Title: Lost 12/14
Author: Gail Christison
Rating: PG-13-15 for now
Pairing: B/G
Summary: Giles and Buffy a lost in a primitive environment in a dimensional rip, for what is a couple of weeks for them. Survival brings with it a lot of lessons and when they arrive back not long before Valentine's Day Buffy has to make some choices.
Timeline: This is kind of a semi-AU story set in season 7. There are no S-I-Ts. Giles is Giles. There's no Andrew, Wood is not relevent, and the First has not appeared yet. The main characters are otherwise unchanged. Phew. I think that's a record for me for a summary LOL. Can you tell I really don't like a lot of things about season 7? ...I knew you could <vbg>
Disclaimer: Joss is the destroyer...I mean owner...I'm just doin' a little building ;-)
Feedback: Always love to hear what you think chriscln@ozemail.com.au
Distribution: All those who have my general permission and at my site http://wickedsky.com/oncemore as soon as I get it finished. :-)
Author's notes: This one is big and not done yet, so I don't know how many parts there'll be ultimately but thanks to Headrush and Gileswench these first ones are ready to post for Valentine's Day. Good thing there's technically 2 Valentine's Days for me to post over <g>
Dedication: To everyone who helps me to make a fic happen, either just by reading when I'm not impartial enough to know how it's going myself, or by beta-ing for me. Thank you!
Cindy, I hope this makes you feel better, mate :-)
Additional note: From here on in all mistakes are mine :-)
Willow's heart lurched. "Something went wrong with you two."
His voice was dry. "Something went wrong with one of us."
She sat down on the bed. "Enough with the cryptic, already. You're making my head hurt. I love you guys and I wanna help, if you'll just let me."
He sighed a long, heavy sigh. "Buffy is very likely out somewhere with Spike."
"Giles...vampire, remember? It's daylight outside."
"I daresay it won't be much of an issue. By all accounts they found plenty of dirty little corners last year to..."
Willow frowned and cut him off quickly. "Buffy's in love with you. Why would you think she'd want Spike, now?"
He looked up at her silently.
"Well, yeah," Willow's shoulders scrunched. "There are those other times when she didn't know what she wanted. But this isn't one of those times. I saw you guys when we found you...and after we got back. Anyone can see that you belong together. I don't know what's going on, but you're wrong, Giles. Buffy has a lot of reasons to suck at relationships. Her parents for one, and being a little busy when she was a kid, to take the time to stop and figure out things other than how to stay alive...o-or save the world, not to mention picking the biggest bunch of loser boyfriends to...well, I don't have to go into details on that one."
"Why are you so sure she's not in love with her current 'loser'?
She searched the beloved, but hurting, face. "Because she loves you. She always has."
His eyes narrowed. "Exaggeration won't help your point."
Willow poked her tongue out at him. "And stuffiness won't help yours, you big stupid. Has it ever occurred to you that there's a reason why none of those relationships worked? Why she let Angel go...why Riley just wasn't enough...why Spike can't hold her, even with a soul?"
He looked sceptical.
"Because there isn't any room in that ol' heart for anyone else. And there hasn't been for a long, long time. She just didn't know it until now. She did, however, know right from when you tried to get yourself killed trying to hit a home run with Angelus' head, that she couldn't deal without you in her life. Don't feel bad, Giles. None of us put it together before, either. We just went with the available evidence: Buffy and Vampires for the smoochies, and Buffy and the gang for hanging out, and Buffy and Giles for rightness in the universe."
He looked at her incredulously.
"Everybody might be saying with their mouths that you did the right thing leaving again last year, but nothing was right after you left, Giles." She frowned suddenly. "Actually nothing has been right since we all...you know, with the-the spontaneous Broadway auditions...and then there was the fun amnesia from the memory spell I screwed up..."
Giles expression turned to distaste. "I've had the abridged version of everything that happened after I left, from Buffy. I'm not sure I want to sit through the unexpurgated one."
"You *know*? All of it?"
He nodded. "You're all idiots. But then you already know that."
