Title: The Assistant 21/?
Author: Sweetdoggie
Email: (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: B/G
Rating: R
Summary: Merrick didn’t die. A/U
Spoilers: Up to end season 3
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

By the time the last strains of the music faded away, Buffy felt like she was walking on air. Her husband smiled down tenderly as he held her in his arms. She felt safe, loved, and protected. She knew it was an illusion, but it felt so good she gave in to the moment and pretended she was a normal girl for just a little while.

They walked slowly back to the rest of their family and joined the majority of the students leaving the hall. Giles pulled the Citroen around and opened the front door for his wife, while Wesley opened its rear door for Faith. Joyce and Merrick smiled at them and got into her Jeep. It may not have been the most fashionable vehicle in the lot, but it was about ten steps up from Giles’ car plus it didn’t have a faint underlay of snake, Joyce thought with a grin.

“Why so happy, love?” Merrick asked her.

“Why shouldn’t I be happy, John. My little girl is all grown up, married to a great guy, and is actually going to graduate from high school—something, I might add, that I was beginning to think I’d never see.” Joyce told him.

“Ah, ye of little faith. Buffy is a very intelligent girl. She simply has so many things in her life that conflict with normality that school work often takes a back seat to keeping the world alive.” He said somewhat defensively.

“I know.” Joyce told him. “Doesn’t mean I’m not glad to have this period of our lives done. Once she graduates, I feel like I can rest on my laurels as a mom for a while.” She groaned. “I just can’t believe I’m going to have to go through all this again with another one in just a few short years.”

He chuckled. “I do see your point. You know, I’ve raised five girls, well, had the raising of them, I should say, but this is the first, the only, child of my blood. It gives me a very strange feeling to know that something came from me and is growing into a real person inside of you.”

She patted his hand as she pulled into their driveway. “Life is funny. I never thought I would have another child, especially at my age.”

“Are you sorry?” He asked her tentatively.

She rested a hand on the bulge of her belly and felt the baby kick back against her. “No. You know, when all this happened, I thought it was about the worst thing that could have happened. I mean, I sort of expected it from Buffy, back before I knew about her Calling and everything. You have a teenaged girl who’s sexually ripe and it’s one of the fears that’s there all the time. But to find myself pregnant at thirty nine—well, it’s unexpected to say the least. Then, well, this may sound dumb, but I talked to Buffy and she put things into perspective for me.”

John smiled. “She did the same for me. I came home that next day and felt like the lowest beast in nature. Then our little Buffy came to me and told me I couldn’t let the Hellmouth win and that she loved me so much that nothing else mattered. She told me to fight for what I cared about—you and our relationship.”

“She can be a very insightful girl.” Joyce agreed.

“Our daughter is a fine young woman.” He agreed.

They got out of the car and went inside, surprised to meet Buffy and Giles dressed in jeans and T-shirts heading out the door.

“Where are you off to?” Merrick asked.

“Hellhound burial detail.” Buffy told him glumly.

Faith stuck her head out of the kitchen. She had changed out of the formal gown into her bathrobe. “I told her I’d be glad to help, but she wanted to do it herself.”

Merrick smiled and shook his head. “Well, be careful. There are probably a great many vampires roaming the streets tonight hoping for easy prey.”

Buffy pulled a stake from her hip pocket. “We’re covered.” She said and stepped out the door.

Rupert was only a step behind her. They had called in a squad of Council “cleaners” to take care of the boy who had raised the beasts before they left the house. Giles didn’t ask what would happen to him. Truthfully, he didn’t want to know. The Council generally thought that burying mistakes was the best course and he wouldn’t have given a tuppence on the lad’s chances of emerging alive. He shrugged sadly. The youth was responsible for at least one death, possibly more and Giles, who had himself been in that position at one time, didn’t envy him.

Buffy looked at her husband and knew he was thinking very dark thoughts. “What’s wrong, Giles?”

“Ah. I was simply thinking about that boy’s chances of being rehabilitated. The Council doesn’t like to waste talent, but it also has no patience for those who truck with evil. He will repent or die, I’m afraid.”

“Why are they like that?” Buffy asked him.

“They don’t really have a choice as they see it. A rogue magic-user, especially one that has used his power to raise killer demons isn’t someone to be coddled.” He hesitated. “When I was a young man…”

Buffy turned to look at him as his voice trailed off. “What?”

“You know I’ve used magic before.” He stated.

“Yeah. You saved me from that witch.” Buffy said.

“Before I took my oath as a Watcher, I spent several years practicing sorcery.” He admitted. “I was addicted to magic and it got the better of me. I raised a demon that killed a man.” He walked a couple more steps before speaking. “Merrick saved my life. He called in a cleanup team from the Council. They took me to a rather special rehab center for magic users. They dried me out. I nearly died from it.”

