This is my first Buffy fic. Ive become addicted to this show. lol. Anyway I love writing angst and Giles be my favourite character and here we are...
Title: Spiral
Characters: Giles, Buffy, the gang, Ben/glory
Summary: An account of what happened to Gile throughout the episode Spiral (S5) though his POV and the others. (Something I just felt like writing) NOTE - the switching around.
Warnings: Angst, blood (I guess)
The bus swerved wildly out of control, sending a cloud of dust up, Buffy jumped landing with a roll and watched the vehicle skid and fall. The grinding of metal on rocks resounded out in the silent landscape.
As the truck came to a standstill, inside there was a moment of silence.
"Have you actually passed your test granddad because that was some reckless bit of driving" Spikes voice rose up, he sat up looking around the wreckage.
"What the hell just happened" Xander's panicked voice cut in, "Giles what just happened"
"Is everyone alive?" Anya shouted out. A sea of nods and yes's came from around her.
"Giles?" Willow looked towards the front of the bus "Giles are you ok"
There was another moment of silence and then a small groan from the drivers seat. "Oh no" Willows regained her footing and rushed to the front. "Giles?" She reached him to find him collapsed over the steering wheel limply. His body shuddered, he was half conscious, but in his blurred thoughts he heard the young witches' voice.
"I..I..Im OK" he tried to assure her making his best efforts to move but failing. He was pinned by the spear. "I'll be... fine"
"Is everyone ok?" Buffy's voiced shouted as she entered the truck through a broken window.
"Yeah we're fine, just Giles" Xander pointed. Buffy rushed past and joined Willow. Buffy froze that the sight for a second, Willow's eyes met hers, a mixture of fear and pain was brought to Buffy's face.
"We need to get out of here and find shelter the soldiers will return" The slayer tried to keep her voice as calm as possible.
"We cant move him," Willow shot another glance "he's impaled on the spear" she pointed out.
"Right" Buffy composed herself taing no heed to Willow's statement, "You guys get ready to leave, Spike, find a blanket to cover yourself. Willow, you get Tara and Xander help me with Giles, go outside the windscreen and we'll carry him out"
"Buffy?" Giles moaned out in agony.
"Just shut up" Buffy shot back in blind panic, "We're getting you out of here" She kicked the windscreen hard, sending a shower of shattering pieces outside. The spear dislodged from the window and moved. Giles took a sharp intake of breath and began to shake. The slayer grabbed the spear with two hands.
"I'm sorry" she whispered before yanking it from the watchers stomach. Giles stifled a cry. By then Xander was by the door ready to help. Buffy unbuckled the seatbelt and took on the older mans weight. Xander placed his hands under Giles' arms and started to pull him out with the help of Buffy.
Giles' stomach burned, he felt his arms pulled and his body slide over the steering wheel. He winced and cried out, the shearing pain was almost too much to bear. He felt the bright sunlight on his face suddenly and the ground beneath him. In the distance of his thoughts he could make out Buffy's voice.
"Leave me" he grunted as he almost collapsed to the dusty ground only to be caught.
"No" Buffy's voice came loud and clear, the sound bouncing off the inside of his skull in an echo. "Not today Giles." He could feel his body pulled up into a standing position. His coat was suddenly and painfully removed causing another tearing pain down his side. He gasped in the fresh air trying to control the muddled thoughts and throbbing pain confusing his mind.
"Come on Giles, we're gunna walk a bit" Xander's voice tried to sound optimistic but failed. A red stain was appearing through the watchers shirt and spreading.
"We gotta find shelter" Xander cried.
"Yeah, right bloody quick. I'm burning up out here" Spike sounded unamused from under his blanket.
"Come on" Buffy nodded forward and they started out.
Giles groaned softly as he was pulled along, his feet faulted, his left leg seemed to have no give left, not that his right had much. He stumbled along, being caught several times as the gang made there way to a disused gas station. He groaned and tried to form a sentence but somehow he failed only coming out with what sounded like senseless babbling. A door crashed open, Giles could feel himself being almost dragged now, his legs had nearly completely given up. The sunlight disappeared from his eyes. He swooned forward and felt his arms being moved around and his body suddenly lifted. He cried out as he was roughly placed on a cold surface. Pain and adrenalin was now coursing through his body. His left side was shaking uncontrollably. There was a babble of voices around him though he couldn't make out any individuals, they all just seemed to smudge into one. Someone was pressing on his side. His arm began to shake more. Something soft was placed under his head and he tried to lift it but failed, gritting his teeth in agony at the pressure now being forced on his wound.
