Introduction
Season: First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth | Sixth | Seventh
Other Bodies | Episodes | Dramatis Personae
Ramblings | Links | Fanfic

I Only Have Eyes for You

Prologue

Buffy stands on the balcony overlooking the dance floor in the Bronze, watching the kids dance below her. A boy approaches and introduces himself to her. His name is Ben. They were in the same math class last year.

“Sorry,” says Buffy. “I pretty much repress anything math related.”

“Ms. Jackson? Second period?” asks Ben. “You sat in the seat three over and one behind.”

“Oh! Yeah, I remember now,” says Buffy. “It’s the one with the desks and the chalkboards and pencils and stuff, right?”

“That’s the one,” says Ben.

Buffy taps the side of her head. “Like a steel trap.”

Ben is there to ask Buffy if she’s maybe interested in asking him to the Sadie Hawkins dance tomorrow night.

Buffy turns him down gently. “You seem like a really great guy. It’s…me. I’m not seeing anybody. Ever again, actually.”

Ben backs off, leaving Buffy alone on the balcony again. “Sorry,” she says quietly to herself after he’s gone.

Buffy goes down the stairs, and runs into Willow. She tells Willow that she’s going to leave. She plans to check in with Giles and see if he wants her to patrol, and then go home and sack it.

“You’ve been doing that a lot. Patrolling and sacking,” says Willow. “In fact, you’ve kind of been All-Work-And-No-Play Buffy.”

“I play,” says Buffy. “I have big fun. I came here tonight, didn’t I?”

“You came, you saw.” Willow looks up at the spot where Buffy had stood on the balcony with Ben. “You rejected.”

Buffy tells Willow that she just isn’t in date mode. Willow thinks that maybe Buffy needs to date to get into date mode, but Buffy doesn’t think she’s ready for that.

Willow thinks Buffy is thinking too much. She needs to do something impulsive.

“Impulsive?” asks Buffy. “Do you remember my ex-boyfriend, the vampire? I slept with him, he lost his soul. Now my boyfriend’s gone forever, and the demon that wears his face is killing my friends. The next impulsive decision I make will involve my choice of dentures.”

“Okay, the Angel thing went badly,” says Willow. “I’m on board with that, but that’s not your fault. And anyways, love isn’t always like that. Love can be…nice!”

A boy is having an argument with his girlfriend in a corridor of Sunnydale High. She walks away from him.

“Come back here!” he yells, and chases after her. “We’re not finished!” He grabs her arm and spins her around. “You don’t care anymore, is that it?”

“No!” cries the girl. “It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter what I feel.”

“Then tell me you don’t love me.” He grabs her shoulders and gives her a shake. “Say it!”

“Will that help?” asks the girl. “Is that what you need to hear? I don’t. I don’t! Now let me go.”

“No! A person doesn’t just wake up one day and stop loving somebody.” He raises a revolver and points it at her. “Love is forever.”

Act I

Buffy spots the guy with the gun and runs toward him. The girl turns and starts to walk away from him.

“Don’t walk away from me bitch!” he yells at her.

George the janitor also hears the commotion, and comes to investigate.

Buffy grabs the boy’s arm, knocks the gun out of his hand, and flips him to the floor. She pulls him to his feet as George arrives and goes to check on the girl. Suddenly the boy is confused. He asks what happened.

“What happened?” asks Buffy. “You just went O.J. on your girlfriend!”

The boy just gets more confused. He doesn’t understand why he got so mad. Buffy thinks it’s because he’s a jerk.

“He’s not,” says the girl. “We weren’t even fighting a few minutes ago.”

“If you weren’t fighting, then why’d you have a gun?” asks Buffy.

George looks around the floor as the boy tells Buffy that he has no idea where the gun came from.

“I don’t see any gun,” says George. That makes Buffy look too. The gun has vanished.

Buffy sits in a chair in front of Principal Snyder’s desk. She somewhat optimistically hopes that maybe he wants to thank her.

“That’s right, I want to thank you,” says Snyder. “What would Sunnydale High do without you around to incite mayhem, chaos and disorder?”

