Title: Giles' New Job

Author: Elixie

Rating: PG13

Disclaimer: Joss, blah, blah, blah, Mutant Enemy, yada, yada, and all their friends own 'em. Except the kids.

Distribution: Please take it off my hands. It's too dangerous for me to keep.

Dedication: For EW and Gill, happy b-day girls. I know EW will especially like this.

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"The Council will see you now, Mr. Giles"

Giles stood up, uncomfortable in his tweed, not having worn it since he blew up the school 6 years ago. The reason he was here was still a mystery. All the council had said was that they had a new job for him.

As he entered the room, he became more nervous as he saw an evil grin on Quentin Travers' face.

"Mr. Giles. Pleasure to see you again. Please sit down."

'Oh no. He's being polite. Not good' Giles thought as he took a seat. "What is it you want, Travers?" he said aloud.

Travers stood up and walked over to Giles and put a hand on his shoulder. "Despite our past differences, the Council and I happen to think you've done an admirable job with your Slayer." Giles started, warning bells going off in his head. "Therefore we have a new position for you. The care of a future Slayer and Watcher."

"I-I beg your pardon?"

"Oh you won't be raising them yourself. Ms. Summers has proven that it is sometimes best if the Slayer remains with her parents. You will merely be overseeing certain aspects of her education, to prepare her for what is to come."

"A-and the Watcher?"

"Her brother. A bright young lad, despite his parentage. You are to start him on his courses. Make sure he is ready when it's time to come here for further training. It's already been arranged with their parents." Travers pulled something from his jacket. "Here is your plane ticket. A car will meet you at the LAX to take you to your final destination."

Giles took the ticket from him. "And just where am I being shipped off to this time?"

"Back to Sunnydale. The children belong to someone you know. Bob and Bertha Snyder."

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"Rupert Giles?! The stinking librarian?! I always thought there was something funny about him."

"Now Bertha, calm down. The neighbors will hear and it's supposed to be a secret." Snyder whined. Now that he had no students to take it out his frustrations on, he had become positively wimpy. "When the kids get home..."

Bertha snorted. "Those damn kids. You know I hate kids. But would you let me drown 'em? Nooo. Made me take care of them. And the worst part is that they were too smart to die like they were supposed to."

Snyder looked at his ladylove and cringed. "You know I hate kids too. And the only reason the poison didn't work is that, by the time you tried it, they were too smart to eat your cooking. Besides, it only made me sick for a little while, so you didn't put enough in." He looked at the clock. "It's almost time for them to come home. I hope they had a good crowd. We need to pay some bills."

At that moment, the door flew open and two of the dirtiest kids anyone had seen came running in. "Hi mom, hi pop." The girl said.

"You should see the haul we got today." The boy chimed in. "This town is full of suckers."

Both kids appeared to be about 6 or 7 years old. Somehow, they had managed to be quite cute despite what their parents looked like. They both chattered constantly as they started to empty their pockets of several wallets and assorted jewelry.

"That one guy almost saw you take it out of his pocket. If I hadn't started to scream he would have caught you."

"Yeah well if you could hit a decent high note, we would have made more in tips."

Bertha turned red in the face "Shut the hell up! God, I wish they had mixed you up for some quiet brats in the hospital."

Just at that moment there came a knock at the door. The kids scrambled to hide their ill-gotten gains as Snyder went to answer it. "I wish it was the cops to take these two away. Instead it's probably that damn librarian with his 'holier than thou' attitude." He muttered.

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Giles stood at the door for some time before he decided to make his presence known, the conversation from inside loud enough to let him know what he was up against. From what he had heard, not only were Snyder and his homicidal wife still a couple of child-hating gits, but their kids, young as they were, appeared to be far along the road to a life a crime. He wished he had been given enough time to look into the family before he was suddenly stuck with them. Snyder had been unpleasant to deal with on a professional level, no telling how bad it would be on a personal one.

"Might as well get this over with." He muttered and knocked on the door. It was flung open by the short former principal, who immediately sneered and said, "Well if it isn't the man, himself. You know I blame you for all of this. You put a curse on me didn't you. First you made me become principal of the school from hell. Then after I finally found some happiness with my wife, you had me get eaten by a giant snake, then I as I'm trying to get over that, you curse me with two brats who aren't any better than the ones from school. Now I find out that I'm gonna be stuck with you for God knows how long, because my kids are *special*. I blame you for this, you bastard."

Giles smirked. "It's nice to see you again too. If you'll just let me see the children, I will make this as quick and painless as possible for both of us."

At that moment the kids decided to show their faces. When they saw Giles, they just stood there staring.

"Who's the suit, pop?" the boy asked.

The girl followed with, "Yeah, and why does he look like he has a rod up his..."

"Marie!" her mother screamed from the kitchen. "Get in here and clean up this mess."

"Yeah, yeah." She muttered and stomped off. "Come on Johnny. You helped make that mess."

"Whatever." He answered and followed her.

Snyder snorted. "I present to you my children. Hope you have better luck with them than we do." He started pushing Giles towards the door. "I'm sure your precious Council gave you the schedual we agreed to. Otherwise I want to see you as little as possible."

"I'm sure that can be arranged."

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From his brief encounter with the Snyder children, Giles could see that he had his work cut out for him. "Keep them with their parents. It's the best thing for them." He said to himself. "Like bloody hell. They should have been taken away as soon as they were born." He sighed. The Council had never been known for their sense of humor, but he felt he was most definitely the butt of some large joke. The children were delinquents, that was obvious. But considering who their parents were, it was a testament to their intelligence that they were still alive. If he was lucky, he would convince the Council that they were much better off away from their parents, then he might be able to wash his hands of this whole ordeal before Buffy found out he was back in Sunnydale.

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"He's just as much of an ass as I remember." Snyder grumbled. "If these kids weren't bringing in so much money, I'd have let him have them."

"Yeah, well you can deal with him." Bertha grunted as she walked away. "I'm going to bed."

"Who was he anyway, pop?" Johnny asked.

"Stop calling me that." Snyder snapped. "He's your new teacher. You both are going to go to his house instead of school. Like I can get you to go as it is." Then he too left the room, leaving the two kids alone.

After several minutes, Marie spoke first. "He's got kind eyes."

"I think he looks like a sap. Should be pretty easy to get rid of him." Johnny answered. "Bet he gives up and leaves after a week."

"I don't want him to. " Marie pouted. "He might be the best thing that ever happened to us."

End for now.