Title: The Assistant 1/?
Author: Sweetdoggie
Email: (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: B/G
Rating: NC-13
Summary: Merrick didn’t die. A/U
Spoilers: Up to mid-season 2
Disclaimer: No permission has been granted to use the characters. They are owned by their creator, Joss Whedon, Twentieth Century Fox, UPN, WB, and Mutant Enemy. This story is non-profit and is intended solely as entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: Pretty much A/U right from the start. I don’t know how many parts this will be but I’m not going to leave you hanging. The rating is me being ultra-conservative. 99% of all the sex takes place off scene. B/A fans—it never happened.

Merrick lay on the hospital bed finally able to breath on his own after five weeks of recuperation. The stake that had nearly killed him had pierced his lung, collapsing it. He had almost drowned in his own blood before Buffy could carry him to the hospital. Now, she sat beside him on the bed looking happy that he was finally on the mend. He hated to have to give her the news that he was going to reveal.

“Buffy.” She looked up at him, smiling.

“Hey! You’re finally awake. Good. How are you feeling? ‘Cause I have to say you are looking majorly better.” He held up his hand to cut off her flow.

“I am feeling somewhat better, thank you. I need to speak to you.” He paused for breath as she looked on expectantly.

“I have contacted the Watcher’s Council and they are sending me, us, rather, an aide. He will be arriving shortly and will take over most of your training duties. In effect, he will become your Watcher.”

Her face clouded. “You’re my Watcher, Merrick! We don’t need anybody else.”

He sighed and smiled softly at her. “Yes, we do. I am not going to get better from this injury, Buffy. I can’t heal a destroyed lung as a Slayer could. I would be of no use to you in training and patrolling. They tell me that eventually, I’ll be able to live a semi-normal life, but I will never be athletic again.” He gasped for air before continuing. “That’s why I’ve sent for Rupert Giles. He’s a good man and he’ll take care of you.”

“But you’ll still be there, right?” She asked, deeply worried.

“Oh, yes. You are my Slayer and I wouldn’t just hand you over to someone else.” He took her hand. “I know you’ll be a good girl for Rupert. He needs some loosening up, but try not to be too hard on him, all right?”

She pouted but his eyes had fallen shut and it didn’t do her any good. “Oh, all right. For you.”

He smiled. “He’s going to develop a cover in that new town you’re moving to. I have no idea what, but it will be something where he can see you every day. He and I have purchased a house together and that way, I’ll be able to stay in contact with you.”

He was unprepared for the gentle but sincere hug that was thrown over his shoulders. “I love you, Merrick. If you say we need this new guy, then I’ll do what you want, but it won’t be the same.”

“Nothing stays the same, my dear girl. But sometimes things get better.” He felt her hand touch his softly before he fell into a deep sleep.

It was nearly another week before Buffy and her mother moved to the house in Sunnydale. Buffy looked at the town as they drove through it. “I dunno, mom. This place looks so…countrified.”

“Now, Buffy. I want you to make an effort to like Sunnydale. Small towns are good for growing children. You’ll make new friends, get away from the bad element that you fell in with in LA. It’ll be fun, you’ll see.”

Buffy looked at her. Joyce Summers was a master at seeing only that which pleased her. She hadn’t listened to Buffy when her daughter had attempted to broach the subject of her destiny as a Slayer. Instead, she had been sent to a clinic for psychiatric observation. Buffy had quickly shut up about vampires and had been released with enough medication to totally zone her should she have been so foolish as to actually take it.

She had prophetic dreams the night before her first day of classes and woke feeling groggy and totally wigged out. Apparently the weirdness that was her life was going to follow her to this crappy little town. ‘Just freaking great,’ she thought.

Her mother called to her to get up, so she crawled out of bed and picked out her first-day-at-a-new-school dress. It was trendy, but not too in-your-face showy. She liked it. Finishing her ensemble with a pair of earrings, she checked herself out. “Not too shabby.” She murmured. Opening her jewelry box one more time, she pulled out the piece of paper with Merrick’s new address on it and stuck it in her pocket. She was worried about the older man. He wasn’t snapping back like he should and he had developed a nagging cough that she didn’t like at all.

