Previous Chapter Summary: A meeting was set between Faith, Wesley and Giles for the next afternoon. Giles has every intention of having Buffy and Spike at that sunny day meeting to prove a point to the wary Watcher. Wesley finally checked in with the Council in England. A shocked, and angry, Travers blurted out quite a faux pas statement asking why the Watcher was still alive. Buffy and Spike chased each other all the way back to their house for a bit of private time.

Current Chapter Summary: Wesley finishes his conversation with Travers, and repercussions abound when the real one who wanted Wesley's death is revealed. Giles and Joyce talk to Willow, Xander and Dalton for a little longer before they head to bed.

Wesley stared at the phone in his hands. The beat of the dial tone echoed loudly over the receiver. His hands visibly shook with the pent up fear, adrenaline, and anger that warred within him for dominance. No matter how hard Quentin Travers tried to back out of his initial comment, Wesley knew that the first words spoken were what the head of the Council really felt. 'Faith and I were really supposed to be dead right now.'

Faith stared at Wesley in disgust. She was about to head into the bathroom for a shower when she realized who Wesley was calling. The conversation she heard from Wes' end made her mad. The Watcher told the Council about the meeting. Although he hadn't shared a lot of details, she still felt that he betrayed Rupert Giles and his group. Once Wes hung up, she gathered her toiletry bag and night clothes. Her hand was poised over the door knob to the bathroom.

Wes' shaky voice stopped Faith before she entered the bathroom. "You were right," He choked out the words. He removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. He felt the tears welling up in the back of his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He was enough of a nancy boy already without adding tears to the mix. Faith already had little respect for him. He didn't want to lose the last bit of respect he might have had from her by breaking down in front of her.

"About what?" Faith asked. She'd seen the various expressions move over Wesley's face during the conversation, but even if he was upset Wes shouldn't have given away anything about the meeting. 'Maybe this will get that pole out of his ass,' She thought.

"They sent us here to be killed," Wesley's shoulders slumped as he spoke. He'd recently fought with his father over career opportunities and placements within the Council. Wes' questions about some of the Council's ethics seemed to infuriate his father, but he never expected the man to have him killed for it. There was no love lost between father and son, but did his father really hate him that much?

"I've been telling you that all night long," Faith sighed in exasperation. "What made the revelation a bit clearer for you?" She stood facing Wes with a hand on her hip and tapping her foot.

"Mr. Travers let something slip at the beginning of the conversation." Wes nervously gathered the books and papers that were on the table in their hotel room out of an old habit to keep himself occupied when his thoughts were in turmoil. "It was too obvious for even the great motivator to back around it."

Faith wasn't unfeeling of the Watcher's plight, but she figured that some of the turmoil he brought on himself. He had refused to acknowledge what was plainly in front of his face.

"No one would have dared to order our execution if my father didn't sanction it. The Wyndham-Pryces are too wrapped up in Council history and politics for that to go unnoticed." Wesley turned away from Faith to hide the emotions on his face from her. "My own father ... I can't believe it."

Roger Wyndham-Pryce, Wesley's father, strolled into Travers' office. He had been waiting for the news that his son's demise was taken care of. Although it was a nasty business to deal with, it was necessary in his eyes. Wesley would never be anything other than a black mark in their family line. If the vamped Slayer killed him, Wesley would gain more credibility and respect in death than the Watcher ever had in life.

Quentin Travers looked up at the man who entered his office. At first he was going to snap at the person who dared invade his sanctuary, but he thought better of it when he saw Roger. Roger Wyndham-Pryce was even more of a vicious man at times than himself. Usually he would applaud and praise such a man, but now Travers was going to be the one to bear the brunt of Pryce's anger.

"Is it finished?" Roger Wyndham-Pryce asked the head of the Watcher's Council. His voice held strong and firm. He expected the death order to have been carried out.

"A problem?" Roger stalked closer to Travers' desk. The anger in his eyes matched the tension of his stance. "What do you mean problem?"

"It would seem that Ms. Summers did not take the action we expected her to." Travers gulped. "That one's always been a bit unpredictable. Otherwise we wouldn't be dealing with this in the first place."

"Are you trying to tell me that he is still alive?" Roger leaned on Travers' desk with his knuckles pressed against the top of it hard enough to whiten them.

