Author's Notes: Just a quick note to say that I know there are two OC's that seem to be too close to the focus of the story but it's temporary, once everything is explained the focus will remain on our couple!

Disclaimer: I don't own it

Final reward 4

"Good, excellent form." Giles nodded at the younger slayer performing katas in front of him. He had watched Rebecca and Frederick's training routine and accessed the team as they went through warm up, work out and cool down. "Now let's see what you're like under a bit of pressure."

"Such as?" Frederick asked.

"Well, all her skills are fine, excellent in fact but you find that not many vampires follow a particular martial art form and also it looks like you two have done that exact routine enough times to know it by heart. You've done a good job training a potential Frederick but not you're not training a potential now, you're training a slayer." Giles told him. "Now she needs to be a bit more prepared for well...anything."

"I suppose she'll also need more training in focus now that she has supernatural abilities." Frederick nodded. "What do you suggest next?"

"Buffy can introduce a few pointers on her supernatural senses on a patrol, I think it would be easier explained from slayer to slayer and then you can explain in a bit more detail to uses and work with her on it from there." Giles told the older man. "She's your slayer of course and you get the final say on her training but I do think it would benefit her to work with Buffy."

"And for the combat?" the older man asked. "You think I should mix the styles a bit more?"

"Perhaps. Would you mind?" Giles asked, gesturing to the staffs.

"No, not at all go ahead." With the consent of the other watcher Giles passed a staff to Rebecca and lifted the other for himself.

"On three we will begin." he told her. "I want you to try to disarm me or to push me out of the marked area. One. Two. Three."

Buffy watched as the younger girl went straight for a low blow to knock her watcher off balance but he saw her move coming with plenty of time to avoid it. It took only fifty-seven seconds for her watcher to disarm Rebecca. She couldn't help the slight swell of pride she felt at that. Her watcher...he really was something.

"You rely to much on the familiar." he told the younger girl. "And on your strength alone. You aren't likely to beat me today, once you get the hang of it you will of course but today you won't. You are so used to the same moves that a new opponent has thrown you off. That is why you're going patrolling with Buffy tonight. You will have the chance to take on several different vampires perhaps even a demon or two. Each one will be different and if you struggle Buffy will be there."

"So, have you ever killed a vamp before?" Buffy asked, wandering over to Rebecca.

"No. They don't let you near a vampire for real until you're over eighteen unless you've been called. If you haven't been called you have to sign paperwork!" Harriet replied in horror. "I only turned eighteen last week so I haven't got there yet."

"Well looks like tonight's your lucky night. And you?" Buffy glanced at the girls watcher.

"Four, all in controlled circumstances of course." he replied. "But we shall hope it doesn't come down to me eh?"

"Right..." Buffy trailed off. Once again she felt grateful that Giles had been her watcher.

"Don't relax too soon Buffy, your turn." Giles spoke up gesturing for her to pick up the fallen staff. "Can't have you slacking off on your training in front of the new slayer now can we?"

"I wasn't slacking Giles I was dead." she replied bluntly.

"You chose to stay when you were back in the desert so now lets see if you still remember everything." he said. "Until one yields?"

"My favourite kind." she grinned.

"Ready. Go." with that their staffs met in the blink of an eye. To the pair observing them they were a marvel. Neither seemed to be holding back. Giles was the first disarmed but still managed to use his slayers own momentum to knock her down and acquire her weapon. He held the defensive as she kicked the staff against his chest. It wasn't until Buffy had him pinned on his front with his face to the mat, after they had grappled around on the ground for a while, that he finally shouted out. "Alright, I yield. Happy?"

"Very." she grinned, hopping off of him and offering him a hand up. "Ouch. I think you actually bruised me, watcher-mine."

He chuckled as she rubbed her lower back.

"Well that makes me feel rather old." Frederick murmured. "Good show Rupert, you're certainly more spry than I was at your age."

