3 Days Later
1630 Revello Drive
Giles pulled the red 1987 BMW 325i convertible along the curb outside of the house. He put the car into park and turned the key in the ignition. Exhaling a breath, he turned his gaze over to Buffy, who was staring nervously at the house.
"Buffy?" Giles softly said her name, gaining her attention.
She turned her head to him, her eyes wide and the corners of her mouth pointing downward into an adorable pout. "What do we tell people? Should we tell people?" She asked, becoming frantic.
Giles shrugged, unsure what the proper course of action would be. "Well, I don't know—"
Interrupting him, Buffy continued to nervously ramble. "They're gonna be weirded out. I mean, hello!" She hysterically gestured between herself and Giles. "What do you think?"
"I think that we should—"
Buffy once again talked over him. "Really? You think we should? Maybe we should keep this more under wraps until we figure out what all this means—for us. 'Cause there's something here, right? You feel it too? It's weird after you left with Willow to that Coven place, I started thinking about you and I couldn't stop."
Giles lifted his eyes to the rearview mirror looking back at Nick sitting in the centre of the back seat bench. Nick shrugged, amused by his mother's obvious panic.
Buffy continued to ramble, "I thought it was me just missing you and I think I was like really missing you. All of these thoughts and feelings I've been having for you, it's strange. I have some bizarre gravitational pull and I can't stop it and the kiss at the farmers market and at the hospital—"
"Buffy." Giles said her name forcefully, snapping her mouth shut. He took her hand in her lap, giving it a squeeze. "Take a deep breath." He softly smiled. "I think that you're right about holding off on telling everyone. And I'd like to talk about what has been going on between us but not out here and not in front of Nick."
"Thank God." Nick muttered under his breath, but did not go unheard by Buffy. She glared at him from over her shoulder then turned her gaze back to Giles.
"One step at a time." Giles said, bringing their joined hands to his mouth, brushing his lips against the back of her hand.
Inhaling a deep breath, Buffy nodded in agreement. "You're right. One step."
They slowly got out of the convertible. Giles helped Nick carefully out as he was still healing from the wound, but he was much better, just very sore.
Together the threesome walked up the grassed lawn to the front porch.
Buffy was the first to enter the home, followed by Giles and Nick.
Giles helped Nick into the living room and seated him on the couch. "Do you need the medication?" He asked his son.
Nick shook, a bit irritated that his parents were treating him like he was still severely injured. "I'm fine. See? Look." Nick got to his feet, twisted his hips left then right, when a sharp pain shot through his entire body. He gasped, falling back on the couch. "Bloody hell."
"You need rest. Don't open those stitches." Giles told the teen.
Looking around the living room, Buffy felt the hundred eyes on her and decided to leave before she was bombarded with questions about Nick's recovery and information on Caleb. Buffy looked down at the watch around her wrist and decided to go back to the vineyard and try to find what Caleb had been dangling over her head.
Eyeing her son settling down onto the couch, Buffy pushed her hair back behind her ear. "Okay, I need to get back out there, find out what Caleb's hiding."
Giles faced her, wearing a look of disapproval. "Buffy, you shouldn't—"
"I have to." She told him.
Looking over shoulder at the prying ears around them, Giles took Buffy by the elbow, escorting her into the foyer to talk privately.
"He didn't want us to see something and I want to find out what it is." She told him.
"You're not going alone." The former Watcher argued.
"I can go." Nick looked into the foyer, volunteering himself again.
From the foyer, both Giles and Buffy looked into the living room, saying in unison, "No."
Nick scoffed, hating that now he'd been injured and they knew the truth about their relationship with him, they were going to treat him as if he were six. "Bloody hell." He cursed under his breath.
"Language." Buffy scolded him.
Nick rolled his eyes, taking out his cell phone to play the pre-downloaded games.
Buffy shook her head at her son, already feeling like a seasoned parent scolding their teenager for their usage of language. Turning her attention back to Giles, she said, "It's just a recon, no fighting—Unless they start it."
Understanding that he wasn't going to be able to talk Buffy out of something once her mind was set upon it, Giles conceded. He took her hand at her side, giving it a tender squeeze. "Please, be careful."
"You know me." Buffy smirked.
"Yes, I do."
"I'll be careful." She assured him and took a small step closer, looking into the dining room to see that no one was paying attention to them and then to the left into the living room, determining the same thing. She quietly whispered, "We'll talk later?"
