FIC: Conspiracy Theory, 11/12 (Giles/Xander, FRT)
Title: Conspiracy Theory, part 11 / 12
Author: Soft Princess (soft_princess) and Mireille (mireille719)
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing: Giles/Xander
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 5,400 (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 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
Part 9 | Part 10
"There's no need for all of us to be in my office when York arrives," Giles said, but Buffy wasn't hearing any of it. Xander was finding it quite amusing to watch them shout at each other over the table. "Dawn and I will go on our own first."
"I want to be there, Giles," Buffy repeated for what seemed like the twentieth time or so; Xander had stopped counting after eight.
"Yes, I'm aware of that, and I do want Xander and yourself there as well when we get to the point of interrogating him, but--"
"Xander--"
"I agree with him, Buffy," Xander replied. "We'll stand back for a few minutes, and then we'll walk in there and corner him. We just really shouldn't put him on the defensive first thing, we need to--well, to corner him without him suspecting a thing."
"Come on, Buffy," Dawn added. "You know I won't be in any danger, and you can still describe to York how you plan to dismember him." She smiled and patted Buffy's forearm.
Xander had to admit, that was a very good thought. He grabbed his cup of coffee, and found himself smiling at Giles without really knowing why. He cleared his throat and looked away, but the look on Giles' face seemed to be imprinted on the back of his mind, and he couldn't shake it. Giles had looked--happy. Worried, yes, they all were, but still, there was happiness there too. Which kind of made sense, because Xander was feeling it too. Despite the situation, and the danger--they only had one demon; there could be a few more out there--it was good to have Buffy and Dawn here. This felt just a little bit more like home every day.
"Okay," Buffy finally said, drawing Xander away from his thoughts. "I'll hang out in Andrew's office with Xander; we'll give you ten minutes with York, and then we burst in, and kick his ass. Deal?"
Dawn shook Buffy's extended hand, giggling. "Deal. Now eat your toast before it gets cold."
Buffy rolled her eyes and took a bite.
Giles stood up suddenly, and looked out the window. "He's here. Early, I might add."
"Apparently," Xander said, pushing his chair back and putting his coffee down on the table. "Let's go. It's better if he doesn't see you, Buffy."
"Yeah, I agree," Buffy said, putting her toast back down into her plate. "Guess I'll just have to eat later."
"I hear ass-kicking is like swimming," Xander said. "You'd have to wait for an hour after you eat, anyway."
Okay, he really must have been missing her more than he'd thought, because he was even happy to get that exasperated look from her.
Giles glanced at his watch. "Give us twenty minutes instead," he said. "I don't want him to think anything unusual is going on, and normally, if he turned up this early, I'd make him wait." He smiled, but this time, it didn’t look at all pleasant. "And if his plans had come through, he'd certainly be expecting me to be rather... busy this morning."
If his plans had come through, Xander thought. That was a tactful way of saying, "If Dawn was dead." He looked over at Dawn, reassured at the sight of her gulping her coffee and brushing a crumb of toast off her shirt, perfectly safe.
"Twenty minutes it is," he said. "Come on, Buff." He led the way into Andrew's office; Andrew's job was to let York in, keep him busy until Giles was ready to see him, and then lock the doors so he couldn't get away when he realized he'd been caught.
It was probably a good thing that he wasn't there, really. Buffy might not have been very big, but a third person in the office would be too much of a crowd. He let Buffy take the chair, if only because that way he knew she wouldn't be pacing back and forth.
He sat on the edge of the desk; Buffy looked up at him and said, like she'd been reading his mind, "He got here early so he could gloat about killing Dawn."
Xander swallowed hard, nodding. "Yeah." Then he sighed. "We're going to get them, Buffy. They're going to stop. Dawn's safe--"
"And they tried to kill you, too, didn't they?" she interrupted him.
Even though he'd known that, he hadn't really thought about it like that before. "Yeah," he said again. "But I'm fine, too. And we're going to stop them."
"I know." She forced a smile. "Subject change. Tell me about Niki."
Okay, that seemed like a good way to kill twenty minutes--well, more like fifteen, now. "What do you want to know?"
"She really killed a demon with a kitchen knife?"
"Well, if by 'kitchen knife' you mean 'gigantic meat cleaver,' yeah. Right before I got there, some demon had realized there was a Slayer in the neighborhood...." He started in on the story the way Mr. and Mrs. Achebe had told it to him. It wasn't as exciting as Niki's version, but he was pretty sure it wasn't as exaggerated, either.
***
Giles had to admit that York was a good actor. His eyes had widened slightly when Andrew had finally shown him in and he'd seen Dawn sitting there, but there'd been nothing else to give away his surprise. He'd been stiffly polite to Dawn, just as Giles would have expected him to be, and had been far more interested in complaining about her lack of formal training than in assessing her actual abilities.
He let York go on for a few minutes before cutting him off. "As fascinating as this is," he said dryly, "it isn't really why I asked you to come down here this morning."
York frowned at him, his lips pressed into a tight, disapproving line. "I was under the impression that you wanted me to meet this assistant you're foisting onto me."
"Oh, come now, Stephen," Giles said, smirking a little when York scowled at the use of his first name. "You were under the impression that you'd arrive here to be told that this 'assistant I'm foisting onto you' had met with a tragic accident on her way here from the airport."
York straightened up in his seat, eyes cold, but giving nothing away. "First of all, do not presume the familiarity of using my first name. Whatever you may call yourself, I'm still old enough to be your father and you owe me respect, young man, not the other way around. I also have no bloody clue what you're on about."
Giles rolled his eyes at him, and crossed his arms over his chest. He gave Dawn a quick look, then turned back to York. "Oh, don't be daft. It just so happens that Miss Summers here is every bit as good at research as I've let on."
"And how is that?" York asked, face tight.
If looks could kill, both Giles and Dawn would be dead by now. "Well, this--how did you call it? Oh, yes--this 'pet project' of mine. I had Dawn on it as well. It turns out that you were wrong."
"I wasn't wrong. I'm never wrong." He didn't sound so sure of himself now, though. "How would you be able to verify the information, anyhow?"
"It was quite simple, actually," Giles replied. He nodded at Dawn.
"Yes, very easy," she said, grinning. "We have one of the demons locked up in the basement."
