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Earshot

Prologue

A demon chases Buffy through the park. It has scabby yellow skin, and no mouth. Buffy trips and stumbles. The demon closes in for the kill. Buffy kicks it in the back of its knee, and it falls into the playground swings. Buffy leaps to her feet and kicks it again.

Buffy pulls a knife out of her sleave and closes in for the kill. “You demons can’t resist a ‘run and stumble,’ can you?”

A second demon attacks Buffy from behind. It knocks the knife from her hand, and into the hand of its partner. Buffy kicks the demon away into the swings, and moves to have them both on the same side of her. The front demon suddenly ducks as its partner throws the knife over its head at Buffy. Buffy catches the knife, but she’s surprised by the demon’s silent coordination of their attack. She grabs one of the demons, tosses it onto a picnic table and stabs it.

“One down.” Buffy looks around for the second demon. It’s disappearing into the bushes at the far end of the park. “One gone.”

Some of the demon’s luminescent blood has gotten onto Buffy’s hand. It seeps into her skin as she watches the surviving demon disappear into the night.

Act I

Buffy tells Willow about the demons from the night before as they enter the library together. Giles, Oz and Xander are already there. They have been trying to learn more about the Mayor’s upcoming Ascension. They haven’t made much progress. Mostly they have only managed to eliminate possibilities. Giles has determined that the Ascension does not involve the ritual flaying of the demon Asaroth.

Buffy scratches her hand. “We don’t know anything? The whole Faith/Angel thing was for nothing?”

No, no, no,” says Giles. “Um, if nothing else Angel’s charade has brought Faith’s treachery into the open. And this information about the Ascension will prove useful…eventually. I just need to put it together.”

Wesley enters, and apologises for being late. He was held up by official Council business. He asks Giles to go on with what he was saying.

“I was just filling Buffy in on my progress regarding the research of the Ascension,” says Giles.

“Oh, and what took up the rest of the minute?” asks Wesley.

Giles pauses for a bit before answering. “Touché. Of course my work is unofficial. I am sure, however, with the resources of the Council at your disposal, you will have something to add.” He walks around the table and takes a seat with the others. He waits attentively to hear what Wesley has to say.

“Well,” says Wesley, “I am pleased to state, with certainty, that the demon Azorath will not in any way be involved—” Buffy and all of her friends get up from the table and leave, since it is clear that Wesley hasn’t learned anything useful either.

Wesley takes a seat at the table after they go. Giles arches his eyebrows at him. “The demon Asaroth?” He takes a sip from his cup of tea.

Buffy, Willow and Xander head toward their lockers. Willow asks Buffy if she’s talked to Angel yet.

“Not really,” says Buffy. “Seeing him ‘bad’, even ‘pretend bad,’ and with Faith…”

“He only kissed her for the greater good,” says Willow.

“I don’t know,” says Buffy. “To the naked eye, it looked like fun. Or maybe it wasn’t…maybe he wasn’t even tempted. I just wish I could be sure.”

“As always, I advise you to ask,” says Willow.

“Like he’d tell me?” asks Buffy.

Some of the school’s basketball team approach. Xander starts his usual complaining about the way the school’s athletes are treated, until Hogan Martin—the team’s star player—greets him by name. Xander is thrilled that Hogan knows his name.

Percy’s with Hogan. He arranges to move his study session with Willow from after school to fifth period. He has almost finished his reading assignment. He promises to complete it at lunch.

Hogan thinks that Willow is having a good influence on Percy. He’s even talking in complete sentences sometimes. Willow promises to see them at the game.

Buffy is surprised that Willow is going to basketball games now, and a little bummed. She can’t go to the game, she has to patrol. Her hand still itches.

Buffy sees Giles about her hand. It’s been itching ever since she touched that demon the other night. Giles places an open book in front of her and asks if this was the demon she fought.

Buffy looks at the picture in the book. “In the disgusting flesh.”

Giles picks up and reads something from the book. “Hm.”

Buffy wants to know what that means.

“It says they can infect the host,” says Giles.

“Infect?” asks Buffy. “Infect?” Giles continues to read without responding. “Giles! Infect?”

