Title: Surprise 1/6
Author: KrisB
Rating: Mostly PG13. Ch 5 is NC-17
Pairing: B/G, of course!
Spoiler Warnings: up to middle of season 5
Summary: AU, response to ODD's Challenge #67. Giles gets a surprise.
Disclaimer: All canon characters of Buffyverse belong to the awe-inspiring Joss, ME, etc. I'm writing this for free entertainment only.

CHAPTER ONE

"Everything's fine," Willow insisted, her eyes darting to Buffy's bent head. "Really."

Giles sighed and removed his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Willow, you're withholding something. Let me speak to Buffy."

"She's n-not here. I'll tell her you called." Willow paused for a fraction of a second, her mind searching for anything to say. "Oh, look at the time! I have to go to class! Thanks for the chat, Giles, I'll talk to you tomorrow!" Willow quickly dispatched the phone to its cradle and heaved a relieved breath.

Giles stared at his phone, unable to believe that she'd hung up on him. He slowly lowered it, and looked at his watch. It was still early afternoon in California, but he was sure Willow didn't have classes at this time. He looked at his watch again.

"Right," he muttered. He'd make arrangements first thing in the morning.

Something was most assuredly afoot.

*******

The next morning, Willow prepared for class as Buffy sat on her bed, her arms full.

"You'll have to tell him sooner or later," Willow said. "He'll be back soon."

Buffy met her friend's eyes a moment, her fear plain. "He's going to be so freaked, Will. It's bad enough Mom's not talking to me."

"Yeah, but, just think how bad it'll be if he finds out some other way." At Buffy's dark look, Willow added, "I-I mean, you know, before you're ready. You should just call him and tell him so that he can get used to the idea before he gets back."

"Do you think he'll be mad?" Buffy asked, lowering her eyes. "Or disappointed?"

"No, I think he'll be Giles." Willow smiled and waved around her armful of books. "I'm going to chem. See you."

"Have fun," Buffy replied, her tone making her doubt at that possibility obvious. Willow clucked in reproach as she closed the door behind herself.

"Well, should I call him or not?" Buffy wondered aloud.

*******

Fourteen hours of travel were hard on an old man. Giles stretched his back, waiting at the luggage claim. He hoped he'd be able to find Buffy before he headed back to his flat.

Sometimes that girl could be swallowed whole by her social calendar.

*******

"I tried all day yesterday and a couple times this morning, Will," Buffy said, pacing. Willow giggled, drawing Buffy's eyes to her. "Can you try to focus for one minute, please?" At the red-head's blank stare, Buffy waved her arms in exasperation. "Giles is missing!"

"I'm sure he's just... out. O-or sleeping. Maybe he's just not used to staying up late anymore."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "You're the only person I've ever met to make optimism an art-form."

Willow grinned as she stood, handing Buffy the wriggling load. "I'm late for class. Take care. And don't stress, it's not good for him," she admonished. She looked down to the baby boy's face with a loving smile. "Goodbye little Rupert. Aunt Willow loves you."

The blonde-haired baby gurgled, his tiny fists waving with gusto as Willow cooed incoherent babble at him. Buffy smiled at the interaction as she began bouncing him.

"I can't believe you named him Rupert," Willow murmured, one of her fingers trapped in his grip.

Buffy grinned. "But, it's good, right? I mean, Giles has helped us stop the apocalypse how many times?"

Willow smiled and hugged Buffy about the shoulders, carefully pulling from Rupert's grasp. "See you guys later."

*******

Giles parked in the visitor's spot near Buffy's dorm, hoping to catch Willow between classes, or if he was extremely lucky, Buffy herself. His gait was jerky as he strolled up the hill, trying to stretch sore legs as he walked. All that flight time, cramped in economical space. Horrid sleeping conditions. It was a wonder he wasn't permanently hunched due to the prolonged posture.

He entered the main hall and noted the general bustle of the place. The student common was crawling with coeds in all kinds of adolescent goings-on. Studying, flirting, sleeping. He was at once nostalgic of his own days at university, and saddened that Buffy's time here would never be as free-spirited.