When that news sank in, York looked utterly terrified.
"To what purpose?" York bluffed. "To prove I'm past my prime? Force me into retirement? You'll have to work harder than that to convince me that I should leave the Council to people like you."
"To find out why it was attacking Watchers," Giles said. "But of course, you knew that already." He got up from behind his desk, coming around to stand in front of York--and conveniently, of course, preventing York from making a run for it. "Because of you and your associates, Alan Gregory is dead and Mrs. Bishop is seriously injured, and it's only by pure chance that they're the only ones.
"And you didn't stop there," Giles went on. "You sent one of those things onto the school grounds. A student--a child--could have been killed. And if one had, I assure you, we would not be sitting here having a chat right now." Dawn might have been killed. Xander might have been killed, and while they'd taken steps to protect Dawn, it was only by luck that Xander had had all three of the girls with him that day. Giles glared down at York, not trusting himself to say anything further.
"You're threatening me?" York demanded. "You have the nerve to threaten me, after what you've done to the Council?"
"I'm not threatening you," he said. "I'm explaining the facts in the matter." Then, without looking away from York, he said, "Dawn, would you let Buffy and Xander know that we're ready for them?" He gave York a cold smile. "Buffy, on the other hand, is quite protective of the sister you put in danger yesterday. I expect she'll be happy to threaten you. And--well, I wouldn't like to be on the wrong side of an infuriated Slayer, if I were you."
Buffy and Xander strode in almost immediately after Dawn opened the door.
Buffy came to stand in front of Giles' desk, leaning against it. "Just so you know, before we start, I have no problem beating up old, crippled men when they deserve it."
"This is ridiculous!" York growled, struggling to get up from his chair. "Don't you dare threaten me, young lady."
Buffy stepped forward until she was just inches away from York, forcing him back into his chair. "You ordered a hit on my sister, dumbass," she said. "Of course I dare!"
York looked fast from Buffy to Giles and back again.
"You have two choices, Mr. York," Giles said. "You either tell us what we want to know right now, or I'll let Buffy get it out of you." York paled visibly at that.
Buffy grinned, holding her hand out to Xander, who gave her her sword. "See, I even brought my tools."
"Dear God, you're quite mad," York tried again, but it was obvious that he knew he wouldn't be able to bluff his way out of this.
"There was a second option," Giles reminded him coolly. Now that Buffy was here, he went back to sit behind his desk. "We're well aware you weren't acting alone, and that you're hardly the mastermind behind this entire scheme. If you tell us what we want to know, I'm sure Buffy could be persuaded to leave you unharmed."
"Well," Buffy said. "Mostly, at least." She leaned forward, still smiling. "And the faster you talk, the nicer I'm going to feel like being."
"She's insane," York said, turning to Giles. "You're all insane!"
"We're not the ones trying to kill little girls," Xander said. "Sorry, Dawnie," he added, when Dawn frowned at him. "But Ocean could have been hurt a lot worse than she was, too." He turned back to York. "That makes you the crazy one, if you ask me."
"I'm dead anyway," York said.
"How do you figure that?" Giles asked. Perhaps Buffy had been a little too convincing.
"You can't exactly hand me over to the police. Do you expect me to think that you're going to just open the door and let me walk out?"
"No," Giles said. "But unlike you, I believe we can handle things without resorting to murder."
"What do you plan on doing with me, then, if not kill me?" York asked.
"Well, I can think of a few things," Giles replied with a calculating grin. "But I'd rather not go into the details just yet. Just tell us what you know, Mr. York, before Buffy loses her temper."
York looked from Giles to Buffy again, then looked back at Giles. "It seems you've left me with no choice," he said.
"That was the plan," Buffy agreed.
He sighed heavily. "What do you want to know?"
***
"Perhaps we should go over the details again," Giles said.
Xander gave him a look. "This is the part where I tell you, again, that you're worrying too much, right?" He grinned at Giles. Not that there weren't a dozen, or maybe even a hundred, things that could go wrong with their plan. Of course there were. But they'd planned, and re-planned, and everything was as well-organized as it could possibly be.
Yesterday, Buffy had taken York down to the basement--Xander was kind of disappointed that they'd actually put him in what used to be the wine cellar, and not locked him up with the demon--they'd spread the word, or at least, let the girls spread the word, that Dawn had been attacked and had narrowly escaped with her life.
Word had gotten out pretty well, like they'd known it would, and by dinnertime, Xander would have been willing to bet that there wasn't a person at the school who didn't know about the attack on Dawn. And he had to admit, Giles had been right to keep things as quiet as he could, before; the students and at least two-thirds of the teachers looked terrified, no matter how much Giles tried to reassure them that the situation was now under control.
Xander had found himself looking suspiciously at the teachers who weren't panicking. Some of them, they already knew were involved in the conspiracy; others-- well, they might not have been in on it, as such, but Xander would have been willing to bet that they knew something about it. Giles had noticed, too.
If they intended to cause trouble, he said, he'd deal with them after the meeting.
The meeting was why Giles had lent Xander one of his ties, which Xander kept tugging at uncomfortably. He'd never really been a tie-wearing guy, and it had been a while since he'd even owned one. But it was important, at least in Giles' opinion, to make this look like what it was pretending to be: a meeting of the full Council of Watchers, or at least everyone who could get there on short notice, during which Giles was going to address the current situation.
The word "resignation" hadn't been mentioned at all, not officially, but Andrew had been told to drop it into conversation whenever possible--to deny it completely, but make sure that everyone involved in the plot against Giles, and enough other people to make it look less suspicious, knew all about it. Giles wanted everyone to come in thinking that he was quitting, that York and the others had won.
The meeting was being held in the school auditorium; Andrew had gone in there this morning and come out with notes about how they should handle things. Xander guessed it really shouldn't have been all that surprising that Andrew was good at staging a dramatic moment. Giles would address the Council from the stage, Buffy at his right hand. Andrew had put Xander on Giles' left, which Xander thought made him look a lot more important than he actually was. Then again, he did want to be involved in this, so maybe it wasn't a bad idea.
Andrew stuck his head backstage, whispering, "Everybody's inside. What do I do now?"
