They made it with thirty minutes to spare before the others came ambling in. Dawn had been uncharacteristically glad to see them. Joyce was napping, yet again. Both of them had been more than a little worried, despite Buffy's messages to the voicemail, about how long she was gone.

Only when Dawn had demanded an explanation and details, did Giles and Buffy realise they hadn't concocted one yet.

“I spent the night over at Giles' place,” Buffy said suddenly, breaking their stunned silence. “I was tired after patrol and I fell asleep. Simple as that.”

Dawn looked from one to the other, aware that something was up, but not quite able to put it together.

“So there was no big bad?” she asked, almost disappointed.

“No bad, not even a little one,” Buffy confirmed. “One of the reasons I was tired. It was a long, long, boring patrol, after a long boring day of my most un-fun classes for the week.”

Dawn frowned. “Aren't Fridays supposed to be the best days of the week?”

“Not mine,” Buffy said, keeping a straight face. “You try staying perky through Professor Glochman's droning monotone and endless Yeats, followed by intense note taking and unending factoids about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.”

“You mean like Julius Caesar?” Dawn asked without real interest.

“At the moment? Caligula,” Buffy deadpanned. “And you so don't want to go there. I so didn't want to go there.”

At that point a knock at the door had saved her from any further explanation.

The others seemed amazed, but relieved, to see them there.

Anya handed Dawn a large box of donuts which she duly opened while the others quizzed Buffy and Giles.

The same story repeated, with embellishments about where they were when the gang was over at the apartment, namely shopping for breakfast supplies, got short shrift from the team.

“We were worried sick,” Willow chided.

“You should have woken her up,” Xander added. “You've got your shiny new car to drive her home in now, Big G.”

“Enough, all of you,” Giles growled. “We appreciate your concern, but it really isn't any of your business what Buffy does or does not do on her own time. She left messages for her mother and Dawn and behaved in a responsible manner. His eyes flicked from Xander to Willow and back again. Neither of you is in a position to take the moral high ground when it comes to confiding in people,” he pointed out testily. “I don't want to hear any more about it.”

They subsided, half from surprise at his tone, half in the knowledge that he was right. Willow stuck out a pouting lip before going to the kitchen with Dawn and Tara to make tea and coffee. Anya rolled her eyes as she watched them go, turned to Xander's back and scowled at him too, before pointing out to him that if she didn't open the store soon she was going to get fired.

“I'll put in a good word with the management for you,” Giles said with a twinkle in his eye, as they headed for the door.

Anya looked over her shoulder and grinned at them both. “Next time, call,” she told them, and disappeared through the closing door.

“She has a point,” Giles conceded.

“Boy you're really getting Anya-whipped,” Buffy teased. “Not so long ago, you couldn't stand the sight of her.”

“People change,” he said gruffly. “And she has yet to learn to be anything other than direct and honest. I have discovered that I find that rather refreshing, when she isn't being entirely insulting.”

“Do I need to be jealous?”

He looked down at her, startled, then realised she was only teasing.

“Terribly,” he teased back and, with a quick glance around first, bent and crushed her lips with his for several long beats. “You see how very disinterested I am?” he growled when he lifted his head.

“Oh, yeah, it's so over,” she giggled.

“What's over?” a voice asked, making them jump.

Willow brought a tray of mugs into the living room.

“N-nothing,” Giles answered. “Buffy was making a joke.”

Willow looked from one to the other, taking in their flushed cheeks and general discomfiture and wondered exactly when they were going to be told what the heck was going on.

“Coffee or tea?” she asked, not willing to ask, but annoyed at being out of the loop.

“Tea, thank you.”

“Coffee.”

Dawn and Tara arrived a moment later, Dawn with the donuts arranged on a plate and cookies on another, Tara with a teapot in one hand and the coffeepot in the other.

“I'm going to check on mom again,” Dawn announced.

“Quietly,” Buffy admonished.

