawn.

Dawn tells them they don’t have to make such a big deal over her. “I’m only sleeping over here so Buffy and Riley can boink.”

Xander tries to tell her that isn’t it at all. Buffy and Riley just need a little time together, to be tender and relax. “He’s not very convincing is he?” Anya asks Dawn.

“‘Alone time’ always translates into ‘get Dawn out of the house so we can have loud, obnoxious sex,’” says Dawn.

“Oh,” says Anya. “Does that mean we can’t?” she asks Xander.

The Summers’ living room is lit by candles. Soft music plays on the stereo. Buffy and Riley dance slowly together. “I can’t believe how relaxed I feel,” she tells him. “It’s like all the tension’s just left my body.”

“Already?” asks Riley. “’Cause I had that scheduled for a little later on.”

“Scheduled? Are you planning on seducing me, Mr. Finn?”

“Always,” says Riley. “I want tonight to be special for you.” Buffy thinks this is more than special. It’s perfect. Riley tells her she deserves it after everything she has been through.

“It’s nothing compared to what my mom had to deal with.”

“But it was a lot,” says Riley “And you were incredible.”

“Not really,” says Buffy. “Just covering for the weepy chicken within.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. You stayed strong throughout, Buffy. You never even cried.”

“Oh, I cried,” says Buffy. “I cried so hard, I didn’t think I was going to be able to stop.”

“Oh.” Riley is not pleased to learn that she kept that hidden from him.

Buffy is hugging him closely, and doesn’t notice. “That’s all in the past now. Mom’s out of the woods, and I’m here with you. That’s all that matters.” She kisses him.

Later that night Buffy and Riley make love together in her bed. Spike is standing out in the yard looking up at her window. He knows what they are doing up there.

Buffy rolls away from Riley in her sleep. He quietly gets out of her bed and starts to get dressed. There’s a bandage on his arm.

Spike throws away his cigarette and turns away from Buffy’s house to go. He stops when he hears the door opening. He looks back and sees Riley quietly leaving the house. He watches him for a moment, and then decides to follow him.

Spike follows Riley into an alley. He watches Riley go up some stairs and enter an abandoned building. Spike’s eyes narrow. He knows what goes on in there.

Joyce has been trying on a wig in her hospital room. She tells Buffy it makes her look like she’s wearing a dead cat. She thinks she will stick with a scarf. “Come on, wigs are fun,” says Buffy. “We could get you a whole bunch of different ones. You know, you could be like Sixties Mom, Action Mom, French-maid Mom…”

“I must be getting better ’cause you’re making fun of me,” says Joyce.

“Well, you know, I’ve got a lot of time to make up for,” says Buffy.

Joyce knows that isn’t the only thing Buffy has to make up for. Buffy has been missing a lot of classes since she got sick. Buffy doesn’t anticipate any difficulties there. She may have to take a few incompletes for some of her courses, but it’s no big deal.

“Well, what about Slaying and your friends?” asks Joyce. “I want you to have your life back.” Right now, the bit of Buffy’s life she wants back is spending time with her mother. “Fair enough,” says Joyce. “But you don’t have to keep me company all night. Go out. Have fun. Get Riley to take you to a movie or something.”

“I gave Riley the day off,” says Buffy.

“I don’t think he thinks of you as a chore, Buffy.”

“I know that,” says Buffy. “Look, I told him to make plans with his friends because I wanted to have you all to myself. Okay? Besides, I can see him anytime. And I’m sure he’ll come over later, looking for a little…Bible study.”

“Well, good,” says Joyce. “I mean, just as long as the two of you are spending some quality time with…the Lord.”

“We are,” says Buffy. “Absolutely.”

The commando team that came to Sunnydale after the Queller demon haven’t gone yet. They are camped out in a hotel room. Major Ellis is poring over some maps when Graham brings him the latest message about the situation in Belize. “They’re not going to stay in that village for long,” says the major. “Looks like we got ourselves a hot spot. Tell the men to get ready.”

