"Do I wanna know how you're here?"
      "Well, I got a car."
      "Just please don't tell me you're stalking me now."
      "I wouldn't call it—"
      Willow pops her head in. "I might've told her," she says, sheepish.
      Buffy turns to Willow and mutters something that looks like traitor. 
      "I got merlot and bread rolls."
      Buffy looks back at Lilith. "I'll take that," she gestures at the bag of rolls, then points at the bottle of wine. "You can keep that."
      Buffy opens the door wider as if she's actually considering letting Lilith into her Friendsgiving because she brought buttery rolls. She looks at the bag again and sees they're the kind her mom buys, Lilith really makes this hard. 
      Then, Giles is at Buffy's side and he's looking at the bottle of wine, somewhat smiling politely at Lilith. "Is it Bordeaux?" he asks.
      Lilith nods, eager that she might be able to stay. "Yeah." She looks at the bottle again, just to check. "Yes, it is."
      Lilith gives Giles the wine, he says thank you. 
      Buffy is already setting the rolls on the kitchen counter.
      No one is telling Lilith to come in, but no one's telling her to leave either, so she lets herself inside and soundlessly shuts the door as if that might keep them from getting ideas of kicking her out.
      Willow is standing close to her as if she's been waiting to tell her something. She fumbles with her hands as she speaks, "I, I know I told you about this thing with my friends, but it's kinda just, I mean, it's not that didn't want you to come..."
      Willow drifts off mid-rant, and Lilith is already making herself comfortable in one of the stools. Great, Willow will have to put up with her. 
      Lilith taps her foot and looks around the house, there's this homely quality she loves about it, she suspects it's for the people that meet here and not the actual house. 
      There's Xander, looking like he might as well be on his deathbed, and there's Anya kneeling beside him. He's contracted a bad case of syphilis, and malaria, and smallpox, all given to him by a ghost warrior. Luckily it's all mystical, so it can also mystically go away. 
      There's also Spike in one corner of the room. He's tied to a chair and looks as bad as he did last night, pallid and gaunt. It seems like he couldn't feed on the cadaver Lilith left him. 
      Lilith is glad that isn't her situation. If this were another one of their competitions, she thinks the tally to be: Lilith-1, Spike-0.
      "Hey! How does she get to walk around freely while I'm tied to a chair?"


☀︎


      The ghosts of Chumash Indians, they are the monsters of the week. 
      Willow, Xander, and Anya left a little while ago to try and stop them—without resorting to violence because for this occasion violence is not the answer. Their plan consisted of going to the next possible victim, unknowing that the next target was Buffy who was stuck keeping watch at Giles' house. They targeted warriors and leaders, Buffy fell into both of those categories. 
      Other than Buffy, Giles, Lilith, and Spike had also stayed behind. 
      Spike because he was unable to move—not that he would ever think of helping Buffy. In fact, he made it clear that he had come to the Slayer in seething hatred.