Giles was a little disappointed that their evening was already coming to an end. Yet, he knew they would see each other in a few hours. “I had a wonderful evening, Fred,” he said before leaning forward and softly kissing her cheek. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
He went to the door, knowing if he stayed a moment longer he wouldn’t leave. Glancing at her one more time, Giles smiled and left the room. He went to the lift, the smile still on his face and hummed to himself as he rode it to the first floor. Things were finally looking up for him.
*****
When the morning came again, Giles woke up with sense of renewal. His first thoughts went to Fred and he pondered calling her. But he quickly decided against it, not wanting to push himself onto her. He wanted her to make the first move, if there was a move to be had. Instead of ringing her, Giles took a shower and then stood in front of his closet for ten minutes.
Picking out clothes shouldn’t be so hard but Giles didn’t want to seem too stuffy. He finally picked out pair of dark trousers, white shirt, red tie and a pair of red braces. Would she like the braces? Giles shrugged, not knowing the answer, but the braces went with the trousers and tie. If Fred gave him a horrified look, he’d just change out of them.
The drive to the Council only took him twenty minutes and when he got there, he told the front desk to send Fred to his office for her interview. He saw Willow along the way but didn’t hear a word she said. Giles was too worried about the mess on his desk. He certainly didn’t want Fred to think he was a slob.
He started to clear off his desk, hiding papers in his drawers, hoping he wouldn’t have to dig through them later to find something. The notes for the interview were sitting there and Giles didn’t see the use for them now. He kept them though so Fred would think he was actually interview. And once he was finished, he rang Andrew and told him to send Fred in when she came. Now all he had to do was wait.
Even though Fred tried to go to sleep not long after Giles left, she found herself lying in bed, running the evening over and over in her mind. Something in her life seemed to be going right for the first time in so long. She really liked Rupert, and she couldn't wait to see him the next day, even if they would have to be professional, at least during the interview.
Finally, she fell alseep, exhausted from the long trip. Morning came quickly, however, accompanied by the front desk calling to wake her up. After showering and drying her hair, she rooted through her suitcase, trying to decide what would be the best outfit for her interview, suddenly realizing that by bringing so much, she had made the decision that much harder. The cardigan, white blouse and navy blue skirt she had originally thought to wear seemed way too dowdy now.
In the end, she went with her maroon top and slightly flared black skirt. She clipped part of her hair up and then looked in the mirror, taking a deep breath. She knew she really shouldn't be nervous, but part of her was - mostly because she was going to be seeing Rupert again.
The phone rang again, informing her that a car had arrived for her, so she grabbed her jacket, her bag and the copy of the journal with her recently published Physics article and headed down the lobby, where she found the driver waiting. He smiled at her and escorted her out to the car.
The ride was thankfully fairly short, so Fred didn't have time to fidgit too much or worry about the outfit she had chosen. Stepping out of the car, Fred looked up at the building, a little surprised at the newness of it. With the work she did, she had found she had a vision of an almost gothic structure, but given what Rupert had told her about the bombing several months before, it made sense that they were in new facilities.
She had just walked up to the front desk and given the secretary her name when she heard a familiar voice.
"Fred!"
Looking over, she smiled at the person hurrying toward her. "Willow! Hi!" she greeted the red-head, giving her a hug. "How are you?"
"Good. I'm so glad you're here. I know you'd be perfect for the position. I'll take her to Giles' office," she told the secretary before steering Fred toward the stairs up to the next floor. "So, I know Giles picked you up from the airport last night. What do you think of him?"
"I like him. He's really intelligent and nice - we had a nice time talking." Fred prayed that her real feelings weren't spelled out on her face because she didn't want to have to deal with explaining things to Willow at the moment.
"You must've made an impression on him. He seemed pretty focused on the interview when he came in this morning - I don't think he ever heard a word I said. What did you talk about?"
Luckily, she was saved from answering by another voice calling to them as they walked down a hallway. "Willow! Is this Fred Burkle?" a young man with blond hair asked when he joined them.
"Yes. Fred, this Andrew Wells."
Fred shook hands with him. So this was the Andrew who had called Rupert last night to tell him that a problem had been dealt with. "Nice to meet you."
"You too. Mister Giles is waiting for you in his office - go on in." He pointed to the door a few feet away.
