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She's the One for Me	By : QueenB Category: > Buffy/Giles Views: 9320 -:- 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.

Chapter List
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Spike ran after Buffy. The Slayer was on the verge of tears and part of him crowed at her distress. He was certain she’d come to him now that she had seen what a wanker her Watcher was. However, he was rather irked to see her taking this so hard. She hadn’t been nearly this brassed off over that Riley fellow.
That’s how she knew she hadn’t loved the berk. But her heart was being ripped out over what she’d seen with the old codger and that was disturbing. In the end, the Enormous Hall Monitor hadn’t been a true rival. It seemed that Giles was.
He tried to keep pace with her. “Buffy? Buffy, will you slow down?” He dashed in front of her. “What was all that about?”
“Spike, forget it. It’s not important and it’s none of your business,” Buffy snapped.
“But what about my news? Did you tell him about Glory?” he asked.
She shook her head, wrapping her arms around her body as if she’d fly apart if she weren’t physically holding herself together. “No, he was… He wasn’t in the mood. It’ll have to wait, Spike.”
“Weird. Figured the Watcher would want to know seeing as he hasn’t been able to turn up anything in those papers the WC gave up. Bunch of useless old men, if you ask me. They’re not as important as folks like us working on the frontlines,” he added.
If she caught the allusion to her own Watcher being lumped in with all those doddering Council morons, she didn’t mention it. Instead she rapped out, “Stow it, Spike. I’m going home.”
“Well, let’s get you home and I’ll give you the address for Glory’s little hideout. If the Watcher wasn’t useful, then I guess it’s just you, me and your gang of misfits.” Spike was hoping Buffy would invite him into her home. But the Slayer hadn’t lost her head to that extent.
She demanded he give her the address. At first he thought of withholding the information in order to force her to invite him into the house. But he knew she’d only hate him for that kind of arm-twisting and throw up the de-invite spell as soon as he left. So he let her have the address and manfully resisted asking for payment.
__________
As Spike strode away from the house at 1630 Revello Drive, he congratulated himself on a good night’s work. Buffy hated Giles now with a fiery passion. Whatever she might have felt for him was gone, crushed under revulsion and bitterness. Best of all, she didn’t suspect Spike’s involvement in the whole sordid business. All he need do now was play the sympathetic guy with a shoulder to cry on and the Slayer was his.
He stepped into his crypt, closed the door and let out a wild whoop of laughter. “All right. Let’s hear it for the Big Bad!”
“Woohoo!” another voice sang out. “You’re the Big Bad.”
He swung around, looking into the darkened depths of the crypt. “B-Buffy?” Had he won that easily? How had she got here before him? The next moment the golden-haired woman came bouncing out towards him. It was dark in the crypt but his preternaturally sharp eyes made out the foolish smile and he picked up on the lack of a heartbeat before she could speak again. Shit, it was the bot.
She ran up to him and flung her arms around his neck. “Spike! Thank goodness you’re back. I’ve missed you so much.”
“Soddin’ hell,” he ground out as he extricated himself from her tenacious grip. “You’re supposed to be at the Watcher’s place shaggin’ him rotten! What are you doin’ here?”
She pouted. He couldn’t quite make out her expression while she stood this close but he was sure that was it. He could tell by the artificial whine in her voice. “He wouldn’t have sex with me. He had been making sex noises and moaning ‘Buffy’ in his sleep. But when he woke up, he pushed me aside. He doesn’t want me. But I still want you and I missed you. So I came back here. Aren’t you glad to see me?”
Moaning Buffy’s name, had he? So he’d been right. The Watcher was lusting after his bird. Spike managed to light some candles in spite of the bot’s clingy interference and turned to look at her face. Those sappy, syrupy smiles were starting to cloy. How had he ever thought this was what he wanted?
She was like Harmony except Harm had had the stones to get ticked at him every now and again. This thing couldn’t get angry; he’d programmed her not to. Not that it would have mattered if she did show rage; her emotions were just artificial bollocks like everything else about her.
