Chapter 2

After a while, Swan picked up a name for herself. Many demons knew her or knew of her and quite liked her. Pretty much every demon in Galway knew not to mess with her and coincidentally, the mysterious deaths died down and the killing in general also died down. One day, Swan was sitting on her bed, doing homework, and listening to music when there was a knock on the door. 'Mom can't be home from work this early' Swan thought, jumping off the bed and grabbing a stake from her drawer just in case. She opened the door to the apartment and found four men, all in their late 50's wearing black suits. "Uh... may I help you?" Swan raised an eyebrow. "Is there an 'Elizabeth Swan' living in the residence?" the oldest man asked in what Swan assumed was an English accent. "That's me" Swan replied. "Good, we need to talk. May we come in?" the man asked. "Um... sure?" Swan answered unsure, opening the door fully as the four men stepped into the living room. "Have you heard of the watchers Council?" the man asked. "I might have. I've read book about stuff that have mentioned them... why?" Swan, answered, sitting down in the armchair across from the couch where two of the four men sat and the other two stood behind the couch. "Well, the Council is an organisation that trains the Slayer to fight the forces of evil" the man explained. "Oh! I've heard of the Slayer. She's like, the chosen one... or something like that. She fights vampires and demons" Swan interrupted, pleased with herself. "Yes well," the man continued, "the council have heard of you from the streets and the stories say that you are friends with demon and some even say that you have turned the evil ones into um, not so evil demons" "Well... it's not like I'm only friends with demons. And it's only the ones that agree to not kill me. If they ty kill me I stake them but other than that yeah... pretty much" Swan mumbled. "Yes, indeed," the man said, taking of his glassed and rubbing them clean with his shirt. "There's a vampire in California... his name is Willian the Bloody, also known as Spike" the man continued before Swan interrupted him. "Oh! I've read about him. He seems very cool... I think he even killed two Slayers" Swan said. The men gave her a stern look and she looked down. "N-not that I think killing Slayers is cool. Cause it totally isn't" she added. "Well, we've heard from an ally of ours that something happened to him and he can now no longer hurt people without intense or neurological pain. But we don't know if it's permanent and our allies refuse to kill someone who can't fight back-" "Rightfully so" Swan interrupted, yet again. "So," the man continued, "With your reputation we are convinced that you can get him on our side. We will pay you for doing so and we will arrange a place for you to stay while you are in Sunnydale. Be aware that this will take time as this vampire has 100+ years of evil and murder to work through" The man stated. Dawn stared at him for a moment before taking a breath and speaking. "Look, if I'm going to do this, it's going to be on my terms. I can take care of myself but I a guarantee that you will keep an eye on my mom and make sure she's ok. I also want her to be financially stable. Got it?" Swan said, standing up. "Uh, yes... we will provide protection to your mother and pay both of you. We will also give you a place to stay while in California" the man repeated. "Cool. When do I leave?" Swan asked.

It had been a week since the Council first visited Swan. The Council convinced Swan's mother to let her go to California even though Swan was sure her mother would disapprove. She had just arrived in California in a plane with her luggage and she was told to look out for someone called "Giles". she walked out of the airport and noticed a guy who looked like the other people on the council, waiting by a car so she decided to walk over to him. "Hi, are you Mr. Giles?" Swan asked. "Uh, yes. And I presume you're Elizabeth Swan?" Giles asked. "The one and only" Swan beamed. "Very good." Giles said, opening the car door for her. She got into the car and Giles drove off

