"We can postpone the wedding," Giles says as he catches Joyce supporting herself on the edge of the counter and doing this strange breathing she's picked up as a pain relief mechanism.

"I'm fine," she tells him quickly.

"I don't want you to be miserable on our wedding day," he says, wrapping an arm around her and nuzzling into her neck.

"How could I possibly be miserable when I'm marrying you?" she asks, leaning into his body for even more closeness.

"Nasty," Dawn complains, entering the room.

"Shut up," Buffy says.

Both of the adults turn to her with no small amount of surprise. Usually she is the one making negative comments on their displays of affection.

"I mean, you're getting married today. It would be kind of weird if you weren't all over each other."

"Parents just aren't supposed to kiss. It should be like a law or something," Dawn says.

Giles's eyes go all soft at the rather veiled reference to him as a "parent". It's not lost on Buffy, and she knows that she could probably mark this day by calling him Dad. She's just not sure that she could actually do that. It's not because he isn't like a dad to her, he is. It's more because her real dad, the person that she's called dad her whole life, wasn't much of a dad. So it feels like calling Giles 'dad' would be making Giles less than he is.

She just wished there was some way she could let him know all of that without, you know, actually having to say it.

"So, I know this is just supposed to be a small city hall wedding, and we aren't even going to get all dressed up, but Dawn and I thought we should hold to at least a little bit of tradition," Buffy says dramatically.

Dawn unfolds her hands to reveal two bright blue gem earrings.

"Are they from the magic shop?" Giles asks suspiciously.

"Yes, they're old, and blue, and borrowed," Buffy says.

"Also cursed," Giles adds.

Dawn drops them like they are made out of fire.

"They won't do any harm as long as you didn't put them on. You didn't put them on, did you?" he asks picking them up.

Dawn shakes her head in a bit of shock.

"Ok, in that case all I have left is the new thing…" Buffy says with a shrug, pulling a charm bracelet out from behind her back. Off it hangs a charm for every member of the family, including Giles.

"Wow, girls, this is so beautiful! You know you didn't have to get me anything," she says, going to hug each of them.

When the hugs are finished Dawn continues, "We don't have some old saying for you. I mean, we should have, because you like old saying more than she does, we just don't know that many. Well, here it is," she says pulling an old book out from behind her.

He takes it with the smile that you might wear when you take a drawing by a small child. Then he actually sees the title. "No, the last copy of this was burnt at Salam during the witch trials," he tells them.

"It turns out that a witch did a spell to make it look like it was burning," Buffy offers.

"How on Earth did you get a hold of this?" he asks, incredulous.

"Ebay," Buffy tells him.

Giles stares at her blankly.

"You know, on the computer," Dawn offers.

"You got this old book from a computer?" Giles says, a bit confused.

"No, we just bought it on the computer…never mind," Buffy says, shaking her head.

"Girls, this had to cost way too much, I can't accept this," he protests.

"The person selling it had no idea what he had. I don't suppose many people who like dusty old books on the supernatural log on to Ebay. It really wasn't that expensive," Dawn says.

He then hugs both of the girls, and says a heartfelt "Thank you," when they are in his arms.

"You're welcome, Dad," Dawn says.

Giles pulls away to reveal a thousand watt grin, and Buffy finds herself furious. Now she will be expected to say it, and even if she does she's not going to get any credit.

It's not fair, especially since Dawn isn't even real. If she wasn't here, Buffy could have said it whenever she felt ready.

"Welcome to the family, Dad," she says, but the word tastes weird on her tongue, and sounds just as weird to the ear. She messed it up, and would have been better off not saying anything at all. Now everyone in the room knows how weird she feels about calling him that.

"It's ok if you keep calling me Giles," he tells both the girls, but he is obviously just speaking to one of them.

Buffy's cheeks go read. Now even if she explains why that word is weird or hard for her to say, it is going to sound like she is just making excuses. She opens her mouth to say something, but she can't think of anything to say so it just opens and closes a couple of times like a fish.

