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summer_of_giles2010-06-14 05:31 pm
il_mio_capitano) wrote in summer_of_giles2010-06-14 05:31 pm
FIC: Common Ground PG/FRT
As agreed by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katekat1010 here's my first ever submission to Summer of Giles!
Title: Common Ground
Author: il_mio_capitano
Characters: Giles & Angel – not remotely slash.
Rating: PG. Some quaint Anglo Saxon phrasing.
Disclaimer: Joss' sandbox. I'm just building pretty castles.
Words: about 1800 or so.
Summary: There's one thing Giles has to do…
Giles pulled up to the kerb slowly and shut off the engine. He could do this thing he told himself. He'd driven through early dawn to get there, seeing houses coming to life, other motorists on the freeway start to switch off their night lights and embrace the safety of the new day. Children had been dragged for their own good into cars and onto school buses. Signs of normal life on a normal spring day in California, all in all it should have been uplifting to the soul, but Giles was on a mission that morning and didn't want to think about schools and innocence.
He was finally grateful it was an automatic; not having to contribute had been a bonus. He got out of the car awkwardly, pulling the keys out of habit but leaving the top down. He just needed to stay focused. He'd done the hard part in getting here without running any lights or attracting any cops. Things were different here. He'd had a blowout in Sunnydale once and the cop that had stopped to help him hadn't so much as batted an eye at the trunk load of weapons. Maybe things were just different there.
He entered the Hyperion Hotel lobby and found it empty. Morning would have been its busiest time in the bygone era of its pomp. There would have been excited flurries of guests, high chatter and diamonds, bellhops jockeying for tips. There would have been the smell of coffee and expensive breakfasts from the dining room, limos pulling up outside to ferry the beautiful people on towards another beautiful destination. But that was all in the past and all living, beautiful things wither and chose to die. All that remained was a vast emptiness, some faded décor and the unearthly silence of a building occupied by a brooding vampire. Guests can be a bit fickle about that sort of thing.
The door to the main office opened unexpectedly. Giles had reasoned, if reason played any part in his actions, that the vampire would be asleep. He had not prepared to meet his quarry so soon and really hadn't formulated much of a plan. He slipped his right hand into his coat pocket to stop it from shaking. His fingers closed around a wooden stake for comfort.
"Giles?" Angel was surprised to see Buffy's Watcher in LA. Usually he just phoned Wes or Cordelia if he needed something. He never came in person, "Is everything OK?"
He got no immediate answer and the stillness of the man bothered him. He wasn't wearing his glasses and there was a steel in his eyes that was triggering Angel's warning systems, "Giles?"
"She’s dead." The watcher's voice was barely a hiss. Angel's heart hadn't beat in two hundred years but he felt as if it had stopped for the first time.
"How?"
Giles slowly and deliberately withdrew the stake from his pocket. His right hand was still shaking so he gripped it a little harder in defiance of splinters.
"Does it matter?" he spoke with almost casual flippancy, "A God. A battle. She gave her life to save the world."
Angel shook his head in disbelief, "No. She can't be."
"Well yes actually, she can. You may be immortal," he scoffed, "but Slayers die." There was a cold hard edge on the last word. He tilted his head, "Are you immortal Angel? Because I'd really like to know."
Angel felt the conflicting sides of his personality lurch. The demon was telling him this man was a threat and he should not back down. But his soul was still aching for news of Buffy and trying to make sense of her watcher's behaviour.
"Is that why you're here Giles?" Angel opted to move warily out of the man's reach, "Because Buffy wouldn't want this."
"I don't really give a fuck what Buffy would have wanted," said Giles with an icy anger, "she's not here to tell me what I can and can't do. She no longer has a vote on what lives I take today."
"Was it a vampire? Are you blaming me because it was a vampire?" Giles didn't say anything but Angel was just stalling, he already had his answer. He just needed to reason with him, distract him maybe, "You said there was a battle, was that what happened?" Maybe if he could stall until the others came back from patrol, Wesley could prevent this madness.
"There was battle but it was not a vampire. She took her own life. She chose Death. Apparently it's a gift. So now, I think it's my turn." Giles took a couple of steps cautiously towards the vampire. Angel had no choice but to back away.
"She wouldn't do that … where was this?" Giles wasn't interested in answering that one. He took another step. Angel tried again, "And where were you when she died? Couldn't you have helped?" he asked.