“I had no idea.” Buffy said quietly. “I’m glad you told me.”

“Do you hate me? I am a murderer.” He said sadly.

“I love you, Giles.” She held out her hands. “Do you see these hands? Do you know how much blood is on them? Demon blood in plenty and that’s how it should be, but human as well. People I couldn’t protect. Innocents that were turned because I wasn’t there to save them.”

“Buffy, you can’t be everywhere. People die and it isn’t your fault.” He told her.

“People become addicted to power, Giles, just like they become addicted to drugs. They make the first step voluntarily, but once their personal demon has them in thrall, how much choice do they have?”

“I didn’t have to raise a demon.” He told her. “I could have done something helpful. I could have done something positive, but I wanted the power and the thrill. I used the demon’s power to get women to like me, to lord it over people who had treated me badly. I was as immature as a green apple and I eventually gave myself quite the bellyache.”

She thought for a few minutes. “But you learned things normal Watchers don’t know. Things that have saved us time after time. Maybe there was a purpose behind it all. Maybe this kid will have the strength to heal as well. Maybe he’ll become a Watcher to a Slayer that hasn’t even been born yet. Maybe they’ll learn to love each other like we do.” She shrugged. “Who knows? Let’s bury these things and go home.”

They dug for an hour to get a hole big enough for the three demons. She would have simply tipped them in, but Giles said they would take up less room if they were folded into a crouching position. Swearing under her breath, she positioned them in the grave before climbing out. “That was horrible.” She told him simply. “I don’t mind the killing, but the things we have to do to clean up are just icky!”

He did most of the work of filling in tamping the earth down around the bodies as they went. They stomped and pushed and flattened out the top of the grave and covered it with the sod they had initially cut to hide it. Buffy dragged a hose around the corner and watered the grass. After looking over the site carefully, Giles pronounced it good enough and they walked home.

“So does anybody else know about your bad boy background?” She asked him curiously.

“Oh, Lord yes. I’m used as a bad example to all Watchers. Be good, study hard, and obey us in all things or you’ll end up like Rupert Giles. I’m afraid I rather took advantage of my reputation to terrify Wesley when he first came here. Threatened him with the demon for trying to take you away.”

She looked at him curiously. “That’s pretty bad, Rupert. Hey! Wasn’t Merrick there? What did he say?”

“He talked me down quite carefully. You know John.”

“I’m really glad you ended up as my Watcher and not like the Mayor, Rupert.”

He looked at her curiously. “Why?”

“Besides the fact that I love you and you’ve kept me and my friends and family alive? Well, I think you’re probably way smarter than the Mayor and I wouldn’t want to go against you in a fight. I know you’re smarter than I am. I think you’d have won.”

He was silent for a few yards. “I’ve never thought of it like that, Buffy. It seems I have another thing to be thankful for besides the obvious.” They arrived home and let themselves in to the quiet household.

After much needed showers they went to bed wrapped in each other’s arms.

The entire household slept in the next morning. Giles woke about ten and rolled carefully out of bed not wanting to disturb his still sleeping wife. He pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt and slipped downstairs to make a pot of tea for himself and coffee for the Americans. Chuckling to himself, he wondered if the caffeine intake in their household set some sort of a record. Merrick walked out of his bedroom draped in a robe and Wesley, dressed in jeans and a polo shirt came down stairs, whistling and happy.

The two older men looked at him with frowns. It was too early to be that happy, unless…

“Why are you so beastly happy?” Rupert asked the younger Watcher.

Wesley blushed. “Faith told me she loves me last night. Our bond is forming at last.”

Merrick and Giles clapped him on the back. Giles offered him a cup of tea, which Wesley took absent-mindedly. “She’s such a lovely girl.” Wes murmured.

“Yes, quite lovely.” Merrick agreed. “We’ve been blessed in our girls, haven’t we? They are as lovely as they are kind.” He turned to Wesley. “Faith turns eighteen in a month. What are you going to do about the Cruciamentum?”

“We are bonding. I see no reason for the test.” Wesley said.

None of the men had heard Buffy enter the room. “Good, because I’d hate to have to kill you now.” She told the youngest Watcher.

The men all jumped, startled. She spoke again.

“No one had better even think about giving that damn test to another Slayer. We have enough to do just staying alive. Nobody has a right to make that harder.” She held up her hand when they would have protested. “Yes, I know all about forming the bond, and I’m still saying that there will be no test.”

Rupert got up and put his hands on her shoulders. “Nobody is suggesting that it’s necessary in this case, love.”

“Good.” Buffy looked around, spotted the coffee and poured herself a cup. “What’s for breakfast?”

