Was It Always Like This?

Chapter 16

Buffy helped him into a chair and went to the bottom of the stairs. “Willow bring down the first aid kit for Giles” she yelled and headed for the kitchen to get a bowl of water and some towels.

Giles winced at her shout and gingerly tried to hold the handkerchief against his nose at the same time as removing his jacket.

“Giles” Willow shouted as she ran downstairs. “What happened?” she skidded to a halt in front of him and gently took over the blood staunching duties. “I told you I should have gone with Xan” she sighed at him. “Even you couldn’t have upset Dawn enough to make her punch you out”

Buffy smiled at her as she came back in and put the supplies down next to Willow. “Where is Dawn?”

Willow blushed and dabbed a little too harshly, causing Giles to jump a little and he started coughing. “Sorry” she mumbled and handed him a clean towel while she turned towards Buffy. “She came back from school a little early and Giles and I were kissing on the sofa and she kind of..r ser sentence lost the will to live and died an honourable death.

“Giles said she caught you guys making out in the living room” Buffy admitted and started to laugh. “You were just kissing, right?” she checked that the trauma her sister was suffering from had nothing to do with nakedness.

“Of course” Giles spluttered and glared as best he could around the large towel he held against his nose.

“Let’s get you sorted out and then I’ll have a word with her, she’ll be fine” Buffy assured them and started taking supplies out of the first aid kit. “Do you want to go to the hospital or will I straighten the nose for you?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“Willow, can you go and get me a clean shirt from my room please?” he asked and Willow looked between them both before heading off. “OK, get it over with quickly” he mumbled and grabbed the edge of the table.

Willow heard him swearing and then Buffy’s soothing mumbles when she reached the top of the stairs but she only shuddered and headed for his room. “Will this be OK?” she asked when she had returned with a shirt. “I thought it would be easier than pulling on a sweater”

Giles was leaning back in the chair, taking deep breaths through his mouth while Buffy was clearing up the bloody towels and removing the pink bowl of water. She had reset his nose and pieces of cotton wool were dangling from it but at least he wasn’t bleeding profusely any more. “That’s fine Willow, thank you” he mumbled when he had managed to convince himself that he wasn’t going to pass out. “Perhaps you could give me a hand to get out of this?” he indicated the blood stained sweater and t-shirt.

“Wasn’t exactly how I pictured undressing you today but I guess it’s better than nothing” she quipped in an attempt to lighten the mood a little. “I’m really sorry, I’ll speak to Xander and you know he’ll be really upset he did this to you when he finally comes round” she suggested and slowly lifted his sweater over his head, carefully avoiding his face.

Giles didn’t answer her but helped remove his clothes before pulling on the shirt. “I think perhaps I could have been a little gentler in breaking the news to him” he suggested as she slowly buttoned up his shirt for him, her eyes concentrating on getting him redressed. “I’m sorry, but I think he may be angry with me for some time, perhaps we should…”

“Don’t you dare” she interrupted him. “At the end of the day it is none of Xander’s business who I choose to share my lips with and we are not going to change things between us just to make it easier for him” she finished buttoning him and met his eyes. She smiled and leaned down to gently kiss him. “However, I think he has put paid to any serious lip sharing for the next day or two” she suggested.

“Now who’s being boring and old?” he asked as his hands ran down to her waist and he gently lifted her onto his lap. “We’ll just have to find something else to do that doesn’t involve my lips, yours are still working I believe?”

She leaned down with a wicked smile and started to kiss his neck and nd hnd his ear. “This could be fun” she murmured against his neck and giggled when he moaned and started breathing heavily through his mouth.

“OK, Dawn and I are coming downstairs now” Buffy announced from the top landing. Her slayer powers may not have included super hearing, but she guessed that a timely interruption might be called for. By the time they were at the bottom of the stairs Willow and Giles were sitting side by side at the table and pretending nothing had been going on. Buffy smiled at them both and shook her head a little. “Dawn, go ahead” she pushed Dawn towards Willow.

The young girl was blushing furiously and seemed likely to bolt back upstairs but her sister’s presence behind her, effectively blocking her escape route, meant that she had to carry on. “I’m really sorry I burst in and disturbed you guys earlier” she hastily managed to get out the prepared part of the speech before finally looking up and watching Willow. “So you’re not gay now?” she asked quietly and heard Buffy groan behind her. “I know, it’s none o bus business and you guys are both really neat and have loads of stuff in common but I thought Willow was happy with Tara and now..” she ran out of steam as she saw Willow’s eyes brighten with tears. “I’m sorry, please don’t cry, I don’t want to make you unhappy but I’m just really confused and I want you to be happy again”

Giles stood up and ran his hand across Willow’s shoulders before heading for the kitchen. “Why don’t we leave Willow alone for a while and you and I can sit in the garden and you can ask me any questions you want?” he suggested and was a little surprised when the young girl meekly followed him.