“Oh, um…infect the host with an aspect of the demon,” says Giles. “That’s all it says.”

Buffy wants to know what sort of aspect, but Giles has no idea. “There could be any number of explanations for your hand. A new fabric softener can cause irritation. In any case, I would advise to not to attempt to track the one that got away. Let’s minimize your exposure.”

“A part of the demon,” says Buffy. “I hope it’s not the outside part.”

Nearly everyone in the school is attending a pep rally for the basketball team in the quad. Buffy thinks it’s pretty lame. Oz agrees. He usually likes lameness, but this is leaving even him cold.

Willow has been reading Freddy’s latest editorial in the school paper. According to it “The pep rally is a place for pseudo-prostitutes to provoke men into a sexual frenzy, which when thwarted, results in pointless athletic competition.”

“And the down side being?” asks Xander.

Willow sets the paper aside. “The school paper is edging on ‘depressing’ lately. Have you guys noticed that?”

“I don’t know,” says Oz. “I always go straight to the Obits.”

Willow notices Buffy’s running her hand through her hair, and asks what she’s doing.

Buffy pulls her hand away from her head. “Nothing!” She suddenly gets up. “Checking for horns.” She starts to move away from her friends.

Willow stops her. “You know, Buffy, I don’t even think Giles is right about you becoming like a demon. I mean, he’s totally burnt! You know? Dealing with Faith and this Ascension thing… Between you and me, he’s not doing his best work.”

“What if he is right?” asks Buffy. “I’m suddenly going to grow this demon part, and we don’t even know what it is… it could be claws, or scales, or…” She notices the strange expression that has crept over Willow’s face. “What?”

“Was it a boy demon?”

Xander has been watching the cheerleaders appreciatively. He wonders why he wasted so much effort on Cordelia, when all the rest of them look so good too. Then he notices that Wesley is watching Cordelia, and gets all jealous.

Oz is mainly impressed by the girl’s spelling ability. They are introducing each member of the team by spelling out their names.

“I’m scared Will,” says Buffy. “There’s this thing in me and, I can’t find it. I can’t stop it. What if it changes me? I mean, not just the way I look, all of a sudden I could be something that’s not me anymore—”

“Yay! Woo hoo!” Willow jumps to her feet and applauds the latest member of the team to be introduced. She sits back down and turns back to Buffy. “Sorry. They spelled ‘Percy’ and I have to show support. He’s needy. But I heard what you were saying, really! And I would be frightened too, but I’m sure you’re going to be okay.”

That evening on patrol Buffy stops to check her face for scales, or horns or anything in a mirror she takes from her purse. She doesn’t see anything. She also doesn’t see Angel who has just walked up behind her. She turns around and is startled by him.

“Sorry,” says Angel.

“That’s okay,” says Buffy. “I didn’t see you, so I should have known you were there. What are you doing here?”

It really isn’t an accident, Angel was following her. He doesn’t want Buffy running into Faith alone some night. Buffy is still jealous of the way Angel behaved with Faith. She is also still worrying about what aspect of the demon she may have been infected with.

Angel tries to reassure Buffy. A lot of demon’s exaggerate their power. It may just be some demon hype.

“I won’t ley anything happen to you if I can help it,” says Angel. “No matter what, I’ll always be with you. Hey, I’ll love you…even if you’re covered with slime.”

“I liked everything until that part,” says Buffy.

Willow, Oz and Xander sit together in the lounge discussing last night’s basketball game. It was a great game. Sunnydale won with the final three point shot as the buzzer rang. Buffy arrives and the basketball conversation ceases.

“Hm. Quietness,” says Buffy. “We either lost, or we won and you don’t want me to feel bad.”

They start telling her that it was really a pretty boring game.

“Are you guys crazy?” asks Cordelia. “It was an incredible game! I’ve never cheered so hard in my life! I still have knee-marks on my back!” They all stare at her. “From the pyramid!”

Cordy goes off to talk with some of her friends. Xander watches her. “I wonder if she and Wesley have kissed?”

“It really bugs you huh?” asks Buffy.

