Title: Arcite (Sequel to The Six Inch Rule)
Series: The Six Inch Rule
Author: Saint Buffy
Rating: R
Spoilers: Some S3 spoilers, although this is AU.
Pairing: B/G
Feedback: is like a chocolate covered Giles in my mailbox.
Disclaimer: They still aren't mine, but who's to say that when I make my millions I won't go and buy them and then… ah, forget it.
Summary: Buffy is left alone when the Watcher's Council sends Giles to England. How will their love survive?
Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who asked for this:) This is set towards the end of an AU Season Three, months after The Six Inch Rule. The title refers to the character from Chaucer's The Knight's Tale, and would work better if I'd subtitled the first part `Palamon' but I didn't think of it until I started writing this part.
Dedication: To Rari Coss, for back scratching.

She loved this part. For a while she kept her eyes shut, content to let feelings of safety and contentment wash over her, mixing with a growing burning sensation where their bodies touched. Then she turned over.

He was still asleep, his arms still around her, one tucked over her and the other stretched out beneath her body. Buffy smiled at him, running one finger lightly over his cheekbone. He stirred slightly in his sleep and she drew her hand away, then couldn't bear not to be touching him and put it back, smoothing his hair, stroking his cheek with her thumb.

His eyes opened, and she saw a flash of green before he shut them again with a groan.

"Morning," Buffy murmured softly. Giles's eyes opened again.

"Does it have to be?" he asked, his voice sounding rough. Buffy wriggled a little closer, and his arm tightened, drawing her against him. They kissed, and Buffy's eyes widened.

"So at least some of you is awake," she observed, and watched him blush.

"You don't have to-"

The phone was ringing. Buffy picked it up and answered, barely awake.

"Hello?"

"Buffy?"

"Giles?"

She sat up, her mind struggling to cope with hearing his voice on the other end of the phone when as far as she was concerned, she had been waking up in his arms a second ago.

"Oh Lord, did I mess up the time difference again?" he asked, and Buffy could almost hear him looking at his watch. She smiled.

"No, I was just sleeping in." She lay back in bed, soaking up his presence on the other end of the line. "I was dreaming about you," she said.

"Really?" he sounded flattered. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"I'm not," Buffy replied promptly. "Dreams are all great, but I'd rather have the real thing." There was a pause, and Buffy winced. "Well, you know what I mean," she amended in a softer tone.

"I miss you." His voice was quiet. Buffy shut her eyes and willed her voice not to wobble before she spoke.

"Miss you too." Only a minor tremble escaped.

"How's Wesley doing?" his voice had returned to normal. Buffy grinned.

"Okay. He almost hit a vamp by accident when we were patrolling yesterday," she said.

"I can't believe he's that bad," Giles said, sounding amused. Buffy grinned down the phone.

"Trust me. He's like… well, I'd compare him to this guy on T.V, but you probably wouldn't appreciate it."

"Probably not," Giles agreed. "As long as he's not putting you in danger," he continued, more seriously. Buffy sighed.

"I told you, it's fine. Wes's always out of the way when anything serious happens."

"I do worry, though," Giles said, and Buffy waited until the urge to give him a hug subsided.

"I know," she said. "I'm just hoping he'll survive Graduation." As soon as the words left her mouth, Buffy realised she'd blundered into another of their forbidden topics. There was a silence at the other end of the phone.

"I'm still looking for a way to get back, Buffy," Giles said tightly. She shut her eyes again.

"I know. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- well, you know." She shifted uncomfortably on the bed.

"I know." His voice was soft.

Buffy sighed as she heard her mother calling up the stairs. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

"Yes. I'll speak to you later," Giles replied.

"Okay. I love you," Buffy said.

"And I you. Goodbye," Giles murmured, and rang off. Buffy put the phone down and got up with a groan.

"Who was that on the phone?" Joyce asked as Buffy entered the kitchen.

"Giles," Buffy said innocently, pretending not to see her mother's glare.

"Really, Buffy, he phoned you last night. How often does that man need to check up on you?"

"He's not checking up, Mom, he just worries," Buffy replied automatically, helping herself to juice. Joyce pursed her lips and said nothing.