Her mom dropped her off at school with the admonition to behave and that they were starting fresh. She actually told her to try not to get expelled. Like expulsion was something Buffy had a whole lot of control over. She met the cool kids and they were every bit as shallow as her friends back in LA so that was nothing new. She also met a girl named Willow who seemed nice in a totally nerdy sort of way and two boys named Jesse and Xander. They were both hitting on her within seconds of meeting and it was obvious that the situation was going to get old fast. They were friends with Willow.

She met her new Watcher when she went into the library to get her books for classes. He was totally unlike what she had been expecting. For one thing, he was kind of cute and not nearly as old as Merrick. Of course, this was off-set by the fact that he dressed as if he might be about a hundred and forty. He was British too, which seemed weird. Why would she have a British Watcher? Why not another American like Merrick? And what’s with the name, she thought crossly as he introduced himself. Rupert Giles? Ruuuupert Giiiiules. She wondered if he was a total nut job when he slammed down a huge boring-looking book about Vampires right in front of her.

She was pretty sure that he must be the most annoying man on the face of the earth. He lectured her till she felt her eyes roll back in her head. Sacred duty, one girl in all the world, blah, blah, blah. If she’d heard it once, she’d heard it a zillion times. Even Merrick liked to sing this song over and over to her, as if sheer repetition could instill in her a sense of duty and devotion to the Cause.

Buffy listened to the new guy set up a training schedule for her before she told him that she had a date that night and he needed to reschedule. The way his mouth dropped open was quite amusing. “B, but Ms. Summers…you are the Slayer.” He pointed out.

“Uh huh.” She nodded and waited for him to continue.

“It’s your sacred duty to prepare yourself by training and learning the ways of the Council.” He told her with a frown.

She yawned. “Nope.”

“What?” He was flummoxed.

“I said, nope. It’s not my sacred duty. I don’t have a sacred duty. I am a sixteen-year-old girl who got drafted by a bunch of crusty old guys who think I should be willing to give up my entire life to fight evil. I don’t owe the Council jack and don’t ever think that bringing them up is going to sway my opinion. This is how things are going to work around here. You can train me because Merrick says I have to and I actually like him. I will do my best to kill off all the oogly-booglies in this little dump of a town, not because of sacred duty but because I have to live here and so does my mom. I want to be safe when I go out and obviously I can’t if the place is crawling with evil. Therefore, I Slay. I am not, however, training on my first night in a new town when I seriously need to meet people and start fitting in. I am going to the Bronze which I’m told is a teen hang-out. You can come if you want.” She added the last reluctantly, but knew that she had to learn to work with this giant pill.

“This attitude is totally unacceptable in a Slayer, Ms. Summers.” He followed her as she headed out of the library.

“Look. You call me Buffy or its gonna look odd, OK? I figure we’re gonna hafta spend a lot of time together and we might as well get off on the right foot. Let’s go party tonight and get the feel of the town. You can lecture me till the cows come home and I can get some dance time in.” She turned to look at him. “You better be good to Merrick. Don’t upset him or anything.” She was suddenly very threatening.

“I would never harm Mr. Merrick. He has been my friend a great deal longer than he has been yours after all.” He sniffed at her petulantly.

“Merrick is my Watcher. You’re just his side-kick. Get over it.” She walked away.

“What an awful girl.” He muttered to himself. “Buffy?” His voice stopped her before she had gone very far.

“Yeah?”

“What time shall I meet you at the Bronze?” He asked her.

“Sevenish?”

He nodded and turned back to the Library.

His first task was to call Merrick and inform him that he had met the Slayer. “She’s very headstrong, sir. I don’t think she’s going to do a thing I tell her. I tried to set up a training schedule and she flat out refused to cooperate. I’ve never heard of a Slayer who wouldn’t obey her Watcher.”

