Chapter 10: Deal With the Devil

A/N: I have a couple chapters written for this story, but I'll need some inspiration from reviews to keep the momentum.

Warning: I don't know; maybe language and innuendo somewhere along the way.

Challenge: #2666 'Conception by Conspiracy' by zoev. It isn't an exact match, but hopefully it's close enough for zoev.

Disclaimer: BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. Stargate characters belong to Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright / SyFy Channel. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

Giles' living room

"Who could be worse than Angel?" Willow asked, then quickly stammered, "Sorry, I didn't mean-"

Buffy grinned at her best friend, knowing that Willow didn't mean to hurt her with that question. "I know what you meant," she assured the redhead. Then she turned to her mentor, took a deep breath as she prepared for what she considered a horrible idea, and asked, "Giles, I need the number for the Council; either the switchboard or, if you have it, for the top guy/woman."

Visibly shocked by her request, Giles had to confirm what she wanted, "Head of the Council. Are you certain about this?"

Taking a moment to calm her emotions a tiny bit, she shook her head. "Not even remotely I still think they are bastards for the most part, but they understand the Slayer far better than the Initiative or whoever the mystery group is that is in town. Plus I'm hoping that the phrase 'the devil you know' will apply in this situation."

He thought she had a good point. "They could try to force you to accept their control in exchange for their help," Giles had to warn her, knowing at least Quentin's tactics.

Buffy snorted at the thought. "If they do, I'll refuse their help and do this without them," she replied with a hard glint in her eyes, which didn't bode well for the health of anyone who made this harder than it already was.

"Very well." He rummaged around in his desk for his address book, then thumbed through it until he found the right page. He pointed at the correct line and instructed her, "This is the switchboard number. You just identify yourself and ask to speak to the Head of the Council."

Buffy paused as she considered her options again. The Initiative were the ones who did this to her – even if it was just Walsh and her minions; she didn't know a damn thing about the second group, so by default, the Council really did seem like the lesser of three evils…if you forgot about her 18th birthday, Gwendolyn Post, their refusal to help Angel…maybe she should stop listing their faults if she wanted to go through with this. She took a deep breath while she waited for the international call to go through. "Hello. This is Buffy Summers, the Slayer in Sunnydale, California. I would like to speak to the Head of the Council, please."

Despite it being the Slayer calling, the operator replied in a snooty tone, "It is the middle of the evening here. Is it an emergency?"

If it hadn't been for the tone, her answer might have been different, but it just reminded her too much of those parts of the Council that really pissed her off. "Oh, I'm sooo sorry to interrupt the precious sleep of your Lord and Master!" she snarked angrily. "Maybe you weren't aware of the falling out I had with the Council several months ago, but I can tell you right now that if it wasn't an emergency, I wouldn't be calling if somebody gave me a million dollars!"

After giving an offended huff, the operator said she'd forward Buffy's call.

Buffy looked at Giles and asked, "Do all of the people who work there have stakes shoved up their butts?"

Giles, who was stunned by the way Buffy talked to the operator, couldn't speak right away. Ethan couldn't either, but his problem was he was laughing too hard. After a couple seconds, he gasped out, "She's got you there, Ripper."

Glaring as his friend, Giles tried and failed to answer Buffy in a diplomatic way. All he could come up with was, "It's a difference in cultures."

"Then I think they need some penicillin or something, 'cause their culture is seriously infected with stupid," Buffy said with a shake of her head. Before she could continue, a groggy voice picked up on the other end of the line.

"Miss Summers, what can the Council do for you?"

It was British, cultured and definitely not Travers' voice…which she counted as a huge plus. Oh, and it was female; another plus because she probably would understand Buffy's feelings of being violated.

"Pardon me, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Abigail Richards," the woman added, sounding slightly more alert.

Buffy wrote down the name, showed it to Giles with a questioning look and he nodded encouragingly. "I'm sorry for calling so late, but there's a situation in Sunnydale that I could use the Council's help with. There are two groups here that are…" she trailed off, not sure how to word it delicately.

Then she decided to forget being gentle about it and just blurt it out, "The first group is called the Initiative and they are capturing demons to study them. They also decided to experiment on me and Faith. Faith died, probably as a result of what they did, and I'm pregnant because of it. I don't know what the second group is about, except they have a guy claiming to be the father."

There was silence on the other end of the line for so long that Buffy was afraid that she lost the connection. "There's an organization mucking about with demons and they impregnated both Slayers without their consent? Have I gotten that correct?" Ms. Richards demanded in a harsh tone.

"Yeah," Buffy said. "One other thing you should know is that I'm dating one of the guys and was helping out on a freelance-type basis…showing the hot spots in town, how to kill which demons, that sort of thing."

"And you are certain that your…condition isn't due to your relationship with your boyfriend," Richards asked delicately.

Blushing, Buffy answered, "We haven't done that yet."

"Yes, well…what sort of assistance would you like from the Council?" Richards inquired.

"I'd like some muscle in case one of the groups wants to take me into custody and I'd prefer to have an Ob-Gyn that understands Slayers. I'm sure there's other stuff, but that's as far as I've processed the sitch," Buffy explained. "Oh, but tell Quentin Travers that if he comes, I'm punching him in the face. I still haven't forgiven him for putting my mom at risk or firing Giles; doubt I ever will."

"I'll be sure to tell him," Richards replied, fighting a smirk. She knew Travers wasn't a bad guy deep down, but you did have to dig quite a while to get there. "Is Mr. Giles with you?" she asked. "If so, I'd like to speak with him."

Buffy handed the phone to her Watcher, then sat down on the couch and let out a deep sigh of relief. For better or worse, she set the wheels in motion. Hopefully it wouldn't come back to bite her in the ass later.

After he hung up, Giles informed the group, "Buffy has a Watcher again. Ms. Richards reinstated me, and she'll be coming with the team and doctor to go over the finer details of what they'll be helping us with during Buffy's pregnancy, if she chooses to carry to term."

A/N: Next…back to the Initiative for some more HST 101.