-Two Weeks Later-

"Buffy, your dad is here!" Giles says as the doorbell rings.

"I am not ready!" a voice calls from the top of the stairs.

"Right, because why would you ever be on time for anything in your entire life?" Giles mutters as he goes to the door.

Hank is standing on the other side looking confused. He offers no word of greeting, and doesn't ask any questions even though quite a few of them are fighting in his mind.

"Buffy will be right down," Giles tells him. "Come on in, do you want a cuppa? Sorry, I mean tea, Buffy keeps telling me to just offer tea. Or breakfast? We have sausage and beans. I used to try to make a proper fry up, but I was told that was over the top."

"No thanks, I'm fine," Hank says, taking a few steps into the living room at the invite of Giles but standing there looking confused and almost scared.

Buffy races down the stairs. "Ok, I'm ready."

"Toothbrush?" Giles asks.

"Right!" Buffy says, running back up the stairs.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Hank finally asks.

"I'm Mr. Giles. We met at Buffy's school once," he says, putting out his hand.

"Right, the librarian. You are Buffy's favorite teacher," Hank says stressing the last word in a way that Giles doesn't immediately make sense of.

"Bye, Giles!" Buffy says, giving him a quick hug as she hands her father her overnight bag.

"Have a good weekend," he says, wrapping his arms around her.

"Am I just not supposed to comment on this?" Hank says all of a sudden.

"What?" Buffy asks.

"Your teacher is in your house at seven o'clock in the morning," Hank says angrily. "Not to mention the touching!"

"Whoa, it was a hug. Don't be gross," Buffy says, scooting away from Giles.

Giles takes off his glasses and cleans them. "I'm here for Joyce."

"Oh," Hank says with his eyebrows raising. "So then you're the…"

"Father of her baby, yes," Giles says, replacing his glasses.

"I'm so sorry for the accusation," he says.

"Don't be. If I was dating your daughter you would be perfectly within your rights. In fact, I'd think the less of you if you didn't do something. Besides, we both know that Buffy does like older men."

"What?" Hank says, turning to his daughter.

"Thanks a lot, Giles," Buffy mutters. Then she aims a disarming smile at her father. "It was a joke."

"How much older is he?" Hank asks, not buying the lie.

"A little older," Buffy says.

Giles snorts.

"Do you approve of this guy?" Hank asks him.

Giles's face goes serious, and he doesn't know how to answer. "He's a good man, and he treats Buffy right."

"Thanks for looking out for my little girl," Hank says, extending his empty hand for a shake.

"Any time," Giles says.

Giles watches them walk down the driveway and hears Hank ask his daughter, "So how do you feel about your mom having your teacher's baby?"

"It's complicated," Buffy says.

-Two Weeks Later, During "Earshot"-

Before she learned how to read minds, Buffy never realized how often people lied to her. Giles lied to her a lot. But when he did, it was always to protect her.

"If we don't fix this, she'll go insane," he thinks. He can't look at her after he thinks it. He knows she knows, but he doesn't even want to think about it.

-Later-

Neither her mother nor Giles talk about love. They don't talk about marriage, but they certainly do a lot of thinking about it. When they are around her they try to think of anything else. They are embarrassed. She thinks about telling them that the other one is thinking about the same thing. But the words get caught her mouth. She can't make her mind quiet long enough to say them.

-Later-

The thoughts are so jumbled together that she can't make one of them out from the other. Suddenly, one breaks through. It's a thought that is shared by both of the people looking over her. She can't remember who they are just now, because all the voices are so confused that she has no idea who belongs to who. She does know that one of them is cleaning his glasses, the other one is going to be fat because she ate chocolate.

She knows that they both love her, a lot. For a few seconds she is able to laser in on the thought, and it makes the pain ease, for a little while.

-One week later During "Choices"-

Her mother was excited when she got into Northwestern, but as soon as it happened, all Buffy could think about was what Giles was going to look like when she told him.

The look is everything she hoped for. A single second, and it is full of more pride in accomplishment than she got from her father for a long time.

She wants to go away. She wants to prove to Giles that she is more than just a good slayer. He keeps saying that with this baby all he wants is an ordinary human kid. The kind of kid who goes off to college after acing their SATs. Someone you can brag to the other parents about.

Not someone who kills vampires, and you have to hide all their talents from anyone else.

If she can't go away…then all she will ever be is a slayer.

-The Next Day-

She doesn't want to tell him. She knows the choice she has to make. It's the only responsible choice. She's told her mother, and endured the look of quiet sadness. She's told Will, and found out that she won't be the only one staying at Sunnydale for college.

She just doesn't want to tell Giles. She enters the library, and his face lights up at the sight of her. How can she do this to him?

"Giles, I've decided not to go away to college."

His brow furrows. "You're not going to go to college?"

"No, I am. I'm just going to go to Sunnydale," she says.

Relief crosses his face. Relief, but not surprise.

"How come you aren't surprised by this?" she asks him.

"I knew you'd never leave. You couldn't leave people in danger, not even for a reason as good as a great education."

"I really want to go," she says, sounding whinny even in her own ears.

"I know," he says, taking a step toward her. She knows that they are nearing their classic hug sequence, and she isn't quite ready for that yet.

"I wanted you to be proud of me."

"What? I am proud of you. I can't imagine being more proud of you. You've earned this bright, shiny future, and you're giving it up, for the good of the world. It's a beautiful sacrifice, and what could make me more proud than that?"

She is ready for that hug now.

-One week Later, During "Prom"

Buffy walks into the house to see Giles sitting in a chair waiting for her.

