Eyes of the Beholder
Author: Nikki
SUMMARY: The future, after the events in "New Moon Rising", Oz doesn't leave... well, he does...in a way. Tara and Willow leave Sunnydale.
Part 1
Rupert Giles walked slowly past the memorised doors of the hospital. The glossy red floor squeaked minutely at his faltering step which carried him to the far benches and the Oncology waiting area.
He paused at the low table to peruse the magazines choosing one of the earlier vintages and sat down to read. He felt at his breast pocket for his glasses but instead his fingers traced the raised lump in his flesh. Sensory memory igniting the fuse of the night Oz died and Willow left.
~~*~~
"You can't expect her to be the same! You left, Willow grieved, we suffered!" Giles deposited his tea mug on the mantle, it slopped.
"I was gone only a short while, Giles. She... she didn't have to take up with a ..Girl!"
Giles' eyes flashed. Oz had said "girl" with the same venom as some people would say, "dyke"
Oz regretted his statement immediately. The argument between himself and Giles had just advanced a few stages from a slanging match to perhaps blows being exchanged. He watched as Giles' fury cooled on his face.
The Watcher took a couple of paces toward him. "Willow, is a lovely creature, I knew it wouldn't be long before she found someone who returned her love equally." Giles announced this fact carefully; his eyes never left the Were-Wolf. "Tara has proved to be a useful member of the Slaying team and is a powerful Wicca in her own right. Together she and Willow have grown in love and knowledge. I refuse to stand by and let you or anyone else ruin their relationship. Do I make myself clear?"
Oz tilted his head to the side and scented the air. "You're excited by them..."
Giles took a step back, swallowing nervously and his eyes darkening.
"You want to watch them love each other..." Oz growled softly as Giles became still and pale.
"You're insane" Giles murmured and continued to back out of the room.
Oz blocked his path, and placed a changing paw to his chest, his yellow eyes reflecting the moonlight from the window. "No. Not both, you want Willow." Oz snarled and drew air in through his enlarging muzzle, smelling the waves of guilt and arousal coming from the Watcher.
He would only be able to talk for a few more moments. "You've always lusted after Willow, the times when I changed, you were always near." Oz panted, and tore at his clothes. "You touched her as she slept, covering her, your fingers lingering. Taking... her hand!" He howled.
Giles' sinews tightened in readiness as he witnessed Oz changing.
Oz leapt at his chest.
Giles' linked fists hammered Oz's skull and the Were-Wolf slewed sideways, momentarily stunned. Giles staggered to the weapons chest, heaved the heavy lid open and rummaged for a weapon.
He turned at the outraged scream and as the Were-Wolf attacked once more. Giles fell back into the weapons and bellowed as a sword point punctured his thigh. Oz's weight forced the point wholly through his leg and Giles was faced with a slathering wolf driven by bloodlust.
Through the red veil of pain, he managed to keep Oz's jaws from his throat, but couldn't prevent Oz from clawing his shoulders and forcing him further back into more lethal blades.
Giles' fury and pain bought him time. He drew back and head butted Oz, seeing stars himself as he did so. He drew a deep breath and heard a familiar sound, a speeding whisper. The silver arrowhead ripped through Oz's heart killing him instantly and lodged in Giles' chest two inches above his right nipple.
The sudden dead weight of the Were-Wolf on his chest and the sound of Willow's screams were the last things he remembered before darkness claimed him.
~~*~~
A finger and thumb clicked before his eyes and he came back to the present. "Giles...Giles?!" He smiled wanly and got up wearily. He followed his blonde doctor into the scan room and disrobed in a vacant cubicle.
"Ahem," Buffy swished the curtain round her patient. "Modesty, curtain Giles."
"But I'm not modest..." He eased his shirt from his shoulders and draped it on the back of the chair. His eyes rested briefly on his chest, the white raised scar of the arrowhead branding him lecher. He smiled as he picked up a short white hospital gown and announced, "This won't fit!"
"Yep, don't I know it!" Buffy smiled as she hugged her clipboard. It was wonderful to hear such spirit in her friend's voice. "You're a regular Stud Muffin!"
The new female Cat-scan technician blushed as the young consultant continued the lewd banter with her well preserved sixty year old patient.
"C'mon Giles, I've seen you before!"
"Yes, thank you so much for reminding me! But that young girl hasn't!"
Buffy smirked and winked at the technician, "Ok Giles, there's a second robe you can put on under the bench, should be plenty big enough, I borrowed it from Obstetrics."
