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by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: Well, if I owned any rights to the Buffy characters, I would be selling books about them or writing episodes for the fourth season rather than distributing fanfic on the web. Thus, by contradiction, I have no such rights.
"Huh?" Faith said. "Oh, right. Introductions. Jonny, this is the famous Buffy Anne Summers. Buffy, this is Jonny Hardcastle, a bit of a friend from about a year back. He's a vampire hunter too."
"Oh, yeah?" Buffy asked. "How did you meet?"
"Oh, that's a very dull story, sweetheart, and one I'm sure you don't want to hear," Jonny said. "What have you been up to, lately, Faith honey?"
"Not much. Working out of Sunnydale, here, now, working with Buffy and her Mister Giles."
"Yeah, I heard. What happened to Mrs. S?"
"Dead," Faith said simply. "You-know-how."
Jonny let out a sad exclamation. "Oh, babe, I didn't know. I'm sorry. It's a shame; she was one of the good ones."
Buffy almost asked who Mrs. S was, when the answer popped into her head; Faith's previous Watcher.
"Buffy?" a voice called somewhat timidly down the hall. Buffy turned to find Willow standing awkwardly about twenty feet behind her.
"Excuse me," Buffy muttered to Faith and her friend, and went over to Will. "So, what happened?"
"I'm gonna choose," Willow said. "Well, not choose, but decide whether I'm gonna go on the date with Xander, or not, like Oz wants."
"Tough call," Buffy said. "Any idea which way you're gonna go?"
"Not a clue. I mean, I love Oz now, but I'm not sure if I ever stopped loving Xander."
"Come on, Will," Buffy replied, pulling her towards the nearest exit.
"Are we going somewhere?"
"In times like this, ice cream is a necessity," Buffy remarked.
(Back at the doorway to room 128...)
"Faith!" Giles called out. "Faith?!"
"Over here, G," a voice called reluctantly from around a corner.
Giles hurried over to her. "I need my car. Give me the keys." He then noticed the oddly-dressed young man standing with Faith. "Hello?"
"Mister Giles I presume?" he said in a Liverpool accent.
"Uh, about the car, Mister Giles," Faith said.
"Oh, no. You left the keys somewhere?"
"They're in the car, out on local road two. Which car is a little banged up," Faith confessed. "Sorry I didn't remember to tell you before."
"What?" Giles exploded. "Very well, please make arrangements for it to be towed to my garage and, if there was any hit-and-run involved, make certain the police know I was not in the vehicle," Giles ordered succintly. "In the meanwhile, I shall be taking a taxicab to my appointment." The librarian turned angrily on his heel and stormed off.
"I can help you take care of that, sweetheart," Jonny said. "So, crashing cars?"
"Mean vamp in a big black Viper," Faith explained. "Easiest way to slow him down."
"Didja get him?"
"Not yet," Faith said. "Saved the day, though... it's a weird story."
(At the Sunnydale Crossings hotel,)
"Sorry I'm late," Giles said as he rushed into the coffee shop. "Auto troubles."
"It's okay," Celia Johnson told him as he sat down. She was a handsome woman, perhaps about forty, with ash-blonde hair cut shorter than shoulder-length, and a restrainedly happy face. "I've just been enjoying my tea... it's quite good!"
"Really? It wasn't good the last time I tried it," Giles said, "just better than you could get anywhere else around here."
"Perhaps they changed it," Celia observed.
After Giles ordered a tea to try for himself, they got down to business. "So, what are you doing back in Sunnydale, Celia?"
"Yes, here we are," she said. "The awkward moment. It was decided by the Watcher's council to commit another full member of the caucus to Sunnydale."
Giles' face dropped. "You?"
"Yes. I volunteered for the assignment, for your sake. I hoped that it would be less difficult for you this way, and that I would be less likely to step on your toes than someone else they might assign."
"Uh," Giles seemed speechless for a moment. "Yes, yes of course, thank you. I hope it won't surprise you to hear me say that there might be difficulties with you that there wouldn't be with anyone else."
"Well, of course," Celia said. "But unique possibilities, too."
"What??"
"I've never stopped loving you, Rupert. Your girlfriend has been dead for what, seven months? You once told me you wished we could have met without the baggage of our arranged marriage, our families. Well, our betrothal is nothing but a memory, and I doubt our families are expecting anything anymore. We could try it again."
Giles sighed in shock. "I... I don't know quite what to say to that, Celia."
Celia flushed, and looked down into her lap nervously. "Uh, okay, we'll, um, drop that subject for now, then." She took a deep breath and brought out a folded sheet of paper. "I fought very hard to keep my official mandate from conflicting with your own responsibilities... they were wanting me to become Faith's official watcher. I hope the wording is to your satisfaction.
Giles scanned the page briefly. ...to take up permanent residence on the Hellmouth, also known as Sunnydale California in the United States of America, as Council observer and assistant to the Watcher Rupert Giles... monitoring all supernatural activity at that nexus, assisting in the fight against evil as your own talents permit, assisting in the training of Faith Morrison as her new mentor, under the authority of Rupert Giles, and in that of Buffy Summers if so permitted by Giles... to evaluate Willow Rosenberg as a possible protracted volunteer into the caucus... he broke off, his face blank.
"What upset you?" Celia asked.
"Don't empath me," he snapped. "You're recruiting Willow?"
"Of course not," Celia said. "Only those whose parents are watchers are suaded to follow. Willow Rosenberg's grandmother was a watcher, but her father was declined, so we cannot recruit her. I am planning to talk with her about the prospect of signing up, nothing more." She sipped delicately from her cup. "So, how do you find the tea?"
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