Dew drives, rain falls

"Okay, can you please tell me what you are talking about?" Xander asked very puzzled. "The new guy doesn't just know about vampires, he knows about slayers and watchers too?!"

Giles' looked at Graham, who slightly nodded his agreement for Giles to tell the story. "Graham Miller is the only boy, who was ever trained as a slayer." Giles started and was immediately interrupted by a storm of 'What?!', 'Why?!' and 'How?!'.

"Hey, shut up you sissys and let the watcher talk!" Spike said and earned a scowl from the slayer and annoyed looks from the others. "What? It's quite an interesting story..." He smiled brightly.

"Well, I think I start with the 'why'." Giles continued. "You know the Watchers Council is constantly searching for girls with the ability to become slayers, Kendra was one. They are hopefully found early in their lives and will be prepared and trained for their duty. They are called 'slayers-in-training' and Angelin Miller was one of those."

"Oh Goddess..." Willow's voice was barely a whisper when she finally understood who Graham's slayer had been. She took his hand in hers and earned a sad smile from him.

Giles' eyes became a little dreamy when he went on with the story. "I was with the Council in London when the request from the watcher Anna-Belle Hurley came in. It seemed that she had found promising slayer qualities in not only her 'slayer-in-training', but in the girl's twin brother as well and the request was to be allowed to include him in the training. It took several months for the Council to decide whether or not this was a good idea, since a boy could never be chosen as a slayer, nevertheless could he be of great help for his sister, was she the chosen one." Giles turned to Graham. "I don't believe Anna-Belle waited for an answer from the Council before starting your training, did she?"

"No, she really didn't." Graham smile was now less sad and more roguish. "I don't even know why she bother to ask for permission when she already had included me in the training and lessons from the beginning."

"That's what I thought." Giles smiled. "So, at the age of thirteen Angelin was called and she was very good, actually the best sofar in the 20th century..."

"Except for Buffy, right?" Xander asked a little offended on his friend's behalf.

"No, I'm sorry Buffy, but Angelin was resourceful and had your ability of improvise together with Kendra's dedication to the duty."

"So, what did you do to her on her eighteenth birthday?" Buffy asked slightly jealous of this girl who had Giles' admiration.

"Nothing, she never reached eighteen..." Was Giles' sad answer.

"What? Why? If she was as good as you say, she would still live, right Giles?" Willow asked very curious.

"I don't really know what happened. All I know was that in the spring of 1995 we were informed that another watcher, Merrick, had been sent to California to find the next slayer - Buffy Summers."

"Oh." Buffy looked quite taken aback by this information. She had met the two slayers succeeding her but for natural reasons none of the ones before her. It suddenly struck her that just because neither Kendra nor Faith had had family or friends, she might not be the only slayer in history who had. Those girls, the slayers who preceded her, some of them may have had people close to them, family and friends who were now grieving them...and one of them was here. She looked over at Graham, who sat beside Willow on the couch holding her hand like he never wanted to let her go. "I'm so sorry." Buffy quietly told him and got a small smile in return.

"Didn't the watcher write anything in her diary about the death of her slayer?" Anya suddenly piped up.

"No, just the date." Giles said and turned to Graham. "Maybe you know more?"

Graham was quiet for a while, then decided to finally tell somebody of the worst memory of his life: "She was killed by a vampire king named Lucian." He spit the name out with a lot of hold back anger. "He lured her to a dungeon by the beach and tortured her in more ways than I ever wanted to know existed. I think it went on for hours before he finally drained her blood."

"How come she didn't fight him off? I mean the greatest slayer of the century..." Xander asked.

"She couldn't, he got a hold on her and if you excuse me I'll go get some fresh air." Graham suddenly rose and went for the door.

"Wait, I'll go with you!" Willow got up from the couch and went after him.

"No offence, but I want to be alone for a while..."

"Oh, okay..." Willow watched him leave and then sat down again, a worried look on her face.

"I don't get it!" Xander frowned. "She was better than Buffy, but she let the vampire do all those horrible things to her?!"

"You really are a moron, I hardly believe she let him." Spike said his voice full of despise for the boy.

"Yeah, I wonder what hold he got on her, I wish nobody ever get that on me..." Buffy said as she wrapped a sweater around her suddenly chilled body.

"He must have been there, how else could he have seen her being tortured and killed...God, that must have been so horrible." Willow whispered and looked at the door where Graham had left.

"But why didn't he do anything? He was trained as a slayer, right? Why did he just sit there and watch her die?!" Anya asked annoyance in her voice and Xander nodded in agreement with her question.

Willow became really angry with her friends for their assumptions, she didn't thought Graham could ever just sit and watch anybody die, much less his twin sister, he would have done everything in his power to save her. She opened her mouth to protest, but was interrupted by a defense from a direction nobody had imagine.

"Well, I don't think either of you had contributed very much if you were chained to a stone wall and had a skewer through your gut." Spike said and his voice as cold as the looks he gave the ex-demon and her boy.

Five pair of eyes looked at the vampire in disbelief while the meaning of his words slowly sank into their minds.

"God, he was the vampire's hold on her..." Buffy whispered with tear-filled eyes and Willow broke down crying.