Title: Coming Back Again
Author: Kate R.
Rating: PG-Pg-13
Pairings: G/E
Warnings: Slash
Summary: Ethan comes home to Ripper
Disclaimer: Own nothing and no one used herein.

The Airport was crowded, Giles though as he paced the lounge. Xander was sitting watching him as Giles walked back and forth. The boy had known. He'd known what Giles needed. He'd pushed Giles with that song until Giles admitted to himself what he wanted and needed. It seemed only fitting Xander be with him when Ethan came home to him. And Giles needed Ethan. He needed him for many reasons. And maybe, when he and Ethan were alone, they could finally talk about all those reasons.

There's a ship out, on the ocean
At the mercy of the sea
It's been tossed about, lost and broken
Wandering aimlessly
And God somehow you know that ship is me

Giles mused, as they waited for Ethan to come home, on one of the big reasons he needed his Ethan back. Giles had been lost for a very long time. Lost inside himself and in the world. Like a storm tossed ship. He was broken inside. Lost and hurting. And somehow, someone had seen that he was the broken ship.

'Cause there's a lighthouse, in the harbor
Shining faithfully
Pouring its light out, across the water
For this sinking soul to see
That someone out there still believes in me

Giles sat for a few minutes thinking about the light that Ethan provided him with in his life. He had always known that Ethan's light would shine for him if he'd ever wanted to come home but he'd been afraid to look for it. Even though he knew the light was always there for him if he just reached for it. Now, he needed it. Needed to know that someone out there still believed in the person he was inside.

On a prayer, in a song
I hear your voice and it keeps me hanging on
Raining down, against the wind
I'm reaching out 'til we reach the circle's end
When you come back to me again

Giles thought about all the times something would remind him of Ethan. Form the times he invoked Janus to the times he sang the songs he'd written just for Ethan. He'd hear Ethan in the echoes of the past and he would hold on. Juts hold on to those memories. Even when life rained on him and he had to walk against the wind. Giles was now reaching out. Finally he was reaching out until he got to the end of the circle and got Ethan back.

There's a moment we all come to
In our own time and our own space
Where all that we've done, we can undo
If our heart's in the right place

Giles was thinking about the moment he was at now. The moment he had been at when he had placed the call to Ethan. That moment when he realized he could undo all the hurt from the past. Three simple words that could erase all the hurt. And all he had to do was say them. If he could.

On a prayer, in a song
I hear your voice and it keeps me hanging on
Raining down, against the wind
I'm reaching out 'til we reach the circle's end
When you come back to me again
And again I see my yesterday's in front of me
Unfolding like a mystery
You're changing all that is and used to be

Hearing Ethan in everything he thought and did now. He held on to it. Knowing it was all he'd have until he saw his Ethan again. In his mind's eye he saw all the yesterdays. All the pain and hurt he caused by running. It was unfolding he saw everything he could have done differently. Giles chuckled. He was changing everything now. Changing it all to the better.

On a prayer, in a song
I hear your voice and it keeps me hanging on
Raining down, against the wind
I'm reaching out 'til we reach the circle's end
When you come back to me again

Finally, the plane landed and they waited for him to deplane. Giles paced, listening for the time when he really would hear Ethan's voice again. Hear it and be wrapped in it. Wrapped in the safety Ethan always was for him. Ethan was a place he did not have to hide who he was behind tweed or books or stuffiness. Ethan was a place for him to just be. And that's all he wanted. "Ripper" he heard as someone appeared in front of him. He looked up and there he was. Ethan.

"Ethan!" Giles breathed and grabbed him in a tight hug.

"I'm here, Ripper," Ethan said as he hugged Giles. "I'm right here. With you. I'm not going to leave. I'm here with you again. Right where I belong.

When you come back to me again

END