Book I: Halting the Downward Spiral

1-1 – Changing Relationships

It was mid-afternoon, and Buffy Summers was sitting in the Sunnydale High School library, watching Faith give Giles a piece of her mind. The younger Slayer had just heard about Buffy's Cruciamentum, and was seriously hacked off.

"How could you do that to B? How could you betray her like that? I'm this close-" she held up her thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart, "from kicking your ass all over this library! And by the way, you tell the Council if they ever try that crap on me, I'll stick their needles where the sun don't shine! Got it?"

Giles took his glasses off and sighed. "Faith, much as I would love to continue this lovely conversation, we still have some business to-" He broke off suddenly, as someone walked into the Library. A very unexpected someone. "Mrs. Summers?"

Buffy looked up. "Mom? What are you doing here?"

Joyce Summers nervously glanced back and forth between her daughter and her daughter's mentor. She hadn't been sure which of them she wanted to talk to first, but as luck would have it, they were together.

But they weren't alone. "Faith, dear, could we please have some privacy? I need to talk to Buffy and Giles about something...personal."

Faith looked at her curiously for a moment, then shrugged. "Sure, Mrs. S, whatever you say." She glanced over her shoulder. "We still on for patrollin' tonight, B?"

Buffy, somewhat distracted, nodded. "Umm-hm. Meet ya at the Benoit crypt around eight-thirty."

Faith gave Giles one final glare, then stalked away.

Joyce kept an eye on her until she was out the double doors and into the hallway. Then she turned around, very much aware that Buffy and Giles were both staring at her intently. "Oh dear...I don't know quite how to say this...Buffy, you know we both had some blood tests done the other night, after..." She glanced at Giles. "After we made it out of that old hotel. Checking for tetanus, things like that. Well, the hospital called this morning after you left, and had me go in for a full examination."

Buffy's face paled in alarm. "Mom? Did they...is everything all right?"

Joyce looked down at her feet. "Well, that's a matter of opinion. I was told that I'm in excellent health for a 40-year old...pregnant...woman."

There was a long moment of silence. Buffy had started to relax as her mother said she was okay, but then that word "pregnant" came along and smacked her upside the head, and her thought processes went a little haywire – okay, a lot haywire.

Preg-yaaaah! Mother. Preg-yeeeyeeyee...Mom. Mother-to-be. Image way too icky to think about. Mom. Mom, announcing...this...to me...and Giles?!?! Her eyes opened very wide, and she looked over at her former Watcher.

He was staring at her mother, wearing an expression of shock...and maybe a little awe?

Buffy's mouth opened and closed a few times, but nothing came out. Finally, two words forced their way out of her mouth: "Band candy?"

The other two replied almost in unison. "Band candy."

"So Giles and your mom did the nasty? No way!" Faith said with a grin.

"I so wish I was joking. But you were conveniently not here when Ethan Rayne pulled his little teenager-itis stunt." She groaned, and scuffed the ground with her shoe. "I should've known better than to trust my mom with a guy whose college nickname was 'Ripper.'"

The other Slayer smirked. "'Ripper?' Giles? Now I know you're yankin' my chain, B!"

Buffy sighed, and gave Faith a quick run-down of what she knew about Giles' mis-spent youth. "I've only seen that side of him a couple times, Faith, but trust me, there's one deadly serious ass-kicker hidden underneath all that tweed."

"Damn. Who'd'a thunk it?" She was silent for a moment or two. "So now what? Is he gonna be, like, movin' in with you guys?"

Buffy closed her eyes. "Ugh! Don't even suggest it!" She rubbed her face to clear her mind of the ooky imagery Faith's question had evoked. "I don't know what they're planning right now. They asked if I could stay over with Willow tonight so they could have some time alone together to 'talk,'" she said, with big, sarcastic airquotes around the last word. "I don't trust them one bit – look what happened the last time I left them alone together."

Suddenly she glanced over Faith's shoulder. "Oooh, demon. I got issues to work out; gimme first whack at 'im?"

Faith grinned. "Sure thing, B. Just save some for me!"

"You mean Giles, he, your mom, she, uh, um, they, oh wow..."

"Slow down, Wills. Just breathe normally...in, out, in, ou-ohmyGod, forget I even said that!" Buffy blurted as she turned a little green. Willow, in contrast, turned beet-red and continued to hyperventilate.

Xander sat for several seconds with his mouth hanging open, then asked, "You okay with this, Buff?"

"About which 'this?' My mom's pregnant. My mom's pregnant with Giles' baby. My mom – eeeuuugh! – hadsexwithGilesandispregnant with Giles' baby. Which thing am I supposed to be okay with?"

Oz looked up from his wheezing girlfriend, whom he was attempting to calm down, and quietly asked, "Start with the first. You're gonna have a baby sister or brother. You cool with that?"

Buffy pursed her lips and thought. "I dunno. It's...weird. Almost as weird as becoming the Slayer. I mean, it's gonna change everything around the house. My mom is gonna have to be home a lot more – none of those long out-of-town art-buying trips for a while. And Giles-"

"I thought we weren't talking about Giles," Willow said, getting her breath back. "We're talking about you and the baby."

Buffy gave her an are you nuts? look. "Willow, there is no baby without Giles. I know him; he won't just leave my mom to take care of the baby all by herself, not even if she tells him to. He's going to be Mr. Responsible and be around all the time. I may see even more of him than when he was my Watcher," she said with a sigh.

"Is that really so bad?" Willow said. At Buffy's glare, she added, "Oh, I mean, maybe it'll be very very weird for you at first. But...remember your mom's last boyfriend? Having a former Watcher around the house has got to be better than an evil robot, or some other Hellmouthy thing. And your mom's gonna need someone to help out with the baby – and it should be the baby's father."

Buffy groaned. But then she frowned and reallly thought about it. Thinking of Mom with anyone these days – even Dad – was strange. Thinking of her with Giles was wiggy to the max. But she knew Giles would keep her mother safe from the things that roamed Sunnydale, no matter what happened to Buffy herself.

Not to mention the baby. Knowing the 'Ripper' side of Giles existed actually helped in this case. She knew if anyone threatened his child, Giles would take the offender apart, whether it was a human, vampire, or big ugly beastie.

The question she kept coming back to was, what would this mean as far as Giles' relationship with her?

In the end, Buffy couldn't say she was too unhappy with what her mother and Giles worked out. Not that she still wasn't wigged, but it was tolerable. Giles would be helping her mother out with medical bills and so forth, and she was even thinking about having him help out at the art gallery. As a former curator at the British Museum, he actually knew a fair amount about art, from an academic and historical standpoint at least. Whether he had the right kind of taste – the kind to pick out stuff that would sell – was still to be determined.

On the relationship side, it looked like things were going to move slowly...but they were moving. Giles wasn't going to be moving in with them, but her mother came right out and said that she liked 'Rupert' – they had agreed that it was pretty ridiculous to continue to refer to each other by their last names, under the circumstances – and that she intended to see if they could get past the band candy embarrassment and try things out.

Over the next couple of weeks, "trying things out" turned into Giles having dinner at the house one night while Buffy was out on patrol. a couple of dinners out together, and – this sent Buffy into spasms of eeewwwwws – a tentative kiss on the front porch.

And then the crisis with the Sisterhood of Jhé went down, and Giles nearly got himself killed in the battle to close the Hellmouth again. The morning after, sitting at a table with him and the rest of the Scoobies – minus Xander, who had been fortunately absent from that fight, and Angel, who was at the mansion recovering from his injuries – she said to Giles, "I don't know how you managed. It was the bravest thing I've ever seen."

She wasn't surprised when his answer was a typical self-deprecating Giles response: "The stupidest."

He looked surprised, however, when she replied, "That too." When he stared at her, probably shocked that she had said such a thing, she added, "Giles, if I'm gonna have a little brother or sister, I want him or her to have a father around. And...I kinda like having you around myself," she added with a small smile.

That grin on Giles' face is probably the biggest I've seen since that time he got all excited about researching werewolves, she thought with a silent laugh.

1-2 – Cinderella's Ugly Sister

Faith stalked through the alley, seething with fury. As angry as she'd been at Giles for drugging Buffy and getting fired for it, she'd also been looking forward to finally being equal with Buffy in the new Watcher's eyes. Finally having a Watcher who wouldn't treat her like the ugly stepdaughter. But that had all changed when she had walked into the Library the previous morning...

"So, B, didya tell Giles 'bout the-?" Faith's voice cut off as she saw the newcomer in the Library. She grimaced. "New Watcher?"

Buffy and Giles answered in unison, "New Watcher."

Faith looked the woman up and down critically. She was younger and prettier than Mrs. Post – or, for that matter, Faith's first Watcher – had been, with auburn hair, brown eyes, and a face that Vogue or Elle would've been proud to feature on the cover. And unlike the stiff-and-proper style adopted by every Watcher she'd ever met, this woman's clothes were feminine and flattering; Faith would bet they were as fine as anything in Cordelia Chase's closet, if a bit less revealing. The newcomer came forward to introduce herself, and dammit, even her voice was pretty.

"Miss Catherine Peel; I'm pleased to meet you, Miss Collins." She held out her hand.

"Faith," the Slayer said shortly. Faith never used her last name; it was yet another thing she'd left behind in Boston, and good riddance to it.

Miss Peel didn't even blink, she just nodded and said, "Very well...Faith," and kept her hand out.

Faith just stared at it, then looked at the other two occupants of the Library. "Is she evil?"

Buffy rolled her eyes, and Giles muttered some rude British thing under his breath before answering, "No, Faith, she is not another Gwendolyn Post. In fact, I know Miss Peel's family quite well; her mother was my martial-arts instructor at the Council's training center, and her father was the Field Watcher assigned to a Slayer in Brazil for three years back in the late sixties."

Faith was about to respond when Buffy spoke up. "I told Miss Peel all about those vamps with swords we ran into last night. She asked Giles to help look them up since he knows the local scene, and they found sketches and a name and everything."

"These vampires appear to have been members of Il Eliminati, a vampire cult that served a demon named Balthazar," Giles supplied. "Thought to be extinct for almost a century until you two encountered them last night."

Buffy burbled on, "Anyway, Miss Peel's been telling us all about this amazing stuff her mother did before she was asked to become a Watcher." Then her brow crinkled up as she turned to Giles. "Giles, I thought you told me once that you got to be a Watcher by being born to it, kinda like a baron or duke who inherits books instead of castles?"

Giles had made another rude noise at that point, and tried to explain that Catherine's mother Emma had been the first person invited to be a Watcher in over five hundred years, and what a great honor it had been, but Faith had barely heard a word of it. She saw it was going to be the same routine as ever: Buffy was going to go on being the Cinderella of the friggin' ball, getting to meet everyone and hear everything first, and generally continuing to be Little Miss Perfect. And as usual, Faith would get jack squat – and be treated like jack squat as well.

