Title: Nuclear Fission
Rating: PG13
circa: between Where the Wild Things Are and New Moon Rising
genre: kinda gen, in that it's meant to fit into the season as an episode might. Comedy, angst, romance, horror, the whole shebang, as the show had. Besides Giles/Jenny, it includes all the canon ships: Buffy/Riley, Willow/Tara and Xander/Anya. A
status: WIP
Author's Note: So, the point of this fic was to imagine how things might have gone had Jenny not been killed. How things would have stayed interesting. I hoping that I'll be able to keep it structured more or less like an episode. And since it's supposed to fit into season 4 as an episode might, it's only as Giles/Jenny centric as a real episode of BtVS would be. Which is to say that the Buffy of the story will figure heavily, and that a lot of this will be about Buffy's relationship with Giles, and her relationship with his family. Not much happens in these first two chapters, just set up. Also, don't expect updates regularly.
Summary: There's a new demon in town. Human-looking most of the time, it "mates" with women before sacrificing them to its underworld masters. Meanwhile, Buffy is thrown for a loop when she receives an invitation in the mail... to her father's wedding. At the same time, her relationship with Riley is straining as his commitment to the Initiative comes into conflict with his commitment to her. In the midst of all this, Giles, Jenny and Ani seem to be living the dream, and proving that happiness is possible on the Hellmouth. But all is not well in paradise...
Disclaimer: Only in my dreams...


Chapter 1

"Yeah, I woke up this morning, and my head was all filled with guck and I was puking all over the place," Jenny said into the telephone, looking remarkably well for one who was allegedly so sick. "I know I'll miss the staff meeting, I'm sorry. But I'm really gross right now, if I come in I'll infect the whole office... uh huh... I'll try to plan my illness in advance next time... okay, thanks. Bye."

Jenny hung up the phone with a sigh, drew her housecoat tightly around herself, and climbed the stairs back up to the loft, closing the baby gates behind her. Once upstairs, she peeked around the screen sectioning off Anastasia's corner of the room, and smiled wistfully at her daughter. She tiptoed over, and carefully extracted the girl's thumb from her mouth, pausing a moment to admire the way her dark baby ringlets framed her peacefully sleeping face. Jenny then padded across the room, lit grey with early morning light, and climbed back into her own bed. Giles murmured in his sleep. Jenny propped her head on her hand and watched him, her gaze growing distant, melancholy. She brushed his hair back from his forehead, and caressed his face. As she ran her finger over his lips, he blinked awake. She greeted him with a smile that drove the melancholy from her expression, lowered her mouth to his and brushed his lips softly.

"'Morning," she whispered to him.

Half-asleep though he was, Giles was cognizant enough to kiss her back.

"Good morning," he replied.

They kissed lazily, until Jenny turned to nuzzle his neck. Giles smiled sleepily and sighed, tangling his fingers in her hair, as she unbuttoned his pyjama top, ran her hand over his chest. The sigh became a gasp as her hand travelled lower.

"Jenny..."

He drew her face back to his and kissed her deeply, holding her close as he turned over on top. When he broke off the kiss, the digital clock on the bedside table caught his eye. In the midst of his distraction, Jenny pulled him into another hungry kiss.

"You'll be late for work," he mentioned, as soon as he got the chance.

"Nope," she countered, nibbling on his lower lip. "Called in sick."

Giles looked at her quizzically, as though to ask what the special occasion was.

"Had a whim," she explained lightly.

To Jenny's chagrin, he didn't look any less curious.

Before he could question her, Jenny pushed herself up on her elbows, and kissed him hard. Taken off guard as he was, it was easy to reverse their positions, so that he was on his back. Not breaking off the kiss, Jenny straddled his hips and ground against him, running her hands over his chest. A low moan escaped his throat and he brought his hands up to rest on the small of her back, and Jenny was pretty certain that his capacity for critical thought had just shut down. When she pulled away, Giles was breathing heavily, the corners of his mouth upturned slightly.

Jenny leaned down to whisper in his ear, "There're much better ways to spend the morning."


Buffy had gotten up, hurriedly tossed on some clothes and pulled her hair back in a clip to hide it's messiness, and was about to go brush her teeth when she realized that not only was she not late for her 9 o'clock class, but that it was canceled that week. She flopped back onto her bed just as Willow came in, carrying their mail.

"Hey, Buff," Willow greeted her.

"Mmph," she answered, muffled by the pillow her face was resting on.

"Remembered that class is canceled?" Willow asked knowingly, sitting on her bed.

"Mmph," Buffy replied, before raising her head and sitting up to face her friend. "Only just. I'm all awake now," she complained.

"All that potential sleep time wasted," the redhead remarked with sympathy while flipping through the mail.

"Hey, now that we're both up, maybe we can visit Xander?" Buffy suggested.

"Sounds good," Willow answered absently. "Ooh, you got something!"

"Really?" the blonde asked, scrunching her face in puzzlement.

"Yeah. Hey, it's from Spain!" she held the letter out.

"I don't know anyone in Spain," Buffy said as she took her mail. It was indeed addressed to her, and had a Spanish return address. She slit the envelope open with her finger, to find a large white card inside, with embossed doves and wedding bells on the front and the words "You're Invited". "Maybe it's a mistake," she postulated. As she opened the invite, a long letter fell out of it and onto the bed. Buffy didn't pick it up, however. She was staring at the card, "to the wedding of Hank Summers."


Griff hummed merrily as he made his morning coffee. The daily paper awaited him on the kitchen table, along with some toast and jam and a tall glass of fresh orange juice; he was prepped and ready to blow away his manager with his presentation at work later that day; and his coffee maker was newly repaired and working splendidly.

He took his mug back to the table and skimmed over the front page before flipping to the sports section.

Oh, and of course the first of his annual triple sacrifices had gone well, too. He hadn't even had to gag the girl, she had been so terrified into silence. A small puddle of blood had been left behind on the kitchen floor after her body was drawn into the Netherrealm, but a spot of Javex would take care of that, no problem. He could clean it up before leaving for work.

All in all, it was shaping up to be a wonderful day.