In a Corner of My Soul: Angel: Your Friend Came Over

[dragonyphoenix]

Summary: Rewrite of season 1 with Giles as the Big Bad.
Master List for In a Corner of My Soul (previous chapters / scenes)
Note: Thanks to Gill O and Il Mio Capitano for help with terms Giles might use for a police officer.

The nurse had refused to answer Rupert's questions, leaving him ignorant of Mrs. Summers' status, but had directed him to the fifth floor waiting area. She hadn't warned him about the copper. Before Rupert could swerve down another hall, Kris Mansfield had spotted him and waved him over. “Mr. Giles, thank goodness you're here.” She called to him loudly, destroying any chance he'd had of concealing his presence from the officer she was chatting with.

Behind the pair, Rupert spotted Willow, Xander, and some other lad – Owen he believed – in the waiting area. All three remained seated but Willow gave him a wave.

“Who's this?” The constable, glancing up from his notes, seemed so young that Rupert found himself wondering why the lad wasn't in high-school himself.

“Our school librarian,” Kris explained smoothly. “He's mentoring Buffy Summers, the patient's daughter. I'd rather not speak out of turn but you should know that Miss Summers' transcripts from Hemery High, well, she was something of a problem student. We're trying a pro-active approach to prevent her from repeating past mistakes.”

“So the girl might have had something to do with this attack?” Giles winced at the words. The last thing he needed was police interest in the Slayer.

“Oh, no. No,” Kris protested. “The doctors labeled it an accident. As Buffy's mentor, Mr. Giles is here to help her through this difficult time.”

“As such,” Rupert interjected, “perhaps I could speak with Buffy.”

“Can't. Doctor's orders. Patient needs her rest.”

“Buffy's not ready to leave her mother's side,” Kris explained. “Perhaps you could wait with the students?”

Having no desire to draw more police attention, Rupert agreed, but he did wonder why Kris had stepped in to protect him. As he joined the children in the waiting area, Xander, showing unexpected astuteness, drew Owen off in search of snacks. Rupert turned to Willow for information. “What happened?”

“Buffy's Mom was attacked in their home. The doctors said something about her falling on a barbecue fork but Owen's the one who found her and he said someone was there, a guy with a bumpy face.”

“Angel.”

“Yeah,” Willow agreed. “That's what Buffy thinks too but Buffy's Mom, in her official statement, mentioned a girl, someone who's helping Buffy study for her history exams, but I'm the only one helping Buffy study for history and I wasn't there.”

“How badly was Mrs. Summers wounded?”

Willow shrugged. “She lost some blood but she's up and talking, well, not up because she's still in bed and the doctors are talking about keeping her here overnight, but she seems okay from what I saw. I mean, we didn't have an extended conversation or anything. I just saw her being wheeled into her room, but …”

“Willow!” Gods, did the child have to be so bloody gabby? “Why did you call Miss Mansfield?”

By the size of Willow's eyes, she was trying to use them to project her innocence. “I didn't. Nobody did. Well, none of us. I don't know how she knew to be here.”

“Did you tell her I was on my way?”

“No, there wasn't time. We were all worried about Mrs. Summers and then she was wheeled out and the police showed up right after. Oh, you can ask her yourself. It looks like she's done talking to that officer.”

Giles looked up to see that Kris, having divested herself from the plod, was heading over. “Willow, perhaps you could see where Xander and that other lad have gone off to?”

“But Giles …”

“Please. I'd like to speak with Miss Mansfield alone.” Willow pouted but did as he'd asked.

“There was blood loss but it wasn't fatal.” Kris succinctly gave him the pertinent information but didn't answer his main question.

“Why did you imply that you'd called me?”

He'd shocked her. “You can't become a suspect. Your work is too important.”

His work? Giles grabbed her arm. “What do you know of my work?”

“You're the Watcher. Miss Summers, Buffy, is, I believe, the Slayer.”

They were drawing attention. As Rupert released her arm, it all came together. “You're a Defunct.” Potentials past the age of Calling, known as Defuncts in the Council nomenclature, were discouraged from hunting demons. Despite that, history was full of Defuncts who'd refused to let their training go to waste. They tended to die young.

“Yes.” Her face flushed as she admitted it. Of course it would. Defuncts tended to think of themselves as failures. Some Watchers encouraged such thinking.

He should report her to the Council, but she could be of use to him. If he did lose his Slayer, a Defunct might still provide access to the Slayer line. “I won't go to the Council if you'll help me.”

She looked afraid. “How?”

“For now, I need to speak with Buffy. I'll need privacy. If the children return, distract them.”

Kris called Buffy out to the waiting area and stood watch at the far end as he sat with his Slayer. Buffy looked pale and shaken. “I'm going after him.”

“You are most certainly not.”

“Giles, he attacked my mother. He could have killed her.”

“But he didn't. He left her alive. Why? For you to find. I know you don't want to hear this, but that's Angelus' modus operandi. He plays games with his victims. And we certainly don't know what role the young woman, the one your mother mentioned, plays in this. It's most certainly a trap and you are not going.”

“Try to stop me.”

Damn, he should have known better. All that information he'd given her on Angelus had triggered her Slayer instincts. That had been the intended effect but not now, not when the demon had laid a trap. “Then I'm going as well.”

“Giles.”

“You're not waking into that obvious a trap without backup.”