Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, but I do own Sophie, baby Lily, baby Jesse, and Echo :)

"Willow" Tara whispered, gently shaking her wife's shoulder in an attempt to rouse her. "Willow, Sweetie, wake up."

"I don't wanna" Willow rolled over and pulled the covers over her head, grumbling in protest.

"Come on, sleepy head" Tara chuckled, pulling the covers back and leaning down to kiss her cheek. "You were the one who didn't want to waste our first family vacation. The girls have been up for an hour, Giles is downstairs with them."

"Leave them for a while, then" Willow mumbled sleepily. "Giles loves playing Grandpa."

"Okay" Tara smirked, "I didn't want to have to do this, but.." She began tickling Willow's stomach.

"Okay, okay, I'll get up!" she gasped between giggles. "Just stop, s-stop!" Willow's foot struck out involuntarily, catching Tara in the stomach and sending her tumbling onto the floor. "Oh my God, Tara!" cried Willow, leaping out of bed and rushing to her wife's side. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine" Tara replied, rubbing her back. "At least you finally woke up."

"Yeah.. But you know, for future reference, we probably shouldn't tickle next time one of us is pregnant, just to avoid any accidents, okay?"

"Okay" Tara chuckled, kissing her cheek.

"..today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic!" Sang a chorus of voices as Willow and Tara reached the bottom of the stairs. It seemed that in the hour since Giles and the girls had got up, so had everybody else. Giles was currently performing some sort of puppet show with Sophie and Lily's Tara and Willow bears. Buffy and Faith each sat cross-legged on the floor, with Lily in Buffy's lap and Sophie in Faith's. Echo and Miss Kitty The 2nd lay side by side between them. Xander and Anya were huddled together on the couch with baby Jesse. Connor and Dawn were in the kitchen, throwing soapy water at each other while attempting to wash last night's dishes. Andrew had unfortunately been caught in the cross-fire. Angel sat in a corner, brooding. Illyria watched Giles' show, confused but interested. Spike just looked bored. Willow and Tara smiled at them, then each other. The group was about as non-traditional as you could get, but they were family, and the witches wouldn't have traded them for anything.

"Good Morning Mommy Willow, good morning Mama Tara!" Sophie greeted cheerily.

"Ih-oh, Tawa!" Lily cooed. Buffy released her, letting her toddle over to be scooped into Tara's waiting arms.

"Good morning, girls" said Giles warmly. "Do either of you have any theories on who our mysterious visitor might have been?"

"Mysterious visitor?" Willow frowned. "What mysterious visitor?"

"Uh, the guy hangin' out under your kids' bedroom window?" replied Faith, raising an eyebrow.

"There was a guy hanging out under my kids' window?" cried Willow in panic. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"We thought Tara was going to tell you" said Buffy. Willow turned to her wife, who had suddenly become very interested in fixing Lily's socks.

"You knew about this and you didn't tell me?"

"I was going to, really, I was just waiting for the right moment" Tara explained. "See, you do have a tendency to overreact to little things.."

"You call this little?" Willow yelled.

"Sophie said he wasn't dangerous" Tara shrugged.

"He's not" Sophie piped up.

"And she's never been wrong before, so I trust her."

"But.."

"The rest of us have come to the same conclusion, Willow" said Giles, cutting her off.

"Yeah" Faith added. "You think I'd just be sittin' around if the kids were in danger?" Willow opened her mouth to argue, but stopped. She had to admit that The Dark Slayer had a point. Faith was second, and very closely so, only to Tara and herself in desiring to keep their children safe.

"Well.. okay. But we're still trying to work out who or what this guy is, right?"

"Right" said Buffy with a nod.

"And if he comes back you'll tell me right away this time?"

"Sure" said Xander.

"Okay" said Willow, taking a breath to calm her slightly frazzled nerves. "Okay. Come on Sophie, we're taking you and your sister to the Toy Store."

"But Mommy Willow.." Sophie frowned.

"What? I thought you'd like to go to the Toy Store."

"I would, but you and Mama Tara are still in your jammies."

"Oh" Willow blushed, embarassed.

"I did not think it was appropriate for humans to venture into public areas while dressed in nightclothes" said Illyria, cocking her head in confusion.

"It's not" said Willow, blushing even redder, as she grabbed Tara's hand and headed back upstairs. "We'll, uh, be back in a few minutes."

After that minor hiccup, they were on their way. At the store, Sophie chose a plush black panther which she quickly dubbed 'Charles' (This confused her parents until they remembered Gunn's first name), while Willow and Tara bought Lily a little toy piano. As they left the store, intending to head to a nearby Ice-Cream Parlour, Willow suddenly yelped and ducked behind Tara.

"Run. Now."

"Run from what?" asked Tara, confused. Willow pointed, and Tara quickly saw what had her wife in such a panic. Her parents. Tara had only met them twice, and, since neither of them had ever come to terms with their daughter's change in sexuality, both occasions had been extremely uncomfortable.

"Okay, there's the problem, now let's go before they see us and we end up in the most awkward situation ever!" Willow attempted to flee with Lily's stroller, but Tara stopped her.

