Fic: RFJ 0: Before You 4/6

[beccaelizabeth]

Ripper
Fools Journey
0
Before You

Part: 4/6

Rating: I'm aiming for a tone much like Buffy or Angel, which are 15 to 18 rated in the UK.
Pairing(s): None. Yet.
Spoilers: Post Chosen, post Not Fade Away. Deals with the fallout.

Summary: Rupert Giles, Head of the Watchers Council, and ghosts.

Disclaimer: Joss told us to "Write fan fic."
So they're still his toys, but he seems to not mind us playing with them.
No money, no harm.

Thanks to pinkdormouse for beta.

Author's notes and warnings:
Once upon a time, there was to be a series called Ripper.
It would star Giles, and it would be about ghosts.
Well, I'm still waiting.
In the meantime, I figured I'd write it myself.
Since ghosts are a central feature, character death is going to happen throughout the series. But that doesn't always remove them from the story. So sometimes the warning is character death, and sometimes it is more character transformation.

This episode is 0 because it is the setup, a transitional episode getting all the characters in the right place. Also because I used Tarot cards as inspiration for the 22 episodes, hence 'Fools Journey', and the Fool is card 0.

Part One here
Part Two here
Part Three here


*** *** ***




By the time Giles got in to the office he had been officially commanding the situation by phone for an hour. It was frustrating and confusing, with information scarce and contradictory, and all the people he was used to dealing with either asleep or in transit. Someone had woken up poor Ms Wayland to coordinate, which helped, but there still wasn't a clear picture. He spent the whole journey fuming at the delays.

Once he arrived at HQ physically he realised using the telephone had one important advantage. Only one person could talk to him at once.

“Mr Giles! The other Slayer arrived, she's...”
“Sir! The Head of Legal is awake but...”
“Giles, the girl's Watcher is following her, what should we..?”

They reached for him with hands or folders or bits of paper, new habits useful one on one but intolerable in a crowd. Then he noticed the figures that did not quite touch who they reached for, or faded out as he looked at them. The ghosts were as stirred up as the official staff, it seemed. The press made a different kind of sense.

“Mr Giles! There's something at the back...”
“Sir! If you could just...”

“Everyone, please! I will deal with you all. Just, just wait outside and, and, we'll get to you...” Giles stammered, trying to get past. He kept heading for the office, but everybody would insist on following him, sure they should be seen first. It reminded him of the grand opening at the Magic Box, but with no Anya to help him out.

Luckily the imperturbable Ms Wayland was just as much of an expert in her field. She met him with a checklist and a provisional briefing at her office door, then shut the hordes out as they tried to follow him into his.

“Thank you, Ms Wayland. There seem to be... rather a lot of people here.”

“It's not as chaotic as it seems,” Harriet assured him. “Everyone has procedures to follow. After all, it is hardly the first time the Slayer has had problems with local law enforcement, and the Council has always dealt with it before.”

“Not this incarnation of the Council. Do we have anyone left with relevant experience?”

“Faith was on her way to see Vi at the police station. Her idea. She said she knew what Vi would be going through.”

“Yes... Well, that's certainly true. Remind me, did we finish resolving that small problem with Faith's legal status?”

“I'll check, sir.” Ms Wayland made a note. “The Head of Legal Affairs is on his way in, but he is in a wheelchair and it takes him a little while to get started. His assistant and some of the young people from his department are managing things in the meantime.”

“How young? Fresh out of law school?”

“Most of them have graduated, yes sir.”

Giles winced, and Ms Wayland apologised. “I'm sorry, but the British legal team was located...”

“On the floor underneath the bomb. Yes, I understand. It's just... rather unfortunate.”

“We do have one more person in place - Our man in the Met has been contacted and he is now aware that the young lady works for us. He believed he could involve himself in the investigation, but he had no new information yet. He also asked that I remind you that, while of course his calling is to be a Watcher, he believes the best way to carry out that work is as a policeman. Any overt action taken on our behalf could compromise that.”

“If we need to call on him I will consider the consequences carefully,” Giles assured her.

She ticked something off on her list and read the rest. “Of the people trying to meet you... Everyone is doing their jobs, however there are some conflicting ideas about what exactly their jobs should be. According to the old handbook the priorities are secrecy and control – the Slayer's cover must be maintained, but in the event she has actually killed a human she must also be restrained and transported for Council disciplinary procedures. There are some enthusiastic young men in a van preparing for that eventuality. At last report they were still trying to install the chains.” Giles winced, and Ms Wayland crossed something out. “On the other hand the new guidelines stress the support of the Slayer, and by those rules we should concentrate on making sure she doesn't suffer for her operational necessities.”