"Wait five minutes just in case there are stragglers," Giles said. "Then close the doors, and alert the girls to be ready."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Andrew said, saluting. Xander still had no idea what was going on with that, but whatever it was, the face Giles made was always entertaining. "They're all there," Andrew added. "Mr. Wyndam-Pryce and Mr. Jones and everybody else on that list you gave me."
"Thank you, Andrew," Giles said, and Andrew went back out to wait. Then, turning to Xander and Buffy, he smiled tightly. "Ready?"
"I'm ready," Buffy said, and Xander nodded.
Giles took a deep breath and led them out on stage.
They'd agreed to give the girls plenty of time to get into position, so Giles started off just like this was a legitimate Council meeting; he summarized the situation so far, mentioned the details of the memorial service they'd hurriedly put together for Alan Gregory, and then went on at great length about how very seriously he was taking the problem.
Xander had plenty of time to check out the crowd. Dawn was there, in the front row, sitting between Andrew and Mrs. Cheever. He could see Mrs. Garner in the crowd, but he didn't know what most of the other people looked like. He found himself looking over everyone he didn't recognize, wondering which were the people who'd tried to have at least half-a-dozen people killed just to get Giles to quit his job.
"As we investigated," Giles said, "one thing became increasingly obvious." Xander tried not to look in Buffy's direction; Giles was starting to sound a lot like he had back when Xander had been in high school and Giles had felt the need to lecture them all about something. If he met Buffy's eyes, Xander was afraid that, as serious as this was, he still wasn't going to be able to keep a straight face.
He went back to watching the crowd, and Giles went on talking: "The attacks were directed not at our Slayers, but at the Watchers accompanying them. And the Watchers attacked were all, or nearly all, my staunchest supporters. I was forced to conclude that this was an attack directed at me, or rather, at my leadership of the Council."
Xander was pleased to notice that for all the people who looked a little smug at that, there were at least as many people looking completely horrified.
"I know that many of you have come here expecting to hear my resignation," Giles said, and Xander saw Buffy straighten up, preparing for trouble. He glanced over at Andrew, who was punching buttons on his cell phone; he was supposed to get in touch with Julia outside the auditorium. Buffy had been impressed enough with her in the past couple of days that she'd put Julia in charge of the Slayers standing guard, since Buffy wanted to stay close in case someone attacked Giles directly.
"I am afraid, however," Giles went on, "that's not the case. I have no intention of resigning; in fact, this situation has made it clear to me that the old guard cannot be allowed to regain control of the Council. We have made many mistakes in our past, but murder cannot, and will not, be one of them again." There was a lot of flinching, Xander noticed, at the term "murder," and Andrew bit his lip. Xander was glad to see Dawn patting him on the shoulder comfortingly; he knew that none of the rest of them had been all that good at comforting Andrew over the past couple of days.
"Due to the circumstances surrounding Alan Gregory's murder," Giles said, "there is nothing the police could do to punish those responsible." He paused for a moment, for effect, and then went on. "We are not the police. Thanks to statements given both by one of the demons summoned to attack Miss Dawn Summers, and by Stephen York, one of the conspirators, we were able to identify the people involved." He sighed. "They will be kept in Council custody until we are able to magically bind them for our protection--and for their own," he added.
That was probably true, Xander thought; after the attack on Dawn, Buffy would probably be glad of any excuse to go after them. So would he, for that matter. So would Giles.
But they'd gotten hold of Willow by phone last night, and she'd said that she could put a binding spell on them that ought to solve the problem. If Xander had understood her right, they wouldn't be able to do magic or to contact any of the others without Willow knowing about it, and they'd be easier to magically locate in case the Council ever lost track of them.
"Should they attempt to violate the binding," Giles said, "then we will take appropriate actions to ensure that they will pose no threat to us, to the Slayers in our care, or to innocent bystanders." Xander wished he could see Giles' face; his tone of voice was enough to let Xander know that this was the Giles that you really, really didn't want to argue with.
"The following people," Giles said, "conspired to gain control of the Watchers' Council, and are responsible for the death of Alan Gregory, among other crimes." He took a deep breath, and Xander wished there was some way he could be supportive other than just standing here like an idiot. "Roger Wyndam-Pryce," he began. "Peter Jones. Stephen York. Marjorie Garner...." There were a few other names on the list, and as Giles read them out, the Watchers in the crowd began looking around, murmuring to one another.
"This is ridiculous!" someone snapped. "Do you expect us to just stand here and--"
He broke off then, because the doors to the auditorium had opened to reveal several Slayers standing in every doorway.
"No, Roger," Giles said flatly. "I expect you to just sit there until I am finished, and then I expect you to go quietly with the Slayers."
Someone else--not Roger Wyndam-Pryce--jumped to his feet, making a run for the side doors. Xander looked in that direction, and realized then that one of the two Slayers on that door was much, much shorter than the other one.
"Niki?" he whispered to Buffy. "What's she doing there?"
Buffy shook her head. "I don't know. She wasn't supposed to be there."
Xander was guessing that the guy--it was Peter Jones, he learned, when Giles called after him to stop--was expecting to have an easier time getting past Niki than he would one of the older girls. Maybe he even thought she wasn't really a Slayer, since she was so young.
Whatever the reason, when he got close to the door, Xander heard Niki call out in a clear voice, "Stop right there."
He didn't stop, though, and Xander was pretty sure that he regretted that; if not right away, then when Niki knocked him flat on his back and stood there with one foot planted on his chest, looking around to see what she should do next.
"Thank you, Nkiruka," Giles said. "Perhaps you could accompany Mr. Jones back to his seat?"
"Yes, Mr. Giles," Niki replied proudly, taking her feet off Peter's chest. "Up," she said forcefully, glaring at the man.
Jones looked completely petrified as he scrambled to his feet, and Xander had to bite his lip hard enough to hurt to keep from laughing at the situation. Everyone in the auditorium was quiet, and had their heads turned to watch Jones being escorted to his seat by a girl so short she didn't even reach the man's chest.
"Do you see what you've done?" The silence was broken by Roger's outcry. He was standing up in the crowd, glaring at Giles. "You have children with power they cannot even begin to comprehend."
"And what do you propose I do with them, Roger? Kill them?" Giles asked, drawing the attention back to him.
