"Merrick?"
"Rupert, I need your help. She needs your help," Merrick said, gesturing to the girl he was carrying in his arms. Giles looked at Merrick and ushered them inside. Merrick gently laid the girl on the couch, propping a throw pillow underneath her head. As Spike came back in from the bathroom (he had gone as Giles was answering the door) he noticed the girl.
"Who's the chit?" Merrick looked up and noticed Spike.
"William the Bloody, I presume."
"Yeah who're you? Another Watcher?" Spike didn't like these Watcher types. Hell, he could barely stand Giles.
Giles decided to intervene, "Spike this is Merrick. He's an old friend."
Spike heard this and decided to play nice. For now anyway. "Any friend of Giles is a friend of mine."
Giles was glad that Spike was being so considerate. As Merrick stepped away from the couch, Giles moved towards the girl. Taking a closer look at her, he noticed a few bruises, one covering her upper left side of her back near her shoulder and one sporting the right side of her face, mixing in with a black eye. He also noticed her bottom lip was split. It had stopped bleeding, but a nice wound was there.
"Merrick, what happened to the girl?"
"Her guardians," Merrick said, almost spitting out the word. In his opinion the people that did this to her should not even have that title.
"Her parents? They did this to her?" Giles was in shock.
"Not her parents. Her foster parents."
"What happened to her birth parents?"
"Her mother has been dead for 6 years. Her father is not in the picture."
Spike spoke up, "Merrick, you were Buffy's Watcher down in LA weren't you?"
"Yes I was, and that's why I was hoping he could help now."
"Help how?" Giles wasn't entirely sure why Merrick would bring this girl to him except…
"She's a …
"Yes she is. She was called a month ago."
Spike almost yelled, "This girl's a slayer? How is she hurt like that then?"
"Keep your voice down Spike," Giles whispered harshly. "He has a point though, if she has been hurt shouldn't she be healing?"
"She's refusing her calling."
"You mean….
"She hasn't gone rogue Rupert. She's just not accepting her calling."
"It's killing her isn't it?" Spike said. He's seen this before and it wasn't pretty.
"Yes," Merrick said, "It is."