Buffy threw herself at Giles, the ferocity of her embrace jolting him out of the disconnected, almost trance-like state he’d been in since Jo walked away.
The door opened and they stepped apart.
‘Forgot my stuff,’ said Didier sheepishly, casting an intrigued glance at the other two occupants of the room, who didn’t take their eyes off each other for a second, as he gathered his things together and quickly departed.
‘Why are you here? How are you here?’
‘It’s kind of a long story, you have to promise not to freak out.’
This wasn’t going to be good, Giles hadn’t seen that defiant pout on Buffy’s face in a long time. He braced himself, however before she could start, the door opened again.
‘Excellent,’ enthused Martin Stanger. ‘I see you two have finally met.’
He went up to Buffy, a little too close for Giles’ liking.
‘I’ve just been told that you and Miss Kelly had a disagreement,’ he smiled indulgently. ‘Lee used the phrase ‘kicked ass’ more than once.’
Martin put a hand on Buffy’s shoulder.
‘You’re alright?’ He asked softly.
Giles felt a surge of anger towards the man stood in ‘his’ place.
Buffy nodded, still looking at Giles.
‘Holding your own against a Slayer, another surprise. Elizabeth you do keep us on our toes.’
‘Elizabeth?’ Queried Giles.
‘You two really have just met,’ said Martin with a laugh. ‘This is Elizabeth Winters.’
He then turned to Buffy.
‘Miss Winters, do you know who this is? He asked gesturing in his boss’ direction.
‘Totally.’
At last Martin picked up on the tension in the room.
‘Don’t be too hard on her, Mr Giles. Elizabeth is capable of great things,’ he said grinning at Buffy proudly, irritating Giles further.
‘Well I’m going home, if I hurry I’ll get there in time to ignore my wife and watch the match.’
‘Chelsea versus Ajax,’ murmured Giles.
‘Yes, should be a good one. I’ll see you both tomorrow.’
With a final nod to Giles and a smile at Buffy he withdrew.
‘Giles, I…’
‘No Buffy. Do you know what you have done? Have you any idea of the lengths we - I have to go to in order to keep the existence of this place secret, to keep all these people safe?’
An image of Kennedy came unbidden into his mind and he briefly closed his eyes.
‘I’m not sure what disappoints me the most. The fact that you managed to utterly compromise the security arrangements, gain access and remain undetected.’
He snatched his glasses off, rubbed his eyes, and fixing Buffy with an unshielded glare continued.
‘Or or the fact that you have been lying to me about your whereabouts for the last three sodding months.’
Giles listened to himself harangue Buffy, feeling increasingly conflicted. Her thoughtless actions made him furious and yet on a day when he had been forced to revisit the two most shameful incidents of his entire existence, Giles was having trouble concealing his delight at once again being in the presence of the woman, whom amongst other things, represented the best of what he had achieved with his life. And she was The Slayer, did even his own now exalted position give him the right to yell at her as if she were the most junior of Potentials? He gave up, succumbing to his first instinct.
‘That said, a-and believe me we will talk about this properly, I can’t tell you how glad I am that you are here.’
‘Yeah? Cos you look like you’re about to go postal,’ Buffy joked half-heartedly, unsure how to react.
He smiled.
Giles wanted to touch her again, but the gap between them suddenly seemed impossibly huge. Silence built up only to be broken by the sound of the door.
‘Sir, glad I found you…’
‘Not now, Mark.’
The secretary paused, confusion written all over his face.
‘But there’s…’
‘Unless it is an apocalypse, it can wait until tomorrow. Go home.’
‘Yes, sir.’ said Mark dejectedly as he slunk out.
Giles realised that they were never going to be left alone.
‘I’m going as well and you’re coming with me. There are too many distractions here. Go and get changed, it’s very cold outside. I’ll be waiting in reception.’
He walked off leaving Buffy to pick up her bag, run off to her room, search through her meagre wardrobe and try to work out what the hell she was going to wear.
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