New York 05/??: The City - Giles/Xander
New York
by Dr Squidlove
drsquidlove@@@livejournal.com
Summary: Xander is thirty-seven. Divorced. Two kids. 4000 miles from Sunnydale and his Hellmouth childhood. Also, straight. Only someone forgot to tell Giles. In fact... where the hell is Giles?
Rated R for sex.
Thanks to gloriana and antennapedia for incredibly helpful mid-construction betas, and lunabee for final checking on the run.
The Buffy universe is the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Borrowed with all due love and respect.
Please ask before archiving.
Feedback ohgodyesplease.
Full headers are on chapter one.
Wordcount this part: 3701
Previously, in chapter 4:
Reminiscing about Willow softened Xander up, and he invited Giles to stay while he got his paperwork started. Xander's daughters were shocked to find out their father had a friend. Right now they're probably trying to figure out who played Giles in the Godfather movies.
New York
Chapter 5: The City
by Dr Squidlove
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Luckily, Giles didn't mind taking the front seat of the taxi. Kate still had to hold Xander's hand all the way to dinner, only letting go so she could swipe his phone at the end of the trip. Not so scared of Giles, now, but just a little more sure than she was yesterday that her dad knew hit men. Great.
When Mary caught wind of this, she was going to have a fit.
Kate insisted on sharing Xander's side of the booth at the restaurant, but having moved Giles into the 'not gonna kill my dad' column, she was digging up the courage to talk to him now. Before the pappadums were gone, Giles had her enthralled with tales of Babylon and eclipses and some guy who figured out the earth went around the sun fifteen centuries before Copernicus.
Xander was reminded again how unnaturally smart Giles was. Packing that much information in one human brain just didn’t seem possible.
Xander was kind of awed by Kate, too. She was smart, of course. He knew it, in a whole lot more than just the obsessively-proud dad sense, but the way she was soaking up everything she was hearing, he realised for the first time that maybe she was Giles-sort of smart. Room in her head for everything, if she wanted it.
This was still definitely going to end in calamity, but for now Xander was enjoying showing off his daughters for Giles. 'Look what I did,' he wanted to say, because there was no one else who knew what a big thing it was, for Xander Harris, high school dork, Scooby loser and all-round failure, to be even a little bit responsible for how these two were turning out. His heart clenched as the feeling got crystal clear. He wanted Giles to be proud of him.
He'd never got this feeling calling home. He called every couple of months or so, updates just as bland as the ones he gave Tara. In return, his dad told him to keep an eye on his money, make sure he saved, and his mom told him he didn't call often enough. He always hung up depressed that he didn't care more.
He polished off the last samosa. "I'm going to the bathroom." He mussed Jen's hair as he stood, just to make her glare. "Don't eat all my vindaloo when it comes."
"Not without a fire extinguisher."
Xander was winding his way back to his seat when Kate saw him coming. "Dad! Mr Giles believes in ghosts!"
Xander froze. The couple at the next table looked over at Giles and Kate, grinning. Two minutes. He'd left them alone for the time it took to piss, and Giles was already breaking his promise? He strode up, fists clenched. "What's he telling you?"
Giles looked up innocently.
Kate kept right on going, voice not dropping at all. "I asked, 'Do you believe in ghosts?' and he said, 'Yes.'" She turned back to him, nose in the air. "What about telepathy?"
"Of course."
Xander relaxed enough to sit down when Kate gagged. As long as he wasn't going to make a case for any of it.
"Fairies, I suppose?" she asked, sarcastic.
"Kate..." Xander wasn't liking her tone.
"Oh, most definitely."
"Oh." Kate deflated. "You're one of those."
"One of those?"
"One of those people that thinks ten year-olds are idiots."
Xander grinned. She deserved that. She was getting way too snotty for her own good.
"Not at all," Giles said airily, reaching to tear off some naan.
"But you believe in ghosts and telepathy and Santa Claus and astrology."
"Ah, no. Now astrology is a load of bunk."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
They'd finally run out of excuses for one last trip to the kitchen, the bathroom, goodnight hug (that one was just Kate, of course), and Giles and Xander were sprawled on the couch.
"They're lovely girls," Giles said.
"Hard to believe they're mine, right?"
"I'd know them as yours in a second."
Xander twisted his head to see Giles' expression. He was staring absently off in the air.
"Kate sounds just like you, and Jen has your mannerisms and expressions exactly."
Really? Kate's Xander-like rambling was infamous, but he'd never noticed anything about Jen's gestures. He hoped it was true. Sometimes it seemed like he had nothing in common with Jen; since she'd outgrown snuggling up to him on the couch, he'd started to wonder what he had to offer her.
"I knew I'd be coming back to a changed world, but I must say, it's hard to grasp. A week ago you were barely out of high-school. Now here you are, a father."
