Found

Disclaimers Chapter 1


Chapter 2


Buffy turned to her Watcher and said, "You know her?"

"Yes..I did...but it's been so long ago...How?" but before he could say anything more, or ask anything else, Deidra threw up her hand to wave off anything else Giles wanted to say. She walked over to the motorcycle and opened up the storage unit, taking out some bottled waters and dried fruit. Giles and Buffy silently joined her under the tree. Deidra handed them each a bottle of water, and they all drank deeply, washing the hot dust from their parched throats. Then Deidra took out a small first aid kit that was also stashed in the bike's inner depths. She handed it to Buffy, "Here, Buffy, clean yourself up and Rupert with this. Sit down in the shade of this tree, and both of you get some rest. I’m staying at a place not far from here. I'll bike over and grab the truck, and come back and pick you both up. You should be safe here until then. You'll stay with me tonight. When we're all rested, I'll answer some of your questions. And hopefully you can help me with some of mine."

With that Deidra picked up the knives that they had thrown on the ground, and put them back in her boots. She left them the sword, just in case, hopped on the motorcycle, and went back in the direction from which she had come.

Giles and Buffy sat down together under the tree, and tended to each others cuts and scrapes as best they could.

"Okay Giles, spill. Who is she? How do you know her? Can we trust her? I mean, she did seem to just save our lives and everything, which tends to make me like her a bit. And what a cool outfit and bike! So what's up?"

Giles took another long swallow from his water, sighed, and looked out into the desert.

"We grew up together."

"What? She's from England?”

“It's a long story.."

Buffy tipped her head at him. "Seems like we've got some time here. And I'd like to know what's up before she gets back. I don't know a lot about your past, besides Eygone and all that..."

"Well, Buffy, you've never really asked me. And my past never really mattered to you before."

Buffy saw the sadness in his eyes at that, and she squeezed his arm, "Giles, I'm sorry. You don't have to talk if you don't want to." It was obviously painful for him.

"No, I need to tell you now. It seems to be of some importance, at least Deidra's part in it." His eyes focused inward as he talked, reliving a past that had very little joy, but a lot of hard work and pain, and anguish, and darkness. A past he had tried hard to forget.

"I met Deidra when I was ten, after my father informed me that I would be a Watcher. Deidra moved in next door to us about the same time. She lived with foster parents, the Sestons, who never seemed to be around. They neglected her terribly, and my father took pity on her. Deidra and I would play together, and often she would be my Slayer, and I would be her Watcher. My father’s Slayer, Louisa, had already past on years ago when I was just a baby. So Deidra and I would pretend to do battle with all the evil vampires of the world. At that time, it all wasn't real to me yet. It was all a game, make believe. I knew my father was a Watcher and had trained a Slayer, but I never really knew what that was. This was before I actually knew...what I came to know. Before I rebelled."

Buffy saw the pain in his face, the sadness. She took his hand in hers, and held it in her lap to give him some comfort. He looked down at her then, smiled a little, then looked back out at the setting sun, leaving his hand where she held it, but not really noticing it was there.

"Deidra's foster parents worked for the Council, so she had access to books and such. Since they rarely seemed to be home, she spent a lot of her time with their books. She became fascinated with Slayers, and Watchers. She became more and more excited for me, where as I was turning from my destiny more and more. Deidra had wanted to be the Slayer. My father thought it would be good for me to have someone to train with, so he trained both of us together, as if she truly was the Slayer. I think he missed his Slayer, and training her gave him some comfort. Of course, she didn't have your super strength or healing, and there were several times that I bruised and battered her. Yet, as far as I know, the Sestons never seemed to notice. Or perhaps they just didn't care. It was very sad for her. And it seemed like I was her only friend."

Buffy thought about the Scoobie gang, and how lucky she was to have so many close friends, that cared so much about her. She thought about her mother, and how she had hated her meddling. and now she would give almost anything to have her mom alive again, to make her pancakes again, to annoy her again.

"It was good that had had you Giles. She must have been so lonely."

