You Have One Unheard Voice Message
Robin and Xander met Giles in his office at seven-thirty the next morning.
Giles was asleep the previous night when Katharine knocked softly on his door. "I brought another Slayer with me," she said, her nonchalance obviously rehearsed in her head. "This is my sister, Audrey." He got her set up in Katharine's room with some of Faith's spare pajamas (although, technically, all Faith's pajamas were spare pajamas) and some blankets, and went back to sleep. He got the impression Katharine hoped for more of a scene, or at least someone from another house to get woken up.
He called Xander that morning and asked him to come over before work.
Xander came in with just jeans and a t-shirt on, not his normal work attire. "Called up the office, told them I can't make it in before lunch today," he said, "so I'm all yours. What's up, boss?"
"Well, I, um, I actually only needed about ten minutes of your time," Giles said.
"S'ok, I needed a morning off." Xander shrugged. "Maybe I'll play with the car or something."
"Right," Giles said. He pulled off his glasses and polished them quickly.
"Rupert, please," Robin said. "I hate to be pushy, but--"
"Right, yes, of course," Giles said. "As I told you earlier, last night Katharine Beckford snuck out and returned with her sister, Audrey. She seemed quite convinced that her sister is a Slayer."
"They're identical twins," Xander said. Robin and Giles stared at him. "She mentioned her Saturday, when I was working on the car. I didn't say anything because I was afraid she'd bolt if I did."
Robin blinked. "Why--"
"I do believe that was wise of you, Xander," Giles said. "Katharine seems very protective of her."
Robin crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, but said nothing.
"I want to hold off on assigning either girl to a Watcher," Giles said. "We should all three work with them, both together and individually, and see how they interact with our Slayers." Giles looked at each of them for a moment. "Is this agreeable?"
"Certainly," Robin said. "I think that's the wisest thing to do at this point."
Xander shrugged. "Party on, Wayne."
Giles eyed him for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Right. I will see both of you this evening, and we can work out a schedule for the girls."
"Want me to get them over to Buffy's, get them into the training schedule?" Robin asked.
"Have Faith do it," Giles said. "Best to establish the routine now, if they plan to stay here."
Robin nodded, and he and Xander left. Giles took a deep breath and opened a book on his desk. It was almost pointless to have Xander come by for such a short meeting, but managing the Watchers and Slayers was a delicate business. He didn't want to exclude anyone from the decision-making process, to make it appear if he favored Xander above Robin or vice-versa; however, at the same time, both men combined lacked even the slightest amount of Giles' experience, so he had to remain in control at all times.
He also noticed that, despite the strong friendship between the two (and who saw that coming?), they had almost polar opposite views on Slaying, Watching, and the redevelopment of the Council. They got along just fine, but the drama seemed to play out every several weeks between their Junior Slayers -- especially Janet Unger and Kimberly Mullin.
Yet he couldn't think of anything to do to head the confrontations off.
His thoughts drifted to the two newest Slayers, Katharine and Audrey. Audrey seemed quiet and shy; he wondered what about her made Katharine so certain she was a Slayer. Even the identical twins link didn't ensure it, as far as Giles understood, since being a Slayer was a connection with the soul and not the body. But that was merely theory; perhaps the soul derived from the body? No way to be sure, but it was interesting speculation.
One thing which bothered him about Katharine was that she reminded him of someone, but he couldn't pinpoint who it was. He couldn't even pinpoint what it was about her that triggered the recognition, or what period of his life the person was from. It didn't even seem to be something specific, just a general feeling from the way she looked up at him.
Mysteries he couldn't solve with books bothered him.
Kennedy hung up the phone and ran upstairs to the room she shared with Willow. She found her girlfriend at her desk, doing something on her laptop.
"Hey, sexy, whatcha doing?" Kennedy said.
"Oh, um, upgrading the firmware on the wireless router."
Kennedy blinked, confused. "When did we get a wireless router?"
"Well, um, we didn't," Willow said. "I noticed a few days ago -- after you helped me rearrange the bedroom -- that I was getting a faint signal on my wireless card when I faced the window. So I checked it out, and the neighbors have a wireless router hooked up, no password or anything."
"So you've been leeching," Kennedy said.
"Well, yeah." Willow looked sheepish at being found out. "They've got a really fast download, and it's 802.11g protocol and--"
Kennedy kissed Willow to shut her up. "I have no idea what you just started talking about, so I decided to interpret it as 'Kiss me'."
Willow beamed. "I like it when you do that."
They smiled together, a moment when the outside world no longer existed and it was just the two of them together. Kennedy blinked and looked down. "Guess who just called?"
"The neighbor?" Willow sounded worried.
"No, Faith."
"Really?"
"Yup." Kennedy paused for a second. "You know, I'm almost starting to get okay with Munch as a nickname?" she said. "Tell anyone and I denounce you as a liar."
Willow laughed. "You just like it because you're so good at it."
"Oh yeah?" Kennedy said.
They got distracted for a few minutes...
"So what did Faith call about?" Willow finally asked.
"Oh yeah! We got another new Slayer last night -- Katharine's twin sister or something."
"Oh. Cool."
Kennedy looked at Willow; none of the excitement she expected showed. Her face was blank and withdrawn, and she bit her bottom lip. "Will, honey, what is it?"
"I just..." she trailed off with a sniffle. "I worry about all those girls we haven't found yet. It's my fault they're out there, that I made them Slayers and gave them all these powers they don't understand and nightmares they won't get and I can't find them, no matter what I do the spells just don't work the way I want them to -- it's like I changed something when I cast that spell and I'm so scared that I screwed everything up and--"
Kennedy grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, held her tightly as she sobbed against her shoulder and neck. "Baby, it's okay, you did great, you never did anything wrong," she whispered as Willow's body trembled. "It's not your fault we can't find anyone. It's not your fault."