She looked over her shoulder once to see Buffy putting her arm around Willow’s shoulders and trying to comfort her best friend.

Giles closed the back door behind them and sat down on the topp bep beside her. “First things first” he suggested and waited till she looked up at him. “Even if you don’t like the answers I give, can we agree that you won’t punch me on the nose?”

She winced a little and put her hand on his arm. “Did Xander do that?” she asked quietly. “Why was he so mad at you, did he think you were hurting Willow?”

Giles took a deep breath and stretched his legs out in front of him. “I think he is just as confused as you are about Willow’s selection, both because it’s a male and, perhaps more importantly, because it’s me”

“Why would he be mad that it was you?” she asked and wondered what had happened in the past between the two men. “You and Willow have been friend’s for years and you are both really brainy and like to do the research stuff so it kind of makes sense”

“But Xander has known Willow for a lot longer and he thinks I’m using our friendship to trick Willow into something she can’t really want because of her grief over Tara and her guilt over what happened earlier this year.” He ntednted up at her, trying to make sure that she understood Xander’s concerns and didn’t think any less of him because of them. “What Xander doesn’t know yet, but he will come to realise, is that Willow and I are both very aware of the reasons why this has happened and have agreed that we are both taking this step with our eyes wide open.” He wasn’t sure that the young girl was mature enough to work out the complexities but knew that he should try his best to explain them to her in the hope that she would understand and, ultimately accept, them as a couple.

“Is that why you left?” she asked after several minutes of silence.

“What?” he asked, completely surprised by the question.

“When you left after Willow’s memory spell went wonky, did you go because you were in love with her?” Dawn looked up to gauge his reaction. “Because Tara really loved her as well and she left her at the same time and I just wondered if one of you had stayed with her whether the bad stuff would have happened?” she set her lips, uncertain how angry he would be with her question.

He took a moment or two to gather his thoughts then took a deep breath and stared into the garden. “You would need to ask Willow but I think she would admit that losing most of her support structures in one fell swoop turned out to be a good thing for her. It eventually pushed her to realise her addiction and seek help” he gently probed around his nose, gaining time before returning to the difficult part of the answer. “What happened to Tara, after they had reunited, was the fault of one person only and that was Warren. He chose a particular path and carried out the darkest act a human can inflict on another to gain revenge. Willow’s actions after his are no more excusable and she is still working through the outcomes of her actions” he glanced round to see if Dawn was following him.

“But did you leave because of Buffy and I or did you leave because you loved Willow?” she brought him back to the original point.

He could hear the pain in her voice. “Dawn I left because Buffy was relying on me for too many decisions and that is the most dangerous thing that can happen to a slayer” he began, remembering the argument when he had explained this to Buffy. “I didn’t leave because of you, you had done nothing wrong” he put his hand on her arm to reinforce his words. “Well, except for snogging a vampire” he smiled and was relieved to see a smile winning through. “Buffy needed to take control of her life again and it was impossible for her to do that while I was here because I couldn’t not help her, that’s my weakness” He sat back from her a little and lifted one knee to his chest. “However, I won’t deny that it was difficult for me to be around Willow while she was going through the worst because I couldn’t take her in my arms and make her understand the danger she was in” he sighed. “I have loved Willow for quite a while now and had become resigned to never being able to tell her, so the last few hours have been a little strange” he admitted.

They sat beside one another for another five minutes before Dawn seemed to come to a decision. “I’m sorry I was so weird earlier, just let me know when you want the house to yourselves and I’ll make myself scarce” she smiled at him and gently reached out to touch his nose. “You look younger without your glasses, how come I didn’t notice that before?” she asked and shrugged her shoulders before moving back into the kitchen.

He shook his head and marvelled at the resilience of youth yet again. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been so surprised at her eventual maturity, after all the world ending dangers she had faced, to say nothing of losing her mother at an early age, should all have combined to make her grow up much more quickly than a normal teenager. He was trying to recollect what the others had been like at her age when he heard footsteps behind him and tilted his head back to see who was coming out to join him.

“Hey” Willow smiled at him and handed him his glasses. “Buffy found them in your jacket when she was putting it in the wash”

“Thank you” he said and shuffled over a little so that she could sit next to him. “I’ll leave them off for now, the nose is a little tender still” he put the glasses in the top pocket of his shirt.

“Nothing to do with Dawn thinking you look younger?” she giggled and stretched her legs out beside his. He decided not to dignify this with a response and continued to stare into the middle distance.

“Heck of a day” Willow suggested after several moments. “Here I was thinking it was all going to be about de-ghosting the olds and it turns out like this?” she indicated both of them.