Giles nodded, wanting so badly to kiss her.
Stepping away from Giles, Buffy turned back into the living room, poking her head into the room. "You." She pointed at Nick, earning an exasperated look. "Get some rest. When I come home I want to see you lounging on the couch watching T.V."
Nick saluted her with two fingers, pretending to be annoyed by her overprotectiveness, but he secretly enjoyed it. Everything suddenly felt the same, just as it should be.
"We'll be fine." Giles opened the front door for her.
Buffy grabbed her long brown leather jacket off of the hook and walked out of the house. She hopped down the steps of the porch, feeling Giles' eyes on her.
She paused once reaching the ground and looked back at him from over her shoulder. He stood in the open doorway, wearing a faint smile on his face.
Returning his smile, Buffy proceeded to walk across the front lawn to the sidewalk, heading into the direction of the vineyard.
Giles inhaled a deep breath, worried for her safety then closed the front door.
Hours Later
Bored out of his mind from laying around on the couch, Nick decided to bring a bit of the modern age into the house.
He had the living room to himself. Many of the potential Slayers were outside training with Giles and Faith. Willow and Dawn were inside the dining room researching The First and a spell to get Nick back to his time and Xander and Anya went to the grocery store.
Pressing the camera app on the iPhone homepage, Nick flipped the camera image at himself and pressed the 'record' button.
Pushing back his tousled off of his forehead, Nick flashed a winning smile. "Nick here, coming at you from the year 2003. And before you start arguin' with me in the comments, check this out." He picked a 2003 Apple PowerBook laptop up from the coffee table. "Old laptop and," he turned the camera to the television, "MTV has been playing actual music videos all day." He flipped the camera back onto himself. "I'm here in Sunnydale, California. The mysterious crater town everyone's heard of." He walked backwards into the foyer as he spoke and opened the front door, pointing the camera outside, slowly panning left to right revealing the quiet neighbourhood.
Closing the door, Nick walked back into the living room. "This is my mum's house. It'll be destroyed in a few days or weeks… I'm not too sure, but soon. See?" He panned the camera right and left, showing off the living room to the would-be viewers. "This is my mum." He lowered the camera, pointing to a wholesome photograph of his mother, Willow, and Xander. The threesome appeared to be only sixteen or seventeen-years-old. "That's her." He zoomed-in on his teenage mother's smiling face in the picture.
Pointing the camera at himself, Nick walked backwards towards the back of the living room, heading to the basement. "We are in pre-'New' Watcher's Council territory. Actually, the old Council has already been destroyed, so we're pretty much fightin' this big bad blind." He opened the basement door.
Focusing the camera onto himself, Nick stood with Andrew beside him in the basement and in front of the 'Big Board' propped up on the washer and dryer.
"This is Andrew." Nick glanced at the nervous looking man beside him. "Former super villain and Star Wars 'enthusiast'. Andrew, tell us about The First." Nick flipped the camera, pointing it at Andrew.
Andrew stared wide-eyed at the camera, too terrified to say anything.
Frustrated, Nick tossed a balled up piece of paper at the blond's head. "Andrew, c'mon, man, bloody say something." He impatiently urged.
"Uh, yes, um," Andrew stammered, swallowing his nerves. "Let's explore the world of our story, shall we? This—uh, Buffy lives in Sunnydale, California." He turned to the white board that looked to be erased and redrawn a few times.
"Um, this is the local high school." Nick pushed in on the drawing of Sunnydale High as Andrew used the magic marker as a pointer. The camera zoomed-in on the lower left quadrant of the board labelled 'HELLMOUTH' and a drawing of the seal and a brown monster coming up from the seal labelled ' UBERVAMP'. "There's a hellmouth—hellmouth—underneath the high school. See, weird things happen on the hellmouth that attracts all sorts of, uh, bad people and demons and vampires." Andrew explained.
"Look at this bloke." Nick's finger came into frame as he pointed at a flaming red face in the upper right quadrant, a depiction of a Bringer. "Spooky." He continued to show off the whiteboard drawings, including a drawing of a building in the upper left quadrant, and a fiery mess with a black hole and a brown monster in the lower left.
"And now there's this thing in the basement of the high school called the-the seal of Danzal—Danzalthar," Andrew stuttered, "and it's sort of a door to the hellmouth." He leaned back, with a hand on the washing machine.
