While Wesley plugged in the electric kettle, Giles went to work on the budget. With the missing paper now found, things were making more sense. Instead of being in the hole, they were actually ahead by quite a lot. He smiled and leaned back in his chair as Wesley spoke.
“They won’t be getting the money for free, if that’s what you’re suggesting. I propose we give them all jobs so they don’t end up lazing about, while collecting money from us,” Giles said as he pulled out another piece of paper. “I’ve thought of a list of jobs for some of them.”
The kettle whistled and Giles quickly stood and prepared two cups of tea. While they were steeping, he went back to his desk and leaned against it. “I thought perhaps Faith and Buffy could be co-directors of the newly formed Slayer Department. I know they don’t always get along but they wouldn’t have to work together a lot. We will also have to come up with a job description for them. Willow and Tara will be in charge of the magical department, and Xander can be in charge of weapons. That leaves Cordelia and Angel. Any suggestions?”
"I wasn't suggesting we give them the money for free now. I figured that they'd be helping around here, like Fred since she's been assisting us," Wesley told him.
Rupert beat him to the kettle to make the tea, so he reached over and picked up the list the other man had pulled out, looking it over while he explained. The ideas he had jotted down made sense. The two most senior Slayers should oversee the newer ones - they'd know what it was like for those girls and would best be able to deal with certain issues. Willow and Tara running the magic department made sense, and Xander certainly did have quite a lot of weapons knowledge, a leftover vestige from a spell he hadn't been there to witness.
It was Cordy and Angel that would obviously be the most difficult to place. "I'd suggest Angel for training, but there's a chance that one of the younger Slayers might misjudge and dust him accidentally," Wesley commented. "Perhaps he could help with training that doesn't involve stakes - perhaps the more demon-centric tracking and killing techniques since that was mainly what he and Cordy dealt with in Los Angeles, from what he said. As for Cordelia...we could always keep her on retainer as our Seer. The visions could come in useful, but I'm sure she'd want to do more than that."
He looked up at Rupert. He never would have suggested this for the Cordelia he had met in Sunnydale so many years ago, but she had changed from what he had seen and what she had told them before the final battle with the First. "Since we're planning on having Fred and Matthew as our assistants, perhaps Cordy would be able to assist the others as needed. Who knows, we might even find a more specific job for her as we figure more things out about how we want to run the Council."
Giles couldn't help but to snort when Wesley made the comment about one of the jr. Slayers staking Angel. That would've been a sight to see! "I think Angel could do with the tracking. Teach them how to be patience in their hunts. Also, I know he's done some meditation and could teach the girls that. I just don't want him dating any of them," he said.
When the tea was finished, Giles poured two cups and handed one to Wesley. "Making Cordelia our Seer is a good idea. Perhaps she could help with the research too. She was getting rather good at it before she left for Los Angeles," he noted before sitting down at his desk. The budget looked done so he made a note to send out a memo to all of them to meet them tomorrow about their jobs.
"Now that's finished, we have some forms we need some of the younger Slayers' parents to sign these forms so the Council don't get into any sort of legal trouble," he said as he rubbed his forehead. "Seems the paperwork keeps piling up."
Wesley was pleased that Rupert liked his ideas for Angel and Cordelia. He knew both of them could be a great help since they had come to England with them. They had obviously changed a lot in the time they had been in Los Angeles. Of course, Wesley himself had changed since he had first met them as well in Sunnydale - he was just glad that Rupert and the others had allowed him to prove himself, given that had been quite a stick-in-the-mud when he had first arrived. Actually, stick-up-the-arse was probably more accurate.
Taking a sip of his tea, he looked over the forms that Rupert pointed to, furrowing his brow. "This definitely shows how things have changed, considering that just a few years ago, telling parents anything about the Council and Slayer Calling was a no-no," he said, shaking his head in amazement. But of course, with the way things were now, there was no way they could keep things quiet anymore among the girls that had been called, and they needed to protect themselves.
"Why don't you let me contact the parents about signing these forms," he offered when he saw the way his lover was rubbing his head. Reaching over, he rubbed the back of Rupert's neck gently, feeling how tense he was. "You should take a break. We'll get this all sorted out, especially once we get both Matthew and Fred here working full time."
He paused for a moment, knowing they were supposed to see his cousin later. "You're still planning on asking Matthew, aren't you?"
