__Waiting__
By GylzGirl



Buffy watched from her window as the Greyhound exited the freeway and headed into the heart of Los Angeles toward the station. 'What is it about me having to start the summer with a bus trip?' she thought. Last year, she had used one to run away, away from everything Angel. This year, Angel had run away from her. Buffy sighed and ran a hand back through her hair. She wondered when her life had stopped being about her and had become all about Angel, and why she had let it happen. Then again, wasn't Giles' life all about her? Maybe that's what love was. "Argh!" Buffy quickly lowered her head at the odd looks from the passengers around her. She was just confusing herself more.

The bus pulled into the station. Buffy gathered her duffel bag and disembarked. Once inside the terminal, she took in the distinct lack of her father's presence to pick her up. She purchased a cold can of soda and a candy bar from the vending machines and sat down to wait for him.



******


Giles held Xander's backpack and stood next to Willow on the sidewalk as Xander packed the Volkswagen van his uncle had bought for him for graduation. "Are you sure this van i-is quite safe Xander? I mean it's very old and you were just planning on wandering about yes?"

"Not wandering G-Man, exploring. I am a conquistador out to find new territory."

"Leaving death and disease in your wake?" Willow smiled and handed him the bed pillows she'd been holding.

"Huh?"

"Well Xander if you're going to make a historical reference, you should probably at least have been awake during that chapter in class."

Xander looked temporarily befuddled. "Oh yeah? Well...well...okay." Giles watched as the boy pouted until Willow took his hand and patted it sweetly. At least they had made it through the year after all with both their lives and friendship. "Uncle Rory bought me a car that came out the same year I did. It runs fine, and at least a car this old I can afford the insurance on. Besides, the Gilesmobile fills me with faith in the survival ability of clunkers."

Willow grinned up at Giles, who thrust Xander's backpack into the boy's chest, dramatically. "Ha bloody ha." Xander smiled lopsidedly and placed the backpack inside the vehicle. "Xander are you prepared for..." Giles stopped as Xander pushed open the door wider. The walls inside were decorated with many sizes of crucifix, strings of garlic, rows of stakes lined behind the seats. "Ah."

"Never leave home without it."

"When are you coming back?"

"I'm not sure. I was aiming for late August. Could be a little later or a little sooner. I plan to be back in time for the vamps flying back from Capistrano."

"Xander," Willow began.

He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Don't worry Will, I'm gone. Say goodbye to Oz for me when he comes back?"

"I will."

"Tell him to take good care of you or he has me to answer to." Willow smiled but did not answer.

Xander moved to Giles. "Look out for everybody while I'm gone?"

"I will."

"That includes you, you know?" Xander extended his hand to the older man. When Giles took it, Xander pulled him forward and wrapped him in a hug. To Xander's surprise, Giles hugged back.

"Take care of yourself Xander. I'm proud of you."

Xander pulled back from the hug and smiled at Giles with eyes that threatened tears. He forced himself to swallow around the lump in his throat. "I'll...I'll see you all soon."

Xander got into the driver's seat and pulled away. Willow and Giles waved to him from the sidewalk until the car turned out of sight in the distance. Willow took Giles' arm and began to walk with him down the street. "Did Buffy come and see you before she left?"

He cleared his throat. "She did."

"And?"

"And? She needs some time to think. We both do. She needs to make peace with the ghosts of her past."

Willow noticed that they had stopped near the east wall of the Sunnydale Memorial Park. She leaned up on her tippy-toes and kissed him on the cheek. "You both need to do that as well," she said with a nod indicating the cemetery. She walked on alone, leaving Giles looking into the park.

"Jenny."



******


Buffy knocked twice on her father's front door. When no one answered, she pulled out her keys and let herself in. Once inside, she dropped her duffel bag just inside the door and plopped into the nearest chair, enjoying the air conditioning. It was a sweltering Southern California day out there. A portent of the summer weather to come. And Buffy, having been stranded at the bus depot, had walked for an hour in it to get to her father's house. She was now deeply regretting not waiting for her Mom to leave first, and then taking the car anyway. She was regretting even more not having stayed back in Sunnydale if the morning so far was any indication of what to expect from this visit with her father.

