The Shape Up Ship

[There's a whole host of things Giles imagines he should say to Willow's Warden. Not just bad things but good things, the unrelenting loyalty and support she'd always shown Buffy, something Giles values her for on a personal level greatly. To say nothing of her unfailing attempts to help in the fight against demons.

But there's more. There's a whole line of unforgivably selfish, frankly stupid decisions that she's made, and there's the complication of the fact that it's an addiction, a very real one, and not just being seduced by power. Giles himself feels that he's largely failed her in the way he's addressed it, and that in some world at least she'd died for that causes him a deep, aching grief. Willow is one of his children inasmuch as he allows himself to think of them that way, and he might not be very demonstrative toward them, but he does feel responsibility for them, and her.

So it's with a lot weighing on his mind that he sits in his room and waits for Lucy, staring absently down into a full mug of steaming tea. When she knocks, he gets to his feet and crosses the tiny space to the door to let her in, looking down at her and thinking, They really did assign her to a child, bloody hell. ...Then again, that may have been a stroke of pure wisdom. Willow does have a weak spot for them, and may actually listen to her.

Giles drags himself forcibly out of his thoughts.] Ah, thank you for coming, [he says politely, stepping back out of her way.] I have tea, and... altogether too much to say. [He shakes his head.] I'll endeavor to restrain myself from spilling our life story to you full-formed.