Watchers Council

Chapter 10

“Oh bloody hell” Giles looked at his watch and checked the time of the email. “Isn’t there any way to get a bloody mobile phone signal in this place?” he turned to the young man sitting be hie him.

“I’m sorry sir, perhaps the satellite phone would be a better option?” he suggested and pointed gingerly towards a briefcase sized contraption on the other desk.

“I can call someone in America on it?” Giles asked impatiently and moved to stare at it.

“Of course” the young man shrugged and shook his head. He had been the communications tech for many of these expeditions and he always came ac the the academics who seemed to imagine they still lived in the dark ages. “It’s just like a regular phone, you’ll need the international dialling code” he handed Giles a list of codes.

“I have been abroad before” Giles snarled at him and jerked his head towards the tent opening. “Give me ten minutes” he suggested and watched the young man decide against arguing before departing. “Smug little snot” he muttered as he dialled the number, drumming his fingers while he waited for Dawn to answer. “Dawn?” he asked and changed the receiver to his other ear. “Is Willow OK, what’s happening?” he asked and listened intently for several minutes. “Do you know where Alex is?” he waited for another few moments. “Damn and blast” he mumbled and threw his empty plastic coffee cup across the tent. “I can’t get out of here until Saturday at the earliest” he answered. “I need you to find Alex for me and get her to call me” he looked around the table before asking Dawn to hang on for a minute. “You there” he shouted at the young man from earlier. “What’s the number of this phone?” he returned to the phone and checked on the underside of the case it was housed in. “Dawn, take this number down, you can get me at any time, day or night, on it” He waited till she had repeated the number back to him before taking a deep breath. “If it will stop her leaving altogether I’m going to suggest to Alex that she moves into my place until I can get back” he explained. “Can you give her the spare key if she asks for it and look after her for me”

Dawn pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. “Of course, but if she doesn’t want to stay we can’t make her” she sighed. “I’ll try to persuade Willow to call you but Xander and Buffy are with her right now and she’s kind of zoned out” she nodded to herself as he suggested various tactics they could use to persuade her to talk to them. “We’ll do what we can but I think we’d all be happier if you were here” she tried to keep the pleading tone out of her voice. “It’s just a pity you can’t do the poof thing” she sighed and then giggled as she heard him patiently explain about the differences in their common languages again. “You know I meant the teleporting” she laughed and was relieved to hear him relax a little. “I know, I’ll tell her Giles” she took a deep breath and held her head in her hands for a moment before trying Xander’s number again. She glanced at the clock on the wall as the number remained engaged for another ten minutes. She shook her head and tried to concentrate on some work stuff but she had cleared her desk and was watching the clock count down as office hours wound up. She tried Xander’s number one more time but it was still engaged. Grabbing the spare keys for Giles’ place from her desk drawer she headed towards Willow’s house.

*****

“Alex?” Dawn shouted through the letter box. “If you’re there please open up” she turned to look up and down the street. “Come on, where else would you go?” she muttered under her breath and was about to give up when she heard the door behind her open. “Alex?” she peered inside the dark hallway. “Are you OK?” she winced as she saw the dark circles under the girl’s eyes.

“Dawn, is Willow OK?” Alex asked before starting to cry again. “I’m sorry but I’m just so worried and I can’t talk to her about it”

Dawn pulled her into a hug and led her towards the sitting room. “Willow’s with Xander and Buffy and we’ve been trying to reach you all afternoon” Dawn sat next to her on the sofa.

Alex shrugged and blew her nose. “Willow told me about the vampires and stuff but I’m just not sure whether I believe it or not”

“It is kind of a big thing to have to deal with but we’re all here to help you through itwn swn sat further back and sighed. “Willow only told you because she wants to be with you”

“But she killed someone” Alex said slowly, as if the words didn’t taste right.