When Angel returned from Hell, Buffy had hidden him until the pressure of lying to her friends grew too much to bear and she confessed to everyone. Without the stress of guilt, of hiding Angel and helping him recover, Buffy had found her feelings for the vampire melt away, to be dissolved completely by the shining love she discovered with Giles. Even sticking to Joyce's six inch rule, she had been happy.

Buffy had had exactly two weeks to marvel in her newly discovered feelings for Giles before things had started to fall apart. Before Faith, goaded by the false watcher Gwendolyn Post, had put a stake through Angel's heart and watched with satisfaction while Buffy's first love turned to dust. Buffy was sitting by Giles's side in hospital, praying for him to wake up, unable to stop the other slayer, when it happened. After that, things hadn't been the same. Faith had turned bad, seeking work with the corrupt Mayor of Sunnydale. A friend of Giles's had revealed that the mayor had something planned, although they still didn't know what. And Buffy had turned eighteen.

She still remembered the shock she had felt when Giles explained to her the test the Council had planned. He couldn't do it to her, he said, couldn't make her helpless for the sake of an archaic Watcher's Council power trip.

"Couldn't we fake it?" Buffy had asked. Giles hesitated.

"I don't know," They were talking late at night in library office. "I imagine they'll void the test if they suspect anything."

Buffy had glared at the floor, wanting to punch something. "I hate them," she said fiercely. Giles watched her, his eyes sympathetic.

"I can imagine," he said. Buffy met his eyes.

"Will you get into trouble for telling me?" she asked. He shrugged.

"It depends on what we decide," he replied, then hesitated. "I almost went through with it," he confessed, and Buffy shrunk back slightly. "I would have, but I couldn't lie to you. Not now, now we..."

"Thank you," Buffy replied. She let her head fall back against the back of her seat. "It never stops, does it?" she observed. Giles gave her a wry smile.

"No, my dear, it doesn't," he replied. Buffy smiled back at him, wishing for the hundredth time that there were no rules standing between them.

"I love you," she said abruptly. Their eyes met for a long moment, reading each other easily. Buffy sighed. "I guess we need to figure something out, then," she added.

They hadn't realised at the time that the Council had bugged the library as a precaution. Two days later, the government withdrew Giles's green card and asked him to leave the country.

That was another day Buffy knew she would never forget. It came so suddenly, so unexpectedly, that neither of them could quite believe it was happening. His apartment was on the market; the Council took care of packing it up. Before Buffy had registered what was happening, her mother had driven them to the airport and retreated a few feet while Buffy and Giles said goodbye.

They stared at each other, standing a couple of feet apart. Buffy was afraid to touch him; if she did, she wasn't sure if she would be able to let him go. He took a step forward.

"I love you so much," he said, keeping his voice low. Joyce stood to one side, watching the planes take off out of a window. "I always will."

She did reach out for him then, and they clung together.

"I love you," she replied fiercely, clutching his shirt, her face buried against his neck. They pulled back a little to see each other, but the desire to kiss him became too much and Buffy stepped back, out of his arms.

Giles drank her in again, in one final look. "I'll find a way back, I swear," he said. Buffy nodded wordlessly, and a moment later he was gone, disappearing behind the departure gates, and she was alone.

"What are you doing today?" Joyce asked, pouring Buffy a coffee. The slayer shook herself and sat down.

"The same old Saturday morning Faith hunt, then studying with Willow," Buffy replied.

"You don't sound very confident about finding Faith," Joyce noted. Buffy shrugged.

"The Watcher's Council couldn't do it, and now the mayor has her holed up somewhere... I don't think we've got a chance, but Wes makes me go." Buffy made a face.

"Wesley's a very sensible young man," Joyce said approvingly, as if she was talking about a boyfriend of Buffy's. "Much better for you than that other man."

"Wesley doesn't know one end of a crossbow from the other," Buffy replied. There was no need for Joyce to insist on a six inch rule with this watcher; he shied back from any contact, any real human relationship with Buffy, and never offered to help with her training. Joyce glared, and Buffy finished off the last of her coffee. "I've got to go."

"Be careful," Joyce said, and Buffy's heart clenched as something in her mother's tone reminded her of Giles.

"I will," Buffy said, giving her mom a quick smile, and she left.