Luckily Giles's parents come down the stairs just then carrying their little grandson, and ready to go to the wedding, so no other explanation is needed.

-Later-

Halfway through the wedding Joyce's face goes pale in a way that her family has learned to recognize means she's in extreme pain.

Giles puts his hand on her elbow, and lightly asks, "Are you ok?" even though the Justice of the Peace is still talking.

"Fine," she mouths without saying a word.

Giles doesn't believe her, and looks around even though he's not sure what he is looking for. Buffy grabs a nearby chair and pulls it up behind her mother. Joyce doesn't object anymore, but takes a seat in it.

"Should I continue?" the Justice asks. Even though she was clued into to Joyce's sickness she isn't sure what she should do next.

"Yes," Joyce says.

Giles gets down on his knees, and holds out his hands to her.

"You can't kneel the whole time," Joyce objects.

"If you can marry me when you're sick, I can spend a little time on my knees to marry you," he says.

-Later-

Joyce went to bed not long after they went home. Giles stayed up with the rest of his family celebrating the marriage, which was just a bit more than gloomy when the bride wasn't there, because she was so sick.

When he finally goes to bed he tries desperately not to wake her up, but he fails.

"Heck of a wedding night, huh?" she asks.

"It is worst for you. Are you feeling any better?" he asks softly.

"Not really," she says honestly as he slips under the covers next to her. "Giles, what if I die?" she asks after a few moments of silence.

"You are not going to die," he tells her almost as a reflex.

"I could," she says with so much honesty in her voice that it's hard to ignore it.

"We're going to figure out what is wrong with you."

"Giles, right now I really need to talk about what might happen," she says with a cold voice.

He grabs her hand under the blanket. "Then I'll try to raise your children the way you would."

"Will you be ok? All of you?"
"We'll have to be," he says.

"Alec is so little. He's not going to remember me," she says.

"We'll tell him so much about you that he'll know you better than he would have if he grew up with you."

"Dawn is at an age where she really needs a mom. There are so many girl issues."

"She has Buffy," he points out.

"Buffy isn't grown up. She thinks she is, but she is a long way away from it, and I am worried that she might never be grown up."

"She'll get there," he assures her.

"What about you?" she asks, rolling toward him.

"I'll miss you."

"Was loving me a mistake? Were you better off if you and I never got together?"

"No. Joyce. Even if you die, which I don't think you will. I'm not going to regret loving you. Some things are worth breaking your heart over," he says touching her face.

"What if I'm sick forever?" she asks softly.

"Then I'll turn over heaven and earth to make you better," he says.

She snuggles into him in the same way that the two of them did the first night that they were together, and they go to sleep with a contented sigh.

-A week later-

Giles knows that he should go into the bedroom. It would be good for him to monitor how Joyce is doing. She's sick, and the doctor's wouldn't have let her leave apart from the fact that he and Buffy had both promised to watch her closely.

He has watched her, mostly.

If he goes into their bedroom and wakes her up she's going to say something mean. Something awful.

He shouldn't let it bother him.

Still, when the woman you love calls you a sperm donor or a British prig, it tends to sting a bit. Sleeping on the couch seems to be preferable to all that.

Joyce begins talking. Endlessly talking in the other room. None of what she says makes any sense.

He really doesn't want to go in and take care of her, but he knows that he could calm her down if he goes. As soon as he opens the door he sees a giant demon crouching on the ceiling and staring at her with beady eyes.

"Buffy!" he screams. The demon falls from the ceiling on to Joyce. He reaches into his bedside table where he keeps a few emergency weapons, and he draws out an ancient knife which he stabs into the side of the beast. It is only enough pain to make the thing angry, and it lunges at him.

Buffy comes in as he wrestles with the demon on the ground. Together they kill the demon. They lay panting on the floor side by side with the dead demon still partially on top of him.

"They should have told him at the gate," Joyce says from the bed, and that is a whole lot more terrifying than the demon that they just killed.