Alternity's Lieder
By Blair Provence

TITLE: Alternity's Lieder  (3/?)
AUTHOR:  Blair Provence
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  aggiemo@msn.com
SPOILER WARNING:  To third season, I suppose, up to the finale. An alternate future.  This story is a sequel to my fic "Alternity", available at the New Buffy/Giles Relationshippers and A Watcher's Love.
RATING:  NC-17 - (Buffy/Giles)
ARCHIVE:  The above two sites.  If anyone else wants it, let me know.
DISCLAIMER:  Everything Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Warner Brothers.  He'd never let Buffy and Giles have *this* much fun, so I feel obligated to do so.
SUMMARY:  Buffy and Giles return home to try and rescue Willow, despite the danger posed by the Watcher Council's Tarakan Assassins and the return of Angel to their lives.  Sequel to "Alternity".  Beware of Angst.

FEEDBACK IS WELCOME AND APPRECIATED!

Alternity's Lieder (3/?)

     Cordelia irritably waved off the cheerful waitress again, wondering - not for the first time - how someone in such a crappy job could seem so happy about it.  The woman had already filled Cordelia's coffee cup three times, and seemed annoyingly determined to harass her customer into ordering a 'good, healthy breakfast', which apparently included something called 'grits' that looked like a pile of greasy liquid styrofoam.  Cordelia wouldn't have eaten *that* even if her stomach hadn't been tied in nervous knots.

     Where were they?

     She was having serious second thoughts about agreeing to wait until after talking to them to call anyone.  What if something had happened to them after Buffy had left the sorority house?  The Tarakans could have nabbed them at anytime, and there was damn little that *she* could do about it - any kind of rescue mission would definitely be a job for Angel...

     Idly she wondered what his reaction would be to seeing Buffy again.  He wasn't over her yet, if Cordelia was any judge.  And, of course, she was.

     A shadow fell over her sidewalk table, interrupting her silent reverie.  "Hey," came Buffy's quiet voice.  "Let's go inside."

     Cordelia looked up at Buffy, shielding her eyes from the sunlight with her hand.  "Why?  The weather's great today."

     Buffy's expression was grim as she glanced up and down the street.  "We're too exposed out here.  Come on."

     Obediently Cordelia collected her coffee cup and got up to follow Buffy.  "So where's Giles?" she asked as they began to thread their way through the brunch crowd.

     "Right here," another quiet voice said, this one tinged with amusement.

     Cordelia did a double-take as the image of the tall, leather-jacketed individual to her left resolved itself into Giles' familiar figure.  Her jaw dropped.  "Wow, Giles, what happened to you?"

     Buffy selected a table toward the back of the restaurant and took a seat, her back facing the wall.  Giles slid a chair around to sit next to her, gesturing politely for Cordelia to join them. "I've been letting Buffy do my shopping," he said, a smile hovering about his lips.  "It appears she isn't fond of tweed." Buffy grinned as she snagged a menu.

     Cordelia just gaped at him, her eyes taking in his earring, unshaven cheeks, leather jacket, well-worn jeans and faded t- shirt, and it occurred to her that she had never seen him in anything even *resembling* casual wear.  But there he sat, right in front of her, looking like a slacker born and bred, and suddenly she remembered the old photograph Xander had found in the library, a picture of Giles decked out in black leather holding a guitar.

     She sighed mentally.  <Add another one to the list of people I never really knew at all...>  "Well, you...uh, you look really good," she finally managed, smiling gamely.  He *did* look good - but it was sort of freaking her out.  He was *Giles*, after all.

     "Thank you," he replied in a tone that was only slightly sardonic.

     The perky waitress chose that moment to reappear, popping up so suddenly that Cordelia jumped in her seat.  "What can I get you folks?" she asked as she topped off Cordelia's coffee cup once again, ignoring the girl's negative headshake.  Cordelia sighed and reached for another packet of creamer.

     Buffy handed her the menu.  "One number two, one number three, with one coffee, one tea and two orange juices."  The waitress beamed, clearly delighted that *someone* wanted actual food, and skipped off toward the kitchen.

     "That woman is *way* too happy," Cordelia muttered after she had departed.  "Don't you want anything to eat, Giles?"

     Buffy regarded her bemusedly.  "The number three is for him, Cordy.  What, did you think I was going to eat two meals by myself?"

     "You could use them," Cordelia replied bluntly, eyeing Buffy's slender frame.  "So, you order Giles' food for him now?"

