Title: Charades 21/24
Author: Magpie and Wolfling
Email: magpie@moracle.co.uk and wolfling@sympatico.ca
Show: Buffy
Rating: NC-17
Category: angst, hurt/comfort
Warnings: spoilers up to the end of Chosen
Pairings: Giles/Ethan
Series: Of Old Mystics, sequel to Sleight of Hand
Summary: Searching for meaning in the signs and symbols of life.

Author Notes: Many thanks to Mad Poetess and Wesleysgirl for betaing :) This is the third story in the Of Old Mystics series; previous stories in the series can be found
http://www.myarseisnotpansy.co.uk/piedm/mystics.html.

Ethan sat on the edge of Rupert's canvas-covered desk and folded his arms while he watched the workmen, a sour expression on his face. Not that he was in a bad mood. All the building work going on was for his benefit after all. It was just that the noise, dust and crassness of the workforce wasn't exactly a soothing environment.

Still, he told himself, it would be worth it when he was properly moved in to the office next door, to which this new doorway would connect.

Rupert looked at the workmen, then at his desk, his expression not much different than Ethan's. "Right," he finally said, turning on his heel and heading for the original door. "Shall we see if we can commandeer a conference room to get some work done in?"

"I strongly suspect Pammie will already have organised one for you, dear," Ethan said with a smile as he followed his husband. Then the large man with the masonry drill started it up again, so that was it for conversation until they were in the outside office, and it was loud enough even there.

Pamela gave them both a somewhat strained smile as she looked up from her work. "Sorry about the noise," Rupert told her. "They told me they should be able to finish today."

She nodded, then winced as a particularly shrill whine came vibrating through the wall. There was something about it that spoke of unpleasant dentist related experiences to Ethan. "I moved your work to Conference Room Six, sir," Pamela said, handing Rupert a key. "Do call if you need anything, won't you?" Then she added pathetically, but with a twinkle in her eye, " Please?"

"If you want to take an extra long lunch today, Pamela, no one will say anything," Rupert replied with a faint smile, having to raise his voice to be heard over the sounds coming from his office.

She smiled at him gratefully and handed him a folder with some loose papers in. "Items that arrived after I moved your in-tray," she explained. "The most important one is on the top. Lucy Harkness called with the location of three newly discovered Slayers."

"Oh good." Rupert opened the folder and read over the top paper, then passed it to Ethan. "Looks like one is not only in this country, but within driving distance."

Ethan's flicked his eyes over it. The girl was in a suburb of Oxford, which was easily close enough for a visit. It was a nice bright winter's day, and a drive with his husband could be just what any doctor worth his salt would order, if Ethan ruled the world anyway. Especially as the dogs were with Buffy and Xander today; they were visiting Dawn for an afternoon in Cambridge, and the girl had begged to see the puppies again.

"No time like the present to make first contact," he suggested happily.

"Exactly my thought." Turning back to Pamela, Rupert asked, "Is there anything that requires my immediate attention?"

"Nothing that couldn't wait until late this afternoon, sir," she replied with a knowing grin.

"Good girl, Pammie," Ethan said, chuckling. "This is why you're irreplaceable, you know."

"Thank you, Pamela," Rupert said formally. "We'll be heading out then. I have my cell with me if you need to reach us." He put the key to the conference room back onto the desk.

As they walked through the corridors, Ethan grinned at Rupert. "So far this particular working week is turning out to be just smashing."

"There's paperwork I have to do eventually," Rupert warned, "but a field trip every now and then isn't a bad thing. Keeps me in touch."

Ethan chuckled. "Who knows, now that I have my own office, I might actually do some of my own paperwork. It's possible."

"That would be a sign of impending apocalypse."

Ethan whacked Rupert lightly on the arse, just because he could. "Well, at least I've had some good reading material since Christmas. And the book Dawn gave me is near as damn it work-friendly."

