Little Bitty Puzzle PiecesBy PJzallday
Research
Giles was reading the paper in the Hyperion lobby when Wesley arrived.
"Ah Mr. Giles," greeted the younger Brit with an outstretched hand. "It's nice to see you again."
"Shall we dispense with the formality, Wesley?" Giles suggested, accepting the hand and giving it a firm shake.
"Certainly… Rupert," the other man agreed as he motioned Giles to join him in the office. "Hope you don't mind meeting here. I rather needed a break from the office and thought this might be more relaxed."
"Ah yes. Um… I gather you and Angel are now working for um… ah…a law firm?" Giles queried, not entirely comprehending Angel's explanation the previous evening.
Wesley cleared his throat and sheepishly replied, "Actually, we… ah… we run the firm."
"Oh? But-"
"We're not lawyers?" Wes finished. "No… It's ah… rather a long and complex story. Can I get you a drink?" he offered, pulling a bottle of Scotch from the desk drawer, more out of his own need for a nip than for want to change the subject.
"That'd be brilliant," replied Giles enthusiastically. "It's been… quite a week."
"Indeed."
As he handed Giles a glass, Wes inquired, "I understand there's been a significant development as regards the Slayer line."
"Well yes. As I mentioned, when we spoke yeste'day, Buffy and Faith are no longer the world's only Slayers." Giles proceeded to recount the tale of the past year's events including the slaughter of Potentials by the First's Harbingers, others making their way to Sunnydale, the Council's virtual annihilation, Buffy's discovery of the scythe and the plan to release its power.
"It's quite… stunning," Wesley declared as Giles presented the Slayer's scythe.
"It's rather just a flashy weapon now."
Wesley sought clarification, "There's no power left in it?"
"Buffy and Faith both agreed they no longer sense the strength from it they felt prior to the release spell."
"Int'resting."
"Now you see, we've got dozens… p'rhaps hundreds or more new Slayers 'round the world and very few people with any sort of formal training to educate them," Giles stated. "I was rather hoping that I could count on you to help me in re-establishing some sort of Watchers' Council."
***
"John?" Judith called softly as she poked her head around the curtain of his section of the ward."Eh?" Her patient was not entirely accustomed to his name and the effects of his dehydration and injury still had him disoriented. "'ello."
"John, this is a friend of mine: Rick Garcia."
The visitor smiled and nodded.
"He's a detective with the Santa Barbara Police Department."
"Oh… 'm I in some kind o' trouble?" John asked nervously.
"Oh, no Mr… ah… John," the man insisted. "Judith told me about your situation. I did some checking on our data base for missing persons fitting your description."
Hope sparkled in John's eyes. "Got some news then?"
"Well, no," Garcia stated.
John's disappointment was clear, but Judith wanted her patient to stay positive, as that would give him the best chance for a speedy recovery from his physical injuries at least. "John, Rick suggested running your fingerprints through their system."
"Oh that's bloody brilliant," he exclaimed sarcastically. "We can find out I'm some sort o' serial killer."
"Actually John, people get finger printed for lotsa different reasons," Garcia assured. "The military, civil servants…"
"Healthcare workers, people that work with kids…" the nurse chimed in.
"A lot of employers insist on background checks now."
"Alright. I get it." John grimaced. "Would you give us a minute?" he asked, nodding for Judith and the police officer to leave.
"Sure."
John sat pondering his options. He wanted to know who he was. But did it really matter? No one had reported him missing, so maybe nobody cared. What did that say about the woman in his visions? Besides, not all of the images in his head were pleasant. Were they really memories? He feared what a detailed police search might turn up. Did he really want to take the risk of discovering he was wanted in twenty-three states? Or by Interpol? Maybe he should just look at this incident as a fresh start.
"Sod it." He had to know. On weakened legs, he struggled to the door clinging to his IV stand. "Oi! Let's do this." He called down the hall.
***
"What exactly have we to work with?" Wesley inquired as he poured another round. "Two experienced Slayers…""We've Buffy. But Faith's done a runner," Giles corrected.
