-One Month Later, During "Living Conditions"-

This time Buffy doesn't use her key on the door to her house. It may be the place that she's called home, but she is definitely going to knock now. Give everyone plenty of time to put on lots and lots of clothes.

Before she even has a chance to knock, Giles runs up behind her in a sweat suit.

"You jog?" she asks incredulously.

"And jump, and occasionally frolic," Giles says, finding it just a little bit funny how horrified Buffy is by the fact that he has a life outside of hers.

"You aren't having one of those mid-life crisis things are you? Because the last time that happened I ended up with a brother."

"What's say we not joke about mistakes that lead to us being family," Giles says with a look that ensures that Buffy will not be bringing up the incident of the band candy any time soon. She starts to tell him about the demon that she encountered the night before.

When Giles gets up to leave, Buffy says, "You know, it's nice outside today."

"I know, your mother and I had tea on the porch this morning," he says.

"What are you doing today?" Buffy asks.

Giles can't help but smile in excitement as he says, "It's a big day for me actually, a friend of mine recently acquired an original Gutenberg demonography, and it suddenly occurs to me that you have never once asked me what my day's plans were. Which would lead me to enquire whether you are feeling entirely yourself."

"It's not true," Buffy says with a snarky shrug of her shoulders. "I ask about you all the time."

Giles's only response is to give her an incredulous look.

"Ok, well maybe the words don't actually make it out of my mouth, but I think about it," she admits.

"And it's appreciated, it still doesn't explain why you are hanging around here instead of rushing off as usual," he says.

"It's no big, I just figured I'd hang out here until, you know, my roommate goes to class," Buffy says, looking up at Giles with eyes which are clearly begging him not to send her away.

"Ah, I see," Giles says, giving up any ideas of getting to shower after his run. Buffy needs some parenting, and since he is the closest thing to a parent that she's ever had, it falls to him.

"I know it's probably just me having a bitch attack," Buffy says as Giles sits down beside her on the front porch.

"Buffy, living with someone is never easy, especially for an only child. Just think of all the adjustments that we had to make when I moved in."

"You mean like getting used to someone cooking and cleaning? Trust me, if she was as easy to get along with as you are I would not be having this problem."

-Later-

Buffy is explaining her dream to the Scooby gang when suddenly she is interrupted by her annoying roommate. "You can read dreams? Nifty!" Kathy says in a far-too-cheerful voice.

Buffy tries to remind herself to be grateful that this is the only thing that was overheard. This group says a lot weirder things than that. She just can't bring herself to be anything other than annoyed.

"Giles, this is Kathy. Kathy, this is Giles," she says, hoping that he is now going to see how annoying her roommate really is.

"Giles is Buffy's step dad…sort of," Willow says awkwardly. She regretted the words as soon as she'd said them. Now, not only did it sound like she was pushing Giles into marrying Buffy's mom, but it sounded like Giles's only connection with the group was because he was dating Joyce. He'd been part of the group long before that development.

Kathy sits down and starts telling Giles her dream. The only problem (well, not the only problem, but the most pressing one at the moment) was that the dream was exactly like Buffy's dream.

After Buffy leaves, the Scoobies discuss Buffy. Giles tries to alleviate their worries. He tries to convince them that everything is going to be ok. He would be a lot more convincing if he believed it himself.

-The Next Night-

"I'm sorry that I didn't believe you," Giles says.

"I didn't give you a whole lot of reason to. Everything I said was normal college stuff. There was no reason why you should assume demon," Buffy confesses.

"You said it was demons. I should have trusted your instincts." Giles pauses before he says the next thing. "You could move back home if you wanted to."

"Willow and I are going to share a room. It will be fine."

He nods his head, but he looks pained.

"You don't think I can do it, do you? I mean, it's college! People do it all the time."

"I just worry. Sometimes I think that your mother and I didn't prepare you enough for life. I just want it to be easy, I don't want to see you struggle. Life isn't supposed to be easy."

"You think I'll be fine?" Buffy asks.

Giles nods.

"Ok, then I'm not coming home."

-A month later, during "Beer Bad"-

"Are you disappointed in me?" Buffy asks in her little kid voice, the voice that she uses when she wants to get away with something.

Giles doesn't respond with anything but his face.

"It wasn't my fault. I didn't know that the beer was tainted with some kind of weird magic caveman stuff."

"But you knew it had alcohol in it," he says.

Buffy sighs.

"You're underage."

"See, if I was in England I would be of a legal age."

"We're not in England, and just because you are old enough to drink doesn't mean that you have to get drunk," Giles points out.

"Like you never drank, Mr. Ripper," she says with a roll of her eyes.

"See, that is what I'm worried about. When I had issues with substance abuse and bad magic, I was in a bad place emotionally. Buffy, did this boy hurt you that bad?" he asks with kindness in his eyes.

"I know that I shouldn't be affected by all of this. I'm the Slayer. I am this superhero, and I should be above all of this. I should have been smart enough never to go out with him in the first place."

"Buffy, you are not the only girl who has ever been taken in by a guy she thought was interested in more than just sex. You are young, and you are going to learn from this. It's not the end of the world."

"Then how come it feels like it?" she asks.

"I don't know," he says. He sighs. "I want to make this better. I wish I could just poof and make it better."

"You don't know a spell for that?" she asks hopefully.

"I really don't think magic is the way to go with this."

"It was a joke, Giles."

-A month later after "Pangs"-

"Your mom felt really bad that she couldn't be here for Thanksgiving," Giles tells Buffy after she pulls off a successful Thanksgiving.

"It is a little ironic that you were here for it, and she wasn't. You're not even family…technically anyway," Buffy points out.

"I have to admit that there is an ulterior motive to all of this," Giles says. "Your mother and I wanted to know…"

"It was a test to see if I was all grown up?" Buffy guesses.

"You passed with flying colors," he puts in.

"Is it because of the saving the world, or because I gave you mushy peas?" she asks.

"I already knew about the saving of the world stuff. The thing that really proved to me that you were all grown up the way you dealt with disappointment. You spent days planning a perfect feast, and then it was interrupted by a battle. You took it in stride. Buffy of a couple of years ago would have melted down."

"So you are saying that being grown-up means realizing the world sucks?" she asks.

Giles thinks for a moment before he answers, "No, it means making the world a little less, as you say, 'sucky'."