TITLE: Unchangeable Changes (1/?)
AUTHOR: rjamisong
RATING: NC-17
PAIRING: B/G
DISCLAIMER: The characters don't belong to me...I'm only borrowing them for awhile.
DISTRIBUTION: Just ask.
SETTING: Story spans Seasons 1 - 7 (AU after Episode "Lies My Parents Told Me") plus AU for two future years past Season 7. This part takes place during Season 1 - Episode Angel".
SPOILERS: Season 1 though early Season 7
SUMMARY: Buffy must prevent the future from being changed and causing another apocalype.
FEEDBACK: I live and write for feedback. No flames...please.
WARNING: If you like Angel, you may not be happy about the Angel bashing.

ANGEL

A brilliant glowing blue ring appeared five feet above the library floor. It hung there shimmering and crackling with energy for a few minutes before dropping a young petite blond woman out of its center. She crashed onto the tiled floor near the book cage,striking the side of her head against the hard surface.

"Damn, Will," she grumbled aloud, drawing the attention of the four occupants in the room who were standing on the stairs leading up to the stacks. Buffy Summers, Alexander Harris, Willow Rosenburg and Rupert Giles gaped in shock at the woman, who was, without a doubt, an older version of the Slayer. At the approach of footsteps, she rose on unsteady legs, holding her bleeding forehead. Turning her head towards the approaching noise, she found herself confronted by her past in vivid technicolor. "I see the gang's all here," she rasped. She winced and closed her eyes against the pain. "Could I get a bandage and a couple of aspirin?"

A few minutes later, Giles handed her a couple of pills and a glass of water before cleaning the injury and applying a gauze bandage to the cut on her forehead. "Thanks Giles." Once the bandage was in place, she carefully sat down on top of the study table and surveyed the group in front of her. "God, I can't believe we were ever this young. And look at me...wow," she said in awe. She turned towards Giles. "And Giles, you look way good." She beamed sweetly at him, her mood drastically improving at the sight of her Watcher. "Not that you haven't always been great. It's just that it's been awhile since I've seen you this young." Giles blushed at the compliment. "Nothing to be embarrassed about, just stating the obvious." She stood up and whispered into his ear. "You always were adorable." Giles felt a light brush of her lips across his ear before she withdrew. He looked at her startled. She smiled innocently back at him.

"I suppose you want to know why I'm here."

They all nodded.

"Well, this is going to take awhile, so maybe everyone should sit down first." Everyone complied not knowing what else to do, given the weirdness of the situation. She remained standing; she still felt slightly buzzed from the magic that had been used to transport her into the past. Her tone became serious as she began to tell her story. "Where to start." She paced a couple of agitated steps, her hand absently tracing the bandage on her forehead. "I suppose I should first tell you who I am, in case you haven't already guessed. I'm Buffy Summers." She sent a speculating glance at the younger Buffy. The girl's expression held disbelief. The older Slayer continued, "I'm here from the future, the year was 2007 when I left. I'm two months away from my 26th birthday." She smiled as the memory of her last birthday party flashed through her mind. It had been a fantastic blow-out. 'Man, I'm glad I finally broke the curse of the big bad Buffy birthdays.' "The reason I'm here is that I'm tracking a demon who can move through time. Two weeks ago, my time, this same demon killed Giles and wounded Xander." As she made the statement about Giles' death, everyone noticed that she had drawn protectively close to Giles. Buffy (jr), Willow and Xander looked unnerved by her distressing announcement of Giles' death. She turned sympathetic eyes towards them for a few moments. Then she gazed down at Giles, her eyes catching his. The heart wrenching grief displayed in her blue eyes nearly overwhelmed him in its intensity, but what truly shook him to the core of his being was not the sorrow but the depth of love that outshone everything else. He felt her hand lightly resting on the nape of his neck. Then the touch was suddenly gone as if the incident had never occurred.

Xander, being the self centered teenager that he could sometimes be at 16, asked anxiously, "I was hurt? How bad?" His question drew the older Buffy's attention away from Giles and back to the group.

"You injured your leg when you tried to save Giles. When I left, you were still using crutches."

"Crutches?"

"Don't worry, Xand. The doctors told you that you would be fine." She reassured him.

"Wait a minute...did you say that I tried to save Giles."

"Yes, you were very brave. Unfortunately...." her voice trailed off, her anguished eyes holding Xander's.

"Sorry Buffy." His troubled eyes swung to Giles. "Giles."

Giles' eyes silently acknowledged the boy's affection for him.

She mentally reigned in her churning emotions and turned back towards her audience. "Sorry about the slight conversation detour." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Anyway. Two days after the incident, the Powers That Be appeared to Willow."

"Why me...and who are the Powers That Be?" Willow interjected.

"The Powers That Be are reportedly supreme beings that watch over the affairs of man," Giles answered before Buffy (sr) could reply.

Buffy grinned down at Giles. "That's right, Book Guy," Buffy (sr) teased. Her eyes turned to Willow. "They contacted you because, in my time, you're a powerful Wicca."

"Wiccan? You mean, witch, don't you?" Willow's voice rose in surprise.

"Yes." Buffy (sr) held up a hand as Willow opened her mouth to ask another question. "Guys. If I keep answering questions, I'll never remember everything I need to tell you. Maybe it would help speed things along if you wait until I'm finished. OK?"

They all agreed.

"Ok...now where was I?" she asked.

"The Powers That Be contacted Willow," Giles helped.

"Oh right. Thanks. Anyway, they told Willow that the demon had violated the order of the universe by disrupting the balance between good and evil. It had altered the true time stream by ending Giles' life, several decades too early, neatly erasing his future accomplishments. When it changed Giles' destiny, it also effected my destiny as the Slayer. The disruption has shifted the balance of power on Earth back into the hands of the demons, which in turn has started a chain of events that will ultimately bring about an apocalypse. I was sent back to gather information on how to destroy the demon before it can reach its destination and complete its mission by killing Giles. The demon can only travel through time in small hops or leaps...or whatever. With the PTB's assistance and my Willow's magics, they were able to send me through a time portal, four days ahead of this fun new creature feature. The spell is set up so that each time it jumps through time, I jump with it, only I appear four days ahead of it at its next destination. I was told that this fun ride will continue until I arrive four days before the moment when Giles was killed. I need to have the required information by then so that I can destroy it and restore the true flow of time. If I am not successful, not only will Giles be lost, but the world as well. You should also know that as long as I'm here, time is trapped in some weird kind of a bubble. I know it sounds strange but that's how the PTB described it to Will. Apparently as long as I'm here, nothing I say or do will alter the natural flow of history. Once I leave this 'now', the normal flow of events will return as if I was never here. No one will retain any memories of my being here at all, except for me. I will remember what happened in this version of my past as well as the original history." Suddenly something occurred to her. A puzzled expression came over her face. "What is today's date?" she asked Giles.

"February 3, 1997. Why?"

"Damn. Mom!" At Buffy's (sr) words, Buffy (jr) looked at her sharply.

"What about Mom?"

"She's going to be attacked by Darla."

"Who is Darla?!" Buffy demanded.

"Darla is Angel's sire. Her original plan was to make it look like he had attacked Mom, but it really was an attempt by the Master to bring Angel back into the fold."

As the younger Slayer jumped to her feet, Giles asked, "When is this attack scheduled to occur?"

"Take it easy, guys. It won't happen until seven tonight."

"So, if Angel's being set-up, does that mean he's not evil?" Willow asked latching onto a hopefully more reliable source of information regarding Angel. The resources, that they were examining an hour ago, had proved insufficient.

"No, Angel's not evil...not in the strictest sense." She smiled wryly. "Sorry, guys, inside joke." Her eyes swiveled towards Giles' face. "Angel doesn't feed on humans anymore. About a hundred years ago, Angelus fed on a gypsy girl. The elders of her tribe put a curse on him. They restored his soul. He hasn't fed on a human since that day. But don't get me wrong, he's still a vampire." Buffy's (sr) eyes held remorse as they bore into Giles', an unspoken apology was written in them for something he had yet to suffer at vampire's hands.

"Are you saying that we can't trust Angel?" Buffy (jr) asked.

Buffy (sr), her blue eyes never leaving Giles' green eyes, answered, "I never said that. You can trust him." Giles had a feeling that she was omitting the word 'now' from her statement. Buffy's (sr) attention returned to the others at the table. She opened the black leather jacket she wore and removed two items from the zippered inside pockets. One was a red leather bound book, the other a small rectangular wooden case with a copper latch. She held the book out to Giles. "Your Watcher's Diary from the last year of your life," she said, her voice tinged with sadness. "The last few entries give all the information you had uncovered regarding the demon." A momentary troubled expression flickered across her features as she searched her memories. "Did I mention why the demon killed you?"

"No, you left that part out," Giles commented, hesitantly taking the pro-offered diary.

"Sorry." She raised her eyebrows in apology. "I suppose I really should have written all this down...a lot to remember." She mumbled, her thoughts drifting back to the happier days before Giles' tragic death.

"Buffy?" Giles' voice drew her attention back to the present.

She reluctantly left her memories behind and continued. "Anyway, while you were on a recent archaeological dig, you uncovered a scroll. You spent the last few days of your life trying to transcribe the text. Your notes are in there." She pointed to the Diary that he held almost reverently in his hands. "The demon possesses the ability to glimpse future events that directly effect it and its kind. It foresaw that you would eventually decipher the scroll and send me out to destroy it and others like it. She smiled tightly. "So, feeling threatened, it stopped you before we could quite literally stop it." She touched his arm tenderly. "Sorry, Giles. I don't care much for this topic, but I'm afraid that its necessary." She leaned forward and sets the small case on the table and opened it. Inside were two vials, one empty and one filled with a thick phosphorescent yellow-green liquid. "This is a sample of the venom that killed you. The demon has a skewer in its wrist much like a Polgara Demon only smaller in diameter. It uses the skewer to inject its victims in the neck with this stuff." She held up the vial. "The venom shuts down the body's organs one at a time leaving the brain intact until the last. The victim experiences a slow painful death, in which they are completely aware of what is happening to them." Her voice broke on the last words. She quickly turned her face away from Giles' troubled gaze.

*Giles laid motionless on the floor of his study, staring up at nothing, his skin yellowed by the venom that had caused his death. His books littered the floor surrounding his lifeless body. His physical appearance was virtually unmarred except for a few deep gashes on the side of his face and the large puncture hole on his neck where the demon had injected its venom into his body. Yellow- green goo oozed from the gaping wound.*

After Buffy regained control over her emotions, she glanced over at Giles again. His face had gone a pasty white. She perched herself carefully on the arm of his chair and placed an arm around his tense shoulders embracing him. "I'm so sorry I had to subject you to this. I hate what was done to you and when I stop this thing, it's going to pay big time. I promise you." She removed her hand from his shoulder and brushed his hair back from his temple. "Are you going to be OK?"

He nodded his head, now more shocked at her behavior than sick at the manner of his own death. 'What was between them in the future?'

Buffy (sr) could hear whispered words passing between Xander and Willow regarding her unusually emotional exchange with Giles. She caught most of their conversation. Willow seemed to think that her affectionate concern for Giles was 'nice'. While Xander insisted that Buffy's actions were nothing more than your ordinary 'Watcher/ Slayer vibing'. She smiled inwardly at their naivete remarks. As for Buffy's (jr) reaction to her touching Giles, one only had to look at her face to know that she wasn't happy with the overtly caring display towards her Watcher.

She stood up reluctantly, getting back to business. "Sorry about getting off subject again. There are three things I must find out before I reach my own time to face this monster. One - getting as much information on this demon as possible; any weaknesses, places it might nest, ways to destroy it. Two - breaking the venom down to its components and finding an antidote. This one will more than likely be a job for you, Will. What with you being Chem Gal. And three - locating an entrapment spell that will hold this thing in place. The PTB informed Willow that the only way I can kill this thing is by preventing it from escaping into a time vortex. If I don't bind it, that is exactly what will happen and then the world will be so screwed."

"Buffy!" Giles chided.

"Giles, my bad language skills is the least of our troubles," she retorted harsher than she intended. She immediately regretted her words afterwards. "Sorry, Giles."

"It's quite alright."

She smiled at him. "As for the spell, I'm afraid at this point in time, that will be up to you, Giles." Giles shot her a curious look in response to her statement. She searched for the clock on the wall. It was 6:10. Her eyes locked with Buffy (jr). "We gotta go. Nearly time for Darla to show up at the house. Not exactly sure, if she'll show or not now. I could have already altered this time line. Can't take the chance though." Buffy (jr) agreed. "I will be back as soon as this is taken care of, one way or the other. Then we'll finish this conversation, so you won't go anywhere, now will you?" The two Slayers didn't wait around for a response.

***************

Neither Buffy spoke until they were more than half-way to the house on Revello Drive. Buffy (jr) spoke first, "So about Angel..."