Well, to Hell with Buffy and Giles and Miss Peel and the whole damn world! Faith thought. Buffy had found the amulet these Eliminati guys were looking for, but Faith was gonna top that, just wait and see. She'd cleaned out a whole nest of vamps this afternoon – and now she was glad Buffy had blown her off so she could take her stupid test; this way Faith had gotten the extra buzz from dusting the lot of 'em. Now she was going for the big prize: she was gonna find this Balthazar dude and punch his ticket, all by her lonesome. Maybe she'd bring his head back to the Library, really give those Watchers something to study...

A vamp came at her from one side. Faith absently staked him and was already five steps past before he exploded into dust. She went another few yards when something came at her from the opposite side and clutched at her arm. She grabbed the arm holding her, twisted, and slammed her stake home again...

But this time the body didn't explode into dust. The man – or whatever it was – gasped in pain, and gave her a brief, shocked look before collapsing into the wet asphalt of the alley.

Faith stood frozen in shock for a moment, then slowly crouched down and reached out to touch the man's shoulder. Nothing happened. He didn't respond, or turn into dust or demonic goo. Biting her lip, she turned him over.

The man's dead eyes stared blankly up at her. The stream of blood flowing from his chest slowed and stopped once the wound was no longer facing down, but the red pool at Faith's feet continued to spread, covering the bottoms of her shoes and mixing with the rest of the puddles in the alley.

She'd killed a man – an apparently innocent human being.

Faith stared into his eyes for a long time, then she did the only thing she could think of doing at the time; she lifted the body into her arms and took it down to the river, where she weighted it down and threw it in. Then she ran all the way back to her motel room, and spent the night scrubbing bloodstains out of her skin, clothes, and shoes.

1-3 – The Two Watchers

As she watched Rupert Giles feed Balthazar a shaggy dog story about what Buffy had supposedly done with his amulet, Catherine Peel had to hide a grin of admiration – and the fact that she was working her hands loose from their bonds. She was already glad she'd trusted her mother's private evaluation of Rupert Giles instead of the Council's. He had all the good qualities of a fine scholar, and very few of the bad ones. He was also a good man in a fight, like all her mother's pupils. And watching just five minutes of his interaction with Buffy Summers had convinced her how colossally stupid the Council had been in trying to seperate the two of them.

On the other hand, learning that Mr. Giles was pursuing a romantic relationship with the elder Slayer's mother – after getting the woman pregnant, for Heaven's sake – had shaken her faith in the man. It had taken a lot of fast talking by Mr. Giles and Miss Summers to explain that situation, and Catherine had still insisted on speaking with Mrs. Summers herself before admitting that maybe – just maybe – the situation wasn't quite as irredeemable as it originally appeared.

Then there were those nagging doubts she had about the other Slayer. Mr. Giles' relationship with Mrs. Summers would have had a profound effect on his ability to work with both girls on an impartial basis. However, that relationship had only begun after Mr. Giles' termination – for which Mr. Giles could thank Heaven. If it had come out that he was having a relationship with a Slayer's mother while he was still a Watcher, the penalty would have been far worse than simply being sacked.

So why was Catherine so positive that something wasn't quite right with Faith Collins...?

She caught a bit of Mr. Giles' ramblings: "...and so, determining that we could not, in fact, destroy the amulet with a ritual of Gekhalk-" The cock-and-bull story – and the laughter that threatened to bubble up from her throat – was cut off by a scream of outrage from Balthazar.

"No more delays! You will tell me where my amulet is! Now!"

"He can't tell you where it is, because he doesn't have it. I do."

The new voice made everyone in the warehouse turn. Like everyone else, Catherine was frozen for a moment as she watched a man – and a very handsome man, at that – stride into the warehouse and engage the Eliminati. Then she heard noises from the opposite side of the warehouse, and glancing that way, saw Buffy Summers fighting two of the armored vamps at the same time. She grinned, and sighed a bit in relief. As the Americans were fond of saying, the cavalry had arrived.

Her mother's combat training took over at that point. Her mother had drilled her in combat and "advanced sneakiness" since she was a teenager, and one of Emma Peel's rules had been: "Take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself." With a couple quick twists of her wrists, she finished freeing her hands, and began looking for a weapon she could use.

The noise around her distracted her for a moment. When she looked up, the man the Slayer had brought with her was fighting three Eliminati at the same time, and handling them easily. As he cut one down, he give her a quick, assessing glance, then kicked his fallen opponent's sword towards her. "Free Giles!" he called to her.

As if I needed to be told to do that, she grumbled internally. She picked up the sword, and ignoring the infuriated shouts from Balthazar, she sliced through Giles' bonds and then whirled to defend herself against a charging vampire.

The idiot didn't seem to take a female adversary who wasn't a Slayer seriously; it took only seconds for Catherine to parry his clumsy attacks and decapitate him. She crouched, grabbed his sword almost before it hit the ground, and passed it to Giles. He gave her a quick smile and a half-salute with the sword before turning so they could defend each other's backs.

During a lull in the fighting, Catherine glanced back at their male rescuer. She wondered who this stranger was, to whom the Slayer had apparently entrusted Balthazar's amulet, who fought like a-

Like a demon.

Angelus. Or Angel, as he preferred to be called now.

Catherine's revelation shook her so much that she almost missed the vampire coming at her from the left. Luckily, she caught herself in time, and turned her attacker's impetuous lunge against him by twisting to the side and cutting off her opponent's sword hand at the wrist. His head followed seconds later.

Foolish girl, letting yourself be distracted like that! There'll be time enough to worry about vampires with souls later; worry about the ones with swords right now!

After the battle, as they stumbled tiredly out of the warehouse, Catherine asked Buffy, "Not that I don't appreciate the rescue, Miss Summers, but why did you bring...him along, instead of Faith?"

The Slayer gave her a hard look. "Because I couldn't find Faith, and because I trust Angel," she replied.

The Watcher sighed. "Miss Summers-" She took a deep breath. "Buffy. I do think we should discuss your relationship with...Angel...at some future time, but that's not what concerns me right now. What concerns me is the lack of cooperation between yourself and Faith during this crisis."

Buffy shrugged. "Then go talk to Miss Five-By-Five about it. I haven't seen Faith since this afternoon, when she tried to get me to blow off a chemistry exam to go hunting vamps during the day," she finished with a roll of her eyes, and walked away.

Catherine nodded to herself. This confirmed what she had suspected since she'd met the second Slayer the day before. There was friction between the two Slayers, and although most of it seemed to be on Faith's part, Buffy was all too willing to ignore Faith – the person who should by all rights have been her natural partner – in favor of her longtime friends and allies. Understandable, but still disturbing.

"Mr. Giles!" she called out.

He turned, and waited for her to catch up with him. "Yes, Miss Peel?"

"Haven't you noticed that there's something – or rather, someone missing?" she asked pointedly.

He frowned, and looked around. "Ah, yes, well, um...Faith has always been somewhat, er, unreliable-"

"And you just let her be unreliable, Mr. Giles?" she interrupted, using her best imitation of her mother's voice. "Wasn't it your job to guide her, instruct her – not only her fighting skills, but her general behavior and discipline?"

He blinked at her, clearly unused to being lectured by someone over ten years younger than himself. Then he took off his glasses and began cleaning them. "Miss Peel, you must understand that the past few months have been very trying for me. No Watcher has ever had to oversee two Slayers before-"

"I realize that, Mr. Giles. However, I believe you have made a grave mistake in treating Miss Collins in the same way as Miss Summers, giving her a free rein and trusting her to do the right thing on her own." As he started to reply, she held up her hand. "I'm not criticizing your judgement in Buffy's case; she is an independent, strong-willed young lady, and she requires very little external discipline. It is no wonder that she passed her Cruciamentum, even with the cards stacked against her; she is the kind of Slayer that appears once in a millenium.

"But Faith was also your charge, and if Buffy requires little supervision, that should have allowed you to pay more attention to Miss Collins. Even if I privately feel that the Council was wrong in terminating your position with regards to Miss Summers --" She felt a little sad that Mr. Giles actually raised his eyebrows in surprise at her pronouncement. Did he really think all Watchers were as stuffy and hidebound as Quentin Travers? "-- I feel you have neglected your duties to Faith. Have you even read the diaries of her first Watcher?"

He blinked. "I thought they'd been destroyed. The Council never informed me-"

Catherine groaned. "Mr. Giles, I believe I owe you an apology. And that we have a grave problem on our hands." She muttered something under her breath that she'd never dare say in front of either of her parents. "I can assure you that Mrs. Mannheim's diaries survived. I have read them extensively, and I found the contents – especially their descriptions of Miss Collins' life with her mother – most disturbing."

She paused, yawning. "It is late, Mr. Giles, much too late to go over Miss Collins' full history with you. I must tell you, however, that while I have often criticized the Council's frequent policy of taking Slayers from their families and having them raised by their Watchers, it would have been a blessing in the case of Miss Collins."

Giles nodded, visibly troubled. "I see. Did you bring the diaries here from England? It would be better if I read them myself, rather than forcing you to describe them from memory."

She returned his nod. "I'll bring them to the Library first thing tomorrow. I just hope the Council's negligence has not resulted in irreparable damage to Miss Collins' psyche."

1-4 – Hearth and Home

Up until the moment her daughter revealed her double life as the Slayer, Joyce Summers had lived in a world where there was no magic, no supernatural phenomena, and especially no demonic creatures of the night. Ever since that evening the previous May, however, a completely different world was taking over her life. She was the mother of the Slayer – well, a Slayer – the one girl in all the world with the strength and skill, et cetera, et cetera, and so forth. She was having a relationship – the most fulfilling romantic relationship of her life, in fact – with her daughter's Watcher, whose family had been fighting demons and other forces of evil for a thousand years or more. And thanks to a batch of cursed chocolate, she was carrying the next generation of that centuries-old tradition inside of her.

No matter how much she wanted to run away and hide from the ugly things she sometimes found in this new world, she didn't dare. The two most important people in her life put themselves in harm's way on a nightly basis, and her unborn child would be called upon to do the same, in one form or another. So every night, she made Buffy or Rupert – or both of them – tell her about the latest horror show to hit town.

Luckily, the tale they were telling this evening seemed to have come to a happy ending.

"...so I yanked the cord, and the lamp fell into Slugthazar's tub and fried him extra-crispy!" her daughter finished cheerfully. "He made some cheap threats about us being sorry when 'he' rises, but I've heard all that before."

"And Angel and Miss Peel are okay?" she asked, ignoring her own internal rumblings at the thought of her daughter's boyfriend.

"Oh, yeah. Angel's fine, and Miss Peel really kicked ass! I hate to admit it, Giles," she said with an apologetic look at her mentor, "but you were right; I could really learn a lot from her. I mean, jeez, she's the best non-Slayer, non-demon fighter I've ever seen! If I couldn't have Angel at my back, she'd be my second choice for sure." She suddenly made an apologetic face as she realized what she was saying. "Um...that is, I still think you're really good...and you're still number one with a book-"

He waved off her apologies. "Don't worry, Buffy, you haven't hurt my pride; I'm well aware of my limitations, as well as my gifts. Miss Peel has had the advantage of being raised, as well as trained, by one of the finest martial-arts teachers the Watcher's Council has had in centuries. And she's been training since she was fifteen."

