The Council Headquarters: Lower Level #5: The Pit
Standing at the large windows looking into the one of the many training rooms filled with Slayers working on hand to hand combat and weaponry, Nick watched the young women with an impressive gaze.
"These are all Slayers?" asked Nick as he scooped Ryder up into his arms.
"Yeah," answered Graham standing between his mother and father as he looked into the training room. "Leading today's session is an experienced Slayer that's known Buffy for a long time."
Buffy stood in the background, carefully watching the interaction between her husband and his parents. Since coming to the Council and seeing everything first hand, they appeared to have had an easier time accepting this strange, strange world of the supernatural.
It seemed to also help that Ryder was so enthusiastic about this world and this place. It's all that he's ever known. He happily showed his grandparents his classroom and the cubby he put all of the items in. Ryder then introduced his grandparents to the teachers in the room and even met Giles in the hallway as he headed towards Buffy's office.
The meeting the grandparents seemed to have gone over well. Nick and Giles were polite and pleasant. They bonded over Ryder and what a wonderful boy that he is.
"You should go in," said Buffy, moving her eyes between her in-laws and husband.
Graham nodded with agreement and held out his hand, gesturing for his parents to enter into the training room.
With childish excitement, Ryder jumped down from Nick's arms and sprinted into the training room, running between the Slayer's aligned in long rows and tackled Faith's legs as she stood at the front of the room.
"Hey, little man." Faith looked down at the two year old with a slanted smile. She lifted her chin and searched for her little nephew's parents. Taking his hand, Faith walked Ryder over to Graham and an older that she'd never seen before, but figured the woman was Graham's mother.
Meanwhile, still standing outside the training room, Nick clasped his hands behind his back. His eyes were glued to his son, wife, and the dark haired woman holding his grandson's hand inside the training room.
The Slayers in the room continued to train, not at all bothered by the visitors.
Buffy took a step forward and stood beside Nick, looking into the training room.
For a long time, they stood silent with their own thoughts watching the training session and Graham and Melissa interact with the head Slayer inside the room.
"So all of this is true," Nick broke the silence, his voice deep and grovally, "you're some kind of… Slayer. And Graham is…" he released a heavy sigh, "... I don't even know…"
Buffy folded her arms across her chest and nodded, "Yes, it's true."
"Slayer…" Buffy turned her eyes from the training room to Nick as he spoke, "... is that human?" He looked at her.
Unoffended by the off handed question, it hasn't been the first time Buffy had ever been asked such a thing. "Yes, I am as human as you are. Just…" she shrugged, "... enhanced in some ways."
"In what ways?" asked Nick with genuine curiosity.
"Well, you know," she frowned, trying to find the right words to describe her Slayer abilities, "the usual superhero things… speed, strength, quick healing…"
Nick slowly nodded his head with understanding.
"But as of late," Buffy continued to say, "I've been taking a backseat on the slaying. A handful of night patrols but there's a lot more of us now and I like what I'm doing. I'm not needed on the front lines as much anymore. I like the fact that I'm not missing so much with Graham and Ryder. I can have a life."
Another silence passed over them as they together watched the training session inside the room when Nick suddenly asked, "Demons are real?"
"Yes," a small smile passed across her mouth, "they're very real." Buffy tore her eyes from the training room and looked at her father-in-law. "I know this all sounds… ridiculous—Believe me, I know but what Graham does everyday…" she looked back into the training room, her eyes on Graham, "... He trains these women and soon he'll be training soldiers from across the world. He gives them discipline and a real chance to survive out there. No one will ever know the true work that we do and the sacrifices that we are forced to make, but we do it—Graham has done it. He's a hero and you should be very proud of him." Buffy shifted her gaze back to the older man behind her.
The look on his face was thoughtful as he stared into the room. A small smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. "You speak your mind." His smile widened as he looked down at the petite woman beside him.
Buffy smirked, "I've been told."
"I like that in a woman." He wolfishly chuckled and turned his gaze back into the room. "You're not afraid of old cranky geezers with their… Well, some might call it 'crass questions'."
They shared a smile.
Inhaling a deep breath, Nick swallowed the emotion clogged in his throat and said, "When I was in Vietnam, we were ambushed."
