FIC - Third Time's A Charm (Giles/Jenny) - PG-13

[deviantfantasy.livejournal.com]

I know it's a bit early in the day but since I won't be around much later, I decided to post now.

Title: Third Time's A Charm
Pairing: Giles/Jenny
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: Around 1990
Summary: Giles takes Jenny out on a date of his own.
AN: I really thought I'd be the first one to do Giles/Jenny but I was beaten to it. dawnie1970 beta'ed it. And thanks to xrosedreamsx for explaining the opera to me, even if I didn't use much of it in the story.



First there had been the football game. Sitting in the stands, trying hard to keep his mouth shut about the American game. He didn’t, however, succeed, and within moments he’d upset her by making fun of the game she loved. However, she repaid him by dragging him to see the monster truck rally.

It was then that Giles decided to take matters into his own hands. He wasn’t going to allow Jenny to plan another date. He was quite capable of planning one himself. After all, he was a Watcher and had been trained to plan… things. Many different things, except for dates.

Giles glanced down at the tickets in his hand and thickly swallowed. Jenny had seemed excited when he told her he wanted to take her to the opera, but what if she’d only been excited because she didn’t want to hurt his feelings? What if this was all a mistake? What if--

He jumped a little when there was a knock on his front door. Giles wasn’t expecting anyone, and told the children he wasn’t going to be available for the night. When he opened the door, he was greeted by Buffy, Willow, Xander and Cordelia.

“Erm,” he said, eyeing all of them. “Whatever the problem is, I can’t--”

“We know,” Buffy said, stepping around him and going inside of his flat. The rest of them followed her and Giles sighed before shutting the door. “We just wanted to make sure you were still going. It’s not good to stand a woman up.”

“Of course I’m still going!” Giles said, astonished. “What on Earth would make you think I wasn’t going?”

“You were looking all pale-y in the library today,” Willow said.

“Plus, you kept talking to yourself, which is never a good sign,” Cordelia added.

“I… I most certainly was not talking to myself,” Giles said. He quickly pulled his glasses off and began cleaning the lenses. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date to go on.”

“Before you go,” Xander started as he stepped forward with a small bouquet of flowers, “you should take these with you and give them to her. Chicks dig flowers. And I picked them out myself.”

Giles carefully took the flowers from Xander’s outreached hand and looked at them. “Thank you,” he finally said before turning to look at the rest of them. “I do believe you lot have other things to do.”

All of them, sans Buffy, went toward the door. The Slayer, however, stood where she was and looked Giles’ tuxedo over before reaching up to straighten his tie. “Be on time, give her the flowers, and everything should go okay,” she said, smiling up at her Watcher.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve been on a date, Buffy,” Giles pointed out with a small scowl on his face. “I think I can manage.”

“Considering the other two dates you’ve had with Ms. Calendar,” Buffy started to say but stopped when she saw the look of annoyance on Giles’ face. “Right. I guess we’re off to fight whatever big bad is lurking around the cemetery.”

“Thank you, Buffy,” Giles said as he ushered all of them out of his flat.

Once they were gone, he went to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He straightened his tie again and sighed. It would be a good time for a pep talk, like the ones he often gave Buffy and her friends, but Giles didn’t know if he’d listen to himself. He knew his relationship with Jenny could either thrive with tonight’s date or end. And that was a lot of pressure to be under, even for him.

“Bloody hell,” he silently cursed to himself. Rubbing a hand over his face, Giles took a deep breath. He looked out of the bathroom and at the clock in the kitchen. It was time for him to pick up Jenny, and as he went to the door, flowers in hand, he hoped he didn’t mess this up.

***

Her address was scribbled on a rather large piece of paper. When Jenny had given Giles the address to her apartment, she made sure to find the biggest piece of paper she could and wrote it in marker. Giles tried to take offense but she'd been right - he did have a habit of losing things if they weren't attached to a book.

After comparing the address of the building in front of him to the piece of paper, Giles got out of his vehicle and picked up the flowers Xander had given him to give to Jenny. With a deep breath, he walked into the small building and went to the door of Jenny’s apartment, and after knocking twice, she answered.

“Hey, Rupert,” Jenny said, grinning up at him.

Giles stared at her for a moment, taken aback at how beautiful she looked. Jenny always looked beautiful but the dress she was wearing - strapless, blue and made out of satin - made her look as if she had just stepped out of a fairytale. “You look beautiful,” he whispered in awe.

Jenny smiled and stepped to the side so Giles could enter her apartment. “Thank you, Rupert, and you look quite handsome yourself. If I would’ve known how good you looked away from a stack of old books, I would’ve suggested something formal myself,” she said with a small smirk.

“Erm, yes, I do suppose it’s a good thing I didn’t bring the books along,” he retorted. Giles then remembered the flowers he was holding. “These are for you.”