"What about him?" Buffy answered tersely.

"Do we get together?" Buffy (jr) asked hopeful.

A look of regret came over Buffy's (sr) face, before it became totally inscrutable, "Yes."

Buffy (jr) smiled, "Cool. I thought so. There was just a connection between us when we kissed. Even after I found out that he was a vampire, I couldn't believe that he would ever hurt me. Are we still together in your time?"

"No," she replied sadly.

Misinterpreting the reason for the emotions in the other's voice, she asked, "Why? What happened?"

Buffy (sr) stopped in her tracks causing the other to halt as well. "Some questions are better not answered. Why don't we try to keep focused on the task ahead. Once we get to the house, I want you to go inside, stay with Mom. I'll take care of Darla."

"Hey! I can take care of Darla on my own, Slayer, here."

"Yes, I do know that. I'm you, remember? Been here, done this. It's just that I can't exactly go in the house and protect mom, now can I?"

"No way. Mom can't know about the weirdness that is my life or should I say our lives?"

"Either way, it's true," she chuckled. "Besides I need you inside when Angel arrives. I think it might be for the best if he doesn't know about Darla's little plan or my existence just yet."

"Angel's coming to my house to see me? Why?"

'Boy, didn't I have even an ounce common sense or self-respect? I don't think she heard anything beyond 'Angel'.' "Yes, he's coming, that's how Darla set him up. And I don't know why he came in the first place; he didn't exactly get a chance to chat with me before I threw him out the front window."

"You threw him though the window?" she asked surprised.

"What can I say-I thought he took a bite out of Mom." She shrugged her shoulders unrepentantly. Buffy (jr) gave her double a disturbed look before letting herself into her house. Buffy (sr) stopped by the tree in front of her home and leaned against the rough bark, thinking about all the times that Spike had used its cover to watch her house in his obsession of her. And now she found herself waiting under the same tree for a vampire, watching her own house. How weird was that.

"Darla." The approaching blond vampire suddenly turned around, vamped out. 'God, I forgot about the Catholic school girl costume.' With a roar, Darla rushed at Buffy. Buffy deftly dodged her charge by launching herself over the vampiress' head. As her feet touched down onto the pavement behind Darla, she pulled her stake out of her sleeve and dusted her without any fuss or muss. "Well, that was fun," she commented sarcastically to the darkness. She replaced her stake and returned to the tree to hide in the darkness to wait for the drama to unfold. The wait was a short one as Angel put in his appearance only ten minutes later by walking up the front path. Her younger self was inside sitting with their mother in the living room as he stood hesitant on the porch, trying to decide if he should even be there in the first place, let alone contemplating knocking. Buffy (jr) must have sensed him; because, she opened the door just as he raised his fist to knock.

"Angel?"

"Buffy. Can I come in?"

"Sure. Come on in." She opened the door and stepped aside to allow him entrance.

"Who is it, Buffy?" A voice from the sitting room floated out into the night's air through the open front door as Angel moved into the entryway.

"Angel." Buffy (jr) answered her mother.

Buffy (sr) sighed longingly upon hearing her mother's voice after so many years. Even though she ached to enter the house to see and talk to her, she knew that she couldn't again destroy her mother's delusions of a normal life, a life that was without demons and vampires. She reluctantly pushed off of the tree and started her walk back to the library. 'Well, enough entertainment for tonight,' she thought sullenly. She pushed her morose thoughts aside. 'I am kinda curious though as to what Angel had to tell me before things got crazy. Oh, well, I suppose I can ask her tomorrow morning. Right now I need to get back. I promised the others that I would finish the conversation that I started.'

***************

The library doors swung open as Buffy (sr) glided in smiling. "One vamp dusted." Her smile widened and she chuckled. "Wow. Deja vu." The three people in the room couldn't help but smile back; her smile was contagious. "Sorry, I took so long. Stayed awhile for the show."

"Show? Did you go to the movies?" Xander asked confused.

"No, Xand. I'm talking about Angel showing up at the house."

"Oh...huh?"

"Nothing, just my own twisted sense of humor."

She pulled up a chair next to Giles and sat down. "So where did I leave off?"

"You were telling us what you needed to stop the demon." Willow filled in.

"Thanks, Will." She smiled at her best friend. "OK, I guess there's not much more, except one really important thing." She glanced at each of them in turn before speaking again. "I need your help, everyone's help, but helping me is a matter of free choice. Each one of you must make that choice. You have until tomorrow morning to give me your answer. If you agree to help, I'll expect you to keep your word. Any questions?" She searched each face in turn. Xander and Willow shook their heads while Giles merely remained silent. "Well, I think we should call it a night. Sleep on what I've said. We'll talk more tomorrow before your classes."

"About classes. How are we going to help research when...well...we have them?" Willow asked.

"Good question." She thought a moment. "I know, Giles can give everyone passes for tomorrow. Say it's for a library project. And since it's Friday tomorrow, it will only have to be for the one day." She caught Giles' eyes. "Is that alright, Giles?"

"It's a very good plan."

"What are you going to do about asking Buffy?" Xander asked his mind as usual on Buffy rather than school.

"I'll drop by her room tonight if I don't see her on patrol. It's her decision too. I can't force any of you to help. And don't worry, I'm not leaving her out." Xander nodded satisfied.

"Some things don't change, do they?" Xander commented.

"What do you mean?" she asked curious.

"You and the patrolling."

She laughed. "I know not really my job to patrol here, but need to keep in form, still the Slayer. Besides it's second nature after ten years."

"Ten years. Wow," Willow said in awe.

"Ten and counting. I'm planning on being the first Slayer to retire," she said obviously amused again by a private joke that they knew nothing about. "Willow, Xand, I'll walk you guys home. Wouldn't want you two to get into any trouble."

"Good-night, Giles," Willow said as she rose up from her chair, grabbing her bag. "Come on, Xander." Xander joined her and Buffy (sr).

Before she followed her friends, she faced Giles. "Giles, where will you be in a couple of hours?"

"I should think here for a few more hours yet."

"Good. I'll see you later than." She turned towards her friends. "Shall we then?" She headed for the double doors. The two teenagers followed her through the doors.

***************

Buffy (sr) cruised Restfield Cemetery searching for any vampire activity. As she walked, remembrances of other patrols scrolled through her mind, times when she hunted alone, as well as times spent with Angel, Giles, Willow, Xander, Riley and even Spike. The moments that were most prominent in her conscious thoughts, at the moment, were those spent with Giles. Such moments as when he had helped her study for the SATs, waiting for the anointed to rise, slaying with Faith before Gwendolyn Post showed up and talking with him just after Ted made his appearance. Giles and she had shared many fond memories together during her first three years in Sunnydale, but things had changed after she graduated from High School. She had distanced herself from Giles, in a clumsy attempt at independence, during her first year of college which had caused a terrible rift between them. 'What a disaster that had been.' Her thoughts were suddenly sidetracked when she sensed the approach of a vampire at the outer edge of her slayer radar. A human accompanied it. After five years of learning and using the meditation techniques that Giles had taught her, she could accurately detect, at a great distance, the presence of vampires, other demons and certain humans with which she had a deep bond. Her instincts informed her that the human could only be the younger Slayer. 'Good, Buffy and Angel. Just who I was hoping to run into out here. That is besides finding something to pummel.' She headed off in their direction at a sprint. She reached them in under ten minutes.

As Buffy (sr) halted in front of the couple, she said without preamble, "I was hoping I'd find you; however, seeing Angel tonight was unexpected. Although, you have saved me the trouble of hunting him down later." The emphasis on the word hunting and the older Slayer's failure to address him personally hadn't failed to escape Angel's notice. Angel observed the older Slayer suspiciously; yet, he was not at all surprised by her appearance in the cemetery. "I see that someone let the cat out of the bag," she said glaring at the other Slayer. "And I'm guessing that Willow clued you in to the fact that I was out patrolling?"

"Yeah. You should have known better than to expect Willow to keep anything from me. And by the way, Angel was going to find out about you sooner or later."

"I see you choose sooner." She grinned tightly. The Buffy (jr) chose to ignore the look of displeasure on her counterpart's face. "Did Will also tell you why I was looking for you?"

"Yeah. She said something about me making a decision whether to help you or not. As if I really have a choice. I am the Chosen one. It's what I do...saving the world."

"It is; however, it's usually limited to present day world save-age."

***************

"Giles?!" Buffy (sr) called as she came into the darkened library a couple of hours later.

"I'm in my office, Buffy." Giles' voice floated out to her when she reached the library's main area. She headed towards the sound of his clear baritone. She stuck her head into his inner sanctum.

"Am I disturbing you?"

"No. Please come in. I'll be with you in a moment." She sat on the footstool near his chair.

"No problem. Go ahead." She grinned at the familiar scene. She sat patiently, watching the graceful movement of his hand across the page as he finished writing in his Watcher's Diary. His left hand, as yet un-scarred by Angelus's torture, flowed effortlessly with none of the stiffness of later years.

He completed the day's entry and carefully closed the book. He swiveled his chair slightly to face her. As his eyes met hers, he noticed, not for the first time, that she was smiling fondly at him, love clearly shining from her blue eyes. Of their own volition, his eyes began to rove over the face and body of the woman before him. They searched out the similarities between her and the girl that he'd only known for a few short months. When his emerald green eyes captured her baby blue's again, he saw that she had been doing the same thing. Only in her case, she had sought out the older man in his younger features. He blushed slightly feeling exposed by her probing look.

"Buffy?"

"Yes, Giles?" She smiled pleasantly at him. The sound of his voice speaking her name warmed her heart.

Flustered by her intense attention, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Were you married?" Her smile vanished at the question, her grief blazing from her eyes briefly before becoming shuttered. Noticing her abrupt change in demeanor, Giles apologized quickly, "I'm terribly sorry, that was presumptuous of me. It's just that, I'm curious about you. You've survived as the Slayer...on a Hellmouth no less...for ten years. It's incredible. I've never heard o.or read of another Slayer surviving to reach the age of 25."

The three rings on the silver chain hanging around her neck under her T-shirt suddenly felt incredibly heavy against her heart where they rested. "It's alright, Giles. I know you must have a hundred question you would like to ask me. It's only natural that you would want to know how I've survived. I've survived because of Willow, Xander and ... of course you." When she said 'you' her eyes found his and the depth of love in them was overwhelming and solely for him. "As to the question of my being married, yes, I was...my husband's dead." Her voice dropped to a whisper as she said the last.

"I'm terribly sorry, Buffy."

She sadly smiled at him, her eyes traveling over his face. "So am I." Again Giles is confused by the look she directed at him. "Why did you ask me if I had been married?"

"The tan line on your ring finger." He lightly touched the finger in question on her left hand.

"Leave it to you to notice something so small," her smile grew brighter.

Giles couldn't help but smile back at her. "How long were you married?"

"Three incredibly wonderful years. Those three years weren't nearly enough, not by a long shot. A hundred wouldn't have been enough, Giles." The way she gazed at him and spoke his name, made something click in his mind.

"It was me...wasn't it?" He asked even though he already knew the answer. She inclined her head.

"H...how...how?" he stammered, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Girl dies, sees the light (in my case quite literally). You know typical hellmouth romance." She snorted. "I opened my eyes and saw what was always in front of me...you," she said softly, laying her hand on his cheek.

He covered her hand with his. Suddenly understanding dawned in his eyes. "You know."

"Yes." A simple enough statement, but with so many layers of meaning.

He nodded his head with an anxious thoughtful expression on his face.

"Don't look so panicked, Giles. I have no intention of making any romantic demands of you. So relax."

Giles sighed relieved yet at the same time disappointed. He lifted his hand from hers, but before he could move it away, she recaptured it. "I never said that I wasn't going to care about you or love you. I could no more stop doing either, any more than I could stop breathing." She squeezed his hand gently before releasing him.

"W...why did you wish to see me tonight?" he asked suddenly nervous as to the reason for the late night meeting.

"Just wanted to talk to you, listen to the sound of your voice...ogle you," she chuckled at his worried expression. "Be with you. I've missed you...you know...since...." she finished, her face serious and pained.

"Since my death?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry for, not your fault." Her eyes drank in every nuance of his features, quenching her heart's desperate thirst. The corners of her lips curved up into a wistful smile. She shook herself out of the weighty mood, clearing her throat. "Besides I wanted to let you know that I spoke to your Buffy and Angel while out patrolling."

"And their answer?"

"They both agreed to help. Of course Angel can't be here until after sundown, but Buffy said that she would drop by tomorrow morning before classes."

"Good." Giles looked back down at his Watcher's Diary and noticed the red leather bound book, that she had given him earlier, lying next to it. She followed his line of sight noticing the red book as well. She inserted her hand inside her jacket and unzipped the inner pocket. When she withdrew her hand, it held another leather bound book, a black one. 'Rupert Giles' stood out in bold gold lettering across the top. Giles, whose eyes had watched her hands' activities, stared at the second journal in surprise. "Another Watcher's Diary?"

