Trick or Truth by Elyse

RATING: PG-13
SPOILERS: through current season six
PAIRING: Buffy/Giles--duh! :o)
DISCLAIMER: Nothing is mine, it all belongs to Joss and Mutant Enemy.
SUMMARY: In response to Tricia's trick or treat challenge, I was somehow
inspired by a little story that won't leave my head till I write it all
down. Lessee: Buffy and trick or treaters, check. Buffy in amusing
costume, check. Giles in sexy costume, check. Original reason for him to
come back from England, well...maybe not original, but at least canon.
Unsexy candy eating, check. Sexy Mr. Gordo reference, check. Scary ghost
story, well...I changed it to a scary movie because writing a story is one
thing, writing a story-within-a- story is another!
DISTRIBUTION: please ask first--I'm planning to put it on my webpage and
will be offering a direct link to my page rather than posting to individual
pages.
NOTES: Thanks to my wonderful beta, Gail!

*******

Chapter Four: Consequences

"So..."

"Um...yes, quite."

Silence.

"Giles, this is ridiculous. Obviously we need to...talk. Have words."

"I agree completely," Giles replied, a slight smile hovering around his
mouth.

More silence.

"So..."

"I believe we've already covered that territory."

Buffy struggled for words, and none were forthcoming. She'd been given a
revelation and she began to feel really stupid just sitting there saying
nothing. Finally in frustration, she got up from the end of the sofa and
sat down again, inches away from Giles. He had stopped smiling, and a
crease appeared between his brows, the first sign of growing worry. Buffy,
wanting least of all to let him build his wall between them again, laid one
palm on his thigh, and the other against his cheek. She stared into his
eyes, and found she could not look away from the emotion that kaleidoscoped
behind them. "Giles..." She sighed, dropping her hand from his face. "I
don't know where to start."

Giles took her hand in his, the worry disappearing from his face. "Neither
do I." He smiled again. "Why don't we just start together, right here, and
see where we end up?"

"That sounds like a good plan," Buffy replied, returning his smile. She
leaned forward and he met her halfway for a kiss--sweet, slow, and full of
promise. "Ah," she said as they broke apart. "No pounding heartbeats."

"And it's so much easier to breathe."

Buffy laughed and laid her head on Giles' shoulder, wrapping her arms around
his middle. She snuggled there for a moment, relishing the feel of his arms
around her.

Several minutes ticked by as they both simply sat there, listening to each
other's breathing, each getting accustomed to the feel of being so close to
the other--and thinking forward to the eventual time when they'd be getting
*much* closer.

"So, Giles," Buffy finally said. "Why don't you tell me about those high
school ogling moments you had back when I was jailbait."

Giles grinned. "You know, I only looked when you wore those tops with the
plunging necklines..."

"I don't think I owned a top that didn't plunge, Giles."

"Precisely."

"You really are a dirty old man, aren't you?" Buffy laughed, pulling back
and giving him a playful slap on the arm. A little less playfully than she
had intended, alas.

"Ow!" Giles exclaimed, rubbing his arm and giving her a look of mock
reproach.

"Oops, sorry," Buffy smiled sheepishly, patting his arm gently.

"Actually," Giles continued, "I hardly ever had the time or the inclination
to ogle, what with your tendency towards rebellion and stubbornness." He
smiled at her to soften the words.

"Well, to be honest, I can only remember a few times I let my thoughts about
you get kinky, what with your tendency to drink tea and be all stuffy..."

"Oh, I'm stuffy, am I?" Giles challenged, and pulled Buffy into a strong
embrace.

"Very, very stuffy, I'm afraid," Buffy teased.

"What can I do to convince you otherwise?" he replied, dropping his voice to
a near-growl.

Buffy groaned. "Ooh...you can keep talking to me like *that*, for
starters."

"Hmm...how about if I do this instead...?" he replied as he tilted her face
up to his, their lips scant inches apart.

Whereupon the doorbell rang.

"Bollocks."

"Yeah."

*****

"Are you sure they're here? The porch light is off."

"Buffy told me she was staying in tonight for the trick-or-treaters, and
Giles was planning on coming straight here after he unpacked at the hotel.
Anyway, the lamp in the living room is on, so they're probably in there."

Xander stopped short. "You don't think we'll be...interrupting...something?"

"Nah," Willow reassured her him. "It's only been a few hours. Even with a
spell, they couldn't have gotten *that* far...I don't think..."

They approached the front door and Willow rang the doorbell. She heard a
soft British curse, and then footsteps to the door. It swung open,
revealing an annoyed Slayer.

"What...?" Buffy practically yelled, then realized who it was at her door.
"Oh, hi guys."She smiled--a big, scary smile. "Willow. You're so very much the person I
wanted to talk to." She grabbed the witch by the arm and dragged her
inside. Xander followed quickly.

Buffy escorted Willow into the living room where Giles waited.

"Hey Giles," Willow ventured somewhat timidly.

"G-Man!" Xander greeted Giles with a handshake. "Good to see you. Didn't
know you were coming." He glanced warily between the Watcher and Buffy.
"Getting in some quality Watcher/Slayer time?" He smiled nervously.

"Xander, thank you," Giles replied smoothly. "It was all decided upon so
quickly that I only had time to contact Willow, and yes, Buffy and I have
been...er..."

"Watching movies," Buffy finished. "Among other things..." She added under
her breath.

Giles cut to the chase. "Willow, I believe you have some explaining to do."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of herbs, holding it out
where she could see it.

"So...you found my little spell, huh?" Willow said apprehensively.
"Emphasis on the little, by the way." She began chewing her bottom lip.