“And she’ll spend the rest of her life paying for what she did” Dawn assured her. “It doesn’t make her a homicidal maniac and she has worked really hard to control her powers”

“I just can’t put the two people together” Alex shook her head. “I’ve spent nine months falling in love with my Willow and suddenly the evil twin Willow makes an appearance and she looks like my Willow but she can’t possibly be the same person because’s d’s done this horrible thing”

“Actually evil twin Willow was way worse” Dawn shrugged and saw the confusion cross Alex’s face. “Sorry, that’s a different story” she stood up and went to pick up her purse. “I need you to come with me” she waited by the door.

“Where are we going?” Alex asked as she followed her. “I don’t think I can face Willow right now”

Dawn shook her head. “We’re going to Giles’ place, I think he has some things that might make this a little easier for you” she saw the doubt in the girl’s eyes. “Please Alex, just true, ge, give me an hour” she watched the struggle being fought in her face. “Giles said you could stay at his place if you wanted to” Dawn waited to see if Alex would agree.

“I haven’t decided whether to stay in town or not” Alex sighed. “But I’d really like you to persuade me to stay” she admitted and followed Dawn towards Giles’.

When they arrived Alex went to use the bathroom, washing her face and gathering herself while Dawn called Xander’s again. “Xan?” she blew out a deep breath in relief. “What’s been wrong with your phone, I’ve been trying to get you for hours” she listened to Xander’s explanation and then told him about Giles’ call. “Anyway, I had an idea when he mentioned letting Alex use his place and I’ve brought her here to look at some of his personal diaries and photographs” she listened to Xander again for another minute. “Sure, but I think we’ll be here for a while, perhaps even all night, so you can take Willow back to her place if you want”

Buffy was sitting next to Willow, holding her hands and staring into her eyes. “You need to take their advice Will” she turned when Xander came back in and raised her eyebrow in question.

“Dawn has taken Alex over to Giles’ place and he’s hopefully going to be back at the weekend” he knelt down in front of them. “Alex is pretty upset but Dawn says she’s looking to be persuaded to stay” he looked up into Willow’s eyes. “That’s a good sign, right Will?”

Willow nodded before taking a deep breath and making a physical effort to gather herself. “I’ve been thinking about this and I think I need to get away for a few days” she waited for them to calm down. “Look guys, this isn’t an apocalypse, people aren’t going to die, the world isn’t going to end and I’m not going to lose it again” she stood up and searched for her jacket. “All that’s happened is that I told my girlfriend some home truths and she’s taken it badly so we might break up” she shrugged. “Suddenly the Scoobies are convening a war counsel and Giles is flying back from the rain forest” she was getting a little agitated. “Honestly, I’m going to be fine and I just think everyone should get back to their day jobs and let nature takes its course”

Buffy and Xander looked at each other for several moments before Buffy smiled slightly. “Actually I think Will’s right” she stood up and looked around the room. “Our natural instinct is to circle the wagons and send for the cavalry whenever anything goes wrong but this is just a domestic dispute” she saw Xander struggle to understand. “Seriously Xan, perhaps we’ve all been missing the regular apocalypse adrenaline rush and just substituted the first minor problem that came along”

Willow nodded in agreement. “The worst that’s going to happen is that I go back to being single and frustrated again” she shrugged and managed a weak smile for Xander.

“Welcome to my world” he said dryly. “Where will you go?” he asked and tacitly agreed with Buffy’s tactics.

“I thought the beach apartment might be free, after all it is quite late in the season and I think brooding walks along miles of empty sand are just what the doctor ordered” Willow hugged Xander and Buffy. “You’ve been great, but I think I can fix this myself” she kissed them both and headed out.

“What just happened?” Xander turned to Buffy.

“She spoke to the coven and they managed to calm her down and got her to look at it objectively” Buffy shrugged. “They pointed out that it was a really important milestone for her to tell someone she cared for about her past and that the decision on how they dealt with the information was out of her control” They both returned to the sitting room and Buffy gazed out the window. “She admitted that her inability to control Alex’s decision was part of her worry and that this was one of the problems they had spent a lot of time on when she was recovering after Tara” she turned to look at him. “This had to happen eventually and I don’t think she’s going to go all veiny on us this time, she just needs some time to herself to think stuff through”

“So we’re allowing her to wander off on her own to brood?” Xander asked sarcastically.