"What you are doing is not what this Council stands for. The situation should have been dealt with a long time before now. I will not tolerate--"
"HEY!" Niki said loudly, cutting off whatever Roger was going to say. She had her hands on her hips , and she was walking towards Roger's row of seat, an angry look on her face. It was actually past "cute" at this point and going right into "whoa, scary." "I can kick your ass too, you know. You almost had my Watcher killed!"
"Your Watcher?" Roger repeated spitefully. "And who would that be? Xander Harris is far from being a Watcher."
"You're wrong," she shouted. "He is my Watcher, and he's the best out of all of you!"
Giles turned to Xander, and he nodded. He should probably stop her before she actually hurt someone. "Niki," Xander called out. "Why don't you come up here with us?"
She looked at him and nodded. Then she pulled on Roger's arm with what had to be enough strength to hurt, forcing him to get back into his seat. "Now, you sit down and let Mr. Giles talk, okay? Because I'm a lot stronger than you are, and I say so."
Some people in the assembly laughed at that, and when Xander looked around to see who they were, he found Mrs. Cheever looking at him with the biggest smile he'd ever seen on her face. She looked proud, and it made something in his chest swell. Maybe he wasn't all that bad at this after all. Although he definitely needed to have a talk with Niki about how being strong didn't mean you could boss people around. He'd wait until after this was all settled, though.
Niki climbed up the stairs to the stage and came to stand next to him. He squeezed her shoulder lightly and gave her a smile.
"To those of you who haven't yet met this young lady, her name is Nkiruka Achebe. She is from Nigeria, and she's only ten years old. The night before Mr. Harris found her, she had to kill a demon in her home, using her mother's kitchen knife," Giles said. "Demons don't care how old the girls are, or how much training they have. They will hunt them whether we do anything about it or not. And I, for one, would rather they have the means to protect themselves than leave them to what would undoubtedly be their death." He paused for a minute, and then held up the list of names again. "Now, if there are no more interruptions, let us continue."
Xander held on to Niki's hand to keep her from leaving the stage, but he hadn't needed to worry about it; the rest of the Council were far too stunned to make a scene, and Niki stood silently by his side for the rest of Giles' pronouncement.
When Giles had finished speaking, he nodded to Buffy, and she stepped forward, directing pairs of Slayers to come forward and escort the guilty parties to the unused classrooms they'd set up as cells until Willow arrived to deal with them. She'd chosen to fly, she said, because the spells she was going to use were complex, and she wanted to have all of her energy available for them. It made sense, but it did mean it would be a couple of days before things were completely settled.
"I want to help," Niki whispered loudly, starting forward, but Xander shook his head and held her hand tightly.
"Stay here with me, Niki."
"I can help!" she insisted. Xander sighed. He hated to have to resort to "because I said so" as an excuse, but she wasn't leaving him with much choice.
And then Buffy, thank God, turned to Niki and said, quietly, "I need you here. We need to make sure our Watchers are safe, okay?"
Niki nodded, returning to Xander's side.
They waited there until the last team of Slayers closed the door behind them, and then Giles spoke again. "I am aware that my actions may not be popular ones. If any of you feel that, after today, you can no longer work for the Council, early retirement will be arranged for anyone who contacts my assistant, Mr. Wells, within the week." Xander halfway expected people to get up and go over to Andrew right then, but no one moved.
"There will, of course," Giles continued, "need to be some reassignment of duties. While some of the participants in this conspiracy have retired from active duty, others held important positions within the Council. I'm holding off on assigning a new head of Research until we know whether or not Helen Bishop will be able to return to work, but many of you should expect to be called in to discuss your new positions during the next few days."
Xander happened to know that Giles hadn't had time to decide about any of that yet, but this made it look like he was totally on top of things. He'd definitely gotten good at this over the last couple of years.
Giles wrapped things up quickly, inviting those Watchers who'd traveled long distances--not many of them, with such short notice, but a few--to spend a few days at the school. They'd talked about that last night; Giles wanted them to spend time around the Slayers, to feel like they were part of this, even though they spent most of their time out in the field.
And then people started filing out of the auditorium, until there were only the seven of them there. Giles took a deep breath, shaking his head. "That went better than I had expected," he said.
"Did you see me stop that man?" Niki asked him, beaming proudly.
"Yes," Giles agreed. "I certainly did."
"And I made the other one sit down," she went on, still grinning. "He should not have said that about my Watcher."
"Well, you told him, kiddo," Xander said, ruffling her hair and grinning back at her. "Now, why don't you go with Mrs. Cheever? It's going to be time for dinner soon, and I bet she'd like some help."
"I want to have dinner with you and Buffy," she argued.
"Buffy's going to have dinner with you," Xander told her. "And I'll come by and see you later tonight, but there's some stuff I have to do right now, okay?"
"Okay," she said, with a dramatic sigh. She let Buffy lead her off the stage to join Dawn and Mrs. Cheever.
Xander jumped down from the stage as well, while Giles took the slower--but, he had to admit, probably more dignified--route of going down the steps. Andrew met them at the foot of the steps. "Should I go and check on the prisoners?" he asked, and Giles shook his head.
"No, Andrew," Giles said, "I'd rather do that myself, this time, though I'll need you to be responsible for making certain they're well taken care of." Andrew nodded, making notes on his clipboard, and Giles went on. "Remember, any time the doors are unlocked, I want at least two people present. They don't need to be Slayers, but I don't want anyone putting themselves at risk by going in there alone."
"Yes, sir," Andrew said. Then, quietly, he said, "Mr. Giles?"
"Yes?"
"What you said about Alan--I mean, about Mr. Gregory--when you announced the memorial service?" Andrew took a deep breath, and Xander could see that it was taking a lot of effort for him to hold himself together. "That was... I think he would have liked it. Thank you."
Giles smiled at Andrew. "Thank you," he said. "I'd meant to ask you later, but since you brought it up, would you be willing to say a few words at the service?"
Andrew swallowed hard, looking down at his clipboard for a minute. He didn't look up again before answering. "Yes, sir. I'd like that."
Giles looked more than a little uncomfortable; he cleared his throat and said, "We'll talk about it more later, shall we?" before starting toward the door.
"Hey, Andrew," Xander said, smiling. "Walk with me back to the house?"
