With Friends like That - Epilogue

Willow sat on the couch, weeping into Xander's chest. "How are we going to tell Giles...?"

Xander looked to Buffy, his natural instinct for joking had deserted him. When she shrugged, he looked back down at Willow's head and whispered, "Don't worry, Will, I'll tell him..."

Willow then raised her head from his chest and smiled a watery smile at him. But the thought of what had happened stabbed her in the heart again. She thumped her head back against his chest and began to sob fresh tears of anguish. "Oh Xand, he's gonna be so... so sad..."

Xander blinked back his own tears and whispered, "I know, Will... I know..." It was bad enough that they'd lost a friend, but seeing Willow as heartbroken as she was, pulled at him even harder. He didn't know what he could do or say to make her feel better, so, he didn't say a word; only softly murmured hushing and shushing noises, and ran a comforting hand down her hair in a soothing motion.

All three then suddenly looked towards the commotion at the front door.

Willow immediately noticed Giles, with a walking stick, and a bruise forming beneath the scratches to his face. Then she noticed the blood. She was up and running towards him before anyone could stop her. "Giles, oh God, Giles..." she whimpered into his chest.

Giles moved his free arm around her, "Willow...?" he whispered, "Willow...?" He then looked to Buffy and then Xander. Both looked down at the hands that were in their laps.
Willow then gasped. Her eyes, wide with her shock, followed Oleecia coming into the apartment. "Oleecia...?" she whispered. She then started to giggle hysterically. She turned to Buffy and Xander and exclaimed, "It's... It's Oleecia..."

Xander rose from the arm of the couch and was moving to the Vampire Child. He held her at arm's length and gasped, "You're alive..." He then grinned, turned to Buffy and said, "She's alive..."

Buffy, blinking back her own tears, nodded and said, "Yep, Xand, she's alive..."

Spike stepped forward at that moment and said, "Well, technically..." but stopped when he received four glares for his intended observation. "Sorry..." he muttered and then moved around Giles and Willow and went to the kitchen.

Oleecia moved further into the room with Xander. "What do you mean when you said that I was alive, Xander...?"

Giles turned, closed the front door and then silently moved away.

Xander sat on the couch with Oleecia to the left of him and Willow hugging his right side. He said, "After the fight, we... we couldn't find you... We thought that we'd let you down... That you'd been staked..."

Oleecia guiltily looked to her hands, "Oh..." she whispered. When she'd left she hadn't thought about how it would affect the others. Seeing their faces now, knowing how they had felt, she wished that she had. But when she pondered it longer, she still couldn't be sure, no, in fact she was positive, that she'd still have left. And then she felt glad that she hadn't thought of their reaction, because those moments, of hesitation, might have meant that she would never have found Giles and followed him to where he was going.

But she was truly sorry that she had unintentionally made them think that she had perished. She then raised her head and whispered, "I'm really, really sorry that I made you think that..."

Buffy then got up and knelt in front of Oleecia and, as she placed a comforting hand on the Vampire Child's head, she said, "Hey, no problem, Leec... You're safe now, and I gotta say that it's of the good that you're still with us..."

Oleecia smiled down at her. "Thanks Buffy..."

Xander then spoke up and asked, "So, where'd you get to then, Leec...?"

"Giles was meeting his friend tonight, from the Watcher's Council." When Buffy nodded at that, she said, "But he thought that his friend was setting trap for me, so he didn't want me to go with him and Spike." She looked back down at her hands, before she added, "So, I listened in on what they were going to do and made sure that I could be there, just in case they hurt Giles instead..."

Xander looked up at that moment to look for Giles. He scanned the whole living room, but he couldn't see him. "Hey," he suddenly asked, where's Giles...?"

All of them looked up then. Spike solemnly pointed to the ceiling. "Left as soon as you were all busy with Leec..."

Xander frowned, "Spike, what happened...?" he whispered, with a sense of dread.

Spike shrugged, but then said, "His friend came through, in the end... Saved Rupert's life..." He paused a moment, before he added, "With his own life..."

Xander suddenly looked down and swallowed hard. Giles had lost his friend tonight, a good friend, and he thought he knew just how that might feel. His thoughts went to Jesse, along with all the memories of how they'd grown up together, and also of how Jesse had died. He then stood and started to make his way to the stairs. He stopped a moment when he heard Spike say,

"I wouldn't, mate... Leave him be... He'll be alright in a while..."

