AN: Please enjoy and review!
Strength and Frailty - Ch. 5
Late Fall 2002 - Sunnydale, CA
Giles knocked on Buffy's apartment door for the seventh time, this time louder and longer, hoping that if he just kept pounding his fists against the wood she would at least get fed up enough to tell him to stop.
After driving from the Magic Box to Buffy's, he had already tried knocking earlier with no success. So Giles had spent two hours driving around the cemeteries hoping for a glimpse of her before he calmed down enough to realize that Buffy wouldn't go on a routine patrol if she was as weak as she had been. Now, Giles had already been back in front of her flat for ten minutes with a suspicion that she was hiding from him.
The sound of a door unlocking and hinges squeaking open had him looking up, confused, at the still closed door before him. "Come on, man! It's nine o'clock and I work an early shift tomorrow," a gruff, exasperated voice startled him. Giles spun around to see the opposite apartment door swung wide and a burly looking, fifty something, thickly mustached man in rumpled sleep clothes glaring back at him. "She's obviously not home."
Giles sputtered, embarrassed at his own thoughtlessness. "Oh. I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you. I-I suppose you're right. I'll, um, try again another time perhaps… uh… yes…"
Something of Giles' deep disappointment must have shown on his face as he turned to leave because the burly neighbor heaved a great sigh and grumbled under his breath and, more loudly, said, "Hold on now. Are you a friend of Buffy's?"
"Y-yes! I am." Giles about faced as he said this.
The man twitched his salt and pepper walrus mustache as he eyed Giles from head to toe, sizing him up. "Hm. You sure about that? I haven't seen you around here before." He crossed his arms.
"Well, I just returned to the states this morning and I don't see how it's really any of your business. Again, I apologize for the nois-"
"Relax! If she's not working, you might try third floor apartment 3C."
"Oh! Wh- thank you! Working?"
"Yah, graveyard shift in some dive."
"Uh… Yes. She's always worked the, um, graveyard shift… But I thought that perhaps…" Giles shook his head. No need to mention that she was unlikely to perform her job tonight.
"Right. Well, try 3C, man. Otherwise, come back in the morning or something?"
"I will. Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
By the time Giles stood before apartment 3C, he'd convinced himself that Buffy wouldn't be there. He knocked quietly this time.
A flurry of little footsteps and the door swung inside. "Oh. You're a stranger." The little boy who'd opened the door gazed up at Giles with distaste - then promptly slammed the door in his face.
Puzzled, but not particularly surprised, Giles turned to leave when he froze at the second voice behind the door. "Jacob! Your parents and I have told you a hundred times - let a grown up open the door until you're tall enough to check the peep hole yourself- got that?"
"Ookaaaay."
"Who was it?"
"I dunno. A tall man with glasses?"
Still frozen in place, he watched as the door swung in again and Buffy stuck her head into the hallway, eyes catching on him.
"Oh." She echoed the boy's tone exactly and Giles imagined that she would slam the door in his face as well.
"Buffy, please-" every emotion that had been raging within him since leaving the Magic Box filled his chest and throat so that no more sounds would come.
"Oh!" Buffy's eyes widened, understanding without words that her secret had been uncovered. "Who told-" but she was suddenly enfolded in Giles' arms, pressed tightly against him.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He pressed his lips against her head mumbling fervent apologies and other incomprehensible words into her hair. She hesitated a moment before wrapping her own arms around his waist, letting out a shuddering breath. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you," he murmured.
"Me, too," she whispered, savoring his nearness for just a moment before-
Fwap!
"Hey!" Fwap, flap! "Get offa her you-" Fwap! "You, stranger!" Fwap!
Giles looked down to see the same little boy ineffectually swinging a jacket repeatedly at his legs. "Um…"
Buffy stepped back. "Jacob, wait-"
The boy whipped the jacket into Giles' face, zipper and fabric stinging him and blinding him temporarily. "HiiiiiiYAH!" Jacob sent a vicious kick to the side of his knee cap and Giles' legs buckled painfully.
"Arrgh!" Giles hit the hallway floor back first, his head quickly following to smack smartly against the wall.
"Jacob, no!" Buffy chided, scrambling to Giles' side.
"What is going on here?!" another woman's voice entered the fray.
"Mommy, it's a stranger!"
"Ung…" Giles groaned.
Buffy sighed, bringing a hand to her forehead. "Sorry," she said calmly, addressing the woman that just stepped off the elevator, rushing toward them down the hallway. "This is Giles. He's an old friend of mine and uh, Jacob… well… he-"
"I did what you taught me, Buffy!"