Only the rumbling of her stomach moved her to her feet again. She wandered into the kitchen and began to fix herself a sandwich and a soda. She soon heard footsteps approaching. She continued to make her lunch without looking up.

"Buffy? What are you..." her father trailed off, realization hitting him as his daughter finished fixing her plate of food. "I was supposed to get you from the depot, wasn't I."

"No, I caught my private jet. It dropped me off out front."

"Buffy I'm sorry." Buffy looked at him finally, her eyes unyielding. He always said he was sorry. But he wasn't sorry enough to change. "I just forgot." He was always forgetting, at least when it came to her.

"Mom told me you wanted me here. To make up for not having seen me for a year. Was she mistaken? Because if she was, you can take me back to the bus station, if you can find the time to give me a ride that is."

Hank Summers approached his daughter and touched her shoulder. "Of course I want you here Buffy. I just forgot is all."

Buffy opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by a giggling noise, growing louder as it got closer. Suddenly, Hank absorbed the impact of a person jumping up onto his back. At first all Buffy saw was a massive tangle of long blonde curls and bare shapely legs wrapping themselves around her father's waist. "Are you coming back upstairs Hank?" When he didn't respond, the woman looked up and saw Buffy staring open-mouthed at the two of them. "Oops. Um..." she slid down his back and came to stand beside him. Buffy forced herself to blink when she realized the girl was only wearing one of her father's dress shirts. "Hi you must be Buffy. I'm Bridget."

"Yeah I know. Bridget Dalton right?"

"That's right. How'd you know?"

"Easy. You were a senior my freshman year at Hemery." Bridget's perky smile promptly faded. Hank closed his eyes and lowered his head. For the first time that day, Buffy felt a small amount of satisfaction. She picked up her plate and drink and headed upstairs to her bedroom.




******


Giles brushed the fresh layer of leaves off of the top of Jenny Calendar's headstone. He bent down and retrieved the now brown dead bouquet that stood in the vase before the marker. They didn't look to have been the white roses he'd left the last time he'd been through so he assumed they must have been Willow's trademark wildflowers. He dumped them in a nearby bin then sat down next to her stone and ran his fingers over the brass letters of her name. The last time he'd been here, he let out a guilty breath, had been months ago. "I haven't forgotten you I promise. You were all I thought about for so long Jenny, but then the Ascension came up and..." he let go another breath, "and all that space in my head became engrossed in finding whatever way I could to save Buffy's life."

"I didn't forget you. I've just...I've just moved on, without even realizing it. I'm sure you already know all about it. You're probably out there somewhere right now, enjoying my squirming, my trying to explain everything. I like to think you'd be happy for me...and Buffy. I-I choose to believe that."

"Oh Jenny," he sighed, rubbing his hands over his face and then looking up to Sunnydale's almost ever-blue sky, "what am I doing? This is killing me. I said I'd be with her no matter what she chooses...a-and I will. But how am I going to make it now i-if she doesn't want me? After coming so close... She's everything to me." He rubbed away the start of a tear and stood, brushing off his knees. He touched his hand to the cold granite one more time, sighing heavily. "Rest in peace, Jenny. I'll miss you." Without looking back, he walked out of the graveyard and went back to his house.



******


Buffy was just about to fall into a late afternoon nap when there was a light rapping on bedroom door. She sighed. "Come in."

Hank pushed open the door, smiling sheepishly. "Buffy, I wanted to talk to you about...well, everything pretty much."

"That narrows it down."

He sat on the corner of her bed. "That's not how I planned for you to find out about Bridget and me. I know she's a lot younger than me and I un..."

"No you don't. You don't understand a thing. You think I object to her being three years older than me? I don't care. I don't have to live with her. As long as she makes you happy I could care less if she was my age or not. Now however if you expect me to call her Mom, we have an issue."