“Of course I’m glad--luv.” God, the word stuck in his craw. “But I wanted you to harass the Watcher. It complicates things to have you back here. I’ll have to keep you down in the basement in case somebody gets suspicious and comes looking for you.”
“I don’t care if they’re suspicious. I love you and I want the whole world to know. Why should we be ashamed of our love when it’s so pure and good?” the bot questioned.
“Of course our love is wonderful. It’s absolutely right. If only she’d see that,” Spike mumbled to himself.
“If only who’d see it, Spike? Are you talking about that other person who looked like me? We don’t need to justify our love to anybody. It’s flawless and anyone who sees us together will know that.” The bot beamed as if what she said made absolute sense.
Naturally, she was only parroting the phrases he’d had programmed into her and didn’t they sound perfect…perfectly stupid. He’d been a lousy poet when he was human and evidently his abilities to string words together hadn’t improved as a vampire.
Spike rolled his eyes and restrained the urge to smack her. He’d tried physical punishment as a way to spice up the sex and found that, while the bot apparently looked soft and malleable, the hard skeleton underneath her skin was as unyielding as iron. Hitting her had been like hitting a steel beam. His hand had swelled up and hurt for hours.
Paying his inattention no mind, she climbed onto his lap and wound her arms about him. She slid into one of her programs and began nibbling at his ear. He wanted to tell her to go stand in the corner. But he was lonely and randy after seeing the real Slayer. Might as well take his frustrations out on something.
Grabbing the mannequin about the waist, he tumbled her to the floor and hiked her skirts up. Within moments, he was giving her a solid coring while she squealed in fake ecstasy under his attentions.
“Ooh, give it to me, Spike! You’re so big! You’re the Big Bad!” Spike shut his ears to her comments and concentrated on plowing her before his desire waned completely.
__________
Buffy felt like hell the next morning. She hadn’t really been able to get to sleep after what she’d seen. Time and time again she’d nearly dozed off only to hear that, that, monstrosity’s voice chirping in her ears and Giles’s enthusiastic responses.
She rubbed her eyes wearily as she got up. Everything was falling apart. Her mother was dead. Glory was panting after her. That creepy vision in the desert was babbling about how death was her gift and now Giles whom she thought she could trust was indulging in twisted fantasies about her.
Dawn came bouncing out of her room and breezed past Buffy into the bathroom. “Dibs! I get the shower first!” She slammed the door and Buffy shortly heard the shower running.
Her blonde sister sighed. “Sure. Whatever.” She stomped downstairs and decided to make breakfast while waiting for Dawn to get out of the shower. When she heard the phone ring, she glared. Who the hell could be phoning at this time of day? And yet somehow she knew exactly who it was. “Hello. Summers residence.”
“Buffy. It’s me. Would it be possible for you to talk?”
“Giles,” she replied flatly.
Giles sounded weary as if he’d gotten as little sleep as she did. “Buffy, please. We need to talk.”
“So not wanting to do the talking thing with you, Giles. I have to get Dawn and myself ready for school.” ‘Cause if I talk to him I’ll see him with naked me on top of him that wasn’t and I’m not gonna have the strength to choke down breakfast much less keep from spewing it all over the kitchen.
“Buffy, I want you to know I’d never do such a thing. I thought Warren’s behavior with that doll was reprehensible. I would never stoop to use a travesty of your face a-and body for my own selfish purposes like that. It’s obscene. My god, it’s what Spike did with you, isn’t it?”
“Well, Spike stopped short at shrine worship. This takes the ick to a whole new level, Giles.”
“What’s going on? Who’s on the phone?” Dawn stood in the doorway, posed awkwardly on one leg as she adjusted her sneakers.
Boy, that was a quick shower! Buffy smiled tightly at her sister. “It’s Giles, Dawn. Something happened last night.” She just shook her head and stared at the phone in her hand. Giles was probably listening at the other end. Could she really bring herself to spill the beans in front of her kid sister?
“What? Is it about Glory?” Dawn’s voice got tight with fear. But Buffy felt a wave of relief. Here was a definite out from the sticky Giles/Buffybot mess.
