By Sauscony
E-mail: sauscony@forty-two.co.nz
Rating: R for a couple of rude words
Pairings: Buffy/Riley, Buffy/Giles (if you don't like either, stop reading now)
Summary: A prophecy says the Slayer's daughter will save the world. But's who's to be her father? And is there someone out to change things? (Set in the summer between seasons four and five.)
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel characters are copyrighted ©20th Century Fox, Joss Whedon, Mutant Eniy, UPN and the WB, and are used without permission. No copyright infringment is intended.
"What's a Watcher?"
Giles looked up from the leather-bound book he was studying and gave Rebecca a rueful look. "I should have known that one was coming, shouldn't I?" he asked rhetorically.
Becca nodded. "And why would you be good with questions about demons and magic and mythology and are Willow and Tara really witches?" There was a pause and then Becca asked the most important question because it was about Buffy. "And what's a Slayer?"
Giles put the book back on his desk, carefully marking his page with an unopened bill, and guided Becca to a seat on the couch.
"How about I make us some tea?" he suggested.
He got a funny look in return. "Do you always do that? Make tea when you have to explain something complicated?"
Giles gave a short bark of laughter. "Busted," he admitted, still chuckling. "Just don't give me away, okay?"
He got up to make the tea and Becca watched him go with a smile on her face. She liked him. She liked them all, even though she hardly knew them. And there was a small part inside of her that was growing angry that she had never even known they existed before this.
And best of all, Giles had promised to answer all her questions, not brushed her off and told her to go and play. That might have worked when she was six, but now she was seventeen, almost eighteen, it was both annoying and insulting.
Giles came back with a pot of tea, two china cups with saucers and a plate of what he called biscuits and she called cookies. Whatever, they tasted great and the two of them agreed to disagree on the whole name issue.
"I feel like I can say anything here," Becca said in wonder. "I don't have to censor everything three times before I say it in case it's wrong, I can just say it and see what happens."
Giles frowned, not liking what the comment implied, but responded only to her spoken statement. "You only learn by asking questions," he pointed out. "And it's impossible to form your own, informed opinions unless you get to try them out. Otherwise you're just spouting off someone else's ideas and that's no good for you or them."
Becca dunked her cookie in her tea, the way Giles had just done and answered thoughtfully. "But what if you're rude, or you offend people?"
"You don't strike me as the kind of person who is naturally rude," Giles pointed out. "And sometimes people need to be confronted with their own opinions."
"But my f - " She stopped and carefully started again. "Don't grown ups know better than us kids?"
Giles laughed mirthlessly. "Not necessarily," he said firmly. "And you'd better eat that biscuit before the soggy bit falls off the bottom back into your tea."
He sounded like he was speaking from experience, so Becca hastily shoved the food into her mouth, finding she rather liked the mushy, tea-flavoured mess and immediately understanding the 'falling apart' danger.
"But they're older," she pointed out, getting back on topic.
"Older doesn't necessarily mean wiser," he said gravely. "Sometimes it does, but often it doesn't. Besides, how old are you, eighteen didn't you say?"
"Almost," Becca agreed. "In two months."
"I think that's quite old enough for you to be doing your own thinking," Giles said firmly. "Who taught you differently?"
Rebecca was silent for a long time and Giles began to think she wasn't going to answer. "My father," she finally said in an almost inaudible voice. "He's the boss of the house. Isn't that right? Pater familias and everything."
Giles thought of his own childhood for a moment and found he wanted to find 'Mr Smith', whoever he might really be, and bang his head against a wall. "Not necessarily," he said as gently as he could around the sudden fury. "There's a lot to be said for mutual respect."
She was looking like she wanted to believe him - like he'd introduced her to a whole view of the world and she liked what she was seeing. But he knew how hard it was to shake off a childhood's worth of unconscious indoctrination - and running away from home to raise demons, while it might work, wasn't the best way to go about doing it.
"Promise me something," he said quietly. "Promise me that while you're here you'll say what Rebecca thinks, not anyone else. That you'll look at things with your own eyes and make your own decisions."
She smiled, the expression transforming her, reminding him of something he couldn't place. "I promise," she agreed breathlessly. "I promise."
"Good." Giles leaned back in his seat and took a mouthful of rapidly cooling tea. "So, since you seem to be caught up in the middle of it, how about I tell you about Slayers and vampires and all the other oddities that roam Sunnydale."
He saw her mouth the word vampires in silent surprise, but she just nodded and waited.
It took them two pots of tea and the entire packet of biscuits to get through the telling, and Becca was looking both more dazed and less confused by the time he'd finished.
"So Buffy slays vampires," she said slowly. "And that's like, her Calling."
Giles nodded, hearing the way she had instantly capitalised the 'C' and wondering just what Rebecca Smith did and didn't know about fate and destiny.