Rupert smiled and held the door to the carpark open. "I wouldn't mind a look at that volume myself when you're finished. Dawn seems to have an uncanny knack of finding rare and unique things. I think we'll have to see about putting her in charge of Council Acquisitions when her education is finished."

A flicker of something uncomfortable passed through Ethan with Rupert's words. Some disquiet about Dawn's future connected to his belief that she was, as the Key, connected to their own destiny. But he quickly shook the uncertainty aside and smiled as they went through the door. "Astrology is usually a bit too orderly and structured for me. A little too much like maths. But this Cremonenis volume is very amusing."

"Which would explain the chuckling you've been doing when reading it."

"Well, I do have Venus in my fall like every respectable sodomite, apparently," Ethan said with a loud laugh. They approached Rupert's BMW. "Has it struck you as at all interesting that we're going to Oxford together, dearheart?"

"You mean because we didn't twenty years ago?" Rupert glanced over at him as he opened the driver's door.

"Well, it was the place I least wanted you to be, after all."

"Actually I think the place you least wanted me to be was... " Rupert looked back over his shoulder at the Council building they just exited. "...here."

Ethan laughed a little ruefully. "True enough." He slipped into the passenger's seat and belted up. "And now I have my very own office here. I've sold out, dear. Become part of the establishment I rebelled against. Like all true superstars, of course." He winked at Rupert.

Rupert put the key in the ignition and smiled wryly. "I'm not sure if the fact I did it twenty years ago makes me precocious... or unremittingly dull."

Ethan put his hand on Rupert's leg and squeezed. "The one thing you've never quite managed, no matter how hard you've tried at times, is 'dull'."

"That's not what you've said in the past," Rupert replied, but nonetheless looked pleased at the comment.

"I said a lot of things before we refound each other. I sincerely hope you took none of them as gospel."

Rupert seemed to be thinking about that far more than Ethan liked. "Most of the time I didn't," he finally said.

As they drove out into Central London, Ethan dwelled upon that, eventually asking softly, "What things did you take to heart?"

"The things that hit a little too close to the bone." Rupert glanced at him before turning back to navigating through the traffic. "You always knew me better than anyone -- even myself. And you used that knowledge like a weapon during the years."

Which was true enough. Ethan sighed heavily, remembering those days with distaste and sadness. "I needed you so very badly, and you desired nothing to do with me. So I wanted to hurt you for the crime of making me hurt. I'm sorry. Truly."

"I know. So am I. For all I did to you during that time." Rupert reached for Ethan's hand as he continued ruefully, "No one was ever able to get under my skin like you. I often reacted... badly."

Ethan squeezed Rupert's hand before releasing it so his husband could use the gearstick. "Enough past trauma. It's a brave new world, and we are going to Oxford together. It's symbolically sound, I think. Although I insist we stop on the way for morning coffee."

Rupert chuckled. "Didn't you get enough before we left home?"

"It's not really the coffee I want," Ethan admitted. "I like eating out with you, even if it's only a teacake or something. And we don't do it a lot."

"No, we don't. But we could do it more if you want," Rupert offered willingly enough.

"Good food that we don't have to prepare ourselves, and you. What was there about that combination that you thought I wouldn't love?" Ethan chuckled.

"The audience?" Rupert paused and then added, "Ah yes, an audience is not a problem for you."

"The busier the restaurant, the easier it would be for me to hide us," Ethan pointed out. "Although that might make attracting a waiter's attention rather difficult."

Rupert reached over and patted Ethan's leg. "I'm sure we'll manage to work something out. Any particular restaurant you want me to show you off at?"

Ethan thought about it. "Well, I quite fancy Gary Rhodes..." He grinned wickedly at Rupert. "His food looks nice too."

"I should've guessed," Rupert said with a good-natured eye roll. Ethan smiled happily and settled back in his seat. This was going to be a pleasant journey.

And indeed it was.

