First chapter = disclaimers

A/N: Not much with the funnies in this chapter. It appears to be mostly plot advancement. *sighs* such is life and the fickleness of muses.

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Giles awoke to the sound of the bedroom door closing. Buffy was tiptoeing into the room. Her hair was damp and curling adorably at the back of her neck. Then again, Buffy's hair was always adorable to him, so he probably was not the best judge in this case. Not, of course, that he would ever say anything about liking her hair as it would inevitably lead to discussions on fashion and similarly abominable topics. He just had a fondness for her hair as it seemed to be raidient and golden and had everything in its life that Buffy was denied in hers.

Bleary, Giles shook his head to clear his addled thinking before it began to wax poetic about Buffy's feet. "What are you doing up so early?"

Buffy turned around surprised to hear Giles' voice. "I'm sorry, did I wake you? I was trying to be quiet."

"Yes, well I do live on a Hellmouth. I tend to wake up easily."

Buffy nodded and then answered his earlier question, "Nancy talked me into helping her out with breakfast this morning. Only it turns out that neither of us can actually cook, so we're heading into town to buy breakfast and get back to dirty up pots and pans to pretend that we cooked."

Giles smiled fondly at Buffy. "I have very little doubt that that was your idea."

"Just call me idea girl," Buffy shot playfully back.

A frown overtook Giles' features a moment later. "You didn't say that you could take my car did you?"

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Two hours later, Buffy was happily re-heating pancakes while Nancy carefully poured  styrofoam containers full of coffee house coffee into a large coffee pot. The others were already milling about in the breakfast room. Just as Buffy finished stacking the newly hot pancakes onto the serving platter, she heard Nancy put the lid on the coffee pot. Iris came in and grabbed the platter of breakfast meat, and the three of them trooped into the dining room to put the food on the platter.

When they got into the room, Eric and James were laughing conspiratorially in the corner.  Buffy looked inquisitively at the twins. Her head cocked to one side trying to figure out just what was wrong with the picture. Then it dawned on her.

"Isn't that Giles' robe?" she asked bluntly.

Two pairs of horrified eyes turned to stare at her. A muffled curse came from the kitchen seconds before George came into the dining room. "I shall have to have words with the maintenance man. I'm getting nothing but ice water, and he assured me that the water heater was in tip top shape."

Buffy glared at the two boys. "You want to tell me what you're doing with that?"

"That would be a question I would like an answer to as well," Giles ground out. He stood in the dining room dripping wet with only a white towel wrapped around his waist. His green eyes held murder in them. "Here I was taking a nice shower after my morning jog only to have it turn blissfully cold. I rushed out of the bathroom only to find out that my robe is gone and be assaulted by camera flashes."

James and Eric quivered in fear at from their uncle's glare. They were saved by a gasp from the newly arrived Grace. Soon, all eyes except Buffy's and Giles' were focused not on the offending twins, but on what had caused the eldest woman in the group to gasp.

Nancy's eyes widened while Grace covered her mouth in horror. Arlene looked on in fascinated horror while Iris looked quickly away. The men hid their emotions better, but George's voice was the one that broke the silence.

"Oh, good God," his voice shook in shock.

Buffy's forehead wrinkled in confusion. What were they all staring at? Sure Giles was really good looking and in very good shape for his age, but it wasn't really something that family members should be staring at. Then it hit her. They were looking at the various scars on Giles' back. The various scars that covered his exposed skin.

Giles must have made the same realization at about the same time as his posture stiffened. He wordlessly grabbed his robe. "I believe I should like to be alone now," he said steadily as he exited the room.

Buffy waited for a moment in the awkward silence that had filled the room before following her Watcher up the stairs. She knocked twice at the door before she let herself in. Giles was sitting on the edge of his bed. He had not dressed and was merely staring out the window that was in the room.

"You okay?" Buffy asked as she gently sat down next to him.

"Well, I shan't immediately die," he responded.

"I'm sorry," Buffy said as she tentatively touched Giles' shoulder before letting her hand drop to her side.

"For what?" Giles asked, "For the scars?"

"Well, that, but also the whole them thinking I was in the shower and doing that to you thing."

A sardonic laugh came from Giles' lips. "You apologize for the strangest things."

"Well, I wouldn't be me if I suddenly became touchy-feely girl without an impending apocalypse," Buffy said trying to inject a touch of levity into the conversation.

