Title: Unforeseen Circumstances 11/27
Author: Jadedragon
Rating: R
Spoilers: Season 4 up until Bad Beer, Angel Season 1, in my verse, Doyle didn't die!
Paring: B/G, B/P mentioned
Summary: Buffy has to face the consequences of her night with Parker
Notes: <> denotes thoughts
Thanks: Due to the interference of RL, Wyrmie won't be available to beta the rest of my story. (pouts) Ripperslover will be stepping in to help me make sure that everything is in order. Thanks for your help, Sandra. Wyrmie, I'll be glad when RL calms down for you!

"You're what?" Buffy asked in shock as she looked from Giles to the man standing beside the Senior Mage. The two men were very similar in looks and stature. It was clear that they were related.

"Buffy, it is an honor to meet you. I've read all of Rupert's journals," the Chairman told her a little stiffly. He and his son had a close relationship once, but his mother's death had strained it. Young Rupert had blamed his father for her death and when he wasn't allowed to come home for the funeral, Rupert had disowned him. Reginald had been grieving for his wife and his only son had disowned him. Not that he blamed him; Rupert should have allowed him to come home and have everything explained to him. That was a decision he regretted to this day. He hoped he could make things right between them.

"Father, what are you doing here?" Giles asked in a Ripper tone of voice, which put the Scoobys on edge.

"I have to confront Travers and the Dark Seer. Also, I would like to speak with you, Rupert. But at the moment, we must focus on the coming battle. Please give us the details of your preparation," the Chairman directed, sounding so much like Giles, Buffy would have thought it was him if he were not standing beside her.

The next hour was spent detailing the plans that had been made and the defenses that had been set up and cast. The Chairman and Senior Mage had a few additions to fortify the plans and soon they were again waiting for the attack, which could come at any moment.

**********

Travers looked around the warehouse. Everyone was ready to go, just waiting for him to join them. He made one final scan and left to join his army in the vans that would take them to the rendezvous in Sunnydale. Half of the team had left earlier that afternoon to prepare for the attack. Once they got to Sunnydale, everything would be in readiness for the attack and capture of the new Slayer. He felt that they were over prepared, but better that than unprepared. Smythe and McTavish were staying at the warehouse and would have everything prepared for the arrival of the Slayer and the returning Watchers.

Travers had been gone thirty minutes when the Council Mage, who had been their contact appeared to Smythe and McTavish.

"How long ago did they leave?" he asked the two councilmen before him.

"Half an hour ago," McTavish answered.

"Then we have about two and a half hours, before they will attack," the Mage said to himself. "Are you ready to leave?"

"More than ready," Smythe assured him.

The Mage looked around the room and started a chant, as he turned slowly in a complete circle his arm outstretched, a wave of magic passed throughout the warehouse. Once the circle was complete, the warehouse was completely empty, only the Mage and the two councilmen standing in an empty warehouse.

"I have transferred all their equipment to the Headquarters in London. The evidence on the hard drives of their computers will add to the charges against them."

Smythe and McTavish nodded their understanding and soon were being teleported through the ether. It was very disconcerting and both were glad when it was over. They appeared in what looked to be a library with a training area at one end. There was a doorway at the end of the room but they couldn't tell where it went. As soon as they saw the Chairman, they went to speak with him.

"Chairman, they left thirty minutes ago with Travers to come to Sunnydale," Smythe told the Head of the Council.

"Thank you. Your work in this matter has been inestimable. With both of you keeping an eye on Travers and his associates, we learned exactly what we needed. Very well done, both of you," he praised the two men who had put their lives on the line by spying on Travers and his crew.

As Reginald Giles informed them about the preparations for the coming attack, Rupert watched them. This wasn't the man he remembered growing up. This was more the man he remembered from his childhood, before his mother's death. They had never discussed her death nor why he hadn't been allowed to go to his mum's funeral. Giles had closed himself to his father the day of his mum's death and had never given his father a chance to make things right between them. If they both survived, he would talk with him.

