Title: These Things Take Time
Author: Sweetdoggie (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: B/G
Rating: R
Summary: Buffy and Giles learn about patience and love in the aftermath of the Mayor.
Spoilers: season 3/4
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.
Giles took Buffy home after graduation. She was battered, sore, and exhausted and it was all she could do to figure out how to work the doorknob on her front door. She made it to the couch before collapsing. Giles suspected that she was asleep before her head touched the armrest. Even though he too was exhausted nearly beyond the bearing of it, he walked up her stairs and turned down her bed before returning to the couch and gently lifting his beloved Slayer in his arms.
Giles frowned as he picked her up. She was too light. She hadn’t felt like eating for quite a while, but it was dangerous for her weight to drop this much and he made a note to fatten her up a bit this summer. He carried her to her room and gently laid her on the bed, then removed her shoes and pulled the covers over her.
He wanted to watch her for a few minutes before he headed home, but the only seating in the room was an uncomfortable desk chair so he sat down on her bed and kicked his shoes off. Lying back against the pillows he thought about the events of the day. The mayor had ascended and Buffy had destroyed him, though in the process the school had been blown to pieces. They had lost both friends and enemies. Faith had died at the end of a flying bit of rebar that had shot from the explosion, skewering her through the heart in a strange parody of a vampire’s death. Perhaps a dozen other civilians had perished in the melee. Buffy had been horrified, but the death toll was so incredibly small that Giles felt only relief. Buffy had told him that Angel had gone and wouldn’t be returning as per their arrangement. The thought brought a smile to his face. Before he realized what was happening, his eyes had closed and his consciousness had departed to a well-deserved rest.
Buffy woke snuggled against something warm and soft. She made an ‘mmmm’ noise and scooted slightly closer to the source of this wonderful goodness. As she drifted between sleep and wakefulness, the thought struck her that she was sleeping next to somebody. Her eyes shot open. At first, all she could see was cloth. She raised her head and saw that she was sleeping in her Watcher’s arms—and that it felt very good.
She sat up and rubbed her eyes, then leaned back down and touched his hand. “Giles?”
His eyes shot open and he looked at her in confusion. “Buffy?”
He took in his surroundings. “Oh Good Lord!” He sat up abruptly. “Buffy, I am so terribly sorry! I just sat down on the bed for a moment to keep an eye on you and I must have drifted off to sleep.”
She patted his hand. “Chill, Big Guy! I slept better with you than I ever do alone. You’re way better than sleeping with Mr. Gordo.”
He looked confused. “Mr. Gordo?”
“My stuffed pig.”
Suddenly, the entire situation took on a ludicrous note. “Ah. Well, whilst I have, on occasion, been compared to the male chauvinist porcine population, I have never yet had my metal tested against the stuffed variety.”
Buffy wrinkled her brow while she worked out this sentence. “Who called you a male chauvinist pig?” She looked ready to slay them.
He smiled sweetly. “An ex-girlfriend from my college days.”
“Were you?”
“I don’t think so, but then, that’s rather the point, isn’t it?”
“You’ve never patronized me,” Buffy told him. “Well, except in that “I’m an adult and know best” sort of way. It wasn’t because you’re a man and I’m a woman.”
He looked at her, humor full in his gaze. “Thank you for that, I think.”
They both got up and Buffy let him have the bathroom first. She got out a change of clothing and waited patiently till he was finished. He had wet his hair and combed it back but he still looked a little scruffy from not shaving. It was very appealing. She grinned suddenly at a thought.
“What?”
“Oh, just thinking what Will and Xander would say if I told them we slept together.” She giggled.
He rolled his eyes, an art form that she had perfected. “I can practically hear the ‘eeeeuws’ from here.”
She smiled but looked thoughtful. “You know, it really isn’t like that at all. I wonder why I never thought of that before.”
“You’ve lost me, Buffy. What isn’t like what?”
“The idea of somebody being with you. It’s not ‘eeeeuw-worthy’ at all. I guess I just never noticed before that you’re a pretty darn good-looking guy, even if you are a little older. If we got some contemporary clothes for you, you’d be drop dead gorgeous.” She looked him over closely. “Geez, I must have been blind for two years.”
Giles blushed till he was the color of a ripe tomato. “I, I, that is, ah.”
She patted his arm. “It’s OK, Giles.”
He glared down at her with a look. “I am not so inarticulate as you think, Buffy. Thank you for the compliment. I was merely surprised for a moment, that’s all. You’ve never noticed I was a man before?”
“Well, sure. I mean, you know, guy and everything, but I never thought about you as a guy I could be attracted to before. Uh, I mean, um…” It was her turn to stammer.
He chuckled suddenly. “Quite all right, Buffy. You were much too young before.”
“I’m eighteen now,” she volunteered.
His eyebrows rose as he studied her. “Are you saying you’d be interested in that sort of a relationship with me now?”
She blushed rosily. “Well… well, maybe. I guess it would depend on how you feel about it.”
He paced around the room. “Buffy, if you start a relationship with me, it can’t be just a casual thing. It has to mean something. Could you make a commitment to me and mean it?”
She looked cautious. “How much of a commitment are we talking here?”
“You’ll be starting college in the fall. You will meet hundreds of handsome, young men who will want to date you, take you to parties, make love with you. If you are with me, you will have to forego all of that.”
