"Care to join me for lunch beloved?" he asked Buffy offering her his arm.
"Of course," responded Buffy taking his arm. He led her into the kitchen. Buffy gasped when she entered the room. The only light in the room was the soft glow of candlelight. The table was set with Angel's finest china and sitting on the plates was one of the most sumptuous meals Buffy had ever laid her eyes on.
"Angel," Buffy breathed, "what..?"
"Shh," he quieted her, "let's eat."
They ate lunch talking about anything and everything. Both were distracted however, Angel because he was nervous about proposing to her and Buffy because she had a feeling she know what was going on but wasn't sure.
When they had finished the main course Angel took the dishes to the sink and then returned to the table.
"What, no dessert?" Buffy asked, pouting playfully.
"I have something to ask you first," Angel answered, "Buffy, you know I love you with all my heart and soul. You are the love of my life and the mother of my daughter." He got down on one knee before her, "Buffy Summers, will you do me the honour of being my wife?"
"But we ARE married," Buffy said with a huge grin.
"By Irish tradition, yes, but I want to make it legal," Angel said smiling.
"Of course I'll marry you," Buffy exclaimed happily, throwing her arms around his neck, "but I have to wait until the divorce is final first."
"Then we'll get married on the day after the divorce is finalized," Angel said, "I don't want to spend one day of the rest of my life not married to you that I don't have to."
"Neither do I," Buffy agreed, "now how 'bout that dessert?"
Angel laughed and went to get the frozen blueberry cheesecake out of the freezer.
Half way through feeding each other the cheesecake an idea struck Buffy.
"We should get a family picture taken," she said out of the blue.
"What?" Angel asked, he was caught off guard by her sudden statement.
"A family picture, you, me and the kids, we should get one," Buffy said casually, "I mean if we're going to be a family we should have a picture right?"
"I guess so," Angel said, "When do you plan on doing this?"
"How 'bout this afternoon," Buffy proposed, "When the kids get out of school. When they get back have then change into some nice clothes and then we go get our picture taken. We could all go out for supper afterwards."
"You really have this all planned out, don't you?" Angel said, quite pleased with the idea.
"Yep," Buffy said, "I'm going to phone some picture places and see if any of them have an opening for this afternoon."
She got up and left the room, her half eaten piece of cheesecake forgotten.
After Buffy booked the appointment with the photographer Angel finished the office tour.
Buffy spent the rest of the afternoon getting her affairs in order, quitting her job with the Sunnydale PD, calling her friends to tell them she was moving, filing change of address forms and everything else that needs to be done when you move. Angel got some paper work done since all the day's legwork was already covered.
Before they knew it the time had come to pick up the kids from school. Buffy picked the kids up and then returned to the Hyperion.
"Kids," she addressed all three of her children, "Angel and I have some things we need to tell you. First of all we're getting married…"
Lizzy and Jenny were smiling ear-to-ear David wasn't quite sure what to think about it but when he saw his sisters smiling he smiled too.
Lizzy was the first to speak, "congrats you guys. Hey Mom can be a bridesmaid?"
"Yeah, can I be the flower girl?" Jenny added excitedly.
"Yes and yes," Buffy responded, "the other thing is we're going to get a family picture taken this afternoon so lets go get some nice clothes on." Buffy hustled her children up the stairs.
A week of so later Giles opened his mailbox to find an envelope with the Hyperion hotel marked as the return address. He opened it and pulled out a short letter.
Giles,
I'm sorry I blew up at you, I know you were trying to do what's best for me. I'm still not happy that you kept this from me for so long but I could never stay mad at you for long. You accepted me when my real family rejected me. You are twice the parent either of my parents were, and you will always be Grandpa Giles to my kids. I'm writing to tell you that I will be staying her permanently and that Angel and I are getting married as soon as my divorce from Chris is final. Thank you for giving Lizzy to Angel you made this all possible. I enclosed a picture of our new family to put on your desk,
Love Buffy
Giles looked in the envelope and found a picture with five smiling faces. Buffy looked happier than he had seen her in year, Angel was smiling like he had won the lottery and the kids looked happy, especially Lizzy. Giles smiled as he put the picture in a frame and set it on his desk. Buffy was happy and he was back in her good books, life couldn't be better.
The end (for now, I have an idea for a sequel let me know if you want one)