"Where were you?" he asks.

"Patrol."

"Patrol? All night? You were on patrol all night?" he demands.

"I might have taken a short nap."

"A nap? You just went to sleep outside? Do you even understand how dangerous that is? You can't be making slip-ups like that. They could result in your dying!" he exclaims.

"I wasn't out in the open. I fell asleep at Angel's," she says.

"Well, that's a whole other kind of stupid," Giles says.

"Nothing happened."

"No, you just slept in the bed of a man who could turn evil if you ever slept with him. I would expect better from Angel."

"Giles, we understand that we can't have sex. That doesn't mean that we can't do some normal couple things."

"Buffy, you are playing with fire. I can't let you do this."

"What right do you have to tell me what I can and cannot do?" Buffy shouts as she runs upstairs to her room.

-Later that Day-

"Buffy, how about some lunch?" Giles asks, knocking on her door. He doesn't get a response, so he just pushes his way into the room. She's curled up on the bed, facing away from him. At first he thinks she catching up on whatever sleep she didn't get at Angel's and he's going to leave. Then he hears a sniffle that lets him know that she is crying.

He walks over, and sits down next to the bed. "I'm sorry, I don't think I handled that right. I'm not good at the parenting thing."

"I don't think I've very good at being parented," she says. "I'm not used to this whole parent in the house every night thing, asking you if you did your homework, or when you are going to be home, or if you've brushed your teeth. Now for months I've had two. It's an adjustment."

"Yeah, having parents around doesn't just mean someone to make you breakfast, and smile at you when you've done a good job. It means someone to ask you questions that you don't want to answer, give you orders, and tell you when they think you are making bad life choices."

Buffy rolls her eyes.

"But I don't have to do this with you. Buffy, I'm not your father. I've been acting like it, because…because I love you. Because I thought you wanted me to be a father. But hey, you have a father, and you're eighteen. So if you want the two of us to act like roommates, I'll be ok with that."

"I don't want that."

"Then you've got to take the bad with the good."

Buffy nods. "Even though I'm too old for a dad?" she asks.

"That is impossible. I'm not even too old for a dad," he says.

"You never talk about your parents," she says. Both sets of Buffy's grandparents died when she was just a baby, and she wouldn't be opposed to getting some new ones. "I mean, I know they were Watchers."

"Well, my father was, and his mother before him. They weren't ever in charge of Slayers though. They are very theoretical, very into the books."

"How did they handle your Ripper days? Probably a lot better than I did."

"There were a lot of empty threats, a few protection spells, and disapproving looks that would have withered a lesser being."

She smiles.

"They're planning a visit over the summer holidays."

"To meet the baby," Buffy says.

"To meet my family," Giles says, smiling at her.

Buffy asks the question that she's wondered for a long time. A question she's never voiced to anyone but Will before. "Did my dad leave…because of me?"

"No," Giles says quickly without having to think about it.

"How do I know? I mean, I am the Slayer. My dad took off right when I was starting to get in trouble all of the time."

"I know because a real dad loves his kid no matter what. She could destroy the entire universe, and he wouldn't leave her. So if your dad did leave because you were in trouble, it wasn't your fault. It was because there was something broken inside of him," Giles says.

Buffy feels like all the oxygen in her body was suddenly replaced with some sort of a warm bubbly substitute. "That's what you are offering?"

He nods his head. "It does come with a fair amount of nagging."

"I don't think my parents ever did much of that. I mean, they weren't really around enough for that. They didn't even notice when I started to slay. When we first moved to Sunnydale, mom tried, like really tried. She read all these parenting books, and said all these phrases. She'd even punish me. It just…wasn't like when today when I stayed at Angel's all night. She didn't look at me as if she pitied me, and feared for me, and… that is new for me. I'm not sure that I'm going to start liking it real soon."

"Well, if you stop spending the night at the lair of 250 year old undead beings, I won't have to break out my disappointed look anytime soon," he says, allowing the tension of the moment to break with a giggle.

-One Week Later-

"Giles! Are you here? You were supposed to come back to the school after mom's doctor appointment. We were going to train after school," she calls.

He comes out of her mom's bedroom looking grave.

"What's wrong?" Buffy asks, somewhat panicked and trying to push past him.

"Your mom is sleeping. Everything is fine," he assures her.

"That sounds like one of those lies you tell," she says. "You found out something scary at the doctor's appointment, didn't you?"

"Your mom has preeclampsia. It's pretty common, especially in woman who have a baby at her age. It really is going to be all right. She's on bed rest, but the danger is really minimal."

"Really?" she asks.

He nods.

"Bedrest? So she's like not allowed out of the bed at all? That's worse then being in prison."

Giles smiles. "I probably wouldn't present it like that to her after she wakes up," he says.

"Thanks for looking after her until I came home. I've got it now," Buffy says.

"Buffy, I'm moving in," he says.

"I can take care of my mother," she says defensively.

He smiles at her. "I know you can. But it's my baby, and my…Joyce. I want to be the one that takes care of her."

Buffy nods.

"Besides, I think it was about time for this anyway," he adds.

"Really?" Buffy asks, smiling.

"Yes, you don't mind my moving in, do you?" he asks her.

"Do you need help moving in?"

"I won't move most of the things until this weekend. I have enough here already until then. I would love your help."

"Maybe we can get the whole Scooby gang involved, unless it's a family thing," she says.

"Are you implying that the Scooby gang isn't family?" he asks.

"Giles, I'm ready for the soup you offered now." Joyce's voice drifts in from the room.