Joyce blinked in surprise. "You mean, her mother trained her like a Slayer?"

He frowned. "No, not nearly that intensely. But as she explained it to me, her mother wanted her to understand what it meant to be a Slayer, to have some perspective on what it feels like to be given so much responsibility at such an early age."

"I'm liking Emma Peel more and more all the time," Buffy said dryly. "If the Council had more Watchers like her, there wouldn't be any more Slayers like Kendra – never allowed to have a life of her own – and no more tests like the Crucifixion-"

"Cruciamentum," Giles corrected.

"-and you wouldn't have been fired for showing that you cared whether I lived or died. Scratch that – for showing that you cared, period."

Giles grunted, and took a sip of his tea to cover his embarrassment. For a while, Joyce had been worried about the secret relationship he had had with her daughter, and the influence he had over her. That had ended the first time she'd actually seen them "working" together. However many things this Quentin Travers had been wrong about, he'd been absolutely right about Giles' feelings for her daughter: he loved her like she was his own family. And their interaction left no doubt that neither of them had any "improper" feelings towards the other. Thank goodness for that, she thought as she gazed fondly at Giles. I have him all to myself!

It was too bad that the notion of Giles helping out at the gallery hadn't worked out. He did know a lot about art – and he had found one or two supernatural items in her gallery that were now safely locked away. But his taste just wasn't avant-garde enough to appeal to a modern California crowd. So she was interviewing prospective buyers, hoping to find someone before she became too pregnant to be able to travel.

Buffy broke into her reverie. "Mom, stop that, you're wiggin' me out again with that staring thing."

Joyce blushed self-consciously. She wondered if it was a long-term side effect of the cursed chocolate, or being pregnant, or just the fact that she found Rupert incredibly handsome, but just looking at him made her go all girlish and giggly.

She quickly changed the subject. "What about Faith? How is she doing?"

Buffy frowned. "She wasn't there at the warehouse last night, and she was acting really freaky today. Something's wrong, but she won't tell me about it."

"The whole town's been a little strange today; maybe she just heard the news," Joyce pondered.

"Hmm?"

"Oh, everyone's been on edge since the word about Mr. Finch got out."

"Who's Mr. Finch?" her daughter asked.

"Alan Finch, the deputy mayor. You haven't heard?" The two looked blankly at her. "They found his body in the river early this morning. He was murdered."

Giles put down his mug and blinked at her. "My word."

Buffy was frowning thoughtfully. Suddenly she said, "Giles? We should look into this."

Giles looked even more startled at Buffy's declaration than he had at the news about Mr. Finch. "I-I don't know if that's really necessary, Buffy. There is a police force here in Sunnydale to take care of normal crimes, after all."

Buffy rolled her eyes and snorted. "As if they've ever had a clue, Giles. They're too busy finding things to blame on me to find any real criminals. Besides, have we ever really checked into how many deaths in Sunnydale are not vampire or demon related? I'm beginning to wonder if there are any normal crimes in this town."

The Englishman nodded slowly. "I see your point, in both cases." He paused, and sipped his tea while he thought. "I still don't think this murder merits a Slayer's attention, Buffy – but I suppose we could ask Willow to use that infernal machine of hers to find out what the police know, see if there's anything unusual."

"Good. I can go call her now, see what she can dig up."

Joyce looked back and forth between them, amazed at how quickly they worked together. "Is there anything I can do to help?" she found herself asking.

"Mom, I think-" Buffy started.

"Actually, Joyce, there is something you could do," Giles interrupted. "There's a problem that has bothered me for some time, and you could help me solve it."

He took another sip of tea, and began explaining. "For the past two years, we've been doing our research in the school library, since with my job as librarian and Buffy and her friends attending the school, it was a convenient, anonymous gathering place. However, with Faith and Miss Peel added into the mixture, the school isn't as convenient as it used to be."

He took off his glasses, and his expression became even more serious. "Furthermore, we have been attacked at the library several times. The secret is out, in the demon community at least, and we are vulnerable there because the school is a public building." He paused, as if unsure how to continue.

Joyce made the connection. "You want to start having the-" she glanced at Buffy "-'Scooby meetings' here at the house?"

He sighed. "Yes. I want to bring everything here – keep the occult books in a few bookshelves in the living room, and store the weapons in the basement. Miss Peel and I both live close by, and-"

Buffy interrupted him. "Maybe now would be the best time for you to have that talk with Giles, Mom?" She gave Joyce a significant look, then added, "I'll go call Willow." Then she walked out of the room.

Giles looked puzzled. "What talk? Joyce, what's going on?"

She smiled at him. "Rupert..." She leaned across the table and laid her hand on his. "We want you to move in with us."

He just stared at her, flabbergasted.

"Buffy and I have talked about this a lot, and she approves – although I think the fact that she's looking at colleges right now has something to do with that," she added with a sardonic tilt of her head. "It'll save you a lot of money, now that you're no longer being paid by the Council, it'll make even more sense if you're having research meetings here..." She paused. "And I'm in love with you, and I want you near me – and our child, when it's born – as much as possible."

Again he just sat and stared at her, wide-eyed. Then all of a sudden he was across the table, his hands were in her hair and he was kissing her. Oh, was he kissing her! God, for someone who acts so proper and reserved all the time, when he lets go he's really amazing!

When stopped briefly to take a breath, she managed to gasp out, "Can I take that as a yes?"

He laughed. "You can take that as a 'Yes, dear Lord, yes, how could I possibly refuse?!'" Then he started kissing her again.

"Giles!"

Her daughter's shout made them break apart suddenly. They both blushed a little and attempted to calm down again, but they both froze when Buffy came running into the room. She looked shaken, and a little green in the face. Giles, alarmed, asked "Buffy, what's wrong?"

"I just got off the phone with Willow. She broke into the city records while I was talking with her, and she found Mr. Finch's autopsy report." She paused, and her face went even paler. "Giles, the cause of death was a single stab wound to the heart...and there were splinters of wood in the wound."

1-5 – Lifeline

"A man-eating plant from space? Are you sure your mom didn't steal this plot from 'Little Shop of Horrors?'" Xander Harris asked with a grin.

"Mr. Harris-" Miss Peel began.

"Please, call me Xander. Whenever you say 'Mr. Harris,' I look around for my dad."

Miss Peel either didn't notice the little hitch in his voice as he mentioned his father, or was just too polite to show it. "Xander, I assure you, in 1968 my mother and John Steed encountered a giant plant that grew from a seed that fell from outer space; I've seen the remains of the seed that didn't survive." She went on to tell him the adventure of "The Man-Eater of Surrey Green."

Xander was entranced. Catherine Peel's stories were as good as Faith's, and she was a far better storyteller, especially with that lovely voice...plus, she was gorgeous. Absolutely, mind-bogglingly, catwalk-worthy beautiful. And light-years out of his league, of course, but hey, a guy can dream.

She was just telling Xander about how her mother and John Steed discovered that a hearing aid could filter out the ultrasonic signal the plant used to mesmerize people in its vicinity, when Buffy and Giles came into the library. "I'll have to postpone the rest of the story until another time, Xander; I have some important business to discuss with Mr. Giles and Miss Summers."

He already knew from past experience that Miss Peel wouldn't put up with the kind of puppy-dog faces that usually let him get his way with Willow, Buffy, or Giles, so he only grinned and said, "Okay, but you've got to promise me to finish that story sometime."

She nodded at him, but the look on her face said that she was already concentrating on whatever it was she had to discuss with Buffy and Giles.

Xander watched as the three went into Giles' office, closing the door behind them. The last thing he heard was Buffy saying to Miss Peel, "Sorry we're late, but my mom had a bad bout of morning sickness, and we didn't want to leave her alone till she felt better."

Hmmm, he thought, that "we" is a bit of a surprise. Not only had Giles stayed the night at Casa de Summers, but Buffy was cool with the staying over, and with admitting it publicly.

Then he frowned, and reached into the pile of books on the table for the ones he'd hidden at the bottom. He was technically in first-period study hall, which he chose to take in the library instead of Mrs. Chatham's room – and who wouldn't; Mrs. Chatham was an old bat who made Snyder look like Educator of the Year. But he was planning on studying something besides English or Science this morning.

He was going to study up on Faith.

She'd been avoiding him ever since she'd taken him – or rather, thrown him – into her bed a few days ago, and it was really bothering him. That brief time in her motel room had been the one bright spot in an otherwise hellish night, when he'd ended up taking on a zombie street gang all on his own because his friends kept avoiding him – to "keep him out of harm's way," of course.

The sex had been mind-blowing – well, for him, at least, and it had certainly seemed like Faith had enjoyed herself. And then afterward, she had lain down next to him, and they'd spent a few moments cuddling, smiling at each other, and enjoying a little afterglow, and he'd opened his mouth to say...something. He wasn't quite sure what it would have been, but he'd never get the chance to find out, because she'd chosen that moment to push him out of bed and toss him out on the street in his boxers.

That had hurt not just his pride, but his heart, too. He wasn't in love with Faith – she was still too much of a mystery for that – but he liked her; he liked her a lot. And he really wanted to believe that there was something in that smile she'd given him that said "I really like you too." But if she kept avoiding him like this, how was he supposed to find out what was going on inside her head?

Then yesterday, he'd overheard Giles and Miss Peel discussing Faith and her first Watcher's diaries. Fortunately for Xander, Buffy had come running in with something that required both Watchers, and Giles had absent-mindedly left his office door open with the diaries on his desk, instead of locked away in his filing cabinet.

Xander had helped himself to the diaries, and he'd already read a few days' worth of Mrs. Mannheim's observations on meeting Faith, and her first experiences as a Slayer. But so far, there hadn't been much real information on Faith herself. He was hoping that would change in the next few pages.

As it was, Xander got everything he wanted – and far, far more.

It turned out that Mrs. Mannheim never actually met Faith's mother, because June Collins OD'ed on heroin about two weeks after Faith was Called. After receiving a frantic phone call from her Slayer, the Watcher had arrived to find Faith huddled in a corner, staring at her mother's body and mumbling to herself. She had taken Faith home with her, and over the next few days, the girl had revealed the ugly truths of her home life.

Plainly stated, June Collins had been a tramp. She had made a living out of picking up guys in bars or off the street, bringing them home with her, living off them, drinking or doing drugs with them, and them watching them leave after a few days, a week, or maybe even a couple months if the guy was really desperate for June's kind of company.

Faith had never met her father; she didn't even know who he was. June had never told her his name, but Faith had known that her mother knew which of the many losers she'd slept with was her dad. "You've got his eyes, those bad gypsy eyes; you're gonna be bad just like he was," she'd always said.

Her eyes, he thought. His own eyes were dark brown, but Faith's were so dark they were almost black. They were gypsy eyes, all right – they had that same mysterious, hypnotic quality as Jenny Calendar's. But they weren't bad eyes, just...sexy.

