Chapter 3:
The redhead let out a long tired yawn and blinked a few times to readjust her vision. Willow knew she was a little rusty when it came to researching through hundreds of books, usually all she needed was a spell or Google to find what she needed.
“You finished with that one?” Giles asked Willow as he walked by with more books in his hands and placed them on the table.
Willow nodded her head, “There was nothing in that one that’s useful…not even close to what we’re looking for.”
“Perhaps we need some of the foreign Watcher dairies and translate those to look through….then we could—“
”Giles?”
“Yes?”
”I’m going to turn you into an actual bookworm if you don’t cool it” Willow grumbled as she shut her book and pushed it away from her. The sight of all these books was starting to nausea her, and that was saying much considering she was the biggest nerd in her high school.
“Uhh…we have been here long, haven’t we?” Giles took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose; he too was getting exhausted from the research. It seemed that he could only look at so much Greek text before going into a sort of trance and everything starts to get jumbled. Giles could have sworn a minute ago he translated a sentence that said: ‘The duck flies at midnight with the cows.’
“I’m sorry Giles, but there is only so much a witch can take.”
”It’s alright, I too am tired and believe we need a chance to regroup and take our mind off things before we come back to look up—“
”And sleep…don’t forget sleep.”
Giles smiled, “Yes, I won’t forget that. Do you need a ride back to the coven or…?”
“It’s late, maybe I can crash here tonight if it’s alright.”
”Well, Chloe’s bed is free at the moment.”
Willow smiled in relief, she was afraid she had to push some books away and call this table her bed for the night if there was a lack of beds.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Willow greeted Chloe’s bed with a pleasant sigh. She walked over toward it in a sleepy state and turned over the covers. The witch was about to fall face first into the cotton sheets when she noticed something near the big picture window. She cursed her eyes for still being alert to things—all she wanted was sleep that she desperately needed.
However, when Willow noticed what was at the window her tired eyes widened a bit and the rest of her body woke up.
“Buffy?”
*~*~*~*~
“What? What?!” Giles said as he was shaken in his sleep. His first thought was an apocalypse was approaching. “I'll get the weapons!”
Once his eyes opened and readjusted to the darkness he could see that it was only Willow by his bed. She didn’t look scared or frantic, she looked worried and antsy.
“Willow? What are you—“
”I think you should come with me” she said.
Giles looked at the witch for a moment before tossing the covers off him and followed her quickly down the hall.
*~*~*~*~*~
“Buffy?”
Giles stood by his student’s side and looked into her empty eyes.
“Buffy?” he tried again.
“Did you know she could sleepwalk?”
“No…” Giles shook his head and waved his hand over the girl’s unblinking eyes.
“What are you going to do?” Willow asked as she looked back at the young Potential.
“Well, I guess we can contact the Council’s psychiatrist and get Buffy examined to find out—“ Giles whispered but was interrupted by Willow.
“No, I mean about her standing here…what do we do?”
“Ummm….I’m not certain…maybe, maybe we should try to direct her back into her bed.” Giles suggested as he reached out to take Buffy’s hand.
“Wait” Willow stopped him, “I thought it was dangerous, she could wake up and go into shock or something.”
”Well we can’t just leave her standing here.” Giles argued, “Help me.”
Giles grabbed one hand gently as Willow grabbed the other. With a little bit of force they maneuvered Buffy to turn toward her bed and push her to take steps forward.
“Okay, now just umm…” Giles was not clear how to sit her down on the bed without pushing her hard and waking her up.
“What’s going on?” one of Buffy’s roommates asked loudly from the opposite side of the room; it seems that Giles and Willow were not quiet enough and had disrupted this girl’s sleep.
Willow and Giles looked over at the Potential in surprise before looking back at Buffy to see that she let out a small gasp and blinked her eyes for the first time.
“Buffy?” Giles grabbed a hold of Buffy’s arms to hold her steady.
Buffy blinked a few more times; she was clearly confused and surprised that she was not in her bed and instead surrounding by people watching her. Her heartbeat started to pick up and she felt a bit dizzy, and as soon as she shut her eyes she fainted right into Giles’s arms.
*~*~*~*~
The next day…
“Buffy hasn’t made any friends here has she?” Travis asked as he stared out the window from his office and into the courtyard where a group of Potentials were practicing fencing with a Watcher. His eyes fell on two girls laughing as they sparred; as one girl fell down the other one helped her up and seemed to show her what she did wrong.
“She hasn’t been here long…I’m sure with time she will” Giles said. He was seated behind Travis’s desk; earlier that morning he was called down to speak with Quentin about Buffy’s sleepwalking incident and how to fix the situation. It seems that Buffy’s fainting spell has been the talk of the castle that morning, causing more Potentials to take notice of the new peculiar girl they are living with.
