FIC: Conspiracy Theory, 6/12 (Giles/Xander, FRT)
Title: Conspiracy Theory, part 6 / 12
Author: Soft Princess (soft_princess) and Mireille (mireille719)
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing: Giles/Xander
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 4,250 this part / 64,000 overall
Summary: When Xander is attacked by a demon on his way to deliver a trio of young Slayers to England, he and Giles find themselves investigating a plot that may threaten the Council's very existence--and re-evaluating their relationship in the process.
Spoilers: Post-Chosen; based on aired-episode canon only.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy; we are only borrowing them.
Feedback/Concrit: Both welcome, either here or at mireille719 {at} gmail {dot} com and soft.princess {at} gmail {dot} com.
Notes: This story is being posted in 12 parts: parts 1-4 at spring_with_xan on June 17, parts 5-8 at summer_of_giles on June 19, and parts 9-12 at summer_of_giles on June 22. We would like to thank wesleysgirl for the wonderful job beta-reading.
Previous parts:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Part 5
Xander had wound up oversleeping; it had taken him a while to fall asleep last night, too preoccupied with going over and over the situation in his mind, and he'd been so tired when he finally did drift off that it was mid-morning by the time he woke up.
Giles was already in his office when Xander got downstairs; the door was closed, so Xander went into the kitchen to make himself some coffee before wandering over to bother Andrew. Since Andrew usually kept his office door open, Xander would be able to see across the hall and would know when Giles' meeting was over.
Andrew wasn't there either, but there was a bakery bag on his desk and a half-eaten scone on a napkin next to it. Okay, if he took the last scone from the bag, he wouldn't be stealing all of Andrew's breakfast, and it was already almost lunchtime. Xander would offer to buy him lunch.
He opened the bag and took out the scone, sitting down in Andrew's chair to eat breakfast and wait for him.
He'd just finished the last bite when he heard the fax machine start printing something out. Xander thought he'd be helpful--it was the least he could do, he thought, for swiping Andrew's food--and turned around to pull the papers off the machine, intending to paper-clip them together and leave them on Andrew's desk for him.
The fax was for Giles, though, and it was from York at the London office. It had to be the translation Bishop had been working on, Xander thought. If it turned out it was something else, he'd just put the cover sheet back on top and leave it alone, but if it was, then Giles would be okay with him reading it first.
Xander settled back, propping his feet on Andrew's desk as he began to read.
He was still reading, shaking his head at every few words, when he heard voices, and then Giles' door opened. Xander put his feet down and looked up to see Mrs. Cheever coming out.
"I do think this is a very good idea, Mr. Giles. We can't let the patrols become too routine, or they won't take them seriously," Mrs. Cheever said. "And with Mr. Wells' help, I'm sure we'll get this underway by the end of the day."
Andrew followed her out, and then Giles appeared in the doorway. "Of course, Mrs. Cheever, you may have all the use of my assistant that you require."
Xander rolled his eyes, but didn't say a word. It was obvious to him that Giles' eagerness to have Andrew help Mrs. Cheever was a bit--or a lot--due to wanting him away from the office for a while. Considering the situation, Xander didn't blame Giles at all.
"Let me just grab some stuff, and I'll follow you to the dorms, ma'am. We can get the schedule and the groups done from there," Andrew said. He walked into the office and stopped. "Oh! Hi, Xander!"
"Hey," Xander replied, smiling. "Don't let me keep you from doing your stuff. I heard you're helping Mrs. Cheever for something." He held the fax document on his lap, the text hidden from view.
"Yes, it's really interesting, Mr. Giles came up with the idea--"
"Andrew, you shouldn't keep Mrs. Cheever waiting," Giles interrupted him. "I'll fill Xander in."
"Sure thing!" Andrew grabbed his bag and took a final bite of his scone, and walked out, following Mrs. Cheever. He waved at them from the hallway with a really weird smile on his face.
"Why is he looking at us like that?" Xander asked, after they'd disappeared from view.
"I have no idea." Giles motioned for Xander to follow him into his office and closed the door behind them. "He's been acting rather strangely this morning."
"Huh. Well, he is Andrew." Xander slumped down on a chair facing Giles' desk and put the fax in front of Giles. "This was faxed while you were in here. I started reading it."
"Bishop's notes?" Giles said, picking it up and starting to look through it.
"Yeah," Xander said. He leaned back in the chair, giving Giles a minute to read. Maybe Giles would see something he hadn't. Giles was better at deciphering things like that, after all; he'd had years more practice than Xander had.
Giles was frowning down at the paper, though, and that didn't give Xander a lot of hope that Giles had found anything different in the report.
"According to this," Giles said at last, looking up again, "the demons are hostile, nomadic, spread widely throughout... well, the world was a great deal smaller, in most people's minds, when this text was written, but through Europe, northern Africa, and parts of Asia, at the very least. They have the intelligence of a dog, at best, though in their native habitat--"
"In other words," Xander concluded, "the same stuff York's report said."
"Precisely. I think we're going to have to treat this as an attack on the Slayers." Giles set the report down, rubbing the back of his neck. "We know many demons have an instinctive awareness of the Slayer. If they're a nomadic species, they're likely to be widely-spread, and it's just possible that they have some rudimentary forms of communication. If certain groups of these demons have felt threatened by the presence of a Slayer...."