     Buffy and Giles shared a glance before Giles returned his attention to scanning the crowded restaurant.  "I know what he likes," Buffy finally said.  "We've eaten a lot of breakfasts in the past six months, Cordy."

     Cordelia nodded and sipped at her coffee, trying to appear as though nothing were out of the ordinary.  She was getting some really weird vibes from the two of them, but she supposed that was to be expected.  They'd been through quite an ordeal together, after all.  "So, have you guys just been wandering the country this whole time?"

     "Something like that," Buffy replied as the waitress delivered their drinks.  She downed her glass of orange juice in one gulp, then nudged Giles, pointing to his glass.  "Drink up, Giles.  You need your vitamin C."

     "Mmph."  Giles picked up the glass and took a drink withoutever leaving off his rapid scanning of the crowd.

     Cordelia glanced over her shoulder and frowned.  "Okay, Giles, I give up.  *Who* are you looking for?"

     Giles reply was as disturbing as it was succinct. "Tarakans.  It's not wise for us to tarry too long here together - perhaps we should get down to business."

     Buffy nodded her agreement.  "Cordy-" she paused as the waitress delivered their plates and shook her head to the offer of syrup.  "I told you we needed your help," she continued after the waitress had gone.

     "Yeah - but you didn't tell me *how*.  What could I possibly do for you?"

     "The odds are against us getting Willow back without assistance," Buffy replied, "so we need to contact the guys for help, but we had to figure that the Tarakans would be watching and waiting for that."  She glanced at Giles.  "We thought that it was unlikely that you were being watched, though.  You haven't noticed anyone strange following you, have you?"

     Cordelia shook her head.  "No.  But then, no one ever noticed anything like that - that's why we cancelled all the guards.  Unfortunately for Willow, I guess."

     Giles frowned down at a forkful of eggs.  "Guards?"

     "Yeah.  Angel put them on all of us after you two disappeared."  She watched them carefully, but neither one reacted to the mention of Angel's name, their expressions remaining impassive.  "He figured that some of the Tarakans might try and use your friends to force you to come back.  Which I could never figure out - it's not like anyone knew how to get in touch with you to tell you."  Her tone wasn't accusing, but Buffy winced anyway.  "How *did* you find out about Willow?"

     "The last Tarakan I killed told me all about it," Buffy replied tonelessly, spearing a bit of hashbrown with her fork.

     The only thing Cordelia could think to say to that was, "Oh."

     Giles polished off a piece of toast and finally met Cordelia's gaze, his own calm and distant.  "You've been in regular contact with Angel, then?" he asked in an even voice. Buffy sipped at her coffee and contemplated a piece of bacon.   

     <Oh, this is awkward...>  "Uh, well, yeah...he's sort of my boss, actually."  She bit back a sudden smile as Buffy choked on her coffee.

     Giles raised an eyebrow.  "Your boss?  As in, he performs some sort of job and you aid him in this endeavor?  Tell us, what exactly does Angel *do*?"  His blithe tone injected the question with exquisite British sarcasm, and Cordelia noted Buffy's stifled grin.

     "Well, he's a professional brooder," she told them, acknowledging the inherent irony in a 9 to 5 Angel, "and then sometimes he's a private detective."

     Giles' lips twitched, and Buffy emitted a choked laugh.  "Is that a cliche?" she snorted, nudging the man beside her playfully.

     "And what is it *you* do?" Giles asked, leaning over to deposit his extra piece of toast on Buffy's plate.  She made a face at him but dutifully picked it up and began to butter it. 

     Cordelia studied them silently for a moment.  Normally, Giles' question would have annoyed her as being insultingly dismissive of her skills, but she understood where Giles was coming from.  And she also had a feeling that the two of them hadn't laughed much in the last six months, so she decided to go along with the joke.

     "I insult him, of course," she replied, tossing her hair over her shoulder.  "And sometimes I file things."

     Buffy's smile became a full-fledged grin and Giles chuckled. "Fair enough," he said.  "So you can bring us in contact with him, then?"

     She shrugged.  "Yeah, sure, if that's what you want.  He's in Sunnydale right now with Oz and Xander, doing the looking and searching thing, but I can call him.  It wouldn't take him more than a couple of hours to get back here."

     Giles nodded.  "All right.  But we shouldn't risk revealing our whereabouts over the phone.  Can you get him back here without mentioning us?"

     Cordelia thought for a moment.  "I guess so.  He's been back and forth a couple of times since she disappeared, checking out leads and stuff.  If I tell him something urgent has come up, I'm sure he'll come back."

