__White Flag__
By Angelwakes
Bath, England
Rupert Giles sat at the foot of his bed staring at his
bedroom wall. It was blanketed with framed photographs: some large, some
small, some obviously taken without the subject's knowledge, but all of
the same person. Buffy. His Slayer who, for the first time since
her calling, was leading the relatively normal life she had craved for
so long, without him to hold her back, chaining her to his duty with
his love for her.
Amongst the pictures was the photograph he had taken
out of her school file; plus, the formal Prom picture, a hastily taken
snapshot while she was working out in the library, the bridesmaid shot
from Xander and Anya's doomed wedding and many more.
He sat and gazed at the wall, lost in the myriad memories it was invoking.
It grew darker and darker but his unseeing eyes failed to notice until it grew so
dark that he noticed the absence of light and was forced to move and rectify
the situation.
Barely able to see, he settled into bed, flipping a switch
by his bed as he did so.
A single low wattage spotlight illuminated
one of the images and as he went to sleep, her lovely face was the last thing
he saw.
* * * * *
Los Angeles, U.S.A.
After ensuring her bedroom door was locked, Buffy leaned over and pulled a huge notice board out
from beneath her bed. After removing a framed picture of her family from the
wall she hung the board [in its place?]. It was a collection of pictures of a
man, taken at various times in his life. He was her secret love, her Watcher,
Rupert Giles who was currently an ocean away and probably glad to be rid of
his Slayer now he had a Council to rebuild.
She gazed at the pictures before her; one from his rebellious phase complete with guitar, she had
'borrowed' it from a box of his belongings as they cleared his office before
the destruction of the school, the tuxedo pose from Prom, a picture she'd
taken when he was deep in research - his hair ruffled from running his
fingers through it... her eyes at last resting on the most treasured image.
It was taken from a drawing one of the other slayers had done after
the destruction of Sunnydale. She had captured the people looking at
the crater so well. Buffy had photocopied and enlarged it and then cut out
the picture of Giles looking so tired and proud that they had survived. She
still felt elation that he had survived.
She could carry on with her life now knowing her love had survived.
She brushed her fingertips over his
image before removing the board and hiding it until tomorrow night.
She replaced the picture and unlocking her door went into
the bathroom to get ready for bed.
* * * * *
Los Angeles U.S.A
"Wills, I'm being followed!" Buffy was having a
girly time with her best friend. That usually meant a session of bonding with
ice cream and cute guy, or girl, discussion. Not this time. This time the
Slayer had a problem she needed help with and she figured Willow would be the
perfect person to help her.
"What!? If it's that girl again I'll really
tell her off this time! With scary faces to boot!"
One of the newly
created slayers had developed a little hero worshipping crush on Buffy and
had to be talked out of it by a very amused Willow.
"No Will, not her this time. I think it's a man, but I'm not sure what he wants. I've noticed a
feeling that I was being watched for a while, but theres's no demon-y vibe. I
think he's human. Why would a human be following me and not even trying to talk to me?"
They looked at each other perplexed. This was different from
the stuff they usually had to deal with. After some discussion they
decided that Willow would follow Buffy and try to spot the person following
the blonde. The Wicca would then follow said person to discover who the heck they were.
* * * * *
"I don't believe it!" Willow muttered to herself. She
had spotted the stalker immediately, of course the fact that she was using
an invisibility spell meant the job was fairly easy.
The man, he was a
male she noted, had pulled out a small digital camera and was rapidly firing
off shots of Buffy who was blissfully unaware of what was happening as she
browsed through various clothes stores. Willow shadowed the man to a small
office building. After letting himself, and Willow, into the lobby he strode
confidently to an office suite with the nameplate 'Richard Stock -
Surveillance' on the door. Unlocking the door, he stepped into his office
with purpose, absently leaving the door open behind him, so intent was he
in completing his task. She snuck in and watched as he opened a door
to another office, wedging it open so that he could move more
freely between the two rooms. Pausing for only a second to fling his
jacket on a chair, he moved behind the desk and began downloading
the images onto the computer, before printing them out one by one. When he
was finished he switched it off and upon standing, turned to a nearby filing
cabinet, which he unlocked. Opening it he pulled out a folder, inserted the
pictures and then closed the drawer, relocking the cabinet and catching up
his jacket, he left the office. Moving through the outer room he exited the
suite, locking it after himself.
