Buffy and Giles were perched on a pair of tombstones, waiting for two risers. Buffy sat, her crossbow leveled at the newly turned earth fifteen feet away. Buffy had asked him to accompany her this evening, saying she didn't feel right hunting alone, and that Faith was off tonight. "She's too nervous, she'll get herself killed if one of Kakistos's minions comes after her." So Giles came with, a sword strapped to his side, and three stakes stashed in various pockets.

Giles had not said a word to Buffy about Ethan since seeing him the night before, and he was curious as to the relationship between the two of them. "I trust Ethan is all right."

"Yeah. He's a bit sore, but nothing much." Buffy smiled wistfully, "Stupid pillock." The look on her face was fond, but slightly sad. "I don't understand him, but then, I understand you even less."

Giles looked at her sharply, but her attention was still focused solely on the earth that lay quiet before the tombstones. "What do you mean?"

Buffy shrugged, not able to put her thoughts into words. Then she took a deep breath and said, "Why would you hurt him? Why does he like it? He says it's because I'm the slayer; I can't understand. It's not in my nature. But I want to. He loves you." Buffy studied her hands, twisting the tiny ring on her pinky around her finger. "I've been on both ends, giving and receiving, but I took no pleasure in it. Maybe it's a man thing."

Giles sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. "You're so young, Buffy, and so innocent." "Giles, wake up! I've got at least forty years on you. I'm not young, and there's no innocence here. I've tortured people, for information, as punishment, and just revenge. I've killed for no other reason than my liege lord asked me to. I was a spy and assassin. I've been caught, you've seen the scars. I don't enjoy inflicting torture and I like being on the receiving end even less. Are you still fooling yourself?" Despite her harsh words and the strong feelings that accompanied them, she still had her eyes fixed on the target.

Giles cleared his throat and answered cautiously. "With the right partner, someone you trust, it can be..." He trailed off British watcher persona that was usually firmly in place around Buffy warred with his true self. "It can intensify the experience, if it is done well. It is liberating."

"You've fucked me, and you still can't talk sex with me without stuttering. You are a strange man, Rupert Giles." Buffy shoved a crossbow bolt into place, training the crossbow on the grave across from them. "I've certainly never had anyone I trusted wielding the whip." She shrugged.

Giles shoved his hands in his pockets, watching his slayer, wondering at the stranger was that had taken up residence in her body. "You are so different. I hardly know you."

"I suppose. I don't remember what I was like."

"Do you remember why you left?"

"No. I know what Oz and Will and Lorne have told me. Ethan says I was a holier-than-thou bitch. Will says I always dressed well. He's picked out most of my clothes. Lorne, well, he doesn't say much about what I was like before. I haven't told Willow or Xander about the memory loss. My mom still thinks of me as a little girl, I don't want to bust her bubble. Ethan has done some magic to keep my mom oblivious, but." Buffy stared across the cemetery, silent. The silence stretched out into minutes and hours. The earth a few feet away started to shift. As soon as the fledgling's heart was exposed above the ground, Buffy pulled the trigger and the half-exposed vampire disintegrated into dust. Buffy then trained the crossbow on the adjacent grave, waiting for the next fledgling to rise.

Fifteen minutes of silence later, the process was repeated, and another fledgling was dusted before even fully rising from the grave. "Not very sporting of you."

Buffy threw the crossbow across her back and began trudging out of the cemetery to where the Citroen was parked. "Do you care? They're dust."

"I care. I am happy to see you being careful. I prefer that you stay safe. I never liked sending you out every night. Before, I was always after you to be more efficient and go for a quick clean kill." Giles shrugged. "Crossbow bolts are expensive, but I'd rather buy them than have you hurt."

Buffy flashed him a grin. "I've got ten cases at the mansion. Don't worry about buying any anytime soon." Giles held the door open for her as she climbed into the car, then put the crossbow and his sword in the boot before hopping into the driver's seat and starting off. Buffy watched his hands on the steering wheel and ran one finger down his arm tracing the darkest line of hair from his finger to his elbow. "Giles?"

Giles tightened his grip on the steering wheel and cleared his voice to control his response to Buffy's feather-light touches. "Yes, Buffy."

"Were we lovers before? I mean, before I left?"

"No." Giles shook his head. "As far as I know, your only lover was Angelus."

He glanced over to see her mind thoughtfully processing this information. "Were we friends?"

Giles shrugged. "I'd like to think so. We spent a lot of time together. But, I am an old man and you are, you were, mostly a child. It was not appropriate. Hell, it's not appropriate now." Giles drove swiftly through the Sunnydale streets, heading at his house. His mind half on the memory of his vibrant young slayer just six months before, and half wondering if he could seduce the woman who wore her body now.

Buffy smirked at him as they entered his apartment. "You're wondering if you are going to get laid." She chuckled.

"What makes you think such a thing?'

"I can smell it. Vampire senses are kicking in. What does Willow call them, pheromones?"

Giles took her jacket, and hung it on the hall tree. "It could be slayer senses."

"It could be, but the vampire ones seem to be more honed to blood and sex, not tracking and stalking. The slayer senses are more demon specific. I can track a human with the slayer senses, but it's easier to just use my knowledge of tracking. But a vampire, I can feel every vampire within ten miles, I'd guess. With a little more practice, I could tell you who they are."

"Really? How many are there?"

"Do you have a map?" Giles pulled out a battered Sunnydale map, and Buffy took a pencil, marking each lair in Sunnydale and how many were there. Giles let out a low whistle when she was done. "That's amazing. I've never heard of a slayer who could do such a thing."

"Faith can do it also. Just not as specific. She knows where they are, but she can't hone into them. We're working on it. I think she's still too scared to feel out specific vampires." Buffy pushed back from the coffee table where the map was placed, crawling back up to the sofa to take a seat next to Giles. "I can tell you roughly where all the vampires I know are right now, but Faith is so afraid of Kakistos, she won't hone into individuals."

"Where is Kakistos?"

"Don't know. Never met him. But Jarnisa says his little group is holed up in the basement of a house by the beach." Buffy pointed to a pushpin on a street two blocks from the ocean. "There are about ten of them over there."

"What are you going to do about them?"

Buffy glanced at her watcher, her eyes cold and dark, emotionless. "Kill them all."

"Like that, no plan, nothing?"

Buffy shivered a bit, her body betraying an emotion her eyes did not reveal. Giles wondered if it were eagerness or fear. "I have a plan."

"Yes?" Giles waited. As the moments ticked by, he lost his patience. "Are you going to elaborate?"

"No." Buffy ran her hands over Giles' shoulders, massaging them gently. "You're tense." She ran her hand up his neck, leaning in to whisper in his ear. "Do you still want to shag?" She took his hand in hers and touched it to her bare midriff.

"Christ, Buffy!" Giles tried to look annoyed but he knew his body was betraying him. After two years of near celibacy, any chance of a tryst with a partner was welcome. "Are you trying to distract me?"

"Distract you? Why would I want to do that?" Buffy gave her watcher an impish smile. "I just want all your attention on me."