“I don’t incite!” says Buffy. “I stopped that boy from killing his girlfriend. Ask him. Ask the janitor!”

“People can be coerced, Summers,” says Snyder. “I’m no stranger to conspiracy. I saw JFK. I’m a truth seeker. I’ve got a missing gun and two confused kids on my hands. Pieces of the puzzle. And I’m going to look at all the pieces carefully and rationally, and I’m going to keep looking until I know exactly how this is all your fault.”

Snyder gets called out of his office to deal with another crisis. Billy Crandel has chained himself to the snack machine again.

“Pathetic little no-life vegan.” Snyder mutters to himself, and starts toward the door.

Buffy starts to get up too, but Snyder tells her to stay put. He isn’t done with her yet. Buffy sits back down to wait for his return.

While Buffy waits a copy of the 1955 Sunnydale High Yearbook falls off of a book shelf and lands on the floor. Buffy picks it up and replaces it on the shelf.

Giles stops by the computer science class as it’s ending to check up on Willow. She is really starting to enjoy teaching the class. Miss Calendar left a full set of lesson plans that she has been following. Willow has also been delving into Jenny’s computer files on paganism and magic.

Willow picks up a pink crystal strung on a leather thong off the desk and holds it out to Giles. “I found this in her drawer. She told me it was a rose quartz, and it has healing powers. I thought she’d want you to have it.”

Giles takes the crystal from her. “Thank you, Willow, that’s, um… that’s very thoughtful of you.”

Buffy dozes off in Mr. Miller’s History class while he lectures on the New Deal, and finds herself dreaming. She is surrounded by a different class full of students dressed like they came straight out of the middle of the 50s. As the class breaks up the girls are all excited about the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance. All the students leave, except for James who hangs back to hand in a paper to his pretty female teacher. As Buffy watches it is obvious that there is more going on between them than homework. The teacher asks James how he enjoyed the Hemmingway book she had loaned him.

“I liked it. Very much. It’s honest.” James reaches out and takes his teacher’s hand in his own.

She steps toward him. “Yes, it’s, um…it’s based on a true story, actually. He fell in love with his—”

The class door opens, and they quickly pull apart. Buffy wakes up, and is back in history class. Mr. Miller is still talking about the New Deal, but what he writes on the chalk board is “DON’T WALK AWAY FROM ME BITCH!” The class starts to giggle.

Mr. Miller notices what he wrote, and quickly erases it from the board.

Buffy tells Xander about the things that have been happening lately. “I’m telling you, something weird is going on.”

“‘Something weird is going on.’ Isn’t that our school motto?” asks Xander. He isn’t too concerned. “A domestic dispute, a little case of chalkboard Tourettes. It all sounds like Hellmouth Lite to me.”

They reach his locker and Xander opens it. An arm reaches out, grabs his shirt, and tries to pull him in.

Buffy pulls Xander away, and slams the locker door shut. She looks around at the other students in the hallway who are looking their way curiously, but then they all go back to what they were doing before. Buffy cautiously opens Xander’s locker again and looks inside. There’s only Xander’s normal locker stuff inside it. There is no sign of the arm, or whatever it belonged to.

Buffy and Xander enter the library. Willow looks up from her seat at the table and notices Xander’s torn shirt. “What happened? Did Cordelia win another round in the broom closet?”

“You’re just a big bucket of funny, Will,” says Xander. “I’ll have you know I was just accosted by some kind of, um, locker monster.”

Giles looks up from the shelf of books he’s inventorying. “Loch Ness Monster?”

“‘Locker monster’ is what he said,” says Buffy. She tells them about Xander being attacked by an arm coming out of his locker. Xander also tells Giles about what happened with Buffy’s history teacher.

Giles perks right up. It sounds to him like classic paranormal activity.

“A ghost?” asks Willow. “Cool!”

“Oh, no,” says Xander. “No cool. This was no wimpy chain rattler. This was ‘I’m dead as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!’ “

“Well, despite the Xander-speak, that’s a fairly accurate definition of a poltergeist,” says Giles. Xander is rather pleased with himself.

“So we have some bad boo on our hands?” asks Buffy.

