Title: Nature's Remedy
Author: Sweetdoggie (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: B/G
Rating: FRT
Summary: The Mob comes to Sunnydale
Spoilers: None
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.

Willie was a weasel. He knew it and had long ago come to terms with what that meant to his almost non-existent conscience and his rather nebulous moral standards. He wasn’t strong enough to be outright bad, that took more courage and willpower than he was prepared to invest in his life, but he had the shifty nature of the slender-bodied mammal down perfectly. That’s why what he was doing was so terribly out-of-character for him. He was going to ask the Slayer for her help.

Sweating profusely, he stood exposed to the harsh glare of a Sunnydale morning. It was a time of day he rarely saw and had never appreciated. Like his four-legged brethren, he was nocturnal by nature and by calling. Gathering up the smattering of courage he owned, he knocked firmly on the wreath-decorated door. He knocked again and heard footsteps on the other side of the door just before it opened. He stood looking eye to eye with the tiny blond Slayer.

She looked at him and blinked, then looked again. “Willie?” she asked incredulously.

“Yeah. It’s me, Slayer. Can I come in?” He looked around with a worried look on his face.

She didn’t invite him in verbally, he noticed with secret approval. She merely stepped back and let the door swing open. He scurried in and quickly closed it behind him.

“We gotta talk,” he told her.

She let him into her living room and gestured to the couch. “Want a soda?” She offered, uncertain of the protocol for entertaining vermin.

“Nah, thanks. I came here to put you in the know about a bad situation developing in Sunnydale.” He spoke in a lowered voice as if he were afraid of being overheard even in her living room.

“So, like what? New vamp? Demon King, Bug guys? What’s the what, Willie?” She sat down opposite him.

“It’s not Hellmouth related,” he told her. “We got the Mob moving in.”

She looked blank. “The Mob? You mean like the Godfather or something?”

He snorted. “Or something. Look, Slayer, these are very bad guys. They play for keeps. This is some outfit headquartered in LA. They’ve started hitting up business owners for “insurance” money. They want more than half my take for a month. I can’t pay that and stay in business.”

Buffy raised her eyebrow expressively. “And I should care because…?”

“Because they aren’t going to stop with bars and clubs—they’re going to be branching out to small businesses. Doesn’t your Watcher own a place downtown?” he asked her, knowing very well that Giles owned the Magic Box.

“Giles can handle himself,” Buffy said calmly.

“These are very bad hombres, Slayer. Think about what it could mean if one of them got vamped. They already think of themselves as foot soldiers for their boss. What if they got the bright idea of making a bunch of vamps to be enforcers for the Mob? I don’t know about you, but if a vamp threatened to put the bite on me, I’d pay pretty much whatever I had to get away.”

Buffy frowned. As much as she hated to admit it, the little stoat was right. “They’re all still human right now, though?” she asked calmly.

“Yeah. The vamps aren’t real happy with the situation. Mob activity draws cops which makes a town look rough. If it’s too rough, people start staying in at night—no more dinners on legs, if you know what I mean.”

“Put out word in the vamp community—anybody turns one, I’m coming after him personally and I’ll not only take him out, but his whole nest too,” she nodded. “That should hold them off for a while, but we have to count on it happening eventually, even if it’s only an accident.”

He nodded. “I can get word out. They’ll be careful, but still…accidents happen.”

“Yeah,” she said, voice full of sarcasm. “Who’s the local boss?”

“I heard it’s a guy named Petrus Turrabian. He’s Armenian and one tough bastard. Rumor says he’s killed men with his bare hands. He’s very, uh, dedicated. Likes to use a baseball bat on knees and elbows.” He shook his head. “Do you really think your Watcher would pay protection money?”

She sighed and looked at the man in front of her. “Not in a million years,” she agreed. Standing at last she walked him out of her house. “I’ll look into it, but I’m not sure what I can do. I’ll talk to Giles.”

Willie nodded gratefully. “Thanks, Slayer.”

She looked at him sternly. “Rat us out to the enemy, and you’ll be very, very sorry. Do I make myself clear?”

He nodded. “I wouldn’t do that. It’s against my own self-interests.”

“See that you remember it.” She closed the door behind him. Looking at the clock, she knew that Giles would be at the store already. She decided he might like some donuts with his bad news.

When she walked into the Magic Box half an hour later, she was surprised to see two men in suits talking to Giles. He was shaking his head. They spoke to him earnestly and he again denied them. One of them reached out and knocked a statue of Anubis off a shelf. The man shrugged. Giles looked furious. Everyone looked up when the front doorbell rang and she entered the shop. “Morning, Giles,” she nodded to him with a smile.

“Good morning, Buffy. I shan’t be long.” He turned to the two men watching him silently. “Get out and tell your boss I won’t be paying protection money. Oh, and that he owes me fifty dollars for that statuette you broke.”

The men looked at each other and then at Buffy. “We’ll be back and your little girlfriend won’t stop us next time,” one of them threatened.

They left the shop. Giles was absolutely furious. He hadn’t been this angry since Buffy had forgotten to tell him about Riley being in the Initiative.

“I see you've met the local enforcers,” Buffy said calmly. “Have a donut. I got jelly for you.”

He was too upset to eat and instead paced back and forth. A thought occurred to him. “How do you know about this?” He was instantly suspicious. Was this some other bit of news she had conveniently forgotten to tell him?

“It’s funny you should ask,” she said, munching a donut. “This morning I had a visit from Willie. He told me about this Mob-affiliated group that’s come to Sunnydale.” She repeated the entire story. “So, I stopped off for some donuts to help us think and came right here.” She looked at him. “What do we do?”

“We don’t pay protection. The very idea galls my soul,” he ground out.

“Yeah, me too. But these are human-type bad guys and I don’t want them hurting you. I can’t just dust them, no matter how much I’d like to.” She sighed regretfully. Being bound by moral strictures was so confining.

