Faith goes looking for her father to answer some of her questions left by her mother's return. Buffy tries to help as best she can, leading her to ask questions about her own relationship with her father and whether she should do the same.
"Any time Buffy, I wish you all the best in your endeavour. If I can help in any other way..."
"I will, I appreciate it."
There's a short silence over the phone then I hang up.
He's always been there for me. No matter what I need or how crazy I get, he's there for me when I need him. In the few years I've known him, he's been more of a father tome then my own dad. It can't be easy for him to hear me wanting to talk to my dad. When I get back, I should probably talk to him about everything. I kinda gave him the broad strokes of what happened with Faith's dad. But we'll probably have to go into detail when we get back to Sunnydale. He deserves that. He deserves so much more then I could ever give him. He's given up so much for me.
From the way he moved here from England to be my Watcher, to being angry with Jenny because of what happened with Angel, to believing me when Faith killed Finch and helping me through all that, to supporting me when I fell in love with Faith. He's done everything I asked of him and more. I need to find a way to thank him for that. Some way to make him understand how much what he's done has meant to me. Maybe I should get him a father's day present or something. I don't know, that might be weird. He's a really stuffy English guy.
Probably something that would make him die of embarrassment. I wouldn't want that. Maybe I should talk to Faith about it first. She might have some better ideas. Not that either of us really have much experience with giving father's day presents. But at least she'd be someone else to talk about it with.But first we should probably talk about what I'm going to do about my dad. She seems to have a better handle on all that then I do.
After her dad woke up, they talked and things went pretty well. Sounds like they're going to be okay.But I'll probably have to talk to her about it just to make sure.
Almost like it's on cue, the door to our motel room opens and she walks in. She's carrying the food from her favourite place.
"Hey B, you get a hold of the G-man?"
I smile at her as she moves to the little table we have.
"Yeah..."
"Did he have what you're after?"
"He did... apparently he had my dad's info when you asked for yours. He figured if you were asking, that eventually I would ask."
That makes her chuckle.
"Is there anything that man doesn't already know?"
"Apparently not."
We fall into a silence together as she sits down and starts pulling out the food. I make my way over there and sit down in the chair across from her.
"So... you figure out what you're going to do?"
I take a deep breath, looking down at my food for a second.
"Well, I'm going to eat this food."
She laughs a little.
"You know what I mean."
I smile at her while I open up the burger wrapper.
"Yeah... and I think I know. But I'm not sure if it's the right thing."
"Which is?"
She takes a drink of her soft drink, looking up at me from her straw expectantly.
"As fun as meeting your dad was, I could probably use a break from the drama of it all."
"Good call. With our track record, we'd probably end up slaying something."
"Probably someone he knew."
"Definitely. So, where does that leave you?"
I don't answer right away.
"A phone call."
She waits for me to explain.
"I think I'm just going to call him. See if we can have some kind of conversation. I need to understand why I haven't heard from him in so long. Even with all the insanity."
"Sounds fair."
I should probably just say it.
"But... is that fair to you?"
She gets a confused look on her face.
"To me?"
I reach out and put my hand on hers which is on the table.
"You shared this big part of yourself with me. Letting me come with you to meet your dad, helping him deal with the vampires taking advantage of him. It's a lot, and I feel like I'd be cheating you if all I did was just gave him a call and left it at that."
She looks down at my hand for a while before bringing her focus back to me.
"B, this isn't about me."
"Isn't it?"
"No... I had to do this because of me. I need to actually see my dad because of everything that happened between me and Mom. But we ain't the same. My issues with my dad aren't like yours. So if you think it'll be okay to just talk with your dad? Then that's what you gotta do. Don't worry about me. I got what I needed. Now it's about what you need."
I watch her for a moment to make sure she means it.
"You're sure."
Her hand turns up so that we're holding hands.
"I know I said this before B, but... what you did for me? Coming here and helping me with my dad? It means more to me then you could ever imagine. No one's ever been there for me like that. Even if I wanted to, I'm not sure that I can repay you for it. And... you don't owe me anything. Just focus on what you need. Whatever's going to help you is all that really matters. Okay?"
She really means that.
"Okay."
I squeeze her hand firmly.
"Thank you."
"Any time."
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