“Yes,” says Giles.

“Well, why is it here? Does it just want to scare people?” asks Willow.

“Unfortunately, he doesn’t know exactly what he wants,” says Giles. “That’s the trouble. See, many times the spirit is plagued by all manner of worldly troubles. Being dead, it has no way to make its peace, so it lashes out. Growing ever more confused, ever more angry.”

“So it’s a normal teenager, only dead,” says Buffy.

“Well, what can we do?” asks Willow. “Is there any way to stop it?”

“The only tried and true way is to work out what unresolved issues keep it here, and resolve them,” says Giles.

“Fabulous,” says Buffy. “Now we’re Dr. Laura for the deceased.”

That evening George is mopping the hallway when Miss Frank comes out of her classroom. They exchange polite good nights, and Miss Frank continues on her way out. She suddenly stops. George drops his mop, and turns back toward her.

They start to argue. George doesn’t want it to be over. Miss Frank tells him it can never work out between them, it’s best to end it. It’s the same argument that Buffy interrupted between the boy and girl the night before.

A gun materializes in George’s hand. He raises it and points it at Miss Frank. “Love is forever.”

Act II

Giles is researching in his office when he hears the two people arguing. He starts to move toward the sound. He hears a voice whisper ”I need you.”

Giles looks around. “Jenny?” He doesn’t hear the voice again.

Giles continues toward the sound of the argument. It has moved outside onto the balcony overlooking the courtyard. Giles arrives in time to see George shoot Miss Frank, who falls off the balcony and lands at the base of the steps.

George turns away and runs back into the school. Giles tackles him. George drops the gun, and it dissolves. He sits up and looks around. “What’s going on?”

“What’s going on?” asks Giles. “You just shot a woman!”

Angel leads Spike and Dru into the garden of the new home he has found for them. Dru is ecstatic, she loves the new place. The garden is full of night blooming jasmine flowers.

Spike is much less impressed. “It’s paradise,” he says from his wheelchair. “Big windows, lovely gardens. It’ll be perfect when we want the sunlight to kill us.”

“If you don’t like it, Spike, hit the stairs and go,” says Angel “Take a stand, man.”

“Well, our old place was just fine ’til you went and had it burned down,” says Spike.

“Things change, Spikey,” says Angel. “You got to roll with the punches. Well, actually, you pretty much got that part down, haven’t you?”

“Very funny, mate,” says Spike.

Angel stands close behind Drusilla. “What can I say? I just love to see you smile, buddy.” He takes a jasmine bloom and caresses Drusilla’s neck with it.

“Yeah, you’re a giver.” Spike spins his wheelchair around and rolls away.

Giles describes what happened the night before to Buffy and the others. George remembers shooting Miss Frank. He just has no idea of why he did it. And there is no sign of the gun. Giles and the police searched high and low for it. Giles thinks it is very clear what’s happening.

“Fill me in then,” says Xander, “ ’cause I’ve read the book, seen the movie, and I’m still fuzzy about what’s going on.”

“It’s Jenny,” says Giles.

“What?” asks Buffy.

“You think she’s the ghost?” asks Xander.

“Don’t you see?” asks Giles. “She died here under tragic circumstances, and now she’s trapped.”

“But what about the gun?” asks Willow, “I mean, Angel didn’t shoot Miss Calendar.”

Giles doesn’t think the gun is important. It’s the violence that matters. Buffy doesn’t believe it. There is also the argument these couples keep having. Willow agrees with Buffy. These incidents just don’t fit with the way Miss Calendar died.

“Yes, well, I appreciate your thoughts on the matter,” says Giles. “In fact I encourage you to always challenge me when you feel it’s appropriate. You should never be cowed by authority.” He starts to walk into his office, and then turns around and comes back out. “Except of course, in this instance, when I am clearly right and you are clearly wrong.”

Buffy, Willow and Xander meet in the computer science class. Willow thinks Giles is behaving a little freaky.

“I know,” says Xander. “He’s usually Investigate-Things-From-Every-Boring-Angle Guy. Now he’s Cling-Onto-My-One-Lame-Idea Guy. What gives?”

