{{Mr. Trick smiled thinly at Buffy as the fledglings pulled her struggling form into the dilapidated warehouse.

"Well, well, look who's come to visit, little man", he cooed smugly to the disturbingly pale and quiet baby in his arms, "If it isn't your loving big sister, here to die for you."

With mockingly exaggerated care, the Negro vampire displayed the child for Buffy's perusal...to show her that the boy was only drugged, and not...dead.

"We knew you'd come, Slayer."

Buffy’s mouth opened in a scream of anguish as...}}

…a siren went off in her ear.

--BEEP--BEEP--BEEP--BEEP--

Buffy sat up with a gasp as the alarm shattered the horrible dream.

"Oh, how weird", the Slayer moaned, dragging herself out from under the covers and flipping off the annoying alarm. "That is the last time I mix Jolt and circus peanuts--and I really mean it this time."

Stretching, the Slayer opened her closet...

"And the baby--you know, my little brother--", Buffy clarified, watching Willow and Xander fish books out of their lockers, "--is all drugged and limp. Even my screaming doesn't budge him."

"Well, sure", Xander said seriously, "Vampires, screaming--it's kinda routine for the Slayer's kid brother." Xander slammed his locker shut and smiled cheekily as Buffy gave him a look that promised retribution.

"Why were you screaming?" Willow asked, ignoring Xander, her brow furrowed slightly in concern. "Were you hurt?"

"I don't know", the Slayer replied with a slight frown, "I can’t remember."

"But it's not a 'Slayer Dream', right?”, asked Willow, shifting her books to one arm as she shut her locker firmly and spun the dial, "'Cause you don't have a baby brother."

"Unless there's something you haven't told us", Xander added with mock stern-ness.

Buffy shook her head with a smile. "Nope, I'm sibling-less. And I can't see my mom and dad getting together to...” Buffy paused and shuddered. "Ew, bad thoughts, bad thoughts. Now I have worse wiggins!"

"Well, don't worry your pretty little head", Xander chuckled as the trio began to walk to class, "there's bigger, scarier things to ponder--like semester finals and evil prophecies."

"Gee, thanks, Xan", Buffy drawled sarcastically, "Cheer me up some more."

"Anytime, Buff. We aim to please." With a smile and a wave, Xander trotted away.

“Don’t worry, Buffy. I’m sure it’s nothing”, Willow said reassuringly.

“Yeah, probably. So, enough about me, did the thing work? That you were so excited about?”

“I forgot, I didn’t call you”, Willow chirped, suddenly bouncing with excitement. “I was trying to see auras and stuff, and Oz was helping, and I kinda messed up just a little...”

“Tell me you didn’t get X-ray vision and look through his clothes.”

“Oh, no! Nothing like that!”, Willow insisted, her eyes widening in shock. “I would never...you know, without his permission.”

“Willow, I’m shocked.” Buffy dropped her bag onto the floor by her desk and sat down. “So what did you do?”

“Well, I was trying to just see his aura, but I guess something happened, because suddenly I could feel him.”

Buffy blinked as she assimilated this information. “Like...touching you?”

“No!”, Willow yelped, drawing the attention of their classmates. She looked around, slightly embarrassed, and repeated more quietly, “no, like his presence. Like, I could feel in my head where he was. And I tried it out a couple more times...like on people I know, and I could still do it.”

“So, if Xander was missing or something, you could find him”, Buffy said thoughtfully.

“Well, it doesn’t have to be Xander”, Willow babbled. “It could be anybody...”

“Miss Summers, Miss Rosenberg?”, the teacher interrupted, regarding them calmly, “is there something you’d like to share with the class?”

{{Mr. Trick smirked evilly, “We knew you’d come, little Slayer. So we prepared a little surprise for you.”

Buffy opened her mouth and threw her head back in a wordless scream of anguish as something painfully hot stabbed against her back, burning through her clothes.

“Now, now, boys”, Mr. Trick cautioned, a slightly irritated gleam in his dark eyes, “let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

Buffy gasped and blinked as the room seemed to bubble around her, colors and shapes melting into each other.... Suddenly Gorch was there, then he wasn’t...and Buffy was reduced to sensation as she fought the feeling of being underwater. She heard Trick speak as if from a distance. “Hang ‘er up, boys. Let’s have some fun.”

Buffy closed her eyes for a moment to block out the nauseating swirl of motion as rough hands yanked at her arms, pulling her wrists together above her head and…}}

…tightening their grip unmercifully.

Buffy’s eyes snapped open wide as she struggled against—Faith? “F-faith? What?”

“Finally”, the younger Slayer grumbled, tiredly releasing Buffy’s wrists and flopping down on the bed next to the elder Slayer to stretch like a cat. “I thought you’d never snap out of it.”