"Her watcher doesn't care about her." Buffy said quietly as they left the Magic box.

"He cares Buffy but...he is a bit of a council traditionalist. His duty is to train, advise and watch. It is hers to fight." Giles explained.

"How did I get so lucky?" she smiled softly taking his hand in hers as they walked.

"I would say it was more the council's own doing." he said with a bit of a smirk. "They knew that you were untrained and also wilful and...unique. So they sent the black sheep watcher to you hoping we'd both die pretty quickly and that the next slayer would be one of their pretrained and moulded girls."

"Black sheep?" she asked. "What on earth did you do?"

"You mean besides rebel in my youth, turning my back against then and dabbling in black arts? Or perhaps it was having my own opinions? It could have been when I started fighting with my slayer and caring about her beyond whether she lives or dies, or perhaps it could have been letting civilians get involved - teenagers no less? Of course then their was your eighteenth birthday. First I refused, then I threatened Quentin and then when I was forced to go through with it, I tell you about it before you can take the test. Are you surprised they sacked me?" he asked.

"So they paired us up to die and we show them what for?" she grinned. "I got the best watcher of the lot."

"The best watcher wouldn't have let his slayer die not once bit twice." he murmured.

"You would have gone in my place both times if it would have worked." she said confidently. "That makes you the best. You make me feel like I'm more than just a slayer, even if I still get a short life...at least I get to feel like I meant something."

"You mean everything." he said honestly. Buffy beamed up at him and leant up on tiptoes to kiss him briefly. "W-well I suppose we should get you home to Dawn."

"Yeah." she nodded. "I should probably apologise for how I've been acting huh?"

"It wasn't your fault Buffy. As long as you're alright now then Dawn will be happy." he told her as he opened the car door for her.

"Yeah, I'm alright." she nodded, and for the first time in a long time, she actually meant it. "I'm not leaping cartwheels or anything but I'm feeling better than I have in ages."

"I'm glad." he said as he closed the door. He made his way around and got in himself. "It'll take time."

"And we get to share the news of our shiny new gift." she grinned. "I like her, she seems pretty normal...for a slayer that is."

"She didn't begin training as a potential until she was fifteen so she's only had three years under the council's influence." he explained. "She seems to look up to you already, hopefully you two will get along swimmingly."

The journey to Revello Drive didn't take long and before she knew it she was hovering at the door nervously.

"Buffy?" he enquired, noticing her hesitation.

"Willow's here...I forgot about that, I don't want her to be looking at me like she expect me to be magically fixed." she sighed. She pushed the door open anyway. "Dawn? We're back!"

"Hey guys." Willow smiled as she came through from the kitchen. "All better Buffy? You look better."

"No Will, not all better." she replied before heading upstairs to find Dawn.

"Giles, is something wrong with Buffy?" the witch asked him, staring after her friend.

"You didn't contact her first, you didn't ask her permission." he told her.

"I didn't think I needed to ask permission to save a life." she replied defensively.

"You didn't save her life Willow, Buffy was already dead. She had moved on and you brought her back without trying to contact her first. You invoked forces that you had no right to and yes you brought Buffy back but at what price?" he asked staring down at her.

"We already dealt with the price. A stupid parasite type spirit that came back with her." she told him smugly. "Already fixed."

"And Buffy? You don't think that this has shaken her up at all?" he asked calmly, even though inside he was seething.

"Well she came back from hell, Angel took time, Buffy will too." she replied, looking slightly less sure of herself.

"Do you know what she was offered in the desert? The higher powers offered her the chance to died again and return to where she was, or to remain here. You ripped your friend from heaven because you didn't think to ask first. Her suffering now is because of you." he hissed. He hoped Buffy would forgive him for letting her secret out but Willow of all people needed to know. If there was a way to stop the path that she was on then this was it.

"Oh God..." Willow gasped, her knees gave out and he crouched down to her level to make sure that she was alright. "I didn't know...God Buffy..." He placed his hand on her shoulder as she cried. "What am I going to do?"

