Giles didn't know how long they had been holding the bottleneck, but he didn't think they could do it for much longer. At first, Buffy had used the corpses of dead Jai'il as shields for herself, and Giles had quickly followed her example. Now, however, there had to be at least twenty bodies, and they were starting to impede Buffy's mobility. Also, Buffy was beginning to tire. He himself was already well past the point of optimal effectiveness. "We need to go, Buffy."

Buffy shook her head stubbornly, and chanced a look in his direction. "No. It hasn't even been ten minutes yet." Although he didn't doubt Buffy's statement, Giles wondered how she knew that. His internal clock seemed to be completely non-functional down here in the land of eternal dark. "I don't want to leave here until I'm sure the other patrol has gotten away."

"And how would you suggest we do that," Giles snapped. "Unless I am completely turned around, there are at least three corridors leading to the portal. Am I right?" Buffy nodded grimly. "Surely you have noticed that our attackers are slowing down. How do you know that they aren't sweeping around behind us?"

There was a long moment of silence, and then Buffy turned towards him decisively. "I don't. It will take them time to get behind us, but if they do, we're screwed. And the members of my patrol receive a death warrant. You're right; let's book." And with no more deliberation than that, Buffy turned her back on her own private killing field and trotted down the corridor. Giles blinked in surprise and took off after her.

Buffy set a hard pace back to the portal, but Giles was damned if he was going to let her outpace him. He was able to keep up without breathing too hard, but he was cursing himself for letting his jogging regimen slide over the summer. Just as he started to flag, Buffy muttered, "they're closing on us," and Giles discovered that he had more reserves after all.

Soon they came to a sharp corner, and then they were back at the portal. That beacon of hope was utter chaos. If Giles had figured accurately, there should have been eight members in the last patrol, four men who were sent to tell them to come in, plus however many stayed behind to tell them to go up; thirteen or fourteen altogether. Since there were six people fighting and three dead on the floor, he could only presume that the group had been attacked when they were in the process of moving above. There were at least a dozen Jai'il threatening the little band, perhaps more. In addition to the slavers that had followed him and Buffy...

Giles paused for a moment as he tried to determine the best course of action. He hadn't factored in his Slayer, however. As he stood there, she rushed past him, screaming like a wild animal. She rushed into three Jai'il, and knocked them to the ground. Giles cursed under his breath and then dashed over to join her. "Excellent strategy, Buffy," he said sarcastically. "Obviously a well-thought out plan. Care to let me in on the details?"

"It's easy," Buffy said with the same cheerfulness she'd demonstrated earlier. "You and I piss off the Jell-O Shots, they concentrate upon us, and everyone else escapes."

"Capital plan," Giles muttered. "It's clear that you have foreseen all contingencies."

"Of course!" To the Watcher's surprise, Buffy giggled, and Giles felt his irritation melting away. "Now, your left-handed, right? So you take the ten on the left, I'll take the ten on the right, and we'll be out of her in no time."

Whether it was the impossibility of the situation, the laughter in his Slayer's voice, or just plain insanity, Giles never knew, but somehow, he felt himself joining in Buffy's good spirits. He grinned, and nodded at their enemies. "Ladies first."

"I always knew you were a gentleman, Giles," Buffy sang out as she launched herself at the pack of soldiers. The move looked impetuous to the Watcher, but could not have been for she took off two heads with one stroke. Giles followed her, doing no small amount of damage himself. There was no more time for conversation, but Giles imagined that he felt an approving smile directed at him before he took up a defensive position behind her.

Watcher and Slayer fought back to back, and they slowly forced the Jai'il away from the portal. Without hesitation, the six surviving humans began scrambling up again. Even though he knew they were following Buffy's orders, waves of contempt for the patrolmen washed over Giles. She was their general, and the filthy ponces were abandoning her!

