( continues...) said Faith, still smirking.

“Are you kidding?” said Connor. “They could barely accept that I suddenly transferred to UCLA. No way do they find out about my extracurricular activities.”

“That’s cool,” said Faith. “Just thought I’d ask.”

Faith couldn’t help but notice the way Justine walked in silence, saying nothing, but watching Wesley the way she did that zombie. She didn’t know exactly what had gone down between them before, but it was bad. She could tell. And Wesley? She couldn’t tell what was in Wesley’s head at all.

“It’s going to be a long flight,” said Wesley as the California sun streamed in through the now-opened doors. “And we’re going to need to be ready for action when we get there.”

“Relax, Wes,” said Faith. “We’ll go, we’ll find our killer, and we’ll shake him like a British nanny for info.”

She got an actual wince out of him that time. Good. Meant he was still human in there. Sometimes she wasn’t certain.

“Hell of a team,” she thought. “Does anybody else know just how close these people are to blowing?”

And not for the first time since joining the team, Faith wondered what Buffy would do.

Justine took care of the, I watched.

Minor typo here. Them instead of the?

Also, looking good!

Fixed. Thanks!

A couple of other typos:

Faith knew that Buffy and Giles hadn’t been terribly keen on bringing her on board in the first place.

“I agree (agreed?) with your decision to stay and train Justine, but you’ve not had the years of training Rupert Giles and I have had

No way do they know find out

Fixed, fixed and fixed. Thanks.

Cool. Good story, Victor. Can't wait for more.

Cool. Good story, Victor. Can't wait for more.

Thanks. It's a comin'.

OK, this is Very Very AU Jossverse. The only thing I can say is my Land of Not Coping is sweaty and irrational. This is probably the only thing I've ever written without political messages in it.

Rupert Giles was nothing if not patient. The hard bit could be reminding himself of this, as night after night, his schedule(Which he was determined to pronounce in the British fashion he’d learned it, despite Xander’s mockery) got disrupted by Buffy, demanding more information about primal slayer power. He was proud of course. He always knew she could do amazing things if she applied all of that bouncy, infectious energy. At the same time, however, a petty part of him was irritated. He had rearranged his life with the understanding that he would have more personal time, and then, on a sort of impulse mixed with nostalgia she has him going through all of his collections all over again. He remembers all of those hours he must have spent waiting for her in the high school library and sighs. He is not the only one, either. Willow, on whom he’d been counting to share the load has been abstracted, dreamy, downright moony over the last weeks.
She has barely eaten enough to keep a bird alive. Giles suspected some sort of academic disappointment, but it seemed that her work continued exemplary as always. Then she brought a friend with her to research, from the magic group, and as she introduced Tara, Willow Rosenburg was glowing. It occurred to Giles that he had never seen Willow look more beautiful, although the first flush(and flush was the operative word...love or embarrassment or both brought a lovely shade to the girl’s cheeks, Giles noticed guiltily) of her relationship with Oz had been close. Giles wondered if he noticed before she did;maybe he was projecting from his own damnably slow emotional responses. In his later life, he was finding one way in which he wasn’t so unlike his father. Both Jenny and Olivia had practically had to rip their clothes off in front of him to assure him of their interest.Life was a lot different now then in that dogpile with Ethan and Deidre, being able to turn to whichever one felt like it and say “Fancy a shag?” feeling like the greatest hipster in the world, bold and experimental enough to have not only invented a new life, but all of the feelings that came with it.
He can hurt people now, he knows. He hopes that girl won’t be the one to teach Willow this. She has not taught Willow to lie, which he knows she did, making up that stupid story about wanting to loan Tara the Summers’ dictionary. He knows what it’s like to be young and in love. He would’ve followed any one of the cult of Eyghon off a cliff just to make them smile. That part of him could have courted Olivia so strenuously, she would have begged to lose her voice again, probably during their shared passion. Strong feelings frighten him now, so he does not extend himself. There is a reason why he took to being a Watcher in the end.
“What are you doing noticing what she looks like? That way lies madness, Rupert old man!” He still sees Willow as the awkward child who followed him through the stacks, although that vampire with her pert little shape was something of a forbidden education and something that has floated through his restless brain on nights when it took something stronger than Forster to help him sleep. When he thinks of her that way, he feels as guilty as if he took her in the storeroom and snogged her senseless right next to Sunnydale High’s entire collection of Tale of Two Cities. He feels horrible, but still takes a moment to imagine how her eyes would widen with the surprise of it all. She gets that look when she does magic sometimes, like she can’t believe that this big beautiful world is all for her. As a teacher, part of him knows he should object more strenuously when she goes digging into more advanced texts, but the man who was Ripper loves putting that look on another woman’s face. Willow’s desire to learn is almost as physical as many women’s desire for sex, and he can have (continued...)

