AUTHOR: Goddess Isa
EMAIL: goddessisa@aol.com
SUMMARY: Buffy and Giles talk
SPOILER: Hush
DISTRIBUTION: Sandee, of course - My site - http://planetslaythis.homestead.com - Crystal and Butterfly if they want it - A Soul's Redemption - Anyone else - sure, just email me & lmk where it's going - I like seeing my name in print =)
FEEDBACK: Please, I'd hate to have to Slay for it. =P
RATING: TV-PG
DISCLAIMER: Joss owns the characters. Joss sucks.
Buffy had finally walked on out Riley. She couldn't exactly go "Hey, I'm the vampire Slayer, now what the Hell are you?" so she just left. She was three blocks away before she realized it was *her* dorm room they'd been in and that Riley could've been reading her diary at that very moment.
"No harm," she said as she turned on the main road to head towards Giles' apartment. "He'll find out I'm gaga over Angel and go back to Forest where he belongs. They really do make a nice couple. Maybe someday, they'd even belong in the Scooby Gang. I mean, we have Xander, it'd be easy enough to let them join. There are days when we need an extra hand."
Buffy was babbling, and she knew it. No one was there to listen though, and she shrugged, keeping on as she approached his place.
She took a deep breath and calmly entered her Watcher's home.
Giles was sitting at the table, having a snack and watching the news.
"Olivia gone?" she asked as her greeting.
"Hello Buffy, how are you feeling?" he said dryly.
"Olivia gone?" she repeated.
"She's gone to get her hair done, she'll be back in an hour or so. Why do you ask? She knows about you, if that's what it concerns."
"What concerns me is you. You've changed."
He took his glasses off in surprise. "I beg your pardon?"
"You! I mean, look in the mirror!"
"I don't actually--"
"You're like......I don't know, like a guy!"
"Thank you Buffy, for informing me of my gender." he looked slightly worried about her.
"Giles, look. I love you, and you're the greatest, but remember when you were tweed guy with his nose in the book twenty-four-seven? I want him back."
"Buffy--"
"Don't 'Buffy' me. Everyone keeps telling me how I'm supposed to grow up, but look at my examples! My mother has been staying with my aunt Arlene in Chicago since Thanksgiving, but you know where she really is? Carmel. With a guy! A guy who's *my age*!! And you, you're like this guy in jeans and sweaters now who....who....has a TV and sleeps with people!"
"Buffy," he looked at her, as though he were trying to spot the one thing that could identify to him what was wrong and then he could fix it. "Are you okay?"
"No, I'm not okay!! We all lost our voices and you're busy having sex with your British......I don't want to say the H word or the W word, but God, Giles, what would I call her? She's not your girlfriend or wife or fiancee. You won't tell me anything about her, including how you met, but I know you've known each other for awhile, I saw it on one of the notes she wrote you."
"Saw what note?" he demanded.
"Are things always this hectic, Rupert?" she asked in a fake British voice. "Your letters never sound this troubled."
"Buffy, you read--"
"A piece of loose-leaf paper that was lying on the desk. Can't you just be honest with me for once?"
"If honesty is going to come into play here..." he arched an eyebrow and she snorted.
"Riley's one of the commandos. The head commando. They're evil, I'll take them down."
"Very good."
She leaned against the back of the couch and folded her arms. "Your turn."
He took a deep breath. "There is no distracting you from this, is there?"
She smiled. "Nope."
"Very well. Olivia has been a friend of mine since youth. She was in France when all of the stuff with Ethan went down, and when she returned I was already away at Oxford. We wrote for awhile but lost touch and she married a stuffy man her father matched her with to save the family business."
"Sounds like one of the novels I read for Lit class." Buffy commented.
"Quite. A few years ago, Olivia got fed up and divorced him and looked me up. My mother referred her to the Council and they referred her here."
"And you've been orgasm friends ever since?" Buffy assumed.
"I'm going to have to speak with Anya." he said dryly.
Buffy smirked. "Do you love her?"
"I'm not in high school anymore, Buffy. I do not wish to wear my relationships on my sleeve the way young people do."
"So you do love her."
"I care very deeply for her, yes."
"And if she was an ensouled vampire and you were still a Watcher, what would you do?"
"Buffy--"
She cringed, so tired of him saying her name like that. "I'm not a little girl anymore Giles. And it was just a question."
"You miss him?" he assumed.
"I never should've gone to see him. It was such a mistake. I walk into my dormroom and I see his picture and I just......I *need* him Giles."
"I know." he took her into his arms and let her cry on his shoulder the way girls do with their fathers.
"I kissed Riley, Giles. And I swear, it meant nothing to me. Everyone keeps telling me who I should love and who I should be with.....it just doesn't feel right. It's like with Parker, it's....I'm kidding myself even trying to go to college in the first place."
"Now, Buffy, I wouldn't say that."
"I would. My game is off, Anya was more effective on patrol last night than I was."
"Anya?" Giles arched an eyebrow.
"She annoys them, then she kills them."
"Ah."
"Strangely effective." she pulled away and stood next to him, staring at the floor. "Now what?"
"Now you call Angel and you tell him everything you just told me."
"But--"
"The only way you're going to be able to move on with your life is to keep him in your life."
Buffy nodded and went upstairs to use Giles' phone without saying another word.