At five weeks into her pregnancy, Joyce thankfully hasn't had to contend with a whole lot of nausea. As soon as the restaurant brings Giles his shrimp though, things change.

"It's the smell isn't it?" he asks her quickly. At her nod he calls over his shoulder, "Waiter!"

"It's ok, you don't have to…" she protests.

"I'm sorry, could you take this away, and bring me what she has?" Giles asks with a disarming smile. "This had some unforeseen consequences."

The waiter glances at Joyce's pale face, and nods his head. "I've got three children myself," he says by way of understanding.

"I'm sorry," she mutters, as embarrassed by his chivalrous action as by her own illness.

"Think nothing of it." smiles a little bashfully, and tries to remember if Hank ever did anything this nice for her. This has to be first date kindness right? He wouldn't be this great the whole time, would he?

She wants to change the subject, so she asks Giles about the museum that he worked at before he took a job as school librarian. The museum interests her on a professional level, but it is the things that she reads between the lines that interest her on a whole other level. Like the fact that he was reluctant to take the job of Watcher, until he met her daughter. Like the fact that he hated teenagers, apart from the Scooby gang. Like the fact that not all love was romantic, and the way he loved her daughter and her friends was a powerful force that she couldn't help but envy.

Her baby was so lucky to have him a father.

-The Next Morning-

Buffy ends up going on patrol both before and after the Bronze the night before, and the after patrol resulted in her getting caught in a fight which lasted a lot longer than she had anticipated. So it was no surprise that she ended up sleeping in until ten the next morning.

The surprise came when she walked downstairs to the sight of Giles and her mother drinking tea in her kitchen. They are laughing at some joke when she comes downstairs, and she can't actually remember the two of them ever having a conversation with each other, band candy incident excluded.

"What's going on?" she asks suspiciously. They wouldn't have kept any of the band candy would they have?

"We need to speak with you," Giles says seriously, and Buffy slinks into a kitchen chair somehow acutely aware that she is about to have a serious conversation with the two adults who matter most to her while in her pajamas on a Saturday morning.

Giles stands up, and goes over to the stove.

"What are you doing?" Buffy asks.

"I'm making you a cuppa," he explains.

"I don't drink tea," Buffy points out.

"You might want some after we tell you…" Giles pauses and looks at her. "No, I don't suppose tea would help much."

"Ok, you guys are really freaking me out now, can you please tell me what is going on?" Buffy asks with terror in her voice.

"Buffy, we weren't completely honest with you about what happened last month when we were turned into teenagers," Joyce offers.

"We weren't lying so much as neglecting to tell you something we figured you really didn't want to hear," Giles points out.

"You thought you got there soon enough to stop us from doing something foolish. I'm sorry honey, but you weren't fast enough," Joyce says.

"Well, you were right about me really not wanting to hear that," Buffy says standing up, and trying to leave the kitchen.

Giles put a light hand on her arm to stop her. "There is a reason why we're telling you this now."

Buffy's head swims with the truth that she doesn't want to accept, "No, you've got to be kidding me! You're pregnant?" she asks her mother.

Her mother nods her head slowly, and Buffy sinks back into the kitchen chair.

"You got her pregnant?" she accuses her Watcher.

"Buffy, I know this must be quite the shock for you…" he says.

"But you guys are old," Buffy whines like a petulant four year old. They should have anticipated this reaction, Giles thinks to himself. Buffy makes up for the very adult job of slaying the undead and saving the world with the little girl voice, her innocent look, and the whining when things don't go her way. She is either ancient, or childish, never anything in between.

"I'll have you know, young lady, that neither one of us is too old for this yet!" Joyce says, offended.

"Maybe not biologically, which is gross by the way, thanks for that. What I meant was you guys are all old and responsible and not the sort of people to have a baby with someone you're not…you know…with!" she says.

Joyce and Giles meet eyes above Buffy's head for one split second over those words, to assure each other that they aren't really having a baby alone.

"We weren't exactly old and responsible when this baby was conceived," Joyce points out.

"Eww!" Buffy points out.

"You object to the word conceived?" Giles asks confused.

"Duh!" Buffy says.

Giles sighs. "What euphemism would you prefer I used in lieu of it?"

"I would prefer you didn't talk about this at all. Are you going to move in with us?" she asks Giles.

This causes both of the adults in the room to do a good impression of a panic attack.

"Buffy, we plan on raising this child together, but we don't have to be under the same household in order to do it," Giles says.

"Right, you can just drive over and pick the kid up one weekend a month if you don't find something more important to do," Buffy says, making a hasty retreat to her bedroom.

"You understand that the last part was about Hank, right?" Joyce asks.

"I don't think it was all about Hank," Giles says, staring up the stairs after her. "Do you mind if I go talk to her?"

