Chapter 5: Wild at Heart

Giles

"I have discovered something," Giles said.

Buffy made a sound that could have been considered acknowledgment had Giles not known that she was paying no attention to him whatsoever. She'd been staring at the wall since she'd arrived at his and Jenny's house. Even if Willow hadn't been worrying about her the night before Giles would have known that something was wrong.

Giles placed a cup of tea on the coffee table in front of Buffy. "You are moping."

"Moping? Who's moping?" Buffy said flatly. "I'm not moping."

The raised eyebrow Giles sent her way also went ignored. She was definitely moping.

Before Giles could press further, the door flew open. Willow and Oz tumbled inside. Willow looked flustered.

"Is something wrong?" Giles asked.

"Lucy was on campus," Willow said. "In the sun."

Buffy finally turned away from the wall. "What?"

"She wasn't burning," Oz said. "We talked."

Well, that was disturbing news.

"Did she say anything about how she might have managed that?" Giles asked. He doubted she had—even as a vampire Lucy was smarter than that—but it didn't hurt to ask.

Willow and Oz shook their heads.

"I didn't catch anything," Willow said. "But I was kind of...not really concentrating." She blushed.

"I see," Giles said. He wasn't going to try to unpack that. "We'll have to look into that. What did she say?"

"She was asking about the band," Willow said. "Oh! And she wanted us to ask Buffy if Buffy got into contact with someone named Pike?"

Giles, Willow and Oz turned to Buffy.

"What?" Buffy asked.

"Pike?" Giles prompted.

Buffy shrugged. "A friend from my old school. He's a demon hunter now. We've been talking about...psychology."

Psychology. For some reason, Giles actually believed that substitution. It probably had to do with the way Buffy was frowning.

"I see," Giles said again. "Has that been helpful?"

"Yeah, it has," Buffy said. She shook her head. "Lucy. Sun. We have a problem."

Giles was already making a mental list of books to check. Wallace Abraham Carver wrote about vampires surviving sunlight, didn't he? It took a moment for him to find the book to check and less than a second for him to put it back on the shelf. That book was irrelevant, and no one needed to see those diagrams. He'd forgotten that Carver had tracked the progression of sun damage by chaining vampires out in partial sunlight. The man's observations were unpleasant.

"Give me some time to look up a few things," Giles said. "Oz, you may be interested in the books on the table. Ah, not that end of the table, the other end."

Oz didn't show any sort of reaction as he moved away from the research materials on Jenny's end of the dining table and picked up one of the books on Giles's end. "Meditation?"

"Why would Oz be interested in meditation?" Willow asked.

Giles took another book off the shelf and turned to place it on the table after giving its contents a once over. "I have been doing more research on werewolves in my spare time." By which he meant nearly all the time now that he didn't have a day job so that he wouldn't be bored to tears. "I've found some reports indicating that training in meditation allows some werewolves a level of control over their transformations."

"Neat," Oz said. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Giles said.

There were fifteen more books in the werewolf research stacks. Several of them were newly ordered. He really had been desperate for something to do over the summer, but beyond that he'd wanted to do something to help one of his kids. He'd failed to do anything for the others. Devon and Kendra's fledgling relationship had been rocky since they'd learned that Lucy and Spike were back in Sunnydale. He hadn't seen Xander since he and Jenny had arrived a little too late to help with the vampire gang on the UC Sunnydale campus a few weeks ago. Sam and Soul were swamped with second-year undergraduate work that he had no expertise in. Cordelia hadn't contacted anyone in Sunnydale in months. Willow and Faith were both showing clear signs of stress while refusing to admit that anything might be wrong. And Buffy, well, Buffy wasn't only moping.

Oz sat down with one of the meditation books. Willow grabbed one of the other werewolf books and went to join Buffy on the couch. Giles listened to the girls talk with one ear while he continued to look for books that might have some scrap of information about how Lucy could be sunproof.

"He still hasn't called yet?" Willow asked.

"He's never going to," Buffy said. "He said it was 'fun' and 'no strings attached'. I saw him with another girl saying all the same things he said to me."

Oh dear, heartbreak. And it sounded like Giles might have to commit murder.

