Title: Playing Doctor 2/2
Author: Gileswench
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.
Buffy awoke to a soft kiss. She reached up her arms around Giles' neck and kissed him back harder.
"Hey," she said by way of a greeting.
"Did you sleep well?" he asked.
"Mmmm...probably too well. You?"
"The same," he chuckled. "We may find ourselves descended upon at any moment."
"I guess," Buffy said. She frowned. "Would it really be that bad if we were?"
"If the others burst in on us while we're very incompletely dressed? I don't know about you, but my maiden modesty might never recover."
"Maiden my ass. Manly guy. But I guess you're right. I may not be hiding grown up stuff from Dawn anymore, but that doesn't mean I have to parade naked men in front of her. Especially my naked man." Buffy's eyes raked up and down Giles' body. "Who, I guess, is not so naked anymore. Okay, I'll put on some clothes, too, and meet you downstairs all decent and demure."
Giles gave her a hard kiss.
"I'll see you downstairs, Buffy."
He turned to leave.
"Giles?" Buffy called from the bed. He turned. "What do you want to tell the others?"
"What would you like to tell them?" he countered.
"Nothing just yet," Buffy said. "But it's not 'cause I'm ashamed or anything. It's just...it's so new. I want to keep it just ours for right now. Is that okay?"
"Yes, my dear. It's okay. For now."
"I promise it won't be long," she assured him. "I don't think this is the sort of secret I can keep any real length of time. Not now I finally got it right. Y'know, as in found the right guy and everything."
Giles blinked. His mouth worked but he couldn't seem to produce any sound at all.
"Whaddya know," Buffy grinned. "I made you go all speechless. What? Did you think that 'I love you' stuff was just for effect? I really do, Giles. I love you."
His smile was all the answer she needed.
"I'll, um...I'll be downstairs when you're dressed," he managed at last.
He leaned in for one last lingering kiss then headed out of the room. Buffy sat in bed with the covers held to her breast and a smile on her face for a long time. At last, she shook her head, threw off the covers, and began to dress. She couldn't help the peal of laughter that bubbled up inside her.
*****
Later that evening, Willow and Xander came over for a Scooby night. The group had decided that regular bonding was needed whenever everybody was in town. The girls were cooking while the guys argued over what movie to watch in the living room.
"It's too bad Dawnie had that sleepover," Willow said as she pulled the casserole from the oven. "It would have been nice to have more time with her before, y'know, Giles and me have to head back to England."
"But it's only for a little bit, right?" Buffy asked anxiously, pausing in her salad tossing duties. "You'll be back soon?"
"I miss you, too, Buff, but I have a lot to get through still before I come back full time."
"And Giles?"
Willow pulled down glasses from the cupboard as Buffy got drinks out of the refrigerator. The redhead frowned.
"What about Giles?" she asked.
"Well...I just meant...he was all Mr. Emergency Preparedness today. Earthquake safety drills won't do him much good all the way in Bath, will they? So, he must be coming back, right?"
"Sure, when I do," Willow soothed her friend. "And when I come home for good, I'll do my best to talk him into staying, too. But Buffy...he's got stuff in Bath, too. A nice house, friends, horses. He might want to stay there and just maybe visit once in a while. Or send letters, since he's old-fashioned guy." She turned to Buffy. "And you know...hey! Buffy! I think there's enough milk in that glass!"
Buffy swore under her breath but quit pouring. She dropped the milk carton on the counter as if it was on fire. Willow grabbed a wad of paper towels and began wiping up the mess.
"Sorry," the Slayer mumbled at last. "I didn't mean...I...Will, I'm not feeling so good. I think I'll skip dinner. You guys have fun without me."
She turned and hurried up the stairs to her bedroom, hurled herself on the bed, and sobbed.
*****
"For heaven's sake, Xander, I have no intention of sitting through Shallow Hal tonight," Giles snapped.
"Even for the toothsome Gwynyth Paltrow? Come on, Big Guy, I know you like her."
"Even good actresses occasionally make films you couldn't pay me to sit through. Why couldn't you have picked Shakespeare In Love?"
"Because the part you get off on isn't Gwynyth's boobs, but all that poetry stuff. You're a sick, sick man, Giles."