Merrick sighed tiredly. “Rupert, she is an excellent Slayer but you have to learn how to work with her. She doesn’t respond well to authority and needs to be led rather than driven. I think, if you approach her correctly, you two can become great friends as well as a good Watcher/Slayer team.”

“Friends? I’ve never heard of anyone becoming friends with a Slayer. That isn’t recommended Council procedure, you know.”

“I think, Rupert, you must learn to love our Buffy. She wasn’t raised with the musty old rules of the Council proscribing her every move. She is a very modern young woman who has already overcome great odds. It will be your task to keep her alive. Are you up to it, my boy?”

Rupert Giles rubbed his brow reflectively. “I, I honestly don’t know. She’s nothing like what I was prepared for. I don’t really know how to describe her except that she’s more, more real than I was expecting, if that makes sense.”

Merrick laughed weakly. “Yes, she’s a very real girl. Quite grounded in the Now. Yesterday and Tomorrow are just words to her. I know you’ll do fine, Rupert. Treat her like a person, not like a Slayer. She’s not the Council’s slave and all the better for it, if you ask me.”

“She wants to go to a place called the Bronze tonight. She says she wants to dance and we can get a feel for the situation there. It’s highly unorthodox.”

“Yet, very reasonable if you take into consideration that Buffy has to learn to blend into the local culture. She was a very popular girl back in LA and it shows in her confidence and demeanor.”

Giles raised his eyebrows. “Yes. She does seem very confidant. I just hope that she isn’t overly so.”

“She defeated Lothos. Do you know how many Slayers died by his hand? At least twelve. He was a menace and she stopped him handily, plus she killed his annoying companion as well. Not bad for a girl called only five months ago with no real knowledge of her heritage.”

Rupert sighed. “As you say, sir. I shall do my best.” He rang off and wondered what one wore to a place called after a metal alloy?

Buffy was talking to Willow when she spotted the Watcher. She left the girl with a promise to return and went to speak with the man. “So, Jeeves, how’s it going?”

“My name, Ms. Summers, is Giles. Rupert Giles.” He rubbed his forehead as the music pounded into his brain.

“Yeah, well, my name is Buffy. If I call you Giles, will that be OK with you?” She didn’t really care, but Merrick liked this guy so she would make the effort.

”Giles is acceptable, Ms., er, Buffy.” He was astonished when she smiled at him. It changed her entire face and made him want to see her do it again. Unaccountably, he blushed when she looked at him.

“You wanna dance, Giles?” She asked him.

He looked around, horrified. “N, no. That would be entirely improper.”

She shrugged. “Well, come back to my table and meet a new friend of mine. Her name is Willow.”

Giles allowed himself to be led back to Buffy’s table and smiled at Willow when they were introduced. She blushed and when he offered to buy the girls soda’s he heard her say to Buffy that he was really cute.

“Yeah, he isn’t bad. I thought he’d be older somehow, though.” Buffy said casually.

“Oh, did you know him from before?” Willow asked her innocently.

Realizing that she had nearly let the cat out of the bag, Buffy covered with, “No, he’s a friend of a friend.”

Willow nodded though she really didn’t have any idea as to what the new girl was talking about. Just then, Xander and Jesse came up to their table and sat down next to the girls. Willow looked longingly at Xander but both boys’ attentions were focused on Buffy.

“Hey, Buffy. Uh, You wanna dance?” Xander said trying for casual.

“Sorry, Xander. I’m here with a date already. He went to get us drinks.” Buffy put him off nicely.

“Oh, well, uh, sure, then.” Xander stammered.

He was even more shocked when the librarian from school approached holding two soda’s and a beer. He put the glasses down on the table in front of the girls and shook hands all around as Buffy introduced him to the boys. He blushed when he realized that he was supposed to be her date for the evening. When the band played a slow tune, he pulled Buffy to her feet and dragged her to the dance floor.

“Why on earth did you let them all believe I was your date?” He exploded.

“What did you want to be introduced as, my Watcher?” She snorted indelicately. “It sounds worse than date, trust me.”