**********

Joyce had been put in charge of first-aid and was making sure that everything was in readiness for the approaching battle. She kept her mind occupied, knowing that if she didn't her thoughts would stray to Buffy and her child. Joyce was so scared of Buffy fighting while she was pregnant, but she knew that nothing she could do would keep Buffy from the battle. She was checking the bandages for a third time when Colin came up beside her.

"You nervous too?" he asked.

Joyce jumped. "I didn't hear you."

"I'm sorry. It just looked like you could use a distraction," Colin told her.

"I'm worried about Buffy, and her child."

"That's understandable. I'm worried about Ria and Keenan. My children will be fighting and there is nothing I can do to stop them. They're both as headstrong as I am!"

"So is Buffy, headstrong, that is. She always has been."

"Joyce, how did you find out about Buffy being the Slayer?"

"She killed a vampire right in front of me. He had been trying to kill me, but Buffy came and staked him. I thought she was crazy and I didn't want listen. When she told me she had to leave to save the world, I grounded her and told her if she left not to come back. And she didn't for three months. The longest three months of my life. Colin, I've done some pretty stupid things, but that was the worse. My baby needed me and I turned away from her."

"This Vampire Slayer thing is a little hard to believe. You shouldn't blame yourself so much for not understanding. I still don't understand, but I'm learning. Timothy has been very helpful in that area."

"Colin, I want to ask you something. When Ria gets older, what would you do if she and Timothy become involved?" Joyce asked the question that had been on her mind for the last few days.

"I don't honestly know, but if he proves as honest and trustworthy as he has been over the past several weeks, I wouldn't have any problem. He has treated Ria with respect and concern. He is a good trainer and has taught us much about vampires and other demons that I always thought were just nightmares."

"The things that go bump in the night are real! It's still hard for me to believe that sometimes," Joyce confided to him.

Colin, not knowing quite how to reply to that, offered to help her, and together they did a third check of the first-aid supplies and talked about their lives pre and post Slayer.

**********

Tara looked at Willow. Her lover had been shocked by the revelation that the Chairman of the Council was Giles' father.

"Sweetie, are you alright?" Tara asked her.

"Giles has a father!" Willow replied, still in shock.

"Well, of course he does."

"Tara, you don't understand. Giles' father is the head of the Council!" Willow said in astonishment.

"Yes, sweetie, I know. I'm sure Giles will tell us about it later, after the attack," Tara said trying to get Willow to focus on the matters at hand, namely the magic they would be using. "Lets make sure that we have enough supplies," she told her lover to get her mind back on the battle.

"You're right, of course. But Giles' father…I always thought his father was dead. He never speaks about him."

"We need to go over the list of ingredients and the incantations again to be sure we know what we need to do."

Tara finally managed to get Willow's mind back on the spells and soon they were checking to make sure that everything they needed was where they could get it quickly.

**********

Angel looked out into the night and all was peaceful. He heard the crickets chirping, singing to the night. As he listened to their song, he thought about Buffy. He still loved her, always would, but he knew that Giles also loved her. Giles could give her a normal life, or at least as a normal life as a Slayer could have, even a retired one. He could give Buffy children and the kind of life he never could. Giles could walk with her in the sunshine and he could make love to her and not turn into a demon.

It killed him that Buffy had truly moved on, but that was as it should be. He was a vampire and she was a Slayer, mortal enemies. Even with his soul, he would never be able to make her truly happy. And Giles had. Angel had seen it when they had arrived from LA, never had he seen Buffy so radiant. It killed him, but it was right. She deserved every bit of happiness she and Giles could find together. He hoped it would be a long and happy marriage.

**********

Giles had left the room after they had finished going over the final plans for the defense of Timothy's library and training facility. He had been rather shaken up to see his father appear with the Senior Mage. To say it had been a shock was a massive understatement. Giles had never understood why he hadn't been allowed to go to his mum's funeral, it had never been explained to him. By the time his father had come to see him, several months later, the homesick eleven- year-old Rupert had begun hating his father and they had never talked about it.

