It was close to 7 p.m. the following evening when Giles' car stopped in front of 1630 Revello Drive. Inside the car Giles and Rowan shared a brief look as they spotted a black van with tinted windows and federal plates parked on the opposite side of the street.

They stayed in the car for a minute, but when nothing happened, stepped out and slowly walked to the front door. No one came to stop or otherwise hinder them.

The door was slightly ajar, but Giles still politely knocked on it before entering.

"Who is it?" they heard Joyce's voice from the general direction of the dining room. "Oh, hello Rupert and..."

It was evident from Joyce's shocked expression that Buffy hadn't keyed her in on the fact that Rowan was back in Sunnydale.

"Hello, Joyce," Rowan greeted her with a warm smile. It really was good to see her.

"Buffy, you...," Joyce practically spluttered, and only then did Giles and Rowan notice that Buffy and, surprisingly, Riley were sitting in the living room with Buffy holding a hand over her mouth to stop her from giggling at the look on Joyce's face.

Joyce gave her daughter a stern frown but then her demeanour softened noticeably. "Come here," she beckoned to Rowan. "Let me have a look at you."

Knowing that any resistance was futile, Rowan stepped over and let himself be subjected to Joyce's intense scrutiny.

"Mom's quite taken with him," Buffy whispered to Riley who had raised a questioning eyebrow at Joyce's antics and then smiled as Giles approached them.

"Buffy, Riley," Giles greeted them. "I take it that the vehicle outside is somehow connected to your presence here," he addressed Riley.

"They are taking me to a debriefing shortly," Riley answered as he shook Giles' hand. "They are not gonna disappear me or apparently try to pin anything on me," he continued as they sat down. "Graham told me that he and everyone he has talked to have already testified or will soon be testifying I'm the reason they're still alive. I might actually get out of this with an honourable discharge."

"In return for your silence, no doubt," Giles scoffed. How typical of the military and intelligence communities to sweep anything potentially embarrassing under the rug.

"Oh yeah," Riley nodded. "Having the inside scoop on the administration's own Bay of Mutated Pigs is definitely an advantage," he chuckled.

"Captain Cardboard blackmailing the US government?" Rowan asked wryly as he sat down next to Giles, having survived Joyce's enthusiastic homecoming greeting. "Will wonders never cease?"

"Rowan, that was...," Buffy objected out of habit.

"It's ok, Buffy," Riley cut in, not really insulted. Having some harmless fun made at his expense was a small price to pay for still having most of his men alive. "I guess that compared to... some of the more colourful characters in your group, I am somewhat... stiff."

He was left with his mouth hanging open as first Rowan, then Giles and finally Buffy broke down in helpless laughter. It took him a while to realise their reason for mirth, but eventually red spots appeared on his cheeks, and he grimaced apologetically to Buffy.

A short honk from outside interrupted what could have blossomed into a very interesting discussion.

"That's my cue," Riley clapped his thighs and stood up. "Wish I could have stayed longer, but... give you a call when it's over?" he asked Buffy hopefully.

Buffy nodded affirmatively at the suggestion and followed him up. Before turning to leave, Riley, still somewhat hesitantly, addressed the seated Giles and Rowan.

"Um... I guess thanks are in order," he started. "I owe you guys a lot, and I hope that we can let bygones be bygones."

"I'm not sure if there was a real apology hidden somewhere in there," Rowan mused but there was an amused glint in his eyes. "Anyway, accepted... Riley."

Nodding in understanding, Riley headed for the door with Buffy, leaving Giles shaking in suppressed laughter.

"What?" Rowan asked innocently.

"You didn't offer him the 'no debts between us' deal," Giles reminded him, wiping his eyes.

"I wouldn't dream of doing that," Rowan chuckled. "Buffy certainly knows the deal, and I'm sure she'll keep on reminding him of that whenever appropriate."

A minute after Riley and Buffy had exchanged a few final words with Joyce and stepped outside to say their own goodbyes to each other, the quartet consisting of Willow, Tara, Xander and Anya entered the house.

"Hey, where's the party?!" Xander exclaimed enthusiastically as a greeting, brandishing two massive bags of chips and pretzels in his hands.

"Right here," Joyce answered from behind him and deftly snatched the dangling bags from his grasp. "Thank you, Xander. That was very considerate of you."

"No problem, Mrs Summers," Xander grinned. "Only the best for the Slayer Mom."

Joyce decided to let the comment lie and turned her attention to Willow and the pretty blonde who had come in with her. "Hi, Willow," she greeted the redhead warmly. "Who's your friend?"

"Mrs Summers, this is Tara Maclay, my girlfriend." Willow made the introduction. "Tara, this is Joyce Summers, Buffy's mom."

Being quite familiar with the goings on in the art world, bi or gay people were practically an everyday occurrence to Joyce, so Willow's revelation didn't raise any particular flags in her. Besides, during her own college days, she had had a few occasions herself to satisfy her then budding bi-curiosity, so who was she to judge.