To Xander's surprise, the diaries mentioned that June had had blonde hair and green eyes, and a tiny little button nose; her daughter looked nothing like her. So Faith had spent hours standing in front of a mirror, imagining her own features older and more masculine, and trying to figure out if she'd seen those features on one of the men she passed on the street. If she had, she would've tried to convince him to take her home with him, no matter how poor or "bad" he looked.

Because she'd figured anything would've been better than living with June Collins.

June hadn't given up her lifestyle when she'd had Faith, but it had become much harder to maintain with a child around. The kind of guys she picked up usually avoided responsibility like the plague, and children were the ultimate in responsibility. In fact, if it wasn't for the welfare money June got as a single mother, they both might've starved, or been kicked out of their dirty little apartment in South Boston. As it was, they barely got by, especially once June began spending more and more of their money on drugs. Faith's schools had been poor, dirty, and violent, but she had actually managed to get decent grades through junior high.

And then the guys June brought home began noticing Faith. Mrs. Mannheim didn't include the explicit details of what had actually happened, but Xander could read between the lines. What he imagined was bad enough. But what really made him feel sick was reading about June's reaction to what had happened.

At first, she had yelled at and beaten her daughter, for trying to "take her men away." But after the third or fourth time she had caught one of "her men" with Faith, a cold, calculating part of her brain had taken over. Pretty soon, she was bringing home guys who expected to sleep with Faith instead of June from the start. This left June free to go out and have fun – translation: get drunk and stoned – while her daughter earned the rent money.

She pimped out her own daughter, Xander thought, feeling sick to his stomach. If she wasn't dead, I'd wanna ship her a vampire in a crate. Or maybe see if Willow could do a cross-country curse; turn her into a slug or something.

As he read on, the story had become worse and worse. This state of affairs had started when Faith was about twelve, and lasted until she was Called...at the not-so-tender age of fourteen-and-a-half.

Jesus, Xander thought, trying to totally revise his mental image of the Slayer. From Faith's manner – and yes, her well-developed body, which she seemed to show off all the time – Xander, and probably the rest of the Scoobies, had assumed that she had been close to their own age, that she'd been Called at maybe sixteen or seventeen instead of Buffy's fifteen.

But she'd been even younger than Buffy. She'd only turned fifteen three months ago – right around the time the whole nightmare with Spike kidnapping him and Willow had gone down.

Then a thought struck him that was almost funny, in a horrible kind of way. His own eighteenth birthday had been in December, so even though she'd practically attacked him, he might very well have broken the law in that motel room.

Turning back to the book, he found that Faith had lived with Mrs. Mannheim for only about five weeks, before the last entry, which mentioned a rumor of an ancient vampire coming to Boston, and that she and Faith were going to investigate it that night.

Xander knew the rest of the story: Kakistos had tortured and killed Mrs. Mannheim in front of Faith, who'd managed to wound the vampire and escape. Looking at the date, he figured that it had taken Faith about three months to cross the country on her own.

Now he really felt sick.

He at least had an excuse for never inviting her home; his parents might have been Ozzie and Harriet compared to Faith's mother, but they were still nasty, abusive, drunken slobs. And Willow – who had the World Champions of Absentee Parents – just didn't like Faith. But he knew that Faith had only been to Buffy's house twice – once when she just arrived, and once at Christmas. And Giles? He wondered if Faith even knew where Giles lived.

Now he knew why Miss Peel had wanted Giles to read the diaries.

And he knew what he had to do.

For the second time, he was going to try to rescue a drowning Slayer.

1-6 – Cloak and Dagger

Silence.

Click, rattle, creak. "Xander?"

"Hey, Faith. How are you?"

"Whatcha doin' here, Xan? Lookin' for a repeat performance? Can't believe I'm sayin' this, but not tonight, honey, I got a headache."

Catherine Peel jerked suddenly to attention as she listened to the conversation from her car. Oh, no, she thought. Did that foolish boy really sleep with her?

Cough, gurgle. "Um, no, that's not why I'm here, Faith. But...now that you mention it, you don't look so good. Are you all right? Is there anything I can do for you, get for you?"

"I'm five-by-five, Xan. Why don't you go back to B and Red and stop worryin' yourself about me."

Catherine wished she could risk getting close enough to actually get a look at the two teenagers, especially Faith. The Slayer certainly didn't sound 'five-by-five.' But Faith had those keen Slayer senses and might spot her, and that could ruin the chance that Xander Harris had unexpectedly given her.

She just hoped that Xander was as persistent and patient as he was good-hearted and impulsive.

"Please, Faith. Could you let me in? There's...well, there's some stuff I'd like to talk about."

Grunt. "Whatever. C'mon in."

She heard the door close behind them, and so she decided to drive up to the motel parking lot. She didn't know what Faith's state of mind might be – especially if she really had killed the deputy mayor – and she had no intention of letting Xander get hurt, or worse, just because he had this crazy idea about helping Catherine's young charge.

"So, boytoy, what's on your mind, if it's not another roll in the hay?"

"Actually, um...this place for one. It's, well..."

Snort. "Mrs. Post called it 'spartan.'"

Catherine cursed to herself at the mention of the renegade Watcher. Her job would be ten times easier if it hadn't been for that power-mad renegade. Gwen Post was, in fact, the reason why she was letting Xander do this. Faith had been burned badly by Mrs. Post and, in his own way, by Mr. Giles. She wasn't likely to trust Catherine if she came charging in with an offer to fix all her problems.

Xander's voice brought her back to the present. "I was thinking more along the lines of 'dirty, dangerous, and depressing.'"

"And did I mention 'noisy?'"

"So what's your point? You offerin' me a place to crash? Askin' me to move in with ya?"

"Ummm..."

"Huh. Thought not. Why don't you just get gone, Xan, and lemme-"

"Look, Faith, the only reason I'm not offering you a place to stay is 'cause my home is just as dirty, dangerous, depressing, and noisy as this place."

"Listen, Faith, you know I've been best friends with Willow for like, a million years? Well, the last time she stayed over at my house was when we were twelve. That night dad came home, drunk as usual, and you know what he called Will? A slut."

Deep-throated chuckle. "Innocent little Red, a slut?"

"Yeah. Here's the whole quote: 'You must be a slut, girl. Only a real lowlife would let herself be seen with a good-for-nothing loser like my son Alex.'"

There was no more chuckling.

"Faith, I know what it's like to always feel like you're on the outside. To feel...useless. For years, I only had two friends: Willow and Jesse – someone you never met. They were the ones who kept me sane, mostly by letting me stay over at their places when things got real bad at home. They were my buds, my lifelines.

"And then Buffy came to town, and everything changed. Jesse got vamped that first night. I ended up facing him in the Bronze, and I...I staked him. And it took a long time for me to be able to deal with the fact that he was gone. I think the only reason I made it was because I had friends like Willow, and Buffy, and Giles. And I like to think I've helped get them through their hard times, too. Not to mention helping out with the world-saving."

"Yeah? So who's gonna help me through my hard times? I haven't got any friends."

"Yes you do, Faith. You've got me, for one."

Snort. "Uh-huh. And just what are you expecting in return, boytoy?"

Pause.

"Just let me in."

Chuckle. "I thought so. Thought you said you weren't interested in another go 'round?"

Gurgle. "Uh, not 'in' like, um, that. I mean...I want you to be able to trust me. Let me in here." Thump.

"Like the cheerleader did? I saw where that got her, Xand-man."

Sigh. "I know that was a really bad scene...but...I don't think Cordy ever really trusted me. Things were never right between us, because she never believed in what we had. More than being mad at me for cheating on her, I think she was insulted that it was Willow she caught me kissing, instead of you or Buffy."

"Yeah, right. Like Little Miss Perfect would ever kiss another girl's boyfriend."

"Is that what you think? That Buffy's perfect, that she never does anything wrong? Jeez, Faith, she's screwed up as much as any of us. Let's see, there was the time she almost lambada'd me into jelly at the Bronze, just to get Angel jealous, and then just walked away and left me standing alone on the dance floor like an idiot. Of course, that was just before she let Willow, Giles, Cordelia, and Jenny Calendar get kidnapped by a bunch of vampires who were gonna use their blood to bring back the Master. I was so mad, I told Buffy I'd kill her myself if anything happened to Willow.

"Then there was the time she went to a frat party with Cordelia and almost got eaten by a giant snake, and you know about the whole Angel saga-"

"And you still forgave her for all that, 'cause she's Buffy, right?"

"Well, she did end up rescuing Willow and the others from the vampires who'd kidnapped them. And after the frat party, I heard Giles apologize to Buffy for pushing her so hard, so I guess that was just a one-time fluke. As for Deadboy, you know what I think of him. But as long as he keeps his soul, and helps keep Buffy alive-"

"Goddamn it! Buffy, Buffy, Buffy! All I ever hear is how wonderful she is! How great she is! And why aren't I a little Miss Goody-Twoshoes Slayer like Buffy? Meantime she's got Giles, and you Scoobies, and the great mom, and the great home, and everything! And what do I have? Squat! Well I'm tired of it!"

Alarmed, Catherine got out of her car and started for the motel room. It sounded like Faith had just reached her breaking point. Wonderful. On top of everything else I was expecting, we've got a case of sibling rivalry here that'd put Prince John to shame!

She was still twenty yards from the door when she heard Xander's voice again. "You want a Scooby? All right, Faith." Shuffle. "I, Xander Harris, hereby swear that from this day forward, I am no longer Buffy's Scooby, but Faith's."

Snort. "Are you kiddin' me? Get up off the floor, Xan. We both know you'd never leave B."

"Faith, I want to tell you a little story. It starts last Thursday. I'd managed to get the keys to my Uncle Rory's car, and..."

Catherine listened in amazement as Xander told Faith the story of how he'd spent the whole night running from a group of zombies and bumping into his friends, who did their best to keep him out of the way while they worked at saving the world. And in the end, he was the one who saved the world, by saving them. My goodness. I think I'll send that story back to Mother; she'll want to meet this young man one day soon...

"...I don't know what happened to Jack, but with any luck we'll never see him again." He paused. "I've done my time with Buffy, Willow, and Giles. I fought side-by-side with them for two years, and they never appreciated me.

"Now, this doesn't mean I still won't want to help them if they're in trouble. But you'll come first, Faith. I'll patrol with you, research with you, spend time with you, even do snack runs for you if that's what you need. All I'm asking is, don't stop me from helping. Don't push me away in the name of 'protecting' me. And don't keep things from me."

There was a long silence.

"Jesus...you're serious, aren't you?"

"I'd never joke about something like this, Faith. You want me, I'm yours, in whatever capacity you need me."

"Xan..." Sniffle. Catherine blinked in amazement. Was Faith actually crying? "Oh, God, Xan...you're too late."

"What do you mean, too late?"

"I...I've gone bad...I'm bad, just like Momma always said I was..."

"Faith, you're not bad, your situation is bad. You've been left out here all by yourself-"

"I can't sleep."

"What?"

"I can't sleep. Everytime I close my eyes, I see him. His eyes, staring at me. And the blood...all that blood..."

"Faith, what are you talking about? Who are you talking about?"

