Buffy walked into the Magic Shop through the back door looking for Giles. Before she could ask Anya where he was she saw him outside the front door talking with a man. She couldn't see his face, but nothing about him seemed familiar.
"Who's Giles talking to?" she asked Anya.
"His friend Paul."
"Giles has a friend?"
"Actually he has two friends."
"Since when does Giles have TWO friends??"
"For about six months now. They're good for him. They make him happy and a happy boss lets me do what I want."
Buffy frowned at that. "What, and we don't make him happy?"
Giles finished his conversation, slapped the man on the back, and as Paul walked away, he entered the shop. He smiled when he saw Buffy. He walked over to her. "Hello, Buffy."
"Since when do you have friends?" she blurted out. His eyes widened at her question and his smile went away. "No, I didn't mean it like that…." Buffy quickly stated. "I meant, since when do you have friends I don't know anything about? I feel out of the loopy." Buffy pouted while waiting for his reply.
Giles couldn't stop the brief grin from forming on his face, feeling a certain satisfaction at Buffy's sense of being out of the loop as he so often felt that way. He quickly extinguished that feeling as being unworthy and looked at Buffy, not sure how to respond.
"C'mon, Giles, spill, what's the sitch?"
"Buffy, there is no sitch, they're just friends, they don't know anything about you, or me being a Watcher. You needn't be concerned about them." The conversation was closed as far as he was concerned and he walked behind the counter to start looking at some invoices. Buffy looked unconvinced, but didn't want to force the conversation in front of Anya, so reluctantly let it go. She walked into the back room to start her training exercises.
Giles started thinking about his two new friends. He hadn't spoken of his friends to any of the gang. Anya knew, of course. But one of her irritating, yet in this case convenient, attributes was that if it had nothing to do with Xander she quickly lost interest. Giles wanted to keep his friends to himself; his time with them afforded him a much-needed escape from the insanity and painfulness of his life as a Watcher. An escape he had never had up until this point. The simple pleasure of having two male friends his own age that he could just be a guy with had become very important to him, and he was fiercely protective of it.
Paul and Roger were brothers. He had met them at the small bar down the street that he would go to occasionally after closing the shop for a glass of Guinness. The two of them would be there together, laughing, poking fun at each other and the other hapless inhabitants in the bar, including him on occasion, and he had found himself laughing and enjoying their antics. Over time, they had introduced themselves and somehow, a friendship had ensued. They knew that he kept things from them, and because of it, they avoided certain topics as if to spare him the discomfort of evading their questions. He appreciated their willingness to take him on, secrets and all, and he had come to love them both dearly. Roger, ironically, was an emergency room physician at Sunnydale Memorial. Giles wondered if Roger had ever treated him on one of his various trips to the emergency room there. Paul was working in some capacity at the police station, which he didn't seem to want to elaborate on. He had been quite vague about it and Giles had quickly stopped pressing. Giles understood secrets, and was willing to return the favor offered to him.
Finished with his woolgathering, Giles went back to watch Buffy and assist with the work out. He squelched a small sense of guilt at closing her out of this part of his life, but he didn't think that she would understand the intense need he had to have friends of his own, of his own age, and he didn't want her feelings to be hurt. Avoiding the whole subject seemed the best approach.
"How was patrol last night?" Giles asked, after she was done with her stretching.
She frowned, remembering, "Something weird is going on with the police." Giles lifted his eyebrows at this. She continued. "No, I'm serious. Instead of plunge and move on, plunge and move on, it's been plunge and run, plunge and run. I barely got away last night after killing those vampires over by the Bronze." She shook her head, scowling. "It's as if they're clued into the vampire activity in town, but I don't get how. Most of the police we've dealt with have been happily living in the land of denial about this place." She walked over to the weapons wall, running her hand over them. "Or they've been bad and evil. What's the poop on the new Police Chief? Could he be some sort of uber-evil, like a Master wannabe?"
Giles smiled at that thought. "Highly unlikely, Buffy, besides, Spike would have heard something about that and told us, for adequate compensation of course. Here, pick your weapon of choice and throw a matching one my way." Buffy complied and the training began in earnest.
***
Paul sat in his office, looking out at his city. He lived in a constant state of worry and frustration, not understanding, but knowing there was something really wrong going on here in Sunnydale. When he had arrived here a few months ago, taking over as Chief of Police, he had at first been horrified at the number of deaths that occurred on a regular basis. Then, he found himself losing that edge and drifting off into an apathy that alarmed him even more. He had to constantly fight to believe that there was something seriously wrong with this place, and that he needed to do something to combat it. He had put in place a huge snitch system, paying any informant for information regarding violent attacks or deaths in the city. He did patrols himself several nights a week responding to these calls.
