Buffy Summers bounded up the school steps, eager to race into Sunnydale High's dim, dull and dreary library. School wouldn't begin for another week, but the Slayer knew that her Watcher would already be firmly entrenched in his recently restructured library. It was a peanut-butter and jam thing, you just didn't anticipate the one without the other.
The late August sun streamed down on her blonde head, it's golden brillance unobscured in a cloudless sky. The trees were a rich green around her, bird's chirping optimistically within their branches and the entire world seemed fresh, clear and vibrantly alive. Pausing to inhale deeply, Buffy felt her smile widen in echo to her soul's delight with life. Humming contentedly, she pushed the school doors open. Nothing could bring her down today.
* * *
Giles sat wearily at the table, looking around himself with blank, dismayed confusion. He had never felt alone before, not during his childhood or during the solitary years alone as a Watcher awaiting his Slayer. But, the Slayer had brought some special people into his life, and they had filled a gap he hadn't even realized existed.
Looking at the computer in the corner, he could still clearly picture Willow sitting there, her crooked smile twirking the corners of her mouth. Behind her lurked the ghost image of Xander, peering down over her shoulder and silently teasing her.
Who would have thought that Giles would miss the sound of children teasing one another? And what he wouldn't give to see those two tease one another again.
But they never would. Not now.
Disgusted with his self-pity, Giles lurched from the chair, and stomped over to his office, intending to grab one of a zillion volumes of Prophecies to stupify his brain. Hand raised to the door, he froze as another mental picture, this time of Angel sneaking up behind him in the office, flashed through his brain.
Angel, the vampire with a soul and a conscience. Angel, who had helped Giles decipher prophecy's and fought so hard to avert them. The dark haired young-appearing man who held Buffy's heart and been a true ally, bringing as much aid as he could. Giles could still see the agony in Angel's eye, and once again felt the overwhelming empathy for the vampire. They had tried so hard, and yet, they had paid such a price...
"Enough!" Giles shouted at himself. "This is ridiculous...I can't be constantly haunted by these memories..I HAVE to stay HERE!" He punctuated his frustration by slamming his fist into the door.
"Woah! Not enough coffee, or tea, or whatever you Brit's drink for caffeine..this morning!" Buffy brightly intoned behind him. Giles was slightly more rumpled than she had left him four weeks ago, but, still intact. She smiled cheerfully.
Giles spun around to face his Slayer. "Buffy." He mumbled. Absently, and rather haphazardly, he tugged his glasses off and ran his hand through his hair. He seemed to disappear into some dank corner of his mind, before returning suddenly. "Uh..I....ah, that is..Hello. H--how was your, uh..vacation?"
Buffy's forehead creased with bemusement. "My vacation was excellent. Very restful. I highly recommend it, for you in particular, and the world in general."
"That's nice." Giles pushed his office door open, practically bolting in, grabbing a book at random, and racing out. As if outracing demons.
Buffy felt her lips twist as she tried to repress a giggle. Her happy euphoria couldn't even be dimmed by Giles. Trailing after him with a bounce in her step, she spun a chair around and straddled it.
"Where's Willow? You seen her recently?" The question popped out of nowhere, one of a million social questions that Buffy had percolating in her brain.
Giles response was more spectatular. He entirely missed the chair he was about to sit in. Buffy jumped up to help him up, only now beginning to get suspicious of his behaviour.
"Well, Giles? Have you seen her? Or, how about Xander or Angel?" Buffy prodded.
"N-nno. I haven't seen Xander. I...is he back from his holidays as well?" Giles skipped past the former and the later for the one in the middle. At least that was a question he could honestly answer.
"Should be." Buffy resituated herself on the chair, her chin rested on her forearms across the high back. "He left before me, and was supposed to be back before me."
"Oh." The answer was halfhearted, and more than slightly disinterested. The Watcher instead focused his gaze on the book, silently cursing the foolish haste that made him grab it. Aesop's Fables, in their original germanic text. Somehow, he doubted he'd get any great pearls of wisdom out of this.
Buffy gave a little grunt at him, his head shot up. "So, I answered the Xander question for YOU," she stressed. "How about you tackle the Willow question for me?" She levelled a sweet saccharine smile at him.
Frustration , anger and dismay flooded him, and it raced like shadows across his features, despite the best effort to contain it. " I can't."
Buffy let a little frown mar her face. "Can't or won't?" She leaned forward on the chair, her rear end lifted off the seat. "Somethings going on, Giles..and I want to know what."
Giles stared at the hard eyes of the Slayer. In his worst imaginings, he didn't think this would get as ugly as he now feared it would. The promise he had made again asserted itself firmly in his brain, and he shied away from his desire to just tell the truth.
He opened his mouth, prepared to deliver a total false account of his interactions with Willow.
The library door slammed open. "She's GONE!" Xander's bellow was filled with pain. The boy came into their view. He was breathing heavy, as if he had run the entire way, and tear-trails marked along his face. "Willow's gone. Her parents say she disappeared two weeks ago....they went to the police, and everything..and they had to...they think she's..." Xander stopped, taking a deep breath. He extended a clenched hand, a slim sheet of paper crumpled within that firm grip. "They gave me a note she left me..if she were to...they..she..with all the accidents that happen around here, the cops said she might be d-ddead."
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