FIC: Female of the Species(Part 6)

PART SIX

While Buffy was looking into Pete Madison's personal life, Giles was trying to discover the possible identity of the apparently non-hostile demons that were apparently female. So far, sitting in the university library, books spread out before him, he hadn't had a lot of luck.

The New York State University was a fantastic place to work, and Giles enjoyed his job more than almost any other he'd had in his life. A heady promotion from mere librarian, which in truth hadn't been challenge enough for his mental abilities. Teaching classical English Literature - his true intellectual love - was more like it. Teaching it to people who really wanted to know, who shared his love, was even better. And most of the facilities here were second to none.

But if there was one thing that NYSU was missing, it was a decent Occult Studies department. Apparently, hard-headed New Yorkers didn't have much interest in supernatural pursuits. Consequently, the books that were on offer were basic; child's play for someone like Giles.

Giles had had most of his own books on the subject destroyed in Sunnydale. Some by Principal Snyder. Some by vigilante Sunnydalers - including Joyce herself - when they were overwhelmed by witch hunting fever. And the rest at the Mayor's ascension, when the whole school had pretty much been decimated.

That hadn't mattered while Buffy was in residence at Sunnydale University, because they'd had a comprehensive library of relevant books that Buffy and the gang could access. Not here though.

Sighing, Giles half-wished that he lived in Chicago - the facilities for occult and paranormal studies there were renowned amongst serious researchers. Or else, he thought again, back in Sunnydale, where there was also a huge library full of useful books on demonology and anything else a person might want to know. Or even, God forbid, that he still had access to the Watchers' Council's files. Not that Giles ever wanted to rejoin that stuffy bunch of…

Giles smiled a little, letting his mind wander from the basic books laid out before him. Once, he'd been a stuffy, regimented man, with no other purpose than doing his duty and obeying the rules. Oh, he'd gone off the rails once or twice in his youth, even dabbled in black magic that had killed some of his friends and almost killed him. But that was all an attempt to escape his chosen destiny. Or rather, the destiny that had chosen him.

For like Buffy, Giles had been fated to help fight the forces of evil. True, he had no special powers, was just an ordinary man, but even ordinary men could have extraordinary fates. Giles's fate was to watch over Buffy, the most successful Slayer in living memory. To help her achieve her potential. To ensure that she survived long enough to become what she had become today. Strong, powerful and confident in her abilities. True enough, Buffy had always been those things, but she had needed to learn discipline. Had needed to learn acceptance. Now she had learned those things, she was stronger for it.

And of course, she had Willow too. Was in a loving relationship. A blessing, although Giles worried about that relationship sometimes.

Not that he didn't approve. How could he not approve when they were so happy together? They loved each other. They completed each other. It lifted Giles's heart to see how happy his two almost-daughters were.

But still, he worried because as Buffy grew in power, so the Watchers' Council was declining, was becoming defunct. Giles still had a couple of contacts from the old days, and they had informed him that the few Watchers that existed were drifting away, losing their direction. Getting older. A couple of older Watchers had recently died, and no one had replaced them. And if the Council became extinct, as seemed entirely likely, then what would happen to the other potential Slayers in the world? Without Watchers to guide them, they wouldn't be able to function. Or even know what their function was.

Certainly, it was a good thing that Buffy was living a happy, productive life. That she had been granted extended youth and life in reward for the closing of the Hellmouth, as had Willow. But what if she was killed in the far future? Supposing she lived another fifteen, twenty years, and then died? Could even be a car crash - didn't have to be Slayer-related, after all. Who would be Mankind's guardian then?

This was what worried him about Buffy and Willow; the probability that Buffy - in a same-sex relationship - would never have a child. Because surely now, a Slayer-born child was the only real way of continuing the line? A child who would have ingrown, inherited abilities; a child who wouldn't need a Watcher, because her Slayer mother would guide her into adulthood. Giles didn't see how this could happen for Buffy.

And if Buffy did die, and Giles was still around, would he perhaps be expected to be the Watcher for whoever succeeded her? Thinking about it, Giles wasn't certain he could do that. Wasn't at all certain he had the strength for it. Especially not if he were older. Certainly, he didn't want to become attached to anyone who wasn't Buffy. As far as Giles was concerned, she was irreplaceable

Again, he sighed, took off his glasses. Rubbed his eyes, which were tired from poring over the books, which weren't worth poring over. Yes, he'd allowed his mind to wander. Why worry about things he couldn't control? What was the point in that? He needed to worry about the things he could influence. Otherwise he might just worry himself in a heart attack. And he didn't want that. His new life with Joyce was too happy, too full, to squander it away thinking about events that hopefully would never happen.

All right, he thought, getting his mind back into gear, so far the only race of demons he'd found who were female were the Lilim, the cruel spawn of the demon Lilith. But there was no way these creatures could be responsible for Buffy's dream, because they were evil, and Buffy had said they didn't feel evil. Just neutral.

Still, Giles supposed he had to explore every possibility. Trouble was, there wasn't much information, other than the basic stuff.

