Title: Tumblin' Down 12/?
Author: Elisabeth
Email: dragonydreams@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.dragonydreams.com/
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Willow/Giles
Summary: What if Riley hadn't been there to pull Willow out of harm's way during "Wild at Heart"?
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over these characters. I am merely borrowing them from Joss et al.
Distribution: My site, the usual lists, anyone with previous permission. Anyone else - please ask.
Feedback: Yes please! It makes me happy and keeps me writing.
Author's Note: Thanks to my wonderful Betas for all of your help and encouragement.

It took Buffy another three days to work up the nerve to talk to her friends. She told herself that she was just too busy to stop by, but she knew that wasn't true. Afraid that she would walk in on something she really didn't want to see, she decided to call first.

Holding Mr. Pointy in one hand, needing the familiarity and comfort it provided, and the phone in the other, Buffy started to dial Giles' number. After hanging up twice, she finally managed to dial all seven numbers and let the phone ring. Just as she was about to hang up again she heard the familiar English accent that always made her feel safe.

"Giles here."

"Hi Giles," she weakly greeted her almost-father. "It's Buffy."

"Buffy," he practically sighed her name, relieved to hear her voice. "I'm glad you called."

"Is something wrong? Is Willow okay?" She'd never forgive herself it something had happened to Willow while she was working through her issues.

"Willow is fine. In fact, I'm afraid she'll injure herself in her haste to get to the phone," Giles chuckled. His voice became muffled as he lowered the phone to his chest to ask Willow not to strain herself, saying that she could talk to Buffy in a moment. Buffy smiled at the affection and concern in Giles' voice.

"Sorry about that," he apologized when he returned the receiver to his ear. "We're just both so pleased to hear from you."

"I'm sorry I've been stay-away gal," Buffy responded, knowing it wasn't enough. She had been purposely ignoring her friends.

"That's quite all right, Buffy," Giles tried to reassure her, but she could hear the hurt in his voice.

"No it wasn't. Look, I don't want to do this over the phone. Can I come over?"

"Of course you can over," Giles repeated for Willow's benefit. Buffy could hear the happy squeal from the redhead in the background. "You're always welcome here, there's no need to ask."

"Maybe. I'll come over now." Buffy said, knowing she needed to do this while she was thinking about it.

"We'll see you shortly. Wait one moment, please." Buffy heard muffled talking again. "Willow says she is excited to see you as well."

Buffy couldn't help laughing quietly at Willow's objections to how Giles had rephrased her remarks in the background.

"Me too. I'll see you both soon." Buffy hung up the phone and took a deep, calming breath before gathering her keys and purse and heading out the door.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Willow was virtually bouncing with excitement, a wide grin lighting her face. "She's really coming over?"

Giles sat next to her, feeling as excited as Willow, but able to keep it inside, although he was wearing a matching grin.

"Yes, she is on her way over now."

"Did she say anything about us? How did she sound? Should I go change?" Willow bubbled.

Giles couldn't resist kissing her, leaning over to silence Willow's excited questioning. Willow readily transferred her nervous energy into a more productive kind, returning Giles' kiss with more passion than he had intended the kiss to hold. Not that he would ever complain about any kiss Willow shared with him.

When he finally pulled back, Giles simply said, "All that she said was that she wanted to come over."

Willow frowned, "That can't be good. She never calls before coming over here."

"Perhaps she was just trying to give us some privacy," Giles offered, doubting the statement even as he said it.

Willow gave him a disbelieving look saying, "I guess we'll find out soon enough."

Giles hated how nervous and defeated Willow became. They both knew that it would be difficult for Buffy to accept them as a couple, but they had hoped that she would have come around sooner.

"Scoot forward," he requested, standing to allow her the room to move. Willow looked at him quizzically, but did as he asked.

"Oh," she gasped when Giles sat in her recently vacated spot and lifted her onto his lap. He pulled her to lean back against his chest and wrapped his arms around her.

"I like this," Willow sighed, snuggling into Giles' embrace.

"Me too," Giles whispered into her neck, affectionately nuzzling the sensitive skin beneath her ear. Willow tilted her neck, giving him better access to one of her more sensitive areas.

