Title: Curtain's Fall 4/?
Section: I Casting Call (4/11)
Author: Magpie and Wolfling
Email: magpie@moracle.co.uk and wolfling@sympatico.ca
Show: Buffy
Rating: NC-17
Category: angst, hurt/comfort
Warnings: spoilers up to the end of Chosen
Pairings: Giles/Ethan
Series: Of Old Mystics, sequel to Charades
Summary: The roles have all been filled and the players move into place.

Author Notes: This is the last story of the Old Mystics Series, sequel to Charades. We expect this to be rather long -- long enough that we've developed it into subsections: I Casting Call, II Dress Rehearsal, III Opening Night, IV Grand Finale, and V Encore. Many thanks to Mad Poetess and Wesleysgirl for betaing :) Previous stories in the series can be found
http://www.myarseisnotpansy.co.uk/piedm/mystics.html. Thanks to all the people who have sent us feedback.

There came a quiet 'wuff' from Gwydion, followed by a knock on the bedroom door. Giles heard a girl's voice -- Dawn, he thought -- ask if he was in there.

It was possible Ethan had actually fallen asleep, despite it being just midday. Sliding out of bed carefully so as not to disturb him, Giles pulled on some trousers and went to answer the door. The two dogs accompanied him.

Dawn was indeed on the other side. She blinked at Giles and grinned cheekily; clearly, he looked rather rumpled. "Did I interrupt something, Giles?" she asked, trying to crane her head around to see inside.

He moved with her, keeping her view of the room behind him obstructed. "At the moment, nothing more exciting than a nap," he replied dryly.

"Had you been here ten minutes ago, however," Ethan drawled from the bed, "You would have seen something highly educational." Clearly not asleep then. Dawn giggled, which was good to see. She had been far too pale and quiet yesterday, after the attack and long drives the day before.

"You could at least occasionally attempt to maintain propriety," Giles said mildly to his lover, glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Ethan was decent -- or as decent as he ever was -- before moving aside to let Dawn in.

After greeting Gwydion and Skunk, both of whom were wagging their tails happily, Dawn walked a little hesitantly inside. But there was nothing more exciting to see than a fully dressed Ethan turning the bed down. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "You have a princess bed!"

Ethan sniggered loudly.

"I beg your pardon?" Giles asked, looking from Dawn to the monstrosity of a bed and back again.

"Well, you know, with the canopy and the four posters and the curtains and everything!" Dawn walked towards it, obviously wanting a better look, but Ethan drew the curtains shut in a hurry and stood in front of where they met with his arms folded.

"I think not, young lady."

"I always wanted a princess bed when I was a kid," Dawn said, looking at Ethan appraisingly, as if trying to figure out a way past him.

"Was there something you wanted *now*, Dawn?" Giles asked, trying to distract her from the piece of furniture which was decidedly *not* a princess bed.

Dawn turned to face him. "Yes, Pamela's just got here. She's being entertained by Matthew in the, um, drawing room? I think that's what he called it. All Agatha Christie and lead piping in the conservatory. Or, um, the drawing room."

Not entirely sure what Dawn was babbling about, not that that was anything new when dealing with the original Sunnydale group, Giles concentrated on the bits he did understand -- Pamela's arrival. "I should go down and talk to her -- Pamela, not Agatha Christie," he said. "Find out what's been happening in London since we left."

"Meeting time?" Ethan asked from behind him. "Want me to gather the masses for you?"

They did need to have a sit down to make sure everyone was on the same page and to map out their strategy from here. Giles nodded. "If you would. The drawing room is as good a place to have it as anywhere."

"I'll gather them all safely in," Ethan promised. He walked over and kissed Giles on the cheek before summoning Skunk to heel and slipping from the room.

Dawn grinned cheekily at Giles; he raised an eyebrow at her and went about getting himself a bit more unrumpled. "So," she started, as Giles combed his hair. "Is this really the room you had as a kid?" Did she really believe he couldn't see her sidestepping towards the bed?

