Rating: FRAO
Pairing: B/G
Feedback: Always love to hear what you think
Summary: Adventure and action for Robinson-Crusoe-Giles, who is lost and alone in a dangerous forest while the Scoobies help a frantic Buffy.
Timeline: Some time after Wrecked; Willow and Tara are back together.
Distribution: Once More With Feeling and all those who have my general permission
Disclaimer: Joss broke it. I just want to try to fix it. Phillip and the Kobi belong to me. :-)

Author's notes: BIG thank-yous to Liz, Wench, Melissa and Karen for finding all the flaws in this piece and helping to un-Joss it because it took so long to finish, *before* I posted it and looked too silly <g>

"Buffy, is that you?"

"Yeah, kiddo, I'm home. What are you doing up so late?"

"It's Friday night," came the dry reply. "There's a letter from England."

"England?" Buffy came into the kitchen and found Dawn busily over-filling a bowl with cereal.

"That is not snack food," she drawled.

Dawn made a face. "You don't buy snack food and I'm hungry. C'mon, I want to know what's in the letter."

Buffy picked it up off the bench. "Since when are you so interested in Giles?"

The girl's expression grew more serious. "I miss him."

She looked up, her eyes widening in surprise.

Dawn stared back, no hint of facetiousness in her expression. "I miss him," she repeated.

Buffy shrugged. "I miss him too, but he has to do what he has to do."

"What kind of crap is that?" she growled. "He came back for you, and then he left again. And nobody ever explained why. If he didn't care, why did he come back? And if he did, why did he leave again?"

Buffy was shocked at her tone. "I don't understand why this is so important to you. Giles isn't your…I mean, you were never that close. All you ever did was complain about him telling you what to do and make fun of his age."

Dawn watched her carefully, noting the sheen that had formed in her sister's eyes with her first words, and the tension in her voice as she continued to speak, which was probably the most honest emotion she'd seen in it since Giles had first returned from England.

"Sure I did. He was bossy and stuffy and he never let me get away with anything. She half smiled. "He was also funny and silly and he made it not so bad." Buffy's expression shifted to puzzlement. "Mom," Dawn explained in one word. "After…after everything, when everyone sort of got back to…things…you know, and you didn't want to talk about it…he let me…he talked about mom, and he listened."

The other girl remained silent, the combination of surprise and perhaps even jealousy, evident only in nuance and the fleeting glistening of an eye.

Dawn cleared her throat, memories and emotions suddenly caught in it. "I didn't want him to leave."

"Dawn, I'm always here for you," Buffy whispered.

"I know. It's not that. It's just…it was better when he was here. You were better when he was here."

"I don't understand?"

"You're different," Dawn said defensively. "I'm not sure I can explain it. It's like…it's like there's part of you missing. It's not as weird as it sounds. I mean…you just…you're not you any more."

"Dawn, I kind of died a little," Buffy said quietly. "It changes people."

"Yeah, well, you weren't so different after he came back. No big. You were just starting to feel like …Buffy…again. You even laughed once or twice. But since he went away again you don't laugh, you don't smile. Not even when you went out with that college guy Willow set you up with. You didn't even give him a chance…Roy or Leroy or something. And then there's the Spike thing."

"Troy," Buffy supplied, ignoring the Spike reference. "He wasn't my type."

"Willow thought he was. He reminded me a lot of Riley."

"I rest my case," Buffy muttered. "Forget Troy. I have. Why didn't you tell me how you felt about Giles leaving? Why didn't you at least tell him?"

Dawn shrugged again. "It would have just been sappy."

There was nothing Buffy could say to that. Neither she nor Giles had ever been any good at talking, or emotional stuff, either. Emotional retards, Xander had labelled them once, when trying unsuccessfully to get them to talk to each other about the fallout after the return of Angel and the visit by Gwendolyn Post.

Instead she opened the envelope and started to read the enclosed letter, not in Giles' neat script, but typed by persons unknown.

"Buffy, what's wrong?" Dawn demanded when the colour drained from her sister's face.

"Giles is in trouble," she managed, staring at the paper in her hand.

*******

Buffy paced while Willow and Tara researched. One of the few good things to happen in the last couple of months was the reunion of the two lovers after Willow's downward spiral into magic addiction.

"Buffy this is not a fun place you're talking about here. I'm not sure it's a good idea to go charging in there. You might just make things worse. Cordelia was telling me about this demon dimension they went to…it sounded horrible. A-and there were was that one you told me about…like hell, sorta. You can't just go opening portals and jumping into any old dimension…"

"Willow, I know this isn't easy for you, but I need you to find me a way that doesn't involve Keys of any kind, to get into Jemm'rahai and bring Giles back. I don't care what it takes, or if I have to kill every Jemm'ra demon there to do it."