“Yep, because if she goes then we can triple team Alex” Buffy suggested and smiled when Xander finally nodded his head. “Let’s grab some food on the way over to Giles’”

*****

Dawn answered the door and saw Buffy and Xander standing with loaded grocery bags. “We’ve come prepared” Xander announced and headed for the kitchen.

“Where’s Willow?” Dawn asked and looked over Buffy’s shoulder.

“She’s gone off to do her own thing for a while” Buffy kicked the door shut behind her. “And yes, she’s going to be fine” she shook her head as she followed Xander.

Alex was standing staring at the kettle when Xander dumped the bags on the counter. “Sexy Lexy” he said quietly and pulled her into a tight hug. “Bad day?” he asked her when she finally pulled back.

“I’ve had wo she she mumbled into his chest and held onto him tightly.

“Really?” he smiled as he pulled back and looked at her tear stained face.

“Hey just because you’ve got the vampire thing going on doesn’t mean you’ve got a monopoly on them” she managed a weak smile.

“Oh yeah, I keep forgetting the whole twisted bikini strap disaster of 2001” he giggled and ducked her playful swat.

“Alex” Buffy nodded at her as she dumped another grocery bag and started searching through the kitchen drawers. “Aha!” she finally produced four spoons and hefted the bag again as she headed for the sitting room.

Dawn had piled photograph albums and notebooks haphazardly on the dining table. Several minutes were taken up with depositing these on the floor while Buffy took half a dozen ice cream cartons out of the paper bag. She solemnly handed everyone a spoon and they all sat down. “OK” Dawn smiled round them all. “Giles suggested that Alex might like to use his place for a while and I suddenly remembered the photographs and personal diaries he kept here”

Alex looked uncertain. “I don’t want to pry into his personal stuff” she opened the carton closest to her and spooned some out.

“It’s not personal personal” Dawn explained patiently. “It’s just the diaries he kept when he was Buffy’s watcher, for his own use, not the official Watcher Diary”

Buffy leaned across to take some of the ice cream from Alex’s carton. “He kept different ones because he said he could be more informal in his own diaries and he didn’t have to worry about detailing the battles exactly as they happened” she shrugged.

Xander lifted the photograph album from the top of the pile. “And these photographs are the only ones to survive the destruction of Sunnydale” he grinned as he opened the first page. “Halloween at the Magic Box” he slid the album round towards Buffy and Alex and lifted another album between Dawn and himself.

Dawn giggled as she flicked through various pages of disastrous outfit choices from Xander. “How did Cordelia ever put up with you?” she finally asked him.

“Hey” he pulled the album out of her hands and stared at the pictures. “Well she must really have loved me” he shrugged and handed the album back. “I guess the idea is that we try to get some sort of chronological order and then take Alex through the weirdness of us?” he looked around the others.

“That’s what I thought” Dawn nodded and searched through the grocery bag. “Did you get any chips?” she asked and Xander nodded towards the bags he had left in the kitchen.

Ten minutes were taken up with various arguments over the correct order of the photographs. “I think that’s it” Buffy finally sat down next to Alex. “Ready?” she asked and opened the album nearest to them. “Oh god, look at my hair!” she yelped and everyone crowded round behind her to laugh at their younger selves.

“Who’s the cute woman with Rupert?” Alex pointed to a photograph a little later.

“That’s Jennie” Xander swallowed and Alex felt the temperature in the room drop.

“She’s dead, isn’t she?” she looked to Buffy for confirmation.

“Yes” she said quietly and cleared her throat. “She was the computer science teacher at school and she was also a techno pagan – sort of a mini witch on the web” she explained. “She was killed by a vampire who didn’t want her to use the latest spell she was working on” Dawn looked up at Buffy in surprise but felt Xander squeeze her arm and didn’t say anything.

“They were a cute couple” Alex smiled and leaned closer to the photograph.

“Yeah, they were starting to get closer just before she was killed and it took Giles a while to get over it” Xander deliberately left out the details, hoping that Dawn would catch on to Buffy’s plan. They had discussed their approach while on their way to the house and Buffy had suggested that many of their past exploits were probably too much to dump on someone already in emotional overload. Xander had agreed and they had decided to give the basic information where they had to, but leave out the background if they could get away with it.

