Title: Bad Moon Rising 1/? (NC-17)
Author: TweedEmpress
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Giles/Jenny
Genre: Action/Romance
Summary: Set during ‘Ted’ and beyond. Giles and Jenny are working on their relationship – but something is coming that threatens the future of the whole of Sunnydale.
Timeline: Season Two, spoilers up to ‘Passion’
Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with BtVS (unfortunately). Some dialogue is lifted from ‘Passion’. Any original characters and ideas are mine.
Distribution: FanFiction.Net, ODD, Mystic Muse, Ms Calendar’s Group Site
Notes: Thank you so much, Riley and Katherine for doing such an amazing job at beta-ing.
Dedication: To Anne, for all her hard work on our site and giving us a beautiful new home for all our fic!

‘I’m just-’

‘Worried. I know.’

There was a moment’s pause and then the shutters came down in his eyes.

‘I shouldn’t have bothered you,’ Giles said stiffly and walked away, hands shoved in his pockets, an air of defeat in his posture.

Jenny let out a frustrated breath, dying a little inside. Part of her was desperately crying out to run after him, throw her arms around him and tell him it didn’t matter. But the other, more stubborn part, was resolutely forcing her to stay where she was. Three weeks of staying out of mortal danger. Three weeks of uneasy sleep. And three weeks of misery. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt quite so lonely and the only person she knew she could have talkedto about it was the one person she definitely couldn’t talk to.

‘Damn it,’ Jenny muttered under her breath.

She was still too angry with Giles.

‘Angry? Who are you kidding?’

She felt…cheap. Small. He didn’t deserve to be spoken to like that.

But he had lied to her.

‘When did he lie?’ that annoying voice in her head continued.

Okay, so he hadn’t exactly lied. He’d withheld.

Jenny grabbed a handful of disks, papers and files and shoved them into her bag.

He had withheld and it had almost got her killed. Because, of course, “when I was much younger and much stupider I raised a psychotic demon which killed one of my friends” is always a great conversation-opener. Jenny leaned against her desk for a moment, gazing sightlessly into the distance. Giles was, probably, the most responsible person she had ever met in her life. He must have truly believed that the demon would never re-appear: he would never risk anyone’s life unnecessarily, let alone the people he cared about. And he cared about her.If only he had trusted her enough to tell her about it before all of this…

‘It wouldn’t have made any difference. And, of course, you don’t keep secrets, do you, Janna?’

Jenny groaned audibly and pushed herself away from the desk. She didn’t want to think about this anymore. And she certainly didn’t want to confront the turmoil of emotions that erupted in her every time she thought about Rupert Giles. Except that she thought about him all the time.

‘I’ll think about something else. I’ll think about Oprah.’

‘You hate Oprah.’

‘Shut-up. Great. Now I’m having arguments with myself.’

Jenny locked the door to her classroom, barely noticing the occasional ‘Hi’ from the few students she passed. All the way through the corridors and outinto the parking lot, she forced herself to think about something innocuous – something that had nothing to do with vampires, demons or handsome Englishman. It was an automatic reflex, but she scanned the parking lot and saw Giles’ battered Citroen standing, defiantly, in Snyder’s allocated space. Jenny wrenched her car-door open and tossed her bag onto the backseat. She slid into the driver’s seat, slamming the door behind her and for a moment, thetiny car rocked with the force. Her hands gripped the wheel, but she made no move to start the car. Instead, she sat, motionless, and then slowly lowered her head until her forehead was resting against the wheel. For the first time in the three weeks, Jenny couldn’t stop the sobs from rising and she wept, her entire body shaking.

‘Jenny?’

She started slightly, jolted out of her reverie at the sound of her name and looked up at the tall blonde standing over her.

‘Hey, Kira. Thanks for coming.’

Kira slid into the booth opposite her friend, taking in Jenny’s red eyes and puffy cheeks, and frowned.

‘You look like hell.’

Jenny made a face at her. ‘Gee, thanks. I feel so much better now.’

‘You’ve been crying,’ Kira stated. That worried her: Jenny wasn’t the type to burst into tears, so this had to be bad. And that just made her feel even more worried.

‘Crying? Uh-huh. And then I took one look at myself in the mirror, attempted to re-apply my make up and accidentally poked myself in the eye with the mascara-wand. At that point, I gave up.’ She smiled wryly. ‘I know, I look a mess.’

Awaiter placed two cups of coffee on the table and withdrew.