Graham thinks they should ask Riley to come along. He has the skills they need, and the major agrees. He thinks they should bring Riley on board.

“That, uh, might take a little convincing,” says Graham.

“Why?” asks Major Ellis. “What’s he got here in Sunnydale that’s so special?”

Buffy is awakened by someone entering her room. “Riley?” she asks.

“It’s me,” says Spike.

Buffy sits up in bed, holding the sheet over herself. “Every time you show up like this, you risk all of your parts, you know that?”

Spike tells her that he has a good reason for being there. He’s there to help her, but then he becomes distracted. “Are you naked under there?” he asks.

“Get out,” says Buffy.

“No, I’m serious,” says Spike. “I mean, not about the naked part, I mean—”

Buffy tells him to get out before she throws him out, head first.

“I want to show you something,” says Spike. “You need to see this. But we need to move if we want to get there in time.” Buffy just looks at him, and raises her eyebrows.

Spike gets the message and turns his back to her. “Oh, please. Like I give a bloody damn,” he says as Buffy reaches out of her bed for a sweater. He really wants to look.

Spike leads Buffy to the alley, and up the stairs into the abandoned building. It isn’t empty. There are people there, with vampires feeding on them. It doesn’t look like the people are objecting.

“Don’t start Slaying.” Spike tells her quietly. “This isn’t what we’re here for.” He nods toward the stairway to the second floor, and Buffy starts up it.

A vampire bouncer stops Spike and asks him what he’s doing there. Spike tells him they are just there for a look, and to keep it down. The vampire tells him he can’t go upstairs. Spike grabs him by the throat. “I said keep it down,” he tells the vampire, and throws him to the floor. He follows Buffy up the stairs.

On the second floor Spike nods toward a door. Buffy slowly moves to it, and pushes it open. Riley is seated in a chair inside the room, without a shirt on. A female vampire is sucking on his arm. “Harder” he tells her.

Buffy is shocked beyond words. Her breath is knocked out of her. Riley looks up and sees her.

Act II

“Buffy,” says Riley, as she turns and runs out of the room. “Buffy!”

“We only came here ’cause we care about you, friend.” Spike tells Riley with a smirk. “You need help.” He follows Buffy.

The vampire running the house tries to stop Buffy as she comes down the stairs, but she tosses him aside, and runs out into the alley where she stops. Spike catches up with her there. “I thought you should know,” he tells her.

Buffy just looks at him, and then she runs away down the alley. Spike watches her go, surprised at how her pain is affecting him.

Riley stumbles down the stairs, buttoning up his shirt. The vampire is just getting back to his feet. “Was that the Slayer?” he asks Riley. “What the hell do you think you’re doing bringing the Slayer here?”

Riley tells him to back off, he didn’t know she was coming.

“Nobody’s going to risk coming here now!” says the vampire, grabbing Riley, and hitting him.

“I said back off!” says Riley. He punches the vampire and runs out.

Buffy returns to her bedroom. She shuts the door behind her and leans against it.

Riley goes home. He enters his darkened room, and turns on the light. Major Ellis and Graham are waiting for him. “Get out!” says Riley, without turning around to look at them.

The major wants to talk to Riley, but Riley doesn’t want to listen. Graham tells him to give the major a chance. Riley tells him to talk fast.

Major Ellis tells Riley that they have a situation in Belize. A group of demons are snacking on some missionaries down there. He and his team are going in to take them out. Riley wants to know what that has to do with him. “We want you to join us,” says the major.

Riley isn’t interested. He’s a civilian now. He has left government service.

The major doesn’t see it that way. “It’s not the Initiative, Finn. We don’t do experiments. None of us give a damn what makes monsters tick. We just stop ’em.”

“What do you need me for?” asks Riley.