“What?” asks Xander.

“Cordelia and Wesley smooching.”

“Man, you read my mind,” says Xander.

Buffy pauses, realizing that she had read his mind.

Act II

Buffy walks through the halls of the school, picking up the thoughts of the people around her. She bumps into Mr. Beach.

Mr. Beach smiles and tells Buffy to watch where she’s going. “Students, if we could just get rid of all the students.”

Buffy continues down the hall. Students are worrying about their grades, their looks. One boy is looking forward to the day when he’s a software jillionare, and all the kids who think he’s a loser now are flipping burgers.

Buffy passes by a boy in the hall. “Buffy’s so beautiful, I mean, look at that body.” Buffy stops and preens. The boy goes on thinking “God! I’d love to shove her against that locker right now and just…Ooh!” Buffy is disturbed by that train of thought and rushes away.

Buffy goes to Giles in the library and tells him what has happened. At first Giles is doubtful that she is really reading minds. He thinks she is just projecting her own ideas about what people are thinking.

“When I walked in a few minutes ago, you thought: ‘Look at her shoes. If a fashion magazine told her to, she’d wear cats strapped to her feet.’” says Buffy.

Giles becomes a believer. “I, um… The demons are telepathic, I should have known. That’s why they don’t need mouths. Of course…the demons are telepathic—”

“I know,” says Buffy. “You just told me. That’s why they don’t need mouths. And you should have known.” Buffy is excited by this new power. “It was happening out in the hallway. Principal Snyder has Walk like an Egyptian stuck in his head. And the boys of this school are seriously disturbed.”

Giles thinks that this could be a wonderful new ability, it will have all sorts of uses. Buffy can use it to anticipate her opponents actions.

Buffy has another use in mind.

“Jealousy!” says Buffy.

Ms. Murray, Buffy’s English teacher, is a little surprised by Buffy’s participation in class today. “Jealousy clearly is the tool that Iago uses to undo Othello. But what’s his motivation, what reason does Iago give for destroying his superior officer?” she asks. “Cassio has my place, betwixt my sheets he’s done my office.”

“Well, he was passed over for promotion,” says Buffy. “Cassio was picked instead… and people were saying that Othello slept with his wife.”

Willow is surprised that Buffy did her reading for the class, and that she understood it. So’s Xander, when he isn’t thinking about how hot Ms. Murray looks. Nancy’s upset that Buffy answered the teacher’s question before she did.

“Any other reason?” asks the teacher.

Nancy’s hand flies up into the air. “Race!”

“Uh…good, Nancy… Can’t overlook that,” says Ms. Murray.

“Look at them scrambling for the teacher’s praise like pigeons for old bread crusts.” thinks a guy by the windows.

Buffy looks at him, and asks Willow who he is. Willow tells her that it’s Freddy Iverson. “He writes those editorials for the school paper. He’s sardonic.”

“Bread crusts…that’s deep.” thinks Freddy. “I should write that down.” He makes a note in his book.

Ms. Murray asks the class if there is anything else at work between Iago and Othello.

“Well, he sort of admits himself that his motives are…spurious?” says Buffy. She doesn’t really know what that word means. “He does things because he enjoys them. It’s like, he’s not…he’s not really a person, he’s a…the dark half of Othello himself.”

There are audible as well as mental gasps of amazement from the class. The teacher is very impressed. She made that very point in her dissertation. Buffy realises that she may have gone a little too far.

The teacher doesn’t notice. “Yes, and doesn’t that also explain Othello’s readiness to believe Iago?” she asks. “Within seconds he turns on Desdemona. He believes she’s been unfaithful. And we’re all like that. We all have our little internal Iagos that tell us our husbands or our girlfriends or whatever, don’t really love us. We can never really see what’s in someone’s heart.”

Buffy gets another idea for a use of her power.

Buffy pushes aside the heavy curtain covering Angel’s door, and nearly gets him with a ray of sunshine. “Oh! Sorry! Sorry about the…daytime. I just ducked out of school…and that’s when they have it.”

