Everything either belongs to Joss or it should, no infringement is intended and no profit is to be made. When you get right down to it I'm not really worth suing anyway unless you want a share of an underpaid civil servants wages and it just wouldn't be worth the hassle trust me.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Hyperion Hotel – Los Angeles – July 2003

Dawn leaned back in the chair and put her feet up on the office desk. 'Could somebody maybe fetch me a cup of coffee and a Danish?' she asked loudly flicking to the next page in the file.

'Somebody break your legs?' Kennedy retorted from where she was at the reception desk.

'No' Dawn replied scanning the text.

'Would you like them to because Angel might if he finds you in here with your feet on his desk' Gunn warned her looking into the office for a second before continuing on his way carrying a box of tools.

Dawn considered the warning, her sister could take him she decided and she made no effort to remove them.

The file was actually made up of photocopied pages from the Devandiré Sybilline Codex that the traitor Sirk had returned before making himself scarce, Dawn would never be allowed to handle the original, centuries old volume, but Giles had carefully copied it and she was now trying to brush up on her Sanskrit. She could have chosen something less demanding than the archaic form used in the Codex but where was the fun in that?

Actually now she came to think of it where was the fun in any of this?

Dawn closed the file and looked up at the ceiling. She was just a small cog in a great evil fighting machine she realised. It had all sneaked up on her so gradually she hadn't noticed but everything was routines and jobs now, hers was playing junior researcher girl with a sideline in annoying watchers although the latter was more of a hobby than anything else. The Slayers themselves ran like clockwork, they trained according to a rolling schedule and patrolled the city based on a grid like they had in Sunnydale while meanwhile the rest of the organisation collated reports, looked after finances and researched. It was just like a corporation, only with a bottom line of how many demons they slew this financial quarter instead of profits.

Maybe they were a corporation, Dawn considered, they might not have shareholders but certainly everyone did have a "stake" in the business she thought with a grin making sure to keep that line for later use. Slayers and Watchers Incorporated, offices in Los Angeles, London and with a branch office coming soon to Cleveland as soon as Buffy decided who she was going to base there, the safe bet was Kennedy what with Faith being assigned LA and Buffy herself intending to move between bases.

Dawn wondered what she was going to do long-term. It would be hard to get used to a normal life, the boredom would kill her, so she figured she'd stay in the family business as it were, but after college, there was no way that Buffy was going to let her skip college, what would she do? There were certainly plenty of vacancies for watchers and she had long practised wheedling her way around Giles so maybe that was where she could aim? Of course the damn "key" thing would always be an issue especially now Illyria had demonstrated that she still had plenty of lock-opening potential.

Or maybe my destiny is just to be periodically siphoned so a megalomaniacal blue tinged demon woman can open portals to handy places Dawn wondered sadly. Normal people give blood to help people too but usually it's not because it's like the mother of all sports energy drinks to ancient God-Kings she considered. Forget Gatorade she thought, 'If you really want instant refreshment drink Dawnade now in tasty O Negative flavour' she said quietly, then hummed an upbeat jingle she thought would go well with the advertisements.

On the other hand when you thought about it there were probably hundreds of Slayers in the world now but there was only one Illyria-boosting universal-portal-key in the whole universe Dawn realised then grinned, Buffy wasn't the special one, she was. It was kinda an icky destiny but it was something.

'Da-da do do do DAWNADE!' she shouted out and started giggling.

'Pretending to be nuts because you're suffering from chronic sugar and caffeine withdrawal isn't going to get you that coffee and Danish' Kennedy said loudly.

Dawn snorted, damn Slayers, dime a dozen she thought starting to read again.

Tarzana – Los Angeles – July 2003

'That should have gone a lot better' Shannon opined pulling her short sword out of the demons chest. It was still barely alive, coughing up blood weakly as its lungs filled with blood but it wouldn't last much longer. It was already way past being any kind of threat anyway.

'We're alive aren't we?' Natasha retorted wiping her own sword clean with a rag from her pocket. Her thick Liverpool accent sometimes confused people, Americans often asked what country she was from, but after some initial problems Shannon had got used to it, well except for the incomprehensible British slang. She considered throwing the rag away but the grounds of the Country Club they were in were so damn tidy that messing them up any more than they had would have felt wrong so she stuffed it back in her pocket. At least it was night time so they didn't have to put up with middle-aged men complaining that the demon corpses were interfering with their putting she considered.