With the stop for coffee and what turned out to look a little more like a large late breakfast than a teacake, it took just under two hours before they entered the outskirts of Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Conversation hadn't been constant, but had always been pleasant, and the traffic had been kind to them all the way.

Ethan took out the map book as they started searching for the housing estate that Pamela had identified from the clues provided by the coven.

"This has been nice," Rupert said suddenly. "Especially compared to the last trip I took to retrieve a Slayer."

"The only good thing about that trip was what happened when you got back," Ethan said with a dry laugh, remembering the day Rupert had nearly been killed in a road accident because they had stretched the bond too far.

Rupert smiled. "Well, there won't be a repeat of that this time. My desk is currently not available." He paused and then admitted in a more serious tone, "I was fighting this connection as much as I thought I could get away with."

"I'm glad you stopped," Ethan said quietly, understating. He squeezed Rupert's leg, sending a sparkle of magic through his fingers. It wasn't meant to arouse, just to 'touch base' as their Slayers would say.

"So am I," Rupert replied just as quietly, covering Ethan's hand with his own and sending a spark of his magic back. "What I've -- we've -- gained far outweighs anything I've lost. I'm not even sure if I have lost anything that mattered at all."

"I certainly haven't." Ethan looked down. "You will say if it ever gets too much, won't you?"

"I'm beginning to wonder if 'too much' even exists, at least when it comes to you."

Ethan was grinning happily over at his husband's profile when a passing sign caught his eye. "Erm, I think that was our road."

"Bugger." Rupert signalled for the next turn off and then proceeded to turn the car around. "You're far too distracting, do you know that?"

"My fault," Ethan admitted. "I'm a lousy navigator. I'd much rather look at you than at the roads."

"Which is probably why I've never brought you on one of these jaunts before."

With a slight sigh, Ethan shifted in his seat and faced the windscreen. "I'll endeavour to improve then, shall I?" he asked, a little waspishly.

Rupert reached for his hand again. "My last navigator was Buffy, who spent her time insisting I'd made up all the place names. You're a definite improvement. In more ways than one."

"Next left," Ethan replied efficiently, "then second right and we're there. Buffy really made an impressive effort over Christmas." There were numerous barbs he could have added to that comment, but he found he really didn't want to.

"Yes, she did. As did you." Rupert glanced over at him. "It was noticed and appreciated. Thank you."

"Oh, I'm a pushover for a well-thought out gift, you know that." Ethan chuckled.

"Still, I know she's been a symbol for you of... things."

Ethan didn't answer. He was remembering tattooing Buffy, her wrists bound with magically strengthened rope, her skin taut and shiny as he'd pressed the ink laden needle in. He'd claimed it wasn't personal, but it had been. He'd enjoyed her pain a great deal, if he remembered rightly.

He shivered. The memory was undoubtedly his, but it felt... wrong. As if it belonged to someone else.

"Ethan?" Rupert was looking at him with worried eyes.

"I'm all right," he reassured. The car seemed to have stopped, and yes, there was number twenty-nine. "Just a touch of bad memories. All banished now."

"If you're sure..."

"I'm sure." He patted Rupert's leg. "Pamela says we should find a 'Mrs Friday' here, although she wasn't sure of our Slayer's name. The census records were missing."

"Really?" Rupert frowned. "That's unusual."

"Well, only if they were ever completed in the first place. I can assure you that I appear on no census anywhere, for instance." Ethan gave Rupert an amused look.

"You, I expect not to be on any census," Rupert said, absently taking Ethan's hand and pressing a kiss in the palm. "A to all outward appearances normal teenage girl is another story entirely." He shook his head. "I suppose it could just be a bureaucratic oversight..."

Chuckling, Ethan pointed out, "Well, we don't actually know yet what she looks like. Shall we go and see if she has two heads?"

"You have a point. In which case, we'll each have a head to explain things to."

They got out of the car and approached the house. It was a typical small semi, differing from the others in the road only by the sheer amount of plastic toys on the front lawn and the large ginger cat sleeping between the net curtain and the window. Ethan stood a step behind Rupert. He'd never done this before and didn't want to bugger up the important first meeting with a Slayer's family.