"Buffy" Willow's voice came in a shudder. The slayer hurried to her side.
"Will, how is he?" Giles shook and panted in pain. "Will?" Buffy repeated. "I-I think I slowed the bleeding, but..." She turned to look at Giles' face, Buffy watched to. His brows where furrowed in agony, he tried to open his eyes in a vein attempt. Blood was now seeping from the side of his mouth, breaths becoming shorter and more ragged, he was loosing consciousness.
Buffy turned aside in distress and confusion. "Okay. Okay, just-just give me a minute."
Giles tried to concentrate on the voices around him. He heard a concerned Willow call to his Slayer. Darkness was beginning to edge into his mind. He tried to listen to the conversation and look up but he failed miserably. As the blackness began to take him he could hear a shouting of voices and breaking wood. This is the end, he thought, its all over. The blackness became too much and he suddenly lost consciousness.
Giles' eyes opened slowly finding it hard to focus, there was a figure standing next to him. Even without sharp sight he knew it was Buffy. A small smile came to her face as she noticed he was awake. She placed her warm hands on his colder larger one.
"I'm sorry" she cried.
"What for" he struggled to speak, his voice came out as a whisper.
"We should have stayed. If we had, none of this would have happened" She suddenly regretted her actions. She couldn't loose Giles, he was her guide, he was the one she would always turn to in a moment of need.
"Don't" Giles' voice came across in raspy breaths as he breathed through the pain. "What you did ... w-was necessary ... what I've always admired"
"Running away" Buffy's face dropped as she looked at his, his eyebrows tightly knotted together. He smiled slightly at her.
"Being able to place... your heart... above all else" Buffy watched him with worry, he drew a ragged breath and tried to concentrate, as if talking was taking a great effort. Buffy wanted to do nothing more that sit with him and ease his pain and be away from this place.
"I'm so proud of you" Giles started to talk again. Buffy's stomach began to knot. "You've come so far. You're everything a Watcher..." He paused for a moment to focus. "Everything I could have hoped for" Tears welled in Buffy's eyes. This was not a farewell speech she thought to herself as she watched him loose consciousness again, he would survive. She looked down at his blooded stomach, but not without help, she thought.
"Willow" she turned to her friend "Open a door"
The Watcher felt his side being prodded and poked. He moaned out in disagreement and tried to move, only his body decided otherwise. His eyes twitched open and closed, the room was dark and he couldn't focus on anything. He could feel his wound being compressed, his body being moved gently as a bandage was wrapped around his abdomen. A light was being shone in his eyes and someone holding his wrist. He could hear a new voice now, a male's. He struggled and managed to move a little but used up his small amount of energy left in the process. He coughed, sending an uninvited shot of pain up his side and to his head. He felt nauseous and dizzy. He was trying to focus on the dim words being spoken in the room. His wound was burning now, the compression causing it to throb painfully. He gasped in breaths to help, feeling a hand upon his own before the darkness took him again.
Dawn watched over Giles silently, she hadn't really come to know the man that well, but she could see the connection that he and Buffy had. The way that he seemed to admire her and her him. Ben suddenly appeared from behind her, taking her by surprise, he took The Watcher's pulse.
"Is ... is he gunna be okay?" she asked hesitantly.
"He was hurt pretty bad, Dawn." Ben's voice remained on one tone as he turned back to his bag getting out a needle and syringe. "It's because of me. It's all my fault." Dawn looked at Giles' face with a little more concern, seeing the pain etched upon his features. He groaned out in pain and tried to move.
"No it isn't"
"You don't know what's happening." Dawn considered.
"I don't have to. I just know that sometimes terrible things happen to good people. It shouldn't, but ... it does. It's nobody's fault..." He filled the syringe with a yellowy liquid "It's just the way life is. "
Ben walked by Dawn , jabbing the syringe into Giles' arm and pushing on the plunger.
"Is that gunna help?" Dawn asked but Ben didn't answer.
Even in Giles' unconscious state he felt the morphine being injected into his bloodstream. It was a feeling that in his younger days he was used to, something the 'Ripper' was familiar with, not that he had dabbled in the drug culture that much. As the drug began to take its effect, the burning sensation in his stomach began to subside. His thoughts were less muddled and he began to feel like he was floating, the sound of shouting in the distance dimmed and he fell into a deep restful sleep.