Title: Sick 'Em, Ripper! 1/? (Yes, it's another series, so shoot me).
Author:Jacqui
Rating: At the moment, G.
Disclaimer: They're mine! They're all mine! Oh wait, no, this is the real world, isn't it? I don't own squat. Except, maybe, the dog and the oranges, quite possibly the pixie stix.
Spoilers: First three seasons, then I take control. Things were different in my Buffy college universe.
Feedback: Do chickens have lips? I don't know for sure, either way, give me feedback! (I need sleep, people, ignore me when I get like this).
Comments: The Council is evil. Do we all agree? Good, then you're ready to read on...

He had to do this. Somebody had to do it and it might as well be him, in fact, it was fitting that it be him. Giles had thought about asking Buffy to come, but that would have been something akin to rubbing salt into the wound. Over the last few days Buffy had been distracted, in all likelihood she knew what today was. None of the others knew, how could they?

The air was thick with antiseptic and medicines, with the underlying stench of death and sickness. Sunnydale Hospital was no different to any other in the world unless, of course, you looked closely at the separate case studies. He had only been here, to room 814, once before. Just one week after graduation to see if things had been as they should be. What a cruel thought, he scolded himself, if things were as they should be, none of them would be where they were now.

Especially Faith. What would her life have been like had she not been called, had she gotten the validation she'd so desperately needed and not been forced to live in Buffy's shadow, had she not turned in despair to the false affections of the mayor? It was useless to speculate now, because those things had happened and Faith lay in a coma in a hospital bed. A thin, weak, shadow of her former self. Unable, or unwilling, to speak, to move, to join the rest of them in the real world.

It was her eighteenth birthday.

Giles had to stop himself from gasping out loud when he walked into the room and found a man standing next to the bed. As the man turned to face him, the card Giles had been holding fluttered to the floor. Faith probably wouldn't have known, either way. Giles was the first to speak.

"I was wondering when they'd come. I should have known it would be today."

Charles Bramston smiled, though it was not a happy smile, it was one that denoted a pained acceptance of what must be. He leaned heavily on the ornately carved wooden cane, looking every bit his sixty-eight years. It was the first time Giles had actually seen him looking his age.

"This is not something entered into lightly, Rupert, this isn't easy for any of us."

"I'm surprised you came yourself, you don't usually get your own hands dirty."

Green eyes flashed coldly as they looked into the old brown ones. Giles walked past him and to the form lying on the bed. He reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. The poor, fragile girl was being used like a pawn.

"It's time, you know it has to be done. There's no other way."

Neither voices had risen. Had anybody not familiar with the two gentlemen observed their conversation, it would have appeared as a friendly chat between two polite men. To them, however, the emotion bristled between them.

Giles didn't reply, just kept looking down at the girl and cursing his life's work. Charles watched his old student, there was nothing to disappoint in the man he had become. Rupert Giles had become the very epitome of what they'd all tried to achieve. He was an old man, Charles Bramston, beginning to feel his age, beginning to feel true regret for the first time in his life. The thing he regretted most was the belief this man had lost in him, the respect was still there, but no belief. Many things had had to be sacrificed.

"Look at her, man, remember what she was. She wouldn't want this and you know it."

Giles did know it, he could picture Faith, striding in the door as if she owned the very hospital, not mincing words about the whole thing. Do it, she'd say, let me go.

"Do you really need a Slayer that badly? Must you kill to get one? There's still Buffy."

"Buffy quit the council, Rupert, you should know. You were there."

In the silence that followed, Giles thought back to his youth when he'd actually looked up to this man, had actually believed he'd had all the answers. He didn't hold any answers, nobody did, it was one lesson he'd learnt on the Hellmouth. Giles knew what would happen, had known it the very moment Buffy had spoken the words, but it hadn't sunk in, not until the thick manilla folder landed on the bed in front of him. It was almost obscene, those pages, that information, sharing the same space as Faith's emaciated body. He didn't want to open it, didn't want to see the photograph, didn't want to know.

"No. Not again."

"Don't be foolish. You don't have a choice."

Giles turned to face Charles.

"I was fired, remember?"

