Yes Diana is lying and no she's not Illyria in disguise, she's the real deal.

Once again, review! Come on people let's push it over the 50 mark. A little maths here, I have 51 people on the alert list, if all of those 51 people reviewed I'd get 51 reviews (HINT HINT)

Twice Lucky

Boca Del Inferno

Chapter 7: Conversations in real time

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"Bloody hell, Giles. What were you thinking?"

Giles sighed and cleaned his glasses. He placed them back on his nose and looked at his long-time friend for a moment.

"Well?" Diana demanded.

He had to answer. "Yes, I admit I had no tact, but I hadn't known that Merrick had passed away," he winced.

"More like brutally slain, Rupert, for goodness sakes," Diana sighed. "The poor girl has had the weight of the universe dumped royally on her shoulders. She comes fresh out of high school and has to fight zombies, demons and vampires, with no formal training, or even so much as a how do you do!"

"Bloody Council," Giles muttered darkly.

"I've met some of the students here and had a lovely chat with the vampire who helped Faith and myself out of a tight spot."

Giles looked up. "I hadn't heard anything of you and feared the worst."

"We almost didn't make it, if Angelus hadn't turned up when he had…" She stopped when Giles practically choked on his tea.

"Angelus?"

"Yes," Diana nodded, flicking a brown lock out of her face. "He has a soul now, you know. Goes by the name of Angel."

"I didn't know this."

"Neither do a lot of people. Angelus was sent to us by a balance demon called Whistler to help us. I think, otherwise, we might have bitten it, to use a bad pun." Diana smiled, "It was a tough fight."

"I can only imagine. I've seen plenty of demons in my time, but never actually had the pleasure of fighting one." Diana nodded.

"We had been taking down Kakistos's cronies. He got rather annoyed with us and decided to deal with us personally. Poor Faith, she's been through a rough time. She met that nice Mister Harris and Miss Rosenberg. Angelus introduced them, and they seemed to get on well."

That was an understatement, she'd come back from a shopping trip and had heard the bed squeaking in the flat that the blue-skinned demon had gotten, and had even heard Faith grunt and moan more than once. Naturally, she'd had to take of herself, it'd been so long since she'd been with a man. Her breathing had gotten a little huskier as she looked at Giles, the old boy wasn't bad-looking and thinking of young Faith and Alexander.

She shook it off.

"You all right?"

"Nothing a cold shower won't fix," Diana said, without thinking. Rupert went bright red. They made small talk, and after that, Xander had been very specific about what she could and couldn't say to him. Giles wasn't quite ready for the truth yet, she could see that in his somewhat naïve face. She sighed. After a few moments, an uncomfortable silence fell between them.

"Don't you just hate that?" Diana said after a moment. Giles looked at her quizzically.

"Hate what?"

"The uncomfortable silences," Diana said. "Why do we feel it necessary to talk about nonsense in order to be comfortable?

"I don't know," Giles admitted. "That's rather a good question."

Diana smiled, "Of course it is, it's when you know you've found somebody special. When you can just shut up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence."

Giles smiled, although he was a little pink around the edges.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Diana found her sitting alone on the grounds of the school, the poor child looked so lost. She could see that every time one of the groups walked past, the girl would put on her face and act happy and bouncy. Once they were gone, she would wilt like a dark shadow had cast over her. Diana approached her and looked down. The young blonde looked up and blinked in surprise.

"Mind if I join you?"

The girl shrugged. "Free country."

Diana took that as a yes, sat down and straightened her dress. She looked about, watching the other students as they milled about their daily routines. "Look at them all, like sheep following their shepherd, completely oblivious to the world around them."

Buffy didn't say anything as Diana carried on. "The world as they know it, a sugar coating, a layer of lies that has blinded them to the threat that will overwhelm them if there's no one there to help, to protect, to fight."

"You're a Watcher." It wasn't a question.

Diana smiled. "I can only imagine what it must feel like, the power, strength and speed; the ability to do things that others cannot. It must feel as though you have the weight of the world on your shoulders."

"Somethin' like that."