Andrew nodded. "I can do that."
***
Part 12
Author: Soft Princess (soft_princess) and Mireille (mireille719)
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing: Giles/Xander
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 5,400 (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 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
Part 9 | Part 10
"There's no need for all of us to be in my office when York arrives," Giles said, but Buffy wasn't hearing any of it. Xander was finding it quite amusing to watch them shout at each other over the table. "Dawn and I will go on our own first."
"I want to be there, Giles," Buffy repeated for what seemed like the twentieth time or so; Xander had stopped counting after eight.
"Yes, I'm aware of that, and I do want Xander and yourself there as well when we get to the point of interrogating him, but--"
"Xander--"
"I agree with him, Buffy," Xander replied. "We'll stand back for a few minutes, and then we'll walk in there and corner him. We just really shouldn't put him on the defensive first thing, we need to--well, to corner him without him suspecting a thing."
"Come on, Buffy," Dawn added. "You know I won't be in any danger, and you can still describe to York how you plan to dismember him." She smiled and patted Buffy's forearm.
Xander had to admit, that was a very good thought. He grabbed his cup of coffee, and found himself smiling at Giles without really knowing why. He cleared his throat and looked away, but the look on Giles' face seemed to be imprinted on the back of his mind, and he couldn't shake it. Giles had looked--happy. Worried, yes, they all were, but still, there was happiness there too. Which kind of made sense, because Xander was feeling it too. Despite the situation, and the danger--they only had one demon; there could be a few more out there--it was good to have Buffy and Dawn here. This felt just a little bit more like home every day.
"Okay," Buffy finally said, drawing Xander away from his thoughts. "I'll hang out in Andrew's office with Xander; we'll give you ten minutes with York, and then we burst in, and kick his ass. Deal?"
Dawn shook Buffy's extended hand, giggling. "Deal. Now eat your toast before it gets cold."
Buffy rolled her eyes and took a bite.
Giles stood up suddenly, and looked out the window. "He's here. Early, I might add."
"Apparently," Xander said, pushing his chair back and putting his coffee down on the table. "Let's go. It's better if he doesn't see you, Buffy."
"Yeah, I agree," Buffy said, putting her toast back down into her plate. "Guess I'll just have to eat later."
"I hear ass-kicking is like swimming," Xander said. "You'd have to wait for an hour after you eat, anyway."
Okay, he really must have been missing her more than he'd thought, because he was even happy to get that exasperated look from her.
Giles glanced at his watch. "Give us twenty minutes instead," he said. "I don't want him to think anything unusual is going on, and normally, if he turned up this early, I'd make him wait." He smiled, but this time, it didn’t look at all pleasant. "And if his plans had come through, he'd certainly be expecting me to be rather... busy this morning."
If his plans had come through, Xander thought. That was a tactful way of saying, "If Dawn was dead." He looked over at Dawn, reassured at the sight of her gulping her coffee and brushing a crumb of toast off her shirt, perfectly safe.
"Twenty minutes it is," he said. "Come on, Buff." He led the way into Andrew's office; Andrew's job was to let York in, keep him busy until Giles was ready to see him, and then lock the doors so he couldn't get away when he realized he'd been caught.
It was probably a good thing that he wasn't there, really. Buffy might not have been very big, but a third person in the office would be too much of a crowd. He let Buffy take the chair, if only because that way he knew she wouldn't be pacing back and forth.
He sat on the edge of the desk; Buffy looked up at him and said, like she'd been reading his mind, "He got here early so he could gloat about killing Dawn."
Xander swallowed hard, nodding. "Yeah." Then he sighed. "We're going to get them, Buffy. They're going to stop. Dawn's safe--"
"And they tried to kill you, too, didn't they?" she interrupted him.
Even though he'd known that, he hadn't really thought about it like that before. "Yeah," he said again. "But I'm fine, too. And we're going to stop them."
"I know." She forced a smile. "Subject change. Tell me about Niki."
Okay, that seemed like a good way to kill twenty minutes--well, more like fifteen, now. "What do you want to know?"
"She really killed a demon with a kitchen knife?"
"Well, if by 'kitchen knife' you mean 'gigantic meat cleaver,' yeah. Right before I got there, some demon had realized there was a Slayer in the neighborhood...." He started in on the story the way Mr. and Mrs. Achebe had told it to him. It wasn't as exciting as Niki's version, but he was pretty sure it wasn't as exaggerated, either.
***
Giles had to admit that York was a good actor. His eyes had widened slightly when Andrew had finally shown him in and he'd seen Dawn sitting there, but there'd been nothing else to give away his surprise. He'd been stiffly polite to Dawn, just as Giles would have expected him to be, and had been far more interested in complaining about her lack of formal training than in assessing her actual abilities.
He let York go on for a few minutes before cutting him off. "As fascinating as this is," he said dryly, "it isn't really why I asked you to come down here this morning."
York frowned at him, his lips pressed into a tight, disapproving line. "I was under the impression that you wanted me to meet this assistant you're foisting onto me."
"Oh, come now, Stephen," Giles said, smirking a little when York scowled at the use of his first name. "You were under the impression that you'd arrive here to be told that this 'assistant I'm foisting onto you' had met with a tragic accident on her way here from the airport."
York straightened up in his seat, eyes cold, but giving nothing away. "First of all, do not presume the familiarity of using my first name. Whatever you may call yourself, I'm still old enough to be your father and you owe me respect, young man, not the other way around. I also have no bloody clue what you're on about."
Giles rolled his eyes at him, and crossed his arms over his chest. He gave Dawn a quick look, then turned back to York. "Oh, don't be daft. It just so happens that Miss Summers here is every bit as good at research as I've let on."
"And how is that?" York asked, face tight.
If looks could kill, both Giles and Dawn would be dead by now. "Well, this--how did you call it? Oh, yes--this 'pet project' of mine. I had Dawn on it as well. It turns out that you were wrong."
"I wasn't wrong. I'm never wrong." He didn't sound so sure of himself now, though. "How would you be able to verify the information, anyhow?"
"It was quite simple, actually," Giles replied. He nodded at Dawn.
"Yes, very easy," she said, grinning. "We have one of the demons locked up in the basement."
When that news sank in, York looked utterly terrified.