"Thanks." After straightening her skirt and top, she walked over to the door and knocked a couple of time before opening the door and entering the office. She smiled when she saw Rupert, looking quite handsome as he stood up to greet her. For a moment, she found herself fighting a insane need to run her hands up and down his suspenders but managed to keep her hands to herself. They needed to keep this professional - at least for the length of the interview. "Morning."
When Fred walked through his door, Giles felt his breath get caught in his chest. She was so beautiful. He stood from his desk and gave her a smile before stepping around it. "Morning," he said back, resisting the urge to reach out and kiss her. "You look lovely today."
Giles stepped away from her when the urge to touch her became too stronger. He didn't want to ruin this. Instead, he tugged at the front of his trousers, hoping his wants wasn't too noticeable. "I usually start the interview out with questions about the person's personal life," Giles explained, "but I already know the answers to the questions from speaking with you and Willow so I'll take you to the lab."
He walked over to the door and wondered if he was being too stuffy and professional. "I like your hair that way," he dumbly said before opening the door. Flirting was never his strong suit. When Fred stepped out into the hallway, he locked the door behind them and glanced over at Andrew.
"Hold your calls?" he asked, looking up at Giles.
"Yes. Ms. Burkle and I are going to the lab," Giles said before motioning for Fred to follow him. The lab wasn't too far from his office, something that frightened him considering they worked with explosive materials from time-to-time. But he would never say that to Fred.
When they arrived at the lab, Giles took a step forward and opened one of the glass doors. "And this is the lab," he announced, holding the door open and hoping she liked it enough to take the job.
Fred smiled and looked down at her outfit, very glad she had chosen it instead of the cardigan. "You look very nice too," she told him, a little disappointed when he moved away but knowing that if he didn't, they'd probably be there all day. "I really like your suspenders."
Most of the time when guys wore suspenders, they made her think of old bankers or something like that, but on Rupert, they looked wonderful. She imagined hooking her finger underneath one and pulling him to her for a kiss. Again, she had to quash the want to run her finger along them.
As they walked out to the hall, she touched her hand to her hair, glad that he liked it. She noticed Andrew watching them while they headed down toward the lab and gave him a smile. He flashed her a thumbs up before disappearing into the office across the hall.
The lab was enormous. At least enormous by the standards of it was much bigger than the lab she had worked in at UCLA. Her eyes opening wide, she walked inside, looking around at all the equipment. Reading about it on paper was one thing, but seeing it was something totally different.
"This is the kind of lab I dreamed of working in when I was at school," she whispered, walking over to one of the analyzers. She glanced at the setting and noticed that it was off, so she quickly changed it before she realized what she was doing. Biting her lip, she looked over at Giles and felt her cheeks turning red. "Umm...sorry, that was pretty presumptious of me - it's just I noticed that the setting was off. It should only be on that other setting if you want to cook the samples, which I'm pretty sure that the others that work here don't want to do unless they're using an expensive analyzer to make their dinner."
Watching Fred, Giles was reminded of one of those cheesy American movies Xander always used the watch. They were the ones where the guy would watch the woman he wanted from afar as some horrible pop song played in the background. Fred was a lovely creature and he felt himself smiling as she walked through the lab with a look of wonderment on her face.
"It's all right, Fred," he said, stepping closer to her. "I'm glad someone around here knows what they're doing."
Giles glanced down at his list of interview questions. Most of them were senseless questions and Giles didn't think Fred wanted to waste her time with him. He glanced back up at her and noticed the flush on her face. She was so beautiful and Giles felt himself staring at her.
"You should take the job, Fred," he quietly said before realizing what he'd just said. Blinking, he looked down at the papers again. He needed to be professional about this and he also needed to stop acting like a schoolboy. "What I meant is, the job is yours if you want it."
Giles ticked his eyes up at her. "If you want it. Willow could take you on a tour of the building. I have a meeting in twenty minutes and it's going to last for a couple of hours," he told her. "We could meet afterwards, unless you want to do something with Willow for the rest of the day. If you do, then that's fine also."
Fred glanced over her shoulder at him, giving him a smile, glad that he didn't mind that she had taken the initiative with the analyzer. That really did bode well for her working there and showed how much he actually trusted her already. She could have told him complete goobledegook for all he knew, but he trusted her.
"You really think I should take the job?" she asked just as he clarified himself. He was offering her the job. She almost jumped up and down for joy - working here was something out of her dreams with the equipment and the people - but managed to restrain herself. "I want it. I know that I want to work here for the Council...with you."
