Wes' apartment, Gunn and Angel are sitting on the couch playing a video game. Fred is sitting on the arm of the couch next to Gunn watching. Wes is pouring Cordy a cup of tea in the kitchen.

Wes: "It's inspiring to see you like this. The initiative you've shown in training with Angel. Taking responsibility. I'm proud of you."

Cordy: "Well, never hurts to be prepared."

Wes: "Hm. I agree. We should all be battle ready. Every one of us."

Gunn from the other room: "Dead! So dead! So very, very dead. Just how dead are you, huh?"

Angel: "I'm tired of being the dead one."

Wes looking at the three of them through the open kitchen door.

Wes : "I was thinking, perhaps I'd enter into a similar training arrangement with our Fred."

Cordy: "Oh, hey, if you think she can help you fight, why not? (Wes gives her a look) I'm kidding. - Wesley, if you wanna get to know Fred better, maybe the next time you have her over for an intimate dinner for two, you won't ask the rest of us to come along."

Wes : "Ah, I don't... I mean... (Cordy gives him a look) Was I *that* obvious?"

Gunn, eyes on the TV screen: "Yes! Ha, ha!"

Cordy whispers: "I don't think anybody else noticed."

Wes looking at Fred: "She is a rather extraordinary young woman. - Still, the last thing any of us should be doing is - coupling - with each other, I mean. Office romances, even under the most *normal* circumstances..."
 

Cordy: "We don't live in normal circumstances. - I mean, what are the odds of any of us actually finding someone out there who can deal with the kind of stuff we have to deal with? I don't know. Maybe we *are* meant..."

Wes : "For each other?"

Cordy: "Actually I was gonna say 'to be alone.' But what the heck - Wesley, if you like her, *tell* her. Just go right up to her and (Cordy starts to frown and sway a little) hug her into little pieces."

Cordy gets hit by a vision and collapses on the floor.

She takes one of the photos and looks at Billy.

Cordy: "Okay. Kinda cute. So, who is he?"

No one answers her.

Wes and Fred are sitting on the round settee in the lobby.

Fred stands there for a moment then turns as Wes comes in the main doors.

Wes: " Fred! You're here. Good, I was hoping you would assist me. (Lifts up a bag with the paper in it) I managed to lift a sample of Billy's blood. Maybe we can identify his demon lineage and somehow figure out how his power works. Would you hand me the (looks up to see that Fred is holding out some glass slides) glass slides. (Gives Fred a silly smile) Thank you."
 

Wes is looking at Billy's blood through a microscope.

Wes: "This was taken from the print I made of Billy's blood. (Makes room for Fred to look) Tell me what you think."

Fred looks: "Looks to me as if some of the red blood cells are kind of supercharged."

Wes: "Those would probably be from Billy's demon lineage."

Fred: "So, however Billy is putting the mojo on people, the power seems to be in his blood. Which means it can also be in his sweat or his saliva or even his touch."

Wes: "Speaking of saliva, where is Cordelia?"

Fred: "What do you mean 'speaking of saliva?' How does saliva make you..."

Wes: "It's a simple question. Where is Cordelia?"

Fred: "I - I think she went out."

Wes: "Out?"

Fred nods.

Wes: "Did she happen to mention where?"

Fred: "She just - ah - she said an errand."

Wes: "So when you say you 'think' she went out, what you mean is you 'know' she went out because you spoke to her."

Fred: "Well, I suppose I..."

Wes: "Suppose?"

Fred: "I - I did. Yes, I did."

Wes: "That's better. (Leans in to look through the microscope again) Lie to me again - and we're going to have a problem."

Fred walks around Wes' desk and towards the door while Wes is still looking through the microscope.

Wes: "Where're you going?"

Fred: "I was just gonna call Cordelia, find out where she is for you."

Wes: "That's not necessary."

Fred: "It's not?"

Wes: "No. - Sit down Fred."

Fred: "It'll just..."

Wes: "Sit! - Down."

Fred hesitantly walks back into the office and sits in the chair in front of Wes' desk.

Wes: "There's something we need to discuss."

Fred: "I'm sorry I didn't tell you Cordelia left. Really I am."

Wes holds up a hand: "Pffft. We're past that. I've put it behind me. (Gets up to walks around his desk) However, we are going to have to make some changes around here."

Fred: "Change can be good, I guess."

Wes: "Like, no more of these provocative little outfits you wear."

Wes pulls the strap of Fred's dress off her shoulder. Fred pulls it back up.

Fred: "Provocative?"

Wes sits down on the edge of the desk in front of Fred.

