TITLE: Over her (3/?)
PART: Growing Up Fast And Selling Well
AUTHOR: Gabriele Schulz
EMAIL: gabi@gschulz.de
RATING: PG (might go up)
DISTRIBUTION: Everyone who has my general permission. Others please ask first.
SPOILERS: Up to Selfless
FEEDBACK: Love it. Especially if you like the story ;-)
SUMMARY: On Buffy's 25th birthday Giles visits Sunnydale, finally over her. Or so he thinks.
COUPLES: Buffy/Giles, Willow/Anya, Dawn/OC (male), mention of Wesley/Faith, Cordelia/Angel
DISCLAIMER: The characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar Productions, Kuzui Enterprises, 20th Century Fox Television, the WB Television Network, and whoever else may have a hold on them. I do not mean to infringe upon any copyrights.
DATE: 11/07/02
--------------------------
They had finished eating without incident, except for a food attack by Harris, which resulted in the death of two flowers.
Buffy had opened her presents and was currently upstairs changing into a dress that Willow and Anya had given her.
The rest of the party had moved to the living room. Giles was sitting on the couch, with Harris on his lap. Willow and Anya were sitting next to him. Jack, Dawn's boyfriend, was sitting in an armchair with Dawn perched half next to, half on top of him.
"What do you want?"
There was no question as to what Harris wanted. She had taken an interest in Giles' glasses and had tried for the last minutes to snatch them off his nose.
"If I were you, I'd move them out of her reach and sight. Unless you like them with sticky fingerprints all over."
"And drool. Don't forget the drool."
He looked over to Willow and Anya, whose looks seemed to indicate that they knew all too well, what they were talking about.
Harris put her hand up again and he could move himself away just in time. He looked at her and she stared back. She clearly wouldn't just give up. He held her with one hand and used the other to take his glasses off. He held them up for her. She followed his every move. Then he quickly moved them to her back and took the glasses with two of his fingers of the other hand. The hand that had just held the glasses was empty.
Harris looked at the hand then around then at him. She knew that something was going on but she didn't really get it. He had to smile. At that moment she terribly reminded him of Xander. His smile faltered a bit. That Xander wouldn't see her grow up, had in fact not seen her once, was painful. But he was grateful that there was something... someone whom he had left behind to remind them of him in a more tangible manner than their many memories.
He pulled Harris a little closer to him with his free hand and put the glasses on the table.
Her new object of interest seemed to be his nose. He let her grab it, glad to notice that her hands were in fact not sticky. She pulled and instead of resisting he moved his head forward and her body quickly backwards and then up again. She laughed out loud delighted, showing her row of little teeth, two to be exact.
"She's growing up so fast."
"If you moved back here, you could see her every day. We would even let you babysit her."
"Sweety," Willow warned her.
But Anya continued. "Plus you could help out at the Magic Box. We could really use a good sales clerk."
"Well, thank you very much."
They looked over at Jack, who had obviously followed the conversation despite being involved in some serious necking with Dawn.
Giles remembered that Anya had told him about a new employee, who had caught Dawn's interest but that had been over a year ago. He had met Jack at Harris' blessing, but he couldn't recall seeing him at Xander's funeral, two month earlier. Then again bringing someone to the funeral of one of your oldest and best friends might be considered a big step in a relationship.
Michael hadn't been there. He had been at the wake, but not the funeral. Before he could ponder on this, Anya reassured Jack.
"Not to replace you. It's just that we'd love to spend more time with Harris and alone with each other and I don't want strangers running the store unsupervised."
That in turn seemed to please Jack. He obviously was considered worthy of that trust. Anya's next compliment wasn't quite as well received.
"You are really doing a good job with all the young girls."
Dawn sat up at that.
"Huh?"
"You know, the young girls who want to curse their teachers or bewitch their crushes." At Rupert's look she amended, "they can't really do magic, but you can sell them *anything*. Or at least Jack can."
"I can't believe you're using my boyfriend to charm young impressionable teenagers into buying stuff they don't need."
