Fic: Defining Normal (Giles/Xander, Rated PG-13)
Title: Defining Normal (tentative title)
Author: Moosesal
Rating: PG-13 (may get to R for language)
Written for: antennapedia for the Giles/Xander No One Knows ficathon. The request was for an important revelation about Giles; Buffy being helpful; and competent!Xander.
Note: I struggled with this, so I'm only posting part one tonight. The rest should be up in the next day or two.
"Giles?" Buffy asked. "As in Rupert Giles? The same Rupert Giles who was my Watcher? The same Rupert Giles who's like a father to me and even more so to Dawn? That Rupert Giles?"
Xander sighed into the phone. "Yes, Buffy. That Rupert Giles."
"Huh."
Huh? That was all she could come up with after questioning him like he'd lost his mind? Huh?
"I don't know what to say, Xander. I always thought you'd go for Spike if you ever turned gay."
Xander dropped the phone.
"--der?" he heard as he picked it up and brought it back to his ear.
"Sorry, Buff. Dropped the phone in my panic attack over the very idea of me and Spike."
"Yeah. It's kinda hot to think about, hunh?"
"Please tell me you've been possessed or something." He wasn't even going to touch the whole 'if you ever turned gay' comment from her. Some topics were best left untouched.
Buffy just laughed. They talked a little more about his "crush" on Giles then he hung up and turned back to the Watcher reports on his desk. The next one he turned to was from Spike, of course. Xander groaned at the reminder of Buffy's thoughts about the two of them. She had clearly lost her mind. Spike? Sure, he was attractive, but having only one eye himself, Xander found that looks weren't that important to him anymore. Although Giles wasn't exactly hard to look at it.
Not that Xander was looking.
Of course, Xander wasn't looking because he was in Cleveland and Giles was in London and until now the new Council hadn't had the funds for video conferencing. Willow was slowly setting them up with web cams and actually teaching everyone -- even the old guys like Giles -- how to use them. Xander's camera was due any day.
Video aside, however, Xander and Giles spoke on the phone every Tuesday and Friday morning (Cleveland time) and sometimes at random on days in between. And even though the reason was business, there was a warmth to Giles' voice when he greeted Xander and asked how he was doing.
Upon returning from his thirty-seventh trip to Africa in search of potentials-turned-slayers, Xander had been "rewarded" (the term being used very loosely) with a house full of girls in Washington, D.C. When he managed to manage them so well that three left for college on academic scholarships and the other two moved up to combined Watcher-Slayer positions with girls of their own to look after, he was once again rewarded. This time with the directorate of U.S. operations, based on the new Hellmouth in Cleveland. Two and a half years later, he was still at it and except for the occasional bout of loneliness, he was actually pretty happy.
He would've been happier if he could see the man he'd slowly been falling for over the last year or so. When his webcam arrived in the mail -- along with remarkably easy-to-follow instructions from Willow -- he got butterflies in his stomach. Giles was already set up for this and they had a call scheduled the following morning. Of course, now that it was possible Xander wasn't sure if he was ready to see Giles. Or more accurately, he wasn't sure if he was ready to have Giles see him.
When he booted up his computer the next morning and connected his first video conference, he got a surprise. "Andrew?"
"Xan Man! How's the Hellmouth?" Andrew was bouncing behind Giles's desk and Xander had to remind himself he was on camera before his expression gave away his disappointment.
"It's still the Hellmouth. Where's Giles?"
"Giles?" Andrew looked confused, which wasn't anything new for him, but made no sense under the circumstances. "Giles who?"
"Giles who?" Xander laughed. "Come on, Andrew. Put Giles on."
"I'm sorry, Xander, but I don't know anyone named Giles." He was serious and looking a little concerned about Xander's mental health and Xander had the sinking feeling that Andrew was serious.
"Umm ... okay." Years of dealing with magic and deamons had taught Xander that sometimes it was best to just go with it. See what info you could get by playing along. "Uh, so how are you?"
"Pretty good. Running the Council is exhausting, but it's such fulfilling work. I'm so glad I took the job after Quentin retired."
Huh? "Yeah, I can imagine," he said, doing his best to school his features and not give away his serious confusion. . "It's hard enough just handling the U.S. side of things, I can't imagine overseeing everything."
"Well, it's all about having a great staff. That includes you, of course."
"Of course."
"So did you see Spike's latest report?"
It was weird. Not the question about Spike's report -- Giles would have asked the same thing -- but Andrew asking. Andrew having access to the report. Andrew sitting at Giles's desk and being in charge of the Council. It just wasn't right.
"Yeah, I've got it right here," he replied, still going with the flow and seeing what he could find out.
"He thinks we've got a vampire earning frequent flyer miles." Andrew laughed like he didn't believe it, but Xander actually agreed with Spike. They'd been finding corpses in Heathrow and JFK airports, on the gangplanks between the planes and the terminal gates. Xander had even gone to New York to check out the bodies on their end and had been discussing the case with Giles for the last few weeks.
"Maybe we've got a vamp pilot." Xander paused and thought about light coming through the cockpit windows. "Wait. It's a flight attendant."