"I'm good at it." Will and Buffy had their talents; it'd taken a while, but Xander had found his own. "I used to be scared that I'd be like mine, you know, but I'm not."
"I would never have doubted it. You always had an empathy, a generousness of heart, that would make you a wonderful father. They're lucky girls."
Xander swallowed. He didn't remember Giles being this open with his compliments.
Giles had cocked his head. "You remind me of Joyce, a little."
It was a long wait for his next breath. "That's about the best thing anyone's ever said to me."
Giles was watching him. He looked really serious, at first, and then his whole face softened in a smile.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"I suppose a pair of trousers and a shirt or two should be sufficient," Giles said as they stared around menswear.
Xander wished he could make some grand gesture, tell Giles to get whatever he wanted, but he was past believing in the magical fortune that they all seemed to assume was in their future when they were kids. "It'd get you through, but if you think the Council's going to set you up, and this is just going to be a loan, I can spring for more. Rent's not 'til the end of the month."
"At the very least, I ought to have some things tied up in the Council's care. As soon as I'm no longer dead, I should be able to repay you."
"You called this morning?"
"That was an interesting call." Giles smiled to himself as he started pulling pants from the rack. "They rather thought I'd simply cut all ties, as well. I have to wonder how I gave everyone the impression that I was so utterly fickle."
He'd never been like that. Giles was as far to the opposite of that as existed, and as stupid as it was that the Council wouldn't wonder why one of their watchers disappeared off the face of the earth, it wasn't nearly as stupid as Xander assuming it. "I'm sorry," he said, softly. What happened to them, that they let Giles go so easily? "We should have looked."
The smile warmed, making Giles' eyes sparkle. "It seems to me you weren't in a state to be wondering about me. But thank you." As he turned back to the rack, his expression fell.
Xander's shoulders fell with it. He still wasn't getting this right. It was easy - sort of - to apologise for stuff that happened, or didn't happen, sixteen years ago. Giles deserved better than that. "I'm sorry I was such an ass when you showed up on Thursday." He couldn't help shrugging as he said it, feeling like the idiotic screw-up teenager that he used to be.
Giles draped the pants he'd collected over an arm so his free hand could squeeze Xander's shoulder. "You had good reason to be worried."
"Don't say it like there's an excuse for treating you like that," Xander said, irritation sneaking into his tone. Irritated with himself, not Giles, but it's not like that was in any way clear. "After everything that happened back in Sunnydale, with all of us, everything you did for us, everything we did for each other, it's not even remotely okay."
"No, it's not." There was that hollow look again, and Xander felt like a total bastard. "It may have been a rocky beginning, but I've truly enjoyed the last couple of days. I'm glad I found you."
Some of the guilt lifted at that. "Me too."
Xander sat on a stool outside the changing room while Giles tried the clothes on. Listening to the sweep-sweep of Giles taking his pants off was weird.
"Henry - from the Council - said they should be able to get my paperwork sorted in a week or so," Giles said loudly, like the flimsy three-quarter door might muffle his voice, "at least far enough that I can catch a flight home to organise the rest."
"Home, England? Not to see Buffy?"
There was a pause before Giles answered, but maybe he was just busy checking the fit. "The paperwork really is quite urgent. Coming back to life is a complicated business. I'm sure I can get it out of the way in just a few days, and then I'll, I'll make my way to, ah, to LA."
Finally Xander figured out what was behind all the shadowed looks. Giles was worried about seeing her. Xander didn't have the guts to summon any sort of pithy encouragement. Maybe Buffy's welcome would be just as heart-warming as Xander's.
Maybe Giles was pissed at her for not coming to find out what happened to him. Buffy didn't have a wedding-that-wasn't on her mind. Xander could think of plenty of other stuff that had been piling on her head, but maybe it was that she was just as angry as Xander about Giles abandoning them.
But he didn't know; he didn't know Buffy at all anymore, and that was one Giles was going to have to find out for himself.
He didn't even hear the door latch; Giles was just suddenly standing in front of him. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah." Xander stood. "You got pants?"
From pants to shirts. Giles rifled through racks and piled stuff into Xander's arms, picking just as quickly as Xander did. It was kind of surprising; Xander was used to shopping with the girls, and before them, Mary. Jen took longer to pick pants than Xander did to sign the lease on his apartment.
If anything, Xander would have guessed Giles would be the sort to browse through the various patterns of tweed, evaluating every shirt for creasability and Britishness. Instead it was a Xander-style drive-through: a pair of good pants, a pair of jeans, a short stack of grey and white t-shirts, two button-shirts and couple of packs of socks and briefs. Kind of a bare minimum for February, but with the jacket he was borrowing from Xander it'd be enough. The only thing Giles frowned and muttered over was sweaters.
"Get the green," Xander suggested.
"The green?"
"Looks good on you."
That got an owlish blink, but Giles folded the others back and led the way to the counter.
