Abryxis- thank you for the review- you're becoming a regular here- I like it. hehe.

g120- gotta love the way your wordage. 'Even more awesome-ific writing for us lowly mortals!'. I think my ego's all beamy with delight. So glad you're likin this story so much- gives me a happy. heehee :-).Thanks for review

zigpal- thanks for review, claps, and compliments. And I totally agree with you on it being good thang that the scoobies didn't walk in to witness some sexcapades. That would have been like can open...worms EVERYWHERE. haha.

rabidreject-thanks for review and yes- the fang gang will be coming to sunnydale for the wedding. It's just a shame it'll be season 2 Angel Investigations...because, I would have really loved to have had Fred visit Sunnydale. Maybe she will in the future...who knows? Hehe.

A/N: This story happens before the events of Crush, as the episode of Crush itself would remain, I think, mostly unchanged.

Also, as this is quite a long chapter, I thought it would take pretty much a big period of time for me to write it so I've decided to split it into three parts (or possibly four...) so as to minimize the waitage.

"Oh god, I'm sorry Tara, I really didn't mean to- oh I'm sorry, let me erm- get a towel," Joyce apologized profusely after knocking over a small bag of flour near Tara, her temporary kitchen helper. The flour inside the bag had floated up on impact and clouded over the front of Tara's top and a little on her cheek. "Erm, here you go," Joyce handed Tara a clean towel, "Sorry, it's just I'm all over the place today…" She laughed at herself, "I'm just so nervous,"

"It's okay," Tara assured her once all the flour was gone, "And it's understandable to be so nervous. I mean you are meeting your future in-laws for the first time,"

"Oh it's not them I'm worried about," Joyce immediately corrected her as she cleared up the rest of the ingredients they didn't need and Tara frowned in confusion, "Oh I mean I am a little nervous about meeting them obviously, but it's my Mom that's making me the worse. Around her…. I just turn into a teenager again. She makes me so nervous like I feel she expects me to slip up any minute," As she paused in her rushing around the kitchen Tara saw properly for the first time the complete and utter worry in Joyce's eyes, "And I just know she'll find anything she possibly can that is wrong about Rupert…. even down to his hair…his clothes…the way he walks. Anything."

"I'm sure it's not that bad…." Tara reasoned quietly, as she helped clear up what was no longer needed as well.

"Oh it is," Joyce told her firmly before smiling gratefully, "I can't tell you how grateful I am for your help here. I never usually need help baking cake…. but I really do today," Joyce laughed, "So thank you"

"It's no problem, really," Tara told her as she blushed at the compliment and thanks, "Should we melt the rest of the chocolate now? For the topping?" Tara suggested. They'd already used half the chocolate in the fridge to make the one chocolate sponge layer on the cake, the other layer being just plain sponge with butter cream dividing the two and now the cake, when it was finally finished baking would require a melted chocolate topping to complete the thing.

"Yes, actually, we uh should," Joyce agreed, "Would you mind getting the other bars out of the fridge? I think there's one left,"

Tara nodded and opened the fridge to find the remains of the foil bars of chocolate lying on the second shelf in the fridge. There had original been two and a half but the half and one of the whole ones had been used to make the one layer of sponge on the cake it's chocolately self. Tara reached in to retrieve the remaining bar. As she closed the fridge door with her hip she started to unwrap the foil cover, which had a slight piece of the original outer wrapping on it. Purple by the looks of it. Tara screwed up the paper and seeing the bin was full, threw the rubbish on the kitchen side near the sink temporarily.

"When you guys said you were gonna be hanging around for the Days of Our Lives special you weren't kidding were you?" Buffy looked around at her friends as they sat together in her bedroom. Buffy was lay out comfortably on her bed, Willow was propped up against the side of the bed, next to Tara and Xander sat comfortably on the mattress beside Buffy. She smiled as she enjoyed the quiet, fun, non-slayery moment. She couldn't remember doing this since she was seventeen.

"We are all here and waiting to witness Giles being mollycoddled by the rest of his stiff upper lip family," Xander grinned cheerily, clearly look forward to the prospect.

"Well if you're here then where's Anya?" Willow asked, looking up in Xander's direction.