Jenny took the flowers from him and looked them over. “Oh, there’s a card.” She pulled the little white envelope out of the flowers and opened it. “Sorry your mother died…” She looked at him in confusion. “My mother died?”

Giles sighed and looked up at the ceiling. He was going to throttle Xander when he saw him again. “Xander brought them over for me and--”

“Say no more, but should I be worried where he got them?” Jenny asked as she placed them on her coffee table and eyed them.

“Perhaps you should,” Giles said before glancing down at his watch. “It’s getting a bit late.”

“I’m ready to go,” Jenny said. She picked up a small purse that perfectly matched her dress and took Giles’ arm. He led the two of them out of the apartment, out of the building, and to the sidewalk in front. “What are we seeing again?”

“Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel,” Giles answered as he opened the car door for her. Jenny slid in, and after making sure the bottom of her dress was safely inside of the car, Giles closed the door and jogged over to his side of the car.

“And what’s it about?” Jenny asked as she watched Giles get into the car and buckle his safety belt.

“It’s the story of a tormented woman by the name of Renata and her obsession and journey to find her mystical ‘Fiery Angel’,” Giles explained as he started the car. “I saw it years ago in London. I don’t know how good this performance will be but the one I saw was quite powerful.”

“As powerful as watching monster trucks crush cars?” Jenny asked, glancing over at him.

Giles felt a smile lift on his face. “Much better and the chances of us suffocating from truck fumes are quite slim,” he said as he pulled the car away from the curb.

***

“Wow,” Jenny barely whispered as Giles slowed the car, waiting for his turn to exit the parking ramp. “That was just amazing. I didn’t think I would like it but… wow.”

Giles chuckled as he inched the car forward. It was late and they still had the drive from Los Angeles to Sunnydale to make. He figured with the way traffic was, it’d be quite late when they arrived home. Reaching his hand over, he took her hand into his and smiled. “I’m glad you liked it, love,” he said.

Jenny smiled and looked out the window. There was still a long line to get out of the parking lot and it was getting late. “Maybe we should stay here tonight,” she suggested as she glanced over at him. “Not here in the parking lot but maybe a hotel? It’s going to take a while to get out of here and we’d still have to drive back to Sunnydale. Or I could drive back and give you a rest.”

“Erm, no,” Giles answered. “I’ve heard about your driving from Willow.”

“Rupert Giles! Are you making fun of my tainted driving record? I’ll have you know those two speeding tickets weren’t my fault! I’m hurt,” Jenny said, placing her hands over her heart. When Giles looked over at her, she smirked and dropped her hands into her lap. “Hotel then?”

Giles felt a knot in his stomach at the thought of spending the night with the woman beside him. He knew how he felt about her but was still a bit confused about her feelings toward him. However, if she was willing to spend the night with him then perhaps she had feelings for him too.

“Per-perhaps a hotel would be a good idea,” Giles said as he thickly swallowed.

“Good,” Jenny said, leaning over to kiss his cheek. “And none of this separate room and separate bed stuff.”

“Of… of course not,” Giles said as he gripped the steering wheel.

***

After what felt like an eternity, Giles was finally able to pull out of the parking lot and onto one of the city’s freeways. Jenny volunteered to keep an eye out for a hotel for them to stay in. When she finally found one, Giles pulled up to the front door. The hotel’s valet took the keys to his car and they walked into the front door.

Once Giles got a room for them, he took Jenny’s hand and led her to the hotel’s elevator. “This is really romantic, Rupert,” she said once they were inside. The doors slid closed and Jenny moved closer and placed a kiss on his lips. “I almost feel like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, except for the whole prostitute thing.”

Giles smiled and cupped her face. He deeply kissed her and when he pulled away, he gave her a soft smile. “I would pay any price for you,” he murmured.

She grinned just as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Jenny took Giles’ arm and he led her to their room. When he opened the door, both of them stood there for a moment, silently marveling over the size of it. Giles reached down, took Jenny’s hand, and pulled her into the room.

“Nice,” Jenny said as she walked around the room. “You have this date thing down pretty well, English.”

Giles smiled and tucked his hands inside of his trouser pockets. He finally had Jenny alone and he wondered if this was the time to tell her how he felt about her. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d made his feelings known to another person. “Jenny,” he started as he stepped over to her. “I-I’ve been thinking a lot about us and--”

“The really bad dates I’ve taken you on?” she asked with a small smile.

“Well, yes, but more,” he quietly said. Giles placed his hands on her slender hips and sighed, not knowing if he’d be able to get out what he wanted to say. “I, well, I--”

“I love you too, Rupert.”

Giles was taken aback but her words. His heart fluttered a little and he let out a sigh of relief. “How did--”

“I just did. Now, are we going to use that bed or not?” Jenny said with a mischievous grin.

Giles nodded and scooped her into his arms before taking her over to the bed, happy because the woman of his dreams loved him back.