Buffy had been dreading her shift on Kalyn-watch, but she knew it was inevitable. Taking turns was only fair, she supposed. But she still hadn't quite worked out her feelings on this whole thing. She wasn't sure she was ready for four solid hours of quality time, with bonus mucous-cleaning and exoskeleton-greasing. But clearly, Kalyn had been coached on the issues and was doing her best to be sensitive.

"You're doing a great job," she had enthused to Buffy within mere seconds of the slayer's sitting down beside her.

"Really?" Buffy smiled. "Haven't done anything yet."

"I mean, handling this," Kalyn said. "Letting me stay here. Letting him...letting him be involved."

"Well, it's not like I could stop him," Buffy said. "If it really is his baby, I don't think anything could keep him away. And I'm not exactly going to throw a sickly demon pregnant woman out on the street, am I?"

"Still," said Kalyn. "This can't be easy for you. Having me show up like this...and a baby..."

"He'd rather have you show up like this then never tell him at all," Buffy said. "At least this way he can be involved from day one..."

Kalyn looked suddenly impressed. "That's a very healthy attitude."

"Hey, we've been through a lot. It's going to take more than a baby to get us off track..."

"Buffy?"

"Hmmm."

"I'm really itchy. Back there, by the shoulder..."

Buffy leaned over and scratched the offending area.

"I know, I know, way to kill the moment," Kalyn sighed. "I'm just so...you've never been pregnant, have you, Buffy?"

She shook her head.

"Well, I am very ready to be not," Kalyn said. "It's very uncomfortable, you know. And the baby doesn't let me get away with anything!"

"You keep talking about it like it's a person," Buffy noticed. "Like it's sentient. It isn't even born yet!"

"So?"

"So I thought babies generally didn't have minds of their own," said Buffy. "Especially ones that aren't even born."

Kalyn smiled. "Maybe not where you come from..."

"Playing the demon card, are ya?"

Kalyn squirmed. "Need lotion," she winced. "Stop scratching, do lotion..." She settled after a moment, then returned her attention to Buffy with a benevolent smile.

"Nothing wrong with being a demon. This baby---as it is right now, even at this relatively early stage of development---probably has an IQ higher than every single person in this house put together. And that's if it's a stupid baby for my kind."

"So that's why you're so perceptive." Buffy frowned. "Does it have any other special powers I should know about?"

"Nothing significant, aside from a few cosmetic differences."

"Sticky membrane thing, right?"

Kalyn squirmed again. "Speaking of which..."

"Mucous patrol, coming up."

"Actually, I'm feeling a little overheated. Can you ice it?"

Kalyn relaxed as Buffy gently rubbed her stomach. "Much better. Look, Buffy...you really are okay with this? With my...with my leaving the baby with Rupert and you?"

"Well, I don't really have much choice, do I?"

"But..."

"Yes, I'm okay. Not sure I understand it. I mean, just...just giving your own child up like that? That's not something WE would do."

"I'm not like you, though."

"Playing that demon card again? No, you aren't like me. And this child, who I will be raising as mine---it won't be like me either."

"For the most part, it will."

"For the most part. But I can't deny having some misgivings. Will it look like you? With the membrane thing, and the scales up its side and the whole chronic sunburn look? 'Cause I'm not saying I mind per se, but you know, other kids here don't have that. How am I gonna explain that one at a sleepover? Or a pool party? And is this kid gonna grow up and abandon its own baby somewhere? 'Cause, cultural thing or not, that's gonna sting a little---for Giles and me, if not the kid..."

"The baby is half-human," said Kalyn. "That will change things."

"It will. And since the human half is Giles, I'm prepared to risk it. He is a much better man than he was, Kalyn."

"I know that."

"If he had known it would turn out this way...that you and he would have a child together..."

"Let's not go there," said Kalyn gently. "He was a man, even then. He is a better man now. And that is enough for me."

**

She headed straight to bed when Xander relieved her at two in the morning, and she was not entirely surprised to find Giles waiting up for her.

"You should be sleeping," she chastised. "Rest or no rest, you're up in four hours for Kalyn-watch."

He nodded. "How is she?"

"Too hot, too cold, too sticky and too itchy. But good..."

"That's good to hear. And you?"

"Good."

"And you and her together?"

She frowned. "That's what this is about? You're up past your bedtime worrying that your ex-girlfriend and I were having it out somehow? A catfight? A duel? Do we live in the sixteenth century?"

"Buffy..."

"She's nice," Buffy said. "Different, but nice. And with a very healthy attitude about this whole thing that I'm finding very refreshing."

"Good," he said, bobbing his head mechanically. "That's...good..."

"And yet you still look worried. Giles, what's wrong?"

"Just...people were so worried about what Kalyn wanted. What you wanted. Making me out to be the guilty party because I was intimate with the woman 20 years ago...and that means I don't get a say?"

"A say in what?"

"In whether or not I want a baby. She says 'oh, it's yours' and everyone says oh yes, very nice, Rupert and Buffy will raise the baby and everybody wins...Buffy what if I don't want to? What if I can't?"

She frowned. "Why couldn't you?"

"I might be a terrible father, Buffy."

She thought for a moment. Then she cupped her hands to her mouth and shrieked "Dawn!"

Her sister stumbled into their bedroom, still sleepy-eyed. "What's wrong? Where's the fire?"

"Is Giles a good father?" Buffy demanded.

"Huh?"

"He's been living in this house for a year and a half. And in that time, he has acted toward you in a male head-of-household vaguely father way, has he not?"

Slowly, Dawn realized. "Oh. Well, yeah."

"So how's he doing? Is he any good?"

"Well, I suppose he is," Dawn said. "Points for actual attendance, for one thing. You know, not running off to Spain with his secretary or anything. Bonus points for taking me out for ice cream after I got a D on my Spanish exam. Extra bonus points for arguing on my behalf---successfully---for the right to paint my room whatever colour I wanted. And although at the time I was pissed, extra points too for teaching me a lesson and making me live with the consequences when midnight blue turned out to be a little too much midnight and a little too little blue. Bonus points also for the secret thing we did the night that you were stuck in Los Angeles helping Angel avert another apocalypse, and Andrew Leary dumped me."

"What secret thing? You never told me about that. Giles, what happened? What'd you do?"

"The right thing," Dawn reassured her. "Let's leave it at that, okay? Andrew Leary, still kind of a fresh wound, not sure I want to revisit it, you know?"

"You can go to bed now," Buffy said. Then, to Giles, she said "See? We'll be fine, Giles. You and me and her and it and us---we'll be fine..."