"And look at those fangs! Are those... artificial or WHAT!" the red-haired girl managed to get out before dissolving into giggles again.

Buffy looked at her mother, who was rather confused, and made a great eff ort to stop laughing. She and Willow bit their lips and sat there snorting and spluttering until they could get themselves under control. "What's so funny?" asked a bewildered Mrs. Summers.

It was precisely at that moment that they heard the door break down.

The Slayer reached under the sofa to find the ever-present emergency bag of tools. Slinging it over her neck, she ordered, "Stay here," and took off down the stairs.

"I don't think you should do -" she was cut off at the sound of a body hitting the wall. "Buffy?!?"

Willow assured her that her daughter would be okay, then ran next door to Buffy's room to get her other bag of tools. This did not look like much fun. She glanced out the window. Vampires! But how could they break down the door and actually come inside Buffy's house? She hurried back to the TV room where Joyce was shaking.

"Burglars?" she questioned.

Uh, oh. Toughie, she thought. I'll be smooth, I'll be suave, I'll give her a definite evasive answer that is not a lie but not the truth either. "Uh, yeah." Or not.

Suddenly the stomp of the heroine's boots on the stairs caught their attention. A second later she burst in the door and bellowed, "Come on! Now! We gotta go!" The opened the window, punched out the screen, and pushed Willow through. "Mom! Jump!" she ordered, as vamps clawed at the door. Drawing a deep breath, the older woman did. Buffy followed, landing as gracefully as a cat. After all, she did have a lot of practice.

"Buffy -" Willow started, curious.

"No time. Follow me!" the young girl demanded, clutching her companions by their arms and shoving them forward. Still holding on tightly to them, she ran. As they passed the graveyard, she saw a young vampire starting to feed on a 6-year-old boy. A swift, well-aimed stake took care of him, and she took the boy under her arm and yelled for the other two to run, and then sprinted away. She took her mother and rather roughly directed her to one of their neighbors. Too dazed and surprised to think, the mother knocked on the door and went inside. She hefted up the nearly-unconscious boy, and told her friend to follow her, and fast. She did. She followed her to the Olde Arcade. She followed her through the kicked-down door inside. She followed her to the Wild West Shooting range. And when she pulled a rope, disclosing what looked like a large elevator, she followed her into that, too.

Gently placing the boy on the ground, Buffy sprang up into the dark upper regions of their primitive elevator. The Slayerette heard the noise of splintering wood. Soon after the Slayer reemerged holding another rope, which she fervently pulled. The other girl helped.

"Buffy, what's the deal?" Willow questioned between pulls and pants.

"Vampires, in your house, uninvited? Us running away? The little boy, and your mom at Mrs. Brown's house? Where are we going?"

"The vampires have found a powder," the blonde explained. "the crushed bones of bats, it lets them enter any house whenever they want to, without an invitation. They," she faltered, and Willow thought she saw a tear. "They have Giles. They wanted an exchange. Imagine that, an exchange! As though Giles were a craft at a Swap Meet!" She angrily brushed the betraying tear away. "Giles, for the boy. We need to hide him, the boy, to get a lever. Until we figure out what to do." The elevator made a noise that sounded as though an elephant were fighting an unarmed tank. "We're here," Buffy announced, then pulled up one of the floor-boards to reveal a red lever. She pulled it, and the door opened.

"Whoa, it looks like someone's attic up here!" Willow marveled.

"Actually, it should be, 'It looks like someone's basement down here,'" Buffy told her. "'Cause 1, it is, and 2, we're 1,000 feet below the streets of Sunnydale." She picked up the boy and stepped out. Willow followed, and took the boy, so Buffy could send the elevator back up a ways.

"I need to make some minor readjustments to the elevator track," came the announcement, as the Slayer leapt up into the shaft. After nailing boards across the elevator shaft above their level, she grabbed the long, dangling end of the rope and started to pull. It went up, until it reached the fourth floor. She made one last improvement, a lifesaver, then left it and went back to her friend.

"Come on, we gotta hide," she told her, as they set off through the cluttered aisles. Finally they found this semi-circular room-like place. It had two windows, was about four-five feet tall, and was carpeted and well-lit like the rest of the basement. Willow opened the door, and they went in. Waiting.

The boy fell asleep. The girls were about to follow suit when they finally heard it. The creak of an elevator. And, thank God, it was going up. Just like I'd planned, Buffy thought. Now any minute we should hear.

"Arrgh! Goddamn Slayer!" the booming voice resonated through the building, followed by two strange sounds. The first one was the cries of people in extreme pain. The second was much deadlier. It was the sound of vampire flesh burning in the sunlight.

"Well, whaddaya know. The boss did come after all," Buffy cheerfully told Willow. "That takes care of it - there's no one left to guard Giles, and I think I know where they hid him."

"The hospital?" Willow guessed.

"Yup. Let's take this little boy there right now. You know, I wonder why they wanted him so bad," the other girl started. The boy then woke up, took one look at her, and morphed into fang mode. She staked him.

"Ouch," the red-haired one grimaced.

"Yeah, major. I guess that's why=85 Maybe he was a leader or something. A chosen one. He was pretty cute, though," Buffy thought. "Well, I'll go get the elevator. Be right back."

Buffy and Willow went to the hospital and found Giles there, much against his will. Buffy cajoled the doctor into letting him out, even though they hadn't examined him yet, and they went home. Buffy didn't even have to explain to her mother -- Joyce truly believed that burglars were involved and were wearing masks so they wouldn't show their identity. What a laugh! But everything turned out okay, and the powder the vamps used is gone. It was made from the bones of an extinct bat, so there is no danger of that problem anymore. However, the Summers did have to pay for the damage done to Mr. Archinold's basement and the front door of his arcade. But while doing odd jobs to pay off her debt, Buffy met Mr. Archinold's British nephew who was visiting him for a while. And after all, all's well that ends with a cute guy, as Buffy puts it.