( continues...) afterglow without so much as touching her sweater. He can’t bring himself to be “The bad guy” as Buffy would say.

It’s too late to go home by the time he’s sorted through the latest set of runes for Buffy, and he’s exhausted and has a headache. He let his Sumerian slide so he could get a life, as the children say, and most nights he’s more acquainted with “Free Bird” than ancient text translation.

He can hear soft giggles and a woman’s voice pleading on the stereo...Joyce’s stereo. He lets himself remember that night fully, and simultaneously curses his mawkish slide into nostalgia.”Bit late to die before I get old,” he mumbles and then thinks “Bugger! Talking to myself.” He has to smile at the thought of them, waiting with breath bated for it to be late enough for the old fussy Watcher to pass out, but the music is a bit loud so he goes to the door. He gets to it but before he can knock he hears Willow’s voice saying “Go ahead. Ask him.”

Tara comes out and looks shocked to see him. “M-mr. Giles. I didn’t ...summon you, did I?”

“Only through young Ms. McClachlan. Her pining’s awfully loud.”

The young witch steps back, wearing a well-washed cotton T-shirt and some part of Giles he’d forgotten wonders if being summoned by this woman would be a bad thing.”Well, that’s good, about the summons...I’ve been thinking about you tonight, actually, and sometimes when I really concentrate...poof.”

Rupert Giles, he told himself, you are not allowed to be chuffed by that. But the thought proved it was too late. “That’s really remarkable, in someone of your...”

“ Oh, it’s nothing. And I’m so sorry about the music thing....I’ll tell Sarah she’s stuck with quiet desperation like the rest of us.” It was an old comment for such a young woman and it made something in Giles hurt.

“It sounds fine...I’ve just got this vile headache.”

”Then I guess you can’t look over this spell for me and Will, then.”

“Of course, I can try.”

“Well, not if you’re sick...Willow cares a lot about you and I wouldn’t want to face her if I hurt you.”

Suddenly he thought his glasses felt smudged. But he resisted that habit to say “Not at all. Stiff upper lip firmly in place.”

“Oh, my Gaia, I am such. an idiot. Standing here talking and I didn’t turn the music down. One second.”

Giles came inside and sat in Buffy’s old desk chair. “Hey, Giles,” Willow said. “Kinda like old times, with Buffy light, though.”

Not remotely, Willow. “ Let’s look at the problem, shall we?”

“It’s like a protective spell,” Tara explained. “From deepest yearnings, peace springs free. Willow says it’s Sumerian...like yours. My mother must have just used it translated....Willow’s such a brainiac.” Tara smiled fondly.

“I translated it back, but nothing happened.” Willow said. “Nothing bad, though, either. I really checked this time.” She flipped through the spiral notebook on the table next to her.

Giles took the book and read, frowning for a moment. “Dear Lord.”

Tara’s eyes got big.

“Don’t worry, babe,” Willow said. “He always says that.”

“Forgive my surprise, but for such a simple error, it carries a lot of freight. You have the wrong accent on the second word here.”

”Ok, so I’ll put it in,”Willow said. “all fixed.”

“Possibly for next time, yes. But it changes the meaning of the spell you read earlier today...that isn’t “yearnings” at all, but something else...”

“What?” Tara asked. “You’re turning colors, Mr. Giles.” Giles cleared his throat and cleaned his glasses but there still wasn’t enough air in the room. “Deepest desires,”

“From deepest desires, peace springs free.” Willow repeated.

