As the night grew later, Rupert Giles grew even more anxious. It was 8:45, and Buffy was supposed to have been at his place at 7 for patrol. Although tardiness was expected of her, complete and utter abandonment was not. He thrust his hands into his jean pockets and paced restlessly by the telephone.

Unbeknownst to him, a tall lanky figure emerged from the shadows outside his flat and peered in at him through the window.

"Well, well, well, having a lovely night in, aren't we? Old mate, you're in for a quite a surprise." Ethan Rayne sneered under his breath as he glared at the Watcher. "I truly miss the old you, Ripper, before you went all, domestic on me. It's been too long. You should come out and play."

Magic welled up inside the old sorcerer as he chanted a quick spell in Latin and his eyes flashed gold.

Giles awoke a few moments later, infuriated and confused, in the middle of his dining room floor.

Useless fuckin' berk. Can't even walk around your own damn flat without getting knocked out…

He thought to himself, as he rose to his feet.

I could be dead right now and no one would even know, because a certain Slayer of mine decided to go absolutely fucking AWOL! Where the bloody hell is she? Oh for god's sake…

With a murderous gleam in his eyes, Giles hastened up to the loft, threw on an old jumper, his gold earring, and his Doc Martins, and strode back down to the den. He swiped a handful of wooden stakes from the chest and set out in a fury to find his Slayer.

A menacing Ethan followed behind him in the distance.

3 Hours Earlier

"Hey Buffster, wait up!" Xander called out as Buffy slipped out the back door of the Sunnydale High Library and out onto the sunset lit streets of California.

Since Giles and Buffy were doing some mojo Watcher/Slayer training, Willow, Oz, and Xander were temporarily banned from the library. With nothing else to do, except wait on Buffy, they climbed into the back of Oz's van, pulled out a deck of cards and started to play. One thing led to another, and Oz pulled his stash out from underneath the driver's seat and rolled a joint. The three spent the hour smoking and playing. Buffy was twenty feet out of the library back door before any of them even remembered that they were waiting on her. It was then that Xander bolted out of the side door of the van and called after Buffy.

"Hey Buffster, wait up!" He said as he ran after her. Immediately, she stopped and turned around, as if she knew he was already there.

"Xander, what are you doing here?" She said as he approached her, gasping for breath. "I thought you guys left?"

"No, no, we were going to wait on you, but we didn't figure we'd end up going gray before you got out of there! How does Giles manage to keep you that occupied for that long?" He said, panting.

Ignoring his question, Buffy sniffed the air, and noticed Xander's all too chill expression. A smile spread across her face.

"You guys better have saved some for me, assholes!" she said, awe struck. "What's the occasion? Celebrating a birthday, anniversary, or test passed?" She grinned.

"Oh, nothing, we were going to smoke and then go to the Bronze to dance. Cibo Matto's playing tonight and she just sounds so much better when I'm high to be honest." Xander grinned and rubbed his hands together mischievously.

"You in?"

"Of course I'm in, but we gotta make it quick. I've got patrol with Giles in a little while. Faith joining?"

"We might could pick her up, but only if you keep the leash short on her. The last thing we need is to be kicked out of the Bronze, again." He winked.

"Can't make any promises, sorry. I'm sure technique wise, I could easily take her, but she fights damn good and dirty when she's high." She winked back at him as the two made their way back to the van.

An hour later, with the addition of the second Slayer, the Gang had official finished off two more blunts.

While most of them chilled and wafted in the smoke filling the van, Buffy and Faith were hyper, and hyper aware of everything around them. Buffy continually analyzed everyone based on their body language, and Faith kept predicting when Buffy would. Neither could stay still, and Faith was literally crawling out of her skin to slay, or fuck, something, as Willow noticed when Faith's hand found its way on to Xander's thigh.

"Come on guys! I gotta get outta here and do something before I frickin' explode!" Faith exclaimed in the dimly lit van. "For fucks sake!"

"I'll have to admit, I'm kinda with Faith." Buffy said reluctantly.

"If only..." Xander said seductively. He grinned at her, but said nothing.

"Hey there hot-shit, how about we leave the analyzing to B and you shut your mouth." Faith snapped at him.

"We are cranky Slayers. We have pent up energy. But we'll be outta here soon, right Oz? We good?" Buffy asked.

"I'm good to drive, I think." Oz added.

Willow tilted her head towards him and grinned.

"Good! Then it's settled! I say we go to the Bronze, consume much terrible, high calorie bar food, and dance until we lose consciousness!"

Buffy giggled, but no one said anything as Oz crawled into the driver's seat of the van and started it up.

"To the Bronze it is." Oz said to himself as they pulled out of the parking lot into the night.

After his own brief patrol of the various Sunnydale "hotspots" for vampires on his quest to find Buffy, to no avail, the incoherently furious Giles decided to check for her at the local hangouts, mainly the Bronze.

As he walked in to the dimly lit club, his senses were immediately bombarded with blaring music the smell of alcohol.

Damn it, Buffy, if you're not here and I spend all night in this…, din looking for you, I'm gonna…

He inwardly grinned like Ripper as his thoughts momentarily flickered to the wicked idea of teaching her a lesson the way he thought it ought to be taught, but he immediately disregarded it and tried to get the provocative image out of his mind.

Bloody hell, Rupert, get your mind out of the gutter, you old fool…

To Giles, it was absurd for anyone to even think that just because he was her Watcher, people would assume he automatically wasn't attracted to Buffy's outward beauty, when anyone with eyes was. And the age dilemma was to him, no dilemma at all.

For god's sake, I'm 200 years younger than her last boyfriend! He thought, hopelessly.

Giles subconsciously flexed his fingers at the thought of the vampire, until the feeling subsided.

How could he not fall in love with her? Buffy was no child, Giles knew she hadn't been for a while now. He spent many a day and night with her, had only her shoulder to cry on after Jenny's death, very nearly had to beat Snyder to a pulp so she could return to school to graduate, watched and helped her through apocalypse and heartbreak and death and school, and had even stayed with Buffy through his firing from Travers and the Council.

Father's love my ass. Pillock.

Truth be told, if anyone had gone through what they'd gone through together, and come to know Buffy the way he had, they would have fallen in love with her as well. She was too lovely for them not to.

But Giles was reserved, and he completely brushed aside any notion of her reciprocating his feelings long ago. In his mind, it made no difference to him. He would stay with her and guide her and love her in the way she needed. Until it killed him, or god forbid she died again. If there was anything Giles was not, it was a selfish lover.

Damn it Rupert, focus!

Giles shook his head and continued through the crowd searching for her blonde hair.

Not finding her anywhere, and getting more frustrated and more Ripper like every second, Giles angrily whipped around as fast as he could with the intention of storming out of the Bronze, but instead found himself on his ass.

As he groaned and opened his eyes with the aim of punching the idiot who came barreling into him, he instead found his Slayer sprawled across his chest.

"Uh oh." She said, as he glared up at her.