Title: Stop Motion 3/?
Author: Shannon
Pairing: Willow/Giles
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Joss Whedon, ME, UPN, FOX, and WB.
Distribution: http://magical-worlds.us/musings/, My LJ (shannon730), Hairy Eyeball if Elisabeth wants it. Anyone else that has my other fics. Any one else just let me know first.
Summary: Buffy is injured. Willow and Giles work together to help her and find the vampires behind the attack.
Author's Notes: Thanks to Gabrielle for betaing this for me. This is written in response to Michelle's challenge
What would happen if Buffy was paralyzed? I'd like to see a story about this, and about Giles' reaction to it. Pairing: A Giles/Buffy pairing would be preferred, but any pairing would be good. (It could be interesting to see how Buffy's paralysis would affect Giles' relationship with someone else.) I hope it's at least close to what you wanted.
Willow stood in the doorway and watched as Giles skimmed the pages of another book. She had been watching for nearly an hour and he hadn't moved from the desk. He had barely even looked up from the books, other than to occasionally refill his glass. She didn't know what he was looking for. She wasn't even sure he knew, not really. They each had their own ways to deal with everything that had happened in the last week.
Xander had spent hours researching the various additions and modifications he could make to the house to make it more wheelchair accessible. Dawn had started moving all of Buffy's clothes and belongings from the bedroom upstairs to the guest room on the first floor. She was going out to buy paint in the morning. Willow and Faith had spent the time researching local vampires, trying to narrow down who may have planned this attack. Then they had gone patrolling. Giles had been sitting at the desk, looking at his books all night.
He said he was fine, he didn't want to talk about it. Willow knew it was bothering him, more than anyone else, she thought. She didn't know how to help him though, he was being so.Giles. That's why she had been standing in the doorway for an hour, trying to find a way to help him.
*****
Giles knew Willow had been watching him. He'd been aware of her presence for some time. He had hoped she'd go away because he didn't want to talk. There were still a lot of books to go through, texts that might give him the answer to helping Buffy.
Buffy's reaction had affected him more than he thought it would. Not her anger at the injury, they had expected that. That's how Buffy dealt with.everything, anger. Usually her anger was directed at whatever vampire or demon they were fighting at the time, but this time it wasn't. This time she didn't have a demon to fight, so she'd turned her anger on them.
She blamed them for not supporting her. He knew that wasn't true. Not allowing her to believe in the impossible and not supporting her were not the same thing. They had all spent the evening trying to help her, whether she was aware of it or not. They all wanted to help her, but she needed to want to help herself, and she wouldn't as long as she believed it would heal.
He slammed the book he was reading closed, the answer wasn't there. He turned to reach for another book. "The answer isn't in any of those books, Giles," Willow said quietly.
"You don't know that," Giles sighed, turning to face her. "There could be a spell."
"A spell to do what?" Willow asked. She crossed the large room and sat in the chair across from him, watching him lean back in his own chair. "To heal her? To help her walk? Or to make her accept what's happened?"
"Anything," Giles admitted, "All three. I don't know, Willow, all I do know is how.hurt she was today."
"I know, and it was hard for me too," Willow frowned, "For all of us. But magic can't fix it, you know that. You can't use magic to fix your problems, isn't that what you told me? I can do a spell to help for a while but it won't last. Then she'll be even angrier, because we played with her mind."
"You're right, of course," he said quietly. "She has to deal with this on her own, in her own way. How was patrolling?"
"Yeah, well," Willow smiled slightly. "That's um, how Faith is dealing with her anger. I think she has sent a very clear message to whoever attacked Buffy."
"She needs to be careful," Giles said. "Until we know who is behind this, Buffy is.If Faith is injured as well..."
"I know, and I pointed that out to Faith," Willow agreed. "She's frightened though, not that she would ever say that, but Giles, Buffy is the only slayer that has ever lasted this long. If Buffy could be hurt like this."
"Have you found anything yet?" Giles asked. He understood Faith's fear and her need to.destroy the danger.
"No," Willow sighed. "It's hard to question vampires when the slayer is beating the crap out of them. Tomorrow I'll go out alone and."
"No," Giles said, "No one is to patrol alone."
"Okay, then," Willow hesitated. This was her chance to get him away from the books for a while. The answers weren't there. This wasn't some old prophecy coming back to haunt them, and Giles needed an outlet for his anger as much as Faith did. "Wanna come then?"
"Me?" Giles didn't hide his surprise. He had expected her to argue with him, insist on going alone, or to agree to take Xander, or one of the younger slayers but he hadn't expected her to ask him. "I was going to stay here. We need to research as well as patrol."
"No, I don't think we do," Willow offered. "None of the answers we need are in books, and the others can research anyway, so you're patrolling tomorrow, okay?"
Before Giles could answer, the phone rang. "Hello," he said. He hadn't been expecting a call this late. His voice immediately filled with concern when he heard the voice on the other end, "Buffy?"