“Thank you, Fred.” Giles said as he raised her hand up and softly kissed it. “Perhaps one day I’ll tell about my adventures but right now I don’t want to scare you off.” They came to an intersection and Giles turned to the right. “Not far now. Just over that hill ahead.”
Ahead of them was a farmer, herding his sheep across the road. Giles slowed the car to a stop and looked to the field. “This might take a while,” he said when he saw all the sheep that still had to cross. He put the car into park and released the brake. Giles turned his head and smiled at Fred as she watched the sheep.
“You’re quite beautiful,” he said, reaching over and gently stroked her cheek. “I… I’m glad you took the job. The thought of you being all the way in Texas was quite terrible. I rather like having you around, even if we just met last night. I feel as if I’ve known you forever.” His tongue swiped across his lips as he ran the back of his hand across her cheek. Giles wanted to kiss her but he didn’t know if he should. Instead, he sat there, staring into her eyes, waiting for her to give him some sort of sign.
Fred nodded to him as he kissed her hand. Whatever was in his past, she didn't think anything could scare her off. She had been friends with a vampire and had lived in the same hotel with him for two years.
She glanced over at the road as they came to a stop. She had grown up on a farm, so she was used to seeing animals out and about, grazing in fields. It definitely made her feel at home.
When Giles spoke to her, touched her cheek, she turned her head to look back at him. His eyes were so green and seemed to stare right into her.
"I...I wouldn't have liked to have been across the ocean from you either. You--I don't know quite how to explain it, what I've been feeling since I met you, but I have another question for you." She leaned her head into his hand for a moment. "Are you ever going to kiss me?"
It was all Giles needed to hear. “Erm, yes, of course,” he murmured before leaning toward her. His lips brushed against hers but the seatbelt pulled him back before he could deepen it. Giles rolled his eyes and unbuckled himself. “Lets try that again, shall we?”
He cupped her face and leaned over again, his lips met hers again and Giles swore he felt a spark of electricity run through him. Pulling back to catch his breath, he smiled at Fred before leaning in for another one. This one was deeper than the other two and Giles groaned as he felt Fred’s tongue on his. It was perfect and he didn’t care of the farmers and sheep were looking at them.
When he needed air, Giles pulled away and pressed his forehead against hers. He mused how beautiful Fred’s eyes were as he caught his breath. “Is that what you were asking for?” he whispered against her full lips.
Maybe the car wasn't the most romantic place in the world for a first kiss, especially when the seatbelt conspired to make a mess out of the first attempt. But when Rupert's lips brushed against hers for the second time, Fred's breath caught in her throat and her eyes closed. His lips felt so soft and warm and gentle.
By the time she had realized that he had pulled away from her, he was kissing her again, this time more insistently. She opened her mouth slightly, allowing him to deepen the kiss, both of them exploring the other. And suddenly, the car was the most romantic place in the world for a first kiss, and she decided that she wouldn't have had it any other way.
She felt both giddy and out of breath when they finally parted. Looking into his eyes, she smiled at his question, his breath warm against her lips. "So much more," she managed to whisper before kissing him again, her hand creeping up the collar of his shirt.
They probably would have been there all day, had it not been for the honk of a horn behind them. Pulling apart, they looked over and saw that the farmer had gotten his sheep across the road, and a truck behind them was apparently impatient to move on to his destination.
"Guess we should continue on," she told him softly.
The feel of Fred’s hand on his collar was driving Giles mad. He wanted to touch every single inch of her body. “Good. It’s been a while since I’ve kissed someone,” Giles admitted as his hands started to slid down her back. He jumped a little when he heard the car honk behind them.
“I suppose we should,” he said as he resisted the urge to pull the car over and snog her for the rest of the afternoon. With his seatbelt back on, he put the car into gear and started to drive again. His hand slipped into hers as he kept glancing over at her, knowing how lucky he was to have her in his life. He was going to make sure he treated her like a Queen.
