Work Text:
“-me. Excuse me, what are you doing in here?”
Olivia turned around, straightening up and holding an oversized book to her chest so that the title was partially visible: “The Incomplete History of” … something. She took in the figure standing in front of her, a woman who had presumably been trying to get her attention for some time now and appeared appropriately irate. ‘But still cute,’ Olivia thought fleetingly before chastising herself and returning to the real world again. “Rupert Giles. Is he around? I have an important book to deliver to him,” she proclaimed, managing to gesture vaguely at the book she was holding while still keeping the title obscured.
“Well, this is his office, where he’s supposed to be and you aren’t, so if he isn’t here I’d try moving along,” the mystery woman reprimanded, but she quickly softened. “He’s in the staff room,” she said, “follow along with me. You don’t want to stay here waiting, he’s got all kinds of weird things lying about.” Saying that, she glanced down at the book Olivia had been engrossed in before her arrival, with its grotesque-looking illustrations of decidedly non-human entities, and slammed it shut. “So, you from around here?” the stranger asked as she led Olivia back out of the library.
“No, no just here to make a delivery. I’m Olivia, by the way. Ex-librarian. Although, can one ever really stop being a librarian once they’ve started?”
“I… see. I’m Jenny, I teach computers-“
“Really?” Olivia interrupted. “The only ‘computer’ we had at the last school I worked at was a glorified security alarm that didn’t even work. They claimed it was highly advanced technology too. And here I thought private schools were supposed to be better maintained.”
“Yeah, we’ve got all kinds of real computers here, much to Rupert’s chagrin. Sometimes he even lets me use them to catalogue the books!” Jenny gave a mock gasp of shock at this.
“Wow, he must really like you then,” Olivia joked, while silently cataloguing Jenny as “off-limits, probably straight and taken”.
“We’ve gotten pretty friendly I guess. Even I can admit as much. Good to have a friend around here.” Jenny paused, and then added: “So, staying here long? Maybe you could use a friend too. Cute girl like you, this town’ll eat you up. Er, not literally of course.”
“Just a couple of days, tops. I’m actually only lending out this book, it has to come back with me when I leave.”
Jenny looked like she was about to say something, then shook her head. “Well, here we are.” She stuck her head into the staff room and called out, and the man Olivia presumed to be Rupert Giles came out to the hall to greet them.
“It’s lovely to meet you,” Olivia responded. “I’ve got your book on, ah, curses, right here? Shall we go back to the library together? This series tends to be a bit obtuse, I might be able to help you find what you’re looking for.”
“I would appreciate the help.” The two turned to head back in the direction Olivia had just come from.
Jenny watched as they walked out of ear-shot, finally snapping out of her own stupor to mutter “Wait, at least let me show you the coffee shop,” at the empty hallway. “Damn it!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“So, you and Jenny are…” Olivia asked, trailing off pointedly.
“What? Oh. Colleagues. Friends. Good friends. That’s all, really.”
“Is it?” A teasing grin began forming on Olivia’s face.
“Alright, alright. We went out a couple of times. Decided it would be best not to pursue anything further at present.”
“Oh? Oh!” Olivia may have to re-evaluate her hasty categorization of the woman. “And Jenny, is she- well,” deciding it best to be up-front about things Olivia finally settled on and articulated, “does she like women?”
“Jenny doesn’t like most people, Miss Caliban, though she is equally as likely to become fond of a woman as of a man,” he responded matter-of-factly. “Now if you don’t mind, the book-?”
“Right, one more thing. Just in case it ever comes up, you can feel free to tell her that I also like women. You know, for the record.”
“Oh for- I thought I’d had enough of useless lesbian acquaintances in college! Let me write down her phone number, so that you can call her once you get back to your motel or wherever it is you’re staying, and you can tell her yourself. Now if we could please return to the matter at hand, it is of some urgency after all.”
So Giles was eventually able to get some work done, though not without the occasional interruption from Olivia asking for some obscure bit of Jenny trivia, Jenny got a chance to ask for that coffee date she wanted, and Olivia got a “friend” to look out for her whenever she was in town.