Graduation was on Wednesday. They still didn’t have a very concrete plan to defeat the ascended Mayor, though they all knew he would have to be stopped. Buffy lay in a hammock in the back yard of their house and thought about various ways of stopping the monster and discarded all but a few. Willow, Xander, Oz and Cordelia found her rocking the hammock with one foot as she sipped a cool glass of fruit juice.

“Hey, Buff. Working hard?” Xander quipped.

“Yeah, I’m thinking.” Buffy told him.

“Funny, I don’t see any smoke.” Cordelia chimed.

Willow frowned her into silence, which would have worked better if Cordy had actually been looking at her. Willow sighed. “Any good plans so far?”

“We need an army. We’ve got about a hundred kids.” Buffy sighed. “I guess we’ll have to go with the plan to blow him up. It’s so risky though. What if I can’t make him mad enough to chase me?”

Giles stepped out of the house holding a six-pack of soda. He offered it to the Scoobies. “I shouldn’t think you’d have any trouble making him mad, Buffy. I remember how angry you made me when we were first together. You have a natural talent for it, I should say.” He walked over to her and waited while she made room for him on the hammock. He joined her then put an arm around her shoulders as they cuddled.

Merrick, Joyce, Wesley and Faith all strolled out of the house and joined the group. “If everyone is armed, we should do better.” Merrick said.

“How about flame thrower units? If it’s going to be an eclipse, will vamps be able to come out during the day?” Xander asked.

“Good point.” Giles nodded. “We will need to be prepared for that as well.”

They planned to spend the entire day moving his collection of books, weapons and equipment from the library. Giles had even rented a U-haul. They had visited every store in town and bought up vast quantities of fertilizer and had been making a home-made version of plastique in the kitchen all morning. They had enough explosives to level the school. They just hoped it was enough.

Merrick had forbidden any patrols till after graduation. They couldn’t risk somebody getting hurt. The library had been packed up and the explosives placed. Tempers were climbing as things got tense and most of the Scoobies elected to spend their time alone. Buffy and Giles used what was possibly their last night to make love to each other as did Merrick and Joyce. Wesley and Faith kissed for the first time and held hands in the living room, vowing that when graduation was over, things would be different between them.

Graduation day dawned bright and clear, as indeed, most days in Sunnydale began. Everyone knew their parts and made their way to the auditorium to wait for the ceremony. At last, the music began and the class filed in alphabetically. Buffy’s gaze met Willow’s and together they searched the audience for their loved ones. They spotted Merrick, Joyce and Wes. Giles was seated with the faculty. The speeches began and Buffy thought that nearly anything was better than listening to this stuff. Then it was the Mayor’s turn. He began working through what was supposed to be an inspirational speech. The Scoobies rolled their eyes when they realized that the soon-to-be demon was actually going to say the whole spiel.

When the sun hit its zenith at exactly noon, the eclipse began and little by little, the sun disappeared behind the moon. As it was slowly eaten away, the Mayor began to writhe. His clothing burst at the seams and purple, pulsating flesh pushed away from the fabric. Buffy stood. “Now!” As one, the graduating class stood, tossed off their robes and pulled the weapons they had strung under the garments into their hands. Giles stood and made his way through the now panicking mob to the place near the library where they had planted the detonator. Wesley, Merrick and Joyce pulled collapsible crossbows from their hiding places and loaded them up. Xander directed a team of students armed with flame throwers toward the back where they could protect the civilians.

Vampires crawled out of the sewers to attack. Willow began lobbing holy water-filled balloons at them. Buffy didn’t have time to see anything but the Mayor as he, (quite literally) snaked towards her. She pulled her short sword close in to her body and flipped it like a throwing knife directly into the huge serpents eye. He screamed. She taunted him about how she was going to make a pair of boots out of what she left of him. “Hey, do they call you ol’ One Eye now Dick?” She laughed.

It was enough to drive the half-blinded demon into a killing rage. He swooped toward the small girl, pushing aside anyone and anything that got in his way. She ran at top speed into the empty school, the demon snake hard on her heels. It broke down the double doors of the library in time to see her throw herself through a window. Glancing around the room, it noticed the large steel drums and packages of fertilizer everywhere. It tried to stop and back up, but momentum worked against it and most of its body was inside the library when Giles pushed down the plunger on the detonator.

The resulting dust cloud made vision impossible for a few moments, but when the smoke cleared, the battle was over. There were bodies scattered on the ground as well as small, inexplicable piles of dust. As the sun burned off the remnants of the eclipse, a few tattered vampires rushed unsuccessfully for the sewers. Giles helped Buffy stand and pull bits of glass out of her hair before walking over to where Merrick and Joyce stood, crossbows empty but triumphant.