Giles marshaled that rage and turned it against the Jai'il attacking him. Several slavers fell before his wrath, and Buffy whistled in appreciation. Or perhaps she was just trying to capture his attention. "Giles! They're up and out. We need to work our way back."

"I think we can do that, Buffy, but how will we keep them off our backs long enough to go through the portal."

"We don't," Buffy said succinctly. "I meant we go back through the tunnels. We let the portal close, then come back here in a few days when the heat is off and you can open it again."

"Um, Buffy, I can't open it down here," Giles admitted sheepishly.

In her shock, Buffy actually turned around. Giles immediately lunged at the Jai'il who attempted to take advantage of Buffy's distraction. She didn't even notice the head that nearly fell on her foot. "What? But you said—"

"I said that I would try," Giles insisted. "But I need several herbs and rare plants for the spell to work, and those are still above. Unless we can find them down here..."

"You bastard," Buffy exclaimed. "You tricked me!"

"I couldn't let you fight alone, Buffy," Giles said mildly. "You needed someone by your side."

Buffy didn't respond to that, as she was too busy swearing under her breath about treacherous Watchers. Finally, she took a deep breath and said, "You and I are going to have a little chat about this. Later, back in Sunnydale. For now, this is what we're going to do. We're gonna turn so that we can both see the portal." They did so, and Giles saw that the path to the portal was still clear. "On the count of three, we're going to run. You're going to jump at me, and I'll help you jump up. Then I'll jump behind you."

Giles hated to go against her, but she needed the truth. "I'm sorry, Buffy, but I can't make that jump. You're going to have to go first, and I'll grab hold of your leg."

"Are you telling me the truth," Buffy asked suspiciously, "or are you just trying to get me to go up first?"

"Buffy—"

"I don't want to hear it, Giles. What I want to hear is your promise that you won't let go of me, no matter what. I want you to give me your word that you are going to do your damnedest to get above, regardless of what happens to me." Giles started to protest again, but Buffy cut him off. "Otherwise, we play this my way." Giles scowled, but agreed. "Okay, let's get rid of these Shots, then go on the count of three."

It wasn't a great plan, but it would work ... with one refinement. "A moment, Buffy. Aim to disable, not kill. The other soldiers—"

"—Are likely to step on corpses, but go around the wounded," Buffy finished for him. "Good thinking, Giles." Although Giles had been her teacher in tactics, he felt himself blushing with pleasure over her praise.

Giles swung low, cutting his opponent deeply in the leg. The other Jai'il screamed, and Giles guessed that Buffy had done the same. This was confirmed when he heard his Slayer's voice calling out, "one, two, THREE!"

They both ran for the portal, with Giles a bit ahead of Buffy. He was determined to get there first, even if he had to burst a lung to do it. When he was directly under it, he held out his hands at waist level and screamed, "NOW!" Buffy ran and jumped up on his hands, he gave her a boost, and she jumped for the portal. When he was certain that she had hold of something up there, he leapt as high as he could and grabbed hold of her calf. Buffy was struggling to pull herself up, but she was bringing him with her. They were going to make it.

And then, he felt a hand grabbing hold of his thigh and another on his foot. He looked down, and there were not one, but two Jai'il dangling from his right leg. His first thought was that he needed to let go of Buffy. Surely even her strength could not hold out with the drag caused by three full-grown males hanging from her. He should drop, and ensure her escape. Except he had promised...

Every instinct he had was screaming at him to put Buffy first, and it took every bit of discipline he possessed not to listen to that instinct. He had given Buffy his word, and she trusted him; now it was time to trust her. Her physical strength was amazing--a special gift from the Powers that Be--but Buffy's strength of will and courage belonged to her alone ... and that was what would pull them out of this. And with that realization, Giles made a conscious decision to put his faith in his Slayer.

Giles brought his left foot down hard on the lower Jai'il. He heard bones crack, and then felt the loathsome creature drop away. The slaver grasping his thigh would be more difficult to dislodge. Giles was wondering whether one hand would be enough to maintain his hold on Buffy, when the world shifted. Part of his body, his hands, had just entered the portal.