"...He came outta nowhere, Xan, and I'd just staked a vamp, and I didn't even realize he was human until after I'd staked him! And he just lay there, and I tried to get rid of him, but he won't go away, and now the Council's gonna kill me like they tried to kill Buffy-"

"Faith!" Shuffle. "Faith, c'mere." Pause. "Please?"

"Faith, tell me what happened, slowly, from beginning to end."

Catherine listened as Faith described what happened in the alley the night they'd fought Balthazar. Poor girl. I should've come to her sooner. I couldn't have stopped that accident from happening, but I could've spared her what must've been the worst two days of her life.

Xander waited a moment, then spoke up, softly. "Faith...One time, just after I got to know Buffy, I snuck up on her in the library and tried to tickle her. The moment I touched her, she elbowed me in the gut and twisted my arm, just the way you were describing a moment ago. She nearly broke my arm before she realized it was me. And that was during the daytime."

"What's your point?"

"The point is, Faith, you fight for your life on a nightly basis. You hesitate, you end up vampire chow. And you said all this happened only seconds after you'd staked a vamp that attacked you? He had to have seen all that, Faith, which means he probably knew you're a Slayer, and that you were in combat mode. And yet he still chose to introduce himself by grabbing your arm in a dark alley? Faith, this guy died of stupidity...which isn't all that uncommon in Sunnydale, come to think of it."

She stepped up to the door, smiled slightly as the knob turned – People in this town really need to learn to lock their doors – and slipped in as quietly as she could.

The two teens were huddled on the bed, Faith curled up in Xander's arms. They both looked up at her, startled, as she said. "He's right, Faith. I may need to have you repeat your story under truth-spell, but it sounds to me like this is an open-and-shut case. No need to involve the Council Disciplinary Board at all."

Xander was the first to recover his voice. "Miss Peel? What are you doing here?"

She shook her head at him. "Xander, did you really think I wouldn't notice that you'd pinched Mrs. Mannheim's diaries?" She noted Xander's flinch as she mentioned the books, and Faith's wide-eyed stare. Did you think I'd keep that a secret, Xander? Better that she knows from the start that you read about her. Besides, I don't think you're a very good liar; she'd find out soon enough anyway. "I am my mother's daughter, after all. I slipped a magical bugging device into your shirt pocket while I was telling you that story in the library this morning."

While Xander continued to just look stunned, Faith actually chuckled a bit. "Maybe you're not such a tight-ass after all, Miss Peel."

"Whatever else I am, Faith, I am not a 'tight-ass.'" She sighed. In for a penny..."Now that the ice has been broken...I'd like to offer you a place to stay."

The Slayer sat bolt upright, almost throwing Xander off the bed. "What?!"

"You heard me, Faith. You're leaving this place tonight. I rented a two-bedroom flat because I intended from the start to move you out of this rat-infested hovel. I only hesitated because I didn't think you'd trust me."

"I don't," Faith stated flatly. "Not yet. I'll come over to your place, but only if Xander'll stay there too, to make sure nothin' happens to me."

Catherine started to ask what Xander could possibly do to defend Faith that she couldn't do herself, but closed her mouth suddenly. This is the same young man who stared down a zombie over a ticking bomb, she reminded herself firmly. He's not exactly without resources.

She turned her gaze to the young man. "Well, Xander? Are you willing to stand vigil over Faith, and see to it that she makes it through the night unscathed?"

He grinned impudently at her. "Let's see. What are my choices? A, another wonderful fun-filled night at the Harris household, with humiliation and bruises for all; or B, an evening with Miss Peel, the woman with the best stories in the world, and Faith, the girl who's probably going to become my new bestest friend. I think I'll take B, Miss Peel, for as long as that offer's open."

1-7 – Politics

"I can't believe it," said Willow, as she and Buffy left Math class and headed for the library.

"Yeah, me neither," Buffy answered dryly. "I mean, why would the police think I was there? It's like I was telling Giles the other night; the Sunnydale PD, especially Detective Stein, is out to get me." She blew her hair away from her face in frustration. "And they totally ruined Mom and Giles' celebration, too."

"Celebration? There was celebration last night?" Willow asked eagerly. "Was there a cake? And maybe a ring?"

"Not that big a celebration, Wills; you haven't won the bet yet," Buffy said with a grin and a roll of her eyes.

When they'd heard the news that Buffy's mom had invited Giles to move in, the Scoobies had started a betting pool as to when Giles would finally go down on one knee and propose. Willow had picked the block of time between Valentine's Day and the Spring Equinox, Oz had the next – from then till her mom's birthday, April 20th – and Xander the one after that, up until Mother's Day. They all agreed that if nothing had happened by then, it was time for drastic measures.

Buffy herself had refused to take part in the betting, claiming "major eww factor," but that was mostly for show. Although she still hadn't been able to say it to the two of them when they were together, she fully supported her mom's relationship with Giles. No matter how weird she thought it was, she wasn't about to stand in the way of anything that made two of the most important people in her life so happy. And, once she got over the initial shock, she had to admit that they did fit together, in a wiggy kinda way.

Buffy continued, "It was Giles' first full day as a resident of 1630 Revello Drive, so we were planning a little something anyway, but then my mom's test results came in yesterday afternoon. Her omni-...anima-"

"Amniocentesis?" suggested Willow, suddenly looking concerned. Buffy had told her about the genetic testing a couple of weeks ago, and she knew that both expectant parents were anxiously waiting for the results. Buffy's mom had been worried about Down's Syndrome because of her age, while Giles' worry had been the possible side effects of the curse they had been under when the child was conceived.

Buffy nodded, and grinned. "All clear. In just under six months, I should have a perfectly normal, healthy...baby brother," she concluded with a huge grin. And that was the wiggiest thing of all – a few weeks ago, she'd been freaked out by the idea of her mom being pregnant. Now, she was actually looking forward to being a big sister. As long as I don't have to change a bunch of diapers!

Willow squealed and threw her arms around Buffy. "That's so great, it'll be so amazing to see a little Giles running around your house! Well, he won't be running, not for a year or two at least, but you know what I mean, he'll be a teeny-weeny little version of our favorite English person, only there'll be more diapers and less tweed, and his books'll have to be drool-proof, and-"

Buffy laughed as the Willowbabble went on and on. Willow was her best friend for so many reasons, but the redheaded hacker's infectious enthusiasm was a biggie.

When Willow finally ran out of steam, she gasped out, "So, last night, celebration? Details!"

Buffy gave a dismissive wave with one hand. "Eh, not much. A fancier dinner than usual, and Mom bought a bottle of," Buffy rolled her eyes a bit, "sparkling cider. Giles said that one glass of champagne wouldn't've hurt the baby, but she's not taking any chances."

Then she growled, "And right in the middle of our first toast to Baby Giles, Sunnydale's not-so-finest come knockin' on the door to play Twenty Million Questions."

"Well, it's over now, right? I mean, you've got an alibi thanks to me and Giles, don'tcha?"

She frowned. "Yeah, but we sort of had to stretch things a bit. 'Cause during the time I was with Giles I was kickin' vampire butt all over that warehouse...and Angel had to take me away from your place to lead me to Balthazar, and he can't exactly put his hand on a Bible to swear when he was with me, you know?"

"Speaking of Angel...how're things going with the two of you?" Willow asked quietly.

Buffy gave her friend a little smile. The battle against the Sisterhood, nerve-wracking and skin-of-their-teeth as it had been, had definitely pushed Buffy and Angel's on-again, off-again relationship back into the "on-again" position. And although Willow wasn't exactly cheering them on, she was being far more understanding about it than Xander. "They're...going, Wills. I checked in on him after patrol, and we talked for a while...and Giles even asked me how he was doing when I got home."

"He did? Was it, like, 'How's your boyfriend doing?' or more like, 'Will your patrol partner be ready for action again soon?'" That last was in an uncanny imitation of Giles' "Stuffy Watcher Voice," and it made both girls giggle a little.

Buffy gave a non-committal shrug. "A little of both. Giles is never gonna forget what Angel did last year," and her own eyes darkened as she remembered the night Jenny Calendar was killed, "...but the whole 'risked his unlife to save the world' thing helps. And I think he realizes that I love Angel...and that I always will."

Buffy paused a moment to watch Willow's reaction to that statement, and when her green eyes showed only sympathy and encouragement, she continued. "Right now, the big problem is Mom. She doesn't understand Angel and me at all. I think she kinda lumps him together with all the awful stuff that's happened ever since I became the Slayer, and all the lies I had to tell her...and especially the whole running away thing," she finished guiltily.

"Well, maybe you could-" Willow broke off abruptly as they reached the library. Giles, Miss Peel, Faith, and Xander were seated around the research table, and they all had major worry written all over their faces.

"-really that bad?" Giles was saying.

Miss Peel was nodding. "It's worse, Mr. Giles." She turned a little to face Buffy and Willow. "Come in, Buffy. This concerns you as much as it does Faith. And you too, ah, Miss Rosenberg."

"What's going on?" the Slayer asked, as they both took seats.

"It appears that our suspicions were correct, Buffy," Giles said quietly. "Faith did kill the deputy mayor."

Buffy and Willow both gasped, but Giles held up a hand before either could react, and continued, "However, Miss Peel and I both questioned her under truth-spell this morning, and we are convinced that it was an accident. While Faith quite definitely needs to take some time off from patrolling, and undergo some special training and counseling, we don't believe that she should be punished for what happened."

He glanced at the Slayer's pale face, with its haunted, guilty expression and the dark circles under her eyes, and commented, "Besides, she's already been punishing herself more harshly than I ever could."

Then Miss Peel took over. "We have another problem, however. Faith tried to hide what happened because she was afraid of the Council's reaction. After finding out about the Cruciamentum – seeing how brutally they treated a Slayer who has performed as well as you have, Buffy – she was afraid they would kill her if they found out what happened."

She sighed. "And I'm very much afraid that she was right."

"What?!" Buffy felt like the room was spinning. She had felt a flash of anger at Giles' first revelation, a surge of relief at the second...but now she was simply frightened. A distant part of her mind registered the raw terror on Faith's face, and Xander supporting the younger girl with an arm around her shoulders, but she couldn't process that information just yet.

Miss Peel was continuing. "Although most of the Field Watchers and Watchers-at-Large are good people, there are quite a few older Watchers, who spend all their time at Council Headquarters in England, and are positively useless. None of them have ever been Field Watchers, and many of them haven't lived in the real world for years. They think of Slayers as no more than tools, weapons to be used and discarded at will. They would find it more efficient to execute Faith and train her replacement instead of helping her work through her problems."

Buffy had the distinct impression that if Miss Peel didn't have such good manners, she would have spat at the word "efficient."

She continued, "Out of the seven members of the Council itself, four are of that breed, including Quentin Travers, whom you have already met, the Council President, James Ashton, and two of his old cronies, Trevor Gaines and John Hemphill. The other three are Wallace Sanderson, Terrance Evans – both of whom are good and decent men – and Peter Peel, my father."