“Was this a necessity? What exactly happened?”

“That we are still trying to determine. Her partner, Fiona, is just down the hall. Shall I send her to you?”

“Yes, please. Let's see if we can start to sort this out. Oh, and the men with the van – try not to let Faith find out about them. And send whoever ordered that in here ASAP.”

“Yes, sir. They'll be with you shortly.” She left, list in hand.

Fiona slid into the room through a barely opened door and closed it after her quickly. Then she hovered there until Giles called her forward.

“Miss Atwood. Please, come and take a seat.”

She moved awkwardly and sat in her chair trying to be as small as possible. Her hands twisted together constantly in her lap.

“Are you alright?” Giles asked gently.

Fiona shook her head, and looked away.

“Do you need anything? A glass of water? I could order some tea,” Giles offered.

Fiona just bit her lip and shook her head again. She seemed on the verge of tears. Then she blurted out, “It's my fault! It was my stupid idea. I shouldn't have left her alone. And I shouldn't have called the police!”

“You called them?”

“Yes, sir. I'm so, so sorry. We're supposed to be all secret and I go and get Vi arrested! Mrs Rafferty, she wasn't there, but she said to do it. But she'd said it wasn't our kind of job. I should have checked with Vi first.”

“Slayer Atwood, if you obeyed the instructions of your Watcher, you acted correctly. Please, could you start at the beginning? We need a clear picture.”

“Sir.” She sniffed, but pulled herself up straighter in her chair. “We were... we were out on patrol. Our usual area. Warehouses, mostly. Some empty industrial stuff. You always have to check them, because vampires like that kind of place. So we were inside one, and we found something. Drawings. Lots of red lines. They weren't there last week. They looked like stuff out of Watcher books, and they felt... They made you feel wrong, to look at them.” She bit her lip and actually looked at Giles, trying to be clear.

Giles nodded. “I understand. So you believed they were magical?”

“Yeah. I thought so. So, we needed to show Mrs Rafferty. But I haven't got my new phone yet, so I couldn't send pictures. And then I couldn't get a signal. So Vi said I should go find a place the phone would work, and she would look around a bit. Vi, she's been doing this for years, she had a Watcher even before she got the power. She knows things. So I did like she said and went outside. The phone worked then. I called Watcher Rafferty and I described what I saw. More than I did just now. Do you want to hear what I said? Because I've been wondering, maybe I said it wrong. I was trying to say it like they do in reports, and I'm not sure I got all the words right, and I don't really know what to call some of those shapes...”

“It's okay, you can work on that with your Watcher later. I just need to know what happened tonight. You described the scene to her?”

“Yes. But she said it didn't sound like vampires, more like graffiti. Something human. She said, if there are human laws broken, I should just phone the police. So... so I did. Only,” she finished in a small voice, “I think maybe she just meant, like, not to do anything ourselves. I mean she said if. But I thought... but, well, it all turned into a mess, and...”

“Fiona, you used your best judgment. You consulted your Watcher, and you followed her instructions.” However open to misinterpretation they were. He just needed her to focus on facts. “Please, don't worry. Just tell me what happened then.”

“Well, I told 999, there were these lines everywhere. They didn't seem very impressed. But then there was a noise, like something smashed. So I ran inside. The phone kept working, I don't know why. If it had lost the signal they'd have just ignored me. But when I got back to that room there was somebody there – someone lying in the middle of the pattern. And I just blurted out, 'oh my god, there's a body'. And I'd already told them where I was, and I guess they could hear a fight like I could, and the police got there so fast they were at the door when we tried to leave. Vi ran straight out there, and they caught her. I thought she was going to fight them, but she stopped. Just, stopped still and let them grab her. And then she started crying.” As Fiona did now. She looked up at Giles, quite lost. “I don't know what happened to her. I wasn't there. I was outside with the stupid telephone, and now she's in trouble and I wasn't there. I just... I ran the other way. There's a back door. I left her.”

Giles opened a draw and retrieved a box of tissues, then handed them across to her. “I don't think leaving her was wrong, in the circumstances. She's alive, and unharmed. The police aren't a threat to her. She'll be alright.” He very much hoped so anyway.