"On the contrary," Giles said. "I take a healthy interest in Gwynyth Paltrow's feminine charms. It's simply the combination of visual and intellectual stimulation I find most enticing. That and Viola's independence. I like a woman who isn't afraid to take a stand against convention no matter what the odds."
"Uh-huh..." Xander mused. "Y'know, I'm sensing a certain subtext here, Giles."
"Subtext?" he replied innocently as he rifled through the collection of videotapes on the shelf under the television as if he hadn't looked at them repeatedly in the past twenty minutes.
"Spill, Giles," Xander demanded. "You've got a girlfriend, haven't you? Maybe someone blonde and smart and a little on the sassy side, I'm thinking. She pining away for you back in England?"
"No," Giles said distractedly, "not precisely."
"Not precisely which?"
At that moment a blonde streak of Slayer raced by the men and up the stairs. Half a second later, a redheaded streak followed.
"Buffy?" Willow called when she got to her friend's door. "Buffy? Are you okay in there?"
Giles and Xander scrambled to their feet and up to the landing.
"What's up, Will?" Xander asked. "What's got Buffy so upset?"
"I don't know. We were just talking and suddenly..." Willow made a vague hand gesture and shrugged in defeat. "Poof! She was gone."
"Well what had you been saying?" Giles asked with the sort of polite tone that those who knew him best understood masked a frightening level of impatience.
"We were just talking about whether you'd come back when I do and...and...I sorta said...there might be a possibility that you...might not. Come back. 'Cause you've got a nice life there, y'know."
"Oh, nice one, Will," Xander said. "You haven't seen what she's been like waiting for Giles to visit. Sorry, Giles, but it's true. She's been crazy with the missing you."
Giles pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Perhaps I'd best speak to her," he said at last. "Please, wait for us downstairs."
Xander and Willow exchanged a guilty look and headed down the stairs. Giles waited until they had gone to knock on Buffy's door.
"Buffy? May I come in?"
He waited a moment. Just as he was about to make a second attempt, the door opened and Buffy looked up at him with a tear-stained face.
"Is it true? What Will said?"
"I can't know that until I know what she said, can I?" Giles answered reasonably. "And I think I'd prefer to hear that inside where we can speak more privately."
Buffy nodded and opened the door more fully so Giles could come in. When she shut the door behind him, she went and sat cross-legged on the bed with Mr. Gordo clutched in her hands. He sat beside her.
"So is it true?" she asked bluntly.
"Is what true? What am I being accused of?"
"Will said you won't want to come back. After. When she's finished getting better."
"Ah. And did Willow give you a reason why I would want to stay there when she returns here?"
Buffy picked disconsolately at Mr. Gordo's snout.
"She said you have a nice house and a bunch of horses and stuff. You never had that here. All you ever had was that dinky, funky apartment that didn't even have a door on the bedroom, and no pets at all. Let alone something cool like horses."
"The building didn't allow anything larger than fish. I prefer a pet that can remind me when I'm neglecting it."
"You're changing the subject," Buffy pointed out. "Is what Willow said true?"
Giles sighed.
"Yes, it is."
Buffy's lip trembled.
"Oh."
"It's true that I have a house and horses - just two - and many things I love in England."
"Oh," Buffy said, even more quietly. A tear trickled down her cheek.
Giles lifted her chin with large, strong, warm fingers.
"There are a great many things I love in England, Buffy. I've missed my homeland more than I can say. But there's one thing I love more than everything waiting for me in Bath, and that's you."
"Really?" Buffy sniffled. "You mean it?"
"With all my heart."
"So...you'll come back? When Will's all better?"
"Buffy, it would hardly have made sense to participate in an earthquake preparedness drill for a place I don't plan on living," he said with some asperity. "And I can't imagine why I would live here if I couldn't have you in my life."
"Will and Xander, maybe?"
"They weren't enough to keep me here the last time," he said bluntly. "And they weren't why I left again. You're the one I did it for. I love them all, but you, Buffy, you're mine and I'm yours. Exclusively."
"Watcher/Slayer?"
"Mentor/Student...though I wasn't always entirely certain who was teaching whom."
