Author's Note: Thanks to Delemehr Meyer for pointing out my off-targetness with Buffy, and to everyone else who gave suggestions and pointers. Comments, praises, criticisms, etc. are appreciated. :)
Father
Part II
by MegaSilver
“Hey, Giles!” exclaimed Buffy as she entered the library on Monday.
Giles, who was rearranging some objects in the cage, fell backwards against the chicken-wire. “Oh! Hello, Buffy.”
“Gee, a little jumpy, aren’t we?”
“I suppose so. Too much coffee, perhaps.”
A puzzled look appeared on Buffy’s face. “Coffee? I thought you were Mr. Tea-or-Die.”
“Yes, but… on occasion, I do need something stronger.”
Buffy nodded and bit her lower lip. “So, what’s the scoop?”
“Scoop? On what?”
Buffy shrugged. “Vampires… stealing a headstone… ring a bell? You know, the ones I told you about last weekend?”
“Oh! Yes, that.” Giles removed his glasses to clean them off. “Do you—ah—recall the name on the headstone?”
Buffy tapped her foot, trying to think. “Patricia Finn..? I think… I dunno.”
“Well, we should investigate. Why don’t you meet me here at seven tonight and we’ll go have a look?”
“Okay.” Buffy picked up her backpack as the bell rang.
***
“Do you think something’s really wrong with him?” Willow asked, her voice laden with concern.
Buffy shut her locker. “I don’t know, Will.” Side-by-side, the two girls started off to the cafeteria. “He’s all uptight about something, and he’s acting kind of… lost.” She paused for a moment. “So’s my mother. It’s weird.”
“Well, maybe that candy has some sort of weird flashback effects, and they’re freaked because—” Willow stopped short at the look of doubt on Buffy’s face. “Or—not.” She curled her lower lip.
“Sorry,” apologized Buffy. “I don’t mean to shoot all your ideas down.”
“It’s okay. It was kind of a dumb idea, anyway.”
“Are you ladies talking about me?” Xander smiled as he joined his friends.
Buffy shook her head. “No.”
“Okay, good. I just heard the words, ‘dumb idea’ and kinda saw my name written all over it.”
As he said this, Cordelia passed by, stopping to smile. “Really? Congratulations, Xander! The first step to curing stupidity is admitting it. Too bad that’s as far as you’ll ever go.”
Xander nodded. “You know, funny thing, Cordy. I hear anal bitchiness works the same way.”
“At least my character flaws actually work in my favor on occasion,” Cordelia threw back at him as she strode away.
Xander’s mouth hung open for a minute. “Oh, yeah?” he shouted after her. “Well—you just wait, and remember what you said in two weeks, ’cause I’ll have a damned good answer to that!” He sighed. “Gosh, if that wasn’t the worst retort…”
“It’s okay, Xander,” Willow promised him, patting her friend on the shoulder as they entered the cafeteria. “We still love you.”
Buffy sat down at a table, slung her backpack around her chair, and pulled out her lunch. “I think the rain gods must pay special attention to planned picnic days,” she sighed, noting the heavy downpour outside. “Say, speaking of love, Will, where’s Oz?”
“Oh, he’s in San Diego with the band,” explained Willow. “They’re getting back tonight.” She squeaked with excitement.
There was a momentary silence. Xander broke it when he chomped into an apple. “Hey, while we’re at a pause in this convo, what exactly were you and Willow talking about when I butted in?”
“Buffy’s worried about Giles,” said Willow. “And her mom.”
“What’s wrong?”
Buffy ripped the peel off her orange. “I’m not quite sure. They’re both acting sort of paranoid lately, and Giles… he’s kinda been slacking on his Watcher duties.”
“Wait… ‘Giles’ and ‘slacking’ in the same sentence?” Xander was dumbfounded.
Buffy nodded slowly and sipped her Snapple. “Twilight Zone, much?”
“Well, have you asked him what’s wrong?” Willow wondered aloud.
“He won’t tell me. I guess that means I’ll just have to beat it out of him on patrol tonight.” Buffy finished her sentence with an upbeat tone and a grin.
***
Joyce scrambled to find a place to set the juice down as Buffy entered the kitchen. “Hi, sweetie!” she grinned.
Buffy regarded the jug, poorly hidden behind her mother’s back, with a strange look. “Since when do you drink apple juice?”
“The doctor said it would be a good idea.” Joyce clasped a hand over her mouth.
“You went to the doctor today?”
Joyce hesitated for a moment. “I did,” she said. Quickly, she added, “I noticed... a mole this morning and I had a dermatologist look at it.”
“A mole? Anything serious?” Buffy looked worried as she prepared herself a glass of water.
“No, he said it was fine,” Joyce told her, avoiding eye contact. “Just theater on my part.”