“Not important, Giles.”
“Since when is going to parties something you consider not important? And I know you have a weakness for a pretty face and a nice body.”
She tipped her head sideways, considering his words. “Yes, I do. I admit it, but you meet those requirements too.”
“And parties?” he persisted.
“Do you know how many parties I’ve attended since I was Called?”
“Ah, no, I don’t.”
“I’m not counting family things that we do with the Scoobies or my mom, here, but I’ve been to two since I was fifteen. I don’t really think that makes me a party animal or anything, do you?”
“Only two?” he asked in disbelief.
“Frat party when I was sixteen. Nearly got eaten by a giant snake. Not my best time ever.” She folded down one of the two fingers she was holding up. “Zombie jamboree welcome back to the Hellmouth bash. Also not my funnest time.” She smiled wryly. “Me and parties are kinda unmixy things. You know that.”
“But, surely there have been other parties?”
“We could talk about my seventeenth birthday party—I got an arm in a box. It’s a nice accessory, but it didn’t really go with anything I had.”
“There were dates—I know there were.”
“Angel took me ice-skating once. It was beautiful till I had to behead an assassin with my skate. Let’s see. Oh, yeah. I tried to date Owen that time. The first night we had a mystical no-show that I had to be present for and the second—hmmm, I had to rescue my Watcher from hords of vamps in the morgue. I tried to go to a movie festival with Scott—you remember? The kid who dumped me right before the dance? That’s pretty much been it. Oh, no wait—there was that time the swim team tried to rape me—of course, they had already been turned into giant trout by that time, so maybe that doesn’t count. Face it, Giles. I can’t do normal dating. There will never be a nice boy who makes my heart sing because of what I am. I don’t have the right to bring a civilian into my life—that leaves guys that know the score—which right now means you and Xander. I’m not interested in Xander.”
“So you want to date me by default?”
“No, I want to date you because you are the best man I know. You care about me in a way that no other person on earth can do. You’re handsome, smart, kind and considerate. You don’t smoke or do drugs. You barely swear. I like your sense of humor. I like the way you think. You look darn good in a tux too.”
“It would mean a vast change in our relationship—in the dynamic of our group, as well.”
“Our group changes all the time anyhow. It looks like Xander is going to be dating that demon girl, Anya, now. My best girlfriend is dating a werewolf who’s in a band. Tell me that our relationship is stranger than either of those.”
He grinned suddenly. “I suppose I can’t deny that. If you compare these things, being a mere twenty years older than you seems rather mundane.”
“So, what do you think?”
He looked serious and slightly frightened. “I think, I think, I’d like to try,” he told her softly. “Will you let me kiss you?”
She grinned. “Kinda not really dating without it, Rupert.” Stepping up to him, she held out her hand.
He took it and pulled her gently into his arms. He simply gazed into her eyes for a moment before gently lowering his lips to hers. She didn’t know what to expect from him as a kisser, but he was gentle and playful, stroking her lips with his own before running his tongue lightly over her mouth, asking politely for entry.
He tasted her, delving into her mouth with a passion he had held in check since she had returned to him the previous summer. Buffy felt like she had been swept away. Never in a million years would she have believed that this man could make her feel this way. His hands slipped slowly from her shoulders to her back and hips, gently pressing her against him, letting her feel his hunger for her. By the time he released her mouth, she looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a very large truck.
“G, gosh!”
“What do you think, Buffy? Would we be good together?”
She looked at him sharply to see if he was kidding her. “Giles, I nearly spontaneously combusted! I think we’d be hotter than a forest fire.”
He chuckled. “If we have a relationship, it will not be without roadblocks. I can’t imagine your mother will be terribly happy about it.”
Buffy looked momentarily stubborn. “No, I don’t suppose she will. Not only doesn’t she care for you because you’re my Watcher, she has a lot of issues left over from the Band Candy incident. On top of that, she sort of equates older man, younger girl with what dad is doing and it really grates on her.”
“Will you tell her?”
“Eventually, but I think I’d like to date quietly for a while. We don’t have to advertise.”
“You don’t think she’ll notice?”
“How is she going to notice dating as opposed to Slaying? I’m gone every night for hours at a time. If some of those hours are spent on a date, who’s to say?”
“I’d rather not lie to your mum.”
She sighed. “Me too, but do you really think telling her is a serious option?”
“It would be the fair thing to do.”
“OK, how about this. Let’s just hang out this summer. We can spend more time together. Show affection for each other—more physical contact. I’ll bump my training up to two or three times per week. You can teach me some new stuff even. By the time fall comes around everybody will be used to us as a couple. You can even take me out for dinner or on field trips or something. It won’t look suspicious and it will give us time to get used to being together.”
He hesitated, knowing he should insist that they inform her mother, but dreading the inevitable backlash that would result. “All right. I suppose we could do that…for a while, at any rate. Would you like to go to breakfast with me this morning?”
She smiled happily. “Sure. We can celebrate our new relationship and the fact that Sunnydale is mayorless.”
“That is something to celebrate.” He rubbed his chin reflectively. “Do you think I should go home and shower first?”
She leaned over and sniffed him. “You do smell a little smoky, but it’s up to you. I like the beard.”