Rupert glanced over his shoulder at him and smiled before ringing the doorbell.

The woman who answered had a great deal of very long brown hair, which had been pulled back into an inefficient ball so that at least a third of it now was loose again. She held a small child of indeterminate gender balanced on her hip, and another -- almost certainly a boy, Ethan thought -- peered around her legs. "Yes?" she asked with a small, rather harassed smile.

"Mrs Friday? I'm Rupert Giles." He handed her a card. "I'm here about your daughter...?"

Her eyes flickered to the child in her arms, but then stared hard at the card. "The Council again?" She stared at Rupert in obvious alarm. "Has something happened? Is Stella all right?"

Rupert frowned. "Again? Someone's been here already?"

"Oh." The woman smiled slightly, looking relieved. "Obviously they've sent you all the way out here on a waste of time, dear. Your people have already been here, two days ago. We had the whole talk about what the Council could offer Stella and off they went with her. Clearly the paperwork hasn't gone through yet. Typical government."

"Yes, these kind of mix-ups do happen," Rupert said, hiding the puzzlement and alarm that Ethan was sure he was feeling. "Just so I can track down the oversight, may I ask who was here earlier?"

"Hmm, a Mrs, no Miss Trenton and her assistant. I don't think I was ever told his name. Funny little man, he was." She winked at Ethan as if he'd understand why. He smiled wanly back at her. "Stella called last night, said she was having a great time already and had made a friend."

Rupert smiled. "I'm glad to hear that she's doing well. I'm sure I can track her paperwork down internally, but it will probably take some time. I don't suppose Stella left any contact information with you?"

Mrs Friday frowned. "Miss Trenton said that we won't be able to ring Stella until her training's over. It's like joining the SAS, she said. Very intensive and secretive. But I have Miss Trenton's number for emergencies."

"If I could trouble you for that...? We'll see what we can do about straightening out this oversight." Rupert was trying his best, but the woman was still frowning. Ethan reached out and tweaked her patterns gently, calming her down. It wasn't strictly ethical, but it was short term only, and they needed that information.

Mrs Friday disappeared inside for a few moments while the rather grubby little boy stared at them around the doorframe. Then she came back and handed Rupert a card much like his own. It even, Ethan noticed, gave the mythical Miss Trenton Rupert's position in the Council.

'This is... not good,' he sent rather redundantly to his husband.

'No, it isn't. We'll discuss it when we leave.' Turning his attention fully back to Mrs. Friday, Rupert gave her his best professional smile. "We're sorry to have bothered you, madam. We'll make sure to update the paperwork so that it doesn't happen again."

"Sorry you had to drive out here for nothing," she said with a smile. Her phone started to ring then, so she shut the door on them, leaving them standing on the path with nothing but a small rectangle of card to show for their journey. Well, that and rapidly sinking spirits.

"I should have let you turn her into a Balshat demon when you wanted to," Rupert growled as he carefully wrapped the card in a silk handkerchief and headed back to the car.

Ethan walked quickly after him, feeling a little sick. The month or so had been so very wonderful, he'd almost forgotten the reality of things. "She can't be working alone, Rupert," he said in a subdued tone as he waited for the doors to be opened. "Francesca Travers is many things, but psychic seer is not one of them. Yet she knew before Keri about this girl?"

Rupert pressed the button on his keyfob that unlocked the doors and opened the driver's side. "No, she's not bloody well working alone, and that's the part that scares me. On her own, despite the trouble she caused us, Francesca isn't any real threat. But teamed with someone with sufficient power, her knowledge becomes a formidable weapon."

Ethan disguised his wince at Rupert's tone, knowing perfectly well it wasn't directed at him. As he got into the car, he glanced worriedly at his husband. "Don't blame yourself, dear. There's no way on God's green that this can be seen as your fault."

