Buffy was thirty-thousand feet in the air and staring at something she had never seen before - Giles was asleep. With the causal indifference of a frequent flyer and the willing surrender of someone who’d been awake for a very long time, he’d drifted off more or less immediately on boarding the plane.
In direct contrast Buffy was very nearly hyper, totally rejuvenated by the micro-sleep she’d grabbed before the meeting and thrilled to be in business class, revelling in all the tiny luxuries that made it such a different experience from economy.
He clearly needed to be unconscious right now and she didn’t mean to be selfish, yet Buffy couldn’t help hoping that Giles would wake up and talk to her. Surrounded by fellow travellers they couldn’t discuss what they were going to do, however they could have spoken about what they were becoming.
In a single day they’d gone from being two people whose last face-to-face had ended with one of them making the other bleed to - to what? One of the first things Nihal had said in her presentation was that Giles had told the Senior Watchers about the strength of their bond, Buffy was so going to make him tell her what he had said. And if Giles was perfectly capable of explaining their relationship to his colleagues, he was definitely going to have to do the same for her because she was feeling a little lost.
She hadn’t known what to expect, her worst fear - rejection, certainly hadn’t been realised. And whilst Buffy knew that Giles was unlikely to be a spontaneous hearts and flowers kind of guy, his calm acceptance of her presence and romantic intentions was as puzzling as it was pleasurable. Buffy was used to paying a high price for love, she‘d never thought that things would be so simple with the most complex man she’d ever known. It was if he’d been waiting for her, she thought back to a conversation that had taken place nearly two years before and knew that he had.
********************
The bus was stopped at a deserted gas station. Only a couple of hours had passed since the defeat of The First. Numbness had given away to post-battle adrenalin and The Potentials were high on it. In a flash of inspiration Dawn went and bought a ball, soon a wild game of something that wasn’t quite soccer and wasn’t quite football was taking place in the dirt as they let off steam.
Needing space, Xander and Willow walked in the opposite direction to talk, to cry, to remember. Faith went to settle a dispute about the score that was turning violent and found herself roped into the game, Buffy stayed on the bus, laying down on a seat staring at the ceiling, trying not to think about anything just yet.
Giles and Wood were sitting outside in the shadow of the bus, through the open windows Buffy could hear every word they were saying, and a general conversation between two people who didn’t really know each other took an unexpectedly emotional turn; as the shock of what they’d been through prompted each man to talk far more openly with the other than they ever normally would.
‘You’re going to rebuild the Watchers’ Council?’
‘Yes,’ said Giles confidently. ‘It is needed.’
‘Will you take Buffy with you?’
‘I’m hoping very much that Buffy won’t need a Watcher. Now she is no longer standing alone, she can be safe.’
‘If you were honest with her she’d go,’ cajoled Wood. ‘I see it, man. Everytime you are near her. Looks a lot like love.’
‘I’m sure that it does,’ conceded Giles with an air of finality.
‘Then tell her,’ urged Wood. ‘New beginnings are happening, start something with Buffy.’
‘I doubt very much that what Buffy needs to hear right now is that her middle-aged Watcher wishes to spend his life with her.’
Giles was trying for sarcasm, but sounding sad.
‘Or it is exactly what she needs to hear.’
‘No, it wouldn’t be right.’
Wood let out a snort of exasperation.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ He asked.
There was a pause.
‘In the last few w-weeks…The Council was….’ Giles floundered. ‘The Council was everything. I have lost more than I can readily conceive. It it would be so easy to fall into someone’s arms and never get up again.’
He sighed heavily.
‘The Council must be restored. It all needs to carry on,’ Giles sounded as if he was trying to convince himself as much as Wood. ‘I have to carry on, because now there is no one else to do so.’
‘You’ve got your first volunteer right here,’ said Wood seriously.
‘Welcome to the family.’
********************
Giles was hardly more forthcoming when he did wake up. Now, as they got closer to Sunnydale, he had shut off entirely.
‘Jeez Giles, slow down. Saving the world’ll be easier if you don’t drive us into a truck,’ admonished Buffy.
‘Wanker shouldn’t be on the road,’ He remarked, forcing an oncoming car to brake sharply as he overtook the battered farm lorry.
‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ Cried Buffy.
‘Nothing.’
No sooner had he said that then they reached the city limits and rapidly became lost.
‘This is stupid, there isn’t that much here,’ said Buffy angrily. ‘We’ve driven past the seven-eleven twice.’
‘Thanks for pointing that out.’
The problem was that between the cranes, ditches and construction sites, enough of an urban area had already been established to totally throw Buffy and Giles off. Intellectually they knew that Sunnydale had become somewhere new to them, but they couldn’t help looking around for familiar landmarks that were long gone. It was disconcerting and depressing.
‘Let’s ask for directions.’
‘No, I know where I’m going.’
‘Typical man,’ retorted Buffy through gritted teeth.
‘Oh for Christ’s sake, if you can’t say anything useful do be quiet.’
That did it.
‘Don’t talk to me like I’m one of your council suck-ups!’
‘I’ll talk to you how I damn well please,’ spat back Giles. ‘How dare you be so dismissive of those people.’
‘Oh no mustn’t do that because The Council are the good guys now. Tell me, how many eighteen year olds have you had shot up with poison recently?’
Giles brought the car to a skidding halt.
‘Get out!’
‘I’m gone!’
He got out too, and began restlessly pacing up and down. Buffy didn’t go far, it was enough to not be confined anymore. Suddenly Giles slammed his hand onto the car roof, she span round to look at him.
‘It isn’t us,’ he called across to her. ‘This is hate, we were warned it would be infectious.’
‘What, we’re demons now?’
Buffy looked so exaggeratedly horror struck, Giles was amused.
‘No, no we’re not,’ he placated. ‘It would seem that the effect of The Khatojanan’s activites is rather potent. There appears to literally be something in the air.’
‘And it had us in five seconds,’ said Buffy, deflated. ‘We need to sharpen up.’
‘Agreed.’
They got back in the car, neither of them trusting themselves to speak, anxious to avoid another row. In silence they eventually found the motel, checked in with an extremely surly receptionist and tried to work out what to do next.
‘Bugger this I need a drink. You coming?’
‘Sure, tie one on. Like that’ll help,’ sneered Buffy as Giles walked off.
At length Buffy decided she had to go and find him, which wouldn’t be too hard as there were only two bars on the main street. Even though right now she wanted to be nowhere near Giles, it would be safer if they were together. The last thing they needed was for him to really lose it. She’d only seen Ripper-lite, a sixteen year old acting out a petty rebellion, Buffy didn’t know what would happen if the full-on version came out to play - it wouldn’t be of the good, she was sure of that.
Giles wasn’t in the bar, but the dingy alley next to it having been reluctantly forced outside on being told that smoking was banned in all public buildings. A few metres deeper into the darkness a woman started screaming.
Buffy ran up.
‘Aren’t you going to help them?’
A scuffle could be heard taking place.
‘I don’t think that I am.’
With a disgusted glare, Buffy shot past him into the darkness. She grabbed hold of the back of the assailant’s leather jacket, then in one fluid movement pulled him around and punched him straight in the face.
‘Ow! Bloody hell woman! Couldn’t you ’ave just said hello?’
‘Spike?’
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