Chapter Fourteen: Answering Questions
"Just give it some thought, Willow, even if you don't want to join them permanently, Mac really could use the healing right now. You don't have to make the final decision until you are completely ready," Giles said into the phone.
"Alright, Giles. Xander and I will be there in a few days, a week at the most. We were planning to stop by ground zero to get all the things you wanted and some other stuff. We'll call when we're on our way."
"Thank you. Be careful." Giles wished her well and disconnected.
"Time to go Xander, I need to get some questions answered. I need to know if I failed them," the somber red-head said.
Xander also needed the answers. They had fled Sunnydale while it was collapsing so they both needed closure that could only come with going back to where it all happened. By now the swarm of emergency rescue teams would have left and they should be able to poke around the outskirts of the sunken city and with a bit of magic, get to the ruins itself.
The drive to the cabin was near thirty hours so they packed all the food left in the fridge and the few of outfits they'd gotten, closing up the cabin tight since they didn't plan to return and didn't want to leave it a mess for their kind, and apparently terribly injured, host.
Rather than driving straight through with minimal breaks, like they had done the first time, they took two days then found a local hotel to use for their "base of operations." Willow wanted to do a few preparatory spells out of sight from the locals so they could get in and out as soon as possible. It had only been three weeks since Sunnydale sunk and while they were sure all major efforts at emergency rescue would be over due to the evacuation leaving only them behind, they were also sure they would be noticed poking around the huge crater. Camouflage spells on both of them would allow them to walk around without complications.
The crater created by the Hellmouth's collapse was akin to a meteor landing, it seemed like nothing was left, nor could be left. Willow and Xander, however, knew all too well that looks were deceiving when it came to the Hellmouth.
"Gotta say, this is freaking me out," Xander confessed and clung to his best friend while she flew them to the center of the crater, where they knew ground zero was; where their friends had died.
"I told you, you don't need to hold on like that. The magic will hold us both, just hold my hand."
"Yeah I heard, but my mind disagrees with my ears," he quipped while his wide eye watched the ground go by under them.
Willow rolled her eyes and partially smiled, shaking her head gently, same old Xander, she thought. She set them down and shivered, but not from cold, "This is it, right here."
"What do you want to do?" Xander asked hugging her gently.
"I want to give them a proper burial. Their families deserve to have a place to go to mourn, and they deserve better than to be piled up under the rubble." She sent her senses down and all around to both find the bodies and see if there was more she could have done to prevent this from happening.
"There were so many. Where will we put them until they can be taken home?" Xander asked hesitantly, the thought of all the slayers' bodies was overwhelming.
"That won't be a problem. I'm one with the Earth now; I can put the bodies in cemeteries by their homes. I'll have to contact the families to let them know where they are and where to put the gravestones." She thought quietly for a moment, "Where should I put Buffy and Dawn? This was their home."
"Our's too. Where are we going to go now?"
"Colorado Springs for a bit, after that, who knows."
"I guess I'll be staying there. Jack and I talked about me joining the Air Force, to work at his base. Giles also said he might go to work with Daniel in the research department. You should join us, Will, we should all stay together." Xander couldn't stand the idea of them splitting up, not even from Giles, they'd lost too much too fast, if Giles moved away from them, well Xander didn't want to think about that at all.
"Maybe, if there's a place for a witch/hacker in the Air Force," Willow said with a shrug.
"I'm sure you can work with Daniel and Giles in research," Xander offered and then got an idea. "We could put Buffy and Dawn in L.A. where their dad is."
"Buffy's dad, no, not good. Joyce was buried here at our cemetery and her dad would expect Buffy and Dawn's bodies to be lost with Sunnydale. We're the only family they have now."
Xander nodded solemnly and was quiet for a while, but then he perked up. "You saw all that land around Jack's cabin. It was really beautiful. I think after a life in the city battling the undead maybe they'd appreciate a mountain view."
Smiling fully now Willow nodded, "That's perfect. I'm going to put Joyce there with them. I think they'd like that," then softly she whispered, "Tara, Kennedy and Anya too."
Quietly Willow worked her magic and Xander saw nothing happen, she explained it was all happening underground. She even found a place for Andrew, their former foe turned ally, to spend his eternal rest. Giles had been right, however, when he said Willow wouldn't resurrect any of them, and not just because of the "hitchhiker" that returned with Buffy. The whole can't raise Tara, Dark Willow, situation taught the young witch a lot more than even Giles knew, and while it hurt, and she cried while she moved the bodies, she knew it was better this way. This was also helping Willow and Xander gain the closure they needed while they hugged, cried and told stories about those they loved and lost.
Once all the bodies were relocated, taking far less out of Willow now than it would have before she so thoroughly connected with the Earth, she brought up the Slayer Scythe and handed it to Xander. "This should be passed on." Xander agreed and shook the dirt and vampire ash off the weapon. "Let's go back to the hotel. Tomorrow we will go over to the Magic Box, Giles's apartment, and Buffy's house for the stuff Giles needs."
The next few days consisted of Willow teleporting books, artifacts, and other "special" items through the earth to a nearby abandoned area of land where Xander waited with a rented moving van, picking up the objects when they appeared "growing" on the garden ground, and loading them on the truck. It was a lot of manual labor on his part, but he was glad because it worked out his body while he worked out his mind, contemplating a future in a special unit of the Air Force that he had no idea what they did. Life as a carpenter was appealing, but he knew he'd get bored without any action of the slaying variety. For a moment Xander even hoped that it was like a different branch of the Initiative so his special skills of vampire staking could come into play.
Willow was so busy she didn't have time to think at all until their drive to Colorado Springs. /Giles we're on our way/, she told him telepathically.