They move over to Angel’s sofa. “Ummm… you look good,” says Buffy. “I mean, I know I saw you last night, but…sometimes things can change real quick. I mean, really quickly. Listen to me, I’m talking like Faith.”

Buffy looks at Angel intently, waiting to catch a thought, but she gets nothing.

“You know, not that she was so bad to have around—you know, before the evil,” says Buffy. “I think she was hurting a lot…and some people—protective type people—might be drawn to that I guess… Well, the thing about Faith—”

“You can’t get into my mind,” says Angel.

Buffy is startled to learn that Angel knows what she’s been trying to do. “Why not?”

“It’s like the mirror,” says Angel. “The thoughts are there, but they create no reflection in you. You got your aspect of the demon.” He tells Buffy that she doesn’t have to play games with him if she wants to know what he’s thinking. All she has to do is ask.

“Oh, but that would have made sense,” says Buffy.

“What do you want to know about?” asks Angel. “Faith? How I felt kissing her? Pretending to have no soul? Watching you suffer?”

“Well, since you bring it up…”

“I hated hurting you. More than I can stand.”

“Look, the thing about Faith…I’d understand,” says Buffy. “You know, she has that whole ‘bad girl’ thing working for her…”

Angel tells Buffy that kissing Faith meant nothing to him. He’s done the bad girl thing before. He’s lived a long time, and he’s past that. He’s been with dozens of girls like Faith, maybe more.

Buffy isn’t totally pleased with the direction this is going. “Oh, this honesty stuff is fun.”

“And there’s no comparison,” says Angel. “In 243 years I’ve loved exactly one person.”

“Ohh… It is me, right?”

“Next time, just ask.”

Buffy gets up to go, and Angel tells her to be careful with her new gift. “A lot of things that seem strong, and good, and powerful… they can be painful.”

“Like say… immortality?”

“Exactly,” says Angel. “I’m dying to get rid of that.”

“Funny.”

“I’m a funny guy.”

Buffy sits at the library table with her friends. Xander is disturbed to learn that Buffy can read his every thought and impulse.

“I don’t see what this has to do with me.” thinks Cordy. “I don’t see what this has to do with me.”

“Well, I think its great, right?” says Willow. “I mean, you enjoy your other Slayer powers.”

“Yeah, it’ll be fun,” says Buffy. “And did you see Nancy Doyle’s face in English class today?”

“Yeah, she’s super competitive,” says Willow. At the same time she’s thinking: “She’s hardly even human anymore…how can I be her friend now? She doesn’t need me!”

“No, I do need you!” says Buffy.

Cordelia wants to know what Buffy’s talking about. This is starting to be a little creepy. Giles thinks he needs to do some more research. Find out if this has happened to anyone before. He asks Wesley to help him.

“I am my thoughts.” thinks Oz. “If they exist in her, Buffy contains everything that is me, and she becomes me. I cease to exist. Hmm.”

“What am I going to do?” thinks Xander. “I think about sex all the time! Sex… Help! Four times five is thirty…five times six is thirty-two… Naked girls. Naked women…Naked Buffy…Oh, stop me!”

Buffy looks at him. “God Xander, is that all you think about?”

“Actually…?” Xander jumps up from his chair. “Bye!” He runs out of the library.

Wesley says that Xander has just illustrated something important. “Chances are, you’re all going to be thinking whatever you least want Buffy to hear. It’s a question, of course, of mental discipline.” He looks toward Cordelia. “Look at Cordelia…no, don’t look at Cordelia! She’s a student. Oh, I am bad. I’m a bad, bad man.” He notices Buffy looking at him with a smile and raised eyebrows. “Excuse me.” He retreats into Giles’ office.

Willow asks Buffy what it’s like, and she tells her it’s a little weird. “But, look, please don’t for a second think I don’t need you, cause I do. I want to share this with you…its like…all these doors are opening to all these little worlds, and I can just walk inside.”

Buffy becomes distracted by Oz’s thoughts. “No one else exists either… Buffy is all of us… We think, therefore she is.”

Willow notices Buffy’s looking at Oz. “She knows so much. She knows what Oz is thinking! I never know that. Before long, she’ll know him better than I do.”

