#i think a lot about the flip side of how horrifying what rupert does is - like no matter bex's intentions she is in a terrible position

[rebeccasbiscuits]

This may be more to do with behind the scenes logistics, but I do think it's interesting we haven't seen or heard anything about Bex (or the baby!) yet this season, despite Rupert's presence. I know that the settings have been work ones, but I don't think previous season's Rupert would have missed the opportunity to bring Bex to the match where he knew Rebecca would be. We know, in the most horrifying way, that to a pretty strong extent, him marrying a woman called Rebecca and having a child with her (involving two actual real human beings!), was at its core to upset Rebecca. And it's sort of like that now he has a team to use to upset Rebecca with, and Nate to manipulate for his own purposes with the charming over attentiveness we know is his abusive MO, he doesn't bother to bring them around with him anymore.

Suddenly he isn't the 'family man' of 2x10, because he can do more damage as a team owner. Which is just a further insight into how Rupert uses people, and how much all of these people need to get away from this man.

[jennycalendar]

very really married (10/15)

read it on ao3!

this isn’t so much a chapter as it is a tiny blurb between chapters, which is why i’m posting it so soon after the last update.

fluff abounds!

“Janna,” Giles whispered into her hair, trying out the name, and he heard her quiet intake of breath. “How’s that?”

“I—” Jenny sniffled, then laughed. “Thought I’d never get to hear anyone say that name again,” she said. “I’m glad to hear it from you. But I don’t think I like it quite so much as I do whenever you call me Jenny.”

I do know her, Giles thought. She’s always been honest with me. He knew he should feel guilty, but he was too busy kissing her neck to think long-term. “How long till we have to get up?” he mumbled.

“Never,” said Jenny.

“Jenny.”

“Did you marry me expecting responsibility?” Jenny cupped his face in her hands, kissing him. “I wanna stay in. Let’s stay in.”

“You are a terrible influence,” Giles growled, pulling her against him. She shrieked, laughing, as he flipped them over, her legs around his waist as he kissed her and kissed her and—and that was the alarm, wasn’t it?

“Mmm, no,” Jenny objected as Giles pulled away to turn it off. “Rupert, c’mon, there’s nothing to do at school today!”

“You’d really rather stay at home than upend my library in a computerized crusade?” Giles teased. “If that’s what it takes to dissuade you from digitization, I should have just seduced you months ago.”

“You wouldn’t have pulled it off,” said Jenny. “I have high standards.” Off Giles’s look, she fell back into the bed, giggling.

Giles kissed her temple and clambered off the bed, picking his glasses up from the top of the bureau and donning his bathrobe. Jenny’s laughter followed him into the bathroom, and he could hear the rustle of bedsheets as she herself got up.

It was in these moments, when he was alone, that the quiet guilt once again set in. Jenny saw him as uncomplicated, someone unencumbered by supernatural responsibilities. By not telling her who he was, he was taking away her right to choose to be with him. And yet the thought of her knowing him completely and turning him away was too horrible a concept for him to fathom, especially when she knew more of him than he had ever let anyone see before.

“Ooh, you’ve got a sexy broody face on,” said Jenny, twining her arms around his waist from behind. “You gonna go all tortured-Angel on me?”

“Hardly,” said Giles, trying to smile as she kissed him on the cheek.

“Good,” said Jenny, nipping at his earlobe. Giles did smile at that, coupled with a slightly breathless laugh as her lips moved to his neck, and his guilt was very deliberately forgotten.

Giles was in the process of bringing out the new arrivals for Jenny’s class to digitize, and some of the boxes were resting on the table when they arrived in the library that morning. Jenny seemed happy enough with the selection, declaring it “a great first attempt,” but she also seemed quite hell-bent on eventually digitizing Giles’s entire library.

“I don’t know if we have time enough for that this year,” said Giles warily.

“So next year,” said Jenny, and then blushed.

Giles’s heart skipped. “Next year,” he agreed, grinning a bit, and tugged Jenny in for a kiss.

“Oh, ugh,” said Buffy. “Can you guys start putting up warning signs?”

Giles and Jenny turned. Buffy, carrying a large crate of books, had screwed her face up in disgust, and Xander was rolling his eyes. Willow, however, beamed at Giles, giving him a thumbs-up. “Thank you, Willow,” said Giles with dignity. Jenny laughed.

“So nothing weird on the supernatural horizon, right?” said Xander.

“Not as far as we know,” said Jenny with a shrug.

“Though you probably just jinxed it, Xander,” Willow added affectionately.

“Let’s try and think positively here,” said Buffy, firmly and cheerfully determined. “We’re all coming in to help digitize some boring books, Giles is probably gonna learn how to use a computer—”

“I never agreed to that,” said Giles indignantly.

“Ru-pert,” Jenny wheedled, “marriage is about compromises!”

It was bloody unfair, the way Jenny had him wrapped round her little finger. “Fine,” Giles mumbled. “I’ll—I’ll watch you use that dread machine. But I can’t promise I’ll pick anything up!” he added at Jenny’s huge smile.

“You know you could make him do anything, right?” said Xander to Jenny. “And here you are wasting it on getting him to learn how to use a computer.”

“Xander, I can assure you that I’ve been making Rupert do things to me that are a lot better than computer sciences,” said Jenny seriously.

“Please stop mortifying me in front of my students,” said Giles.

“Never,” said Jenny, patting him on the shoulder.

“Anyway,” said Xander loudly. “Can we please talk about the new arrivals? There was this one box that I think needs a crowbar or something, because I couldn’t—”

“Let me try,” said Buffy, heading towards the table to the nailed-shut box. As easily as if she were opening a can of soda, she took the lid off, setting it to the side. “Oh, great!” she said, pulling a dusty volume out. “A book.”

