Title: The Freshman - Replay 2/3
Author: Gail Christison
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: B/G subtext, brief G/O
Summary: Response to Luisa's challenge to rewrite The Freshman. Mostly exactly that, but with a bit of extra fun thrown in. :-)
Disclaimer: Dang it, Joss...why couldn't you get it right the first time??? Also, a small amount of dialogue from the actual show was worked into the text here because I felt it was too good to lose or ignore and is copyright Joss and Mutant Enemy. See if you can pick the Joss bits <g>
Timeline: Re-working of the season 4 premiere
Spoilers: Not really...many pre-season 4 references.
Feedback: Whatta concept! <vbg> chriscln@ozemail.com.au
Author's Note: This story was inspired by Luisa's BGWM challenge for a re-working of The Freshman, for which I owe her great thanks. Oh, and sorry, mate. I did try to convince them smoochies were part of the plan, but they weren't listening this time <g> Also many thanks to Karesia for her cool beta. I've since polished further, so all mistakes herein are my own. :-)

Dedication: To Savvy

After a beat a slow smile lit his face.

For a brief moment Buffy smiled back, then dropped back into her confession.

"Anyway, college is, like, full of brainy people and strangeness and I didn't even get to room with Willow...who, by the way, so belongs there...it's like someone stole her from there when she was a baby and she's come home, or something. Plus Xander's gone and now you want me to go away, but you're going to be here...but not in the sense of *being here* for me, just in the sense of not having left yet..."

"Buffy."

"And mom cleared out my room...well, filled it up, anyway, already! I miss *everything*."

"BUFFY?"

She stopped babbling. "You don't have to yell, Giles."

"I wasn't yelling. I just projected enough for you to hear me over your...explanation."

"What?"

"What...'what'?"

"So what were you 'projecting' for?"

"I'm sorry."

"You are?"

"Yes. I thought you would be on top of the world, having started your new life. It didn't occur to me that you might have come here because...well, because you needed to."

"I told you that already," she pointed out, a puzzled divot in her brow.

"I didn't mean because of the disappearances," he said gently, and their eyes held again.

"Growing up kinda sucks," she finally admitted.

"Granted," he conceded. "And I suppose about now I really should be imparting to you the wisdom of my experience on the subject, considering how much I've had...experience, that is..."

"Impart away," Buffy agreed, not entirely sure about the almost whimsical tone in his voice, very much like the day she'd asked him to lie to her after dispatching the vampire version her old school friend, Ford.

He got that same look in his eye. "First of all, running away never solves anything; second, nothing can describe sleeping in an alley for the first time in London in the spring...especially if you've spent your life being tucked up in your nice warm bed every night. Third, you meet the worst types..."

Buffy giggled, Ethan prominent in her mind's eye. "The worst," she agreed.

"Fourth...rules: never let anyone take you to a demon raising party, or tell you that your drink is just plain ale..."

"Gotcha."

"And most of all never let anyone tell you that leaving what you know and love isn't lonely and painful and hard...harder than anything you've ever done up to that point..."

"Un...less you're the Slayer and you died when you were sixteen, killed your homicidal boyfriend who killed your computer teacher, tortured the crap out of your...your best friend, and almost killed the rest. Not to mention the whole destroying the world motif...a fun seventeen, with the running away and hell, and all. And let's not forget blowing up your entire high school Graduation...plus school...in a year when said best friend decided it was time you lost all your powers and really should fight a psychotic nine foot tall vampire to the death, with nothing but puns and good looks... Oh...and I nearly forgot the fun slayer pod person taking over my life, framing me for murder and trying to kill my boyfriend...right before the world almost ended again," she pointed out dryly.

Giles straightened, his expression bleak. "Yes, well, points to you," he conceded, rolling his eyes whimsically.

"So are we okay?" she asked, her tone light, but her eyes uncertain, intense.

It sobered him. He moved close to her and touched her cheek. "Always," he confirmed softly, then cleared his throat. "Call me with whatever information you find and if Willow is not otherwise engaged, bring her...and her computer...with you tonight."

Buffy grinned, her eyes slowly catching up. "Will you be wearing the Hugh Hefner robe? Willow's so gonna wanna see."

He grimaced good-naturedly and turned an adorable shade of pink as they headed for the front door. "Probably not...but I shall endeavor to find a suitable substitute."

"Those damp silk pajama bottoms would do...at least she'd be convinced about the sexy part right away," she teased mischievously as she slid out the door.

It closed with a click, Giles still staring at it with his mouth slightly open and his face mulberry to the hairline. It was some time before he shook his head and chuckled to himself.

"Is she gone?"