"Deidra never complained. She just would lose herself in the training, and in the books. We would study together, and she always seemed to be one step ahead of me, even though I was the older one by two years. I used to tell her that since she couldn't be a slayer, she should be the Watcher since she was better at it than me, and I could live the fancy and free life. She would punch me in the shoulder and lecture me about my destiny, and tell me how lucky I was to get to save the world, and fight evil. How she was nothing in comparison to that. I tried to tell her that she was so important, to not talk like that, but, well...I don't think she ever quite believed me."

"That must be one of the reasons you always get upset with me when I say negative things about myself. I'm sorry. That must bring up these kind of memories for you."

Giles squeezed her hand, "Buffy, you know by now how important you are to me, to your friends, and to the world. I always tried to support you, and make you believe in yourself. But ultimately a person can only find that within themselves."

Buffy nodded in agreement. "So, what happened to her?"

"To tell you the truth, I'm not sure. When I turned 17, and was accepted at Oxford, I couldn't wait to tell h We We had planned to go to Oxford together. I would be accepted first, and she would follow me in the next two years. I thought that perhaps I could accept my destiny with her at my side. I went over to her flat to show her my acceptance letter. I was so excited and couldn't wait to show it to her."

"Giles, is there something you aren't telling me? Were you and Deidra...ahhh, well...were you more than just friends?”

Giles frowned, and looked down at the road as if he was examining the gravel and it's make up. After a bit he sighed and said, "We were never intimate, if that is what you mean. We were best friends. She was like a baby sister to me. We loved each other, but it never grew past friendship. We were still young then, and so entrenched in the Council’s ways and means...but, I'm getting ahead of myself here."

He turned and smiled at Buffy, then looked back at the sunset as if he couldn't stand to look at her while he bore his soul.

"When I went to the Seston's to talk with Deidra, no one answered the door. This happened at times when any of us were engrossed in our research and studies.”

Buffy chuckled at that, knowing how even now Giles would be so in to a book, that a nuclear bomb could go off in his living room, and he would fail to notice.

“I knew where the spare key was, so I let myself in as I had done a million times before. I called out her name, but no one answered. I went into the library, and it was a mess. It looked like there had been a fight. The table was on it's side, chairs were broken, and the books and papers were scattered everywhere. I ran home and rang up my father. He was at the Council offices that morning for an emergency meeting, and they wouldn't let me talk to him. I tried getting a hold of the Sestons, but they wouldn't let me talk to anyone. I was about to call the police, or somebody, when my father walked in the door. I started to tell him what I had found, and tried to take him over to her house, he he just sat me down and said he had to tell me something. I remember the dread I felt at his words, and I knew then that I would be as lost as Deidra was.

My father told me that Deidra was gone, and that I should forget about her. He would not tell me where she was, what had happened to her. It was like she never existed. He told me not to look for her, not to do anything...to go to Oxford, fulfill my destiny, and forget about her. There was no avenue for me to pursue, he said, except for my destiny as a Watcher. He had been so cold.

I never saw Deidra, or even the Sestons, again. That night a truck pulled up to their home and hauled all their furnishings away. I tried to talk to my father about it, but was only greeted with silence, or instructions to go back to my studying. I left for Oxford that fall, vowing to never forget her, and to do what I could to find her."

The sun finally set, and Buffy shivered. She wasn't sure why she was shivering, because it was still blistering hot out. Giles didn't seem to notice. He wasn't there before her anymore. He was in Oxford, as he continued the story.

"When I got to Oxford, I met Ethan Rayne, as you know. I got swept up in black magic, and eventually dropped out of Oxford. My rebellion was full force by then. I had no way in which to pursue Deidra, and once I got lost in the darkness of the magic, I lost myself completely. Then my parents passed on, and I came around eventually to accept my destiny. The Council took me in and began to get me ready. I asked once about Deidra, but it was if indeed she never existed. No one even seemed to know who she was, or anything about her. I was told to focus on my future, my destiny, and then I was sent to you. I haven't even thought of Deidra in all this time. Once, when I first met Jenny..I thought of her for a moment. The way Jenny would tease me, and tilt her head and smile. Deidra would do that. But I had moved on. Deidra was just a part of my past that I had let go. A past that I had been instructed to forget, and that task I carried out."

TBC