The curtain swished open and Giles stood barefoot in all his pink flowered glory, blushing a delicate shade of rose.
Buffy smiled at him. He looked pale but better than he had in months and his hair had grown back soft and spiky. "You know the routine," she slipped her arm round his waist in a friendly gesture and felt his ribs; he wasn't gaining weight as he should.
Giles put his arm round Buffy's waist, kissed her atop her head, and walked toward the table and the metal donut which would reveal his soul to medical scrutiny.
"Relax, this will take an hour... And no, you can't read." Buffy pre-empted Giles' question.
~~*~~
His eyes closed and his mind fell into it's familiar nightmarish remembrance.
Screaming. He heard Willow screaming and saw the flashing fall of her auburn hair mixed with Tara's gold.
Oz was dead; cold on the ground after Buffy had moved him snapping the arrows shaft, leaving the blessed arrowhead embedded in Giles' chest.
Buffy stared in disbelief at Oz. He knew peace at last.
Giles lay on his side ashen and shaking.
It was then that Spike appeared in the living room, the scent of a massacre had led him to the Watcher's home; the screaming issuing an irresistible invitation.
He stood in the centre of the room his ice blue eyes taking in the scene and bathing in the shock; pooled blood, dead Were-Wolf, weeping witches, shocked Slayer and wretched Watcher.
He'd arrived too late for this party. He sighed disappointedly and took charge. "Slayer, get an ambulance for your Watcher. Witches? Leave now. I'll take care of the Wolf and the mess. Move!" Without another word, Spike picked up Oz's body and walked from the house.
Willow skirted round the sticky pool and kissed Rupert's forehead. His eyes fluttered open for a second and committed the tortured Jade hue of Willow's eyes to his memory. His vision blurred as pain blocked out her tearful farewell.
~~*~~
The technician looked up at the sound that came for the scan room; she couldn't see Giles' tortured expression. "He's asleep again." She announced.
"Good." Buffy glanced over the brain scans. Her heart beat madly in her chest. It was true. The tumour had gone. Thank God for stem cells! She sat back in her chair and sighed. Today was a good day!
Buffy the Cancer Slayer reigns supreme!
Part 2
Buffy collected her snack from the machines in the doctor's lounge and sat next to Xander, he was munching his way through a Pizza and he raised his drink to the Slayer as she took her seat.
"Hey, how goes the healing?" He smiled as he was rewarded by a thousand watt smile. "That good, huh? Giles?" Buffy nodded and her face crumpled into her coffee. Her friend brought his arm around to hug her. He knew enough not to ask for details.
Giles had been diagnosed six months ago when he'd had memory problems and slurred speech. Buffy had been frantic and Xander tried to support both of them through the trauma of surgery and chemo and finally the experimental stem cell therapy.
"He's clear." Buffy uttered a strangled whisper and blew her nose. She sniffed and raised her head, her eyes red from holding back tears of relief until she got to the safety of the lounge and Xander's arms. She wiped away the last vestige of her tears and swallowed her coffee, pinching a slice of pizza from his plate.
" Mmmmm! That's good! I've not eaten today! Too nervous," she waved her pizza in mid air. "Now we can start the children on stem cells. They can't deny us funding, we've proved it works. It cures." She hesitated at Xander's expression. "We can, can't we? What's wrong?"
Xander sighed. He had promised Giles he would never tell Buffy how painful the treatment was, but she was talking of giving it to children...
"Buffy, you can't give it to the kids. Giles-" He sat back and blew out a breath sighing as he remembered Giles' body frozen in agony as the treatment attacked the cancer growing in his brain.
~~*~~
Xander had moved into Giles' condo at Buffy's request after he'd been diagnosed, just to keep an eye on him. And he witnessed the ravages of the "miracle cure" first hand.
Nothing in Paediatrics had prepared him for Giles' unrestrained agony. Xander could do something to comfort a child, he could joke and prescribe, operate and entertain, but for Giles he could do nothing but hold him through the night, every night. The thing that most frightened him was when the Watcher just gave up the fight for consciousness and slept as the dead for days.
Giles haunted his home he didn't live there. In rare moments of lucidity during the treatment Giles confided in Xander that if he didn't survive the cure Buffy was not to continue the research.
"Xan-derr, I can't let Buf-fy lose the fight against the-the can-cerrrr that kill-killed Joyceee. She has to-to win..." Giles' eyes watered grey-green and his pallid face held no animation, he was drained. "If I sh -should die, don't let her give stem ce-lls to aaa child." He shuddered and pulled his blanket closer round himself, heat and cold out of control was the legacy of his cure but he still fought on at Buffy's side and together they would win.