Xander swiped all the clothes through the scanner and paid, Giles watching like it was the most interesting thing ever. Xander was slipping his phone back in his pocket when he realised. "Man. We thought you were behind the times back in high school."
"I have a feeling I have some sudden learning curves to face."
Xander piled the clothes into the bag he'd brought before he went on. "The bad news is you're pretty much stuck with computers, now, unless you want to move to a cabin in the wilderness of Maine. And then you'll need an uplink."
"What's the good news?"
"TV on demand, anywhere, anytime."
"Just what I've always wanted."
They stepped onto the escalator together, and Xander slouched against the rail. "Pretty much everything that used to be in your wallet's in your phone, now. Actually, everything's on your phone. You pay with your phone, then you can check your account on your phone. Directions to anywhere. Driver's licence and all your shopping loyalty cards. Your camera. When I leave work in winter, I can tell my heating to kick up so it's toasty before I get in. Best thing ever."
"Is anything the same?"
"The Rolling Stones are still touring."
Giles did a double-take. "You must be joking."
Xander grinned. "Nah. They're all dead, except Keith Richards. I swear, he's still going."
"Those in the know widely suspect he's immortal."
This time, it was Xander's double-take. "Seriously?"
"No. But perhaps it's time to begin speculating."
Giles led the way through the doors into the blast of icy wind on 7th Avenue and then stood in the way of the crowd, looking one way and the other. Finally he looked back at Xander as the city washed around him.
Xander pointed. "This way first." He caught the sleeve of the jacket Giles had borrowed and tugged him into the stream of people headed uptown. "There's a great bagel place on 34th. They've got salmon you've been waiting for all your life. Paper-thin. I'm talking Gideon Bible paper, not that old scroll stuff."
As they pushed their way up to 34th, under the roar of people talking on phones trying to drown out honking taxis, Xander did a quick overview of the last decade and a half. The technology, the politics, the big news. Giles had disappeared before blogging and internet phones and the second Iraq war, before Bond went blond and Twilight made vamps sparkle.
In the crush waiting for the lights at 33rd, Xander looked at Giles. "What were gas prices when you left?"
Giles frowned, thinking back. "$1.20? $1.30, perhaps?"
Xander snorted. "It hit $8 for a few weeks last year." He nodded as a couple of taxis rolled silently by. "Good for the electric car industry. Oh, and Pluto's not a planet anymore."
"I'm sorry?"
The lights changed, and Xander took Giles' elbow to keep him close as the crowd washed across the street. "It got demoted around ten years ago? They were tough times for small celestial bodies. I mention this one because if it ever comes up with Kate and you fail, you fail big-time."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When they got home, Jen was tapping on her phone on the couch, and Kate was sprawled across the floor with a book, the pair of them still in their nightgowns.
"We have bagels for anyone who can dig me up some proof of homework."
Jen tapped a couple of keys and showed her checked-off submission page and then went back to whatever she was doing without ever looking up. Kate sighed like Xander was the most unreasonable dad in the world and swapped her book for her tablet.
"So what are we going to do today?" Xander asked as Giles stowed his new bag in the corner.
They both shrugged without looking up.
"Don't you want to show Giles around?"
Jen stopped typing. "Have you been to the city before, Mr Giles?"
"To a city?"
"The City."
"She means New York," Xander explained. "Other cities don't count. Or the other boroughs."
"Manhattan," Kate agreed.
"Ah. Just once, a long time ago."
"Did you go to Coney Island?"
"Did you go to the Statue of Liberty?"
"Did you go to the planetarium?"
The girls' list of most important tourist attractions were fired at him.
"What about Central Park?"
"Times Square?"
"I didn't get to see much, I'm afraid. I was searching for a friend."
Buffy. It was when Buffy ran away. Vaguely, Xander remembered New York being one of the first failed leads. That was only four years ago, Giles-time.
"Did you ride the subway?" Jen asked last, eagerly.
"I did ride the subway."
"Didn't get attacked, did you?"
There was a telling pause before Giles didn't exactly answer. "I survived."
"See, Dad? People do manage to ride the subway and live."
Xander started pulling plates out. "Yeah, well, don't think you're one of them."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Once the girls found out Giles had never been to Central Park, Saturday morning's plans were set. The skating paths weren't exactly where Xander would have thought Giles would want to hang out, but he seemed enthusiastic enough once Xander promised him that everyone over the age of thirteen would be wheel-less on the grass, spectating.
If he'd been a couple of weeks earlier, it could have been ice skating, at least, but the Wollman rink was closed, and the paths were clear. Though it felt cold enough.
Xander pulled his collar higher, wishing he'd brought his scarf. "Jen..."
"She can do it!"
"Jen, no."
"I can!"
"No, Kate."
"Da-ad!"