“Um. Yeah. Spike showed up on patrol last night.”
Dawn’s expression grew surly as Buffy mentioned the bleached blonde vampire. “That asshole. What did he want?”
“He says he found out where Glory is hiding.”
“Really?” Dawn squeaked.
From the phone, Buffy could hear Giles’s voice speaking to her. “Giles, did you hear what I said?”
“Yes. You said Spike told you where Glory could be found. Is-is his information reliable? When did you get it anyway? We just returned home last night.”
“Well, that’s when I ran into Spike. I was patrolling and he told me he knew where to find Glory. He thought that I was just going to run off and get her but I said I wanted to come to you instead.”
Giles was immediately suspicious. Buffy could hear it in his voice. “Ah. So Spike led you to see me with this Buffybot?”
“Before you say it, no. He didn’t want to drag you into it. He kept on making all sorts of dumb insults about how he didn’t think you were up to the challenge, about how you were too old. He even said I should have told the others, Xander, Anya or Willow instead of you.”
“Oh, I see.” The uncertainty had returned. Giles had begun to believe that Spike was somehow responsible for the abomination that showed up in his bed. But why would he send the thing to him and then try to keep Buffy away?
Dawn asked, “Spike said Giles was too old? Who does he think he is? Hello, 120-odd-year-old vampire?” She shoveled a spoonful of cereal into her mouth and Buffy frowned. She’d hoped to make omelets this morning. She wanted to try to be like mom in a tiny way, at least.
Buffy heard the beep of a car horn. “Dawn, that’s your ride. Xander can’t wait forever, you know.”
Dawn took another big gulp of cereal. “Right. If we’ve finally found out where Glory is, I want to know. Don’t leave me out of this, Buffy! This is about me, you know.”
Buffy waved at her impatiently. “Okay, we’ll meet at the Magic Box tonight and discuss. But you do your homework first, you hear me? No slacking off, Dawn. I mean it!” she yelled after the departing teenager.
She waited until she was sure Dawn had left and she heard Xander’s car pull away from the house. Then she looked down at the phone in her hand and slowly raised it to her ear. “Giles? You still there?”
“Yes. Buffy, I know that appearances are against me. But you have to believe that I would never do such a thing. I-I know that you and the others think that I’m a dried-up old stick of a man who either doesn’t have sexual relations any more or would have to resort to pathetic efforts to win a woman’s heart.” Here a trace of indefinable sadness crept into Giles’s voice as if he regretted being put out to pasture even in people’s imagination. “But I assure you I would never stoop this low or create such an obscene mockery of your image.”
He paused when she didn’t speak. “Do you believe me?”
She wanted to; she really did. In her wildest dreams she would never think of her Watcher engaging in such a disgusting act. But he had tampered with evil magicks when he was younger. Maybe this kind of perverted sicko thing was right up his alley. Well, Ripper’s alley, anyway. “Giles, I-I don’t know. I’m still spun. It was so strange. I mean, if she wasn’t your idea, how did she get there?”
“Believe me, I want to get to the bottom of that mystery myself.”
“So what does she have to say for herself?” Buffy’s voice was chilly almost as if they were talking about another woman.
“Um, well, that’s another mystery. When I woke up this morning, the blasted thing was gone. I have no idea where it could be.”
“Well, that’s convenient,” Buffy replied tartly.
He sighed. She could hear the defeat in the sound as he picked up on the unspoken accusation. “No, it’s most decidedly not convenient. But I-I suppose it is a minor problem compared to our predicament with Glory. Perhaps we should just put it out of our minds until that problem is solved.” Another pause followed. “You said you had an address for Glory?”
“I wrote it down last night.” That was all she’d retained the presence of mind to do after she’d run from Giles. Spike had pestered her to tell her what was wrong with the Watcher but she had refused to tell him anything. He’d looked oddly disappointed as if he’d expected her to spill her guts. He had told her about Glory’s hideaway and she’d written it down before she went to sleep.
