One Week Later

With some persistence and charm, I had managed to persuade Buffy to go with me to my father's grave a couple of days later, both of us placing flowers there and paying our respects to a man that had meant a lot to both of us. She had tried to apologise for not saving him, but I had cut her off before she had a chance, knowing that he had gone out the way he'd wanted, protecting his charge. I had laughed when she told me about father's first attempt to prove she was a Slayer, throwing a knife at her head. That was another Council tradition I had problems with, especially if they threw it at the wrong girl.

Getting her to admit she wanted to go home was an entirely different matter, and one that had resorted me to ordering her into my car. I could see that for all of her denials she desperately wanted to be with her friends and family once more, her own fears and stubbornness stopping her from making the first step herself. My insistence that she come with me was enough to satisfy her mind that she wasn't going of her own free will, even though she could easily throw me through the windscreen if she truly didn't want to accompany me.

My patience had been sorely tested on the trip to Sunnydale, as Buffy had been bitching and moaning the whole way about how unfair it was that I was forcing her to come with me. I'd been tempted more than once to stop the car and tell her to get out if she really didn't want to go, the only thing stopping me was the thought that she might actually take me up on it.

One thing she was very adamant about was that she was still reluctant to see her mother. She was still worried that she would be turned away and she was not ready to take that risk. I knew that I could talk myself raw trying to persuade her otherwise and get nowhere so I simply gave in, saying that she could go with me to see Rupert instead. She moaned and bitched some more but didn't argue with me about it so I knew she'd do it.

I hadn't actually informed Rupert I was even in the country, let alone coming to visit, so when he opened the door to see me standing there he was more than a little surprised.

"Tony? What the bloody hell are you doing here?" he asked, somewhere between shocked and confused.

"It's nice to see you too Rupert," I replied dryly, finding something a little off about the way he was talking. "I know better than to ask if I can come in, but I'm far too polite to just push my way past."

He gets the message and moves to one side, allowing me entry without giving consent. Buffy hadn't made herself known yet and was currently hiding, but I wasn't going to let that lie for long. I was going to push and prod her until she either did what she really wanted to do or I get my own bed in A&E.

"So why are you here Tony?" Rupert asked, deciding to get straight to the point.

"You know I prefer to go by Anthony Rupert, don't make me get the skillet again," I teased, reminding him of the last time he'd annoyed him and I'd chased him round the house with a skillet. "Before I get into why I'm here, although I don't see why I'd need a reason to see a friend, I have a present for you. I wasn't sure what to bring, and once I was sure I wasn't able to wrap it properly, so I'll just have to ask her to bring herself in." I turn round so I can face both Rupert and the door and call out to the prodigal daughter. "Come in Buffy."

There's a moments hesitation on her part, but then she makes he presence known and makes her way inside, closing the door behind her.

"Hi Giles," she greeted softly, shifting from one foot to the other.

"Buffy, my god it's so good to see you!" he exclaimed.

He rushes over to her and envelops her into a hug that can only be described as fatherly. I had been aware from his letters that he felt more for Buffy than his duties as Watcher required, but seeing it with my own two eyes I could see that he loved her like a daughter. I knew then that my vacation was going to be a lot longer than I first thought, especially when I remembered that Buffy's eighteenth birthday was a few months away.

"It's good to see you too Giles," she replied happily, returning the embrace fully.

"Yes, well, have you by any chance seen you mother yet?" he asked her, quickly letting her go and stepping back a pace or two. "She has been worried sick about you since the night you left."

Before she had a chance to reply, my laughter caught their attention as I finally realised how the old codger had been talking.

"Please don't tell me you've been keeping up that pompous accent all the time you've been here Rupert."

"What are you talking about?" Buffy asked me, flitting her gaze between Rupert and myself. "Giles always talks like that, it's what Giles' do."

"Nobody born in Camden has that accent," I informed her amusedly, "and nobody with the old moniker of 'Ripper' would be caught dead using it, or so I thought."

"Tony…" Rupert growled, trying to warn me off. He really should know better.

"I can't believe you're actually trying to keep that up with me in the room," I stated, wondering if he actually thought I'd refrain from saying anything.

He just looked at me for a few moments before sighing and giving me the best approximation of a glare that he could with those stupid looking wire-rimmed glasses of his.

"You've always been an annoying bugger Anthony, your father would be proud," he stated heatedly, allowing his natural accent to come through at last.

"Thank you Rupert," I replied happily, taking his comment for the compliment that it was.

"Giles?" Buffy said questioningly, clearly confused about what was going on.