~~*~~
Xander finished his explanation over the now cold pizza, "Y'see, Buff? You cannot give it to a kid. Giles knew a child would not survive. He also knew you needed to defeat his cancer and he was willing to die to enable you to do that." He gazed into Buffy's eyes, throughout his explanation, they had been alternately wet and dry, now she was calm possessing all the facts and her inner scientist had analysed the possibilities. She couldn't give the cure to a child.
~~*~~
"Well, Watcher?" Spike stood at the unexpected intrusion into his realm. It was seldom that he had visits from those still living. In the Watchers case, living was not an apt description, existing, despite everything. Spike looked at the old man through his unchanged eyes. No, the Watcher was not long for this world.
"Surviving, Spike!" Giles smiled. The vampire came from his corner and hugged the man who had become his friend. "I've forgotten, are you black today?" he gestured to the chessboard on the table.
"Always Watcher and I'll win one of these days too! Drink?" Giles nodded, slipped off his jacket, and studied the board. He nodded as the vampire placed the mug of tea by his left hand.
"Business slow?" Giles questioned as he placed his knight taking Spikes bishop.
"Bugger!" Spike declared as another of his pieces joined their mates on Giles' side of the board. He sipped his blood from his own mug. "Yes, just how I like it. Being lazy in my place is just my cup of blood." He grinned and Giles smiled back, sparing a moment to glance round Spikes Kingdom, the hospital mortuary.
An hour later and the game was over, they had chatted about old times and carefully skirted round the subject of Oz. Preferring instead to talk of Willow, the vintage before college
"Oh, she was just a sweet bundle of fluff, and if I had my way, she'd never have got any older!" Spike worried his lip nervously and glanced up at the ceiling... "Customers." He sighed.
Giles got up and collected his jacket. He knew the vampire liked to work alone. "I'll see you next week. Oh and I'll be earlier... I don't have a scan. It's gone Spike."
Spike stared at him then his face broke into the widest grin Giles had ever seen. "Great! Why didn't you tell me before? I would have broken out the Scotch!"
Giles chest jarred with the back pounding he received and just smiled bemusedly back. "And miss our game of chess?" he raised his hand in farewell and exited through the back as the trolley entered through the double swing doors.
Spike thrust his hands into latex gloves and nodded briefly at the attendants to go. He paced round the body and drew in a breath; the scents surrounding the body gave him a clue as to the time and cause of death. He smelt nothing strange but this one had a familiar base note perfume. This one was female and he knew her.
If his heart had been capable, it would have thundered in his chest. He felt the icy chill of his recent meal rising as he whipped the sheet from the body to reveal its identity.
Part 3
"Red!" He gasped. Her skin was pale and beneath her eyes, dark circles rested. Her skin looked mottled and discoloured blotches marred her once flawless features. Spike listened and narrowed his gaze to her throat. Her fine red hair moved minutely it was barely discernable to human eyes but the sheen of her hair shifted, indicating a pulse.
Spike stood as a marble statue beside her, transfixed at her beauty and strength of will. Then suddenly he leapt to the wallphone tapping the number of the Slayers pager almost too rapidly for the phone to decipher.
"We got a live one!" he yelled. Then slammed the receiver back in its cradle; the handset fell from the wall.
He turned back to the table his chest heaving with unneeded breath. Just sometimes, he needed to breathe to be able to understand the living. He dragged the oxygen from the cupboard and set up a mask for Willow to breathe properly. He was standing taking her pulse when Buffy arrived minutes later.
"You're slowing, Slayer!" Spike announced with his back to Buffy.
"Sue me!" Spike whirled round to be met by a stake.
"Whoa! Not that kind of live one! Shit!" He exclaimed and stepped out of the way. "It's Willow..."
"Willow?" Buffy moaned, she looked closely at the body on the table and smiled. "We need to get her warm... Spike?"
The vampire had already opened the door to his inner sanctum and scooped up the witch's body, he smiled sadly at the Slayer. "She's so light Buffy." He swallowed as his eyes welled with tears, he could feel her bones through her meagre flesh. Buffy's hand on his shoulder urged him into his flat.
"Then, we'll have to fatten her up before she sees Giles." Buffy followed him in and was surprised at the calm space, a few books on a board supported by bricks and a tape deck, a metal sconces on the walls sported thick church candles and the high narrow window was hung with a dark velvet drape.
