FIC: Daddy Dearest (8/?)

Sgt. Leighton's eyes narrowed as a battered SUV spluttered to a halt in front of Cheyenne Mountain and a middle-aged but hardy looking man and his beautiful brunette daughter leapt out. He glanced at his subordinate. "Stay here," he ordered before stepping out of the guard post seeing the NCO in the opposite guard box had also climbed out to flank the vehicle. "Excuse me sir," he approached the middle-aged man. "But you've got to move on. You're on restricted property."

"This is never going to bloody work," Giles muttered as he pulled the car to a halt. "They're bloody soldiers. Admittedly only American but still."

"Luckily for you I'm going to ignore the insult," Kennedy retorted. "We've got to get in there and find out what they've done to Willow and the others."

"If nothing else, Willow is more than capable of looking after herself," Giles retorted. He groaned inwardly as he flung the door open. Another child less than half his age giving him orders. Oh joy. Lucky him. "I knew I should have been a bloody grocer."

The moment his feet hit the ground, he started towards the advancing soldier, a bemused smile firmly in place. "Oh really?" he replied, putting on his best befuddled Englishman, the one he used when Xander and Andrew began talking science fiction. "I apologise but my niece and I took the wrong turn. Perhaps you could re-direct us?" he chuckled before whispering conspiratorially. "Women can't read maps."

The moment the soldier glanced down at the map in his hand, he moved, slamming his head into the younger man's face, breaking his nose and thrusting a knee into his groin. The soldier grunted but to his credit attempted to raise his gun. And then collapsed when one of the junior Slayers stepped out of the desert shrubs and felled him with a punch to the back of neck. Giles smiled and nodded at the beautiful Asian. "Thank you Tracy." He glanced over his shoulder to see Kennedy hurrying towards him, the other soldier similarly subdued. "Both guard posts taken?" the brunette nodded silently. "Good, now get the girls back into the bush in case of tricks. I'll persuade this gentleman," he glanced down at the crumpled soldier, "to contact his superiors."

"I'm staying with you." He opened his mouth to argue only for Kennedy to shake her head and glare at him. "She's my girl-friend!"

Giles opened his mouth to tell her that Willow was the least of his worries. Then, realising the ultra-touchy Slayer would only take such remarks the wrong way, he nodded. "Very well," he grunted.

Faith grinned as they stepped out of the base to see her sister Slayers and G. "All this for us," she winked as Dana charged into her arms. "I'm touched."

"Missed you," the younger Slayer muttered into her chest.

"Hey," she stroked the younger brunette's hair. "I told you, we're family, I wouldn't leave you little sis."

"What is going on here?" the Colonel growled.

Dana's head snapped towards her newly-discovered father. Faith opened her mouth to ask her fellow Slayer what was up. Suddenly the formerly insane Slayer growled and leapt into the air. "Daddy dearest!" the Colonel began to turn towards the girl.

Faith winced as Dana's knees caught the Colonel in the chest. "That has gotta hurt," she muttered as the soldier hit the ground with the Slayer on top of him, her hands wrapped around his throat.

"Aren't you gonna do something?"

Faith glanced at Xander. "Give me a reason Jiminy Cricket?" she challenged her conscience. "I'm kinda enjoying the show."

"You want Dana become a murderer?"

Faith flinched at the brutality of Xander's words. "Fine," she snapped before stepping forward and placing her hands on the other Slayer's shoulders. "Hey little sis," she whispered in the younger girl's ear. "You don't wanna do this kiddo, let him go."

Dana looked up at her, her eyes wild, and shook her head. "He hurt you."

"Yeah he did," Faith crouched down beside the other Slayer. "And you're hurting me now, making me watch you like this. Now," she put a hard note in her tone. "Let him go." After a second Dana nodded and released her grip, leaving her father spluttering in the dust. "Good girl," she praised as she hugged the teen. "You want we go and get some ice-cream?"

Dana glanced up at her. "With Xander?" she asked shyly.

"Hey," she ruffled the younger girl's hair. "Nothing's gonna keep Xan from spending with two of his fav girls. Now ya coming?" her protégé nodded. "Wicked."

Dana giggled. "Five by five."

"Hello Colonel."

O'Neill winced at the Englishman's voice. "Oh crap," he muttered in anticipation of another beating, he was getting to the age where he couldn't shake off beatings as easily as he once had. And they'd never exactly been fun. Racking the weight, he sat up on the bench press bench. "Mr. Giles."