The Saturday Morning Faith Hunt had developed into a ritualistic thing. Firstly, Buffy stopped at Wesley's hotel to tell him she was on her way. She hated that Wesley hadn't bothered looking for an apartment yet, as if he didn't expect to be staying in Sunnydale long, and not because he thought Giles would be returning.

Then Buffy set out, sweeping the town in a system she and Giles had worked out long ago, for patrolling.

As much as she hated to admit it, Buffy quite enjoyed this part of the Faith Hunt. There was little to no prospect of actually coming across Faith, except by sheer chance, and as it was during the day, she rarely had to slay. Instead, she wandered along the route, turning things over in her mind, working on the problems that grew up each week, until by the end of the hunt, she usually felt a lot better about her life than she had been during the week.

This time, Buffy's mind turned back to her conversation with Giles. When he first left, Buffy had phoned twice every day, just to hear his voice, to confirm that he was still alive. This had stopped after her mom received the first phone bill. Now he called her. They talked about the mayor and Faith, and about Giles's many unsuccessful attempts to overturn the Council's ruling, but they also spent hours just chatting, sharing things. Sometimes it was hard to talk to him, feeling the distance between them stretch out beneath each word, but in other ways, their relationship had improved. She felt closer to him now than ever before, although they were thousands of miles apart.

Eventually Buffy's hunt was over, and she turned to head home. Willow would be greeting her with a pile of textbooks, she knew, but she welcomed the distraction from the ongoing problem of Faith. The mayor was planning something, they knew, and the news reported new stories of violence and death instantly recognisable as Faith's work. Giles's last try with the Council had failed; he didn't say it, but Buffy suspected that trying to discredit Quentin Travers was the only idea Giles had left. With the Council upholding Travers' decision to remove Giles, their last avenue of attack was essentially gone.

The worst part of it, Buffy thought, was that no one knew how much Giles meant to her. After he left, the only way she could get through the long weeks immediately afterwards was by ignoring the pain she felt. She knew she was repeating the pattern she started when she ran away from home, but couldn't care. It worked, and she got through the next weeks, through Wesley's arrival and Faith's intermittent attacks, without cracking up. But now she wished she had confided in someone, in Willow, about her feelings for Giles, and now she felt that it was too late. If she told her best friend now, it would only make Willow angry that Buffy hadn't confided earlier.

Buffy arrived home to find Willow, as predicted, waiting for her in her kitchen, chatting to Joyce. Buffy sometimes wondered if her mother wished Buffy were more like Willow, more inclined to study and less to getting kicked out of school. She pushed down a flash of jealousy at the easy way her mother smiled at Willow and invited her friend upstairs.

"Have you heard from Giles?" Willow asked as soon as they were in Buffy's bedroom. Buffy nodded.

"He phoned this morning. No news though," she reported. Willow's face fell, and Buffy's heart went out to her. "He's still trying," she lied. Willow wasn't fooled.

"What else is there to try?" she said.

Something huge changed inside the slayer as she looked at her friend, realising she had underestimated the witch. She needed to tell someone, and Willow deserved to know the full story.

"I need to tell you something," Buffy blurted out before she could change her mind. Willow sat on Buffy's bed and gestured for Buffy to sit next to her.

"What?"

Buffy sat. "They- the Watcher's Council, they didn't send Giles away just because he told me about the test they were going to do," she confessed, playing with a ring on her finger nervously. Willow was silent, waiting for more. "When they bugged us, they overheard… well, they overheard us talking, and worked out that…" this was harder than she had imagined. "I'm sorry I haven't told you this earlier, Will, and I wanted to, but it was so hard," she began to explain. Willow reached out and patted Buffy's arm soothingly.

"You know you still haven't told me anything, right?" she prompted. Buffy chuckled.

"I know." She took another deep breath. "Willow, I'm in love with him. With Giles. And he loves me."

Buffy looked at her hands, then met Willow's gaze. The witch looked back, unreadable.

"I thought so," she said eventually, giving Buffy a small smile. "I mean, thanks for finally telling me, but… I thought so."

Buffy smiled back as relief washed through her. "I couldn't talk about it- when he left, I mean," she explained. "And before that, we agreed not to tell anyone. Mom-" she smiled wryly. "Mom made us promise to stay six inches away from each other all the time. That's what made me realise I was in love with him, actually."