He focused on his goal. He needed to find out what was going on with his Slayer. True, she'd told him the separation was fine, that she understood his reasons for "giving her space". But he'd barely spoken two words with her since his return to England. He was gone almost nine months – three quarters of a year gone with nothing to show for it but shallow conversations that had him longing for anything.

He'd take hours of her girlish fawning over some boy, or even her angry insults. Anything.

She was either avoiding him because she was angry with him, or... he shuddered. Or she didn't need him anymore, and he should've stayed home.

His mind roared at that, giving him pause outside her dorm room door. He hated to think he was right, that she didn't need him. To find oneself obsolete... he suppressed another shudder and decided to stop stalling. He cleared his mind again as he knocked lightly on the door, trying the handle. It was unlocked, so he turned it and entered.

There sat Buffy, his Slayer, the Chosen One, with a baby in her arms.

At least, he assumed it was a baby, as he could see its little feet kicking. The head was hidden by a blanket that draped over her shoulder.

"Buffy?"

She jumped, her startled movement jarring her and the child enough to dislodge the blanket. He stared in open-mouthed shock as its fall revealed a swollen breast and the baby's head latched to it.

"Giles!" she cried, standing and turning. She reached down and grabbed the blanket, taking as much time as she could to arrange the fabric over her shoulder and her son. When she turned around, he still stood in the doorway, his face frozen, staring at her. Students walked past them in the hallway, peeking in and ogling the scene before moving on, whispering to their friends with new gossip.

"You're back," she said weakly. "I tried to call you yesterday."

"Oh?" he asked in a quiet, strained voice. "What about?" His eyes were fastened to the child in her arms. And the looping image of that child suckling on his Slayer's breast.

"I wanted to tell you a-about... everything that's happened since you – since you left." She took a deep breath and reached under the blanket, pulling the baby from her chest. She used her free hand to return her bra to its correct position and tug the shirt back into place.

She flipped him so that his head rested on her shoulder over the blanket, patting his back like the nurse at the hospital showed her. "I didn't want you to find out like this." An infantile burp, nothing more than a polite gurgle, and she pulled him back, cradling the baby in her arms. She used one hand to pull the blanket from her shoulder and folded it over once before she dropped it on her bed.

"He's yours?" Giles asked. At Buffy's hesitant nod, Giles reached out, stroking the small soft face with one of his large, calloused fingers. He looked down, noted the tiny hands and feet, the cartoon dinosaur print on the baby's clothes, and looked up with a cocked brow. "A boy?"

Buffy smiled his favorite smile, bright and full of joy. "Yup. And you'll never guess what his name is," she said.

"I would never venture. Far too much opportunity to insult him," he murmured.

"His name is Rupert," she said, looking at his face for his reaction, and was rewarded with astonishment. She loved keeping him on his toes.

"Y-you n-named him –"

"Is that alright?" she asked, her lip catching in her teeth. "I wanted to name him after someone important. Someone he could look up to someday."

His breath hitched slightly. "O-of course, Buffy." The warmth and pleasure on her face melted his heart. He cleared his throat, reining in his emotions. "What of the father?"

Buffy's beautiful, heart-shaped face, darkened as she looked away. "Well, he's definitely not someone I want my son looking up to," she muttered. Little Rupert whimpered and Buffy's face softened instantly. She bent her neck down and kissed his forehead, whispering comforting words to him. She looked up and caught the fleeting glimpse of love on her Watcher's face before it was replaced by the odd mix of pride and concern.

"Perhaps we should talk," he offered. "Would you like to go for lunch?"

*******

They sat in the caf=E9 all afternoon, idly catching up on all the changes in each other's lives. Anytime Giles asked a question about the child's father, or of Buffy's mother, she replied the same way: "I'll tell you all about that later." While this mystery irked him, he understood that the matter was something she wished to discuss in private surrounds.

The hour was rapidly approaching dusk and Buffy stood, motioning the waitress with her free hand. She pulled a few crumpled bills from her pocket and tossed them on the table. "Come on, Giles, let's get back to the dorm."

He waited until the server arrived to ensure their monies were received and followed Buffy out the door. He observed her a moment as he caught up to her brisk pace. From behind, she didn't look like his Buffy any longer. It was impossible, with her hair short, a baby bag over her shoulder, and an actual infant strapped to her chest with a home-made sac of some kind.