Charles tried not to wince. He hated to do this, spite just wasn't in his nature, but a lot of things he'd had to do over the years wasn't in his nature. Wasn't, he hoped fervently, in anybody's nature, really. One time, not too long ago, but long enough, Giles had been his favored pupil. His one true protégé.

"You were fired as Buffy's watcher, but you're still a watcher. There's nothing you, nor I, can do about that."

"Who is she?"

A simple question, innocent enough. Yet it held an undercurrent that neither of them bothered to pretend wasn't there. It was the first sign that Charles might win without a fight.

"Fiona Marchant. 15. Read the file. Her psychological profile reads much the same as your precious Buffy. She'll most likely respond to a strong father figure."

"I was never Buffy's father." For the first time that he could remember, Giles spoke with contempt to his mentor.

"No, you weren't, were you?" Charles didn't respond to the anger, it was well deserved. "I was never fooled, nobody was. Except, perhaps, Quentin. He's a fool, but he gets things done. That's not the point, though, is it? You don't have to be her father, but she'll respond to you."

"There's no one else?" It was almost a plea.

"Wesley. That's why we need you."

"Wesley's a good man." Though less contempt carried through this time, it was still there. Wesley might not have been the world's most capable man, nor the bravest, but he had been honest and he had tried. "His heart is in the right place."

"It takes more than just a good heart to keep them alive and you know it. Why do you think you were allowed to stay as long as you did? In essence, if not in name, you were still her watcher. Wesley would have gotten her killed in less than twenty four hours."

"Then why take me now?" Giles was fast running out of patience. This man was telling him the things he'd suspected, had all but known were true, but that didn't make it any easier to hear. All the pain they'd suffered, everything they'd endured, could have been avoided. "She still needs me."

"She's no longer the council's concern. Your ticket was booked the moment she quit."

Giles was still facing the bed, but Charles knew that if he were looking straight at him, he would be seeing the last vestige of respect melt and dissolve in Rupert's eyes.

"I thought as much."

"If it meant so much, Rupert, if it meant so damned much, why didn't you stop her? Why didn't you try to convince her to stay? She would have listened to you."

"You have no idea, do you? In that moment she was free, she had total freedom for the first time in over three years. How in the world was I supposed to stand in the way of that?" What had Buffy so succinctly called it? Ah yes, graduation. He'd trained her for that very moment, guided her until she could stand on her own two feet, and felt his heart slice in two when it actually happened. "She deserved that and so much more, even if it was at my expense. I couldn't blackmail her emotionally like that. She had to choose."

"Yes, she did. They all do eventually. What most of them don't live long enough to realize is that the council has no real control over the Slayers, it never did."

"You're all hypocrites."

Charles ignored him.

"We still control the watchers, though, and you are most certainly still a watcher."

There was no hiding the venom in either of the voices now. The relationship between the two had not changed, not really. It was just that the old confrontations, the old battles, were now being openly fought, instead of the subtle maneuvers. Although, that in itself, was a change.

"If I don't go?"

"Do you even need to ask? I don't want to threaten you, Rupert, don't make me spell it out."

"No, please, go ahead."

"We will do all we can, to get you to see reason, our reason. As I've already said, Buffy's no longer our concern and if she's the only thing keeping you here…"

"Be quiet."

It was the first time that Charles had ever encountered the famous Ripper style anger that Rupert was so feared for. He didn't like it, especially when it was directed at him. His own words didn't even bother to try and sound innocent.

"And Fiona? Well, Wesley will do his best, I'm sure of that. She might even last a year, if she's lucky."

"Just tell me one thing, if I do go, what makes you so sure that the same thing won't happen? What makes you think I won't develop an inappropriate affection for the new Slayer?"

Charles gave a little laugh that sounded anything but mirthful.

"Exactly how naïve do you think I am? It's not in you, Rupert, you love too hard to let it happen again. What is that saying, ‘not wisely, but too well'? Slayers aren't the only ones with psychological profiles, and yours makes for a very interesting read. You already hurt too much, you won't let it happen again."

"This is beneath you, it's even beneath the council."

"You have no choice, neither do we."

"When?"

"The plane leaves Thursday."

* * * *

Buffy leant with her back against the wall, her mouth slightly open, the flowers forgotten in her hand. She had heard the whole conversation. It was too much to process just then, but two things had sunk in. They were going to kill Faith and Giles was leaving her!

