Never Letting Go: Part 2
by Lildrusilla
“Hello, Ripper.”

Giles glared at Ethan.

“What the hell is this?” he demanded. Ethan strolled over to Jenny, who was looking from Ethan to Giles and back again, puzzled.

“Weren’t you listening to Jenny? I’m visiting my wife.” On the last word, Ethan put his arm around Jenny’s shoulders, and staring mockingly at Giles. Furious, Giles jumped from his seat, and, before Jenny or Ethan could react, punched Ethan in the face. He landed hard on the floor. In a blind rage, Giles kicked him in the stomach.

Jenny screamed. Giles went to kick Ethan again, and she grabbed his shoulders and tried to pull him away. Giles paused, and turned to her, and Ethan jumped up and punched him. Jenny tried to separate the two of them, but with no luck. Suddenly, her eyes fluttered, and her legs seemed to give way under her. Giles caught her before she hit the floor, and Ethan aimed another punch, as two nurses and a doctor entered the room and pulled the two of them apart.

“I’m going to have to ask both of you to get out of this room _now_!” said the doctor, as the two nurses lifted Jenny back onto the hospital bed. “Mrs. Rayne’s hurt, she needs to rest. Get outside, and of you can’t settle your differences like civilized people, I’ll have you both thrown out of the hospital.”

Both men left, albeit reluctantly, Giles because he was concerned for Jenny, and Ethan because he was concerned for his own skin. As soon as they were out of the room, Giles turned to Ethan.

“What the hell do you think you’re playing at?” he asked with narrowed eyes. Ethan shrugged nonchalantly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ripper.”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. And if I don’t get an explanation now, I’ll kill you,” Giles replied coldly.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Wouldn’t I?” Ethan saw that Giles was deadly serious. He shut up. “Now, since when have you and Jenny been married? As I recall, last time I saw her, she felt disgusted and sick whenever someone mentioned your name? And, come to think of it, why is she alive, and why doesn’t she remember me?”

Sighing like a child whose fun had been spoilt, Ethan started talking.

“I’m not sure what happened, exactly, but after they let me out of that desert jail, they shipped me off to Romania, and I found her in a hospital there. Small world, isn’t it?” he grinned. Giles cracked his knuckles menacingly.

“Don’t look at me like that Ethan, people don’t just suddenly come back to life after they’ve had their necks snapped.” Ethan held his hands up.

“Don’t look at me like that, I was as surprised as you are. If she was in Romania, it probably had something to do with her gypsy family.”

“Even if you are telling the truth, Ethan, which I very much doubt, why has she lost her memory?” Ethan shrugged again.

“She was in a coma when I found her, the doctors said that was probably something to do with it. When she woke up, she didn’t remember a thing. Not even that vampire friend of yours, and you would think she had cause to remember him.” Giles gritted his teeth at Ethan’s description of Jenny’s murderer as his friend. It was just one more thing to chalk up on the list of things that he hated about Ethan.

“So she was in a hospital, in Romania, in a coma, with amnesia.” Giles summed up. “And the fact that she seems to think you’re married to her?” Ethan smirked.

“What can I say? True love ran its course.” Giles was absolutely furious. Barely managing to restrain himself from punching Ethan he replied through gritted teeth.

“You don’t love her, Ethan, you’ve never loved anyone in your life. You’re too selfish to know what real love is. You’re just using her, and that’s too cruel and depraved to put into words.”

“Why don’t you prove it?” Ethan asked “Prove I’m just using her. Prove I don’t love her.”

Giles eyes darkened, “I once heard it said that people in love told each other everything. Does she know about Eyghon? Have you told her that because of you she was nearly destroyed? That she was still having nightmares months later? Or did you conveniently forget that little detail.”

“Oh, its all because of me now, is it?” Ethan asked. “Funny, I seem to remember you having a fully active part in summoning Eyghon in the first place. And when it came back, you were too drunk to be able to do anything, including save your precious Jenny.”

Furious, Giles grabbed Ethan’s shirt and pulled him towards him.

“I loved her more than anything. Far more than you ever will. I still do.”

“Ah, well, I’m afraid you’ll have a hard time proving that. How will you explain to her why you weren’t there when she needed you?” Giles stopped for a moment.

“I’ll tell her the truth.” Ethan laughed.

“What truth? The truth that she was killed by a vampire, and magically brought back to life? The truth that she was possessed by a demon that you helped to summon, but that you love her, and I don’t? She won’t believe you, because humans simply don’t have the emotional capacity to take in something like that. But it’ll prey on her mind, it’ll make her question everything, it’ll make her scared, she won’t know who to trust, and she will _never_ recover. You claim to love her, and you’d do that to her? You wanted to take the nightmares away before, but you’re happy to give them back to her now?”

“What chance does she have with you?” Giles snapped.

“With me, she’s got a life where she’s happy, where she can understand what’s happened to her.”

“But its all lies.”

“So? Face it Ripper, all she’ll have with you is a lifetime of misery. You’re just angry, because I’ve got Jenny and you haven’t.”

Giles stepped away, hating Ethan, but knowing what he said was true.

“If you hurt her,” he hissed at Ethan, “I’ll kill you.”

Then he walked away.

***3 days later***

Giles wandered past Sunnydale Hospital. He’d been there yesterday, and the day before that, hoping to catch a glimpse of Jenny coming out. Pathetic, he knew, but he couldn’t help it.

As it happened, the time he was walking past did coincide with Jenny’s release from hospital. He watched her walk across the car park with Ethan, whose arm was around her shoulders. When they reached a car, he watched Ethan open the door for Jenny, and lean down to kiss her. Giles turned away from the scene, disgust, and pure hatred for Ethan radiating from him.

He walked into the Magic Box; oblivious of Anya’s cheery “Good morning”, heading straight for the training room in the back. As soon as he got in, he began punching the sandbag, hard, pretending it was Eyghon, Angelus, but most of all, Ethan Rayne. As he was slowly working out his frustrations, Xander entered.

“Hey, G-man!” he said enthusiastically. It grated on Giles’s already fraught nerves.

“I’ve told you never to call me that,” he said through gritted teeth. His tone caught Xander by surprise.

“I think someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning.” Giles deliberately ignored him, clinging to his last shreds of patience.

“Come on, Giles, you can tell me your problems. Just think of me as a friendly guy you can always talk to.” Giles snapped.

“Is that before or after I think of you as an insensitive, annoying idiot? My life is my business, and should I wish to discuss it with anyone, you would be far from the top of my list.” He walked out of the shop before Xander could comment, and headed home to drink himself into oblivion.




This story archived at: The Slayer\'s Fanfic Archive
The Slayer\\\\\\\\'s FanFic Archive - http://www.slayerfanfic.com/viewstory.php?sid=4027