Giles pulled up at his apartment and him and Swan got out of the car. "You can leave your bags in the car; we'll be going to your new apartment later" Giles said as Swan walked to the front porch with him by her side. He opened the door and motioned for Swan to come inside. She glanced around the room. She thought Giles' apartment was quaint. There was a wooden staircase to the side of the front door that lead to the second floor of the apartment and a wooden coat rack to the other side of the front door. Off to the side of the apartment there was a small kitchen. The walls of the kitchen were painted a creamy white and there was a counter top that connected the sitting room to the kitchen. Off to the side of the kitchen there was a hallway that lead to a room that Swan could only imagine was the bathroom. That, or a place where Giles kept little girls' hostage until they're rich parents paid him enough for him to set them free without them alerting the police. 'Ok, maybe that was too dark. Giles doesn't seem like that kind of guy' Swan thought to herself. As Swan's eyes moved towards the main living area, her eyes fell on a bleached blond vampire with sapphire blue eyes in all black clothing , tied to a chair drinking blood from a novelty mug that was held by a beautiful, young woman with blond hair. It was the funniest thing she had ever seen, and she had seen a lot of funny things. It took all her strength not to burst into laughter but even with all her effort she couldn't help but grin. "Uh, Buffy" Giles said, taking of his glasses and cleaning them with his shirt. 'Ok, does every English man over 40 do that?' Swan thought, looking over at Giles as he cleaned his glasses. "Giles! you're back!" Buffy beamed, quickly jumping away from Spike, moving the novelty mug and straw away from Spike. "Hey!" Spike growled, annoyed that his dinner was cut short. 'He has a nice accent' Swan mused, taking in Spike's features more carefully. "And I see you brought company" Buffy mused, ignoring Spike's complaint, and looking over at Swan, who still had her eyes set on Spike. "Yes well, Elizabeth Swan is here to help us with our problem" Giles replied, putting his glasses back on. "Which problem? We have a few" Buffy laughed. "Right. Um, Spike" Giles replied, indicating to Spike. "Oh" Buffy nodded. "Well it's nice to meet you, Elizabeth" Buffy said, holding out her hand for Swan to shake it. Swan smiled and shook Buffy's hand, noticing Buffy's firm grasp. "Swan. Everyone calls me Swan" she corrected Buffy politely, and Buffy nodded. "So, I take it he's the guy I need to fix" Swan said, letting go of Buffy's hand and glancing over at Spike with a grin spreading across her lips. As the words left her lips, Spike snapped his head around and looked at her with annoyance and maybe a little terror. "Yep! Spike's your guy for fixing" Buffy replied, smirking at Spike. Now Spike was frowning, and a slight growl left his lips, but before he could speak, Swan was almost skipping over to him. "So, Spike, what happened to ya?" she asked, sitting across from him on the couch with her legs spread out wide in a 'v' shape, her arms dangling down in the gap made by her legs. "Rupert will tell you" Spike mumbled. Swan thought for a moment before waving him off. "Nah. You're gonna tell me" she replied. "Um, no. I told you Rupes here with tell you" Spike frowned. Swan rolled her eyes and leaned forward on the couch. "And I'm fairly sure I told you that you're gonna tell me what happened. Ok? Ok." Swan said, making up her mind. Spike sighed but didn't protest. By now Buffy and Giles had gone into the kitchen to discuss something that neither Swan nor Spike cares about. "I'm too hungry to talk" Spike said, trying to stall talking about the Initiative. "Didn't I just see Buffy feeding you like a baby a few minutes ago?" Swan asked. "Well, I never got to finish" Spike muttered, clearly annoyed with Swan. "Fine. Where's the mug?" Swan sighed. "Wait. You're just gonna give it to me?" Spike raised an eyebrow. "Listen buddy, I'm not here to give you a hard time. If you want to finish your blood, I'm not gonna deny that to you" Swan answered, getting up and grabbing the cup from the side table. "Here you go" Swan said, dropping the straw back into the cup and reaching over so Spike could reach the straw. It only took a few seconds for Spike to drink the rest of the blood. When she was sure he was finished she took away the mug and put it back on the coffee table. "Now, why don't you tell me what happened to ya?" Swan smiled. Spike nodded and told her exactly what happened. He told Swan things he didn't tell the Scoobies. When he finished Swan leaned back into the couch, sickened by what happened to him. "Bloody hell" she muttered, silently disturbed. "Yeah. Wasn't fun" Spike said. "I can imagine" Swan nodded. "Anyway, now that I know what happened to you, I can help you" Swan said. "How you gonna do that, luv" Spike asked a suggestive grin across his lips. "Well... I don't know...never met a chipped vamp before...let's just wing it" Swan replied, blushing a little. "Right" Spike nodded in return.