"You can't be serious," Xander argued. "That many attacks in a short time? How is that coincidence?"
"There have never been so many Slayers before," Giles pointed out. "It's possible that it's disturbed the balance; the presence of so many Slayers may have agitated the demons, making them more than normally aggressive."
"Or Dawn's book is right, and York's are wrong."
Giles shook his head. "When a dozen texts contradict one, it's far more likely that the single book is the one that's wrong. Or, if not wrong, simply describing a similar-looking demon that isn't responsible for the attacks."
"Unless York's lying," Xander pointed out. "We haven't seen the books; all we've seen is his reports." He knew Giles thought he was just being overly defensive of Dawn, but that wasn't it at all. Something just wasn't right about this--the pattern of the attacks, the way the demons ran away when confronted by Slayers--and it went way beyond the fact that he liked Dawn better than York.
"Do you want me to request that he sends the books, then?" Giles asked, a little abruptly. "Perhaps that would settle it?"
"Yes!" Xander said, vehemently. "At least Dawn has copies of the actual book."
"Bloody hell, Xander," Giles groaned. He grabbed Xander's arm to stop him from pacing and faced him. "I hear your arguments; I'm not diminishing their importance, but this--" he waved the fax papers-- "clearly agrees with York. Unless you believe that Bishop was also in on this conspiracy?"
"They work together. It's not too hard to jump to the conclusion that they would, you know, be in that together too!" Xander kept arguing, his voice rising with every word. "And what if York rewrote her notes? Have you thought about that? He had all night to cover up his tracks."
"Xander--"
"And, and, it just makes sense, York had Bishop attacked to cover up his tracks, spent all night creating a bunch of notes, and sending them to you, thinking you're going to be fooled, and--"
"Xander, shut up!" Giles pulled Xander closer, holding on to both his arms. Xander stopped talking suddenly, and they both looked at each other, unmoving. Then Giles tilted his head and pressed his lips to Xander's.
For a second, the only thing Xander could do was stand there frozen, unable to even process what was going on. Then instinct kicked in, and he kissed back, licking at Giles' lips until they parted for him, Xander hearing himself groan as his tongue slid against Giles'.
And then, belatedly, his brain started to work. Giles had just told him to shut up. Giles wasn't even listening to him, and what was he doing kissing Xander? He didn't even dare to ask himself what he'd been doing kissing back. What he'd been doing liking it, a lot, before he'd stopped to think.
Xander pulled out of Giles' grip, backing away. "What the hell was that?" he demanded.
Giles blinked at him for a moment, his lips still parted, reddened and wet from the kiss, and for a second, Xander wished he hadn't pulled away. "I--Xander, I'm so sorry," Giles began, and Xander stopped regretting it.
"Yeah," Xander said. "I know." He didn't want to hear Giles' explanation, and right now, he didn't think he could even stay in the same room as Giles. He needed to think, and he was pretty sure he couldn't do that with Giles right here.
And first, he needed some time when he didn't think, at all, until his heart stopped pounding and he stopped remembering how it had felt to have Giles' mouth against his, and he knew he wouldn't get that with Giles around.
"Looks like you've got everything covered," Xander said, "so I'm going to go check up on Niki." He paused. "I'm turning my phone off. If something else happens, send Andrew."
"Xander--"
He wasn't listening. He wasn't turning back and waiting for Giles' explanation. He walked out of the house, and headed straight for the dorms. Chances were that's where the girls would be right now.
Everyone was gathered together just outside of the girls' building. Mrs. Cheever and Andrew were talking, organizing the groups for the patrols. Xander decided to wait, and sat down on the steps. He was joined really quickly by Niki, who was soon followed by Catherine and Océane. "You girls should be listening."
Catherine shook her head.
"They said we can't be on the patrols yet," Niki said, sitting down close to Xander's knees. "Mrs. Cheever said we haven't trained enough already, and we have to wait a little. I don't want to wait. Do I really have to?"
"She has a point, Niki," Xander said softly, touching her head. "You only got here two days ago. Give yourselves more time." He could see though that neither of the older girls were happy with this. Océane looked wistful, and Catherine downright angry.
"It's not fair," Catherine said.
"I'm not arguing whether it's fair or not, but this isn't a game, Catherine."
Océane looked at him. "Are you good? You look--" She frowned and pointed at his face. "If you saw a--phantom? Oh, a ghost."
"Did you see a ghost?" Niki asked, eyes wide. "Ghosts are real?"
Xander shook his head. "I'm not sure they're real, although they probably are, but I haven't seen one today. You girls wanna take a walk to the pond?" He was probably going to get hell for what he was about to do, but he wanted them to be careful. The only way that they would really understand how important that was, was if he told them.
And at least, while he was with them, he wasn't thinking about Giles.
"We should probably--" Catherine began, but Niki was already dashing down the path, and she changed her mind. "We might as well," she agreed.
Xander called for Niki to wait up; she stopped, turning around with her hands on her hips as she waited impatiently for them, and Xander and the others hurried to catch up to her.