* * * *

Don't go.

Buffy, you don't understand.

Screw them, Giles, stay.

I honestly wish I could.

The words bounced around her head, sounding much the same way they'd sounded the day before when Giles had left. Buffy sat on the bench in the cemetery, wanting nothing more than to be alone as she cried useless tears. He'd left, he'd actually left her.

In the back of her mind she knew that he'd really had no choice. They'd threatened her, she wasn't so thick that she couldn't see that. Giles being Giles, had sacrificed himself to save her. It had been the perfect threat, if they'd menaced him, he would have laughed in their faces.

What was bothering her most about it all, was what had been revealed to her in that conversation. Giles loved her? It seemed such an obvious thing, now that she knew, to look back and say ‘of course'. And looking back had made her realize that she felt the same, but it was too late. He was gone now. All the way back to England.

"At least I still have you, oh nameless one."

She purred at the furry little figure in her arms. Giles' parting gift to her had been a gorgeous little puppy. A small, fluffy Labrador with liquid brown eyes. Buffy had fallen in love while her heart was breaking. It had been a strange feeling. As she lifted the puppy to her face, delighting in the swift shuffles of the little legs, the warmth of the rapidly beating heart, she was surprised when it growled at her.

"I guess I don't have you either, then."

It took Buffy less than three seconds to realize the dog had not been growling at her, but something just behind her. She'd been so engrossed in her wallowing that she hadn't listened to her spidey senses. She dusted the vamp with little effort and turned back to the puppy who was nuzzling into her leg.

"You're so cute and loving and quiet, but as soon as I'm threatened, you turn into kujo?" Buffy grinned. "I'll call you Ripper."

* * * *

SHAMELESS ATTEMPT TO AVOID WRITING MEGA DETAILS… Also known as the "ALMOST THREE YEARS LATER" heading.

* * * *

Buffy shuffled her book bag higher up on her shoulder while simultaneously trying to juggle the bags of groceries and her keys. An orange dropped to the ground and bounced down the steps behind her. Just as she managed to position the right key into her hand at approximately keyhole height, the door flew inwards. She tried not to fall forward and onto the figure in front of her.

"Buffy! Sorry, I was typing a report, here let me get that… Oh, hey! Escaping fruit!"

"Hi Willow. Remind me how you manage to stay so energetic during mid-terms?" Buffy gratefully shouldered one of the bags over to her friend before Willow raced past her.

"It's my secret weapon," Willow grinned secretively as she came back from recovering the said escaped fruit. As she passed Buffy, she leaned over to whisper into her ear. "It's called caffeine. You wanna score? I got freshly ground, I got mochas," She passed Buffy but kept her voice low and looked from left to right. "I even got esspress-sso."

"I'm cutting you back."

They both laughed as they made their way into the kitchen. Buffy had to do some quick stepping to avoid the large awkward bundle of legs and a tail that skidded across the floorboards towards her. After dumping her packages down, she bent down and massaged the top of the dog's head.

"Hey Ripper. Miss me?"

"Miss you?" Willow's voice rose from the fridge where she was currently trying to make room for the new items. "That dog doesn't stop whining from the moment you leave the house, to the moment you come back. It's kinda sweet. Hey, speaking of sweet, did you pick up any of those little chocolate thingies?"

"Willow…" Buffy's voice turned into a mock growl.

"What?" Too innocent a voice, too high the eyebrows.

"Do you recall when we had that talk? Sugar is not your friend. You do remember the pixie stix incident, don't you?"

Willow giggled.

"To this day, I still don't think Dean Bradley knows how footprints got on the ceiling."

"Nor does he want to." Buffy began to talk in a deep voice to Ripper, her comments were directed at Willow, but she faced the dog, rubbing the spaces below each ear. Willow often wondered what Buffy would be like with a baby, she'd spoil it rotten, but it would never need for love. "So how was your day? Get much written?"

"Some, but…" Willow kept her head buried. "Not enough to go patrolling. You can take Ripper, I can tell he's just itching for another walk. Hey, uh, Buff? When did we last buy mushrooms?"

"We've never bought…" Buffy paused for a moment. "Whatever it was, just throw it out."