“No, but you are allowed to defend yourself and other humans against them. I shouldn’t worry a great deal if they accidentally came up dead,” he said viciously as he bit into a jelly donut with great enthusiasm. It squirted jelly all over his hand. “Damn,” he muttered as he licked it off.

Buffy felt a little strange as she watched his pink tongue dart out to clean the sticky mess off his fingers. She had a strange urge to offer her assistance. Her mind flashed on an image of her licking the jelly from between his fingers as she watched his eyes. She shifted uneasily in her seat and tried to banish the erotic thoughts. This was her Watcher, after all, not some studly boy-toy that she could take and discard when she was done. Mentally slapping herself for even thinking of Giles and eroticism in the same thought, she cleared her throat.

“I’m worried for you, Giles. The shop we can replace, but I don’t want them hurting you. I don’t think you should be alone till we resolve this,” she told him seriously.

“And how do you propose to remedy that situation? Move in with me?” He was sarcastic.

She tipped her head sideways and looked at him. “That would be excellent. That guy thought I was your girlfriend. We can play to that. If I’m living with you, we may be able to get them to turn their focus from you to somebody they think you care about—me. Good plan, Watcher-mine!” She grinned happily at him.

He looked at her helplessly. “Buffy, of course I care about you. You are the most important person in my life. How could you think I would ever allow you to be bait for that lowlife scum?”

“You do? I mean, I know you care for me because I’m your Slayer and everything, but I didn’t know I, I mean me as a person, was important to you.” She looked shy. “You are important to me, too. Years ago, I said I couldn’t do this without you. What I should have said was, I wouldn’t ever want to do this without you. Outside of my mom, I love you best of anybody in the whole world,” she confessed awkwardly.

He was deeply touched. “I love you too, Buffy,” he said, a rosy flush rising on his cheeks at this unexpected but sweet display of affection. “But I know you love Riley…”

He broke off at her raised hand.

“Well, um, no I don’t actually. I’ve been trying to think of a good way to break things off with him as a matter of fact. He isn’t the guy for me.” She shrugged. “I don’t want to hurt him, but I don’t want to date him anymore either.”

“Then you must tell him. It isn’t fair to let things go on with him when you don’t share his feelings,” he told her softly. He walked over to her and tentatively put his arm across her shoulders. “It will be all right, Buffy. Someday you will meet someone who makes your heart sing. I’m sorry it can’t be young Riley. I think basically he’s a very decent chap.”

“He is,” Buffy told him leaning against his chest. “But he’s not right. He’s not…he’s not…Oh my God!” She took a step backwards looking as if she had just experienced a massive revelation, which indeed, she had. Mouth open and eyes wide, she stared at Giles.

“Are you all right, dear. What is it that Riley isn’t?” he coaxed. “You can tell me.”

“He, he isn’t you.” Her cheeks were so red he was visibly alarmed. “Giles, I swear, I had no idea!” she tried to explain to him.

His mind worked furiously. “Buffy, I don’t understand. Are you saying you don’t love Riley because, because you have feelings for me?”

She nodded, eyes wide. He saw the total shock on her face. “I never knew! How could I not know?” She sank into the chair, face in her hands. “Oh my God! Oh my God!”

Despite the fact that his heart was trying to beat its way out of his chest, he took time to smile at her total shock. “It’s going to be all right, Buffy,” he comforted her. “How do you want to deal with this revelation?”

“Deal?” She looked at him with a stare reminiscent of a deer caught in a car headlight. “I’m going to have to move to a nun place or something. God! What’s wrong with me?”

He sat next to her and took her hand. “Before you move to the convent, do you think you might like to try dating me?”

“D, da, dating you? Is this some sort of pity thing? Because I don’t do pity dates, even when they’re for me.”

“The only pity involved would be you having some for me,” he explained. “I’ve been dealing with these feelings for you for several years now and I can’t begin to tell you what a relief it is to know you care about me that way as well.”

“You care? Really?” She was stunned. “How come you never said then?”

“Buffy, dear heart, I am twenty-two years older than you. I didn’t have the right to make you aware of my feelings.”

“Giles, Rupert, you always have the right.” She still looked stunned, but also like she was beginning to accept the situation. “And yes, by the way, I’d love to date you. Besides, I’m moving into your flat at least till this gangster business is over.”

He looked worried. “What will people think if you do that?”

“That I’m moving in with the man I love more than my life?” She shrugged. “I’m not a kid anymore. Will it bother you that I’m so much younger than you? You’re the one that’s going to come in for the most criticism, I’m sure.”

He snorted. “Buffy, I have never cared what others thought of me. The only person whose opinion I care about is you. If our age difference doesn’t bother you, it certainly isn’t going to upset me.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “I’m young but even I know that love isn’t about youth or age or beauty or gray hairs. It’s your heart telling you that the other half of your soul is standing next to you and you’d better wake up and smell the romance before you lose it.”

He chuckled. “Is that what I’ve been smelling? I thought it was strawberries.”

“Oh, you!” she laughed with him. “What are we going to tell the others? Will they understand?”

“We must tell them about the gangster situation, if only for their own protection. I should rather like to keep our personal business to ourselves for a while. Not that I’m ashamed or embarrassed. Never think that. I just want to hold it close for a while to savor it.”

She nodded her complete understanding. “Still, they’re going to notice I’m living with you.”

“Protection from the Mob?”

She nodded again. “It even has the benefit of being true.”

“What will your mother say?”

Buffy sighed. “Mom’s tried really hard to understand about me being the Slayer and my duty and all, but she just can’t get that what we do isn’t necessarily because we like the life. She still thinks it’s a phase I’ll outgrow.” She shook her head. “She isn’t going to like it when she finds out we’re together, either. She thinks the sun rises and sets on Riley.”

Giles pursed his lips. “Well, he’s young and handsome and relatively normal. I can see why she’d like him.”

“Plus she’s felt really awkward around you since the band candy—and let me tell you, you weren’t her favorite person before that either.” Buffy looked depressed.

He patted her hand. “It doesn’t matter. Your mother will come around. She only wants you to be happy and when she sees that we are, she’ll adapt.”