"Hey, are you ok?" Buffy asked as she sat beside her lover.

"I'll be fine," he replied in a strained voice.

"Don't lie to me. Rupert, tell me what's wrong? I want to help, if I can."

"Buffy, it's personal," he snapped.

"Look at me," she instructed her Watcher. "After all we've been through, you're going to push me away now! This is the time I need you the most. You always help me, please let me help you," she pleaded with the private man before her.

Giles looked at the woman he loved. He didn't want to distress her, but it was so hard to explain what he was feeling. He again felt as he had as a young boy, uncertain, scared, unloved and abandoned. Never would his child experience what he had.

"Buffy when I was eleven, I was sent away to boarding school. I was very homesick and very shy. I didn't make friends very quickly. I had been there about two months when I was told that my mum had died. There were no explanations and I was told that I would stay at school. I wasn't even allowed to go to my mum's funeral," he told her, tears escaping from his eyes.

Buffy reached out to hold the man she loved as he related this painful episode from his past.

"What hurt even more was the change in my father. We had been fairly close and I couldn't understand why he was being so cruel making me stay at school. He never called and no one could give me any information on what had happened. I started hating him and when he finally came to school, several months later, I wouldn't talk to him."

"Did he ever explain?"

"No. He became this hard angry man that I wanted to get away from. From that time I stayed at school and rarely went home. My childhood was over."

Buffy held the strong man as he cried for himself and his mum. She decided to talk to Mr. Giles and try and get the father and son reunited, if that was possible.

**********

Travers looked out the window of the van he was riding in. They were only ten minutes from Sunnydale and once there it would be only thirty minutes until the start of his plan. Soon he would be in control of the Slayer and in turn the Council. All the waiting would soon be over. He would finally be in the position that he was destined to hold. The Dark Seer had assured him that nothing could go wrong.

Still, something didn't feel quite right. He had a contingency plan in case there were problems, a plan he hadn't discussed with anyone but the Dark Seer. He didn't expect to have to use it, but he felt better just knowing that the plans had been made. Travers sat back to enjoy the last moments of the ride, his ride into the future.

**********

Giles left Buffy who was discussing tactics with Ria and Colin. He wanted a few minutes alone with Wesley before the battle began. He found Wesley talking with his father.

"Rupert, are you ready for the attack?" Reginald asked his son.

"Yes, I am. I just have something to discuss with Wesley, but you should hear this too," Giles explained as his father started to leave. Giles took some legal papers from his jacket. "This is my Will. I went to my attorney's office yesterday to sign it. I have left everything to Buffy and her child, which I have adopted as my own. If anything should happen to me in the battle, I want you to see that my final wishes are carried out. Father as the Chairman of the Watchers Council, I ask that you honor my last request and help Buffy in any way that you can," he told them as he handed the legal papers to Wesley.

"Rupert, don't think that way. Buffy would kill us if we let anything happen to you," Wesley told him as he took the documents.

"I know it will be hard on her, but I need to know she will be taken care of if I should be killed," he continued.

"Son, your wishes will be carried out to the letter. I will personally see to her well being if you should fall. But I hope to see you married to her before my first grandchild is born," Reginald told his son, assuring him that he would accept Buffy and her child into the family. "We have a lot to talk about after this is over."

Giles couldn't believe how calmly his father had accepted his announcement. "Yes, we do. I have to leave and get to my group. Travers and his group could be here at any moment now."

"I know. Rupert, be careful."

That was the last thing Giles heard as he headed back to his group. He was confused about his father's reactions. He was more like the man he remembered as a child than the man he knew as an adult. He wondered what had happened.

**********

"Joyce, do you think we have enough bandages?" Cordelia asked as she helped with the final organization of the first-aid supplies. She was very nervous and it showed.

"I think we have everything we could need and then some. Rupert was very through," Joyce replied to the young woman.

"That's just like Tweedman, always prepared," she responded.