Giles jumped. He'd genuinely forgotten there was anyone else in the flat.

Olivia came downstairs in her day clothes.

"Going somewhere?" he teased.

"I think so," she said a little more seriously, and then met his gaze with her beautiful eyes. "Am I?"

The mulberry, which had just faded back to a pale pink flush, crept straight back up again. "It's who I am," he said softly. "I'm sorry."

Olivia smiled. "Don't be sorry, Ripper. Should I be sorry when I'm in Milan with Andre or Nice with Thierry?"

Giles chuckled. "I thought Thierry was a photographer?"

"Among other things," she teased archly. "Seriously, Rupert...it's all right. Who'd have thought all that rubbish about the 'One Girl' and how important your job was, was all true? It is, isn't it?"

"Far too true." He grew serious. "Will I see you again?"

Olivia looked toward the door. "I have a shoot in Palm Beach around Christmas. I'll call you. Ask me again, then. "

*******

Buffy made it back to her dorm bathroom, cleaned herself up so she wouldn't have to answer too many questions from Kathy, and then locked herself in a stall to think and to try to shake off the sick feeling in her stomach every time she thought about the moment she caught up to Eddie and he vamped out.

She should have done the research. She should have listened to Giles. Then again, it would have been nice if it had been like the old days, where a problem brought to the library was a problem researched, discussed and prepared for...for to possibly have its ass kicked by Team Scooby, instead of it kicking her into next week.

Buffy sighed and winced, shifting her damaged arm. It was going to be a long, lonely night waiting for Slayer healing to kick in and the sickening pain, currently throbbing in the worst way, to stop.

The next time she allowed herself to think, she was outside Giles' apartment trying to decide whether Olivia was still there or not. Holding her arm, she made her way around to the small window to the living room.

Giles was just wandering into the room from the kitchen with his favorite tea mug and the cookie jar. He was wearing 'going out' clothes, which he appeared not to have taken off after returning from... wherever. There was no sign of Olivia. A few moments later he'd dipped into his cookie jar and was munching on one of the English 'biscuits' he liked so much. Buffy watched him sit on the couch and put down his supper before sitting back and rubbing a hand over his face.

The expression on that face made her frown. Far from the stray thoughts of possible Giles cuteness she'd experienced when she'd walked in on him earlier, her heart twisted at the look of...well...she swallowed and bit her lip...profound loneliness. There was a lost-ness...a sort of deep weariness of spirit...in his face when his hand dropped away.

Moments later, he turned his head at the sound of the door opening.

"Hey." Buffy could see he was more than surprised to see her.

"Hello. Anything wrong?"

She emerged from the shadows of the stairs.

With a muffled exclamation, Giles moved swiftly to where she was standing.

"What happened?"

Her voice was flat. "My Spidey senses were right again. Go me."

He looked at her sharply. It wasn't like Buffy to be so unenthused about an 'I told you so.'

"Demons? A strong one by the look of it."

"Nah...gang of vamps. Eddie...the guy who was missing...I dusted him," she added, her eyes dark, then let it go. "Mostly they were the usual dopey minions..."

"But...?" He prompted, eyeing the dangling arm and the Technicolor bruises.

"Their leader...she calls herself 'Sunday'...she...she kicked my ass. She's strong. Also, gotta admit my focus was pretty much non-existent. If you were still training me you'd have kicked my butt too...for doing everything you taught me wrong."

"You'd better let me take a look at your arm."

Buffy nodded, warmth flooding through her at his instinctive reaction and the familiarity of his concern, his gentle touch and his fussing as he discovered the real extent of her injuries. She half-smiled. It was good to be home, even just for a little while. The smile faded, replaced by surprise.

It was true: Giles was home. Wherever he was, was home.

"Sit down and, um, take off your blouse," he ordered, heading to the kitchen for his first-aid kit. As she had many times before, Buffy did as she was bid, holding her shirt in front of her as he worked on the arm, then put it back on gingerly after Giles was done splinting the break. Then he added a new sling from an old one of his own that he'd obviously saved.

"Better?" He asked when he was done.

She nodded, a little pale still from his...strenuous...efforts to make certain the bones were straight, and would knit as perfectly as possible...or as perfectly as possible without X-rays and ER doctors asking awkward questions about her over-the-top Slayer healing.

"It's nice to have the weight off. I'm sure the excruciating pain will fade soon."

He looked startled, and horrified, for a split second, until he looked up and met her gaze.

They chuckled together.

"Thanks, Giles."

"I should have been there," he growled, and sat beside her.