"You want to turn around and go straight home?" The girls shut up. He lowered his voice for Giles. "See how they get exactly the same expression when they can't have what they want?"
Giles was smiling as he watched them. "I remember it from school."
"I never looked like that."
"You looked exactly like that."
"Name one time."
"Often enough around Buffy. Briefly around Cordelia. For a while around Willow."
"Okay, okay. Shut up, now."
Giles chuckled. It was a warm, easy sound, still kind of foreign to Xander. Jen had stopped trying to teach her sister how to do jump turns, and they were having a not-much-safer game of photo tag. "I can't believe roller skates have made a comeback," Giles said.
"Mary took them to a roller derby last year."
"We're gonna join a team!" Jen yelled as she swung past.
"That's right," said Xander, "when you're forty."
"Da-ad!"
Xander ignored the whining chorus, spoke to Giles instead. "Roller derbies make slaying look like a non-contact sport."
Giles winced as Kate grabbed Jen's scarf and yanked. "Whatever they're doing now makes slaying look like a non-contact sport."
Kate squealed, covering her eyes and skating blind as Jen tried to pull her around, waving her phone in her face. "Photo tag," Xander explained. "The idea is to get the ugliest photo of the other one. They fired me as judge when I declared every photo beautiful." He grinned. "'Cause seriously, how could you get a bad photo of either of those faces?"
"Da-ad!"
"I'm very sure it's not possible."
Xander grinned, pleased. "I love dragging them out here in winter, all bundled up. You should have seen them when they were little, flopping around like the Stay Puft Marshmallow guy from Ghostbusters."
"I wish I had," Giles said, softly.
They stayed for nearly an hour until Xander couldn't feel his toes and Giles was starting to look a little blue, too. Xander declared they had the Central Park experience covered, and it was time to move on. He let the girls skate to Eighth Avenue and then made them switch to boots.
Giles leaned on the fence, eyeing a hot dog stand on the corner.
Xander took Kate's skates and helmet while she laced her sneakers, and wandered over. "You want one?"
Giles jumped, and stared at him. "Are you being serious?"
"They're really good. Jen, Kate, Giles has never had a New York hot dog."
Their eyes widened like he'd never had an inwards breath. "Never?"
"I assure you, I've never had a hot dog at all."
"Never?" they chorused again.
"Before you start lecturing my daughters about the evils of American food, you'd better remember you're from the nation of a thousand and one uses for offal."
"And you're living in the nation with just one." Giles drawled, turning his back on the hot dog guy.
"So what next?" Xander asked as the girls staggered up, boots on.
"Madison Avenue!" they yelled, predictably.
"Seriously, girls, there's nothing to see. We're barely past the parking levels."
"We wanna see!" Kate bounced.
Jen turned to Giles. "Do you want to see Dad's building?"
"Your building?"
"Dad's building a skyscraper!" Kate said.
"All by myself."
"Sounds like quite the project. I would love to see your building."
"Sucker." He looked back to the girls. "Fine. Madison, and then?"
"The museum!" they yelled.
Giles' eyebrows almost shot off his head.
"You take Giles there, and you'll never escape again."
"You voluntarily go to museums?"
Xander thought about getting defensive for about half a second, and then he broke into a sheepish grin. "It's the way of the divorced dad. Cheap and free cultural attractions are the go. Museum of Natural History's got tons of stuffed animals, reminds me of my Uncle Rory."
Just like Xander had warned, there wasn't much to see of his building except the gig posters that were already plastered over the hoarding and the cranes stretching above. "It's going to be forty-eight floors, mostly residential," Xander explained to Giles. "From the upper floors we'll see right over Central Park into the West Side. There's a building boom on at the moment - it's a good time to get into the industry, if your other thing doesn't work out."
"Thank you, but I work better with a roof over my head."
After all the nagging, Jen and Kate were entertained for about three minutes, and then they were ready to get across town to the Asian People's Hall and the Hall of Meteorites.
In two days, they managed to squeeze in the Museum of Natural History and the Met, which Giles liked a lot, the top of the Empire State Building, where he was way more interested in listening to Xander's architecture babble than the girls had ever been, and the neon craziness of Times Square, where Giles got to play the mothbally old English snob of Xander's youth. Thank god Giles backed him up when they passed the half-priced tickets and the girls argued any trip to New York needed the latest Teenage Drama the Musical on Broadway.
The girls didn't notice that Giles was more fascinated by how much the girls used their phones for information and Xander paying ten dollars for coffee than the landmarks.
Xander couldn't believe how much fun he was having. He couldn't believe how much fun Giles seemed to be having, even if half of it was smug satisfaction when Xander's references to Bono and X-Files fell flat and then when Xander got completely confused listening to Jen explain some online reality show celebrity's scandal. Giles was learning his way around 2018. Xander was realising how it felt to be Giles in 1998.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
end chapter 5
Dr Squidlove appreciates feedback. Tasty, tasty feedback.
by Dr Squidlove
drsquidlove@@@livejournal.com
Summary: Xander is thirty-seven. Divorced. Two kids. 4000 miles from Sunnydale and his Hellmouth childhood. Also, straight. Only someone forgot to tell Giles. In fact... where the hell is Giles?
