Chapter Three
Not a Date

Giles chose one of his favourite restaurants in the area – smallish but stylishly decorated and of course, five-star. He felt that this outing called for something a little more upscale – heaven knows why; he wasn't fooling himself for a minute that this was something resembling a date, and he certainly wasn't trying to impress the girl. Jenny had said she wanted to celebrate, after all, and this was simply the best place he could think of to do just that.

Jenny paused before entering, looking skeptically at the menu posted by the door.

"Is something the matter?" Giles asked.

"Oh, you know, I just don't feel like going broke over a soup and sandwich right now," she answered.

"Well, uh, consider it my congratulations gift to you."

"Really?"

He nodded in reply.

"Okay, I don't need to be asked twice." And Jenny led the way in.


She watched as Janna entered the restaurant across the street with the gadje. This was just the latest in a string of events that saddened her, seeing a daughter of the clan deny her people and her duty to them.

Well. The prodigal child shall be chastised. She will never again forget that her place is with her people.

But it was not her role to carry out that punishment; she was merely summoned by the clan to bring Janna home.

She crossed the street and went into the restaurant, keeping her eyes on Janna and the gadje as they sat down. But she was distracted. The woman at the table next to them had been wronged, she could feel it.

It won't hurt to have a little fun.


"Next time, it's my treat, okay?" Jenny said as they took a table by the window.

"That's alright, you don't –"

"What, are you trying to avoid going out with me again?"

Giles stammered incoherently for a couple of seconds before saying, "n-no, of-of course n-"

"Then next time, it's my treat."

"If-if you insist."

"I do." Jenny smiled. "You name the place, though, cuz I still don't know my way around this town."

Giles was suddenly struck with what seemed like a brilliant idea. "Well, if-if you like, I-I-I could, uh, always show you around London sometime. A-a kind of tour." And it immediately didn't seem so brilliant anymore. But why was he so nervous? It wasn't as if he was asking her out on a date. Yet her blank expression continued to wreak havoc with his self-confidence.

After a moment that seemed to stretch out entirely too long, Jenny answered. "That," she smiled, "would be perfect."

Giles smiled back, unusually relieved that she had agreed. He already started going over the places he would take her in his mind.

"This Saturday?" She asked.

Giles nodded.

"Great, it's a date." When Jenny said those words, he felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. Not a date-date, of course. Just an-an outing. Calm down, for heaven's sake!

The waiter came by and they ordered, Giles asking for the cheque at the same time.

"In a hurry to get out of here?" Jenny commented, a defensive note creeping into her voice that Giles failed to pick up on.

"My lunch break is only an hour."

"You're the assistant curator, you can take time for dessert if you want."

"Still, I don't want to be away for too long."

"Why? The place isn't going to burn down if you're not there."

"With Harrington in charge?" Giles scoffed. "I wouldn't bank on it."

Jenny looked at him incredulously. "Why don't you loosen up? Weren't you ever, y'know, young and carefree?"

Giles' insides quickly turned to lead. See? There you are. That's how she sees you, stodgy and old. And isn't that how you want to be? Isn't it better that way?

"A long time ago," he answered dryly.

She continued, "I mean, you're how old? Thirty-five, thirty-six?" Giles cringed inwardly as his expression hardened, and Jenny went on, "You should still be out having fun, not spending as much time as possible shut up in that museum. It's full of dead stuff, like a crypt." She gave a little laugh. "But I guess, being a Watcher, that's kinda your thing, huh?" Her good-natured smile was, at this point, lost on Giles.

"You should be careful not to let 'Zack' hear you say anything like that about your new workplace," he said, as his voice took on the same defensive tone that he had missed in Jenny's, with an extra shot of bitterness.

"I won't," Jenny replied, now on guard. "Unlike you, some people actually know how to get along with other people."

"Like you were getting along with that vampire," he shot back sarcastically. "Oh, yes, those are some brilliant people skills you have."

Jenny narrowed her eyes at him. "Why are you so uptight?"

Giles was taken aback that she thought there was a reason for his attitude. She was right, but he could never, ever tell her why he was how he was, he never talked about that with anybody. "There is no 'why'," he said. "I simply enjoy pursuits that are more intellectual than gyrating in nightclubs." Giles had no difficulty seeing that now Jenny was really offended, and he ignored the part of himself that cared.

"Yeah, I bet you were born this way. I'd bet that you've never done a single independent, spontaneous thing in your life."

"You don't even know me."

"Then go ahead, prove me wrong. Tell me what you've done with your life that's so exciting."

Giles just glared at her, his anger hiding the fact that he was flummoxed and had no idea how to answer.

"You know, I wish you'd tell me your deepest, darkest secret, and then you'd see that I'm right."

In the silence between them, Giles could hear the clink of cutlery and the laughter of a woman at a nearby table. Some feeling was welling up inside him, desperate to prove Jenny wrong. Against his better judgement, even against his will, he started talking.

"When I was twenty I was… 'into the occult' as you might say." Giles felt a bitter smile twisting his lips. "I didn't want to be a Watcher. I didn't care about much of anything. I dropped out of university and my friends and I meddled in magicks and demon possession. For the high." He noticed Jenny's eyes widen with surprise. "Then things went too far, we lost control. One of my friends was killed." As soon as he finished, the part of him that wanted to shock and impress Jenny quickly disappeared, and he was left feeling sorry he had said anything at all. Jenny was studying Giles as if seeing him for the first time. He expected her to make a flimsy excuse and walk out on him then and there. She didn't, so he went on, "I went back to the Council and accepted my fate. I do take it very seriously. They helped me gain my position at the museum, so I take that very seriously as well. I have a duty to perform, and that must always come first; I can't escape it." He waited for Jenny to make a pronouncement on his story, but she just kept staring at him, and said nothing. He found he couldn't quite bring himself to look her in the face. Luckily, it was at that moment that their meal arrived.

After a few minutes of eating in silence, during which Giles did not do much eating, Jenny spoke. "But, even if you do have a-a duty to perform, you don't have to let it define you. You can have a life and do other things." She didn't look him in the eye, and her voice was strangely forceful.

Giles was somewhat surprised at the part of his story that Jenny took issue with, and at the same time somewhat relieved. Seeing that his confession hadn't wrought too much damage to Jenny's opinion of him, it occurred to Giles that, having revealed something of himself, he might have the opportunity to learn something about the girl, to unravel her mystery. He answered her smoothly and easily, "Why not? It's who I am."

"But you're letting the entire course of your life be determined by outside forces."

"I chose this path."

"Only because you're running from what happened."

"Maybe so." He continued without missing a beat, "What are you running from?"

Jenny stared at him in silence for a very weighty moment. Giles could hear the couple at the table behind him fighting with each other, struggling to keep their voice at a respectable level, and the nearby woman laughing again.

"Nothing," Jenny said blankly.

She doesn't mean nothing. She means that she's not going to tell me.

He continued watching her, willing her to change her mind and tell him. He watched as her gaze drifted over his shoulder, and an expression of shock came over her face.

"Jenny, what- ?"

As he turned to see what she was looking at, Giles heard her say, "That man just turned into a dog."

Sure enough, Giles saw a greyhound sitting at the table across from a very surprised looking woman. A waiter rushed over to speak with the woman.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave, madam. There are no animals allowed in this establishment."

The dog whimpered.