Buffy woke up without Giles beside her. The sun streamed through the curtains in early morning brightness, and Buffy pulled on some sweats and headed downstairs in search of food and Giles. She found him relaxing over coffee and Krispy Kreme with Dawn and Willow.

"Morning," she said.

He bit off the corner of a maple cruller. "Morning, love."

"Thought you were still on shift with Kalyn."

He swallowed a sticky sip of coffee. "Oh, that. She's with the doctor right now. Looking over her infection, and running the...the test, you know. To see if I'm the father."

"Where'd we get a demon baby doctor, again?"

"Oh, Anya knows people." He looked at his watch. "They've been quite awhile in there. Perhaps I should check on them?"

He pushed his chair aside, and Buffy followed him into the living room. They had kept Kalyn on the couch for the night---it was closer to the kitchen, as she had requested, and, she claimed, more comfortable. They were still discovering subtle differences in her physiology---her back was all bone, and she found most beds too squishy.

She greeted Buffy and Giles with a mopey whimper. "Make him stop!"

The 'him' in question, a slight, bespeckled man who was looked fully human except for purple skin. He turned toward them with an officious click of his pen.

"Hello, again," he greeted Giles. "Well, she's really coming along here."

"I have to pee," Kalyn complained. "He made me drink all this water, and now he won't let me up to pee."

"You need to be on bedrest, my dear," the doctor said. "You really must take better care of yourself."

Kalyn whimpered again and looked beseechingly at Giles.

"Oh, for god's sake," snapped Buffy. She marched over to the couch and hefted Kalyn to her feet. "Come with me. Let's get you cleaned up, okay?"

Giles faced the doctor curiously. "Well?"

"Well, there is definitely human DNA in that child. Is it your DNA? I would need to run some other tests to know for sure, but she says you were her only human. In fact, she says you were her only partner. Probably explains why she got fertilized with a 20-year-old sample not even of her species. Her body had no other choices."

Giles frowned. "Did she plan it that way, I wonder?"

The doctor squirmed uncomfortably under Giles' pensive gaze. "It's probably not my place to tell you this," he said.

"Tell me what?"

"I shouldn't say."

"For god's sake man, have at it already! We're certainly paying you well enough for this little visit..."

"Well, I had some concerns," the doctor said. "Inter-species pregnancies are especially tricky, and I just couldn't understand why she would have willingly chosen one. She doesn't seem to be enjoying the pregnancy much anyway. Why would she deliberately enter into a harder than usual one? So I questioned her...fairly thoroughly...about other options she might have had. And that's when she told me that you were the only man she has been with."

"Yes. And?"

"The only MAN she has been with, Mr. Giles."

He blushed. "Oh."

"Probably not my place to tell you," the doctor shrugged. "But make of it what you will. As for the status of the baby..." He briefly consulted his notes. "The child seems fine, developing as it should. Did you...did you want to know the baby's sex?"

"I'd rather be surprised, if that's okay."

"Yes, yes, of course. Well, anyway, I do have some concerns about that infection. She hasn't been cleaning her membrane properly, and she's developed some sores. I'd like to see those fully healed before she prepares to give birth."

"You speak as if that might be difficult."

The doctor nodded. "That baby seems very anxious to get born. You can see how rapidly she's expanding---it's why the sloughing has been so painful. That skin is hard and scaly, like a shell or crust---no give. You can see on her that it is cracked and brittle---it's supposed to slough gradually, but the baby is busting its way through it."

"So what do you suggest?" said Giles. "What can we do for her?"

"You absolutely must keep that membrane in as pristine condition as possible. Keep the inner areas clean and the outer exoskeleton moisturized. I'll leave you some ointment for the sores. But that membrane needs constant attention until it's in better shape, Mr. Giles. Constant."

"I understand."

"And I'd like to give her something to retard the onset of labour," the doctor said. "Make sure that child stays in there until the mother is ready to birth it properly..."

Buffy and Kalyn returned just in time to overhear that part, and Kalyn greeted the news with a squeak of distress. "What? You want to keep me pregnant for longer?"

"My dear, you must heal," the doctor said. "There can be absolutely no argument on that. And I understand you do have some resources at your disposal here..."

"I don't want to be pregnant," Kalyn whined. "You have no idea how awful it's..."

"Hormones," mouthed Buffy. She led Kalyn back to the couch. "Why don't we just lie down for a few minutes, and..."

Kalyn burst into tears. "I'm really hungry," she sobbed. "And it's way too hot in here."

Buffy hopped to her feet. "On it."

"Thank you," said Giles. "I wouldn't mind a few minutes alone in here, Buffy."

"Oh. Sure. Um, okay, I'll just go...make her some grilled cheese or something that else that takes a long time?"

"That would be nice. Doctor, you'll be back tomorrow to check on her?"

"Of course. Same time as today?"

Giles nodded, and within a few seconds, the room had cleared out. He faced the mother of his child with a smile fraught with emotion.

"Well," he said.

"Well, what?"

"I can't believe you didn't tell me. I can't believe I didn't catch it on my own! Kalyn, he told me...the doctor said..."

Her face hardened. "He shouldn't have told you that. It is immaterial to our situation."

"I don't think it is. Is that why you waited so long to find me? Because you really thought that I would judge you for your sexual preference?"

She blushed. "It's still a taboo in your culture. I know it is!"

"And you thought I, of all people, would have a problem with that? Kalyn, honestly..."

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Rupert."

"I'm sorry too, Kalyn. That you were really too shy about this to ask for help although you clearly needed it...a part of me almost thinks your present discomfort serves you right!"