"Yes," he replied, casually moving so he was still between the bed and her.

"It's nice." Dawn shuffled away again. "You know Ian used to know Doc?"

"He mentioned it to Ethan, yes," Giles said, still moving with her.

"The way they looked at each other..." Dawn's voice seemed to fade, and when Giles glanced at her, he saw she was looking a little pale and wide-eyed again.

There wasn't much he could say to that to make it better. Giles touched her shoulder and smiled reassuringly, giving what comfort he could. "We should go down before Ethan rounds up everyone else. He might get the idea of starting the meeting without us."

She nodded, and they left the room. Giles called Gwydion to his side before closing the door tightly shut.

Contrary to expectations, Giles found only Pamela in the drawing room when he got there; she was organising some papers from a chair near to the fire. Standing up as Giles walked in, Pamela said, "Sir, it's good to see you. Ethan appears to be organising the making of refreshments before we start the meeting. Is that correct?"

"As usual, Pamela, I believe you knew our plans before I did," he said with a faint approving smile. He never took having such an efficient assistant for granted.

"Are you recovered from the attack?"

"As much as we can be at this stage, yes. We were able to fend off any physical damage, but emotional consequences are harder to avoid."

"Quite. It must have been very unsettling. I have the report from the investigating team we sent in yesterday, but I'm afraid they didn't learn much." Pamela began to collect together several folders and papers. "Where will you be sitting, sir?"

"Uhh..." Giles looked around, his eyes lighting on the old leather chair in the corner that had been there seemingly forever. It had been his father's favourite, and Giles had memories of sitting on the man's lap in it when he was very small. He was glad to see Matthew had kept it. "Over there," he said, gesturing and heading towards it.

Pamela walked over with him, and as he sat down, handed him the folders and files. "You'll probably want to have a look through these, sir, before the meeting starts. Not that there's been a great deal of progress on any front, I'm afraid."

There was a noise from the doorway, and Dawn and Gwydion came in; had she been hesitating outside? If so, that kind of timidity wasn't like the girl. Perhaps she had simply been communing with his dog.

"Hello Dawn," Pamela said, her voice softening, perhaps without her realising it.

Gwydion seemed to sense that Dawn wasn't entirely herself as well; the dog usually went directly to Giles' side when he came into a room, but although he looked over at his master, right now Gwydion was staying with Dawn. He sat beside her and looked up with deep puppy eyes, the picture of canine concern.

Dawn answered Pamela perkily enough, "Hi, Miss Smythe-Tompkins. Sorry, I didn't say hello earlier, but you seemed busy." She sat down on the edge of one of the more modern chairs and combed her fingers through Gwydion's coarse fur.

"That's perfectly all right, Dawn. Matthew Giles was just showing me around, as I'm going to be staying here occasionally."

"That reminds me, Pamela," Giles put in, "I told Matthew to talk to you about reimbursement of the added expenses having us here entails."

"Of course. I'll set up a system so that he won't have to ask in future. Is he to attend this meeting?"

Giles nodded. "He's in this as much as any of us now, just by virtue of us being here."

Pamela smiled warmly. "I'm glad. If you don't mind me saying so, Sir, your cousin…" There was a noise in the hallway. All three of them looked to the doorway as in trooped Ethan and his retinue of refreshment makers, which group seemed to include everyone left in the house bar Mrs B.

Trays of tea, coffee and soft drinks were put down, as were plates of sandwiches and cake. Then everyone found a seat. Well, everyone apart from Ian, who seemed to prefer to stand by the window.

"There now," Ethan said, sitting on the arm of Giles' chair with a large plate of nibbles. "Propriety can consider itself sated." He winked down at Giles.

"I've noticed propriety tends to go out the window when you're around," Giles observed wryly, resting a hand on Ethan's thigh.