“I think you can handle yourself, and I always need bodies,” says Major Ellis. “I’m not going to lie to you. It’s the real deal. High risk, low pay, and seriously messy. We ship out for Central America tomorrow, midnight. Now, maybe civilian life is working out for you…” he looks Riley up and down, “…and maybe not. Midnight, tomorrow. Decision’s yours.” He and Graham leave.

Giles climbs down from hanging a banner over the sales counter in the Magic Box. Don’t forget! Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, & Gurnenthar’s Ascendance are coming! “And so it begins. No longer a victim of crass holiday commercialization, I’m a purveyor of it.”

Anya and Willow are unpacking a shipment just received by the shop. Anya pulls a jar of chicken feet out of a box. She wonders who ordered them. The ones they already have aren’t moving.

“That’s generally what happens when you cut them off the chicken,” says Xander.

Anya’s serious. She suggests that maybe they should start giving them away as a holiday promotion. One free with every purchase.

“Oh, yeah…dear holiday memories,” says Giles. “Merry tykes by the fire enjoying their new Christmas chicken feet.”

“Aw,” says Willow, “holding them tight as they fall asleep, painting their little toenails.”

“Haw, haw, haw,” says Anya. “That’s very humorous. Make fun of the ex-demon. I can just hear you in private: ‘I dislike that Anya. She’s newly human and strangely literal.’”

“Anya, I don’t say that,” says Willow, “No one says that. No one talks that way.”

Anya doesn’t think any of them take her seriously, and she does very good work for the store. Willow says that she helps too. Anya doesn’t seem to think so. Willow mostly just sits around there. Xander points out that Anya collects a pay check. Willow helps out on her own time.

“I’m sorry, Willow,” says Anya. “Thank you for making time in your busy life to come in here and get in the way of mine.”

Xander tells her to play nice.

“You know, fine,” says Anya. “Take her side instead of mine, even though I’m the one who sleeps with you and feeds you, bathes you.”

“She bathes you?” asks Willow.

“Only in an erotic, Penthouse-y way,” says Xander. “Not in a sponge-bathy, geriatric—”

Giles pleads for Xander to stop. He has heard enough. He is saved from hearing any more by Buffy’s entrance into the shop. There is a vampire nest downtown that she needs to learn everything she can about.

Giles asks what sort of nest. “There were people there,” says Buffy. “It, um… It looked like they were paying vampires to bite them.”

“Now I know what to get for the person who has everything,” says Xander.

Willow wonders who would pay to get bitten.

“Oh, that’s been going on for centuries,” says Anya. “Humans hire vampires to feed off them. They…well, you know, they get off on the rush.”

“And the danger,” says Giles. “The hazards of the underworld can become addictive to…some people.”

“Why don’t the vampires just kill them?” asks Xander.

“Because they get cash, hot-and-cold running blood, and they don’t leave any corpses behind, so they don’t get hunted,” says Anya.

Giles says that it is still very dangerous for the people involved. They can die either accidentally, or they can run into a vampire who doesn’t play by the rules. Buffy is surprised and angry that Giles knew about this, and hadn’t told her. He tells her he hasn’t seen it since his Ripper days. He had no idea it was happening in Sunnydale.

“Well, it is,” says Buffy. “And I’m going to stop it.” She opens a trunk full of weapons and starts to arm herself.

Giles isn’t so sure that this is something Buffy should be expending her efforts on. There are bigger threats in town, such as Glory. These vampires aren’t killing people, and the ones they are sucking on are willing victims. “I mean, there are people out there who deserve your help who aren’t.”

“Vampires are vampires,” says Buffy, “And my job description is pretty clear. Are you coming with me or not?”

“What’s the rush, Buff?” asks Xander. “If we’re going into a nest, maybe we should come up with a strategy. Wait for Riley.”

Buffy’s eyes go cold. “Back me up or not. I’m going.”

Xander and Giles grab weapons, and follow Buffy out of the store along with Willow. Giles asks Anya to watch the store.

“Have a nice day.” Anya tells them as they go. “Don’t get killed.”

