"Please don't let them know what I've done to them."
"No," Benedict said easily. "They may remember odd dreams, but they won't know how close it was to reality." He nodded again, sadly, then headed for the door. He paused with his hand on the doorknob. "You won't either. You won't know what nearly happened."
A weight fell from Gile's heart. "I thought--don't these sorts of things always involve the person making the choice knowing exactly what they've lost?"
"We're the good guys, Mr. Giles. We like to think we know better. Go to bed, get some sleep. Tomorrow will be another long day. Pleasant dreams, for tonight at least."
"Yes, thank you. And thank you for the offer, it's just--"
Benedict nodded. "Humans. If you don't suffer, you think you're doing something wrong. It's quite disheartening. Go to sleep, Mr. Giles."
He left, and Giles found himself getting ready for bed, his mind numb with alternatives and the impossibility of weighing choices. In the morning, it was just one more sad day after an excruciating one, with more choices to be made. At least he had the compassion born of knowing how far one could go, when the darkness was so seductive. He was the man he needed to be in the world he'd found himself in. After all, one rarely had a choice.
That's awesome, Connie. Can't wait to see what happens.
Well, that's kind of it for happening. He was offered a choice, he turned it down. Nothing changes.
Oh, okay. Guess I didn't know that was the end..mea culpa. (Which very nearly ended up being my pseud, Mia Culpa, but I thought it could get really unfunny fast.)
Wait, so Giles gets to decide that none of the other three can have the lives they chose? Isn't that sort of unfair?
If *he* feels the life he picked was essential, couldn't he ask to change something really, really small and/or outside the realm of watcherdom? (Say, having been kinder to his grandmother, or something like that?) Why deny such a huge chance for the rest of them?
Which is not a criticism of you, Connie -- you wrote it very well. I just disagree with the choice Giles made.
I so don't need a new fic series in my life. So really, really don't. Stop encouraging me.
I kept expecting Giles to quietly say "Jenny Calendar."
Or maybe, in a wistful way, "Joyce."
What choice would you have him do over in regards to either, Daniel?
I guess those were two loose ends for Giles. Jenny whom he fell in love with and Joyce, whom he shared a time with , but that there was that spark occasionally.
I half expected him to at least think about romancing Jenny. But it's not a criticism that you "left something out" it's that my mind invoked the imagry of Jenny and then Joyce, and Giles listening to his album when she died.