Andrew stared at him, an incredulous look on his face. "Really, Xander. Don't you think that's a bit ... impossible."
"No. Think about it. The victims are always coming off overnight flights. They're all British Airways flights, right? So we've got a flight attendant who's getting a little peckish, snacking on a customer and dumping the body on the gangplank on her way off the plane."
"Somebody would have noticed, Xander." Andrew's sudden resemblance to Quentin Travers was a little creepy.
"Somebody did." At Andrew's cagey look, he continued. "The third London victim was a pilot, not a passenger."
"How did --" but Xander cut him off before he could ask how he knew those details. Giles had told him, had kept nothing back.
"Don't we have a Slayer that works for British Airways?" Xander asked. "Someone should talk to her."
Andrew looked at something off camera and then hurriedly said, "I've got to go, Xander. We'll talk again on Tuesday." And then the screen was blank.
"What the fuck is going on?" Xander muttered to himself. He'd just talked to Buffy the day before and she had been perfectly normal. Well, normal for Buffy anyway.
One day earlier
"We've got a problem, sir."
Giles looked up from his desk to see Percy, one of the newer Watchers, standing in his doorway. "Yes?" he asked.
"It's Rebecca Jones, sir."
"Rebecca Jones? I'm sorry, but you'll have to be more specific."
"Ah, yes. A Slayer, sir. She's one of the older girls? Was 23 when Ms. Rosenberg's spell awakened all of them."
Giles was thinking, but still couldn't place her. He shook his head.
"Born and raised here in London, sir. Blonde, great legs. She's a flight attendant for British Airways."
"Ah, yes, of course. Ms. Jones, the flight attendant.
Percy looked at him like he was nuts for remembering her by her job and not her legs. "Yes, sir."
Giles sighed and prompted him with a "What about her?"
"Oh, right. Sorry, sir. Ah ... we believe she's been vamped. I have the report right here." He dropped a disc on Giles' desk.
"Damn it." Giles picked up the disc then glanced up, eyebrows raised in question. "Anything else?"
"No, sir."
"Thank you." When Percy didn't move, Giles dismissed him with a wave of his hand and said, "You may go."
He put the disc in his computer and began reading the files. It wasn't good but at least it explained why bodies had been turning up in Heathrow and JFK airports.
"Some days this job sucks." He shook his head at his language. Before spending so much time with Buffy and Xander he never would have used the word "sucks" in such a manner. "I wish I could have just one day as a normal human being. No Council, no Slayers, no vampires." He sighed and popped the disc out of the drive. "No Slayer vampires either. It'd be lovely to just be a boring librarian for a few days."
He didn't hear the whispered "Done" behind him.
TBC
Author: Moosesal
Rating: PG-13 (may get to R for language)
Written for: antennapedia for the Giles/Xander No One Knows ficathon. The request was for an important revelation about Giles; Buffy being helpful; and competent!Xander.
Note: I struggled with this, so I'm only posting part one tonight. The rest should be up in the next day or two.
"Giles?" Buffy asked. "As in Rupert Giles? The same Rupert Giles who was my Watcher? The same Rupert Giles who's like a father to me and even more so to Dawn? That Rupert Giles?"
Xander sighed into the phone. "Yes, Buffy. That Rupert Giles."
"Huh."
Huh? That was all she could come up with after questioning him like he'd lost his mind? Huh?
"I don't know what to say, Xander. I always thought you'd go for Spike if you ever turned gay."
Xander dropped the phone.
"--der?" he heard as he picked it up and brought it back to his ear.
"Sorry, Buff. Dropped the phone in my panic attack over the very idea of me and Spike."
"Yeah. It's kinda hot to think about, hunh?"
"Please tell me you've been possessed or something." He wasn't even going to touch the whole 'if you ever turned gay' comment from her. Some topics were best left untouched.
Buffy just laughed. They talked a little more about his "crush" on Giles then he hung up and turned back to the Watcher reports on his desk. The next one he turned to was from Spike, of course. Xander groaned at the reminder of Buffy's thoughts about the two of them. She had clearly lost her mind. Spike? Sure, he was attractive, but having only one eye himself, Xander found that looks weren't that important to him anymore. Although Giles wasn't exactly hard to look at it.
Not that Xander was looking.
Of course, Xander wasn't looking because he was in Cleveland and Giles was in London and until now the new Council hadn't had the funds for video conferencing. Willow was slowly setting them up with web cams and actually teaching everyone -- even the old guys like Giles -- how to use them. Xander's camera was due any day.
Video aside, however, Xander and Giles spoke on the phone every Tuesday and Friday morning (Cleveland time) and sometimes at random on days in between. And even though the reason was business, there was a warmth to Giles' voice when he greeted Xander and asked how he was doing.
Upon returning from his thirty-seventh trip to Africa in search of potentials-turned-slayers, Xander had been "rewarded" (the term being used very loosely) with a house full of girls in Washington, D.C. When he managed to manage them so well that three left for college on academic scholarships and the other two moved up to combined Watcher-Slayer positions with girls of their own to look after, he was once again rewarded. This time with the directorate of U.S. operations, based on the new Hellmouth in Cleveland. Two and a half years later, he was still at it and except for the occasional bout of loneliness, he was actually pretty happy.
