Checked out the fic in question and by coincidence I've just finished watching "As you were".

I agree with the comment about projection and saying more about the writer than anything else, but I thought that I'd add that by giving Riley the motivation, etc. it meant that the writer missed the entire purpose of the episode in terms of Buffy's character....and very likely one of the major themes of the entire season.

But that writer wouldn't be the first one to have missed that.