Title: The Assistant, part 69
Author: Sweetdoggie (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: B/G
Rating: R
Summary: Merrick didn’t die. AU
Spoilers: season 4
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.
Spike and Thomas came home less than an hour later with nothing much to report and found out that they had missed a great deal. Spike was disgusted.
“I knew I should have gone with the Slayer.”
“Spike, if you'd gone with Buffy, the creature would have recognized you as the Key and you would, even now, probably be bleeding your unlife away in some sort of mystical ceremony.” Giles was tired of the vampire and wanted to stake him, Key or no. Funny how growing a soul didn't make him one whit more acceptable.
Spike tried to look like he cared, but the best he could do was look surly. “I miss the violence,” he told them. “At least, if I'm helping the Slayer, I'm getting to kill things.”
Merrick frowned at him. “You know, you're going to have to learn to adapt to being ensouled. Assuming something doesn't kill you, that is.”
“I guess I could go down to LA and be a big evil-fighting kind of vampire like that ponce, Angel.”
Merrick shuddered. “I don't believe I'd wish that on anyone, vampire or not.”
“Don't like our Angel, then?”
“He kidnapped Buffy. He needed staking.”
“I've thought that for years—about a hundred of them, actually.”
“Why did you stay with him for so long?”
“Vampires have a connection to their sires. It's hard to leave—break that link. We were a family, you know. Darla, Angel, Dru, and me. Four generations of evil. It's difficult to explain.”
“And then Angelus got a soul.” Merrick allowed himself to be interested, in spite of his disgust with this creature.
“It was very...off-putting. He'd been annoying before—selfish, evil, taunting me constantly, but that's just how vampires are—then he got that soul. You've never seen whining and brooding on a scale like that, I can promise you. Darla finally drove him off. She decided to go back to her sire for a while, and that left Dru and me on our own. It was pretty good.” Spike sighed with the memories. “Then we came to this town thinking the Hellmouth would be good to us. Couldn't have been more wrong, I don't suppose. The Master, dusted, Darla killed by her own childer, Dru left me, I got chipped and then to top things off, I'm growing a sodding soul.”
“How does that feel?” Merrick asked him.
“Weird. I have all these impulses to do good—but the demon is still inside me, screaming that this is totally wrong. I can feel the demon being driven out—it's not all that comfortable, to tell you the truth.”
“No, I wouldn't imagine that it would be.”
Spike sighed. “Well, dawn's nearly here. I'm going to tuck myself into the basement. Call me if we actually find out anything.”
Merrick nodded. Giles watched the vampire head down the stairs. “I still hate him,” Giles said quietly.
“Yes, it's the Watcher in you reacting to the presence of a vampire. Thomas, Wesley and I feel much the same.”
“How can the girls stand it? It's like having somebody follow you around dragging their fingernails over a blackboard.”
“Our Slayers are rather pragmatic young women. Plus, they are willing to follow Buffy's lead and she is a remarkable person.”
“You don't have to tell me that!”
“Did you get any information out of her about the creature or it's mistress?”
“No, she slept through my cleaning her up and bandaging her. She was quite battered.”
Merrick looked concerned. “Anything serious?”
“I don't think so. She lost a lot of skin being dragged around by the snake-creature, as well as receiving some frightful bruises, but nothing life-threatening. She should be much improved in the morning.”
John nodded. “Why don't you get some sleep, Rupert? Buffy will need your support when she wakes. We will all need to be at the top of our game.”
Giles looked pointedly at Merrick. “I believe you should include yourself in that statement, John. Joyce will be glad of your company sometime before the sun completely rises.”
Merrick stood creakily. “I'm not as young as I once was, Rupert.”
Giles grinned. “Who bloody is? Now, to bed with you, sir.”
~*~
The next day didn't dawn so much as crawl out of bed around noon. Even the babies slept in. Buffy was the first to drag herself into the bathroom and then down to the kitchen. She put on water for tea and slumped wearily at the table. Joyce joined her after a few minutes.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like a giant snake dragged me half way across town,” Buffy grumbled.
“You look a lot better than you did last night.”
“Yeah, thanks. Snake brains never did go with my complexion.”
“Well, you're in a mood!”
“Sorry. Still feeling kinda banged up.”
“Did you find anything out?”
“Got the blonde's name, at least.”
They both looked up as Wesley came into the room, yawning mightily. “Did I hear you say you managed to find out her name?”
“Mmmmhmmm. She had a scabby little minion and he kept calling her Glorificus and sometimes just Glory.”
“Well, that's something! We'll be able to get cracking on the research first thing this morning!”
Buffy let her head drop back into her hands and didn't see Giles, Faith, Anya, and Thomas come into the kitchen. After dropping a kiss on Buffy's head, Giles began preparing brunch for everyone. Merrick came in about ten minutes later with a baby in each arm.
“Our littlest ones seemed to be up. I changed them and thought they might like to join us for our meal.”
Buffy took her daughter away from him, kissing her rosy cheeks as she did so. “How's mama's little miracle this morning, punkin?”
Giles shuddered at the baby talk. “Please, Buffy. I don't want her learning to speak some incomprehensible gibberish like you and the others did when I met you. I want our daughter to grow up speaking the Queen's English.”
“Oh, yeah, right. 'Cause the British contingent here has never used slang before. Not!”
“Buffy! Must you bicker with Rupert this early in the day?”
She grinned. “No, I suppose I can save it till later.”
“You should have seen them when the first met,” Merrick told the others. “I thought Buffy was going to kill him.”
“Hey! It wasn't that bad!”
“Buffy, it was only a guess that you would kill him before he killed you.”
“Not my fault!” She exclaimed in glee. “You know what Rupert was like at first!”
“Me! I was a model of discretion.”
Buffy just rolled her eyes.
“Merrick! Make her behave! She's your Slayer!” Rupert told him.
“She's your wife! You make her behave!” Merrick sipped his tea. The others at the table hid their grins. Buffy and Giles might bicker, but the love they shared was as real as possible.
“So, Glory or Glorificus? That almost rings a bell, doesn't it?” Wesley said, sipping his tea.
“Geez, Wes! You're always getting your bells rung!” Buffy said, then realizing her double-entendre, blushed but thought better of touching the statement again.
Faith laughed. “He's pretty handy with his bells, as a matter of fact,” she told the other Slayer with a sly glance at her lover.
Wesley was the color of a ripe plum. He had totally bypassed red and had gone directly to purple.
Joyce looked over at them and felt an imp of mischief seize her. “From what I can tell, it must be a Watcher trait. Bell-ringing, I mean. Merrick is quite gifted along those lines, himself.”
Merrick joined Wesley in a deep blush before frowning at his wife. “You're as bad as the girls!”
She grinned back at him. “It's the Hellmouth. It's a bad influence on me.”
The older man snorted but stood up and put his arm around her. “Wench!”
She kissed him gently, bearing in mind that they had an audience.
Faith turned to Buffy. “So, Buffy? Does Giles ring any bells?”
Buffy was red-faced at having started this conversation, but wasn't going to be outdone in embarrassing her man. “Giles rings bells like a Salvation Army Santa at Christmas time.”
Rupert reddened but looked pleased. “One tries to be generous with one's bell-ringing.”
“Sweetie, you are a very, very generous man,” Buffy agreed meekly, peeking up at him from her lowered gaze.
Thomas and Anna exchanged quizzical glances and settled for rolling their eyes at their adoptive family.