She shook her head. "No. Your...I mean, my Giles' Personal Journal. I brought it with me because I thought...perhaps it would help answer some of your questions...about the demon...about us..." She held it out to him.

He looked down at it and then back up at her. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I want you to read it...I need you to read it."

Giles searched her face for a few minutes before finding the reassurance he needed in her eyes. He took the offered book hesitantly. He ran his fingertips over his name in gold print on the cover, thinking about what he would find inside.

"I think I'll say good-night. I'll see you in the morning, Giles." Giles glanced up at her. "And Giles...don't stay up all night reading. Try to get some sleep." She stood up. Leaning down, she gently took his face in her hands and lightly kissed his forehead. Releasing him, she smiled sweetly at his red face and surprised expression.

Recovering his voice, he asked, "Where will you stay tonight?"

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." She was touched by his concern for her even though she wasn't the Buffy he knew.

"Are you sure? You...you could stay at...m.my flat?"

It was more than apparent that he was nervous about her response.

"No. Thanks for the offer, but I can't accept," she answered with a touch of melancholy in her voice. "Good-night, Giles." She exited before he could say anything further.

"She's still the strangest girl." He smiled. He found himself inexplicably drawn to her. "Woman," he amended his statement. He reminded himself that, though she was still the girl that he loved so completely, she was a woman not a teenager. A woman who obviously loved him very much. 'Good Lord! She married me!'

***************

Buffy unlocked the door to Giles' condo with the spare key that he kept in the flower pot outside his front door. She closed and relocked it. Noticing that all the lights appeared to be off, she quietly removed her leather jacket and sneakers and laid them on the breakfast counter. Tilting her head to the side, she listened for any movement from the flat's sole resident. The place was blanketed in silence. 'Giles must be asleep...or not home yet. He had better be home or he's going to hear about it tomorrow.' She made her way stealthily upstairs to the loft bedroom.

At the top of the stairs, her eyes were captivated by the sight of Giles asleep on the large bed. She silently walked over to the green stuffed chair near the only window in the room. Carefully pulling it up next to his bed, she slumped into its depth tucking her legs up under her. Buffy couldn't help but smile at the picture, 'He looks so cute in his flannel pj's.' She watched him sleep. So many times during their marriage, Giles had nightmares. She knew that even in his sleep, he couldn't stop watching over her or worrying about her. Buffy thought despairingly about all the years that he had suffered alone with his nightmares and the fears that they brought. There had been no one to ease them. As she sat observing his sleep, he became restless almost as if responding to her thoughts.

She rose from the comfortable chair to stand next to the bed. Sitting down next to him, she heard him mumbling something in his sleep. Reaching out her hand, she lightly stroked his forehead. "Shhhh..It's alright."

The words become clearer. "Buffy...Buffy..."

"Shhhh...Giles, it's alright. I'm right here." She caressed the side of his face, soothing his fears.

He calmed down and turned over onto his side facing her. She gently rubbed his back until she heard him softly snoring. She grinned at the familiar sound. She resumed her position in the chair to watch over him for the remainder of the night.

Just before sunrise, she stood and replaced the chair to its former location. After making her way back downstairs, she replaced her shoes and jacket. She lifted her head towards the loft as if she could see him and smiled lovingly. 'Sleep well, sweetheart. I'll see you later.' Then she was gone.

***************

Buffy (sr) came into the library in the midst of a loud discussion. She paused just inside of the double swinging doors, unnoticed and unobserved by the four occupants. They were discussing how best to help her or at least that was what Giles was attempting to discuss. The others, Xander and Willow, wanted to know how they could be sure that she really was Buffy. Buffy (jr), on the other hand, was sitting back in her chair with a dreamy expression on her face, completely oblivious to the voices around her.

Buffy (sr) entered the room, clearing her throat loudly, drawing everyone's attention...well everyone except Buffy (jr). "Guys? Problem?" She pulled up a chair next to Giles and briefly smiled at him.

"Yeah, how do we know that you are really who you say you are and not just some demon that can look like Buffy? Huh?" Xander asked.

"I guess you have my word for it."

At Xander's disbelieving expression, she conceded the point. "OK. Ask me something that Buffy would know."

Xander thought for a few minutes. "I know. How did I find out about you being the Slayer?"

"That's easy. You overheard Giles and I talking in the library. You were in the stacks looking for a book," she answered.

"OK...but what book was I looking for!?" He pointed a demanding finger at her.

"Xander. You never told me what book you were looking for," she said talking to him as if he was a child.

"Oh...right. Forget that part then."

She smiled at him affectionately. "So..any more questions or can we get on with it."

When there wasn't any other questions, she asked wryly, "So I'm guessing that you've ready to give me your decision?"

Willow and Xander, who were sitting next to each other at the study table, glanced at each other. Xander grudgingly said that he would help, while Willow smiled tentatively and nodded her head. "Good." Turning to face Giles, she laid her hand over his where it was resting on the open book in front of him. "Giles? You know, I don't remember if you gave me your answer yet."

"No, I...I haven't. My answer is yes, of course," he said as he tried to ignore the warm sensations that her hand was causing to rush through his body.

"Good. Willow, I need you to go to the science lab and start doing a break-down of the venom's components." Buffy (sr) handed the small wooden case containing the vials to her best friend. "Use as little as possible; it needs to last."

Willow carefully took the offered item. She lifted the lid of the case and stared at the glass tube, which contained the poison, intrigued by the green sludge. She ran a finger along the vial for a brief moment, thinking about how something so harmless looking could be so deadly. She closed the box suddenly and stood. She waved her hand at the group. "Bye." She hurried from the library.

"Xander, Buffy and I will research the demon. Giles, I need you to look for an entrapment spell."

"Yes, of course." Giles headed for his office to locate a few of the spell books that he kept with his personal reference volumes.

Buffy (jr) and Xander proceeded to the stacks to retrieve the necessary books. Bemused, Buffy (sr) shook her head at Xander and Buffy (jr) when she heard them becoming entrenched in a discussion about a history assignment that was due on Monday. They both grumbled good-naturedly about the fact that since it was Friday, and neither had begun the work, they had little hope of completing the assignment on time. 'They still don't understand that nothing that happens while I'm here is permanent. Although if I remember correctly, I never did finish that assignment.' She laughed to herself.

After several hours of researching, Buffy (sr) was fast becoming restless with the physical inactivity.

"Giles, mind if I borrow some of your weaponry to work out?"

"Of course not," Giles answered without lifting his eyes from his book.

Buffy (sr) smiled at her Watcher's typical research mode absent- minded response. She stood up and walked over to the book cage.

At the mention of weaponry, Buffy (jr) rose from her seat at the same time. "Hey, I could use a workout myself. Wanna spar?" Buffy (sr) stopped abruptly on her way to the weapon's locker. She turned and faced her younger self. Taking in the other's stance and readiness, she made a decision. "Yes, but only on the condition that this is strictly a training session." Buffy's (jr) eyes blazed angrily at what she considered an insult to her abilities.

"Are you trying to say that I can't keep up with you? I can't best you in a fight?"

"You can't," she simply stated. "I have ten years of experience, fighting on the Hellmouth." Buffy (jr) stepped up to Buffy (sr) and took a experimental swing at her. Buffy (sr) easily blocked her punch, but resisted striking back.

"Buffy!" Both Slayers turned towards Giles.

"What?" they replied in unison. Despite their identical response, their facial expressions displayed completely different reactions. Buffy (jr) glared at Giles for interrupting. Buffy (sr) merely glanced at him, questioning. Giles looked at both of them. "You...um Buffy." Giles' hand fluttered sheepishly in Buffy's (jr) direction. "Why did you attack her?"

Buffy (sr) answered before her double could respond to her watcher's question. "It's alright Giles. I'll deal with this." She smiled warmly at him. She turned towards the other slayer. "You want to try and take me? Alright, here's the deal. If I can take you down in five minutes or less, it ends and we train. If I can't, we go full out until one of us does. Deal?" Buffy (jr) nodded her head in agreement. Buffy (sr) turned back towards Giles. "Count to three for us?"

Still worried, Giles agreed. She smiled confidently. She faced her opponent. As she bowed in a Japanese fashion, her eyes never left Buffy's (jr) face. Giles counted, "One,two, three, engage."

Within three minutes, Buffy (jr) was flat on her back, glaring up at her double.

Buffy (sr) held out her hand, ignoring the other slayer's ill temper. "I can teach you that move, if you'd like," she offered sincerely. When the younger Slayer refused her offered hand, she continued exasperated at the younger Slayer's immaturity, "Look, I'm 'you'. Being angry at me, is the same as being angry at yourself. Kinda of pointless isn't it?"

Buffy (jr) pulled herself together, getting a rein on her anger. She took the outstretched hand. Buffy (sr) easily hefted her counterpart to her feet. Buffy (sr) caught a glimpse of Giles' expression out of the corner of her eye. It was one of pride for both of them. She captured his eyes and silently conveyed her thanks. Turning back to Buffy (jr), she said, "Shall we?"

"We shall."

Buffy (sr) broke the move down for the younger girl.

***************

After Buffy (sr) and Buffy (jr) trained for an hour, Buffy (sr) informed them that she preferred to finish her work-out in private. Some of the meditation exercises she performed required deep concentration. Buffy (jr) had looked horrified by the fact that she actually spent more than an hour training at one time. Buffy (sr) had merely laughed at the girl's expression. That was why Buffy was now proceeding through the remainder of her workout in the semi- privacy of the student lounge. Fortunately due to the late hour, nearly all of the students and teachers had vacated the building for the school day. As she finished with her more acrobatic exercises, she started on her meditation techniques. Before she could reach a deep level, she sensed Giles' presence near-by.

"Giles." She grinned at him with her eyes still closed and her body remaining in a lotus position.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. I...I could leave," he said taking a couple of tentative steps further into the room towards her.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. "No. It's no problem. Did you need something?"

"No...n...not as such." Giles removed his glasses and began cleaning them nervously. "I wanted to ask you a question..if I may?"

She stood up and walked over to one of the sofas. She sat down and motioned with her hand for him to join her. Giles, taking the hint, sat down next to her and replaced his, now spotless, glasses. "So what did you want to ask me?"

"Why didn't you wish to stay with me....last night?" he asked hesitantly.

Her eyes regretfully searched his for a few moments. "Because I wasn't sure...because I'm not sure that I can be with you, without actually being with you."

"I...I'm not sure I understand."

She moved closer to him and leaned her head against his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist. The embrace took Giles completely by surprise. The Buffy that he knew had never once hugged him. The experience, though unprecedented, sparked wonderful sensations along his body. Even though he had known since last night that this 'Buffy' was married to him in the future, it still floored him when she willingly expressed feelings of love and affection towards him. Giles loosely wrapped his arms around her after a few moments, returning the hug tentatively. "God, how I've missed you. I've missed you so much, Giles. I can't even begin to tell you how much seeing you alive again means to me. How much I...love...you." The grief, that she had kept locked away since she learned of the possibility of saving him, broke free once more from its restraints. She buried her face against his chest as her repressed sorrow tore wracking sobs from her body. Feeling tears striking the front of his shirt, Giles tightened one arm protectively around her shaking figure as his other hand calmly stroked her hair.

"Shhh...It's going to be alright, love.

Buffy looked up at him, when she heard the long absent endearment, to see him gazing down at her with glistening green eyes . "We can be together? You'll let me love you?"

He nodded his head.

"Are you sure?" she asked tentatively, worried that he didn't know what he was agreeing to.

"Yes. I want us to be together, in every way, for as long as you're here," he explained. He didn't want her to have any doubts about what he was offering to her.

Buffy tightened her arms around him, drawing him closer. "Giles." After a few moments, he pulled away and drank in the sight of her. He cupped her face in his hands and gently wiped the remaining tears away. Leaning in, he brushed his lips softly across hers several times until a smile returned to brighten her face. "As much as I really, really want to continue this, I'm afraid I need to finish my workout, sweetie," she informed him, her smile replace with a look of dissatisfaction at the situation.

"Y...yes, I should get back to my books," he replied.

"That's my Giles, always with the researching." Her face broke out into a full and dazzling grin in response to his blush of embarrassment at her claim that he belonged to her. She kissed him firmly on his warm mouth, lingering longer than a few moments. As she broke off the kiss, she whispered, "I love you."

"I love you too." He couldn't believe how good it felt to actually say the words that had secretly burned in his heart from the moment that he had feared losing her to Katherine Madison's blood vengeance spell.

Buffy stood up ready to return to her routine. "I'll join you and the others in a short while." Giles rose as well and nodded his head. He turned and walked back towards the library. Buffy watched him until he was out of sight. 'How did I ever get so lucky?' She smiled. 'Don't think, just appreciate what you have.'