"No, I hadn't planned on that," he smiled.

"Okay, then whatever Dad. What I do have a problem with is, obviously you two see a lot of each other right?"

Hank crossed his arms over his chest, wondering as she talked when his little girl had left this young woman in her place. "Yes?"

"And you haven't tried to see me in over a year. Then you ask for me to come here, and I do. And then you forget all about me. That was very uncool of you. Not to mention insensitive and..."

"I know. I get it Buffy really. And I am sorry about it. I've got something for you, for graduation."

Buffy sat up as her father reached to his back pants pocket and produced an envelope. He handed it to her and she opened it, smiling when she pulled out two tickets to the ice show. "These are for tomorrow night, front row."

"I uh, have a lot to make up for. I thought I'd better start by going first class all the way. What do you say? Give your old man a second chance?"

Buffy held up the tickets and looked at her father, feeling a chance to make things right for the first time that day. She grinned. "It's a start."



******


Giles paced around his living room. For the first time since he moved to Sunnydale, he was well and truly bored. There was no bad guy to defeat, no cross-referencing to do (since there was no longer a library to do it in), no Buffy. He realized he wasn't just bored, he was missing Buffy more than he thought he would. He sighed and finally sat down.

Just then the phone rang. He virtually leapt from his seat and jogged across the room, wrenching the handset off of the receiver. "Hello Buffy?" His smile quickly faded. "No madam, I'm not interested in changing my long-distance carrier." He hung up the phone and ran a hand over his face, mentally listing the alternatives to heading to bed at 8pm out of sheer boredom. The only one that came to mind that seemed promising was patrol. He removed his tie and made his way up the stairs to change and arm himself.



******


Buffy sat in her father's living room, staring at the ceiling. He had only left for work an hour ago but she was already bored. She checked her watch. 8pm. A little on the early side to start a patrol. She stood up and began to pace, her hand coming to rest on the telephone before she even realized it.



******


Giles had no sooner locked the door and started for his car when he heard the phone ringing. He turned back toward the house. As soon as his key was in the lock, the ringing ceased. "Damn telephone solicitors." He once again started for his car.



******


Buffy set the phone back down with a pout. Where could Giles be? "If he's out on patrol by himself, I'll kill him." She sat on the couch, then sprang back up to her feet. "If he's out on a date, I'll kill him more." She smiled then at her own foolishness. And what if he were on a date? She had no hold on him yet. She hadn't even decided whether or not she wanted him to be the one to hold her.

"Patrol. Definitely time for patrol."



******


Giles had been patrolling for an hour and the only thing he'd discovered was that his new shoes weren't ideally suited for long periods of walking nor for traversing uneven, slightly slippery terrain. The park was turning out to be a waste of time. All he'd caught unawares was a rather embarrassed half-naked young couple making out in the bushes.

Now he sat on the edge of the merry-go-round, spinning it idly with his feet, giving him a rotating view of the moonlit park. It was funny, but he'd seen the park abandoned at night at least three times a week for almost three years, and it never seemed empty to him before tonight. He wished Buffy were there with him. He missed exchanging stories, or jokes, or just aimless banter as they patrolled together. Any excuse to be with her, to see her smile up at him. He stood and sighed. He supposed he should make a pass through the Forever Rest Cemetery on his way home, alone.



******


Buffy walked slowly, her hand on the stake in her pocket. There were generally two kinds of vampires. Those who thought fashion stopped on the day their heart did, and those who were so on the cutting edge of trendy that, as far as they were concerned, if it had already appeared in a magazine, the look was over. The problem with patrolling in LA was that the humans there tended to lump into the same two groups. It was a lot harder to separate the undead scum from the living variety.

Buffy kicked at a discarded plastic bag that blew into the path in front of her. She wished Giles was with her to keep her company. It wasn't that she was not used to patrolling alone, but in Sunnydale, every place somehow seemed close to Giles. She would always pass by his apartment building a couple of times just to see if his light was on or his car was there. Now it was like he was a million miles away. She could feel herself pouting at that thought. She shifted gears, thinking about what it would be like when she went home and saw him again and the pout quickly became a smile. The smile got even wider when she realized that Sunnydale was home mainly because that's where Giles was, and that was what the word meant to her.

