HERE TO WATCH GIRLS, CHAPTER EIGHT: HARSH (8 OF 15?, TOTAL. POST 4 OF 5 FOR TODAY)

[protoneoromanic.livejournal.com]

Title: Here to Watch Girls
Author: ProtoNeoRomantic
Betas: Gilescandy & porkwithbones
Rating: NC-17 (work as a whole) Rated on the side of caution.
Paring: Giles/Willow, Giles/Buffy, Giles/Cordelia, Giles/other female characters
Word Count: 1413  (this chapter)

Chapter Eight: Harsh

“Damn!” Giles bleated in frustration as he ran to rescue the Watcher Diaries. By the time he had snatched the all-important box from the already smoke-filled library, tried to talk a fireman into letting him move his bookcases a bit further down the hallway, survived a dressing down by a Deputy Fire Marshall for violating evacuation procedures and interfering with Emergency Personnel, stashed said box in the trunk of his car, and made his way to Vice Principal Barton (all while successfully avoiding Principal Flutie) it was nearly 2:00. In half an hour, the student body would be scattered to the four winds.

Making sure to appear composed, casual yet purposeful, Giles approached Ms. Barton. She was inspecting a group of evacuees; checking off names in her roll book, making sure everyone was accounted for. “Rosenberg...” she began her reply to his inquiry, without looking up from her clipboard, then interrupted herself to continue her current headcount, “Blaizdale, Larry; yes, thank you Larry.... She'll be on Court 4-West.... Blake, Michelle; very good.... 10^th grade, N-S.... Buchenwald, Gerda? Yes, thank you.... That group's already been counted, so.... Charleston, Holly. Holly? Get those things out of your ears and listen up, dear!.... you'll need to run if you want to catch her. They'll be dismissing at ten after.”

Giles had already turned and was preparing to run in that direction when the thought of whom else '10^th grade, N-S' included struck him with full force. He hesitated, unsure how to proceed, and was therefore still present to hear the next name Ms. Barton called. “Chase, Cordelia?” He knew, even before he heard her uncertain should-I-be-worried-or-annoyed repetition. “Chase! Has anyone seen Cordelia Chase?” Cordelia wasn't there. Distracted though he was, he would have noticed her at once.

For someone in his position, Rupert Giles was not overly given to superstition, to seeing ominous portents in every coincidence or premonitions in all his doubts and fears. So when he had a feeling like the one he had at that moment (a gut understanding that something was very wrong based on reasons he didn't consciously understand but which were nonetheless real) he didn't waste time searching for confirmation or trying to talk himself out of it. He rushed back towards the building.

“You again?” the same Deputy Fire Marshall demanded when he caught Giles tugging at the yellow perimeter tape, clearly preparing to duck under. “Where do you think you're going?”

“There's a girl, a... a student!” he explained hurriedly, “She's... un-unaccounted for. Cordelia. Cordelia Chase. She—she may have gone to the, the library, or, or the computer lab, one floor up! Look, there's no time to explain. I just need—”

“You need to stand back,” the Fire Marshall ordered firmly, standing toe to toe with the Librarian, calm as fuck, arms crossed with the confidence of authority. “Nobody's going into that area, it's too hot. There's already been a small explosion and a partial collapse of the upper floor, and the sprinklers have stopped working. Right now we're just trying to contain. If the flames reach the science lab, the whole place could go up.”

“But Cordelia—!”

“—is either clear of that area or dead,” the Fire Marshall cut him off impatiently. Then he continued to stand eye to eye with Giles as he pulled his radio from his belt and informed the firemen inside the building to be on the lookout for a missing girl in the parts of the smoke-filled building they still were able to get to.

Giles took a couple of steps back but not much more, nerves taunt, heart in his throat. It's funny how it does that to you, once you've been joined with someone, no matter why or how. You get this sense of... special responsibility. Decent guys do anyhow. That's why I fall for you hero types every time. I like the romance. Romance? I *am* responsible, you berk! She's gone in there to torment Willow just to prove I can't do anything about it! Think about that sentence for a minute. Giles sighed, running a hand nervously through his hair. It was no good trying to explain normal human concern for a young person's life to a foul, cruel, lecherous demon. He waited.

Within three or four minutes a report was radioed back that two girls had been found unconscious from smoke inhalation in the girls' restroom across the hall from the computer lab. A further three minutes after that, as an ambulance pulled forward to receive the two unresponsive teens who were already being carried out, oxygen masks on their faces, Vice Principal Barton came running up with her list of unaccounted for students. The only names for which there was no alternative explanation, no reasonable suspicion at least as to their whereabouts, were Cordelia Chase and Harmony Kendall.

Giles watched as the two gurneys were wheeled down the steps to the ambulance. The girls' faces and bodies were covered. They were so completely surrounded with first responders that one of the two had no identifying characteristics exposed to view at all. From the other gurney, wisps of long blonde hair flew like pennant flags in the afternoon breeze, showing the colors of Harmony Kendall. It was circumstantial, but it left the identity of the other girl in very little doubt. Ms. Barton said as much.

The girls were hustled in and the ambulances pulled away before either faculty member got close enough to get a good look, though Ms. Barton was allowed to get a bit closer than Giles. At any rate, she saw enough to know that the other girl had shorter-but-not-short, dark brown hair. That was enough confirmation for her to call both girls' parents. As she pulled out her mobile phone and extended the antenna, Barton reminded Giles, “It's ten after. If you wanted to speak with Willow, now would be the time.”

But it was no good making his way to the tennis court. Even if Buffy didn't walk over and confront him, she would see them talking. And as badly as he felt about the course events had taken with Buffy, and the fire—about his role in driving her to it as well as his shock-induced hyper focus and stupidity, worrying about a lot of old books when he should have been sounding the alarm that much sooner—Giles was still determined to bring Buffy to task before it was too late to face the coming Hellmouth crisis. For that to happen at this point, he was going to have to ruthlessly (and successfully) manipulate not only Willow, but also Buffy. And it was a dead cert at this point that Buffy wasn't about to do anything she realized he was still trying to actively influencing her to do, not even if it meant saving the world.

As for Cordelia and Harmony, the best he could do was say a prayer for them. They were in the hands of God and the emergency medical staff at Sunnydale Memorial Hospital. Giles turned and started back towards the parking lot, towards his trusty old gray Citroen. That's another thing I love about you; you know when to cut your losses on the whole 'hero' thing. You can be pragmatic when you really need to. Like an 'egg sucking mammal' you mean? Yeah, exactly. The both-at-the-same-time thing, the way the parts of the whole personality rub against each other, the fit and the friction, like bodies locked in sex! I love humans, I really do. Well you have a damned funny way of showing it. Eh, it amused me anyway.

When Giles reached his car, he sat behind the wheel and waited. A couple of minutes passed. What are we waiting for? The demon finally asked. Not what, who. About that time, Giles got out and opened the passenger door for the young redhead who came running up, breathless and flushed with the combination of anxiety and excitement most people, especially young people, tended to feel when their relatively routine lives were interrupted by unexpectedly dramatic events.

How did you know? The demon demanded as Giles assured Willow that she was welcome to a ride and to pass the time with him until her parents were likely to come home for dinner. I didn't. But I knew it was a fair bet. Because, unlike you, I am mortal, was once young, and have more than once been in love.