Was It Always Like This?

Chapter 8

Dawn returned from school to find two of the three supposed adults of the house taking part in a heated argument.

“There is no way they could ever make a live action movie of Scooby Doo” Xander proclaimed.

“Who made you the expert?” Buffy asked as she pointed at Willow’s laptop. “Will could probably put together good enough special effects on her laptop without too much effort – why wouldn’t a studio be able to do any better?”

“Hey, trying to work here” Willow remindhem hem as she looked up to see Dawn. “Hey Dawnie how was school?”

Dawn sat down next to her and tried to ignore the other two’s continuing argument. “OK, I guess, what’s that all about?” she asked as Xander stood up to pace.

Willow smiled a little and returned to study the screen in front of her. “They were getting bored and when I went to the bathroom they surfed for upcoming movie projects and, well, it kind of went down hill from there. By the time I came back down they were deep into arguments of sub text and I was barely able to wrestle the laptop back from them”

Xander delivered what he felt to be the coup de grace of his argument. “Anyway, you’re a girl and you wouldn’t have any idea about the importance of staying true to the original vision”. Unsurprisingly, this was met by a stunned silence from his three, female companions. He quickly realised the error of his ways as he shuffled towards the door. “Now that we’ve sorted that out I should go and help Anya ae she shop”

Dawn stared at Buffy as she heard the door click shut. “You’re going to let him get away with that?” she asked in a stunned voice.

Buffy just turned and smiled at her. “Nope, he’s now going to have to pay to take us all to see the movie when it comes out and spring for super sized popcorn and drinks”

Willow shook her head. “You would think he would know better by now”

Buffy smiled at her then turned back to Dawn. “Hey sister of mine, any homework?”

Dawn sighed and pulled her books out of her bag. “Some French that I should manage OK but I could do with some help from Willow with my science project” she looked pleadingly towards her target. “It should only take half an hour or so”

Buffy snorted. “Once you get Will started on science stuff it takes her half an hour just to sort out her coloured pens”

“Hey” Willow huffed at her “Sitting right here you know”. She turned to the younger girl. “Can you give me twenty minutes to finish up with this then I can give you my undivided attention?”

“No problem” Dawn smiled and craned to look at the screen. “Is this about the ‘golden ghosts’?” she asked.

“Yep” Buffy replied and settled back into her chair looking a little guilty. “We were all tracking down a strange sect that were the last ones to build on the land before the home was put up”

Willow typed a few more words before looking up again. “We found out that the previous building was knocked down sometime between 1792 and 1830 because the land was vacant from that time until about fifteen years ago when the home was put up in exactly the same place”

Dawn nodded and glanced at some of the text as it scrolled onto the screen. “Isn’t that a bit strange for a piece of land in the middle of town?” she checked the other’s faces to see if she was right in her assumption.

“Exactly” Willow smiled at her perception. “We checked the title deeds and tracked down the previous owners as some kind of religious sect and now we’re searching to find out everything we can about them to see what was so terrible that the land was unused for such a long time”

Dawn looked up at Buffy. “So you and Xander were just providing the light relief to stop Willow from getting bored during the tedious searching and finding of information?”

“Hey” Buffy replied in her best huffy voice. “We were totally team-searching r up up until Xander and I needed to debate the other topic” she put on her ‘Buffy knows best’ face. “And I seem to remember someone mening ing French homework?”

Dawn sighed, moved her chair back round the table and started leafing through one of her textbooks.

Willow shook her head and saved some more information to a growing file on the activities and members of the Guilen sect. Once she had collated the last pieces into some sort of chronological order she prepared the email to send the information to Giles. Although she had been able to find out a surprising amount in the short time she had been looking, she was a little confused by the content of many of the reports of the sect activities. They seemed to have been well respected by those who came across them and generally welcomed into communities. It was not uncommon for demons to be welcomed with open arms by their intended victims but she couldn’t find any records of burning villages or terrible tragedies following their arrival. It almost seemed as if they were peace loving, well meaning, useful members of society.

Although this was a little unusual in itself, Willow very rarely found herself researching the good guys, it made the sect’s sudden and complete disappearance from all of their communities at practically the same time seem even more unusual. She had decided that Giles may be able to either get his hands on more information concerning the destruction of the sect or he would know where else she could look.

Dawn was quietly working on her homework, occasionally mumbling French verb conjugations under her breath and Buffy had gone into the basement to check on the laundry situation. Neither of them was aware of Willow’s soppy smile as she brought up his email address or the slight blush that rose to her cheeks as she typed his name at the beginning of the message.

Giles had a similar soppy smile when he checked his emails later that day. He d ned never admit it to anyone but he was very glad that he had thought to bring his laptop to the Watcher’s Compound as he didn’t have to rely on the Royal Mail to track him down to deliver Willow’s missives. There was something special in receiving a proper, hand written le onc once a week but he admitted to himself that he was a bit of a Willow junky and had become used to her particular style amblambling every day. It amazed him that she could replicate her vocal meaingsings so completely in the electronic format and he chuckled as he read her, no doubt, wickedly accurate report of the recent Buffy/Xander movie debacle.

