Or, Perhaps,...
..With Friends Like These... 9

Giles stretched his long limbs in bed and sighed contentedly. The night had been a success, well, except for Spike not being able to stop those Vampires from getting at he and Oleecia. But then, he had to admit it, even that was soon forgotten.

Last night, Oleecia had brought delight into his heart with every squeal of happiness, with every laugh that had escaped her, but most of all, with her hug and kiss at the end of the night and her thanks to him. He knew if he were to ever doubt their friendship, he only had to think of this night that had just passed. No other night could have cemented their friendship more...

He looked to his clock with a smile on his face... 9-25am... 'Hmm, not bad...' he thought, then suddenly pinched the bridge of his nose... It had swollen overnight, making his eyes smart a little. 'Damn...' he thought, 'of all the places to be hit... Still,' he silently chuckled to himself, 'at least I managed to stay conscious this time...'

A light rapping sound at his bedroom door interrupted any further thoughts. He knew who was there, if only for the fact that no way on earth would Spike ever, *ever* *tap* at his bedroom door. "Come in, Oleecia..."

Oleecia immediately opened the door and ran and jumped onto Giles' bed. "Morning..." she announced with a grin, ignoring Giles' 'OOF!!' as he leapt a little into the air.

When Oleecia had stopped bouncing, Giles returned her grin with a smile of affection and gently murmured a 'morning' back to her.

"So, what are we gonna do tonight, Giles...?" she suddenly, and eagerly, asked.

"Hmmm..." he replied thoughtfully, "I'm not entirely sure..." He then looked her in the eyes, his own twinkling with mirth, and said, "I thought, perhaps, a bit of research and some patrolling... Well, you seemed very eager to do some yesterday night... Oh and maybe..."

"Gi-iles..." Oleecia whined her interruption, "but *that* was *before*..."

"Oh...? Umm, before what, exactly...?"

Oleecia started to giggle. "You're joshing me, aren't you...?"

"Joshing...?"

"Yeah..." she nodded, "joshing... And don't say you don' know what that means, cos Spike told me, 'n' he's British too..."

"Ah, good old Spike..." he chuckled. He then sobered a little and added, "Yes, Oleecia, I am indeed 'joshing' you..."

"So, so we're *not* going patrolling then...? 'N'-'n' researching...?" she asked.

"Well, perhaps a little..." At her pout, Giles gently admonished, "Now, just because we've discovered that we *can* have fun, doesn't mean that we can now ignore the *unpleasant* things in our lives..."

"I know, Giles..." Oleecia pouted, "but it doesn't meant that we *can't* have fun, as well..."

Giles smiled at her and as he gently fingered her hair away from her face, he said, "Of course not, only that fun sometimes has to take second place to the serious nature of survival..."

"So..." Oleecia began, "so, after the serious stuff is done with, *then* we can have fun...?"

Giles chuckled, "Yes..."

"Okay, I can live with that..."

"Well, I am so very, *very* happy about that..." No sooner had the words left Giles' mouth, when there was some more tapping going on, only this time it was from the front door, instead of his bedroom door. He turned to Oleecia, "Well, young lady, it appears that someone is demanding our attention, so, if you could be so kind, as to get off my bed, I shall see who it is..."

Oleecia giggled and obligingly stood, which allowed Giles to stand and leave the room. Oleecia then yawned widely, stretched her arms, then slowly crawled back onto Giles bed, turned over to her side and fell asleep.

Giles relieved his bladder with a sigh and returned to his bedroom, all the while the rapping on his front door accompanying his movements. He smiled to see Oleecia fast asleep on his bed, but then went to the cupboard, pulled out his dressing gown, and as he put it on, he quietly made his way to the front door.

He opened the door to find Xander standing there with his hand raised, ready to knock again. "Xander...?" he whispered, his voice cracking on the sleep that had still not left him.

"Hey, Big guy..." Xander whispered back

At that moment the phone started to ring. Giles invited Xander in; hurried to the phone and whilst he picked up the receiver, indicated for Xander to close the door. "Hello...?" he enquired to whomever was calling.

An anxious, quite panicked voice spluttered at him, "Please, sir, Mr Giles, you- you must come now... There is uproar, and... and I simply cannot contain it any longer, without a promise that you will come..." There was a pause then, before the quivering voice begged, "So, please sir, say that you will come..."