A soft moan escaped her lips as Giles began to brush his lips against the side of her neck, mere whispers of kisses. His fingers gently skimmed her belly over her clothing, causing the muscles to flutter with anticipation. Like his mouth, his hands barely touched the fabric. Willow's hand snaked around Giles' head, running her fingers through the soft hairs at the nape of his neck. She tried to pull his head closer for more fulfilling contact, but Giles resisted, reprimanding her with a "Shhh" against her skin. The exhalation of that word sent pleasurable shivers down Willow's spine.

Her hand still on the back of Giles' neck, Willow turned her head to capture his teasing lips with her own. The kisses remained light and teasing, slow and shallow, and incredibly unfulfilling.

"How long before Buffy gets here?" Willow mumbled against Giles' lips.

A knock at the door answered her question, causing both occupants of the couch to groan in disappointment.

"Just a moment," Giles called out as he disentangled his body from Willow's and moved off of the couch.

"I jinxed us didn't I?" Willow rhetorically asked as she tried to calm her racing heart and will away the tingling under her skin.

"Hardly," Giles assured her, kissing the top of her head. "We shouldn't have started anything when we knew Buffy was on her way."

"Oh, sure, be all logical," Willow pouted as Giles answered the door.

"That's our Giles, always with the logic," Buffy said with feigned light-heartedness as she walked into the apartment, having caught Willow's statement.

"Buffy, it's good to see you," Giles greeted the blonde, closing the door behind her and joining Willow on the couch again, this time keeping a respectable distance.

"Yeah, Buff, I've missed you," the redhead added.

"Me too, Wills," Buffy admitted. "How's the hip?"

"Still there. It's getting a little easier to walk. I'm down to one crutch now, soon I'll be able to switch to a cane."

"That's great," Buffy said encouragingly.

"But you didn't call to come over here to ask about my hip, did you?" Willow asked her friend, watching her lower her head slightly with guilt. Willow took the opportunity to swing her left leg off the couch and onto the coffee table, urging Giles to sit next to her.

Catching on to what she was doing, Giles slid his arm around Willow's shoulders. They both knew that Buffy had been trying to cope with their new relationship, so they may as well show her that they weren't afraid to be affectionate around others.

When Buffy had steeled herself and returned her gaze to the couch, she couldn't help blanching upon seeing Giles with his arm around Willow, her head resting on his shoulder.

Buffy stood abruptly, nearly tripping over the coffee table in her haste. "I was wrong. I can't do this yet." She started to rush towards the door.

"Buffy, no, wait," Willow called after her. "Please don't leave, I can't chase after you."

Buffy stopped with her hand on the doorknob. Slowly she turned around. "I'm sorry, Willow, you too Giles, but I just don't think I can handle you two being together. I thought I was okay with it. Xander helped me see that you'd be a good couple together. But thinking about it and seeing it are two completely different things."

Giles had crossed the room to his slayer, torn between wanting to comfort her and offended that she was taking his relationship with Willow so badly.

"Please, just come and sit with us. Tell us what bothers you so about our being together," Giles entreated.

"We won't act all couply," Willow added from her position on the couch. "Just talk to us."

Buffy nodded and allowed Giles to lead her to the leather chair in the corner. Giles then returned to the couch, but remained at the far end from Willow. Buffy let out a small sigh of relief upon seeing this.

"Now how can we convince you that Giles and I make a good couple?" Willow asked her friend.

"I don't know if you can," Buffy admitted.

"Is it just the age factor?" Giles started.

"That's part of it," she conceded. "I mean, last year you were fired from the Counsel for your fatherly feelings for me. Why don't you feel all fatherly towards Willow too? I mean, she's even younger than me!"

"As your Watcher a good part of my job was to protect you, to prepare you for what was to come when you face demons. Much in the way I would imagine parents would prepare and protect their own child. I have never denied that I see you as the daughter I will probably never have. I fear for your safety every day, as any parent would."

"But don't you fear for Willow's safety? Don't you want to protect and prepare her for the dangers our lives hold too?"

"I do, but Willow was not my responsibility, as were you. When she and Xander learned our secret, I feared that she would become a target for being associated with us. Yet time and time again she has proved that she is up to the challenges the Hellmouth has thrown at us." Giles turned his eyes away from his slayer and towards the woman next to him, his eyes shining with affection. "As we constantly found ourselves the sole researchers, I came to learn that Willow had one of the sharpest minds I had come across, sharper than many of the adults I have known. Through our long discussions of topics ranging from books, to demons to the possible benefits of a computer over the written word, she ceased being a child in my eyes, and yet remained someone I never thought I could have."