Once Willow had finished the personal news she moved into a brisker tone for the business part of the communication. Concisely she laid out the problem they had encountered and the information they had found so far. Then she detailed what her thinking on the problem was and asked for his advice on where they should turn next and whether he agreed with her judgement. Giles shook his head and reached for his coffee as he picked up her uncertainty and insecurity despite the medium. “Willow” he mumbled to himself as he prepared to compose his answer. “When will you ever trust yourself and the knowledge that you have?” He began typing his opinion on the particular circumstances they were currently facing, suggesting various areas for research and a few local contacts that may prove useful. After half an hour or so he stretched and consciously slipped into non-watcher, friend mode to bring her up to date with the friends she had made at the coven and ask her for more details on his Sunnydale family. When he had finished, and checked the entire document for spelling, he never trusted spell-checkers!, he glanced at his watch and quickly made the appropriate calculations to guess what she would be doing right now. Hitting the send button he hoped she would check her mail first thin ‘in ‘her’ morning. It was one of the major benefits of electronic information sharing that they could send and receive answers in real time, not replacing the magic of face to face communication but numbing the pain of separation a little.

Willow yawned and mumbled “mornin” to Buffy when they passed in the hallway the next morning. Buffy had insisted that she stay with them on her return “Where are you going to go, your nts?nts? We are more of a family to you than they ever were and we’ve all missed you too much to put up with you not being any any longer” she had stated matter of factly and grabbed two of Willow’s suitcases from the car.

Xander carried the other suitcase and several plastic bags filled with gifts for all of them. “What I want to know is how someone who teleported to England with only the clothes she stood up in, manages to bring this much luggage back with her three months later”

Willow had giggled a little. “d tod to buy some stuff while I was there and the coven arranged the uplift of some of my things when they got my passport”

Now, three months later and she felt as if she had never left the house. She had insisted that she have her old room back despite Buffy and Dawn both offering to swap. The first few nights had been difficult but there were so many happy memories that they had crowded out the atrocities. Her training at the coven allowed her to meditate and she could still feel the peaceeraterated by Tara in the room with her.

While getting dressed she automatically checked her mailbox and was delighted to see a reply from Giles waiting for her. Without realising it, she mimicked his actions in checking the time difference and sat down to try and catch him still on line.

The laptop’s soft tone indicated an incoming message and Giles smiled to himself as he put down the large book he had been reading and flexed his fingers in preparation.

“Thanks for the local contacts, we’ll make a start on some of them today. Are you still around?” he read and quickly pressed the reply button.

“Of course, I was hoping you would get back to me today. Are Buffy and Xander over their difference of opinion?” he typed and could almost hear her small giggle as she read it.

“Not sure, Xander’s got to go to work today so we won’t see him till dinner time. They usually get over these once he admits Buffy was righWillWillow smiled to herself. “How is the weather over there? You won’t be surprised to hear it’s sunny here!”

Giles nodded his agreement at her assessment of Xander’s chances of ever winning an argument with Buffy. “It was raining a little earlier today but brightened up in the afternoon and everything was fresh and clean looking the last time I was outside. Unfortunately I’m stuck with the final piece of research for averting the outcome of the prophecy I told yboutbout. The counter-spell is quite tricky and I want to be sure I know everything about it before I let anyone undertake it. If it works though, I could be free of my obligations here in about a week” He hadn’ant ant to admit the last piece of news to her yet but he realised, with a shock, that he was actually getting excited at the prospect of seeing them all again. “Perhaps, if you weren’t all too busy, you wouldn’t mind a visit from an old friend?”

Willow “eeped” loudly enough for Buffy to hear as she passed the bedroom door. “You OK Will?” she asked and nudged the door open a little wider. She saw Willow sitting with a huge smile on her face, staring at the screen in front of her.

The young woman finally picked up Buffy’s question and jumped out of her seat to hop excitedly in front of her. “Giles is coming to visit” she practically shouted and clapped her hands.

“When?” Dawn askjustjust as excited, from the doorway.

“In a week or so” Willow smiled at Dawn and then realised Buffy hadn’t responded yet. “Aren’t you excited?” she asked the slayer.

“Yeah, that’s great news Willow” Buffy replied, obviously preoccupied.

Dawn and Willow decided to ignore her and do an impromptu dance of joy in the hallway. This lasted for a couple of minutes until Willow suddenly shouted “Giles” and headed back to the bedroom at speed.

“What?” asked Dawn and followed her, looking over her shoulder to see the screen. “Oh, is he online now? Can I talk to him?” the youngster asked.

“Give me a minute” Willow smiled apologetically. “I haven’t rep to to his last message, he must think I’m ignoring him”

Giles was getting a little worr He He had checked that his connection was still working by accessing some internet sites and then had made sure he was looking in the right place. He had com completely run out of troubleshooting ideas to explain her lack of response and had just convinced himself that she was trying to word a rejection to his suggestion when her answer appeared. “OK, just read it you silly old fool and then you’ll know what she wants” he mumbled to himself as his fingers hesitated over opening the mail in case she had asked him not to come.

