Chapter 1

Buffy forcefully threw open the door to her house, immediately followed by an angry and frustrated Faith.

"What the hell were you trying to do, B?" her sister Slayer asked, grabbing her shoulder and turning her around.

"I'm not in the mood, F!" Buffy rejoined, shrugging off Faith's hand. "Leave me alone!"

"Not this time, B. You were distracted and that vamp almost had you for dinner."

"Then it was a good thing you were there, wasn't it? Thank you, Faith. Are you happy now? Let me go!"

"Buffy," Faith entreated softly, causing the senior Slayer to turn back around. "I don't want thanks. I just want to know what's going on with you."

"Nothing's going on," Buffy continued to argue, but then let out a resigned sigh, "I... I'm just tired."

"That's a load of BS and you know it!" Faith called after her as she watched Buffy retreat up the stairs to her room. In her last act of defiance, Buffy gave her the finger. Faith let out an exasperated growl.

"What was that all about?" came a soft male voice, his posh British accent full of concern.

Turning around, Faith looked fondly at the tall blond Watcher and took the bottle of water he was offering, "I think we both know what that's about, Daniel."

He gave a resigned nod and they walked into the living room together where the younger Slayer flopped onto the couch. Sitting down at his desk in the corner, the Watcher opened his diary, "I'm ready for your report now, Faith."

Buffy sat on her bed holding Mr Gordo. In a few days, it would be two years since she'd last seen her Watcher and almost a year since she'd last heard from him. Life was lonelier on the Hellmouth now. Xander and Anya had gotten married and moved to San Diego, neither wanting to start a family on the Hellmouth. Willow had gone through a magic addiction, but with the help of Tara, had managed to come through it. Both still attended UC Sunnydale, but Buffy saw them less and less frequently after she'd quit school to focus on slaying. Spike had stuck around until Faith's release from prison and then he too, had moved on, throwing his lot in with Angel and the team in LA.

As for Dawn, both girls had decided it best for the young girl to go live with their father. A move that Daniel Everett and the Watcher's Council had helped to facilitate after Dawn had exhibited symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder stemming from the loss of her mother and her ordeal with Glory. Everyone involved had felt it was for the best to remove her from the Hellmouth and let her lead a more normal life.

Lying back on the pillows, Buffy blew out a cleansing breath and watched the stars twinkle outside her window. She wondered if Giles looked at them too, and if he did, if he thought of her. She missed him and their separation seemed to get harder to deal with everyday, especially in light of the fact that Faith and Daniel seemed to be building the same rapport she and Giles had shared, if not a closer one.

XxXxXxXxXx

Buffy climbed into the back of the ambulance and watched as the paramedics started to work on Giles. They triaged him as best as they could and started a line for saline and pain medication, but soon after they started for the hospital, all hell broke loose. Giles coded and it took several long minutes for the paramedics to restart his heart while Buffy watched them work in sheer terror.

When they arrived at the hospital, a team of doctors and nurses met the paramedics and immediately wheeled him in for surgery, leaving Buffy bereft and alone in the waiting room until the gang arrived. Several minutes later a nurse came out asking if anyone could donate blood since supplies were critically low. Buffy's blood matched Giles' perfectly and when Tara arrived, she was able to donate as well since her blood was compatible. Giles came through surgery, but they put him in a medically induced coma to help promote healing. The first bullet had torn through his left femur. The other two bullets had ripped through his chest and punctured his right lung.

After hours of touch and go surgery, the doctors couldn't promise a full recovery and recommended that Buffy call Giles' family in Britain. If he could manage to stave off infection and make it through the next crucial seventy-two hours, he'd need plenty of physical and occupational therapy and it was recommended that he do that in a facility that provided better services than any of the rehabilitation centers in Sunnydale.

Seeing the emotional turmoil Buffy was in, Xander offered to make the calls to Giles' parents, but the Slayer adamantly refused, arguing that it was her responsibility. She turned to Willow and Tara and asked them to take Dawn for the night before leaving the hospital and heading over to Giles' apartment to find his address book.

Walking into his empty apartment was harder than she could ever have possibly imagined. Taking a seat in his chair, she pulled the blanket off the back and held it to her nose. He rarely used it, but he sat against it all the time and she could smell his aftershave and shampoo in the fabric. It was only then that she allowed herself to break down and sob until she fell asleep from exhaustion, the toll of all the traumatic events over the last year, and the weight of her Watcher's life hanging in the balance again, finally exacting its price.

Buffy woke several hours later, disoriented and scared, and when she got her bearings, she called the hospital asking for a report on Giles. After hearing that there had been no change in his condition, she started to rummage through his desk for his address book. She finally found it in his briefcase and looked up the number for his parents.

"Hello? May I please speak with Mr Giles?" she asked the person on the other end of the line.

