Last Resort | By : NeenaVarscona Category: BtVS AU/AR > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 2641 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
~~~~~
Late that afternoon Giles drove a heavily blanketed Spike to Buffy’s house. As they feared, Buffy, Xander and Willow were waiting for them, ready to pounce as they entered the door.
“Ah,” said Giles. “I assume we’re about to get a lecture?”
“Hey—and I didn’t even have to make it a multiple choice!” Buffy said sarcastically. “You’re a sweet guy and all, Rupert, but you don’t seem to be catching on to the whole ‘sex in public is not a good thing’ idea. To be honest, I don’t care what you and Spike do in private…okay, so that’s not entirely true, but I can live with it…but while you’re stuck here, you’re living Giles’ life. What would he think if he found out you had sex with Spike in the middle of his store?”
“We were behind the counter,” Spike corrected her, more to mask Giles’ sudden case of the giggles than to start an argument. “It’s not like we were stark naked, shagging in the shop window.”
“Gah!” Xander exclaimed and did a little ‘freaked-out’ dance.
“Will you stop that, Xander?” Willow pleaded. “I’m sorry, Rupert—I tried to get them to use ‘I’ statements, but they don’t seem to be able to grasp the concept. I think…” she said, stressing the word ‘I’, “…it’s great that you and –and Spike are hitting it off so well. But I also think Buffy has a valid point. What you did today was reckless, and kind of illegal, and if you’d got caught, Giles would be the one who’d have to pay for it. And I feel that wouldn’t be fair to him.”
Giles was having a very hard time keeping a straight face, confronted with Willow’s wide-eyed, earnest concern. He decided the only thing for it was to put his plan into action and save himself from having to answer her.
Giles pretended to pass out, his performance greatly assisted by years of painful experience. Luckily Buffy was near enough and reacted quickly enough to catch him before he could hit his head and knock himself out for real.
When he estimated enough time had passed to make it believable, he opened his eyes and put on the best, befuddled expression he could muster. He was rather touched to see everyone huddled over him looking worried. Well—everyone but Spike, that is. Spike was standing over the others with his arms crossed, looking superior. Giles could almost hear him thinking what a chicken he was. Giles slowly sat up, gratefully taking all the help he could get, and Spike rolled his eyes at the sheer drama of it.
“Giles?” asked Xander, peering hopefully into the older man’s green eyes. “Are you you again?”
Giles blinked owlishly at everyone as if surprised to find himself on the floor. “I’m back. I’m home,” he said, smiling at them like he’d been gone for years instead of days.
Buffy grabbed hold of his hands and brought him swiftly to his feet so she could hug him. He hugged her back; surprised and relieved that she was happy to see him. When she let him go, Willow flung herself into his arms and hugged him until he grunted. Then she let him go and Giles turned to Xander who looked like he wanted to give him a hug but was afraid of how it would look. Xander shot his hand out towards him for a handshake, but Giles pulled him in for a hug instead. He was reluctant at first, but when it became clear there would be no roaming hands or tongues involved, Xander loosened up and gave him a good, manly squeeze in return.
“Good to have you back, Giles,” said Xander with a flushed grin. “Now things can finally get back to normal around here.”
A high-pitched ‘squeee!’ sound started up and Giles looked around to find the source of it. From seemingly out of nowhere, a super-hyped Dawn sprang at him, nearly knocking him off his feet in her attempt to hug the stuffing out of him.
“Hello to you, too, Dawn,” Giles laughed.
She released him with a bounce and a flick of her long, brown hair, and then she drilled him with a scolding glare. “You’re back for good, right?” she demanded. “You’re not gonna leave us again, are you?”
“Dawn, you know Giles is going back to England,” said Buffy sullenly. “Two days in a different dimension’s not going to make him change his mind.”
“Actually…” said Giles, “I was thinking I might stay here in Sunnydale.”
“Or not,” Buffy amended.
“So…let me get this straight,” said Xander. “Anya gets it in her head that if she sends you to another dimension for a holiday, you won’t want to move away… And that works?”
“Essentially, yes,” said Giles. “It gave me a chance to step back and think things through. I was wrong to think I was doing Buffy a favour by leaving—I know that now. So long as I’m needed here I’ll stay. That was a promise I made long ago, and I intent to honour it.”
“Great. Are we done with the pretty speeches now?” griped Spike. “Come with me, Giles. We need to have a word.”