Matthew was quietly serving people drinks, but he looked up to say, "Should have taken that double-glazing salesman up on his offer then, should I?"

It was clearly meant as a good-humoured joke, but Giles felt Ethan tense and say rather acidly, "Not to worry, squire. I'm sure that should anything escape you'll be able to hunt it down."

Giles tightened his fingers' grip in warning and turned to his assistant. "Pamela, if you'd like to give an overview of what's happening in London...?"

"Of course, sir." Pamela frowned slightly as she sorted her papers. "Well, the initial reports from the Council team investigating 17, Mountbatten have discovered very little beyond the fact that rather a lot of magic had recently been used there." She coughed slightly in what Giles had grown to recognise as ironic humour. "We managed to obtain the broken porcelain statue, and that is currently under laboratory analysis. The owners claim it was a Christmas gift, although neither of them seem to remember from whom. Your neighbour on the other side is proving less helpful."

"Yes, well, I don't think the word 'helpful' is in Mr. Barnet's vocabulary," Giles observed wryly.

"There's no news of any kind concerning Slayers, except..." she paused, as if undecided whether to say something or not.

"Except what?" Xander asked, from his position on an old settee with Kat. He looked at one of the delicate crustless triangles that were what passed for sandwiches in Mrs B's repertoire, and shrugging, ate it whole.

Pamela looked uncomfortable. "Joshua Higgins rather alarmed some people with the suggestion that if this has been going on longer than we suspect -- that is, before Ms Travers' defection -- then it could be possible that some of the Slayers we thought lost to the Bringers as Potentials may actually be in the enemy's hands. Very few really give this theory any credence, sir."

"It is unlikely," Giles agreed, "although we've certainly seen other unlikely things. It's something to keep in mind, but I don't think we need to get overly alarmed about it unless more evidence comes to light. Until Francesca was dismissed, she had been focused on taking control of the Slayers through the Council. She would hardly have been siphoning off what she looked at as her own future assets."

Pamela nodded. "That's really all the news I have, I'm afraid. Intelligence are looking forward to a fuller report concerning what you discovered during your scrying, of course."

"We provided the most pertinent details already," Giles said. "I'm not sure if the rest would mean anything to anyone beyond the two of us."

Ethan stirred beside him, finishing a mouthful before he spoke. "What have you told them, dearheart? While I don't suppose for a minute that anyone's still there, it should be possible to work out a location, more or less. Perhaps more of the less, but even so."

"I wasn't able to give much in the way of location, I fear," Giles admitted. He didn't have Ethan's ability to read the patterns they'd been travelling through. "Perhaps you could provide them with what you were able to glean...?"

Ethan nodded; he patted Giles' hand and stood up, passing him the plate of food. "I don't suppose you have a map of London handy, do you, Pammie?"

"Of course." As if there'd ever been any doubt that she would have one. Pamela opened her brief case and took out both an ordnance survey map and an A-Z.

Ethan took both and went over to the little table near the window. "This may take a few minutes," he said dryly. "Don't wait on me."

"So we're trying to find out where they are," Xander said, gesturing over at Ethan. "But what about our base here? How good are our defences?"

Matthew looked up from his cup of tea and said, "The Estate is warded, and I believe Rupert intends to check on all the wards this afternoon."

"We're going to do a great deal more than check on them," Ethan muttered from his table without looking up.

"Ethan and I will reinforce the wards as necessary," Giles said. "There's a good strong base for us to build on; with that to work with, I'm fairly confident we should be able to make the estate as impervious to magical attack as is possible."

"What about physical attack?" Kat asked. "Do we get to patrol?"

Giles nodded. "It certainly would be a prudent precaution." These little sausage rolls were rather good. If crumbly. Giles brushed surreptitiously at his shirtfront.

"With Matthew's permission," Pamela started, smiling at Giles' cousin, "we can compliment the magical defences with some technological ones. Perhaps not all around the Estate, but certainly all around the house and at key points of the perimeter fencing."