“No, don’t think that,” says Buffy.

“I can’t help it Buffy… I’m sorry, I just can’t” Willow picks up her books, and leaves the library. Oz follows her.

“Guess I won’t be writing that book, Winning Friends Through Telepathy,” says Buffy.

“Whatever.” thinks Cordy. “I wonder when I can go. Whatever. Can I go?”

Wesley pokes his head out of Giles’ office and asks Buffy if she can still hear him thinking in there. He can go out into the hall.

Buffy gets up from the table. “You know what? You stay, I’m getting a headache, I’ll go.”

Buffy walks through the school hallway. She’s picking up everyone’s thoughts even more clearly now. It’s like everyone is talking out loud about what they think of themselves, and the people around them. Mr. Beach still wants to get rid of all the students.

Nancy watches Buffy pass. “I hate her.”

Giles discovers a recent case like Buffy’s in a man in Equador.

“Can we contact him?” asks Wesley.

“I’d say not,” says Giles. “He can’t communicate with anyone.”

“Dead?”

“No. He’s in complete isolation,” says Giles. “The power…you can’t shut it off.”

Buffy goes to the cafeteria for lunch. The thoughts of the people around her seem to keep getting louder as she waits in line. She stops and looks around in confusion.

Jonathan is in line behind Buffy. “Are you through with the mashed potatoes?” he asks. Buffy doesn’t respond. “She doesn’t even know I’m here.”

Buffy picks up her tray and walks out among the tables. The voices in her head keep getting louder and more confusing.

Suddenly one thought cuts through all the others. “This time tomorrow, I’ll kill you all!”

Act III

Buffy drops her tray, and desperately searches the cafeteria, looking for the source of that thought, but she can’t find the person it came from. The cacophony of thoughts overcomes her, and she collapses.

Buffy wakes up outside the school with her friends leaning over her. She hears their concern for her in most of their thoughts, except for Cordelia’s. She is thinking about being cold.

Buffy struggles to sit up. Giles tells her to take it easy, but she tells him she’s fine. “Listen, there’s a killer in the cafeteria.”

“See, I been saying for years that the lunch lady’s going to do us all in with that ‘mulligan stew’” says Xander. Cordelia whacks him on the arm. “I mean, what the hell is a mulligan?”

Buffy tries to stand up. “Someone was thinking it…they thought… ‘This time tomorrow I’ll kill you all.’ I have to find them.”

Giles asks Buffy if she recognised the voice, but she didn’t. It was so angry she couldn’t even tell if it was male or female.

“Are you sure they meant it?” asks Oz.

“Yeah,” says Xander, “I mean, who hasn’t just idly thought about taking out the whole place with a semi-automatic?” Everyone gives him a look. “I said ‘idly.’”

Buffy tries to go back into the school to look for the killer, but the din from people’s minds there is too much for her. It drives her back. Her friends tell her that they will look for the killer while Giles takes her home.

Giles helps Buffy toward his car. “I can’t shut it out Giles. It’s like this invasion of my head. It’s like there’s these strangers walking around in there.” Buffy looks back at her friends. “Look at this… I can’t even be around people any more. Not that they’re really clamouring to be near me anyway…even you.”

Giles tells Buffy that he knows it’s hard for her, but he and Wesley are looking for a way to help.

“But I’ll be okay, right? I mean even if you can’t get rid of it?”

“You’ll be fine, I promise.” Giles tries to put a little distance between him and Buffy before she can pick up what he’s really thinking.

Buffy stops when Giles’ thought hits her. “If it doesn’t go away, she’ll go insane.”

Willow and the others compile a list of everyone who was in the cafeteria. Willow runs it against the FBI’s mass murderer profiles to sort out the likely candidates for further investigation.

“I’m still having trouble with that fact that one of us is just going to gun everybody down for no reason,” says Xander.

“Yeah, because that never happens in American high schools,” says Cordy.

“It’s bordering on trendy at this point,” says Oz.

“Besides which,” says Willow, “Sunnydale High? Center of evil and all that? Let’s get to work. We have till lunch time tomorrow. We hope.”