She started gnawing thoughtful on her thumbnail and Giles had to resist the urge to reach out and pull her hand from her mouth. He couldn't understand why he felt so paternal about this girl he'd only met yesterday. It was quite different from the way he felt about Buffy and the Scoobies, which was huge and complex and indescribable to anyone outside the group, but it was real and it left him feeling strangely off-balance.
"And you're her Watcher," Becca continued in that same, thoughtfully considering voice. "Isn't that a kind of Calling too?" Giles felt a moment of delight as he realised she was doing exactly what he'd told her to do - thinking for herself and coming to her own conclusions.
He just didn't expect her next comment.
"So I wonder what happened to you." She frowned, switching a finger for the thumb and continuing to chew. "Maybe you died?"
"I beg your pardon?"
Becca blinked, as if she'd forgotten Giles was even in the room anymore. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said hastily. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just... Well, I don't get it."
"Do you want me to explain something again," Giles offered, hoping a few more questions and answers might make things a little clearer for them both.
But she shook her head. "No, the explaining was great." She looked up at him, letting her hand fall back into her lap. "I think I just need to think about it all some more."
"It does take a little bit of getting used to," Giles agreed. "But hopefully it will all make sense before too long."
Becca nodded this time. "I think so," she agreed. She hesitated, and he sensed she was about to say something important. "You know what," she said slowly. "I think I'm mostly mad." She pursed her lips thoughtfully and finally nodded. "Mmm, mostly I'm mad. Maybe even furious."
Giles stared at her. "You're angry," he repeated slowly, seeing it in her eyes. "Why... Who... Why are - "
There was a bang and a crash and his words were cut off by the door swinging open and Buffy striding into the apartment without knocking as usual. Riley followed a few steps behind her.
She waltzed in as if she owned the place - a fact Giles sometimes thought might be true, although he was yet to check the ownership deed and find Buffy Summers on it instead of Rupert Giles. The truly sad thing was that he had ever checked in the first place.
"Hey, Watcher mine." She dropped into the seat across from Rebecca and grinned. "Hiya, Becca. Giles doing the explainy thing, huh?"
"Humph," Giles muttered, but Becca grinned back at Buffy, feeling a sudden kinship with the older girl.
"He's pretty good at it, isn't he? Except when he goes all dry and text-booky on you."
"It was good," Becca said quietly and Buffy smiled.
"Cool. So, Giles, what can you tell me and my man here about the Alka- Setlzer demon I chased off the other night."
"Alskitzer demon," Giles corrected automatically. He glanced up at Riley. "Welcome back. How was Washington?"
"Ah, fine." The younger man sounded careful and cautious, giving Becca a searching glance.
Buffy saw it and grinned. "Bec, this is my boyfriend, Riley. Honey, this is Becca. She's staying with Mom and me for a bit." She tuned on the sofa, so that she was kneeling on the cushion, and pulled Riley down for a kiss. He obliged automatically, his hands sliding through her hair, while both Giles and Becca pointedly pretended not to notice.
It was Riley who pulled away for air first, and had the grace to look a little embarrassed. He disentangled himself from Buffy and leaned across the sofa to offer a hand to Becca. "Hi, I'm Riley Finn."
She stared at him for a long time, and only finally took the outstretched hand when he was about to withdraw it again in confusion. "I'm Rebecca."
"Nice to meet you, Rebecca." He smiled, and it was a warm, open smile that left her staring at him again. "How do you know Buffy?"
"She crash-landed in Giles' bathroom, so she's staying with us," Buffy said cheerfully. "Giles, the Whatzit demon?"
"Ah, yes, of course." Giles stood and went to retrieve his book from the desk. He opened the volume, absent-mindedly stuffing the envelope into his pocket, and ran a finger across the text. "It can take human form during the day, but has to recuperate at night, so your best bet at finding it is tonight. It's been quiet for the last few days, so tonight should be soon enough."
Buffy shook her head. "More people might die before then," she pointed out sharply. "I need more Giles. Tell me how to find it today."
Giles shrugged, flicking though the pages again. "During the day it looks completely human and gives off a human signature. It'll be hard to recognise." He trailed into silence as he read. "According to this it likes salt water. You could try the beach, I guess."
Buffy jumped up, all action now she'd been given a plan. "The beach, huh? Okay, we're out of here."
She had collected Riley and was halfway to the door before Giles could even close the book. "Buffy!" he called after her. "Be careful. Don't get hurt and don't kill the wrong person."
She stopped at the door and turned back, suddenly extremely serious. "Did that once, Giles, remember? Never, ever, ever going to do it again."
"You what?" Riley gasped in consternation and Buffy sighed.
"Me and my big mouth," she muttered, dragging him out the door. "Come on, I'll explain on the way."
Giles shook his head and ran his hand through his hair, momentarily looking several years older.
