Giles breathed deeply through the mask. Xander fussed over his covers like a mother hen then perched on the end of Giles’ bed looking anxiously at the clock and then at the Watcher’s face.

"Don’t you dare call Buffy!" Giles glared as Xander glanced at the phone. "She’ll be sleeping and she has early shift tomorrow." He removed the mask. "See? I’m fine! I had a bad dream and fell out of bed-"

"Dreaming of Willow again" Giles gave him a sharp look and Xander ploughed on. "You called her name, and you fell out of the bed because?"

"She was leaving me." He swallowed and held his head in his hands. "All those years Xander! Where did she go? I searched… I hunted–" Giles’ voice faltered as a fat tear raced down his cheek. He shuddered and fell back against his pillows. "I want to hold her, to love her, to see her hair glinting in the sun. I would die happy if I saw her just once more."

Xander stared at the coverlet and let his mind travel back to the last time he’d seen Willow. She stared out of the back of a bus with Tara at her side, both girls wept. He had raced after the bus shouting her name but had to stop and stood helplessly in the middle of traffic as half his life disappeared before him.

"Do you want some tea before I go, G–man?"

Giles lifted his head and smiled. "You’ve not called me that in years Xander. Tea would be very welcome thank you." He sniffed and grabbed a tissue from the box at his bedside.

When Xander called him for tea and breakfast Giles had dressed in his “visiting” clothes. He checked the calendar in the kitchen. "Ah, It’s the Children’s ward today, so you’ll be under my feet all day hmm?" Giles gave him a sideways glance and smiled.

Xander watched Giles as they approached the hospital. The change in his face as he practiced the glamour was subtle, but it smoothed out the ravages of his illness. He did this every time he visited the children to enthral them with his magical tales.

Xander cursed as his beeper went just as he parked in his space. "Damn! No coffee for me, Buffy wants me in the morgue." His face darkened as he mentally went through the list of his patients there was no one critical. So why does she want me there? "Giles, can you take yourself to the ward? I’ve got to sort this mess out." Xander hopped out of the car and ran through the hospital doors.

Giles opened the car door and locked the vehicle before proceeding to the hospital at a more leisurely pace.

"Buffy? Buffy!" Xander called as he stepped into the morgues cool interior. He shivered, he always did when he entered Spikes domain. Even for their Friday night poker game. He never liked this place, it reminded him of his failings as a doctor. But give Spike his due, whenever a child died he would lay them out with the utmost care and was an artist when preparing a body to be claimed and an expert in saying just the right thing to grieving relatives.

Xander gasped and whirled round when he heard a gentle step in the silent room.

"Wil–low?" The broken name and emotion that swelled in his chest when he saw her standing before him was almost too much to bear. He rushed to take her in his arms to make his dream a reality. He felt her frail body, light against his, and let go his fierce hug.

"Xander!" She smiled through her tears and allowed him to lead her into Spike’s living room where the vampire had left them some tea and snacks. Willow sat with her legs curled beneath her and a shawl round her shoulders, warming her hands on her tea mug.

"Where did you go? Giles is gonna be so glad you’re back!" Xander hastily put his mug down on the table and was half way to get him when she stopped him.

"No Giles! Perhaps when I’m a little stronger, Xander."

He sat down again and let himself bathe in the reality of Willow.

Gradually over the course of an hour, Xander found out her hiding out in San Francisco, about Tara’s death and her marriage to Gareth Ffoulkes, an English diplomat. They had a son Rupert, who unfortunately died when he was just a toddler. Little Rupert’s death destroyed her husband and shortly afterward he was involved in a car crash. His injuries were bad enough to warrant a blood transfusion. They found out later that the blood was tainted with HIV. Gareth contracted full-blown AIDS and infected Willow as well. She was all alone and surviving on her will power and resolve.

Xander’s smile quivered and his eyes brimmed with tears. Willow had plenty of that! He cupped her face with his hand and whispered "Brave little toaster…"

She smiled and snuggled into his hand. Xander was her rock. She knew she was home when Xander was at her side. His beeper sounded and she jumped then laughed as he did too.

"I’m sorry, I’m needed in the O.R. I’ll be back though. Buffy and Spike will be about won’t they?"

Willow nodded and shooed him away smiling after him. Her face resumed it’s wistful expression, the one she fell into whenever she thought of Rupert senior. She would do anything to hold him and to see him just once more.

Giles surveyed the room; his audience had swelled since the sessions began three months ago when Buffy had suggested he go down to children’s to get a refill of resolve when his own was flagging. The first story he told he could barely focus on the book. But the children listened and begged him for more, and as he began to feel better, he could show them small tricks and illusions to illustrate his stories. Today he was retelling an old favourite "Witches and Were-Wolves."

"There was once a great castle surrounded by high rose briars and honeysuckle, the walls were thick and ancient, weather worn and drafty. Inside the castle walls there lived two witches, one with hair the colour of corn on a summers day and the other with hair of fiery red." He paused for the youngest to stop fidgeting.

"Were they bad witch’s?"

Giles’ gaze fastened on a small child in the front with a tube into his chest. "No they were good, only casting spells to help the hopeless and baffle the bad." Giles confided pausing with a twinkle in his eye. He waved his hand before him and a scene appeared.

There stood Willow and Tara in long velvet robes they walked in a garden in the sunlight. Suddenly a black clad figure leapt over the wall, he was slender with bright silver hair and pointed ears, he resembled Spike. He proceeded to tell the witch’s of a Were-wolf in distress and both gathered their magic together and clambered over the wall. Unfortunately, they fell straight into a hay wagon and were spirited away.

"A–hem!" A cough from the doorway informed Rupert of the arrival of his Slayer and the imminent surgery for one of the assembled children. He glanced over to the bed in the corner and got to his feet.

He followed Buffy over to the small child’s bedside and kept a quiet vigil while she consulted with the child’s parents. He pushed a stray lock of red hair from the girl’s eyes and his own stung as her ashen skin felt cool beneath his fingers. He looked at Buffy and then back to the child, he couldn’t let this happen.

He leant into the bed, picked the girl up, and cradled her on his lap. He read the label on her wrist and sat down by the bed. He rested his chin atop her head and began to sing beneath his breath.

"What the Hell are you doing with my little girl? You pervert!"

Buffy whirled round from speaking to the mother to find the father about to punch Giles’ lights out.

Giles stopped singing abruptly and the girl continued the song opening her eyes as she came to the last note.

"She was sleeping." Giles explained in a weak voice. "She’ll be fine now. " He set the girl down on the ground and she walked shakily over to her parents. Giles also stood and walked out of the ward.

Buffy caught up with him at the water fountain, his hand shook as he drank from the paper cup. He looked suddenly old and Buffy was frightened. She swallowed the lump in her throat and forced a sardonic smile to her lips.

"You’ve got to stop doing that y’know, you’ll put me out of a job!" she searched his face for signs of recovery and found none. "You gave too much this time, Rupert. You said you wouldn’t heal the ones who were too far gone. You promised me after the last time!"

Giles flinched at the hurt in her voice. He finished his drink and crushed the cup. "I’m tired Buffy and she’s never coming back." He thrust his hands into his pockets and turned away his mind filled with visions on Willow and the child who looked so much like her.

The Slayer’s tears coursed down her cheeks as her mouth hardened into a determined line. Time to get these two together. Not even Giles could resist the combined power of a Slayer, a Vampire and a Xander!

End of part 4

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