Fear has become natural to Giles. As natural as being happy or sad to other people. Fear has become one of Giles' common emotions. He has been consumed by it, driven by it, and paralyzed by it. Having it dictates reactions. Slaying a foe. Running for one's life. Or leaping on the nearest piece of furniture and calling your Slayer.

Buffy breezed into his home with the familiarity of walking into her bedroom. "Okay, what's the big baddie?" She noticed his crouched position on the sofa, baseball bat ready to strike anything that moved.

"It's nothing, really," he spoke with his eyes still trained on the floor. "I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to hone your reflex skills."

She walked further into his living room. "With you standing on the couch, swinging a baseball bat at me?"

His posture softened a bit as he looked at her, "Oh, no, I..." he stammered, feeling embarrassed. "There is a mouse in my flat."

Her eyebrows arched in disbelief, "You called me over here to slay a mouse?"

"Ah...well...yes."

She laughed, "You've killed vampires, zombies and a host of other ickies, but you're afraid of a mouse? One little, tiny- " her teasing was brought short by an "eek" as a brown blur darted in front of her. Jumping, she crouched on the sofa next to her Watcher.

"As you were saying?" Giles asked.

"Oh shut up and give me the bat." He handed her the weapon, but she failed to force herself to move from the sanctuary of the sofa. "I think," she said after a few minutes. "I think we need back up." She reached over and grabbed the phone.

"And who else is going to witness our weakness?"

Holding up a hand, she listened to the voice on the other end. "Hey, Xan, it's Buffy. We have a..." she looked at Giles. "Situation here at Giles' place. Could you come over?" She paused, "Great. And bring donuts."

"No, but I need you to kill something," Buffy handed the baseball bat to Xander.

Noticing the notches and scratches in the wood, he's glad he didn't have to face that evil baseball. "Okay, what?"

Giles and Buffy started to dive into the pastries, "A mouse," she told him.

Xander started laughing. "This is a joke?" he looked into their donut filled, but somber faces. "But it's a really big, evil, demon rat, right?"

"I could kill a big, evil, demon rat," explained Buffy.

"So why not a mouse?"

Giles and Buffy looked at one another. "It's a Slayer weakness," lied Giles, "She is powerless against mice."

They all stared at one another. "That is so lame, it's something I would come up with," spoke Xander. "I'm impressed."

The Watcher just nodded his head to the side, then sank his teeth into the donut.

"All right," Xander readied his weapon, "Where's Mickey?"

Buffy shrugged, "Last known whereabouts was over there." She waved over by the kitchen, "Good luck."

Ten minutes passed as Xander prowled the kitchen calling for "mousey, mousey, mousey." Out from underneath the refrigerator the rodent shot forth, over Xander's left foot and back into the living room. With a shriek, he dropped the bat and leaped up onto the counter.

"Oh, great," whined Buffy, "We've lost our weapon. Now what are we going to do?"

"Something we should of done in the first place." Making sure the floor was clear, Xander made three running steps from the counter to the chair next to the sofa. Picking up the phone, he dialed. "Hey, Wills."

The man in question just waved his hand in silent greeting. Before any of them had a chance to say anything else, the notorious blur darted across the room. "Giles, you have mice," Oz stated unfazed by the creature.

"Ah, yes. I am aware."

Xander pointed with his half devoured donut, "The baseball bat is on the kitchen floor. Why don't you go and kill it?"

"No," Willow protested. "You can't go and kill a little thing like that." Taking the box lid from the pastries, she went into the kitchen. Everyone stayed in the living room, Oz moving over to a vacant chair.

"Willow, be careful," Oz warned, "It's not like Amy."

"No, this one is probably nicer." She pounced with a triumphant "Ah ha!" She captured the mouse inside of the box top and went outside. She released it in the small patch of grass outside of Giles' building. "There you go, little fella," she crooned to it. "Try not to be eaten by a snake or an owl."

Coming back inside she noticed for the first time everyone, except Oz, was crouched up on furniture. "Why are you guy's sitting like that?"

"Because..." Buffy paused. "Because Giles just vacuumed and we didn't want to track dirt all over his nice clean floor."

"Oh," Willow went into the bathroom to wash her hands. While she was gone, everyone relaxed into a normal sitting posture.

Returning, she couldn't suppress an evil grin as she looked down to the floor and said calmly, "Oh look, another one."

In unison, everyone jumped back up, including Oz. She smiled her "just kidding" smile and went for the donuts.

"Oh, no," Xander snatched the box away. "You can't toy with our emotions like that an except sugary goodness."

With a pout, she went and sat on Oz's lap. Excepting the shunned one, he wrapped his arms around her. "Hey," he spoke to Xander. "Can I have one?"

"Sure," he offered the box to him.

Selecting one, he gave it to his sweetheart who stopped pouting and gave him a butter melting smile.

Xander just sulked, "Traitor."

#end#