He didn't say anything until they got to the pond; the two older girls sat down in the grass. Xander was about to sit down with them when he realized that Niki had found a stick on the ground and was poking it into the shallow water and reeds at the edge of the pond. "Hey, Niki? Come over here for a minute," Xander called. "I need to talk to you guys."
"There's a frog," Niki argued. "I want it to come out where I can see it better."
"Yeah, well, you can do that in a minute. The frog's not going anywhere," Xander said, and hoped it didn't, or he'd probably find himself wading out into the middle of the pond to look for it.
"He might," she said, but she came over to the others anyway, flopping down on the grass between Catherine and Océane and looking up at him.
Xander tried a smile, but failed, so he settled for a sigh. "There's a reason we're setting up those patrols, and it's not just a game. Mrs. Cheever and Andrew don't know this, so you have to keep quiet about it, okay?" All three girls nodded, and Xander continued. "The demon we fought when we got here--"
"It's back?" Niki asked, wide eyed. "I can fight it, this time. I know I can."
"No, Niki, you can't." Xander looked into her eyes. "I don't want you anywhere near that demon. Is that clear?"
"But--"
"We won't let her," Catherine said, looking at Océane, who nodded.
"That's what I was hoping to hear. I know you both wish you could be on the patrols," Xander said to the two eldest. "And you probably could, because you've been training for a while now with your Watcher, but this is a much more important mission."
Océane smiled and ruffled Niki's hair. "We will not let her out of our eyes."
"Sight," Catherine whispered. "It's out of our sight."
"Mmm," Océane said. "All right, I will remember. We will not let her out of our sight. Yes, it sounds better."
Xander shook his head and smiled. "Well now that that's out of the way--"
"But why?" Niki said, looking at Xander and bouncing slightly. "I'm strong and I saved my family. I can do that again."
"I know you're strong, Niki," Xander said softly. "And what you did for your family was heroic, but this is different. There are a lot of older, better trained Slayers here, and you should let them handle it. Please?"
Niki frowned at him. "The other Slayers are taking care of the demons, and they're taking care of me even though I'm not a baby. What am I taking care of?"
Xander paused for a moment, thinking as quickly as he could. The last thing he needed was for Niki to decide she ought to go charging off to fight one of the demons by herself. "I was wrong, Niki," he said. "I want all three of you to look after each other, all right? The other Slayers have been here longer than you have, and even though Catherine and Ocean have been working with their Watcher, they haven't been trained here. So the three of you need to keep each other safe."
Catherine picked up on what he was doing quickly. "Nkiruka, I will be counting on you to watch my back, all right?" Xander made a mental note that he owed her, big time. "And so will Océane, won't you?" Catherine nudged Océane with her foot, and the other girl nodded quickly.
Niki's frown lightened a little bit. "And I'm not too little?"
"No," Xander said firmly. "I promise."
She was silent for a moment, thinking, and then she said, "Then okay."
"That's my girl." Xander pinched her nose, smiling when she shied away from him.
"Can I go back to watching that frog now?" Niki asked impatiently, barely even waiting for Xander to nod before she was on her feet and back to poking the water with her stick.
He stayed with them for the rest of the day, almost completely forgetting what had happened with Giles. The girls did a good job of distracting him from his no-good thoughts. When Niki was done watching the frog do its froggy-thing, she came back to sit with Xander and told him absolutely all about being in slayer school. Every detail of every moment of her first two days, even the bits she'd already told him about. She was so enthusiastic about it, bringing both Océane and Catherine into the conversation whenever she could, that instead of being bored out of his mind, Xander found himself laughing and smiling with her.
After a while, another group of students came to sit by the pond, and Xander and the girls started walking around until dinnertime. Niki demanded that Xander eat with them. Xander's first thought was to wonder what Giles was cooking, but then he dismissed it immediately. He didn't want to face Giles, not now, and possibly not ever. The fact that they were, basically, roommates was not going to help at all, but Xander could still hope to avoid him as much as possible for now. Except for the part where they had to actually work together.
Giles would be fine on his own. He had other Watchers working for him, and York, and--he didn't need Xander.
So it was actually an easy decision; Xander followed the girls to the cafeteria.
Their food was way better than usual cafeteria food. Xander couldn't help but compare it to the food at Sunnydale High, because this was good. Not as good as--
Not going there. Xander reminded himself to keep his thoughts away from Giles. Catherine had started giving him weird looks whenever he went there, which meant the confusion he felt was showing on his face, and that was not good. The last thing he needed was for the girls to think something was wrong--besides the demon thing, which they'd all kept quiet about all afternoon, although Xander knew it was on their mind--and actually ask about it.
He could probably chalk it up to demon invasion, but that would require details, and there were just so much lies he could make up. Finally, it was time for the girls to go back to the dorms, and he had to go back home.
Weird concept that one… "home." He kept thinking that he never really knew where home was anymore, but he always referred to Giles' house as home. Weird. And possibly a problem, the way things were going.
He climbed the steps to the front door and walked in, grateful that Giles had left it unlocked yet again.
Xander was hoping to be able to just walk straight to his room, but a light cough from the study as he passed by made him stop.