He still had no idea why so many people were being killed but he had started to identify someone who was a part of it. Several times over the last few weeks, while responding to a call from an informant, he had caught a glimpse of a young girl with blond hair, leaning over bodies, looking up with fear in her eyes as the police car approached and rapidly leaving the scene. While he could hardly credit that she could do such violence, he had seen the aftermath too many times with his own eyes. He had also seen what the victims looked like and how they were hurt or killed, and that most of them had those marks on their necks. Marks that looked like… He stopped the thought that kept popping into his head, questioning his own sanity. Could she be…? He closed his eyes and found visions of Dracula behind his eyelids, not for the first time. He hadn't found any sort of internal comfort zone dealing with that thought but catching her had become a quest for him and he wouldn't rest until he had her and could figure out what the hell she was and make her stop doing…whatever the hell she was doing. He sighed.
His thoughts wandered to Giles. He and his brother Roger were enjoying that friendship more than he had thought possible. There was something about the man that pulled at your heartstrings and Giles had become as important to them as anyone else in their lives. Paul could see right off that Giles was hiding facts about his life, and that he got pretty skittish when pressed. It was what made Paul decide not to be entirely forthcoming about his actual job with Giles. He was afraid Giles would back away and Paul didn't want him to. He had a pretty good instinct about people and he trusted Giles and was willing to give him privacy in return for his friendship. Maybe someday, he and Roger could get Giles stinking drunk on his beloved Guinness and pry him for information, but in the meantime he was okay with the secrets.
Dusk was falling and Paul was planning on going out again tonight. The petite blond frustrated the hell out of him, and he could feel his anger growing at his sense of helplessness. It was easy to project it all on her. She gave him a place to focus. It ends tonight, he thought, and got up to start his evening patrol.
***
Buffy heard a scream and ran, following the sound. She found a vampire drinking from a young man. She quickly ran up and staked the vampire watching him explode into dust. She leaned over the young man, but he was dead. She felt that familiar guilt that always arose in her when she arrived too late to stop a death from happening. She sat down by him for a moment, looking at him, wondering what his life had been like, who would be mourning him come tomorrow.
Lost in her sad reverie, she missed the footsteps approaching her. "Step away, and put your hands in the air," a man's voice barked at her. She looked up, stunned, preparing to flee, wondering if she could outrun a bullet. She couldn't believe that she had failed to notice his approach. She shifted her weight, preparing to run. She realized her spidey-sense was tingling; she could sense vampires all around. If she ran, this man would be attacked. She fought an inner battle and made her decision. She couldn't allow this man to die, not if she could help it. She stood up and backed away, raising her hands in the air.
Paul couldn't believe he had her. Disgust for her raced through his body as he saw yet another victim on the ground in front of her. He used his phone to call for an ambulance. He walked over to the young woman, turning her around and slamming her against the wall. He slapped cuffs on her while reading her rights. Buffy only hoped that no vampires attacked now as she was not going to be much help with her hands cuffed behind her back.
Before Buffy came up with an escape plan, they had arrived. He opened the back door and hauled Buffy out of the car, none too gently. She realized that she was actually going to be arrested and that there was nothing she could do about it. She was starting to feel numb with bewilderment at this strange twist of fate and she began fervently praying that Giles would be home. She was taken inside, run through processing then thrown in a cell with two other women. Her senses started tingling and she looked at them suspiciously. Her mind balked at the complete travesty this evening had turned into. She was locked in a cell with two vampires with no weapon, and after frantically looking around the cell, no wood of any kind at all. She knew if she didn't get a weapon, or get out of this cell soon that she would be dead come morning. She was the Slayer, but even she couldn't fight two vampires all night and survive.
The two vampires grinned at her, a feral gleam in their eyes. Their evening was looking up. She had just provided them with a free dinner and a way to get out. They needed out before sunrise. Once she was dead, they would call the guard and once the cell was opened the guard would be dessert and they would be free.
At that moment, a guard came around the corner, telling Buffy it was time to make her call. Buffy sidled up to the door, keeping her eye on her cellmates. She was not going to let anyone be killed while she was around. She followed the guard and once at the phone called Giles. While she was waiting for the phone to be answered, her throat got tight, and tears started to form in her eyes.
"Hello?"
"Giles….". Her voice sounded thick. Giles was instantly on alert, his heart starting to race.
"Buffy, what's happened? Where are you? Are you hurt?"
Buffy sobbed once, suddenly overwhelmed with the need for Giles to just be there, holding her. She held the phone so tightly she was afraid it would crumble in her hands. She kept trying to get any words to pass by the lump in her throat.
"Buffy, talk to me!"
