Buffy fic: One Hour (8/8)
8:01 pm
Vi didn’t think she could take another step. Her stomach was so full she was prepared to stop right where she was and go to sleep.
“That was so awesome!” Andrew pushed her along before she could and she let out a groan. “It was better than I expected.”
“I’m actually surprised myself,” said Giles as he walked down the hallway with them. “You always fear that updating will ruin the original vision.”
Despite how sick she felt from all the junk food she had eaten, Vi still managed a smile. It was so weird to hear Giles talking about a television show, especially with Andrew, but for the first time that night the man was relaxed. He had spent an entire hour just hanging out with the girls under his care.
“How come you never told me you were into Who?” wondered Andrew. “We could have watched the new DVD releases together.”
“You never asked.”
A group of younger girls ran past them, shrieking under the influence of a sugar high. “I feel very betrayed. Another fan under the same roof, one who saw the very first episode with William Hartnell when it first aired.”
“I still can’t picture you watching T.V. as a kid,” spoke up Vi, her hand clutched to her stomach.
“I wasn’t born a Watcher,” replied Giles.
“But it’s science fiction. How is that your thing?”
“Why should the concept of the show matter? Doctor Who was originally conceived to be an educational program for children.” Andrew came up beside Vi as Giles talked. He silently offered the bag of jelly babies to her. She adamantly shook her head. “I was seven. The show was made for my age group.”
“I remember the first Doctor Who I saw,” said Andrew. “A friend showed me a copy of Genesis of the Daleks in junior high. Homicidal pepper pots are definitely the way to win a young boy’s heart.”
They turned a corner and Vi’s room came into sight. She would have run ahead, but her churning stomach made it difficult.
“What kept you watching?” Andrew asked Giles.
Giles looked straight ahead. To Vi, it looked like he was lost in thought. Or lost in memories. “It was an escape. By ten I had learned of my destiny to be a Watcher. The, uh, real world as it was, was no longer an ordinary place. It was suddenly vampires, demons, and other creatures that shouldn’t have existed. The world of Doctor Who was fabricated. I knew what I was watching couldn’t be true. I, ah, took comfort in that.”
Andrew became unusually silent. When he finally spoke, his voice was soft. “It was an escape for me, too.”
Vi broke away from the two as they came upon her room. She opened the door and the sight of her bed gave her some relief.
“We should do this every week!” Andrew exclaimed happily.
“It’d be a nice break,” agreed Vi, but she looked specifically to Giles.
He caught her eye. “Yes, it would be.”
“Excellent. I’ll talk to the other girls who would be interested and rearrange the patrol schedule.” Andrew bid Vi goodnight and headed on down the hallway, whistling the theme song to Doctor Who.
Vi leaned against the doorjamb. “Y’know, I did mean everything I said when I was trying to distract you.”
Giles crossed his arms, but he also smiled. “I know. Goodnight, Vi.”
“’Night, Giles.” She ducked into her room and moved to close the door. Never, ever again was she going to gorge herself on snacks.
“And I’ll keep your comment about an inappropriate crush to myself.”
Vi whipped the door back open, but Giles was already walking away.
A/N: A little history of this fic if anyone is interested. Originally, I had planned for this story to be told from Andrew's point of view. The story would have seen him trying to find some time for himself to watch the new series of Doctor Who. The idea for the ending was the same though. Giles would walk in, see Andrew dressed up like the Fourth Doctor, and then he would sit down and watch the show with Andrew. Along the way, I found this really didn't work and it would have just been me raving about my love for Doctor Who through Andrew.
I can't remember why I changed my approach, but it eventually became this. However, the parts were originally written in a different order. The attic scene used to come second and then Vi and Giles went to the laundry room. But after writing the attic scene, I started to switch parts around. In the beginning, I had planned to shrink down the physical space between Vi and Giles as the story went along to show they were growing closer. First they start out at opposite ends of the library and then slowly, as they wander the Council building, the space between them would diminish, but that idea quickly got booted. You can still sort of track the old order after the library through the physical space separating Vi and Giles: kitchen, attic, laundry room, weapons storage.
So that's the story. Thanks for reading my fic.