Chapter 2

In the end, Buffy was right. Giles sucked it up and used Buffy's cellphone to call Xander and Anya's apartment. His business partner picked up the phone on the second ring. After the yelling and the righteous indignation petered off, Anya was more than glad to have Giles back.

Xander's response was much more low-key than his fiancé's. "I didn't figure you'd even make it to the airport, G-man. I'll see you tomorrow."

Tara, when Giles called her next, managed to be happy for him despite her own heartbreak. The tears staining her voice were tangible even over their short conversation, and they set up a lunch date for the following week.

It was Dawn's reception, out of all of them, that surprised the British man the most. He had walked into the house with Buffy that night when he should have been at the airport to find Dawn waiting at the bottom of the stairs, arms crossed severely. Without a word, the teenager marched over to Giles and smacked him, hard, in the middle of the chest.

"Dawn!" Buffy reprimanded indignantly.

Her little sister ignored her and glared up at Giles, looking so much like her mother just for that one moment that the Watcher had flashbacks to his first conversations with Joyce. Even her voice held the same note of steely determination. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

"Yes," he replied without hesitation. "Though to be fair, you both have made at least as many mistakes as I have, and together you're barely half my age." That earned him a playful smack from Buffy as well, and then before any of them knew what was happening the three of them were hugging, Dawn was crying and Giles was promising her a hundred times that he would never, ever leave them again.

"Cross your heart and hope to die?" Dawn finally ascertained, stepping back and wiping her eyes. Giles nodded solemnly, his stony expression completely betrayed by the light dancing in his eyes. The younger Summers girl smiled brightly. "Good! Because I'd really hate to have to slay you."

He shook his head in mock bemusement. "You truly are a Summers woman, I'll give you that." He gaze strayed to the stairs and his face lost any trace of humor. Buffy had filled him in on Tara's departure. His heart bled for the sweet girl, but he sent silent support to her. She had done the right thing. But that also meant that she and Willow had a mountain of painful issues to work through. "Is Willow…"

"In her room," Buffy confirmed after a glance at Dawn to make sure she was right. She took Giles' bag. "I'll make some tea, if you can get her to come down and drink some." At his warning look, she held up her hands in defense. "I tried right after Tara left! She won't even let me in the room."

He nodded thoughtfully, sending her an apologetic glance. Dawn looked nervously up the stairs and then back at Giles. "She's just sitting there crying. She won't even talk in sentences."

"Dawn," Buffy said gently, "Why don't you help me in the kitchen for a bit? We can put on that stupid Spanish channel Mom always made fun of."

It was almost like she'd never left. Giles and Dawn traded a heartfelt glance full of, Maybe this is our Buffy after all.

Giles waited until he heard a crooning voice start up on the kitchen radio to remove his jacket, peel off his gloves and--in a deliberately permanent gesture--toe off his shoes before making his way upstairs.

He found Willow in her room, sitting on the floor with her back against the bed. Her green eyes stared blankly into space, tears still trickling lazily down her cheeks. She acknowledged his presence with a flicker of her watered-down eyes before staring off into nothing again. Giles padded over to her and lowered himself down next to her, bending his knees and propping his forearms on them.

Silence reigned between them, until finally Willow spoke without looking at him. "You came back." Her voice was cracked and quiet. She could feel the darkness of her situation closing in around her, and her demeanor was distant, hopeless.

"Yes," he replied unnecessarily.

"Why?"

He took a deep breath. "Buffy and I reached an understanding."

"You always do," the witch replied with what could have been a note of bitterness in her voice. "You could never stay away."

"No," Giles agreed thoughtfully. "I think that we both came to the conclusion that without you lot I am an utter mess."

What could have been an attempt at a smile touched the redhead's face, but the empty humor didn't even begin to reach her eyes. "Tara left," she said instead.

"I know," he murmured softly.

"She said that-that I was using her. Setting the parameters of our relationship. She said-" Willow's voice broke dangerously, and for the first time she turned to look at Giles. "She said that what I did, trying to erase our fight, was just as bad as what Glory did to her."

His head turned to meet her gaze. "Was she wrong, Willow?"

At his quiet question, she broke down completely. With horrified recognition, Willow shook her head. "No! She…she-" the witch couldn't even finish the sentence. Sobs tore through her body and her head fell into her hands, tears pouring from between her fingers.

The Englishman was faced with a sudden decision. Physical contact with Buffy was startling enough…would solace to Willow be wanted, let alone appropriate?

It was barely a token thought. One of his friends was hurting and he was not going to sit by and watch. Giles reached out to pull her into his lap, cradling her against his much larger frame. The young woman shuddered as she cried into his shoulder, and Giles closed his eyes and murmured soothing noises to her.

What had happened to the Willow that he'd met in the Sunnydale High library? Where was the innocent, wise-beyond-her-years girl with a zest for life and a budding interest in magick? When had she--when had they all--grown up into the adults that he saw now, with their own horrors and nightmares and pains?

They weren't children any more, and they didn't need an adult around to make their decisions for them. But, Giles realized with a sudden burst of clarity, they needed someone to listen, and in that capacity at least he could still be here for them. He turned his head to murmur into the witch's ear. "You need help, Willow."

She pulled back and stared at him with miserable eyes, and for a moment she looked so much like her sixteen-year-old self that Giles nearly choked. But she wasn't that girl any more. She was a beautiful, smart young woman with a dangerous addiction. And she was looking to him for help. "I know," she said softly, and her tears finally abated. "What do I have to do, Giles?

"We'll come up with a plan." He reached out to brush a wet strand of red hair behind her ear. "This isn't going to be easy."

"I know," she said firmly, looking him in the eye. "Tara…Tara is my everything. I need to do this, Giles. I have to."

That was something, at least. "Yes, you do." He took a deep breath and stood, ignoring his creaking joints. Giles helped her up and for a moment they just stood looking at each other before Giles offered her a very small, but sincere, smile. "For starters, you can come downstairs with me and get some tea."

"I think I can do that," she said in a small voice. The tiny attempt at a smile she gave him still didn't reach her eyes, but it was a start. He put a hand on the small of her back as they headed towards the hallway. Just before they reached the door, Willow turned to him. "Giles?"

"Hmm?" he responded, looking down at her expectantly.

"How did she get you to stay?"

He smiled softly at her. "She told me I could leave."

Willow nodded with a hint of pride. "Buffy can be a smart girl sometimes."

"You all have your moments," he agreed teasingly.

With a shared understanding look, the two friends headed towards the stairs. The darkness, Willow reflected, didn't look quite as black when there was someone next to you to help you through it.

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Author's Note: A distraught Willow is really tough to write, it turns out. A sympathetic Giles who manages to stay in character is just as hard! I really felt the need for some kind of emotional wrapup between these two, and for this AU storyline I thought this managed to sounds like them and still get the right sense of closure. Feel free to drop a line and tell me what you thought of it.