TITLE Laura Giles Part 7/?
AUTHOR Laura Curtis with help from Helen Rodgers
PAIRING None so far
RATING G
SUMMARY After Merrick’s death Laura helps Rupert’s move to Sunnydale and set up the library.
DISCLAIMER Don’t own them, just the ones I make up. Don’t know them. Only going to have fun with them. I promise to return them unharmed.
BIG THANKS to my sister who helped fix my many mistakes. Also she helped with the ending cause mine didn’t have as big an impact.
Author’s Note Italic denotes thought.
Please send feedback
January 1996
“Finally the last box. Rupert, here is the last box, it says office on it. Is that where it goes?”
Coming out of the back part of the library Rupert looked down towards her. “Yes. Those boxes hold watcher journals so they will be safest there.”
“Yes they will.” Turning to head to the office Laura looked up as the door to the rest of the school opened.
A auburn haired girl, dressed as if she went to a girls school walked in. She walked up to Laura hesitantly and asked. “Are you the new Librarian? Cause if you are I just wanted to welcome you and let you know that I’d like to help you, if you’ll let me that is, cause I worked with the last Librarian and I just love books cause you can learn so many fascinating things in them, and I should just shut up now.”
Laura smiled at the girl then looked at Rupert. He shrugged his shoulders so she turned back to the girl.
“How about we start with introductions first. My name is Laura Giles.” She turned and pointed to Rupert and said, “And this is my brother Rupert, he is the new Librarian. I’m just here to help him move in and also set up the Library. And you are?”
The girl smiled at Laura and introduced herself. “Hello. My name is Willow Rosenberg. Can I help with anything?”
Laura looked back to Rupert. He looked down for a moment. “Yes we could use your help. One thing, do you know anyone else who could help?” After Willow nodded her head yes he continued. “Good. There are some boxes that are personal to me. Those we have already placed in the office or in the cage. I ask that you don’t open those. The rest of the boxes are labeled by subject and index number so putting them away will be easy. I feel I must warn you that they are from my family’s library and we collected some archaic subjects over the hundred some years since our ancestor started colleting them.”
“Oh, how archaic? I’ve always been interested in archaic things. The more archaic the better.”
Laura laughed and said, “Well then some of these should be of interest to you. Some were written back when they still believed in things such as werewolves, and imps and all the things that scared people of the time. Now who is this person or persons that you know who would be interested in helping us unpack?”
Willow smiled at Laura. “There is one boy named Xander. I’ve known him since we were five. And then the other boy is Jesse. They would both love to help.”
Rupert then spoke up. “Ok. Now, let me ask you this first. Are you suppose to be in any class right now?” When Willow shook her head no he continued. “Well, why don’t you start on a box now, and I believe lunch is next hour, you could find these two boys then and ask them if they would be willing to help after school. We’ll get the Library put to rights in no time.”
Willow’s eyes widened when she finally took in all the boxes in the room. “Where should I start?”
Laura looked at the boxes on the table in the center of the room. “Well the books in those boxes should go on those shelves in the horseshoe shape area. So if you’ll help me start there, we can get those done fast. We index numbered the boxes as we packed them, so we would know where they belong when we got here. Should be easy.”
Willow’s smile widened. “I can do this.” Willow walked up to the table, put her book bag down and set to helping Laura in putting the books away.
For the next hour Willow and Laura got the books from the boxes on the table put away and started on the boxes on the upper landing before the bell rang. They talked of many things while they worked together, England, books, computers, horses, and Rupert‘s working at the British Museum. Rupert joined them just before the bell rang.
Laura held out her hand. “Willow, thank you for your help so far, and I look forward to seeing see you after school.”
Then Willow put her hand in Laura’s. When their hands met Laura felt a ‘jolt’. The kind of jolt Laura felt once when she met one of the witches from the Coven near Devon. Laura gave Rupert a look that meant that he needed to shake her hand also.
Rupert then walked up to Willow and shook her hand. He also felt the jolt that Laura did.
“Willow, what do you recommend in the cafeteria for lunch?” asked Rupert.
“Oh I don’t. Not cafeteria food. If you don’t mind going somewhere to get something then there are two sandwich places near by that are good. One is a fast food place and the other is a sub shop.”
Nodding his head Rupert then asked, “If you get this Xander and Jesse to help us is there anything we can get at a store for snacks as payment for helping. And where is a nearby store?”
“The usual stuff: chips, cookies, sodas, diet soda for me. I get hyper with too much sugar. And the grocery is right next to the sub shop.”
Laura looked at Rupert. “Sub shop it is then, with a stop at the grocery.”
Just then the bell rang. “Well off you go Willow. See you after school”
Willow nodded her head. “See you later Mr. Giles, Miss Giles.”
