“No,” she said with a sigh, “ I just forgot that...”  

 “That I’m no longer your Watcher.”    

“Yeah,” she sighed again. “Man, Giles, I hate this! You are my Watcher! I don’t care what they say. They’re idiots. They have to be if they can’t see how great of a Watcher your are.”    He smiled and held the door open for her to enter. She walked in and flopped down on the couch, still berating the Watchers Council for firing Giles.  

“Tea?” He asked, walking into the kitchen of his apartment.

“Yeah, sure.” Giles walked out with a tray of tea stuff. He sat it on the coffee table and started to fix her a cup. She leaned forward to take it when he handed it to her. Then sat back quietly and took a sip. Giles could tell that something was on her mind, but he was willing to wait until she wanted to tell him. He fixed himself a cup and sat on the opposite side of the couch from her. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the peaceful moment between them. When he opened them, he found her looking at him. He gave her an embarrassed smile, which she echoed.

“How was your patrol?” he asked after taking another sip of tea.  

“Quite, didn’t see any vamps at all.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah, it gave me time to think about everything that has happened lately.” She leaned forward and put the cup on the coffee table. “What would the council have done to Faith if Wesley had taken her the England?”

“They would have put her on trial to see if she was remorseful about the death of the Deputy Mayor. If she was, they would have helped her deal with it. If she wasn’t, they would have locked her up until she was or...” he trailed off.  

“Or the next Slayer was called?” She asked quietly. He nodded. Both were quiet till.   “You know, I understand what Faith was saying, about being the Slayer.”  

“Which was?” He asked.
 
She stood up and began to pace, trying to organize her thoughts. Pacing always helped her think. She knew what she wanted to say, but not how to say it. It was the real reason she was here, not that she had forgot that Giles wasn’t her Watcher any more. She could never forget that. It was always on her mind.   Actually, since the evening of her birthday, all she could think about was Giles. She thought of all the things that he had given up for her. Even before he knew who she was! He had given up his home, England. It was hard enough for her to move here from LA. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have to move to a different country. He’d probably never have a family. A wife and children. Giles would be a great father. A father’s love, that’s what the guy from the council said he had for her. She stopped in front of him. “Is what that guy from the council said true?”  Giles, who had been watching her pace, blinked in surprise at the change in subject.

“What do you mean?” he asked, stalling. They had never talked about what happened on her birthday. Neither of them brought it up and he was grateful for that. He didn’t want to think of that night and all the conflicting thoughts it brought up. When he closed his eyes at night, he could see the horrified look on her face after he had told her about the test. Her eyes staring at him with tears of hurt and betrayal forming in them. Her words “I don’t know you” had echoed in his mind for weeks afterwards.  

“You know what I mean, Giles.” She sat down on the coffee table in front of him, leaning with her elbows on her knees. “That guy, Travers, he said he fired you because you loved me like a father. I need to know if that’s true.” She looked down at her hands as she asked this.   Giles leaned forward and took her hands in his. He was going to say, yes, it was true when she looked up at him. When their eyes connected, he saw something in them that made his breath catch. He saw curiosity, hope and...love? No, it couldn’t be. When Buffy had disappeared last summer, his frantic searching for her made him realize that his feelings for her were much more than just as a mentor and friend. With that realization, he had accepted a couple of things. First and foremost was that Buffy would never, could never, return his feelings. That was an impossibility that was too much to hope for. But now, with her sitting across from him wearing the same shy, half-smile that she was when she showed up on his doorstep when she came back to town, the hope started to build in his chest.

Giles truly didn’t know what happened next. One minute they were sitting across from each other. The next, one or both of them, had leaned forward and their lips met in a gentle kiss. They both tried to deepen the kiss as his hands moved under her arms to pull her on to the couch next to him. They wrapped their arms around each other as the kiss ended. Buffy rested her head on Giles’s chest.

“I take it that’s a no. ‘Cause if it’s a yes, we have more problems then I thought.“ She felt his chuckle before raising her head to look at him. He brought his hand up to caress her face.

“I do love you, Buffy, and it is not a paternal love. It’s most definitely the love of a man for a beautiful, intelligent, and amazing woman, whom I admire more then anything in the world.”

“I’m glad, Giles, because I love you. I’ve loved you for a long time. I just didn’t know in what way and how much until that Travers guy said that you loved me like a father. That caused me more pain then anything else that had happened. It got me to thinking, why would you loving me like a father hurt more then you sticking me with that needle?” she saw him wince at her words, so she turned her head to kiss the palm of his hand, to show that she wasn’t still angry at him. “I realized that it hurt so much because that’s not the way I wanted you to love me. That it wasn’t the way I love you.”    Giles closed his eyes at her words. He had never thought to ever hear those words outside of his dreams. He pulled her closer and kissed her again. The kiss deepened as their tongues started to caress each other. Giles groaned when, all of a sudden, Buffy stood up form the couch, breaking the kiss. She took both of his hands and pulled him up.

“What are you doing?” he asked when she started to pull him towards the stairs.

“I’m taking Faith’s advice.” She said as she started up the stairs. “I never did tell you what she said did I?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Well, she said that, as Slayers, if we want something then we should take it. And I want you.” By now, they were at the door to his bedroom. She wrapped her arms around his neck and brought his lips down for another kiss. While kissing, she walked backward ‘til her legs met the edge of his bed. Giles eased out of the kiss when he felt her hand come from around his neck and start to undo the buttons of his shirt. He brought his hands up to stop hers by pressing them against his chest. Then he rested his forehead on hers. 

“Buffy,” he said then cleared his throat, giving him time to get his emotions under control. “As much as I want and dreamed of doing this, I don’t think that we should. It’s too soon, for both of us.”   She sighed before agreeing.

“Yeah, your right, but” she leaned back to look him in the eyes. “Please, don’t make me go home. I...I’m afraid that if I go home when I wake up tomorrow this will have just been a dream.”   Giles smiled and cupped her face with his hands.

After placing a kiss on her lips, he whispered "You can stay. I don’t think that I could let you to leave anyway. I have the same fear and I want to hold you tonight too assure myself tomorrow that this is real” They crawled under the covers and Giles pulled Buffy against his chest. Buffy covered his arms with hers and laced her fingers in his.   

“Giles?”  

“Hmm?”  

“I love you.”  

Giles pulled her tighter to him as he replied “I love you, Buffy.” Then both settled into sleep.

END