'I thought we had them cold' Jacqueline, the third Slayer on their team said shaking her head. She was Canadian with a Quebecois accent that was actually a lot easier to follow than Natasha's for the most part. They had found the small group of demons trying to hide in some of the thicker wooded areas at the edge of the golf course and had tried to sneak up on them for an easy kill but it hadn't turned out that way and they ended up in a nice messy bout of Slayer/Demon action, the kind that ends up with oddly coloured blood spread over a wide area.

'Well they're going cold now' Shannon replied with a grin.

'Right so who wants to tell me what they are?' Stephen asked loudly walking towards them arms behind his back being careful to avoid walking across the putting green.

'Where were you?' Natasha asked.

'Over there watching' Stephen said pointing to a tree he'd been leaning against during the fight. 'It's basically the job description' he pointed out reasonably, or so he thought.

'Didn't think to help?' Shannon asked him with slight annoyance. 'Get the old sword a bit dirty?'

The young watcher shook his head. 'If you needed my help I would have but they only outnumbered you two-to-one so I didn't see the pressing need' he replied. 'You're the ones with the superpowers right?' he continued with a wry smile. 'So as I asked before who wants to tell me what they are?'

'Your regular ugly demon with an extra eye in the back of the head' Jacqueline replied kicking the closest one over onto its front so the third eye looked up into the sky, dead and unseeing as the other two. 'No fair with the seeing behind them, I only noticed when they'd already spotted me sneaking up on them.'

Stephen sighed. 'Okay so any advance on "regular ugly demon"?' he asked the other two Natasha shaking her head and Shannon doing likewise. 'They're Skilosh' he told them eventually, 'and you all need to reread the chapters on demon identification in the handbook. This should have been easy because there's only two other species of three-eyed demons and you couldn't mistake them for a Skilosh' he noted.

'How so?' Shannon asked.

'Wrong number of limbs for a start' Stephen replied with a chuckle. 'Nasty buggers Skilosh' he continued seriously, rolling the demon back over with his foot and crouching next to it, 'they reproduce by stabbing their tongue here into the back of a host creatures head' he told them reaching into the demons mouth and pulling its tongue out to show them, 'that implants a Skilosh larvae which grows inside you until… well you can figure it out' he told them. 'You get a third eye yourself for a while, and a really bad headache I would imagine' he added releasing the things tongue and standing up. 'They were considered rare but more have been cropping up in recent years so they were included in the latest revision of the Slayer Handbook as a likely possible adversary.'

'I can't believe you reached into its mouth and did that' Natasha told him as he wiped his hand on his jeans.

'It was well past the biting me stage and most demons carry less harmful bacteria in their mouths than humans do. They're a bit like dogs that way' he replied. 'Of course if it had been slimier I'd have got one of you to do it' he deadpanned reaching into his pocket for a cellphone, or as he called it a mobile punching in a number from memory.

'Angel Investigations we help the…oh crap wrong line. I'm sorry Slayer Control speaking' a voice at the other end of the line declared.

'Good evening Ms. Chase. Patrol Eight here' Stephen began. 'We just ran into some demons and we're going off our assigned patrol route to dispose of them' he told her. They should be able to just about fit all the corpses in the back of the SUV, that's why they used one, and of course why they kept plenty of plastic wrap. Throwing them in one of the water hazards or burying them in a sand bunker wasn't really an option even if it would have been a lot more convenient.

'Hey Stephen. Everyone alright? What did you run into?' Cordelia asked from the Hyperion. It was her shift tonight, she'd agreed to swap with Anya because she and Xander were going to see a film again, those two were definitely heading back towards item country.

'Everyone's fine' Stephen replied. 'They were Skilosh if that means anything to you?'

'Skilosh!' Cordelia responded in a rather shrill tone. 'I hate those things' she declared. 'They made me a host once, there aren't any more are there?' she asked with concern. 'They travel in like packs' she warned.

'We'll get rid of these and then have a look around' Stephen replied. 'We've got plenty of hardware if there's a more' he told her. That was true, they weren't just carrying plastic wrap in the SUV they had plenty of heavy duty armaments just in case.

'Call if you need help' Cordelia replied. 'I'll tell Patrol Six to get ready to head up your way if you need them, they're the closest' she advised.