"How was your afternoon?" Giles asked when Xander peeked in.
"Good, good," Xander said, although he wouldn't actually go into the room. "The girls are really enjoying the whole training thing. I got all the details from Niki. Catherine and Ocean are kinda bummed that they can't be on the patrols, but I got them to agree to watch Niki's back, so I guess that evens things out."
"I just thought--"
"Oh, I know. I'm not saying it's not a good idea. I wouldn't want Niki on patrol trying to look for it herself, but still, bummed. Girls who can fight have that thing where they always want to fight." The more Xander babbled, the less he thought about---things. And the tension in the room was already awkward enough as it was; there was no need to add any more of his thoughts to the mix right now. "Anyway, I ate with them at the cafeteria and hey, they have some good food over there. I'm thinking of eating with them more often now. Maybe tomorrow."
Giles rubbed his eyes. He looked tired and--maybe a little confused too. "Xander, I--"
"Anyway, did I mention I was exhausted? I really should go to bed now and let you get some work done," Xander said hastily, waving at the pile of documents on Giles' lap. He could recognize most of them from Dawn and York's reports, and it reminded him of exactly why he was pissed off at Giles. He needed to get away. "I'll see you--whenever." He shrugged and turned around.
"Xander--" Giles began.
Xander didn't look back. "Going to bed," he repeated. "It can wait until morning, right?"
Giles sighed. "I suppose it can."
"Okay, then." And in the morning, he thought, he would stay in his room until he was sure Giles was busy in his office, and then go and see if there wasn't something else he could do to keep out of Giles' way for the rest of the day, until time to meet the girls again for dinner. If he went over to the dorms, he bet Mrs. Cheever and whoever was in charge of the guys' dorm would have a long list of things that needed to be fixed.
If he was lucky, he'd be able to avoid Giles until this was all settled and he could go back to Africa.
Xander went upstairs, kicking off his shoes and lying down on the bed, his hands folded behind his head. It wasn't all that late, and he wasn't anywhere near as tired as he'd told Giles. He'd just--there'd just been no way that he could sit down there with Giles tonight.
It wasn't the kiss, not really. Xander had spent a lot of time alone the past couple of years, and he'd had plenty of chances to think. He hadn't given much thought to Giles kissing him; there'd been no reason for him to think of it as a possibility. But a guy? He'd thought about it. He'd reached the point where he'd gotten comfortable with the idea that he might even like it. So no matter what Giles probably thought, Xander wasn't freaking out because Giles had kissed him.
But Giles had kissed him to get him to stop arguing, and Giles had dismissed his opinions as being nothing more than conspiracy theory, and there was no way Xander was going to sit in the same room with Giles, making small talk and knowing that no matter what he did, Giles wasn't taking him seriously.
And as soon as he was sure that the girls were safe, he'd have Andrew put him on a flight to Italy. Buffy and Dawn would be glad to see him, and he'd spend the rest of his vacation time with them.
***
Giles had spent all day, in between work, trying to understand what had possessed him to kiss Xander. Not that today had been the first time he'd thought about it; Xander had been foremost in his thoughts for some time now, and Giles was not an idiot. Xander had grown into a very attractive young man, intelligent, quick, brave...
Giles admired him deeply, and he had, on some occasions, wondered what it would feel like to kiss him.
Not this way, however. He had never meant for it to happen this way, if it happened at all.
Giles had needed time to think, reassess the situation, put Xander's theory in order, and Xander hadn't been listening to him, hadn't been willing to stop for a moment to let Giles put a word in. Giles had heard all that Xander had said. While at the time it had seemed almost ridiculous to think that York might really be behind Bishop's attack and would have rewritten her notes, Giles had spent all afternoon and a good part of the evening looking into it.
He hadn't wanted to bother Andrew, so he'd had to do all the digging himself, and it hadn't been easy, not with other Council business to take care of. He had to keep from looking suspicious, after all. By the end of the afternoon, he had finally put his hand on a two-week-old report that Bishop had sent the demonology teacher about a demon they needed information on for class work. The report had been neatly handwritten, whereas the one York had sent Giles was typed.
That alone would not have raised Giles' suspicion if he hadn't known that Bishop loathed computers about as much as he did. If she had to type something, she used the ancient manual typewriter he'd seen in her office, but she didn't bother most of the time. York, however, used a computer regularly, mainly since the explosion had damaged his right hand. He still handwrote most of his reports, particularly the shorter ones, but it wasn't rare to see a typed one, especially when they arrived late in the day. If he'd rewritten Bishop's notes during the night, as Xander had pointed out he might have, his hand would have been bothering him, and he wouldn't have been able to handwrite. Certainly not to try to mimic her handwriting, even though they were quite similar at first glance. On the other hand, it was a truly stupid mistake to make, and one thing that York wasn't was stupid.
There was always the thought that York might have been too tired and angry to really think about what he was doing, though. A conclusion that left Giles with more questions than answers, yet again.
The conspiracy theory was still ridiculous in many aspects, but Giles owed Xander an apology. That was what he had been about to say when Xander had declared he was going to bed. It would have to wait until the morning.
With a sigh, Giles closed his book. He wasn't going to get much further on his own; he might as well get a good night's sleep.