She then nodded at the idea of spending some time with Willow. If she was going to go to Bath with Giles, she did at least want to see her friend for a bit, especially since she was responsible for her getting this job in the first place. "I still want to go up and visit Wesley's gravesite if that's all right. We could meet up after you get out of your meeting and go up there together if that's all right with you."
"Good," Giles said when Fred agreed to take the job. A weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Now he had good news to tell the board during the upcoming meeting. Plus, Fred was going to be living in England soon and he didn't have to worry about having to fly to Texas every weekend. "Welcome to the Watcher's Council. I'll try not to be too strict of a boss."
He gave her a cheeky grin and put his hands into his trousers. "There's a rather large handbook you should read and if you need any help with a visa, the Council will take care of it for you." She mentioned going out to see Wesley's grave and he nodded. "We can go there when I'm finished with my meeting."
Giles led Fred out of the lab and they went back to his office. He made a phone call to Willow, asking her to come up to his office. "This is the handbook," he said, handing her a thick book. "And if I haven't said it before, I'm glad you've taken the job."
They were standing close and Giles took a step to close the gap. He was about to dip his head to kiss her when there was a knock on his office door. He quickly pulled away as Willow walked in. "You wanted to see me?" she asked.
"I need to go to a meeting and I was wondering if you'd show Fred around."
"Sure! I'll give her the lay of the land and after that I'll take her to the tattoo shop so we can get matching tattoos!" Willow grinned. She snorted at the look of disbelief on Giles' face. "I'll bring her back in one piece, Giles."
"Right. I'll be back in two hours." Giles gave Fred a warm smile before walking out of the room.
As Fred held the huge handbook in her hands, she felt her heart fluttering when Rupert stepped closer to her. "I'm glad too," she told him, her voice hitching slightly. He was so close, and it would be so easy for one of the them to move to the other and place their lips together and...
She practically jumped when the knock came and immediately turned a bit, forcing a smile as Willow walked in. She couldn't help but roll her eyes in amusement when Willow teased him about getting them matching tatoos. Obviously, baiting Giles was a favorite pasttime here.
She gave Rupert a small wave as he left before turning to Willow, who was looking her up and down. "So, I take from the fact that you're holding the Council Handbook of Doom that you took the job?"
"I took the job."
"Yay!" Willow cheered. "Come on, and leave that here for the moment. You don't want to be lugging that around while I show you this place. You can get it when we come back to meet up with Giles in a bit."
Nodding, Fred put the book down in the chair in front of his desk before they headed out of the office and down the hall.
"So what was going on before I walked in? You two seemed to be rather...clinchy when I came in."
Fred's eyes widened as she looked at her friend. "We weren't clinchy! He had just given me the handbook."
She really didn't want to publicize the fact that she and Rupert were...crushing on each other? Interested in each other? Wanting to date? Whatever it was turning out to be, she really didn't want it public yet, considering he had just given her a job. Besides that, they weren't in any sort of anything resembling a clinch. They had just been...almost ready to kiss. That wasn't a clinch.
"I used to have a crush on him," she told her. "He's really the best. Wouldn't be here still if it weren't for him."
"He is," Fred agreed. "But we weren't clinchy. And I thought you were supposed to be showing me the building."
"All right. Come on, we'll start with the most important area. The cafeteria."
He went to the door, knowing if he stayed a moment longer he wouldn’t leave. Glancing at her one more time, Giles smiled and left the room. He went to the lift, the smile still on his face and hummed to himself as he rode it to the first floor. Things were finally looking up for him.
*****
When the morning came again, Giles woke up with sense of renewal. His first thoughts went to Fred and he pondered calling her. But he quickly decided against it, not wanting to push himself onto her. He wanted her to make the first move, if there was a move to be had. Instead of ringing her, Giles took a shower and then stood in front of his closet for ten minutes.
Picking out clothes shouldn’t be so hard but Giles didn’t want to seem too stuffy. He finally picked out pair of dark trousers, white shirt, red tie and a pair of red braces. Would she like the braces? Giles shrugged, not knowing the answer, but the braces went with the trousers and tie. If Fred gave him a horrified look, he’d just change out of them.
The drive to the Council only took him twenty minutes and when he got there, he told the front desk to send Fred to his office for her interview. He saw Willow along the way but didn’t hear a word she said. Giles was too worried about the mess on his desk. He certainly didn’t want Fred to think he was a slob.
