-A week Later-
Giles brings Joyce breakfast in bed nearly every morning, and she can't help but feel a little guilty about it.
"You know you don't have to keep doing this now that I'm not on bedrest," Joyce points out.
Giles looks worried. "You're still going to need help though. You're recovering from a C-section and there is a brand new baby.
"Of course, I'm just saying that you don't have to wait on me hand and foot anymore," Joyce tells him with a smile.
"Ok," he nods. "But I want to."
He looks worried, and she finds that she can't put her finger on it. "Giles? What are you scared of?" she asks with more blunt courage than she displayed during the entire course of her first marriage.
"I moved in to help you because of your bedrest," he says.
"You want to move out?" she asks.
"No. I don't want to go back to my apartment all alone. Not when you, and Buffy, and Alec are here," he tells her.
"Good, because I don't want you to either," she says with the air of it all being decided now.
He flashes a relieved smile.
"I honestly don't know what I would do without you these past months, and I'm going to need you even more in the months to come. I hope you don't think that bedrest and a newborn are the only reasons I want you around though."
"I don't," he says.
"Good, so maybe we should get rid of your apartment," she says.
He gapes at her.
"I'm sorry, that was a stupid thing to say. It's your apartment. I don't really have any say in what happens to it."
"You're saying this is probably permanent?" he asks.
"I think so, how about you?" she asks, searching his eyes.
"Definitely," he tells her.
-A Week Later-
"How should I greet them? Like 'ello go'vner?" Buffy asks.
Giles quirks his eyebrow at her. "Since they aren't Cockneys in an 1800's musical, probably not."
"Isn't that British?" she asks.
"Do you honestly think that is what I sound like?" he asks.
"Kind of?" she says with a question in her voice.
He shakes his head.
"It's not like we're hiding the fact that we are Americans dear, act like you normally would," Joyce tells her, shifting the baby as he starts to whimper.
An old couple walk off the plane. Jasper is leaning heavily on a cane. His wife, Matilda, holds on to his elbow in such a way that it is ambiguous whether she is lending or receiving support.
When she sees her son she lets go of her husband in order to walk over to her son. She puts her hands on either cheek and says, "Ruppie."
He grins.
"When are you going to marry that girl?" she asks next.
"Good to see you, Mum," he says, not answering the question.
"I see what you mean about inheriting that stern look from your parents," Buffy says.
"Well, I can be sure that you never did anything to deserve that look from my boy!" Matilda says, turning to the teenager and wrapping her in a hug.
By now Jasper has made his way up to his son. They don't hug, or even touch. They just give each other a sort of nod which conveys a lot more affection than the average hug. Then Jasper's sharp eyes turns to Buffy. She hasn't felt like this since the SATs. Anxious, but at least partly with the older meaning of the word that Giles had drilled into her head right before the test: excited. She feels like this sizing up is a chance to prove herself, and she stands up a little bit straighter to show herself in the best possible light.
Matilda has by this point moved on to Joyce. "Come here, honey," she says. At the end of the hug her grandson is in her arms, and she is cooing over him even though no one can quite identify when the transition happened.
"You know Rupert proposed to me," Joyce says.
"What?" Buffy says with her mouth falling open at her mother's words.
"Twice actually," Joyce adds.
Here Jasper puts a quick hand on his son's shoulder by way of sympathy. Matilda is a bit more obvious in her approval. "That's all right, son. Don't be discouraged. She'll come 'round before too long."
"You proposed to my mother, and you never even bothered telling me?" Buffy asks Giles incredulously.
"Oh honey, the first time he was just doing it because he thought that is what he was supposed to do. It was the night of your birthday. He didn't even want me to say yes."
"That's not true," Giles starts to protest, but at a glare from Joyce he stops. She was telling the truth about him not wanting her to say yes, that night at least.
"Ok, I still feel like I should have known, and what about the second time?" Buffy asks.
"That was a bit more recent, and a lot more serious. I didn't want to get married when I was on bedrest," Joyce says.
"You are not on bedrest right now," her want-to-be-mother-in-law says with a grin.
"Mother, leave it alone," Giles warns.
"Did you see this little Watcher?" Matilda asks, holding the baby up for her husband's approval, although she obviously has no intention of handing him over to him.
"He's not necessarily going to be a watcher," Giles points out.
"Of course he is, all Gileses are Watchers," Matilda says.
"He's going to be able to choose his own path," Giles says in a firm voice.
"I would think you'd understand destiny. What with the way you've turned the Slayer into your daughter," Jasper says in a deep and calming voice as he levels his eyes upon his son.
"I understand destiny, and I know that it's the thing that falls on your lap when you are chasing after some prophecy or something that you are sure is 'meant' to happen. All of the good things in my life have been surprises," Giles says.
"Getting a Slayer wasn't a surprise," Matilda points out.
For a second Buffy panics, thinking that Giles might not have meant to include her on the list of good things in his life. Then he smiles and says, "Yes, getting a Slayer was always part of my life plan. But Buffy wasn't exactly the Slayer that I was expecting. She was the part that was a surprise."