The sombre mood continued for a few minutes before they got to some pictures of Xander in an army uniform. “Halloween” Buffy and Xander both said at the same time and groaned. Xander flipped through some more pages then grinned as he opened the album at pictures of Buffy in her southern belle outfit and Willow looking embarrassed in her mini skirt and crop top.

Alex lifted the album out of his hands and looked more closely at Willow’s picture. “What was she supposed to be?” she finally asked and looked at Xander. He shrugged his shoulders and Buffy launched into a long explanation of her attempts to bring Willow out of her shell. “And you thought that dressing her like a hooker would achieve this?” she giggled at Buffy’s stubborn face. “Did she ever ask anyone if they wanted trick or treat?” she snorted and they all started laughing.

“Hey” Buffy finally wiped her eyes. “It worked, Oz told me once that he had noticed her because of her bizarre outfit that night” she nodded.

“Oz?” Alex asked and smiled at the uncomfortable looks passing between all of them.

“Willow hasn’t mentioned Oz?” Dawn finally asked and shook her head when Alex continued to look intrigued. “Well he was her first boyfriend and he was…” she stalled and looked towards Xander.

“He was just Oz” he shrugged and grinned. “Didn’t have much to say but when he did say something it was worth hearing”

“Her first boyfriend?” Alex asked in surprise. “How many boyfriends did she have?”

“Just the two” Buffy stated confidently. “Oz then Xander” she grinned at his embarrassment. “Although technically she had them both at the same time”

Alex looked shocked and stared at Xander as he closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands.

“Actually it was Xander then Oz then Oz and Xander then back to Oz on his own again before she decided on girls” Dawn giggled.

Xander finally looked up to see two grinning females and one in complete shock. “We were in a near death experience and kissing her seemed like the best way to deal with it” he tried to explain. “If I’d thought that Cordelia and Oz were going to rescue us from the four-poster bed then I wouldn’t have done it”

Alex put up her hands and begged him to stop. “OK, this story I need to hear from the beginning” she rested her chin on her hand and stared at him.

For the next five minutes he told the tale of Willow’s infatuation with him and his eventual realisation that she was kissable. When he got to the part in the factory he tried to gloss over the smoochy scene but Buffy kept adding her own suggestions and eventually he had to explain it completely. “It’s not as if I wanted Cordelia or Oz to find out” he shrugged.

“I bet you were more scared of Cordelia though?” Dawn suggested.

“It’s a tough choice but I think the werewolf was marginally scarier” he grimaced.

“Werewolf” Alex said matter of factly, as if trying the word out to see how it sounded.

“Ah, yes, did we forget to mention that Oz was a werewolf?” Buffy asked lightly and kicked Xander under the table.

“Pretty sure I would have remembered if you had” Alex shook her head.

“Well he got bitten and for three nights a month he was hairy and grumpy” Buffy congratulated herself on the long-story-short version.

“And he was Willow’s boyfriend” Alex was still stating the facts as they popped into her head.

“Yep, more importantly her first” Buffy confided and heard Xander groan. “Ignore him” she smiled and leaned closer to Alex. “He played lead guitar in a band and was incredibly smart and Willow was on cloud nine when they started going out together” she shrugged. “None of us were ever cool or popular and she finally had the chance to get one over on the girls who had looked down their noses at her for years”

“Didn’t you ever have any boyfriends?” Dawn asked and yelped in pain as Buffy kicked her ankle. “What?” she looked at her sister.