“That’s the house Wesley grew up in,” he said, motioning to a rather large estate that sat down in a valley. “Only been in it once. Years ago when Wesley’s grandfather was still living there. I got my arse paddled for feeding a scone to one of the statues.” Giles gave Fred a grin. “I was only nine and it looked hungry.”
Once they were over the hill, a small cemetery came into view. Giles pulled the car into the entrance and slowly drove through it. He had never been to Wesley’s grave before but knew where it was since it sat within a rather large family plot. When they came upon it, Giles parked the car and got out before opening Fred’s door.
Wesley’s marker wasn’t that far from the dirt road and Giles motioned toward it. “It’s the one in the middle,” he said, looking at Fred. He felt that Fred would want to say goodbye on her own terms and had decided to just stay by the car. Giles leaned forward and softly kissed her forehead. “I’ll be right here when you’re finished.”
Fred glanced over at Rupert, wondering what he was thinking as they continued on their way. She felt like she was flying high while also feeling a little sad. They were on their way to say goodbye to her friend, and she felt like her heart was about to burst from joy. It was a strange feeling, but she knew that Wesley would want her to be happy.
When he pointed out Wesley's childhood home, she looked over at it in surprise. He had never seemed to have a lot of money in L.A., yet the home was enormous, one of those old homes that looks almost like a mini-castle. Another clue to what had happened between him and his family, she supposed. It made her realize that his father's claim of his body last year hadn't had anything to do with love for a dead son but a show of patriarchal power. It made her mad - they had been Wesley's family despite what had happened, and that jerk had just dismissed him.
She couldn't help but chuckle, though, at the thought of a little Rupert trying to make a statue eat. "I bet you were adorable. And I would have loved to have seen the faces of the others when you did that."
The laughter, however, died away when the cemetery came into view, and they pulled in. It was a bit windy when Rupert helped her out of the car, so she pushed her hair out of her face as she looked over to the headstone he motioned too. She closed her eyes for a moment when he kissed her forehead before nodding.
"Thank you," she whispered, touching his face briefly and then walking over to the grave, the rose she had taken from the bouquet of roses still in her hand.
When she reached the headstone, she felt a lump forming in her throat at the sight of Wesley's name carved into the stone. Even though she had been the one to identify his body, seeing that made it even more real for some reason, possibly because she hadn't been to the funeral. As her fingers reached out to trace the indentation of the letters, she sank down to her knees in the grass.
"Hey, Wesley," she said softly, feeling her voice choking. "It's me, Fred. Well, of course you know it's me; who else with a Texas accent would be visiting you, right? But it's me. Rupert brought me here because I didn't have a chance to say a proper goodbye to you before, and I...I've missed you. This last year without you just hasn't been right. We stopped the Beast and Jasmine, but then the others, they joined Wolfram and Hart even though they helped the guys that killed you, and I just couldn't do that. Sometimes...sometimes I wonder if I couldn't have done something to save you, to keep you from being where you were that night. It's not fair, Wes - you shouldn't have died."
Blinking as tears starting forming in her eyes, she reached up to wipe them away and took a deep breath.
"I never got a chance to tell you how much you meant to me. I couldn't have gotten through that first year without you. You taught me so much. Actually...you'll probably find this funny...I'm going to be working for the Watcher's Council now. Rupert offered me a job in their new science department. I know you always said you regretted the way things were between you and how you respected him for standing up for what he believed in. I can see what you meant. Rupert...he's wonderful. I--I'm falling in love with him. It seems so weird having only known him for a day, but it feels right. For the first time since you died, it feels like my life is going to be right and whole again."
She looked down at the rose in her hand. Kissing the petals, she placed it on the ledge at the bottom of the headstone before resting her hand against it.
"Rest well, Wesley. I'll never forget you. Thank you for everything you did for me."
Slowly, she got up from the ground and stood there for one moment more before walking back over to Rupert, stepping into his arms and resting her hand against his chest.