“Yeah, but until then, fur is gonna fly,” Buffy said colorfully.

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “If fur flies, love, we’ll learn to be groomers.”

She laughed at his humor. “You know, we should tell the gang that we want the bad guys to think we are an item so they try to mess with me. It would be perfect cover for us and we could date and nobody would know but us that it was for real.”

“I like it,” he told her. “By the time we reveal our feelings to the others, they will be used to seeing us together and we won’t get as many eeeeuws.”

“I should go back to the dorm and pack my stuff.” She frowned. “Do you think you’ll be safe here alone?”

“I think so. I doubt that they will act till this evening, at the earliest. At any rate, I’m not totally helpless.”

“No, of course not. But if you cut their heads off, we have to hide the bodies. That would be gross. Be careful. I love you and I don’t want to lose this before we even get started.” She turned to leave then turned back. “I’m getting rid of Riley before I come back today.”

He nodded. “Be kind but firm. He mustn’t think he has a chance of getting you back.”

“I will,” she vowed.

She ran all the way back to the campus. Willow was lying on the bed reading when Buffy threw open the door. She sat up, alarmed. “Buffy? What’s the matter?”

Buffy filled Willow in on the Mob situation while she packed her bags. “I’m going to stay with him till we resolve things,” she said, scooping her makeup back into her bag.

“But Giles only has one bed,” Willow pointed out.

“He has a couch and sleeping bags. We can worry about that stuff when he’s safe. Will you tell Xander?”

“Sure, no problem. He’ll want Anya to be extra careful anyhow. I’ll let Tara know. She’s going to be involved in this too.”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded. “There’s one other thing you should know, Will.”

“What?” The red head said looking up surprised at the serious tone of Buffy’s voice.

“I’m going to break up with Riley.”

“Because of this?” Willow asked. “Because I’m sure you can work something out.”

“No, not because of this. Because he’s too nice a guy for me to stay with when I don’t love him like he deserves to be loved.”

“You don’t love him? But, but you’ve been with him for so long.”

“I know. It just isn’t working out for me, though. He’s sweet, but I don’t want him like that. I just wanted you to know.”

Willow looked at her. “It’s not ‘cause you’re in love with Spike is it?”

“Gack! No! Not in love with Spike. Geez, make me sick, why don’t you?” Buffy made an expression of disgust.

“Just checking,” the witch told her.

“Will you go and keep Giles company? I need to tell Riley we’re over and I don’t want Giles left alone.”

“Sure, no problem. I was going to head over there later anyhow,” Willow replied.

Buffy smiled at her and went out the door. She headed over to Lowell House where Riley had a room. Several of his friends saw her and waved. She waved back but didn’t stop to talk. Knocking on Riley’s door she waited for him to open it.

“Buffy! Nice surprise,” he told her bending down to kiss her. He was shocked when she stopped him.

“Riley, we need to talk. Can I come in?”

“Sure.” He opened the door and let her into his room.

“What's up, Buffy? You look serious.”

“Ri, I'm breaking up with you.”

“What?”

“You and I are not working out and if you're truthful with yourself, you know that too. I think it's for the best.”

“Well, I don't! I love you. We're meant to be together. I know we haven't been connecting real well lately, but I figure that's just stress. Things happen. It will get better.”

“No, it won't, Riley. I don't want to hurt you. I like you. But I don't love you and you need somebody who does. It isn't fair of me to keep you on a string when I don't.”

“You've met somebody else, haven't you? Who is it?”

“Riley...that has nothing to do with it, with us. I can't be what you want in a girlfriend and you aren't what I'm looking for in a boyfriend. We're better off apart.”

“No! I'm not going to let it end this way, Buffy. You belong to me.”

“No, Riley, I really don't.” She turned and opened the door, walking out before he could formulate a reply.

Buffy felt like she had been put through a wringer. Breaking up really was hard to do. He was a good guy but just not the guy for her. She knew it and felt better for acting on it instead of letting him hang. She had closed the door behind her but heard him open it again before she got more than a few feet down the hall.

“It will never be over between us, Buffy,” he had vowed.

“Riley, it already is.”

She went back to her dorm and gathered her suitcase. She had dropped off her laundry at her mother’s earlier that morning so that she could do it for free and thus didn’t have all that much to take to her Watcher’s place. She had told Willow that she would sleep on the couch or a sleeping bag, but she intended on sleeping in his bed with him in it. Which wasn’t to say she intended to have sex with him right away, but she wanted to be prepared and besides his couch was only comfortable for an hour, not all night.

It took her nearly forty minutes to lug her suitcase, makeup case and duffle bag back to the Magic Box. She was hot and sweaty and he could damn well throw them in his car for the trip to his place.

“I'd have been happy to pick them up later, there was no need to carry them all that way in this heat.”

He missed the hot glance she flashed him, totally oblivious.

Willow and Tara were already at the Magic Box studying protection spells. Willow looked up when Buffy came in, smiled at her and turned back to Tara to show her something interesting in a magic text. Giles came forward and helped Buffy stow her clothes in the back until the store closed. He used the opportunity to pull her into the training room for a moment of conversation. “I take it you told Willow?”

“Only that I was moving in with you till this situation was over. Oh, and that I was breaking up with Riley,” she added as an afterthought.

“How did that go?”

“Not so hot. He won’t take my word that things are over. I’ve never had to dump somebody before. I guess I’m no good at it.”

“What did you tell him?” He was curious.

She repeated the conversation almost word for word. “It seems to me that you made your point, apologized, and that should have been good enough.” Giles told her. “Do you suppose he will actually cause trouble?”

“There’s probably going to be at least one more scene. I wish we could leave town for a while. It would make it easier.”

“Unfortunately, that isn’t possible. Perhaps we can try to avoid him, however. If you aren’t living at home or at the dorms, he won’t have that much access to you.”

“Giles, we live in a town of 39,000 people. It’s kind of hard to avoid somebody if you go out at all.”

“Did you tell him you had feelings for someone else?”

