"It was just after I got back." Buffy decided to trust her friends with all of it. Besides, if Ted knew, he could blurt it out in the hall of the school and everyone would know. "After the battle had ended and Lothos was destroyed, my friend Pike and I left Los Angeles for a couple months. Merrick, my Watcher, was dead. He died during the battle and I needed to get away for a while. Pike actually convinced me to go back, he felt I needed my parents."

"But it wasn't a happy homecoming?" Willow hazarded.

"My parents were getting divorced, they'd been fighting quite a bit for awhile and my sneaking out to hunt vampires and not being able to tell them about it, wasn't helping."

"See, this is something I don't understand." Xander put in. "Why this Merrick guy and Giles over here, won't let you tell your mother about any of this."

"For security, of course." Giles frowned at him. "It's for her safety, Buffy needs to keep her identity a secret."

"From her mother? Who has no idea vampires exist and accidentally invited one into her house last Spring and nearly died? Her family should know, they have legal authority over her, Giles, you don't."

"The Watchers Council has had authority over the Slayer for centuries."

"Is it a legally recognized authority?"

"Xander, these questions aren't your concern." Giles said sternly.

"Actually they are, Giles, because if you can't produce a legal authority over Buffy than you have no business trying to command her in any way."

"The Slayer needs help, guidance."

"I never said she didn't, I said by what right is it that you or the Watchers Council provide it?"

"It's been this way for hundreds of years, Xander!"

"But is it legal?"

"I don't see why it matters or why it's your business, this has been how it is for centuries." Giles insisted, trying to hold onto his patience.

"Than you have a problem, Giles, because you're a foreign national on a green card living in the United States. How hard would it be for Ted to find that out and use it against you? If you don't have a legal authority, than you'll be kicked out of the country and we'll lose one of our most valuable resources with information on the demons we may still need to deal with."

Giles opened and closed his mouth a few times, before firming it and glaring at Xander.

"I will seek clarity on your questions." He said stiffly. "It's never come up before. All I know is what I've been told, the Watchers Council finds and trains Potentials and deploys the Slayer against vampires and when necessary, other dangers."

"Still doesn't justify keeping it from her mother, any vampire with half a brain could have found out who her mother was and attacked her. Oh wait, one did. And Angel knew too, if his curse had broken Joyce would have been in danger from Angelus. Keeping her ignorant is endangering her."

"You make some valid arguments." Giles said stiffly. "Which is why Potentials are usually raised by their Watchers, to avoid their families being caught up in the war against vampires."

"If you can't produce a legal authority over the Slayer, does it follow that you don't have legal authority over all those little girls, those Potentials?"

"Enough." Giles continued glaring. "I said I'd check into it."

"Actually I did tell my parents." Buffy offered, after having listened silently to the conversation between the two. "It's part of why I ended up in the hospital. I couldn't prove it to them without endangering them. Between me telling them I burned down the gym because of vampires and the actual burning of the gym, they thought I was suffering some kind of mental problem and put me in the hospital. I had to recant so I could get out of there. It's all in my records."

"Which Ted accessed without authorization of his own." Jenny stated, Xander's questions concerned her too and Rupert's inability to provide an answer was also troubling, he'd simply accepted what he'd been told by his superiors.

"The fact that he accessed that information means he's a problem." Xander decided. "We need more information on him. Buffy, do you have any information on him?"

"Mom said his last name is Buchanan, beside him being a computer salesman and installer, that's really all the information I have. That and Mom and Dawn love his cooking and it makes me sick."

"Sick how?" Xander asked. "Could it just be because you're anxious and he's setting off your Spidey sense or could there be something off about his cooking? You have heightened physical senses, they might be picking up on something."

"Heightened eyesight and hearing." Buffy confirmed. "His food doesn't taste very good to me, Mom and Dawn think it tastes amazing. Eating it makes me nauseous and my stomach cramps, I feel like I'm going to throw up."

"Slayers react differently to some substances than normal humans." Giles offered. "There may be something in the food that your body is responding to, their's as well, but being a Slayer, your reaction is different than theirs."

"Drugs in the food?" Willow suggested. "Buffy, if you can get me a sample of the food I can use the chem lab to run an analysis."

"And we can check into Ted, can't we?" Cordelia asked. "Investigating a human is different then investigating demons, humans have records. There have to be some, somewhere on this Ted guy."

"In Sunnydale paper copies of things like marriage licenses are kept in the Archives." Willow offered. "And Ted's claiming he's engaged to your Mom, which means he may have already applied for a license."

"Cor, you want to go with me to check that out?" Xander asked.

"Sure, we should go after class."

"I'll check to see if there's any food left that he made, Willow and get it to you." Buffy promised. "Thanks, guys."

"You're not alone, Buffy." Xander smiled slightly. "Remember?"

"I remember."