Spike swept past Buffy and deposited Willow on his bed. He opened the wardrobe and left Buffy to dress her warmly. He removed the toe tag and went into the living room. He reached under the sofa and brought out his laptop. He was tapping the code number into the database when Buffy came in.
"Spike, you are a constant paradox!" She smiled as she looked over his shoulder and saw the Emergency Room report and probable cause of death. Spike stopped typing as one word grew in his vision to encompass the screen. Buffy gave the cause of his unrest a name.
"Aids-Willow is HIV positive." Buffy scrolled down the report and mentally ticked off the symptoms, Karposi's sarcoma, high T Cell count and and... Willow had a child? Death in infancy... Spike turned the computer off.
"I'm going to get rat-arsed! Join me?" Buffy nodded and sat back on the sofa, moments later Spike arrived with two bottles.
"Sorry," he muttered. "Only glasses I got are specimen beakers." Buffy accepted the bottle and opened the seal. It was going to be a long night.
~~*~~
Willow dreamt. She was so cold and soon she would see Tara and Oz again. Would they want her still after all she had been through? She closed her eyes on the world fully expecting to see the next when she opened them. But it was strange; did heaven have candles and warm covers? And... She lifted her hips and looked at the magazine that had disturbed her rest.
"Sadie Stern, a magazine for leather... Oh God! Where am I?" she eeped. She felt down her body, she was dressed in a soft warm nightgown that reminded her of one she owned when very small, the summer that she met Xander for the first time. A bright smile lit her face briefly, her jaw ached to smile too much. She moved her tongue about her mouth, her teeth felt like they had fur coats on...
"Toothbrush." She slipped out of the covers and walked lightly to the bathroom.
~~*~~
"shhhusshh... you hear sumfin?" Spike heaved his head off the Slayers lap... and listened.
"Nope, jus, noisy gurgly Slayer tummy" He smiled and nuzzled back down. Buffy listened for a few seconds more, and tipped the remains of her bottle down her throat.
"Okeydokey, Buffy need bathroom..." She lifted her hips and Spike's head followed. "Hey, hey! Spike! I need to go potty!"
Spike smiled wolfishly, turned on his back and opened his mouth... The Slayer left the sofa; the crash of a vampiric body shook the walls.
"I'm-ok Jus broken neck" Spikes' voice drifted into the bathroom.
Buffy frowned. Spikes blatant disregard for energy saving offended her ecological principles. She let it mellow and turned the light off.
~~*~~
Willow fell back into her bed and closed her eyes. They sprung open again as she remembered the light. She got out of bed and went back, the light was off. Strange. She flushed the cistern and turned to leave. She froze as she heard thunderous footfalls and swearing.
The light flashed on. "Willow!" Spike and Buffy shouted in unison. They had happy beaming smiles as they bowled into the room together.
Willow backed away from them in terror. She turned her face to the tiled wall and slowly slid down its smooth surface, weeping inconsolably.
Buffy took a step toward her, her hand held out in a gesture of comfort. Willow batted it away, and hunched further down. "Don't touch me. Don't look at me. I'm sick"
Buffy knelt by her friend, and just stretched out her hand to touch Willow's fingertips. "I know Will. I'm just glad to see you." She blinked her tears away and licked her lips. "We all missed you so much! Xander will want to see you and Giles-"
Willow whipped her head round at the sound of his name. "Not Giles!" She grabbed Buffy's hand in a vice-like grip. "Please Buffy, not Giles." Willow's hollow eyes implored her and at last, she nodded. Willow seemed to relax and take in Spike, she smiled her first shy smile, and he reached out to stroke her flaming hair.
"Your hair saved you Red. They thought you were dead, I knew different." Willow looked puzzled.
Buffy explained. "Willow, Spike works in the mortuary of the hospital. Actually, the workroom is just next-door. Xander and I are doctors, he's a paediatrician, and I'm an oncologist. Your condition was serious. Umm we know about the Aids, but no one else does."
Willow nodded. She managed to smile at her friend. Buffy was a doctor? She walked back to the bedroom and slipped between the covers. Spike made popcorn and sat on the end of the bed. He looked at her as though she were transparent.
"Spike? How have you been?" He curled round her feet like a panther and fixed her with his azure gaze.
"Oh, fine, a little mayhem, a little molesting. I get along, y'know. I work down here because it's peaceful and I can't hurt the customers." He grinned. "Slayer says I know the cause of death before the tests do." He winked at Buffy. "It just means she saves on her budget." He noticed the witch's eyes drooping. And signalled Buffy.