"Move, man. You're in the way." Nick whispered, waving his hand for Andrew to stepaside.
Andrew nervously stepped to the right, getting out of the way and continued to explain, "Uh, due to some circumstances it got opened up... a little bit... recently...uh, and this, uh, nasty, nasty vampire thing came out of it. It was, uh, it was just awful, awful. This whole thing—" He gestures the magic marker in a circle, "whole thing—is being orchestrated by something called 'The First'. It's made up of all the evil in the whole world. Oh, there's also these guys." Andrew pointed to the group of Bringers in the lower right quadrant. "They work for The First. We don't know much about them except that they're very ugly and they're very mobile for blind people."
Nick flipped the camera onto himself and smiled, "Did you get all that?"
Walking out the backdoor and onto the porch. He aimed the camera at the group of potential Slayers training in the backyard under the bright sun. The training session was being led by Kennedy with Faith overseeing.
"And these are the Potential Slayers." Nick said with a smile in his voice knowing what will happen in the future for these Slayers-in-training.
"You!"
Nick zoomed-in on Kennedy zoning in on a potential Slayer, getting into the girl's face. "Chamber your energy. Punch block combo!" Kennedy ordered.
The potential Slayer did the move but it was incorrect.
"What the hell do you call that, potential?" Kennedy shouted in the girl's face. "Try that in the field, you are dead. Drop, and give me 20, maggot!"
The girl reluctantly drops to the ground to do push-ups.
"That one," Nick followed Kennedy walking up and down the lines of Slayers-in-training, "is kind of a twat. She won't change at all in eighteen years."
"Nicholas,"
Startled, Nick whirled around to see Giles standing behind him, cleaning the lens of his already spotless glasses.
"What are you doing?" His father asked.
Pointing the camera awkwardly up Giles' nostrils, Nick chuckled. "Say hi to the gentle viewers, Dad."
Giles raised the arch of his brow, unamused. "I rather think not. Turn that off."
"I'm just showing the world what you guys do." Nick zoomed-in on Giles' frowning face. "How it all started. I had no idea how much of a badass you and mum were."
Rolling his eyes, Giles slid his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"You guys are nothing like this in my time." Nick said, turning the camera back to the potential Slayers training for a moment before whizzing the camera back onto Giles' face. "I need to document it. Don't you think it's kind of strange, how you and mum and everyone keeps saving the world, and there isn't any proof? This is a video for future generations. It could help with the Council."
"The Council is gone." Giles sighed.
"You and mum will find a way to get it back."
Giles looked at his son quite curiously then shook his head, remembering that he did not like this recording. "Regardless, put it away. Now."
Nick exhaled a heavy sigh and flipped the camera back onto himself. "You heard the guy. This is Nicky Giles and I'm out." He held up a peace sign and turned off the recording.
"You're supposed to be resting." Giles said, eyeing his son putting the phone back into his back pocket.
Nick shrugged feeling just fine. "I got bored. When's mum coming back?"
Giles glanced down at the watch around his wrist. "Soon... I s'pose." He said with uncertainty. It had been hours since Buffy left to do a bit of recond at the vineyard.
"Nick, why are you up?" Nick and Giles turned to see Buffy standing behind them wearing a disapproving look on her face. "I told you to—"
"Ugh," Nick rolled his neck, irritated by his mother's very justified worry. "Relax, Mum."
Noticing the Lochaber axe in Buffy's hand, Giles removed his glasses, eyeing the weapon curiously. "Where did you get this, Buffy?"
Buffy held up the peculiar axe by its metal shaft and eyed the red shiny blade, a silver border, and a wooden stake end. "Caleb. I saw it and took it after we fought…" Buffy winced at the disapproving look Giles was sending her. "The only thing I know for sure is it made Caleb back off in a hurry."
Nick took the iPhone out from his back pocket and snapped a few pictures of Buffy holding the axe. "Ah, cool, you got the Scythe thing… Tits."
"You know of this?" Giles asked, turning her gaze to Nick.
Nick shrugged. "Yeah. I mean I've only ever seen it all my life. You have it mounted in your office."
"I do? I have an office?" Buffy said with a bit of surprise.
"Yeah. It's a humongous office. The Scythe kills bodies three ways." Nick said, pointed at the razor sharp edge, wooden state end, and the spike ends of the blade.