Laura smiled at her. “Please, Willow, you can call me Laura.”
“Ok, Laura. See you later.” Willow turned and left the Library.
Laura turned back to Rupert. “I think when I get back home I’ll go and have a talk with Betha. The coven needs to know about her.”
“You’re right Laura. She is going to be very strong. Maybe they know of someone here who can also keep an eye on her. To be there if and when she starts experimenting.”
“Well I best be off to the sub shop and grocery store. Anything you want from there?”
“Anything, you know what I like.”
An hour later Laura returned carrying six bags.
“Laura, what took you so long? You’ve been gone an hour, and how much do you expect three children to eat?”
“Three teenagers. And not all of this is for them. When I was putting the boxes in your office I saw a hot plate in there. I knew you would want to be able to have tea so I got a few things for you to keep in your office. Tea, tea kettle, sugar, and a cup. Leave your good cups at home. This is a school after all. Now eat and we can get started again. Have you put your weapons up yet? How about the journals?”
Smiling at Laura, Rupert moved to help her put the bags down. “Yes. That’s what I did while you were gone. I got all the weapons put away and secured. And I got most of the journals put away. Oh, I was thinking. This will be the training room for the slayer, Buffy. There isn‘t enough room for proper training with the table where it is. How about we move it into the U shaped area?”
Laura looked over to the area. There was a couch and four chairs. She walked over to see the area he talked about. Then she walked into his office. When she came out she nodded her head.
“The couch, we can move into your office. That will give you something besides the one chair you have in there to sit on. And the four chairs can go against the wall of the U at equal distances. Once you put the table over there you could put computer on it: besides the one on the check out desk. There’s a plug-in as well as a phone jack in the floor where the table will sit.”
“And what will I do with two computers? You know I hate the infernal devices.”
“Oh Rupert! You need to come into the information highway age. Do you know how much research I do on the internet? Sometimes its faster than looking for the correct book, or the correct passage.” Laura threw up her hands when she saw Rupert bristle up. “I know. I know. Nothing is better than the written word. You know how much I love books. But computers are not that bad.”
Rupert spoke smiling at her, “Maybe the slayer knows computers. She can help research that way.”
“Oh ha ha, very funny. But you know that I’m right.”
“Yes you are and one day I promise to sit down with a student, maybe Willow, and learn the thing. Now we had better get back to work before the three show up. I want to finish putting the journals away and a few of the more archaic books as well.”
“No first we eat then we get back to work.”
Once they had finished eating they spent the next 2 ½ hours putting the rest of the journals, and more of the archaic books away. Then they cleared out a spot in his office for the couch.
Promptly at 3o’clock Willow, Xander, and Jesse arrived.
Willow walked up to Laura first. “Hey Laura. These are my friends Xander.” She pointed to the shorter dark haired boy. “And Jesse.” She pointed to the taller of the two boys. “Xander, Jesse this is Laura Giles and her brother Rupert, our new librarian.”
“Hello gentlemen. Thank you for volunteering to help us put the books away. As I told Willow most of them are from our personal library and are a little archaic. So don’t be surprised by them. Now before we get started on the books we would like to rearrange the room. Rupert is a bookworm and at times has been known to fall asleep at work. I would like to make his office a little more comfortable. I would like for you two boys to move the couch into his office. Then we are going to put the four chairs strategically against the U shaped wall and move the table into the same area. There is a phone outlet over there and we need the table over there so we can put a computer on it.”
Willow’s eyes lit up at the suggestion of a computer a student could use in the library.
Rupert spoke up at this point. “We also got some snacks and drinks, diet for Willow, so lets all get to work. The faster we get started the faster we can get finished.”
Four days later the library was done, Rupert’s apartment was set up, and he had just returned from the airport, having taken Laura to catch her flight.
School had already begun when he entered the library. He was nervous. This was it. His Slayer was due to arrive here today. He entered the weapons cage, intending to bring out the quarterstaffs for her first training session, when a voice behind him spoke.
“Hello.”
Rupert turned eagerly. There she was, the Slayer. He took a moment to study her from behind. She wasn’t as tall as he expected, but he really didn’t know what to expect. Uncle Merrick didn’t send any pictures of her. Strange because he should have. Reaching out with his mind to get a sense of her he felt her strength, and it was very strong. It was the kind of strength that he knew that she would be able to handle anything. She also had grace. Watching her walk up to the check out counter and read the paper was so graceful, watching her train would be poetry in motion. Shaking himself from his thoughts he proceeded to introduce himself. Walking up to her he tapped her on the shoulder she turned startled and he himself was startled. Because there before him was the face that had been haunting his dreams. Dear lord, he thought. Not her!