“But I’m twenty years older than you. A, and you’re a minor!” Giles was a deep red by this time.

“Yeah, so?” Buffy snuggled into his arms more comfortably. All the better for him to yell at her without other people hearing.

“I could be arrested for statutory rape!” He told her angrily.

“So, what is your cover story going to actually be then?” Buffy asked him.

“I was simply going to be the librarian at your school. Now, I suppose, we shall have to continue with this farce you have perpetuated.” He sounded stymied.

“Hey! Lots of girls are attracted to older men. And if we follow the training schedule you set up, I’ll be spending way more time with you than a normal librarian spends with a student. I think the dating thing is the most believable.” She shrugged off his embarrassment.

“What excuse did you use when you were training with Mr. Merrick?” He asked her, twirling slowly across the dance floor.

“I didn’t use any excuse. Nobody noticed.” She told him sadly.

“You spent hours and hours of time with a fifty-seven year old man and nobody noticed? What did your parents think?” He asked curiously.

“They didn’t know. He spent weeks living in my house and my parents never knew. I really think I could have brought him down for breakfast every morning and my parents would have just asked him to pass the newspaper. They were going through their big divorce thing and didn’t spend a lot of time with me even before that. They think I’m a total juvenile delinquent.” She told him indifferently.

“I tried to tell mom about the Slayer thing when I got expelled from Hemery, but they sent me to a clinic for psychiatric evaluation. I am never going to let my parents know anything about this if I can help it. If mom notices that I’m hanging out with you or Merrick, we can use the tutoring excuse. She won’t look too closely. If we can hide this for another year-and-a-half, I’ll be legal and you won’t have to worry about that aspect anymore.”

“But now that all these young people know I’m your date this evening, won’t it get around school that we are involved?” He asked her.

“Do you honestly think it wouldn’t anyhow?” She answered.

She caught motion at their table and saw Willow getting up to dance with a boy that was clearly one of the undead. “Uh oh.” She steered Giles back toward the table rather quickly.

“What is it?” he questioned.

“Did you see the guy that just pulled Willow out of here? Vamp.” She told him. “Saddle up, pard. We’re going hunting.”

They followed the path of the undead creature and ended up in one of the many cemeteries that dotted Sunnydale. They were in time to see Xander and Jesse being likewise dragged off by other creatures of the undead persuasion. Buffy attacked. Giles right behind her. She was amazed when she saw how well they fell in as fighting partners. They were able to free Xander and Willow, but Jesse was carried into the crypt. “Get them back to the Library. I’ll meet you there.” She told Giles as she ran after the boy.

He obeyed quickly. In battle the Slayer’s word was law. He ushered the children down the dark street and hurried them into the high school library. They kept trying to ask him questions but he put them off saying that now was not the time.

Meanwhile, Buffy found herself fighting for her life against a huge vampire with a real bad attitude. He nearly had her, but she burned him with her cross and he got away. She crawled from the sarcophagus he had thrown her in, but there was no sign of either monster or boy. She headed back to the Library.

Willow and Xander had lapsed into a state much resembling shock, though they looked up hopefully when Buffy came in. “I couldn’t find Jesse. They got him.” She looked at Willow and Xander sadly as she apologized.

“Well, why don’t we go rescue him?” Xander asked.

“Because this isn’t a game. Your friend is dead, count on it. If you see him again after tonight, do not, no matter what, invite him into your house. Don’t be alone with him. He’ll be one of them now.” Buffy sat at the table and Giles had an odd urge to put his arm around her and comfort her.

“S, so, what are they, exactly?” Willow asked. She had seen the fangs and the scary faces, but couldn’t quite figure out what she thought she had observed.

“Vampires. Apparently, this town is crawling with them.” Buffy said tiredly. “I really hoped I was done with this, you know?”

“Done?” Xander asked.

Buffy looked at him, exhaustion written in every move. “Tell them, Giles.”

“Are you sure…?” he began.

“Tell them.” She ordered.

