Title: Speed of Sound
Author: Froxyn
Rating: FRT
Pairing: Buffy/Giles
Timeline: Post-series,
AU.
Synopsis: Giles seems to
have adopted a stray cat.
Author’s Note: Album
fic. Song and lyrics can be found here.
Giles sat on his back porch, a
glass of scotch in one hand, and looked up at the night sky. A stray cat wandered up the steps and meowed
softly. Giles smiled and motioned the
cat forward.
“Come on then.”
The cat had been by each night
for the past two weeks. Each night,
Giles fed the cat…and watched the stars as the cat quietly purred as she ate
her food. Giles had been ready for her
tonight, lowering the bowl of food to the floor as he spoke softly to her.
“Have a good day, did you
Tilly?” He wasn’t sure why he had taken
to calling the cat by that name, but it seemed to fit.
Tilly gave a flick of her tail
and then sat down to her dinner.
Giles watched her, musing about
the changes in his life in the past two weeks.
Two weeks…who would’ve thought that so much could happen in fourteen
days or less? He gently scratched
Tilly’s head and smiled.
The first night Tilly had
arrived, Buffy had called from London.
He hadn’t thought twice about offering to come into the city for
dinner. But, she had surprised him by
declining…stating that she’d rather see the sights of Bath and that she had
already bought her train ticket.
He had held back his laughter
when she had nervously asked if it was alright for her to come down. An hour after they had gotten off the phone,
Tilly had walked through the backyard and up the steps to the back porch. An hour after that, the doorbell had rung.
And thirty minutes after that…he
had held her in his arms as she kissed him.
Just like that, his life had
changed.
He shook his head as he took a
sip of the scotch. No, it hadn’t
changed…it had merely corrected itself.
And with just one kiss, everything that had been in disarray for the two
previous years simply snapped back into place.
Everything became clearer, the
sounds and sights surrounding him sharpened.
The panic he hadn’t even realized that had taken hold dissipated almost
immediately. He felt relaxed, he felt
warm, he felt…at peace. For the first
time since his childhood, he was at peace.
Buffy’s arrival should have
caused an upheaval in his life. He had
expected anger and raised voices…possibly resulting in her storming out of his
house. He hadn’t expected her to sit
there…on his couch…and calmly tell him that she loved him.
At that moment, everything
stopped. The rushing, the voice telling him to let her go…he was sure that his
heart even stopped for a beat or two.
And then he remembered her
smiling at him…telling him to breathe.
So he did. He took a deep breath
and felt everything start to move around him again…albeit at a much slower
pace.
He had asked her if she was
sure. If this was what she really
wanted.
She had smiled, leaning towards
him and gently stroking his cheek as she nodded. She was sure. She was
sure that she’d spent too much time hiding from what had been embedded into her
heart years before. She was tired of
hiding from the love she felt for him.
It was time. Time for her to be truthful…with herself,
with him.
She loved him. Dearly, she loved him. Passionately, she loved him. Then she had kissed him…and he felt her
desire as much as her love. Within
seconds, the walls around his heart crumbled…and he gave in to his love for
her.
Two weeks had passed…each night
Tilly came for dinner, each night he sat on the back porch and looked at the
stars. He smiled as he heard the front
door open and close, the soft sounds of boot soles against the hardwood floor
resonating in the living room.
Each night, she went on patrol. Demons loved Bath…though most of them were of
the non-evil variety, there were still a few that attracted the attention of
the Slayer. Each night, she returned to
him after patrol…and she would bring him his journal.
He looked up as she sat down in
the chair next to him, handing him the leather-bound book and a pen, and smiled
warmly. He took the book and wrote down
his notes regarding her findings on patrol…notes for future Watchers to read
long after he and Buffy were gone.
And then he closed the book and
leaned towards her, kissing her warm, soft lips.
Tilly finished her dinner and
stretched, turning her amber eyes towards the couple. As the kiss deepened, she looked up at the sky…staring at the
stars.
She wasn’t just a cat. But, this man and woman would never
know. They didn’t need to know
that Tilly was, in fact, a Tillanean…and that it was because of her that they
were happy…that their friends were happy…that the world continued to thrive.
Two weeks ago, the beginning of
the end started with a train disaster.
A train travelling from London to Bath jumped the rails. There were no survivors. Giles had lost his Slayer, the woman he
loved but had never told his true feelings to.
And as a result, he locked himself away…and refused to see anyone. He even turned Willow and Xander away.
Six months after the Slayer’s
death, and four months after the Watcher’s sanity slipped for the last time,
the demons rose up and took over Earth.
The Watcher was the last to die…but, he hadn’t even known what was going
on.
Tilly had changed that. She had gone back in time and delayed the
train for fifteen minutes…just long enough for the group of teenagers to safely
push their stalled car from the tracks.
The train never hit the car, therefore it never jumped the rails…and
Buffy arrived safely at Giles’ house.
The birds flew at the speed of
sound as reality slowed for just a moment…what should have been and what now
was finally meeting as one.
He’d always blame the sense of time
slowing for a brief time on the fact that that was the moment when Buffy told
him that she loved him. And Tilly was
just fine with that. She purred softly
and curled up on the porch as Giles stood up and led Buffy inside.
Tilly yawned and closed her
eyes. She’d sleep for a while, but
would leave as the sun came up the following morning. But, she’d come back tomorrow night…and sit with him as he waited
for Buffy to return.
~ End