Willow gave her an indignant glare. "Yeah? And how many of those 'good and decent men' voted to fire Giles?"

Miss Peel met the redhead's glare cooly. "None of them, Miss Rosenberg. The vote to remove Mr. Giles was four-to-three, like nearly every other matter of substance that has come before the Council for the past few years," she replied, as Willow's indignation gradually turned to sheepishness. Even Giles seemed surprised at that piece of information, Buffy noted.

"Fortunately, as Faith's Watcher, I have my own discretionary powers. It is up to me to ask for the Council's help in disciplinary matters, if I choose to do so. As long as I can report to them that I have taken Faith's statement under truth-spell, and that she is co-operating with my instructions," she glanced at Faith, who gave a faint nod in return, "then I can tell them I have the situation under control."

"But will they listen to you?" Buffy asked. "I mean, they fired Giles for telling me about that test, even after that vampire had turned one of the Watchers. And even after they took my mother-"

"Your mother?" the Englishwoman interrupted. She turned to Giles, looking confused. "Travers made no mention of Mrs. Summers in his report to the Council."

Giles' eyebrows lifted slightly. "The vampire, Kralik, kidnapped Joyce at about the same time as I told Buffy about the whole thing. That was why Buffy went to the boarding house that night, even though she knew all about the test, and the...injections." he finished, with a guilty look at his former charge.

Miss Peel's eyes widened. "He lied," she whispered. "Travers actually lied to the Council..."

"Any chance we could get him fired, Miss Peel?" Buffy grumbled.

The Englishwoman blinked in surprise. Her brow was furrowed in thought for a moment – and then she suddenly grinned. "I do believe we could, Buffy. If you and your mother would be willing to make your statements under truth-spell, it would be enough evidence to have Travers removed from the Council, maybe even sacked from the Watchers as well."

Buffy blinked as Miss Peel's smile turned almost predatory. "Even Ashton wouldn't support Travers if he found out about this. One of the 'traditions' that those old dinosaurs cling to so tightly is that everything they do is meant to protect human life. Once it gets out that Travers' incompetence and inaction endangered an innocent bystander, they'll turn on him, if only to protect their own reptuations."

Even though Buffy could see Giles' eyes glittering at the thought, he protested, "I, um, don't think it would be proper to engage in such...petty vengeance-"

"It's not 'petty vengeance,' Mr. Giles. It's smart politics," Miss Peel answered. "Once Travers is removed, his replacement has to be elected by a general Conclave of the Watchers. That will take months to arrange, and in the meantime, the Council will be deadlocked; every vote will come to a 3-3 tie. Faith will be safe."

"I'm liking the sound of this more and more," Xander said.

Buffy remembered something then. "Miss Peel, did Giles tell you that the police came to my house last night?"

"Yes, he did. In fact, Mr. Giles and I have a theory-"

"Did they come to question Faith as well?"

Miss Peel frowned at Buffy's interruption, but replied, "Faith stayed at my flat last night. If the police came to her motel room to question her, it was after we had checked her out."

"Well, what are we going to do if they are looking for her? I mean, even if Mr. Finch's death was an accident, we probably can't prove it. Police don't pay much attention to truth spells, you know."

Giles frowned. "It is unfortunate, but we are simply going to have to lie to the police about Faith's whereabouts on the night in question. Since I have already said I was with you for most of the night, Buffy, Miss Peel will have to say she was with Faith."

Buffy glanced at Miss Peel, then back to Giles. "She's in town three or four days, and already she's giving testimony for a murder investigation? Even in Sunnydale, that's gonna look weird, Giles."

The Englishwoman answered. "Once they look into my background, and contact the British Consulate in L.A., I believe they will drop the matter. As much as I hate to rely on it, my mother's family is rather prominent."

"That mean you're rich?" asked Faith, with the first faint hints of a smile.

The Englishwoman cleared her throat, slightly embarrassed. "Let's just say that I'm 'well-off' and leave it at that, shall we?"

With the major questions settled, and a battle plan – so to speak – laid out, the Scooby meeting broke up soon after. Willow had been asked to find out who (besides her, of course) had accessed Mr. Finch's autopsy report. Faith was off Slayer duty for the time being, but she was still to report to Giles in the morning for tutoring, and to Miss Peel in the afternoon for counseling.

Miss Peel had also said something to Xander, but it was in a half-whisper and Buffy had missed it. But she did hear Xander reply, "I'll stick around for as long as she needs me. Not like my parents'll miss me or anything."

So when everyone else had cleared out, she went to Giles' office and asked Giles if he knew what was going on with Xander and Faith.

He laughed mirthlessly. "Buffy, we all owe that young man a large helping of thank-yous, and a generous side order of apologies. It seems that last week, when we were all so busy trying to save the world..."

1-8 – Two-Front War

Willow was fuming as she stalked through the halls of Sunnydale High towards the cafeteria.

She wouldn't be able to get Faith alone right now, but she'd known where to find Xander.

"Is it true?" she barked.

Xander looked up from his sandwich, looking startled, but not puppy-peed-on-the-carpet guilty, which surprised Willow. She was even more surprised when he just cocked his head at her and asked innocently, "Is what true?"

Whoa, I must be losing my touch! She put on her infamous "resolve face" and glared at him, confident that he would give in. "You know what I'm talkin' about, mister. Now 'fess up!"

He just stared back at her.

Okay, this is new, she thought. She'd noticed there was something different about Xander over the past few days, but she hadn't really been able to put her finger on it. But now here she was, in a staring contest with Xander, and for the first time in her life, she knew she was gonna lose. A few weeks ago, he'd've already been apologizing for every naughty thing he'd ever done, going all the way back to stealing her Barbie Doll in kindergarten.

She finally gave in and asked, "Did you tell Faith you were going to leave the Scooby Gang?"

The corner of his mouth quirked, and Willow could tell he was hiding something, but she couldn't tell what it was. Darn it! "Actually, that's not what I said. I told her I was going to be her Scooby from now on, instead of Buffy's."

"What's the difference? And why would you say something like that?"

"Y'know, I'd kinda like to hear the answer to those questions myself, Xander," Buffy said from behind him. Xander's head whipped around to meet the Slayer's hazel eyes, and Willow could almost read his thoughts: "Uh-oh, I'm surrounded!" She couldn't help grinning a little. Now we've got him!

But once again, there was no caving, no begging for mercy. Just a glare, and a snarky, "Isn't this what you wanted, Buff? Now you won't have to worry about rescuing poor little Xander-the-tagalong anymore."

Buffy's eyes flashed angrily, but Willow was totally unprepared for what she said. "Aren't I allowed to be wrong every now and then, Xander? Giles told me about Jack O'Toole, and the bomb. You saved all our lives!" She sighed. "All right, Xander, I admit it, we need you."

"Not like Faith does," Xander answered calmly. "You've got a whole bunch of people to support you now, Buffy: your mom, Giles, Willow, Oz...Angel," he added reluctantly. "Miss Peel and I are all Faith has."

"Faith has all of us too, Xander."

"Oh, yeah? Then why was she staying in that roach motel until last night? And have you ever seen Faith cry, Buffy? I have. She cried herself sick last night, and I think I'm the first person to see that since her first Watcher got killed!"

Xander's anger was so palpable that Willow actually took a step back. And for the first time, she began wondering if she and Buffy had misjudged the whole situation.

Xander was still ranting at Buffy. "She couldn't even trust Miss Peel enough to go home alone with her last night! So I was the one who held her when she woke up screaming in the middle of the night!"

Buffy looked a little green, and Willow realized she was probably flashing back to her own feelings of guilt when she'd killed Ted. "Is it really that bad?" she heard the blonde whisper.

"It's worse. If she'd had a normal life before, she might be able to deal with this, but...I read her Watcher's diaries, Buff. I can't tell you what I read in there; I shouldn't have seen it myself. But I can tell you this: you've hated being the Slayer for as long as I've known you. You've always wished that you could be a normal girl, have a normal life. But to Faith, being a Slayer is wonderful, compared to her 'normal' life."

He turned suddenly to face Willow while Buffy digested that thought. "Willow, imagine what my life would've been like if I hadn't had you and Jesse around. And then imagine if I was a girl instead of a boy." He waited while she thought about that. "Now multiply that by about a thousand, and you'll have some idea what Faith's life's been like."

He took a deep breath, and looked back and forth at both of them. "She's been through Hell, and she's had to do it alone. Well, she's not going to be alone anymore."

Now Willow was feeling sick on so many levels she couldn't count them all. She had a pretty good idea what Xander had been tip-toeing around, and she suddenly couldn't summon up the energy to be angry at Faith anymore.

But she also recognized that look in Xander's eyes. This wasn't just friendship, or protectiveness. He only got that look when he was talking about her, or Buffy. Or at least, he used to...

Buffy had seen the same look, and she was able to put her suspicions into words. "Xander...are you in love with Faith?"

Xander did look guilty then, and Willow's heart sank into her shoes. "Not...not yet," he mumbled. "And...I won't start anything until I'm sure I won't hurt her the way I hurt Cordy, or," and he turned around to face Willow again. His eyes were unreadable. "Or you. I never want to do anything like that again, to anyone."

They stared at each other for several seconds, and Willow had a sudden realization. This was as close as Xander could come to apologizing for his part in the "fluking." Not because he wasn't aware of how wrong it was, or how much they'd hurt Oz and Cordy. It was just that he couldn't make himself say that he regretted having those kinds of feelings for her. Or for kissing her.

It was stupid...but it was still sweet, in a King-of-Cretins kinda way.

When she was able to speak, she said quietly, "Saying you don't want to hurt someone doesn't mean you won't do it, Xander. But I know you'll do your best to help her. You always do your best." And that was as close as she could come to acknowledging what he'd just not said.

"Thanks." He paused a moment. "Will, isn't there some witchy version of 'what goes around, comes around?'"

She was thrown by his question, but she nodded. "The Threefold Rule. Everything you do, good or bad, comes back to you, multiplied by three."

"Well, this is sort of like that in reverse. You and Jesse were there for me, and now I have to be there for Faith. Otherwise, it's like I'm...ungrateful, or something."

She gave him a half-smile. "I can actually feel some kinda twisty Xander-logic there." She blinked away the tears in her eyes, then said, "Are you sure about leaving us, Xander?"

Willow could see some of the tension leave his face, as if he knew he'd already won this fight. Which, she had to admit, he had. He slowly held out his hands; Willow took one, Buffy took the other, and he said, "I'll tell you the same thing I told Faith. You're my friends, and nothing's gonna change that. I'm not going to stop helping you when I can."

He took a deep breath. "But Faith has to come first. She has to know that I'll always be there for her if she needs me."

Buffy smiled sadly. "I can get that. I guess...I just always thought that you were always gonna be there for me."

Willow blinked in surprise at what she'd just heard...and the subtext she thought she'd heard. And, not for the first time, she wondered if her two best friends would have gotten together if Angel hadn't come along.

Then she thought about what that could have meant, with the fluking and all, shuddered, and did her best to forget all about it.