***************

Buffy approached the library doors, deep in thought about what had transpired, a few minutes ago, between Giles and herself. She smiled fondly at the mental image of Giles' shy smile. Caught up in her daydreams, she nearly collided with Angel in hallway. His quiet movements from the opposite corridor had gone unnoticed by her. Angel's vampire reflexes prevented both of them from becoming a tangled heap on the school's floor. Buffy's (sr) head snapped around to Angel when she felt him grip her arm to halt her forward mobility. "Angel! I didn't hear you."

"You seemed distracted."

She frowned down at Angel's offending touch on her arm with a clear expression of 'off limits' that he quickly withdrew it.

"Sorry," Angel apologized for the assumed personal liberty, although why she had this attitude was a mystery. This wasn't the first time that she had responded to his presence negatively.

"No problem. Is it sundown already?"

"Yes, an hour ago." He examined her face. Her attitude remained cold as stone, her face a mask. 'What happens between us in our future?' As much as he wished to ask her, he kept the question to himself for the time being.

"We should get to work. There's a lot to do tonight."

"You never did tell me why you needed my help."

"No I didn't." Her eyes sized him up in an uncomfortable way. Her gaze laid bare his soul searching for any flaws or ulterior motives. Finding no hidden agendas she answered, "We need some help with researching; but, my main reason for asking for you to come is because I need a test subject."

"A test subject?" he asked apprehensive.

"Yeah. Let's go inside so I can explain the plan to everyone at once, that way I won't need to do it twice." Buffy pushed the swinging doors open. She called out to the room, "I'm back, and I've brought another body to lend a hand." The corners of her mouth quirk up sarcastically at the word 'body'. She was still unhappy about the fact that Angel's sudden appearance in the hall had derailed her happy thoughts.

Everyone lifted their heads from their books and turned towards Buffy (sr) and Angel. Buffy's (sr) eyes located and held Giles'. Her expression instantly soften at his shy welcoming smile. She returned happily to her husband's side. She slid onto the arm of his chair, wrapping her arm around his shoulders. This maneuver didn't escape Angel's observation. Where she had distanced herself from him both physically and emotionally, she had instantly formed a rapport with the Watcher.

As Angel checked out Buffy's (sr) behavior, Buffy (jr) checked out his.

"Angel?" Buffy (jr) called him.

"Buffy." He proceeded over to the table to stand behind her chair.

"So how's it going?" Buffy (sr) inquired of the group.

"Nothing. Sorry, Buffy. It's like this demon doesn't exist," Willow said.

"Not to be negative, but are you sure that this creature is even in any of these books?"

"No, I'm not. That's why we're looking, Xander," she smiled wryly.

"Gotcha." Xander closed the book in front of him and chose another from the nearest pile.

Giles laid his hand on hers where it rested on her leg. She glanced down at him.

"Don't worry. We'll find something that will help," he said, his expression supportive and comforting.

"Thanks, Giles." She clasped his hand. "I have no doubt that you and the others will do your best; however, I have no illusions about finding anything substantial this time around. I'm afraid it's a little unlikely. Of course that won't stop me from doing everything I can while I am here. I promise you, I will find a way to stop this demon and save you." Giles could feel the resolve in her voice as it reverberated outwards through his body from their joined hands. He saw her deep devotion to him in her eyes as she looked at him with such a startling intensity. Giles turned his hand over and laced his fingers with hers. She squeezed his gently. Buffy mouthed the words, 'I love you.' Giles blushed red in response.

"Well, I guess it's back to work. Giles, are you ready to try the first entrapment spell?"

"Um...y...yes, have you informed Angel what we will be attempting tonight?"

"No, I thought I'd let everyone know at the same time." She squeezed his hand once more before rising from her perch. She faced the others.

"What are you planning on doing to Angel?" Buffy (jr) demanded.

"As all of you know, one of the things I need to defeat the demon is an entrapment spell. Unfortunately, this demon is particularly resistant to most spells. The Powers that Be informed Willow that entrapment spells were originally created to hold humans not demons. So to help us find a spell that will not only work against demons but also be strong enough, I've volunteered Angel to be our test subject. If the spell can bind him, it may, just may, be strong enough for the demon I'm hunting."

Angel stood by impassively at this announcement. Buffy (sr) had expected at least a protest from him; but, none was forthcoming. Buffy (jr), however, did have something to say about it. "So let me get this straight, you are just going to use him as some kind of guinea pig?!"

"I don't understand why you are getting so worked up about this. All Angel has to do is stand still while Giles performs the spell; then try to break free from its restraints. It's Giles you should be concerned about. Performing a spell at this level can put an incredible strain on the spell caster," she returned calmly; but, everyone could tell that she was more than a little peeved by her counterpart's immature and insensitive attitude toward her Watcher's well-being.

Buffy (jr) questioned Giles, concerned. "Is that true?"

"It's...possible that I...could be..."

"What Giles? Hurt?" Her worried eyes bore into his.

"Well...yes." When he noticed her growing concern, he added. "But don't worry, I'm sure that I'll be fine. I have done this type of thing before."

"You have?" she asked hopeful.

He nodded.

Buffy (sr) smirked at him, knowing his past dealings with magic. "Yeah, Giles knows what he's doing. Besides, I'll be watching his back. Don't worry."

Giles smiled gratefully at Buffy (sr) before turning back to Buffy (jr). "She's right. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

Some of the tension drained from Buffy's (jr) face at Giles' and Buffy's (sr) words.

"So Angel, do you have a problem with this?" Buffy (sr) asked flatly.

"No."

"Good, now that that's settled, why don't we get the show on the road?" She walked back over to Giles, who had by this time stood up. "Is there anything I can do to help you set up?"

"I could use some assistance setting up the candles...a...a...among other things," he replied self-consciously.

Willow shot out of her seat. "Oh, I could help too!" She quickly ducked her head when she realized her overt enthusiasm.

Buffy (sr) grinned at her and glanced at Giles. "Of...of course, I would appreciate the additional help. Thank you, Willow." The three of them moved into Giles' office.

***************

Angel pushed against the glowing barrier that had him trapped. The field had been erected, a few moments ago, when Giles had cast the entrapment spell. Angel's escape attempts were generating a very real physical strain on Giles, causing sweat to bead his brow. The power of the entrapment spell and Giles' own personal magics were holding the vampire inside the magically created barrier. Gathering all his vampire strength for one more full-out assault, he shoved hard against the glowing cage. Suddenly, the barrier collapsed, taking Giles down with it. Angel was freed from its restraints. When Giles toppled to the floor, Buffy (sr) rushed to his side. Angel quickly followed her, concerned for the Watcher. Kneeling beside the hard breathing barely conscious man, she carefully lifted him up and held him against her, an arm around his shoulders.

"Giles?"

After several long minutes, Giles weakly opened his eyes and looked up at her worried expression. "I'm alright, Buffy." He pulled away from her and painfully levered himself up into a sitting position. She changed position so that she was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of him.

"Giles, are you sure?" She frowned. "Your nose is bleeding," she said, concern lacing her words.

"What?" He reached up and swiped at his nose, smearing the blood that trickled down over his lips. "Dear Lord." He pulled his handkerchief out of his pant's front pocket with trembling fingers. Buffy took the pristine cloth from his hand and proceeded to dab at the dripping blood. She looked him directly in the eyes, smiling apologetic.

"I'm sorry, Giles. I never meant for you to get hurt."

"It's not your fault, Buffy. The spell was a difficult one. Not exactly in practice for such a high level casting, I'm afraid," he remarked sheepishly.

She wasn't fooled for one moment as to his ability; but, she had to admit that his statement was true. He was currently out of practice, because of his guilt over the incident with Eygon. She finished cleaning his face with the handkerchief. She folded it and handed it back to him. She watched as he tucked the blood stained material back into his pocket. Buffy brushed her hand across his cheek briefly. "Thanks for trying, Giles. I appreciate it." She smiled.

Buffy (sr) turned towards Angel, who had remained close in case she needed his help with the Watcher. "Thanks," she said gratefully.

Angel nodded and stepped away from the couple. Buffy (sr) stood up and held out her hand towards Giles. He gripped her smaller hand and pulled himself to his feet using her stronger Slayer strength. He tottered momentarily before steadying himself. She observed him warily for a few moments before turning back towards the others. Their faces held varying degrees of concern and surprise. She could almost hear their thoughts running though their minds. Concern for Giles and Angel plus surprise at her show of genuine love and affection towards Giles. "Why don't we call it a night?"

"But it's still early?!" Willow blurted out.

"Yeah, Buffy. We're good to go," Xander agreed.

Buffy (sr) shook her head, forestalling any further comments from them. "I know that everyone is more than willing to keep going tonight; but, I think that it would be better if everyone got some sleep. Don't worry, we're going to attack this problem again bright and early tomorrow morning, except for Angel. Angel doesn't do bright and early." She smiled wistfully. "So, we'll see you tomorrow night after sunset?" The last comment was directed at the vampire. Angel nodded his agreement.

"Buffy's right, you all should get some sleep. I'll keep researching and see you all tomorrow." Giles said. Buffy (sr) took in his haggard appearance. Just looking at his slightly slumped stance, anyone could easily tell that he was near exhaustion. The spell had taken its toll on him.

"I meant you too, Giles. No more research tonight."

"But..."

She cut off his protest. "No. I mean it Giles." She said sternly.

"Very well."

"Oh, and Buffy...no patrolling."

"Yeah me," she said delighted to be let off for the night.

Giles and Buffy (sr) remained until the others had left. When everyone had gone, Buffy turned to Giles and claimed his hand. "Come on, Giles. Let's get you home."

"Don't fuss, Buffy. I'm alright."

"No way, Giles. I'm driving you home, fixing you a nice dinner, and making sure that you actually get some sleep tonight." Buffy looked at him hard, letting him know that the subject wasn't open for discussion.

Giles still experience some difficulty when relating to the adult version of the girl that he had come to know in the last few months. The Buffy he knew was only a teenager while the Buffy standing in front of him, gazing at him with such adoring eyes, was a beautiful woman. It was true that she was a woman; nevertheless, she was still nearly half his age. The two images of Buffy Summers clashed in his mind, even though, in his heart he acknowledged that he loved her whether she was 16 or 25. A quiet voice in his head whispered to him that they were both consenting adults and married as far as she was concerned. It wasn't exactly as if he would be committing any crime by becoming involved with her. He also conceded that he desperately wanted the relationship that she was willingly offering him. He sighed in resignation and nodded his head in agreement with her plans for the remainder of the evening.

She gripped his hand a little tighter and smiled. "Yeah, me. I like winning."

Giles couldn't help but smile at her apparent happiness and satisfaction. He shook his head, bemused by her behavior. 'It seems that Buffy will always be Buffy, no matter what age.'

"Let me grab my coat and lock up; then we can go. Alright?"

"Alrighty." She reluctantly relinquished her hold on his hand. She watched him as he moved into his office to retrieve his things and locked the door behind him.

She reclaimed his hand when he rejoined her. They walked out together.

***************

Once Giles pulled up in front of his condo, they exited his car. She joined hands with him again to walk up the path to his apartment. She made the simple gesture feel so natural and normal that Giles' heart ached to have the privilege of holding her hand on a regular basis. He asked himself, not for the first time, how he had ever gotten lucky enough to win such a beautiful creature for his wife. His eyes darted to her face and noticed that she was smiling back knowingly at him.

"I'm the lucky one," she replied, easily reading his mind.

"H...How did you..." his voice trailed off confused.

"I know you," she teased.

"I see," he replied, his brow furled uncertain of what else to say.

He released her hand and unlocked the door. They moved into the interior of his modest apartment. Giles hung up his jacket and laid his briefcase down on the breakfast bar that separated the kitchen from the living area. While he went about his normal after work routine, Buffy hung up her own jacket next to his and wandered around the painfully familiar apartment. Buffy found herself nearly overwhelmed when yet another wave of nostalgia crashed over her. For some reason, her mind kept insisting on dredging up past choices and missed opportunities ever since she had started on this special McBuffy trip. If someone had asked her before her departure whether she had any unresolved issues regarding her past, she would have said no. Yet here she was berating herself over past mistakes. She knew that the revival of her worse negative feelings was due in a large part to her being forced to watch her life re-enacted in living color. Also certain haunts were strong memory triggers for her. As she continued her trek through the condo, she relived the memory of the night when she had thought that Giles had been kidnapped or killed only to find out later that Ethan had turned him into a Faryl demon. That night had been one of the most terrifying experiences in her life up to that point. She ran her fingers along the green sofa cushions and recalled many of the shared confidences between Giles and her. Absorbed in her thoughts, she absently continued to touch the furnishings and possessions of the modest home. When she heard Giles moving around in the kitchen, she pulled herself back from her musings and joined him. She took the tea kettle from his hand and filled it with water from the sink. "Let me do that for you." She set it on the burner to boil and lead him back out to the sofa. "Sit down, Giles." Confused by her actions, he settled on one end of the sofa. Buffy knelt down in front of him and removed his shoes and socks, setting them aside.

