Chapter Four: A Little Less Conversation – Part One
Soft dew coated the courtyard of Giles apartment building. May yawned tiredly; she had spent most of the night in Sunnydale University's Chem Lab whipping up several batches of webbing replenishing her diminished supplies.
She wondered how her father had ever managed to maintain his equipment when he was just a little older then she was now; living on his own, working, attending collage part time, and crime fighting.
May had just arrived back at 1630 Revello Drive when Giles called. She quickly answered the phone not wanting the insistent ringing to wake Mrs. Summers up. In a quiet hush she had quickly jumped down the Englishman's throat, berating him for calling at three thirty in the morning.
It hadn't been anything malicious on Giles part. The old man had simply been excited because he had found a spell that was capable of returning her to her home.
After agreeing to meet him in the morning, May had managed to get a few hours of fitful sleep. Some of the stories Spike told her had left her feeling antsy.
She knew he was a vampire; that tales of his evil hijinks were true, but her spider-sense didn't react to him as it had the other vampire. May knew she wouldn't be able to kill Spike, heck she knew she wouldn't be able to kill any vampire.
They might be dead and evil, but they were still sentient. If something could be done so they didn't need to kill people… and not what had been done to Spike. Change had to come about because people wanted to change, not because it was forced on them without consent or knowledge.
What the Initiative had done to Spike was a violation tantamount to rape.
May yawned again. She didn't want to think about anything vampirish, human vampire-relations, demonic, or military. She simply wanted to find out if Giles had a way to get her home. If he did then they needed to gather the necessary ingredients, and she would want to say her goodbyes, and get on with being sent home.
It had been five days since she arrived in Sunnydale. She couldn't believe that she had actually made a few friends that she was going to miss. Both Buffy and Mrs. Summers, Willow sort of… even Xander. The brunette was a goof, harmless for the most part. Anya she wouldn't mind seeing in her rearview mirror. They had gotten off on the wrong foot and stayed there.
May stepped up to Giles apartment and gave the heavy door several loud knocks. She looked at her watch and exhaled disgruntle. The one time she had come to Giles' apartment early in the morning the former librarian had just been returning from a morning run. Today she decided to wait another half hour before leaving and hoped he was already there.
Unfortunately her luck, like her powers, seemed to have been inherited directly from her father with very few alterations. She never would have expected her father to have as bad of luck as she did.
Because of Xander she had learned a lot about her father. Things her father never would have told her. Once she got back home she was going to have to ask him about Felicia Hardy. Until she had read it, May never would have believed he had been intimate with the Black Cat. That had just been way weird.
The door opened suddenly and May glanced up at Giles. "I thought it was you," he said and May couldn't tell if it was sullenness he was displaying or just typical British reserve. "You could have come in. I left the door unlocked."
May smiled playfully as she said, "Something you should have mentioned over the phone."
Giles didn't look away and his expression didn't change, but May thought he looked a little abashed as he said, "Possibly, but after last night I didn't think you would be remiss to try the door handle without prompting," with a hint of British humor.
"Ouch," May muttered with a small flinch. It wasn't like she didn't feel guilty about what she did last night, but it wasn't like her father was here to supply her with all the webbing she needed. Still she could already hear her father's voice if he ever found out. There would be a touch of disappointment in her even though he would say he understood. She stepped past Giles and into his apartment a little more forcefully then she intended and dropped her backpack off in his small foyer.
"Did everything go all right last night?" Giles asked as he closed the door.
"Splendidly," she replied with a forced accent. "How did Spike put it… Nicking the queens tea and crumpets at brunch?" She shrugged and added, "What ever that's supposed to mean."
"Knowing Spike," Giles started saying as he moved deeper into the apartment, "it could mean just about anything."
"That's about what I thought," she responded with a nod. "Giles… I know I can be a something of pain, but I just wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me. I really appreciate it."
This time Giles does look down for a moment. He quickly looks back up catching her eye. "Before you start singing my praises there are a few things you should know."
May feels like a balloon that's just had all the air let out of her. "What is it?"
Giles cleared his throat slightly before he began with, "We found a spell that will send you back to your specific reality."
"You said that when you called," May cut in.
He bobbed his head saying, "I thought you would remember that. When we were going through the source material Xander and I came upon a… discrepancy."
"What discrepancy?" May asked with more then a hint of hostility. She quickly reigned herself with an apologetic, "Sorry."
A quick shake of his head told May, her apology wasn't necessary. "Your parents were Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker?"
"They got married in nineteen eighty-seven and have lived happily after, yadda, yadda, yadda."
"That's just it," Giles said with a touch of remorse filling his voice. "In everything we've read, Mary Jane married Peter Parker and the two did live happily for a time, they even conceived a child, but miscarried. Later after a brief separation your mother is believed to have been killed in a horrific plane crash. Although Xander and myself along with your father believe that she is still alive kidnapped by a stalker. Right now the plot line hangs in limbo and there isn't any mention of you, Willow's run an extensive search on the internet, but to no avail."
May let out a long breath. "Not as bad as it could've been," she murmured unconvincingly.
"I don't want you to think we've giving up…"
"I don't," May reassured him.
"We still have hundreds of leads that we still have to chase…"
"Down," May shouted. A canister shattered the pallor window; May reacted instinctively raising her hand. Her tactile telekinesis activated automatically shooting the canister back out the window, just as Giles hit the floor and the canister exploded with a thunderous roar and blinding light. Shock grenade. If that had exploded inside… "Upstairs!" May ordered as she jumped to retrieve her backpack.
The door burst open; a large man in military fatigues filled the doorway. He looked stunned at seeing her standing there. He reacted swiftly altering his aim.
Fast as he was May was faster, managing to grab the back pack and not be there when the muzzle of his gun got there. "Where the..."
"Yoo-woo," May called out from above him.
He looked up just in time to get hit in the face with May's foot. He flies back out the door as May flips in mid air.
She lands in a low crouch facing out the door. Eight soldiers were just outside the building, some were on the ground while others were closing rapidly on the apartment.
"Upstairs!" May shouted at Giles as she slammed the door close. Giles scrambled towards the stairs May slipped on her web shooters as she flipped backwards. She arced high into the air firing off several strands of webbing, sealing the door and barricading the window. She landed on the railing just as Giles reached the bottom step. "What kept you old timer," she joked playfully.
Giles opened his mouth to answer just as a heavy body slammed into the front door. He glanced at the door then back at May. "Trapped inside the flat with no way out, any more brilliant ideas."
May tugged her mask down. "Giles, look who you're talking to. I spend my week nights swinging between Skyscrapers. I think I can handle Sunnydale's five or six story buildings." She finished pulling her gloves on as she finished speaking.
"If you think I'm jumping out a window," Giles started as she jerked her sneakers off.
May shrugged as she said, "Suit yourself. Not like I can force you? Maybe you could interest them in some tea and crumpets."
Giles' face fell at May's words and tone; her attitude in general. He couldn't believe that May was just going to leave him to fend for himself.
May turned and started to move up the banister and then stopped and looked back at him. "I just remembered," she fired off a web strand that wrapped around his waist, "I can force you." She jerked and pulled him up, catching him with her fingertips. "Enjoy the ride," she said slinging him over her shoulder and bounding up the stairs.