“Shh...don’t repeat that. “ Tara warned. “The more times you say a thing like that, you make it take effec...Willow, darling, put aside that book and fuck me. I know I said I’d be patient, but after every session of magic group, I spend so much time in the shower I’m a prune. I know you want to, I can feel it. It makes me wet how much.”

This assertive creature was inside quiet Tara? Giles was captivated. The (continued...)

( continues...) magic drove him to cross the room and clasp Tara to him, planting a movie-style kiss on her inviting pink lips. “I’m sorry...you just excited me.” He said when his breath came back.

“No apology necessary,” she said, “At least you can say what you want.”

“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong...I’ve had that thought about Willow for years, blast me. It was disgusting of me...I proctored her study hall.”

Tara embraced Giles and ran her hands through his hair. “It’s okay. You’re human too. Let somebody take care of you for a change, poor, poor Giles.” And she kissed his forehead tenderly.

“ I really must get to the bottom of this,” Giles said, but less certainly than usual. He was really enjoying all of Tara’s warm attentions. Maybe he shouldn’t wait for somebody to die to want to hug them. She felt good, smelled good, too. He sniffed her Herbal Essence when she leaned her head on his shoulder. It was ridiculous but he could sit like that forever with a witch’s head on his shoulder. It reminded him of a very beautiful summer he stayed in Devon.” You’ll figure it out. Tomorrow. Today, we’ll lock ourselves in so you won’t have to have your big sexy brain dragged across the floor.”

Willow sat if stunned. When she thought of all the nights she spent alone in high school, it felt weird to hear so much love coming her way. She loved them too.But when she didn’t know what to do, she tended to bury her head in a book.”What did I tell you about that?” Tara said, playfully, taking the notebook.

“Give that back!” Willow begged, eyes shining

“Make me!” Giles couldn’t believe the transformation.

“Volvere,” Willow said.

“No, not like that. “ Kiss me and I’ll give you a page.” Willow kissed her, fully and passionately. The notebook seemed forgotten as the witches’ tongues twined together. “You taste like strawberries,” Tara murmured.”Are you my Strawberry Girl?”

“Yes, yes, always.” “Because you know what I like to do with strawberries.” Giles couldn’t believe the wicked glint in the blonde witch’s eye. She hadn’t been able to look at him when they met, and now it was like she was appraising him, too.

“Oh, yes, please.”

”You’re not going to run off and break my heart with a musician are you?”

“Oh, no, never...Oz was different.”

“ Because if you want a musician, Giles plays, don’t you, Giles?”

“On a very minor scale, yes.” Somehow it didn’t seem the right moment to defend that particular prowess. Maybe when circulation returned to enable higher brain functions. He was already having to take sunset at Stonehenge off his Most Beautiful Sights list.

“And he’s kind of hot, too. Or he would be if I thought about men that way. But you kiss very well, Mr. Giles. I could get into that, maybe.” She brushed his hand so sensuously that in itself was like a sexual experience. Giles flushed.

“I don’t want my girl to feel like she’s missing anything.”

“Oh, Tara. I never would. You’re beautiful and sexy and just looking at you makes me feel all squishy. That said...” Incredibly Willow grabbed Giles by the collar, kissed him and put her tongue in his mouth. “I’ve wanted to do that since high school. I’m sorry. Deepest desires.”

”No apologies necessary. Say that again.”

”What? Desires?” Willow teased. She moved toward the bed, but Giles choked out “No, not on Buffy’s bed.” He had no idea why Buffy’s bedroom carpet felt different, but Willow had removed her blouse and thrown it across the room, not the best time for logic. For once this pile was going to be shag.” You don’t think it was the Latin that got my attention during research breaks was it?” The pair lay on the carpet. Giles nuzzled Willow’s breast and licked her nipple into a rosy point.

“May I?” Tara didn’t understand why, but something about Mr. Giles made her want to have perfect grammar, excellent manners, and to have given up visiting the vending machine at the dorm, no matter how much she liked Good&Plenty.

“Of course,” Giles said, cursing his upbringing that made such expressions so automatic. “After you.” He really wished he could have kept the beautiful (continued...)