Title: Wounded Heart 2/11
Author: Ness
Feedback: Um--please? With sugar on top?
Disclaimer: We all know who owns 'em and it ain't me. Joss and Co. are gods in their universe, I'm just a peon in mine. Please don't sue.

"Giles, is that you?"

Giles almost dropped the phone when he heard his slayer's voice.

"Y-yes. Buffy?"

Buffy was so relieved to hear his voice that she couldn't speak for a moment. When she had awakened on the couch, she had been torn between finding Ethan and pounding on him until her arms got tired or he told her what she wanted, whichever came first--or calling England.

She had called England.

Of course, she'd had to call the Council first and was given the run around before someone had finally realized that the Slayer had a right to know how to get in touch with her Watcher. Of course, her threatening to come to England and get the information, personally, might have had something to do with their sudden cooperation. She hadn't been happy but at least now she knew how to get in touch with Giles.

A woman answering the phone had thrown her but she needed to hear his voice, so she had bitten her tongue and been nice to whoever the bimbo was that answered the phone.

"Buffy? Are you there?"

Buffy realized that Giles had been calling her for sometime.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"How are you," he asked her softly.

"I'm fine--but I think a better question is, how are you?" She shot back, unable to keep the emotion out of her voice.

Giles was suddenly skittish. He wasn't sure what he heard in her voice, but she didn't sound her normal self.

"What do you mean?"

"What do you think I mean?" Buffy wanted him to tell her what happened without her having to ask.

"Buffy is everything all right?" Giles was beginning to get a sinking feeling in his stomach--a feeling that intensified when his sister suddenly found something to do in the other room. He watched her retreating back as he waited for Buffy's answer.

Buffy refused to wait for him any longer.

"Ethan was here today Giles," she informed him.

Giles cursed silently. *Now* he knew why his sister had beat a hasty retreat. She had joined that pillock for lunch just two days before. He had warned her about remaining friends with him, but she said that she refused to be pulled into their feud and Ethan had always been very good to her.

"Really? Did you wound him for me?" he tried to project innocence into his tone.

"Actually, I was too busy fainting to think about hurting him," Buffy replied with embarrassment.

"Fainting? You fainted?" Giles didn't try to keep the concern out of his voice. "Why did you faint?"

"Because he just told me that my Watcher had been paralyzed for six months and hadn't bothered to tell me," Buffy told him sharply.

Giles nearly dropped the phone. He suspected his sister had been up to something, but he never dreamed she would send Ethan to California to tattle on him.

"Wha--What are you talking about?"

"Don't lie!" She snapped.

Giles snapped his mouth shut so fast, his teeth clicked audibly.

"What's the matter? Were you gonna deny it?" she asked.

Giles swallowed hard and tried not to stutter when he spoke.

"I didn't want you to know," he replied quietly.

Buffy felt as though she had taken a shot to the stomach. She actually felt like doubling over from the pain.

"Why?" She whispered in a pain-filled voice.

He sighed.

"Because there's nothing you can do and I don't want you to feel obligated."

"Obligated? Obligated?" Her voice rose several octaves.

"Yes, you have enough to worry about without worrying about me."

Buffy closed her eyes in an effort to reclaim her composure as she gripped the phone tighter. She hastily eased her hold when she heard the plastic crack.

"You think that's the only reason I would want to know--because I feel like I'm supposed to worry about you?"

Giles knew her well enough to tread lightly when she took that tone.

"Buffy, I didn't mean--."

"I don't care what you meant!" she informed him. "You should have told me. I shouldn't have heard about it from Ethan Rayne."

"You're right," he sighed. "I apologize."

"And dammit, don't play martyr with me!" Buffy was furious.

Giles was beginning to lose *his* temper.

"Pray tell--what *exactly* do you want from me?" he asked testily.

"I want the truth. I want to know what happened. I want to be with you!" Buffy clapped a hand over her mouth. Damn it to hell! She hadn't meant for that to come out.

"W-what?"

"Nothing."

"Buffy, what did you say?" Giles couldn't believe his ears.

"Nothing," she repeated--and prayed he'd believe her.

Giles thought about pursuing the matter, but then decided there was no point. Even if she meant what he wanted her to mean--which she didn't--it didn't really matter. He was stuck in this blasted chair for the rest of his life if the doctors were to be believed.

"Giles?" Buffy hoped she hadn't made him angry.

"Yes?"

Good, he didn't sound mad.

"How are you? Really?" She asked.

"As well as can be expected." he answered shortly.

Giles knew she meant well, but he was tired of people asking that question. How was he supposed to be? One moment, he was the man that trained a slayer--the next, he was sitting in a chair unable to even twitch his toe.

"What happened?" Buffy's voice brought him back to the conversation.

"A gas line exploded as I was walking home. I was almost directly on top of the blast," he recited the facts calmly.

Buffy did her best not to gasp. She couldn't bear the thought of him having been that close to death and her being in Sunnydale, unable to protect him.

"How long are you--?"

He didn't give her a chance to finish.

"I'll never walk again, Buffy," he told her. "My spine was crushed. There's nothing the doctors can do."

Buffy bit her lip to hold back a sob.

"I will let you hang up now--this call must be costing you a fortune. Have a good life, Buffy."

He hung up before she could say anything.

****

Giles took a deep, shuddering breath before he called to his sister.

"Come back in here, please?"