"Irony," Willow said with a smile. Buffy nodded.

"It was always awkward enough, trying to stay away from each other, without being watched by everyone."

Willow suddenly slapped herself on the side of her head, her eyes clearing.

"That's why you two stopped training together," she realised.

"Yeah. And, after we… talked about how we felt, it would have been far too tempting to-" Buffy blushed and stopped herself, making a face. "Giles said we had to wait until after Graduation before we stopped going by mom's rule."

Willow stared at her friend sympathetically. "And now…" she murmured. Buffy nodded feelingly.

"And now," she said. "And now, Giles is in a different country, and I'm stuck here fighting the mayor and a slayer with Wesley the Weak by my side. Well, sometimes by my side," she amended. Willow bit back a grin, then looked serious.

"We have to get Giles back," she said firmly.

"He's tried everything, Will," Buffy replied softly. "I don't know what else we could do."

"We'll think of something," Willow answered stubbornly, and Buffy was happy to let herself agree. They began to study, putting the conversation to one side for the moment.

Giles stood in his kitchen, staring out of the window unseeingly as he waited for Buffy to pick up. His heart thundered, and he smiled at himself, enjoying the anticipation of speaking to Buffy again.

"Hello?" she answered eventually.

"It's me," he replied. There was a small pause; he picked up the sound of Buffy adjusting her position.

"Hey, Giles," she said fondly. He shut his eyes and pictured her in front of him.

"Did you had a good day, yesterday?" he asked.

"Uh-huh. The Saturday Morning Faith Hunt, then studying with Will." She hesitated. "Giles, I have to tell you something."

He opened his eyes. "What?"

There was a pause.

"I kind of accidentally told Willow that we were- that we- well, you know."

Giles frowned out of the window, taking in this change of events. "Oh."

"Are you mad?" Her voice sounded small. He smiled.

"No, I'm just a little surprised. You didn't tell me you were thinking of telling anyone."

"I wasn't," Buffy replied. "It's just- it's hard, sometimes, and I thought it would be easier if I could talk to someone. It just slipped out. I swore her not to tell Mom, but I'll have to tell Xand and the others, or they'll never forgive me."

"All right." Giles honestly didn't mind if his young friends knew his feelings. Sometimes, when he was in Sunnydale, he had felt like taking an advert in the local paper, or some similar silly gesture. The effort of hiding what had become such a huge part of him, grew almost too much to bear sometimes.

"Giles?" Buffy pressed.

"I don't mind, Buffy," he assured her, with a smile. "You should have someone to- share with."

He caught her soft sigh, and gritted his teeth, wishing he could be with her.

"What did you do today?" she asked, in a light voice. Giles hesitated.

"Not much. I read a little, did the shopping, tidied the garden…" he let his voice trail away.

"What did you really do?" she asked, more sternly. Giles smiled to himself, wondering why he still thought he could keep anything from her.

"I rang everyone in the Watcher's Council that I have ever met. I'm sure they all think I am desperately insane."

"Giles." Her voice was like a caress. "I know you've tried everything you can."

He laughed humourlessly. "And a lot of good that has been. I just keep thinking, that there must be a way to solve this problem. There must be a way to get back."

"I know what you mean. Every time I hear that Faith's killed someone else, I keep thinking, there must be a way to stop her. Except I can't think of the way." Buffy sighed. "She seems to be working her way through the police department. Special project."

The conversation was rapidly getting depressing, Giles noticed, and tried to think of something to lift it. They had an unspoken agreement to keep things upbeat, although it was sometimes hard to manage.

Buffy beat him to it. "You should go out tonight."

"Buffy…"

"I mean it. Is there a bar near your house?"

Giles hesitated again. "There's a pub at the end of my road."

"…I'll take that as a yes. Have you been there before?"

Giles smiled ironically at the innocent question.

"Actually, it's the one- it's the place where I first met Ethan."

"Oh," Buffy said, momentarily set back. She rallied.

"Go anyway. There can't be more than one Ethan."

"Buffy, I appreciate your interest, but really…" he wanted to say that he hated going anywhere like that, anywhere that reminded him that he was alone, that she was an ocean away.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'll go," he promised. She sighed with satisfaction.

"It's evening there, right?" He nodded, then realised she couldn't see him.

"Yes."

