A gesture

"Oh, great!" exclaimed Kennedy as she looked at the stake that Buffy was pointing at her naked chest. "First you think I'm a hallucination. Now you think I'm a vampire. Which is it?"

"Doesn't matter," said Buffy. "Either way you're not really real. It's just a question of whether this stake just goes right through you or it turns you to dust."

"None of that is going to happen, Buffy," said Kennedy, "because I am real. I am human. Stake me and you'll regret it when my body just doesn't disappear into thin air. In fact, you'll be lucky if I don't bleed all over you."

"Well, I guess that's just a chance I'll have to take," said Buffy. "I used to think your kind was real when I first saw people like you in LA. But you weren't. The people at the mental hospital convinced me of that."

"Those people were lying, Buffy," said Kennedy. "Either that or they didn't know any better."

"And if you were a hallucination, that's exactly the type of thing I'd expect you to say," said Buffy.

"I'm not a hallucination, Buffy," said Kennedy. "And I'm no more a vampire than you are. In fact, I'm a --"

"Shut up, Kennedy," said Amy.

"You shut up, Amy," said Kennedy. "I'm trying to fix this."

"Fix what?" asked Buffy. "Fix me? Why? I'm not broken. If you want to fix someone, why don't you go to that mental hospital I was in? I knew a lot of girls there who were in worse shape than me. So go fix them."

"I don't get it," said Kennedy. "Drusilla told you you weren't seeing a hallucination and you believed her. Why the change in attitude?"

"If a purple pixie told you that purple pixies were real, would you believe it?" asked Buffy. "Drusilla is a hallucination. I know that now. I did not know that before but then I just realized that after talking to Amy. In fact, Amy made me realize that she too is a hallucination. You all are."

"No, we're not," said Kennedy. "And I can prove it to you."

"No, you can't," said Buffy.

"Let me touch you," said Kennedy.

"No," said Buffy.

"Why not?" asked Kennedy. "If I'm not real, you won't feel anything. Or are you worried that if I do touch you and you do feel something, then you'll have to believe that everything you've seen today is real?"

"Go away!" exclaimed Buffy.

"No!" exclaimed Kennedy. "Let me touch you. I'll even keep my hands behind my back when I do so."

"Go away!" exclaimed Buffy.

And this time Buffy closed her eyes.

Oh, what the hell, thought Kennedy.

With all the speed of a Slayer, Kennedy leaned forward and kissed Buffy on the lips, expecting any minute to feel the point of the stake piercing her naked chest. Then she felt something push her away from Buffy. But it wasn't the stake. It was Buffy's hands -- the stake having been dropped the minute Kennedy kissed her.

As Kennedy fell over, she saw Buffy look down on her and then stand up. Then Buffy picked up the stake she had dropped and started to raise it.

Then she paused.

"I felt that kiss," she said with an air of wonderment in her voice. "I felt that kiss. And of course, I felt your chest when I shoved you."

Then she dropped the stake again.