Joyce puts Buffy to bed, and makes herself busy by collecting extra blankets and pillows and things for her daughter. Buffy doesn’t want any more pillows or blankets. She just wants her mother to sit with her.

Joyce doesn’t seem to want to spend much time close to Buffy. “Um… I-I’ve… I’ve got laundry.” She starts to leave Buffy’s room.

“Why are you…?” Buffy suddenly catches the thought that her mother has been trying to suppress. She bolts upright in her bed. “You had sex with Giles?”

Joyce dithers in the door. “Um, ah…”

“You had sex with Giles?”

“It was the candy!” says Joyce “We were teenagers!”

“On the hood of a police car?”

“I’ll be downstairs,” says Joyce. “You feel better.” She runs.

“Twice?”

Willow has narrowed their list of suspects down to a dozen people. She has made up personality profile questionnaires, and she distributes them to the others with a list of people for them to talk to. They are to pretend to be doing interviews for the yearbook. “Talk to everyone on your list. And use the sample questions.” Nobody moves. “Today people!”

Everyone starts out of the library.

“Oh, write neatly.” Willow tells them as they go. “And label your worksheets!”

Willow interviews Jonathan in the library. “Fantasies are fun, aren’t they Jonathan?”

“I guess…” says Jonathan.

“We all have fantasies where we’re powerful and respected, where people pay attention to us.”

“Maybe.” Jonathan is wondering what this is about.

“But sometimes the fantasy isn’t enough, is it Jonathan? Sometimes we have to make it so people don’t ignore us. Make them pay attention. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”

Jonathan just seems confused. “You want me to pay attention?”

Oz talks to Hogan on the basketball court. Oz asks him how much of a strain his public image as a sports hero puts on him. Hogan hesitates for a moment and then tells him it is a moderate strain. He seems mostly concerned with getting the ‘right’ answers to the test Oz is giving him.

Cordelia visits Mr. Beach. She doesn’t bother with the questionnaire. She just asks him straight out if he’s planning on killing a bunch of people tomorrow.

Xander’s list seems to have included a bunch of the prettier girls in school. He has added several questions to his questionnaire, including their ‘turn offs’ and what their idea of a perfect romantic evening is.

Oz goes looking for Freddy Iverson, the editor of the school paper. He doesn’t see him in the paper’s office, so he leaves.

Freddy is hiding under his desk.

Buffy can’t sleep. The thoughts of all her neighbours keep hammering at her. She tries closing her window, and burying her head under her pillow.

It doesn’t help. She can’t shut them out.

Giles and Wesley prepare a potion in the library which they hope will cure Buffy. They are missing the key ingredient though: the heart of the surviving demon. Without a Slayer they wonder who can get it for them.

Angel throws the surviving demon onto a picnic table in the park. He’s in full vampire face as he attacks the demon again.

The demon punches Angel away, and runs off. Angel runs after it.

Buffy tosses fitfully in her bed as the sun rises. Her mother is sitting in the chair beside her bed.

Willow interviews Nancy Doyle, the last person on her list. Nancy tells Willow that she hasn’t felt like anyone was spying on her, or otherwise acting suspiciously…until now.

Xander talks to Larry in the lounge. Larry’s secret must be putting a lot of pressure on him.

“What secret?” asks Larry. “Being gay? Man, I’m out! I’m so out, I’ve got my grandma fixing me up with guys!”

Larry thinks that Xander may be having a little difficulty dealing with it though, and suggests that maybe he should come out too. Larry suggests that they get Freddy to put a coming out announcement in the school paper for Xander.

Oz stops by the paper’s office again, but the door’s locked. Freddy spots Oz from around the corner, and hides.

Buffy’s friends gather in the library and compare notes. They have talked to everyone on their lists except Freddy, and no one they’ve talked to seems to be their killer.

They don’t have Freddy’s answers to the questionnaire, but they do have his editorial in the latest issue of the school paper: “Big game draws mindless, brain-dead mob.”

Buffy writhes in bed while Giles and Joyce watch, unable to help her.