Buffy comes down the stairs from the second floor. The place is empty, all the vampires have cleared out. Xander figures it’s because they knew she was coming. They left in a hurry. They left a camp stove burning on the main floor. Buffy asks Giles if he thinks they will be setting up shop somewhere else in town, but Giles figures they will probably be laying low for a while.

“They’re around somewhere,” says Buffy. “There’s got to be a way to find these creeps.”

“Don’t worry, Buff,” says Willow. “You’ll find them.”

“Yeah,” says Xander. “I’m sure you’ll get them next time, champ.”

Buffy doesn’t say anything. She picks up the burning camp stove and throws it against the wall, setting it on fire. Then she just walks out. Xander, Willow and Giles look back and forth between the fire and the departing Buffy, and then follow her.

Spike uncorks a bottle of scotch in his crypt and takes a swig. The door bursts open, and Riley comes in. Spike is only surprised that it took him this long to show up. He figures Riley had to take a while to recover from the bites. Riley picks him up out of his chair and throws him against the wall. “Hey, hey!” says Spike. “Let’s be reasonable about this!”

“You may have noticed, Spike…” Riley punches him. “I left reasonable about three exits back.”

“Look, I’m not the one who got you into this,” says Spike. “Don’t kill the messenger.”

Riley pulls out a stake and plunges it into Spike’s chest. “Why the hell not?”

Act III

Spike cries out in pain, and then he notices that he’s still alive. “Hey!”

Riley pulls out the stake. “Plastic wood grain. Looks real, doesn’t it? Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on with you, Spike. Stay away from her, or we’ll do this for real next time.” He slaps Spike on the side of his face.

Spike starts to laugh in spite of the wound in his chest. “Oh man, you’re really under it, aren’t you?” he asks. “Look at you. All afraid I’m hot for your honey.”

“Because you are,” says Riley.

“Well…yeah,” admits Spike, “But that’s not your problem. Even if I wasn’t in the picture, you’re never going to be able to hold onto her.”

Riley grabs hold of Spike by his shirt and presses his hand against the wound. “Maybe I didn’t almost kill you enough.”

“Ah, come on. You’re not the long-haul guy, and you know it,” says Spike. “You know it, or else you wouldn’t be getting suck jobs from two-bit vampire trulls.”

Riley lets go of Spike, and turns away from him.

“The girl needs some monster in her man, and that’s not in your nature.” Spike returns to sit in his chair, holding his chest, and grimacing in pain. “No matter how low you try to go.”

“You actually think you’ve got a shot with her?” asks Riley.

“No, I don’t. Fella’s got to try, though. Got to do what he can.” Spike uncorks his scotch bottle and takes another swig.

“If you touched her…you know I’d kill you for real.”

“I had this chip out of my head, I’d of killed you long ago. Ain’t love grand?” Spike tosses the bottle to Riley, who sits down and takes a swig of his own.

“Sometimes I envy you so much it chokes me,” says Spike. “And sometimes I think I got the better deal. To be that close to her and not have her. To be all alone, even when you’re holding her, feeling her, feeling her beneath you, surrounding you. The scent.” He reconsiders for a bit. “No. You got the better deal.”

Riley takes another swig. “I’m the lucky guy.” He tosses the bottle back to Spike. “Yeah. I’m the guy.”

Spike takes another drink.

Buffy is in her training room, beating the stuffing out of a punching bag. Xander and Anya are alone together in the store, closing up shop for the night. Xander asks Anya how long Buffy has been in there.

“A while now,” says Anya. “Seems pretty gung-ho about it, too. Didn’t even stop to say hello.”

Xander tells her about the way Buffy set fire to the vampire nest, but Anya doesn’t think it means anything. “Who hasn’t done stuff like that from time to time? I mean, I made this one guy spontaneously combust, and he set his whole village on fire.”