“He misses her,” says Buffy. “He can’t think. Just a little more fallout from my love life.”

Willow starts a computer search for other shootings on school property to see if she can come up with any other suspects. She quickly finds a report about a student who shot his teacher and then shot himself in the music room on the night of the Sadie Hawkins dance. Rumour at the time was that they were having an affair.

“How come we’ve never heard about this murder-suicide thing before?” asks Xander. “When did it happen?”

“1955,” says Buffy.

Willow and Xander look at Buffy in surprise. “How did you know?” asks Willow.

Buffy sets a 1955 Sunnydale High Yearbook down on Willow’s desk. She shows them the picture of Grace Newman, the teacher in her dream, and the picture of the guy, James Stanley. They are the ones who died.

“Your dreams are getting wicked accurate, Buff,” says Xander. “You wouldn’t happen to see me coming across some big cash? Or possibly knowing the love of a woman? In a full body sense?”

Buffy ignores him. “He couldn’t make her love him, so he killed her. Sicko.”

Willow is still looking at James’ picture in the yearbook. “He looks so normal on this picture. He was smart, too. He made the honour roll.”

“Smart?” asks Buffy.

“He killed a person and killed himself,” says Xander. “Those are pretty much two of the dumbest things you could do.”

“I know,” says Willow, “but, don’t you feel kind of bad for them?”

“Sure I feel lousy. For her,” says Buffy. “He’s a murderer and he should pay for it.”

“With his life?” asks Willow.

“No, He should be doing sixty years in a prison, breaking rocks and making special friends with Roscoe the weight lifter.”

“Yikes,” says Xander. “The quality of mercy is not Buffy.”

They all agree that it’s probably James’ ghost who is responsible for what’s going on. Willow suggests that maybe they should find a way to communicate with him, to find out what he wants.

Buffy doesn’t want to talk. “Who cares what he wants? We need to shut him down before some other innocent guy goes and kills some poor nice girl and then blows his brains out all over the music room wall!”

Xander rubs his hands together. “Okay! Who’s hungry?”

They meet up with Cordelia in the cafeteria. She is upset about the Sadie Hawkins dance. The whole idea of it is against everything she stands for. The girls have to ask the guys, and pay for it and everything. “We need to nip this thing in the bud. I mean otherwise things are going to get really scary.”

Suddenly everything gets really scary. All the food in the cafeteria transforms into snakes. Everyone starts screaming and running away. One of the snakes strikes at Cordy’s face, biting her on the cheek. Snyder appears at the doorway of the cafeteria, and is nearly trampled by the stampede of students running out.

Cordelia sits on the back bumper of an ambulance in front of the school while a paramedic bandages her cheek. Various police, ambulance and animal control people scurry about, collecting snakes.

Nearby, Principal Snyder and Policeman Bob discuss how they are going to cover this one up. They are speaking quietly so no one will overhear them. Bob suggests maybe they call it a schoolboy prank, but Snyder doesn’t think that will work. Bob then suggests a backed up sewer.

“Better,” says Snyder. “I can probably make that one fly. But this is getting out of hand. People will talk.”

“You’ll take care of it,” says Bob.

“I’m doing everything I can,” says Snyder. “but you people have to realize—” He’s interrupted by a man passing by who asks him what is going on.

“Backed up sewer line,” says Snyder loudly. “Same thing happened in San Diego just last week.”

Snyder drops his voice again, and continues with what he was telling Bob. “We’re on a Hellmouth. Sooner or later people are going to figure that out.”

“The city council was told that you could handle this job,” says Bob. “If you feel that you can’t, perhaps you’d like to take that up…with the Mayor.”

Snyder looks scared. “I’ll handle it,” he says quickly. “I will.”

Buffy, Willow, Xander and Cordy meet in Buffy’s bedroom. Willow has dropped her plans for trying to talk to the ghost. Things have gone too far. “The time for touchy-feely communication is passed. I’ve done some homework and found out the only solution is the final solution.”

“Nuke the school?” Xander smiles. “I like that.”

“Not quite,” says Willow. “Exorcism.”

“Are you crazy?” asks Cordelia. “I saw that movie. Even the priest died!”