He grinned down at her. “You do? It’s appalling when it grows in, you know. Ginger colored.”
“Really? So you must have grown a beard before?”
“When I was in college I had one for several months. It was itchy and too much trouble, not to mention, I looked like an idiot.”
“Wow, Giles. That was actual shareage of personal information. Do you need to rest? It didn’t hurt, did it?”
“Very droll, I’m sure. Since when have I not shared information with you?”
She looked at him incredulously. “Since when… Giles, I’ve practically had to beat you to find out stuff about you. I don’t know any personal stuff except the stupid Eyghon crap. I wouldn’t even know your birthday if I hadn’t looked at your driver’s license.”
He looked surprised. “I suppose I haven’t been terribly forthcoming, but I didn’t think you would be interested.”
It was her turn to look surprised, then slightly ashamed. “If I was a good Slayer, I would have asked.”
“Buffy, you are the best Slayer a man could ask for. Trust me on this, I know what I’m talking about.”
“Well, then I should have been a better friend. We are friends, even if we never said and I’ve treated you badly. That’s changing as of right now, mister.”
She took him by his hand and led him to the front door. “You can drive us to your place, and tell me all about yourself on the way.”
He blushed but complied and began a simplified version of his life story for her. She looked at him occasionally with admiration in her gaze. “You’re fantastic, Giles! Such neat careers, it seems a shame you had to give them up to come to Sunnydale and be a librarian.”
“Well, other than helping to prevent the odd apocalypse or two, it’s been quite interesting.” He smiled at her.
“Seriously, Giles. I know you didn’t want to be a Watcher and you had all those great careers, Archaeologist, Curator, Scholar. You could name your job anywhere in the world and people would line up to hire you.”
“I’m your Watcher, Buffy. That is all the job I want or need.”
“I won’t live forever, Giles. You’ll be free someday.”
“You will live a long and happy life. It is my ultimate goal to see you accomplish that.”
She just patted his hand. “A nice idea, but not really practical.”
He pulled the car over to the side of the road and put it in park. Turning towards her, he grasped her shoulders and gave her a shake. “You will not die!”
She reached up and cupped his cheek in her hand. “If you say so, Giles. You are my Watcher and my friend and I believe you.”
He took her in his arms and simply held her against him. She breathed in the smoky scent of his jacket mixed with a smell that was all Giles.
Their plans for summer bonding went swimmingly. The Scoobies simply thought they were regaining some of the closeness that they had lost after the Cruciamentum and Joyce figured it was one last burst of childhood before college. Nobody bothered them or interfered and they grew closer than ever before.
The only fly in the ointment as far as Buffy was concerned was that the romantic angle of their relationship was moving with glacial slowness. True to his word, Giles touched her more frequently. He would hold her on his lap and would even kiss her, but that was where things were stalled. He wouldn’t make love to her or even get into a serious petting session with her. When she called him on it, he said that he didn’t feel right taking things further without her mother knowing.
“I don’t want what we share to be a tawdry affair based solely on sex, love. I’m trying to build a foundation for a future with you.”
“Giles, I appreciate that. I really do, but I don’t want to sacrifice the present for a future we might not get. I don’t just mean me dying either. Anything could happen to either of us. You could get hit by a car or die of pneumonia or something. If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a Slayer, it’s that life is precarious.”
He grinned. “Precarious?”
“I know that’s the right word so just stop yanking my chain on that!”
Giles was forced to laugh. “It is indeed the right word. It simply surprised me that you would choose to use it. It, ah, gave me a wiggins?”
She crossed her arms and looked at him sternly. “No, it did not, Smarty.”
“Ah, well, the day is young.”
She retaliated by pinning him to his couch and kissing him ruthlessly. They both looked very rumpled, clothing askew, lips reddened, hair mussed. Of course, it was at that moment that somebody knocked on the door to Giles’ apartment.
He sighed and got up to answer it.
Xander and Willow bounded into his apartment happily. “Hi! We came over to see if you two want to have a picnic! Sort of a last gasp celebration before school starts again.” Xander explained, oblivious.
Willow wasn’t quite so blind. She looked at their lips and clothing, at the extent of the whisker burn on Buffy’s neck and chin and started to blush as the implications hit home.
“Uh, we can see you’re busy, though. So, uh, come on, Xander. They’re busy and we have, uh, that thing we needed to do today.”
Xander turned to Willow and looked at her like she had suddenly acquired another head. “Huh? What are you talking about? We want to have a picnic with our buds. That was the plan.”
He looked at Buffy and Giles for an explanation and finally their condition began to sink in. Not having Willow’s tact, he let his jaw drop open.
“Were you guys, like, making out?” He sounded shocked and not a little disgusted. “Eeeeuw!”
Buffy gave him a glare. “What’s so eeeeuw about it, Xand?”
“Well, it’s you and Giles! You’re kissing the Librarian!”
“Yes, I was and let me tell you, it’s pretty great.”
“But, but…”
“But what? But he’s twenty years older? So what? But he’s my Watcher? Who better to love? Take a chill pill, Xand.”
“Buffy…I’m sorry but it’s wrong. Giles is like a father to you.”
“No, he’s not. He’s like a lover to me. Even when I was a kid, Giles never figured in as a father substitute.” She paused for a moment. “And let me interject something here: when the hell did it become your business to tell me who I can love?”