“Has she made an effort to be social?”
”Yes, I’m sure she has.”
“Do the girls like her? Have you heard what they say about her?”
Giles paused and thought about all the times he went to get his lunch in the cafeteria and saw that Buffy was sitting alone. “I’m not sure they are making an effort to be nice. I don’t see why they wouldn’t like her.”
”She's been hostile to us—the Council, she hasn’t been that way with the girls has she?”
Getting upset with the round of twenty questions, Giles had had enough. “What’s this about?”
Travis turned around to look at Giles. “I want you to keep a close eye on Ms. Summers.”
”Why?”
”Just do as you’re told.” Travis said as he took a seat in his leather chair. “But in the meantime I would suggest we send Buffy to the Council psychiatrist and see if we can find out more about what’s going on in that little head of hers…maybe get her to stop sleepwalking. It may be that this whole thing is nothing but anxiety and she needs some medication for her restfulness. If it happens to be something else…well, we’ll deal with that when the time comes.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
“I feel so stupid.” Buffy said as she looked down at her bed covers, shying away from the redhead’s eyes.
“Why? It’s not your fault.” Willow said.
After last night, Giles gave Buffy permission to miss her training sessions and just rest in her room. Buffy didn’t hesitant to take the advantage to get away from everyone—that morning had been awkward with her roommates. As the Potentials got dressed she could feel their eyes on her as she tried to get more sleep.
“Have you had this problem back at home?” Willow asked.
“I—no…I don’t think so.” Buffy had been skimming through her memories and couldn’t find a time where she was ever told that she sleepwalked.
“Maybe…maybe it’s just adjusting to England. You are alone here in a new country and away from your family and familiar surroundings. Plus, it’s not like you’re here on holiday or something…getting use to being a Potential can take a toll on a girl.”
“Wish I never was chosen for this.” Buffy mumbled as she lay back down in her bed.
“Well…you’re not the Chosen One yet…you may never be.”
“With any luck I’ll be called tomorrow.”
Willow smiled at the sarcasm, “Do you think you’re ready if you were?”
Buffy didn’t answer, she knew she was in ranked as a runt here—that slaying wasn’t coming as naturally for her as it did for the other girls.
“You know, maybe you should give this place a chance…Giles is more than a scruffy old Watcher…he has layers and is more than just a bookish book man.”
“It seems that Giles is the only one I can stand…the others…” Buffy looked over at her roommates empty made beds and shook her head.
”It’s hard to make friends sometimes.”
”Not for me…not when I was at home. Here, it’s like homework to get girls to act civil towards me…and I didn’t do anything!”
Willow wrinkled her forehead, she found that weird. Usually all the girls were nice to one another, Willow was sure that it was some fight that Buffy got into the first day that caused her unpopularity.
“Well…I’ll look into it for you…maybe there is a misunderstanding…possibly some jealous girls are just spreading false rumors.”
”Start with that brown haired girl…”
Willow raised an eyebrow, “Brown haired girl?”
“Ya…what’s her name…Hope?”
”Faith?” Willow suggested.
“Yay…that’s the one…doe eyes, brown hair, likes to think she’s queen Potential everywhere I go…” Buffy scoffed.
“Well…I’ll keep an eye on her…”
Buffy looked up at Willow and saw the girl smiling at her. “I’m sorry…”
”For what?”
“No wonder I’m not so popular—I wasn’t very nice to you the other day.”
”Oh, that’s alright.” Willow waved her hand at Buffy, “I have a tendency to not make good first impressions…it’s my biggest flaw…along with teleportation spells.”
”Still, I should have been a little bit nicer…guess this whole supernatural world still hasn’t sunk in…if someone says they are an alien….well, I might have to actually think that it might be true before automatically assuming they’re crazy.”
Willow let out a giggle, “Especially if it comes to Travis.”
Both girls laughed out loud at the statement, it didn’t seem so farfetched.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Later that night…
Heathrow Airport…
“And where would you like your cargo?”
The two men, both dressed in tweed and one carrying a briefcase, turned from the windows that overlooked the area where workers were tossing luggage from the airplane and onto a truck. One of the airport security personnel’s had approached them and was waiting for orders.
“We have a truck…it can be unloaded onto there.”
”What’s the license plate? I’ll tell our truck to drop off the crate there.”
Once the information was passed along the security worker left the two men alone at the gate. Everyone that exited the plane earlier, even the pilots, was gone. The man carrying the briefcase stepped forward, his face almost pressed again the glass as watched their wooden crate roll down the conveyor belt and onto a truck.
“Welcome home Spike…” he whispered with a smile.
TBC....