At that one Giles pulled up thoughtfully and smiled, "Ah. We'd had a little spat before she died, so I rather left her to it."
"You left her to die?" Angel was horrified. He trusted Giles more than anyone to keep Buffy alive.
"Oh no. I got to watch her die," he replied with an odd, inappropriate sort of pride, "I stood there and watched her jump from the tower and smash her brains out on the ground below." It was Angel's turn to become very still at this. His anger started to bubble and he no longer cared about Giles' motives for being there. For his part the watcher was on a roll and feeling light-headed, "I should have made some notes for the Council really."
"You did nothing?" Angel asked quietly, the ice all now on his side. Giles smiled back with provocative arrogance. "You let her die? She's dead and you're here with not a mark on you? What kind of monster are you? Do you think you're immortal Giles? Cos I really doubt it."
"Graceful. Good technique on takeoff I thought… but very messy for the finish…"
"Shut your mouth."
"Poor execution at the death; I wouldn't score it more than a 4.8 in total."
"I said shut your mouth!" Angel lunged swiftly to cover the distance between them. Giles may have been armed but the vampire was too quick; he hauled off into the watcher and continued their trajectory to the far wall. The stake clattered harmlessly to the floor.
"Fuck you vampire."
"Don't push me boy. I can make your time with Angelus seem like a walk in the park." Giles responded by kicking him in the balls.
"She was my slayer. You used her," Giles shouted, "You never loved her."
The demon in Angel roared to life, he lifted Giles off his feet by the throat and smashed him back into the wall again, "You sent her to die," he spat, "You watched. I wasn't the one who used her. You and the twisted tweed brigade did that."
"Angel? For god’s sake…" Cordeilia's voice screamed from the stairs.
"Rupert here needs a lesson in manners," He pushed Giles higher up the wall. The bloodlust was in his nostrils and his mind. The man had stopped resisting, all bravado gone. Only blood and fear and death remained. Blood. Fear. That was when Angel noticed it. He'd smelt Giles' fear and blood before. He'd tasted it and he'd revelled in it. His grief and his anger had deafened him to what his senses where shrieking. To be this close again was overwhelming. The demon was hungry and nostalgic for Crawford Street. But the soul was trying to deploy reason. Giles had been using his right hand all the time. The other hadn't left his side.
Cordelia pulled her robe a little tighter and sprinted down to the lobby to interpose herself between Angel and his apparent prey.
"What the hell? Giles?" she punched Angel's arm, "he’s one of the good guys."
"Buffy’s dead," snarled the vampire loosening his grip only slightly.
"Oh god," she said quietly, and studied Giles intently, "oh god oh god oh god," she tugged at Angel's arm again, "put him down."
"He came to kill me."
"No he didn't. Put him down. Can't you smell it?"
Angel let go and watched Giles crumple to the floor, all passion spent. Cordeila dived down and tugged at the watcher's jacket. When she pulled back the left side they both saw what Angel's senses had been shouting at him all along: there was an awful lot of blood. It was mostly fresh but enough of it was older to tell a story. Some serious hospital stitches had given way; the kind they don't let normal people get out of bed with. The left arm had been trying to hold back the flood and from the colour it was clear the hand had now lost all feeling. The watcher had been seriously injured, patched up but had gone back to the battle for Buffy. Angel felt some shame that he knew Giles had this tendency thanks to the Xander Harris book of hard looks and recriminations.
As Cordeila ran to the desk to phone 911, Angel knelt down cautiously to the man he thought he might kill thirty seconds ago.
"Why did you come here?"
"To tell you. Had…" Giles had started to turn slightly green. As a connoisseur, Angel recognised the signs. He tried to support the Watcher's weight as gently as he could. "Had to tell you…you're the only other person who cared about her." It was a statement. He swallowed hard, looked the vampire in the eye; his words barely a whisper, "You loved her too."
The blood was starting to make serious inroads into the carpet but Angel didn't care. With a grim nod he acknowledged their equality, lowered the watcher carefully to floor and then rose swiftly towards the basement and his sewer access.
"The paramedics are on their way," Cordelia put the phone down, "Angel wait. Where are you going?"
"Not now Cordy. Out. Away. Else." He couldn’t stay there now. He'd lost Buffy. It was real and he didn't want it to be.
"Great." Cordelia watched him go and crouched to her high school librarian who was rapidly turning their lobby into a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie. She smacked his face hard.
Giles groaned slightly and murmured "…tired…. sleep."