The legend told that Lilith was Adam's first wife, fashioned not from Adam's body, as Eve was, but from the earth, as Adam himself had been. Having been told by God that Adam had dominion over his wife, and could rule her, Adam lived by his Creator's rules. But Lilith became angry at this. Why should he dominate her, she asked. Was she not created from the same clay as her husband and thus equal? And why, when they lay with each other, must she lie beneath him? Should she not be allowed the superior position equally? But Adam refused to see her point of view. According to the creator, the male was superior to the female in all things, and the female must obey him.

Lilith became furious. She told Adam that if she were not treated equally, she would desert him. So when Adam refused to hear her arguments, Lilith left Eden and went to the shores of the Red Sea, a traditional place for demons to gather, according to most biblical sources.

Adam cried out to God that Lilith had deserted him, and God, furious that Adam had been so badly treated, sent three angels after Lilith. They told Lilith that if she refused to come back to Eden, she would be forever damned and cursed. Lilith told them that she would rather be damned and cursed than be subjugate to a man who was her equal, no more.

So it came about that Lilith became a demon, took many male lovers and spewed forth one hundred Lilim per day from her poisoned womb. And even as she took her lovers, she swore vengeance upon the male sex from that time onward. The men who loved her died exhausted deaths, drained of their energy as the victims of vampire attacks are drained of their blood.

But this wasn't the end of it, as far as Adam - who now had Eve to console him -was concerned. Consumed by hateful vengeance, yet still attracted to him, Lilith began to haunt him in dreams in the form of a succubus, and he never knew any happiness with Eve.

Eventually, according to Hebrew lore, Lilith became legendary as a danger to sleeping men, who were advised never to sleep alone in the house, lest Lilith and her demon children should attack them. Attack them as in dream-rape…

Other things, such as stillbirths, miscarriages and male infertility, also became associated with Lilith and her spawn…

"Interesting book?"

Giles looked up into the face of a pretty young woman with waist length blonde hair. He didn't recognise her, but she was smiling at him as though she knew him well. Maybe she'd seen him around campus, but he'd never had the… pleasure… Blinking, he shook his head.

"No, not really." He kept his voice cool, not wanting to encourage conversation. Something about this woman disturbed him.

But then you've never been entirely at ease with women, have you, Rupert? Especially not young, pretty women.

"You seem very deep in thought," the woman remarked. Well, girl really, Giles thought. Couldn't have been more than nineteen, twenty. She was peering at the book from over his shoulder. "Heavy stuff. Demons. You into all that, are you? Seems like it could be… dangerous. Do you like danger?"

"Erm… Uh…" Giles floundered. Cursed himself for becoming tongue-tied at the sight of a pretty face and a curvaceous figure. Because really, she had the most astounding body and… And what was he doing, even looking at this girl?

"I think all that stuff's fascinating," the girl said, leaning over him, so her long hair touched his hand, brushed across it like a silken spider's web. Giles smelt her perfume, light and flowery, like a bright spring day. He felt his throat lock up, completely robbed of the power of speech. Looked around at the other people who were studying at nearby tables. They seemed unaware of him and the girl. In fact, he and the girl might have been alone, for all the attention anyone paid. "It's a real turn-on, don't you think?"

"Look, I don't mean to be rude…" Giles began, and then the girl laid her hand over his.

"I love your accent. So… British," she told him, apparently unaware of the turmoil that Giles was feeling. A turmoil of acute awareness of this girl's warm nearness, of her soft skin on his, of her scent fogging his senses, of her hair trailing over the back of his hand. Trying to repress the sudden urge to tangle his hands in that long blonde hair and…

Giles opened his eyes with a start, looked around the library. There was no girl. Of course there wasn't. With a shock, he realised he'd been asleep and dreaming at the table. Not only dreaming, but experiencing the events, such as they were, in the dream all too realistically. Horrified, he was aware that he was actually still aroused; still, as the dream-girl had said, "turned on".

Hurriedly he shut the books that lay scattered over the table. All that reading about Lilith and succubi and men being sexually assaulted in their sleep had obviously affected his imagination. Brought what he'd read half-way into being.

Standing, he went to the occult bookshelves, replaced the books. Felt ashamed of himself for some vague reason, although he was aware that his dreams weren't his fault. He'd had… such dreams before. Hadn't most men?

Yes, but not in public…

And how embarrassing would he have felt if…?

Best not to follow that particular path.

Although it was only three o'clock in the afternoon, Giles decided to go home. He didn't have any more classes to give that day anyway, and he thought that he didn't want to be around the university anymore. After all, one never knew…

On his way back home, he bought a newspaper to read.

Joyce was still out when he got back to their home. Putting on the kettle to boil water for coffee, Giles settled down to read the newspaper. The headlines jolted him out of his still somewhat guilty mindset.

