With Xander's help, they got the girl inside. The scoobies had warmed considerably to her once they realized that Giles had not been unfaithful to Buffy. But there were still a lot of questions.

"How has she been pregnant for 20 years?" asked Willow.

"How could you leave her like that?" asked Anya.

"How could you not know?" asked Dawn.

The couch pillows settled beneath her, and Kalyn yelped with discomfort. Giles rushed to her side. "We need to take care of this," he said. "Willow, get some washcloths, and some warm water... you've had a long journey, haven't you?" he asked her.

She nodded. "Two days on planes, one day on busses. I hadn't planned... that is, I realized this would all come as a shock, and I suspected, an unwelcome one, but Rupert, I just couldn't manage anymore and I had nowhere else to go."

"Hush, Kalyn, it's quite all right. That is... well, it IS a bit shocking, I admit. But the important thing right now is to make sure you and the baby are all right. Now, let's meet everyone, shall we? This is Xander, and Anya, and Buffy and her sister Dawn."

"It's OUR house you're in," said Buffy. "And MY boyfriend that you've... well, whatever you've done." She turned to Giles. "What has she done, exactly? I mean, 20 years?"

Willow arrived with the washcloth and a bowl of warm water. Giles gently lifted back Kalyn's shirt and began to clean her with the warm water.

"Their reproductive cycle is somewhat different than ours," he explained. "Well, for the women, anyway. During their sexual maturation, they have intercourse just like the rest of us. The man's... well, his..."

"Sperm," said Kalyn bluntly. "There's no need to be delicate, Rupert, it's a perfectly natural biological function. The man's sperm is."

"Right. Yes, well it's... it's stored. It's..."

"Found it," said Dawn. "Look." She showed them the book she had been paging through. "The female procreative organ contains three sacs, each of which may hold the sperm of one male. The female may empty these sacs at will to clear them for further sexual partners, or to complete the reproductive process upon sexual maturation," she read.

"Do I even want to know what's involved in 'completing' the process?" asked Buffy.

"Rather simple, really," said Kalyn. "When you reach maturation, an egg is released into your membrane, and then you empty your chosen sac to fertilize it. You only get the one pregnancy," she explained. "Makes sense you'd want the best baby you could get. So you stockpile your strongest candidates, and you save them until they are needed."

Buffy turned to Giles. "Did you know about this when you were seeing her?"

"Only in the most abstract sense. It was 20 years ago, Buffy. At the time, I was..."

"What, Giles?"

"Ripper," Willow realized as she did the math. "With the magic and the badness and the not so forward-thinking with the consequences."

He winced. "Indeed."

Buffy turned to Kalyn. "But you knew," she said. "You know exactly what you were doing, saving his... his... for 20 years? You think you can just waltz in here after all this time, and he'll just..."

"Oh, is that how it is?" Kalyn snapped. "I should be punished just because my species has a longer gestation period than yours? I should be denied the aid and comfort of a partner, during this time of..."

"Aid, maybe," fumed Buffy. "I don't think we have a choice in the matter. Comfort, I'll even give you that. But Partner? Are you serious?"

Kalyn glared at Buffy with incredulous fury. "You're saying," she said slowly. "That he should be absolved from his responsibility just because he left me and he happens to have a new life now?"

"It's been 20 years!" said Buffy. "Of course he has new life!"

"Now, hold on," said Giles. "Please, everyone, let's just calm down! This is a shock for all of us, Buffy. Me as much as anyone. I certainly intend... that is to say..." He put down the washcloth with a sigh. "She does have a point, Buffy. It is immaterial when the deed was done. If the child is, in fact, mine---and believe me, I do plan to have that fully checked out," he said to Kalyn. "Well... I do have a responsibility. On the other hand..."

"Yes?"

"On the other hand," he continued, looking utterly exhausted, "It is you I love, and you who are my partner now. I should very much like for that to continue, baby or no baby. If you'll have me."

She looked briefly like she wanted to embrace him, then appeared to collect herself, and kept her distance. "We have a lot to talk about," she said. "Me and you. Her and you. Her and me, probably. First things first, Giles."

He nodded. "Buffy, I'm sorry."

"I love you," she said.

He nodded again.

"First things first," she said.

**

She went to the kitchen to put the party food away for now, and Willow followed after her.

"Hey," she said. "You holding up okay?"

Buffy secured the plastic wrap on a display of brownies, then impulsively lifted back the corner and snatched one off the plate. Between munches, she managed "Think so."

Willow nodded in the direction of the living room. "How long do you think they'll stay there for?"

Buffy swallowed another bite of brownie. "Dunno. I kinda felt like I should have them chaperoned or something, but I let them be."

"That was very gracious of you."

"I know. I should be rewarded for my maturity." She put down the plate of brownies with a sigh. "I gotta tell you, Will, this really changes things. And I'm not sure I'm happy about that. We were getting into a rhythm, you know? Things were comfortable. And then this ghost from his past shows up."

"We all have a past, Buffy. He can't help it now."

"I know. But most pasts don't come back 20 years later to haunt you with time-delay results that impact the rest of your life."

"I don't know about that," said Willow. "What if she had been human, and it had been a human kid involved? So he gets her pregnant, unknowingly, mind you, but then he leaves---and 20 years later an adult kid shows up and says hey, you're my dad? At least this way he gets to be in on its life from day one."

"And where does that leave me, Will? An adult kid, he could still have his life at least. But a baby? That means parenting, right? Custody. Contact. With it. With HER!"

"And? He didn't seem like he had been pining away for her all these years or anything, Buffy. He didn't seem like he had EVER been pining for her."

"But they'll have a kid now, Will. Doesn't that change things? My parents were divorced. His parents were divorced. I know he doesn't want to do that to a kid."

"His parents were divorced? I never knew that."

Buffy nodded. "He told me when we first started... you know, being intimate. About how he was always so shy with women because he still remembers hiding under his bed while his dad---but mostly his mom---would yell at each other. How going in with the Council was almost a relief because it gave him a legitimate reason to avoid emotional entanglements."

"Awwww," said Willow. "That's so sad."

"It took him so long to open up to me," said Buffy. "All those years I knew him, but I didn't really KNOW him 'til after I... well, after I came back, when I... you know?"

"Uh huh."

"And we worked so hard for what we have... suffered for so long before we got to be happy... and now SHE comes along." Buffy winced. "I'm trying to picture them together---him all young and hot and adorable, and her dripping sticky stuff from that 'membrane' thing while they... ewwwww."

"Don't think about that, Buffy."

"But she's here now, and she's very conspicuously wagging the deed in our faces. Willow, what do we do?"

"We do what we must," said a quiet voice behind her. Giles stood in the doorway, so somber he looked ten years older. "She has an infection, and we have to get that looked at. And I'll want to run some tests to verify that I am, in fact, the father."

She nodded slowly. "And if you are?"

"Then I will do right by her and fulfill my obligations." He looked warily at Willow. "And we can talk privately about just what those are as soon as you're ready."

"Got it," said Willow. She grabbed a plate of sandwiches on her way out, and gave Buffy's hand a reassuring squeeze on her way past them. "Go easy on him, okay?"

Buffy faced Giles with determined eyes. "All right," she said. "Just what do you plan to do?"