Rated R for sex.
Thanks to gloriana and antennapedia for incredibly helpful mid-construction betas, and lunabee for final checking on the run.
The Buffy universe is the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Borrowed with all due love and respect.
Please ask before archiving.
Feedback ohgodyesplease.
Full headers are on chapter one.
Wordcount this part: 3701
Previously, in chapter 4:
Reminiscing about Willow softened Xander up, and he invited Giles to stay while he got his paperwork started. Xander's daughters were shocked to find out their father had a friend. Right now they're probably trying to figure out who played Giles in the Godfather movies.
New York
Chapter 5: The City
by Dr Squidlove
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Luckily, Giles didn't mind taking the front seat of the taxi. Kate still had to hold Xander's hand all the way to dinner, only letting go so she could swipe his phone at the end of the trip. Not so scared of Giles, now, but just a little more sure than she was yesterday that her dad knew hit men. Great.
When Mary caught wind of this, she was going to have a fit.
Kate insisted on sharing Xander's side of the booth at the restaurant, but having moved Giles into the 'not gonna kill my dad' column, she was digging up the courage to talk to him now. Before the pappadums were gone, Giles had her enthralled with tales of Babylon and eclipses and some guy who figured out the earth went around the sun fifteen centuries before Copernicus.
Xander was reminded again how unnaturally smart Giles was. Packing that much information in one human brain just didn’t seem possible.
Xander was kind of awed by Kate, too. She was smart, of course. He knew it, in a whole lot more than just the obsessively-proud dad sense, but the way she was soaking up everything she was hearing, he realised for the first time that maybe she was Giles-sort of smart. Room in her head for everything, if she wanted it.
This was still definitely going to end in calamity, but for now Xander was enjoying showing off his daughters for Giles. 'Look what I did,' he wanted to say, because there was no one else who knew what a big thing it was, for Xander Harris, high school dork, Scooby loser and all-round failure, to be even a little bit responsible for how these two were turning out. His heart clenched as the feeling got crystal clear. He wanted Giles to be proud of him.
He'd never got this feeling calling home. He called every couple of months or so, updates just as bland as the ones he gave Tara. In return, his dad told him to keep an eye on his money, make sure he saved, and his mom told him he didn't call often enough. He always hung up depressed that he didn't care more.
He polished off the last samosa. "I'm going to the bathroom." He mussed Jen's hair as he stood, just to make her glare. "Don't eat all my vindaloo when it comes."
"Not without a fire extinguisher."
Xander was winding his way back to his seat when Kate saw him coming. "Dad! Mr Giles believes in ghosts!"
Xander froze. The couple at the next table looked over at Giles and Kate, grinning. Two minutes. He'd left them alone for the time it took to piss, and Giles was already breaking his promise? He strode up, fists clenched. "What's he telling you?"
Giles looked up innocently.
Kate kept right on going, voice not dropping at all. "I asked, 'Do you believe in ghosts?' and he said, 'Yes.'" She turned back to him, nose in the air. "What about telepathy?"
"Of course."
Xander relaxed enough to sit down when Kate gagged. As long as he wasn't going to make a case for any of it.
"Fairies, I suppose?" she asked, sarcastic.
"Kate..." Xander wasn't liking her tone.
"Oh, most definitely."
"Oh." Kate deflated. "You're one of those."
"One of those?"
"One of those people that thinks ten year-olds are idiots."
Xander grinned. She deserved that. She was getting way too snotty for her own good.
"Not at all," Giles said airily, reaching to tear off some naan.
"But you believe in ghosts and telepathy and Santa Claus and astrology."
"Ah, no. Now astrology is a load of bunk."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
They'd finally run out of excuses for one last trip to the kitchen, the bathroom, goodnight hug (that one was just Kate, of course), and Giles and Xander were sprawled on the couch.
"They're lovely girls," Giles said.
"Hard to believe they're mine, right?"
"I'd know them as yours in a second."
Xander twisted his head to see Giles' expression. He was staring absently off in the air.
"Kate sounds just like you, and Jen has your mannerisms and expressions exactly."
Really? Kate's Xander-like rambling was infamous, but he'd never noticed anything about Jen's gestures. He hoped it was true. Sometimes it seemed like he had nothing in common with Jen; since she'd outgrown snuggling up to him on the couch, he'd started to wonder what he had to offer her.
"I knew I'd be coming back to a changed world, but I must say, it's hard to grasp. A week ago you were barely out of high-school. Now here you are, a father."