Jenny took a sip, watching as her friend raked long, acid-green nails through her hair.

‘Doesn’t your company mind your…avant-garde…dress sense?’

‘Nah. They wouldn’t care if I went in naked, as long as the accounts got done!’

The two women exchanged a look and then laughed. The laughter faded as Kira took another look at the woman opposite her.

‘What’s wrong, Jenny? You’ve been out of it for weeks.’ There was no trace of humour in her voice now, and her blue eyes were piercing.

Jenny squirmed – she had phoned Kira, desperate for someone to talk to. Butnow that they were face to face, she didn’t know what to say. The moments dragged by and Kira sighed impatiently.

‘Look, Jenny, if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay. But it’s obvious that you need…something. I just wish that you’d let someone help you.’

‘I know. It’s just-’ Jenny raised her dark eyes. ‘It’s just that it isn’t that easy to talk about. There are other people involved and…’

‘There’s a man in this somewhere.’ Kira leaned back against the banquette. ‘Don’t try denying it! There’s always a man in it,’ she finished darkly.

Jenny closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

‘Yes, there is someone, and he’s…’ she trailed off, opening hereyes. ‘Well, he’s kinda hard to describe.’

‘Try.’

Jenny glowered at Kira, but she simply folded her arms, coolly returning her friend’s glare.

‘He’s complicated,’ Jenny admitted, giving in. ‘He’s intelligent, kind, compassionate…sexy, in an up tight kinda way,’ a soft smile spread over her face. ‘Although, he’s not actually as up tight as he seems at first. And there’s darkness there as well. He can be dangerous, but it’s like he’sa better person because of it.’

Kira raised her eyebrows. ‘You want my opinion? Sounds like you got it bad, girl!’

Jenny groaned.

‘Of course, if you don’t want him, you can always give me his number.’ Kira grinned wickedly. I’ll comfort him for you.’

‘That doesn’t even begin to be funny.’

Kira finished her coffee, scooping out the foam at the bottom of the cup with her spoon. She had a pretty good idea who it was that Jenny was talking about. There was, obviously, more to high-school librarians than one would have guessed.

‘Okay, so you feel a lot for him. What did he do that was so bad?’

Jenny fiddled with her cup. ‘It wasn’t something he did, exactly,’ she replied, evasively. ‘It was more something he didn’t do. I think. And I’ve just been really angry with him. Only, I’m not sure if I really am angry with him, or if I’m just using that as an excuse not to get involved with something that’s so… complicated.’ She shook her head. ‘And then I behaved like a real bitch and now I don’t know what to do.’

Kira leaned on the table, her chin resting on her clasped hands, watching her.

‘It scares me,’ Jenny said softly.

‘What does?’

‘These feelings. They’re so strong: I didn’t realise how strong until that de- Until this thing happened. I’ve always been in control of my feelings and now… Now I’m out of control. And I know that if I let myself fall for him – I mean really fall – that would be it, there’d never be anyone else.’

She ran her hands through her hair and stared, wearily, out of the window. Kira reached across the table and took hold of her friend’s wrist, giving it a sympathetic squeeze.

‘Well, I still have no idea what’s going on here, but I do know one thing. Youneed to figure out what you want, Jen. And I think you have to do it pretty fast.’

Pretty fast. Jenny stared into her empty cup. She had the whole weekend to think about things. That would have to be fast enough.

The weekend passed and then a few more days before Jenny finally reached a decision. She would have spoken to him earlier, but Giles had suddenly become difficult to pin down: every time she saw him, he would give her a slight smile and then promptly vanish. His elusiveness only made Jenny more determined and on this particular morning, she had decided that they would have a proper talk. She pushed open the door to the staff room and paused on the threshold: the room was buzzing. It was always fairly lively, but this particular morning, there was an extra…something in the air. In fact, the whole school seemed to be in the grip of an irresistible force. The hallways were crammed with groups of whispering teens who looked even more furtive than usual. Jenny checked her in-tray, cast an eye over the official memo that was there before tossing it back and then turned, only to find Snyder right behind her. Jenny’s heart sank – she had a feeling that the day was only going to go downhill from here.

‘So, what do you think of our latest case of juvenile delinquency?’ He hadan exceptionally infuriating smirk on his face and his voice grated on Jenny’s already over-wrought nerves.

‘Huh?’ It was the only response she felt capable of.

An expression of almost manic delight appeared in his eyes. ‘Buffy Summers.’