He started to clear off his desk, hiding papers in his drawers, hoping he wouldn’t have to dig through them later to find something. The notes for the interview were sitting there and Giles didn’t see the use for them now. He kept them though so Fred would think he was actually interview. And once he was finished, he rang Andrew and told him to send Fred in when she came. Now all he had to do was wait.
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Finally, she fell alseep, exhausted from the long trip. Morning came quickly, however, accompanied by the front desk calling to wake her up. After showering and drying her hair, she rooted through her suitcase, trying to decide what would be the best outfit for her interview, suddenly realizing that by bringing so much, she had made the decision that much harder. The cardigan, white blouse and navy blue skirt she had originally thought to wear seemed way too dowdy now.
In the end, she went with her maroon top and slightly flared black skirt. She clipped part of her hair up and then looked in the mirror, taking a deep breath. She knew she really shouldn't be nervous, but part of her was - mostly because she was going to be seeing Rupert again.
The phone rang again, informing her that a car had arrived for her, so she grabbed her jacket, her bag and the copy of the journal with her recently published Physics article and headed down the lobby, where she found the driver waiting. He smiled at her and escorted her out to the car.
The ride was thankfully fairly short, so Fred didn't have time to fidgit too much or worry about the outfit she had chosen. Stepping out of the car, Fred looked up at the building, a little surprised at the newness of it. With the work she did, she had found she had a vision of an almost gothic structure, but given what Rupert had told her about the bombing several months before, it made sense that they were in new facilities.
She had just walked up to the front desk and given the secretary her name when she heard a familiar voice.
"Fred!"
Looking over, she smiled at the person hurrying toward her. "Willow! Hi!" she greeted the red-head, giving her a hug. "How are you?"
"Good. I'm so glad you're here. I know you'd be perfect for the position. I'll take her to Giles' office," she told the secretary before steering Fred toward the stairs up to the next floor. "So, I know Giles picked you up from the airport last night. What do you think of him?"
"I like him. He's really intelligent and nice - we had a nice time talking." Fred prayed that her real feelings weren't spelled out on her face because she didn't want to have to deal with explaining things to Willow at the moment.
"You must've made an impression on him. He seemed pretty focused on the interview when he came in this morning - I don't think he ever heard a word I said. What did you talk about?"
Luckily, she was saved from answering by another voice calling to them as they walked down a hallway. "Willow! Is this Fred Burkle?" a young man with blond hair asked when he joined them.
"Yes. Fred, this Andrew Wells."
Fred shook hands with him. So this was the Andrew who had called Rupert last night to tell him that a problem had been dealt with. "Nice to meet you."
"You too. Mister Giles is waiting for you in his office - go on in." He pointed to the door a few feet away.
"Thanks." After straightening her skirt and top, she walked over to the door and knocked a couple of time before opening the door and entering the office. She smiled when she saw Rupert, looking quite handsome as he stood up to greet her. For a moment, she found herself fighting a insane need to run her hands up and down his suspenders but managed to keep her hands to herself. They needed to keep this professional - at least for the length of the interview. "Morning."
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Giles stepped away from her when the urge to touch her became too stronger. He didn't want to ruin this. Instead, he tugged at the front of his trousers, hoping his wants wasn't too noticeable. "I usually start the interview out with questions about the person's personal life," Giles explained, "but I already know the answers to the questions from speaking with you and Willow so I'll take you to the lab."
He walked over to the door and wondered if he was being too stuffy and professional. "I like your hair that way," he dumbly said before opening the door. Flirting was never his strong suit. When Fred stepped out into the hallway, he locked the door behind them and glanced over at Andrew.
"Hold your calls?" he asked, looking up at Giles.
"Yes. Ms. Burkle and I are going to the lab," Giles said before motioning for Fred to follow him. The lab wasn't too far from his office, something that frightened him considering they worked with explosive materials from time-to-time. But he would never say that to Fred.
When they arrived at the lab, Giles took a step forward and opened one of the glass doors. "And this is the lab," he announced, holding the door open and hoping she liked it enough to take the job.
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Most of the time when guys wore suspenders, they made her think of old bankers or something like that, but on Rupert, they looked wonderful. She imagined hooking her finger underneath one and pulling him to her for a kiss. Again, she had to quash the want to run her finger along them.
As they walked out to the hall, she touched her hand to her hair, glad that he liked it. She noticed Andrew watching them while they headed down toward the lab and gave him a smile. He flashed her a thumbs up before disappearing into the office across the hall.
