DISCLAIMER:

-What's that behind your back?

-Nothin'

-I don't believe you. Show it to me?

-pout -Fine! But it's not mine I tell ya'! I was framed!

...

Chapter 8

One Year, Six Months After the Fall of Sunnydale

Rupert Giles sat at his desk, going through paperwork. It seemed that was all he was doing lately, going through paperwork. The past year and a half had been rather grueling. The mess left behind the by the First when it had blown up the Council had been extensive. It seemed it had chosen the exact right time to strike, during the annual Gathering of the Council's top leaders. It had also been systematically taking out the field operatives that Watched the Potentials. There were a few older, retired personnel left, but even most of them had been at the Gathering.

Giles' father had been one of the leaders that that had been killed during the explosion. Giles had been surprised at the amount of pain that had caused. He and his father had parted ways long ago. Oddly enough he had still had Rupert listed in his will as his heir to his Council position. Giles though it was very ironic that his father, who had upheld all the traditions that the old Council had stood for, had virtually given him carte blanche to change it completely.

The Council actually worked the way most major criminal organizations or covert operations would. They owned or had stock in thousands of companies that made legitimate money and used them to hide behind and launder money through. The First had not, luckily, gotten around to taking out the main accountants and with Giles' position as the only, still living, listed heir had allowed them access to all the Councils might. It turned out that an organization that had existed since the dawn of civilization could make a lot of money. The Scoobies had been infuriated when they first realized that. The Council had been sitting fat and happy while it's Slayer had been flipping burgers and desperately trying to support her family.

The money had, in some ways made their job much easier, but it had come with its own problems. Giles was the first to admit that he wasn't the most savvy of persons when it came to computers and technology and the vast array of financial information had proven a tangled mess. Willow and Andrew had proved godsends. They had spent over half a year going through, organizing, and figuring exactly how much money they now had access to. It had been a rather exhaustive process involving time, sweat, and copious amount of coffee.

Giles, for his part, had spent the time gathering together Potentials, now Slayers, and setting up place where they could train. The first wave of money released by Willow and Andrew had gone toward purchasing a piece property that had been an old boarding school. It had been somewhat run down and decrepit, but Xander had taken the project and run with it. This had left Giles, Faith and the rest of the Slayers from Sunnydale free to gather up Slayers and new Watchers. Faith had proven a rather adapt leader, though she still swore a little more than he approved of.

Now the school, The Joyce Summers School for Girls they had named it in memory, was up and running, but their troubles hadn't stopped there. There were Slayers all over, over a thousand of them and still counting. They came from all walks of life and just about every country. Giles had to deal not only with the families of these young women but the countries they resided in as well. This was where the old Council had excelled. They had had a vast network of contacts that they had set up over the centuries, people in everything from high ranking government positions to low level criminal organizations. It had been a long, hard task to reacquire those contacts and establish new ones. A task he was still trying to accomplish.

"Are you in here being broody?"

He looked up, startled, as Dawn barged into the room. She was carrying a serving tray in her hands and had a smirk on her face. He smiled. She was a ray of sunshine in a rather stuffy world. He had taken over custody of her from Buffy with some reluctance. He loved Dawn but he hadn't been sure he was cut out to take care of another teenage girl and she had always been a handful.

She had proven him wrong by blossoming here in England. Perhaps it had simply been that she had never had something of her own before. In Sunnydale she was always the one to be protected. Buffy had been rather fanatical about it sometimes, especially after Glory. She had rarely been allowed to patrol and had only been at the final battle because there'd been no choice.

Here in England they had had to rely on her. With so few people to help they had needed everyone they could get. Dawn had had to go to school of course, but the rest of her time had been spent helping rebuild the Council. At first she had run errands and helped Willow and Andrew with their research. Gradually though, she had begun taking over the research department. The great Library that the Council had accumulated over the years had blown up with the Council itself.

It was a huge loss. Books and scrolls thousands of years old. Original copies and books that only had one copy, books in languages that were long dead and now forgotten, all gone, lost to the world and to history. There were some dangerous objects and books that had been destroyed that wouldn't be missed but for the most part it had been a significant blow to the Council. Research had been the one thing that Dawnie excelled at in Sunnydale, however. She picked up languages like nothing and had actually loved the process of figuring things out.

The gathering of books and magickal objects had become her pet project. She had actually become quite ruthless in her quest, raiding bookshops and antique sales, persuading old members of the Council to give up their personal collections. She had become rather feared all over Europe in the past year and a half. She was ruthless in her other pet project as well, keeping watch over Giles.

"Here,"

Dawn placed the tray on his desk, right on top the papers he had been studying. She plopped down gracelessly on the chair across from him and dealt out the things on the tray. She placed a teacup in front of him and poured tea from the teapot into it. Automatically pouring in the exact amount of sugar and cream in it that he liked she placed the teapot back on the tray.

"Nasty old tea leaves for you, delicious caffeinated beverage for me," she smiled as she cracked open the soda with a hiss.

"I had hoped that you would have picked up some culture while over here," Giles sighed and pushed his glasses back up.

"Yeah, like that was gonna work."

"One can always hope."

"I got a letter from Cambridge today." She broke the news suddenly as if she didn't do it now, she never would.

"Oh," Giles pulled his glasses off and polished them furiously, "Well?"

"I got accepted."