"So are you," she shot back. "It's Valentine's Day and you're sitting here, miserable, and I *know* Buffy is sitting somewhere...somewhere Spike *isn't*...being miserable, too. Why don't you go see Spike for yourself? Then you'd know she wasn't there. And then you might even want to try and put the best thing that's ever happened to both of you, back together again."
Ready to tell her it was all quite pointless, Giles rose and turned to face her.
Willow's breath caught. "Oh, God. Giles, you look...wow! You look...*hot*. Definitely hot," she babbled.
He rolled his eyes.
"Is this a new look for you? When did you have time to...?"
"Buffy bought it all while we were at still at Xander's flat."
"Buffy? Buffy bought you these clothes and you *still* didn't get it?"
"Get what?" He demanded irritably, his unhappiness weighing him down like a leaded shroud.
"What was she wearing when you saw her last?"
He subsided a little, involuntarily savouring the memory of that vision at the bottom of the stairs.
"A green and white print sundress. I don't know what you call them. Shoulder straps...thin ones...and cut in at the waist, and white sandals. Her hair was lovely and she was..." He caught himself and closed up. "Never mind. What on earth does this have to do with anything?"
Willow put her hands on her hips. "Your romance-o-meter is all atrophied from lack of use, Mister 'I'm-so-smart-I-can't-even-see-what's-right-in-front-of-me'!" Try and think...use that huge brain of yours for once. Why would a woman buy a man sexy clothes the day before Valentine's, and wear her prettiest new things at...exactly when was it?"
"First thing this morning," he grumped. "Right after she told me to put...these... clothes...on..." He closed his eyes. *He really was old and senile. And very, very stupid...*
Willow was speechless.
His green eyes flashed open. "Tell me quickly: where is Spike staying, and where else would Buffy go if she were upset?"
She decided to refrain from impressing upon him what a dumb head he really was...at least for the time being...
"He's got a new crypt at Everwood cemetery, in the back. There aren't that many. It shouldn't be hard to find. The old one kinda got knocked down. And it's been so long since we really hung out...or talked...that I don't know where she'd go, Giles. I'm sorry. I-I could do a location spell...?"
"For a human? And I'm not sure that's wise..."
"I'm fine, Giles. And I did one a while back to find Dawn in a hurry, and I was fine then too...we kinda had a flashback to that time when Xander put the love whammy on all the women in Sunnydale, only this time it was a boy Dawnie liked...except the kid's jacket made all of us like him...i-instead of a spell. We had to find Dawn, to stop her from doing something really dumb." She refrained from enlarging upon the incident or upon any of their collective no-brainers that day.
His eyebrows rose, despite the intent expression on his face. "I take it the situation was suitably resolved?"
"Xander and Spike took care of it. They burned the jacket. What's important here is that I can do the spell. I just need to get some stuff."
"Fine," he said, picking up Buffy's untouched cell phone from the coffee table, and keying in the word 'vampire', thankful for Dawn's diatribe during one of their transatlantic phone conversations, about Buffy's 'extreme lack of originality and having no imagination, what-so-EVER!' "In the meantime I'll be gone for some time. Make sure someone is here for Dawn."
Willow nodded. "I'll be here."
"If there are any problems, or you find anything-anything at all," he held up the small device, "call me. Now, where are the keys to the Jeep?"
*******
Spike stirred from what had been a fitful sleep. "What the hell do you want? Disturbin' a man's beauty sleep...why aren't you off somewhere shagging your bit o' skirt? Hate to be the one to tell you, but you're bit past the beauty sleep stage..."
Giles took a few steps forward. "What the hell are you prattling about, Spike?"
The vampire stared back at him for a long moment, then his eyes widened in surprise.
*So it was true...*
"Bugger me..."
"Not on your best day. Do you know where Buffy is, or don't you?"
"So you've made a hash of it already, have you? Slayer too much woman for you, Rupes?"
Spike found himself splayed up against the crypt wall, his feet two inches off the ground.
"Where. Is. She?"
"How the bloody hell should I know? Spent half of last night dispensing advice to the lovelorn like a right Berk. Bloody soul's more trouble than it's worth. For example: now the chip's gone, I should be kicking your sorry arse all over this crypt. Instead I'm lettin' you hang me up like bleedin' washing on the line...how's your arm, by the way? Must be gettin' a bit tired by no-"
"Last night?" Giles demanded.