“I thought we were friends.”
“We are, but that doesn’t give you the right to veto my boyfriends. I haven’t said anything about you and Anya, have I? She’s eleven-freakin’-hundred years old. She’s killed, maimed, and tortured thousands of men. But because you’re suddenly getting sex on a regular basis, we’re just supposed to overlook that, right?”
“Hey! She’s human now!”
“Well, Giles has always been human.”
“Here now, you two. Settle down. Let’s sit down and talk this out. Xander is our dear friend, Buffy, and we shouldn’t simply ignore his feelings because they don’t jibe with ours.”
She looked sullen, but allowed Giles to pull her down on the couch. Xander sat in the chair across from them. Willow went to the kitchen and made tea. When she came back, she sat in the other chair after calmly pouring tea for all of them.
“All right, Xander. I’d like you to speak up and tell us why you think Buffy and I shouldn’t be together.” Giles was a very patient man.
“Because, well, it just seems wrong! Buffy should be with a young guy.”
“So, your sole objection is my age?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know. It throws off things in our group. It makes it weird.”
“You believe Buffy should be with a younger man and I should, what? Remain alone forever?”
Xander had the grace to look ashamed. “No! I don’t mean that. It’s just, I dunno.” He shrugged his shoulders.
“You do realize I do everything in my power to make Buffy happy, don’t you?”
“Of course. I mean, you love her. I understand that. I just don’t think you should, well, love her.”
“Xander, Giles makes me happy,” Buffy explained softly.
“He, he does?” Xander stammered slightly.
“I’m happier with him than I’ve ever been since being Called. Giles was made just for me and I was made just for him, Xand. We want you to understand and share our happiness. Can’t you give it a try?”
The young man looked between the two of them. They did look happy and, when he really examined them together, they looked right. It came to him suddenly that these two people did belong to each other in a way that almost nobody else on earth ever could. Suddenly, his reaction seemed childish and selfish. He gazed up at them both and softly told them he thought he could deal.
“I’m sorry, guys. I just wigged a little. Still friends?”
Giles got up and shook Xander’s hand and Buffy slipped her arms around the boy and hugged him. “Friends for life, Xander.”
Willow had been sitting quietly this entire time and finally decided to speak up. “I’m guessing you guys haven’t told Buffy’s mom yet.”
Giles sank back on the couch and Buffy let him wrap his arms around her and hold her tightly. “You have surmised correctly, Willow. We don’t actually know how to tell her without an adverse reaction. She doesn’t really care for me and still views Buffy as a child.”
“There’s got to be a way to make her accept you guys as a couple,” the redhead told them thoughtfully. “Now that I think about it, you guys have been spending an awful lot of time together. How is she handling that, Buffy?”
“She hasn’t said anything. But we’ve been very careful around her too. Nothing we’ve done in front of her would ever give our secret away.”
Willow looked at them speculatively. “I think you need to tell her. Don’t let her find out by accident. Use the “mature adult” approach and don’t lose your temper when she freaks on you. Listen to her and then explain how you feel. Um, I think I’d leave Giles at home for now.”
Buffy nodded reluctantly. She knew her mother was going to be angry. She’d be lucky if she still had a home when the final battle was fought. “OK, but when she throws me out of the house, just remember that this was your idea.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Buffy went home that evening full of trepidation. She resolved to face her mother and speak to her as an adult, but this entire conversation was going to be awkward and she was dreading it.
“Mom? You home?”
“I’m in the kitchen.”
Buffy walked into the kitchen and sat at the table. “Can I talk to you for a few minutes?”
“Of course, honey.” Joyce sat down at the table wondering what revelation was going to be forthcoming.
Buffy had tried planning this speech in her mind all day with very mixed results. “Um, well, the thing is, you aren’t going to like this very much, but you need to know about it. Giles and I…have grown closer over the summer.”
“Well, you have been spending an awful lot of time with him. It’s natural that you’d bond.”
“Yeah, it is. We love each other.”
“I know he means a lot to you, and it’s been pretty clear that he cares for you as well,” Joyce didn’t see where this conversation was going.
“Mom…we’re in love with each other.”
There was a minute of silence before Joyce spoke. “I’m sorry, I thought you said you were in love with Mr. Giles?”
“I did say that. I’ve loved him since I was sixteen and now that I’m finally old enough, we want to move on in our relationship.”
“Buffy, he’s too old for you. I know how easy it is to have a crush on an older man. I’m not condemning that. Mr. Giles is very attractive—in a creepy sort of way—but he isn’t the right man for you. You’re going to college soon and you’ll meet all sorts of suitable young men to date.”
“Mom, I could meet a thousand young men and they wouldn’t mean what Giles does to me. He completes me. It’s like for all my life I was just half a person—something was missing. Then, I met him and the other half of me started falling into place.”
“When I was just a very little bit older than you, I fell in love with a professor at my college. He was twenty years older than me. We had a fling that lasted all semester. I went home for the summer and when I came back he was just another old guy. I was really surprised. Here I’d thought he was my whole life and it was just gone, practically overnight. I understand the lure. He’s older, more sophisticated, smart; you don’t have to tell me, I know.”