"That's wonderful, Dawn," he smiled and stood up to give her a hug.

"It's no big deal," she shrugged shyly and sat back down.

"On the contrary, it's a very big deal. Not everyone is accepted there you know. It's rather hard to get into."

"Well, you know. I'm sure you being my guardian didn't hurt."

"Don't be silly," she was rather shy for such a brash girl. "You got into that school on your own merit."

"Thank you."

"Have you decided what you're going to major in?"

"Yeah," she took a sip of her soda and then looked him in the eye. "I'm planning on double majoring in business and international relations."

"May I ask why? I thought you were planning on going for your doctorate in linguistics or in antiquities, like your mother."

Dawn gave a fond smile at the mention of her mother. "I've thought about this seriously and I think this is the way to go. The truth is Giles, there's nothing in a linguistics program that I can't learn around here. I mean I already know Latin, French, Sumerian, and a little Egyptian, Italian, and Russian. And that doesn't even begin to cover the demon languages that I'll never learn in college."

"The antiquities degree is almost the same. They don't really have a specialization in mystical objects you know. But things like how to deal with businessmen and politicians? That's something we're lacking here. Half the problems we have are having to deal with governments and not letting them control us. We need someone who can deal with that stuff and face it, I'm it right now."

"Dawn…," he hated to see her sacrifice her dreams.

"Now don't get all weird on me Giles, I'm no martyr. I've got my own reasons for doing this and it's not like I'm gonna be alone. Once the first class graduates I'm going to be snapping up some of your Slayers. They have to learn about more than just killing demons. They're going to have to be trained in all kinds of things."

"It's a new day, isn't it?"

"I'm never gonna let one of them turn out like her," Dawn said, her voice flat.

"Dawn…."

"No Giles, it's our responsibility now. We may have had to activated all of them to save the world and it may have been the only choice, but it still makes us responsible for them."

"I know."

"I know you know," she looked at him with eyes that were older than they should have been, "That's why you're up here drowning yourself in paperwork. That's why Xander's out running around trying to build schools and Willow is off on some spiritual retreat to learn how not to blow up the world. It's the same reason we all do what we do and it's the same reason I'm gonna go do what I need to do to make sure they're all taken care of."

"You're a good girl, Dawn," he said after a moment, "I know your sister would be proud of what you're becoming. I certainly am."

"Did you get your postcard?"

Buffy was horrible at writing letters so she had taken to sending postcards at least once a month to her friends and family.

"Yes and Master Shin wrote me as well, she seems to be doing quite well."

"I'm glad," her voice was sad. "I'm glad she's learning to be happy again."

"She'd going to come back, Dawn. It's not like she'd cut off all ties like before, she still writes."

"I know and it's one of the things that keeps me hoping," she smiled at him as she stood up and picked up the serving tray, leaving behind the teapot. "Don't work to late now and remember to come down and eat. If you don't, I'll come up here and drag you down by your ears. Get me?"

"Quite," he smiled back as she walked out of the office, closing the door behind her. Sighing a little he looked back at the piles of paperwork on his desk. Sadly, there was more in the to-be-done pile than the already-done pile. It was going to be a rather long night.

"It's all that keeps me going as well, Dawn," he whispered as he picked up a pen and got back to work.

...

Author's Note:

You're not paranoid if they're really out to get you.

-Anonymous

Okey Dokey Folks! Judging by your responses to the last chapter my paranoia was somewhat unfounded. (That or you're sitting out there, watching. Waiting for the right time to pounce. Ahhhhh!) Thanks for the ego stroking, as always.

Now we are getting into a little bit of what's been going on in the real world. The reality of the fact is that the Scoobies have an almost impossible job on their hands. The thing that made it so easy for the Council before was that they were only dealing with one Slayer and a few Potentials at a time. That, and they had no problem kidnapping said Potentials right out of their homes and indoctrinating them. Therefore I decided to give them a few breaks. The first was the money. I don't care what they paid, or didn't pay the Slayer. An organization that is that old and powerful enough to send in black-ops teams onto foreign soil with no questions asked has a significant amount of cash lying around somewhere. I just gave Giles and the rest a little help in finding it. Money makes the world go round, like it or not, and the poor Scoobies are gonna need all the help they can get.

I also realize that the school idea has been done before, but let's face it. The only way that they can legitimately gather that many young girls together is a school setting.

This chapter is kind of an overview of some of the big problems that the new Council has been facing and how they've been dealing with them. Giles was a field Watcher and now he's having to deal with larger, organizational issues on the fly. Willow and all the rest are also being asked to step into positions that are totally unfamiliar to them, stuff like that. We'll get to some of the smaller, more personal issues later.

Finally, I apologize in advance but starting now and lasting as long as two weeks possibly, the updates are going to be rather sporadic. I've gotten a new job (yeah me!) and I have to move across the country. I now officially curse the oil companies. Stupid high gas prices. I'll try to post when possible but I have to pack up my life and get going. I do plan on finishing this story though (as well as many others) so don't worry to much.

P.S. to the person who mentioned the fact that while my chapters are very well edited you have noticed some problems in my author's notes, you're right. The truth is that while I ruthlessly edit my stories at least three or four times (though I'm not perfect of course) I write these notes rather on the fly. I find it works better that way. Thank you for the notice though. I will try to be more thorough in the future.