Meeting Her
Max had been missing since the incident at the hospital. Cordy had been worried immediately when the girl had vanished. She’d returned with another cup of juice, but the only thing she found was an empty bed and an open window. She’d rushed to tell Angel, but he warned her not to say anything yet. He understood her need to run and hide herself away. When they’d left and Angel took Cordy home, it was evident that Max had taken some things with her and might be gone for a while. There was momentary concern about her weakened state, but they continued to tell themselves that Max could handle herself and would come back when she was ready. The past few days had been emotionally traumatic, but especially so for Max.
The following evening, when Angel and Cordelia arrived at the hospital to visit Giles, they were vaguely surprised to hear him demanding information about Max. He had taken the high road about what she had done. To him, she was his savior. She’d selflessly given her blood so that he wouldn’t be put in danger by having to wait until more blood arrived from another hospital. As time wore on and he showed no ill effects, it only strengthened his feelings about the matter. Angel had briefly spoken to Buffy and Spike earlier, convincing them of the need to keep Max’s story quiet for the time being. Buffy had agreed grudgingly. Even though she was angry with Max for possibly endangering her friend, she had calmed down a bit about it. She knew that it wasn’t her place to blab Max’s secrets.
So from the moment Angel and Cordy walked into the room, Giles began peppering them with questions about their friend. They haltingly explained what they could, but cautioned Giles he should really wait to hear it from Max. And then, the next evening, Dr. Armstrong dropped his little bombshell about Max’s blood and connection with Giles. Angel saw red at the invasion of Max’s privacy. Giles immediately became more adamant about meeting her and finally, Cordy explained that Max had run off because of the doctor’s treatment of her.
Buffy definitely had mixed emotions about what the doctor said. Her heart screamed at her that it couldn’t be true. She’d been Giles little girl for so long in heart and spirit, if not biologically. But her head kept telling her that it was definitely possible. In Max’s timeline, there was a very good probability that Giles could be a father. But that didn’t make Max this Giles, her Giles, daughter. Finally, she blurted out, "Giles, she’s not your daughter."
"Well, how do you know that Buffy?" Giles demanded softly. "You’ve only just met the girl. How old is she again?"
"Twenty-two," Cordy supplied, rolling her eyes. She glared at Buffy, trying to silently warn the girl not to hurt Giles by bursting his bubble too quickly. After the night of the ball, Max had haltingly confessed her true-life story to her roommate. Cordy had been hurt at first that Max hadn’t told her straight out, but on a few moments reflection, she could understand why the other woman hadn’t. So she let that go.
"She’s from a different timeline Giles," Buffy glared right back at Cordelia. She couldn’t see the point of beating around the bush anymore. "She showed up much the same way Spike did, in the chamber at Wolfram & Hart. And she isn’t twenty-two here, she’s four." She didn’t quite realize that her jealousy at Max’s immediate position in Giles’ life was showing through.
"R-really?" Giles sputtered. He was quiet for a moment. "How extraordinary!"
That revelation finally quieted him down about the girl. He began to turn his attention to the prophecy that they had called him about in the first place. It was to his great relief that the police had been able to gather up all his possessions and had them delivered to Angel’s hotel. None of his books had been harmed, aside from the occasional mud or water stain. And Wesley and Fred had already begun work on translating the rest of the curse they’d found. But they let it be known that they were eagerly awaiting Giles joining them.
So finally, five days after the accident, Giles was released to Buffy’s care and sent home to the hotel. They’d arranged a small Welcome Home gathering that lasted as long as Giles could stand. Everyone was surprised to see how robust he actually was and Angel silently laid credit where it was due, at Max’s feet. Without her blood, Giles would have been a lot worse off. As Giles was making a speech however, they were all surprised when the object of Angel’s thoughts strolled casually into the hotel.
"Hi," she greeted everyone softly. "Miss me?"
-----<@ @>-----
Max had made it safely away from the hospital, so many things running through her mind, but the most important of all pushing her, survival. After her trip to Wyoming, she’d begun to believe that her past was exactly that, the past. The things that had hurt her before would not have a chance to do so again. But with the appearance of Giles in her life, she knew the threat was back. So once again, she disappeared from the life she’d made.
She made contact with one of her co-workers that had quit recently after being offered a better position within a company. It wasn’t hard to play on Karen’s sympathies, lying to the girl that her apartment was being fumigated. So the girl had agreed to let her stay for a while. A quick stop home to pick up a few necessities and her motorcycle and she was gone. But as the days wore on, Max began to think logically again. Everything else about this dimension was different. That could also mean that this Giles might not mean harm to her.
So, just as she’d shored herself up to face her past in Wyoming, she came to the decision that she needed to face Giles and the rest of the group as well. There was still the damning problem of the prophecy that had not faded from her skin like the first one had. It was another answer that she needed. So finally, after returning home to the apartment and not finding Cordy there, Max returned to the place that she knew she’d find help. The Hyperion. It was almost sundown when she arrived and she’d had to take many calming breaths before she entered. But she finally did, and with an air of confidence, strolled into the lobby where a large group was seated.
"Hi," she smiled. "Miss me?"
There was stunned silence for a moment before Cordy remembered herself and hurried to greet her friend and roommate. The others were pushed out of their complacency at the tall brunette’s glee. "Max!" she shrieked. "Where the hell have you been? I’m so glad to see you. Don’t ever pull this disappearing shit again okay? Or I might just have to kick your ass."
