Title: A Spot of Bother (1/5)
Author: Gail Christison

Pairing: Giles/Jenny
Rating: FRT for smoochies
Feedback: Another go at writing something different for me, so I'd love to know how I did :-) chriscln@iinet.net.au
Spoilers: Set in the second season some time after 'Ted'.
Summary: Xander is sick and Giles and Jenny are trying to make some time for themselves. A little romance, a little fun, and hopefully some nostalgic giggles at our characters as they used to be, back when the show was so much more fun :-)
Disclaimer: Joss made them. I just play with them.

Author's note: This is for Shelley's request: For Giles/Jenny with a Snyder element somewhere, Giles surprising Jenny and Jenny teasing Giles. Plus, Wench's additional element was Xander. I couldn't quite work in the Tarot cards. Sorry I'm a little late.

Thanks: Many to Gileswench for quick checks to see if I was on track with a pairing I haven't written for a very long time as well as the extended use of Xander :-)

"Xander, you look terrible."

"Well thanks, Buff. And the bursting with health you're doing...that's just to rub it in, right?"

Buffy frowned. "No, really. Xand, you're white as a ghost and there's...is that sweat?" She touched the beads on his forehead. "Eiww."

Giles looked up from the volume he was pouring over and squinted at the younger man. "Buffy's right. How do you feel?"

"Apart from the headache, the gnawing ache in every muscle in my body and the invisible sauna that's been haunting me for the last two days...? Fine...just peachy," Xander retorted irritably.

Jenny Calendar stopped typing and walked over to the table to lay a slender palm on his brow.

"Febrile. And this temperature's not something to joke about. You should see a doctor, Xander."

He reddened and shook his head. "I'll-I'll be fine. Really. Don't worry about me."

Everyone frowned except Willow, who was watching Xander with an expression that was a cross between profound empathy and pity.

"Really, Xander, you don't know what you might have caught in those caves. You should see a doctor as soon as possible. Would you like someone to go with you...or...or I could call your parents...?" Giles offered kindly.

Xander shot out of his chair like it was red hot. "NO! No, it's okay, you guys. Thanks for the caring...but I'll be fine. Now...um...I have to get to class," he said in a rush and was gone before anyone could even blink.

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "Xander rushing to class...now we know he really is sick."

"He really is sick," Willow said forlornly. "But he won't go to the doctor. His parents don't have health insurance and it's not like... Well, the only time Xander has money of his own is if he gets a part time job...y'know, like his paper route when we were kids, box boy at the supermarket...or once he tried cutting grass...but that didn't really work out...his dad's lawnmower was a death-trap and really stinky...a-and the other stuff...with the hose and the sprinkler system a-and the ...well, it really wasn't Xander's fault, honest..."

Jenny frowned. "Well, he can't just walk around like that with a temperature that's gotta be at least a hundred and two, or even three. Much longer and he's not going to be walking anywhere. Rupert?"

Giles turned to the others. "Buffy, Willow, you have classes," he looked at his watch, "in about ten minutes, and Snyder's been on the warpath all week. You can't afford to miss any more. Miss Calendar and I will see to Xander. I suggest you get moving if you're going to get to get there in time."

"Take care of him, Giles," Willow begged over her shoulder as the two of them more-or-less obediently headed off to class, Buffy's pout out in full force until the doors swung open. She turned momentarily. "Like Will said. Being sick sucks beyond the telling of it. I can...um...I have money saved i-if..."

"It's all right, Buffy. We'll take care of it. Go," he said gently and returned her faint smile before watching her turn and follow Willow to class. Then he turned to his companion. "Do we know what class Xander was haring off to?"

Jenny rolled her eyes. "Right. Xander Harris and calculus? Or the alternative...ancient history?"

Giles pinched the bridge of his nose. "Quite right. Then we have to work out where he's gone...or wait for him to resurface."

"Or we could try the school cafeteria..."

He lifted his head and rolled his eyes in his own turn. "Now why didn't I think of that?"

The cafeteria was mostly deserted but for a scattering of students with free periods and a rumpled pile of clothes in one corner, which upon closer inspection turned out to be a dozing Xander nursing a can of Sprite and a half-eaten muffin.

He didn't stir until Giles' hand rested on his shoulder.

"Xander?"

"Uh? Wha...? Oh, Giles. My...um...class was cancelled."

There were dark circles under his eyes and his hair was damp and matted at the temples and around his ears.

"Xander, you need to see a doctor. Who is your family physician?"

The boy looked reluctant for a long moment, then shrugged. "For as long as I can remember my 'family physician' has had a big sign on their office that says 'Emergency Room'. Actually it's more like *my* very, very occasional, nay rare, choice of 'physician'. My dad's choice of succor is 'shut up and stop being such a baby...'" He stopped, self-conscious again, and shrugged stiffly. "Bu-u-t then that's a whole 'nother story..."

*******

"Look, Giles, I can deal. My mom'll bring fruit punch...and possibly even open a can of soup. No problem," Xander croaked as they drove away from the hospital. "It's not like I have anything exotic or mystical."