"To what purpose?" York bluffed. "To prove I'm past my prime? Force me into retirement? You'll have to work harder than that to convince me that I should leave the Council to people like you."
"To find out why it was attacking Watchers," Giles said. "But of course, you knew that already." He got up from behind his desk, coming around to stand in front of York--and conveniently, of course, preventing York from making a run for it. "Because of you and your associates, Alan Gregory is dead and Mrs. Bishop is seriously injured, and it's only by pure chance that they're the only ones.
"And you didn't stop there," Giles went on. "You sent one of those things onto the school grounds. A student--a child--could have been killed. And if one had, I assure you, we would not be sitting here having a chat right now." Dawn might have been killed. Xander might have been killed, and while they'd taken steps to protect Dawn, it was only by luck that Xander had had all three of the girls with him that day. Giles glared down at York, not trusting himself to say anything further.
"You're threatening me?" York demanded. "You have the nerve to threaten me, after what you've done to the Council?"
"I'm not threatening you," he said. "I'm explaining the facts in the matter." Then, without looking away from York, he said, "Dawn, would you let Buffy and Xander know that we're ready for them?" He gave York a cold smile. "Buffy, on the other hand, is quite protective of the sister you put in danger yesterday. I expect she'll be happy to threaten you. And--well, I wouldn't like to be on the wrong side of an infuriated Slayer, if I were you."
Buffy and Xander strode in almost immediately after Dawn opened the door.
Buffy came to stand in front of Giles' desk, leaning against it. "Just so you know, before we start, I have no problem beating up old, crippled men when they deserve it."
"This is ridiculous!" York growled, struggling to get up from his chair. "Don't you dare threaten me, young lady."
Buffy stepped forward until she was just inches away from York, forcing him back into his chair. "You ordered a hit on my sister, dumbass," she said. "Of course I dare!"
York looked fast from Buffy to Giles and back again.
"You have two choices, Mr. York," Giles said. "You either tell us what we want to know right now, or I'll let Buffy get it out of you." York paled visibly at that.
Buffy grinned, holding her hand out to Xander, who gave her her sword. "See, I even brought my tools."
"Dear God, you're quite mad," York tried again, but it was obvious that he knew he wouldn't be able to bluff his way out of this.
"There was a second option," Giles reminded him coolly. Now that Buffy was here, he went back to sit behind his desk. "We're well aware you weren't acting alone, and that you're hardly the mastermind behind this entire scheme. If you tell us what we want to know, I'm sure Buffy could be persuaded to leave you unharmed."
"Well," Buffy said. "Mostly, at least." She leaned forward, still smiling. "And the faster you talk, the nicer I'm going to feel like being."
"She's insane," York said, turning to Giles. "You're all insane!"
"We're not the ones trying to kill little girls," Xander said. "Sorry, Dawnie," he added, when Dawn frowned at him. "But Ocean could have been hurt a lot worse than she was, too." He turned back to York. "That makes you the crazy one, if you ask me."
"I'm dead anyway," York said.
"How do you figure that?" Giles asked. Perhaps Buffy had been a little too convincing.
"You can't exactly hand me over to the police. Do you expect me to think that you're going to just open the door and let me walk out?"
"No," Giles said. "But unlike you, I believe we can handle things without resorting to murder."
"What do you plan on doing with me, then, if not kill me?" York asked.
"Well, I can think of a few things," Giles replied with a calculating grin. "But I'd rather not go into the details just yet. Just tell us what you know, Mr. York, before Buffy loses her temper."
York looked from Giles to Buffy again, then looked back at Giles. "It seems you've left me with no choice," he said.
"That was the plan," Buffy agreed.
He sighed heavily. "What do you want to know?"
***
"Perhaps we should go over the details again," Giles said.
Xander gave him a look. "This is the part where I tell you, again, that you're worrying too much, right?" He grinned at Giles. Not that there weren't a dozen, or maybe even a hundred, things that could go wrong with their plan. Of course there were. But they'd planned, and re-planned, and everything was as well-organized as it could possibly be.
Yesterday, Buffy had taken York down to the basement--Xander was kind of disappointed that they'd actually put him in what used to be the wine cellar, and not locked him up with the demon--they'd spread the word, or at least, let the girls spread the word, that Dawn had been attacked and had narrowly escaped with her life.
Word had gotten out pretty well, like they'd known it would, and by dinnertime, Xander would have been willing to bet that there wasn't a person at the school who didn't know about the attack on Dawn. And he had to admit, Giles had been right to keep things as quiet as he could, before; the students and at least two-thirds of the teachers looked terrified, no matter how much Giles tried to reassure them that the situation was now under control.
Xander had found himself looking suspiciously at the teachers who weren't panicking. Some of them, they already knew were involved in the conspiracy; others-- well, they might not have been in on it, as such, but Xander would have been willing to bet that they knew something about it. Giles had noticed, too.
If they intended to cause trouble, he said, he'd deal with them after the meeting.
The meeting was why Giles had lent Xander one of his ties, which Xander kept tugging at uncomfortably. He'd never really been a tie-wearing guy, and it had been a while since he'd even owned one. But it was important, at least in Giles' opinion, to make this look like what it was pretending to be: a meeting of the full Council of Watchers, or at least everyone who could get there on short notice, during which Giles was going to address the current situation.
The word "resignation" hadn't been mentioned at all, not officially, but Andrew had been told to drop it into conversation whenever possible--to deny it completely, but make sure that everyone involved in the plot against Giles, and enough other people to make it look less suspicious, knew all about it. Giles wanted everyone to come in thinking that he was quitting, that York and the others had won.
The meeting was being held in the school auditorium; Andrew had gone in there this morning and come out with notes about how they should handle things. Xander guessed it really shouldn't have been all that surprising that Andrew was good at staging a dramatic moment. Giles would address the Council from the stage, Buffy at his right hand. Andrew had put Xander on Giles' left, which Xander thought made him look a lot more important than he actually was. Then again, he did want to be involved in this, so maybe it wasn't a bad idea.
Andrew stuck his head backstage, whispering, "Everybody's inside. What do I do now?"