Willow outlines the exorcism spell for them using a diagram of the school. They have to form a Mangus Tripod. Three of them will stand at the apexes of a triangle, spread around the school, while the fourth stands at its center, the hot spot for all the mystic activity, the place where Miss Newman and Miss Frank were shot. The spell will bind the spirit, and keep it from doing any more harm.

Buffy volunteers for the hot spot. If there’s trouble it will most likely happen there.

They enter the school shortly before midnight. Each of them is carrying a black candle. Willow supplies them all with scapulas which they are to wear around their necks to ward off evil.

Cordelia doesn’t want to wear hers. It smells like grandpaw breath.

Willow apologises for the smell. She was in a hurry, and had to use sulphur. “Stinky, but effective,” she tells them. They will each perform their part of the ritual precisely at midnight.

“No problem,” says Cordelia. “This will be a piece of cake. Right?”

The doors of the school all start slamming shut around them.

Act III

Drusilla is still exploring her new home. She thinks maybe she will dig herself a burrow in the garden to sleep in.

“What about your pretty dress, sweet?” asks Spike. “It’ll get all dirty.”

“Then I’ll sleep naked. Like the animals do.”

“You know, I’m suddenly liking this plan,” says Angel. Spike is not pleased.

Before Spike and Angel can get into another round, Dru starts rolling on the ground, and giggling. “There’s a gate! It’s opening!”

Angel and Spike recognise the signs of Dru having another vision. They ask her what she sees.

“It’s black. It wants her.” Dru hums.

“Wants who?” asks Angel.

“The Slayer. It’s time, Angel. She’s ready for you now.” Dru gets to her feet and starts to dance. “She’s…dancing. Dancing with death!”

Spike rolls his eyes in disgust. “Big deal! He won’t do anything. Our man Angel here likes to talk but he’s not much for action. All hat and no cattle.”

Angel thinks that he is just about done with Buffy. It is time to finish it, so he can pay more attention to other things closer to home. He runs his hands over Dru’s body as Spike watches.

Willow makes her way to her position for the exorcism ritual. She passes by the library, and is startled by Giles coming out the door. He asks her what she’s doing there, no one is supposed to be inside the school.

“Me?” asks Willow, “What about you?”

“I’m, uh, I’m trying to, uh… I think I may be close to contacting Jenny.” Giles tells Willow to run along. “There may be some paranormal phenomena if I contact her. You don’t want to be in the line of fire.” He goes back into the library.

Cordelia takes up her position in the girls washroom. While she waits for midnight she sets her candle down on the edge of a sink, and pulls the bandaide off her cheek to check out her snake bite in the mirror.

Buffy approaches the balcony. She hears music coming from the music room: I Only Have Eyes for You. She walks toward it. On the music room door is a poster for the 1955 Sadie Hawkins dance. She looks through the window in the door and sees James and Grace dancing together.

Xander makes his way through the snakes still inhabiting the cafeteria. “Oh, yeah, baby,” he tells himself. “It’s snakalicious in here.”

Willow climbs to her place on the stairway landing.

Buffy watches Grace and James dance. James’ face transforms into a mass of rotting flesh.

Cordy gets out her makeup kit to cover up the bite mark. The twin red dots on her cheek suddenly grow into a hideous network of red veins covering half her face. She screams.

Willow sets down her candle on the stairway landing. An arm suddenly reaches up through the floor and grabs her ankle, trying to pull Willow down into a whirlpool that appears beneath her. She screams and calls out for Giles.

Giles hears Willow and comes running. When he arrives Willow has been sucked down to her armpits in the floor.

Giles grabs Willow, pulls her out of the floor, and they fall down the stairs together.

Buffy goes out onto the balcony and sets her candle down on the railing. She has a vision of James chasing and shooting Grace Newman on the balcony where she’s standing, and then returning to the music room and shooting himself.

The disfigured and rotting James grabs Buffy. “Get out!” he screams at her and vanishes.

Cordelia looks at herself in the mirror again. Her bite mark has returned to being two small red dots on her cheek.