"Now, you stay here and relax while I run a bath for you. Alright?"

"Buffy, you don't have to do that. I'll just take a shower." He began to rise, but Buffy held him down with a firm hand on his shoulder.

"No, I want to do this. Please." She looked entreatingly.

"A..Alright."

"Good." She stood up and walked down the hall towards the bathroom. A few moments later she returned to see Giles relaxed with his head resting on the back of the sofa. His eyes were closed. She stood poised in the entryway just drinking in the rare sight. After they had been married for awhile, she had often wondered how much actual sleep Giles had gotten during his early years in Sunnydale, what with his work as the High school librarian, researching, worrying about her while she patrolled, and the nightmares that frequently plagued his sleep. She was beginning to suspect that the answer was very little. Sighing softly, she pushed herself off the wall and went to urge him to go and take his bath while she started dinner.

***************

With dinner almost finished, Buffy knocked on the bathroom door. "Giles. Dinner's about ready. Are you nearly finished?" Only silence greeted her question. Worried that he might have slipped under the water in his exhaustion, she eased the door open and peeked into the room. She chuckled softly when she spied her husband stretched out in the tub with his eyes closed, snoring softly. Not wishing to give him a heart attack, she quietly crept to the side of the tub and knelt down with her face close to his. Shaking his shoulder gently, she called his name again.

"Giles."

"Hmmm..."

"Dinner's ready."

"Hmmm..."

"Sweetheart, you need to have something to eat. Also, the tub, not the best place to sleep." She kissed his forehead as he sleepily opened his eyes.

"Buffy?"

"Were you expecting someone else?" she teased.

He shook his head. "No. No one."

She smiled wistfully at his sad admission. "Well, I'm here, now. So why don't you get dressed and come out and have dinner with me?" She kissed him again, only this time she lightly brushed hers lips across his. When she moved away, he nodded. She stood up to leave. He grabbed her hand before she could go. She gazed back down at him, questioning.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For taking care of me."

"You haven't seen anything yet." She wiggled her eyebrows at him.

He laughed.

***************

Giles came down the hall, dressed in the pajamas and robe that Buffy had brought down for him, just as she finished setting a couple of plates on the coffee table in the sitting area. "It smells great."

"Thanks. I made Beef Stroganoff." She straightened up to watch his approach.

"That's my favorite. My mother used to make it for me when I was only a boy."

"I know. It's your mother's recipe. She gave it to me when we visited her and your father on our honeymoon in London."

"Our...our honeymoon?" he stammered.

"Yes. Our honeymoon." She smiled sweetly enjoying his discomfort.

"And we stayed with them?" he asked raising his eyebrow, surprised.

"Yes. I, by the way, adore your mother...and your father, well...."

"Somehow, I feel inclined to apologize."

"It's cool."

"So....he d...didn't try to intimidate or..or bully you..."

"He tried, but I just looked him straight in the eye and told him in no way was he more stubborn than me and he might as well get use to the idea of me being your wife." She smiled smugly. "Then I told him that he wasn't fooling me with his gruff attitude either."

Giles stared at her shocked. "And...and exactly what d...did he say?"

She grinned triumphantly. "He smiled at me and said I see Rupert finally found someone who could handle him and...welcome to the family."

"Surely not," he said his eyebrows shot up even higher with total surprise.

"Surely yes." She stated as a matter of fact.

***************

After they finished eating, Giles set his plate down and leaned back on the sofa. "That was wonderful. I can't remember the last time that I had anyone cook such a nice meal for me." He closed his eyes contented. A few moments later, he felt a soft warm presence settle against his chest. When he opened his eyes, he saw a head of golden hair resting just under his chin. He reached out a tentative hand and stroked her soft strands. When he realized that she wasn't offended by his touch, he ran his fingers through her honey colored locks, lightly caressing her scalp. In response, Buffy wrapped her arm around his waist and snuggled even closer against him.

"That feels good, don't stop."

Giles laughed, more than happy to comply with her request. "Tell me more about us, our life together," he asked softly. He was afraid that if he raised his voice that he would somehow break the wonderful spell that she had wove around them. She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked up at him. She reached up and ran her fingertips along the side of his face tracing his handsome features. Her blue eyes followed her hand's path across his skin, deeply drinking in the kind and caring man before her.

"What do you want to know?" she whispered back imitating his tone.

"I...I don't know, anything you can tell me." He became thoughtful for a moment. "Tell me how you first knew that you loved me?"

"I'm afraid that it's a very, very long and tangled story."

"That's alright, I'm not going anywhere," he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

She patted his chest. "Yes, you are mister, I promised you that I would make sure you got some real sleep tonight. Tomorrow's gonna be another long fun filled day of researching and magic high jinx." She softly laughed. "You need to keep up your strength for the entrapment spell tomorrow night."

"Will you be staying....well...well, here with me?" he asked suddenly self-conscious.

"I said I would. I haven't changed my mind. Have you?" she asked the last, a little uncertain of his answer.

"No!" He answered more adamant than he had planned. "I mean...no I haven't. Not sure that I'm up to anything more than sleep tonight, th..though," he flushed embarrassed by his own boldness.

"Don't worry about that, it's fine. I'm just happy to be with you." She kissed him on the cheek. "Now, let's get you to bed." She stood up, pulling him with her. She looped her arm around his waist, while Giles laid his arm across her shoulders. They walked upstairs to the bedroom.

When they reached the top landing, she separated herself from him and went to pull the blankets down on the large bed. Turning back, she motioned for Giles to get in it. Yawing widely, he slipped under the covers. She drew the blankets over him and leaned in kissing him on the forehead. She pulled back slightly, then impulsively dipped forward again, capturing his lips this time. She lingered several long minutes thoroughly mapping out his mouth with her lips and tongue. When she moved back, so that they both could draw a breath, she saw that his face was flushed. She grinned down at him with desire blurred eyes that wanted only one thing at that moment, to crawl into bed with him and make love until morning. But she knew that she had other obligations that must come first, even before the man that had taught her everything she knew about duty. "I need to patrol. I'll be back soon. I'll only make a quick pass."

"Do you really need to patrol tonight?" he asked, his eyes now half closed, the exhaustion slowly sapping his strength.

"Yes. I gave Buffy the night off, remember?" She ran her fingers across his forehead and down his cheek. "Sleep. I'll be back before you know it." Her lips brushed against his ear. "I love you, Giles." Her voice whispered warmly against his skin.

"Hmmm..." His lips quirked up at the corners as his eyes closed the rest of the way. She smiled as she gazed down at her future lover and husband. She quietly made her way down the stairs and out of the condo, to once again perform her sacred duty.

***************

Buffy walked on auto-pilot in the direction of Revello Drive. She felt a deep need to check on her mother and the others. 'I guess, after all these years, watching over my friends and family has become second nature,' she mused to herself. Once she reached the house, she stood under her bedroom windows and gazed up. She immediately noticed that the light in the room was off. 'Good, maybe for once I actually did what I was told.' She paused in her speculations. 'Yeah, right, like that's gonna happen.'

She jumped up onto the house's overhang. After scrambling up the roof's slight incline to the room's double windows, she peered into the darkened interior to check the situation out. Just as she suspected, the bed was still made and unoccupied. 'Well so much for wishful thinking.' She knew instinctively where to look for her younger and wilder self....the Bronze. More than likely in the company of Willow and Xander.

She pushed one of the windows up and climbed into the room. Suddenly images of her last visit there assaulted her senses. It has been in this very room, Giles' future office and library, that she had discovered his inert form lying amongst his precious volumes. Tears flooded her eyes as the vision burned itself into her mind. Each moment of those fateful minutes were forever engraved into her body and soul. Her arms, even weeks after the incident, could still feel the heavy weight of his body as she lifted and clutched him tightly against her chest. Her skin persisted in retaining the sensation of his body's warmth on hers as it gradually cooled in the wake of death's touch. She painfully squeezed her eyes closed in an attempt to rid herself of the panorama of loss and suffering spinning out of control behind them. The tears once more fell from her eyes taking the same silent path down her cheeks as they had every time she found herself reliving her husband's tragic death.

Just when she didn't think she could bear the reality of his death one more minute, the image of Giles sleeping peacefully in his bed at his condo quietly crept into her mind like a warm healing breeze. She roughly rubbed her tears away. 'Can't break down. I have to focus on what needs to be done right now, if I want to change what's coming,' she reprimanded herself. She took a deep calming breath and opened her eyes. 'Just go check on mom. Stop thinking.'

She snuck down the hall towards her mother's room to watch her sleep. It had been a terribly long time since she'd last seen her. Nearly five years had passed since her death. One thing that she hadn't told this Giles about her first meeting with his parents was that having them as her in-laws had given her the feeling of gaining a mother and father again. She and his mother had bonded quickly. She spoke to her at least once a week, even if the conversation only lasted a few minutes.

She had once told her husband that the closeness she felt to his mother hadn't replaced her love for her own, it only helped to fill a part of the hole left behind by her passing.

She quickly checked the gap under the door to see if the light was off before she carefully cracked the door open. After a couple of minutes, her eyes adjusted to the dimly lit room. She spied her mother lying on her side facing towards her, asleep. 'She's safe...and alive.' Images of her mother's life-less body stretched out on the living room sofa flashed across her mind's eye. She had once thought that had been the worse moment in her life, but after discovering Giles' body. She now knew that there were worse things than losing a parent; but, nothing came close to it as a second.

She pushed the door open further, intending to get a closer look at the woman who had raised her. A squeak from a floorboard resounded loudly in the house's stillness, causing her mother to move restlessly in her sleep. Buffy quickly pulled the door closed and stood still a moment holding her breath. When she didn't hear her mother's immediate footsteps on the other side of the door, her breath whooshed involuntarily out of her lungs. 'Whoa! That was a close call.' She walked quickly down the hall back to her room and escaped out the window, fearful that her mother would still get up and check out the noise. She dropped effortlessly from the roof overhang onto the front lawn.

***************

She had checked on both Willow and Xander at their homes. Both were absent. It confirmed her suspicions that the trio were together. She headed in the direction of the Bronze.

The Bronze was rockin' when she walked in. She drifted through the shadows at the back of the club so that she could go unnoticed by anyone who might recognize her. Buffy (sr) scanned the crowd for the gang. She was certain that they were in the club somewhere. There just weren't that many choices in this one Starbuck town to go at night; besides, this had been their regular hangout ever since she had arrived in Sunnydale.

She finally spotted them on the dance floor. The three of them were more or less dancing together. Buffy contemplated pulling them aside so she could talk to them. But before she could formulate a plan that precluded exposing herself to the public eye, she noticed Angel entering the club and starting across the floor towards the group. They were now sitting at a table near the dance floor. She observed Buffy's (jr) reaction to Angel's appearance as he approached them. 'God, how could I have been so blind to my obsession of Angel? He enters a room, and all I can see is him. That is sooo not love.' She chastised her own youthful actions.

She observed them for a few more minutes. 'I can't deal with Angel right now. If they want to dance the night away, that's their business. I'm going to go and get some sleep...and some quality snuggle time with Giles.' She smiled in anticipation.

Turning, she headed for the exit. As she left, Angel glanced her way, catching a glimpse of her retreating back. "Isn't that Buffy?"

"I'm right here, Angel," Buffy (jr) asked confused.

Angel turned to the girl beside him. "I meant the other...Buffy..."

"Where?" She searched the room for her double.

"Just leaving."

Everyone glanced towards the door; but, she was already gone.

"I don't see her." Willow responded for everyone.

"No. She's gone now. I'm sure it was her. I wonder what she wanted," he mused more to himself than to the others.

***************

Buffy let herself into the condo using the spare key which she had kept from the first time. She made her way up the stairs, her eyes searching for Giles in the near darkness of the loft. She sat down on the bed beside him. Leaning down, she touched her lips softly against his forehead.

"Buffy?" he called out in his sleep; his voice sounded frightened.

She soothingly stroked his hair back from his face. "Everything's alright. I'm right here, Giles."

He opened his sleep blurred eyes, peering into the darkened room. "Buffy?"

"Yes," she responded.

"What's happening?" he asked still partially asleep.

She caressed his cheek. "You were having a nightmare. Are you ok?"

Giles nodded. "It's nothing," he dismissed the phantoms of his dreams with long practice. He rubbed his hand over his face. "How did patrol go?" he asked slipping into Watcher mode.

"Fine. Staked a couple of vamps at Restview, one at the Bronze. Otherwise everything's quiet in good ole' Sunnyhell. Checked on the others. Everyone's fine."

Smiling, he responded, "Good...and thanks."

"Thanks?" she asked confused.

"For checking up on the others. I appreciate it."

"No problem. I've been doing it for 10 years, Giles. Besides I love them, they're family."

