g120- Yes, neckation was had. And as for denial...well, there's a little a bit of that but mostly they're just confused! hehe. Thank you for the review.
zigpal- Thank you for the review and, no duh, the claps. And glad you liked this chapter; I love it when you guys say you prefer it to the original. Lets me know I'm doing something right, hehe.
rabidreject- 'On the way' is key in that comment. Hehe. Thank you for the review
A/N: Since you all seemed to respond so positively to my last author's note about season 8 etc I guess I will go alone and write it :-D. Jeez, I'm gonna be writing this into little old ladyhood ain't I? hehe
It was early morning, but late enough for the sun to have already risen considerably. The two people on the sofa stirred as the signs of morning reached them and they began to wake up.
Joyce and Rupert had fallen asleep together on the sofa, both still fully clothed in their outfits of the previous day. After the kiss last night the two had sat on the sofa together, before gradually, as tiredness of the night's event with Buffy and the portal overtook them, falling asleep side by side on the couch. Which was exactly how they woke up now.
"Mmm..." Joyce murmured happily as she shifted a little where she lay, enjoying how warm and cosy Rupert, and consequently the arms he seemed to have naturally wrapped around, was making her.
"Morning," He said quietly with a half smile, gently brushing her hair out of her face.
"Er...what time is it?" She asked reply and Rupert shifted a little so he could look at his watch.
"Just after ten," He replied, "Why?"
"The Potentials...your sister, the others..." Joyce said, eyes widening, "They're going to be here in-"
They heard the sound of the front door opening as Watchers and Potentials entered into the house. Joyce immediately scrabbled away from Rupert, jumping up off of the sofa just in time for Kennedy walking into the room. By the time the huge amount of others came into sight Giles was sat up straight on the sofa.
"Where's Buffy?" Kennedy asked, "She said we were gonna be lookin' at crossbows today"
"I...uh..I think she's in the, the basement. With, uh, with Spike," Joyce replied, patting her hair and clothes down, feeling very self-conscious that they would give away the fact that she had slept downstairs on the sofa. "I'm just going to..." She didn't finish the sentence before she slipped past the group and up the stairs.
Jacqueline watched her go with a look of curiosity on her face before she turned to look at Rupert with a questioning expression. He didn't say anything in reply, but rather he avoided her gaze, got up and walked out of the room. If that reaction wasn't enough to make his sister suspect anything, she was also almost sure that both Rupert and Joyce were wearing the same clothes they had on the night before...
"Hey who ate all the non-fat milk?" Rona demanded.
"Well, maybe that wouldn't be an issue if you ate at the inn like everyone else," Joyce said, a smile on her face but it was decidedly fixed.
"Yes, Rona," Buffy agreed, "We're not stocking in for you ya know"
"Hello? Is it my fault they dragged me out before I ate"
"The rest of us were up at seven," Kennedy told her with a smirk.
"Right. Like that's a human time"
"Hey, girls, less with the fighty chit chat, more with the passing Xander the peanut butter," Xander told them, indicating with his hand for one of them to pass over the jar.
"It's morning in Sunnydale," Andrew began to narrate as he filmed the entire, packed busy kitchen scene, "and the women of command central take time to fortify themselves for the day ahead"
"Hey," Both Dan and Xander protested in synchronization against the 'women' title.
"Women and Xander and Daniel," Andrew amended, turning the camera in their direction "I was gonna do a special intro for you guys later. Xander, the heart of the Slayer machine. And Daniel, the foreign calm amongst this raging storm"
"Really?" Xander smiled, flattered, "The heart"
"Calm amongst the storm eh?" Daniel repeated and when Andrew nodded in confirmation he grinned to himself.
"Things are tense in command central this morning," Andrew continued, doing his own version of a tracking shot across the kitchen, "Buffy is clearly concerned about some unknown danger, and the air is filled with foreboding"
"Buffy, have you seen my car keys?" Joyce asked, "I can't seem to find them"
"That's probably not the unknown danger..." Andrew reasoned half-heartedly.
"Did you check your handbag?" Buffy asked with a raised eyebrow and Joyce's expression told Buffy her Mother hadn't even thought of that.
"Look at this place," Spike grumbled, walking into the room, "Damn girls' dorm s'what it is" He lit up a cigarette and as the smoke plumed everywhere the girls groaned in distaste around him.
"Great," Dawn coughed, "Second-hand stinkiness"
Spike went to retort but before he could, Joyce plucked the cigarette out of his mouth and put it out in a make-shift ashtray (that was actually a dish) on the side.
