"Madeleine"

Part 1

The last student dawdling after the first bell quickly slipped into his homeroom just as the front door of Sunnydale High opened, allowing one of the stranger looking creatures into the building. Not a demon though. A pair of feet, clad in pink suede wedge trainers; backless. Moving up, you'd see the shiny fabric of black lycra pants. The super-stretchy kind that flare at the ankles. A white, belly-bearing crocheted tank top. The looked was topped with a short pixie cut...dyed bright pink. Her belly button was peirced and so was her nose. But she asn't at all unusual looking where she came from. In fact, she used to blend in with the crowds.

The Spice-Girl shoes led the girl down the hall. She looked earnestly for some sort of guide. A sign, maybe. She knew this was the place. This was where she would find him. But where WAS here? She finally saw a pair of double doors with round windows. Above them the sign read LIBRARY. She pushed open the door and walked in.

"Hi. Can I...help you?"Buffy started. The words slowed as she looked up.

"I think so. I'm Madeleine. I'm looking for, umm," she glanced down at the paper she was holding, though she knew what the name was. She'd memorized it quite awhile ago. "For Mr. Rupert Giles?"

"Umm, sure," Buffy gave her a strange look as she headed back to the office. A few minutes later, Giles came out with Buffy following close behind.

"Hello. I'm Mr. Giles."

"Hello..."she paused a second as she quickly scanned him. "...Father."


                                                 
                          A few minutes later the bell rang. Willow and Xander walked out of homeroom, discussing the finer points in life.

"I'm just saying, he was stupid not to take full advantage of the situation."

"Xander, he fell in love with her for who she was, not waht she could do."

"Oh, come on, Will! How could you say that? Yeah she was nice a pretty and all. He fell in love with her before he knew. He should have thought of it as an added bonus. A little honeymoon treat, if you will."

"What would you have done in the situation?"

"Taken every short-cut I could find. You can't honestly say that if you were married to a witch, you would forbid him his powers?"


"Remember Amy and Catherine Madison? Real witches aren't like Samantha. Bewitched is just T.V." Willow made her final argument as they entered the library.

"But classic...hello." Xander stopped short at the sitght of the girl.

"Xander, Willow, this is Madeleine. It seems Giles has another secret he's been keeping from us." Buffy introduced the original slayerettes to Giles' daughter.

"And what's this deep, dark secret, you sly dog, you?" Xander asked punching Giles lightly on the arm. His grin faded as the librarian gave him a LOOK. He sat down quickly.

The doors opened then and Cordelia joined them. "Hi. wait, what am I doing here? Omigod, I'm becoming one of you people. What am I gonna do?" she sat down despairingly in a chair and buried her face in her hands. Xander patted her shoulder.

"Gee, I feel for you, honey. Really, my hearts breakin'" he said sarcastically as Buffy supressed a laugh, unsucsessfully. Willow smiled and rolled her eyes. Giles just looked at the beweildered Madeleine.

Cordy suddenly looked up. "Who are you? And why are you wearing that? Is it, like, costume day or something?"

"Cordelia, this is Maddeleine. It's a long story but she's Giles' daughter."

"Whoa, hold it. Daughter? You left that out earlier." Xander exclaimed.

                                                 

                          "Maybe I should explain," Madeleine spoke for th first time sinse she'd greeted Giles.

"Good, cause I'm lost." Cordelia exclaimed.
"Maybe it would be, umm, well, best if she, explained, alone."

"Come on, guys. class, remember," Buffy pushed the group out the door. "I'm the one ushering everyone to class so Giles can talk with his pink haired daughter? Talk about Hellmouth hiccups." she mutterend on her way out.

"Well, umm, maybe I should start with, umm..."
"let's start with the whole father issue. Or, acually, umm, the mother issue? Perhaps you could, umm, tell me who she might be."

"Umm, Hannah. Do you remember her?"

"Hannah? Hannah Keating? She's you mother?"

Madeleine nodded. She bit her lip and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry, but I'm sure I woud remember having, um, a , uhh, baby with her." Giles was blushing slightly.

"Well, you broke up a few weeks before she found out."

"Why, umm, why didn't she tell me?"

"I don't know. She was worried about you. About what you were going through. That's why she left London. She was scared."

"Of what?" "Of you. Of what was happening to you."

Giles stood and began pacing. He took off his glasses and began polishing them. He replaced them and looked toward the ceiling.

"How is she? Is she in Sunnydale, too?"

"No, I'm, I'm sorry. Mum died about a year and a half ago. Cancer."

"Oh, I'm, umm, very, umm, sorry. I didn't know. I'm...Cancer?"

"Well, Lukemia. It's ok though. She was really hurting near the end. At least, at least the pain's gone. But still, I'd rather have her here. Things have been, well, not exactly great sinse, you know."

"Where have you been living? Who, who's been taking care of you?"

"My dad. My step-father, acually. I didn't know until she died. I always thought, I thought he was..."

"Well, what are you doing here?"

"He, uhh, kind of, uhh, made me leave. I got sort of kicked out of my boarding school."

"Well, that's to be expected. Your mother did die."

"Three times."

"Ohh." Giles sat back down and looked at this stranger who said she was his daughter. He started to reach out and take her hand but she interupted him.

"Who is she?"

"Pardon?"

"It's Buffy, isn't it. That's why she was here. You had a connection."

"I'm sorry, I don't understand..."

"She's the slayer, isn't she?"

"How do you know about that?"

"My mother told me."

"I thought you said your mother died before she told you about me?"

Madeleine silently cursed herself. She thought quickly and responded. "She wrote me a letter before she died. That's how I found out about you."

"And she told you of my, my...situation?"

"Yes. Did you not want her to tell?"

"Oh, oh no. That's fine, but, Hannah? I'm sorry. Will you please excuse me?"

"Of course. Maybe we can, meet? Later this afternoon?"

"Oh, oh yes. That would be lovely."

"Umm, may I use the phone. To call my friend that I'm staying with?"

"Oh, of course. Just through there." He hurried from the library and down the hall to find Buffy.


"Hello, Spike?" the words faintly floated through the library as Madeleine committed the first betrayal of the only father she would ever know.

Part 2

Part 3

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