A/N: Not going to disclaimer, of course I don't own Buffy. The only thing I own is the original stuff I've come up with for this fic.
I've only just gotten into Buffy (I know late to the party!) and I LOVE IT. I love the tropes, the romance, the comedy, the fun. I love all of it and I knew I wanted to write something for it. I thought about writing something with Spike because I love him but I decided instead to write something with Giles. This starts about half way through season 3 (just before Wish) as I'm only half-way through season 4 in watching.

I hope you enjoy!

"What sort of monster feeds on the already weak?" Giles was talking to himself more than anyone else in the room but as usual there was a reply waiting from Xander.

"I mean probably one that really enjoys that bit of extra misery with his food."

"Maybe and its definitely a vampire?" Giles pointed his question to Buffy and Willow who had been in the morgue investigating a demon that had been stealing body parts when they'd stumbled across a corpse with fang marks in its neck. Not unusual in Sunnydale, what was unusual was that the corpse in question wasn't that of a healthy young person. The corpse was an old woman, who was already dying. Something was amiss, at the point of confusion the demon stealing body parts arrived which Buffy quickly dispatched of but now there was a whole new problem.

"Yes, teeth marks were a dead giveaway." Buffy nodded.

"Could it be a one off? Like maybe the vampire didn't feel like fighting for his food." Willow shrugged.

"It's not like humans are usually that hard to catch." Oz added.

"It doesn't make any sense, all my reading and my encounters with our fang friends, they've always mentioned that certain blood just doesn't taste nice, the already dead or dying would be incredibly unappealing." Giles pointed out scratching his head, glasses dangling by their arm from his mouth.

"You're right."

"Angel!" Buffy beamed as Angel sauntered into the library.

"Which means your vampire probably doesn't want to feed but doesn't realise there's another way. Feeding on those about to die would sustain you, just not incredibly well." Angel pointed out.

"I'm into the hospital records, its gunna take me a day to find out when this all started though. This is a lot of information." Willow said looking up at Giles. "There are a lot of people with puncture wounds to the neck on their autopsy and this system isn't amazingly well built for cross referencing."

"As long as I don't have to visit a morgue." Xander replied with a shudder.

#*#

"Kava is very good for stress relief if that's what you're looking for, if it's the taste you're not fond of I can mix something more to your taste. Kava can be very Earthy but this one is better than most."

"No, no this'll be fine." Giles said, his mind was firmly fixed on the database Willow was building and not on the tea in his hand, that was until he got to the counter and looked up.

"Are you sure? It's no trouble, actually it's quite easy once you get the hang of it. Funny because I was never very good at Chemistry."

"I ah- ah-" Giles' mouth opened and shut like a fish a few times. He wasn't entirely sure what he'd expected from the proprietor of the new tea shop that had set up in Sunnydale. Whatever it was, it wasn't the woman stood before him. Her smile had knocked him for six and it felt like his brain wouldn't reconnect. She had long thick dark hair that fell in waves around her shoulders and face, full cheeks that lifted with her smile and made hazel eyes twinkle.

"I suppose mixing tea is in the taste though, not much room for tasting chemicals that might burn your insides awa-" She stopped talking and looked apologetic. "Sorry, my mouth tends to run a little sometimes."

"No- not a problem, at all." Giles replied, it felt like his whole mind had gone blank and he couldn't quite reconnect the dots.

"This one is very good, as long as you're not allergic to hazelnut. There's just a hint, some sarsaparilla and cinnamon too." The woman said gesturing to the small box of tea on the counter. "You're going to want to brew it for seven minutes, in a tea pot. I don't think I need to tell you that though if that's an English accent I detected."

"Yes, yes I see. I mean I can hear you're not a native American." Giles smiled daring to look her in the eye again.

"No, Oxford girl. Though I have been in America a while now, just not here. My father and I moved to Sunnydale after he got sick and, well, Sunnydale seemed in need of a teashop."

"You're not wrong, god I've missed good tea. I usually order it from overseas, but I've been somewhat behind." Giles replied on a laugh. "Rupert Giles." He said holding out a hand. "Most people just call me Giles."

"Maria Bingley." She said taking his hand to shake it. "Most people just call me Maria." She teased.

"Ah, Meryton- it makes sense now." Giles said, referring to the name of the tea shop. Meryton Tea, a reference to the fictional town near the Bingley's home in Pride and Prejudice.

"I think you're one of the first people to get the connection. Well, when I say people, I mean men, there have been a lot of rather excited teenage girls in here." Maria replied. "And a few English teachers."