And the day hit rock bottom. Jenny froze, hardly able to breath. Had the petite Slayer finally met her match? One Vampire too many? Her stomach lurched suddenly. What would that do to Rupert? Losing the girl he had devoted his life to…

‘Apparently she killed her mother’s boyfriend last night.’

‘What? Oh, Goddess, thank you!’

It was Snyder’s turn to look appalled. ‘What?’

‘Oh, er, I mean – it’s good that Buffy wasn’t hurt. Was she?’

‘A demon, it must have been a demon. Oh, her poor mother…’

‘No, she wasn’t.’ Snyder looked almost disappointed as he said it. ‘The police are talking to all members of staff.’ His smirk returned and he looked Jenny up and down. ‘Our esteemed librarian seems…unaccountably upset by the news…’

He let the words hang in the air, waiting for her reaction.

Jenny bristled and fought back the urge to punch him.

‘If only you knew what he really is, you pathetic little f-’

‘I’m sure that we’re all upset,’ she replied stiffly. ‘I have to get to class.’

She pushed past him, leaving the staff-room as quickly as she could without actually running. Her first class wasn’t for another hour, but she needed the refuge of her empty classroom.

For most of the day, Jenny had felt like a sleepwalker. Her classes had come and gone and she found that she was the most popular teacher of the day due to the fact that hadn’t set anyone any homework. She just couldn’t be bothered. All day her thoughts had been a few corridors away, in the library…

Jenny had caught a glimpse of him earlier. Giles looked, as ever, immaculate and it was only the lines around his eyes that betrayed his anxiety. And she had seen Buffy – the girl seemed to have had all of the spark knocked out of her. This was not, perhaps, the best time to talk to him. His first concern would be Buffy. Although…

Jenny dismissed her class absently and leaned against her desk. Although, that might be the best excuse to see him. She could drop into the library and ask how Buffy was, what had happened last night and, depending on how the conversation went, she could tell him what she wanted to say. Jenny almost groaned when her extra-curricular tutorial class trooped in and slumped despondently in front of assorted computers. She had forgotten about them.

‘Okay. It’s another two hours to work out your speech.’

Jenny pasted a smile on her face and attempted to attract her pupils’ attention. It was going to be a long two hours.

Jenny checked her reflection in her mirror one more time: if she was going to do this, she may as well look her best. She gave her hair a final tweak and then putthe mirror back in her bag, switched off the lights and made her way through the now deserted corridors.

‘Rupert, I heard what happened to Buffy. Is she okay? Yeah, that’s about as good an opening as we’re going to get.’

The library doors had never looked so forbidding. Jenny took a deep breath, pushed them open…and stopped. Complete darkness. She blew out a disgusted breath, her shoulders slumping – of all the nights in the year Giles had chosen not to be in the library, it had to be now. She turned sharply, throwing the doors open, and heard a high-pitched yelp from the other side. Jenny gazed wildly about and came face-to-face with a very startled Cordelia Chase.

‘Oh, it’s you,’ the girl said unceremoniously, one hand over her heart. ‘You gave me a fright.’

‘Sorry. You’re here very late, Cordelia. Is everything all right?’

‘Yeah, we’re just working on some stuff in the science lab. Y’know, weird stuff.’

Jenny nodded, wondering if what they were working on could be any weirder than Cordelia choosing to spend time with the Scooby-gang voluntarily.

‘Is, er, is Mr Giles with you?’

Cordelia shook her head. ‘No, he’s out patrolling. Buffy’s not up to it, so we’ve got the Slayer-in-Tweed instead.’

‘He’s patrolling? By himself?’

Cordelia held up a hand defensively. ‘Hey, I offered to go with him, but Gilesdidn’t want any help! He’ll be okay,’ she added softly.

Jenny raised an eyebrow incredulously. ‘You offered?’

Aflush spread up Cordelia’s cheeks. ‘What, only Buffy gets to care about him?’

They stared at each other for a few moments.

‘Of course not, Cordelia, I’m sorry. I-I should get going. Good luck with…whatever it is.’

Jenny started to walk away from the library.

‘Ms Calendar?’

She turned: Cordelia was still standing in the same place.

‘Are you going to give him another chance?’ she asked bluntly.

Jenny’s eyes widened, but before she could reply, Cordelia continued.

‘Y’know, if I had a guy like Giles, I wouldn’t give him up so easily.’

Cordelia turned, her dark hair gleaming under the dim lights and Jenny watched her tall figure move down the corridor, thoughtfully.

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