"Giles!" knock, knock, knock, "Giles, I, um… I have those late books!" knock, knock!
Giles leaned out to look over the breakfast bar to the front door, and then around to Daniel with a surprised expression, "I do believe this is the most company I've had drop by since I've moved here…"
The knocking continued, the voice yelling thru, "Giles?" then to unseen company, "Why am I the one knocking? Shouldn't it be Buffy?" Daniel recognized the slightly muffled voice - it was the girl who'd answered the phone when he'd called from the airport - the girl who wanted to know if he was a friend from England
"Incase what ever's behind the door is a possessing mood" a boy answered and Daniel wondered how many were on the other side of the door.
Giles settled the kettle with a clatter, hurrying around the counter out of the kitchen to his door while from the other side: "We don't even know for sure Giles is in there"and Daniel knew that voice too - he'd just heard it and Daniel suddenly remembered the call he'd forgotten to mention as the first girl spoke: "Oh, I am so not going first. Buffy goes first. You all keep touting her as the chosen one, so I choose she goes first" and Giles swung the door open, blocking the entrance with his body.
"Cordelia… and, every one" Giles greeted.
"Giles, you're here. Are you okay?" Cordelia asked, sounding more put out than anything else.
Daniel leaned out to peer around Rupert, wincing a bit at the tone of the beautiful brunette standing tall just outside, clearly the loudest voice in the group.
"Yes, Cordelia, I'm fine." Giles answered her patiently, and then suffered her to push him aside as she entered, looking over the apartment with a critical eye, her gaze passing over Daniel as if he were part of the furniture. Daniel watched as her eyes circled again to settle on him, giving him a once over that reminded of Daniel being gawky, insecure, and scrawny at fourteen. He sat a bit straighter, grimacing mentally that he did so.
Cordelia looked over the books at the table, and then again at him, disdain clear in her appraisal, and remanded herself to lean on the counter as the rest of the teens tromped into the room.
"Why are you all here?" Giles asked, a bit bewildered by their sudden company.
A slight red-head spoke up, her hands holding tightly to the straps of her back-pack, "You never called back" she told him earnestly.
"Hum?" Giles asked, a bit lost.
"I called here. And your friend said you were busy, but he'd have you call back, but then you didn't, and, well, after these last couple of weeks with Buffy and the Order of Taraka and Ethan still alive at large, I just sort of, well, panicked" the red-head expounded, and Daniel placed the steam of content spilled over him from the phone earlier with a face. "But, here you are, all okay. Which you are, right?" she checked, just to be certain.
Giles looked at her fondly, then met the gazes of the other two, a tall, brightly dressed boy just behind her shoulder and a very slight blond in black. Giles met the blond's eyes last, and it was with him smiling at her, and she returning his smile that the crew of teens relaxed, even the loud-mouthed brunette.
"I am fine, Willow" Giles reassured her. "You need not have rounded every one up on my behalf."
Willow gave him a shaky smile and Daniel wondered if perhaps the girl did have a crush on GIles as the boy spoke up, "Nonsense. We were all rounded, already. We just moved... Except for Buffy, who was out doing that thing she does…"
"Please, Xander, you called me panicking, demanding I help you track Buffy down and drive you all here" Cordelia corrected. "We drove thru four different cemeteries…"
Daniel couldn't help glancing at the slight blond, wondering why every one would go looking for her in cemeteries, her catching his gaze and self-consciously adjusting a black bag over her shoulder, shifting from foot to foot.
"Be that as it may be" Giles interrupted, "Now that you are all here, may I introduce a good friend: Everyone: Daniel Jackson. Daniel, that is Xander, Willow, Buffy, and Cordelia" he pointed at each in turn. Xander looked him over, then nodded and moved around for the counter, grabbing an apple and biting noisily into it; Willow giving him a self conscious waive, Buffy giving him an effort of a smile, and Cordelia not paying any attention in the least.
"Now, Willow, I was, erm, supposed to call back?"
Daniel cleared his throat, finally speaking up, "That's my fault." Five sets of eyes turned on Daniel, and he looked to Giles, "You were talking with Jenny-"
"Miss Calendar came here?" Xander spoke up. "She letting you off the hook yet?"
