Several hours later, Dawnie was still glowing but the tears had long since dried and the fear and panic had given way to boredom and disappointment. Willow made a phone call, at Giles' request, to the Watcher's Council. Now the Summer's residence looked like a crime scene. Local authorities had been assuaged. The top minds in various fields had been called in or contacted. All three Scoobies were now being observed and monitored. No one dared actually touch the threesome, after Giles relayed Xander's mishap. It was believed anyone actually touching the threesome would get trapped in the glowing.. whatever it was.

Dawnie stood as still as she could, but various parts of her body kept itching. Not painfully or concernedly. Just in that way skin tends to itch when one has been told to stand still. She was repeatedly being asked to stop fidgeting as various probes and prods were hovering about her on long sticks by Watcher personel dressed in geeky protective gear that may have helped in regards to radioactive dust but not whatever this mystic glow was. Dawnie was still insisting this energy had come out of her somehow. That originally she saw a tendril of the mystic force leave her fingers and reach out to grasp Buffy as she appeared to be sucked into a vortex now absent from the room. The Watchers were paying this little mind, but in the confusion Giles and Willow decided to bow out of the room briefly to research this possibility themselves, at the Westbury library.

Xander had had a first aid kit passed on to him so he could check his own scrapes and also attend to Buffy, who was still unconscious and floating, but otherwise didn't seem to be in immediate jeopardy. The first aid kit was now glowing as well, even when Xander walked away from it. Long tendrils of energy flowed between the threesome and the first aid kit, and most anything else Dawnie or Xander accidently touched, so by now a couple pieces of furniture and some of the walls were glowing a bit as well. Mostly the glows were in the shape of handprints from Xander. This was why the two of them were just standing still now as Watchers and their assistants attempted to determine what was going on. They had been instructed to touch nothing. Afternoon grew into evening, and both were now complaining of hunger pains.

So the discussion of the moment was whether or not it would even be safe for them to partake of nourishment that was tainted by this glow.

Xander could feel his stomach grumbling. Not touching things was hard work, "Look, nothing went wrong with the first aid kit. We put that tube gook on our wounds and we're okay."

"That remains to be seen," said one of the few Watcher assistants in the room not treating the Scoobies like specimens in a science lab.

"Right now I'd even eat a doublemeat palace burger," Dawnie grumbled.

"Now that's desperation!" Xander pointed at Dawnie and gave the assistant an unhappy look.

"I told you we'd see what we could do."

"Yeah ya said that an hour ago."

"We are doing everything we can do Mister Harris, just relax."

"Relax? I'm a human nightlight!"

The assistant walked away. The others from the Council gave the three of them a wide berth as they mumbled and whispered among themselves about their findings. Both Dawnie and Xander looked over, and then failed to be interested in anything they might over hear. They looked at each other.

"I'm so sorry Xander.."

"Hey it's not your fault."

"But it is! It came outta me!"

Xander looked over at Buffy, "it seems to be coming outta her. Or like, through her maybe, to us."

"That's not how it started," Dawnie looked down at her hands, and wished she could sit down.

Xander reached out towards Dawnie as if to hug her. Then they both stopped. They looked over at the crowd of tweed and other dated fashion statements. Xander spoke, "Hey! Can we touch one another? Would that be cool? I touched Buffy earlier but.. Hello? Guys!?"

Xander looked back over at Dawnie and shrugged. Dawnie looked up at him. She looked like she wanted a hug as much as he wanted to give one.

"It's okay.."

Xander reached out and hugged her anyway, "It's not okay, but we'll BE okay, okay?"

"Okay.."

A couple of the Watchers glanced over outside their huddle and almost protested against the hugging, but Xander glanced up at them and with the unbandaged eye told them to stay silent. They got the message.

...

The Westbury library didn't contain very many useful books in this area. To be honest they couldn't ascertain what this area actually was, but both Willow and Giles followed a couple hunches anyway, and having exhausted them, regrouped in the study area. One thing the library did offer was privacy, as very few people seemed to partake of the facility.

Willow kinda felt at home here. Like back in the days of high school when the gang would meet in the library that all the other students avoided like a plague.

"Any luck?"

"No. You?"

Giles shook his head and fell into a nearby wooden backed chair, defeatedly. He looked about the room as if perhaps looking for something that he already knew wasn't there. The answers weren't in this building, but he felt less certain they were back at Buffy's flat.

Willow sat across from him. "Shouldn't we go back?"

"I don't see why. Other than to lend moral support we just seemed in the way, and to be honest the Watchers' Council is just as in the dark about all this as we are."

"I agree. We're way out of our league." Willow sighed, "Y'know sometimes I miss the days when it seemed vampires were the worst. Nowadays they seem the least of our problems."

"Well I don't. I'm glad those days are behind us. I'd uh, I would just like one day though, wh-where I could have tea and scones in peace." He thought a moment, then went to pound the hardwood table before him with his fist, but at the last second stopped the momentum and lightly rested his fist in frustration. They were in a library, after all. "It's just.. We've absolutely nothing to go on."

"Dawnie said the energy came out of her--"

"Not bloody likely."

"Well wait. Think about it. She is really just a green glowing orb of energy. Those monks did a magic mumbo jumbo on her three or four years ago to make her appear to the world as a normal girl, but--"

"Oh yes I'd forgotten about that.." Giles' face grew grim and contemplative.

"She may have instigated it, but she also said the golem thing was imploding before she reached out to Buffy. That Buffy was already falling into the space where the golem had been, right?"

"So perhaps somehow Dawnie's magical essence is operating like a cork in a bottle?"

"We know that she was originally meant to be a key unlocking an alternate reality - that hell place Glory came from."

"Perhaps that implosion she described was actually the golem going back where it came from, and trying to take Buffy with it."

"Yeah!"

"You realize we're grasping at straws here?"

Willow smiled, "so what else is new?"

"But if you're right. If that's the case. The rift in space might still be there. Dawnie's only temporarily holding open a portal to who knows where."

"Or she could be the only thing keeping it shut, with Buffy stuck in this world and that one."

Giles stood up and headed for the door, "We've got to get back there."

"Why?" She followed him to the front door and down the steps.

"If I know the Council well enough and I think I do.." his voice trailed off.

"Oh by the gods! They wouldn't!"

...

"Finally! Dinner!"

Xander and Dawnie waited impatiently for the assistants to place a bag of food and some drinks from Flaherty's on a rug on the floor, and allowed them to move away a safe distance before they pounded upon it, each grabbing a fish sandwich and chips.

"Mmmm... Syrupy." Dawn sipped the drink as Xander smiled at her and sipped from his. They clinked glasses together and made a toast to Flaherty, whoever he was.

Xander then looked in the drink and back at Dawnie. "Waitaminute."

"What?"

"Since when is tea syrupy?"

A few seconds later they were both unconscious, and had fallen to sleep on the rug. The assistants were now discussing a safe way to drag the rug across the floor, bringing Xander and Dawnie into the other room, so they could close the door. Just to see what would happen of course.

TO BE CONTINUED