"If you're going to smoke Spike do it outside," She told him on her way out of the room, "I'm not having my kitchen smell of nicotine"
"Well it's definitely crowded in here isn't it, gentle viewers?" Andrew spoke to the camera, putting himself in the shot, "I think it's time for some introductions..."
"What was that last night?" Rupert's question froze Joyce on her way along the landing towards the bathroom. She turned around to look at him.
"I...I don't know," She answered honestly, "I don't know what it was...and to be perfectly honest, I don't know what it means either"
"Can't it just mean...?" He stepped toward and while she didn't step away, she protested against his advances.
"Rupert, please...I can't..."
"Can't what?" He asked softly.
"Go through this again" She answered honestly, looking up at him. He continued to stand there, looking at her with the puppy-dog expression that she knew he didn't know he was actually doing, yet there it was. Tearing into her, making her want to...she sighed, putting both her hands on his chest to push him away, but the movement lacked effort and a split second later she drew him to her and began kissing him passionately, the two of them pressed up against the landing wall.
Just as the kiss became even more deeper and passionate and threatened to go places Joyce wasn't sure she was ready to go yet, she broke it off abruptly.
"Oh god," She breathed, "What am I doing?" She looked at him, "Stop confusing me"
"What, I-"
"Making eyes at me and then making me think when I don't think. But you're making me think I think so I think maybe I do think and so I'm confused!"
"You're not the only one," He replied honestly, having absolutely no idea how to translate what she had just said to him.
She pushed him a little further away from her so she could move away and carry on walking in the direction she had been previously headed. She had barely walked away two paces though when she turned back and began kissing him again. He was initially thrown but it didn't take him very long at all to give into the kiss and soon the two were kissing with the same amount of passion they had moments before.
Joyce tore away from him again.
"Dammit," She cursed as she walked into the bathroom, slamming the door closed behind her and locking it so there was no possibility for either of them to go after the other, leaving Rupert laughing quietly at her.
"Tara MaClay, a sorceress with immense power that no other could match. But this is no wicked goddess, gentle viewers, oh no; Tara is a witch of pure light and goodness using her glorious power and feminine wiles to help the Slayer in keeping the evil at bay" Andrew narrated dramatically as Tara was knelt under the dining room table trying to reach a pen she had dropped and had rolled to an awkward corner of a chair leg.
"Nyeh!" Willow said, just reaching her foot under enough to give the pen a kick in her girlfriend's direction, "You got it?"
"And where would she be without her shining star, her one true love. The dark to her light and the other half of her soul. As Tara has continuously used her magickal power for that of good, Willow was once corrupted by all that the power had to offer almost culminating in the end of our world. And it was only the love of the beautiful, flawless Tara that brought Willow back into the loving open arms of her family. So," Andrew turned the camera so now it was on both witches, "how do you two feel about the coming battle?"
"Andrew, stop filming us," Willow complained, "It's getting kinda creepy" She informed him in a quiet voice.
"But I wish to share the tale of the two lover Wiccas who have passed insurmountable o-"
"Andrew, please?" Tara asked kindly, "We're researching some new things here and we kinda need to concentrate. So, not right now okay?"
"Sure," Andrew agreed, for how could he argue against the gentile Tara? He instead left the dining room, looking for more of those he could document on film and came across one of the Watchers crossing the living room. "Ah, here we have one of the fine Watchers helping with the war to come"
"Hmm?" Cassandra, at the sound of Andrew's narration, looked over at him in puzzlement. When she saw the camera she sighed, "Are you filming again? I uh, I thought Rupert told you categorically not to do that"
"Well, see, I kinda think he was just exaggerating. It's kind of his thing, Dawn said. Exaggerating. So I figured..."
"You're still not filming me," She insisted, "I refuse to be documented like some animal at a zoo now please desist pointing that thing at me
"But...I was gonna do a whole thing on you. Like a piece," He explained, "How out of all the Watchers to arrive you are the most unlikely. No relation or direct connection to Mr Giles or any of the others and yet you are here, fighting the good fight, doing the right thing no matter the cost, even developing an unlikely friendship with the Slayer's younger sister Dawn. A true hero amongst your peers"
"A...a true hero?" Cassandra became a bit flustered by this description of her and Andrew nodded in enthusiastic agreement, "Well...I suppose I could, uh, I could do a little interview. I-I suppose..."
"We shall convene another time," Andrew told her as he heard people coming down the stairs and Cassandra nodded in shy agreement before leaving the room in the direction of the kitchen.
At the sound of whispered voices on the stairway Andrew stayed in the living room but used the camera to peer around the archway to see who was there. The magic of the zoom button allowed him to get a clear close shot of the two people.
"Rupert not here..."
"Oh, well then somewhere else then?"