“But I left her before,” Fiona mumbled, and blew her nose. “I'm sorry, sir. I'm supposed to just report, not sniffle. But... but I think that lady was dead. There was blood everywhere. I'm a Slayer now, that shouldn't bother me. But there was just so much. And I've never seen anyone just dead before...” Fiona sobbed and had to take a moment, burying her face in the tissues.

Giles was reminded of just how young these girls were. Thousands of super powered women, but not a one of them older than twenty-three year old Buffy. Fiona, right now, looked young enough to still be in school.

The Giles caught himself. What did age have to do with it? For most people finding a violently slain body was not a normal part of maturation.

“I'm sorry. I know this must be very difficult for you.” Giles moved to leave his desk and go to her, but Fiona straightened up so abruptly he realised he'd be more calming where he was. “So, you heard a fight, and then you found a woman dead?”

“If she was. I should have checked. I was going to check. I went to look, but... but I didn't go very fast. And there were noises, so I went to find out what that was, and I found Vi, coming back.” She paused and tried to pull herself together. “She, uh, she didn't look okay. I think she had blood on her hands.” Fiona sniffed. “I don't know, it was dark, it could have been a lot of things. But she said we were leaving, right away. She started running. She bumped into me as she went by. I think that was when I lost the phone.”

For the police to find later. Oh dear. “So, you followed her? And that was when she ran into the police?”

“Yes. I don't know how they were so fast sir, I mean I'd just then called. It was like two minutes later. Not more. But they were right there.”

“I see.” Either they were in the area already for some reason, or the time estimate was wrong. If magic was involved they couldn't rule anything out yet. “So, just to check – while doing your normal patrol, you found evidence you thought might be magical. You called your Watcher for instructions, and followed them. While doing so you were out of contact with your fellow Slayer, who you next saw leaving at speed and then surrendering herself to the police. Is that correct?”

She nodded. “Yes, sir,” she said quietly.

“And then you came here?”

“Mrs Rafferty said to. I called from the tube station. She said she'd handle it, and I should report here.”

“I'm glad you did. This is all valuable information.” And probably as much as she could tell him for now. “Have we got any of this in writing yet?”

She shook her head. “They gave me paper, but I... I didn't manage much.”

“That's alright. Do you think you could do more now?”

She nodded, and went to pull out a lot more tissues.

“Don't worry, you can take the box. I can get more.” He flicked the intercom switch. “Ms Wayland, Fiona is done here. Could you show her to some quiet room, where she can write?”

“Of course sir,” came back from the speaker, and then the door opened. Ms Wayland took the girl in hand. “If you could come with me, please.” As the door closed behind them, he heard her offer, “You look like you could do with a cup of tea.”

Tea sounded just right to Giles.

But then came a knock at the door, which opened without waiting for word. “Mr Giles, sir. Ted Hobb here. From the transport team? I heard you wanted to see me.”

The man with the van. “Yes, Hobb. We need to talk.”

One short but diplomatic conversation later, the transport team's enthusiasm was carefully redirected. They weren't technically doing anything wrong, just being slightly premature. Giles made a note to clarify that part of the policy later.

He made another note to get the names of precisely which Watchers were so eager to put Slayers in chains.

Then the private door to his office opened, this time with no knock at all, and Giles was halfway out of his seat and reaching for a weapon before he identified the new arrival.

“Faith.”

“Hey, G. You know there's an armoured truck out back? Did we hit the jackpot, or did it have something to do with the guy in the quad with the anchor chain?”

Ah. Of course, Faith would use the back door. Giles moved on quickly. “I was told you were going to visit Vi.”

“Yup. Got her right here. Thought we'd dodge the crowds. Come on in guys, he's not busy,” she ducked her head out and told them.

Giles sat back and watched as a small procession entered his office – Vi of course, but this time following Mrs Rafferty. Then their man from the Met, a Detective Inspector Hornbeck. And lastly, for some reason, there was Wesley. He would have to ask Faith about that.

Later. Faith and Wesley stayed together by the door, but the other three were at the front of his desk. He moved to shake hands with each of them.

“Watchers, Slayer.” Vi took a seat, but the Watchers remained standing until invited formally. “Please, sit down. What have you to report?”

“Oh, the usual,” Vi said, with a smirk directed at Mrs Rafferty. “Went out, staked a bad guy, saved the day.”

This was the girl who went crying into a police car? She seemed to have had a change in attitude.