"It's not my fault that they couldn't hex a piece of papers into shreds if they had a pair of scissors. And he started working for us before he became your boyfriend. The charming worked well enough on you."
"I'm not an impressionable teenager!"
"You're not 20 yet and as fa-"
"Anya."
"She started."
"Uhm... maybe we could just get back to the subject at hand. Jack does a great job at the Magic Box and we cannot ask Giles to move here to suit our needs for a sales clerk or babysitter. *But*," Willow turned towards Giles, "it would be great if you could fly over a bit more often. We really miss you and Harris could put a face to the voice on the phone, if she saw every now and then."
Rupert looked at the baby on his lap. She couldn't possibly know what they were talking about but she seemed to agree with her mother. Her look was hopeful.
"It might not be necessary."
"What?"
"I... I didn't want to say anything until I was sure. The Council has asked me if I could return to California."
"That's so great!"
Willow hugged him and Anya put her arms around both of them. Harris seemed quite pleased, too. She rewarded him with another view of her little teeth. From her spot on the armchair Dawn smiled fondly at him.
"It would be wonderful if it worked out."
"If what worked out?" Buffy asked descending the last step of stairs in her new dress.
A/N:
Wow, thanks for the feedback everyone :)
I had more explanations about Xander in the original version of the first chapter, so I tried to make up for it in this one. I'm sorry. He's dead. I do love him very much, but in this story it just fit that he had died.
EmryldWing: Aww, thanks. The plan is to post a chapter a day. We'll see how it goes...
Elizabeth Anne: Thank you :) I really hope you'll enjoy what is to come. I'll try not to be too hard on B/A, but I will mention them...
trishv20: I like Willow/Anya, too. I cannot bring myself to write a full fic where they get together so I just thought I'd jump into the future where they already are a couple. Actually I think this is how this fic started.
Queen Boadicea: Yeah, for someone who's over Buffy, he seems to spend an awful amount of time thinking about her.
I'm sorry there wasn't B/G interaction in this chapter. It turned out longer than I had thought, so I stopped in the middle of the scene, with an evil cliffhanger of sorts ;)
Coming up: Some news with mixed reactions.
PART: Growing Up Fast And Selling Well
AUTHOR: Gabriele Schulz
EMAIL: gabi@gschulz.de
RATING: PG (might go up)
DISTRIBUTION: Everyone who has my general permission. Others please ask first.
SPOILERS: Up to Selfless
FEEDBACK: Love it. Especially if you like the story ;-)
SUMMARY: On Buffy's 25th birthday Giles visits Sunnydale, finally over her. Or so he thinks.
COUPLES: Buffy/Giles, Willow/Anya, Dawn/OC (male), mention of Wesley/Faith, Cordelia/Angel
DISCLAIMER: The characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar Productions, Kuzui Enterprises, 20th Century Fox Television, the WB Television Network, and whoever else may have a hold on them. I do not mean to infringe upon any copyrights.
DATE: 11/07/02
--------------------------
They had finished eating without incident, except for a food attack by Harris, which resulted in the death of two flowers.
Buffy had opened her presents and was currently upstairs changing into a dress that Willow and Anya had given her.
The rest of the party had moved to the living room. Giles was sitting on the couch, with Harris on his lap. Willow and Anya were sitting next to him. Jack, Dawn's boyfriend, was sitting in an armchair with Dawn perched half next to, half on top of him.
"What do you want?"
There was no question as to what Harris wanted. She had taken an interest in Giles' glasses and had tried for the last minutes to snatch them off his nose.
"If I were you, I'd move them out of her reach and sight. Unless you like them with sticky fingerprints all over."
"And drool. Don't forget the drool."
He looked over to Willow and Anya, whose looks seemed to indicate that they knew all too well, what they were talking about.
Harris put her hand up again and he could move himself away just in time. He looked at her and she stared back. She clearly wouldn't just give up. He held her with one hand and used the other to take his glasses off. He held them up for her. She followed his every move. Then he quickly moved them to her back and took the glasses with two of his fingers of the other hand. The hand that had just held the glasses was empty.