"Eww."

* * * *

Ripper was as awkward and fumbling outside of the house as he was in it. All legs and paws, the dog loped far ahead and back again, circling Buffy and then running away. Every so often, when he was ahead, he'd look back to make sure she was still there. There was one thing that others could not guess, though.

He had a distinct sense for danger. Especially that of a supernatural kind. If there was a vampire anywhere near, he would suddenly become the most graceful creature Buffy had ever seen, speeding ahead with a viciousness and accuracy she'd never seen before. The dog was too smart to ever get close enough to be attacked himself, but he always found them out, herded them together and that made Buffy's job a lot easier.

Ripper was a slayer's dog.

So, when he suddenly stopped playing three blocks from their house, Buffy took notice. She threw her senses out and found the source of both their discomfort in some bushes ahead of them. It was laying in wait, whatever it was, Buffy could play this game. She had the advantage of forewarning.

When she passed the bushes, however, the figure did not jump out as she'd expected. It made no move to attack her. Ripper eyed the area warily, but made no move. There was only one thing to do, Buffy kept on walking until she was several feet from the bushes, then suddenly doubled back and caught hold of a firm being.

Buffy threw it on it's back and sprang down, ready to stake it, or pummel it into submission. She was not expecting the figure, which was obviously a girl, to bring her legs up and spring herself to her feet. It was a movement Buffy knew well. Her hands were held up to guard her face and chest, in a fighting stance similar to Buffy's.

"Ya know what?" Buffy let her fists fall and began to relax. "Just once, I'd like the other slayers to walk up and say hello, shake my hand, keep it friendly. What is it that makes you all attack and stalk me? I'd really like to know."

"So you are Buffy?" The other girl let down her guard, but looked embarrassed.

"Yeah, that's me. Isn't that why you're following me around?"

"I…" The girl looked around, nervous, as if she expected someone to attack her. The next few words came out in a rush, as if she couldn't keep them in. "I need your help."

"More detail!"

Buffy was in a panic. The only reason a slayer would need her help was if their watcher couldn't do their job. And the only reason Giles couldn't do his job was if he were in really bad trouble. Or dead. No! Not Giles. Anything but that. An imaginary arrow pierced her heart.

She was trying not to let feelings of resentment build up. It wasn't this girl's fault that Giles had been taken away. Buffy had heard the conversation, she knew where things stood, at least she thought she did.

"My eighteenth birthday is two days away."

So long ago, yet the memory of that day, and the days that preceded it, haunted Buffy. So they were still administering that brutal test. Had they learnt nothing when it came to her? Apparently not. The fact that this girl, and Buffy could vaguely remember her name as Fiona, knew about it meant that Giles had told her. Had he been put in danger because of this?

"Where's Giles?" She didn't, couldn't, wait for the long explanation.

"I ran." At Buffy's angered face Fiona quickly tried to explain. "I couldn't sit there and wait for him, for them, to kill me!"

Although Fiona's words made her blood boil, Buffy knew she had to calm the girl down. There had to be something behind this, something she wasn't seeing. Giles wouldn't go along with the cruciamentum, not willingly so, and probably not even if he were being forced. Not her Giles.

"So you ran all the way from England? What, you couldn't hide in the British Isles?"

Fiona looked both puzzled and shocked.

"We've been in the US for two years now. Apparently Louisiana has more evil than you'd think."

This time the imaginary arrow went straight through her heart, tearing a large, gaping hole. Giles had been back in the country for two years, so close and yet so far. She hadn't received a letter, a post card, not even a telephone call. Buffy tried to keep her breath even, she didn't want Fiona to see how weak she was.

"So why come to Buffyworld? What's the big attraction?"

"Because you're Buffy." Suddenly she seemed a lot less sure. "To hear Giles speak, you're like the unbeatable, the unstoppable, the one and only almighty Buffy. Buffy this, Buffy that, Buffy hung the moon, Buffy spun the stars…"

Fiona's words were giving Buffy a happy. There was a slight tremor of bitterness though, as if it hurt the girl far more than she wanted to admit.

"I thought the original goddess may be able to help me get free of them. At least until they get over trying to kill me."

