"756...plus..382...carry the 1....." he licked his lips in concentration and paused to erase a few things,
"Divided by 47...."

She stood gazing out the window with her back to him. It had been almost one full year since she'd last heard or sensed Alex. It had been quite a year. One of new experiences, new friendships, a whole new life. She'd shed alot of the gawkiness and shyness of her youth after having been forced to grow up so fast.

Life had gotten better, slowly. The initial loneliness and pain had finally begun to fade away. Julia and Adam had been wonderful, like the siblings she'd never had.

"Miss Bridget? I'm done. Is this correct?"

Turning, she took the paper from his hand and read it over carefully.

Slowly, she lowered it and regarded him. He shot her a hopeful smile.

"Excellent!" her face broke into a grin, "you've come so far these past few months! I'm so proud of you."

He leaned back and breathed a sigh of relief, "And that was an especially hard one too."

"Absolutely," she glanced at the clock and frowned slightly. Sighing, she reached into her bag
and extracted several books, "Now, before I leave, I just wanted to give you these. They were my favorites when I was your age and I thought that you mi-,"

"B-but the hour isn't quite over yet," he protested.

She sighed again and smiled sadly at him, "Unfortunately, it is. I have to meet Mr. Andrews in five minutes. We need to pick some things up from the grocer before we leave..."

The young man opened his mouth to protest yet again, but seemed to think better of it.

"I'll miss you, you know that, don't you?" she whispered.

"I'll miss you too, Miss Bridget. You were the best governess I've ever had. Y-you taught me so much..."

"*You* taught *yourself* so much. I've never seen a child learn so fast. You have alot to be proud of, young man," she knelt down and hugged him, "I also wanted to give you this." She reached into her pocket and pulled out the gift.

He stared at the lovely chain with the delicate gold cross hanging from it, "It's..it's beautiful, Ms. Bridget..." he murmured, his voice quavering slightly.

"My mother had one just like it. It always seemed to protect her. So, I got one for you," she gently turned him around and helped him to fasten it securely around his neck.

"Now then, promise me that you'll stay out of trouble and that you'll be a good boy?"

"Yes, ma'am I will."

Faintly, they heard a baby start crying in the adjoining room.

She stood and took down her coat from the peg near the door. "Looks like your sister's awake. You should go in and check on her. But first, how about one last hug before I go?"

He laughed and threw himself into her arms, holding on fiercely before finally releasing her.

"Goodbye Miss Bridget."

She smiled, "Goodbye Angel."

***************
 
Julia sat at the table, absent-mindedly strumming her fingers against the wooden surface. < This is so wonderful... > She stood and started pacing around the small, empty kitchen, barely unable to contain her excitement. In an attempt to expend some extra energy she practiced some of the self-defense tactics Adam had taught her recently. What had he called it...Geedu? Gudu? Oh, yes...Judo. In her opinion, it looked rather silly, but even she had to admit that it utilized her energy and strength alot better than when she'd been simply punching and kicking aimlessly.

< She'll make him so happy and I've always wanted a sister... > she thought happily as she practiced jumping on the table and back flipping off of it. On and off, on and off...

Julia smiled almost blissfully. Life had been better between them ever since Bridget had come into their lives. She'd brought a sort of peace and humanity much needed to help patch up their relationship. It had been a bad enough blow when Adam was thrown into his Watcher's duties at such a young age. He'd barely finished his own training, let alone been prepared to help train another
person. Julia frowned slightly. Losing his first slayer, Margaret,  barely a month after he'd started training her had been truly terrible. Even to this day, he'd never quite stopped blaming himself. From that moment onwards, he vowed to take extra careful precautions when training the next one, whoever she was. Unfortunately, finding out that his own sister, Julia, was the next Chosen, had been an almost unbearable event for both of them. Their relationship had been volatile from the very start. His precautions didn't bide well with his then 15-year-old, spirited sister. She wanted what most other girls her age wanted: the fun, freedom and simplicity of youth. For fear of losing her as well, Adam had denied her all of that. Nothing but back-breaking physical exercise as well as hours of reading and studying filled her young life. Even though this early training had helped her to become one of the most powerful slayers of her century, there had always been a part of her which resented him for it.

Not anymore though, she reminded herself. Lately, she found him to be much more..tolerable. Pleasant even. He smiled more, joked more. He seemed so much more...relaxed.

Growing tired with the back flipping, Julia jumped down and ran over to peer out the window. No sign of them yet. She sighed softly and resumed her energetic pacing. Her brother had fallen in love with Bridget. Head over heels in love. As much as he'd tried to deny it in the past, he couldn't fool his own sister. Julia stifled a giggle at the thought. She'd never in a million years imagined her brother, so stiff and demanding, to fall in love with *anyone*. Granted, he was only 22 but as far as she were concerned, he acted as if he were 50.

Spying a beam which crossed the ceiling eight feet overhead, Julia took a deep breath and jumped for it. Grasping it tightly, she started to do chin-ups, bringing her head to the ceiling, then extending her arms down, then curling them to bring her head back up again. Finding it mildly boring, she quickened her pace. It wasn't that he wasn't handsome, in fact, Julia was positive that he was.
She'd been told so numerous amounts of times by various mis-guided young women vying for his attention. No, it had been more of a question of personality. For many years, he'd been unwilling, almost unable to allow anyone to form any type of emotional bond with him. Not even her. It had been almost as i-

Her reverie was broken by the slamming of the front door.