“Ugh,” said Jenny. “Is everything in this library grimy and ancient? Barring you, sweetie, you’re perfect,” she added in Giles’s direction, hurrying over to take the book from Buffy. Blowing the dust off the cover, she stopped. “Hold on.”

“What is it?” Giles asked.

Jenny held up the book.

Giles blinked, recognizing the binding and the cover illustration. If he wasn’t mistaken… “Might I see that?” he said uneasily, taking a step towards Jenny.

“No!” Jenny yanked it away from him. At Giles’s startled look, she exhaled. “Sorry. Just…Rupert, this is very dangerous. I don’t want you reading it aloud and getting hurt by accident.”

Giles stared, feeling himself blush. “You know what it is?” he murmured.

“I…” Jenny trailed off, a bit pink herself. “Wasn’t really expecting you to, but damn if you don’t surprise me.”

“Oh, ew,” said Buffy. “This is worse than the kissing. Can you guys not do the weird nerd flirting while we’re in the room?”

“No promises.” Jenny set the book down on the table. “I don’t exactly recognize the exact demon that might be in this book—”

“There’s a demon in that book?” demanded Xander. “Why is there a demon in that book?”

“Oh my gosh, we could have scanned that book!” Willow gasped. “What if it had ended up in the Internet?”

“A demon in the Internet?” Buffy snickered. “No offense, Willow, but that’s a little silly.”

“Moloch,” said Giles, stepping to look over Jenny’s shoulder. “The Corrupter.”

“Exactly that,” said Jenny, sounding surprised. “Have you been doing some extra research?”

“Bit of light reading,” said Giles uncomfortably.

“Then you’ll know we need to destroy this book,” said Jenny decisively.

“Yes, I quite—wait, what?” Giles stared at Jenny, horrified. “Destroy it?”

“No faster way to kill your marriage than telling Giles you want to destroy a book, Ms. Calendar,” quipped Xander. Willow stepped on his foot.

“Well, we can’t just seal it back up and wait for someone else to find it,” said Jenny, looking honestly bemused by Giles’s indignance. “That thing’s a powder keg waiting to blow. Anyone who knew about it could use it to hurt people.”

“So we make sure they don’t know about it,” said Giles stiffly.

“Why the hell can’t we just destroy it?” Jenny countered, eyes narrowed.

“Jenny, it’s history,” said Giles plaintively. “Regardless of the horrors it contains, it’s still a record that we can use to learn from. Burning the parts of our pasts that we aren’t proud of…that’s no way to live. History is important, whatever context it is in.”

Jenny was smiling slightly as she reached up to squeeze his shoulder. “Rupert,” she said, “that was an incredibly touching speech, and I completely agree that this book holds historical value, but you’re still talking about the magical equivalent of a nuclear bomb. We can spend a few days writing up a comprehensive study if it’ll make you feel better, but Moloch is historically an incredibly violent and horrific demon. It’s pretty much our responsibility to make sure he never walks the earth again.”

Giles stared.

“What?”

“Well, we’re—actually discussing this,” said Giles weakly. “The last time we had an ideological disagreement, you locked me out of the house and wouldn’t let me in till sunset.”

Buffy giggled. “Really?” she asked Jenny.

“Really,” said Jenny, giving Buffy a wry smile before turning back to Giles. “Well, at this point I trust that you respect what I have to say,” she said simply. “That’s really all it takes for me to, you know, not lock you out of the house.”

“You are surprisingly easy to please when I’m not being an idiot,” said Giles, which made Jenny laugh. God, he loved making her laugh. “I—don’t exactly like destroying something of historical value,” he continued tentatively, “but I do see your point. It has the potential to cause a lot of harm.”

“And we can still write a thorough report, if we want,” Jenny encouraged him.

“We?” said Giles.

“Yeah, okay, mostly you,” said Jenny, wrinkling her nose. “There’s only so many musty old antiquities I can take.”

“Aww, don’t say that in front of Giles!” Buffy gasped. “He’ll think you don’t want to be around him anymore!” Jenny snorted, then gave Giles an apologetic look; Giles tried not to laugh himself.

Jenny taught Giles computer basics while the children were scanning the new arrivals. Under most circumstances, Giles would be entirely averse to the notion, but something that so fascinated Jenny was more than worth exploring.

“It’s beeping,” he said uneasily.

“Yeah, it does that,” said Jenny affectionately.

“Fighting a losing battle there, Ms. Calendar,” said Xander.

“Does that sound like scanning, Rupert?” Jenny asked, cocking her head.

“It really doesn’t, Jenny,” said Giles innocently.

Xander, getting the message, hastily went back to scanning. Willow, looking amused, crossed the room to peer over Giles’s shoulder. “You’ve got him typing!” she said proudly.

“We’re shooting to integrate him into the twentieth century before it’s over,” Jenny explained, grinning when Giles rolled his eyes. “Next I’m thinking emails.”

“I really don’t see the point of electronic mail,” said Giles, mostly just to push Jenny’s buttons. “Who even takes the time to turn on this contraption?”

“Um, your wife?” teased Jenny, unfazed. “Who you married? This contraption might someday have the capacity to store this entire library.”

“I find it hard to believe that any computer can replicate the reading experience,” Giles pointed out.

“The printed page is obsolete,” said one of the students suddenly. “Information isn’t bound up anymore—it’s an entity. If you’re not jacked in, you’re not alive.”

Jenny and Giles exchanged a look. Then Jenny said, “Well, that’s definitely one way to put it,” and brought up Giles’s email on the computer screen.