Buffy held out her own handful of herbs. "Willow, we found these at every
door and window. I wouldn't exactly call it a little spell." She stared
hard at her friend for a minute. "It may have put me and Giles in danger,
since the effects pretty much cancelled out my Slayer senses. I actually
invited three almost-strangers into my house because I couldn't think
straight."

Willow's eyes grew wide. "Oh, Buffy..."

"It's okay, Will, they evidently weren't vampires--they just wanted to use
the phone."

"Still, you might want to de-invite them, just to be safe," Xander
suggested.

"Yes, that's probably a good idea," Giles affirmed. "Do you have everything
you need here, Buffy?"

"I think so...Willow usually keeps that stuff in her room..."

"Along with the love spell ingredients, I presume?" Xander quipped.

"It wasn't a love spell!" Willow insisted. "Those things never go well, as
you know." She gave him a withering look. "The one I cast was for
clarification. Well, and I added a couple ingredients to personalize the
experience..."

"Ah...the dragonwort and foxglove," Giles acknowledged with some interest.

"Yeah," said Willow, "I learned that from my NA class. What did you think
of the effects?" She asked eagerly, as if he were giving an objective
critique.

"Well, it was rather..." Giles began, forgetting for a moment that his *wasn
't* an objective opinion.

"Freaky in a mind controlling way, I know you were going to say!" Buffy
interjected, glaring at Giles. Then she glared at Willow again. "This isn'
t a spells lesson, Willow. You messed around with some serious stuff..."

"I did not *mess* around, Buffy!" Willow replied with some fervor. "You
guys are treating me like you did when I was a-a magic junkie." She sat
down in the armchair. "I'm not like that anymore. Things are so different
to me now--*magic* is different to me now." She looked up at Buffy, a
silent plea in her eyes. "You've got to believe me."

Buffy sighed heavily. "Tell me then, Will. Please explain to me so that I
can understand, so that I know that you're not trying to get all
control-happy again. Can you do that?"

Willow looked her friend in the eye. "Yes, I can." Uncertainty crossed her
face. "I think I can, anyway." She fiddled with the hem on her cape. "I
learned so much those months in England. One thing I learned there is to
listen to the earth--she always knows what's going on. At least on a large
scale.

"When Giles told me about the prophecy, I knew before he did that it meant
the complete soul and body unification of the Watcher and the Slayer. I
always knew that there was a special...bond between you two. And when Giles
came back last year, even though I was...well, even then I noticed that the
bond had strengthened. You looked at him with new eyes, it seemed like, and
he did the same with you. I know you and he kept in touch the whole time he
was in England with me. I wasn't positive that it was love, but when Giles
told me that the Council was sending him back to Sunnydale because of the
prophecy, I had to do something, and I asked the earth to help me.

"The earth showed me her connections--to nature, to humanity. She showed me
the connections between all three together and to each other separately.
One of the connections that showed up the most, and the strongest, was the
one between the Slayer and the earth and nature...and the thing that bound
them together was a golden chain, and it came from the Watcher."

Buffy and Giles looked at each other over Willow's head and each felt the
truth of what she was saying, and saw it reflected in the others' eyes.

"The earth doesn't give such clear visions without you having to do
something with the information," Willow continued. "I saw in an instant
what part I needed to play, because in that vision, I also saw the walls you
each had built around yourselves. Each one was created to shut out pain,
but it also shut out your ability to actually see each other the way you
needed to be seen. My spell was made to break down those walls. You had to
be able to *see.*" She stopped, thinking she was finished.

And then she felt a glowing inside her. Her eyes flashed and turned an
incandescent green as she stood from the chair. Her hair whipped around her
face in an unseen wind. "Watcher...Slayer," her voice came, not from just
her throat, but from all around her, and seemed to rumble the earth under
their feet. "You must unite. The forces from below are approaching, and
they devour from beneath you. You...Must...Unite..." Willow felt the glow
recede, and with it her ability to stand, and she collapsed to the ground.

Xander reached her first. "Willow? Will, are you okay?" He slid his arm
around her shoulders and helped her to a sitting position. Buffy knelt on
the floor beside her, lending her support.

"Yeah...I-I think so," Willow replied, her voice small and unsteady. She
clung to Xander's arm as he helped her up to the chair. "Giles...I saw it
again...the blackness...the teeth..." She looked up at the Watcher. "The
Hellmouth is going to open soon."

"Do you have any idea when?" Giles asked softly, rubbing the bridge of his
nose.

"No. Just that it's...closer."

Buffy, agitated, sat down heavily on the sofa. "What did you mean when you
said that Giles and I must unite? That seemed pretty important." She
looked over at Giles. "You told me that you found something in a prophecy
that the Watcher and Slayer had to unite." She considered him for a moment.
"It didn't just say that we needed to have one mind and one purpose, did
it?"

"No, it didn't," Giles returned her gaze steadily.

"Okay then. I guess Willow's off the hook..."

For the third time that night, the doorbell rang unexpectedly. Buffy huffed
as she stood. "It's almost midnight. What are these kids doing out so
late?" She was muttering to herself as she peered out the door. The porch
light was off, and nothing moved outside the door. "Great," she huffed
again, turning back to the living room.

...Just as the door crashed in.

"Trick or treat!" the bandage-swathed intruder called, grinning widely.
Two more goulies, looking suspiciously like the boys who'd been invited in
earlier, stumbled in behind the first. "On second thought," the first one
said, as his face vamped out, "make that just 'Trick'."

*****