Back in the dining room Xander swallowed his mouthful of food and looked at Willow with his eyes wide. "What was that all about?"

"Well, Buffy must be really upset that Giles is leaving. I think they finally managed to patch things up. I haven't seen Buffy this happy in years."

"Oh come on, you two can't really be that dense!" Faith stood and went to the fridge to grab another beer. "She's upset because he's leaving her and she loves him."

"You mean as a father."

"No I mean as a man. I mean a sweaty, heaving, moaning, sort of love."

"Buffy and Giles? With the...smoochies?"

"I thought you were the brains of the operation Will. Let me lay it out for you. Last night, at the club, she punched that guy for calling Giles old. And she nearly emasculated the bouncer when he didn't let him in."

"She's right, I've never seen Giles try to start a fight before. And that guy was trying to get all frisky with Buffy."

"I'm sorry, but we're talking about Buffy, and...and Giles." Xander was finding it impossible to believe what Faith was saying.

"Haven't you seen the way they've been looking at each other lately? Although I gotta say I didn't think Giles would pass up an opportunity to get with her. Last night I swear he was about to jump her over the table."

"But...but it's Giles...and...and...Buffy." Xander looked like he was going to be sick.

"If Buffy and Giles were in a relationship, she'd tell us wouldn't she?" Willow looked from Faith to Xander.

"Hey all I know is what I see. If it makes Buffy happy I'm all for it. Frankly I'm tired of depressed Buffy. I'd much rather have happy and sexually satisfied Buffy and I bet Ripper knows all sorts of ways to sexually satisfy a girl." She winked at Xander, who still hadn't managed to shut his mouth all the way. "Speaking of which, Robin said he'd wait up for me, do you think they'd mind if I took some of the food for leftovers?"

Willow shook her head, her brow creased in thought. She was thinking back over the last couple of days and years. How could she be so blind? Everything they had done had shown how they felt about each other. Buffy certainly had been in better spirits lately. She thought about their interactions over the entire time she had known them. For years theirs had been a relationship of impartiality, but a shift had come. Willow could remember thinking that Giles had been jealous of Buffy when she started dating Riley in college. When Buffy had died, after they defeated Glory, she remembered thinking that Giles wasn't going to make it. Of course at the time she had worried more about Spike, who had repeatedly admitted his feelings for Buffy. Only in retrospect did she realize how much Giles had been hurting.

"You don't think it's true? I mean, he's old and she's, well she's Buffy." Xander looked at her, a sad hope in his eyes.

"I think Faith might be right. Just think about it."

"I'd rather not." He absentmindedly pushed the food around on his plate. "What'll we do?"

"Well," she thought very carefully about what to say. "They're our friends. If they're happy then we should let them be."

"Okay," he wasn't sure if he was okay, but he'd follow Willow's lead.

"Excellent. I suggest keepin' cool when they come down." Faith opened the door, "if they come down." With a final lascivious wink Faith shut the door with her foot, her hands full of leftovers.

Giles released his grip from Buffy. He was nervous, but he wasn't going to bother her about it. It had taken them a long time to get to this point and he didn't want to ruin anything. "I suppose at least one of us should go back down to rest of them." When Buffy didn't move he stood up. "Guess I will." He moved to the door.

"Giles?" Buffy stood and came to him.

"Hmm?"

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'll be down in a minute." She kissed him; a kiss full of promise and hope.

"Well," he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, "I suppose we could stay here."

"You can if you want, but I'm going down." She disentangled herself from his arms and smiled coyly at him as she went down the stairs. If he was going to leave she wasn't going to make it easier for him.

He polished he glasses as he followed after her. He wondered what the others would think. What would they say? It suddenly occurred to him that there was a large chance that most people wouldn't be as happy about their relationship as they were. He could hear Xander downstairs, although is words were indistinct.

"Hey Buff, you okay?"

"Just fine Xander, just fine." Buffy took her seat at the table. "Faith leave?"

"She seemed to have the crazy idea that you and Giles weren't comin' back down anytime soon. I mean, that's crazy, what would you be doing that you wouldn't come back down?" Buffy cocked her eyebrow at him and he blushed as he realized what they could've been doing.

"I think what Xander is trying to work his mind around is, what's going on between you and Giles?" Willow studied her plate, too embarrassed to look at Buffy.

Buffy was enjoying it and wasn't going to give them any easy answers. "What do you mean Willow, Giles is my Watcher."

Xander couldn't take it. "Faith implied, and we want to know if you and the G-Man are...are doin' the humpty hump."

Giles stopped on the stairs after hearing Xander's "colloquialism". He looked at Buffy and it looked like she was about to burst out laughing. She could say just about everything with her eyes and now it looked like she was enjoying how uncomfortable everyone was. "I'm sorry are we what?"

"You know, knockin' boots, horizontal mambo, bouncin' the bedsprings..."

"Yes I think we get it. Thank you Xander." Giles rejoined them in the kitchen.

Buffy really did laugh out loud now looking at the expression on Giles' face. She would save him from this embarrassing situation. "Giles and I, well, we're undefined at the moment."

"Oh, oh okay." Willow looked up and smiled. "So you're going back to England tomorrow?"

Giles saw the shadow fall over Buffy's face. "Yes I'm afraid so."

"Well, we should make a night of it then. I mean if it's going to be another three years until we see you again, we should send you out with a bang."

Willow looked from Buffy to Giles and back again. "Xander, he probably has to pack and stuff. We shouldn't keep him tonight."

"But his flight isn't until the day after tomorrow, there's plenty of time for him to pack tomorrow. We should go out to a bar, or wait to a pub. Drink some warm beer, it'll be great."

Willow wanted to punch him, "Xander," she couldn't believe how dense he could be, "didn't you say earlier you had plans with Kristin?"

"No, I don't," he looked confusedly from Willow to Buffy to Giles and back to Willow. Suddenly it seemed to dawn on him. "Ohhhh, right, plans with Kristin. Yes, I should get going. You know for the plans." He stood up. "So I guess this is goodbye." He held out his hand.

"I promise I'll come and visit more often. Perhaps we could all have lunch before I leave." Giles shook it, sorry that he was leaving his family yet again.

"Yeah, sure thing G-Man." Xander shook his hand.

"I'll miss you Giles." Willow hugged him.

"I'll see you tomorrow too. And I promise I'll try and use that infernal contraption to write to you."

"It's called a computer Giles, and thanks. We'll see you tomorrow Buffy," Willow took Xander by the arm and started leading him from the room. She didn't let go of him until they were on the porch.

"What was that about?" He shook himself from her grasp.

"I just thought that they might want to be alone together for his last night here."

"But they said," Xander stood with his mouth hanging open like a codfish.

"I heard what they said. So they haven't, but that doesn't mean they won't," Willow added with a knowing smile.