Willow turned to her lover, who nodded reassuringly. "I'll try," she said uncomfortably. "But the rules are different there. A-and I don't understand what Giles was doing hunting demons without a Slayer. I thought he was going home to try and make a normal life for himself."

"The letter says he was trying to help someone."

Xander looked bleak. "Sounds like Giles."

"Who…who is this Phillip Trentham and why hasn't Giles ever mentioned him and how does he know about you?" Willow demanded in one long breath. "And if he knows about us why didn't he just call?"

"Oh yeah, like we're going to believe a strange phone call way more than a letter on personalised stationery with a return address and phone number," Xander drawled.

"Will, he's an ex-watcher. Giles never mentioned him, but I called and asked Wesley about him. He says they used to be best friends before Giles came over here to train me. He quit on principal when they fired Giles, so I guess he is a good friend. He says he wrote because he can't be certain his phone is safe. He doesn't trust the Council."

Xander frowned. "Why would the Council be a problem? Don't they want their Watcher back?"

"Trentham thinks the Council sold Giles out to keep him from finding out the truth. He says the husband of the woman Giles was trying to help was 'liquidated' by the Council and the death made to look like a Jemm'ra did it. It wouldn't be too hard to do. They favour the barbeque method."

"So they're bad guys?"

Buffy paused. "I don't think so, at least not this time. Just framed to um…take the heat off the Council. This Trentham guy will be here tomorrow, anyway. I don't think these demons usually leave their own dimension. They've come up in Giles' research before. I remember him saying they're kind of Xenophobic and they don't believe anywhere else beats home."

"Why?" Tara asked unexpectedly. "I mean, why is he coming here? I mean, if Giles went missing over there…"

"Good point," Xander nodded, without being entirely sure why.

"I'm not a mind-reader," Buffy muttered, strain evident in her features. "But I'm guessing it's because to get Giles back, we have to open a portal of our own, and he wants to help."

"But if the Jemm'ra are the victims here, why would they hurt…I mean take…Giles? Un…less whatever Giles was chasing was working for the council…"

At Tara's words a sobriety overtook the group, the weight of the possibility they'd all been try not to contemplate…that something bad might have happened to their friend…falling hard on hearts and spirits.

Buffy shifted uncomfortably. "We're going to find him. Willow, Tara, find a way to open that portal."

*******

Phillip Trentham was about the same age as Giles, and looked to at least two of the women greeting him to be physically reminiscent of one of their favourite actors, Jeremy Irons.

"I came as quickly as I could," he told them after Buffy introduced everyone.

"Long flight?" Dawn asked.

"Concorde," Xander supplied, putting down the man's luggage. "If you guys don't need me any more I have to go take Anya to the mall to make up for not taking her to lunch."

"No…go," Buffy said uncomfortably. "We'll be fine."

"So you're a friend of Giles?" Willow asked.

Trentham nodded and watched Xander go before turning and slowly absorbing the group before him, his gaze coming to rest on the small blonde. They were so young, so alive. The antithesis, in fact, of his and Rupert's lives before Rupert had been sent across the Atlantic to rectify the 'problem' Merrick had left behind.

And now the 'problem' was staring up at him with the most beautiful eyes, despite their being filled with a combination of reserve and underlying bleakness so well concealed only his experienced eye might have recognized it.

"Why did you come?" she asked quietly.

"Because Rupert is my friend, and because it may be my fault that he's in trouble. I brought Celeste to him because I thought he could help her. He always had the most extraordinary ability to extract information from those old volumes of his."

"I thought all Watchers had a library," Willow said, a hint of suspicion in her tone.

"Copies of diaries, some standard works supplied by the Council, the real diaries if you were training the active Slayer. Rupert's library is his own, accumulated and handed down through countless generations."

"What can you tell me about where Ru—Giles is?" Buffy asked, already impatient about the momentary diversion.

Trentham focused his autumn hazel eyes on her, their corners crinkling a little with a combination of amusement and approval. "He told me he had found evidence that a Jemm'ra demon might have been responsible for the death of Celeste's husband and that he had information about a sighting. My inquiries have revealed that he was almost certainly tracking…something…when he disappeared."

"Then…then you don't really know if he's in Jemm'rahai or not?" Tara asked, her despondent tone reflecting the expression on all their faces.