"Yeah, good luck on that. Don't hold your breath though." Buffy held no warm, fuzzy feelings for the council and wasn't about to encourage them in anybody else. It was to this girl's advantage that she was already trying to buck the system. "Giles isn't part of this, though, so why are you running from him?"

"You're right. It's a lot more complicated. Can we talk?"

Buffy gestured for them to walk back the way she'd came. Fiona could tell she meant they go back to the house. This was going to be hard. She wondered if Buffy knew the extent to which Giles felt for her, the extent to which she'd hurt him for the past three years.

"He told me about the test last week, you're right, he'd have none of it. But the council had figured that much out for themselves. They found a way to get at me without his help." She spoke calmly as they walked towards the house, but she kept her nervous eyes on Buffy. "When I went to tell him, he got so angry it scared me. Then he told me to leave it with him, I made to leave but didn't. I heard his call to the council."

Fiona closed her eyes as she remembered. All her work, all her effort for three long years, to become something that Giles could be proud of, that he would respect as much, if not more, than Buffy. And it had all come down to his words over the phone, they'd stung worse than any physical blow she'd ever had.

"He… he told them it was cruel because there was no way I'd survive it. He said I wasn't as strong as you, that I couldn't do it."

Buffy was quiet as she took this in, obviously Giles had not meant Fiona to overhear, but she had and it had destroyed her confidence. She wondered just how she would have felt if, at any time, she'd realized that Giles didn't believe in her as wholly as he had. It had never even been an issue, she realized, as his support had always been behind her, it hadn't been something she'd needed to work for.

"But won't he come here first? Won't this be the first place he looks?" A part of Buffy really wished that was true, Giles coming here, to be able to see him again, even for a short amount of time. Her soul ached to see him. Yet, even as she wanted it, she didn't know what she'd say if she did see him, He hadn't contacted her, not once, in three years. How could she forget, or forgive, that?

"He never told me where you were. For a man who talked incessantly about you, he gave out very few details. It was the council, they let it slip where you were. The fools."

Alarm bells rang in Buffy's mind. The council may be run by fools, may be only a scrape above incompetent, but they weren't thoughtless. Everything they did was calculated, no matter how it seemed otherwise.

They reached the door and Buffy let them in. Ripper screeched around their ankles and ran for the kitchen. The house seemed different, Buffy couldn't say why, but it held an atmosphere that hadn't been there when she left.

"Willow?" Buffy nearly jumped as the said Willow appeared in the doorway. "You'll never guess who…"

"Buffy! You'll never guess who…"

Neither woman's sentence was finished as another figure came up behind Willow and Buffy's mouth dropped. It couldn't be. She wanted to run to him, wrap her arms around him and just feel his warmth, and she also wanted to scream at him, yell at him, hit him even.

"We need to talk."

She looked at Giles pointedly and they walked into the study.

"So." Said Willow brightly. "You're the new slayer, huh?"

"Three years, not so new."

Fiona knew she was being rude, she couldn't help it. Frustration boiled up. She'd seen it happen just the way she'd feared it would. The very moment he'd seen Buffy, he hadn't been able to take his eyes off her, he looked at her as if he were hungry, and not for food. It was the way Fiona had wanted him to look at her. She'd given up long ago trying to get his attention, yet she'd obviously kept some hope, or seeing now what she'd known would happen, wouldn't hurt so much.

"Okay then." Willow set about putting the kettle on.

* * * *

As the door closed behind them, Buffy spun around and faced him. Anger radiated from her face, which was pale and tight, as if she were trying to hold things in. Her whole body seemed clenched, her hands shook slightly in the fists she was holding. Suddenly she hit the wall.

"Three years!"

"Buffy… I…"

"Three long damned years and I don't even get a word? What the…"

"Buffy!" His voice was loud, louder than she remembered it. She was shocked into silence. "What do you mean, not one word. Maybe if you'd answered one letter, just one, you'd know what was going on. Did you even open them?"

They both looked at each other. Buffy was standing with her arms crossed tightly in front of her. Giles was pacing the floor where he stood, agitatedly fumbling with his glasses or standing with his hands on his hips as he studied her. In the brief moment of silence, they heard a scratching at the door accompanied by a soft whining. It was followed by Willow's voice calling the dog away.

"What letters? There were no letters, there was nothing!"