Watcher Rafferty, however, remained tight lipped and unamused. “I'm sorry, Mr Giles, she seems to have retreated into flippancy.”

“I, ah, have some experience of Slayers. I think I can cope,” Giles assured her. “Slayer Vi, could you perhaps add some details? Right now what we know is rather confusing. Did you, ah, kill somebody?”

Very briefly, Vi looked serious, even distressed. Then she smiled again confidently. “Yeah. I killed a man.”

Giles frowned, then patiently tried to get the whole story. Adding Vi's report to Fiona's, with comments from the others, a clearer account emerged.

Vi and Fiona patrolled a fairly large area. Although London had the highest concentration of Slayers in the world right now, it was still a very large place. So there was plenty of scope to vary their routine. They chose buildings to check either at random or when something changed. Tonight they chose an old brewery.

The building was large for anywhere but London. In that area, it was modestly sized, set between much larger warehouses. The ground floor had been boarded up once, but decay and curiosity had left it open to the moderately determined. Tonight it was open to anyone – one door was left gaping wide.

The two girls readied their stakes and went in.

Inside, on the ground floor, they had a view clear to the back. Scattered lumps on the floor showed where vats had once stood, but in the decades since it closed down everything had been cleared out. Brick pillars supported the roof at regular intervals. And leading up the side wall were a set of iron stairs. Patches of rust stained them, and a hand on the railing came away red, but almost all the steps were still there. Fiona didn't like to use them, but where Vi led, she followed.

Upstairs was different. There were still rooms here, and tangles of pipe leading from nowhere to mysterious dark corners. Slayers saw well in the dark, but even for them it was a nasty place to search. So they made sure to do so regularly. They'd last been in last week.

The red paint had not been there last week.

Fiona was nervous from the first moment she saw it. “That... That doesn't look good.”

Vi reckoned she had seen the worst the Hellmouth had to offer, and wasn't shaken by anything. But these symbols reminded her of there. “They look evil. Which is what we're looking for. Come on.”

“Vi, that isn't a vampire thing. Is it? I mean, the books don't mention vampires tagging their lairs.”

“That isn't a tag, it's a pentagram. Big occult symbol. You might have seen it on the covers of, like, a thousand books.”

“That's what I'm saying. It's a book thing. We're supposed to call Mrs Rafferty for book things.”

“Fine, call her. I'll keep looking.”

Fiona got the phone out while Vi went forwards. The closer she got to the markings, the less she liked them. They reminded her of the Seal, the one the Turok-Han came out of. Not so much the details – it only looked like a goat if you really squinted – but the way it felt to be near.

“It's not working.”

Vi really hoped not.

“I can't get a signal.”

Oh, right. The phone. “Then go outside,” she said impatiently. She felt edgy, hyper alert. Something was going on here. And she was the Slayer to deal with it.

“You're sure?”

“Yes! Go.” Fiona only slowed her down anyway.

She heard footsteps retreating, slow and hollow on the stairs. She was still looking at the pentagram. It stretched out on the floor about six feet wide, an unbroken circle of wet looking red. She really didn't want to touch it. So she skirted around, went to look at the wall instead. There were more symbols there, also red. Below them was a shelf, and when she got close enough she found, among the expected junk, a small pot with a brush sticking out. It didn't look like much, but it smelled like a butcher's shop.

Blood.

Good. Definitely a Slayer job.

Downstairs, not knowing this, Fiona told their Watcher someone had painted a red star in an abandoned building. Mrs Rafferty knew all about graffiti. She called it a matter for the police.

Upstairs, in the dark, Vi heard a sound behind her. She spun around.

A black robed figure was bending over a girl in that circle, knife in hand. Vi froze, shocked to find him just appearing there, but then the knife rose, and the scene got too damned familiar. Bringer.

She dived forward with all her preternatural speed, but when she hit the circle it was like diving into tar. The air thickened around her, and she was left as slow as a human, lunging forward and watching the knife come down. She had plenty of time to think, to remember, all the other Bringers, all the other girls, who never lived to become Slayers. Then she pushed right through the spell and slammed into him.

Too late. She saw blood on the blade, felt something wet hit her legs. The girl was face down on the floor and blood spilled out. Filling the symbol.

Vi left the robed guy where he lay and scrambled for the circle's edge, then rubbed at it with sleeves, hands, feet, anything to make a gap. Lines and symbols resisted stickily for a moment, then smudged into oblivion. Just before the spreading blood pool hit them.