Giles cautiously climbs the stairs and checks out the spot where Willow was sucked into the floor. It is just a normal solid floor again. “Are you all right?” he asks Willow.

“Giles,” says Willow, “Jenny could never be this mean.”

“I know,” says Giles. “It’s not her, is it?”

“I’m sorry,” says Willow.

The clock starts to strike midnight and Willow scrambles to do her part of the exorcism. Giles helps her light the candle, while Willow begins the recitation. “I shall confront and expel all evil.”

Cordelia lights her candle. “I shall totally confront and expel all evil.”

Xander sits on a cafeteria table with his lit candle. “Out of marrow and bone.”

“Out of house and home, never to come here again,” recites Buffy.

A wind passes through the school, blowing out all their candles. It’s followed by a low rumbling sound.

Giles and Willow go down the stairs and look toward the source of the sound. It grows into the hum of millions of insects, and they see a hug swarm of wasps coming down the corridor toward them. They run. They meet up with Buffy, Cordy and Xander in the front foyer. Giles tries to open the door, but it’s locked.

Buffy tells Giles to get out of the way, kicks the door open and they run outside.

When they reach the street Xander looks back. “Check it.”

They all stop and look back toward the school. The wasps aren’t chasing them anymore. The swarm buzzes around the school.

“I’d say that school’s out for good,” says Xander.

The group reconvenes in Buffy’s living room, with tea and crackers on the coffee table in front of them.

Giles pours himself a cup of tea. “The good news is none of you girls were shot.” He’s now on board with the theory that James is their ghost. He keeps reliving the night when he killed Miss Newman. Giles still doesn’t know what James wants though.

Cordelia nibbles on a cracker. “Hey. If Sunnydale High School shuts down forever, do we automatically graduate?”

Xander ignores her question. “But why? What does he want?” He turns back to Cordelia. “Actually, that’s an interesting point.”

Buffy is leaning against the living room door frame. “He wants forgiveness.”

“Yes,” says Giles. “I imagine he does. But when James possesses people, they act out exactly what happened that night. So he’s experiencing a form of purgatory instead. He’s doomed to kill his Miss Newman over and over and over again, and forgiveness is impossible.”

“Good,” says Buffy. “He doesn’t deserve it.”

“To forgive is an act of compassion, Buffy,” says Giles. “It’s not done because people deserve it. It’s done because they need it.”

“No,” says Buffy. “James destroyed the one person he loved the most in a moment of blind passion. And that’s not something you forgive. No matter why he did what he did. And no matter if he knows now that it was wrong and selfish and stupid, it is just something he’s going to have to live with.”

“He can’t live with it, Buff,” says Xander. “He’s dead.”

Buffy looks around at the rest of them, and walks off into the kitchen.

“Okay. Over identify much?” asks Cordy.

Buffy pulls a folded up flier for the 1955 Sadie Hawkins dance out of her pocket. A voice whispers ”I need you.” to her and she leaves through the back door.

The others are unaware that Buffy has gone. They discuss what they can try to do next. Giles doesn’t think they should try another exorcism. The ghost is too angry and powerful for them to do that. They don’t have any other ideas.

Buffy returns to the school. As she approaches the front doors the swarm of wasps separates, letting her pass through, and the doors open for her. Buffy goes into the school and the swarm closes in behind her.

Act IV

Willow goes looking for Buffy in the kitchen and finds the flier. She calls for Giles.

Giles comes into the kitchen and Willow shows him the flyer. “She went back.”

“So, what now?” asks Xander. They’re standing on the sidewalk outside the school. “Not even a mega-vat of Raid’s going to do the trick here.” The school is still engulfed in the swarm of wasps.

“I don’t get it,” says Cordelia. “Is she trying to be a big loner hero or something?”

That isn’t what Giles thinks is happening. Buffy must have become enthralled by James’ spirit, and he has brought her into the school to play out the night he killed Grace Newman one more time. He needs to change things, give it a happy ending.

“But it can’t ever happen!” says Willow. “It always ends the same, which means Buffy just went in there to get shot!”

Giles isn’t too worried just yet. Buffy is alone inside. There is no boy there for James to possess to play his part. Buffy should be safe until they can figure out how to get her out.