"What a jerk!" Willow said. "I ought to hit him, hard, with an axe."

"Ease up on the murder plans, Wils. It might be kind of hard to break you out of jail," Buffy said.

Giles took one of his spellbooks that contained very good curses off of the shelf and put it aside for later. It was probably best to start with a curse rather than jumping straight to homicide. Buffy did have a point. It had been several years since his last jailbreak.

"Well, you're probably right but Parker is a stupid head and he deserves it," Willow said. She paused. "Maybe don't let Lucy find out about him."

"I'll try, but you know she's mind reading all the time," Buffy said.

That would make keeping secrets difficult. Perhaps meditation could be of help to the rest of them as well as Oz. It did help protect against some magic that affected the mind. Though, getting Buffy and Faith to meditate would be difficult. Buffy had, understandably, been averse to any suggestion of meditation since her Cruciamentum and Faith followed her lead. Giles hated himself for ever being part of that.

Willow sighed. "He still kind of deserves it."

"Does he though?" Buffy said. "She sent Angel to a hell dimension."

Giles had almost forgotten about that. Maybe he should research some hell dimensions. Unpleasant but non-lethal, that would be the goal.

The four of them were silent for several minutes. Giles pulled a few more books off the shelves and sat down to begin going through them. He found a reference to a ritual that granted a vampire total invulnerability but when he looked into it further he quickly dismissed it as an option. It required the vampire's heart to be removed and resulted in them turning to dust after six hours. Lucy wouldn't do that to herself.

"I should get going," Buffy said. "I've got a class."

"I'll walk with you," Willow said. "Oz?"

Oz raised the book he was reading. "I'm going to finish this."

"Okay, see you later. Bye, Giles." Willow waved at them as she followed Buffy to the door.

"Bye, Oz. Bye, Giles," Buffy called over her shoulder.

Oz spoke up a few minutes after the door closed. "I think this girl I know is a werewolf."

Giles looked up from his books and was unsurprised to see that Oz's expression was totally neutral. "Really?"

"And Lucy said she'll be fun to have around," Oz said.

That couldn't be good.

The first night of the full moon was the next day, because as Xander had once said, disasters always happened within a week of them finding out about the possibility. Giles was on edge as soon as the sun set. Oz had said that he would talk to the girl, Veruca, and help her find a safe place to lock herself up. Giles had no doubt that he'd done so, but there weren't any updates before moonrise. There was nothing he could do but wait and hope that Buffy and Kendra had remembered to take their tranquilizer guns with them on patrol.

"Rupert, the kids can take care of themselves," Jenny said when he muttered about tranquilizer guns for the second or third time since she'd gotten home from work.

"I am well aware," Giles said. "But—"

Jenny put a finger on his lips. "But nothing. They'll call if they need one of us. They always do."

That wasn't entirely accurate. Sometimes they got a phone call. Sometimes there was no time to call them and they didn't find out that there was anything wrong until after it was dealt with or the children retreated to somewhere where they could get in contact.

"We ought to check if there are any werewolf hunters in town," Giles said.

Jenny smirked. "You mean like we do every full moon?"

"Well, yes," Giles said.

"Already done. No one's seen a whisper of one," Jenny said. "Try to relax."

Giles sighed. Jenny was right. There was no point in worrying so much. A disaster would occur or it would not, regardless of his stress level.

"I made borscht," he said.

"Which means that the kitchen sink looks like a murder scene," Jenny said.

"Only slightly." Giles went to the kitchen and moved the pot back onto the stove. "We'll be able to eat in a few minutes."

"Let's see if I can finish my marking before dinner." Jenny took a stack of papers out of her bag. "Remind me why I agreed to teach math to sixth graders."

The answer was because Sunnydale Middle School had gotten the better end of the deal when it came to negotiations over housing half the population of Sunnydale High School. Yes, they'd lost a large volume of classroom space to high school students, but they'd gained several qualified teachers who they were allowed to add to their own class rotation. They'd taken advantage of that.

"Politics," Giles said.

Jenny laughed.