“Very well. Into each generation is born a girl, she is the One, the Chosen, the Slayer. She fights the powers of darkness, the vampires, demons…” She heard his voice telling the legend and was somehow comforted by it.

When he was done, Willow and Xander looked at the two of them. “So, like, is that for real?” Xander asked her.

“Yeah. It’s real. Giles is my Watcher; well, one of my Watchers. Merrick, the, the senior Watcher is still pretty weak and ill. So they, the Council, I mean, sent me Giles. See, each Slayer gets a Watcher. He trains her, teaches her, and partners her. Merrick was mine until he became too ill to do the job, so now I have Giles here.”

“Do you have super powers?” Willow asked timidly.

Buffy shrugged. “Sorta. I guess. I’m as strong as a vamp—and they are really strong. I could pick up all three of you guys and not even notice. I can run for hours flat out and not get winded. I heal from major injuries in a few hours. I have prophetic dreams, enhanced hearing, vision, sense of smell.” She chuckled without humor. “I also have the life-span of a gold fish.”

Xander looked at her tiny body. “How could you be that strong? You’re really just a little girl.”

She looked around. “Hop up on the table. You too, Willow. Giles?” She had the courtesy to ask him, not order and he complied. When all three were sitting on the heavy library table she picked it up easily, walked around the room and finally set it back down. Giles jumped off and came over to her, but the other two sat on the table still in shock.

“Wow. That was totally cool!” Xander said.

“Yeah, well, the job sucks, but the bennies aren’t too bad.” Buffy admitted.

“Buffy, it’s not a job, it’s a sacred duty!” Giles admonished her.

She rolled her eyes and ignored his interruption. “Why were they taking you guys? If you were just going to be a meal, they would have done it in the alley or in the cemetery. But they were dragging you off like they had a purpose.” She paced, hands behind her back. Even Giles knew better than to interrupt her train of thought.

“Possibilities: One. They were going to turn you and wanted to do it privately.

Two. They wanted to play with their dinner. Three. They needed you alive for some reason.” She made one more circuit of the room. “OK. The first scenario doesn’t work. They could have drained and turned you anywhere, they didn’t need to get you into that crypt. Two. The same. There are plenty of deserted buildings around here, much closer than the cemetery, any one of which would have been fine for a spot of torture. So, that leaves three. But what purpose? What use do vampires have for living, breathing humans?” She turned her rather intense gaze on the Watcher. “What do you think?”

“The primary use of the undead for the living is almost always sustenance. They may also be used in a sacrificial manner to raise demons or as an appeasement for something already raised.” He pulled off his glasses and began cleaning them furiously.

“They were taking them to the crypt. There must be some sort of secret entrance to something there. It would have to be underground.” She turned to the two native Sunnydale residents. “Is there anything underground that would be fairly large? Sewers? Access tunnels? Anything?”

Willow nodded. “Uh, a while back I was, um, browsing through some files on the Internet and I happened to run across a plan of the subterranean layout of the city. There is a real maze of tunnels, sewers, and even a whole section of ruined buildings buried under Sunnydale. There was a big earthquake in the forties that leveled a good sized chunk of town. They paved over the rubble, but there have always been rumors of, uh, hollow spots, I guess, where some of the tunnels meet up.”

“Can you get a copy of these plans?” Buffy asked her.

“Well, um, sure.” She walked over to the library computer, turned it on and hacked through the city security systems. Within a couple of minutes, she had sent a request to print the plans. They gathered around the printer to watch as they popped out one at a time. Giles got a roll of tape and they began fastening the sections together to form one large map.

“Look!” Giles said excitedly. “Here is the cemetery that they were using. There seems to be some sort of tunnel that runs directly under it.” He frowned. “There certainly seem to be a lot of side branches off of it, though. How would you know which was the correct path?”

Buffy traced the tunnel back to a large open space. Her brow furrowed. “Willow? Can you print on transparencies? I’d really like to do an overlay and see what’s above this big empty spot.”