Dawn rolled her eyes, grabbed a chocolate iced donut and headed for the stairs.

“So,” Willow said without preamble, looking from one to the other, “what's going on?”

“Well, uh, we haven't made any progress with the problem of identifying our new resident evil, there were no demons or-or vampires out for Buffy to fight last night, and…well, my car is almost due for its first service.”

Willow's eyes narrowed. “Wow, Giles, and I thought it was just something going on with you and Buffy,” she said sarcastically.

For a moment he looked away self-consciously, then, before Buffy could speak, he turned back to the young Wiccan, a look on his face that defied description. A dozen things…hurt, defiance, defensiveness, passion and anger among them, merged into one fierce expression, his green eyes flashing.

“Thank you for noticing,” he said in a calm voice that still could have peeled paint. “And for your consideration of our privacy,” he added, flicking a glance to Tara. “So thoughtful of you to remove the need for us to make our own decision about telling everyone.”

Willow blinked, her cheeks suddenly a violent red. Rarely had she ever upset Giles. His tolerance, patience and forgiveness in the past had been without measure. Crossing the line was not something she ever expected to experience.

“N…no…I'm sorry,” she stammered. “I didn't mean…I just…we all always talk to each other…tell each other stuff,” she said plaintively.

Giles' gaze slid pointedly to her companion and Tara smiled self-consciously, possibly even a little frightened. After a beat, he realized he was scowling and smiled at her reassuringly, before sobering and turning back to Willow.

She had the good grace to look ashamed. “I'm sorry, Giles,” she said softly. “I-I love you…both of you, and I was wigged.”

“And are you still wigged?” he asked quietly as Buffy's hand slid into his and squeezed tight. “Too wigged?”

Willow looked from one to the other and down at their hands. “Really?” she squeaked. “Really, finally, you guys?”

“Wha'd'ya mean, finally?” Buffy demanded.

“Finally…you know, like, it took you long enough…cause…like…we've known forever that you…”

Giles and Buffy looked at each other.

Willow's eyes widened. “You guys never knew? All this time it was because you were too stu…uh…blind to realise you should um…be together?”

Two sets of eyes turned to face her.

“You really didn't know…” Willow repeated, amazed. “I figured that was why it didn't work out with Riley, why the two of them were so not setting the world alight with their non-chemistry.”

“Willow!”

Willow looked at Buffy. “C'mon, Buffy. Riley was a nice guy, but most of the time you didn't even know he was alive, even when you were with him. You went through the motions but…”

Buffy looked up at Giles. “But my heart wasn't in it,” she finished. “No it wasn't. My heart was already taken. I just didn't know it yet. All I knew was that I was alone…that Riley wanted me…a-and that he was what I was supposed to want. Angel was supposed to be this big bad, no future guy…a-and then there's Riley…Mister all-American, all alive, everyone likes him, kinda guy. I really tried…I gave him everything except what he wanted most; everything except the one thing I didn't have…because it already belonged to Rupert…”

Willow smiled suddenly at Giles. “It sounds nice…your name…when Buffy says it.”

Giles smiled back at her. “You know, you're perfectly entitled to call me by name too, if you want,” he reminded her.

“Rupert,” Willow said experimentally. “I like it…but…” She looked up at him. “It isn't you…you know?”

“It's okay, Will. I said the same thing, myself. Rupert is his name, and it really is kinda cute when you get used to it…but Giles is who he is.”

Giles nodded. “It's all right. I'm perfectly content to be Giles. I just wanted you to know that I consider all of you close enough to use my name…my given name, whenever you feel it appropriate.”

Buffy chuckled. “Which is my darling Watcher's way of saying he loves you all and you're not kids any more, so go for it, if you want, but 'Giles' is just fine too.”

“I thought that was what I said…more or less.”

Buffy patted his hand. “In British. I just translated it to Scooby for you.”

All three girls giggled.

“So very kind of you,” he said dryly and picked up the mug of tea Willow had poured for him.