“He also fights side by side with me. He’s saved my life countless times and I’ve saved his. I’ve bled on his couch while he sews me back together after battle. He knows what I am, who I am, in a way that no other person on earth can ever do. He’s my Watcher, my friend, my partner, my teacher and mentor; he’s also the man I love. I’d die for Rupert Giles, mom, and he’d die for me.”
“I won’t interfere, Buffy. I think this infatuation will run its course like mine did. You’re a bright girl and one day you’ll open your eyes and see that he’s just a middle-aged man trying to recapture his youth through you.” When Buffy started to protest, she held up her hand. “I’ll even concede that he probably doesn’t understand that’s what he’s doing. I don’t hate him, but I think he’s fed you a lot of information about this Slaying business that isn’t good for you. How do you know that all Slayers die young? He told you so. How do you know you can’t quit this life? He told you so. Do you see where I’m going with this? We only have his word that things are as he says they are. What if that’s just the, the company line?”
Buffy looked at her mom with a mix of pity and resignation. She knew she was getting off extremely lightly because of Joyce’s own college affair, but she also knew her mother was still living in a dream world where her daughter was a normal girl who had just fallen into bad company. When she finally met the end that all Slayers come to, her mother was going to be a basket case.
“Mom…I know you hate me being the Slayer but it’s what I am. Giles makes that better for me. Can you accept that? I don’t want to hide him like he was something I was ashamed of. We want to be able to hang out normally. If I was dating a boy my own age, I’d expect to bring him over for supper or to have him up in my room. Can you accept that?”
“What’s that expression you kids use? It gives me the wig? I’ll try to be OK with it, but please, not too many PDA’s around me? I’m open minded but not that much.”
“Thanks mom. Once you see what a great man he is, I think you’ll like him better.”
“I’d like to see more of what you call research.”
“We’re having a general research party at his place this weekend. You can come if you want. Everybody brings some food, your choice.”
“Thanks, I think I’ll just do that.”
The theme of the research party this week was spells. They would search through the texts till they found several spells that seemed like they might be useful for life on the Hellmouth. After the actual texts were found, they would research for detrimental side effects. Maybe all the spells would turn out to be useless, but the off chance was that at least one of them would add to their repertoire of defense. Spell research was actually Buffy’s least favorite type of activity, but it had been Willow’s turn to pick the subject and even though they all groaned, the results were sometimes helpful.
On Buffy’s advice, Joyce had stopped at the Burger Barn and purchased twenty of their cheap hamburgers. “But there’s only going to be seven of us researching. Isn’t twenty an awful lot?”
“No, that should be enough. We are having other stuff, after all.” Buffy was bringing a gigantic bag of cheese popcorn that was almost half her height.
When Joyce arrived, she found the Scoobies lolling around on the floor holding books. Giles was seated at his desk and Buffy had commandeered a chair next to him. The coffee table and the passthrough were literally covered in food and drink. Willow had supplied the canister of home-baked cookies, Anya had brought three kinds of chips, Xander had brought enough soda for an army, and Oz had brought hummus, which seemed to be some sort of inside joke to the kids. Even Rupert had laughed when he had unveiled the large bowl.
The former librarian had provided fruit and cheese which Buffy beelined for. She picked up a piece of cheese and told her mom to grab a plate. The Scoobies swarmed around the hamburgers and Joyce was surprised to find every single one had been consumed within ten minutes of her arrival.
Buffy seemed particularly fond of the cheese plate and Joyce commented that she hadn’t known her daughter liked cheese that much.
Without a thought, Buffy mentioned that it was probably a hold over from her time as a rat the previous year.
“What?”
The sounds of munching ceased as everyone realized Joyce didn’t know about that. Xander looked deeply embarrassed while he explained what had happened. Joyce turned to her daughter.
“You didn’t tell me you’d been turned into a rat!”
“Well, no. I got back to being a human and except for the cheese thing, I was all right.”
“Have you ever been turned into anything else?”
“No! Well, except for that Halloween thingy. But that wasn’t my fault.”
Joyce looked grim. “Tell me!”
They took turns explaining what had happened when Buffy had been turned into a vacuous fem of the eighteenth century.
“But it wasn’t all bad,” Buffy conceded. “Xander got tons of useful military knowledge out of it. In fact, if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have been able to kick the Judge’s ass, er.”
Voice trembling slightly, Joyce asked who was the Judge.
Giles took up the thread of the story and explained that entire situation. He took her glass of cola and topped it off with a good dollop of rum. She looked grateful for the bite of the alcohol and a few minutes later passed her empty glass back to him for a refill.
“I don’t know anything about your real life, do I?” she finally said to her daughter.
“It was to keep you safe and to give you some peace of mind. What good would knowing all this stuff have done for you at the time? You would just have worried. I wouldn’t have told you now, but you wanted to know.”
Giles came up behind Buffy and put his hand on her shoulder. “Buffy is the best Slayer the world has ever known, Mrs. Summers. She has faced master vampires, demons, hell hounds, an insane Slayer, dire prophecies and even death itself and it hasn’t stopped her.”
Buffy patted his hand. “Giles likes to brag on me, mom. He doesn’t tell you the thousand times he’s pulled our nuts out of the fire with his research and his knowledge. He doesn’t mention that I’m the first Slayer to have a family and friends; a team that fights evil. I couldn’t do this alone and I wouldn’t want to.”
