New BeginningsBy PSUBrat
Revelations
Sitting at the island in the kitchen, Buffy sighed as she read the morning's paper. She couldn't concentrate with all the noise the workmen were making. Couldn't they put silencers on that stuff? On the other hand, she was grateful that the work on the house had started, at last. The entire front of the house was gone and the estimate to get it fixed was staggering. For some reason, house insurance didn't cover acts of demented men trying to rule the world. In order to keep the cost down, Xander had pulled a few strings and cashed in on some favors. He was able to get the supplies at cost. Some of his crew, including himself, were working for almost nothing. In return, Buffy was supplying them with food and beer. She smiled to herself and thought, "It's amazing what men will do for a hot meal and some alcohol…and the helpless doe eyes of a pretty girl." That last part made her laugh.
Despite the noise and not being able to live here yet, Buffy was happy to be home. They were all still living at Xander's place and since he had been released from the hospital last week, it was getting really crowded. Spending twenty-four and seven with her friends was nice but it was starting to wear thin. Not only did she see them at night but she saw them during the day at the Magic Box as well. At least Willow had recently moved into Tara's dorm room on a temporary basis. That had made things a little more bearable in the Harris abode. Good thing Tara hadn't given up the room when her and Willow had gotten back together. The phone rang and Buffy got up to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Buffy," Giles said, "will you be coming to the Magic Box soon? We have a lot to go over today."
Buffy had called Giles immediately after Dawn's latest power development. He had stammered and stuttered a lot but promised to arrive in Sunnydale before the end of the week. He was concerned about putting his research on hold, of course, but there were others that could continue it for him. Not that he really trusted Council members, but that seemed to be his only choice at that moment.
True to his word, Giles showed up at the Magic Box by the end of the week. Without even greeting the others, he went straight to Dawn, pulled her into the training room and asked her pointed questions that she didn't have answers to. Dawn's eyes had pleaded with Buffy to intervene. Buffy wasn't sure what Giles was trying to get at since nothing appeared to be out of place or different about Dawn. Not they could see…and they had checked.
Now that Giles was here, things had taken on a sense of normalcy. It was almost like old times. He would do the research, Anya would run the shop, and Buffy and the gang would do the slaying. The only difference now was that she would let Dawn help out. Her sister had become very good with slaying. Dawn wasn't as strong as Buffy but she could hold her own. Giles had even suggested that Dawn begin training with Buffy, just to give the younger Summers a sense of structure.
Suddenly, it occurred to Buffy that Giles had been back in California for almost two weeks and hadn't mentioned the prophecies or talked to her about anything other than Dawn, slaying and how good it was to be back. She hadn't even thought about asking why he was really there. Actually, she was too afraid to ask. She was afraid to hear the answers.
"Buffy," the voice on the other end of the phone asked bringing her back to the present.
"Sorry Giles, I spaced there for a minute. Must be the noise of all these power tools, can't seem to concentrate." She could almost hear him roll his eyes at her. "I'll be there in half an hour."
She hung up the phone and made her way to the front of the house to let Xander know she was leaving. This was going to be a long day.
***
The curly, brown haired man sat at a desk looking out the window. England was much different from what he remembered. Things had changed quite a bit but all of the old buildings were still there. At least the important ones were anyway. He looked down at his notebook and sighed. They told him that writing things down would help him to get through this tough time but he wasn't convinced of that quite yet. There were too many things going through his mind for him to focus on just one thing.
He was tired. It had been a long day. The Watcher classes he was taking were exhausting, not to mention the grueling training schedule that they had him on. However, tonight was his night off from research. He had promised Rupert that he would continue with the translations of the prophecies while the elder Watcher was in the States. He couldn't ever remember working this hard in his life. If he had known that becoming a Watcher was going to be this difficult, he might have thought twice about it. With that thought playing through his mind, he took a picture out of the desk drawer. He looked at it every night before he went to sleep and at times like this when his writing couldn't console him. He could feel the tears begin to sting the back of his eyes. This is what frustrated him the most, the whole gamut of emotions that he went through every time he looked into those eyes.