"What? You think she doesn't let me go places by myself?" Xander asked, sounding insulted, "That just because I'm here, she should automatically be here too? You know, I do have a life separate from Anya you know"

"She stayed behind to look after the store, huh?" Buffy guessed and Xander gave in easily.

"Yeah, she's back at the shop making sure it stays open for business"

"Hey, can I come in here?" Dawn asked tentatively as she stood in the doorway watching the group and they all looked over in her direction.

"Why…?" Buffy asked, squinting at her sister suspiciously.

"It's just Mom's pretty antsy downstairs- pacing and such…and well, if I hear Giles mutter," She put on a fake British accent, "'Oh Lord' one more time I may implode"

"They're just a little nervous sweetie," Tara assured her, beckoning with her hand for her to come and sit beside her and Willow on the floor and Dawn did so.

"Well I wish they'd all get over the nervy part all ready and get on with it." Dawn looked at Tara in earnest, "Is antsyness contagious?"

"No," Willow laughed, "Why?"

"Because I think I caught it off Mom,"

A knock at the door prevented any reply and cut off their laughs and they all looked at each other silently. Then suddenly, in complete and utter synchronization they all bounded out of their places, ran out the door and down the stairs just in time to see Joyce pulling open the front door.

"Mom, hi," Joyce greeted the woman at the door with a smile as she gave her a quick hug before letting her in. Arlene, Peter and their twelve-year-old daughter, Karla, closely followed her. "Arlene, Peter…" More hugs. She then turned to her twelve year old niece who happily ran up to her, "Little Kaz"

"Aunty Joyce!" As the twelve year old ran into her, Joyce was shocked a little by the impact- she was a lot heavier than she was when she was seven after all- but it didn't knock her over like it used to when she was caught off guard.

"You must be getting used to that," Arlene commented, "That used to knock you over- either little Kaz here is getting weaker or you've developed some strength suddenly"

"Practice makes perfect," Joyce laughed lightly, making a joke of the whole thing as Karla ran over to Dawn and Buffy. Arlene and Peter also walked over to see their nieces but Joyce's Mom, Grace stayed where she was beside her youngest daughter, waiting for her husband, Michael to catch up with the rest of them. Eventually, he walked through the door and closed it behind him.

"Joyce," He smiled cheerfully giving her a warm hug, before catching sight of his granddaughters over her shoulder, "Buffy and Dawn- look at the two of you all grown up." As he walked over to give them a hug Arlene, Peter and Karla went to take a seat in a dining room for a moment out of the way of the others.

"And who are you three?" Mike asked, looking at Buffy's friends.

"Oh erm, these are my friends," Buffy explained, "Xander, Willow and Tara."

"Hey," Xander greeted Buffy's grandfather while Willow said Hi cheerfully and Tara mumbled a polite and sweet shy 'hello'.

Grace wanted to go over to see her granddaughters but first she wanted to see what her future son-in-law actually looked like. She'd only found out about him at all a couple of months ago over the phone. She knew most things that were going on in Arlene's life, ever since the two sisters were little kids; Grace had been able to read her like a book. But Joyce had never been that easy. She'd never been able to tell what she was thinking; she was always out at all hours when she was a teenager and went through a rebellion that Arlene never did. And apparently some things didn't change.

"So where is he?" Grace asked straightforwardly.

"Where, who- oooh," Joyce said in realization and she pointed behind her Mother, "He's erm been behind you for the past five minutes. You've kinda…. been doing the oblivious ignoring thing"

"Oh," Grace said simply, not sounding the least bit embarrassed as she turned to look at Giles taking in every detail slowly.

"Mrs Taylor," Giles greeted and he held out his hand and Grace shook it.

"Grace," She corrected him automatically which he took to be a good sign, "And you must be the, uh, Rupert Giles Joyce has told me practically nothing about"

She took her hand away from Giles to look at her daughter again.

"And I mean every word of that Joyce. I didn't even know you were even seeing anyone till your sister mentioned it."

"Mom I-"

"And then next thing I know I've got a phone call from you saying you're getting married. It's one thing to be out of the loop Joyce, but this is ridiculous," Grace complained, "I thought you'd gotten over keeping all these secrets from me when you stopped being a teenager"

"What?" Joyce asked in shock, "I'm not keeping secret- wait, I'm not acting like a teenager."