"I'm ready," she told him, her voice still thick with emotion.
Giles didn't want to listen in on what Fred was saying to Wesley so he busied himself with picking leaves from under his windshield wipers. He glanced over at Fred from time to time to make sure she was all right. Saying goodbye to someone was never easy, especially when it's been gnawing at you for so long. He thought back to when Jenny died and how it'd taken him months to finally say goodbye. It wasn't the same thing though since he refused to say goodbye because he believed she would come back somehow.
When Fred started to walk toward him, Giles pulled out a tissue and softly wiped the wetness from her face. He then pulled her into a tight hug. It was the only way he knew how to comfort her. "All right," he quietly said when she said she was ready. Taking her hand, her helped her back into the car as it started to rain again.
Giles didn't want to push her so kept silent as they pulled out of the cemetery. He started to drive in the direction of the village as the rain continued. They were a few kilometers from the village when they came up to a road block. "The road must have washed out again," Giles said with a small sigh. He looked over at Fred and frowned. "We could, um, have lunch at my flat. I have food."
Of course he had food. Giles couldn't understand why he was suddenly so tongue-tied. "What I mean is, we could have lunch at my flat. No other reason. Just to eat."
Fred smiled wanly through her tears, grateful to Rupert when he wiped the tears from her eyes. He was so thoughtful, and it made this whole thing so much easier. She wasn't sure she wouldn't have just broken down completely if he hadn't been here, but knowing that he was gave her the strength to say what she had been holding inside her for a year.
She looked back at the headstone only once as they pulled away, the red of the rose the only splash of visible color. The rain that had started to fall seemed appropriate - sort of a washing away of the pain. She turned back around while they headed down the road to the village.
Although it appeared that they weren't going to make it to the eatery he had told her about. At least not that day. It wasn't really a big deal, but poor Rupert seemed a bit taken aback by it.
"Hey, it's okay," she told him, putting her hand on his shoulder and stroking her finger on his jaw. "Your flat sounds fine. In fact, it sounds perfect. I...I'd kind of like to see where you live."
Giles was relieved that she didn't think of him as a complete prat for inviting her to his flat. "Lunch at my flat it is then," he said, giving her a small smile. He turned the car away and started back toward the city. His hand found hers again and he softly stroked the back of it with his thumb. He wanted to strike up a conversation with her but didn't know if she felt like talking right now.
"So, Fred, did you grow up on a farm in Texas?" Giles asked as he glanced over at her. "What made you decide to go to Los Angeles for school? Was physics your first choice as a major?" He was quiet for a moment, hoping he hadn't asked her too many questions at once. "Sorry. I'm just too curious for my own good sometimes. I guess I just want to know everything about you."
They came to a stop sign and Giles had to resist the urge to kiss her again. There would plenty of other times he could do it. But the temptation was still there and he felt himself looking to the side of the road. The recent rains had made the shoulder muddy and he knew the car would get stuck. With a sigh, he started to drive again as he waited for Fred to answer his questions.
Fred really liked it when Giles held her hand the way he did. Even just that simple movement did so much to take away the feelings of sadness she felt from visiting Wesley's grave. She had a life to look forward to now, and Wesley would have been the first one to tell her to live it.
The way Giles' questions came out made her want to laugh a little. Had she been rubbing off on him in the short time they had been around each other? "You've answered my questions, so I don't mind you asking me. It's only fair." She thought back over everything that he had asked. "Yes, I grew up on a farm. My father and mother run a small dairy farm outside of San Antonio, so seeing those sheep earlier reminded me a bit of Dad herding the cows out to pasture. As for school, I got a scholarship from UCLA, and we had some friends out there, so I decided to take the chance and go out there, but I wasn't going to major in Physics. I actually wanted to major in History, but then I took Pr--I took a Physics class and changed my mind."