“So when are you moving in?” Willow asked several minutes later, when they were all engrossed in demolishing the donuts and drinking their tea and coffee.

Giles almost choked on some blackberry jelly, Buffy put her empty cup down with a thud and Tara squeaked as a little slop of hot tea escaped her mug and splashed on her thigh.

“You really didn't take your tact pills today, did you, Will?” Buffy asked, amused. “We haven't got that far yet. There's mom for a start, Dawn, Glory, college, the slaying…” It's not so easy to just pick up and move over there.”

“Why not?” demanded the irrepressible redheaded Wiccan. “I mean, your mom is in recovery, Dawn's not six years old. She and your mom did fine last year when we roomed at the dorm. A-and Glory and slayage don't count, cos that's what you do…both of you. Now you can do it together…” Willow stopped, beet red. “That didn't quite finish the way…”

Tara smiled in sympathy, Buffy giggled and even Giles' eyes danced.

“Forget it,” Buffy told her. “We've already got it covered anyway. She couldn't mention the real problem with leaving Dawn unguarded, and Giles was insistent about college anyway, so as good as her friend's arguments were, Buffy sighed.

“I wish it was that easy,” she said wistfully. “Maybe if you could convince Rupert that college isn't…” She stopped, staring into the intelligent, college-loving green eyes of her friend. “Okay, that's so not gonna work.”

“Indeed,” Giles said softly. “Don't worry, Willow, we'll sort it out eventually, hopefully in the least stressful way possible. There is also still the question of Buffy's mother, and of course Dawn…”

“What about me?”

They all looked up, or turned, startled. Dawn and Joyce were standing in the doorway.

Giles was the first to gather his wits. He cleared his throat.

“Um…Hello. Have you been standing there very long?”

“Long enough to know you're having doubts about college,” Joyce said quietly to her daughter, “and that you called Mister Giles, Rupert,” she added in an unmistakeable tone.

Giles blinked. “Um, Willow, Tara…would you mind?”

They scattered faster than marbles on a hard floor, taking a loudly objecting Dawn with them.

“Please,” Giles said softly. “Sit down, Joyce.”

She came into the room slowly and sat in one the arm chairs, her eyes moving from one to the other in deliberate assessment.

“When?” she asked before he could speak again.

“Um…” Buffy squeaked. “It's more complicated than that.”

“Oh?” Joyce managed, terrified suddenly that she was going to be told something far worse.

“Yeah, you see, we only discovered in San Francisco that we've both…I mean…he…and I…”

Giles closed his eyes for a moment, and covered Buffy's hand with his own. “What Buffy is trying to say is that while we have both had strong feelings for each other for a long time, we only discovered in San Francisco how strong they were, and that they were mutual. Our…relationship has since changed from one of friendship and comrades-in-arms to one of…of…”

“Love,” Buffy finished firmly, but with her heart burning fiercely in her eyes. “I love him, mom. And he loves me, more than life. We were waiting until you were stronger. We haven't even been seeing each other since we got back…e-except, well, last night. It was my fault. I couldn't stay away,” she said, looking up at him apologetically.

Joyce blinked and looked at each of them again, as though trying to see through a fog.

“How long…no, you said San Francisco, didn't you? But how long have each of you…known?”

“Prom night.”

“Buffy's school dance.”

They both said in unison, their responses unmistakeably spontaneous.

Joyce's eyes widened with surprise. “Angel?” she whispered, still struggling to assimilate what she'd already been told.

Buffy shrugged. “He was the love of my seventeen year old life. He wasn't the other half of me…how could he be? He's dead.” She looked up at Giles' profile. “I didn't know it at the time, but my life was right in front of me, there for me, always. We didn't even get to dance together.”

“A-and you wanted to?” Joyce asked and then mentally kicked herself for the stupidity of the question.

“Yes.”

“N-not then, maybe.”

The answers again were simultaneous. They looked at each other.

