Buffy yawned as she headed down the stairs to the kitchen. She was still feeling out of sorts. Hopefully Giles would know what was wrong with her. Surely she wasn't really losing her strength! She smiled at her mom when she reached the kitchen doorway, but it faded when she spied the kitchen island. Two flower arrangements were sitting in the center of if.

One was a selection of lilies and carnations. The other was fresh cut daisies. Ethan. It had to be. She couldn't believe how irritating that man was! If she ever saw him again…

Buffy shook off the anger and looked at the other flowers. "Ooo! Presents!"

Joyce sighed and faced her daughter. "Not exactly."

Buffy pulled the card from the other flowers, noticing the tickets for the first time. Disappointment filled her, but she shoved it aside quickly. She should have known better. She hadn't seen her dad in almost a year, but apparently his quarterly projections were more important.

So what if it was her birthday. Her 18th birthday. It was just one more thing in a long list of things that she had come to expect her dad to overlook, miss out on, or outright blow off. She knew this was just how it was. So why did it keep hurting her so much? Why couldn't she just not expect anything from him?

A flashof anger hit her, so Buffy grabbed the daisies and carried them upstairs. She set them on her vanity and plucked the card from the little plastic fork. After all, what could Ethan possibly say to make this day worse?

Happy 18th Birthday, Pet.

E.

Buffy tossed the card onto the table and lightly touched one bloom. It wigged her out to think it, but at least one person kept things simple. No expectations, no disappointments. Just a simple vase of flowers to celebrate her birthday.

Buffy was numb. She heard every word spoken. She heard every nuance of every word. But none of it really touched her. She was too numb. Betrayed. By the one man she trusted above all others. He had poisoned her. He had scared her. And he had lied to her. He had thrown her to the sharks (or vampire, as the case may be) simply because he was asked to. And her mom had suffered for it.

Tears stung her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She wouldn't give the squat little toad from the Council the satisfaction of knowing they had broken her trust in Giles. And, really, that's exactly what they had been trying to do. She might be young. She might not know much. But she knew all about bullying.

And that's what the Council was doing. They wanted to bully her. To make her afraid of them. It would be easier to control her if she was scared. Well, let them think they had won. Let them send another watcher. If they thought she was too independent with Giles, wait until they got a load of her attitude now.

Travers finally left and Buffy watched Giles warily. He knelt in front of her and began gently cleaning her wound. She searched his eyes, but she didn't understand what she saw there. Anger, pain, fear, and something else. Stubbornness, maybe? Determination?

She let him wash away her blood because she didn't have the will to stop him. She just wanted to go home and put this night behind her. She'll decide tomorrow what she will do next.

Buffy threw herself across her bed and tried hard to stifle her sobs. Her mom was freaking out, still. She had been wigging when Buffy got home. She wanted the slaying stopped. She wanted Giles gone. She even wanted Buffy to be home schooled. Buff y knew it was just her mom blowing off steam, and tomorrow she would take it all back. Her own body was still weak and now in a lot of pain. And her heart… She couldn't stop the feeling of betrayal from rising up again.

How could Giles do that to her? Was this punishment for Angel? Had Giles been biding his time, waiting for the moment he could hurt her? He had defied the Council, though. And when Travers fired him, Giles swore he wasn't going anywhere.

Buffy rolled over onto her side and hugged Mr. Gordo to her chest. She spotted the daisies and sniffled. Ethan was evil. She knew that. But he was pretty much the only person she understood at the moment. She knew his motivations. He just wanted to tease her. She knew he was absolutely untrustworthy. But right now, he was the only person in her life that made sense to her.

"And how sad it that?" she asked herself sadly.