summer_of_giles | Fic: Apart (Giles/Faith) PG (?)

Title: Apart
Author: LilRuca
Pairing: Giles/Faith
Rating: PG (?)
Word Count: 709
Notes: Companion to my previous post 'Together'. You don't need to read that one first. Hit me up on Discord if you want ( Quillsong#4045 )
Summary: Now, the worst days of Giles' life. Faith is dead.

It never occurred to Rupert Giles that his wife might die before him. Of course, she was a Slayer, but he was a Watcher, an active one at that, who fought at her side more often than not. He was not one for silly romantic notions most of the time, but he had never really thought about their demise. They both had wills drawn up, they had a burial plot side by side. Somehow, he had always thought that they would perish together. Neither one of them having to mourn the other.

It hadn't been a demon, a prophecy or some other usual monstrosity to take Faith Giles nee Lehane's life. The truth was, it had probably been her own stubborn determination, her own blindness to her limitations. They had been in Japan, checking in on the main Watcher's Institute for Slayer Education there. A horrific earthquake had struck. They had all worked to help find survivors in the rubble afterwards; to fortify the remaining buildings, to treat the wounded. No one knew exactly what had happened, but he could guess. Faith insisted that everyone else go back to the Institute, promising to rest on site. He managed to get her to come back with him a few times, but she barely slept, could hardly eat. He thought she felt strangely warm, but she brushed his concerns off, saying she was just agitated and he'd see she was fine when this was settled enough that they felt okay going home again.

One of the other rescuers on site had come to tell him personally. He said that Faith had been supporting a large steel beam, allowing a completely human crew safe exit from a building they had thought they might be able to repair. Just as they cleared the exit, where the beam was held by scaffolding, the building collapsed in on itself. Two others were killed in the wreckage, being too close to the building still.

Giles had stared at the other man, confused. “She's trapped in the rubble?” Before anything more could be said, he was rushing to get his jacket. He had to get to her.

“Oh...no...Mr. Giles, sir...They're...she...” The man stammered, tripping over his words. Finally, he grabbed Giles' arm, forcing him to stop. “Mr. Giles. Your wife is dead.”

Giles blinked and then it felt as though he was in a vacuum. All the air was pulled from his lungs and there was no more to breathe in. The world had fallen away from beneath him and there were no walls or furniture to steady himself. He was free-falling in some nightmare so terrible that his mind had never before dared to conjure it.

They managed to exhume her body from the wreckage within a few hours, but she was truly gone. Even seeing her, Giles didn't cry, feeling like he wasn't entirely there, that what was happening wasn't entirely real.

It wasn't until after her funeral – a somber but grand affair – attended by more people than Faith had likely ever imagined might miss her when she died. It wasn't until all the guests had gone and he and Buffy stood at the marble double headstone that it began to feel real. Then because he had been so busy with finishing up in Japan, with making arrangements with the non-stop messages of sympathy and condolences. Standing here now, it was silent. It reminded him very much of when he and Faith had stood at Buffy's grave. She had taken his hand, rested her head against his arm. Now, Buffy stood with her hand in his.

The marker looked strange and unfinished. Half filled in and half empty. It looked like he felt. His body began to shake and Buffy looked up at him, her eyes widening in concern. He turned to walk away because he couldn't look at the blurred words anymore. They were meaningless. Instead of walking, he fell, and as he hit the ground, the tears finally came. Slowly at first, then in waves of sobs that wracked his body. Buffy fell next to him, gathering him in her arms as though he were a child and she wept with him, wondering if he would ever be okay again.