FIC: Family (FR13, Giles)
Title: Family
Author: aaronlisa
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing/Characters: Rupert Giles
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and company.
Notes: Written for the 2010 Summer of Giles. Set post-Season Seven, but not S8-compliant.
Word Count: 337
He never once regrets the decisions that had brought to him where he is. It doesn’t matter to him that he’s the last in his line and unless destiny has other plans for him, he’ll remain that way.
Despite the lack of regrets, it doesn’t stop those restless nights where he tosses and turns, unable to find sleep. Sometimes during those nights he finds himself overwhelmed with the what ifs, might have beens and possibilities that became closed to him once he became an active Watcher.
Giles thinks that if he and Jenny had had a few more years together in their courtship that they might have ended up married with a child or two. There are times when it’s late at night and he’s sought comfort in a bottle of aged whiskey that he can just imagine a dark-haired girl with Jenny’s carefree smile.
And then there’s Olivia. If only he could have let go of his honour and become the man she had desired him to be. There are times when the bottles nearly empty, that maybe, just maybe, he could have let go of his life in Sunnydale, abandoned Buffy, and deceived himself long enough until even he believed that Olivia was all that he wanted and needed in life. Deep down, Giles knows that if he had done that Olivia still wouldn’t have been happy. After all, the man she had fallen in love with and bade a teary-eye goodbye to had been a man of honour.
As he watches, Buffy, Xander and Willow as they share a private moment with each other before they all climb back aboard the bus, Giles realizes that he doesn’t regret the life he’s chosen. The late-night fantasies are simply that. They’re not regrets. It doesn’t matter that it’s highly unlikely that another Giles will follow in his footsteps because when he looks at Buffy with her bright smile, laughing at something that Xander said while Willow wraps her arms around his waist, he sees his family.
((END))
Author: aaronlisa
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing/Characters: Rupert Giles
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and company.
Notes: Written for the 2010 Summer of Giles. Set post-Season Seven, but not S8-compliant.
Word Count: 337
He never once regrets the decisions that had brought to him where he is. It doesn’t matter to him that he’s the last in his line and unless destiny has other plans for him, he’ll remain that way.
Despite the lack of regrets, it doesn’t stop those restless nights where he tosses and turns, unable to find sleep. Sometimes during those nights he finds himself overwhelmed with the what ifs, might have beens and possibilities that became closed to him once he became an active Watcher.
Giles thinks that if he and Jenny had had a few more years together in their courtship that they might have ended up married with a child or two. There are times when it’s late at night and he’s sought comfort in a bottle of aged whiskey that he can just imagine a dark-haired girl with Jenny’s carefree smile.
And then there’s Olivia. If only he could have let go of his honour and become the man she had desired him to be. There are times when the bottles nearly empty, that maybe, just maybe, he could have let go of his life in Sunnydale, abandoned Buffy, and deceived himself long enough until even he believed that Olivia was all that he wanted and needed in life. Deep down, Giles knows that if he had done that Olivia still wouldn’t have been happy. After all, the man she had fallen in love with and bade a teary-eye goodbye to had been a man of honour.
As he watches, Buffy, Xander and Willow as they share a private moment with each other before they all climb back aboard the bus, Giles realizes that he doesn’t regret the life he’s chosen. The late-night fantasies are simply that. They’re not regrets. It doesn’t matter that it’s highly unlikely that another Giles will follow in his footsteps because when he looks at Buffy with her bright smile, laughing at something that Xander said while Willow wraps her arms around his waist, he sees his family.
((END))