"Give her space and time, use that time to consider your actions. You need to work on how you use magic." he told her. "You have a natural talent, a natural gift for it but you've already tapped into something so dark it will have tainted the magic you have. You need to relearn magic the right way, from people who know it."

"And that's you is it?" she practically slat at him.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. There are better people than me to teach you." he told her. "Much of my own magic was taken from me by the council when I returned after my youth, it was tainted and they couldn't trust me with it so it was taken. I have been where you are Willow and I made some awful mistakes that I do not wish to see you repeat. Mine ended in death of a friend, is that where you want yours to lead?"

"Of course not, how can you ask me that?" she asked.

"I know a place, its about a five hour drive away but there's a coven there that maybe you and Tara should visit for a few days? You can ask them all questions, get the opinions of someone other than me and they can help you." he told her. "It's certainly worth a try at least, I think Buffy would appreciate that you're trying and also a couple of days of space."

"You want me gone?" she asked sadly.

"Of course not." he replied picturing the shy girl that used to spend so much time in the library. "But Buffy is the one who has been wronged, she has to gradually find things worth living for, things that bring her happiness. In heaven comfort and love is just there, in life it is fleeting. She needs to relearn how to live and it will take time. I think she needs to sort things out with Dawn first and to do that properly I think she needs you and Tara to take a step back."

He felt her flare of magic at her anger and hurt. She was worse than he had thought she was but he decided saying so was an extremely bad idea. He decided that he too should take the time to relearn his magic's, the right way this time not the way he had in his youth. Perhaps he would be of further use to Willow and Buffy if he did...

"I'm going to go and check on them. Perhaps you should go and have a talk with Tara, see what she thinks?" he suggested before heading upstairs himself.

He found Buffy and Dawn curled up on Dawn's bed in tears.

"Dawn, I love you." Buffy kept whispering to her.

"I'm sorry." Dawn sobbed.

"You didn't know and you didn't do anything Dawn." she told her. "We'll get through this. I'll do better now I swear but it's going to take a while to be the Buffy everyone wants me to be alright?"

"She chose to stay Dawn." he spoke from the doorway causing both sisters to look at him. "They offered her a chance to go back but she chose to stay, I would say that's a very big step in the right direction. I've never been so proud."

"You could've died again?" Dawn asked quietly.

"But I'm not, I'm staying here with you." Buffy told her firmly. "I got another reward instead."

"Reward?"

"A new slayer. There's a new slayer." Buffy told her pulling back to look at her sister seriously. "Giles and I are going to whip her and her watcher into shape and she's going to share the work load."

"Is that true?" Dawn asked looking to Giles. He nodded with a smile. "You mean you wont have to patrol every night?"

"For now yes but when the new girl gets the hang of it we can take turns." Buffy nodded. "At least I'll be able to get a job...hopefully."

Dawn leapt up off of the bed and threw her arms around Giles much to Buffy's amusement.

"Thank you! You're a hero, did you know that?" she grinned up at him.

"I didn't do much Dawn, really." he told her fondly, looking a little flushed.

"You came back and you helped." she said adamantly. "When you showed up at the magic box, Buffy hadn't shown that much emotion since she got back...not to anyone. She was really glad to see you, please say you're staying."

"I would think the fact that I have let a house to stay in would imply that I am." he replied.

Then afternoon was a pleasant one, it was just the three of them and Giles treated them to pizza. Buffy wondered what tomorrow would bring and how she would cope, she needed to find a job, face the others and somehow take responsibility for not just hers but Dawn's life. She hadn't been doing very well sit before she died and she'd been even worse since coming back...

The phone ringing interrupted them and Giles rose to answer it.

"Slow down, where are you now?" he asked. Buffy hadn't been listening until she heard the alarm in her watcher's voice. "We'll head over now, you have weapons yes?"

"What's going on?" she asked before he'd hung up the phone.

