Darcy Galvan - One Word

Title: One Word
Author: Darcy Galvan
Rating: PG-13
Summary: What if Giles not only left his Ripper days behind when he became a Watcher. What if he left a son?
Distrubution: If you by some miracle want it, drop me a line first.
Disclaimer:Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton ain't mine and neither are the BTVS characters or the song "Inside Her Eyes" by Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts. This particular fic idea and Tyler Remmington are the only things I own.
Feedback: will be shellacked and framed. Send good words. Feed a starving artist.
Timeline: some time after Into The Woods, definitely NOT cannon. =) Author's Note: I'm not sure when Giles went to the Watcher's Council for training after he rebelled in his Ripper days. I'm assuming early twenties here.

Now I could be giving too much away
By the way that I'm moving, everything I say
Now don't say you won't try to tell me
You don't feel the same
I picture your eyes, I whisper your name
Inside I'm screaming, outside I'm sane
As soon as you're leaving, I need you again
I'm left with my dreaming, it's just not the same
As inside her eyes
That's where I want to be
Inside her eyes
~ "Inside Her Eyes" by Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts

When the door to theMagic Box swung open on Tuesday, the merry tinkling of the bell on the jamb seemed to herald nothing more than an average customer. Even on inspection, the tall young man appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary,--if a handsome nothing out of the ordinary. He was thin, but not painfully so. The lines of firmly muscled broad shoulders showed through his blue shirt. Dark unruly hair curled over his forehead as he surveyed the store, solemnly turning his head this way and that as if searching for a direly important item.

"Hello, may I help you with something?" Giles asked, stepping from behind a shelf of books. The young man jerked around then became oddly still when he saw Giles. Giles tilted his head, something about the newcomer striking him.

"No, um," he stuttered in a soft accent, "I'm just looking around. I've never been in a place like this before."

"Well," Giles said with a smile, "if you need a place to start, just let me know."

"Sure," the dark youth said, nodding as Giles walked away. < So that's him, > he thought, tracking the older man's movements. < That's why I'm here. >

"Gi-uhls!" Buffy moaned, blocking one punch but missing the next. She sat down. "There, look, you won. Can we stop now?"

Giles frowned. "Buffy, you were the one who reinitiated these training sessions. If you want to stop them..."

"No, no, I don't want to stop them altogether, just...*this* one. I thought training would be less..."

"Training?"

"Well you *are* British, I figured maybe there would be little less training and a little more tea."

"Buffy, first off, that's a horrible stereotype and second, you hate tea."

"Not peppermint. You made me peppermint tea once and I drank it. Besides, did I say anything that night before the Magic Box opened when you practically chugged that whole pot of coffee straight from the machine?" Giles gave her a stern look and relented, removing the pad over his chest and taking a drink from his water bottle.

"Well, I suppose a small break wouldn't hurt."

"Sla-cker in deniiial," Buffy quietly sang. Giles took another drink from his bottle when he heard the bell jangle from the front of the store. "Giles, didn't we talk about locking up?"

"Yes, mother," he muttered. "I just forgot. Besides, I think I'm relatively safe with a Slayer here. Unless you don't handle anything lowly as burglars." He stood up with a small grunt and strode into the front.

"Excuse me, but we're closed." It was the young man from yesterday, standing there pushing a lock of hair from his eyes. "Oh, hello."

"Mr. Giles? My name is Tyler Remmington. I lied to you yesterday." Giles cocked his head in confusion. "I told you I didn't need anything. I-I do need something."

"Yes?"

He pulled something out of his wallet and handed it to Giles. "Do you remember a woman named Jillian Remmington?"

"Jill?" Giles asked, his face registering his surprise. "Yes, I knew her." He looked down and saw a picture in his hand of a woman in her thirties with wavy blonde hair and a smile on her lips, but not in her blue eyes. "This is Jill?" She looked so different. Giles remembered her with long hair with blue streaks and dark eyeliner. He could see her, though. His Jill, he thought with a fond smile. "How did you know her?"

"Giles?" The Watcher turned at Buffy's voice. She came out of the back room, sweeping her hair into a ponytail. "Who is it?" Giles turned to glance at her.

The dark youth stared at Buffy, his lips slightly parted. < Incredible... > He twitched his head and looked back at Giles before he spoke quietly. "She was my mother." Giles' head swung sharply back at the young man who merely watched him, begging to be listened to. "I understand if-if you don't believe me, but I have my birth certificate a-and feel free to call Grand--I mean, Adeleid." Giles stood frozen as Tyler continued talking. "She had me after you left. She changed a lot with you gone."

Giles chest clenched and for a moment his surroundings didn't seem real. "Are you trying to tell me that you're my...?" the young man nodded.

"Giles?" Buffy's voice held a tinge of defensive worry. "Giles what is it?" He felt her small hand on his arm.

"Buffy," Giles said very calmly, "I'd like you to meet Tyler. My son."