'I'm sure we'll be fine Ms. Chase' Stephen told her. 'Will inform when we're back on patrol. Bye.

Cordelia said goodbye and the young watcher ended the call sticking his cellphone back in his pocket. 'Okay so there's seven of them' he said, 'two each for you and I'll carry the smallest one' he said reaching down to pick up one of the dead Skilosh.

Shannon frowned. 'A gentleman would take the heaviest' she noted.

'A modern Twenty-First Century guy lets the girls that are several times stronger than him do the heavy lifting, anything else could be construed as sexist' he declared.

'You hold doors open for girls all the time what's the difference?' Shannon asked him reaching to pick up a Skilosh of her own.

'Holding open doors is light work' the Watcher replied tongue-in-cheek hefting the Skilosh onto his shoulder. 'This however is too much like a real job' he complained starting to carry it to the Range Rover he'd parked nearby. It was fairly obvious who had ordered the vehicles that now occupied the Hyperion parking lot when they weren't out on patrol, Giles had bought British somewhat to the chagrin of others that were as yet unconvinced by his declaration of the innate superiority of British built four-wheel-drives.

'Why couldn't they all just turn to dust like vampires?' Natasha complained wrestling with one of the corpses herself.

'Don't complain' Shannon told her. 'Did you hear about Danielle and those two Glurgs the night before last?'

Natasha grimaced. 'I am never going up against anything that's mostly puss without a flamethrower' she declared.

'Imagine the smell though' Jacqueline interjected.

Shannon felt nauseous just thinking about it. 'This job is just pure glamour' she said sadly as she hefted a dead demon across a golf course at night.

Hyperion Hotel – Los Angeles – July 2003

'You're sending us away' the girl responded utterly crestfallen. Her twin sister just looked at him while the older of the three looked stoic, Giles had already talked to the latter an hour ago, just before breakfast, prior to broaching the topic with her younger siblings.

Giles inwardly winced. 'It's not like I'm banishing you to outer darkness' he told them. 'You need to go home and get on with your lives' he told them. 'For a start you're going to have to go back to school eventually.'

Deborah crossed her arms, she was always the most headstrong of the pair, and looked him in the eyes. 'Our school was burned to the ground' she pointed out.

'We'll enrol you in another school' Giles told her. 'The best we can find' he reassured them.

'An ordinary school?' Jessica spoke up aghast.

Deborah took her sisters hand. 'I am not going to somewhere where the kids read Harry Potter instead of real books on magic' she stated flatly. 'We're Watchers' she added forcefully her sister nodding in affirmation.

'You're eleven' Giles replied curtly. 'I'm talking to you like adults because I think you deserved to be treated with respect but you are children' he noted, 'and children need an education' he told them. 'More than that you need a proper home' he added.

Deborah really took exception to that. 'Firstly we're twelve next week' she began, 'and secondly you're sending us to a boarding school not home' she said. 'Our house in London was home' she told him, 'Mum and Dad were home' she continued, 'and they're dead, they aren't coming back, our parents are gone' she said her eyes tearing up.

'We haven't got anyone' Jessica reinforced the point quietly. 'All our friends were at the Academy, all our relatives were Watchers and they're gone too' she said. 'The only people we know are here' she said truthfully.

Giles took a breath. It was often like that, he thought, Watcher families were dynastic, they also tended to intermarry so that a surprising number of the Council were cousins of varying distances. Watcher children grew up playing with the children of other Watchers, went to school with them, graduated the academy together, they were a close knit bunch and the girls here were not atypical. They quite literally had nobody left but each other. It was heartbreaking but he kept his feelings under a tight leash, they needed stability which meant they needed him to be stable.

He'd seen this coming a mile off. Pretty much as soon as he had found them the girls had looked to him as the automatic authority figure, he was the Senior Watcher, in fact technically the only Watcher since Wesley was not a member of the Council and Stephen was just a trainee like them, so he was their superior, the one that they would defer to and look to for guidance. Giles remembered what it was like to be raised to be a Watcher, despite the sometimes stifling oppression of destiny it also had the reassurance of certainty and knowing you had a purpose in life and that it was worthwhile.

'So what about Stephen?' Deborah asked. 'Is he getting exiled too?'

