Trust, Gen PG-13
Jun. 28th, 2016 06:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
punch_kicker15Title: Trust
Author: punch_kicker15
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Relationships: Gen, Giles, Willow, Spike
Summary: AU BtVS Season 4: It's all about trust.
Word count: 590
Warnings: Character death
Giles wrote, Zylstrax demon. See also: venomous saliva, and crossed the demon’s name off the list. That was the last cross-reference from Burnham’s Watcher diary. After double-checking the entries, he sat for a moment, tapping his pen against the table. It was strange to be out of tasks to work on, instead of lurching from crisis to crisis as he had for the last few years.
He looked across the room. “Willow, do you have the Technopagans’ latest spectral activity database?”
Willow closed her spell book and glanced at her laptop. “Not yet, sorry. Ever since they started embedding videos, the files have been huge. I’ll have the text downloaded and printed out for you in just a min--” Her voice cut off in a yelp. “Crud. My laptop just crashed.”
She tapped a few keys, then opened the case and started tinkering with it in that diligent manner of hers. She sighed and closed the laptop. “I need to call the Mac store. The chip burned out.”
He handed her the phone.
“Hi, the chip in my PowerBook burned out.” She scrunched up her face in concentration. “Um, January 1997. Oh, great, I'll bring in right now.” She handed the phone back to him.
Giles reached for his wallet. “Do you need any money for repairs? The computer fell in the line of duty, after all.”
Willow zipped up the laptop case. “Nope. The chip just squeaked under the three-year warranty, so they’ll fix it for free. Do you need the database right away? I can try one of the computers at the lab first, if it’s urgent.”
Her accommodating tone sent a stab of guilt through him. His sense of urgency came from the crushing boredom of the last few months that left him desperate for any new reading materials, not from any immediate crisis. “No, it can wait.”
“Ok, I’ll be back once it’s fixed.” She finished packing up her computer and hurried out.
Giles put away the diary and index and tidied up the desk. After rummaging through a drawer, he headed for the bathroom.
Spike twisted towards Giles as much as the chains would allow. “It’s about time. What does a vampire have to do to get some blood around here--” Then he saw the stake. “Oh, it’s like that.”
Giles moved a few steps closer to the bathtub. “It’s all about trust, Spike. I can’t trust your chip to keep working indefinitely. And I can’t trust you to tell us when it stops working.”
Spike grinned. “Of course not. Evil, y’know. Glad one of you lot finally noticed. Can you at least take the chains off first?”
“No.” Giles plunged the stake into the vampire’s chest, and watched it disintegrate. The chains clanged down in a cloud of dust. There was equality in death for vampires: William the Bloody reduced to dust just as quickly as the lowliest fledge.
Giles pulled the chains out of the bathtub, and then trailed his hand through the dust until he found the chip. He fished around in his pocket for a handkerchief and carefully dusted off the chip. Willow might manage to learn something from it.
After washing his hands, and placing the chip in a desk drawer, he sat down in front of the television. For some reason, he just couldn’t get worked up about the idiots on Jeopardy! He returned to his desk and picked up the diary and index. It wouldn’t hurt to triple check the entries while he waited for Willow to return.
Author: punch_kicker15
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Relationships: Gen, Giles, Willow, Spike
Summary: AU BtVS Season 4: It's all about trust.
Word count: 590
Warnings: Character death
Giles wrote, Zylstrax demon. See also: venomous saliva, and crossed the demon’s name off the list. That was the last cross-reference from Burnham’s Watcher diary. After double-checking the entries, he sat for a moment, tapping his pen against the table. It was strange to be out of tasks to work on, instead of lurching from crisis to crisis as he had for the last few years.
He looked across the room. “Willow, do you have the Technopagans’ latest spectral activity database?”
Willow closed her spell book and glanced at her laptop. “Not yet, sorry. Ever since they started embedding videos, the files have been huge. I’ll have the text downloaded and printed out for you in just a min--” Her voice cut off in a yelp. “Crud. My laptop just crashed.”