For his part, Giles wasn't expecting the mental contact and spilled his tea on his lap. "Bloody hell!" he cursed aloud and stood up sharply, getting a mental giggle from the witch and a concerned look from Jack.
"Yeah, you tell it who's boss. It jumped out and attacked you. I saw it," Jack deadpanned, earning a frustrated glance from Giles.
"It was Willow. They're on their way," he explained sopping up the tea with his napkin, wishing, not for the first time, that it was linen rather than paper.
"What was Willow?"
"Telepathy, she spoke in my mind. I wasn't expecting it just then," Giles explained distractedly, taking off the wet pants, glad the tea hadn't been hot enough to scald him.
Jack gave a wolf whistle.
Frustration from being drenched in tea gave way to confusion, "What?" he asked bewildered, but he saw Jack wiggling his eyebrows at him, looking at his boxers. He became flustered and blurted, "Oh for heaven's sake, Mac!"
"Heaven sent if you ask me," Jack grinned widely.
"Incorrigible! You're absolutely incorrigible!"
"Encourage-able too," another eyebrow wiggle.
"Oh you! You're lucky you're broken or I'd throw my wet pants at you and let them cool you off," Giles said with a straight face, but then gave in to laughter. "Knowing you, you'd probably enjoy that!"
"Probably," Jack conceded. "So they're on their way then?"
"Yes," Giles agreed and checked to make sure his boxers weren't wet.
"You could take those off, you know," Jack said and when Giles gave him a clueless look continued, "the boxers, shirt, all of it. I'm stuck in bed; you could at least give me something nice to look at. Your calves tell me you still work out regularly," Jack gave a sly smile.
Giles looked shocked at first, then smiled taking off his glasses and cleaning them with the handkerchief he had to fetch from the back pocket of his wet pants. "Yes, a matter of fact I do," then came the expected change of subject that happened anytime sex or anything sexual was mentioned and he had been recently talking to or thinking of one of his students. "I'd best get these in the wash," and just like that he left the room quickly.
When Ripper joined the Watcher's he became the more stereotypical uptight proper Brit. Jack thought that it might change their relationship and things were a bit awkward at their first reunion after his training, for about a half hour. As they talked Giles started relaxing, seeing Jack was pretty much the same and was very accepting of his own extraordinary change. Soon he and Jack were laughing and exchanging stories both new and old, and Jack knew things would be fine. Giles was now less death defying, but just as passionate about his beliefs. The man's inner core was the same to Jack because behind closed doors a lot of "Ripper" was the man he saw before him. The brash and bluster of his public persona was dropped at the door and he was still a fun, intelligent man with remarkable ideas. The romantic and sexual attraction remained and they found themselves back on familiar grounds quickly.
Since that day there'd never been any question whether or not Giles's change had lost them their friendship, and until this last visit, no question of a change in their desire. This time it was not really desire that had been questioned, but more of a "has too much time passed" for Giles to assume such a close familiarity like they had shared in the past. Prior to Charlie's death the two hadn't been apart for more than two years, with occasional phone calls between. Then after the two week visit following the crystal entity's helping Jack, they hadn't gotten to see each other at all until Giles and company arrived at the cabin.
Both men had gone through their own issues that kept them apart, but Giles did think of Jack, especially when the Initiative's military missions reminded him of his own Special Forces man. Jack's thoughts of Giles were far less frequent due to his nearly constant need to save the world, but that didn't lessen Giles's importance to him.
Now that Jack was on a forced leave of absence he was surprised how happy he was to have Ripper with him again. Jack counted so much on SG1 to be there for him that he hadn't remembered how good life had been with the Englishman. It felt good to be able to trust someone outside the SGC, despite the fact that he was trying to get Giles into the program. He was a memory from days when Jack was a lot younger and idealistic. He preferred going on his missions without guns then and letting his intelligence be the only weapon he needed. But Iraq changed that Jack into a far more suspicious gun toting soldier who brought as many weapons as he could everywhere he went. Still it was Giles who ultimately helped him put some of those nightmares behind him by being there for him in a way Sara never could be.
"Mac? Are you alright?"
"Huh?"
"I've been talking to you…"
"You were? Sorry," Jack had a sheepish look, "I was lost in memories."
"Good ones I hope?"
"Some good, some bad; remembering the old days before and after my time in Iraq."
"Oh… well…" Giles said awkwardly at a loss for words.
"I remember how you helped me."
Now Giles looked into Jack's eyes, "I wish you'd told me about Charlie far sooner than you did so I could have helped you then as well. You shouldn't have had to deal with such a tragedy without someone who was there for you specifically. I know Sara was there, but it was her loss too, so neither of you could truly be there for the other as I know you must have needed."
"Honestly, I was too out of my mind. I probably would have lashed out at you too. I lost Sara when I lost Charlie, for the exact reason you said. I couldn't be there for her how she needed me to be, I wasn't strong enough."
Giles sat down next to Jack and put his hand on Jack's cast covered hand. "Now I can better empathize with your loss than when you first told me. Though not ever having had children of my own to lose, I'll never completely understand."
"And I hope you never have to, but we went through all the tears over Charlie last time. This time I'm here for you and your loss," Jack said softly. The turn of conversation had killed Jack's romantic mood, not that he could have done anything about it in his current condition. It was good Giles played it shy and came back in a new pair of pants, sweat pants this time.
Letting Jack "take care of him" Giles laid on the bed next to him and in a much calmer manner than he had before, spoke to Jack about what exactly had happened and while occasionally he let the tears flow the conversation was much more cathartic than crying at the cabin had been.