Giles cocked his head slightly to the side, eyeing Buffy holding the Scythe. "Do you sense something when you hold it?"
"Not much," Buffy shrugged. "But it's strong. And I knew it belonged to me. I just knew it." She turned to Faith approaching them from the grass. "What do you think?" Buffy passed the sister Slayer the weapon.
Holding the Scythe in her hands, Faith appeared surprised. "Damn, that's something."
"I know." Buffy agreed.
"It's old. It's strong, and it feels like... like it's mine. I guess that means it's yours." Faith passed the Scythe back to Buffy.
"It belongs to the Slayer." Buffy said.
Faith cracked her knuckles. "Slayer in charge, which, I'm guessing, is you."
Taking the weapon from Buffy, Giles inspected it carefully. "In addition to being ancient, it's clearly mystical."
"Yeah, I figured that one out when I King Arthured it out of the stone." Buffy explained, looking at Giles holding the Scythe.
Entering the small circle, Willow took the Scythe from Giles. "So maybe it's like some kind of traditional Slayer weapon."
Giles removed his glasses and scratched the top of his head. "I can't imagine how something like this could exist without my having heard of it."
"Well, the good guys are not traditionally known for their communication skills." Sarcasm weighed heavily in Buffy's voice.
"Right. Um... any chance that it might be something other than a tool for killing things?" Giles asked.
"The First's guys clearly wanted it out of that stone. It's not just a tool. It's important. We need to find out whatever we can. Who made it, when, why? Does it have a name?" She shrugged. "I don't know, a credit report? Just find out fast."
"We'll find out everything there is to know." Willow said, handing the weapon back to the blonde.
"Good, good." Buffy agreed, turning her gaze to Nick, looking him over for a moment before asking the wiccan, "Have you found anything about the spell to send him back?" She nodded her head in Nick's direction without looking at him.
Stepping into the small circle, Nick waved his hands, halting the conversation. "Whoa, whao, no way! You're not sending me back."
"Yes, we are," said Buffy. "You don't belong in this time, Nick."
"I'm not goin'." He argued.
Quickly growing frustrated, Buffy nodded her head, glaring at her son. "Yes, you are, 'cause you're not staying here."
"But I can help! I can fight!" He raised his voice. "You know how good I am."
"No. It's too dangerous. You were already injured once." Buffy began to raise her voice, pointing at his healing injury. "You'll get killed.
"You're not listening to me!" Nick exclaimed, realising despite being in a completely different time than his mother, they still argued about the exact same things. "Why can't I help! I'm sixteen-years-old!" Her overprotective nature will never change.
"Which is exactly the reason why you're not going!" Buffy shouted, growing angrier.
Aware of the attention the mother and son were attracting, Giles played mediator and began to step between them. "Let's calm down and discuss this in private."
"Oh, c'mon!" Nick dropped his arms at his sides. "I'm not paralysed for Christ's sake, use me!"
Buffy scowled at the sixteen-year-old. "The answer is no." She told him firmly, having the final word.
Desperate for a change of opinion, Nick turned to his father, who usually played the deciding factor in these heated exchanges between him and his mother. "Can you please talk to her?"
"I happen to agree with her." Giles put his glasses back on.
Groaning in anger, Nick shook his head. "Bloody, of course, you do. You're always taking her side!" He argued.
"Yeah, when I happen to be right. As soon as Willow figures out a spell, we're sending you back and that's final." Buffy turned away, marching back towards the house.
Not yet ready to concede in the argument, Nick followed her, shouting, "You're treating me like a child. I can do this! I can help!"
Buffy whirled around, taking Nick by surprise.
He backed away, realising that he had pressed the issue too far and now she was pissed off.
"I am not sending my son into the Hellmouth to die!" She erupted and quickly realised that they had an audience to their argument. "End of discussion." She pursed her lips and stormed back into the house, slamming the door closed behind her.
In turn, Nick similarly scoffed, marching down the porch steps to sit alone by the trees. He sat down in the adirondack chairs, holding his arms across his chest, scowling at the bushes.
Giles exhaled a heavy breath quickly realising that Buffy and Nick will certainly be a handful in the future, their personalities were too similar. He noticed the shocked looks on everyone's faces including Willow and Faith. He shook his head not wanting to discuss any of this yet. He walked back towards the house needing a minute to regroup.