Summary: Giles gets a clue at the start, and trains Xander and Willow somewhat.

Crossover: At the moment, none.

Disclaimer: I own naught but debt.

Feedback: Why not?

Pre-fic Comments:

For those who don't know, the Stacks are where they keep falling-apart books. Students are NOT allowed into the stacks, but librarians can get books from the stacks for students. If the books were out on the shelves, they'd rapidly disintegrate into so many random pieces of paper. Think of the stacks as an old people's home for books, where tape and glue replace medicines and meals.

* * *

The threesome composed of the Slayer, Xander, and Willow made their way to the Library in search of the ancient master who could answer their Great Question.

Okay, maybe Giles wasn't an 'ancient master', and maybe the question wasn't so great, but the phrase sounded good, as Xander pointed out.

"You've watched too many Kung Fu movies," Buffy muttered.

"Don't knock the skillz!," Xander grinned. "The hand is quicker than the eye... or was that the mind?"

The two girls exchanged a look.

"Almost definitely the hand," Willow said.

"You sure?"

"Yup!"

"I need to work on my movie watching," Xander mused. "My quotage quota is startin' to slip."

"Okay, but we're still caring about the spiders here," Willow pointed out as they entered the Library, repository of the knowledge of the ancients. "Let's not forget the spiders."

"Well, Giles said he was gonna look it up," Buffy pointed out. A brief look yielded no Watcher. "Giles!"

"Maybe he's in the faculty room," Willow said.

Yeah right, Xander thought, he can't stand Principal Snyder any better than I can.

The watcher they all knew and loved (to differing extents) appeared from the stacks, looking bemused, with a side order of dazed as well.

"Hey, Giles!," the irreverent Slayer said. "Wakey, wakey!"

"I was, uh, in the stacks," Giles said, looking mildly embarassed now. "I got lost."

Weird. Giles knew the stacks better than he knew his bedroom.

"Did you find any books on spiders coming out of books?," Xander asked. He reached around Willow's shoulder, wiggling his fingers in an imitation of a large spider crawling on her shoulder. "Big, hairy, crawly..."

The redhead turned around and hit her friend in retribution for attempting to scare her.

"It's funny if you're me!," Xander protested.

"I couldn't find anything, uh... particularly illuminating," the Watcher admitted. "I think perhaps you'd best have a chat with Mr Wendell himself."

"Okay," Buffy said. After a bit of thought, recalling yesterday, she added, "If he can still talk."

As Xander began to leave with the others, Giles called out.

"Xander! I've recently received some scrolls on fighting with a shipment of other reference material from the Council. You'll find them on my workbench, marked 'Anything Goes.'"

The Xanman grinned. This fighting thing was beginning to be real fun. Heck, in a battle of pure skill restrained to human strength, he could beat Buffy these days.

* * *

A talk with Mr Wendell was spectacularly uninformative. They learnt only that the boy loved the creatures ("Arachnids! Why does everybody make that mistake?") and felt some guilt that his collection had died under the care of his brother.

Xander was beginning to seriously dislike this day. In History, after the test from hell, he'd been dressed down for handing in a grossly inaccurate essay. The teacher had taken great joy in telling him that the Hundred Year War had /not/ begun due to jealous Frenchmen and Germans trying to burn down the Scottish distilleries.

He kicked himself. That'd teach him to ask his parents for help, rather than Giles.

In an attempt to get the G-man to do--er, help-- with more of his homework, he was currently helping him outside Slayage stuff. So, when Buffy came with her report of a girl being hospitalised in mysterious circumstances, she found the Xanman helping the G-man file bookcards.

Kinda. In an architectural way.

After the Fall of the Tower of Sunnydale, and the resultant yelling at by both sides, they left for the hospital to question the unfortunate girl

* * *

"I think they said Room 3016," Buffy said, as the threesome wandered along the astringent smelling hospital corridor.

"Do you know the girl?," Giles asked. He was carrying a potted plant with purple flowers on it.

"To say hi to," Buffy said, social butterfly. "Laura's nice enough. Nobody saw who attacked her?"

"Well, I was rather hoping Laura did," Giles said, dry British humour showing.

"My money's on Mr Nobody," Xander said. "Ninety percent of all crimes are committed by him, after all."

"Mr Nobody?," Giles questioned.

"Sure," Xander said. "If no person admits to something, then it's obvious Nobody did it. Mr Nobody."

Giles' lips twitched, holding back a smile.

They quickly found Room 3016, and entered it. The girl on the bed was covered in bruises, and her left arm and leg were in plaster.

"Hey, Laura," Buffy greeted.

"Hi," Laura weakly greeted.

"I hope we're not intruding, um...," Giles said uneasily.

He handed the plant to Buffy, who put it on the bedside cabinet by Laura. The girl smiled at the flowers, running a finger along the petals.

"That's okay. I don't wanna be left alone," Laura said.

"You understand we're anxious to make sure this, this doesn't happen again," Giles said.

"Because that would be of the bad," Xander said redundantly.

Buffy took a seat at the end of the bed. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"I was in the basement," Laura began. "I went down for a smoke. There was... someone there."

"Someone you know?," Xander asked.

"I've never... seen anything like it," Laura continued.

"It?," Buffy asked.

"Was it all demony looking?," Xander asked. "Because I'm fully up on the monster slayage, and the damsel rescueage."

The victim of the aforementioned entity started to panic at the memory of the beating, and found it hard to talk. "It-it, oh god, it..."

"Hey, that's okay," the Slayer comforted. "Don't worry about it."

Xander dug through his pockets, producing two twinkies which he put next to the flowerpot. "Here -- you need them more than I do at the moment. Just don't tell the nurses it was me?"

"Yes, you, you, you just rest now," Giles said, unused to comforting people.

"You know, but...," Buffy started, interrupted by an entering nurse.

"Hi, Laura," the nurse said.

"...i-if you remember anything?," Buffy continued. "You can tell us. Even if it may seem weird."

"She needs her rest now," the nurse said. The three fighters of darkness began to leave.

"'Lucky nineteen'," Laura spoke up.

"I'm sorry?," Giles asked as the three turned around.

"It's what he said, right before... He said 'lucky nineteen'. That's weird, right?"

"Yes. Yes, it is," Giles said, obviously thinking over the phrase.

"Feel better," Buffy commanded with a smile.

"Take care," Giles added.

As they left Laura's hospital room, Giles saw her doctor.

"Doctor, is she gonna be alright?," the British man enquired.

"You family?," the rushed doctor asked.

"Friends," Buffy explained.

"She'll recover," the doctor answered. "She's got a couple of shattered bones, a little internal bleeding... she got off pretty easy."

Buffy couldn't believe this guy. "Easy?!"

"Have you looked up the word lately?," Giles asked rhetorically.

"Well, the first one's still in a coma," the doctor said, willing to take a breather.

"First what? The guy's a serial beater?," Xander asked.

"First victim," the doctor elaborated, looking into another room. "They found him a week ago. Exact same M.O. as the girl, only he's in worse shape. If he doesn't wake up soon... Somebody's gotta stop this guy."

"Somebody will," the Slayer said.

"And it's gonna be us," Xander said, unconsciously tightening his fists.

* * *

Post-fic Comments:

Regarding the 'beat Buffy' bit, I'm pretty sure that Buffy relies on her strength a bit too much, like Akane Tendo.

I'm not sure of the word 'Nobody', and whether it should be expanded into two words.