"Julia!"

She looked down at the top of her brother's head, "Adam, up here."

Startled, he jumped slightly and gazed up at her. Recovering from the initial surprise, he frowned, "Julia, what on earth is wrong with you? I leave you alone for half an hour and you already set to tearing the place up. How many times have I asked you NOT to jump around the house and hang off of the furniture? Get down from there for goodness sakes and help Bridget bring the bags in from the buggy." With that, he stormed off and went upstairs.

< Uh oh. That didn't sound good at all. > Releasing her grip from the beam, she fell deftly to the ground.

Preparing herself for the worst, she walked outside to find Bridget hovering near the cart, completely distraught and struggling with several heavy bags.

"Bridget? My God, what happened?"

"I-I couldn't say yes...he asked and I couldn't..."

Feeling mildly ill herself, Julia relieved her friend of the packages and set them on the ground, "Don't worry about that, dear. Come into the house and we'll all discuss this together."

"He asked me to marry him and I said no. There's no way I can face him now.." she babbled, "I feel so guilty after all he's done for me...it's just that...I wish I could say yes, but I can't. Not so soon after...well..after.."

"Your love died," Julia completed, "yes, Bridget, we've been through this before...but dear, it's been almost a year..."

"A year, a decade, it doesn't matter. Julia, you just don't understand, y-"

"Oh but I do."

"Y-you do?"

"You're just pathetic."

"W-what?"

"You heard me, you idiot mortal. You're stupid, pathetic and weak."

Within an instant, her surroundings became tinted with an ugly, distorted red.
Bridget stared in horror as Julia's voice and likeness morphed slowly. Her face stretched and contorted and her long, yellow hair fell into piles on the floor. Her skin turned brown and leathery and her voice became deeper and raspy. Within minutes, she was nose to nose with a most disgustingly familiar figure.

Unable to contain herself, she started shrieking wildly, causing Adam to come running out of the cottage, "Bridget? Juli-, My God!!!!" he shouted in shock, "What are you? Bridget, where's J-,"
The demon swiped a bored claw in Adam's direction, smashing his head against the wooden side of the house, killing him instantly.

Bridget tried to run towards him but was quickly restrained by an unseen force field.

"Let me go, let me go.." she screamed repeatedly through tears.

It simply laughed at her, "You know what? You deserve to die. Perhaps I *will* put you out of your misery..."

She felt her blood run ice cold and suddenly, her breathing grew more shallow. She struggled towards Adam, but fell to her knees from the effort. Her lungs felt as if they were on fire. She couldn't breathe, speak, or think.

As the light grew dimmer, Bridget could hear him cackling loudly..."See you in hell, luv," he hissed into her ear.

And then, there was a bright burst of light and she was soaking wet.

**************

Willow Rosenberg's eyes snapped wide open. She immediately sat up and stared at the figure standing in front of her.

Buffy gave her a sheepish grin and set the empty water pitcher on the dresser, "Willow, are you alright?"

< Where on earth am I? Oh yes, Xander's room... > She began to relax again. Oh wait.
"Xander!" her head snapped to the side and she almost bumped noses with him.

"Right here, Wills, I'm right here."

She noted that his breathing was slightly labored and he was just as wet as she was.

"Are you okay, Willow?" he whispered softly, pulling her into a hug.

"I'm fine, Xander. At least I am now."

He leaned his forehead against hers and they sat like that for a few seconds in a wordless show of mutual comfort. Pulling away from her reluctantly, and they both shifted their attention back to the Slayer, "Buffy, what happened?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. About 20 minutes ago, I heard yelling. I came in here and you two were thrashing around on the bed, struggling or something. There was this really mean red foggy stuff all over the place and when I tried to wake you guys up I couldn't."

Willow swung her legs weakly off of the bed and buried her face in her hands.

"I ran all over the place trying everything I could think of," Buffy continued as she sat down next to
the red-head and put an arm around her, "The water seemed to do the trick, though."

"I had another nightmare," Willow sighed softly.

"There was some ugly demon-thingie in it," Xander continued.

Willow craned her neck to look at him, "Wait..you saw the same thing?"

"I-I think so. Julia, that slayer and her brother Adam were in it right? And you were supposed to marry Adam, only you couldn't an-,"

"Not me," Willow broke in, "Bridget. There's a difference. I don't know how I know that, but I just do."

"We need to talk to Giles," Buffy murmured softly, "That red stuff did NOT look good at all. Hopefully, he can tell us something. Especially if it has something to do with a former slayer."

"Okay, Willow and I will get dressed and meet you downstairs in 10 minutes."

She nodded and left the room.

"Xander, I'm scared," Willow sighed softly and leaned back against him.

"I am too, Wills. Whatever has been causing your nightmares seems to be after me too. But at least we're in this together," he slipped her arms around her waist and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek, "And I'm never going to let anything hurt you."