"I'm good at it." Will and Buffy had their talents; it'd taken a while, but Xander had found his own. "I used to be scared that I'd be like mine, you know, but I'm not."
"I would never have doubted it. You always had an empathy, a generousness of heart, that would make you a wonderful father. They're lucky girls."
Xander swallowed. He didn't remember Giles being this open with his compliments.
Giles had cocked his head. "You remind me of Joyce, a little."
It was a long wait for his next breath. "That's about the best thing anyone's ever said to me."
Giles was watching him. He looked really serious, at first, and then his whole face softened in a smile.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"I suppose a pair of trousers and a shirt or two should be sufficient," Giles said as they stared around menswear.
Xander wished he could make some grand gesture, tell Giles to get whatever he wanted, but he was past believing in the magical fortune that they all seemed to assume was in their future when they were kids. "It'd get you through, but if you think the Council's going to set you up, and this is just going to be a loan, I can spring for more. Rent's not 'til the end of the month."
"At the very least, I ought to have some things tied up in the Council's care. As soon as I'm no longer dead, I should be able to repay you."
"You called this morning?"
"That was an interesting call." Giles smiled to himself as he started pulling pants from the rack. "They rather thought I'd simply cut all ties, as well. I have to wonder how I gave everyone the impression that I was so utterly fickle."
He'd never been like that. Giles was as far to the opposite of that as existed, and as stupid as it was that the Council wouldn't wonder why one of their watchers disappeared off the face of the earth, it wasn't nearly as stupid as Xander assuming it. "I'm sorry," he said, softly. What happened to them, that they let Giles go so easily? "We should have looked."
The smile warmed, making Giles' eyes sparkle. "It seems to me you weren't in a state to be wondering about me. But thank you." As he turned back to the rack, his expression fell.
Xander's shoulders fell with it. He still wasn't getting this right. It was easy - sort of - to apologise for stuff that happened, or didn't happen, sixteen years ago. Giles deserved better than that. "I'm sorry I was such an ass when you showed up on Thursday." He couldn't help shrugging as he said it, feeling like the idiotic screw-up teenager that he used to be.
Giles draped the pants he'd collected over an arm so his free hand could squeeze Xander's shoulder. "You had good reason to be worried."
"Don't say it like there's an excuse for treating you like that," Xander said, irritation sneaking into his tone. Irritated with himself, not Giles, but it's not like that was in any way clear. "After everything that happened back in Sunnydale, with all of us, everything you did for us, everything we did for each other, it's not even remotely okay."
"No, it's not." There was that hollow look again, and Xander felt like a total bastard. "It may have been a rocky beginning, but I've truly enjoyed the last couple of days. I'm glad I found you."
Some of the guilt lifted at that. "Me too."
Xander sat on a stool outside the changing room while Giles tried the clothes on. Listening to the sweep-sweep of Giles taking his pants off was weird.
"Henry - from the Council - said they should be able to get my paperwork sorted in a week or so," Giles said loudly, like the flimsy three-quarter door might muffle his voice, "at least far enough that I can catch a flight home to organise the rest."
"Home, England? Not to see Buffy?"
There was a pause before Giles answered, but maybe he was just busy checking the fit. "The paperwork really is quite urgent. Coming back to life is a complicated business. I'm sure I can get it out of the way in just a few days, and then I'll, I'll make my way to, ah, to LA."
Finally Xander figured out what was behind all the shadowed looks. Giles was worried about seeing her. Xander didn't have the guts to summon any sort of pithy encouragement. Maybe Buffy's welcome would be just as heart-warming as Xander's.
Maybe Giles was pissed at her for not coming to find out what happened to him. Buffy didn't have a wedding-that-wasn't on her mind. Xander could think of plenty of other stuff that had been piling on her head, but maybe it was that she was just as angry as Xander about Giles abandoning them.
But he didn't know; he didn't know Buffy at all anymore, and that was one Giles was going to have to find out for himself.
He didn't even hear the door latch; Giles was just suddenly standing in front of him. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah." Xander stood. "You got pants?"
From pants to shirts. Giles rifled through racks and piled stuff into Xander's arms, picking just as quickly as Xander did. It was kind of surprising; Xander was used to shopping with the girls, and before them, Mary. Jen took longer to pick pants than Xander did to sign the lease on his apartment.
If anything, Xander would have guessed Giles would be the sort to browse through the various patterns of tweed, evaluating every shirt for creasability and Britishness. Instead it was a Xander-style drive-through: a pair of good pants, a pair of jeans, a short stack of grey and white t-shirts, two button-shirts and couple of packs of socks and briefs. Kind of a bare minimum for February, but with the jacket he was borrowing from Xander it'd be enough. The only thing Giles frowned and muttered over was sweaters.
"Get the green," Xander suggested.
"The green?"
"Looks good on you."
