Rupert Giles watched the lunchtime scene unfold while musing what tools he had at his disposal to undo the damage already done. His slayer was involved with an older man -- not an older 'vampire', thank the Lord, but an older human man. One not that much younger than himself. One he knew in his youth. One without the resources and skills that even Xander had acquired through hard-won experience. And one more person who could be maimed or killed by getting between Buffy and her calling. Buffy and Adam sat next to each other eating Chinese food that he certainly would not recognize as food. It was no Chinese he'd ever seen. And they shared the food in a manner that belied years of intimacy, not a summer fling. In fact, Buffy's very demeanor had changed. She had a softness of expression that he'd never seen on her before. He knew that she loved Angel -- her actions had proved as much, but it was an thing of quick hot passion, that Giles was sure would have burned out had events played out differently. Her feelings for Adam appeared to run much deeper.

This -- affair -- because it certainly appeared to have more substance than a fling greatly disturbed him. Whatever concerns he may have had about Angelus' proclivities, nothing he had witnessed from Buffy indicated that the souled version of the vampire indulged the demon's darker urges. Adam, on the other hand, was a known quantity. And Adam's taste for kink in college had far exceeded his own comfort zone, even at his most dissolute. Rupert knew his own tastes had mellowed somewhat since his forced separation from Ethan; he could only hope that Adam's had as well. But he doubted it. Adam had not had years of council indoctrination poured down his throat. The very fact that Adam was with his seventeen year old slayer made him suspect. Giles groaned inwardly. He had little hope of influencing his slayer one way or another. He had failed in his attempt to warn off or seduce Adam Pierson. He doubted that there was little he could say to his slayer to pry her away from Adam without admitting to some embarrassing behavior that he'd rather keep to himself. Perhaps Joyce could be of some use. Best to observe and consider.

He was interrupted as Xander came through the door to join the group at the table, opening brown paper sack with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, and two Twinkies. He took a seat next to Oz, the two of them giving each other a brief challenging glance before Oz broke off eye contact and moved his chair another inch closer to Willow. Giles didn't care much for Xander's behavior. Xander was still territorial about Willow even though she had shown a clear preference for Oz. Giles glanced at his slayer. She wore the tiniest mirthful smirk.

"So where did you meet?" Willow asked between bites of her sandwich. She leaned over to turn the page of the Egyptian tome that Giles had given her to research Anubis and the medallion. She was still a bit shy and nervous around the new teacher, and hadn't said much.

Buffy and Adam shared an unreadable look, as if deciding how to answer. Buffy answered. "I was working at a bar. Adam visited."

"Prettiest girl on the west coast." Adam smiled gamely, popping another huge mouthful of the dish into his mouth.

"Liar -- but you're sweet." Buffy rewarded him with a kiss. "Swept me off my feet. Poor Richie. I dumped him on the spot."

"The kid'll live." Adam rolled his eyes. "He's probably got another girl lined up. Besides, I doubt he could handle you."

"He's dating a girl named Bethany Littleton right now. Met her a month ago in Seattle. He's over me." Buffy sighed dramatically. "I'm so forgettable."

Giles scoffed and leaned over Willow's shoulder, looking at the tome that seemed to hold less interest to her than the handsome new teacher. So they met in a bar, hardly surprising, Adam drank like a fish. "Where were you working?"

"Now that would be telling." Buffy answered sweetly.

"And you've been so forthcoming with the events of your summer." Giles retorted with a scowl.

"Until this morning you never asked." Her expression closed down and turned cold. Buffy swapped dishes with Adam, giving a few comments in that strange language they seemed to share, and continued her destruction of the Szechwan dishes. She bent her head close to Adam's. "Like it?"

"Excellent. Not as good as yours." Adam answered, "When are you going to cook for me?"

Xander blanched. "Warning! Buffy doesn't cook." He shook his head. "No. That's a dangerous area, fellow."

Buffy frowned. "I'll have you know I am an excellent cook, Xander Harris."

"Right…" It was clear that Xander did not believe her.

"Fine, I'll cook for you sometime. What do you want, Italian, German, Greek, Thai, Chinese? I make a fabulous black pudding, believe it or not." Buffy looked over at her Watcher. "Perhaps I should come over and cook you a proper English breakfast."

"Oh -- no. That's quite all right." Giles stuttered, quite certain that his slayer could not cook.

"Your loss." Buffy shrugged and looked a little sad. "Merrick loved it when I cooked for him. Always wanted pastries -- he could eat butter croissants and scones all day. And spiced ham!"

"I'll go to the store if you'll fix me a proper English breakfast in the morning." Adam clapped his hands together as if begging. "Pretty please!" Buffy giggled and nodded.

Willow had buried herself back into the Egyptian text. A few moments later she looked up. "Giles, you need this medallion. It's called the Ring of Isis." She pointed at the reference. "It's the only way to defeat Anubis."

"I know, but the question is, where is it?" Giles mused.

Buffy interjected. "I told you my mother sold it a few years ago -- ask her. Better yet, have Willow hack the gallery sales database. She wrote it, I'm sure she left a back door."

"Buffy, I sincerely doubt that some cheap trinket that your mother sold years ago is the Ring of Isis. Her gallery doesn't sell artifacts of this quality." Buffy shot her watcher a dirty look and made a comment to Adam. If any Scooby had known the language, they would have heard, "See what I have to put up with?" She turned back to Giles. "Before we moved here, Mom's gallery was in Beverly Hills. She handled plenty of expensive artifacts before my dad took the building and two-thirds of the gallery's money in the divorce settlement"
"More importantly, Giles, where is this 'vessel of Osiris'? He's the only one that can use the medallion."