Xander, briefly turning back to Spike, shook his head and then said, "No he won't..." Then he turned back again and started to make his way up the stairs. He had no idea what he was going to say. He only knew that Giles shouldn't be on his own...


Xander knocked once on the door in front of him, then turned the handle and walked in, without invitation. He knew that he wasn't going to get one.

There was a flurry of movement to his right and he looked. He saw Giles turn away from him and then wipe a hand across his face. He heard coughing and knew that Giles was composing himself, shutting himself off from expressing anything. So, it did not surprise him when Giles' voice, enquiring after him, was strong and unwavering. He moved forward and sat next him on the end of the bed. "I'm sorry about your friend, Giles..." he eventually whispered.

Giles then turned to him, his eyes still bright with unshed tears, and smiled a wobbly smile. "Yes," he whispered, "thank you, Xander..."

"I... I know that it doesn't help when someone says that they know how you feel... I know that..." he said, "But I might have an idea..." He then looked up at Giles.

Giles looked down and grasped Xander's hand that was beside him. "Yes," he whispered in regret, "yes, you might, Xander... And... and I am truly sorry, that someone of your age, that you *would* have an idea..."

Xander placed his free hand over the top of Giles' and whispered, "It's alright though, big guy, cos... cos losing Jesse made me realise that the friends that I *still* had, were worth a lot more to me than I had ever thought before..." His grip tightened on Giles' hand when he felt a shudder go through the older man.

"Richard... he... he was a good friend, Xander," Giles whispered through his tears, his voice hoarse with emotion, "He just got a little lost along the way..."

Xander nodded, not really knowing what to say. But then he thought of Willow and what she had done with him when Jesse had died. He moved closer to Giles, put his arms around him and whispered, "You know the worst thing, big guy...?" He felt Giles shake his head, felt the quiver of emotion against his own chest. He knew that Giles was close to losing it, but he didn't care. He started to rub little circular patterns of comfort in the older man's back and he added, "The worst thing is trying to hold it all in..."

Xander then grasped the jacket beneath his hand, when the shoulders began to shake with quiet grief. He whispered over and over that it was going to be okay, that it *was* okay.

"Dear God, Xander..." Giles sobbed. "It hurts... so... much..."



Willow looked to the ceiling, in the direction of Giles' bedroom. They were so much alike, the two men in her life that meant so much to her. Both fought hard and fast against expressing what was truly in their hearts and yet, when the time came for them to do just that, she knew that it was always heartfelt and true...

Almost tangible...



The moment he thought that Giles was as okay as he was going to be, Xander stood and started to move away. He stopped when a hand suddenly grasped his. He looked down at Giles.

Giles smiled up at him and said, "Thank you..." He then shook Xander's hand in his, from side to side, and whispered, "Friendship is such a wonderful thing, Xander. Without a friend in the world, then you are truly alone..." He then let go of Xander's hand and added, "Thank you for being my friend, Xander..."

Xander started to shuffle from one foot to the other, his head bowed and his face scrunched up with embarrassment.

Giles started to chuckle, a little wobbly, it had to be said, but it was a chuckle nonetheless.

Xander looked up then, with a frown, afraid that maybe Giles might have lost more than his friend tonight.

Giles choked back the last of his chuckles and said, "You... you amaze me, Xander. After having spent, Lord knows how much time, hugging and consoling me, the moment I express a form of gratitude to you, only then do shuffle from one foot to the other, with such obvious embarrassment." He shook his head, his eyes alight with teasing this time, and started to chuckle again.

Xander was a little bemused at first, but the more he thought on it, the more he realised that Giles was right. He suddenly felt the beginning ripples of laughter build in him and before he knew it, he was laughing as well. He didn't know why, only that he couldn't help it. Maybe they'd both lost their mind. Still, between each breathless gasp, he managed to whisper, "You are more than welcome... Dad..."


Willow again looked to the ceiling and this time thanked God for the laughter she was hearing. She knew there would be times when the tears would return, but hearing the laughter now, she knew, without a doubt, that the healing had started...

End of the Sixth Part of the "Vampire Child Series..."




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