"How are you feeling, Buffy?" Giles asked curiously.

He was sitting beside her as he drained the blood they would need to conduct this experiment. Instead of having Angel feed on her, which wasn't the best idea considering how hard it was to get him off her the last time, he had simply taken some blood using a syringe and other medical supplies. That would also make the puncture easier to hide.

"Oh, I feel great," she muttered sarcastically. "Are we done yet?"

Her fear of hospitals was slowly coming back to her. Needles were even worse than vampires. She would have much preferred being fed on.

"There."

Removing the needle from her underarm, he handed her a bandage before continuing. First, he poured the red liquid into a large container. From there, he opened a vial from his coat pocket and poured a clear liquid into the container, swirling the object around to mix the two.

"What's that?" Buffy hadn't heard about this step of the experiment before.

"Holy Water," Giles informed her. "This should kill the demon if your blood doesn't."

"Yeah, well don't tell Angel about that. I don't think he'd want to swallow a glass full of fire water, okay?"

"Yes, indeed," he agreed.

Angel and Willow sat on the couch by themselves quietly. A few approaches had been made to start a conversation, but none had succeeded.

"All right, we're ready to begin," Giles announced, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Can you get up?" he asked, turning to his student.

"Yeah, I think so." Gripping onto the chair's arms for support, Buffy stood up, wobbled for a moment, then sat back down. "Maybe not."

"Why don't we come to you?" Willow suggested, and she and Angel moved closer to the slayer.

"Good idea," Buffy said tiredly, raising her right index finger to emphasize the words. She needed to wait a few minutes before this dizzy feeling would start to wear off.

Lifting the container off the table, Giles handed it Angel carefully. The semi-vampire looked at him curiously. Was he supposed to drink it?

Giles nodded as if reading his thoughts. "Drink it."

Angel could feel the knots winding tighter inside his stomach. He didn't want to drink it. The red fluid made his stomach churn. But, if this was to be his cure...

Raising the container to his lips, he began to drink...