Their walk was a silent one, him wondering what could have happened to... Rupert's... father, and why Buffy wouldn't discuss her mother. When they entered the dorm room, Giles followed Buffy in, so he heard Willow's greeting before he actually saw her.

"Buffy, have you heard from Giles yet? Do you still think something's happened to him? I should've talked you into calling him sooner! A-and I lied all those times. I should've told him what was going on –"

Her ramble was cut off as the object of her worries stepped into view, blinking at her with an amused grin.

"Giles!" She jumped up from her bed and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him. "You're alive!" She stepped away. "You're here." She reddened and scurried back, scooping up her book bag, her eyes downcast. "Um, you guys need to talk, so I'm gonna go. Yeah, so, great seeing you, Giles. We gotta have dinner when you're settled in again. Bye!"

The door was closing behind her before either could oppose – or even properly greet her.

Buffy lowered Rupert into his bassinet, tucking a soft, blue blanket around the sleeping child with practiced ease.

"How old is he?" Giles asked. Buffy smiled with pride only a mother could produce.

"Eight weeks."

He stepped forward, staring down at his namesake. "He's so small." At Buffy's soft sigh, Giles glanced at her in concern.

"I'm so sorry, Giles."

"For?"

"Not telling you. Not begging you to come back and rescue me."

He turned to her then, and all the weight of the world seemed to pull on her small frame. He urged her back until she sank onto her bed. Following suit, he pulled her desk chair out and straddled it, his arms resting on the back. "Talk to me, Buffy. If nothing else, I believe you'll feel better."

Buffy smiled softly again. "I always do." She looked over at her son, her lips retaining that small, sweet curl. "I guess I can start at the beginning," she murmured. "When you left, you know, after that whole thing with Adam, I'd been dating Riley for a while." She looked to him and waited for his nod.

"Well, Riley and I had already become... intimate," she continued, wincing as she avoided his eyes. "I was taking birth control pills, so we thought everything was alright."

"They didn't work?"

She shook her head. "Willow thinks it has something to do with Slayer constitution and a dash of the old bio clock. She called it a biological... um... oh, a biological imperative."

Giles closed his eyes, wondering if that could be true. Something to research, he supposed. She began talking again, meeting his eyes when they opened.

"Anyway, after we got rid of Adam, Riley and I kinda... broke up." She winced again, lowering her eyes to her hands. "Actually, he left me. He went to South America or something. He wanted to rejoin the military mindset and chase demons in the jungle." She frowned, staring off into the distance.

"He needed to feel like the man. All `grunt, how do I kill it deader'." She lowered her eyes. "I told him I was pregnant when he told me he was leaving. He accused me of making it up to keep him here. So he left. Got himself killed in Brazil somewhere."

"Oh, Buffy... I'm sorry." She had the most atrocious love life he'd ever witnessed – apart from his own, of course.

Buffy shook her head, looking down at her hands. "I didn't love him, Giles. He needed it, but... I just couldn't. The spark wasn't there, and after Adam, he didn't have the Initiative anymore. He had to face up to the fact that I was better than him, and he didn't like it." She looked up, her eyes blazing with a Slayer's fury.

"I totally reamed him when he accused me of lying. I mean, if he knew I didn't love him, what kind of sense would it make for me to try to keep him here? If I weren't pregnant, I'd have told him happy trails. Keep in touch. All my love to good old South America."

She stood and paced, neither noticing that her pacing rhythm was a perfect mimicry of Giles'. "And you know, I think he knew. God, there have been so many times I wished he wasn't dead just so he could come back here and I could hit him. Or force him to look at his child. Be a part of Rupert's life." She sighed, stopping her movement as her shoulders slumped. "And other times, I'm glad he left. Either way, I end up feeling guilty for thinking so badly of him. He just wanted me to love him."

Giles reached out, grabbing her hand. She looked down at their joined hands, then up to his upturned eyes.

"You named your son Rupert."

"Yup."

"Why?" She sat down, pouting. "I am flattered, Buffy, but surely you could have picked a name that wouldn't get him soundly thrashed in primary."

