{btvs} always looking for something
Title: Always Looking For Something
Author: Aaronlisa
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing/Characters: Rupert Giles (mentions of Ethan, Merrick and Buffy)
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and company.
Prompts: Written for the 2010 summer_of_giles.
Notes: Set pre-series.
Summary: Just a fic looking at a possible reason for why Giles went back to the Council after he had left them.
Word Count: 983
Being a Watcher is not something that Giles had ever truly wanted. When he had been younger there had been dreams of being a fighter pilot and then when he realized that those dreams would never materialize he had made his way to London and had absorbed the scene there. Yet there had always been something missing until Ethan had entered his life. For a few brief chaotic years, Ethan had opened his eyes to another world than the one had been raised in.
Sometimes Giles can barely remember those heady days spent with Ethan where they were completely free of any restraint. There were long nights where they would listen to Dark Side of the Moon over and over again, using magic to repeat the album so that they could lie on the floor beside one another while tripping on some drug or another as they searched for hidden meaning in the lyrics. Then there were long nights that they spent in pubs flirting with the prettiest girls while drinking pint after pint before they would stumble home together arms linked as they laughed about the disappointment of the girls they had left behind.
Yet a world without restraint had soured when they had delved deeper and deeper into darker magics in search of higher highs and enlightenment. And soon Giles had run away from Ethan and all that he represented. For a while, he had thrown himself in traveling around Europe looking for something that would fill the emptiness in his stomach and heart. Nothing ever came close to the bliss of the days that he had spent with Ethan.
And then he had meet Merrick in Moscow. It had been in a crowded demon bar that they had met, both had recognized one another from some musty old Council library or another. Over several bottles of vodka, they had both discovered that they shared much in common, including a sense of disillusionment in how the Council was being run.
* * *
“I’m not saying that either of us could really affect much, but the Council needs men like you,” Merrick said before tossing back another shot.
“What’s the point? We’re a minority, I doubt either you or I would ever be assigned to a Slayer,” Giles responds while filling their shot glasses.
“It’s that type of thinking that’s worse than the idiots who run the Council.”
Giles laughs, he knows that Merrick means no harm. Merrick chuckles with him before they both down the vodka. A pretty waitress sets down another bottle in front of them.
“To the idiots who run the Council,” Giles says as he raises his glass.
“And to the fools such as ourselves, doomed to think we can make a difference,” Merrick states.
They both down their shots before Merrick breaks the seal on the new bottle and pours them another shot. Neither of them can remember if this is the second, third or fourth bottle.
“Seriously Rupert, you need to come back. There’s a storm brewing and the Council can use a man with a good head on his shoulders,” Merrick tells him, “I doubt that we’ll be able to do much but when the time comes, the Council, and more importantly the Slayer and Potentials will need us.”
“I doubt Travers will ever welcome me into the fold.”
Merrick laughs, a deep belly laugh. Giles looks at him in confusion.
“That pompous arrogant fool will take you in just to keep tabs on the last Giles. There’s already enough in the Council who are growing weary of him and would love to see a return to a clear-headed rule.”
“I can assure you now that I’d never want the weight of the Council on my shoulders.”
“Travers would never know and he’s the sort that would rather keep his enemy closer so that he can keep an eye on him.”
“I’ll think of it,” Giles promises.
Soon the talk turns from the politics of the Council to more entertaining pursuits.
* * *
Six months after Moscow, Giles was on a plane from South Africa to London. It was time to return home, time to return to the Council, whether he liked it or not, Giles had found more evidence of the impending storm that Merrick had talked about. The evidence was nothing more than cryptic clues hidden in ancient texts and prophecies but it was enough to make him realize that Merrick had been right that although he doubted that he would ever rise to a position of power within the Council, the Council needed more men such as himself and Merrick. Men who had walked on the fine edge between good and evil, who weren’t afraid of doing what was necessary to save the world.
And then two and a half years later after a random encounter with Merrick, Giles was on another plane. This time to Sunnydale, California where he was to become the Watcher to the current Slayer: Buffy Summers. He knew that she was viewed to be a maverick just like he was. In fact the only reason why his old friend Merrick had been assigned to her was because of the circumstances in her being called. The Council had been unprepared for Buffy Summers to be the next Slayer and Merrick had been the only Watcher close enough to prepare her for the threat of Lothos, a known Slayer killer.
When Travers had informed him of his assignment, Giles had been well aware that Travers hadn’t thought that either he or Buffy would survive for very long on the Hellmouth and Giles looked forward to proving Travers wrong. He still regretted the fact that he had never had a chance to be a fighter pilot or even a grocer but perhaps if he was lucky, he’d find that elusive something to fill that empty feeling of his.
((END))