Title: Slayer Central chapter 29
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 knocked back his whiskey and refilled the glass. He began to wonder why he didn't just drink straight from the bloody bottle. It wasn't as if he planned to leave anything in it.

Placing his glass on the table, he pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. It was all he could do to hold back his tears.

The rest he could deal with in a sober and rational manner, as everyone expected of him, if it wasn't for the feeling that he had somehow betrayed Buffy. He knew full well that he had done nothing to hurt her, but the impulse to simply molest the first willing man he could find was strong.

It wasn't even that he didn't want Buffy. Goodness knew he had made love to her both day and night with delight since the first time he'd been allowed. He adored her lithe, curvaceous body, her tiny, gentle hands, the wet warmth of her sex. Her voice was sweet to his ears, her joy in his body a wonder to him.

He didn't want to do anything that would shake her trust in him.

And yet, he wanted something she couldn't give him.

He poured another drink.

*****

"Yeah, harder! More! Oh God!"

Angel followed instructions, pumping furiously into the girl whose name he wasn't quite sure of. As he neared his climax, his demon face slid to the fore and he leaned over her back, unable to fully repress his desire.

He bit.

"Shit! You pervert! Get off me!"

He shook off the demon brow. By the time she'd pushed him off her back and turned to face him, his face was back to normal.

"Sorry. I got sorta carried away."

Julie - or perhaps Judy - touched her neck. She stared at her blood on her hand. Then at the blood on his lips.

"What kind of a freak are you?"

'I'm so sorry, Julie..."

The girl glared as she adjusted her clothes.

"My name is Josie," she ground out. "And you just stay away from me from now on. God, you're such a - a weirdo! I probably need a rabies shot now."

She turned and headed back to the club.

"Look, Josie, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me..."

Josie turned and smacked him in the chest. She didn't hit him hard, but part of him hurt anyway.

"Save it. I don't want to know how bad you feel and that you never did that before. I just want you gone."

She swept into the club.

Angel stood, dumbfounded for a moment.

"I never said I didn't do that before. I just didn't mean to this time."

Shaking from head to toe, he pulled up his pants and turned for home.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

*****

"What is it, Rupert? I could hear you brooding in my room."

Giles took another drink, ignoring Leo's voice.

The older man took a seat anyway. As he reached for the bottle, Giles pulled it closer to himself. Leo sighed and sat back.

"You won't be any use to her tomorrow if you get drunk tonight."

"I'm not drunk."

"But you will be if you keep up at the rate you're going. Just put the bottle away and I'll make you a cup of tea."

"Don't patronize me, Leo."

"Is it patronizing to try to keep you from wearing out your liver before that pretty wife of yours gives birth?"

Giles glared over the rims of his glasses.

"That was a bit below the belt."

Still, he slid the bottle across the table. Leo picked it up and put it in the cupboard before lighting the stove. As he pulled down a tin of tea and prepared the pot, he talked over his shoulder.

"Maybe it was, but you need to think about that now. You're going to be a father, Rupert. It would be one thing if you were single, or even if you and Buffy weren't expecting, but you have a child to consider. And since you were insane enough to marry a Slayer - and mind you, if I was a couple decades younger and just a little crazier than I am, I might have tried to compete with you - you have to be prepared for the fact that she has a very short life expectancy. You could well end up a single father in a year or two. I really don't want an orphan left on my doorstep. I see myself as much more of a surrogate grandfather than a legal guardian."

"What makes you think I'd trust you to raise my child?"

The two men shared a wry smile.

"You'd be pretty crazy to do that, I know. I guess that means you'd better start taking care of yourself."

"Don't lecture me. I'm quite capable of making my own decisions."

"And that's why I found you here in the middle of the night drinking like a fish just hours before Buffy takes one of the Council's tests. Feeling guilty about the last one?"

"Thank you so much for adding to my present miseries."

Giles sat in silence, staring at his hands as Leo poured the tea.

"You didn't have a choice, you know."

"No, I didn't. Still, I did it. I stuck a needle in her and took her strength, her confidence. I did it for days, and I lied to her. I very nearly let her die."

"And how many Watchers have let their Slayers die? Hundreds. Maybe even thousands. You saved Buffy."

"I became the enemy, Leo. I became what I had always feared and fought. A soulless thing with no passion or conscience."

Leo chuckled.

"Rupert, you couldn't ever become that. When are you going to understand that you're a hero?"

"Perhaps when I'm issued my leotard and cape. More likely, when I find a way to stop hurting Buffy."

*****

Harmony gave a sigh as she left Willy's Place. Angel hadn't shown up, and it was closing time.

"Men are such pigs," she muttered, kicking a crumpled can out of her way. "Sure, it's great at first, but then they get what they want and they're gone. No regrets, no goodbyes, no fabulous parting gifts. Just 'don't let the door hit your ass on the way out'."

"You're right," a voice in the shadows told her. "And, then again, you're wrong."

A tall man stepped into the light.

"Huh?"

The man chuckled.

"You remind me of someone I used to know. Come with me."

He turned, never looking to see if Harmony followed.

She did.

*****

"Don't start wallowing in self-pity again, Rupert. It's not an attractive habit."

"If you don't enjoy my company, you needn't stay."

"Aren't you forgetting one thing? This is my house. My kitchen. My...actually, I think this is your tea. Very good, by the way."

"Thank you."

"The point is, you're not doing yourself or Buffy any favors. Go back to bed. Get some sleep. Tomorrow's a new day with no mistakes in it yet."

"If you sit there quoting Anne of bloody Green Gables at me, I shall most likely spew."

Leo grinned.

"Wasn't sure you'd recognize it."

"I do have a sister, you know."

"Talked to her lately?"

"Shortly after Buffy and I were married."

Leo shook his head.

"Sometimes I just don't understand you. You're so...involved with these kids, but you never talk to your own family -"

"These kids, as you call them, are my family."

*****

Xander rubbed his eyes and looked around him.

"An?"

He remembered where he was.

"Giles?"

A small knock at the door captured his attention. He went to answer.

"Xander, come with me."

"It's okay, An. Giles went somewhere. Why don't you come in here?"

The girl practically leapt into the room and Xander's arms nearly simultaneously.

"I couldn't sleep with you not there."

"Funny, that's why I'm in here. I couldn't sleep without you, either."

He kissed her thoroughly, then pulled back with a puzzled expression.

"How did you know I was here?"

"I didn't. You weren't in our room, and I thought Giles might know where you were. Or maybe he'd let me stay here, since he doesn't have Buffy with him."

"What?! You were going to sleep with Giles?"

"Well, yes. What's...you thought I would have sex with him? Xander, I would never scorn you. I love you. I just didn't want to sleep alone."

The two melted into a passionate embrace. Neither noticed when the door opened and Giles gave a weary smile.

He shut the door and went downstairs to make himself as comfortable as he could on the sofa.

Honestly. Like rabbits, the pair of them.


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