Leigh stuck her head around the corner and was saddened to see her brother looking pale and shaken.

"Are you all right?"

"Would everyone stop asking me that bloody question!" he spat out furiously.

Leigh simply waited for him to decide if he wanted to talk or rage, then she would deal accordingly.

Giles took a deep breath and started to shift before he remembered he couldn't. He still did that, even after six months--he'd forget. He resisted the urge to smash his hand down on the chair--it would only hurt his hand and serve no practical purpose.

"Why did you send Ethan to California?" he asked quietly.

"Because I thought she had a right to know," she answered.

"You didn't have the right!"

"That's where you're wrong, little brother. I have every right. I've watched you slip away from me for six months--besides, I really do think she has a right to know."

Giles considered arguing the point, but then decided that it wouldn't be worth the effort.

"Think what you will, but from now on, kindly stay out of my affairs," he told her firmly.

"You don't really think that I'll listen to you do you?" she asked incredulously. "I'm not your Slayer or one of her friends,"

"They never listened to me either," he muttered under his breath.

Leigh hid a smile as she walked out of the room. Now she would see if her brother's slayer was as full of spirit and spunk as he said she was. If she wasn't--well, Leigh would have to find something else to bring him back to life. Because she had no intention of losing him.

****

Buffy hung up the phone and considered calling back, but decided against it. He would only hang up on her again. She brought her hand crashing down on the hall table.

"Careful, Slayer. You might break something," came a dry voice from the doorway.

Buffy spun around to find Ethan standing in her open door.

"How did you get in here?"

"Where do you think Ripper got his lock-picking skills?" Ethan replied blithely as he walked into her home--uninvited--for the second time in one day.

"I don't have time for you right now," Buffy brushed past him

"Make time," he said as he grabbed her arm and braced himself in case she took a swing at him.

Buffy controlled herself--barely.

"What do you want now?" she growled. "You've already stirred up trouble. Didn't you say once that you need to learn not to stay and gloat--that that's what got you in trouble?"

"I didn't come here to make trouble," Ethan told her as he let go of her arm.

"Sure you didn't." Buffy didn't try to disguise her skepticism.

"I didn't--a friend asked me to deliver the message. To tell the truth, I thought you knew and had washed your hands of him. It made me angry and I wanted to see you--even if you did kick my arse from here to London."

Buffy looked at the thin Englishman and decided that maybe--just maybe--he was telling the truth this time.

"So, who was the friend?"

"I can't say."

"Why?"

"Because they asked me not to say and I won't break a promise."

Buffy snorted.

Ethan had the good grace to look a little embarrassed.

"All right, I won't break a promise to this person."

Buffy couldn't stop herself from laughing at the thought of Ethan Rayne, keeping his word, to anyone. "Fine, I'll leave you alone about who sent you. But what do you want now?"

"I want to know what you're going to do."

Buffy knew what he was asking, she just wasn't sure she wanted to tell him what her plans were. "About what?"

"You know very well what! I want to know what you're planning about Ripper," Ethan asked impatiently.

Buffy considered telling him to leave, or throwing him out, but grudgingly admitted that she did owe him for telling her about Giles.

"I'm gonna track down my father from whatever place he's gone to with this week's flavor and tell him I need money."

"Why?"

"Because I'm barely making it as it is--I don't have the money to go to England--and I *am* going to England." Buffy had steel in her voice.

Ethan regarded her curiously. He had planned on delivering his message--telling Buffy Summers, slayer extraordinaire, that she was a bitch--and leaving. What made him make his next offer was a mystery that would probably never be solved.

"I'll give you the money."

"What?" Buffy looked at Ethan in surprise.

Ethan looked just as astonished, he had no idea where that came from. He shrugged--oh well, the offer was made, might as well see it through.

"I said I'll give you the money."

"I'm not taking money from you! Are you nuts?!?" Buffy could only stare at him. "I don't have any way of paying you back."

"I'm not asking you to pay me back."

"I'm damn sure not taking a gift from you," Buffy exclaimed.

Ethan sighed. Sometimes he was so misunderstood.

"Think of it as my paying back Ripper if it makes you feel any better," he offered.

Buffy was torn between feeling like it was a *very* bad idea to take money from Ethan Rayne and not wanting to wait while she tried to track her father down. Because, God only knew where he was as he didn't feel the need to let someone as inconsequential as his daughter know where he was.

The thought of Giles sitting in a wheelchair in England made up her mind for her.

"Fine. Just remember," she waved her finger in his face, "I don't owe you anything."

Ethan held up his hands.

"I completely agree."

"Good." Buffy turned back to the phone. "I've gotta call the airport and then let Dawn, Willow, and Xander know what's going on."

"Where is your sister," he asked as he looked around.

"She's at Willow's," she replied.

Buffy's mind was going a mile-a-minute as she thought of the plans she would have to make in order to be able to leave Sunnydale. She would talk to Spike. Since he had decided that he wasn't in love with her, they had actually been able to be civil to one another. The fact that he considered himself her little sister's personal bodyguard might have helped in that matter.

Anyway, she could get him to help with the patrols while she was gone.

She turned to Ethan.

"Coach?"

"Are you insane?!" Ethan asked. "I always fly first class."

"You?"

"I'm going to England with you. I wouldn't miss this for the world." Ethan grinned at her.

Buffy nodded and began dialing.

NEXT