"Go now," she ordered. Giles smiled.

"Buffy, I…"

"Really. I'm going to do my homework and keep an eye on the news for Miss You Know Who, but I want you to enjoy yourself." Her voice softened. "For me?"

If she was in front of him, Giles realised, she would be pouting. "All right," he agreed.

"Good. I'll speak to you tomorrow."

"Bye. I love you," Giles said.

"Love you too."

She hung up, and Giles replaced the receiver slowly. There was no way Buffy would know if he spent the evening in the Queen's Head, or if he spent it on the sofa reading the new translation of Beowulf he had just started. He looked around for his keys, his wallet and a stake, shaking his head at himself. There was no way he could lie to her about it, and he knew she would be disappointed if he said he had changed his mind.

He shrugged on a jacket and left the house.

Buffy played with his hair, sitting up on the mayor's tomb.

"I knew you'd come back," she said fondly, and he smiled at her, standing between her open legs, his hands resting on her thighs.

"I was only gone a moment," he said, and Buffy knew somewhere that he wasn't right, but forgot what they had been talking about as he leant forward to kiss her.

His hands slid up her thighs as their mouths met, cupping around her backside and pulling her closer. Buffy slid her fingers into his hair, opening her mouth for his invading tongue, moving against to the hardness of his groin. Giles groaned into her mouth and pulled her even closer, letting her thrust against him as they kissed. His tongue plunged into her, showing her exactly what he wanted to do with her body. Buffy moaned as he cupped her cheek, tilting her, exploring her deeply. She slid her hand over his chest until it rested over his heart, feeling it thunder inside him.

Someone was banging loudly on the door. Buffy sighed and sat up, disappointed once again to be woken up from a dream about Giles. Then she frowned. It was still dark; the clock by her bed told her that it was one in the morning. Buffy hurried downstairs.

Willow and Xander waited eagerly for her.

"What's wrong?" Buffy asked, anxiously letting them in. "What's happened?"

"Oh, no," Willow said, waving her hands. "Don't panic." She dropped her voice, looking up the stairs. "Let's go talk in the kitchen."

Xander lead the way, looking excited. "We've thought of something, Buffy," he said in a dramatic stage whisper.

"A way to get Giles back," Willow filled in. Buffy's heart leapt.

"What?" she asked, keeping her voice down as well. Joyce seemed more than happy that Giles was in England, and probably wouldn't appreciate the meeting that was about to take place.

"Can I just say, first, that I was a little harsh earlier," Xander said. He smiled sheepishly at Buffy. "When I said `he's way too old, it's gross,' what I meant was, `I'm very happy for both of you.'"

Buffy smiled back, letting her friend know that he was forgiven.

"I know," she said. "It is a little strange, but, you know…"

Willow was hopping from one foot to the other, desperately impatient. "Giles back from England?" she repeated. Buffy sat down, refocusing immediately.

"Tell me," she demanded.

"You remember when Wesley and the others tried to capture Faith?" Willow asked. Buffy nodded impatiently, failing to see the point. "They want her, as much as we do."

"Well, as much as we want to get rid of her," Xander amended.

"As much as we want to get rid of her," Willow repeated. "We could bribe the Council with Faith. We give them the slayer, they give us Giles."

Buffy thought silently for a while.

"The only trouble is, we can't get Faith," Xander said, anticipating her reply. "But once we figure that out- I mean, once we-"

"It could work," Buffy said slowly, excitement building up inside her. "It could work."

"We were at the Bronze, just talking about it, and suddenly- bam," Willow explained, clapping her hands to illustrate the bam. All three immediately sent worried looks towards Joyce's bedroom. "Sorry," Willow added.

"I won't tell Giles about this, not yet," Buffy decided. "If we can't capture Faith- if I told him, and-"

"We understand," Xander interrupted. The friends shared excited looks.

"Did you hear the news?" Buffy asked.

"What's she done now?" Willow replied immediately.

"Another of the Sunnydale P.D, found stabbed with a knife, blah blah…" Buffy replied, and sighed. "I wish I knew what she and the mayor were trying to do."

"We'll stop her, Buffy," Xander promised. Buffy smiled at him.

"I'm going home now," Willow announced, and they moved back towards the door. "We just wanted to tell you our idea."