“Angel came,” Buffy said softly. “And I wasn't ready yet. I wasn't good enough for you yet,” she explained.

“Wasn't old enough,” Joyce's voice interjected, harsh over the tenderness in Buffy's voice.

They both looked back at her.

“Have you thought about that? He's not some dashing, exciting boy, like Angel. This is serious, Buffy.” She turned to face him. “And you're old enough to know better. “I thought I knew you. I thought I could trust you.”

“Mom!” Buffy was mortified, and her eyes flashed with rage. “That's not fair. Do you know how many times Giles has saved my life? Do you know what I've put him through in the last five years? My God, if you don't, someone should have told you. Trust? Rupert is the only thing that has stood between me and chaos for so long…without Giles I would be…would be…”

“A normal girl?” Joyce said sarcastically.

“Faith…!” Buffy said almost at the same time. “Is that what you would have preferred? I was lost to you before I was even born, mom. I was never going to be normal. What I am now, I am because of Giles…because he was there…because he loved me.”

“Faith came from a broken home…”

“And I didn't? Mom, please. You don't know how much alike Faith and I are, how close I came to being her.” She looked up at her lover. “But I had one thing she didn't have.”

“Joyce, I'm truly sorry you had to find out like this,” Giles interceded. “But Buffy is virtually twenty, and able to make her own decisions. Neither of us would have even contemplated a future together six months…even six weeks ago. What we have is new, and wonderful and yet it seems that each of us has known, perhaps forever, that it would be this way.”

For a moment Joyce sat silently. “You don't have a life ahead of you,” she finally told Giles. You're not Riley, with it all still to do, with the years to give her…”

Buffy's eyes grew very bright. “No, mom,” she said gently. “I don't have the years to give Riley or anyone else. Rupert knows that.”

Joyce swallowed, her lip trembling. “So you w-wouldn't do it to Riley…but you would to M-Mister Giles? And you say you love him?”

Giles' hand tightened on Buffy's. “You said it yourself,” he told her with quiet steel. “Riley has his whole life ahead of him, the potential for other relationships, a future, complete with children, career, mortgages…He should have a real chance at that.” He sighed. “And I…I can only give her everything I have, for as long as she needs me.”

“How do you know…?”

Giles looked directly into her eyes. “Because there is only Buffy. She is my life, my love, and my reason for opening my eyes in the morning. I have led a less than sterling life, Joyce. There have been few truly happy moments in it, and a great many unpleasant and painful ones. Since I came to Sunnydale, just two things have given me joy, kept me from self-destructing, in fact…”

“Jenny,” Buffy guessed.

Giles looked at her and smiled tenderly before nodding. “And this woman. Someone once mocked me for calling her a girl, but she was a girl…a slip of a girl with more courage, more strength of character in one tiny finger than I have shown in my entire lifetime. And now she's grown into the woman I love…the woman I have, perhaps, waited for her to become.”

Joyce snorted, angry with herself for being caught up in his words, his gentle voice. “This is not a hearts and flowers romance novel,” she growled. “This is my daughter, entrusted to your care, to your honourable care. How dare you do this to us? To me?”

Buffy's head flew up. “To you?” She wanted it to stop. She wanted to soothe her mother and for her to rest before she made herself ill, but things had gone too far. She closed her eyes and struggled to regroup, to not say things they would all regret. “This isn't some dirty little affair, mom,” she said quietly. “This is two people who love each other, who were never meant to be with anyone but each other. Don't take that away from us, please?”

Giles moved to put his arm around her, aware that she was trembling with the strength of her feelings.

“Contrary to what you might believe, I do understand, completely,” Giles told Joyce as Buffy turned her face into his chest. “If another chap my age had shown any interest in Buffy at any time since my arrival in Sunnydale, I would, in all likelihood, have separated the pillock from his head.”

Buffy lifted her troubled face and looked up at him. “You wanted to do that to Angel. I know you did.”