***
on to Part 7
Author: Soft Princess (soft_princess) and Mireille (mireille719)
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing: Giles/Xander
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 4,250 this part / 64,000 overall
Summary: When Xander is attacked by a demon on his way to deliver a trio of young Slayers to England, he and Giles find themselves investigating a plot that may threaten the Council's very existence--and re-evaluating their relationship in the process.
Spoilers: Post-Chosen; based on aired-episode canon only.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy; we are only borrowing them.
Feedback/Concrit: Both welcome, either here or at mireille719 {at} gmail {dot} com and soft.princess {at} gmail {dot} com.
Notes: This story is being posted in 12 parts: parts 1-4 at spring_with_xan on June 17, parts 5-8 at summer_of_giles on June 19, and parts 9-12 at summer_of_giles on June 22. We would like to thank wesleysgirl for the wonderful job beta-reading.
Previous parts:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Part 5
Xander had wound up oversleeping; it had taken him a while to fall asleep last night, too preoccupied with going over and over the situation in his mind, and he'd been so tired when he finally did drift off that it was mid-morning by the time he woke up.
Giles was already in his office when Xander got downstairs; the door was closed, so Xander went into the kitchen to make himself some coffee before wandering over to bother Andrew. Since Andrew usually kept his office door open, Xander would be able to see across the hall and would know when Giles' meeting was over.
Andrew wasn't there either, but there was a bakery bag on his desk and a half-eaten scone on a napkin next to it. Okay, if he took the last scone from the bag, he wouldn't be stealing all of Andrew's breakfast, and it was already almost lunchtime. Xander would offer to buy him lunch.
He opened the bag and took out the scone, sitting down in Andrew's chair to eat breakfast and wait for him.
He'd just finished the last bite when he heard the fax machine start printing something out. Xander thought he'd be helpful--it was the least he could do, he thought, for swiping Andrew's food--and turned around to pull the papers off the machine, intending to paper-clip them together and leave them on Andrew's desk for him.
The fax was for Giles, though, and it was from York at the London office. It had to be the translation Bishop had been working on, Xander thought. If it turned out it was something else, he'd just put the cover sheet back on top and leave it alone, but if it was, then Giles would be okay with him reading it first.
Xander settled back, propping his feet on Andrew's desk as he began to read.
He was still reading, shaking his head at every few words, when he heard voices, and then Giles' door opened. Xander put his feet down and looked up to see Mrs. Cheever coming out.
"I do think this is a very good idea, Mr. Giles. We can't let the patrols become too routine, or they won't take them seriously," Mrs. Cheever said. "And with Mr. Wells' help, I'm sure we'll get this underway by the end of the day."
Andrew followed her out, and then Giles appeared in the doorway. "Of course, Mrs. Cheever, you may have all the use of my assistant that you require."
Xander rolled his eyes, but didn't say a word. It was obvious to him that Giles' eagerness to have Andrew help Mrs. Cheever was a bit--or a lot--due to wanting him away from the office for a while. Considering the situation, Xander didn't blame Giles at all.
"Let me just grab some stuff, and I'll follow you to the dorms, ma'am. We can get the schedule and the groups done from there," Andrew said. He walked into the office and stopped. "Oh! Hi, Xander!"
"Hey," Xander replied, smiling. "Don't let me keep you from doing your stuff. I heard you're helping Mrs. Cheever for something." He held the fax document on his lap, the text hidden from view.
"Yes, it's really interesting, Mr. Giles came up with the idea--"
"Andrew, you shouldn't keep Mrs. Cheever waiting," Giles interrupted him. "I'll fill Xander in."
"Sure thing!" Andrew grabbed his bag and took a final bite of his scone, and walked out, following Mrs. Cheever. He waved at them from the hallway with a really weird smile on his face.
"Why is he looking at us like that?" Xander asked, after they'd disappeared from view.
"I have no idea." Giles motioned for Xander to follow him into his office and closed the door behind them. "He's been acting rather strangely this morning."
"Huh. Well, he is Andrew." Xander slumped down on a chair facing Giles' desk and put the fax in front of Giles. "This was faxed while you were in here. I started reading it."
"Bishop's notes?" Giles said, picking it up and starting to look through it.
"Yeah," Xander said. He leaned back in the chair, giving Giles a minute to read. Maybe Giles would see something he hadn't. Giles was better at deciphering things like that, after all; he'd had years more practice than Xander had.
Giles was frowning down at the paper, though, and that didn't give Xander a lot of hope that Giles had found anything different in the report.
"According to this," Giles said at last, looking up again, "the demons are hostile, nomadic, spread widely throughout... well, the world was a great deal smaller, in most people's minds, when this text was written, but through Europe, northern Africa, and parts of Asia, at the very least. They have the intelligence of a dog, at best, though in their native habitat--"
"In other words," Xander concluded, "the same stuff York's report said."
"Precisely. I think we're going to have to treat this as an attack on the Slayers." Giles set the report down, rubbing the back of his neck. "We know many demons have an instinctive awareness of the Slayer. If they're a nomadic species, they're likely to be widely-spread, and it's just possible that they have some rudimentary forms of communication. If certain groups of these demons have felt threatened by the presence of a Slayer...."
