7.11

Episode 7.11

"A Friend in Need"

written by: Doyle

February 24th, 2002

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

Willow performed the transference spell on a dying Anya thus transferring Xander and Anya�s child into herself. Angel came to Sunnydale to worn Buffy about a vision Cordelia had involving a symbol and a ritual. Xander seemed not really there and spilled a few pints of cop/cloaked guy blood. Buffy and Grant had a fight over not being able to trust each other. Xander voiceovers saying Buffy brought the box from the docks to the Magic Box, suggesting Anya�s death is Buffy�s fault. He says, �It�s safer out there than it is here, with you.� Buffy has a pained expression on her face. The cloaked guys conjured a pair of nasty-looking white eyes.

* * *

Xander and Anya are in bed asleep. Xander gets up and walks to the kitchen to get a glass of water. When he returns to the bedroom, Xander drops the glass of water and he has a horrified expression on his face. The camera pulls back and we see what he sees: Anya lying bloody in the sheets on their bed. Xander wakes up, gasping and looks beside him but Anya is not there.

Opening Credits.

Buffy knocks on the door the next morning and asks if Xander is home. When he doesn�t answer she turns the doorknob and finds that it�s unlocked. Buffy walks in and sees smashed things littering the floor of the apartment. The sound of running water can be heard as Xander is in the shower. Buffy sits and waits for him. When Xander walks out he spots Buffy and asks what she�s doing at his place. Buffy tells him she just wanted to see how he was doing. He says he�s fine but Buffy isn�t buying it. Xander doesn�t deny making the mess on the floor. He soon tells her to leave.

Willow and Tara are at the Mystic Mind tarot shop. Willow maintains that she could have done more for Xander and that she should have been able to keep Anya alive. Tara tells Willow she did as much as could be expected plus she kept Xander and Anya�s child alive. With tears in her eyes Willow says it still wasn�t enough.

At the S.P.D. Grant has been put on desk duty. He gets a surprise visit from Xander who punches him.

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Xander begins to pummel Grant until other cops subdue him. Cut to Xander sitting in a cell. Buffy arrives at the precinct and demands to know what�s going on. Grant explains but Buffy says the bruises and blood on his face are nothing compared to what Xander�s going through. Buffy asks Makale to let Xander go. At first he doesn�t but then Buffy persuades him and he unlocks the cell door.

Cut to Buffy at her house, asking Xander what he thought he was accomplishing with what he just did. Xander says deadpan, �Making myself feel better.� He says he doesn�t trust the people Buffy works for/with. Buffy admits she�s not so sure how trustworthy Grant is anymore either. Buffy convinces Xander to stay at her place for a while and rings Willow, asking her if she�d come over and watch Xander. Buffy leaves when Willow arrives.

Buffy pays Grant a visit later in the day at his apartment. Buffy apologises for what Xander did but Makale says he understands what Xander�s going through. He asks Buffy to sit and explains that he knows he hasn�t been entirely truthful with her. Buffy admits the same and they agree to stop hiding secrets from each other. Grant gets up and asks if Buffy wants some coffee. While he�s not watching her, Buffy notices something under the cushion of the couch he was sitting on. She quickly grabs it and finds it�s a book with sketchings of talismans on the cover. She recognises a symbol on it as the one Angel had told her was in Cordy�s vision. She places the notebook inside her jacket before Makale returns with coffee.

At the the Summers home Willow and Xander sit quietly. The silence is broken when Dawn comes down the stairs announcing to Buffy that she�s going to her boyfriend Josh�s place. When Dawn sees Xander and Willow she quickly lowers her voice and asks Willow where Buffy is. Willow tells her she�s out and Dawn leaves.

Commercials.

Buffy leaves Grant�s apartment. We don�t know what they�ve told each other, how truthful they�ve actually been. Buffy takes the notebook out and looks at the symbol on it.

Outside the Summers house two cloaked guys are looking through the windows at Xander and Willow inside. Willow is trying to think of what to say to Xander when suddenly the cloaked guys crash inside. One grabs Willow and she screams. The other punches Xander but he isn�t beaten that easily. He leaps at the one holding Willow, so that she can get free. The two cloaked dudes suddenly change into demons and one runs after Willow as she runs upstairs. Xander is getting pretty badly beaten and yells out to Willow. The demon/cloaked guy upstairs is flung out a window by Willow using magic and she runs downstairs to help Xander. The demon/cloaked guy beating up Xxander growls, �There is no Slayer here.� and jumps back out one of the windows they had both entered through. They run down the street. Willow goes to help Xander and he asks her if she�s alright as he feels her stomach. She says she�s fine.

Buffy�s driving home from Grant�s when she sees the two cloaked demons running down the street. She hits one of them with the car and the other runs into a nearby graveyard. Buffy hops out of her car and runs after the one getting away. She runs into Spike who is only passing by. Buffy yells at Spike saying he made her lose the demon. Spike tells Buffy to hold it and says he can sense the demon�s still around. Of course at that moment the demon leaps down on top of him from a tree.

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Buffy breaks off a branch and stabs the demon in the back with it. She helps Spike up and then both of them are nearly blinded by flashlights. It�s Dawn and Josh. Buffy asks what they�re doing hanging out in a graveyard and Josh says he thinks graveyards are cool. Buffy calls him morbid and Dawn gives her a look. Josh recognises Spike as Dawn�s �British, socially challenged, violent older brother�. Spike goes along with it.

Buffy, Willow and Xander discuss what the demon cloaked guys were after. Xander tells Buffy they were after her and she feels bas as Willow and Xander could have been killed. Xander says he forgives Buffy and he puts his hand on Willow�s stomach.

End Credits.

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