We are nearing the end, guys. One more chapter after this.

Chapter 27

Buffy giggled as they walked away from the tent towards the bridge where they had first talked upon his arrival. "Oh, did you see Dawn's face?!"

Giles groaned. "It shall haunt my dreams." Buffy laughed louder. "They all must think I'm some... perverse..." he couldn't even think of what he wanted to say. The whole thing was ridiculous.

"Psh," Buffy blew. "Let them think what they want. It's not as if we are ever going to see most of them again anyway. And those we will already know the truth."

"Easy for you to say. You aren't the... pervert."

"Hello?! You think I'm squeaky clean here? As far as they all think, I'm engaged to someone else. And I'm making out with the fath-" Buffy cut herself off. "Ew, no. Let's stop that line of thinking there."

"Please."

They got to the middle of the bridge and Buffy sat down. She poked her legs between the spokes of the railing, dangling her bare feet over the water. Her shoes were in her hand. Giles's legs wouldn't fit through, but he sat down regardless with his back against the railing, facing the other direction. They sat in relative silence, listening to the ongoing party not far from them. Something small jumped in the pond, causing the water to splash and ripple.

Giles was the first to speak. "My flight home is tomorrow afternoon." He had his head turned to the side, gauging her reaction.

She slowly nodded. "Mine was meant to be Thursday. I wanted a few days to relax and sight see. But now I have to go home and get things sorted out."

Giles couldn't help the drop of his heart. He knew she wouldn't go back to a relationship with Antony but he also never thought about her having to see him back at home again. The Italian Lothario would certainly attempt to regain her favor. "Do you plan on staying at the house?"

Buffy sighed. "I don't know. Not because I want to be with him," she quickly added. "It's the girls. I can't leave them. Even if..." She closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Antony has been fired. Of that I can assure you. Wesley handled that this afternoon, before he even found out of your alleged engagement and subsequent break up. Kimber and Leesa are being brought back to the school before being reassigned."

"What about Giselle?"

"We... will give her a choice. She can choose to come back to the school for the duration of the pregnancy. Or... she can... quit." Giles looked down at his hands in his lap.

"You mean... raise her baby? With...?" Giles nodded. Buffy turned her head away. She closed her eyes trying to force herself not to cry. "He'll finally have his family," she whispered.

Giles touched his hand to her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Buffy."

She cleared her throat and took a deep breath to calm herself. "No, its.. its fine." She looked out over the water. Giles thumb rubbed small circles on her shoulder. "I guess there's no reason to stay, then. I mean, if the girls aren't going to be there, why should I?" Giles reached up and touched her cheek. She looked at him with sad eyes. "What am I going to do now?"

"What do you want to do?" he asked quietly.

She chuckled. "The million dollar question, isn't it?"

He smiled. "I could always use an advanced techniques instructor at the Academy."

"You want me at the school?"

"If you don't want to teach, I can find something else for you." A thought suddenly occurred to him and he withdrew his hand from her cheek. "Or, were you perhaps wanting to be stationed elsewhere?"

Something flashed through Buffy's eyes but he couldn't tell what it was in the dark. She waited a moment before responding. "You'd send me away again?" she whispered.

"Buffy, I didn't send you away before. You chose where you wanted to go."

"You had Faith." She turned her head away. "You didn't need me anymore."

Giles was struck into silence. When he finally found his voice, he croaked, "Is that what you think? She was a replacement? For you?" Buffy didn't answer. Giles turned so he was sitting behind Buffy, his legs bent up on either side of her. He ran his hands up and down her arms. He nuzzled her neck, gently kissing it. "I never wanted you to leave," he whispered against her skin. "I hated having you so far away, but it was never my place to say differently."

"Giles, if it was anyone's place, it was yours. You were my Watcher. If you had asked me to stay, I would have."

"I wish I had been brave enough to ask." He was now lightly brushing his lips against her ear. "I thought you wanted to leave. To leave me."

A sad chuckle left her throat. "I thought you didn't want me anymore," her voice strained. "I thought... I thought after all that happened before Sunnydale went down, that you didn't like me anymore. That you didn't trust me."

Giles looked over her shoulder to get a better view of her. "Buffy, I could never hate you. Especially not to the point of wanting to be away from you. Even these last two years, I thought it was what you wanted."

Her lip trembled. "At first, I did," he voice croaked. "I thought I was mad at you. But, I think, deep down, way deep down, I knew the truth. And it wasn't you I was mad at, but me. For being so deep in denial that I would just overlook all the signs. I didn't want you to be right, so I pushed all my doubts and insecurities and, and fears so deep that I became oblivious of the obvious. And that's what it is now. So damn obvious." She turned away and squeezed her eyes shut as a couple tears finally escaped. "I feel like a fool."

Giles wrapped his arms around her and rest his chin on her shoulder. "Believe me when I tell you I know exactly how you feel."

"I guess you kinda do, huh?"

He hummed in agreement. "You feel... inadequate. You feel as though you have given all you can, and perhaps more, only for it to not be enough. You feel used, cheated. You wonder if there was something more you could have done. Wonder what you overlooked. Were you too pushy? Were you too needy? Were you not needy enough? Were you no longer attractive to them? Did you push them away? You wonder if it was all your fault. But mostly you wonder if this pain, betrayal, will ever go away. Or is it a punishment meant to last a lifetime?"

Buffy turned halfway around to see him. Her mouth was slightly gaped, eyes fell of sadness and hurt at what Giles had just said. He had touched on so many things that she had been afraid to even voice, but thought about all last night while in bed before falling asleep. But it was the realization of why he knew that hurt her most.