Giles looked at her in surprise, a deep resignation on his face.

"So they got them too? I stopped calling after three months, or so, after I figured out they were doctoring my phone lines. I hadn't realized they'd gotten to the mail as well. Buffy, I'm sorry, I tried."

His eyes pleaded with her to believe him, to forgive something that wasn't his fault. Buffy had no choice, she knew she couldn't hold back when he looked at her like that. All he had to do was ask, and it would be his. It felt extraordinarily weak, but she couldn't help it, he was Giles after all.

"I missed you."

He smiled a small smile then, relieved beyond belief that she had given in. Holding out his hand he almost whooped for joy when she took it and allowed herself to be drawn into an embrace. Just to feel her small, sleek body conforming to his, was overwhelming.

"I missed you, too."

Buffy felt like crying. Ever since he'd left she'd managed to convince herself it was nothing, that she'd been imagining it, that it could never happen. She'd even fooled herself into believing that she had gotten over him, but she'd been wrong. The instant her hand had touched his, little electric sparks had shot up her arm and fried her brain.

Just standing there, in his arms like that, was a comfort she'd been missing. It felt so right. The feel of him, the smell of him, it came back to her in a rush, clouding her senses. How had she been so blind that she'd never noticed it before he'd left?

It had taken the overheard conversation with that rude man for her to see the truth. She grimaced as she remembered the ugly threats and whispered insults. The callousness of what they'd done had made her insides cold. They had killed Faith and thought no more of it. They'd threatened her life knowing that Giles would give in.

Suddenly things fell into place.

"Giles! Who knows you're here?"

"What?"

"They're not after Fiona. She's not part of their game. It's me. They're after me."

Buffy pushed away from him and began to walk in fast little spurts around the small room.

"Buffy, I…"

"No Giles, listen. They force Fiona to run, letting it slip where she can find me, knowing that you'd follow, that this would be the first place you'd look. When things settle down, they've got the perfect excuse."

She was lost in her explanation, the words coming out fast and hurried, she didn't notice the way he was looking at her. Puzzled, slightly concerned, he had no idea where she was going with this.

"I don't follow."

"Remember what they said? If I kept you from doing your job, then they'd… they'd…" Her voice dwindled and she didn't need to finish, they both knew what the council had said. "Think about it. You can't handle your slayer, you can't protect her, and why not? Because you're here. With me. It's in their rule book, it eases their conscience, and then they get a new slayer. It's the perfect set up."

Giles had stopped fidgeting and looked at her, unable to move. Of course! He should have known. A sudden anger boiled up and he felt the familiar hatred seethe inside. They would not get away with this, he wouldn't let them.

"Buffy, I'll make sure they don't harm you, I'll do anything…"

"No! That's what they want. Right now you look after Fiona, make sure they don't get at her. Keep her alive and don't give them any reason to doubt you. Most of all, you have to leave. Get away from here."

Her words were killing her. She wanted nothing more than for him to stay, had been waiting for it for so long, and yet she would not put him in danger. Not again. Nor would she endanger Fiona. Once again her calling sucked beyond belief.

"No. Buffy, I…"

"Giles, go! I've managed without you for this long, I think I can hold my own now."

She tried not to let him see how much she was hurting. Her words were needlessly cruel, but she needed him to leave, for his own sake, for both their sakes.

"We don't even know for sure that that's what's happening."

"Giles, if you have another explanation, please tell me. Otherwise, don't put me through this, I can't lose you again."

He looked at her sadly, knowing the truth in her words. After all this time and he had still been blindfolded to the Council's motivations. Something deep inside of him, no matter what the proof, still wanted his life's work to mean something, something other than deceit and treachery.

"I love you Buffy, I always have."

She closed her eyes and turned away, not wanting him to see the tear that rolled its salty path down her cheek. Her shoulders clenched tightly and he could see the control it took for her not to shake. He had never hated himself more than in that moment, except perhaps the day that he had actually left, because he knew that he was the cause of her pain.

"Go, Giles, take her and go."

The door opened and closed slowly, the sound echoing around her heart. Buffy collapsed onto the waiting chair and let her head fall onto the table. Her sobs almost drained out the sound of her heart breaking. Almost, but not quite.