TITLE: Deluge
AUTHOR: clarrie
DISCLAIMER:
Obviously don't own Giles, Wesley, Buffy and the Scooby gang. Alice Boston and others are mine, most of the info about watchers and the watchers council was made up by me and is based on my interpretation of it as an institution.
All witchy stuff made up by me and bares little resemblance to say, Wicca or any of the other old faiths.
Lines taken from 'Vicious' By Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.
RATING: about a 12 or PG13, some swearing and innuendo but no orgies or misuse of small furry animals
SPOILERS: mild up to mid season 3, but as if faith and the mayor had not existed and Anya and Xander had got together earlier. Does include Wesley character though.
At the time of story Oz had ginger hair.
'And I will be wearing taffeta as chenille does not suit my complexion.'
Giles. 'The prom'
The sun beat down upon the dried out riverbank. Each new shifting of the breeze sent more dust and debris spinning into the air and away down the highway. As if as out of duty to fulfil it's quota of desert stereotypes a lone tumbleweed spun across the sterile landscape. The bank, loosened by the heat, fell in a tiny avalanche of dirt and rocks observed by no one but a passing rodent. The rodent never got a chance to tell any of his little ratty friends however.
The large metal box which followed the rocks and dust rather put paid to that...
'Squeep!'
followed closely by squelch…
The scene oozed with heat, the dry dusty air of the library shimmered and the dust hung in the air like a curtain. The books on the shelves groaned as their centuries old bindings of skin and wood expanded and contracted as the heat and shade shifted position throughout the day.
'Alice, it's not…' Giles paused to choose the word with care. 'Seemly'.
'Bugger seemly'. Alice's voice floated up from beneath the desk across the room. 'It's too hot to be upright'.
Giles winced at Alice's rather forthright turn of phrase and attempted to seek refuge in the text he was studying.
'It's that bloody woman's fault'.
Giles looked up once more from the knowledge of the ancients to respond to Alice's disembodied voice. 'Which, bl… Which woman?'
'Barbie.'
Giles rubbed his eyes wearily, it was going to be another long, long day. 'Alice, I don't think even you could argue that it is reasonable to blame Mrs Summers for the weather.'
'Well you wouldn't.'
'Alice.'
'Well why won't she give me a key?'
Giles rolled his eyes in silence.
'If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be stuck here with you all day. No offence.'
'None taken Alice,' Giles shook his head indulgently. 'None taken.' He paused to take a sip of water and fan himself with a nearby document. 'Alice, it was very nice of Joyce to let you live with them anyway."
"My flat exploded!"
" Look Alice I'd find it a damn site easier to talk to you if I could see you.'
'I'm not getting up, it's cool down here'
Not for the first time Giles silently cursed the stray paperclip which had led to Alice's discovery of the area of comparative coolness beneath the desk.
'How do you cope in this heat anyway Squirrel?'
Giles watched in fascination as a disembodied hand raised itself to take a glass of water from the opposite desktop, before retiring to the darkness beneath. 'Well, I don't hide under my desk.'
'Oh no you wouldn't would you, you're Mr bloody perfect.'
'Alice.'
'For God's sake Giles. You are not my father!'
Giles smiled to himself, having older siblings had taught him that to really annoy someone, sometimes all you needed was a sensible voice.
'I'm only four years younger than you are. And who qualified first?'
'Alice, we qualified in the same year. You got your diploma first because they gave them out alphabetically.'
'Still first.'
'Oh act your age.'
They sat in silence, save for the occasional 'flick, flick' as Giles turned over the heavy parchment pages of the ageless tome before him, and the 'tuggger, tugger, tugger' as Alice tried to use the latest copy of 'Watcher Watch' as a makeshift air conditioner.
'Squirrel.'
Giles began to note down a particularly interesting passage, and idly wondered whether there actually was blood dribbling from his ears or whether it just felt like it.
'Squirrel.'
'What! What is it?'
'I'm bored.'
'Well I must say Alice I'm glad you told me that, I never would have guessed on my own.'
'You don't have to be like that, I just wondered if you wanted any help.'
Giles now, felt guilty. He frowned as he realised the fact that although Alice had driven him to distraction all day, he now felt cruel for snapping at her. 'I, truly don't need any help Alice. I'm just going through the Ruthian prophecies again.' Giles placed a finger on the page to mark his place. 'Aren't you supposed to be Observing Wesley anyway?'
'Oh but he's so dull. He never does anything.'