Giles sighed heavily, "Michael," he began, "the reason that I chose for you to be advisor to me was, not only because of your apparent loyalty towards Richard, but because you appeared far better adept at handling difficult and delicate situations... You have not let me down so far... Am I to be disappointed, now...?"

"I'm afraid that you are, sir... I'm sorry..."

Again Giles sighed, but he quickly added, "Michael, what *is* it that has you distressed so...? Did I not forewarn you that Richard's choice of who should succeed him would cause a few rumblings within house...? Did I not say to you that you would be the most qualified at smoothing over the ruffled edges...?"

"Yes, sir, you did..."

"Then," Giles again sighed, "why are you not smoothing things over...?"

"I have sir," Michael instantly protested at him, "I mean, I have *tried* sir, for the last two and a half weeks, but no-one is listening to me... They simply do not feel that it is justified for me to assume the role of advisor to the Chairman when there doesn't appear to *be* a Chairman..."

"You know how preposterous that sounds, Michael, don't you...?"

"Yes, sir, I do and I believe by *your* response, that you can guess what mine had been, but still, they argue that they wish to air their misgivings to the proper man, rather than to his... his lacky... sir..."

"You are more to me than a mere 'lacky', Michael. You do understand that, do you not...?"

"Yes, sir, I do and... and thank you sir..."

Giles shook his head at that point. 'God give me strength...' he thought, but aloud he said, "Alright, Michael, tell them that their beloved leader..." He ignored the laughter behind him "...shall visit soon..."

Michael whispered his gratefulness, "Thank you sir, thank you..." But then added, "Ummm, and when would that be, sir...?"

Giles would liked to have growled his irritation at the young man, not because he had not asked the right questions, but just because Giles was now having to do something that he did not, and had not, particularly wanted to do in the first place. However, instead he blew out a breath of frustration and then said, "This very evening... Would seven, suffice...?"

"Indeed, sir, it would..."

"Good, good..." Giles muttered, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Oh and Michael...?" he added in the same tone.

"Yes, sir...?"

"I shall need to be escorted, considering that I have, as yet, to experience the extreme pleasure that comes from having to visit the Watcher's Headquarters..."

Oblivious to his sarcasm, Michael eagerly replied with, "Oh, yes sir, of course. I shall meet you at the door promptly..."

Giles sighed, "Of course..." then without waiting for an answer, he put his receiver down and turned to face the one that had snickered during his conversation.

At that point, Xander burst out laughing at Giles' look of utter distaste and also, and mostly, at the way Giles had inched his bottom lip out in a sulk. "Aww, Diddums..." he laughed, "poor Giles has now got to go and actually see his fellow men, that do battle against the evils..." His laughter died in that moment. It was too close to home for it to really be funny. He sheepishly looked up at Giles, noticing the brief wince, and whispered, "Sorry..."

Giles shrugged half-heartedly at him and said, "It's alright, Xander, not all are..." His voice petered out... He was about to say that not all were like Richard... And though that statement held some truth for Giles, saying it, in the context he was about to use, then it was simply untrue... Richard had been blind, that was all, but he'd seen at the end and had done something about it... Giles just wished that it hadn't cost him his life...

Xander, oblivious to his thoughts, nodded, and said, "Yeah, we know, big guy... We do..."

Giles chuckled with warmth at the young man in front of him. A breath of fresh air amidst a time, soon, that was going to be the most frustrating of times. He stepped away from the phone and started to make his way to the kitchen... His 'Safe Haven'... "Would you like a soda, Xander...?" he asked along the way.

"Yeah, that'd be good..."

Giles stopped at the refrigerator, pulled out a can of soda, then, briefly glancing at the young man and away again, he smiled and tossed it to Xander. "Be careful not to spill any..." he warned.

"Hey," Xander protested, "How many times have I opened one of these things, ay...? Oh great and mighty Bookguy...?"

But what Xander did not realise was that Giles had quickly shaken the can before tossing it to him, so that when he opened it, he was going to be sprayed with its entire contents.

Giles let rip with a laugh that shook his entire body. He laughed at the way the bubbles dripped from Xander's hair, chin and nose, but he mostly laughed at the way Xander was glaring at him, because the twinkle of amusement contradicted the glare and it made him laugh even harder. He started to rub at his sides when he couldn't stop himself from laughing, "Dear God, Xander," he gasped, "do you... do you have any idea... just how long I... I have waited to do something like that...?"