Katharine and Audrey hung out in the living room of Buffy's house with Helen and Chao-Ahn as Robin's Junior Slayers, Kim and Vi, cooked breakfast.
"Normally, Andrew cooks for everyone," Katharine explained to her sister. "But he's out of town on an errand for Giles right now. He's sort of our traveling agent -- whenever something needs to be done out of town, Andrew goes."
"Thankfully," Helen said softly.
Katharine looked confused for a second, but covered it up. "Uh, yeah," she said.
Helen smiled at Audrey. "He's amusing at first, Andrew is, but after a month or two, you'll figure out why he's the one who goes."
Audrey nodded and hid a smile as Katharine glared at Helen for a moment. Her sister always tried to be so cool and quick to catch on, and whether or not Helen's "month or two" comment was meant to be a dig at how new Katharine was, she knew Katharine would certainly see it as such.
"When Andrew gone, Junior Slayers rotate cooking," Chao-Ahn said. "Andrew cook better."
Audrey smiled at the Chinese Slayer, and Chao-Ahn grinned back. She really liked Chao-Ahn; the idea of traveling halfway across the world to fight against evil, not knowing the language or any of the people around you, was very noble and romantic. She thought Chao-Ahn must be a very deep, strong, and stoic woman.
"So you holding up okay with all this, Aubrey?" Janet asked. She flopped down onto the floor beside Helen.
"Audrey, not Aubrey," Katharine snapped.
Janet smacked her palm against her forehead and grinned ruefully. "Ack! Sorry. Audrey. Audrey." She mouthed it silently one more time. "All right. Got it. So, you holding up okay with all this? I tell you what, it freaked me right out when I first heard and saw it, and I ain't one to freak."
"It is a lot," Audrey said slowly. Four girls around her -- this was more people at once than she'd talked to in a year. "I mean, evil as a presence in the world? Sounds like a comic book, you know?"
"Whatever," Katharine said. "I mean, I knew there was pure evil in the world since October 30, 2002."
"Gosh, that's a bit specific," Janet said, heavy on the sarcasm. "What happened then?"
"That's the day someone thought it was a good idea to shoot Jam Master Jay."
Janet snickered. "Okay, yeah, I can dig that." She shook her head. "So, you got any Watcher preferences yet?"
"I have only met Giles," Audrey said.
"Yeah, but Giles rocks," Katharine said. "He's so smart, he knows so many languages. We were talking the other day about how much different English is than any other language around, how it's got roots in tons of different languages and double the vocabulary of the next two largest active languages around--"
"Whoa, girl, sure you don't want to just be a Watcher?" Janet said.
Katharine blushed. "No, it's just -- interesting, you know? I like etymology."
"Mom and Dad got her into words young," Audrey said.
"True," Katharine said. "But it's not all I'm interested in. It's not all I like. I mean, I talked to Harris for a while, and he's really cool, too." She paused for a second, then asked Janet, "It doesn't bother you that he's so young, though?"
"Not at all," Janet said. "He's been around, man. Started this gig when he was sixteen, a sophomore in high school. He gets what it's like to be out there, you know? I can just look at him and I know he's been there and it's gonna be cool."
Katharine smiled. "Yeah, Harris does have nice eyes, doesn't he?"
Audrey smiled at Katharine's teasing of Janet, but it quickly faded as everyone else -- Helen, Chao-Ahn, and Janet -- quickly stiffened. "Ha, ha," Helen said coldly.
Katharine looked at the three Junior Slayers, confused. "What?" They glared back at her. "I don't get it. I -- I was just teasing you, Janet, you seemed into him even though I know you're not." The glares continued. "What did I say wrong?"
Helen tilted her head. "You mean, you didn't notice his glass eye?"
Faith listened in to the Junior Slayer's conversation from around the corner, and snickered as Katharine stammered over missing Xander's glass eye. He'd be happy to hear the story, she thought; he always worried the thing was obvious and off-putting.
She turned as she heard the door to the garage open. Xander walked in, and she smiled. "Hey."
He held out a mobile phone for her. "Found it," he said.
"Sweet. Harris, you rock," she said. She'd misplaced her cell phone the previous evening before she went out to work, and had to call Kennedy this morning with Robin's. "Where'd you find it?"
Xander chuckled. "Couch cushions. Looked everywhere for it, just about, got frustrated and sat on it by mistake. You've got a message, so it, ah, vibrated in a place where I don't really care for things vibrating."
"Failed the gay test again, huh?"
"Alas, yes, I did. Which, technically, is good, since you're dating the only guy I know in Cleveland anywhere near my age."
"Aw, Harris, you know I'd share with you."
Xander shook his head and walked back out to the garage. "Yeah, and it frightens me," he said over his shoulder. "I'll be in the garage if you need me."
"Five-by-five," she said.
She flipped open the phone and punched the button for her messages. The reception in the house was bad, but she didn't want to go outside unless she couldn't understand it at all.
"kshhh... --aith, I'm--kssh --or Reilly," the message said. "--bout Angel... kshhhh... --all me back..."
Faith closed the phone with a quick snap. She paged through the recent calls and found the unidentified number second in the list -- California area code. It was barely past five in the morning out there.
She walked out the garage door and out to the front yard. Five in the morning or not, if the call was from Riley about Angel, she'd wake him up without the slightest bit of guilt.