Willow waited until she was sure he wouldn't
return and then switched the machine back on. There was no way to discover
whom the pictures were for so she abandoned the technical search and went to
the cabinet. The file contained more pictures, obviously taken over
the last few days, and they were all of Buffy's everyday movements.
There were no 'hidden camera' type pictures at all which made Willow
frown. Who would want pictures showing Buffy's lifestyle?
Finding no additional information about the pictures the redhead was glad she was a
kick-ass Wicca Goddess. She put a small tracking spell on the photographs. It
was barely detectable but would allow her to follow their progress on a map
to discern their final destination. She put everything back as she had found
it and then apparated back to Buffy's apartment. She had begun to use the
fictional term after reading it in one of Dawn's books, it just sounded
better than saying she was going to poof somewhere when she travelled
distances in the blink of an eye.
After explaining all that had happened
to a very confused and worried Slayer, the two girls waited for the spell to
be activated, which would be as soon as the pictures were mailed. A large
world map was left unrolled on the dining table to follow the picture's
progress. Thankfully the wait was short.
The next morning a small haze of
light began hovering over the map. Unfortunately, being a Saturday,
both girls were still sleeping and so it was much later when they
noticed the unusual illumination. With a joint squeal they rushed
over, watching as the light - a small dot - which moved eastwards
across the country. It didn't stop at all that day and they took
turns watching over the next few days until the dot reached England.
Willow retrieved one of her guidebooks about England she had bought
back with her after her visit to the coven and placed it open on
the table. There was a fairly detailed map in the book and both
girls watched in amazement as the light came to a stop, in Bath.
They were speechless for a moment and then Buffy whispered "Giles!" Her voice held a
tone Willow could not place.
"I can't believe he's checking up on me like
this! I'm so going to have words with him about this." Anger replaced the
previous tone and the annoyed blonde was almost shouting at the end of her
outburst.
"Buffy, we don't know that he is checking up on you, maybe he
just wants to know you're doing okay." Willow tried to calm her
friend down; they didn't know for sure what Giles wanted the pictures
for. There was a way however, to find out.
Willow convinced Buffy to move
to the lounge and a more comfortable seat and then put forward her
suggestion. "Right you know I can do pretty much anything I want, being big
with the good magics and such?"
"Yeah." said Buffy unsure, where this was leading.
"Well I promised Giles I would only use the really big stuff for
an emergency, and for what I have in mind to work it would mean very
big magic-ness."
"Wills are we talking world endage here?" Buffy asked
and, at her friend's head shake continued, "Well this guy has been stalking
me and we don't know that it's Giles; it could be...well it could be
...Ethan Rayne." She named the only other English person she knew who could
possibly be behind this. "'Cause if he's behind it then I'm thinking big
badness, Will, so in a way it's our duty to find out who has the pictures."
Buffy finished; pleased at being able to legitimise using a significant
amount of magical energy for almost personal reasons.
"Okay, well
basically what I can do is call up an image of where they ended up, it could
be the street or a house or even a room, I'm not sure how clear it will
be."
"Did I ever mention how handy you are to have around Will?"
Buffy smiled as Willow closed her eyes and began chanting slowly
and quietly.
Gradually a portal began to appear in front of them and then
an image came in to focus. It was a hallway with an envelope on the
floor, Buffy could not read the writing on the envelope.
"Can you go
closer?" She quietly asked the still-chanting Wicca, meaning 'closer to the
envelope'.
The scene began to change as they moved down the hallway and into
a lounge. Buffy's breath caught in her throat... she recognised that lamp
and all those books. Only one person could live here.
"More?" she whispered
and they were taken back to the hallway and into a bedroom. Now she really
stopped breathing, for there sitting at the end of his bed, was her Watcher
and he was looking at a wall, which was covered with pictures; pictures of
her.
"Willow, can you open your eyes, 'cause I don't believe mine!"
She was stunned and the look on Giles' face was breaking her heart,
he looked so forlorn sitting like that and she desperately wanted to make
him feel better.
"Goddess! Now we know why he wanted your picture, but why
hasn't he picked up the new ones?"
"I don't know. Oh God can he hear us?"
Buffy suddenly started at the thought of discovery.
"Oh no, this is one
way viewing only." Willow reassured her.