"I'm sure if we can work out her legal issues," suggested Wes, "she'll have a hand in. I'll have someone at the office look into it." Under his breath he mumbled, "Surely someone there deals with legitimate legal cases."
"Right then. Buffy and Faith. And we brought eighteen new Slayers out of the Hellmouth," Giles noted. "Obviously they have some first hand fighting experience, but few have any real knowledge of demons. Our main focus was the First, the Harbingers and the Turok Han."
"Understandable given the circumstances," Wesley acknowledged. "I gather most of the demon population fled the city right along with the human one?"
"It was eerie to be essentially the only life in the entire town. On that final day, we were three dozen teenaged girls, two slayers, a witch, a few experienced… civilians… and… ah..." Giles pulled off his glasses and cleared his throat. "Spike."
"Remarkable story, that," exclaimed Wesley.
The Watcher nodded proudly. "It was a brilliant plan: releasing the power of the Scythe to all the world's Potentials."
"Actually, I was speaking of Spike," Wesley clarified, eliciting a questioning face from his colleague. "Oh, I don't claim to know half the story, but the notion that a vampire would seek a soul out of… love? And that ultimately that vampire would sacrifice himself…"
Giles sighed. "I'm not sure anything'll ever surprise me again. Certainly my Watcher's training didn't fully prepare me for my tenure with Buffy." He set down his again empty glass.
Wesley reached for the glass. "I rather doubt that either of us could have predicted the direction our careers- our lives would take after meeting that young woman." He poured them each another splash then held up his glass. "To Buffy?"
"To Buffy," Giles repeated with nodded.
They sat briefly sipping in reflective silence before Giles continued. "There's… a lad who's been working with us. He's got a strong foundation of demon knowledge. He's been documenting the events of the past months and catalogued the personal information on the girls. And Dawn, Buffy's sister, has truly come into her own," Giles declared. "She's excelled with demon and ancient language translation, and research. She's got better than passable fighting techniques. And she's keen."
"That's encouraging."
Frowning, the Watcher noted, "Except that she's still in high school and Buffy may not want her to give up her life to fight evil."
"I'd not fault her wanting more for her sister," remarked Wesley. "So we'll leave Dawn for the moment. Who else?"
"Willow's agreed to assume some sort of role in the new… establishment. As you know, she's a powerful and knowledgeable witch."
"Quite," Wes agreed. "Willow was instrumental in… ah… our situation this past spring."
"I've yet to understand what you lot hoped to accomplish by unleashing Angelus upon the world," grumbled Giles.
"We needed him," Wesley insisted. "Before… the Beast captured her, Cordelia had a vision of it with Angelus… in the past. They were allies of sorts. We had rather hoped that Angelus could help us in defeating the Beast and rescuing Cordelia."
"Help you?" barked Giles. "That monster?!"
"Obviously we weren't naïve enough to expect Angelus to actively fight with us. We only hoped to get some sort of… insight into the Beast's weaknesses."
Unconvinced, Giles sat back crossed arms and huffed indignantly.
"We had some success," the younger man defended. "Unfortunately not before the Beast drained Cordelia's… essence. Frankly, we're not certain what exactly happened. When we found her, she was in a coma, suffering severe blood-loss from abdominal trauma."
"That poor girl," exclaimed Giles. "But you must have realized that it was bloody stupid to risk countless lives on the chance- the chance that Angelus would be of any help!"
"And how many times have you and Buffy and that lot risked lives on chance?" Wesley countered. "What about this last time? Opening the Hellmouth; releasing the Slayer power. You couldn't possibly have known-"
"Point taken," Giles interrupted solemnly. "And now that chance has created a new dilemma: we've all these newly-called Slayers and very few people with any experience or even knowledge of what that means."
Wes turned to the computer. "We've some remarkable… resources at Wolfram and Hart. I'll start a search, see how many field Watchers we can track down. Surely they can't all have been… killed." He struck some keys after a momentarily awkward pause. "Even if all the active members of the Council were murdered, there must be... retirees?"
"And surely you and I can't have been the only Watchers to ever be tossed out on our arses," joked Giles optimistically.