Giles' comment at the end of this part was inspired by Douglas Adams' Marvin, the Paranoid Android.
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Back at the library, Cordelia kicked Xander under the table. "Hey, wake up. If we aren't allowed to sleep, neither are you."
Xander blinked sleepily and lifted his head from where it had fallen face down onto his open book. "Why do I have to research, anyway? We already know who it is, so we can just tell Buffy to kill him. Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom." His head fell back onto the page.
Willow looked at Giles and told Xander, "At least you're not the only one who'd rather sleep. Look." She pointed to Giles' office, where they could see him through the open door. He was slumped down in his chair.
"Way to go Giles!" Xander commended. "Bet that's the first time in years that he's given in to his bodily urges."
"Ew!" said Cordelia at the thought of their tweedy librarian even having bodily urges.
"Under the circumstances, they being that Giles is asleep, I move to adjourn." Oz said.
"I second the motion," replied Willow. She yawned. "All in favor?"
"Aye," they chorused dully. They gathered their things and went out the door, with just a short pause for Willow to turn off the lights.
The change in lighting caused Giles to stir and wake. He looked at the clock on the wall and frowned. It was almost midnight, and Buffy had promised to call him when she got to Spike's place. She had spoken to him earlier, as Willow was leaving her house, and told him about tentative plan with Spike. They would meet at the Bronze, then head back to his place, where she would call Giles. She would stay the night there, then call him again in the morning. She had given him meticulous directions on how to get there, just in case he didn't hear from her when he was supposed to.
Giles got to his feet and stretched. He left his office and looked around, noticing the teens' desertion. He shook his head and smiled. "I suppose it's just as well they went home," he said aloud to himself. "It's not as if we were finding anything useful here anyway."
"Yeah, don't ya hate those musty old books? Never find out a thing," taunted a voice from the doorway.
Giles' head shot up. Angel was there, wearing his usual black leather pants and white t-shirt. "Actually, I'm rather fond of musty old books," Giles said, trying to distract the vampire with conversation until he could reach the stake he had hidden under some papers on his desk.
Angel swaggered in and leaned against the edge of the table. "So, didja find out why I'm here?" he asked.
"I have some ideas, but I'd be interested in hearing your side of it," Giles said politely. "Just what are your plans, anyway? And how did you get out of the demon dimensions?"
He edged closer to his desk, but he wasn't quite subtle enough. Angel pounced on him and threw him to the floor. He saw the end of the stake poking out from the desk and he grabbed it and pointed it at Giles' heart. "Honestly, Rupert, haven't you ever wondered what it felt like?" He pressed the point lightly into Giles' chest, and grinned. The librarian was silent, not flinching, but holding his eyes in a steady gaze. Angel put down the stake and pushed Giles across the room into the weapons cage. Clanging the door shut, he wandered over to another weapons storage chest and found a crossbow. "Hmmm..." he said. He dragged a chair up to the cage and sat down, keeping the crossbow loosely pointed at the Watcher.
"What are my plans, eh? And how did I escape? Long story, but I'll give you the Reader's Digest version. I convinced the demon Acathla that I could kill the slayer and everyone who's ever helped her, because I know them all. The soul that you all helped saddle me with is burning in torment now, because I'm still live and kicking. Well, kicking, anyway. That's how I got out, and those are my plans. I'm going to kill you, the slayer, all her friends, her family, and everyone else who's ever helped her in any way! Got all that, Watcher?"
Giles nodded. "Quite. Thank you," he said calmly, for all the world as if he didn't have a vampire threatening his life with a crossbow from three feet away.
"Good," Angel grinned again. "Well, now that I've told you the whole plan, I guess I'll have to kill you. Isn't that how it works?"
"Well, sometimes one gets saved by the --" At that instant, his telephone rang, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "--bell." Angel rolled his eyes. It rang again. And again. Then, to the horror of Giles, his answering service picked up the call, and he could hear quite clearly, Buffy's voice.
"Giles, hi, it's me. Geez, I thought you'd hang out there till you heard from me! Anyway, just wanted to let you know I'm all right. We actually had a good time at the Bronze, believe it or not! We just got back to his apartment, he's fixing me a drink -- and he hasn't even suggested anything about my providing any refreshment, which is good, 'cause I like my blood where it is -- and so I guess I'll call you in the morning. I just hope he's got an alarm clock lying around here somewhere, or I'll sleep right through till noon. We did a lot of dancing! Well, g'night!"
The line disconnected, and Angel rounded on Giles, very slowly. In a dead quiet voice, he said, "Who is she with?"
Giles didn't say anything for a long moment. He thought of how Angel might react to the knowledge, and began to smile inwardly. Angel glared, and waved the crossbow a little closer.
"Who is she with, I said?" The voice was a little more gravelly, as if he had to grind the words out.
Giles took a deep breath. "Spike."
"WHAT?" The crossbow fell out of Angel's suddenly nerveless hands and clattered to the floor. "Where are they?"
"Spike's home, I would assume. Why, didn't you hear the message properly?" Giles taunted. He went on, "And before you ask, no, I don't know where it is." Angel looked at him in surprise, and Giles told him, "Think about it. My slayer is spending the night with another vampire. Do you think she's likely to tell me where they are?"
With an incoherent growl, Angel took off running out of the library. Giles sighed in relief. He took off his glasses and cleaned them, then opened the cage door that the vampire had neglected to fasten, and went back to his office. "What a depressingly stupid vampire," he muttered, as he collected his things and left the building to warn Buffy and Spike.
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