“I’d completely forgotten about the residents” he admitted. “But I’m not sure I would have changed very much if this is the outcome.” He turned to look at her. “Perhaps a spell to make me think before I opened my mouth but that would be all”

“We still need to talk” Willow sighed. “But I think it will be about finding some way to make this work, not whether it should ‘be’ in the first place”

rel relieved to hear it” he smiled at her. “I know that we have a lot to talk about but perhaps we should get the problems at the residential home sorted out first and then we can spend the rest of my holiday working through our personal situation”

“OK” she seemed a little distracted. “I’ve set up your laptop to pick up any emails from the Council and I looked out some books on poltergeists and spiritual activity” She stood and held her hand out to help him up. “Just one thing” she asked as he stood beside her. “Can we agree not to mention the temporary nature of your stay or I probably won’t be able to do much more than sit in a corner and sniffle”

“Agreed” he nodded and opened his arms for her. She stepped into his embrace and sighed as she felt his chin rest on her shoulder. They hugged for several moments, the atmosphere slowly changing from a friendly gesture into something a little more intimate. “Ah Willow?” he finally mumbled into her hair.

“Mmmmm?” she mumbled back at him.

“Doesn’t this qualify as hands in naughty places?” he asked and pulled back to look down at her pout. “Not that I mind but we did agree to sort out the supernatural shenanigans first”

She removed her hands from his butt and clasped them behind her back. “OK, but I better get a reward for all of this self sacrifice” she suggested hea headed for the dining room.

Buffy looked up from the table. “Is everything OK?” she asked quietly and smiled when Willow nodded and grinned at her. “I started to look through the books but I’m still not sure what it is that we’re dealing with?”

Willow shrugged. “Me neither, Giles and I didn’t pick up anything when we searched the home yesterday” She looked up as he came into the room behind her. “Where do we start with the research?” she asked.

“I need to check my emails first as the information I requested should allow us to work out some areas for further research” he moved to sit at his laptop. “Perhaps one of you lovely ladies could get me a cuppa and some painkillers?” he asked as he scrunched his eyes up to read the screen. Buffy shook her head and left them to it. “Aha” Giles said after a couple of minutes. “I think this is the very thing we were looking for” he smiled and indicated the screen for Willow. “George has finally found the manuscript I asked him to hunt up”

Willow stood behind him and leaned over his shoulder to read the screen. Almost absent-mindedly she rested her hand on his neck and her fingers started running through his hair. “So this details the suspected cause of the abandonment of the San Diego Guilen community” she glanced at him. “And it seems to suggest that the sect had been overrun by a Lareck demon and that the other sects were trying to join their forces anquanquish it”

Buffy placed their mugs in front of them. “So this demon took them all with him but is it the same thing that’s taking out the residents?” she handed him the painkillers and a glass of water.

Giles took the painkillers and shook his head. “The Lareck is a pretty nasty form of fear demon and it might have been strong enough to destroy the combined sects’ once it realised it was losing the battle.” He gingerly removed the cotton wool plugs from his nose and dabbed at the remaining blood with a clean handkerchief. “And the demon was obviously overcome because there is no record of it returning to are area. That leaves us with just one, intriguing possibility to explain the occurrences in the home” he paused to sip at his tea.

Buffy smiled at Willow as she settled into a chair opposite her friend. “I hate it when he lets the suspense build like this”

Willow sipped her tea. “I know what you mean, that would definitely go in the against column”

Both girls laughed and he looked between them a little suspiciously. “If you are quite finished?” he asked. “It seems to me that the most likely explanation is that some of those responsible for the Sunnydale end of the joining have remained, in spirit form, within the locale and are trying to communicate something to us”

“They aren’t doing a very good job if they can only manage to make people scared, cold or dead” Buffy suggested dryly.

“And we didn’t pick anything up yesterday, would they be able to mask their presence from both of us?” Willow asked.

“Perhaps” Giles nodded and picked his tea up to pace a little. “I chose the spell we used yesterday because I assumed that it would be a recent, incumbent spirit of some kind, perhaps a previous resident” he seemed to think for a moment or two. “Perhaps a more specific calling for the members of the sect would be more successful”

Willow nodded and pulled one of the books piled on the table towards her. “I remember reading about a séance that targetted one specific spirit and it seemed to rely on an ancient celtic calling to ancestors”

Willow and Giles continued to research for the rest of the afternoon until Buffy closed the book in front of him. “We need to get some dinner, I vote for Italian and Giles needs to let his eyes rest”

Willow yawned and agreed with her. “I am kind of hungry, I seem to have missed breakfast and lunch to Gil Giles stood and stretched before groaning as he gently probed around his nose. Willow stood in front of him. “I’m not sure if they are dark circles from eye strain and tiredness or if you’re getting black eyes” she murmured. “How many times did he hit you?”

“Just the twice and the first glanced off my jaw but the second one was a doozy, I’d have been very proud of him if I hadn’t been on the receiving end” he smiled.

Buffy stood on tiptoe to peer at him. “I’ve seen worse on you, they’ll be gone in a week or so”

Dawn came into the dining room to find both girls staring intently at his face. He smiled at her quizzical look over their heads and sighed. “Someone mentioned food?” he suggested and headed for the front door while his three dinner companions rushed to find coats and bags.