Seeing with a Father's Love
By Teri

Chapter 6: Naming Buffy


"Xander, I hope you won't think it presumptuous of me to ask."

"Presumptuous? I've been telling you my whole life story. I think we have established you can ask me anything Giles."

"Well, ah," Giles took a deep breath and asked a question that he had always wondered about, but had never had the nerve to ask Joyce. "Fine, Xander why in the world would you and Joyce name your daughter 'Buffy'?"

Xander sat back and began to laugh. That really wasn't the question he expected. "The truth is that the name was entirely my fault. I know, I know, you are shocked."

"I should've know that an intelligent woman like Joyce would not have willingly named her child Buffy." Giles said with a smile making sure Xander knew that he wasn't totally putting down his naming skills, well not much anyway.

"Yeah, well, in fact, I think Joyce could have rung my neck a few times for naming her that." He laughed again. "Maybe more than a few times. You see when she was born; Joyce and I named her Elizabeth Anne. Anne was my mother. She died when I was still a kid. Elizabeth was Joyce's mother and she had only been gone about a year when Buffy was born. Joyce and her mother were very close, but Elizabeth disapproved of her marriage to me. Smart, lady if you ask me. I was nice enough, but nowhere near good enough for her daughter. A position we agreed on by the way. Luckily for me Joyce didn't care that I wasn't good enough; I think that was her only fault. Anyway, I never thought my girl looked like an Elizabeth so I set out to find her a new name . . . ."

"There's my Bethie, hello Bethie, hello Beth." Hank had just walked in as Joyce was starting to put the baby in the bath.

"Bethie?"

"I am still trying to come up with a nickname for her. We can't call her Elizabeth all of the time?" He whined.

"Why not. I use my full name and am very happy with it."

"Yes, but Joyce suits you," he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss, "but our little girl just isn't the Elizabeth type are you Lizzie?"

"Please - No - not 'Lizzie'." She laughed. "She will hear Lizzie Borden jokes all her life and what kind of image is that for a young girl to grow- up with, a woman who kills with an axe?"

Hank just gave her a well 'duh' look. Joyce just rolled her eyes.

"Considering the amount of diapers she goes through we could call her Betsy Wetsie."

Joyce just laughed at him as he started to pick-up the baby purposefully splashing his wife with the bath water. "There you are Baby girl, in the buff again getting all cleaned." He started to wash her so Joyce could sit down for a few minutes. "All in the buff. Baby in the buff. You know you are always in the buff - getting your diaper changed, getting your bath, and changing your clothes."

"You like being in the buff don't you? Don't you?" The baby smiled at her father or so he claimed although it was probably just gas. "You like being all buffy. Maybe I should just call you Buff. My Buffy baby."

"Hank, you wouldn't." Joyce protested.

Hank turned to her with a mischievous smile on his lips, but said nothing. However, she knew that smile. It meant trouble.

"No, I am pleading with you. You wouldn't do that to our little girl, would you?" She was making a valiant effort not to laugh at the look on his face and his wild suggestion.

"I don't know I think it suits her."

"Hank . . . "

"What do you think Buffy Baby? Hmm, Buffy? My baby Buff." He smiled at his daughter as he made faces at her. "What do you think Buff? Hey Buff."

Joyce watched as father and daughter played in the bath water and had a sinking feeling that her daughter just got named. Buffy Summers. It could be worse, but at the moment she wasn't sure how. Still, as she watched her husband and her daughter she was sure no father ever loved his daughter more than Hank loved Eli . . . Buffy. Strangely that sounded right - more than Hank loved Buffy.

Xander smiled at Giles as he finished his story. "To this day, I am not even sure she knows she has another name besides Buffy."

"Quite." Giles agreed. "I always thought Buffy was her given name."

"It is her 'Given' name, because I gave it to her."


I need to confess I love this chapter. I hope you will too. Teri