He would've been happier if he could see the man he'd slowly been falling for over the last year or so. When his webcam arrived in the mail -- along with remarkably easy-to-follow instructions from Willow -- he got butterflies in his stomach. Giles was already set up for this and they had a call scheduled the following morning. Of course, now that it was possible Xander wasn't sure if he was ready to see Giles. Or more accurately, he wasn't sure if he was ready to have Giles see him.
When he booted up his computer the next morning and connected his first video conference, he got a surprise. "Andrew?"
"Xan Man! How's the Hellmouth?" Andrew was bouncing behind Giles's desk and Xander had to remind himself he was on camera before his expression gave away his disappointment.
"It's still the Hellmouth. Where's Giles?"
"Giles?" Andrew looked confused, which wasn't anything new for him, but made no sense under the circumstances. "Giles who?"
"Giles who?" Xander laughed. "Come on, Andrew. Put Giles on."
"I'm sorry, Xander, but I don't know anyone named Giles." He was serious and looking a little concerned about Xander's mental health and Xander had the sinking feeling that Andrew was serious.
"Umm ... okay." Years of dealing with magic and deamons had taught Xander that sometimes it was best to just go with it. See what info you could get by playing along. "Uh, so how are you?"
"Pretty good. Running the Council is exhausting, but it's such fulfilling work. I'm so glad I took the job after Quentin retired."
Huh? "Yeah, I can imagine," he said, doing his best to school his features and not give away his serious confusion. . "It's hard enough just handling the U.S. side of things, I can't imagine overseeing everything."
"Well, it's all about having a great staff. That includes you, of course."
"Of course."
"So did you see Spike's latest report?"
It was weird. Not the question about Spike's report -- Giles would have asked the same thing -- but Andrew asking. Andrew having access to the report. Andrew sitting at Giles's desk and being in charge of the Council. It just wasn't right.
"Yeah, I've got it right here," he replied, still going with the flow and seeing what he could find out.
"He thinks we've got a vampire earning frequent flyer miles." Andrew laughed like he didn't believe it, but Xander actually agreed with Spike. They'd been finding corpses in Heathrow and JFK airports, on the gangplanks between the planes and the terminal gates. Xander had even gone to New York to check out the bodies on their end and had been discussing the case with Giles for the last few weeks.
"Maybe we've got a vamp pilot." Xander paused and thought about light coming through the cockpit windows. "Wait. It's a flight attendant."
Andrew stared at him, an incredulous look on his face. "Really, Xander. Don't you think that's a bit ... impossible."
"No. Think about it. The victims are always coming off overnight flights. They're all British Airways flights, right? So we've got a flight attendant who's getting a little peckish, snacking on a customer and dumping the body on the gangplank on her way off the plane."
"Somebody would have noticed, Xander." Andrew's sudden resemblance to Quentin Travers was a little creepy.
"Somebody did." At Andrew's cagey look, he continued. "The third London victim was a pilot, not a passenger."
"How did --" but Xander cut him off before he could ask how he knew those details. Giles had told him, had kept nothing back.
"Don't we have a Slayer that works for British Airways?" Xander asked. "Someone should talk to her."
Andrew looked at something off camera and then hurriedly said, "I've got to go, Xander. We'll talk again on Tuesday." And then the screen was blank.
"What the fuck is going on?" Xander muttered to himself. He'd just talked to Buffy the day before and she had been perfectly normal. Well, normal for Buffy anyway.
One day earlier
"We've got a problem, sir."
Giles looked up from his desk to see Percy, one of the newer Watchers, standing in his doorway. "Yes?" he asked.
"It's Rebecca Jones, sir."
"Rebecca Jones? I'm sorry, but you'll have to be more specific."
"Ah, yes. A Slayer, sir. She's one of the older girls? Was 23 when Ms. Rosenberg's spell awakened all of them."
Giles was thinking, but still couldn't place her. He shook his head.
"Born and raised here in London, sir. Blonde, great legs. She's a flight attendant for British Airways."
"Ah, yes, of course. Ms. Jones, the flight attendant.
Percy looked at him like he was nuts for remembering her by her job and not her legs. "Yes, sir."
Giles sighed and prompted him with a "What about her?"
"Oh, right. Sorry, sir. Ah ... we believe she's been vamped. I have the report right here." He dropped a disc on Giles' desk.
"Damn it." Giles picked up the disc then glanced up, eyebrows raised in question. "Anything else?"
"No, sir."
"Thank you." When Percy didn't move, Giles dismissed him with a wave of his hand and said, "You may go."
He put the disc in his computer and began reading the files. It wasn't good but at least it explained why bodies had been turning up in Heathrow and JFK airports.
"Some days this job sucks." He shook his head at his language. Before spending so much time with Buffy and Xander he never would have used the word "sucks" in such a manner. "I wish I could have just one day as a normal human being. No Council, no Slayers, no vampires." He sighed and popped the disc out of the drive. "No Slayer vampires either. It'd be lovely to just be a boring librarian for a few days."
He didn't hear the whispered "Done" behind him.
TBC