He reached out a hand towards her face. Before he was able to find it in the dark, she grasped his hand and laid it against her cheek. She smiled down at him.

Standing, Buffy stripped down to her bra and panties. "Scoot over." She smirked when he did as she demanded. He held up the blankets for her to join him. Buffy slid in snuggling up against him, resting her head against his shoulder and wrapping her arm around his chest. "Sleep well, sweetie."

"Good night, Buffy." He kissed the top of her head.

***************

Buffy woke up feeling slightly disoriented. 'This isn't our bedroom.' As she became aware of her surroundings, she noticed that she was lying in bed with a warm and very male body pressed against her back. 'This certainly is familiar though.' She turned around and faced him. Running her fingers down his stubbly cheek, along his jaw, and finally stopping at his chin, she teased, "Time to wake up, Sleeping Beauty."

"I thought that only a kiss from Prince Charming could wake Sleeping Beauty," he teased back with his eyes remaining closed, the corners of his mouth quirked up.

She pushed him onto his back and straddled his hips. Leaning down, she captured his face in her hands. "Sorry no Prince Charming; will a Slayer do in a pinch." Her lips brushed lightly over his brow, lingering at his temples. She moved down to his eyebrows, placing hot wet kisses along one then the other. Her warm moist breath blew on his heated skin. She trailed her lips down his nose to kiss the end. Pulling back slightly, she smiled down at him. Her eyes burned with desire and love. He arched up to capture her lips with his own. Their mouths fused with barely contained passion. After a few moments, they pulled away breathless. She laid down against his chest, her head resting on his shoulder.

"God, if we didn't need to research, I swear, I'd ravish you right here and now."

"And I'd let you," he replied, his voice roughened with restrained emotions.

She slid her hand down to cup his erection through his pajama bottoms. "So I noticed."

He groaned as she gently squeezed him. "Buffy...," he rasped.

Buffy removed her hand and leaned down again, kissing him firmly on his warm, soft mouth. "Come on, sweetheart. I'll make us some breakfast while you shower." Buffy sat up and started to move off of Giles.

Before she could get far, Giles grabbed her arms and pulled her back down for another kiss. He traced her lips with his tongue asking for admittance. She opened up after a heartbeat, allowing him to deeply taste her as their tongues dueled hungrily for several long moments, before they broke apart, panting. Quickly recovering, Buffy's lips came back to brush his once more before moving away from his slightly parted lips. She kissed a heated trail across his cheek to his ear before whispering, "See what you do to me? Now behave yourself, Jamie or I'll tell your mother." She tilted her head back and beamed her 100 watt smile at him.

"Jamie?" Giles' brows drew together confused, making a little divot above the bridge of his nose.

Buffy's face fell suddenly. "Oh, Giles," her voice cracked.

"What is it?" he asked no longer confused but now worried by her sudden change in demeanor.

She shook her head sadly and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly.

He stroked her back trying to soothe her, not understanding what was troubling her. "Buffy, please tell me what's wrong. Why did you call me, Jamie?"

"I called you Jamie...later...after we were married, usually when I wanted to get your attention." Giles could hear the tears in her voice. "I'm sorry, Giles. I forgot that you weren't..." She trailed off not sure how to explain without hurting him.

"That I wasn't him?"

"Giles, you are him, the man that I love with all my heart. It's just that you don't share all the same memories...experiences, but that ok." She lifted her head up, tears streaking her cheeks.

"Oh, Buffy. You don't need to apologize to me. I love you too no matter...when....you are from. You're still my Buffy...always."

"Thanks for understanding. I'll try not to slip again."

Giles brushed his thumbs across the tear tracks. "Don't worry. It's fine if you wish to call me Jamie. Well...at least when we're alone." He smiled reassuringly up at her. "By the way, I'm guessing that it's short for Jamison? Yes?"

She nodded her head. "Yeah. When you told me your middle name, it kinda of stuck in my head. And you don't have to worry about me blurting it out in front of the others. I don't usually call you Jamie unless we're in an intimate situation...well, like we just were...are."

Giles nodded his head silently thanking her. "So...how about that breakfast?" Giles asked trying to smooth over the pain of the last few minutes.

She moved her mouth to his ear, kissing it softly, she whispered, "Go take your shower." She removed her warm presence from his and left the bedroom. He acutely felt the absence of her warmth from his body.

Giles rose from the bed. "Jamie...I can live with that," he mused, watching her graceful descent to the main floor of his flat.

***************

Buffy, still only dressed in her underclothes, stood in front of the stove cooking bacon and eggs when he came downstairs for his shower. He halted in the kitchen's entryway to watch her move with well- practiced familiarity in his kitchen. The image she presented, one of a comfortable fixture in his home and life, warmed his heart. A deep regret gripped him when he realized that this picture of domestic bliss would only last for a few more days...then she would vanish, erasing all traces of her existence in his world. The reality of Buffy as his partner, lover, and wife would take years to accomplish. His throat constricted in pain as that thought assaulted him. He tightly closed his eyes, mentally chastising himself for his melancholy introspection. He swallowed hard, focusing his thoughts back to his present reasons for happiness, the woman preparing him breakfast in her sexy underwear. He grinned like a school boy in love for the first time. Pushing off of the door- frame, he continued toward the bathroom and his shower.

***************

"I really need to buy some new clothes before we head to the library. I've been wearing these for two days now. And as much as I like walking around in my underwear here in your apartment with you, I don't think it would be a good idea to wear them in public," she teased him, enjoying the interesting shade of red that colored his cheeks and neck.

"Per...perhaps B..Buffy would be kind enough to lend you a..a few garments," he stuttered.

She thought about it for a few moments. "Yeah, that would be great. Would you mind calling her while I'm in the shower?"

"Shall I have her bring them over before school?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure. That would be great," she spoke over her shoulder before entering the bathroom.

***************

Buffy(sr) walked into the main area of the apartment, drying her hair, dressed in one of Giles' white T-shirts and a pair of his gray boxer shorts. Hearing several sharp inhalations at her entrance, she lowered the towel to see three shocked faces. Two of whom were staring at her with wide-eyes and slack jaws while the eyes of the third person had turned a steel gray, her teeth tightly clenched and lips drawn into a grim line.

Buffy (sr) grinned wickedly at their stunned faces and decided that it was about time that they realized Giles was more than a walking textbook with arms. She moved close to him, wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him lovingly on the cheek. "Thanks for the shower and the clothes, sweetie."

Giles self-consciously returned her embrace and looked down at her, his eyes holding hers affectionately. Buffy's (sr) smile immediately softened in response to his genuine expression of devotion. Her heart overflowed with all the love she felt for the gentle caring man holding her. His face broke into a wide grin, his equally strong feelings shining in his eyes in response.

Before anyone could break into their private moment, Buffy (sr) turned her attention back towards her seething double. "Did you bring the clothes for me to wear?"

Buffy (jr) expression changed abruptly from anger to confusion. "Huh?"

"The clothes Giles asked you to bring?"

"Oh, yeah. Here." She rudely thrust the paper sack she was tightly holding towards Buffy (sr). "I brought a couple of outfits. I wasn't sure what you wanted."

Buffy (sr) accepted the bag gratefully. "Thanks." She headed towards the stairs to the loft. Just as she reached the first landing, she turned back towards Giles. "I'll be down in a few minutes." She continued on her way upstairs; Giles' eyes followed her progress until she disappeared from sight.

Once she reached the bed, she dumped the contents of the sack onto it. She sorted through the pile of clothes. There were a pair of pink jeans, a white spaghetti strap T-shirt, a green and yellow checked sleeve-less mini dress, a pair of panties and a bra. Picking up the dress, she thought, "Man, did my taste in clothes uber suck or what?"

Downstairs Giles, left alone with the trio, shifted nervously under their questioning stares.

"What's the what with you and the Buffster?" Xander asked.

Buffy (jr) shot Xander a glare when he called the other Buffy 'Buffster'. Xander was oblivious to the irritation directed towards him.

"I don't know what you mean," Giles feigned ignorance.

"Are you and she...doing...well, you know?" Willow trailed off.

"The horizontal bop?" Xander finished, his voice raising more angrily than he had intended.

"I beg you pardon?" he replied sternly.

"Come on Giles. It's obvious that she digs you."

"I believe that is none of your concern," Giles responded, his eyes avoiding Buffy's (jr). She had remained silent during the exchange. The anger, she directed towards him, was palpable.

Buffy (sr) descended the steps to a room that hushed upon her entrance. She smiled inwardly at their obtuseness.

"Kinda too late people. You can hear everything upstairs, what with there being no walls. Also, lay off Giles. He's done nothing wrong. He's only offered me a place to stay while I'm here. He's been a kind and caring Watcher and host...nothing more. If you think that anything else is going on here, you're mistaken. I'm the one who has feelings for him, not the other way around, and if you have a problem with that, take it up with me." She searched their faces for a few moments, daring them to object. No one did, at least not verbally; however, three looks of disbelief declared loudly their doubts as to the validity of her declarations.

Buffy's (jr) eyes shifted to Giles, who had his head slightly bowed with his hand rubbing the back of his neck.

Buffy (jr) shot a look at Willow and Xander, silently communicating that they should go. "We'll meet you at the library." They trooped out the front door.

Looking knowingly at Buffy (sr), Giles said, "Somehow, I..I don't think this is...is over,"

"You're right. Buffy's waiting until she can get me alone. As to the others, I'd say Willow will eventually be alright with it...well maybe. As to Xander, not sure when he will waylay me..or us for that matter. Don't worry though, whatever happens, I'll do my best to keep your feelings out of it."

"I'm not worried about me. I'm more concerned at this point as to what Buffy will decide to do in regards to helping you...after this new development."

"Nothing to worry about on that score. I may be one stubborn bitca, but I know my duty." She leaned against his chest on her toes and kissed his soft responsive lips thoroughly. "Oh and by the way, what we started this morning. I'm definitely taking a rain check for tonight."

He smiled happily and nodded his head.

"Good. We should get going."

They headed out for Sunnydale High School.

***************

When they entered the library, the gang were already there waiting with the books spread out on the study table from the night before. Since it was Saturday, no one had bothered to put them away the night before. Giles and Buffy (sr) removed their coats and hung them up on the coat rack near the doors.

They approached the group that had gone suspiciously silent at their arrival. Giles seated himself next to Willow and picked up a book. "Perhaps we should just get started?"

In response, the others followed suit except for Buffy (sr) and Buffy (jr). Buffy (sr), who had taken up a position standing just to the side of Giles' chair, leaned down and kissed him on his lips lingering there a few moments. When she pulled back, she noticed that his cheeks were again blushed a deep red. She smiled at his embarrassment. "I'll make us some tea." Giles nodded.

As she walked towards his office, Giles' jade green eyes never left her retreating figure until she entered it's darkened depth. She turned on the light, illuminating the interior. He smiled to himself and returned to the book in front of him. Buffy's (jr) expression showed exactly what she thought of the exchange between the two. She stood up abruptly and stomped angrily to Giles' office. Giles eyes darted up nervously from his book at her hasty exit from the room. 'Oh, dear Lord.'

When Buffy (jr) approached Buffy (sr), she harshly whispered, "What the hell was that!"

Buffy (sr), not in the least intimidated by the younger Slayer's glare, responded, "That was me appreciating my Watcher, my friend, and my lover. Any other questions?"

"Let's get this straight right now. You are to keep your hands off of him. He's my Watcher, not yours."

"Look, I'm sorry if you don't like my being with Giles, but deal with it. I have no intention of hurting him. I love him and as surprising as it might be for you to believe, he loves me...us."

"What?!"

"He loves us. You would know that if you could see anyone other than Angel."

"But Giles...it's...Giles!"

"Yeah Giles, who is sexy."

"Ewww!"

Plowing through the other's unkind comment, she continued, "Yes, Sexy, handsome, warm, kind, gentle, brave, and caring. And let's not forget that he makes love like a true angel, pun intended."

"No way!" Buffy (jr) rasped disbelieving the older Slayer's last statement.

"Yes, very way." Her face visibly brightened as her thoughts turned towards her and Giles' mornings activities.

Buffy (jr) stared, out the open office door, at Giles researching at the study table, then back at her double's dazed happy expression.

The tea kettle whistled bringing both of them out of their reveries. "Well, if we're finished with the cross-examination, I'm going to make Giles and myself some tea."

Coming to the conclusion that even though she was far from over-joyed with her Watcher's apparent love connection with an older...well...her, she conceded that she had little hope of stopping the disgusting PDA's for the time being. She accepted a temporary stalemate on the matter for now. "You need any help?"

Buffy's (sr) eyes darted over her shoulder at her youthful counterpart's comment.

"No, that's alright. I've got it." She spooned tea into the ceramic tea pot and poured the boiling water over the leaves to steep.

