Part 4 Talk of the Town.
Anya and Giles stood at the door of the Summers' home feeling the same kind of trepidation they felt taking the first step out of the mansion earlier. They might have been happier entering a hell dimension. The greek-revival had been a safe haven, but now they had to face the real world again. At least Mop had insisted on coming along.
Anya said, "We shouldn't be doing this."
"Yes, we should; it's best to get it over with," Giles said.
"I meant this way." She looked down at their clasped hands.
"I know." Giles let go of Mop to ring the bell but held on to Anya's hand. In the end no one noticed their hands at all. Dawn answered the door and immediately started to squeal excitedly over the Old English Sheepdog.
"Giles! He's so cute. Are we keeping him? Buffy, come see—Giles got us a dog!"
"Is that a new Potential, Giles? If so, I think she needs to look into electrolysis. It can't be a dog, because you know we have nowhere to put a dog that big."
Buffy had her arms crossed over her chest, and for some reason Giles felt nine years old. He took his glasses off and polished them. "Yes, well, um, it seems that Mop here has adopted us." Giles looked to Anya and put his glasses back on. "As for the issue of space, we've found a house. Anya's already contacted the agent about it."
"Mayor Wilkins' will stated that the house had to be kept intact for three years after his death. I guess in case he needed it again. So it just was just about to go on the market after the estate auction. I made an offer to buy it furnished, and they couldn't refuse. Wait 'til you see all the bathrooms. That man sure liked to be clean."
Dawn said, "That's so great! I hope the hot water heater works; I'm always last in the shower."
"Hold your horses; they're getting way ahead of me," Buffy protested. "You want us to move? Into the house formerly owned by the giant snake that ate Snyder? What kind of magic weed did you use in that ritual, anyway?"
"The ritual led us to the Mayor's summer home," Giles explained. "Buffy, the Books of Ascension weren't the only ones in his possession. He amassed a huge collection, and somewhere in it is the secret to stopping the First. We can't possibly move it here. You said yourself we need to be together now."
Buffy looked around and considered the memories around her. "Would I have to sell the house?"
"Of course not. We can even have wards put in place to keep it safe," Giles said.
"Yes, this is just until we've stopped the end of the world, or all died. Rupert and I don't want to live with you all indefinitely." Anya blushed a little not over revealing her new relationship with Giles, but she didn't want to alienate Buffy. She was aware of how miserable her life might become if she was cast in the role of "surrogate evil stepmother." "I mean, the place has lots of room, so it'll a great place for Scooby meetings. Provided you don't run the owner through with a sword, you'll always be welcome." She wanted to add a warning to call first because they might be having sex, but she figured showing up unannounced would only happen once. Besides, it didn't look like Buffy or anyone else was listening to her.
888Buffy walked into her kitchen at around 2 AM, intent on finding the last of the Ben & Jerry's, and let out a small and un-Slayer like "eep!" Anya was sitting on the counter and Giles seemed to be researching her throat with his tongue. Anya was startled by the sound and tried to come down from her perch, stepping hard on Giles' bare foot in the process. While Giles did the dance of the stubbed toe and tried not to wake the whole house Buffy headed for the basement.
"Everything all right, pet?" Spike asked, gripping the chains of his shackles and sitting up.
"Yeah. I think this may be some weird alternate universe, though," Buffy said, sitting down next to him on his cot.
"Let me guess...it's the one where Watchers get shagged, and not the one without shrimp." Spike had seen the new couple with everyone else at the meeting earlier When Giles filled them all in on the outcome of the quest.
"This is just so strange."
"Yeah, well, grownups are allowed to have lives, pet."
"It's not that he has a life or even that it's with Anya. Before last year, if one of us had someone new in their life, it was a big deal. We'd either hold a celebration or an intervention, or sometimes even both. Last year I apologized to Xander for not telling him about you and me. Today Anya and Giles walk in together and everyone, even Xander, can see they're together, and it's just ignored like we're all strangers."
"Don't worry; you lot will be fine. You just can't live in each other's figurative pockets right now 'cause you're living there literally. There are ten people living in a house built for less than half that. You're all just giving each other some breathing room the only way you can."
"Giles sure wasn't getting any breathing room from Anya." Buffy laughed a little.
Spike raised his scarred eyebrow and said, "Jealous?"
Buffy continued to smile; that sounded like the Spike she knew. "Maybe. I'm not sure I like breathing room all that much. I'm not used to having it, you know? The past few years I've had this bottle blond guy doing a pretty good job of crowding me."
"I could remind you that change is a good thing, and that we all need some room to grow."
"You want to know the weirdest thing about The World Where Watchers Get Shagged? Giles promised me earlier that he would find a way to de-trigger you. He told me that he thinks maybe you've changed and that I might need you with me."
"That's almost a ringing endorsement coming from him. Now that I've got the Watcher's blessing forget what I said about breathing room. Once I can be sure you'll be safe I'll get these chains off. Let's see how long you can hold your breath then, luv." Spike tried to sound as if he were joking but didn't quite make it.
"Yeah, well, I kind figured you were full of it. After all, how long has it been since you needed to breathe?" She smiled at him.