“So we get the gang together and put together a plan. Now we know where she lives, we hit her hard and fast, Giles. We don’t give her a chance to see what’s coming.”
“I c-concur. That would seem the best option. Do you have a plan?”
“Not a one. See you at the Magic Box, Giles.” Buffy hung up the phone and stared at her hands. She had to leave the house soon otherwise she’d be late for school. But how was she going to concentrate in her classes with this on her mind?
__________
“We know where Glory is? Now that’s good news. The Watchers Council finally came through,” Xander enthused.
“Actually, it was Spike who gave me the info, Xander,” Buffy conceded reluctantly.
“Damn! And here I was thinking we’d gotten rid of him for good. There goes my happy,” the construction worker sighed.
“Don’t worry, Xander. I’ll help you get it back,” Anya replied, rubbing Xander’s arm and beaming at him. Xander had been so depressed lately since Joyce had died. The woman had meant a great deal to him. It was almost as if she’d been his own mother.
Anya could recall the woman’s kindness and her unquestioning acceptance of her even after the older Summers woman knew what Anya was. Joyce had been so open, kind and giving to everyone. She hoped she would be that kind of mother to her own children. The thought made her squeeze his arm and her dear Xander smiled gratefully at her.
Tara eyed Buffy. Her face was guarded when she spoke about Spike but she seemed more tense than normal around Giles. What was up with that? The others didn’t seem to notice. Perhaps it was all in her head. “Are we sure this information is r-reliable? I mean, this is Spike w-we’re talking about,” she stammered.
Buffy shrugged. “Only one way to find out. But we should get a plan before we go charging in. I don’t want anybody getting killed over this.”
Giles said nothing. He’d been preoccupied during his hours at the Magic Box. Finally, he’d told Anya to man the cash register while he took several books into the training room to read and study. He’d finally hit on a bold plan but he wanted to wait until Dawn arrived before telling anybody.
Xander noted his silence. “Hey, G-man. Feel like joining the confab? We could use some of that Watcher know-how before we take on the latest Hellmouth baddie. Any thoughts?”
“I came across a passage in one of my old books. It might help defuse the situation with Glory. However, it directly concerns Dawn and I wanted her opinion before it was attempted.”
Dawn swung open the Magic Box door in time to hear Giles’s last words. “Before what was attempted? Is it something I can help with?”
Giles watched the young girl. Really, she wasn’t young and she wasn’t technically a girl. She was an ancient, unbelievably old artifact that had been human for only a few short months. That’s what his mind had rationally dictated to him all through the day. It was difficult to maintain cold logic when faced with the actuality, however.
“I found a ritual…one designed to remove the essence from a person and trap them in a suitable object of one’s choice. Jewelry, a globe, any sort of item used for containment will do.”
He hesitated and Buffy’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t like the way he was looking at her sister; it made her nervous and she was already twitchy with being around him. “Remove essences? Are you talking about taking the Keyness out of Dawn?”
Giles nodded slowly. Buffy wasn’t the dimwit many took her for although she often seemed to cultivate that impression. “Y-yes. I got the notion from Anya’s words from a few weeks ago. Since Glory’s ritual requires, um, bleeding the Key, it seems prudent t-to remove the Key energy and place it in a vessel that cannot be bled.”
“And just what would this ritual do to Dawn? What would happen to her?” Buffy demanded.
Giles tried to speak with confident assurance. “I-I honestly don’t know. I don’t know how much of being a Key makes up Dawn’s being. In every way, her personality is that of a young girl. Until you were told by that dying monk about what she was, we had no notions to the contrary. She herself didn’t know until she broke into the Magic Box and stole a look into my diary. She’s had no dreams, visions and given no signs that she’s in any way in touch with the magical properties of the Key. It may be that with the extraction of the Key, Dawn will remain exactly what she appears to be--an ordinary teenaged girl.”
“But you don’t know for sure,” his Slayer stated flatly.
Giles had to concede the point. “No.”
Buffy was firm in her refusal. “Then we don’t do this.”
