Title: Coming Home 6/6
Author: Sweetdoggie (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: B/G
Rating: PG-17
Summary: Sometimes home isn’t a place.
Spoilers: post season 7
Note: If the chapter breaks seem a little weird, it’s because I wrote this as one unit but had to break it up for my beta.
Disclaimer: No permission has been granted to use the characters. They are owned by their creator, Joss Whedon, Twentieth Century Fox, UPN, WB, and Mutant Enemy. This story is non-profit and is intended solely as entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.
The next day, Rupert went to a local bank that had handled the Giles’ affairs for generations. He opened a safe deposit box and pulled out a ruby colored velvet case. Opening it, he checked the ring inside, slipped it into his pocket, and relocked the box. When he came home from work that night, Buffy was seated on the couch curled up with a text on demonology. He smiled to see her researching so diligently.
“What’s so interesting, dear heart?”
“Interesting? Nothing. But I have to learn some more stuff and since I can’t do a spell to give me instant knowledge, I’ve got to do it the hard way.” She pouted.
“But at least you look charming when studying,” he teased her.
“Oh, yeah. ‘Cause that’s what every girl wants to hear. Do you think I should get glasses?”
“Do you need them?”
“Well, no, but they make you look smarter.”
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Buffy…”
She grinned. “You haven’t done that for a while. I was afraid I was losing my touch.”
“Minx.” He sat down next to her and put the book aside. “I have something for you.”
She sat up, looking alert. “What? A new weapon?”
“Only of a sort, beloved. What I am about to give you will mark you as mine.”
Her interest peaked. “What?”
He pulled the velvet box from his breast pocket and handed it to her. “Will you wear this for me, Buffy?”
She opened the box and gasped as the most stunning ring she had ever seen glimmered up at her. It’s center stone was a ruby, cabochon cut so that the deep color of the stone shone through. It was ringed by tiny, but brilliant sapphires and capped at either end by exquisite emeralds. The setting was a heavy, antique gold that was engraved on the interior with runes of protection, fidelity, prosperity, and love.
She held out her hand to him and he carefully placed the ring on her finger sealing it with a kiss. “Beautiful. I knew it would suit you.”
“Oh my God, Giles! This is the most fantastic thing I’ve ever seen. It would suit anybody.”
“So, will you be my bride?”
“I thought we’d done this part already?”
“Yes, but a man sometimes likes to take matters into his own hands.”
“Well, then, if it will assuage your male pride, of course I’ll marry you.”
“Excellent. Now, we should plan.”
Buffy crossed her arms over her chest. “Hold it, bub. Plan? How about you make love to me and we can talk plans while we’re recuperating?”
He sighed gustily. “If you insist.” He belied his tone by the wide grin on his face. Leaning over, he grabbed her bare foot and tickled it. “I feel like being a bit… playful this evening.”
“Uh oh.”
“Heh, heh, heh.” He chuckled evily.
She stood up slowly, keeping her gaze on him the entire time. “Now, Rupert, you wouldn’t…”
He grabbed at her but she slipped out of his hands like an eel and ran laughing to the stairs.
“Oh, wouldn’t I?” He stalked her across the living room.
Buffy ran, laughing, not really trying very hard to get away. He caught her at the top of the stairs and swept her into his arms, pinning her hands to her sides. Bending over her, he put his mouth on her neck while she squirmed and blew a giant raspberry. She shrieked with laughter, going weak at the knees when he touched her.
He was laughing himself and carried her to their room, happily intent on several hours of lovemaking.
Buffy woke at dawn to someone insistently poking her shoulder. “Buffy? Are you awake?”
She cracked open one blurry eye. “I am now. What?”
“Let’s talk about the wedding.”
“Giles, I love you but it’s…” she glanced at the clock. “Oh my God! It’s five thirty in the morning.”
“Is it? I’m excited. I want to talk about it.” He was as giddy as Buffy had ever seen him and it was cute as Hell but it was still awfully early.
“Giles? Tell me you aren’t a closet ‘Morning Person’?”
“I used to love the dawn. The light is so beautiful. It’s as if the world is made new every morning.”