Thank God. Whatever it had been, it wouldn't open today.

There came a sudden crash from the pipes, and Vi looked up to see the black robe blending into the darkness as it left the room. She was on her feet and after it in an instant.

What happened next she remembered like there was strobe lighting, still flashed moments, one after the other.

She was on her feet. She had the knife. She jumped the mess. She went through the door. She found the robe, heading for a back window. She had him down. The knife was in him.

“Oh my god, there's a body,” from the room she had left.

She was straddling a dead body with a knife in the heart.

The hood had fallen down to cover the face completely. She pushed it back, and stared. At wide open eyes.

Not a Bringer.

A man. A young man. Young like her.

Just a regular human, with his face all scraped up, from where she'd hit him.

After that, Vi's retelling in the office skipped straight to the police station. But when Faith had first arrived, she'd heard a different story, full of self doubt. Could she have been smarter, faster, better – those worries haunted every Slayer, but Vi was left doubting her own eyes. If she'd been wrong about the species, what else had she misread? There was a point she even doubted what he'd meant to do with the knife. But Faith talked to her, and Mrs Rafferty arrived to take her in hand – not comforting, but calming. And then new information put an end to her doubts.

“This murder fits the pattern,” Inspector Hornbeck told Giles. “Same as the other four. Remnants of the same symbols at all of them. Right type of victim, right location. That was why it got answered so fast – cars were already in the area. Plot the killings out on a map and you get the same symbol he drew on the floor.” He sat back and shook his head. “Multiple human sacrifice, in the middle of London. He could have called up anything. Bloody lucky our girl was there.”

“Was there any evidence of demonic incursion?” Giles asked. “Did the ritual seem aimed at a particular demon?”

“We're still working on that, sir. The Specialist Crime Directorate does ritual murders, but we tend to focus on the murder part. I usually have to draw on Watcher resources to figure out the ritual. It takes time, and resources.”

Which was exactly what the man had come to him repeatedly asking for. All things considered, he was showing great restraint to just give Giles a meaningful look.

Giles nodded. “You shall have them.” A little late, but the Council was stretched so thin these days, every resource was devoted to Slayer matters. Which this had become. “There will be a review team...”

“You mean disciplinary committee,” Vi said.

Giles addressed her again. “Yes, that would be another name for it. They will review the evidence and make recommendations. I anticipate, in this case, there won't be much 'discipline' involved. Just collecting the facts.”

“Right,” Vi said, somewhat skeptically.

“It will be right,” Faith told her. “Because I'm going to be on it.”

Giles wasn't quite sure that was a good idea. In fact he was sure what the more traditional factions would make of it. But Faith was the second most senior Slayer in the world, and stopping her doing anything was... difficult. He decided to leave the issue for later.

“The aspect of greatest concern tonight... or this morning, rather...” he corrected himself, after seeing his clock, “Would be the possibility of a summoning or portal of some sort having been successfully created. We'll need to watch all the murder sites, and possibly an area in the center. We'll co-ordinate Slayer teams centrally, here. How this will interact with police procedures...”

“Poorly,” the detective opined. “The earlier sites are probably empty, Forensics was done with them, but tonight's will be swarming still. The bit in the middle... well, our investigation won't be there, but it might be expensive for you. Lots of shops. Lots of teenage girls. Bit of a disaster in the making.” He grinned.

That didn't go over well with any of his audience. He ungrinned quickly.

“Of course, you have to take the chance seriously. Wouldn't want another Los Angeles,” he said.

“LA was a unique event.” A slightly grating voice sounded from beside the door. Wesley spoke up for the first time that day. “None of the same conditions apply to this situation.”

Giles looked at Wesley, and made a mental note to have a long conversation with him, soon.

Hornbeck looked nonplussed. “Right. Well.” He turned back to Giles. “I can be most use to you if I get back to police work. Sort reports, send any high strangeness your way. What I usually do.”

“Thank you, that would help.”

“And I, of course, will assist with the Watcher investigation,” Mrs Rafferty asserted.

Giles corrected her as gently as he could. “Your report will be invaluable, of course. And you should help your Slayers get this all down on paper. After that... The three of you will get a short holiday at home. A break from your duties.”

“Suspension, you mean,” Vi said.