Giles smiled when Wesley offered to take care of the Slayers' parents. He was never good at dealing with the families, and Wesley was much better at him. "Thank you, love," he murmured. He then softly moaned as Wesley started to massage the back of his neck. "You keep that up, and I'm going to have to clear my desk and see how sturdy it is."
He gave his lover a cheeky grin before nodding his head. "I've asked both Matthew and Fred to stop by later. I want them to sign some contracts. The board is rather worried about allowing an outsider like Fred work with classified information and the only way I could please them was to make up contracts," Giles explained as he shook his head. If it were up to him, he would get rid of the board all together.
"Have you been over to the Slayer compound lately? Has it gotten bad over there?" he asked, giving his lover a worried look. He'd heard rumors, and the like, going around about how the younger girls were getting on the nerves of the adults, and he didn't want to see any fights between all of them.
When Rupert threatened to clear off his desk, Wesley smirked a bit and rubbed his lover's neck a few more times before letting go. They rather had a...bad habit of testing the furniture in places. The library. Rupert's flat. The Magic Shop. The house in Bath.
They had to be professional here, though. There was too much of a chance of someone walking in on them, and besides that, with parents knowing about them now, they had to watch how they conducted themselves. So regretfully, Wesley let go of the man he loved and stepped back slightly, shaking his head when he mentioned that the Council was worried about Fred coming in from the outside.
"Never mind that she probably has more firsthand demon knowledge than they do collectively," he said with a snort. In fact, all of them put together had more experience than the Board at least twenty times over, he would wager. But if a contract would shut the Board up, that would be the path of least resistance.
But between the Board and the Slayers, Wesley knew they definitely had their work cut out for them. "The compound is...loud. I think we might want to consider hiring den mothers for these girls. It's not the others' place to deal with them, but they need supervision. With one Slayer, a Watcher was enough, but with so many..."
He shook his head. "There's so many things we have to change now. Sometimes, I don't think the Board understands that. We can't run things the same way. Not anymore."
“Quentin’s nephew, Oliver, is making the most noise about Fred. He seems rather set on making our lives a living hell. I believe he blames us for the bombing last year. He’s always been an utter wanker,” Giles grumbled before taking a sip of tea. “If the Travers family didn’t have such a strong hold on the Council, I’d kick his arse out.”
When Wesley started to talk about the condition of the compound, Giles let out a soft sigh. Things were certainly easier when it’d been just one Slayer, and one Watcher. They’d lost several Watchers the year before. The Academy had a few graduating, but it wasn’t enough for each Slayer to have her own Watcher. “I think a den mother is a good idea,” he said, knowing how teenage girls could be.
He shuffled through some of his papers and looked over at Wesley. “We need to address the problem about the Watchers. We don’t have enough to go around, and I’m worried we won’t. I don’t like the idea of doubling the girls up because each one should have some individual training,” Giles said. “Right now the brightest Slayers are getting the Watchers and even then, they’re still doubling up. Any suggestions? We have about forty graduating from the Academy this year, but do we want to put them on a Slayer straightaway?”
Buffy all but dragged Xander to Giles' and Wes' offices, pausing only long enough to goad him into buying her a mocha to wash down her breakfast of cold pizza. She paused outside the door long enough to be sure that the sounds coming from inside the room were the sounds of conversation and paperwork, and not slightly more naughty and greatly more disturbing things that she really didn't want to walk in on... again.
She tapped lightly on the door, pushing it open and making a grab for Xander's hand as she stepped into the room. "Hey! Look, Xand! It's my favorite Watchers. Do you know how much I love my Watchers, Xander? Because I don't think I really show my Watchers often enough how much I love them." Buffy smiled brightly at Giles and Wesley and could almost hear them both thinking, 'oh dear lord, what does she want now?'.
"I know what you're thinking, so I'll go ahead and get on with the shameless pleading now. Xander and I want to get a place together, but we have zero fundage. Now we were thinkin' maybe you guys could, you know, give us a job or something, and maybe help us look at apar- flats. It would really mean a lot to me." Buffy added her best puppydog eyes and lower-lip quiver for good measure. "And really, it would be an investment in the health of your mini Slayers, because if one more girl leaves unmentionable hair on my soap or eats my ice cream or spills my perfume? I'm going to start slaying *them*."
Xander let Buffy drag him down to Wesley and Giles' office. When she knocked, and didn't wait for them to say anything before pushing the door open, he slapped his hand over his eyes. He respected the two Watchers, but he couldn't forgot the time he walked in on them at the Magic Box. Holy-moly! He had the hardest time getting the image out of his mind, and had to talk Anya into...well, it was something which made him blush.