"I know he was tracking one of them and that Celeste saw him chase a Jemm'ra demon through a portal, which—"

"No," Willow objected angrily. "We know the Jemm'ra are xenophobic, that they don't leave their own dimension. Something is weird here. Are you really Giles' friend or did the Council send you here?"

Trentham held up his hands, long fingers splayed in self-defence. "I have been adrift from the Council for as long as Rupert has."

Buffy frowned. "Then you didn't know that Giles was reinstated?"

Trentham's eyes widened. "How…?"

"Long story," Buffy drawled. "You seriously didn't know?"

"I'm afraid that lately, with all the changes in the Council, even old comrades are not at liberty to, nor willing to discuss anything pertaining to the active Slayer and Rupert didn't mention it when we met again in London. In fact the impression I was given, very strongly I might add, was that he felt that you had no further need of him. In fact he felt he no longer served any useful purpose in your life; that it was time for him to find his own…niche."

The colour drained from Buffy's face. "He said that?"

Trentham shook his elegant head. "In every way but the words," he told her, his eyes meeting hers again. "There were a lot of things I didn't understand…until now. I came here because I want to help my friend and I knew I couldn't do it alone. He told me about you and your group." Their eyes continued to hold.

"Where is he?" Dawn asked suddenly, the strength, and the strain of her voice cutting across the room.

The Englishman tore his gaze from Buffy's and stared for a long moment at the child before flicking his gaze back to the others.

"The demon he thought was a Jemm'ra was paid by the Council to disguise itself as one. My contact has since informed me it was a Kobi demon and my understanding from Celeste is that Rupert chased it into a portal, which closed behind them."

"So what is this Kobi demon going to do with him?" Willow asked.

Trentham looked away. "The Kobi as a species are not known to be aggressive or to keep slaves, but the one he was following wasn't like the others. It had been here for some time, apparently a fugitive from it's own species.

"So the Kobi's resident psycho has Giles?" Dawn surmised darkly, startling the others.

The older man's eyes slid to his boots. "Highly astute of you, my dear. I rather suspect that Travers hired him to prevent Rupert from finding out any more about what really happened to Celeste's husband."

"Then why not just kill him?" Tara asked darkly.

Trentham did not look up.

"I'm guessing the overwhelming non-response there means he could already be dead," Dawn said acidly, turned and flew up the stairs.

"Way to go, English," Buffy growled and flicked a glance at the witches. "And you guys. Big help."

"We're helping right now," Willow said uncomfortably. "Portal to the Kobi dimension coming up."

Buffy looked thunderous before following Dawn upstairs.

She was back down a short time later but without Dawn. In anticipation of more hours of research, Buffy guided her visitor into the kitchen to make coffee and tea, only to have to respond a short time after that to a call from the living room.

"This is way better," Willow announced as they filed back in. "This dimension isn't nearly as confusing or dangerous as the Jemm'ra world. The Kobi one is a lot like here, except with demons," she finished self-consciously, her voice slipping back into the childlike quality it took on when Willow was uncomfortable.

"Okay, do whatever you have to do," Buffy told her. "I'm going in alone."

Everyone objected, Trentham loudest of all.

"You are the Slayer," he objected. "You cannot just leave this world to its own devices while you go off on some crusade in another dimension! You don't even know for certain which one he's in!"

"Yeah, I'm the Slayer, but if something happens to me they'll call a new one. No big. I'm more replaceable than car parts these days."

Trentham snorted. "I'm not just talking about death, girl," he said as she passed him. "You are no longer involved in the succession. Unfortunately that now falls to your rather disturbed counterpart. I'm talking about being trapped, just as Rupert is, wherever Rupert is. Whatever happens there will be no new Slayer called. Killed or missing, without you this world is lost."

"Yeah, well, it's not like it would be the first time," Buffy said darkly. "All I care about right now is getting Giles back. The guys will patrol while I'm gone." She turned back to Trentham. "You can help them if you want, but I have to do this and neither you, nor the Council are going to stop me. Right now I'm going to see a man about a Kobi demon."

*******

"I told you last time you were here, my establishment has been on the up and up for some time. I don't do that stuff any more."

Buffy snorted impatiently. "I didn't ask you for a list. I just want to know if there are any Kobi demons in town."

"Oh. Short answer: yes," Willy offered helpfully.

"Long answer?" Buffy hissed menacingly.

"One family unit. West side, Blue Surf apartments…I've done some business with the father," he explained. "Nothin' illegal, exactly. Just…well, there's a market for some of their…herbal medications."

Buffy's eyes narrowed. She could imagine what kind of 'herbal' medications.

"Name…?" she growled.