Matthew smiled back and gestured expansively as he told her, "You may do to my perimeter whatever would please you most, dear lady."

Ethan sniggered audibly, and Pamela... was she blushing? Now that was interesting. And also, Giles sternly reminded himself, none of his business.

"Do you have any magical ability, Matthew?" Ethan asked suddenly and a little too loudly.

Giles saw his cousin twitch slightly before Matthew turned his gaze from Pamela to Ethan. "A little, but it's hardly my forte. I prefer to work with things I can see and touch."

"Yes, magic requires a level of sensitivity," Ethan replied dismissively, as if he hadn't expected Matthew to be up to much in that area.

"There are all kinds of sensitivity," Giles said, giving Ethan a quelling look. "I've certainly encountered more than one mage who was downright insensitive when it came to things other than magic."

Ethan screwed up his face almost angrily at Giles, but then looked down, seeming chastised. "There was a reason I asked," he told the map in front of him.

"Which was?" Matthew inquired almost gently.

Ethan dragged his gaze back to Matthew. "I want to strengthen the wards considerably. My intent, should it find approval, is to block access to anyone who carries Chaos with them, either as an innate power or as an item. I can't block everyone of course; that would be an unusable system and liable to cause comment in the local community. But I want to set up a network that will mean Rupert and I, and you if you're able to receive it, will be aware the instant anyone enters the grounds of the estate. We'll get a visual and a vague awareness of intent. For instance, enough to know if it's the postman."

Giles nodded his head approvingly. "That would definitely be useful."

Ian stirred from where he stood at the window. "You can add me to your list of receivers as well, if you like." His lips turned up slightly in an ironic grin. "I believe I should prove to be sensitive enough."

"That's certainly fine with me." Ethan smiled up at Ian, who was leaning on the windowsill just beyond Ethan's small desk. "Matthew?"

"Whatever you think best, old son. You seem to have everything nicely organised."

Ethan laughed. "Order comes as easily to me as magic apparently does to you, so thank you." He nodded graciously at Matthew. The obvious effort Ethan was now making encouraged Giles.

"Speaking of order, I'll work up a schedule for patrols around the estate's perimeter if everyone is in agreement?" Giles looked around the room questioningly.

Dawn immediately brightened up. "Does anyone have a sword I can borrow?"

"It's a Watcher house -- I'm sure there's a spare sword or two lying around somewhere." Xander grinned. "Maybe even a Giles starter model."

'Should she?' Ethan sent Giles immediately. 'Is this wise?'

'The last time someone tried to keep Dawn on the sidelines there were tasers and kicking involved,' Giles replied, remembering Buffy and Xander's ill-fated attempt at keeping Dawn out of the last battle with the First. 'It wasn't pretty. Dawn can handle herself -- and it will be far easier keeping her under guard if we let her help than if we try to lock her away. We'll make sure she doesn't go out on her own.'

Giles saw Ethan nod, but there was no reply.

Megan made a small throat-clearing sound and spoke. "There was the attack on our house, and the attack on Dawn, both on the same night. Was anyone else maybe a target on the same night?"

"Not as far as we know, Megan," Pamela answered, putting her teacup back on the saucer. "Although that's a good thought, and one we had ourselves. The Devon coven does seem to be having some problems in general, but those are apparently, um, 'nothing to concern us'." She offered Ian a slightly embarrassed smile.

Ian grinned. "You've been talking to Lucy, I see."

"Indeed," Pamela confirmed. "Mr Woodson, perhaps if either you or Dawn could provide a few more details of the attack you thwarted, the Council's research department would have a little more grist for the mill."

Ian's smile faded, expression going totally, carefully, blank. "An old minion of the other side tricked and forced his way into Dawn's room. I stopped him and drove him off. Then Dawn and I left."

"Yes, I already knew that much, sir. I was hoping for a little more detail? For instance, how did this minion --"

"Pammie," Ethan interrupted, his tone warning. "I'll get you up to date on Doc when this meeting's over. Let's move on now, eh?"

