Title: A Slayer's Need
Author: Kate R.
abelard950@aol.com
Disclaimer: not mine and never will be.
Rating: PG-13?
Pairings: Giles/Ethan but not the focus and nothing graphic.
Summary: After Season 2, Buffy does not come home. But one day, in her new life, she discovers she needs Giles.
A Slayer's Need
By Kate R.
Prologue: Letter to Watcher
Dear Giles,
I know I have no right to ask you for anything. Not after running away and leaving you in the lurch like I did. But I need help. Serious help. I can't face what we're fighting out here alone. I know I hurt you and everyone else when I left, I know I should have come to you, and I know...I know how disappointed in me you probably are. But, I need my Watcher. There is no one else who can help me, Giles. I can't face this without you there to Guide me. I am The Slayer. And I can't run from it anymore. What about you? Are you still my Watcher?
Yours,
Buffy
Part 1: Travel Plans
He stared at the letter as he finished reading it and felt like he'd just been super kicked in the stomach.
Buffy.
Buffy needed him. She wanted him. How could he not go to her? He was The Watcher. Her Watcher. He was needed. Now.
"ETHAN!" He called. He heard the footsteps that told him Ethan was coming. When the sorcerer, his lover, joined him downstairs, he gave him the letter to read. Ethan understood. He'd always understood. It was Ethan who drove him around all summer looking for her. It was Ethan who helped him to raise little Dawn. Not so little anymore actually, and it was Ethan who paid for everything he needed since the council had sacked him for refusing to come home.
"I'll call the others," Ethan told him. Giles nodded and sat down to wait, staring at a picture of their team...their family: Himself, Xander, Dawn, Ethan, Spike, Angel, Wesley, Faith, Cordelia, Doyle and Gunn. Also, young Tara and Oz. That was an odd couple but both had been hurt badly by the same person so he was not surprised they found solace in each other. They would all be here moments after Ethan's call, he knew. They were always where he needed them to be. In the three years Buffy had been gone, that one thing had not changed.
"Giles?" he heard Dawn ask from behind.
"We have to go on a trip," he whispered. "Buffy needs us."
"When do we leave?" another voice asked.
Giles looked and saw Angel and Wesley had arrived. They were both carrying bags. Giles knew the box at Wesley's feet had books in it and that all the bags had clothes and weapons. Giles knew Wesley never went anywhere without his weapons and nor did Angel.
"As soon as everyone gets here," Giles told him.
They'd permanently sealed the Hellmouth so there was nothing keeping them here at all.
"We're here and we're all ready," Faith's voice came.
Spike, Tara, Cordelia, Oz, Doyle and Gunn all joined them. Giles was holding the letter and he looked at Ethan and Wesley.
"We're going to transport now," he said. "Everyone hold hands."
They joined hands and Giles and Ethan chanted with Wesley adding anther voice. Soon the power built up and a rip in time/space appeared. Giles shouted one word and there followed a bright flash of light. When it cleared, they were elsewhere.
"BUFFY!" Giles bellowed seeing her about to get squashed by an obvious demon. "CATCH!"
A Slayer's Need 2
Buffy Summers jumped when she caught the glint of metal out of the corner of her eye and heard the voice she needed or guidance. He'd come. He'd really come. Ran through her mind as she leaped for the handle she saw and knew he'd thrown it with the precision that only Her Giles could. Her hand caught the axe, her favorite axe, she realized, and she dropped back to the ground and swung it. Still no focus but maybe if...
"Call me a cadence, Giles!" She called to him as she watched him swing a sword of his own.
"One!" he called. Buffy took a ready position.
"Two!" She drew her axe back into a prepared stance.
"Three!" his voice came over the din. She dropped her shoulder as she swung through, removing the demon's head.
"Four!" She stepped backwards, preparing to meet her next opponent.
"Five!" She took a running start and flipped over the big one, saving her commander...well, the others' commander. She was just the civilian muscle.
"Six!" She back swung the axe, taking the arm off a demon going for the Kidd.
"Seven!" She spun around and twirled the axe, backing all the other demons off.
"Eight!" She returned to the ready position and waited.
"Buffy! Back Thrust!" His urgent voice came.
She reversed her hold on the axe and sent it backwards where she heard a squall as she killed another thing.
"Duck, spin, flip, jump...Ow!"
There was a resounding crack that cut off Giles' voice and she turned.
Buffy looked and saw Giles go down. She saw Ethan step between him and the demon that had hit him and throw a shield up. She also knew Ethan's focus was totally on the shield so he would not be able to fight.
"Will, boost me!" She yelled to the strongest member of her team.
He dropped into a crouch and formed his hand into a cradle. Buffy ran and put her foot in his hand and he boosted her up. She used the momentum and her speed to flip her way over to where Giles lying on the ground. She landed behind Ethan. At a cue from her, he dropped the shield and rolled to the side and Buffy faced the demon and started pummeling it.
"You don't touch my Watcher!" she yelled as she beat it and finally took the demon down with the axe.
"Double done," she said. Looking around the battlefield she saw her old friends and some she did not know had taken down the remaining demons letting the team she had worked with catch their collective breath and she crouched by Giles.
"Barely five minutes back on the clock and already getting whacked upside the head for me. Gee, Giles, maybe I shouldn't have written."
"And me miss all the party?" Giles asked weakly as he made himself sit up. "Ow. Not in this life time."
"Elizabeth," a gruff voice asked. 'Who are theses people..Come to think of it..who are you?"
"Well, she said, "This is Giles, my Watcher, Angel, Spike, Dawn, my little sister, Oz, people I don't know but who are obviously on our side, Ethan, and Xander. And as for me? I'm Buffy; the Vampire Slayer."
"And you are?" Xander asked the group at large.
END PART 2