Title: Slayer Central chapter 12
Author: Gileswench
Contact: gileswench@yahoo.com
Feedback: Constructive criticism always welcome. Praise abjectly sought.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Joss, Mutant Enemy, etc., etc., etc. I just let them have all the fun Joss won't. I own nothing except my twisted mind which you really don't want. Please don't sue.



Giles had barely gotten settled into his makeshift bed on the sofa when the front doorbell rang insistently.

He swore quietly under his breath as he reached for his robe. The bell rang again as he pulled it over his shoulders and tied the belt loosely.

"Just a moment!"

He fumbled for his glasses and tried to smooth his hair as he padded to the door in bare feet.

The bell rang yet again.

With a furious glare, Giles yanked the door open only to find himself face to face with Ms. Pennington just as her finger pressed the doorbell for the fourth time.

"What in heaven's name do you want at this hour?" he demanded.

"The same thing I want at any other hour, Mr. Giles: to determine whether yours is a real marriage or not."

She barged in and looked around.

"Who's sleeping on the couch?"

Giles pulled off his glasses and began to massage the bridge of his nose. He winced when his black eye throbbed.

"Actually, I am. I-it's just for tonight, you understand..."

"Of course it is, Mr. Giles" she replied in a voice that implied she would sooner believe in flying pigs. "If we could just go to your room...?"

With a sigh, Giles led the way.

"I must ask you to keep this short, Ms. Pennington. My wife has been quite ill, and she needs her rest."

"I know. She owes me a pair of shoes."

Giles decided not to ask what she meant. He had a feeling he knew.

As he eased the door open, Giles gave an inward groan. He suddenly realized how it would look to Ms. Pennington that Buffy and Crystal were sharing a bed. What's more, he could see in the light from the hall that streamed over said bed that Buffy had rolled to her side and draped an arm protectively across Crystal's swollen belly as she slept.

While neither girl woke, they stirred slightly and pulled closer to one another in their sleep. Ms. Pennington raised her eyebrow and wrote something in her notebook. Giles could almost hear the flight attendant announcing his plane's arrival at Heathrow.

*****

Cordelia lay in bed, eyes wide open. Wesley loved her. She felt she'd been waiting an eternity to hear him say the words.

So why hadn't she said them back?

"Nice one, Cordy!" she sighed to herself. "You just clam up and don't say anything when the guy of your oh so Hellmouthy dreams actually admits that he loves you. What is my problem? And why the hell am I talking to myself? If I'd just said 'me too' I could have had someone else to talk to tonight."

She wondered idly if Wesley was talking the whole thing out with Angel.

No, she decided. Neither one of them was enough of a girly-man to do that.

*****

"She didn't say anything? Nothing at all?"

"Not a single syllable."

"Okay, when you say not a single syllable, that means she used....big words, right, Wes?"

"When I say not a single syllable, I mean precisely that, Angel. Not a word, not a sound passed her lips."

Wesley took a swig from the bottle he and Angel were passing.

"I don't get it. She loves you; I know she does."

"I'm glad one of us knows that. I don't, nor, apparently, does Cordelia. I'm such a fool."

"Come on, Wes. You know four languages. You're not a fool."

Angel took the bottle from Wesley.

"I am when it comes to love. Hopeless. I'm completely hopeless where women are concerned."

Angel turned the bottle upside down and shook it. It was still empty.

"Great. Now we're out of cranberry juice."

*****

"I-I can explain this...." Giles began.

"So can I, Mr. Giles. I must admit, I never expected to find that you were trying to fool the government by marrying a lesbian. And it was incredibly stupid to try the story that she's pregnant. We don't just disappear because a couple says they have a baby on the way. What were you going to do? Use her lover's baby as yours? It wouldn't have worked."

"That isn't her lover! That's her stepmother."

"Stepmother? Please, Mr. Giles, if you're going to use such obvious lies you'll be deported inside of a week. You could at least try to make my job a challenge."

