Consequences of Adulthood
As the Summers girls made it back to the hotel, Giles was just getting into his room. Luckily this time Ethan had not cast a spell on him, well…not any spell that Giles could notice. He assumed that having Alan around had tempered the chaos mage's usual tendencies or perhaps it was the fact that Ethan's daughter was close by.
The night had been an in depth discussion of the behavior of dinosaurs and the environment involved in creating a world for them. He had a brief understanding of dinosaurs from his experience as a museum curator where he had met Alan Grant years ago. But that understanding was quite brief. He was sort of an "arm chair dinosaur hunter" or some such in his former capacity and had not kept up on the science aspect of things.
Here however, he was confronted by the new knowledge of these monsters. In a world that already had plenty of demons there was no need for a species of super predators or even several species of super predators to be created. And it was not like someone could control them like the Initiative had done to Spike. Or could they? Oh, no, that was a line of thinking that could only lead to badness. OH GOOD GOD! Had he actually thought that? "Badness?" Clearly Giles was in dire need of more interaction with people his own age. And sleep.
He was just about to close the elevator as Buffy caught the door letting her and Dawn into the elevator.
"Giles!" Buffy said. She gave him a big hug.
"Buffy, although I can ascertain that you are in a good mood, however, I myself am quite tired," the Watcher said straightening his glasses. Buffy extracted herself from her surrogate father and he was hugged by Dawn instead. Giles sighed. Granted, he had been slightly uncomfortable by their hugging, but he had been touched by the fact they considered him family even if he wasn't blood kin. Considering the troubles Giles had with his own father, this was a considerable thing. "Please tell me no one cast a spell on you two."
"Nope!" Dawn said, still hugging him. "We just met our family. Our aunt Sonya is cool. Lex is spunky, but Tim is kinda boring."
"I wouldn't call him boring, he's just kinda shy," Buffy said. "You smell like beer, whatcha been up to?"
"Dinner with an old friend," Giles said, "and a few pints afterwards."
"A lady old friend or a man old friend," Dawn asked finally letting go.
"Alan Grant, an old friend from when I was a museum curator," he answered. "And then another old acquaintance visited."
"Who was that?" Buffy said.
"Well, at the risk of ruining your good mood," Giles started ominously, "it was Ethan Rayne."
However, upon hearing that name there was a moment of stunned silence, broken only by the lurch of the elevator. Suddenly the two sisters were poking him with their fingers as if to find something wrong with him. And these weren't simple probing fingers of a nurse or doctor, these were full on jabs with Slayer strength behind half of them. After a few brutal moments the two girls were satisfied that Giles was physically at least still Giles. Then the verbal portion of the test began.
"What is your name?"
"You know my name, Buffy."
"Say it," threatened Dawn.
"Rupert Giles,"
"What is Xander not allowed to call you?"
"Oh fine, he isn't allowed to call me G-Man," Giles answered with an annoyed tone.
"What is Dawn's birthday?"
"I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that question off the top of my head, as you well know I'm terrible with birthdates," Giles said. "I usually recall them at the last minute because you wrote them on my calendar."
"Correct," said Buffy. As the Slayer thought of another line of questioning, the door opened to reveal Willow and Tara who were just about to head out on the town.
"Giles," Tara said quietly. "There's something wrong with your aura."
"A-HA!" Said the Summers girls in unison.
"I was right, he did cast a spell on you," Buffy said, crossing her arms and nodding in righteous pride.
"Who cast what?" Willow asked, her interest suddenly peaked.
"Giles went out drinking with Ethan again," Dawn blurted out. It was like she was telling on him for stealing from the cookie jar. Willow joined in with the disapproving stares.
"Who's Ethan?" asked Tara.
"I am fully an adult. It is entirely appropriate for me to have a pint or two with a friend," Giles said, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Ethan was invited by Alan. I didn't know he was going to be there. So for all intents and purposes, Ethan joined us rather than I went with him."
"So, Witchy-witches, what's all woogy about his aura," Buffy asked, ignoring her Watcher's protests. Tara looked closer at the aura and shrugged.
"I don't know, it's just…weird," she finished in a small voice. All the girls started going over the evidence. Dawn snapped her fingers as a thought came to her.
"Giles, you can't sleep!"
"What? I very well can, I've been up all night and I will have a rather bad headache if I don't," the Watcher argued, suddenly finding himself trapped in the corner of the elevator, unable to escape. "I find it will be rather easier for me to sleep than normal."
"Uh-uh," Buffy said, shaking her head. "The last time Ethan visited, you needed to sleep for the spell to go into effect. You aren't allowed to sleep until we figure out what he did."
"Buffy, I seriously doubt Ethan would try the same trick twice," Giles said. "As much as I hate to give him credit for anything, he is far too clever for that." The three girls who knew the chaos mage all sighed and nodded in agreement. Giles took that opportunity to slip between them. "Which is, of course, why I am about to sleep."
There was a strange sense of satisfaction as he managed to slip into his suite and close the door before Buffy was able to stop him. He didn't even make it to the bed. He loosened his collar and fell asleep on the couch. His dreams were filled with dancing dinosaurs eating tourists and vampires. It was a pleasant dream.
Although the tyrannosaur singing "Carmen" was a bit odd.
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