"Wait five minutes just in case there are stragglers," Giles said. "Then close the doors, and alert the girls to be ready."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Andrew said, saluting. Xander still had no idea what was going on with that, but whatever it was, the face Giles made was always entertaining. "They're all there," Andrew added. "Mr. Wyndam-Pryce and Mr. Jones and everybody else on that list you gave me."
"Thank you, Andrew," Giles said, and Andrew went back out to wait. Then, turning to Xander and Buffy, he smiled tightly. "Ready?"
"I'm ready," Buffy said, and Xander nodded.
Giles took a deep breath and led them out on stage.
They'd agreed to give the girls plenty of time to get into position, so Giles started off just like this was a legitimate Council meeting; he summarized the situation so far, mentioned the details of the memorial service they'd hurriedly put together for Alan Gregory, and then went on at great length about how very seriously he was taking the problem.
Xander had plenty of time to check out the crowd. Dawn was there, in the front row, sitting between Andrew and Mrs. Cheever. He could see Mrs. Garner in the crowd, but he didn't know what most of the other people looked like. He found himself looking over everyone he didn't recognize, wondering which were the people who'd tried to have at least half-a-dozen people killed just to get Giles to quit his job.
"As we investigated," Giles said, "one thing became increasingly obvious." Xander tried not to look in Buffy's direction; Giles was starting to sound a lot like he had back when Xander had been in high school and Giles had felt the need to lecture them all about something. If he met Buffy's eyes, Xander was afraid that, as serious as this was, he still wasn't going to be able to keep a straight face.
He went back to watching the crowd, and Giles went on talking: "The attacks were directed not at our Slayers, but at the Watchers accompanying them. And the Watchers attacked were all, or nearly all, my staunchest supporters. I was forced to conclude that this was an attack directed at me, or rather, at my leadership of the Council."
Xander was pleased to notice that for all the people who looked a little smug at that, there were at least as many people looking completely horrified.
"I know that many of you have come here expecting to hear my resignation," Giles said, and Xander saw Buffy straighten up, preparing for trouble. He glanced over at Andrew, who was punching buttons on his cell phone; he was supposed to get in touch with Julia outside the auditorium. Buffy had been impressed enough with her in the past couple of days that she'd put Julia in charge of the Slayers standing guard, since Buffy wanted to stay close in case someone attacked Giles directly.
"I am afraid, however," Giles went on, "that's not the case. I have no intention of resigning; in fact, this situation has made it clear to me that the old guard cannot be allowed to regain control of the Council. We have made many mistakes in our past, but murder cannot, and will not, be one of them again." There was a lot of flinching, Xander noticed, at the term "murder," and Andrew bit his lip. Xander was glad to see Dawn patting him on the shoulder comfortingly; he knew that none of the rest of them had been all that good at comforting Andrew over the past couple of days.
"Due to the circumstances surrounding Alan Gregory's murder," Giles said, "there is nothing the police could do to punish those responsible." He paused for a moment, for effect, and then went on. "We are not the police. Thanks to statements given both by one of the demons summoned to attack Miss Dawn Summers, and by Stephen York, one of the conspirators, we were able to identify the people involved." He sighed. "They will be kept in Council custody until we are able to magically bind them for our protection--and for their own," he added.
That was probably true, Xander thought; after the attack on Dawn, Buffy would probably be glad of any excuse to go after them. So would he, for that matter. So would Giles.
But they'd gotten hold of Willow by phone last night, and she'd said that she could put a binding spell on them that ought to solve the problem. If Xander had understood her right, they wouldn't be able to do magic or to contact any of the others without Willow knowing about it, and they'd be easier to magically locate in case the Council ever lost track of them.
"Should they attempt to violate the binding," Giles said, "then we will take appropriate actions to ensure that they will pose no threat to us, to the Slayers in our care, or to innocent bystanders." Xander wished he could see Giles' face; his tone of voice was enough to let Xander know that this was the Giles that you really, really didn't want to argue with.
"The following people," Giles said, "conspired to gain control of the Watchers' Council, and are responsible for the death of Alan Gregory, among other crimes." He took a deep breath, and Xander wished there was some way he could be supportive other than just standing here like an idiot. "Roger Wyndam-Pryce," he began. "Peter Jones. Stephen York. Marjorie Garner...." There were a few other names on the list, and as Giles read them out, the Watchers in the crowd began looking around, murmuring to one another.
"This is ridiculous!" someone snapped. "Do you expect us to just stand here and--"
He broke off then, because the doors to the auditorium had opened to reveal several Slayers standing in every doorway.
"No, Roger," Giles said flatly. "I expect you to just sit there until I am finished, and then I expect you to go quietly with the Slayers."
Someone else--not Roger Wyndam-Pryce--jumped to his feet, making a run for the side doors. Xander looked in that direction, and realized then that one of the two Slayers on that door was much, much shorter than the other one.
"Niki?" he whispered to Buffy. "What's she doing there?"
Buffy shook her head. "I don't know. She wasn't supposed to be there."
Xander was guessing that the guy--it was Peter Jones, he learned, when Giles called after him to stop--was expecting to have an easier time getting past Niki than he would one of the older girls. Maybe he even thought she wasn't really a Slayer, since she was so young.
Whatever the reason, when he got close to the door, Xander heard Niki call out in a clear voice, "Stop right there."
He didn't stop, though, and Xander was pretty sure that he regretted that; if not right away, then when Niki knocked him flat on his back and stood there with one foot planted on his chest, looking around to see what she should do next.
"Thank you, Nkiruka," Giles said. "Perhaps you could accompany Mr. Jones back to his seat?"
"Yes, Mr. Giles," Niki replied proudly, taking her feet off Peter's chest. "Up," she said forcefully, glaring at the man.
Jones looked completely petrified as he scrambled to his feet, and Xander had to bite his lip hard enough to hurt to keep from laughing at the situation. Everyone in the auditorium was quiet, and had their heads turned to watch Jones being escorted to his seat by a girl so short she didn't even reach the man's chest.
"Do you see what you've done?" The silence was broken by Roger's outcry. He was standing up in the crowd, glaring at Giles. "You have children with power they cannot even begin to comprehend."
"And what do you propose I do with them, Roger? Kill them?" Giles asked, drawing the attention back to him.