"I'm disappointed I only just made the connection. I really should have known that, being a librarian." Giles replied.

"Well I hope you haven't judged my small selection too harshly." Maria gestured to two small bookcases in the corner of the shop, next to two tables, two comfy chairs and a wooden counter-top facing the window. Giles hadn't even noticed it when he'd first walked in and then he'd become rather pre-occupied (in his own head) with the demon they were supposed to be hunting down.

"Not at all." Giles replied looking back up at her with a smile. "My own charge over at the school is rather small."

"I imagine much better organised than mine."

"Well I can hardly judge that if I haven't taken a good look."

Suddenly the bell above the door tinkled and there were three new bodies in the shop.

"Giles, there you are." Xander said between catching his breath.

"We've been looking all over." Willow said suddenly stopping to look around. "Oh, this place is cool. Is that-" Xander cut Willow off as she wandered over to a locked glass cabinet.

"Yes, cool. Now Giles there's been another-" Xander paused on seeing Maria. "Who's your friend?" He asked leaning on the counter.

"Xander, this is Maria Bingley. Maria this is Xander Harris, a student at Sunnydale." Giles said through gritted teeth.

"Mature, student, above my years." Xander said wiggling his eyebrows.

"You needed something?" Giles asked cutting him off.

"You, we need you. Willow found something in the medical region and we need- uhm- help." Oz said trying to talk in code whilst glancing at Maria.

"Is that silver tip jasmine?" Willow asked excitedly.

"You know it?" Maria smiled stepping out from behind the counter and coming to stand next to cabinet.

"Of course, you can use it in sp-" Willow started but Giles coughed to stop her from saying too much.

"Spells? Yes, love spells and divination I believe. Although I believe regular jasmine can be used for that too." Maria said matter of factly causing all four of them to look at her like she'd asked for a liver. "If you believe in that kind of thing of course." She added.

"Indeed. Right well we should be going then. I believe I owe you-" Giles said starting to fish in his pockets.

"It's okay, it's on the house." Maria smiled.

"Oh no, no I can't-"

"Maybe you can help me organise my small selection into something more, Sunnydale friendly." Maria gestured to the bookcase with a smile.

"I can't do-"

"Giles, kind of think you can, when we have- uhm- reports to get to." Xander said hurriedly. "Willow!" Xander hissed before grabbing Willow by the arm and dragging her away from the counter.

"I should-" Giles gestured to Willow, Oz and Xander. "Thank you."

"Like I said, you can pay me back in organisation." Maria nodded before stepping behind the counter as three giggling schoolgirls entered the shop and took up seats near the window.

"Where have you been?" Buffy asked as Giles walked back into the library tea in a brown bag still in his hand.

"Flirting with a hot woman in a tea shop." Xander replied throwing himself into a chair with a grin on his face.

"I was not flirting." Giles replied.

"Gooey eyed then." Xander said. "Not surprising really, she was-" Xander stopped when everyone turned to look at him with that look on their faces that urged him to shut up.

"We think we've found it." Buffy said gesturing to a book on the table. "One of the girls in Home Ec was talking about her Grandma having these weird dreams. We checked it out, she died, same marks on her neck and blood gone."

"I'm not sure I'm following?" Giles narrowed his eyes in confusion.

"We think it's a demon pretending to be a vampire." Willow nodded. "Well, from what Taylor was saying about her Grandma's dreams."

"But you said you were sure it was a vampire." Giles said to Buffy putting the tea into his office and stealing a smile at the brown bag, on the house.

"I was, well, I didn't see it, but I said the teeth marks were a dead giveaway." Buffy shrugged, pulling a face that said she had never really been sure about what had been attacking people. Causing Giles to tilt his head and give her his trademark slightly perturbed look.

"I finished the database though and most of the people affected are either really old or really sick. Already dying, we were right. They started about seven months ago. There's about fifteen people so far that it's gotten. All have puncture wounds, all have blood drained." Willow pointed out.

"We found a demon in this book called a pretty." Xander chipped in.

"Preta." Oz corrected as Giles took the book off the table to read what they'd learnt.

"Preta- right. That, hungry ghost, because vamps and ghosts didn't need to get anymore terrifying!" Xander cried.

"And they're invisible, which is going to make this decidedly harder to catch if it is a Preta." Giles rubbed his forehead with his finger and thumb causing Buffy to groan and slouch further into her chair. "I still don't think we should rule out vampires though, not with what angel told us."

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