Who: Giles and Faith Where: The hospital When: Friday afternoon
It was days like this when Rupert Giles wondered how much stress one man could handle. He was the defacto head of the new Watcher's Council, merely because most of the others had been murdered. It was up to him now to restart and rebuild a tradition that was not only eons-long, but completely necessary. Add to that the planning of this upcoming showdown with Wolfram & Hart (which had Ashton half-snarkily proclaiming 'Remember the Alamo' whenever he passed Giles), and now having to visit his Slayer, who'd nearly been killed, in the hospital. Not a great day to be Giles, in other words. Still... as fitting for him, he never let anyone else see the stress, and walked into her hospital room as if nothing was any different than any other day. His suit was nice, his voice pleasant, a polite enough expression on his face... he looked at her and tried not to frown. "...good afternoon, Faith."
Faith opened her eyes and looked at Giles when he spoke. Even though he was wearing the nice suit and speaking in a nice tone, she knew that he had to be under a lot of stress. She knew that everything was kind of falling in on all of them at once. "Hey Giles," she said, giving him a slight smile. "Faith..." he said, his voice dipping in volume as he walked toward her, gently brushing his hand across her forehead. "I know I say this every time I come in here... but we're going to get Candice. I promise."
"I know," Faith said. "I still say that Wolfram & Hart led her astray. She wouldn't have done anything like this without them leading her along by the nose. She's an idiot, but I don't think she's really evil." Faith sighed. "I mean, if I hadn't gotten assigned to you, who knows? I could have done the same thing."
"Well... we'll never know now, will we?" He asked, trying to keep something of a light mood. He knew he also held Wolfram & Hart responsible... and despite what he might tell the others, he and Lindsey were going to have a reckoning. And if he had his way? The lawyer might not be coming back from it.
"No, I guess not," Faith said, looking down at her hands for a moment. "The doctor says that I'm making a miraculous recovery. I should be able to go home soon."
"Yes. Well. I would suppose most doctors aren't accustomed to seeing healing like you girls are capable of..." He really wasn't sure how to break this next part to her. "Faith... under no circumstances are you going into battle with us."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Now that was something that she hadn't expected. "I got gutted and now you're telling me that I can't fight? Why? Isn't this exactly what I'm supposed to do and junk?"
Now, in all the time they'd spent together, even when she'd purposely pissed him off, he'd never yelled at her. Not ONCE. So this... had to be both suprising an off-putting. "Because I bloody well say so, that's way!" He yelled, before turning around, sighing.
Faith actually jumped when he yelled at her. Honestly, she wasn't all that sure that he was capable of shouting. The jumped actually made the wound in her stomach twinge a little, which caused her to reach and grab for it and wince without thinking. "That's not a good reason and you know it, Giles," she said through gritted teeth. "I'm better than half those girls going."
"Yes. You are." He said, closing his eyes, turning again so he wouldn't have to look at her. "But I almost lost you, Faith. You're going to go into this with a vendetta. And it will make you reckless. And I can't lose you, Faith." His tone made his meaning clear. He wasn't talking about losing his Slayer... he was talking about losing family.
She sighed. It was very clear just what he was talking about. Faith hadn't had anyone consider her much of anything in so long that she wasn't even sure what to think when he said that. "You think I want you going into that battle?" she asked, finally. "Do you think I want to lose you?"
"I won't be in the battle." He said, flatly. And he wouldn't be. Not in the line of fire, anyway. He was going directly for Lindsey.
"Liar," she said, looking directly at him. "I know what you're planning to do, because I know I'd do it if the situation was reversed. So, don't play me, Giles. You're going after him."
He notably didn't deny that... even if he didn't directly acknowledge it, either. It was clearly something he wasn't planning on telling the others. "As I said... I won't be in the battle."
"Bullshit," Faith said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You know that he's going to have some crazy voodoo tricks up his sleeves." Of course, even she admitted that she didn't really know what Giles was capable of. However, she knew, unlike most of the others, that he was capable of a lot more than he let on.
"We... can talk about this once you're home." He knew there was no convincing her... and that he might have to take more severe steps to keep her out of this. He wouldn't lose her, even if it meant doing something that might take her a while to forgive him for.
"Well, that might be sooner than you think," she pointed out to him. She wasn't going to be in here forever, after all. Let's see him keep her out of this battle once she had gotten out of here.
"For now... just get better, alright?" He asked, that flustered tone creeping into his voice again... the one usually reserved for when he was beginning to realize that nothing he said was going to influence her.
"That's what I'm working on right now," Faith said to him. She knew that they were probably going to have a huge fight once she got out of here, but she was prepared to back up her argument as necessary.