"What you are doing is not what this Council stands for. The situation should have been dealt with a long time before now. I will not tolerate--"
"HEY!" Niki said loudly, cutting off whatever Roger was going to say. She had her hands on her hips , and she was walking towards Roger's row of seat, an angry look on her face. It was actually past "cute" at this point and going right into "whoa, scary." "I can kick your ass too, you know. You almost had my Watcher killed!"
"Your Watcher?" Roger repeated spitefully. "And who would that be? Xander Harris is far from being a Watcher."
"You're wrong," she shouted. "He is my Watcher, and he's the best out of all of you!"
Giles turned to Xander, and he nodded. He should probably stop her before she actually hurt someone. "Niki," Xander called out. "Why don't you come up here with us?"
She looked at him and nodded. Then she pulled on Roger's arm with what had to be enough strength to hurt, forcing him to get back into his seat. "Now, you sit down and let Mr. Giles talk, okay? Because I'm a lot stronger than you are, and I say so."
Some people in the assembly laughed at that, and when Xander looked around to see who they were, he found Mrs. Cheever looking at him with the biggest smile he'd ever seen on her face. She looked proud, and it made something in his chest swell. Maybe he wasn't all that bad at this after all. Although he definitely needed to have a talk with Niki about how being strong didn't mean you could boss people around. He'd wait until after this was all settled, though.
Niki climbed up the stairs to the stage and came to stand next to him. He squeezed her shoulder lightly and gave her a smile.
"To those of you who haven't yet met this young lady, her name is Nkiruka Achebe. She is from Nigeria, and she's only ten years old. The night before Mr. Harris found her, she had to kill a demon in her home, using her mother's kitchen knife," Giles said. "Demons don't care how old the girls are, or how much training they have. They will hunt them whether we do anything about it or not. And I, for one, would rather they have the means to protect themselves than leave them to what would undoubtedly be their death." He paused for a minute, and then held up the list of names again. "Now, if there are no more interruptions, let us continue."
Xander held on to Niki's hand to keep her from leaving the stage, but he hadn't needed to worry about it; the rest of the Council were far too stunned to make a scene, and Niki stood silently by his side for the rest of Giles' pronouncement.
When Giles had finished speaking, he nodded to Buffy, and she stepped forward, directing pairs of Slayers to come forward and escort the guilty parties to the unused classrooms they'd set up as cells until Willow arrived to deal with them. She'd chosen to fly, she said, because the spells she was going to use were complex, and she wanted to have all of her energy available for them. It made sense, but it did mean it would be a couple of days before things were completely settled.
"I want to help," Niki whispered loudly, starting forward, but Xander shook his head and held her hand tightly.
"Stay here with me, Niki."
"I can help!" she insisted. Xander sighed. He hated to have to resort to "because I said so" as an excuse, but she wasn't leaving him with much choice.
And then Buffy, thank God, turned to Niki and said, quietly, "I need you here. We need to make sure our Watchers are safe, okay?"
Niki nodded, returning to Xander's side.
They waited there until the last team of Slayers closed the door behind them, and then Giles spoke again. "I am aware that my actions may not be popular ones. If any of you feel that, after today, you can no longer work for the Council, early retirement will be arranged for anyone who contacts my assistant, Mr. Wells, within the week." Xander halfway expected people to get up and go over to Andrew right then, but no one moved.
"There will, of course," Giles continued, "need to be some reassignment of duties. While some of the participants in this conspiracy have retired from active duty, others held important positions within the Council. I'm holding off on assigning a new head of Research until we know whether or not Helen Bishop will be able to return to work, but many of you should expect to be called in to discuss your new positions during the next few days."
Xander happened to know that Giles hadn't had time to decide about any of that yet, but this made it look like he was totally on top of things. He'd definitely gotten good at this over the last couple of years.
Giles wrapped things up quickly, inviting those Watchers who'd traveled long distances--not many of them, with such short notice, but a few--to spend a few days at the school. They'd talked about that last night; Giles wanted them to spend time around the Slayers, to feel like they were part of this, even though they spent most of their time out in the field.
And then people started filing out of the auditorium, until there were only the seven of them there. Giles took a deep breath, shaking his head. "That went better than I had expected," he said.
"Did you see me stop that man?" Niki asked him, beaming proudly.
"Yes," Giles agreed. "I certainly did."
"And I made the other one sit down," she went on, still grinning. "He should not have said that about my Watcher."
"Well, you told him, kiddo," Xander said, ruffling her hair and grinning back at her. "Now, why don't you go with Mrs. Cheever? It's going to be time for dinner soon, and I bet she'd like some help."
"I want to have dinner with you and Buffy," she argued.
"Buffy's going to have dinner with you," Xander told her. "And I'll come by and see you later tonight, but there's some stuff I have to do right now, okay?"
"Okay," she said, with a dramatic sigh. She let Buffy lead her off the stage to join Dawn and Mrs. Cheever.
Xander jumped down from the stage as well, while Giles took the slower--but, he had to admit, probably more dignified--route of going down the steps. Andrew met them at the foot of the steps. "Should I go and check on the prisoners?" he asked, and Giles shook his head.
"No, Andrew," Giles said, "I'd rather do that myself, this time, though I'll need you to be responsible for making certain they're well taken care of." Andrew nodded, making notes on his clipboard, and Giles went on. "Remember, any time the doors are unlocked, I want at least two people present. They don't need to be Slayers, but I don't want anyone putting themselves at risk by going in there alone."
"Yes, sir," Andrew said. Then, quietly, he said, "Mr. Giles?"
"Yes?"
"What you said about Alan--I mean, about Mr. Gregory--when you announced the memorial service?" Andrew took a deep breath, and Xander could see that it was taking a lot of effort for him to hold himself together. "That was... I think he would have liked it. Thank you."
Giles smiled at Andrew. "Thank you," he said. "I'd meant to ask you later, but since you brought it up, would you be willing to say a few words at the service?"
Andrew swallowed hard, looking down at his clipboard for a minute. He didn't look up again before answering. "Yes, sir. I'd like that."
Giles looked more than a little uncomfortable; he cleared his throat and said, "We'll talk about it more later, shall we?" before starting toward the door.
"Hey, Andrew," Xander said, smiling. "Walk with me back to the house?"
Andrew nodded. "I can do that."
***
Part 12