“Sorrrreeeeeee! But Buffy and Dawn just came in and I gave them the great news and then we were celebrating and dancing and hugging and I forgot you were waiting for an answer and you must have been thinking all sorts of terrible things because I hadn’t replied, but I hope you spent some of the time thinking it was a technical booboo and not that we don’t want you here, because obviously we are soooooo excited over you coming home and you can have my room and I’ll bunk wiuffyuffy and I can’t wait to tell Xander, he really misses you and Anya will be delighted to show you all of the improvements she’s made to the shop and perhaps we could have a party to celebrate and invite everyone ……….”

The message ended abruptly and he finally took a deep breath. He was exhausted just reading through the stream of consciousnthatthat was an excited Willow. “Willow remember to breathe!” he sent and waited for her reply. Several seconds later he realised he was holding his own breath and sighed, shaking his head. He stood to get himself a whiskey and told himself to calm down when he heard the tone indicating a reply.

“Giles, it’s me, Dawn” he read and smiled tenderly. “Buffy had to drag Willow away from the keyboard and make her have some tea. She’ll be fine once she stops hyperventilating. It’s great news that you are coming home and we are all really looking forward to seeing you again. I don’t know if Buffy told you but they have reopened the school again and it would be neat if I could show you round and point out the classes I’m in and stuff. But if you didn’t want to spend time doing that it would be OK too, cause I know that you will be busy with some big bad or other but it will just be nice to see you no matter what brings you back”

He winced at the assumption that the only reason he would be visiting was a ‘business’ one and tried to remember a time when he hadn’t been protecting or or trying desperately not to be her father. He decided to take a new tack with her. “Dawn, I’m glad you are there and I trust that Willow has calmed down a little? Perhaps a camomile tea would be best for her. I would lovespenspend time with you, but it might be a bit of a busman’s holiday for you to show me the school. If you could face being seen out with an old man, perhaps we could go to a movie together or something similar? I’ll let youide ide what our itinery will be. Perhaps I was a little remiss in my original message to Willow but I am looking at my impending visit as a holiday from work aouldould be seriously put out if I had to deal with even a tiny bad while I was there. I should be able to stay for a month or so and will hopefully have time to see all of you. Please tell Buffy that I’ll stay at a hotel as I don’t want to disrupt your household arrangements”

Dawn was now bouncing and twitterexciexcitedly and Buffy shook her head at the delight on her sister’s face. Willow was sitting on the bed looking a little sheepishly at her friend as she sipped at a cup of hot tea. “Do you want to send him a message?” Dawn asked her sister and stood up to take her place next to Willow on the bed. “A whole month, isn’t that great?” she asked of nobody in particular.

Buffy sat in front of the keyboard and stared at his last message. She had missed him terribly and the last time they had been together she had left him to what she imagined was certain death. She was glad that he was returning simply for personal reasons but found conflicting emotions warring within her, if he came home for a short visit then she would have to say goodbye to him again and that only ever got harder every time she did it.

Although, she corrected herself, the last three times he had left they had never had the chance to say goodbye and she realised thais wis was causing her more pain than she had ever admitted to herself before. It wasn’t all his fault of course, she had died the first time and she was sure that he had said his goodbyes at her graveside, but she was nevertheless scared to get used to having him around agahen hen she knew that it would inevitably end.

She noticed that the other two were staring at her, wondering at the delay in her sending a message to him. Pulling herself together she carefully typed her reply. “Glad to hear about your visit, I think the whole street now knows if Dawn and Willow’s screams are anything to go by! Dawn is now off planning your entire trip, be warned that the mall will play a large part in this! Of course you can stay with us, we need to maximise our Giles-time if you are only going to be here for one month and will probably have to fight Xander for the right to house you. Let us know what flight you are on and we will meet you, unless you are planning on making another, ticket-free, dramatic entrance? Love B,W&D”

He smiled at the last and quickly typed a reply. “Thank you for the offer, we can decide sleeping arrangements once I am there? I wouldn’t mind going to the mall – even shoe shopping! It will be nice just to spend time with all of you again. I’ll confirm flight times, etc.. once I have them and I was planning on bringing some luggage this time so I think I’ll take the normal route. I need to go now, have to find the answer to the last piece of this puzzle before I can be fro seo see you all. Missing you, G”

Although he would read the messages several times over the next few days it wasn’t until he was making his flight arrangements that he noticed they all referred to his visit as him coming home. He wondered about his not noticing that before and decided that it was simply missed in his excitement about the trip. However, this realisation made him think of his inevitable departure from Sunnydale to return to his true home and he felt a shiver sweep over him at the prospect of seeing them all again and then leaving them all again. He took a walk round the garden in the late afternoon and allowed the rapidly cooling breeze to clear his thoughts and tried to recapture his pleasure in the forthcoming trip.