still_grrr | Prompt: 033 - Sidekicks Free For All

Now we are back in my area! Hope you like it!

Title: In The Name of Family
Author: Laura Sichrovsky
Rating: PG or FRT
Word Count: 771
Prompt: 033 - Sidekicks Free For All
Characters: Giles and Willow

In The Name Of Family

The sun shone down soft and bright as Willow leaned back against a tree. The remains of a picnic lunch lay a few feet away and were now being packed up by Rupert Giles. He put the last container into the hamper and closed the lid, smiling up at Willow who looked for all the world to be sleeping; he knew better.

Giles stood and walked over to sit next to her under the tree. They sat in companionable silence for a while. Giles was relaxing, perhaps even starting to drift off when her voice broke into his thoughts.

“Why, Giles?”

He forced his eyes open to see her starting intently at him.

“Why what?”

“Why am I here? Why aren’t I dead?” Her voice was quiet, just above a whisper and laced heavily with guilt.

“Oh Willow, please don’t.” He gently took her hand. “What happened, was most definitely your fault, but you were broken hearted, mad with grief. I understand to a point. You lost the person that you loved. But you are here, you want to change. That’s a good thing.”

“Why did you go through so much for me? I tried to kill you.”

“Yes, but you didn’t.”

“And you’re still helping me. Why?”

Why? How could he ever put that into words?

From his first day at Sunnydale High School, he knew Willow was different. She was the only student in the school who used the library and that alone impressed him. He’d come to depend on her, even before Buffy had gotten there. She’d taken pity on him on the third day of school when she’d walked in to find him swearing at the computer. He’d been trying to figure out the card catalog and had ended up in attendance records. She’d smiled shyly and had offered to help. In the end, he’d turned over all things computer to her.

He had come to Sunnydale before his Slayer to get set up. By the time she arrived he was supposed to be an established member of the faculty. At least, that was the plan. In reality, no one had noticed him one way or the other. He felt like a piece of furniture most of the time. Only when teachers assigned a research paper did anyone, student or faculty, notice there was a library, let alone a librarian. But she was there, every day, helping him and talking to him, making herself his one tie to human contact.

Buffy’s appeal to be allowed into school had been put on hold while the school board reviewed her records from Hemery. Giles had taken it upon himself to patrol until she got there. He would go out at night with a crossbow and a crucifix. It led him to some interesting adventures and some unexplainable bruises. No one noticed though; no one but Willow. At first she commented. Then she worried. He could never dream of telling her the truth. He soothed her fears as best as he could.

She even noticed him as a person, at a time when he was beginning to doubt it himself. She talked with him as she opened webpages for him. No one else even knew he had an accent and she asked about his life in England. It was what he needed, when he needed it most.

And when Giles’s Slayer had finally arrived, Willow proved herself worth all of his unsaid praise. Throughout the years he’d watched her fight and grow. She was always there when he needed her.

In the end, when he’d faced off with her in the Magic Box, she’d still been his Willow, his child, the daughter he never had, yet would die to save. He fought her, put his life in jeopardy to save the world, but also to salvage her, body and battered soul. It had been hard. It had been terrible. It had been worth every bruise.

And now, here they were, just as in the beginning. The two of them, together, helping each other through it all. This time he was the one to assist her as she brought her magic under control. He looked up at her again, smiling.

“Why?” He asked. “Because you are my family.”

She looked at him for a minute as if she expected him to say more and then she smiled.

“And you’re mine. Thank you.”

She embraced him tightly, then leaned back against the tree. Giles took her hand again and squeezed it. Then he too leaned back and closed his eyes. It was a beautiful afternoon.

The End