"Giles", finally a small voice responded to his worried inquiries. "I've been arrested, I'm locked up at the police station." Buffy took a deep breath, trying not to cry. "Giles, come and get me, please, I need to get out of here." Desperation colored her voice and something in Giles' gut responded with a growing fear.
"Buffy, I'll be right there, everything will be all right." He started putting on shoes and gathering up his keys. "I'm leaving right now." He could hear her sniffling and he stopped at his door torn between wanting to get to her, and not wanting to hang up on her when she was in such distress. "Buffy, will you be all right until I can get there?"
"Just hurry", there was a long pause, "and bring a stake."
"Bring a stake?" But, Buffy had hung up.
***
Paul had left word that if anyone came to visit or tried to get out blondie, now known to him as a Miss Summers, that they should be allowed to talk with her, but he wanted to be notified immediately. Under no circumstances was she to be allowed to leave. His phone rang and he was informed that a man had arrived to try and arrange her release. Paul smiled unpleasantly, looking forward to this confrontation, needing to vent some of his frustration. He began to make his way down to the cellblock.
***
Giles had walked into the police station, going through the metal detectors on his way in. He held his breath, hoping they wouldn't search him, but no one approached him to do so. After inquiring, he started being escorted to where they were holding Buffy. For some reason, his heart was in his throat as he walked down the hall. He was terrified of what he might see. He couldn't account for his fear, but it was a living thing and only the thought of a bullet in his back kept him from sprinting down the hall to see with his own eyes that Buffy was okay. His relief at seeing her alive almost took his breath away. She saw him and ran to the bars putting her hands through, needing to touch him.
"Oh, God, Giles, you're here." She held his arm, not wanting to let him go, feeling as if she had never been so glad to see anyone.
"Buffy, are you okay?" Giles looked her over; she had several gashes on her arms and face and bruises were starting to form. His anger took over again. "Did they do this to you?" meaning the police. He wanted to kill someone.
"No," Buffy replied, gesturing with her eyes and a slight motion of her head to the other women in the cell. "Did you bring…?" Buffy didn't want to say it out loud. Giles' eyebrows rose as he began to understand her situation. His stomach clenched as he realized that his fears of finding her dead had not been that unrealistic.
Giles turned to the guard. "May I give her my jacket?" The guard grunted his assent, bored, and Giles took off his jacket and passed it through the bars. Buffy put it on, feeling secure for the first time this evening, not only because of the stake she could feel in the pocket, but because the jacket was imbued with Giles' warmth and smell. It felt as if he was holding her.
Paul walked into the corridor to see what sort of scum had come to try and take the girl out of here. As he turned the corner he saw Giles and he was momentarily confused. He felt the usual pleasure at the sight of him. Then his mind shifted gears and as he walked closer he began to feel tendrils of dread shooting up his spine.
"Giles? What are you doing here? What are you doing with her?" Paul stressed the word her, making it sound distasteful. He motioned to the guard to leave them.
"Paul?" Giles looked at his friend, also momentarily pleased, until the words he had spoken finally filtered through. Buffy looked at the two of them, standing there looking at each other as if in thrall.
Buffy finally spoke. "Giles, is that your friend Paul?"
"Yes." Giles responded softly, trying to figure out what was going on, feeling a sense of pain and loss beginning in his heart.
"That's the Chief of Police, Giles. He's the one that arrested me."
All the blood drained from Giles' face. He looked as if he'd been slapped. Buffy had never watched someone's heart break before, right in front of her eyes, but she was watching it happen to Giles.
"God, how could I have been so stupid?" Giles groaned the words out. He turned to Buffy. "I'm sorry, I…I didn't know, I had no idea." He spoke as if he was afraid that Buffy wouldn't believe him. He turned to Paul, and running his hands over his face, said with such sadness that it almost broke Buffy's heart. "Did you use me to get to her?" Buffy, mesmerized by the fierce emotions coming from both men, looked up at Paul and recognized that he was as bewildered as Giles. She watched Paul's face as he started to realize that something had gone terribly wrong and she caught the sadness and loss in his own eyes as he looked at Giles.
Buffy turned back to Giles and watched in amazement as he transformed in a matter of seconds from sadness and despair to dangerous. He walked over to Paul and spoke to him in a very quiet voice. "Let her out."
"Giles, I can't, she's hurt people. Why are you here? How do you even know her?"
"Paul, let her out, now."
"Giles…" Paul spoke the name, like a plea.
Giles continued to speak softly. "Paul, she is not your enemy. She helps to fight the evil that plagues this city. However, if you do not let her out, now, if you hurt her in any way, I will be your enemy, and trust me when I say that is not something you want."