Buffy sat up slowly, wincing at the pain of a sprained wrist and shaking her head to clear out the lingering traces of nightmare. She stared around the room as if it were unfamiliar to her.

“Buffy?”, asked Joyce, placing a hand lightly on her shoulder and rubbing circles on Buffy’s back, “Are you okay?”

Buffy shook her head. “What happened?”

“I couldn’t wake you up, sweetie—and you were thrashing around so much—“ Buffy noticed the darkening bruise under her mother’s left eye and made a soft sound of horror. Joyce smiled and continued, “I called Faith to try and hold you down so you wouldn’t hurt yourself…it was the only thing I could think of to do before Mr. Giles got here.”

“Giles is here too?”, Buffy squeaked, “Is he okay?”

“Dislocated shoulder”, the Watcher answered painfully, leaning gingerly against the doorframe. “Nothing serious.”

Buffy’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears as she wrapped her arms around herself. “What’s happening to me, Giles? I feel all cold—like somebody’s tap-dancing on my grave…”

“Yeah, you’re freezing”, Faith offered, curling against Buffy’s side and yawning. “Holding you down was like pinning a vamp with a pulse—and a mean left hook. Warmer now, though. Sleepy.” Casually, she threw an arm over her eyes and sighed contentedly, oblivious to the indecipherable look that Buffy aimed at her.

“What were you dreaming about?”, Joyce asked gently, trying to ignore Faith. “Do you remember at all?”

Buffy looked away and shook her head. “It’s not important. The same ‘bad vampire’ stuff I always dream about.” Buffy shot Giles a meaningful look over her mother’s head.

“Ah”, Giles faltered, correctly interpreting Buffy’s desire to remove her mother from the conversation. “Ah, Mrs., ah, Summers…would you be so good as to get something for Buffy—a hot drink? Perhaps?” Joyce looked quietly between the Watcher and her daughter, and sighed deeply.

“Cocoa, Buffy?”, she asked resignedly, turning toward the door. “What about you and Faith, Mr. Giles? Would you like anything?” Giles had the decency to blush, but Faith slyly responded in the negative while smirking at the discomfited Watcher, as if she enjoyed watching him sweat.

“Not too slick, Watcher-man”, the younger Slayer cooed after he shut Buffy’s door with an audible click. “I think she caught on.” Buffy stared down at Faith oddly, and the brunette ducked her head slightly under the scrutiny. “Hey, just messing with you. No hard feelings, right?”

“I suppose not”, Giles confirmed tonelessly. “Buffy. Was there anything about this dream that seemed…odd? You appeared to be in some pain…”

“It was weird, Giles”, the Slayer said slowly. “Really real. Usually, I know if it’s a dream, and I just go with the flow to see what happens, but this…I felt like I was really there, in that…place. How…how long was I like that?”

Giles started slightly and said, ”Well, um—oh, yes, your mother called me approximately an hour ago. Not too much longer than that, I should think.”

Buffy shuddered. “It felt like so much longer…”

“Buffy, listen to me”, Giles insisted gently. “Is this the first time that this has happened?”

“Not…not exactly. I’ve had this dream before.” Buffy rubbed at her eyes wearily. “Just never this much.”

“Curious…”, Giles mused. “When did you first have this dream?”

“It started about a week ago…um, maybe a bit before that. Do you think it’s something bad?”

“I’m not sure…”, the Watcher admitted. “What was the dream about…exactly?” Buffy avoided his gaze and shook her head without answering. Sighing in resignation, Giles moved on, asking the younger Slayer, “Have you had any strange dreams…or, ah, premonitions, Faith? Especially in the last two weeks?”

“Not a one, boss”, Faith answered cheerfully. “I sleep like a log.”

“Good”, Giles said firmly. “You should be on your toes right now. You will, after all, need to cover Buffy’s patrols as well as your own until I am satisfied that Buffy is in no danger. Now, Buffy, I believe that it is time for the two of us to go to the library and try to uncover some cause for your…condition.”

“She’s probably just sleeping off a hard night of Slaying, Will”, Xander said breezily, shoving an entire Twinkie into his mouth all at once as he and the other Slayerettes walked toward the library. “Mmff-ah-oww, hi-mmf-mmm-hh-dmmff-ff-mmff-fng-ffa-omff.”

“But what if Giles couldn’t reach us? What if he couldn’t get to a phone, or, or…”

“Willow, Xander’s right. Buffy is probably just late for school. Or sick. It happens”, Oz offered, calmly serious.

“I guess”, Willow admitted, somewhat mollified.

“Mmm-fmm, hmmf-fm-ff”, Xander mumbled, happily trying to eat the Twinkie.