"Well, it's all very secretive either way," Grace concluded as she began to head in the direction of the kitchen, "And at forty-three- forty-four nearly in fact- I thought you'd have more sense than to get married all over again…"

"Mom…" Joyce complained patiently, hot on the heels of her Mother, them both heading into the kitchen as their conversation drifted out of earshot of the rest of the group.

"She wasn't kidding when she said her Mom makes her feel like a teenager again," Tara commented quietly to Willow.

"Don't worry about Grace," Mike assured Giles as he walked over, "She's always like that. As long as you don't plan on treating Joyce like Hank did then you've already got a head start"

"I assuming your family don't share your views on tardiness as being the eight deadly sin," Buffy said to Giles after glancing at the clock once again. They were all in the living room- Joyce and Giles on the sofa with Buffy sat lounging on the end seat. Karla and Dawn were sat on the floor, looking bored, on opposite sides of the coffee table. Willow and Tara were sharing one of the large chairs, as were Arlene and Peter. Grace got a chair to herself and Mike and Xander stood near the fireplace, claiming they were both happy seatless. It had been half an hour since the Taylors had arrived, but the Giles family were still yet to show.

"Oh this isn't late," Giles assured her.

"It's not?" Dawn checked.

"Sure feels like late to me," Buffy concluded taking another look at the clock on the mantelpiece before checking the time against her own wristwatch.

"No, this isn't them being late, it's them taking their own time" Giles informed them, knowing his family all too well.

"Well, can't they take their own time on their own time?" Xander asked, "We're getting impatient here G-man"

"Years ago I told you not to call me that," Giles told him, "And the rule still stands"

A knock at the door and the room fell silent, at least the Scooby part of the room anyway. Grace carried on talking to Mike and Arlene carried on chatting to Peter, but when the four of them realized that a silence had fell over the room, they quietened down as well. Giles was the first to move as he headed to the door, a slight look of determination on his face as though he was making sure he wasn't going to allow everything to go to hell with the arrival of his family. He had no idea how they were going to get on with Joyce's parents and sisters and co. As he didn't look back, he felt, rather than saw, Joyce follow him to the front door.

"Couldn't find the blasted place could we?" Was the first thing Joyce heard as Giles opened the door and as she took in the figure on the doorstep, someone about eight years older than Giles and while their hair was similar, though the man on the doorstep's was a lot thinner, and their stance was also almost mirrored, their eyes were the one strong difference. When Joyce looked into Giles' eyes she saw warm green shades that always seemed to reflect the sweet, gentle side of his nature but were forever changing with each mood. The stranger in front of her had dark brown eyes, so dark that it was difficult to define the black pupils within them. This was clearly Giles' older brother, Brian.

The two looked at each other, not knowing how to greet each other after not having seen each other for years. They settled for a handshake, and as they shook hands Joyce saw the others, from the corner of her eye, start to head over to have a better look. By others that was Buffy, Xander and Willow. Dawn looked interested but she seemed to be keeping a safe distance by staying beside Karla on the floor and Tara was choosing to be polite and stay in her seat that she had moments ago been sharing with Willow.

"So, this the ah girl then eh?" Brian asked, looking over at Joyce and she smiled pleasantly at him. A smile he thankfully returned before suddenly drawing her into a random, friendly, unexpected bear hug that threw Joyce off. This was not something she had been predicting. As she was being hugged, she saw over Brian's shoulder a woman heading up the path in a black-and-white tailored and beautifully designed suit that had to be a designer label- along with the perfectly smooth and flicked light brown hair and just as designer black and white heeled shoes, the woman could give Deborah Kerr a run for her money.