Wes: "Maybe Mummy and Daddy never explain to you that men - *grown* men - are wired a certain way. - (Wes leans in closer to a wide-eyed Fred) You can't be coming in here day after day waving it in my face like this."

Fred: "What?"

Wes almost whispering: "You're practically daring me to take it. Is that what you want?"

Fred jumps up out of her chair: "Stop it!"

Wes: "Oh, are we standing now? Is that what we're doing?"

Fred backing away: "This conversation is making me very uncomfortable."

Wes: "Oh, you're uncomfortable. That's rich! How do you think I feel? What do you think it's like for me with you smelling the way you do?"

Fred: "Wesley, please."

Wes stalking closer to her: "You think you can taunt a man and get away with it? You brush up close, bat your eyes - and then when our backs are turned, you *laugh* at us."

Fred: "No, I would never..."

Wes: "Humiliate us. You think you can do anything you please because you're connected to life, because you bleed, is that it?"

Fred: "No!"

Wes slaps her open handed across the face. Fred falls to the floor.

Wes: "I'll show you blood."

Fred runs to the side doors, but before she can get them open, Wes grabs her by the hair from behind.

Wes: "What do you tell a woman who has two black eyes? (Pulls her back then pushes her down onto the steps leading up beside the doors) Nothing you haven't already told her twice."

Fred picks herself up and runs upstairs.

Wes: "No sense of humor."

Wes pulls his tie off and walks down into the lobby stretching his shoulders and massaging his neck. He turns his head and his eyes come to rest on the battle ax in the corner of the weapons cabinet.

Wes: "Fred?"

As he walks up the next set of stairs, we see that he is carrying the battle ax in his right hand.

Wes: "Fred? - I know what you're doing. - What you're up to. - Luring me. (Enters a hallway) Forcing me to find you. - Oh, it's such a dog and pony show. - You beguile me with your girlish ways (pushes a door open with his ax) I pursue you (Pushes open the next door) but you never give over, do you? - No, you just keep laughing and running. (Pushes open another door) Well, guess what, my love - I'm not some downy-faced schoolboy. (Pushes open another door. This one has the safety chain in place) I'm a man."

Wes kicks the door open and walks into the room. There is a can of paint sitting on some boards as if someone had been working on renovating it. The room looks dark and deserted.

Wes: "You can't come out into the open, can you? - No, you hide - you deceive. (He walks into the room, the light glinting of the ax held before him) It's nothing new. It goes all the way back to Eve. - You and the serpent plotting behind our backs. - 'Here, honey, eat this. It's just an apple.' - That's the problem with your sex - you're all weak, and you're all dirty and you won't be satisfied until you've brought each and everyone of us out of the garden and down into the muck with you!"

Wes smashes a stool aside with his ax, breaking it and sending the tools on it scattering across the floor. We hear a smothered gasp, and Wes' head snaps around to look towards the bed in the corner. He walks over to it. We see Fred looking at his shoes as he stops beside it. Then takes a few steps to the side.

Fred gasps as Wes picks up the mattress and throws it against the wall, so he can look down at her through the frame.

Wes: "Why do you make me do this?"

Fred whimpers as Wes pulls her out from under the bed by her neck and pushes her up against the wall.  They stare at each other for a moment.   Wes leans in to kiss her - only to draw back in pain as Fred buries a nail in his shoulder and knees him in the crotch.
 

Wes hunches over in pain and Fred runs out of the room.

Fred is quietly hurrying down a dark hallway in the Hyperion.

Wes: "I'm still here!"

Fred stops and slowly turns to look behind her. Wes is standing at the other end of the hall.

Wes: "I don't run away like a girl. I see things through."

Fred takes off running and Wes walks after her. Wes sees Fred running up the stairs and turns to hurry down the hall away from the stairs Fred took.

Fred runs down another hallway. She stumbles and falls to her hands and knees. Rolls over to look behind her. Backs off on all fours, then gets up, turning to run - straight into Gunn, who puts a hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming.

Gunn and Fred are hurrying down a dimly lit hallway in the Hyperion. Gunn tries a door. It's locked. The next one is open and he hurries inside.

Gunn: "Here."

Fred follows him in and Gunn locks the door, then pushes a dresser in front of it.

Gunn: "Now, what the hell happened to Wesley?"

Gunn picks up a nightstand and sets it on top of the dresser.

Fred: "Somehow he got infected. All I can figure it happened while he was working with Billy's blood from the handprint."

Gunn: "You mean, that - that fingerprinty-looking handprint downstairs is Billy's blood? (Fred nods) So you're saying that Wes turned into a psycho killer because of that bloody handprint that - I picked up and looked at?"