A scream from a little way up the street broke into Buffy's thoughts and sent her into a full run. She rounded a corner to see a large male with greasy long blonde hair pinning a petite brunette woman up against the wall of an alley. Her blouse was ripped open in the front.

Buffy spin-kicked the point of her boot right into the man's back. He reeled back and then turned on her. The woman against the wall took the opportunity to run like hell into the night.

The man leered down on Buffy, who held her stake raised high. "Oh I like you better anyway. You're younger, prettier."

She raised an eyebrow when his face didn't change. "Great. You're human. Well, only in the strictest technical sense."

The man eyed her up and down, his gaze coming to rest on the stake in her hand. "So you like hard pointy things?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Give me a break."

The man rushed forward, catching her a little off guard. He knocked her to the cement and was on top of her. She positioned her legs between his own and thrust her knee up as hard as a Slayer could manage. He crumpled and she easily threw him to the side.

She stood and brushed off her jeans. "Well at least I can rest assured that you won't be making any little rapists in the future." As she turned to leave, he got slowly, silently to his feet and grabbed a length of wood from a nearby pile of junk. He crept up behind her and raised the makeshift club high, ready to bring it down on the back of her head.

The sound of a board falling caused Buffy to turn and look behind her. Her mouth fell open as she saw the would-be rapist suspended by his neck in the air, held only by the grip of her rescuer. "Angel?"




******

Giles took two stakes out of his pockets and cast a look around the graveyard to double check that he was alone. Secure in that knowledge, he began to use the stakes to perform a drum solo on the granite headstone before him. Suddenly, he got the distinct feeling of being watched. He turned his head slowly over his shoulder. "Jesus!" He saw a figure standing behind him and jumped to the opposite side of the tombstone, clutching a stake high above his head. When he got a better look, he realized it was Oz, standing with a lighter held high in the air. Giles lowered the stake and felt a blush creep over his cheeks.

Oz arched his eyebrow and pocketed the lighter. "Okay, now do Freebird."

Giles swallowed hard and waited for his heartrate to return to normal. "Oz, w-when did you get back in town?"

"Just a little bit ago. Was on my way to Will's. Decided to shortcut through here, holdover from last summer I guess."

"Yes." He fell into step beside the younger man, walking toward the street.

"So did Buffy already leave for her Dad's?"

Giles nodded. "This morning."

"Did you get a chance to talk to her?" The Englishman stopped in his tracks, hands on his hips and an eyebrow arched his direction. Oz just smiled enigmatically. "You know my Will. Hard for her to hide things, especially happy things."

"You think this is a happy thing?"

"Isn't it?"

"I don't know yet Oz." They resumed their walk. "Being with her would make me the happiest man alive. But I don't know if it would make her happy. I don't know if I have the right to expect this, to want it. I'm so much older than she is."

"How old is Angel?"

"Two hundred, forty something or other."

"And how old are you?"

Giles cleared his throat. "Considerably younger than that."

"Not to mention human, and alive and..."

"So you're saying not to worry, I'm really just a young pup?"

"No, I'm the pup." Giles laughed at the pun. "But I don't think you should worry. Buffy loves a person for the inside and she accepts whatever package that comes in. She's accepted a lot on the outside because her heart told her to. You can give her things that Angel never could."

"If she lets me."



******


Buffy watched as her former boyfriend slowly lowered her attacker and calmly shifted into game face. "Go away."

The man's feet were running before they ever touched the ground. Angel opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by the not-too-distant sound of sirens and a woman's voice calling, "That's him!"

"Let's um, let's get out of here before we have the big talk okay," Buffy suggested. Angel nodded and fell into step beside her.