Willow nodded and worked on the computer for a few more minutes. She pulled a stack of transparent plastic sheets from under the desk and filled the paper tray on the printer. They followed their assembly procedures and soon had an accurate representation of the town that they placed over the subterranean map. “Uh oh.” Xander said as his finger traced the path that Buffy had outlined.

“Yeah.” Buffy said, looking concerned. “It’s directly under the school.” She looked around the room they stood in and noticed for the first time the pattern on the floor. It was a large circle laid out in tile. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at the librarian, nodding her head at the floor.

“Do you want to take a guess where Evil Central is located?”

He snorted. “I may be old, but I’m not a fool. This must be some sort of mystical convergence. It would make sense to build the school on top of it because the overflow of teenage emotion would be extremely potent. It probably acts as a giant battery recharger.”

“Yeah, but for what?” Buffy asked.

Everyone was startled when a handsome young man stepped from behind a row of bookcases. “That would be the Hellmouth.”

Giles started to walk towards him but Buffy pulled him back. “Don’t,” she warned. “There’s something wrong with him.”

“Who are you and what do you know about this town?” Buffy asked him, making sure the others stayed protected behind her.

“You can call me Angel.” He told her with a smirk that made her hand itch to slap it off his face. “This town, well, it’s a bad place. The Hellmouth draws evil. Vampires, demons, were-creatures, assorted Hell beasts—they’re all drawn to it.”

Giles was looking pale. “A Hellmouth here? You’re sure?”

Angel nodded. “Oh yeah. I’m here to help the Slayer, but I’m not going to get directly involved. I’ll keep my ear to the ground and pass on the information, but I can’t really afford to be seen with you.”

Buffy looked at him closely and sniffed at him. “Vamp! You’re a stinking, blood-sucking vampire.” She looked around for a stake.

He took a step back and held up his hand. “Yes, I’m a vampire, but I have a soul. I don’t feed off humans and I’m trying to help.”

“Why?” Buffy asked deeply suspicious.

“For a hundred years I was a very bad man. I killed, maimed, tortured, and enjoyed it deeply. One night I bit the wrong girl and I got cursed. When I woke up, I had my soul back and the weight of all the evil I had done was sitting pretty heavily on my shoulders. I need to find my redemption. Helping the Slayer is part of it.” He shrugged. “Do you want my help or not?”

Keeping a very careful eye on the vampire, Buffy said: “Giles?”

“We need to research this, Buffy. I can’t make a snap decision in the case of something so important. If this creature is correct about the Hellmouth, however, we could be in serious trouble.” He looked at Angel. “Who were you?”

Angel laughed silently. “When I was human, I was nothing. A lazy drunken lout who spent his time whoring and gambling. After I was turned, I took the name Angelus. Maybe you’ve heard of me?”

Giles turned even paler if that were possible. “Angelus was a very, very dark vampire. He was known as the scourge of Europe. His delight was to stalk, torture and kill his victims after inflicting a maximum amount of pain, both physical and mental on them.”

“Yeah, that was me.” Angel said.

“For someone with a soul now, you don’t seem all that remorseful.” Willow pointed out.

“Well, there’s only so much breast-beating you can do. I lived in a sewer eating rats for nearly one hundred years. Now, I’m trying to help the white hats.”

“So, what about our friend, Jesse. They took him. Is he still alive?” Xander wanted to know.

Angel shook his head. “My best guess is that they took him to be food for the Master.”

“The Master?” Giles inquired.

“He’s the head of my line. He has two lieutenants, Luke and Darla. Both very bad, very powerful vampires, masters in their own right. Darla was my sire. It’s the reason I can’t help you more directly. I can’t fight my own line. Pretty much everybody leaves me alone now, but when they find out I’m helping the good guys, I’m toast.” Angel shuddered.

“Uh, why doesn’t the Master get his own food?” Buffy asked.

“During that last big quake he was trying to open the Hellmouth. It backfired on him and he was stuck there, unable to leave, sort of like a cork in a bottle. The mystical convergences are aligned again and he’s going to try to open the gate one more time. If he gets free, the demons of Hell will once again walk the earth.”

