Giles had cleaned himself up while Buffy cleaned the kitchen for lack of any thing else to do. She was nearly as comfortable in his house as she was at home, but nothing compared to the feeling when at Angel's apartment. They might not be able to do anything together, but it still felt like home to her. When Giles came downstairs wearing fresh clothes and a nice smell, she abandoned the last of the washing up and came to sit on the sofa with him, a cup of tea for the man in one hand and a plate of biscuits for herself in the other. They were all for her – he couldn't have any because he was a grown up, she reasoned.

"Now, what is it that you need my help for, Buffy?"

"Well, it's just basic life stuff really. Stuff that" she halted for a moment, "Mum would have done, but …"

"I understand. What is it you need?"

"Well, I can't afford to keep us in that house anymore, and any job that I get just wouldn't pay for it – we have an extra bedroom now anyway. I still have college to pay for, even though I clearly can't stay on campus anymore, and I don't even know if I can get that money back, and … Giles! Help me!"

The man in question sighed deeply. He wished she didn't have to go through this, he really did. Wasn't it enough that this innocent girl had to be more grown up than she should already, to add insult to injury, now she had to be financially stable to look after a teenager. Life was just not fair. But then, they knew that already.

"Buffy, I am not for one moment suggesting that you are incapable of looking after dawn, but perhaps it would be best if she stayed with me? You can sell your house and put your things in storage – use the mansion perhaps, I know angelus bought it – and then you wont lose the money from school, and will still be able to look out for dawn, and in my eyes you would still be responsible for her – I would just be babysitting semi-permanently until a better solution can found."

"For real?"

"For real. Why don't you discuss this with dawn today, when she returns hom from school, and then we'll talk again."

Buffy stood and practically leapt at him.

"Thank you … Dad."

This is too short even for me, but I just wanted to get all of it out of the way. Now, hopefully, I can get on with the actual story. I'm going to replace chapter 39 too, and do it a bit differently, but that is a thing on the side, so might never actually get done.