A few blocks away they found familiar terrain in the form of a graveyard. Buffy hopped up and sat on the wall. Angel stood before her, hands in the pockets of his black trenchcoat, keeping his distance.

"Betcha didn't think you'd be seeing me again so soon huh? Or ever again really."

"No. I knew I'd see you again. I just didn't think you'd see me. Are you...are you visiting your father?"

She rolled her eyes. "No Ego Boy, I snapped and went stalker on you. Yes of course I'm staying at Dad's. Why else would I be in LA?"

He shrugged. "How um, how have you been?"

"Angel, it's only been two days since I saw you last." He nodded and cast his eyes down. "I'm fine. Really good actually. Mom said I could live in the dorms so I'm looking forward to that. Things are looking up for me and Dad. I've found som...um found out that I'll be okay. You shouldn't worry about me."

"That's good. That you're looking forward to so much. That you're moving on."

"Moving on without you?" His eyes met hers again. "I am. I'm not saying that to be mean or anything I hope you understand. I just...God I am so bad at this."

"No, keep going please."

"Just because we love one another doesn't mean we were meant to be together, or that we'll never love anyone else, or that we're good for each other. It took me awhile to get my head out of the fairy tale and understand that this whole thing was far more complex than I would let myself think it was."

"You had to grow up first. You got it a lot sooner than most people do though."

"Yeah, well when you're looking at a lifespan of thirty years tops, you learn to do stuff a little faster."

"Please don't say things like that. You don't know how long you'll..."

"Angel, how old was the oldest Slayer you know of? Truth now."

He looked away. "24."

"See, I may be overestimating. The point is, I don't want you to be lonely here. And I don't want to be lonely anymore. I want to love, and be loved, and have that be a happy, wonderful thing. I want that for you too. For you to be happy...well not happy happy, because then everyone would be very unhappy...is that even a sentence?" He smiled. "But I want you to be as happy as you can be. I want you to know I've moved on so that you can too."

He blinked up at her. "Buffy, have you already found someone else?"

She sighed. "Whether I have or not isn't important. What is important is that I'm open to that possibility now. I want you to be too."

"I'm happy about that."

"And if you're ever back in Sunnydale, don't be afraid to look me up. You won't be disrupting my life or anything. I'd be happy to see you. I will always care about what happens to you."

"I understand."

Buffy jumped down and brushed off the back of her jeans. "I uh, I better get back. Mom may be cool about the whole slay till dawn thing, but Dad still doesn't know."

"Take care of yourself."

She smiled. "You too." As she started off for her Dad's, Angel's voice stopped her.

"Buffy?" She turned to him. "Be happy with Giles." Her jaw dropped. Angel smiled and walked into the night and out of her life, for the second time that week.



******


When Giles returned home, the first thing he did was check his answering machine. A message from Willow asking if he'd heard from Buffy yet. A message from Xander thanking him for the gift of the envelope with $100 in it he'd found taped inside his glove compartment when he'd reached Phoenix. Another message from Willow asking if he'd heard from Buffy *yet*. That made him smile. It was short lived however when he realized that hers was the last message. No word from Buffy. He sighed and headed for his bedroom, removing his tie as he went.



******


Buffy approached her father's house, this time reveling in the blissful coolness of night. She felt like an alcoholic who'd just made it through a kegger party still on the wagon. Fate had dropped Angel before her, right when she needed to see him most. Now that it had happened, she realized, that's what she had been waiting for. That was what had held her back. Angel had made her decisions for her. He had decided the why, the when and the how of leaving her. That had left her emotions for him unresolved. Trapped in the past, she had been unable to move on to her future, to Giles.

She had been able to do what Willow had done, accept that she loved Angel but that they were not meant to be together, wish him well, let him go and accept that she was allowed to feel what she was feeling for Giles. To allow herself to love and be loved by him.

Buffy smiled as she unlocked the door. She wondered how offended her Dad would be if she left after the Ice Show. All she wanted now was to get back to Sunnydale.