"We're on our way, do not leave the building." he said.

"Giles what's wrong?"

"Frederick is dead, Harriet is at the Magic shop. She thinks she lost them but she's not certain so we'd better hurry." he told her grimly.

Buffy didn't really know what to say to that so she simply followed him to the door.

"Dawn, be in bed by ten and don't let anyone other than the usual into the house." she told her sister on the way out.

When they reached the Magic Box nothing looked out of the ordinary, Giles unlocked the door and Buffy led the way in carefully.

"Harriet?" Giles called out.

"Oh thank God." a voice came from the back room. They followed it through and found Rebecca stood in the middle of the room with a sword in her hand.

"They obviously didn't follow you here." he observed. "We saw nothing on the way here."

"I broke in through the back door, sorry but I didn't know where else to go to." she told them. "I- I couldn't handle them all. I panicked and I- Frederick he..."

With that she sank to the floor silently.

"Where did it happen?" Buffy asked.

"Just down the road from the hotel. We had just eaten at that Indian place on the corner." she replied gravely staring at her hands. Buffy noticed the blood on her hands and hauled her tk her feet.

"Come on, lets get you sorted." she said leading her through to the small staff bathroom. She helped the younger girl wash her hands and then went and dug out some clean clothes from the bag in the training room. "Here, change your shirt."

"I'm supposed to be the slayer, I failed and he saved me. He died...saving me. Its supposed to be the other way around." she sobbed as tears came out at last.

"I know, I've been there." Buffy told her quietly. "When I first got called Giles wasn't my watcher, my last watcher died to save me from a vampire I wasn't ready to fight. I've never forgiven myself for it."

"I'm supposed to be the slayer, what am I supposed to do now?" she cried.

"You get changed, you get mad and then you come with me. We're going hunting and when we're done...then you can cry." Buffy said. "Get mad, that anger will take away the fear."

With that she headed back to the training room to gather weapons.

"Buffy?" she heard her watcher ask.

"He died saving her because she wasn't ready to take on that many alone." Buffy said angrily as she stuffed extra stakes into her pockets.

"It never leaves does it?" he asked softly knowing that she wasn't angry with Harriet bit with herself. "But whatever you're doing...are you sure its the best thing to do?"

"Nope, I'm not sure. But I think she needs it." she told him. "She needs to face the fear before it eats her alive. So we're going patrolling as planned and taking out those vampires while we're at it."

"And does she want to go?"

"By the time she walks out of that bathroom she'll be mad as hell and ready to go." she nodded. "You probably ought to let the council know, and maybe tell them not to send non-fighters to the hellmouth in future."

"They will send another watcher for her Buffy." he told her. "We don't get to make that choice."

"How about you make a recommendation?" she asked. "A rather firm one since now there's a new slayer technically we could off onto the sunset and leave the hellmouth in the hands of the new girl who hasn't slayed a vampire before."

"Blackmail you mean?" he asked raising his eyebrows. "And who would you recommend? Surely you don't want me to take on Harriet myself?"

"Nope, I want you around for my time off. I was thinking of giving someone else a second chance." she replied.

"Wesley?" he asked his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "You want me to suggest the council reemploy Wesley after they fired him over Faith?"

"I want you to strongly recommend Giles, very strongly recommend." she nodded. "From what I hear he's changed quite a bit and I think he'd be a lot more willing to follow your lead now. The council needs a serious shake up in the watcher requirements, I say lets mould our own watchers."

"You're going to seriously piss of the council one day Buffy." he warned her.

"Really? You mean I haven't got there yet?" she asked. "Giles the council sit over in England with their books and order around young girls who not only don't know any better but get sent to die! These girls get basically told that if theyre called they'll be dead in a matter of years and no one helps them. No one else is willing to stand there with them every night...I say its time for a rather big change. From now on the council send watchers who fight or none at all."

