-During Band Candy-

Buffy Summers had two parents. Not in the traditional sense of course; that all went up in smoke when she started slaying and her dad took off. But there was no doubt about it, she had two parents. One of them might be a watcher, but watcher/father…potato/potahto.

Sometimes it felt like they were pulling her in two directions. Sometimes she played Mommy against Daddy. It was the oldest trick in the book. Just tell Mom that she was slaying, and Giles that she was studying.

She didn't understand why they were so angry when they teamed together and found out about all of the lies. She didn't know all the places Giles looked for her when she was gone last summer. She didn't know that her mother fell apart. Buffy didn't get what it was like to be a parent.

Until, of course she ended up having to parent her mother and her watcher when they were turned into teenagers by chocolate. While parenting a slayer was no easy task it was nothing like controlling Ripper. She wasn't a very good parent. In one night they managed to have sex, smoke, steal, and commit felony assault on a cop.

-After Gingerbread-

"Hi," Joyce says awkwardly standing at the entrance to the door to his apartment.

"Is Buffy all right?" Giles says, quickly grabbing his coat to make a hasty exit to save the world, or his slayer, which to him was the same.

"Yes, she's fine," Joyce says.

Giles drops his coat. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you were meant only be here because of Buffy. Please come in, and I'll make you some tea."

"Thanks. I'm sorry about your books," Joyce mutters.

He turns from her, and fills the tea pot. "It's not your fault. You were possessed by a demon."

"I tried to kill my own daughter, Giles," Joyce says.

He knows it isn't her fault, he's done worst to people he cared about while not being possessed. But he's still a little angry that Buffy nearly died at hands of her mother. He slowly fills the tea kettle, and puts it on to boil so he can avoid looking in Joyce's face, "That's not what you were asking forgiveness for, and if it was, you're asking the wrong person."

"Buffy thinks I forgot," Joyce says.

He turns and looks at her, and she's surprised that there is no judgment in his eyes. Then again, they have managed to keep the fact that they had sex with each other from Buffy. He turns back, and starts carefully measuring the tea into cups.

"I'm a horrible mother," Joyce says, trying to keep herself from crying. She promised herself she wasn't going to cry.

"That's not true. Buffy is amazing. You've done a good job of raising your daughter," Giles says to her.

"I'm pregnant," Joyce says.

Giles stares at her, and the tea kettle starts to whistle.

"It's yours," Joyce continues.

"Yes, I gathered that," Giles say, taking off his glasses, and cleaning them.

Joyce pours the water into the cups, and then she reaches for her cup, and he puts a hand out to stop her. "Let it steep." Then he realizes he's touching her hand, and he pulls away like he's on fire. Joyce takes a step back. "Giles, if you wanted me to leave, if you needed some time…"

"Stay," he commands.

They stand in silence for a bit looking anywhere but at each other. "Does the tea need silence to steep?" Joyce asks softly.

"No, sorry, just trying to…we have got to be the oldest teen parents ever," he says.

It breaks the tension, and by the time Joyce finishes laughing she finds herself sitting next to Giles at the table with tea in front of her.

"Is tea ok for you to have?"

"Yeah, one cup isn't enough to hurt the baby."

"I'm sorry, I just don't know how this all works," Giles mutters.

"I'm a little unclear myself," Joyce says, nervously fidgeting with the cup.

"You mean…us, and the baby? Joyce, we've been co-parenting for a while. Granted, we'll be dealing with an infant instead of an eighteen year-old, but I think we are going to get it figured out."

She takes a deep breath in relief.

He takes a sip of tea. "Have you told Buffy yet?"

"I thought we could give her a couple of days to deal with the fact that her mother tried to kill her before we announce the fact that she is going to be a big sister," Joyce says.

"We? So I am going to be included?" he asks hopefully.

She smiles. "I think she is less likely to freak out if you are there."

"Oh, I don't know about that, she's had some pretty great 'freak outs' with me as well," Giles says using his voice to put clear quotation marks around the words 'freak outs'.

"You ever thought about being a father before?" Joyce blurts the question that's been burning in her mind quickly, like ripping off a bandage.

"I thought Buffy was as close as I was ever going to be. When she came into my life, I was pretty sure my chance of romance was gone. I just didn't expect that I would end up with a baby without the romance."

Joyce blushes.

"I'm sorry, that was uncouth of me," he says hanging his head in bashfulness.

"I'm under no delusions about how this child came to be. We're adults now, but we weren't when this thing was conceived. We're not in love."

"No," Giles says. Then he pauses, and says, "Except maybe with the baby."

Joyce feels her heart melting. She's not even sure she'd say she loved this kid yet (it didn't feel real enough) and she's known about it for days longer than he has.

"So, I don't know if you want me to come to doctor's appointments or if that would be too awkward…" he says giving her a brief smile before looking away.

"I've already been to the doctor," Joyce says, and as Giles's face falls, she quickly adds, "but you can come to next month's appointment."

"If you'd rather I didn't…" he stammers taking a sip of the tea to cover the awkwardness.

"It's ok," she says, shifting her feet. Her foot hits his under the table, and it causes her stomach to do funny little back flips, and makes her feel like she hasn't since Ted, and with him she hadn't felt it until she'd been dating him for weeks.

His eyes lock with hers, and she can tell that he's feeling the same things, and is just as startled by the feelings as she is.

"Dinner?" he blurts.

"It's nine o'clock. I've eaten."

"I didn't mean now," he says blushing.

"Right," her stomach says doing back flips, while her eyes light up.

"Friday?" he asks.