She tapped a few keys, then opened the case and started tinkering with it in that diligent manner of hers. She sighed and closed the laptop. “I need to call the Mac store. The chip burned out.”
He handed her the phone.
“Hi, the chip in my PowerBook burned out.” She scrunched up her face in concentration. “Um, January 1997. Oh, great, I'll bring in right now.” She handed the phone back to him.
Giles reached for his wallet. “Do you need any money for repairs? The computer fell in the line of duty, after all.”
Willow zipped up the laptop case. “Nope. The chip just squeaked under the three-year warranty, so they’ll fix it for free. Do you need the database right away? I can try one of the computers at the lab first, if it’s urgent.”
Her accommodating tone sent a stab of guilt through him. His sense of urgency came from the crushing boredom of the last few months that left him desperate for any new reading materials, not from any immediate crisis. “No, it can wait.”
“Ok, I’ll be back once it’s fixed.” She finished packing up her computer and hurried out.
Giles put away the diary and index and tidied up the desk. After rummaging through a drawer, he headed for the bathroom.
Spike twisted towards Giles as much as the chains would allow. “It’s about time. What does a vampire have to do to get some blood around here--” Then he saw the stake. “Oh, it’s like that.”
Giles moved a few steps closer to the bathtub. “It’s all about trust, Spike. I can’t trust your chip to keep working indefinitely. And I can’t trust you to tell us when it stops working.”
Spike grinned. “Of course not. Evil, y’know. Glad one of you lot finally noticed. Can you at least take the chains off first?”
“No.” Giles plunged the stake into the vampire’s chest, and watched it disintegrate. The chains clanged down in a cloud of dust. There was equality in death for vampires: William the Bloody reduced to dust just as quickly as the lowliest fledge.
Giles pulled the chains out of the bathtub, and then trailed his hand through the dust until he found the chip. He fished around in his pocket for a handkerchief and carefully dusted off the chip. Willow might manage to learn something from it.
After washing his hands, and placing the chip in a desk drawer, he sat down in front of the television. For some reason, he just couldn’t get worked up about the idiots on Jeopardy! He returned to his desk and picked up the diary and index. It wouldn’t hurt to triple check the entries while he waited for Willow to return.
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no subject
Date: 2016-06-28 10:33 pm (UTC)I did not see that coming.
Well done.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-29 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-06-29 04:39 am (UTC)I was a little worried that I was telegraphing the ending too much, so I'm glad to see that it came as a surprise. Thanks, and I'm glad you liked it.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-29 04:40 am (UTC)I was definitely drawing on the scene with Ben when I wrote this. I'm glad you liked it, thanks!
no subject
Date: 2016-07-03 12:56 am (UTC)Great work.
no subject
Date: 2016-07-05 02:13 am (UTC)A World Without Spike would definitely have eliminated some problems down the road, but I get a headache trying to work out all of the other ramifications. There's a reason I stopped the story where I did. :)
Glad you liked it, thanks!
no subject
Date: 2016-07-14 12:05 am (UTC)Leave it to Giles to keep things in perspective. I thought in the show they trusted Spike a bit too much. He was never my favorite so I'm good with seeing him to a dusty end. Thanks for sharing.
no subject
Date: 2016-07-16 02:27 am (UTC)I found Spike entertaining, but never understood why the Scoobies trusted the chip to keep him from hurting people back when he was in the "I'm evil, people!" stage. I mean, my computer's chip is only warranted for three years and it wasn't installed in an evil vampire by a mad scientist.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!
no subject
Date: 2016-08-11 11:00 pm (UTC)I found the matter-of-fact way Giles dispensed with Spike quite chilling. (Well done!) I have to admit that this scenario is more realistic than how things went in the TV show...
no subject
Date: 2016-08-12 04:11 am (UTC)Thanks! I enjoy exploring Giles' ruthless side every once in a while.
I have to admit that this scenario is more realistic than how things went in the TV show...
Yeah, this absolutely came from a place of "the chip on its own would probably not be a good enough reason to trust Spike at this point in canon." I find Spike massively entertaining and am very glad that he wasn't staked at various points in canon, even if that would have made the most sense for the characters at the time.