"Don't be...whatever it is you're being. Not here, not anywhere" The two were stood incredibly close together and continued to speak in whispered tones.
"Joyce I..."
"Rupert, please, this...you're confusing me." Joyce pleaded with him, "And I would prefer my head to remain clear so..."
"The tension between these two is palpable," Andrew whispered to the camera, "Brought together by a magical act of mayhem the two went through an almost whirlwind romance that neither could have ever predicted, even having a daughter together- the young Potential Slayer, Lily, who...erm...is asleep.- only terrible circumstances orchestrated by The First tore them apart. However, those versed in the reading of people, such as I myself am, suspect love may once again be on the horizon" He looked back over at the staircase and so the two were no longer stood there, "Oh. They're gone" He sulked, "Never fear we shall catch up with them later gentle viewers"
"Andrew go film someone else if you don't want that bloody contraption broken,"
"But I need to film your portion of the documentary," Andrew protested and Giles sighed.
"I have no desire to have a part in this...whatever it is you're doing"
"Recording the saving of the world for future generations," Andrew explained.
"Well, right now, I'm emptying laundry which isn't exactly world-saving, so go find someone else to bother" Giles replied.
"But you're the head Watcher," Andrew said, "We have many Watchers here but you are what one could refer to as 'official Watcher'. The others turn to you for advice, guidance, they follow your lead-"
"I assure you my sister in no way has ever or will ever follow my lead," Giles interrupted, almost laughing out loud at the concept.
"C'mon," Andrew eventually resorted to whining, "Just a mini interview?"
Giles sighed.
"Will it get you off my back and allow you to leave me in peace?" He asked and Andrew nodded emphatically and enthusiastically.
"Completely. No problemo"
"Fine, ask away"
"Do you believe your relationship with Mrs Giles is being rekindled slowly through the hardships of this war to come?"
Giles just glared at the boy in response and Andrew felt he shouldn't have dived in with the heavy questions first. He should have asked him a simple one; like his favorite Star Wars character. That would have broken the ice for them.
"Joyce, Joyce, Joyce," Andrew said, shaking his head with a smile, the expression of caring disbelief. However when Joyce looked over at him with raised eyebrows from where she was washing the dishes, he quickly stood up straight and amended his tone as well as the way he referred to her, "Uh, Mrs Giles, I...mean"
"Andrew, what do you want?" Joyce asked simply, resuming her task of washing the dishes left over from breakfast.
"Just a small, unassuming interview with the woman that keeps the Slayer stronghold together. The one normal factor amongst the super and a mother figure to all that have the grace to enter her home"
"Andrew, that flattery may work with others, but I'm afraid it's not how you'll get around me"
"Ah yes," Andrew nodded knowingly as though he had known this fact all along, "Of course. Yet again adding to your simple, natural and compassionate nature"
"Still not working," She smiled, almost laughing a little at his efforts. Over the past few days she had heard and seen him compliment his way to several unexpected interviews, become privy to information they would have unlikely ever told him otherwise and wangled his way onto patrol with Buffy.
Andrew stomped his foot a little.
"Why are you and Mr Giles so hard to convince?" He asked in frustration and Joyce paused, looking over at him.
"You've spoken with Rupert?" She asked and Andrew immediately saw an opening as he plastered on a smile.
"Why, yes, yes I have," He nodded and he saw that Joyce's interest was definitely peaked.
"About what?"
"Just general things." He replied, "The Potentials, Buffy, The First, the other Watchers, you..."
"Me?" She asked, "He spoke to you about me?"
"Oh just a little," Andrew waxed casual.
"Well...I mean, what did- did he...what did he say?" She asked, dishes completely forgotten now.
"Oh just some things about the two of you, how he felt about you, the current status of your relationship" He looked at Joyce, "Care to add comment yourself?"
"Nothing that I'd want recorded on camera, no," She replied.
"What about without the camera?" He asked, placing the camcorder on the island and made as if he had switched it off record mode. He had not.
"Without the camera..." She sighed, "I still wouldn't say it to you"
"C'mon. Maybe you need to" When she looked at him as if to say 'you what?' he shifted on his feet nervously as he explained, "Coz you're not talking to Buffy about it...or Dawn...or anyone..."
"Because there's nothing to discuss with them. This is between me and Rupert. Not them"
"Nothing you want to share? No, no feelings you want off your chest?"
"My feelings for Rupert are staying where they are," She told him, "Mine and private." When he looked a little hurt by the sharp response, she relented slightly, "Look, things...emotions are a little tense for me about this subject okay? And I'm not quite comfortable with you asking these questions"
"Because you want to break up?"