Pamela seemed a little startled and looked towards Giles. He cleared his throat. "So, we're dealing with tracking down what we can and shoring up our defences here, as well as continuing with the prophecy research. Which has had distressingly little progress so far, but perhaps with new events, we'll be able to find new information."

"Oh," Dawn piped up. "I think I maybe made some. I forgot with the... with everything that's happened."

"Completely understandable that it slipped your mind," Giles reassured the girl. "What have you got?"

"Um, well, my notebooks are still in Cambridge, but I think I can remember. I was taking it line by line. Some of it is obvious, of course. Like the patterns unravelling. That's got to be Chaos messing with Order and um, established structure and that sort of thing, right?" She looked at Ethan, who nodded, before she went on. "Well, later on, it goes on about a maze. And like if Order is a straight line, Chaos would be a maze, wouldn't it? And it says only those who've been touched by it can walk it. Something like that. And I think that means Ethan, and, um, maybe Ian? I think you might have to find something hidden in Chaos."

That certainly made sense and opened up another avenue of research. "Right then," Giles said, giving Dawn a nod. "If that is the case, we need to figure out what it is we're to find. So that will be the new thing to focus on -- looking for anything -- be it prophecy, history or legend that may fit the bill for our target."

As Pamela made a note on her laptop, Dawn fidgeted on the edge of her chair, crumbling a cake up on her plate. "There was something else too."

"Yes, Dawn?" Giles asked.

She spoke more hurriedly now, rushing the words out. "I, um, well, I'm not completely dumb, you know. Doc's attack kinda underlined what I already suspected. I've been called 'nothing' before, and I can't see the word 'key' without thinking ab-- Without thinking."

There was a slight noise from Ethan's table as the point of his pencil snapped. 'Bugger,' Giles heard in his head.

Deciding that there was nothing to do but confirm Dawn's suspicions, Giles told her, "It is looking as if you are as much a part of this as Ethan and me." He gave her what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "Welcome to the prophecy."

Quite a few people in the room looked mystified, but no one in the know, himself included, seemed to feel any hurry about enlightening them. 'We're going to have to tell Buffy, you know,' Ethan sent.

Before Giles could answer, Pamela broke the silence to say, "We're continuing to look into the bear mentioned in the prophecy, but no one has yet managed to connect the bear symbol to known Chaos cults, other than those based in Russia, none of which seem to fit. Of course, as we are, I am told--" She gave Ethan an ironic smile. "Bastions of Order, we're perhaps not the best suited for such research."

"Au contraire," Ethan replied, smirking a little. "Who knows a person better than his enemy? But rest assured, I haven't forgotten the bear. There was that star chart we found in the office Xander and I investigated which was another, albeit tenuous, link."

Xander frowned. "The Chaos cult comes from outer space?"

"It was a chart of Ursa Major," Ethan explained, and when he met a further blank look, added, "The Great Bear?"

"Must've been absent from astronomy the day they covered that," Xander quipped. "Y'know, if we'd had an astronomy class. So we've got stars named after a bear. And that means...? Is that something we can use or just stars?"

"Well, it widens the possible areas to research," Ethan said, playing with his broken pencil. "The Great Bear contains the Plough -- the Big Dipper to you yanks -- and the pointer stars that make identifying the North Star easier. There's a great deal of myth concerning the constellation. Some of it may have relevance." He snorted. "Or perhaps I may be clutching at interstellar straws. Hard to tell, really."

"Can't hurt to check it out," Giles said. "That's something the Council's research department would be able to handle, I think."

"Yes, sir." Pamela nodded. "They are."

'You need to talk to Dawn,' Ethan sent. 'And I need to call her older sister. How about you end this meeting now, we have our respective Summers girls chats, and then we see about those wards?'

