Title: Gift of a Future
Author: Gileswench

(notes & disclaimer with part one)

Buffybot's eyes flew open and her arm extended violently behind her, knocking Willow to the floor.

"Hey! Ow! What's with the hitting?"

The bot was on its feet in a defensive posture. Her head swung to and fro.

"Where is she? What has she done with Spike? I must save him."

"The battle's over. Spike's okay. Sort of. You had a malfunction and I repaired it and I don't think I like the way you thank people for that."

The robot beamed.

"Willow. You are good with computers. You fixed me. I'm glad. Now I must return to Spike. He needs me."

The robot walked in a determined line toward the door.

"No!" Willow yelled. "I - I mean, Spike said to say you should stay with me for a couple days. Where no one else can see you."

"Why would you want that, Willow? I am not programmed to be lesbian. I will go to Spike now."

"I don't want you to be lesbian," Willow said with a look of near horror on her face. "It's just we need to keep you someplace Glory doesn't know about. It's so you can help Spike out."

"It will help Spike if I'm not with him? I don't understand."

"Trust me. It's for the best."

The robot cocked her head to one side and considered for a moment. Then her face brightened.

"Are we playing hide and seek? Spike likes that game."

"Yes. Yes, we're playing hide and seek and we need to hide you for a while where no one will find you, okay?"

"Okay."

Willow breathed a sigh of relief as she led the Buffybot out the door and down the street. She felt sure the bot would be helpful to the gang, but she needed to wear down their resistance to the idea before springing it on them again.

A moment later she shuddered at the thought of what sort of variations Spike might have put on a game like hide and seek.

Giles and Picard had had quite a bit to drink and were singing in harmony.

God bless the human elbow
God bless it where it bends
If it bent too long, we'd be dry I fear
If it bent too short, we'd be drinking in our ear
So God bless it where it bends

The captain's robust baritone and Giles' cultured tenor filled the room. They burst into laughter that was interrupted by the sound of one man clapping.

"Jean-Luc, who knew you were such a songbird?"

"Q," the captain sputtered.

"Who's this pillock?" Giles asked drunkenly.

"I'm Q." The entity turned hurt eyes to Picard. "You didn't tell him about me? You never want to introduce me to your friends."

"We preferred to stick to pleasant subjects."

Q moved closer and sniffed Picard's breath.

"You're drunk," he said accusingly. "What's it like?"

"Much better before the hallucinations began," Giles muttered. "Right, I'm off to bed. Jean-Luc, would you prefer the bed or the sofa?"

Picard attempted to focus on the stairs for a moment, then looked at the sofa he was already sitting on.

"This will be fine, Giles."

"Don't you even want to know what I'm doing here?" Q pouted.

"No," both men chorused.

"Well that's not very nice of you." Q glared at Giles. "I think you're a bad influence on him."

"I should certainly hope so," Giles returned as he staggered to the stairway pulling off his sweater as he went.

Picard gave a watery giggle which rapidly turned into a snore. Q sighed and shook his head.

"One night out with the boys and look at you, Jean-Luc. I'll come back when you're sober.

He snapped his fingers and disappeared just as Giles' turtleneck hit the spot where he was sitting.

Buffy was in a dangerous mood by the time she reached the Magic Box the next morning. She repeated the mantra that kept her from attacking everyone she met:

"Giles will be here soon with jelly donuts."

She went into the training room and began warming up. She felt sure Giles would be at his stuffiest after spending the evening with Captain Picard. Giles at his most repressed was impulsiveness itself compared with that guy.

"I bet they spent the night discussing how to get those embarassing trifle stains out of tweed."

She launched a vicious kick at the training dummy. Straw wafted in the air. The door opened.

"Gee, Buff. I worked hard on that. You want to take it easy on Scarecrow guy, there?"

"Hi. Xander. Um...maybe you could help me? I seem to be sort of...stuck."

With a small smile, Xander crossed the room, took Buffy's foot and helped pull it from the dummy.

"So what's with the unhappy feet, Buff?"

The Slayer slumped into the sofa.

"I had a bad night."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not really."

"Me neither. But that Wesley kid? Not improving my image of that name any time soon. He's a menace to society."

"I have to get a new microwave. That Worf guy broke mine. He said it wouldn't give him the food he asked for. Has he never heard of the joys of Lean Cuisine?"

"Beverly's okay, except that if I say that to Anya, she gets threatened. Something about my track record with redheads."

"I got propositioned by a robot. Not helping my self image, here. And now Giles is late. He's never late. In fact, the last time he was late...we did really get rid of Eyghon forever, didn't we?"

