"Why do you have a tattoo that links you to a demon, Giles?" Buffy asked, sipping be coffee and silently cheering her mother.

"I no longer do," he evaded her question. "I've had it removed using both conventional and magical means. I hope it's enough to avoid its attention if it was to return."

"Which does not explain why you had it in the first place." Joyce pointed out. "If you are ever to expect to have any trust from any of us, Mr. Giles, honesty is the best way to gain it."

"It's deeply personal." Again he attempted to avoid answering.

"Not good enough, Giles." Buffy insisted. "A demon could have come looking for you at any time and who spends a lot of time around you? Me and my friends. And who else do I, personally spend a lot of time around? My mother and little sister. Some demons can sense me, Giles, which you damn well know. This demon goes looking for you, senses me, follows me home and finds my family. Having that tattoo endangered my family. I deserve answers." Buffy glared at the man she hadn't trusted when she first met him, but had begun to trust. Then, he'd given her up for dead, she'd died, been revived and in the first couple of months of the school year she'd begun to trust him again. Xander's discovery that they'd both been thralled and Magic had been used on them had eroded that trust. This tattoo and the demon it linked to could shatter that tentative trust before it could have a chance to be regained.

Rupert Giles sighed and capitulated. "I was ten years old when I was told I had a Destiny of my own." He began to explain, his questioning of that Destiny, his rebellion, his friend's death and his return to the Council, blaming himself for Randal's death.

"Demon possession equals drugs?" Buffy asked, wide-eyed.

"Essentially." Her Watcher agreed

Joyce snorted. "I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't admit to smoking a little pot in college." She admitted. "It was the mid seventies and the sixties had a long reach."

"Mom!" A scandalized Buffy nearly dropped her coffee cup as she stared at her mother.

"I'm just saying I understand being tempted to get high, my method was far less dangerous than his, but I'd still be a hypocrite if I condemned him for giving into the temptation to get high. But that does not excuse your failure to have that tattoo removed any time in the last twenty years or for endangering my daughter or her friends or our family." Joyce said coldly.

"No, you are correct, it does not." Rupert Giles agreed. "I paid little attention to the tattoo over the last twenty some years, at times I forgot it even existed. The only explanation I can come up with is that, perhaps, the demon managed some influence even after being banished and perhaps the protections Xander and Jenny succeeded in placing on me, to prevent further attempts at thrall or magical control, enabled my mind to be freed enough to rid myself of it."

"You have a long way to go to gain our trust." Joyce told him. "Mine especially and if I didn't need help keeping Buffy and Dawn safe from the effects of this so-called Calling and the demons still out there, I'd have you deported in a heartbeat. And keep your damn Council away from us."

"I understand." He acknowledged. "I admit, after seeking clarity to Xander's questions, I find myself questioning the Council, both their motives and their methods. I cannot help but feel their reasons for ignoring Buffy's difficulties last year was because they believed that without them, their guidance, she would die sooner, rather then later."

"And why would they prefer she die sooner, rather then later? Explain it to me!" She demanded, even if she had a pretty good idea given what she already thought of them.

"Perhaps they hoped her death would Call a Slayer they'd trained." Rupert Giles reluctantly admitted. "One they could expect to...control, perhaps."

"What else would you expect from cowards?" Joyce muttered scornfully, she really did not have a good opinion of the Watchers Council.

"Giles," Buffy looked directly at him. "Mom has made it clear, trust is an issue here and not just for her. With all the vampires gone, Slayers might no longer be Called and the primary purpose of your Council may be gone. But other demons still exist, possibly including the one you were linked too. We need your help. Please don't disappoint us, Giles." Not once since their visit had begun had Buffy used her valley girl California vocabulary, that was how seriously she was taking this conversation and she hoped Giles got the message.

"I will do my best." He promised. "I've sworn to protect this world and it's an Oath I take very seriously.

"Then we're good for now." She stood up, setting her cup back on the tray. "But tomorrow after school we need to talk about training, the Library isn't going to work anymore, Giles, it doesn't feel creepy anymore with the Hellmouth drained. Once the other kids in school realize that you'll be a full time Librarian, so we need an alternative. Think about it."

Startled, Rupert Giles realized she was right, in the five or so weeks since the Hellmouth had shut down the feeling of the Library had change. How much longer until the students realized it?

"Oh, dear."