*******

When the door opened, Buffy wasn't sure what she was expecting but the human-looking child who answered it wasn't it.

"Hello," she said carefully, smiling at the little girl. "Is your mother or father home?"

"Mommy!"

The yell was piercing, but produced the desired result.

The middle-aged, chestnut-haired woman looked Buffy up and down. "If you're selling anything we don't want any."

"N-no. I'm not selling anything," Buffy said uncomfortably. It would have been a lot easier if they were mean, ugly hostile demons she could beat up. "I um, I need some information and I was hoping you could help me. A friend of mine is in trouble and um, I'm told you might be the only people in Sunnydale who could tell me about the last person he was seen with."

The woman tensed and her eyes hardened without disguising her fear. "Who are you?"

"My name is Buffy Summers," she said without hesitation. "My friend is missing and I have to get him back," Buffy repeated, but the woman was unmoved. "Okay," she decided, meeting the woman's gaze. "You want the truth? My Watcher was last seen chasing a Kobi demon into a portal. I'm told the Kobi are a peaceful people and I'm also told that your family are the only Kobi in Sunnydale."

The woman's eyes widened. "Watcher? You're the Slayer?" she demanded, looking Buffy up and down with visible scepticism.

"The one and only. Will you help me? I just want to know what happened to my Watcher."

The woman opened her door wider and Buffy slipped in. The home wasn't any different to a thousand other homes, except for the distinctly herbal and musk scented air.

"We are a peaceful people," the woman said. "My name, here, is Elizabeth. Why would your Watcher be chasing one of us?"

Buffy bit her lip. "This person was working for someone…someone i-in London, and the information I have indicates that this particular demon might have been um…unstable, kinda not like other Kobi.

The woman closed her eyes. "Do you have a name?"

"N-no. Only that it was a guy and he was disguised to look like a Jemm'ra demon."

"We have been here for months," she said, looking up at Buffy again. "Looking for our son. We didn't know where in this world he went, only that he came here about six of your months ago, to escape punishment in our own world, through a portal. It simply opened spontaneously one day, and was captured by one of our Mages. It has never been done before—capturing a portal, and so far this end of it seems to be far less unpredictable than the one which opens into our home world."

"Punishment for what?" Buffy asked then hesitated. "I-if that's not too personal."

"Jaif is sick. He needs help. He has been sick since he fell from a cliff two years ago during his initiation ritual. It took months for him to recover and he was never able to complete the ritual."

"So the fall changed him?"

She nodded. "He's never been the same since. Jaif has done things…he is not our son anymore," she added sadly. "We must get him home. There are ways to make him well again…if we can just get him home…"

"And I'm guessing he's not too happy about not getting initiated either? Guys really hate that."

The woman nodded. "He has become obsessed with his failure to reach adulthood with his peers."

"So do you think he went back to your world when he went through that portal?"

"I don't know, but my husband is there now. He went to see if Jaif has returned, and to bring back supplies."

"So when are you expecting him back?"

"He was supposed to return this morning," the woman disclosed reluctantly. "The portal usually doesn't stay open more than twenty-four hours."

"How do you know it'll open here?"

"To protect our world, the Mage used magic that would link only our people…so that the portal could only open where a traveller from our world had exited it, or entered it. Would you like some coffee?"

Buffy sighed silently. She didn't want coffee, but it was as good a way as any to stall for time to see if the woman's husband would show. She nodded.

They had been talking sporadically for two hours about everything from vampires to child rearing, from the cost of living to life in the woman…Kaela's…world, when someone finally came through the front door.

"Frae!" Kaela cried, jumping up and rushing to the big man, who was flinging the door closed behind him.

"There was a storm. The portal wouldn't function until it was over," Frae explained as his wife fussed. "It's been even more erratic than usual. The Bandral has been severe this past season, but no more so than right now, and it's making things bad."

"But…" Buffy protested, then subsided when the big man turned to her, slipping into his demon features, leonine and unthreatening, despite the momentary fire that flashed in his topaz eyes. "Um, hi," she said uncomfortably.

"There may have been a sighting," Kaela explained. "This one is the Slayer. She says her Watcher chased a Kobi into a portal. He has not returned."

"The Slayer? Here?" Frae growled, his face returning to its bland, bearded, human form.

"I just want to find my friend," Buffy told him. "I'm sorry if I'm intruding, but I didn't know what else to do."

Frae sighed. "Kaevar alone knows where they went. If the storm on my world disrupted the portal, the other opening could have been deflected just about anywhere."

Buffy's eyes widened in shock and grew very bright. "Anywhere?" she whispered.

"Anywhere," he confirmed.