A tiny smile rose to Gile's lips. 'Would it be too cheap a shot to point out…'
'Yes Squirrel. It would. Did you say Ruthian prophecies?'
'You know them?' Giles removed his glasses and wiped his eyes, grateful at the break from the tiny odd shaped print.
'Golly, do I know the ruthian prophecies! I can tell you that there's nothing of use to a slayer in there, you were looking for slayer prophecies weren't you?'
Giles bit back the sarcasm that sprang to his lips. 'Nothing? Do you mind if I ask how you know?'
'I made a study of them, I had a lot of spare time about, ooh, three years ago. When I was in Israel.'
Giles closed the book wearily and rested his head on his hands. 'Touring the desks of the Middle East were we? Or working on the IKEA kibbutz perhaps?'
'Don't be bitter Squiz.'
Giles shook his head and rose from his seat, 'You can't stay down there all day.' He carefully replaced the book among the others on the shelves and turned towards the desk serving as Alice's heat shield. He took a glass of water from the jug and began to drink. 'You know that we should be drinking iced tea. That's all that they think we drink.'
'Can't stand ice tea. Revolting substance.'
Giles smiled to himself. 'Buffy and her friends will be back with a fan soon, will you get out from under there then at least? After all it wouldn't do if Willow saw you crouching beneath the desk. It could remove the dignity from witchcraft forever for her.'
'I'm not 'crouching'. I'll have you know I'm lying flat out.'
'We've got the fa… Geez it's hot in here.' Xander reeled back from the dry baked heat which greeted him inside the library.
Buffy put a placating hand on his shoulder. 'Why don't we set this fan up hey?'
'The Fan!' Alice peered over the surface of the desk.
It's no wonder that the heat was getting to her. Tweed, whilst a fine fabric for Oxford, Paris, Berlin and a number of other temperate climates, Is not best suited to a California summer. The permanent curtain of hair which covered her face lay lank and still.
'I don't even want to know what you've been doing'. Xander sat down heavily at the main table and plugged in the fan causing a cooling breeze to shift the air around the library.
'Do try and stretch your mind beyond the base occasionally Xander.' Giles placed a new jug of water on the table and poured Xander a glass.
'But it's fun down here'. Xander took a long gulp from the glass and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
'Gosh, 'Alice struggled to her feet. 'I've been waiting for this all morning.' She stood in the main stream of air issuing from the fan with her head leant back like a dog with it's head out of the window. 'Woohoo.'
'Ok.' Buffy stared at what was, to be honest, quite a spectacle. 'So what have we been doing while I was out shopping with Gutter boy here?'
Xander raised his arms lazily. 'Gutter boy in da house.'
Giles paused as he took another book from the shelves. 'Um, is Willow with you Buffy?'
'She's just behind us. Her and Oz are, you know…' Buffy smiled as Willow and Oz entered the library.
'Willow'. Giles suppressed a smile as he acknowledged Willow and Oz's arrival with a nod.
'Muchos smoochos for el conkissdador!' Xander as usual suppressed nothing.
Willow blushed a little and grinned. 'So, anything happen while we were at the mall? No unnatural sights the like of which man was not meant to see?'
'Apart from Alice?' Xander ducked as he received a good-natured clip round the ear from an air-cooled watcher.
'No, um, as erm, The heat seems to be slowing everyone down. It, um it's almost peaceful.' Giles scratched behind his ear distractedly and sat at his desk. 'It's rather restful to be honest.'
'Oh, Oh!' Xander leapt to his feet, 'and you say I jinx things?' He waved a finger at Giles. ' That is pure jinx. If this was a war movie, he'd be telling us about his wedding plans now.'
Giles shook his head. ' Mr Harris, Restful has a different meaning on the hellmouth. There's still a vampire nest in East Sunnydale, and someone is breeding Franklinn's demons, but there's nothing particularly outré.' Giles rolled his eyes as he realised that the group were no longer listening and turned to see what had caught their attention. 'Wesley?'
Oz raised a laid back hand. 'Wait, wait.' He waited until he had everyone's attention and raising his hand to his mouth he cleared his throat. ' The plane! The plane! '
Wesley blushed a deep and glowing red, which combined with the startling whiteness of his new suit, caused him to bear more than a passing resemblance to a vanilla sundae with a cherry on top. 'Well, it may be a little 'summery' but I hardly think…'
'Oh, oh!' Xander bounced up and down excitedly. 'The man from Delmonte he say- give me my suit back ya freak!'
Buffy spoke carefully through the side of her mouth. 'Giles, Why is Wesley dressed as Colonel Sanders?'
