Got to give a big thanks to Sop12345d for being my great Beta.


Giles glanced at his watch as he stepped out of the coffee shop. Since he'd been in Sunnydale, London had changed beyond recognition, but thankfully, all his familiar stomping grounds have only been altered slightly. There's still a coffee shop on the corner between his apartment and the National Library.

It's just past seven at night and he was one of their last customers. He was heading back to his apartment, strolling down the street with books under one arm and tea in a Styrofoam cup in the other hand, when he sensed it.

The hairs on the back of his neck raised and he sighed aloud. He wasn't so out of practice that his instincts had stopped working. "I thought I'd given all this up after leaving America," he says, annoyed, and he turns and heads down an alley, where he finds a creature crouched low on the ground.

He puts down his bag and his books and places the rest of his tea on a windowsill. He glances up and down the street to make sure there was nobody about, or at the very least, nobody who'd pay attention. He then jogs down the alley, the demon-like creature turns to him, eyes wide and angry.

"I hope I'm not supposed to be afraid of you. Because sadly, you're very underwhelming," Giles comments as the creature runs at him.

He sidesteps and as the creature barrels low, Giles grabs an arm and uses his height advantage to drag the demon around and slams him into the wall, only managing to annoy the demon, who is quick to spin around and lunge at Giles, who raises his arms to protect himself. Having much less space to work with, he drops to a crouch and brings both arms up to smack into the demon's chest, causing a scream to rip out of the creature. He stumbles back, giving Giles a second to catch his breath.

He jumps back to his feet and spins out of the way of the next attack and grabs an empty wooden pallet and swings it hard, enjoying the crack as it shatters over the creatures back, giving Giles a sharpened weapon. When the creature stumbles back to its feet, Giles dives with a stab, missing the chest, but manages to pierce an arm and the creature gives out a low howl, before he dives at Giles, dropping them both to the floor. They roll a bit, Giles having the upper hand with more height, and surprisingly enough, more strength.

It takes a few more moments before Giles can land a punch and well placed kick to get the creature onto its back and quickly back to its feet, retreating quickly.

Giles takes a few ragged breaths as he watches the demon scurry back underground. "Damn straight," he comments and then pushes off the wall he was leaning against and heads back to the mouth of the alley, collects his belongings and heads home to his apartment. He pulls out one of his journals and writes about tonight's events. Sunnydale may have the hellmouth, but London wasn't empty of dangerous monsters. Giles just wished there were a few more people who would engage with them.

He then pulled his computer towards himself and started writing an email to Buffy. She enjoyed his communications and found it hilarious that he got pulled away from the dangerous work to be dumped in a research capacity and he was now doing more fighting then when he was in charge of Buffy.

She'll enjoy this story. She always does. Maybe he could convince her to visit for a while during the summer. At the very least, to give himself a break from fighting every creature he sees.


Thanks for reading. Hope you guys enjoyed. Comments much appreciated.