She closed the door quietly so as not to wake her Dad, or anyone else. Buffy looked at her watch. It was a little after midnight. Late, but she wondered if it was too late to give Giles a quick call. Not that she planned to give anything away. 'Not a chance,' she thought. 'There's no way I'm going to miss the look on his face when he opens his door and I kiss him right on the lips.'

Buffy reached up to the phone on her father's wall, accidentally knocking his calendar down in the process. She cringed at the sound of it hitting the floor and bent to retrieve it. It had opened to the month of January. As she was in the process of hanging it back on the wall, her eyes skimmed that month and she froze. Written in the square of January 20th were the crossed out words Buffy's birthday. Under that, written in red ink in a little heart was "Hank and Bridget, one year anniversary, Monroe's 8pm."



******


Giles had no sooner switched off his lamp and laid back in bed, when his phone rang. His eyes snapped open. He reached out into the dark and picked up the receiver. "Hello?"

"Hi."

"Buffy?"

"Yeah it's...it's me Giles."

He could hear the heaviness in her voice. Talking to her like this, in the dark, he could almost pretend she was there, close enough to comfort. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You don't sound as though it's nothing."

"I mean it's nothing important. I just...missed you. And I wanted to call and..."

"And then something happened?"

"Giles..." He knew her so well. She was just barely keeping the tears out of her voice.

"You can tell me. You know that don't you? You can tell me anything."

"I know. It's not that. I...I may be coming home sooner than I thought."

"Has something happened between you and your father?"

"Not yet but...oh boy is it about to."

"I don't understand."

"It's not important. Just talk to me for awhile please?"

"Of course."

"What's been going on in beautiful downtown Sunnydale?"

"Oh this and that. Xander began his excursion today. He said to tell you good-bye for him. I believe he left you a note of some sort with Willow. Oz came back from Los Angeles. The vampires have been their usual quiet selves with the start of summer and the..."

"Giles, you didn't go patrolling by yourself did you?"

"Well..."

"Giles, you know how dangerous that is."

"I didn't find anything. And Oz walked me safely home."

He was smiling, she could tell. That knowledge made her smile too. "Did he tuck you in?"

"Certainly. And read me a bedtime story."

"Did he leave your nightlight on?"

"Oh my, no he forgot to. It's dark here."

"Are you scared?"

"No. I'm with you. Together we're unbeatable."

Buffy smiled brightly. "We are, aren't we?"

"I like to believe so."

She looked at the clock and sighed. "It's getting late. I should let you go. I don't want to. I could talk to you all night."

"The choice is yours."

"No. I better get some sleep. Something tells me tomorrow is going to be hard to deal with."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"You're doing it."

He smiled. "You'll call me? If you need anything?"

"I promise."

"Goodnight Buffy."

"Night Giles." Buffy reluctantly hung up the receiver and made her way up to bed.




******

Buffy rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and tugged down on her nightgown where it rose up. As she entered her father's kitchen, she saw him standing there dressed for work, briefcase in hand, staring down at the open calendar she had left on the table. She cleared her throat and Hank looked up at her. "Buffy..."

"Don't. Just don't. Were you ever going to tell me the truth? No, actually, don't tell me that either. You keep doing this to me. I know I haven't been exactly Polly Perfect daughter here. I accept that. But what is this? Your way of getting back at me?"

"That's not it."

"Then what is it?"

"I'm in love."

"And that has to do with this exactly what?"

"I can understand if you're feeling left out or..."

"Do you understand anything? If I'm feeling left out, it's because you're leaving me out Dad. We're not talking about me throwing some kind of tantrum because you're spending more time with Bridget than me. We're talking about you spending no time with me. About making promises to me that you then blow off to spend time with her. I think anybody would agree that I have a right to be a tad pissed off about that. And that's not her fault. That was all you."

"Buffy..."

"No you know what, save it. I don't want to hear it. This is how this is going to play out. The ice show starts at 8pm. Which means we really need to leave by 7pm to make it. If you're not here by 7:10, then I won't be here when you get back. And I won't be making any more attempts to contact you. Anything after that is your move." Before her father could say another word, Buffy turned and headed back up the stairs.



