"Buffy," a voice calls to her. Buffy leaps out of bed and tackles the intruder.

"I take it that your mother doesn't wake you up in the morning," Giles says from underneath her.

"No, sorry," she says, moving to let him up. "The sun isn't even up yet. Who gets up before the sun?"

"I am suddenly understanding why your tardies increase in the winter months. See, through the magic of astronomy the sun gets up later and goes to bed earlier in the winter," he explains as if he is talking to a toddler.

Buffy squints at the clock. "I don't need to get up this early."

"How else are you going to eat breakfast?" he asks.

"I usually don't have time for it," she says.

"It's the most important meal of the day. You go get ready, and I'll start breakfast."

-A half hour later-

When Buffy comes downstairs she hears "bloody!". When she enters the kitchen Giles is already mid rant, and he just increases the volume a bit so she can enjoy it. "Where you aware that there is no food in this house? How are the two of you not dead? There is nothing to cook! How can you fight vampires without proper nutrition? How is my son supposed to grow a brain when he gets nothing but this rubbish?"

"You made waffles," Buffy points out.

"Do you know how many food groups that covers? One! If I had some fruit to pour over them we'd at least be at two, but do you have any fruit?"

"I'm guessing no?" Buffy says, flopping a waffle on a plate and sitting down at the bar to pour syrup all over it.

"Do you have any eggs, or sausage, or bread for toast, or pudding or beans?"

"Whoa, beans and pudding for breakfast?" Buffy asks with her eyebrows raised.

"Well, that part might just be English, but you still need more than one food group," he says.

"One is more than zero," she points out with her mouth full.

"Quite," he says as he pulls another waffle off the waffle iron.

"Thanks, by the way, for making me breakfast," she says.

He nods.

"And mom does make me breakfast sometimes. There is fresh squeezed orange juice and everything. It's just not all the time, mostly, because I hardly eat it when she does it. You know, it's kind of depressing to cook for yourself."

Buffy realizes that Giles no doubt cooks for himself pretty much every morning, except for this one. "I'm sorry, Giles."

"It's ok, it is different cooking for yourself than others."

"You're still shocked at what we have for breakfast."

"I've had my share of late night dinners from a microwave in the library. I don't suppose they are really much different. What does your mom like on her waffle?"

"She's not even out of bed yet," Buffy says absently.

"I know. I am going to bring her some in her bed. Does she like butter and syrup or just one or the other?"

"Both," Buffy says, smiling at him. She can't believe that there is a man in her house brining her mom breakfast in bed after a romantic encounter, and she has absolutely no desire whatsoever to beat the crap out of him.

"Are you ready for breakfast?" Giles asks Joyce as he enters her bedroom.

"Wow, thanks," she says. Then she glances at the clock. "Oh my gosh, I slept in. You've got to make sure Buffy gets up! I know she likes to wake up to her alarm, and that is great when it works, but a lot of the time she doesn't actually get up when it goes off. So you have to wake her up. You have to do it from the other side of the door though, because…."

"…Slayers don't like surprises. While I appreciate the advice, it's a little late. I already got Buffy up, body tackle and all. She's ready for the day, and eating her waffle downstairs. I wanted to ask if you were ok with me giving her a ride to school."

"Of course," she says, taking a bite of her waffle.

"I just don't want to overstep my bounds," he says softly.

"Oh, it's not likely you are going to do that."

"In that case, do you mind if I do some grocery shopping for your house?" he asks with a pleading voice.

"I swear I eat healthier than my fridge looks like I do. I have salad or fruit with my lunch every day. I just don't get a lot of time to cook at home," she rushes on.

"I just want to take care of you," he says, looking at her stomach.

"I get it. You're worried about your baby's health. It's just, honestly, no matter how much good food you have in the fridge, it doesn't mean that I'm going to start actually cooking it."

Giles pauses awkwardly, unsure where to make the conversation go from here.

"And that speech before was all about you offering to be around more and take care of the baby, and me. I was hearing it as a literal shopping run," she says bashfully.

"It was forward of me," he says, standing up to leave.

"Giles, make sure you get milk. The baby has been craving milk," she says.

He leans over the bed to give her a quick kiss before returning downstairs.

-Later-

"So what's going on?" Willow asks conspiratorially while falling into step next to Buffy shortly after she climbs out of Giles's car at school.

"What do you mean?" Buffy asks, as Giles gets asked a question by another teacher and walks off to answer it.

"I mean, Giles dropped you off at school, does this mean the world is ending?" Willow presses.

"No, it just means that he spent the night at my house last night, and so it was convenient for him to take me to school today."

"He spent the night?" Willow asks in awe.