Xander doesn’t think this is a good time for Anya’s reminiscences. There is something up with Buffy. They are interrupted by Riley coming into the shop. Riley tells them that he wants some time alone with Buffy, and asks them to go.

“A little after-hours hanky-panky in the training room, huh?” asks Anya. “Boy, Xander and I could tell you some stories.” Xander doesn’t think it is time for that sort of story either, and tries to hustle her out. “There’s a funny thing with the vaulting horse that you can tr—”

“Anya!” says Xander.

“What? He started it.”

“In your world, maybe,” Xander pushes Anya toward the door, “but where the people are, this isn’t time for tales of Anya and Xander’s sexcapades.”

Anya figures out that she may have misinterpreted what Riley wants to do, but she suggests to Xander that they can go home and have some.

“Actually, I’ve got some stuff to take care of,” says Xander.

Riley enters the training room. Buffy isn’t pleased to see him, and she isn’t ready to talk to him yet. She keeps pounding on her punching bag. Riley grabs the bag and tells her that’s too bad.

“I’m serious,” says Buffy, “unless you want to fight.” She turns away from him.

“So let’s fight,” says Riley. “We need to have this out, Buffy, right now.”

Buffy doesn’t think they have much to say to each other. Nothing Riley can say is going to make this better. She tries to walk away from him. Riley follows her, and grabs her arm and turns her around. He knows that words can’t make this better, but he needs her to hear him out.

“Fine,” says Buffy. “Get your hand off of me.”

Riley lets go of her, and puts some distance between them. “I think, when this thing started, it was just some stupid, immature game. I wanted to even the score after you let Dracula bite you.”

“I did not let Dracula—”

“I know!” says Riley. “On some level, I know that. But I was still spun. I don’t know. I wanted to know what you felt. I wanted to know why Dracula and Angel have so much power over you.”

“You so don’t get it,” says Buffy.

“I wanted to get it, Buffy. I wanted to get you.”

“So this is my fault? Hey, gee, Buffy’s so mysterious, I think I’ll go out and almost die. I think I’ll go and let some other…” Buffy can’t go on. She can’t come up with the right words.

“This isn’t your fault. It’s mine,” says Riley. “And I feel like hell for what I’ve put you through. But it’s just…these girls—”

“Vampires,” says Buffy. “Killers.”

“They made me feel something, Buffy, something I didn’t even know I was missing until—”

Buffy doesn’t want to listen to this, and tries to walk away but Riley grabs her again. He thinks she needs to hear it.

“Fine. Fine!” says Buffy. “Tell me about your whores! Tell me what on earth they were giving you that I can’t.”

“They needed me,” says Riley. “On some basic level, it was about me. My blood, my body. When they bit me, it was beyond passion. The wanted to devour me, all of me.”

“Why are you telling me this?” asks Buffy.

“It wasn’t real,” says Riley. “I know, it was just physical. But the fact that I craved it. That…that I kept going back…even if it was fleeting they made me feel like they had such…hunger for me.”

“And I don’t…make you feel that way?” asks Buffy. Riley can’t look at her. “How on earth can you compare me to that? How can you tell me you understand what those vampires are feeling? You aren’t a passion to them. You are a snack. A willing, idiotic, snack.”

“No, I know exactly what they feel when they bite me, because I feel it every time we’re together. It’s like the whole world falls away and all there is is you.”

“And you think that I don’t feel the same way about you? How dare you tell me what I feel.”

“You keep me at a distance, Buffy. You didn’t even call me when your mom went into the hospital.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” says Buffy. “You know, I’m sorry that I couldn’t take care of you when I thought that my mother was dying!”

“It’s about me taking care of you!” says Riley. “It’s about letting me in so you don’t have to be on top of everything all the time.”

“But I do!” says Buffy. “That’s part of what being a Slayer is. And that’s what this is really about, isn’t it? You can’t handle the fact that I’m stronger than you.”

Riley admits that’s part of it, but not all of it.