Diana nodded. "We're here to help you Buffy, train you with your gift."

"I don't want a gift, I don't want to be special, a freak." Buffy practically spat the word out.

"You are not a freak," Diana snapped and winced. "Sorry, I've been training Faith for a year now to be able to handle her gift when she becomes a Slayer."

"How does she become a Slayer?"

"A new one is born when a Slayer," Diana paused at the words and sighed, stopping as a group of students passed the wall. "My mother was a Slayer."

"Oh," the innocence was back as the child looked up at her, she felt for the poor girl.

"Yes, she died shortly after giving birth to me. I was brought up and trained by the Watchers Council. They had hoped that maybe, one day, I too would become a Slayer, but, obviously, it wasn't genetic." Buffy nodded. "If you let us, Buffy, we can help you. You have people who care about you."

Buffy snorted.

"Give us a chance, Buffy. We won't let you down, I promise." Buffy sighed and looked back at the milling students. The hunt was deep within her, almost primal. She could hear the beating of the drums - sometimes it got so bad it took all of her concentration not to run out and rip out someone's heart.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

The voice was on speakerphone, coming through loud and clear, for both of the Watchers to hear what the man was saying. Travers was well aware that they could both hear him, as he was having a conversation with the two.

"I'm glad to hear that you're alive and well, Diana," Travers said sympathetically. At least, that's what the two thought it was.

"Thank you, it was fortunate that we were able to escape when we did. I'm sure Kakistos is still out there somewhere, but we can't be sure."

There was a moment's silence when Diana and Rupert shared a look, Giles being somewhat surprised that she left out the very important details she had told him.

"Quite," Travers said.

"If it is all right with the Council, I would like to stay in Sunnydale, where there is already a full slayer. Faith can train with Miss Summers and Mister Giles. She will get the best training and we can put her education through Sunnydale High."

Travers paused, "I don't see why that is a problem, and having one-and-a-half Slayers is better than one." Giles winced, these girls weren't tools to be handed around willy nilly. "Rupert, how are things with you and Miss Summers?"

"Better, Miss Watson was able to have a chat with Miss Summers and bring her around to our point of view."

The current leader of the Watchers Council chuckled. "Diana always did have a better bedside manner than you, Rupert."

"Yes, well…"

Diana said nothing, but gave Giles an amused smile. The poor man already had enough ribbing from herself. There was, naturally, no way that she was going to let him get over it…

"Very well. Diana, I take it there was something else you wanted to ask me?"

"Yes, I did have an ulterior motive when I called you. I was thinking the about Mister Wyndam-Price." Giles groaned at the whiny man's name.

"Now, Giles, Wesley has a wealth of knowledge that would be most useful about the Hellmouth." Giles couldn't argue that, the young man was highly intelligent. "Very well, it would do Wesley good to get away from his father for a while, and get him some experience with a Slayer and dealing with a vampire or two."

Oh, he was going to see vampire all right. Of that, Giles was certain.

"He'll be on the next flight out."

Giles chuckled. Were they that desperate to get rid of him. "Very well, Mr Travers. We'll see him soon. If I have anything else to report, I'll contact you immediately."

"Very good Rupert… until we meet again." The phone line went dead and Giles let out a breath of air he didn't realise he was holding.

Diana and Rupert chatted for a little while before the female Watcher bid her farewell, leaving for home. She closed the door of her apartment quietly, so as to not disturb Faith. Putting her coat away, she started stripping as she entered her bedroom for a nice hot soapy bath. She needed one that was for certain.

"UNG."

Diana stopped and sighed. 'Dammit!' Every time she came home, Faith was riding, or being ridden, by that young man. Now that they had time to relax and let their guard down for a little while, she'd noticed that Faith was on the pill.

"Oh God!" Diana went into her room and left her door slightly open, just barely a crack. She listened as Xander slapped against Faith's body. The young woman had been so pleased to find someone to take her frustrations out on. "Harder!"

"Ung, Ung…" It continued like that for a while. Diana was definitely going to have to sort out her man problem. She hoped Giles wasn't as innocent as he seemed.