"Any - I'm sorry, I shouldn't be quizzing you - are you okay?  Do you want me to - come with you, when he shows you the corroboration he said he had, or - just stay away from him, or - ?"

"It's cool! And thanks for the offer. Up to you? He miiiiiight get annoyed I told you, he was all 'this is a spooky serious masquerade'..."

She rubs her forehead again.  "I feel like... I don't even know if I believe it.  I think, if you're gonna go - charging into this - I want to see his stuff too.  And I think I'd like it if someone else were there, like, another teacher - or Tag, maybe.  Just because - it's so out there, and maybe it's true, but if it's not then I don't know what he's... up to."

"So you, me - I don't know any of the teachers, but Tag seems pretty steady?"

"Yeah, let's go with Tag.  Another teacher might..."

She sighs.  "I don't even know what another teacher would do.  - I'm sorry, I feel like I'm panicking more than you, and you're the person this - happened to."

"It's okay. I also learned about this earlier than you? And it's not the first time I've heard about - weird stuff happening."

"It isn't?"

"Nothing on like the scale of Sunnydale but I've heard people claim to have been attacked by someone trying to bite them, or someone whose arm turned a weird color, or someone got dead via suspicious circumstances - and a lot of that I chalked up to 'person who saw the thing was on drugs' but it lines up, you know?"

"Yeah, I think I see what you mean.  That makes me feel a bit better.  I still think I want Tag there though."

"Yeah, I agree."

"Did he say when he'd have the autopsy reports he said he'd get?"

"Uh, I think next time we meet, which I'm not sure we specified?"

She nods.  "We'll wait for him to get in touch.  - What were the explanations for why no one's told?"

"People who try to go public seem to get assassinated by vampires a lot."

"Okay I think I'm panicking again."

"Uh do you want a hug - also I'll protect you Kaylee, I swear that - "

"Um, I'm also kind of worried about the amount of responsibility you're taking on, and saying things like that makes me worry about you more, but - a hug would be nice - "

Hug!

"I don't think it's too much for me," she says, "But - thanks for worrying?"

Hughughug.  " - I mean, it does feel nice to have someone - swear to protect me like that, but - it also feels kind of unfair to you.  Like I shouldn't be letting you put yourself in that much danger on my behalf.  I don't know."

"I get that. We can pester Giles about stuff you can do? I know vampires can't enter homes uninvited - he didn't super clarify what counts as a 'house,' and they catch on fire easy and holy water - or actually what counts as holy water, I bet there's a pagan sect willing to bless random weather events and maybe make one of us a priest - and crosses hurt them, though he didn't say why just crosses. He also thought they couldn't be negotiated with but I'm really not sure of that?"

She nods.  "I think I want to tell my parents.  But only after I've figured out if it's real or not - I don't know what they'd do, I don't know if they'd bother - checking."

"Waiting for - evidence - is good, yeah. I'm... Not sure where to start on my own, honestly, other than like hanging around dark alleys looking for vampires?"

"Taking it as read that he's not lying - Mr. Giles can probably help you with that?"

"I mean, I need to check he's telling the truth, you know? And he's - wanting me to just kill vampires, no effort to talk made."

"Right, of course - I guess I've been dividing it into Mr. Giles is correct and truthful about everything he said and it's all a big - I don't know, cult or scam or something.  And there's probably more possibilities in the middle.  But.  Yeah, if you're going to pursue it... I don't know where you'd start either."