"Willow, I think it's time you rested. Do you want me to tell Xander?" Buffy pulled the comforter up to her friend's neck and tucked it snugly about her shoulders.
"Yes, but don't take him away from his work! He loves being with kids...a big kid himself isn't he?" She murmured, soon her eyes closed and her hand holding Buffy's went limp.
~~*~~
Giles tossed and turned in his covers. The dream was not the usual nightmare, he dreamt of Buffy, of the brief time they had together after Willow and Riley left. It was warm and comfortable, what they both needed at a difficult time. It had lasted a year and then a deep friendship had formed between them that had lasted ever since.
In his dream he shared Buffy's bed with Willow watching them pale and silent, she moved closer as his climax approached and stood so close that her perfume surrounded him. He left Buffy and Willow stepped away he followed until he was running after her, his heart racing in his chest.
~~*~~
Xander turned the TV low he heard a moan from Giles' room and then a crash. He shot from the sofa and wrenched open the door of the Watchers room.
Giles was on the floor drenched in sweat with his eyes open and pleading, his arm outstretched toward a receding apparition. Xander checked his pulse, Giles' heart was racing, and he breathed too rapidly...
"Giles! Take it easy..." He shook the old man mildly. Xander cast his eyes round the room. The mask and oxygen were over the other side of the bed.
Giles' eyes and lips paled; with his last conscious breath, he uttered her name. "Willow-"
Part 4
Giles breathed deeply through the mask. Xander fussed over his covers like a mother hen then perched on the end of Giles' bed looking anxiously at the clock and then at the Watcher's face.
"Don't you dare call Buffy!" Giles glared as Xander glanced at the phone. "She'll be sleeping and she has early shift tomorrow." He removed the mask. "See? I'm fine! I had a bad dream and fell out of bed-"
"Dreaming of Willow again" Giles gave him a sharp look and Xander ploughed on. "You called her name, and you fell out of the bed because?"
"She was leaving me." He swallowed and held his head in his hands. "All those years Xander! Where did she go? I searched... I hunted-" Giles' voice faltered as a fat tear raced down his cheek. He shuddered and fell back against his pillows. "I want to hold her, to love her, to see her hair glinting in the sun. I would die happy if I saw her just once more."
Xander stared at the coverlet and let his mind travel back to the last time he'd seen Willow. She stared out of the back of a bus with Tara at her side, both girls wept. He had raced after the bus shouting her name but had to stop and stood helplessly in the middle of traffic as half his life disappeared before him.
"Do you want some tea before I go, G-man?"
Giles lifted his head and smiled. "You've not called me that in years Xander. Tea would be very welcome thank you." He sniffed and grabbed a tissue from the box at his bedside.
When Xander called him for tea and breakfast Giles had dressed in his "visiting" clothes. He checked the calendar in the kitchen. "Ah, It's the Children's ward today, so you'll be under my feet all day hmm?" Giles gave him a sideways glance and smiled.
~~*~~
Xander watched Giles as they approached the hospital. The change in his face as he practiced the glamour was subtle, but it smoothed out the ravages of his illness. He did this every time he visited the children to enthral them with his magical tales.
Xander cursed as his beeper went just as he parked in his space. "Damn! No coffee for me, Buffy wants me in the morgue." His face darkened as he mentally went through the list of his patients there was no one critical. So why does she want me there? "Giles, can you take yourself to the ward? I've got to sort this mess out." Xander hopped out of the car and ran through the hospital doors.
Giles opened the car door and locked the vehicle before proceeding to the hospital at a more leisurely pace.
~~*~~
"Buffy? Buffy!" Xander called as he stepped into the morgues cool interior. He shivered, he always did when he entered Spikes domain. Even for their Friday night poker game. He never liked this place, it reminded him of his failings as a doctor. But give Spike his due, whenever a child died he would lay them out with the utmost care and was an artist when preparing a body to be claimed and an expert in saying just the right thing to grieving relatives.
Xander gasped and whirled round when he heard a gentle step in the silent room.
"Wil-low?" The broken name and emotion that swelled in his chest when he saw her standing before him was almost too much to bear. He rushed to take her in his arms to make his dream a reality. He felt her frail body, light against his, and let go his fierce hug.
"Xander!" She smiled through her tears and allowed him to lead her into Spike's living room where the vampire had left them some tea and snacks. Willow sat with her legs curled beneath her and a shawl round her shoulders, warming her hands on her tea mug.
