DISCLAIMER!!!! Buffy, Giles, Xander, Willow, and all the characters, from "Buffy theVampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss and Mutant Enemy. I'm jealous, but what can I do? All other characters, and the story itself are the sole property of ME, and my imagination. Please send all comments on the story to ME! Thank you and come again!
Giles sat at his desk, going through a stack of books that, to Willow, look ed incredibly old and dusty. "What are you doing Giles?" she asked as she sat down at the table in the middle of the Library.
The Watcher looked up, a surprised look on his face. Willow had noticed that during the last week or so, Giles had become a little more jumpy and nervous then usual. "Oh, hello Willow. Well I'm attempting to do some research on our, uh, most resent problem," the librarian answered.
Willow looked closer at Giles, noticing the dark circles around his eyes and the general disheveled look of the middle aged man. "Zombies? I thought that you had called someone about that?"
Giles nodded. "I did, but he hasn't returned my call yet." He waved at the books scattered around him. "I'm trying to find out as much as I can until he does."
"Find out anything interesting?" Willow asked.
Giles gave her a small smile. "Well, yes actually. Apparently the only way to really kill a zombie, is to burn it."
Well then, Hey! Buffy can just go and burn all the zombies!" the young girl exclaimed.
Th e Watcher shook his head. "No, it's too dangerous to have Buffy going around Sunnydale at night, setting zombies on fire. It's too much exposure for her, and it will leave her a target for Angel and other vampires. Plus, there would be no way of knowing if she had destroyed all of the zombies, even if she did find the person or persons who are responsible for raising them."
"Well when you put it that way..." Willow said slightly deflated.
"I hope that Sidney can tell me of another way to be rid of them. A spell perhaps, or a ritual."
Willow watched Giles as he thought about his friend. "Um, so where did you meet Sidney?"
The older man looked down at his desk for a moment, his face turning slightly red at being caught reminiscing. "Oh, I met Sidney when I first started studying at Oxford. Sidney was also training to become a Watcher." Giles smiled at the memory, his face softening and relaxing.
"Like myself, Sidney's ancestors were also Watchers. Also like me, Sidney was not thrilled at having his life planned out for him. We became close friends, even though Sidney was a few years older then me."
Willow listened closely to Giles. Giles rarely discussed his past with them, even after Ethan and the mark of Igon came back to haunt him. "What was he like?" she asked.
The Watcher's smile quickly turned into a grin. "Oh, Sidney and I were very different then each other. When I first got to Oxford, I was very serious. Until I met Sidney, I didn't do much of anything except study." Giles grin got bigger a s he went along with his story. "Sidney on the other hand was very popular with both the ladies and the gents. He studied very little, but received better grades then I did."
Willow looked surprised that anyone could do better in school then Giles. "But, you're like, School Guy!"
This time it was Giles who looked surprised. That's the way they see me? Instead he said, "Well Sid has a natural talent for the occult. His family history is full of witches, warlocks, Necromancers, and Watchers. I believe that Sidney's great-great-great-great-grandmother was actually a Slayer. Also, Sidney is one of the best Reanimators I have ever come across."
Willow gave Giles a confused look. "What's a Reanimator?"
"A Reanimator is a person who, through different types of magiks, can raise the dead for a short time. They can also call spirits and demons," he explained.
"Oh," the red haired girl said. "Then what's a Necromancer?"
"A Necromancer is a person who has a natural talent for raising the dead. They have some thing inside them that give them a certain power over the dead. They do not need to cast spells like a Reanimator, or perform rituals like a bokor." Giles told her. "They are quite rare, which is why I think that we are dealing with a bokor. A Necromancer or a Reanimator wouldn't have left such clues as we have found."
Willow nodded. "Ok I got it. So Sidney has a long family history with occult stuff, and..." she replied, trying to get Giles to keep going with his story.
"Uh, well, Sidney and I got along famously, right from the start. I helped him keep his mind on his studies, uh, well some of the time, and he tried to stop me from obsessing about mine. Though it turned out that I was more successful at getting Sidney to study, then he was at getting me to relax." Giles face darkened. "When I ran off to London, Sidney went after me.
Willow decided not to say anything and let Giles continue at his own pace. "We got into an argument." He said after a few moments. "Sidney wanted me to come back to Oxford with him. He told me that I would only get into trouble with the group I was associating with. I told him to mind his own business and to stay out of my life. He listened and let me be." The Watcher again cast his eyes downward, not to hide embarrassment but pain. "If he hadn't, perhaps both our lives might have turned out differently."
As she watched Giles deal with the pain of his past, Willow wanted to run over and comfort him. She decided not to. He doesn't want to be comforted. He wants his pain.
After a long pause, Giles continued. "Even though he promised to stay out of my life, Sidney decided to stay in London for awhile. He met a young art history student, Mary Lindsey. They fell in love and got married after only 3 months. When I finally did return to Oxford, Sidney told me the news."
Giles gave in to a slight smile. "I remember being so shocked that I fell out of the chair I was sitting in at the time." The Watcher looked up at Willow. "Sidney had always vowed to stay a bachelor for life. Also, Watchers aren't supposed to get married till after they had finished training their Slayer."
Willow nodded, but didn't say anything.
"We tried to go back to the way things were before London, but my... adventure had changed the way I looked at life, just as Sidney's marriage changed the way he did. A few months after Sidney had returned from Oxford, Mary was killed in a car accident. He found out afterward that she had been coming up to see him. And to tell him that she was pregnant. "
"Oh no!" Willow whispered.
Giles didn't even hear her.
"Sidney took Mary's death very badly. He neglected his studies and his training. He locked himself away from everyone, refusing to leave his apartment. I visited him regularly, trying to keep him from falling too far behind. The last time I saw him, we sat around and talked as if London had never happened. As I was leaving, he gave me a letter and asked that I not read it till tomorrow morning." Giles stopped and took a deep breath. "I thought it was a suicide note at first, but Sidney was not the type to kill himself, no matter what had happened. He had too much pride to do that."
Willow watched the older man in silence, finally realizing what kind of pain this story had brought to the surface.
"It was a farewell letter." Giles said simply. "He was leaving Oxford and his training as a Watcher. He wrote that he couldn't stand to spend his life preparing to train a girl whose fate it was to face all the evil the world could produce and then watch her die. He left England for Europe, and then ended up here in the U.S. I received letters periodically. Just short notes telling me where he is and that he was doing well. The last letter I received was about 3 years ago. Sidney had settled down in Houston, Texas, and was doing some sort of consulting work. He gave me a phone number and told me to call him if I ever needed help with anything. I haven't really thought of him since then."
Giles was silent. Willow sat at the table and stared at her hands.
The silence remained until Xander came through the entrance whistling one of those jaunty tunes he liked so much. "Yikes! What's with all the glum faces?" the dark hairdo boy asked as he noticed the awkward silence that filled the Library. When no one answered right away, he stopped. "Is everything ok? Something didn't happen did it?" he asked worriedly.
"No, everything is fine Xander." Giles said before Willow could say anything. "Where's Buffy?"
Willow got the hint. Ok, it's private. I won't tell anyone, Giles.
"Principal Snyder caught Buffy outside of English." Xander was saying. "He's chewing her out about missing class yesterday. She sent me to call in the cavalry. The cavalry with all those beautiful blue excuse notes."
"Ah, yes, of course." The Watcher replied, his composure restored. "Outside English, did you say?"
As Willow followed Giles and Xander out of the Library, she thought about the level of trust that Giles had given her. She swore to herself that she would not waste it.
30 seconds after the group had left, the phone on Giles desk rang.