"But," he continued, "you were not at fault. I know you won't believe me. I didn't believe Andrew we he said it to me, either. But, someday, you will. And I want you to have that hope."

She held his face in her hands. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you when Bethany left."

"Me, too," he breathed.

"If I had stayed, maybe we could have avoided all of this and... and just been happy together."

His lips twitched into a barely there smile. "Perhaps. But there is nothing we can do about the past." Buffy dropped her hands to his shoulder. His eyes bore into hers and he felt a flame burning in him that he had not felt since... he wasn't sure when. Maybe never. His hand went to the back of her head. "The future, however..." he pulled her into him for a searing kiss. She immediately opened up to him and he groaned in approval. She turned to fully face him. His legs moved to adjust the new position and she climbed onto his lap. His hands went to her back and tightly held her against him. In the split second between her biting his bottom lip and pulling away to do the same to his ear, he stopped her. "We can't. Not here. And most certainly not right now."

"Why not?" she breathed into his ear, trying to get him to start back up.

"Because they are playing the Chicken Dance." Buffy quickly pulled back and gave him a very comically confused expression. He grinned when she picked up the sounds of the music coming from the reception. "Even I have my limits," he added.

"Could be worse. Could be the Hokey Pokey." She climbed up to a standing position. Slipping her shoes on she held out a hand to help Giles up. "Come on, Giles. Maybe we could request it and you can shake your magic gourd for me."

As they tried to sneak back into the tent, Giles noticed a few people still giving them strange looks. He flushed and bowed his head. Buffy huffed. She grabbed him by the jacket lapels and pulled him down for a kiss. Pulling away just enough to speak she growled, "Ripper wouldn't have cared what they thought."

"Yes, well, Ripper," he rolled his eyes saying the name in my the same tone as he said Antony's, "didn't have a daughter."

"Okay, first of all," Buffy spread her arms, "not your daughter! Second, no daughter that you know of."

Giles jaw dropped. "Why would you say that?!"

Buffy tipped her head lost in thought. "If Ripper had a daughter, she would be older than me."

"Good god! Please stop talking." Something caught Giles' attention from the corner of his eye. He took a step backwards.

Buffy's instincts kicked into high gear. She turned just in time to grab an object sailing towards her head at the last moment. She looked at the slim, silver object in her hand. A butter knife. "What the fu-?"

"I have wanted to do that all night," Christian chuckled as he walked up to them. "But during the ceremony and the wedding party dance seemed inappropriate." He looked to Giles. "You're right. That was pretty impressive." He took a swig from the beer her held.

Giles bit back a grin as Buffy turned on him. "You told him?!"

"Don't be mad at him," Christian voiced. "He has no drunk filter."

"Psh. Don't I know it. Still, I can't believe you told him! Wait, how much did you tell him?"

Christian smiled. "Oh, he told me everything."

"Everything?" Buffy asked wearily.

"You have this tattoo right about-."

"Giles!" she yelled.

Giles laughed. "I didn't tell him about that."

Christian shrugged. "Lucky guess."

Buffy growled. "I hate both you right now." She started to walk away.

Giles grabbed her wrist and stopped her retreat. "Even me?"

"Especially you." Giles let his hand slip and she started walking away again.

"That's too bad," he called out, "because I love you."

Buffy stumbled her last step, tripping over her own feet as she suddenly stopped. She slowly turned on him. "What did you just say?"

He grinned. "You heard me."

"No, I don't think I did. Say it again."

"That's too bad," he played coy.

She took a small step towards him. "The other part."

"Because..."

"Keep going." she took a couple more tiny steps.

Giles' face grew serious. "I love you."

Buffy took off like a shot and launched herself the small distance between her and Giles, crashing into him. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up from the ground. "So... this... it's real?" she asked in his ear.

He set her back onto her feet. One hand remained on her back as the other gently touched her cheek. "Very."

"Good, because I love you. I love you so damn much. I love the crap out of you, Giles!"

He couldn't help but laugh. "How very eloquent." Buffy leaned up and crushed her lips against his, both clinging to the other for dear life.

Portia, Dawn, and Willow stood arm in arm not far from the couple, but far enough not to be seen. "So," Dawn said, "that happened."

"Yeah it did," Willow smiled.

"They are so cute together," Portia gushed.

Dawn tipped her head. "Do you think if they had a kid, she would look like me?"

Portia and Willow both turned confused gazes to Dawn. "What an odd thing to say," Portia spoke.

Nessa came up behind Dawn and touched her shoulder to get the girls' attention. "Dawn, ready for the bouquet and garter toss?"

"Oh!" Dawn gave a slight jump and turned with a huge grin. "Yes! Let's do it!"

"You don't seem to care much about what people are thinking right now," Buffy said, pulling away for a breather.

"Bugger 'em all." He kissed her again.

She giggled against his lips. "I'd rather just bugger you."

"Alright, ladies and gents!" Chad announced from onstage. "It is time for all you single ladies to gather on the dance floor. We are about to do the bouquet toss!" Buffy turned to face the stage. Some of the ladies cheered. And loudly. Dawn walked up on stage, holding her bouquet. "Come on, now. Don't be shy. Let's see who the next lucky lady shall be, huh?"

Giles leaned down to Buffy's ear as she stayed planted firmly in her spot. "Aren't you going to go up there?" He kissed the outside of her ear.

She smiled and turned into him. "Oh no. That's not a question I need answered." She wrapped her arms around his neck. "You wanna get outta here?" she asked suggestively.

"I thought you'd never ask."