Buffy simply nodded and faked a smile. It was almost insulting, the lie her mother was trying to feed her. What the hell does apple juice have to do with skin?
***
Buffy jogged into the library that evening. “Hey, sorry I’m late; I—” She paused and looked around. The library was dark and no one was in sighed. “Giles?” She opened the door to his office. Empty. A look of worry came over her face, and she picked up the phone.
***
“Leave your message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can,” said Giles’ voice on his answering machine.
“Giles? It’s me,” came Buffy’s voice. “Are you there? We were supposed to meet at the library, remember? Is everything okay?” She was silent for a moment. “Look, I-I’m coming over. If you get this message, stay put, all right?”
As this message played, a comatose figure of Giles lay on the couch, holding an empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s.
***
Buffy beat on Giles’ apartment door several times before realizing that he wasn’t going to answer. “Sorry it’s come to this,” she whispered as she kicked the door open.
The noise woke Giles, and he jolted off the couch. “Buffy?” He rubbed his eyes. “Oh… my head.”
“Thank goodness!” Buffy ran over to Giles and stroked his head. “Are you okay? What’s the matter?” Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open when she noticed the liquor bottle in his hand. “You were drinking?”
“I—” Giles saw that there was no way around this. “Yes, Buffy, I was.”
“Giles, something is wrong with you. Now tell me what it is!” Buffy was practically in tears.
As the still tipsy, nearly hung-over Giles struggled for words, a dark figure appeared in the doorway. “Is… everything all right?” he asked.
“Angel,” Buffy said in surprise.
“I don’t mean to interrupt, but there’s trouble at the cemetery. You’d better come with me.”
“I’ll go, too.” Giles stood up.
“No! Giles, I can’t protect you when you’re like this,” insisted Buffy. “Go get some rest. I’ll get something to cover up the door.”
“All right.” In his present condition, Giles could hardly argue.
***
Buffy and Angel stared down at the narrow hole in the ground. “It’s gone,” murmured Angel.
“The headstone?” guessed Buffy.
“How’d you know?”
“I caught these two vamps trying to steal it the other night.”
“I saw the same thing tonight,” explained Angel. “I managed to put both of them out, but I didn’t have any stakes, so I had to stash them over there.” He pointed at a cluster of bushes, to which he and Buffy ran over.
“They’re not here,” Buffy observed upon investigating the bushes.
“They must’ve woken up and taken the headstone.”
“Which brings us to the age-old question, ‘why?’”
“Isn’t that Giles’ department?”
Buffy hesitated for a moment. “I'm not sure he'd be much help to us right now.”
“What?”
“I don't… I don’t know what’s up with him,” Buffy sighed, her voice carrying a tone of frustration. “It’s like—he’s stopped caring or something!”
“He’ll be fine,” Angel guessed. “He probably just has some issues to face right now.”
“I just—if something like this can happen to Giles, of all people…” Buffy said, tears welling up in her eyes. She fell into Angel’s arms. “I’m really scared. I—I wouldn’t know what to do without him!”
“Shh,” Angel whispered. He kissed Buffy on her forehead.
Buffy pulled away and wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry.” She sniffed. “I better go check on my mom. No telling how she’s doing.”
“Let me know if you need anything, okay?”
Buffy sniffed again. “Walk me home?”
“Sure.” Angel put his arm around Buffy and led her out of the cemetery.
***
Joyce leaned against the wall in the upstairs hallway, lights off, twiddling with her fingers. She jumped when she saw a dark figure standing in front of her. “Buffy? I didn’t hear you come in.”
Only the figure wasn’t Buffy. It was a grotesque black demon which immediately lunged forward at her. Joyce screamed and tried to run, but the creature grabbed her and threw her down the stairs.
As Joyce tumbled down the stairs and collapsed onto the floor, Buffy entered the house. “Mom, I’m ho—MOM!” she cried out when she saw her mother unconscious, a cut on her forehead. The demon turned its attention to Buffy and charged down the steps to dole out more of its fury. Buffy fought back with some pretty nice blows, but the demon managed to wrestle her to the ground, then pick her back up and throw her into the kitchen. Buffy quickly got back to her feet and grabbed a butcher knife to fend of the approaching creature.. “No one messes with my family!” she shouted at the demon as she stabbed it in the heart. Almost instantly, it melted into a puddle of black ooze, which quickly evaporated.
“Mom!” Buffy cried, dashing down the stairs. “MOM!” Receiving no reply, Buffy ran to the phone and dialed 9-1-1.
***
Buffy moved down the hallway of the emergency room with the personnel wheeling her mother in. “Can you tell me what happened?” asked the doctor.
“She fell down the stairs and lost consciousness,” Buffy breathed.
In a chair just down the hall from them, Ethan let down his newspaper and removed his sunglasses. “Now this is planned parenthood,” he chuckled to himself.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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