Jenny snorted. "Two and a half hours in Emergency to have some schmuck intern tell us that it 'appears' you've got a virus."

"Indeed. One would have thought they would have at least tried to ascertain what kind of virus...or bacteria, is causing the illness," Giles agreed, for once not repressing his own irritation. "Given the number of extremely unpleasant options these days I would have thought it essential."

Xander shifted uncomfortably. "Uh...unpleasant? Extremely? As in...?"

It was Giles' turn to snort. "Yes, well, what if you have resistant pneumonia, meningitis, or meningococcal disease, or something else equally unfortunate? The efficiency of the American hospital system appears to be even more suspect than England's, and believe-you-me that is saying something."

Xander went from dazed wide-eyed-ness to a deep furrow in his brow. "Wait, isn't meningo-whassis the one on all the news shows...with the flesh eating and...?"

"Something like that," Jenny confirmed dryly, "but don't take too much notice of him, Xander. He's still working on his bedside manner. You've probably just got a major case of the flu. Look on the bright side, you should stay in bed for at least the next few days."

Xander, still pale, rolled his eyes. "Yeah, really bright side, in which half my possible school-ditching falls on a weekend..." He stopped, acutely aware that he wasn't in any mood to elicit more pity, accidentally or otherwise. "Never mind. But I still think you should take me home. Even if my mom forgets to check on me for days at a time which...no big...I'll still have my own bed, my music and the phone if anyone needs me..."

He was still objecting when they reached Giles' flat.

"It's all right, Xander. I'll be awake long after you've gone to sleep, fear not. In order to be available with the least disturbance, should Buffy require my help, I'll take the couch. It's quite comfortable really," Giles informed him, not the least convincingly, as Miss Calendar helped him across to the stairs.

At the base of the steps, Xander looked up. "I'm sleeping in Giles' bed? God, the therapy bill is going to be out of control." He swayed a little and turned to the very nice smelling woman taking much of his weight. "I'm guessing you wouldn't be interested in carrying me?"

Giles was there in time to catch him as he passed out and to carry him up the stairs, a blood vessel clearly pulsing at his temple from the effort by the time he reached the landing. Xander was no lightweight.

"Is he all right?" he asked softly once Jenny had fixed the bed, settled him and checked all his vital signs.

"I'm no doctor...but his pulse is strong and his eyes are fine...his breathing's deep and regular and his color's good...well, as good as it gets with a fever...flu... whatever. I'd say he'll be coming around pretty soon."

Right on cue, Xander murmured 'Buffy' in a blatantly amorous way, and opened his eyes.

"What happened?"

Jenny looked amused. "You fainted."

"Yes. Try to get some sleep," Giles muttered, not nearly so amused, and headed back downstairs."

"Some dream, huh Xander?"

He turned crimson as he watched an amused Jenny Calendar follow the librarian out, before sleep claimed him again, right in the middle of a mutter of 'oh just great'.

"Can I get you some tea?" Giles asked, removing his glasses as Jenny joined him again in the living room.

She moved close and took hold of his lapels. "Not tea," she said playfully and leaned up to catch his sensuous mouth.

The kiss lasted for a very long time, moving from 'hello' to exploration, to urgent and demanding...and threatened to overflow into more than either them had planned on. They both lifted their heads, breathing hard, and flushed.

"Well..."

Jenny traced the laughter lines radiating out from his left eye. "More like 'whoa' and 'yeah', England. But our timing is lousy."

"Indeed." Giles moved uncomfortably, aware just how lousy their timing was...or at least the timing of Xander's virus. "About that tea...?"

"Tea," she chuckled. "Okay. But I'm coming to help you make it," she added, watching appreciatively as he shed his coat to reveal only the royal blue striped shirt beneath it. He looked beyond good in blue. She sighed inwardly. After the kiss in the library she wasn't sure how much longer she wanted to wait to be with him.

The tea making took two to three times as long as planned, interleaved as it was with more kisses and Jenny's playful hand down the back of his trousers while he was adding biscuits to a glass platter. It did nothing to cool his rapidly overheating libido to feel her warm fingers cupping his right buttock appreciatively while she nibbled on his ear. Again, he turned and took her in his arms. "You are incorrigible," he whispered against her lips and kissed her hard, drinking his fill and bursting to show her exactly how much he loved her.

When they parted, Jenny smiled up at him. "I like being incorrigible. You're so cute when you blush...and even cuter when you get that dangerous glint in your eye. It's like you're you, but the guy who had Ethan by the scruff isn't that far away. Kind of exciting, and maybe a little scary if I didn't know you better."

Giles subsided a little as he carried the tea tray to the living room. "Are you sure you know me, Jenny?" They sat down together on the couch. "What I do...who I am...it's a great deal to ask...and Ethan was right...I may be the person you know now...but I was also the Ripper he knew...and that person's still inside of me. Fortunately Ethan, and my father, are still the only people who can reach that part of me these days." He closed his eyes as her gentle fingers smoothed over the divot in his brow.

"We all have secrets, Rupert. Some worse than others. I do know you...and I'm not afraid of him, or of you," she said softly, pulled the tie knot undone, and undid his top two buttons.

