All her efforts proved fruitless. She spent hours poring over information. None was of any use. Day was about to break. Angel appeared to have returned to normal.
"Giles, when day comes sunlight will come through the window. I need a thick cover or a blanket of some sort.
- I'll see what I can do." He started looking around, but didn't find what he was looking for. "Willow, do you think it would be alright if I left you here?
- I'll be fine. I've got everything I need here." Whe glanced at the ball and chain which were still lying on the desk. Giles reluctantly left the room.
Willow looked embarassed at being alone in the room with Angel. She said nothing and pretended to work, but Angel felt a question sticking out like a sore tooth.
"Well ?" he said.
"Nothing." Willow wiggled on her seat.
"Yes there is. You're wondering if I'm still the same as I was yesterday. At least for the moment."
"Do you think there is a spell to help you ?"
"I hope so", he said. And he added to himself: "Otherwise..."
Giles' arrival cut the sentence short. He was carrying a thick cover. But after a few paces in the room he stopped to think.
"How are we going to get it to you?
- Feed it through the bars."
He started doing so, but without much success. Angel stepped forward and pulled it himself. Giles trembled slightly, but nothing happened. Angel lay on the floor, and covered up. A short while later the sun came through the small window. Willow came up and said: "I ought to go now. I've got a chemistry lesson in four hours' time and I'd like to try and get some sleep.
- Of course you would. Thanks for everything. I'll keep you posted."
Willow went to the door. She stopped by the cage. "'Bye, Angel. We'll get you out of there somehow."
\He didn't answer. He was moaning in his sleep. Giles had always thought vampires, having no soul, didn't dream. Maybe Angel was an exception. But as he looked closer, he saw that might not be the real be the real reason: the blanket wasn't thick enough: the sunlight was reaching his skin underneath, and Giles saw wisps of smoke rising. Nevertheless he decided not to chance it and to stay out. He returned to the computer and felt glad as he turned it off. Once again he went back to the books.
The next three hours were especially hard for him. He could hardly stay awake. And yet he had to until he found a cure. Things livened up a little after four cups of coffee. Students were starting to come in for lessons. He recieved only one visit before lesson-time, Ralph Johnson from third grade. He seldom, if ever, went into the library, and today was not a good time. "Hi !" he said. "I'm looking for stuff on twentieth century european history. Can you help me ?
- Sorry, Ralph. The library is closed for maintenance.
- But I saw no notice or anything on the door...
- You're right. Sorry."
He quickly scribbled something on a piece of paper and said:
"There's sticky tape on the desk. Can you hang that up on your way out?'
Ralph left. There were no visits after that.
Angel was crouching in the cage and said nothing, but Giles felt this was only because he was finding it increasingly difficult to resist the attacks of an unknown enemy. He only once found the strength to ask Giles how he was getting on, but sadly Giles hadn't much to report. He had exhausted all his sources and was at wits' end. The cage lay locked, which to Giles was another proof that he had failed again.
Whenever he was in "one of these moods", he thought about Jenny. He knew that just as he had been unable to save him, she would have been able to cope in the most difficault situation. She was like that. And so he asked himself: "What would Jenny do?" whenever he was faced with an intractable problem. Because the one thing she had taught him was that no problem was ever intractable.
He had been in "one of these moods" for about a quarter of an hour when he found it. From every problem there often arises a solution. They didn't know how true that was. Angel himself, being the problem, had been the key to solving it.
"What's the matter, Rupie? Fallen asleep, have you? That's right, I'm is back in town. You know..." he said, slipping his fingers through the bars, "this is a shocking violation of my civil rights. You're going to get into very serious trouble if you follow that path. Who knows where it'll lead you?
- That's hardly your problem. You won't be there to see."
He splashed him with more holy water. Angelus writhed in agony. That had shut him up... for the time being. Giles went to the door. Four hours had passed since Willow had left the library, and the school was hiving with students. There was an exceptionally large flock of them about fifteen meters away, and as he looked closerat the center of the gathering he found just the person he needed.
"Cordelia ! Can I see you for a moment?"
As usual, she seemed very annoyed at having to focus her attention on anything.She came to Giles who was standing in the doorway, followed by half a dozen of her girl-friends, which Giles sometimes called "Cordelia's henhouse". She faced him and said "Yeees ?"
"In private." he said. He judged by the expression on some of the girls' faces that this would be the topic of several future conversations, but didn't care. Cordelia entered the room.