"Yeah, what of it? Slayer came to visit." Spike's eyes glinted with the thought of the kind of mischief he would have made before he'd cursed himself with a soul. The glint faded...and the delicious thoughts of making old Rupert crazy with jealousy with it. He could do without the thrashing he'd almost certainly get, and therefore have to give, on top of the current misery of knowing he'd lost perhaps the last great love of his life, forever.
"And...?"
Spike braced himself as Giles lifted him by the throat and slammed him into the wall.
"Take it easy, Watcher. No chip, remember? I didn't say anything happened, did I?"
Giles let him down and stepped back. "What was she doing here?"
Spike straightened his clothes and rolled his eyes. "You really have to ask? Has it been that long, Rupes? Can't you even remember what it was like?"
The other man thrust his hands in his pockets, looking distinctly Ripper-like.
Spikes' eyes narrowed. "Oi, why aren't you hiding behind those 'orrible glasses any more? What's with the new look?"
Giles pulled the spectacles from his shirt pocket and put them on, just to shut Spike, who was still looking him up and down incredulously, up.
"You old git...an earring too?"
"I'd watch who you're calling 'old' Spike. I've seen William's history. At least I managed to actually leave home some time before middle age started to set in," he drawled. "And if you're telling me you haven't seen Buffy since last night, there's no point continuing this conversation."
At that point Spike registered something he'd missed before. "Buffy...she's really missing?"
Giles took his glasses off again and ran a large hand over his face. "For several hours, but it's not your concern, now."
Spike watched the older man shove the specs back in his pocket and stride, frustrated, out of the crypt.
"Bollocks," he sneered reflexively, but the bravado swiftly dissipated. Slayer was missing and her bleedin' hero didn't have a clue where she was. *Not so long ago he wouldn't have given a flying f-Ow!* He hopped back from kicking the wall with enough feeling to break human toes. "Bollocks! Bollocks! Bollocks...!"
Then he kicked it again, ignoring the pain. He was gradually turning into the biggest bleeding heart, pansy-arsed...
He sighed. What he was...was turning back into William. Except the baggage he was bringing with him this time like-as-not was going to half-kill him. How the hell bloody Angel made it this far was beyond his ken. For good measure he butted his brow against the stone, then wheeled and strode out of the dank little room.
*******
Buffy shifted stiffly from her resting place. After a boring film, which she cried all the way through in the very convenient darkness, anyway, then three mochas at the 'Pump, and a circuitous route through Sunnydale, taking in all of the places she and Giles used to patrol regularly together, she'd ended up, without realizing it, at a place that still lived in her psyche as one of refuge and comfort.
She didn't really want to wake up. Sitting in the shadows, near the funky old door, scrunched in the little corner where the pot stand from hell used to live, allowed her to make it all go away...sort of. After so long without being able to feel much of anything, the violent tumult of emotions, of lacerating pain, were all taking their toll on her.
A hand on her shoulder roused her immediately, adrenaline immediately coursing through her body.
"Buffy...?"
Her eyes flew up, startled, focusing on the source of the too-familiar voice, not sure if she was dreaming or not.
"Y-you're...here?"
"Yes, love. I'm here."
Buffy's heart started to gallop. "H-how? How could you find me, here?"
"Actually, it was Spike..."
She shook her head.
"He has a remarkable ability to read people," Giles said softly.
"Why did you come?"
"Because I love you to distraction...and because I'm a stupid fool."
She looked at him disbelievingly, her eyes growing very bright as hope and doubt surged in equal parts.
"Spike...?" She whispered.
Giles took her hand and drew her to her feet. "...Understands, as do I now, that one cannot fight destiny," he told her tenderly.
"Destiny?"
"Yes...ours." He pulled her into his arms and bent his head to her upturned, bemused face, their lips meeting in a tentative caress, before pausing to look searchingly into each other's eyes for a moment. Then their mouths were locking passionately, in an almost desperate attempt to close the distance that had threatened so terrifyingly to destroy any possibility of happiness for either of them...