Buffy buried her head under her pillow. “You didn’t tell me you were one of ‘them’.”
“Oh, for Heaven’s sake. I’m sure you’ll get used to it.”
“Giles, I’m a Slayer. Born and bred to roam the night.”
He smiled down at her. “Every dawn you see means another night that you survived, beloved. Don’t begrudge me that.”
“Geez, how can anybody be as sweet as you at this unholy time of day?”
“Practice?”
“Ugh.” She moaned as he pulled the pillow off her face. “All right. All right. We’ll talk weddings.”
He outlined his plans and kept asking her opinion. She nodded now and then, seeing how he was really getting into this. “You really are excited, aren’t you?”
“Why shouldn’t I be? I’m marrying—something I never thought to do, and to a woman I have worshiped for years. To me, this is the culmination of what I supposed to be a hopeless love. Forgive me if I’m a tad giddy.”
She grinned. “I could pretty much forgive you anything.”
“Do you realize that this will be the first wedding of a Watcher and a Slayer in more than a century?”
“Really? Other Watchers married their Slayers? How come I didn’t know about this?’
“Mostly, the previous weddings provided a bit of cover for the pair. It has always looked rather suspicious for an adult man to be a companion to a young girl or woman.”
“So, marriages of convenience?”
“Probably.”
“Too bad, everybody needs somebody to love them.”
“Yes, they do.”
“Have I mentioned how much I love you?”
“I may have heard something along those lines, but a bit of positive reinforcement never hurts.”
“I love you. I love you so much that sometimes my heart feels ready to burst with the fullness of how much I feel. You are the light at the end of my tunnel. You are my reward. I even love you enough not to slay you for waking me up this early in the morning.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “I love you too, my heart.”
~*~
Buffy grew rather alarmed at the proportions the wedding was taking on. It seemed to her that everybody she had ever met wanted a role in the proceedings. Giles was willing to accommodate everyone and the thing grew. They had already expanded it from the Council Chapel to a nearby cathedral. Every Slayer and every Watcher wanted to be there. The families of all the Watchers, living or deceased intended on coming. Everyone had friends that were invited. The guest list now included over a thousand people, many of whom didn’t know either the bride or groom, but who had heard of them. It was rapidly becoming the event of the year as nobody intended to miss the joining of this legendary couple.
Buffy tried to draw the line when the press wanted to come, but Giles’ pout won out and she threw up her hands in compliance. “Whatever you want, Giles. What’s our cover-story going to be?”
“Well, as the head of RCoW I am considered to be a very important personage.”
“And I’m some little nobody from America,” she groused.
“No, you are the woman who brought a life-long bachelor to his knees.”
“Well, I guess if you put it that way…”
He swooped down upon her and kissed her thoroughly. “No other way to put it, beloved.”
She was looking at a list of guests. “Wait a minute. HRH Prince Charles is coming? We have the heir to the throne attending our wedding?”
“Just as a guest.”
“Why?”
“It is the ‘Royal’ Council of Watchers, love.”
“Does he have any clue as to what we do?”
“Not a jot. He believes we are an educational society dedicated to finding bright and gifted young men and women around the globe and providing for their futures.”
She crossed her arms and tapped her foot.
“It’s nearly true!” he protested at her look.
“Uh huh.” She tipped her head sideways: always a bad sign. “Rupert? Did it ever occur to you that this wedding is getting just a tad, well, large?”
“I want it to be special.”
“It will be, sweetie. It would be special because you were in it. All this fancy stuff is just gilding the lily as far as I’m concerned. It’s the end result that I want, not the show.”
“You are a woman in a million.”
She giggled. “I’ve upped my odds considerably then. I used to be the one girl in all the world.”
“And for me, you always shall be.”
“That’s pretty sweet,” she sighed. “All right. No more bitching about the wedding.”
“Er, perhaps now wouldn’t be a very good time to mention that the Prince has offered to be godfather to our firstborn?”
Buffy slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand. She said nothing but left the room shaking her head and muttering incomprehensibly under her breath.