Dawn was immediately up in arms. “We? You mean me, don’t you? Don’t I get a say in this?”
Buffy stood and began pacing. “Dawn, Giles just said he doesn’t know what this will do to you. What if you disappear out of existence? We have a Key-shaped thingamabob and you go up in smoke. Poof! No more sister! Do you want to risk that? Because I don’t not after--” She didn’t continue but everybody understood. Buffy didn’t want to lose the only family she had left.
“C’mon, Buffy. This is Giles. He always knows his stuff. I trust him to get this right. Why don’t you?” Dawn smiled at the Englishman and missed the tight-lipped expression on her sister’s face.
Buffy became evasive. “This is just too risky. I want other options for taking on this high-toned hellgod in heels.”
Anya spoke up then. “I think Giles’s idea is great. Fighting Glory is too risky. After all, Buffy’s fought him and Glory thoroughly bested her and you all went up against her and barely made it out alive. I say Giles’s idea is worth a shot.”
“She’s my sister and I say no,” Buffy said in a low voice.
Dawn made an attempt to protest. “Hello, younger sibling in the room? Why is everybody talking about me like I’m not here? I saw Glory throw a tire iron at you, Buffy, and toss Spike across a room like a bowling ball. No offense but I’m seriously doubting your chances of taking her on and winning.”
“Thank you so much for that vote of confidence. You’re so comforting, both of you,” Buffy said sarcastically to Dawn and Anya. She turned to her Watcher. “Giles, you’re not doing this to Dawn.” It was obvious that this wasn’t a request.
Giles’s gaze became steely. “Buffy, I understand where your mistrust is coming from. But if we can’t find a way to defeat Glory, then this may be our last, our only, option to scotch her before the planned astral convergence.”
Buffy’s tone was equally menacing. “Forget it. Didn’t you find anything else in those precious books that doesn’t involve unraveling my sister like an old sweater?”
He held her gaze a moment longer and then sighed. “No. I’m afraid not.”
“Well, if we’re going back to the tried-and-true method of slugging things out, we got anything else we can use against her than tire irons?” Xander asked before the resultant silence became uncomfortable. “‘Cause after that, I’m drawing a blank.”
“How about Olaf’s hammer? It belonged to a god so it may be a suitable weapon against one,” Anya said. “And there’s that orb of Dagon Buffy took from that warehouse. It must have belonged to that monk and must be important otherwise he wouldn’t have had it. It’s not as if he had anything else on him; modern day monks are notorious for not carrying much of value on them like money or credit cards.”
Xander gazed at her in admiration. “Wow, smart girls are so sexy.”
“You couldn’t figure that out back in fourth grade?” Willow murmured with an arch look.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Buffy enthused. “Two solid weapons to take against a god. C’mon, folks. Keep ‘em coming.”
__________
In the end they’d decided to use telekinetic blasts from the witches and maybe a couple of explosives. Xander was elected for the latter since he used them in his work. Buffy trusted him to handle the details.
Giles wanted to talk to Buffy but she pointedly ignored his attempts to get her alone. Giving up at last, he took his goodbyes from the others. Xander watched him go and then asked, “Buffy, you mind telling us what that was all about?”
“What what was all about? I’m just a little ticked that the only solution my Watcher could up with was draining the life force out of my sister.”
“But that’s not what he said!” Xander protested.
“It might as well have been,” was the stubborn response.
“B-but you wouldn’t e-even consider it,” Tara said in her shy voice. “W-why were you so hostile to him?”
“It wasn’t him,” Buffy lied.
Dawn wasn’t convinced. Her sister had been acting weird ever since this morning’s phone call from Giles and she was beginning to think it wasn’t all about Glory. “So what is it? Why don’t you trust Giles all of a sudden?”
Buffy folded her arms and hunched over. She so didn’t want to discuss this in front of her sister. It was mundo twisted. But she had to let her friends in on it. “It’s not Giles; it’s everything. Mom, you, Glory, school--I thought I had it hard when I was juggling all this back in Sunnydale High. But now it’s overwhelmy and I don’t think I can take much more of it.”
