Giles glanced at his watch, his annoyance mounting.
"Maybe we should tell everyone the meetings will start at 4:30, if we want them to show up at 5," Willow said. She turned a page of her spell book, perused it for a moment, and whispered "oh, that's nifty," under her breath.
"What is?" he asked.
"Uh, did I say that out loud?" She pushed the spell book across the table to him. "This book Kesha lent me has a counter-spell for magic barriers. I know Adam's probably not using magic barriers, but we never know when this might come in handy."
The book was second edition of Barnes' Guide to Magic. He scanned the counter-spell. It didn't look particularly dangerous for the casters or for the people in their vicinity. He cleared his throat. "It seems straightforward enough. I think that's a good one to add to your repertoire."
Willow beamed at him, and then started flipping through another spell book. "Also, I decided the Kepler Text deserved another look, and I-" she stopped as a scrap of paper fell out of the book. She picked up the paper, and then her normally expressive face froze into an unreadable mask.
He asked gently, "Is something wrong?"
"It's just a note from Oz, from a while back." She handed it to him.
Giles slowly deciphered Oz's crabbed handwriting, If none of these work, remember, we still have the hummus plan in reserve.
Willow smiled. "I hadn't realized it, but I hadn't thought about him in weeks. Like I've been so busy learning spells with Tara and Kesha that I haven't really felt the Oz-missage at all. And now I can see that, and I can remember him without feeling like my insides are being torn out."
His heart started to pound. He ignored the flare of happiness in his chest, and tried to channel into the distant happiness that a friend and mentor would have. "That's good to hear. I'm happy for you."
"Thanks," Willow replied. Her eyes sparkled as she shifted gears back into excitement over the spell. "So, anyway, what I was going to say is that the Kepler Text has a spell for creating artificial sunshine that we might wanna try."
Giles turned the yellowed pages to find the spell. This one seemed a bit more worrisome; there was definite potential for the spell to backfire. He was about to suggest tabling it for later, when Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies arrived.
"Sorry I'm late," Cordelia said. "One of Brad's clients had an emergency and I had to drive him to the airport. You know what it's like when your boyfriend has an important job." She sneered at Anya. "I guess you wouldn't."
Before Anya or Xander could respond, Buffy jumped in. "I have some Hellmouthy news you need to hear right away."
Giles listened with great interest to the news of an unholy alliance of demons and vampires, possibly brokered by Adam. Nothing like a Hellmouth crisis to take his mind off his own diminished role this year.
After a brief discussion of the possible ramifications, the conversation turned right back to the personal, with Riley inviting everyone to a party.
Giles cleared his throat. "Well, much as I, uh, long for a good kegger, I have other plans. The Espresso Pump." He sat back, hoping that would be the end of it.
Buffy and Riley were clearly entranced with one another (and unaware of anyone else in the room.) Willow piped up, "What are you doing there?"
"I'm, um, uh, it's a, a meeting of, uh, grownups. It couldn't possibly be of any interest to you lot." Good show, Giles. All that stammering and vague phrasing is guaranteed to generate more interest in your plans, not less.
There was an inquisitive gleam in her eye, so he asked, "What was that about artificial sunshine again?"
He settled in for some good-natured bickering about the feasibility of using the spell against vampires.