Giles flashed an irritated glare at Xander which Xander totally ignored while Willow made a happy noise and a smile.
Giles turned away from the teens to Daniel, "And Willow called? Why didn't you say something?"
Daniel glanced helplessly at the text. He wrote messages down for a reason: he promptly forgot these things once he'd gone back to the text from any interruption, some times not finding the notes until days later.
Giles waived a forgiving hand at him, and then turned back to the teens, Willow growing curious over the books, inching forwards, taking up the last manuscript that Giles had been working on, "Is this Etruscan?" she asked, looking at Giles.
Daniel looked at Willow, alarmed. These kids had no business with these works-
"-Not precisely. It is the same lingual family, but see these neutral articles here, here, and here" Giles pointed at the text, Willow leaning in;
"Shouldn't they conjugate differently?" Willow asked, looking more closely.
"Yes" Giles agreed, pleased.
Daniel cleared his throat, disturbed with the acuity of the girl and that Giles was using his classified, alien texts as an object lesson. Giles glanced over to Daniel, seeing Daniel's escalating concern, and gently pulled Willow's shoulder away from the table, straightening her.
"So, is the world ending?" Xander asked, munching causally away. "Cuz, this is a lot of paper. And I don't do Etruscan. Or Greek."
Cordelia nodded, "What he said. Only, I only do English."
"The world is not ending" Giles negated. "This is just an exercise" Giles explained.
Xander gave the table a dubious look, "Like, for fun?" then turned that look on Giles, "Miss Calendar still shut you down?"
"Xander" Giles groused.
"Oh, speaking of Miss Calendar, I was working on a project for her and that was why I was calling, earlier" Willow spoke up. "I was compiling data on SunnyDale, cuz, you know, why would any one want to know about this town? You know? and, anyhow, I was looking at what had come up and I found a search had been done on Sunnydale and Giles and I tagged the IP address and traced it" Willow unsoldered her bag, unzipping it, pulling out a brightly colored folder as Daniel's stomach plummeted.
"I was really careful so it would take at least half a dozen computers to find me, and you wouldn't believe were the search originated: Cheyenne Mountain."
Daniel groaned, sinking in his seat. If this didn't beat all, "I think I need to make a call." He looked at the red-head, her large green eyes watching him almost suspiciously now that he'd spoken up. "I think that's one of my co-workers. I mentioned I was coming here, and I might have made Sam curious…"
Giles was regarding Daniel with a cold look, one Daniel had never though he'd be on the wrong side of, and Daniel remembered Giles' one caveat had been no military involvement, "Let me just call Sam"
"Wills is good enough I doubt he'll realize he's been hacked" Xander spoke up for his friend, and Daniel grimaced.
"She will" Daniel corrected.
Willow made a slight noise, and attention turned on her, the slight blond speaking up for the first time, "Willow? What did you do?"
Willow looked to the blond, Buffy, with a furtive glance to Daniel at key moments as she explained "Well, it was Oz's idea, really, but any time any government address searches for Sunnydale durning the next forty eight hours they'll be redirected automatically to Disney Land…"
Every one goggled at her a moment, then Xander turned to Daniel, "See, not so bad" he defended.
Daniel thought of Sam being redirected repeatedly to Disney Land and deciding to get to the bottom of it - and felt sick, "You don't know Sam, let me make a call…"
Daniel grabbed the phone, punching in the numbers to reach Sam in quick succession.
The rest of the group watched Daniel, Daniel waiting out the ringing, finally hearing the line pick up: "Carter."
She sounded busy -
"Sam? It's Daniel."
"Daniel. Hi. How are things?" - and definitely distracted.
"Good, good, but that's not why I'm calling…"
"Why are you calling?" he could visualize her finally focusing on him, on the call, perhaps sitting up from her computer…
He glanced at Willow, "Um" then turned slightly away from his audience, lowering his voice, hearing the tune "it's a small world" in the background, "Do you happen to be on a web page for Disney Land?"
Sam made a frustrated noise, "YES, and I don't know why. Every alternate address I type in redirects me here. I've had Siler comb thru the network, but it's only my station effected…"
Daniel spun to look again at Willow, her giving a slight ep!, Xander smiling goofily at him still munching at his apple.
"Yeah, about that" Daniel continued, "Um, why don't you use my computer for the next couple of days - and do not search anything related to Sunnydale."