“No. You know he would have thought it was Spike and would have staked him.”

“There, you see? No downside!” He grinned down at her happily.

“Not until he realized that Spike wasn’t my guy. Then what?” She looked up at him with a smile to see him so happy.

“Then we can deal with him together.” He leaned down and stole a quick kiss from her lips.

When he would have pulled back, amazed at his own temerity, she reached up and pulled him down for another, longer kiss that left both of them trembling. “This is what I was missing,” she told him softly. “Angel, Parker, Riley—they weren’t you. How could I be so blind?”

“Everyone makes mistakes, love. I’m just glad you see me now,” he told her resting his forehead against hers.

“I’d like to see more.”

“Perhaps later,” he chuckled. “We do have minions of evil to defeat again.”

“Always with the minions!” Buffy complained good-naturedly. “You hungry?”

“Absolutely famished.”

“I can go get us some Chinese or Thai, if you’re in the mood,” she offered. “We can call it in and I can walk over and get it.”

“We can call it in, and if you mind the shop, I’ll go fetch it in the car.”

“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go ask the others what they want.”

Willow and Tara begged off lunch saying that they had already made plans. Anya said she had eaten before coming in and Xander showed up with taco breath so they knew he too was taken care of.

Buffy wanted Walnut shrimp so Giles went to the Chinese place. He purchased a variety of food—enough for at least four people because he knew his Slayer’s appetite. If she was going to live with him, his grocery bill was going to increase dramatically. He chuckled. He wanted to do Xander’s Snoopy dance. Buffy wanted him—him, not some pretty boy that would break her heart. He would do his damnedest to see that Buffy was happy and content with his love, because if she left him after this, he’d die.

He talked to the shop owner who told him about being threatened by the thugs earlier in the day. Giles relayed his story. He said he was going to fight back and to hang tough until he could get help. The shopkeeper merely shrugged. “It’s the price of doing business.”

Giles took his box of takeout back to the shop where he and Buffy ate happily. They were debating whether or not to work out when they heard the shop bell ring and Anya called for him rather frantically. He came out of the back and saw the two thugs from that morning leaning on his counter. One of them had Anya’s hand stretched out over the edge of the surface. He was puffing on a cigarette. “You know, it would really be a shame if this little girl got burned because you wouldn’t pay your dues, Mr. Giles.”

“Release her at once!’ he demanded. “She isn’t part of this.”

“She works for you.” The man took the cigarette out of his mouth and brought it slowly towards her wrist. He was intent on his work and didn’t even see Buffy reach out and grasp his arm. He looked surprised and tried to pull back but she had a firm grip on him. She began to squeeze. “Maybe you didn’t understand when Giles told you we aren’t going to pay. I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. But I want you to understand one thing very clearly. Nobody hurts any of the people who come here. Not ever.” She felt the bones in his wrist grate together. He was writhing frantically trying to break her hold. “Do you understand?”

“Let me go, bitch. The boss will kill you all for this.”

Buffy was tired of the conversation. With a simple twist she broke his arm. When his partner went for his gun, she was there before he could pull it. “No,” she said, yanking it out of his hand. His finger caught in the trigger guard and she deliberately broke it while removing the gun.

She looked at the two men. “I think we should kill them. We can keep the bodies in back till dark and I’ll get Spike to give me a hand getting rid of them. We can take them out through the underground exit.” She spoke dispassionately. The thugs began to realize that they had stumbled into something that was out of their depth.

Anya seconded the motion. It was up to Giles to persuade the two women that they should let them go. “After all, we don’t want more of them coming back here.”

“They definitely need to die,” Anya put in. “Xander’s pouring cement tomorrow. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind pouring a little of it over the men who tried to hurt me.”

“Anya, we’ve talked about this before.” Giles said. “It simply isn’t done to kill someone just because they have a difference of opinion. Now, I’m sure these gentlemen will be more than happy to go back to their employer and tell him that Sunnydale is off-limits.” He looked at them closely. “Won’t you?”

“You people are so dead! The boss will hurt you so bad you’ll beg for death.” He shook his head. “I’d hate to see what happens to these girls.”

Before he could blink there was a silver dagger at his throat. He hadn’t even seen the older man move, but suddenly there was a serious looking weapon touching his neck. “Never, ever threaten my family. I might not want to let the girls kill you, but I can assure you, I’ve killed before and have no compunction about doing so again.” He watched the light play on the blade. “I’ve tried to be decent about this, but you are making it extremely difficult.”

Buffy stepped closer to the first thug and began searching him. She emptied his pockets, removed a sap and a gun. Tut-tutting over his cigarettes, she began to search the second man who tried to step back. She reached over casually and slapped him, knocking him to his knees. “Don’t move,” she told him after hauling him to his feet. He still had a sap, but they had already removed his gun. She pulled his wallet out of his pocket. “This is the one who broke your statue?”

“Yes.”

She pulled the fifty from the billfold and threw it back on the table before passing the money to Anya. Sighing she stood looking at them with her hands on her hips. “You are really lucky today. I’m going to let you go. If you come back or attempt any retaliation, you’re dead and so are all your co-workers. I’m not kidding around and neither is Giles. Get out of Sunnydale and don’t come back.”

The men made no protest because they truthfully hadn’t been expecting to leave at all. They got out of the store and the one with the broken finger drove them both to the emergency room.

Buffy turned to Giles. “You’d better get those protection spells out, Watcher-mine. Those guys are going to come back with torches and burn this place to the ground.”

“I know,” he said sadly. “I’ve already cast an assortment of spells on the store. It won’t burn and the windows have been bullet-proofed. It already had anti-theft spells on it, so we should be covered.”

“We need to do the same to our homes.” Buffy suggested. Giles nodded.

“Not a problem. I’ve cast many spells on the apartment over the years. How do you think I manage to leave my door unlocked without being burgled on a regular basis?”

They closed up the shop and left. He went to his car and made a quick magical search for bombs. “I hate living like this. If we simply eliminated the head man, we could stop this hydra from growing.”