Giles gave his lover a slight nod as he said, "Is there anything else anyone wants to bring up?" Silence greeted the question. "Then I think we can consider this meeting adjourned."

Skunk took that very instant to scamper into the room, not even slowing in speed as she launched herself at Ethan's lap. He caught her easily enough; perhaps he'd called her to him somehow. His face softened as he smiled down at the puppy. "Pammie, I've highlighted the general area here," he passed her the map back, "but if you don't mind, I'll keep the A-Z and try to provide more detail when I have time to concentrate. You're staying over night, aren't you?"

She nodded. "Yes, Matthew has apparently been kind enough to allocate me a room as my office away from the office, so I'll be here a lot."

Ethan nodded. "Take care when travelling, eh?" He picked up the book, and with Skunk still in his arms, left the room.

Matthew stood and held out his hand to Pamela. "Shall I carry some of those for you? We can go to your office now, and you can let me know if there's anything lacking." If Giles didn't know his assistant better, he would have said Pamela simpered at Matthew then.

Everyone slowly filtered out of the drawing room leaving just Giles, his dog, and Dawn, who hadn't even stood up yet.

Giles regarded the girl for a moment as he finished the food on Ethan's plate, taking in her unusual quietness and the fears she wasn't -- quite -- successfully hiding. Deciding that a chat might well do her some good, but that she might be more comfortable doing so while on the move, Giles stood and called Gwydion to him. "It's about time to take this fellow for a walk. Would you like to come along?"

She looked up and gave him an open smile. "I haven't seen much of the Estate by day yet, so that would be neat." Standing up, she added. "I'll need to grab my coat from the, um, morning room."

"We can do that on the way out."

It didn't take long for them to be both buttoned up against the cold and heading across the fields. "What was it like growing up here?" Dawn asked. "It's so... rural."

"Compared to Los Angeles, I suppose it is." He thought about his childhood and how best to describe it. "Growing up here was... good for the most part. Lots of places to play, especially for a child with a rather overactive imagination."

"Did you have a whole bunch of friends who'd come and play with you?"

"Most of my friendships were formed when I was at school," Giles replied, realising not for the first time that his childhood at home had been very solitary. It hadn't really bothered him when he'd been growing up; it was just the way things were.

"Least it was real." Dawn seemed surprised by her own words and hurriedly tried to move on from them. "The trees and everything, they're kind of like California but not. Everything's darker here. Deeper. The colours, I mean."

"England's a very different climate." He glanced sideways at Dawn as they paused while Gwydion moved off to sniff at a tree. "Funny thing about the past. It's only as real as your memories of it."

Dawn was silent for a few seconds before admitting, "I think about the physics of it a lot. Do you think that if there was a spell to take us back into the past... well, would I be there or not?"

Giles gave the question honest thought. "I think it would depend. As things stand there's really two pasts -- the one we all remember with you, and the one that existed before you came to us. I think they probably both exist in the way of alternate dimensions."

She nodded and responded seriously. "And both realities converged at the point the monks made me. I kind of see that. But in the 'I'm real' reality, I can't be the Key, can I? I'm only the Key in the dimension where I popped into the world aged fourteen." She inhaled deeply. "And I think we need me to be the Key now, don't we?"

"I think you may need that part of you, yes." Giles turned to face her, catching and holding her gaze. "But being the Key makes you no less Dawn Summers, any more than being the Slayer makes your sister any less Buffy Summers. Or being... whatever it is Ethan and I are meant to be -- Guardians -- makes us any less ourselves. We all have our destined parts to play, but it is still *us* who play them."

She nodded again. "It's sort of easier this time. Because I'm not alone. I know I wasn't really alone last time, but..." She sighed.

"This time it's not all about you," Giles finished with an understanding smile. Another nod from Dawn, then a smile, and then suddenly Giles found himself being hugged. Gwydion barked happily.

None of them were alone at the centre of this, and that was as much a comfort to Giles as it was to Dawn.

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