She quirked a grin at him. "Are you telling me you'd let my son go to school without some kind of defensive training?" Her grin widened and her eyes sparkled with mischief. "I was kinda banking on the fact that I could ask you to be my Watcher again." She stared at him, growing nervous at his continued silence. "You know, eventually. Once you've gotten bored and come back for good."

Giles let out a bark of laughter. "My leaving was never about me, Buffy."

"I thought you needed time away from me. From the Hellmouth. Like a vacation."

He sighed. "And I thought we talked about this. This was to be your chance to, uh, spread your wings, as it were."

"Note the success of that plan," she said, waving to the crib in a Vanna White manner.

Giles grinned. "Why Rupert?" he asked again.

Buffy lowered her eyes. "He needs someone to look up to. Someone who'll love him, just because he's him. Not because he's a Slayer's kid, or because his dad was a jerk. Someone who's worth being named after." She looked back to the crib. "As soon as I found out he was a boy, I knew what I'd name him."

Giles cleared his throat, refusing to be overwhelmed by his emotions. "Thank you, Buffy. I'm honored."

She smiled, looking at him askance.

"And how does Joyce fit in to all this?" he asked. She turned to him, her cheeks bright red.

"That's... something I hoped to never talk about again."

He remained silent, waiting. She'd tell him if he waited long enough. She always did. She sighed and leaned forward, her chin resting on her hands, her elbows propped on her knees.

"She thinks he's yours," she admitted. "She doesn't believe me about Riley being the dad. Or about the Initiative, or that Riley is gone and dead." A snort escaped her as she rolled her eyes, her face scrunched as she mocked her mother. "'That nice young Riley? I don't believe it. He'd never do something like that!' She thinks you seduced me and left me with a kid."

At his startled, choking noise, she sat up straighter. "I tried to tell her she was wrong, but you know Mom. She gets an idea in her head and it takes an act of God to change it."

"Can't say I've ever had to deal with anyone like that," he deadpanned. Buffy laughed.

When she sobered, she continued. "So, I've been living in the dorm with Willow, trying to find some place that will let me work while Will and Xander are free during day shifts. I patrol after Rupert goes to bed."

"Your mother isn't helping you at all?" Giles asked.

"No. She said that if I could lie to her about my son, then I could handle it myself. I haven't seen her since the end of my second trimester." Her blue-green eyes filled and she squeezed them shut, keeping the tears at bay. She opened them and smiled wanly at her ex-Watcher. "I had Rupert as scheduled at the community hospital. I, uh, quit school so I could use Dad's checks to pay for the medical bills and all the fun stuff that comes with being a mom. Dad was totally easier to talk to about it... big shock, huh?"

"You're not in class any longer?" Giles' heart plummeted. Not only had she been abandoned by the child's father, and her mother, but she wasn't even able to attend university any longer. "Er, how are you living here, then?"

"Willow hacked the system and made sure the room shows up as a single. It's handy to be friends with a techno-pagan."

Buffy looked away and wanted to kick herself. She'd managed to avoid bringing up Jenny for so long. Now she brings it up? Way to remind him of the old wounds, Buff.

"Well, Willow certainly is a clever girl..." he mumbled. He turned concerned eyes to the boy sleeping a few feet away. His tiny chest was rising and falling in the shallow breaths of slumber. An idea formed, took root, and very quickly grew a whole slew of branches in a need to help his Slayer.

She was talking, however, and he only caught the end of her statement. "– going on in England?"

"Buffy why don't you move in with me?" he asked, all in one breath, before he could lose his nerve.

Her witty rejoinder of "Huh?" was quickly followed with "What?"

"Move in with me. I can help you take care of Rupert and you can continue your schooling. Or find a regular job. Or both. Do what you need to keep yourself on track."

"I – well, I mean – do you even know how?"

"To take care of a baby?" At her hesitant nod he smiled. "Yes, I had younger siblings growing up." He leaned forward, snagging one of her hands from her lap. "I wouldn't mind and I know you'd benefit from the stability."

She worried her bottom lip, staring at their hands. "You're staying? For good?"

His smile was brief and sad. "As long as the Hellmouth allows," he promised.

Buffy grinned and tightened her hold on his hand. "Let's try it out. If it doesn't work, then I can come back here and you have the option to stay in Sunnydale or just visit once in a while."

"Fair enough."