"Temporarily, but I'm sure it won't last," Travers tried to rush his sentences out before Roger became physically violent against him. "He's meeting with Rupert Giles tomorrow under the guise of cooperation. He assured me that he will gather more information from the traitor and report it back to us."

Roger Wyndham-Pryce slammed a fist into the desk hard enough to splinter the wood around his hand and make a hole in the top. "That is unacceptable!" He roared out angrily.

"Once Ms. Summers finds out about that, she is sure to eliminate your son." Travers tried to stand firm, but even he was intimidated by Roger's stature. "It shouldn't be a problem."

"Rupert Giles is going to use every means necessary to gain another ally." Roger paced back and forth across the office in slow measured steps. "Did you forget that my son used Rupert Giles as his guideline and mentor when he was a Watcher in training?"

"No, of course I didn't." Travers gulped. 'Bloody Hell,' He thought. "It matters not. Your son is a dedicated Watcher. He won't fall for their lines."

"You had better bloody well hope not." Roger spun around towards Travers' desk. He grabbed Quentin by the collar of his tweedy jacket and shoved him back into his hard-backed chair. "I will not have that boy disgracing my family name further by joining that riff raff. If that boy does not come back to HQ with a book of information on the Sunnydale happenings, I will have your balls on a platter by tea time."

Quentin Travers' face remained impassive, but his inner mind was in an turbulent whirlwind of fear and anger. He held onto the arms of the chair until Roger let go, and he didn't relax at all until the door closed behind the man. 'Bollocksed that one up.' He slumped down in his chair, drew his full hand over his face, and shook his head back and forth. 'What a fine mess we have now.'

Warm female arms wrapped around Giles from behind. Joyce's fingers gently rubbed tiny circles up and down his chest. "That didn't sound good, but it wasn't all bad either."

Giles entwined one of Joyce's hands with his. He brought her hand to his mouth, and he kissed the top of each knuckle carefully. "I hope tomorrow goes much better, Dove."

"We have to hope it will." Joyce kissed the back of Giles' neck near his shoulder. She loved it when he called her Dove. It was his special nickname for the woman he loved. "Buffy and Spike can take care of a problem, but it would be nice to have more help. Having another 2 sets of eyes, ears, and hands would free up more study time for Buffy, Xander and Willow."

"I know." Giles turned around. His arms automatically cuddled Joyce in a tender embrace. "They've had so many changes in their lives already. I want them to have some good things to look back on from their senior year of high school."

"I'm so proud of them, but I'm also sad to see their "carefree childhood days" ripped away from them so cruelly." Joyce rested her cheek against Giles' shoulder. "I know Buffy wouldn't have found her peace and purpose if she hadn't fought Angelus that night, but sometimes I wish we could have stopped it."

"We have to take the good with the bad, Dove. Unfortunately having the fate of the world on your shoulders, and being forced to face the darkness of pure evil, will change anyone." Giles guided Joyce back into the living room while he talked. "Buffy's life is very complicated."

Willow, Xander, and Dalton stopped their conversation to listen to the two adults chatter. All three of them had agreed that they would find a way to be near the meeting place tomorrow. Dalton would have to be near in the tunnels, but he'd have an escape route ready for them if need be. None of them were leaving Buffy and Spike at the mercy of what seemed to be a temperamental newcomer.

"The original reason for removing a potential Slayer from her family was to uncomplicate her life," Giles explained. "That way she wouldn't have the worry over protecting her family and friends specifically because they wouldn't be a target for the forces of evil. The Watchers were supposed to help the potential Slayer with the transition to make it more natural, less of a shock to them, if they were called."

"Until Buffy was called, no one ever approached us from the Council." Joyce remembered Buffy's story about her first Watcher named Merrick. Joyce only saw the man once, and she now knew that it was after Buffy was already called.

"I've never quite figured out how Buffy slipped through the cracks," Giles said with curiosity. "Maybe it was the only way the Powers That Be could ensure that she was unsoiled by the Council's main influence?"

"It's too bad the Watcher's Council changed their main focus from transitional to dominating. If they'd kept up with guiding them in their training without trying to turn them into killing robots, we'd all be better off," Xander offered his opinion.

Dalton followed Xander's words with some of his own, "I agree, Xander." He adjusted his spectacles higher up on his nose. "The Council's history suggests that they had good intentions to start with, but they let their egos, a lust for power, and a desire to control, get in the way of their original goals."