"Where did you go? Giles is gonna be so glad you're back!" Xander hastily put his mug down on the table and was half way to get him when she stopped him.
"No Giles! Perhaps when I'm a little stronger, Xander."
He sat down again and let himself bathe in the reality of Willow.
~~*~~
Gradually over the course of an hour, Xander found out her hiding out in San Francisco, about Tara's death and her marriage to Gareth Ffoulkes, an English diplomat. They had a son Rupert, who unfortunately died when he was just a toddler. Little Rupert's death destroyed her husband and shortly afterward he was involved in a car crash. His injuries were bad enough to warrant a blood transfusion. They found out later that the blood was tainted with HIV. Gareth contracted full-blown AIDS and infected Willow as well. She was all alone and surviving on her will power and resolve.
Xander's smile quivered and his eyes brimmed with tears. Willow had plenty of that! He cupped her face with his hand and whispered "Brave little toaster..."
She smiled and snuggled into his hand. Xander was her rock. She knew she was home when Xander was at her side. His beeper sounded and she jumped then laughed as he did too.
"I'm sorry, I'm needed in the O.R. I'll be back though. Buffy and Spike will be about won't they?"
Willow nodded and shooed him away smiling after him. Her face resumed it's wistful expression, the one she fell into whenever she thought of Rupert senior. She would do anything to hold him and to see him just once more.
~~*~~
Giles surveyed the room; his audience had swelled since the sessions began three months ago when Buffy had suggested he go down to children's to get a refill of resolve when his own was flagging. The first story he told he could barely focus on the book. But the children listened and begged him for more, and as he began to feel better, he could show them small tricks and illusions to illustrate his stories. Today he was retelling an old favourite "Witches and Were-Wolves."
"There was once a great castle surrounded by high rose briars and honeysuckle, the walls were thick and ancient, weather worn and drafty. Inside the castle walls there lived two witches, one with hair the colour of corn on a summers day and the other with hair of fiery red." He paused for the youngest to stop fidgeting.
"Were they bad witch's?"
Giles' gaze fastened on a small child in the front with a tube into his chest. "No they were good, only casting spells to help the hopeless and baffle the bad." Giles confided pausing with a twinkle in his eye. He waved his hand before him and a scene appeared.
There stood Willow and Tara in long velvet robes they walked in a garden in the sunlight. Suddenly a black clad figure leapt over the wall, he was slender with bright silver hair and pointed ears, he resembled Spike. He proceeded to tell the witch's of a Were-wolf in distress and both gathered their magic together and clambered over the wall. Unfortunately, they fell straight into a hay wagon and were spirited away.
"A-hem!" A cough from the doorway informed Rupert of the arrival of his Slayer and the imminent surgery for one of the assembled children. He glanced over to the bed in the corner and got to his feet.
He followed Buffy over to the small child's bedside and kept a quiet vigil while she consulted with the child's parents. He pushed a stray lock of red hair from the girl's eyes and his own stung as her ashen skin felt cool beneath his fingers. He looked at Buffy and then back to the child, he couldn't let this happen.
He leant into the bed, picked the girl up, and cradled her on his lap. He read the label on her wrist and sat down by the bed. He rested his chin atop her head and began to sing beneath his breath.
"What the Hell are you doing with my little girl? You pervert!"
Buffy whirled round from speaking to the mother to find the father about to punch Giles' lights out.
Giles stopped singing abruptly and the girl continued the song opening her eyes as she came to the last note.
"She was sleeping." Giles explained in a weak voice. "She'll be fine now. " He set the girl down on the ground and she walked shakily over to her parents. Giles also stood and walked out of the ward.
~~*~~
Buffy caught up with him at the water fountain, his hand shook as he drank from the paper cup. He looked suddenly old and Buffy was frightened. She swallowed the lump in her throat and forced a sardonic smile to her lips.
"You've got to stop doing that y'know, you'll put me out of a job!" she searched his face for signs of recovery and found none. "You gave too much this time, Rupert. You said you wouldn't heal the ones who were too far gone. You promised me after the last time!"
Giles flinched at the hurt in her voice. He finished his drink and crushed the cup. "I'm tired Buffy and she's never coming back." He thrust his hands into his pockets and turned away his mind filled with visions on Willow and the child who looked so much like her.
The Slayer's tears coursed down her cheeks as her mouth hardened into a determined line. Time to get these two together. Not even Giles could resist the combined power of a Slayer, a Vampire and a Xander!