“Are you going to be willing for him to die?” she asked curiously. “I have an idea that’s what it’s going to take to stop them.”

“We will do what needs to be done,” he told her softly. “I don’t like to contemplate the taking of a human life, but sometimes there is justification. We aren’t going to kill someone because they are trying to extort money from us. We need to make sure that your duty as the Slayer is not suborned in any way. The world depends upon you, Buffy. The concerns of petty criminals can not be allowed to take precedence over that.”

“I love you, Giles. Whatever decision we make about these guys, we’ll do it together.”

“Thank you, Buffy.” He smiled down at her. “We need to get you settled in. Er, have you spoken with your mother yet?”

“No. I thought I’d see her before patrol.” She hesitated for a moment or two. “I think we need to go to Willie’s tonight. I want to hire some demons to patrol and keep an eye out.”

“Hire demons?” He was astonished.

“Yeah. This is our town, demons too. We need to take it back from these guys. I’m going to propose a ceasefire. I won’t kill them for just existing as long as they don’t take down any innocent humans. What do demons use for currency?”

“Depends upon the creature, really. If you want some demons to protect your mother and the others, I would recommend Fyarl’s. They aren’t very intelligent, but give them a side of beef and they’ll be your friends forever.”

Buffy wrinkled her nose at the thought of dealing with Fyarl demons. It wasn’t just that they were ugly and stunk, they were as stupid as dirt and had that whole paralyzing snot thing going on as well. She sighed. “Can we afford a couple of cows? I don’t have a lot of money.”

“Don’t worry about it. I will foot the bill. It should be quite interesting and will make a very amusing tale for the Watcher diaries.”

They pulled up at his apartment and he parked the car before taking two of her bags under his arms. She grabbed the third and walked with him to the entrance. He noticed that the magical barrier he had established was glowing blue. That meant somebody had tried to get in. “It looks as if our friends have already paid me a visit.”

He opened the door and led her inside. She pulled her suitcases in before he could offer to help again. “I’ll need someplace to put my clothes. Do you have a spare drawer or two?”

“Let me clean out a few things,” he told her. “Why don’t you look around the kitchen and see if there is anything we could eat for supper? I’m rather reluctant to go out when people want to kill me.”

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Giles, people try to kill you every night. What’s different about this?”

“Monsters don’t generally single me out specifically, and they don’t generally carry firearms either.”

She conceded the point. “OK, but we can’t live like shut-ins forever.”

“No, I don’t intend to, but commonsense precautions should prevail.” He dashed upstairs and began moving stuff around.

“Um, Buffy?” he called down.

“Yeah?” she answered while looking at his cupboard full of tea.

“I was wondering…er, that is, where do you plan to sleep?” He sounded tense.

“I thought we’d share the bed. Your couch is OK for an hour or two but not for all night on a regular basis.”

“You are proposing that we sleep together?” he voice wobbled.

“Sleep for now, Giles. We can work on the rest of it as we have time.”

“Um, I have cleared two drawers for you and some closet space. If you’d like to come up and put your things away?” He still sounded breathless.

She ran up the stairs and threw the larger case on the bed. He had left her drawers open for her and she filled them with T-shirts, shorts, socks and underthings. She hung her slacks and dresses in his closet and he saw her finger one of his old tweed jackets with a sigh.

“You never wear the tweed anymore,” she said nostalgically. “I miss it.”

“What! You couldn’t wait to tell me how old and boring it made me look.” He sounded mildly outraged.

“Please, you’ve never heard of defense mechanisms? I didn’t like that ugly green sweater though. That really was awful.”

“Well, you needn’t worry about it. I wore it on patrol one night and a vampire tore it to shreds.”

“Huh. Guess he didn’t like it either.”

He came up behind her and wrapped her in his arms, holding her and rocking slightly. “Was there anything else about my wardrobe you liked?” he asked playfully.

“Oh, yeah.” She looked at him through half veiled eyes. “When you wore those braces with your white shirt…mmmmm. I remember once I walked in while you were shaving and you had the braces off your shoulders. Yum.” She leaned back into him.

“I still have the braces and I’m sure I could find a white shirt. God knows, I have a hundred of them.”

“Why so many?”

“Your wardrobe wasn’t the only one to suffer the ravages of the Hellmouth, love.” He dropped a kiss on her hair. “It’s very difficult to get blood out of cotton. Very many times, my shirtsleeves and cuffs were soaked in the stuff after disposing of a demon body or two. I have an entire trunk full of shirts permanently stained but too good to discard. I keep meaning to cut the sleeves off and hem them into short sleeved shirts, but I never have the time.”

“I can sew some. Mom insisted that I learn. Maybe while we’re spending time inside, I could do a few of them for you.” She turned in his arms and rested her head against his chest. “I thought you didn’t want to wear short sleeves because of your tattoo?”

“While it is true that I don’t care to advertise it, I wouldn’t object to short sleeves now that I no longer have to appear at the school.”

“Good. You always dress in way too many clothes.”

“I get chilled actually. I’m not used to air conditioning everywhere and it bothers me,” he sounded vaguely ashamed.

“Why on earth didn’t you say so?”

“And sound like an old man? I don’t think so, as you would say!”

“I am going to start taking much better care of you, Giles. Somebody needs to and it will be my pleasure to take on that job.” She squeezed him tightly for a minute before letting him go.

“Let’s go call my mom and see about supper.”

Joyce was practically hysterical. She had been threatened already and the goons had slashed a valuable painting on their way out. Buffy promised that she and Giles would come right over. “Get your magic gear, Giles. We need to do mom’s place.”

They arrived at the Gallery less than fifteen minutes later and Giles made his preparations to mystically protect the shop while Joyce poured out her story to Buffy. It was much the same as what they had been experiencing for themselves. It took fifteen minutes of constant soothing to get her calmed down. Perhaps now was not a good time to tell her that she was moving in with Giles?

“Mom? Can you go out of town for a while? I have to protect Giles and I can’t be with both of you.”