"Or Giles" Cordelia spoke up.
He heard a pause on the other side, then Sam: "Daniel? Why can't I be on my computer for the next few days?"
"Only forty eight hours" Daniel corrected.
"Only online" Willow added, and Daniel repeated, "And only online."
Sam made a huff, "I heard that. Who are you with?"
"Giles. One of his students had a computer project and she apparently traced your search and then blocked any further searches on the same topics…" Daniel related.
Sam made a sound, and then he could hear movement over the line, "Daniel, a student just hacked my computer? Here?"
Daniel shrugged despite her not being able to see it, "I guess?"
"Daniel, this base has firewalls, this network has firewalls, and all my personal systems have firewalls… I doubt NID can even get into my personal files…"
"Well, were you there?" Daniel asked, a bit helpless compared to Sam when it came to these things.
"Not the point. We'll have to completely overhaul our securities and protocols… How did the student gain access?"
Daniel looked at Willow, Willow now shrinking back into Xander as Giles and Buffy eyed Daniel with similar protective expressions, "Daniel, I have 'its a small world' looping on my computer, and at the least, I would like to shut that off" Sam informed him.
"She has it's a small world playing on her computer" Daniel shared with the room, then to WIllow, "How does she turn it off?"
WIllow flushed and looked pleased if guilty, "Even with the volume off?"
Daniel squinted at Willow and spoke into the phone, "Even with the volume off?"
"If I didn't have built in speakers I'd have them unplugged" Sam shared disgruntled.
"Go Will" Xander spoke up.
"How does she shut it off?" Daniel asked Willow again.
Willow glanced to Buffy, then craned around to see Giles, and he nodded for Willow to do so, "Well, if she logs into the Slave Drive -"
Daniel waved his hand at her to stop, "Computers aren't my strength" he shared, then to Sam on the phone "I'm handing you to Willow."
Willow took the phone, shyly placing it at her ear and taking Giles' chair, "Hello?"
"-Oh, Hello. Willow Rosenburg. Junior … High school Junior. ... Um, Well, Giles had some friends look him up and they cause a bit of trouble, so, I thought, maybe if people couldn't track us, um, him, over the internet it'd make it more difficult for trouble to find us, him, well, both really…"
"Oh, no. I'd never do anything like that, I never cheat or lie or hack for gain, or nefarious gain, I have hacked our city's sewer specs but I had a very good reason for that one-" Buffy put a hand on WIllow's shoulder, calming her rapidly accelerating babble, and Willow took a deep breath to slow herself, "which, I'm guessing, you don't really need to know about…"
Willow settled into the chair, then, with a Willow smile, and Giles, Buffy and Xander finally decided who ever Daniel had on the other side of the line wasn't going to run Willow thru the mud for what she'd done. Giles tilted his head back towards the door, Buffy stepping away with him into the shadows.
Cordelia flipped her hair over her shoulder, making a gagging noise as Xander began munching at the core of the apple, "Really, Xander, I think that apple's done. Why don't you throw that one out and take another hand out from Giles' fruit bowl?"
Xander took a loud bite of the core, and Cordelia rolled her eyes, "So, you actually work under a mountain? In Wyoming?" she turned on Daniel.
Daniel shrugged, opening his mouth-
"Yes, Cordy. He's one of the Seven Dwarves and mines for gold and rubies. He's Doc" Xander sniped back, "With the glasses and all"
"I don't really care if he's Sneezy or Grumpy, what I care about is why Giles has a table full of Etruscan or whatever this is" Cordelia waived a hand at it, and then, to Daniel, asked "So, what are you doing with all the Etruscan?"
Daniel leaned back, forcing himself to relax despite her accusatory tone, taking in both of their expectant gazes as Willow talked computer babble to Sam; these kids were a little scary... "These are by and large public announcements. I'm just trying to translate them."
"Translate why is what we want to know" Xander clarified.
Daniel furrowed his brow at the sentence, "Hum?"
"Public announcements on how to organize your own sacrifice of a virgin to gain wealth and prosperity?" Xander quizzed, finally tossing the bits remaining of the apple into the bin. "Cuz, you know, virginity is no laughing matter but when you piss off the snake demon bringing the previously mentioned wealth and prosperity it all collapses like a house of cards - a house of evil, over-privileged cards."