She paused for a moment. Ever since she had discovered Professor Seidel had been responsible for sending her to Pylea, she sometimes wondered what might have happened had she not changed majors. But then she looked over at Rupert and realized that if she hadn't, she wouldn't be here, right now. She'd probably be teaching History in some small college in Texas.
"The...the professor whose class I took, he was the one who sent me to Pylea," she told him. "Turned out he was jealous of any student he thought might outshine him and conveniently had them...disappear. Somewhere the bodies would never be found." She looked over at him. "I was the only one who ever came back."
Giles loved the way Fred's voice sounded. It seemed to float in the car and it made him smile. Hearing her talking about her past made Giles think of how their pasts were so different. It intrigued him and when she said she had intended on majoring in history, he grinned. He was a history major himself before his life took a turn too. Perhaps they were old souls, meant to be together.
When Fred told him about Professor Siedel, Giles felt his veins go cold. It made him angry that someone who Fred trusted would hurt her. "God, Fred," he whispered as he held her hand even tighter. "I'm so sorry that happened to you." Being betrayed by someone you trust hurt more than being betrayed by a casual friend.
"I know how it feels," he said, thinking about all the times Ethan had lied to him and how other people had gotten hurt because of it. "You so strong and amazing, Fred. You survived something that most people wouldn't. And you came out of it with yourself in tact. No one can ever take away your spirit, not even some ruddy professor who was jealous of your gifts."
The city limits of London came into view and Giles slowed down. He glanced over at Fred and softly stroked her cheek. "All right, love?" he quietly asked.
Ahead of them was a farmer, herding his sheep across the road. Giles slowed the car to a stop and looked to the field. “This might take a while,” he said when he saw all the sheep that still had to cross. He put the car into park and released the brake. Giles turned his head and smiled at Fred as she watched the sheep.
“You’re quite beautiful,” he said, reaching over and gently stroked her cheek. “I… I’m glad you took the job. The thought of you being all the way in Texas was quite terrible. I rather like having you around, even if we just met last night. I feel as if I’ve known you forever.” His tongue swiped across his lips as he ran the back of his hand across her cheek. Giles wanted to kiss her but he didn’t know if he should. Instead, he sat there, staring into her eyes, waiting for her to give him some sort of sign.
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She glanced over at the road as they came to a stop. She had grown up on a farm, so she was used to seeing animals out and about, grazing in fields. It definitely made her feel at home.
When Giles spoke to her, touched her cheek, she turned her head to look back at him. His eyes were so green and seemed to stare right into her.
"I...I wouldn't have liked to have been across the ocean from you either. You--I don't know quite how to explain it, what I've been feeling since I met you, but I have another question for you." She leaned her head into his hand for a moment. "Are you ever going to kiss me?"
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He cupped her face and leaned over again, his lips met hers again and Giles swore he felt a spark of electricity run through him. Pulling back to catch his breath, he smiled at Fred before leaning in for another one. This one was deeper than the other two and Giles groaned as he felt Fred’s tongue on his. It was perfect and he didn’t care of the farmers and sheep were looking at them.
When he needed air, Giles pulled away and pressed his forehead against hers. He mused how beautiful Fred’s eyes were as he caught his breath. “Is that what you were asking for?” he whispered against her full lips.
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By the time she had realized that he had pulled away from her, he was kissing her again, this time more insistently. She opened her mouth slightly, allowing him to deepen the kiss, both of them exploring the other. And suddenly, the car was the most romantic place in the world for a first kiss, and she decided that she wouldn't have had it any other way.
She felt both giddy and out of breath when they finally parted. Looking into his eyes, she smiled at his question, his breath warm against her lips. "So much more," she managed to whisper before kissing him again, her hand creeping up the collar of his shirt.
They probably would have been there all day, had it not been for the honk of a horn behind them. Pulling apart, they looked over and saw that the farmer had gotten his sheep across the road, and a truck behind them was apparently impatient to move on to his destination.
"Guess we should continue on," she told him softly.