Giles grabbed her hand with his and stared down at the two entwined hands. "I think that you are doing a very good job at being empathic right now as it is. There was a time that it would have taken a couple of weeks for you to notice that I had feelings on a subject at all."

"Hey, I thought we worked on that after the whole killing Adam thing," Buffy said only mildly irritated.

Giles turned his head to look at her. "So we have, and I am very grateful that you are with me right now. I wanted to see my family again, but I don't think that I realized how much I had changed since I last saw them. They know so little about who I am, and I really haven't bothered enlightening them. I just wanted to pretend, I suppose. I wanted to be just plain old Rupert, even if they looked down on him, but at the same time, I wanted them to notice me as someone different. I just didn't want to do it by displaying my various and sundry torture scars."

Buffy smiled in understanding. "Hey, Slayer with an absent and clueless father here. I can relate."

"Yes, yes I suppose that you can. Why don't you go try to choke down some food in what is no doubt an unpleasant atmosphere right now? I'd like to have a little time by myself."

Buffy patted his arm one more time before she got up. "Gotcha, I'll go run interference for the Watcher man. You just sit there practically naked and contemplate your navel."

Giles smirked at her and made a waving gesture for her to shoo.

When Buffy stepped out of the room, she ran straight into Robert.

"Giles isn't in the mood to talk right now," she said as she stood protectively in front of the door to their room.

Robert took one look at the determination on her face and backed away. "He didn't have all those scars the last time I saw him. The tattoo, yes, and a couple of others…"

"Yeah, well, Giles isn't exactly the talky type of guy. And he's got some scars from you guys that go a lot deeper than his skin. Heck, I've put some of them there myself."

"The skin ones or the deeper?" Robert asked uncertainly.

"Both, actually, though I'm guessing mostly the deeper kind."

Robert sighed and ran his hand through his mostly white hair. Absently, Buffy pondered whether Giles' hair would turn the snowy white his father's had, or if he would favor his mother and go steely gray.

"I don't like you," he said finally.

"Yeah, well same thing here. In fact, if you didn't get the hint before, I really, really don't like you."

"You're too young for him."

"I wish that was true," Buffy murmured to herself.

"Pardon?"

"It's nothing," Buffy dismissed his question with a wave of her hand before she crossed her arms back across her chest.

"I..I told the others that Rupert had been a spy. He had been caught and tortured for information."

Buffy snorted. "They'd believe that before they'd believe in vampires, huh?"

Robert shrugged. "I do care for my son."

"Tell him that then. All I see is a guy that saw his son as a way to continue his legacy. Do you think that I don't know the reason you dislike me so much? You're worried that your grandchildren are going to become 'bloody colonials' like their mother. You had Giles so you could make your little Watcher line, and now he's gone and done something that might just be irreparable to it. You guys are such prigs."

"Yes, well my son can do a lot better than some shameless hussy who is only after his money."

Buffy's eyes narrowed. "You should be really glad I don't pick fights with elderly still breathing people mister. 'Cause you've got one thing right about me. Giles could do a heck of a lot better than me, and one of those reasons is that I tend to solve things through violence."

"Are you trying to threaten me?" Robert asked somewhat awed by Buffy's outburst.

"No. I am threatening you."

Robert chuckled. "Well now, I think I finally see what Rupert could possibly find attractive about such a short and annoying blonde."

"What's that?"

"You challenge him. Rupert always chases illusive dreams. With your temperament, it is a wonder he ever even suggested a first date. You also appear to be curiously loyal, which is, mind you, the only reason I'm not truly trying to break you up. I thought it was his money, but you do appear to have genuine affection for him."

"You think you could actually break us up?" Buffy sneered.

"I assume that Rupert has told you about the council. They are very powerful. I could easily pull some favors if I so chose."

Buffy laughed. "Now that, that would be funny."

"You don't believe me?"

"It's a long story and one you probably wouldn't find humorous. But I'll just say that I'm certain the council won't think that I'm trying to come between Giles and his Watcherly duty to the Slayer."

Robert twisted his mouth around for a bit while he thought. "Well then, I suppose that we should call a truce."

Buffy shook her head. "No. I don't think that we can. A cease fire for Giles' sake at the moment, but you people are going to have to be way nicer to him before I call a truce."

"You drive a hard bargain young lady," Robert said as he extended his hand to shake her own.

Buffy reached out her own hand. "I do, and my name is Buffy."

"So it is," Robert said before he turned around and started down the stairs. "I suggest then,  Buffy, that the two of us go to breakfast before the tea is all gone and I have to drink that wretched coffee."