“I was going on that buying trip to Seattle, but how can I leave now in the middle of all this?” Joyce waved her hands expressively.

“It would be so much easier on me if I didn’t have to worry about protecting you as well as Giles, mom. The buying trip would be excellent. You get to do the work you love and be safe at the same time.”

Joyce stuck out her lower lip in a surprising pout. “Why can’t Giles go away instead?”

“He doesn’t have a buying trip that needs to be done, he’s my Watcher and can’t leave, and they’ve physically threatened him. I broke a guy’s arm in his shop today. I doubt if they’ll let that go without retaliation.”

Joyce looked horrified. “You broke…”

“He was going to burn Anya with a cigarette to make Giles pay up.” Buffy explained. “I couldn’t let that happen.”

“No, no. Of course not.”

“We’re going to Willie’s tonight to hire a Fyarl demon to guard our home. It can stay in the basement. It’s not like they need to be entertained or anything. Giles says they’ll accept a side of beef as payment and we’re going to stop at the butcher’s before so we’ll have some currency.”

Joyce looked shell-shocked. “Uh, I’m catching the first plane out of here tonight. I don’t want to have a Fyarl demon as a house guest even for a few minutes. Call me when it’s safe to come home.”

Buffy kissed her. “That’s great, mom.”

Giles finished working his mojo on the shop and they escorted Joyce back to her home. Buffy helped her pack while Giles sat downstairs. When her mom was ready, they watched her get in her car and drive to the airport.

Buffy turned to her Watcher. “Glad that went so easy.”

“I noticed that you didn’t actually tell her you were moving in with me,” he said calmly.

“She didn’t need any more stress. Besides, I told her I would be staying with you to protect you.”

“My hero.” He leaned down and kissed her.

They stopped at a grocery store and Giles stocked up for a siege while Buffy watched in awe. “How do you know what to buy? Mom always gives me a list.”

He turned to look at her, unsure if she were joking. When he saw she was serious he shook his head with a smile. “Buffy, I’ve lived on my own since I was sixteen years old. I’d be in very sorry shape indeed if I had to wait for my mum to write me a list every time I needed to shop.”

“But how do you know? I never know what to buy and I usually end up with yogurt, apples, bread, and peanut butter. Look at all the stuff you’ve got: flour, ten pounds, no less, yeast. What the heck do you do with yeast? And you’ve got another ten pounds of sugar too. Butter and shortening. Popcorn—in a bag, not microwave. Hamburger—OK, I can understand that, but where are the buns? Look at all the fresh vegetables. Carrots, lettuce, onions and what’s that green stuff? Parsley? What do you do with parsley? Two dozen eggs? What’s the powdered milk for? This is all just a big mystery to me.”

“Do you do any cooking at all?”

“I can microwave popcorn, dish up ice cream and once I hard boiled some eggs—that was kind of an accident. I wanted soft boiled ones, but I sort of over-cooked them by an hour or so. I know how to make toast too.”

“Would you like to learn to cook and shop? I’m surprised your mum hasn’t taken care of this gap in your education already.”

“Where do you think I learned how to do what I can do? Mom taught me. I thought we’d pretty much covered the basics, but I’m thinking there’s lots more to this than she told me about.”

He rolled his eyes and began to explain the uses for the things in his shopping cart. The flour and yeast, he explained would be used to bake bread. Buffy looked up at him in awe.

“You know how to bake bread?”

“Yes. It’s easy.”

She gazed at him as if he had single-handedly decrypted the Rosetta stone. “Would you bake bread for me?”

“Of course. I’ll even show you how to do it so you can make your own.”

Her eyes wide, she looked at him worshipfully. “I can’t believe you know how to do all this stuff. It’s just amazing.”

“I raised demons in my youth and regularly perform all sorts of ritual magic and you simply shrug your shoulders at that, but when you find out I can cook, you seem absolutely flabbergasted. It’s quite amusing, really.”

“I see demons and magic every day. It’s no big deal. But somebody who can cook? Do you know how unusual that is?”

“Surely your mum cooks?”

Buffy shook her head. “Well, except for that tofu thing. Mostly we just eat salads and stuff that you can take out of a box and put in the oven. I’ve never met anybody who really cooks before.”

“What about Xander or Willow’s mothers?”

“I’m not sure Xander’s parents eat at all. Mostly they drink and fight. Willow’s folks eat out or have boxed stuff like most people do.”

“Cordelia?”

“They have a cook.”

He showed her how to pick ripe fruit and she was astounded. “But it’s a watermelon. It’s green and you can’t see inside it. How do you know it’s ripe?”

“Run your fingernail over the skin. If it rucks up under your nail, it should be fine. If your nail simply slides across it, pass it up. It will be tasteless. As for apples, if the bumps around the base of the fruit are very sharply defined, it’s most likely to still be green. Also, if you can’t smell a fruit, it’s too green.” He held up a cantaloupe. “Can you smell anything at the stem end?”

“No.”

He picked up another, took a sniff himself, and then showed it to her. “How about now?”

“Yeah, that smells like cantaloupe. That means it’s good to eat, right?”

“Right you are.”

“Wait till I tell the guys about this. They are gonna be so amazed! And to think, you’re my Watcher. I get all the bragging rights. Cool.”

He chuckled and shook his head. She was such fun. He took her down the meat aisle and showed her how to pick tender cuts.

She pointed to another piece of beef. “But this is lots cheaper.”

“If I were making a stew or soup, something that required long cooking, I would buy that.”

She followed him around the store like an eager puppy, thirsty for knowledge and ready to learn. The checkout counter provided her with another interesting experience. He pointed out how things were arranged to catch the shopper’s eye at the last minute. “How many times have you purchased something simply because you see it while waiting in line?’

“I dunno. Lots I guess.”

“Impulse shopping is very expensive.”

Her eyes widened at the cost of the groceries. “Giles, that’s so much money!”

“But I can cook many meals. If we were eating out, how many dinners would this money buy?”

“Maybe four or five.”