1-9 – Couples' Night

"You look like a girl with a lot on her mind."

"Gaah!" Buffy jumped about a foot into the air, then spun around with her stake at the ready. Then she glared at Angel as he stepped out of the shadows and gave her a little smile. "God, Angel, don't do that! Haven't you heard how dangerous it is to surprise a Slayer?"

He nodded, secretly pleased that he was able to sneak up on Buffy. If he could still surprise a Slayer, then there wasn't a vamp or demon in Sunnydale that he couldn't ambush at will. "Actually, I checked in with Willow earlier this evening, so I got the whole story."

He smiled and shook his head, as he thought about what the redhead had told him. So the boy finally decided to grow up. At least he picked the right time to do it. Then he remembered the message Willow had given him. "Oh, and I'm supposed to tell you that she's hacked into the coroner's computer, and in the process of, what was it...doing reverse DNS lookups on each entry in the access log?" He shrugged, unsure whether he'd actually gotten the mouthful of computerese right. "Doesn't mean much to someone who grew up in the quill-and-parchment era."

"It doesn't mean much to me either, and I'm growing up in the keyboard-and-monitor era," Buffy answered with a rueful shake of her head. "But with any luck, Willow will be able to use it to figure out who gave the cops their 'anonymous tip.'" She snorted in disgust.

As he drew closer to Buffy, he could see how worn-out she looked, not only physically but mentally. The emotional whipsaw of the past few days had taken their toll on her, and he longed to take her in his arms and comfort her. But he knew that, in the end, it would only add to her problems. They had confessed their love to one another only days ago, but they both knew it could never go beyond words. They were walking a very thin line between "friends" and "lovers," and they couldn't cross that line even for a moment...no matter how much it hurt both of them.

So he stuffed his hands in his pockets and started walking with Buffy as she explained the scheme the Watchers had come up with. What it boiled down to was that whoever – or whatever – tipped off the cops had given them Buffy's name as well as Faith's, so they had known it was a Slayer, but not which one. The most likely way of finding that out was to have seen the autopsy report, so Willow was going to try to figure out who had read the report that wasn't supposed to – besides her, of course.

Angel nodded. It was pretty simple, once you thought it out. But something was bothering him about the whole mess. "Buffy, they not only had to know it was a Slayer, but who the current Slayer is...not to mention that there are two of you. Of course, your secret is out, thanks to me..." He grimaced and fell silent.

Buffy nodded sadly. When Angel had lost his soul last year, he'd gone out of his way to make sure all the demons and vampires in town knew the Slayer's name, just to make things harder for her.

She continued where he'd left off. "But Faith's another story. Even those guys that came after us at Homecoming knew there was another Slayer in town, but they didn't know what she looked like. I still can't believe they thought it was Cordelia!" Buffy grinned, and Angel managed to return it – she'd told him about the bluff Cordelia had pulled on Lyle Gorch. He just wished he'd been there to see it.

Buffy continued. "The only vamp that I'm sure knew about Faith was old Cloven Guy, and he's dust."

Angel's brow furrowed in confusion. Cloven Guy? Then he blinked in surprise. "Kakistos? The Greek Freak? Is that who chased her across the country?"

Buffy giggled briefly at the nickname, then nodded. "Yeah, that was just before you...showed up."

"I'd heard stories about an ancient vampire who showed up in town and got himself slain, but I didn't know it was him," Angel said, distracted. His mind was racing. "Kakistos wasn't all that clever, but he had this uncanny ability to collect smart, talented followers. If one of his minions got away, he could easily be your anonymous tipper."

A fledgling came along and interrupted their conversation – momentarily. He was staked within seconds, and the two continued on their way, discussing who their mystery vamp might be. It was over an hour before Buffy remembered a certain sharp-dressed, smart-mouthed vamp she'd met on Band Candy Night, going by the name of Trick.

Willow had been struggling with the access log for two hours when Oz showed up to lend a hand. She was smarter than he was – a lot smarter, he had to admit – but like many geniuses, she was impatient, and tended to become frustrated at tedious, repetitive tasks.

Patience was one of the things Oz prided himself on. He'd seen the kinds of trouble that people – especially the Scooby Gang – got into by jumping into things, making snap judgements, and so forth. Lots of his casual acquaintances thought his laid-back attitude was just a facade, a pose he put on for the band. In reality, it was a way of life. One that had been seriously jeopardized by the sudden intrusion of lycanthropy into his life.

Not to mention the emotional rollercoaster he was currently riding with a certain redheaded hacker/apprentice witch.

When they finally reached the end of the access log, Willow looked over their results. "Three entries for the coroner's office. Five for the police department, including the one that's really my hack job. Two for the D.A.'s office. And one for the Mayor's office." She hmphed. "Seems like the only illegitimate access was mine...unless there's a demon out there who's a better hacker than I am. And that's a pretty scary thought." She closed her laptop with a thump, and let out a frustrated sigh.

"Long day?" he asked, honestly concerned. Willow wasn't the night-owl Buffy was – or himself, for that matter – but she was usually much more alert at nine-thirty.

"Hard day, what with Xander, and Faith, and Watcher politics, and anonymous tippers who know about Slayers, and so forth," she sighed. Then she gave him a mock pout. "Not to mention that I haven't received my daily quota of boyfriend attention."

"Ah. That explains it," he said, putting on his oh-so-serious face. "Now, what kind of attention is called for in this situation? We talking flowers? Poetry? Gifts?"

"Well, I don't see any flowers or gifts around," she said. Then she flushed a little. "And, I know you're usually not big with the verbiage, but if the songs you wrote for Dingoes recently are any indication, the poetry is definitely a valid option...and if you don't wanna talk, there are other ways you could use your mouth," she said with a grin.

Oz lifted an eyebrow while he weighed the choice of waxing rhapsodic on the subject of hair that captured autumn's fire, and eyes that hypnotized him with their sea-green depths, versus just taking Willow into his arms and kissing her breathless. He finally settled on waxing rhapsodic, then kissing her breathless.

Patience had its rewards, after all.

"Hmmm...How about Geoffrey? That was my uncle's name."

Joyce made a half-grimace, and thought about it. "Maybe – but only as a middle name. I don't like the sound of 'Geoffrey Giles;' it sounds...off, to me."

Giles snorted. "You're right; Geoffrey Candless sounds much better."

Joyce raised one eyebrow and grinned at her lover. "Candless? Your mother's maiden name was Candless?"

Giles gave her an indignant glare. "You're a fine one to talk, Joyce Ellen MacAndrus Summers." He grinned as he twitted her yet again about her Scottish maiden name. He wondered if he could get one of his friends over in Britain to send him something he could give her as a mock gift. Rumor had it that some idiotic company had decided to start selling canned haggis...

Joyce returned his glare, but suddenly brightened. "What about Andrew?"

He raised his eyebrows at her choice of inspiration, then rolled the name over in his head. "Andrew Giles." He pursed his lips. "It does have a certain ring to it. And I think it's a family name, too...I had a great-grandfather Andrew on my mother's side..."

Joyce smiled, and leaned over to kiss him. "Why don't we sleep on it, and see how it sounds in the morning?"

He smiled. "That sounds like an excellent idea." Which brought him to the very awkward question of-

"So why don't we go upstairs?"

Joyce's question completely shut down his mental processes for several seconds. And as always, when he had that awkward feeling that he had to do something with his hands, he took off his glasses and cleaned them. Some people smoked, some drummed their fingers...he cleaned. "I, um...I really should wait for Buffy to come in from patrol-"

Joyce came up to him, and laid her hand on his arm. "All this worrying isn't good for either of us, Rupert. I'm sure Buffy will be fine. You said this was going to be an ordinary patrol, and...and Angel was going to be meeting her."

In the back of his head, he noticed Joyce's hesitation at Angel's name, but he couldn't really concentrate on it at the moment, because Joyce was looking him right in the eye, and her gaze was turning smoky. Then she gave him a wry look and asked, "Besides, what's the worst that can happen? You think you can get me any more pregnant than I am already?"

That did it. For the first time in what seemed like ages, Rupert Giles broke up laughing. Not a little chuckle, but a full-throated laugh that left him red-faced and wheezing.

When he caught his breath, he gave her a heated look of his own, and made a decision. Joyce had experienced all the wild passion of his youth...now she was going to find out what a difference twenty years of experience and patience could make in a man.

As he followed Joyce upstairs, he had a mental image of Buffy making one of her "eeewww" faces. He promptly gave the imaginary Slayer an imaginary British Worker's Salute.

For the third time that night, her voice woke him. "No...please...I didn't mean it...I'm sorry...NO!"

He was already out of his chair as Faith woke up screaming and thrashing around. He debated the wisdom of getting close to a panicked Slayer for all of half a second, then ducked a waving arm as he put his arms around the frightened girl and tried to calm her down.

After a minute or so, her voice quieted down, and she leaned into his embrace. "Oh God, Xander, it was horrible...I was back in the alley, and I stabbed him all over again, only he wouldn't stop bleeding! It just kept coming out of him and I tried to stop it, and it turned into a river, a river of blood that washed over me, and I was trying to swim, but I knew I was going to drown-"

Her voice stopped suddenly, and then she gasped, "Blood! No! No!"

He looked at her, and saw that she was staring, horrifed, at his face. He reached up with one hand, and found that she'd scratched his cheek in her struggles, and there was a little trickle of blood running down his chin.

Faith was shaking her head, saying, "No, no, no," over and over.

"Faith?" He tried again, louder. "Faith!" He hated to do this, but he shook her a little as he repeated a third time, "FAITH!"

She stopped, and looked up at him.

"Faith, I'm all right, I've gotten hurt worse than this in gym class..." He reached out to her, and she slowly allowed herself to be hugged again. "I'm fine, really."

After a few minutes of just holding each other, she whimpered, "Why are you doing this? Why are you being so good to me?"

It was the middle of the night, and he hadn't been getting much sleep. He felt like there was a huge boulder sitting right on top of his brain. But he managed to get the words out. "Because I can. Because I can't stand by and not help."

She pulled back from him a little, and looked into his face. After a long moment, she asked quietly, "Would you...sleep with me? Please?"

He blinked, confused, and her face fell at his hesitation. She lowered her eyes, and muttered bitterly, "I guess...you must be disgusted with me...now that you know what I am...what I've done..."

Oh, wow. Great way to make her feel better, Cretin King! "No, it's not...that's not who you are, Faith." He ducked down, to look into her eyes, and repeated, "That's not who you are. None of that matters to me. At all."

"Then...why've you been sleeping in that chair? I mean, it's not like I've ever actually slept with anyone before...I always got gone, or kicked 'em out if we were at my place..."

Then his tired brain caught up with her words, and realized what she'd meant. She wanted him to sleep with her. He felt like an even bigger idiot than before. "I'm sorry, Faith. I didn't...I didn't understand. Of course I'll...sleep with you."

She looked at him. "You thought I wanted...but why wouldn't you...?"

