A loving heart is beg beginning of all knowledge

CHAPTER 3
Giles drove Willow and Tara home, thinking of Buffy the entire drive. His heart had almost shattered into pieces when he saw her desolate face as Joyce closed the door to her room. He seriously doubted that Buffy needed to be alone, and had decided to return to her side as soon as he had dropped the girls off.

When he returned to the hospital one of the night nurses recognised him immediately. Since she had seen Buffy with him on any number of his numerous hospital visits, she sent him to her room without pointing out that visiting hours were over. Giles carefully opened the door and saw Buffy’s curled up form on the bed facing the window.

As he approached he saw her shoulders shaking and realised she was crying. He lowered himself on the bed at her back and placed a hand on her shoulder as he gently spoke her name. Buffy started and rolled over to face him, but when she recognised him she immediately sat up and threw her arms around him and started crying in earnest.

Giles just held her close and waited patiently for her crying to subside. She was obviously more distressed than he had thought, and he chided himself for not follg hig his first instinct when Joyce had ushered them out.

He almost jumped when Buffy proceeded to crawl onto his lap, but said nothing and only continued to hold her. Slowly her crying stopped, but she seemed reluctant to let him go when he moved to look at her, so he lifted her and propped himself against her pillows while she draped herself around him.

He lifted his hand to stroke her hair, and after several minutes he realised that she had fallen asleep. He contemplated moving, but at the risk of waking her he decided against it. He pulled the sheet over them both and closed his eyes.

*****

Buffy woke panting with her heart beating furiously. The nightmare had scared the living daylights out of her, and she took a deep breath to calm herself.

“Ssshhh. I’m right here” Giles whispered, and suddenly it all came back to her. He’d come back to her last night. He’d comforted her while she had been crying. Now he was half propped against the pillows and she was lying between his legs.

“Did you have a nightmare?” he asked, stroking her back. She nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Once again she said nothing, and only shook her head no.

“Are you giving me the silent treatment?” She couldn’t help but laugh, and she felt his body shake with laughter in return.

“No, I was just thinking how safe you make me feel, and that I don’t want you to leave.” The hand stroking her back paused, and for a second she was worried that she had said the wrong thing, but then he continued his ministrations.

“I’ll never leave you, Buffy. I’ve promised you that several times. It will never change.”

“Rupert? Tell me about us? How long have we known each other?”
When he didn’t answer right away she leaned up to see him facing at her with a slightly startled look. “What? What’s wrong?”

He slowly shook his head while watching her so intently that it made butterflies appear in her stomach.

“Nothing. It’s just that you surprised me when you called me by my first name. You call me Giles. Almost everyone I know here in Sunnydale calls me that. Well, except your mother who calls me Mr. Giles or ‘that man’, depending on her mood” he said with a slight grin.
Buffy chuckled and dropped her head to his chest again.

“Giles huh? You do have an interesting first name, that’s for sure.” After a beat she continued, “Although, who am I to talk? I apparently chose to be called Buffy over Elizabeth.” Giles laughed again, and Buffy was surprised how much she enjoyed making him laugh.
“So Giles, come on explain to me how that this got started.”

For the next hour Giles gave Buffy a carefully edited version of how they met and what they had shared. Monsters, watchers and slayers weren’t mentioned. Instead he focused smaller things. She laughed when he told her about her relentless teasing, her mind-boggling fashion sense (that earned him a pinch that made him yelp), and other stories he remembered about her friendship with Xander and Willow.

When he noticed her responses growing shorter and shorter he cuddled her closer and eased her into a dreamless sleep.

CHAPTER 4
Buffy and Giles reached consciousness the following morning by revelling in the feel of each other’s bodies. Buffy hummed as she tightened her arms around him, and smiled when she felt him reciprocate. She was just about to speak when a voice startled them both.

“I strongly suggest that Giles gets out of your bed before your mother comes in. Visiting hours are just about to start, and I am sure she will be here shortly. Your mom is not ready for this, no matter how long it has been going on.” The occupants of the bed opened their eyes and found Anya with a grin on her face, a slightly embarrassed Xander standing behind her.

Buffy scrambled to let Giles get out of the bed. He jumped up with the devil at his heels. At her hurt look, he gave her a reassuring smile. He reached to stroke her cheek just as Joyce opened the door with Willow in tow.

Giles quickly pulled his hand away, but was pretty sure that Joyce had seen it, considering the look she gave him. To avoid comment he excused himself to find the doctor and see if they would let Buffy go home.

An hour later, she was given the all clear and sent home with a clean bill of health. The doctor reassured her that she shouldn’t expect any miracles regarding the return of her memory. He gave her his card and told her to call if she worried about anything, or simply needed to talk.

Xander and Anya took Willow with them as they hugged Buffy goodbye, with promises to join them all for dinner at Joyce’s house the following night. Since Giles’ car refused to start, Joyce offered to drive him home, which he gratefully accepted. When they pulled up in front of his apartment, he gave Buffy an affectionate smile and bid them both good bye, saying he would see them both for dinner the following evening. Minutes later, Buffy exited the car with a heavy heart and followed her mother inside, wonderihy shy she couldn’t have stayed with Giles.

The day passed slowly as she tried to familiarize herself with her childhood room and memories. Her mom had told her there was no reason to go back to her and Willow’s place. Since it was summer Willow mostly stayed at Tara’s, and plus she wanted some alone time with her daughter.

As night approached, Buffy excused herself from the living room saying she was tired, but found herself completely incapable of sleep. She missed the feel of Giles’ body. She couldn’t seem to sleep without the comfort of his arms around her.

Finally she couldn’t stand it anymore. She made sure that her mother had gone to bed, quickly dressed in a thin sweater and shorts. She left a note on her bed explaining where she was going just in case her mom woke before she returned the following morning.

Since her mother had dropped Giles off she had no problem remembering the way to his house. In a few minutes she found herself outside his door.

A sudden flash of memory hit her as she was standing there. She slowly took a hold of the doorknob and smiled when it opened easily. As silently as possible she entered his darkened apartment and looked around until she saw the stairs. Without making a noise she crept upstairs and stopped when she reached the landing, holding back a gasp when she saw Giles bathed in the moonlight, the sheet draped across his waist.

He was stunning, and Buffy felt her mouth water as she approached the bed. Trying hard not to wake him, she crawled cautiously across the bed and lowered herself next him. She carefully draped an arm across his abdomen. Without waking he turned towards her and wrapped his arm around her. Dreamily, he placed a kiss on the top of her head. Without thinking she tightened her hold on him, and suddenly she felt him freeze.

When he smelled Buffy’s shampoo and felt her next to him in bed he thought he was dreaming. When she squeezed him back, he realized this was more of a dream come true.

“Buffy?” She responded with a slight giggle, and playfully swatted him.

“What? Did you expect anyone else to come crawling into your bed in the middle of the night?”

Without reading too much into her question he simply asked, “Are you ok?”

She snuggled closer and responded with a slight nod. “Now I am. I couldn’t sleep without you. I also had a flash of memory when I got here.”

“You did? That’s great, what was it?”

“I remembered that your door is always unlocked and that I always walk through your door without knocking. Is that right?” With a slight chuckle he kissed the top of her head again.

“That’s right. I always leave my door unlocked for you so you can come to me anytime you want.” Buffy smiled and pressed a quick kiss to his chest.

“You’re just too good to be true. I am lucky to have you.”

Incapable of speech he only stroked her hair until she fell asleep, doing Latin verbs in his mind to avoid his body reacting to her. Sleep would not come easy to him tonight.

TBC