"Thanks," Buffy said, and let them out, her heart thundering inside her. For a moment she thought about calling Giles, but she couldn't work out the time difference and anyway, there really was no point getting his hopes up until they caught Faith.

Buffy turned and crept up to bed, her mind filled with new ways of trapping the other slayer. Thoughts of the possible reward for her capture spurred her on to thinking of things she had never imagined before, and it was a while before Buffy fell back to sleep.

Giles didn't like to open his eyes. He knew that going to the pub- going to *that* pub- would be a bad idea, but he hadn't counted on the face he had seen as he walked in, looking up from the bar with a horrified expression matched only by the one Giles wore.

"Ripper," Ethan had sighed. "What in Chaos' name are you doing here?"

Giles hesitated, feeling that he should flee rather than be caught up in Ethan's games again. "Oh, come on," the other man said. "Have a drink."

Despite his better judgement, Giles had sat down. Buffy's words about having someone to talk to weighed heavily in his ears as he ordered a pint. There was no way he would talk to Ethan, but still, a familiar face in a life that was now so empty, could only be a good thing.

He ended up telling Ethan everything, whilst removing four charms and a love spell that Ethan tried on a woman during the course of the evening. And now he lay in his bed, afraid to open his eyes in case Ethan had done something horrible to him, had turned him green or removed something or even changed him into some kind of demon. You never knew when Ethan was involved.

Giles hated to admit it, but he almost missed his old friend sometimes. Or not so much the reality of Ethan, but more the theory of someone who knew the man he had been as well as the one he had become. A friend, he thought. Ethan was a good listener, despite his many unforgivable other faults, and for a while, even whilst holding off a charm and a spell simultaneously, even keeping an eye out in case Ethan spike his drink with something supernatural, Giles had felt something like a normality he had missed ever since his father broke the news to him that fateful day when he was ten.

Cautiously, he opened one eye, then the other, and breathed a sigh of relief. No noticeable changes. Giles got out of bed, wincing as his head began to throb, and headed towards the bathroom.

He phoned Buffy later on, when he judged that she would be up.

"Hello?" she answered groggily. Giles winced.

"I'm sorry, love, did I wake you up again?" he asked.

"Mmm. I was dreaming we were-" she stopped herself suddenly, and Giles felt himself blush. "Nothing. How are you? Did you go out last night?"

Giles laughed. "Yes, and you'll never guess who I ran into," he said. There was a pause, and then Buffy groaned.

"Ethan Rayne?"

"Yes."

"Giles, are you all right?" Suddenly she sounded very much awake. Giles hurried to reassure her.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. On balance, I even had what passes for a pleasant evening." He felt her uncertainty. "Buffy, it's been hours now, and nothing's happened." He paused, frowning. "I probably shouldn't have said that."

"I'll forgive you," Buffy said, sounding amused. "Where are you?" she asked after a moment. Giles frowned.

"Sorry?"

"In your house," Buffy clarified.

"I'm in the living room," Giles said. He looked around it. "At my desk."

"What are you wearing?" was her next question. Giles felt a flush go through him.

"I, er, well, I- just some old jeans, a shirt, and a, a jacket," he stuttered. There was a pause.

"Mmm," Buffy sighed eventually, and the flush in Giles's body began to direct itself towards his groin. "I just wanted to imagine you sitting there."

"Oh," he managed, one hand reaching to loosen a tie that wasn't there. "What- I mean, er…"

"I'm in bed, with my pajamas on," Buffy supplied. "They're pink. Silk."

"Oh," he said again, visions rising uncontrollably in his mind. "I see."

"You sound like someone's strangling you," Buffy teased gently. Giles chuckled.

"Someone is," he said meaningfully, feeling his cock strain against his jeans.

A distant shout reached him over the phone. It felt as if Buffy's mother was trying harder than ever to cut their calls short. Buffy sighed.

"I've got to go to school," she murmured. Giles shut his eyes.

"Have a good day," he said.

"I will. Love you."

"You too."

He hung up, his hand trembling slightly, and looked down at the disarray in his jeans. Just a few words, from across an ocean, and she had managed to arouse him fully. Shaking his head, Giles rose and headed to the bathroom. It was time for a very cold shower.

Willow banged the library table so hard Wesley shrieked and leapt a foot straight up in the air.

