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Giles was scared. More scared than he could remember being in a
long time. The demons' name stared up at him from the page as if
mocking his existence. He couldn't take this to Buffy, her reaction
to it would be too difficult for him to handle at the minute. There
had to be a way for him to deal with this without involving Buffy,
or any of the close friends that she surrounded herself with.
Giles looked up from the book. He hadn't even noticed it getting
dark outside, he hadn't even locked up yet. Giles stood up and
crossed the shop floor to the Magic Boxs' front door. As he looked
up at the window he noticed Buffy and Willow heading into the
Espresso Pump. If they'd finished patrolling for the night it must
have been well past midnight.
Giles looked at his watch, it was one-thirty-seven. How'd he let it
get so late, he hadn't even felt tired until he realised what time
it was, and now the tiredness overwhelmed him. He couldn't trust
himself to drive home without falling asleep and it was too far to
walk. He'd need to bed down in the training room for the night.
And not for the first time, he thought to himself.
Giles briefly considered joining Buffy and Willow for coffee, but
decided that it would be better not to intrude. It could take Buffy
a few hours to come down after patrolling, even if there hadn't been
any real activity. Plus they'd think something was wrong if he
wandered into the Espresso Pump at nearly two in the morning.
Giles' thoughts turned back to the demon that had kept him up this
late. He supposed he could hunt for it himself, as long as he
didn't engage it head on in a dragged out battle. It was worth the
risk to not let Buffy find out.
Giles shook himself out of his thoughts and started to tidy away the
books and notes he'd been researching from when he heard a knock at
the door. It couldn't be a customer this late at night. He looked
out the front window to see Buffy and Willow standing at the door.
Willow waved and smiled at him as if this was the most natural thing
in the world for her to be doing in the middle of the night. They
must have seen the light on, Giles thought, and assumed that he was
still up doing research on Glory.
Giles opened the door to the two of them and both smiled as they
walked past into the Magic Box. "See, told you he was still awake."
Whispered Willow, just loud enough to make sure Giles had heard her.
Giles took his glasses off and started cleaning them, slightly
nervously, as he turned round to face the girls. "So, what can I do
for you? Something interesting happen on patrol?" He asked.
"No, we, well I really, wanted to ask you something." Willow
started.
"And it couldn't wait til morning?" Giles asked.
"Again, no." Willow answered. "It's kinda important and when I saw
the light on I thought we might as well come and ask you now."
"He's gonna say no." Buffy stated, smiling almost inanely at Giles,
confident in her assumption.
Giles could see that this was going nowhere fast so decided to hurry
it along a little so that he might at least get some sleep, "And
what exactly is it that is so important you wanted to ask me gone
past two in the morning?".
Giles glared at Willow and she hesitated before answering, "It's the
Buffybot. I'm pretty sure that I can re-build it and with Glory on
our tails I thought that it would be a good idea to have a decoy
Buffy? Wouldn't it?"
Giles almost stumbled in disbeleif. The Buffybot. How could he
have forgotten about her. It, he corrected himself. This could be
the answer he was looking for. If Willow re-built the Buffybot, it
would only be too obvious that he would have to train it then put it
through it's paces. That could take weeks, more than enough time to
take out the demon. Giles started smiling at Willow, "I think it's
a brilliant idea Willow. Well done, good show."
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