"You can't be serious," Xander argued. "That many attacks in a short time? How is that coincidence?"
"There have never been so many Slayers before," Giles pointed out. "It's possible that it's disturbed the balance; the presence of so many Slayers may have agitated the demons, making them more than normally aggressive."
"Or Dawn's book is right, and York's are wrong."
Giles shook his head. "When a dozen texts contradict one, it's far more likely that the single book is the one that's wrong. Or, if not wrong, simply describing a similar-looking demon that isn't responsible for the attacks."
"Unless York's lying," Xander pointed out. "We haven't seen the books; all we've seen is his reports." He knew Giles thought he was just being overly defensive of Dawn, but that wasn't it at all. Something just wasn't right about this--the pattern of the attacks, the way the demons ran away when confronted by Slayers--and it went way beyond the fact that he liked Dawn better than York.
"Do you want me to request that he sends the books, then?" Giles asked, a little abruptly. "Perhaps that would settle it?"
"Yes!" Xander said, vehemently. "At least Dawn has copies of the actual book."
"Bloody hell, Xander," Giles groaned. He grabbed Xander's arm to stop him from pacing and faced him. "I hear your arguments; I'm not diminishing their importance, but this--" he waved the fax papers-- "clearly agrees with York. Unless you believe that Bishop was also in on this conspiracy?"
"They work together. It's not too hard to jump to the conclusion that they would, you know, be in that together too!" Xander kept arguing, his voice rising with every word. "And what if York rewrote her notes? Have you thought about that? He had all night to cover up his tracks."
"Xander--"
"And, and, it just makes sense, York had Bishop attacked to cover up his tracks, spent all night creating a bunch of notes, and sending them to you, thinking you're going to be fooled, and--"
"Xander, shut up!" Giles pulled Xander closer, holding on to both his arms. Xander stopped talking suddenly, and they both looked at each other, unmoving. Then Giles tilted his head and pressed his lips to Xander's.
For a second, the only thing Xander could do was stand there frozen, unable to even process what was going on. Then instinct kicked in, and he kissed back, licking at Giles' lips until they parted for him, Xander hearing himself groan as his tongue slid against Giles'.
And then, belatedly, his brain started to work. Giles had just told him to shut up. Giles wasn't even listening to him, and what was he doing kissing Xander? He didn't even dare to ask himself what he'd been doing kissing back. What he'd been doing liking it, a lot, before he'd stopped to think.
Xander pulled out of Giles' grip, backing away. "What the hell was that?" he demanded.
Giles blinked at him for a moment, his lips still parted, reddened and wet from the kiss, and for a second, Xander wished he hadn't pulled away. "I--Xander, I'm so sorry," Giles began, and Xander stopped regretting it.
"Yeah," Xander said. "I know." He didn't want to hear Giles' explanation, and right now, he didn't think he could even stay in the same room as Giles. He needed to think, and he was pretty sure he couldn't do that with Giles right here.
And first, he needed some time when he didn't think, at all, until his heart stopped pounding and he stopped remembering how it had felt to have Giles' mouth against his, and he knew he wouldn't get that with Giles around.
"Looks like you've got everything covered," Xander said, "so I'm going to go check up on Niki." He paused. "I'm turning my phone off. If something else happens, send Andrew."
"Xander--"
He wasn't listening. He wasn't turning back and waiting for Giles' explanation. He walked out of the house, and headed straight for the dorms. Chances were that's where the girls would be right now.
Everyone was gathered together just outside of the girls' building. Mrs. Cheever and Andrew were talking, organizing the groups for the patrols. Xander decided to wait, and sat down on the steps. He was joined really quickly by Niki, who was soon followed by Catherine and Océane. "You girls should be listening."
Catherine shook her head.
"They said we can't be on the patrols yet," Niki said, sitting down close to Xander's knees. "Mrs. Cheever said we haven't trained enough already, and we have to wait a little. I don't want to wait. Do I really have to?"
"She has a point, Niki," Xander said softly, touching her head. "You only got here two days ago. Give yourselves more time." He could see though that neither of the older girls were happy with this. Océane looked wistful, and Catherine downright angry.
"It's not fair," Catherine said.
"I'm not arguing whether it's fair or not, but this isn't a game, Catherine."
Océane looked at him. "Are you good? You look--" She frowned and pointed at his face. "If you saw a--phantom? Oh, a ghost."
"Did you see a ghost?" Niki asked, eyes wide. "Ghosts are real?"
Xander shook his head. "I'm not sure they're real, although they probably are, but I haven't seen one today. You girls wanna take a walk to the pond?" He was probably going to get hell for what he was about to do, but he wanted them to be careful. The only way that they would really understand how important that was, was if he told them.
And at least, while he was with them, he wasn't thinking about Giles.
"We should probably--" Catherine began, but Niki was already dashing down the path, and she changed her mind. "We might as well," she agreed.
Xander called for Niki to wait up; she stopped, turning around with her hands on her hips as she waited impatiently for them, and Xander and the others hurried to catch up to her.