"Ah ha!" she crowed. Buffy, Oz and Xander looked up.

"What?" Xander asked. Willow looked up from her laptop, seeming to notice the rest of the room for the first time. She glanced at Wesley.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing, I just found something but it's nothing," she explained nervously, tapping a few keys. "Absolutely Nothing." She stared pointedly at Buffy, until the slayer worked out what had happened. Buffy leapt up.

"I need to go somewhere. Willow?" she asked, and the two girls hurried out of the library.

"Sorry, I forgot that Wesley was around," Willow explained as they hurried towards the student lounge. The hunt for a way to capture Faith was going on behind Wesley's back, a secret that was easy to hide from the watcher.

"What did you get?" Buffy asked impatiently, sitting on a sofa. Willow stood above her, too excited to sit down.

"You know how Faith has been taking out the Sunnydale P.D.?" she began. Buffy nodded. "Well, I worked out the pattern. Back in the eighties, Mayor Wilkins lost his position as mayor for about a year because of `the uncontrollable wild dogs' that settled here for a while." Willow shrugged. "It must have been something demon-y that he couldn't control. Anyway, it got him kicked out, and this other guy took over for a year until he mysteriously disappeared."

"I'm not seeing the point here, Will," Buffy said. Willow sighed.

"Faith is killing off the police officers who came to the department during this other mayor's time," Willow explained, and Buffy's eyes widened. "There's only one left, a David Strone. We follow him…"

"…And catch ourselves a slayer," Buffy finished. She grinned up at Willow. "Will, you're a genius."

"Well, I don't like to brag…" Willow said with a smile. Buffy leapt up and hugged her.

"This is going to work," she said. "Let's go and tell the others."

"We should go and kill them," Buffy said, sitting next to him on the sofa. She trailed her fingers up his thigh until Giles shivered and covered her hand with his.

"We should," he echoed, and leant down to kiss her mouth, his tongue easily admitted into her mouth. Buffy turned around as they kissed until Giles pulled her into his lap, his arms wrapped around her waist. Buffy slid her hands up his front and began to undo his shirt.

The kiss grew more passionate as he felt her intention, and Giles slipped one hand beneath her top, his fingers running lightly over her back, making her shiver. Buffy's hands fell down to his belt, and he lifted his hips against her as she undid the buckle.

Giles woke when his hardened cock began to complain about being squashed against the bed. He rolled over with a groan, fighting not to lose the thread of his dream, but the action brought him too far out of sleep to return. He lay back, looking around his bedroom unseeingly, marvelling at the intensity of his dream, the way he could feel her skin under his hands, her tongue against his.

His sexual frustration was reaching a peak, he thought. The sound of her voice on the phone, the looks she sent him from photos in every room of his house, all conspired to drive any sensible thought from his mind. In a way it was lucky that she was in a different country. Sometimes he still felt uncomfortable about the level of sexual feelings he had for such a young woman. But he knew that these feelings were coupled with other, far more complicated ones, which told him that he would die for his slayer or, conversely, that he couldn't live without her.

With a sigh, Giles turned over on to his side, feeling the urgency in his erection start to fade. The truth of it was that he missed her, all the time, and he would gratefully put up with the struggle to rein in his feelings around her if he could be by her side.

"Keep your head down," Buffy hissed to Xander. He ducked immediately.

"Sorry, sorry," he murmured. Buffy risked another peek over the wall. David Strone's house stood opposite, darkened and sleepy looking. All of the other murdered police officers had been killed late at night in their homes.

"We don't want her to see us," Buffy added, sitting back behind the wall. She sighed; they waited in silence.

It was at times like this that Buffy missed Angel. Someone who would back her up completely, anticipating her orders with the experience of a fellow warrior. She sometimes felt guilty that she didn't miss him more often, but Giles had taken over her heart so completely she could barely remember how it felt to love the vampire. It was nothing like the feelings she had now, she knew; nothing like the shining light she carried inside her.

A sound caught her attention, and Buffy lifted herself to look over the wall. Something was moving along the road, in the shadows, a dark shape blending into the background.

"Animal, vegetable or mineral?" Xander asked. He peered over the wall beside her, seeing even less than her slayer vision picked up. Buffy shrugged.