As far as Buffy was concerned, things only got worse. The press became more insistent, going so far as to use zoom lenses to capture her image since she refused to leave the Watcher’s Compound. She saw pictures of herself in assorted tabloids, several of which purported to be of her naked or in various compromising positions. She pleasantly but firmly declined all interviews, told the Council lawyer to file lawsuits against the worst of the bunch, and ignored what she couldn’t change.
When the day of the wedding finally dawned, she was so frazzled that a lesser woman would have fainted or perhaps vomited. Buffy merely squared her shoulders, slipped into her gown, and stepped into a limo to meet her fiancé at the church, Willow and Dawn at her side. The Wicca decided now would be a good time to use her powers and cast a small spell that blurred Buffy and Giles whenever they were in an unsanctioned photo.
Giles had asked Robson to be his Best Man as Buffy had commandeered Xander to give her away. She waited in the antechamber for the music to start: her signal to step out and down the aisle on her friend’s arm. At last, it was time. The Wedding March began and she slipped out of the small room, took Xander’s arm, and began walking toward the man she loved.
Giles swayed on his feet, suddenly overcome with the drama of the moment. Robson did his duty and propped him up. Buffy finally arrived at his side and all he could do was gaze at her in awe. She was absolutely beautiful; radiant and glowing with joy and that inner beauty reserved solely for brides. He had thought he couldn’t be more in love but he was wrong. He felt strange: tender and ultra-emotional as if he couldn’t make up his mind whether or not to laugh, cry, or possibly throw up. He must have swayed again, because Robson’s strong hand on his shoulder helped to steady him. He turned to look at the Archbishop that had agreed to marry them.
The Archbishop was a Council member and knew about their contributions to saving the world. When he had heard about the wedding preparations, he had called Rupert and demanded that he be the one allowed to perform the ceremony. Giles had agreed with a laugh, but suddenly it all seemed to take on a significance that he had somehow overlooked. The size of the wedding, the elaborate preparations that had just seemed to all fall together, the cooperation and dedication he and Buffy had received seemed like a gift. As the Archbishop asked them to join hands, a ray of sunlight pierced the stained glass of the window above the altar. The beam of light struck the wedding couple and outlined them in a nimbus of glowing colors. Since the day had previously been overcast, Giles knew it was a gift from the Powers and that they had given their blessing to this union. He saw the knowledge reflected in Buffy’s eyes as well.
“Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today…”
He heard Buffy speak her vows, and then it was his turn. He spoke firmly and decisively, the words engraved in his memory forever. “I, Rupert, take you, Buffy to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy law; In the presence of God I make this vow.”
The rings were brought out, blessed, and exchanged. He felt the weight of the heavy gold band as Buffy slid it onto his finger. It felt new, then suddenly, it felt right, as if it had always been on his hand. From this day forward, it always would be.
After what seemed a great deal more praying and lecturing from the Archbishop, the Registry was brought forward for them to sign, the last official barrier between himself and his bride. They signed it and the Archbishop introduced them to the witnesses as Mr. and Mrs. Rupert Giles. He lifted the veil Buffy had worn, an exquisite Brussels lace. She had tear trails down her face and he kissed those away first before bestowing upon her the heartfelt kiss of love and devotion he meant to convey for the rest of their lives. They walked down the center aisle of the church, flanked on either side by hundreds of Watchers and Slayers, friends, the little bit of family they could scrape together, and what seemed like the eyes of the world on them as they exited the building. The press, finally allowed some access, took literally thousands of photos as the couple got into the waiting limo and were driven off.
The enterprising press was stopped by a barrier spell courtesy of the Devon witches and the happy couple sped to their honeymoon destination in peace. Giles looked down at his bride, so happy he thought he might burst. For some reason, he wanted to cry.
Buffy looked up at her husband. She saw his joy and his hidden tears and took him in her arms while he wept. Stroking his back, she murmured words of comfort. “Shh. It’s all right now, Giles. We’re together and nothing will separate us ever again. I love you so much.”
“God, Buffy, you are my life. I’ve waited so very long.”
She just held him, stroking his trembling back, enveloped in the warmth of his arms. “We’re home, now. Where ever you are is my home, and where I am is yours. Our hearts have come home. Welcome, Giles. Welcome home.”
~end~