Jasper gets his answer in these words, and flashes Buffy a smile which never quite reaches beyond his eyes, but stays there in a deep crinkle.
He turns the piercing things upon the older of the Summees woman now, and Giles suddenly finds himself wishing he hadn't complained about her to his parents in phone calls after he'd first met Buffy. He'd complained about Buffy then too, when he was still under the impression that she was little more than a stupid cheerleader. He hoped that his father realized that his opinions of both of them had grown a great deal since then.
Alastair starts to fuss, and Joyce moves to take him back. In her own family, there would have been no question of returning a fussing baby to its mother.
Instead, the infant is placed in the arms of his grandfather who promptly pulls a face so grotesque it's hard not to question whether or not there is a bit of demon in the family line.
Alastair instantly quiets.
"Dad has one of those faces that babies trust," Giles explains.
"Well, we should probably get your luggage, and get you settled in," Joyce says cheerfully.
-The next morning-
For the first time since moving to America, Giles cooks a good and proper fry up. Buffy had been right about it being depressing to cook for only one person, and even after he had begun cooking for three, one or two items was all he would make in an average morning. You really needed the excuse of guests to go over the top.
Besides, neither of the Americans he lived with were willing to eat tomatoes, mushrooms, and beans for breakfast, or any kind of blood pudding at any hour of the day under even the most desperate of circumstances.
"You would think someone who fought vampires wouldn't want to pretend to be one!" Buffy had said with horror when she had first found out what was in black pudding.
"It's not human blood," Giles had defended.
"Not all vampires eat human blood," Buffy had replied, thinking of her boyfriend.
The meal fills a whole in Buffy that she had thought was already filled. When she was a child she'd longed for a nice normal family. The sort of family who ate dinner together, and played Frisbee in the back yard on a Saturday afternoon.
What she'd gotten was a family that worried about their jobs, and hired someone to play Frisbee with you.
When Giles had entered her life she'd suddenly had someone to spar with, and ask if her homework was done, and more often than either of them would like to admit, eat a pizza with as they researched some demon with her friends in his library.
Then, he'd become her family, for real, and she'd thought that the longing for family was done. This was so much fuller than even what she had dared to hope for. She had a grandmamma to ask her endless questions (sometimes not even bothering to wait for the answer before rushing on to the next question), and to tell her stories of what Giles was like when he was young (although she got a feeling she was only telling the funny ones, not the ones that had hurt her). She also had a Grandpapa who was radiating more curiosity and approval of her than his wife simply by looking at her.
"So Buffy, what are you going to major in at university?" Matilda asks.
"I'm not really sure. I haven't even figured out what classes I am going to take the first semester," she says.
"Shouldn't you have your enrollment done already? Giles, haven't you ensured that she gets into all of the best classes?" Matilda presses her son.
"I don't know what the best classes are."
"Isn't there someone you could ask? You ought to know other people who have attended the same university!" she exclaims.
"I meant, I'm not really sure what Buffy wants to do. I can't really advise her on the best class to take until I know what field she will be heading into," he says.
"For a person who has so much destiny, your future seems a little uncertain, doesn't it?" Jasper asks with the eye creases that meant joy from him.
"I'm not even sure it really matters what I decide to major in. I mean, I already know what I am going to do with my life, right, so what is the point?" Buffy says hoping that by making eye contact with nothing besides the blood pudding that Giles' parents brought from England she will be able to avoid them figuring out how much that bothers her.
"There was a slayer who was a lawyer," Jasper says.
"One who was a mother too," Matilda points out.
"There was the one who was a professional boxer, but you have to agree that that is kind of taking unfair advantage of the situation," Jasper says.
"That one wasn't a very good slayer, either," Matilda points out.
"The point is, you should pick something that you really want to do with your life. Something above and beyond the slaying," Matilda points out to her.
"I just don't have any idea," Buffy says, suddenly feeling like she is letting a room full of people down.
Giles stands up to get a kettle of tea that was whistling for attention. Before he sits back down he pauses to rest a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "The first part of college is all about figuring out what you want to do with your life. I'll sit down with Buffy later today, and help her decide what courses she would like to take."
"I hope it's still early enough for early registration," Matilda frets.
"I've got to be going to work," Joyce says standing up, even though her breakfast is only half eaten. Giles gives her a quick kiss as she hands him their son, and rushes out the door.
"Do you take care of Alec often?" his mother enquires.
"It just makes sense this way," Giles says, hoping that they would drop the subject. No such luck.
"It makes sense, because you don't have a job right now," his mother says with a nod of her head.
"Yeah, but that's only because he blew up the school," Buffy says rushing to defend him before she realizes that her words are not exactly helping his case. "I mean, he did it to save the world!"
"That was only how he lost one of his jobs. He'd already been fired from his position as Watcher…" Jasper says.
"I was not fired! I quit," Giles quickly protests.
"And he only did that to save me!" Buffy complains.
"There is nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home parent, son, I did it for years myself. I just want to make sure that this really isn't something that you just fell into. I want to make sure that this is something that you choose," Matilda says, softening a bit with affection for her son.
"I don't know about forever," Giles admits. "It is ok for right now."