"As your Watcher I needed to sound like someone who would be able to advise and counsel you," he explained with a sigh, making me feel momentarily guilty for ratting him out the way I did, "I didn't think my natural accent would allow me to do that so I adopted a more formal tone. I had of course forgotten that I would have to keep the accent up once I started to use it."

"So you've been lying to me from the moment we met," she stated, hurt and anger lacing every word.

"No," he replied fiercely, "nothing I said to was a lie, I simply altered the way I spoke as I thought you might listen to me more. I soon found that I was wrong, but by then it was too late. How are you?" he asked in a transparent attempt to change the subject. Buffy must be in a magnanimous mood as she left it for now and answered his question.

"I'm… dealing. Definitely doing the dealing thing."

"Have you seen your mother yet?" he asked again, a little more softly that before. "As I said, she has been worried sick about you ever since the night you… left."

I cold tell that Rupert wanted to say 'ran away', but for one reason or another changed his mind. I was starting to think that their biggest problem was their reluctance to say what they thought for fear of upsetting someone. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for tact and diplomacy, but there are times when you need to call a spade a spade, as my father once said to me.

"She's worried that she won't be let in Rupert," I answered on her behalf, not having the time or the patience to wait for her to answer herself, "given that her mother said she wasn't allowed back if she left. I of course explained that she was talking a load of bollocks but I have as yet been unable to convince her of that."

"I can speak for myself you know," she muttered grumpily.

"Oh I am more than well aware of that, it has been my experience that all women have the ability to talk the hind leg off a donkey, as my father once said to me. It's just that I didn't want to grow roots, which would have happened had I waited for you to answer."

"While Tony…"

"It's Anthony Rupert. Don't think I was joking about getting the skillet."

"… Anthony could have worded it better than he did, I have to agree with him that Joyce would never turn you away. Xander and myself have explained to her not to invite anyone in so don't be surprised by if she doesn't, but I know that there is nothing she wants more in the world than for her daughter to return home. Now I suggest that you make your way home now; Joyce normally rings me in a few minutes to find out if I have heard from you and I will in no way shape or form lie about that."

Knowing that she couldn't put it off any longer, she sighs and nods her head.

"Okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow about getting back into the swing of things patrolling wise."

"I look forward to it," Rupert replied with a smile.

"Bye Anthony, thanks."

"Not a problem Buffy," I told her sincerely, "I'll be staying around for a while so I'm sure we'll see each other again."

Buffy smiled at us both before opening the door and running as fast as her legs could carry her home, and for a slayer that is pretty fast. Once she was well out of earshot, I turned to Rupert and spoke to him in a tone I thought I'd never use with him.

"You attempt the Cruciamentum on her eighteenth and I will kill you," I stated clearly and forcefully, ensuring he knew I wasn't dicking around.

"Anthony…"

"When I first decided to come over," I said cutting him off, "the only things I had planned were laying a wreath on Dad's grave and catching up with you. I was going to keep as far away from the supernatural as was physically possible and leave as soon as I could. Then I walk into a diner and find myself threatened by a young slip of a girl that just so happened to be the Slayer, just because I had a British accent and knew you. I may not have said this to her, but I had half a mind to do as she asked and leave her in LA; at least there it was her choice whether she used the abilities that had been forced on her, raping her of her innocence or chance of a normal happy life. What stopped me was I could see she hated where she was, missed the people she had left behind, and I knew that those people were missing her too."

"I know you have never been a fan of what we do at the Council…"

"I hate the Council and everything it truly stands for Rupert," I stated firmly, cutting him off once more. "I almost cut all ties with you the day you told me you were being assigned as a field Watcher on basic principal. It took my mother, it took my father and it took my sister."

"Beverly is dead?" he asked me, shocked and saddened by the news. I really hadn't planned on telling him like that, he'd always had a soft spot for her and I knew he'd be upset "Why didn't you call, you know I would have come straight over."

"Her wishes were to be buried as quickly and quietly as possible. She wasn't even able to talk near the end and if she hadn't been Catholic I'm sure she would have ended it long before she finally died."

"For what it is worth, I'm sorry."

"So am I, that wasn't the way I wanted to tell you Rupert," I told him truthfully.

"You have every right to feel the way you do about the Council," he told me, getting back to the topic, "but you know as well as I do what the ramifications would be if I go against the Council's wishes."

"You attempt the Cruciamentum on her eighteenth and I will kill you," I stated again. "All you need to say is that you understand that fact."

"I understand," he replied, finally believing me.

"Good. So, how have you been?" I asked with a smile.