Safe and sound (3/3)

[naol]

This was supposed to be posted two weeks ago, but events conspired, etc... Sorry. Heavy fever still. Little better today, though. Um. Yes. So, this is the final part of the challenge fic written for mymatedave. I need to do a word count on the final thing, but it definitely exceeded my original expectations. In the end, this wound up with elements of Giles/

Comments

[anonymous]

Great!!! But don't tell me of Giles/Faith please....Ewwwww...

[naol]

*grins*

Mostly, I just had fun using Giles and Faith to parody Buffy and Angel's conversation earlier. With Buffy, the kiss is this whole big angsty deal and there's a poignant and painful moment as a result. With Faith, the sex is no biggie, barely worth noting between mouthfuls of food. She is the anti-angst champion, methinks :)

[learnedhand_dj]

Ahh, more nemo_fic! A fine way to procrastinate away a fair chunk of a rainy Tuesday morning.

I thought you handled the Spike/Illyria thing just fine. Actually, I had more of a problem with the Giles/Faith interaction at the end. Obviously, this is just my view of the characters, but I think that Giles would take his head of the council role seriously enough to avoid any physical entanglements with his slayers, no matter how exhausted he was (or how tempting Faith can be). If he did give in, I think he would be concerned enough about it afterward to need to talk a bit more with Faith about it, to make sure it wasn't going to cause problems with the Council in the future.

One other thing, from a previous chapter. You had Dawn refer to "roll-necks." I presume you mean "turtlenecks." I'm guessing that's a UK/US difference. True, Dawn's Europe time might have lead her to adopt the UK phrase, but I figured probably not for something that she'd be referring to that infrequently.

But those are minor points. All in all, another fine fic.

[naol]

Ooh! Turtlenecks! I knew there was a word for them! I bent my brain sideways trying to remember what it was. In the end, I drew a blank and defaulted back to the more familiar but it had been scratching away in the back of my head for a while now. Thanks. I'll fix that ASAP.

As for the other, Faith and Giles, I both agree and don't at the same time. I mean, yes, I definitely think Giles would behave as you describe. But I also think a part of him would want to behave as he does here. So at least in this one instance, with extreme fatigue, relief, pent-up frustration and anger all mixed up with a couple of glasses of scotch, I decided to let his inner Ripper come out to play with Faith for a tiny bit. As for how it got handled post-coitus, if indeed 'coitus' there was beyond his own sleep-fogged fantasies, I just liked the comic effect, I confess *grins*

Glad you liked it :)

[lmzjewel]

I really enjoyed this story Nemo! (: I also thought Mina calling Xander "Da" was very cute because that is what my kids called my husband (their daddy) before they could string together dadda or daddy really good. So I was getting this really amusing mental image of Xander and Buffy's reaction when Mina does string it together and calls him dadda or daddy for the first time. And I thought you did Spike/Illyria very well.

LMZ

[naol]

*is happy*

I was so worried about writing a baby character. I spent a long time trying to work out how she would behave and interact with the others. In my head, Mina is trying to duplicate sounds she's heard from other people, in this case the word 'good'. But she's not quite at the stage of real words yet, so she sticks with the final syllable, which is 'Duh'. And then 'Duh' becomes 'Da' and that becomes the name she associates with the feeling she has around Xander. Which, very conveniently, will pave the way for Dada and then Daddy. And now that you've mentioned it, I'm having a lot of fun picturing Buffy and Xander's face too *grins*

[naol]

The thought process that resulted in the chocolate mush went like this:

Thought #1: Babies are known for being light sleepers.
Thought #2: When I can't sleep, a cup of hot chocolate works wonders.
Thought #3: Cereal is healthy, therefore good for babies.
1 + 2 + 3 = Feeding a baby with chocolate milk and cereal at three in the morning is healthy AND sleep-inducing.

... I know. This thought process proves without a doubt that I am, in fact, a guy, doesn't it? *grins*

Glad you enjoyed this :)

[naol]

I had fun with the G/F. I think she clicks well with his inner Ripper *grins*

[nocturnalista]

Hee, hee, hee! I quite enjoyed this. I love that Xander did the smart thing instead of the "manly" thing. I love the descriptions of Buffy's driving (but please don't hit the kitties!). I love the Spike/Illyria exchanges. I'm glad you made Giles human and allowed him an indiscretion with Faith. And Yay! Our little Buffy is growing up and realizing that her relationship with Angel is perhaps not the healthiest thing.

And on the topic of health: I hope you are feeling better and will feel actually good sometime soon.

[naol]

Hoo boy, don't get me started on the topic of health. The south of France in late April is no place to be running a temperature. Still, it's clearing up now *crosses fingers*

The roughest bit in this fic was deciding how Xander should behave. I mean, there were a lot of things that gave me trouble for various reasons, but Xander's behavior was hard to figure out mainly because I wanted to hit on some things in him without really hammering them through the floor. So he wound up a reluctant (and guilty for feeling so reluctant) baby sitter who got the heck out of trouble as fast as he could. After that, it was just a matter of ignoring him yelling at me and bringing the others to the scene as quickly as possible *grins*

As for the rest, in this fic, I tried to be good to everyone. To give them all something. The notion of Giles with Faith just made me smile, I think. You know, she's a lot like a female Ripper, after all, so they have some things in common.

Thanks for reading this :)