Going through the portal was the most bizarre experience in his somewhat varied life. He had missed this on the way down, because he had passed out the moment he entered the pool. Going up, however, was another different.

Giles felt his body slowing down as it entered the portal. His blood stopped moving, his heart stopped beating, his nerve endings stopped transmitting ... everything shut down except for his thought processes. Years ago, he had gone to see "The Empire Strikes Back." He decided that the movie was over-rated and had never thought about it again, but now he found himself remembering Han Solo and wondering whether this is what it would feel like to be cryogenically frozen. Time moved differently here, and he wondered whether he might go mad from the loneliness before it was all over. There were no colors, no lights, no forms ... only an endless now, constantly repeating itself. Intellectually, he knew that this was only a fraction of a second, but it felt like hours, or perhaps days, or even a lifetime. Just as he was certain that he was going to scream, however, he was out.

To his surprise, Giles recovered from his journey very quickly. He snatched his leg away from the Jai'il who was still in transit, rolled away from the pool, and bellowed, "Lily! The herbs, Lily! Spread them about!" The gothic blonde obeyed him immediately, and the viscous liquid abruptly disappeared. As soon as it was gone, there was a flash of light and tiles began magically popping out of the ether to cover the pool. Within moments, he found himself staring at an empty ceremonial pool, about six inches deep, with the upper portion of a Jai'il lying in the middle of the tiles. The demon had been neatly severed through his torso. Although Giles had killed more than a few Jai'il Osh-shutz over the past month, and none of those deaths had been pretty, this particular one sickened him. He buried his face into his arms for a moment, and tried to pull himself together.

As soon as he began collecting his thoughts, one stood out from all the others: Buffy. Oh dear Lord, he hadn't made sure she was clear of the pool when he told Lily to close it! In a panic, Giles raised his head to look for his Slayer. The room was packed with people, literally wall-to-wall, and the noise was horrendous, but he picked her out immediately. She was standing by a wall on the other side of the pool, with a baby (Joyce, he presumed) on her hip and her other arm around her son. Her smile was bright enough to light up an airport runway, and the happiness she radiated was clearly visible to him.

Giles stared at the small family. A Slayer with a family. The Council would not be pleased. He wondered what Joyce and the Scoobies would think. Somehow, he doubted that the woman who had blamed him for her "little girl's" disappearance would be any happier with this turn of events than the Council was going to be. And he didn't see Buffy's friends dancing with joy either.

And yet, as Giles stared at Buffy and her children, he realized that he didn't care what personal complications might arise. His Slayer had a family! He had guided a girl who lived long enough to raise a family. She may be the one girl in all the world, but that hadn't deprived her of the chance to be a wife and a mother. She was able to have a "normal life" after all. She may have had to go to hell and rescue hundreds of people from slavery in order to achieve this life, but she had done it.

A huge, soppy grin spread across his face, and he had to fight down an attack of giggles. There were going to be a myriad of administrative headaches involved with relocating this many people, but he would deal with them in a minute. Right now, he wanted to enjoy this moment and revel in a vision that he had never dared dreamed before. A mature Slayer, with a family, and a future. It was a beautiful sight.

~*~*~*~*~*

Hi guys,

I'm afraid I won't be updating quite as rapidly in the future; I have now run out of nearly finished chapters and will have to start working to keep up with you all! I have no intention of abandoning this story, however, so fear not.

I'd like to give a huge virtual hug to everyone who has reviewed this story. Most stories are lucky to receive just one thoughtful and articulate review, but almost every one of the reviews for this story are just that. I'm blown away!

shelley

p.s. Yes, I was a HUGE "Beauty and the Beast" fan. I guess I just have a soft spot for tall, gentle, well-read men with a protective streak... I wasn't consciously trying to create that image, but yeah, that was the image in my mind.