"Whoa, who spent the night?" Xander asks, joining the group. "Please tell me that Angel wasn't in your bedroom again. You don't want to do any evil hanky panky."

"Not, Angel, Giles," Buffy says.

"What?" Xander exclaims with saucer shaped eyes.

"He was with her mom," Willow tells him. Then she turns to Buffy. "He was there with your mom, right?"

"Ah, duh," Buffy says.

"I knew they were having a baby, because of that whole mystical chocolate deal. I just didn't realize that they were together."

"Neither did I until last night. Apparently it started after the whole oops we made a baby thing, but…" She shrugs her shoulders.

"So, Giles is going to be your step-dad," Willow says.

"I don't think it's anywhere near that point yet," Buffy says.

"Still, he's dating your mom. How do you feel about that?" Willow asks.

Buffy just smiles.

"I'm still having trouble with the idea of Giles spending the night over at anyone's house," Xander says.

"Oh come on, he is a grown-up," Willow protests.

"I know, that's the point. He's old. The romantic part of his life should be done with," Xander continues.

"I think it's sweet to think that people can fall in love when they are that old," Buffy says.

-That Afternoon-

"Are we still training tonight?" Buffy asks, sticking her head into the library.

"Of course, unless there are circumstances I don't know about," Giles replies.

"I just meant, now that you and my mother's relationship is out in the open, if you had a date planned or something," she prompts.

"We've been scheduling dates around my other responsibilities for months. I don't see any reason to change that now," he says.

"Oh," Buffy says, obviously disappointed and offended.

"I would have thought you would be relieved that my relationship with your mother isn't changing my relationship with you," he says, tossing her a sword and getting into position for the two of them to begin to spar.

"I guess. It's just…yesterday was the first time that you were together, together, right? So I thought you might do something today."

When he looks into her eyes he sees the same look she had when he first found out that Angle had gone bad. That fear and guilt all mixed together.

Giles's heart breaks for her. She's young to be carrying around this much emotional damage. "Buffy, not all men are Angel. We don't all turn evil when we spend a night with a women. Your mother and I are fine."

"How do you know that if you don't see her?" Buffy says, attacking with a bit more force than necessary. Giles uses that force to push her out of balance.

"That's what she told me when I talked to her on the phone during my lunch break," he says as he give her an easy to move block.

Buffy grins. "You talked to her? Today?"

Giles nods, and gives the girl a half serious jab which the slayer has serious trouble defending, even though it is something that on a good day she could take care of with two hands tied behind her back (he's seen her do it).

"So how serious are you guys?" Buffy says with a move almost worthy of a slayer, if it were the slayer's first day of training at least.

"It's still early, Buffy, but neither of us would be in this relationship if we didn't think it had a chance."

"So are you going to get married before the baby comes?" Buffy asks, bouncing on her toes a little bit as she goes in for a move which almost disarms Giles, even if it is mainly from his shock at her question.

"I didn't say that we were getting married at all."

"No, I'm just saying that if you were to get married…" she prompts with a wide smile on her face.

He raises an eyebrow at her.

"I'm just asking if my brother gets a Daddy," she teases.

"He'll have his Daddy," Giles says firmly. "No matter what."

Buffy smiles, and knocks the sword out of his hand.

-A month later, during Consequences-

Buffy knows that she should have told Giles sooner. When there is a murder during slayer duty, you tell your watcher. It's probably in the manual that she never read, like on page one, in bold print, maybe even with underlines.

She was just terrified of what would happen, to her, to Faith, if she did that. More than that, she just really doesn't want to disappoint Giles.

She's seen enough of those looks he gets in her lifetime, and she can't imagine what they would look like magnified by…murder.

Then she walks into the library to tell him everything, and she sees Faith walking out.

Her stomach does a crazy amount of flip flops, and she goes more than a little bit numb. She looks up into Giles's eyes, and she sees a look, but it isn't exactly the look that she was expecting. It's similar, and there is definitely some disappointment in it, but it's not like any look she's ever gotten from him before.

Then she realizes why. Most of his disappointed looks are when he's really disappointed, and he's trying to look like he's not. This one is the opposite.

Faith walks out of the door, and Buffy follows Giles into his office. The words start spilling out of her mouth, and she's trying to tell him that she didn't do it. She is trying to tell him that it was all Faith. She is trying to find a way to do these things that doesn't sound all fake, and way too late.

Then he says, "I know," and everything is better.

He knows her. He believes in her, and he would never believe those lies.

She starts crying, and he pulls her into a hug. These hugs between the two of them are becoming not only less awkward but a whole lot more frequent. "It's ok, we're going to make everything ok," he tells her, rubbing her back.

She doesn't doubt him. She doesn't even worry about the specifics. She just knows that it will be ok. *