Buffy looked at him with interest.
"We all got separated. In those jungles, it wasn't hard." He flicked his eyes in her direction for a brief moment. "I remember running as fast as I could through giant leaves. On the ground it was dark 'cause the tall trees covered the sky. My boot got stuck in the mud. I yanked my foot out of it and continued runnin' until I hit a wall. There was nowhere to run. The rustlin' behind the tall bushes of leaves tousled. The heavy footsteps were coming closer and closer. I knew this was it so I began to fire my gun into the leaves and trees. Fired my gun until the magazine ran out and I heard a body plop to the ground. So I picked myself up and moved to see my attacker." The image of the demonic creature lying dead in a pool of blood had left a mark in his mind that's followed him for forty years. "I have never seen anything like it before. Bald with a large pointed nose, sharp teeth, mossy green skin, and its bony fingers were long and claw-like. I didn't know what the hell it was. That face and those red eyes have followed me." Nick looked at Buffy. "That was a demon, wasn't it?"
Taking a deep breath, Buffy nodded her head, "Yes, it was."
"And those are the kind of… demons Graham faced in his deployments? He wasn't fightin' in the Iraq War was he?"
"No, he was not," she answered.
Nick frowned and looked back into the training room at Graham. "When he came back from… Wherever he was, he wasn't the same. Somethin' changed in him. I could see it in his eyes. It was the same look I've seen in my friends eyes when they came back from the war. He stared evil straight in the eyes."
"He's very strong." She smiled, looking at her husband with pride.
Nick eyed his daughter-in-law for a moment when a question entered his mind. It seemed rather silly that it had never occurred to him to ask this before. "When did you two meet? It was alluded to that you've known one another for some time."
Buffy nodded, "We met back in Sunnydale. It's a town in Califor—"
"—The crater town. It's impossible to not have heard of it. Did the crater have somethin' to do with demons?"
Buffy smiled, "Yes. When I met Graham, he was a part of a secret Army division that specialises in supernatural activity called the Initiative. And since Sunnydale was the most active hotspot on the planet—"
"—Graham was stationed there," he finished her sentence with a slow nod.
"Right. We were friendly but not friends." Buffy paused wearing a thoughtful expression on her face. "It took a while. He left Sunnydale after the Initiative was disbanded for the second time."
Buffy frowned, tilting her head to the side as she watched Ryder break away from the adults and weave in and out of the lines of Slayers with Graham chasing after him. A small smile grew across her face.
Quickly remembering the conversation, Buffy then continued, "The purpose of the Initiative was to hunt demons and protect innocents but… the focus changed 'cause a few bad apples took more of an interest in experimentations on the demons and creating their own super soldier demon rather than sticking to their mission. There was a huge battle, a lot of people died, and the government ended up trying to hide it's failure. The last I had heard of Graham at the time was that he joined another special forces division called the Ghosts. They're like the Navy SEALS but demon hunters," she explained.
"And then he found you and you gave him a job and a home." He held out his hand and gestured around him.
Buffy looked at him. "It was the right thing to do. Although it didn't work out in Sunnydale… I've always known Graham was a good man and deserved a chance. So when he came to me asking for a job at the Council, I, of course, gave it to him."
Nick met her gaze and tossed her small smile. "You're a good woman, Buffy. Not many people are generous like you."
"I'm not anything special, Nick." She shook her head and looked back at her husband, holding Ryder in his arms, flying him in the air like an airplane. A gentle smile settled across Buffy's face. "But I see something very special in your son and I love him for it. He's great at his job; training these Slayer's for literal Hell on earth, he's good to me, and he's a wonderful father."
Nick turned his eyes back into the training room, watching Graham carry his grandson with a large smile on his face. "Thank you, Buffy." He looked at her with genuine appreciation before quietly excusing himself and entered into the training room.
Nick laid a hand on Graham's shoulder giving it a small squeeze. Graham turned his head to look at his father when he was met with a look of approval from his father.
Unsure what to say or what even happened to have brought this one, Graham looked back over his shoulder to see Buffy standing at the training room entryway with a small smile on her face before taking the first step inside.
