Author: Nicole
A/M: See part 1 for disclaimer and author's note.
"If I leave here tomorrow
Would you still remember me?"-Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd
"She seems to be having a pretty good day, Mr. Harris," the nurse said warmly. Xander nodded absently, glancing over at Giles, who stared blankly at the door to Buffy's room.
"I'm gonna talk to her first, tell her you're here." Giles nodded, pushing his hand through his graying hair. Xander was struck by the drawn look of the Watcher's face, the clouded look of his changeable green eyes. Giles had aged ten years in as many weeks, it seemed. Xander doubted he'd slept since receiving the phone call three days ago.
"I suppose that'd be best," Giles agreed, his voicing shaking with more than exhaustion. Ducking his head, he pulled his glasses off to wipe them methodically with his handkerchief.
Watching such a characteristic action, Xander felt his throat start to close up. Before he could stop himself, the name came up in a strangled murmur.
"Giles..." They both looked at each other intensely, searching the other's gaze.
"Yes?" Giles asked cautiously, restraining himself.
"...Just wait here," Xander mumbled weakly, turning from him to push the door open. "Hey, Buffy!"
Giles heard all the warmth that had been missing from Xander's voice concentrated in those two words, and he sighed in frustration as the door swung shut behind him. Turning away, he met the concerned gaze of the nurse.
"Sir, I didn't catch your name..." she said slowly. "I'm Elizabeth."
"Oh, forgive me." Giles took her hand. "Rupert Giles."
Elizabeth brightened. "Giles? Oh, you're practically all she talks about. Good of you to come."
This didn't serve to ease Giles' anxiety as he murmured an empty reply, turning back to the door. The door suddenly opened, and Xander poked his head out, a falsely cheery smile plastered on his face.
"Come on in, Giles!" he said loudly. Taking a deep breath, the Watcher went to face his Slayer.
The girl who sat cross-legged on the bed was painfully slender, with wide, luminous blue eyes and a sheath of dark blonde hair that obscured her pretty face. Physically, she was unmistakably Buffy Summers, but when Giles looked her in the eyes, he saw nothing in the expression that he recognized.
"Hi," she said calmly, glancing up at him with little interest. "Who are you?"
Giles felt his stomach churn with fresh nausea, but before he could reply, Xander let out a choking sob, turning away from them. The Watcher fought his own urge to scream in horror, instead forcing his face into a gentle smile.
"Hello, Buffy," he replied in a soft, steady voice. "I'm Giles...do you remember me?"
"Of course I remember Giles." The young woman peered at him suspiciously. "My Watcher. But he's in England...you're not Giles."
"Yes, well, I came back, Buffy," he told her in the same low voice. "I heard you weren't feeling well, and I wanted to see you."
"No," Buffy shook her head. "No. Giles wasn't going to come back...I was too dependent, and I needed to learn to do things on my own, needed to be the Slayer."
Giles looked around quickly to see if the nurse had overheard, but then realized that Buffy must have said many things to that effect if she had been talking about him as much as the nurse had said. Hoping it would be ignored as the idle rantings of a broken mind, he shrugged it off.
"Sometimes people are wrong, Buffy," he said with a soft sigh. "Sometimes, it's all right to have help."
Buffy rolled her eyes at this. "Whatever," she said dismissively, and it was so like his old Slayer that Giles felt tears well up in his eyes.
"Buffy..." he whispered desperately, unconsciously reaching out to touch her hand. Blinding anger suddenly flashed across the girl's face, and she lashed out frantically.
"Don't touch me!" she shrieked as her flailing fist came into contact with Giles' face. His head jerked back violently as he tasted blood. Had Xander not rushed up from behind to support the older man, the uncontrolled Slayer strength would have knocked Giles to the ground. As it was, the Watcher sank heavily into Xander's arms, staring dazedly at Buffy as he raised a hand to gingerly touch his split lip.
Buffy's blue eyes widened in horror as she saw him bring his fingers away, wet with blood. She shook her head repeatedly, pulling her legs under her, wringing her hands. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to...it was an accident..."
"Buffy, Buffy...it's Giles!" Xander exclaimed, pushing Giles' still shaky form to the side. "Look at him, will you just look at him?"
"Xander," Giles cut in quickly, but Xander kept talking, kneeling on the bed to look at Buffy intently.
"Buffy, come on, it's Giles, you know it is," he said in a low, intense voice, staring into the Slayer's eyes.
"I hurt him," she said uncertainly. "He's bleeding."
"It's okay, he's not mad, he doesn't mind." Xander was speaking quickly now, a slight undercurrent of excitement. Giles watched him with a frown, seeing the manic gleam in his eyes. "You've hit Giles more times than that..."
It was exactly the wrong thing to say. "Giles is not here!" Buffy screamed.
"Yes, he is!" Xander shouted back, slamming his fist down on the bed. Buffy cried out, a high-pitched plea for help as she backed away from Xander.
"Xander, that's enough!" Giles snapped sharply, grabbing the younger man by the shoulders and pulling him roughly off the bed. As the nurse came in to soothe the frantic patient and shoo the visitors away, Xander stumbled into the hall, running blindly.