Fred: "When you put it that way, it kinda worries me."

Gunn pulls the nightstand back off the dresser and starts to pull it away from the door.

Gunn: "I better get out of here. Lock the door behind me."

Something crashes against the door from outside, drawing a little scream from Fred. Gunn quickly pushes the dresser back up against the door.

Wes is outside swinging his ax against the door.

Gunn: "Well, uh - maybe we go to plan 'B.'"

Wes swings his ax at the door again.

Fred takes a step back and lets out a scream when one of her feet breaks through the floorboards. Gunn catches a hold of her before she can fall and pulls her away from that part of the floor.

Wes hacks at the door.

Fred, clinging to Gunn: "Oh, god."

Wes hacks at the door.

Fred: "You know when you said we go to plan B? What's plan B?"

Gunn: "Ah - plan B - (lets go of Fred and looks around the room) Ah - plan B..."

Fred: "Charles...?"

Gunn spins around to face her: "Plan B is the plan where if you don't stop whining I bash in your... (Stops, his eyes going wide) Oh, god."

Gunn picks up a chair and smashes it against the wall, breaking it to pieces.

Fred: "Charles, you're scaring me!"

She jumps back with a little scream as Gunn comes at her with a chair leg in his hand.

Gunn: "Take this and knock me out. Knock me out!"

Fred: "You want me to hit you?"

Gunn hands her the leg: "Yes!"

Fred: "I can't!"

Gunn: "You might want to."

Wes hacks at the door.

Gunn: "HIT ME!"

Fred: "Charles, please..."

Gunn, mocking: "Charles, please. - Fine. Then give it back to me so I can smash your *stupid* head with it. Gimme the damn chair leg!"

Fred hauls back and brains him. Gunn drops to his knees but isn't out.

Gunn: "You're gonna pay for that."

Fred hits him again and he lands facedown on the floor and doesn't move any more.

Fred throws the chair leg aside, then jumps as Wes ax cracks through the door behind her.

Wes is pushing against the door, forcing the dresser back inch by inch.

Wes enters the room. Sees Gunn lying unconscious on the floor.

Wes: "Would you like to hear my theory, Fred? - It's about how stupid you are. - I believe that after five years of living in a cave - you'll instinctively retreat to small dark places, rather than run outside where you'd be safe."

The floor creaks beneath his feet and Wes looks down at the tarp covering the area in front of him. He walks around the tarp to a closet.

Wes: "Let's finish this."

He pulls the closet door open - only to see in the mirror on the inside of the door that Fred is standing behind him.

Fred: "I'm sorry, Wesley."

Wes looks at her: "You're sorry?"

Fred: "You were right about me liking dark places to hide in."

Wes raises his ax and slowly walks towards her.

Fred: "But you forgot I also like to build things."

Fred pulls on a rope. A fire extinguisher swings free and hits Wes, knocking him back onto the tarp. He falls through the place in the floor that broke under Fred's weight earlier.

Fred walks up to the hole and looks down at Wes, lying sprawled unconscious in the room below.

Wes is sitting in his dark apartment staring at the sun shining in through one of the windows. He doesn't move when someone knocks at the door.

Fred's voice : "Wesley? - Wesley, it's me, Fred."

Wes turns his head a little. After a beat he gets up and walks slowly over to open the door.

Fred sees the bruise on the side of Wes face.

Fred : "Oh - does that hurt?"

She lifts a hand towards his face, but Wes leans away, not looking at her.

Fred sighs and puts her hand down.

Fred : "Sorry. - I left a bunch of messages."

Wes : "Yes. I meant to call you back. I'm sorry. (Looks at her and whispers) I'm *so* sorry."

Fred : "Wesley, you gotta come back to work."

Wes : "How can I?"

Fred : "What do you mean? How can you not? You're the boss. We need you. - You took a few days off. That's good. We all did . - But now it's time to come back."

Wes quietly : "Fred, I tried to kill you."

Fred smiles and shakes her head: "That wasn't you."

Wes : "How can you know that? Something inside me was forced to the surface. Something primal, something..."

Fred : "Do you wanna kill me?"

Wes : "Oh, God, no."

Fred : "It wasn't something in you, Wesley. It was something that was done to you."

Wes : "I don't know what kind of man I am anymore."

Fred : "Well, I do. - You're a good man. - Will I see you back at the office?"

Wes : "Yeah."

Fred : "Good."

Fred slowly walks out and Wes closes the door behind her and begins to cry.

Fred stops in the hallway and turns back as she hears sounds of Wesley weeping. She hesitates for a moment, takes a step back towards his door, then turns around and leaves.