“I can’t stand this,” says Joyce. “I keep wondering if I’m hurting her with my thoughts.”

“You’re not,” says Giles. “Not anymore. She can’t pick one thought out of the…out of the din.”

They hear a frantic banging coming from downstairs.

Giles and Joyce rush downstairs. Wesley is letting Angel in the front door. He has covered himself with a blanket, but he’s still smoking from the exposure to sunlight. He’s carrying a flask which contains a luminescent blue liquid.

Angel takes the flask to Buffy in her room, and makes her drink some of it. She starts to writhe in even more pain. Angel tries to hold her still, and calls for Giles to help him.

Buffy’s friends head toward the school paper’s office.

Jonathan starts to assemble a rifle in the school’s clock tower.

Act IV

Buffy awakens in her bed and finds Angel beside her, holding her hand. He kisses it gently. The voices in her head have all gone away. She wants to know if they’ve found the killer yet.

Oz, Willow and Cordy enter the office of the school paper though its front door. Freddy makes a break for the side door, but Xander is coming in through it.

“Okay Oz, you got me,” says Freddy. “What are your friends going to do? hold me down?”

“You better believe it buster!” says Willow. “You cant threaten a big murder without getting us pretty darn ticked!”

“Murder? What murder?” asks Freddy. “You’re not here about the review?”

“The review?” asks Oz.

Freddy hands Oz the paper, and Oz reads Freddy’s review of his band’s last performance. “‘Dingoes Ate My Baby played their instruments as if they had plump polish sausages taped to their fingers…’”

“Sorry man,” says Freddy.

Oz thinks about it for a moment. “Nyah, it’s fair.”

Freddy gets a lot of hate mail, and he was afraid Oz was going to deliver some personally. Cordelia starts looking through his “in” tray.

Unfortunately they’re out of suspects, and it’s almost noon. They only have a few minutes left.

Buffy arrives. Everyone is happy to see her.

“You’re okay?” asks Xander. “Can you hear thoughts?” Buffy shakes her head. “Just when I wasn’t thinking about sex!”

Buffy tells them that they have a new plan. They’re going to get Snyder to evacuate the school, and hope their killer isn’t waiting outside.

Cordelia starts reading a letter she’s found out loud. “‘By this time tomorrow you’ll all know what I have done. I’m sure you understand that I had to do it, and that although death is never easy, it’s the only way.’ God! Doesn’t anyone write in to praise the cheerleaders? We are so unsung!”

Willow grabs the letter out of Cordy’s hand. “Jonathan! Ungh! I had him in my grasp…slippery weasel!”

“Split up,” says Buffy. “Find him!”

Jonathan continues to assemble his rifle in the clock tower as everyone searches for him. Cordelia checks out the student lounge, Willow checks the library.

Xander enters the cafeteria and looks around. He doesn’t see any sign of Jonathan, but he sees something of interest in the kitchen. “Ooo, Jello!”

Buffy heads out to the courtyard and looks around. She spots Jonathan up in the clock tower with his rifle. The stairs are too crowded so she jumps up on the wall beside them and runs up along it to the second floor balcony. From there she jumps up and grabs the roof eaves. She swings her feet forward and kicks off the soffits. She swings herself around up onto the rooftop.

Nancy has watched all this from the courtyard. She is not impressed. “I could have done that!” she snorts.

Buffy runs across the roof and breaks through the shutters over one of the tower room windows just as Jonathan loads a bullet into his rifle.

Jonathan points the gun at Buffy. “Get away from me!”

“Okay Jonathan, you want to point that somewhere else?” asks Buffy.

Jonathan moves the barrel a bit so that it isn’t pointing directly at Buffy. “Don’t you try and stop me!”

“No, no. No stopping. Just here for the view.” Buffy gestures toward the window. “Hey! Look, City Hall.”

“Go away!”

Buffy looks back at Jonathan. “Never going to happen.”

“You think I won’t use this?”

“I don’t know Jonathan,” Buffy steps toward him. “I just—”

“Stop doing that!” Jonathan brings the rifle back to bear on Buffy.

“Doing what?” asks Buffy.