There was a soft knocking at the door. He hadn't been expecting any visitors.
"Come in," he said without much enthusiasm.
Two men in their mid to late twenties entered his room.
"Hey mate," the first greeted, it was Garrick a fellow Watcher in training, "We're heading down to the pub in a few minutes. Want to come along for a pint?"
"Manchester United is on the telly tonight," Geoffrey added with a grin, "they're going to make quick work of Liverpool for sure."
Sensing his friend's hesitation, Garrick tried a different approach to get the man to leave the confines of his room. "Come on you stupid git. You can't bloody stay in here and write all night. Don't be such a bore."
The curly, brown haired man looked at Garrick and smiled. "Think there'll be some scrums at the pub what with it being Liverpool and all?"
Garrick and Geoffrey laughed at their friend. He was always up for a fight. Didn't matter where or when. Each grabbed an arm and hurried him out the door.
***
The trees on the campus of UC Sunnydale swayed gently in the breeze. Willow sat under one of those trees waiting for Tara to finish her class so that the two of them could walk back to the dorm together. The campus was pretty quiet this time of year. Summer classes had just begun which meant the population of UCS was at about a third of its normal capacity. She didn't care. It was a gorgeous day and it made her feel like nothing in the world could ever ruin it, not even her continued guilt. Most of the time she was able to forget about her wish and just enjoy her second chance; but then there were the times, mostly after she and Tara made love, when she would look into her lover's eyes and feel such remorse that she just wanted to break down and tell Tara everything.
After the confrontation with Warren, she had expected everyone to question how she knew certain things, specifically how to drain Warren of his powers, but no one had asked, probably because she and Xander had been seriously injured and everyone had concentrated on that. She had been out of the hospital for almost three weeks now and still no one asked her anything about that day. There were times when she thought Tara was on the verge of discussing it, but they were always interrupted by someone or something. She was kind of hoping that they had forgotten about it by now.
"Is this a private party?" Tara asked with a smile, "Or can anyone join in?"
Willow looked up from her thoughts to see Tara standing over her. "Private party. Invitation only," she said nodding her head and grinning.
"Oh," Tara pouted.
"But I'm only extending the invitation to you cause you're the only one I'd want at this party."
Tara smiled brightly, sat down next to Willow and took her lover's hand in hers. She had noticed that Willow had been deep in thought again. Whenever Willow had that look on her face, Tara knew she must be thinking about It, and Tara was pretty sure she knew what It was. "Well," she thought to herself, "today is as good as any to find out."
"Will," Tara said hesitantly, "can we talk?"
Willow grinned, "Sure sweetie! We can talk about anything you want!"
Tara took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy and she wanted to make sure that it didn't come off sounding like she was accusing Willow of anything wrong. She wasn't sure how she was going to do that. Probably best to just come out and say it and then deal with the repercussions.
"Will. Sweetie. Has Anya granted any wishes that you know of? Like maybe…yours?" There. She had finally asked it.
Willow sat in stunned silence. She should have known that Tara would figure it all out eventually. She was only fooling herself is she thought she could keep something like this from her. Tara had asked her point blank so now Willow would have to tell her the truth. The new and improved Willow just couldn't lie to the one she loved the most. The old Willow probably would have, but not the new one.
Willow sighed and hung her head. Almost in a whisper she said, "Yes, Tara. Anya granted my wish."
***
Giles was waiting impatiently for Buffy to arrive at the Magic Box. Why did she always have to be so difficult and tardy? There was much that had to be discussed today. He was dreading every minute of what was to come. The Council had called him earlier that morning. His request for a permanent transfer to England had been granted. He had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, his life was back in England with his new work for the Council; on the other hand, the thought of leaving Buffy in the hands of another angered him. He knew he couldn't have it both ways. His life was in England now. He just hoped that he could make Buffy understand that without too much difficulty.