The party broke up soon after that and Buffy took Joyce home, taking over the driving since her mom had been hitting the rum and cokes fairly heavily. It slowed her thought processes down, but unfortunately focused them on the fact that her baby girl was the Slayer, something that, while she understood the words, had managed to bypass her reality entirely.
Buffy helped her mom into the house and got her to her room. She laid out her mother’s night dress and helped her get into it before kissing her on the forehead.
“Night, mom. Sleep tight.”
Joyce woke the next morning feeling slightly hung over and almost as sleepy as when she had gone to bed. She showered and dragged herself downstairs where her daughter was seated on the couch sharpening a sword and watching Saturday morning cartoons. The tableau she presented graphically illustrated her daughter’s life.
Buffy turned around when she heard her mother behind her. “Hi, mom. How are you feeling this morning?”
“Moderately hung over, and very, very apologetic.”
“S’Ok. You didn’t do anything to be ashamed of. Well, except for that table dance wearing Giles’ lampshade.”
“Oh, ha, ha. That wasn’t what I meant. I’m sorry I didn’t understand about the Slaying. I know you told me, but to hear it from your friends…To hear normal people who just accept that this is the way things are, that monsters exist…it just blew me away.”
“Did you think I was making it all up?”
“No. I believed you before, but the reality of it didn’t sink in until last night.”
“Ah, as Giles would say, a Tiffany moment.”
“Tiffany?” Even allowing for her daughter’s divergent thought patterns didn’t get Joyce through that reference.
“Yeah. You know, when you have one of those moments when everything becomes clear?”
“Oh. I think that’s called an epiphany, honey.”
“Well, I did wonder why people would think of jewelry, but the world is a strange place.” Buffy shrugged.
Joyce realized that in Buffy’s world where reality and fantasy crossed willy-nilly, perhaps people did have Tiffany moments. The though generated a great deal of sympathy for her daughter who didn’t have the life experience to know the difference and might never get it because something would kill her before that.
“I’d really like to talk to your Mr. Giles, Buffy. I think I probably owe him an apology as well.”
Buffy got up and hugged her mom. “He won’t hold it against you. He never does with me and I do dumb stuff all the time.”
“Well, he’s not in love with me.”
“Do you think that makes a difference? Willow and Xander have done really stupid things…Anya too for that matter and he’s never held it against them once the initial yelling phase is over. Now, I have to go to the mall, but I’ll be back before lunch. Why don’t you call up Giles and have him over? If you feed him, he’s much easier to deal with.”
Both women laughed and Joyce agreed that was a good plan.
Joyce waited until her daughter had gone walking happily down the street before picking up the phone and dialing the former librarian.
“Rupert Giles here.”
“Mr. Giles? It’s Joyce Summers. I’d really like to talk to you privately and Buffy is away for the morning. She told me to invite you to lunch so, if you don’t have any firm plans?”
“Why, no. I don’t have anything too exciting on my daily agenda,” he said with some irony. Since the school had blown up he had been at loose ends except for the increased time he spent with his Slayer.
“Fine then. If you could come now, we would have plenty of time for a chat before my wayward girl comes home.”
“Give me twenty minutes.”
“All right. Bye.”
He arrived in good time and came bearing a Baskin Robbins Ice cream cake. It was chocolate cake with Praline filling, a favorite of both Buffy’s and his.
Joyce greeted him and took the cake to the kitchen. She offered him an assortment of beverages including hot tea.
“Tea would be lovely, thank you.”
They sat on the couch and Joyce drew up her courage. “I owe you an apology. I’ve already apologized to my daughter so now it’s your turn. Until last night, the reality of what you two do had never struck me. It was, as Buffy explained to me this morning, a Tiffany moment.”
Giles, long used to deciphering Buffy-speak, grinned. “Ah, you had an epiphany.”
“Yes, I did. You know, I thought about this for most of the night. I was opposed to you and Buffy getting together romantically. I thought she could find a normal young man and just somehow give up Slaying, but after last night…”
“You realized that Buffy will never have the experiences of a normal girl. That she doesn’t have the leisure to have a lover whom she would have to protect and shelter?” When Joyce looked like she would speak, he held his hand up to stop her. “Do you think it never occurred to me, or Buffy either, for that matter? She must live in the reality of demons and vampires, and of inevitably dying an early death. And yet, she tries so very hard to have a life outside of Slaying. It nearly breaks my heart. I can deny her nothing, you know.”
“She was such a happy child.”
“She has the heart of a lion,” Giles told her. “She glows with energy and vitality. The purity of her nature radiates from her. I wish you had the training to see her aura like I do. It’s like looking at the sun.”
“Aura?”
“It’s the life-force energy that surrounds every living thing. Most people hold it tight to them, a few souls shine, but Buffy? She pulsates with a force that rivals the brightest day. I’ve seen other Slayers and they all share this gift to some extent, but Buffy is special. If you compared her to the others, it would be like holding a match up to the sun. Her aura flows over her companions and draws them to her. Truthfully, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“What does it mean?”
