Title: "Journeys End In Lovers Meeting" (2/8)
Author: Della
Disclaimer: None of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters are mine... They belong to Joss Wheddon and UPN and WB and any others that have a rightful claim to them and the programme... No infringement was ever intended with this fanfiction...
Feedback: Yes please... *Constructive* flames keep the fire burning, but the good stuff keeps it alive...

A Quick Author's Note: Many thanks for the responses I got concerning the first chapter of this.. They were truly lovely... And Thank You Nikki for your Beta-ing again... So very pleased that you know me so well.. Chuckle.. ;-)

Giles took a deep breath of the fresh air and exhaled with pleasure. He looked across the lake and smiled. 'Balm to my soul,' he thought with contentment. And it was. Nessie, his horse, a proud sixteen handed mare of the deepest brown he had ever seen, neighed at him and butted his arm for attention. He instantly responded to her demand and rubbed her nose. She snorted and pawed the ground in response to his caress.

Then Sophie, a golden Labrador his father had purchased as a pup about twelve years ago, decided to vie for his attention too by rubbing her head against his leg. He chuckled as he knelt next to her and gave her a comforting stroke from her head to her tail, then patted her back and stood again. He looked down at Sophie and then at Nessie and could instantly see their pleasure in his attention.

He sighed and thought, 'If only all women were as easy to please,' but immediately chastised himself at how unfair that statement was, especially when he considered how ineffectual he was concerning Buffy and how he felt about her. He sighed again, as the most depressing of thoughts intruded upon his contentment, 'And once again we are to return to the dismal place that is my love life, or lack thereof.'

He gave Sophie another pat on the back, before placing his left foot in the left stirrup of the leather saddle and heaved himself back on board Nessie. He gently kicked her once on the flank and waited for her to move. His thoughts wandered as the saddle creaked beneath him with each step Nessie made, her hooves squelched in the mud as she moved off and Sophie's barking and jumping alongside, accompanied his thoughts that were making a steady journey of their own.

# #

Buffy growled as she screwed up another piece of paper and threw it across the room. She muttered unintelligibly to herself and huffed and puffed as she bent again to start writing on another piece of paper in her pad.

Willow returned just as another piece of paper took a swift journey across the room and as an expletive accompanied its flight. "Oops!" she squeaked.

Buffy turned and was unable to fully extinguish her frustration at having written many words, but none that had said anything like what she had wanted to say. At Willow's slight step backwards, Buffy forced a look of apology on her face, but the harshness of her frustration seeped out of her mouth when she said, "You know, this is really not working... at all!" She then turned back to her pad and started to write again.

'Oh,' Willow mouthed, but then hurried to Buffy's side, knelt next to her and started to read what was on the page. She stopped Buffy's hand as it made for the corner of the page and said, "This is really cool, Buffy. You shouldn't throw this one away."

Buffy simply blinked at her, unable to respond. She looked at the page and then back at Willow with a frown. "You think?" she asked, her face scrunched up with complete bemusement.

"Yeah," Willow nodded, "I think it says a lot, but doesn't tell him that it's from you."

"Willow," Buffy sighed, that almost hid the whine, "what's the point of it, if Giles doesn't know it was from me?"

"It's a mystery," Willow replied with smile.

"What, the point of all this?"

"No, silly," Willow giggled and explained, "It's a mystery and you know how Giles loves a mystery..." She waggled her eyebrows suggestively at Buffy, but frowned when she received one back. "Gees, Buffy," she moaned, "didn't you ever send Angel a Valentine's Card?"

"Yeah, s'just I always signed it 'Love Buffy'..." Buffy admitted with a shrug.

Willow shook her head and sighed. "Well," she said, "this time you're gonna play the "Guess who I am?" with Giles."

"I am?"

"Uh-huh," Willow nodded and excitedly added, "Ooh, I wish I could be there when he gets this."

"Well, I'm glad you're not," Buffy muttered, "cos knowing you Wills, Giles'd ask 'do you know who this is from, Willow' and you just wouldn't be able to *not* tell him."

Willow was inclined to argue, but giving herself the split second that she needed to think on what Buffy had said, she shrugged her shoulders and softly admitted, "I guess..."

Buffy giggled and shook her head. "My friend," she whispered and gave Willow a one armed hug.

# #

Harold found his son in the stables brushing Nessie down. Long strokes that went from her neck to her rump; occasionally interrupted by a shiver of pleasure from the mare. He saw Sophie in the middle of the stable hunting for her tail and then furiously chasing it in a circle whenever she found it. He chuckled at the sight as he approached Giles. "Hello, son," he softly called, with a smile of affection on his face.

"Hello father," Giles greeted him just as affectionately and then continued with grooming Nessie.

"So, did the ride do any good at all?"

Giles shrugged then said, "Some, but it would have been far more productive had my brain not been as insistent as it was for me to think on things that I would rather *not* think of." He then turned and faced his father and admitted with a sigh of contentment, "But I have to say that I have *missed* this place and everything that goes with it... Including you..." he added with a grin and a chuckle of mirth.