“All the more reason to lean on Giles--on us, really,” Xander said. “So spill it, Buff. Why’s Giles suddenly on your hit list?”
Buffy chewed her lip as she considered. Then she took a deep breath. “I-I saw something last night at Giles’s place. He was…Giles was with--” She stopped and clasped her arms around her body as if she were cold.
“Giles was with what? A demon?” Xander asked. Demonic girlfriends of the past rose up to taunt him and his face screwed up.
Anya was blunter. “A girlfriend? Was it that Olivia woman? I remember she was an orgasm friend of Giles. Is she back in town?”
Buffy frowned. She remembered Olivia, too. She’d been upset to see her although she wasn’t sure why at the time. Dismissing Olivia, she said, “I wish. I saw him with a robot.”
Xander exclaimed, “A robot? As in an April type of robot robot?” Buffy didn’t answer. She just nodded. “That dog! All that talk about not getting why a guy would want a sexbot! Those English are a sly bunch, ain’t they?”
Buffy snapped, “Xander, the robot looked like me!”
There was a moment’s silence. Then Willow squeaked, “Giles was with a-a robot you? Buffy, are you sure? ‘Cause that’s not right. It’s so not Giles.” She tried to wrap her mind around the concept of Giles with a Buffy-shaped toy and then shied away from the idea. “Okay, let’s not get carried away. So you saw Giles with a Buffy robot. That doesn’t mean he wanted her for sex. H-he could have had her made as a decoy for Glory or a training tool f-for the Slaying or--”
Buffy interrupted her stream of babble. “Willow, she was naked and in bed with him. She was sitting on top of him when I saw them together.”
“Oh,” the redhead said in a tiny voice.
“A-are you sure? It wasn’t dark or anything?” Dawn ventured.
Buffy nodded. “I’m sure. She was definitely doing a Giles straddle.”
“Oh, man. I’m in a scary visual place here,” Xander muttered. “No wonder you’re spooked, Buffy.”
“B-but we should try not to lay b-blame,” Willow said. “There has to be a simple, logical explanation here, Buffy. Maybe it wasn’t really Giles you saw.” At Buffy’s incredulous look, she wilted slightly. “Okay. Robot Buffy and non-Giles. That’s beyond possibility even for the Hellmouth.”
“H-how do you know it was a robot, Buffy?” Tara asked. “Maybe it was a succubus. Or some other demon that took on your shape so Giles would think it was you.”
Buffy murmured, “H-he did say he was sleeping and then he woke up and she was on top of him.”
Xander slapped the table, relieved to have the mystery partially solved. “There! See! Whatever that thing was it had nothing to do with Giles. At least not from Giles’s end ‘cause it was not his idea except that it looked like Buffy.” He paused and added, “That still doesn’t explain why it looked like Buffy.”
Buffy shrugged helplessly. “All I know is it was a robot, Xander, not some demony substitute. It talked and acted just like that robot April that Warren creep made for himself. You should have heard it talking about how much it wanted Giles. It was sickening.”
Xander gave an exaggerated shudder. “If it was anything like the way Anya talks, no thanks.”
“Hey, I resent that! I’m only praising how wonderful you are in bed. I fail to see what’s wrong with that,” Anya protested. “So what did this Buffy robot substitute have to say about Giles’s technique? He’s older than Xander and we know he’s had sex with other women so I’m thinking he knows things that Xander doesn’t. Did he do things with her that were kinky or was it ordinary girl-on-top sex?”
“I don’t think they got that far, Anya, and if they did I wouldn’t talk about it with you,” Buffy ground out.
“I don’t see why not,” Anya said. “I can perfectly understand Giles having lusty, passionate feelings for a woman even a substitute one. I’m certainly not offended by the idea like Xander is.”
“There’s nothing to discuss here, people!” Buffy cried. “Doesn’t anybody see how sick this all is? I feel so, so, violated!” Her voice wobbled. To her horror, she thought she might cry.