They had a fairly relaxed supper. The table was covered with too many research materials to move without scrambling someone's organization, so they ate at the breakfast bar overlooking the kitchen. No one came crashing through their door with vampires on their tail. No one called asking how to kill a fireball throwing demon plant. For once, it was peaceful.

Whatever disaster was coming was going to be a doozy.

Giles checked the newspaper the next morning for signs of a werewolf attack. He found one. Several cats had been found dead not far from the UC Sunnydale campus. The police were blaming coyotes. There were a few demon species that ate cats, but they wouldn't have left any parts of the bodies behind. Werewolves on the other hand preferred to eat humans and deer. They would kill cats because they were cats.

"Oh dear," Giles sighed.

Before he could make a call to the Dingoes' house to see if he could talk to Oz, the doorbell rang.

"There were werewolves on campus last night," Buffy said as she came inside. "One of them went after Professor Walsh and the other one chased that one away."

"Two werewolves?" Giles asked. "Have you spoken to Oz today?"

"Willow and Sam went to look for him," Buffy said. "He's usually home by this time."

The way she said it made it sound like Oz wasn't home, which was worrying. Hopefully Willow and Sam would find him.

At best, one of the werewolves was Oz and the other was Veruca. That gave them two mostly known quantities to track down. Worst case, they had two completely new werewolves in Sunnydale.

Buffy shared tea with Giles before leaving for her next class. Giles asked her to get Oz to call him when she saw him next.

"Will do, Giles," Buffy said. "Remember to eat lunch."

That reminder was annoyingly warranted. Giles sat down to do a bit more research on their sun issue and when he next looked at the clock it was past two in the afternoon. He'd woken up at eight.

Still, those hours of research were useful. He'd found another spell that didn't make vampires totally invulnerable but did give them immunity to sunlight. He didn't think that Lucy knew the runic alphabet it used, but she had been away for a year and a vampire for longer than that. She might have learned it since she was last on their side.

Giles's lunch was interrupted by a knock at the door. Oz stumbled inside looking mildly worried, which meant that by anyone else's standards he was freaking out.

"Would you like some chamomile tea?" Giles asked.

Oz nodded.

It took a while for Oz to say anything. He drank his tea in silence until Giles prompted him.

"Veruca is a werewolf," Oz said. "She already knew, and she doesn't care if she hurts anyone. She's power drunk."

"Ah," Giles said. "I suppose talking to her would be futile."

Oz nodded even though it wasn't a question.

A power drunk witch or wizard was something that Giles could have handled. He had before. A power drunk werewolf couldn't be stripped of her magic. They would have to keep locking her up during full moons and that was a less than permanent solution. She certainly wouldn't make it easy for them. Giles didn't want to be the first Watcher to find out what the powers of a Slayer turned werewolf were.

"Well, we have the tranquilizer guns," Giles said. "We could find a secure warehouse and transport her there for the next two nights. What would you say the odds are that she'd attempt to leave town?"

"Low," Oz said. "She's got her band."

That was understandable.

Oz agreed that it was time to let the others know about Veruca when Giles suggested it. Maybe someone else would be able to come up with a better plan. Kendra had gotten very good at creative solutions, as the collapsed dock at the end of Greenwood Avenue could attest to.

It took until four to gather everyone in one place so that they wouldn't end up with a game of broken telephone. They ended up in the house the Dingoes were renting together since Soul had an essay to write and didn't want to transport his sources any further from the college's library than he had to. Even Xander was there.

"So, what's happening?" Devon asked. "And when did you all get here?"

Faith grinned at him. "Like ten minutes ago, Vin. Keep up."

Giles adjusted his glasses and looked around at the young adults sprawled across the Dingoes' second-hand furniture. "Jenny, Oz and I know the identity of the second werewolf that was on campus last night."

"It's Veruca," Oz said.

Buffy frowned. "The singer from that band?"

Oz nodded.

"That sucks, man," Devon said. "Is she okay?"

"She is well aware of her condition and is quite happy to commit murder," Giles said.

The room, filled with eleven people, went silent.

"I guess she can't go to jail for that since, well, werewolf," Willow said. "Is there werewolf rehab?"

That was something to look into further. Unfortunately, Giles hadn't yet come across anything ethical that could be considered werewolf rehab in his research.