“I doubt it”, Willow responded with a little smile, pushing open one of the swinging doors and entering the high school’s book depository. “Her mother is still freaked about the last time.”

“This may seem like an odd question”, Oz ventured evenly, squeezing Willow’s hand, “but how do you understand what he’s saying?”

Willow looked at him quizzically, and then her gaze slid past him and her face lit up in relieved surprise. “Buffy!”

Oz and Xander turned as Willow rushed over to the young Slayer, who looked up with haunted eyes and a tired smile.

“Hi, guys”, Buffy sighed, holding an ice pack over one wrist as she leaned against the heavy oaken table in the middle of the library. “What’s up?”

“Buffy, where were you this morning? You missed a test—what happened to your arm?”, Willow demanded, hovering over her wounded friend. “Was it vampires?”

“Sprain”, Giles answered, breezing by as Xander and Oz approached at a more docile pace.

Buffy watched him expectantly, but when he shook his head slightly, she clarified, “I had a nightmare.”

“Some nightmare”, Xander muttered, swallowing the last of his pre-packaged treat. “I’m guessing it wasn’t about fuzzy bunnies and happy elves.”

“Guess not”, Buffy confirmed, watching Xander carefully, as if she could see the tension rolling off of him in waves.

“So this is a Hellmouth dream, right?”, Oz asked placidly, settling into a chair and sliding his bag underneath the table. “Are we researching?”

“No”, Giles said stolidly, closing the book in his hands with a snap. “You have a more important duty tonight. I trust that you are all free?” As the Slayerettes nodded in confirmation, the Watcher continued, “Your task is to see to it that Buffy does not sleep until this situation is resolved. I would rather not resort to drugs…since their affect on the Slayer is unpredictable at best. Therefore…”

“All-night movie marathon, here we come!”, Xander crowed, rubbing his hands in sudden delight. “We can rent ‘Attack of the Killer Mushrooms LXII: Beware the Shroom’! It just came out on video!”

“Oh, God”, Buffy groaned, “I think I’d rather take my chances with the nightmare.”

“We don’t have to watch movies”, Willow offered. “We could play board-games. I have Monopoly at home…and Trivial Pursuit. Xander’s really good at that one.”

“I don’t know…”, Xander said nervously. “You and Monopoly, Will…”

“I’ll play nice!”, the hacker insisted pleadingly. “I promise!”

“You said you’d play nice!”

“I am playing nice.”

“But it’s not fair!”

“You know the rules, Xander. That’ll be 250 dollars”, Willow said triumphantly, holding out her hand. “Pay up.”

“But I’m almost broke! C’mon, Will, be a pal—I’ll pay you as soon as I hit ‘Go’, I swear!”

“No deal”, Willow said smugly, putting on the resolved face.

Xander whimpered pitifully and turned to Buffy with hopeful eyes. “Buff, buddy, Slayer—it’s your duty to protect mankind, right? Help me before this evil landlord-demon sucks the last penny from me!”

“Sorry, Xander. You still owe me from the last game.”

Oz forestalled Xander’s plea before he could lay it on. “I’m still paying the interest on North Carolina. Try filing for bankruptcy.”

“I will never yield!”, Xander cried, searching frantically for an extra two-fifty.

“Well, while you try to dig yourself out of your hole, I’m going to the kitchen for more munchies. Anyone want anything while I’m up?”

“No thanks”, Oz replied evenly. “We’re cool with the cheesy curls.”

Buffy nodded, still smiling at Xander’s antics as she flicked on the light and entered the kitchen. Stifling the urge to yawn—[Why is it that when you have to sleep, you can’t, and when you have to stay awake, you feel like the living dead …wait, scratch that, in Hellmouth territory, the living dead are a little too lively. What’s a good ‘sleepy metaphor?] Buffy rummaged in the cabinets for something sugary. [Maybe it’s time to start with the triple espressos.]

Suddenly, Buffy was overcome by a wave of dizzy-ness. [Oh, no…] “X-xander?”, she called out weakly, sinking to the floor ungracefully as spots danced in her vision, “Will?” Buffy moaned in terror as the feeling hit her again.

And then she was sitting on the floor with Xander, and he was calling her name frantically as he shook her by the arms.

“Xander?”, Buffy sobbed, one hand clutching his shirt in near-desperation as she struggled to clear her head. “It hurts…”

“It’s okay, Buffy, you’ll be okay, I swear”, Xander whispered, rubbing her back reassuringly as he gathered her closer to him. “Will went to wake up your mom, Oz is calling Giles, Faith is on her way—you just have to hold on, Buffy, just a little bit longer.”

Tears ran down Buffy’s face, soaking Xander’s shirt as she buried her head under his chin. “Xander, I’m scared”, Buffy whimpered.

Then everything went dark.