"Good, 'cause I'd hate to be caught peeping in Giles' bedroom."
"Oh I don't know, judging from the evidence I
don't think he'll mind you in his bedroom." Willow raised her eyebrow at the
blushing slayer. "The question is do *you* want to be in his
bedroom?"
"Wills! Ixnay on the bedroom talk for a moment. Why isn't he
moving? Is he under a spell?"
"No.... I don't think so. It just looks like
he's spaced out for a moment. You know like Dawn gets when she's watching
Justin Timberlake on MTV."
"Oh....Oh! That means Giles is spaced out about
me!"
"Yep, it sure looks like it, now Miss Avoid-y the bedroom question."
"Rats. Come with me."
The two girls went into Buffy's bedroom.
The slayer closed and locked the door. Buffy sat on the bed. "Look
under the bed." The Slayer then picked up a pillow and hid her reddening
face.
Crouching down Willow spotted a board under the bed. She pulled
it out and gasped as she saw the images it contained.
"You do want to be
in his bedroom!" She squeaked "Oh Goddess this is so...so great!"
"Where's the greatness, Wills? We both look at pictures but he's never told me how he
feels. He may just be nostalgic."
"Nope, uh huh, if he were he would have
pictures of all of us not just you and you're forgetting the spacing... he
was spacing over *you*."
"And I space over him, what do I do now Wills? I
really love him, I think I always have in some way, he's everything I looked
for in a guy, I didn't know my guy was Giles until he wasn't here
anymore."
"Let me think, I'm sure I can come up with something."
She left Buffy sitting on the bed with her picture board in front of her and a dreamy
expression on her face. 'Now if only Giles could see that. Oh Goddess,
Willow you are good!' The redhead smirked, if she knew Giles - and she did,
he would definitely make the first move if he saw Buffy looking like
that about him.
* * * * *
Rupert Giles entered his flat after
another hard day trying to form the few remaining Watchers and various newly
drafted brothers of the late Watchers into a smooth running Council. He was
tired and feeling.... well, cranky as Willow would say. He started as
he noticed a plain brown envelope on the hall floor. There was no address
on the front, no stamp; in fact, no evidence that it had been through the
postal system at all. Then he smelt it, there was a faint smell of vanilla
coming from the envelope. Dear Lord! That was the fragrance Buffy used in her
body washes. He remembered the aroma surrounding him as he trained with his
Slayer and the scent compelled him to open the envelope.
Inside was
another, smaller envelope with writing on. 'I thought you may like to see
this Giles, love Willow xxx'
"That's how it got here, I'm going to have words
with her about misusing her gift like this. She should have used the postal
service."
Seconds later he was blessing Willow for having reached him
so quickly. He was holding a photograph of his Slayer, in her
bedroom, looking at pictures - pictures of him and she was smiling. He
had only seen that look on her face when she looked at Angel, not
even Riley had been graced with that loving smile.
'She's smiling at me. She loves me."
The picture fell to the floor as Giles went against every
self-imposed rule and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
* * * * *
"Hello Giles, should I give you the misuse of
power speech, now or later?" Willow was grinning at the dishevelled Watcher
who had just appeared in her lounge.
He scooped her up into a fierce hug
and then demanded, "Where is she?"
"In her bedroom," the Wicca said with an
air of total innocence. "I have absolutely no idea what she's doing."
He gave her an incredulous look and she smirked back at him. "Thank you." He
whispered and his gaze followed her pointing arm to Buffy's bedroom
door.
He burst through the door startling Buffy and reaching her bed in
a few steps, pulled her up into his arms and kissed her as if his
very life depended on it. It was pure heat and passion; Buffy kissed
him back matching his fierce ardour with her own.
They broke apart when
lack of air became a serious issue. Both were trembling and shocked. The
force of their joining had been greater than either had ever imagined it
would be.
"I love you, Buffy."
"I love you, Rupert Giles."
Tender kisses and gentle caresses followed, knees gave out and they sank to the bed
pushing the forgotten board onto the floor, loving words whispered between
touches, passion burned out by the words both had longed to hear. Entwined on
the bed, both were gradually slowing their movements as the emotions of the
last hour that had burned through them left tiredness in their wake.
Willow took one final 'picture' and left it for the sleeping pair to find.
* * *