"Are they decent?"
When Buffy started on her tangent, and boy was so good at the manipulation, Xander removed his hand. He grinned at Wes and Giles. "Oh! Jaffa cakes!" he said before going over to the package and pulling a couple out. He shoved them in his mouth and nodded along with Buffy.
"They tried to attack me this morning for my pizza!" Xander said before shoving more Jaffa cakes in his mouth.
Before Wesley could tell Rupert that they probably would have to pull as many of the academy graduates in as Watchers as they could, the door opened and Buffy and Xander came into the office. He rolled his eyes a little at Xander's question as to whether they were decent.
"Could have waited for an answer if you were that concerned," he told him before looking over at Buffy. She wanted something - that much was pretty obvious since she never acted this way to them unless she did.
At least what she wanted, though, was something that he and Rupert had been discussing anyway. "We were...hey!" he said when he noticed Xander taking Rupert's jaffa cakes and scarfing them down. Reaching over, he grabbed the package and handed them to his lover. "We do live in England now, and these are available in every off license and grocery store in country. No need to steal."
He looked back to Buffy. "Anyway, Rupert and I were just discussing your situation with living in the Slayer compound and needing jobs. Rupert, do you want to fill them in since it was mainly your idea?"
“They won’t be getting the money for free, if that’s what you’re suggesting. I propose we give them all jobs so they don’t end up lazing about, while collecting money from us,” Giles said as he pulled out another piece of paper. “I’ve thought of a list of jobs for some of them.”
The kettle whistled and Giles quickly stood and prepared two cups of tea. While they were steeping, he went back to his desk and leaned against it. “I thought perhaps Faith and Buffy could be co-directors of the newly formed Slayer Department. I know they don’t always get along but they wouldn’t have to work together a lot. We will also have to come up with a job description for them. Willow and Tara will be in charge of the magical department, and Xander can be in charge of weapons. That leaves Cordelia and Angel. Any suggestions?”
Reply
Rupert beat him to the kettle to make the tea, so he reached over and picked up the list the other man had pulled out, looking it over while he explained. The ideas he had jotted down made sense. The two most senior Slayers should oversee the newer ones - they'd know what it was like for those girls and would best be able to deal with certain issues. Willow and Tara running the magic department made sense, and Xander certainly did have quite a lot of weapons knowledge, a leftover vestige from a spell he hadn't been there to witness.
It was Cordy and Angel that would obviously be the most difficult to place. "I'd suggest Angel for training, but there's a chance that one of the younger Slayers might misjudge and dust him accidentally," Wesley commented. "Perhaps he could help with training that doesn't involve stakes - perhaps the more demon-centric tracking and killing techniques since that was mainly what he and Cordy dealt with in Los Angeles, from what he said. As for Cordelia...we could always keep her on retainer as our Seer. The visions could come in useful, but I'm sure she'd want to do more than that."
He looked up at Rupert. He never would have suggested this for the Cordelia he had met in Sunnydale so many years ago, but she had changed from what he had seen and what she had told them before the final battle with the First. "Since we're planning on having Fred and Matthew as our assistants, perhaps Cordy would be able to assist the others as needed. Who knows, we might even find a more specific job for her as we figure more things out about how we want to run the Council."
Reply
When the tea was finished, Giles poured two cups and handed one to Wesley. "Making Cordelia our Seer is a good idea. Perhaps she could help with the research too. She was getting rather good at it before she left for Los Angeles," he noted before sitting down at his desk. The budget looked done so he made a note to send out a memo to all of them to meet them tomorrow about their jobs.
"Now that's finished, we have some forms we need some of the younger Slayers' parents to sign these forms so the Council don't get into any sort of legal trouble," he said as he rubbed his forehead. "Seems the paperwork keeps piling up."
Reply
Taking a sip of his tea, he looked over the forms that Rupert pointed to, furrowing his brow. "This definitely shows how things have changed, considering that just a few years ago, telling parents anything about the Council and Slayer Calling was a no-no," he said, shaking his head in amazement. But of course, with the way things were now, there was no way they could keep things quiet anymore among the girls that had been called, and they needed to protect themselves.
"Why don't you let me contact the parents about signing these forms," he offered when he saw the way his lover was rubbing his head. Reaching over, he rubbed the back of Rupert's neck gently, feeling how tense he was. "You should take a break. We'll get this all sorted out, especially once we get both Matthew and Fred here working full time."