******


Giles rushed down his stairs to answer the frantic knocking at his door. When he opened it, Willow rushed past him. "What's happened? Oz? Vampires?"

"What? Oh no, nothing like um...have you heard from Buffy?" She made herself at home on Giles' sofa.

He shut the door and smiled as he looked at her. Slipping his hands into his trouser pockets, he leaned back against the door. "No. Why should I have?"

"Not necessarily I guess. After all it's only been a day. I was just..." she stopped her sentence, fully taking in Giles' easy demeanor. "Oh you fibber! You have so heard from Buffy. Admit it."

"What makes you say that?"

"You're way too happy."

"All right. She did call, last night."

Willow got that dreamy romantic look she sometimes used to get talking boys with Buffy in the library. "What did she say?"

"She told me off for patrolling on my own. We didn't get to talk long. She seemed upset, but didn't want to discuss it. I just tried to get her mind off of things a bit so she would sleep all right."

"Oh." Willow sounded as disappointed as he felt. "I was hoping she'd maybe...made some decisions." Willow stood up. Giles moved away from the door.

"She will. She just needs time."

"I know. I just couldn't help but hope."

Giles opened the door for her. "Could you do me a favor?"

Willow stopped. "Anything."

"Could you possibly call Buffy at her father's tonight? Just see how she's doing, if she needs to talk? Perhaps it's something she'd rather you listened to."

Willow smiled, truly touched by Giles' love for Buffy once again. "I will."

"Thank you. Take care." Giles closed the door behind Willow.



******


Buffy sat in her Dad's kitchen. The loud ticking of the clock the only sound filling the room. As its hands moved to 7:05, she wiped away a tear with the back of her hand. She cast a look to her packed bags, standing just inside the doorway. Waiting.



******


Giles reached his phone on the fourth ring. "Hello?"

"Hey," she couldn't disguise the fact that she was crying. She didn't even try.

"Buffy. Tell me what's wrong?"

"Could you um...could you come and get me? I mean I...I can take the bus..."

"Just give me the address."

"I don't want to bother you I just..."

"Buffy. Calm down. Give me the address."

"Um, I'm going to give you the address for the bus station. I don't want to wait here."

"All right. Are you hurt?"

"Not physically."

"Listen to me. Do not leave the house until you've calmed down. You're too easy a target for a lucky vampire if your instincts are clouded."

"I understand. I promise."

"Now give me the address. I'll be there in two hours, two and a half at most."



******


It had taken Buffy an hour and a half to walk back to the bus station, but she had managed to bag two vamps on the way. That had gone a long way toward lifting her mood. The thought of Giles' reaction to her decision had done the rest of the trick. By the time Giles pulled up in front of the bench she sat on, 1 hour 59 minutes exactly from the time she had called him, she was smiling.

As soon as the Citroen pulled to a stop, she opened the passenger door and slung her bags into the back seat. She climbed in next and shut her door. Giles smiled at her and she returned it. "Are you all right?" He tucked a stray hair behind her ear.

Buffy captured his hand and held it to her cheek. "I'm perfect."

Giles agreed wholeheartedly with that statement as he took in his favorite sight in the entire world, Buffy's smile. His hand started to tremble, being held fast to her cheek, so soft and warm.

"Giles, I've made my decision."

He gulped, his heart racing, his hopes flying. "Oh?" he managed weakly.

Buffy slowly moved forward, tentatively touching her lips to his own. At the slightest insistence of her tongue, he opened himself to accept her, as he had always done. She pulled away a little, Giles panting for air near her ear as she kissed her way along his jaw. "I choose you Giles. I always will."

"Buffy." He embraced her tightly, overcome by his emotions. What might have crushed a normal woman merely encased Buffy in his warmth, his love.

When he released her, he found her still smiling. "Let's go home?"

He nodded mutely and put the car in gear. Buffy leaned her head against his shoulder as they drove off toward Sunnydale, together.

* * *