"Xander, do stop" Giles spoke up, returning to press another apple into the teen's hand, "I'm helping Daniel out as a favor, and these are more along the lines of Saturday Morning Computer Tutorials…" the door opening and closing and Daniel noticing the slight blond had left.
"So there is no dire?" Cordelia checked, standing.
Giles made a frustrated sound, "Does no one teach you proper English?" then louder, "No, Cordelia. There is not."
Willow reached out the phone to Daniel, "She wants to talk to you."
"You make the computer stop singing?" Xander asked.
Willow nodded, smiling, "I did."
"Pretty brill, Will, launching it's a small world at who ever is trying to get the Hell Mouth Daily News. A justly deserved punishment" Xander continued.
Will stood up, noticing it was the five of them in the room, "Where'd Buffy go?"
"Buffy is finishing up patrol" Giles spoke up, "And then she was going to check on Angel."
"Cuz he's still all weak and kittenish?" Xander suggested.
Willow elbowed Xander hard, "Be nice."
"And I suppose you want me to drive you home" Cordelia announced, already heading for the door. "This is the last time I'm doing this. From now on, its up to Buffy to escort you safely around after dark."
Xander shrugged, following after, pulling Willow along side as she waived Giles goodbye, "I'll tell her you said so next time she needs to save you from invisible girls or home made zombie boyfriends."
Giles watched them leave with a fondness warming his heart, his loft suddenly quiet and rather empty with them gone, and just he and Daniel alone with the pounds of paperwork spread on the table, Daniel still on the phone.
Giles went back to his kitchen, replacing the kettle on the burner and turning it back on, opening his cupboards for fresh tea. He listened to Daniel's half of the conversation; Giles truly hoped Willow had not caused much of an interruption. He was quite serious about not wanting the government in his way or the way of his Slayer. That Buffy happened to make the friends she had spoke to her as a person and was quite startling in the aspect of her being the Slayer; He'd been trained to hope for and meld a Slayer much more similar to Kendra, Kendra in many ways the perfect embodiment of what the Council expected in a Slayer.
Returning to the council, tail tucked and head bowed, thoroughly demoralized and humiliated, Giles had quelled the fire of his rebellion against the council and against their methods. Being Sent to Buffy, accepting his assignment, he realized the council wanted him learn from this unorthodox Called Slayer by witnessing her sure to be imminent death, thereby finalizing his acceptance of their credo and marking his full acceptance back into his legacy.
Well, Buffy Summers had indeed died, with in months of him taking ownership of her as his slayer; but, more importantly, Buffy Summers continued to live - and defy him and the council teachings at every turn. Instead of molding him with her death into the Watcher his father had hoped him to become, Buffy's refusal to accept his orders, forcing him to work with her as Buffy, the girl and not the next vessel of the Slayer, not just another in the long line of girls flaring briefly, brilliantly into service and throwing their fire against the evil in the world, finally passing away in their own glory, well, she was reminding him of why he'd left the council in the first place.
"I don't know Sam, I rather think not, but I'll ask" Daniels voice continued his conversation. "I haven't. Have you?"
The kettle near whistling, Giles lifted it up, pouring a fresh pot of tea. He returned to the table, to Daniel still on the phone, considering his friend and the work he was helping to translate. He refilled his tea cup and took a slow sip, enjoying the flavors as the seeped leaves swelled and filled. The languages Daniel was asking his help with were genuine languages, and also, importantly, had no flavoring of demon in them.
They did, on occasion, speak of Gods from the Sky, and Giles tilted his head, taking a moment to more thoroughly examine that thought. Despite Cordelia's exclamation, Giles knew Cheyenne Mountain to be in Colorado, and he rather believed housed an American Military complex.
In the archives of the council histories also appeared a series of battles occurring in ancient Egypt, several Slayers falling to beings with glowing eyes who could stand in sunlight and declared themselves gods. The council had cooperated with a network of groups, quite unusual for the council to do, ever, and they and a capricious slayer had lead a final uprising that had chased the gods away, but the council volumes of that watcher's diaries professing no kill had been completed.