"Don't worry about him," She assured Joyce catching her future sister-in-law's look as she walked to the front door. Her accent was even more upper class than Giles' and although she said everything in a very clipped tone, her voice was fairly soft, "He's always like that, always has been I'm afraid. Startles you quite a bit at first but you get used to it after a time." At this point Brian had long broken the hug, much to Joyce's relief, "I'm Jacqueline by the way," the woman introduced herself holding her hand out elegantly to Joyce and they shook hands, "Most call me Jac though, Jacqui at a stretch." She smiled pleasantly at her before turning to look at her younger brother, "Rupert, hi," She gave her brother a quick hug before taking a good look at him, "My you haven't…well, changed a bit have you? You know, I was so pleased when I heard you had joined the council again, it was simply wonderful to hear." She suddenly stopped her cheery smiling to squint at Giles suspiciously, "You're looking a tad tired you know? Actually more than a tad. How much have you been working lately? You can be such a workaholic you know" Giles couldn't help rolling his eyes at the comment.

"See," Xander grinned to Buffy and Willow as they watched the scene play out in front of them, "Mollycoddled"

"It's a whole other side to Giles I never thought existed," Willow thought aloud.

"It's freaky," Buffy concluded as Dawn headed over to join them.

"So how are the Gileseseses….?" Dawn asked, trailing off as she struggled to say the plural.

"So far, so odd," Buffy admitted as she waited for more to come through the door. The next to walk through was a boy who looked to be exactly Dawn's age. He was fairly tall, but not at all lanky, dark hair not unlike Giles' (This apparently being a trademark for all the men in Giles' family that had been seen so far,) and although his eyes were blue and not at all like his Mom's (Who Buffy assumed to be the sister, Jacqueline as Giles had said only one teen was coming along) who had the same eyes as Giles, he had a smile on his face that had a striking familiarity that Buffy couldn't ignore. She also couldn't ignore the look her younger sister was giving him. "Were you just checking him out?"

"No," Dawn automatically denied, perhaps a little too quickly.

"You were," Buffy insisted in shock, "You were checking out Giles' nephew"

"What?" Willow asked, tuning into that part of the conversation, her eyes wide in surprise.

"Did I just step into a complicated soap opera and not realize?" Xander asked everyone as he tuned into Buffy and Dawn's conversation also.

"No, you didn't," Dawn insisted urgently, "Buffy's just being stupid. As usual"

"I have problems with that statement," Buffy told her, "On two counts." The group then returned to watching the rest of the Gileses trail in. It was a weird sight to see. Giles with family? A completely new and unheard of notion.

"So…" Joyce said, hiding her nervousness as she looked at the fourteen-year-old boy, "You must be…Ted? Jacqueline's son?"

"Yeah, yeah I am," Ted smiled, looking past Joyce to look at Buffy, Dawn, Xander and Willow. "Who's that?"

"Edward," Jac reprimanded his abrupt tone, but Joyce told her it was perfectly okay.

"Well, this is erm, my daughter Buffy-"

"The Slayer right?" Ted checked suddenly and Joyce nodded.

"Uh, yes…and these are her friends Xander and Willow and that's my other daughter Dawn."

"Dawn?"

"Mm-hmm" Once Joyce confirmed this Ted walked over to the group for better introductions.

Then through the door, came another man, this one the same age as Jac (ish) and looked nothing like the rest of the Giles family. Sandy blonde hair that was just starting to lose it color and the very same blue eyes as Ted, this was clearly Ted's Father and Jac's husband. The one member in the entire group who wasn't actually a Giles. He stood there for a moment, nameless before Jac realized that only Giles had ever met him before.

"Oh, dreadfully sorry. This is ah my husband, Harvey" Jac looked at her husband, "Where's Dad? I thought he was walking up with you?"

"I was," An until-now-unheard voice said and Joyce looked to see who could only be Giles' Father. Joyce could immediately tell it was Giles' Dad, even if the similarities weren't major. The huge difference though was that this man clearly was an orthodox Watcher and eagerly followed in Travers' footsteps. Also the look he gave as he looked around the entire home and the people in it could only be described as 'snooty'. "You must be Joyce," He commented.

"I must," Joyce, agreed, "Hi"

Edward Giles just looked at Joyce silently, nodding slightly to acknowledge the 'hi' before walking on further into the house to have a look at the entire home, it's contents and the people in it. Joyce looked at Giles inquisitively and he gave her an apologetic look in return as the rest of the family walked further into the house too and Joyce closed the door behind them.

"Uh- hey," Buffy one-wordedly and abruptly stopped Edward's inspection with a hand on his arm that brought him to a stand still, "Can we stop with the health inspection?"