“Many, many times,” he admitted ruefully.

“But you didn't,” she smiled damply.

“Because I couldn't bear to see you unhappy, love, even for a moment. That evening, in the car, after…when I told you that you'd always have my respect, and my support…”

“You wanted to kill him, didn't you?”

“More than I wanted to breathe,” he admitted.

“What night?” Joyce asked dumbly.

Buffy turned to her reluctantly. “My seventeenth birthday. That was the day after I slept with Angel…the day he turned. I made him evil and he hurt me so badly I thought I would die…except…”

Joyce looked from one to the other, reluctant recognition in her eyes. They were talking about the man…the thing…that had killed the woman Giles had once loved, and yet, to her knowledge, he had never once blamed Buffy, or taken his grief out on her.

“I want my daughter to have a future…I don't want her to die,” she said helplessly.

Buffy went to her and put her arms around her. “I'm not going to die any time soon, mom,” she soothed. “Not when I have Rupert to watch my back…and the guys to help me. I'm sorry I said that to you…but I have to live with that truth…I'm the Slayer and after twenty-five it's like frontier time, in Slayer history. I don't want to face that alone. Hell, I don't want to face it at all…but I have to, and if I can do it with the man I love, and who loves me, beside me, maybe we can beat history together.”

Buffy heard Giles' throat catch.

“And we will,” she said vehemently. “We will.”

Giles came over to them both and laid a hand on Buffy's back. She turned into his chest again, just leaning for a moment.

He looked down at Joyce with troubled eyes as he enfolded his love in his arms.

“Will you please…trust me once more…? I love Buffy more than could ever put into words…beyond reason, even…I will protect her and adore her until the day I die…and beyond, if I could.”

Joyce looked tired, and ill. There was hurt in her eyes, but also the knowledge that what he was saying was the truth, that if anything were to happen to her, her daughter would never be alone.

The air grew strained. They both swallowed.

Then Joyce nodded and closed her eyes.

Giles exhaled and Buffy lifted her head slowly.

She looked at her mother, sitting silently with her eyes closed, and up at Giles, who nodded.

Buffy went and knelt in front of her, took her hands. “Mom, it's okay. For the first time since I was called, it's really okay. I'll still be there for you and Dawn. That won't change. I just…this is right, mom. For the first time in my life I really know who I am, what I want. I am Rupert's, and he is mine…and a part of me knows now that it was never really meant to be any other way.”

Joyce placed a hand either side of the blonde head and rested her brow on Buffy's crown. “I want so much for you to be happy, Buffy. I've watched you suffer. I've watched you being so terribly alone…but are you sure this is the answer? Are you s—?”

Buffy tilted her head in her mother's hands and covered them with her own. “I love him,” she repeated in a voice that stilled the room. “Mom, this is that once in a lifetime kind of love. The kind I thought was for other people…the kind where you aren't whole if you're not together…You told me once, there's only one kind of real love…the forever kind.” She drew back, keeping hold of her mother's right hand, and turned to Giles. “Rupert is forever...”

Giles stared back at her, his heart in his eyes, then smiled very slowly.

After a beat, Joyce loosed her hand and straightened, then sighed heavily. “What's that expression you and your friends have? Wigged, is it? Well, you're going to have to let me be wigged for just a little while,” she told them ruefully. “I've survived you being a Slayer. I've survived a two hundred and forty year old vampire lover turned psychopathic killer and I've survived you leaving. I think I can survive this too…”

Both Buffy and Giles looked closely at her. Buffy rose as Giles came to his feet, and they both stood in front of Joyce.

“Thank you,” Giles said quietly. “We knew it was going to be difficult, but we both hoped that somehow you would understand. I am sorry that it is not what you wanted for her, but I promise you she will be happy.” He looked down at the woman by his side. “And she will be more loved than you can possibly imagine.”