"Hello, Tara," she greeted the somewhat shy-looking girl. "It's lovely to meet you. Willow's almost like an honorary daughter to me, so I hope we'll get to know each other well."

"Th-thank you, Mrs Summers," Tara answered with a smile. "I'd really like that."

"Help yourselves to everything that's on the table," Joyce indicated with a nod in the direction of the dining room. "I'll be out of your way in a minute, so you can have a fun evening just for yourselves."

"You won't be joining us?" Xander asked partly in excitement and partly regretfully.

"No," Joyce laughed briefly. "I'll be at a book club meeting the whole evening and I've already arranged to stay the night."

"See?" Buffy asked chirpily having just come inside again. "Isn't she the greatest Mom in the world?"

Seven pairs of eyes followed Joyce to the Jeep through the living room window. Once the car was out of sight, there was a generic sigh of relief despite the overall high esteem in which everyone held Buffy's mother.

"Ok, where are they?" Xander queried, clapping his hands together in anticipation.

"Still in the trunk of Rupert's car," Rowan answered helpfully.

Needing no further prompting, Xander practically sprinted out of the door to where the car was parked followed by Buffy and Giles.

A case of beer, wine coolers, three bottles of sparkling wine, two bottles of red wine, two bottles of white wine and a fifth of vodka plus orange and tomato juice cartons, Xander made an initial inventory check. Now the party could start.

The sparkling wine was still cold, so they started the party proper with a toast to the Chosen Two despite Buffy's slightly embarrassed, "Nooo... come on, guys."

After that the party transitioned into an informal celebration on their recent victory without any ceremony or agenda. Music was playing softly in the background, small groups of discussion formed and dissolved casually, and lots of drinks were consumed.

Buffy spent initially a lot of time in Willow and Tara's company, finally getting to know her best friend's girlfriend better. Tara might be shy in public, but it became quickly apparent that in familiar surroundings she had a great sense of humour, a very sweet and gentle nature and an overall personality that just complemented Willow's perfectly.

"... and then there was this one time Willow started cyber-dating a demon," Buffy giggled with a wine-cooler in her hand. "What was his name... Mollusc or something like that?"

"Oh, yeah... Moloch," Willow chuckled at the memory with a shake of her head. "Not one of my finest hours. Which reminds me of a Slayer we all know who this one Halloween reverted into a helpless 18th century girl and fainted at the sight of a car."

"Willow!" Buffy nearly choked on her drink. "I didn't faint. And if I did, it was all Ethan Rayne's fault."

"And what did you revert into, sweetie?" Tara asked innocently.

"Oh, she originally had this black mini-... mmmpf," Buffy started with a wicked grin but was cut off by Willow hastily clamping her hand over the Slayer's mouth.

"Mm-hmm?" Tara mused speculatively. "And does this black mini-mmmpf still exist?"

"Oh, look, my glass is empty," Willow deadpanned after having downed the remains of her white wine in one gulp. "Let's have a top-up, shall we?"

The details of her original costume – still on an extended loan without an expiration date and carefully stored away – would have to wait for her and Tara to be alone, very much alone.

Rowan was fixing himself a Bloody Mary in the kitchen when he heard the sound of impatient foot-tapping from behind him. "Oh, it's you," he commented idly, seeing Anya standing in the doorway with her arms crossed, and returned to his task.

"Aren't you going to ask me what I want?" Anya snapped irritably.

"If it's a drink, they are readily available just behind you," Rowan answered without turning around.

Only silence followed until he had his drink ready. He hopped up to sit on the counter and took an unhurried drink from his glass.

"Ok, I'll bite," he nodded, setting the drink down. "What do you want?"

Several conflicting emotions flashed through Anya's face as she searched for the best way to respond to the question.

"You helped keep my Xander safe," she blurted out eventually.

"I didn't do it for you, believe me," Rowan snorted. "In fact, that was quite probably the furthest thing from my mind during the fight."

"Arrrgh!" Anya groaned and threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "Can't you see I'm trying to thank you, idiot?"

"Huh?" Rowan raised an eyebrow. "Maybe the explosions down there damaged my hearing, but I've yet to hear anything even resembling gratitude."

"Hey! I'm trying," Anya retorted angrily.

"And that's exactly where the issue lies," Rowan nodded in satisfaction and jumped down from the counter. "You were a human once and then became a vengeance demon. Now that you're human again, you hide behind a façade of apparent cluelessness as it comes to actually being human."

"And what would you know about it?" Anya demanded, crossing her arms. "You have everything a human could possibly desire, so what gives you the right to stand there looking like you do and judge me?"

"Oookay," Xander drawled uncertainly as he entered the kitchen. "What's going on here?"

"Just reinforcing our mutual dislike, Xander," Rowan answered evenly, but to Anya's surprise actually winked at her. "It's a demon thing. Right, Anya?"

"Huh?" Anya blinked. "Oh, yeah, a demon thing. Definitely. You know... me being an ex and all."