"Who may I say is calling?"

"Buffy Summers. I... uh... am a friend of his son's," she answered, not knowing what to say to the stranger on the phone.

"One moment please, Miss Summers."

Several minutes later, Buffy was connected to Giles' father. She wasn't sure how to tell him of his son's injuries, but the elder Giles gently coaxed the information from her and asked her how she was holding up. She certainly hadn't expected that and she broke down over the phone. When she finally regained her composure, Frederick Giles calmly informed her that he and his wife would leave for Sunnydale as soon as possible and that they would stay in touch so that she could update him on his son's condition.

XxXxXxXxXx

A knock at the door shocked Buffy back into the present. She wiped the tear streaks from her face with her hands and answered, "Come in."

Daniel entered with a steaming mug of hot cocoa. "I thought you might like some hot chocolate. There are the little marshmallows you like so much on top."

Buffy grimaced. Sometimes she felt like Daniel tried too hard to fill the role of the missing people in her life and he always got it wrong. Giles would have offered her tea. It was his way. Their way.

"Thanks," she said when he handed her the mug. It was way too hot to drink and she set it down on her nightstand.

The Watcher took a seat in the wicker chair by the door and watched his charge for a moment before breaking the silence. "Faith told me you were unfocused again. Perhaps you should take some time off from slaying for a few days."

"I'm fine. Faith likes to exaggerate."

Daniel fidgeted with his hands. "No, she really doesn't. You know that, Buffy. If you keep up the way you are going, you'll get yourself killed and perhaps Faith too in the process. Please tell me what's bothering you."

Buffy looked at him and then turned to stare out the window, her legs drawn up to her chin. Daniel sighed. He hadn't expected to get anywhere with her. She'd only reluctantly accepted him as her temporary Watcher. She was indifferent to him and over the last year, she'd become indifferent to slaying, clocking in when it was time to patrol and out when she returned, and showing up late for research sessions. It was an existence, nothing more, and knowing what he did of Buffy, that scared him.

He stood up and looked at her, hoping for something, anything from her. When nothing was offered, he made his way towards the door. "If you need me, you know where to find me. Goodnight, Buffy."

A soft sob escaped her throat and she whispered, "What's happened to him, Daniel? Why doesn't he call or write?"

The Watcher took that as an invitation and sat down on the bed next to her. "I've made inquiries, Buffy, but nothing's forthcoming. It's as I've told you, there are rumors that he's medically retired-"

"Then shouldn't he tell me that?" she asked bitterly. "I'm his Slayer. His! But more than that, I thought we were… I thought we were friends! God, it's been a year since he last called or sent a letter. Hell, it's the twenty-first century, he could email if writing is so goddamn difficult! I call every week still and talk to the same damned person telling me Giles is unavailable. And incidentally, so are his parents. What the hell, Daniel?"

Buffy broke down and leaned her head against Daniel's shoulder. The contact shocked him. In the two years he'd stood by her side in the fight against evil, he'd never been privileged to comfort her.

Wrapping an arm around her shoulder he answered, "I don't know. I've tried contacting Uncle Frederick. I'll try some other avenues, Buffy, but in the meantime, take a few days off. Perhaps you could go visit Willow and Tara."

"They are busy with their senior thesises... theses?...whatever... for graduation. I'll just... figure out something else to do," she sniffed, wiping her tear streaked face with the back of her hand. "Thanks, Daniel."

"Whatever for?" he asked, rising from his seat on her bed.

"For being you. For being there for me. I know it's not an easy thing."

"You are an extraordinarily gifted Slayer and your devotion to Rupert makes you family, Buffy. He's my cousin and I promised him and my uncle I would watch over you. And even if I had not made that promise to them, I would have given it to you without hesitation."

He squeezed her shoulder to comfort her much in the way Giles had done years before, perhaps it was a familial way of showing support amongst the Giles/Everett clan. Buffy gave him a faint smile and when he closed the door behind him, she fell back into the pillows and sighed, feeling better after her emotional outburst and confiding in Daniel. She didn't really have anyone to talk to anymore. The last few times she went to visit Willow and Tara at their apartment, they were so involved in finishing up their last semester, she felt like she was intruding.

And Faith. She had been cleared by the Council for active duty on the Hellmouth after they had worked a deal with Angel and the California penal system, and she had shown up on Buffy's doorstep not long after contact had been lost with Giles. Buffy had almost killed the younger Slayer upon her arrival, and much like a wild animal joining a pack, Faith had allowed it, playing submissive and bearing her neck in an act of contrition. It had taken Buffy months to start trusting her again, and Faith had done everything she could to win back the senior Slayer's confidence - but the divide between the two seemed insurmountable, too much badness had passed between them for Buffy to completely forgive.