That got an owlish blink, but Giles folded the others back and led the way to the counter.
Xander swiped all the clothes through the scanner and paid, Giles watching like it was the most interesting thing ever. Xander was slipping his phone back in his pocket when he realised. "Man. We thought you were behind the times back in high school."
"I have a feeling I have some sudden learning curves to face."
Xander piled the clothes into the bag he'd brought before he went on. "The bad news is you're pretty much stuck with computers, now, unless you want to move to a cabin in the wilderness of Maine. And then you'll need an uplink."
"What's the good news?"
"TV on demand, anywhere, anytime."
"Just what I've always wanted."
They stepped onto the escalator together, and Xander slouched against the rail. "Pretty much everything that used to be in your wallet's in your phone, now. Actually, everything's on your phone. You pay with your phone, then you can check your account on your phone. Directions to anywhere. Driver's licence and all your shopping loyalty cards. Your camera. When I leave work in winter, I can tell my heating to kick up so it's toasty before I get in. Best thing ever."
"Is anything the same?"
"The Rolling Stones are still touring."
Giles did a double-take. "You must be joking."
Xander grinned. "Nah. They're all dead, except Keith Richards. I swear, he's still going."
"Those in the know widely suspect he's immortal."
This time, it was Xander's double-take. "Seriously?"
"No. But perhaps it's time to begin speculating."
Giles led the way through the doors into the blast of icy wind on 7th Avenue and then stood in the way of the crowd, looking one way and the other. Finally he looked back at Xander as the city washed around him.
Xander pointed. "This way first." He caught the sleeve of the jacket Giles had borrowed and tugged him into the stream of people headed uptown. "There's a great bagel place on 34th. They've got salmon you've been waiting for all your life. Paper-thin. I'm talking Gideon Bible paper, not that old scroll stuff."
As they pushed their way up to 34th, under the roar of people talking on phones trying to drown out honking taxis, Xander did a quick overview of the last decade and a half. The technology, the politics, the big news. Giles had disappeared before blogging and internet phones and the second Iraq war, before Bond went blond and Twilight made vamps sparkle.
In the crush waiting for the lights at 33rd, Xander looked at Giles. "What were gas prices when you left?"
Giles frowned, thinking back. "$1.20? $1.30, perhaps?"
Xander snorted. "It hit $8 for a few weeks last year." He nodded as a couple of taxis rolled silently by. "Good for the electric car industry. Oh, and Pluto's not a planet anymore."
"I'm sorry?"
The lights changed, and Xander took Giles' elbow to keep him close as the crowd washed across the street. "It got demoted around ten years ago? They were tough times for small celestial bodies. I mention this one because if it ever comes up with Kate and you fail, you fail big-time."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When they got home, Jen was tapping on her phone on the couch, and Kate was sprawled across the floor with a book, the pair of them still in their nightgowns.
"We have bagels for anyone who can dig me up some proof of homework."
Jen tapped a couple of keys and showed her checked-off submission page and then went back to whatever she was doing without ever looking up. Kate sighed like Xander was the most unreasonable dad in the world and swapped her book for her tablet.
"So what are we going to do today?" Xander asked as Giles stowed his new bag in the corner.
They both shrugged without looking up.
"Don't you want to show Giles around?"
Jen stopped typing. "Have you been to the city before, Mr Giles?"
"To a city?"
"The City."
"She means New York," Xander explained. "Other cities don't count. Or the other boroughs."
"Manhattan," Kate agreed.
"Ah. Just once, a long time ago."
"Did you go to Coney Island?"
"Did you go to the Statue of Liberty?"
"Did you go to the planetarium?"
The girls' list of most important tourist attractions were fired at him.
"What about Central Park?"
"Times Square?"
"I didn't get to see much, I'm afraid. I was searching for a friend."
Buffy. It was when Buffy ran away. Vaguely, Xander remembered New York being one of the first failed leads. That was only four years ago, Giles-time.
"Did you ride the subway?" Jen asked last, eagerly.
"I did ride the subway."
"Didn't get attacked, did you?"
There was a telling pause before Giles didn't exactly answer. "I survived."
"See, Dad? People do manage to ride the subway and live."
Xander started pulling plates out. "Yeah, well, don't think you're one of them."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Once the girls found out Giles had never been to Central Park, Saturday morning's plans were set. The skating paths weren't exactly where Xander would have thought Giles would want to hang out, but he seemed enthusiastic enough once Xander promised him that everyone over the age of thirteen would be wheel-less on the grass, spectating.
If he'd been a couple of weeks earlier, it could have been ice skating, at least, but the Wollman rink was closed, and the paths were clear. Though it felt cold enough.
Xander pulled his collar higher, wishing he'd brought his scarf. "Jen..."
"She can do it!"
"Jen, no."
"I can!"
"No, Kate."
"Da-ad!"