"Man/Woman."
"Most definitely," Giles agreed. He smirked. "Doctor/Patient."
"Speaking of which, we need to work on your bedside manner," Buffy chid him.
"We do?"
"Yes, we do. If you did it right, I wouldn't be all insecure like you're gonna just run off."
"I rather think that's the fault of the Pavlovian training you've received over the years. But I'll be happy to do all in my power to reassure you of my sincerity."
He reached over and relieved Buffy of Mr. Gordo. He then pulled out his handkerchief and wiped Buffy's tears away tenderly. At last, he took her in his arms and held her as closely as he could.
"I'm no good at flowery speeches, Buffy," he said quietly. "Expressing emotion isn't my strong suit. All I can do is tell you I love you. Buffy, you're my life. Everything I am, everything I've done, all my life is yours. Now that we've made love, did you really think that would change?"
Buffy nestled her head against Giles' chest, her palm molded to his shape, her ear next to the steady beat of his heart.
"I want to believe this, Giles," she said. "I'm just scared to."
"If it's any help to you, that makes two of us."
She looked up at him, startled.
"You're scared? Why?" she blurted out.
"You're not the only one with a wretched romantic track record," he reminded her. "And having lost you twice already, I have a fairly understandable concern about your mortality rate. Need I go on?"
Buffy settled her head on his shoulder again.
"If I promise to try to stay alive, will that help?"
He dropped a kiss on the crown of her head.
"It couldn't hurt," he returned wryly. "And I promise you that, while I am leaving for now, I will be back. And when I come back, I'll have sold my house and horses in England."
"R - really? You'd do that?"
"If I don't, I've no idea how I'll purchase new ones here. I'm comfortable financially, but hardly rich."
"Watcher pay not exactly princely, huh?"
"It is compared to what a public school librarian makes around here," Giles snorted. "I didn't think to ask when I was planning just now, but do you want a new house? When I come back? Or would you prefer to stay in this one?"
"Did I miss something?" Buffy teased. "Like maybe the part where we decided to share a place in the first place?"
"We could live apart, I suppose," he said, "but it seems a bit silly. Your job can't possibly be covering the bills comfortably. If we pool our resources, it would be far more practical."
"And they say romance is dead," Buffy observed with a small laugh. "Do I get to decorate?"
"Any way you like...within reason."
"In that case, I accept," Buffy said. She stuck her hand out. "Shake?"
Giles shook his head.
"I'd rather seal this bargain with a kiss."
He leaned in and did just that.
"Mmmmm...the bedside manner is definitely improving," Buffy teased him.
"Feeling a bit more secure now?" he asked.
"A lot more," she assured him. "Somehow hearing it from the horse's mouth that you're really going to come home to me and we'll be a real family...that makes it hard for even me to come up with ways to be panicky about it."
They leaned in for another kiss which quickly turned passionate. Their tongues danced across one another hungrily. Hands began to wander, seeking out the spots that caused pleasure.
"I want you so much," Buffy moaned.
Giles pulled back, panting.
"We can't," he said.
"Why not?"
Buffy's lower lip began to quiver. Giles groaned and kissed her again, sucking the errant lip gently into his mouth and grazing it with his teeth. There came a knock on the door.
"Buffy? Is everything okay in there?"
Buffy and Giles sagged against one another and giggled.
"I guess that's why," Buffy grumbled. "Yeah, Xand," she called. "We'll be out in a minute."
They listened until they heard Xander's footsteps go down the stairs, then kissed once more.
"We'd best go down now," Giles said.
"I know," Buffy sighed. "I just...this was so cozy."
He chuckled and ran his fingertips down her cheek.
"You could cozy up to me when we watch the movie, if you like."
"Sounds nice," she said. "You, me, couch, cuddling...sounds like a plan. And if Will and Xand have matching heart attacks, hey, you have the emergency training to deal."
"Doctor Giles to the rescue?"
"At least we know how to play doctor the normal way. And I expect to need a whole lot of treatment from my favorite physician of the pretend kind."
Giles looked befuddled.
"There's another way to play doctor?"
"Ask Will...sometime that isn't now."
They shared a final kiss and headed down the stairs, hand in hand.
THE END