Paul looked at Giles and saw the deadly threat in his eyes. Paul could feel a part of himself being afraid of Giles, amazed that such soft-spoken words could have such power. Paul couldn't believe that Giles was acting this way. He needed a minute to think. Either he was wrong about the girl or he was wrong about Giles. Either way, he had completely screwed up, and that was not something he did very often, or handled particularly well. Paul just stared at Giles, as if he could pull the truth out of his eyes.
Giles broke eye contact and moved back to Buffy. He looked in her cell and saw that she was now by herself, and there were two small piles of dust. She was sliding the stake back into the inner pocket of his jacket. She mouthed the word thanks, and flashed a small grin at him. Giles heard Paul walk away. He closed his eyes in pain realizing that the friendship of the two brothers that had meant so much to him was over. But suddenly Paul was back, with keys in his hand. He unlocked the cell door and gestured for Buffy to get out. He didn't even look at Giles. He looked back in the cell. "Wasn't there…?" He shook his head. He turned and walked them to a room used for meetings and gestured them both inside.
"I need to take care of some paperwork, I'll be back down in a minute." He spoke tersely, directing his comments to Buffy. He spun around and left. Once out of their line of sight he walked into the adjacent room and watched them through the one-way mirror.
Giles and Buffy both looked stunned and sat there looking at each other. Then, Giles began to assess her wounds to determine how badly she had been hurt.
"I'm fine, Giles." Then a pause, "Is he going to let me go?" She asked the question in a small voice.
"So it would appear." Giles' voice was gruff.
"Hey, nice choice of friends there Watcher-mine. Is your other friend the head of Army Intelligence?" Paul, watching behind the mirror, could hardly contain a laugh.
"Buffy, I had no idea, I really am sorry."
"What are you sorry for?"
"I feel as if this is my fault somehow, that I could have prevented it."
"How?"
"I don't know, I just…" He had no words to say. Buffy looked at him with sorrow knowing that somehow Giles had lost something very important to him tonight, and that once again, it was because of her.
"Giles, if it makes you feel any better, I don't believe this had anything to do with you. I think he was as wigged out as you were about the whole thing." Giles glanced at her and then looked away again. She continued. "I think the only reason he is letting me out is because of you. It's pretty clear that my charm was lost on him." She looked at Giles, hoping her comment might coax a smile out of him. It didn't. "I'm sorry I came between you. I didn't mean to."
Giles looked up at her, hearing the sadness in her voice. "Buffy, you always come first, you always have, you always will."
"I know, but it seems as if you lose so much because of me."
"Buffy, look at me." He waited until she looked up, tears brimming in her eyes. "I would risk anything to protect you and be glad of it."
Buffy shook her head but rather than say anything else she leaned her head forward and placed it on Giles' chest, just wanting to be near him.
"Why did you let yourself be taken? Why didn't you run away?" Giles ran his hand over her hair, enjoying her closeness as a balm to the ache in his heart.
"There were vampires all over the place. If I had run, they would have killed him. I couldn't let that happen."
Giles let a small smile appear on his face, feeling inordinately proud of his Slayer, and he rested his chin on the top of her head.
***
Paul spoke softly to himself. "Shit." So this was Buffy. Giles had mentioned her inadvertently to him and Roger, once, and then had shut up tighter than a clamshell and had refused to talk about her. Running his hand through his hair Paul walked out of the room to make arrangements for Buffy's release. He had chosen to trust his instincts about Giles, quelling the loud voice in his head telling him that he was an idiot and then he had put them in this room to see if things might become clearer. They hadn't except that he now realized that Giles had been keeping some pretty huge secrets, secrets he wasn't sure he even wanted to know about. But, he needed to know them. He sensed they were vital to his own mission of keeping Sunnydale safe. However, he didn't see Giles just opening up to him after tonight and just sharing. He didn't know if he would ever see Giles again at all, just to talk, or to have a beer. He wondered how he would let Roger know that he had potentially blown this friendship, big time. He spoke again, commenting on his feelings in general. "Shit."
***
Giles and Buffy left the police station and walked to his car. He opened the passenger door for her and got in the driver's side. He drove her home, neither of them speaking. When they arrived at her house Giles turned to her. "Will you be all right? Do you want me to come in?"
"No, thanks. I just need to take a very, very long shower and clean all the eeww away. Thanks for coming to rescue me." She smiled, saddened for him, but feeling inestimably grateful that he was hers. "My hero."
He did smile at that. "Please don't do any more patrolling tonight. I want to know that you are safe at home for the rest of the night."
"Don't worry, I am definitely done with the patrolling." Giles smiled at her as she got out of the car and he watched until she got inside. He gazed at the house for a minute longer, lost in thought, and then he started the car back up and drove home.