Harold guffawed at the admission, but quickly sobered as he replied, "As I have missed you... Though..." he decided to add, "I would rather the circumstances of your visit were more pleasant for you."

Giles turned away and returned to brushing Nessie down. "Please, father," he eventually muttered, "let's not dwell."

"Well, your brain is not the only one that has been thinking on things, you know, Rupert," Harold suddenly announced, "Mine too shrugged off the cobwebs and decided to do it's own form of travelling."

Giles stopped the brush down, much to Nessie's obvious disdain, and turned to his father with his mouth open ready to retort, but stopped when he found a hand raised in front of him. He harrumphed but dutifully waited for his father to speak.

"Call me a busybody if you like..." Harold began.

"You are a busybody, father," Giles interrupted him and accentuated his annoyance by placing his hands on his hips with another succinct 'harrumph'.

Harold simply chuckled and, ignoring his son's interruption, he continued, "but I think I have come up with the perfect solution to your problem."

"I can't go back..." Giles stated unequivocally.

"Who said anything about going back there? Hmm?" Harold asked, but did not wait for an answer and added with a hint of his own annoyance, "And if you would be so kind as to not interrupt me at every given moment, then you will get to hear just what my solution is."

Giles sighed, "Very well, go on..."

Harold took a slight bow, "Thank you," he chuckled and then continued with his suggestion. "If my calculations are correct, isn't Friday Valentine's Day?"

"Yes."

"Well?" Harold stated with frustration, throwing his arms out to the side and letting them fall.

"Well, *what*, father?"

Harold simply stood in front of his son and blinked at him, rendered speechless by his apparent stupidity, but he knew if he were to utter one word that resembled anything like his thoughts on his son's stupidity, his suggestion would be blown sky high. Still, what his brain had logically thought, his mouth decided to rebel against and before he knew it he was saying, "You know, Rupert, I am fast becoming convinced that perhaps you deserve to be in such a predicament."

"And I think I could have told you that at the beginning, father, had you given me the *chance* to do so," Giles retorted as he turned away and once again resumed his brushing down of Nessie.

Harold cursed his mouth, then stepped into the pen and placed a hand on Giles' shoulder, "I'm sorry, son," he whispered.

Giles stopped brushing and placed his head on Nessie's back. "It's perfectly all right, father," he eventually muttered, "you are correct. I do deserve this heartache."

Harold winced at the pain that was emanating from his son and he could not quite forgive himself as easily for perhaps putting a little there by what he had just said. "No, Rupert, you do *not* deserve this pain," he countered with conviction, "You are the most loving and giving, most sacrificing man I have ever known. It is an added bonus that you are my son, however, I would still be saying as much were you *not* my son... but," he softly added, "it would not contain as much love."

Giles turned and buried his head in his father's shoulder, moved to the core by his declaration. He tightly hugged his father to him and whispered, with a slight wobble to his voice, his thanks and *his* love for *him*.

Harold gently patted Giles on the back, rubbed a circular pattern of comfort there, until he felt his son relax and then pull away.

"I'm at a loss," Giles admitted with a whisper, "I want this to stop, but I have no idea how to *make* it stop."

"Will you hear me out, son?" Harold asked as gently as he could, a hand returning to Giles' shoulder.

Giles silently nodded.

"Why not send a card to Buffy, a Valentine's Card. It does not have to bear your signature but it will afford you the opportunity to secretly inform her of your feelings. Unleash a few of your unexpressed emotions."

"Father, whilst it is a good idea, Buffy is not stupid. She will know it is from me when she reads the postmark."

"Hmm," Harold hummed in contemplation, then brightened and clicked his fingers as he said, "Don't you have a lady friend in Los Angeles?"

"Yes," Giles replied, "Aisha, she's studying Archaeology."

"Well, perhaps she could send your cards from there?"

"I'm... I'm not very good at this, you know," Giles weakly protested.

"I know son," Harold chuckled, "but at least you might be a tad better than when you tried to verbalise such feelings." He gently shook Giles' shoulder to try and bolster him, "So what do you say, eh?"

Giles sighed and relented, "All right, I'll do it, but if it at anytime this does not feel right, then we forget it. Yes?"

"Agreed," Harold said with a grin.

Giles shook his head and finally, and hopefully for the last time, returned to brushing Nessie down.

Harold turned away and excitedly rubbed his hands together. One way or another he was determined to get Buffy Summers and his son together, and the timing of such a thing, as far as he was concerned, could not have been better.

# #

"Shelley?" Willow asked into the receiver of the phone, "Did you get it? Did you get my email?"

"Hello Willow," Shelley replied, "Yes, yes I did."

Willow squealed with delight, but quickly got herself under control. "And you know where to send it?" she asked.

"I do," Willow's friend confirmed and dutifully read Giles' address out. When she received confirmation that she did indeed have the correct address, she then asked, "Umm, don't you think it is a little early to be sending one?"

"No, no, no, honest," Willow excitedly informed her, "Buffy's going to be sending three to him. One today, one tomorrow and then one on Wednesday, so he will get a card each day of this week, well except for today that is, but we can't do anything about that, though I wish we could, but I guess it's a little late now..."