“Then what?” asks Buffy. “What else do you want from me, Riley? I’ve given you everything that I have. I’ve given you my heart, my body, and soul.”

“You say that, but I don’t feel it,” says Riley. “I just don’t feel it.”

“Well, whose fault is that?” asks Buffy. “Because I’m telling you, this is it. This is me. This is the package. And if it’s so deficient that you need to get your kicks elsewhere…then we really have a problem.”

Riley tells Buffy about Major Ellis wanting him to come back, but he has to decide tonight. They are leaving at midnight, and if they can’t work this out…

“Then what?” asks Buffy. “This is good-bye? You are unbelievable. You’re giving me an ultimatum?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are!” says Buffy. “You expect me to get over it now, or you’re gone.”

“I don’t. Buffy, that’s not what I meant.”

“No, I’ve heard enough,” says Buffy. “I will not take the blame for this.”

She tries to walk around him, and go, but Riley grabs onto her again. “I’m not asking you to.”

“Let go of me,” says Buffy.

“Or what, you’ll hit me?” asks Riley. He lets go of her, but he doesn’t move out of her way. “Go ahead. Come on, do it.”

“Get out of my way,” says Buffy.

“I’m serious, Buffy,” says Riley. “Hit me.” He steps closer to her. “Hit me.” Buffy steps around him. and goes and picks up her jacket. “I’m leaving, Buffy. Unless you give me a reason to stay…I’m leaving tonight.”

Buffy doesn’t say anything. She stands still for a few seconds, and then she walks out the door.

Buffy walks through the alley behind the Magic Box. A couple of vampires from the brothel step out of the shadows behind her. Buffy stops and turns around.

“The pyro act was a bad idea Slayer,” says the vampire who had been running the place.

“Felt pretty good to me,” says Buffy.

“I’m not running,” says the vampire. “And you’re not shutting me down.” More vampires appear out of the shadows. “In fact…you’re not going to make it through the night.”

Buffy looks around. She is surrounded by seven vampires.

Act IV

Buffy warns the vampire to back off, she’ll let him walk away, but he doesn’t listen. He thinks the odds are on his side. Buffy punches him into a stack of culverts, and quickly spins and delivers a kick to the head of another vampire that was closing in on her.

One of the vampires picks up a broken piece of two by four, and attacks Buffy with it. She grabs it, punches him, and takes it away from him. She spins around and spears a vampire with one of the broken ends, and then spins back and spears the vamp she took it from with the other end. Three more vampires close in on her, and Buffy quickly spears all three in under a second.

The leader of the group picks himself up off the ground and leaps at her. Buffy ducks, and spears him as he flies over her head.

The lone surviving vampire starts to move toward Buffy, but she stops when she sees an end of Buffy’s spear leveled at her chest. She waits for Buffy to plunge it into her heart.

Buffy looks at the vampire. She’s emaciated, and weak, and she is the vampire that Buffy saw sucking on Riley’s arm. She lowers her spear. The vampire looks at Buffy in surprise for a second, and then turns and runs away. Buffy watches her go. When she is twenty yards down the alley Buffy raises her spear, and throws it at the back of the fleeing vampire. She explodes into dust when the spear pierces her heart.

Xander steps out of the shadows. “So, how’d that work out for ya?” he asks. “Make ya feel better?”

Buffy wants to know what he is doing there, and Xander tells her that he figured she needed to talk with someone. Then he saw the vampires, and thought maybe she might need some help. “I was going to lend a hand, but I noticed you grew a few extra ones.”

Buffy doesn’t want to talk. She tells Xander to go home, and turns and walks away from him down the alley. He calls after her, and she turns back to face him. “I’m serious!” she tells him.

“So am I,” says Xander. “You’re acting like a crazy person.”

Buffy turns and walks away from him.

Buffy walks around a corner, and tries to duck through a doorway into a warehouse, but Xander sees, and follows her. Buffy finds she has cornered herself.