"Not today," She relented and stroked his hair kindly, "I'm really sorry Giles. Not today".
katekat1010 here's my first ever submission to Summer of Giles!Title: Common Ground
Author: il_mio_capitano
Characters: Giles & Angel – not remotely slash.
Rating: PG. Some quaint Anglo Saxon phrasing.
Disclaimer: Joss' sandbox. I'm just building pretty castles.
Words: about 1800 or so.
Summary: There's one thing Giles has to do…
Giles pulled up to the kerb slowly and shut off the engine. He could do this thing he told himself. He'd driven through early dawn to get there, seeing houses coming to life, other motorists on the freeway start to switch off their night lights and embrace the safety of the new day. Children had been dragged for their own good into cars and onto school buses. Signs of normal life on a normal spring day in California, all in all it should have been uplifting to the soul, but Giles was on a mission that morning and didn't want to think about schools and innocence.
He was finally grateful it was an automatic; not having to contribute had been a bonus. He got out of the car awkwardly, pulling the keys out of habit but leaving the top down. He just needed to stay focused. He'd done the hard part in getting here without running any lights or attracting any cops. Things were different here. He'd had a blowout in Sunnydale once and the cop that had stopped to help him hadn't so much as batted an eye at the trunk load of weapons. Maybe things were just different there.
He entered the Hyperion Hotel lobby and found it empty. Morning would have been its busiest time in the bygone era of its pomp. There would have been excited flurries of guests, high chatter and diamonds, bellhops jockeying for tips. There would have been the smell of coffee and expensive breakfasts from the dining room, limos pulling up outside to ferry the beautiful people on towards another beautiful destination. But that was all in the past and all living, beautiful things wither and chose to die. All that remained was a vast emptiness, some faded décor and the unearthly silence of a building occupied by a brooding vampire. Guests can be a bit fickle about that sort of thing.
The door to the main office opened unexpectedly. Giles had reasoned, if reason played any part in his actions, that the vampire would be asleep. He had not prepared to meet his quarry so soon and really hadn't formulated much of a plan. He slipped his right hand into his coat pocket to stop it from shaking. His fingers closed around a wooden stake for comfort.
"Giles?" Angel was surprised to see Buffy's Watcher in LA. Usually he just phoned Wes or Cordelia if he needed something. He never came in person, "Is everything OK?"
He got no immediate answer and the stillness of the man bothered him. He wasn't wearing his glasses and there was a steel in his eyes that was triggering Angel's warning systems, "Giles?"
"She’s dead." The watcher's voice was barely a hiss. Angel's heart hadn't beat in two hundred years but he felt as if it had stopped for the first time.
"How?"
Giles slowly and deliberately withdrew the stake from his pocket. His right hand was still shaking so he gripped it a little harder in defiance of splinters.
"Does it matter?" he spoke with almost casual flippancy, "A God. A battle. She gave her life to save the world."
Angel shook his head in disbelief, "No. She can't be."
"Well yes actually, she can. You may be immortal," he scoffed, "but Slayers die." There was a cold hard edge on the last word. He tilted his head, "Are you immortal Angel? Because I'd really like to know."
Angel felt the conflicting sides of his personality lurch. The demon was telling him this man was a threat and he should not back down. But his soul was still aching for news of Buffy and trying to make sense of her watcher's behaviour.
"Is that why you're here Giles?" Angel opted to move warily out of the man's reach, "Because Buffy wouldn't want this."
"I don't really give a fuck what Buffy would have wanted," said Giles with an icy anger, "she's not here to tell me what I can and can't do. She no longer has a vote on what lives I take today."
"Was it a vampire? Are you blaming me because it was a vampire?" Giles didn't say anything but Angel was just stalling, he already had his answer. He just needed to reason with him, distract him maybe, "You said there was a battle, was that what happened?" Maybe if he could stall until the others came back from patrol, Wesley could prevent this madness.
"There was battle but it was not a vampire. She took her own life. She chose Death. Apparently it's a gift. So now, I think it's my turn." Giles took a couple of steps cautiously towards the vampire. Angel had no choice but to back away.
"She wouldn't do that … where was this?" Giles wasn't interested in answering that one. He took another step. Angel tried again, "And where were you when she died? Couldn't you have helped?" he asked.
At that one Giles pulled up thoughtfully and smiled, "Ah. We'd had a little spat before she died, so I rather left her to it."