“Who knows? My personal belief is that Buffy is destined for something very, very special indeed. You know that Angel fell deeply in love with her, but do you realize the implications? He was a vampire; a creature totally antithetical to Slayers. Yet he loved her and would have given his life for her.”
“But he had a soul. That makes a difference, right?”
“When he first came to us, he wanted to be left strictly out of our affairs except to drop off cryptic messages now and then. Within weeks, he was fighting at her side, her champion. I don’t believe his soul had anything to do with it. I think he was simply overpowered by her aura. It is my contention that any creature of evil, if exposed to her long enough, would fall under her power.”
“But when he became Angelus, he tried to kill her.”
“Did he? He had ample opportunity and he talked a big game, but I think he didn’t want to kill her—the rest of us, yes, in a heartbeat, but not her. Did you know before that final battle with him, she was able to make a deal with Spike? He is a direct descendent of Angelus and the Master and rivaled them for his wickedness, yet Buffy was somehow able to persuade him to aid her.”
“How?” Joyce leaned forward, fascinated.
“She made him protect me from Angelus’ worst torture. He was going to use a chain saw on me, you know. He would have hacked me to pieces, but Spike prevented that at Buffy’s command.”
“I didn’t believe her that night. She was so fierce. She killed a vampire right in front of me and then brought Spike into the house. They made up some lame story about being in a band together. She told me that Angelus had you but I didn’t understand what that meant. I owe you another apology just for that bit of stupidity.”
He waved his hand. “Not at all, Joyce. How many people have this world dumped on their laps and accept it immediately?”
“I blamed you for her running away that summer and I know that was wrong too. I just felt like I was losing her and I struck out at the person who seemed to be the focus for her weird behavior. I told her that if she walked out that door not to come back, that she wouldn’t be welcome. Can you imagine? I was and have been a total fool.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. I’m not a parent but I do know my own father was rather unforgiving of me, with much less cause than you had with Buffy.”
“You were naughty?”
“I was a terror. I was sullen and broody and a complete brat. I turned into a true juvenile delinquent. I actually had a criminal record when I was a minor.”
She looked at him in astonishment. Someone less likely to have been the type of person he described she couldn’t imagine.
He caught her glance and interpreted it correctly. He rolled up his sleeve and showed her the mark of Eyghon. After explaining the eventual outcome of that bit of lunacy, he told her about coming home and begging the Council for another chance. “It wasn’t, you see, that I wanted to be a Watcher even then. I never did. It was in the nature of a penance for my friend’s death. I never knew it would turn into the greatest reward of my entire life.”
“Because my daughter loves you?”
“Partly, but even if she didn’t love me romantically, if she only looked upon me as a friend, it would still be a gift. Just to be around her makes my life complete. I can’t really explain it to you. I live for her.”
Joyce took a shaky breath in the face of his devotion and love. “I think, I think my daughter might be the lucky one, Mr. Giles. To have you for a friend, a guide, and as a man to love. Yes, I’m sure of it. She is very lucky.”
He blushed shyly at her praise. “So, as Buffy would say, are we all right, then?”
She smiled back at him. “Yes, I think we are, Rupert. I think we are.”
They both looked up as the front door slammed. “Mom? I’m home. I got a great deal on a new pair of boots!” She skipped into the living room and saw her Watcher sitting there with her mother. “Whoa, deja-vu, family-mine. You guys aren’t scheduling out my entire life again, are you?”
They chuckled. “No, Buffy. We’ve reached an agreement. It occurred to both of us that we love you very deeply and we’ve decided to bury the hatchet, so to speak,” Joyce told her.
“Cool. Want to see my new boots?”
Giles fussed over the state of his carpeting. Tonight was special and he had wanted someone to come in and shampoo it for him but the carpet cleaners had cancelled at the last minute due to an unexpected “event.” He was furious with them. Realistically, he knew that Buffy wouldn’t give a damn about the state of his carpet but still; he had wanted things to be perfect. Tonight he intended to propose and, if things went well, take her to his bed for the first time. He needed the security that marriage would provide.
He was due to pick her up at her mum’s house in less than twenty minutes so he still had time for one last sweep through the flat. He checked his hair to make sure it wasn’t standing straight up and patted his pocket to check for the ring. Everything seemed to be in place. He had a five minute frantic search for his keys which had mysteriously disappeared from the table where he normally kept them. He found them at last in his trouser pocket. His hands were shaking by this time. Before exiting his flat he checked for his weapons: stake, cross, dagger, yes, all there. He reached one more time for the ring and didn’t feel it right away. He nearly fainted by the time he double checked and found it was in exactly the same place it had been five minutes earlier.
The trip to Buffy’s was uneventful. He drove at a steady twenty miles per hour, made sure he stopped ten feet back from all stop signs, and rigorously obeyed all traffic signals. Nothing was going to be allowed to ruin the evening.
He pulled into Buffy’s driveway, locked his car, and got out, carefully locking his keys inside. As the door closed and latched, he realized what he had done and stood there, swearing furiously at his stupidity.
Buffy walked out on the porch and watched him. “Giles? Do you need some help?”
“I’ve locked my bloody keys inside my bloody car!”
“I’ll get a hanger.”
Ten minutes later, she pushed the bent bit of metal over the lip of the window and pulled the lock up. It clicked and he was able to retrieve his keys. He was hot and frustrated and angry with himself. His nervousness had increased ten-fold and he wasn’t sure that he should follow through on his plans.