Willow's eyes were shining with unshed tears, listening to Giles describe his feelings for her. She placed her hand, palm up, on the space between them. Giles clasped her small hand in his, squeezing gently.

"What about Oz?" Buffy loudly asked, needing to break the moment between the two across from her.

"Hmm? What about him?" Willow asked, returning her attention to her friend.

"I know what he did was awful, but what if he comes back and says he wants you back. He was your first love. Can you honestly say you wouldn't take him back?"

"Yes, I can. Oz hurt me, Buffy. There's no going back. I should have learned that lesson the first time. I know that I would always wonder if I was enough for him, and that's no way to live."

"What if you meet someone your own age?" Buffy asked.

Willow and Giles exchanged a curious look. "To whom were you addressing?" Giles asked, amusement in his voice.

"Both of you."

Willow motioned with her hand for Giles to go first. "Buffy, if Willow and I are together, how would we meet someone our own age?"

Buffy glared at her watcher, hating having the irrationality of her question pointed out to her. "Well, someone could try to pick one of you up," she said uncertainly, grasping at straws.

"But we're together, so we'd brush them off, just like if we were the same age," Willow countered.

Buffy was beginning to feel outnumbered. She knew deep down that they made the perfect couple, but she wasn't ready to accept them together yet. Why couldn't they understand that? Why were they taunting her like this?

"Giles had sex with my mom," she blurted out.

Willow raised an eyebrow at the blonde. "I know; you told me. Giles and I have talked about it. We've talked about everything. I know that he has never considered having a relationship with your mom. I know that Olivia is a casual fling. Just as he knows that I would never go back to Oz."

Buffy turned tearful eyes to Giles, "You never even considered dating my mom? Not even after…"

Giles moved to kneel in front of Buffy, taking her hands in his. "I don't mean to hurt you by saying this," he began, "and I mean no disrespect to Joyce. She is a fine woman, and a wonderful mother to you, but you mean too much to me to risk having a relationship with her."

"But…"

"No, even if Willow and I hadn't discovered our interest in the other was mutual, even if Olivia never returned to Sunnydale, I wouldn't risk hurting Joyce, or you, if she and I had attempted a relationship and failed."

"So you let yourself be afraid of failure instead of taking a chance?" Buffy asked, barely restraining the tears of discovering the impossibility of a long-held dream.

"I admit, I was playing it safe. However, what I feel for Willow is much stronger than anything I have ever felt for Joyce."

Buffy slid to the floor on her knees, crying on Giles' shoulder. "You're never going to be my family," she whispered through her tears.

Giles wrapped his arms around her, wishing he could ease the pain she had unintentionally brought on herself. "No," he replied just as quietly, "not in the legal sense, but I will always love you as if you were my own."

"I love you too," Buffy hiccupped, wiping away her tears with the heel of her hand.

The whistle of the tea kettle startled them. Looking around the room they realized that Willow wasn't on the couch anymore.

"She must have wanted to give us some privacy," Buffy guessed.

"I'll just go help her with the tea. There's no way she's going to be able to manage a full tray, even with only one crutch. Why don't you go splash some water on your face," Giles suggested.

"I must look awful," Buffy said, getting to her feet, following Giles out of the room, continuing into the bathroom when he ducked into the kitchen.

Giles wrapped his arms around Willow's waist from behind as she finished setting the tea cups on the silver serving tray.

"Thank you," he whispered in her ear before dropping a kiss on her neck.

"I thought you could use a minute alone. Makes me wish I wasn't right," Willow said, resting her hands atop Giles'.

"You are very observant," Giles agreed. "It breaks my heart to see her watch her dreams fall apart in front of her. I wish there was something I could do."

"There isn't. Now that Buffy knows the truth, she'll be able to move past it and give us a chance. I hope."

"I'll try," said a voice from the doorway. "I really will. I want both of you to be happy, I just never thought it would be together."

"We are happy, Buffy," Willow said.

"I can see that," Buffy reluctantly admitted.

"Come," Giles said, picking up the tray. "Let's have some tea and relax."

"You know, tea is not the answer to everything," Buffy joked, following Giles back to the living room.

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Willow bantered, bringing up the rear.

"Not you too," Buffy groaned. "Giles, you've corrupted her."

The laughter of three voices could be heard throughout the small apartment.

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