"Ha... Ha... Big guy..." Xander replied without expression, then added, "Did *you* know that regression is just a fancy name for senility...?"

"It is *not*..." Giles instantly denied, but still laughed.

Xander started to chuckle then, when he added, "It is when someone reaches *your* age..." He was then hopping over the chairs and the back of the sofa, trying to get away from Giles. He was about to leap over another, one that was the closest to his only escape; the front door; when he felt a yank on his shirt and then he was sprawled on his back, on the floor. He looked up and saw Giles standing over him, slowly shaking another can of soda in his hand. "Hey, c- c'mon, Big Guy..." he stuttered, "it... it was only said in... in fun..."

Giles shrugged and nodded at that, still shaking the can. Then he said, "As will the soaking of you with another can of soda, be..."

"Aww, c'mon, Giles," Xander whined, "I'm soaked through already... Where'd the fun be in just getting me wetter...?"

"You know, Xander, I really have no idea..." He then lifted the ring-pull a little and added, "So, why don't we just *see* where the fun would be...? Hmm...?" He started to laugh again at Xander's face. The poor boy was blinking so hard, that if it were Oleecia, he knew she would be whimpering. He then let the ring-pull down again, shrugged his shoulders and said, "But then, why waste such a nutritious drink as soda, upon a poor, helpless, young man such as you... Wouldn't you say...?"

Xander at first, not having a clue what Giles had said to him, frowned with puzzlement, but, then, it really looked like the big guy was about to let him off the hook, so he nodded vigorously and said... "Yeah... Yeah, I would...Or..." he added, when Giles still had the can and looked like he wasn't about to let go of it, "Or wouldn't...?"

Chuckling with mirth, Giles then leant forward, held out a hand and pulled Xander to his feet. He unconsciously handed the soda to him and then started to walk away. "I'll get you a towel..."

Wide-eyed, Xander looked down at the can in his hands and then grinned. "Er, yeah, sure big guy..." he muttered. Then his eyes, if it were possible, grew even wider. His brain was working overtime with an idea on how to repay Giles for the soaking, but nothing was coming to him. Thinking that the moment was going to be gone, he suddenly whispered, through, he hoped, clenched teeth of supposed pain, "Dad...?"

Giles immediately turned with look of concern on his brow... and promptly received a face full of frothing soda. Some got in his mouth, but most dribbled down the open-neck of his dressing gown onto his chest, his face and neck. He blinked at Xander, to find him hunched over in fits of laughter. Then he was watching the young man running to his door.

"You're right, Giles..." Xander called over his shoulder, "It *was* fun trying to see just where the fun was..." He then opened the apartment door and was off like a speeding bullet, running up the stairs that led down to Giles' front door.

Giles yelled at Xander's retreating back, "I'll have you know, Xander, that there *is* such a thing as "Calling Wolf", you know..." Then, seeing that the young man was too far away to hear, Giles turned back into his apartment and mumbled, "Though I'd probably have to explain that one to you as well..."

He then started to chuckle affectionately. After promising to visit the Watcher's Council, Giles had almost allowed himself to slip into a dark mood of depression, but his antics with Xander had made him laugh and had lightened his mood in an instant. He shook his head with that amusement and made his way to his bathroom... where he was sure there was a lovely, refreshing shower awaiting him.


Xander giggled all the way home. 'So that's what a Dad's all about...' he thought with as smile, 'I think I can get used to that...' He then put the key into his own, and Willow's, front door lock, turned it and opened the door. He almost jumped out of his skin when he saw Willow standing not a foot away with her hand up to open the door for him.

She giggled...

"Sheesh, Will, scare me much..."

Willow giggled a little harder, but then she noticed his hair, stuck together in clumps, and his shirt, a large patch of wetness across his chest, and stopped. She frowned at him with puzzlement, then said, "Xander, you're all wet..."

Xander chuckled at that as he said, "Courtesy of Giles..."

"No..." Willow gasped in surprise, "Giles did that to you...?"

"Uh-huh... But I guess I asked for it..." He then grinned slyly at her and added, "But the big guy's gotta know that you can't keep Xand-the-man down for long..."

Willow gasped again, "You didn't...?"

"Did..." Xander announced with pride and a grin.