He didn't say anything until they got to the pond; the two older girls sat down in the grass. Xander was about to sit down with them when he realized that Niki had found a stick on the ground and was poking it into the shallow water and reeds at the edge of the pond. "Hey, Niki? Come over here for a minute," Xander called. "I need to talk to you guys."
"There's a frog," Niki argued. "I want it to come out where I can see it better."
"Yeah, well, you can do that in a minute. The frog's not going anywhere," Xander said, and hoped it didn't, or he'd probably find himself wading out into the middle of the pond to look for it.
"He might," she said, but she came over to the others anyway, flopping down on the grass between Catherine and Océane and looking up at him.
Xander tried a smile, but failed, so he settled for a sigh. "There's a reason we're setting up those patrols, and it's not just a game. Mrs. Cheever and Andrew don't know this, so you have to keep quiet about it, okay?" All three girls nodded, and Xander continued. "The demon we fought when we got here--"
"It's back?" Niki asked, wide eyed. "I can fight it, this time. I know I can."
"No, Niki, you can't." Xander looked into her eyes. "I don't want you anywhere near that demon. Is that clear?"
"But--"
"We won't let her," Catherine said, looking at Océane, who nodded.
"That's what I was hoping to hear. I know you both wish you could be on the patrols," Xander said to the two eldest. "And you probably could, because you've been training for a while now with your Watcher, but this is a much more important mission."
Océane smiled and ruffled Niki's hair. "We will not let her out of our eyes."
"Sight," Catherine whispered. "It's out of our sight."
"Mmm," Océane said. "All right, I will remember. We will not let her out of our sight. Yes, it sounds better."
Xander shook his head and smiled. "Well now that that's out of the way--"
"But why?" Niki said, looking at Xander and bouncing slightly. "I'm strong and I saved my family. I can do that again."
"I know you're strong, Niki," Xander said softly. "And what you did for your family was heroic, but this is different. There are a lot of older, better trained Slayers here, and you should let them handle it. Please?"
Niki frowned at him. "The other Slayers are taking care of the demons, and they're taking care of me even though I'm not a baby. What am I taking care of?"
Xander paused for a moment, thinking as quickly as he could. The last thing he needed was for Niki to decide she ought to go charging off to fight one of the demons by herself. "I was wrong, Niki," he said. "I want all three of you to look after each other, all right? The other Slayers have been here longer than you have, and even though Catherine and Ocean have been working with their Watcher, they haven't been trained here. So the three of you need to keep each other safe."
Catherine picked up on what he was doing quickly. "Nkiruka, I will be counting on you to watch my back, all right?" Xander made a mental note that he owed her, big time. "And so will Océane, won't you?" Catherine nudged Océane with her foot, and the other girl nodded quickly.
Niki's frown lightened a little bit. "And I'm not too little?"
"No," Xander said firmly. "I promise."
She was silent for a moment, thinking, and then she said, "Then okay."
"That's my girl." Xander pinched her nose, smiling when she shied away from him.
"Can I go back to watching that frog now?" Niki asked impatiently, barely even waiting for Xander to nod before she was on her feet and back to poking the water with her stick.
He stayed with them for the rest of the day, almost completely forgetting what had happened with Giles. The girls did a good job of distracting him from his no-good thoughts. When Niki was done watching the frog do its froggy-thing, she came back to sit with Xander and told him absolutely all about being in slayer school. Every detail of every moment of her first two days, even the bits she'd already told him about. She was so enthusiastic about it, bringing both Océane and Catherine into the conversation whenever she could, that instead of being bored out of his mind, Xander found himself laughing and smiling with her.
After a while, another group of students came to sit by the pond, and Xander and the girls started walking around until dinnertime. Niki demanded that Xander eat with them. Xander's first thought was to wonder what Giles was cooking, but then he dismissed it immediately. He didn't want to face Giles, not now, and possibly not ever. The fact that they were, basically, roommates was not going to help at all, but Xander could still hope to avoid him as much as possible for now. Except for the part where they had to actually work together.
Giles would be fine on his own. He had other Watchers working for him, and York, and--he didn't need Xander.
So it was actually an easy decision; Xander followed the girls to the cafeteria.
Their food was way better than usual cafeteria food. Xander couldn't help but compare it to the food at Sunnydale High, because this was good. Not as good as--
Not going there. Xander reminded himself to keep his thoughts away from Giles. Catherine had started giving him weird looks whenever he went there, which meant the confusion he felt was showing on his face, and that was not good. The last thing he needed was for the girls to think something was wrong--besides the demon thing, which they'd all kept quiet about all afternoon, although Xander knew it was on their mind--and actually ask about it.
He could probably chalk it up to demon invasion, but that would require details, and there were just so much lies he could make up. Finally, it was time for the girls to go back to the dorms, and he had to go back home.
Weird concept that one… "home." He kept thinking that he never really knew where home was anymore, but he always referred to Giles' house as home. Weird. And possibly a problem, the way things were going.
He climbed the steps to the front door and walked in, grateful that Giles had left it unlocked yet again.
Xander was hoping to be able to just walk straight to his room, but a light cough from the study as he passed by made him stop.
"How was your afternoon?" Giles asked when Xander peeked in.