The bell above the door clanged as Buffy walked into the shop. She noticed that it really was back to business as usual. Anya was chatting with a few customers while Dawn dusted the shelves. The younger Summers was working off her debt to Anya for all of the things she had stolen from the shop.
"Hey Buffy," Dawn greeted.
Buffy smiled at her sister and asked, "Working hard?"
Dawn just looked at Buffy and rolled her eyes in response to the question. Buffy chuckled to herself.
"Buffy," Giles stated heading towards the training room, "please come with me. I need to talk to you."
Suddenly, Buffy got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, just like the one she had gotten that day he called to tell her he was coming to Sunnydale. She braced herself for what was to come and followed her Watcher into the back room.
***
Giles motioned for her to sit down on the couch. Numbly, she complied. She felt like they had done this before, almost a lifetime ago, when she had come back from the dead. She studied his face trying to find some kind of hint of what he was going to tell her but she couldn't read him.
"Buffy," Giles said as he took a seat next to her, "the Council called me this morning. My permanent transfer to England has been approved. In two months I will no longer be your Watcher." He hadn't been able to look her in the eyes when he said the last bit so he wasn't sure what her reaction had been.
Buffy tilted her head and looked at him. This was what he was so intent on telling her? She began to giggle. She had thought that he was going to tell her that Dawn was going to grow a second head or something, or that her sister was going to turn into the Big Bad.
She covered her mouth to contain her laughter and tried to compose herself after Giles had given her his patented "I'm serious" look.
"I'm sorry," she said innocently waving her hand, "please continue."
"Buffy. This is quite serious. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"Uhm. Sure Giles. You're going back to England and you officially won't be my Watcher."
"Yes, but Buffy," he continued in a somber tone, "since I will no longer be your Watcher, the Council will be assigning you a new one."
Now he had her complete attention. She felt like he had just punched her in the stomach. "What do you mean I'll be getting a new Watcher? They can't do that. Can they?" The fear in her voice was evident. The only Watcher she would ever accept was Giles. She had made that pretty clear when they had tried to force Wesley on her and then again when they came with information about Glory. She wasn't going to accept this. She would quit first. Again.
"Yes Buffy, they can. However, to ensure that you're not assigned someone like Wesley again, I have hand picked my replacement."
She was really angry now. "You've known this was coming and you didn't mention it to me? Giles how could you?"
"I didn't mention it because I wasn't sure if the transfer would be granted. There was no need to upset you before anything happened for sure."
She glared at him. How could he betray her like this? How could he come back to California and then just leave her again? Standing up quickly, she said, "Giles, I think you better go back to England. Now."
Her words stung him but he understood her hurt. He stood up next to her and put his hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off and turned her back to him. This was not going well. Maybe his next words would soothe her. "Buffy, there is one other thing. I also asked that the Council pay you for your duties."
Buffy's head whipped around and her eyes widened as she looked at the man she thought of as her father. Had he just said what she thought he said? "P-pay me," she asked incredulously.
"Yes, and they have agreed to do so. They refused at first, of course, but I convinced them that paying you was in their best interest."
Despite the fact that he was leaving her, again, and that she was going to be assigned a new Watcher, she ran to him and threw her arms around him. "Thank you so much Giles."
"Don't thank me yet," he said while taking an envelope out of his breast pocket, "You may want to wait until you open this."
She took the envelope from him and ripped it open. Her eyes widened. She looked from the check to Giles and then back to the check. She felt like she was going to faint. "G-Giles," she stammered, "is this for real?"
"It's quite real. You have done an enormous job these last six years Buffy, and you've done it well. Therefore you should be compensated accordingly."
Her eyes welled up and she was sure she was going to start crying any minute now. She had never seen so many zeros on a check before. Usually the zeros were on the bank account statements. She looked at the check one last time, folded it and put it in her pocket. "Thank you," she whispered in his ear as she hugged him again.
Breaking off the hug and taking a step back, she cocked her head to the side and folder her arms across her chest. "Now," she demanded, "tell me about this other Watcher."