     "Today?" Buffy persisted.

     "Sure, I guess."  Cordelia regarded her thoughtfully, wondering at her apparent eagerness to see her ex.  Cordelia had been under the impression that Buffy had come to prefer a bit of distance from Angel in the weeks before she and Giles had left. "Why does it have to be so fast?  Is there something you're not telling me?"

     Buffy and Giles traded glances.  "We're on a deadline," Buffy finally confided, leaning toward Cordelia and lowering her voice.  "We have reason to believe we've only got three days to get her back, before the Council punishes her."

     Cordelia frowned and held up a hand.  "Wait a minute, wait a minute - I thought the Tarakans took Willow to bring you two out of hiding.  You're telling me the *Watcher's* Council has her? *Why*?"

     Giles leaned back against the wall, sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.  The gesture was so familiar that Cordelia's breath caught in her throat, mental images of newGiles and oldGiles warring together in her mind.  Giles was oblivious to her reaction as he responded to her question.  "The Council took Willow as bait, yes, but they also took her because she's the one who helped us discover the contract on our lives in the first place."

     "And that miffed them," Cordelia concluded, nodding her understanding.

     "Majorly," Buffy agreed.  "There's going to be a tribunal thingy somewhere in or around Sunnydale in three days, and they're going to do the judge, jury and executioner bit.  We have to get to Willow before they sentence her."

     The word 'executioner' sent a cold chill down Cordelia's spine.  "What kind of sentence?" she asked.  Buffy's grim expression was all the answer she required.  "All right, I'll call Angel and get him back here.  Where do you want to meet him?"

     Buffy glanced at Giles and shrugged.  "I don't know.  Giles and I haven't got a place to stay yet - we went straight to the university when we got into town."

     "Then how about the office building?" Cordelia suggested. "A two birds with one stone kind of thing.  I know there's a pull-out couch and a cot in one of the upstairs rooms, and one of the bathrooms has a shower."  Buffy raised an eyebrow.  "Some of the places we go are pretty yuck-worthy," Cordelia elaborated. "I think Angel has ruined even more of my clothes than you did."

     "But Angel is one of the people the Tarakans are probably watching, and I would assume that includes his place of business," Giles pointed out, dismissing Cordelia's wardrobe concerns.  Buffy nodded her agreement, frowning.

     "Well, there's an underground entrance," Cordelia told them doubtfully.  "It comes out at the back of a club we sometimes go to.  Do you think they'd know about that?"

     Buffy bit her lip.  "Maybe."  She glanced at Giles again. "But I don't think they'd suspect that *we* could know about it. The Tarakan I talked to made it pretty clear that they believe we aren't in contact with anyone back home.  That's probably why they never bothered taking anyone hostage before the Council found out that Willow was the one who broke into their files."  

     "I suppose...that makes sense," Giles agreed slowly.
    
     "Okay."  Cordelia extracted a small pad of paper from her purse and wrote down an address and phone number.  "Here you go. Oh, but listen, the club doesn't open until 4 o'clock-"

     "Well, it should take Angel about that long to get back from Sunnydale," Buffy interrupted.  "Don't worry, Cordy - we'll be fine until then.  It's a big city, after all."

     Cordelia nodded and rose from her chair.  "All right, then. I wrote down my beeper number, in case something comes up.  I'll get hold of Angel as soon as I can, but I'll be in chem class until three - feel free to interrupt it, though."  She drew her purse up over her shoulder, feeling curiously reluctant to leave them.  "You're sure you'll be okay?"

     "We'll be fine, Cordy."

     "Okay."  She regarded them silently a moment longer.  "I- ...it's good to see you guys."  She ducked her head, as if embarrassed by her show of sentiment.

     Buffy smiled at Cordelia, enjoying her discomfiture.  "It's good to see you, too, Cordy.  And...thanks."

     Cordelia flashed Buffy an abashed grin and quickly turned to leave.  When she reached the front door, she glanced back for one last look at them - and stopped in her tracks, stunned by what she saw. 

     Giles had slipped his arm around Buffy's shoulders and was leaning toward her, murmuring something into her ear.  Buffy grinned in response to whatever he said and fed him a bite of eggs from her fork.  They looked easy and comfortable together, and far more intimate than they ever had in Sunnydale.

     <Could they have...?> Cordelia wondered, blinking in disbelief.  She quickly turned away and shook her head.  <No, they wouldn't have.>  She stepped out into the sunlight and set off toward her car, her mind still on the scene back in the restaurant. 

     <Would they?>

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