'I really don't think that…'
'New suit Wes?' Alice grinned. 'Lucky you'.
'I didn't think it was that bad,' Wesley frowned introspectively. 'I thought it was quite…' he trailed off.
Giles gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder, 'Congratulations Wesley. You've managed to provoke three pop culture references in as many minutes.'
Wesley sat at the table and fanned himself gently with his hat. 'The salesgirl said it was the classic Englishman abroad look. She said that I was the only man she'd seen all day who could even think about it.'
'He wasn't ever in the army you know.'
As a conversation opener, even from Xander, this was a little odd.
'The colonel, he was never in the army.'
They breathed a sigh of relief.
'He was just an Indiana farmboy, then governor Ruby Laffoon made him an honorary colonel in the forties and he started playing up the southern gentleman image, so you see,' Xander paused and tilted his head knowledgeably, 'the name came after the chicken'…
'Xander?'
'Will?'
'You should eat more fresh food.'
Giles blinked heavily. ' Ruby Laffoon?' His eyes glazed over momentarily. 'No, no don't tell me I don't want to know.' He took a tissue from his top pocket and dabbed delicately at his forehead. 'Buffy, I think that if you can try to get some more information about those Franklinn's demons, and, well, if information is unforthcoming just try to kill a few.
Willow, Xander, There's really nothing urgent I need you for, you can... you can go and eat chicken if you want.
Alice, I'm sure that Buffy will lend you her house key if you want to have, a, a shower or something, and Wesley.' Giles paused. 'Do you own any other summer clothes?'
'I have a cricket blazer and…'
Giles rolled his eyes wearily. 'Wesley just go and eat chicken with those two'…
That night it rained.
Rained however seems not to do justice to the meteorological warfare that was enacted that night. The thunder rolled and the lightening flashed, obese, swollen, raindrops exploded into the dust in the streets and highway. The rain beat a ceaseless tattoo upon the roofs of Sunnydale, waking the sleeping and giving some sort of percussive soundtrack to the insomniac.
And still it rained.
The rain streamed into the gutters, debris buried deep in the drains floated to the surface and was carried down the street. Flushed from their hiding places a group of Sunydale's over-confident vampires ran confused and disorientated through the streets. Unused to the strain, the stormdrains of Sunnydale started to burst.
And still it rained.
The river began to fill once more. First a layer of mud and then the dark swirling water. The rain fell hard on the riverbed, a rodent, possibly the brother of the first, sheltered within the honeycombed earth of the riverbank and watched as the raindrops hit the metal box, steaming and boiling as they wore away the rust.
The water around it began to hiss and bubble, it swirled in dark and forbidding patterns, independent of the rivers natural tides and currents. The rat drew deep within it's hole, it's hair plastered against it's back, and shivered...
The rain falls upon the just and the unjust, and at this precise moment it fell upon Buffy Summers.
'Stupid demons tell me what to slay stupid watcher, stupid Giles, stupid rain.' Buffy stood at her door and struggled with the key. 'Stupid key, doesn't know what I by now.' The key fell from her hands as a tremendous sneeze racked her frame.
'Oh my! Buffy come in out of the rain.' Joyce Summers ushered Buffy into the kitchen. 'What have you been doing?'
'Mom.'
'Oh yes.' Joyce rolled her eyes. 'Slaying.'
'It's not like, a hobby mom.' Buffy gratefully accepted the cup of coffee that her mother had made.
'Why can't my daughter just work at the Gap?' Joyce perched at the breakfast counter and began to sip her own coffee.
Buffy smiled. 'Would you worry any less?'
Something woke. The water was seeping into the vessel and awakening what was sealed within. They became aware...
'You had better go to bed young lady. You've got school tomorrow.' Joyce put the empty coffee cups into the sink. 'I'll wash these up tomorrow morning.'
'Well mom I'll…'
'VAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSHHHHHHHH'
'Aargh, Bugger me sideways!'
Buffy and her mother leapt to open the door. On the doorstep was a small swearing pile of tweed. 'Alice are you alright?'
Alice stood blinking in the darkness. 'What, what just?'
Buffy's mother opened the curtain and gaped out of the window. 'What was it Buffy? All I saw was a flash of light and that noise.'
'Oh than' God. I thought it was the DT's.' Alice sat dripping at the kitchen table, she ran her hands over her face. 'I have no idea what that was.' Alice began to drink Joyce's coffee. ' But it gave me one up I don't mind telling you.'
They were bored.