The Englishman shook his head. "No please, call me Giles, that's what those infernal bloody brats call me, well except Xander and Faith, they have other nicknames," he sniffed.

Jack hid a grin. Despite his harsh words, there was a world of affection in the Council head's tones. "Giles," he gestured towards the bench opposite. "Would you like a seat?"

"Thank you," Giles sat down. After a long second the Englishman spoke. "Might I enquire to Faith's parentage?"

"What do you mean?" he asked warily. Was this a precursor to an attack?

Instead the bespectacled man took his glasses off and rubbed at the lenses. "Are you aware that in days past, a Slayer was called from the ranks of potentials, normal girls from throughout the world with a spark within them, something indefinable?" After a second, he nodded. Miss. Rosenberg had lectured them on after her arrival, and wariness of offending the awesomely powerful witch and fascination with what his daughter actually was had for once compelled him to listen. "Might I ask if you used contraception?"

O'Neill shrugged. "I usually did, but I can't remember specifically."

His counterpart nodded. "After twenty-four years, understandable. According to what Willow dug up you've been involved in saving the world a number of times?" After a second he nodded. If they were to be allies, he might as well share. Giles sighed and shook his head. "Those bastards!"

He blinked at the Englishman's vehemence. "Sorry?"

His companion looked at him. "It is my theory, just a supposition you understand, that the Powers That Be," he opened his mouth to ask what they were then remembered from Miss. Rosenberg's lecture, he'd been frightened she'd test afterwards, "knew your potential and that Miss. Doolan," Giles' curled lip told him exactly what the Englishman thought of his daughter's mother. "Would never be called. As uncalled potentials are the mothers of the next generation of potentials, they engineered a meeting to produce your off-spring, a progeny that would become one of the most powerful Slayers in several centuries. Once," the Englishman scowled, "she'd been properly tempered."

"Oh right," O'Neill shook his head to clear it, unable to believe what he was being told. "You're saying the Powers That Be decided that Faith had to go through abuse, murdering, and prison to be moulded into what they wanted? How can they do that?"

"I've come to believe that humans are little more than chess pieces in their bloody game." The Englishman's growl reminded him of the man's hidden steel that was hinted at in the documents they'd been able to uncover about him.

"Yeah." He couldn't help but wonder if the Powers That Be recruited from the NID. "And Dana? She seems rather attached to Faith." And more than a little psychotic, he silently added.

"Ah Dana," Giles smiled proudly. "In many ways, she is Faith's greatest achievement. In November of last year, an associate of mine found and retrieved Dana. Unfortunately," the head Watcher's face grew haggard, "if anything Dana had suffered even more in her early life than Faith. Her first ten years, she grew up in a healthy family environment. Then, her home was broken into, her parents murdered, and she was abducted. A year later she was found wandering the streets on downtown LA. She'd been tortured and abused to the point she'd been driven insane. Seven years later she was called, and her mind was overwhelmed with memories of past Slayers, causing her to snap further."

"Oh hell."

The Englishman appeared not to have heard his whisper. "Upon Faith's return to England for the Battle Of Sunnydale Memorial Ball, she heard of Dana's condition, was guilt-stricken and immediately resolved to do whatever she could to help her." The Head Watcher smiled. "To that point, Dana had been uncontrollable, her insanity meaning the demon was stronger in her than other Chosen. In one of her rages it would take three Slayers to subdue her. But Faith," Giles shook his head, "perhaps it was because Dana could remember her from her visions or perhaps it was because a Slayer grows stronger the longer they have their powers, but the moment Faith entered her cell, Dana curled up into a ball and began to whimper. According to Xander who'd gone with her, not that one could separate the two of them, Faith picked Dana up andand said 'what's the sitch, little sis?'. She worked tirelessly with Dana for three months, talking to her, playing and training with her. From a girl who would attack anyone, especially a man, Dana is now free to roam the Council corridors unaccompanied, eats her meals with the others, has a few friends, and is even allowed to patrol under supervision of a senior Slayer."

"Faith did that?"

"Indeed she did." O'Neill smiled proudly as his guest stood. "Colonel," he looked up to see the middle-aged man's eyes had chilled. "Given my conduct during the period that followed Faith's initial arrival in Sunnydale, I am hardly one to throw stones regarding your daughter. However rest assured that should you hurt her in any way, the whole SGC, the military, and the president himself will not stop me and my Council from ensuring you regret hurting her for a very short time."