"You left her to die?" Angel was horrified. He trusted Giles more than anyone to keep Buffy alive.
"Oh no. I got to watch her die," he replied with an odd, inappropriate sort of pride, "I stood there and watched her jump from the tower and smash her brains out on the ground below." It was Angel's turn to become very still at this. His anger started to bubble and he no longer cared about Giles' motives for being there. For his part the watcher was on a roll and feeling light-headed, "I should have made some notes for the Council really."
"You did nothing?" Angel asked quietly, the ice all now on his side. Giles smiled back with provocative arrogance. "You let her die? She's dead and you're here with not a mark on you? What kind of monster are you? Do you think you're immortal Giles? Cos I really doubt it."
"Graceful. Good technique on takeoff I thought… but very messy for the finish…"
"Shut your mouth."
"Poor execution at the death; I wouldn't score it more than a 4.8 in total."
"I said shut your mouth!" Angel lunged swiftly to cover the distance between them. Giles may have been armed but the vampire was too quick; he hauled off into the watcher and continued their trajectory to the far wall. The stake clattered harmlessly to the floor.
"Fuck you vampire."
"Don't push me boy. I can make your time with Angelus seem like a walk in the park." Giles responded by kicking him in the balls.
"She was my slayer. You used her," Giles shouted, "You never loved her."
The demon in Angel roared to life, he lifted Giles off his feet by the throat and smashed him back into the wall again, "You sent her to die," he spat, "You watched. I wasn't the one who used her. You and the twisted tweed brigade did that."
"Angel? For god’s sake…" Cordeilia's voice screamed from the stairs.
"Rupert here needs a lesson in manners," He pushed Giles higher up the wall. The bloodlust was in his nostrils and his mind. The man had stopped resisting, all bravado gone. Only blood and fear and death remained. Blood. Fear. That was when Angel noticed it. He'd smelt Giles' fear and blood before. He'd tasted it and he'd revelled in it. His grief and his anger had deafened him to what his senses where shrieking. To be this close again was overwhelming. The demon was hungry and nostalgic for Crawford Street. But the soul was trying to deploy reason. Giles had been using his right hand all the time. The other hadn't left his side.
Cordelia pulled her robe a little tighter and sprinted down to the lobby to interpose herself between Angel and his apparent prey.
"What the hell? Giles?" she punched Angel's arm, "he’s one of the good guys."
"Buffy’s dead," snarled the vampire loosening his grip only slightly.
"Oh god," she said quietly, and studied Giles intently, "oh god oh god oh god," she tugged at Angel's arm again, "put him down."
"He came to kill me."
"No he didn't. Put him down. Can't you smell it?"
Angel let go and watched Giles crumple to the floor, all passion spent. Cordeila dived down and tugged at the watcher's jacket. When she pulled back the left side they both saw what Angel's senses had been shouting at him all along: there was an awful lot of blood. It was mostly fresh but enough of it was older to tell a story. Some serious hospital stitches had given way; the kind they don't let normal people get out of bed with. The left arm had been trying to hold back the flood and from the colour it was clear the hand had now lost all feeling. The watcher had been seriously injured, patched up but had gone back to the battle for Buffy. Angel felt some shame that he knew Giles had this tendency thanks to the Xander Harris book of hard looks and recriminations.
As Cordeila ran to the desk to phone 911, Angel knelt down cautiously to the man he thought he might kill thirty seconds ago.
"Why did you come here?"
"To tell you. Had…" Giles had started to turn slightly green. As a connoisseur, Angel recognised the signs. He tried to support the Watcher's weight as gently as he could. "Had to tell you…you're the only other person who cared about her." It was a statement. He swallowed hard, looked the vampire in the eye; his words barely a whisper, "You loved her too."
The blood was starting to make serious inroads into the carpet but Angel didn't care. With a grim nod he acknowledged their equality, lowered the watcher carefully to floor and then rose swiftly towards the basement and his sewer access.
"The paramedics are on their way," Cordelia put the phone down, "Angel wait. Where are you going?"
"Not now Cordy. Out. Away. Else." He couldn’t stay there now. He'd lost Buffy. It was real and he didn't want it to be.
"Great." Cordelia watched him go and crouched to her high school librarian who was rapidly turning their lobby into a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie. She smacked his face hard.
Giles groaned slightly and murmured "…tired…. sleep."
"Not today," She relented and stroked his hair kindly, "I'm really sorry Giles. Not today".