"Wow...no wonder Travers hates you." Harriet's voice came from the doorway. "Don't get me wrong I'm not exactly his biggest fan but I always tried to stay on his good side...but he really doesn't like you guys. Bet he went spare when you started going out huh?"

"W-what?" Giles spluttered looking tk Buffy for help.

"Don't look at me, I haven't told anyone." she shrugged. "We haven't even gone out together."

"Going out as in dating." Harriet clarified.

"Oh...well we haven't gone on a date yet. So we haven't told anyone anything." she shrugged then got a wicked grin. "Can I tell him? Please?"

"No." he replied. "But on the subject on the council I should report to them. I trust I don't need to tell you to be careful?"

"Giles if I had a death wish I would have taken the offer." she grinned. "I have to live long enough to find out what Travers thinks of my new guy. Oh and could you head back to the house? You know with Dawn alone...I don't know how long patrol will take so there's no point you waiting around here for us "

Giles just rolled his eyes and headed to the front of the shop where the phone was.

"Let's do this." Buffy nodded to the younger girl and led her out. "Lead the way."

"Cordelia good you're there, is Welsey around?"

"Giles? Yeah he's here. The world isn't ending is it?" she asked.

"Not today no." he replied with a smile.

"Hello? Mr. Giles?"

"Wesley how many times must I tell you to call me Giles or Rupert?" he sighed.

"Yes, sorry. Can I help with something?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, I hope so." he told him before explaining the situation.

The phone call with the council hadn't gone particularly smoothly until he pointed out that the last watcher that they sent didn't last twenty-four hours on the hellmouth and that the new slayer was terrified of vampires so if Buffy decided to leave then things wouldn't look too good. Eventually they agreed to reinstate Wesley on a trial basis but there would be no back pay and they wanted thorough reports from both watchers.

"That was faster than I imagined it would be." Wesley said as he answered the phone for the second time that night. "Do I dare ask what their response to your plan was?"

"Oh they weren't happy of course, but they agreed." Giles replied.

"They did?" the younger man asked in surprise. "What in the heaven's did you say to them to make them do that?

"I mainly relayed what Buffy told me to actually. Her arguments were pretty persuasive." he replied.

"Buffy?"

"Oh yes, this was all her idea." he nodded. "Seems to think you deserve a second chance, if you want it of course."

"She said that?" Wesley asked quietly.

"Buffy seems to see the best in everyone, she sees something in you that makes her believe that you can be for Harriet what I was for her." Giles spoke seriously.

"Was?"

"Nevermind that, I'll be Buffy's watcher officially or not for as long as she wants me." he brushed the explanation of his and Buffy's shift in relationship off. "The fact of the matter is that there is a slayer here, she's good but she's young and inexperienced and she needs a watcher. I could train her but that wouldn't be fair to anyone, she deserves her own watcher, the question is will it be you?"

"When do you want me?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"As soon as you can." he replied.

"Alright, I'll come in a couple of days to give her a chance to grieve for Frederick. I had best make some arrangements."

"The arrangements can wait until you arrive. I have a room spare if necessary for a night or two, you just worry about getting here." he said before hanging up the phone.

He armed himself before leaving the shop just in case and headed back to the Summers residence. He found Dawn still up sat watching TV on the couch.

"Is everything OK? Where's Buffy?" Dawn asked as he walked in.

"Buffy has gone with Harriet on patrol to hopefully track down Fredericks attackers also." he told her. "They'll be back in a few hours."

"So you're on babysitting duty?" she asked.

"Not exactly, Buffy is most likely going to bring Harriet here with her after patrol, at least for tonight." he explained. "So we're all going to convene in the morning I believe to make a more thorough plan, although I for one think it would be best if she stayed with the two of you until her new watcher arrives at least."

"Cool with me as long as I don't get last spot in the bathroom." she shrugged.

Author's Notes: Sooooo one OC is dust already leaving Buffy and Giles with their foot in the door on their way to changing the council. The next chapter will have more Buffy/Giles moments I promise