Alex shrugged and smiled a little. “There were a couple of guys I hung around with at college but neither of them were really serious and I decided fairly early on that I was looking for something a little different”

“Once we started college Oz was having some problems controlling the wolfiness so he left suddenly and Willow was devastated” Buffy continued the story. “We all tried to be supportive but a lot of things were happening and I guess when Tara came along she was able to offer the kind of support Willow really needed”

“She’s told me all about Tara, she really loved her” Alex said softly. “I’m sorry I never got to meet her, she sounds like someone I would have enjoyed spending time with”

Xander picked up one of the later photograph albums and scanned through the pages before putting it on top of the other album on the table. “It took a while to get through the shyness but once you got to know her she was a beautiful person”

“We should probably get a copy of this for Willow, she only has one picture of her and it’s a bit out of focus” Alex took a deep breath and handed the album back to Xander. “So, we got as far as Halloween?” she returned to the other album and Xander launched into the tale of the haunted costumes.

Two hours later Dawn rose to put the kettle on. “I think I’m going to throw up” she rubbed her stomach.

“You didn’t have to finish the chips and the ice cream” Buffy suggested dryly and lifted the albums they had finished with back onto the bookcase.

Alex and Xander were huddled over an album containing press cuttings and he was explaining all about the Mayor. “So, you kissed Willow” Alex said softly so that only he could hear. He looked at her in surprise and licked his lips before nodding. “How was it?” she smiled at his discomfort. “Come on, I know this is ancient history so you can share”

“She had very nice lips” he mumbled and turned to another article on the Mayor’s long life.

“No frenching?” Alex grinned and leaned in even closer to him.

“Alex, this is weird, I’m not sure Willow would like me to be talking to you about her and I kissing” he hissed at her and looked anxiously to make sure Buffy was still helping Dawn in the kitchen.

“Xander, you and I comparing Willow’s technique is the least weird thing I’ve heard today so humour me” she nudged him with her elbow.

He glanced over his shoulder one more time before bending his head towards her. “She was hot” he muttered quickly and scrutinised the newspaper story in front of him. He felt her nudge him again and gave in with a sigh. “We actually kissed a few times but the others don’t know” he rolled his eyes. “At first it was kind of tentative and then the excitement of doing something forbidden sort of got us a little carried away” he admitted and smiled at the memories. “Once we were sitting in the library stacks, kissing when we should have been researching, and Giles almost caught us” he looked like a naughty boy all over again as he remembered the near miss. “Thank god he usually walked around with his nose in a book”

They were laughing and didn’t notice Buffy and Dawn watching them from the kitchen doorway. “She seems a bit more relaxed” Dawn said quietly as she helped Buffy make some coffee.

“This was a good idea” Buffy hugged Dawn before lifting the tray. “If we can get her more used to discussing this stuff she might be able to get over the initial shock and talk to Willow”

“That’s OK if Willow’s here but she’s gone walkabout” Dawn reminded her sister and blew out a deep breath as they returned to the sitting room.

*****

Willow walked down the silent corridors that led to her office. She went straight to her desk and turned on the small lamp before booting up her laptop and settling into her chair. Shd ald already called the rental agent for the beach house and just had a few things to clear up before her rental car arrived. She automatically checked for emails and found one from Dawn sent earlier that afternoon. “Giles” she sighed and took a note of his contact number before sending somailsails of her own explaining her absence and leaving instructions for Danny and the others. Ten minutes later she closed down her laptop and packed it away with a pile of papers and several books from the shelves behind her desk. Looking round she shook her head and switched the light off before heading for the main entrance.

Two hours later she finished the sandwich she had made for herself and checked her watch. Picking up her mobile she carried her coffee mug out to the deck and pulled the paper with his number on it from her pocket. “Hello?” she was aware of a slight time delay. “Is Rupert Giles there please?” she heard the person shouting his name and waited, sipping her coffee and watching the waves rolling onto the beach in the moonlight. “Giles?” she said softly and felt a lump in her throat when she finally heard his voice. “No, I’m fine, honestly” she sniffed a little and then explained what had happened and her trip to spend some time on her own.

He listened carefully and tried to keep his interruptions to a minimum. Once she had explained where she was he took a deep breath. “So Alex didn’t actually say anything to you?” he clarified. He listened for another moment or two before sighing. “Willow, she didn’t say anything about leaving you or never seeing you again?”

“Not really” she ran back through their conversation earlier in the day.