Dawn rubbed her back in an awkward attempt to soothe her. “I know. I-it does sound ‘ewww’ but we’re still having major mental blockage here. We can accept Buffybot and we can accept Giles having groiny feelings. We’re just not able to put the two of them together. Where’s the connection? Why would Giles do this? And if he didn’t do it, who did?”
The others tried to think. Tara was the first to speak, her timid voice asking a question the others hadn’t thought to voice. “Buffy, why were you at Giles’s last night? Was it anything special o-or j-just routine patrol?”
She blinked tiredly. “Huh? Didn’t I mention it? When Spike told me about where Glory was, I wanted to bring the news to Giles. When I saw Giles with that thing--let’s just say my priorities shifted.”
“I’ll bet,” Xander blurted out. “So Spike showed up to lead you to Giles’s doorstep? Does anybody join me in thinking that’s not a coincidence?”
“Look, Xander, I thought that, too. But Spike definitely didn’t want to see Giles. It was all my idea,” Buffy protested.
“Still, Spike shows up when he’s been absent for weeks and then you catch Giles with a sexbot. I concur with Xander. This doesn’t strike me as coincidence. Take it from a woman who’s leveled vengeance schemes for over a thousand years,” Anya stated authoritatively.
“Y-yeah. Spike is obsessed about you and it’s probably been going on for weeks. T-that’s why he stopped taking money for fighting demons,” Tara said.
“And why he was always talking about you even before that Valentine’s Day fiasco,” Dawn added.
“And why we haven’t seen him since that day he showed up at the Magic Box after that Aprilbot threw him threw the window,” Willow finished. Her eyes widened. “That’s it! We told him she was a robot, he went running to that Warren freak and got him to make him his very own Buffy! It all fits!”
Tara smiled in admiration at her girlfriend. “Xander’s right. Smart girls really are sexy.” Willow blushed and squeezed her lover’s hand under the table.
Xander added, “Then everything’s been wrapped up in big neat bow…except for the part where the robot winds up getting pelvic with Giles. That I don’t get.”
“Well, that part’s pretty explainable. Giles has sexual feelings for Buffy and Spike must have picked up on it. He probably thinks Giles is in the way and this was his way of making sure Buffy doesn’t return those feelings,” Anya approved.
The others stared at her. “What? What are you talking about, Anya? Giles has feelings for Buffy? I mean, beyond Watcherly feelings?” Xander asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course he does. It’s painfully obvious, really. His eyes follow her when he’s sure she’s not looking, he sometimes looks really concerned when she comes in from patrol as if he’s terrified something will happen to her and he’s concerned about her welfare above and beyond that of mere duty. That’s why he wants to remove the Key essence from Dawn. He’s afraid Buffy will die against Glory and he’s willing to sacrifice Dawn to prevent it.”
Dawn went completely white and Willow glared at Anya. “That’s a lie! Giles wouldn’t do that to Dawn. He cares about her as much as Buffy does. That’s just insane.”
Anya shrugged. “Suit yourself. But if it came down to a sacrifice and I had to choose between the person I loved and someone who hadn’t even been alive until a few short months ago, well then, there’d be no contest. It’s nothing personal, Dawn,” she added.
“Excuse me if it’s personal to me,” Dawn glared.
“So Giles h-has feelings for Buffy and Spike sent a robot over to him in t-time for B-Buffy to see it,” Tara said hastily to stave off an argument.
“See, Buffy? A perfectly reasonable explanation. You know, except for lusty Giles-and-Buffy scenario.” Xander shuddered again and Anya smacked him on the arm, telling him not to be so narrow-minded.
It was a tempting and comforting theory. She badly wanted to believe that Giles was innocent. But that whole scene had been like an awful replay of what had happened with Riley complete with Spike waiting outside.
Her eyes narrowed and she paused as she considered both sets of circumstances. Yes, this was exactly the same and unlike the first time she understood the motivation behind it. Spike had been creepily obsessed with her even then. She hadn’t known it and she’d walked right into his trap. It had caused her to lose Riley and cleared the path for the peroxide jerk.