Joyce looked up, her eyes very full. “I know,” she said softly. “I think I've known for a long while, but I didn't want to think about it. It…you…it's too much a part of a world I'll never belong in…like the slaying, the vampires…the damned d-destiny.”

Both Giles and Buffy bent to put comforting hands on the distressed Joyce's shoulders.

“I know,” Giles said hoarsely. “Thrice damned…and the price we pay to keep the world free. I will take care of her, Joyce, I promise you. She will never be alone.”

Flanked by them both, Joyce bowed her head a little and rested her brow on his shoulder. “I'm so tired, Rupert, and it's all so unfair.”

There was a moment's silence while both Giles and Buffy struggled to contain their emotions. Then Joyce lifted her head and looked him in the eye.

“Keep all your promises, or I swear I will tell Hank. He may not be Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he loves his daughter, and his legal staff are sharks of the man-eating variety,” she warned, only half joking.

The tension defused, Buffy looked her lover up and down. “Dad versus Giles…no wonder you think he'll need the lawyers,” she said dryly.

Joyce actually chuckled. The idea of her ex-husband tackling Ripper Giles and coming out of it any other way than the police officer had, was suddenly as ludicrous as Buffy's tone made it sound.

“Are you guys finished in there yet?”

They all parted, Buffy and Giles backing to the couch and sitting down. “Yes, yes, quite,” Giles muttered.

“Dawn, what have I told you about interrupting private conversations?”

“You guys are up to something and Tara and Willow are acting weird. I'm not stupid,” she pouted.

“Come here,” Joyce said softly, but with the kind of steel even Buffy didn't dare disobey.

Dawn inched into the room and slunk to her mother's side.

“Buffy and Giles have something to tell you.”

Two large eyes fixed on them both. “Well? Don't tell me: the world's going to end. No? Okay, you have to go to England to show the Council who's boss? I know…Riley's coming back!” she burbled.

Buffy, who'd been about to fill her in, suddenly slumped and exhaled. Giles squeezed her hand.

“Dawn, sit down, please.”

Strangely enough, at the sound of his tone, Dawn obeyed immediately.

“What your mother means is that the relationship between Buffy and me has undergone something of a change…”

“You're not her Watcher any more…again?”

Buffy closed her eyes. Giles continued patiently.

“The two of us have discovered that we mean a great deal more to each other than either of us realised. We—”

“Oh…my…God,” Dawn exclaimed melodramatically. “My sister and…and…George Clooney? My friends will die. I'll die. I'll never be able to go to school again.”

“Dawn, what are you talking about?” Joyce managed.

“Mom, he's old enough to be my…my…teacher, my Principal even. This is Giles…he knows words that came out of the Ark!”

“Dawn, listen to me,” Buffy said with commendable calm. “At your age anyone over twenty five is old. In the real world Giles is still in his prime. Can't you just be happy for me? We're happy…isn't that enough?”

Dawn blinked. She was silent for a long moment. Only when she realised that she couldn't remember the last time she saw Buffy truly happy, did she speak again.

“If...if you really are, then yeah, I could deal,” she admitted quietly and watched her sister look at the man she loved, the way their eyes seemed to melt into each other, the way he held her hand, even the way Buffy leaned into him slightly. “It is, isn't it?” she sighed fatalistically. “Real…I mean. Damn…I mean, uh…congratulations. Is it okay if I tell the kids at school that my future brother-in-law is a musician?” she asked, eyeing Giles' hoop earring for the first time.

Giles' gaze pulled away from Buffy's and met Dawn's. “I would prefer you told the truth, but I suppose, strictly speaking, you're not actually being dishonest.”

“Yay!” Dawn grinned. “Am I excused, now? I'm hungry.”

They all smiled, and Joyce nodded, watched her bounce away before looking back at the other two.

“Brother-in-law…?” she said dryly.

The Watcher smiled gently. “Sometimes the young see things more simply and more clearly than any adults.”

The two women stared at him, Joyce with a combination of bemusement and wariness, while Buffy's eyes glowed.