"He, uh, takes stranger danger very seriously?" Buffy sent her a sheepish grin.
The woman, dressed in her blue waitress uniform slowed down as she reached apartment 3C, taking in the scene before her. "Okay…" Jacob stood, or rather bounced, in the open door, fists up, while Buffy helped the handsome older man to his feet. "Is he alright?"
"I'm fine," Giles grumbled, letting Buffy run her fingers through his hair trying to find a lump. He hissed when she found a small gash with her fingertips.
"Oh, Jacob," the boy's mother sighed. "You need to apologize. Buffy is obviously friends with this man."
Before the little boy could protest, Giles spoke up, "No need. I wouldn't be in Sunnydale if I didn't have a head wound. You, young man, are a force to be reckoned with," he said dryly. Buffy was tugging his head down so she could see the cut better.
Jacob beamed. "Buffy trained me!"
"Oh, she did, did she?" Giles smiled as he caught her eye, causing her to blush without knowing why.
"I'd better get Giles something for his head at my place, Heather," she said quickly to Jacob's mother. "Jacob's already had his dinner, his bath, and his bedtime story, but he'll probably need another one after all the hubbub." She looked at Jacob who was just about bouncing off the wall. "Uh, better make it two more bed time stories."
Heather watched her son practically vibrating with excitement and nodded in agreement. "Thanks for watching him again, Buffy. And sorry for all the trouble, Mr. Giles. What do you say, Jacob?"
"Thank you, Buffy," he parroted dutifully.
"Anytime, buddy," she smiled.
"And?" his mother asked.
Jacob looked confused, then looked a the adults for a cue. Getting no hints, he just guessed, "Thank… you, Mr. Giles?" His mom rolled her eyes, but Buffy's friend just laughed.
"It was nice meeting you, Jacob." Giles extended his hand to him.
"Oh! You, too!" and he shook it vigorously, like in the movies. Giles just laughed again.
"Ok, you. First aid kit. Let's go." Buffy waved goodbye to mother and son then bossily ushered Giles toward the stairs.
Giles wordlessly followed Buffy back to her tiny apartment where she unlocked the door and motioned for him to go near the bed. He obeyed while she disappeared into the bathroom to rummage through her large first aid chest. The tension that had temporarily dissipated while speaking to the young boy and his mother had returned twofold. He tossed his glasses onto the desk and rubbed his eyes. His head throbbed dully, but it was bearable. However, all he could think about was how much worse it must have been for her to recover from a bullet wound. How close he had been to never seeing her again and to never making things right between them.
"You'll need to sit. You're too tall for me to see your cut well." Buffy walked out of the bathroom with a few supplies in her arms, not meeting his eyes.
He sat on the edge of the bed and watched her as she laid everything out on her desk neatly.
She turned and stepped between his knees, gaze directed above his head. "Tilt your head forward." He complied, but she tutted. "A little more." She took a step closer and stood on her tiptoes, running her fingers through his hair and across his scalp again, searching for the gash. Finding the small scratch near the crown of his head with already dried blood, she cleaned it throughly and sealed it with an over the counter liquid bandaid. She allowed her fingers to trail through his hair once more under the pretense of smoothing it back into place. All the while, Buffy's heart thundered in her chest with awareness.
Had she ever stood this close to her Watcher? Touched him so intimately?
She swallowed thickly and turned to clean up the desk, but was stopped by Giles' hands on her waist. Buffy froze and he tiredly lowered his forehead upon shoulder. "I'm sorry," he repeated brokenly and she was shocked to feel hot tears upon her skin and to see his back shudder with unsteady breaths. "I'm so, so sorry." He gripped her shirt tightly as if afraid to actually hold her.
Buffy, still unsure, but unable to just let Giles cry, placed her hands on his head, stroking his hair gently, carefully avoiding his cut, and murmured, "Please don't cry, Giles," tears filling her own eyes.
Perceiving her attempt to comfort him only caused him to hiccough and finally wrap his arms around her securely, burying his face in that hollow between her shoulder and neck, and bringing her to stand nearly flush against him. Her arms automatically enfolded him, her cheek resting against the top of his head while one hand held tight to his back, the other continued to soothingly comb through his now thoroughly tousled hair. She wept, too, for all the hurt they kept causing one another, for all the longing and regret. Giles held her tightly when he realized she was also crying even as he continued to shed his own bitter tears.
They held fast to each other, giving and taking comfort in turn.
AN: Holy crap. That took forever to write - and didn't go where I expected it to go. Few more chapters to go, I think, and the next in the works. I hope you like it so far! I truly love hearing from you, so please send me a your thoughts.