“Stop saying my name like were friends! We’re not friends. You all think I’m an idiot! A short…idiot!”

“I don’t,” says Buffy. “I don’t think about you much at all. Nobody here really does. Bugs you doesn’t it? You have all this pain and all these feelings, and nobody’s really paying attention.”

“You think I just want attention?”

“No,” says Buffy. “I think you’re up in the clock tower with a high-powered rifle because you want to blend in. Believe it or not Jonathan, I understand about the pain.”

“Oh. Right,” says Jonathan sarcastically. “’Cause the burden of being beautiful and athletic. That’s a crippler.”

This annoys Buffy. “You know what. I was wrong. You are an idiot. My life happens to on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And its not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they’re too busy with their own. The beautiful ones, the popular ones, the guys that pick on you. Everyone. If you could hear what they were feeling.” Buffy moves to the window and looks down at the people milling around in the courtyard. “The loneliness, the confusion. It looks quiet down there. It’s not. It’s deafening.”

Jonathan comes up behind Buffy and looks down too. The both pause for a while.

“You know,” Buffy looks at the rifle. “I could have taken that by now.”

“I know,” says Jonathan.

“I’d rather do it this way.” Buffy holds out her hand. Jonathan gives her the rifle. Buffy works the bolt, and ejects the bullet.

“I just wanted it to stop,” says Jonathan.

“Yeah, well mass murder? Not really doctor recommended for that kind of pain. Besides, prison? You know its a lot like high school. Only, instead of noogies—”

“What are you talking about?” asks Jonathan.

“Actions having consequences,” says Buffy. “You know, stuff like that.”

“What?” asks Jonathan. “I wouldn’t ever hurt anybody. I came up here to kill myself.”

Xander grabs a bowl of Jello off a tray, and is just about to eat it, when he looks over and sees the lunch lady pouring a large box of rat poison into the pot of stew she’s preparing. He stops and stares at her for a few seconds. She stares back.

Xander runs out of the kitchen. The lunch lady grabs a meat cleaver and chases after him.

Xander starts knocking people’s trays out of their hands, and turning over tables. “Rat poison! Rat poison! There’s poison in the food!”

The lunch lady comes out of the kitchen after him, brandishing the cleaver. Xander slips on some of the food he spilled on the floor and she closes in on him.

Buffy grabs the lunch lady’s wrist. “Okay, let’s calm down.”

“Vermin. You’re all vermin!” says the lunch lady. “You come in here and you eat, and you eat! Filth!”

“I don’t see this being settled with logic.” Buffy knocks the cleaver from the lunch lady’s hand. The lunch lady tries to fight back, but Buffy dodges her easily, punches her a couple of times and knocks her to the floor with a couple of spinning kicks.

Epilogue

Buffy arrives at school with Willow. Willow asks how things are going with Angel.

“Well, we talked,” says Buffy, “And then he ripped out the heart of a demon and fed it to me…and then we talked some more.”

“See?” says Willow. “That’s how it should work!”

They meet with Giles as they walk toward the school. Willow leaves Buffy and Giles together. She’s going to take her murderer profiles to the yearbook office. “They’re really a good read.”

Giles and Buffy start across the lawn toward the school. He asks her how she’s feeling. Buffy is feeling fine, with no one’s thoughts in her head but her own. He asks how Jonathan’s doing.

“Pretty crappy,” says Buffy. “His parents are freaking, he got suspended, and toting a piece to school: not exactly winning him a place with the in crowd. But I think he’s dealing.”

Giles thinks it’s good of Buffy to check up on him.

Buffy says that it’s nice to be able to help someone in a non-slaying capacity. “Except he’s starting to get that look, you know, like he’s going to ask me to the Prom?”

“Well, it’d probably be good for his self-esteem,” says Giles. “If you—”

“Oh come on. What am I, Saint Buffy? He’s like three feet tall!”

Giles is pleased to see Buffy’s back to normal and asks if she is up for a little training.

“Sure,” says Buffy. “We can work out after school. You know, if you’re not too busy having sex with my mother.”

Giles walks into a tree.

Death Toll