"How about a drink, ex-Anya?" Rowan grinned slyly.

"Ok."

They had what could be called an "armistice drink" – actual peace was still a long way ahead. When Rowan left the couple to seek the company of Willow and Tara for a change, he couldn't avoid overhearing the hushed dialogue between Anya and Xander from behind him.

"If you just exercised a little and wore more fitting clothes, it would really raise your esteem in my eyes."

"Anya, I hope you just didn't suggest I check Rowan out."

"Why not?" Anya asked in actual surprise. "He might be absolutely intolerable, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he has a very nice..."

The sound of Xander opening a beer can mercifully drowned out the rest of Anya's comment.

Tara was sitting on the couch, alone for now, feeling very much lightheaded. Willow and Buffy had just moments ago adjourned to Buffy's old room for some BFF bonding after she had told Willow that she would be very cross if the redhead didn't take her best friend duties more seriously.

The overall acceptance that the Scooby gang had shown her was the main reason for her current euphoria – of course the drinks she had already consumed might also have played some small part.

"Hey," she snapped in gentle admonishment as Rowan jumped over the armrest to sit on the couch next to her, almost making her spill her wine.

"A thousand apologies, Ms Maclay," Rowan offered lavishly. "I saw the best place in the party suddenly being vacant and lost all reason in my rush to claim it."

"Smooth," Tara giggled. "Testing your charms on a lone lesbian girl?"

"Is it working?"

"It's a bit early to say," Tara mused as if in deep thought. "Why don't you bring me another drink and we'll see what happens."

"Anything in particular?"

"Sparkling, please," Tara smiled.

"Coming right up."

Giles was very much enjoying himself, though not actually participating in most of the activities the young folk thought up – and yes, he firmly counted Rowan as part of that group. Being over eighty, but belonging to a long-lived race, his overall habits were much closer to a rascally teenager than an adult of his years. And it seemed that the more the Lehaïr spent in the company of the younger Scoobies the more he really acted like them.

Tara was a delightful addition to their group, and it was heart-warming to see how eagerly everyone was welcoming the girl in their midst. Even the normally quite insensitive and somewhat anti-social Anya seemed to have a soft spot for the shy Witch. It was obvious Willow was very much head-over-heels in love with Tara, and the blonde girl seemed to return the feelings just as clearly.

Willow had had maybe the roughest year so far of all the Scoobies. Having had to come to terms with the death of his boyfriend, suffering from panic attacks and then developing a somewhat excessive dependency on marijuana had really taken a toll on the girl. He still remembered his promise to take a more active role in her magical training, which he very much intended to do now that the Adam threat had been dealt with and there hopefully wasn't anything major bubbling around the Hellmouth still this "season".

Willow had a huge potential, something that she needed to be eased into. But now that she had an apparently very adept white Witch as a girlfriend, he was positive that with Rowan's additional assistance Willow's progress could be made to follow her growth as a person.

Wandering around a bit with a drink in his hand, he heard the hushed voices of Buffy and Willow coming from his Slayer's room. Despite Buffy's self-reliance and obvious independence, he still very much regarded her as his Slayer – a sentiment that wasn't going to go away any time soon, maybe not ever.

A quick peek into the kitchen revealed Xander and Anya practically wrapped around each other, evidently attempting to very much devour each other's faces. In the living room Rowan had just brought Tara and himself bubbling glasses of sparkling wine. The two seemed to have the beginnings of a very playful relationship budding between them. Both were decidedly secure in their own romantic relationships, so they didn't have to pretend and hold back in their interactions. What they resembled the most was perhaps siblings who were openly and deeply fond of each other.

"Why haven't you said anything?" Tara asked quietly, deciding to take the bull by the horns once Rowan had brought her the requested glass of bubbling beverage.

"About what?" her new friend asked in what sounded like genuine perplexment.

"Well, you know...," Tara tried to find the words. This wasn't going the way she had expected. "About me... surely you must have..."

"Tara, I have absolutely no idea what you're trying to say," Rowan cut in with a furrowed brow.

"You don't?" Tara blinked, totally speechless. "I think... I must... Sorry, I think I'll go ask if Willow needs anything."

With that she was out of her seat and half-way to the stairway before Rowan could really process what had just happened. Sparkling wine and Bloody Marys were really not ideal for speeding up one's mental capabilities.

"What was that all about?" Giles asked as he sat down in the spot Tara had just vacated.

"I don't know," Rowan mused quietly. "Seems our sweet Tara has some secrets she doesn't feel we're ready to hear. And for some reason she appears to believe I already know what they are. Curious, very curious."

And so the party went on until the small hours. As the multitudes of cans and bottles were gradually emptied, all cares and worries were forgotten for the present, and giggles and laughter were the dominant voices heard in the Summers' living room over the background music. Jokes, embarrassing revelations from the past, teary confessions of how someone loved everyone present flowed back and forth without restraint.

They were alive and willing to face whatever fate was about to throw their way – together.

A/N: A two-part epilogue to follow.