"In your dreams Cordy," Max joked back. She looked around at the others, quietly contemplating her. "So what’s the dealio?" Cordy glanced back at the others.
"Oh, you need to come meet Giles," she smiled at the older man. He was staring strangely at the girl. Before Max had arrived, Giles had been in quite the good mood, but now, he was even quieter than the rest. Max allowed herself to be pulled forward. Cordy came to a halt before the ex-Watcher and dropped her friend’s hand. "Giles, this is Max Gueverra. Max, Rupert Giles."
Max stuck her hand out carefully and Giles glanced down at it in shock. He reached for it with his own and gave her a tremulous smile. "I’m so pleased to meet you, Max. You did a very…k-kind thing for me and I- I don’t know how to ever t-thank you." He spoke in his usual manner, stumbling a little in his gratitude, but if he’d been shocked to see her before, it was nothing to compare to when she gifted him with a full smile. He clenched her hand tighter. "Jenny?" he whispered. Max stared at him for a moment, then disentangled her hand from his.
"I’m sorry?" she thought she’d misheard him. Angel cleared his throat then, glaringly aware that Max hadn’t been privy to the doctor’s revelation. He knew immediately what Giles was thinking.
"Maybe Max and Giles should have a private moment," he suggested, his tone brooking no argument. He led the pair to his office and shut the door firmly behind them. He didn’t know that Cordy had set up a defensive posture between the rest of the group and his door. Angel gestured at them to take seats, which they did. Giles was still staring at Max and she was just as seriously trying to ignore his pleading gaze. She turned her own, begging Angel not to leave her alone. He recognized it immediately and took his own seat.
"What’s going on here?" she asked softly of her friend. Angel sighed, knowing that it was up to him to explain, as Giles seemed to have been struck mute.
"Max, I’m sorry to tell you that the doctor at the hospital was able to get some of your blood left from your transfusion and analyzed it," Angel started there, knowing as he did how she’d been trying to keep it secret. Max flinched a little, but stayed quiet. "He knows about your blood abnormality. But Cordy was fast on her feet and told him that you’d had a miscarriage. So Dr. Armstrong simply believes that the extremely rare occurrence of the babies stem cells crossed into your blood stream is the reason they were present."
"Well, thank God for Cordelia," Max murmured. Angel didn’t add that the doctor also believed that it was this process that had probably caused the miscarriage, since there never was a baby. That he knew of any way.
"There is something else though," Angel sighed. "Max, they did a test on your DNA." She glanced up at him sharply, almost knowing what he was going to say. "It turns out that your blood and Giles is a 97 percent match. They believe him to be your father."
Max spun around to stare at the man beside her. He had a small grin on his face. She looked closely at him. There were only minor dissimilarities from the man she recalled in her timeline. But they were one and the same. "I’ll be damned," she grunted. "Now it all makes sense."
"What makes sense?" Giles asked.
Max grinned at him. "I recognized you when I went into your hospital room." She hesitated from saying more, not knowing how much Angel or the others might have told him about her. Giles picked up on that immediately.
"Buffy informed me that you weren’t of this timeline," he assured her.
"Oh, okay." Max nodded. She knew it was now or never. Time to trust. "Well, see, there was always someone there in my childhood. He was kind to me. See, I didn’t know my parents. My mother, well, basically she gave me up at birth. Not by choice, but all the same. But this man, he always told me I was his favorite. He died before I could find out more about him." She turned to Giles. "That was you."
Both Angel and Giles were shocked, even though they both knew they shouldn’t be. Giles, just because of the information coming his way. Intellectually, he knew that in a different timeline, he could be capable of many different things, shaped by a different world. But as he was now, he could never understand the choice one would make to give up their own child.
Angel was carefully pondering what he knew of Max. There were very few people in Max’s early life that Giles could have been. And she’d never mentioned his name previously. "So who did you know him as?"
"Sandman," Max answered succinctly, expecting that very question. Angel just nodded, the whole picture becoming much more clear to him.
"I-I must confess," Giles stammered, absently cleaning his glasses on the hem of his sweater. "There’s quite a bit I don’t understand here."
"Can I ask you one thing first?" Max stopped him.
"O-of course."
"You called me Jenny. Why?" Max could see the pain the name brought surprisingly to both men. She glanced back and forth between them until Giles finally answered.
"I’m sorry about that," he looked down at the floor. "When you smiled, you reminded me of her." He paused for a moment and glanced away. "She was the woman I loved. But…she died." Max definitely did not miss Angel’s flinch when Giles said that. She tucked the knowledge in the back of her mind, resolving to discuss it with the man at a later date. She turned her attention back to Giles. "You said you didn’t know your parents. So you had no idea…?"
"All I know is that my mother’s name wasn’t Jenny," Max bit her lip at Giles crestfallen look. "But then again, your name wasn’t Giles."
He perked up considerably when she spoke. "O-oh yes. There is that. This is all so strange. Perhaps you’d better tell me what you can so that we can figure out why you are here." With a little effort, he turned himself to the business at hand. Max smiled back and wiggled until she was comfortable in her seat. Angel made as if to leave and she forestalled him with a small shake of her head.
"Well dad," she grinned as Giles was jolted by her small endearment. "It goes like this…" And she proceeded to give him the same story that she’d told the others. Laying all the pertinent information at his feet. And like the wonderful father he’d been to the others in their small, strange group, he listened and accepted.
Just In Case
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