“So she was shocked and didn’t really know what to think and you left her on her own to work through everything?” he asked incredulously. “Thank god you decided against the watcher training, you’d have failed the entrance exam” he said sarcastically and waited to see if she would respond. “Willow, you’d just asked her to believe ten impossible things before lunch and then walked away from her”

“I was just giving her some space” she defended herself, but was a little unsure.

“You are so infuriating sometimes” he sighed and gripped the phone a little tighter. “Listen you have to talk to her yourself, do you know where is” is”

“Xander said Dawn had taken her to your place” she muttered and sniffed again. “Giles I saw her eyes when I told her what I’d done”

He took a deep breath. “Willow it was an incredibly shocking thing to be told about someone you’re in love with” he closed his eyes, trying to find some way to comfort her from a distance. “I’m glad the coven were able to help you and I know you’re strong enough to get through this but Alex really needs your support right now and I would advise a good night’s rest and your return to the campus in the morning”

“What if she’s already gone?” Willow let the tears run down her cheeks.

“I’m going to phone Dawn when we’re finished and I’ll talk to her” he promised and checked his watch. “I’ve arranged a flight home on Saturday, I’m sorry I can’t get back any quicker”

“Please Giles, don’t come back early” she put her mug down and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “I know how important this trip is for you and my complicated love life isn’t a good enough reason to wreck it for you”

“But you are important to me as well” he said softly and swallowed.

“I know” she replied just as softly. “Please, if I’m able to talk to Alex it will be decided one way or another by Saturday anyway” she sniffed a little. “It’s enough to know you are on the end of a phone if I need to talk to you”

“You won’t be saying that when you get the bill” he suggested wryly and was relieved to hear her giggle. “And don’t think I won’t spot these calls if you try to claim them in expenses” he smiled.

“I’ll just go straight to Justin” she laughed and closed her eyes to gather herself. “Listen, Giles, I feel much better already and I think you’re right” she picked up her mug again. “If you do speak to Dawn can you tell her I’ll be back tomorrow morning”

“Take care and try to get some sleep” he suggested. “And you know you can call me whenever you need to”

“Thanks Giles, I’ll let you know how things go tomorrow” she waited till the dial tone sounded before dropping the phone at her side and clasping her mug in both hands.

*****

“Dawn?” he was surprised by the noise in the background. “What’s going on?” he shouted at her and heard laughter before the music was finally turned down.

“Giles” Dawn giggled down the phone. “Sorry, Buffy and Xander were just letting Alex listen to some of your music” she shushed the others as they sang along to the latest track. “Not really a party” she grimaced at them and waved her hand to turn off the music altogether. “Sure, she’s right here” she handed the phone to Alex.

“Rupert?” Alex sounded surprised to hear his voice. “I thought you were in Central America?” she struggled to hear his reply and switched the phone to her other ear. “But this must be costing you a fortune, is everything OK?” she shouted back at him. “Oh” she said as he explained the reason for his call. “Well I think that would be for the best” she agreed and stuck her finger in her other ear. “Of course, but Buffy, Xander and Dawn are getting me through it slowly” she listened for another moment. “Do you want to speak to them?” she asked and shook her head as the line crackled again. “OK, I love you too Rupert, enjoy the dead things” she smiled as she heard him chuckle before he hung up.

“Rupert says not to ruin his records and that the Cream album was your mother’s favourite” she said to Buffy as she threw herself back onto the sofa. “What have I said?” she looked at Xander as the blood drained from Buffy’s face.

“No idea” he shrugged and looked to Dawn. She shrugged as well and nudged Buffy.

“Sorry” Buffy shook herself and cleared her throat. “Just someone remind me to kick his butt when he gets back” she growled and returned the Cream album to the cabinet.

Alex shook her head. “Seems like I’m not the only one getting unpleasant surprises today” she suggested and suddenly looked serious. “He’s just spoken to Will and she’s coming back tomorrow morning so we can talk about stuff”

“That’s good news” Dawn said and tried to read Alex’s expression. “Isn’t it?” she asked.

Alex seemed to think about the question for several moments before turning to look at the others. “I think it probably is, yes” she nodded. “Now, where were we?”