Daniel had remained adamant he was not wrong about pyramids being spacecraft. Reaching back to the current selection Giles was working on, he looked again at the Etruscan that wasn't Etruscan. No, but it could be a great, great grand-child, lingually speaking, of Etruscan.
Giles was rather certain the world would take notice if a pyramid did take flight and zoom into the stars, even in a land as big as America, where, helpfully, conspiracy theorists bred in the fringes and published every hackable government memo.
Giles didn't know how, but he rather suspected Daniel could tell him, put all the pieces together.
"Sure Sam - You too" Daniel hung up, turning to look at Giles, and found Giles regarding him, standing, his sleeves rolled up, elegantly sipping hot tea, and watching him in a way that made Daniel feel unmade.
Giles glanced at the table, and then made a point to move, walking to pull back the chair Willow had been in, sit, and when Giles met Daniel's eyes again, it was his friend who'd taken him out to dinner, the man who'd helpfully listened while Daniel strung together impossibilities that were only, in actuality, improbabilities that had happened and then been buried in the sands of time.
"I hope Willow didn't cause too much of a disruption?" Giles asked.
Daniel shook his head, "Actually, Sam didn't even realize the back-doors Willow used to break in, or what ever it is Willow did. Sam said it was a blind spot, and it only being a friendly hack, well, Sam was actually excited to find it…"
Daniel shifted, trying to reconcile the man watching him a moment ago with his friend sitting congenially across the table from him; "Sam wanted me to ask if maybe she could offer Willow a retainer? Just something small, and the two of them could do it again?"
Giles shook his head, "You'll have to ask Willow."
Daniel was learning his previous blind sightedness to everything not in his consuming passion over the Pyramids and the implications of his discovery meant for the total of man kind, that younger arrogance and naivete was bitting him in the ass here and now as he used his friend's genius to assist him.
What had Giles said, at dinner? The past will have its pound of flesh. Daniel felt as if being here he were balancing on blades of sharp teeth over an open maw primed to snap and had only now recognized that fact -Quite unsettling.
Now Daniel considered his friend, his genius with language, the improbability of him being in this scenic if rinky tourist town up the 101, a bit left behind by the hitch-hiking wunderkind of the sixties, partially re-industrialized with the age of the computer, too far for the famous of LA to homestead but too close not to know wealth between LA and Napa Valley.
Daniel had always know there was more to Giles that meets the eye, but, until now, Daniel had not clearly considered what his friend might be concealing behind his placid, helpful demeanor.
Daniel thought of what Sam had imparted, about Willow, about what Willow had 'achieved' to used Sam's phrasing, definitely an accolade in verb-age. Xander and Cordelia seemed rather cut and dry, but they had had him on the defensive when Giles had stepped away for an uncomfortable moment - and Willow was intriguing, especially to Sam, and then, belatedly, Daniel remembered the quiet blond, the one Giles had taken a quiet moment with, who had left alone…
"Where did Willow learn her computers skills?" Daniel remembered to follow up with Sam's question.
"Self taught" Giles responded, already dipping back into the pages, neatly marking on an adjacent book his work, weaving thru the gordian knot of an ancient earth language twisted by years of growth and use, following its ebb and flow of meanings and significance, "She has rather a genius for it, as does, I understand, the boy she's begun seeing…"
"Do you trust these kids?" Daniel asked, worried if Willow had a partner in crime who was not so transparent as this girl seemed.
Giles stilled and raised dark green eyes at Daniel, tilting his head, "Not to muck about in your military?" Giles asked.
Daniel shrugged, "To do what Sam's asking? Work with her to fortify our systems."
Giles considered this a moment, and then eased, "I suppose so. But will your people trust them?"
Daniel sat back. It was a good question. He imagined with minimum involvement and the SCG doing a very careful do si do not much would be at risk on his side of things. And Rupert, without knowing of the NID, was sophisticated enough to be wary of such an organization. Well, Rupert had been in England when the IRA was rather active, both sides behaving horribly, and it made a certain kind of sense, Daniel supposed, to be wary of government. After all, outside of the SGC, Daniel was still rather wary of the US Government.
Daniel nodded, "If we approach- which Sam rather wants, and what Sam wants, she tends to make happen - then, yes, we trust them to do this."
Giles smiled, "All right then. Now, I rather think this bit -"