Harris looked at the hand then around then at him. She knew that something was going on but she didn't really get it. He had to smile. At that moment she terribly reminded him of Xander. His smile faltered a bit. That Xander wouldn't see her grow up, had in fact not seen her once, was painful. But he was grateful that there was something... someone whom he had left behind to remind them of him in a more tangible manner than their many memories.
He pulled Harris a little closer to him with his free hand and put the glasses on the table.
Her new object of interest seemed to be his nose. He let her grab it, glad to notice that her hands were in fact not sticky. She pulled and instead of resisting he moved his head forward and her body quickly backwards and then up again. She laughed out loud delighted, showing her row of little teeth, two to be exact.
"She's growing up so fast."
"If you moved back here, you could see her every day. We would even let you babysit her."
"Sweety," Willow warned her.
But Anya continued. "Plus you could help out at the Magic Box. We could really use a good sales clerk."
"Well, thank you very much."
They looked over at Jack, who had obviously followed the conversation despite being involved in some serious necking with Dawn.
Giles remembered that Anya had told him about a new employee, who had caught Dawn's interest but that had been over a year ago. He had met Jack at Harris' blessing, but he couldn't recall seeing him at Xander's funeral, two month earlier. Then again bringing someone to the funeral of one of your oldest and best friends might be considered a big step in a relationship.
Michael hadn't been there. He had been at the wake, but not the funeral. Before he could ponder on this, Anya reassured Jack.
"Not to replace you. It's just that we'd love to spend more time with Harris and alone with each other and I don't want strangers running the store unsupervised."
That in turn seemed to please Jack. He obviously was considered worthy of that trust. Anya's next compliment wasn't quite as well received.
"You are really doing a good job with all the young girls."
Dawn sat up at that.
"Huh?"
"You know, the young girls who want to curse their teachers or bewitch their crushes." At Rupert's look she amended, "they can't really do magic, but you can sell them *anything*. Or at least Jack can."
"I can't believe you're using my boyfriend to charm young impressionable teenagers into buying stuff they don't need."
"It's not my fault that they couldn't hex a piece of papers into shreds if they had a pair of scissors. And he started working for us before he became your boyfriend. The charming worked well enough on you."
"I'm not an impressionable teenager!"
"You're not 20 yet and as fa-"
"Anya."
"She started."
"Uhm... maybe we could just get back to the subject at hand. Jack does a great job at the Magic Box and we cannot ask Giles to move here to suit our needs for a sales clerk or babysitter. *But*," Willow turned towards Giles, "it would be great if you could fly over a bit more often. We really miss you and Harris could put a face to the voice on the phone, if she saw every now and then."
Rupert looked at the baby on his lap. She couldn't possibly know what they were talking about but she seemed to agree with her mother. Her look was hopeful.
"It might not be necessary."
"What?"
"I... I didn't want to say anything until I was sure. The Council has asked me if I could return to California."
"That's so great!"
Willow hugged him and Anya put her arms around both of them. Harris seemed quite pleased, too. She rewarded him with another view of her little teeth. From her spot on the armchair Dawn smiled fondly at him.
"It would be wonderful if it worked out."
"If what worked out?" Buffy asked descending the last step of stairs in her new dress.
A/N:
Wow, thanks for the feedback everyone :)
I had more explanations about Xander in the original version of the first chapter, so I tried to make up for it in this one. I'm sorry. He's dead. I do love him very much, but in this story it just fit that he had died.
EmryldWing: Aww, thanks. The plan is to post a chapter a day. We'll see how it goes...
Elizabeth Anne: Thank you :) I really hope you'll enjoy what is to come. I'll try not to be too hard on B/A, but I will mention them...
trishv20: I like Willow/Anya, too. I cannot bring myself to write a full fic where they get together so I just thought I'd jump into the future where they already are a couple. Actually I think this is how this fic started.
Queen Boadicea: Yeah, for someone who's over Buffy, he seems to spend an awful amount of time thinking about her.
I'm sorry there wasn't B/G interaction in this chapter. It turned out longer than I had thought, so I stopped in the middle of the scene, with an evil cliffhanger of sorts ;)
Coming up: Some news with mixed reactions.