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“I suppose we should,” he said as he resisted the urge to pull the car over and snog her for the rest of the afternoon. With his seatbelt back on, he put the car into gear and started to drive again. His hand slipped into hers as he kept glancing over at her, knowing how lucky he was to have her in his life. He was going to make sure he treated her like a Queen.
“That’s the house Wesley grew up in,” he said, motioning to a rather large estate that sat down in a valley. “Only been in it once. Years ago when Wesley’s grandfather was still living there. I got my arse paddled for feeding a scone to one of the statues.” Giles gave Fred a grin. “I was only nine and it looked hungry.”
Once they were over the hill, a small cemetery came into view. Giles pulled the car into the entrance and slowly drove through it. He had never been to Wesley’s grave before but knew where it was since it sat within a rather large family plot. When they came upon it, Giles parked the car and got out before opening Fred’s door.
Wesley’s marker wasn’t that far from the dirt road and Giles motioned toward it. “It’s the one in the middle,” he said, looking at Fred. He felt that Fred would want to say goodbye on her own terms and had decided to just stay by the car. Giles leaned forward and softly kissed her forehead. “I’ll be right here when you’re finished.”
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When he pointed out Wesley's childhood home, she looked over at it in surprise. He had never seemed to have a lot of money in L.A., yet the home was enormous, one of those old homes that looks almost like a mini-castle. Another clue to what had happened between him and his family, she supposed. It made her realize that his father's claim of his body last year hadn't had anything to do with love for a dead son but a show of patriarchal power. It made her mad - they had been Wesley's family despite what had happened, and that jerk had just dismissed him.
She couldn't help but chuckle, though, at the thought of a little Rupert trying to make a statue eat. "I bet you were adorable. And I would have loved to have seen the faces of the others when you did that."
The laughter, however, died away when the cemetery came into view, and they pulled in. It was a bit windy when Rupert helped her out of the car, so she pushed her hair out of her face as she looked over to the headstone he motioned too. She closed her eyes for a moment when he kissed her forehead before nodding.
"Thank you," she whispered, touching his face briefly and then walking over to the grave, the rose she had taken from the bouquet of roses still in her hand.
When she reached the headstone, she felt a lump forming in her throat at the sight of Wesley's name carved into the stone. Even though she had been the one to identify his body, seeing that made it even more real for some reason, possibly because she hadn't been to the funeral. As her fingers reached out to trace the indentation of the letters, she sank down to her knees in the grass.
"Hey, Wesley," she said softly, feeling her voice choking. "It's me, Fred. Well, of course you know it's me; who else with a Texas accent would be visiting you, right? But it's me. Rupert brought me here because I didn't have a chance to say a proper goodbye to you before, and I...I've missed you. This last year without you just hasn't been right. We stopped the Beast and Jasmine, but then the others, they joined Wolfram and Hart even though they helped the guys that killed you, and I just couldn't do that. Sometimes...sometimes I wonder if I couldn't have done something to save you, to keep you from being where you were that night. It's not fair, Wes - you shouldn't have died."
Blinking as tears starting forming in her eyes, she reached up to wipe them away and took a deep breath.
"I never got a chance to tell you how much you meant to me. I couldn't have gotten through that first year without you. You taught me so much. Actually...you'll probably find this funny...I'm going to be working for the Watcher's Council now. Rupert offered me a job in their new science department. I know you always said you regretted the way things were between you and how you respected him for standing up for what he believed in. I can see what you meant. Rupert...he's wonderful. I--I'm falling in love with him. It seems so weird having only known him for a day, but it feels right. For the first time since you died, it feels like my life is going to be right and whole again."
She looked down at the rose in her hand. Kissing the petals, she placed it on the ledge at the bottom of the headstone before resting her hand against it.
"Rest well, Wesley. I'll never forget you. Thank you for everything you did for me."
