Giles set his leather suitcase down on the airport floor and took in a breath. He was standing directly between a Dunkin' Doughnuts and a McDonalds, breathing in the musty smell of artery clogging deliciousness. He would never eat at these places, but he had a special place in his heart for such stereotypical Americanism. "Hey Watcher, chill your jets man! Wait up!" said a 13 year old girl who had got lost somewhere in the doughnut shop. The jelly doughnut looked sickeningly like it was bleeding. "Where are your buddies?" she asked impatiently. "They'll get here, and for goodness sake get a napkin or something!"
Giles stood tall, in his usual attire that consisted mainly of tweed and formal wear. The girl he was assigned to stood at least 2 feet shorter than him, wore converse, ripped jeans, and a shirt that had 'Cake' printed in large on the front. Giles was never sure whether she meant the band or the confectionary. Her hair was short and hung like a boys, she spiked it up and died it fiery red. Giles couldn't stand her. She insisted on bringing her guitar, which hung naturally from her shoulder, and which she strangely named 'Comrade Awesome'. All the (sane) laid off counsel members were reinstated after the recent boom in slayers. Giles was singled out for having a fatherly presence and the ability to hinder very 'spunky' slayers. Although they only ever had one reference for him, which was Buffy.
The scoobies were supposed to come pick them up because Giles' car wouldn't be here for a few days, and he had sold his house so they would have to temporarily stay with Buffy. Destery, which was the girl's name, was known as Dax. Dax threw out the bloody looking wrapper and sat down in one of the airport seats. "I've always found it funny how they call them airport terminals," however she never got to elaborate because Giles was suddenly attacked by a flash of red hair. "Giles!" It ended up being Giles' friend Willow, who was quickly followed by Buffy (a blonde haired blur) however less enthusiastically. Finally a brown haired kid with an eye patch came up and gave him a high five, "Giles! Long time no see!" said the man covering his good eye, "Xander, it's only been a few weeks," Giles said chuckling, pulling the kid into a friendly hug. No one even noticed the girl sitting cross-legged silently judging them with a slight airy smirk. "So lets head out," said Buffy. They were all slightly alarmed when they noticed Dax stand with them. "Oh! I forgot you had to bring a new slayer back!"
They exchanged pleasantries and introduced each other and walked through the lethargic crowd to Buffy's car, Buffy eyed her suspiciously, and Xander tried his best to find her style of humor. They all chatted excitedly with Giles about the demons Buffy has faced since Giles left to get Dax. Dax didn't talk much on the way home, even though Giles appreciated the peace, but he began to worry about her. "Destery," "Mhm?" "What kind of songs do you play?" Dax paused, confused why he was interested, "Rock." She went back to staring out the window at the towns passing. Giles tried again, "Where are you from?" it was a last ditch effort but it worked. "London, England, Orphanage, half vampire, 13, no siblings. What else do you want to know?" she said shortly. "Half vampire? How does that work?" Xander asked voice cracking despite already being through puberty, which had always annoyed him. Dax looked at him with an expression as if she stepped on something rotten, "My father was a vampire, had sex with my mother, ditched her, then after I was born, came back to kill her. He only spared me because somehow he still had part of his soul, as degraded as it must have been by then." He shut up and looked at his feet. "Do you know your dad's name?" asked Giles. "Yeah, Spike, William the Bloody, William Pratt, and so on." Everyone in the car gasped. "You're Spike's daughter?" Buffy asked rhetorically. Dax nodded anyway. "I don't know anything else so don't bother asking." Dax said and returned to her view of the window face contorted in anger that only confused the scoobies.
They were all silent until they arrived at Buffy's house. She could feel their eyes tracking her movements, comparing them to the mannerisms of her father. She dropped her bags in the room they were letting her share with Dawn, Buffy's younger sister. She took a once around of the house and found the liquor cabinet, made a mental note to buy better vodka. It was a large house settled in a friendly looking neighborhood, the basement doubled as a containment area, gym, and storage. It had 5 bedrooms; all the scoobies lived here and had relatively large areas of the mansion like house to them selves. It turns out Willow Rosenberg had some connection to a rich family in Germany, and she was the only heir left. They no longer lived in Sunnydale, not that they could if they wanted to, it was blown to bits when Spike sacrificed his life to save the scoobies and the potentials.
They lived in some small-subdued part of California, near the coast. They sat lazily in the living room talking about everything that had happened when Dax interrupted, "Did you guys ever go back to see Sunnydale?" They had, in fact, they went to see the ruins but found that some of the things in the wreckage had been preserved from the battle. A few metal weapons, some frames of cars, some bricks from buildings, but what Dax found most interesting was the fact that beneath a rather heavy sheet of metal had fallen from the old school's foundation and covered spike after he had dusted, his jacket was saved. They showed her the barely recognizable heap of burnt leather that was her father's trademark (besides the hair of course). She ran her fingers over it and the others got a little creeped out and went back downstairs.
They watched a movie and Dax snuck upstairs with the cheap vodka and further examined her father's jacket. In a hole in a pocket she saw a glint of metal and carefully reached in and pulled it out. It was a small metal lighter. She tucked this is the pack she had brought with her, and took a long swig of liquid from the bottle. She walked back downstairs for dinner, Dawn asked her if she had tattoos and Dax answered, "Did Frodo take the ring to Mordor?" Dawn looked confused to Xander and he nodded. "Oo, show me!" Dax pulled up her sleeve and showed a replica of the death eater mark, and a heart with a banner across it saying 'Daddy'. Giles looked on intrigued and disgusted at the same time, he couldn't say anything because he had many tattoos that he is currently hiding with magic.
Xander struck up conversation "Hear anything from big bad and poofy lately?" Buffy looked mad but the others had to repress laughter. "Angel hasn't called lately, but he was saying he had something to tell me, he didn't sound very happy though." "We should go visit, like a surprise pop-in." said Xander sarcastically, making a little popping noise. "We should!" added Dawn hopefully. "No Dawn, I don't think we'll be very welcome guests." Said Giles patiently. "Angel? Like my dad's grandsire?" asked Dax. "Oh, so you do know more." Said Xander. "I read the counsels notes during the wait for a watcher." She said. "I'm going." She added. "You can't. I can't keep you from doing things, but I am in charge of you. You're certainly not running off to Los Angeles." Giles said, sticking his fork in a pile of potatoes. "Maybe I'm not giving you a choice Ripper." Eyes glaring at Giles. "Maybe you shouldn't call me that!" a small argument was turning into a surefire fight. "Maybe you should've kept your mouth shut about Angel! You can't just tell me there is some guy close by who knows so much about my dad and not expect me to go talk to him! I'm not going to be persuaded by your bloody 'positive role model', 'fatherly presence' crap!" She backed up and her chair fell over, she ran upstairs to get her things and her dad's jacket and ran downstairs to see Giles, fuming, blocking the door. "Get your pushy British ass out of the way!" and Giles was flung into the wall by the combination of slayer and vampire strength. Buffy burst through the doorway but the dark covered Dax's escape and Buffy didn't see her sprint down the sidewalk towards the first city bus stop she could find. She ran more than three miles to find one. It was pitch black out and the next bus would be arriving hours from now, and surely Giles would be coming to get her soon.