"Hey...been quite a while since we were a twosome with the Slaying," she pointed out. "Though it would have been nice not to have been there without any backup whatsoever...not that I probably wouldn't have gotten my butt kicked anyway...but it would have been nice. She sobered again. "I'm not sure I can do this, Giles."

"Buffy?"

"Everything," she said unhelpfully.

Giles, however, was watching her face, and guessed a great deal.

"College is a different world," he said softly, fishing.

Buffy took the bait. "It so is...it's all brains in orgasmic heaven because they've reached knowledge Nirvana, irritating roommates and coloured flyers, and big words, and being humiliated and thrown out of class by professors who really need the Metamucil...or possibly a big ol' enema, and getting lost and libraries that aren't like-I mean, well, Westminster Abbey's probably cozier, and..." She halted, aware that she was hemorrhaging self-pity and far too much information, period.

Giles, reading between the lines and staring at the bruises and cuts on her face, was juggling empathy and anger that her first days, of what should have been a grand new adventure, had apparently gone so appallingly badly.

"It's all right to feel a little lost, Buffy. It's perfectly normal for such major transitions in one's life," he said quietly.

"Yeah, I guess," she agreed, as subdued as he was. "But Eddie died. If I'd been less distracted by...stuff...I would have walked him to his dorm...I should have felt the vamps if they were on the campus. I really don't know if I can do this, Giles...not the way you want me to." She looked down at her arm. "People die when I'm distracted. Not to mention, it gets kinda painful."

"You *can* do it, Buffy. You wanted this. Giving up now would be giving up on everything you've ever fought for...everything you've ever challenged the Council...and convention...for."

She looked at him unhappily. "Maybe that's the problem. Maybe I just need to recognize that I have limitations...that I can't do it all...not the way it needs to be done, anyway."

"No, you just need to know that you *have* done it before and that everyone has bad days," a voice said behind them, making both of them jump.

Xander shrugged. "Sorry, the door wasn't locked."

Buffy flew across to hug him with her good arm.

"You're back!"

Xander returned the one-armed embrace gingerly, but with feeling. "Looks like," he agreed.

"So how was America?"

"Well there was some 'purple mountains majesty' I have to say, and hey, I saw Grand Canyon."

"The Grand Canyon?" Buffy enthused, happy to have the subject well and truly changed.

Xander looked at Giles and then grew more than a little sheepish. "The movie 'Grand Canyon'. I only got as far as Oxnard before the engine fell out of my car...literally. And then I washed dishes at a women's nightclub...about which you really don't want to know...to put together enough money to get home, where I'm now officially unemployed and live in my parent's basement," he added uncomfortably.

"Oh. Well, I for one am really glad you're back. I missed you, Xander."

Giles raised his hand in agreement, smiling wryly, then asked: "may one ask why you're visiting me at this hour?"

Xander shrugged again. "I just wanted to see everyone...and I knew you'd be awake..." His eyes slid to the injured Slayer. "You always are."

"So who else knows you're back?" Buffy asked conversationally.

"Well...ah...you weren't at the campus, and Will's not in her dorm room...and I couldn't find out where Oz is staying. Guessing there's twosome-ness involved there somewhere..."

Buffy's eyes darkened a little. It hadn't occurred to her until that moment that she wasn't the only one lost or alone...facing big empties on the romance front...and lonely nights, not to mention a frightening and uncertain future in a world they didn't entirely understand.

"I'm really glad you're here, Xand," she said softly.

He smiled back, aware of undercurrents but not sure what was going on, or what he should do about it.

"So what's the what? Anything interesting happen while I was away?"

Giles and Buffy looked at each other before Buffy took up the reply.

"Well, it's kinda been a Slay-heavy summer. Will's lovin' the college life and Giles is still 'a gentleman of leisure'. And me...I'm doing what I always do...not fitting in and dealing with the mystery of the week."

"Let me guess...dead people?"

"Vampire gang working the campus," Buffy confirmed.

"Okay, when do we start?"

"Start?" Giles asked, bemused.

"The research...the pizza...jelly donuts."

Buffy smiled. "Yeah, Giles. When do we start, and who's getting the donuts?"

"That would be me...I'm donuts guy...and with sufficient financial incentive I can be pizza guy too," Xander pointed out hopefully.

Giles handed over the cash, aware that Buffy was no longer looking forlorn and lost. "The usual," he reminded Xander. "No dots, squares or cheese-filled crusts. Just the same order we've always had. The same with the donuts."

Xander grinned lopsidedly. "With pleasure. Have fun with the book-hitting while I'm gone."

Giles turned to Buffy after the door closed. "It will be rather late by the time we eat. If you want to give me all the information you have, now, and go back to the dorm to sleep whilst Xander and I..."

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