"I don't know any place I'd willingly send someone to," Jenny said. Giles nodded.

"If we run her out of town, she's not our problem anymore," Faith said. She shrugged at the looks of disbelief sent her way. "I'm just saying."

"Maybe try to remember that you're not playing the villain anymore," Sam said.

Faith flipped him off.

"If we could get back to the matter at hand," Giles said. "Buffy, Kendra, are there any unoccupied warehouses that it would be possible for us to secure for the next two nights?"

The two Slayers looked at each other. Not for the first time, they appeared to have a discussion entirely in minute facial expressions.

"There's one near the airport that might work," Buffy said.

"Can I assume that we'd be attempting to trap this werewolf girl inside?" Kendra asked.

"That would be the idea, but we're open to suggestions," Giles said.

Kendra shook her head. "We have two hours until sunset. If we are to make preparations it must be now."

She was right.

As usual, the kids came up with a plan that was almost sure to work if it didn't explode in their faces. Giles gave them the green light once he'd confirmed that they also had escape plans. He didn't want to have to break anyone out through a concrete wall with a pickaxe again.

Giles couldn't be present for the action—werewolves weren't the only creatures who emerged during the full moon and the nest of moon rabbits on Sunnydale Middle School's football field really needed to be moved before they got hurt—but he got a report from Buffy and Oz the next day. There had ended up being more blood spilled than they'd intended.

Oz had acted as bait, or rather as a Judas goat. The plan had been for him to tell Veruca that he'd been thinking about what she'd said and he'd found a place where he could start spreading his wings. He'd invited her to take a look at it and when she agreed led her to the warehouse.

The warehouse they'd picked had windows that couldn't be opened and doors that were easy to barricade from the outside. Buffy and Kendra blocked the one door that they'd left open with a dumpster once Veruca was inside. That should have held her until morning. It didn't. Veruca escaped almost as soon as the moon rose.

"She went through the window?" Giles said.

Buffy nodded. "Straight through. I don't think she even noticed all the cuts she got, though her fur did stop most of the glass so they weren't too bad."

"Were any of them life-threatening?" Giles asked. Injuries that they considered not too bad could range from papercuts to stab wounds as long as they could be treated without going to the hospital.

"She didn't even need stitches," Buffy said. "She was all healed up after she changed back."

"The one perk of being a werewolf," Oz said.

"The tracking thing you can do is pretty cool," Buffy said.

Oz shrugged.

Giles sighed. "Can I assume that you tranquilized her after her escape?"

"Yup," Buffy said. "She should still be out of it. Devon and Willow are watching her right now."

"Good." Giles glanced at the clock. It wasn't yet noon. He decided not to ask what strength of tranquilizer they'd used. "Jenny did some searching and background checks and found a pack of werewolves willing to take her in, the Beacon Pack. They're based a few hours north. Their representatives should be arriving shortly."

Oz's eyebrows rose slightly.

"There are werewolf packs?" Buffy asked. "Like wolf packs but werewolves? Why didn't we know that already?"

"They tend not to keep any records that could be used against them," Giles said. "Jenny had to jump through hoops to get a phone number and she's considered trustworthy."

Giles himself was not considered entirely trustworthy, though getting fired from the Watchers Council had reportedly improved his reputation in California's neutral demonic/part-human/magic community. If that hadn't happened they'd probably never have gotten in contact with the Beacon Pack.

Buffy had a class to get to but Oz stayed behind to do one last check of the Beacon representatives. He was confident that he could identify a werewolf by smell now.

Delia Hale and the two teenage girls who arrived with her were definitely werewolves. The Amazonian woman's eyes locked on Oz as soon as she stepped through the door. They stared at each other until Delia inclined her head and Oz relaxed.

"We planned this to look like a girls' day out," Delia said. "But you're welcome to join us if you want."

"No, thanks," Oz said. "I'm right where I belong."

A/n: Yes, the Beacon Pack is a reference to Teen Wolf.

This is where I got episodes out of order and decided to leave it that way because it made the timeline work better. This is an AU, I can do stuff like that.

-Cynder2013