July 4, 2003

Dear Diary,

Up until now when I've thought about the 4th of July it's always reminded me of fireworks and hot dogs and potato salad.  From now on, it's going to make me think of Watchers.

Earlier, everyone had decided it would be fun to celebrate with a picnic.  Xander and Willow found this great little park not too far from the motel, Buffy and I got the food and for once all Giles had to do was show up.

Willow, Kennedy, Buffy and I had just started playing frisbee when Buffy spotted three dark sedans pulling into the parking lot.  (What is it with secret organizations and dark sedans anyway?  Do they get some kind of group discount rate when they show their decoder rings?)

Sure enough, it was Lord Percy and the Watcher Wannabes.  And I've got to say if tweed was an endangered species, these guys would have entirely wiped it out.  (I'm not positive, but I think one guy even had a tweed handkerchief.)  I half expected Buffy and Faith to break out in hives at the sight of all that wool.

On the plus side, Percy is not at all what I expected.  I mean even though he's old - he has to be at least 45 - he's really well preserved.  And when Giles introduced him to Buffy, he said he was delighted to meet her and kissed her hand.  I think he was going to do the same with Faith only she crossed her arms and suggested he kiss another portion of her anatomy.

Things could have gotten a little tense at that point, but Percy just smiled and said that in light of past events he understood her having misgivings about dealing with the Council.  That's when Buffy told him her only misgiving was that he was going to be the same kind of lying, pompous ass as Travers.

Percy replied that while he might occasionally be an ass, that at least he was a truthful ass.

In the meantime all the Slayers and Watchers were just standing there looking at each other.  I got the feeling that none of these guys had ever seen a real, live Slayer before.  Come to think of it, no one in the world has ever seen this many of them since, well, there never have been this many of them.  Willow and Xander finally started introducing everyone.  (It was a lot like my first dance in Jr. High.)

Giles took Buffy aside and reminded her that she'd promised to give this a chance.  She wasn't happy about it, but finally she agreed to put the past behind her and make a fresh start with the Council.

I think Buffy and Giles may have made a new start, too. They're working together like they used to.  And even though they disagreed, no one (Buffy) ended up slamming a door in anyone else's (Giles) face.  Of course, if Buffy had thought to use "The Pout" Giles would have melted like an ice cube on a sidewalk on a sizzling hot summer day in downtown nowhere.  (When we were at the launderette, I found a book by this guy named Dashiell Hammett and it's just full of stuff like that.)

Anyway, Xander and I went for more food and the Watchers spent the rest of the day with us.  Percy talked to Faith and Robin about their plans to go to Cleveland and told them that if they wanted that Robin could be assigned as Faith's official Watcher.  Then he'd get a paycheck and everything.  They also said they'd try to help about Faith being wanted by the police--it would be a bummer if they put her back in jail after she stopped an  Apocalypse and all.

When it got dark, we all headed back to the motel.  Percy has made all the arrangements for the Slayers to leave tomorrow.

It's beginning to seem like everyone except us has someplace to go.

More later.