“Pending the results of the committee?” Mrs Rafferty enquired. When Giles nodded, she looked over at Faith. Faith just looked at her coolly. The Watcher turned to address Mr Giles. “There will be some more... experienced personnel on that board?”

Giles decided on diplomacy, and simply said, “There will be Watchers as well as Slayers.” Time to move on. “Watcher Rafferty, if you see Ms Wayland on your way out, she will tell you which room Fiona is in. Inspector, thank you for handling this for us. I look forward to seeing your reports.”

Knowing a dismissal when they heard it, Rafferty gathered Vi up and the three left via the outer office.

Faith opened the private door to leave that way, but Giles stopped her. “Faith, we need to talk about the other matter.”

“Can it wait, G? I was thinking breakfast.”

“A good thought,” Giles agreed, “I'll join you.”

It only took him fifteen minutes to deal with the most urgent matters before he managed it.

Over eggs on toast, full English breakfast, and a lot of tea, Giles, Faith, and Wesley discussed Wesley's status. Willow had given him a clean bill of health, Faith had brought him to HQ and started to fill him in on the new way of running things around here, and Wesley seemed... if not eager, at least willing to start work again.

Giles found him an office at HQ. More of a cupboard, actually, but big enough for a chair and some shelves. Wesley had a report to make about the events in Los Angeles. There was a bit of a tussle with the elder Wyndam-Pryce, who had expected Wes to work for him, but Giles was firm. He didn't dislike Wesley, at least not that much. Besides, this way he could keep an eye on Wes, in case Willow had missed anything.

The rest of Wednesday was taken up with reading reports on both Vi and Wesley, choosing committees and making judgments, whilst attempting to manage both some of the work rescheduled the previous afternoon and what was on the agenda for that day. Giles knew he would be working through lunch, and had sandwiches sent up. He hadn't actually planned to work through supper as well, but the disciplinary committee turned out to require a very delicate balance of personalities to satisfy all interested parties, and therefore every appointment turned into an argument. He got home very late.

Thursday was supposed to be better. The disciplinary committee was assembled so the reports started to go to them. But Thursday saw the return of the interminable pay dispute in Africa. It kept on coming back to him because it touched on basic questions of policy. Should the Slayers be paid the same amount in pounds all over the world, or simply given the local living wage. Ethics and the Slayers said the former, long standing Watcher policy and the state of their bank accounts said otherwise. Giles stalled it again. “I'm very grateful that you have spent so much time and effort preparing this report. I realise coming to any unanimous decision on this matter must have been very difficult... I'm sorry, not unanimous? But the committee was to make a recommendation...”

Then he had to spend his lunch hour explaining to each member individually that this did not mean he was favouring some other group.

Friday saw a sudden flare up in the Far East. That branch had been relatively quiet since they'd got back in touch, but now they were clamouring for an urgent decision. There was trouble brewing in Korea, and the Watchers needed to know if they should risk setting off an international incident to avert a somewhat doubtful prophecy. After reading the full report, and the prophecy in three different translations, he developed a splitting headache but no great insights. He was tempted to send it back with a note to the effect that he had complete confidence in the Watcher teams on the ground. That was usually good policy. But while he could hope everyone involved was a Watcher first, they were also mostly locals from one side or another, and everything became political. It was possible the prophecy was simply an excuse, and the Watchers involved were the first to realise they now had a super powered army on their hands. Or it was possible they were looking at an apocalypse, badly transcribed. And Giles, as the Head, was supposed to know which.

He took some aspirin, and called Ms Wayland in. “Get all this down to Research,” he told her, pushing the files across the desk. “I'm going to need them to look into this thoroughly, starting with the original provenance of this inscription. Preliminary findings by tonight.”

“Yes sir.” She made a note, unflappable as ever. “Sir, there's a Watcher in the office who says you wanted to have lunch with him.”

“That I wanted..? Oh, Edgar. Right.” He looked at the schedule for the day, and rubbed his eyes. “Yes. Find time for him before he flies back, will you? Old school friend. Just... not today.” Today he needed to lie down somewhere quiet for a while. He settled for closing the blinds, and got back to work.

Saturday was only a day off for lesser men. Which made it marginally less likely to get interrupted. This weekend, however, there was a delegation from Cleveland over to give a progress report. They had decided to 'do lunch', which Giles always found meant he picked at a salad while everyone tried to impress him and get a firm decision. The salaries, accommodations, and equipping of the Cleveland Slayers were mercifully uncontroversial. What erupted into argument was the debate about the paint job.