'Stephen is eighteen and can make his own mind up' Giles replied. 'He's not sure what he wants to do' he added. 'And don't exaggerate' he told her, 'you are not getting "exiled".'

'I'm not going back to England without Stephen' Jessica stated firmly then turned to her older sister. 'He's your boyfriend, tell him he's got to stay with us' she said, Deborah nodding in agreement. They may look to Giles for leadership now but in some way they still looked to Stephen for security. During the attack on the Academy, and later in the weeks they were running and hiding from the Harbingers of the First, Stephen had been the one that saved them and looked after them and although he wasn't always much fun, he could be very serious sometimes, he neatly filled the role of sword carrying security blanket. He himself was currently still asleep after working the previous night but as soon as the girls got out of here they were going to wake him up for sure.

Emily sighed. 'I have talked to him' she said. 'He wants to stay with us but they need Watchers here for all the Slayers' she replied. 'So he's not sure what he's going to do' she said, clearly upset by that.

'That's right' Deborah declared. 'You need Watchers here' she told Giles. 'We can help' she said. 'Emily more than Jessica and I' she admitted, 'but we'll help too, we know about Demons and Vampires and we can translate texts' she said. 'I speak better Latin than Willow and Jessica's way better than me.'

Giles smiled. Actually they both did speak and write better Latin than Willow, or young Dawn for that matter, but there wasn't much demand for pre-teen Watchers even when they were a rare commodity. 'Maybe in a few years' he told her.

'Couldn't we stay here and go to school?' Jessica asked.

'It's not that simple' Emily told her. 'There are legal issues too' she continued. 'We're orphans' she pointed out. 'Mr Giles has no legal rights over us.'

Deborah's jaw dropped. 'They'll put us in a children's home' she said in horror. 'We'll be fostered or adopted' she said. 'They could split us up. Nobody is going to want three girls.'

'I'm sure it wouldn't come to that' Giles told her sounding a lot more certain than he genuinely felt.

'I won't let anyone split us up' Emily told her sisters.

'You couldn't stop them' Deborah retorted.

Jessica looked at Giles. 'Couldn't you adopt us?' she asked. 'I mean if you did they couldn't split us up or put us in an orphanage.'

Giles blinked. 'I don't think they'd let me even if I thought it was a good idea' he replied apologetically. 'I'm single for a start, they prefer married couples and you need someone who actually has an idea how to be a parent.'

'We'd be good' Jessica pleaded. 'Couldn't you try?' she implored.

'I just don't think it's an option' Giles told her getting flustered. 'I don't think I'd do it very well anyway' he added. 'You need a real family.'

Emily frowned, she hadn't really considered this. 'You wouldn't have to do anything' she told Giles. 'I'd look after them' she promised. 'You could get a lawyer, see if you could, you can afford a really good one' she reminded him.

Giles looked at Jessica and Deborah not knowing what to say. Fortunately at that precise moment fate intervened as he got the strange sensation that something was wrong shortly before everything started to shake. 'Tremor' he said quickly. 'Get under the doorway' he said sharply.

The girls looked terrified as they huddled in the doorway Giles remembered his first experience of an earth tremor once he'd moved to California as he joined them. It was a really strange experience, the ground back in England just didn't move unless you were digging it up. For that matter they didn't get volcano's, tornados, tsunamis or hurricanes back home either thereby proving the old truism that God was quite clearly an Englishman. 'It's alright' he told them just before Jessica put her arms around him.

The tremor only lasted a few seconds then was over but it felt like longer than that. 'You can let go of me now' he told the girl.

'Giles are we expecting an apocalypse?' Buffy asked loudly bounding into line of sight.

'No but you might like to check with Illyria to see if anything is due to happen she hasn't bothered to tell us about yet' Giles called back as Buffy reached for her cellphone. Illyria always carried hers, she was quite the technophile despite her ridiculous age and relentless nostalgia for the good (bad?) old days.

Jessica let go of Giles and was blushing with embarrassment apologising for grabbing him. Giles smiled and told her it was fine.

'Illyria says that she doesn't remember this happening before' Buffy announced, the cellphone held to her ear. 'To me that says bad things about to happen' she added redundantly. Anything different from what was expcted always meant bad things about to happen, especially things that began with earthquakes.

Giles sighed. 'Right' he said. 'If the world still exists next week we'll take up this conversation again then' he told the girls.

Saved by the apocalypse he thought with relief.