He paused for a moment, knowing they were supposed to see his cousin later. "You're still planning on asking Matthew, aren't you?"
Reply
He gave his lover a cheeky grin before nodding his head. "I've asked both Matthew and Fred to stop by later. I want them to sign some contracts. The board is rather worried about allowing an outsider like Fred work with classified information and the only way I could please them was to make up contracts," Giles explained as he shook his head. If it were up to him, he would get rid of the board all together.
"Have you been over to the Slayer compound lately? Has it gotten bad over there?" he asked, giving his lover a worried look. He'd heard rumors, and the like, going around about how the younger girls were getting on the nerves of the adults, and he didn't want to see any fights between all of them.
Reply
They had to be professional here, though. There was too much of a chance of someone walking in on them, and besides that, with parents knowing about them now, they had to watch how they conducted themselves. So regretfully, Wesley let go of the man he loved and stepped back slightly, shaking his head when he mentioned that the Council was worried about Fred coming in from the outside.
"Never mind that she probably has more firsthand demon knowledge than they do collectively," he said with a snort. In fact, all of them put together had more experience than the Board at least twenty times over, he would wager. But if a contract would shut the Board up, that would be the path of least resistance.
But between the Board and the Slayers, Wesley knew they definitely had their work cut out for them. "The compound is...loud. I think we might want to consider hiring den mothers for these girls. It's not the others' place to deal with them, but they need supervision. With one Slayer, a Watcher was enough, but with so many..."
He shook his head. "There's so many things we have to change now. Sometimes, I don't think the Board understands that. We can't run things the same way. Not anymore."
Reply
When Wesley started to talk about the condition of the compound, Giles let out a soft sigh. Things were certainly easier when it’d been just one Slayer, and one Watcher. They’d lost several Watchers the year before. The Academy had a few graduating, but it wasn’t enough for each Slayer to have her own Watcher. “I think a den mother is a good idea,” he said, knowing how teenage girls could be.
He shuffled through some of his papers and looked over at Wesley. “We need to address the problem about the Watchers. We don’t have enough to go around, and I’m worried we won’t. I don’t like the idea of doubling the girls up because each one should have some individual training,” Giles said. “Right now the brightest Slayers are getting the Watchers and even then, they’re still doubling up. Any suggestions? We have about forty graduating from the Academy this year, but do we want to put them on a Slayer straightaway?”
Reply
She tapped lightly on the door, pushing it open and making a grab for Xander's hand as she stepped into the room. "Hey! Look, Xand! It's my favorite Watchers. Do you know how much I love my Watchers, Xander? Because I don't think I really show my Watchers often enough how much I love them." Buffy smiled brightly at Giles and Wesley and could almost hear them both thinking, 'oh dear lord, what does she want now?'.
"I know what you're thinking, so I'll go ahead and get on with the shameless pleading now. Xander and I want to get a place together, but we have zero fundage. Now we were thinkin' maybe you guys could, you know, give us a job or something, and maybe help us look at apar- flats. It would really mean a lot to me." Buffy added her best puppydog eyes and lower-lip quiver for good measure. "And really, it would be an investment in the health of your mini Slayers, because if one more girl leaves unmentionable hair on my soap or eats my ice cream or spills my perfume? I'm going to start slaying *them*."
Reply
"Are they decent?"
When Buffy started on her tangent, and boy was so good at the manipulation, Xander removed his hand. He grinned at Wes and Giles. "Oh! Jaffa cakes!" he said before going over to the package and pulling a couple out. He shoved them in his mouth and nodded along with Buffy.
"They tried to attack me this morning for my pizza!" Xander said before shoving more Jaffa cakes in his mouth.
Reply
"Could have waited for an answer if you were that concerned," he told him before looking over at Buffy. She wanted something - that much was pretty obvious since she never acted this way to them unless she did.
At least what she wanted, though, was something that he and Rupert had been discussing anyway. "We were...hey!" he said when he noticed Xander taking Rupert's jaffa cakes and scarfing them down. Reaching over, he grabbed the package and handed them to his lover. "We do live in England now, and these are available in every off license and grocery store in country. No need to steal."
He looked back to Buffy. "Anyway, Rupert and I were just discussing your situation with living in the Slayer compound and needing jobs. Rupert, do you want to fill them in since it was mainly your idea?"
Reply
Leave a comment