__The Way Ahead__
By GylzGirl



Rupert Giles made his way to the nurses' station at Sunnydale General Hospital. As he sat the paper bag he carried on the counter for a moment, the young redheaded nurse smiled up at him. "Hello Mr. Giles. How are you today?"

"Ah fortunately no head trauma Francine. But it was nice of you to ask," he returned the smile, brightly. It was amazing what surviving the Ascention and blowing up the high school had done for his mood. "I have a friend in here today. The name is Wyndham-Price."

"Let's see if I can find him for you." She began to look on her computer screen. Her big blue eyes shone up at him. "You would pick this week to start being careful. It was my turn to give you a sponge bath next."

"Well I will just have to seek heinous injury soon then."

"That would be sweet. No, I'm not pulling anything up by that name. What was he in for?"

Giles grinned. "Head trauma."

Francine looked up at him incredulously. "What are you, starting a club?" She tapped a few more keys on her computer. "We have a head trauma admission from last night, a Whyning-Paine?"

Giles was smiling so much he could hardly speak. "I'm sure that must be him."

"Okay, room 218."

"I know the way. See you soon." He started down the hallway.

Giles found Wesley's door slightly ajar. He peeked in to find the young Watcher practicing looking pale and weak against the bedclothes, no doubt to elicit some TLC from the lovely young nurses there. He also noticed the very real plum-sized knot on Wesley's forehead and the wince when he lifted himself up. Broken ribs, a pain he knew all too well. Giles rapped lightly on the door and then pushed it open.

Wesley smiled at him. "Mr. Giles, I-I'm surprised to see you."

"Well I wanted to check up on how you were doing, you know. The ambulance attendants wouldn't let me see you last night." He then remembered the bag he brought. "Oh and to bring you this." He handed the sack to Wesley, who opened it and smiled. There were grapes, chocolate bars, a blank journal and some magazines. "I told the uh...group that I was stopping by. They wanted to add some to the bag, wish you well. They may be by later."

"Thank you, and them. It's a very nice gesture."

Giles took the seat next to the bed. "So will you live?" he kidded.

"Just barely. How did the battle go? Is everyone all right?"

"There were a few casualties, but not as much as we'd feared."

"Cordelia?"

He smiled. "Still bragging about staking a total of three vampires and not even breaking a nail."

"Buffy?"

Giles closed his eyes and inhaled deeply on that one. He didn't remember when he'd last been so scared for her. Watching her dart into the school with that monster on her heels. But they'd won. She and he together had slain the dragon, watched the school burning. A fire mirrored inside him by the simple steadying touch of her hand on his leg. And then Angel had gone. Those things that Buffy and himself had agreed had to come before any ideas of a romance between them could even be entertained, were now past.

The doors were now open to possibilities, and he was both excited and terrified.

"Mr. Giles? Did something happen to Buffy?"

"What? No. I'm sorry, no no nothing happened to Buffy. She defeated the Mayor. She's um, she's probably home in the middle of a well-deserved sleep." 'She looks so beautiful when she's sleeping.' A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he remembered the times he'd caught her napping in the library, or on his couch. The thought of waking up to that sight next
to him in his own bed sent his heart beating triple time.

"Oh good. Then what's wrong?"

"Wrong?"

"You seem, I don't know, distracted?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I-I don't know. I guess after focusing on strategies to defeat the Mayor for so many weeks, now that it's done, my mind is going a million different places at once."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were in love."

"Nonsense!" Giles snapped at the other man as though he'd accused him of wearing ladies underthings. An embarassed blush crept over his face. He looked to Wesley, almost shyly. "Sorry. I'm afraid I-I-I didn't sleep very well last night." 'Understatement much? as Buffy would say.' He stayed up half the night driving himself crazy with 'What if Buffy hadn't survived' scenarios. The other half was a more pleasant form of insanity, fantasizing different ways she would come to him and tell him she wanted to be his. 'If indeed that is what she wants.'

"Uh huh." Wesley sat up with a slight grimace from the pain in his side. His face took on a look of interest, or possibly one of recognition. "Who is she?"

"Wesley, I'm sorry but I don't think..."

"Oh come on. You can talk to me. Is it Buffy?" He held up his hand in that annoying Watcher Council salute. "I promise I won't tell anyone." Giles sat staring at Wes' hand. The younger man's eyes followed the path and he lowered his hand. "Not even the Council."

Giles studied Wes' face. He needed to talk to someone about this, someone uninvolved, someone he could trust. He had come, despite himself, to quite like Wesley. He was trying to decide if he could trust him. Giles' eyes held Wes' and he nodded, almost imperceptibly.

"You're in love with her and she with you," he stated it as factually as if he were saying the sky was blue.

"How do you know that?"

"Don't worry. It's only obvious to those who have eyes."

"Oh thanks."

"When I first came and she ridiculed me and sat by you. She was doing it out of more than loyalty. She was trying to make you smile. And when you did, her eyes lit up. You two have an unspoken, instinctual understanding of each other, your own language. I never stood a chance. No one could have."

"I thought I'd suppressed it so well. Even when she was able to read my mind, she never found that secret."

Wesley shrugged. "You had accepted that her returning the feeling was impossible, so you stopped thinking about it yourself. It became a part of you so it wasn't sticking out for her to notice." Giles eyed him warily. "I minored in psychology at University."

"But I feel as though I am taking advantage. What if she only feels that she owes me something or..."

"You've commited your life to her. Even the Council couldn't make you leave her. You've consistantly put her happiness and safety above your own. If that's not love, what is? Would you ever allow harm to her?"

"Not if I could help it."

"Well then. And have you ever known Buffy to let someone dominate her?"