"You want to turn around and go straight home?" The girls shut up. He lowered his voice for Giles. "See how they get exactly the same expression when they can't have what they want?"
Giles was smiling as he watched them. "I remember it from school."
"I never looked like that."
"You looked exactly like that."
"Name one time."
"Often enough around Buffy. Briefly around Cordelia. For a while around Willow."
"Okay, okay. Shut up, now."
Giles chuckled. It was a warm, easy sound, still kind of foreign to Xander. Jen had stopped trying to teach her sister how to do jump turns, and they were having a not-much-safer game of photo tag. "I can't believe roller skates have made a comeback," Giles said.
"Mary took them to a roller derby last year."
"We're gonna join a team!" Jen yelled as she swung past.
"That's right," said Xander, "when you're forty."
"Da-ad!"
Xander ignored the whining chorus, spoke to Giles instead. "Roller derbies make slaying look like a non-contact sport."
Giles winced as Kate grabbed Jen's scarf and yanked. "Whatever they're doing now makes slaying look like a non-contact sport."
Kate squealed, covering her eyes and skating blind as Jen tried to pull her around, waving her phone in her face. "Photo tag," Xander explained. "The idea is to get the ugliest photo of the other one. They fired me as judge when I declared every photo beautiful." He grinned. "'Cause seriously, how could you get a bad photo of either of those faces?"
"Da-ad!"
"I'm very sure it's not possible."
Xander grinned, pleased. "I love dragging them out here in winter, all bundled up. You should have seen them when they were little, flopping around like the Stay Puft Marshmallow guy from Ghostbusters."
"I wish I had," Giles said, softly.
They stayed for nearly an hour until Xander couldn't feel his toes and Giles was starting to look a little blue, too. Xander declared they had the Central Park experience covered, and it was time to move on. He let the girls skate to Eighth Avenue and then made them switch to boots.
Giles leaned on the fence, eyeing a hot dog stand on the corner.
Xander took Kate's skates and helmet while she laced her sneakers, and wandered over. "You want one?"
Giles jumped, and stared at him. "Are you being serious?"
"They're really good. Jen, Kate, Giles has never had a New York hot dog."
Their eyes widened like he'd never had an inwards breath. "Never?"
"I assure you, I've never had a hot dog at all."
"Never?" they chorused again.
"Before you start lecturing my daughters about the evils of American food, you'd better remember you're from the nation of a thousand and one uses for offal."
"And you're living in the nation with just one." Giles drawled, turning his back on the hot dog guy.
"So what next?" Xander asked as the girls staggered up, boots on.
"Madison Avenue!" they yelled, predictably.
"Seriously, girls, there's nothing to see. We're barely past the parking levels."
"We wanna see!" Kate bounced.
Jen turned to Giles. "Do you want to see Dad's building?"
"Your building?"
"Dad's building a skyscraper!" Kate said.
"All by myself."
"Sounds like quite the project. I would love to see your building."
"Sucker." He looked back to the girls. "Fine. Madison, and then?"
"The museum!" they yelled.
Giles' eyebrows almost shot off his head.
"You take Giles there, and you'll never escape again."
"You voluntarily go to museums?"
Xander thought about getting defensive for about half a second, and then he broke into a sheepish grin. "It's the way of the divorced dad. Cheap and free cultural attractions are the go. Museum of Natural History's got tons of stuffed animals, reminds me of my Uncle Rory."
Just like Xander had warned, there wasn't much to see of his building except the gig posters that were already plastered over the hoarding and the cranes stretching above. "It's going to be forty-eight floors, mostly residential," Xander explained to Giles. "From the upper floors we'll see right over Central Park into the West Side. There's a building boom on at the moment - it's a good time to get into the industry, if your other thing doesn't work out."
"Thank you, but I work better with a roof over my head."
After all the nagging, Jen and Kate were entertained for about three minutes, and then they were ready to get across town to the Asian People's Hall and the Hall of Meteorites.
In two days, they managed to squeeze in the Museum of Natural History and the Met, which Giles liked a lot, the top of the Empire State Building, where he was way more interested in listening to Xander's architecture babble than the girls had ever been, and the neon craziness of Times Square, where Giles got to play the mothbally old English snob of Xander's youth. Thank god Giles backed him up when they passed the half-priced tickets and the girls argued any trip to New York needed the latest Teenage Drama the Musical on Broadway.
The girls didn't notice that Giles was more fascinated by how much the girls used their phones for information and Xander paying ten dollars for coffee than the landmarks.
Xander couldn't believe how much fun he was having. He couldn't believe how much fun Giles seemed to be having, even if half of it was smug satisfaction when Xander's references to Bono and X-Files fell flat and then when Xander got completely confused listening to Jen explain some online reality show celebrity's scandal. Giles was learning his way around 2018. Xander was realising how it felt to be Giles in 1998.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
end chapter 5
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