She shook her head then, but could not help the smile. It was so good to see Xander laughing and smiling, especially after visiting Giles. She had been concerned for Giles. Since his friend had died, he'd sort of hibernated for a while, locked himself away from those that cared for him. Oh, he'd been there for patrol and he'd been there whenever someone had visited... in body, but not in spirit. She knew he'd internalised; she'd seen Xander do the same so many times before, that it was not difficult to see.

So this was why she'd asked Xander to go and see Giles on his own. They'd bonded the night of Giles' friend's death... She'd seen it the moment they both had returned downstairs. There was a difference about them both. She would never be able to put into words just what those differences were, there were no words... But she'd noticed the hand upon Xander's shoulder as they'd walked down the stairs and the twinkle in Xander's eyes each time they'd inadvertently looked to each other during the hilarity that was the post-slayage party.

And it had been so good to see...

She smiled then at Xander, in front of her, and then giggled again, "Giles did this to you...?"

Xander grinned from ear to ear and took a step towards her, with his arms open wide, "Uh-huh," he nodded. Then added, taking another step towards Willow, "He did... But right now, I don't wanna talk about Giles..."

"Oh really...?" she laughed, "And just what would you like to talk about, Xand...?"

He took another step forward and whined, though still grinned, "Come on Wills, give the man you love a hug..." He laughed at that point and then lunged at her.

She squealed and back-pedalled away, as quickly as she could. "Xander..." she warned, "don't you dare..."

Xander's grin widened, "What...?" he smirked, "I just wanna give the woman I love a hug 'n' a kiss..." He playfully pouted then. "What's the matter Wills, don't you love me anymore...?"

She was around the other side of the couch, holding a hand out to ward him off, but giggled at him, "You know I do, it's just... just..."

"Just what, Will...?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows at her. Then, as she collapsed in a fit of laughter, he was around the couch and hugging her for all his worth. Tightening his hold when she let out a squeal and squirmed beneath his hands. "Oooh, you wanna play, Wills...?" he muttered, moving his hand to her rump and thrusting his hips into her. "Wanna play, Wills...?" he whispered.

She shook her head, trying not to moan at the contact, trying her best not to let him see just how much she wanted to play; how much she wanted him. But they had many other times to finish this... What she needed right at this moment in time was to know whether Giles had agreed to come out with the gang tonight...

With a lot of pushing and pulling and squirming, Willow finally managed to get herself free of Xander.

"Aww, c'mon, Wills, *you* said never ever in bed..."

Willow laughed again. "I knew it," she exclaimed, "you really *don't* think of anything else..."

Xander shrugged with a grin and said, "Not if I can help it..."

Willow shook her head at him and giggled. Then she said, "So, Xand, after all this fun that you had with Giles, did you actually get around to asking him if he was coming out with the gang tonight...?"

Xander stopped dead in his tracks and gulped. "Erm," he began with a wince, "sorry, Wills, went clean outta my mind..."

"Xander..." Willow whined, "you promised. Giles has been so good to us... To us all... I just thought that we could do something for him to say that we love him and care for him 'n'-'n' all the other stuff..." She then pouted, "But *you* forgot..."

"I know, Wills..." Xander whispered, "and I'm sorry... Okay...?"

Willow looked to her hands in her lap and nodded. Then she stood and started for the phone...

"Er, Wills...? Who're you calling...?"

"Giles..."

"Huh...?"

Willow shook her head, but started to giggle, "To finish the job that *you* forgot..."

"Oh, right..." But as she lifted the receiver Xander suddenly remembered the call that Giles had, had before the fun had started. He went to Willow and put the phone down. At her frown, he said, "He's not going to be able to make it..."

"Huh...?"

"The Council called when I was there... He's going to have to visit... tonight..."

"Well," Willow sighed, "that was going to have to happen sooner or later..."

Xander nodded...

"Still, I'm glad that it happened now and not... not straight away..."

Again Xander nodded and then placed an arm about her shoulders. "Maybe," he whispered, "maybe he just might be able to handle it better now..."

Willow nodded and then turned into his arm, ignoring the sticky soda stain, and hugged him. "I hope so, Xander...I really, really hope so..."




Site Disclaimer: Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. own the Buffy characters. All products, movies, books, songs, etc. are owned by their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended. All plots and original characters are owned by the authors.