Yes, he had heard that right.

It turned out someone had suggested they paint 'Slayer Central' above the door. They'd probably meant it as a joke, but it was no joke now. It was becoming a test case on the basic issue of secrecy, and it was polarising the entire North American branch. Of course the Slayer had operated in secret for millennia, and the Watchers had done everything in their power to guard that secret. But there was precedent for visibility in some isolated locations, where the legend of the Slayer was well enough known the Council had parents come to them. Kendra had come from an island like that. And some in Cleveland were suggesting the USA could get to be that way. Slayers were working openly with government troops around Los Angeles, and the things happening in LA were too bizarre to entirely explain away.

In theory. Other branches of the government were certainly trying. Wesley supplied the data that certain parties in high places were Wolfram & Hart clients with multi generation contracts, and that complicated matters yet again.

“Gentlemen, Ladies...” Giles attempted to calm them. “I appreciate the temptation to put every change in place at once. Fresh start, new outlook. But perhaps the most world changing alternatives could wait for slightly more settled times.”

It took rather more words than that, as always, but that was where they left it.

Afterwards, Giles remarked to Wesley, “You know, I'm beginning to realise why the Council has always been so conservative. You get these bizarre things crossing your desk, and you can't ever say 'How am I supposed to know?'”

“You are the Head of the Council,” Wesley said.

“I'm supposed to do all the thinking.” Giles agreed. Then he glanced at Wes and saw his amusement. “Not that everyone isn't busy. I just mean...”

“I know exactly what you mean. Wolfram and Hart might have had a 'multi tasking' staff, but they all came back to Angel's team before they could do anything.”

“And when you say to leave things be, they nod about how wise and steady you are. But then it all comes back again. Sisyphus would prefer his rock.”

“I know the feeling,” Wes agreed. He paused, and asked, “Faith and some friends invited me down the pub tomorrow. No business, just a pint and a few games of darts. Would you like to come?”

Giles sighed. “Pubs. I vaguely remember them.” He allowed himself a moment to consider it, then shook his head. “Sorry, but there's a ritual out at the Academy I have to attend. Start of term blessing. I'll be there all Sunday. With children and parents everywhere.”

“Don't worry, they still have a library. I'm sure you can take refuge there.”

“And scare the librarian?” Giles smirked sadly. “You know, I never thought I'd miss Sunnydale High School for the peace and quiet.”

Sunday... was much as he expected it to be. Back at school, and expected to have all the answers.

He returned to Bath with great relief.



***
Part Five here
Part Six here

completed, 30890 words

Comments

[onjel-b.livejournal.com]

Brava! I read this part this morning and am dying to know if Vi saw a bringer who was morphed from human and back again, by magic or if the magic made her think she saw a bringer. I want to know who is behind the ritual killings and how Wes will fit into the scheme of the new COW.

Very good voice characterization, again, Becca! Can't wait for the next intallment!

Onjel

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Becca,

I've read and will comment later, but am having probblems with noisy humans of the family sort and can't think.

Julia, reality sucks

[beccaelizabeth]

hope reality unsucks soon
*pause*
er, that sounds icky, but you know what I mean
:)

[(Anonymous)]

How logical that the Watchers would have procedures for dealing with slayers grabbed by the police and how sensible to send Faith!

So the mystery robed guy is the reason behind the recent murders. Calling something up perhaps, with a sacrifice? But what has he been doing with the other murdered people? And was he alone or are there more out there?

Vi was really rather smart to quick wipe out the lines before the blood got there, and I don't blame her for assuming the robe guy was a demon - especially with flashing back to Bringers and the seal and all.

I really like how you're creating this post-Chosen, post-NFA world and slowly revealing how it works to us.

Lola

[beccaelizabeth]

Watchers are a bureaucracy, I imagine they have procedures for pretty much everything. The problem is how many of them are going to be actually up to date and useful.

Sending Faith is one kind of sensible and another kind of deeply worrying. I mean she has the relevant experience, but the police might know she has the relevant experience...

robed guy is a mystery still

Vi made a guess about what would help with that particular spell. Kind of like Buffy with breaking the fear demon spell.
And no blame for the assumption, seeing as I set it up that way carefully, but a bit of a problem, if every guy in black is going to set Slayers and Watchers off that way. Seeing the past more vividly than the present, fighting the last way, teensy bit of a problem.

I'm glad you like the world building.

:)