"No...because I don't want to break up," She replied, "That's what makes it hard. If I wanted us to split up, none of this would be an issue for me. I'd just go along with it. But the fact that I still want to be with him is what makes this so difficult for me" She smiled slightly, almost laughing at herself, "I'm not sure whether to follow my heart or my head"
"Is that how you feel Joyce?" Rupert asked, having been stood unnoticed in the kitchen doorway and so he'd heard the entire thing.
"So you two would say you're still friends?" Andrew asked the couple, having finally scored the interview with the two of them. They were sat on the couch together in the living room and Andrew was filming them with the camera on a tripod as he asked them questions.
"What? Yeah, of course" Joyce replied, surprised by the question and Giles nodded in agreement.
"Especially with Lily-" He began to say but Andrew spoke over him, nodding knowingly.
"Ah yes, Lily. The youngest Potential and the unexpected daughter of the equally unexpected couple" When they both looked at him Andrew quickly shifted topic, "So this, friendship you two now share; do you believe it could ever go back to what it was?"
"I..." Joyce looked at Rupert before looking down at her lap, "I...don't..."
"It's..." Giles was equally without answers.
"Hmm, interesting," Andrew noted their responses. "But the two of you still love one another then?"
"Yes," Joyce was the one to reply and Giles turned to look at her with an expression of almost mild surprise.
"You do?" He asked and she looked at him in disbelief.
"Of course I do," She told them, "That's not what changed. I never said I stopped loving you. I just..." She sighed, looking down momentarily before making eye contact with him once again, "I couldn't handle anymore hurt. And every time we're together it never seems to be long before I get hurt again. I don't mean the physical stuff Rupert," She said before he could say anything, "I mean emotional. And after this last time...with The First...I just I didn't know whether I could take it anymore. You hurting me."
"Joyce, I...that's never intentional you know that"
"Yes," She accepted, "But it still continues to happen"
"God, Joyce, you know I'd-"
At that moment Rupert's heartfelt reply was cut off as Buffy walked into the living room with Wood, the two having just returned from the high school basement.
"We just spent the whole day keeping a lid on a riot," Wood told them all and neither he nor Buffy noticed how Joyce and Giles, previously having moved very close to one another as they spoke, had now reverted back to awkwardness with a distance between them on the couch.
"Ooh," Andrew exclaimed, "That would have been very exciting on tape"
"Put down the camera Andrew," Buffy told him firmly, "You're not just watching anymore. You're right in the middle of this"
"They should be back by now" Joyce said, pacing the living room. Since Buffy and Wood had quizzed Andrew on what he knew about the seal in the Sunnydale High basement the two had taken him to see if he could solve the problem. Giles, being resident knowledge/watcher guy had gone along with. And Joyce was left at home with a few of the others, pacing.
"You know if you keep walking that same bloody space duck, you're gonna wear out t'rug," Daniel commented.
"They left almost two hours ago. Where are they?" She asked, "I mean Buffy wasn't even clear on the details of what she planned to do. She just left. Taking Rupert with her. Anything could happen"
"I'm sure they're fine Mom," Dawn said, "It's Buffy. She never comes away losing. She hates losing. It's why she cheats at Life"
"She cheats?" Joyce frowned, wondering how she'd ever missed that. She always caught the two sisters at any other game they were cheating at. Dawn just sighed in response.
"I'm sure they're fine," Tara assured the woman, "Buffy's a Slayer and Giles is very good at this sort of thing, right?"
"Except when he gets knocked unconscious," Willow added quietly and her girlfriend elbowed her, "What?" She asked, "He does do it a lot"
"It can't be very good for his brain," Anya contributed, "One day he'll fall into an unexpected coma"
"God, he was so stupid to go along with them," Joyce complained, showing signs of not even having heard what Anya had said, but whether this was just a matter of selective hearing or not was unclear, "I wish he'd get impaled in the arm by one of those rioting students," She looked out of the window for any sign of him or her daughter and saw none, "Oh, I hope's he okay"
"I thought you wanted him to be impaled," Ted frowned at his aunt's sudden change in tone and his Mother, Jacqueline, threw him a reprimanding look from where she was sat.
"Her emotions are interchangeable yet intense," Anya explained simply.
"Well, ah, pacing isn't going to cause them to arrive home any sooner, so maybe you should try and sit down to wait," Cassandra pointed out and Xander nodded in agreement.
"Plus you're making me kinda dizzy"
At the moment Joyce went to reply, possibly with a sharp retort, the front door opened and the woman rushed over to see Buffy walk in.
"Oh Buffy, thank god, are you okay?" She asked after hugging her tightly.