Buffy looked around. “Did we all make it?” She couldn’t see Wesley or Faith.

They began searching through the rubble. At last, Buffy moved a large piece of drywall that had somehow survived the explosion. Tucked under it were the Watcher and his Slayer. Faith was bleeding from a severe looking abdominal wound and seemed to have some sort of head damage as well. Wes was also unconscious and she felt ribs shift when she touched him. Paramedics rushed up as she was trying to staunch the flow of blood.

She sent Merrick and her mom off to the hospital to keep an eye on her fallen sister and her man, but kept Giles, Willow, Oz, Xander and Cordelia back to help search the rubble for survivors. She also wanted to make certain that nothing was left of the Mayor.

It was nightfall before everything was secured. Giles finally insisted that she get in his car so he could drive them to the hospital. At first, the Emergency Room crew wanted to treat them like casualties and they had a very tough time convincing the medics that they were unhurt.

Giles finally got them to understand and he and Buffy were directed to a bank of private rooms. Wesley was conscious and talking to Merrick. The younger man had sustained nine broken ribs and a great many bruises and cuts, but would eventually be all right. Faith was still unconscious and hooked up to life support. She had been rushed into surgery but her prognosis was not good.

“How was she injured?” Buffy asked quietly.

“Trick.” Gasped Wesley shallowly. “It was Trick. He snuck up behind her and hit her in the head with a club. When she went down, he tried to gut her with a dagger.”

“We’ll get him.” Promised Buffy.

“Too late.” Said the young Watcher. “He didn’t think I was any threat, but when I saw what he had done to her, I went berserk. I staked him, but he broke my ribs as he dusted. The school exploded and something hit me in the head. That’s about all I remember. Merrick says we stopped the Mayor.”

“We did.” Giles said feelingly. “Faith is badly injured but since she isn’t dead, she will heal. We have to believe that.” He patted Wes on the shoulder. “We’ll be back tomorrow, old chap.”

Wesley nodded and drifted off into a deep, pain-filled sleep. Giles and Buffy left the room and collected a very tired Joyce and Merrick before heading home. They entered the quiet house and trudged slowly up the stairs. They quickly showered and dropped onto their respective beds almost asleep before they hit the mattresses.

For three of the house’s inhabitants, the night was filled with restful slumber, but for the fourth, the Slayer, the night was taken up with strange dreams.

“Hey B!” A battered looking Faith said.

“I thought you were unconscious?” Buffy responded.

“I am. We’re in the Dreamtime now. I saw we kicked demon butt once again.” Faith smirked.

“Yeah. There wasn’t even enough left of him to make boots. I could maybe have stretched it to sandals, but eeeeuw!” Buffy quipped.

“Glad he’s gone.” The dark girl said.

“Me too.” Buffy admitted. “Hey, did you see the bastard ate Snyder? Who says that demons aren’t good for something?”

“Cool.” Faith admitted. “I don’t know if I can come back from this, B.”

“How come?” Buffy wondered.

“I keep dying and they keep bringing me back.” The younger Slayer admitted. “My replacement’s already been called. She’s a cute little thing. Really young though. She’s only twelve and looks half that.”

“You have to come back.” Buffy told her. “You’re my sis and I can’t do without you, Faith. What about Wes?”

The dream Faith sighed. “I know. That’s the downside of this dying game. I really don’t want to leave him behind.”

“Then don’t. Come home. We love you.” Buffy said persuasively.

“I’ll try, but it’s going to take some time.” Faith said. She looked over her shoulder. “I have to go now, Buffy. I’ll try to come home.”

“Bye, Faith.” Dream Buffy said softly. “Take care.”

She woke in the morning almost as tired as when she had thrown herself into bed. Giles was deeply concerned. Buffy didn’t say anything about her dream. That was Slayer business.

She walked slowly downstairs and into the kitchen. The others were up already and Joyce put a plate of pancakes in front of her. “Eat, baby. You’ll feel better.”

Buffy ate a pancake and it felt like lead in her stomach. She wanted to vomit, but willpower kept her in her seat. She pushed the rest of the breakfast away and concentrated on sipping a glass of cold water.

Giles looked at her in concern. “What’s the matter, love?”

“I’m just tired.” Buffy said listlessly. “I think I’ll go back to bed.”

“We are going down to the hospital to see Wesley and Faith. Do you want to come?” Giles asked her.

“No. Faith is going to be out of it for a while.” Buffy explained without revealing her source of knowledge. “Just say hi to Wes for me.” She stood and slumped tiredly out of the room.

“Well, that was decidedly odd.” Merrick said speculatively. “I wonder how Buffy knew Faith was still unconscious?”

NEXT