After a few minutes, Buffy (sr) poured the tea into two china cups, one for herself and one for Giles. She rummaged around the table top for creamer. Finding some powdered cream packets, she dumped one into each of the drinks. She stirred the hot liquid with a swizzle stick.

Buffy (jr) watched her as she took a sip from one of the cups, tasting it. When Buffy (sr) made a face, she asked, "What's wrong?"

"God, how can Giles drink this stuff. This is the worse." She picked up the tea tin and read at it. It was a brand she had never seen before this. She held it up to her nose and inhaled its aroma. She raised her eyebrows.

"Is it the tea? Not that I think any tea is of the good." Buffy (jr) asked, curious despite her own dislike of the beverage.

"No...no it's ok Not too bad. Not exactly Giles' usual blend." She picked up the empty creamer packet. It was some strange off brand. She tasted it and wrinkled her nose. "Ewww."

Buffy (jr) leaned in to take a look. "Bad?" she asked smelling the offensive substance herself.

Buffy (sr) glanced at her, oddly surprised at her interest and almost congenital attitude towards her. "Definitely not the best, but it'll have to do for now. Maybe I'll try to pick up some milk for us later." She picked up the two cups and headed out. When she reached Giles, she set his cup down next to his hand resting on the book in front of him.

He glanced up at her. "Is everything alright?"

She gave him a puzzled look. "Huh?"

His eyes moved towards the younger slayer as she exited the office also carrying a cup of tea. She went to sit next to Willow.

"Oh, that. Yeah, no need to worry."

Giles' gaze returned to her face; his eyes showed his concern regarding her enigmatic reply.

"Really, Giles. We're cool. Now drink your tea before it gets cold." She perched on the arm of his chair, taking another sip of her own tea. Giles raised his cup to his lips and took a moderate drink, missing the less than thrilled expression on Buffy's (sr) face from tasting the hot beverage.

Setting his cup back down on the table, he took her hand. "Thanks for the tea, love."

A book slammed shut loudly from across the table. "OK. I'm saying something. What the hell is up with you and dating old guys?!" Xander suddenly exploded.

Reigning in her desire to punch Xander for his rude and unfeeling comments, she calmly answered, "OK, first, Giles is nowhere near old. Second, I happen to be married to Giles not dating him."

"Married.." Xander started but Buffy quickly cut him off.

"And before you comment on the ookiness of that statement, let me stop you right there. I love Giles." She glanced down at the man in question. "When he died, I not only lost my watcher, but my husband. You have no idea what that feels like, none of you know." She looked at the others with a despairing sadness. "So don't even try to tell me how I should feel or act towards the man that I love more than anything in this world, especially now that I have the chance to be with him again even if it's only for a little while." She blew out an exasperated breath. "As for Giles, I repeat, he has done nothing wrong. He's only been supportive and understanding. He's a good and decent man who's allowed me to lean on him and to love him, nothing more?" Buffy's (sr) gaze returned to Giles. He tilted his face up so that he could see her face better. She smiled at him as she reached up and brushed a lock of his hair back from his brow. He grinned happily at her gesture and her words. After a moment, she looked back at the others. She noticed their contrite and understanding expressions.

"Sorry, Buffy. I guess I over-reacted." Xander apologized. He appeared more than a little sorry for his words.

"It's alright, Xand. I know this whole situation is of the bizarre. And it's not like you knew that my relationship with Giles had changed over the years. I could have been a little more forthcoming with the info."

"So...we're ok?"

"Yeah, we're ok, if you're ok with Giles and I."

"Yeah, I can deal as long as I don't have to see anything too gross."

Buffy (sr) laughed. "Don't worry, I'll try to control myself."

"So...more research?" Buffy (jr) asked to break away from the weirdness of the conversation.

"I'm afraid so. Sorry guys," Buffy (sr) replied.

Turning towards Willow, she asked Willow, "So, Will, I need you to continue to work on the venom."

"I've catalogued all the components that I can...."

"But not all of them?"

"No. Sorry, Buffy."

"You don't need to apologize. Thanks for your help."

She bobbed her head. Dragging her school bag closer, Willow pulled a slip of notebook paper out of its front pocket and handed it to Buffy (sr).

Buffy (sr) unfolded the sheet of paper. It was a list of chemical compounds. Folding it up again, she tucked it into the back pocket of her jeans.

"Well, since you're free, maybe you could do some research on-line."

"Sure, anything I can do to help."

***************

Giles closed the Watcher's Diary that Buffy had brought with her from the future. He had re-read the volume in the hope of uncovering some new detail that would help to identify the demon. Unfortunately, there was nothing new, just the same infuriatingly sparse facts that he had discovered the first time. A vague physical description of the demon, a mention of a scroll, written in an obscure Egyptian dialect, that his future self had unearthed at an archeological excavation site, and the location of the dig itself were all that were mentioned. 'In other words, nothing. Bloody hell.' Irritated, he shoved the book aside and slid the other leather-bound volume in front of him. He rested his left hand on the personal journal. Giles found himself torn between reading it, for any answers that it might provide, and leaving it alone. He had a strong feeling, that if he read the book; he would be opening doors that couldn't be closed again. He lightly traced his fingers over the gold embossed letters on the leather cover. 'Why do I feel that it would be an invasion of privacy to read this? Maybe, if I only read the relevant parts...' He cracked the book open near the end, finding the last full page of entries.

The strict formal handwriting, in the last Watcher's Diary, had born a remarkable similarity to that of his current diary. He harbored no doubts as to the authenticity of himself as the author of the later writings. The entries in the personal journal, which were also easily identified as his scrawl, were in a decidedly more informal style. They contained ordinary everyday occurrences, emotions, and thoughts. At a glance, Giles deciphered that most of the days' recordings pertained to his relationship with Buffy, as well as, his interaction with his Sunnydale friends and family. He noticed that some of the names mentioned in the daily passages were as yet unknown to him; more than likely, they were later acquaintance. He read the first entry on the page.

I know that this book is reserved for my personal thoughts and feelings and not those pertaining to Slaying; but, what I'm about to write happened while on patrol last night. Buffy and I joined Willow and Kennedy to help cover the patrol route through the warehouse district. We patrol this area only once every couple weeks. We were approaching the end of Davis Avenue when we came upon a Vampire nest at the old abandoned S & L Warehouse. We fought and won the battle; however, that's not the purpose of this entry. What I feel compelled to write down is that in the midst of that fight, I found myself thinking about how different my life would have been if Buffy had never opened her eyes and seen how much I love her. How different the last three years would have been if she hadn't died again...if we had never defeated the First. How if even the most insignificance event never took place, I may never have known her as my lover and wife. I couldn't help but think how fickle and unpredictable fate truly is. It feels as if all the events in my life somehow conspired to bring me to this wonderful bliss. I know that I will never take for granted, even one precious moment, the love that Buffy has for me or the love that I have for her. My world would truly be a dark and bleak place were she to ever disappeared from it.

After reading the entry, Giles knew that he couldn't stop with just the one. He flipped to the front of the book and began to read in earnest, quickly becoming caught up in the words and emotions of the text.

***************

An hour later, Giles was abruptly brought out of his daydreams by a sharp knock on his open office door. He swung around in his chair in time to see Buffy (sr) as she poked her head into the room.

"Buffy? Did you need something?"

She smiled at him. "No. I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to go and work out. I'll be back in a little while. If you need me, I'll be in the student lounge."

Before she could withdraw, Giles motioned for her to come closer. She stepped into the room. Seeing the anxious look on Giles' face, she shut the door behind her. Settling on the footstool next to him, she asked, "Is anything wrong?"

"No, I just wanted to let you know that I read the journal." Giles laid his hand on the closed personal journal in front of him.

"Did you find anything to help?"

"No, not as such, but I do have...I believe a better understanding of...well of...our relationship...in the future...well...my future," he finished flustered by the odd circumstances.

Buffy rested her hand on his knee. "It's alright. I understand. And as for reading the it...it's why I gave it to you."

He covered her hand with his own. "Thank you. Buffy?"

"Yes?" She gazed expectantly into his eyes.

"I wanted to ask your permission for something."

"What is it, Giles?" Her eyes searched his anxious face. "You can ask me anything."

He smiled at her confidence in him. "May I record what information we discover about the demon, the spells...in the Watcher's Diary you gave me? I thought that if I did so, then you could take it with you and add to it each time...you...um...jump," he finished uncertain of the correct wording for the strange situation surrounding her presence.

"Yeah, that would be great. She frowned. "I should have thought of it myself. So, why didn't I think of it?"

"Maybe because you had a lot on your mind already? Like saving the world." He teased her and gently tugged on her hand pulling her towards him. She stood and sat down on his lap. Giles wrapped his arms around her waist. She rested her head against his.

"Buffy?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"I have something else I wanted to ask you."

"Ask away."

"I'd like to record something in the personal journal as well, if you don't mind," he said hesitantly, wary of her response.

She lifted her head to look at him, her curiosity piqued by his request. "Why?"

Noticing that she was perplexed rather than angry by his request, he let the tension seep out of him. "I suppose I'm asking because I know that y...you will find a way to stop the demon, save the world...save me. And I find myself wanting...no needing...to leave some kind of message to myself, not only the man that you will ultimately save, but to the...the others like me...that you will encounter on the w...way." He finished awkwardly. Despite the fact that his speech had been disjointed, she clearly heard the depth of feeling behind his words. But what truly convinced her to agree with his unusual request was not his words but the way his green eyes darkened with love and desire. She leaned close and kissed him briefly on his willing lips. When they separated, their eyes sparkled brightly. She smiled happily at him, running her fingers down his face.

"I take it that is a yes?"

"Uh huh."

Giles moved in closer, capturing her soft lips in a deep passionate embrace. His tongue caressed her mouth asking permission to enter. She parted her lips, admitting him into her moist depths. While their tongues intertwined, their hands stroked and explored everywhere they could reach. "Giles," she murmured his name against his lips sending a shiver down his spine.

She straddled his legs without breaking contact with his lips. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling his chest close against her breasts. She pressed her heated core snugly against his erection. He groaned into her mouth.

"Oh, God," Giles rasped as he felt fingers unfastening his belt. He reached down as her nimble digits moved to his zipper. "Buffy." His hand covered hers, halting her progress. She looked up at him while her hand wiggled out from under his and cupped his erection, squeezing him firmly. He moaned loudly.

"Yes?" She smiled mischievously.

"Do you think this is really the best place for this?" He glanced in the direction of the main room where the others were researching.

Her glowing smile never faded from her visage as she locked eyes with him. She nodded and proceeded to unzip his pants. After pushing the button through its hole, she stood and tugged his tweed pants and cotton boxer shorts down his legs, once he had lifted his hips to help facilitate their removal. She stripped her borrowed pink jeans down her body, kicked them off her legs and smoothly impaled herself onto his hard member causing them both to gasp sharply at the joining. He pulled her towards him, his mouth engulfing hers in a hungry kiss. He began thrusting up into her wet, hot core. She rode him hard, feeling how close they were already. Only minutes later, they locked mouths to muffle their cries of release in a kiss. Buffy collapsed against Giles' torso as he relinquished her mouth, breathing hard. He leaned heavily against the back of his chair holding her firmly against him. She pressed her ear over his heart and listened blissfully to its wild beat as it gradually slowed to a more normal rhythm. 'It's funny the things you take for granted until they're gone. All the time we were together, I never realized how precious the sound of his heart beating beneath me was until it wasn't there anymore.' She ran her hand over his shirt covered chest. "I love you, Jamie," she whispered.

He stroked her hair softly. "I love you." She raised her head and flashed him her 1000 watt smile.

"Really, I hadn't noticed."

Giles chuckled and shook his head at her. "You're still the strangest girl."

"Thanks. I always thought so." She pressed her lips softly against his, breaking off before it could grow more heated. "As much as I hate to say this...I still need to train. Sorry." She smiled sadly at him.

Giles nodded at her. "It's alright." He drew her to him again, brushing his lips against each of her cheeks, her forehead and lastly her mouth. She eased back and moved carefully off his legs. She crouched down in front of him. Gathering his shorts and pants in her hands, she inched them back up his muscular calves and over his knees. She raised her head to met his eyes as he took over pulling his pants up the rest of the way. She grabbed her panties and pulled them on. Her pants soon followed. When she finished, she looked down at Giles just in time to see him tucking himself in and buckling his belt. She perched carefully on the arm of his chair. He tilted his head back to look at her. She stroked his sweat dampened locks back from his brow. "Gotta go. I'll be back soon," she whispered tenderly. She kissed his forehead and rose from the handle of his chair. She walked to the door. Turning back, she said, "We'll continue this dance, tonight." He smiled in anticipation. She grinned as she continued through the doorway, softly shutting it behind her. He leaned back and closed his eyes, sighing happily.