Giles began to pace back and forth and his movement drew Buffy’s eyes away from the vampire for a spilt second and he was gone. She ran to where he had been, but couldn’t see any doors or windows that were open so she came stomping back. “He got away.” She grumbled.

She plopped down in a library chair and looked at Giles. “So, what’s a Hellmouth?”

Giles sighed and cleaned his glasses again. “It is, quite literally, an opening into Hell. If it opens we will be in a great deal of trouble. It could literally mean the end of human life on earth.”

Xander piped up. “Hell is like a real place, then? It’s not just a story they tell you in church to make you be good?”

Giles barely spared him a glance. “Hardly. This earth is much older than you know and contrary to popular religious beliefs, it did not begin as a paradise. The demons eventually lost their dominance on this plane and that made way for the rule of man. However, one of the demons drained a human and replaced his human blood with that from the demon’s own veins. It created the first vampire.”

“Angel said the Master was the first of his line. What did that mean?” Willow asked cautiously.

Giles was obviously in his element as a lecturer on the occult. His voice changed and he began telling them the rules of vampire lineage and descent. They all looked on, interested in his knowledge. When he ran down Buffy said admiringly that he was a good teacher. He blushed at the first genuine complement he had ever received from the Slayer.

They discussed an assortment of plans and strategies, but they finally admitted that there was nothing that could be done that night. Buffy and Giles walked the others home and then headed over to the house he shared with Merrick as Buffy was anxious to see him. Giles opened the door and they both stepped inside. Buffy looked around. It wasn’t a big house, but it was suitable for two bachelors living together. Merrick was sleeping on the sofa when they came in, a heavy book laying on his chest.

Buffy looked down at him, misery in her face. Glancing up at Giles, she whispered that she didn’t want to wake him. Giles indicated that they should go to the kitchen. She sat down at the kitchen table. “This is a nice house. I’m glad you’re here to help Merrick. He says you’re a good guy and that’s good enough for me.” She looked down. “I’m sorry I was so nasty to you earlier today. You didn’t do anything to deserve it. I’m just sorta torqued that this whole Slayer thing is starting up the first day I get to town, ya know?”

He smiled at her. “I know. I was being a bit of an idiot myself. I’ve never really known a Slayer before and, well, it surprised me is all. The girls raised by the Council don’t have your, er, flair for independence.” He looked around. “Would you care for a cup of tea?”

She nodded. “Sure. Tea sounds good.”

Giles made tea while Buffy watched. He procured two cups from the cupboard and made a lovely pot of Plantation Mint. Buffy picked up her tea and inhaled the fragrance. He smiled again. His Slayer was obviously a creature of her senses. It pleased him somehow to see the sensuous delight she took in simply smelling the beverage. Maybe this assignment wouldn’t be so bad after all. He and Buffy discussed the events of the evening for several hours. It was nearly three in the morning when Buffy yawned and looked at the clock on his kitchen wall. “Uh oh. If mom is waiting up for me I am in such trouble.”

Giles apologized for keeping her up so late. “Let me get my car out and I’ll run you home.”

Buffy shook her head. “No, thanks. It would look even worse to come home with a guy.” She got up and paced for a minute. “I guess I’ll say that I went to a friend’s house and we watched TV and fell asleep on the couch. I’ll be grounded, though. Do you have a TV guide?”

Giles shook his head. “No TV, I’m afraid.”

Buffy looked at him as if he were a possible Martian. “You need a TV. I don’t care if you don’t want to watch shows, but you need to keep up on local news. You know, ‘we have discovered a body in Restview Cemetery, apparently the victim of animal attacks.’ You’ve seen how these things are explained away. Besides, Merrick will be here all by himself, all day and probably lots of nights. I don’t want him getting lonely. A TV would help.”

“Then I shall purchase a TV at my first opportunity.” Giles assured her.

“Good.” She smiled up at him. “We are going to be a real kick-ass team, Giles.”

He flushed. “Yes, no doubt you are correct.”

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