"My mentor said that for a couple centuries the Coven worked very closely with the Council," Willow imparted some of her knowledge on the group. "They assisted in bringing the new Slayers in harmony with their mystical sides. As time pass, the Council forced the Coven out of the path of potential Slayers, and they ignored the mystical training completely. The Council didn't want the Slayers to know just what they were made from or what power they carried."

Giles and Joyce listened to Xander, Willow and Dalton. They were both very proud of the contributions to the group from the three of them. All three gave all of themselves to the cause, and no one felt left out. If one started to falter, one of the other two "stepped up to the plate".

Behind all of Xander's jokes was a shy and insecure young man. He'd gained a lot more confidence in himself when he stood up to the Council representative on Buffy's behalf. He earned and gained more respect for himself, and with the group, when Willow, Giles and Spike were kidnapped. He'd acted with the maturity of someone ten years his senior while they planned to get the ones they loved back.

Dalton had the hardest time among the group to start with. He'd been displaced from his home, and his entire way of life had changed. Seeing Xander made him uneasy and angry for months, even though he knew that the real Xander wasn't the Childe he created out of revenge for the pain his Mistress suffered. Dalton was very protective of Buffy and Spike. His attitude towards Xander caused a few arguments amongst the Scoobies before the two males worked it out.

Willow grew much more powerful as each month went by. Several times she needed to be knocked down a notch or two, but she accepted her limitations with grace instead of haughtiness. Whenever it seemed that the Wicca was getting too confident, she was shown just how much she still had to learn.

Willow's relationship with Xander grew to be more than simply friendship. After she was kidnapped, both of them realized they needed to be honest with the other one about their feelings.

Willow and Dalton spent many evenings wrapped up in intellectual debates and discussions. She was the catalyst that finally brought Xander and Dalton together as friends. She recognized what each of their problems were, and she knew both of them well enough to find a way for them to work it out. Now the three of them were like the three musketeers of the Scoobies.

Joyce smiled at Giles. She wrapped her hand and arm around his. Then, she tucked her head up against, and on, Giles' shoulder. She shared a look of joy with Giles, and he nodded his agreement. Even if everything fell apart with Wesley and Faith, they would persevere and survive well.

Giles yawned. He was pretty tired. Being put on the defensive, even if only verbally, was exhausting. It drained his energy considerably faster than physical combat would. He'd much rather go a round of fisticuffs with someone instead of a verbal debate. "As you heard, the meeting is set for tomorrow. I'm assuming you three will be around in some way even if I tell you not to be there?"

"You have that right, G-man," Xander teased Giles with the nickname that he knew rankled the librarian.

"Xander how many ..." Giles' voice trailed off, and he shook his head. No matter how many times Xander said that, Giles always fell for the teasing.

Willow giggled behind the hand that covered her mouth. "We'll make sure to hide really well, but you can't ask us not to be there ... not after everything we've already gone through."

"I hate putting you in harm's way. You already do so much, in that regard." Giles wished that he could spare the young adults from any more pain and suffering.

"It is not you that creates the harm, Rupert," Dalton offered as consolation. "If anything happens, it will be the Council's fault. I'll go by Willy's again tonight to see if any of our contacts have heard anything. We'll do a sweep before I head home."

"That would be helpful. Thank you, Dalton." Joyce turned to Xander and Willow. "You two better head on home too. Do you want us to drive you?"

"My parents are out of town. So, Xander is staying at my house this week." Willow blushed at the implications of her words. "I mean his parent's don't notice when he's home, and we thought it would be best to have both of us in the same place. So, we've got the going home covered. We can watch each other's backs."

Joyce grinned. "All right. Ring us when you get home." She put up her hand to refute their objections. "Just in case."

"We will." Xander offered his hand to Willow, and he helped her up off the couch. The two of them headed for the door with Dalton right behind them.

Joyce slyly grinned at Giles once the front door was closed and the house locked down for the night. "I do believe that you were a very good boy today, Ripper." She stalked from the front door to his side. "You didn't go to the hotel and rip the fool's head off." She cupped his cheek in her hand and kissed him with fervor.

Giles laughed. He loved it when Joyce was playful. So, he knew that neither of them were getting any sleep for a little bit longer tonight. He scooped Joyce up into a fireman's carry like a caveman would have done, and he headed up the stairs to their bedroom.

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