"Rupert..."

He stood. "I need a walk," he said. "Clear my head a little, process my impending fatherhood some more...I'll send Willow in to sit with you and help you with the ointment."

"But I thought it was still your turn."

"I think you might enjoy a chat with Willow right now."

"Rupert, I really am very sorry..."

"I know," he said. "Talk to Willow, please?"

She bit her lip. "You'll be back for me later?"

"I'll do my part," he said. He left her, both of them restless.

**

The gang reconvened at lunchtime.

"And how is our little science project?" teased Xander, strolling in with take-out bags.

Kalyn's glare was furious.

"Looks like somebody had a good morning," he observed.

"Don't even ask," said Anya. "No, seriously. Don't even ask."

"Ah." He leaned close to Willow. "What happened?"

"Doctor visit," said Willow. "And a teeny fight with Giles about something that I understand, yet regret on both their behalves. Is he back yet? I want to try and smooth things over for her."

"Buffy? Dawn?"

"Hitting the library for some baby books. They're really getting into this."

He clapped his hands together. "Okay! We've got Anya, we've got me, and we've got bags and bags of Chinese food. What more does a pregnant lady need?"

"More wet towels," said Anya. "For the pus, and the ooze, and the slime, and the..."

"Ugh, okay, besides that, what more does she need?"

"Um, nothing?"

"Got it in one. Willow?"

She nodded, and snuck away. A quick search turned up a pensive Giles sitting on the porch swing, staring broodily into space.

"Hey there, you with the crackerjack hiding place." She flashed him a gentle smile, then sat down on the swing beside him. "You okay?"

He nodded distractedly. "Hmmm. Just thinking."

"I think I know about what. What are you mad about, Giles? That she is what she is, or that she didn't tell you?"

"I'm mad about a lot of things, I suspect. That she took advantage of a long-ago encounter to change my life without so much as a hello..."

"Biological imperative, Giles---she had no say. You were the only candidate she had, and her body did the process automatically."

"Well, she didn't tell me about it. And Willow, she wouldn't have. She really was ready to let a prudish preconception of how she thought I might react get in the way...I know magic, Willow. I slept with a demon! And she really thought I would have a problem with her sexual orientation?"

"She can't have known you wouldn't. It's not a taboo in her society the way it is in ours, Giles. And she was already scared enough about the baby thing..."

"But she really thought..." He shook his head. "I'm just trying to get my head around it, Willow. That fear left her helpless. That fear made her sick---literally. She could have lost the baby. She could have died! That she could let it go that far...I don't understand it."

"Sure you do. No different from being a Watcher, is it? You have a secret, and you know that lots of people aren't going to be okay with it. You hope they will. You think they might. But you know that at the end of the day there are some people you're going to lose if you let them see the truth about you. Of course you understand it, Giles. I've never seen you tell anyone that you were a Watcher unless they caught you red-handed and you absolutely had to. Jenny Calendar with the Moloch thing, Olivia when the Gentlemen were here...and how did that one work out for you?"

He clenched his teeth. "This is a very inappropriate conversation."

"It's not, Giles. Kalyn is pregnant with your child, and she hadn't even seen you in 20 years! She was scared. And I am not saying that excuses her, but you have to admit, she had reason to be. Maybe not of you yourself---but you could have been married to a woman who knows nothing about demons, about magic, about anything. You could have already had a kid! And what was she going to say? I'm pregnant with your husband's child because I'm a lesbian demon he had a fling with 20 years ago? Like that would go over well! You know, I've actually met people who would be more upset about the lesbian part than the demon part."

"It's just that I get the feeling she would never have told me at all," he said. "That she would have had the baby---MY baby---and I might never have known..."

"She would have calmed down a little," Willow said. "Once the baby was born and she had the hormones and the pain and the trauma out of her system, she would have calmed down and approached you discreetly. After all, in her culture, it's your job to raise the baby anyway. But she could have approached you with her pride and dignity intact. Can't you see how much safer that would have been than showing up pregnant and in need on your doorstep, out of the blue?"

He was silent for a moment. "I suppose I can," he finally admitted.

"Okay, so you did find out in time and it all did work out for the best. Can we go from there, maybe?"

He nodded slowly.

**

The next three weeks passed in a blur of bodily functions. The doctor visited daily to check on the mother-to-be, and Willow visited daily to check on the father-to-be. As the pregnancy neared completion, the slimy mucous Kalyn shed through her membrane became thicker and stickier. Dawn turned out to be the most enthusiastic slime cleaner of all---so thrilled with her impending aunt-hood that no task was too gross.

The entire household was awakened late one night by the sound of panicked screams, and for all the pain and discomfort of the pregnancy, the birth itself progressed at a rapid clip. Kalyn ended the ordeal unconscious, but stable, and the doctor left Giles and Buffy pacing the living room for nearly two hours while he thoroughly checked the baby out. Finally, he presented them with the tiny wrapped bundle.

"Awww," said Buffy. She peeked down at the baby's just slightly too pink, but very human face. "Giles, he's adorable. He has your eyes." She picked up a corner of swaddling and peeked under it. "And his mother's stomach, it looks like."

"I think he's beautiful," Giles said.

"Hey, no argument there. So, have you thought of names yet?"

"Perhaps Callum...Cal for short. For his mum, see."

She looked down at the baby. "Callum," she tried. "I like it."

"Callum Summers Giles," he said. "Three parents, three names."

The others had to come find them to learn the news. They were too entranced by their baby to move.