"Buffy, I presume," Edward guessed, taking note of her strong grip.

"You'd presume right now could we stop with the pacey-pacey?" She asked just as her Grandparents walked up behind her.

"Oh you must be Rupert's Father," Grace said pleasantly holding her hand out for Edward to shake. He didn't, but instead held his own hand out to Mike and Mike shook it, a flicker of confusion crossing his eyes.

"Edward Giles," He greeted Mike amiably.

"Michael Taylor," Mike replied, "And this is my wife, Grace, we're uh Joyce's parents."

"It's official." Joyce murmured to Giles, "I'm back at the night of my High School Prom. Any moment now they'll start retelling embarrassing tales from my childhood,"

"It is rather a déjà vu of sorts isn't it?" Giles agreed, with a laugh that sounded less amused than he intended it to as he watched his Father warily.

"Well I have to say, Rupert all this is a bit of a shock," Brian commented after introducing himself to Arlene and Peter, "You always said you'd never marry…. and well, to an American as well. Well, it's twice the shock isn't it?"

"Why does everyone seem to make that comment?" Joyce asked in exasperation, feeling slightly irritated, "What is wrong exactly with being American?"

"Nothing really," Brian hurried told her in response to her challenging tone. He didn't want to get into an argument at the 'reunion' anyway, but considering this Joyce was dating his younger brother he could only assume, and correctly most likely, that she was the rough and tumble type that he always seemed to attract and so starting a fight or argument with her was not on Brian's to-do list, "Just stereotyping I suppose,"

"Yes…." Joyce agreed, sounding thoroughly unconvinced and eventually opted to change the subject, "Why don't we all head into the living room? It's a little pushed for space but it's better than hanging out here in the hall isn't it?"

The entire group mutually, yet silently agreed as they trailed into the relatively-small-considering-the-circumstances living room.

"So, erm…." Grace apparently struggled for a conversation starter as the two families looked at each other inquisitively. The only ones seemingly oblivious to the awkwardness were Dawn and Ted in the far side of the room as the two of them chatted together, clearing getting on well with one another, "What do you do for a living?" She finally decided to ask, aiming the question at all the adults of the Giles family but her gaze was on Edward as though she was expecting him to answer for all of them.

"Well, I wouldn't call it so much a living as a calling…" Edward reasoned, "But we are all in the same, ah, 'business' as Rupert of course. Except, well, except for Brian"

Grace and the other members of the Taylor family looked completely perplexed.

"A calling?" Arlene repeated, not viewing the job of 'Librarian' as anything like a calling.

"Yes," Buffy readily agreed, "They all take their work very seriously. Generation after generation of…. Librarians…in the family" As it came out of her mouth; she realized how ridiculous it all sounded. She just hoped they'd be convinced.

"What in the devil are you talking about, girl?" Edward asked Buffy and she looked at him wide-eyed, urging him to get the point that her Mom's family didn't know the slayer-watcher deal. Thankfully he seemed to get the point…but not to the extent where he knew to keep his mouth firmly shut, "Well this is marvellous Rupert," He commented sarcastically, "Marrying into a family that doesn't even know the truth of it all?" He laughed sharply at the situation, "'Complications' I don't believe quite covers it, does it?"

"What? What do you mean?" Grace asked, even more confused than before. She turned to her husband as though he might have the answers through deciphering some male code, "Michael, what's he talking about?"

"I'm assuming she knows at least," Edward carried on, pointing in the direction of Joyce.

"Yes, 'She' does," Joyce, told him, sounding very annoyed, "And who's 'she'? The cat's mother?"

Edward looked affronted by the woman's downright head-on confrontation to his choice of words.

"What truth?" Arlene asked her sister, "Is this about the school blowing up?"

Joyce merely frowned in reply- where on earth had her sister come up with that connection? She looked around and saw how everything was going to fall apart rapidly if she didn't do something very, very soon. She stood up and luckily this seemed to make the majority of them silent as they turned to look at her.

"Who wants chocolate cake?" She asked pleasantly, a smile plastered on her face, before she caught Tara's eye and threw her a genuine smile of thanks.