Joyce can't help but do a bit of a double take. She's had a lot of conversations with her daughter when she was in this kind of a mood. None of them had ended well. Still, if he was willing to try, she wasn't about to stop him.

Buffy doesn't respond when he knocks at the door, but he comes in anyway, and sits down on the bed where she is face down in a pillow.

"Buffy, I swear I'm going to be there for this baby, and I'm going to keep being there for you, just like I always have."

"Just not all the time," she says.

"Watchers don't live with their slayers, Buffy," he says.

"Fathers live with their kids," she says turning her head to accuse him face to face.

"Usually."

"It's not fair," Buffy mutters.

"I don't know about that. I would agree that it's less than ideal, but I wouldn't say that it is not fair," he says.

"This kid isn't going to be the slayer, and it gets you for a dad. You're probably going to freak if it doesn't develop super powers by its first birthday or whatever. Then you have my dad, who wanted nothing more than a normal kid, and he got me instead. Everyone gets to be disappointed. It's like a cosmic joke," she mutters.

"Anyone disappointed by you is an idiot, Buffy. I don't know your father well enough to know if he is or isn't, but I certainly know he shouldn't be. You are not a disappointment to me, that is for sure. This kid isn't going to be a disappointment to me either. I'm not expecting slayer strength."

"Then why don't you want to be here all the time?" Buffy asks, sounding confused.

"That has nothing to do with you, or this baby. That has to do with your mother and me," Giles says.

"I'm not suggesting you live together like share a room and snack on your band candy in there. I'm just saying you guys could be together, in the same house, without being together."

Giles turns bright red at her suggestion, and looks away. "Buffy…this is going to be an adjustment for all of us. I'm not going to move in with you guys, but I'm going to see this baby more than just on weekends, and I'm certainly not going to be cutting down my time with you."

-The next night-

"Hello?" Joyce asks.

"This is Rupert, I'm sorry to bother you while you are at work," he stammers.

"No, it's ok," she says quickly.

"I was just wondering if you would like to see a film," he says quickly.

"I would love to…tomorrow?" she asks.

Giles finds himself relieved that he doesn't have to wait until the weekend. That would have been the proper, dignified thing to do, but this is better. "That sounds great, I'll pick you up at six-thirty," he says.

"See you then," Joyce says, and he clicks the phone off.

-The next night "Helpless"-

"I can't remember the last time I went to a film," Giles says, frowning at the marque. "I don't know what sort you like."

"I go in for romances myself, but we don't have to watch them if you are not going to enjoy them. I'm sure something a bit more fantasy would be more to your taste."

"I don't think that would end well. Whenever I watch them with the Scooby gang they end up having to pause them again and again because I'm complaining about how inaccurate they are."

"You don't mind a romance then?" she asks quietly.

He nods his head, and they walk up to the theater to buy their tickets. They get their popcorn, and sit down long before the previews.

Giles is filled with an enormous weight of guilt. "Buffy is almost eighteen," he points out.

"I know. I offered to throw her a party. She pointed out that parties have not gone well for her in the past. Besides, she's going to an ice show with her dad," Joyce bubbles.

"She's going to be gone the whole weekend?" Giles asks hopefully.

"No, he's just going to take her to the show, and bring her right back," Joyce says.

"Maybe he should take her for the whole weekend," Giles says.

Joyce looks at the man next to her with genuine disgust. "We're on our second date, and you are trying to get me to send my daughter away so we can have sex?" she whispers.

"That's not it," Giles says, turning bright red. He sighs, and glances around at the mostly empty theater. "Joyce, I'm supposed to dose your daughter with a poison which would make her lose her super powers. Then I am supposed to let them lock her in a cave with a monster. I don't want to do that."

Joyce turns to him with terror in her eyes. "What do you mean you are 'supposed' to poison my daughter?"

"Let's all leave," he says. "Let's take her and leave town."

"Who told you to do this to my daughter?"

He sighs. "The Watchers Council. Telling you means…I'm out. I just quit my job. I just couldn't hurt her Joyce."

"When are they doing this?" she asks, looking at him. He doesn't answer for a couple of seconds, and so she says, "I mean, should we go home and pack now, or can we watch the movie first?"

"I'm supposed to administer the first shot tonight."

"This weekend then…we'll all get away," she says. The previews start, and Joyce grabs his hand. She doesn't know what to say about his sacrifice. His stomach does a flip flop which he tries to ignore. It's just touch. Just a hand hold. It's not supposed to have that sort of effect on him.

At the most romantic part of the movie she rests her head on his shoulder, and sighs. He slips a hand around her back, and they nestle together close enough that the armrest between them starts to jab internal organs.

Neither one moves.

There was none of this before. There was just the kissing, and the sex. There was no holding, touching, hugging. All of those things were more intimate, somehow than the sex.