Magic Box, Thursday

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

Giles was still feeling out of sorts from the weekend but was doing his best to get back to normal. So he went and got coffee and donuts and opened the shop as he normally did, leaving the bottle of scotch he kept there in its hiding place under the cash register.

The Magic Box was open.

Comments

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

Dawn bit down hard on her lip, really wanting to give Giles some kind of hope, or a warning, or something. "It wasn't your fault, Giles." She swallowed, "No one could have saved her, except me, er, Dawn."

Apparently she hadn't done the right thing in either universe.

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

Giles shook his head. "In my world, it had come down to either Dawn or Buffy. If it had been Dawn -- you -- that had died, it would have destroyed Buffy just as suredly. My failure was in finding an alternative."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

Dawn didn't believe that Buffy would have been destroyed by her death. She just...didn't. But that was an issue for another time. "Maybe there wasn't one?"

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

"There's always an alternative," Giles said. "That's one thing you have to believe as a Watcher. You can never accept that a situation is hopeless."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"If it's a choice between leaving something for your Slayer to deal with and taking it on yourself, which is better?"

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

"I can't tell you one answer that will cover every situation," Giles told her. "But generally if you can spare your Slayer that's the choice I would make." He fixed her with a piercing gaze. "Just remember that losing her Watcher isn't something you want to put your Slayer through either."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

Dawn suddenly came down with a case of the fidgets. "Not if I can help it, but better me than her, right?"

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

"Better neither of you," Giles said firmly.

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"But if I have to choose..."