He groaned, and looked up at the ceiling. I just can't win tonight, can I? "Faith, I..." He took her hands gently. "I've been doing a lot of thinking...about what happened between me and Cordy. I hurt her, really bad. And I hurt Willow too – I'm amazed she's still willing to talk to me. And I...God, Faith, I don't ever wanna see you hurt like that. And I definitely don't want to be the one who hurts you."

She looked at him, then bit her lip and looked down again. "So, we're gonna stay 'just friends'...that it?"

He took a deep breath. "Yeah...for now."

She looked up at him again suddenly.

He went on, feeling giddy from sleep deprivation. "Faith, you're gorgeous, and sexy, and I'd have to be blind not to be interested. But you're also hurting right now, and...and I think I just realized why everything went wrong with Cordy, and me, and Willow."

She tilted her head at him expectantly.

He wasn't sure if this was typical late-night foggy thinking, but he kept talking. "Me and Cordy, we had passion together. Whether we were fighting, or kissing, or whatever, there was always a lot of fire there. But we went right from calling each other names to making out, with no time for friendship or anything else in between. So...we never learned to trust each other."

He thought he was really onto something here. "Now, Willow and I have been friends forever, and she was always like a sister to me, until Homecoming, and then suddenly I noticed she was a girl, y'know?" Faith nodded, and he went on, "There wasn't as much passion at first, but there was the whole forbidden, cheating-on-my-girlfriend thing to make up for that..." He paused. "And then everything blew up, and Willow went back to Oz and Cordy dumped me."

Faith gave him a look. "So?"

"So, I think I know why I did it. I didn't have a relationship, I had two halves of a relationship. I had friendship and trust with Willow, and passion and intensity with Cordelia...and I think I could have both with you."

She stared at him, speechless.

"We have passion...at least, I thought we did." He waited, and she slowly smiled, and nodded. "And we're doing okay right now with the trust, and the friendship. I...I just wanna let us be friends, for a while...but we can try for more when we're both ready."

Faith took a deep breath herself. "Jesus, Xan...you just managed to scare me more than any vamp I ever met." She gave a half-hearted chuckle. "I...I think that's why I kicked you out, that night. 'Cause, I think I knew you were gonna want more than just a roll in the hay...and I wasn't ready for more than that." She blinked, and Xander saw a few unshed tears in her eyes. "Guess I'm still not ready.

"But I wanna try, Xander. I...There's been something missing in my life, all this time, and I wanna know what it is."

She took a deep breath. "I think you can show me. I think you can give it to me."

Xander smiled. "I'd love to be able to give it to you."

She gave him a wicked grin, and for a moment she looked like the old Faith again. "Thought we were gonna wait for that, Xan?"

He choked, and turned red, not sure whether he should be laughing or not. He finally gave up and laughed, feeling relieved when he heard her laughing too.

When he could breathe again, he wrapped his arms around her and just held her.

His friend. His Faith.

They laid down together in the bed, and just slept together.

Faith slept through the rest of the night.

1-10 – Responsibility

"Hey, Miss Peel, G-man," Xander said, grinning happily as he entered the library. "Willow said you wanted to see me about something? Better make it quick; I need to eat before I meet her and Buffy for patrol."

The two Watchers looked at each other grimly for a moment, and Xander suddenly felt much less gleeful. "What's going on?"

Miss Peel finally answered, frowning, "Xander, we're going to have to insist that you not go out on patrol – for a while, at least."

Oh, are we back to this old game again? "So, I guess the G-man's been converting you to the cult of Let's Keep Xander Out of the Way? I thought you two at least had begun taking me seriously-"

Giles interrupted him sharply, "For once in your life, Xander, stop talking and listen!"

Xander took one look at the librarian, and gulped; that wasn't a Giles face, it was a Ripper face. Even Miss Peel looked startled at the sudden fury on her fellow Watcher's face. Xander himself hadn't seen Giles look that angry since...well, a year ago, during that whole love spell fiasco.

The Englishman took a deep breath, and visibly calmed himself. Then he said quietly, "I will admit that, in the past, I have not fully appreciated your capabilities, Xander. You have demonstrated recently that you have reservoirs of strength and compassion that truly amaze me, and I will never be able to express just how grateful I am for your support of Faith during this crisis."

Then his expression became more serious again. "But you've done far more than support Faith, Xander. You've become involved with her. You've made yourself...irreplaceable."

Miss Peel smoothly took over. "We don't object to your relationship with Faith. And," she glanced at Giles a moment before continuing, "we do take you seriously, Xander, and we understand your desire to help your friends. And believe that you could be of real help to them. But right now, Faith needs your compassion much more than Buffy needs your strength, and we cannot allow you to risk your life when doing so jeopardizes Faith's recovery."

Okay, that's fighting dirty, Xander thought unhappily. He hadn't really looked at things from that angle, but he had to admit that they were right. After the conversation he had had with Faith last night, with their talk of "later" and "when we're ready," there was the unspoken promise that he would be there when "later" came along.

But there was still something missing. Giles shouldn't have gotten that angry over a little patrolling. Either Mrs. Summers had replaced his expensive, imported teas with Folger's Crystals, or they weren't telling him everything. "If I promise not to go on patrol tonight, I'd like two things in return."

Miss Peel lifted a sardonic eyebrow. "And they are?"

"One: let me at least talk to Buffy and Willow before they go out tonight. We haven't seen each other much lately, and we had a little blowup yesterday over Faith. I kinda won the argument, for once, but I wanted to do the whole 'gracious in victory' thing – hence, the plan to patrol tonight."

Miss Peel nodded. "Of course, Xander; we would never get in the way of your friendships."

Xander sighed. "Two: tell me what's got you so jumpy."

Giles blinked, and tried to cover – or make time for an excuse – with the usual glasses-cleaning routine, but Miss Peel gave him a little shake of her head and said, "We might as well tell him, Giles."

He gave her a questioning look. "You're being awfully free with Council secrets. Come to think of it, your father probably shouldn't have told you, and you shouldn't have told me."

She shrugged. "I'm too used to my family; none of us was ever able to keep secrets from the rest of us, going back to when Mother figured out about the Watchers and what they did over a year before she was invited into the club." She smirked a little at Giles' scandalized expression. "Besides, take a look at Xander; he's already trying to guess what we're hiding, and he'll probably come up with something ten times worse than the truth."

"That hardly seems likely," Giles muttered as he looked up at the ceiling, as if hoping for answers from On High. Then he returned his gaze to Xander, and a little bit of Ripper returned to his features. "What we're about to tell you, Xander, does not go beyond this room. You do not tell Willow or Buffy, and especially not Faith. If you breathe a word of this, I will make you very sorry. Is that clear?"

"C-crystal," Xander replied, cursing the little stammer that Giles' icy-cold tone had shaken out of him.

"Very well then." The Watcher leaned back in his chair, and laced his fingers in front of him. "Miss Peel called her father today, to give him her first report on Buffy and Faith, and to tell him about Buffy and Joyce's testimony regarding the Cruciamentum."

Miss Peel smiled. "He was almost cackling at the thought of having 'that stupid, vicious prat' Travers removed from the Council. But when I told him about what has happened with Faith..." She broke off.

Xander felt his stomach clench in fear. "What? Don't tell me the Council will still try to kill her?"

"No, Xander, absolutely not. Father promised he would make sure Travers gets the boot, then secure Sanderson's and Evans' votes before presenting the facts of Faith's case before the Council. But he did tell me...why the Council tends to be so harsh with Slayers who take a human life, even accidentally."

She paused at this point, unwilling or unable to continue, and Giles took over. "It goes back to the fundamental nature of the Slayer. Xander, you know how Buffy always takes it personally when a demon or vampire kills someone in Sunnydale?"

He nodded. "Yeah; even when there was nothing she could've done, no way she could've known, she blames herself. And when she killed Ted...at least, before she knew he was a robot..."

Giles nodded. "I was about to mention that myself. It seems that this is not peculiar to Buffy alone; all Slayers seem to have, for lack of a better term, a guilt complex. Past Watchers have even theorized that this may be the key to the origins of the Slayer – that in the remote past, a being committed some great crime, related to demons or vampires, and is attempting to atone for it by acting as humanity's defender, through the girls that it...well, not possesses, but influences."

"You kinda lost me there, Giles, but I still got the basics. Slayers have major issues with guilt. And this means?"

"It means, Xander, that most Slayers who take a human life, except in the defense of another human life, quickly go mad or commit suicide."

The library was suddenly very quiet.

It took Xander over ten seconds to be able to accept that he had just heard Giles say, "go mad or commit suicide." And then he had a sudden urge to leave the Watchers behind in a cloud of dust to check up on Faith.

He must have gotten up without realizing it, because Miss Peel was saying, "Sit down, Xander. Faith is all right; she just left our counseling session a few minutes ago. She said she was going to see someone – she wouldn't tell me who, but she insisted it was a personal matter, and had nothing to do with Slaying, and I chose to respect her privacy – and that she would meet us at the flat by five-thirty."

Xander nodded, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to get rid of the cold lump in his stomach until he saw Faith in person and was sure she was okay.

Miss Peel went on, "We're not telling you this to scare you, Xander; you've already worked wonders with Faith. She said she was able to sleep through most of the night last night without any nightmares?" Xander nodded in reply, and she continued. "That in itself is...extraordinary. I don't know what you said or did, but what you've done is nothing less than a miracle."

Giles took over again then. "However, that brings us back to the question of you patrolling, Xander. Right now, you are the only person whom Faith trusts absolutely. And as for your involvement with the girl..." Giles took a deep breath. "As Miss Peel said, I don't disapprove of your relationship with her, but you have to realize the consequences of your actions. Faith has become very dependent on you, and if you were injured or killed, it would probably send her into another tailspin. And if that resulted in Faith going mad, becoming violent...Xander, there's no way to restrain a Slayer indefinitely."

Xander looked into the older man's eyes, and he understood. If Faith truly became a danger to others, the only answer would be to kill her. It would hurt Giles and Miss Peel deeply, but they would do it, because they would have no choice.

And it would be Xander's fault, if Faith lost it because he did something stupid and got hurt.

Xander still had no problem with risking his own life to help his friends. But it wasn't just his life that was at stake, here...

He nodded in resignation. "All right, G-man. Miss Peel. I promise. No patrolling, no stupid risk-taking for a while. But I still want to be able to help, with the books, or even just fetching snacks. I can't just stand by and do nothing."

Miss Peel tilted her head at him. "You're already doing a lot, Xander, by helping Faith. I'll repeat: what you've done with her is truly amazing. You have a magnificent heart, Xander."

Xander flushed at the unexpected compliment. He'd never been told he had a magnificent anything...and to be told by a lady like Miss Peel...

She was still talking. "You are more than welcome to help out, Xander. In fact, tomorrow you can help us box up Mr. Giles' collection; we're going to be moving-" she rolled her eyes a little, "'Scooby Headquarters' to Mr. Giles and Mrs. Summers' home next week."

Xander grinned. "That mean we'll be getting Mrs. Summers' cooking at Scooby meetings instead of donuts and pizza?"

Both Watchers stared at him for a long moment, then burst out laughing.

Continued...

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