***************

Angel emerged from the stacks to discover that only Buffy (jr), Willow, and Xander were visible in the main study area of the library. Neither Giles nor Buffy (sr) were anywhere to be seen. He made his way down the far staircase to the main floor. The trio, seated at the room's only study table, were researching and talking. When Buffy (jr) spotted him she called him over. Just as he reached her side, Giles' office door opened. The Watcher stood framed in the doorway for a few moments taking in the scene before entering the room.

"Angel."

"Giles. Where's Buffy...the other...Buffy?"

Buffy (jr) looked at him with an hurt expression. 'What's up with his preoccupation with her. Aren't I good enough for him. Is it because she won't give him the time of day. What's with guys wanting what they can't have, anyway.' Buffy's (jr) reaction went unnoticed by Angel.

"She's working out in the student lounge. Perhaps I should go and see if she's finished. I know she wishes to be present for the spell," Giles replied.

"I'll get her," Angel volunteered. Giles doubted the wisdom of Angel's offer but responded too slowly to prevent his exit from the library.

***************

Angel halted just outside of Buffy's (sr) line of sight and watched as she flawlessly hurled knives at a target hung on the wall 20 feet from her position. One razor sharp blade after another struck the center circle with a resounding thud. Once the last deadly weapon flew from her grip, he approached her. "Buffy?"

She turned towards her dark shadow. She once more chided herself for her past obsession with the vampire. She acknowledged the fact that Angel had helped a lot of people when he had become a part of the slay game; however, their relationship had eventually hurt more people than it had helped, including themselves. She had often thought over the years that it might have been better, all things considered, if they had remained allies instead of lovers. If they had only kept their hormones in check, so many people would yet be alive. The price of their romantic liaison had been too high.

"Angel," she said barely acknowledging his presence.

Angel blew out a frustrated breath. "Giles sent me to get you."

"Tell him that I'll be there in a few minutes," she answered absently.

He nodded, confused yet again by her behavior towards him. He didn't understanding her apparent dislike of him or her intentional emotional distance. He turned on his heels and left.

She watched him go, thinking, 'I know I'm being unfair to him, but it's hard to be kind and polite when the mistakes of your past are staring you in the face in 3D living color.' She moved to the target, pulling the throwing knives from the wood.

***************

She pushed the double doors to the library open and strode in just as Willow and Giles had finished setting candles on the floor around an intricate wax drawn design near the book cage.

"Need any help?"

"We already asked. Giles said no," Buffy (jr) replied for her Watcher.

"There's not much prep for this spell. At...at least not much for anyone to do besides Willow and myself. I'm sorry."

"It's cool, Giles." She pushed some of the books aside and sat down on the corner of the table. She watched as Giles proceeded to light the candles that he and Willow had laid out. Once he finished, he sat down in the middle of the design and motioned for Angel to position himself in front of him, away from the others. Giles began chanting in Sumerian. A green glow formed around Angel trapping him in place. Angel attempted to free himself but was unable to move even a finger. The entrapment was holding even though the physical strain on Giles was tangible.

Angel changed tactics suddenly. Instead of attempting to push out against the barrier, he relaxed his muscles and closed his eyes, concentrating on remaining absolutely motionless. The more inert he became, the dimmer the glow. Giles continued to chant but the light proceeded to fade. As the light started to fluctuate, Angel abruptly flung out his arms, breaking through the barrier which caused it to collapse and free him. Giles slumped onto his side unconscious at the same time the field fell.

Buffy (sr) rushed to her fallen lover, but found her path impeded by an invisible barrier. She pushed against it with all her Slayer strength but to no avail. "Giles!" No answer. No response of any kind. Frantic, she turned towards Willow. "What's happening?!"

"I don't know, Buffy," Willow answered her friend, equally confused and frightened by the current turn of events. "Giles did all the research for the spell."

"Angel?" She pleaded for answers from the vampire, desperate enough to seek his help.

"He's erected a protection barrier." He looked down at Giles.

"Why?" she asked, her eyes taking in the motionless figure.

"My guess would be that it's part of the original spell."

She rested her hands against the invisible field again. "Giles! Can you hear me?!" There wasn't any answer or movement from him. "Giles!!"

Slightly but noticeably, Giles moved his hand to his head.

"Giles! Can you hear me?"

"Buffy..." he mumbled.

"Yeah. It's me. Please, release the barrier," she pleaded.

Giles muttered a few words in Sumerian. Buffy (sr) lurched as the invisible wall she was leaning on suddenly vanished. She dropped to her knees beside him. Easing his barely conscious body off the floor, she cradled him to her and kissed his forehead where it rested against her shoulder.

"I've got you," she whispered softly to him.

***************

"Xander." Xander came, at Buffy's (sr) insistence, and lifted Giles' legs while she took his shoulders. They carried him into the office and laid him down on the sofa. "Thanks, Xander."

"No problem." Xander left the couple alone.

She pushed a pillow under his head. When she sat on the sofa next to him, he opened his eyes.

"Giles, how do you feel?"

"Aside from this pounding headache, I'm fine."

She brushed his hair back from his forehead. "I'll get you some Tylenol. Where do you keep it?"

"In the top drawer of my desk."

She rose and retrieved the pills and a glass of water.

"Here, Giles." She helped him sit up so he could swallow the tablets.

She set the empty glass down on the bookcase. "Giles, I'm so sorry. I seem to keep getting you hurt."

He took her hands in his. "It's not your fault. I wanted to help. I knew the risks going in." She didn't look convinced. "Buffy. Please, there's no need to blame yourself. It's nothing. I'll be fine."

She smiled lovingly at him and nodded. "I know. I just worry about you."

"I've noticed." He kissed her hands. "We should get back to the books."

"Are you sure. Maybe you should rest for awhile longer."

"It's alright. My head's feeling better." He reassured her.

"OK...but if you feel tired or anything...you'll tell me. Right?" she insisted.

"Yes." When she continued to look concerned, he reiterated, "I will, Buffy. You have my word."

"OK, if you're sure."

"I am."

She smiled and stood up, helping him to his feet as the same time.

***************

Buffy (sr) descended the staircase, her arms filled with books to add to the already towering stacks on the table. Before she could reach her destination, Angel had managed to corner her.

"What can I do for you, Angel?" she asked exasperated with the vampire's persistence in confronting her.

"You can tell me what I've done to anger you?"

"You've done nothing...at least not yet. It's more what you're gonna do."

"You mean all this has been about future wrongs that I'm going to commit?"

"It's more than that. Why didn't you ever research your curse?"

Angel looked at her bewildered by the odd question. "It didn't seem necessary. Why?"

"You should have." She turned and continued on to the table, leaving the stunned vampire standing. She carefully settled the books onto one of the smaller piles.

She grabbed one of the volumes from the top and walked over to Giles. When she reached his side, she bent down and kissed his cheek. "How are you feeling, sweetie?"

"Al..Alright. A bit frustrated though by the lack of information. I have yet to find anything of significance, just a few vague references."

She sat down on the arm of his chair and kissed the crown of his head. "Maybe we should take a break for dinner." She looked up at the others; they could all definitely use a break. "So whose up for pizza?" she cheerily asked her fellow researchers.

"Alright, now you're talking." Xander slammed his book closed.

"Willow? Buffy?"

Buffy (jr) perked up at the mention of food. "Could definitely use some comfort food about now."

"Yeah. You want me to call?" Willow offered.

"No. Thanks, but I think I'll call. It is my treat after all." She rose and walked over to the book check-out counter and reached over the top, grabbing the phone from behind it. Setting it down on the counter, she dialed a number from memory. Turning back towards them, she reclined back against the counter. Finally after a couple of rings, the phone picked up asking her for her order. "Two large Pepperoni pizzas, one medium veggie, an order of breadsticks, three large Pepsi', and two teas with milk..for delivery." There was a pause while they quoted the total back to her. "Summers...Sunnydale High School, front entrance. Thanks." Buffy (sr) returned the handset.

"Hey, Buffy, whose the veggie pizza for?" Xander asked curious. They always ordered pepperoni.

"Giles and I." She leaned over and replaced the phone in its place. When she turned back, Xander, Willow and Buffy (jr) were looking at her like she had grown an extra head.

"Veggie? Gross," Buffy (jr) commented making a face. "When did you...we start eating that?"

"Couple years ago. I finally bothered to ask Giles one night what he liked on his pizza for a change, and he said that he like Vegetarian." She shrugged. "So I ordered it." She moved over to the Watcher. "It's good, you should try it some time. Right, Giles?"

"Yes, quite." He looked up at her smiling.

"Giles, why didn't you tell us you like vegetarian pizza?" Willow whined.

"No one asked and I didn't wish to pay for a pizza just for myself, so I ate what was ordered."

"Oh."

Giles smiled shyly at her.

***************

Around midnight, after the pizza had been devoured, Buffy (sr) noticed Giles yawning. She stood up from her chair and stretched. "It's getting late, guys. Why don't we call it a night?"

"Sounds good to me." Xander covered his mouth, hiding his own yawn.

"Yeah, we can hit the books in the morning," Willow piped.

"I agree. We could all use some sleep," Giles interjected.

"Alrighty then." Buffy (jr) rose to her feet, grabbing her bag from the floor.

Willow and Xander gathered their jackets and joined Buffy (jr) and Angel, who, after his conversation with Buffy (sr), had spent the bulk of the night brooding. They headed out the doors, their good- byes floating over their shoulders as they disappeared into the night.

The two remaining members of the Scooby Gang gazed longingly at one other. Buffy (sr) smiled at Giles and headed for his office. She returned a few minutes later, soft strains of music wafting around her graceful form on the still night's air. She invitingly held out her hand toward him. He rose, tired yet excited, from his chair and joined her. He took her into his arms. They moved slowly across the tiled floor to the gentle tempo that poured from Giles' old transistor radio. Buffy (sr) looked into his jade green eyes, a smile fluttering about her lips. Tilting her head back slightly, she leaned up and claimed his soft yielding mouth. After a couple of heated moments, they drew apart. His arms pulled her closer against chest. She wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head against his shoulder. They finished out the song and kissed again longer and deeper than before. Buffy (sr) grasped his hand and led him to the sofa in his office. She urged him to sit down. He settled on the sofa, pulling her with him. Buffy gently pushed Giles down onto the cushions, lying on top of him, kissing his cheeks, forehead, eyebrows and chin. Afterwards she kissed his lips and deeply tasted him. Buffy felt like she could never get enough of his incredible mouth. "I (kiss) love (kiss) you (kiss)."

Giles chuckled. "Really?" He tightened his arms around her back, bringing their bodies in even closer contact with each other. "Then I guess it's a good thing that I love you too."

"Less talking, more smoochies," she said, slipping easily into the speech of her youth.

"Yes, ma'am." He leaned up and engulfed her lips softly between his own. His hand moved up to the back of her head drawing her mouth even more firmly against his, deepening the kiss. His tongue licked her lips seeking entrance. She opened hungrily, sucking his tongue into her warm moist cavern.

Buffy slid her hands down to the buttons on Giles' shirt and quickly unfastened them. She pushed his shirt off of his broad shoulders, and suddenly found herself flipped onto her back. Giles shrugged off his shirt, throwing it to the floor. He pushed her T-shirt up and ran his fingers lightly over the silky golden skin on her stomach. Rucking the material further up her torso, he ran his hands over her body, kneading her firm breasts a few moments before rubbing his thumbs over her nipples. Buffy arched her back, a moan escaping her lips. Pulling the shirt up and over her head, he tossed it to join his own on the floor. "Beautiful," he whispered reverently. He cupped her left breast as he leaned down and kissed her mouth, nibbling on her lower lip. His tongue darted out licking the delicate flesh. Her lips parted as a gasp escaped from her throat. His tongue darted into her mouth. Their tongues clashed, igniting a fire in both of their bodies that wouldn't soon be extinguished.

***************

"Well, this is one experience I never thought I would have...showering in the boys locker room at good old Sunnydale High...with my Watcher."

"It certainly wasn't on my list of things to do, either. But since it's with you, I can honestly say it's pretty nice as far as experiences go."

Buffy smiled at him as she lathered up his chest and arms. "Yeah, I'll agree with that."

A sudden sadness came over Giles' face as he finished rinsing the shampoo out of his hair.

"What is it?" she asked concerned about his abrupt mood change.

"Nothing," he answered after he carefully shook the excess water out of his lightly graying brown locks.

She put the soap down and took his hands in hers. "Giles, tell me." She searched his face.

"I was just thinking about..." He trailed off, his head bowed.

"About my leaving tonight?" she finished. She cradled his face in her hands and tilted his head up enough so his green eyes met hers.

The pain in his eyes nearly broke her heart. "Yes," he whispered softly as if speaking of her eminent departure would in some way cause her to vanish from his life all that much sooner.

"It's been on my mind too." She hugged him to her. "I wish I could assure you, that no matter what, I...Buffy...will love you from this day until forever. Regrettably, I know that isn't true. You and I will only be Watcher and Slayer...and friends for years to come. I can't ev