Title: I Stopped to Say Good-bye
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Buffy, Giles
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers up to the end of season 2

Summary: Buffy’s about to leave Sunnydale, but there’s one stop she has to make before she does.

A/n Birthday fic for

daigranon! Still working on that other fic for you, but I thought I'd take time out and write this fic as a humble apology and happy birthday wish! :) Be warned that it’s been a while since I’ve seen Buffy and it’s been a while since I’ve been in the fandom. That being said, please enjoy and have an incredible birthday!

The battle for the world was over. Again. And like before, Buffy was on top as the victor, but she felt the exact opposite. She may have saved the world, but her world had ended. Buffy thought having Angel turn to Angelus was bad enough, but having him turn back was worse. She got her Angel back, but it was at a price. Once again, she had to sacrifice her own happiness to save everyone else’s, though to add to that, this time her friends also paid quite a heavy price.

Kendra was dead, Willow nearly suffered brain damage and a coma she’d never get out of, Xander’s wrist was broken, and Giles . . . oh god Giles had been tortured. The Slayer had no idea what happened, but she knew he was at least alive. She saw him limping to freedom with Xander’s help out of the corner of her eye while she was fighting Angelus.

Those were the reasons why Buffy decided she had to leave; partly because of her own grief, and partly because she didn’t want anything else terrible to happen to her friends. The Whistler may have been right—she was meant to do this alone. Alone protected those close to her. Anyone who tried to get too close got hurt, and Buffy cared too deeply about her friends to let that happen to them.

She couldn’t say goodbye. Chances were they wouldn’t understand her reasoning, and if she tried to explain it to them it would make it all the more difficult to leave. It was cruel, but this was the only way to protect them.

Buffy would leave Sunnydale, though for how long she didn’t know, only that she had to leave. Get a job somewhere dull and boring (and safe) and do her best to heal. She’d need to sneak into her house and get a few supplies though, and probably some cash to sustain her until she was more settled. Her mom wanted her gone, right?

Yet before she gathered her things, there was one stop she had to make. Buffy knew Willow was awake and lucid and Xander would most likely just have to wear a cast for another month or so—she had no idea how Giles was holding up. Her chest constricted as she speculated on his condition. Giles had been with Angelus for hours; who knew what he did to get her Watcher to talk? Since Angelus knew how to awaken Alfalfa or whatever his name was, then Giles must have talked, and Buffy knew Giles well enough to understand that he would have resisted with everything he had.

Buffy donned her previous beanie disguise and carefully maneuvered her way through the hospital without being seen. She didn’t think the police would still be looking for her, but she couldn’t be too sure. Getting arrested or rather escaping arrest was not something she wanted to deal with now.

Her only problem was that she had no idea which room would be Giles’. She could ask Xander, but then that would lead to too many questions she wasn’t ready to answer. It would also make it that much harder to leave.

Buffy frowned and tapped her foot, scouring the typical waiting room before her as if the answer would be hidden somewhere. If she asked the receptionist directly where to find Giles then there’d be a record of her visit and there was the possibility the cops would be alerted. What else could she do?

Thankfully, the answer appeared in a gangly, freckled, brown-haired teen. The nurse was obviously an intern, and Buffy suspected too much caffeine as the source for the boy’s jittery disposition. That or he really enjoyed working at four in the morning.

A few minutes later and Buffy was directed to Giles’ room. A little bit of lying and a few tears, and she had tricked the intern into taking pity on her. The nurse gave her only five minutes before he would ask her to leave and come back during visiting hours.

Buffy entered the room in trepidation, because her over-the-top concern she used on the intern was only partially faked. Now that most of the adrenaline from saving the world was gone, her initial concern for Giles’ wellbeing came back at full force. She had stayed firm in her belief that he was all right for Willow’s sake, but had been unable to convince herself.

She was at his side before she knew it, sitting in an uncomfortable hospital chair that she had moved as close to Giles as she could get. Buffy swallowed against the lump in her throat and glanced upward for a moment to fight back the burning in her eyes. Thankfully Giles didn’t look too worse for wear, at least from what she could see. Two of his fingers were in a splint and she cringed. The young Slayer had her share of broken fingers over the years but injuring yourself in battle and having to sit there while someone broke them deliberately when you couldn’t do a thing were two completely different things.

What hurt the most though, was the way Giles was quietly moaning in his sleep. It only happened every so often, but his eyebrows were knit together as a testament to some unseen pain. Buffy could tell he had been sedated, but shouldn’t that have meant at least his sleep would be undisturbed? The idea of Giles being unable to escape the torture inflicted upon him even in sleep sent a sharp pain through her chest.

“You’re supposed to be the strong one,” she finally blurted out. “I-I mean, of course you’re strong, how else would you still be alive? What I mean is I—” The words wouldn’t come and Buffy let out a frustrated growl. She stared at her lap for a moment to gather her thoughts and tried again.

“What I mean is that you shouldn’t look like . . . this.” Buffy gestured at his prone form. Giles looked so weak, so lost, so old—it wasn’t right. Even though at times (more often than not) he was quite the stereotypical stuffy librarian in true British fashion, Buffy always saw him as brave. She was stronger than him physically, but that was the only area. He was a constant presence to her raging emotions that unfortunately only came with adolescence and was unfairly heightened with the sheer fact she was a Slayer. It was difficult to maintain a positive attitude with everything going on in her life, but Giles made it bearable.

So to see him looking so . . . unlike Giles made Buffy want to leave. She came to the room for a purpose though, and wasn’t going to back out now. With a deep breath to steel herself, she resumed talking.

“I . . . I can’t tell you how sorry I am that you were hurt. It’s all my fault this happened to you. I should have been able to protect you, but I failed. Just like with Kendra,” she whispered. A stray tear rolled down her cheek and Buffy wiped it away angrily.

She let out a defeated laugh. “And now I’m leaving Sunnydale. You’ll probably think it’s childish of me, but I know I have to do it.” Buffy let out a deep sigh and rubbed her temple. “I won’t be gone forever though, just until I get my head screwed on right again. I will be back, I promise.”

Buffy reached out and grasped Giles’ hand with both of hers, being mindful of his broken fingers. To her delight and surprise, his pained expression smoothed out and he finally looked at peace. It seemed that whatever nightmare had been plaguing him was gone. She lightly stroked the hand with her thumb to comfort him.

“ . . . Buffy,” he muttered.

She froze in alarm, worried that she had somehow woken him up. To her relief, it seemed he was only talking in his sleep. There was a light rap at the door, and Buffy knew her time was up.

“Good-bye, Giles,” she whispered. She gave his hand a small kiss and gently laid it back on the bed. “I’m glad you’re okay. Get better for me, all right?”

With that said, Buffy turned around and didn’t look back. She would return, and she could only pray that those close to her would find it in their hearts to forgive her.

“I’m sorry.”

Hope you liked it! I just love their father/daughter relationship.

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