"FIVE MYSTERIOUS BABY DEATHS IN NEW YORK HOSPITAL!" the big black letters screamed. Giles read on. "New York General Hospital faces an inquiry this morning into five unaccountable infant deaths that occurred overnight in the post-natal unit of its maternity wing. The babies, all newborn boys, appear to be victims of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome…"

Giles read on, increasingly saddened, and increasingly worried.

Baby boys… he thought, reminded again of Lilith and her demons. The book had also said that Lilith had sworn to kill as many baby boys as she could in vengeance for her fate, and here, on this very day that he'd had an… erotic dream, were five tragic male infants who had died without apparent cause…

"Oh surely not?" he whispered. "It's all coincidence. Must be."

But didn't Giles know better than that? Oh yes. He knew that mysterious deaths could have supernatural causes. He knew that better than most people from his practice as a Watcher. And he'd just read about how Lilith and her succubi could affect a man's mind while he slept. Maybe even experienced it. So didn't it all fit together?

"Yes, it does."

In fact, the only thing that didn't fit was Buffy's dream. If her dream had happened through Lilith's influence, then the evil bit wasn't right. But maybe Lilith manifested differently toward women. As far as Giles had read, there had been no reference whatever to Lilith's attitude toward other females, except those who were pregnant or in childbirth with male children. And that animosity seemed to be directed toward the child, not the mother.

Giles didn't know for certain, but the one thing he did know was that he couldn't ignore any of it. However, he didn't know enough to make a proper decision about what action to take. Giles went to the phone, called a number. When the receiver was picked up at the other end, Giles began to speak.

"Ethan? Rupert Giles… Yes… Yes, I'm perfectly fine… Yes, Joyce and the others too. I need a favour…"

After a few minutes, Giles had extracted a promise from Ethan Rayne. A promise to look into, and send, by express delivery, the information that Giles needed. In the meantime, Giles supposed, he ought to alert Buffy. And Xander too, he decided. After all, Xander was Giles' friend, and a man. Well, when he wasn't being dominated by Cordelia, that was. Maybe Cordelia was a succubus. God knew, she'd sucked the life and soul from Xander… Giles shook his head. Now his imagination was going into overdrive.

Waiting until Joyce came home from work was a nightmare. Giles felt very sleepy, but resisted closing his eyes, for fear of what might happen if he did. But the knowledge that sleep was eventually inevitable ate at him. He tried to tell himself that it really didn't matter if he had fantasies in his dreams, but he knew it did, really. Because if his dreams were being manipulated by demons, the truth was that eventually, the things that happened in them would turn from being pleasurable to being nightmares. Giles didn't know if Lilith could actually kill a dreaming man, but according to legend, she could kill sleeping male babies, and Giles didn't want to take the chance.

Was there any way of protecting himself? he wondered. He wished he'd stayed on at the library now, looked into it a bit more, not that there was much more to read. But his dream of the girl (demon?) had so upset him that he hadn't been able to stay there any longer.

"And I am beautiful, aren't I, Rupert? How can you resist me?"

Her voice came out of his brain, and he realised he'd been close to dozing off again without realising it.

"Oh bloody hell…" Giles muttered, forcing his eyes open. And decided he'd better go into the kitchen and begin preparing dinner. Anything to keep awake. But what was he supposed to do tonight?

At least he could tell Joyce when she came in from work. And as he did, a couple of hours later, she listened with sympathetic dismay, and growing awareness that her husband was perhaps in danger of being overtaken by a lustful, possibly vengeful, female demon.

"What can we do to stop it?" she asked. Giles shrugged, thanking God that Joyce knew about this stuff and didn't seem to be panicked by it, but tried instead to be practical.

"I don't know," he admitted.

Joyce looked at him narrowly.

"You do want to do something about it, don't you?"

"What?" Giles couldn't believe he'd heard this.

"Well, if this demon girl is young and beautiful and wants you… I mean, do you want to resist her?"

Giles looked into his wife's face and saw fear there. Fear that had only just manifested itself.

"Joyce, I love you. Why would I want to choose a demon over you?"

Joyce shrugged.

"Because I'm the wrong side of forty-five years old. Because, with the best will in the world, I…"

Giles went to Joyce, put his arms around her, stopping whatever she'd been about to say about herself.

"That's enough of that," he said briskly. "And I'm hurt that you should think that about yourself. You're beautiful to me, Joyce, and you always have been. And never mind how attractive this dream girl might be, she is still a demon. Ultimately ugly where you will always be beautiful, no matter what your outer appearance. Inside, Joyce. Never, ever think otherwise."

For a long second, Joyce stared at him, then she smiled and nodded.

"I was very silly, wasn't I?" she said. "Don't know what came over me." She glanced over at the clock. "I expect Buffy will be home by now. Or at least Willow. Better give them a call. Tell them to come over."

Giles nodded.

"Xander and Cordelia too, I suppose," he said.

After he'd made the calls, he turned back to Joyce.

"They'll all be over within the hour," he said.

"Just like old times," Joyce remarked. Giles took off his glasses, ran his hands over his face, feeling utterly exhausted.

"God, I hope not," he said. "But I'm afraid you might be right."