No one said a thing as Spike led Giles into the kitchen. They knew he was about to fill him in on some of what happened while he was gone, and they were universally glad it was Spike doing the telling. They stood silently in the living room, but they heard no raised voices or shouts of shock coming from the kitchen. In fact, they couldn’t hear them talking at all, and the silence was making them anxious.
Buffy was just about to go in and check on them when the front door swung open and Anya entered, looking highly pleased with herself. “I have good news!” she stated proudly. “I found Bob, and he sent Giles back to us.”
“We know,” said Buffy, taking some of the wind out of her sails. “We were here when he came back a few minutes ago.”
Anya frowned. “No. That’s not right,” she said. “Bob said he sent Giles back first thing this morning, not a few minutes ago. Giles has been home all day.”
The stunned Scoobies exchanged glances and turned to face the kitchen, where it was still abnormally quiet.
“Giles!” Buffy called out loudly. “Are you okay in there?”
They could hear muffled voices now, and the sound of something falling off the counter and landing with a thud on the floor. It was a very big something, by the sounds of it. A few seconds later Giles reappeared, looking flustered and dishevelled—his hair was mussed slightly and his shirt was partly un-tucked.
“Yes, I’m fine,” he said with a nervous half-smile, taking in Anya’s presence with a jolt of dread. Did she know, he wondered? And if she did, had she told the others? “Spike was just…erm…”
“Filling him in,” Spike said, helpfully. He came up behind Giles, staring lustfully at his ass and not caring a bit what anyone thought. He casually wrapped his arms around Giles’ waist, resting his chin on the other man’s shoulder. “Got a problem with that?”
Giles sighed and hung his head. This was not how he wanted to break the news, but it was too late now. He could tell from the expressions on his friends’ faces that the damage was already done.
“Then…it was you…at the store?” Buffy squeaked.
“It was,” Giles admitted quietly.
“But you’re not…I thought you were…you know…one of us,” said Xander, getting panicky again. “You’re not…one of them.”
“There are a lot of things about me you don’t know,” Giles answered, suddenly finding Spike’s embrace reassuring. “I don’t expect you to accept us, at least not right away, but I am asking you to try and understand. I can’t go on living the way I was—I was more lonely than you can imagine, and I didn’t dare say anything for fear you might find out I was…”
“Like Rupert?” Willow finished for him.
Giles nodded, subconsciously holding his breath in anticipation of their reaction.
“I liked Rupert,” said Buffy after a moment’s deliberation. “He was very sweet. And easy to talk to. Kind of like Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Ruth had a love child. Okay…that was a disturbing image.”
“Who am I to judge? When I came out you were all Mr. Supporty Guy. I’m there for you one hundred and five percent,” said Willow with a sweet smile.
Dawn grinned from ear to ear; “You guys are so cute together! If there’s a wedding in the future, I call dibs on Best Man.”
They all looked at Xander, who squirmed uncomfortably under their combined stares. “Just…no more public displays, alright?” he begged.
“Agreed,” said Giles, holding his hand out to the younger man. Xander hesitated briefly, but he shook it, and the relief was palpable throughout the room.
~~~~~
As the evening wore on, Giles regaled them all with a highly edited account of what happened in the other dimension. It made for a very short story, and it didn’t help that Dawn kept asking probing questions about the gaps in his narrative.
A pizza was ordered and the latest demon menace was discussed at length. There was joking and laughing, and if Giles would sometimes reach over and grab Spike’s hand, no one seemed to mind. When the evening drew to a close, Giles wondered how such a tight-knit group had ever managed to drift apart in the first place. He made a silent vow to himself to do everything in his power to keep them together from now on.
As he and Spike headed out the door, Willow pulled him aside, leading him away from the house so they could talk in private. “While you were gone, Rupert gave me some good advice,” she said. “He told me that I needed to heal myself before I can heal my relationship with Tara.
“At first, when he told me about the baby, I was so jealous I couldn’t see straight. But now it’s kind of like a challenge…if that other Willow and Tara can be happy together, then so can we—I just have to work hard enough. Does that make sense?”
Giles smiled warmly at her. “It makes perfect sense,” he said and wrapped his arm comfortingly around her shoulder. “Just don’t forget that you’re not alone. Nothing is so overwhelming that it can’t be overcome with the help of your friends.”
Willow looked pensive for a moment. “Do you think Rupert’s glad to be home again?” she asked.
Giles gazed up at the starry sky, picturing Rupert holding his new son, surrounded by his family. They were probably busy picking out names for the baby or decorating the nursery. “I’m certain of it,” he said.
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