"Yeah I'm fine," She assured her, "The choir and the band may never go back to their simpler rivalry but otherwise everything's of the good. We shut the seal down. For now anyway"
"Where's Rupert?"
"He's following on. He got knocked out at one point so he's walking a little..." Buffy trailed off as her Mother, having spotted Giles walking up the garden path, rushed out the door leaving her daughter's conversation hanging in mid-air.
Giles, making his way up the front path behind Wood, was not expecting anything random or unpredictable to happen. He especially wasn't expecting a woman to dive into his arms. He also wasn't expecting said woman to be Joyce.
"Rupert," She said, before kissing him forcefully on the lips, her arms wrapped tightly around him. Despite his initial surprise, Rupert immediately gave into the kiss, slipping his arms around her waist to hold her tightly to him, but with the way she was clinging to him, that really wasn't an issue. "Thank god you're okay," She breathed after breaking the kiss, but still holding onto him tightly, "I was so worried"
"Worried?" He asked, "Joyce, I've done things like this before...worse thing even"
"I know," She agreed, "But it felt different this time...scarier," She kissed him again, "And I didn't want you not to come back and the two of us still not..." She looked at him intently, "I can't- I don't want us to not be together, Rupert"
"But I thought you said, what with everything..." Giles reminded her but she cut him off.
"I don't want this all to be going on around us, not knowing who's gonna be still here tomorrow, and not be with you. I don't want it to end not together," She paused, "Well, if I'm honest I don't want it to end full stop. Because dying is not something I intend for a long time and-"
"Think they're back together again?" Dawn asked Buffy as the two of them glanced down the garden path at their Mother smoochifying with Giles.
"That or they're having the best break-up I've ever seen," Buffy replied, heading into the living room and her sister followed on.
"Hey," Xander said as the two sister walked into the room, "Did I glimpse right?" He asked.
"Glimpse right what?" Buffy frowned.
"You Mom. Giles," He explained, "Falling into the category 'item' again?"
Before either Buffy or Dawn could reply, the couple in question came in from the garden, not even pausing to say hello to the group in the living room, before continuing quickly on up the stairs, holding hands.
"I think that can be taken as an affirmative yes," Anya concluded.
"Maybe we're just always going to act like this" Joyce thought aloud as she and Rupert lay contentedly in bed together later on that night. They were both lay on their sides and he had his arms around her and she curled in against him, her back to him.
"What do you mean?" He asked quietly.
"All the drama and everything," She explained, before wriggling around where she lay so she was now turned to face him, "And then just getting back together like this. With the very good make-up sex," She smiled at him, "Maybe we can't help it"
"Why?" He asked, curious as to where she was going with this.
"Well, maybe because we got together as teenagers we're just destined to act like teenagers all the time" He looked at her and she elaborated, "With one another anyway, I mean"
"So you think I act like a teenager around you, do you?" He teased.
"Well you do let down your hair a little," She smiled, running her fingers through his short cut, "Figuratively speaking anyway"
"Just a little?" He asked in an almost challenging tone and before Joyce had time to react he had swung the two of them round under the covers so he was now lay astride her and she grinned up at him.
"Just a little," She repeated, just before he leant towards her crushing her mouth with his own and instantly feeling herself respond she wrapped her arms tightly around his body, her legs reaching up around him. Just as she felt she was losing herself in the moment he tugged a little to the left and the two fell on their sides beside one another. "See," She laughed slightly, "You get silly too"
"Oh isn't this just wonderful?" A voice made the two of them immediately stop what they were doing. They both sat up quickly, pulling the covers up to the appropriate height to cover what needed covering to see who was in the room with them and saw Glory perched on Joyce's vanity dresser, "The two lovers back together. It's so cute I can't stand it"
"What do you want?" Giles asked straightforwardly.
"What do I want?" Glory laughed, "Sweetie, I'm here to ask about what you want"
"If you're here to pull the Jenny card again you can save your breath" Joyce told her, causing Giles to look at her in surprise.
"No breath to save," Glory grinned, "And not sure I'd be a wastin' it anyway"
"You would," Joyce assured her.
"Please," Glory scoffed, "Like it isn't still on your mind that he's thinking about her"
"It's not," Joyce replied calmly, a tone that revealed she wasn't lying, that in fact this was how she really felt, "It's really not"
Giles put his arm around her supportively, visually unifying their stand against The First.
"You sure about that?" Glory challenged.
"She's sure," Giles said, holding Joyce a little tighter, "We're both sure"
She looked up at him with a small, small smile and in reply he kissed her head fondly before kissing her on the lips just as gently.
When the two pulled apart only a few moments later, they found The First was gone.