Missing Conversation

Rupert Giles was in the library that school morning, as usual. He was fulfilling his routine duties as librarian of Sunnydale High School. Although his life as watcher to the vampire slayer Buffy Summers kept him very busy and he often didn't care about unimportant issues, there were times when he welcomed the distraction. Plus, he got to surround himself with books, which he loved.

Jenny Calendar was creeping onto his mind again. Dammit, he thought. He desperately wanted to make amends with her, he knew that she was only doing what she was told, he was hardly one to to judge but if she lied about her entire identity, what else had she lied about? Had she initiated a relationship with him for information? He didn't want to think about it.

"Giles!"

He turned from his position at the top of the stairs in the library to see his slayer, Buffy, standing there.

"Buffy." He greeted her, "How are you?"

"I'm okay. How are you doing, Giles?" She asked concerned. There was a hint of teenage awkwardness in her voice and Giles began to walk closer towards her, feeling she had something important to tell her.

"I'm as good as the situation permits." He said plainly, sitting down on the community table where he and the Scoobies would often research vampire and demons. "Was there something you wanted?"

"Yeah, I need to talk to you." She said, assertively.

"Alright. What is it?" He said, uncomfortable that he didn't know where this was going.

Buffy let out a sigh. "Look, I'm not entirely comfortable talking about this but … It's about Ms Calendar."

Giles groaned. Why did she want to talk to him about Ms Calendar? Giles thought that she would be the last thing on Buffy's mind. She had every right to be completely enraged with her. While Jenny had had a duty to perform, she had failed miserably and had put all of their lives in danger. Giles didn't want to be reminded of his earlier thoughts and said, "Buffy, I'm going to stop you right there." Before he could say anymore, she interrupted him.

"No, you're not. Listen, Giles, I get why you're mad at her. She lied about herself and now we have this huge problem, a problem that I could have prevented but that's mostly cause for me to hate her. I know you feel betrayed and you have been betrayed but it feels like the reason you're not speaking to her right now is because of me. And I don't like that. I don't want to be the reason that you're not happy, Giles."

"Buffy, it's far more complicated than that."

"I know. I know but I still think that you should make up with her. I won't be mad if you do, I promise. Over the past few months, she has helped us a lot. Willow, Xander and I have gotten to know her pretty well and we all agree that… We think her feelings for you are genuine. We've seen it."

"Buffy, I …" Giles didn't know what to say. His 17 year old slayer was wise far beyond her teenage years. He looked up her, having been looking down for the most of their conversation, afraid to see the seriousness of her words, afraid to feel worse about an already bad situation. How could he be in love with the person that had hurt his slayer so badly? How would this work?

"Besides," Buffy continued. "If we know her like we think we do, she didn't know herself what was to happen. I'm sure she would have told me if she did."

Giles had to agree with that. Being of the Kalderdash clan, Jenny was most likely raised on Angelus's cruelty. There was no way she knew how his soul could be restored and not warn everyone.

"Giles, I've lost someone I loved. But you haven't; not really anyway. I don't want you to go through what I'm going through right now. Really, it's okay."

There was a pause for the moment. Of course, there was much more to the situation than that, but Giles felt somewhat better that Buffy had given him her blessing.

"You're a really bright girl, Buffy." He managed, with a smile. She smiled back, and then left.

Giles sat on the table, pondering his slayers words. After a moment, he decided that even if no relationship could be salvaged, he really must talk to her. He hurried to her classroom, eager to make it there before first period started.