First chapter = disclaimers

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"This is so not fair," Buffy whined as the demons began to growl unintelligibly at the group.

"Define fair, 'cause I'm thinking this is pretty good compared to some other parts of your life," Xander whispered back.

Giles merely glared at them both. "I think that we need to focus on getting my family out of here and out of danger. Buffy and I will distract the demons. Xander, you Willow, Anya and Tara should help get Joyce and my relatives in a safe place."

"Oh, we could take them up to their room, and Tara and I could put up wards," Willow offered.

"Sounds like a plan to me. You guys got weapons?" Xander asked.

"I've got a couple of stakes," Buffy replied.

"As have I, and a flask of Holy Water," Giles added.

"Well, I'd like to know what kind of people think stakes and water are going to help us from those raving lunatics," George interrupted, clearly annoyed that he was being ignored and not understanding half of the conversation his brother was having.

Xander rolled his eyes at George and looked at Giles, "Can I hit him?"

"No, I believe I deserve that right," Giles responded a second before he slapped his brother on the side of his head. "They aren't a gang you twit. They're demons. Possibly very dangerous ones, and if you don't do as you're told, I'm going to let them eat you."

"Shush," Anya whispered, "I'm trying to make out what they're saying."

"You can speak their language?" Robert asked fascinated.

"Yeah, I used to know a couple of them back in the day. They're really a bunch of hired thugs, you know. They really give a bad name to the vengeance market."

"Anya," Giles said patiently, "Do you know what they want?"

"Well, they're here for Giles," Anya replied after a moment.

"Giles?" Buffy squeaked, "They can't have him."

"Well, not Giles, Giles. Just one of them, I'm not really sure which. They've been hired by a group of Nezt'gorth demons. Apparently one of you broke a sacred artifact?"

Giles turned to glare at his father who studiously began to polish his glasses. "You broke one of the sacred cups of Nest'lath? Are you daft?"

"I-it was an accident, I assure you. Travers has already dressed me down for my clumsiness, you needn't redress the issue."

"What's going on?" Grace asked bewildered as the rest of her family, except, of course, Rupert and Robert.

Joyce calmly patted her arm, "Don't ask. You'll feel better if you don't."

"Yeah, I like to think of mortal danger as just another thing to add to the list of things to do in a week. Don't think about it anymore than you would your laundry," Xander added.

"I don't suppose that we could just give him to them?" Buffy asked.

"I don't think that really needs to be answered, does it?" Giles responded.

"What about George? He's annoying or, hey, we could give them Arlene, nobody cares about her," Buffy shot back.

Giles sighed, "Buffy..."

"Right, right. Sacred duty, blah, blah, blah."

Nancy grabbed Giles' arm. "Rupert, you aren't really going to fight with those creatures are you? You could be injured."

"Don't worry about Giles, he's been hit lots of times, and he's still going," Willow tried to be comforting.

Giles smiled at his sister gently. "I'll be fine. Just run when we start to fight."

Nancy barely nodded before Giles indicated to Buffy that they should move.

Explosively, Buffy jumped on top of the dinner table before doing a flip off of said table to land in front of the intruders.

"Hey, there, wanna have some fun?" She quipped a second before she let loose with a quick uppercut.

Xander barely watched before he grabbed George's arm. "Time for all you British people to get to safety."

George took one look at his brother and Buffy fighting with the group of ruffians and quickly followed Xander. The others followed, leaving Buffy and Giles to face off against the bounty hunting demons.

Giles swung his fist at the closest one, releasing his hand from its tight grip at the last moment and allowing the flask of Holy Water to fly out of his hand and into the face of the demon. It wailed in pain as the water fluoresced on its skin.

Another monster flew by Giles' right side as Buffy kicked it. She glanced quickly at Giles. "Is Holy Water supposed to do that?" she asked as she drop kicked another attacker.

"I'm not entirely certain. I'm not really familiar with these demons."

"You mean Anya knows something that you don't? Should I be worried? I'm not rubbing off on you, am I?"

"Lord, but I wish you were," Giles mumbled as he stabbed the fluorescing monster in its forearm as it dodged a more lethal blow.

"Hey, are you talking dirty when we're fighting?" Buffy asked as she rammed her first and second assailants' heads together.

"I was referring to the fact that you seem to able to handle my family with a self assured attitude that I never could. However, if you should like to think of it in the other context," Giles finished his sentence with a slightly feral smile.

"I've evoked the essence of Ripper, haven't I?" Buffy asked as she swung the remnants of a cheese platter, including the metal platter, at one of the bad guys.

"Not really, just a bit of him, I think," Giles winced as the demon batted away the platter and sent it sailing through a decorative vase, "Buffy, do try not to damage the hotel too much. We'll have to pay for it."

"Nope, George will have to pay for it 'cause he signed the rental agreement. Oh no, I think I'm channeling my lawyer dad," Buffy made a face as she severed one demon's head with a broken dinner plate. Whether it was from the gruesomeness of the act or the realization that she was like one of her parents, Giles couldn't tell.

He swung viciously at his own assailant and successfully plunged a stake into its heart. While it didn't go poof, the technique apparently worked as it fell over and started twitching on the floor. He turned around to help Buffy finish her other opponent.

"Well, so long as you don't start to look like your father, I'm certain I can live with you having certain resemblances. After all, you've lived with my resemblances to my family."

Buffy snapped the neck of the third demon as Giles distracted it. She wiped her hands on her pants and shook her head. "You're not anything like those people."

Giles simply smiled fondly at her. "You say that only because you're in love with me. I'm certain that once you regain your faculties, you'll be excessively annoyed by my family traits."

Buffy grinned, "Yes, but it'll be a good annoyed. Like the kind of annoyed you get when your boyfriend snores. You don't snore do you?"

"Not unless I've been seriously injured or drunk. I... Buffy weren't there five demons?"

Her eyes widened as she realized that there were indeed two missing demons. "I think we better high tail it after Xander."

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' With very quick steps, Xander's group reached the hotel room and Arlene quickly let them in. As soon as Anya had ushered in the last Giles, Tara and Willow sat cross legged from each other on the floor and began chanting.

"I thought Buffy had said that she was a Wiccan," Iris said of Willow.

"Bah, what good is chanting going to do when there are hired hit men after father's life," George snapped.

"Were you dropped on your head as a child?" Anya asked George, "Because I'm pretty sure that Giles told you that those were demons, as in not human."

"Is that what Rupert's found? A bunch of people that believe in this insanity of his? Demons are real? Vampires are real? Magic is..." George trailed off when a bright yellow light began to diffuse from Tara and Willow's enjoined hands.

"Encircle!" Willow's voice resonated through the room.

"Real?" Xander supplied the end to George's sentence.

"Father?" Nancy asked uncertainly after a bit of a pause.

Robert sat heavily on the bed in the room. "It's all true. What I told all of you when you left Rupert and I. It was true. You simply chose not to believe it."

"Obviously, Giles' intelligence doesn't run in the family," Anya grumbled towards Joyce simply because she was the closest ear.

Grace shook her head, "But if that's true then Rupert and Buffy are down there fighting those monsters. They are in terrible danger."

"Actually, they aren't," A male voice came from the bathroom. Quentin Travers walked calmly out of the small room followed by two henchmen. "They are quite safe, I assure you."