That’s what this was about then. Spike was trying to drive a wedge between her--and Giles. Why? Could it be true that he had those kinds of feelings for her? Anya seemed very sure. Of course Anya saw sexual feelings pretty much everywhere. Xander’s voice intruded and she stared at him. “Xander? Did you say something?”
“I was just saying that maybe we could question the plastic fantastic version of you. What did she have to say when you pried her off Giles?”
Buffy admitted, “She kept going on about how sexy Giles was. That was pretty much it. But I’m afraid we can’t talk to her. Sometime during the night she did a Copperfield and disappeared. Giles says she was gone when he got up this morning.”
“Then if Spike’s behind this, she’s got to be at his place.” Dawn said conclusively. “Why don’t we take a look-see over there? He’s probably got her hidden in that underground place where he had Buffy’s dummy look-alike.”
“B-but what if we go and she isn’t there? Then what?” Tara asked. “He’ll probably hear us coming and hide her away. W-we’d all look pretty stupid then.”
“Then we get Spike away from his crypt and search it when he’s not there.” Anya looked around at the others as they considered her idea. “What? Not a good plan?”
“An excellent plan, my little schemer. But how do we manage that?” Xander asked.
Buffy stood up from her chair, startling the others. “People, have we forgotten? There’s a little more serious matter than the peroxide peril’s Buffy obsession. We’ve got a brain-sucking, loony hellgod to get rid of. Spike’s perverted passions can wait.”
There wasn’t anything they could say after that. The meeting broke up and everyone went his separate ways. Willow and Tara agreed to check in on Dawn later when Buffy went patrolling. Buffy didn’t like to get too far away from her sister these days. But the Hellmouth still needed to be policed and the Slayer was the one for the job.
Buffy tensed slightly as she watched Dawn get into the car. Spike had told her Glory’s minions were following them. She couldn’t make out anybody in the darkness but maybe they hid too well for her to see.
She could still sense vampires, however. She gripped her stake and then relaxed as Spike came striding out of the darkness. “Oh, it’s you. I thought it was a serious threat.”
Spike bristled at the implied insult. “So how’d your little powwow with the Little Rascals go? They make plans to hit Glory with water balloons or somethin’ like that?”
“We’re doing just fine, since you ask. Don’t you have a bar you should be haunting?” Buffy sniffed as she locked her sister into her mother’s car, a sad legacy of Joyce Summers’s death.
“That’s the thanks I get for giving you news about Glory? Gotta say, Slayer--”
“You don’t gotta say anything, vampire,” Buffy emphasized. “Stop whining and begging for gratitude already. It’s kinda pathetic and needy. It’s as bad as when you used to ask for handouts. Maybe we should just go back to paying you like you’re an employee.” She opened the other door and slid into the driver’s side.
Spike was puzzled. She’d been riled last night about the Watcher. He knew she’d seen him with Warren’s latest creation. He’d seen the aged ponce leave the Magic Box earlier and the man had seemed visibly upset. The Watcher hadn’t managed to convince Buffy of his innocence. Then why was she so unconcerned about the old bloke now?
Spike tried to sound her out. “What’d the Watcher have to say about the news? You and him didn’t have much time to talk last night, as I recall.”
Buffy’s face went blank as she looked over the vampire. The others were right; Spike was obsessed about her and he was only asking about Giles to see where she stood with him. Well, no need to let him know anything important, was there? “Giles has an idea. It needs work. Bye, Spike.” She slammed the car door, barely missing his fingers, and drove off
That was it? That was all he got from weeks of labor and waiting? He didn’t think about the fact that he hadn’t actually done any work on the robot. Seeing her built from the ground up, waiting impatiently for that silly git Warren to finish had made it feel as if he’d had a personal hand in her creation. Now he was bored with her already and his plan for tearing apart Useless and Bitchy wasn’t going along as smoothly as he’d hoped.
Well, there’d be other opportunities; he just had to bide his time.

TBC
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She's the One for Me