Chapter One:

Later that month

Giles sighed as he sipped his tea. He was perched on a stool in the school library. Sometimes it seemed as if he never left the place. He was the librarian, but still. A large, unwieldy book on demonology sat on the table in front of him; he was once again researching something to help Buffy fight evil.

It wasn't as if he didn't like his job; in fact he loved it. He had always loved books, from when he had first learned to read. When his father told him of his destiny as a Watcher, he had embraced the idea, throwing himself into research and finding that he truly did enjoy learning of vampires, Slayers, demons, and assorted otherworldly beings and occurrences. When he had finally met his Slayer, he took to her just as readily.

Buffy Summers was a wonderful girl, confident and full of life. She was an extraordinary Slayer as well, full of ability and promise. She wasn't quite like a daughter or a friend, but he certainly loved her as a student. And the two she had taken into her confidence, Xander and Willow, they were always so eager to help, their youthful enthusiasm often sparking his own excitement. As an added bonus, he was no longer completely withdrawn into his books and research.

But something was missing from his life. Part of it was assuredly the fact that the only people he routinely associated with were sixteen-year-olds and usually they only needed his help with a Hellmouth related problem, though Buffy had taken to coming to him for other various forms of advice. He knew that he needed adult companionship, but this was complicated by his job. How could he form a meaningful friendship when he couldn't reveal even the merest details of his life? Even here in Sunnydale, on the edge of the Hellmouth, it was very hard to convince people of the existence of the supernatural. Most would simply regard him as a crackpot if he brought his interests into casual conversation. Hence his isolation from society.

Of course, he thought to himself as he took another sip of the cooling tea, his attention not even remotely on the book he was supposedly reading, perhaps all he needed was a good shag. But that presented it own problems. For Giles was gay, and in a small town such as Sunnydale it was difficult to find suitable partners, most especially if you wanted to remain discreet, which Giles most assuredly did.

Giles jumped slightly, causing the tea to spill onto the table, narrowly missing the book. The cause of his surprise was the library door closing loudly behind a blond teenager as she walked into the room. She tossed her bag into a chair as she moved forward, her eyes searching.

"Giles? Giles, are you here?" As Giles put down the now empty teacup and moved towards the girl from the corner that had blocked her view of him, he heard her mutter to herself, "Of course you're here, where else would you be?" That, of course, just emphasized his previous thoughts. The girl raised her voice again as she once more called out, "Giles?"

"Um, yes, here I am, Buffy." For that was, of course, who the girl was. The young Slayer smiled as she turned towards her mentor. "Great! You said we could do some more weapons training today and for a moment I thought you'd forgotten."

Giles pushed his glasses further up his nose. "No, uh, I did indeed remember. I just hadn't realized the time. Let's get started, shall we?"

Buffy nodded and then waited in a cleared off area of the library while Giles put on his padding. They started with hand to hand and then moved to staffs. The training basically consisted of Giles getting continuously knocked around and Buffy learning new attacks only through clumsy experimentation. Not to say that Buffy herself was clumsy. Far from it. But without someone of greater skill to teach her, she really couldn't learn. Finally, it was Buffy herself who ended the session by throwing her staff to the ground and dropping into a nearby chair. Giles, prone on the floor, took a few deep breaths and then levered himself up and walked over to his young charge.

"Buffy?" His voice was tender. "What's, uh, what's wrong? Why did you stop?"

"Giles, look, it's not like you aren't a great Watcher, because you are! You're wonderful at the research thing and helping me out and all the training that's not fighting, but well"

Giles smiled slightly as he began removing his padding, not much of which had helped cushion his impacts. "But I'm not much help in the physical department. I agree. I think it's time to change tactics."

Buffy looked up in surprise. "You do? But you said it was the Watcher's duty to train the Slayer!"

"It is, but in this case, your skills surpass my ability to teach. So, as your Watcher, I suppose I must ensure that you somehow receive proper training. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Well, um, I didn't want to bring this up, but now that we're talking about it, well," she took a deep breath, "my mom knows I'm into martial arts and there's a place that teaches them in town and she checked them out and said they're really good and she's willing to pay for one or two classes so I thought maybe we could go over and check them out." She gulped in air, having said all that without breathing again.

Giles considered for a moment and then nodded, again pushing his glasses back up. "Yes, I believe that would be a fairly agreeable solution to our problem. We should try to get you individual instruction of course. That is, if we determine them good enough to teach you what you need to know. Too often these schools of, uh, martial arts, do not teach what you would need in your fights."

"Against vampires and demons, got it."

"Yes, uh, and also, we should be careful about not letting slip why you are taking the classes. Perhaps they could teach you some weapons skills that I do not possess, but we can hardly say that you are learning those skills in order to, uh, slay vampires."

Buffy nodded to that last without really hearing it. She had focussed on the part about learning weapons skills. "Well, they should be having classes this evening. Why don't we check the place out?"

"What place are we checking out?" Xander's voice came ringing. He and Willow had just entered the library in their search for Buffy. Usually when he assumed that he was coming along with Buffy, she had to somehow get him to change his mind, as he often wanted to accompany her on dangerous hunts, but this time it should be fun to have friends there with her. So, "To that martial arts place in town! Giles said I should get more training and Mom's willing to pay for a few classes!"

Willow smiled as they all started heading out, looking excited, "I heard about that place. A few of the girls were talking about watching their boyfriends while they were in class."

Xander snickered, interrupting her. "The guys were doing the same thing, only they were watching their girlfriends!"

Willow didn't quite blush, but it came close and she ducked her head a bit, indicating her embarrassment. "There's a new teacher there and I hear he's gorgeous."

Buffy grinned, "Great! You know his name?"

Willow thought, "It was something Scottish. MacBeth or something. MacLeod That's it! Mister MacLeod!