“Take this, for instance,” says Xander. “You don’t want to deal, so you hide? Not very Slayer-like.”

“Just leave me alone, Xander,” says Buffy. “You have no idea what’s going on.”

“No? Good,” says Xander. “So you and Riley aren’t imploding?” Buffy spins around and looks at him. “Doesn’t take a genius. What I can’t figure out is how you never saw it coming.”

“What? Who told you?”

“Nobody told me anything, Buffy. It was right in front of my Xander face. The guy would do anything for you.”

“The guy got himself bit by a vampire!” says Buffy. Xander isn’t surprised by the news, he had figured that part out already. “He lied to me. He ran around behind my back and almost got himself killed. And now he tells me that he’s leaving with some covert military operation at midnight unless I convince him not to. Now tell me that you understand. Because I sure as hell don’t.”

“You going to let him go?”

“It’s not my decision to make.”

“Of course it is.”

“Well, it’s not fair.”

“Who cares if it’s fair?” asks Xander. “In about twenty minutes, Riley’s going to disappear, maybe forever, unless you do something to stop him.”

“What am I supposed to do, beg him to stay?”

“Why wouldn’t you?” asks Xander. “To keep Riley here—”

“I don’t even know who he is anymore. I mean, I thought he was dependable.”

“Dependable? What is he, State Farm?” asks Xander.

“You know what I mean,” says Buffy.

“Yeah, I think you mean convenient,” says Xander. “I think you took it for granted that he was going to show up when you wanted him to and take off when you didn’t.”

“Look who’s talking. Look who has Anya following him around like a lovesick puppy.”

Xander tells Buffy that this discussion isn’t about him, “If you don’t want to hear what I have to say, I’ll shut up right now.”

“Good, ’cause I don’t.” Buffy steps around Xander, and moves toward the door.

Xander quickly moves to block her exit, but he doesn’t touch her. “I lied. See, what I think: you got burned with Angel, and then Riley shows up.”

Buffy doesn’t think she needs a history lesson.

“But you missed the point,” says Xander. “You shut down, Buffy. And you’ve been treating Riley like the rebound guy when he’s the one that comes along once in a lifetime. He’s never held back with you. He’s risked everything. And you’re about to let him fly because you don’t like ultimatums? If he’s not the guy, if what he needs from you just isn’t there, let him go. Break his heart and make it a clean break. But if you really think you can love this guy—I’m talking scary, messy, no-emotions-barred need—if you’re ready for that, then think about what you’re about to lose.”

Buffy thinks about that for a few seconds. “Xander…”

“Run,” says Xander.

Buffy runs.

Riley stands by a helicopter on the outskirts of town, looking at his watch.

Buffy runs through Sunnydale, and into the woods. She runs across a foot bridge.

Riley hears something and looks toward the woods beside the heliport. There’s nothing there. The helicopter rotor begins to turn, and Major Ellis calls out to him. It is time to go.

Buffy runs out of the woods onto the heliport tarmac as the helicopter takes off. She can see Riley sitting in the open doorway, and calls out to him, but he’s looking the other way and he can’t hear her over the sound of the engine. Buffy keeps shouting as the helicopter turns away from her, and disappears into the night sky. Riley never looks back.

Epilogue

Buffy slowly walks home alone.

Xander enters Anya’s room as she is getting ready to go to bed. “I’ve got to say something ’cause I don’t think I’ve made it clear,” he slowly walks toward her. “I’m in love with you. Powerfully, painfully in love. The things you do…the way you think…the way you move…I get excited every time I’m about to see you.”

Anya walks toward Xander, tears in her eyes, and a smile on her lips. “You make me feel like I’ve never felt before in my life—” says Xander. “Like a man. I just thought you might want to know.” Anya grabs him in a hug, and kisses him.

Buffy arrives home. She enters her house and starts up the stairs. She stops half way up, and sits down. She sits on the stairs, and doesn’t move.

Death Toll