The lab was enormous. At least enormous by the standards of it was much bigger than the lab she had worked in at UCLA. Her eyes opening wide, she walked inside, looking around at all the equipment. Reading about it on paper was one thing, but seeing it was something totally different.
"This is the kind of lab I dreamed of working in when I was at school," she whispered, walking over to one of the analyzers. She glanced at the setting and noticed that it was off, so she quickly changed it before she realized what she was doing. Biting her lip, she looked over at Giles and felt her cheeks turning red. "Umm...sorry, that was pretty presumptious of me - it's just I noticed that the setting was off. It should only be on that other setting if you want to cook the samples, which I'm pretty sure that the others that work here don't want to do unless they're using an expensive analyzer to make their dinner."
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"It's all right, Fred," he said, stepping closer to her. "I'm glad someone around here knows what they're doing."
Giles glanced down at his list of interview questions. Most of them were senseless questions and Giles didn't think Fred wanted to waste her time with him. He glanced back up at her and noticed the flush on her face. She was so beautiful and Giles felt himself staring at her.
"You should take the job, Fred," he quietly said before realizing what he'd just said. Blinking, he looked down at the papers again. He needed to be professional about this and he also needed to stop acting like a schoolboy. "What I meant is, the job is yours if you want it."
Giles ticked his eyes up at her. "If you want it. Willow could take you on a tour of the building. I have a meeting in twenty minutes and it's going to last for a couple of hours," he told her. "We could meet afterwards, unless you want to do something with Willow for the rest of the day. If you do, then that's fine also."
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"You really think I should take the job?" she asked just as he clarified himself. He was offering her the job. She almost jumped up and down for joy - working here was something out of her dreams with the equipment and the people - but managed to restrain herself. "I want it. I know that I want to work here for the Council...with you."
She then nodded at the idea of spending some time with Willow. If she was going to go to Bath with Giles, she did at least want to see her friend for a bit, especially since she was responsible for her getting this job in the first place. "I still want to go up and visit Wesley's gravesite if that's all right. We could meet up after you get out of your meeting and go up there together if that's all right with you."
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He gave her a cheeky grin and put his hands into his trousers. "There's a rather large handbook you should read and if you need any help with a visa, the Council will take care of it for you." She mentioned going out to see Wesley's grave and he nodded. "We can go there when I'm finished with my meeting."
Giles led Fred out of the lab and they went back to his office. He made a phone call to Willow, asking her to come up to his office. "This is the handbook," he said, handing her a thick book. "And if I haven't said it before, I'm glad you've taken the job."
They were standing close and Giles took a step to close the gap. He was about to dip his head to kiss her when there was a knock on his office door. He quickly pulled away as Willow walked in. "You wanted to see me?" she asked.
"I need to go to a meeting and I was wondering if you'd show Fred around."
"Sure! I'll give her the lay of the land and after that I'll take her to the tattoo shop so we can get matching tattoos!" Willow grinned. She snorted at the look of disbelief on Giles' face. "I'll bring her back in one piece, Giles."
"Right. I'll be back in two hours." Giles gave Fred a warm smile before walking out of the room.
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She practically jumped when the knock came and immediately turned a bit, forcing a smile as Willow walked in. She couldn't help but roll her eyes in amusement when Willow teased him about getting them matching tatoos. Obviously, baiting Giles was a favorite pasttime here.
She gave Rupert a small wave as he left before turning to Willow, who was looking her up and down. "So, I take from the fact that you're holding the Council Handbook of Doom that you took the job?"
"I took the job."
"Yay!" Willow cheered. "Come on, and leave that here for the moment. You don't want to be lugging that around while I show you this place. You can get it when we come back to meet up with Giles in a bit."
Nodding, Fred put the book down in the chair in front of his desk before they headed out of the office and down the hall.
"So what was going on before I walked in? You two seemed to be rather...clinchy when I came in."
Fred's eyes widened as she looked at her friend. "We weren't clinchy! He had just given me the handbook."
She really didn't want to publicize the fact that she and Rupert were...crushing on each other? Interested in each other? Wanting to date? Whatever it was turning out to be, she really didn't want it public yet, considering he had just given her a job. Besides that, they weren't in any sort of anything resembling a clinch. They had just been...almost ready to kiss. That wasn't a clinch.
"I used to have a crush on him," she told her. "He's really the best. Wouldn't be here still if it weren't for him."
"He is," Fred agreed. "But we weren't clinchy. And I thought you were supposed to be showing me the building."
"All right. Come on, we'll start with the most important area. The cafeteria."
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