"I should've foreseen this possibility and taken steps to prevent it."

Yes, Ethan had known he was right and that was where Rupert's thoughts had instantly gone. "How?" he asked bluntly. "Other than killing the frozen bitch, exactly what could you have done to stop this?" The grim set of Rupert's mouth told Ethan that he hadn't been thinking of options other than that. Ethan sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "Ripper, much though I would have supported that woman's bloody murder at the time, you know as well as I do that blackmail does not normally carry a death sentence with it. Would you like me to drive?"

Rupert hesitated, then handed the keys over. "Probably best if you do. I'm liable to run us into the back of another bloody lorry the way I'm feeling right now." Without saying a word, Ethan got back out of the car and made his way round to the driver's side.

Rupert didn't speak for a long time until they were well on their way back to London. When he did, it was like he was picking up the conversation where it had stopped. "It's ironic in the extreme that her father wouldn't have had any trouble giving that order."

"Rupert, for Christ's sake stop castigating yourself for not being a cold-hearted killer!" Ethan slowed their speed. He could feel that the tension that had built up in the car was getting to him.

"Easier said than done when a young girl may pay for my... squeamishness."

"You can't bloody kill people just because they might do something bad!" Ethan found it a little hard to believe that he was the one taking this side in the argument. Rupert's brooding anger was definitely infecting Ethan however, and so, as they happened to be approaching the turn off to services, he indicated and joined the leftmost lane.

"I have, you know," Rupert said quite conversationally, watching out the window as Ethan guided the car off the M40. "Killed someone to keep something bad from happening."

"The boy whose body housed the hell goddess." Ethan nodded, remembering what he'd been told. "I think a hellgod poses a far more evident threat to the world than a woman who at the time was nothing more than a powerless, jobless harridan, don't you? There are many people out there that pose a far more obvious threat to children. Do you want us to go round and kill them all, one by one? I remember you telling me, quite recently, that it wasn't our place to mete out judgement or punishment."

Rupert turned his head to look at Ethan, wearing the tiniest ghost of a smile. "You know, it really is unfair to use my own words against me."

"Perhaps justified in the circumstances," Ethan said, relaxing a little after seeing that small smile. He pulled the car into a space. "Come on, dearheart. Let's see if a spot of lunch and a beverage can make you see sense where I can't."

As soon as Ethan had shut the engine off, Rupert leant over and kissed him. "Thank you."

He felt the tension leave his body completely with the two words. Placing his hand over one of Rupert's cheeks, Ethan stared into his husband's eyes. He wanted to say something deep, but he couldn't think of anything that didn't sound mawkish. Instead, he just murmured, "I love you."

"I know." Rupert covered Ethan's hand with his own. "Luckily for me you do."

"When we get home, we'll wind up Pamela and watch her go. She's smashing at this sort of thing. And we'll call Lucy too." He didn't suggest contacting the police. He knew the Council had their own channels they preferred to use rather than the local nick.

That pulled a smile from Rupert. "Yes, between Pamela and the coven, we should be able to draw a bead on Francesca quite easily." The smile faded from his face. "Mrs. Friday said her daughter had made a friend. That probably means Stella is not the only Slayer Francesca's kidnapped."

Ethan had noticed that, and had hoped against hope that Rupert hadn't. "I doubt she's hurting them, dear. Truly. She wants them for a purpose. To set up a rival Council, I suspect. I imagine that however much she really considers them tools or weapons, to start with, she's treating them like she's their over-starched fairy godmother."

Rupert chuckled a little at that description.

Encouraged, Ethan pulled back, patting Rupert's shoulder and trying for a grin. "Come on, old thing. It's been two hours since my second breakfast and I'm feeling a bit peckish."

"Dear lord, I've married a hobbit."

"I knew I shouldn't have allowed that Boxing Day Lord of the Rings marathon," Ethan scolded with a pretend frown as he got from the car, but really he was very happy to see Rupert smile.

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