"One of us will have to summon the god Osiris and become his vessel." Giles replied. "There are spells to do that."

Buffy rolled her eyes and made a few unintelligible comments to Adam, who responded with a laugh. They went back and forth a few times, earning dumbfounded stares from all the others in the room. "Show me the damn book." Buffy reached across the table, grabbing the book. She and Adam put their heads together and read the passage. "Who wrote this?" Buffy turned the book to its cover and looked up at Adam.

"Cass." They both swore. "Could it be a fake?" Buffy asked hopefully. Adam began combing through the book, looking for evidence that the book was faked. He shook his head.

"Wills, go look through the database. Mom probably sold the ring, locket -- whatsis at least three or four years ago. The guy that brought it by was named Fitzcairn. F-I-T-Z-C-A-I-R-N. Hugh, maybe?"

Willow went to the computer and started clicking keys on the computer. "Somebody was doing some stuff this morning and didn't cover their tracks too well."

"Somebody didn't think you'd go snooping, Wills. It was me." Willow's eyes widened as Buffy approached the computer and looked over Willow's shoulder. Adam stood behind Buffy, towering over her small frame as the search effort flickered on the screen. Receiving Willow's resolve face, Buffy shrugged. "So I opened a few Swiss bank accounts last summer. No big."

"Hugh Fitzcairn. How'd your mother wind up dealing with him?" Adam asked absentmindedly. "He doesn't do much business."

"Yeah. Fitz isn't interested in much but whiskey and skirt. And gambling enough to obtain more whiskey and skirt. I'm surprised he didn't hit on Mom." Buffy snickered. "What's he doing these days, anyway?"

"He didn't try to seduce you?"

"I was twelve!" Buffy looked disappointed. "'Sides, he's boring. No…" Buffy made a sign with her fingers and said a phrase Giles didn't recognize. Adam's eyes twinkled a bit. "He did want me to swing by in a few years. Maybe we'll drop by sometime."

"He's dead, darling." Adam leaned down and whispered some things in Buffy's ear.

Buffy face fell and she sagged back into Adam's arms. "I want to go home." She turned back to the computer, watching Willow work, but shiny tears tracked down her cheeks, and she pulled Adam's arms tight around herself.

"So why Fitz?"

Buffy cleared her throat a few times and swallowed hard. "Connor's pissed with us. We have -- had -- to use Fitz as a go-between for our stuff. I guess Connor wasn't interested in the piece." Buffy shrugged, looking at the screen. "Wills, he's HFC. Not HF. Mom-logic." Buffy looked at Adam who was smirking at her. "Besides, I'm sure that Connor researched where the piece came from."

"And where would that be?" Adam's voice was amused. Giles glanced over from a Sumerian text that dealt with the ring, attempting to cross-reference the entry with the prophecy from the Egyptian text.

"Egyptian Museum in Cairo."

"You didn't!" Buffy turned around to smile brilliantly at him through her tears. "Ah, hell. You did." Adam looked both disgusted and pleased. "Care to share what the two of you did to piss old Connor off?"

"Uh… No."

"Come on, pretty please?" Adam's voice came out as a wheedle.

"No."

"Oh, do share!" Xander piped up from the library table.

"Later."

"Now." Adam whispered low in her ear. "I promise I'll do that thing.."

"No fair!" Buffy covered his mouth with her hand. "Don't say it in front of them." She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Amanda had a little party a while back with Connor to celebrate a sale." She gave Adam a nudge. "And there were some uninvited guests." She held up three fingers. "Care to guess who crashed the party?"

"No way." Adam laughed.

"Yup,. We warned Connor, but he said he was okay with it. Let's just say Will got a little overenthusiastic and his teeth wound up where they shouldn't have."

"Oh dear." Adam's eyes teared up with the effort not to laugh.

"And we girls were too busy admiring the view to realize how upset he was. He had no idea. Never seen a…" Buffy used the Ancient word for 'vampire' "…before." Buffy giggled. "'Course, it's his own stupid fault. Idiot. Connor panicked and yanked his leg out."

"Oh no." Adam's shoulders were shaking.

"Big chunk of thigh," Buffy held two hands up to make a large circle roughly three inches round. "Gone. Then there was the little problem of bleeding to death. So he was a little put out."

"I'd imagine." Adam was laughing so hard, he had fallen against the wall sinking to the floor, pulling Buffy with him. Buffy was laughing too.

"Then, in addition, he had both Winn and Myers on his tail. And you well know how long those bites take to heal. And if you lose half your leg in the bargain." Buffy shrugged and wiped her eyes. "Funny thing, they both disappeared. Quite convenient, that."

"You didn't."

"Who me?" Buffy did her best 'I'm innocent' face. "Well, Connor never would have figured it out if Amanda hadn't tried to sell Winn's katana in Connor's store"
"Love?" Adam leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yes, dear?" Buffy turned to in his lap to face him.

"Whatever happened to Yoshida?"

"Oh, please. You know good and well what happened to Yoshida. He wasn't much of a fight."

"Come here." Adam bent over to press a kiss against Buffy's lips. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

Willow, who had been doing her best to ignore the two lovebirds while searching on the web called out. "Hey, you were right! I think I found it."

Giles stepped over to the computer. "Who bought it?"

"Somebody named Daniel Jackson. Colorado Springs."