“In theory.” Willow doesn’t sound very convinced.

Buffy walks through the school hallway to the spot where the argument always begins.

“Fun fact about wasps,” says Angel from behind Buffy. “They have no taste for the undead. Not that a sting would do me any damage, it’s just…tonight’s special. I wanted to look my best for you.”

Buffy doesn’t turn around. “You’re the only one,” she says quietly, “The only person I can talk to.”

“Gosh, Buff,” says Angel, “That’s really pathetic.”

Buffy turns to face Angel, and begins the reenactment. She steps toward him. “You can’t make me disappear just because you say it’s over.”

Angel isn’t part of it yet. “Actually I can. In fact…” The spirit takes him over. “…I just want you to be able to have some kind of normal life. We can never have that, don’t you see?”

The argument begins again. Only this time it’s Buffy who is taking James’ part, while Angel plays Grace’s. The argument plays through as it has every other time. Angel runs away from her, out onto the balcony overlooking the courtyard.

“Stop it!” Buffy waves the gun at Angel. “Stop it! Don’t make me!”

Angel stops. “All right. Just…” He starts to turn around.

Grace turns to face James. “You know you don’t want to do this. Let’s both just calm down. Now give me the gun.” She holds out her hand.

James waves the gun at Grace. “Don’t. Don’t do that, damn it!”

Buffy waves the gun. “Don’t talk to me like I’m some stupid—” The gun goes off, shooting Angel in the chest. He falls off the balcony and lands at the foot of the stairs.

Buffy’s friends hear the shot. They fear the worst.

Buffy turns away, and walks toward the music room. Angel isn’t dead though. Being shot, and falling off a balcony won’t kill a vampire. He wakes up.

Buffy walks into the music room. She turns on the record player, and starts playing I Only Have Eyes for You. Buffy looks into a mirror. She sees James’ reflection looking back at her. She slowly raises the gun to her head.

Angel takes hold of the gun, and Buffy turns to face him.

“Grace!” says Buffy.

“Don’t do this,” says Angel.

“But I killed you.”

“It was an accident,” says Angel. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“It is my fault,” says Buffy. “How could I—”

Angel stops her. “Shhh. I’m the one who should be sorry, James. You thought I stopped loving you. But I never did. I loved you with my last breath.”

Buffy starts to cry.

“Shhh,” says Angel. “No more tears.”

Buffy and Angel kiss. Light swirls around them, up to the ceiling, out of the room, and then it’s gone. Buffy and Angel slowly pull away from one another.

“Angel…” says Buffy.

Angel suddenly snarls, pushes Buffy away, and runs from the room.

Epilogue

Xander, Willow and Cordy return to the library from their inspection of the school. They report their findings to Giles. All the snakes and wasps are gone. Somewhat to Xander and Cordelia’s disappointment school can resume as normal tomorrow.

Buffy is sitting in Giles’ office. He goes in to check on her.

Buffy looks up from her chair at him. “James picked me. I guess…I was the one he could relate to. He was so sad.”

Giles gives Buffy a half smile. “Well, they can both rest now.”

“I still— A part of me just doesn’t understand why she would forgive him.”

“Does it matter?” asks Giles.

“No. I guess not,” says Buffy.

Angel washes himself in the fountain in his new garden.

“You might want to let up,” says Spike. “They say when you’ve drawn blood, you’ve exfoliated.”

Angel keeps scrubbing. “What do you know about it? I’m the one who was freaking violated. You didn’t have this thing in you.”

Drusilla asks Angel what it was. Some sort of demon?

“Love!” says Angel. He wants to get out of there. He needs a real vile kill to wash the filth from his system. Dru understands. She suggests that they find a nice toddler for him. She asks Spike if he wants to come along.

Angel doesn’t want Spike to come. It’s getting close to dawn and they have to travel fast. “Try to have fun without me,” he tells Spike. He and Dru leave together.

Spike starts to smile after they have gone. “Oh I will,” he says quietly to himself. He rises out of his wheelchair and kicks it away. “Sooner than you think!”

Death Toll