Giles smiled at that. "Not that I can think of."

"Well then, I say if she claims to love you as you love her, accept it. How was it you said it? For God's sake man, she's eighteen. Just have at it would you, and stop fluttering about." Giles grinned and stood slowly. "And you have the emotional maturity of a blueberry scone." The smile was gone and Giles loomed over Wesley, who cringed. "Y-You wouldn't hit an injured man...would you?"

Giles smiled again and patted him on the shoulder. "Do stop by before you head back to England, won't you Wes?" He turned and walked for the door.

"Absolutely, Rupert."

Giles stopped at the door and looked back with a warning in his eyes. "Mr. Giles will do."

"Y-Yes Mr. Giles, of course." Giles slipped out the door before he completely cracked up.

******

Buffy felt a kiss on her cheek and blinked open her eyes to find her mother smiling down on her. "Hey. When did you get back from LA?"

"I didn't."

"Excuse me?"

Joyce bit her lip and smiled at her. "I got back from the Sunnydale Palms Hotel."

Buffy sat up. "I thought I told you to get out of town where it was safe."

"You did. I didn't. I'm very proud of you for saving the world...again. But I wanted to be close enough, if you needed me."

Buffy sighed. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Say goodbye?"

"Excuse me take two?"

"I um...I was invited to a conference in Loire, France. Then a fellow gallery owner friend of mine decided to make a buying trip out of it. I'll be gone the whole summer. I wanted to mention it before, but with the Earth about to be subjugated to demon rule, the timing seemed off."

"Oh. Well I needed to talk to you about a few things."

"You want to move into the dorms with Willow?"

"Uh...well yeah."

"I'd appreciate you coming home for one dinner a week, if you think you can manage?"

Buffy beamed. "You mean you're going to let me?!"

"Buffy, you're an eighteen year old Vampire Slayer. Let was not an option." Joyce smiled at her daughter. "Are you going to your father's?"

"Well so much for the happy family moment."

"Buffy, I know things aren't exactly...well Bradyesque with Hank right now. But I think he wants a chance to make things up to you. If you'll let him. It would mean a lot to him."

Buffy chewed her lip and considered it. Some time in LA would give her space to think about Giles. She smiled at the thought of him already.

Joyce saw a sweet grin appear on Buffy's face. "So you'll go?"

Buffy shook out of it and realized that her Mom had taken her wistful expression as agreement. She sighed. "One month, at most. I'm going to need plenty of time to get ready to move out."

Joyce kissed her daughter's forehead. "That's very generous of you dear." Joyce stood and walked to the door. "We'll have lunch this afternoon and then I'll let you drive me to the airport."

"You're letting me keep the car?!"

"Just for around town. You're taking the bus to your father's. I'm not having you driving around LA just yet."

"Okay."

"Oh and Buffy?"

"Yes?"

"Have fun...and don't let your father give you any crap."

******

Just as Giles was going to bed that night, there was a knock on his door. He opened it and smiled. Buffy looked up at him, grinning as she took in the sight of him, pyjama pants worn under a blue robe, open just enough at the neck to give her a nice view of his chest. His hair was tussled and his glasses were missing. As streams of warmth laced themselves through her blood, she reconsidered whether she needed any time at all to decide she wanted to be with him. No, he was too important to her to chance screwing up the bond between them, no matter how scrummy he looked. She had to be sure, for the both of them.

"Hi there stranger. Can I come in?" Giles awed in the way her eyes caught even the most miniscule light emanating from his living room and turned it into shining glory. Her hair was doing similar things with the diffused street lighting. "Of course, please do." His heart was in his throat as he watched her sit on his couch. He was trying not to let his thoughts get ahead of him, but part of him was panicked that she had already come to a decision, and not in his favor. He sat beside her but did not meet her eyes.

"Giles, I'm going to my father's in the morning."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I'll only be gone a month, maybe less, I don't know."

"You don't sound particularly happy about it."

"I am happy that it will give us both the time we need to think. As for seeing Dad, things aren't the best between us just now. I said I'd give him another chance, and I will. I'm just trying not to expect anything."

Giles finally brought his gaze to hers. "So you won't be hurt, just in case?"

She nodded and smiled at him. "Yeah. How did you know?"

"Um, because should my father try to make amends with me again it will be his 45th chance...or possibly 46th. I sort of lost count in the last decade."

She giggled, a sound that caused ripples of happiness in him like a stone thrown into a river. "Family drama man, gotta love it."

"Indeed."

"Giles?"

"Yes?"

She swallowed deeply. "My Mom's going to be gone all summer. So when I get back, we'll have time to ourselves. You know, if..." She let the words hang in the air on the strength of the promise held in them. Giles felt his breath catch as an all too familiar sensation tightened in his abdomen.

"Ah...well..."

"I uh, I guess I'd better go home and get to bed. I have a bus trip in the morning. Oh, here..." She fished in her pocket and produced a key, which she handed him. "Could you keep an eye on the house? You know, keep most of the plants from dying, alternate the lights, that kinda thing?"

"Certainly."

"You can um, you can keep that key you know. I mean, it's...it's only fair since I have one for your place." Giles simply nodded, words failing him as his mind plunged into the forbidden fantasy file. "I better go." She stood and he rose beside her, walking her over to the door. "I'll call you."

"Please do. Often."

She smiled, put her hands on his arms and lifted onto her tip toes. Giles leaned down and recieved a pleasant surprise in the form of her lips gently brushing his own. He blushed as he straightened back up. "I'll see you soon."

"Watch your back."

"You too." She walked up his steps and into the night. Giles leaned heavily on his door as he closed it. He wearily made his way up the stairs, his head full of images guaranteed to bring wonderful dreams.

* * *