He helped Buffy into the car and took a deep breath to calm himself down. His driving was even more meticulous. Buffy could see he was in a mood and simply sighed. Something was bothering him and when he was ready, he’d tell her what it was. Now that they had finally resolved the issue of telling her mother, she was hoping he might agree to make love with her that night, but he was obviously cranky and upset about something so maybe she wouldn’t mention it after all.
Dinner was good; the wait staff attentive without being obtrusive, and the food was cooked to perfection. Buffy was having a great time, but Giles was sweating bullets. Finally, he could stand it no longer. Wiping his sweaty hands on his trousers, he stood up. At her questioning gaze he walked to her side and knelt on the floor beside her chair. He had worked out a very tender and moving speech days ago but now couldn’t remember a single word. He took her hand in his.
“Buffy, I l, l, love you. W, w, will you m, m, marry me?”
She smiled and patted the hand that held hers. “Yes. I will.”
He patted his pocket and found the ring which he pulled out of the box and managed to get on her finger without dropping it. She admired the bit of jewelry for a moment before pulling him into her arms and kissing the daylights out of him as he knelt on the floor.
They weren’t even aware of the other diners clapping softly. Giles got up with stars in his eyes. Buffy would be his at long last. He paid the bill and escorted her to his car. “Would you, um, would you care to go to my place for a cup of tea?”
She smiled to see him so painfully shy and realized yet again how very much she loved this brave and stalwart man before her. “Rupert, tea sounds wonderful.”
They arrived at his home by some mechanism he wasn’t even aware of. He wasn’t entirely sure he drove. It seemed to him that one minute he was handing her into his car and the next he was helping her out of it in front of his apartment. He didn’t think any time had passed at all.
Buffy hid a grin. He had been so focused on the drive that her several attempts at conversation had been ignored completely. She knew he hadn’t even heard her.
He unlocked the door to his flat and ushered her inside, taking her wrap and hanging it over the coat rack by the door. He stood, simply looking down at her, marveling at the perfection of her beauty and wondering how to make a move.
Buffy had mercy on him. Taking a step forward, she rested her hand on his shirt-front. “Rupert? Maybe we could save the tea for later?”
“Later?”
“Yes, for after you make love to me.”
He swept her into his arms and carried her to his loft. Giles peeled her clothes off reverently as if he were participating in a sacrament. As each bit of skin was bared, he rained kisses down upon it. His nervousness was completely gone and in its place was worship. It showed in his eyes as they feasted on her beauty. She tried to help him off with his own garments but he stilled her hands.
“Let me do this, beloved. I promise you’ll have a turn later.”
Giles removed his clothing and tossed it over the back of a chair. Though he dreaded the moment she saw his body, he knew that he couldn’t hide from her. When he finally stood naked before her, reluctant to meet her gaze, she touched his jaw with a soft hand and tipped his face up.
“You are the most beautiful man I have ever seen,” she said softly, running her ands over his body to illustrate her words. “Look at these shoulders, broad and muscled, warm.”
He gazed deeply into her eyes. “And scarred.”
“What, you think a few scars bother me? Marks of courage and valor, Rupert. You know what they say to me?”
He shook his head.
“They say, look at me, here’s the man who let himself be tortured so the world wouldn’t be pulled into hell.”
“I knew you’d come, you see. I had to hold on for you.” He gathered his courage. “I’m so much older than you, love. Forty years of gravity haven’t been all that kind to my poor old body.”
“You have a little tummy. I like it. It means you’re human, mortal, vulnerable. It’s sweet.”
“I thought it meant I was old and out of shape.”
“Giles, you train with a Slayer. You kill vampires on a regular basis. You fight like Bruce Lee. It doesn’t matter anyway. I love you. I see you with love’s eyes.”
“I’m not going to argue with you, dearest. I think you’re crazy, but I love you too much to try to make you see things as they are.”
“I see a man who loves me and who I love in return. What else is there?”
He was struck by the truth of her words. For them, that was all they needed. Stepping forward he took her in his arms and made love to her with a passion that took her breath away. As she gave herself up to the sensations he was creating in her, she had the passing thought that for all his shyness, he certainly knew what he was doing in this department. He claimed her as his own and left an indelible mark on her soul to show his possession. His one regret was that he could only love her four times before his body simply wouldn’t respond again.
Buffy was so sated that she couldn’t move. He pulled the covers over both of them and they fell into sleep as if they had been chloroformed. She woke once during the early morning hours to feel his arms around her. This was where she belonged. Listening to his heartbeat, she knew that she had finally come home.
When she woke again, he was gazing down at her with a look of smug satisfaction on his face. She rolled over so she could get a better view.
“Problem, Rupert?”
“Not at all. I just wanted to see you like this, so I could memorize it for all time.”
“You look pretty happy.”
“Why shouldn’t I be? I’ve waited for you for so long, and now you belong to me.”
“I think I’ve always belonged to you. For the first time ever, this feels right. I was thinking last night, I’ve come home at last.”
“That’s exactly how I felt. We belong to each other. We aren’t whole without the other person.”
“Yeah. I guess we had to grow into our feelings.”
“Well, these things take time, love. They take time.”
END