"That works for me. Buffy is going to the Bronze so she won't be home until late."

"We are going to hide our relationship?" Giles asks with concern, and a touch of disappointment.

"She's been an only child for almost eighteen years. It's going to be hard enough for her to adjust to a sibling. I don't want her to have to deal with any more adjustments for a while."

"I don't like lying to Buffy," he says softly.

"We could delay the dinner," Joyce offers.

When he first found out about this baby, mere minutes ago, he didn't think it was critical to have any sort of relationship with its mother apart from the somewhat professional one he had with her over Buffy. Now that there seemed like there could be something more he doesn't want to delay it. If this kid has any chance of having a normal family, he is going to make sure that it gets that.

"Friday."

"I should probably get home," Joyce says.

"Right, Buffy should be returning from patrol," he says standing. "I'll pick you up at seven on Friday."

She stands too, reluctant for a second or two before moving to the door. He tries to open the door for her, and ends up with his arm in her personal bubble. They both back up.

Does it always have to be either awkward or exciting with us? Joyce wonders as she slips down the hallway.

Giles sits for a long moment at the table, and then he rushes for his bookshelf. He finds the correct ancient text in record time, and finds the spell he was looking for in it. It's just like he remembered, a simple spell, he's got all the ingredients on hand. Half of them are in the kitchen rather than his magic collection.

He mixes them together, and pauses a moment before he writes the name down on a piece of paper. "Baby Summers" is all he manages, but with this level of magic it should be enough.

The smoke swirls into an image, first of the baby just as it is. Tiny, looking more like the demons in his book than a child. Then it grows into a giggling baby, and the smoke figure stands and walks right toward him, aging at about a year per step.

When his son is within touching distance Giles reaches a hand toward him, and the spell is broken, and the smoke disperses.

-Friday-

"How come you're not telling me to go on patrol?" Buffy asks suspiciously.

"You're going to the Bronze," Giles says.

"I am, but I don't remember telling you that."

"Willow mentioned it."

"Ok, but still. Usually you at least give me a speech about destiny and responsibility, and what not." Buffy looks at her Watcher, who is most definitely blushing. "Giles, do you have a date?"

His silence speaks volumes.

"Good for you. I'll get out of your hair."

"Buffy?" he asks as she begins to leave. She turns back, and he pulls her into a bone crushing hug.

"Ah, what is that about?" she asks when it's over. "Is there some prophesy I don't know about? Am I going to die again tonight?"

"No, you're not in any danger," he assures her with a laugh.

"I guess we're Americanizing you. That whole 'British people don't show emotions' thing is wearing off a little. I'll run a quick patrol before I hit the Bronze."

-Later-

When she opens the door she sees flowers in his hands.

"How am I supposed to explain those to Buffy?" she asks.

"I don't know how I didn't think of that," he laughs at himself.

"They're very nice," she says.

"You can tell her they are from a secret admirer or something," he offers, ripping the card out, and handing them to her. She takes them and puts them on a table before shutting the door behind her.

"You do realize she killed my last boyfriend, right?" Joyce asks.

"Well, I'm not an evil robot that wants to kill you, so I think I'll be fine."

Joyce smiles, but then frowns. "She wasn't very happy with him before he went all nuts. I just…Giles, I worry this is going to ruin things between you and her."

The thought makes his stomach go all empty, and he realizes just how important his slayer has become to him. "You know, she didn't like me very much in the beginning either. She might not be too happy about this, but we'll work it out."

If he's that willing to work on a relationship with her daughter, how willing would he be to work on one with her? Hank could never deal with Buffy, not even before her slaying caused them to think that she had gone insane. Maybe their marriage would have worked out if her husband had been just a little bit more like the man before her.

Of course, if her marriage had worked out she wouldn't be going on a date with Rupert right now.

He opens the door for her, and she'd forgotten that people did that.

The conversation on the drive comes easy. At first it's about Buffy, but before long it's about the new exhibit in her art gallery. It turns out that multi-cultural art, and the ancient history of demon fighting aren't that far apart as far as interests go.

Joyce lights up when she talks about work. He shouldn't be surprised. The fact that she really loves her job is probably why she leaves Buffy alone so often. He knows the woman tries to be a good mother. He's seen the piles of parenting books on her bookshelf, and he's heard Buffy whine about the way she quotes them. He's just always wondered why she never tried spending more time with her daughter.

You could blame all the trouble Buffy used to get into on the fact that she was a slayer. Sure, some of it was that. The violence, and the destroying of places had no other cause.

The rest of it was from the fact that Buffy had been left alone ever since she was old enough to microwave some easy mac, and before that she'd been dropped off with a babysitter. They'd been sending the message that their careers were more important than their child since before she could talk, and no one should blame the kid if she'd actually learned the lesson from them.

He worries about his child. Is Joyce going to want to pawn his baby off on some stranger? Or is she going to let him be the one to take care of it? If that's the case, what's he going to do if he has the kid, and the world needs saving?

Is Joyce's face going to light up like that when their baby reaches some milestone, or is it only the work of long dead artists that can get a reaction like that?

"Something wrong, Rupert?" she asks.

He tries not to startle at the use of his first name. After all, they are having a baby together. He's just used to being called Mr. Giles by her. More than that, he still needs that distance, particularly after coming out of the not so nice thoughts he was just having about her. "No, everything is fine," he assures her.

He flashes her a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes. The sort of smile that her husband used to wear when he'd 'forgiven' Buffy for some infraction. Joyce isn't fooled, she just doesn't know what she did wrong.