The rat had been fun for a while, but rats don't think of much, and certainly not enough to keep all of them entertained. But now they'd got the feel of things again after so very long, there was nothing to hold them. Especially with all this wonderful liquid.
'Morning Alice,' Giles shrunk down into the warmth of his coat. 'Headache?'
Alice shot smoke from her nose in silence. She brandished the cigarette in Gile's face.
'This is my last Rothmans. I haven't had any breakfast, and I have been standing here since 6 am.'
'You don't have to leave so early.' Giles unlocked the library and opened the door, taking care to wipe his boots on the mat. 'Wesley doesn't usually get here until at least nine'.
'I couldn't stick it any longer.' Alice placed a fresh cigarette between her lips and lingered outside the door. 'She's so bloody twee.' Alice took a drag on her cigarette. 'And she makes me smoke outside.'
'Well so do I.'
'Yes but not in your house,' Alice paused, 'Wait, a minute I'll rocket this and then I can come in.' She sucked on the cigarette causing the flame to race down he length of it before discarding the dog end.
She ground the stub beneath her heel. 'She doesn't like me. But she won't just come out and say it.'
'Poor baby,' Giles caustically, ' Come inside and I'll make a pot of tea.'
And again it rained. They raced among the main streets of Sunnydale, knocking over shopping here, spoiling meat and fish there. There was no market, that confused them, they felt stifled. Where was the livestock to set free? The milk to sour and the grain to spill? Sunnydale was no fun anymore. They let themselves be carried by the current. Let the will of the liquid take them to…
The school.
'Mr Harris?' Stirgiss the science teacher paced the room. ' Would you like to show us how to make the first incision?'
'Me? I, I. You never ask me to show anything.'
Stirgiss glared at him from the front of the class, Xander blushed as his classmates began to giggle. 'Well, Mr Harris. I'm asking you now.'
'I, I can't he, it ran away.'
'It ran away?' Stirgiss took a deep breath. 'It ran away?'
'Before I could chloroform it sir.' Xander placed his textbook against his bag to hide the rat's exploratory sniffs. 'Those rats are cunning sir aren't they?'
'Mr Harris, sit in the corner. You are going to dissect a houseplant.' Stirgiss watched as Xander moved his bag to the lone desk in the corner. 'And Mr Harris. Prepare to spend your afternoon in the library.'
'2:40 as usual sir?'
So many people, Oh joy.
They threw open the cubicle doors in the girls toilets, they let loose the turtles in the science lab. In the cafeteria they switched sugar and salt, cornstarch and soap flakes. They made patterns in the butter and flooded the floor with raisins. They jammed the soda machine again and again before giving them all out at once. They snatched food from people's mouths and smashed drinks before their puzzled eyes. It was fun, but they tired of such puerile mischief.
They headed for the library.
'Stay here until four Harris.' Stirgiss turned to Giles. 'Mr Giles, would you mind if Mr Harris helped you until four? I have to go.'
'No, no I don't mind.' Giles pursed his lips as he realised he was talking to the empty air. Stirgiss having already left. 'After all, why would I, I have no life. I just live to nursemaid your disruptive students.'
'Don't go schitzo on me G.' Xander stared at Giles who was after all talking to no one.
' I do not intend to 'go schitzo' on you Xander, I just… Quickly put something under that leak!'
Xander placed an open Big Gulp under the steady drip. 'The roof leaking?'
Giles closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'Should I even bother answering that?'
They paused in the corridor; the startled janitor returned to find his mop and bucket filled with frogspawn.
They moved on.
'Does this school have a history of poltergeists?' Alice entered the library, scratching her head in mild bafflement.
'We had an invisible girl once.' Xander looked up from his book. 'Why?'
Alice sat down heavily. 'Something opened all the cubicle doors in the ladies. Stopped me from going I'll tell you.' She searched distractedly through her handbag. 'Gosh, whose rat?'
'Thurgood!' Xander clasped the wriggling creature to his chest. He scratched the loose fur behind it's neck. 'We were saved from being cut into little tiny pieces weren't we?'
'We were?'
'Well, he was.' Xander placed his new friend in his shirt pocket. 'I mean, I have been. Just not today.'
'Quite,' Giles stood by the table. ' Alice, we have a staff conveniences through the office if you want to...'
'Lord yes, my back teeth are floating.' Alice rose from the table. 'Squirrel, why don't you make a cup of tea while I'm gone?'
Giles rolled his eyes and replaced the big gulp cup with a vase. ' A woman's work is never done.'
In the shadows they laughed…