"Giles is fine; I'm sure. He probably just had to...I don't know...look, he's okay. He'll be here. Maybe he had to wait for them to make more jelly donuts or something."

Buffy stood and began to pace nervously.

"No, it's more than that. I think there's something really wrong with him, Xander. You don't think Glory could have gotten him, do you? Or - or Ethan? We don't know for sure where he is. He could have come and turned Giles into a demon again."

Xander placed his hands on Buffy's shoulders to stop her progress.

"Buffy! This is Giles we're talking about. He can take care of himself."

"But what if something's really wrong?"

"Is there any reason why it should be?"

Buffy sighed and sat again.

"I guess not. It's just with everything that's going on and all these weird people showing up last night..."

"Gotta say, with all our visitors from another planet out there, I'm not sure there's room for the customers. And it must have been a little wigsome to come home to find three more in your house. Especially those three: a bot, a blind man with a banana clip over his eyes, and something that looks like a mutant vamp."

"As for example. And one was locked in mortal combat with a minor kitchen appliance. And now no Giles. Plus I really hate leaving Dawn at school all day. I can't protect her there. Makes me a little edgy."

"You think?" Xander asked wryly as he picked a piece of straw out of Buffy's otherwise immaculate hair. "Giles will be here."

Buffy turned a pout to her friend.

"Am I total pathetic girl?"

"Only so's your best friends would notice."

They smiled and Buffy rested her head against Xander's shoulder.

"What would I do without you, Xand?"

"Probably work yourself up into a full Rumplestiltskin tizzy. Not pretty. I don't wanna be picking Buffy bits out of the walls here after you spontaneously combust."

"So it's a cleaning issue?"

"Mainly. But it's also an I don't want to lose my Buffy buddy issue."

"Okay," Buffy took a deep breath. "Back on the Slayer clock. Maybe we better find out what's going on in the wonderful world of magical retail."

Xander hesitated.

"Not pretty there, either. It seems that Giles decided you and Willow should have keys to this place. Anya's a little...threatened by it."

"So you chose the lesser of two freakouts and it was me? How scary is that?"

"In my own defense, I wasn't expecting freakout back here. You training, maybe you getting sweaty, but not meltdown. I'm actually sorta glad to see it."

"So you can play Sir Galahad?"

"So I can see Buffy's still in there under all the defences."

Still here, somewhere," Buffy said as tears welled in her eyes. "I know I haven't been really there for a while...I just...I'll be okay. There's just been a lot to deal with, y'know? But I'm okay, really. I'm dealing. This is me dealing. I should really work some more now, okay?"

"Sure," Xander replied with a half hearted nod. "I better get back to Anya and Will before they hurt each other."

He hesitated with his hand on the doorknob.

"If you need anything, Buff, anything at all, you just call me, okay?"

"Okay."

"I'll let you know when Giles gets here."

Giles opened one eye and immediately regretted doing so. He scrunched it closed again. His left hand flew to his aching brow and began to massage it. A small groan escaped his lips. He felt like death.

He slowly became aware that somebody was downstairs. Somebody entirely too cheerful. Somebody singing. The smell of eggs frying wafted to his nose. His gorge rose. He swallowed hard and allowed a shudder to pass through his body.

"Oh dear lord," he breathed unsteadily.

"Are you awake yet, Giles?" came the revoltingly cheery voice from downstairs. "I've got breakfast cooking."

Giles swallowed hard again and turned his face to his pillow. As he heard footsteps climbing the stairs, he pulled the covers over his head.

Picard appeared at the top step and smiled wryly at the lump of covers on Giles' bed.

"Isn't Buffy expecting you?"

"Go away and let me die," came a muffled reply from under the quilt.

Picard approached the bed.

"Here, drink this. You'll feel better."

He pulled back the covers and thrust a glass at Giles. The Watcher rolled to his back and sniffed suspiciously at the proffered drink.

"What is it?"

"Old family recipe. I come from a long line of winemakers and sailors. It will make you feel better."

"It smells foul."

"It works."

Giles sat up a bit. His head spun. He closed his eyes for a moment. At last, he took a tentative sip of Picard's remedy. He grimaced.

"You're quite certain this isn't poison?"

"Not like that. Take it in one gulp so you don't have to taste it."

Giles took a deep breath and tossed back the entire glass in one swallow. It churned his insides as it went down. Moments later, however, his stomach began to settle and his headache lifted. He blinked, grabbed his glasses and put them on.

"Good lord! That's quite astonishing!"

"Breakfast is nearly done. Put some clothes on and let's eat."

Picard hurried down the stairs to the kitchen and his neglected eggs. As Giles pulled on trousers, Picard called up to him.

"Perhaps we should find something to eat on the way."

The smoke alarm went off.