"Good, good," Xander said, although he wouldn't actually go into the room. "The girls are really enjoying the whole training thing. I got all the details from Niki. Catherine and Ocean are kinda bummed that they can't be on the patrols, but I got them to agree to watch Niki's back, so I guess that evens things out."
"I just thought--"
"Oh, I know. I'm not saying it's not a good idea. I wouldn't want Niki on patrol trying to look for it herself, but still, bummed. Girls who can fight have that thing where they always want to fight." The more Xander babbled, the less he thought about---things. And the tension in the room was already awkward enough as it was; there was no need to add any more of his thoughts to the mix right now. "Anyway, I ate with them at the cafeteria and hey, they have some good food over there. I'm thinking of eating with them more often now. Maybe tomorrow."
Giles rubbed his eyes. He looked tired and--maybe a little confused too. "Xander, I--"
"Anyway, did I mention I was exhausted? I really should go to bed now and let you get some work done," Xander said hastily, waving at the pile of documents on Giles' lap. He could recognize most of them from Dawn and York's reports, and it reminded him of exactly why he was pissed off at Giles. He needed to get away. "I'll see you--whenever." He shrugged and turned around.
"Xander--" Giles began.
Xander didn't look back. "Going to bed," he repeated. "It can wait until morning, right?"
Giles sighed. "I suppose it can."
"Okay, then." And in the morning, he thought, he would stay in his room until he was sure Giles was busy in his office, and then go and see if there wasn't something else he could do to keep out of Giles' way for the rest of the day, until time to meet the girls again for dinner. If he went over to the dorms, he bet Mrs. Cheever and whoever was in charge of the guys' dorm would have a long list of things that needed to be fixed.
If he was lucky, he'd be able to avoid Giles until this was all settled and he could go back to Africa.
Xander went upstairs, kicking off his shoes and lying down on the bed, his hands folded behind his head. It wasn't all that late, and he wasn't anywhere near as tired as he'd told Giles. He'd just--there'd just been no way that he could sit down there with Giles tonight.
It wasn't the kiss, not really. Xander had spent a lot of time alone the past couple of years, and he'd had plenty of chances to think. He hadn't given much thought to Giles kissing him; there'd been no reason for him to think of it as a possibility. But a guy? He'd thought about it. He'd reached the point where he'd gotten comfortable with the idea that he might even like it. So no matter what Giles probably thought, Xander wasn't freaking out because Giles had kissed him.
But Giles had kissed him to get him to stop arguing, and Giles had dismissed his opinions as being nothing more than conspiracy theory, and there was no way Xander was going to sit in the same room with Giles, making small talk and knowing that no matter what he did, Giles wasn't taking him seriously.
And as soon as he was sure that the girls were safe, he'd have Andrew put him on a flight to Italy. Buffy and Dawn would be glad to see him, and he'd spend the rest of his vacation time with them.
***
Giles had spent all day, in between work, trying to understand what had possessed him to kiss Xander. Not that today had been the first time he'd thought about it; Xander had been foremost in his thoughts for some time now, and Giles was not an idiot. Xander had grown into a very attractive young man, intelligent, quick, brave...
Giles admired him deeply, and he had, on some occasions, wondered what it would feel like to kiss him.
Not this way, however. He had never meant for it to happen this way, if it happened at all.
Giles had needed time to think, reassess the situation, put Xander's theory in order, and Xander hadn't been listening to him, hadn't been willing to stop for a moment to let Giles put a word in. Giles had heard all that Xander had said. While at the time it had seemed almost ridiculous to think that York might really be behind Bishop's attack and would have rewritten her notes, Giles had spent all afternoon and a good part of the evening looking into it.
He hadn't wanted to bother Andrew, so he'd had to do all the digging himself, and it hadn't been easy, not with other Council business to take care of. He had to keep from looking suspicious, after all. By the end of the afternoon, he had finally put his hand on a two-week-old report that Bishop had sent the demonology teacher about a demon they needed information on for class work. The report had been neatly handwritten, whereas the one York had sent Giles was typed.
That alone would not have raised Giles' suspicion if he hadn't known that Bishop loathed computers about as much as he did. If she had to type something, she used the ancient manual typewriter he'd seen in her office, but she didn't bother most of the time. York, however, used a computer regularly, mainly since the explosion had damaged his right hand. He still handwrote most of his reports, particularly the shorter ones, but it wasn't rare to see a typed one, especially when they arrived late in the day. If he'd rewritten Bishop's notes during the night, as Xander had pointed out he might have, his hand would have been bothering him, and he wouldn't have been able to handwrite. Certainly not to try to mimic her handwriting, even though they were quite similar at first glance. On the other hand, it was a truly stupid mistake to make, and one thing that York wasn't was stupid.
There was always the thought that York might have been too tired and angry to really think about what he was doing, though. A conclusion that left Giles with more questions than answers, yet again.
The conspiracy theory was still ridiculous in many aspects, but Giles owed Xander an apology. That was what he had been about to say when Xander had declared he was going to bed. It would have to wait until the morning.
With a sigh, Giles closed his book. He wasn't going to get much further on his own; he might as well get a good night's sleep.
***
on to Part 7