"They seem like they make a nice couple," Becca commented neutrally as the door banged shut behind the pair.
Caught by something he refused ever to name, Giles managed to nod, even speak around that lump that appeared unexpectedly in his throat at moments such as this.
"They make a handsome couple," he answered carefully.
Rebecca gave him a steady, almost derisive look. "It's the handsome and perfect looking ones who are always all fucked up inside", she said bluntly. "Didn't you know that?"
Giles blinked at her, as surprised by the truth of her statement as by the unexpected obscenity. But her gaze had returned to the door, that was closed again now his momentary guests had departed.
"Do you think they're fucked up?" she asked thoughtfully.
"I think they're mostly fucking," Giles replied without pausing to think, wishing he could call the words back the instant they left his mouth.
But Becca was watching him again, now with a strange, almost fey look on her face. "I knew it ended up that way," she said softly, her statement making no sense at all. "But I didn't know it began that way too."
"Rebecca, what's going on?" Giles asked carefully. "You know more than you're telling me - for one thing I know your last name isn't 'Smith' - and I can't help you get home if you don't tell me everything."
"I'm not supposed to," Becca whispered. "You're not supposed to. There's something I have to do and then I can go home. That's what he told me. There's something I have to fix and then I can go home."
"Who told you?"
Becca shook her head. "I don't know. He was a little man with horrible clothes and a funny accent. He said there was something I had to do."
"What?"
"Make someone happy," Becca whispered in a small voice. She looked up at Giles, her expression pleading. "I can't tell you any more. Really and truly, I can't. I'll get in trouble."
Giles sat down again, watching her thoughtfully. "You're not from another dimension at all, are you?" He paused, as if despite everything he lived with on a daily basis he still couldn't quite believe what he was going to say. "You're from the future."
Becca shook her head desperately. "I can't say. I... I think I'd better go now."
She got up from her seat and headed for the door. Giles was tempted to go after her, stop her and demand more answers, but something kept him where he was. Becca wasn't going to tell him anything more right now and pushing her would probably be the worst mistake he could make. He'd learned from Buffy that pushing a teenage girl when she wasn't ready tended to be a very bad idea. And something made him sure Becca would be back.
Rebecca opened the door and almost found herself being knocked on the forehead. Literally. There was a tall, thin man standing on the doorstep, one hand raised to knock on the wood. Which had now been replaced by her face.
He stepped back in surprise.
"Ah, excuse me."
Like Giles, he had an English accent, but there was something just a little bit different about it. Of course, not all Americans had the same accent, so why should she assume every Englishman did.
"Ah..." Becca repeated, at a loss for any other response.
She felt rather than heard Giles come up behind her and his voice, when he spoke, was possibly even more startled that it had been when he'd worked out where - or rather when - the portal had dropped her off from.
"Wesley? What are you doing here?"
The other man ducked his head in a kind of nervous embarrassment. "Can I come in?"
Giles gently pulled Becca aside, but he didn't invite the other man in, just left the doorway open for him.
"Ah, yes, very wise. One can't be too careful, can one?"
He hefted an armful of books Becca hadn't seen before into a more comfortable position and walked into Giles' apartment. The whole ritual - and ritual it surely had been - had left Becca totally confused until she finally remembered something Giles had said about vampires. They couldn't come in unless they were invited. Was that how these people lived, exercising such caution even with their friends and when it was daylight outside?
The whole concept gave her the creeps.
"What are you doing here, Wesley?" Giles asked, automatically helping the younger man unload his burden onto the nearest available surface.
"We found a prophecy," Wesley explained, not seeing the grimace that crossed Giles' face. "About Buffy."
If anything, the grimace grew even more pained. "About Buffy?" Giles repeated, and the concern in his voice was unmistakable. "What is it this time?"
Becca changed her mind about leaving and closed the door, leaning back against the wall and waiting to see what this Wesley person had to say. It was about Buffy. She already liked Buffy - rather like the big sister she had never had - and Giles hadn't looked particularly happy. Obviously Buffy and prophecies didn't mix very well.
Wesley dropped into a seat with a sigh. "I drove straight from LA. And in that monstrous car of Angel's too. I would have preferred to bring the bike, but then I couldn't have brought all the books."
"The prophecy," Giles prompted in a dangerous voice.
"Oh, the prophecy," Wesley agreed hurriedly. "Technically, it may not be about Buffy at all. But we found it in a scroll that has a very significant passage about Angel and all my instincts tell me they're related. That means it must be about Buffy."
The expression of Giles' face showed exactly what he thought of Wesley's instincts.
"Or more specifically," Wesley continued. "About Buffy's daughter."
Giles looked flabbergasted.
And Becca found her knees getting wobbly, until she slid bonelessly down the wall and finished up in a puddle of limbs on the tile floor.
