Prologue
It started in London, England around 1982. My mother met my father, and they hit it off immediately, fell in love, planned to get married. All was going well until my father left in order to become a watcher in the United states in 1983. The only thing that could be wrong with that gesture would be the fact that I was thriving in the womb of a brokenhearted woman whose love had just left her, and she was the only person who knew of my existence. When I turned three my mother made the decision to move us from England, half way across the world to a little place I like to call New York City.
Ten weeks ago my mother died of leukemia, leaving me, seventeen year old Marissa Giles to to leave my home and travel almost three thousand miles to Sunnydale, California. From New York to San Francisco by plane, then from San Francisco to Sunnydale by bus. I had to go through so much triumph just to find the only living relative I had left in the world. My father, Rupert Giles.
Chapter 1
The apartment door was big, heavy but Gothic and welcoming in its own way. I could hear a few different conversations going on on the inside of the quaint apartment, but suddenly it elevated to an argument I thought it would be best to make my appearance then so there wouldn't be any yelling. The knocker was a lions head and I made me laugh under my breath as I knocked on the door manually instead of messing up its perfection.
A young brunette man of about nineteen opened the door and gave me a once over,″ Can I help you?″
″Yeah, I'm sorry for any inconvenience to the arguing but, is there a Rupert Giles here?″ I stuck my hands in my pockets and looked at the ground as not to blush in front of the cute teen.
The brunette ushered me inside with a confused look on his face,″Giles...there's a girl here to see you.″
An older man with glasses stepped around the corner from the kitchen, scowled at a bleach blond tied to a chair, and spoke in the English accent I didn't have because I moved to America″ Thank you Xander,″ he turned to me and smiled″ how can I help you miss?″
″Hi sir″ I reached out my hand to shake his and he too it reassuringly″ I'm Marissa. I just moved here and my mother said to come to you for 'assistance', does Sarah Lyman sound familiar?″
″ Oh yes. Nice woman, how's she doing?″ Giles asked . I liked his accent, it was almost homely and warming.
″Well when I was three we moved to New York, she found out she had leukemia.″ I answered sadly, and catching a quick glance at the man tied to the chair but looked away when he caught my eye and smirked evilly.
″I'm so sorry, here sit down. Would you like a cup of tea?″ my unknowing father was really sweet, I couldn't say no.
″How is Sarah doing now?″ he asked going to get some tea for the both of us.
The man my father had identified as Xander sat next to me awaiting my answer″Actually she died two and a half months ago, and I decided o move here.″
″Aww, little bit has no mommy, how sa-″ the tied up man started.
″Spike, shut up,″ Giles scolded while putting all the tea supplies on a platter,″if you don't mind me asking, why here?″
″I only have one living relative,″ I sighed trying not to cry while thinking of my mother.
My father was being cautious with the tray as he walked to the living room″ Who might that be ?″
I took a deep breath, stood up and turned to my father,″ Hi dad.″
Spike laughed, Xander coughed on a few m&m's the he had eaten and my father had dropped the tea platter. Glass was everywhere and no one seemed to notice. And then, the door opened.
A blond girl and a red headed girl burst into the room,practically running to my extremely shocked,still father. He didn't notice them one bit, just stared at me with the weirdest look on his face.
″Giles we found a-″ the blond stopped and waved a hand in my dad's face,″ Giles?″
With my mind racing I sat back down and hid my face in Xander's shoulder hoping he wouldn't care too much, thankfully he didn't because he started to stroke my hair. I heard my father clear his throat.
″I- uh, hello Buffy...Willow. Wh-what were you saying?″ my father stuttered clearly still in shock over my statement.
A new voice I hadn't heard spoke, I assumed it was the red head,″Giles, there's glass everywhere, what happened?″
″Oh no, Willow, it's fine I just got a bit clumsy. What did you say you found?″ the stuttering was gone, the shock wasn't.
″ We found a vamp nest downtown, there aren't many there, but they could all do some serious killing.″ I recognized the blond girl's voice, and name. My mother had told me about Buffy a couple years ago, she was the slayer, the one girl who could possibly rid the world of evil. My dad was her watcher?
″So, we were thinking,″ the red head, Willow, started,″ that we could go and trap them, and maybe see if they know anything about the missing girl.″
″Who's that?″ Buffy asked finally noticing my existence, I lifted my face off of Xander's shoulder and smiled shyly.
″Hi, I'm Marissa...Marissa Giles. It's an honor to meet the slayer.″ I stood and nodded shyly at Buffy, who just raised an eyebrow and looked to my father.
″You never said you had a niece Giles,″ Willow commented almost happily.
I giggled, ″Oh no, I'm not his niece.″ Buffy's jaw dropped slightly and Willow's eyebrows raised as she tried to figure out what I was to my father,″ I'm his daughter.″