"Willow?" Shelley suddenly interrupted her friend, "Willow?"

"Hmm?"

Shelley laughed out loud and between her laughter she managed to say, "If you don't stop your babbling, dear friend, there will be little chance of your friend's friend getting anything, my dear."

Willow blushed. Now her babbling had transcended her into a whole different continent. "Oops," she giggled.

"Indeed," Shelley wholeheartedly agreed but with humour. "Well, now let me send this to your friend's friend..."

"You can call him Giles, y'know," Willow helpfully interrupted, but cringed when she heard an impatient sigh at the other end of the receiver. "Sorry," she whispered.

Shelley briefly chuckled, but said, "Well, as I was saying, I agree to be your third party to this deception and will send this and an appropriate card to your Mr Giles."

"Oh he's not *my* Mr Giles, uh, Giles, Shelley, he's not anyone's at the moment, but he might be Buffy's soon, though..." Willow stopped mid-flight into another babble when she heard another sigh from her friend, this time with such intensity that she simply stopped talking.

"At last," Shelley murmured with exasperation, "Willow, my dear, just tell your friend, Buffy, that all is afoot and under my supervision. Your... her... 'Harrumph!'... *Mr Giles* shall have the card and any other cards in his hands soon after I get them. Okay?"

"Okay, Shelley," Willow replied with a smile, "Oh and Shelley?" she quickly added.

"Yes, dear?"

"Thanks?"

"You are more than welcome, my friend. I am almost beside myself," she excitedly admitted, "to be such an important part of getting two people together for Valentine's Day. How on earth could I have turned you down? Hmm?"

Willow suddenly turned towards the stairs, when she faced back to the phone, she hastily said, "Oh, gotta go, Shelley, Buffy's getting up."

"All right Willow, I shall speak to you soon."

"Bye Shelley and thanks again," Willow replied and then put the phone down. She turned and quickly made her way to the kitchen to start breakfast. Her heart beat faster than a speeding train such was her excitement. She had been heartbroken when Giles had left, knowing that he *and* Buffy had both wasted opportunities to let the other know how they felt about each other, but this? This was a too good an opportunity to miss.

She sighed with pleasure knowing that she was helping to get both Buffy and Giles together, the only couple she knew that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. She would have squealed her excitement, but she could hear Buffy coming down the stairs. Although it wasn't a secret from Buffy, because she had been there the entire time of writing the poem and the sending of the email, she just didn't want to do anything that might have Buffy backing out of this.

# #

Buffy entered the kitchen feeling... confused. Whilst she felt excited that she had actually taken a step, albeit a mysterious step as Willow liked to call it, towards letting Giles know how she felt, she also felt an absolute fear that she still might get rejected anyway. She now couldn't wait for this to be over and done with, one way or another.

"Morning, Buffy," Willow cheerfully greeted her.

Buffy frowned, slightly agitated that her friend was all bright and breezy, even after spending half the night writing poetry with her, but nevertheless she managed a quiet, "Morning, Wills," in response.

"I've called the Uni and told them that both of us won't be in until Monday" Willow offered.

"Huh? Why?" Buffy muttered with bemusement.

"Well, we've got to spend time thinking on what you want to let Giles know, but without giving the game away. That takes all our concentration and going to classes would just distract us both."

Buffy blinked with surprise at her friend, "Uh, Wills, you uh, you do realise what you've just said *and* done? No classes?" she said with a look at her friend that clearly questioned her sanity.

"Yeah, I know, Buffy, s'just this is *much* more important..." Willow replied with a grin and a tiny squeal of excitement.

Buffy simply shook her head and left the room.

Willow frowned with disappointment and frantically replayed the entire conversation in her head, wondering where she had gone wrong. The only thing she could think of was the tiny squeal she had been unable to conceal. She immediately cursed it and went in search of Buffy. She found her friend looking under the cushions on the couch. "Buffy?" she called.

Buffy straightened and raised an eyebrow of enquiry at her.

"Uh, what are you looking for?"

"My friend," the Slayer stated.

"Your... your friend?"

"Uh-huh," Buffy confirmed and added, "My friend, Willow Rosenberg, cos no way on earth are you the Willow Rosenberg that I know and love."

"Huh?" Willow frowned, completely and utterly confused.

"*My* Willow, would never, *never* *ever* miss classes..."

Willow let out a huge sigh of relief and a giggle, "Gees, Buffy, you really had me worried then," she said with a gasp.

"Did I?" Buffy replied in all innocence, "Well, s'cuse me but you were the one that said we were gonna miss classes over this. How d'you think that made *me* feel?"

Willow giggled a little harder, but managed to say, "Yeah, well this *is* more important than classes... Buffy," she added, "you might get the chance to be with Giles. That's *gotta* be better than classes any day."

Buffy smiled affectionately at her friend. That one sentence had lifted her heart and her fear like nothing else had been able to. 'To be with Giles... Wow!' she thought and for the first time really started to warm to the idea. She went over to Willow and hugged her. "I found my friend again," she whispered, then pulled away and added with gusto, "So, what's for breakfast then? I'm starving..."

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