author: lisa roquin

rating: FR15

fandom: BtVS/Highlander

Series/sequel: Darek of Abidas 'verse, direct sequel to "The Hazards of Reading Aloud."

pairing: implied Giles/Ramirez (ie hints of *slash*)

disclaimer: all copyrighted characters and their "universes" belong to their respective authors, writers, creators, production companies, producers and long lists of people that are so very much not me. Quite simply, if you recognize it, it isn't mine. No profit made, no harm intended, just having fun.

summary: Giles' search for the diaries and chronicles Ramirez promised to hide somewhere in the family estate takes a few surprising twists on Christmas Eve, three days after Giles return to his own time.

"Uh, G-man?" Xander reluctantly approached the older man, who was armed with a sledgehammer and half-assed maps, sketches and blue prints of what could be patched together of the estate's original layout. Those along with several diaries and estate ledgers that dated back to the first half of the sixteenth century littered nearly every surface in the room, including the floor in places.

"What? Here, and here. Do the wall thicknesses seem off to you?"

"Giiiles?"

"Lord John Ramirez, Baron Ambrosius Giles stepfather made numerous additions and renovations between 1501 and 1535 when he supposedly died while traveling to Scotland, drowned and his body never recovered. They put a marker in the cemetery for him then--the crypt. Placed his age at 77."

"G-man--"

"Xander, please this is important."

"You've been wiggy since you got back and the girls are wanting you to come watch It's Christmas Charlie Brown and It's a Wonderful Life. It's Christmas Eve Giles and you've been digging through all this and about cuddling that sledgehammer for three days."

"Ramirez--"

"Who?"

"Lord John--Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos y Ramirez. Ambrosius Giles’ stepfather. He was the teacher of the Elder Highlander, Connor MacLeod, and was later identified as Tak-Ne of Upper Egypt by Connor MacLeod. Tak-Ne was taught by Methos and Darek of Abidas."

"Is that--supposed to make sense?"

"Juan Ramirez was an Immortal of the Game,"

"Uh--"
"One of the headhunting lightning dudes I believe is what Buffy declared them."

"Oh so . . . you think your step-grandpa is still alive."

"Ramirez lost his head in 1540, the kill credited to the Kurgan according to the Watcher's database."

"You know this how?"

"Ramirez was . . . our Immortal. My ancestors kept records on him and passed it down. Not only was the family long since involved in the watcher's organization, Ambrosius was reputedly quite fond of his step father and though the Giles family has always been more involved with the Slayer's Branch, an interest in the Immortal Branch has been cultivated from generation to generation because of Ramirez."

Xander merely nodded. "Don't make me tell the girls you aren't being festive with us cause--uh . . . just no. Don't make me do that."

"The renovations between 1501 and 1535 have a hidden chamber of some sort or another amongst them. I'm certain of it. Ramirez promised to chronicle what he knew of Methos and Darek of Abidas, as well his own life and hide it away within the house."

Xander looked at the sketches and took the diary that had Ambrosius Giles sketches in it.

"Xander, not that one. That doesn't begin until 1543."

"Huh . . . G-man, did this Ramirez know he was gonna lose his head in 1540?"

Giles’ guilty look told Xander more than the stammered justifications that accompanied it.

"It's not in the house. It's the crypt." Xander decided. "If he knew and you think he had a chance of getting out of there alive . . . then yeah and well . . . "

"What?"

"Won't hurt to try the tomb first. Look at this sketch of the crypt. And okay--that's rumor and that's ghost--right?"

Giles blinked. He looked at the line Xander was pointing at. "The villagers whisper and take fright, these rumors of my step-father's ghost aid greatly in the need of secrecy. They whisper of my madness, broken by the tragedy of these last years. Elizabeth is happily wed to that braggart Wyndham. What my daughter sees in that man is beyond my ken but she is happy and has Wyndham wrapped around her clever little finger. Rupert is at court, fostered with Sir Henry Pryce. Andrew has gone to Spain and claimed his grandfather's holdings there. The grave that is supposedly my Amanda's is a comfort actually. Tis far better to have her gone than to have her truly in that grave. She left with the promise to visit John's friend Rupert when he is once again Whence he belongs. I believe she will keep that promise."

Giles blinked. "Amanda?"

"What?"

"She's the other Immortal that was rather a favorite subject of study . . . "

"Uh--"
"Amanda Darieux, her first death is rather murky on dates but somewhere about 880 AD. She would have been six, closer to seven hundred if she was the Amanda that was Ambrosius' second wife. His first wife Catherine died of fever in 1527. Along with three other children--Al-"Giles broke off and chuckled. "Alexander, Wilhelmina and Aurora."

Xander's confusion showed clearly on his face.