"I'm not lying. We have a somewhat....unusual family situation, I'll admit...."

Buffy stirred and muttered something in her sleep. Giles looked hard at her, all thought of Ms. Pennington gone. In seconds he was at her side, listening intently as she murmured again.

Mr. Giles..."

He held up a hand to signal for quiet. Buffy, however, had stilled. Giles waited for some seconds before reluctantly rising. Just as he got to his feet, Crystal moaned loudly and lashed out with her hands at some unseen threat.

"No! You can't have her! You can't have her!"

Giles moved to still the thrashing girl as Buffy awoke.

"It's okay, Crystal. It's only me, Rupert. Nobody is going to hurt you."

Crystal continued to writhe in her sleep until Buffy reached out and took her hand.

"Crystal, wake up. It's going to be okay."

The girl's eyes flew open and she turned to Buffy as she dissolved into tears. Buffy took her stepmother in her arms.

"I couldn't stop them! They took her!"

"It's okay, Crystal. It was just a bad dream. Mom's fine...or she will be tomorrow," Buffy assured her. "Rupert, could you get Crystal some hot chocolate or something?"

"Of course, luv."

He leaned over and kissed her brow for Ms. Pennington's benefit as Buffy continued to rub Crystal's back comfortingly. He was out of the room and halfway down the stairs before something hit him.

Crystal hadn't said anything about Joyce.

How did Buffy know that was who Crystal had been dreaming about?

*****

For the third night running, Cordelia found herself in the kitchen in the middle of the night making cocoa.

"This is getting to be a bad habit. If I don't stop this soon, I'm so going to break out," she mused as she poured the milk into her mug and stirred the chocolate in. "And it's all Wesley's fault. It is," she muttered.

She sighed as she walked to the table and sat down. Even she couldn't make herself believe that last one.

"It's all my fault. I screwed up and now I've probably lost him for good. Nice job, Cordy!"

"I wouldn't say that at all," came a mild voice from the doorway.

"Wesley? How long have you been there?"

The Englishman settled his long frame into the chair next to hers.

"Long enough."

The silence lengthened uncomfortably as the two regarded one another with wary longing.

"I ran out of cranberry juice," Wesley started. "I had no idea you were down here."

Cordelia pushed the cocoa away.

"I couldn't sleep. Do you really like cranberry juice?"

"One of the many things I have grown to love in this country."

"Don't. Just don't."

"Don't what, Cordelia?"

The girl pushed her chair back and stood.

"Why did you have to go and say it?" she blurted out. "We were fine before. No strings, no style-cramping...then you have to go and say it."

"We weren't fine before. In fact, we weren't speaking. I had to say it because it's true. I love you, Cordelia. I am in love with you. I want to be with you always. Will you please tell me what's so terrible about love?"

"You just don't get it, do you? God, you can't do this to me!"

"Do what? Love you? Want to care for you? I'm sorry, but I do love you, and I do want to be with you. I want to make you happy. Can't you accept that?"

"No, I can't! I can't take that from you. Don't you get it?"

"Get what? Cordelia, you're not making sense."

"I can't depend on you. I can't...accept this."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because I can't lose you, dammit! Love hurts me. I won't let you hurt me."

"Hurt you? Why on Earth would I hurt you?"

"Duh! That's what love is all about."

"I hardly think..."

"No. You know I'm right. Xander was with me and all the while he was thinking of Willow. And then there was Wilson Christopher...he used me even worse. So you tell me, what does not hurting have to do with love?"

Wesley sat frozen as Cordelia swept out of the room in tears. He barely noticed Giles coming through the door.

"Still up, Wes? Take it from me, a concussion heals faster with some sleep. I just came to make some cocoa for Crystal. She's having a bad night, too."

"Here. It hasn't been touched."

Wesley slid Cordelia's abandoned chocolate to Giles.

"Are you certain you're alright, Wes?"

"No. But I think I know how to get better now."


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