"Tweedman? I haven't heard Rupert called that before."

"Yeah, and I wouldn't call him that to his face. So please don't say that I said it. He doesn't even wear tweed anymore. In fact he looks pretty hunky if you ask me."

"Cordelia, are you saying you have a crush on Giles?" Joyce asked not wanting Buffy to have any more worries.

"As if. No, Doyle is my boyfriend. At least I think he is. We have this sort of relationship, but I'm not sure where it's going at the moment. I just found out that he's half Bracken demon and let me tell you that takes some getting used to!" Cordelia continued telling Joyce about her problems in LA working with Angel and Doyle as they finished organizing the bandages and other items they might need for any injuries suffered in the coming battle.

**********

Giles looked around the large room. Buffy, Ethan, Anya and Smythe were with him at the back door to guard against attack, while Wesley, Xander, Doyle, Willow and his father were guarding the front entrance. All with weapons at hand, either physical or magical. The side entrance, from the dojo, was guarded by Timothy, Ria, Colin, Keenan, Tara and McTavish, while Angel was still on the roof watching for the attackers and would come down once he saw which position or positions they were coming from. In the center of the room were Black Raven, the Senior Mage and the 5 Council Mages who had come with him. They were preparing to counter any spells cast by the Dark Seer and to cast any protection spells that might be needed. Willow, Tara and Ethan were prepared to cast protection spells also, but they didn't have the power that the Mages had.

And so they waited.

**********

Travers looked out into the night. Five hundred yards away was their goal, the storefront where the new Watcher had set up his library and training facility. What a waste of Council money. He would see to it that the Council was reimbursed every expense for the ridiculous location. He wondered just what Timothy Wainwright had been thinking when he thought to use an abandoned storefront for a training facility. The security was a joke. There were no alarms on the building that they could discern; only a minor warding spell guarded the building. This would be too easy, like taking candy from a baby.

**********

Angel was startled from his musings as he realized that the crickets had gotten quiet. Cautiously he scanned the area and sure enough he located two teams, one in front and one in back. Quickly and quietly he made his way to the trapdoor, which would take him back into the dojo. He then swiftly made his way to the store next door.

"They're outside in front and in back," he told everyone in the store as the group that was guarding the side door moved to guard the Mages and Black Raven in the center of the room.

Everyone was on alert when the first indication of the coming battle came. It was the sound of cursing as the attackers tried to breach the first layer of defense. As they passed through this undetected barrier, their clothes caught fire. Only two or three were badly injured before they realized what had happened and the mages cast the counter spell. Then they were on alert and tested the second barrier before trying to pass it. The barrier seemed to be a simple shield, which was quickly passed, but those who encountered it turned around and walked back from where they had come. It had been cursed with a reversal spell. This spell caused those who encountered it to return from where they had come from. The mages tried to reverse this spell but were unsuccessful.

At this point the Dark Seer appeared. "The Senior Mage is inside the building with the rest of the Council Mages," he informed the group as he cast a spell to overcome the reversal barrier. But again they had lost some people.

The Dark Seer studied the building and looked for any other barriers that might protect it. He saw only the simple warding spell, which appeared to have been cast by the medicine man inside the building. What does he know of high magick, the Dark Seer thought to himself as he cast the spell to nullify the final barrier, but when the spell was cast it came back to him and the Dark Seer was trapped, a barrier of earth magick held him.

Travers was shocked. The Dark Seer had been stopped and they hadn't even gotten inside yet. He ordered his troops forward into the building and they attacked the front and back at the same time.

**********

The Senior Mage felt when his brother had tripped the earth magick barrier set up by Black Raven. He hadn't believed that such a simple spell could entrap his brother and he had been surprised that it had. Even though it wouldn't last long, it gave him an advantage that he would take and he teleported out to meet his brother in mortal combat.

**********

Giles looked down at Buffy as they heard the door being forced open by Travers' men.

"I love you," he told the woman beside him as they turned as one to face the coming battle.

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