"Rupert, Alexander, Wilhelmina, Aurora, Andrew, and Elizabeth."

"Still missing the joke."

"Xander, Willow, Dawn, Andrew, Buffy."

Xander shook his head. "Never mind."

Giles sighed and polished his glasses. "Quite. So . . . You think the chamber is under the crypt?"

"Yeah. And I'd really rather go blindly at a crypt with a sledgehammer than oh--possible load bearing walls in this ancient pile of rocks."

"I suppose."

"Can we go be festive with the girls now?"

Giles sighed reluctantly and followed Xander out of the office he had been using to research and went to the den where the girls were waiting.

"We've got company--"

Xander stuck his finger in his ear and wiggled it at the annoying sudden ringing.

"Alexander, I presume. Seems there's another in the family. You are Rupert. Yes, I can see why that old fox declared Rupert was the only name for Ambrosius' eldest."

"Madame Darieux?"

"Amanda, please," she smiled. "Ambrosius wanted me to pass this on from his stepfather."

Giles blinked. And reached for the small chest. "Do you happen to know where the key is?"

"No, but if you want it opened . . . "

"Of course, why worry about a key with a twelve hundred year old thief present." Giles chuckled touching the intricately carved lid. It wasn't much bigger than a breadbox and shaped rather like Hollywood's version of a treasure chest.

"Now see here, young man, it's not polite to be bandying your grandmama's age about like that."

"Giles how is she your grandma?" Buffy demanded.

"Step-grandmother, five centuries removed, or almost."

"What?" Dawn frowned.

"You're--an Immortal?" Willow breathed.

"You have to be Willow. So that makes you Buffy. I never fail to be surprised at how tiny some of the Chosen I've met are. And you have to be Dawn and you Andrew. Ramirez talked quite a lot about Rupert, and by extension the five of you." Amanda smiled.

"Huh?" Buffy frowned.

"One and One are adding up to TMI" Andrew whined.

Willow's eyes widened.

"I'm with Andrew!" Xander yelped, Giles sudden obsession with sledgehammers and moldy family diaries making more sense than he really cared for it too. His mad-scientist style squirrelly secretiveness about it, and just the tone of Amanda's voice when she said Ramirez talked quite a lot about Giles. Sounded like the girls going all sigh-y and awww isn't that just so tragic and romantic over some movie.

Dawn squeaked.

Buffy looked confused a moment, blinked. "I sooo did not want that image in my head about Giles. I'm going to have to kill you now Andrew."

"Me?"

"You're the one who said it."

"Children," Giles sighed.

"So, are we opening your five hundred year old Christmas Present?" Dawn asked.

"No key--"

"I've got lockpick tools upstairs." Xander said.

"Really?" Giles frowned.

"G-man, I broke into a military base back in high school. You ever met my uncle Rory, you wouldn't need to ask. One of the few useful things he ever taught me."

Giles shook his head. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised..."

"I always carry my own with me." Amanda smiled and pulled a leather daybook from her purse. Hidden in the daybook's assorted zippered areas were lockpick tools. Would you like the honors or shall I?" Amanda held them out to Xander.

Xander flashed her a quick grin and took the tools. "Let me see the lock, Giles."

~*~*~

"Well, you were right about the crypt. According to these there is a tunnel entrance underneath the crypt that leads to where Ramirez hid the chronicles..."

"What did he know about the house's future addtions?"

"Nothing more than it had been remodeled and added on to several times."

"Well, then he was smart. He wanted to make sure you found what he left so he had it put where workmen two hundred years from either of you wouldn't stumble across it."

~*~*~

"Buffy--"

Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes. Christmas Eve, gorgeous cold and snowy. The perfect Christmas Eve for their big tree and huge fireplace and big screen tv, movies and a few tons of popcorn and few gallons of hot chocolate.

Was she snuggled up with hot chocolate and a comfy blanket and bowl of popcorn watching It's Christmas Charlie Brown with a nice fire across the room? Nope. She was out in a snowy cemetary freezing her butt off and reduced to manual labor moving coverstones off the stone coffin in the crypt.

"Your honey better have made good or I'm gonna be ticked." she muttered as she moved the stone.

"Careful, Buffy, those runes look like some sort of protection spell..." Willow spoke up

"Oh yay. If I get turned into some snot-covered monster I'm eating you first, Giles." Buffy snapped.

"Ewww. That is just...sooo wrong." Dawn made a face.

"Dawn Summers you get your mind out of the gutter!" Buffy glared. "My god I need bleach for my brain now."

"Goddess so do I."

"What?" Dawn defended herself. "Hello, grew up with Anya around!"

~*~*~

Amanda wondered at the bittersweet pained expression both younger men had at the mention of the name Anya. Duncan was going to completely lose it over this bunch when he met them. Methos was going to adore them. Joe too.

