Summary: As before

Willow came around an hour later. She hadn’t been told why she was needed, just that she’s need a microscope, syringe and the standard blood test kit. It wasn’t hart to get. The university’s biology lab had everything she needed.

She was shocked to see Buffy. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying.

“Oh my God, Buffy, what happened?” she said going over to her friend. Buffy hugged her but it was a stiff, uncomfortable hug. Willow soon pulled away looking even more concerned.

“I was attacked Will.”

“Attacked?” Buffy’s look confirmed her fears. “Oh God. Buffy. I… I’m so sorry.”

Buffy felt the tears return, she tried her best to hold them back. “Can we just keep this business for now. I cant… You know.”

“Sure, what ever you need. I got the stuff Angel asked for. What do you need.”

Angel spoke up now. “Buffy was weaker last night. I want to know why, I thought the best was to start was with blood tests.”

“OK, OK, not a problem.” Willow rummaged in her bags and pulled out the syringe kit. She handed the rest of the bag to Angel. “Set this up in the dining room.” She turned to Buffy. “I’ve never drawn blood before so I hope I don’t hurt you. I’ve read how to do it but the theory is often different from the actual…”

Buffy stopped her by raising her hand. “I trust you Will. Lets just get this over with.”

“OK, well, um sit down.” Willow went through the kit, brought out a rubber tourniquet.

Buffy was already rolling the sleeve of her shirt. Willow tied the rubber above her elbow and attached the needle to the syringe.

“OK,” she said, needle poised. “Um, you might want to look away.”

Buffy turned her head away and Willow tried to draw the blood. She missed the vein the first time but seceded the second.

“OK, all done.” She said as she capped the needle and taped a cotton ball over the needle marks.

They went through to the dining room. Angel had set up and plugged in all the equipment. Willow first logged onto her favourite medical website on her laptop then she prepared some slides.

“Looks normal under the microscope.” She said.

“So what does that mean?” asked Buffy.

“It means the appearance of the blood cells hasn’t been altered.”

“So I’m fine then, normal?”

“Well maybe, there are a lot of other tests to be done before we can say that.”

Willow spent the rest of the afternoon preparing different blood slides, adding a drop of different chemicals to each slide to see what reaction it would have with the blood and any foreign substances that could be in the blood.

“Whoa!” said Willow at one point.

“What?” asked Angel. He and Buffy had basically just been sitting watching her.

“There’s something here. I’m not sure what though. Gimme a minute.” She turned to her laptop and began typing.

“Umm.” She said sitting back.

“What?” asked Buffy.

“Well I found something and it resembles a muscle relaxant used primarily on people who have muscle spasms. But not exactly. There’s no exact match in here.”

“But if it resembles it isn’t it safe to assume it’s a muscle relaxant and that’s why Buffy was weaker?” asked Angel.

“Probably. We need to know what it is though.”

“Can you print out it’s properties for me?”

“Sure.” Willow printed the information she had from the medical database and handed it to Angel.

“I need to make a phone call.”

Angel went into the kitchen and called LA.

“Angel!” said Cordie when she answered. “What’s this about? It’s not like you don’t have work here you know.”

“Cordie, please, this is important. I need to talk to Wes.”

“What’s so important that you’d abandon you mission for?”

“Cordie! Just put Wes on he line.”

Cordie handed the phone over grumbling in the background.

“Angel? What can I do?”

Angel read the chemical properties of the substance out to Wes and told him everything they’d found out.

“I need to know what this is. It was used on Buffy.”

Wes was silent.

“Wes?”

“I… I’m not really sure how to say this…”

“Just say it. This isn’t a game.”

“No, I realise that. It sounds like one of the chemicals used on slayers for their challenge. You remember, when they reach 18?”

“So your saying the council did this to her?”

“NO! Well not yet. Let me speak to Willow, I’ll tell her the other chemicals in the mix and how to look for them. Once we know it’s the same formula, we can begin to assign blame.”

Angel took a deep breath. “OK, I’ll pass you over.”

As willow and Wes spoke Angel explained what had been said to Buffy.

“You think they did this?” she asked him.

“I don’t know. It’s possible someone else got the formula and used it on you.”

“But if it is them then….”

Giles. She couldn’t speak it out loud. He would never do this to her again. Would he?

Angel took Buffy’s hands. “Just keep a cool head if you can. When we know more we can take the next step and find out who.”

Buffy nodded, wiping away tears.