Slowly, she got up from the ground and stood there for one moment more before walking back over to Rupert, stepping into his arms and resting her hand against his chest.
"I'm ready," she told him, her voice still thick with emotion.
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When Fred started to walk toward him, Giles pulled out a tissue and softly wiped the wetness from her face. He then pulled her into a tight hug. It was the only way he knew how to comfort her. "All right," he quietly said when she said she was ready. Taking her hand, her helped her back into the car as it started to rain again.
Giles didn't want to push her so kept silent as they pulled out of the cemetery. He started to drive in the direction of the village as the rain continued. They were a few kilometers from the village when they came up to a road block. "The road must have washed out again," Giles said with a small sigh. He looked over at Fred and frowned. "We could, um, have lunch at my flat. I have food."
Of course he had food. Giles couldn't understand why he was suddenly so tongue-tied. "What I mean is, we could have lunch at my flat. No other reason. Just to eat."
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She looked back at the headstone only once as they pulled away, the red of the rose the only splash of visible color. The rain that had started to fall seemed appropriate - sort of a washing away of the pain. She turned back around while they headed down the road to the village.
Although it appeared that they weren't going to make it to the eatery he had told her about. At least not that day. It wasn't really a big deal, but poor Rupert seemed a bit taken aback by it.
"Hey, it's okay," she told him, putting her hand on his shoulder and stroking her finger on his jaw. "Your flat sounds fine. In fact, it sounds perfect. I...I'd kind of like to see where you live."
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"So, Fred, did you grow up on a farm in Texas?" Giles asked as he glanced over at her. "What made you decide to go to Los Angeles for school? Was physics your first choice as a major?" He was quiet for a moment, hoping he hadn't asked her too many questions at once. "Sorry. I'm just too curious for my own good sometimes. I guess I just want to know everything about you."
They came to a stop sign and Giles had to resist the urge to kiss her again. There would plenty of other times he could do it. But the temptation was still there and he felt himself looking to the side of the road. The recent rains had made the shoulder muddy and he knew the car would get stuck. With a sigh, he started to drive again as he waited for Fred to answer his questions.
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The way Giles' questions came out made her want to laugh a little. Had she been rubbing off on him in the short time they had been around each other? "You've answered my questions, so I don't mind you asking me. It's only fair." She thought back over everything that he had asked. "Yes, I grew up on a farm. My father and mother run a small dairy farm outside of San Antonio, so seeing those sheep earlier reminded me a bit of Dad herding the cows out to pasture. As for school, I got a scholarship from UCLA, and we had some friends out there, so I decided to take the chance and go out there, but I wasn't going to major in Physics. I actually wanted to major in History, but then I took Pr--I took a Physics class and changed my mind."
She paused for a moment. Ever since she had discovered Professor Seidel had been responsible for sending her to Pylea, she sometimes wondered what might have happened had she not changed majors. But then she looked over at Rupert and realized that if she hadn't, she wouldn't be here, right now. She'd probably be teaching History in some small college in Texas.
"The...the professor whose class I took, he was the one who sent me to Pylea," she told him. "Turned out he was jealous of any student he thought might outshine him and conveniently had them...disappear. Somewhere the bodies would never be found." She looked over at him. "I was the only one who ever came back."
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When Fred told him about Professor Siedel, Giles felt his veins go cold. It made him angry that someone who Fred trusted would hurt her. "God, Fred," he whispered as he held her hand even tighter. "I'm so sorry that happened to you." Being betrayed by someone you trust hurt more than being betrayed by a casual friend.
"I know how it feels," he said, thinking about all the times Ethan had lied to him and how other people had gotten hurt because of it. "You so strong and amazing, Fred. You survived something that most people wouldn't. And you came out of it with yourself in tact. No one can ever take away your spirit, not even some ruddy professor who was jealous of your gifts."
The city limits of London came into view and Giles slowed down. He glanced over at Fred and softly stroked her cheek. "All right, love?" he quietly asked.
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