"Oh boy, spiderwebs, please tell me the spiders and creepy crawly things are hibernating or something." Buffy muttered. "Why can't people hide stuff in places that aren't icky and full of spiderwebs?"

"Other than rats and voles, quite likely." Giles spoke up.

"You had to say rats." the youngest, Dawn, muttered.

"Can ya shed a little light on things, Will?" Xander asked.

"Light" the redheaded girl said holding out her hand. A bright glowing white ball of energy formed in it.

"Guess we lead the way, Will," Buffy said.

The boy, Andrew murmured a complicated gurgle of syllables that Amanda couldn't quite make out and he too had a glowing ball of light, his a dim wavery yellow orange, but would certainly help those further back from Willow's white light to not trip over their own feet.

~*~*~

The passage led to a sealed door which seemed to be the entrance to the chamber they were looking for.

"Giles, there's some heavy magicks on the door. And a good deal of runes." Willow said.

"Let me see."

Twenty minutes later Dawn demanded with chattering teeth, "Are we about done yet? I'm frozen."

"Shh." Giles waved a hand in her direction and continued his translating.

Andrew managed to make a small magical fire for them to gather around. Willow seeing that added her own shivering spell to Andrew's that increased the heat given off.

"Willow, come here--" Giles called, nearly an hour after Dawn complained.

Willow, under Giles nervous direction managed to open the spells on the door.

The chamber looked to be the entrance to a vast catacomb of chambers, and--it seemed all the centuries of portable wealth that Ramirez had acquired had been hoarded down into these chambers, and there, on a table in the center of the room was what appeared to be a mummy, the frail centuries old clothing recognizable as the set of clothes Giles had last seen Ramirez wearing.

"Bloody hell,"

"There's --well there's magic on everything. I'd guess preservation spells, vermin and damp repelling spells, it's so dry down here..." Willow said looking around in awe.

"I have my sword, just in case it isn't that old peacock" Amanda spoke up.

"It's him," Giles said with a certainty as he moved to pull the jewel hilted dagger from the "mummy's" chest.

"Wiggy," Buffy muttered watching the slow restoration of the corpse in front of them.

"Willow--a the language modification spell that was in the chest--do you remember it?"

The man on the table gasped for breath.

"Hot for an old dude," Buffy murmured. The mustache was mostly still black, the goatee more salt and pepper the hair a mixture of steel gray silver, and the tenacious strand of black still here and there hanging in mix.

"Especially one who was all King Tut-y a bit ago" Dawn added.

"Girls," Giles said out of habit, not truly hearing a word they said.

Willow cast the translation spell quickly.

"I see you returned home safely, Rupert,"

"That I did." Giles grinned. "And you have your head safely upon your shoulders."

"Ambrosius and I discussed the matter. Far safer for me to be here than adversely affect the time lines as you were worried about with young Meg, and I must say, you're quite right, the lass does look startlingly like Meg did."

"Young Meg? Giles you dog," Xander chuckled.

"Xander really..."

"Hello, you old coot" Amanda smiled.

Ramirez blinked taking in the trousers that Amanda and the girls wore, Amanda's hair shorn nearly as short as a Witch's the day before the poor soul was taken to the bonfire. "Amanda, you look well. Young Connor?"

"He's fine. So is Duncan and Methos."

"So, Methos has his head," Ramirez grinned. "I did tell you I wouldn't be surprised if he was still about,"

"Indeed you did."

"Okay, Giles, your hottie's here and living now can we go inside and warm up?" Buffy whined. "And did I just say that about..."

Willow nodded.

"This is going to take some getting used to."

Xander and Willow both nodded at that.

"It's after midnight! It's Christmas. Presents!" Dawn crowed.

"Hottie?" Ramirez frowned.

"She means you're drool worthy." Andrew offered.

"I did try to warn you about the children." Giles offered tiredly.

"Is drool worthy a good thing?"

"It means you are very fine looking with a handsome face and nice body," Giles said awkwardly.

"Freezing here! Hot cocoa! Christmas Presents! Movies! Now! Pleeaaasse" Dawn half-demanded half whined.

"Movies?" Ramirez questioned.

"It’s easier to show you than to explain. Come, Xander, do you have anything Juan can wear?"

"Yeah, I got some extra sweats and a sweater at least."

"Sweats? Sweater?" Ramirez frowned.

"Comfortable, warm, wear about the house type clothing" Giles offered.

"I do believe your century and your children are going to take a bit of adjusting to but it should prove interesting."

Giles smiled. Ramirez smiled back.

"I don't know whether to be all aww this is so sweet or God where's the brain bleach? Can we go in where it's warm now? Christmas in a room at the end of a secret tunnel in a tomb is a bit much even for us."