Giles pulled up to Willow's house where she waited for him on the porch; a shadow disentangled from the other shadows. Silently they drove to the church. Joe was waiting for them in his study. Giles performed the introductions and they sat down.
Joe began the discussion. "Well. It seems we have a vampire with a soul, who's in hell. We want him out of hell, and we want him human. So… how do we do it?"
"I could give you some of Miss Calendar's research," Willow offered.
"Janna, the gypsy woman?" Joe asked in surprise. "You have her files?"
"All of them. On the computer. Um, she and Giles were… are… sort of my mentors." She blushed. "I mean, she was. He still is. And I - we miss her."
"Yes, I heard about her death. I'm sorry." Joe said. "I also knew about her 'assignment' regarding Angelus. I'm sorry it came to this."
Giles was still half-wincing from the pain of Jenny's memory and half-pleased by being called Willow's mentor. He shook his head. "Do you think you might know of a way to accomplish what we seek?"
Joe's answering smile was brilliant and warm. "Look who my boss is!" he joked. "I've been trained to believe anything is possible. Even miracles! Yes, I know of a way that might work." He leaned forward, the small talk obviously over. "First of all, this vampire has a soul. Second thing, he has a body. Problem: hell is eternal torment in the shape of fire, and vampires burn. Therefore, if he's in hell, it's just his soul that's in torment because his body is long gone. Hey, don't panic!" he said, looking at Willow's frightened face. "That just means he needs a new body. And that, my friends, is what I think we might need from Janna's files."
"You mean how to get a vampire body?" She asked.
"No, no. His vampire body is gone. Now he needs a human body, my dear, to house his human soul."
Willow's lip curled a little in disgust. "This isn't going to involve any… cutting and pasting, is it? I mean, 'cause we've seen that before, and just - ew."
Joe shook his head and wondered just what sort of girl this was. She seemed so innocent, and yet must have seen death - a lot of it, if she was familiar with the Angel story. He shelved that thought for a later date.
"No slice and dice, I promise you." He smiled gently. "Now: Willow, I would like you to peruse Janna - uh, Jenny's files and see what you can find about providing a human body for the new soul. Giles, you work on the 'getting him out of hell' problem. Read up on hell, purgatory, that sort of thing. We have to make sure there aren't any more loopholes."
"I thought the religious angle was more your territory," said Giles. "What do you plan to do?"
"Fast and pray," stated the priest matter-of-factly. "More, I mean."
Two days later, Willow tore into the library as if ten vampires were at her heels. "Giles! I've found it!" she cried, triumphantly waving a computer disk over her head. "It's the file on how to get a body!"
Xander, who had witnessed Willow's mad dash from her classroom down to the library and been curious, entered quietly behind her just in time to hear what she said. "Ugh! Tell me you're not having a Chris flashback!"
Willow whirled in shock. "Oh, um, Xander!"
"Ah, I knew you'd remember. So what's with the body? Haven't we already been there?"
"Oh… nothing. Right?" she looked to Giles for support. "It's just about a book I was reading for… um, for anatomy class."
"Riiight," Xander said suspiciously. So let's see what's on that disk!"
Giles and Willow exchanged glances, and he nodded almost imperceptibly. They knew they couldn't have kept it secret forever. Sighing, she popped in the disk and opened up that window on the computer. The file's contents scrolled up the screen, and Giles almost whistled in astonishment.
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