He shivered as her warm hand slid inside the shirt and began exploring the soft hair on his chest.

"Jenny..."

"Rupert..."

She closed her eyes as he hijacked their love-making, drinking in the strong mouth, exploring the sensitive spot at the back of her earlobe and trailing down her throat with equal talent. When his lips reached the cleft of her breasts above the round-necked blouse she was wearing, she shuddered. She could feel him...the man Rupert no longer wanted to be...could feel the strength, the sureness he brought to the gentle man she'd fallen in love with. It also made her wonder just how terrible the Eyghon incident must have been to move the man he was to reinvent himself so thoroughly.

The next time they paused, Rupert lifted his mouth from a creamy breast and looked down at her, green eyes flashing with fire, passion and a near-earthshaking love. It took her breath.

"Hey," she said shakily. "That's not fair."

"What?" he asked, suddenly concerned.

"I'm supposed to be making you squirm," she complained.

He chuckled. "Ah. Sorry about that." He drew himself up, smoothing her hair as she sat up along side him and leaned on his bicep. "I want you so very much, but not here, not like this...and most of all not with Xander Harris upstairs."

"Tea's getting cold," she observed whimsically. "We could make more...it was kinda fun last time."

He couldn't help giggling again. "Yes, it was, wasn't it? I shall freshen up the pot while you check on our patient." He bent his head and caught her full lips in another red-blooded kiss before getting up and heading for the kitchen.

Jenny blinked, desire of a magnitude she'd never felt before pulsing in her veins.

"Oh...dear lord," she murmured, realized who she was channeling, smiled and shifted, even more aroused. It took a couple of moments of composure before she was able to get up and go to check on Xander. He was sleeping peacefully.

If not for the unmistakable sexual tension arcing and sparking at intervals, the tea taking might have seemed peaceful and uneventful to anyone else.

"Willow," Jenny said suddenly.

"Willow?" Giles echoed, an octave higher than normal. "I-I don't understand?"

"She can come over and baby-sit for a couple of hours."

Giles looked at once hopeful and dismayed. "This is a sick house. We don't know what Xander has and it wouldn't be fair to expose someone else to it."

"That's the point," Jenny persisted. "If anything, Willow's probably been more exposed than either of us. She spends way more time with him than we do and it sounds like he's been having symptoms for several days at least."

"Oh," he said, sitting back, then slowly smiled. "Well, if you put it that way. Do you still have that beeper-thingy?"

Jenny nodded and grinned like a Cheshire cat.

*******

Jenny unlocked her apartment door with clumsy fingers, something she wasn't used to. It wasn't helping that the warm body of the man she adored was pressed up against her back and his velvet lips were kissing the hollow where her neck met her shoulder.

Once inside she turned into his arms and was lost again for the longest time in the rush of passion and the pleasure that came from being part of a moment made up of just two people, completely consumed by each other.

"Do you think Willow suspects?" she finally asked, leaning her brow against a chest that was soon moving up and down as he chuckled at the question.

"I seriously doubt it. I think she quite believed your white lie about going to the school to research the caves, lest Xander picked up something nasty there. I almost believed it myself. It was, in fact, an excellent idea," he observed, letting his fingers trail down her back to the hem of her top.

Jenny shivered as he drew it off, once again entranced by the man within the man...this confident, powerful lover who could, in an instant, once again become the flushing, stammering fuddy-duddy she adored.

He drew an audible breath as he looked at her. Her breasts were full and creamy white, held in check by the black bra revealed beneath the brightly coloured peasant blouse, patterned on black, and sliding silkily to the floor from his unheeding fingers...

"Then we'll get up at dawn and go to the library. If there's even the slightest possibility..." she managed as she finished undoing his shirt. He'd even redone the tie before collecting Willow, so it was like opening a birthday present all over again, except this time she didn't stop until she'd pulled the shirt out of his pants, and pushed it off his shoulders.

"God, Rupert...you hide so much under that damn tweed," she breathed, moving to press her body into the contours of his and to lay her cheek against his hard chest, to feel the soft covering of hair against her even softer skin. She shivered again as his arms encircled her and his hands ran possessively down her back, pausing for just a moment so that his fingers could unhook the brassiere, which with the slightest of movements, slid off her arms and fell to the ground before she greedily reclaimed their shared warmth.

Giles shuddered as he felt the silky breasts against his skin. For so long they'd waited...he'd wanted her so very, very much...enough to ache for her sometimes at night, when he'd relived too vividly, thought too much, about the opportunities they'd missed, the things that life had thrown at them...including his own stupidity. He closed his eyes, memorizing the scent of her: the herbal fragrance of her hair teasing at his nostrils, the hint of a perfume, exotic, but subtle in its wiles, and the sheer intoxication of the scent that was uniquely her.

He was disturbed eventually by deft fingers removing his belt and lowering the zipper on his pants before he'd even regained his wits.

"Jenny..."

"Rupert...?"

Her tone wasn't quite the passionate exclamation his was. He looked down and turned scarlet.

"I...I um haven't had a chance to do the laundry for more than a week."

End part 1