"Hang on, Will. Don't you think maybe it's time you faced them?" asked Tara gently.

"Well.." Willow hesitated.

"You can run from the past all you wants, but eventually, it's gonna come back and bite you on the butt" said Sophie, drawing looks of surprise from her Mothers. "What? I heard Auntie Faith say it."

"Figures" Willow mumbled. "But I guess she does have a point.." It was lucky that Willow had come to this realisation, because by now, her parents had spotted them, and it was too late to run.

"Willow!" Sheila Rosenberg called.

"Hi, Mom" Willow forced a smile as she turned to face her parents, squeezing Tara's hand for comfort. "Hi, Dad. Been a long time, huh?"

"Too long, Dear" said Sheila, pulling Willow into an awkward hug. "Oh, we have so much to catch up on!" she continued, glancing over her daughter's shoulder at Tara, Sophie, and Lily.

"Obviously" said Ira with a small frown.

"Would you like to join us for lunch?"

"Uh.." Willow looked to Tara, who shrugged, leaving the decision to her. "Sure. Why not?"

Of course, it soon became clear that there were many reasons why this was not a good idea. One of these reasons was Willow and Tara having a few minutes to dream up an edited for the non magically inclined story of the past few years, and immediately having to tell that story without any sort of rehearsal, then being faced with numerous awkward questions about where Tara had been while she was 'dead', the nature of their relationship, and their children's 'Father'.

"Okay" said Sheila with a confused look, after they'd been through everything a third time, "Let's see if we understand this. Taylor here.."

"It's Tara, Mom" Willow frowned.

"Sorry, Tara, never actually died?"

"No. She was in witness protection."

"Because she accidently busted some drug smugglers" said Ira, raising an eyebrow.

"And then she.."

"Tara's right here Mom" said Willow, becoming annoyed. "Don't talk like she isn't." Tara blushed, and Sheila turned to her awkwardly before continuing.

"You came back."

"Y-Yes" Tara stuttered.

"And you moved in with your little friends Bunny and Fay.."

"Buffy and Faith" Willow corrected, again.

"Of course. Then you had your little Civil Union.."

"Uh-huh" Willow sighed. She would have argued, but she knew it was pointless to make her parents see her relationship with Tara as a Marriage when, legally speaking, it wasn't, yet, despite the fact that they were married in every other sense of the word, and saw themselves as such.

"And you had two children without telling us" Ira frowned as he looked at Sophie and Lily, who both tried to duck under the table.

"I tried to tell you!" The fact that she very nearly hadn't was beside the point. "I sent a letter with our Wedding invitation which you never replied to, and the three Birthday Party invitations which you also never replied to, which now I know is because you, oh, moved again without remembering to tell me or leaving a forwarding address!"

"Willow, that was an accident" said Sheila. "It was just a little slip, we could have sworn we told you.."

"Okay, but you see why I'm upset, right?" Willow frowned. Obviously not. Ira rolled his eyes, thinking his daughter was being completely unreasonable.

"You have to understand that it was a very busy time, and sometimes things are overlooked."

"Yeah, sure I understand" Willow stood up. She understood that it was wrong to 'overlook' telling your only child that you were moving, no matter how long you'd gone without seeing them. "We had some other plans for today, so.."

"You can't leave yet, you haven't eaten" said Sheila. "Besides, we'd like to get to know our grandchildren a little." She reached over to pinch Lily's cheeks. "Would'nt you like to spend some time with your Grandma and Grandpa, Milly?" Before anyone could correct Sheila's latest mistake, Lily batted her hand away.

"No!" she yelled, her tiny face looking angrier than either her parents or sister had ever seen it. "You no Gamma! You no Gampa! No!"

"'Sides, we already have a Grandpa, and he doesn't get our names wrong" added Sophie with a frown, before pointing to her still grumpy looking little sister. "Her name is Lily, not Milly!"

"But.. what.. I.." Sheila sputtered.

"Aren't you going to say something to them?" frowned Ira looking insulted. Willow shook her head, chuckling.

"No."

"What?"

"Well for one thing, Lily's only a year old, so I couldn't control anything she said even if I wanted to. And I don't want to, because they're right."

"But.."

"No buts, Mr. Rosenberg" said Tara, regaining her voice. "They've never met you before today. To them, you're not their Grandparents. You're not anything."

"If you want to be, you can come find us." Willow scooped Sophie into her arms and headed for the exit, Tara following with Lily's stroller. Sophie blew a rasberry over her Mother's shoulder as they left.

"Grandpa!"

"Gampa!"

Giles looked up from the book he was reading, beaming as the two girls flew into his lap.

"Good Lord! What's all this about?" he chuckled. As Sophie launched into her explanation of the day's events, Willow and Tara looked on, smiling.

"Are you okay?" Tara asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her wife's ear.

"I'm proud" Willow grinned. "Our girls know who their family is."

"I meant how do you feel" Tara prodded slightly. "About your parents."

"Like I said, if they care enough, they can find me" Willow shrugged, leaning her head on Tara's shoulder. "If they don't, well, I've got all the family I need right here."

Nobody noticed the melancholic, hooded figure slipping away from the window..