“But I can make us breakfast, lunch, and dinner for at least a week, probably longer, on what I purchased today.”

She helped him load up the trunk of his car and they took the food home. Buffy was unusually quiet. He could tell wheels were turning in her head but had no idea what the subject of her musings was.

They arrived back at the apartment and put the groceries away. Giles showed her how to package the larger items into smaller units so that the entire package wouldn’t have to be defrosted when he wished to cook. It was a whole new world for her. Finally, she spoke.

“This is how other people live all the time, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, other families cook and shop and do all this stuff all the time just like it was a normal thing.”

He looked puzzled. “Buffy, it is a normal thing. Until I came to this country, I’d never heard of people who lived entirely off of tins and boxed food. Frankly, I can’t imagine it. The stuff’s so tasteless and bland, I don’t know how anyone stomachs it beyond emergencies.”

“Teach me?”

“Always.”

He showed her how to make bread. They made two loaves, hers and his. She was astonished at how simple a process it actually was. “Why don’t people do this all the time?”

“Well, I imagine because it is time-consuming.”

“Yeah, but you said you could make the dough in advance and freeze it. You could take a loaf out of the freezer and thaw it so that it would be ready to bake by supper time. You could have fresh bread every night.”

“Yes, you could.”

“But people take the easier route and just buy bread even though it isn’t nearly as good.”

“True.”

“It’s like these gangster guys.”

“I don’t understand.”

“They take what they think is the easier route—taking somebody else’s money so they won’t have to work for their own. We just upped the ante, though. Maybe that’s the solution. Make stuff so hard for them around here that they can’t make a profit.”

“A nice touch. What do you suggest?”

“Well, first off, we’ve got to convince the rest of the townies not to pay up.”

“I doubt we can.”

She paused, deep in thought. “OK, how about we see that the collectors get robbed and the money gets returned to its original owners after every drop?”

“It has potential, but who would do the actual robbing?”

“Going to have to recruit demons on this one, I think. They won’t be interested in money, though. The Fyarls will work for beef, but that would mean you’d be stuck paying for it. That’s not fair. Plus, I don’t think they’re smart enough to handle an operation like that.”

“No, they aren’t.”

“What do we have that we could trade for demon labor?”

“Other than an amnesty, I can’t think of a single thing.”

She nodded abruptly. “I need to use your phone.”

“You know where it is. Please, help yourself.”

Giles puttered around the kitchen while Buffy talked on the phone. He heard only bits of muttered conversation and couldn’t tell to whom she was speaking. Ten minutes later she returned to the kitchen.

“OK. I talked to Clem, that Tholat demon friend of Spike’s, remember him?”

“Mmmhmm. It’s not like I could forget that.”

She grinned briefly. “Well, I asked him about what we could trade. He had an idea.”

He waited with his eyebrow cocked expectantly.

“Seems that young demons don’t have much of an opportunity for schooling. Their folks teach them a few things, but many of them can’t read or only at a very minimal level. Apparently, it really limits their job choices. Clem suggested that we recruit a few demon parents with offers of payment in the form of teaching their kids.”

“Ah? I’m not sure I heard you correctly. It sounded like you want to teach demon children?”

“Well, not me, exactly, because what do I know about it? I’m afraid it’s going to have to be you.”

“Me? Why me?”

“Because you teach stuff all the time.”

“I teach you, just you. I’m your Watcher; it’s my job. I do not teach demons.”

“Well, you’re going to have to because we don’t have anything else to trade that they actually want.”

They argued for twenty minutes till she finally had to resort to the Pout of Persuasion. He caved as she knew he would.

“Oh very well. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to tutor them for a while.”

Buffy jumped up and hugged him. He returned her gesture heartily. “I hope you know what we’re doing.”

“I thought we were hugging each other, preparatory to maybe some kissing?”

He squeezed her. “That’s fine for now, but I meant with the demon children. How do we recruit them?”

“Clem’s looking into that for us.”

He sighed. Life with Buffy was never uneventful.

~*~

They found a couple of Fyarls at Willies’ place and Giles persuaded them to guard Buffy’s home and Joyce’s shop. He settled them in the basements of these establishments with their sides of beef and a blanket and they were quite happy to stay as long as he wished.

Clem had recruited a dozen demon parents of various races and brought them to the Watcher’s apartment to meet him. They discussed the terms of the contract, Clem intervening when necessary. Everyone agreed to the basic necessity of getting rid of the human criminals, though methods of disposal varied. Several of the demons thought that eating them would be the best solution. A couple of the others just wanted to kill them outright. One offered to curse them. Giles was slightly alarmed when Buffy didn’t even blink at any of these suggestions.

He finally agreed to tutor six demon children for six months in return for their parent’s aid against the human monsters. They would come to his shop every evening after it closed and he would give them lessons. His Slayer nodded her confirmation. “I’ll do whatever I can to help. If the kids need an escort home, I can do that.”

The parents looked surprised. “Why?”

“They aren’t evil, they’re just kids. All children should be able to grow up safe.”

Even Giles looked mildly surprised by her point of view. One of the demon parents nodded it’s understanding.

“We heard you were different. Mostly, your average Slayer just kills our kind.”

Buffy shrugged. “If you were out there killing humans, then, yeah, I’d do that, but Giles says your species are pretty peace-loving unless attacked. I don’t go out of my way to kill innocent beings.”

The demon families turned to each other and began barking in some sort of demon language. Buffy was glad she didn’t have to learn it.

“We’re on board for this temporary truce, but we were all wondering if you would care to make it permanent?” the demonic spokesbeast asked her.

“Permanent?” she questioned.

“We aren’t fighters. It isn’t the way of our people, but we do have many connections in the underworld. Would you consider letting us buy peace with you for information when we happen across it?”

Buffy looked surprised and glanced at Giles for confirmation. He simply raised his eyebrow at her, letting her know that this was her party.

“There’s no need to buy peace, but I would welcome any information you care to give me without endangering yourselves. As long as you don’t hurt humans, I’m content to leave you alone.” Buffy smiled at them. “Besides, your kids are just adorable.”

