Home-->Mom, Don't Go Here
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GILES: Buffy...I - I understand your anger. Please believe me, we did what we - BUFFY: He's alive. Spike's alive. Wood failed. GILES: Well, that doesn't change anything. What I told you is still true. You need to learn - BUFFY: No, I think you've taught me everything I need to know. Xander was just coming up the stairs as Buffy closed the door in Giles’ face. He froze two steps from the top, shocked at how harsh the Slayer’s words had been and how lost the Watcher suddenly looked. “Hey, I was just coming up to see how the patrol went, but I guess—uh—“ He didn’t move from the stairs and didn’t find any way to end the sentence that didn’t rhyme with “but da luck?” “Oh, yes. Patrol. It was fine, I suppose. Vampire dusted. One, at any rate.” Giles told his shoes. “Well, that’s good then. We’d hate to have little evil taking up all our Ultimate Evil time now, wouldn’t we?” Giles didn’t respond, still looking down at his feet. Instead he took a deep breath, which, Xander noted, caused his sweater to rise up just enough to show a thin strip of white t-shirt beneath it, and blew it out in a shuddery sigh. Xander shivered a little too. And then jumped when Giles slammed a fist into the doorframe, nearly splintering it. Xander’s first thought was along the lines of “oh, goody, something I haven’t repaired at least once in this house!’ but it was pushed rudely aside when he saw that there was blood on Giles hand (only a little, thankfully) and a tear running down his cheek. Xander moved then, steps fueled mostly by concern (and a little he-man embarrassment) for his friend, and only slightly encouraged by the memory of a drunken conversation and the potential that lay between them. But clearly today was not the day for that. He tugged at Giles’ sweater sleeve and was both pleased and dismayed when the older man came towards him willingly. Instead of commenting, though, he just checked Giles hand, in case a detour to a first aid kit was on the agenda (it wasn’t), and then put an arm around him and led him quickly down the stairs. When Buffy opened her door (having frozen at the harsh crash outside for several moments), there was nobody there. Xander rushed them past girls calling out for both of them, although it wasn’t clear whether they wanted Xander to look at the plumbing again and Giles to correct their short sword stance, or the other way around. Either way, Xander ignored them in favour of getting to the back of the house and onto the porch steps, He kicked the door shut behind them with what he hoped was an air of finality, then joined Giles on the steps where the man had dropped as soon as Xander let him go. Xander sat down next to him. “Is it just me, or does the Slayer gamut get harder to run every day?” He put on a ‘mom’ voice: “Are you sneaking girls into your room, Rupert?”. Giles laughed despite himself, although it was a dry, lackluster thing. He removed his glasses and swiped at his eyes. “Want to tell me what that was all about?” Xander asked quietly. “No. Yes.” Giles glanced over at him, and Xander almost squirmed under the scrutiny. A minute later, Giles apparently found what he was looking for. “Spike.” Xander sighed. “Been there, Anya did that, Buffy bought the t-shirt.” He gave Giles leg a friendly pat. “No good lies in any conversation that begins or ends with Spike. Heck, I’d even stay away from the ones with the Spikey goodness in the middle.” Giles arched an eyebrow at Xander’s choice of words, Xander blushed on cue, and they shared another quiet laugh. Although again, there wasn’t much to Giles’ and it sounded suspiciously like a sob. More silence and neither commented on how Xander’s hand had remained on Giles’ leg. “I’m just so damned tired,” Giles seemed surprised to have said the words out loud, and was even more surprised when Xander replied “Well, of course you are.” And slid a little closer to him. “But we’re no closer to stopping the First than we were—“ Xander put his hand over Giles mouth. “Hey, G-man!” Giles glared. “Giles, cut yourself a little slack, wouldja?” Xander pulled his hand away and put an arm around Giles shoulder and wished that it didn’t feel so great and was glad that it felt so right and was happy when Giles didn’t move away. “Can we just take a moment to review your work history?” “I think it’s safe to say that nobody’s lives are nine-to-five anymore, Xander.” Giles thought he should move away and he knew he didn’t want to and he was already thinking of a day when this might be an every day event and not just a crisis intervention, And he knew that it was going to happen one day, with this man. And he considered himself lucky to have Xander beside him now. “We know you were helping Willow in England,” Xander began, and Giles leaned in a little more, the ache in his buggered hand easing off somewhat. He rolled his head a bit to try and ease the headache just begging to hurt him, and to his delight and trepidation, Xander’s hand was right there, squeezing gently. “And then there was the search *around the world*! for potential Slayers along with a pretty good burglary and escaping England alive. And if that didn’t rate at least a little downtime, or maybe give you the right to just one tiny misjudgment—“ Giles rallied at that—he was a Watcher, still, regardless of circumstance, and a damned good one, and he—he— He sighed and slumped silently and realized he had completely and utterly misread the current relationship between Buffy and Spike. Xander continued, his wandering hand now rubbing soothing circles over his back and shoulders. “Then, of course, we’ve got that alien portal thing, and the trip to the desert that ended in a football tackle and some completely inappropriate groping from Andrew—“ “Don’t remind me,” Giles wrinkled his nose at the thought. “And now, as the only official grownup in the building, you’ve adopted a family even more dysfunctional than ever, and you think you have to have all the answers. I figure that’s where Buffy gets it from.” “You’re probably right," Giles couldn’t argue. He took off the glasses he’d replaced earlier as more tears threatened and he couldn’t hold them back. “So tired,” he muttered again. “Rest,” said Xander. “I’ll be right here, and we’ll figure it out later. It’s what we do.” And he tightened his hold. And Giles thought he could. For just a minute, he could be safe, with this man, and just rest a little.
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