The shop door opened with a flurry of commotion. Anya thrust herself through it calling for Giles.

"Rupert? Rupert?"

She stopped and took in the tableau before her. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen Buffy, Tara and Willow gathered around the round table with Giles. In fact, the last time they were gathered like that had been shortly before the wedding that never was.

"Buffy?" She asked, shocked to see her actually sitting there. "Buffy!"

She ran over and wrapped her arms tightly around her friend.

"Tara! Willow!" She hugged each of them in turn. "This is... This is wonderful! I'm so glad Rupert called you all!"

"Anya," Giles said, his voice trying to warn her to stop.

"I can't believe you're all here! I told him you'd understand and that you'd be just as happy as we are!"

Anya turned to Giles and sat herself in his lap. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she pulled him into a kiss that was better left in the bedroom. Giles pulled away from her vice-like grip and blushed an appropriate shade of red.

Buffy's eyebrow was raised expectantly. Somebody had better start talking, she thought.

"I, er... Oh... Oh dear," Giles stammered.

Off came his glasses as he began polishing them furiously on his sleeve. Buffy reached out and took the poor, abused spectacles from his clammy hand.

"Giles," she said, her voice very serious. "Want to make with the splainy?"

Anya looked from Buffy to Giles. He hadn't told her. Buffy didn't know. Anya graciously slipped from Giles' lap and she went to sit beside Tara.

"I stopped by the store the other day," Anya told Tara. "Amy said that you were out running errands. I've been meaning to call... I... It's been so long. I don't think I realized how much I missed you all until this very moment."

Tara smiled at Anya, surprised by her sudden sentimentality. Anya's eyes were clouded by tears.

"Stupid hormones," she grumbled, swiping at them with a manicured hand. "I'm not even out of my first trimester and I'm either crying or peeing all the time."

Buffy's jaw dropped at Anya's admission. She turned to Giles and watched as his face turned even redder than she thought it could.

"Again, I say... Want to make with the splainy?" Giles ducked his head down and tried to gain some sort of composure.

"Anya is... That is, to say..."

"I've got a bun in the oven!" She beamed proudly. "Little Rupie's just seven months away from his big debut."

"Darling, we've discussed this. Girls are predominant in my family. Don't set your heart on a boy, my love. Chances are our he's a she," he chided gently.

"Giles," Buffy said impatiently.

"Ahem, uh, yes," he said, clearing his throat. "It would seem that, um, Anya is carrying my child. We... We were planning to call you regarding the wedding."

"Uh-huh," Buffy nodded, dumbfounded. "Just when were you going to do that? After it was over and Little Rupie was planning a wedding of his own?"

"No, no. Of course not," Giles told her. "I... I just wanted to... Oh, Buffy. I wanted to tell you from the start. But I couldn't reach you. I asked Dawn to keep it to herself. It'snot something I wanted you to learn second-hand. It wasn't planned."

"The baby or the wedding?" Buffy wanted to know.

"Oh, the wedding's been planned for awhile," Anya smiled. "The Troika has done a wonderful job. Andrew found me the most excellent caterer. And Jonathan is just amazing at pulling together the music! Warren has the old firehouse booked. You know the one that overlooks Lake Dale? It's absolutely beautiful at dusk!"

"And the baby?" Buffy asked.

"The baby just kind of took us by surprise," Giles admitted. "But it is a truly blessed surprise."

Buffy watched as he met Anya's eyes and smiled warmly into them. It was very apparent that they were very much in love. But when had this happened?

"What... When, Giles?" Buffy wanted to know.

Her mother had been dead for three years. She had no idea that Giles had moved on. Had it been while she was so wrapped up in Angel's care?

"Anya and I had a working relationship," Giles told the girls. "As you know, she owns half of this store. After Joyce... After your mother died, she was a wonderful friend. Even before her wedding to Xander was called off. Sure she can be crass and bold and sometimes a bit on the lewd side..."

"Hey!" Anya scowled.

"But she's also charming, intelligent, vibrant and beautiful. She is wise beyond her years. She was there for me when I needed comfort and when I needed someone to tell me the truth," Giles continued. "When I thought I couldn't crawl any further into my bottle of scotch, Anya took it from my hands and smacked me over the head with it. Figuratively, of course. But she made me stop feeling sorry for myself. She taught me that life isn't bliss, it's just living."

"And you fell in love?" Willow smiled, reaching for Tara's hand.

"And, so we did. We fell in love," Giles told her bestowing a warm smile on her.

"So, why are you here?" Anya asked. "Not that Rupert and I aren't overjoyed to see you all. There must be something that brought you here."

Buffy nodded.

"Does it have anything to do with pouty pants over there in the corner?"

Buffy's eyebrows furrowed as she turned to where Anya was looking. She was looking directly at William.

"You can see him?" Buffy asked.

"She can see me?" William echoed.

"Of course I can see you," Anya said, looking at them both like they'd grown another head. "You look wonderful. Death becomes you, William."

William's jaw dropped when he realized that not only could she see him, but she could hear him, too.

"How is it possible that she can see and hear me and the others can not?" He wanted to know.

"It's the whole pregnancy things. Throws off all of a woman's chemicals. We've got a keener sense of smell, our eyesight is sharper and our hearing is incredible. It makes sense that our sense of the paranormal is heightened as well. And I can't even begin to tell you about our sex drive! I thought that Rupert gave incredible orgasms before! Now, it's just unreal! I mean--"

"Anya, darling, I do believe they get the picture," Giles interrupted, embarrassed by his fiancee's bawdiness once again.

"So what brings you to the land of the living?" Anya wanted to know.

"That's exactly what we're trying to suss out right now," Giles told her.

Anya looked around the table at the girls and Giles and then turned her eyes back to William.

"Well, it's fairly obvious, don't you think, Rupert?" She asked.

Giles shook his head, not knowing what Anya was talking about, which wasn't unusual.

"He's stuck between two planes -- two dimensions, if you will. Before he can move forward, he must perform a final deed in this purgatorial dimension."

"Purgatorial?" Willow asked, skeptically.

"Purgatorial," Anya affirmed with a quick nod of her head. "What? You thought this was the best it gets? All this world is meant to be is a waiting room between Heaven and Hell. How you live your days out here decides which way you'll go. It seems that William here is on the fence. Figure out this final deed and carry it out and you'll have your first class ticket through the Pearly Gates. But if you don't..." She made devil's horns of her fingers and perched them atop her head.

"Oddly enough, that makes perfect sense," Giles told her, astonished at his fiancee's insight. "But how long does he have to complete the deed?"

Anya shrugged.

"What? I'm supposed to know everything? Probably the same amount of time that the Powers That Be had to create this whole debacle of a universe," she supposed. "Seven days and seven nights. I mean, it is used over 700 times in the Bible, so that would make some smidgen of sense. You know... Seven churches, seven spirits, seven trumpets... It's used 54 times in the Book of Revelations alone. When Israel took the city of Jericho, God told them to march around the city seven times. Job had seven sons."

They all stared at her with their mouths open, even William.

"Even Prince got the whole seven thing," Anya continued casually.

"Where does she come up with this stuff?" Buffy asked, amazed at the knowledge that poured out of Anya's usually obscene mouth.

"She's right, Pet," William said, remembering Bible verses and the significance of seven. "She's bloody right."

"Of course I'm right," Anya said with a self-satisfied grin. "So... How long have you been harrassing Buffy?"

"He showed up at my apartment last night," she answered for him.

"One night down and half a day," Anya told them before turning back to William. "Looks like you've got a lot of work to do, William. You're off to a great start, by the way."