Title: England and the Afterlife 2/7
Author: Saint Buffy
Feedback: I'll make it easy for you: `Dear Saint B, I really enjoyed
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Disclaimer: Not mine, don't sue
"Dawn, stay here," Buffy said, and pushed her way past the ruinous door into the Magic Box. Something creaked threateningly above her as she stepped through the mass of destruction inside.
"Giles?" she called. "Anya?" There was no reply. The wall that had separated the shop from the back room had been torn out, in part, showing the bare skeleton of the building. The room behind was silent, empty.
Buffy searched through the shop, heart stopping every time she came across a man-sized heap of debris that transformed itself in the smoky interior, into Giles's still body. But he wasn't there; the place was empty.
She stopped still. Anya's face, Anya's words were replaying themselves in her mind. She could almost smell the earthy air in the grave she had sucked in when she heard; almost feel the dampness on her cheeks. Inside the Magic Box, fires still burnt among the books, smoke hung in the air, blackened beams stuck out at angles, and sunlight split through, touching parts of the shop that had never seen the light so directly.
It took a moment, after Anya told them, for Buffy to connect the words with what was happening. Giles was dying. Suddenly the words fell into place, making up that terrible idea, and Buffy had… she had just stopped. Stopped thinking about that, stopped believing it, almost. As if a giant shutter had slid into place in her mind, cutting that idea off.
She turned and picked her way quickly over the debris, mouth fixed in determination. She wasn't giving up yet. Dawn leapt up from the curb as she came out of the shop.
"Come on," Buffy said.
"Is he- is he-" Dawn started, but Buffy shook her head roughly.
"I don't know. We're going to the hospital."
They started off down the road, Buffy walking so fast Dawn had trouble keeping up. Buffy's mind was blank again, fixed on nothing but getting to the hospital as soon as they could. If he wasn't at the shop, that's where he would be.
"That's where he'll be," she muttered to herself.
Suddenly a screech of brakes on the road and a blare of horns made them both turn around. They looked up to see Anya, suddenly, standing in the middle of the road. The demon spotted them and came over.
"Where's Giles?" Buffy asked as soon as Anya was within speaking distance.
"The hospital," Anya said. She shook herself. "God, I'm really out of practice with the teleporting. No way was I planning to show up in the middle of the-"
"Is he okay?" Buffy interrupted.
"Yeah, he's fine. A little groggy, perhaps, and they're waiting to see about internal damage, but he seems to think he's okay."
The relief of her words hit Buffy physically. She shook on her feet and had to reach out to Dawn for support, feeling the breath in her body again, her heart in steady rhythm. "Oh," she said. She turned away from them, running a hand through her hair. "Oh."
"Have you seen Xander?" Dawn asked. Anya folded her arms.
"Maybe," she said. Buffy gave her a look. "All right, yes. I went to his apartment. He's there now, with Willow."
"With Willow?" Buffy asked.
"She's alive?" said Dawn.
"Yeah, and Xander's the one who stopped her," Anya said, despite herself. She frowned. "Well, Giles gave Willow all that magic, which meant that she wasn't quite so evil- I mean, she was pretty evil, and when he gave her the magic, *that's* when she decided to end the world, but the magic also meant that Xander could talk to her." Anya frowned. "So Giles also stopped her, after he, you know, started her."
Not all of that made sense, but Buffy was happy to let the rest by explained once she had seen Giles.
"Does Xander need help?" she asked, reluctantly. Anya shook her head.
"Not right now. Willow's asleep. I wanted him to go to the ER, but he said no. Several times."
"Thanks, Anya," Buffy said, and the three of them exchanged awkward, `there's lots of things we need to discuss but right now we're all still alive and that's a good' smiles. Buffy turned to Dawn. "Let's go see Giles."
Giles woke up, again in a hospital room and for a moment, again he still couldn't think how he got there. Then an anxious, blurred face surrounded by blonde hair swam into focus above him and he remembered. He squinted up at the face and smiled.
"Anya?"
"No, it's Buffy," the blonde head replied softly.
"Damn," Giles said. "Wrong again."
A soft hand brushed back the hair above his forehead. Giles kept his eyes open, steady, resisting the temptation to lean towards the shape of the woman above him. "Where's Dawn?" he asked.
"Here," she said, her dark head appearing behind Buffy's. Giles smiled at it.
"Sorry," he said. He waved at his eyes. "Can't see very well. My glasses are a little, um, overseas."
"You saw okay earlier," Buffy said, her hand still smoothing back his hair. Giles nodded, slightly, not wanting his movement to stop hers.
"One of the benefits of that kind of power," he said. Buffy nodded. He wished he could see more of her face, her expression. He reached up his hand impulsively and took hers.
He smiled up at her, then tried to smooth his face; the fuzziness of his vision was making him forget that hers was still sharp, that she would be able to see the simple gladness that he felt. It was lifting the censoring mask he usually kept over his face.
"Willow's all right, you know," he said. "She's not dead, or… gone."
She nodded. "I know. We bumped into Anya on the way over here. Apparently Xander saved her?"
"He did," Giles confirmed, eyes turning inwards as he remembered witnessing the confrontation; witnessing everything, the conversation between Buffy and Willow, the fight in the ground, those two boys running hard away from Sunnydale. "It was quite a night."
Dawn snorted. "That's not an understatement," she said as Buffy and Giles looked at her. "That's something… more than that."
Buffy's head turned back towards him. "You should get more rest," she said. "I just wanted to make sure you're okay. We all thought you were…"
He met her eyes as steadily as he could. "Yes," he said. Buffy stood up.
"I'll come back later," she said. Dawn rose as well. "Get some sleep." She hesitated, then turned and strode out.
"How is she?" Buffy asked as Xander let them in.
"You look really bad," Dawn said, following Buffy in.
"She's sleeping, and thank you," Xander said, giving Dawn a short sarcastic bow. One that was cut short with a sudden intake of breath.
Buffy went over to Xander's bedroom and peeked in. Willow lay on his bed, on top of the covers, curled up into a tight ball. Buffy shut the door.
"Her hair's red."
Xander smiled briefly, sitting stiffly at the table. "Magic hair dye? Scary, but fades after just one apocalypse," he said. Buffy smiled, then went to sit opposite him, taking in the bruises and the tiredness beneath Xander's usual humour.
"You saved the world," she said softly.
"Just call me Crayon Man," Xander replied. Buffy frowned.
"Huh? Did she knock you on the head a little too much?"
"Nothing," he replied, waving a hand. "I've got a little work to do on the name."
"You saved the world," Dawn repeated, looking at Xander in the way she used to before she started hanging around with Spike.
"How's Giles?" Xander asked.
"All right," Buffy said. He scrubbed a hand through his hair.
"You know, on the way back from the cliff, Willow was babbling about killing him, and I didn't know what to believe, cos I didn't even know if he was really here and she was saying all kindsa weird stuff. But then Anya showed up and…"
"She's really pleased you saved everything," Dawn said, as Xander trailed away. "Really."
"Thanks," Xander said shortly, and there was a long silence.