“It is a rare opportunity for them to receive any education at all. Even six months with a man as intelligent as your Watcher will be a rare treat for them.”

“They like school?” Buffy said, disbelief warring with her efforts to be polite.

“Yes, the opportunity is for us, a great thing.”

“I never liked school that much.”

The spokesdemon waved its claw dismissively. “You humans are spoiled. If you craved education and it was nearly impossible for you to obtain, you would not feel so.”

Buffy nodded. “Maybe.”

~*~

They set their plans in motion the very next night. The gangsters who made the collections were isolated and robbed systematically. It made their leader furious. At first, he thought some of his own boys were holding back on him, but when the same thing happened over and over, he began wondering. Who had opposed his rule of this town since he moved in? Only that stupid British shopkeeper and his friends. Maybe it was time to pay them a visit.

Giles happened to be changing the display in the front window when he saw the car pull up. He didn't recognize the men who got out, but he recognized their type. If he wasn't very much mistaken, the gangsters were about to enact another bit of drama for his benefit.

“Buffy?” He called.

She came out of the training room curiously. He tipped his head at the car. She sighed. “It would be a lot quicker if we just killed them.”

“No doubt. It might still come to that.”

He walked behind the counter and Buffy placed herself at the table while the gangsters entered the shop.

“Mr. Giles, right?”

“I'm afraid you have the advantage of me, sir.”

“Petrus Turabian.”

“Ah, the local mob boss.”

“I prefer to think of myself as a man of business.”

“I'm sure you do.”

“Let's get to the point, Mr. Giles. Somebody has been robbing my collection boys. I want it stopped.”

“What on earth makes you think I have anything to do with it?”

“You're the only resistance we've run across in this town.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Believe it, Mr. Giles. I think you're responsible for my losses in this town. It's going to stop, is that understood?”

“We will not be taken over by your mob affiliations,” Giles told him quietly. “You must leave Sunnydale and never return.”

“I see we're having a communication problem,” the mobster replied. He gestured to his men who pulled guns.

Giles didn't move. He wasn't afraid of the guns because the spells he had cast wouldn't allow them to fire within a twenty-foot radius of his shop, but he did want to see what happened next.

The gangster gestured to one of his cronies who handed him a baseball bat. “Now, you're going to see what the price is for getting in my way, Mr. Giles.”

He stepped closer and swung the bat at Giles right knee. Before any of the humans could move, Buffy jumped forward and cracked the bat in half with a sharp kick of her booted foot. She followed it up with a spin jump that landed her heel against the Boss's jaw. He went down like a stack of dominoes. His boys tried to fire their guns, but they simply clicked harmlessly.

Giles mobilized himself and chopped the gun out of one thugs hand before knocking him unconscious. Buffy dropped the other with a fist to his temple. Only the driver was left standing. He tried to back out of the shop but Buffy decided to bring this episode to a close. She knocked him out with a blow to the back of his neck.

They gathered the unconscious bodies up and dumped them in the back room, tying them securely. Buffy searched Turabian's body and found his keys. It didn't take her long to contact Willow and Xander and the three of them went to the mobster's offices looking for evidence to use against him. Next, they placed an anonymous call to the FBI explaining that they had stumbled upon some information about mob activities in Sunnydale and could they please send somebody to the address Buffy gave them. She stayed out of sight till they showed up less than an hour later.

In a matter of minutes, the entire area had been sealed off with crime scene tape. She smiled happily as she walked back to the shop. The Gangster problem in Sunnydale was nearly solved.

Giles had drawn a large circle in the training room and had been embellishing it with arcane symbols. When it was done, the crooks were dumped inside it. He closed the circle. After the evocation, he read the compulsion spell that they had decided to use on the group. They would go to the police station and turn themselves in. They would make complete confessions of any crime they had ever done, implicating as many of their cronies as possible. The spell would gradually wear away after five or so years, Giles told Buffy, but in the mean time, they would spill everything they knew. He cast an additional spell that removed their memories of visiting the Magic Box, or of ever having heard of Rupert Giles. He smiled tiredly. It was enough.

Later that night, the Demons had been dismissed from service and Joyce had been called to say it was safe to come home. Buffy and Giles sat tiredly on his couch, his arm over her shoulders. Strangely, they had found some shredded camouflage garments in her basement. The Fyarl said somebody had broken into the house. It had eaten him. Buffy had a sneaking suspicion to whom those cammies had belonged, but said nothing. She would miss him and wouldn't have wished this on him for the world, but Riley should have listened to her when she told him it was over.

“Well, we saved Sunnydale again,” she said with a yawn.

“Yes, everything worked out fairly well, didn't it?”

“We didn't tell mom that I was going to continue to live with you,” Buffy said fairly.

“Since I'd just avoided having my kneecaps broken, I was very hesitant to step into another situation where that might be the eventual outcome.”

Buffy chuckled. “Mom wouldn't break your kneecaps, silly. She'd gut you like a trout!”

“Ah, was that meant to be comforting? Because I'm finding it strangely foreboding, myself.”

“Don't worry about it, Rupert. She'll get over it.”

He looked down at his love. “Buffy, there are many, many things your mum might get over, but I don't believe that you and I falling in love with each other is one of them.”

“Really? I think she'll forgive you when you put her first grandchild in her arms.”

There was a moment of silence. “Grandchild?”

“I thought we might as well go for the whole Magilla, here.”

“Buffy, dearest, are you sure?”

She looked up at him. “Aren't we forever, Giles? I love you so much. I want every minute of my time with you to count.”

“We are forever. I just, just never thought of the ramifications, beyond holding you in my arms.”

“Well, I hate to break this to you, Giles, but I'd like a little more than just holding.”

He grinned down at her wolfishly. “I think that might be arranged.” He stood and pulled her up off the couch, swinging her lightly into his arms. “Why don't we go to bed and see if anything occurs to us.”

She laughed and let him carry her into her future.

END