At that point, the door to Giles' old flat opened and tiny old lady stuck her head out.
"Are you selling anything?"
Buffy and Giles separated, flustered, Giles thrusting his hands in his pockets. "N-no. Sorry, I...um...used to live here," he explained. "J-just a bit of nostalgia. We'll-"
The door slammed shut. He blinked.
"...Go now."
Buffy giggled. "You think she actually makes it upstairs to that loft every night?"
Giles pulled his left hand out and trailed a finger down her flushed cheek. "A part of me would have liked the opportunity to carry you up there," he told her in a voice that made her shiver.
She searched his face, staring into the eyes she loved, trying to believe what was happening, to take everything in...that he was really there. Then, overwhelmed, she laid her face against his shirt and closed her eyes as his arms tightened around her.
So many times in the past the pain had gone on...and on. She shrank from the memory of the endless ache after Angelus turned...and again after Angel finally left her...the hollow emptiness after that helicopter flew out of her life...
And yet through all that time one thing remained unchanged: one warm, loving constant in her life...
She felt his lips touch the top of her head and nestled contentedly into the shirt.
Giles cleared his throat. "I think we're being watched through the spy hole."
Buffy reluctantly lifted her head. "You think maybe we should go home?"
Surprisingly, Giles shook his head. "Unless you really want to, I think perhaps you should tell me what it is you wanted to do, today. I haven't celebrated Valentine's Day for well over twenty years, which means I'm terribly out of practice, but I very much think I'd like to this year...with you."
She blinked. If she was disoriented when she opened her eyes and he was there, now she was completely dazed. She said the only thing she could think of.
"I'm guessing there's someone with Dawn?"
"All taken care of," he told her. "She is currently at Janice's house and Willow has promised to wait for her."
Buffy seemed to focus then, her intent grey-green eyes looking up at his.
"Are you sure?"
Giles smiled, well aware that the question had nothing to do with Dawn.
"In every way that matters."
Buffy smiled back tentatively. "In that case...surprise me. I'd like to see what a sexy Englishman considers a romantic day, because so far...not so good."
He chuckled, but a part of him was silently quailing. He couldn't even remember his last attempt at romantic chivalry. The only Valentine's Day effort he could remember clearly was his first, at the age of about nineteen.
The young lady in question had appreciated neither the ambiance, nor the cuisine of the café he'd taken her to: commensurate with his income at the time, it was pretty much just fish and chips, or egg and chips, or, if one was feeling really adventurous, there was always a battered sav, or the ubiquitous pork pie. He was getting indigestion just remembering it. She hadn't been highly enamoured of his carefully chosen gifts, either...neither the block of chocolate, nor the three red tulips he'd managed to knock the florist down to half-price for, given that they'd been in the bucket a couple of days too long. At the time he'd thought they weren't half bad...and they were the right colour, at least, for romance. Not that he got any that day...nor after it, either...at least not with Cheryl...
Giles gathered his wits and took her hand. "I shall have to have some time to cogitate," he told her mock-seriously. "Perhaps coffee at the Espresso Pump while I formulate a winning strategy?"
She beamed at him. "Oh yeah. Mochas," she sighed. "Definitely a good opening move."
"Or there's this one," he suggested, sweeping her, giggling, into his arms again and kissing her soundly.
*******
By the time Buffy had finished her second mocha she was feeling almost human again. Giles had excused himself twice to make phone calls and was now dawdling over his cappuccino.
"You don't have to make it look so painful. Do you want me to order some chaaey for you?
He looked surprised. "How do you know about chaaey?"
Buffy smiled sweetly at him. "If you'd ever set a big British foot inside a Starbucks you'd know the answer to that already."
"For your information I happen to like cappuccino. I've just got a lot on my mind."
Buffy's smile widened. "Now, I wonder why that could be?"
He grinned back. "Not a clue," he replied facetiously. "Well, are you ready to begin your adventure?"
"Adventure? I'm having an adventure now?" She asked happily as they slid out of the booth and Giles unselfconsciously reached for her hand.