"Can't tell," she replied. The thing slowed down, it seemed, the shape hovering hesitantly across the road. And then it disappeared.

Buffy fought down her first reaction, which was to leap up and run to the spot where it had vanished. Xander turned around silently, covering their back side while Buffy continued to scan the front.

"Anything?" he asked, his voice a desperate hiss. Buffy shook her head.

"No…"

There was a movement to her right, and Buffy threw herself sideways to tackle it. She and the dark shape went down in a heap.

"Hold on a minute!" a familiar voice exclaimed. Buffy sat up, pinning the shape down, and frowned down at it. "You're messing up my shirt."

"Ethan?" Buffy hissed. "My God, you have the worst timing ever, has anyone ever told you that?" She punctuated her words by lifting Ethan up by the collar and thumping him into the ground.

"Oof! Look, I'm here to help!" the sorcerer said between thumps. Buffy paused.

"Shut up, will you?" she hissed.

"We're on a stakeout," Xander added, having taken over the job as Faith lookout. Buffy glared down at the man beneath her.

"I swear, I want to help you get Rupert back," Ethan continued. Buffy paused.

"Why the hell would you help me?" she asked, but she let up slightly on her hold. Ethan struggled to sit up.

"I know. Ironic, isn't it?" he said with one of his irritating smirks. "But the truth is-"

Xander hushed them. "The truth'll have to wait," he said, gesturing across the street.

Buffy peered over the wall to see a familiar shape moving purposefully towards David Strone's house. She leapt up, planning to intercept.

Several things happened at once. Buffy jumped over the wall and Faith turned, giving a shout of surprise when she saw the other slayer. Ethan leapt up behind her, breaking out of Xander's grip as the boy tried to stop him.

Ethan shouted a few words in the second before the two slayers met. Buffy drew back her fist and punched; Faith went down, out cold.

Buffy stared down at the other slayer in surprise and Ethan and Xander ran up behind her.

Ethan held his hand over the prone slayer, palm flat, and said something else. Buffy turned and grabbed him by the throat.

"What did you do?" she demanded. Ethan choked.

"Helped you, for Chaos' sake!" he managed. "Let me go!"

Buffy released him, feeling her arm. "One punch, and I flattened her," she marvelled. Ethan straightened proudly, massaging his throat.

"A spell to- add weight to something," he explained. "It comes in handy. And the other thing," he gestured to Faith on the floor. "I just made sure she won't wake up, until someone lifts the spell."

Buffy glared at him. "Thank you," she said, with as little grace as was possible.

"A pleasure," Ethan replied, and began to walk away.

"Wait," Buffy said. He turned. "Why did you help me?" she asked.

"I overheard you talking to your friends in the Bronze the other night," Ethan replied. "About your marvellous plan to swap Faith for old Ripper."

"Yes, but why would you help?" Xander pressed. Ethan simply smiled.

"When he gets back, tell Rupert I'll thank him to stay out of my pub," he said, and walked away, "I'll charm whoever I want," he muttered.

Buffy and Xander stared until he disappeared around a corner.

"Well, that just made a whole bunch of sense," Xander said eventually, and they bent to pick up Faith's limp body.

Giles wheeled his airport trolley forward nervously. The crowds around him shifted, squealing as they were met by friends and relatives. He pushed forward, grateful for the trolley help support his weight after the long flight.

Suddenly a gap in the crowds revealed Willow to him, and another shift showed Joyce standing beside someone. He walked closer, and suddenly nothing was between them.

They stood in a huddle, Willow, Oz, Xander, Joyce and slightly behind Xander, was the slayer.

"Giles!" Willow exclaimed, and bounced towards him. She paused in front of him for a second, hesitantly, before her joy at seeing him won out and she threw her arms around him. Xander joined the hug, and for a moment Giles was swamped in enthusiastic greetings.

They let him go, and stood back a little. Giles looked up and his eyes met Buffy's as Joyce and Oz both greeted him.

"Hello," he said absently, in response to their greetings, his eyes never leaving Buffy's. She stepped forward a little, transfixed, seemingly unable to speak. Giles felt Joyce's presence acutely, his arms almost aching to hold Buffy.

"Welcome back, Giles," Buffy said eventually, and Giles smiled.

END

BENDING OR BREAKING